After learning the skills from those scrolls, Aaron checked his status panel:
[Ability Sheet]
Innate Ability: [Player]
Overall Level: Lv5
EXP Bar: 830/400
Classes:
Basic Class: Genius Lv1 (Warrior, Priestess/Priest, Apothecary, Alchemist, Mage, Thief)
Intermediate Class: Sword Saint Lv4
Skill Points: 3
Passive Skills: Item Box, Slashing Boost (4%)
Active Skills:
Warrior: Instant Reflection, Fourfold Slash of Light, Quick Slash, Stealth
Magic: Paper Creation (Zero Tier), Heating (Zero Tier)
Light Wounds Healing (1st Tier), Magic Arrow (1st Tier), Odorless (1st Tier)
Class Skills: Pharmacology, Alchemy
...
Killing those two members of Eight Fingers had netted him a lot of EXP.
With a thought, Aaron spent the EXP to level up, putting all of the new levels into Sword Saint.
Genius Lv1 + Sword Saint Lv5 → Overall Level Lv6
Among his skills, he had acquired the thief's Stealth, and in the process had unlocked the Thief basic class.
Skill: Stealth
Cost: None (Cooldown: 1 min)
Description: In darkness or shadowed environments, reduces your presence and increases Agility by 10% for 30 seconds.
...
Skill: Paper Creation (Zero Tier) ↑
Cost: 1 MP
Description: Creates 1,000 sheets of low-quality paper. For each additional point of mana spent, create 500 more sheets. No upper limit.
...
Skill: Heating (Zero Tier) ↑
Cost: 1 MP
Description: For 1 minute, raises the temperature of a touched object to 100°C.
...
Looking over the new skills and spell descriptions, Aaron was not surprised to see the zero-tier spells cost only 1 MP.
Zero-tier life magic really did offer no help in combat.
No wonder so few magic casters in this world bothered to learn more than a couple of them.
Even in YGGDRASIL, there was a cap on skill points.
For people in this world, learning magic took effort, and each magic caster also seemed to have a limit on how many spells they could know at each stage.
In that situation, almost no one would waste time on zero-tier spells.
Suddenly,
Aaron noticed the "↑" mark after the two zero-tier spells.
"This is…"
His eyes widened and his body trembled. "So my earlier guess was actually right."
When flipping through the scroll catalog at the Magic Caster Guild, he had seen that the spell Paper Creation appeared twice—once as zero-tier, once as 1st-tier.
That unusual detail had caught his attention.
The tiered magic system in YGGDRASIL had very clear, rigid divisions.
But here, the life magic developed independently by people in this world could apparently be raised to different tiers.
That made Aaron wonder if the spells created by native casters differed fundamentally from the tiered magic in the game.
That was why he had bought two zero-tier spells in order to cross-check his theory.
"Upgrade."
He fixed his gaze on the two zero-tier spells.
As each spell consumed 1 skill point, both of them changed.
Skill: Paper Creation (1st Tier)
Cost: 5 MP
Description: Creates 800 sheets of high-quality paper. For each additional point of mana spent, create 400 more sheets. No upper limit.
...
Skill: Heating (1st Tier)
Cost: 5 MP
Description: For 1 minute, raises the temperature of a touched object to 150°C.
...
Reading the updated information, Aaron was both pleased and slightly puzzled.
How to put it…
His hypothesis was confirmed: the life magic unique to this world could be raised in tier. But so far, the changes did not seem particularly dramatic.
Also, the "↑" marks after both spells had disappeared.
"By the standard tier progression, levels 1–7 can learn 1st-tier magic, and levels 8–14 can learn 2nd-tier magic."
He thought to himself, "It's probably just that my level isn't high enough yet, so I can't push them further."
At the same time, he wondered if, given enough progress, he could raise these two spells all the way to the power of a 10th-tier spell.
However—
even if he did push them that far, would these auxiliary zero-tier spells the natives had created ever reach the true might of standard 10th-tier magic?
Usefulness was one question.
The other was whether it was worth spending precious skill points to rank up such spells at all.
After all, life magic was meant for support. That needed careful thought.
Aaron drew a deep breath, his eyes still bright with excitement and surprise.
Whatever the case,
this was a method of acquiring 10th-tier magic he had never even considered before. Practically no native in this world could cast such spells.
With no one using them,
he had no way to spend skill points to learn any 10th-tier magic.
More importantly—the Great Tomb had no intel whatsoever on this type of spell.
After sorting his thoughts,
Aaron rubbed his temples to ease the fatigue and lay back on the bed.
Most of these ideas could be tested later.
For now, the most important thing was still leveling up. He could not put the cart before the horse.
"Sleep," he told himself, forcing down the excitement.
The next morning,
at first light,
Aaron was already up. He left the inn and began buying food and key supplies.
With the Item Box acting as a large space-bag, he did not have to worry much about storing food or it spoiling.
For 2 gold,
he bought nearly a month's worth of provisions. To avoid attracting attention by buying so much at once,
he went to several different shops and picked up a batch at each. Just buying food took up the entire morning.
After a casual lunch,
he went to purchase weapons. His short sword, cracked and chipped, was no longer usable.
At 1 silver apiece, he bought 10 ordinary iron swords, plus a light suit of soft armor for protection, spending 1 gold altogether.
Next,
he returned to the Magic Caster Guild. Because they did not offer 2nd-tier scrolls for general sale, he had to reveal himself as a divine caster.
Only then could he, for 3 gold, buy a 2nd-tier Identify Item scroll for appraising objects.
Even though it was a 2nd-tier spell, Identify Item was neither an offensive nor a support spell in the usual sense, so its price was similar to that of a 1st-tier offensive scroll.
Once he had all his basic gear,
Aaron went to the Adventurer Guild and purchased intel dossiers on the Great Forest of Tob.
That cost him another 2 gold.
By the time all his preparations were done, he had spent 8 gold and was left with only 6 gold and 7 silver.
Two days passed in a flash.
[Lower Wind Month], June 1st.
Wearing a black robe, with an iron sword at his left hip and a waterskin at his right, Aaron left E-Rantel after two days of rest and headed north.
The Great Forest of Tob was a vast, primeval jungle encircling the Azerlisia Mountains, lying to the north of E-Rantel.
It was home to many dangerous monsters and demi-human races, one of humanity's forbidden zones. Even top-ranking adventurers only dared to operate around its outermost edges.
______
(≧◡≦) ♡ Support me and read 20 chapters ahead – patreon.com/Mutter
For every 50 Power Stones, one extra chapter will be released on Saturday.