Magic Made Simple

Chapter 14: Laying a Foundation

You have slain Skeleton Sentinel (Level 25)(Boss)

Bonus experience earned for fighting an enemy of a higher level. Bonus experience earned for slaying a boss. Bonus experience earned for slaying a boss without assistance.

You are now level 22

You are now level 23

You are now level 24

You have earned the title King Killer

King Killer

You have proven to be capable of punching above your weight class and besting the odds when the numbers are not in your favor. Provides a bonus to all stats when fighting an enemy of a higher level, and a larger bonus when fighting a system recognized boss monster. Grants +5% to mind and spirit, and +10% to body.

Your trait has been awakened by your actions.

Trait: Planes Walker

Planes Walkers don't accept the limits of a simple three dimensional existence. A Planes Walker recognizes the power that comes with thinking in higher dimensions, and the freedom that comes from releasing your shackles. Grants the planes walker the ability to peer into both higher and lower planes of existence, and allows the planes walker to tread through these spaces for nothing but the cost of their mana. +5% to Mind and Spirit.

As I finished reading through all of the messages, I couldn't help but think to myself about how power really seemed to give in to the snowball effect. The more powerful you were, the easier it was to gain more power. Hell, even my newly awakened trait would probably increase that exponential gain.

What I had done against that skeleton was not something I could easily reproduce in the near future, of that I was sure. My new trait had allowed me to ignore the distance between me and my enemy, casting what was normally a close range spell directly into its head. To say it had been expensive in terms of mana would be a massive understatement. Two thirds of the cost of casting that spell had been to move the location of it to just 2 meters away from myself. Even then, I had only been able to cast it within the head of the monster because it had been completely hollow.

Basically, I had gotten lucky. Against any other type of monster I probably would have been forced to retreat. I had thought the large amount of magical resistance had made the skeleton a bad matchup for me, but in reality it had been a great one, even if I hadn't known until the fight was already over.

I needed to ensure something like this wasn't going to happen again in the future. Next time I might not have an escape route like I did today, and if that ever becomes the case then I need to shore up some of my weaknesses. The first thing I wanted to put some serious work into was my defense. I needed to make it harder to overwhelm.

For this, I could draw some inspiration from my most recent fight. My two defensive spells, mana shield and mana barrier, could not be cast in tandem. The skeleton sentinel seemed to have no problem shrugging off both physical and magical attacks, meaning its defenses were able to counteract both simultaneously. I wanted something like that. I also wanted better offensive spells. Overall, I just really wanted to upgrade my arsenal.

I stand up off the ground, rubbing the wrist of my recently reattached hand. The healers had brought me back to peak condition a while ago, but I've been sitting here for a bit now just reflecting on the fight. Blair had sprinted over as soon as she heard as I was back. She didn't care much that I was hurt. She had just dragged away the corpse of the skeleton. She'd at least paused long enough to make sure I wasn't dying before leaving.