《Blaze》 Prologue: A Dark Beginning Blood spattered across the walls as the mage fell, betrayed and overwhelmed by the men he had thought to be his guards. "Alright boys! He''s down. Let''s get the hell out of this shithole!"? one of the mercenaries shouted, not even bothering to clean his blade of the mage''s blood as he sheathed it. "You sure he''s dead boss? Y'' can never be sure with these mage types." Another asked as he nudged the corpse with his foot. Unsurprisingly, there was no reaction from the mage. Headless corpses aren''t known to be that effective at many things. One of the places they shine at however, is simply doing nothing. "He''s a bloody pyro you moron, not a necro." A third replied cuffing the second over the head. "Can it you two. I can hardly hear myself think, and you know how finicky these blasted transport scrolls are. One screw-up and we''ll end up just like Dave and Jerry over there." The first mercenary ordered, silencing the two as he off-handedly gestured towards the two smoldering corpses a ways down the hall. It had been a difficult mission for the mercenaries from the start, and even in the end the mage had died hard. In fact, if it had been a fair fight the outcome would likely have been far different: most likely ending with the mage chuckling at the sight of five merry bonfires crackling away. Instead, after impersonating his guard detail, a seemingly impossible task made easy by the fact that the mage never bothered to learn his guards'' names or looks, the mercenaries followed the mage down into a dungeon. Surprising him as they traveled between floors, They stabbed him Eight times before he even realized something was amiss. But, Instead of dieing properly, like they expected him to, he turned unleashing a barrage of fireballs only stopped by the mercenary leader''s quick reflexes. Even those quick reflexes; however, could not save the aforementioned Dave and Jerry. With blood-curdling screams they had been charred into ash almost instantly. "Ain''t that a bit cold-blooded boss? They was our friend''s wasn''t they?"? The second mercenary asked, hesitant to incur his "Leader''s" wrath. "Friends" was a bit of an exaggeration. The five had only met out of necessity, a mage being far too strong a target for them to assassinate otherwise. Nonetheless, the second mercenary had taken to them rather quickly, trusting them all almost intimately. For their part, the others took some pity on him, as such a seemingly simple boy could never hope to succeed in their line of work. "Just two more shares of the payout Andy, that''s what they were. Two shares we can now dis-tray-bute amongst ourselves all nice and fair like, right?"? The third mercenary explained patiently, phrasing it as much to the leader as to his dimwitted companion. His question hung in an air, notably fraught with far more tension than mere moments before. The third mercenary was an old hand: he knew just what could happen to men in his line of business over ten thousand gold coins. "Riiight ... Boss?"? he repeated, noiselessly moving his hand to the hilt of his blade. "I''m sorry about this Arly, but, you said it yourself... Just one more share..."? the boss said as he turned and revealed a crossbow. "Six thousand gold coins enough to turn you from the thieves'' code Johnny?"? Arly replied as he slowly lifted his hands above his head. "Please,"? Johnny scoffed waving the crossbow around as he gestured,"you still believe in that shit? At your age? Bah. I''ll just say the bloody mage killed the lot of you before I managed to get him. They''ll be none the wiser." Once again pointing the crossbow at Arly, his mocking tone turned serious as he asked,"Any last words old man?"? "Aye, Just one," he replied, lowering his hands slowly, defeat in his pose. That is, until his left hand fell in line with Johnny''s body. Quickly pressing a hidden trigger on the base of his thumb, he released a single bolt into his opponent''s throat before the aggressor could even think of firing. Arly lowered his left arm as his former boss went down, a fleeting expression of shock crossing his face before his eyes glazed over. The hidden crossbow in his sleeve had served him well over the years, and it looked like this day was no exception. As he turned to call over the second mercenary, he jolted forward, face twisted in a final grimace of shock as a blade severed his neck. "Just two more shares of the payout Arly,"? Andy, as he had chosen to call himself, spat out mockingly as he cleaned his blade off on the old rogue''s clothing.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. "Can''t bloody believe you idiots managed to get ahold of a job like this," the mercenary muttered, dropping any pretence of an accent as he sheathed his sword and swaggered over to the leader''s corpse. Almost daintily, he pried the scroll out of the dead man''s grip, pulled the contract from the "secret"? pocket the boss had boasted about when drunk two days back, and turned to walk away. Before he made it around the corner: however, he paused for a moment. Standing there, lost in thought for a moment, he shrugged lightly and turned, going back towards the dead men. Grabbing a torch from its alcove in the dungeon wall, he tossed it onto the mage''s corpse and stayed just long enough to make sure the fire took. Once it was crackling away at the mage''s robes, he turned once more and walked away with a spring in his step, whistling a merry tune as his boots clicked on the slick stone floor. "You can never be too sure when you''re dealing with magic," he murmured with a lazy smile as he turned the corner, leaving the carnage behind him. "You can never be too sure..." To a certain extent, the rogue was right: mages do tend to have tricks up their sleeves for avoiding death. After all, no mage would want to spend centuries studying the intricacies of their craft only to keel over from a hungry orphan poking him with a shank. Complete decapitation was usually the safest bet as, if that fails to kill a mage, it at the very least gives an entrepreneuring assassin enough of a head start to potentially make hunting him down too much of a bother when the mage gets around to fixing up his physical body. The pyromancer in question was nowhere near the amount of strength needed for a reanimation. Really, the rogue shouldn''t have bothered. It wasn''t a gesture of honor or fear, just a mere afterthought spawned from an old wives tale he was raised on. A token gesture for his own appeasement. When dealing with magic; however, even the tiniest of actions may cause ripples grand enough to shatter the world... Or do nothing at all. The future was not set, there was no prophecy foretelling the rise of a hero, and the stars had never been further from aligned, yet nonetheless, in the bowels of the earth a miracle happened. The mage... Continued to burn. Even magic follows rational rules. Fire won''t suddenly start raising the dead, not if a world is functioning as it should be that is. No, instead something much more intriguing occurred. As the fire burned, the mage''s mana was released into the blaze. While he had not been anywhere near an archmage''s level, the man still had a modicum of talent for pyromancy. A slight talent he had honed over decades, bringing the essence of fire itself into his blood, into his mana. As the mana flowed freely, it mixed with the massive well provided by the dungeon and began to flow. Like oil and water, the two refused to mix. A perfectly understandable result, considering the underground dungeon mainly contained earth and dark infused mana. Thus, as more mana continued to leak outwards into the flames, it stayed put, unable to rejoin the natural current of the world, or the sheltered eddy of the dungeon. It took mere moments for the mana to reach a critical mass: forming a current all to its own, outside of the dungeon''s and the world''s. The current slowly grew, fed by the mage''s purified fire mana. Eventually, it reached a point where it could no longer grow outwards, constrained by the distance from its energy source. Unable to expand, its growth stagnated until the flow began to move inward, energy filling the void inside the outer edges of the flow. Slowly, the untamed flow moved into channels, carving paths of energy through the air. As the energy from the mage increased in density, new connections were able to grow until a pattern began to emerge. And from that pattern... Life. Not a very complex life that is. It couldn''t breathe or eat or sing or dance, or any of the common tasks associated with living. It wasn''t even intelligent enough to pull up a status screen or string coherent thoughts together. Not yet at least. Nonetheless, life is life, and the newborn fire elemental celebrated its newfound existence by... burning. Much like corpses, newborns tend to not be good at that many things. This is especially true of elementals, who at this stage in their lives, are incredibly vulnerable. Their species only continues due to the massive rates at which they spawn in areas with plentiful mana. Newborns are even considered pests, much like rats and slimes, in certain parts of the world. Nevertheless, there are lucky ones. Certain elementals, who by virtue of fate or fortune, whichever one you believe in, are given time to grow. Once they survive past the newborn stage, where they need constant sustenance, elementals are incredibly hardy, capable of producing their own mana rather than merely absorbing and purifying it like the other races do. At that point, it''s just a matter of time. Elementals are unlimited in their growth as they have no physical form, only a projection of their energy. Some are rumored to have even become worlds or stars in their own right. The plucky little elemental currently mastering the skill faceplant on a mage''s corpse; however, was far from that level. The sad truth is that, in all likelihood, he would never reach that point. A wandering monster or even a stiff breeze could probably end his journey before it even started. Failing that, when the mage''s energy was consumed, he would most likely suffocate, choked by the earth and darkness mana types surrounding him. Nonetheless, he was rather adorable: trying to form a human shape like the ones he observed lying around him and flopping forward when he tried to walk. He wasn''t very large, barely about as tall as a palm''s length, but that didn''t stop him from prancing around the fire as if he owned the world. And there he remained for a time slowly whittling away the time he had by learning how to move. Fortunately, he was making great strides in strength and intelligence as his pattern solidified, the magic that formed his being becoming increasingly stable and pronounced. Unfortunately, his time in the safe shelter was running out. All too soon, the fire would fade and he would be thrust into the cold embrace of a dungeon. It would take wit and guts to survive, too bad he quite literally lacks both. Nonetheless, necessity is the mother of innovation, and as he noticed the fire wavering out, the elemental did something not many do, he instinctually added a point to his intelligence and opened a brand new world of possibilities... Chapter 1
Congratulations! You have become Sentient! By having 2 points of intelligence, you are now capable of thinking coherently.
Sentient(Trait): Passive gains: Your ability to plan has increased as well as your control over yourself. Stat gains: +1 Intelligence, Wisdom, Willpower Ability gains: N/A
The elemental paused, intrigued by this new development. After trying to eat the status window a few times, he reluctantly realized two things: A: Status windows aren''t food. B: He was screwed. His newfound sentience allowed him to recognize even more acutely the danger he was in. He was almost out of food and a quick inspection of his surroundings revealed very little in the way of helping him remedy that situation. Fortunately, he had a solution, at least he hoped he did. These screens and the stats they spoke about were an unknown factor, the only potential out of this sticky situation. Unfortunately, he had no idea how to bring them back...
To pull up you status screen, just think about your status.
The screen appeared, responding to his thoughts with a hint of sarcasm. Not that he could detect such subtleties yet anyways. Thank you helpful blue box, He thought to himself as he pulled up his status screen.
Name: N/A Race: Fire Elemental (Newborn) Level 2/10
Strength: 1 Vitality: 1 Endurance: 1
Agility: 1 Dexterity: 1 Reflex: 1
Intelligence: 3 Wisdom: 2 Willpower: 2
HP: 10/10 Mana: 15/15 Stamina: N/A
Trait: Sentient Unallocated Trait Points: 1 Unallocated Stat Points: 1
Attributes: Fiery soul Effects: Fiery Soul Skills: Pyromancy
An explanation conveniently appeared for each of the cells as he gazed at them with a fair bit of confusion.
Name: The title you are addressed by. You are currently unnamed. You may create an alibi, or wait for another being to name you.
Race: Fire Elemental (Newborn) You are an ember, small now, but with enough time and fuel you can blaze your path into the very heavens. Racial Resistances: 100% resistance to natural fires. 100% resistance to mind magic. 100% resistance to blood magic. 50% resistance to fires controlled by beings with greater levels of pyromancy than you. 50% resistance to light magic. 30% resistance to all physical damage. Racial Weakness: 200% damage taken from earth and water magic. 150% damage taken from Ice and Dark magic. Racial Growth: Evolution Based, +1 Stat point every level, +1 perk point every 5 levels. Racial Attribute: Fiery Soul(Newborn)
Both of those insights had grand implications for the newborn elemental. For the first time, he realized there were other beings in the world. He was not the only actor on this stage. Now, he looked to his surroundings with trepidation, wondering what could appear to smother him in this early stage of his life. Nonetheless, steeling himself as best he could, he continued to read the remaining notifications that appeared before him.
Level: A measure of your progress towards your next evolution. Gain experience to advance in levels. Current level: 2/10
Strength: "You want some of this? Come get it!" For those who do not value a subtle approach, strength is the way to go. Purely grants physical strength, increasing your capacity to lift objects, including yourself. High enough amounts also improve your speed through sheer force.
The first of the stats, strength, intrigued the elemental. He couldn''t quite imagine himself going down that path, however. His body was made of fire, something even he realized would probably not work that well with lifting objects and striking foes.
Vitality: "AHAHAHAHA I''M ALIVE!!" For those who see theselves taking hits, Vitality is the way to go. Grants pure Health points, increasing your capacity to take damage. High enough amounts also increase your lifespan as well as granting you a modicum of Health regeneration. Stats: Grants 10 H.P. 0.01% lifespan and 0.01 hp regen per second per point
The second stat, vitality was much more interesting. Being able to live longer seemed ideal to him, both in term of being struck as well as surviving time. The window informing him of his race had already told him that he would need a great deal of time to reach the heavens, whatever those were.
Endurance: "Nothing will stop me! Nothing!" For those of you who see yourselves never tiring, Endurance is the way to go. Purely grants stamina, allowing you to run and fight for longer. Also passively grants stamina regeneration and resistance to all forms of attacks. Stats: + 10 Stamina , +0.05 Stamina regen per second, +1 % resistance (capped at 30%)
The resistance provided by Endurance seemed useful, however, the elemental was questioning investing in it at all considering he had no stamina. It was a point of confusion for him as he did have a point of endurance, something that should grant him 10 stamina. After a moment of thought, he decided to continue reading. Perhaps it would be explained to him later on. These boxes had already seemed to be incredibly helpful.
Agility: "You thought you could catch me?" For those who feel a need for speed, Agility is the way to go. Increases the speed with which you can move and act. High enough amounts also increase the damage you deal, though you should be careful, as without strength, vitality, and endurance... you may end up hurting yourself more than your foe.
Agility was interesting, but like strength, not something he could quite imagine himself actually investing in. The increased speed would probably be nice, but currently his life only involved standing in flames and reading. Two activities which don''t really require much fast motion.
Dexterity: "Ooh, Bullseye!" For those of you who want complete control, Dexterity is the way to go. Increases your control over your own body. Allows you to dodge, or block, attacks with greater ease as well as improving your capcity to aim and hit your own attacks of any kind.
Dexterity seemed amusing, but useless for him. He currently returned to his base form as a ball of fire after failed exploits with a humanoid form. He realized it would probably help him walk and the like when he changed his shape, but that was just a gimmick for him. Judging from the fact that he only got one point every level, stat points would likely be a scarce resource. As such, he planned to use them sparingly and carefully invest in only what he needed. It would probably become useful eventually, like strength and agility before it, but at the moment he couldn''t afford to risk wasting his points for it.
Reflex: "I was two steps ahead of you...." For those of you who want to plan ahead, Reflex is the way to go. Improves the speed at which your mind thinks and reacts. Allows you to respond to threats sooner as well as improving your ability to rapidly cast spells .
Reflex seemed to be useful in helping him read notifications faster. It''s component of spellcasting also seemed rather intriguing, yet he decided to reserve judgement as he didn''t know if he could even cast spells yet.
Inteligence: "Hey, I was thinking...." For those of you who see yourselves outsmarting all foes, intelligence is the way to go. Grants mana, increasing the amount of spells you can cast. Large amounts also increase your control over mana and capacity to process information, acting in coordination with reflex to greatly improve your capacity to rapidly cast spells. Stats: Grants 5 mana
Intelligence. The stat that had started it all for him. He was already rather fond of intelligence, as instinctually putting a point into it had given him so many new things to do and learn. It also seemed to help with the reading of boxes, making reflex seem somewhat redundant to him.
Wisdom: "The true path is not always the obvious one..." For those of you who always want to have a word, or a spell, ready for any situation, Wisdom is the way to go. Grants mana regeneration to continue casting spells. Large enough amounts also grant improved memory and recall, allowing you to remember more spells and information.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Stats: 0.05 mana per second per point
He wasn''t sure what to think about wisdom. Like reflex, it would probably be incredibly useful, but only if he could cast spells. Again reserving judgement, he read onward to see if he could cast anything.
Willpower: "Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but your spells will never hurt me!" For those of you who value freedom above all else, willpower is the way to go! Purely grants resistance to mental, soul, blood, and illusion magic. Also increases your determination and ability to control summoned beings. Stat: +1% resistance per point (capped at 95%)
Skipping over willpower, He skimmed it and decided to think more on it later; impatience got the better of him, pushing him to look ahead at his "attribute".
Racial Attribute: Fiery Soul (Newborn): Your soul is ablaze with power! Provides: Passive regeneration when absorbing fire mana. (Regen is first applied to health, than once fully healed to mana, and finally to experience.) Regen amount depends on the amount and quality of fire mana being absorbed. Drawback: Whenever you are removed from fire, you passively degenerate 2 points per second. (Degeneration is first applied to mana, then health) Secondary Effect: Flame Avatar Effects: You consume mana instead of stamina (If out of mana, consume health). Other nearby beings take constant fire damage. If flammable, they may also catch on fire.
As he read over his attribute, his spirits sank dramatically. It was amazing, at least he hoped it was considering he didn''t have anything else to compare it to, but came with a sharp cost. He''d lived his entire life in the flames, but as he had already seen, they were dying out: fast. Now, the fire was barely double his height whereas mere moments before the mana-infused flames could have reached a man''s waist. While the fire likely still had about ten minutes left in it, he decided to plan ahead and already began to think of a way out as he read the description of his one and only ability.
Pyromancy (Initiate): Grants control over fire. At the initiate level, wielders can form spells and control fire more efficiently than at earlier levels. Mana cost and difficulty varies.
That would be the key, he realized. Quickly deciding to try it, he poured mana into the flames, instincutally treating them as an extension of himself. And the fire moved in response. At first he let it dance wildly out of control, hoping to raise it back up to its former height. As he watched the fire''s strength drop sharply; however, he quickly decided against that strategy. Instead he chose to go the opposite direction, reining in the fire until it just barely remained alight. Messing around with the flames had consequences, however, in the form of mana consumption. Now at a measly two mana, he quickly realized that it would take at least two minutes for it to regenerate completely. That is, until his attribute activated. Normally, for Newborns, Fiery Soul was a powerful, yet not world-breaking tool. Allowing them to regenerate an extra point of mana or two every minute would give them one more burst of power, one more spell to potentially save their lives. If our elemental had one advantage over them however, it was quite simply that these flames from which he was born were far from normal. Infused with the mana of a dead mage, they blasted power outwards. Furthermore, by restricting the flames, the Elemental had unwittingly funneled more of that power into himself as it could no longer easily escape into the air. In two seconds, the arcane flames had recharged his mana bar fully and immediately continued their work on his experience bar steadily bringing it closer to level three, until after only a few more moments he crossed the threshold.
Congratulations! You have reached level 3! You have gained one stat point. You still have unallocated stat points from prior levels. If you do not direct their placement, they will be placed into random stats upon your next evolution. You still have unallocated trait points from prior levels. If you do not direct their placement, they will unlock random traits upon your next evolution.
The elemental was taken aback in surprise at the sudden notification. It seemed that his attribute was truly incredible! He quickly sobered, however, recognizing that he was wasting precious time. He needed a plan to survive before the fire died. His first step was to closely examine his surroundings. There was; however, very little aid offered by that. He was located in a long tube of cold rock. The bottom of the tube was roughly flattened out, the sides however were rough and held multiple alcoves, where, much to his surprise, he found fire. Trying to reach out to the fire, however, yielded few results. Those flames were simply too weak and distant to be of any use to him. Furthermore, on closer inspection, they were quite strange, seemingly imbuned with the mana of the earth and air around him. Deciding to steer well clear of those until he held a better understanding of them, the elemental continued his inspection until he fell upon what appeared to be the key to his salvation: two fuel sources. Much like the one beneath him, they were strewn on the floor of the tunnel. They also held some mana, although the amount was rather miniscule compared to the food source he was currently floating above. He quickly realized that was actually why he hadn''t seen them in his earlier hasty search: he had been blinded by the pure mana released from his fire and hadn''t taken the time to search out their dim lights. There was a problem with these lights; however, they were unlit. Unlike his source, there were no flames consuming these fuels. This added another level of complexity to his plan as now, instead of merely reaching them, he also had to somehow light the fuel sources on fire. That would take thought. With his problems recognized, he began to search for solutions. Multiple of which appeared almost instantly. He already had two stat points avilable to distribute, and judging by the amount of time it took him to reach level three, he realized that he would likely gain another before he was forced to relocate. He could invest those points multiple ways, each with its own advantages and drawbacks. Investing in vitality would grant him the most time away from a fire, the 20 health points giving him ten more seconds to reach one of the fuel sources. Vitality, however, would not help him with the second part of his problem, actually lighting the source on fire. Agility, would likewise help him arrive at the source. Depending on just how much faster it would make him move, he could even potentially reach one of the strange flames on the wall. That; however, came with a great deal of inherent risk. Not only could the strange flames be somehow corrupted, even traveling towards the fuel source could potentially not be enough. Unlike Vitality, Agility had no quantities associated with it. Thus making it a risk as he had no idea how much it could help him. Finally, there was intelligence. Unlike Vitality, this would give him extra mana. Due to the nature of the degeneration caused by fiery soul, however, mana would provide the same effect: more time. Mana would also allow him to use more pyromancy, potentially solving the problem of lighting the sources on fire. All this would come at the cost of five seconds. Five seconds that could potentially spell the difference between life and death. Of the three choices, he decided to discard agility straight away. It was simply too much of a gamble for not enough of a reward. Finally, he was left with the first truly difficult decision he had to make. Intelligence or Vitality. For a few moments, he wallowed in indecision, until finally he decided on a compromise. Moving quickly before he could hesitate again, he first put a point into Intelligence, and then into Vitality. As he willed the point to vitality, however, two new notifications appeared.
Congratulations, you have becomeHardy! By having two points of Vitality, you are now much more capable at surviving harsh conditions.
Hardy (Trait): Passive gains: You are more resistant to inclement weather effects. (20%) Stat gains: +1 Vitality, Endruance, Reflex Ability Gains: N/A
The new trait couldn''t have arrived at a better time for him. Now, his compromise was justified: he had gained some mana in addition to even more time than he expected. It also brought up questions. He had gained a trait each time he placed a second point into a stat, yet, even though he met that requirement in multiple other stats, he had not unlocked their perk. That puzzeled him for a second until he took another look at his stat page.
Name: N/A Race: Fire Elemental (Newborn) Level 3/10
Strength: 1 Vitality: 3 Endurance:2
Agility: 1 Dexterity: 1 Reflex: 2
Intelligence: 4 Wisdom: 2 Willpower:2
HP: 30/30 Mana: 20/20 Stamina: N/A
Trait: Sentient, Hardy Unallocated Trait points: 1 Skills: Pyromancy
Attributes: Fiery soul Effects: Fiery Soul Unallocated stat points: 0
In his rush to see if he had any spells, he had ignored the Unallocated Trait point. With greater intelligence, he was beginning to realize that his hastiness was going to cause him only troubles. Nonetheless, as he felt the fire continue to dim, he knew he needed to hurry and resolved to slow down once he had the time and opportunity to do so. THinking about the perk point brought up its own screen in front of him.
Available Traits: Restless: (Unlocked by having two points of Endurance) Thoughtful: (Unlocked by having two points of Wisdom) Twitchy: (unlocked by having two points of Reflex) Determined: (unlocked by having two points of Willpower) Adaptable Unallocated trait points: 1
Seeing the available choices, he almost immediately picked Thoughtful. The passive gain for Wisdom would almost certainly provide greater benefits than that for Willpower, and if the pattern held true he would gain a point of Intelligence. He almost did that. Stopping himself in the nick of time, he realized that he couldn''t actually afford to do that. His race only gained one trait point every five levels. As such, he would hardly have any to spare. Furthermore,from what he had seen so far, if he did not meet the requirement for a new trait by placing a stat point there, he would fail to gain that trait automatically. Thus, he couldn''t afford to risk gaining intelligence before he knew at what levels traits were gained. That removed both Thoughtful and Determined from his options. None of the remaining choice seemed particularly appealing; however. While Twitchy and Restless would give him a point in vitality, They''d would likely end up being a waste of a trait point as their passive benefits probably wouldn''t be much help to him at all. That''s because he lacked stamina completly and didn''t exactly need fast reflexes to run between fuel sources. With those choices eliminated, he only had one left: Adaptable. The only choice without any requirements, it was also the riskiest. With the other traits, he at least had a general idea of what he was getting. Adaptable had no precedent. For a moment he toyed with just activating one of the other traits, It might work out after all. Nonetheless, he couldn''t quite bring himself to do it. He didn''t want to cripple himself in the future for a brief benefit at the moment. So although he was still somewhat hesitant, he placed his point into Adaptable, gaining the trait.
Congratulations! You have becomeAdaptable! By planning for the future, you have become far more capable at growing to suit your needs.
Adaptable (Trait): Passive Gains: You gain an additional stat point every level. Stat Gains: N/A Ability Gains: N/A
The elemental didn''t quite know how to react to the trait. On one hand, it was incredibly useful if he managed to survive; the key word there is "if" he managed to survive. The other traits would at least have had some immediate effects on improving his prospects, however minute those were. This however was almost completly useless to him at the moment. All that didn''t matter though, as it was time to go. The fire surrounding him had finally run out of fuel, only lingering magic in the air keeping it lit. As it let out it''s dying flicker, one last notification appeared before the elemental.
Congratulations! You have reached level 4! You have gained one stat point.
He, however, didn''t have time for that. He had to move. Now. Willing it to disapear, he set off towards the closest fuel source. The first thing he felt was cold. A mind-numbing, piercing cold that dug its way into his very core. IT tore at him, sapping his strength, his very will to go on. He felt his essence itself blasting out, falling out of him and trying to feed the hungry maw of ice surrounding him. The walk to the fuel source was in itself fairly short, but at his tiny size, the energy could as well have been miles away. Slowly, but surely, he ate up that distance. Inching his way above the damp floor of the tunnel, he snuck a glance at his status.
Name: N/A Race: Fire Elemental (Newborn) Level 4/10
Strength: 1 Vitality: 3 Endurance:2
Agility: 1 Dexterity: 1 Reflex: 2
Intelligence: 4 Wisdom: 2 Willpower:2
HP: 30/30 Mana: 5/20 Stamina: N/A
Trait: Sentient, Hardy, Adaptable Unallocated Trait points: 0 Skills: Pyromancy
Attributes: Fiery soul Effects: Fiery Soul Unallocated stat points: 2
Looking ahead, he could see that he was already halfway to the fuel. He would make it! He would live! He rejoiced, moving forward with renewed speed for all of two seconds. After two seconds, his mana was gone and fiery soul began to cut deeply into his health. You see, what the elemental had failed to calculate was the effect of stamina consumption. While other races had dedicated bars for that, the secondary effect of fiery soul caused him to consume mana, or health, instead. Moving in between the sources had caused him to actually lose 3 points per second, two from the fiery soul and one from Stamina consumption. That actually gave him a little over 16 seconds to traverse the distance rather than the 25 he had anticipated. Further compounding this were the ... "interesting" effects caused by losing health. AGONY... That was the only way the elemental could describe losing three health points a second. Whereas before the cold had sapped his will, it now tore at him. Bits and pieces of power fell off like embers from a dying fire as he was nearly stopped in place by the pain. Grunting under the strain, he pushed forward. If he stopped, even for a second, he would die. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. Four seconds. He had made it! He was at the source! There was no fire though. The mana lay dormant, buried deep inside the source. There has to be something flammable! He desperately thought to himself as he lowered himself as close to the source in a last ditch attempt to start a fire. Five seconds. Six seconds. The agony doubled as his health finally dipped below half. Nearly buckling below the increased pain, he rejoiced through blurry vision as he watched a small fire catch beneath him. Would it grow large enough to sustain him in time? Seven seconds. Eight seconds. Nine seconds. Ten seconds. Eleven seconds. Twelve seconds. The pain disappeared. The cold too. It was all good now. He was safe here. Nothing would hurt him anymore. A bright light surrounded him, and the fire elemental slipped away.... ...into a dreamless sleep as his health slowly started to climb upwards. The new fire around him shielding the child from the cold, cruel world. Chapter 2 He was... alive? The elemental practically danced with joy as he woke to a crackling fire. He had made it! He would survive... at least until this fire died out as well. Immediately sobered by this realization, he quickly opened his stat page.
Name: N/A Race: Fire Elemental (Newborn) Level 5/10
Strength: 1 Vitality: 3 Endurance:2
Agility: 1 Dexterity: 1 Reflex: 2
Intelligence: 4 Wisdom: 2 Willpower:2
HP: 30/30 Mana: 20/20 Stamina: N/A
Trait: Sentient, Hardy, Adaptable Unallocated Trait points: 1 Skills: Pyromancy
Attributes: Fiery soul, Edge Dancer Effects: Fiery Soul Unallocated stat points: 4
He quickly realized that a few changes had occured as he slept. Firstly, He had broken into level five, unlocking two stat points thanks to the adaptable trait. In combination with those left over from level four, he now had four points to place at his leisure. Furthermore, he had also gained another trait point. That would probably be more useful once he invested the stat points. A more interesting change, however, was the new attribute he had passively gained: Edge Dancer. A quick thought directed at it immediately brought up the corresponding description
Edge Dancer (attribute): You have danced with death... Unlocked by: Surviving injuries that left you with 1 health point or less than 1% of your total health. Passive Gains: N/A Stat Gains: N/A Ability Gains: Second Wind Second Wind (passive): Upon taking fatal damage, gain a rapidly decaying shield of Health equal to twice your maximum health. The shield will leave you the health you had before its a activation or one health point, whichever is greater. Decay rate is set to 1.66% of the shield''s maximum health per second. Cooldown: 48 hours
This was.... incredible! The elemental merely stared at his new ability, recognizing just how close to death he had previously gotten. Now; however, he at least had some form of safety net. Some quick math made him realize the shield would only last a maximum of a minute, and that was if he was taking no damage whatsoever. Nonetheless, even with just his current health, he would have an extra fifteen seconds away from a fire. Thinking of that; however, brought a shiver to his spine. He did not ever want to feel the cold, the agony again. It was too much... Too painful... Reality, he knew would force him out again, but this time he would be far more prepared. This fire was much weaker than the previous one, unfortunately, but it would do for his purposes. Quickly constraining it like he had done with his first fire, he realized that there was a bright side to its lack of strength: the flame would continue for much longer. Whereas his first fire had exploded outward, fueled by mana, this one merely flickered. As such, even before he constrained it, it likely would have lasted for nearly twice as long as the first. Secure in the realization that he had a safe haven for the forseeable future, the elemental set about placing his stat points. Now understanding the way traits were gained, he gave serious thought to placing a casual point into agility, just to quickly unlock the trait. That idea however, was quickly discarded as he thought of his need to find out when a new tier of traits was unlocked, if there even was one. He knew he was walking blindly, but he had to trust his instincts: they were all he had at the moment. With his decision to find the next tier of traits made, he only had to choose a stat for it. This choice, at least, was an easy one. While vitality could technically be strictly better to invest in, giving him nearly six times the benefits per point as compared to intelligence when the effects of second wind were factored in, he wasn''t a masochist. Losing mana constantly was uncomfortable, sure, but it was nowhere near as painful as losing health was. If he found the trait early enough, he could perhaps consider investing in vitality as well, but for now at least, he would place his points into intelligence. Much to his surprise; however, only one point into distributing them all, a notification appeared.
Congratulations! You have become Clever! By investing into five points of Intelligence, your mind has greatly improved.
Clever (Trait): Passive gains: Your mind has sharpened, greatly increasing your capacity to focus as well as your general comprehension of new concepts. Stat gains: +3 intelligence +1 Wisdom, +1 Willpower Ability gains: N/A
With the arrival of the new trait, a sharp, yet brief, pain struck his mind as it rapidly expanded. As it dissipated, the elemental felt as if a cloud was lifted away. His mind moved at double speed, racing from thought to thought as he truly began to work at his problems. Intelligence had been a good choice, he realized, but not for the reason he chose it. This trait was enough to make it worthwhile, but it just didn''t do enough for him. With newfound reason now in control of his decisions, he made a distasteful choice and invested two points into vitality. The benefits were simply too good to pass up upon.
Congratulations! You have become Stalwart! For investing 5 points into vitality, you have become much hardier and resistant to pain.
Stalwart (Trait): Passive gains: Every point of Vitality grants and extra point of Health. You also gain 25% pain resistance. Stat gains: +3 Vitality +1 Endurance, Reflex
The elemental flared with joy as his essence rapidly expanded. Vitality it seems was also a decisive factor in his size, and five points into really showed a difference. Now, his spherical wispy form was double its former size, reaching approximately halfway to a man''s knee. Furthermore, with his new size, the form actually began to stabilize into a humanoid figure. Spindly arms and legs extended from his spherical core, still fragile yet capable of directed motion. Floating inside his fire, the elemental quickly began to calculate just how far he could travel. Now with a reference point in the spent fuel source behind him, he realized that he could indeed cover a decent amount of ground. In his previous form, it took him eleven seconds to reach his current source and eight seconds to light it aflame. He had only been able to survive that long because he no longer consumed stamina once he arrived at the source. With his new stats, he felt fairly confident in his ability to reach the next source. Not even considering Second Wind, he had about 42 seconds of free motion: more than enough time to reach the third source, which was actually closer to him now than the first source was. Furthermore, he still had a stat point to allocate. Before he could simply place it into vitality like the last two; however, he was interrupted by the arrival of a new complication. It was a fuel source... but it was moving? This source came from the far side of the tunnel, approaching the first, spent source. At first, the elemental could only see it''s mana, crawling along the floor much like he had. He watched intrigued as it slowly made its way into the firelight. It was strange, very different from his sources in more than just the fact that it was moving. Firstly, like him it seemed to be made of mana, rather than just having it woven into its being. Unlike him; however, its mana did not burn to give rise to a fiery form. Instead it seemed to be some liquid, surrounding a solid core of mana at its center. Its movement was also strange. Instead of merely floating, or flowing, to its destination, it seemed to ooze forward first throwing out an extension before pulling itself forward. The elemental decided that this was clearly neither him, nor one of his normal sources. Perhaps it could become food; however. There was only one more source available after his current one was consumed. After that third one was gone as well... He shuddered slightly. Even though he had somewhat stabilized, his position was still rather precarious. As such, he watched the creature carefully as it approached the first source. At first, it seemed rather hesitant to approach, but after a moment''s pause it leaped onto the remains. The elemental watched, fascinated as it devoured the remaining ash and mana from the first source. This creature really was interesting! It took mere minutes for the creature to dissolve the remains, leaving nothing behind. Then, it began to make its way towards the elemental. This gave him a moment''s pause. He had just seen it devour an entire source in a tenth the time it took his fires to do so. Would it be a danger to him? Unsure of what an appropriate reaction would be, the elemental released some of his control over the fire letting it blaze taller and brighter. Now he was once again completly shrouded by the flames. The creature; however, seemed completly uninterested if not afraid of him. Once it was about halfway to him, it stopped and began moving in a diagonal path, skirting around his fire as best it could. This confused the elemental greatly at first. Why would it choose to go around him like that? If it was afraid of fire, why didn''t it just turn around. There was nothing on the other side of him. Nothing except... The realization hit hard. The only difference about the tunnel in the direction the creature was traveling was his third source. He had already seen it seemingly devour the remains of one source. Why wouldn''t it be able to consume one he hadn''t burned away yet?If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Livid with rage, he almost went out to physically attack it himself. Luckily, he just barely managed to stop himself. He had no idea of the creature''s capabilities. Perhaps it could devour him like it could sources. Or it could even slow him down long enough for fiery soul to kill him. He had no way of knowing. Instead, he resolved to take advantage of the one thing he knew about the creature: it disliked fire. Whereas before he had loosened his control over the fire, he now used pyromancy to stoke it, turning the flames into a towering inferno. The creature noticed immediately, turning around in attempt to make an escape. At that point; however, it was too little, too late. The elemental had decided it was a threat and felt compelled to exterminate it with utmost prejudice. Consuming all his mana, he lashed out, launching a thick lance of flames at the creature. Now, against most beings, while annoying, this attack would not likely be much of a threat. He was merely throwing fire at them. At worst, it would catch them on fire, but such basic flames could easily be put out by any creature with a speck of magic in its body. His target; however, was a slime. Composed of mana, slimes are difficult to kill with physical blows: Their gel would merely reform around their core, until you managed to crush it completly. Attacks with energy; however, were usually far more effective, having a variety of reactions with the slime''s gel. The one element that fared particularly well; however, was fire. You see, fire can burn away mana, it''s just another source of energy to a hungry flame. As such, when flames come in contact with a being of pure mana, untainted by any of the elements, the results are rather.... interesting. The creature exloded. As the lance came in contact with its outer membrane, the being seemed to bubble furiously before blasting outward in all directions. In its place, all that remained was the round core from its center. The Elemental stared for a moment, astonished at the results of his handiwork, before doing a little dance from joy. He had done it! He had kept his fuel source safe. As he calmed down from his excitement; however, he realized that he had gone somewhat overboard. The massive lance of fire probably wasn''t nescessary. Instead he could have sent out a few weaker attacks, preserving his mana for future fights as well as finding the minimum amount of energy needed to eliminate one of the devourers, as he took to calling them. He decided not to be too harsh on himself; however, even though he''d made a mistake, the accompanying accomplishment was far more important in his eyes. With the battle, however one-sided it may have been, over, the elemental quickly restrained his fire once again. While it had been useful in the fight, he realized that he used far too much of it. Whereas before he''d had the better part of an hour left in this flame, he could sense that he hardly had twenty minutes. At the rate his mana was regenerating, he should be back to full in just a few minutes, leaving him with another choice to make. The devourer''s core lay there, glinting in the firelight. Now that it was no longer coated in the insulating gel, it shone like a beacon to his mana sensitive eyes. He had no doubt it would provide him with an advantage, at the very least in the form of keeping his fire stoked for a few more minutes. It would cost him mana and experience, as he likely wouldn''t be able to get much time in the fire to keep his attribute active, but he decided to risk it. He couldn''t exactly lose too much. Deciding it was better to be safe even as he was gambling, he waited for his mana to fully recover before setting out. With the effects of Fiery Soul, and his general regeneration, it barely took three minutes for him to return to full mana. Wasting no time, he immediately set out towards the core. The cold buffeted him again, but this time he was stronger. He held himself together as he pushed onward, ignoring the sight of his mana dropping precariously. Fortunately the distance to the core was far shorter than the first journey he had to take as the devourer had just barely been skirting around the fire. Further speeding his journey was his greater size. Now he could cover much greater distances, and with these advantages reaching the core was a breeze. He didn''t even reach the halfway point on his mana. Upon arriving at the core; however, he was met with a notification... and a problem.
Congratulations! You have found a Rank F- Monster Core (Slime Core) Consuming this core will grant you a part of the creature''s experience as well as 1 stat point to allocate. Consumption of the core will take you approximately: 1 minute
The benefits were extraordinary! Experience would help him break through to his next level while the stat point would potentially unlock a new trait! There was just one problem: he didn''t have a minute to spend out here. It had already taken him at least five seconds to walk out this way. Even with second wind, the timing would be extremely dangerous. Too dangerous. Waving away the notification, he rushed over to the core and began to push it towards the fire. This idea too had a problem: he couldn''t move it. Quickly looking around, he realized it wasn''t stuck or blocked by anything, he was just too weak to budge it out of its position. For a second, he panicked. He wanted the core badly. If he didn''t get something out of this trip, it would just be a waste of mana and experience. Those could both spell the difference between life and death to him. His panic only lasted for one second; however, and his mind cooly reasserted itself. Opening his status page, he placed his last available point into strength. Ignoring the notifications that appeared, he pushed. Lunging forward with all his newfound strength, his limbs took action. His legs dug into the ground for the first time as his arms thrust forward slamming into the core and forcing it to roll away from him... towards the fire. Ignoring the tinge of pain that appeared as he started digging into health, he buckled down and slammed his shoulder into the core speeding up its roll and forcing it ahead of him. With the core rolling away from him, he merely chased after it nudging it to keep it slowly moving until it finally came to rest against the burning source. Pain striking at his every move, the elemental clambered up into the fire and sat himself down, resting as his health began to slowly climb back up to full. The pain had been much lesser that time he noted as his mana began to regenerate. He supposed it was the health regeneration doing its job, but he also came up with another potential explanation. In his first run, he only had thirty health points. Losing three a second cost him a full tenth of his life each second as he was moving. Now, losing three or four points a second was about a twentieth or less of his life each second. He assumed that lesser pain, with greater pain resistance added in as well, was the reason he was able to continue so easily without pause. If that was the case... more health would give him more time and less pain. Then again, if he were to run into more devourers, or slimes as he now knew they were called, additional mana would be incredibly useful. He probably didn''t need forty points for each one, yet having more mana would greatly strengthen his ability to control the fires he was in. Furthermore, slimes probably weren''t the only things in the world. If something that wasn''t afraid of fire came for him.... more health wouldn''t exactly help him much. He needed to be able to defend himself. On that note, he looked back at the notifications he had gained.
Congratulations! You have becomeForceful! By investing two points into Strength, you have gained a much stronger physical force.
Forceful (Trait): Passive Gains: Your form is now far denser, easing interaction with the world around you. Stat Gains: +1 Strength, Agility, Dexterity Ability Gains:N/A
The new trait was interesting. Outside the fire, he hadn''t had the chance to really look at himself, but it felt about right. He no longer had wispy tendrils coming off of him, instead his body had solidified into his chosen humanoid form. He could still change his shape freely, but didn''t really see a point to it. The slime''s form really didn''t offer the advantages of limbs like the sources'' shapes. Thinking about the slime''s form reminded him of the object he had gone out to search for in the first place: the core. Rushing over to it now that he was mostly recovered, he was met with the same notification. This time; however, after making sure he was still in the fire and that it wouldn''t go out within a minute, he started the process of consuming the core. It was... strange for him. As the power contained within the core flowed to him, he saw flashes of the creature''s life. The slime had not been sentient, having only one point of intelligence, yet it nonetheless had made some observations about its surroundings. From those observations, the elemental felt great joy and terror. Originally, the slime had been spawned as one of a hundred others. They traveled down the tunnel he was currently in in packs, searching for any scraps of food. Their mind if he could even call it that, was consumed by hunger. The joy came to him as he learned that at the tunnel''s end, there was a place of rest. Beyond the third source of fuel, there was a place where there was fuel aplenty for a fire. A great mass of life that would not hurt him, yet could burn. The slime had seen it happen once. A group of sources had walked into the area and the one at the front had unleashed waves of fire that burned for hours. The elemental practically drooled at the thought of such a place. The fear; however, was much stronger. There were creatures in this place. Creatures that didn''t bother to scavenge in the tunnels like the slimes did. Creatures that had crushed the slimes without a second thought. Some were giants, rising twice the height of the tunnel he was in. Others were small yet swift, snapping out slimes'' cores with ease as they sped by them. Most terrifying of all were the elementals. He recognized that they were like him, in a way, but they were very different in all others. Firstly, none of them held power over fire. They all rose from from the water or the earth of the giant cavern before him. Some even descended from the air itself. They all terrified him. He remembered his races description. Attacks of Earth and water would hurt him doubly, while the beings of the air could blast him straight out of his fire. What made the situation worse was that they all had the strangeness in them. Like the flames on the walls, their energy seemed... corrupted almost. It certainly seemed unnatural to him at least. As the last of the slime''s core was absorbed he quickly felt the rush leave him, along with most of the memories. They didn''t completly disappear; however, instead becoming hazy and almost dreamlike. Most of the finer details were gone, but he still remembered the general gist of what he had learned. Ahead lay great hope and great danger, but it was the only path for him to take. The mental gains were not the only thing he was left with; however.
Congratulations! You have completly absorbed an F - rank core. You recieve a portion of the experience stored within the creature as well as 1 Unallocated stat point.
Congratulations! You have reached level 6! You have gained one stat point. Due to your adaptable trait, you also gain another stat point. You still have unallocated stat points from absorbing cores. If you do not direct their placement, they will be placed into random stats upon your next evolution. You still have unallocated trait points from prior levels. If you do not direct their placement, they will unlock random traits upon your next evolution.
Now with a long-term goal in mind, The elemental quickly dumped his available stat points into intelligence. He had already invested greatly into that path and it seemed that magic was going to be the only way for him to defend himself against the dangers he faced ahead. After investing only two points, a new notification appeared. This time, it was one he had never seen before.
Congratulations! By investing 10 points into intelligence, you have unlocked two paths to follow. Choose carefully, as selecting one path will forever remove the other.
Magus: "Arcane are my ways..." Many creatures try to live around the world. They react and struggle to make their way from season to season. You know a better way. Through magic you can make the very world bend to your will, if you have the will and dedication to pursue it that is. Passive gains: +5 mana per point of intelligence, +0.05 mana regen per point of wisdom, +2 points of intelligence per level, +1 point of Wisdom per level. Stat gains: +3 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom Ability gains: N/A Passive losses: -5 Stamina per point of Endurance, -0.025 Stamina Regen per point of Endurance, - 0.5% resistance perpoint of Endurance Stat losses: N/A Ability Losses: N/A
Mastermind: "The plans of mice and men may often go awry... but mine never will..." Just like there are different orders of magnitude in terms of strength and speed, so are there with thought. A mastermind is a genius, peerless. Whereas others struggle to make it through life from day to day, a mastermind has already planned for years in advance. Passive gains: Drastically improves mental computational speed, Improves your capability to understand gestures, languages, and actions of other beings, Improves tactical sense and situational awareness, +3 points of Intelligence per level. Stat gains: +5 Intelligence Ability Gains: Overclock Passive losses: -4 Mana per point of intelligence, -0.04 mana regen perpoint of wisdom Stat losses: N/A Ability Losses: N/A
While the Mastermind was interesting, the choice was ultimately simple. Magus ultimately had no downside, considering Stamina was not a concern for him. It also provided him an immediate burst of extra mana to help him survive for even longer away from flames. Mastermind on the other hand would cripple him almost completly, halving his time away from fire and leaving him with no way to defend himself. The ability was interesting, considering the first one he had recieved, Second wind, was so incredible. Nonetheless, It was too great of a risk for him. Accepting the Magus path, he quickly felt Massive changes occur within him. Whereas a burst of vitality had sharply increased his size, The burst of intelligence he recieved Actually condensed more energy within him, making him feel like he had an inferno of barely contained power at his disposal. His own temperature skyrocketed; the fire that made his body also changed color, becoming a much brighter red than it previously was. A sharp wave of mental changes also occured. While not as significant as those passively gained from a trait, the improvements caused by five points of intelligence were by no means meager. His mind sharpened once more, allowing him to fill out his plans with far greater detail than before. Opening his status page, he looked over his gains with pride as the fire around him slowly continued to crackle.
Name: N/A (Magus) Race: Fire Elemental (Newborn) Level 6/10
Strength: 3 Vitality: 8 Endurance:3
Agility: 2 Dexterity: 2 Reflex: 3
Intelligence: 13 Wisdom: 5 Willpower:3
HP: 88/88 Mana: 130/130 Stamina: N/A
Trait: Sentient, Hardy, Adaptable, Clever, Stalwart, Forceful Unallocated Trait points: 1 Skills: Pyromancy
Attributes: Fiery soul, Edge Dancer Effects: Fiery Soul Unallocated stat points: 1
Chapter 3 Again, it was time to move. The fire was dim and the elemental was already anxious to get going. This time; however, he decided to experiment. With his vastly expanded mana pool, he took charge of the fire. Instead of just reaching out with a long arm of flames like he had done with the slime, he chose to instead compress a small portion of it into a ball, much like his own essence had done when he increased his intelligence. Feeling his mana slowly drop just from maintaining the ball of flames, he quickly launched it at the third source. The ball traveled quickly, covering the distance in a little over three seconds. In those three seconds; however, it drained a full fifteen points of mana in addition to the five points it had taken him to form it. Interestingly enough, he noted that most of the mana loss had occured in the very last second. This fell in line with the observations he made when he tried to control the strange flames on the walls. The further away a flame was, the more difficult it would be for him to control. With that in mind he added improving his control of fire to his mental to-do list. No longer deep in thought, he looked over towards the third source only to be surprised by a notification.
Congratulations! You have succesfully cast the spell Fireball! Description: A simple yet effective spell for students of pyromancy. Cast by compressing fire into a ball and launching it towards an enemy. Mana cost and explosive power increase as the amount of fire inside increases. Can be directed while in flight at the cost of further mana. Skill required: Pyromancy Creator: Sol
The elemental was interested by the new type of window. It did not seem to grant him any tangible benefit, merely serving as a notification instead. Nonetheless, he supposed it would be useful to know what he was actually casting. Dismissing the notification he looked over at the source to see the effects of his new spell. What he saw left him in a stunned silence. The source had been... brutalized. Its core had been flattened by the pressure and the entire source had been lifted and pushed away from him. Normally a simple fireball would not have been so effective. In open areas, the explosion would have been harmful and the lingering flames would certainly hurt, but it would have nowhere near enough power to physically crush objects. Inside the tunnel; however, pressure came into effect. Since the air had nowhere to go, the overpressure caused by the explosion had crumpled the source and tossed it like a ragdoll away from him. Which was problematic considering he still had to get to it. At least its burning... He thought to himself as he stepped out of the dying fire to make a rush towards his new source. Again he felt the cold emptiness, but now it was just a slight tinge of annoyance. While he did continue to feel himself be slowly drained, it felt much less impactful to him. He supposed it was much the same effect as he had felt in his last venture with his health. Having such vast amounts of mana meant he didn''t feel the effects of losing just three points every second. Actually glancing at his mana pool; however, showed another potential cause of the decreased fatigue. He wasn''t losing three points of mana per second. He was only losing about two and a half. His mana regeneration was finally coming into play! Up until this point, fiery soul had been the major way for him to regain health and mana as well as experience. Now that he had the Magus path, even the lackluster amount of Wisdom he had was beginning to add up. Half a point per second didn''t seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but it gave him some much needed breathing room. Furthermore, it also meant he could eventually cancel out the negative aspect of his passive altogether. It would just take... fifteen more points of Wisdom. He sighed in dissapointment as he continued to make his way towards the next fire. That wasn''t going to happen anytime soon. But perhaps... His excitement grew as he entered the fire, causing his fiery soul to switch backing to feeding him mana. His level five trait for vitality had improved the amount of health each point gave him. Perhaps Wisdom''s trait would work much the same! Unfortunately, looking at his stats, he realized that the bonus his path gave him already raised him to five wisdom. He would have to invest his trait point into it... That; however, was also not an option as he quickly found out when he thought of allocating his trait point.
Available Traits: Restless: (Unlocked by having two points of Endurance) Thoughtful: (Unlocked by having two points of Wisdom) Twitchy: (Unlocked by having two points of Reflex) Determined: (Unlocked by having two points of Willpower) Swift: (Unlocked by having two points of Agility) Flexible (Unlocked by having two points of Dexterity) Morphling (Unlocked by having the Adaptable trait) Unallocated trait points: 1
He quickly realized his mistake. He could not unlock a trait without it''s predecessor. Some quick calculations made it clear that it was pointless to unlock the level two trait for wisdom. It would grant him two further points in that stat, bringing him up to seven. Then with the magus path he would gain a point per level, bringing him up to 10 points at level nine. A level before he recieved his next trait point. He wasn''t quite sure what would happen. Either he would be able to unlock a path for wisdom, or he wouldn''t. It was a simple as that. He was of course upset by the situation, but since he could do nothing to change it, he quickly decided to move on to the next interesting piece of information he had gained: the morphling trait. Since it was unlocked by having the adaptable trait, he quickly surmised that it would have a similar effect: giving him more stat points to distribute at his will. The adaptable trait was good without a doubt. Over a long enough timescale, it could unlock dozens of traits. The problem came in with the way he had locked himself out of most of his stats. He could certainly continue to invest in those stats, but without their traits, they would certainly be far less effective. Unlocking the morphling trait now would only allow him to invest his extra points into strength, Vitality and intelligence. It would also get him no closer to repairing the mess he had made of his wisdom. Not investing into morphling; however, would leave him weaker in the long term. Each level passing would actually end up being a lost opportunity for him. In the end, there was one more factor that led to him choosing morphling. His evolution. He was already at level six. Soon enough, he would hit level ten. Investing both the point he already had and the point he recieved at level 10 would not be enough to fix his wisdom and the other stats didn''t seem valuable enough to invest in yet. He didn''t know exactly what would happen at his evolution, but he wanted to hit it as strong as he could possible be.
Congratulations! You have become a Morphling! The hallmark of a true survivor is changing to suit their needs. You continue to grow more capable of adaptation.
Morphling (Trait): Passive gains: You gain three additional stat points per level. Stat gains: N/A Ability gains: N/A
He felt immediately gratified by his decision. The potential growth was massive! The only dissapointment he felt was in not unlocking Morphling earlier. He''d had the option to for the past two levels. The only thing stopping him was, yet again his own hastiness. Three additional stat points would have been greatly appreciated through his ordeals so far. Sighing to himself, he decided not to be overly harsh on himself. Instead, he resolved to be more careful in the future, starting from that very moment. Reopening his window of available traits, he was unsurprised to find that there was indeed a new option for him; this time it was unlocked by having the morphling trait.
Available Traits: Restless: (Unlocked by having two points of Endurance) Thoughtful: (Unlocked by having two points of Wisdom) Twitchy: (Unlocked by having two points of Reflex) Determined: (Unlocked by having two points of Willpower) Swift: (Unlocked by having two points of Agility) Flexible (Unlocked by having two points of Dexterity) Primal Essence (Unlocked by having the Morphling trait) Unallocated trait points: 0
It''s appearance posed a new problem for him: how he would allocate his level 10 Trait point. Ultimately; however, he decided that he would answer that when he had to and not a minute sooner. Instead he turned to a more pressing matter, one that had been aggravating him since he destroyed the slime. How would he defend himself away from a fire? In or near a fire, the answer was simple: he just took control of the flames and used to them to strike his threat. Now with knowledge of the fireball spell, he could be even more efficient with his usage of fire. Away from a fire; however, he didn''t really know how exactly he would start a fire for him to control. While it hadn''t been a problem yet, he was worried about crossing a great distance to the grand source of energy and surviving there without some capacity to defend himself. His first thought was rather simple: He would take the fire with him. Eager to try it out, He quickly shaved off a portion of the flames and tried to hold them a short distance from the fire. There, he quickly realized just how much mana it would take to sustain the fire. It was completly unsustainable. Even with Fiery Soul active, he was losing around two points each second just keeping the fire alive at a small distance. Even that was just a tiny flame, smaller than he was. It would be completly useless in a fight unless he fed it a drastic amount of mana. An amount he couldn''t guarantee he would have available as both fiery soul and the cost required to keep an ember alight both drained him. Instead he decided to try something different. The first fire, the one that birthed him, had been different from these past two. These burned the sources and burned their mana. The first, on the other hand, was made from mana. The flames didn''t consume mana, they somehow... were it. The distinction puzzled him, and led him to take a closer look at mana itself. The first clear discovery he made was that mana was far more complex then he had given it credit for. Just looking around him, he could see vastly different hues dwelling within the different substances of the world. The mana floating freely through the air was thin and wispy. Constantly moving, it flowed around his fire forming a turbulent cycle with little regularity. In contrast, the energy within the earth seemed to be just as solid as its container. To his limited patience, it seemed as if it would never move from its place beneath him. Then, there were the sources. It was... strange to say the least. The source beneath him actually held two types of mana. Firstly, there was a vibrant form that seemed to shine out. Flowing like air, it nonetheless had a pattern, an order, to it. The only problem was that this type of mana seemed to be disappearing rapidly. It''s pattern was unraveling leaving behind the second type of mana within the source. This mana was empty. That was the best way he could think to describe it at the time. It lacked any pattern like earth, or motion like air. It seemed to merely fill the void left by the decaying first type. It had no... will behind it. It seemed to lack a purpose. Shuddering slightly, he decided to leave the unnatural energy to its own devices. Instead he finally turned inward to flaming energy that made him up. And what he saw terrified him. His fire mana flowed outward constantly, blazing like a fire and dissipating into the air. Like all fires, he was consuming something to stay alive. That was why Fiery Soul burned through his mana and Health! To live and think he was consuming pure mana to producehis essence, the fire mana that made his pattern. Since this essence constantly leaked outwards, he had to constantly convert more of it from mana or else risk losing his life as he simply dissipatedinto the air around him. It was a disturbing revelation to say the least. He couldn''t exactly manipulate his own pattern, not without riskingaccidental suicide, so he had no way to prevent the loss from occuring. Instead, he had a few other epiphanies about himself. Firstly, he understood why staying within a fire allowed him to regenerate his mana. Previously, he''d thought that he was absorbing energy from the fire, using it to power himself. While that may have been true of the fire he was born in, these latter fires hardly had enough mana to sustain themselves, let alone him. Instead, they saturated the air around him with energy. As the air was already heated and filled to the brim with energy from the little fire mana contained within the flames, there wasn''t much of a pull on his own energy. Thus, instead of having it dissipate outward into the world like fire energy normally would, he was able to continue cycling it throughout him. With this continued cycling, he was able to maintain his current amount of mana, allowing his natural regeneration to fill him up to full. The second realization he made was about his process of regenerating mana, if it could even be called that. The simple fact was, he was creating mana. Or rather, he was burning some sort of fuel to create mana. That was the only logical explanation. Mana, after all, doesn''t merely appear out of nowhere. At least, to his knowledge it doesn''t. Therefore, it only followed that when he was regenerating mana, he was actually absorbing some sort of essence, some sort of energy, and converting it to mana. The problem with his theory? He simply couldn''t see it. Logically, he believed there had to be something there. Nonetheless, no matter how hard he tried to look, or what other senses he tried to use, he couldn''t find anything out of the ordinary. No disturbances, no suspicious void in his sight, evrything just looked... normal. Frustrated by his lack of progress in discovering the theorized essence, he resolved to think more on it later and turned back to the problem he had intended to solve all along: how to defend himself away from a fire. Armed with his new knowledge of mana, he came to a quick realization. There was no need to start a fire. He was a fire. To all intents and purposes, he could control the fire mana he released just as easily as that from a fire. With sinking esteem for his own intelligence, he quickly stepped out of the fire to test his thought. The world outside a fire felt as cold as always, but as he had started to realize when he made his third venture out, it was affecting him far less. The draining feeling remained, as it probably always would considering he was constantly losing mana to the world around him, but he could begin to tune it out. Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he resolved to quickly finish his experiment and move on. Much to his relief, the fireball formed easily. It was only a matter of channeling the energy from his own body, rather than compressing what was already present in a fire. There were; however a few noticable differences. Firstly, it cost him far more mana to form a fireball outside of a fire. This was expected, after all he was providing the energy as well as shaping it, nearly doubling the cost. To his surprise; however, the resulting fireball formed quicker and was far easier to control, costing him less mana overall. After all, most of the mana involved in the first fireball he had cast was used up controlling it. Here he drew another conclusion about mana, it was far easier to control his own than it was to try to shape naturally occuring power. Satisfied with the results of his testing, he turned to reenter the fire only to notice something approaching him. Or rather, make that multiple somethings. A group of slimes were making their way down the hallway, slowly oozing their way toward the ashy remains of the second source. Upon seeing them, the elemental''s excitement grew quickly. Slimes were easy pickings for him, it would be all too simple for him to crush them and consume their cores. Nonetheless, he forced himself to be patient. After spending time away from his fire and casting a fireball, he was already down to a mere two-thirds of his mana pool. Spending any more time outside risked him entering a situation where he would be caught out without any mana and ultimately provided no benefit. After all, the last slime had come to him. Why should these be any different? So, he returned to his fire and settled down to take a look at his foes. There were three slimes this time around. One was clear, much like the first slime he had faced. It was the smallest of the three and likewise seemed to be the least threatening. Putting it out of his mind completly, he turned to the other two, which proved much more interesting. The largest one was of mixed color with streaks of gray, brown, and black mixed in. Surprisingly, the slime''s outer layer had rocks scattered throughout it making it craggy and irregular, unlike the smooth ooziness of the other two. A quick look at its mana explained the differences. Whereas normal slimes were made entirely of pure mana, this slime was formed of mostly earth mana. The other slime was also formed of elemental mana. This time; however, it was wind mana causing the changes. This third slime was actually almost transparent, unlike the hazy translucence of the ordinary slime. The only way he could actually see it clearly was by looking at its mana. Otherwise, he would only see a slight hazy distortion. There was no visible coordination between the slimes, in fact, they seemed to almost fight over the remains rabidly. The slow earth slime relentlessly made its way up the source, while the other two darted in to grab particularly mana-rich areas. Soon enough, the source was consumed in its entirity, leaving nothing behind.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Then, the slimes'' attention turned to the elemental. The air touched slime was the first to move, darting ahead of the others. The elemental quickly built up a fireball, drawing upon his own mana even as he stood within a fire. He wasn''t particularly worried about this fight, yet he decided to conserve his mana nonetheless. Almost lazily, he launched the fireball at the slime. The fireball blazed out homing in on the slime as he directed it with his mind until suddenly, it began to lose coherence. A strong gust of wind nudged the blaze to the left, allowing the slime to dodge to the right. Spurred on by the wind, the fireball blasted straight into the wall, detonating harmlessly. Angered by the failure, he quickly formed a second fireball and threw it out. Again, despite his best efforts to guide it to the slime, a gust of wind drove the fireball out of the creature''s path at the last second. With his anger only growing, the elemental prepared a third fireball, certain that he would not miss again. A mere moment before he threw it; however, he finally realized what was happening. The slime was controlling the wind! If he could control fire, it was only logical that other beings could control elements they were attuned to. And if these slimes could effectively control their elements, this fight would be far more troublesome than he had anticipated. It all boiled down to a simple problem, he couldn''t land a hit on the wind slime from any reasonable distance. To kill it, he would have to get up close and personal where it simply didn''t have the time to deflect his fireballs. Moving out of the fire; however, posed its own risks. Currently he was protected, hidden from the slimes'' vision by the blaze surrounding him. If he took one step out, he would lose his invisibilty and be vulnerable to any attacks the air slime could throw his way. Then there was the earth slime. While the air-touched slime was already making lazy circles around his fire, the earth slime had just now reached the halfway point of the journey. Nonetheless, it could still be extremely dangerous. If it had enough power, the thing could bury him and the fire in dirt, smothering them both. At best, in the case where it had very little control over magic, it could still slow him down outside of the flames by manipulating the ground beneath him. The only redeeming factor of the situation? The slimes didn''t seem to be collaborating, or doing much thinking at all. The elemental didn''t feel confident in his knowledge of the intricacies of magic, yet he was certain that it rapidly became more difficult to control it the further away the effect was meant to occur. This principle had held true across all of his testing so far and he thought it would be reasonable to assume it would hold true for others as well. Thus, it seemed utterly foolish for the air slime to circle around the fire. After all, it couldn''t protect the Earth slime if it moved too far away. Of course, the Earth slime could potentially defend itself, but the elemental felt he could still turn the situation to his advantage. At the very least, it would be better than facing both slimes at the same time. Hastily putting a plan together, the elemental formed a new fireball. Even though he was within a fire, he chose to use his own energy as this one would need to cover a fairly large distance under his control. He had originally wanted to infuse more power into the sphere, compressing the mana further, but decided against that course once he felt himself begin to lose control. Reabsorbing some of the power to bring the fireball down to a more manageable size, the elemental waited for the air slime to be on the opposite side of his fire from the Earth slime before bursting into action. His first step was to launch the fireball toward the earth slime at an upward angle. The trajectory the blast fired was almost like that of a lobbed ball, climbing up to almost brush against the ceiling before diving downward nearly vertically. This of course was not natural. The fireball was under his control the entire duration of its flight, he merely guided it down that path to impact at an angle difficult to block with some sort of raised pillar or wall. Much to his satisfaction, the plan worked perfectly. The Earth Slime didn''t even seem to make an attempt to defend itself as the fireball exploded above it, crushing the slime under a wave of pressure. When the elemental looked back in that direction, all that was left of the slime was a core and some spattered gel. It had been simply too weak for him. With that plan having worked out perfectly, he turned to face the air slime, only to watch it rapidly ooze away from him in terror. It seemed like the demise of the slow Earth slime put it off of trying to fight him. The elemental was rather dissapointed: he''d wanted that core. Nonetheless, as he thought it would be rather unlikely for him to be able to catch the fleeing slime, he steeled himself against the cold and set out to collect the core. The fight had been exciting, but rather anticlimactic. The slimes hadn''t really been able to hurt him in the fire, and he just pelted them to death with impunity. If only there had been more of a challenge... That moment, of course, was when three arcane bolts slammed into him. As the pure mana of the bolts came into contact with his fiery body, it combusted, exploding violently to create a shockwave that hit him like the fist of a vengeful Deity. The shockwave tore into him, ripping his essence appart and carying him backwards like a ragdoll through the air until he slammed into a wall. The impact with the wall did even more damage to him then the blast had, compressing his body until it was nearly flat and almost ripping him apart. Finally; however, the force abated and he slid limply to the ground. Pain. His world was pain. He couldn''t think. He couldn''t move. He couldn''t feel. All there was was pain. It tore at him, throughout his entire body. He felt as if he had been ripped apart into a million pieces and hastily reassembled. Eventually after what felt like an eternity, his conciousness began to return. He had been attacked. He was hurt. Badly. He needed to get back to the fire. The fire was safe. The fire was always safe... With agonizingly slow movements, he pushed himself up to his knees before falling forward to slam into the ground. He was just too weak to hold himself up. The cold stone; however, was enough to knock his mind back into gear. A hazy, muddled mess of a gear, but functional nonetheless. First things first, he took a look at his HP. Surprisingly, he still had almost 50 left. Unfortunately, it was dropping by about three points each second in addition to his mana loss from being outside of the fire. At first he was confused, why was it dropping so quickly? He wasn''t getting injured anymore! That was when it hit him. Second wind must have activated. He must have taken a bit more than twice his health as damage, breaking his 88 health in an instant and cutting off almost two-thirds of the 176 hp shield he gained from the ability. It was terrifying to think that he had taken about 200 damage in an instant like that, but he had to move. His HP was already down to 40 and only continued to drop. Fortunately, his mana was nearly full, and although it was still dropping by a point and a half per second, he had more than plenty to reach the fire nearby. Once he felt ready, he stood himself up and stumbled towards the flames. It was unerving, to say the least, to watch his health dwindle down to merely one point. Much to his relief, that was where it stopped, leaving him to finish his agonizing walk home in an uneasy peace. The entire way, a single question ran through his mind: what hit him? The Air slime was long gone, and besides, he''d been hit from the wrong angle for that. The blast had come from his side, not behind him. The Earth slime was, without a doubt, dead leaving only... the third slime. The slime he had forgotten about completly because it looked so similar to the first slime he had easily slain. That was a mistake he had almost not survived to learn from. Cursing his hastiness in dismissing the slime and his carelessness in ignoring it as he left the safety of his fire to grab the Earth slime''s core, he dove forward to land inside the fire. As his health began to steadily increase, he took a deep sigh of relief. The pain, which had remained throughout his shambling rush back, rapidly abated allowing him to take note of a blue window. Instead of reading it; however, he mentally set it aside: he was still in danger. The slime was still out there, and he had to kill it before it tried to take his life again. He was down to half of his mana, but he managed to quickly form a fireball. Looking out of the fire, he saw it. the slime that had hurt him so badly. It seemed far smaller than it had been when it moved alongside the other two slimes, almost as if its spell had cost it a large part of itself. Unfortunately for it, the slime hadn''t decided to make good on its escape, instead choosing to move towards the leftover core from the Earth slime. That further enraged the elemental. It attacked him from the shadows and tried to make away with his hard won loot? He knew with certainty that it would be the last mistake the creature ever made. He poured power into the fireball, launching it toward the slime faster than the creature could ever hope to dodge. This slime; however, didn''t have to dodge. Quickly forming a spike of arcane energy on its surface, it launched a bolt of energy that met the fireball midair. Where the bolt hit the ball, it exploded, dissipating the fireball''s energy. The elemental was furious, quickly forming and launching a second fireball. The slime; however, was not interested in fighting it out. Slowed by its reduction in size, it slid away from the Earth core, moving deeper into the tunnel. As the second fireball came for it, it again ejected a bolt of energy that dissipated the powerful blast. This final bolt seemed to be all the slime had left as it practically shrank to a small sphere of gel surrounding its core. The elemental was frustrated, but incapable of doing anything to stop it. Instead, he watched it slowly slide out of sight before he made his move for the core. This time, he was extremely cautious, watching the shadows for any hint of motion. All that caution was for nothing as the slime never showed itself. Instead, he simply grabbed the core and slowly pulled it back to the fire, all while continuing to keep his eye on the hallway. In the end, he would have been fine if he hadn''t been watchful the second time. Nonetheless, he wouldnt make the same mistake twice. He had almost died due solely to his own carelessness. He disliked the slime, but in the end, he put himself in that situation. It was his own fault and he had to learn from that mistake, or he might not make it out next time. Now; however, he had been the victor and it was finally time for his spoils. First up was the notification he had set aside before attacking the slime.
Edge Dancer II You have danced with Death, yet she has let you slip her grasp... Unlocked By: Surviving damage greater than or equal to two times your Health Passive Gains: Stat Gains: Ability Gains: Second Wind II Second Wind II (passive): Replaces Second Wind. Upon taking fatal damage, gain a shield equal to twice your Health. The shield dissipates once you regenerate to full health or it is damaged for all of its Health. Cooldown: 36 Hours (available in 47 hours 55 minutes)
In the end, this was, strictly speaking, an improvement on Second Wind in most every way. The shield''s health would be the same, but the shield would actually be able to last until he regenerated the health himself. Furthermore, the cooldown was sharply decreased. Although it wouldn''t be available for another two days, he could only hope it would continue to improve like this, although he winced at the thought of having to go through the same pain to improve it again. While impressive, it was ultimately a minor change. It could save his life, but it would only help at most every day and a half. The core, on the other hand, would be far more interesting.
Congratulations! You have found a Rank F Monster Core (Earth Slime Core) Consuming this core will grant you a portion of the creature''s experience, 1 point of Vitality, and 1 stat point to allocate. Consumption of the core will take you approximately: 2 minutes
The elemental quickly began to consume the core, greedily devouring its power for himself. This time the memories came in far clearer. The Earth slime hadn''t been particularly intelligent, at least when not compared to the Elemental or the arcane slime, as he''d decided to call it, but it was worlds apart from the original slime he had absorbed. Apparently, there were multpile chambers with life in them. Moving downward, toward where the slimes had come from, would lead him to larger chambers with more fuel, but also more dangerous enemies. The slimes themselves had only seen that part of the dungeon, as he now learned this place was called. The strangest thing about the memories; however, was that the slime almost seemed to have been controlled for most of its existence. Watching its memories, he could very clearly feel its desire to dig into the mana-rich walls and ground of the dungeon, yet some will overrode it completly. Instead, it had been forced to patrol hallways devouring the scraps left behind by larger creatures. That behavior had only stopped when the arcane slime, as he''d decided to call the third slime, entered the equation. It seemed to take control of the Earth slime and the Air slime as well, using them to protect itself as it moved up through the hallways. The Elemental wondered why. Working together, the slimes had managed to take down a few of the weaker beasts in the lower chambers. There didn''t seem to be much of a reason to go upwards once they could defend themselves. Shrugging, he felt himself reach the end of the memories. Once again, the specific details faded from his memory almost like a dream leaving him with only the broad strokes. He was in something called a dungeon. Some will, most likely the dungeon itself, was controlling the creatures within this it. The arcane slime was an abberation. He''d have to watch out for it at a later point, but now, he had a point to place. Or rather, seven points.
Congratulations! You have completly absorbed an F rank core! You recieve a portion of the Experience the creature had gained as well as 1 point in Vitality and 1 unallocated stat point.
Congratulations! You have Reached Level 7! You have gained one stat point! Due to your adaptable trait, you gain an additional stat point! Due to your Morphling trait, you gain three additional stat points! You still have unallocated stat points from absorbing cores. If you do not direct their placement, they will be placed into random stats upon your next evolution. You still have an unallocated point from a previous level. If you do not direct its placement, it will be placed into a random stat upon your next evolution.
Name: Magus ??? Race: Fire Elemental (Newborn) Level 7/10
Strength: 3 Vitality: 9 Endurance:3
Agility: 2 Dexterity: 2 Reflex: 3
Intelligence: 15 Wisdom: 6 Willpower:3
HP: 88/88 Mana: 150/150 Stamina: N/A
Trait: Sentient, Clever, Hardy, Stalwart, Adaptable, Morphling, Forceful Unallocated Trait points: 0 Skills: Pyromancy (Initiate)
Attributes: Fiery soul, Edge Dancer II Effects: Fiery Soul Unallocated stat points: 7 Ability: Second Wind II
7 points. He''d left one point unallocated after choosing his path as a magus, but to gain five points in a single level... He couldn''t wait to see what the primal essence trait would unlock for him. The placement of his first point was all too simple. Going straight into vitality, it brought up a brand new set of paths to choose from.
Congratulations! By investing ten points in Vitality you have unlocked two paths to choose from. By investing ten points in Vitality and having the Magus path selected, you have unlocked a third option. Choose wisely, as selecting one path will forever remove the other two.
Juggernaut: "Nothing Stops Me!" Many creatures try to move around obstacles. Juggernauts; however, know a better way. They push forward, and let the obstacles move aside, if they are strong enough that is. Passive Gains: +5 Health per point of vitality, +0.01 health regeneration per second per point of vitality + 5 Stamina per point of Endurance, +0.05 Stamina regenerated per second per point of stamina, +2 points of Vitality each level, +1 point of Endurance each level. Stat Gains: + 3 Vitality, + 2 Endurance Ability Gains: N/A Passive Losses: Decreases the effects of Agility and Reflex by 25% Stat Losses: N/A Ability Losses: N/A
Survivor: "That? Tis nothing more than a flesh wound!" Many creatures try to avoid injury, living their whole life in fear of recieving a fatal wound. Survivors; however, know a better way. They grow until even the mightiest of blows can not stagger them, if they are hardy enough that is. Passive Gains: +9Health per Point of Vitality, +0.09 health regen per second per Point of Vitality, +0.09% of Lifespan increased per point of Vitality, +3 points of Vitality each level Stat Gains: +5 Vitality Ability Gains: N/A Passive Losses: -5 Stamina per point of Endurance, - 0.025 Stamina regen per point of Endurance, - 0.5% resistance per point of Endurance Stat Losses: N/A Ability Losses: N/A
Blood Magus: "Lay open your veins..." Power is worth any sacrifice. Feed yourself into the fire, grow it into a glorious blaze. Passive gains: All mana gains are now applied to health instead. All mana regeneration is now added to health regeneration instead. +2 Vitality per level, +1 Intelligence per level Stat gains: +3 Vitality, +2 Intelligence Ability gains: Blood Debt Blood Debt (passive): You gain the ability to utilize health instead of mana. The rate of exchange is 1 health to 0.75 mana. Warning! This can be Lethal! Passive Losses: N/A Stat Losses N/A Ability Losses: N/A
That was... interesting. Having now seen two options for paths, he was beginning to see a pattern appear. Firstly, the first path again seemed to be split between two stats like his magus path. The problem with this Juggernaut path; however, is that Endurance was nearly completely useless to him. The only benefit he would gain from it would be the resistance to damage. Even with that, the magus path was harming his prospects in ever actually building up a reasonable amount of resistance. After all, the losses from the magus path were identical with the Endurance gains this path offered. Thus, he''d only really gain a part of its benefit making it quite a poor option. Survivor on the other hand would give him a simply massive pool of health. With the five points of vitality, he''d end up with nearly 300 H.P.! Added on to that would be the massive gain in Health regeneration, bumping him up to 1.5 points per second. Furthermore, all this would massively increase the utility of his second wind. After all, a 600 health shield was far better than a 200 health shield. The cost was again in Endurance, which was rather amusing to him. If he did end up choosing this path, endurance would be, quite literally, useless to him: each point would give no benefits whatsoever. The greatest problem he could see with this path; however, is that it provided no offensive benefits. Instead, it was purely specialized in defense, leaving him to find other ways to attack or even protect himself. And finally, there was Blood Mage. The sheer power this path would grant him was incredible. His effective "mana" pool would nearly double, and it would continue to increase drastically as he gained levels. The problem; however, lay in the dangers associated with this path. Firstly, he wouldn''t truly have that much mana. He needed to stay alive while casting, so he couldn''t realistically use more than half of his health pool at a time. Furthermore, as a battle progressed and he sustained injuries, he would lose more and more of his effective mana pool. Eventually, if he was injured enough, he wouldn''t be able to defend himself at all. Ultimately, he would be able to shatter most anybody with one overwhelming burst of power, but that would leave him completly defenseless. As he saw it, the cost simply wasn''t worth the benefits without some other benefit to help protect him. He had to consider what exactly he had and what he required. To survive in this world, he needed to have durability, sustainability, mobility, and damage. The Magus Path covered damage and a part of sustainability, considering that it did give him some mana regeneration in addition to the pure increase to mana. That left him needing durability and mobility, with further sustainability as a lower priority. Simplifying his choice down to those categories made it quite simple. Survivor covered durability and sustainability quite handily while blood magus sacrificed what limited assets he had in those categories for the sake of pure damage. Thus, he quickly made his decision, choosing the path of the survivor. Upon making his choice, he felt a wave of power surge into him. He watched, astonished, as the channels of energy that made up his pattern dilated and shifted outward to form highways of energy. Small tributariesbranched off of each of them, uniting the individual strains into one unified flow of life. His physical form burst outward, nearly doubling in size to reflect the shift in his pattern. Now, he was about as tall as a man''s knee, forcing him tocrouch downsomewhat awkwardly to stay within the dying blaze. He felt... alive! There was simply no other way to describe it. The sheer amount of life brought him to a high unlike any he had ever experienced. That being said, he had no time to revel in the Euphoria. His fire was dimming and he had six more points to place before he left. Here, he had a difficult choice to make. Theoretically, he could now stand out of a fire indefinetly: he had 1.5 points of health regeneration and 0.6 points of mana regeneration per second. Thus, since he only lost two mana each second, he could theoretically stand out as long as he liked, regenerating 0.1 health per second. The problem with that; however, was that he would be left with no mana, and would still lose about a point a second if he walked. If he put his points into wisdom, he could boost his mana regeneration up to a point where it alone could outpace the amount he lost to the outside world. That; however, was entirely dependent on whether he got a path or not. Since the system had blocked him from gaining the level five trait, he couldn''t be certain that reaching 10 Wisdom would actually grant him any benefit. The other option was to simply invest his points into Strength. Two points would grant him the level 5 trait and then two more would unlock another path. Strength had proven somewhat useful in the past, letting him carry the slime cores around, and it might also be useful in a situation where he ran out of mana. It wasn''t his Ideal by any means, but it was better than wasting his points... Sighing inwardly, he invested four points into strength and watched as a slew of notifications obscured his vision.
Congratulations! You have become Stout! By investing 5 points into Strength you have become far denser and more resistant to physical force.
Stout (trait): Passive Gains: Your density is doubled. Your passive Strength gains per point have also increased to maintain the same proportion of Strength to mass. +5% resistance to physical damage Stat Gains: +3 Strength +1 Agility, Dexterity
By Investing 10 points into strength and having two paths already selected, you have unlocked a combined path! This will unify your paths into one route, tailored to your race and location. Creating path...
Chapter 4
Unique Circumstances Identified... Compensating...
Path Created: Living Essence Rank: Rare Current Strength: F+ Growth potential: B+
Living Essence: "Although it is strange and cold, I have accepted this world as my own..." You are not meant to exist within these lands. Your kin have always been born of the essence of Sol, cradled either within the realm of fire or near one of the many portals to it. You are an exception. Born in the cold and forced to take a physical form in order to survive, you will never be the same as your kin who have only known the luxury of flame. Learn your lessons, gain your strength, and always remember: you are your own source of power. Passive gains: Preserves all benefits from "Magus" and "Survivor" paths. Your density is tripled. Your Strength is increased to maintain the same ratio of Strength to mass. Fiery Soul now only reduces your mana/health by 1 point per every second your are out of a fire. Stat gains: Preserves all benefits from "Magus" and "Survivor" paths. Ability gains: Ethereal Reversion Ethereal Reversion (Toggle): Release your essence outward to take an Ethereal form. In your Ethereal form, you are immune to physical damage, but take triple damage from any magical or energy attacks (This scales multiplicatively with racial weaknesses). Furthermore, you lose 5% of your total mana per second while you are in your ethereal form. Running out of mana returns you to your normal form. Activation/Deactivation: 1 second Cooldown: N/A Passive Losses:You can no longer gain any new paths. Stat Losses: N/A Ability Losses: N/A
Again, the elemental felt changes flow through him. Gaining strength was different from vitality and intelligence. Instead of growing larger or smarter, he felt himself gain weight. Moving felt different. His body respondedto more of an extreme extent than he had been used to. He could actually feel himself pushing off of the ground and being held off of the floor by his own strength rather than the bouncing wispiness he had felt before. It would take some time to get accustomed to the changes but... he found himself liking them quite a bit. The new ability was also interesting but irritatingly limited. True, He could use it to dodge massive instances of physical damage, but it would take 15% of his mana just to keep it up for a second and lead to near certain death from any heavy magical assault. It would be a good last resort, but he couldn''t count on it to save him consistently. Thus, what he appreciated most about the new path wasn''t the shiny new ability or even the increased density, but the simple reduction in Fiery Soul''s downside. He was almost free! After he put his remaining two points into wisdom, he had 0.8 mana regeneration per second: justthree pointsshy of actually being able to regenrate mana outside of a fire. Just one more level would do it. That; however, was one level too many, as the fire below him finally dimmed beyond the point where it was worth maintaining. Oncemore the cold set in. Without any better option, the elemental quickly set off up the tunnel, following the path the air slime had taken in its fright. He stumbled on his first steps, unused to his new size and strength, but swiftly began to improve. In moments, he was already walking faster than he ever had before, taking massive strides from his new height. Massive, being a bit of a relative word of course, he was only about knee height after all. Nonetheless, he felt rather proud. He was making his way out into the world and nothing was going to stop him! He; however, wasn''t the tunnel''s only occupant. Far behind him, a lone slime oozed its way after him, having devoured the recently vacated ashy remains. The elemental had grown tall and strong after their fight, but it wasn''t the only one with a few tricks up its pattern... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - It took a full five minutes for the elemental to finally reach the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, what he found there was nothing short of dissapointing. It was indeed a huge cavern, but it was by no means filled with energy. The floor and walls were merely barren stone while the only sources within were barely an eighth ofthe sizeof the ones he had dwellt upon. They were rather different too, scurrying around on four legs with a skinny tail constantly whipping around behind them. He knew a little of these fur black creatures from the slimes'' experiences: they were scavengers, not particularly dangerous to him in any way. Nonetheless, he''d have to make do with what little energy was available to him here. Walking forward into the room, he froze as every last creature within immediately turned toward him. A sea of black beady eyes glinted in his light for a moment before turning a bright red. The rats charged with savage abandon, uncaring that they trampled their own benetah them in an effort to get to the elemental as fast as they could. For his part, the elemental stood his ground, uncertain as to how exactly they planned to harm him. He was literally made of fire, it wasn''t as if they could survive biting him... He quickly came to realize that survival was the furthest thing from their mind. The rats swarmed him, climbing over themselves to completly cover him in a mass of writhing flesh. Each bite killed a rat, but whenever one fell, two rushed to take its place. The elemental almost panicked, tearing and swatting at rats as he steadily lost health. When he had lost almost fifty health; however, an idea came to him. These creatures only did physical damge and died when they came in contact with him. Hadn''t he just gained an ability that could take advantage of both of those? The elemental burst outwards, expanding to a cloud nearly triple his physical size. Suddenly losing a solid being below their paws, the rats tumbled downward into his inferno. Having been greatly annoyed by their attacks, the screeching was almost gratifying to the elemental as the rats'' roasted within his ethereal form.He''d outsmarted them, and now, it was time to reap the rewards of his work. That, of course, was whenan arcane bolt slammed into his Ethereal Form. The bolt tore into him, tearing his extended essence to shredsjust before he pulled himself back into his regular form. Again, his world was pain, but this time... it was overridden by anger, a hot burning fury at the one creature that had denied his will... THATACURSED SLIME! He was down to 130 health. If he hadn''t taken the path of the survivor,he likely would have died. Again.It was time for payback. A feral grin formed across his face as he pulled himself to his feet. Seeing that its rushed ambush had failed, the slime formed a second bolt and launched it at him. Having just barely pulled himself to his feet, the elemental knew he couldn''t dodge the blast. Instead, he braced himself and lifted his arms up to block it. With his new, heavy body and greatly increased strength, the bolt barely budged him out of place. Without the crushing impact of beingslammed into a wall, the singular bolt hardly hurt him, damaging him for aboutforty health. His grin expanded as the slime began to form more bolts. This... was incredibly exhilarating! His anger for the slime fed his joy as he calmly slid around the third bolt, letting it crash harmlessly into the wall behind him. If he remembered correctly, the slime only had five shots in its arsenal, then its core would be his! The slime seemed to know this as well,holdingits two remaining bolts above it in a threatening manner. At this point, it was all a numbers game. The elemental had ninety health and the slime had eighty damage on the table. However, he wouldn''t put it past the critter to have some hidden ace. Since he was standing still, every second that passed meant he gained1.3 health. The slime, on the other hand, would gainan unknown amount of mana.The Elemental knew that was nowhere near a good exchange for him. He had to end this now, hidden aces be damned. So... he charged. The slime saw him moving and threw out one of its bolts. He''d been expecting that and dove to the side before turning to face the slime again. Whereupon he found two arcane boltsscreaming towardshis face. The slime had outsmarted him, feinting forward with the bolt before actually launching it.Now he would the price of falling in its trap. The bolts tore into his upraised arms, further shredding his already tattered essence and forcing him back further. 10 health. That''s all he had left. He could only hope it would be enough. He pushed himself up to his knees. Then, from his knees he forced himself into a standing position, before starting to stagger forward. One step. Two steps. Three. Four. Five Six Seven He was walking. It was slow. It was clumsy, but it was walking and it covered the distance to the slime admirably. Each second that passed healed him, numbing the pain and letting him move faster. For its part, the slime was still alive, sliding backwards slowly in a desperate attempt to open up more space between the two of them. It was too late for that. If it had wanted mercy it should have never attacked him. Now, he stood above it, victorious and ready to strike the final blow. Then the other shoe dropped. Literally.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. The elemental tumbled away from the slime as he was kicked by a source. Gracelessly, he slid to a stop upon the cold stone floor losing all of the health he had just barely regained. Limply rolling over, he watched as the source slammed a runed box atop of the slime, capturing it effortlessly. Once the box was on the ground around the slime, the source slid a final panel underneath, sealing the box shut. Then, with unhurried movements, it carefully lifted the box and placed it in a pack on its back. Then, once it sealed its pack, the source turned to him, shouting something. The elemental was confused for a moment, did it expect him to be hurt by its noise? Then, he heard a responding grunt from his side, and looked up to see another source standing over him. He''d never heard it approach. As the first source grew closer, it began to make noises again, which the second one seemed to respond to. Were they... communicating? He couldn''t be sure, but there did seem to be a pattern to their noises. They seemed to be deciding something... probably his fate. Unfortunately, there was nothinghe could do to stop them. The sources towered over him and practically shone with mana. Even at his prime, heprobably couldn''t have stopped them. Now? Well he was most certainly not at his prime. Out of mana, almost out of health, and most certainly out of time, he could only lie back and watch their sounds flow back and forth. Finally, the two seemed to come to a consensus. With one final grunt, the second source reached behind its back and pulled out a cage. The elemental sighed in relief: he would live, at least for a little longer. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Now come on Bart! Don''t tryan'' rob us! I knowwhat a Ruler''s worth!" the trapper cried, indignant at the merchant''s offer. "Yes, yes a ruler is usually valuable," the merchant acknowledged, placing emphasis upon the usually as he turned to gesture at the slime," but this one is still just a slime! Who would buy a slime, of all things, as a familiar? You''re lucky I even willing to take the chance. 5 silver I tell you, 5 silver is all you''ll get out of me." The trapper turned beet red in anger, barely containing the explosion that almost burst from his mouth. Just a quickly as he rose to anger; however, he lost his temper. The merchant was probably right... it was just a slime... Before he could open his mouth and accept the deal, his partner spoke up. "A gold Crown for it an'' the elemental or we take ''emto Larkin across the road." the man said simply, pointing behind his back towards the merchant''s competitor. A look of pure disgust flittered across the merchant''s face. "Larkin? That old cheat? He''d sooner spit on you than give you any more and you know it. No, here''s what I''ll do for you boys I''ll give you ten silvers for both. Ten Silvers. My mercy''ll have me out in the streetsnext winter, but I suppose it''s only fair since I''ve known you both for years now. Final offer." The first trapper was ecstatic, lifting his hand to shake with the merchant. The second man; however, smelled a rat. "No, actually we''ll take ''em over to Larkin, get the two critters appraised. Thanks fer the time..." he began only to be cut off by the merchant. "5 gold for the slime. I don''t give half a damn about the elemental, but I''ll give you a silver for it:It''s rare enough around these parts for me to sell itat a bit of profit," the merchant replied, dropping all pretenses and adopting a stone cold manner. "And if we were to ask fer ten gold?" the second trapper asked, leaning in over the wooden counter. "I''d call you a halfwit and laugh when Larkin said the same." the merchant replied, mirthless. "I say we just take the gold man..." the first trapper whispered to the first. "Shut it. If it were up to you we''d have walked outa here with 5 silver between the two of us." the second muttered back. "Nine gold" "Five" "Eight gold" "Five" "Seven?" "I''ve told you thrice now, five gold is the most you''ll get here. Take it or get out of my store!" the merchant yelled with a note of finalityin his voice. "Alright. Five gold and One silver fer the slime and elemental, signed Jans Barken." the trapper proclaimed. "Signed Bartholomew Lacome" the merchant replied.
A trade has been witnesed by the System. Fulfill your obligations, or be judged.
Wordlessly, themerchant pulled out 5 quarter-sized round coins and one smaller hexagonal silver coin with a small hole through its center from a cashbox behind the counter. The trapper slid the box and cage across the counter, jostling the elemental, which had observed the exchange silently. Accepting the money from the merchant, the trapper turned and walked outside, shouting, "Pleasure doing business with ya!" over his shoulder. The merchant stood, silent and stony-faced as he watchedthrough the large glass window that made up the front facade of his store. Only when the two trappers had passed the corner of his store did he allow a smile to break out across his face. "Fools. Pah, only reason I''m still in this shithole is fools like them." The merchant snorted shaking his head. "Now," he continued, a hint of greed entering his voice," Let''s see what we have here." Opening the box, he easily blocked three bolts of mana with a simple energy shield that burst into existence around him. "Ooh, you''re a fiesty one aren''t you?" the merchant chuckled as he pulled on a runed silky glove and reached down in to the box. Scooping the slime up, he turned it from side to side, efficiently observing every aspect of the helpless creature''s form. "Yeesss," the merchant mumbled to himself, drawing out the simple word to an almost malevolent hiss, " you''ll make me veeerrry rich won''t you?" "Parker!" The man barked, not taking his eyes of the slime. "Yessir!" his apprentice cried, rushing in to stand by the Merchant''s while desperately picking at his clothes in a last-ditch attempt to straighten them out. "Quit your fidgeting boy!" the merchant replied, causing the boy to immediately freeze. "Go into the vault and bring metheXyren box. Yes, that''s the one in the very back I''ve told you not to touch. Hurry, but whatever you do," The merchant leaned in, pulling theyoung man forward ny his collar with his free hand," Do. Not. Drop It! Am I making myself understood?" The boy nodded silently in fear. "Good! Then, Go!" The merchant shouted,suddenly letting go of his apprentice. Hetumbled to the ground but scrambled up to his feet with a practiced ease. Thankfully, his master hadn''t seemed to have noticed, enthralled by the slime. Practically diving through the curtain that covered the doorway into the back of the shop, he slid into what might as well have been a whole new world. The backroom was dark and hot with an unnatural humid feel. Beady eyes watched the boy''s every move from cages that were stacked tall, all the way up to the ceiling. Shrieks and grunts ofmagical creatures all fell eerily silent as the boy walked by, before resuming in earnest after his passage. One beast slammed into the side of its crate, rushing atParker but being forced back by the enchantments that bound it inside. He didn''t falter. It was far from his first day as an apprentice at Bartholomew''s Bestiary and he''d long since grown accustomed to the habits of its occupants. Making his way through one winding isle, he finally reached the end of the hall where the most exotic creatures dwelled. A young wyvern screeched at him from its perch in the rafters, a baby hydra hissed with both its heads lurking under a rock in its enclosure, the hellbear grunted, not even deigning to give him more than a glance. Finally, after dodging a swipe from the firecat, Parker reached the very back of the hall. Here, he quickly went over and grabbed the Xyren box. Named after the wizard who created it, it was commonly considered one of the great magic wonders of the world. There was only one Xyren box, yet there were thousands or perhaps even tens of thousands scattered around the world. Somehow, the wizard had manipulated space magic to the degree of forming multiple linked instances of the same box throughout the world. They were uniquely useful in that anything that passed through one of the boxes would instantly appear at the original one. Unfortunately, Xyren himself was believed to have lost his life in the making of the box, taking the secret of its creation to the grave with him. That; however, didn''t stop the merchant guild from turning a handy profit, using the box as secure transportation for any smaller, valuable goods. Bringingthe boxback to the counter,Parker slid it in front of his master and took two steps back to hopefully remain out of mind. For his part, the master had already returned the slime to the runed box it had arrived in and was now simply quilling in the finishing touches on a piece of parchment he planned to send along with the slime. As he crossed his last t, he gestured with his hand once casting a cantrip that instantly dried the ink before rolling the parchment up and tying it shut with a string. Once the cantrip had finished its work, the master dipped his ring into a pot of hot resin, always boiling for this very purpose, and placed it along the edge of the parchment leaving behind his seal upon the letter. Wiping off the remaining resin from his ring with a rag, he placed both the runed box and letter into the Xyren box before closingits lid firmly. Only then did he permit his second smile of the evening. Pausing for a moment, he sighed in soft anticipation of the gold that would soon come flooding his way. It was only for a moment though. There was, after all, still work to be done. Turning to his apprentice, he gestured casually toward the elemental," Feed that thing to the firecat before you go, boy." "Feed it...? Sir?" Parker replied confused. "Did I stutter? Feed it to the firecat. It''s only a bloody elemental, the things are all over the place. Nobody''ll buy it off me. At least it was cheaper than Hellboar meat. Figure it might as well be of some use..." he mumbled, turning to a stack of papers. Parker hesitated for a moment. His master had given him a command, but... this was his best chance! He had only managed to save up fifty copper, there was no way he could buy any other creature from the shop. Knowing full and well he was liable to get a tongue lashing, he spoke up. "If... if it''s really that worthless then..." he began, only to hesitate, falling silent when his master''s gaze fell upon him. "Then?" the man prompted giving away none of his thoughts on the manner. "th-then I was wondering if maybe... I could buy it!" the boy finished with a blurt. "You?" his master asked, bemused," And what exactly would you plan to do with a newborn elemental?" "I..."hebegan as he shuffled his feet," it wouldnt be for me. My younger brother''s turned thirteen today sir. He''s always wanted a beast from the store, but..." "You haven''t got the money," the man finished, well aware of his apprentice''s financial situation. "Yessir. I thought that maybe since it''s not worth much..." he continued hopefully "I''d give it to you for free?" his master cut him off again, more coldly this time. "No SIr. No no no!" the apprentice vehemently denied, knowing full well his master''s thoughts on charity. He quickly reached down into pocket, pulling out a small pouch of coins. In a motion he poured the coins, small copper rectangles, also with holes through their center, out into his hand. "50 copper sir!" the boy exclaimed with an outstretched hand, not explicitly stating the obvious fact that this was all the money he had. The merchant silently took the money, counting it out of habit with practiced ease. Then, he looked up athis apprentice wordlessly. The silence continued for a long moment as the boy began to fidget under his master''s silent gaze before the man finally sighed and stood up. Pocketing what didn''t even amount to pocket change for him, he walked a ways down the counter and pulled a single pair of gloves out of a drawer beneath the counter. Then walking back over, he picked the elemental''s cage up with his free hand and held both items out to his apprentice. "50 copper for this newborn fire elemental and a pair of whelp-skin gloves. Signed Bartholomew Lacome." "Really Sir? I..." Parker began. "Finsih the deal boy, before I change my mind," his master cut him off. "Signed Parker Rolfe!" the boy practically shouted with excitement.
A trade has been witnessed by the System. Fulfill your obligations or be judged.
Rushing forward, instead of merely grabbing the offered items, Parker hugged his master. "Thank you Sir! You won''t regret it! I swear." "I already do..." the merchant grumpily replied, awkwardly holding his hands out while the boy hugged him. Realizing what he had done in his excitement, Parker practically leapt back, blushing furiously from embarassment. Before he could begin to apologize profusely; however, his master pushed the cage and gloves into his arms. "Go home Parker. I''ll finish closing tonight." "Sir are you...?" Parker began, only to be waved off bny his master. "Yes, yes I''m sure. Stop questioning good fortune boy, or you''ll never make a proper merchant! Now, go on! You''ll be late for the gift giving!" the man interrupted, handing the young manhis coat and ushering him out the door. Parker took two steps outside before looking back over his shoulder. "Have a Merry Midwinter''s Feast Master!" he called out. "A Merry Midwinter''s Feast to you too Parker. Hurry home now or you''ll catch your death out here!" the man replied with just a hint of concern as he stood in his doorway, watching the boy dart away against the blistery breeze with a small cage held inside his jacket, tight to his chest. Chapter 5 Gusts of wind pelted the boy, flickering through the gaps of his thin coat with ease and beating themselves senseless upon his chest. Normally, he would have just wrapped himself tightly, blocking the wind out with layers upon layers of threadbare, patched cloth. Unfortunately, bringing a cage into the equation made that idea quite impossible. Even though his jacket was at least three sizes too large, it could still barely strain shut around the two of them, only held there by the boy''s thin arms. That said, Parker had been through worse. For years, he''dwalked the dungeon town''s streetswithout a jacket at all, braving the wind and snow with only a roughspun cotton shirt. Those had been the hard times, before he''d been taken up by Master Lacome, and before Sorsha had beentaken away by the academy. Now, at least he had two warm meals a day and some coppers to bring back to his family. It was better than his father did at least. He hadn''t held a steady job since Magnus had been born, thirteen years ago. Instead, he''d drunk his family''s way into the FifthQuarter. "TheFifth Quarter..." Parker sighed as he spotted the sign above the gate that led into his part of the city. Gritting himself, he took one last look at the winding road behind him and turned back to head towards the guard checkpoint beside the gates. Nobody wanted to live in theFifth. Even the nobles who called themselves men of the people walked those streets with at least a dozen armed guards. It was the same across the entire world. Every dungeon town was carefully planned, everything from the streets, to the walls, to the shingles placed along the roofs was carefully accounted for months before the first worker or mage broke the ground. The Nobles and Mages lived within the first quarter, carefully keeping their spacious manors and spiralling towers in the center of the city protected by three layers of walls. A lord''s keep and a Portal guild''s office would also lie here, if the city were important enough to warrant one. This would always be the most beautiful part ofa city, with smooth tiled walkways that are swept clean each evening, tall branching trees to provide shade and cover from the elements, and magelights shining their dim blue light upon the streets through the night. The SecondQuarter was the Merchant''s district. Sandwiched between the inner walls and the First Quarter''s walls, Here liscenced craftsmen of all kinds created and peddled their wares. Every imaginable group was represented, from herbalists to enchanters and everything in between. It was here that Parker came sleepily everySolsday as with the young sun at his back, and from here he reluctantly leftevery Luday under the rising moon. The buildings were stout, but solid and regular. Each was two stories tall, a lower story that had broad open glass windows and opened into the street to act as a store, and a private upper story where the merchants lived with their families. There were no yards or gardens between the buildings, but the streets were wide and well lit by soft magelights for a few hours after the sun set. The ThirdQuarter was the home each dungeon town''s Adventurer''s Guild, Mercenary Guild, and Delver''s guild. In Parker''s town, it laidbeside the second Quarter, also between the inner walls and the First Quarter. It was here that the dungeon opened up to the surface, and the whole district was built around it. Hammers clanged from dawn till dusk as the city''s battallion of smiths worked tomeet the dungeon divers'' constant need for new weapons and armor as they forced their way into the ever changing depths beneath the city. Wagons made their way across the Quarter, loaded to the brim with barrels upon barrels of ale, mead, and spirits for the inns that never seemed to empty, no matter what the time of day. Paladins and Priests bicker with battlemages while members of all races bustle through the rough worn streets. Ever child dreams of going to the third, of living a life of fun and adventure like they''ve heard of in the stories their mother reads them. Then there is the Fourth Quarter, home to the workers and the guards. The Fourth was always an odd district, with winding unpaved streetspresentinga seemingly organic growth of the citiy''s populace. Here, the necessary aspects of city life took place, with grocers and butchers alongside rows upon rows of cramped homes. Each building was oddly shaped, and there never seemed to be two homes that were alike. Fitting in betwen the outer walls and inner walls, it was actually intetnionally built as a maze. Here, the city guard could stall any assailants that broke past the walls, miring them in brutal combat throughout the labyrithine streets until reinforcements could arrive or the more important residents could evacuate. It was hardly a fair position for those who made the quarter their home, but where else was there to go? "Going to the fifth?" the bored guard asked Parker, hardly bothering to look up from his cards. "Yessir," Parker mumbled, taking an inadvertent step forward into the alcove the guards inhabited to escape the whistling wind. "Well get moving,filther!" one of the other guards sneered, waving him away brusquely. Filther. Freak. Fifther. Fodder. All the other oh- so- clever names that had arisen to describe those who lived in his district. Parker hated them. He hated the shame they brought, the agonizing burning in his cheeks that was oh so different from the sharp stinging cold. He hated the disdain people aimed at him and the way they ignored him, as if he weren''t even worth the space he took up in the world or the air he breathed in. Most of all, he hated his father for making him bear it. The Fifth, unlike the other quarters, was not planned. It served no useful purpose to the city and wasn''t even within the outer walls. It was a fifth piece to a puzzle that only needed... only wanted, four. Everything a person needed to know about it was in the name. The Fifth was irrelevant. The Fifth was illogical. The Fifth was the slums. The Fifth was his home. In this city, it took the form of a few hundred haphazard shacks that spewed out from a side gate like sewage billowing out from an open pipe. Built from wood and whatever stone the fortunate among those destitute enough to live in such a place could scrounge up, they stood in stark contrast to the heavy stone and mortar form of the city beside them. It was home to the bottom of the city''s underbelly, the sickest of prostitutes, themeanest of beggars, and of course the drunkards. Parker, quickly made his way through the rough paths that passed for streets, taking great care to avoid the darkest alleys and the territories of the various petty gangs that bullied their way to power atop the scum. Fortunately, nobodly else was foolish enough to be outside in this weather after dark, letting him pass undisturbed on the worn road to his house. All too soon, he found himself upon the front step of his house. As always, it was too dark for him to truly make out any of the details, but he had memorized the depressing visage he would otherwise see long ago. A single stone step, would lead up to a brown plank door that almost seemed to bear the weight of the entire house upon its creaking hinges. The house drooped and leaned forward, moving eerily with the wind instead of standing strong as a proper home would. There was a single window, an irregular orifice opening into the Grand Room, ashis siblings liked to call the one room that acted as a kitchen living room and dining room. Steeling himself, he moved to knock but found himself hitting thin air as the door opened inward before him, revealing a relieved young woman. "Parker! Thank Enlil! I was beginning to worry! Get in here, you''ll freeze to death!" She seemed to alternate between relief and worry from phrase to phrase as she bustled him in the door. "Don''t worry Mary, I''m alright. It''s notthat cold outside." he replied, turning to shut the door with his foot "You say that now, but who''ll have to take care of you when you catch the chill?" Mary grumbled, crossing her hands over her chest. Then, noticing the bulge in his jacket, she furrowed her brows for a moment before coming to a sudden realization. "Is that...?" she asked leadingly, motioning towards the great room with her head. Parker nodded silently, grinning as he pulled aside his coat to reveal the flickering fire elemental inside. Speechless for a moment, she simply stared, entranced, as the small creature tilted its head to the side, quite clearly looking at her with no small amount of confusion. "Are you crazy? How much did that cost! I hope you didn''t..." she began to furiously whisper upon regaining her wits. Parker merely set the cage down and grabbed her shoulders, interrupting her whispered tirade. "It''s fine Sis. Don''t worry about the money. I didn''t steal it, and I don''t owe anybody anything. You know how much he''s wanted something like this!" Parker explained himself, before gesturing down toward the elemental, which sat quietly in its cage. "Besides, Master Lacome was going to just feed it to the firecat. It''s better for everyone this way!" She searched his eyes for a moment, looking for any trace of deception before sighing and seeming to almost deflate as she slid into a hug against him. "Well at least something''s gone well today..." she mumbled into his shoulder as he held her up. Surprised yet somewhat relieved that he''d gotten away with not explaining how exactly he''d come about the money, Parker gladly continued her change of topic. "What do you mean?" he asked, letting her push away and move into an energetic tirade about the problems of baking a surprise cake for a thirteen year old who''s too nosy for his own good. Instead of listening, Parker just nodded and grunted affirmation at what seemed to be appropriate moments, letting her vent out her frustrations at the people around them. As the eldest sibling, she''d always been the one to take care of Parker,Kael, and Emma when they were children. Even now that Parker was sixteen and Emma was gone, she still acted as the mother in the household. It seemed so strange, seeing a red-headed wisp of a woman haggle over the price of food, or fiercely defend her younger sibling from the other boys'' taunts, but she had taken the role with ferocity. "... and father''s come home drunk again." she finished, angrily. "Again? That''s the fourth time this week!" Parker exclaimed, indignantly. "You know I can''t stop him. Once he starts, he just doesn''t stop..." "B-But It''s Kael''s birthday! He''s never been this bad!" Parker sputtered. "I keep telling you. He''s getting worse and worse..." "Where is he?" Parker asked steelily. "He''s passed out in his room," Mary answered but laid a hand on Parker''s chest to keep him from pushing past her," But don''t. At least he won''t ruin the Gift Giving by sleeping through it." "Mary... We can''t let him keep doing this. We can''t keep working for him to just drink it all away!" Parker growled, an uncharacterisitic scowl filling his face. "I know Parker. I know. But not today, okay?" she asked him meaningfully. "Today is for Kael." Parker struggled for a moment, his emotions mirroring the elemental sitting beside him before giving up. He deflated with a sigh, letting the rage fall away, before looking up with a sad smile. "Yeah... for Kael," he replied with a simple nod. "Good, now come on and help me get everything ready you big lump," she began as she gave him a good natured cuff around the head, and turned to lead him into the Grand Room. "I swear you just get taller and taller every day..." she mumbled, causing Parker to snort with laughter. He was barely five foot five, nothing compared to wealthier men. (1.65 meters) "Alright, I''ll get theplates out. You hide that elemental in the pantry soKael doesn''t see it when he comes down." Mary ordered, sweeping into action as she grabbed a wrapped bundle holding what little fine cutlery they owned from a crack in the wall behind the stove. "Where is he by the way, I figured I would''ve had to pry him off me when I got here," Parker shouted over his shoulder as he turned into the depressingly empty room that served to store what little food they had.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. "He''sback in our roomtaking a bath, at least that''s what I told him to do." she yelled back, from the other end of the Grand room. " He should be done by now. Can you goback and grab him? I''ll get the cake out." Setting the elemental down behind a few bags of grain, Parker turned and walkedthrough the grand room to get back to the main hall that ran through the house. As he walked down the hall, hestopped for a moment by the only door on the right side of the hall. Even through a solid wall, at least as solid as a wall could be in his house, Parker could hear the rippling snores. For a moment, he clenched his fist tightly. For a moment, he considered slamming the door wide open and shaking the man awake. He thought of screaming, of punching and wrestling, but all he did was think. As the snores continued, Parker merely unclenched his fist and moved on: the moment was gone. Instead, he walked on to the only other door on the hallway. As he moved to knock, he once again met only thin air as the door pulled open away from him and a blazing, freshly thirteen, comet slammed into him. "Parker!" the boy shouted gleefully as he slammed into his brother, with enough sheer momentum to push his older brother back a few steps. " Kael! Hahahaha! What''s going on!?" Parker replied, as he playfully moved his brother into a headlock and gave him a light noogie through his tussled brown hair. "Ahh!" Kael, squealed jabbing his brother in the side and bringing them both down to the ground in a heap of wrestling limbs. Parker seemed to have the advantage at first, age and weight both giving him the upper hand in their deadly combat as he sought to pin his younger brother down, butKaelplayed dirty, tickling his older brother or jabbing him in the ribs whenever he seemed to be caught and taking advantage of the momentary freedom to slip out of Parker''s grasp. This impasse continued for a few moments, until finally, Mary arrived to reestablish law and order. "And just what are you two doing!?" Mary asked sternly as shewalked right up to the boys and crossed her arms. Both culprits looked at one another. Searching each other''s eyes for a moment, they both arrived at the same conclusion, the conclusion that all brothers inevitabely reached when they were in trouble. "He started it!" both yelled in unison, pointing at the other and immediately turning to bicker. "No I didn''t" "Yes you did!" "Well you didn''t have to noogie me," ''Wel you didn''t have to..." "ENOUGH!" Mary yelled over the din. " You''re both guilty!" she proclaimed, quieting them both. "And for such a serious crime, there is only one punishment...." she paused, allowing her words to hang in the air as a crafty glint entered her eye. "DEATH BY TICKLING!" She yelled as she dove into the gigling dogpile, renewing the war with fresh vigor. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The "war" only lasted for a few moments as all of the parties present eventually agreed to an armistice. The three retreated, panting, and rested their backs against the walls, eyeing each other suspiciously for any renwal of hostilies. Then, Mary burst out laughing, ending the playful conflict altogether as the infectious laughter spread to the boys as well. For his part, Kael was grinning ear to ear as he sat propped against the wall just looking at his brother and sister fondly. Today was his birthday, or at least the holiday closest to his real birthday, and his family was all together for once! ... Mostly... With that thought, his grin faltered. Father was one thing, Kael hadn''t really expected much from him, but Sorsha... She''d always... "Kael?"Parker asked, cutting into his thoughts. "Yeah? What''s up?" Kael replied, shaking himself out of his negative thoughts and sliding a grin back onto his face. "Ya hungry?" Parker asked with a wolfish grin, picking himself of the ground and reaching out a hand to help Kael up too. "A bit. I guess I couldeat some sop if there''s any extra bread," Kael answered absentmindedly not noticing Parker''s smirk, and pulling himself up with the offered hand until he was upright, his eyes even with Parker''s nose. "Well I think we can find something a bit better than that..." Parker replied mysteriously, merely grinning at Kael''s quizical look as he led him into the grand room with Mary trailing slightly behind the two of them. There, sitting on the table was a small, round ginger cake. It was a simple pastry, without icing or fruits, or anything but the most common of spices: ginger. Barely larger than two fists put together and covered in lumpy protrusions where Mary had kneaded the dough herself without the aid of molds or proper tools, it would have been laughed off of any other table. To Kael; however, it was simply perfect. " I know it''s not much but..." Mary began quietly, but was interrupted by Kael turning and hugging her tight. "It''s perfect." He stated, closing off any discussion of the cake''s shortcomings as Mary relaxed into the hug, tension and worry pracitcally flooding off of her. " Well to me it looks like its getting cold fast. If only there was something we could do about that..." Parker mentioned casually, striking a pondering pose along with a sarcastic, despairing tone. Mary rolled her eyes, breaking out of the hug with Kael and thumping Parker on the head. "Big. Lump." she concluded before moving to cut the cake up into three pieces. Once again, Kale was struck by Sorsha''s absence, looking out through the window as if she would suddenly burst in, boisterously demanding her own piece of cake and clamoring to give the "Birthday Bonehead" a piece of her mind for starting without her. Obviously he knew it was a futile hope, she''d gone to the academy, leaving behind the fifth, but still ... "Kael?" Mary asked, interrupting his thoughts as she offered him a plate with the Lion''s share of the cake. Shaking himself out of his thoughts again, he immediately tried to refuse the piece. "Mary that''s way too much for me! You all should take more for yours..." "Nope!" Mary interrupted, unwilling to hear any of it. "I worked all day to make this cake for you, and you will eat it!" Seeing the fire in Mary''s eyes, Kael quickly realized arguing would get him nowhere and aquiesced, taking the plate bearing the cake. He raised his wooden spoon to take a bite, but paused, deciding to wait until Parker and Mary also had their cake. Looking up; however, he noticed that Parker had disappeared, leaving behind an untouched piece of cake "Hey, where''d Parker go?" he asked with furrowed brows, looking over to Mary. "Oh, he''s just getting something out of the pantry," She replied innocently,taking a bite out of her slice of cake. "What''s he getting from the Pantry? It''s a bit late to eat anything else isn''t it?" Kael asked as he mirrored Mary and dug into the cake on his plate. "Don''t worry, you won''t be eating it!" Parker replied from around the corner, peeking the upper head out into the main room while conspicuously hiding his arms behind the wall. Clearing his throat, Parker spoke up, doing his best impression of the Royald Heralds that sometimes cried out news upon the Town Square. "Ladies and Gentlemen! I bring news of good tidings this Lunaday! Today, for the thirteenth birthday of the one and only Kael Rolfe..." here Parker paused, enjoying thewarring confusion and anticipation flitting across Kael''s face as Mary simply rolled her eyes at his theatrics. Then, once he judged the moment was right, he whipped the cage out into the Grand room proclaiming," A Fire Elemental!" Kael''s jaw dropped and he froze in surprise as his brother revealed the cage. Like the cake, the elemental wasn''t much to look at. Barely a foot tall ( 30.5 cm), it was vaguely humanoid in shape, bearing two arms, legs, and a head. That; however was where it''s resemblance to a human ended. It''s legs were short and somewhat stubby, barely two or three inches long (5-7 cm), while its arms were thin and relatively wispy projections that seemed to flow gently with the breeze. Its "head" was an ungainly oversized ball that seemed incredibly out of place on the tiny body that supported it and ended in little tufts of flame that rose up erratically, constantly shifting positions as a living fire. It simply didn''t have a defined face, merely two dots where its eyes would normally lie and a bump where its nose would be. Instead of the bright yellow-orange of many fires Kael had seen, the Elemental was acrimson red, with mere tinges of orange flickering at its core. It was ungainly, it was confused, it was obviously weak, and probably wouldn''t ever become some godly being to shatter the heavans. But like the cake, it was perfect. Kael squealed with joy as he rushed to grab the Elemental. The small creature seemed to startle, jolting away to the very back of the cageto stay far away from the boy who had run up to it. " Is this...?" Kael asked as he held the cage, looking into the eyes of the small trembling elemental held within. "For you? Yup!" Parker asked and replied with a cocky grin, as he watched the awe play across his younger brother''s face. "I..." Kael paused for a moment, excitement slowly being overtaken by worry as he pushed the cage back towards his brother," Parker I can''t, how much di..." "Ah, Ah, Ah! I won''t hear it! I swear you''re just like Mary!" Parker interrupted as he firmly wrapped his brother''s arms around the cage. "Hey!" Mary interjected, but was promptly ignored by Parker as he forged ahead over his brother''s weak protests. "No, it didn''t cost too much. No, you don''t need to worry about the money for it, and no I can''t give him back or else he''ll be dead, so he is yours to keep!" "..." Kael, sat silently for a moment before sighing gratefully. " Thanks Parker..." he finally concluded before sitting down with the cage in his lap. A moment of silence fell upon the room as Kael just watched his Elemental, broken only by a slight crackling from the fireplace as the logs shifted slightly. "And before I forget..." Parker interjected, drawing Kael''s gaze away from the elemental for a moment, as he rummaged inside his jacket to reach the pocket sown on its inner lining. Pulling out a pair of gloves and holding them out to his younger brother, he announced" One fine pair of whelpskin gloves! We can''t have you burning your hands off on the little guy!" Kael''s eyes grew even wider as he caught sight of the gloves, mutely accepting them with silent astonishment. "Well?" Mary asked, "Go on then, put them on! Let''s see how they fit you!" Wordlessly, Kael slipped the gloves on, feeling the rough texture of the scaled hide as he tugged first one on and then the other. Brown, undecorated, and itchy on the inside, they were quite clearly meant for someone who valued function over aesthetics. At least they performed their function, insulating hands from sources of extreme heat like say a fire, admirably, reaching all the way past the wrist when sized perfectly. This pair; however, was clearly meant for a person with hands almost half again as large as Kael''s, reaching almostquarter of the way down his forearm and hanging loosely off of his fingers. Kael didn''t complain. It was more than he ever thought he''d have anyways. Instead, he reached over and opened the cage, carefully pulling out the elemental and holding it out above his lap. "I think I''ll call him Blaze." Kael said, mostly to himself, as he watched the little flame squirm in his hands. These words; however, seemed to bring an instant change over it, as the elemental stilled and cocked its head, gazing almost questioningly at Kael''s face. Or rather, Kael noted, at a spot in front of its face between it and himself. What could it possibly be looking at, he wondered, as the Elemental looked up at his face momentarily before seeming to almost shrug. Suddenly, a sound rang out in Kael''s ears. Accompanying the single chime was a message, written on a blue box that seemed to hover in the air, but only to Kael''s eyes.
Congratulations! For having a Sentient Magical Being accept a name you offered it, you haveunlocked the NamerAttribute! Namer (Attribute) All words have a meaning, but only names reveal the truth of the world Passive Gains: N/A Stat Gains: + 1 To All Stats Ability Gains: N/A Skill Gains: Arcanus (Novice)
Arcanus (Novice) A form of mana channeling utilizing names to transform and manipulate mana. At the Novice level, wielders canSpeak nouns they know and understand.
-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??- Blaze, for his part was entirely confused about the situation he found himself in. Since when could sources move? What happened to the Slime? What were those shiny things the sources traded him for? HOW DID THAT SOURCE BLOCK THAT? Why were some sources so much smaller than others? How did the source eat him, but he didn''t die? Was that even how sources eat? Why was this source showing him off to another source? Why did the second source have weird lumps and longer brown moss hanging off of its head? Was it a different species, like anearth slime compared to a wind slime? What is this brown cracked wall? Is it some kind of stone? Why does it make him feel hungry? Why is this source even smaller than the smaller sources? What are those brown things the source put onthe ends of its arms? HOW IS IT HOLDING HIM WITHOUT BURNING? Unfortunately, as he was completely out of mana it seemed unlikely that he would be able to kill one of the sources and take its core... Did sources have cores? He sat quietly in his cage, pondering this important conundrum as the sources were making constant noise behind him. He''d tried to understand why they seemed so excited after he accepted the name Blaze, but after several moments of watching them hop around, make noises, and grab each other, he''d simply given up. It was strange how worked up they seemed to get about it. Maybe a name was an important thing to them, but he''d been getting along just fine without one. He''d only accepted it because the blue window had told him it had some purpose for other creatures to refer to him. He wasn''t certain why it was important for other creatures to refer to him, but saying yes to the windows had never ended up hurting him. Unfortunately, it hadn''t seemed to change much about his status screen. It only changed the N/A to Blaze in the upper left cell with no stat changes or passive gains.
Name: Blaze the Living Essence Race: Fire Elemental (Newborn) Level 7/10
Strength: 10 Vitality: 15 Endurance:3
Agility: 3 Dexterity: 3 Reflex: 3
Intelligence: 15 Wisdom: 8 Willpower:3
HP: 300/300 Mana: 0/150 Stamina: N/A
Trait: Sentient, Clever, Hardy, Stalwart, Adaptable, Morphling, Forceful Unallocated Trait points: 0 Skills: Pyromancy (Initiate)
Attributes: Fiery soul, Edge Dancer II Effects: Fiery Soul Unallocated stat points: 0 Ability: Second Wind II
Then again, that was better than having a negative change to his stats wasn''t it? Still though, he really did wish it would have done something even a bit more impressive. Ultimately, he decided it simply couldn''t be that important and returned to more important thoughts: Had he left behind three whole cores? Chapter 6 Kael woke before the sun, bolting upright in bed from excitement and startling his brother who was fast asleep beside him. "What is it Kael...?" Parker asked blearily, looking over at his younger brother through half lidded eyes. "Nothing, I was just going to head over to the guild andtell them what happened. Sorry to wake you up!" Kael whispered as he pulled the rough woolen quilt off of him and slipped out of bed. "It''ss fiinnn..." Parker mumbled incoherently, falling back asleep halfway through his reply as the warmth of the bed and the darkness of the roomsuccesfully persuaded him into lying there for just a few more minutes. For his part, Kael just smiled and padded across the room barefoot, taking extra care to dodge the planks he knew would creak and disturb his siblings'' rest. Reaching the door, he stopped and gently tried to pry it open, wincing when the wrought iron hinges unleashed a piercing squeal, interupting Mary''s rather unladylike snores from the far side of the bed. Kael cringed for a moment, but when the snores returned in full force he relaxed and snaked his way through the crack in the doorway, gently pulling the door shut behind him, thanking Enlil that it did not shriek the second time around. The hallway was ice cold, unwarmed by the ceramicstoves that preserved some semblance of comfort in the bedrooms. For a moment, Kael shivered in his thin shift and trousers, before mustering the fortitude to move along the dark hallway. Pausing for a moment by the door to his father''s room to make sure he was still fast asleep, he continued walking once he heard deep, gargling snores from the other side of the door. As he reached the great room, he let out a gaping yawn, stretching his arms out as far as they would go and filling his lungs with the cold night air that had seeped into the house in the fire''s absence. It had taken him a long time to go to bed last night and an even longer time to actually fall asleep. He''d done it! He''d recieved a message from the world! That message even came with a magical skill, one that he had never heard of before! Throughout his childhood he''d always heard stories of magic, of heros and villains who could hear the world through the blue signs. He''d always hoped that someday, maybe he could speak to it as well, and go on an adventure like Kareth the Bold or Eranth the Wise. As the years went by, he''d started to lose hope, until his sister Sorsha suddenly gained the power of aeromancy two years ago. Suddenly, when the next Testing occured she had been accepted into an academy in a nearby city and she had gone off to live a better life. He had hoped then, but when two years went by... he''d never expected it to happen to him as well. He''d justed wanted a pet, some small beast to keep by his side like the mages in the stories did, and suddenly when he got one theworldspoke! He''d spent the greater part of an hour celebrating with his siblings, ecstatically answering all their questions about the world signs and going over what each of his "stats" meant, before finally deciding that he''d be better served by going to sleep and asking for better explanations from the guild. Considering how tired they were as well, his siblings heartily agreed. Now; however, it was morning and the sun would soon be rising. Kael grabbed his tunic from where he had left it, draped over Blaze''s cage and slid it on over his shift, reveling in its warmth. Looking down at the cage, he quickly pulled on a glove and opened it, reaching in to stroke the small fire Elemental''s head. "Good Morning Blaze!" he whispered cheerfully as the elemental shied away from his hand. He didn''t much seem to appreciate petting, but Kael wasn''t discouraged. Maybe he''d warm up to him once they got to know each other better. For now, he let Blaze have his way and pulled his gloved hand back out of the cage, carefully shutting and locking it. Pausing for a moment to make sure his tunic was on straight and the guild''s sigil was showing properly, Kael grabbed his thin coat from where it hung next to his brother''s and slipped into on to keep him safe from the chill. Reaching down, he slipped his rough leather boots on, tieing them shut with a single lether thong. Then grabbing Blaze''s cage, he pulled the door open and stepped out into the early dawn. Thankfully, the wind that had raged throughout the night had moved on, leaving only a thin layer of snow and frost across the ground that cracked crisply under Kael''s heels as he stepped outside. Shutting the door behind him, Kael took a deep breath, reveling in the crisp clear air. He could only remember smelling air this clean during winter, when the filth that coated the fifth''s "streets" was frozen and the outhouses were all iced up. Every time he stepped outside during the winter, he made sure to pause for at least a moment, thanking Enlil for the small favors of life. Now; however, excitement was spurring him forward, and he set off at a brisk walk using the light Blaze gave off to guide his way along the narrow paths that crossed the fifth. Dodging patches of ice, Kael marveled at how quite everything was. Normally, there were at least a few others awake at this hour, setting out for work in the nearby fields. Today; however, was a day of rest twice over. Not only was it Kronousalia, it was also the dayafter the Midwinter''s Feast. Almost everyone was sleeping in,worn out from the previous day''s celebrations. Thus, Kael was alone, only the sound of his footsteps echoing off of the huses and Blaze''s crackling interrupting the comforting silence of the early dawn. Soon enough; however, Kael found his way out of the fifth, reaching the city''s Western gates. Even though they were by no means the city''s main gates, they towered over him as looming monoliths in the dark, at least twice his height, if not more. Banded by iron, the wooden gates were carefully inscribed with glowing runes and sigils that Kael knew formed the first line of the city''s defenses. They were, of course, barred shut at this hour, but there was still a much smaller door beside them that served to admit lone travelers and allow the guards to patrol without the inconvenience of opening the gates, not that the guards would ever bother going into the fifth that is. Reaching the small side door, he quickl entered the walls, loudly knocking on the outer door as he did. There should be guards awake and manning even this door at every hour of the day, but it didn''t hurt to be sure they expected him. Being mistaken for a bandit by a surprised guard generally led to a rather unpleasant fate. Fortunately; however, Kael found that there were in fact two guards awake inside the small checkpoint, huddled around a small brazier playing with cards. "And just what do ya want Fodder?" the far guard asked, not even looking up from his cards. "I''m headed to the Third District sir!" Kael replied, tactfully ignoring the insult. "Really now? This early?" The guard, began, a crafty glint entering his eye, " Why that seems mighty suspicious to me. Maybe I ought to check you, make sure you don''t have any contraband on ya. That little critter is looking mighty dangerous to me," he concluded, looking pointedly at Blaze. Kael, swallowed deeply, taking a step back and moving Blaze''s cage behind him. He''d heard of others having bad experiences with the guards and really didn''t want have a first hand account himself. Fortunately, the other guard chose this moment to finally look back over his shoulder and realize who had just come in. "Lay off the kid, Arn." he began, much to the fist guard''s surprise. "I know him," he continued, answeringthe other''s questioning look," He''s a runner for the Boars, comes through here everymorning, Solsday through Lunaday half an hour afore Sunrise. Like clockwork''s what he is." "Don''t reckon I''ve ever seen you on Kronousalia though," He commented towards Kael as he got up from his table by the brazier, moving towards the iron inner door. "No sir," Kael replied, relieved to have been rescued from any sort of misunderstanding," I''ve just awoken Sir, and was meaning to go talk to someone in my guild about it." "Really now?" The guard asked, his bushy eyebrows climbing up his face like they were attempting to fly away. "Congrats lad!" he continued as he knocked a certain pattern onto the door. Every day had a different pattern, decided upon randomly by the guards on duty that shift. Thus, only the guards could open the inner door into the city. "Thank you sir." Kael acknowledged, watching as a small slit on the door opened first before the entire door swung outward, revealing two more guards. Once they ascertained everything was in order, the guards returned to their posts leaving Kael alone on the streets of the fourth quarter. The journey through the fourth quarter was just as quiet and uneventful as the one through the fifth, as Kael easily navigated the winding cobbled streets due to years of experience running along them. Even though he was excited to get to his destination, he knew better than to take any shortcuts and risk finding himself falling vitcim to atragicaccident. It was rare that anyone would actively target a guild''s runner, but it had been known to happen as gang members were not exactly known for their intelligence or sense of self-preservation. Instead, he kept to the main roads and circled the city to get to the nearest entrance to the third quarter within fifteen minutes, just as the first rays of a rosy dawn were beginning to peak over the horizon. "Morning Kael!" the guard manning the gate into the distrtict yelled to Kael, his booming voice shocking Kael out of the reverie he''d fallen into walking the empty streets. "Good Morning Mr. Cragsdale!" Kael, shouted back, craning his head up to meet the guard''s eyes. "I don''t suppose you''ll ever start calling me Dale, will you lad?" The tall blond gaurd replied, scratching his beard covered chin, before letting out an earth-shaking yawn. "No Mr. Cragsdale, Sir!" Kael replied cheerfully, causingthe half-giant to roll his eyes and let losse a small snort of laughter. "Whatever rolls your boulder kid," he replied casually, before scrunching his brows. "Say, what are you doing delviering a Fire Elemental here today? I thought my sister gave you the day off?" "I''m not delivering him, I got him at my gift giving last night!" Kael repplied proudly, lifting up the cage so the friendly guardsman could get a better look at the little elemental. Kneeling down, Dale inspected the Elemental, before giving an approving nod, seemingly satisfied. Suddenly; however, he furrowed his brows once more, this time looking directly at Kael. As he met the half-giant''s eyes, Kael felt something flow through him. It was a strange feeling, almost as if he''d been splashed by a bucketful of water which then proceded to trickle down across his entire body. Surprised, Kael took a step brow, shaking his head slightly as the tingling suddenly disappeared. Just as he was about to ask Dale just what exactly happened, he felt two massive arms clamp shut around him and lift him into the air. "AHAHAHAHA! You''ve finally Awoken lad! Come''ere, lemme give you a hug!" The half-giant bellowed, causing Kael''s eardrums to quake, before he got enveloped in a crushing bear hug. Kael saw stars and smelled sweat as the excited giant swung him around in the air like a teddy bear. Kael eventually did manage to muster up the strength to punch Dale in the chest, doing quite literally no damage to the guard but reminding him that not all races were as hearty as giants. "Ahh! Sorry lad!" Thehalf-giant replied sheepsihly as he set Kael downon the ground as gently as he could. For his part, the dazed Kaeldid manageto keep his footing after a few moments of swaying, if only barely. " I got a bit excited..." "It''s fine Mr. Cragsdale, I''m okay" Kael croaked out after a few moments, setting down Blaze''s cage and leaning on it for a second to catch his breath. "Are you sure lad?" Dale asks, eyeing Kael with concern, and a fair bit of regret at hurting his comparatively tiny friend. "Yup," Kael replied more cheerfully, having regained himself. " Thanks for the congratualtions though." "Ah, it''s well deserved lad! You''re the hardest working runner in all of Caerlin. It''s about time you had some luck go your way," Dale replied with a genuinelyfriendly grin, reassured that Kael was in fact fine He''d watched the boy grow up,being his sister''s runner for the past couple of years and coming through this gate every work day. It was safe to say that he was rather warm towards the boy. "Thanks Mr. Cragsdale!" Kael replied, brightening at the words, before seeming to wilt as a new thought suddenly occured to him. "Oh... wait... Do you happen to know if anyone''s actually at the guild hall today?" " Well... they should all be there, but I don''t know if anyone will be awake at this hour... or even sober..." Dale began before suddenly remembering,"Actually...I heard Faye just came in late last night from that subjugation out by Pillard''s crossing! I think she should be up by now..." Kael smiled again upon hearing Dale''s response, relieved that the wholewalk hadn''t been in vain and also glad that one of his favorite members of the Burning Boars had made it home safely from her adventures. Conciously, he knew that they would be fine each time they set out into the world, but... it was difficult to reconcile reality with his worries. Adventuring was a dangerous job after all, far more so than mercenary work or pure delving. " Well, I guess I''ll go on ahead then. Have a nice day Mr. Cragsdale," Kael concluded, picking up Blaze''s cage and nodding to his massive friend. "I''ll try lad.By the way, tell Faye hello for me would ya? I wasn''t on shift when she came in," Dale replied, nodding back to Kael as the boy took off at a light jog through the streets of the Third Quarter. By now, the sun was just barely peeking over the horizon, illuminating the streets with a thin orange light as Kael jogged North excitedly. Having come in from the Quarter''s south entrance, he did still have a few minutes run ahead of him to make it to his destination, so he took it slow, lightly jogging across the worn stone. As he jogged, he watched the Quarter come to life around him with smiths and artificers opening their paned windows to meet the morning light. Every now and then Kael would catch a whiff of bread baking or bacon frying on the breeze as the Quarter''s inns sought to prepare themselves for the ravenous hordes that would soom bust out of their rooms or guild halls and come knocking at their doors. He did his best to ignore these, knowing full and well that he couldn''t afford to eat like that: his salary had to go to support his family, not to splurge on food. Thankfully, he soon arived at the familiar building that housed the Burning Boars Adeventurers Guild. Made to accomodate members of all shapes and sizes, the hall was massive, towering over all the nearby buildings at a staggering four stories in height. In truth; however, it only actually had three stories, each was just a few meters taller to accomodate the three-meter tall half giants and minotaurs that called the place home. Thus, the windows were strangely out of place, unaligned with the remainder of the buildings on the street. Instead, it looked almost as if some divinity had reached down and stretched a warehouse out, making it span twice its normal height without taking proportions into account. The hall was painted a simple grey, with a massive ruddy brown boar''s headpainted across the entirity of the flat side facing the street, windows dotting its face as it seemed to be nosing around for something. Reaching the doors, Kael set Blaze''s cage down and strained to push the towering wooden slabs inward, knowing from past experience that it would take all of his strength to get the massive door to budge. Surprisingly; however, the door gave way far sooner than he remembered. Kael was surprised for a moment as he looked at the open door, but merely shrugged and picked up Blaze''s cage. He wasn''t one to question good fortune, and besides, someone had probably just oiled the hinges. Entering the guild hall, he felt a wave of warmth hit him, completly contrasting the outside chill. Quickly shutting the door behind him to keep the cold out, Kael turned and stepped further into the guild''s entrance hall. Crossing the small hall in a couple of strides he walked up to a small counter manned by a golem. "Good morning Mr. C380" Kael greeted the golem. "Good Morning Kael Rolfe. You are currently off duty. Inquiry: how can this unit assist you?" the golem replied in a perfectly mechanical monotone, turning its white stone head downward to meet Kael''s eyes with the two painted runes on its face that appeared roughly similar to eyes.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. "Is Mrs. Cragsdale awake yet?" Kael asked, hopefully. "Negative. Neera Cragsdale is currently in her quarters, she has stated that she is not to be disturbed. Exception: she stated that it was acceptable to disturb her for an Emergency. Do you have an Emergency?" The Golem asked, continung its monotone. "No, it''s not that important... How about Miss Faye? Is she awake yet?" Kael asked, slightly discouraged that Neera was asleep. She''d been the one to take him in years ago and he''d wanted her to be the first in the guild to know that he''d awakened, but it looked like that wasn''t going to be the case. " Faye Ashenwood is currently awake. She is in the cafetaria, eating Breakfast with Orlen Ironknee." "Thanks Mr. C380! I''ll be on my way there!" Kael yelled over his shoulder greatfully as he took off into the hall''s depths. "You are welcome Kael Rolfe." The Golem replied, unperturbed by the fact that the boy had already darted away. -??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??- "I tell you Faye... It''s a right ... n in this city. I swear eve ... just gets..." Kael overheard snippets of a rough male voice speaking up ahead. Having been a runner for the guild for a few years now, he had met most of the guildmembers at least once. This voice; however, and the name attached to it by C380 were completely unfamiliar to him. For a moment, he was tempted to pause and try to eavesdrop on their conversation. It was only for a moment though. As a runner, he''d been taught quite clearly and repeatedly of the virtues of honesty and what exactly happened to anyone who tried to use guild secrets. Thus, he quickly overcame his natural curiosity, and pointedly walked louder, scuffing his feet along the stone. Sure enough, the male voice fell silent he soon heard footsteps stomp towards him. Slightly nervous, he watched as the door leading into the cafetaria opened and a male dwarf stepped out. A meter and a half tall, the dwarf was just a few centimeters shorter than Kael himself. Unlike Kael; however, the dwarf was swarthy, with broad shoulders and thick banded muscles straining against his thin undershirt. A full black beard covered his chest, unbraided and untamed without a hint of gray. As to his face... his face... "What''re you staring at boy?" The angry dwarf replied making eye contact with Kael. in this case, eye truly was the correct word as the dwarf did only have one. The left side of his face had four deep scars running down along it, physical craters in his face that left him without an eye or most of an ear. Instead, the dwarf''s face was craggy, with carved canyons leading to a single sinkhole thankfully covered by an eyepatch. "N-n-nnn-nothing Sir," Kael stuttered, carefully averting his eyes from the horific injury. "Nothing eh?" The dwarf asked thoughtfully, walking up to Kael. "Then I bet you''re not wondering why I haven''t just healed these scars right off aren''t you?" "N-nno Sir." Kael replied, flinching as the dwarf shoved his face into Kael''s. "Take a good long look laddie. These are demon scars. You''ll get some of your own if you become an adventurer worth your salt. Nothing can heal them. Not magic, not prayer, not time." The dwarf declared angrily, spittle flying from his lips and sticking in his beard. "Yy-yes sir." Kael replied, taking a step back. "Hmph. yuh-yuh-yuh yes, Sir!" the dwarf replied in a mocking falsetto. "Piss off kid. Go hide behind your mother''s skirts and let real dwarves do the fighting." With that, the dwarf walked by, shovingKaelinto the wall with his shoulder as he passed. Stunned, Kael sat there for a few moments, processing the naked hostility he had just faced from the dwarf. He''d never done or said anything to wrong the dwarf had he? Maybe it was because he''s stared at his scars for too long? Maybe it was something else? He''d have to go and apolo... His stream of thoughts was interrupted by a pale hand reaching into sight. "Don''t worry yourself about Orlen, he was never the cheeriest of dwarves and those scars have only worsened his disposition," a lilting voice accompanied the hand. "Thanks Miss Faye, I was just surprised..." Kael replied, as he took the offered hand and pulled himself up with her help. "Still making me feel a couple of centuries old aren''t you Kael? At least you''re almost using just my first name now." Faye replied with mock severity, her elven face settling into a fake pout. "Sorry Miss Faye!" Kael replied with a slight grin as the elf just rolled her forest green eyes, much as Dale had beforehand. Everyone who knew Kael well enough got used to his eccentricities. Suddenly, Faye hugged Kael, pulling him close enough to smell her flowery perfume and have her longbrown ponytail whip in front of his eyes beforeholdinghim outat arms length. "Why didn''t you write that you''d Awoken in your letter? I was so surprised when I walked over and saw you!" She spoke excitedly, lips curling into a wide dimpled smile. "It actually just happened last night." Kael replied honestly. "Really?" Faye asked, surprised,"What caused it? Do you know?" "Well, you seeit happened after my Gift Giving, where my brother Parker gave me this fire elemental, " Kael began lifting the cage up and drawing Faye''s attention to the Fire Elemental for a moment, before her eyes slid back to him as she nodded, motioning for him to continue. "When I finally had a moment to name the Elemental, I called him Blaze and suddenly two of the blue signs appeared! They told me I had become a Namer and could now use something called Arcanus. Now, whenever I want to I can think of them, the signs will appear and tell me about my stats." "Arcanus, huh..." Faye mumbled, seemingly lost in thought for a moment before turning back to Kael and breaking out into another wide grin. " That''s wonderful Kael! Arcanus is a pretty uncommon approach to magic, but it is still quite powerful!" She continued joyfully. "So you know what it is?" Kael asked, relieved that he wasn''t treading some completely new path. "Generally," Faye replied, tilting her head from side to side, "I don''t personally use it, but there''s at least one Arcanistwho can use it in the Boars. He should be able to teach you a thing or two about how to actually use it." "Really?" Kael asked, ecstatic. Having never even heard of the type of magic he could use, he had been very worried that nobody else would have either. That would have put him in the rather awkward position of trying to advance a magical field by himself for the first time, not something he was particularly enthusiastic about. "Yes, but you would have to go to an academy for a few years first. I don''tbelieve he has theto teach you all the words you need to know in your early stages," she explained, placing a damper on his joy. "What do you mean, words?" Kael asked, curious. "Don''t yo... of course you don''t." She began, but interrupted herself, remembering Kael''s circumstances. All he probably knew about magic was limited to stories his sister told him and the limited tricks he had seen others perform. "Let''s head over to the practice field. It''ll be easier to show you than it is to tell you." She said simply, and turned away towards the practice room. For his part, Kael simply picked Blaze up and followed her. -??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-????-??-??--??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??- In the Boar''s case, their practice field was actually just the entirity of the first floor underground. Two stories tall, the wide open space contained everything from a long circular running track along the room''s outside edge to sparring pits in the center, to halls branching off the mani room''s sides that contained dozens of sealed practice rooms. The open space itself was only broken by a handful of colums, each thick enough forfivefully-grownhumans to just be able to wrap their arms around it. Currently, the two of them were in the center of the room, in one of the open air sparring pits, as Faye stood across from Kael, asking him some preliminary questions. "Alright, so let''s start simple. What do you know about magic?" Faye asked. "Specifically or just..." Kael replied with his own question, confused as to what exactly she wanted him to say. "Just anything you know that is related to magic. Anything at all." She clarified. "Uh... alright, " Kael gathered his thoughts for a second before beginning. "I know magic is something certain people who can speak to the world do, to do things that they normally wouldn''t be able to do. Like... Kareth the Bold was able to call down Lightning from the sky and create a shield out of light to block an entire army''s arrows. To do magic, you need to be have something called mana. Every race has different kinds of mana, and thus can use only certain kinds of magic. Humans are the only race that aren''t born with any mana, but because of this we can use any kind of magic since we can get any kind of mana. Uhh... I think that''s it?" Kael, stated finishinghis explanation of magic. "Well... At least you''re not completely wrong..." Faye mumbled after a few moments of silence, before shaking her head. "Alright, let''s start at the beginning then." "Magic, as most people understand the term, is the application of will to the world surrounding us. For instance, If I wish for a flower to grow in this arena." Faye paused for a moment to pull a seed out from a pouch on her belt and drop into the ground. Then, she waved her hand over the seed once and a green stalk burst out of the ground rapidly gaining leaves, and growing to knee height before its peak finally unfurled to form a bright red flower. "Then a flower will grow in this arena." she finished, pausing for a moment to bask in Kael''s awed look for a moment before continuing. "It is always important to remember that everything has a cost! Each time I use my will to cause a change in the world around me, I have to channel mana to support my will. Think of it as just anotherlimb really. Just like you can will your arm to open a door, you can will your mana to say grow a flower. But just like any limb, your mana will eventually be exhausted and you will have to rest to recover it. The more difficult or complicated the task is, the more mana it takes to perform it. That''s why I dropped the seed into the ground first. It''s far simpler to grow a single flower from a seed than it is to create it out of just hard packed Earth. It''s also why I didn''t grow an entire field of flowers around us. Even if I used enough seeds, it would cost me far more mana. You''ll learn more about how exactly the amount of mana and will you need scale with the magnitude of the task you''re performing, but for now its enough to just leave it at larger tasks require more mana." "Now," she continued," the question of what mana is has always been far less clear as no race can actually see it. Only magical beasts, like your elemental there, can actually see mana and not just its effects. From what we''ve learned speaking to the beasts that have bothered to learn one of our languages, it seems to be a sort of energy that is tied into absolutely everything at a base level. It also seems to be corrupted by whatever it is currently merged with, changing its properties to match it. Fire mana, for instance, is wild and volatile, while earth mana is slow and steady. This tendency of mana to match the element it is connected to is why certain people start with the ability to use only certain types of magic." "As an elf, I naturally create life mana, which has been described by magic beasts as expansive, ever shifting and slightly chaotic. Thus, when I started to perform magic, I struggled to control the earth and fire as earth''s stability and fire''s consumption lay directly contrary to what my mana wanted to do. In exchange, I was far more talented at life magic, or vitamancy as the blue signs call it, and slightly more talented at water magic and air magic, which both matched up fairly well with my mana. Any questions so far?" She asked, wanting to make sure he had caught all of that before she moved on to the second part of her explanation. "So doing magic, is making what I want to happen in the world around me happen, using mana, a kind of energy I produce that is also in the world around me as a muscle to manipulate the world itself. Some forms of mana are better than others at doing certain things, but also worse than others at doing different things," Kael replied, summarizing what he had grasped of her explanation in a simpler way. "That... is close enough for our purposes, although you will have to be able to explain it in more depth than that at the academy," she replied. "Okay... so why can''t I just make a flower grow out of the ground?" Kael asked. "Well, that brings us to one of the great mysteries of magic: humans," Faye replied with a slight grin. "Humans? How are we a mystery of magic?" Kael asked. "Humans are the one race in this entire world that does not naturally produce some form of mana. As such, most humans are actually never capable of using magic, as regardless of their will and intent, they simply lack the mana to do so. This is the case for your brother Parker for instance, that was his name right?" Faye asked, pausing her explanation for a moment to satisfy her curiosity. Kael simply nodded, and she smiled in reply, glad she had remembered correctly. "Anyways, even though he can agree to contracts through the system, he will probably never see the signs themselves for himself and he''ll never be able to propose a contract himself as he simply lacks the mana to do so. Aside from humans like Parker who do make up the vast majority of humans, there is a second group of humans who, through some method or another, manage to create elemental mana. Nobody knows exactly how this process occurs, but it does appear to run in families. There are plenty who do awaken their power randomly, though, which is why your people''s version of the test requires every child to appear. These humans cast spells pretty much like any other magical race, so I won''t go into any further detail on them." Here''s Kael''s sister Sorsha came to the forefront of his mind. She''d suddenly gained the power to control the wind, even though nobody in their family had ever been able to use magic before so she fit this description perfectly. "Finally, there is the third, and rarest group of humans: Arcanists. Since you can use the skill Arcanus, you would be classified as one of these. Arcanists are special because they are capable of channeling pure mana, untainted by any of the elements.I''m not exactly sure how one becomes an Arcanist, but there does seem to be some pre-existing conditions as not every human who names one of their pets suddenly awakens, even if those pets are sentient, and there are a variety of other methods that are known to awaken Arcanists powers, most of them expensive and rather difficult to perform, but enough on that. What''s important is what you can do." "As an Arcanist you can use every kind of magic perfectly, but you are severely limited by how you channel your mana. Because you start with pure mana, you can easily transform it into any other form of mana. What determines the type of Arcanist you are is how exactly you channel and thus control your mana." "I know that Arcanus is generally bound by words, not in Common or in any language known to life on this world, but in the language of the world itself. That means that you must have clear knowledge of something in order to cast a spell with it. In order to cast a spell with water, you must know what water is, what it does, what differentiates it from other liquids. Once you know everything there is to be known about something, you will have its name in the Language of the World and can use it when casting your spells. Knowing everything, even about one thing, is simply impossible; however, so you will never be able to perfectly control your magic with just one word. If you say half of the name of water, depending on which way the mana flows you could get ice or steam that are still inside a bowl or you could get a massive jet of water erupting from your palm. Thus, you need to build sentences. You need to tell the world that there will be two liters of water at 22 degrees Celsius in this pot over this campfire and you need to explain where the water should come from as well." "But... that sounds horrible!" Kael blurted out, shocked at how difficult magic would likely be for him. "Yes, that is the greatest weakness of those who use Arcanus, but it is also your greatest strength. Whereas I could use my magic to create a flower in this arena, you can use your magic to create a specific flower that would reach a specific height, and be coloured exactly how you wish. A master Arcanist specializing in Arcanus is able to weave massive constructs that can perfectly manipulate the world around him with far more control than any other mage is capable of, but he will always be slower to cast spells being forced to first remember the words he is trying to use then detail his mana to form a construct that performs the task he is attempting to complete whereas a pyromancer could simply unleash a cone of fire like it was second nature. If it helps any, Eranth the Wise was an Arcanist specializing in Arcanus." That, more than anything else did manage to relax him. He did; however, still have some questions. "If Parker doesn''t have any mana of his own, how is he still able to sign magic contracts?" "That one''s easy. He actually uses the other person''s mana, it''s basically like dipping your quill into someone else''s inkwell. It let''s you write, but it won''t last long, and it only happens if the other person allows it to." she replied with an analogy, clearing it up for him. "Ah, that make sense, and the quill would be his will then?" "Correct." "You were sayi..." Suddenly, a new voice interrupts the discussion. "Faye! The guildmaster needs your report on the situation at Pillard''s crossing," Another one of the guild''s runners shouted out as he peered down into the pit. "Ahh, I knew there was something I was forgetting!" Faye mumbled to herself before turning back to Kael. "Sorry Kael, I''m going to have to fly. I''d rather not keep the guildmaster waiting." "It''s not a problem Miss Faye! Thank you for the explanation, I''ll do my best to remember it!" Kael replied, honestly grateful and hiding the slight frustration that built up within him at her sudden exit. "I will try and see if I can find that Arcanist I mentioned earlier, he might be out on a mission though, so would you just check back in here after Midday? You are free today right?" "Yup! I''ll be sure to come back then." "Alright, Goodbye Kael!" Faye Concluded with a wave as she turned and followed the runner away to the guildmaster''s office. "Bye Miss Faye!" Kael replied, with a wave of his own as he went the other direction, back towards the guildhall''s main exit. Passing through the entrance hall, he paused for a moment. An idea had just come to him. He was 13 now, was armed with a magical pet, and could kinda use magic; surely now it couldn''t hurt if he just took a look inside the dungeon. He wouldn''t go deep, just enough to see what it was like, since he''d never been allowed inside because he was too young. Besides, it wasn''t like he had much else to do to pass three hours till midday. Walking up to the desk in the front lobby, he asked, " Mr. C380, would it be possible for me to borrow a sword?" The golem seemed to pause for a moment before replying," For What Purpose?" "I just wanted to go into the dungeon, but I don''t have a sword of my own." Kael replied honestly, wondering if he was about to be told he was still too young to go into the dungeon. A Golem; however, is an interesting creature. Excellent at processing routine, expected situations, they are far less capable at handling abnormalities in the daily routine. Fortunately, C380 had been endowed with a set of instructions on what to do when an abnormal request came in. First, it determined if the request harmed any guild member. Since kael was asking for a sword to protect himself, it would actually harm a guild member if C380 did not grant his request, and let Kael enter the dungeon without a weapon at all. Second, it determined if the request harmed the standing of the guild as a whole. Since loaning weapons was a guild policy, this was not the case. Third it determined if there was a surperior awake and capable of handling the situation. The Master Arenth and Faye Ashenwood were both currently in a discussion that was not to be disturbed, and the only other guild member senior enough to approve the request that was currently awake was Orlen Ironknee. In his defence, when C380 asked Orlen whether or not to approve the weapons request, he was by no means aware that Kael was not a young guild member trying to prove himself in the dungeon. He had never truly met the boy, having spent the past three years campaigning in the demon lands. Thus, blissfully unaware of what was truly going on, Orlen approved the request, believing that a fight in the dungeon would put some grit in the timid boy''s gizzard. It might be a little iffy to go by himself, but any proper recruit should be able to take care of himself on the first floor at least. Kael was somewhat surprised when C380 replied that his request had been approved, but took the sword nonetheless, tyingits scabbard to his belt, and marching merrily towards the dungeon, blissfully unaware of the unfortunate series of events that had led to his sudden gain in equipment and of the true danger that lurked within.