Day 76, 5:20 PM

  With ten attribute points to spare, I sank three of them into intellect, to round it at thirty-five, increasing my mental acuity by a third, reaching around eleven times the base human intellect. My intention was to use the increase to help me reach my next level as well as to find the overlapping spells from my and Edna’s experiment. That’s when I realized a shocking truth.

  The points did not make me smarter at all. Sure, I can now calculate numbers even faster, but if the average human IQ is one hundred, I should be sailing the sea of over one thousand. And yet, things which baffled me before still baffle me. I’m tempted to burn another seven points and push my wisdom to match my intellect just to see what would happen, but that would leave me with no spare points in case of emergency.

  After some careful consideration, I bump it by two, to reach thirty. I meditate on the spell duplicates, nothing. Consider the potential identity of the we behind the Guide and find no new answers.

  It’s kind of disappointing that I deceived myself about the attribute’s nature. What it does is increase your ability. It doesn’t propel you from the species’ average. The funny thing is, it was obvious, I just deluded myself.

  When Edna replaced Fyoor’s rickety body and reshaped me into Griff, my stats remained the same, despite the body growing considerably stronger and healthier. If that wasn’t an obvious clue, I don’t know what is. But it’s easy to point out such things in retrospect. The important question is - what can I do to avoid such lapses in the future? Probably nothing.

  I need to educate myself, to broaden my mind and experience, maybe dedicate a whole life to living like a hermit and reinvent everything from language to nuclear physics. I shake my head.

  That would drive me insane. Well, more insane.

  I check my level up condition, the reason for assigning five attribute points into my already over-inflated mind.

  Invent a new spell.

  Edna told me I should try to reach the mage class, with Advanced Mana Ambivalence already a reward enough.

  “You still haven’t given up?” Edna sits next to me.

  “The more difficult the level up condition, the better the reward.” It’s kind of obvious, but I feel obliged to offer an explanation. “You said that developing a spell takes between a couple of years and a couple of decades.”

  She nods. “For experienced mages, but that’s not the problem. What bothers me is the trouble you faced when learning fifty different spells. What if you dedicate twenty years to the effort, and the Guide decides your spell is not new?”

  I’ve asked myself the same question already.

  “I don’t know.” That’s not true. I do know, but I’m reluctant to give up.

  I need to rush through the levels and classes and gain as much power as possible. That is what I resolved myself to do in Everrain. Sinking years into a maybe is unacceptable.

  “Which spell do you have in mind for my class advancement?”

  “Honorable Alchbert’s Wave of Fire should be perfect for you. You can cast it once, spend most of your mana on it, then wade into the melee you like so much.”

  I’m kind of offended. I don’t enjoy melee, cracking heads and shattering bodies is not something I love to do. It’s just that I’m damn good at it. While burning things from a far seems like a reasonable way of fighting, there’s a problem. It’s mana intensive, and once you’re out, whatever’s coming for you will eat you alive.

  Having an absurd body, further amplified by magic and encased in high-grade heavy armor means I can fight for hours, possibly days, especially if magic can eliminate or reduce fatigue. And having a spell which would grant me a sudden burst of speed or even teleportation ability to flee when things become too difficult seems like the best way to ensure maximum staying power and survivability.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  But yeah, others would probably take it as loving melee a lot.

  “Are there any spells which allow instantaneous travel, or which alter the flow of time around my body?”

  Edna stares, then understands the underlying question. “There are spells which allow you to fly, or move at extraordinary speeds. Travel without movement is impossible, as is large-scale alteration of time. You can change the flow inside a set area, but the spell shatters when a large enough body moves to enter the space or tries to leave it.”

  “What if I make the area follow me?”

  She shakes her head. “The bubble of time still interacts with the ground, lots of ground. It will shatter when you take a step.”

  “What about the hyper-stimulator?”

  “It speeds up portions of your body needed to think and perceive, I think it doesn’t break the skin, and since the flesh touching the spell’s outer layer remains more or less the same, it doesn’t interfere with it. That’s also why getting wounded causes it to fail, just like many other spells.”

  I consider the implications, magic seems to follow some sort of conservation of mass, energy, or possibly mana.

  “Do you have any other questions, or shall we head to the next floor?”

  “I have plenty, but I need to think some more.” I stand and head for the stairs leading down, but stop after making a single step. “Oh, and Edna?”

  She looks at me.

  “Thank you for your guidance and patience. I will probably need that lesson on Honorable Alchbert’s Wave of Fire tonight.”

  She suppresses a smile and nods, and I lead the way down the stairs.

  There are no spiderwebs. The treeline is in our face, the grass is tall, obscuring everything, and Batsy is ready.

  Edna pulses with mana behind me, and the jungle boils.

  “It’s coming, there’s only one.”

  Firewave consumes the jungle before me, and the gigantic centipede screeches as the forest crumbles into ash around it. It rears, raising two dozen scythe-like limbs into the air, clicking its mandibles at me.

  Edna retreats, pushing the girls back up the stairs. The centipede’s too big to enter the stairway, it’s almost as tall as a bull, and I think most of its jungle is its lair. The creature has its beady eyes on me and surges forward.

  It’s the biggest one of its kind I ever fought, and I jump out of its way. The monster crashes head-first into the wall, cracking stone. I jump onto its back, intending to smash its eyes into a pulp.

  “Woah, boy!” I mutter, and unbelievably, the centipede woahs. It stops moving and turns docile, stunning me.

  “Master Rider,” I say, recalling my legendary achievement and how it affects mountable beasts. I haven’t used the skill in centuries, never had the chance, but it might turn out to be an excellent counter to giant bugs.

  While helpful, it doesn’t change my plan. The abomination is too big to leave the floor, and we want it dead and the floor clear. It will turn hostile once I dismount, so I creep towards its head. The centipede’s carapace is smooth, the segmented plates wide enough for me to stick my sword through.

  At the final segment, just at the base of its skull, I sink my sword into its skull, all the way to the hilt. The betrayed creature spasms, snapping its mandibles, and I jump away, watching its death throes.

  “It’s dead!” I shout half a minute later, and Edna comes down the stairs, followed by the girls.

  “Should we burn the jungle?” The floor is dark, but not pitch black like those sanitized by Edna’s magic.

  “We can before we head for the next floor. The smoke will go up, and by the time we’re done, it won’t be a factor in our return to the surface.”

  We do that. Edna recovers her mana, sets the forest on fire, and we head down. Floor after floor, we remove singular, oversized centipedes, set the jungle on fire and head down.

  Lucy, Gila, and I all get another attribute point, then another at the forty-third floor.

  Things proceed smoothly until, on the forty-seventh floor, Edna bursts into laughter.

  “Finally! Finally!”

  I’m glad for her. She was waiting for that attribute point for quite a few years. Unfortunately, it won’t solve her problems, only delay them.

  “It’s close to midnight. Shall we take a break for the evening?”

  Edna nods, happier than when I saved her from the pyre. Gila and Lucy prepare dinner, while Edna explains Honorable Alchbert’s Wave of Fire, a giddy smile still tugging at her lips. She clears the greenery surrounding our camp as a part of her lesson, and I try to mimic her.

  The song is easy, I’ve heard it hundreds of times already, but the hand gestures prove surprisingly difficult. Sparks fly at the merest gesture, but that’s the extent of it.

  “Why won’t it burn?”

  Edna looks at my failed attempt and clicks her tongue, that’s the first time I’ve seen her make the gesture.

  “Too much destruction. You destroy even the fire before it starts burning. Focus more on the flame, less on the reducing things to ash bit.”

  I nod. Most humans probably wouldn’t have any idea what she was talking about, but Advanced Awakened Consciousness and Initial Arcane Lore form a pretty solid picture of what she’s saying.

  I tone down the prevalent train of disintegration, and instead focus on the barely present image of a tsunami of lava burning everything in its wake.

  Fire bursts from my hands, and I black out.