As the days went by, Matt gained more and more experience with his magic. Thanks to the 10% learning bonus he got from seeing Luke use fire magic, his fire control had caught up with his earth control. Currently both were at intermediate level 2, Air was a little further behind at basic level 4 and lighting was still only at level 3. Lighting was incredibly powerful but until he could create his own lightning, he would be stuck only being able to practice during storms, which didn't happen too often. This caused lightning to trail behind as his lowest level element, despite having it for as long as earth magic.
With the intermediate version of earth control, Matt could now create walls of earth in order to defend himself. He can also make spikes extend out of them, acting as both offense and defense, but this takes more MP. After he learned how to do this, the system automatically turned into a spell he could use for a certain amount of MP, so he could now do it without having to think too much. He had also learned how to change the shape of the earth he controlled. Now he could create multiple blades of stone that he could throw at high speeds. He still couldn't control Boulder sized rocks or create very detailed shapes, but he assumed these would be possible at the advanced level.
With intermediate fire control, he had learned to increase the temperature of his flames until they turned white, making them hot enough to melt most metals. It was still not hot enough to melt iron and steel, but the other metals he had tried it on had melted after a while. He could also create multiple flames and move them through the air similarly to his earth magic, though not as well. Lastly he had also unlocked a spell for fire as well, it was called "Flame Spear". With this spell, he could create and throw a spear shaped flame that would explode in a sphere of flames, lighting a 5 foot area on fire.
Air was not doing as well, he had increased his control as well as the damage his wind blades would do. He could now cut down a tree within 5 attacks and had enough precision to make sure all the attacks would land in the same area; before, he would always hit the tree but the attacks were scattered. However, despite this, he had yet to obtain a spell the way he had with earth and fire magic. This caused him to assume he would have to reach intermediate level to gain a spell, which he wasn't too happy about.
Lightning was the element he had the least progress with due to there being few storms. Still he had successfully learned how to redirect lightning thanks to Emma. She had taught him an ancient technique where one would catch the lightning with one hand, bring it down through the stomach and send it out through the other hand, she also warned him to never bring the lightning acrosshis chest. She said it was a technique created by a great man from her time. The last thing he learned was how to "capture" lightning. He could now catch lightning and control it, he would still have to release it eventually, as holding the lightning would drain his MP and would end with him struck by the lightning if his MP reached 0. He learned this fact the hard way.
All the experience earned from training his magic had also increased his level to 7. He wanted to put all 3 stats into Intelligence, but Emma said he should place some points into Dexterity and Wisdom. This would help him better control his magic and better detect any attacks coming at him. Taking Emma's advice, he placed 1 point in each, thereby making his Wisdom and Dexterity 11 and his Intelligence 13.
With all the progress he had made, he felt he was ready to head to the tavern and take a quest. The tavern was full of people drinking, even in the middle of the day. Countless adventures sat at the tables chatting away about their past undertakings. One of the walls of the tavern had a big board full of papers attached to it, this was the quest board.
Matt looked at the board for a while, contemplating which quest to take. 'I recommend you take an E ranked quest, you don't have any combat experience and overestimating yourself could very well be the end of you. I recommend that goblin slaying quest.' Emma interjected, making sure Matt didn't pick something too dangerous. He had potential, but without combat experience, he was likely to overexert himself and run out of MP in the middle of a battle.
'I suppose you're right. This will be my first quest, better take it easy for now." Matt said as picked the quest paper off the wall and brought it to the front where a man sat behind a desk. He was the adventurers' guild representative that was assigned to this town. Since it was a small town the guild didn't have it's own building and instead worked within the tavern since most adventurers would spend their time drinking here anyway.
"Which quest are you taking today young man?" The man behind the desk asked as Matt approached. "Oh this one. 3 goblins have been spotted at the edge of the forest east of town, they have been harassing travellers, and killing cattle. Kill them and bring their heads as proof. You'll get 3 silver pieces, one for each goblin, simple enough. Now I just need your adventurer tag." He said after Matt handed him the quest paper.
"I don't have a tag. Where can I get one?" Matt asked, he probably should have guessed that he couldn't just take the quest without some form of identification. This was the guild's way of making sure unqualified people didn't take dangerous quests and get themselves killed.
"I can give you one, you just have to give me your name and throw an attack at the dummy to my left so I can gage how strong you are. Seeing as you don't have any weapons I'm assuming you're a mage." The man said already starting to fill out the paperwork.
Matt did as instructed, he didn't want to make a hole on the tavern floor with earth magic and fire might burn down the tavern, so he just threw out a wind blade which left a deep cut in the dummy and left a few small marks on the wall behind it. Suddenly Matt could hear some yelling.
"You idiot, how many times have I told you not to have people use magic inside my tavern, are you trying to ruin me?" An older man came out yelling before smacking the guild representative in the back of the head. "Why was I cursed with such an idiotic son?" The man sighed before looking at Matt. "It's not your fault kid, but next time don't use magic inside the tavern." The man said before walking away.
"Alright, seeing as you didn't cut all the way through I can only give you E rank, just tell me your name and you can take the quest." The man said rubbing the back of his head where he had been smacked.
"Matthew Arber"
"Alright here you go" the man said, giving Matt a metal tag with a big E on it. "As an E rank, you can take both E and D ranked quests, but if you want to take a D rank quest, you must have either a D rank adventurer or a group of 2 other E ranks with you. If that is all you need, good luck on your quest."
| Quest received: Kill goblins outside of town. (0/3) |