Chapter 8: Access to Magic

<RARE IMP>
Level: 100
HP: 423/423
MP: 84/84
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation

Available Traits:
Stone Shaping: Spell. Manipulate 0.25 cubic feet of stone per second. Costs 10 mana per second.
Improved Dexterity: Increases dexterity and manipulation beyond what your form would normally allow.

Available Species:
Goblin

Well, although I've been complaining a lot about wishing I had better dexterity. I don't think I can pass up on magic. Especially this magic. Although it's frustrating I just went through all that effort to make a stone axe, and now I get magic that would have saved me all the hassle. This would let me make stone furniture. It just lets me shortcut so much time I'd have to spend otherwise, that I don't think I can pass up on it.

I mentally choose to prestige and pick stone shaping, and let my consciousness fade.

---

Well, I grew again, but this time it seems like it was less than the growth between uncommon to rare. My muddy red fur has changed even further to an even more brown shade of red. I've also developed a patch of dark grey fur over the back of each of my hands and feet. Satisfied with my self checkup, I check my stats.

<EPIC IMP>
Level: 0
HP: 138/138
MP: 38/38
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation
Magic: Stone Shaping

Well, before I do anything else, I begin chowing down on plenty of the roots and more meat than I probably should. What can I say, I'm hungry. As I am every time I've prestiged.

Satisfied, I make my way to the wall where I've tracked my stats so far, and decide to activate stone shaping rather than scratching in the values, and I learn a few things as a result. Stone shaping isn't instantaneous. If anything, it's slower than I'd expect, which means the mana cost of it isn't cheap actually, and just marking my level 0 stats on the wall leaves me with 10 mana.

Well, I believe this value settles that I'm keeping 5% of my gained HP, and adding onto my previous level 0 value. I gained 300 stats, 5% is 15, and 15 + 123 is 138. Maybe soon I can try to solve MP. I have that charcoal now to write with, so if I find a nice place or object to write on, or maybe if I make one with stone shaping, then I could sit down and math it out, but it's too much to try to tackle mentally.

Actually, looking over the walls where I've scratched stuff in before, I feel like I should try to clean them up. Compared to the new values that I etched in the wall with magic, the previous writing looks really bad. I guess it's just another thing to try to take care of whenever I've got the MP to handle a new one.

Speaking of, I wonder how fast my mana regenerates? It's still at 10 now, even after that mental math. I decide I'll sit here until it gets to 11, then start counting.

After a little bit, it rolls over to 11, and I start counting.

1, 2, 3, ... , 581, 582, 583

And it rolls over to 12. Damn, that's slow. Almost 10 minutes to regain a mana. Okay, so maybe despite being so flashy, that goblin might have misled me on how good magic is. Seeing those fireballs had me all excited that magic was really good, but it turns out, not so much.

A second concern I have now is how quickly I can expect to level now. Every time I've prestiged, it's gotten harder and harder to level, so I'm a little concerned about what rate it'll happen from here on out. Well, I just have to take each day as it comes, and try to be as careful as I can. Which means I should try to protect myself as much as I can during my vulnerable first few levels. I have about five more days of roots to eat before I go out next, so I would like to avoid leaving the relative safety of my cave until that point.

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Well, if I'm not leaving for five days, I guess I'll need to find things to keep myself preoccupied. Well, I have a few things to take care of. I wanted to clean up the charcoal as best I can, although that has it's own challenges. The bigger chunks I can move, but there is a lot of powder, and I don't exactly have a broom. Although I suppose if I could make a fan with some root leaves in the future, I could try to blow the small stuff into piles to scoop.

For now at least, I think I'll dedicate some time to just moving the charcoal chunks into a pile closer to the exit, so that I can haul it out of the cave later. As for why I want to haul it out, I recall that charcoal is beneficial to plants in some ways, so I want to spread it around where the edible roots are growing as I gather them. I've also decided to leave some of those plants alone to seed and hopefully repopulate the area later.

Before I go out, I also want to use stone shaping to improve my stone axe. I should be able to actually make it resemble a true axe, and I can probably even form the stone around the handle proper, so it won't break as easily. Which means I should actually fix my axe before my handwriting. I guess I'll have to suffer over seeing my bad scratchings on the wall a little longer. I've also completed my todo list, which means I actually should use stone shaping to erase those scratchings too.

Suddenly, it seems like I have a lot of things to do, but all of it is bottlenecked by how fast my mana can recharge. Not only that, but doing a lot of the things I want to do, I no longer want to do by hand, because using magic will just result in a superior version of what I would do otherwise. Well, I guess I'll just haul charcoal until my mana is recharged.

---

My first mana recharge came as I was about halfway done hauling the bigger chunks of charcoal into a pile. I take the opportunity to clean up the axe's blade, giving it a smooth curve with a fine sharpness to it. Which leaves me at 2 mana. I knew it was going to be a long process when I started, but it keeps feeling disappointing.

I finish hauling the rest of the charcoal that I can carry by hand before I've fully recharged my mana, but I have gained a single level. Which in itself is concerning. I'm a little more than halfway through my day, and I'm only up one level. Which would mean it'll be fifty days before I prestige again. These time scales are getting longer and longer.

<EPIC IMP>
Level: 1
HP: 142/142
MP: 35/39
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation
Magic: Stone Shaping

Another thing I haven't thought about is what if mana regen is a flat rate? If it is, then having more mana is just like building a dam on a small stream. Sure, I could get a lot of water, but it would take forever to refill. I didn't want to scratch things into the wall, but I go over to my todo list, and scratch out all my completed previous goals, and scratch in: Investigate mana regen.

I doubt I would forget, but that at least gives me a reminder in case some crisis comes up, and for a few days I'm forced to focus on something new.

When I finish scratching into the wall, my mana is recharged, and I begin manipulating the axe again. This time, I remove the vine binding on the axe, and use magic to begin molding the back of the axe to wrap around the V of the handle. While not complete this time, it's enough that it holds it in place for now. I should have the axe complete by the end of my next time working on it. Which means before I sleep tonight it should be done.

Well, now I'm not sure what I should do. I'm legitimately bored, and just trying to find something to do. I guess I could just relax for a bit. It's been basically nonstop work for a long while. I suppose resting once and a while isn't a bad idea.

I go to lay against my warm pile of crystals, but instead of the normal warm feeling, it feels hot. Very hot. OUCH! I hop up. What the heck. I reach out and touch the pile. It feels hot again, but not as hot as it just did. Shit, I should check my HP.

<EPIC IMP>
Level: 1
HP: 132/142
MP: 39/39
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation
Magic: Stone Shaping

The first thing I notice is that I did lose some HP. The second thing that I notice though, is my MP is full again. It was almost empty a moment ago. As I ponder this for a moment, a smile creeps over my face.

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