Reborn With a Magic System

"Damion? Is everything alright?" Mage Teft asked when she answered Damion's call.

Glad as he was that she answered, now that he was faced with explaining the situation, he was not feeling so happy about it.

"Mostly," Damion answered. "I went out exploring and came across a dungeon."

For a moment Mage Teft was silent, and Damion had to wonder if she was collecting her thoughts or silently cursing at him for not following her request to stay on the school campus.

"Send me your coordinates and I will be right there."

Damion shared his location information with Mage Teft and moved away from the dungeon portal to wait. Phil settled in on his shoulder while they watched the dungeon portal.

Before this, the only dungeon portal Damion had spent much time outside of was the Aerico dungeon. That dungeon had breached and he and the group he was with had to hold off waves of Demonic Beasts trying to escape. When remembering that dungeon, Damion realized it was also the first dungeon in which he had encountered goblins.

This dungeon had not breached, but Damion could not help but wonder what the goblins in the Aerico dungeon had been doing. They had gathered the materials from the above ground areas into a central building of what had appeared to be a small village. Now that he thought more about it, he wondered why. Why were the goblins harvesting materials?

On his tablet, Damion pulled up the records for the Aerico dungeon. His team had been the first ones through, clearing the Dungeon Breach. The dungeon was D Rank and he could have gone through the dungeon more times if he had wanted, but he had dedicated more time to normal training than dungeon clears. In the records for subsequent dungeon runs, Damion discovered something quite puzzling.

In all the runs since his team's first clear, no other teams had reported finding a goblin village. There were reports of herbs found on the surface, and a large number of Forest Froth Spiders, but the only reports on the goblin village came from his team.

Why?

Thinking back on the goblins in this dungeon, Damion remembered one had said something about usually having more time before humans came. Did that mean goblins were expecting humans to come? Did goblins leave dungeons and not come back after humans started clearing them? As he looked through records of dungeons with goblins, the goblins were inconsistent at best in their appearance in dungeons. The more he dug, the more he found that goblins tended to only appear the first time a dungeon was cleared, after that they seldom ever showed up again.

If that was true, what about labyrinths? The B Rank floors in the labyrinth was filled with goblins. Each floor increased the size of the goblin village and the number of goblins that could be found there. But they were always found there. Why goblins appeared in labyrinths consistently, but not dungeons, was a question Damion did not think he would easily find an answer to. But he felt the answer was tied to the quest he unlocked, Learn the Truth of Magic.

Since he did not believe he would be able to answer any of these questions while he waited for Mage Teft, Damion began reviewing the notifications from the Magic System.

*Ding*

[Spell Earth Shard mastery increased to E Rank]

*Ding*

{Quest Completed}

[Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credit]

*Ding*

[Spell Concealed Aura mastery increased to D Rank]

*Ding*

{Quest Completed}

[Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credit]

*Ding*

[Spell Summon Ice mastery increased to E Rank]

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*Ding*

{Quest Completed}

[Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credit]

'System, why didn't I get quest completions for learning the spells for my new affinities?'

{Host knew the spells before they were usable. For quest completion, host must learn magic seals after acquiring the corresponding affinity.}

The answer did not surprise Damion, he had been down a similar road with the Magic System before. Still, three spells increasing in mastery helped to offset the cost of what he just spent to gain affinities and more spell slots. Unfortunately, he would need to spend those credits right away. He had exceeded his maximum spell slots available to him with the new spells that became available when he purchased affinities. The Magic System automatically purchased more slots for him, but Damion was worried what would happen if down the road this happened again, and he did not have slots or credits to buy more. Worse, what if he encountered a spell he really wanted to learn but could not because of the spell limit.

'System, purchase Increase Spell Slots.'

{Affirmative.}

{Increase Spell Slots purchased for 1,500 Credits.}

With that purchase it brought Damion's maximum spell count to thirty. Once he reached B Rank he would automatically get another five slots. Right now, Damion knew twenty-four spells, this left him with enough open slots to feel comfortable, but he really wanted to purchase more slots. After all, he now had several affinities that he did not know any or hardly any spells for.

'System, status.'

[Magic System]

[System Level: 2]

[User: Damion Wells]

[Age: 18]

[Magic Talent: EX]

[Magic Affinity: Ice EX, Water E, Poison D, Spatial D, Fire A, Earth D, Shadow C, Holy C]

[Mana: 2938/2938 (5%) - 3084]

[Magic Power: 6,920 (5%) - 7266]

[Mana Recovery: 51 P/S (5%) - 53 P/S]

[Strength: 114]

[Dexterity: 119 (5%) - 124]

[Vitality: 165]

[Intelligence: 144]

[Experience: 6,000/10,000]

[Store Credits: 15,936]

Looking at his affinities Damion quickly understood a few things, but he also had a few questions for the Magic System.

'System, when I purchase a new affinity, is the new affinity Rank random, or is it dependent on my understanding of the element somehow?'

Damion asked because he ended up with an A Rank Fire affinity, but an E Rank Water affinity, which greatly confused him. When he awakened a new affinity he thought that it would most likely start at F Rank, like his spells, but clearly that was not the case.

{New affinities are awakened on a random basis. Each affinity will awaken with a random Rank between F and A Rank.}

'Then why did my Ice affinity start at EX Rank?'

{Host's first affinity Rank was enhanced by the System to ensure successful completion of main objective.}

'Main objective? System, what main objective?'

{Error. Unable to disclose information. Please continue on with Hidden Quests to learn about the main objective.}

'Great, 18 years and I still can't get a straight answer out of it.'

While Damion pondered what the main objective of the Magic System was, he browsed through the Shop looking at things he could purchase. He could purchase spells, now that he had a wide variety of affinities, spending a few hundred credits to get new spells might be worth it, but then he would also need to purchase new spell slots.

'Round and Round it goes, where it stops nobody knows,' Damion mused.

Sure, he could buy spells cheaply, but spell slots were not cheap. Affinities where cheap, but to increase them in Rank was not cheap. Damion eyed the Increase Magic Affinity for 1,000 credits. A one Rank increase was no simple thing, but should he use it on a D Rank affinity? He knew there were natural resources in the world that could increase a person's affinity up to A Rank. What made the most sense was to use those resources first, if he could find them, and then use the Magic System to push the affinities to a higher Rank.

Damion ran a hand through his hair as a question came to him, what would happen to his hair if he gained another S Rank affinity? When the Magic System unlocked and he gained his Ice affinity, his hair had changed colors, would his Ice affinity, being stronger, keep his hair the same if he increased his new Fire affinity to S Rank, or would he suddenly have light blue and red hair?

"You should have moved further from the dungeon to observe it," Mage Teft said, pulling Damion out of his thoughts.

"It is a Stable Breach," Damion replied back, pushing thoughts about the Magic System from his mind. Since there was no chance of the Breach suddenly spewing Demonic Beasts across the landscape, he had no reason not to stay close and observe it.

"How do you know?" Mage Teft said as she took an instrument and threw it into the portal. With True Sight, Damion could see she had finally advanced to S Rank, but even without the spell, he would have been able to tell she had advanced because of the change in power that he sensed from her.

"I… uh…"

"You've already been inside," Mage Teft said, not hiding the frustration in her voice.

Phil chirped an affirmative.

'Traitor,' Damion shot to the Snow Hawk causing Phil to ruffle its feathers.

"Yes. I went inside."

"C Rank," Mage Teft said as the instrument she had tossed into the dungeon returned to her. "You are lucky. Did you clear the dungeon?"

"Clear it? No. I went in and found this weird area that caused snow to stop midair and seemed to block Ice magic. After a little exploring I found a bunch of goblins and then I retreated back out of the dungeon and called you."

"How did you get past the barrier?"

"You've seen that kind of area before?" Damion accused.

"The barrier?" Mage Teft pushed.

"I used my sword. It has a fire attack glyph."

Damion of course left out the part where he overheard the goblins talking and about the part where he gained a half dozen affinities to find a way to escape the barrier after going back into it. He did not think she needed to know all the details.