Chapter 57: The importance of knowledge

Stuffed with insect meat Ethan walked through the forest until he heard the telltale noise of a river. When he finally stood before it he not only cleaned himself but also quenched his now rediscovered thirst. During the time he didn’t need to eat, which was at this point a couple of weeks, he was now once again relying on simple nutrition to fuel his body. When compared to magic it felt so inefficient and wasteful, taking time that could be used in more productive ways. 

As he understood it, you needed to reach a certain level until you no longer required  eating and drinking. He hadn't reached that point yet but during those thirty days he would test how long he could maintain peak efficiency without food or water. Sitting on the ground next to the rushing water while he waited for his robe to dry he thought about his next step. One month wasn’t a long time so he had to plan accordingly.

When you heard the word fantasy there were a few things you thought about subconsciously. Fantasy was about magic and dragons, large scale battles, man wearing full armor riding on horses into battle, giant cities that shouldn’t be possible with their imposing architecture that got besieged by an army of savages, exotic languages and races that were so different from humanity, having different values and ways of life.

The thing you don’t even waste a thought on is the in between. How someone obtained magic he used, how dragons evolved from simpler creatures and how magic influenced them, what followed after the war that brought so much death, how cities needed to be rebuilt to become a home again. How different races clashed under the surface when not only the color of your skin but also your people as whole get looked down at by other races. When Ethan looked at his tutorial, how he grew in power. The enemies he faced and the allies he lost, suddenly not everything turned out to be fame and glory after all.

He had only thirty days and that time needed to be used wisely. For now he would commit at least a week of that time to studying, because he knew there was more to this new universe than just the system. The system was just a form to interact with the magic of the universe, it was all powerful and nothing at the same time, at least that was his guess. The entire lack of information could only be designed and so he thought about what he knew about the system.

It was intelligent, observant and it could think for itself which was important when you shaped the paths of billions of people every day…billions, more like trillions, but even that might not be high enough as a number.

In a multiverse with gods it was even more powerful, creating all this around him was to consume a ridiculous amount of power, something no mortal or immortal for that fact could wield, because even the gods themselves were under the system and never above it. But the system was flexible too, you couldn’t control it but make suggestions.

Through your actions, your behavior, your skills you can achieve a certain path. The system would give you the base for it, it let you choose what you wanted. Picking your class was one of the only decisions you had total control over, the second one was the boon you could choose as a newly integrated citizen. After that the system suggests paths for you, it ensures you have a viable way forward but it won’t stop you if you decide to cripple yourself. In the end it was helpful but not a safety net. The only person responsible for what you become is yourself.

Following this train of thought a bit further brought Ethan to a conclusion, he could use the classes and skills the system gave him, but there were two ways to do it. For one he could just get comfortable and rely on them in their initial state or, and this was the path he would take, improve yourself further by putting in the work and the hours to learn more until not only you recognize your efforts but also the system finds them noteworthy.

He saw it happen with his ritualism before and while the skill seems difficult to improve he knew there was a way to push it over the edge and upgrade its rarity. Because the qualitative change a skill goes through when upgraded through effort was like day and night. The thing was, just doing rituals wasn’t enough, he needed to push himself too and find more creative ways, it was not only about knowledge or control but also the act of exploring the ways of ritualism.

While he could try to improve his ritualism more there were two skills that had basically no worth for him currently, those were [Staff Mastery(Basic)] and [Elemental Infusion(Basic)] two skills that wouldn’t be missed on his stat sheet if he was honest with himself, they weren’t bad in a practical sense, just unnecessary. During most of his tutorial he fought at a distance and while the fight with Ouroboros was painful it was also a big help in understanding how skills could be gained. Because the system didn’t offer them every few levels, he needed to find them himself. Only once did he receive such a chance and that was way back at level 5. Ethan guesses that it not only should help you out but also provide information for the system.

When you use the skill you received at level five regularly and with success it would be the perfect information to determine the subclasses you get offered. The system having access to so much data certainly increased your chances, especially when you provided more yourself. If you kill enemies the same way over and over again it wouldn’t be very helpful.

Jumping to his feet Ethan grabbed his staff that laid next to him. With a wave of his hand he let a pillar of ice rise from the river, the water crashed against the sudden obstruction and water splashed into all directions. With a simple jump he landed on the pillar and sat down on it, his legs crossed. Ethan’s pale bare chest moved up and down, his breathing was slow and steady as he examined the staff in his hand. Slender fingers danced over the rough surface of the wood before he used [Elemental Infusion] on it. Like his perfect ice manipulation the staff frosted over and was more resilient than before, he instinctively knew it would now inflict a minor amount of cold damage when he hit someone.

The skill wasn’t simple, having a simple staff take on the beneficial effects of an element without the downsizes was impressive. Just imagining a fire wizard infusing his staff with fire only for it to turn to ash after a few hits. Ethan’s eyes wandered over the wood, it wasn’t that different from his ice manipulation but there was a difference.

While he could also force ice mana into objects to benefit from it, this skill didn’t force the object to accept the energy, it intertwined with whatever was there. He could feel it, the brute force of his free form magic and the precision of elemental infusion. So what else was there to do than try to recreate it.

Ethan slammed the end of his staff into the pillar, freezing it in place. In quick succession he drew some symbols into the ice, his finger drawing them right into the surface like it was just loose sand. Wrapping his hands around the staff he closed his eyes and focused.

Understanding. That was the main component to achieving new skills and upgrades, the system provided the basic knowledge. It was his job to further improve his understanding and learn more about it. So Ethan analysed the flow of energy, he compared it to his own version and even tried to do both at the same time. A long list of experiments followed. Full infusion, partial infusion, trying to overflow the staff with mana, have the energy expand past the staff and so on.

At one point something clicked when he infused the staff with the skill and he tried to cast magic, it had a small increase in power and then he remembered the description of the skill.

“Allows the caster to infuse his elemental mana into an object, can grant buffs or debuffs depending on the object and desired result of the caster”

It seemed the skill was more versatile than he thought at first, especially when it could be used for spellcasting and not only to whack people with a cold staff. Ethan opened his eyes and smiled. This skill was important, not only for melee and spells but also for rituals. Combined with the staff that was already a focus object for rituals, he could make them more efficient than before.

Who said you need to use the skill to infuse the staff, why not a plate of stone that you draw a ritual on. So many possibilities swirled inside his mind and it seems he got rewarded for realizing it.

[Elemental Infusion(Basic)] -> [Elemental Infusion(Advanced)]

Grinning like a kid he looked at his staff, there was so much to do now. This could improve his overall effectiveness by leaps and bounds! Before he could bend down to work on a new ritual his head snapped to the side.

It wasn’t the direction Nora was in but the opposite. Something dark and vile, the energy he felt was disgusting and sadly he knew it too well. It seems James would show his ugly face again. Ethan jumped from the pillar and put his robe on, staff in hand he turned to the origin of the cursed magic. First he walked but then he started jogging at a reasonable pace, he did not want to arrive exhausted in case a fight was imminent.