Minute Mage: A Time-Traveling LitRPG Progression Fantasy

Chapter 18: Confrontations

I walked up the stairs of the cellar, toward the door that led to the main shop that was owned by Miss Akinsoft. Once I got to it, I opened the door and–

Shit…

The smoke that had collected in the cellar from Noxious Grasp billowed out into the main store. Not a harmful amount, of course, but the sight still scared a couple customers perusing the wares.

“M-monster!” One man gasped, stumbling back from me as I walked out of the smoke.

“Uh, hey, not a monster. Don’t worry,” I called out to them, trying to calm everyone down. “Just an adventurer doing a job down in the cellar. There’s nothing dangerous–”

“You! Boy!” The shopkeeper, Miss Akinsoft, yelled at me. “What did I tell you about scarin’ off my customers?!”

“Sorry, ma’am, I didn’t realize the smoke was so thick or that it would scare anyone.” The man who got spooked looked fine now, anyway, looking warily at me before continuing in his shopping. I turned to him. “Are you okay, sir?”

“Y-yes, just a bit jumpy, that’s all. You’re okay, don’t worry about–“

“No!” Akinsoft interrupted. “I told you to be careful and you weren’t! You directly disobeyed me!”

“…No. You told me to be quiet, and I was. I didn’t make any noise at all. If you also didn’t want me to make any smoke, you should have said so.” I was getting pretty fed up with this woman’s attitude; I helped her with something she couldn’t have done on her own, and here she was berating me.

“You do not speak to me that way! For as long as you’re working for me, I’m your boss! What I say goes!” She was yelling at this point, her voice echoing through the otherwise silent store. At this point, the man who I had originally spooked turned around and stepped out of the building, glancing sideways at the screaming woman. She gestured to the closing door, “See?! You scared him off!”

“I think he was scared off by the noise you’re making.” I shook my head. “Listen, I don’t want to argue. If you just pay me what I’m due, I’ll leave now and be out of your hair.”

“Oh, I’ll pay you what you’re due!” She walked up to me with her hand balled up in a fist, rearing back to throw a wild haymaker at my face.

“Ma’am, there’s no need to resort to violence—“ she swung, but I simply leaned out of the way. Even if I didn’t have a Class, the years of melee training I’d been through meant I could pretty easily sidestep an untrained blow like that.

She grunted and swung again. This time I caught it in my hand, squeezing tightly. The law was incredibly strict about Classed individuals attacking Unclassed ones, even in cases of self-defense, so I wasn’t about to kill her with a Spell or anything. But that didn’t mean I had to be gentle.

“Akinsoft, you asked me to do something, and I did it. I don’t care if you’re upset, I did what you requested perfectly within the guidelines you set on paper, and the ones you set verbally during discussion. Give me my money.”

“Th-this is exploitation! The guard’ll have your head!” She squealed.

“No, this is how a contract works. The law is on my side here. If you don’t believe me, feel free to report it.”

She tore her hand from my grip and huffed, turning and grabbing a piece of silver from her register, and throwing it at me deliberately too hard. “Just leave.”

I caught it and left, sighing as I walked out the door. I almost considered stealing something from her in anger – and, admittedly, greed at seeing so many valuable items – but I couldn’t risk something so blatantly illegal. Especially when she’d just shown that she was very eager to have me arrested. So I just sighed and walked away. I couldn’t wait until I didn’t have to deal with people like that anymore.

It was late evening and I was hungry, but before I ate I wanted to get myself some new clothes. The ones I had were ripped and itchy, and I was ready to get replacements. I walked around in the town square for a bit, trying to find some that were cheap but decent-quality. It took a while – it was beginning to get late, so a lot of shops had already packed up for the day – but eventually I found some that I liked and got a couple pairs, costing me about half of the money I had just gotten.

After that, I went and got some dinner, eating alone, and retired to my room. I wasn’t tired just yet, so I decided to use my remaining time to practice Noxious Grasp some more. This time, I didn’t use it in quick bursts like I was used to. I noticed during the Trimp job for Akinsoft that, while I could easily manage casting it for short periods, using the Spell for an extended amount of time was still pretty draining. So I decided to practice by fully emptying my Mana pool before allowing it to recharge and doing it again.

While I was out in the forest, I didn’t have the luxury to practice like this; I could have been attacked at any moment out there, and needed to have as much Mana at my disposal as possible at all times in case of a fight. But now, surrounded by walls and soldiers, I could feel relatively safe in the confines of my room, and didn’t have to be so on-guard all the time anymore. Things were safe now, and I didn’t anticipate putting myself in a situation like the forest ever again.

By the end of the couple-hour-long training session, I already felt myself straining less during the extended casts of Noxious Grasp, and casting it in shorter bursts was easier than ever. Combined with my passive casting while shopping and eating, the Spell’s XP was already at 11/66. Not exactly close to the next Rank, but considering I’d just gotten it to Rank 6 that day, the idea that I’d already made so much progress to the next was exciting.

But it was getting late, so, with thoughts of Spells and casting on my mind, I lay down and drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up, I groggily opened my eyes, straining against the morning light, and I noticed a strange sight. Above my head, rising up to the ceiling, was a wisp of smoke. As I watched, the smoke slowly dissipated into the air, seeping through cracks in the door and walls until it was gone.

I looked around. There wasn’t any sign of a fire, or anything else that could have made the smoke. The only things in the room were me and the bed.

After a moment’s confusion, I realized it must have been the smoke that came from my casting of Noxious Grasp. But that didn’t make sense. I had been asleep for hours, so there was no way the remedial smoke from my training last night had remained around in the room for that long. Besides, the smoke dissipated almost immediately after I woke up. It was almost as if I had been casting in my… sleep.

Wait.

I hurriedly opened my Status, checking Noxious Grasp’s XP. It should have still been at 11…

Noxious Grasp 6 - XP 30/66

My eyes bulged as I saw the Spell’s new XP total. How did that even happen?! Had I seriously been casting in my sleep, all night?

My face morphed into a shocked smile as I laughed at the absurdity of what I’d just learned. I mean, I’d gotten a full fourth of a Spell Rank basically for free! I was also a bit overwhelmed by the danger I’d been unknowingly skirting this whole time. I mean, what if the Spell I’d been practicing was one that started a fire? Or even just one that made a loud noise? That’d be a problem to be using while totally unconscious.

But, hey, I wasn’t one to turn down a gift like that. At least for now, I’d be glad to take the free Spell XP.

Though, this was definitely going to be difficult to deal with the next time I shared a bed with someone.

After that development, the rest of my day went by relatively uneventfully. I took another boring, safe job from the job board to try and make some money – this time my job was to clear out a few hives of Dusk Wasps from a farmer’s orchard.

My strategy for that was just to let all of the wasps land on me and sting me, then activate Noxious Grasp while they were touching me to kill the little things instantly. Definitely painful, but not deadly. Besides, the boosted Endurance helped out a lot with the discomfort.

The old farmer definitely looked worried for me after I just grabbed the first nest and shook it around, but he seemed to get the idea when all the wasps suddenly dropped to the ground while I stood there inside of the swarm. He even tipped me a bit extra after seeing my method for solving his problem. It was nice working for someone who was actually thankful to have my help.

Still, the job took up the majority of my day to complete; the walk out to the farm was long in the first place, and it also took a while to find all of the nests once I was there. But with the little bit of daylight left, I decided to spend some time finding materials for Alfo Arcian, the Alchemist.

It was more difficult without the experienced Erani to help me identify all the plants, but I managed to find a few, and by the end of the day, once I’d sold my ingredients to Alfo Arcian and collected my job reward, the day had gotten me a whole one and a half silver, bringing me up to two in total – halfway there to buying a Spell Crystal.

I’d been passively practicing Noxious Grasp all day, and that night, I continued with the more intensive, long-duration casting practice I’d done the night before. During the training…

Threshold reached. Noxious Grasp XP has reached 66.

Noxious Grasp Rank has increased to 7.

Due to Noxious Grasp Rank reaching 7, it has undergone the following changes:

Mana Cost: From 3.49 to 3.58

Health Drain: From 13.4 to 14.1

Stamina Drain: From 6.70 to 7.04

Noxious Grasp Ranked up again! The whole ‘casting Spells in my sleep’ thing definitely sped up the process, that was for sure. To get to Rank 8, I’d need 94 Spell XP – I was getting dangerously close to triple digits – so hopefully the speed would help that go by a bit faster. I was well on my way to Rank 10!

For now, though, I was tired. All of the Dusk Wasp stings definitely took a good bit out of me, plus all of the casting practice I’d been subjecting myself to – not that I was about to take a break, of course. Still, I needed sleep. So I laid down on the lumpy bed, closed my eyes, and drifted off.

I awoke well-rested, but with a bit of a headache. A grin spread across my face – I knew what a headache meant. I excitedly checked my Spell XP again, and broke out into a full smile at the sight of my Spell XP already at 23/94. I was still casting! It wasn’t just a one-time thing. I sighed, glad to have such a boost in progress at my disposal. I hadn’t ever heard of sleep-casting being a thing, but I sure wasn’t going to complain. Maybe I’d ask about it when I went on that trip to get my Class documented with Erani.

I got out of bed, stretched, and walked out into the main room of the inn to grab some breakfast. I got the cheapest item on the menu that was still relatively filling – a plate of vegetables with a bread roll on the side – and chowed down, still enjoying the taste of civilized food. In the early morning, the inn was active with people like me eating breakfast and getting ready for their days. There was a mild hum of chatter permeating the room.

Through the chatter, though, I could hear a voice.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s him,” a male voice said as the clank of metal boots sounded on the wooden floor. I almost turned around and looked to see what was going on, but I didn’t feel like distracting myself with what was most likely pointless drama.

It’s not my problem, I shrugged, probably got nothing to do with me–

“Excuse me, sir. A moment of your time.” A voice asserted behind me in a way that was obviously directed my way.

I turned around. There was a pair of two armored men standing in the main hall, facing me, with another villager with them who looked familiar. I quickly realized that the villager was the guy I spooked by accident back at that Trimp job.

“Uh, yes?” I asked cautiously, eyeing the men’s weapons strapped to their hips. They were obviously adventurers, and they were probably both above my Level. I definitely couldn’t take them in a fight.

One of them stepped forward. “We’d like to speak to you about a woman named Zue Akinsoft.”

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