¡°Those are pretty,¡± Gwen said.
Mel had taken off the old bracers and put on her new ones. Though they were weaker, their imprint was vastly better.
Don¡¯t need increased pain tolerance or blunt defense if you move too fast to get hit!
¡°Fancy,¡± Thomas agreed. ¡°Are you going to start accessorizing now?¡±
Mel gave him a flat stare until he minded his own damn business. She turned to the quest rewards, taking out the [Cinder Ampoule] first.
Gwen leaned in, watching her intently as if wondering what she thought of it before she shared her own thoughts.
Mel looked up. ¡°What?¡±
[Cinder Ampoule]
(Great Work, Relic)
A highly decorated ampoule of giltglass bearing a leaf motif from a far off land. One of the last Great Works, gifted to every sapient soul that enters the multiverse. When placed within a soul kiln and infused with certain materials, unique concoctions can be conceived.
Imprint: Place within a soul kiln alongside (2) appropriate catalysts. Restores itself slowly after use.
She blinked and reread the description. ¡°Holy shit.¡±
I have two renewable potion bottles?
¡°I know, right?¡± Gwen said excitedly.
¡°What¨Coh. Wow.¡± Thomas leaned in, then took out his own ampoule. ¡°Jacob is going to lose his mind.¡±
¡°What the hell are appropriate catalysts?¡± Mel asked.
¡°Like most things, I imagine that task falls to us to determine,¡± Thomas said. He already had his [Soul Kiln] out. ¡°I, for one, intend on finding out immediately.¡±
Before she could get distracted, Mel took out the other two items.
[Soothing Pearl]
(Catalyst, Pearl)
(Rare)
Over the Ages, impurities in ambient mana precipitate into solid motes, growing in size and power until they become pearls. Even the smallest of seeds yearn to be something great one day.
Imprint: Mix into an ampoule to create a new concoction. Heals the most recent affliction with a chance to grant temporary resistance to said affliction.
¡°Looks like pearls are something we mix with an ampoule,¡± Mel said, rolling the white spherical item in her hand. It was about the size of a golf ball, making her wonder how she would ever be able to fit it inside the [Cinder Ampoule].
Then again, she could put things into the [Soul Kiln] that shouldn¡¯t possibly fit, so maybe that wasn¡¯t a concern.
The others took out their pearls, examining them as well.
¡°Is just one pearl enough though?¡± Gwen asked. ¡°For the [Cinder Ampoule] to work, I mean. Or can other catalysts be mixed in too?¡±
¡°Embers, you mean?¡± Mel said.
¡°I don¡¯t believe it to be overly specific,¡± Thomas said. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if we could use herba. Though it doesn¡¯t mention it, I would wager my wand that [Blue Spirit Herba] would be considered a catalyst.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not wasting what precious herba we have on a hunch,¡± Gwen said.
¡°You can always sniff out more, can¡¯t you?¡± Thomas countered.
While they bickered, Mel looked at her last item.
[Star Ember]
(Catalyst, Ember)
(Rare)
A twinkling stone that pulses with the cold fiery light of the stars. Used within a soul kiln to apply star affinity to armaments.
Imprint: Applies Star affinity to armaments. Applies Star tinge to concoctions.
Mel shared a secret laugh with Askara. She had called Thomas and Gwen the ¡°Sun¡± and ¡°Moon¡±. It seemed fitting that they all gained a [Star Ember] for reaching Askara¡¯s altar.
Technically, I was the one who went down there, but I guess we all survived.
Without them, she probably wouldn¡¯t have made it down there successfully. Doubt I would have made it to this plateau too. Waves of amber wheat don¡¯t exactly scream ¡°place to progress¡±. It does scream, ¡°make bread out of me¡± though.
It felt nice that they all had the same ember, as if it was a manifestation of the bond between them.
When Mel looked back up, Gwen was begrudgingly giving Thomas a [Blue Spirit Herba]. The glowing blue leaf was immediately dropped into Thomas¡¯ [Soul Kiln] along with his ampoule and pearl.
He shut the lid, and they all leaned in to watch the process.
Light flashed from beneath the crack in the hinged lid and it popped open to reveal a very different-looking item than the one he had placed within.
Mel craned her neck to see better, but there was nothing but the shimmering bottle.
¡°Did it consume the pearl?¡± Mel asked.
Thomas shook his head. ¡°It looks like it went back to my inventory. Odd. The herba was used up, however. Bit of a letdown.¡± He lifted out the bottle. Through the giltglass, they could see a strange fizzy brew sloshing around.
He held it out for them all to examine.
[Primeval Brew]
(Blue Spirit Herba + Soothing Pearl)
The drink of ancient gods, given to mortal men and women. The effects of imbibing this brew are temporary to prevent total soul dissolution. Higher Rank permits a longer duration. Those who imbibe this brew are said to become the avatar of primordial forces long since forgotten by all but the Realmtree.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Imprint: Heals the most recent affliction and recovers mana. Mana recovery is enhanced if an affliction is cleansed.
¡°It¡¯s like a super mana potion,¡± Gwen said in awe. ¡°I¡¯m going to be using [Insight of the Wolf] so much more now, huh?¡±
Thomas dropped it. Moments before it would shatter to the ground, he snapped his fingers, and the bottle vanished in a flurry of golden ash.
Mel dove forward to grab it. She scowled at him. ¡°Dick.¡±
¡°It would seem that there aren¡¯t many limits to what can be made,¡± Thomas explained, ignoring Mel. ¡°However, it looks like we¡¯re stuck with one bottle apiece. Not too much of an issue if you ask me, considering that no pearl is permanently used.¡±
¡°They¡¯re probably like embers,¡± Mel said, sitting up straight. ¡°You can use it infinitely.¡±
¡°Does that mean we can use an ember on a weapon, and on an ampoule without limit?¡± Gwen asked. ¡°I already did something like that when I had nothing better to use than junk weapons.¡±
¡°It stands to reason,¡± Thomas said, jotting down in his notebook. ¡°The only problem I see, which is a rather small one, is that there wasn¡¯t an identifying name. I¡¯m willing to bet if either of you makes a similar concoction, it¡¯ll also be named [Primeval Brew].¡±
¡°It lists the ingredients at least,¡± Mel said.
¡°True, but it means we need to remember a specific combination instead of just say, making a [Rapid Healing Flask] or something like that. It¡¯s a small distinction I¡¯ll grant you.¡±
¡°Only for nerds,¡± Mel said, wondering what she could try. Unable to help herself, Mel stuffed a [Poison Ember] and a [Soothing Pearl] into her kiln alongside the ampoule.
¡°What¡¯re you¨C¡± Thomas began, then stopped as he watched the process begin. ¡°Leave it to Mel to try something so contradictory.¡± He shook his head but couldn¡¯t look away.
None of them could.
As the lid flipped back on her kiln, Mel pulled out the flask. Instead of a fizzy liquid inside, there was a chunky mess within. It looked like the sort of thing you¡¯d need a pixelated censor bar for.
¡°It¡looks like something I¡¯d find in the back of my fridge,¡± Mel said, disappointed.
[Failed Brew]
(Poison Ember + Soothing Pearl)
Every success must have its opposite, and you¡¯ve found it. Not all combinations are effective or even worthwhile. They are few and far between, however, making your discovery all the more momentous. Unfortunately, it¡¯s for all the wrong reasons. The ancient gods wouldn¡¯t touch this stuff. They wouldn¡¯t even feed it to the prisoners of Tartarus.
Imprint: Inert. Place within the [Soul Kiln] to dissolve the ingredients. Do not drink.
¡°I can¡¯t help but wonder with morbid curiosity what chunky [Primeval Brew] tastes like,¡± Gwen said, eyes wide like two full moons.
¡°It would probably be the last thing you ever tasted,¡± Mel said. ¡°It literally says ¡®do not drink¡¯ on it,¡± she added with a laugh.
¡°It is progress,¡± Thomas said. ¡°You mixed two diametrically opposed forces, so they canceled each other out. I think that makes sense.¡±
Mel followed the instructions, replacing it in the kiln to dissolve the contents. When that was done, she tapped her chin thoughtfully. She was tempted to try [Serpent Coins], but didn¡¯t want to waste them by potentially spoiling the brew.
She did, however, have several other aspect coins.
All of them were useless to her and to her friends. Until they chanced upon a shop or some traders¨Cif that was even a thing¨Cthey were effectively useless trinkets.
Mel took out a [Rage Coin] and [Poison Ember], placing them both inside the kiln.
Thomas and Gwen looked a little concerned at the mixture, but they were both Magi. Making potions¨Cwhich often involved foul ingredients¨Cwas part and parcel of what they were.
The lid popped open to reveal a frothy, roiling brew that looked like it would boil over at any moment.
[Primeval Brew]
(Rage Coin + Poison Ember)
The drink of ancient gods, given to mortal men and women. The effects of imbibing this brew are temporary to prevent total soul dissolution. Higher Rank permits a longer duration. Those who imbibe this brew are said to become the avatar of primordial forces long since forgotten by all but the Realmtree.
Imprint: A remarkably potent medicine that stimulates and empowers, raising all attributes multiple grades temporarily while afflicting you with poison. Grants [Berserking].
[Berserking]: For the duration of the skill, you cannot be knocked unconscious or magically put to sleep.
¡°Now I¡¯m starting to wonder what you can¡¯t put in these things,¡± Gwen said. ¡°Maybe equipment, but then again, they do have imprints. Just like the [Blue Spirit Herba].¡±
Mel dismissed the potion. It wasn¡¯t the best, but it was good enough that she wanted to keep it in her back pocket. ¡°This looks like the sort of thing you would like, Gwen.¡±
¡°Yeah,¡± she said dreamily. ¡°I¡¯m a glutton for punishment if it makes me stronger.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t have any [Rage Coins],¡± Thomas said. ¡°However, I do have other aspect coins that I have no use for. Do you think that by using coins from a specific aspect, we¡¯re able to create a brew that takes on parts of that aspect?¡±
Mel hadn¡¯t thought that far ahead, but it sounded reasonable. ¡°I wonder what happens if you use more aspect coins? I just used one, and it effectively gave me a quasi-skill.¡±
¡°I do have some [Gravity Coins],¡± Gwen said.
¡°Isn¡¯t that one of your aspects though?¡± Thomas asked.
¡°Yeah, it¡¯s bound to my agility. It might either give you zero weight or incredibly high weight, which would be good for training.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t you want to use them though?¡± Mel asked. ¡°For yourself, I mean.¡±
¡°Probably, but it would just be one coin.¡±
Mel shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s your coin.¡±
Gwen looked like she was giving it some serious thought. ¡°Nah, I¡¯m going to try something else.¡±
Thomas let out a breath of relief. He hadn¡¯t said anything against her, but it was clear that he didn¡¯t think it was a good idea.
An item materialized from the Emporium in Gwen¡¯s lap. Thomas¡¯ eyes widened at that.
It was a [Petrified Branch of Strength]. An item that enhanced the growth of strength through training, fighting, and meditation.
¡°I¡¯m going to regret this,¡± she said without much concern as she placed the branch into the kiln with a [Red Rock].
¡°The heck is that rock?¡± Mel asked.
¡°It¡¯s a chromatic item from the Emporium. You should have access to it, but it is costly to unlock,¡± Thomas answered distractedly.
Everybody watched with rapt attention as the process started, but that clearly didn¡¯t mean anything considering Mel¡¯s [Failed Brew].
When the kiln opened, a veritable pyrotechnic display of lights and colors flowed out as if Gwen had just opened some epic loot chest in a video game.
The resulting concoction looked like she had distilled rainbows and mixed them with the dreams of puppies and kittens.
¡°By Wisdom¡¯s tits, I guessed best!¡± Gwen cried. The warning thunder that rumbled in the distance didn¡¯t dissuade her enthusiasm at all.
[Primeval Brew]
(Petrified Branch of Strength + Red Rock)
The drink of ancient gods, given to mortal men and women. The effects of imbibing this brew are temporary to prevent total soul dissolution. Higher Rank permits a longer duration. Those who imbibe this brew are said to become the avatar of primordial forces long since forgotten by all but the Realmtree.
Imprint: Significantly enhances Red Chroma skills and training, Fire skills and training, and Strength skills and training. Incurs a steep cooldown before another such brew can be used.
Gwen giggled manically to herself.
Mel and Thomas were already purging their brews by the time Gwen stopped giggling.
Chapter 72 – Secrets of the Magi
Mel opened the Emporium and looked over the branches available.
[Copper Emporium Core Items]
[Petrified Branch of Vigor]
(Copper Rank, Item)
(Common)
A wooden branch fossilized in ambient elemental Earth mana, suffusing it with the power of Vigor.
Imprint: Use to temporarily accelerate the natural growth of the Vigor attribute through training, battle, and meditation. Effective for Copper Rankers and below.
Price: 250 Battle Points.
[Petrified Branch of Strength]
(Copper Rank, Item)
(Common)
A wooden branch fossilized in ambient elemental Fire mana, suffusing it with the power of Strength.
Imprint: Use to temporarily accelerate the natural growth of the Strength attribute through training, battle, and meditation. Effective for Copper Rankers and below.
Price: 250 Battle Points.
[Petrified Branch of Agility]
(Copper Rank, Item)
(Common)
A wooden branch fossilized in ambient elemental Thunder mana, suffusing it with the power of Agility.
Imprint: Use to temporarily accelerate the natural growth of the Agility attribute through training, battle, and meditation. Effective for Copper Rankers and below.
Price: 250 Battle Points.
[Petrified Branch of Sense]
(Copper Rank, Item)
(Common)
A wooden branch fossilized in ambient elemental Wind mana, suffusing it with the power of Sense.
Imprint: Use to temporarily accelerate the natural growth of the Sense attribute through training, battle, and meditation. Effective for Copper Rankers and below.
Price: 250 Battle Points.
[Petrified Branch of Arcane]
(Copper Rank, Item)
(Common)
A wooden branch fossilized in elemental Ice mana, suffusing it with the power of Arcane.
Imprint: Use to temporarily accelerate the natural growth of the Arcane attribute through training, battle, and meditation. Effective for Copper Rankers and below.
Price: 250 Battle Points.
[Elemental Petrified Branch]
(Copper Rank, Item)
(Common)
A wooden branch fossilized in ambient Fire, Thunder, Earth, Wind, Ice, and Water elemental mana, suffusing it with the combined power of all attributes. Inherently unstable, this item¡¯s potency diminishes rapidly when exposed to the environment.
Imprint: Use to temporarily accelerate the natural growth of all attributes through training, battle, and meditation. Somewhat effective for Copper Rankers and below.
Price: 450 Battle Points.
¡°What do you suppose is better, picking a single stat to focus on or spreading out?¡± Mel asked them.
¡°Asking us for advice instead of just rushing ahead?¡± Gwen asked with a grin. ¡°Who are you and where is the Mel I knew?¡±
Thomas looked a little uncomfortable, but as soon as Mel glanced his way, he wiped the expression off his face. Not fast enough though.
That¡¯s totally not weird at all.
He turned to her and said, ¡°If you want to be completely balanced at all times, then all stats would be best. You¡¯d want an [Elemental Petrified Branch] for that, but I would caution against it.¡±
¡°Why?¡±
Thomas took out his wand and drew in the air with his mana. He created several swooping symbols that hung in the air. ¡°Imagine you have a pitcher of water and five cups with which to pour its contents.¡±
Mel watched as Thomas moved his wand and the pitcher of water outlined in blue glowing mana tilted and poured a stream of light into the cups.
¡°You could equally split it into all five and end up perfectly balanced,¡± he continued, ¡°or you could choose to specialize in a few stats you feel most suited to. Few people need every stat in lockstep with the other.¡±
¡°We excel at our specializations,¡± Gwen explained, elaborating on the concept. ¡°By maintaining complete balance, you are walking the path of an average normie. Decent, but unable to gain an advantage over another opponent of comparable rank.¡±
¡°I hate to use the old adage,¡± Thomas said, ¡°but a jack of all trades is a master of none. Better to excel at one thing than to be mediocre at everything. There is only so much time you can dedicate to training and fighting.¡±
¡°Imagine,¡± Gwen said, eyes glittering. She leaned in with her hands on her knees, causing her storage necklace to swing free. ¡°You could be like me and be on the path to a perfect starred attribute.¡±
Mel¡¯s brow furrowed. ¡°A what?¡±
Thomas and Gwen exchanged looks.
Gwen grinned slowly, not unlike a hungry wolf. ¡°A perfect attribute surpasses the purview of one¡¯s rank. Permanently.¡±
Mel shook her head. ¡°How is that possible?¡±
Thomas started to rearrange the imagery of the cups and pitcher, but Gwen beat him to it. As she spoke, he gave her a hooded look, mumbled something under his breath, and then waved his hands to dispel the images.
¡°You go beyond your limits,¡± Gwen answered. ¡°You sell your soul to that attribute. You might not have to put extra restrictions on yourself like I did, but that¡¯s how I picked up the quest.¡±
Mel tried hard not to snicker at that, smiling the entire time. Gwen obviously thought she was enjoying her explanation, because she sat up and looked even more eager to explain than before.
¡°How many stats can you perfect?¡± Mel asked.
¡°I would imagine it would be limited,¡± Thomas said. ¡°Given the circumstances. If you were to perfect all stats, that would rather defeat the point, wouldn¡¯t it?¡±
Mel folded her arms petulantly. ¡°Still wanna try.¡±
Gwen shrugged. ¡°You gotta start with one to begin with. Mine is strength.¡± She hefted the [Chain of Atlas] to illustrate her point. ¡°Once I¡¯m High Copper, I¡¯ll finally be free of what that Covenant did to me.¡±
¡°Really?¡± Mel said too brightly. ¡°Strength? I never would have guessed!¡±
Gwen rolled her eyes at Mel and offered no further information.
Thomas chuckled and nudged Gwen in the side gently. ¡°Oh, come on, Gwen. You aren¡¯t exactly subtle about it.¡±
¡°Yeah, okay.¡±
Mel winked at her. ¡°I¡¯m sure there¡¯s somebody out there that wants a big beefy muscle mommy.¡±
Thomas choked on his water. He turned to the side, coughing and hacking.
Gwen glowered. That seemed to touch a nerve. ¡°Somebody, but not many.¡±
Mel smiled big. Ah, it¡¯s good to be back. ¡°For most people, one is enough.¡±
Thomas cleared his throat. ¡°Well, that was¡enlightening. Thank you both for checking on me while I was choking. I nearly aspirated, but your worry is duly noted.¡±
Gwen looked over at Thomas curiously. ¡°Will you start choking again if one of us says muscle mommy?¡±
¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s a one-and-done surprise,¡± Thomas said with a wry grin. ¡°Besides, I didn¡¯t exactly expect that while I was drinking my water.¡±
¡°Maybe I should make sure you¡¯re okay¡¡±
¡°Ya¡¯ll need a room?¡± Mel asked, making a rude gesture with her hands.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Thomas lifted his chin, the blonde stubble sparkling golden in the afternoon sunlight. ¡°We¡¯ll do it wherever we want and you¡¯ll have to get a room if you want to get away. Unless you like to watch. No judgment.¡±
Gwen was mortified. ¡°We¡will?¡±
Mel, meanwhile, was rocking back and forth, squealing with laughter. She hadn¡¯t remembered laughing so hard before. ¡°Fair enough, fair enough.¡± She reached over and poked Gwen. ¡°You¡¯ve got a real hot stud there, Gwen.¡±
¡°I have no idea what¡¯s going on anymore,¡± she said, voice pitched high.
¡°Don¡¯t mind her, she¡¯s just in denial,¡± Thomas said, putting a hand to the side of his mouth but not bothering to modulate his tone at all.
They all shared a laugh at that, though Gwen¡¯s was more nervous and unsure.
¡°So I need to chain myself up to get a perfect attribute then?¡± Mel asked. ¡°Not sure I want to be shackled to one of the most tired out metaphors in existence.¡±
¡°No,¡± Gwen replied firmly. ¡°I think, at this point, aggressively training that attribute may be enough. The key is obviously combining it with these new flask mixes.¡±
¡°Then it¡¯d make sense for me to choose a stat that¡¯s already high, wouldn¡¯t it?¡±
¡°Not necessarily,¡± Thomas cut in. ¡°We¡¯re pretty weak now. Copper is usually the first step, so think long term. If vigor was your weakest stat, you could start training and working on it right now. Eventually, you¡¯ll be Iron and several ranks beyond that. What we do now is more foundational than anything. We¡¯re not locked in yet.¡±
Mel squinted at him. ¡°You don¡¯t know what¡¯s after Iron either, do you?¡±
¡°I have some guesses,¡± Thomas hedged.
¡°Very convincing.¡± Mel turned to Gwen. ¡°You said you picked up a quest for getting a perfect attribute?¡±
¡°Yeah.¡±
¡°When did that appear? Was it after a certain grade or just random?¡±
¡°It started a while after I was focusing on that attribute, like the quest aligned with my goals,¡± Gwen explained. ¡°I earned a strength scaling title, and religiously used [Primal Mantle], which further augments my strength and stamina.¡±
¡°And you¡¯ve probably been doing this for weeks more than I have,¡± Mel said, obviously let down.
¡°The thing is, I didn¡¯t have the equivalent of a massively boosted training branch. You do.¡±
¡°She¡¯s right,¡± Thomas agreed. ¡°The brews are new to both of us. At first glance, they blow anything the Emporium could give us out of the water¡and I think that¡¯s the point. I¡¯ve long since wondered if we were supposed to use the Emporium to create elixirs to improve ourselves rather than simply using the ingredients. The chromatic unlockable section, while not replete with materials, is notably useful in that regard.¡±
¡°I know it was just a lucky guess, but I think this brew will dramatically change our chances in this Convocation,¡± Gwen said. ¡°Thomas is probably right too. All those ingredients were too expensive for a while to experiment with.¡±
Mel could see the reasoning in that. ¡°Kinda like eating an egg on its own versus turning it into a cake. The system gave us the ingredients, but it¡¯s up to us to create the cake.¡± She laughed. ¡°Damn we must look pretty dumb to the gods looking down at us, watching us eating the equivalent of dirt and proclaiming that it¡¯s some mystical ambrosia.¡±
¡°That sounds pretty likely,¡± Gwen agreed.
¡°So the elemental branch is out,¡± Mel reasoned. ¡°Too bad I already used a few. Good thing it wasn¡¯t with my BP.¡±
¡°That¡¯s okay,¡± Thomas said. ¡°What stat would you like to focus on?¡±
¡°I guess now that we¡¯re a team,¡± Mel said, looking at each of them in turn. Thomas¡¯ expression was unreadable, but Gwen¡¯s looked startlingly like a golden retriever that was just happy to be there. ¡°I should probably find a niche, yeah? So we already know Gwen¡¯s going for strength. What about you?¡±
¡°I figured it would be obvious,¡± Thomas said. ¡°It¡¯s arcane. Still don¡¯t have a quest for it.¡±
Mel nodded, thinking back to her first aspect. Mist was still her most used aspect despite the relative weakness compared to something like Omen or Blood.
I¡¯ve survived more times than I care to admit for my ability to quickly get out of the way, or to close a gap before my opponent can strike.
Agility was also instrumental in fighting against the naga. Both Gwen and Thomas were unable to keep up with that monster¡¯s speed. Though, to be fair, Mel struggled too. Those [Smoke Dash Bangles] had clearly increased the naga¡¯s attack speed.
Would I have struggled, if I went above and beyond with agility?
A glance at her status showed that her agility was still her highest stat. Technically, she had three stats at Grade 6, but only [Hidden Mist] was on the cusp of Grade 8. It was somewhat hard to compare, since agility was also bound to her Mist aspect.
[Mel Harper]
Race: Human
Standing: [#44] Exile (G-League) [1st Echelon]
Class: Mystic
Rank: Copper
Next Rank: Iron (47%)
[==Attributes==]
Strength [Divine Aspect]: Copper (Grade 4)
Agility [Mist Aspect]: Copper (Grade 6)
Vigor [Blood Aspect]: Copper (Grade 6)
Sense [Serpent Aspect]: Copper (Grade 6)
Arcane [Omen Aspect]: Copper (Grade 4)
[==Aspects==]
[Divine Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 4)
? [Tempest Heart] (Grade 4)
[Mist Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 6)
? [Hidden Mist] (Grade 7)
[Blood Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 6)
? [Sanguine Coat] (Grade 7)
[Serpent Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 6)
? [Gaze of the Serpent] (Grade 7)
? [Avatar of Askara] (Grade 1)
[Omen Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 4)
? [Omen Mark] (Grade 4)
? [Bane of Tartarus] (Grade 5)
While it was true that agility, vigor, and sense were all Grade 6, [Hidden Mist] was her strongest and most advanced aspect skill.
[Hidden Mist]
(Serpent Aspect)
(Copper, Green/Spell)
(Grade 7 [78%])
Cost: Modest Mana
Cooldown: Moderate
Blanket an area in mist, obscuring the vision of your enemies and making them easy prey.
Imprint(Copper Rank): Create a layer of obfuscating fog that you and any allies you designate can see through. Area affected by fog is considered difficult terrain. Mana cost increases as the area of fog increases. Additional mana may be expended to illuminate the fog from within.
Mel¡¯s brow crumpled in thought. ¡°Dammit.¡±
Thomas leaned forward. ¡°What is it?¡±
¡°It¡¯s more than just an attribute. It¡¯s an aspect too. If I choose agility, it means I¡¯m also choosing Mist. They¡¯re intrinsically linked. If I want to make Omen my starred perfect whatever, then that means focusing on arcane instead.¡±
¡°That¡¯s true,¡± Gwen said thoughtfully. ¡°Bear in mind, it¡¯s fine for two of us to specialize in the same attribute. Our aspects and classes are very different.¡±
¡°It is, and it isn¡¯t,¡± Thomas countered, turning to Mel to make it clear he was referring to her and not Gwen. ¡°While both aspect and attribute are linked, I don¡¯t think we can perfect an attribute without perfecting an aspect. Either that, or we can only perfect the attribute without touching the aspect. We don¡¯t know until one of us¨Clikely Gwen¨Cfinishes the quest.¡±
Gwen shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know. It feels closely linked to me. Primal aspect and strength I mean. But it is a rather¡instinctual aspect.¡±
¡°Thanks, that makes it a million times harder to decide. Very cool!¡± Mel complained.
¡°Sorry,¡± Gwen said.
Mel waved away her concern. ¡°I¡¯m going to go with agility regardless. Something about it feels¡Blue. I can¡¯t explain it, but I¡¯ve gotten a few notifications that have mentioned my Blue Deeds. Still no idea what that means, but that¡¯s got to be something, right?¡±
¡°We know very little about Chroma,¡± Thomas said. ¡°The colors Gwen and I have been able to work out are Blue, Red, Green, and Yellow. Blue is defensive, Red offensive, Green supportive, and Yellow is afflictions.¡±
¡°That¡¯s one more than I figured out,¡± Mel said appreciatively. ¡°Agility feels defensive, though I guess you could call it a mix since you could use it to attack faster as well.¡±
Mel looked up at the sky. ¡°How about you just tell us what these prophetic colors mean, system?¡±
The only sound Mel heard was the crackling of the campfire and the uncomfortable shifting of her two companions.
¡°Eat an avalanche of dicks, system.¡±
Mel opened the shop again and bought a [Petrified Branch of Agility]. She was going on her instincts here, and that meant focusing on her agility first.
She frowned. ¡°Where did you get that [Red Rock]?¡± Mel asked Gwen. ¡°I don¡¯t see it in the shop.¡±
¡°I can find them very rarely, but mostly the chromatic items section,¡± Gwen said. ¡°It cost six thousand Battle Points to unlock, so Thomas spent his points on it and we simply trade.¡±
¡°It¡¯s more effective than having all of us buy in,¡± Thomas pointed out. ¡°That would be a grand total loss of eighteen thousand points. Eventually, sure, but for now? It seems best to keep as many points in reserve.¡±
¡°There aren¡¯t a lot of items in that section anyway,¡± Gwen admitted. ¡°Spirit herba and the chromatic rocks.¡±
¡°The only saving grace is that the items are all cheaper than anything in the core shop,¡± Thomas said. ¡°The herbas are a hundred points each, and the rocks are one-twenty.¡±
For some reason that Mel couldn¡¯t put her finger on, it felt wrong to do this. Probably because you expect you¡¯ll be on your own again soon. Take advantage of Magi hospitality while it lasts.
¡°So that¡¯s what, two [Blue Rocks] for one petrified branch?¡± Mel asked.
Thomas nodded. ¡°Thereabouts. I don¡¯t have enough BP to buy both chromatic rocks and branches for myself and everybody else.¡±
Mel was still flush with BP, enough that she could have unlocked the section herself. However, until she needed to, there didn¡¯t seem to be any reason. ¡°Arcane branches, yeah?¡±
Thomas nodded. ¡°And you want [Blue Rocks]?¡±
They traded, with Mel giving Thomas an extra branch to make up for the massive 6,000 BP debt he must have. A trade she noticed Gwen mirrored.
¡°I¡¯m guessing there¡¯s relatively few people even with access to an ampoule,¡± Mel said. ¡°Which means that we have an even greater potential advantage. Even when people do get their ampoules, which is something I assume most people will get similar to their kilns, how many will think to potentially waste not one, but two Emporium items? Especially when the chromatic rocks need to be unlocked.¡±
Gwen beamed.
¡°Yes, you¡¯re amazing, Gwen. Good job.¡±
¡°Seriously,¡± Thomas added. ¡°Without you trying something neither of us thought to, we¡¯d be in the dark as much as anybody else. This way, we can make the most out of your discovery. That means we¡¯ll need a lot more Battle Points.¡±
¡°That¡¯s a bad thing?¡± Mel asked.
Thomas¡¯ answering grin told her it wasn¡¯t. ¡°Not unless you¡¯ve got a weak heart for grinding?¡±
Despite the daunting task of trying to make sure she kept on top of spending hundreds of BP every time she made a primeval brew, Mel was excited at the prospects of grinding. For once, it wouldn¡¯t be to avenge a wrong, or even to survive.
It would be the key to getting stronger, but more importantly: it would be fun.
Chapter 73 – Miracle Brews
The brew that Mel made looked similar to Thomas¡¯ and Gwen¡¯s, despite it being tinged blue like her favorite slush drink. ¡°What¡¯s the plan?¡± Mel asked, holding onto her [Primeval Brew] like it was the most precious thing in her possession.
In a way, it was.
¡°Good thing I didn¡¯t pick another branch instead,¡± Gwen said, peering into the contents of her own [Primeval Brew]. ¡°Though I do need more vigor.¡±
¡°You could reset your brew,¡± Thomas pointed out. ¡°We did.¡±
¡°Would I lose the fire branch though?¡±
¡°I lost the spirit herba,¡± Thomas said. ¡°So, yeah. You¡¯d lose it, but we don¡¯t know how long the cooldown is. The description doesn¡¯t make it seem short. It might be a day, or several days. Accruing that much BP every single day might be difficult unless we can find a plentiful source of monsters.¡±
¡°Or cultists,¡± Mel put in. ¡°If I ever see a red-robed son of a bitch, I¡¯m stabbing first and asking questions never.¡±
Gwen scrunched her face up at that. ¡°Nah, I¡¯m sticking with what¡¯s in there. I want that perfect attribute.¡±
Mel gasped, putting a hand to her chest. ¡°You mean you aren¡¯t willing to be one-hundred-percent efficient at all times throughout your life?! The horror! You are definitely not main character potential, Gwen. For shame.¡±
¡°Mel, are you delirious or what?¡±
¡°I do have a snake inside me, so¡kinda,¡± Mel said thoughtfully. ¡°Kinda cool having a little snek tattoo on my arm. Doesn¡¯t it look badass?¡± She showed them again, which wasn¡¯t an easy process considering she had to remove her bangle, her glove, and pull up her sleeve.
But she was really proud of it.
¡°...He¡¯s real cute,¡± Gwen said dreamily, thoroughly distracted. ¡°And yet, he does make a badass tattoo!¡±
Thomas stood up, dusting his pants of ash and soot. ¡°It suits you. Now, if you¡¯d like to begin?¡±
¡°Begin what?¡± Mel asked. ¡°I thought we were just going to drink our totally-not-poison bottles and go out and kill stuff?¡±
Thomas shook his head. ¡°That¡¯s no way to train. First of all, the elixir states it enhances meditation. And, not to put too fine a point on it, but I haven¡¯t seen you meditate once this entire time.¡±
¡°Neither have you!¡± Mel snapped back.
¡°What do you think I do while I¡¯m reading?¡±
Mel opened her mouth, then shut it again. ¡°That¡¯s not real meditation,¡± was all she could think to say.
¡°He thinks it is,¡± Gwen said dryly.
¡°It¡¯s good enough when I don¡¯t need to do anything deeper,¡± Thomas insisted. ¡°With everything that¡¯s happened to you, I figured you might need a walkthrough on how meditation is done here.¡±
¡°I know how to meditate,¡± Mel said. ¡°I¡¯m a Magi, not some street urchin.¡±
¡°It¡¯s different in the multiverse though,¡± Gwen pointed out. ¡°Not the same as cycling Cinder.¡±
¡°How?¡±
Thomas took out his wand, saw the immediate disinterest at an illustrated lesson, then dismissed it with a grumble. ¡°Since I know the both of you have the attention span of a peanut , I¡¯ll make it simple. You understand that runes are the equivalent of experience in a game, right?¡±
Mel nodded. ¡°That was pretty obvious.¡±
¡°The more runes you gain, the more your power grows,¡± Thomas continued. ¡°Pretty simple, practically linear growth, right?¡±
¡°You¡¯re losing me. Pick up the pace, smart man,¡± Mel said with a grin.
¡°We¡¯ll skip the semantics and the underlying mechanisms then,¡± Thomas said with a huff that made Mel¡¯s impatience seem on par with kicking puppies. Or, as Mel guessed, not reading the full terms of service before signing up to anything . ¡°There are actually two types of runes. Prime and latent.¡±
¡°I¡¯m guessing prime runes are the main ones we get?¡± Mel asked.
Thomas pointed his wand at her like a professor. ¡°Right. Primes are what the system tells us explicitly about. Latent runes are stored, kinda like¨C¡±
¡°Fat?¡± Mel interjected.
¡°No. Not like fat. You¡¯re not far off though. Think of a reservoir¨Cno, I¡¯m not making an illustration, you lost that privilege¨Cthat fills up over time as you gain more latent runes. It just sits there doing nothing¨C¡±
¡°Like fat.¡±
¡°Mel, I swear to the gods.¡±
Gwen lounged on her side, waiting out the explanation.
Mel raised her hands innocently. ¡°You literally walked right into it. You can¡¯t blame me for that. That¡¯s on you, bud.¡±
Thomas took a deep, steadying breath. ¡°The reservoir¨Cnot fat¨Cfills up with latent runes, but you can¡¯t use them. They don¡¯t go directly to increasing your attributes or aspects. They just sorta¡linger there and fill up over time. Once it fills, it begins to spill over.¡±
¡°Like a gut over a waistband,¡± Mel said, nodding along.
¡°Latent runes? Nah, fat runes,¡± Gwen whispered to herself with a chuckle.
Thomas whispered a prayer. ¡°No. I¡¯m not bending on this. You aren¡¯t winning this!¡± He thrust his wand at Mel. ¡°What happens when you fill a pitcher full of water and then keep filling it?¡±
¡°It spills.¡±
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
¡°Exactly! You can¡¯t use that water anymore. It¡¯s wasted. Eventually, you gain enough latent runes that you waste them completely. Your reservoir¨C¡±
Mel nodded. ¡°My soul gut.¡±
¡°¨Cfills up and the extra runes are wasted. However, you can tap into those runes by meditating. By meditating and focusing on what you¡¯ve done and recalling your battles and training, you can draw up that latent supply of runes to further enforce your soul and body. It¡¯s different from the cycling you might be used to, but it¡¯s not completely foreign either. These brews enhance meditation further, suggesting that they either give you latent runes to use, or apply some sort of efficiency bonus.¡±
¡°Smart, ignoring my outbursts,¡± Mel congratulated. ¡°Now you¡¯re starting to learn. I just like to hear myself talk sometimes and giving me attention just reinforces that desire to blurt out insane things. Still gonna call it a soul gut though.¡±
¡°You¡¯re going to give me a nervous tic,¡± Thomas said with a lengthy sigh. ¡°But I¡¯m done at least. Gods above, I pity your professors.¡±
¡°Me too,¡± Mel said with an evil grin. She paused a moment. ¡°I do have a question though. Why not just meditate all the time then? Surely it benefits you, right? And it¡¯s safe.¡±
Thomas nodded. ¡°That¡¯s already been tried. When you run out of latent runes, you¡¯ve got nothing to pull into yourself. I¡¯m still of the mind that it works, but instead of drawing on something as energy dense as latent runes, it pulls in ambient aether or mana from the air. If you had an infinite lifespan, maybe it¡¯d be an easy way of gaining power, but we don¡¯t. Not yet.¡±
¡°It got boring as hell too,¡± Gwen pointed out, half-lidding her eyes as if reliving the dull experience. ¡°And we need those Battle Points to compete.¡±
¡°I think I would probably throw myself off a cliff before I could bother to meditate for days at a time,¡± Mel said with a shiver of revulsion.
¡°I didn¡¯t make it that long,¡± Gwen admitted.
¡°There needs to be a balance.¡± Thomas took out his brew. ¡°The more you meditate, the more you can feel when you¡¯re running empty. It¡¯s sort of like feeling hungry. That¡¯s the closest I can equate it to. You¡¯ll know though, it won¡¯t be subtle.¡±
¡°So fight, grind, kill monsters and maybe some Bloodtide bastards by day, then meditate by night?¡± Mel asked.
¡°That¡¯s been the most effective way that I¡¯ve found to do it. Meditation takes up less time than fighting. It seems ideal to meditate before resting. By the morning, your latent runes should be spent and you can repeat the process again. Besides, it helps to have the memories fresh in your mind. If you haven¡¯t done it at all¡well, it¡¯s likely that you¡¯ll want to meditate first.¡±
¡°So the question I have is: do I burn my soul gut now, or drink this fizzy blue tonic that I really hope tastes like a blue raspberry icee first, then meditate with the rest of you goobers?¡±
Gwen patted Mel¡¯s stomach gently. ¡°Not much there.¡±
Mel looked at her. ¡°I¡¯m all blocked up girl.¡±
She stared. ¡°...Great.¡±
Thomas hung his head. ¡°We¡¯ve gone from soul fat to soul gut, to soul¡constipation?¡±
Mel tapped a finger to the hollow of her cheek thoughtfully. ¡°Huh. That¡¯s a good analogy. I like it. Instead of meditating, I¡¯m dumping out my latent runes.¡±
¡°You did this to yourself, Thomas,¡± Gwen said. ¡°I¡¯m not helping you out of this. Not after that posturing, mister upperclassman.¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t. You can¡¯t.¡± He looked between the two of them, throwing up his hands. ¡°WHY?!¡±
¡°But seriously,¡± Mel said, ¡°please answer my question smart man.¡±
Thomas clearly couldn¡¯t resist helping, or else he probably would have stormed out of the camp. ¡°I would suggest you risk wasting the elixir¡¯s runes and drink the brew. If it improves¨C¡±
¡°Dumping out,¡± Mel said, nodding along.
Gwen snickered to herself, turning over so they couldn¡¯t see her reddening face.
¡°¨Cyour meditation, then you¡¯ll get the most benefit. If it just gives you latent runes, you¡¯ll probably feel the excessive waste. Either way, it¡¯s your call.¡±
Mel held up the brew. ¡°Get in me you beautiful blue ex-lax.¡±
That destroyed Gwen. She laughed until she was breathless.
Mel didn¡¯t miss Thomas¡¯ sour expression.
They sat back around the campfire, adding some wood from Gwen¡¯s inventory to keep the flames nice and high. One by one they drank their [Primeval Brews].
Each one was differently colored to suit their imbiber. Just as Mel crossed her legs and settled into a meditative pose, Gwen spoke up, ¡°What about your ritual spell?¡±
¡°It¡¯s not complete,¡± Thomas said.
Mel cracked open one eye. ¡°What spell?¡±
¡°He has been working on something to help with meditation,¡± Gwen explained. ¡°It¡¯s why he reads those books.¡±
That piqued Mel¡¯s interest, enough that she entirely forgot to make a joke about Thomas making a spell that helped people to dump out. Instead, she asked, ¡°Do you really think you can make something like that?¡±
He shot her a guarded look, clearly expecting some sort of joke. When that didn¡¯t come, he relaxed a little. ¡°In theory, it should be. However, I have no books on theory or study materials. It¡¯s the difference between having a manual on how an engine is put together versus looking at various cars rumbling down the road and making guesses from their sounds.¡±
¡°He¡¯ll get there,¡± Gwen said confidently. ¡°I believe in you, Thomas.¡±
Mel didn¡¯t miss the tenderness in her voice. She smiled to herself, unable to refute her claim. Thomas had a way of breaking things down and reassembling them. If anybody could do it, Mel imagined it would be Thomas. ¡°I do too.¡±
Thomas cleared his throat bashfully.
Mel pumped her fist into the air. ¡°Dumping out time!¡±
¡°Let¡¯s shit our pants!¡± Gwen cried.
¡°I¡¯m going to meditate over there,¡± Thomas said, walking farther away from the group.
Mel laughed and shut her eyes. She focused on what Thomas had said. Despite all the jokes she made at his expense¨Cmaking somebody like Thomas squirm gave her a special sort of kick¨Cshe found herself visualizing a reservoir full of mana.
Slowly, Mel focused on her past experiences. Her fight with the creatures in the tomb, the naga, and even further back to the battle with Warren and his guards.
Further and further back she went, slowly drawing on the latent power left untapped within her.
Time flowed like a river as Mel immersed herself in her past deeds, both good and bad. In order to pull out the latent runes, she was forced to revisit scenes both horrible and terrifying.
She refused to shy away from what she had done. She owned her actions. Some she could have done better, others she was glad for what she had done.
The brew burned within her, helping her to draw out the power sleeping within her. She could feel the strength filling her up, and yet it never seemed to empty.
Whether it was the brew¡¯s doing or she somehow had an exceptionally large reservoir, Mel was glad that she hadn¡¯t wasted too much potential.
When Mel opened her eyes, the stars were shining down upon them and her friends were watching her with green light dancing in their eyes.
¡°What is it?¡± Mel asked.
¡°Look at yourself,¡± Thomas said.
Mel lifted her arms and stared at them in awe. They were wreathed in harmless emerald green flames.
Chapter 74 – Shrubley, the Monster Exchange Student
¡°I am not a monster!¡± Shrubley cried out as he sprinted, growing more and more out of breath, his speech picking up without pause. ¡°Well, in fact, I am a monster. However, I am an awakened monster, yet I fear that the distinction would be lost on you in your present mental state and that you would take a rather reductive view of the entire premise!¡±
For the briefest of moments, his pursuers paused to consider the confusing and breathless jumble of words.
¡°I heard ¡®monster¡¯,¡± one said.
¡°Me too.¡±
¡°I will defend myself!¡± the ambulatory shrub shouted, bounding down the scree-ridden mountainside at a remarkable clip.
The sun was getting low, making the plant-like creature easy to make out, for the center of its bushy body was glowing.
¡°We don¡¯t care about any of that!¡± the fellow shouted, confirming Shrubley¡¯s suspicions. ¡°We want those branches!¡±
A volley of burning arrows arced down the mountainside, peppering the sparse grass and loose rocks all around Shrubley.
Shrubley yelped, the sap pumping hard through his branches and leaves as his small four-foot frame struggled to outpace the longer legged humans after him.
¡°You are making him mad!¡± Shrubley warned, looking back at them as he ran.
His hunters didn¡¯t understand the warning, much to their eventual dismay.
Scree and rocks bounced alongside the group of five bandits after Shrubley. They didn¡¯t think much of it until the sound of metal grinding against rock was too loud to ignore.
One looked behind himself just in time to see the odd creature bearing down on them.
Riding a kite shield down the scree-ridden slope, a man in full plate armor was swiftly gaining on the bandits with a longsword out in his hand.
Aspect Skill: [Shield Surf]
It took the bandits several precious seconds to choose their course. They could have stopped to fight the knight, but they were bandits and picking on people who looked prepared wasn¡¯t a tactic they were fond of.
Instead, they continued after the shrub. They gained on the small creature that shrieked and cried out. It only became obvious that the little guy was laughing and enjoying himself when it was already too late.
Aspect Skill: [First Rite of the Pyre]
The mountain surfer¡¯s sword flared with red oily flames as he crashed into the bandits¡¯ back line. His movements were swift, sure, and above all deadly. He wasted no time cleaving heads from necks. Those he couldn¡¯t reach, he rammed into, causing them to stumble.
Those who lost their heads were spared the agonizing pain of tumbling hundreds of feet down a rocky hillside.
The flames winked out as the man came alongside Shrubley who squealed like a broken desk fan. He crouched down and scooped him up with one strong arm.
¡°Jacob!¡± Shrubley cried. ¡°You¡¯re such a Chat!¡±
¡°I think you mean, ¡®Chad¡¯,¡± a fiery oppa said, poking out of Jacob¡¯s armor. ¡°You know, you don¡¯t have to bait the bandits if you don¡¯t want to.¡±
¡°It¡¯s fun!¡± Shrubley said enthusiastically. ¡°I give them plenty of time to repent their wicked ways, and they never do.¡±
¡°Most people who are just trying to survive are already hunkered down somewhere they consider safe,¡± Jacob Windsor said. He turned to scan the sides of the forest that lined the edge of the mountainside through the slit in his angular helm. ¡°Where is that woman?¡±
¡°Miranda said she was hungry,¡± Shrubley explained. ¡°Remember? She and Cal went off with Hal and Sylvie.¡±
¡°Not her,¡± Jacob said, shifting his weight and carving through the dense scree toward the tree line. Once the ground shifted from loose stone to soil, he scooped up Shrubley again and hopped off his shield.
Without looking, he stomped down and popped the shield up to his waiting arm.
¡°So cool¡¡± Shrubley whispered in awe as Jacob set him down with an affectionate pat on his leafy head.
¡°Jacob, a little help!¡± came a woman¡¯s voice.
¡°Come on, Shrubley!¡± Jacob called to his prot¨¦g¨¦ as he sprinted through the darkening forest. He found Camilla easily thanks to the flames of Darkness she was casting at her adversary.
It took him a moment to realize the difficulty. The golem was resistant to magic. Each impact of [Dark Flame] hardly made a mark on its stony, angular skin.
Jacob surged in, [Bull Rush] lending him greater speed. Fenris slipped back into his armor. He collided with a sweeping arm of the golem just as it would have crushed Camilla flat.
He knocked the creature¡¯s aim off, smashing a tree to flinders instead.
On he came, his sword jabbing and poking at every seam and weak point that Jacob could find. The golem was hardly fazed by the attacks. Its counterattack nearly took Jacob¡¯s head from his shoulders. He ducked, getting his helm torn painfully from his head.
Shrubley raised his oddly pink-hued sword and cried out. The vines and roots all around them burst through the soil like the tentacles of a dread beast.
Aspect Skill: [Seismic Grasp]
The golem¡¯s limbs ripped through the first few questing roots, but its initial momentum was robbed. Shrubley¡¯s skill continued to grasp and weave its way into the tiniest cracks in the golem¡¯s body.
Cracks that were slowly widened by the patience of the earth and roots.
¡°For leaf and branch!¡± Shrubley called out.
Camilla held an arm that was hanging lower than it should have. He wanted to go to her, but she shook her head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me! Shrubley won¡¯t be able to hold that golem for long!¡±
Grim determination forged on his features, Jacob rushed the golem. He slipped his shield onto his back and switched to a two-handed grip. With his sword raised high, Jacob summoned a power few were able to control, let alone endure.
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His sword didn¡¯t change physically in any way that was perceivable to the eye of man or beast, but suddenly it grew very, very heavy. It took all of his considerable strength just to bear it.
Aspect Skill: [Guilty Blade]
Jacob¡¯s longsword, four feet of solid steel, looked like a toothpick compared to the towering creature of ensorcelled stone.
It struck with the force of a 10-ton wrecking ball.
The sword didn¡¯t so much shear through the creature¡¯s hardened hide as crush and pulverize everything in its way. The golem¡¯s emerald eyes glittered with pain and fear.
Jacob followed through the motion, pivoting his hips and bringing the blade up and over into a powerful vertical chop reminiscent of Executioner¡¯s Lament . This world lacked sword forms that he knew of, but Jacob couldn¡¯t rid himself of the habit.
The training was deeply ingrained in him, despite that it may as well have been from another life.
The golem¡¯s body burst open like it had been hit by a train. The only thing that held it together was Shrubley¡¯s skill. The roots dug into the cracks of the monster, pulling it apart and into the ground where it would rest for eternity.
¡°Sleep well,¡± Shrubley said to the monster. ¡°May you find enlightenment in your next life.¡±
Breathing hard, sweat slicking his hair to his forehead, Jacob let go of his Guilt aspect. He nearly sagged from the relief, but kept himself upright. He didn¡¯t want Shrubley worrying about him, not when the shrub¡¯s healing was needed elsewhere.
Camilla limped up to them, holding a clearly dislocated shoulder. ¡°How is it that I find the one golem in all the plateau?¡±
Shrubley eagerly stepped up to Camilla, reaching out his twiggy hand with a golden glow to the limb. Golden light spread up from his twiggy fingers to Camilla¡¯s pale skin.
She let out a grunt of pain as the shoulder was pulled back into the socket. Though her face was red from exertion, she sighed with relief.
Aspect Skill: [Light of Recovery]
¡°Thank you, Shrubley,¡± Camilla said, using her newly healed arm to pat his leafy head. The look she gave Jacob was infinitely more tender, yet oddly guarded. ¡°And you, Jacob.¡± She poked his armored chest. ¡°You know, you don¡¯t have to act like a literal knight in shining armor.¡±
¡°He¡¯s doing his best!¡± Fenris barked from inside Jacob¡¯s armor. It was obvious where he was, since his fur often glowed like the embers of a great Pyre.
Jacob tapped a fragment of the golem¡¯s body with the tip of his sword, looting it. He watched with childlike wonder as the streamers of light bearing the monster¡¯s loot streaked out to each of them.
So much better than Lormar.
¡°Shit, shit, shit, shit!¡± a high-pitched voice called out through the trees.
Fenris scuttled out of Jacob¡¯s armor to rest on his shoulder. Shrubley bent down and retrieved Jacob¡¯s helm, passing it back to him.
They were at the tree line just in time to see a black-clad young man racing down the mountainside with what looked like an entire tribe of cannibals on his tail.
¡°Should we help him?¡± Shrubley asked, confused. ¡°He is very fast.¡±
¡°What an unfortunate fellow,¡± Camilla said, watching the trailing crowd.
¡°If they don¡¯t catch him, they¡¯ll catch somebody else,¡± Jacob said, fitting the helm onto his head. ¡°Let¡¯s help the poor bastard out.¡±
Heath¡¯s luck had gone from bad to worse. He stumbled from one murderous group to the next, always managing to stay just ahead of their deadly grasp.
This latest group was the worst mistake he had made since trusting that old woman who had literally stabbed him in the back. All he wanted at that moment was a glass of milk to quench his parched throat.
Apparently staggering half-dead into a large tribe of people wearing human skulls and asking for a glass of milk was somehow offensive. Most people just found it weird.
It was hardly ¡°kill him on the spot¡± worthy.
He shook his head. You¡¯re delirious, Heath!
Yeah, but full-fat creamy milk ice cold from the fridge would really hit the spot.
Rest and sleep were a distant memory. Heath had begun to lose his grasp on his goal. And yet, the same mantra would bubble inevitably to the surface, shocking him out of his haziness.
WWMD! What would Mel do?
She wouldn¡¯t keep running, but she also wasn¡¯t dumb enough to turn around and face 30 angry cannibals. In retrospect, he should have noticed all the skulls and corpses strewn around the area.
It was a pretty obvious warning. They clearly weren¡¯t very good cannibals. He chuckled to himself deliriously. Good Cannibals sounds like a really awesome heavy metal band.
A group of adventurers burst out of the tree line to Heath¡¯s right. He knew he was hallucinating when he saw the same little shrub raising a pink sword and screaming, ¡°For leaf and branch!¡± as they charged at him.
¡°No fries for me!¡± Heath screamed nonsensically.
His body was moving entirely on its own accord. There was nothing he could do to stop this group from slamming into him. His mana was shot, his stamina was a thin vertical green bar that was about to go out at any moment, and his health¡well, the less said about that, the better.
He had more wound markers than he could count. Granted, at the moment, he would have struggled to count to 10.
Instead of finishing him off, they collided with the cannibals chasing him. Heath looked over his shoulder as the knight, the witch, and the talking shrub barreled into the cannibals. They didn¡¯t know what hit them.
They were prepared to take on one skinny guy wearing all black from Ohio, not some literal walking heroes from DND.
Heh. The Knight, the Witch, and the Shrub sounds like a good book title.
Heath hit something very hard and rebounded off it, lights flashing in his eyes. Something hot and coppery flooded his mouth as he fell onto his back.
Despite the pain, he was happy to finally stop. He stayed there, the world slowly revolving around him until, after an unknown amount of time, Heath heard voices.
¡°Sir? Are you okay?¡± said a small voice.
¡°Shrubley, stay back.¡±
¡°Oh, I know this one! Hello, sir! I saved you, remember? It¡¯s me, Shrubley!¡±
¡°Shrubley, get back!¡±
WWMD, Heath! What would Mel do?
Heath thought about that. At least, as well as he could, considering the present circumstances. Mel wouldn¡¯t take no shit from anyone. She would go down swinging.
Snarling with bestial, instinctive rage, Heath lashed out and swung for the deeper voice that he heard last.
His fist was caught in an iron grip.
¡°On second thought, I would love some fries,¡± Heath declared, feeling as if this made perfect sense, even though it absolutely did not.
Chapter 75 – Emerald Veins
Mel turned her arms over, flapping them madly. ¡°Hah! It kinda tickles.¡±
With a look of utmost curiosity, one befitting of any Magi, Gwen reached out to touch the fire. Because of course she would.
Her fingers passed right through the flames harmlessly, though Mel did notice that the fires pulled back from her fingers, as if they were reacting to her presence. ¡°Huh,¡± she said thoughtfully.
Gwen turned to Thomas. ¡°You¡¯re being awfully quiet.¡±
¡°I think it¡¯s the beginning of an aura.¡± Thomas leaned in to get a closer look at the flames. Mel always thought he should be wearing glasses for some reason. There was no good reason for it, but it really seemed like he could be adjusting his glasses at a time like this. For that extra nerd cred.
¡°Feels fine,¡± Mel said, more to confirm to herself than to assuage any concern they might have.
After a few moments, the flames burned themselves out. ¡°You think maybe it¡¯s soul gas?¡± Mel asked, delighting when Thomas cringed. ¡°Kind of like a soul poot, y¡¯know? Honestly, that ¡®empty feeling¡¯ you talked about is unsettlingly like the sensation you get after you¡ª¡±
¡°Do you feel relieved?¡± Gwen asked innocently, interrupting Mel¡¯s line of thought.
¡°...you know that feeling when you fart away a stomachache?¡± Mel asked.
She stared with a very straight face.
Huh, reminds me of that anime where the girl lost her wallet at some amusement park.
Mel looked at Thomas. ¡°You¡¯re a dude. You know what I¡¯m talking about.¡±
Thomas stared at her with an equally straight, stony face.
¡°Ya¡¯ll having a stroke or something?¡±
They didn¡¯t respond.
¡°Oh, come on!¡± Mel yelled at them. ¡°Everybody poops! It¡¯s a children¡¯s book for crying out loud. Everybody does it. Even that really cute barista at the corner coffee shop you¡¯ve had a crush on for the last week. She probably holds it in then rips ass in the break room. I bet it smells like rancid pickles.¡±
Mel got a gentle pat on her head from Gwen, who could barely keep it together. She snorted a few times, trying in vain to not laugh.
Oink, oink girl, you mine now.
Thomas was rubbing his temples as if he just suffered severe psychic damage. ¡°I think that¡¯s enough meditation for one day,¡± he said, getting up and stretching out his limbs.
Mel cleared her throat, trying to return to something approaching a normal human being. ¡°So what¡¯s next?¡±
¡°Rip¨C¡± Gwen started to say.
¡°No! No.¡± Thomas looked at Mel, then Gwen. ¡°We go out and grind.¡±
Gwen glanced at the campsite. ¡°We¡¯re moving on?¡±
Thomas nodded.
¡°Why aren¡¯t we staying here?¡± Mel asked.
¡°Did you see a lot of monsters around the camp? We need to go somewhere with a high density of High Copper monsters. If I had some sort of ritual that would detect monsters, we could go by that. As it is, we¡¯ll rely on Gwen¡¯s nose and random fate.¡±
Mel shook her head. Knowing that the gods were plotting against her, she didn¡¯t want anything to do with fate or random chance. The odds were high that it would be the result of some asshole god meddling against her.
¡°You probably scared ¡®em all off with your gem aura,¡± Gwen said, rolling to her feet and piling the boxes together. ¡°I could use a heart to manage my [Wolfblood] anyway.¡±
¡°I technically have something that can point us toward a really strong monster,¡± Mel said slowly. She didn¡¯t know if she wanted to reveal her blessing just yet, but neither did she want to go roaming around the countryside looking for monsters to slay.
They needed something to guide them. Why not use her blessing?
[Blessing of the Hunt]
(Blessing, Common)
Spirits of ancient beasts predate the Realmtree¡¯s birth. These creatures are unknowable, but ultimately interwoven into the very fabric of the multiverse. They may not possess Anchor Runes, but the power they wield is something that even the Kindred struggle to comprehend.
The phenomenon of their existence lies outside the guidance of the gods, both Inner and Outer. As such, these primordial creatures are capable of rarely bestowing blessings upon individuals they feel a connection to. How and why these creatures choose their champions is a mystery to all but the primordial spirit.
Your spirit has taken on a portion of the primordial¡¯s power, bringing your soul in line with those great and mysterious creatures both vile and sublime.
Imprint(Common): You can sense exceptionally powerful creatures near you. Whenever you engage in battle with a creature of great power whose strength eclipses your own, you ignore a portion of the rank disparity. The more hunts you partake in, the greater power this blessing will bestow upon you.
¡°Really?¡± Gwen asked, interest greatly piqued. She seemed to forget the freshly baked loaf in her hands.
¡°They¡¯re called plateau beasts. Creatures that are exceptionally powerful, but there¡¯s usually just one per plateau.¡± Mel could tell from the looks of recognition in their eyes, they had seen them too. ¡°I can tell where they are if I¡¯m close enough, and if I¡¯m not, I get a vague sensation as to their direction.¡±
Thomas patted the air between them. ¡°Hold on. You mean to tell me that you can sense powerful monsters?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know if sense is the right word,¡± Mel said.
¡°Do you feel something now?¡±
Mel nodded and pointed to her left. ¡°Somewhere over there.¡±
¡°That¡¯s so much better than my aspect skill!¡± Gwen said excitedly. ¡°Why don¡¯t we go check it out? See how bad it is. It probably won¡¯t be an absolute monster like that dragon.¡±
Thomas grinned from ear to ear. His whole face lit up like a kid¡¯s on Christmas morning.
No wonder Askara called him the Sun.
¡°I don¡¯t think that was a plateau beast,¡± Mel admitted. ¡°It was something beyond that. I did meet one though. It was a swamp plateau beast. Think it was a sobekile, big nasty crocodile mixed with like¡bugs. Gross swamp bugs.¡±
Gwen shivered.
¡°Did you kill it?¡± Thomas asked.
¡°Hell no! I tricked that bitch into eating these turd nozzles who were trying to kill me. We kinda¡had a moment, I guess you could say.¡±
Thomas slowly mouthed the colorful phrase Mel used, then shook his head.
¡°You and the¡turd nozzles?¡± Gwen asked.
¡°No! Me and the sobekile,¡± Mel explained. ¡°It¡¯s kinda like that story where the guy goes, ¡®I keep adopting cats from the local animal shelter because the coyotes keep eating them when I let them outside.¡¯ And then somebody points out that it seems more like he¡¯s feeding the wild coyote population.¡±
¡°I¡¯m lost,¡± Gwen admitted.
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¡°She fed the¡this was the Bloodletters you told us about?¡± Thomas asked. ¡°Right. She fed the Bloodletters to the sobekile and it let her go without fighting her. Probably because it was too full to care.¡±
¡°Pretty much!¡± Mel said brightly.
¡°Was it stronger than the naga?¡± Thomas asked with interest.
¡°Vastly stronger,¡± Mel explained. ¡°It said it was a High Copper, but it¡didn¡¯t feel like it. It felt like it was meant to be taken down by a much larger group. If we want to hunt them, we¡¯re going to need a plan.¡±
Thomas finished packing up the campsite that wasn¡¯t being handled by Gwen. ¡°If you can tell where they are, I don¡¯t see why we can¡¯t scout them out and learn their behaviors and hunting patterns before we attack.¡±
Mel wasn¡¯t sure how they would do that without being killed. If the sobekile was like any of the other plateau beasts, Mel wasn¡¯t confident they would win against it.
Even after her enhanced meditation raising her stats a full grade, and the [Primeval Brew] filling her with power and warmth, Mel didn¡¯t like their odds against a plateau beast.
She kept her thoughts to herself as they set off away from the campsite. Gwen and Mel waited at the exit of the camp, waiting for Thomas to finish with a ritual spell.
It was amazing how much faster he was at setting them up than Mel. Even though she only had the one spell still, it took her at least three or four times longer than Thomas. And by the looks of his spells, they were infinitely more complex.
¡°What¡¯s he doing?¡± Mel asked, her eyes sweeping the amber hillside.
¡°Setting up a trace,¡± Gwen said, watching him. She often let her gaze linger on Thomas when she didn¡¯t think anybody was watching her. Mel wondered if she should say something, but she didn¡¯t feel it was her place.
She had no problem screwing around, but when it came to something serious, she struggled. Especially when she could easily do real damage with a misplaced word.
¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Mel asked.
¡°Magical breadcrumbs is how he explained it,¡± she said, examining her claw weapons. With star affinity applied, the blades trailed glittering stardust light. ¡°If one of the Magi finds our previous camp, they¡¯ll be pointed to this one, then the next in a chain. If somebody who isn¡¯t a Magi finds the camp, they won¡¯t be able to make sense of the trace anyway, so it doesn¡¯t matter.¡±
Mel snorted. ¡°They¡¯ll probably think it¡¯s haunted or something.¡± She jerked her chin toward a group camping out in the open on the side of a hill. ¡°I bet they¡¯re eyeing our camp. It¡¯s out of the wind and more protected. Even has fresh running water.¡±
¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll miss that waterfall. Oh well.¡±
¡°Did you pick the camp?¡±
She nodded. ¡°The fresh water was easy to smell, even with it hidden in that slot canyon.¡±
¡°Heh. Slot canyon.¡±
Gwen snickered at that.
Thomas came up to them as they were stupidly snickering. ¡°What¡¯d I miss?¡±
¡°Nothing,¡± Mel said, wiping a tear from her eye. ¡°You sure you want to do this?¡±
¡°I can¡¯t think of a better way to improve. What¡¯s your standing now?¡±
Mel glanced at her status. ¡°Thirty-seven.¡± She really expected to be much higher by now. There were hardly three weeks left of the trial! Though she was deeply curious why her standing jumped up seven places.
Hadn¡¯t she been #44 before using the [Primeval Brew] and meditation?
Maybe increasing your strength has an almost equal weight as Battle Points?
[Mel Harper]
Race: Human
Standing: [#37] Exile (G-League) [1st Echelon]
Class: Mystic
Rank: Copper
Next Rank: Iron (54%)
[==Attributes==]
Strength [Divine Aspect]: Copper (Grade 5)
Agility [Mist Aspect]: Copper (Grade 7)
Vigor [Blood Aspect]: Copper (Grade 7)
Sense [Serpent Aspect]: Copper (Grade 7)
Arcane [Omen Aspect]: Copper (Grade 5)
[==Aspects==]
[Divine Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 5)
? [Tempest Heart] (Grade 5)
[Mist Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 7)
? [Hidden Mist] (Grade 8)
[Blood Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 7)
? [Sanguine Coat] (Grade 8)
[Serpent Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 7)
? [Gaze of the Serpent] (Grade 8)
? [Avatar of Askara] (Grade 1)
[Omen Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 5)
? [Omen Mark] (Grade 5)
? [Bane of Tartarus] (Grade 6)
¡°We¡¯ll get you there,¡± Gwen promised her. ¡°That¡¯s only thirty-four spots you have to move up through.¡±
¡°Past both of you, no doubt,¡± Mel said. ¡°And you said there were thirteen Magi.¡±
They exchanged a worried look when Mel turned her head to pinpoint the location of the plateau beast here. She barely caught it out of the corner of her eye.
What¡¯s going on there?
¡°We¡¯ll have to cross that bridge eventually,¡± Gwen said, unusually serious.
Mel¡¯s attention snapped to her. ¡°What bridge?¡±
¡°Think about it, Mel,¡± Thomas said, as they followed her lead through the fields of amber grain waving under the setting sun. He reached a hand out and grazed the tops of the wheat. ¡°There are only three spots for the prize you want. Technically four, if you count the top spot. That means at the very best, only us three and one more person can possibly be in the top four ratings.¡±
¡°To surpass our ratings, you¡¯ll have to achieve something worthy of greater Battle Points than any of us,¡± Gwen said solemnly. ¡°Or you¡¯ll have to beat one of us in a duel. Killing isn¡¯t necessary.¡±
Mel paused on top of a hill. ¡°What? You can duel somebody without having to kill them for BP?¡± She did vaguely recall seeing evidence of that before. Not that it ever applied to her. Most people she fought would have gleefully bled her dry.
¡°Yes!¡± Thomas said sharply. ¡°Killing somebody probably gets more, but you don¡¯t have to do it.¡±
¡°Otherwise, you¡¯ll have to trust whatever Magi that makes it to the top three will give you their [Revival Scroll].¡± Gwen studied the sky, unshed tears shimmering in her eyes. ¡°And Charlie Asleton won¡¯t do that for sure.¡±
Mel frowned at her. ¡°She a Magi?¡±
¡°...Of course,¡± Gwen said, smiling sadly.
Mel tapped the side of her head. ¡°Brain don¡¯t work, remember?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know many Magi that would give up something so valuable,¡± Thomas warned. ¡°Maybe half of our number would.¡±
Gwen looked away. Mel had a strong suspicion that if Gwen was willing to give up a branch, it wasn¡¯t that much more to ask for a revival scroll.
Okay, it¡¯s a lot more to ask, but you miss 100% of the shots you don¡¯t take¡or some shit. ¡°And that includes the both of you?¡± Mel asked too sweetly, too innocently.
Thomas laughed. ¡°For you to bring back your friends? I would find that a noble cause to get behind. The problem is the other Magi. We¡¯re technically allied with each other¡but at the same time there are only so many places. We¡¯ll eventually come into conflict no matter what we do.¡±
¡°Unless they don¡¯t do well enough to place high,¡± Mel said.
Thomas gave her a dry look. She knew as well as any of them that she would find the Magi occupying all the top ratings.
And I¡¯m going to have to beat them if I want to get that scroll.
Gwen laughed bitterly at that. Practically reading her thoughts, she said, ¡°As if anyone can beat the golden boy.¡±
Chapter 76 – DTG (Down to Grind)
Gwen tore across the ground, chasing the monster out of hiding. An intimidating werewolf went both ways.
Either a monster was provoked into attacking or ran out of pure fright. The howling usually made the ones on this plateau skittish, especially when the Brawler was covered in blood from a fresh kill.
Something Mel was pleased that she did not shy away from. Gwen was in this to win. Just like Mel.
Mel didn¡¯t really blame the creature for running, even though it was a bulky beast, resembling a cross between a dragon and a rhino with the same autumnal coloration as the forested hills.
Six or seven smaller cat-like creatures with six legs and two tails rushed out alongside it. Oddly enough, Gwen was best at tracking predators, not prey.
She seemed to attract and repulse them in equal measure. Some wanted nothing to do with her, others were attracted to her out of some sort of instinctual rivalry.
In the end, it didn¡¯t matter. Intimidating the monsters changed their behavior and made them easier to hunt. Sometimes they were even able to find monsters that were otherwise hidden, such was the case with this one.
Mel summoned Hush, sending the little snake out as she blanketed the forest with [Hidden Mist]. Her eyes swapped to heat vision, and she tracked the multiple monsters until she found her prize.
Casting [Omen Mark] on the large dragon-rhino hybrid alerted Thomas, who was waiting for his moment to shine. His skills were most effective at range.
He blasted out with two [Thunderbolts] in quick succession and followed up with a [Sunspear]. The bolts of lightning struck the creature¡¯s back, staggering it, while the second bolt spun it around to face Mel as she charged it.
Hush slithered toward one of the six-limbed panthers, rearing up and hissing in defiance of his name when the cat spotted him.
Summoning her twinblade, Mel sliced up into the creature¡¯s thick hide just as [Sunspear] slammed into its back. Mel turned her blade, catching the creature on the lower half of her twinblade, impaling it with the force of Thomas¡¯ attack.
She pulled out the blade, letting the creature¡¯s blood patter to the forest floor, staining the yellowed grass crimson. Before the creature knew it was dead, Mel was already moving to support Hush.
Runes wove through the trees, siphoning into the three Magi.
Her snake familiar had a big heart, but he was a lot like a chihuahua. He thought he could take on the same things that Mel could and often got himself killed for the effort.
Or whatever it was when a familiar¡¯s health dropped to zero. Hush surely didn¡¯t think he was being killed.
As they journeyed closer to the plateau beast¡¯s lair, Mel had to summon Hush three times. She would have done it more, but the cooldown was too long.
Thankfully, each time she summoned him, the less it cost and the lower the cooldown.
The six-legged panther let out a yowl of pain, drawing Mel¡¯s attention.
Aspect Skill: [Binds of Fire]
Hush was curled around the panther¡¯s paw, rooting it to the ground and biting it with his tiny black fangs. The panther was gnawing on Hush¡¯s ashen scales. If Hush felt any pain, he didn¡¯t show it.
He tried so hard that sometimes it broke Mel¡¯s heart to summon him again. At the same time, she knew that if she didn¡¯t, he would feel like she didn¡¯t want him.
It was a hard balance to strike.
¡°Leave my little snek alone!¡± Mel shouted, twisting and slicing into the panther¡¯s flank to draw its attention.
Gwen rushed out of the underbrush, grabbed hold of the panther¡¯s face and twisted her whole body. The creature¡¯s neck was wrenched around until its yellow eyes stared up sightlessly at the canopy.
Plumes of steam burst out of Gwen¡¯s nose as she looked around for the next kill. If anybody was more protective of Hush than Mel, it was Gwen.
Runes flowed out as Mel and Gwen joined forces to wipe up the small group of panthers. In the mist, the creatures were easy prey. Even easier when Mel moved her [Omen Mark] from one to the next.
Hush hissed with joy, happy about joining in on all the action and not getting wiped out for once.
Mel was glad her familiar wasn¡¯t scared of the big, bad, gorgeous wolf.
Loneliness was no longer Mel¡¯s constant companion.
Mel learned as the battles wore on, that the longer Hush was out, the stronger he seemed to get. At first, he seemed to grow exceedingly slowly. By the end of his first full day without being re-summoned, Hush was at least twice as strong as he had been that morning.
With Mel¡¯s [Primeval Brew] aiding her, she was getting consistent progression. She moved faster, her body responded to her desires with barely any effort.
A panther nobody had seen lunged from its hiding spot. Mel twisted on the balls of her feet and bent back so that her spine was almost parallel to the ground floor.
The panther¡¯s razor-sharp claws raked the air inches above where her torso had been just a moment ago. Hush leapt up and snared the panther around the neck, burning it with his [Binds of Fire].
In the same smooth motion, Mel rose up and whipped her twinblade out, drawing a deep line across the panther¡¯s flank. It landed awkwardly, being burned, choked, and cut.
Before Mel could get to the panther, the ground below the cat¡¯s paws shattered and broke apart. The cat¡¯s body slammed into the ground as if an invisible hammer had struck it. Hush was flung from the cat¡¯s body, relatively unharmed.
Aspect Skill: [Black Grimoire: Shatter]
Thomas swiped his hand across the summoned grimoire, shutting the book and dismissing the skill.
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Gwen prowled around the area, searching for anything else hiding in the trees and underbrush. Finding nothing, she circled back to the panther¡¯s body and knelt to directly [Harvest] steaks of meat.
That was roughly how the two Magi were eating so well before Mel encountered them. By collecting meat from a monster kill before using the system to loot it, it guaranteed food.
Over time, Gwen had begun to naturally collect meat when using normal looting, but it still wasn¡¯t a sure thing.
Mel knelt down to Hush, extending her arm. He dutifully flicked his tongue and curled around her forearm, melting through her armor and branding himself on her skin beneath.
She no longer felt any pain from the effect, just a warm, hugging sensation.
Mel hauled the bodies of the monsters out for Gwen to use her skill on one after the other.
It was supposedly possible to pick up the knowledge, but Mel¡¯s focus was on growing stronger. No one else was faster or more efficient than Gwen at collecting meat. Perhaps after this trial she would try to learn it.
There was another benefit as well. Ample sources of blood for Mel to use for her [Sanguine Coat] and [Blood Tax].
Coupled with her stored-up scrap, and a few donations, Mel was able to get her [Smoke Dash Bangles] to the same rarity as the bracers she had replaced. Unfortunately, the imprint didn¡¯t change once it hit Epic, but Mel wasn¡¯t bothered.
Not that they found many weapons on wild beasts, but they were aware of other groups around them. Hunting grounds of any worth were popular spots, even if most of the groups struggled to penetrate deep into the wilds.
Gwen held a [Panther Heart] in her hands, studying it with a clear lack of interest.
Mel and Thomas looked at it curiously as they went through their loot and the gains they had made so far. ¡°You gonna eat that?¡± Mel asked.
Gwen frowned. ¡°If I have to. It¡¯s¡not strong enough.¡± She put it away into her necklace inventory.
¡°Is¡that a thing?¡± Mel laughed nervously.
¡°Guess I¡¯ve been a little sneaky about it,¡± Gwen said, forcing a smile.
¡°Noooo,¡± Mel said unconvincingly.
¡°Mel,¡± Thomas warned.
She held up her hands. ¡°My b. Don¡¯t sweat it, Gwen. We all have our secrets, right? You can open up about whatever is bothering you when you feel comfortable.¡± She nudged Thomas in the ribs. ¡°And not because somebody was white knighting for you.¡±
Gwen stared at the both of them, half covered in blood, perplexed.
¡°You want me to take care of that for you?¡± Mel asked, motioning to the blood. Her [Sanguine Coat] rippled in the breeze.
¡°If you don¡¯t mind¡¡±
Mel reached out a hand toward her friend. The blood pulled away in scarlet droplets to join her bloody coat. Gwen¡¯s viking outfit was still scuffed up, but it was completely rid of blood.
Most days, Mel didn¡¯t bother to change the color or style, so it looked like a long duster coat made of wet blood.
Thomas shaded his eyes from the golden rays slanting through the forest canopy. ¡°I think we should go deeper.¡±
¡°We¡¯re already fighting things that are High Copper,¡± Mel said. ¡°What else is there?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know, but how many points did you get from that?¡±
¡°You know I don¡¯t keep track.¡±
Thomas rolled his eyes. ¡°I gained roughly fifty from that group. The first group we killed was around seventy.¡±
Mel realized what he was getting at. ¡°And they were High Copper too.¡±
¡°You see my point,¡± Thomas said, looking toward the depths of the forest to the west. ¡°We¡¯re getting fewer points for the same amount of effort. I think we should turn our focus to the apex predators of the region. We¡¯ve seen the lionals around, those strange lion-goat hybrid things the size of a small cart? They might be a good start.¡±
¡°Maybe one of those will sate my appetite,¡± Gwen said, staring in that direction.
¡°You¡¯re not going to believe it,¡± Mel said with a chuckle.
¡°That¡¯s the way to the plateau beast,¡± Gwen guessed, her eyes brightening with hunger.
¡°No risk, no reward, right?¡± Mel said, putting her fists out.
Gwen and Thomas both bumped their fists against hers. ¡°Let¡¯s do it,¡± Thomas said with a grin.
They went deeper into the woods, using a mix of Gwen¡¯s tracking capabilities and Mel¡¯s blessing to aim them toward the areas with the strongest monsters.
Even among Coppers, there was a large variation between individuals. The amount and potency of their skills, their raw power, and their cunning all differed greatly.
The system clearly understood what amount of perceived effort they were exerting to kill each beast. It didn¡¯t take the trio long to realize that they needed to continually fight stronger and stronger monsters just to keep the same number of points flowing.
Instead of chasing progressively stronger monsters, they decided to go into the heart of the forest, jumping over the middling monsters and going straight to the apex beasts. The strongest creatures that this plateau had to offer.
That was one of the upsides to hunting in a group. She didn¡¯t have to be so careful. When someone got hurt, the other two could cover.
Mel never would have been able to do this on her own. They had the luxury of a camp, a ritual spell that would alert them to danger, and an ample supply of food. They each had a task to perform, and together they were able to take down foes that would have proven nigh impossible for any one of them alone.
They traded quantity for quality. Lionals, grotesquely muscular creatures with horns like the ram bars on a truck, and claws that could rend steel like tissue paper, were their first target.
Swift and powerful, the creatures were a struggle to take down. They fled when they were at low health, forcing Mel¡¯s party to give chase at first, until they learned a better way.
Thomas had been the first to notice something that even Mel had missed.
Her [Bane of Tartarus] stacked if the target had [Omen Mark] on it. Most monsters didn¡¯t live long enough for the skill¡¯s cooldown to expire. By switching to stronger monsters, they were able to have longer fights where her skills could shine.
[Omen Mark] worked exceptionally well against a strong foe, lowering its defenses proportional to Mel¡¯s. Its ability to grant stacks of afflictions that wouldn¡¯t otherwise stack meant that effects from all three of them could stack to insane degrees.
[Bane of Tartarus] lowered both movement speed and maximum health. After realizing the semi-obvious synergy, Mel was able to employ three attacks in a single fight.
There was another combination too. Gwen¡¯s [Primal Rend] afflicted a type of magical weakness on enemies. Ordinarily, it didn¡¯t stack.
With [Omen Mark], it absolutely did.
By the time the lional tried to run away at low health, it was so slow from [Bane of Tartarus] that they could practically walk it down.
They worked well together. Almost like they had been doing this their entire lives.
And yet Mel felt like there was a deadline. Not necessarily for the Convocation, which there definitely was, but with Gwen¡¯s hunger.
Chapter 77 — Lycanthropy 101
Thomas was pushing them harder each day. He usually wasn¡¯t so reckless, but they would have crossed right in front of the plateau beast¡¯s path if not for Mel¡¯s vigilance.
It helped that the closer they were to the monster, the more sensitive Mel¡¯s awareness became.
There was no denying the gains they were making. With the [Primeval Brews] at their disposal, they were racking up the Battle Points.
Despite the cause for celebration, both Thomas and Gwen seemed more reserved.
Gwen was changing slightly, but steadily, day by day. She laughed less and was definitely sleeping less. It made Mel uneasy. Whatever sort of werewolf she was, Mel wasn¡¯t entirely familiar with it.
¡°When will you transform next?¡± Thomas asked as they sat around the campfire one night. He said it so casually, as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world.
¡°Without a suitable heart? The coming full moon,¡± Gwen answered earnestly. ¡°Or another rage break.¡±
Mel leaned in, waving her hand. ¡°Hi. Mel, here. Girl that¡¯s totally out of the loop. I am, however, up to date on all the hot trends.¡± She cringed. ¡°You¡¯re not into¡horxnaxing are you? What about bimbleplopping? Nah, you don¡¯t have enough limbs and this world doesn¡¯t have the right number of moons. Anyway, if you¡¯re into normal deviant stuff , I got you covered. If you need, I could whip up a ball gag, gimp mask, muzzle¨C¡±
¡°Okay!¡± Thomas said, unwilling to hear anymore. ¡°Okay. We get it, Mel. You¡¯ve made your point.¡±
Mel chuckled. She really thought Thomas was going to call her out on how she might acquire those things. There was nothing more enjoyable than winding somebody up. ¡°I was just pointing out how open I am with my friends.¡± She leaned in toward Gwen, pumping her eyebrows meaningfully. ¡°Unlike some people.¡±
Gwen struggled to relax. ¡°¡What do you mean?¡±
Mel took a deep breath, wondering if she went a little too far with the joke. ¡°I get that I told you to go at your own pace and everything, and you¡¯ve shared more than some people I knew.¡± Elora, I¡¯m talking about you, you silly, lovably repressed goof. Even Komachi knew before you. ¡°But if something is going to happen that might put us all in danger, I think I deserve to know. Let me help.¡±
¡°Oh, well¡¡± Gwen appeared to be immensely relieved by the direction Mel took that. ¡°It¡¯s best we hunt that plateau beast, or I might eat some poor bastard¡¯s heart out when I transform.¡±
¡°Girl, I know some people who would pay extra for that kind of thing. I¡¯m not seeing the problem here. Judging by your expression though, there¡¯s something I don¡¯t get. I¡¯m going to need a lot more than that, Gwen.¡± Mel leaned in close. ¡°Dish bish.¡±
Gwen¡¯s eyes fumed with silver energy. ¡°You don¡¯t understand.¡± She pushed Mel away.
Mel leaned back and put a hand on her chest with a gasp. ¡°Are you literally and figuratively pushing me away right now? What about hashtag girl boss solidarity?!¡±
That got a slight smile out of Gwen. The tension eased in her jaw and posture.
A strand of blonde hair fell into Mel¡¯s face. Mel blew it away and turned her gaze back to Gwen. ¡°Seriously though. A burden shared is a load lightened and all that sappy shit. You really want to carry this all on your own? I¡¯m not going to force you to tell me anything you don¡¯t want. But I¡¯d appreciate it if you at least told me if my life was in danger.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not sure what can be done. You¡¯re not likely in any danger¡I¡¯m just having a hard time.¡±
Thomas put a gentle hand on Gwen¡¯s back. That had a calming effect.
¡°You¡¯re awfully quiet, mister,¡± Mel said, looking at him.
He shrugged. ¡°Nothing for me to say. This is her burden. I¡¯m just sharing it.¡±
¡°Kudos for not mansplaining,¡± Mel said earnestly, turning her attention back to Gwen.
¡°Listen, this isn¡¯t a burden to me. I¡¯m not ashamed of what I am. Only, it¡¯s been different since the Convocation.¡± Gwen shut her eyes, sighing. ¡°I¡¯ll transform and I¡¯ll be dangerous, but not likely to Magi. This is a thing that will happen no matter what. Except what I¡¯ve been doing to manage it has been less than effective.¡±
¡°What¡¯re we talking about here¡old style Wolfman where you change in a series of still frames and get hairier and a bad, poofy hairdo? Or is it more like the sinisterly evil bone snapping and splitting as you change suddenly and painfully into a hybrid bipedal wolf-slash-human? Or is it like a really big dog like Twilight?¡±
Gwen¡¯s gaze slid away from Mel. The serious expression didn¡¯t fit her ordinarily friendly lupine features. ¡°Probably the second one.¡±
Thomas watched her the entire time, a look of polite interest on his handsome, tanned features. Mel could guess enough what was going on in his head.
¡°I¡¯m being entirely serious, bee-tee-dubs. Just wanted to make that clear.¡± Mel turned to Gwen. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. You mentioned something about a heart though? What¡¯s that do?¡±
¡°Typically, the transformation is invoked by the full moon,¡± Gwen explained. ¡°Except, since I¡¯m not an ordinary werewolf, I can pursue things to manage the change and reduce the frequency. Eating potent hearts, becoming stronger, hunting, or even partaking in humanizing activities. I¡¯m similar to a vampyr in some ways, though Miranda, the exchange student, probably wouldn¡¯t like me to explain it like that.¡±
¡°So eating hearts keeps your ¡®freak out¡¯ meter low,¡± Mel said.
Gwen flashed a grin at Mel. ¡°That¡¯s a good way of putting it. Not to be melodramatic, but it satisfies the beast inside. Regardless, I¡¯m not normally this bad. And while I might be incredibly dangerous, such as if Thomas stabbed you, I¡¯m more likely to be lethal to individuals and creatures I don¡¯t know. That aren¡¯t my territory, as it were.¡±
¡°Hold up, rewind. You can¡¯t just casually throw out ¡®I¡¯d be dangerous if Thomas stabbed you¡¯ and not expect me to latch onto that. So if Thomas stabbed me, whomst would you be more dangerous to?¡±
¡°Maybe it¡¯s a poor example, but definitely Thomas. He would need to run to keep all his blood inside his body. And he might not make it far.¡±
Thomas chuckled. He hardly seemed bothered.
¡°And if I stabbed Thomas?¡± Mel asked, curiously.
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That got a rise out of Thomas, just a flicker of doubt, but it was there.
Now does that mean he thinks I might actually stab him, or does he think that Gwen is going to be dangerous to him if I stab him? Because that¡¯s kinda messed up.
Gwen smiled sadly. ¡°Probably a variation of the same thing. Like I said, as an instinct driven beast, I respond extremely poorly to threats to my Magi family territory. I might be less vicious with you, to be honest, since you were missing and suffering. I should¡¯ve found you sooner, and I didn¡¯t.¡±
Mel folded her arms. ¡°I¡¯m not above milking sympathy for my benefit.¡±
¡°It¡¯s my own hang ups. And not something I¡¯m too comfortable theorizing about. The thing is, you can generally trust wolf-me to go after the plateau beast since it¡¯s trying to murder my family.¡±
¡°What you¡¯re telling me is if we get into a fight with a plateau beast, you¡¯re not going to totally lose control and come after us. You¡¯ll just be¡a little hairier and more unpredictable?¡±
Gwen¡¯s shoulders hunched. ¡°I¡¯m not going to be a burden. I won¡¯t hurt either of you, not unless you spontaneously commit attempted murder on one another.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t think you¡¯d be a burden, Gwen. Can you¡understand speech? Like, if I need you to move or get out of the way, will you? Or do I need to adjust my own tactics? I¡¯m trying to figure out how to best work with this.¡±
¡°I won¡¯t turn into a dumb animal. I¡¯ll be able to understand you, just in an altered mental state. You probably won¡¯t be able to understand me though.¡±
Mel laughed. ¡°Will you listen though?¡±
¡°No guarantee.¡± She itched at the chain around her wrist.
¡°All right, no different from normal then.¡± Mel slapped her thigh. ¡°I think that¡¯s a good enough rest, don¡¯t you? Why don¡¯t you vent some of that furry rage on some monsters with us?¡±
Gwen growled at Mel.
She stood and grinned at her. ¡°Aw, you love me. C¡¯mon, mama needs some more Battle Points! My brew cooldown is nearly up and I need another fix.¡±
Thomas stood up, offering a helping hand to Gwen. ¡°We are getting more BP than you could possibly spend on your brew, Mel. What are you doing with all those points?¡±
Mel wagged her finger at him. ¡°Never ask a girl to reveal her secrets.¡±
¡°But you just¨C¡±
¡°Ah! Bup-bup-bup.¡±
Thomas gave her a weary shake of his head. It would be hard to keep hiding what she was doing. After all, you couldn¡¯t really experiment with potions and alchemy quietly .
Gwen¡¯s nose was growing more sensitive as she came closer to the transformation, and Thomas had found her the copper cauldron she was using in some old standing ruins.
At least the suspicion was alleviated some when Gwen sniffed Thomas, then Mel.
¡°I bathed last night!¡± Mel argued.
Poor Thomas has the patience of a damn saint.
¡°I can tell,¡± Gwen said, chuckling, then prowled away.
Once she was out of earshot, Mel nudged Thomas. ¡°Seriously though, you want a collar or somethin¡¯? Hit me up, fam. I got you.¡±
Thomas shook his head. ¡°You¡¯re incorrigible.¡±
¡°Thank you.¡±
¡°Wasn¡¯t a compliment.¡±
¡°Agree to disagree!¡±
Heath woke up to the glowing lamplight eyes of his savior. Shrubley was particularly interested in him, though Heath couldn¡¯t figure out why.
This group had taken him in, nursed him back to health, and allowed him to tag along with them. They didn¡¯t ask much of him.
His Shadow aspect could conceal them and he could find people lurking in the shadows easily. Aside from availing themselves of his Shadow powers, they were otherwise fairly indifferent to him.
It wasn¡¯t that they were unkind. Shrubley was very sweet and gentle. Shrubley¡¯s talking sword, Smudge, liked Heath¡¯s jokes and would often giggle like a little kid. Even Camilla, who he was pretty sure was a vampyr with those green and ruby red eyes and pale beautiful skin, was welcoming.
Jacob, the obvious leader of the group, had been supportive of keeping him around even before they knew of his powers.
He just wasn¡¯t one of them. There was something other about all of them, even considering that Shrubley was a talking, magical shrub .
For several days they had traveled together, mostly because it was in the same direction as Heath was heading. When the sensation from the coin shifted to a distant plateau filled with amber hills and dark, craggy mountains, Heath let Jacob know he was leaving.
Jacob¡¯s piercing green and ruby red eyes studied him for a moment. He had the opposite eye color as Camilla. Whenever Heath brought it up, they both went silent, so he learned to stop asking. Jacob had all the gravitas of the Savior himself. His twin-eyed stare was unsettling. That moment felt like a lifetime. His back felt bowed from the weight of the man¡¯s gaze. He had a way of looking at people that broke even the most resolute killer.
That was the one reason Heath was concerned about leaving. Jacob had been chasing cultists straight out of a cosmic horror movie. Tentacles, teeth, and all that. If he hadn¡¯t seen it with his own two eyes, he might have doubted Jacob.
Once they chanced upon an altar and they saw the¡ remains of what the so-called Vile Covenant had left behind, Heath was a believer. He just wished he could have kept his innocence (and his lunch).
¡°We all have our own paths to tread,¡± Jacob said, extending his gauntleted hand. ¡°I hope we¡¯ll cross paths again, Heath.¡±
Heath shook his hand, surprised that he was letting him go. ¡°Just like that?¡±
¡°You want me to force you to stay?¡± Jacob asked, clapping him companionably on the arm. ¡°I should hope you understand me better than that by now.¡±
Heath opened his mouth, then stopped. Jacob was right. The man had used his talents in the same way that he would use any tool he came across. He didn¡¯t try to own Heath.
This was the first time that Heath tried to leave a group and they weren¡¯t trying to force him to stay in some way. It felt¡odd.
¡°It¡¯s just¡a little odd, that¡¯s all.¡± Heath cleared his throat. ¡°Not that I don¡¯t appreciate all you¡¯ve done for me. But a lot of groups here are¡not right. My dad used to tell me that if our family didn¡¯t have bad luck, we¡¯d have no luck at all. I always seem to fall into one horrible thing after the other.¡±
¡°Did you like the things you¡¯ve seen while you were with us?¡±
Heath disassociated for a moment as his mind played a reel of horrors across his inner eye. ¡°¡No.¡±
¡°Then I would say your luck holds.¡±
¡°Huh,¡± Heath said. ¡°When you put it like that¡¡±
Jacob turned to look at Camilla and Shrubley. When he returned his green and ruby eyed gaze to Heath, he said, ¡°May the flames light your path.¡±
¡°Be seeing you,¡± Heath said.
He was halfway down the hill before Shrubley caught up to him. He looked out of breath, though how a shrub could be out of breath was a question that Heath didn¡¯t know how to answer.
¡°I wanted to give you a parting gift, but you left before I could go get it!¡± Shrubley said excitedly. He handed a small golden acorn to Heath. ¡°Here! Bye!¡±
¡°Bye!¡± Smudge, his talking pink sword, echoed.
The shrub was darting away before Heath could respond. He looked down at the warm, heavy seed in his hand. ¡°Huh.¡± For some reason, having it in his pocket made his steps a little lighter as he continued the final leg of his journey to reunite with Mel.
Chapter 78 – From Predator to Prey
Thick mist surrounded the clearing below as Mel and her allies stayed high up in the trees while the large creature prowled beneath them, looking for the threat.
For the past day or two, they studied and stalked the plateau beast while hunting the lionals. It was clear from even a casual observance that the two were related. The tarikan was clearly an evolved or heightened creature, but it was not entirely dissimilar to its lesser cousin, the lional.
By hunting them, they increased their knowledge of the plateau beast.
[Tarikan (High Copper Rank¡ªPlateau Beast)]
Mel had been intentionally using [Hidden Mist] around the tarikan whenever she got the chance. The first time she used it, the beast had thrashed around looking for the culprit.
Even now, more than a day later, it was still wary, though getting used to the fact that the mist was there. It was a bit like getting an animal used to a situation by repeated exposure.
It seemed like it might be too much when Gwen crushed a diamond dusted moon in her fist. [Moonlight¡¯s Embrace] scattered rays of soft light through the area, blending beautifully with [Hidden Mist].
The silvery energy steamed off Mel¡¯s [Sanguine Coat], empowering her.
They would need every advantage they could get if the three of them were going to win against the plateau beast. Even with all their training and grinding on the lional monsters on the plateau, Mel was unsettled by the disparity she felt between herself and the tarikan.
Like its lional cousins, it had a striking blue hide. Instead of just a pair of bison-like horns, the tarikan had several curling savage horns on its head and protruding from the elbows on its forelimbs. A mane of pure white flowed down its back and gave the beast a truly majestic appearance.
Unlike the sobekile, which looked like something that crawled out of her nightmares of the Shiverglades, this beast looked suitably impressive.
I¡¯m pretty sure it could swat the sobekile like a bug too, Mel thought to herself. The deeper they ventured away from the starting position, the stronger all monsters became.
Including, it seemed, plateau beasts.
If I were a smart and mildly safe woman, I would have taken us back to the earlier plateaus to kill the plateau beasts there instead.
She could still faintly feel their threads twanging, attenuated by the distance.
Mel grinned to herself. They were slowly setting up the battlefield, forcing the tarikan to get used to the mist so it didn¡¯t get suspicious, and subtly shaping the area around its lair when it was asleep.
It was a long process and they wouldn¡¯t be done for a few days still, but it would be worth it. Not only would Mel¡¯s blessing upgrade, making the next plateau beast easier to deal with she hoped, they all wanted to see what sort of rewards there were for killing a plateau beast.
To Mel¡¯s knowledge, nobody had done it before. Most people steered clear of them.
There was another element at play here as well. [Blessing of the Hunt¡¯s] imprint allowed Mel to ignore a portion of the rank disparity between herself and the creature she was hunting.
She wasn¡¯t sure that would apply between High Copper and Copper. Chances are it would, but there was no betting on it.
Worse, the blessing only applied to herself. Thomas and Gwen wouldn¡¯t have such an advantage.
However, as Mel understood it, transforming into a werewolf imparted a heightened state of power, so there was at least that to count on. If the full moon felt like showing up.
Thomas was a force of nature himself, provided he could get a clear shot in and wasn¡¯t drawing the ire of the monster in question. If he spent most of his time defending himself, he wasn¡¯t spending that time outputting devastating damage.
Even after all she¡¯d seen of Thomas¡¯ aspect skills, she still had the impression that he was holding back. That there was something even more powerful that he was either afraid of or nervous to use.
¡°I think that¡¯s good for now,¡± Mel whispered to Thomas on the branch beside her. The Mage nodded and started to get up, when they both noticed the tarikan¡¯s shift in temperament.
The beast reared up and scented the air, turning this way and that slowly, as if it had just found its prey.
Thomas and Mel shared a confused look, but they didn¡¯t dare speak or move in case the tarikan had sensed them somehow.
How? We were so careful!
¡°Mel?!¡± called a familiar voice into the fog.
Break me, really? Now?
Thomas looked at Mel.
¡°It¡¯s Heath,¡± Mel said, keeping her voice low.
¡°Mel!¡± Heath shouted. Through the mist, they could see him cupping his hands to his mouth. ¡°Mel, it¡¯s me, Heath!¡±
¡°He¡¯s going to die,¡± Thomas whispered, like he was stating a fact.
The tarikan would have to be blind, deaf, and dumb to miss Heath walking right into his territory . Only the obscuring [Hidden Mist] stopped Heath from dying immediately.
Mel saw the flash of Gwen¡¯s silver eyes in another tree, closer to the tarikan. She cursed herself for not bringing up Heath sooner. When he hadn¡¯t shown up after nearly a week from the time she used the [Signal Coin], Mel figured he was gone for good.
Gwen didn¡¯t know Heath. She wasn¡¯t likely to bother defending him. Wanting to avoid accidentally murdering innocent people as a werewolf and defending rando¡¯s from monsters were two very different things.
They had agreed to wait a day or two to finish preparing the battleground, but there was no way that the tarikan would let its guard down again. Even if they managed to save Heath, it would know something was up.
The tarikan was smarter than a normal animal. Plateau beasts had almost human-level intelligence. More than once they had seen it wound one animal, drag it out to a clearing, and bait out another predator like one of those giant bears, only to eat both meals.
¡°We have to help him,¡± Mel said. ¡°Give the signal. We¡¯ll just have to adjust.¡±
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¡°We could let him die,¡± Thomas suggested. ¡°Just thinking out loud.¡±
Mel had to admit that letting Heath die would have been the most advantageous tactic. If he was killed by the plateau beast, it would think the threat that it couldn¡¯t identify was over. Its guard would drop. When they came for it, the creature would be vulnerable.
That [Boss Rash] title would go to real good use.
Damn my conscience!
Her eyes shifted to heat vision, a faint emerald sparkle in her eyes accompanying the transition. Mel placed [Omen Mark] on the tarikan, drawing its attention away from the juicy morsel shouting her name. [Bane of Tartarus] flew from her hand as she dropped from the tree.
¡°Heath, shut the hell up, you¡¯re in danger!¡± Mel shouted as she extended the awareness of both the mark and the mist to Heath.
Heath wasted no time. His trust in Mel was touching. There was no way he had enough time to assess the threats around him, but he immediately put his hands to his hips and pulled out two black daggers. They were flying through the air like black ravens of death before Mel¡¯s final word was out of her lips.
Aspect Skill: [Fanning Ravens]
A streaking lance of brilliant sunlight slammed into the tarikan as it exited Mel¡¯s [Bane of Tartarus].
Aspect Skill: [Sunspear]
That had been their agreed-upon signal when they were meant to start the fight.
Despite the assault on the creature, the ravens attacking the tarikan allowed it to focus its ire on a single creature. Even with Mel¡¯s Grade 9 agility and [Windstorm], she couldn¡¯t reach Heath in time before the tarikan was on him.
She reached out, unsure of what she was doing, trying somehow to protect him. Something within her stretched until it nearly snapped, but it caught on something. It was like she had just stretched a rubber band between herself and Heath.
He noticed the tarikan bearing down on him and tried to roll to the side, but the monster still took a raking swipe with those manhole-cover-sized paws. Mel knew how strong the tarikan was, and though Heath had grown in strength, he was no match for the creature.
An actinic light, like a welding spark, flashed where the tarikan¡¯s claws should have ripped his insides out. Instead, they gouged heavily into his shadowy armor and batted him aside. A grievous injury, but he had survived.
What the hell?
Gwen lunged from the trees, the spectral fur of [Primal Mantle] fluttering wildly. The spirit-like beast overlaid like a helmet snarled with her.
The tarikan was just as confused as Mel. It paused for a moment, just a fraction of a second, as it pondered what had just happened. Mel could see its nascent intelligence trying to work out why the misty clearing wasn¡¯t filled with Heath¡¯s shredded guts.
That fraction of a second was all the opening that Gwen needed.
With four sets of claws outstretched, the Brawler crashed into the tarikan with the force of a hurtling comet.
Aspect Skill: [Falling Meteor]
Gravity aspect erupted in a spray of rocks, quaking the ground beneath the tarikan¡¯s massive paws.
She viciously carved into the tarikan¡¯s wounded backside, repeatedly unleashing the raking strikes of [Primal Rend].
[Omen Mark] triggers an additional stack of [Primal Magic Weakness] (2).
¡
[Omen Mark] triggers an additional stack of [Primal Magic Weakness] (4).
Seeing that Gwen had the monster¡¯s attention, Mel slowed down enough to use her [Fanged Flask], flicking open the mythril snake head and pouring the emerald liquid over her twinblade. Over the last several days, she had fallen in love with the thing. It was one of two reasons she was trying to do alchemy, so she might gain the knowledge to be able to enhance the flask.
With [Twinfang Sting], she could inflict two types of afflictions at once. The same kind of afflictions that Hush could do when he bit somebody: burn and poison.
With the tarikan still reeling from Gwen¡¯s attacks, Mel slashed out with her twinblade. Sprays of Blood infused damage added to the mounting wounds on the plateau beast. [Twinfang Sting] applied poison, then burn, each affliction stacking as Mel repeatedly struck the monster.
Using [Windstorm] and her enhanced agility, Mel attacked as fast as she ever had in her entire life. Her twinblade blurred as she twisted and ducked a swatting paw. She parried aside a thrusting horn from its foreleg and stabbed into its blue hide.
The frosty mane of fur was too thick and defensive for her to get a critical hit in, but there were still plenty of weak points for her to exploit with her mounting speed. Her [Smoke Dash Bangles] made her strikes impossibly fast. She had to temper herself just to keep in control of her blurring arms.
You inflict an additional stack of [Twinfang Sting] (7).
You inflict an additional stack of [Frostbite Toxin] (2).
[Omen Mark] triggers an additional stack of [Bleed] (2).
¡
You inflict an additional stack of [Twinfang Sting] (11).
You inflict an additional stack of [Frostbite Toxin] (6).
[Omen Mark] triggers an additional stack of [Bleed] (6).
By the time Thomas slammed a [Thunderbolt] into the tarikan, the creature was weighed down with nearly two dozen combined stacks of afflictions from Mel alone.
Mel backed off, summoned a sphere of darkness, and used [Bane of Tartarus] once more. The Omen sphere fell upon it as it twisted around, snapping at the chain that whipped out under its jaw and slammed it shut.
Grinning with savage glee, Gwen wrestled with restraining the plateau beast.
Breathing hard, sweat stinging her eyes, Mel watched as the curse flames of Omen burned away the tarikan¡¯s glorious white mane. It staggered around, its tail whipping like a mooring line that just snapped under tension.
Mel winced as the tail cracked into Gwen¡¯s back. Another pale flash of light accompanied the attack, then a spray of blood. Gwen cried out but didn¡¯t let go of her chain. She kept pulling back and back, dragging the plateau beast¡¯s head up to look at the sky.
At first, Mel thought she was trying to break its neck, but even Gwen realized she didn¡¯t possess that kind of strength.
Then Mel understood what she was doing. While Thomas kept it off-balance by making the unstable ground beneath its paws shatter and break, spraying blood and fractured claws across the area, Mel rushed forward with [Windstorm].
At the last minute, she switched to [Firestorm] to enhance her strength and leapt for all she was worth. Twisting in mid-air, Mel snapped every muscle in sequence, slashing with her Blood affinity twinblade, right at its exposed jugular.
It was like hitting a pressurized water main. A steaming spray of blood erupted from the wound, ripping it open. Mel used her [Sanguine Coat] to soak up the blood, patching up its durability and protecting Mel at the same time.
Shockingly, the tarikan snarled in defiance of the obvious deathblow. Its muscles tensed and Mel could see what was about to happen. Fight or flight warred within for the fraction of a second it took her to decide what to do.
She twisted around, lunged forward, and planted her twinblade into the hard clay soil as the tarikan snapped its powerful neck muscles down. The chain went slack for the briefest moment, and Gwen went flying from its back.
At the same time, Mel¡¯s grip on her twinblade was ripped free as she was slammed into the ground with all the weight of a falling bus.
The tarikan let out a pitiful gurgle and slumped to the side, less than a foot of Mel¡¯s twinblade sticking out of the wound beneath its lower jaw. The top of the blade stuck out like a budding blue horn from the crown of its head.
Dazed and disoriented, Mel slowly pulled herself to her feet. When she looked at the weapon, she cursed. ¡°That¡¯s going to be a bitch to get out.¡±
Chapter 79 – High Times
You defeat a [Tarikan (High Copper Rank¡ªPlateau Beast)].
You gain extra runes of Divine, Mist, Blood, Serpent and Omen experience for slaying a Plateau Beast.
You gain extra Battle Points for slaying a Plateau Beast.
(1) [Blitz Pearl] has been stored in your inventory.
(1) [Wind Ember] has been stored in your inventory.
(1) [Tarikan Pelt] has been stored in your inventory.
(1) [Tarikan Claw] has been stored in your inventory.
(1) [Greaves of the Lion] have been stored in your inventory.
(1) [Kindling Branch of Celestial (Red)] has been stored in your inventory.
(1) [Hunt Token] has been stored in your inventory.
Blessing Advancement!
[Blessing of the Hunt]
(Blessing, Uncommon)
Spirits of ancient beasts predate the Realmtree¡¯s birth. These creatures are unknowable, but ultimately interwoven into the very fabric of the multiverse. They may not possess Anchor Runes, but the power they wield is something that even the Kindred struggle to comprehend.
The phenomenon of their existence lies outside the guidance of the gods, both Inner and Outer. As such, these primordial creatures are capable of rarely bestowing blessings upon individuals they feel a connection to. How and why these creatures choose their champions is a mystery to all but the primordial spirit.
Your spirit has taken on a portion of the primordial¡¯s power, bringing your soul in line with those great and mysterious creatures both vile and sublime.
Imprint(Common): You can sense exceptionally powerful creatures near you. Whenever you engage in battle with a creature of great power whose strength eclipses your own, you ignore a portion of the rank disparity. The more hunts you partake in, the greater power this blessing will bestow upon you.
Imprint(Uncommon): Your ability to sense powerful creatures is further enhanced. The amount of rank disparity you ignore is further enhanced. You can now extend your blessing up to 8 other people.
Mel could already see Thomas sprinting for Gwen. Instead of crowding the woman, she tossed Thomas a health potion and ran the other way. Toward Heath¡¯s slumped body.
Gwen groaned on the ground, blood pooling around her.
Thomas caught the potion and dropped to Gwen¡¯s side. He rolled her over gently and put the uncorked potion bottle to her lips without a word. While the potion wouldn¡¯t recover her health, it would close up her wounds. In the end, the difference was minimal when you were hanging onto life by a thread.
Heath was in rough shape, but it looked like he would survive. His eyes were open, though they were glazed and disoriented. Mel didn¡¯t have time to wait for him to respond to her. She took out a health potion and poured it directly into his mouth.
The bleeding gashes across his chest closed up as if by magic, because it was. The skin knit together until all that remained were angry red welts beneath his tattered armor.
¡°You idiot!¡± Mel said, shaking him once she had made sure he wasn¡¯t going to die.
¡°H-hi Mel. It¡¯s me, Heath.¡±
Mel stared at him, gripping his armor in her fists. ¡°Yes¡I know who you are.¡±
¡°Oh. I kinda figured you might forget me.¡±
Mel dropped him to the ground. ¡°Unfortunately, not. You know, just because I thought you might be dead didn¡¯t mean you had any right to go and make that true.¡±
Heath laughed weakly, then clutched his side in pain. It was obvious the potion hadn¡¯t removed all his wounds. Thankfully, the most threatening seemed to be dealt with. He struggled to a sitting position. ¡°Did you save me? I saw some notification that you extended a blessing to me.¡±
Mel raised a brow at that. ¡°So that¡¯s why you didn¡¯t get swatted like a fly¡¡± The upgrade to her blessing did explicitly mention she could spread it to more people.
Would¡¯ve been nice if you mentioned that I could do that earlier .
Heath cleared his throat. ¡°Did we win?¡±
Mel shook her head and sat down hard beside him. ¡°Yeah. We did. Honestly, thanks in part to you.¡±
¡°I helped?¡±
¡°More like you were bait.¡±
¡°...yeah, that sounds about right.¡±
¡°Did you get any loot?¡± Mel asked after an awkward silence.
Heath looked like somebody had just thrown cold water in his face. ¡°Holy smokes! You killed a plateau beast!¡±
¡°You know what that is?¡±
¡°Not even a little!¡± Heath admitted. ¡°It does sound cool, and I got some nice loot. I just figured you expected me to have a reaction. I mean, I¡¯ve never heard of a plateau beast before. It sounds impressive.¡±
¡°It is,¡± Thomas said, helping Gwen over to the pair. ¡°We¡¯ve been stalking it for days now, trying to set up the perfect time to take it down. Who knew all we needed was somebody running headlong into danger?¡±
¡°Boy, how have you survived this long?¡± Gwen asked Heath, exhausted.
Heath gave her a dopey smile and shrugged. ¡°I¡¯d like to think that my ancestors, who have all died horrible, horrible deaths, are always around making sure I don¡¯t succumb to the same death as them. Fun fact, Nana Wimpley believed that all Wimpley¡¯s could only die one death, on account of the gypsy¡¯s curse. So if some Wimpley in the past died by stubbing his toe, no other Wimpley could. It¡¯s how we¡¯ve managed to stay alive. Y¡¯know, despite the gypsy¡¯s curse .¡±
She half-lidded her eyes. ¡°There it is. You¡¯re likable.¡±
¡°I¡¯m¡what?¡±
¡°You¡¯re likable. Magi like the ever so magnanimous Mel here would take you in, gypsy curse and all.¡±
Heath nodded. ¡°The Beta Defense. Beta so hard you get an Alpha to take care of you. It¡¯s a very Wimpley strategy.¡±
Everyone groaned at that but Heath.
¡°Your last name is Wimpley?¡± Mel asked, unable to help herself.
¡°My full name is Heather Olivia Wimpley,¡± Heath said with a nod. ¡°My dad really wanted a girl, you see, and he was just settled on Heather. All my friends call me Heath.¡±
Gwen chuckled darkly.
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Thomas stared at him like he was some freak of nature. ¡°Your¡initials spell out ¡®how¡¯.¡±
Heath pointed at him. ¡°They do! Thank you for noticing! Wow, you¡¯re all really nice. Most people are trying to kill me or something by now.¡±
¡°That¡¯s not exactly what¡¯s going on here, honey,¡± Gwen said.
¡°Mel healed me. You¡¯re all checking up on me. Nobody is stabbing me, kicking me, or chasing me off with a pitchfork and torch. I¡¯d say I¡¯m sittin¡¯ pretty.¡± He ticked off every point on his fingers.
¡°Did you get a kindling branch?¡± Mel asked.
Heath shook his head. ¡°You can have what loot I did get though. I would be dead without you, so it¡¯s the least I can do. I can¡¯t give you the runes though. Sorry.¡±
That was the thing about Heath. He wore his heart on his sleeve. The guy was honest and weird, but he wasn¡¯t harmful or hateful. It really was a wonder how he managed to survive this long.
Gwen sighed. ¡°Guess we really are taking care of you.¡±
¡°Hell yeah,¡± Heath said, ¡°I¡¯m surrounded by a bunch of Alphas!¡±
¡°Please don¡¯t say that. I take particular issue with that term.¡±
Heath looked at Gwen, then Mel, then back at Gwen. ¡°Wait, why?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± Mel said. ¡°Come on, Wimpley. Help me set up camp.¡±
With the plateau beast dead, there was no reason to return to their camp for any other purpose than to grab some essentials. Nobody quite felt up to the task at the moment, so they made camp at the mouth of the tarikan¡¯s lair.
¡°What¡¯s he doing?¡± Heath asked, watching Thomas tiredly etching sigils and runes into the ground around the camp.
¡°Defenses,¡± Mel said. ¡°This way, nobody has to stay up to keep watch. You can rest easy knowing that we¡¯ll be woken up the moment any threat is upon us.¡±
¡°Heath and Thomas should still sleep further inside,¡± Gwen pointed out, kneeling by the cold campfire and setting up a stew.
¡°Camilla had something like that,¡± Heath said, nodding along. ¡°I thought it looked familiar.¡±
Thomas stopped what he was doing, his head whipping around. ¡°You met Camilla?¡±
Heath looked a little unsettled at the intensity of Thomas¡¯ gaze. ¡°Yeah. She was part of a group that saved me from some cannibals. Her, Jacob, Shrubley, his talking sword, and a little weasley dude named Fenris.¡±
¡°That¡¯s an oppa,¡± Mel said.
¡°Right! That¡¯s the word. I forgot.¡±
¡°Did you just call an oppa a weasel?¡± Gwen whispered, looming above him. ¡°Scratch that, the Fire Oppa.¡±
¡°He looked like a ferret,¡± Heath admitted. ¡°That¡¯s a weasel. I know because that¡¯s the Wimpley¡¯s spirit predator. Wimpley¡¯s have very rodent-like faces, and the natural prey of the weasel is a rodent. My dad told me rodent men were very trendy for a while.¡±
Gwen was at a loss for words.
¡°Heath has that effect on people,¡± Mel said, putting a comforting hand on Gwen¡¯s arm. ¡°He doesn¡¯t mean anything by it.¡±
¡°I want to crush him, but I can¡¯t bring myself to do it.¡±
¡°That¡¯s because of the Beta particles all Wimpley¡¯s put out!¡±
¡°I swear ¨C¡±
¡°I think he¡¯s screwing with you.¡± Mel shook her head, laughing.
¡°I hope you¡¯re right. It¡¯s sort of adorable, if that wasn¡¯t so sacrilegious.¡±
Heath turned to Mel as Gwen stalked off to help Thomas set up camp. Despite taking the second-most injuries, she was quick on the mend. ¡°She¡¯s nice. I think she wants to eat me. Not sure I¡¯d mind.¡±
Mel shook her head. ¡°Best to keep that to yourself, champ.¡±
¡°Is she taken?¡± He actually looked hopeful.
¡°I don¡¯t know what her deal is,¡± Mel answered truthfully.
¡°Maybe your deal?¡± Heath asked, as if that made any sense.
¡°Nah, there¡¯s only one of me.¡± Mel couldn¡¯t help but hear Askara¡¯s voice in her head. She pushed away the memory.
¡°Well, of course! Not what I meant, but it¡¯s not my place to talk about that.¡±
¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± Mel said. ¡°Shut up, Heath. I really didn¡¯t expect you to still be coming. How far away were you?¡±
¡°Oh, just a week or so away.¡±
¡°That seems far.¡±
¡°It¡¯s only far if you walk. I ran most of the way. Fell some of it. Glided when I could. Usually ran though. Lots of running. It¡¯s okay though, it was mostly downhill.¡±
¡°You seem a little¡different,¡± Mel said politely, taking out some materials for a campfire.
¡°I hit my head a lot .¡±
¡°There it is.¡±
¡°I¡¯m glad you reached out to me,¡± Heath admitted. ¡°I thought you were dead. Everybody I met wanted to kill me or steal from me. Except Jacob¡¯s group. They were nice. We hunted cultists, though I really wish I had been chased by more cannibals. I saw things , Mel. Things. ¡±
Mel knelt and bundled up some kindling for Thomas to ignite at the center of the campfire. ¡°Cosmic horrors?¡± she asked.
¡°How¡¯d you know?¡±
¡°Just a wild guess. Cultists gonna cult.¡± Mel looked at Gwen and Thomas as they finished up securing the perimeter.
I can¡¯t believe I used to this on my own.
Thomas hardly took more than a few seconds to sketch a series of runes trailing away from the cold campfire. He touched his wand to the last rune, and they ignited like a long wick. The runes flashed one after the other in a series until they set the kindling ablaze. Before long, Mel¡¯s lingering mist evaporated and a hearty meal was cooking over the flames.
Heath looked like he had just died and gone to heaven. ¡°Wow, you really have your shit together.¡±
Mel pointed at Gwen and Thomas. ¡°Thank them. This is almost entirely their doing.¡±
Thomas looked at the bubbling pot of stew as Gwen diced up a hunk of heavily marbled ruby red meat.
She looked up with a wolfish grin at them. ¡°Don¡¯t be so humble, Mel. It doesn¡¯t suit you. We¡¯re about to find out what a plateau beast tastes like.¡±
Heath looked at each of them, laughing. When he saw nobody else was laughing, he stopped abruptly. ¡°She¡¯s not joking.¡±
Mel shook her head.
Thomas sat down on the other side of the fire, shutting his eyes. ¡°Should be enough time to meditate.¡±
¡°Already?¡± Mel asked.
He opened one eye. ¡°You do not feel it? The runes the plateau beast gave were not normal. We didn¡¯t even have a brew at the time.¡± He looked accusingly at Heath. ¡°Regardless, you must feel it too.¡±
Mel had been so surprised by everything, she hadn¡¯t the time to focus on herself. Once she slowed down, she realized Thomas was right.
¡°It feels like we¡¯d been grinding on lionals for a full day with the aid of a brew.¡±
¡°Exactly.¡±
Heath turned to Mel. ¡°What is everybody talking about?¡±
¡°Shut your eyes, Heath.¡±
It startled Mel how promptly he obeyed. ¡°Now what?¡±
¡°Just follow the sound of my voice,¡± Mel instructed. ¡°I¡¯ll walk you through the meditation process.¡±
¡°Oh, my dad¡¯s third wife was a yogi. Well, she was an understudy for a yogi. Well , she was actually the hairdresser for the understudy to a yogi, but it was the same difference. She was¨C¡±
¡°Heath. Stop talking.¡±
¡°Right, sorry.¡±
¡°Breathe in, hold it, and breathe out.¡±
¡°Fun fact, all Wimpley¡¯s consciously breathe, if we forget we pass out.¡±
¡°I swear to all the gods,¡± Mel warned.
¡°Shutting up now!¡±
Chapter 80 – Emerald Clad
¡°How does this work?¡± Heath asked. ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of ¡®latent runes¡¯ before. And I¡¯ve been in a lot of groups.¡±
Thomas looked over, but Mel held up a hand. ¡°I¡¯ve got this, champ.¡±
Rolling his eyes, Thomas went back to what he was doing.
¡°So there¡¯s, like, two different types of runes. Prime, which is the stuff you see prompts about, and latent, which you don¡¯t.¡±
¡°Why¡ª¡±
Mel raised a finger to halt him. ¡°Hush.¡±
Hearing his name, her familiar materialized in a sinuous line of smoke and ash rising from her forearm.
Heath screamed and pointed at the ruby eyed creature flicking its tongue enquiringly at Mel.
Mel reached out and stroked his smooth scales. ¡°Oh, not you sweetie. You¡¯re absolutely perfect in every way. Go back to sleep.¡±
Heath stared. ¡°What is that?¡±
¡°A perfect little boy. Now focus up, Heath.¡±
Shaken, Heath tried to forget about the snake materializing from Mel¡¯s arm, but it was clear he had questions.
¡°Latent runes don¡¯t do anything until you make them work for you,¡± Mel explained. ¡°Imagine them like¡food. You like food. Everybody loves food.¡±
Thomas groaned. He knew where Mel was going with this.
¡°Except Thomas there,¡± Mel added. ¡°He probably would eat nutrition bricks if they made them. So, latent runes are food, yeah? But instead of your body just doing its thing, you gotta manually digest them. You know what happens if you keep eating and you don¡¯t digest?¡±
¡°You throw up?¡± Heath asked.
¡°Gold star! Meditation is like digestion.¡±
Heath furrowed his brow. ¡°Your stomach just breaks down the food, the actual digestion happens after the chyme passed through¡ª¡±
Mel leaned forward and pinched Heath¡¯s lips shut. ¡°No interrupting, okay?¡±
Heath nodded.
Wiping her hand on Heath¡¯s shoulder, Mel continued, ¡°Digesting the ¡®food¡¯¡ªwhich are the runes¡ªyou can strengthen your body. Just like when you¡¯re done digesting, you¡¯ll know you¡¯ve run out of latent runes because you¡¯ll feel empty and hollowed out like an all-nighter on the can after you order Taco Bell.¡±
Thomas was stifling a scream by biting his fist while Gwen, red-faced, was silently laughing and patting his back soothingly.
¡°I¡¯ve never felt like throwing up before,¡± Heath said. ¡°So I must not have gained too many latent runes!¡±
¡°Well, you don¡¯t really feel it I think,¡± Mel said. ¡°But if you follow along with me, you¡¯ll dump out all those runes and feel refreshed and delightfully hollow.¡±
Excited despite the graphic explanation, Heath followed Mel¡¯s instructions for meditation and drawing out the latent runes to the letter.
After a few moments, Heath started to snore.
It wasn¡¯t an uncommon reaction to people meditating for the first time, so she let him sleep. It was a little freaky that he kept his eyes wide open, but if Mel shut her eyes, she didn¡¯t notice.
The moment Mel tapped into her latent reserves, she knew something was different.
Normally, she could draw from the latent runes easily. They practically wanted to be drawn out to join the greater wellspring of her power. These were different. It was like something was blocking the pipe, admitting only a trickle.
Mel focused, sweat beading on her brow. She pulled harder on the latent power within herself until the blockage dissolved and the flow increased.
At first she thought she had removed some sort of impurity, but the runes kept coming faster and faster. What had once taken a couple of hours to achieve finished in less than half that time. The runes flowed faster and faster until it felt like they were catching fire in her veins.
An emerald green aura of flames flickered to life on Mel¡¯s skin. She could see them through the backs of her eyelids.
The flames danced, taking on a life of their own. The embers swept into the air, enveloping Mel in a tapestry of emerald stardust.
In that crystallizing moment, her vision pulled outside of her body. She watched herself from behind as the Anchor Rune of the World Serpent hung over her head, joined by the emerald flames.
Mel snapped back into her body. Power flowed through her veins as if they had been widened. The amount of mana she could access at any moment was drastically increased. She suddenly realized how little mana she actually had.
Rank Up!
You advance to High Copper.
You awaken greater stores of health, mana, and stamina, along with resilience against lower ranked aspects, imprints, skills, magic, and auras.
Class Evolution!
Your class has evolved to [Witchblade].
[Witchblade]
Few have the stomach to stay up close and personal with the most fearsome monsters the multiverse has to offer. Fewer yet have the talent to wither their opponents from the inside out. Witchblades possess a uniquely fearsome combination of magical and physical finesse, striking to trigger magical afflictions, then dancing out of the way before their opponent can retaliate. With high mobility, they keep their foes on the defensive, preventing them from dealing with the rot that destroys them from within.
Focus: Agility & Arcane | Afflictions and Magical Damage | Offense | Red, Blue, and Yellow Chroma
Traits
[Calamity Specialist], [Novice Alchemy Knowledge], [Initiate Ritual Magic Knowledge], [Conserve Mana]
[Calamity Specialist]
(Class Skill)
(Copper, Trait)
Poisoners and assassins would be toothless without poisons and afflictions to destroy their enemies from within. Countless hours of using afflictions have given you a unique edge compared to the uninitiated.
Imprint: Poisons and afflictions are more effective up to one rank above your own. You have greater resistance to poisons and afflictions up to one rank above your own.
[Novice Alchemy Knowledge]
(Class Skill)
(Copper, Trait)
The fundamental knowledge of alchemical practices, a customary foundation for all witches. Mixing and concocting potions, poisons, and elixirs are now within your grasp. Learning recipes and ingredient familiarity are essential to success.
Imprint: Grants the ability to create alchemical concoctions of G-Tier and below.
[Initiate Ritual Knowledge]
(Class Skill)
(Copper, Trait)
Standard magical knowledge and training detailing the proper way to cast ritual magic.
Imprint: Grants the ability to cast ritual magic of F-Tier and below.
[Conserve Mana]
(Class Skill)
(Copper, Trait)
Efficient use of mana, though considered a key component of warfare, is often overlooked when mana potions come into play. You have kept up the practice of conservation by always seeking new ways to be more efficient with the resources you have at your disposal.
Imprint: Mana cost for all skills and effects is reduced.
The influx of knowledge from disparate sources was immense, but nothing Mel couldn¡¯t handle in stride. What at first felt like a jumble of disconnected things blended and wove together into Mel¡¯s evolved class, Witchblade.
Sounds way cooler than Mystic, that¡¯s for sure.
Suddenly, a lot of things that Thomas had told her and tried to teach her over the last week clicked. She understood why he drew the ritual frames the way he did, and how it was significantly more efficient than her own.
That was to say nothing of the poisons she suddenly understood how to create, which were disturbingly similar to making medicine.
I do remember Deklin was fond of saying the only difference between poison and medicine was dosage.
Mel chuckled to herself.
Stolen novel; please report.
Of course, he usually meant that in reference to drinking.
She had never considered dabbling in alchemy on any professional level. She was trying to work on something in her own time, but she wasn¡¯t getting anywhere.
Deklin was the mixologist, the one who was interested in that nerdy alchemy stuff, not her. Now she had a chance to not only understand what was so fascinating about alchemy, but it slowly dawned on her just where she was going wrong with her potion attempts.
I wonder where Deklin is now? Probably kicking back on a beach somewhere, relaxing and having the time of his life.
She wished he was here, but then again, she wished things made more sense. Why was she here? What happened to her on Aldim?
Despite what Askara said, she felt the goddess was wrong. She did fit in here. She wasn¡¯t displaced. Memory loss wasn¡¯t an uncommon side effect of spells, especially Grand Invocations.
Some things don¡¯t add up though, you can¡¯t ignore that, a small voice tried to explain. The voice was right. She couldn¡¯t ignore the mounting discrepancies, but she could ignore the voice inside her.
She couldn¡¯t remember some of the Magi. Why would she have forgotten a friend like Gwen when she remembered Deklin?
One was here. The other was not.
Gwen cared enough to search for her. She felt a surge of resentment that Deklin hadn¡¯t done the same. Weren¡¯t they practically family?
It¡¯s not like you¡¯ve been able to find him, Mel¡¯s thoughts spun back at her.
She remembered Sylvie, Hal, and Komachi as well. Then again, there were so many damn Komachis out there that it could have been any one of them, so that didn¡¯t really prove anything.
Over the course of her years as a Magi, she had met no less than five different Komachis. One of them was a cat, for crying out loud! Most were pobuls, though she was pretty sure one was a shapeshifter.
It wouldn¡¯t have surprised her to find that Komachi herself was the lynchpin holding all of reality together.
Mel opened her eyes finally, watching the fading auras of both Gwen and Thomas flicker out. One was as pale as moonlight, the other like the golden light of dawn.
So I wasn¡¯t the only one.
[Mel Harper]
Race: Human
Rating: [#19] Exile (G-League) [1
st Echelon]
Class: Witchblade
Rank: High Copper
Next Rank: Iron (63%)
[==Attributes==]
Strength [Divine Aspect]: Copper (Grade 5)
Agility [Mist Aspect]: Copper (Grade 9)
Vigor [Blood Aspect]: Copper (Grade 7)
Sense [Serpent Aspect]: Copper (Grade 7)
Arcane [Omen Aspect]: Copper (Grade 5)
[==Aspects==]
[Divine Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 5)
? [Tempest Heart] (Grade 5)
[Mist Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 9)
? [Hidden Mist] (Grade 9)
[Blood Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 7)
? [Sanguine Coat] (Grade 8)
[Serpent Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 7)
? [Gaze of the Serpent] (Grade 8)
? [Avatar of Askara] (Grade 4)
[Omen Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 5)
? [Omen Mark] (Grade 5)
? [Bane of Tartarus] (Grade 6)
[==Knowledge & Traits==]
Class: [Light Armor Knowledge], [Novice Basic Weapon Knowledge], [Novice Ritual Magic Knowledge], [Mana Hardening], [Initiate Bladed Weapons Knowledge], [Calamity Specialist], [Novice Alchemy Knowledge], [Initiate Ritual Magic Knowledge], [Conserve Mana]
Spells: [Armament Scrap Ritual (G-Tier)]
Combat Arts: [Quickstep], [Shinobi Parry]
[==Titles & Blessings==]
Titles: [Boss Rash (Legendary)], [Bloodseeker (Legendary)], [Blood Tax (Legendary)], [Vessel of Anguish (Rare)], [Eye for Talent (Legendary)]
Blessings: [Blessing of the Hunt (Uncommon)]
That single kill had propelled her several spots in the ratings, all the way to #19. Her attributes were coming along nicely. All the focus on her agility was paying off. It was nearly Grade 10. Not only did it greatly enhance her speed and reflexes, but her [Hidden Mist] was as effortless as breathing.
She could control it and spread it across an area that was orders of magnitude larger than when she first gained the skill.
Unable to resist the temptation, Mel looked at the Emporium.
[Copper Emporium Core Items]
(Battle Points: 7,520)
Mel stared at the amount. Quality trumps quantity every damn time apparently. Wow.
Gwen eagerly took out an unfamiliar ceramic box of colorful powders and got to work mixing in a bone from the plateau beast. Crackling frost spread down her arms, a sign that she was working aspected mana into the powders.
Mana streamed off the Norse-like sigils Gwen painted onto exposed parts of her skin that her armor didn¡¯t cover. The sigils glowed richly with Red chromatic mana, then faded to a typical tattoo likeness.
Class Skill: [Chromatic War Paint (Red)]
Mel narrowed her gaze at the prompt, then at Gwen. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡±
She could feel that Gwen and Thomas were both High Copper like her. It was a smaller jump in power than going from Mundane to Copper, but it was more significant than she would have thought.
It was hard not to ask what their new classes were, but if they were going to play it cool, she could too.
¡°My new class skill!¡± Gwen said in excitement while studying the ceramic box. ¡°It invokes greater amounts of chromatic energy from Deeds into an armor effect.¡±
¡°So you just get more Deeds straight up, eh?¡±
¡°Nah, [Chromatic War Paint] doesn¡¯t work like that.¡± Gwen glanced over, brows lifting. ¡°It enhances the tinge potency of what I¡¯ve already accrued, making the color a bit more effective and giving me extra defenses. Maybe I can use war paint on other Magi too when I¡¯m more proficient.¡±
¡°Can you directly paint it on my armor?¡± Mel asked, eyeing the sleeves of her [Heathen¡¯s Cuirass].
¡°No, I don¡¯t think so. Probably only skin,¡± Gwen said. ¡°Some of our theories were right. About Chroma, I mean. Red being offensive, Blue being defensive, and whatnot. Though it¡¯s still more complex than that.¡±
¡°I still have no idea what Deeds are,¡± Mel admitted.
¡°Really?¡± Gwen shut the box and put it away into her inventory. ¡°Well, I think Deeds reflect your accomplishments, categorized into hues of Chroma. The most important thing is that the more Deeds you earn, the more your Deeds boost runes of experience gain from all sources! ¡±
Mel thought about that, then looked closer at her [Shardrune Quests] trait. ¡°So you must get Deeds from stuff beyond just quests,¡± Mel thought aloud. ¡°Deeds are clearly the driver of enhanced rune gain, and quests grant Deeds upon completion, but that can¡¯t be all from quests.¡±
[Shardrune Quests]
(Orange/Trait)
Reveals personalized quests manifested from events, conflict, and actions. Modified by fate, souls, Deeds, rank, and chroma. Completed quests earn Deeds that magnify runes of experience gained.
Gwen nodded in agreement. ¡°I suspect Deeds make you stronger in certain ways too, augment what loot you find sometimes, and probably function like reputation from certain Worldshards.¡±
Heath was still snoring loudly, but there was a cloth sack over his head.
¡°Your doing?¡± Mel asked, tilting her head toward Heath.
Gwen cringed. ¡°He was snoring with his eyes open . That boy ain¡¯t right.¡±
Mel leaned back and looked up at the stars. Shit, that late already?
¡°Would be cool if we could see our Deeds.¡± Somehow Mel felt that would go against the spirit of Deeds.
¡°Maybe in the Library,¡± Gwen said. ¡°Though I wonder if I¡¯d be welcome.¡±
¡°Man, I¡¯d love it if they had a proper Library here. Wisdom¡¯s domain would welcome Magi,¡± Mel said with certainty. ¡°I doubt we¡¯d find a way into the Library from here though.¡±
Gwen looked up at the stars, studying the constellations. Or maybe searching for the moon.
Thomas sighed and opened his eyes, his shoulders slumped as if a great weight was pressed to them. He breathed in deeply and straightened his back, squaring his shoulders once more. ¡°That was illuminating.¡±
They both turned to him.
He looked at them. ¡°I see you both received a similar bump in power. Did you get new classes as well?¡±
¡°Witchblade.¡±
¡°Berserker!¡±
Thomas nodded. ¡°Warmage.¡±
They spent the rest of the night comparing notes about their class evolutions and the differences between them. Each of them, even Thomas¡¯ Warmage, was drastically changed from what they were before.
The basic classes simply couldn¡¯t compare.
Each of them kept their original class skills. Mel also noticed rather belatedly that her Mystic class skills had advanced to Copper from Mundane. Berserker gained new weaponry knowledge and greater reserves of health and stamina, while Warmage deepened its access to ritual spells and its depth of mana.
It struck Mel as particularly interesting that each of their evolutions fit them so well. It was hard to tell whether that was intentional or if it was something unique to the three of them.
Mel¡¯s skills deepened her use of afflictions, adding in the ability to make poisons and potions into her kit on top of increasing their effectiveness. While her alchemy knowledge was one tier below what she needed to augment her [Fanged Flask], she was on the right path.
Mel was eager to train and improve her alchemical knowledge. Both to find a potion that would help Gwen and to augment her flask.
Likewise, Gwen¡¯s hyper aggressive fighting style had shaped her Brawler class into the unstoppable slaughter machine that was Berserker. She not only gained a heightened ability to use more complex weapons, but her skills revolved heavily around trading blows and coming out on top.
Where Witchblade used its enhanced speed to avoid getting hit entirely, Berserker relied upon taking punishment to catapult itself to new heights of power. Despite Defender being a class oriented around protecting others, it couldn¡¯t touch Berserker¡¯s capability to stay standing while holding an enemy¡¯s focus.
Meanwhile, Warmage gained the enviable skill to change the size and spread of any skill or spell. That alone made Warmage a worthy upgrade in Mel¡¯s eyes. If she could give her [Sanguine Coat] to her allies? That would be bonkers.
While Mel¡¯s Witchblade used mana more efficiently, Warmage deepened its reserves and increased the rate at which it recovered mana from all sources.
Mel wasn¡¯t the only one who had gained a boatload of Battle Points. Each of them had gained an enormous amount, well more than they could have earned in a day spent killing strong monsters.
They were so preoccupied with their new classes that it wasn¡¯t until the camp filled with gonging bells¨CThomas¡¯ warding spell alerting them to intruders¨Cthat they realized they were under attack.
Chapter 81 – Consequences
¡°Are you sure this is a good idea, Donny?¡± Eloise asked.
¡°You saw what this monster did to our friends!¡± Donny hissed at her. ¡°You want to let her run free after all that she¡¯s done? She¡¯s a goddamned serial killer, Eloise! Do you remember what she did to your brother?¡±
Eloise turned away.
Donny looked at his band of assassins. ¡°Do any of you lack the nerve to kill this demoness? She terrorized the grasslands for weeks . The corpses were piled so high you could have made a road out of them! Do any of you doubt that she doesn¡¯t deserve this?¡±
Nobody chickened out or had anything more to say. They had been over this before. The Emerald-eyed Demoness had to die. Some people were calling her Mel Emerald eye, but Donny wasn¡¯t buying into it.
He had seen firsthand what she did to his outpost. A single woman, murdering and killing with lustful glee. She was nothing short of a monster now, and she had finally stopped running.
Donny shut his eyes and held up the bloodied scrap of cloth he kept in his inventory.
Aspect Skill: [Blood Trace]
A glowing green line of light traced its way through the trees toward a clearing and a cave. Even from here, they could see the glow of a fire.
Andrew came back, dismissing his bow with a flurry of ash. ¡°No traps set.¡±
There was an edge to his voice that Donny didn¡¯t like. He turned to him. ¡°Monsters don¡¯t set traps. They don¡¯t watch for people coming after them. We are the ones who set watch for them.¡±
¡°She¡¯s still a person though,¡± Andrew argued. ¡°No matter what she¡¯s done, this doesn¡¯t¨C¡±
¡°There are fifteen of us,¡± Donny snapped. ¡°I don¡¯t care what her reputation is, there is no monster out there that can withstand fifteen Coppers. We¡¯ve killed everything that¡¯s stood in our way, right?¡±
Andrew nodded.
¡°Then sack up and report to Timothy. He¡¯ll be your team lead.¡±
Eloise came up alongside Donny. ¡°Andrew¡¯s got a point,¡± she said softly so nobody else could hear. ¡°This is too easy. How many weeks have we been chasing her? Every single time, we¡¯ve found a scene of utter destruction and carnage. But the last place, and now this, had nothing.¡±
¡°She¡¯s gotten smarter,¡± Donny said. ¡°That¡¯s all. Maybe she¡¯s scared. She¡¯s been on the move a lot more lately than usual. There have been less bodies for us to find. Maybe she¡¯s finally bored of hunting her own kind. Does it matter ? ¡±
Eloise shook her head.
¡°This is for all the people she killed. Our home might not exist anymore, but that doesn¡¯t mean we need to turn into monsters ourselves. Law and order must still be upheld.¡±
Eloise slipped back into position. Timothy¡¯s team split off to one side while Allen¡¯s went around the other way, leaving Donny¡¯s team to go straight down the middle.
It was the most dangerous position, but Donny wouldn¡¯t have anybody else taking his kill. The Emerald eyed Demoness would die tonight.
[Gloom Vision] illuminated the entrance to the cave in shades of gray, purple, and blue. Two figures were stretched out past the entry, one much larger than the other.
Curled up in their sleeping bags, it couldn¡¯t have been any easier to slit their throats. They weren¡¯t fully armored. There weren¡¯t even any weapons lying around, but that didn¡¯t mean anything when they were so easily summoned.
There was nobody else, but the cave was deeper and twisted toward the end, hiding potential adversaries.
Donny made a motion, instructing his group to be aware of anything going on at the rear of the cave. He just wanted Mel¡¯s head. Donny crept closer, trying to get a good angle around the second sleeping bag.
He took out his wide knife and stabbed into the smaller sleeping bag. If he could prevent it, he wouldn¡¯t kill anybody else. He wasn¡¯t like Mel. Her small stature was well known to him, though many stories made her out to be some seven-foot-tall picture of blood-drenched horror.
The knife went in too easily. There was no satisfying thunk of meat. The hairs on the back of Donny¡¯s neck stood on end.
At first the feeling was subtle, but as he pulled out his knife and saw that it was bloodless, it ballooned into icy, teeth chattering terror.
A husky voice whispered into his ear. ¡°You just ruined my friend¡¯s sleeping bag.¡±
Donny shut his eyes. He didn¡¯t wait for the woman to strike. It was coming no matter what he did. Anybody able to bed down next to a monster like Mel was no less a monster.
He watched as the tall woman with a mane of thick red hair slashed out with her hands, rending the air with shining bladed claws that glinted in the firelight.
Luckily, Donny wasn¡¯t there.
Aspect Skill: [Fade]
His afterimage took the hits while Donny reared back and launched an attack at the woman¡¯s vulnerable back.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Ice gathered in Donny¡¯s hand. He pressed his palm to the ground, sending icy tendrils through the dark soil beneath the woman¡¯s feet to root her to the spot. Ice climbed up her boots, freezing her in place.
Aspect Skill: [Freezing Root]
She laughed darkly at his techniques. ¡°Is that all you have, little man? All you have to muster at the end of your life?¡±
¡°Laugh all you like,¡± Donny said, making another gesture.
Eloise made a complicated motion with her wand, and the woman lit up like she was under a spotlight.
Aspect Skill: [Focused Target]
Three of the Archers Donny had with him were waiting for just such a signal. They took aim at once as the woman was frozen in place.
Streaks of green, red, and black energy whistled into the cave, slamming into the red-haired beast of a woman.
Donny whistled, and the Archers took lobbed their most powerful skills at her. Curse, Flame, and Insidious aspects flew into the cave, adding to the plume of dust and debris. Nobody could survive so many attacks at once.
Ice cracked and was followed by a meaty thump . No doubt the body had fallen over. There was no notification, which meant she was still alive.
He did not like what he had to do, but it was necessary. Donny turned to his group. ¡°She¡¯s not here,¡± he said. ¡°Go meet up with the others. I¡¯ll finish this one off.¡±
Cold sweat plastered Allen¡¯s leather armor to his back. Why did nobody ever talk about how leather never breathed? It was horrible armor, making him sweat when it was cold, and broiling him alive when it was even slightly warm.
He envied the Mages with their silken robes and gowns. As team leader, Allen¡¯s job was to make sure nobody escaped the noose once it was set.
He crept around the side of the cave, intent on the surrounding forest for any hint of late night poopers. People always snuck off to have a little private time to handle business. Nine times out of ten, they would finish up just in time to come across a group sneaking up on them.
The forest was deathly silent, which was enough of a tell that somebody else was here to the learned Archer. A figure dropped to the ground on Allen¡¯s left.
He raised his bow, drawing fletching to his cheek in one smooth motion, and let fly a streaking arrow of light.
Aspect Skill: [Tracing Shot]
The arrow flew true and should have stuck in the lean, dark figure. The Mages waiting in the wings would be looking for the arrow to mark their target. Each group had such a marker. Donny had made that abundantly clear after watching Mel murder his entire family.
A rich, resonant laugh filled the woods. There was a flash of light, and the streaking arrow ricocheted off into the canopy high above.
¡°Oh-ho-ho- man ! I love this skill!¡± The man leveled something at Allen. He had just enough time to recognize it was a wand and dove to the ground.
A roaring corridor of flame scorched through the air right where Allen had been standing a moment before. His back was burned and blistered, but he was alive.
More importantly, the flames illuminated the Mage that had cast the spell.
¡°Now!¡± Allen shouted as spells from four Mages demolished the lone Mage who thought he had gotten the upper hand.
Allen watched with grim satisfaction as the Mage¡¯s body was enveloped in total destruction.
Timothy crept through the underbrush on the other side of the clearing. He looked back to see Donny give the signal. A bright flash of light illuminated a tall red-headed woman.
¡°Poor bastard,¡± Timothy whispered, shaking his head. The woman was obliterated with aspect skills a moment later.
Donny might be a little over the top, but he was skilled and knew what he was doing. Fifteen Coppers might seem like overkill, but with each group having a marker and three to four heavy hitters, they could take out targets much stronger than they were.
Many of them were point takers. They specialized in going after individuals on the top 50 list, killing them with overwhelming force, and splitting their Battle Points amongst them.
Most of them were happy to keep that up until Mel¡¯s name appeared on the list. That was when Donny went off the deep end.
Almost everybody in the group had been hurt or had a loved one killed by Mel, so it had been an easy sell. Two birds with one stone, as Donny put it.
With his unique ability to analyze blood and divine not only the person¡¯s name, but their location, he was the perfect tracker. They could survey an entire battlefield and pick out the victors.
A simple thought brought up the ratings of the top 50 contestants, and from there it was as easy as cross-referencing a name.
As Mel climbed the ratings, anybody who might have gainsaid the decision to hunt her was quieted by the thought of such a pay day. It was just too juicy to pass up.
Marrying greed to revenge was a heady combination, and even Timothy found himself salivating at the possibility of taking out somebody who was sub-20. They had always stuck to the 40s, but Mel was a special case.
The fact that she jumped up in such a short time meant she would be weak. Whatever battle she must have won would leave her tired and in need of rest.
¡°Movement on the left!¡± Andrew hissed on Timothy¡¯s flank.
Thick mist sprang up from the ground all around them. The figure Andrew pointed out quickly faded into the darkness all around them.
¡°Mist killers!¡± Timothy shouted.
Torches soaked in oil were ignited and tossed to the ground. They burned merrily, spreading their flames easily to the surrounding vegetation.
¡°Masks!¡±
Timothy and Andrew pulled on their [Fire Monk Masks]. The thin piece of red cloth they pulled up over their nose and mouth was useless except against fire users.
The armor gave an incredible fire resistance buff and filtered out smoke. Firefighters back on Earth would have loved to have something like this.
Flames roared across the underbrush as the oil on the torches spattered and spread faster than the mist could put them out. The flames burned up the mist, creating overwhelming, oppressive heat.
Robbed of her signature cowardly tactic, the Demoness was revealed in the thinning fog. Timothy raised his staff and sent a streaking ball of light at her body.
It struck true, outlining the small stature in multicolored but harmless flames. Timothy had to give it to the Demoness, she didn¡¯t bother to bat or swat the flames as so many others had.
Aspect Skill: [Declaring Flames]
Too bad it wouldn¡¯t matter. Two Brawlers approached in a pincer pattern from either side of her. Andrew and Candice took aim with their bows, and Timothy readied [Piercing Light].
There was nowhere for her to go. Timothy¡¯s only regret was that Donny would be robbed of his vengeance, but he¡¯d forgive him when they had the Emerald-eyed Demoness¡¯ head on a pike.
Chapter 82 — Retaliation
Donny slunk forward, licking his lips. Some part of him felt a little thrill at what he was about to do.
It was to be expected. While he didn¡¯t want to like watching the lifeblood drain out of a person, some part of him enjoyed it.
Something stepped out of the cloud of lingering aspect energy. Defying all reason, the beast of a woman stepped towards him, lazily dragging a heavy ball and chain. While some parts of her revealing armor were smoking, she seemed relatively unharmed.
He didn¡¯t know how it was possible. How could anyone be that strong to resist so many concentrated aspect skills from a bunch of Coppers?
Her attention slid to the departing Archers. Not bothering to face them, she snapped out an arm covered in rime frost.
Aspect Skill: [Fenrir¡¯s Frozen Chains]
Thick, icy chains launched into the Archers with blurring speed. The chains caught most of the Archers by the neck, and a couple by the torso.
The viking yanked and hauled them across the cave nearly ten yards, dropping them to her boots. ¡°Surrender, or¡ª¡±
The Archers didn¡¯t wait to let her finish. Struggling against the chains that spread slowing frost over their bodies, they tried to fire off more aspect skills at close range.
The clouded debris of so many aspect skills going off hid what happened from Donny¡¯s vision. When it cleared, the Archers were crumpled, motionless on the ground.
Runes streamed from their bodies, flowing into the viking.
She looked disappointed, as if she didn¡¯t expect it to be so easy, then she grew very bored. ¡°Is that it? You¡¯ve spent nearly two months at this and this is all you have to show?¡± She dismissed the claw weapons. ¡°I crave a challenge, and you aren¡¯t it!¡±
Fear seized his heart as she flashed a fanged grin. No one looked like that. No one but the Dreadwolf.
Of course, the Emerald-eyed Demoness would shack up with the Dreadwolf. Who else could stomach each other¡¯s company?
They likely did all sorts of depraved things with each other. Sacrificing their victims to dark gods was the least of their crimes.
¡°Rather than continuing with those nasty thoughts,¡± the Dreadwolf said as she shoved him into the wall, then pinned him with a single hand. His boots dangled in the air. ¡°You¡¯re going to tell me what you used to find us. And the names of all your allies.¡±
¡°Or what? You¡¯ll kill me, anyway.¡±
¡°You stupid, stupid man. There are so many things worse than death. And I would know, because I can bring you back from the dead.¡±
¡°Impossible! You¡¯re not a necromancer! I¡¯ve seen¨C¡±
¡°Oh, I¡¯m so much worse. I¡¯m the Valkyrie in Red.¡± Silver energy fumed in her wicked eyes. ¡°Don¡¯t you know? Your soul will be mine to do whatever I please. My commands shall be binding law. For eternity.¡±
It could be all a lie. But did that matter when nothing was impossible in this new reality?
If he was wrong, then the risk was everything.
The mounting fear overtook him. It didn¡¯t take long for Donny to tell the Dreadwolf his every secret until something sparked her anger and she accidentally pressed a little too hard.
Darkness engulfed his whole world.
Donny went somewhere else. A place painted in monotone shadows, enveloped in echoing susurrous whispers.
Gone was the fear. In fact, all emotion was a distant memory.
I¡¯m dead, he realized with certainty. For some reason, it didn¡¯t bother him much. He was beyond the fear, the pain, the anger. All that remained was a strange sort of peace.
He waited to be claimed by the nightmarish Valkyrie in Red.
Instead, someone else appeared through a doorway. An impassive raven-haired woman in black armor.
She regarded him, held up a clipboard, and said, ¡°Donny? Party of fifteen? Right this way. Oh, let me take care of that for you.¡±
The Reaper raised her glittering scythe of starlight and severed Donny¡¯s soul from his corporeal vessel.
¡°Hold!¡± Allen shouted as the destruction blossomed out from where the Mage¡¯s body would have been if it wasn¡¯t a smoking crater. ¡°I think we got him!¡±
As the smoke drifted away, the Mage walked out of the crater, lightly dusting his opulent jacket. ¡°I must say, I was very curious how much I could deflect as a High Copper, and I am very impressed.¡±
Golden eyes swept across the tired Mages. He caught one raising her wand and wagged his tanned finger at her. ¡°Tut-tut. Let¡¯s not have that.¡±
He stabbed his wand out and the air ripped as if somebody had just unzipped reality itself. Wriggling appendages, glittering like obsidian, twisted out of the dark rent in space and flailed at Jennifer.
Allen turned and raised his bow to fire, but his fingers suddenly went numb at the horror before him. His mind told him that they were fleshy appendages, tentacles. They should have battered her around, not¡not turn her into a bloody mist .
Aspect Skill: [Black Grimoire: Hastur¡¯s Embrace]
Another Mage, Isaac, managed to get a roaring torrent of wind off while the enemy was distracted.
The enemy turned, twisted, and swiped his wand up right as the spell should have shredded him alive. Instead, the scything winds ricocheted off a hemisphere of light that appeared in front of him.
Aspect Skill: [Bastet¡¯s Aegis]
What is that!?
The evil Mage reached out and summoned a black spellbook from the air. Its pages fluttered and the ground behind Allen shook uncontrollably. He heard screaming, and a decidedly wet sound accompanying the shattering of stone and tree alike.
Aspect Skill: [Black Grimoire: Shatter]
Terrified, but undaunted, Allen took aim and released an arrow. He didn¡¯t have the concentration to use an aspect skill with it, but it wouldn¡¯t have mattered in any case.
The Mage flicked his wand and deflected that missile as well.
¡°Damn, this is way too fun!¡± the vile Mage laughed.
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An explosion from the cave drew every eye. The layered screams of terror froze Allen to the spot. What was making those horrible sounds? There was no way that Donny¡¯s group was taken out.
Before Allen could piece together what was happening, the Mage was weaving his wand again. ¡°Don¡¯t let him finish that spell!¡± Allen shouted.
He put action to his words, filling the air between him and the Mage with arrows.
Aspect Skill: [Rain of Death]
It was a simple aspect skill, but effective. Allen kept up the barrage, shouting encouragement to his allies. He had to overwhelm the Mage¡¯s defenses to keep him occupied long enough for his magic users to counter him.
Arrow after arrow met a flashing hemisphere of deflecting magic as the Mage slowly walked toward him, his wand swooping back and forth like he was conducting an opera. Why wasn¡¯t anybody killing him? Where was his support?!
Allen¡¯s muscle memory allowed him to continue firing, but his stamina was draining fast. He glanced around, and only then did the true horror of his enemy set in.
He was alone. Everybody else was dead.
There was a perfect circle of destruction behind him. The Mage must have positioned the spell perfectly to avoid him being hit by it. Trees as hard as stone, were strewn about the battlefield alongside broken bodies and shattered boulders.
Allen dropped his bow with just enough stamina left for another skill. He summoned his [Hunter¡¯s Knife] and rushed the Mage. Using his superior speed, he feinted, then thrust the knife into the Mage¡¯s eye.
With a deft twist of the Mage¡¯s hand, Allen found himself sailing over the man¡¯s head. His arm snapped painfully as it was wrenched around in the socket. Allen¡¯s body followed suit, twisting around until he came to a sudden and jarring rest against the ground on his back.
His mind reeled as he tried to follow what had just happened. A glint of steel in the starlight dragged his thoughts back to the present.
The last thing he saw was his own knife falling through the air toward his eye.
Timothy watched in open-mouth awe as Mel spun her strange, bladed weapon, deflecting the first arrow to the side. She didn¡¯t bother to deflect Timothy¡¯s skill.
His streak of light got within a few inches of her before she suddenly blurred. She moved so fast that his eyes couldn¡¯t track what she had done. His brain struggled to piece the two scenes together.
She had been standing right there , deftly blocking an arrow, but still vulnerable to the rest.
Then she just disappeared, and the two Brawlers were clutching mortal wounds from friendly fire. Attacks that had been aimed at the Demoness until she vanished.
Even with the flames illuminating and outlining her form, he couldn¡¯t keep track of her. What did it matter that she was visible when she moved so fast that she was little more than a streak of color?
¡°On the left!¡±
¡°No, the right!¡±
¡°She¡¯s above us!¡±
¡°Stop her!¡±
A gurgling scream to his right turned Timothy around. He let loose an area-of-effect attack, burning his own dying ally in an attempt to catch Mel mid-stride. Which was fine in Timothy¡¯s eyes. Not that he was a cold bastard, but because he knew that Kate had her [Fire Monk Mask] on.
The flames would hardly hurt her.
The ground erupted in a tornado of flames that scorched what was left of the burning forest and consumed the dying Archer.
Aspect Skill: [Inferno]
He watched in horror as her maskless mouth was stretched wide in terror as the flames took her.
Timothy turned around, raised his staff, and was struck so hard that he blacked out for a moment. He slammed into a tree, jolting him back to consciousness just as a hand darted out and pinned him by the neck to the tree.
¡°I¡¯ll ask this just once,¡± Mel said. Her eyes glinted green, just like the stories said! ¡°Why are you disturbing my peace?¡±
¡°Y¨Cyou killed families and friends!¡± Timothy choked out. ¡°You can¡¯t just walk free from that. You don¡¯t get to wash your hands of all the blood!¡±
To his surprise, Mel slowly lowered him to the ground. Now that he was standing in front of her, he realized how small she really was. He practically towered over her, and yet he felt small in front of her. Like a mouse staring up at a cat contemplating his demise.
She looked like she was struggling with something.
This is my chance, Timothy thought to himself. He wasn¡¯t going to beg for his life. Neither would he let her toy with him.
Timothy reached into his inventory as Mel¡¯s gaze fell upon him again. He pulled out a [Greater Explosive Flask] and flooded his mana into it just as she said, ¡°Listen, I¡¯m sorr¨C¡±
Light and sound washed over him, and Timothy knew no more.
Gwen pillaged the bodies, finding an assortment of trinkets. Some weapons that were too small for her desires. That wasn¡¯t a bad thing. Weapons could always be turned into scrap.
Most of what she found was rune coins.
Using that legend never fails to get something good, she thought wryly. The lie worked too well, though Dark Valkyries could actually do that stuff. They typically took villains and used their power for their own ends.
The information was more useful by far. The [Vile Missive] was further proof of their involvement.
Too bad I lost control when he talked about Mel. She wasn¡¯t sure why it was becoming difficult to be level-headed about Mel¡¯s problems.
She was a Magi. She didn¡¯t need to be protected at all times.
But why do I feel like that? As if one wrong move, and she¡¯ll be gone forever?
A profound sense of unease passed through Gwen at that thought. Her heart raced as if she was in the middle of battle without any of the fun parts.
Her mind blanked to numbing silence.
Gwen blinked.
Unable to remember what she was worrying about just then, Gwen went about her business.
Using [Insight of the Wolf], Gwen tracked the weaving trails of her friends, feeling restless and dissatisfied. Without meaning to, she went after Mel.
Maybe another plateau beast will be a challenge?
Thomas looked at the arrow lodged in his shoulder. ¡°Huh. One got through.¡±
He looked down at the body, giving himself a metaphorical pat on the back. Even though he didn¡¯t have an explicit skill for hand-to-hand combat, all Magi were skilled martial artists. It was one of the few things that carried over from one Worldshard to the other, whereas magic might be entirely different.
People¡¯s bodies were almost always the same.
Except that one time you were a rock, Thomas thought with a grin. That was a weird trip.
The arrow in his shoulder didn¡¯t seem to be poisoned, so he left it where it was. He didn¡¯t need his left arm right now, anyway. Thomas dropped into a deep crouch and took the knife out of the man¡¯s eye.
¡°Painfully poetic,¡± he muttered, wiping the blood off the blade on the man¡¯s leather tunic. ¡°Probably should¡¯ve asked what you were doing.¡±
Thomas¡¯ eyes fell on the broken bodies and he mentally chastised himself. Mel taught him that weapon scrap ritual, didn¡¯t she? Then again, with all these bodies to provide extra blood, she could use her title to get more scrap.
He sighed again. Thomas really didn¡¯t want to haul all the bodies back to camp.
¡°That didn¡¯t make a particularly flattering noise, Mel,¡± Gwen said, tying on a [Fire Monk Mask] to deal with the smoke.
Mel¡¯s vision was covered in red. As soon as she had seen what the Mage was doing, she had done something she never could do before. With a surge of High Copper mana, she had instantly altered her [Sanguine Coat] until it formed a protective shell around her.
The bloody coat¡¯s durability was thrashed, but there was a handy supply of blood painted all over the rocks and trees around her.
Mel altered her [Sanguine Coat] again, dismissing the mask and hood. She turned to Gwen, still wearing a [Fire Monk Mask] to breathe through the smoke that filled the forest.
The fire was growing out of hand. It was already beyond anything that Mel could do to stop it. She drew out blood from the gore stains of her would-be assassins to recover her [Sanguine Coat].
¡°Now we both know what a coat made out of blood sounds like when it¡¯s buffeted by explosive winds,¡± Mel said with a forced grin. ¡°Come on, help me loot these bodies before they turn crispy.¡±
Chapter 83 — Uneasy Alliance
Yok¡¯sal lounged in his seat and leaned back from the display. ¡°Shut it off, Em¡¯trath.¡±
His steward bowed his head and waved a hand. The scrying vision vanished, plunging the small chamber into gloom.
Without another word, Em¡¯trath ignited the corpsewax candles, bringing back a semblance of light. The comforting half-life of old Lormar, its cold and lifeless light falling upon a dead world, now illuminated their chamber.
How Yok¡¯sal missed those days. He steepled his fingers together, wide green embroidered sleeves falling away to reveal disgustingly human flesh.
His body was still a long way from the glory it had once known. I will reach such heights again, he vowed.
¡°Bring the Elders.¡±
Em¡¯trath bowed his head and shuffled out.
Yok¡¯sal waited until the other robed figures were seated. They sat around the round and exquisitely pale table. Its smooth surface sang with delicious pain whenever Yok¡¯sal ran his finger across the exposed bone.
It was a work of art. The product of countless sacrifices.
Unfortunately, such blasphemy had yet to attract the attention of an Outer God, much less an Old One. No matter, the Covenants were patient.
¡°Greetings, brothers and sisters,¡± Yok¡¯sal intoned respectfully. All five major Covenants were accounted for.
They had only met once before, at the start of the trial, to set their plans in motion. Now that the trial for this foolish Convocation was nearing its end, they were ready to implement the final stages of their plan.
¡°The sacrificial arrays have been set up, yet there has been no response. Hastur remains unreachable,¡± said Kaz¡¯kul, his raspy voice hoarse from screaming.
His threadbare, faded yellow robes somehow attracted and repulsed the eye at the same time.
¡°Neither have we been successful in contacting an Authority,¡± Semthra said bitterly. She shook her head, her blood-red robes swaying wetly.
Nymasolth in her black robes chuckled, her voice near to breaking into a cackle. ¡°Would that not be your own doing, Semthra? I hear from a little birdie that you bit off more than your glutinous kin could swallow!¡±
Semthra growled, blood leaking from where she bit her lip. ¡°There were supposed to be twelve Magi! Not thirteen! Thirteen is the number of the Kindred! Even when they are not invoked, their powers protect them. There is no other reason.¡±
¡°Calm yourself, Semthra,¡± Yok¡¯sal said. Like the others, he had heard the disastrous events surrounding one of the Magi and the Bloodtide Covenant. Even the Goretide Covenant¨Cboth under Semthra¡¯s command¨Chad been harmed.
At the same time, Yok¡¯sal knew that the only reason the others were so quick to judge Semthra was because they feared what befell her, happening to them. If the Mother in Blood¡¯s children could be dealt such a grievous blow, then what about the others?
¡°She¡¯s right,¡± a voice hissed from beneath purple robes. ¡°There were only supposed to be twelve Magi.¡±
¡°What does it matter to you, Shae¡¯kathoth?¡± Nymasolth snapped. ¡°Your face-takers have contributed the least to our efforts! The only reason your plans haven¡¯t fallen apart is because mine have covered for your failings.¡±
Shae¡¯kathoth was not one to rise to such obvious bait. He drummed his human fingers on the table thoughtfully before speaking. ¡°I would not be so keen to claim victory, dear Nymasolth. Last I heard, you had a Magi problem of your own. How many temples to the Dark have been lost before they could be used to send a signal to your savior?¡±
Though they all kept their hoods up¨Cmostly because each one was disgusted with their mortal form they were shackled with¨CYok¡¯sal could imagine Nymasolth¡¯s cheeks turning red with embarrassment and rage.
¡°Peace, Elders, peace,¡± Yok¡¯sal said, trying to bring back some semblance of order among the orderless.
Kaz¡¯kul snarled. ¡°You have kept me away from the one that failed to become the Mad Mageking, and I have done as you asked, even though he has the seeds of greatness within if only he were properly guided.¡± He slammed a pustule-scarred fist onto the table, rattling it.
The table, fashioned from the bones of 42 still-living human sacrifices, emitted a soothing scream of torture that calmed the rising tension in the small room.
¡°Brothers, sisters,¡± Yok¡¯sal tried again. ¡°Need I remind you that our plan is working? We, who deal in Chaos unremitting, are well aware of what happens when plans go awry. That is part and parcel of our nature, is it not?¡±
Shae¡¯kathoth stroked the table lovingly, his fingers blackened and withered from some unknown spell. ¡°Yok¡¯sal is right. Apart, we would have been destroyed. Even against thirteen , we yet stand. Some of us have taken heavy losses.¡± He inclined his hooded head to Semthra.
Rather than incense her to a rambling rage, she was mollified. ¡°Our losses have been extensive,¡± she admitted, folding her blood-stained hands on the tabletop. ¡°Loathe as I am to admit it, Kaz¡¯kul and Yok¡¯sal have both been instrumental in assuring that we continue with the plan ahead.¡±
¡°That Magi would have destroyed you,¡± Kaz¡¯kul said with a snicker. ¡°You already warped the minds of her friends and then influenced that simpleton to kill them. If we hadn¡¯t swept away the traces of your meddling, you can bet she would have come for you the same way she came for that human¡what was his name?¡±
¡°Warren Stolst,¡± Yok¡¯sal said with an evil grin. ¡°He was easily manipulated to take the blame and provide us with enough biomass to begin our penultimate phase. Without him, many of you would not have your precious plague beasts.¡±
¡°I hear this Magi managed to not only cull some of the most powerful biomass, but she was not killed in the attack either,¡± Nymasolth said.
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Yok¡¯sal kept a tight rein on his anger. Nymasolth was egotistical at the best of times, but it was clear that her Covenant had been wildly successful. They had not only severely wounded the Magi and split them up¨Cas was their goal¨Cbut her champions got away without serious harm.
If she had any chink in her armor, Yok¡¯sal had yet to find it. That was what rankled most of all. She had the right to be haughty.
¡°She was not supposed to exist,¡± Yok¡¯sal said plainly. ¡°Dealing with twelve Magi would have been easy.¡± He turned his hooded head to regard each of the members there. ¡°Despite the dreaded thirteenth Magi, we have prevailed. Our goal remains unchanged.¡±
¡°We should have already contacted an Old One by now,¡± Nymasolth said petulantly. She shifted her black robes. The delicate, almost hidden embroidery of black thread on black cloth shimmered in the gloomy half-light of the corpsewax candles.
¡°You are welcome to try on your own,¡± Shae¡¯kathoth said with a vicious grin visible within the dark depths of his cowl.
More than anybody else, Shae¡¯kathoth had a similar standing among them. His own Covenant was smaller, but it was no less successful. In some ways, he was more successful. Nobody had yet heard of them. They were completely undetected, just the way the face-taker preferred.
Even Nymasolth couldn¡¯t boast that level of anonymity.
¡°I will not act against the council,¡± Nymasolth said. ¡°For now. Know that my patience is running thin.¡±
Shae¡¯kathoth laced his withered fingers together, and leaned forward, cradling his chin in them. The bones crackled grotesquely. ¡°How are your dear children, Lilith and Thorne?¡±
The casual name drop rattled even Nymasolth. She sulked quietly, trying to give nothing away.
To all the Elders assembled, it was clear Shae¡¯kathoth had won that exchange. ¡°May we return to the matters at hand?¡± Yok¡¯sal said, trying hard to keep the pleasure out of his voice.
¡°Agreed,¡± Nymasolth said, eager to smooth things over. Nobody liked another Elder knowing too much about their own Covenants or champions, much less Shae¡¯kathoth.
If he knew something, it could be nothing, or it could mean he had one of his face-takers in your midst.
Nobody wanted that.
Yok¡¯sal knew that even the brazen Shae¡¯kathoth wouldn¡¯t break the pact they had made. Not until it was too beneficial to do so. Until they had made contact with an Old One, they were all vulnerable.
Their peril was all the greater with the addition of a thirteenth Magi. Nobody had seen that coming. They had worked hard to make sure only 12 would arrive. The thirteenth¡¯s arrival was a tempting riddle, but it was too distracting. Plans had to be adjusted, and a few precious resources burned, but they were back on track once more.
¡°As the final days of the trial are coming to a close, I think it is time we enact the Black Fence,¡± Yok¡¯sal said softly, steepling his fingers.
Semthra made small bloody designs on the tabletop, watching the smears of blood soak into the table¡¯s bone. ¡°These humans we have taken on to replenish our ranks are easily cowed, but there is something wrong with them. A¡darkness that I cannot contend with. They lust after these ¡®Battle Points¡¯ as if they are more important than communing with the Outer Gods themselves!¡±
Several robed heads bobbed in agreement. The Battle Points and the rating system in general was a problem. Even native Lormarians, whose families had been long-standing members of their foul Covenants, were tempted by Battle Points and ratings. They wanted to best the Earthlings that they were forced to share a Shard with, and they wanted to prove their obvious superiority.
Their greed was laudable, but not when it threatened their mission. Disobedience would not be tolerated. Already, several otherwise loyal Covenant members had to be turned into painful examples. Their lust for points overrode their loyalty to their Covenant, and that could not be endured.
¡°Now onto the Black Fence?¡± Yok¡¯sal prodded. ¡°How do you fare?¡±
¡°After the reinforcements.¡± Semthra nodded a thanks to those gathered. ¡°And a realignment to our proper targets, we are maintaining their attention. They do not yet suspect, but they are investigating. The Mother in Blood¡¯s rituals are¡especially difficult to ignore.¡±
She had come privately to Yok¡¯sal, seeking vengeance on Mel. The thirteenth Magi was quickly becoming a thorn in their collective sides. The shepherding of Thomas and Gwen, originally the purview of Nymasolth, had to be switched last-minute to Yok¡¯sal with the inclusion of Mel to their number.
Nobody was happy with the changes to their assignments, but they were professionals.
¡°Ashera and Solomon are formidable, but they are thorough,¡± Semthra said with a gleeful grin. ¡°Their patience works against them. By the time they realize what is happening, it will be too late. They are already venturing deep into the midnight forest seeking a hideout we¡¯ve already abandoned except for a few of the turned.¡±
Yok¡¯sal turned to the yellow-robed Kaz¡¯kul.
The Elder scoffed and made a dismissive gesture, his threadbare robes almost glowing yellow with madness as if they had a light of their own. ¡°The fabled Charlie Asleton yet searches fruitlessly, while her loyal hound assists her. Their Archivist suspects something is amiss, but he will defer to the Magi¡¯s desires a while longer.¡±
Nymasolth smoothed her richly embroidered black robes, tilting her chin up enough that they could see her pale skin and cruel, black-painted lips. ¡°The Abhorrent One and the Lady in Chains remain resolute. They seek you¨C¡± She turned with a wink at Yok¡¯sal. ¡°¨Cwith every fiber of their being. All it took was a few borrowed implements left carelessly behind, and they took the bait like a skin horror to fresh blood. They are accompanied by a strange creature, one of these ¡®exchange students¡¯, but he is of no account. He will follow the Abhorrent One to the pits of the Gnawing Hunger.¡±
Yok¡¯sal was not the only one who shivered at the reference to the Abhorrent One and the Lady in Chains. Nobody desired to use their true names. Naming them was thought to bring their attention upon you, and nobody from Lormar would wish to suffer their piercing gaze.
The multiverse was their chance at freedom. The true sons and daughters of Lormar had suffered enough.
¡°The Magi siblings, Hal and Sylvie, are wrapped around my little finger,¡± Shae¡¯kathoth said, raising a blackened finger. ¡°They have the other two exchange students, Miranda and Cal. I¡¯ve been able to hide myself from them, but honestly, I don¡¯t think I need to. They¡¯re directionless children. Their familiars eat up so much of their time that they hardly need any prodding to go deeper. A few well-placed monsters, a hint of a threat, and they run off like kids after a gore demon filled with guts.¡±
All eyes turned to Yok¡¯sal. ¡°The thirteenth Magi, despite the challenges she presents, is well in hand,¡± he promised them. ¡°I believe Gwen and Thomas have ceased their pursuit of the Putrescence Twins. Mel¡¯s addition has ended their search. They seek to empower her instead, and to that end I have taken the pains to employ several¡helpers to make sure that their efforts are stymied.¡±
¡°Why not let them take the crown?¡± Shae¡¯kathoth asked. ¡°We could pit them against each other. I don¡¯t think my Magi would mind fighting yours. We could wager.¡±
Yok¡¯sal shook his head. ¡°Too dangerous. We must endeavor to keep them apart as long as possible. Kill them if you are able, but do nothing to endanger the mission. The Magi must remain separated, and above all, remain out of the top three. We, and we alone, will possess [Golden Voucher] and [Revival Scrolls]. Without them, our hopes of contacting our patrons will remain lost to us.¡±
¡°The Twins are already in fourth place,¡± Nymasolth boasted.
¡°My champions are in third.¡± Shae¡¯kathoth grinned like a shark.
¡°Not for long,¡± Nymasolth snarled. ¡°I have been keeping them hidden to prevent any trails leading back to us, but with so little time until the end, they will burn a trail of death and decay through this prison until all hands are raised against the unbelievers!¡±
Yok¡¯sal allowed himself a private smile. Everything was going according to plan. The recent setback of the point takers was a concern. The Magi should not have bested them so easily, but he had other pawns.
All he needed to do was keep them distracted long enough to put forth his own champions. Yok¡¯sal glanced at the black robes of Nymasolth and got a most sinister idea.
Chapter 84 — Ashes of the Past
The fires were getting out of control. They were already beyond Mel¡¯s ability to smother with her [Hidden Mist]. It took Gwen to remind her that they had other options to snuff out the flames.
Using her ball and chain, Gwen was able to plow great furrows in the ground to create firebreaks.
Mel put a hand on her arm to stop her. ¡°No,¡± she said. ¡°Our camp is already compromised. There could be other people looking for us¨Cfor me. Even if they were acting alone¡¡± Mel shook her head and motioned at the smoke billowing into the air. ¡°Even in the moonlight, it¡¯s obvious. We could stop the fire from spreading, but we can¡¯t put them out entirely before people start noticing.¡±
Even if they could, there was no telling who was already watching. They needed to go. The farther the better.
Are you sure you want to leave because of the fires and not because you fear more people coming to kill you for your crimes?
Mel shut the voice out, turning and walking back toward the camp. She used her [Hidden Mist] to smother the flames immediately around them until they reached the clearing.
Gwen looked into the fires, then shouldered the chain. ¡°Very well. Though, this is deeper than some competitors seeking revenge. There¡¯s a connection to some other party. Maybe the Vile Covenant.¡±
Mel looted the bodies she could find on the way, but she let the flames take the rest. It somehow felt dirty to loot all of them. There wasn¡¯t even enough of that one guy to loot.
You¡¯re wrong, a dark voice whispered into her head.
Before she could stop herself, Mel looked at a suspicious glob on her shoulder.
Would you like to loot [Point Taker Mage (Copper Rank)]?
Mel cringed, but now that she was at the threshold, she might as well.
¡°They don¡¯t have much good equipment on them,¡± Gwen pointed out, staying close. After eating that [Plateau Beast Heart], she was more like her old self. ¡°However, they have a fair amount of coins, both rune and aspects.¡±
(50) [Copper Rune Coins] have been stored in your inventory.
(5) [Light Coins] have been stored in your inventory.
(5) [Wind Coins] have been stored in your inventory.
Mel¡¯s eyebrows shot up at that. She turned around, spreading her [Hidden Mist] toward the blackened shapes around her. Maybe it was crass to loot the vengeful family and friends of the Stolst gang members she murdered, but money was money.
You couldn¡¯t do rituals without it, and now that she had alchemy training, she knew why her previous attempts at making potions failed.
They cost rune coins.
Battle Points were less of an issue now than rune coins were. Battle Points couldn¡¯t be turned into rune coins, and vice versa.
Even without the plateau beast strategy, Mel had more Battle Points than she had money. It was fortunate that the ratings were based on the total amount of BP earned, rather than one¡¯s current stock, or else she would have had to essentially buy next to nothing.
Now that she had access to proper alchemy, she had an even greater need for both. The Emporium was chocked full of reagents and materials for alchemical potions. All those items that didn¡¯t explicitly say what they did were vastly more important than even the petrified branches.
[Graveblooms], [Blightraven Feathers], and the like could be used in alchemy to create elixirs to improve the accrual of specific types of runes. With the correct preparation, such ingredients would prove vital to their progress.
She could target specifically Serpent runes, Omen runes, even latent runes.
Unfortunately, that was roughly the extent of her newfound alchemical knowledge. These things were possible, but she didn¡¯t know how. Not without extensive experimentation.
Which required Battle Points and rune coins.
¡°That grabbed your interest, huh?¡± Gwen asked with a smirk, trying to lighten up a grim situation.
¡°I need it,¡± Mel whispered fiercely.
¡°What was that, Spongebob?¡±
¡°I need it!¡± Mel reiterated, looting another body for its rune coins.
With a laugh, Gwen handed her another pouch, one moderately heavy with coins. The clinking sang beautifully to Mel¡¯s ears.
Mel took it with both hands. ¡°Yessssss.¡±
By the time they finished looting all the bodies, Thomas was dragging a single corpse into the field in front of the cave.
They both looked at him.
¡°You looted your groups?¡± Thomas guessed. ¡°I¡¯m surprised the items traveled so far. I wonder what the limit is.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll find anybody interested in finding out.¡± Mel motioned to the body. ¡°What¡¯s¡uh¡what¡¯s going on there?¡±
Thomas looked down and lifted an arm from the pile of limbs resting on top of the single corpse. ¡°I figured I could haul four Humpty Dumptys, or one whole body and four limb assortments.¡± He put his hands on his hips and counted, then turned back to them. ¡°Pretty sure I got one from each person that tried to kill me.¡±
¡°Yeah, that¡¯s still rather sus, Thomas,¡± Gwen remarked.
¡°It makes a sick sort of sense,¡± Mel had to admit. She knelt down and touched an arm.
Would you like to loot [Point Taker Mage (Copper Rank)]?
Lines of light streaked off toward each of them as they gained the loot from the Mage¡¯s disembodied arm.
¡°Hm¡¡± Gwen looked between them, tapping her lips thoughtfully. ¡°Are we forgetting something?¡±
Thomas looked at her. ¡°Like what?¡±
Mel wasn¡¯t paying attention. She was tapping one body part after another, trying to loot them all. Thomas was right, he did get an assortment. Unfortunately, he got multiples of the same person.
Ignoring the fact that these were once people, Mel finished looting the would-be assassins.
At the end of the day, no matter what their motivations, they had come to kill her. What was she supposed to do? Let them kill her because they were mad she killed other killers?
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Deklin was right, Mel understood. Eventually, you kill so many that you can never really stop.
It was a burden she was willing to bear. She felt bad that she might have killed somebody¡¯s beloved aunt or brother, but at the end of the day they chose their path.
And I chose mine.
¡°Hate the game, not the player,¡± Mel muttered, wiping her hands on her pants.
¡°What was that?¡± Thomas asked.
¡°Nothing.¡± Mel turned to Gwen. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡±
¡°Not sure what I¡¯m forgetting about.¡± Gwen paused while Mel continued to loot, likely trying to remember. ¡°Oh, right! That kid.¡±
¡°Which kid?¡± Thomas asked, puzzled. ¡°You want to kill him?¡±
¡°...Nooo?¡±
Mel folded her arms. ¡°Are you two talking about Heath? Gwen, I thought you were staying to guard the cave.¡±
Gwen looked toward the cave, brows drawing together in confusion. ¡°Huh.¡±
Something wasn¡¯t quite right about her reaction.
She covered it by stalking into the cave after Heath.
Mel followed. ¡°Gwen! You did make sure everybody was dead before you left, didn¡¯t you?¡±
They found Heath curled up in a deeper chamber, fast asleep, with Gwen¡¯s cloth sack over his head. He rolled over and muttered something about fries.
Mel pulled it off him.
That startled him awake. He looked around, brown eyes wide with surprise. He blinked them intensely. ¡°Ugh. My eyes are so dry.¡±
¡°I was going to say, maybe put the bag back on,¡± Gwen said.
¡°What bag?!¡±
¡°Never mind,¡± Mel said. ¡°We gotta go, Heath.¡±
¡°Already? I¡¯m not done meditating.¡±
Mel exchanged a look with the others. ¡°Sure, bud. You can pick it up later though.¡±
¡°Oh, really? Great!¡± He sat up and stretched for the ceiling. ¡°Where are we going?¡±
¡°Somewhere else,¡± Mel explained, packing up the other sleeping bags. ¡°A campsite that is a little quieter.¡±
Heath nodded sagely. ¡°I am a very light sleeper. I would awake the instant we were in trouble. With my cat-like reflexes, I would lick them!¡±
Mel paused in the middle of rolling up her sleeping bag. ¡°What? You¡¯d lick them?¡±
¡°Metaphorically, of course,¡± Heath said proudly. ¡°Cats groom as a form of dominance. A cat grooming another is something a leader does.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know what to say to that.¡±
¡°I get that a lot.¡±
I¡¯ll bet you do.
Gwen moved over to Thomas and said something that Mel couldn¡¯t hear. Thomas grinned in excitement.
The purple glow of Gravity aspect gathered in Gwen¡¯s right arm, flowing down and solidifying into her fist. The blue glow of Winter aspect mirrored the effect on the other arm.
She wrenched on the freezing chain rattling with tidal forces. Gravity and Winter aspect clashed together like sheet lightning.
The [Chain of Atlas] shattered to pieces.
The pair looked over at Gwen. Heath had disappeared into the shadows. He reappeared a moment later.
¡°What was that?¡± he asked, impressed.
Grinning, Gwen summoned and desummoned the [Chain of Atlas] in two whorls of moonlit ash. ¡°Just breaking the curse imprint so I can now wield this freely. As a proper weapon. Completing a quest is a nice bonus too.¡±
¡°But should you?¡± Mel asked.
She shrugged, rubbing her freed wrist.
¡°Oh, well, when you put it like that.¡± Mel packed up her bag and stepped out of the cave. She shut her eyes for a moment. It didn¡¯t take any longer to find another thread toward a plateau beast.
¡°This way,¡± Mel said, taking off in a westerly direction away from the flames and deeper into¡something. Mel¡¯s enhanced sense of the plateau beasts told her that they were arranged like a massive concentric circle around a central point.
At first, she thought that was the starting area, but that was far to the east from here.
Every time I move in this direction, something catches my eye or otherwise derails me, Mel thought.
Which must mean that the Convocation¡¯s trial had an epicenter of some kind. The closer she got to it, the stronger the concentration of mana that this place had.
That translated to more and stronger monsters, dungeons, tombs, and all manner of magical malady. Which meant more Battle Points.
Her blessing allowed her to sense plateau beasts¨Cand some other creatures that were similarly powerful¨Cwhen she got close enough.
Even accounting for its increased detection radius, Mel knew she was heading in the right direction based purely on the quantity of high-level monsters.
It was a bummer that monsters didn¡¯t normally drop rune coins.
Heath yawned and stretched. ¡°I feel so well-rested.¡±
Gwen gave him a sour look.
¡°Because you fell asleep,¡± Thomas said, surveying the edge of the plateau. They would have to climb down hundreds of feet to make it to the strange plateau below them filled with rainbow-colored hot springs, geysers, and ancient ruins.
¡°I did not. I was meditating.¡±
Thomas shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s nothing to be ashamed of. Everybody does it from time to time.¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t fall asleep,¡± Heath insisted.
It clearly didn¡¯t matter to Thomas. ¡°How are we going to get down?¡±
Mel looked at him, kneeling at the edge and staring into the gray rocky landscape below. Sheer angled walls of stone, like frozen droplets of molten rock, created concentric rings heading deeper into the plateaus. The walls blocked their view, rising to a height that eclipsed their plateau.
¡°You¡¯re the Mage. Well, Warmage. Don¡¯t you have something other than the rough ride I¡¯d give us?¡± Gwen asked, crouching at the edge. ¡°Or maybe Mel does.¡±
¡°Nah,¡± Mel said. ¡°I¡¯ve got nothing. With my super high agility I might survive the drop. Not that I¡¯m stupid enough to test it.¡±
¡°I could take one person down,¡± Heath offered. ¡°My cloak can turn into a glider.¡±
¡°Even me?¡± Gwen asked, then glanced down. ¡°Suppose I¡¯m not stuck with the chain anymore.¡±
Heath looked her up and down, grabbing his chin in his thumb and index thoughtfully. ¡°Hm. Yeah, probably.¡±
¡°That¡¯s all well and good for one person, but there¡¯s four of us now,¡± Thomas said. ¡°I can take the rest of you.¡±
Everybody turned to look at him. ¡°How?¡± Mel asked.
Thomas frowned. ¡°It¡¯s an aspect skill that I haven¡¯t gotten much use out of.¡±
¡°Which is?¡± Mel asked, suddenly interested in anything that made Thomas uncomfortable.
¡°It¡¯s called [Float].¡±
¡°Oh.¡±
¡°Yeah.¡±
¡°That¡¯s pretty lame.¡±
¡°You want to jump?¡± Thomas asked.
Mel grabbed his arm. ¡°Nope. Float me down to the plateau Jerry Poppins!¡±
Chapter 85 — Sulfur and Stone
They made camp near a prismatic spring, surrounded by sulfurous pillars and crystalline trees.
Gwen loped around the perimeter, doing a quick search for ingredients. She was followed by an overly enthusiastic Hush, who was trying to learn what was edible in the area.
Mel smiled, watching the little snake flick his tongue at a crystalline apple Gwen was holding up to him. She felt bad that he hadn¡¯t been able to join in the battle with the plateau beast, but she didn¡¯t have the time to bring him out.
Even if she did¡he was so small. He would¡¯ve been immediately destroyed. And while that hardly appeared to bother the little guy, Mel was trying to strengthen him.
The best way she had learned how to do that was to keep him out as long as possible. A fact that was in direct opposition to her only method of lowering the cost and cooldown of summoning him.
One thing at a time.
It was nice having other people pitch in and teach him things, like he was an actual living creature.
Heath seemed pretty pleased with himself. He had successfully glided down the plateau, carrying the much bigger Berserker in his arms. The effect was rather spoiled by the fact that his face was super red the entire time.
¡°I totally have a chance!¡± he whispered, completely out of touch with reality.
¡°Nope,¡± Mel said bluntly. She truthfully couldn¡¯t tell whether he was joking or not. Or maybe it was that he hit his head a bunch of times. In a way, she envied his ability to be so willing to take risks.
As if he was always excited about what would happen to him next.
¡°Wanna bet?¡± he asked, bouncing on his boots.
¡°Gwen¡¯s not some prize,¡± Thomas said sternly.
¡°I know that!¡± Heath said. ¡°But if she¡¯s not taken, I gotta take my chance.¡±
¡°She¡¯s taken.¡±
That caught Mel by surprise.
¡°By whom?¡± Heath asked, surprised as well. ¡°Mel?¡±
The silence that followed was like a pall over the world. Heath and Thomas stared at one another, unblinking, with blank expressions on their faces. Then Thomas¡¯ eye began to twitch with anger and Mel broke into a peal of laughter.
¡°Woah, are you cackling ?¡± Heath asked.
¡°What? No!¡± On second thought, it did come out a little like a cackle, but she wasn¡¯t going to backpedal now.
You¡¯re not changing me, Witchblade!
Mel shook her head and sat down near the campfire. ¡°I¡¯m going to look over my loot from the tarikan. We finally have a moment of respite.¡±
The [Blitz Pearl] was an incredibly nice find, the second of its kind so far.
[Blitz Pearl]
(Catalyst, Pearl)
(Rare)
Over the Ages, impurities in ambient mana precipitate into solid motes, growing in size and power until they become pearls. Even the smallest of seeds yearn to be something great one day.
Imprint: Mix into an ampoule to create a new concoction. Enhances movement speed.
Paired up with a [Wind Ember], she imagined the resulting [Primeval Brew] would be something that could severely bolster movement speed.
It couldn¡¯t possibly compare to the training boost that was being regularly mixed into her [Primeval Brew], but she couldn¡¯t maintain a perfect uptime on that.
Might be worth doing when I¡¯m waiting for the cooldown on my Blue training potion to expire.
High Copper was vastly stronger than plain ol¡¯ Copper. That meant achieving Iron would be an even greater milestone.
The faster Mel got there, the better. Though she doubted it was possible during this trial. There wasn¡¯t much time left, and it had taken her nearly two full months just to reach High Copper.
The last couple of weeks had been little else but hardcore training, hunting, and grinding with the aid of meditation and training items.
They were in the homestretch. With little hope of getting Iron by the time the trial ended, Mel wondered if she should be looking for [Primeval Brew] recipes that enhanced her martial prowess.
While she mulled that over, she pulled out the greaves from the tarikan.
[Greaves of the Lion]
(Copper Rank, Armor)
(Legendary)
The power of a plateau beast has seeped into these greaves, imparting a facet of its prowess.
Imprint: Greatly raises physical defense. Increases kick attacks. Reduces the mana expenditure of animal type aspect skills. Increases movement speed and traction in difficult terrain.
She immediately swapped her old [Rustwing Boots] out for the new, Legendary kicks. Not only were they newer and less dirty, but they looked more her style.
There was something aggressive about the gold ornamentation. Plus, they further reduced the mana cost of her Serpent aspect skills while retaining the highly effective imprint of her old boots.
I wonder if there¡¯s a way to strip imprints from a piece of equipment and store it for later?
She felt there had to be a way to do it. It could be that her ritual to reduce armaments to scrap automatically pulled out imprints. She wasn¡¯t about to risk it by using the scrap ritual on her boots just to test the theory though.
[Hunt Token]
(Currency)
A token awarded to those who have successfully taken down a Mark. Can be exchanged for items at any Hunter Society chapter house.
No idea what that is, but now I really want the trial to be over so I can find one!
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Mel took out the [Kindling Branch of Celestial (Red)], rolling it over in her hands. It looked like it was about to explode any moment, but she knew from past experience that it wouldn¡¯t. She wasn¡¯t sure what Celestial and Red would do, but a part of her was curious to use it. Kindling branches were exceedingly rare. Did she really have the luxury of looking for a color and type that suited her better?
[Kindling Branch of Celestial (Red)]
(Aspect Skill Item)
(Epic)
A charred branch from the Eternal Tree. Smoldering red embers fill the air with a sense of impending violence. The unmistakable Celestial vastness within the branch appears to contain far more than its physical form could ever hold.
Imprint: Use to unlock a Celestial type aspect skill of the Red variety.
Still, she couldn¡¯t help but be a little bummed about it. ¡°I wanted Violet,¡± she muttered. Some of her best aspect skills were Violet.
[Avatar of Askara] and [Sanguine Coat] were both Violet types, and they were flippin¡¯ amazing. Yellow wouldn¡¯t be bad either, now that her Witchblade class made her afflictions stronger. Plus, [Bane of Tartarus] and [Omen Mark] were Yellow.
Hush slithered over with a crystalline apple in his mouth. He dropped it into her lap and looked up at her with unmistakable excitement.
Even now, it was surprising to see that on a snake¡¯s features. While she knew for a long time that there were mythical creatures out there that exhibited behaviors and intellect beyond what Earth normies understood, it was still wild.
She patted his head, which seemed to go over well. Hush hissed happily and curled up in a loose coil beside her knee.
Gwen lounged by the fire, a heap of crystalline ingredients laid out for anyone to try.
Heath picked up a piece of crystallized wood from the pile. ¡°Huh, this is kind of like one of those training branches. Just says it¡¯s a crafting ingredient though.¡±
¡°I tried to freeze it,¡± Gwen admitted, brushing some shards off her side. ¡°It exploded.¡±
Heath¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Cool.¡±
Thomas stepped between them. He used a long crystalline stick to just sort of¡push Heath aside, then sat down in his place.
¡°Hey!¡± Heath said.
Thomas ignored him and took out a kindling branch. Mel¡¯s eyes snapped to the Violet motes drifting off it.
¡°I¡¯ll trade you!¡± Mel shouted at Thomas.
He looked at the kindling branch, then at Mel. ¡°I figured you¡¯d try to bum it off me somehow.¡±
Mel shook her head, raising her Red kindling branch. ¡°Tradesies? It¡¯s a Red Celestial type.¡±
Thomas looked at her, then at the branch. He turned to Gwen. ¡°Did you want to trade as well?¡±
She shook her head. ¡°I already told you both that I¡¯m giving the next branch to Mel. She¡¯s only got six skills. You already have double that.¡±
Thomas frowned, looking down at his Violet branch. Mel could see he didn¡¯t want to give it up. She didn¡¯t blame him. Branches were incredibly rare and if his theory was right about reaching Iron, they would all need a lot more.
His other theory, that they would get a kindling branch if they would have otherwise gotten an aspect gem, had already been disproven. Mel kind of hoped he was wrong about Iron as well.
How many aspect skills they would need was anybody¡¯s guess. Maybe they were capped at four aspect skills each, or maybe there wasn¡¯t a cap at all.
¡°Are you sure you want to trade a Red for a Violet?¡± Thomas asked. ¡°This is an Enchantment type. I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d want it.¡±
Mel reached her hand out over the flames, opening and closing her hand like a toddler. ¡°Gib.¡±
¡°You got a deal,¡± Thomas said, trading his branch for hers.
[Kindling Branch of Enchantment (Violet)]
(Aspect Skill Item)
(Epic)
A charred branch from the Eternal Tree. Violet embers flicker in and out of existence from its smoldering remains. Intricate carvings decorate the unburnt sections of the branch, each runic symbol shining with dazzling inner light.
Imprint: Use to unlock an Enchantment type aspect skill of the Violet variety.
¡°Hope you get something good,¡± Gwen told them both.
Mel and Thomas used their branches at the same time.
Please select an aspect skill to awaken: Divine, Mist, Blood, Serpent, Omen.
Crap, I forgot about that.
Mel had a Violet Blood and Serpent skill. She wasn¡¯t entirely sure if there were limits to that sort of thing, but she didn¡¯t want to potentially imbalance herself by having too much of one color in a given aspect.
Not until she understood Chroma and the colors better at least.
That left Mist, Omen, and Divine.
Violet skills created something tangible in the real world. Not quite summoning, but close.
While creating a literal summonable divinity would be awesome¨Cor a spirit of some kind¨Cshe couldn¡¯t imagine what that would be. The same went for Omen. On top of the fact that Omen was tied with Divine as her weakest aspect.
Thinking about Omen made her remember just how high her agility and Mist were. Why should her weakest aspect get two skills when her strongest only had one?
[Hidden Mist] was useful, but it wasn¡¯t exactly the flashiest thing in the world. Plus, everybody and their mother seemed to know how to deal with her [Hidden Mist] by now. She needed something new.
Mel picked Mist aspect.
You awaken the [Condensate] Mist aspect skill.
[Condensate]
(Mist Aspect)
(Copper, Violet/Ability)
(Grade 1 [0%])
Cost: Modest Mana
Cooldown: Long
Condense hardened nails of mana within your environment, using their intrinsic connection to pull or push yourself toward or away from any single nail.
Imprint(Copper Rank): Conjure up to three nails embedded in a surface you can perceive up to 50 feet away. Using your mana, you can pull or push yourself from any nail(s) you choose. The surface each nail is adhered to must be strong enough to support your added inertial weight.
Mel¡¯s eyes widened. Wondering if it really was that easy, she conjured a nail in her cupped hand.
Sweet.
That got everyone¡¯s attention. They could see the Shardscript prompt of an aspect skill being used.
¡°Would you hold this?¡± she asked Gwen, who took it without question. ¡°Just don¡¯t let go, please.¡±
There was no telling how it would react without being embedded in something. She hadn¡¯t thought it would work by just creating a nail, but there was nothing in the imprint saying it wouldn¡¯t.
Mel was nothing if not thorough, especially when it came to her own powers. Being able to conjure the nails without having to place them in something opened up countless possibilities that she couldn¡¯t even fathom at the moment.
¡°Please?¡± Gwen laughed lightly at that. ¡°How unlike¡ª¡±
Mel was too excited to bother wondering what else she was going to say.
Channeling her mana, Mel pushed on the nail and went flying end over end, smacking upside down into a tree. Gwen, unfortunately staring at the nail in her fist, yelled out as her fist was pushed back from the force of Mel¡¯s leap.
Mel made Gwen punch herself in the face.
They both groaned on the ground, clutching their faces over thirty feet apart.
Chapter 86 — Blood and Mist
Mel quickly figured out a few of [Condensate¡¯s] limitations by zipping around the thermal springs dotting the landscape.
Firstly, if she only conjured one nail, she couldn¡¯t wait several minutes to conjure another one. Creating the nails was an intrinsic part of the process before she could push or pull against them. If she created one, she had a limited amount of time to create the other two. If she didn¡¯t, she would only have one nail to use until her cooldown was up. With the long cooldown, she wasn¡¯t able to test it out as much as she hoped.
Secondly, creating ¡°raw nails¡± as she thought of them wasn¡¯t as effective as she thought. If they were loose, they needed to be held or otherwise put into something where they couldn¡¯t rattle around or move.
If the nails moved too much, they shattered. They were fairly hardy against standard physical forces, but with enough effort, they would break. Rolling a nail around in a box buried in the ground shattered the nail in less than five pushes.
Gwen created a mold out of [Grav-bricks], using Thomas¡¯ [Aspect Channel] ritual spell to forge the bricks with Gravity Aspect. They were unusually durable and dense. Unfortunately, when Mel tried to embed the [Condensate] nail into the [Grav-brick Mold] during the creation process, the nail broke down into mana.
Hush often hitched a ride on Mel¡¯s shoulder, seeing the world from a new vantage point.
When the nails were embedded in something, they changed the properties of that item in a way that Mel couldn¡¯t quite put her finger on.
The nails strengthened the material even though the ability warned that the surface needed to be able to handle the additional weight.
¡°It looks like mana infusion,¡± Thomas said with confidence. ¡°That¡¯s the effect of injecting mana into another inert item. That¡¯s going to have a bolstering effect no matter what you do. Plus, it probably spreads the weight across the entire crystallized area around the nail. See all these tiny mist-colored streaks?¡±
Mel leaned in over the boulder. ¡°Looks pretty boss.¡±
¡°Want to see something really interesting?¡± Thomas said, pulling back his hand. Mana gathered around his hand as he conjured golden light into his palm and solidified it into a bolt of electricity.
Mel, who had just embedded the nail in the boulder and didn¡¯t want to wait on the lengthy cooldown, tried to stop him.
He was too fast.
Thomas threw the [Thunderbolt] right at the nail. It passed through without breaking it.
Mel stared. She grabbed Thomas¡¯ lapels and lifted him off the ground, which was a sight to behold. At just five feet tall, Mel was more than a full foot shorter than Thomas. ¡°You could have just told me instead of giving me a heart attack!¡±
Thomas was too busy laughing to notice the ridiculousness of the situation. Heath watched in awe and amazement at Mel¡¯s strength, while Gwen had a thoughtful expression on her face.
Mel dropped Thomas a foot or two to the ground. While she grumbled, he straightened his clothing and said, ¡°I figured you would like to know that the nails are highly resistant to magic. It should factor into how you plan on using the skill.¡±
¡°Still could¡¯ve told me.¡±
¡°Where would the fun be in that?¡±
Mel couldn¡¯t stay mad at him for long. He was only trying to help, and this was not something he would have done when they first met. He was clearly warming up to her, and she didn¡¯t want to push him away.
Still, she said, ¡°I¡¯ll remember this.¡±
Thomas stopped laughing and cleared his throat. ¡°Aside from the distance limitation and its physical weakness, what more do you have to test out?¡±
¡°I can¡¯t hurt anybody with the nails,¡± Mel said, ticking the additional items off on her fingers. ¡°They can¡¯t be embedded into anything that¡¯s considered more alive than plants. Would¡¯ve been awesome to stick one into a monster and pull it to me, but nope. Creating more nails with other nails already created destroys the older ones, so I can¡¯t stockpile them over time. Let¡¯s see, what else?¡±
¡°You probably can¡¯t eat them,¡± Heath offered helpfully. ¡°They taste like glass.¡±
Mel wanted to ask a follow-up question, but realized it wasn¡¯t worth the time or effort. Heath often had the strangest anecdotes. She still wasn¡¯t entirely sure if he was screwing with them or not.
Maybe this is payback for me intentionally weirding him out when we first met, Mel thought.
With a shrug, she put the matter out of her mind.
¡°Aren¡¯t you forgetting something?¡± Gwen asked.
Mel racked her brain for something else that she had learned while testing out [Condensate], but she couldn¡¯t think of anything. Not until Gwen held out a kindling branch.
¡°Something like this?¡± Gwen wagged the crystallized branch back and forth. ¡°You didn¡¯t think I had forgotten, did you? You still want it, right?¡±
Mel was by her side in a second. She was already reaching out before she realized what she was doing. ¡°Are you sure you want to give this to me?¡±
Gwen looked confused.
¡°I mean, this is the only way we know how to get new aspect skills, right? I¡¯ve gotten three total branches in like two months . Even you two have only gotten double that during the same time. So that¡¯s like¡¡±
¡°About three branches a month,¡± Heath said. ¡°If we have a limit of four skills and five attributes, that¡¯s a total of twenty.¡±
¡°With four already given,¡± Thomas added.
¡°Right,¡± Heath said. ¡°So sixteen. I think it¡¯s pretty fair to assume that the trials offer greater rewards than anything we¡¯re likely to find outside. If there is anything besides another trial.¡±
Mel motioned to the two men. ¡°So at best we¡¯re talking half a year to get all your aspect skills per person and that¡¯s assuming that branches don¡¯t get harder to acquire as you gain more skills.¡±
Gwen smiled warmly at Mel and offered the branch. ¡°A Magi¡¯s word is their bond.¡±
Neither a sense of immaterial guilt nor pride was going to stop Mel from accepting a gift.
I¡¯m not Sylvie.
She took the branch, looking at the Green motes drifting off its surface. ¡°Ohh, this is a new one.¡±
¡°I thought you might like it,¡± Gwen said. ¡°Maybe we¡¯ll be able to witness a bit more of your potential.¡±
[Kindling Branch of Knowledge (Green)]
(Aspect Skill Item)
(Epic)
A charred branch from the Eternal Tree. Soothing green motes of light fill the air with the scent of a refreshing spring rain. Though outwardly appearing as a partially charred branch, closer examination reveals thousands of pages have been delicately shaped and rolled to resemble a branch instead of a scroll.
Imprint: Use to unlock a Knowledge type aspect skill of the Green variety.
¡°Woah, that smells amazing,¡± Mel said, sniffing the branch. She realized how weird it looked and offered it to the others.
¡°It smells like home,¡± Heath said wistfully.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
¡°Reminds me of the Fields of Valor after the rain,¡± Thomas said with a look of contentment.
Mel looked curiously at Gwen, wondering what the smell reminded her of. She seemed particularly pensive.
¡°It brings me back to the balcony tables at the Stardust Cafe,¡± Mel said, shutting her eyes. ¡°You know right around the middle of autumn when the cafe is serving those little pumpkin cakes filled with chocolate mousse that sing spooky Halloween songs to you? Agh! I miss the Stardust Cafe so friggin¡¯ much.¡±
Heath looked around as the Magi had a shared nostalgia trip. ¡°What¡¯s the Stardust Cafe?¡± he asked.
¡°The best eatery in all the Worldshards,¡± Thomas said immediately. ¡°There¡¯s no place better.¡±
¡°He¡¯s right,¡± Mel added. ¡°You can find anything on the menu there whether you¡¯re a necram, demon, vampyr, tree spirit, djinn, or just a hungry student looking to unwind after a really bad potions class.¡±
Gwen chuckled. ¡°Or a Remedial Defense class with Professor Rocamai.¡±
Thomas shook his head. ¡°Essential Ethics and Laws with Professor Renton was worse. That guy could drone on for hours and hours, well after the class should¡¯ve ended.¡±
¡°Could you blame him?¡± Gwen said. ¡°He was an earth elemental. An hour to them is like a minute to us. Speaking of earth elementals, are you going to take a year just to use that branch or what?¡±
¡°Once you tell me what this reminds you of.¡± Mel lifted the branch.
¡°Oh¡¡± Gwen studied the branch thoughtfully, then smiled softly at the memory. ¡°It painfully reminds me of this bookshop tucked away in Pandemonium, near the Academy, that serves stormcloud scones whenever it rains. It¡¯s a small place, squished between a bunch of other buildings, that made me miss New York at the time.¡±
¡°Worldshard Almora, right?¡± Thomas asked.
Gwen nodded. ¡°Yeah.¡± She glanced at Mel. ¡°That¡¯s where Shrubley, Smudge, Cal, and Miranda are exchange students from.¡±
Mel knew exactly the aspect she wanted to bolster. She chose Blood immediately. [Sanguine Coat] was incredibly versatile. It might not have saved her life in the last battle, but it had saved her from taking more damage than she would have preferred.
If she could get a Blood support ability to empower her [Sanguine Coat] or otherwise bolster her already impressive kit, she would be happy.
Most of her skills lacked direct damage except for [Bane of Tartarus], so having something that could improve her damage output would be greatly appreciated.
She could deal well enough damage with her twinblade, especially since it triggered two different afflictions at the same time. Four if she used her [Fanged Flask]. Coupled with [Omen Mark] to stack those otherwise unstackable afflictions, Mel could deal high damage and lasting damage-over-time.
The problem had been finding enemies that were strong enough. Ironically, her abilities made her relatively mediocre at killing mass quantities of enemies. A typical grinding behavior that she suddenly found herself struggling to pull off.
While moving [Omen Mark] from one dead monster to the next was free and incurred no penalty, it also didn¡¯t provide any sort of bonus. She had to start all her afflictions over again.
By the time she could build a bleed affliction to double-digits, the monster was usually dead. Coupled with a lack of area-of-effect attacks, Mel¡¯s abilities were best suited to powerful targets.
Which helped to explain how she could take out powerful monsters and Stolst gang guardsmen that stood out among the rabble, but it also meant she needed to do something few people were willing to.
She had to constantly put her life on the line to earn her progress. Without Gwen and Thomas, or even Heath, she lacked the support to take the necessary risks that hunting big game usually entailed.
Alone, one wrong move could spell her end. Against weaker enemies, most people could recover or flee.
That¡¯s why I¡¯m so glad to have found some allies, Mel thought to herself. Together, they were far stronger than they were individually.
After a few seconds wondering what the ability would be, Shardscript burned into the air in front of her eyes.
[Knowledge Kindling Branch (Green)]
Please select an aspect skill to awaken: Divine, Mist, Blood, Serpent, Omen.
You awaken the [Blood Magic] Magic aspect skill.
It was always wondrous to watch the glittering font that appeared in shimmering strokes, as if written by an invisible, impossibly precise hand. More beautiful, however, was the ability itself.
And here I thought I capped out with [Sanguine Coat].
[Blood Magic]
(Blood Aspect)
(Copper, Green/Trait)
(Grade 1 [0%])
Cost: None
Cooldown: None
Blood fuels all things.
Imprint(Copper Rank): Any skill or spell can be converted to utilize the resource of blood instead of stamina or mana. Skills or spells used in this way have increased effectiveness based upon the rank of your Blood aspect.
Mel couldn¡¯t believe her luck.
¡°Look at her grinning from ear to ear,¡± Thomas said, watching her. ¡°She¡¯s got something really good. What aspect did you pick?¡±
¡°Blood,¡± Mel said, still in awe.
At first glance, the skill seemed rather mundane. Even weak, perhaps. It allowed her to use blood instead of stamina or mana. Technically speaking, that included her own health. The kind of thing that would be foolish to the extreme to use.
Unless you happened to have another ability that gave you a literal coat of blood.
[Sanguine Coat]
(Blood Aspect)
(Copper, Violet/Special)
(Grade 8 [45%])
Cost: Considerable Mana, Modest Health
Cooldown: Long
Summon a coat of blood to rest upon your shoulders, increasing healing received, resistance to toxins of the blood, and improving combat parameters. The coat persists so long as it has enough blood to sustain itself. Additional expenditures of mana allow for further customization.
Imprint(Copper Rank): Conjure a coat of blood from any sufficient quantity of blood. Properties of the coat will change based on what type of blood is used. Provides additional physical and magical defense. Grants a secondary health bar. All healing effects are increased. Resistances to afflictions are increased. Grants [In The Blood].
[In the Blood]: While wearing the sanguine coat, all Blood aspect skills are enhanced. Physical attacks inflict bleed damage-over-time. Your sanguine coat can be healed through consuming additional blood or through standard healing.
With her [Sanguine Coat] providing a steady supply of blood, she could keep her mana in reserve until she needed it. Since she could draw blood out of any enemy, she could constantly keep her coat¨Cand therefore her ability to use [Blood Magic]¨Ctopped off at all times.
So long as she was fighting, she would replenish the equivalent of mana from kills.
[In the Blood] enhanced all her Blood aspect skills, which created a positive feedback loop with [Blood Magic¡¯s] enhancement of Blood skills fueled by blood.
She couldn¡¯t have hoped for a better outcome.
¡°I¡¯ve found my first perfect synergy,¡± Mel said with rapturous glee.
Thomas and Gwen looked on enviously.
¡°What¡¯s a perfect synergy?¡± Heath asked.
¡°It¡¯s when you have a skill or spell that pairs so well with another, that it¡¯s like they¡¯re two halves of the same whole,¡± Thomas explained. ¡°They¡¯re usually once-in-a-lifetime pairings that completely change your fighting style. Whole paths and sects are based on a single perfect synergy.¡±
¡°Sex?¡± Heath asked curiously.
¡°Sects,¡± Thomas said, stressing the T.
It still sounded a little like ¡°sex¡±.
¡°They¡¯re like guilds for martial artists,¡± Gwen added helpfully.
¡°Ohhh, like a dojo!¡±
The Magi shrugged at one another and looked back at Mel.
¡°Oh yeah,¡± she said with a stupid grin plastered on her face. ¡°It¡¯s all comin¡¯ together.¡±
This would change everything.
Chapter 87 — History Lesson
¡°Why did you give her the branch?¡± Heath asked. ¡°Is that just something Magi do? I¡¯m having a hard time figuring you guys out.¡±
¡°No,¡± Gwen said. ¡°Not usually. Thomas sure didn¡¯t, and he has more aspect skills than me.¡±
¡°Then?¡±
Mel tuned them out while she conjured a [Condensate] nail, sacrificing a portion of her coat to do it.
It glistened wetly, like it was a blood popsicle that would melt at any moment. She tossed it up and down in her hand. In the blink of an eye, she summoned her twinblade with the nail still turning over in the air. She struck it with a blurring strike.
Rather than shattering, the nail bounced off the blade and went spinning off into a pool of colorful, scalding hot water.
Under such relentless heat, the nail melted. Red threads of blood drifted and disappeared into the water.
Impressive. I wonder what else I can do?
¡°Lots of reasons,¡± Gwen said. ¡°Look at what she¡¯s doing now. So much of her potential is waiting to be awakened. She got two branches, and suddenly our spicy shortstack can fly.¡±
¡°I mean, yeah, but I still don¡¯t¡¡± Heath trailed off, uncertain.
¡°It¡¯s the best way to protect Mel. And support her goals,¡± she said more quietly with an undercurrent of heat. ¡°A challenger as brilliant as Mel with half the average Magi¡¯s aspect skills? That¡¯s deeply wrong.¡±
¡°Damn, your group must have a lot.¡±
¡°It¡¯s harder to tell now,¡± Gwen admitted. ¡°We¡¯ve been fractured for over a month. Still, she is the reason we can hunt these beasts. And Mel didn¡¯t even think to demand, let alone ask a price. She¡¯s changed.¡±
¡°Usually that¡¯s a bad thing. What do you mean?¡± Heath asked.
¡°Mel has a power to find stronger monsters that has¡well, earned her the claim to victory. I consider a branch my price of admission to the plateau beasts.¡±
While her [Condensate] was on cooldown, Mel went over her other skills. What else would be changed by consuming blood instead of mana?
One skill particularly came to mind. One that she couldn¡¯t shake felt¡ cheaty to use with [Blood Magic]. However, [Blood Magic] didn¡¯t restrict her from any specific skill.
The only skill she couldn¡¯t use with [Blood Magic] was, unsurprisingly, [Blood Magic] itself. Not because it was restricted though. You couldn¡¯t buff something that was, in itself, a buff. It needed a target to enhance. Without a target, it did nothing.
Shocker.
Mel closed her eyes and drew on her [Sanguine Coat] at the same time as she used [Blood Magic] with [Sanguine Coat] to remake the coat into something better. It felt weird. Like she was pulling and pushing on herself at the same time.
When she opened her eyes, she fully expected it not to work. After all, it felt a little bit like troll physics.
Her coat rippled across all its surfaces, darkening and growing more leathery than watery. The shine it possessed reminded her more of her favorite motorcycle jacket, polished leather instead of highly reflective liquid.
¡°If only I could be so lucky to have friends like you all,¡± Heath said with heartfelt sincerity. ¡°The Emerald eyed Demoness, the Thundergod, and the Dreadwolf all together.¡±
Mel turned around, looking at herself, stretching her arms to see the coat more fully. It was smaller and thinner from consuming so much blood, but it was well worth it.
Even thinner, Mel could tell that the coat was sturdier, its properties enhanced with [Blood Magic]. How much? She would have to wait and see.
Crossing my fingers that this keeps it around instead of disappearing the moment I go to sleep, Mel thought wistfully to herself.
Gwen sighed. ¡°Aw man, I got another wolf alias? Guess I haven¡¯t been subtle with the claws and the mantle.¡±
¡°Makes sense,¡± Thomas said with a chuckle. ¡°You took out those competitors that stabbed me in the night.¡± He looked up into the sky wistfully. ¡°It was like watching lightning strike.¡±
¡°Yeah, okay, mister Thundergod,¡± Gwen teased him with amusement.
¡°Mel¡¯s is the coolest though,¡± Health said, beaming with pride. ¡°Speaking of, what¡¯d you do with your coat, Mel? It looks different!¡±
Mel looked over. ¡°What? Oh. I cheated.¡±
¡°Sounds about right,¡± Thomas said, still mulling over what aspect skill he wanted to awaken with his kindling branch. He rolled it over in his hands in idle thought. ¡°You used [Blood Magic] on your coat, right? Reforging it into its present form?¡±
Gwen moved well into his personal space, sniffing the branch. Her nose scrunched up with displeasure.
Mel¡¯s elated expression drooped. ¡°Why are you like this?¡±
Thomas roared with laughter. ¡°Great minds think alike, that¡¯s all.¡±
¡°It took me hours to realize I could do it,¡± Mel muttered petulantly to herself. ¡°But yes, that¡¯s what I did. Used the blood from my [Sanguine Coat] to create another [Sanguine Coat] with the help of my new skill. So it¡¯s stronger and better without spending a single drop of mana.¡±
¡°That¡¯s some sick resource efficiency,¡± Gwen said.
¡°That¡¯s why it looks so thin,¡± Thomas said with a nod. ¡°We should go out hunting to replenish your stores.¡± He shut his eyes and the branch in his hand vanished in a puff of motes. ¡°And I can test out my new skill at the same time.¡±
¡°You¡¯d think so,¡± Mel said. ¡°There are some serious drawbacks though. I can only hold so much blood at once, for starters.¡±
¡°Can you take it from other people?¡± Heath asked nervously, his fingers fidgeting.
¡°Anything that has blood, yeah. I don¡¯t see much in the way of wildlife here. It¡¯s looking pretty desolate.¡±
¡°Hold on,¡± Gwen said. ¡°You can pull blood out of us?¡±
Mel shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s not like I¡¯ve tried, but I imagine it would be no different. I doubt aspect skills see a difference between friend and foe, unless you make them.¡±
¡°No wonder it¡¯s called [Blood Magic],¡± Gwen said, eyes glittering darkly.
¡°Listen, it¡¯s not like I can pull the blood out of your eyeballs or anything,¡± she said, rolling her eyes. ¡°But if you left a little blood on the ground¡who¡¯s to say?¡±
¡°Could always let you try. Not the eyes though. I like seein¡¯.¡±
¡°If you want to donate, sure. The blood I use changes the properties of my coat.¡± She motioned to the dark, leathery blood coat she wore. ¡°This is from the plateau beast, so it¡¯s stronger than usual. Of course, as soon as I go to sleep, it¡¯ll go away.¡±
¡°Try on a living monster first, maybe? Then again¡¡± Gwen¡¯s voice trailed off.
The implication was there. Werewolf blood could be useful.
Mel shook her head. ¡°Intrinsic weakness to silver? Nah.¡±
Gwen frowned at that. ¡°I suppose your rings would end up doing damage to yourself.¡±
¡°Probably not me, but that might be true of the coat.¡± She turned to Thomas. ¡°What¡¯d you get, Thundergod ?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t listen to Mel. I think your title is suitably impressive,¡± Gwen told Thomas with a wink. ¡°Completely unrealistic to us, but in the eyes of Earthers? Especially those Disjoined from their time period. Of course they¡¯d come up with Thundergod.¡±
Thomas didn¡¯t even roll his eyes at Mel. He merely grinned with a brilliant, unsettling twinkle in his eyes. ¡°You¡¯ll see.¡±
Mel folded her arms. ¡°At least tell us the aspect.¡±
¡°Summer.¡±
Mel tried not to laugh. ¡°Gonna give me some nice summer rain to revitalize my drooping begonias?¡±
Thomas opened his mouth to say something, but Mel suddenly latched onto what Gwen was saying. She put up a finger to stop Thomas. ¡°Bup-bup-bup! This is not the first time I¡¯ve heard that word, ¡®Disjoined¡¯ when talking about Earth.¡±
Heath looked especially confused by that. ¡°You don¡¯t know what¨C¡±
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¡°She has memory loss,¡± Thomas said, still glaring at her for shushing him.
Gwen studied Mel¡¯s face thoughtfully.
Mel stared blankly at Gwen. ¡°You¡¯re not going to drag the memories out of me by staring at my gorgeous pixie face.¡±
¡°Yeah, I know,¡± she said reluctantly.
¡°So, are you ass clowns going to tell me what a Disjoined person is, or am I going to have to use my¡ª¡± She lifted her hands up and spread them out in an arc away from each other as she said, ¡°¡ª Imagination?¡±
¡°Relax, Mel.¡± Gwen crossed her arms. ¡°Disjoined is a common term referring to lands and cultures that were brought forward in time during an anomalous event that affected the entire globe. People from across Earth¡¯s history were suddenly living alongside each other.¡±
¡°This is not a multiverse thing,¡± Heath added helpfully. ¡°This is an Earth thing.¡±
Sitting on a rock, Thomas stretched out his legs and crossed his ankles, reading the Shardscript to his new skill.
¡°Nana Wimpley always explained it as a really bad stitch job,¡± Heath said. ¡°Like somebody had tried to bring pieces together to cover gaps and holes, but they didn¡¯t have everything they needed so they just sorta¡pulled from whatever they could. Sometimes that ended up being a town in 1990s California, others it was the 1550s in Europe. I heard there were still viking settlements from the 800s popping up in Scandinavia.¡±
Mel frowned. ¡°So it¡¯s like an ongoing thing?¡±
¡°Nobody knows,¡± Heath said simply. ¡°It¡¯s hard to tell if it¡¯s because they weren¡¯t inclined to contact the outside world, or if it¡¯s because they just appeared. Like, if you were a viking and saw an overpass, would you want to go near it and all the cars? And even if you did, how many people would understand you?¡±
Gwen looked away nervously.
¡°Probably think you were going to a convention or something,¡± Mel said.
¡°Right.¡±
¡°Was it just time then?¡± Mel asked.
¡°I don¡¯t follow.¡±
Mel motioned to Gwen. ¡°Were werewolves always a thing?¡±
Gwen looked up at Mel with great surprise. ¡°Well, yes. There¡¯s always been the supernatural lurking on the fringes, out of public knowledge. My father is a regal werewolf, and my mother was raised within a Magi household.¡±
Heath looked surprised at that. ¡°I¡didn¡¯t know. Does¡.does that mean magic has always been a thing!?¡±
Bless his dorky, weird little heart, he¡¯s so excited.
¡°There¡¯s a lot those outside of the Magi circle don¡¯t know,¡± Thomas said distractedly. ¡°It¡¯s part of our job to keep the supernatural away from most humans.¡±
¡°To protect us?¡± Heath asked.
Thomas laughed darkly. ¡°Hell no. To protect them . Humans are fine on their own. Individually, your standard human is full of hope and optimism, they can be reasoned with and enlightened. The creature you call a group, however, is flighty, panicky, and prone to snap judgments of unremitting horror.¡±
¡°They¡¯re not that bad,¡± Heath argued weakly. ¡°It¡¯s not like whatever you guys do.¡±
¡°Which is?¡± Mel asked curiously.
¡°Well¡¡± Heath looked away. ¡°I¡¯m not saying I mind, okay? Just¡I want that clear, okay?¡±
¡°Sure, sure, you don¡¯t want anybody to hate you for your undoubtedly shitty take,¡± Mel said, rolling her wrist to tell him to keep going.
Heath hunched his shoulders. ¡°I noticed it most with Mel. At first, I figured it was just her. However, it¡¯s all of you. Most normal humans abhor violence. They have to psych themselves up to hurt another person or thing. They need to hate them or be backed up into a wall or¡ something . Each of you go from calm and placid to a murderous tornado of violence in less time than it takes a normal person to realize there¡¯s a threat at all. By the time a person would normally identify a problem, you¡¯ve already got your hands bloody.¡±
Thomas nodded. ¡°Ethos shaving.¡±
¡°What?¡± Heath asked.
¡°I suppose you could call it Magi conditioning,¡± Mel explained. ¡°Every Magi undergoes it at their own pace. It¡¯s part of what makes a Magi¡a Magi.¡±
¡°But what is it?¡±
¡°Remember when you said ¡®normal people¡¯ need to psych themselves up to hurt another person?¡± Thomas asked.
Heath nodded.
¡°Magi don¡¯t need to do that.¡± He glanced at Gwen. ¡°Even those that do¡well, they don¡¯t need to.¡±
¡°Sometimes, I try to give people who don¡¯t know what they¡¯re getting into a chance,¡± Gwen explained, handing over a tin of [Armament Polishing Oil] to Mel. ¡°Admittedly, it¡¯s never the first thing I think of.¡±
Mel got to work, restoring some of the lost durability of her twinblade.
Thomas motioned to Mel. ¡°Mel is a good example. You¡¯ve no doubt seen her in action. That conditioning that needs to be done, to turn another person, monster, creature, or whatever into a target, isn¡¯t necessary with us. We have only a razor thin margin between action and inaction. Most people need a reason to attack.¡± Thomas shrugged. ¡°Magi don¡¯t have that limiter that stops a person from killing somebody else. I know that makes us sound like monsters, but it¡¯s necessary when you¡¯re dealing with creatures who can¡¯t be reasoned with or understood. Things that wouldn¡¯t blink twice at consuming your soul and twisting your body into a bloody pretzel for its own amusement because it doesn¡¯t think you¡¯re really alive . Not like it is, in any case.¡±
Heath looked from one person to the next. ¡°That. Sounds. Awesome . How can I get that training?¡±
Mel laughed. ¡°Leave it to Heath to see the value of ethos shaving.¡±
¡°Hell yeah!¡± Heath said. ¡°I didn¡¯t even think to fight back against that old lady that stabbed me¡ª¡±
Mel rolled her eyes. ¡°Here we go again.¡±
¡°¡ªinstead, I worried that I was about to make a mistake. I was afraid . Not of her, but of my own actions. I didn¡¯t want to hurt her. It was like some barrier inside my own mind pushing me back.¡±
Thomas nodded along thoughtfully. ¡°That¡¯s precisely what it is. It keeps people civil.¡±
¡°And you don¡¯t have it?¡± Heath asked.
¡°We remove it, but most people have it. Those that don¡¯t are people with other issues.¡±
Sitting down, Heath hunched forward and shook his head. ¡°Like psychopaths? No, it makes sense. Little wonder whenever a true psychopath has been born, they usually rise to prominence. We must look like sheep to them.¡± He looked at Mel, then Gwen. ¡°To all of you.¡±
¡°Oh, I do like eating sheep,¡± Gwen said wistfully, thinking with her stomach and missing the point.
Mel put a comforting hand on Heath¡¯s shoulder. ¡°We¡¯re not psychopaths. It¡¯s like saying you have a¡¡± Mel looked around, searching for an analogy. She looked at Gwen and found the perfect one. ¡°It¡¯s like having a ball and chain shackled to your leg.¡±
¡°Hey!¡± Gwen said.
Mel waved away her concern. ¡°Shush. The ball and chain is the problem, not the limb it¡¯s attached to. Being born a psychopath is like being born without that limb. Therefore, no ball and chain, right? However, they also don¡¯t have that limb. That makes them very different. Your average human in a group¡ªpsychopaths included¡ªhowever, is a terribly dumb and untrustworthy creature. There¡¯s more to Magi than making us more prone to casual violence.¡±
Thomas looked over. ¡°The intelligence of any group of humans drops precipitously with every added member until you¡¯re left with nothing more than a mob. So, back on topic, no we aren¡¯t protecting the humans. We keep the supernatural hidden in all its beauty and glory to protect them . ¡±
Gwen smiled at that.
Heath frowned. ¡°But aren¡¯t you human? You keep saying ¡®human¡¯ as if we are different from you.¡±
¡°I¡¯m a Magi first, human second,¡± Thomas explained. ¡°You are always a Magi first and foremost. Above race, creed, nation, even blood.¡±
¡°That would explain a lot,¡± Heath said thoughtfully.
¡°I probably would have been burned at the witch trials,¡± Gwen said casually, maintaining her clawed weapon by the fire now that Mel was done. ¡°Still, it was rough for Earth, but it was better than the alternative.¡±
¡°Wait, what alternative?¡± Heath asked, eyes bright.
¡°Darkshard Lormar invading. The very place of nightmares that has joined us in being uplifted into the multiverse.¡±
¡°That¡¯s just an old wive¡¯s tale though,¡± Heath said. ¡°Some sort of mass hallucination that people had, right? Horrible dreams, something about a magnetic storm causing it.¡±
Gwen¡¯s sympathetic smile told Heath all he needed to know.
Heath pursed his lips in thought. ¡°Nana Wimpley did always believe in the Savior,¡± he said slowly. ¡°We just figured she needed something to latch onto in her old age. Some shred of hope.¡±
¡°She was closer to the truth than most.¡±
¡°Well, hold on now,¡± Heath said, putting his hand out like a crossing guard. ¡°She also believed in storing pee in jars and using it to coat the doorstep to ward against demons she called the ¡®Vacant¡¯.¡±
Thomas and Gwen both grimaced at that.
¡°Did it work?¡± Mel asked.
¡°She said she was never bothered, but the cousins also didn¡¯t want to visit her farm during the summer for that same reason. It got really bad when the summer heat baked it into the air.¡±
¡°Well,¡± Mel said, ¡°horrifying stories about old women doing weird things aside, I appreciate the history lesson. It¡¯s weird that I can¡¯t remember that stuff when I remember so much else.¡±
¡°Memory loss is often spotty,¡± Thomas said soothingly. ¡°It will come back on its own with time.¡± He gestured at the sky and the surrounding thermal springs. ¡°A battlefield is not a good place for healing. It is little wonder that you haven¡¯t remembered anything.¡±
Mel was sure that wasn¡¯t the reason. She was having a harder and harder time ignoring the obvious signs in front of her. There was one thing that Thomas said, however, that she clung to.
A battlefield was not a good place for healing.
She would have time after the trial was over to chase these threads. To find out where her place was in this new multiverse and with the Magi. As much as it pained her, she only needed to wait a few more days. Until then, she needed to stay focused on the trial.
After taking out the assassins, she had gone from #19 to #12. Another plateau beast might push her into the single digits. From there, she would be within spitting distance of the coveted top three.
With her two new aspect skills, she was more prepared than ever to take on new threats. Mel stood up suddenly, drawing all eyes to her. ¡°Let¡¯s go find something to kill.¡±
Chapter 88 — Plateau Beast Hunting
Mel pressed her back to a crystalline tree as their target emerged out of the thermal spring. It looked like a rocky toad the size of a grizzly bear.
Gwen was just a few feet away, her back pressed to another tree. They both peeked out, watching the monster.
[Gorlash (High Copper Rank¡ªPlateau Beast)]
Mel kept an eye on it, staying out of sight as the creature crawled across the ground, eating up the accumulations of sulfurous crystals.
She summoned her twinblade and glanced over at Gwen. ¡°So you¡¯re royalty, right?¡±
The flash of surprise that turned to horror was plain on Gwen¡¯s features. She absolutely could not hide her emotions to save her life. ¡°N¡no?¡± She heaved a sigh. ¡°I mean, I guess technically, in a distant sort of way.¡±
Mel was tempted to needle her about it. It was just too easy to rile her up, but now wasn¡¯t the time. ¡°Kinda like forty-fifth in line for the throne or something?¡±
¡°Something like that,¡± she begrudgingly admitted. ¡°The throne¡¯s been broken and scattered for a long time.¡±
¡°Is that¡common? Royal werewolves, I mean. You never did say where you were from. Heath won¡¯t shut up about Ohio.¡±
¡°He really does have Ohio eyes,¡± Gwen said.
¡°Boy does he ever.¡± Mel glanced back at her. ¡°No deflecting though.¡±
¡°Fine. Regal ¨Cnot royal, and yes it¡¯s different for us¨Cis rare. I wasn¡¯t kidding when I said I¡¯m not a basic werewolf. Only¡being Mundane and then Copper has made things messy.¡±
They fell silent as the rocky toad shot its barbed tongue into a pack of smaller, lesser monsters.
The range and speed of its attack was considerable.
They started off hunting gorgans, smaller monster toads that were roughly the size of an armchair, to get used to hunting in a four-person party. Culling them brought out the gorlash, a much larger and fiercer foe by far, and worthy of the title plateau beast.
The plateau beast hopped onwards, pursuing another pack.
Mel and Gwen moved between the trees, following it at a distance. It showed definite signs of being deaf. The conversation only further proved their suspicion.
¡°I¡¯m Disjoined though,¡± Gwen admitted. ¡°From northern Europe in the 800s.¡±
That hit Mel hard. She¡¯s a Magi from the past?
¡°Girl, you¡¯re a literal viking.¡±
¡°Well, yes. I traveled the world and went to New York later. That¡¯s where I met you.¡±
¡°Naturally, you were awestruck with how beautiful modern women were,¡± Mel said, tossing her blonde hair over one shoulder. The braids on the left side of her head hung freely past her ear.
It was an auspicious sign that a quest had popped up for hunting the plateau beast as they were stalking it.
New Quest: Plateau Hunting
Track down and fell a plateau beast before night falls to deepen the connection to your blessing and take one of the first steps of forging yourself into a true Hunter alongside those taking a similar journey.
Objective: Slay a plateau beast before the sun sets (0/1).
Reward: (1) [Hunt Token].
Blessing advancement.
Mel stalked forward, keeping to the gorlash¡¯s flank as she used [Hidden Mist] charged with [Blood Magic]. Her [Sanguine Coat] dulled slightly as more blood was pulled from it, but the effect was more than worth it.
A mist as thick as pea soup rolled out, as if Mel had dropped a smoke bomb the size of a sedan. ¡°Damn. I could get used to this.¡± She focused for a second to allow the others to see within the mist, then stepped out from her hiding place.
¡°It is impressive,¡± Gwen agreed.
Mel held out her hand, aiming at the demon toad¡¯s back while she spread her blessing to her allies. Casting [Omen Mark] was the signal to attack. She only hoped that Thomas and Heath were in position already. ¡°Are there a lot of Disjoined Magi?¡±
Aspect Skill: [Omen Mark]
A [Thunderbolt] screeched out from behind the cover of trees, slamming into the tough, stony hide of the gorlash. She heard Thomas curse somewhere off to the side.
¡°A fair amount. Charlie¡¯s from 90s California, and Victor is¡¡± Frozen chains launched out of Gwen¡¯s claws, wrapping around the gorlash and pulling her in. Mel lost the rest of what she was saying.
Aspect Skill: [Fenrir¡¯s Frozen Chains]
Mel darted forward as the gorlash hopped toward Thomas¡¯ last location, thrashing and breaking Gwen¡¯s bindings.
Aspect Skill: [Fanning Ravens]
The gorlash twisted mid-hop, an impressive display of dexterity for an otherwise corpulent creature. Its barbed tongue lashed out, glowing red hot and reeking of rotten eggs.
Mel coughed and put a hand over her mouth before she realized she still had the [Fire Monk Mask]. She slipped it over her mouth and nose, gesturing for Gwen to do the same.
They skidded to a stop when the gorlash landed and its tongue pulled back into its mouth, holding onto a crystalline tree. It snapped in half as it bit down with its odd, beak-like mouth.
Heath was running to the side, surprisingly not screaming despite his flailing.
The ground erupted around the stone toad, breaking and cracking beneath its webbed feet. It managed to hold its ground until an underground pocket of gas ruptured through the cracked stone.
Choking gas filled the area and even managed to make the plateau beast falter for a moment until it breathed in like a giant vacuum. It pulled in all the noxious fumes like it was feeding on them.
¡°Holy shit,¡± Mel said. ¡°That¡¯s awesome!¡±
The gorlash grew several sizes, towering above the stunted trees and boulders of the hot springs.
Despite being faced by an overwhelming adversary, Gwen had some serious balls using [Howl at the Moon] to draw its attention away from everyone else.
Mel turned to her. She used [Condensate] to spear a boulder, tree, and the floor with three nails. ¡°A little warning next time?!¡± she asked as she pulled herself out of range.
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The gorlash spun around as if Gwen had personally stomped on all its little tadpoles. Its big glowing yellow eyes searched for her and gave up, lashing out its massive tongue wherever it thought she might be.
Barbed and glowing red hot, the tongue latched onto a tree and uprooted it. Pulling it back in, Gwen had to drop to all fours to dodge the tree¡¯s grasping branches. The [Primal Mantle]¡¯s wolf-like spirit on her back silently snarled in defiance.
Supercharging [Bane of Tartarus] with blood, Mel¡¯s [Sanguine Coat] became dangerously thin. She hadn¡¯t been able to harvest much blood from the gorgans. They had an unfortunate tendency to explode when hit too hard.
Probably from eating all the sulfur and shit around here, Mel thought.
Gwen lunged forward, raking the plateau beast repeatedly with [Primal Rend] in a rapid frenzy before rolling away. The magic weakness affliction built up thanks to [Omen Mark].
The gorlash shot its tongue where the Berserker had just been, struggling to find her through the thick haze of [Hidden Mist].
Mel swooped through the air, pushing from two nails and pulling with another. She swept across the gorlash¡¯s side, slashing with her frostbite twinblade with all her might.
It didn¡¯t matter. Its hide was too thick and tough.
Even Hush was struggling to burn it as he coiled around the gorlash¡¯s ankle using [Binds of Fire]. His scales glowed like hot embers, but the gorlash hardly noticed the little guy.
Mel was afraid that at any moment the snake might get crushed, but he was too brave to seek safety. Even when the gorlash opened its mouth and whipped its barbed tongue into Gwen¡¯s side.
The viking Magi managed to turn the hit into a glancing blow, causing her to crash into a hot spring with a heavy splash.
Better than being pulled into its mouth, Mel thought.
Using [Windstorm], she darted in front of it and began shouting at it before she remembered it was practically deaf.
It might have been deaf, but it could feel her stomping around easily enough. The gorlash turned its stony head, looking right at her despite the thick mist all around.
¡°Shit.¡± Mel¡¯s body jerked to the side as she pulled herself to a nearby nail, narrowly dodging a darting tongue that shattered the stone floor of the battlefield.
Gwen fell from the sky, crashing into the stone toad¡¯s head between its bulbous eyes. Mel had seen the damage [Falling Meteor] could do. This time, it hardly made a mark.
The gorlash stuck out its tongue and whipped its head back, swiping its large, barbed tongue out and on top of Gwen, flattening her to the gorlash¡¯s head.
Mel¡¯s yell was dwarfed by Thomas¡¯ bellow of rage. She reversed her direction, slashing at the underside of the gorlash¡¯s tongue.
A sticky, acrid fluid that glowed bright orange flowed out of the wound. She managed to get two more hits in, forcing the gorlash to retract its tongue without pulling Gwen in.
The gorlash was hit with a barrage of aspect skills from the side. Bolts of lightning, shattering earthquakes, and even a strange series of faceted tentacles raked across the creature¡¯s side.
None of them got through its tough hide, but they did serve to draw its attention fully.
Hopping up into the air, the gorlash came down with a colossal crash right where Thomas had been. He must have dodged at the last second because the updraft of air from the monster¡¯s landing pushed him high up above the top of the mist.
Mel shouted out a warning, but he wasn¡¯t listening. His eyes glowed like two small suns as he glared balefully at the gorlash.
The dumb creature locked onto the floating Warmage as he raised a finger gun into the air. A small bead of red-orange light gathered in front of his index finger. Thomas brought it down, bracing his forearm as if it was suddenly heavy right as the gorlash opened its mouth.
Its glowing, bleeding tongue sprang out toward him at the same time as Thomas mimed shooting the tiny bead of light at the gorlash.
Aspect Skill: [Vulcan Fireball]
Mel surged forward, pushing against her [Condensate] nails to reach Thomas and the gorlash. Even though she was aiming for the base of its tongue, she knew she wouldn¡¯t get there fast enough.
Thomas didn¡¯t bother to move. As soon as the gorlash¡¯s tongue approached, he took out his wand and swept upwards. A hemisphere of light appeared, but the barbed tip of the creature¡¯s tongue wrapped around Thomas¡¯ leg, ignoring whatever he had done.
The bead Thomas had sent into the monster¡¯s mouth erupted into a blinding sun the size of a small house. The gorlash¡¯s vulnerable¨Cand highly volatile¨Cinsides were set ablaze. Its tongue ripped apart where Mel had cut it open from the first blast.
A series of intense explosions contorted the creature¡¯s bulbous body weirdly. Its confused expression was the last thing Mel saw before it was blasted apart in a conflagration of gore that rained down burning body parts across the entire plateau.
You defeat a [Gorlash (High Copper Rank¨CPlateau Beast)].
You gain extra runes of Divine, Mist, Blood, Serpent, and Omen aspect experience for slaying a Boss Monster.
You gain extra Battle Points for slaying a Boss monster.
Your [Avatar of Askara] Serpent aspect skill advances to [Copper Rank (Grade 5)].
Your [Condensate] Mist aspect skill advances to [Copper Rank (Grade 3)].
Your [Hidden Mist] Mist aspect skill advances to [Copper Rank (Grade 10)].
Your [Agility (Mist)] attribute advances to [Copper Rank (Grade 10)].
Thomas drifted the rest of the way to the ground, his [Float] skill keeping him from falling to his death.
As soon as he was down, he rushed to Gwen¡¯s side.
She struggled to stand. The fur jutting out of her armor was smoking from the bubbling lava seeping through the chainmail. It looked like lava, but it behaved like poison.
Thomas pressed a health potion into her hands. ¡°Drink,¡± he instructed hoarsely.
Mel arrived a moment later, but realized she couldn¡¯t do anything for Gwen aside from prying off the flaming creature¡¯s hide that had stuck to her back.
Gwen shook her head, but took it anyway. Her constitution noticeably improved. A severely burnt wound branded deeply into her side from the gorlash¡¯s tongue slowly mended as if time was reversing. And yet, the poison-like lava seeping from Gwen¡¯s armor didn¡¯t go away.
Pressing her fists together, Gwen squeezed her eyes shut. Silvery moonlight billowed out from between her knuckles. The energy flowed over her body, settling on her armor and skin like diamond dust.
Aspect Skill: [Lunar Scourge Shroud]
Gwen breathed a sigh of relief, though she didn¡¯t seem to be much better. The poison-like lava continued to seep from Gwen¡¯s armor.
¡°Shit, it¡¯s an affliction, isn¡¯t it?¡± Mel realized.
[Lunar Scourge Shroud] granted additional shielding health in proportion to the number of affliction stacks Gwen suffered from. The Moonlight aspect skill didn¡¯t cleanse the afflictions, but it allowed the Berserker to endure them significantly longer.
Though, it would only prolong the inevitable if the damage of the afflictions ate through the temporary shroud of health from [Lunar Scourge Shroud] if the afflictions were not cleansed.
It was amazing to watch. The glowing affliction coating her body was held at bay by a thin vaporous barrier of moonlight, preventing the affliction from opening up the wounds that Gwen¡¯s health potion had just closed up.
Heath arrived, out of breath.
¡°I can get rid of it!¡± Heath said. He reached into his pockets and pulled out a small packet of parchment, and handed it over to Gwen.
¡°Fifteen stacks of it?¡± Gwen asked woozily. ¡°Plateau beast afflictions are rough¡¡±
Mel watched curiously as Gwen opened up the packet and took out a marble-sized sphere. It looked like a chocolate candy ball.
¡°Is that a chocolate malt ball?¡± Thomas asked incredulously.
Gwen popped it into her mouth. Her grimacing expression made Mel suddenly wonder if chocolate was okay for werewolves.
Luckily, she kept that as an inside thought.
The flames subsided, but they didn¡¯t extinguish entirely, so Gwen popped another, then another. Each time, the tortured expression on her face told them that whatever the medicine was, it definitely did not taste like chocolate.
¡°It¡¯s medicine,¡± Heath said. ¡°It cures nearly any affliction.¡±
¡°What in the Seven Hells is this made from?¡± Gwen asked miserably.
¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Heath admitted. ¡°I found it in a tomb.¡±
Then, for the first time that Mel had ever seen, Gwen passed out. The moonlight from [Lunar Scourge Shroud] shattered into motes and the softly glowing [Primal Mantle] faded away.
Heath looked at her, then at Mel. ¡°What? It¡¯s probably still good, right?¡±
Chapter 89 — Plateau Beast Hunting II
They set up camp around Gwen, dragging her off to the side where it was slightly sheltered. She was easier to move now that she wasn¡¯t literally on fire.
Thomas glared daggers at Heath, but didn¡¯t say anything as he lit the fire and tucked Gwen into her sleeping bag.
Her absence was felt when there was nothing cooking over the fire.
While Thomas was taking care of Gwen, Mel rolled over some boulders for seating and looked through her completed quest.
Quest Complete: Plateau Hunting
Objective: Slay a plateau beast before the sun sets (1/1).
Reward: (1) [Hunt Token].
Blessing advancement.
The [Hunt Token] appeared in her inventory, neatly stacked on top of the previous one. Mel took the shred of gorlash hide that she had pried off Gwen and touched it with her hand.
It was far more pliable now, more like cured leather than stone. Almost as if the monster¡¯s mana had made it stiff. Without the beast¡¯s mana, it was just ordinary¨Cif incredibly tough¨Cskin.
Would you like to loot the [Gorlash (High Copper Rank¡ªPlateau Beast)]?
The moment Mel agreed, the sheet of lumpy skin vanished. Streams of multi-colored light flowed to the sky like they were in the middle of an aurora. Colorful light wove around them, joining together, splitting apart, and then diving for each of the four companions.
(1) [Hunt Token] has been stored in your inventory.
(1) [Stone Ember] has been stored in your inventory.
(1) [Leaden Pearl] has been stored in your inventory.
(1) [Belt of the Indomitable] has been stored in your inventory.
(1) [Gorlash Hide] has been stored in your inventory.
(5) [Vials of Gorlash Venom] have been stored in your inventory.
Blessing Advancement!
[Blessing of the Hunt]
(Blessing, Rare)
Spirits of ancient beasts predate the Realmtree¡¯s birth. These creatures are unknowable, but ultimately interwoven into the very fabric of the multiverse. They may not possess Anchor Runes, but the power they wield is something that even the Kindred struggle to comprehend.
The phenomenon of their existence lies outside the guidance of the gods, both Inner and Outer. As such, these primordial creatures are capable of rarely bestowing blessings upon individuals they feel a connection to. How and why these creatures choose their champions is a mystery to all but the primordial spirit.
Your spirit has taken on a portion of the primordial¡¯s power, bringing your soul in line with those great and mysterious creatures both vile and sublime.
Imprint(Common): You can sense exceptionally powerful creatures near you. Whenever you engage in battle with a creature of great power whose strength eclipses your own, you ignore a portion of the rank disparity. The more hunts you partake in, the greater power this blessing will bestow upon you.
Imprint(Uncommon): Your ability to sense powerful creatures is further enhanced. The amount of rank disparity you ignore is further enhanced. You can now extend your blessing up to 8 other people.
Imprint(Rare): You can now sense strength, speed, and intent of powerful creatures. You ignore an even greater amount of rank disparity. You can now extend your blessing up to 10 other people.
Mel struggled to shut out the additional noise in her head now. She could feel so much more about the other plateau beasts. For a moment, while she grappled with the new information, Mel felt more than a hundred such creatures.
The information threatened to split her head open until she gained control over it. As her mind adjusted, Mel¡¯s ability to detect plateau beasts was even more refined.
Not only could she tell that two beasts on nearby plateaus were sleeping, while a third was out hunting, but she could tell that the first two were High Copper, while the last was simply Copper.
Extending her senses out further, taking it easy not to overwhelm herself again, Mel found stronger monsters at the very cusp of High Copper.
She even found a few Iron monsters more than a day or two away. Mel couldn¡¯t shake the feeling that they were near the center of the trial.
Her instincts told her to go to the center of the trial. Not only for the stronger plateau beasts. She could feel something else there. It was small. A tiny seed of power that was steadily growing.
While not a plateau beast, she could sense it in a similar way. Right now, it was even weaker than Heath, but that wouldn¡¯t be true for long.
Various types of loot appeared around Mel¡¯s friends. Some toad-like armor for Heath, something that looked like a spell scroll molded into the shape of a staff for Thomas, and the most surprising of all was a giant greathammer of mottled metal right on top of Gwen¡¯s unconscious form.
It was bigger than she was.
It took all three of them working together to push it off her. Heath collapsed to the side, wheezing and out of breath.
¡°She probably won¡¯t mind, right?¡± Mel asked, creeping closer to the gargantuan weapon.
¡°You mean the not breathing part?¡± Heath said nervously.
Mel reached out to the weapon. ¡°Nah, I just wants a look-see¡¡±
[Melted Colossal Hammer]
(Copper Rank, Weapon)
(Legendary)
A colossal greathammer that is too large and heavy for mere human hands, demanding extraordinary Strength to wield for its rank and rarity. Forged from a mixture of a plateau beast¡¯s nature and a spirited viking¡¯s Red, Green, and Orange tinged Deeds.
Imprint: Increases the maximum critical damage of Strength bound aspect skills. Amplified armament weight and momentum even when unsummoned. Greatly increased physical strike damage. Improved guard block.
Requires: [Strength (Copper Grade 15)]
[Heavy Martial Weapon Knowledge (G-Tier)]
¡°Dang, girl,¡± Mel said softly. ¡°I don¡¯t know if you can use that. And if you can¡well, dayum. I¡¯m really far behind.¡±
Gwen turned over and held onto the hammer like she was cuddling a lover.
Mel looked at her and the hammer. She looked up at Thomas. ¡°Sorry, bro. Looks like she¡¯s made her choice.¡±
Thomas rolled his eyes at her and pulled the sleeping bag cover over Gwen so she could get some sleep. She mumbled something and pressed her face into the hammer¡¯s warm metal.
¡°Was that your new aspect skill?¡± Mel asked Thomas.
He couldn¡¯t contain his grin. ¡°Yeah.¡±
¡°Was it¨C¡±
¡°Yep!¡±
Heath looked at them. ¡°Was it what?¡±
¡°Everything that he hoped it would be,¡± Mel elaborated. ¡°It¡¯s kind of an inside joke among Magi that we never get a ¡®fireball¡¯ spell, no matter where we go. It¡¯s rare for some reason.¡±
¡°But it¡¯s so glorious,¡± Thomas whispered in awe. ¡°Did you see how it blew up? It looked like something out of a movie.¡±
¡°Michael Bay would have been proud,¡± Mel said with a grin.
¡°Who?¡± Thomas asked.
She shook her head. ¡°Nobody.¡± Mel pulled out the belt. ¡°Y¡¯know, I didn¡¯t even know belts were a type of equipment.¡±
¡°Really?¡± Heath asked. ¡°I have one.¡±
Thomas finished tucking Gwen in. ¡°Me too.¡±
¡°Oh, sorry, I¡¯m not cool like you two are,¡± Mel snapped. ¡°But I¡¯ll bet neither of you have a belt as awesome as whatever [Belt of the Indomitable] is!¡±
On second thought, I probably should have read the description before boasting like that.
[Belt of the Indomitable]
(Copper Rank, Armor)
(Legendary)
Forged from a plateau beast¡¯s sturdy nature and an indomitable witch¡¯s Blue, Green, and Violet tinged Deeds.
Imprint: Reduces cooldown of Agility bound aspect skills. Raises defense against physical damage. Greatly increases resistance to Yellow aspect skills. Contains inner pockets linked to a pocket dimension for alchemy potions and ingredients.
Requires: [Agility (Copper Grade 10)]
¡°Screw you, belt! You think you¡¯re better than me?¡± Mel shouted, shaking the belt. ¡°I don¡¯t have Grade 10 agility!¡±
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Hold up.
Mel kind of remembered a prompt about hitting Grade 10. She looked at her status.
[Mel Harper]
Race: Human
Rating: [#8] Exile (G-League) [1
st Echelon]
Class: Witchblade
Rank: High Copper
Next Rank: Iron (70%)
[==Attributes==]
Strength [Divine Aspect]: Copper (Grade 5)
Agility [Mist Aspect]: Copper (Grade 10)
Vigor [Blood Aspect]: Copper (Grade 7)
Sense [Serpent Aspect]: Copper (Grade 7)
Arcane [Omen Aspect]: Copper (Grade 5)
[==Aspects==]
[Divine Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 5)
? [Tempest Heart] (Grade 5)
[Mist Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 9)
? [Hidden Mist] (Grade 10)
? [Condensate] (Grade 3)
[Blood Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 7)
? [Sanguine Coat] (Grade 8)
? [Blood Magic] (Grade 1)
[Serpent Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 7)
? [Gaze of the Serpent] (Grade 8)
? [Avatar of Askara] (Grade 5)
[Omen Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 5)
? [Omen Mark] (Grade 5)
? [Bane of Tartarus] (Grade 6)
Nevermind.
¡°I take that back.¡± She stroked the wide leather belt. ¡°I¡¯m sorry baby. You know I love you. It won¡¯t happen again, you just make me so mad sometimes .¡±
Heath gave her a slack-jawed look. ¡°My highest attribute is five! And here I thought I was doing exceptionally well.¡±
Thomas and Mel looked a little guilty. The only reason Mel¡¯s agility was at Grade 10 was because she was constantly using [Primeval Brews] to enhance her Blue deeds and agility-bound aspect.
The latest brew had just worn off.
¡°You don¡¯t happen to have a [Cinder Ampoule], do you?¡± Mel asked.
¡°...No? Should I? What is it? It sounds good.¡±
Thomas put a comforting hand on his lean shoulder. ¡°It is comparable to the [Soul Kiln].¡± He paused. ¡°You¡do have a [Soul Kiln], right?¡±
Heath¡¯s bottom lip trembled a little as he nodded. ¡°Yeah¡¡±
¡°Good.¡± Thomas looked over Heath¡¯s head at Mel. ¡°Seems you were right. The ampoules must be rare indeed.¡±
¡°Better for us,¡± Mel said. She winced when she saw Heath¡¯s puppy dog expression. ¡°Sorry, buddy. I don¡¯t know how to get you one. We found ours through a quest that we completed in a tomb that had a big, sexy¨C¡±
Gwen woke with a gasp, pulling out of the sleeping bag, seeming disoriented.
She stared in confusion at the greathammer in her arms. ¡°The heck?¡±
They all turned to Gwen.
¡°You were making out with it,¡± Thomas said, stone-faced.
¡°...Really?¡± Gwen grinned widely, staring at the weapon dreamily.
¡°Yeah,¡± Mel added. ¡°You were muttering about how much strength it required to be lifted. Saying things like ¡®aw, yeah baby, I¡¯ll lift you up real good, mmmhmm.¡¯¡±
Heath turned to Mel. ¡°How do you get your voice so low?¡±
¡°Years of creeping people out.¡±
Gwen gave Mel a skeptical look, then rested the greathammer on her shoulder like it weighed no more than a typical greatsword.
¡°How?!¡± Mel cried.
¡°Hmm? What¡¯s got your panties in a twist?¡±
¡°Okay, one? I don¡¯t wear oppression devices. I go commando all the way. Secondly? How do you have strength at Grade 15?!¡±
Gwen beamed at Mel and swung the gigantic hammer one-handed into the campfire.
Heath jumped back with a shout, but the weapon disappeared into a rush of moonlit ash before it flattened the logs and probably set them all on fire.
¡°I¡¯m five grades away for my highest stat,¡± Mel muttered enviously.
¡°It¡¯s okay,¡± Gwen said. ¡°My attributes are wickedly unbalanced. I focused strength this entire time. I didn¡¯t stand up very well against that plateau beast, after all.¡±
Heath crawled back to his seat. ¡°So you can bust easily?¡± he asked earnestly.
¡°You better rephrase that or else,¡± Gwen threatened him gruffly.
True confusion crossed his pale features. ¡°What¡¯s another word for bust?¡±
¡°Nut,¡± Mel said unhelpfully.
Thomas coughed, his face turning red as he tried not to laugh.
¡°Heath!¡± Gwen snarled.
¡°I don¡¯t know what I did wrong!¡± he cried.
Mel looked doubtfully at him. ¡°You must hear it.¡±
Heath¡¯s vacant expression said it all.
¡°Oh shit.¡± Mel laughed. ¡°I figured you were just screwing around, but you really don¡¯t hear it do you?¡±
¡°No! People look at me all the time like that and they get mad at me too and I don¡¯t know why!¡± Heath kicked the dirt. ¡°It¡¯s that gypsy¡¯s curse all over again!¡±
¡°I don¡¯t think a gypsy makes you say inappropriate things.¡±
He looked at Mel. ¡°What¡¯s inappropriate about busting?! It¡¯s what you do when you bust down doors, right?¡±
Gwen glared flatly at him.
¡°Oh, my sweet summer child.¡± Mel shook her head. ¡°How about this? Don¡¯t say ¡®bust¡¯.¡±
Heath thought about that for a moment. ¡°Okay. I can deal with that.¡± He turned to Gwen. ¡°So uh¡you can blast easily?¡±
Thomas cackled like a hyena.
¡°I swear, boy, I will crush your fragile little bird bones to dust.¡± Gwen loomed over him.
Heath¡¯s innocent calf-brown eyes widened. ¡°I can¡¯t say blast either?!¡±
¡°Let¡¯s ban that one too,¡± Mel said.
¡°Fine! I don¡¯t see what¡¯s so wrong about it, but I don¡¯t want to rock the boat.¡± He cleared his throat. ¡°You do strength good?¡± He looked terrified.
¡°Do you think I¡¯m an imbecile?¡± Gwen demanded.
¡°My vocabulary isn¡¯t very large! Why is everything I say wrong?¡± Heath wailed.
Gwen turned eerily calm. Smiling viciously, she picked him up by the sides of his arms.
¡°Don¡¯t bang me, please.¡±
¡°Oh trust me, that¡¯s never happening.¡±
Heath relaxed. ¡°Oh, thank goodness. I was afraid¨Cwait, what¡¯re you doing?¡±
As soon as Mel saw Gwen turning him upside down like she was going to pile drive him through the ground, she grabbed her arm. ¡°I think he¡¯s either learned his lesson¡ª¡± Mel looked at Heath¡¯s confused face. ¡°¡ªor he has no idea what¡¯s going on. In either case, punishing him isn¡¯t going to get the desired result.¡±
¡°How can you be so sure?¡± Gwen asked. ¡°It¡¯s worked wonderfully on everyone else in the past. Except you, of course.¡±
Fortunately, she put him down.
Mel looked at Heath. ¡°¡®Don¡¯t bang me please¡¯? What did you think was going to happen?¡±
¡°I thought she was going to bang me on that rock there,¡± Heath admitted shakily.
¡°You lot already tease me enough,¡± Gwen pointed out, sitting down on her sleeping bag.
¡°I make fun of everybody. You ain¡¯t special,¡± Mel objected. ¡°I am an equal opportunity hater.¡±
¡°Impossible,¡± Heath said. ¡°You¡¯re too nice to be a hater.¡±
Mel gestured to him. ¡°See? How can you be mad at him when he so clearly has a warped sense of reality?¡±
¡°See?¡± Heath said. ¡°She says I have a good outlook on life.¡±
Nobody knew what to say to that.
¡°Yeah,¡± Mel said. ¡°He has super brain damage.¡±
Heath visibly squirmed when Gwen looked up into his eyes. ¡°A health potion isn¡¯t going to fix that,¡± she said.
¡°I¡¯m sorry if I¡¯m inappropriate,¡± Heath said earnestly. ¡°I just don¡¯t hear it. I really don¡¯t want to get kicked out of another group. Or left in the Food Lion parking lot. But it¡¯s okay, I get it. My mom was busy too. Sometimes you just forget about your eight-year-old son every now and again.¡±
Mel nudged Gwen to get her to say something.
Gwen shot Mel a sharp glance. ¡°You¡¯re fine, Heath. You¡¯re not going to get abandoned by us too.¡±
¡°My mom didn¡¯t abandon me.¡±
¡°Totes did,¡± Mel said.
¡°No, no, you don¡¯t get it. She had an errand to run, and it was very important.¡±
¡°Somehow, Heath has achieved a sadder, more vulnerable status than even Hush,¡± Gwen said gently.
Hush, curled up in the embers of the fire, rattled his twin tails at hearing his name, just like a puppy.
¡°All that aside, I¡¯m sorry for failing,¡± Gwen said. ¡°I plan on acquiring more defensive aspect skills and a great deal of vigor to support the group better.¡±
¡°You didn¡¯t fail anybody,¡± Thomas said. ¡°You took a hit like any of us would have. The beast is dead, the points are ours. That¡¯s all that matters.¡±
¡°And the loot,¡± Mel said, digging out the ember and pearl. ¡°Can¡¯t forget about the loot.¡±
¡°So much loot!¡± Gwen cried, embracing her hammer tenderly. She met Mel¡¯s eyes like she could read her thoughts. ¡°You better believe we¡¯re sticking together after this competition.¡±
Chapter 90 — Stars Above
Mel didn¡¯t know how to respond to that. ¡°What do you mean? Why would I leave any of you?¡±
¡°I¡¯m just making sure everyone knows this doesn¡¯t have to be temporary,¡± Gwen said.
¡°I¡¯m riding Mel¡¯s coattails to the top,¡± Heath admitted. ¡°She¡¯s going to need somebody to beat off all her admirers.¡±
Mel looked at him. ¡°Come on, man!¡±
Heath smiled innocently and shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t hear it.¡±
¡°He really needs to see Charlie or¡I don¡¯t know, Camilla,¡± Gwen remarked. ¡°Wait, weren¡¯t you with Camilla?¡±
¡°They said I needed rest,¡± Heath offered. ¡°She healed me though. I was running for days without sleep. You wouldn¡¯t think a group of cannibals would chase you very far, on account of how easy it would be just to eat each other, but you¡¯d be wrong.¡±
Mel held up the [Leaden Pearl]. She showed Heath. ¡°You got one of these, right?¡±
[Leaden Pearl]
(Catalyst, Pearl)
(Rare)
Over the Ages, impurities in ambient mana precipitate into solid motes, growing in size and power until they become pearls. Even the smallest of seeds yearn to be something great one day.
Imprint: Mix into an ampoule to create a new concoction. Hardens skin. Vastly increases weight, vigor, and defense, while reducing movement speed and agility.
Heath rooted around in his pockets and pulled one out. ¡°Yep. Is that what you need an ampoule for?¡±
¡°Precisely,¡± Mel said. ¡°If you¡¯re getting pearls, the system has to give you a [Cinder Ampoule] eventually. It doesn¡¯t make any sense not to.¡±
¡°I do have some quests I haven¡¯t looked at yet,¡± Heath said. He looked nervously at them. ¡°You¡¯re not going to make fun of me for reading them, are you?¡±
As much as Mel wanted to say, ¡®no¡¯ she felt that it would be too big a commitment. ¡°Why do you ask?¡±
¡°I¡¯ve been told by a certain shrub that I ¡®do weird things with my face¡¯ when I look at the system text.¡±
¡°Shardscript,¡± Mel corrected.
¡°Yes, that.¡±
Poor guy has been through a lot, Mel thought. No wonder he ran straight for me when I used the coin. He didn¡¯t have anybody else who welcomed him. Well, except for the other Magi. And we¡¯re fond of welcoming misfits like us. People who don¡¯t fit into normal society.
¡°All right,¡± Mel said, knowing she was going to regret it. ¡°I won¡¯t make fun of you.¡±
Thomas cleared his throat and turned around so he wasn¡¯t looking at Heath¡¯s face.
Mel stared, transfixed. ¡°I¡can¡¯t¡look¡away.¡±
Heath was contorting his face this way and that. It went far beyond mouthing the words. It was like he was trying to taste the glowing script. Sometimes he smacked his lips, grunted, and then chewed on a corner of his lip.
I need a pillow to scream into, Mel thought, biting her lip so hard she tasted blood. I said I wouldn¡¯t make fun of him. I said it. I did this to me. I have no mouth and I must scream.
¡°Well, today¡¯s a bad day to have eyeballs,¡± Gwen said miserably. ¡°I need to look at something else that isn¡¯t so¡¡± She made a vague motion and turned away.
¡°Ignorance is bliss,¡± Thomas said, going over his loot. ¡°Huh.¡±
¡°What?¡± Mel said, grabbing onto anything that would relieve her from this personal hell. She got up and sat next to him, eager to put Heath and his weird facial animations at her back.
¡°The last plateau beast was agile and strong,¡± Thomas explained. ¡°This one was slow and sturdy. Each time we received rewards tied to what they were. A [Wind Ember] and a [Blitz Pearl] for the tarikan, and a [Stone Ember] and [Leaden Pearl] for the gorlash.¡±
Mel took out the [Stone Ember] and looked at it. ¡°Your point?¡±
[Stone Ember]
(Catalyst, Ember)
(Rare)
A chunk of dense, heavy stone with glowing veins of amber. Place within a soul kiln to apply affinity to armaments or tinge to concoctions.
Imprint: Applies Stone affinity to armaments. Applies Stone tinge to concoctions.
Mel tossed it up and down in her palm as she listened to Thomas.
¡°With your ability to detect plateau beasts, could you determine their alignments ahead of time?¡±
Now she understood where he was going. ¡°I don¡¯t think so. It upgraded again, but it only lets me know the strength of the creature.¡± She pointed to the west. ¡°There¡¯s an Iron plateau beast over there, for example. No idea if it¡¯s fire, wind, or even cotton candy aspect though.¡±
¡°Damn. I was hoping¡well, I guess it doesn¡¯t matter.¡±
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¡°Are you looking for something specific?¡± Mel asked.
¡°Thunder or lightning, preferably,¡± Thomas said. ¡°I¡¯d even be happy with fire. As we transition into the final days, I think it would be a good idea to have brews on hand to help us fight.¡±
Mel looked at him thoughtfully. ¡°You¡¯re thinking about the assassins.¡±
Thomas looked up at the cloudy sky. The sun was beginning to set, painting tarnished rays of gold across the underside of the clouds. ¡°The higher our rating gets, the more we become targets ourselves. Eventually, we¡¯ll have to spend all our time defending or running.¡± He looked sharply at Mel. ¡°And I don¡¯t intend on running.¡±
¡°Neither do I.¡± Mel put the ember away. ¡°The problem is, if we come across a plateau beast that doesn¡¯t have what we want, we can¡¯t just turn around and find another. It takes at least a day or more to zero in on its location, and even then, going in blind seems like a bad idea. And that¡¯s assuming we¡¯re right about how their loot works.¡±
Thomas smiled gently at something. Mel glanced over. Gwen was sleeping with the greathammer again.
¡°You really should just tell her how you feel, man,¡± Mel said, nudging him gently in the ribs.
Thomas chewed on his lower lip. ¡°Maybe after,¡± he said. Mel had never heard him so unsure. ¡°There are a lot of things to figure out before we can cross that bridge.¡±
¡°Doesn¡¯t seem that complex to me.¡±
He barked a bitter laugh. ¡°Things are never as simple as they appear. When dealing with Magi, that¡¯s more true than anywhere else. We can¡¯t even be sure that you¡¯re¨C¡±
Gwen grumbled and shifted in her sleep, her brow breaking out in a sweat. Thomas slipped off the rock he was sitting on and went to her side. ¡°Her nightmares have been getting worse,¡± he said, shoulders hunching.
Mel couldn¡¯t shake the feeling that he blamed her somehow. Everything about his posture told her that he was struggling to hold something back.
¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± she said softly, but apparently not softly enough.
Some of the tension bled out of Thomas¡¯ shoulders. ¡°It¡¯s not your fault.¡± He sighed. ¡°How could it be when you don¡¯t even remember us? That¡¯s the rub, isn¡¯t it? Even if you wanted to, you can¡¯t help. You don¡¯t know how.¡±
Mel pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them. ¡°I could try.¡± Hush slithered over. His twin tails rattled as he affectionately curled around Mel¡¯s arm and laid his head on the back of her forearm.
His ruby red eyes peered wondrously up at her, his little tongue flicking in and out.
Thomas shook his head.
There was a finality to his posture that told her in no uncertain terms that the conversation was over. She looked at Hush and petted his little head.
He didn¡¯t sink into her skin like usual. The small, two-tailed ashfang stayed with her as she slipped into her sleeping bag.
Heath came over to check on her once or twice, but Mel kept her eyes shut the entire time. Long after everybody else had fallen asleep, Mel stayed awake, unable to drift off.
Even Hush had fallen asleep wrapped gently around her forearm in a loving embrace.
Mel got up and stared at the night sky peeking out through the shredded clouds above. All the little things that she had ignored up until now were bubbling right under the surface.
The clouds scudded awkwardly across the sky in great sweeping bands. Mel watched them for a long while, trying to sort out her own feelings on¡well, everything.
She usually avoided moments of self-reflection for this very reason. It blunted her edge. At a time when she needed to be anything but reflective, Mel suddenly found herself turning inward instead of outward.
Her goals and desires were always aimed at keeping her moving. Always keep one foot in front of the other. Bad things happened all the time. By always taking another stride forward, she made sure that they would be behind her sooner rather than later.
Even before Sabrina, Nathan, Maddie, Bernard, and Shane, Mel had held the hands of friends and family on their deathbed. Many of them were younger than she was now.
So why did it seem different this time?
Why did it feel like there was something intrinsically wrong with simply existing?
It was more than the sad, soulful look Gwen gave her at times. More than the glowering pain that Thomas hid behind his golden gaze. If the pair of them knew more than they were letting on, they weren¡¯t going to tell her just because she asked nicely.
Something had happened with the spell that brought them all here. That much was clear.
The problem was, she had no idea what happened. No Magi, not even thirteen, should have been able to uplift not just one, but two Worldshards. That should have been beyond them.
Item one: find out how the spell was supposed to work, ideally with the original script. Item two: find out how the spell went awry, barring that, find out what happened when it did. Item three: well¡I don¡¯t know what the hell comes next after that. I¡¯ll figure it out as I go.
One thing was abundantly evident. The spell hadn¡¯t gone as planned, and the resulting fallout kept the Magi away from each other. You didn¡¯t gather 13 Magi together and then all go your separate ways. No matter what Thomas said.
There was no way that 13 Magi would join together in the first place if there wasn¡¯t a strong bond between them. Which made it even stranger that they were splintered so readily.
Almost as if they didn¡¯t want to see each other again.
Mel couldn¡¯t detect any open hostility when either Thomas or Gwen spoke about the other Magi. Heath didn¡¯t mention anything strange about Jacob or Camilla¨Ctwo people Mel had heard of before, but certainly not as Magi.
Jacob and Camilla were from Lormar, Mel remembered. And Lormar was also uplifted to this new reality¡which doesn¡¯t make sense. Lormar was a Darkshard. They don¡¯t get uplifted.
Unless it was healed somehow.
Hal was embarking on a similar mission on Aldim. It wasn¡¯t entirely unreasonable that somebody could reverse a Darkshard, but it would take a singularly powerful individual. Most Magi wouldn¡¯t be able to handle it. It would require a student of Stowhr at least.
Mel pulled her knees tighter to her chest and rocked back and forth, watching the clouds whip across the heavens. Her thoughts bounced from Aldim to Brookmoors and back again.
She didn¡¯t know how she came here. It made no sense. She should still be on Aldim as the gold elf, Mira.
Almost as concerning, the Magi shouldn¡¯t have split up. If it was a competition, everybody stood to gain more if all 13 stuck together. Even if there was some level of animosity¨Cpractically a given with a large enough group of Magi¨Cthey would have better odds in a group.
Mel chewed her lip and watched the sky, studying the stars and the clouds as she mulled over her options.
That was why she was one of the only people in the trial to see the faint sparkle of light. It appeared for just a fraction of a second, but it was unmistakable.
Something had been bothering her about the way the clouds were moving. Even as her mind was a million miles away in another reality trying to piece things together, Mel¡¯s eyes studied the sky for the source of the wrongness.
She was looking right at the exact spot where the flash of light created a tiny rip in the sky.
It was a rift, but more importantly, she recognized it as something else. Something that shouldn¡¯t exist.
A manastorm.
Chapter 91 — All or Nothing
Quest Update: All or Nothing
Objective: Maintain the Black Fence by keeping Jacob, Camilla, Shrubley, and Smudge confined to the Hall of Martyrs (0/1).
Reward: Increased favor among the Lormar Covenants.
Runes of Flesh, Plague, Dark, Omen, and Devour aspect experience.
(100) [Copper Rune Coins].
Divergent Objective: Sacrifice your plague beast in the Ritual of Black (0/1).
Reward: Contact with the Outer Plane.
Audience with Stymhalzt.
Nymasolth licked her lips hungrily. She was desperate to show up the other Covenants, but they had agreed to a plan. Now the Shard saw fit to offer her and her subjects a way out.
A small voice in the back of her head warned her, the plague beast is all that is keeping the dreaded Magi occupied. If we withdraw it, there is no telling what will happen.
Nymasolth adjusted her black shawl, richly embroidered with the screaming faces of those she had already sacrificed. A fragment of their souls was bound within the dark fabric and would serve her until her demise, which she did not foresee happening for many centuries.
With Stymhalzt¡¯s assistance, she might never see that day come to pass at all.
Yok¡¯sal had been adamant about keeping this so-called ¡°Black Fence¡± plan intact. Yet, if the opportunity presented itself, could any of the Covenant Elders deny their patron¡¯s call?
Would they even be worthy Elders if they did? In a way, the Shard and her patron were testing her.
What did it matter if the other covenants suffered when her own would be elevated beyond them? They would be worthless worms to be ground under her obsidian heel at her leisure.
In the end, it took Nymasolth a little more than a few seconds in her private study to come to a decision. Sacrificing her plague beast, a gift from the Vile Covenant, would be a worthy sacrifice.
That was clearly all that was missing. A proper sacrifice. They had already thinned the veil enough with the blood of the innocents watering the very stones of this once-hallowed place.
Nymasolth looked up from her altar at the back of the cavernous hall that could have housed the hundreds of thousands that used to be part of her Covenant in the days of proper Lormar.
Her numbers had dwindled, along with every other covenant. Worse, she was relegated to this squishy, fleshy prison. Her true form was a larval reflection of her master and patron, but it was a work of art compared to this soft doughy sack she currently inhabited.
She rubbed her long, graceful neck, reminiscing when she used to have large bulbous poison sacs to spew deadly toxins at her enemies. Now she didn¡¯t even have mandibles or a hardened exoskeleton, just flesh and pointless hair all over.
In places that didn¡¯t even make sense!
A man in ratty black robes shuffled his slippered feet up to the base of the steps and fell to his knees in proper prostration. ¡°Mistress, the Magi are pressing the outer battalions. We await the support of your dreaded plague beast. What are your orders?¡±
This was the moment of truth. Trust in the loathsome Vile Covenant, or have faith that her true master will deliver her salvation?
It was no choice at all.
¡°Send everything we have against the Magi, but deliver the plague beast to me, personally,¡± Nymasolth instructed. That Audience with Stymhalzt would be rightfully hers, and all the insidious glory that awaited.
There was the barest hesitation from her underling, but he knew better than to question her. Bowing and scraping, he left the room through the hidden side exit.
Nymasolth cast her hooded gaze across her prison for the last time. She would ascend to the Shardrune properly, leaving behind the fools that dared to call themselves her equal.
The altar was split off from the rest of the cavernous space by a wide and impossibly deep rift. Only one path from outside led to the altar, and she had been thorough in its obfuscation.
The rest of the wide cavern was filled with countless pillars the size of tree trunks. Upon each pillar were supposedly the names of martyrs from wars long lost to memory and time.
A fitting place to rip open the veil. So much death and loss was a powerful catalyst when properly utilized by one with the right knowledge.
I will carry them no longer, Nymasolth thought to herself. How she hated that Shae¡¯kathoth knew so much. She thought about recalling her most loyal vassals, but the Putrescence Twins were too valuable to lose should things go awry.
She would keep them far away from this place.
Plans often went wrong when dealing with Magi. Even still, the Twins were fortunate they would not serve in the same capacity as the plague beast.
Nymasolth would betray it all to achieve that most profane of Audiences.
The sound of fighting echoed through the main hall by the time her plague beast was delivered to her. The gruesome thing had four arms, two ending in delicate human hands, and two others in gruesome crab-like claws covered in blessed black carapace.
How she craved to return to her proper form in the image of her lord.
Bound to her will, the plague beast reared its handsome mandibles, dripping with poison. They clacked together, confusion evident upon the creature¡¯s prickly brow above its single compound eye.
¡°Rest easy, my love,¡± Nymasolth said soothingly. ¡°You will join with our lord before the rest of us. Lie down on the altar and prepare yourself. You will be celebrated among all our kin as the Sham¡¯blinka , the opener of ways for the worthy.¡±
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Such a sacrifice required more than her usual tools. This was personal . Her plague beast was bound to her very soul. Killing it in the name of her lord was the ultimate gift. And any proper gift was suitably personal.
Shutting her eyes, Nymasolth summoned her available aspect skills. A grim smile blossomed on her full lips. If there was one thing she loved about this new reality, it was the aspects.
Gone were the days of painstaking adherence to strict study and training. She could learn impossibly strong spells simply by reading a scroll or finding a kindling branch.
And they were so delectably cruel. A true reflection of her own blackened heart.
She used several skills in quick succession, blocking out the tidal wave of pain with a chant to her patron that would otherwise cripple her frail human body.
Aspect Skill: [Rend Flesh]
Aspect Skill: [Contort]
Aspect Skill: [Retrieve]
Aspect Skill: [Gore Weapon]
Sweating profusely, Nymasolth gripped the gruesome weapon of blood and bone in her free hand. Her other was a useless husk, harvested of all that it could offer.
There was no better tool suited to the task.
She raised the sinuous dagger, still dripping red with her own blood over the first of the plague beast¡¯s five hearts.
¡°You alone will behold the cold majesty of Ayldi-Roon, first among our kin, be glad!¡±
With buttery smoothness, Nymasolth¡¯s sacrificial dagger slid through the plague beast¡¯s armored carapace over its chest. An explosion of power surged through her veins and spiraled up into the cavernous ceiling high above.
¡°Take joy, my child!¡± Nymasolth shouted gleefully, stabbing a second heart.
Each time her knife slid into the creature¡¯s armor with ease, furthering her twisted desires to take proper Audience with her lord once more. This was the right path to take, she knew it in her very bones.
The darkness high above her head began to twist and warp as the growing power battered at the veil between realities, but with only two more hearts to go, she already knew there was a problem. This Shardrune was stronger than anything she had seen before.
Unseen forces were at work, preventing the ripping of the veil. Already, they were undoing her work. More death would be needed to fuel her ascension.
Focusing, with her plague beast barely clinging to its tormented life, Nymasolth used [Binding Recall] to bring all those underlings she had branded with her mark.
A heap of bodies appeared at her feet clad in black robes, many bleeding or missing appendages. Several screaming from some wound or another.
¡°Feast!¡± Nymasolth cried.
Black veins crawled up the necks and faces of her loyal subjects as the plague beast drew in their vital essences.
Oily smoke flowed out from their noses, mouths, and eyes to join the plague beast.
¡°Rejoice!¡± she screamed in ecstasy, stabbing her dagger into his fourth heart.
Somewhere in the middle of so much screaming and writhing, there was a tiny voice that said, ¡°Aw, nuts.¡±
Nymasolth was too lost in exaltation to pay attention to the small voice of one of her dying underlings. She gripped her one good hand around the dagger and thrust down for the final time.
Just as she expected to feel the buttery smooth slide of her dagger into her plague beast¡¯s carapace, something jarred her already weakened arm.
Her blade rebounded off something hard and metallic. Her eyes flew open, seeking the disturbance, only to find a very small green shrub holding up a peculiar pink shield with a giggling face drawn on it.
¡°I am Shrubley, the monster adventurer! I have come to stop you!¡± the shrub, who could apparently talk, yelled at her.
¡°And I am Smudge!¡± the pink shield cried.
Nymasolth mentally commanded the plague beast to grab the foul green thing.
Weakened, but unable to resist a command from its mistress, the plague beast grabbed Shrubley with its large crustacean pincer. Unfortunately, it lacked the strength to crush the creature.
In fact, it could barely hold on to the wriggling shrub as it called out, waving sword and shield around. ¡°Do not do this! You are going to harm the Shardrune!¡±
¡°Precisely,¡± Nymasolth said wickedly. ¡°Once I have opened a rip, I will make sure your soul comes along for the ride. My lord will be hungry when I meet him. He is always hungry.¡±
Shrubley flailed, his bright yellow lamplight eyes going wide at the threat. Nymasolth, pleased that her affairs were in order, raised the dagger again. Before she could plunge it into the plague beast¡¯s last heart, Shrubley¡¯s flailing became too much for the monster to hold back.
Shrubley¡¯s momentum rolled the plague beast over on the altar, inadvertently causing the last strike that would kill it to miss.
Nymasolth howled with rage and lunged for the plague beast¡¯s heart, but Shrubley was faster. Using his small body attached to the beast¡¯s long arm, he was able to shift the creature again by using it like a lever.
Nymasolth saw what was happening and lunged once more, but only managed to rip into the plague beast¡¯s hip as it rolled off the altar table.
Before she could get around to the side, it hit the stairs and picked up speed. All the while, Shrubley screamed his bushy head off. They rolled faster than Nymasolth could catch up to them.
The Elder watched in abject horror as Shrubley managed to wriggle out of the plague beast¡¯s claw and cling with his branch-like limbs to a crack in the stairs.
Severely weakened and without the strength or sense to stop its roll, the plague beast rolled right off the stairs and into the chasm that separated the altar from the rest of the cavernous room.
Nymasolth shrieked in righteous rage, turning her gruesome dagger on the small shrub. ¡°You will pay for that!¡±
She thrust the dagger down on the defenseless, ridiculous, and utterly incomprehensible little creature for its interference. It deserved to suffer for a thousand lifetimes for its meddling!
¡°I am sorry,¡± said a small, very sad voice.
Nymasolth couldn¡¯t quite understand what was going on. Her arm fell limp to the side. Her sacrificial dagger landed on the steps beside her with a moist and meaty plop.
Two glowing lamplight eyes, shining orbs that somehow conveyed a deep sadness, stared out at her from the depths of glossy green leaves.
Nymasolth gasped as coldness stole the life and strength from her limbs. She tried to ask a question, to curse the creature before her, anything, but she could not summon the strength.
How?
In her last moments, Nymasolth¡¯s head drooped, and her vision narrowed upon the simple wooden blade thrust clean through her chest.
Oh.
Darkness closed in around her. A vile, oily hand of dark smoke reached through the thinness of the roiling darkness above and ripped her soul free of its mortal shell.
Nymasolth knew true terror as she joined her once beloved patron, whom she had failed so spectacularly.
Chapter 92 — Threads Unwound
Jacob slid back under the rabid assault of a covenant member dressed in black robes and armed with two long, sinuous daggers. He kept his shield up, biding his time until the man¡¯s burst of frenzied excitement wore off.
The moment his flurry lapsed, Jacob struck like a viper, taking the man in the throat. His arms fell limp to the side and Jacob shield bashed him off the sword¡¯s blade to make room for the next covenant member rushing to greet him.
¡°Where did Shrubley go?!¡± Camilla cried beside him, working her rapier back and forth to keep the prodding weapons at bay. Jacob drew most of their ire, but some still managed to get attacks off on Camilla.
They were slowly making progress up the narrow ledge that wound its way around the mountain and led to a large cavern that Jacob suspected was where the covenant members were coming from.
The tide of battle was shifting. On the ledge, the remaining forces couldn¡¯t use their superior numbers to their advantage. An advantage that the two skilled swordsmen were quickly erasing with every kill.
They had almost been overwhelmed on the previous mountain plateau when a surge of black-robed killers emerged from everywhere at once. After only a few minutes of intense fighting, they disappeared in streams of black smoke, taking Shrubley¨Cwho had been grappling a large man to the ground¨Cwith them.
Jacob twisted his longsword, batting aside a thrusting sword with three solid strikes before the black-robed wielder knew what was happening. Jacob shield bashed him in the face and on the recoil, slid his shield onto his back in one smooth, practiced motion.
As blood gushed from the man¡¯s face, Jacob took up his sword in both hands. Flames rushed out between his fingers as he focused on his most cherished aspect: Pyre.
Coiling sinuous tongues of flame swept up the hilt and blade in one direction, and over his arms and shoulders in the other.
Aspect Skill: [Pyre¡¯s Remembrance]
Gouts of white fire flared from the tip of his blade and spread to the clumped up covenant members in black. As the bane of corruption, the Pyre¡¯s flames sought out all forms of foulness and unnatural order.
As Jacob slashed and stabbed, ridding the world of one more twisted soul, the flames of the Pyre shot out and scoured the corruption from those nearby.
Camilla¡¯s icicle rapier took mercy on those writhing from the Pyre¡¯s flames, ending their suffering swiftly. In short order, they cleared the way ahead.
Jacob leaned against the wall of stone and caught his breath. He wasn¡¯t used to being so weak. It had been a long time since he was anything but the Firesoul.
Camilla put a comforting hand on his shoulder and a soothing wash of vitality flowed through him.
Aspect Skill: [Rime Frost Bolster]
Jacob nodded his thanks, and they took off up the path once more. They had just reached the mouth of the cave when the blue sky was ripped asunder. A force like a tidal wave the size of the mountain bore down on them.
Pouring everything into [Pyre¡¯s Remembrance], Jacob commanded the flames to flare on either side of his upraised sword. The force washed over the wedge of flames, split to either side, and crushed the rock into dust until all that remained of the plateau was a narrow walkway into the mountain¡¯s heart.
The flames winked out, taking a good portion of Jacob¡¯s stamina and mana with them.
¡°I don¡¯t like this,¡± Camilla confided in him.
It reminded Jacob of the horrifying events the moment he stepped foot into the Forbidden Kingdom for the first time. It was even worse than the Shroudlands.
Still, he kept the fear and horrors witnessed locked up deep within himself. They were his burden to bear, no one else¡¯s.
¡°Shrubley and Smudge are inside.¡± He pointed with his sword. ¡°Would you leave them to fend for themselves?¡±
Camilla bit her lip and shook her head. She would go through the Abyss itself for that little shrub and his bubblegum pink friend, and so would Jacob. Few people who met and talked with Shrubley and his monster companions could say otherwise.
There was something innocent and wholesome about them that compelled you to care for them. Shoulders squared once more, the pair cautiously made their way into the heart of the mountain to find their lost friends.
Sylvie sat on the sidelines as she fed Komachi treats. The little pobul that many non-Magi often mistook for a potato-shaped otter, reached out with dexterous paws and took the treats from Sylvie.
Komachi had, once again, over-extended herself. She wasn¡¯t used to being so weak, but with sufficient food, she would recover.
Sylvie passed a large dried berry to Komachi¡¯s left-back paw. It gripped the dried fruit, passed it to her front-right forepaw, and then to her mouth.
She had a very particular way of eating recovery snacks. Always from back paw to forepaw, then to mouth. Try to feed her in any other way and she not only recovered slower, but grumbled and whined the whole time.
Sylvie looked up as a flash of light drew her attention back to the battle at the center of the mountain pass. Hal was facing off against an ogre with an oversized wooden club. He weaved in and around its lumbering attacks, flowing like he was a dancer with that singular curved bone blade.
Miranda and Cal were watching from the side.
Komachi noshed on another berry, turned her head to view the battle, and let out a little squeak like a rubber balloon. ¡°Why he fightin¡¯ on his own?¡±
¡°Him and Miranda have some sort of wager going,¡± Sylvie said with a grin. She knew her brother well enough to be certain he would win. ¡°She doesn¡¯t think he¡¯s capable of taking on a strong monster by himself without any of us in the battle.¡±
Komachi passed another dried berry from one paw to the other, then finally to her mouth. ¡°Looks like he¡¯s doin¡¯ okay,¡± she said around a mouthful.
Stolen novel; please report.
¡°He¡¯s only using two of his aspects,¡± Sylvie pointed out. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen him use Beast yet. He¡¯s probably just toying with the monster.¡±
Miranda folded her large arms. ¡°Any day now would be good,¡± she jeered. ¡°I could have that beaten with just a few good swipes of my scythe claws.¡±
Hal turned to her, bowed low with his sword and arm out to the side. Sylvie recognized the danger he was in immediately, but she didn¡¯t warn him. She didn¡¯t even stop feeding Komachi.
Cal clutched his Wizard staff with white-knuckled ferocity. Then again, his knuckles were always white on account of him being a skeleton.
The ogre sensed his imminent victory and swung with all his might in a powerful overhand chop meant to knock Hal¡¯s head into his stomach.
In a smooth, graceful motion, Hal pivoted and turned. His black hair was rustled by the passing cudgel, but he was otherwise unharmed. Hal came up, bone scimitar leading like a ghostly dancing partner. It looked far too gentle in Sylvie¡¯s opinion, but with the ease of a pobul gliding through water, Hal thrust his scimitar deep into the guts of the ogre.
With a vicious grin, he jerked the blade and twisted, ripping it out with maximum force.
The ogre was already dead, but it didn¡¯t know it. The cruel thing was too busy trying to keep its intestines from spilling out to notice the killing move.
¡°Machi is entertained!¡± Komachi let out a couple of excited chirps, clapping her paws at the display. For once, she actually seemed a little impressed.
Hal¡¯s arm swept out to the side, pale flames gathered in his hand and extended out toward the ogre. After just a few inches, however, the flames fell one after the other as if suddenly succumbing to gravity.
With a jerk of his hand, the flames blazed brightly. When the fires died down, they had transformed into a series of linked pale blades.
Aspect Skill: [Vertebral Whip]
Just as Hal¡¯s arm jerked back and then shot forward, the sky broke open somewhere far to the south.
The ogre, his attention snared by the strange celestial event, looked up just in time to see the serrated whip coming for his head.
Sylvie stared at the beautiful and intense magical feedback. She could feel the emanations from here. Somebody had nearly ripped a hole in the veil of the Shardrune, but they hadn¡¯t been strong enough.
Unfortunately, they were strong enough to create a powerful feedback storm from the damage.
Hal, Sylvie, Komachi, Miranda, Cal, and the sightless ogre¡¯s head all stared up at the swirling colorful clouds of mana. The clouds were whipped about, forming a halo of power around the distant mountain.
¡°Where are you going?¡± Miranda asked Sylvie.
She looked over her shoulder at the towering vampyr. ¡°Isn¡¯t it obvious? We¡¯ve been chasing ghosts because we had nothing better.¡± She pointed. ¡°This is something better.¡±
Komachi chirped in agreement, wriggled out of Sylvie¡¯s arms, and took off toward the mountain. The stones cracked beneath the charging pobul¡¯s paws.
***
A Bloodtide member staggered to the side, clutching a mortal wound to his neck. He rebounded and came forward, taking his hands off the wound to reach for a weapon.
Ashera raised a pale finger and wagged it admonishingly at the man. ¡°Ah! I would not do that, were I you. Take pressure off that wound and you will die in a few heartbeats. Tell us why your people are slaughtering innocent bystanders and I will heal you.¡±
His bloodshot eyes darted between the Archivist and three Magi, replacing his hands over the wound. Blood trickled between his fingertips. If he thought he might find more sympathy than Ashera¡¯s sea glass green eyes offered, he was sorely mistaken.
Solomon folded his bulky arms, inked heavily with Samoan tribal tattoos. The broad man loomed as he habitually did, though he rarely meant to. Despite being a gentle giant, it was easy for anyone who did not know Solomon to misread his contemplative expression as one spoiling for a fight.
Victor, in all his finery, was examining his nails in utter boredom, while Aegis kept the room¡¯s lone entrance secured against any new threats.
¡°Now, kindly tell us what we want to know,¡± Ashera said calmly. ¡°Do so, and I will see to it that you are healed of your affliction.¡±
His eyes darted back and forth. ¡°The covenants are gathering power, I don¡¯t know anymore than that! We¡¯re just told to make as many sacrifices as possible in the name of our covenant! Now please, help me!¡±
Ashera tapped her chin thoughtfully with a fingernail. ¡°Hmm, no. Not buying it.¡±
¡°What!?¡± the Bloodtide member wailed. He staggered into the corner of the crypt. It suddenly dawned on him that his body would soon join the dead here if he didn¡¯t offer a suitable answer. Then he remembered overhearing something Mistress Semthra had told the High Cleric.
Ashera nodded sympathetically, urging him on. Her pale moonlight-spun hair and silver-tipped horns glinted in the pale light of the crypt¡¯s torches.
¡°We are supposed to keep the Magi separated,¡± he shouted, eager to have finally found something that might please the woman in front of him who held his life in her delicate hands. ¡°I don¡¯t know anything more than that, but the goal is apparently shared among all covenants! They fear the Magi coming together under a single banner.¡±
Ashera looked back at her friends.
Victor shrugged. ¡°It would make sense. I¡¯ve not heard from Charlie, Hal, Jacob, or Thomas in weeks.¡±
¡°We have been chasing these blood cultists for many days now,¡± Solomon agreed. ¡°They are always one step ahead of us.¡±
Aegis, as usual, kept his thoughts to himself.
Ashera, for all that she hated seeing the suffering of the innocent, had to agree that they were chasing the wrong target. However, without any solid evidence of something better, what choice did they have?
It was either grind monsters out in some random plateau or follow this thread of blood cultists to their source.
¡°Truly unfortunate that we¨C¡± Ashera¡¯s words died on her lips. She felt a rampant surge of concentrated hatred to the northwest. A sense of dread settled over her heart.
¡°What was that?¡± Victor asked, looking at the ceiling with Solomon.
¡°Manastorm,¡± Ashera whispered, though she couldn¡¯t recall how or where she picked up the word.
¡°A what?¡± the two Magi asked simultaneously.
The cultist stepped up to Ashera, dropping to one knee in supplication. ¡°Please, miss. You said¨C¡±
Ashera regarded him for all of a second before she materialized her razor-thin rapier in a swirl of ice blue ash and severed his head from his shoulders.
She turned away from the body without bothering to loot it. At the questioning looks, she said, ¡°I promised I would heal him. Sparing his soul from further debasement and corruption is a form of healing.¡±
Victor chuckled. ¡°That¡¯s cold, even for you.¡±
¡°It matters not.¡± She looked to the northwest. ¡°You heard him. We have been chasing ghosts.¡±
¡°You have a better goal in mind, I take it?¡± Solomon asked, kneeling and looting the corpse.
As streamers of light flew off to each of Ashera¡¯s party members, she nodded. ¡°The manastorm is calling us.¡±