Wednesday morning. It was four and a half days until the Quests supposed deadline of Sunday at midnight, meaning that Sasha had a good bit of time to prepare. First she went to the auction. Already knowing what she wanted to buy made this take a couple of minutes. Of course, with the added charges for a cash purchase, quick delivery, and an Auction ATM Card she didn't have enough money, but it was mentioned that Items could be sold to the delivery unit for money. Luckily that Minor Recovery Potion was a bit valuable. The total purchase came down to 166,550 Yen. She had 148,500, but the potion certainly would bring it up above that. Within moments the UFO came outside her window, it being Sasha's first time seeing it. It had a large parcel tied to the underside of it and it gave the instructions in an electronic voice to insert the cash and any items for selling in the top slot. Upon doing so it gave her back 46,950 Yen, the potion having sold for 65,000 Yen. After giving it the appropriate amount of money, the UFO let her take the parcel from underneath before flying off. Inside of the parcel was the two Skill Books she desired, a Chain Shirt, an ATM Card with a special background of her choice if she choose one, and one more item. A box with a note on the front, the note reading as follows. [hider=Note] We at the auction want you to succeed, so here is a little present from you to me to spice up your purchase. From: Gin, the Auction Dealer. [/hider] In the smaller box was something called a Basic Arcane Tool Kit and, according to the description on the box, it said 'Everything you need for getting a start on performing your arcane magic \\'. Unfortunately, it seemed like performing said rituals would have to wait. Knowledge needed to be increased in rank by 2 before she could learn Ritual Arcane Magic, and Ritual Arcane Magic needed to be Rank 5 before she could learn Talisminic Object Creation. So with that, she needed to level up twice. Kobolds would no longer be a good source of XP, and going back and forth from Genji's consumed alot of time, so her best option was to grind ID Create and Escape so that she could fight something better. --- Sasha Stamina: 3 (Critical!) --- Sasha's stamina surprisingly held up throughout the long morning in which she did mass grinding ID Create and Escape relentlessly for at least two thirds of the morning. ID Create seemed to level up pretty slow, but the fact that she continuously used both Create and Escape with only one little break allowed her to gain 5 Levels in Create and 4 Levels in Escape all in just two thirds of the morning, leaving only just a little bit of time before the afternoon to give her even more grinding for the day. After those nearly three hours of grinding those two Skills, a window appeared. [hider=Window] Pushing your stamina past the limit has made you tougher. +1 VIT [/hider] She could indeed feel the affect of this VIT Increase, her HP increasing by a decent bit thanks to it. After that, it was time to fight Wisps, a completely new enemy. Without the Observe Skill it would be hard to tell the basic capabilities of said enemy, but she would somehow get through it nonetheless as with using the Wisp ID Create now she was faced with nine Wisps, all Level 13. They looked like how human souls look in anime, floating white spheres that were glowing and had a sort of comet like trail to them. Sasha fought superbly, especially after figuring out the best way to combat them. Physical damage was not it. Despite getting a Critical Strike with the Daichizan, the powerful technique still didn't do a whole lot of damage, as if these things were nearly immune to physical damage. Still, she did a pretty decent bit. Also, upon getting that Critical Strike, Critical Strike went up in level and a window appeared before her. [hider=Window 1] By raising your DEX to 25, you have become pretty quick and have acquired precise, well coordinated movements as well. +1 Acrobatics, +1 Projectile Weaponry, and +1 Ban Family Sword Technique. [/hider] [hider=Window 2] A Skill has been created through a special action. By becoming much swifter and acquiring precise movements for combat, the ability to fight better while moving through and across the battle field, Precise Movement, has been created. [/hider] [hider=Precise Movement] Precise Movement (Level 1: 0/100) (Passive): Your movements in the battlefield and in general are alot more precise and coordinated. Foes are less likely to hit you even if you leave yourself open to move more quickly, giving you a +1% to Dodge Speed while doing so. Also if moving while striking you can confuse and fool your opponent with your movements, giving you a +1% bonus to Accuracy. Also if you coordinate your movements with a melee attack, you can increase the damage of said attack by 10%. To Level Up: Move in Combat, Move away from a foe in close range, move while attacking, performing a Moving Attack. [/hider] After that, it was back to using Mana Revolver and Mana Rifle. She still fought superbly though, the Foot Technique helping her dodge attacks despite the armor weighing her down, plus her newest acquired Skill also helped her out. All in all, she did pretty good. She took a few hits here and there, but it was nothing she couldn't handle despite the fact that they drained both HP and MP. The Armor really helped to protect her from those energy attacks, even though it only gave half protection against them. While she didn't Level Up, Sasha still got a good bit of stuff from that fight. So after recuperating a bit to recover MP for the next fight, Sasha lacking a MP Regeneration increase Skill like Meditation, she only had a small bit of morning time left before all she would have would be, just the afternoon and evening for more grinding, Wisps being the best choice once again. Before that though came the issue of drops, one enemy having dropped two things. The drops all were, despite Sasha not being able to tell their names, 2 Medium Soul Gems, 1 Spirit Crystal, 3 Tiny Soul Gems, and a book. Without the Observe Skill, there wasn't really much she could tell about anything, but the book was a different story. The moment she picked it up, the following Window appeared. [hider=Window] You have obtained the Skill Book for the 'Spirit Bolt' Skill. [/hider] If she touched it again as if to use it, a window asking if she would like to learn it, like all other Skill Books, would appear. If she pressed yes, a red window would appear, mentioning that she did not meet all of the requirements, the one she hadn't met yet being that it required a Wisdom Score of 20 to learn. With that also going into the Inventory for now, it was time to grind upon more Wisps. While Sasha didn't fight as well last time, she still fought pretty well. She leveled up one time as well. 4 Tiny Soul Gems and 2 Medium Soul Gems were her awards this time around. She did well against the next 10 that showed up as well, leveling up one more time. With this, she now had 10 in Knowledge. So with two thirds of the afternoon and the evening remaining, it was time to try and learn some real magic now as she now had the requirements to learn from the Beginner Arcane Magic Skill Book, the following windows appearing once she did so. [hider=Skill Get!] A Skill has been created through a Special Action. By using the Skill Book for Beginner Arcane Magic the Talent for utilizing the basics of the Arcane, Arcane Practice, has been created. [/hider] [hider=Arcane Practice] Arcane Practice (Talent Skill): You know the basic principles and theories of Arcane Magic, allowing you to begin research into this field to unlock the mysteries of the arcane to grant yourself its power. Currently you have access to three of the fields of Arcane. Manipulation, Alteration, and Enchantment. [/hider] It didn't seem to be ritual based. In fact, from the basic feeling of it, Sasha understood that she could go in one of three directions, or go in maybe all three. Manipulation was the controlling of pure arcane energies. Alteration was the basic altering of the properties of things in the world around you, and Enchantment is creating and weaving enchantments over items, foes, and allies alike. She knew that the tools in the Kit were needed, these being the Arcane Siphon, for drawing forth Arcane Energies, the cloth with the Arcane Circle inscribed upon it, and the basic Wand for controlling said energies to weave them into magic. It didn't seem like this was all for battle whatsoever, that this was more just alone research and practice, as if this type of magic wasn't really combat oriented so far anyway. Sasha decided to go for Enchantment. Since she had all afternoon, she could practice Enchantment for quite the while, and even into the evening if she wanted to. She wouldn't really be learning any specific forms of spells, but would just be practicing and researching various forms of enchantments for when she could use Enchantment magic more efficiently in battle, as for this magic it felt like if she knew how to make it or make it happen, then she could do it. --- Sasha Arcane Magic: 3 (Critical!) --- Sasha was a natural at this. She managed to perform her first enchantment rather quickly. It was strange how it worked, but Sasha was able to understand. Gather the arcane energies from the Siphon, then weave those energies into the magic she wanted to perform with her mind and using the basic principles of that field of Arcane Magic. Three windows appeared after her superb first attempt. [hider=Critical] By performing an enchantment more superbly than you should have been able to on your first try you feel more adept at Arcane Magic. +1 Arcane Practice. [/hider] [hider=Skill Get!] A Skill has been created through a special action. Through researching the field of Enchantment, an ability to better understand, use, and research enchantment, Enchantment Research, has been created. [/hider] [hider=Enchantment Research] Enchantment Research (Level 1: 0/100 XP) (Active): The research and study into the field of Enchantment, a field of Arcane Magic that involves weaving enchantments to affect something for better or worse through either enhancement or disrupting/negatively changing the properties of something. As you practice Enchantment more you will be able to learn about and create more complex Enchantment magic. To Level Up: Practice and research Enchantment magic. [/hider] For the rest of the afternoon, Sasha would be able to practice Enchantment still. --- Sasha Enchantment Research: 3 (Critical!) --- Sasha was just doing way to well at Arcane Magic. She was a natural as she practiced and researched enchantments through experimentation, since she didn't really have any materials to read. For the second third of the afternoon, she was able to learn a whole lot on the subject of enchanting. The Enchantment Research Skill rose up to Level 5 and also gained an update that all of her enchantments would now be 10% stronger. That was just for the rest of the afternoon. The evening research, which had to be stopped for a dinner break, would also be something that would happen as well. --- Sasha Enchantment Research: 34 - 28 Enchantment Research = 6 --- Sasha didn't really learn as much now as she did before. Still, she managed to learn a few things as she practiced and researched for hours and hours, probably having had to have something to take notes upon to inscribe what she did for all of her enchantments so that she could use said things later. Just one and a half more levels were gained in Enchantment Research during the evening. After her evening research was done though Sasha would be thoroughly exhausted, having gotten a good bit done, so it would be time for bed for her.