CH2.5

Red scratched his armored helmet like it was a beard, causing the metal to screech. I cringed away as the man continued obliviously.

"That depends on your skills and perks. A mage with 1000 strength could never beat a warrior with 1000 strength. Until you hold that kind of power in your hands, it's hard to say. At a thousand strength, I could cut through the hide of most dungeon bosses. In a raid, it might keep the shockwaves from enemy movements from blowing you away. Having less than 1000 strength in a raid is like trying to fuck a girl in the ass with no lube. Sure, you can pull it off, but it will be a pain for both of you." Red said.

Once again, the metaphors keep coming and I had no way to parse them. The word lube had something to do with oiling knives to keep them from rusting, but what did that have to do with sex. While Black Rei was complete confusion Red liked to mix metaphors with the information I needed. Apparently, Elementalists were too devoted to their task, and druids were beholden to their element. Mages were soldiers on leave paying the coin they earned for a good time.

The gear I was given to wear was beyond heavy.

STR +1

STR 11

Red took a look at my status and made some changes.

"There, you'll only receive an update every 10 points. Let's grind you some stat points, oh, and be sure to talk to any traveler we meet on the road. We need to work on your charisma as well. Asking any ladies you meet to go behind a bush and have sex will only help your charisma." Red said.

I stared at the shameless man. "Am I going to go to gambling halls to raise my luck?"

"That depends on how much do you like shellfish. I'm joking; you're an eldritch; of course, you like shellfish. Your goal is to reach Carcosa, and mine is to pour all the hard-earned knowledge I have into you. Take a step and try to feel your magic. It should start around the base of your stomach." Red said.

I lifted a foot and nearly fell over as the leg bands weighed me down. Every scrap of clothing I wore had a weight to it and runes that weighed heavily in another way.

Sweat poured down my face and back as I struggled to take a second step. I wasn't getting tired; the Mountain of Dew Vault made sure of that. Instead, I had all the agony of lifting something heavier than the old stump in Mr. Gregor's yard back when I wanted to be a soldier like my father before me without the weakness of exhaustion. My muscles strained, and I felt my own private hell. The runes on my gear shown brighter, becoming heavier with every step as I struggled to move.

"You're trying to eat a girl out while holding your breath. Breathe." Red said.

When Red said he was going to try to impart all his lessons to me, he meant all of them.

"Do all of your metaphors have to be sexual innuendos?" I asked.

Red tapped at a screen before nodding. "At this rate, we'll be at our destination a decade from now. We need to get moving. I want to ride a horse one more time before I can't." Red said.

"Fuck the horses," I said.

"No, that's a bad student. Get a hold of your mana. I've given you all the pressures you need. Use that high wisdom of yours and get with the program. Find a girl being harassed by goblins, plus a second step equals sex. Do the math, you have it; wear weighted clothing plus a second step equals walking normally with a skill. You're a mage, so mana is your hired goblin actors and lube; get with the program." Red said.

Red was not a nice person, as it turned out. What he was saying wasn't completely insane only mostly. I was somewhere in the first step, but there were preparation steps before and an unknown middle step that was up to me. Mana started in my stomach, apparently, and not in my head where I sensed it. Alright, the second step was up to me; all I needed was to get a feel for my mana.

I ignored my stomach as my teacher suggested because this was my step. Feeling for my mana didn't really do what I thought it should. I had no special sense to search for the source; it was more like my mana had been there in the background doing its own thing. When I focused on it, the entire mass of energy stopped what it was doing, acting more like a dog than a force of some kind. Sweat continued beading down my face, and in my mind I cursed Red for every bead of sweat and muscles burning. Stamina regeneration was bullshit. My sweat had turned from normal clear liquid to the yellow-green of Red's potion.

My leg twitched as I took a step. "We're going to need to pump you full of more supplements at this rate. Take a look at your health."

Atom lvl23

Class: Lightning Elementalist lvl23 +2INT +3 WIS per level

Race: Human/ Old Blooded

Perks:

Ancient Seed: +5 increase to MP multiplier 

Ancient Sprout: +5 Increase to MP Multiplier 

Heaven's Spear: All lightning spells have piercing.

Heaven's Wrath: Equip Lightning Spells to any weapon. If unarmed, equip them to your body. When dealing damage, unleash spell effects on enemies. 

Human: Welcomed in all human settlements and +2INT per level 

Old Blooded: Gain access to Eldritch-only classes and gain +5WIS per level 

Second Strike: All Lighting spells hit twice. 

Spirit Seed: +5 Increase to MP Regen Multiplier 

Spirit Sprout: +5 Increase to MP Regen Multiplier 

HP: 1,200/2,300

MP 47,840

Stats 

STR 11 (+9 Pending)

DEX 10 (+5 Pending)

VIT 10 (+3 Pending)

INT 104 

WIS 199

CHA 10 

LUK 10 

"Oh, you really have an Elementalist class that's interesting. I hope you know leveling the class beyond 50 requires the upgrade of lightning-based skills."

My head pounded at his words upon learning that I couldn't kill more monsters to raise my level after a certain point. Every painful throb let me feel the power of the dog in my head as the energy flowed from my brain to my nerves as I moved each muscle. Suddenly, like the dog saw a bone, the energy flowed from a single stray thought.

Lighting Skill Unlocked 

Tactile Telekinesis Tier 1 lvl1/9

Description: Mana flows from the mind and transforms into psionic energy in the nerves, and the firing of nerves controls the output of that energy. 

Effect 1: Increase the muscle strength with telekinesis. 

"The man can do more than wiggle around and hope he makes an impression," Red said.

I turned and punched out, striking Red's armored chest, doing nothing but hurt my hand. With a rush of air, my body moved before I put any thought into the act or had a chance to rethink my actions. My mind had the bright idea to start a fight with my trainer, and my body had already gone into battle mode before the thought reached my waking mind. For a moment, I waited as the armored man stared down at me. Death was second away, but the armored man only stared.

"We will need to work on your control. Nothing a few miles of running can't fix. Don't worry, you won't have to keep up with me; that's what the horses are for." Red said.

I blinked, and suddenly, I was ten feet away from the armored man. My mind couldn't keep up with my body. The sheer amount of mana flowing in through my mind was too much for my body to keep up with.

"You're like a woman squirting for the first time."

"Stop with the messed-up metaphors and similes."

A casual backhand from my teacher launched me through a series of pews before I stopped in a broken pile of them. Some of the priests began playing on the old piano while a lizard woman yelled out a vocal.

"No, this isn't a boss battle merely chastisement. Let me try again, then. You have no control over the amount of mana infusing your skill. Your optic nerve is still a nerve and is empowered by your skill. With time, it, too, will adapt, allowing you to see where your vast physical power carries you. Until then you need to learn to infuse small amounts of mana into your skill at a time. Try infusing parts of your body instead of all of it; experimenting with your skill will help it level and eventually tier up faster. Here is a primer on skills: read it on your own time." Red said.

The primer appeared as a message on my screens. I opened it, and Red sighed. "Or read it right now while I wait. Surely, I won't take that out on you. Go ahead; you won't have much time to read while we travel; this isn't aerobics." Red said.

Skills leveled 1 to 9 as they were used and required a feat of power to tier up to the next level. Whether that was lifting something extremely heavy or using the skill differently than expected, tiers affected the tier up. Effects were only given on tiers 1, 5, 8, and 10. How the skills were used determined their effects. Skills grew stronger with use and were the bullwork of a player's power base. Stats supplied the power, skills were the motive force, and spells were often machines that force went through. Even warriors had spells, though they were different from how I recognized them.

Red tied a rope to me behind five horses and gave me a potion. "Now I know you're going through puberty, and looking at horse asses can mess with you. Try not to get a centaur fetish." Red said.

With a jerk, the rope he tied to me pulled as I was yanked forward and forced to use my skill to keep up under the weight of my training gear.