Duck_No_Duck

Ch: 12 When you go into a store to buy one thing, and end up buying far more than you should (Patreon)

Published:

2021-07-01 02:13:38

Edited:

2021-08-03 23:56:19

Imported:

2022-04

Content

Edited Sage of humanity.

Chapter 12 When you go into a store to buy one thing, and end up buying far more than you should

Lily looked back, behind her, as the door to her world vanished, leaving traces of the anchors behind. She could feel them and if she dropped into her soul she knew she would be able to see them as well. Her double was right, she could recreate the door fairly easily. The funny thing was that she was only a tenant in this building. She wondered if the System's rule about creating a doorway in a place she owned was a rule to prevent people from making too many doorways? It kind of made sense to Lily as she looked at the imprinted mana signatures on the white door behind her. Ripping holes in random spots couldn’t be good for reality.

You have entered the city of Quebec.

Quebec has offered you citizenship. Accept? Y/N

Lily did as her double asked and accepted. Her double recommended it to prevent what happened to her in Lowell. She couldn’t be tricked into becoming a citizen like Lowell did to her if she was already a citizen of a different city. Quebec, according to her double, was a very friendly city that actively was looking for citizens. It was rich in resources, but had very active monster and beast attacks. The sort that just randomly appeared in the city.

Quebec welcomes you, citizen. As a citizen, you have been provided a room in one it’s housing projects free, for three months. You may stay after the three months are up, but rent will be requested.

Warning, Quebec is considered a war zone. Do not leave your dwelling without weapons. It is recommended that while in your dwelling you always be within arms length of your weapons. Quebec has many bunkers free for public use, but will pay a bounty on any beast or monster you fight in or outside the city.

Je vous souhaite bonne chance, citoyen. (I wish you good luck, citizen.)

Lily smiled at the announcement. Then frowned as she noted that the announcement had said fight not kill. She had to wonder just how dangerous this city she was now living in was. She also noted it said in and out of the city. She wondered why anyone would leave a city. No one left Woburn if they could avoid it and she assumed that was true for Lowell as well.

She looked around at where the doorway dropped her off. She was in a small room with a bed and a tiny closet. The bed had a twin mattress which was bare. There were no windows in the room and the light came from a single glowing light crystal attached to the ceiling. The walls were painted white, but had black scuff marks on them. There was a door near the head of her bed that she could see led to a tiny bathroom with only a shower stall. She noted how the toilet bumped right up against the shower stall. She also made a mental note to get a shower curtain. There was a rod, but it lacked a shower curtain to go with it.

Her stuff, or at least the stuff she grabbed before she left her home, was piled up on the floor in front of her where she had tossed it through the doorway. Her double warned her that as soon as she walked through the doorway she would have to close it. So she had thrown her stuff through. She did not want to part with some of her stuff now that she had it.

She ignored her stuff for now. Her double had said she was already assigned this room by the System, but had to go to the building’s officer to make it official. She turned around to find a white door where the doorway used to be. Like the room, it was scuffed up a bit, but looked sturdy.

She reached down and opened the door. It opened easily. Lily smiled, but almost immediately lost her smile as she saw what looked like a cockroach the size of a small dog sitting in the middle of the living room. It did a little hop and turned to her. Before she even thought about it she was already casting Greater flamethrower. The huge cockroach jumped and wings popped out of its armored back as it flew right at her.

Lily stabbed her hand forward and set her spell off. The dog-sized cockroach never had a chance. The flames vaporized the ugly thing before it reached her. Her flames hit the carpet and flashed over the entire tiny room in front of her before she had time to cut them off. Luckily her spell was designed to not burn anything but biologicals. Her room was fine, but there was an awful smell now.

She quickly cast Mobile barrier then moved it to her chest while she cast Greater flamethrower on her left hand but didn’t set it off. She held the spell in her left hand as she slowly exited the bedroom. She looked left and right as she exited, but didn’t see any more cockroaches, either small or dog-sized. She lowered her hand, but didn’t let the mana go. She had one more room to explore.

The room in front of her was roughly fifteen feet long and maybe eight feet wide. There was only one more room on the other side of the wall to her bedroom. It was a small kitchen with a tiny refrigerator and really tiny oven. She noted it only had two range things to cook on. There was a door to the oven part but it was very skinny, maybe two feet or so wide, but maybe three or four feet long. Her oven back in her apartment in Woburn was three times the size. Next to the oven was a very small sink maybe two feet squared.

There were also a bunch of cabinets above and below the very short countertop. Lily opened each one, her spelled hand ready, but she didn’t find anything. Once she was done exploring the drawers and cabinets for anything scary like the bug beast, she let her spell go and left the tiny kitchen. Only to cast her spell again as she turned back to the refrigerator.

“Did you think I forgot about you?” She asked the fridge as she stalked towards it. She yanked it open and found nothing. The light lit up, but other than empty shelves that had seen better days, it looked safe. She closed the fridge with a sigh, and then looked down at the oven. Frowning, she opened it with less excitement than she had done with the fridge. Only when she saw that it was empty did she let the mana to her spell go.

She walked out of her room and really looked at her new apartment. It was, if she had to describe it, tiny. The living room was the largest room in the apartment. There were also no windows whatsoever in her entire apartment. The front door, she noted, had a metal peephole though. She smiled at it and nodded to herself.

Her double had recommended that she visit the System Hub and get a Skill called Translate. It was a Skill, which was somehow different from a spell according to her double. It actively translates when a person speaks and lets the user of the Skill learn the language. While the translation part of the Skill, where the user is able to understand the speaker, is instant, the speaking part of the Skill is not. It was fast, but not that fast. Her double estimated that it would take her a few days of being constantly around the language to be completely fluent.

Once she could speak the language she planned on registering herself with the housing office. Then, she really didn’t have any plans after that. Looking around her apartment, she decided that shopping was next on the list. She had left most of her home stuff, like shower curtains and silverware, back in her cabin. She also needed to buy some monster cores to set up some defenses so something like the beast-rated cockroach didn’t just appear while she was sleeping.

She also needed to read the System help book also. She was tired of not knowing what was going on. She knew that it had been pretty stupid to forget about it and her messages, but now that she knew that she needed that information. She needed to know how to survive in her new world.

“Civilisation has rules, who knew.” She thought to herself as she went to the front door and looked through the peephole. She found her door led directly outside and she was not on the first floor. There was a cement walkway going past her door in both directions. She could also see another building across from her building. The neighboring building had seven floors, and if the other building was identical then she reasoned she was on the fourth floor. She also noted that there was no one in front of her door.

She opened her door and stepped out. The first thing she noted was that it was chilly. Not really cold when the wind wasn’t blowing, but it got uncomfortable when it did. Looking upwards, she noted that the sky was covered in grey clouds. They looked flat and had white streaks in them.

The view from her front door was... meh. She could see that she was in an apartment that faced inwards towards a cement courtyard four floors below. The building across from her was not another building at all, but part of her building. It was just one of the four sides of the building.

Taking a step out, she went to the thin metal railing and looked down at the courtyard. Below, she spotted a bunch of people who looked like they were fighting each other while a small crowd of armed people watched. Everyone was using melee weapons like swords and shields, but she did spot a few people with guns on them. She did note that those who had them weren't using them. At least not at this minute. They also, now that she watched further, were not really trying to hurt each other. She watched as one guy fell to the ground and the other guy he had been fighting helped him up.

Nodding to herself, she turned and looked up and in both directions, looking for a staircase or maybe an elevator. She found one on either end of the walkway. She, as it turned out, was roughly in the middle of her floor. She randomly chose to go right and started walking in that direction.

She passed a flag that was hanging on the railing and when she leaned over to look at it she saw it was a blue flag with a white cross on it, along with four fancy white French-Canadian symbols in each corner. The symbols vaguely looked like a flower. She halfway remembered something like them on the jerseys of a hockey team her father sometimes watched. Except that she remembered that they only had one of the flower-things on their jerseys instead of four of them.

To her surprise, there was an elevator near the staircase. It was kind of recessed inwards a bit, so she hadn’t seen it when she was looking. Smiling, she pressed the down button and waited. She didn’t have long to wait, and when the doors opened she spotted a couple kissing in the corner. The guy had his back to her and was kissing the woman, who opened her eyes and looked at Lily. She gave Lily a finger wave before she closed her eyes again and kept kissing her boyfriend or whoever he was.

Lily nodded back and, after checking the right floor was lit up, she looked down so as not to watch the two make out. She was very uncomfortable while the elevator vibrated it’s way downwards, as the couple never let up kissing. She had never been so glad for an elevator door to open than when hers did. She quickly ran out of the elevator. To her horror she heard the woman laugh behind her.

Checks burning red, she looked around and found the exit. It was blocked by metal bars, but there was a door in it that was open. There were a few people standing by it, but they weren’t blocking it, so Lily quickly made it past them and out of the building. The people turned and watched her go past, but no one stopped her.

She did note that there were double doors by the exit, just inside the metal bars, with a sign that she couldn’t read. It was hanging by a metal hook. It hung over a yellow tinted window that had bars on it. Looking through she saw a desk and a few people standing around in front of it.

Just past the metal bars was a short, covered hallway that led out to a street. The hallway stunk of urine and other things. Shaking her head, she quickened her pace and left the covered hallway behind to find herself beside a street. It was a small street that had no cars on it, but it did have a bunch of people of all shapes and sizes walking up and down it. She spotted people with pointy ears as well as short dwarfs. She even saw a man who had to be at least seven feet tall walking down the street. His head, shoulders, and some of his chest stuck up above the crowd. The street was also filled with worn, white, wooden tables that had tarps hanging above them. The tarps were all sorts of colors, some blue, some orange, while one was colored blue with a white cross on it, like the flag she had passed near her new apartment.

There was a big guy sitting on a bucket by the entrance to her building. He wasn’t as big as the seven foot guy, but he had to be at least six foot tall, if not more. He looked up at her and smiled while saying something in French. She assumed it was French since she had no idea what he said. Feeling her cheeks burn again she gave the man a small wave and hurried on. She did stop to look around to find the street address. She sighed as she realized that the building name was written in French as well. She quickly cast Grimoire and wrote the name and number of her building down before hurrying down the street.

She had traveled about thirty feet from the entrance of her building when she stopped and looked around. She had no idea where the System Hub was. She looked to her left and spotted a mostly deserted restaurant. Taking a deep breath and hoping that someone inside could speak English, she opened the door and went in.

A kind-looking woman who seemed a bit older was standing behind the counter near the back. She waved at the empty tables and said something in French. Biting her lip, Lily walked up to the counter and shrugged feeling waves of embarrassment pour off her as she struggled to speak. The woman leaned back and politely waited.

“I’m sorry. I don’t speak your language. I was looking for the System Hub so I can fix that.” Lily said feeling her cheeks burn even harder.

“Don’t worry about that.” The woman said in perfectly understandable English. She did, Lily noted, have that cool French accent. “Most of the people here speak some English.”

“Oh, thank goodness.” Lily said with a smile. “Thank you for understanding.”

“No worries, my polite friend.” The woman said, her smile getting bigger. “I tell you what, I’ll make you some lunch. You look hungry. Then you can go to the System Hub with a full stomach. How’s that sound?”

“Oh, that sounds great.” Lily said with a smile. She was a bit hungry as she didn’t get to eat before her double kicked her out of her home. “What do you have?” She asked, looking around for a menu. The woman smiled and pointed upwards without looking away from her.

Lily smiled, once more embarrassed, as she spotted the picture menu above her. On the left side of the menu was all breakfast food that looked amazing, but it wasn’t breakfast anymore so she looked to the right side of the menu. The left side had lunch and dinner pictures. Most of the dishes had some kind of meat in them, but there were a few salads and non-meat dishes. She wasn’t a vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination, but the meat didn’t look normal. The meat in the pictures all looked odd. For example, there was a picture of a steak-looking dish, but the steak was deep blue.

In the end she picked a salad that looked mostly normal. It had little white things in it that she had no clue about. The woman smiled and motioned for her to sit down at a table. Lily smiled her thanks and found a seat near the opposite corner of the restaurant. She looked out and watched as people wandered by.

It was, she thought to herself, really odd people-watching after the invasion. First, everyone was armed. About half of them had guns, either pistols or rifles, while some were walking around in full plate armor, including sword and shield. They looked far more agile than she expected metal-covered people to be. The only thing she noted that felt off was that almost no one carried bow and arrow type weapons. One guy went past with a really long crossbow, but other than that she didn’t see anyone else.

She was shaken from her thoughts by a guy hurrying into the restaurant. He was carrying a large box which he put down on a table by Lily. She found it annoying, as the place was literally empty aside from the cook and herself. He could have picked any other table in the restaurant. Instead he picked the one closest to her.

He was a short man who was carrying around a bit more weight than was healthy around his belly. He had curly, brown hair that had a large bald part in the middle of his head. He was also the first person she had seen wearing glasses since she found her way out of her hellhole. He waved at the cook and spoke rapid fire French to her as he sat down. The woman nodded, went to the stove and started putting stuff into a frying pan.

The man saw her and gave her a big smile and started speaking French to her as he held out his hand for her to shake. Before she could take his hand the cook spoke in English. “André, she only speaks English. She stopped on her way to the System Hub before she gets Translate.” She told him.

“Oh, forgive me.” The fat man said with a big smile as he walked closer, with his hand still out for her to shake. “I’m André, tier three runic mage.” He said, introducing himself as she shook his hand. “I see you’re a level one mage. Just trying the class out or are you really interested in it?”

“André, that was rude.” The cook said with her hands on her waist. “Apologize to the young girl.”

“Oh, sorry. That was rude of me, wasn’t it.” He said ducking his head like he was expecting to get hit. Then he turned his head to her and gave her a wink. “Still, you’re a bit old to still be a level one. Is this your second or third tier one class?”

“André!” The cook shouted.

“Sorry. Sorry.” He said looking at the cook instead of her. “I only ask because, if you’re interested, I’m the only tier three runic magician in Quebec.” He said, leaning back proudly.

“That’s because no one stays a runic mage for as long as you have.” The cook said, shaking a wooden spoon at him.

“Not true.” André replied to the cook. “There are many people who are tier three runic mages around the world.”

“I aim to be the first tier four runic mage on the planet.” He told her quietly, as he sat down at her table.

“He may be an insensitive jackhole, but he has about the best chance at the tier four quest in his class of anyone.” The cook said as she brought over Lily’s salad and a cup of water.

“Thank you.” The man said proudly to the cook.

“You’re still an insensitive jackhole, though.” She said, frowning at him.

André ignored her and pulled the box off the table behind him before putting it down next to him, without ever leaving her table. “You wanna see some examples of what a runic mage is capable of? Oh, and hey: don’t listen to what others say about the class. We are not just a utility class, even if everyone treats us so. We have some combat spells.”

“They just suck.” The cook said, still standing over the table.

Lily looked at her salad. It looked mostly how a normal salad should look. It had some oil on it so Lily used her fork to mix it up. Once it was mixed up she took a bite and froze. It was the best-tasting salad she had ever tasted. She quickly swallowed and stabbed her fork into the bowl again to get some more.

“Good, right?” André told her as he watched her eat. “The secret is that she is a water witch. She uses her magic to enhance her food. Crazy, right? What kind of mage works as a cook? But she does have the best food in all of Quebec. She could make far more money doing something else, but I for one am glad that Jules stuck with food.”

Lily nodded to him, and had to agree. Whatever the oil was, it was amazing. She devoured the salad and, to her surprise, found herself full. She looked up from her empty bowl to find the water witch who worked as a cook had returned to the stove behind the counter and André was using his finger to draw something on a piece of wood.

Lily quickly dropped into her soul and watched, fascinated, as the runic mage worked. The way his mana worked stunned her. It poured out of his finger like a thin stream of water. She had never seen anything like it. Normally mana acted like a gas and, when released from the body, dispersed back into the environment. His mana was literally dripping onto the wood. It didn’t spread out on the wood like water would. Instead it sort of created a channel in the wood where it sat just under the surface.

She watched, completely fascinated, as he moved his finger, creating a symbol. She could feel the power coming off from the thing he was creating. Whatever it was, it would be powerful. He moved his finger slowly but confidently along the wood as he created his spell. Then the mana stopped flowing from his finger, but the mana that rested in the wood still reacted as he continued to draw whatever symbol he was drawing. With a flourish he pulled his finger away from the wood and looked at her.

“What do you think?” He asked as he turned the wooden block towards her, turning it around so that it was right side up.

“What does it do?” Lily asked as she picked it up.

She didn’t recognize the symbol on the wooden block. She raised it up so she could take a closer look. As she did she dropped out of her soul and looked at it with her normal eyes. There was a burn mark on the wood, but without being able to see the mana it didn’t look all that impressive. She dropped back into her soul and looked at it again. The mana was still there glowing a soft blue.

“Not bad, hey?” He asked her. “It is a grenade. Toss it at something and it will explode on contact. It’s a simple thing. Any tier two runic mage can make it.”

Lily had reached out to touch the symbol, only to freeze when he explained what it did.

“It’s fine.” He told her. “You have to add a bit of your mana to it before it will arm itself.

She nodded to him and touched the symbol. Two things happened at the same time. First, she got a notification asking her if she wanted to add her mana to the runic grenade to arm it. The second thing was she tasted warm ash on the inside of her mouth and the feeling of someone touching the back of her neck. She was very familiar with the first sensation - the one that tasted like warm ash on the inside of her mouth. She tasted it every time she cast her Greater flamethrower spell, or really most of her flamethrower spells. The spell ball that tasted like that was usually the first in the spell chain, but in her Greater flamethrower it was the second ball in the chain.

The second one felt familiar as well. She was not a hundred percent sure like she was with the first one, but she was pretty sure it was in her grimoire as well. Looking down at the block of wood she checked to make sure the symbols weren’t like the spell balls’ symbols, and they weren’t. She didn’t recognize these symbols. In fact they looked very different, as most of her spell ball symbols were straight or slightly curved lines or dots, whereas these symbols were more circles than lines. She couldn’t be sure until she looked in her grimoire, but she was mostly sure they were completely different styles of designs.

“There is a reason why people pick up the tier two runic class after they max out the mage class.” André told her after a few seconds as Lily continued to examine the block of wood. “Don’t let the fact that we only have nine runes hold you back from getting the class. You can combine them to create new spells. I have over fifty-two designs myself.”

“It really is a great starter class for tier two.” Jules the water witch said as she suddenly appeared next to their table. She placed down a large plate of eggs and toast in front of André. “I took it as my first tier two class. Not only can you make good money with it, it really helps you with whatever class you pick next. Just know that you can’t buy the spells, only the runes. You have to build all your spells or pay people like André for his. That is, if he ever sold his designs.”

“Part of the fun of the class is designing your own spells.” André said, sounding slightly offended. “A little hint for the tier three quest: all you need is fifty designs that you can cast to advance. There are some nifty Skills once you get that far.”

“You could stay with the class, but there are better classes out there.” Jules said, voicing her opinion on the subject as she placed a glass of what looked like orange juice beside his plate.

“I have a pamphlet you can have. It has all the runes as runic mage uses.” He told her, as he reached into his box and pulled out a long but thin pamphlet and handed it to her. “You won’t be able to use it until you get the class, but, if I was you, I would memorise them. Makes casting the spells easier.”

“Thank you.” Lily said, looking over the runes in the pamphlet.

She really wanted to look the runes over. There had to be a connection between the runes the runic mage used and the spell balls she used. She was dying to find that connection. On top of that, she really wanted to know how he changed his mana to act like water instead of gas. She couldn’t help the smile as it formed. This was what she was missing in her little home.

“Don’t thank me too much.” André told her. “It has my business address on it. Stop by if you want to buy anything or just want some advice. I wasn’t too shabby back when I was just a mage.”

“The Hub is about a half mile down the street to your left.” Jules said, collecting Lily’s bowl from her. “If you get to Rue des Saules, you have gone too far.”

“Thank you.” Lily told her and meant it. “How much do I owe you?”

“On the house.” Jules replied. “I know how broke I was at level one.”

“Oh, no.” Lily said, feeling her cheeks get warm again. “I can pay.”

“Are you sure?” The Witch asked, frowning.

“Very.” Lily said with confidence.

Jules nodded, went back to the counter and pulled out a piece of paper then wrote up Lily’s bill, before heading back to the table and handing it to her. Lily smiled, put her hand on the paper and paid for her food. She also mentally added a pretty good-sized tip. Once she was done she handed it back to the cook before getting up.

“It was nice to meet you, André.” Lily told the runic mage as she left, tucking his pamphlet into her pocket.

The street was just as busy as it was before with people dressed in all sorts of armor. Lily had to admit it was the busiest street she had ever been on, before the invasion or since. She walked close to the white tables and looked on as she made her way down the street. People were selling all sorts of things, from clothes to weapons. There was even a guy selling what looked like a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, like she had seen in a lot of movies before the invasion. It wasn’t a normal one either though. She could feel the magic coming from it.

Then she discovered the Hub. Well, she should say Hubs. There was a large open space just off the street she was on. It was full of the T-shaped System Hubs. People crowded around it, vanishing and reappearing like crazy. Lily quickly circled the open space and found one that had less people on it near the back, close to an older-looking building. She touched it then accepted a prompt that asked if she wanted to enter the Hub. She felt a flash of heat, then she was gone.

Like before, she found herself in her pre-invasion room again. Unlike the last two times she was alone. She quickly got up and left her room. Her room dissolved around her and she found herself before a huge computer screen once more. But, unlike last time where she had the option to go to the store, her screen had a small sentence on it asking if she wished to claim her experience. Not knowing why she shouldn’t, especially after she lost so much of it, she hit the ‘yes’ button.

You have killed a Tier 1 Level 1 Giant Cockroach X 1. Giant Cockroach: a cockroach that has been mutated by the introduction of an excess amount of mana to Earth. Classified as Beast. Combat experience awarded and claimed.

You have discovered how to manually cast spells. Experience awarded and claimed.

Manually cast Mobile barrier Tier 3 neutral spell, and Greater flamethrower Tier 4 neutral spell, for the first time. Experience awarded and claimed.

Total percentile given: 520.08%

Total progress towards next level: 520.08%

Total breakdown: Giant Cockroach X1 = 0.08%, Discover how to manually cast spells = 500%, Cast Mobile barrier for the first time = 10%, Cast Greater flamethrower for the first time = 10%.

Warning, you have attempted and successfully cast two spells above your tier. Please monitor your mana level as it may not be large enough to cast spells above your tier. Casting spells above your tier may result in spell failure and loss of consciousness.

You have leveled up.

…

You have leveled up.

Name:

Lily Wilson*

Class:

Tier 1 Mage

Level: 5

Percent to next level: 20.08%

Race:

Human (evolved)

Bio Shield 1

Memory 1

Thought Speed 1

Agility 1

Strength 1

Title(s):

Sage of Humanity**
Ageless
Magus Spell Smith

Spell(s): 280

List

Profession(s):

Spell Smith, Grand Master

Allegiance(s):

Fort Woburn, Ally.

Quebec City, Citizen.

Skill(s):

Mana well (Racial) 5,272

Credits:

18,006,342,002.05

Stat(s) that can be upgraded:

17 points

Skill(s) that can be upgraded:

5 points

*Has committed a System-enforced crime. Percentage of progress to return to in-good-standing: 86%.

**Title suspended. Can be regained when standing with the System becomes good.

Bounty collected from Quebec for killing a Beast inside city limits: 0.01 credits

Rep earned with System towards in-good-standing for bounty: 0.01%

Lily sat back in her seat before the huge computer screen and finished digesting what she had just read.

“500% just for casting my spells without the System shortcuts. That’s nice. Ten percent for casting normal combat spells. That is really cool as well. I wonder if I can get that every time I cast my spells? …wait, no. It says ‘for the first time’. I bet I don’t get any more experience for them now. Killing the cockroach gave me crap. I wonder if it’s because it was a tier 1 level 1 cockroach. Wait, was that a baby cockroach, or was it just not that much of a threat? I mean it was as big as a small dog, but, still, was it really that dangerous?” She asked herself.

“The bounty was crap as well. Basically, I got a dollar for killing the thing and the rep, ugh. Not that I’m complaining, but why is my rep at 86% already? Did I start at 86? If not, then what did I do, because I really want to do that again to clear my name.” Lily thought as she looked at her status screen.

“I got more points for both my stats and skills. What did I start off with again? Ten? Well, let's assume I got one stat per level and I’m level 5 now. So, I started off with 12?” She asked herself.

“Did I always have 5 skill points or did I get them from leveling?” She asked herself, looking at the skill upgrade box. “I really wish my double was here. I bet she would tell me what I did.”

“You know what. I should really go through my messages and read that stupid book. Let’s just get that stupid Skill and move on.” She told herself, as she tapped the button at the bottom left of her screen for the System store.

That led her to a screen that looked like a search engine, but it had tabs about halfway down the screen. One of them caught Lily’s eye. It said class skill and Skill. She clicked it and a notification pinged her with a new notification icon. Clicking the icon led her to another screen with her mage class at the top with two tabs just below it. One said Skills and the other said spells. Curious, Lily clicked the spell tab. The screen changed to another page. To her surprise, this screen had all the spells she had created, broken down by tiers. Tier one had all her extremely low mana and small spell ball chain spells listed. She did note that the tier list went all the way up to tier 8 where her ritual, Woburn’s advanced Magic city force field, landed. The funny thing was that the next highest tier was six and that only had one spell in it, and that was her Woburn’s magic city force field. She did note that her highest spell after that was listed as Repair at Tier five. None of her spells went above tier 8.

She saw her first flamethrower iteration listed under tier 2. It was a really crappy spell, and she was embarrassed to see it there. The tier 1 list didn’t contain all her crappy spells though. She saw some good ones that she had made later in her time in the hellhole. She guessed as long as they used very little mana and had small spell chains they fit in the tier one spell list.

Clicking through the list, she was surprised where some of her spells landed. Her light spell landed in the tier two list while she thought it should have landed in tier one, since it used very little mana and had a pretty small spell chain. She did note that her go-to combat spells were in either tier three or tier four. Still, there were a lot of good combat spells in the tier one and two list. She did note that there weren't that many good defensive spells until tier three.

“Gonna have to fix that.” She thought to herself, feeling a bit bad at how bad her spells were for lower-level mages.

She was about to hit the Skills button when she noted that there was a dropdown button to the right side of her screen. Frowning, she clicked it with her mouse. A huge list of magical classes dropped down, sectioned off in ten tiers. The first tier only had one class, which was the mage class, and that was what was already highlighted. Tier 2 had about six or so classes. She spotted the runic mage class and clicked it. Her spells disappeared and a list of the nine runes appeared. They were all greyed out.

With a sigh she clicked the Skills button, but she forgot to change it back to the mage class. A list of Skills appeared on the screen. Most of them were greyed out, but a few weren't. One of the ones she zoned in on was Runic Mana Control. It had a cost of 10 credits, which was roughly a thousand dollars, but it had an asterisk next to the cost. Hovering her mouse over the asterisk let her see what it said.

Skill available, but your level is too low. Cost increased due to level assimilation. Please wait until you reach the appropriate level or pay extra to increase your nano storage space.

She clicked it anyway, curious about the price.

Warning your storage space is too low for this Skill. Cost to increase storage space: 100 credits Y/N

“A hundred thousand dollars.” She thought to herself. “Sure why not? It sure is nice to be rich.”