Chapter 152.1: Infiltration

Name：Minute Mage: A Time-Traveling LitRPG Progression Fantasy Author：
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Chapter 152.1: Infiltration

PART 1/2

When I awoke, it was still dark out. We’d just wandered off once we were kicked out, away from the outpost, and collapsed into sleep at some point. So I woke up in pain and face-down in a pile of dirt next to a snoring Erani, drool leaking from her mouth and into a small pool beside her.

Sitting up and glancing around, I saw that we’d collapsed in some bushes off by the street that led up to town, causing quite the picturesque scene of two drunks piled up on the side of the road in the middle of the night. That is, it would have if it weren’t for Ainash, who was standing by us, glowing eyes peering through the dark.

“Father, you are awake!” she said, seeing me get up. “Are you still funny head?”

“What?” I asked.

“You get funny in your mind when you drink the funny drink. Are you still like that?”

“Oh, uh, that’s called being ‘drunk.’ And no, I think I’ve sobered up by now. Just got a killer headache.”

“Okay! Was protecting you and mother while slept.”

“Thanks,” I smiled despite the pain in my head—and my still-injured limbs—and climbed up to my feet, patting her on the head.

“Your leg and arm still hurt?”

“Yeah, but they’re getting a bit better. Give me some time and I’ll be able to walk on my own again.”

“Sorry for not healing you,” she frowned. “Thought could help mother.”

“No, no, even if it couldn’t get her arm back, we needed to stop the bleeding. Don’t apologize. We can still figure something out for her.”

“Hmm...well, I obviously can’t just tell you what they all are, but I will say they all have some decent options. Gravity Well is probably your least immediately important choice, just because the Spell itself won’t be too useful in your near future with fighting, and it can already do its job just fine when it comes to subduing people who’d die to your other options, but I’m sure you’d already identified that. Between Ethereal Armor and Sanguine Bond, they both have good Upgrade options that can help both in combat and in more urban scenarios.”

Elaborate on that, I thought. Ethereal Armor especially. How does its Upgrade help in non-combat?

“Well...hm. I’ll say it basically has two ‘types’ of Upgrades for this first choice. There are two Upgrade options that fit into what I’ll call ‘type A,’ and one option that fits into ‘type B.’”

And what’s the difference between these two types?

“Type A would be useful for you now, but I don’t think you’d like it later. Just generally considering the way you seem to feel about the Spell, I don’t think you’d want either option. So basically, Ethereal Armor only really has one choice—the type B option. And I do think you’ll like Type B—it provides solid usefulness to the Spell. But I also know you like to have your choices, so you probably won’t appreciate being forced into that.”

But that one last option is good though, right?

“Yeah, yeah, it’s good. It’d be useful now, and useful later.”

Well what about Sanguine Bond? Does it have any options that would hold up to Ethereal Armor’s ‘type B’ option?

“Hmm...it’s kind of difficult to compare the power level of different Upgrade options for two completely different Spells, but I’d say so. It has at least a couple that you’d find useful. And, like I said, there are options that help both in combat and in scenarios where you aren’t trying to kill anyone. At least, some options are like that. Others aren’t.”

That’s always nice. Though...how, exactly, does Sanguine Bond help me when I don’t want to hurt someone? It feels like one of its main functions is to deal damage to people. Do either Spell’s Upgrade options seem like something that would radically change the game or anything?

“Can’t tell you exactly what they do.”

Hm. You’re not leaving me with much to work with, here. But I guess that, considering what you said...maybe Sanguine Bond is the correct play for now. Not like I won’t ever get to Upgrade my other Spells, anyway.

“Sounds good.”

Now, I thought as I stepped up to the wall of the outpost, can you go in there and make sure everyone’s asleep? And maybe find exactly where that Spell Crystal is?