Quantum Leap - Vol. 10 Overpowered Awesomeness

C018 It Was Never Easy Being A Mage

"Right, since we had fulfilled our morning obligations, let's head out and try Stef's new Levels. I am sure everyone is keen to see how she does her job as a mage right? Stef, what types of skills do you have as a Mage right now?"

"Presently I have several tiers on my skills levels. 1st level allows me to use the powers indefinitely until I use up my Mana. 2nd tier consumes larger Mana and has a cooling period of between 5 to 15 seconds. The 3rd tier consumes a lot of Mana, can be up to 10% of my overall Mana and has a cooling period of between 30 seconds to a minute."

"For my 1st tier attacks, I have FrostBolt and Arcane Bolts. These can be interchangeable with one another and I can use this indefinitely. However, the damage dealt would depend on my damage ratings et cetera. My 2nd tier attacks would be Blizzard and Frost Beam and 3rd Tier is Death From Above, a kind fiery hail storm."

"As for my healings, I have simple ones that can cure health, Mana and temporary buffs like invincibility using simple prayer spells on an individual or in a party that ranges from 5 to 60 seconds."

"The more I deploy these skills, the more I would be able to upgrade my sub levels. My main Attack and Heal Levels are fixed and cannot be changed but not many people knew about red mages since they had some added qualities. My class is An Offensive Red Mage."

"Boss, any chances to see what Stef can do with these Level 23 to 38 Monsters right now? I've been itching to hit these monster for the whole week already."

"Hahaha. By the way, Stef, if you deploy the Death from Above accidentally on us, would it hurt us in anyway?"

"Not unless you're not in a party raid. Further more, it's been some time since I've done any party raid or grind these monsters, so the skills might be rusty abit. I would deploy Healing as and when, even though it's not necessary but I would like to upgrade myself too. All my sub tiers Attack and Heal is below the 25% range and would need to grind a few hundred of these monsters before I could hit a 100%."

"It's never been easy to be a Mage."

=*=

The Male Bandits from Level 23 to 26 was easy for Matilda, Jean Lethal and me to handle but Stef was having a slight struggle since she was used to hitting low-level monsters for the past few occasions on her own or with other parties. Nevertheless, she made every of her effort count as her Arcane Bolts and Frost Bolts were released relentlessly upon the poor monsters.

"Robyn, before the upgrade and enhancements, I never could have done against these monsters of such levels. Now on my 1st tier attacks, I could deliver 4 bolts before I could bring them down. They are dropping coppers as far as I can see."

"Ok Stef, keep grinding those and once you had upgraded to bring them down with a single bolt and there are no more spoils to collect, move to those Black Bears over there. Matilda and Jean Lethal had gone over to the next group of White Bears of Level 35 to 38."

"Boss, these Bears only drop bear paws. Are they good to eat and what can we do with them?"

"Yeah, Ring Leader, this is too much already and I had collected more than 200 paws now since each bear would drop 4 of those! Can we sell them afterwards?"

"Sure...I've set the party drops to be individually and automatically gathered on the last strike, so you guys don't need to go run around and collect them like before. All spoils will be gathered automatically on who brings down those monsters now."

"Great idea, Boss. At least we got our own fair shares and not in one whole bunch like the last...! Woowhee...Its been so long since I've been at this. Hoo Hoo Hoo...its a great feeling..."

"Thanks for helping me Robyn, at least you are bringing those beasts closer for me to deploy Death from Above once in a while."

I intimidated the beasts that were far away to come nearer as I hit them with the 'Rise of the Sun' after making a handseal and shooting them at a distance once. This incurred their wrath and ambled across to find the source of it and when a group of 3 or more bears had come forward, Stef deployed the Death from Above that had a cooling time of 60 seconds.

She would alternately use Blizzard and Frost Beam. Frost Beam looks pretty intimidating from the name and the way it was deployed. It was a single beam of energy from her staff and it would freeze the enemy for a period of 3 to 5 seconds before she deploys Blizzard and a barrage of Frost Bolts.

She would cast healing spells every end of each cooling period so that she would be able to level up its sub-levels too.

"Does your sub-levels have any limit, Stef?"

"Up till Level 100. Each deployment of any skills is an increase of 0.05% so I need to deploy 2000 times before I hit 100% and goes to the next level. This was before the upgrade and enhancement. Now it has increased to 0.15% and I require 667 times."

"Your weapon has 3 sockets, so if I pass you poor-quality emerald and then refine your weapon, it would be higher and deploys more devastating power, am I right?"

"That's right, we also can use earrings, rings, amulets, bracelets and anklets to get certain additional points to our attributes. Some guys wear earrings too. So the more of these items we wear, the more formidable we can be."

"Alright...do they sell these in Leeds?"

"It's too expensive, better to get it through drops or get the blacksmith to forge us some."

"These can be forged as well? How many sockets do these things have?"

"Well, at least 1 to a max of 2 for each item. They are called accessories and they aid us in our conquest. Ask the blacksmith to forge you some. Wood, bone, stone and iron are commonly used items."

"Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire and Diamond are commonly equipped Gems. The ones that would have more magical powers would be Stanspar. This bluish colour shards can be found from dwarven or elven territories. It's super rare to be seen by a human eye but to them, it's sprouting like flowers and mushrooms everywhere and it's a common stone for them."

"Hey, I'm down to 2 hits now Robyn, before long it would be 1 and then once there's no more spoils, I'd move to the next one."

"Yeah, Just do that as long as you don't hit the BOSS Papa Bear by mistake. I lure the bandits over to you first. I would use my blunt arrows next."

*Twang Twang* as I let loose my blunt arrows at the farthest Male Bandits and hit them on their heads, tummy and butts. This angered them as they were being provoked by me and they rushed in closer as a deadly fiery hailstorm came from the heavens and descended on them, known as Death from Above."

"You seemed to have a very good combo, Stef. You make a good Offensive Red Mage and am able to switch between the Attack and Heal effectively."

"Thanks, Robyn for everything..."

I just smiled back and thought about the accessories she had mentioned before and they interest me more. Right now only Matilda's and Jean Lethal's weapons had been socketed, only awaiting for Stef's part. Once their armour had been socketed, we would see how much they had gained.

The next phase would be rings as we could wear up to 10 rings on our fingers, and that means we could have up to 10 enhancements. Then come next for bracelet and anklets as well as earrings and amulets. I wonder how many we could wear."

The introduction of a new gem called Stanspar, a bluish coloured shard that had magical properties as well as an ability to enhance the 5 stats that we had. Time to find out more of this gem.

I looked across the horizon and the sun seems to be of an orangish colour, which means that dusk is nearing and these monsters have a multiplier of at least 1.5 on the levels, rage as well as aggression.

"T I M E O U T...!!!" I signalled to them and they quickly scrambled back to us and we all walked back to the campgrounds.

"Boss, is it true these monsters would gain a 1.5 multiplier when darkness falls and it affects their overall rage, aggression and level?"

"Yup...but I won't be there to find it out for myself. The risk is too great and you would meet hordes of them instead of dealing with them individually."

"I got some piece of information and i would like to share with you all. Let's head back and have some tea before we discuss with our prospectors."

We got our stuff together and soon headed back to camp as Will.I.Am was waiting and had boiled water for our tea, and was expecting our arrival. When we mentioned that we had finished grinding some bears and showed him the best paws, he was excited since he knew bear paws contained meat that had levels of nourishment.

"Sirs, Ma'am, we can mix these bear paws after skinning them and chopping off their claws to make herbal stew. We could either ginseng soup or the 5 spices soup and it would need to be boiled for at least 8 hours to break down its nutrients."

"Potatoes, carrot, chives and garlic would make a good complement to the stew after it's been boiled for 8 hours. Could I have a half dozen and make stew for us for tomorrows lunch or dinner?"

"That sounds great, Will...I wonder how it taste like." Matilda asked as she had not eaten such delicacies

"Ah...sirs, ma'am, it tastes much better than pig trotters, one thing for sure."

=*=

"Thank you once again for your kind patronage in providing us with such a wonderful herbal bear paw stew that complements with the steamed rice we had for dinner."

"The knuckles and tendons were very soft and crunchy and with the right mix of vegetables and herbs, my...my...my, I wouldn't want to go back home, if I were you...Haa Hee Huu..."

"We are so glad you like them, my kind friends. Actually, our young apprentice is the one that told us about it and we made a sample to see how it tastes like, and we enjoyed it even though it had to be simmered for 8 hours or longer."

"Ah...that's very tedious, it seems. Well, you wanted to ask me something do you?" asked the Dwarven chief of the mining expedition.

"Have you heard about Stanspar gems before, my friend? It was said that it could be socketed into accessories to improve our stats like Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom and Essense. It was known to be invisible to the naked human eye but grew in abundance in dwarven and elven lands."

"Oh, you mean these types of gems? Yes, Yes...they grew in abundance at our place and it's light blue in colour, almost like diamonds. These are common items to us and it's growing around our village like shrubs. Here, is this what you are talking about?"

He removed one of the 8 rings he was wearing and I gestured for Stef to come forth and take a look at it. She confirmed that this was the Stanspar she was mentioning about. She held it in her hand and the light blue stone in the ring shone with such brilliance.

"Kind friend, this is definitely the Stanspar our ring leader had mentioned to you. It was actually my idea since these kinds of stones would be sprouting around your villages like a kind of mushroom or shrubs, is that true?"