Cat With a Raygun

After leaving the swampy area the road to Mankerin lead through wide open plains. The flow of manachlorian energy was different in the plains than it had been around the swamps. It was interesting seeing how different areas had their own energy flow. Joe wasn't sure if the different lands produced a different flow or if it was the other way around.

The plains would have been a nice peaceful leg of the journey if it weren't for the hawks. Their bodies were as large as horses with wingspans wider than a house. Good thing they were solitary hunters. Joe didn't think he'd be able to fight more than one at a time. With his only long range attack being throwing knives, Joe was ill prepared to fight the hawks.

Joe understood why mages didn't last long without proper training. If his Vitality and Toughness weren't as high as they were he would definitely have been disemboweled by the talons on the first hawk that attacked him. As it was the hawk shredded his stomach and back before he was able to hit it with enough Lightning Jolt attacks. A single Healing Touch was enough to bring him back up to full hit points, but Joe didn't like how much the hawks hurt him.

The good thing about the giant hawks was the options he got from his Harvest spell. He got bundles of arrows that were entirely made from hawk parts with bone shafts and tips made out of shards of the beak, as well as feather cloaks, and even a magic bow made from bone with tendon as the bowstring. He hoped to fetch a good price once he got to Mankerin.

Joe was tempted to try to use the bow and arrows himself, but that really wasn't in his wheelhouse, and while he had no doubt he could pick up Archery or something like it as a skill, that wasn't what he wanted to do right now. He would definitely need to find some long term solution soon, though. His Deflection Field went up to level 4 and still wasn't able to stop the talons of the giant hawks, so he needed some way to attack from a distance consistently.

Ten more giant hawks came at Joe and fell to his Lightning Jolts before he got out of the plains. Each one was a difficult battle that pushed the limits of Joe's Toughness, Vitality, Defense skill, and protective magic. Joe was making a mental list of ways to improve his fighting efficiency. First on the list was a long range attack option. Next was additional defenses. The description for Deflection Field confirmed that mages were fully able to wear armor, so he might want to look into that. Last of all, the existence of Potions of Healing alluded to the existence of Potions of Mana. Being able to refill his mana faster will have many benefits from helping him to cast spells over a longer period to helping him train more as well.

Joe didn't recall reading anything about Potions of Mana in the information he found in Elric's hut, but that isn't too surprising considering Mages are so rare, not many people have features that are so mana dependent, meaning the potions wouldn't be in much demand. Maybe he can find such information in Mankerin or Trenos.

- - - - -

Mankerin was much bigger than Lefpool, no wonder it was used as a point of reference among the miners back in Rusts' Edge. Trenos was supposed to be even bigger, which intimidated Joe a little, but that was something to worry about next month as it was probably another 5 weeks to get there. In the mean time Joe had a lot of sales and purchases to make. He decided to keep one of the bows for Sally, which he kept in the steelwood chest. He had magical boots, bows, and potions galore to sell. That was in addition to the mundane materials he had, of course. The merchant gave him fair prices, at least according to Joe's estimation.

Joe bought a sketchbook, journal, and several writing instruments cause he wanted to brainstorm more about ideas to help him in combat. He also received directions to a book seller with a wide variety of instructional books. Joe bought books on chemistry, plant life, alchemical recipes and techniques, glassblowing, magical smithing, and even a book about the land itself, including information about the animals and monsters of the regions around the continent. Joe also set himself up with a makeshift portable alchemy lab from different odds and ends he figured he could use based on his experience in Elric's hut.

At a small inn that evening Joe pulled up his statistics.

Hit Points: 320/320

Stamina 466/466

Mana 328/328

Strength: 85

Agility: 64

Vitality: 160

Toughness: 90

Intelligence: 164

Wisdom: 96

He'd pushed himself hard to advance in the last couple of weeks. He was still only level 5 in his class, but he felt that was really close to advancing. He made some advancements in his abilities, spells, and skills as well.

Abilities:

Inspect 3

Land on Your Feet 2

Night Eyes 3

Tongue of All 2

Read Aura 3

Sense Manachlorians 3

Boost Spell 2

Spells:

Lightning Jolt 5

Harvest 6

Healing Touch 5

Deflection Field 4

Cold Snap 3

Minor Levitation 4

Skills:

Reading 4

Climbing 4

Mana Channeling 11

Cooking 5

Endurance 10

Mining 6

Stamina Growth 11

Stealth 2

Defense 9

Focus 10

Pain Tolerance 8

Smithing 3

Heat Tolerance 3

Throwing 7

Punching 4

Kicking 4

Meditation 10

Regeneration 6

Logging 2

Running 6

Chemistry 1

Alchemy 1

Listening 7

Portering 6

Joe had leveled both his Lightning Jolt and Healing Touch spells to 5, which gave them additional functions.

Lightning Jolt (Level 5). This spell allows the caster to channel electrical energy into a target via touch, potentially damaging the target. The maximum amount of energy that can be channeled with this spell is determined by the caster's Intelligence score, multiplied by the spell's level. Multiple instances of this spell can be cast simultaneously at one or more targets based on what the caster is touching.

Mana Cost: 6 per casting.

Healing Touch (Level 5). This spell channels health restoration energy into a target by touch, or it can be directed towards the caster. At its current level this spell restores missing hit points and closes wounds, and can cure diseases and neutralize poisons and other toxins. Hit points restored equal to Intelligence of caster multiplied by the level of the spell.

Mana cost: 6 per casting

Joe also discovered that some of his skills got a lot easier to handle at level 10. His Focus and Meditation, especially. It was no longer a strain to meditate while doing other activities, like the skills have a synergistic effect together. That also helped prompt a lot of his ability and spell improvements, as he could continually use them while restoring his resources.

With his Listening skill at work in the busy tavern getting breakfast the next morning, Joe tried to listen to individual conversations of the other guests, just to practice. A lot of them talked about the same thing. Apparently there were bandits attacking caravans along the major roadway leading to Trenos. Only a few of the caravans have been able to withstand the bandits, which might explain the prices Joe got yesterday for his sales, the merchant was desperate for product, those magic bows especially.

Being a lone traveler Joe hoped that he wouldn't be enticing to the bandits, especially as he had some very valuable cargo in the pack on his back. Nothing he could do except keep training and be on alert as he got closer to Trenos.