//------------------------------// // Training day // Story: Moondance Game // by BattleCat311 //------------------------------// Dungeon 1 Moon Dancer looked around in fascination at the mirror world of Equestria. Looking around she could see that it was almost an exact copy of her home and neighborhood. It was so eerily similar yet just different enough that she felt on edge in this place. She knew beings like Discord and those of similar power were able to create their own pocket dimensions but to make one herself was awe-inducing and filled her chest with pride. Even if she knew that the Gamer system was doing all the heavy lifting when It came to making this place. Tho according to her menu and what she could see the dungeon only extended out a few miles in each direction so she didn’t have a whole world to play with. Still, it was a lot of room where she could test her more destructive and disruptive experiments. She had expected that the system wouldn’t even give her the ability to enter dungeons, considering it was a bit rude and angry with her. She was just happy she had her own little world. An entire world with no pony around. Or at least a few square miles. She could vaguely see on the edge of her sight that a wall of mist stopped her from seeing past it. Perhaps more would become clear as she grew stronger or she would unlock other-dimensional bubbles instead. It was a bit of a toss-up but she was eager to find out. But here she was, out on the open-air with a timber wolf running at her…..”Wait what?” She said in surprise. [LvL 1 Timber wolf.] The timber wolf ran at Moon dance full force slamming into her and sending her ass over kettle into the front of her foe house. She only just managed to cast an [Cero] out of her hands-on instinct before the thing jumped her. The pure beam of power shooting a whole into the Wooden body of the Timberwolf. [-100 Hp] [Disorienated debuff applied.] “Ok, so enemy-filled Dimensional mirror. Ok. Yeah, Forgot. It’s a Dungeon. Dungeons have enemies you need to defeat.” The Timberwolf was still disorientated with half its head burning a mile away Moon Dancer took the chance to punch the wolf in the rest of its face. In a rare display of annoying physical violence, Moon dancer punched the wood. The wood splintered and cracked apart to her satisfaction and with another two punched the wolf finally went down. [Enemy killed] [50 EXP] “Fascinating. At 10 STR points, I have the capability of splintering apart wood with my bare fists. Small lacerations and bruising are already gone and there is no lingering sourness. STR, as a Bicorn seem, ’s to have a higher quality value than that of a normal unicorn as the strength differential is astounding. Hmm, tho I think I felt my magic move inside my body as I punched the timberwolf. Further testing will need to be done to see if that is due to my new earth pony strength.” Fishing a notebook from her inventory she quickly jotted down her new discovery. A Loud haul from the distance distracted her from her notes. She looked around in nervousness before tossing her notebook back in her inventory. Not feeling like dealing with this shit at the moment Moon Dancer asked the system to exit the Dungeon. While the level one dungeon she now had access to was going to be invaluable for both improving her stats and testing her spells, she didn’t quite feel like fighting yet. “OW, that dame sack of sticks got me good,” Moony said as she sat down on her couch. She had a healing spell for small cuts and bruises but decided to instead just deal with the pain till the gamer's body fixed it. That Timberwolf had come out of nowhere and had slammed into her, cutting into her shirt and belly, before she would do anything to stop it. If she didn’t have decent reflexes she would have certainly had been cut in half. And she really didn’t want to know how her body would calculate damage when it came to serious injuries like that. And she hopefully never would. “I’m really going to have to look at that training scroll at some point.” It was a humbling experience. One moment of letting her guard down and she was almost killed by something her own power created. A level 1 creature no less. That was just pathetic. In retrospect, it was a bit arrogant of her to assume that just because she was a big bad Bicorn now she would know how to fight. Yeah, she was great and powerfully but all the power in the world wouldn’t do her any good if she didn’t’ know how to effectively use it. It wasn’t like she was really expecting a lot of trouble either. But with the way, her quests and life were going she could see a lot of fighting in her future. Especially if even half the things that happened in the MLP series she knew of happened. Seeing as she wasn’t going to be moving around till she healed Moony brought out some of the Timberwolf Sticks she had taken from her inventory and hobbled into her work room. {Experiment # 1 – Enchatning) Enchanting wasn’t the easiest career move but with so few unicorns taking the time to learn it there was a decent niche market she could occupy. And with her new power, she really wanted to test out her new skills on the enchanting board she had ‘liberated’ from the abandoned castle. [Enchanting Skill: Level 1] Having her enchanting skill drop down to level 1 had been devastating. Once she had remembered to look over all her skills she nearly cried at all those years of hard work being wasted. Then she shed a few tears anyway before buckling down and Grinding through the first few levels of Enchanting by making a dozen of the same enchanted pocket watch. It is pure torture as all the muscle memory she had acquired is gone. All her lines and engravings were sloppy, her Runes were jagged and even the magical imbuement took too long to properly set. “My Awesome Enchanting skill, Gone. I call Hax game, you hear me. Cheat! I want a refund!” She yelled at her screen, punching the translucent page, then trying to smother it in a pillow.” She didn’t lose focus tho. If there was one thing that she and games had in common was the drive needed to grind for hours on end to get what she wanted. Once she finished her twentieth and final Enchanted pocket watch lid she sighed in relief before jumping out of her before she jumped out of her chair and danced in place, doing a happy little jig. The reason for her excitement was that her enchanting level had risen up to level 15 and she was finally able to work her craft to sufficient quality. She still had the knowledge about how to enchant items, it was only her muscle memory that was one so with more practice she would be able to get back all her skill. Already her lines were smoothing out and the magic was flowing smoother. At this point, she could now confidently start working on some of her commissions. “Let’s see. Mister WoodCutter wanted to commission ten Crystals that would allow him instant communication with each other, Mister Gem Glow wants a watch he can never lose, Cloud Jumper wants a blanket that will always be at the perfect temperature. Ok, I can work with this.” Moon Dancer placed one of her normal enchanting wands out of its bin and placed it on the cleaned table. It was only a cheap mass-produced item that was all she could afford. She then placed one of the Timber Wolves Branches on the table as well. She then took the branch and carved it into the shape of a wand. Most of the Enchanting wands worked by imparting their magic into the enchantment as you started to write them. Horns could do that as well but they were not as accurate since you had to move your head to write the letters. So funneling your magic through the wand was preferable. Unfortunately, that also meant that you could not levitate the wand as you used it or it would blow up in your face. Lots of explosions and having to use hoof writing instead of levitation was one of the many reasons there were very few active enchanters. “Test sequence number 1. I will be determining if there is any fluctuation in power level, magical depletion, or any other know variables changing between the three separate instances. The normal Gem wand and normal table being my control group.” Moon dancer decided that she would use a simple light Enchantment to test on the wands. The standard wand would be able to make three bright lights that could turn a dark room into a brightly lit room each. They normally lasted only five minutes per use unless anchored to a source object. First taking her Normal Gem wand she carved the runes that would make the enchantment and out popped three lights before the Wand died. It would need to soak in a liquid crystal bath for a day before it regained its charge fully if it didn’t already break it. She then additionally made another enchantment with an uncut Timber branch and then a Timber Wolf wand and then another using the wand and the Enhancing table. After timing, the lights at exactly five minutes Moony used the same spell to cast lights out of the uncut timber stick. The enchantment didn’t go out of it quite as easily as the regular Gem stick, but it did produce five lights. Each light was also significantly brighter than the original three. However, each one was shimmering in different intensities. The lights lasted for only four minutes before extinguishing. “Experiment note 3 The Timber Twig I have procured seems to be able to produce more potent enchantments and has an extended use time. However, the enchantments are not as stable and are harder to compose. Experiment 4 had all of its lights burst after ten seconds of use and burned out the cap it was engraved on.” Reaching over to her carved Timberwolf stick she began the experiment again. This time producing four lights that shimmed just as bright as the brightest light as the non-cut twig with no deviations between them. She became increasingly more excited as the timer on her watch passed the fifteen-minute mark. “Fascinating. It seems that the granular structure of the wood has an impact on magical control. While it was easier to control and produce the lights it was also a touch weaker. It provides a level of stability that is only seen in high-quality gen wands. Fascinating.” [Due to logical thinking and deduction + 2 Int and +1 Wis] [Due to proficiency at Enchanting your Enchanting level has risen by 1] After repeating the experiment with a few different sticks and getting the same results Moony decided to move onto the enchanting table. An enchanting table made the transfusion of magic threw the wand and into the object much easier. Due to the nature of this transition, some magical potency was always lost in the transfer without a table. If enough of the magic did not transfer over then you got a failure and possibly destroyed item. She knew from experience how painfull some of those explosions could be. Looking over to the corner of her room she could still see the blackened remains of some tin cans she had failed to properly enchant. Moon placed six caps to test out the new enchanting table vs her old one. The old one was a battered old enchantment bored she had received from a garage sale from a young unicorn that didn’t know his old grandfathers’ stuff was worth something. It wasn’t a great table but for a weekend worker at the docs like her, it was a steal. The Boarded had two magical gems infused into the wood with numerous arcane copper runes placed in a circle in the middle. It wasn’t pretty but it got the job done. On the other hand, the new table was a full table with runes of power leading into the circle with six large gems and a skull of all things carved into the headboard of the wood. She cast the spell onto a control Cap and watched as the Pocket watch began to glow. [Glowing pocket watch – Uncommon tier item.] A quick [observe] showed that all the other caps and watches she had experimented on were classified as common items. Showing that the new one she had made was indeed a cut above the rest. “This is good, No this is Great! This bored is making all my enhancements at least 50% better and if I combine that with the extra power increase from the Timber wands then I get a wapping 100% efficiency increase. I can finally start taking higher-level commissions now! Yes.” Moon dancer said as she wrings her fists in excitement. There were so many new possibilities open to her now. And this was still only at level 15. Apprentice level. She could only imagine what she could do once she maxed her level. (Experiment #2) Flight. Flying was a bit of a tricky subject for her. For one thing she didn’t much like crashing. Sure souring, dropping and heights didn’t bother her but when all three were combined that was a different story. She did not choose the Alicorn Route, so flying was never going to be her strong suit. She just didn’t have the needed dexterity and light weight to weave around the air with the natural grace of a Pegasus. For some reason, her levitation skill was taking far more energy to lift her off the ground than it ever had before. Her mana bar depleting in just under five seconds of controlled self levitation. But that didn’t mean she was going to give up on it entirely. There were far too many advantages to having the high ground and traveling over the sky to give up on Flight without even trying. If the timber wolves have shown her anything it was that being out of your enemy’s reach was far preferable, then being smacked around. There were a few spells out there in the world that would give you a facsimile of wings and reduce your weight but they were fragile and slow. More akin to showing off than for any real flight. What Moon dancer was trying to accomplish was more akin to self-levitation. Which was a lot harder to do than you might think. There was no concrete spell that would allow someone to self-levitate or fly. Anything even resembling a flight spell was stuffed into comics and story books. She only even knew about the one that gave you wings because the episode in the show was entertaining. It also helped that the young fliers tournament had happened just yesterday. Kickstarting the memory from her mind. “I suppose it could be possible the government is Censoring any flight spells. It would be chaotic if every unicorn in the world knew how to Fly. It would undermine what makes Pegasai special. And Celestia forbid anyone tries and shake up the Harmony of Equestria. Or it could just be that hard.” Rolling her eyes at her last failure Moon Dancer began to experiment with various forms of lift. First, she tied to just make magical steps in the air she could use to get around. They were very low power and could double as shields if needed. Convenient things to use in a pinch. However, running across them was both slow and took a lot of focus from around her. Resulting in more than one bumped head against the ceiling. [Skill created – Airwalk- A skill that creates a stable magical barrier underneath the feet of the caster. Costs 1mp per step barrier.] It was a decent short-ranged option if she even needed to get past bridges or get past another gaping chasm. The next thing she tried was a full-body levitation charm. It was a fairly complicated spell that boils down to encompassing yourself in a full-body shield and then moving the shield around. The problem with just self-levitation was that she was encased in a barrier of her own magic that would not let her move anywhere. She tried to expand the levitation and ended up inside a bubble of magic. If she stood in the bubble then she could fly but it wasn’t comfortable at all. [Magic Shield – absorbs as many Damage points as magic placed into shield] It seemed like even the system agreed that this was more of a defensive spell rather than a flight spell. “I suppose I can still add this one to my grimoire. If it only uses the amount of magic needed to defend an attack then I suppose any unicorn could use it.” The next test was a little more complicated. It involved only levitating parts of her body and not the entire thing. If she uncased just parts of her arms, legs, and torso into a film of levitation magic. The aura was thin enough around the joints now that she could attack while still being able to levitate. She focused her levitation and flew forward…right into a wall. [Skill creation -Flight – LVL 1 – you can launch yourself into the air with the greatest of ease. Landings are a bit squishy.] “Owie, OK so I’m on the right track. I just need to practice is all. And maybe not destroy my house while doing so.” She said as she looked at the various cracks and holes in her house. “By day’s end, I’m betting that I’ll have a restoral spell as my higher level.” The following hour was filled with Moon Dancer barreling through tree tops, crashing against trunks, and falling into just about every puddle on the forest floor. “Wahoo. Well, that went well.” Twigs, grime, and dirt were stuck all over Moon Dancers' face as she climbed back up onto her feet from the pile of timber she had crashed into. Yes, the crashes were painful, but the short burst of flight while training was just too fun to stop. Besides her body was a lot heartier than she was used to and she could just walk it off. She had walked out to the woods bordering the docks of Canterlot. Choosing to test her spell by flinging herself up and over the trees and crashing down in heaps in the forest. Very few ponies visited and even if somepony did, there were enough Excitable students from Celestia's school of gifted unicorns that used this place as a spell testing ground, that few would bat an eye at more loud noises. (Experiment 3 # STR Control) Name: Moon Dancer Tier 2 Level 6 STR: 10 VIT: 11 Using this opportunity Moon dancer figured she might as well test to see how strong she actually was before calling it a day. She still had 5 points to spend from her last level up, giving her the perfect opportunity to test how much 1 point in her STR was worth. “Urgh, Exercise. Fooie.” She mumbled as she searched the woods for any large pieces of timber and boulders. Soon finding a small area that had just what she needed. “I could just wait until Minuette drags me to the gym…. But I really should do this now or all my calculations will be off.” Going to first a small fallen log that she would have only been able to barely lift last month Moon dancer bent over and lited it with far more ease. “Expected. Infusion of Bicorn DNA into my being has strengthened my musculature. An expected and result.” Moon Dancer began to pick up heavier and heavier stones and small trees till she finally got to a weight that she was unable to pick up. Winded she noted the dimensions of the rock and used her knowledge of geometry, chemistry, and geography to estimate the weight of the boulder. “Sweet Celestia, that’s a wapping 300 pounds! That’s insane. That’s averadge earth pony levels of strength, at least without magic. Ho, Ho, Ho. Watch out Furniture the next time I need to move you I won’t need to ask The girls for help. I shall be the clean of cleanliness once again. Mua, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha.” Moon dancer joked to herself. “Now let's see what happens if I put a point into STR.” After placing a single point into STR Moon Dancer tried to pick the boulder she couldn’t before up one more time. It was still difficult and it hurt her back but she was able to lift it this time. Testing again till she found out her new maximum load is 350 pounds. “Hmm, strange. I expected all that exercise to have given me an extra STR point itself. Oh, well, I’m too tired to keep testing time to go home.” Name: Moon Dancer/ Da#$# Tier 2 Level 6 Race: Unicorn/Bicorn Occupation: The Gamer Title: Stupid Genius. STR: 12 VIT: 11 DEX: 7 INT: 15 WIS: 8 LUK:8 Points 3