ALL NOVEL Chapter 30 “A small moment of calm before the storm”
Chapter 30
“A small moment of calm before the storm”
“What are you doing?” Koden asked her from the opposite cell with his bushy eyebrows furrowed as black as his hair, and his green eyes fixed on her.
“Haven’t you ever seen those movies where someone finds a way to escape from prison?” She answered him in perfect Spanish, making him frown as he tried to understand what she had said. As she took the opportunity to touch and inspect every stone that made up the walls of her cell to level up the skill.
“What did you say? Could you repeat that, please?” He answered in broken Spanish.
Kalysto looked at him, arching an eyebrow. The little light from the two crescent moons coming through the small window high on the wall to her left, at the back of the cell-filled alleyway, illuminated her face. A pair of torches placed on either side of the other cells illuminated a little of the dingy, dark corridor where the wailing of some prisoners could be heard, along with the sobs of the other people who had been brought against their will from Earth.
How does Koden expect to seduce a Spanish teacher when, even though he attends her classes, he doesn’t even bother to learn her language well? She questioned, unable to comprehend the tactics he was using to try to woo Jessica.
“Escape from here?” She answered slowly, hoping that this time he would understand her words, and by the way his eyes widened and his face filled with emotion, she guessed that this time he had understood her.
“Inspect!” she whispered, ignoring him again as he began to check the nearest wall. As Kalysto continued with her new self-imposed task, she touched every stone she could reach to touch from the walls surrounding her cell. Annoyed that she couldn’t glean much information from when she tried to inspect that woman dressed in white, beyond a bunch of question marks and that her name was Ivhana.
What kind of ability was that... And how can I find out what kind of abilities other people have? She questioned herself just at the same moment when two small windows opened before her.
[Eka stone. Class: common. Type of rock resistant to moisture and heat. Commonly used in the construction of ancient castles and prisons. For more information on the weaknesses of a material, you must level up the skill].
And while she did not see any information that would be useful to her, she moved on to the next rock and repeated exactly the same procedure, getting the same answer. She then set about closing the windows after inspecting at least five consecutive rocks, so that they wouldn’t disturb her vision so much, but so that it wouldn’t be too obvious what she was doing in case anyone else besides Koden could see her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could watch as he continued to search for any possible nooks and crannies in his cell that might be useful for them to escape. Though she doubted he was also taking the opportunity to level up his skills.
Koden even shook the grating, which caught the guards’ attention.
“Be quiet for once if you don’t want me to come over there and beat the crap out of you myself, heroes or not!” shouted one of the guards standing at the beginning of the long corridor.
“What are you doing?“ Edward whispered this time.
“Ehhh...”Koden, with his hands still on the metal bars that held him prisoner, did not know what to answer and immediately looked at Kalysto for an answer. From the path his eyes took and the location from which Edward’s voice came, Kalysto could deduce that he was in the cell to the right of hers. Diagonal to Koden and across from one of the twins, which thanks to the lost puppy dog look he gave her when she approached the grille, made her realize it was Gabriel.
“This is an old castle, and surely it must have some secret passages somewhere,” she answered him in Japanese. Not wanting the guards or any of the other people who had been kidnapped along with them to find out what they were talking about.
“Secret passages?” Edward asked, wanting to make sure he had understood what she had said, and answering her in Japanese as well.
“Yes.”
“I’ll help too!” The young man got excited and from the way Gabriel looked at him for a few minutes before he started copying him, it was obvious that he had also understood what they were apparently doing.
Kalysto didn’t bother to correct them, instead she turned and continued inspecting each of the stones on the wall that separated her cell from Edward’s.
When she finished with that wall, she began with the opposite one, and two rocks later, several windows opened before her.
[The skill Inspect has been leveled up.]
That made her smile, until the next window opened.
[Warning: the user has only 10 MP left. Please wait a few minutes before attempting to use any skill again or your health will be severely affected.]
Kalysto grimaced, and at that moment, her headache returned.
“Fantastic, that’s all I need!” She nodded her head and sat down on the mattress that was on a rectangular stone that looked more like a sacrificial altar than the base of a bed. And she grimaced again as she looked at the dirty cloth lining that covered the mattress made of straw, the pillow, and the thin folded sheet. She shook them, trying to remove the excess dust on the cloth, but noticing the stains of what appeared to be dried blood and an unknown black substance, on the pillow.
“I hope purifying will also serve to clean it,” she whispered before saying, “Status window,” and began to check her stats as time passed and her mana refilled, then pulled her cell phone out of inventory. To check the exact moment when her mana points were recharging.
[Status window]
Name: Kalysto Luna
Age: 21 years old
Race: human
Level: 6
Fatigue: 97
Class: Wizard (Normal)
Profession: N/A.
Title: N/A
Affiliation: N/A
HP: 90/360
MP: 10/254
Strength: 26
Vitality: 31
Agility: 35
Endurance: 32
Intelligence: 39
Charisma: 2
Luck: 1
State: tired. Mentally exhausted.
Available points: 3
It would be convenient to raise my luck. She thought, but, even though she had been healed after she received that heavy blow to the head, if she hadn’t raised her vitality and stamina a few hours ago when she went up to level five, she would surely be dead now.
So she hesitated.
Luck is not something that has helped me survive so far. But if she was honest with herself, it bothered her that Edward had so much of it. Maybe that’s why it’s so easy for him to get away with it even though he’s so weak.
Kalysto looked at her stats again as she debated, noting how her mana points had gone up to eleven. Suspecting it had only been a minute, she activated the timer on her cell phone, just to be sure. As she debated again about which stat she should pay more attention to.
Intelligence definitely takes priority, I have very little mana. But again the doubt arose with her stamina, vitality, and strength. The first two were a big weakness for any healer and a big disadvantage for a priestess. And just like for any mage, a priestess needed a high intelligence score, which gave her very little opportunity to raise her other stats. And making me an easy target for any enemy.
And she definitely didn’t like that.
A full minute passed and her cell phone vibrated at the same moment her mana points went up to twelve.
One point per minute, then. She thought, annoyed as she realized that there were two hundred and forty-two minutes left until her mana points would be completely filled up again. That’s far too long. And remembering that her new boss could summon her again at any moment, she turned her back on Koden and pulled a mana potion from her inventory and as soon as the statutory ten minutes between potions had passed, she drank it.
I need to be able to get stronger potions. She complained. Maybe I’ll have some luck and be able to learn to make them myself.
But she had always seen luck as something she forged on her own, but after seeing Edward’s stats and being aware of how easily he got out of trouble with minimal or no effort on his part, she thought again that maybe it was a good idea to turn it up.
Even if it was just a little.
So, feeling hesitant, she decided to continue with her review, but when she pressed on the strength stat the screen that popped up just said:
[Strength: basic stat that is raised by leveling up or by allocating free points in it.]
How useless. She thought.
Then she did the same with vitality.
[Vitality: basic statistic that is raised by leveling up or by assigning free points to it. Each point assigned to this stat will increase the HP of the user by 20 points.]
She then pressed on agility, but just like the strength stat, it didn’t give her any new information. Still, she didn’t give up and continued to review each one.
[Endurance: ability to perform an activity or exertion for as long as possible. Raising this stat reduces the ability to take physical damage, strengthening the defense. This is a basic stat needed for tanks.]
I definitely need to raise this one. She thought, full of excitement. And immediately assigned a point, raising her stamina to thirty-three. Then she pressed on the intelligence stat.
[Intelligence: basic statistic that is increased by leveling up or by assigning free points to it. Each point allocated to this stat will increase the user’s MP by 14 points. This is a basic stat needed by mages/wizards, healers, and saints.]
She bit her lip, her fingers itching for the need to raise this stat. But she had already allotted a point to it when she went up to level five, so maybe this time, since she was locked in a cell and with no chance to go and face off against monsters, maybe, she could afford to spend her available points elsewhere.
I might not get a chance like this again. She excused herself.
Then she pressed on charisma and, to her surprise, the window that opened gave her less information than the previous ones.
[Charisma: ???????? The user’s identification skill level is too low to see these stats.]
Damn! She complained. How high do I need to get this thing to finally stop seeing so many question marks everywhere? She though, annoyed as she remembered that something similar had happened to her with the woman who had entered her mind.
[Luck: ???????? The user’s identification skill level is too low to see these stats.]
This is it! She thought with annoyance, deciding on an impulse to spend her last available points on increasing her luck, tired of absolutely everything in her life always being one constant struggle after another. Maybe this way I’ll finally start doing well without so much effort.
But less than a minute later, she had already regretted doing it.
Why the hell did I do that? She scolded herself. What I need right now is mana, not luck! The more mana I have, the faster I can level up my skills and the better chance I have of surviving!
And she wanted to hit her forehead with something, but restrained herself. Instead, noticing that half an hour had already passed while she was checking her stats and debating whether or not to raise her luck, she approached her pillow which had a black stain of something she wasn’t sure what it was, next to one that looked like dried blood. And with a grimace, she began to check a doubt she had been left with from the first time she used purification on herself and got the impression that the bloodstain on her clothes had decreased in size.
“Purification! Purification!“ She whispered as she did her best to hide the golden glow her ability had left behind when used. Frightened at being discovered, she turned around, only to see that Koden had already laid down on his attempted bed and turned his back on her. The chill of the night creeping in through the small barred window high up on the end wall of the corridor, against which, at opposite ends, the headboards of her and Koden’s beds were placed.
“Purification! Purification! Purification!" She continued whispering, with a little more confidence this time. "Purification! Purification! Purification!”
Would there be a way to summon the abilities just by thinking about them? She questioned and immediately tried it.
Purification! But contrary to what she expected, she felt tired and dizzy right away and watched as half of her mana drained quickly. So she stopped and continued whispering until her new bed, pillow, and blanket, looked clean enough to sleep on and not have to worry about germs or an infection.
And despite her headache, she felt content with her progress.
An hour later, her inspection skill was already at level three, after she checked every single stone in the three walls surrounding her cell. She had even used it against the grille.
[Cell grille. Class: Common. Low-grade grille, resistant to fire, rust, and moisture. Can be bent if the user possesses strength greater than 60. Weak to ice magic.]
Kalysto let out a long sigh. At least, this time it gave me a little more information. She consoled herself.
If only I had ice magic, I could freeze this thing and escape from here. She thought.
And she spent the next two hours raising the inspection skill to level five while inspecting each of the two hundred and fifty-one health potions, the three hundred mana potions, and the one hundred and fifty-two bottles of revitalizing potion, she had in her inventories.
Kalysto felt very proud of her loot as she enjoyed wrapping her clean sheet around herself and after taking a swig of one of the low quality holy water potions she had stolen from the invading army after wasting a health potion to get rid of the severe headache she got after using so many times her skill and spending so much mana so quickly, only to find out that the health potion did not remove the headache and only slightly lessened it.
I wasted a potion so foolishly. She was annoyed. But at least she had discovered that the constant use of her abilities increased her fatigue, and that, if she continually healed herself with potions and kept spending mana continuously and relentlessly, her health began to decline. At least it was an interesting discovery... painful and expensive, but interesting.
Then she kicked off her shoes, let down her hair, and turned her back to Koden. Her eyes began to close, and the accumulated tiredness, along with sleepiness, quickly took hold of her.
A single thought lingered in her mind as drowsiness took over:
If only I could heal myself, this would all be so much easier.