Chapter 1025: Logging In
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As we logged back to BNLO with Mark by my side, we appeared inside of Ambil's smithy. The sound of heavy metal being struck by a hammer and the wave of warm wind reaching us was still as overwhelming as ever.
"Oh, you two are finally back." He said, quickly continuing his work. "Took you quite a while, huh?"
"Sorry about that, Ambil! We were a bit busy." I said.
"Y-Yeah…" Ambil nodded. "Where's everyone else?"
"Oh, they were here just a few minutes ago. Acorn and Nieve went back to that time dungeon realm thingy, that place you create yesterday. Acorn was crazy about "gathering prehistoric materials" and Nieve decided to accompany him, mostly to protect his back." Ambil said. "That brat of Johanna hasn't returned yet, and Brisingra is probably with her mother right now."
"I see! Has any friend logged-in yet?" I wondered.
"Yes, your daughter and her friends got here but quickly went away after that, saying they wanted to investigate the walls, which was one of the places you detected the origin of the demonic energy came from." He said. "I think they said Angelina would join them."
"Ooh, okay! I guess they'll probably take care of that for now. It's a relief to have so many reliable friends and family." I sighed in relief.
"Yeah, I guess we have to just wait until their return." Mark nodded. "Ambil, how do you feel?"
"Yeah, yeah, you leveled a lot in our dungeon dive adventure, right?" I asked eagerly.
We ended surrounding the old man as he blushed a bit from all the attention.
"I-I guess I got stronger, yeah… Oi stop glaring at me like I'm some piece of equipment!" He complained angrily.
"What's your level?" Mark asked.
"And your Class? Any Rank Up?" I wondered.
"Hahh…" he sighed. "My Level is 211 right now, it increased a lot. I went through a Rank Up after hitting Level 180. I went from Master Blacksmith to Master Runic Blacksmith. My stats increased a lot, and look, I kind of got a knack for actual, real magic now." He showed us.
FLUOSH!
A magic circle appeared on his hands, not just the manifestation of a skill, but a proper runic arrangement, something that inhabitants of this world could do.
The runic arrangement formed a large magic circle, conjuring five fireballs that rotated around each other.
"You weren't good for magic already?" I wondered. "But your hammer techniques had fire and explosions and all…"
"Yeah?" Mark asked.
"No, that's mostly part of the Blazing Hammer Techniques." He said. "You see, our techniques are primarily for smithing, but they happen to be good for fighting as well. Should be the same for you too, Planta. They did use Mana, and I was rather good at runic arrangement on my equipment, but I couldn't create magic circles like this before. It usually comes with having a magician talent from birth!
However, after I felt that weird tingling sensation, I seem to have Ranked Up. I heard a voice inside my head, and it told me what I became."
"That's fascinating." Mark nodded. "I am always impressed by how things work in this world and the inhabitants. It's a pity only Players seem to be able to freely see and manipulate the system, inhabitants seem to be part of it but they can't interact with it as much, but at the same time, it feels more like something intrinsic that exists, as natural as breathing. Just part of how the world works."
"I agree, it is really interesting how it interacts with people and their jobs and efforts." I nodded. I noticed Ambil was looking at the two of us with a slightly bored expression. "A-Ah! Sorry, sorry, we got a bit off-topic there."
"I can tell." He sighed. "Anyways, I can now conjure Magic of Tier 1 to 4. Fire and Metal magic seems to be my Talent, not bad. With this Talent alone I already qualify to join the Magician Tower as a Magus… I would be qualified as Tier 4 one and finding job would become piss easy, getting rich even easier. Magicians have it so easy…"
"Really?" I wondered. "I guess that doesn't apply as easily to Players…"
"Why not? Players can indeed join that place and find jobs too… You guys actually get it even easier." He said. "But because you usually don't stay here to live completely, and join sporadically, you don't have to worry about things such as needing a house, food every day, and so on."
"Hmm… I wouldn't agree to that too much, but I guess so…" I nodded.
"Hey Ambil, what do you mean by Tiers? Does magic have Tiers? It's always just Magic Skill Levels for us." Mark said.
"Yeah, and when a Magic Skill levels up, we unlock a new Spell." I said.
"Hah! You Players do indeed have it easy! It's almost as if the System is just babysitting you." Laughed Ambil. "Yes, in Arcadia every magician, and usually every person knows this. There are ten tiers to magic spells, the higher the tier, the more complex they are and the more magic circles and runes they require to be conjured.
System-assisted magic is conjured instantly and usually creates the magic circle for you or has none at all. So I can tell why Players simply don't know this."
"I see, that's really interesting…" Mark nodded. "So it's kind of similar to the Tiers have on our Magic Circles?"
"Yeah!" I nodded. "I guess the Great Spirit did indeed used the techniques already used here for us back home."
"Hm? What are you babbling about now?" Ambil asked.
"Well, you see, we do have our own internal magic circles." I said. "Though they are being refined in our bodies back home, we can share their power here."
"What?! So you have Internal Magic Circles? You mean you forged a Magician's Heart?! I can conjure up to Tier 4 magic, but it's all manually and exhausting. Magicians usually create Internal Magic Circles to facilitate conjuration and strengthen their Spells and Internal Mana Flow! To think you got such a thing… I have no idea how to make them." Ambil muttered.
"Heh, maybe that's about to change then?" The Great Spirit appeared above us. "Yeah, you're qualified enough…"
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