Chapter 14 | Narrative Control

“There. Open wi- Agh! It bit my fucking finger!” Theo shouted, the spoon in his hand falling and clanking against the ground. He slapped the crown of the young man’s head with all his might and stumbled away, holding his hand. He would have bitten my finger right off if I didn’t have so much endurance, he thought while inspecting the wound, blood dripping from the quarter-centimeter cut. “Are you a dog? Why are you biting me!?”

“You are the dogs! Bastards. Release me!”

“I’m pretty sure ‘it’ is a ‘he’,” Satou commented from across the room, his face as still as ever. Theo couldn’t quite figure out if he was trying to make a joke or actually trying to correct him. “Hostages tend to do that; you should’ve held the spoon by its end.”

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” He gritted his teeth. He was fine with being entrusted with the meals of this guy. But Satou could have at least given him a tip or two. Fortunately, the wound was visibly healing. The upgrade in his vitality efficiency was very apparent.

[You have wrangled away narrative control from a main character.]

[Narrative efficiency: 1.0165%]

[You have leveled up! x3]

[+6 Attribute Points]

[Breaking down the narrative essence…]

[New skill gained: Sange (Epi—]

[The grade of skill surpasses the Narrative extract. Downgraded.]

[New skill gained: Ogre Vitality (Uncommon) (Level 1)]

[Ogre Vitality (Uncommon) (Level 1)]

[This main character has gotten an ogre-like vitality from arduous training.]

[Increased efficiency of Vitality.]

[Increased efficiency of Endurance.]

[+0.5 vitality and endurance.]

Aren’t I getting a bit too tanky for a mage? I’m not complaining, but…

The notifications had appeared right after handling the situation with this guy. It was a hard decision, of course. Should he have finished the job? Left the guy there instead of tying him up and carrying him with them? But in the end, having the guy under surveillance seemed to be the best way to deal with him. You never knew how or when this kind of main character might come back to bite you in the ass.

Better to keep him in sight, Theo thought before placing the plate down. The guy didn’t seem too hungry. For the soup, at least. Maybe there was something more appetizing about it, but he was practically salivating for Theo’s finger.

After restraining the guy, they had settled into a safe room once again to rest and recover. They were supposed to be really close to the exit, and according to what Satou said, the surroundings of The Tower of Fracture were busy all year round.

I should get ready.

This recent encounter with the guy, who refused to tell his name or communicate with them in any meaningful way or form, had provided him with quite the power boost.

Bringing up his character sheet, Theo considered where to allocate his free points.

[Free Points: 6]

His spell repertoire was dry, to say the least. And he couldn’t find a way around the conversion problem he was facing.

Yes, Arcane Shot was quite effective against the entities of the tower, but that was as far as it went. When it came to physical beings, it would at best work as a smokescreen of sorts.

And he had tried some other forms of spells: earth, fire, water; all of them faced the same issue. When mana transformed into another substance, it would diminish to the point of becoming unusable. Eye-balling it, Theo would need about fifty points in mana if he wanted to cast a single, proper-sized fireball.

Then mana isn’t the problem; there is an issue with my casting method, Theo thought. Fifty points of mana was a lot. Even now, he could spray quite a lot of mana from his hands. If he depleted his mana pool and found a way to release it faster, he could cover an entire safe room in his foggy mana for a couple of seconds.

Unfortunately, this is something that needs extensive testing and time; I don’t have that.

So, Theo sought out more immediate ways of improving his survivability.

Let’s start with vitality and endurance. If the skill improves their efficiency, every point I put into them will be worth more.

[Vitality 2.567 –> 3.067]

[Endurance: 2.881 –> 3.381]

The changes were immediate, but not disorienting. His muscles shifted under his shirt, his body becoming more toned. He could feel it; they became easier to use. More resilient. His measly strength of about 1 could now go for much longer. It let him punch walls as much as he wanted, maybe.

And then the ungodly energy that came with every upgrade in vitality. It carried an addicting euphoric effect, unlike any of the other stats. The kicks he got from every tenth of a point were impossible to describe. He had never tried drugs before, but this was probably what it felt like.

Theo sighed and lamented his situation. He would be commenting ‘Why is he spending his points on useless physical stats? All-rounders are useless! He should be dumping it all on mana,’ right about now. But he didn’t quite feel like he would learn how to cast spells simply by increasing his mana.

I’m slowly becoming a disgrace upon magekind…

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Never mind the blasphemy against all intelligence builds, he had to do what he had to do.

It wasn’t that hard to spend half a point every other level to keep himself up and running. Sure, strength and dexterity would pretty much be useless for someone like him. But vitality and endurance were different. Many main characters tended to ignore the need for a durable and healthy body in exchange for a couple of points in magic stats. Theo wouldn’t be one of them.

The system didn’t really seem to have a stat that affected his mental capacities other than maybe his perception. But that was wrong. If a body with high vitality could supply his brain with a shit ton of energy, and high endurance could keep him thinking in the direst of situations, they were worth a hundred percent of the effort.

Then the rest of the points, Theo obviously couldn’t ignore his main stats.

[Perception: 3.17 –> 5.17]

[Mana: 3.712 –> 6.712]

[Free Points: 1]

I should keep one point for emergencies. Never know when it might come in handy.

The change in his perception was the weirdest. His vision got sharper, his skin prickled with some sort of electricity before his brain got used to it and filtered the unnecessary information for him. The sterile corridors of the tower started smelling of a fruity perfume. An incredibly fragile, weak scent. But it was there nonetheless. Gone unnoticed right up until now.