Minute Mage: A Time-Traveling LitRPG Progression Fantasy

Over the course of the next couple days, we continued on our path toward Kingdom’s Edge with surprisingly few complications. The forest was normally a relentless predator, full of monsters to constantly keep watch for, but the combination of the Nymph’s calming aura and the Demons’ clearing out of the surrounding forest meant there weren’t many aggressive things left in the woods. We’d even had occurrences of things like Wood Wraiths walking up to the Nymph and rubbing affectionately against its leg, paying us no mind.

The only other threat to our safety, the Demons, were few and far between. I wasn’t sure if it was because we were leaving the immediate area of Carth, or if the Demons were up to something, but we hadn’t seen them at all in the last two days. But I hadn’t let my guard down. In fact, I felt more on-edge than ever, constantly anticipating the next attack. I was still Level 9, and I already knew from experience that wasn’t enough to beat an Infernal Commander.

Over the days of travel – and, consequently, a lack of barber’s tools – I ended up growing the beginnings of some facial hair. I’d taught myself how to shave and trim a beard and how to cut my own hair in order to save money, back when I was in my home village, but I didn’t really have the time or means to do that, now. Erani said the scraggly beard made me look like I’d aged three years over the course of three days, which I felt was ironic, considering my Class.

My already-shaggy hair hadn’t really been given time to grow out yet, but it’d definitely been given time to get gross and messy – at some point I just gave up on trying to fish out all the sticks and leaves that got stuck in there. Natural camouflage.

And, of course, to try and get stronger, I’d spent the couple days looking for monsters to kill. Since we were in the presence of the Nymph, I felt it wouldn’t be a good idea to blatantly kill everything I saw in front of it, so I would occasionally separate from the group and go out, hunting for monsters. Problem was, as I mentioned before, there were no monsters around anymore. I’d found and killed a couple, but only enough to get me an extra 22 XP, bringing me up to 209 – which wasn’t even close to the sum of 500 I needed to get to Level 10.

What I had made progress with was Crippling Chill. In the days I’d spent in unending casting of the Spell, I’d already brought it up to Rank 9. I’d found that, ever since I started focusing my practice on Crippling Chill, I started casting that Spell in my sleep instead of Noxious Grasp. All it took was a change in habit and mindset, and it seemed like my unconscious mind took care of the rest.

Really, the hardest part of the change was the fact that my castings were much fewer and further between. I’d gotten used to Noxious Grasp, which I would cast every twenty or so seconds, but Crippling Chill was more a matter of minutes. To anyone else, this would be an upside, decreasing headache and pain, but to me, it just meant I was more stressed and anxious than ever, the calming effect of the frequent castings suddenly taken from me.

But it was worth it. I looked over Crippling Chill’s current effects.

Crippling Chill 9

School: Cold, Curse

Type: Activated

Cost: 56.2 Mana

—

Choose a being within 40 paces of you. It becomes coated in frost for the next 15 seconds. For as long as it is coated in frost, it loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and its Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.

Compared to the Spell’s previous numbers, this was a huge improvement. It dealt an extra 1.38 damage per second, drained 1.11 more Stamina, and, of course, the main improvement was that it lowered Dexterity by almost 3 more points. Now, it obviously also cost a bit more, but that was barely anything compared to the more than 20% increase in effect.

The main benefit was locked away, though. At Rank 9, that would normally mean I was close to another Rank 10 Upgrade, but in order to get it, I’d need either a Curse Spell Crystal or a Cold Spell Crystal. And, unfortunately, all I had was Poison.

Part of me wanted to try and sneak into a nearby city and try to get a new Spell Crystal so I could get the Upgrade, but Erani was against it. We didn’t know what was going on in those cities, she said. Logically, I agreed. The entire Kingdom could have been forced into martial law under the Demons for all we knew, and we’d be caught immediately upon trying to enter. But emotionally, I was stressed and restless, and I was itching to improve our situation in some way.

I felt my Mana finally hit full after what felt like hours of waiting, and I eagerly cast Crippling Chill again.

You have cursed Level 10 Human Sorcerer with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, she loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and her Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.

56.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 504.

Erani yelped and fell, but I caught her and picked her up like I’d done many times in the past, carrying her in my arms. Turns out she wasn’t opposed to the idea, after all. When the paralysis wore off after the first time, she muttered something about efficiency and a well-needed break from walking, but I was pretty sure I knew the real reason she liked it.

I looked down at her furiously blushing face, enjoying the feeling of serenity that washed over me after the cast of my Spell. For a moment, the unnatural feelings of stress and restlessness washed away, and it felt like someone had finally loosened an invisible vice clamping down on my chest. I knew it would be back soon after I went a minute or two without casting, but I relished it while it lasted.

On Erani’s end, we did end up needing to slow down the rate she was practicing. She got used to the headaches, sure, but they never stopped messing with her, and it really only seemed to get worse the longer we pushed it, contrary to how it worked for me. We each had our theories as to why my case was so different – maybe Noxious Grasp was special, maybe it was because it was a Toggle Spell, maybe something about my experiences in the forest helped – but at the end of the day, we just accepted it and moved on.

So every now and then I’d just find something else to practice my Crippling Chill on instead of casting it on her. Still, we were doing our best to train her Angelic Shield up, and it was currently approaching Rank 9.

But at this moment, it was Erani’s turn. After Crippling Chill wore off, she got back to her feet, making a show of straightening her long-since ruined and dirty clothes. “You really should warn me before you do stuff like that.”

“Sorry,” I smiled sheepishly, “I’ve just been getting a bit impatient. I’m used to Noxious Grasp’s constant casting, so this is a pretty uncomfortable shift.”

She grimaced. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’ve seemed restless ever since you started with Crippling Chill. I’m starting to get worried.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I reassured her. “It’s just a bit of discomfort.” I wrapped my hand around hers, pulling close. “I’m fine. I promise.”

We kept walking, chatting the hours away. We normally foraged for food, eating wild plants and any animals we could find, and so when the time for lunch came around, we kept an eye out for anything edible. However, as we searched, we found it more and more difficult to find an animal to kill and eat. The Nymph normally didn’t care when we killed animals as long as we ate them, but it didn’t seem interested in helping us lure anything to us, so we were on our own here.

She and I split up to cover more ground, ensuring we each stayed in earshot and didn’t stray too far from each other. The Nymph went with Erani when we split up, leaving me on my own. I was beginning to think it favored her over me, since any time we separated it always chose to stay with her.

Eventually, as we wandered in search of food, I heard a squawking from above. I looked up, and saw a large hawk perched on a branch above me. It seemed big enough that it could sustain Erani and I for a meal; the Nymph didn’t need to eat since it drew its nutrients from the ground. I couldn’t identify the bird, though, so to stay safe, I decided to get Erani’s analysis before attacking it – I didn’t want some gigantic mama hawk to come and crush me for killing its baby.

“Hey, Erani!” I called, ensuring I didn’t scare the bird away. “Think this’ll work?”

“Coming!” she replied.

I looked back up at the hawk. It stared down at me. In fact, I didn’t think I’d seen it take its eyes off me once in all the time I looked at it. It had curious yellow irises that almost glowed, trained directly on me.

“What’s up?” Erani said as she arrived by my side.

“Right up there,” I said, pointing up at the strange bird. “You recognize it?”

“No,” she said, squinting as she looked up at it. “It almost looks like…”

Suddenly, the bird wasn’t there anymore, replaced by the whip of the Nymph. It’d lashed out so suddenly I didn’t have time to react. Just as the whip had cut into the bird, the animal just… disappeared. It faded away into dust and threads, kind of like how Erani’s Angelic Shield unraveled whenever it broke. The Nymph had a look of disgust on its face.

“...A magical Familiar,” Erani said, glancing around. “Someone was spying on us.”

Almost immediately, a cacophony of sounds erupted from around us, like if someone had pulled open a hole in space and allowed all the air to come rushing out. Flat, circular things opened in the air in front of us, objects that I realized to be teleportation portals – incredibly high-Level magic. Out from the portals stepped a group of four soldiers each dressed in silver plate mail with blue accents. I felt a bit relieved upon seeing them; they were Humans, not Demons.

“Who are you?” I asked, still a bit on-guard.

“I am Camilla Bennitt, noble captain of the throne’s royal guard.” One of the soldiers stepped forward. She was different from the other three in that her helmet was open-faced – as opposed to the closed helmets covering the others’ faces – and it had a red feather sprouting from it. There was pain in her voice, like she desperately wanted to be doing anything but this. “Arlan Nota, you are under arrest for crimes against Humanity. The penalty is execution without trial.”

Immediately, all four soldiers drew their weapons. The woman – Camilla – held a decorated spear, another had a thick battleaxe, a third held a traditional sword and shield, and the fourth a bow and arrow.

I blinked, and then immediately cast Crippling Chill on all of them and jumped back to put distance between us.

You have cursed Level 27 Human Spearman with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, she loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and her Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.

56.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 504.

You have cursed Level 24 Human Archer with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, she loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and her Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.

56.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 447.

You have cursed Level 23 Human Swordsman with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, he loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and his Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.

56.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 391.

You have cursed Level 25 Human Berserker with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, she loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and her Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.

56.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 335.

My eyes widened when I saw their Levels. Monsters were one thing – each monster species' power scaled differently from Humans and from each other, so it was common to see monsters that were weaker than a Human while still technically being a higher Level than them. But a Human with a higher Level than another Human? The one with the higher Level would win almost every time. And when the gap was this big, plus we were outnumbered…

“Run!” I shouted and backed away, pulling Erani and the Nymph along with me. But the Swordsman banged his sword against his shield, echoing a deafening shockwave around him and over us.

You have been browbeaten. For the next 23 seconds, your Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity have been reduced by 10.

Erani immediately fell to the ground, paralyzed from the effect. She didn’t die instantly or anything, despite having 0 Endurance, though. Even when your Endurance was lowered to 0, and, thus, your maximum Health was lowered to 0, it wouldn’t actually lower your current Health. Maximum Health really just dictated where you’d stop regenerating at, so, even if your max was lowered below your current Health, you wouldn’t actually lose any – you’d just be unable to regenerate.

I stumbled, too, suddenly barely able to hold myself off the ground. The Nymph seemed the least affected out of the three of us, but it was still obviously weakened. It turned and lashed out with its whip at the four soldiers who had still only just begun walking forward from where they stood. All three seemed completely unaffected by my Crippling Chills.

I grabbed Erani and dragged her up from the ground, then manually grabbed her wrist and moved her hand so that it was aimed forward at our enemies. She got the message and cast an Explosive Firebolt at the group of people. The Berserkerwoman with the battleaxe swung the blade and cut the ball of fire clean in half before it could even explode, dissipating the magic. Must’ve been Enchanted. Panicked, I shot off a barrage of Rays of Frost at the group. Some of them hit, but the decrease in Stats was apparently so negligible that it still didn’t seem to do anything to them.

By the time I got below 100 Mana, they were still approaching at the same speed. I tried to shoot another Ray of Frost at the Archer, but just as I raised my hand at her, she scowled and drew her bow, faster than I could react, and shot. The arrow flew with a green glow behind it and impaled straight into the palm of my hand. It continued in its path, flying through my hand and into my straightened forearm. The bones in my arm were pulverized by the magically-infused arrow, and it flew out the other side of my elbow, unfazed, embedding itself in a tree behind me.

You have been shot. 126 damage.

Your Health is 94.

I screamed in pain as my arm fell limp to my side, my hand more of an abstract explosion of red than anything resembling what was once a limb. Trying to get my breathing under control, I grit my teeth and looked at the plate-armored soldiers. “W-what’s wrong with you? Relishing in our struggle? Just wanted to see some low-Levels flounder before slaughtering them?”

To my surprise, this actually seemed to give the soldiers pause. Camilla stopped and shook her head. “I do this because I must, not because I want to. The king has ordered it.”

I coughed, struggling to hold Erani up with my remaining hand and slowly dragging her away. “Just because some man in a crown tells you to do something doesn’t mean you have to do it.”

“People are dying!” She shouted, breaking her composure. “The Demons are killing them, and it’s because you’re still alive.”

“So your solution is to kill more innocents? My only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was unlucky, and now I’m being killed for it? How noble,” I spat. “If the king ordered it, he’s a shitty king.”

Camilla tightly gripped her spear. “Do not dare insult the leader of our kingdom! This discussion is over. You have been afforded no trial, and thus there is no reason for conversation with you. Asmo.”

“Yes, captain,” the woman with the bow and arrow said.

“Carry out our duty.”

“Yes, captain.” She raised her weapon, drew, and released.

You have been shot. 191 damage.

Your Health is 0.

You have died.