The Empires Rise

Looking at the quest and re-reading the bottom, I am stunned. Why did it lower my rewards? I reached level 4. It should register as completed!

I read the quest once again, trying to figure out why I didn't complete the one task.

It took me a second to figure out where I had gone wrong. Smacking my forehead, I realized my mistake.

The quest wanted me to be level 3 before the attack on the settlement, not during the attack on the settlement...

Frustrated that I missed out on a probably great reward, I completed the quest to receive my rewards.

- Rewards Granted:

2 X Medium Wooden Consumables Chests

2 X Tiny Class Experience Bags -

Sighing at the rewards, I realized they weren't as bad as I had expected. Thankfully, I over-completed the spells I needed to learn, which gave me the extra chest and two tiny experience bags.

I pile these rewards with the rest of them. I take a small break from all the hubbub.

Going through my notifications, I close the ones telling me about my Mana Heart progressing and focus on the skill levels I received during my meditation.

- Congratulations, your skill, 'Arcane Shot,' has reached level 8.

Congratulations, your skill, 'Mana Circulation,' has reached level 8.

Congratulations, your skill, 'Mana Control,' has reached level 6.

Congratulations, your skill, 'Leadership,' has reached level 5.

Congratulations, your skill, 'Minor Healing,' has reached level 6.

Congratulations, your skill, 'Shield,' has reached level 6.

Congratulations, your skill, 'Mend,' has reached level 3.

Congratulations, your skill, 'Nautre's Grasp,' has reached level 6. -

With all the skill levels, I am pleased with the progress of each of the skills.

Taking a deep breath, I look around and see the different chests and experience bags in front of me.

Each experience bag from completing the event gives 60 points, while the two tiny bags only give 10 points.

Using three of the experience bags, I could level up to five and then hold on to the rest for when I want to level up again in the future quickly.

Proceeding with this plan, I use three of my five. Class experience bags and level up.

With the level up, I receive the following stats:

Wisdom + 2

Intelligence + 1

Constitution + 1

Free Points + 1

Diving into my basic stat sheet again really shocks me.

- Name: Drake Taldrit

Health 80/80

Mana 280/280

Class: Mage

Class Level: 5

Experience 22/500

Affinity: Life, Nature, Death, Corruption

Special Class: Noble

Level: 5

Oaths of Fielty 62/75

Profession: Enchanter

Profession Level: 1

Experience 9/25

Attributes:

Strength 1

Intelligence 14

Wisdom 14

Charisma 6

Dexterity 1

Constitution: 8

Free Points: 1 -

Another 40 points of mana and 10 points of health encouraged me to explore independently.

Next on my list of things to do is open the consumables chests. When I do, they reward me with the following:

- 7 X Basic Mana Potion

1 X Basic Healing Potion

5 X Random Stat Scroll

5 X Basic Throwing Knife -

Taking all of these items and putting them off on the side, I try to remember to grab my personal storage bag the next time I am heading out.

Next, I open my Personal Reward Chest. Rubbing my hands together, I prey under my breath for any gods of luck to shine on me.

When I open the chest, a pair of pants rests at the bottom. Analyzing the pants shows me their stats.

- Initiate Mages Pants: +1 to Defense, +1 to Wisdom, +1 to Spell Damage -

Once I equip the pants, changing out my now tattered pants. I received a notification.

- Congratulations on equipping three pieces of the Initiate Mage set. You have gained a bonus +1 to Spell Damage and have a slight increase in learning new spells up to tier 1. -

Tier 1 spells, that sounds interesting. I wonder what those spells will look like, and how I would get a tier one spell is another thing I need to consider.

Closing this last notification, I head out of the manor. Looking around, I find people either strolling about or lying on the ground, still resting from the battles. From what I can see, everyone has reached at least level 3, and some people, like myself, have even used the bags of experience to reach level 4 or even 5.

I proceed to the enchanting hut and find Muiress there. I wave at him, "How are you doing Muiress?"

"Not great; after the battles, Vranjaya kept bothering me, and it wasn't until I came here that she finally left me alone," he sighs, a little depressed.

"Well, I am sorry you haven't gotten any time to rest. Hopefully, some more work will recharge your batteries," I give him the biggest smile I can put on now.

"Don't you have work to do?"

"Like?"

"We did have several people die in the last wave, and their bodies need to be taken care of."

"I didn't see anyone looking for me, so someone else may have taken it upon themselves to deal with the fallen."

"That may be true. Maybe you should bring it up tomorrow at the meeting you want to hold."

"Yeah, I should. At least if we manage to summon their families, they should be given some form of compensation."

"That would be for the best." He nods his head, and then the building silences us.

Noticing the quiet, I head to my table and work on enchanting.

With so much more mana at my disposal and my mana control higher, I could quickly go through all the nodes on the weapon enchantment.

Once that has been completed, I encounter a different node form. This one has a door inside. Curious, I fill out this form, and it bursts open once 20 mana has been sent inside.

Noticing something had happened on the shelf, I took a closer look. The original sigil and my progress had crumbled and been replaced with this new sigil. From this new sigil, there are now several pathways through which it can progress.

Inspecting the pathway gives me more information.

- Path of the Warrior: Choosing this path will cause the sigil to give stats focused on warrior classes primarily. -

Inspecting the other two pathways, I learn they are the paths of the hunter and the mage.

Focusing on one of the paths, a notification appears.

- Do you want to walk down the Path of the Mage? Doing so will lock you out of the other paths until you have completed the initial part of the path. -

Finding it interesting, I turned to ask Muiress, only to see that he was at the same point as me. He smiled at me and motioned for me to leave the building with him.

Following his lead, I head out with him.

"So what have you found out, Drake?"

"I just finished one of the sigils, and now I can pick a path. The options presented are the paths of the warrior, hunter, and mage."

"Did you get any other information?"

"Only that the other paths will be locked until I complete the initial part of the chosen path."

"OK, how much mana are you at? And what is your profession level at?"

Checking my mana, I noticed I am at 129/280, and the experience I received for completing the sigil fully.

- Congratulations on completing 100% of a sigil and opening the path lock; you have received 100 experience points. -

With that chuck of experience points, I could level up my enchanting to level 3. When I share this news, he looks at me with disgust.

"What?"

"Why must you have the good luck to have such deep mana reserves?" He becomes depressed again.

"Sorry?" I half-heartedly apologize.

"Don't worry about it," he waves me off. If you have so much mana available, I recommend you complete all of the initial sigils and see what sort of paths they provide for you."

That sounds like a good idea; I thank him for his opinion and tell him I must regenerate my mana before I complete another sigil.

Heading back inside, I start my mana circulation. With the increase in levels for this skill, my mana quickly fills, and an hour later, 88 points have restored my mana, and I can complete another sigil.

This process continued for several hours. During this time, I would use my mana to complete one of the sigils and then circulate my mana to restore it.

I knew what paths each provided by the time I was done with all four sigils.

Weapon:

Path of the Warrior

Path of the Hunter

Path of the Mage

Armor:

Path of Light Armor

Path of Medium Armor

Path of Heavy Armor

Accessory:

Path of Statistics Increase

Path of Skill Damage Increase

Path of Experience Increase

Defensive Buildings:

Path of Durability

Path of Damage

Path of Construction

A notification came up the moment I finished all the initial paths.

- Congratulations, you have completed the basic sigils for the initial randomly drawn enchanting sigils. Would you like to generate more basic sigils? Yes/No -