Level Up!

by RisuUmbra

Ch 6: Was that the knowledge or the tinnitus? I can’t tell...

Chapter 6: Was that the knowledge or Tinnitus, I can't tell.

“This shit’s calculated… I’m just bad at math” - Unknown

My soft spoken question pulled Morgana’s attention from our fast asleep guest back to me, before answering me she stopped and glanced down into the silver fire. No, that wasn’t right, she was staring into space vaguely in the direction of the fire. I assumed she was looking at her menu and gave her a moment to read through.

“Well… for my physical skills I have [Coordination] at level 2 and another skill that I had since the beginning called [Sturdy] that's maxed out” I was expecting the first skill, it seems that almost every player needed the [Coordination] skill in the beginning. The second skill surprised me though, skills that we naturally start with and it’s already maxed out! I really needed to search through my skills thoroughly.

“I also have a crafting tab under physical skills where [Weaving] is a skill, it’s already at level 12. I think if we have experience in a skill before we join the ‘game’ then we get a headstart?” I feel like I'm going to be in a constant state of astonishment during this conversation, Unfortunately I was never really into arts & crafts back home, so I can’t think of any skills of mine that would transfer over… at least not off the top of my head.

“I don’t have much in my magic tab at the moment, I have the healing spell [Mending Touch] at level 6 and a [Herbalism] skill that carries over at level 10. I only have one skill in my Social tab, [Mediator] at level 7 which just lets me stop fights easier, though only between sentient creatures” Despite both of us being pretty low leveled we had some pretty good abilities, though I haven’t really compared myself to the regular ponies.

“You have some pretty good skills.” I said, genuinely impressed. “most of your skills might center around your physicality or your connection to nature. My skills are mostly centered around my magic as you’ve probably seen, I haven’t explored my whole menu yet as the magic tab for me is basically endless. Some of the spells in here are kinda useless or redundant until later levels so I have to choose carefully.” I opened up my menu to start telling Morgana my skills, skipping past the obvious [Coordination] skill (which just reached level 2) I told her about my [Adept Mana Control] at level 6 and my [Fledgeling Wisp Summon] at level 3. I could probably get that up to adept after tonight, I refrained from telling Morgana about my [Shadow Tendril] skill for obvious reasons.

“One second… this is the first time i’m opening the social tab” Morgana nodded understandingly and started to feed a few more dry branches into the slowly dying fire. The social tab looked pretty similar to the magic tab with its numerous separate pages and levels, but this tab was organized not by type but by skill level, and two skills stuck out to me immediately.

Adept Perception: Passively grants the user increased senses, can be actively used outside of combat to search for specific quarries

During combat, active use will direct the user to weak spots and increase the chance of critical hits

Prior Skill Acknowledged

Passive/Active Stamina use: None/Small

Level 17: 4.25%

Cost: 4 Sp

I think this skill is the reason why my stamina runs out so quickly, it activates when I focus on something and at the time I was focusing on running away! Wait… what prior skill do I have for [Perception]? I was studying forensics in college so it might have something to do with it. Moving on to the next skill I got a bit more insight on Morgana’s free skill.

Persuasion: Unicorns are naturally charismatic and will attract others passively Grants the user the ability to bring others to your side, works passively and actively

Passive/Active Stamina use: None/Small

Level 1: 23.18%

This skill might be wasted on me, while I don’t have any problems with talking. I'm not the most… outspoken person out there, I try to speak up when needed but sometimes I just… can’t. Dismissing those less than pleasant feelings I returned my focus to Morgana who was happily looking over a small woven bag with a smile on her face. The bag only looked big enough to hold maybe two apples but looked remarkably sturdy aside from the fact it was made out of grass.

“That’s really impressive, that took you, what, two hours to make? And that's including all the interruptions! I think you're right about skills transferring over. I have a skill that I think comes from my college classes” Morgana seemed to puff her chest out a bit when I acknowledged her creation before zoning out slightly as she checked her menu. I took the lull in conversation as my chance to summon my wisp again, everytime I summon the small ball of magic it gets easier and easier to will into existence.

“The storm is still going strong, we could take another nap to pass the time… I'll have the wisp watch David'' As if to punctuate my sentence, a loud crack of thunder followed by the bright flash of lightning lit up the forest outside. The first crack of thunder sent both Morgana and I to our hooves in an instant with our hearts pounding in our ears, then the second much louder crack of thunder almost sent us back to the ground again. It was almost like the thunder was in the cave with us, bouncing off the walls and only getting louder. I don’t know how long I laid there on the ground, covering my ears, waiting for the loud ringing to go away. At some point I realized that my hooves were covering the wrong place and moved them up to my ears' new location. The ringing persisted, but the pain lessened slightly. hesitant opening my scrunched closed eyes I saw that Morgana was in a similar position as me, but her hooves were glowing slightly. I hoped her spell could heal extreme tinnitus, because this was not getting any better over time. soon Morgana’s tense form relaxed as her magic did it’s job. Slowly rising to her hooves she turned her magical ministrations to me next, moving my hooves out of the way. I was slightly frightened by the fact that I couldn't hear anything for a brief moment until her hooves met my ears.

“Can you hear me?” Morgana’s unnaturally loud voice pierced my ears, making me wince and turn away to try and defend my sensitive ears.

“Sorry… “ she said. Even her whispers pushed the edge of my hearing tolerance., I sent her a grateful smile and started to massage my ears in hopes that would bring down the sensitivity. Glancing around I was dumbfounded to see something completely impossible… David was still fast asleep. Morgana followed my wide eyes and mirrored my confused expression when she saw the still peacefully sleeping Pegasus, stepping over as softly as she could Morgana placed her hooves on his ears and with what i’m assuming is the last dregs of her mana healed his ears as much as she could. I couldn’t help but groan in frustration at what just happened. I am so sick of this forest and its inhabitants. I wanted to be out of here yesterday and I think Morgana felt the same there. Taking a glance outside made me blanch slightly, because apparently the clouds had decided it wasn’t raining hard enough before; now it was really pouring down. Our makeshift barrier wouldn’t hold up against a storm of this magnitude, we had a few hours tops before all that rainwater broke through and flooded this cave and drowned our warm safe haven.

“We have maybe a few hours before we’ll have to abandon the cave, we're just as likely to get sick if we stay in here with a small lake forming at our hooves than out there in the rain.” I was expecting Morgana to be against my plan, but judging by how she was packing up the herbs she had been collecting and placing them in her woven bag she had been one step ahead.

“I’m gonna try and make two more bags for us before we leave, ok?” Seeing her so ready to move actually bolstered my courage a bit, nodding my assent. I went over to the barrier to see if I could rearrange it to buy her some time.

Author's Note:

Sorry about the short chapter but finals week just started for me so I might not be able to write anything for a while, I'll be back in at most a week. I hope you enjoyed this chapter though

Now edited by Kendallonian

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