Origin ARS (Origin A.R.S. Book 2) Read online

  “See that glowing sphere? It’s a gift from the god who you prayed to for aid. Stretch out your hand and tell it that you accept it.”

  Scott looked up at the floating sphere of light that hovered above the water. Whatever was inside would be the answer that the goddess had given. He stretched his hand out and said, “I accept and appreciate your gift, Origin.”

  “Origin!” The fairy’s eyes widened and her jaw fell open. She dropped like a rock immediately afterward, and barely managed to avoid hitting the ground.

  “Uh, yeah... Is something wrong?” asked Scott

  The tiny naked girl shook her head back and forth. “No, but I’ve just never known her to answer the request of a man before. At least, not at a sacred spring...”

  “Really?” asked Scott. That was surprising. Origin was supposed to be a popular and beloved deity. Surely, she answered requests.

  “Yes.” said the fairy.

  That was an interesting bit of news. The glowing sphere of light floated over to him. When he took it in his hands a message screen popped up.

  <<< * >>>

  You have been granted a divine gift, the Miracle of Origin.

  This gift is in answer to your prayer for a way to solve your current situation.

  Gaze into the miracle and your answer will be revealed.

  <<< * >>>

  He gazed into the miracle and soon an image appeared. Honestly, he was surprised by what he saw.

  The miracle flared wildly and then disappeared. In its place appeared two curved pieces of wood that shined in the light. Scott took the items in hand and a loud orchestral fanfare erupted all around him.

  <<< * >>>

  You have been granted the divine skill: Dual-Boomerang Mastery!

  This skill is learned immediately and does not require a skill ring. You may use boomerang weapons, immediately. Dual-Boomerang Mastery allows you to dual-wield boomerangs with the same skill as you would have when wielding a single boomerang.

  <<< * >>>

  “Oooh, you were given weapons... Neat!” The fairy looked at the sleek wooden weapons then back at Scott. How lucky!

  “Absolutely... I think.” How would a boomerang solve his problem? He could probably hit monsters with them at range, but he would still be stuck where he was.

  “Go give them a try on those monsters! Who knows what might happen.” said the fairy in an encouraging manner.

  “OK. It was nice to meet you.”

  “It was nice to meet you, too. Come back whenever you need to restore your health and mana. This sacred spring will always welcome to Origin’s boyfriend.” said the fairy. She blew him a kiss then winked before disappearing from sight.

  “Origin’s boyfriend?” He was a boy, and he might be sort of like a friend... but to call him a boyfriend? He did not even know her. The fairy was probably just being overly enthusiastic or something.

  Scott checked his status and noted that he was fully healed and rested. He could go make a solid effort to finish the battle at least. He hefted his new boomerangs and looked them over. They were a miracle granted by his patron. He hoped that they would prove to be as beneficial as she seemed to think.

  Chapter 7: Preparations

  There are times in your life that you may feel that everything has gone wrong. It would seem like everything that you have done up until that point has led to an undeniably bad end. Until Scott had managed to uncover the hidden secret Fairy Grotto under the office of the Red Rock Mine, he had thought that sort of thing about his current situation.

  However, a situation might not always be as hopeless as it seemed at the time. Sometimes a little luck, and a lot of attention to detail, can drastically alter the outcome of an encounter. That might hold true, even if your own stupidity had led to the initiation of that encounter in the first place.

  “Are you saying that I can drink from this spring whenever I like?” asked Scott. The idea invigorated his weary soul. The long battle had wounded more than his body over time. He had grown tired in spirit. The sacred spring water had restored his health and magic, but he was still weary from the constant battle that he had fought. The fact that he could rest and regain his strength in a place of comfort and safety was the best thing that he had heard in days.

  The fairy spread her arms wide and exclaimed, “Yes, any time that you like. In fact, please do. It has been quite lonely for me down here.”

  “All right, you don’t know what this means for me!” Scott was excited. He had stumbled upon a free method of rapidly restoring his health and mana! It was infinite use, as well!

  The Fairy giggled at him. She did not know why he was so excited, but it was certainly nice to see. It was nice to see anyone doing anything to be honest. She had been trapped here for many years.

  “I’ll return in a moment. I need to test something, OK?” he asked.

  “OK. I’ll be here.” She smiled at him then fluttered about in a happy manner. The little blond fairy tilted her head to the side then waved at him cutely.

  He smiled at the tiny girl then left the grotto and went back up to the storage room. As soon as reached his destination he began to cast the flash spell. After the first cast, he repeated the action eleven more times. He checked his skill status for the spell and noted that he was two casts away from increasing its level.

  “Time to see if she was telling the truth!” he said with great excitement. If this worked, he would exploit the hell out of it. He could use a chance like this, and had hoped to find one for a while. He had hoped for one when he had gone to that waterfall, but in the end he had found something better than a rapid regeneration effect.

  Scott returned to the grotto and drank a little more sacred water. Less than a minute later his mana was once again completely restored. “Now, this is what I’m talking about!”

  The Fairy blinked at him in an owlish manner then began to ask questions in a rapid-fire and excited manner. “What are you talking about? Is it a fun thing? Would I like it? Is it food? Can I eat it?”

  Scott blinked at her then tried to decide which question to answer first. Eventually, he decided that they were all asking the same thing in a way. He said, “I’m a sorcerer. I need to train my spells a bit before I go back to the battle that I was fighting.”

  “Ah, and you’ll use the spring to restore your mana. That’s smart!” The fairy nodded her head up and down rapidly.

  “Thank you. I’ll be in and out for a while during my training. Is that alright?” asked Scott. He certainly hoped that it would be alright.

  “Of course! I’ll be nice to see you so frequently.” The tiny girl was quite enthusiastic about his presence. Of course, at this point she would have been happy with almost anyone popping up.

  Scott and the Fairy parted ways again. He headed back up to train his spells. She continued to flutter about with nothing else to do.

  Time passed and Scott managed to master one of his spells, the flash spell. He had decided to just use the same spell until it was completely mastered. After the flash spell reached level four a new message appeared.

  <<< * >>>

  Congratulations, you have mastered the spell: Flash!

  You are now able to choose a special one-time upgrade to further improve your spell. Please choose from the following options:

  Status Affliction Increase

  Range Boost

  Force Up

  Decrease Mana Consumption

  <<< * >>>

  “What is this? I can upgrade it?” Scott checked through the options and decided that the biggest issue with the spell was its range. He could already cast it while using only four points of mana, and he did not use it for its attack strength anyway.

  Scott chose to boost the range of the magical attack. A brief musical fanfare occurred that made him smirk then he decided to test out the attack’s new capacity. He raised his hand, palm outward and cried out, “Flash!”

  An electrical current shot out of the space in front of his hand
then traveled a short distance, about double his arm-length, before a bright light flared outward. He had to try it a few more times to get the idea of its actual range. If he used it in a tightly packed crowd he might be able to stun several opponents at once now, though the range was still a bit limited. Though, he considered the flash spell to be more of an anti-boss weapon. It was an up close and personal sort of spell that caused stuns.

  The real perk to that result is the fact that stuns affected the nervous system. It was an unlisted side-effect of that capability, but a stunned opponent was more susceptible to critical attacks. He had used that side-effect to good effect against the black grass rat overlord Gnarl Tooth, and extending the range of the effect might allow for a better chance to reach his target in the future.

  “Sweet! I wonder what the other spells will be like.” Scott almost felt like dancing after he mastered his spell. He could use it twice as often now, and he would be able to use it at greater range. What other cool things could he do with his spells in the future?

  He could do nothing else with his flash spell at the moment, so he began to work on the burn spell instead. He could only manage another few casts before he had to go back to the spring. He made the trip to the spring and chatted with the fairy girl for a moment before returning.

  The level of his spell increased not long after he had returned to train once again. He grinned then set about the task of practicing his spell. Things were progressing at a rapid pace now and it was hard to contain his excitement.

  Back in the grotto the fairy heard the repeated explosions and wondered exactly what he was doing up there. She knew that he was training spells, but it seemed like it would be interesting to watch. She fluttered around a little while thinking about how much excitement she was missing.

  After a little time passed, Scott mastered the burn spell. When options were presented to him, he viewed them with a critical eye. They were the same options that he had been given for the flash spell. “I’ll increase the force this time.”

  He did not know how other sorcerers used their spells, but he primarily used the burn spell to clear a path or to deal damage. So, exploding things better sounded like a good idea to him. He made his choice, but blinked when he saw the result. “The spell force went up by three points?”

  Scott’s eyes widened. That was a massive increase in force! It was effectively eight times stronger than it had been when he had first appeared in this world. The sorcerer stepped further toward the back of the room then called out, “Burn!”

  His customary flaming dart was now the size of a golf ball. It raced outward from his palm with deadly purpose. The explosion that occurred when it hit the wall made the whole room shake. He clutched his ears and dropped to his knees due to the shock and pain of being too near the explosion. It was like he had set off a claymore mine, or an abnormally powerful grenade.

  <<< * >>>

  You have been stunned for thirty seconds!

  Your vision and hearing have been damaged.

  You have taken minor internal injuries and will lose one health per minute until your injuries are repaired.

  <<< * >>>

  His vision swam and his ears rang for a time, but he eventually regained enough of his composure to climb down the ladder and go drink some water. The negative effect on his health was cleared immediately.

  “What happened?” asked the fairy. She flew over to him and fluttered around with a concerned expression.

  “I was a dumbass. I forgot that you shouldn’t use powerful explosives in a closed room.” said Scott.

  “Oh...” She looked at him with both pity and confusion. He had been using explosive spells for a while now. What had changed?

  “Anyway, I’m almost done training. Thanks for putting up with Me.” said Scott. He felt like a moron because of what happened. His burn spell had never produced that much explosive force before, so he did not think that increasing the force by three points would cause such a major growth in output.

  He had not expected the overall power to increase that much, but he knew better than to set off a powerful explosive in an enclosed area. Now he really knew better than that. He had allowed his excitement to get the best of him.

  “It’s been great having you here.” She smiled at him. The time that she had spent with him so far had been amazing and interesting for the lonely little fairy.

  “It has been nice meeting you as well.” He returned her smile with a friendly one of his own. They stood there and smiled at each other for a while before Scott told her that he would be back shortly. He had to train more.

  Scott returned to the storage room and quickly began working on his freeze spell. He was a little further along in its usage. Training it did not take as long as it had for the other spells. It still took several trips back and forth to the spring, though. Once he reached the final level of mastery he was granted the ability to upgrade his spell.

  “I’ll increase the freezing effect since that’s what I mostly use it for...” Scott chose to increase the status affliction aspect then grinned. It now had a one in four chance of freezing any opponent that was not resistant to frost, or who could not resist his magical power in general. There was a ninety-nine percent chance of freezing an opponent that was weak against ice magic.

  “Hell yeah, who’s a magical badass?” asked Scott. He started to dance around and punch at the air like an idiot

  “Heh, I’ll be super fun at parties. Who needs to go out for ice when you have me around?” quipped the man before smiling like an idiot.

  He had work to do, however, so he forced himself to calm down a bit. If he managed to make it out of the mine in one piece, he intended to train all of his basic spells here. There were several more that he could acquire if he spent the ability points necessary for them to become available.

  That would have to come later, though. He had not finished his most recent battle and the hunting trips that he had made before had been much shorter than he would have liked. He did not even have thirty ability points to spend at the moment.

  Scott stopped dancing around like a moron after the moment of elation passed. He had to finish planning for his coming battle. The monsters that he faced seemed to be rather stupid, but he could not count on that. They did know how to work together. Well, the goblins did at least.

  He pulled out his new boomerangs and gazed upon them intensely for a moment. Their most basic information popped up in front of him not long after.

  <<< * >>>

  Blessed Master Ironwood Boomerangs of the Hawk [Unique]

  A paired set of boomerangs, they were granted by divine providence. They are usable only by the one that they were designed for specifically. While they are made of a low-grade material, they were crafted by a true master. They have been blessed by the goddess Origin and contain the spirit of the hawk.

  Attack: 20 (each)

  Range: 30

  Value: 42000

  Enhancement(s):

  Master-crafted:

  Weapon Attack X 2

  Weapon Range X 2

  Weapon Durability X 2

  Spirit of the Hawk:

  Accuracy + 10 (Each)

  Agility +5 (Each)

  Attack + 5 (Each)

  Special:

  Eyes of the Hawk:

  Target enemies with greater ease - Lock-on ability activated.

  Critical attack chance increased by 10%

  Absolute Return:

  Even if caught or stolen, the boomerangs will always return to their true owner. They will answer their owner’s call no matter where they are in the world.

  Soul Bound:

  The boomerangs cannot be lost via death.

  <<< * >>>

  “Holy Shit!” He had expected them to be decent, but this was great. He would still lose a bit of his attack, and a lot of his defense, by equipping them due to the associated loss in his unarmed combat bonus. Still, they were very good for his level. He would also keep the attack a
nd defense bonuses from his boots and gauntlets. They counted as wearable weapons, a separate slot from held weapons. Scott equipped his sweet looking boomerangs then checked his stats.

  <<< Status >>>

  Name: Scott Jacobs | Class: Sorcerer | Race: Human

  Age: 18 | Level: 7

  EXP: 2176

  Next Level: 340

  Ability Points: 29

  Health: 90[90] | Mana: 101[101]

  Attack: 30[201] | Defense: 30[275]

  Strength: 34[34] | Agility: 31[40] | Accuracy: 22[37]

  Intellect: 35[35] | Luck: 16[16]

  <<< * >>>

  He only lost the unarmed combat bonus from his strength and agility. He kept his armor bonus and attack from his gauntlets and boots. Even so, his attack and defense power had dropped slightly. He had expected his attack to drop much more than it had, actually.

  “It seems a little off though; shouldn’t accuracy be forty-two?” He could not see any reason for it to be five points lower than it was supposed to be, but he decided not to worry about it.

  Scott closed his status screen then opened up his skill upgrade menu to check on the boomerang skill-set. His eyes widened. He could hardly believe what he was seeing. There were stat modifiers, including level-up modifiers, for his attack, agility, and accuracy. He wanted to click on them, but realized that he still had to actively upgrade his basic knowledge of boomerang skills first. He clicked on the option named Basic Dual-Boomerang Mastery, and expended ten of his precious ability points.