Over the course of the night, Dakkon grew his skills. Manipulating his own body temperature was now easy. Now that he had increased his proficiency, and knew how to lower the intensity of his temperature surges, training was less taxing on his mana reserves. He also gained two new skills when he reached thermomancer level 10, which Dakkon had successfully ignored his curious urges to check upon until his training had concluded.
|+Heat: This skill allows the caster to warm an object in close proximity. Higher ranks in this skill will increase the degree of heat.
|+Chilclass="underline" This skill allows the caster to cool an object in close proximity. Higher ranks in this skill will increase the degree of cold.
The skills were simple inverses of each other. Presumably, the ‘(Touch)’ listed next to the skills names indicated how close he needed to be to use the abilities. Dakkon was eager to try his new skills, but—like a ravenous tube—found himself to be terribly hungry. There was also the matter of the new trait he had dismissed the previous night.
|————
|Traits ( ][ ) ( ][][][ )
|————
|Appearance – 8 (Equipped)
|Disciplined – 8— 32% [
|Heroic – 2— 2% [
|Hunter – 4— 22% [
|Rider – 1— 10% [
|Steadfast – 1— 0% [
|Stealthy – 3— 0% [
|Thick – 1— 20% [
|-Disciplined: Gained from pushing distractions aside to focus on a task at hand. Every rank in Disciplined reduces the likelihood that a spellcaster will be interrupted by attacks or other sources by 1%. Current effect: +8%.
He had gained eight points in his new trait through the course of that long night. Though it sounded like a wonderful ability to have, Dakkon didn’t spend any time thinking about the matter and, instead, found an early-rising merchant to trade with for provisions. He sat on the bench, drank water, and ate two sweet apples alongside a single bite of a stale biscuit which, unbeknownst to him, had been liberally filled with some sort of undercooked fish paste. Luckily, he had eaten both apples first, as the biscuit robbed him of any remaining appetite. Now that he had eaten, he was eager to test out his new skills.
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After some experimentation, he realized that it would be quite some time until the skills were of any practical use. By envisioning heat pouring out of his hands, Dakkon could warm a space about two inches away with all the fury of a hot breath. Doing the same for cold was like a puff of air through pursed lips. He wouldn’t be rushing off to light fires ablaze or chilling a refreshing beverage anytime soon. With access to new, more useful skills, Dakkon readied himself to begin training them, just as soon as he finished out his level in Thermoregulate for the sake of an evenly rounded level 20. Then, he could forget about that skill, as far as he was concerned.
Still considering how long it might take for his skills to become useful, Dakkon gently and easily changed his body temperature from warm to cool in rapid succession. Within ten minutes he had gained a whole 25% experience for Thermoregulate level 20. This rate of gained experience shocked him. Why had it been so much quicker? Complexity? Dakkon decided he would experiment with the idea.
Dakkon placed his hands in front of him, turned inwards towards each other. With his left hand, he attempted to cool the air between his hands. Then, as though he were splitting his desires in two, with his right hand he attempted to heat the same space. Within seconds, Dakkon had gained a level in each skill. After another minute, he had gained another in both and was completely drained of mana. He could use multiple thermomancy skills at once, though it required quite a bit of concentration on top of an obscene amount of mana. Now he knew how he would master his class. The discovery was a very welcome one, but if he needed to stop to regenerate his mana after only a few minutes, he would need a change of location immediately. Dakkon set off to find a bar.
Dakkon had seen several bars on his trip between the east and west sides of Correndin and, wanting to do better than the Brass Badger where he had gained a hatred for all rat-kind, made his way to one that caught his eye. Stonewhip looked like the sort of bar where one could be left alone to their thoughts. The exterior was plain except for a large sign with the name and a mounted whip ending in a small, stone tip. The design of the weapon was impractical. Even if one could crack it effectively, the stone would certainly shatter from the whip’s massive amount of kinetic energy. Putting that quibble aside, the bar looked perfect for his purpose.
[You are resting in a bar.]
[Restoration speed is increased.]
When Dakkon walked into the bar, he negotiated with its tender for some dalberry juice—something he assumed to be a peculiarity of the game world—a bowl of tater crisps, which he guessed would be like chips or crisps in the real world, and the leave to do what he pleased in his own corner, providing he didn’t disturb the other customers. The dalberry juice tasted something like a cranberry juice that wasn’t particularly bitter. It was incredibly sour, however, and unpleasant. The tater crisps turned out to be shredded potato that had been mashed into a disk, fried, then salted liberally. Dakkon very much liked the crisps, but would think twice before trying a slice of dalberry pie.
Alone in his corner, Dakkon laid his hands on the table facing each other and repeated his previous exercise, swapping the roles of each hand. His right hand now produced something resembling heat, and his left somewhat cooled the space between them. In three minutes, he had gained two levels in each skill, and a level in thermomancy.
C
HAPTER 14:
A
T
ASTE OF
P
OWER
For hours Dakkon practiced, motionless. The movement of air between his fingers grew in intensity and the air began to swirl. Dakkon would take a break to regain his mana, then continue. After his first break for additional food, he decided to try adding the use of Thermoregulate to his leveling cocktail alongside Heat and Chill. If he could use all three skills at once, then experience might come quicker still. It took another two hours, but eventually Dakkon learned how to compartmentalize his body’s tasks. He focused on the sensation of his right hand being buried in hot sand and his right hand now produced heat, he focused on the feeling of holding his left hand in a bucket of ice water and his left hand cooled. Unlike his previous mental exercises where he actually envisioned something hot or cold, or thought about the temperature in some abstract sense, he now felt the sensation itself and found the tasks easier to divide. Dakkon pushed the sensations from both hands into the air in front of him. Finally, he found himself able to allow the hot or cold feeling of one hand to leach into the rest of his body, then the next in turn, and found success. The task drained him of his mana almost instantly. Not wanting to upset the delicate balance he had created, he kept his eyes shut and waited a minute for his mana to return—which it did quickly thanks to the improved rate of regeneration afforded to him by being both well fed and in a bar. Then, he set to his task again, and again, and again, until he could no longer ignore his demanding hunger.