NOVEL NEXT Tutorial 20 – Mystical Landscape
Liam stood with his eyes closed. As he tried picturing what he was told to do, an image of a dark violet seed with white swirls moving around it appeared. As the image took form, a notification box popped up.
“Would you like to open the Seed of the Arcana and allow a Root or two to grow? Yes No?”
Liam thought yes, making the current notification disappear and be replaced with a new one.
This new notification was extensive as different Fields of Studies listed downward with a scroll bar at the right edge of the border to appear allowing him to see all the available Fields.
Without opening his eyes, Liam’s brows rose.
“I’m guessing you have found the list of available Fields of Studies from that look,” Elara said with a calm voice. “To start off please find the Field of the Craft.”
Liam scrolled through and came across it about halfway through the list. Mentally he selected it causing a small notification message to appear in front of the existing one.
“Would you like to root the Field of the Craft? Yes No?”
Liam accepted.
“Would you like to choose another Field of Study? Yes No?”
Liam mentally said yes, returning him to the list. He then asked, “Do I do the same with Field of the Elements?”
“Correct. After that it will ask again if you’d like to choose another. When you select No it will ask what Focus points you want to spread,” Elara explained.
After accepting the Field of the Elements and declining any new Fields of Study another notification message appeared.
“Which Focus Points would you like to Root? Field of the Craft: Production Craft, Gathering Craft, Construction Craft.”
Liam mentally highlighted the Production Craft, and Gathering Craft, but halted as he looked at the Construction craft.
What is Construction Craft? He thought. I haven’t heard or come across anything like that yet. He then asked, “What’s the Construction Craft about?”
“Construction Craft is how it sounds,” Elara began. “You won’t be able to find any mentors here in the Tutorial Area to learn more about it, but it tailors to building buildings, and other Construction style crafting. Normally I wouldn’t suggest it, but for you I’d accept it. You can get a head start with it and get a better feel for it by constructing small things like campfire, make small areas to help fortify your camp base when you’re stuck on dungeon floors for a longer period to help your party rest easier, etc.”
“Ok,” Liam responded as he highlighted and selected it as well.
The message box disappeared and reappeared with a new one.
“Which Focus Points would you like to Root? Field of the Elements: Fire, Earth, Water, Lightning, Plant, Ice, Air, and Gravity.”
Liam highlighted Gravity and mentally accepted it.
“You would like to root the Focus Points Field of the Craft: Production Craft, Gathering Craft, Construction Craft and Field of the Elements: Gravity? Yes No?”
Liam mentally accepted making the notification disappear.
Liam stood there waiting as the image of the seed remained in his vision.
The dark violet seed started glowing as a light began to coat it.
As Liam stood there waiting a quiet humming sound began to buzz around him. As the noise started to grow slowly. The warm sensation he had felt appeared where his heart was, started building pressure at the same pace of the sound.
The four orbs around Liam started to shine. At first it was faded, but as a few seconds passed grey and purple colors started to float out from the orb and then shot fast into Liam penetrating into his skin without causing any damage.
The seed shook lightly as motes of grey and purple colors collided into the coated light. The more it was coated with the colors the brighter it got.
The pressure was barely noticeable at first, but as it and the noise grew it started hurting. The buzz was turning into an ear splitting white noise as the pressure building in his heart expanded making his heart feel like it was going to explode.
“Please endure the pain,” Elara said as the colors continued to shoot into him so fast that they looked solid lines of colors. Her voice sounded faint and far away.
A dark color started to outline the seed as the light began to be absorbed into the seed. The seed started to blink rapidly as the colors disappeared into it. Once when the last bit of color vanished, a small crack appeared on the top middle of the seed.
A pop sound echoed through Liam’s mind as two really thin vine like roots broke free from the seed spreading out. One had three thin grey lines expanding from it while the other only had a purple colored one.
The painful pressure that he was feeling disappeared as a relieving sensation washed through his blood stream. He let out a sigh of relief when he felt this causing him to open his eyes.
A notification appeared.
“Congratulations! You have successfully rooted Field of the Craft and Field of the Elements with the focus points Production Craft, Gathering Craft, Construction Craft, and Gravity.”
“You have unlocked a new Menu: Mystical Landscape.”
“Congratulations on taking the next step into the Mystical world of Magic,” Elara smiled broadly.
Shocked Liam asked, “What is this Mystical Landscape?”
“You waste no time diving into the important questions,” Elara smile remained. “I like that about you. The Mystical Landscape is to help you see how your magic is proceeding. When you grow you can see how it grows through this page. It will also help you keep track of all the Studies, Advanced Studies, branches, so on and so forth.”
“Huh, that’s pretty cool,” Liam said sounding impressed.
“Going back to what we were talking about earlier,” Elara added. “It will also help make sure you don’t cause any root tangles from taking on too many Fields of Studies. So, in a sense it’s there to help manage your magic. To unlock more Fields of Studies you can use that menu, but you must be at a place like this to do so. It is the same with Focus Points as well.”
Liam walked up to her, pulled out two silver coins and handed them to her.
“What’s this?” Elara asked as her eyes widened.
“My thanks for helping me with this as well as the guidance you keep giving.”
Elara shook her head as she started to say, “I cannot accept this…”
“I insist,” Liam responded.
Elara eyed him for a moment. She slowly grabbed one of the silver coins and said, “I’ll accept one of the two to honor your gratuity that which is was given, but out of good faith I’ll reject the second one. All information given here in the Tutorial area is worth less than a silver coin.”
“Good to know.” Liam nodded, looking a bit sheepish.
He felt that he felt like he needed to get a better grasp on how to best tip others in this world.
As he put away the second coin he said, “Thank you for that.”
“You’re welcome,” Elara replied. “Now to get your Magic Abilities for the Focus Points you rooted you can go to the Mystical Landscape and click each Focus Points. It will give you a list of Magical Abilities you can unlock. As you grow your Focus Points more abilities will be readily available to unlock. To grow your Focus Points, you must level the abilities through Knowledge Theory and Magic Practicality.”
Liam pulled up the Mystical Landscape menu and saw a screen with a violet seed surrounded by dirt. The thin vine like roots were spread not too far from it.
He clicked Production Craft and a notification box appeared.
“Production Craft. Abilities available to learn: Light and Burn, Temp Check, Item Understandance, Crafting Endurance Improvement (Weak).”
Confused Liam asked, “One of the abilities available I already have as a Class Ability. How does that work?”
Elara gave it some thought before saying, “I’m not sure. It’s rare for it to happen, but I think the progress you have in that ability will be the same. As you grow your class ability it will too maybe?”
Liam accepted all the abilities.
“Congratulations! You have received Production Craft Ability Light and Burn! Ability type: Chant. Description: You can use this to start a small fire to use in daily crafts.”
“Congratulations! You have received Production Craft Ability Temp Check! Ability Type – Non-chant Instant. Description: With this ability, you can check the temperate of the items or non-items.”
“Congratulations! You have received Production Craft Ability Item Understandance! Ability Type – Non-chant Instant. Description: Gives you a better understanding of crafted items by using them and also identifies objects as crafting materials. As you grow this ability, your skill in understanding will reach new heights and more descriptions of crafting materials will be available. +2.5% to Knowledge Theories when using items.”
“Notice Update! Production Craft Ability Item Understandance has been detected with Crafter Class ability Item Understandance! Both abilities progression will be linked!”
“Congratulations! Production Craft Ability Item Understandance is now level 5.”
“Congratulations! You have received Production Craft Ability Crafting Endurance Improvement (Weak)! Ability Type – Non-chant Passive. Description: This ability allows the crafter to handle doing their tasks a little longer. As this ability grows, so does your ability to craft longer. +2.5% to Sub-stat Crafter Endurance.”
Liam waved the message box away and pulled up the Gathering Production Abilities and clicked yes to all.
“Congratulations! You have received Gathering Craft Ability Harvest! Ability Type – Non-chant Instant. Description: Can identify and locate harvestable items easier as well as harvest them. At the lower levels you can only harvest one target at a time.”
“Notice Update! Gathering Craft Ability Harvest has been detected with Crafter Class ability Harvest! Both abilities progression will be linked!”
“Congratulations! Gathering Craft Ability has reached level 5!”
“Congratulations! You have received Gathering Craft Ability Mining Strike Accuracy! Ability Type – Non-chant Passive. Description: Ability allows you to strike more effectively when mining. +2.5% when Mining for 1 minute.”
“Congratulations! You have received Gathering Craft Ability Lumberjack Efficiency! Ability Type – Non-chant Instant. Description: Using this ability will allow you to cut down wood faster. +2.5% when Lumberjacking for 1 minute.”
“Interesting,” Liam muttered as he moved on to Construction Craft Abilities.
“Congratulations! You have received Construction Craft Ability Destruction Points! Ability Type – Non-chant Instant. Description: Using this ability will allow you to identify small area that can cause a building to fall apart.”
“Congratulations! You have received Construction Craft Ability Small Creation knowledge! Ability Type – Non-chant Instant. Description: Using this ability will allow you to know where and how to best set up small creations without having issues or hazards. For example: outdoor campsites.”
Huh, I thought I’d only get one. That’s a nice surprise. Liam thought as he went to the final Focus Point.
“Congratulations! You have received Gravity Ability Force Increase! Ability Type – Chant. Target range- Single target. Description: Increases gravity on a target making their movements a little heavier and slower when moving forward or upward. Increases force of strikes when striking down. +2.5% to Power. -2.5% to all Dexterity Sub-stats for 30 seconds. Cooldown 1 minute.”
“Congratulations! You have received Gravity Ability Feathery Upforce! Ability Type – Chant. Target range- Single target. Description: Decreases gravity on a target’s weapon. This allows the heaviness of the weapon to decrease and allows target to make quicker strikes with the tradeoff of less damaging scale. +2.5% to Agility and – 2.5% to Power for 1 minute. Cooldown 30 seconds.”
Liam brought a hand to his chin as he read the final two abilities he got. He then thought to himself, These two starting abilities are insane if used right. The cooldown is long, but that’s understandable for the pluses. Having that crowd control capabilities can either win or lose a fight depending on how and when you use them. Since Blair has this too, then we can synergize and try to control the flow of battles better in the future. This wasn’t a bad choice to add to my arsenal. Not a bad choice at all.
“Have you completed getting all the abilities that are currently available?” Elara asked.
Liam waved all the message boxes away and responded, “Yes, I am. Thank you again for all your help.”
“It has been my pleasure. Do you need help with anything else?” She asked.
Liam looked at his internal clock and noticed it was only 4:30p.m.
“No,” He started. “I’m going to go practice this gravity magic a bit before heading out.”
“Alright,” Elara nodded as the door behind her opened. “Let me know if you have any more questions or need help with anything.”
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The hustle and bustle of people walking down the street began to slow down as the giant glow stone above started dimming. Smoke, gases, and scents floated out the open windows of one building that had a sign with a picture of a Beaker with bubbles flowing out with the words The Bubbling Potion on it.
A wiry looking girl with a black tank top, black skinny jeans, and matching colored boots walked into the store and made her way to the back room. As she entered the make-shift lab she saw a male close to her age take a sip from a beaker and light gagged.
Alicia let out a small giggle as she shook her head and commented, “Still attempting to change the flavor of the health potions?”
Liam took a sip from a cup of water and replied, “Damn straight.”
“It’s a bit of a waste, but as long as you’re determined to practice Alchemy I won’t complain,” Galin stated with a shake of his head. He was staring at his own creation and writing down notes.
Liam opened his notebook, crossed something out and wrote something new in it as he said, “I’m close. I was able to taste a bit of the mint, but it was faint. I think I’m going to have to change the amount of extracted mint instead of adding fifteen percent maybe I should do twenty and add less water to it before mixing it with the shallow bell extract.”
“Hm, that could work,” Alicia mumbled as she walked over to him. “Let me see what your calculations are so far. As Liam handed her his notebook, she saw many percentage number crossed out with a new one underneath them. After looking everything over she asked, “Are you adding them separately?”
“Yeah,” Liam responded as he eyed her.
“Have you tried extracting them together?" Alicia asked as she looked at him.
“No,” Liam started as he thought about it. “Wouldn’t that ruin the extract process?”
“During the early stages of raising your extraction skill yes. But as you raise its level, you should be able to extract things together to create new effects.” Alicia explained.
“Is that possible?” Liam questioned as he looked to her then to Galin.
“It is true for when you’re making potions with added effects, but tastes to potions are really an unknown territory,” Galin started as he turned to them. “Like I told you yesterday, no one attempts it because it’s not cost efficient so in theory it could work.”
“What’s your Extraction skill at?” Alicia asked.
“It just hit level ten earlier today,” Liam said. “I was wondering what it meant by you can now extract more than one item at a time. I just figure it meant I can extract more items in separate contains at a time.”
Alicia gave a teasing grin as she said, “Well, that’s your fault for misunderstanding the text. How many Mint Mosses and Shallow Bells do you have left?”
“I used my last one on this failed attempt,” Liam said.
“I’ve got some I can sell you if you want,” Alicia stated.
“Sure, how much?” Liam asked.
“I’ve got about twenty Mint Mosses and fifteen Shallow Bells on me. I’m not really going to need them for anything,” Alicia tapped a finger on her chin before replied, “How about if this succeeds then you give me a few bottles?” She handed him the ingredients.
“How many is a few?” Liam questioned as he eyed her with a brow raised. He took them and started the extraction process in a vial.
“About a quarter of the batch made?” Alicia smiled devilishly.
Liam swayed his head back and forth. After thinking it over he said, “Fine.”
Galin let out a laugh of his own as he watched them.
The two looked at him with a bewildered look.
“You alright there professor?” Alicia asked with concern.
“Yes,” Galin responded as he recomposed himself. “The way you two were just now made me think about how an old colleague and I were at the beginning of our Alchemy training.”
“Oh Yeah?” Alicia questioned.
“Yes, no matter how absurd of things we tried to experiment on, we did what you guys were doing. Bartering materials for finished products,” Galin said as he smiled softly. “Those were fun times.”
“Do you still keep in contact with your old colleague?” Liam asked.
Galin’s soft smile slowly slipped as he said, “Unfortunately no. She passed away during a dungeon run a few years back.”
Alicia elbowed Liam on his arm and gave him a Way to go look.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up something sad,” Liam said as he rubbed his arm.
Galin shook his head, “Don’t worry about it. How would you have known? I’m continuing her legacy through The Bubbling Potion. I’m also continuing the research she was working on before she fell.”
“What research is that?” Alicia asked with much curiosity.
Galin waved a hand as he said, “It’s a highly advanced one. You’re nowhere near the level nor Knowledge Theory to understand it.”
Alicia pouted at him.
“But if you both get to that level and I’m still not finished with it then I’d be more than happy to have you guys help me with it,” Galin added.
This brightened Alicia up as she said, “Alright. I’m holding you to that.”
Liam and Galin laughed.
Liam’s laughter came to a halt as a fanfare noise suddenly echoed in his mind with a notification message appearing.
“Congratulations! You have discovered a new Extraction Ingredient!”