The Reluctant Hero - Vol. 1 - Chapter 2

“N-no… NO!”

Hearing the exclamation from Axel, the elderly Priest looked down at him with concern, “Is there something wrong, young Axel?”

Axel looked up at the Priest, a look of disbelief on his face, “My trait… It’s class-specific… To a Mage.”

The Priest let out a sigh and gently pat Axel on the back, “I’m sorry to hear that, but worry not! Fortunately for you, the first one hundred levels aren’t too difficult. Once you max out your Mage class you can go for Rogue then! You can still fulfill your dream. It’s just going to take a little longer, is all.”

Axel slumped a little but nodded his head in understanding. It sucked that he would have to be a Mage for a while. On the bright side, his new Special Trait would make it interesting at least. He looked at his trait once more and read over it very carefully.

Special Trait - Mana Void: You have no maximum mana limit. You generate mana based on what your cap would be based on your attributes, skills, traits, etc. Any time you would consume mana for any action, you consume ten times the required amount.

On his second readthrough, Axel had to admit, it was a very powerful Special Trait. He’d been a little hasty in his reaction but in his defense, he’d only noted that it was based on mana and that he’d be spending ten times as much mana as anyone else. However, having no cap on how much mana he could have at any one time? That… What was the phrase he’d hear some adventurers use? Right! That was BROKEN!

Having spells cost ten times as much wouldn’t matter at all if he just sat around for a week and continuously built up his mana supply. As a newbie, it wouldn’t help much but… Once he got some levels, increased his Mana Regeneration, and made a few custom spells… He’d be very powerful and could burn through the first one hundred levels of Mage to switch to Rogue all the quicker!

With a bright smile on his face, Axel dismissed the notification of his Special Trait and was presented with another screen.

Select your starter class:

[Warrior], [Mage], [Rogue]

Axel wasn’t surprised to see those three choices. It was pretty uncommon for people to be presented with extra starter classes. Those usually only appeared as options such as Priest for someone raised worshiping a specific deity. Or those dedicating their lives to religion and combat becoming Clerics. Those were the most common, but occasionally the children of royalty would be presented with special classes. As the son of a Warrior who retired, it was expected for him to just have the basic three.

Wasting no time, Axel selected the Mage class. The sooner he started to level it up, the sooner he could switch to a Rogue. He couldn’t help it as he briefly wondered what kind of classes he might get at Tier Three when he maxed out Mage and Rogue. That was still quite some time away so he dismissed the thought and said one of the most well-known words in the world, “Status.”

Name: Axel Voht

Level: 1 (0%)

Class: Mage (1/100)

HP: 210/210 (+2.1/sec)

MP: 246/— (240) (+2.4/sec)

SP: 210/210 (+2.1/sec)

Str: 11

Dex: 12

Con: 11

Int: 14

Wis: 13

Cha: 11

Lck: 11

Special Trait - Mana Void: You have no maximum mana limit. You generate mana based on what your cap would be based on your attributes, skills, traits, etc. Any time you would consume mana for any action, you consume ten times the required amount.

Spells:

Arcane Bolt - Rank 1 (0%)

The most basic mage spell that every mage knows and loathes. Fires a single bolt of pure arcane energy at a single target.

Cost: 10MP

Damage: Int+Weapon Damage

Axel smiled when he saw that his mana was already exceeding his cap. He didn’t feel very different yet, but that was to be expected. Though, he did just instinctively learn how to cast the Arcane Bolt spell. Seeing the cost of the spell made him grimace though. He knew that the ten mana cost was the base cost everyone paid to cast the spell. That meant he would have to pay one hundred mana to cast it. That hurt. While other mages would be able to cast an Arcane Bolt every five seconds and never run out of mana, he could only cast one every fifty seconds for the same benefit. Still… He could live with it. Every night he’d sleep and continue to gain mana. Just one eight-hour night right now would let him gather nearly sixty thousand mana…

A slow smile spread over Axel’s face. It was going to be about a week before he set out from home to begin his adventure. In that week he wouldn’t level at all, but he would be gathering mana the entire time! His smile continued to grow as he realized he would have more than enough mana to level himself up rapidly. He just might set the record for the fastest rookie to one hundred!

Axel finally climbed to his feet and turned to face his father, the grin never leaving his face, “I think I just might enjoy being a Mage thanks to my trait.”

Besides, he could always use the Spellcraft ability to make Rogue-like spells so he could pretend to be like one! Definitely needed to make some spells based on the shadow element when he got the chance!

Typhon grinned broadly at his son and moved into a flexing pose, “HA! My son isn’t a sneaky Rogue! The gods did indeed answer my prayers! It’s a sign I tell you!”

Annoyed by his old man, Axel fired his first-ever Arcane Bolt right into his father's face. The small whitish ball of mana shot through the air and flew unerringly to hit Typhon right in the face with a meaty ‘THUMP!’

Typhon grabbed his face and fell to the ground where he proceeded to roll around, “Ah! My face! My precious face! Shara’s going to take one look at me and leave me!”

Axel rolled his eyes at his father's dramatics. The man was a third-tier Warrior, Shield Master. Even without armor or a shield, there was nothing Axel could do that would even scratch the old man with their level difference and no weapon. Even if that pathetic bolt had hit him in the eye it wouldn’t have hurt Typhon with its measly fourteen points of damage.

Axel kicked his dad as he walked by, deciding to ignore the chuckles of the elderly Priest, “Come on old man, if we don’t get home maybe mom really will leave you.”

Typhon was instantly on his feet and following his son as if his theatrics had never happened. Not even a small scratch on his face despite his complaints earlier, “You’re right! I can’t wait to see what she’s been cooking while we’ve been gone!”

The two of them got back on their horses and started toward home. Axel spent the ride there studying his status screen and trying to think of different spells he could try to make to emulate Rogue abilities. The issue was, that the first time he’d gain the Spellcraft feature would be at Mage level five. Thankfully, he should be able to knock that out in no time at all. The first one hundred levels really did go by very fast. Even someone taking it super slow could get to level one hundred in six months. With his trait, he could easily get through those levels much much faster.

He needed to earn a fair bit of money as well. If he was going to use his Spellcrafting to emulate rogue abilities, he was going to have to buy some spells from other Mages. He had a few ideas of spells he wanted. The last thing he needed to think about was Metamagic. Mages only came with a single spell and two class features. The first feature was Spellcrafting, the second was Metamagic.

Metamagic could only be picked every twenty levels, so five times total. Depending on the choices made, it could drastically alter and change how spells worked. Thanks to what would become a truly massive mana pool, he could potentially abuse Metamagic in the extreme. Unfortunately, he didn’t know a lot about their specifics. He would have to look into that in the future.

He spent the majority of the ride back home lost in his thoughts. He had a small inkling of a plan for how he wanted to proceed but he’d need some things before he could. The most pressing thing he would need would be money. His parents were going to give him enough money for a week's food and lodgings as a birthday gift. After that, it would be on him to succeed or fail. He would need more money than that in order to learn spells from other Mages. His plans hinged on what spells he could pay to learn and what he would have to Spellcraft himself.

It wasn’t hard to imagine what kinds of spells he would want to emulate a Rogue. A spell to emulate a Rogues stealth, a weapon enhancement spell to emulate backstabbing, and so on. The best part, in his opinion, is that they would stack with his Rogue skills once he became one. Oh yes, he was going to have so much fun!

Time flew by as the hyperactive imagination of the sixteen-year-old worked overtime imagining all the sneaky ways to use magic as a Rogue. By the time they arrived back home, Axel was practically salivating at the ideas he had, however impractical some of them likely were. He was only dragged out of his thoughts when his father shouted at him, “AXEL! Get out of your head and down from your horse!”

Axel quickly returned to reality and looked around. Realizing they were home and both of his parents were giving him bemused looks caused him to blush. He quickly scrambled down from his horse. Once on the ground he gently stroked its neck, “Sorry about that Striker, and thanks for the ride.”

He stepped away from the horse when his father took the reins. His mother quickly approached him looking excited, “So? How did it go?!”

If he didn’t know better, Axel would have thought his mother was a teenager like himself with how excited she looked. It was infectious and caused a bright grin to split his lips, “Not like I had hoped, but not terribly. My Special Trait was mana based so I had to go with the Mage class.”

His mother paused for a moment before her excitement seemed to magnify severalfold. She moved even closer to him as she clasped her hands together in front of her chest. She stared at him with eyes so wide and excited he saw literal sparkles in them, “My baby is a Mage?!”

Axel slowly nodded his head. That simple action caused his mother to outright squeal in excitement and wrap her arms around him in a crushing hug, “MY BABY IS A MAGE!”

Axel groaned in his mother's embrace. She might have chosen a magical path for her career, but as a third-tier magic caster, her strength was still somewhere above two hundred compared to his own eleven. He awkwardly patted her back as she squeezed him, “Air, mom. Breathing. Needed.”

Shara gave a squeak and let go of Axel. She looked embarrassed for a moment before a bright grin dominated her face, “Oh! Oh oh oh! I have some things I can give you!”

Just like that, she was off running into the house. Axel shook his head at her antics. He’d never seen her this excited before. He knew she’d be happy that he’d been forced into a Mage class. Just like his father, she wanted him to take after her. She just wasn’t as… enthusiastic in trying to convince him to go with the Mage class. Now that he had though, she was likely to be giving him all kinds of advice.

While his father took care of the horses, Axel followed his mother into their small home at a more sedate pace. Though small, the home had plenty of space for all of its occupants to have their own rooms, a large bathroom, a huge living room slash dining room, and a nice kitchen. Thanks to simple enchanted objects they had all kinds of wonderful conveniences like fresh running water, including heated water for the bath. Using Runecrafting to enchant objects was the most wonderful thing his mother ever learned.

Thinking about it, he might want to look into Runecrafting as a profession. From what he remembered his mother saying, the amount and power of enchantments were based on the material being enchanted and the amount of mana powering the runes. Small simple runes could be powered through the mana in the air but the more powerful ones had to be charged by people. The larger ones could also run out of mana and need to be recharged. With his potentially massive pool of mana, he could make exceeding powerful enchantments that only he would be capable of powering. Definitely, something to think about.

As he was pondering the potential abuse of Runecrafting, his mother came charging into the living room where he stood. Cradled in her arms was a black short staff with a clear crystal on the top of it. She excitedly held it out toward Axel, “Back when I was adventuring with your father, I found this staff. At the time it was too weak for me to want to use it, but when I saw it I knew it would be great for any child I had if they became a Mage. It’s the most powerful staff I’ve ever seen without a level requirement. It should be a wonderful boost to your abilities until you level up some and can get a stronger one.”

Axel gently accepted the staff from his mother. The moment he held it in his hands he felt a small rush of power suffuse his being. He quickly examined the staff, something anyone could do.

Staff of the Adventurous Youngster

Weapon Damage: 150+Mage Level

Con: +10

Int: +25

Wis: +15

Mana Regen: +50%

Requirements: Can only be used by someone with the Mage class below level 101 and below the age of eighteen.

Axel grinned broadly as he looked over the information on the staff. It was pretty powerful for a newbie weapon. He’d heard of weapons like this before. They weren’t the absolute best at higher levels in a class but they could be used from level one to level one hundred of the tier one classes. With the staff in hand, he took a quick peek at his changed status.

Name: Axel Voht

Level: 1 (0%)

Class: Mage (1/100)

HP: 310/310 (+3.1/sec)

MP: 999/— (490) (+7.5/sec)

SP: 210/210 (+2.1/sec)

Str: 11

Dex: 12

Con: 21

Int: 39

Wis: 28

Cha: 11

Lck: 11

Axel kept a frown from forming on his face as he looked at his attributes and the changes he could see. Seeing his mana sitting at ‘999’ the entire time he had his status open didn’t help. Maybe he had misinterpreted his Special Trait? Under the guise of excitement, which wasn’t too hard because he really was excited about the staff, he rushed outside. Shara trailed after her son with an indulgent smile on her face. Once outside, Axel picked a random tree and quickly fired off an Arcane Bolt at it while watching his mana. The bolt flew out and slammed into the thick tree ripping a small hole into it. It was definitely significantly stronger than the time he used it on his father’s face. More importantly, his mana didn’t change and still showed ‘999’ despite just spending one hundred on the spell.

So… his display could only show as many digits as his maximum mana, maybe? His supposed max would be ‘490’ so that seemed likely. He’d know for sure once his MP was over one thousand. Either way, he knew he must have several thousand mana stored up by now. This would just make keeping track of exactly how much he had difficult. He dismissed those thoughts, for now, he had something much more important to do.

Axel spun around and pulled his mother into a tight embrace, “It’s wonderful, thank you!”

This was the perfect item to start his adventuring career with.