Tags, your it!

Doric was puzzled by the idea of an investment tag. "You mean like stocks or something?" he tried to remember what the word exactly meant but he did need money so perhaps it was not a bad idea after all.

"No silly If you add this is a Mana Symbol you can invest Power to gain it later. It's a common tag for new adventurers learning about magic. You need another tag to pull the investment out but for now, you can build it up slowly using this tag."

She giggled and made her fingers dance one on each hand wiggling back and forth. "I am being generous so I will give you a free tag to help you out as well!"

Doric looked at her cautiously. "You said you did these missions because you had to conserve the limits you give me. Why are you able to bend those rules after making them so soon?"

She pondered that for a little and smiled. "Because it's such a small request that it should not impact my regeneration all that much! Think of it as my investment in you!" She giggled at the phrasing considering herself clever for thinking it up.

"Alright well what is this second tag?" wondering if she was going to give him the tag that would let him pull things out when he needed it.

"It's called Cumulative, it takes investment and makes it grow slowly over time. Think of it like a Mana Power bank with these two tags you can now invest into the bank and it will grow over time. "

She counted on her fingers "Add in more tags and you can change how quickly it grows and how large it grows and how much it can hold and all kinds of things!" 

She flipped two coins towards him they each had words on them. Invest, Cumulative. He panicked for a moment and tried to grab them with his mouth but they stopped just shy of his face. Right as they were about to hit him they faded into magical energy and shot into his eyes.

He felt a surge of knowledge hit him as they etched themselves in his mind. He was excited about the prospect of this whole thing. "Thanks, Folia, now that that is over how do I make the spell?"

Folia smiled and opened her book, Why don't you read it here? It might be easier than if I explained it myself, Big Bro." He looked at the first page and as if on command the page would flip when he was done with one page. 

"Huh, so I have some light telekinetic powers enough to at least move a page in a book." He seemed happy that he realized it and wondered if he could empower that ability with tags.

Ch. 4- Creating your own Spell!

So you made your first fire bolt. How was it, exciting right? Did you use the torch like you were supposed to or were you stupid and used your own body heat? I guess if you did that you would not be reading this right now. Well either way in order to make spells you need to use different items as catalysts You can make your own or find and or buy materials or items to use in spell casting.

"Did she know I was going to use myself as the catalyst or is this because someone else made the same mistake? Either way, I don't like that she called me an idiot. I will remember this…" Doric continued reading trying to find more interesting parts.

Based on the power of the item determines how much it can be used. Most items have a limit to how often they can be used. If made properly they will have tags that help regenerate their magic power after use to be used again. Often used for powerful items but also for more simple things like magic torches and other daily life items.

"Oh so this world is heavily focused on magic power and the items made using it. Not just a mage thing. Interesting" He flipped to the next page and continued scanning it.

Symbols are almost as vast as tags but some common ones were talked about in the previous chapter. Elemental Symbols are used a lot to make spells but there are many other symbols. Some others are Magic, Nature, Holy, and Demonic.

"This is starting to sound familiar to something but I can't place my finger on it…"

Some of these can only be made using materials that represent those symbols. These are harder to come by as they usually come from monsters or valuable minerals or plants or other things that house that power.

"So collecting materials is very important. Probably why there were so many things in that cave. Wish I had brought that plant with me, feel like it was a good reproducing plant."

Magic is one of the easiest ones to grow. It takes the manifestation of Magic power someone or something has extracted in its pure form and added to other items or people. In order to make a Magic Symbol you first have to learn to extract magic power from yourself or items around you.

To be continued in Chapter 5- Extracting Mana safely! 

"Of course! Give me some info and then tease me with a freaking cliff hanger. I don't have time to do another mission that could kill me please just tell me…" He seemed a little desperate but ultimately just sighed and looked at what the mission was this time.

Mission # 3- Extract magic from something!

"Oh come on, you have these missions behind by a chapter yet again. Did you even reread your book before adding in the missions? You should fire your proofreader!"

He closed the book with his mind and ground his teeth a little as he thought about how to extract mana. Hitting dead ends he looked at Nyssa. "No, she would not know anything in her state." Looking over to Skia who was still unconscious from overusing her powers he sighed again.

"Guess we should set up some kind of camp and keep moving to avoid the towns." Nyssa was brushing Skia's hair with her hands gently as she watched her sleep. 

"When was the last time you think she was able to sleep on someone's lap or feel someone's touch?" Nyssa spoke softly as tears weld up in her eyes. "She must have been so lonely in that cell all this time…"

Doric moved closer to try and comfort Nyssa but without a physical body, he was not sure how to do so. He spoke softly. "I'm sure she was not alone that entire time. There must have been at least one person who kept her company." He had read books all the time about prisoners with friends made by captors. But it did not change the fact that she was in the cell for so long.

Both of their thoughts were broken when they heard Skia talking in her sleep. The words were jumbled and did not make sense all they knew is Skia was having a nightmare. She began tearing up a little and twitching her head from time to time. Every time she would act up. Nyssa was there the brush her hair and calm her down.

It seemed to work for the most part but it required diligent work all night to keep her from panicking. Doric did not feel too tired so he was up all night but unfortunately so was Nyssa. Tending to Skia the entire time. 

Morning broke and the only person to get any restful sleep was Skia. She awoke to find both of them dozed off she smiled moved Nyssa's hand from her head and looked around to see where she was. "I don't recognize this part of the forest. Are we still near town?" She wondered but nothing looked familiar and nothing ever would. She only knows of one tree the largest tree in the forest which was easy to see through the grates to the outside.

"Where is it now?" She wondered looking up trying to see past the treeline but they were too large for her to look through properly. She moved to try and get to a better vantage point. Starting to climb up a tree she decided while they were asleep she would try a new power she had only attempted once. 

Worried that she might face the same outcome as last time. Realizing that no one was here to punish her she felt more confident in using it now. Looking up at a large branch she focused on that branch. Her shadow moved to encompass the branch and when she finished that part she then went to another shadow and began walking into it. Appearing on top of the branch now. 

Looking past the tree line she found the large tree she loved looked at as a child. She came back down the tree the same way she went up except this time she missed the concentration and teleported next to the root which tripped her and had her yelp and land face first into the grass.

Waking up Doric noticed Skia was missing and began looking around for her. Finding her not too far from the camp he shook his head as she responded.

"There is a massive tree to the west I want to go explore it!"

"Very well let's wake Nyssa and start heading that way."