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An Otherworldly Scholar - 199
🕑 Added 2025-01-31 20:23:53 +0000 UTCBy the fifth day, I left behind the green pastures of the Vedras dukedom and entered the hilly passage that connected the northeast region to the royal territories. As we climbed the hills, the scenery changed from lush farmland to dry tundra grass and short, stumpy shrubs with thick leaves. Herds of hundreds of sheep grazed on the slopes like white and black patches against the yellow grass.
Vedras Dukedom and Farcrest Marquisate were located in the northeast region of the kingdom, a remote place with little political relevance cut from the rest of the kingdom by the hilly area between the Farland Range on the north and the Blacksmoke Mountains on the south.
The Blacksmoke Mountains were a stark mountain range shrouded in mist and smoke from the hundreds of small settlements on their slopes. The range split the central region from the eastern region in an almost perfect vertical line. The Herran territories were East of the Blacksmoke Mountain and south of the Vedras dukedom. West of the Blacksmoke Mountain was my destination, the royal capital. Cadria.
A chilling wind fell from the mountains, so I had to put on my jacket.
Bucko seemed to enjoy the weather and the rugged terrain.
Since there wasn’t much to do, I used the silent hours of travel to experiment with rune injection. The royal road was hard to miss, and Bucko was more intelligent than most of Farcrest’s nobles, so I let him navigate. For hours at a time, I entered a meditative state while Bucko pushed forward, preventing me from sliding to the side.
I put my thoughts in order.
Titles had three parameters: name, identifier, and function. The name was the string of letters shown on System prompts and Character Sheets. Changing the name had no impact on their effects. The identifier seemed to be some sort of serial number; I didn’t understand its function. The identifier returned to its original value no matter how many times I tried to change it. Finally, the function was a single rune that recalled a particular effect. The function was entirely managed by the System's back end, so it was impossible to modify it with my current powers. The risk of recalling a dangerous function made me cease my attempts to edit it.
I tried to duplicate [Favorite Teacher], hoping to increase my mana pool for free, but my attempts didn’t bear fruit. The information about the stacks of [Favorite Teacher] had to be stored elsewhere because as soon as I finished the duplication process, the Title returned to its original form, and the duplication was erased.
Tinkering with Titles was a dead end.
For now.
Passives had the same parameters as titles: shown name, identifier, and a single-rune function. I changed the name of [Polearm Mastery] to [Acrobatics], but it didn’t seem to have any discernible effect. My brain wasn’t kneaded, and I didn’t feel more agile.
I opened my eyes and tried to get off Bucko with a swift single movement like Astrid did every time we went riding. My attempt, however, had the grace of a crippled elephant. Bucko looked at me with quizzical eyes as I mounted again.
“Why do you have to be so judgmental?” I asked.
After two days on the road alone, talking to Bucko didn’t feel strange at all.
The horse snorted, like apologizing, and pressed forward through the path between the hills. Despite the rugged terrain, the road was as good as in Vedras territories. The royal family had the right idea to keep the kingdom well-connected.
Titles and Passives were definitely a dead end—for now—which let me with only one option. Skills.
I opened my Character Sheet. My Scholar skills were serviceable as they were, and I decided not to touch my Runeweaving-related skills, just to ensure I could runeweave my Skills back to a usable state even if I messed up my code. I eyed my elemental skills: [Minor Geokinesis], [Minor Hydrokinesis], [Minor Pyrokinesis], [Minor Aerokinesis]. The ‘minor’ denominator still rubbed me the wrong way. The skills had artificial limitations, preventing me from using my vast mana pool to its full extent.
I didn’t have grand plans for any of my elemental skills, but removing the limitations sounded like a good idea. I had already done it with [Minor Aerokinesis].
Of the four elemental skills I had gained with my Class promotion, the one I liked the most was [Minor Geomancy]. The skill was convenient for working the land and creating roads and buildings. Most importantly, the skill didn’t require me to carry a giant water gourd on my back, and the risk of setting things on fire was minimal.
I closed my eyes and located the runes of [Minor Geokinesis] in my mana pool. Unlike the Passives and Titles, the skill had dozens of parameters. Every single one was local information, meaning they could be edited.
I examined the parameters. Numerical values made little sense; however, after using the elemental skills in their native form for two years, I had an approximate idea of their meaning. [Minor Geokinesis] allowed me to control minerals in a two-meter range, which was enough to build roads and shelters and even defend myself in close-quarter combat. However, keeping an attacker away seemed reasonable, considering my lack of movement skills. I extended [Minor Geokinesis] range to manipulate material further away, increased the cap on mana input, and lowered the cooldown to cast more frequently.
After tinkering with the numbers for a while, I noticed each parameter had a minimum that couldn’t be lowered further. I wondered if that had anything to do with the System’s limitations or if it was some safety measure. Adding a negative number in the mana input might have catastrophic results, so I limited myself to reasonable values.
For now.
I decided to leave an upper limit to the amount of mana input of the skill as a safety restriction. I didn’t want to spend all my mana on a single accidental casting and get [Mana Exhaustion] in the middle of a fight.
To add the finishing touches, I lowered the projectile spread parameter and increased efficiency, precision, and the number of parallel skill instances. There were still several parameters I didn’t touch, but I thought I had already improved the skill enough to match my mana pool.
It was time to test.
I opened my eyes and led Bucko to the edge of the road. Then, I channeled my mana. I grabbed a rock and made it float about a meter from us. It was hard to give it a number, but the skill felt more responsive. I dropped the rock and picked another two meters away. The mana needed to lift the rock more than doubled, but it still felt easy. I repeated the test several more times. My range had increased from the original two meters to ten. However, lifting a rock ten meters away required a ton of mana.
“I might be crazy, Bucko, but I think the intensity of the spell follows the inverse-square law,” I said, scratching my chin. Maybe it was just a matter of leverage. “I guess you wouldn’t get it. You are a horse, after all.”
Bucko shook his mane. He might not understand physics, but he was good at detecting when someone insulted him.
“You’d be a great senator, Bucko.”
For the next hour, I juggled up to eight stones. Juggling might not be the best word to describe it because I was manipulating each of the rocks at the same time. Bucko complained each time I dropped a stone out of his vision range.
It had been a while since I had encountered another traveler. The hills prevented me from seeing further along the road, and the place was sparsely inhabited compared to Vedras’ meadows. Only herds of sheep and goats seemed to inhabit the place. From what I had heard, travelers preferred to cross this section of the road in caravans, so they waited for the first lights of the day to depart together.
I didn’t have the luxury of waiting a day.
Suddenly, a figure appeared over the hills to my right. They wore a frayed cloak, simple clothes, and a staff. I assumed it was a shepherd—a young one. The figure ran down the slope in a panic, slipping on the wet, tall grass and scraping their hands on the rocky patches, just to crawl back to their feet. The figure noticed my presence and waved their hands to catch my attention.
“Monster! Please!”
Regardless of the distance, the shepherd’s voice was unmistakably feminine.
I cued Bucko to speed up, and a moment later, the girl jumped the stone parapet and hid behind Bucko’s body. Her hands and knees were bloody due to the falls, and her eyes were wide open. Blonde hair covered in dirt fell out of the cloak. She couldn't be older than Firana.
I glanced over the hills, but there was no sign of monsters.
Yet.
“Sir! You have a sword! Please, my brother is fighting Mountain Wolves,” she said hastily, reaching for her pouch. “I have money. It’s not much, but please, save my brother; he just turned into a Soldier.”
The jingle of silver and bronze reached my ears.
The girl pushed the pouch against me, but I moved her hand away.
The sight of blood almost got me, but [Foresight] told me she was lying. The girl was a great actress, but a great actress was needed to fool people with detection skills.
I channeled my mana sense, and the world's colors faded. Beyond the hills were no Mountain Wolves but many sheep and three sources of mana strategically positioned in an ambush position just beyond the ridge. I couldn’t tell their level, but they couldn't be high level if they targeted a lone traveler in poor clothing. Still, I kept my guard up.
I got off Bucko and told him to graze by the opposite side of the road.
“Thank you, sir,” the girl said, keeping up the character. “My brother is over there,” she added, signaling towards the ambush.
I looked at both sides of the road. There were no other travelers nearby. The bandits must’ve scanned the area from the highest hills and picked lone adventurers and poorly guarded carts. I sighed. One way or another, I was going to get jumped. I would rather it be on my terms.
Adrenaline rushed through my veins.
Fighting humans was different from fighting beasts.
“Do you have a Class?” I asked.
“Yes, sir, I’m a Shepherd,” the girl replied.
She was telling the truth. I recalled the Book of Classes. Shepherds were the classic support Class: E-rank physical and magical attributes with a slight advantage in speed and endurance over the regular non-combatant. Harmless by any measure.
“Let me see your wounds,” I said, grabbing her cloak.
The girl had a small knife on her belt.
“I’m fine, but my brother…” she said, pulling back.
“Stay here. I don’t want you trapped in the crossfire,” I said.
I drew my sword and walked up the hill with the girl closely behind me, wondering why they had decided to target me. Did I look that weak? Since my arrival at Farcrest, I had grown a couple of inches and put on several kilos of muscle. I sighed. Maybe it was my clean shave. I wondered if I should grow a beard.
The terrain was treacherous, so I channeled my mana and put spikes on the soles of my boots. When I was about to get to the ridge, three men jumped out. Time slowed. to a crawl as I used [Identify].
Soldier Lv.21
Archer Lv.18
Lancer Lv.13
Their Character Sheets were open before my eyes, and I wasn’t sure if any of them could even hurt me. Penetrating skills worked well against my mana barrier, but the sheer difference in level was enough to counter the bad matchup.
My body moved on its own, and I parried the Soldier’s attack without effort. His rusted blade gleamed with magic, but my strength alone was enough to push him to the side. I dodged the Archer’s lunge and blocked the Lancer’s spear. The terrain worked in my favor because the inertia sent them sliding downhill.
“You said he was a weakling,” the Soldier grunted.
“I saw him at the Brewmaster’s place! His companions called him a Scholar!” the Archer replied.
I grinned. He must have left before the escort money incident by the end of the night.
The Lancer was the only one who seemed to understand the difference in our strengths because he clutched his spear and adopted a defensive stance. He was the youngest of the bunch. His level suggested he couldn’t be much older than seventeen.
“Lancer isn’t a bad Class. You can aim higher than highway robbery,” I pointed out.
“Shut up, moneybag!”
Students had called me worse.
“You need to step up your intimidation game,” I said.
The Lancer stepped forward and tried to stab my neck. His feet gleamed as he used [Quick Step], but [Foresight] showed me the direction of the attack, like a phantom of the Lancer ahead of time.
I parried, not even resorting to my mana blade.
Compared to Izabeka, this wasn’t even a warm-up.
In a panic, the Lancer used a defensive skill, and a silver bubble encroached on him.
“Don’t waste mana, you dunce,” the Soldier said. “Let’s attack together. He can’t parry us all.”
Obediently, the Archer and the Lancer surrounded me.
[Foresight] had no blind spot, but I had no intention of letting them near me.
I lifted a dozen rocks and pebbles from the ground and made them spin around me at high speed. The rocks whistled as they orbited me, and the Archer stepped back. There wasn’t a way in without getting hit. With a movement of my hand, I extended the orbit of the rocks, catching the Archer by surprise. The stone hit him square in the jaw, and he fell like a broken doll.
I didn’t let the Soldier and the Lancer react. Geokinesis was too fast for them. The Soldier raised his shield imbued in mana, but a swift sequence of stone impacts turned the wood into splinters. It took a small pebble to the jaw to send him to sleep.
The Lancer reacted in panic and covered himself in the silver bubble. His defenses absorbed my stone projectiles, sending stone splinters over the tall grass. Unfortunately for him, the roadside was littered with rocks, and I had mana to spare. The silver bubble flickered as the small pebbles depleted his mana reserves.
Finally, the barrier shattered, and the Lancer tried to run away, but a pebble to the knee made him stumble. Before he could fall, a surgical stone hit his jaw, and he dropped like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
I examined the battlefield. The only wound was the Soldier’s broken arm.
[Foresight] pinged my brain, and I surrounded myself in a mana barrier.
The girl jumped on me, trying to stab me with her utility knife.
It was useless, although it took her several seconds to realize my shell was unbreakable. I let her get tired. In the meantime, I summoned three mana hands and dragged the unconscious bodies to the road. The girl followed me.
“Don’t worry, I won’t kill them,” I said, adopting my best villainous voice. “But their survival will depend on your actions.”
The girl shuddered like a scared deer.
They had messed with the wrong Scholar.
I channeled my mana and pulled out a block of solid granite from the ground. Extending the range of my geokinesis was paying off already. There was a considerable distance between the surface and the harder strata. I raised the block of granite and hollowed it out. Then, using my mana hands, I put the Archer into the stone cocoon and closed it without a seam. The girl screeched. Then, I tore out a section so only the face was left exposed.
“Don’t worry. I left enough space to wiggle and tilted it slightly backward so they were comfortable. We don’t want a case of positional asphyxia,” I explained as I crafted the second ‘granite maiden’.
After a few minutes, three monoliths with swollen human faces stood by the side of the road. They were impossible to miss. Then, I turned.
“Listen carefully. This is what will happen now,” I said, locking my gaze on the girl. “Humans can go three days without drinking water. So, if they are left on their own, they will die. You can try to rescue them. Many people travel these roads, and you can ask them for help, but I don’t recommend that. Do you see those words? It says they are bandits and murderers, and I can’t vouch for other traveler’s actions.”
The girl nodded, panic-stricken.
“There is a second option. A few hours down the road, there is a village. You can ask the guards for help. They will have the skills to release them, but you will have to accept the consequences of your crimes and abide by this land’s law,” I said. “What are you going to choose?”
The girl tried to reply, but her voice didn’t come out.
“You must speak clearly, or nobody will understand you,” I said, citing my fourth-grade teacher.
“The second,” she finally said.
“Smart.”
The girl turned around slowly like she was in front of a tiger.
Then I remembered she also tried to stab me.
“Stop,” I said. “Take off your cloak and your belt.”
The girl froze, but after making the ground tremble around her, she obeyed.
The coin pouch, the knife, and the cloak were left on the ground.
Maybe a little scare would fix her ways.
I channeled my mana and flung her into the sky.
The girl probably weighed half as much as Elincia, so she flew higher than we did in our nightly escapade. I looked up. The girl flapped her arms, turned into a small dot against the cloudy sky. [Foresight] informed me she had reached two hundred and fifty meters before starting to fall. The scream increased as she approached the ground. I channeled a considerable amount of mana to create a wind cushion. The girl slowed down violently until she came to a stop, hovering a few centimeters from the ground. Then, she dropped.
The girl tried to get away from me crawling, but her body trembled too much.
I crouched by her side.
“What did we learn today?”
“I-I will behave,” she said, her teeth chattering, making her words almost unintelligible.
“Good,” I said, standing up. “Don’t forget your coin pouch and your cloak. It’s going to be a cold night.”
I missed the orphanage already.
Comments
Ben Bass
TYFTC! That was a brutal way to ensure the girl heads to the town and the guards. I think all four of them have learned a powerful lesson. Editing his skills is going to be interesting, wait until he completely re-writes one of his skills further down the road!
dumbo3k
"The royal road was hard to miss, and Bucko was more intelligent than most of Farcrest’s nobles, so I let him navigate." Haha, I think the Marquis just spontaneously sneezed because Rob was thinking of him xD
Matt Bradock
Icarian Flight or Gone Ballistic are my bets.
I Dare Korval
Terrified of Scholars
David Ellis
Did Rob's parents die in front of a movie theater because he's Magical Batman. 😉
Matthew
I wonder what kind of title she received from her near death experience, something sarcastic I bet.
