NOVEL NEXT Chapter 162 – Vitality
"Alright, that is enough," Mage Teft called out to Damion from a window high up in the Spire.
Damion gave his teacher a grin and then flew back to the ground and dismissed his Ice Sword. Elicia let out a sigh of relief when he landed safely while many of the onlookers gave Damion congratulations.
"Let's go get dinner," Damion told Elicia as he headed towards his dormitory.
"What made you think of using the Ice Sword spell to fly?" Elicia asked Damion.
"I've always wanted to try flying one of the air cars, but you can't really fight from them. But during the beast wave I remembered Mage Bianco of Erythraean Academy was able to somehow just stand in the air. Either she had a spell to do that, or an artifact to do that. I figured since I can make my Ice Sword fly, then I should be able to fly on it."
"Well, it was quite brilliant. I don't think anyone else has ever done that before."
"Really?" Damion questioned.
"The mana cost for keeping a spell like that active is much higher than what any mage I have ever heard of is capable of."
Damion thought about Elicia's point for a moment. Ice Sword required 10 mana per second to be controlled from a distance and even though he was technically standing on the blade, it still required the mana to fly as it was being controlled and not just lying on the ground. Damion's mana currently recovered at a rate of 16 mana per second. True Sight and Concealed Aura required 6 mana per second to stay active. Which meant that during flight or when he was just controlling his Ice Sword from afar, Damion's mana regeneration rate was neutral.
'Guess I know what to spend my Magic System credits on now,' Damion thought. He had just earned 1,000 credits. Purchasing an upgrade to Increase Magic Regeneration or two would certainly be worthwhile to boost his mana recovery rate higher. Not only would he need a higher recovery rate to be safe during his flights, but if he got more passive spells in the future he would certainly need a higher regeneration rate.
After finishing his dinner, Damion retreated to his bedroom and opened the Magic System Shop. The next upgrade to Increase Magic Regeneration was 33 credits, a drop in the bucket compared to his credits at this point.
'System, purchase Increase Magic Regeneration.'
{Affirmative.}
{Increase Magic Regeneration purchased for 33 Credits.}
{Magic Regeneration has increased by 15.}
'Wow. That gave me a lot,' Damion thought as he calculated that he would now recover 31 mana per second. 'System, purchase Increase Magic Regeneration.'
{Affirmative.}
{Increase Magic Regeneration purchased for 50 Credits.}
{Magic Regeneration has increased by 20.}
Damion could not help but suddenly feel in awe of the Magic System. For such a small cost in credits he had boosted his magic regeneration to 51 mana per second. Unless he was faced with something that could drain his mana faster than he could recover, Damion doubted he would ever run low on mana again. And he could still purchase upgrades to the ability. For now, Damion held off buying another upgrade and took a look at the status menu in the Magic System.
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[Magic System]
[System Level: 2]
[User: Damion Wells]
[Age: 18]
[Magic Talent: EX]
[Magic Affinity: Ice EX]
[Mana: 2455/2455]
[Magic Power: 5,755 (5%) - 6,042]
[Mana Recovery: 51 P/S]
[Strength: 99]
[Dexterity: 108]
[Vitality: 130]
[Intelligence: 139]
[Experience: 4,400/10,000]
[Store Credits: 6,103]
He was still a long way from reaching B Rank, but Damion was well on his way. In only two months at the school, he had managed to boost his powers considerably. Now that Damion had two new spells he felt invincible, but a flashback of the S Rank Arcdotus attacking Saung was all he needed to remember he was still nothing but a bug to the strongest powers of this world.
If he wanted to achieve his dream of seeing everything this world had to offer then Damion needed to get even stronger. He eyed the option in the Magic System Shop of buying increases to his magic power and mana capacity, but in the end he decided to put those purchases off.
Magic regeneration was not easily boosted and as from everything Damion had learned from his lessons, it would not increase except when one crossed over into the realm of the high Rankers. At B Rank, A Rank and S Rank, there was a supposed increase in a mage's mana regeneration rate, but before then nothing. Damion could only assume that he would also get those increases when he reached those Ranks, but since he probably already had a higher regeneration rate than most S Rankers, he was not too worried if he would or would not.
What did surprise Damion from his attributes though, was the increase to his Vitality. If each point of Vitality corresponded to a year of life, then he had somehow gained another year. He knew that as magic users grew stronger they had a longer life expectancy, but Damion had not realized it would start going up so fast when he was only a C Rank.
'System, what is the life expectancy of an S Rank mage?'
{S Rank mages can typically live for 1,000 years.}
The Magic System's answer was both hard to believe and made sense at the same time. Damion recalled once that Demetri Leland and Thelma Gerrad were once team members with Mage Teft, they all looked different ages, but they were also all at different Ranks. Which left Damion to wonder how old Mage Teft was. She was supposedly at the cusp of breaking through to S Rank.
Then Damion recalled Mage Bianco, she had appeared to be a young woman, not more than in her mid-thirties. Did she have some spell that made her look younger? Did she grow younger as she grew stronger? Or was she just that talented that she reached S Rank at a young age?
Thinking about this made Damion's head hurt. The Magic System was no help as it just relayed that any of possibilities Damion had guessed at could be true. A sudden burst of Vitality could de-age a person, but it was also possible to do that with Holy magic.
As Damion continued to think about the possibilities he was suddenly confronted with the possibility of him living for 1,000 years. Would he fall in love and have children only to watch them age and die because they were not talented in magic? Or perhaps they would be but would die to a beast wave or in some random dungeon or to a bandit looking for an easy payday.
The possibilities of what the future held left Damion tossing and turning in his bed late into the night. He could not decide what was a better option, to live a long time and lose everyone he ever came to love, or choosing never to love and living all that time alone.
"Are you alright?" Elicia's voice rang through the room, jolting Damion upright in bed.
"Yeah, just can't get to sleep," Damion told her.
"Why not?"
"It's silly."
"I'll still listen," Elicia reassured as she came over and sat on the edge of Damion's bed.
"I'm afraid that as I grow stronger, I'll outlive everyone I know."
"I won't lie, that is a concern to every mage and at some point every mage considers if they want to keep growing stronger, or just stop and have a life like a normal person."
"What would you choose?" Damion asked.
"I would choose to have a life with someone that can keep up with me or push me to be better," Elicia said softly as she placed a hand onto one of Damion's.
"You think that is possible? That I will find someone as magically talented as me and will be able to…"
Damion's question was cut short by Elicia leaning in and kissing him.
"Magic talent isn't the only thing that governs growth. Dean Teft is not an S Rank talent, but she has almost reached S Rank. Don't sell yourself short by only looking in one direction."
"I, uh…" Damion struggled to find the words to address Elicia's sudden kiss, but when he could not find them she just gave him a smile and left his room in silence.