Saturday 9:00 AM March
It had been about three weeks since Lina had started exercising at home and making do with the exercise weights that there father had left behind and Lina discovered that her body recovered much faster than normal.
Now when she goes beyond her limits, she will gain the [Exhaustion] debuff and be forced to rest for a decent amount of time before her stamina regeneration kicked in and allowed her to exercise again and with this process, she was able to start intensive workouts and not suffer much soreness or pain like normal people as she found herself lacking any form of soreness in general.
Now that confused her a bit since soreness was a necessary part of exercising, but she also didn't complain and as a result she was basically able to cheat and gain stats decently faster than she would have thought. Now that led to her second discovery which is the fact that enhancing all her stats didn't just improve her HP and SP, but it also improved her MP as well which was odd because in normal games Mana or MP is enhanced by grinding up your mental stats only.
Even though she had been studying various subjects along with exercising it still didn't quite explain the increase in magical power but again Lina didn't complain and was only just confused and wondering more about what these powers truly are and what they can do to her.
"Somehow in some weird way. It's only just now sinking in that my powers have drastically changed my life." Lina said to herself as she was laying down in her bed ignoring the alert that she was well rested and got a bonus for doing nothing but sleeping in her bed.
"Carino I'm heading out for a while and when I come back your brother is finally going to go home so watch over the house. Or if you go out than make sure you lock up before you leave." Maria said before she left the house as Lina was left alone before she eventually got out of bed in just a white bra and panties before she stretched a bit as she then started her morning routine.
Several push-ups, crunches, jogging in place and a few other exercises before she saw a new alert appear.
STR has increased by 1!
"At first I would get stat increases for strength, endurance and dexterity all together but now I just get one point of each and that is after I exercise for a decent chunk of time without weights being involved." Lina said as she knew that the best way to solve the problem would be to exercise harder and faster but frankly, she had gotten used to cheating for stat gains and wasn't too keen on grinding in a much harder way.
Anyway after working up a sweat Lina had decided to go into the bathroom and clean herself up properly a bit before she got dressed in a comfy and old grey sweater with blue jeans and sneakers as she grabbed her keys and wallets before leaving the house and locking it up as she decided that she was going to conquer another dungeon of the mars cult after she saw the news yesterday about how the cult could be involved with several crimes including kidnapping, assault, murder and even rape.
"Now that I think about it, I should probably check out the gamer shop." Lina said before she took a moment to hide somewhere as she mentally summoned the gamer shop and saw what looked like a merchant trader screen from Skyrim as the shop has several categories and items for sale and the shop even let her sell items as well.
So, after figuring that out she sold the iron pipes she had been given and in return she was given actual cash that was deposited into her inventory, but it wasn't that much cash since it was just several lose pipes. Then she sold the switch blades and again didn't get much but she was just happy to get some cash as she closed up the shop and followed her mini map to the closest dungeon and this one was inside of a small construction area.
The area was decently sized and the dungeon entranced seemed to be in the center of the work area as the center of the area was a large shed and Lina didn't hesitate to enter the building as it wasn't even locked and at first it looked like a normal storage area but after moving a large crate Lina saw a hatch that was hidden and she opened it up and climbed down the ladder and soon entered the dungeon.
You have entered the [Cave of Cyber-Claw]
Suggested Level: 17
"Levels don't play as big of a role as you'd think." Lina said to herself as she swiped the screens away from view and walked down the stone passageway before coming up to a fork in the passageway that is blocked by two doors. A door on the left and a door on the right which is just like the last dungeon but this time she didn't spot a chest in the room and instead she simply summoned her standard iron short sword before opening the door on the left and spotted two draconic slaves with empty hands and quickly dispatched them before realizing that this dungeon is actually a lot more sprawling then the last one as she went down a few hallways killing slaves before reaching a dead end room where she found a new type of enemy.
Draconic Techno Blaster, Level: 15
Draconic Tech Soldier
This draconic being seemed to have large sections of its body enhanced with cybernetics and metal platting but it still has clear flesh as well. Even its face seemed cybernetic as well as its right arm seemed to be some kind of canon as the right arm stops looking like a arm at the elbow joint as the forearm and hand was replaced with a decently sized looking canon that also had neon lights on the sides of it and the end of it was circular and seemed to be able to fire out some kind of blast or at least that is what Lina assumed as the technological being looked at her before snickering as it raised its canon arm towards Lina and Lina didn't want to find out how hard that thing could hit so she quickly activated her [Bronze Skin] before ducking down and running to the side in order to avoid the attack as the soldier fired a blue looking blast of energy that hit the wall as Lina quickly summoned her iron eater sword in her left hand as she swung both swords towards the cyber soldier which ended up knocking it onto its back as she quickly thrust both her swords down into the monsters chest which scored her a critical hit and killed the thing.
As a result, she managed to get some unique loot thanks to selecting the auto-loot option while she walked towards this room since she was tired of searching corpses.
Loot: 1x Advanced Energy Cannon, 5x Pieces of Steel!
New Skill Alert!
[Self-Taught Dual Wielding, Active Level: 2
You have taught yourself the skill known as Dual Wielding as you can now use both hands to hold weapons and fight, but your skills aren't very good since you didn't properly learn this ability.
Increases Slashing damage by 3%
Increases Thrusting damage by 2%]
"Okay I didn't expect that." Lina said as she now saw that the cybernetic monster was now missing its cannon arm and it was now in her inventory along with pieces of its metal body.
"I'll stockpile as much as I can and loot a bit more before I sell anything." Lina said to herself as she knew that these items would sell for a lot of money and after a bit more time of looking around and looting, she discovered some more notes involving this cult.
The interesting thing about it is the fact that the notes explained that the cult of Mars had slowly gathered advanced scientists and mages alike to develop an entire race of disposable soldiers to fight on the front lines for them thanks to a fusion of science and magic.
"You'd think that science and fusion would contradict each other." Lina said as she was holding onto another note in a single room that she had cleared out from a mix of draconic slaves and soldiers and luckily the soldiers don't seem to value the life's of there comrades since they more or less helped thin the numbers by shooting the monsters that had gotten close to Lina because they thought that they could kill the slaves and Lina at the same time.
"I guess I should start selling some stuff." Lina said as she looked at the looted corpses before she started selling weapons and metal pieces and as a result, she had gotten a pretty penny before buying some new items.
-Item-
Name: Iron Suji bachi kabuto
Rank: Common
Type: Armor
Description: This is a Suji bachi style kabuto aka combat helmet from an age long past in Japanese culture.
Durability: 80/80
-Item-
Name: Iron Azure Style Somen
Rank: Uncommon
Type: Armor
Description: This is a Somen aka protective face covering from an age long past in Japanese culture and this iron mask is themed after the Azure dragon of the East.
Durability: 60/60
-Item-
Name: Iron Dou
Rank: Common
Type: Armor
Description: This is a samurai chest piece made from iron plates of various sizes.
Durability: 80/80
-Item-
Name: Iron Kote
Rank: Common
Type: Armor
Description: An iron armored glove like sleeve which extends to the shoulder down to the wrists as this is a cloth material covered with iron plates of various sizes.
Durability: 80/80
-Item-
Name: Iron Suneate
Rank: Common
Type: Armor
Description: Iron shin guards going from the knee down to the ankle and is made from iron splints connected with chains.
"I finally got some armor." Lina said as she equipped the armor and at first it was a bit weird but she more or less got used to the way the heavy face mask felt as it didn't obscure her vision or anything as she also noticed that parts of her body where exposed to danger since she didn't buy the complete set of samurai armor but she figured that she could buy the rest of the set later and decide if she needed it or not.
The Shredder from TMNT didn't wear a full suit of samurai armor in various versions of the show and comics so Lina figured that if it worked for him then it could work for her. She also bought a few more short swords made from iron so she could stop using her iron eater for a while since she didn't want to risk breaking it or anything and after that she managed to buy a spell book.
Would you like to learn the [Earth Spike] spell? Y/N?
"Yup." Lina said as she selected the yes button and learned the spell.
[Earth Bullet, Active Level: 1
Tier 1
This is an offensive spell for those that have a affinity for earth magic as this spell creates a small sphere of condensed rock that can be launched at your enemies.
Size: Baseball
Range: 5 Feet
Cost: 30 MP]
"That will give me a bit of range and thanks to breakfast I still have a decent food buff going on that will help me regain stamina and mana faster than normal." Lina said to herself before she finally got herself together and moved a bit in her new armor before deciding to conquer the rest of the dungeon but before she did she remembered something else as she equipped her [Amulet of Obscurity] as she then started exploring the dungeon a bit more and slayed a dozen more monsters.
The problem was that she didn't get crazy levels like she did when she entered the first dungeon, and it seemed like her powers didn't give much experience points for these enemies anymore, but the shocking thing is that she had unlocked a new title after slaying the final abomination in this place before she came up to two locked cybernetic doors that where rather large and locked by a keycode scanner by the door.
"Okay I'm pretty sure that I gathered some notes that could be used as a door code." Lina said as she went into her inventory and went through the various notes she had collected before finding a note that had a door code on it and after typing it in the scanner glowed green and the door opened to reveal a massive room that somehow looked as big as a football field and as she walked into the room she heard the door close behind her as she walked for a bit before coming up to the center of the room where she saw a yellow massive pair of gear shaped doors in the ground.
"What is this place?" Lina asked herself with complete confusion as the notes she gathered didn't mention anything about this room or anything.
"This is the home of the Cyber-Claw you pathetic human." A voice said as Lina looked over to the right and saw another Draconic Abomination but this one is different since it is wearing a brown robe to cover its body and its right eye seemed cybernetic as did its hands and feet and its lower jaw.
Cyber-Fang, Level: 10
Director of the Cyber Initiative
"A what exactly is that and why shouldn't I just kill you where you stand?" Lina asked as she got ready with two iron short swords in her hands.
"You won't slay me because you will be to busy dealing with my ultimate masterpiece." Cyber-Fang said before the doors on the ground opened up as a loud cranking noise hit Lina's ears as she backed up a few steps as a monstrosity emerged from under the ground. "Behold human. The ultimate fusion of technology and magic. My masterpiece the Cyber-Drake!" Cyber-Fang shouted as Lina looked on at the monstrosity that rose out of the ground as the noises stopped as the best let out a massive roar.
The beast was insanely large to the point that he seemed like he was roughly on par with a one-story house in terms of height and he had a muscular build to match. Its body is a dark crimson color, and its lower half was completely mechanical in appearance as it has sharp claws on its left hand while its right hand and arm appeared to be a canon arm like the draconic soldiers but unlike them this monster's canon arm was giving off electricity, its head was also mechanical and intimidating to look at honestly as it also has two massive horns on its head.
Cyber-Drake, Level: 22
Elite Mechanical Dragon
"Holy shit." Lina said with mild fear before [Gamers Mind] activated itself.
"I hope you enjoy being my pets first victim you fragile lump of bio-filth." Cyber-Fang said before he reached into his robe and took out a rectangular device as he hit the button and was shrouded in a blue ray of light and when the light vanished, he was gone as the Cyber-Drake aimed its canon arm at Lina and fired a energy blast towards her as she quickly jumped out of the way before activating [Bronze Skin] as she ran around the beast as it fired shot after shot towards Lina.
"I guess I'll be wasting all my mana today." Lina said as she sent the iron short sword in her right hand into her inventory as she focused and fired the [Earth Bullet] spell towards the Cyber-Drake readily as her aim was sloppy to say the least but she did hit him multiple times before the beast grew tired of shooting and with a quick massive step it closed the distance between itself and Lina as it backhanded her and sent her tumbling onto the ground as Lina saw the red HP bar drop a bit from the impact.
"My spell and armor saved my life, but I can't take more hits like that." Lina said as she quickly got up and ducked under the beasts swinging attacks and stops as she stopped with her spell offense and summoned her iron eater sword in her right hand and with the normal iron sword in her left, she went to work swinging at the legs of the beast with all her might as she knew striking metal didn't do much but thanks to her enchanted sword it was doing a little damage.
"Damn it." Lina cursed as she avoided another blow from the beast. "You big bastard!" Lina shouted at the beast as he swung, he balled up his fist and looked to try and squash Lina as she used both swords and sliced at the monster's fist and cut off all four of its fingers which only left its thumb intact as it reeled back and roared in pain.
The beast then looked to fire a massive blast towards Lina with its canon arm as Lina took the chance as she quickly placed both her swords in her inventory as she used both hands and cast the [Rock Bullet] spell over and over again at the cannon arm as she aimed her shots at the canon barrel as some missed and graced the canon itself but a few shorts hit the canon and soon enough caused the thing to burst at the monsters shoulder as it rocketed off and crashed on the ground as a burst of blood erupted from the wound as the monster fell onto its back as Lina quickly resummoned two short iron swords and she leaped onto the beasts body and drove both swords into the monsters chest where the heart should be and discovered that she had killed the beast after receiving a good chunk of experience points from the monster.
"Fuck." Lina groaned in exhaustion as she got hit with a physical and magical [Exhaustion] debuff but paid it no mind as she placed her weapons in her inventory as she didn't bother looting this monster since she just wanted to leave this place as soon as possible as her chest still hurt really bad from the hit she just took.
Honestly her whole body hurt but her chest hurt the worst.
You have levelled up! You are now Level 12!
"On second thought I am definitely under levelled and under skilled for these dungeons. The basic enemies are getting stronger but the bosses…If I didn't buy that skill book when I did, I would be dead right now." Lina said before she made her way to the end of the massive room and saw another room but this one was fairly small as it was a ladder leading upwards towards a hatch, so Lina started climbing the ladder before getting a alert saying that she was about to exit the dungeon and as a result she unequipped her armor and exited the dungeon through the hatch which lead to a much higher ladder.
The climb up was rough and took a good chunk of time but eventually she came up to a second hatch and opened it to hear the sounds of New York as she came up behind a large dumpster in a dark and smelly alley.
"Okay I seriously need to grind before I take on another dungeon." Lina said before she dusted herself off and covered the hatch so nobody would go down it as she followed her mini map towards her home which was now a fair distance away.
Wednesday 1:10 PM April
Lina is currently in her math class as she is studying her math book while still thinking about what she can possibly do to enhance her abilities in a timely manner.
"Yo. Who is your favorite Avenger?" A boy asked the girl next to him as class was almost over and they started gossiping about random topics and somehow the topic of the Avengers had gotten thrown in.
Earth's Mightiest Hero's who take on all kinds of dangerous threats to humanity. Like Hydra and other kinds of stuff but soon enough things turned as people started talking about the fantastic four and Spiderman as well.
"I bet the heroes would be able to handle this cult easily." Lina said to herself in a low voice as she was starting to doubt if she was the one who should be taking the fight to this cult after nearly being done in by a giant cybernetic dragon. "Wait…What if I tackle other dungeons?" Lina asked herself in a low voice before she focused on her mini map and expanded it to see all sorts of available dungeons for her to conquer.
She ruled out drug dens and the like since her armor wasn't bullet proof by any means and that left some of the more 'unique' type of dungeons which could help make her stronger in addition to her normal training that was starting to slow in progress since she didn't have access to a gym or anything like that.
"Maybe I should ask mom to sign me up for karate classes or something." Lina said to herself as learning martial arts was a good form of exercise as well as a good way to learn how to protect yourself from being hurt and what not.
Soon enough the class ended as Lina put her stuff in her bag and started walking the halls with a heavy sigh as she has no idea about what her next move should be. Soon enough a sudden urge came over her and she went into the nearby girl's restroom to relieve herself and after she was done and was about to leave the stall a voice suddenly rang in her ear.
"Sorry to interrupt but we need to speak for a moment." An angelic voice said to Lina as the world around her suddenly changed and instead of the girl's bathroom she suddenly saw that she was standing in the middle of a vast garden like land with unreal amounts of beauties as flowers from all over the world bloomed in this garden and was complimented by a sizeable lake of crystal-clear water with fish jumping up into the air before landing back down into the water.
The tree's all around her are also from various regions of the earth and some even bloomed fruit as Lina started wandering around this garden with an odd sense of peace coming over her as she felt safe in this space.
"What is this place?" Lina asked herself as she looked around before crouching down by the lake.
"This is my realm." The same angelic voice from earlier said as Lina yelped and quickly turned around to see a unfamiliar women as this women struck a wonderful and model like figure as she has tanned skin with black hair going down to her waist with multi-colored eyes that constantly shifted between all the known colors as she is wearing a top and lower half kind of covering that seemed to be made out of a mixture of wood and flowers.
Gaia, Level: EX
Primordial Deity/The Titan of Earth/Creator of the Game
You have seen a stat, skill or level that has the 'EX' status next to it as this status refers to a ability or stat or level that cannot reasonably be measured by the 'Gamer' system.
"Your Gaia?" Lina asked as the woman chuckled a bit.
"I am and it is always amusing to see the reactions of my champions. It has been a while since I've seen a champion so young being scared by my presence." Gaia said as Lina pouted and blushed lightly.
"Where am I and why did you bring me here?" Lina asked as she wasn't scared of this woman and felt like she wouldn't harm her, but Lina couldn't exactly explain why she was skipping classes.
Telling her teachers and mom that she spoke to a Greek god who helped create the world isn't something that most people would believe and if they did believe her, they might have her committed into a mental hospital.
"I brought you here so we may speak about certain matters and this place is a pocket dimension of my own design that I made specifically for my champions." Gaia explained.
"A pocket dimension?" Lina asked with some confusion.
"Perhaps that is a bit above your current understanding. Think of this like a hidden room that nobody but myself and you can access." Gaia said simply.
"Okay I get that this place is private but I'm more concerned with why you brought me here. Also did you give me that stomachache earlier that sent me to the bathroom?" Lina asked.
"I did send you away in a rush since I found that method usually gives me the best result in getting my champions alone so I may speak with them. Anyway, I wanted to speak with you about the dungeons you have been fighting in." Gaia said bluntly.
"If you want to talk in the future than just send me a message in a different way. I don't want to run to the toilet each time and the dungeons I've been raiding have been crazy and I've only been in two. The cult of Mars is seriously bad news, and I don't think I can handle this since I barely got away with my life last time due to sheer luck, my samurai armor and magical defense skill." Lina said back to the goddess as she sighed.
"I agree. Your current abilities will not save you from the coming trials and that is why I am telling you to avoid dealing with those dungeons for a while until you grow decently stronger." Gaia said as that confused Lina a bit.
"What about the quest I have to stop them?" Lina asked.
"That quest is still active, and I am not telling you to avoid or stop but I am telling you to grow stronger before continuing in the quest. So, I am telling you to watch your surroundings instead of just focusing on your destination." Gaia said wisely as Lina thought about those words for a moment.
"I shouldn't get to absorbed into my quests or else I could miss something or get myself killed. I think I get it." Lina said back as Gaia nodded her head.
"Good. Now it is time to return to your world and I can assure you that not too much time has passed." Gaia said before she waved her hand towards Lina and after a brief moment of darkness Lina found herself back in the school restroom and quickly left as she tried making her way towards class and sadly found out that she was in fact late and had to tell the teacher that she wasn't feeling well.
Of course, that led to her being sent to the nurse's office and the rest of the day just spiraled from there into a dark pit of embarrassment before the school day finally ended as she decided to walk home instead of taking the bus as she took the time to walk a bit and truly look at the world around her as Gaia's words came into her mind.
"I need to find a way to grow stronger without exclusively relying on my quests." Lina said to herself as she tried thinking of what to do once again before opportunity knocked.
Lina walked down a mildly busy street and stopped in front of a building as this building is a martial arts dojo and is called 'Way of the Samurai' and it has a sign up saying that the dojo is willing to take in a handful of students for free as long as they show promise and take the way of combat seriously.
"Interesting." Lina said as she looked through the dojo window and saw a class being taught as Lina thought that it was interesting and as a result she headed home and told her mother about it and how she wanted to try martial arts.
Thursday 4:00 PM April
"As you can see, we teach a lot here at this dojo and frankly some students are only looking to join just to look cool and that isn't something we tolerate here so I want to ask you Lina. Will you take this seriously and dedicate yourself to learning martial arts?" The owner of the dojo asked Lina as Lina and her mother and little brother sat in the back office with the red-haired woman known as Colleen Wing.
"Yes. I promise you I will take this seriously." Lina said back as Collen handed Maria a piece of paper.
"Alright then." Collen said as Maria looked over the paper that she needed to sign in order to sign Lina up for a class.
"Lina this is serious so please don't let this be some random phase." Maria said as she wanted Lina to be one of the students that got in for free because paying for these classes is a bit expensive.
"I will do everything possible to prove that I will take this seriously." Lina said to her mother with a smile.
"Great. We can start now. In the locker room there are some martial arts gi's, trousers and belts of various sizes. So, go change and we can start your lesson now and see how you will fair and if you are worthy of the free lessons." Colleen said as Lina didn't waste time as she rushed to the girl's locker room and found the uniforms where she got changed into a white gi with white trousers and a white belt as she joined in on a class that was just starting and got in place as Collen soon came into the room of thirteen teens looking to learn martial arts.
Everyone looked at Collen as she is dressed in a black gi and trousers with an equally dark belt around her waist.
"Alright I'll make this brief. Your all here because you have an interest in martial arts and all of you are expecting to learn for free, but the truth is that only five of you will get a free pass and we are going to see which five that will be." Colleen said before classes began as Colleen is a strict teacher.
The class was roughly two hours long of brutal training and Lina now had a new respect for martial arts masters as she now learned a bit of what they had to do in order to learn but Lina refused to show weakness as she toughed out the training.
Strike after strike and form after form was repeated until they were ingrained into the minds of Colleen's students before the class finally ended.
"Alright that is enough for today. Each of you will be given a schedule each week about which class is available for you to partake in and I now know which five of you will be getting in for free. So, tomorrow expect calls from me telling you if you got in free or if you have to pay. Otherwise, you are all free to go." Collen said as Lina saw new messages appear in front of her.
New Skill Alert!
[Martial Arts, Active Level: 2
A long time ago a man studied the animals of nature and worked to perfect their abilities in search of learning more about himself and the world and as a result he developed the first martial arts and taught it to others and now you have access to this skill.
Passively increases STR by 5%
Passively increases DEX by 6%
Known Styles: Karate]
New Title Alert!
[Apprentice
You have been taken under the wing of a master and now you can learn skills being taught to you 25% faster than before]
Would you like to equip the [Apprentice] Title? Y/N?
Lina mentally shrugged and selected the yes option as she could now learn from her teacher faster and easier than before.
Your [Martial Arts] Master is Colleen Wing!
This title only allows one master per skill or skillset at a time!
Lina mentally dismissed that message since she didn't plan on going to a different dojo and learning anything from them anyway and simply decided to get changed into her normal clothes and head home as her mother waited for her in the parking lot as they soon drove home.
Monday 6:00 PM April
It had been a total of two weeks since Lina first started marital arts and luckily enough, she was one of the five students that showed promise and got to join the dojo for free and she had quickly become the top student in the dojo to the point that she was already in the advanced classes.
Now under normal circumstances such a thing wouldn't be allowed given how little time she had been in the dojo but due to how fast she learned and how many classes she took Colleen, and the other teachers made an exception for Lina as Lina had showed raw skill and talent in martial arts to the point that they honestly thought of her as a prodigy.
She was nowhere close to being a master yet, but it didn't change the fact that she was talented and not only had the martial arts given Lina a new way to defend herself but it also helped enhance her training as her body became stronger alongside her various energy pools and as such Lina took time to study in the school library to figure out more about magic since she didn't understand why magic responded to physical and mental growth instead of just the mental aspects since that's how games and stories usually work when magic is involved.
After reading a few books she had discovered that magic can wear down the body if it is unfit but if it is fit then magic can not only thrive, but it can grown stronger. The mental and physical aspects of magic go hand in hand and oddly enough Lina found a book that she was very interested in and at the moment she held that very book in her hands.
Grimoire of Novice White Magic
A grimoire is different from a skill book since a grimoire requires study and practice in order to learn the skills held within the book while in contrast a skill book only teaches on spell and is destroyed when the spell is learned.
"I finally have the time to learn the secrets of this book." Lina said as she used to think books like this where a bit weird but now, she saw them as a resource as she opened the large gold covered book and started reading and studying the book.
Now the book went over 'White' magic which seems to have the categories of Illusion, Elemental and Restoration types of spells and the book itself didn't specially go into a type of spell but more or less gave guidelines in order for the reader to develop their own 'White' magic spells and incantations.
"Man, magic is complicated and confusing." Lina said as she took out a notebook and started taking down notes and trying to develop a simple spell based on the instructions she read in the grimoire. "My title as Gaia's champion makes it easier for me to learn and master earth-based magic so that is what I should focus on when it comes to offensive and defensive magic." Lina said to herself as she wrote down more notes in her notebook.
"Okay it would be best for me to practice developing some spells outside and, in a place, where I won't be disturbed." Lina said as she got dressed in a grey hoodie and jeans with sneakers and waited for night to come as her mother and brother were soon fast asleep as she snuck out of the house and decided to train in the backyard under the cover of darkness with her notebook in hand as she placed it down on the ground before she sat down on the ground and went into a meditative pose as she began focusing inward and started meditating like the Grimoire had advised as meditation is important in magic and even in martial arts.
So, Lina controlled her breathing and was focusing her mind and ignoring the new skill alert sound that rang in her ear as she focused on what she needed to do as she felt her mana within her body and focused on manipulating it and soon enough she raised her hand and after opening her palm she moved her mana through her body and focused it into her hand into a condensed sphere of magic and when she opened her eyes she saw her new skill as she created a light blue sphere of pure magical energy in her hand that was roughly the same size as a soccer ball.
[Mana Sphere, Active Level: 1
This is a spell of your own design as it doesn't really serve a purpose on its own, but it can be very versatile if you play your cards right based on its simple design.
Size: Soccer Ball
Cost: 35 MP Activation cost and 15 MP upkeep cost per second.]
"I made a ball." Lina said bluntly as she stared at the sphere in her hand as she focused and made it rotate clockwise and counterclockwise out of curiosity as this magical sphere did seem basic, but Lina didn't mind that as she was creative enough to put this spell to use.
She played enough games, read enough stories and watched enough anime to know that something basic is often times the most effective and adaptable tool a person can have and after a thought came to her mind, she thought of reabsorbing her spell but discovered that she couldn't and simply stopped feeding the ball mana as it faded away into oblivion.
"I guess it would be too broken for a magic user to be able to reabsorb mana from there spells." Lina said with a heavy sigh before she went back to meditating and trying to focus her thoughts and soon enough, she focused on the more elemental side of things as she focused on the ground underneath her and her connection to it as the earth somehow felt familiar as she pushed her mana downwards in an attempt to connect with the earth and she discovered that the earth responded to her as she focused on trying to move even the tiniest bit of rock with her magical power and soon enough a new alert rang in her ears.
[Lesser Earth Movement, Active Level: 1
You are attuned to the element of Earth and as such you can now move a small amount of earth in order to do anything that you can imagine as long as you have the mana to back up your goal.
Cost: 45 MP per second.]
"Okay that's progress and since I am still buffed from dinner, I can spend a bit more time grinding up this skill." Lina said as she intended to spend all her mana in order to mac out this skill as she meditated and focused on moving the earth as she didn't do anything flashy other than move the ground and dirt around her in order to increase her skills level and soon enough after getting the exhaustion debuff she headed back inside the home and rested in her bed as she did level up her earth movement skill a bit but didn't develop any new spells to speak of.
"Tomorrow. I'll make new spells tomorrow." Lina said with a yawn of exhaustion as she was pretty tired, and she stripped and slept in her bed.
XXX
New York is a city that never sleeps as many people are out trying to have fun or just enjoying the night life and one such person is currently out and about, but he isn't out partying and instead he is listening to the sounds of the city as this man is Michael Alexander aka the Living Vampire known as Morbius.
Morbius is wearing a basic black shirt and pants with no shoes on his feet as he is perched on the edge of the building roof. His skin is pale, and his black hair reached his shoulders as he heard a mixture of sounds from partiers to gang violence and other such sounds. Something that came to his ears was an unfamiliar sound of bones breaking along with a moist crunching sound which made Morbius realize that he was hearing a person being eaten since he was positive that it wasn't a animal given the fact that he also heard screams that suddenly died down shortly after the churching noise was heard.
"To think I'd run into a cannibal." Morbius said to himself as he descended from the tall building he was on and landed gracefully onto the ground and moved as a blur towards the destination as it took him only a short amount of time to make it to the harder streets of the city in what was known gang territory as he entered an alley way and saw something unknown to him as he saw dead bangers on the ground but he also saw several draconic beings eating the corpses.
One of them alerted the rest as they all looked on at Morbius before they charged at him as Morbius dispatched each one of them with ease and with the last one he tried drinking its blood but recoiled as the blood of these beings burned his teeth and his mouth as if he had taken a bite of acid but luckily his teeth weren't melting as he just looked down at the corpses.
"What the hell are these things?" Morbius asked with confusion before he picked up one of the bodies and slugged it over his shoulder as he was going to take the body back to his lab in Brooklyn in order to dissect these things and figure out what on earth they are. "The police can handle the rest." Morbius said before he left the scene as quickly as he appeared but unknown to him and his enhanced senses, he was being watched by a figure covered in black robes.
"I'd say that this little experiment is a success. We will have new eyes on us now and that will speed things up a bit." The figure said before they vanished through a mystical portal that appeared behind them.
END!
A/N: Okay a second chapter is done, and the plot thickens. Lina is starting to grind up her abilities and the draconic monsters are getting bold enough to attack publicly so who knows what is going to happen.
Find out next time on the next comic issue of [Champion of Gaia] and see who makes a special appearance.
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