When he woke up, he didn’t know what to feel when this phantom pain kept assaulting his senses. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it was more than a migraine, and less of a physical injury.
It was as if his very soul was hurting, particularly around the left upper torso. He realized it was at the top left part of the sword that was hit with the magic fire that the goblin had inflicted on him.
It made sense that he wasn’t entirely protected against the danger despite only leaving a spiritual part of himself behind, but he didn’t think that it could get affected by magic. While he managed to win, that was only because the brute goblin only focused on using magic around the axe to deal damage rather than being an all around magic user like Aidan.
Throughout the day, he manned the store while still feeling the aching pains of his shoulder, flinching sometimes whenever he would move heavy objects around. Thankfully barely anyone noticed it, and it didn’t inhibit him from doing his work as intended. In truth, he was more focused on the options he gained after reaching Level 5, picking the Class that was now available to him.
He had plenty to choose from, ranging from the physically adept warriors to the dexterous archers. He realized that all of these options were open to him due to the availability of his own skills and spells. If one was able to learn a spell and use it predominantly, the class for Mage would show up for them to choose to specialize in.
Though in this case, pretty much anyone can become a Warrior and an Archer, though there are some Classes that specialize deeper into these roles, such as Heavy or Light Warrior to specialize in different kinds of weighted weaponry and armor, while the Archer can specialize in long range distance or in medium range combat.
He studied quite a bit when picking up on his Class, and he realized that while some of the Classes were decent, he needed to pick a Class that worked well with his talent, and the only one that was capable of fully managing his talent well would be the Mage Class.
Or rather, at the multiple Mage Classes that he had.
Fire Mage
Earth Mage
Water Mage
Air Mage
Lightning Mage
Poison Mage
…
There were plenty of options to choose from in the Mage category, all of them depicting some element that was available to him. He had a feeling that if a normal person were to have learned a spell, it would be one of the elements that the Mage class would specialize in.
However, his talent tackled the fundamental aspect of magic itself, the building blocks of mana, if he were to say anything about it. Harmony depicted the vibrations of the world itself, so that meant that he had access to every single element out there.
Even if he chose one Mage class over the other, it wouldn’t really affect his major element casting, which was just basically mana in its purest form. If there was a Sound Mage class, he probably would’ve picked that, but it looked like there wasn’t such a thing.
Not that Harmony was strictly for sound, but it would’ve been a nice pathway to build on for his Class. For now, he decided on the single option that made sense to him–picking the original Mage Class without any elemental sticker on it.
You have chosen the Mage Class. Are you sure you wish to continue with this?
Seeing the Yes and No option on this truly made it feel like it was a permanent deal, but he chose it anyway, knowing that it was the best choice. He had a feeling that picking other Mage Classes would’ve diluted his talent and made it weaker than it is, while the normal Mage class would only strengthen it.
After picking his class, it was added to his status page, showing him that he was a Mage now. Another notification came in, making him read it.
You have gained a title!
“First-timer”
Attain your first ever Class. This is only the first step on a path to greatness!
+1 Lifeforce
+1 Vigor
…..
As a mage, you will gain the following stat points for every level you achieve:
+1 Intelligence
+1 Toughness
+1 Dexterity
+1 Vigor
…..
Now that you have chosen a Class, you are able to pick and choose which ability to gain every time you reach five levels. At Level 5, here are the choices you can pick from:
-Magic Missile
-Magic Barrier
-Magic Boost
The increase in stat points per level was definitely a surprise, but expected. Most games normally gift you more stat points after reaching a threshold, and gaining a Class typically gives you more points depending on the Class you gained.
In this case, the Mage class gave him more room for diversifying his build with his main attribute being covered. The other stat points certainly surprised him, but he considered the reasoning behind why the Mage class is boosting these specific stats. Toughness handles the fallout of a magic spell, Dexterity helps you control and refine the spell, and Vigor helps with channeling the mana in your body. He figured it would make more sense to have more Lifeforce which gives him more health points, but considering his added Intelligence point gives him an extra Wisdom point every level, perhaps it was some sort of trade off.
He also recognized that the way he gained points for the Mage Class was similar to the free points given to him at every level. Would he still gain those free points too, or did it change to boosting his Mage-focused build?
That would be a pain in the ass. I prefer to have some freedom in my build. Maybe I’ll figure something else out.
He moved on to see the choices given to him for his abilities. The abilities made it pretty clear how mundane the Mage Class was, but he didn’t care much about that. It was the only choice that seemed reasonable for his type of Talent to take advantage of. He considered carefully on what to choose, but he already had it made in his head on what type he wanted.
First off, reading the descriptions, Magic Missile was an attack-based spell that sent out a small ball of force that cost 10 Mana points to shoot with. It provided damage based off of the Intellect stat, but with his Rend and Craft skills, he could easily make an attack spell that could do more damage than just a measly ball of mana.
The second was Magic Barrier, which according to the description, said that it made exactly a barrier that protects him from harm, enveloping a rectangular-based wall that cost 15 mana to use per hit. That definitely sounded cool, but he could just craft a wall from the ground to make an earth wall if he ever wanted to defend himself, or just run away if there was an option for it.
The last option was the one that made it for him. He put up the description to make it clear what kind of ability it was.
Magic Boost (Copper)
Allows you to increase the potency of your spells and skills, maximizing the damage output or increasing the quality of the spell you’re casting. It increases the mana cost of the spell, but it enhances the spell’s output according to how much mana you spend. The maximum amount of mana you can spend is up to 20 mana.
Mana Cost: Variable (up to 20)
It was clear in his mind that this ability was definitely the one he’s going to choose, so he did just that. Attaining the ability, he was now officially a Mage running his own shop.
He wondered if he should make even his Class vanish to make sure that Nina wouldn’t see, but he didn’t see the point in doing so as not having a Class at level 5 would be foolish. It would be even worse if Nina found out that Aidan had stayed at the same level all this time either, considering she was the type to not let him get lazy under her watch.
For now, he could only hope that Nina wasn’t the crazy sort of micromanager that always keeps an eye on every little thing to the point of exploding. He did have some bosses in his past life who they went about doing exactly that, and it was never good for business or for everyone’s morale.
it had reached the midpoint of the day when the Raining Treasures hit its slow point. The flow of customers is usually busy trying to get their lunch on, so nobody bothered going to the general store for any convenient buying other than seeing if Aidan sold some cheap food, which was never a good idea.
He tried, and let’s just say the experience wasn’t worth it.
Needless to say, he was never good at cooking a meal either. Sure he could make some soup or stew, but that was about it considering all he needed to do was just boil some water and throw in some spices he picked up from his grocery shopping. Spices that he didn’t steal, of course, but actually bought with his money.
When the door opened up and the timbre of the bell echoed out, which was usually there to signify if a customer was going to come in, Aidan pulled up his best clerk face, only to instantly frown when Nina came up instead.
“Oh, it’s you. Wasted my customer serving smile for nothing.”
“Good to see you’re so serious about working,” Nina said, a smile tenderly shown on her face. “How’s business, by the way?”
“So-so,” Aidan answered truthfully. “Though there’s not many customers that would ask for random stuff.”
“That’s the point,” Nina answered as though it was obvious. “This shop is just a front, and I needed someone to provide an alibi for me when I do my actual business. It’s not easy finding trustworthy allies to help me out on my side gigs, so you provided an excellent cover up for me.”
Geez, just laying it all out there, huh? Aidan groused in his mind. He didn’t figure her to be outright truthful.
“Besides all that,” Nina continued. “There’s something that I’ve been meaning to task you with, but I haven’t found the time yet. Do you remember the two guards you buried outside of town?”
How can I not? Aidan thought, figuring he could keep working by carrying a box of tools he made for the local crafters to the other side. “What about them?”
“I want you to locate the bodies and find something for me.”
Aidan stopped what he was doing and looked at her before setting the crate down near him.
“What for?” He asked, tension rising in his voice.
“I picked up some interesting information about the Red Riot, and it looked like those two idiots pawned off some valuables they owned. They might still have them on hand before they died. I want you to find those valuables they tucked away and let me know what they are.”
Considering it was the first official job she tasked him with, he thought it was going to be a dangerous, potentially fatal job. It wasn’t as bad as he feared, but his stomach dropped at the thought of digging up bodies he personally killed.
“Is it really so valuable? What if someone spots me?” Aidan asked, wanting to at least prepare himself with some questions.
“Valuable enough that the Red Riot members are currently searching for those two idiots. It looked like they were a part of some search for missing valuables in a raid along with the guard regent and they tackled one of the Red Riot’s bases. While those two were part of the backhanded deals they made, they poached something that the Red Riot couldn’t keep quiet about. I want to get them in my hands before the Red Riot does.”
“And you’re making me do this alone?”
“What better than to ask their actual killer for the job?” Nina asked innocently, tilting her head at him even. “What do you say? Though I already know the answer to that.”
Aidan pursed his lips. The way she kept teasing him as if he had any other choice was starting to gnaw at him. He was only thankful that the contract binding him was gone, otherwise he wasn’t sure how his soul could handle being under the constraining contract on top of Nina’s heckling.
“...Fine,” Aidan said, his tone showing that he wasn’t a fan of this turnabout. “I’ll see to it.”
“Make sure you go in the middle of the night,” Nina said, finality in her tone. “And remember to try and not be seen by anyone. The less people know about this, the better.”
With that, Nina did as she usually did whenever she came over. She went up the stairs to her own room that she forbade Aidan to enter into, then after a few minutes, returned out with her hood back on her head and left the store.
It left a bitter taste in his mouth to be ordered around like that, but he had to keep following this pattern until he figured out how to get out of this situation. He still needed to gain enough levels and basic knowledge of the world before he could strike out on his own.
He didn’t have any plans of leaving town considering that he was surrounded by the Ruinga Mountains that supposedly had way high level monsters that live there. He had some difficulty just facing a level 9 Night Goblin without some mental injuries he preferred not to suffer again, so he still needed more experience in how to survive on his own.
So for now, he needed to do what she asked. At least the job wouldn’t be as bad as he first figured, right?
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