Mark of the Witch

2

^^ Chaos Beam ^^

I had never hit a button faster in my life. A bazillion thoughts raced through my mind, but none of them mattered as a progress bar appeared in front of me, as well as a series of instructions on how to correctly cast 'Witch Bolt', my first spell!!!

'Progress: 0%
Step 1: Visualize your Mana Paths.
Step 2: Channel your Mana into your hands.
Step 3: Visualize a ball of tightly-packed liquid mana in your palms.
Step 4: Throw the Ball at your target.'

"Okay... so imagination comes into play with this class, unlike the ultra-realism of the rest of the game? Hmm..." Mana Pathways sounded like my nervous system, transferring energy throughout my body, so I sat down against the central, blank obelisk, and meditated carefully; with each breath, I felt my heartbeat, then the buzzing sensation starting in my spine and brain and spreading outward. With each heartbeat, the buzzing got stronger, drawing the warmth and light out of the air around me to empower myself, and soon I felt confident enough to pool some of that energy in my hands, crafting a fully-formed arrow that floated over my hand, slowly but surely, then sent itself darting off into the far wall, where it exploded into a meter-wide sphere of iridescent energy and faded away, leaving a perfectly smooth semi-spherical hole bored into the wall. "That seems... pedestrian... as well as totally incapable of protecting me from any number of enemies." The next attempt formed a sort of pressurized beam of liquid mana, instead of an arrow or a ball; my attempt at a water cutter scoured a half-meter-deep groove in the wall of the cave, around thirty feet long before I'd become incapable of continuing, so I sat down heavily and looked at my notifications.

'Progress: 300%!
Spell Learned: Witch Bolt!
Spell Created: Chaos Arrow, Chaos Beam!
Witch Bolt
Mana Cost: 1
Damage: (Int + Cha) / 10
Damage Type: Elemental/Force
Range: 30 ft.

Chaos Arrow
Mana Cost: 10
Damage: (Int + Cha) / 2
Damage Type: Elemental/Force
Range: 400 ft.

Chaos Beam
Mana Cost: 50/second
Damage: (Int + Cha + Wis) / 2
Damage Type: Elemental/Force
Range: 90 ft.'

"Oh? So I can alter spells as I please, but I still learn the base spell automatically? Interesting... now, let's solve this puzzle, gain access to this 'Black Tower', and then meet up with the kids!" The second puzzle was similar to the first, in that it required me to translate each word, then puzzle them out into full sentences, but this time the full sentences were arranged into a riddle, and a pretty decent one at that.

'I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?'

I tilted my head at the notepad in confusion, then carefully used some mana in my fingertips to carve the Elder Futhark Runes for 'Map' into the center obelisk, next to the Hieroglyphs for the same. Once again, all of the obelisks melted into the ground, and were replaced yet again by another obelisk, this one almost ten feet tall and just as wide, with a gloriously detailed map of what appeared to be the entire world, as well as a second map of a city, with some instructions written in yet another obscure runic language.

'Spell Learned: Cat Scratch
Mana Cost: 1
Damage: (Int + Cha) / 10
Damage Type: Force/Necrotic
Range: Melee.

Quest Complete: Translate the Obelisk Runes (1-10)!
Quest Chain Rewards: Int & Cha + 5
Quest Complete: Decode the Translated Runes (1-15)!
Quest Chain Rewards: Int & Cha +5
Quest Complete: Solve the Riddle!
Quest Chain Rewards: Int & Cha +10, Enchanted Map.'