Ar'Kendrithyst

Chapter 61

Erick laid in bed, reading from the training manual Eduard had lent him, while Ophiel clutched the headboard, looking down at the book from over Erick’s shoulders. Erick even read the little guy a few passages, telling Ophiel what Erick expected out of him. When Erick got to the part where the book repeated what Eduard had said, mainly about only having one [Familiar] out for while the [Familiar] was in training, Erick dismissed all but the one Ophiel clinging to his headboard. After that, Ophiel got a lot more attentive, crawling down into Erick’s lap to look at the pages while Erick read. Eventually, Erick fell asleep.

Erick woke up to see the little guy curled up on the pillow beside him, eyes almost completely closed. Erick smiled at him, watching as Ophiel’s big eye at the center of his body struggled to remain closed, but several smaller ones couldn’t help but blink open across his wings, eager for Erick to be awake and start the day. As Erick sat up, Ophiel let out a tiny violin sound, inquisitive and happy.

“You did good, little guy.” Erick stretched. Ophiel mimicked Erick’s stretch, his big eye slamming full open as his wings unfurled to their full, tiny length. Erick pointed to his shoulder. Ophiel happily fluttered to the indicated perch. Erick said, “You know? I haven’t slept the whole night through since I was a teenager. Always an ache or a pain. Or a full bladder halfway through.” He whispered to Ophiel, “Now the bladder waits to wake me up after eight, nice hours.”

He looked out through his window, at the layer of [Crystalline Air] covering his window. He got out of bed and flashed a [Cleanse] into the room, just to freshen up, as he began making the bed, tucking the sheets into the corners with a quick application of Handy Aura. He renewed the [Temperature Ward] into the house, renewing the air conditioning like he usually did in both the morning, and the evening. Once his magic was back up to full, he renewed his [Personal Ward], spending 4400 mana out of his 4440 max, to make a barrier worth 8800 points.

A layer of mitigation wrapped around his body, under his clothes. The [Ward] would remain invisible except when struck, and even then it would just flash a tiny white glow. He was getting good at [Personal Ward]ing.

Erick went over to the bathroom to do his daily routine. Ophiel got left outside the door, but pawed at it until Erick came back out. When Erick came out, Ophiel leapt up, all the way to Erick’s shoulder. Erick laughed, giving him a pet.

It was time to make breakfast! With Ophiel clutching his shoulder, Erick walked downstairs to the kitchen to start.

The sounds of knives cutting across stone plates accented the air, while the smell of cooked breads dominated the room, and coftea flavored the space. It smelled lovely. Rats and Teressa were already eating, but for them it was dinner.

“Good morning!” Erick said. “I still don’t understand how you guys can drink coftea before bed.”

“Morning,” Teressa replied. “We left you stuff to make.”

Rats swallowed a mouthful of pancake, and said, “It helps me relax.”

“I guess,” Erick agreed.

Erick saw the kitchen. It was an organized mess, with a bowl of eggs ready to be cracked into a pan, and a bowl of pancake mixture sitting to the side of a stove already equipped and ready to go; Erick would just have to turn it back on. He smiled, then set about doing just that. As he got the butter out and dumped a helping onto the pan on the stove, he turned the stove on, and said, “Thank you.”

“No problem, sir.” Rats said.

Erick said, “I never really ask you two… But are you comfortable with the night shift?”

“A lot more, now that you have a [Solid Ward],” Rats said. “I tested it out; walked in and out without an issue.”

Teressa smirked, saying, “This is going to be really nice once we get back out there hunting wyrms, eh, eh?”

“Gods yes.” Rats said, “We can probably sleep underground, too. That would be even better.”

Teressa frowned at Rats, but said nothing.

Erick poured pancake batter onto a sizzling, buttered pan, saying, “I was reading about the best practices for raising a [Familiar] and they say that hunting big, obvious targets, is a good way to get them to begin to recognize what I want them to go after. So. I’d like to finish leveling these HP skills and then try to make [Hunter’s Instincts], but after that, I would like to go wyrm hunting again.”

Teressa clapped her hands together. “Yes!” She added, “This time I show you how to hunt a wyrm for real. The last time was a misstep. A one-in-a-hundred wyrm.”

Jane finished yawning as she walked into the room, saying, “I’ll go, too.”

Erick said, “Sure. But this time I’m going to try sending out Ophiel in all directions. Speed up the process to a single day. Maybe...” He asked, “Unless you’d like to spend a night out there?”

Teressa said, “I would, actually.”

“I liked camping on the sands,” Jane said.

“Underground is good, and multiple nights is better.” Rats said, “The city is nice and all, but… I like the Crystal Forest. It’s really nice this time of year.”

“How bad does it get outside of water season?” Erick asked, cracking eggs into a bowl.

Rats said, “So very dry. Hotter, too. Followed by chill and dry, then the occasional snow elemental drifting across the desert at night, then we’re back to damp-dry and cool.” He added, “You showed up at the best possible time.”

Erick smiled, and said, “About the hunt, and the raining schedule... After a few normal days, there’s going to be a few days of heavy rain, but after that, we’re breaking for two days. No rain. We can leave that afternoon on that day, okay?”

Teressa laughed, saying, “Sounds great!”

Rats said, “Last time was a bit scary, but with a nice [Solid Ward]… this would be good.” He added, “And underground.”

“This is too much, Rats.” Teressa scoffed at him, saying, “You must feel the wind and smell the smells! Not coop yourself up like some chicken at night. You are a warrior of Spur! Act like it.”

“Yeah yeah.” Rats pointed his fork at Teressa, saying, “I prefer my nights to be spent indoors, please.”

Erick smiled as he flipped fluffy white pancakes and stirred bright yellow eggs, each in their own pans full of sizzling butter.

Erick’s mana was full again, so he recast [Crystalline Air] across the whole exterior of the house for 4200 mana. He renewed the [Alarm Ward]s as breakfast continued all around him. Ophiel watched the whole time.

Jane took the first round of new food, after making new coftea. Poi showed up after that and took the next round. Erick finally got to eat his own food, but he made more and set it aside for Kiri; the sixth person of the household. After breakfast, Poi went to the sunroom to telepathically communicate with whoever he always talked to, while Teressa and Rats each went to their own spaces in the house, to wind down for their bedtime. Jane went her own way; she briefly said that she was ‘going out for a few days’ and ‘not to worry’. Erick didn’t press, but just smiled as he watched her leave the room. Jane came back into the kitchen after several minutes, with her bag on her back and a smile on her face. She hugged Erick goodbye; Erick watched her leave the house. His eyes watered, but no tears fell.

Kiri eventually came into the kitchen, as Erick was cleaning up the mess.

Erick smiled, setting the plate onto the table with his Handy Aura, as he pulled the syrup and salt and butter back out of the cold box, saying, “Good morning, Kiri! Coftea is made. Here is breakfast.”

Kiri looked down at the plate, then up at Erick, saying, “Thank you.” She sat down, then glanced to the window. The sky was still pink with sunrise. She looked down at her food, and took up her utensils, saying, “I feel that I did not stress something important yesterday. Your methods to magic are obviously working, but any spell with more than one line of text makes it very hard to use that spell to make higher tier magic.” She said, “You can consider anything with four or more lines of text to be end-of-the-line magic.”

Erick nodded, saying, “Something to keep in mind.” He added, “[Exalted Storm Aura] feels like an old man, unwilling to move outside of his garden. So what you said jives with what I already know.” He looked up a few of his other spells. There was one huge outlier. “[Ward] doesn’t feel like that, though.”

Kiri smirked, saying, “[Ward] is special. And so is [Summon Ophiel]. The first because that’s just how it is. The second because to make something out of that spell would create a living being.” Exasperated, she added, “And unless modern magical training is a complete lie, [Crystalline Air] should be end-tier magic, too.”

Erick couldn’t help but smile. Then he strung mana through [Crystalline Air]. A gentle, fractal light flowed from his hand, endlessly complex, but perfectly balanced. Erick stopped channeling, and said, “It feels harmonious. To add something else would disrupt that harmony. So I think you’re right.”

Kiri smirked, then frowned. She said, “I might be right, but not for the reason I thought I was right. The spell should already be too complex to add something else… But looking at it from another angle… [Crystalline Air] is already in harmony. Disrupting that harmony would disrupt the magic already there.”

Erick said, “Tomay-to tomah-to.”

Kiri scrunched her face, then said, “I don’t understand that, but I think I understand… something.”

- - - -

After breakfast, Erick took Ophiel out to the desert, back to the platform where he made spells. He was still reading through the book Eduard had given him, but he had read enough to decide to run Ophiel through a few of the [Familiar] evaluation tests laid out in the beginning of the training tome.

Erick walked across the orange sands outside the platform, the brilliant yellow sun beating down from the cloudless, blue eastern sky. Wind flowed down from the north; dry and warm, curling into Erick’s loose shirt and airy pants, drying out the little sweat that begun whenever Erick stepped outside.

Erick used [Stoneshape] to raise large hoops from that orange sand, into the air. The hoops were five meters wide, but thin enough to break if Ophiel happened to slam into the stone. Ophiel watched from Erick’s shoulder, eyes blinking open, but lazily; he had seen this sort of thing before. It wasn’t very impressive.

Erick paused for a moment, marveling how a bit of magic had become routine.

Magic! Routine!

Erick laughed, saying, “Magic is pretty amazing, isn’t it?”

Poi watched from under the shade of the platform. It was just him and Erick out here, right now; everyone else had stuff to do. Even Kiri was working on her own magic, in another part of the forest.

Erick raised a dozen more stone rings into the air, all different shapes and sizes. A square, a triangle, an oval. Some were raised on two pillars, some on three, some on one. When he was done, the final count came out to 20 rings.

From the stone platform, Erick looked out over his creations; they would serve.

Erick was telepathically connected to Ophiel this whole time, explaining to him what was to come, and what he was doing with the rings. Now, with the setup complete, it was Ophiel’s turn to make magic.

Erick turned to the little guy on his shoulder, and sent, ‘Go ahead and fly through the large ring, then come back.’ Erick then sent Ophiel an image of the largest ring, and an idea of what Erick wanted him to do.

Ophiel blinked up at Erick, unmoving, except to paw with his tiny hidden claws at Erick’s shoulder.

Erick hummed.

Erick raised a bird perch from the platform, small and slender, and controlled Ophiel to move him onto the perch. The little guy leapt from Erick’s shoulder, onto the perch. He latched on to the stone with his lower wing-talons.

Ophiel whined, flutes and cellos; he sent Erick a wordless desire to be on Erick’s shoulder.

Erick sent back, ‘After we’ve trained for the day.’

Ophiel paced on his perch, whining.

Erick felt a sinking feeling. He really should have trained Ophiel better. He should not have used him on a battlefield. He had already planned training him every day, but the true need of such a thing failed to reach him until now.

Erick pushed that sinking feeling aside, and sent the image of the large ring to Ophiel. When Ophiel didn’t move, or even look out into the desert to see the large ring right in front of them, Erick took a gentle control to Ophiel, and pointed his gaze toward the large ring.

Ophiel must have realized what Erick wanted at that; Erick let go and Ophiel leapt into the air, racing toward the ring. He flew into the ring then turned right around and came back… to Erick’s shoulder.

Erick let it happen. As Ophiel’s wings touched Erick’s shoulder, Erick patted his head.

And then he put Ophiel back onto the perch. A pat on the perch reinforced the idea of staying on there, maybe. Erick sent Ophiel an image of Ophiel flying through every single ring, in order, and then being able to land on Erick’s shoulder, and go home.

Ophiel whined in cellos, deeper than violins. A hint of flutes echoed as he fluttered his wings, unwilling to fly. Erick frowned. And then he employed another technique of the books, for those [Familiar]s who were unwilling to do what you wanted on their own, and who were created with non-standard spells.

Erick stepped into the air with his Handy Aura, then strung [Airshape] through the air, creating a stream of fast moving wind that started from Ophiel’s perch and strung through several rings. Erick hovered into the air stream, flying ahead of Ophiel, beckoning—

Ophiel was already following the wind, trilling in violins, chasing Erick.

Erick laughed as he flew through the larger ring. Ophiel followed. Erick chuckled as Ophiel chased him through several rings, spinning through the dry desert air, catching on Erick’s [Airshape] to propel him forward, faster. Ophiel was soon riding the wind near Erick, as Erick floated through a square stone ring, and then a triangle.

This could work!

Erick made a flight plan, through several of the rings in front of him, then layered [Airshape]s through the space and sent that plan to Ophiel. Ophiel took off, riding the wind, whipping through the rings in order, faster and faster. Erick casually floated back to the platform, watching Ophiel fly through the stone rings. Violins, tiny and happy, played in Ophiel’s wake.

Erick smiled.

Poi said, “That seems to be working.”

“It’s basically a trail of treats the whole way.” Erick said, “I’ll know it’s working when he can do it without the treats.” He added, “Or at least that’s what the book says.”

Ophiel got two thirds through Erick’s flight plan before he stopped and looked around. He spotted Erick by the platform and immediately flew for him. Erick let Ophiel land on his shoulder.

He said, “We’re learning, aren’t we, little guy?”

Ophiel recognized that Erick was talking to him, and trilled out violins, as eyes blinked open and shut across his body. Erick put Ophiel back onto his perch, against Ophiel’s objections, and proceeded to lead Ophiel through the obstacle course again. Flying was great fun, anyway.

Erick didn’t touch down on the platform again for the next two hours. This was great training for Erick, too. Flying was just about the greatest thing since [Cleanse]. Erick whooped and laughed, chasing Ophiel through the stone rings, as Ophiel chased him. Erick bumped into the rings about fifty times with his Handy Aura, but he easily remade them. Ophiel had no such problems.

They only stopped flying around because it was time to rain on the farms.

- - - -

Erick read Eduard’s training manual while platinum rain fell all around, and Ophiel sat on his shoulder.

After the rain, and after lunch, Erick went back out to the training area.

Ophiel hadn’t improved, but Erick sure did. Flying was fun.

Like… REALLY fun. Butterflies in his stomach, the sky below the ground, gravity pulling him down but his momentum shoving him left and right. Corkscrews and barrel rolls through rings of stone, while Ophiel led the way, or followed. Erick laughed as he chased Ophiel. Ophiel squeaked in delight as he chased Erick.

Ten minutes into it, Erick called to Poi from ten meters up, saying, “Poi! What’s your flight spell like? Want to join us?”

“My stomach is not as robust as my spell, sir.” Poi said, “I prefer the ground, thank you.”

They flew around for hours. Erick gave out before Ophiel did; the [Familiar] was a being of mana, a machine, able to go on forever with zero rest, or need for food or water. Seeing that fact play out before him was a bit of a wakeup call. But Erick still thought of Ophiel as a pet; a companion. A defender. Hopefully, Ophiel could become all of that, and more.

But that was enough flying around, for now.

Back home, Erick burned through most of a wand of [Rejuvenation], healing himself as he burned through HP to level his skills. None of them were level 10 yet, and Erick wasn’t capable of pushing himself like Jane could push herself. The second he started to feel stupid with Health Fatigue, he stopped.

After a day of middling progress, and easily imagining a scenario where doubling the length of time he could use [Hunter’s Instincts] would keep both him and those around him healthy and alive, he decided to go ahead and buy Precision.

Precision 1

Reduces HP costs by 5%

Requirements: 10 Vitality

Exp: 0/100

He didn’t want to spend the point, but he did. He was down to 17 extra points after buying Precision, and though he probably needed all of those, [Hunter’s Instincts]’s base cost was 10 HP per second. He thought he would have been comfortable with that, but talking with Jane and seeing what she saw, and seeing what she could do… It was the responsible thing to take Precision. It was the responsible thing to train properly. Who knew how much he would need to rely on these skills in the future?

On the plus side, Precision enabled him to spend a lot less HP for the same amount of experience gained for his HP skills; just like how Clarity let him gain so much more spell experience with the same amount of mana spent.

- - - -

Kiri was off on her own, the whole day. When Erick finally saw the greenscale girl around dinner time, Kiri spoke of practicing her magic, but she didn’t ask Erick any questions. Erick didn’t really have any questions for her, either.

- - - -

The next day, Ophiel was much better about following the pattern of stone rings Erick set out, and Erick was much better at controlling his own flight. Erick also burned through thousands of HP in leveling the rest of his HP skills. He was closer to capping all of them out, but it would still take him at least one more day before he could start combining. Precision helped him to go much further than before, too. He felt pretty good about that buy, now that he was using HP abilities like this.

Jane messaged in that evening that Flame Essence hunting at Firemaw Mountains in the Wyrmridge Range was going well. So far, she had eaten dozens of Flame Slimes. She had even danced across lava flows, as a flame slime herself. Those little guys were practically immune to fire. She was already up another level of the [Fire Body] skill line. [Flame Touch] was no more; now she had [Flame Strike]. Which was basically the same thing as [Strike] with a fire augment, but still: Progress!

Flame Touch, touch, 1 MP

Burn a tiny part of your surroundings.

Strike X, 10-40 HP

Level 1: Deal 1.0x damage with your weapon

Level X: Deal 2x damage, + 2x damage

Flame Strike, touch, 1-50 MP

Strike with a weapon made of fire and mana for 2x weapon damage

That could easily be fire damage, according to Jane. She just went with Piercing Force because it was the cheapest option.

The next day went much the same as the previous day, except for the fact that the farms were scheduled for six hours of rain, two days in a row. While it rained, Erick read from the training manual, or worked on his HP skills. [Ultrasight] capped out, alongside [Perfect Hearing] and Precision. Precision capping out also gave him four instances of Favored Ability, that he could apply to four HP draining abilities, for yet another 25% less HP cost. Precision was the same as Clarity, in almost every way.

Ultrasight X, 1 HP per minute.

See clearly

Perfect Hearing X, 1 HP per minute.

Hear clearly.

Precision X

Reduces HP costs by 50%

Requirements: 10 Vitality

[Scent Tracker] and [Silent Movement] would cap out tomorrow. He would try to make the secondary skills and then [Hunter’s Instincts], before they went out to hunt wyrms.

After the rain, Erick took Ophiel back out to the stone rings for flying and training lessons. Ophiel was learning quite quickly, too.

- - - -

Erick occasionally sent an Ophiel over to Odaali, to see how things were going.

The country was as war torn as Erick remembered, though parts of it were looking repaired. Odaali itself was mostly dry, though there were still some icebergs melting in town squares here and there. The [Force Trap]ed black words on the white walls of the Kingdom City, ‘Kill and Exterminate: Humans!’, was gone. Erick smiled at that. He was glad to see that gone.

He had Ophiel buzz the small white palace next to the battlefield. Soldiers waved to him, but when Erick had Ophiel get closer, they backed off. They said nothing. They had nothing to say? They were just waving. Ah. Odd, that. Ophiel waved at them, and then flew away. Erick watched as the soldiers visibly sighed with relief.

Erick asked Poi, “No word from Odaali, about helping them with farming, or the recovery effort?”

Poi said, “No, sir. We’ve sent inquiries on your behalf, every day, as well.”

Erick frowned. “What’s up with them? Some soldiers waved at Ophiel and I went to talk to them, but they backed up all scared.”

Poi shrugged, offering, “Different cultures? Spur is very cosmopolitan. Not everyone is comfortable being near people who could kill them in an instant.” He added, “Portal could have embargo’d them from trading with us. They don’t actually need you to recover, so they probably capitulated. But that’s just a guess, sir.”

Erick felt like he sank into himself. He sighed. He asked, “Should I just go grow some potatoes or something next to a hungry looking town?”

Poi frowned. Tendrils of [Telepathy] arced from his sapphire scaled head. “No.” He added, “That would be an international incident that Silverite does not want to deal with.”

“That fucking toady, Caradogh.” Erick said, “If I find out he’s stopping aid… I don’t know.”

Poi just nodded.

- - - -

Erick woke up bright and early. Today they would go to the Crystal Forest again, to hunt wyrms to preemptively save lives, or to rid the world of killer insane dragons. Today, he would also try to combine his HP skills into the higher tiers.

Erick did his morning routine with Ophiel scratching at the door, then he left the bathroom, and with Ophiel on his shoulder, he went downstairs to make breakfast.

Kiri was up and flipping pancakes over the stove when Erick walked into the kitchen. Rats and Teressa were already eating. Erick smiled, as he walked over to get some coftea. The room smelled of bread and sizzling meat, though if there was sausage somewhere, Erick didn’t see it.

“Good morning,” Kiri said.

She sounded different than usual. Maybe a bit perkier? No. That wasn’t it.

Erick poured coftea into a mug, saying, “Morning to you, too. You’re up earlier than usual.”

“Actually I’m up very late.” Kiri asked, “We’re still leaving this afternoon, yes?”

That explained her edge. Erick said, “Jane should be back by noon. We can leave after that.” He added, “I’ve got to cap two skills before that, then I’ll try combining them all. I can work on [Defend] out there. How about you? Made any good spells lately?”

Kiri flipped a pancake, and then, happily said, “Nope! All failures!” She amended, “Well. No. That’s untrue. They’re failures, but only because of numerical values. I’ve been re-reading how to reduce the costs of higher tier magics. I already employed all the methods I knew of, but there’s actually some after-the-fact methods, too.” She slid the golden brown pancake onto a plate, then slid that plate to Erick, saying, “One great method— The Monks of Rozeta at the Splinter Mountains? The Protectors of the Ancient Orrery. Those ones. Give them five years of your life as a monk of their order and they can give you the tools to ‘purify’ your spells, adjusting them to lower costs or more damage or whatever. They will actually enact those methods for outsiders and spells that Rozeta declares as necessary.” She shook her head. “Won’t work for me, but it worked well for every Champion of Rozeta that ever came along. So I know the process exists, but I also know I’m never going to get it.”

Erick ate his pancake as he, Teressa, and Rats listened.

Kiri made more pancakes, saying, “The method everyone uses though, is to remake your spells. I knew this beforehand, but only now—!” She looked up at the ceiling, at nothing in particular, then back down to her frying pancake, saying, “Only now do I understand that I need to learn a lot more before I try to make the spells I want to make.” She blurted out. “I fucked up a tier 6!”

Rats went, “Ouch. That’s horrible. Sorry, Kiri.”

Teressa said, “That’s why I don’t do magic.” She pointed at wild-eyed Kiri, saying, “I can’t handle that stress right there.”

Kiri shouted at herself, “It’s my fault! Entirely! Twenty seven years to try again!” She held in a breath, and then she let it all out at once, saying, “Shit.” She spoke to the pancake, sizzling in the pan, “I shouldn’t have tried. I know I shouldn’t have....” She gusted, “But I was so close.”

Erick asked, “What happened?”

Kiri explained, “I was too eager. I reached too far. The tier 5s came out… Okay. I was using your harmony method and I guess my hearing must be fucked up…” She said, “Fifty thousand mana. That’s the price of my hubris; the cost of the spell. [Death Spiral Fire]. Sinister name, sinister spell. But it’s a wyrm killer. Cast one spell. Kill one wyrm. End a threat as soon as it appears from the forests to threaten the Republic. Become a power that can’t be taken advantage of, because they need you.”

She went silent.

Erick thought, as he ate his pancake. After a minute, he finished, and grabbed one of the many more pancakes Kiri churned out in silence. Rats and Teressa finished breakfast, saying small condolences as they left the room. Soon, Erick and Kiri were alone. She was still making pancakes in silence. She had a stack of twenty of them, and a full tub of batter left to go. Erick couldn’t possibly eat another, but he finally had a question to ask Kiri.

Erick offered, “What was your thought process in making the spell?”

Kiri paused, staring at her frying pancake. Then she stood straight, and turned to Erick. She said, “Thank you, but this is my burden to bear. I just needed to vent.” She happily went back to her pancakes, saying, “I’ve fine. Thank you for your concern.”

“Okay.” Erick smiled, asking, “Have you tried to make a Particle Spell yet?”

“Yes.” Kiri laughed at herself, saying, “After the failure, I tried to remake the exact spell I wanted as Particle magic. Molecules moving faster is heat. Molecules moving slower is cold. That information is already out there— Anyway. Failed to make it out of Particle Magic, too.” She said, “Error message yesterday, laid me out for hours.”

“You can use the rod of [Treat Wounds], you know?” Erick looked to the kitchen table. One of the rods still sat in the bowl at the center of the table, alongside two smaller grand-rads; the rod wouldn’t lose charges while it was ‘stored’ like that. “That’s what that rod is there for.”

Kiri’s greenscaled face darkened a shade. “I did. Still had to take a nap.”

Erick asked, “Then crush the spell and buy it from the Script for a point?”

Kiri shook her head. “Even if I wanted to, I can’t. Once you fail a tier creation, you must destroy the spell and wait for them to be available for combination, before you’re even able to spend a point on the higher tier spell. I’ve already destroyed the spell...” She added, “And all of the bad ones before that. I gotta wait 27 years to try again.”

“Ouch, Kiri.” Erick said, “That’s not great.”

“… I know. I think I might have been too hasty.” She added, “The Script version of [Death Spiral Fire] is horrible, like all the rest. Once you get up past tier 4, every Script version of every spell is, like: 10 damage, lasts one second, sort of bad.” Kiri smiled, small and sad, saying, “If you can’t make it yourself, you’re fucked!”

“Live and learn. You’re still young.” Erick realized he had a question about life on Veird, that he never thought to ask before. “Right? You are still young, right? How long do people live on Veird? Eighty was old back on Earth. Pretty routine age, though. Barring accidents and disease, of course.”

Kiri paused. She stared at Erick, and said, “Oh my gods? Eighty? That’s…”

Erick sighed. Of course people didn’t live long on Veird. Monsters and everything else. No real medicine. Healing magic, sure, but parasites probably killed a lot of people, too.

“That’s horrible!” Kiri said, “That would mean Great Aunt Risal would be dead twice over.”

Erick guffawed, then said, “Twice over!”

Kiri said, “Granted, if you lead any sort of dangerous life at all, you’re lucky to make 25. But 120 is a good, old age. You’re still moving around like you were at 40, at 120. People start to deteriorate fast around 150. Great Aunt Risal is still going strong, though.”

Erick laughed. A weight fell from his shoulders. He could enjoy life here for a long time. He smiled, and a happy tear fell. He laughed again, saying, “You’ve got lots of time!” He felt a sudden chill, as another thought entered his mind. He quickly asked, “Are humans the same?”

Kiri waved him off, saying, “Everything except Wrought and Dragons has about the same life span. If you pick up some dragon essence you can live a lot longer.” She kept making pancakes, as she said, “Those types are immortal. But they also eat each other. So. There’s a trade off.” She added, “27 years is still a kick in the head.”

“Well yeah.” Erick offered, “You know? I gave a talk about atoms to the world, after I made [Call Lightning]. The information is already out there, but if you want that lesson from the source, I can give it to you, too.”

Kiri smiled, saying, “Yes. I would like that.”

Poi walked into the room, saying, “Good morning. Sir. Kiri.”

“Good morning,” Kiri said, a smile.

This time, Kiri sounded actually happy, and not just faking for the sake of propriety. She was still, obviously, dead tired, though.

- - - -

After a quick nap, Kiri was up and ready for that lecture.

Back up on the third floor, with the windows covered in [Distortion Ward]s, Erick conjured three chalkboards. Kiri sat at her table in the center of the room with a blank journal sitting on the table in front of her and several ink pens. The journal was real, too; not some [Conjure Item] journal, but something Kiri could keep lasting notes within. Poi stood in the room to the side, lines of telepathy coming off of his head, but with his eyes focused on the chalkboard.

Erick picked up his chalk, and started drawing water molecules: hydrogen and oxygen, protons and neutrons, electrons and electrical charge.

He turned to Kiri, and indicated what he had drawn, saying, “So this is an atom...”

Kiri asked questions, and this time, Erick clarified. He wasn’t able to answer all her questions, and he didn’t answer when she asked about proton and neutron count being intrinsic qualities of what made an element an element. But he didn’t need to answer, anyway. His silence on certain subjects told her more than enough.

Erick still gave her the lecture.

This was Erick’s first real test of anyone’s character. He gave this lecture about atoms and water to Zago and all those other people because inertia demanded it of him; he had no doubt, weeks and weeks after the fact, that if he had not given that information away, he would have been torn apart by dozens of factions. From the incani to the humans to Oceanside and the Headmaster. Everyone would have wanted a piece of him. By giving it all away to everyone, all at once, they were able to work on their own particle magic and focus on each other, instead of on him.

That’s what he told himself, anyway.

It was probably true.

Kiri, though… For Kiri, who had been vetted by Spur’s Army and Jane, this would be a test for all of her future as his secretary-slash-apprentice-slash-student. From Kiri’s look, all focused and attentive, and from her precise questions, Kiri was fully aware that all of this molecular information was a lesson, and also a test.

- - - -

After the lecture and the questions, Kiri smiled wide, saying, “Thank you, sir.”

Erick sat down in a conjured chair, saying, “Probably best not to mention that you got the extended, answered version of this lesson.”

“I wasn’t planning on it.”

“I wasn’t planning on any of this, either. But it happened.” Erick added, “But in addition to not giving out potentially damaging information about how this universe works, I would like it if you could make something useful for civilization with this knowledge. Everyone seems to be working on stuff that hurts other people in some way.” Erick said, “From [Gold Grab] to the daydropper. Maia made some harmful fire spells, while I made the mistake of making [Wintry Sea] for Eduard. I hope Rozeta nerfs that one; it’s way too chaotic. Everyone is making something harmful. I can only hope that people start making something useful, instead. Or at least in addition to what is needed to kill the monsters out there.”

Kiri was silent for a moment, before asking, “What sort of positive things did this sort of knowledge create on your planet?”

Erick smiled, then said, “Everything. From medicine that inoculated us against disease, to putting people on the moon, to sending probes past the Solar System and into the rest of the universe, and having those probes return to us images of other planets.” Erick glanced up at the chalkboards, filled with the barest fraction of high school physics homework, and said, “This is nothing compared to what it took to make all of that happen, but it’s a start.” He looked to Kiri. “I don’t think you guys have the luxury of living in peace long enough to make some of these discoveries, nor the need. Magic does almost everything you need in life, does it not?” He added, “I’m not complaining; I love it. But it does negate a lot of the need to improve or die, I think.”

“… Did you all not have wars?”

Erick scoffed, then backtracked, “Sorry. I gave you the wrong impression. Yes. Wars. Too many of them, concocted over too little resources or a bit of land or differing ideologies… or a myriad of other reasons.”

“… How did you know the age of your universe?”

Erick paused. Then he thought. He said, “I have no idea. Some people took some measurements, somehow. Pointed some tools at the sky and did some math, I’m sure.” He asked, “How old was Veird’s universe?”

“Millions of years.” Kiri added, “Measured through the spells of an esoteric field of magic called ‘Manasphere Archaeology’. Through some specialized [Scry] spells and hundred upon hundreds of ambient mana measurements, some mages have found that the oldest age of some parts of the manasphere measure between four and seven million years old.” She said, “The hardest part of those sorts of measurements is keeping those numbers in mind. Some people are capable of grasping ‘a million’, but most people are not.”

Erick smiled. “That’s a lot more precise than my answer.”

“Veird itself is a created world about 250,000 years old. We know that number because the same mana tests have been done near the Core of Veird, with samples taken from that core proving to be only 250,000 years old.”

Now it was Erick’s turn to be impressed. “Only 250,000?”

Kiri added, “Parts of it are much older, but the age of the planet is determined by the age of the Core.”

“… Older than the rest?”

Kiri smiled, saying, “Dead gods and forgotten lands gathered in the Mana Ocean, creating a core and a surface, 250,000 years ago, birthing the first remnants of life onto Veird, shaping the very stone into most of what it would eventually become. The Sundering magnified the size of Veird, many, many times over, as the deities and people who survived that cataclysm struggled to gather and save what they could.” She added, “That’s just the most accepted theory, anyway. Ask a different immortal, get a different answer, though most are just variations on a theme.”

Erick hummed in thought.

Kiri glanced over her notes.

Erick asked, “Ever combined an HP skill?”

Kiri looked up, and said, “No, sir. I bought them.”

“… Were you using [Hunter’s Instincts] on me when we sparred?”

Kiri smirked, saying, “No. You’re just bad at fighting.” She quickly added, “Uh. Sir.”

Erick laughed.

Kiri said, “I bought [Evasive Stance], but only after I got into Ar’Kendrithyst and discovered a lack of ability in myself. [Swift Movement] and [Perfect Hearing]. The monsters or the maniacs in this world usually always alert through sound, first.” She added, “But if you’re going for [Hunter’s Instincts], that’s far better than [Evasive Stance]. I just don’t have the points to spend.”

Erick scoffed again, “Are you low on points? Didn’t making your tier 6 give you five?”

“I have plans, and they demand what I have. There is no room for...” Kiri frowned at him, asking, “You’re not spending points without a plan, are you?”

“Of course not!” Erick lied. He deflected with, “I’ve just gotten, like, twenty extra points from particle magic?”

“… Leveling past 50 is incredibly difficult, sir.” Kiri added, “Though Ar’Kendrithyst is stronger now than it was before. A lot of monsters killed each other; feasting on the unprotected realms of those Shades killed in Yetta’s passing.”

Erick stood up and dismissed the conjured blackboards, as well as the [Distortion Ward]s across the windows, saying, “Levels don’t mean much, anyway. They’re just points. You should be getting some of those extra points, soon, after you start making Particle magic.” He looked to Poi, still standing silent in the corner of the room, and said, “Thank you, Poi, for providing the security for this.”

Poi relaxed, tendrils of thought pulling back into his head. He spoke to Kiri, “That notebook is a bomb. You need to protect it.”

Kiri touched the notebook, saying, “I am aware, sir.”

Poi just looked at her.

Erick said, “I hope you were able to learn something, too, Poi. If you wanted, anyway?”

Poi smirked, saying, “I know my magic, sir, and it is not this. But thank you, anyway.”

Erick smiled, then walked away. It was time to make some magic of his own. There was a problem with that, though. One he had never encountered before.

- - - -

Erick reclined on a plush conjured chair on the rarely used second story of his mage tower, thinking, with a cup of coftea next to him and the stone planets of the Solar System hanging above and to the right, over the central empty space of the tower. It wasn’t a large space up here, on the second floor. It was basically just a jut from the wall, attached to the side of the tower, just enough for a chair and a small table. This area was only accessible with a flight spell, anyway. Erick had made this small space, thinking he would like a somewhat hidden space in his tower.

He looked up and to the right, at the hanging stone spheres of the Solar System, and at the bright sunward he had cast into the center of that diorama.

He had a problem. It was not a new problem —he had realized his failing the same day he had thought to go for [Hunter’s Instincts]— but he just didn’t want to think about it too much. Now, faced with all of the necessary skills at level ten, the problem stared him in the face, demanding an answer.

Erick looked at his hand, and tried channeling Health through [Perfect Hearing]—

Screeching, screaming, pure unadulterated noise, filled his ears. Erick cut the flow of health. He sighed. He tried channeling through [Ultrasight]; the world turned to static and light, as brilliant flashes blinded him. He tried [Silent Movement]; his body locked into position, completely immobile. He cut that channeling fast; he couldn’t breathe doing that, and he was pretty sure that his heart had briefly stopped. He tried [Swift Movement], and almost launched himself out of his chair at the tiniest gesture, like he was having a seizure. [Scent Tracker] was awful. He almost vomited at the smells of his clean body.

And now he was down to half HP. Erick was used to channeling a lot of mana, without regard for how much it actually cost. Scion of Focus was amazing, after all. But he had no such ability when it came to channeling HP.

Erick briefly considered just trying to combine them and seeing what happened, but he knew the result would be bad. He needed these skills out there, while he was hunting wyrms and saving lives. He needed Ophiel to have [Hunter’s Instincts], too, so that he could hunt for all the monsters on Mog’s list, and save even more lives.

This world was dangerous. Shadowspiders stole people in the middle of the night, for Shades to play with in the morning. Wyrms rampaged down from the mountains, eating everything in their path. Crystal Mimics were a plague that had turned an area the size of Africa into a desert, where only one kind of plant was allowed to exist, and everything else was hunted down. Daydroppers murdered a nation. Demons and Angels drove their sons and daughters to kill those on the other side.

And assassins wanted Erick dead.

Erick didn’t want the power to change the world, but that power had been given to him, and he was good at it, so he would step up to the plate and make Spur just that much safer.

This was his goal, now that this was his life.

And since he could get more points through the creation of previously-unknown magic, Erick would do everything he could to make his part of the world a little better, but that required him to be better in body, too. But all these HP skills worked on a completely different system than his mana skills…

… That was it, wasn’t it? Health worked differently than Mana.

It was a simple concept that Erick hadn’t really understood, or even noticed…

… Except when he looked back. Obviously Health and Mana were different. They were related, but they were different. Mana was the stuff outside of the body. Mana was communicating with the world, and the world responding. Health was the integrity of the body; the ability to resist outside forces.

… Maybe.

Higher Strength certainly made Erick feel magnificent, and a higher Vitality was like a sexual drug. Willpower and Focus left Erick with an expansive feeling. Like touching and becoming a part of the sky.

Erick sat up in his chair. He Handy Aura’d down to the center of his tower, then went to find Kiri.

- - - -

In an arena pulled up from the sands of the Crystal Forest, under the bright sun and layered with an [Absorption Ward], stood two mages. One of them was a green dragonkin wearing loose clothing, and wielding a staff. She was barefoot; her taloned toes gripped the sand of the arena. The other was a human man wearing a similar outfit, with a similar weapon. His bare feet slipped across the sand; he had lost his footing more than once. He was flagging. But she stood strong, breathing slightly faster than normal. Dragonkin did not sweat, but they did breathe flames when they got worked up, so the tiny flames that licked out from her mouth should not have surprised the man, but they did.

Erick leaned hard against his staff, breathing heavily, gasping out, “You breathe fire?”

Kiri barked a laugh, twirling her staff. She said, “Seems you breathe excuses!”

“I’m old!”

“You are not!” Kiri said, “You purport to have a balanced build, and yet you cannot stay strong in the fight, let alone land a hit.” Kiri shouted, “You have a massive [Personal Ward]! This [Ward] around us is worth fifteen thousand damage! Poi is waiting there with a rod of [Treat Wounds]!” She leveled her staff at Erick, and demanded, “Ready your staff, and hit me.”

Erick firmed his grip on his staff. His arms felt like jelly, but he could power through. Kiri hit hard, now that they were in a real training situation and each of them used as many melee skills as they desired. This was so much more compared to Draz’s remedial classes. This was rather close to actual combat.

Erick gripped his staff, the wooden five-foot length feeling rough in his already blistered hands, and readied to strike. The sand of the arena gave slightly, forcing Erick to compensate, adding more physical power than otherwise, as he launched forward, [Swift Movement] active. Staff forward, Erick struck.

Kiri easily deflected the obvious strike; her eyes tracking Erick the whole time, except for one small moment where she saw him, looking at her, and she purposefully gazed at his incoming staff, and oh so easily, flicked it away with her own.

Erick went spinning through the air, as Kiri flipped him, in some unknown way, over and over. He landed, two meters from where he began his attack, having sustained about a thousand points of damage as a result of the brief exchange. He rolled to his back and laid on the sand for a moment, staring at the sky. He took brief stock of where he had been struck, and tried to recall how Kiri had hit him. Erick felt his chest. She had struck there, for sure, as well as his neck, somehow, all while he was flipped through the air. If it weren’t for all his defensive layers, he would have died.

And this was normal training.

In fact, it was pretty light training.

Kiri said, “Had enough, yet?”

Erick stepped to his feet. He wiped the sand off of his face, and off of his arms, saying, “Again.”

Jane called out from the sidelines, “Your form is all wrong, Dad. You’re not improving.”

His daughter was sitting beside Poi, on the raised stone seating of the arena, wearing her midnight blue [Conjure Armor]. She looked perfectly at peace, watching from the sidelines.

Erick paused. He asked, “When did you get here?”

Jane laughed. “Five minutes ago.”

Erick ignored Jane, and asked Kiri, “How are you a mage? Are all mages at your Tower Arcanaeum trained like you?”

Kiri chuckled. “I would have easily been near the top of my class, but I had to put some idiot noble boy in his place one too many times. That was the start of Quel gunning for me.”

“Ah!” Erick stood straight, and smiled, “I knew you were good, but this is great! I picked a winner.”

Kiri smirked, angling her staff at him, saying, “More talk? Or shall we continue?”

Jane interrupted, “At least teach him properly, Kiri.”

Kiri dropped her stance and slammed her staff into the sand. She stared at Jane, telling her off, “This is how I was taught. Besides! He’s still scared of getting hit.”

“I am?” Erick asked.

Jane and Kiri said, “You are.”

Kiri said, “You flinch.”

Jane said, “All the time.”

Kiri said, “The only way to get rid of it is to get hit.”

“You can train that out later,” Jane said. “Form and function is important, too.”

“He needs to train it out now,” Kiri countered. “Flinching in a magical fight is just as bad as in a melee fight.”

Jane almost said something, but then she just nodded, saying, “Can’t fault that.”

Kiri laughed once, then said, “Of course you can’t! Because I’m right!”

Jane said, “There are better ways to train out a flinch.”

“How?” Kiri asked, disbelieving.

Jane leapt down from the stands, landing softly on the sand, saying, “I’ll show you.”

Kiri frowned at Jane, then mocked a bow. She backed up to the edge of the arena and let Jane take center stage. Jane conjured a hundred-pound. meter-tall black punching bag attached to a wooden support that held the bag in the air. She then conjured a pair of boxing gloves over her hands. She looked down at Erick’s hands. Erick didn’t have to be told something this obvious; he dropped the staff to the dirt, and conjured his own set of boxing gloves.

Jane stood beside the bag, and said, “To train out a flinch response, you hit the person. But a better way is to let them focus on attacking the punching bag, and to gently punch them back during the normal punching training.”

Kiri frowned slightly, but said nothing.

Jane looked to Erick, saying, “Go ahead, Dad. I won’t hit you hard, and you’ll see it coming. That’s the point, after all.”

Erick hadn’t trained with a punching bag in… Ever. Even when he was in his twenties, he was a free-weights kinda guy. Not the punching and kickboxing kind. But he stepped up to the punching bag, and… Punched it. He supposed.

Jane frowned at him. “Really?”

Erick slammed his fist into the bag. It moved a little.

Jane smiled. “You can do better than that, Dad. Take a stance. Punch the bag. I’m going to tap your core, so keep your abs tight. I’m also going to tap your head, and your arms. You need to punch the bag, and keep your face relaxed. This is the exercise.”

Erick took a stance, and punched the bag. Left hook. Right hook. Maybe those were the names; he didn’t know. But he punched, and then Jane tapped his stomach. He wobbled as his eyes automatically shut on their own.

Dammit. He was flinching. Was it really that bad?

The answer was ‘yes’, it was that bad.

Jane said, “Tighten up that stomach. Punch that bag. Relax your face; you’re scrunching.”

Erick silently did as he was told. Jane tapped his stomach. Erick tried to relax his face, but the taps and the thrown punches quickly had stress pulling his face rigid. He focused on open eyes, as he punched the bag. He focused on maintaining composure. Left fist. Right fist. Stomach tap, tap, tap. He blinked. He scrunched. He took a moment to relax, and then he started again.

Jane tapped his head—

Erick instantly pulled away.

“It doesn’t work if you pull away like that,” Jane said.

“Just… Give me a moment.” Erick said.

Kiri had moved nearby, for a better view. She said, “It seems to be working. Or at least it would, after a while.”

Jane smiled, saying, “Yup! It does.”

“What do you call this bag?”

“A punching bag.”

Kiri mocked a frown, saying, “Of course you do.”

Jane said, “I have a lot more training tools than this. I tried to get Liquid and Sargent Nanark interested, but they were having none of it.”

“… I would like to see these other training instruments,” Kiri said.

Jane smiled, saying, “Sure.”

Jane walked to the side of the arena, and conjured a vertical spinning log with several smaller wooden poles sticking out from the log. Next came a head-sized punching bag, that dangled at head height. The last thing she created was a man on a curved, weighted base; punch it, and it would roll backward, then come back at you. Erick knew of all of these items, but he did not know what they were called.

Jane said, “There’s more, but this is the basic stuff. I’m not even sure what this log-thing is called, but it hits back every time you strike the logs. You can make a more complicated one if you want, but you get the basic idea.” She added, “Back on Earth, the focus was on fighting other people, but here it’s all about monsters. So this stuff is useful, but not that useful.”

Kiri said, “It’s so simple. But… I can see how this would be effective. Simple is best, almost always.” She added, “And yes. Monsters are the focus. Besides sparring, people just go out and kill monsters. Sparring is only really useful for those expecting war, and to train out unwanted habits. There aren’t many humanoid monsters out there.”

Erick said, “That’s enough training for now, now that you’re here, Jane.”

“Did you make your skills yet?” Jane asked.

Erick shook his head. “I’m just gonna try to make the skills, and see what I get.”

Jane smiled, waiting. Kiri looked to him, also waiting. Poi glanced at him, but kept his eyes on the surroundings. Erick looked up the skills, first.

[Swift Movement] and [Silent Movement] made:

Lightfoot, 2 HP per second

Move quick and silent.

[Ultrasight], [Perfect Hearing], and [Scent Tracker] made:

Tracker’s Instinct, 1 HP per second

Hunt clearly.

Erick said, “Running Health through the skill doesn’t work like mana does with spells.”

Jane smirked, saying, “I know.”

Kiri nodded. “I tested this, too.”

Erick added, “So I have no idea how to combine these.”

Jane smirked wider, saying, “This was my problem, too.”

Kiri said, “They combine with the same method that normal mages use to combine spells: with circular Ancient Script.”

“Just try it, Dad,” Jane said.

Erick plowed forward, feeling his well of Health in his body, trying to piece together the components to [Lightfoot] in his mind. And then he just went for it.

[Swift Movement].

[Silent Movement].

Fast step, 6 HP per second

Move quickly, with less noise.

Erick hummed. He immediately tried to make [Tracker’s Instinct].

Tracker’s Hunch, 4 HP per second

Hunt, if you can.

Erick frowned, saying, “Sooo... Something went wroooong.”

Kiri frowned. “How bad are they?”

Erick showed them the boxes.

“Ouch,” Kiri said. “Might as well rip those apart.”

“Oh hey!” Jane smiled. “Those are worse than what I made! I don’t feel so bad anymore.” She added, “I just went and bought up to [Hunter’s Instinct]. No one is able to make a good one of those.”

Kiri said, “That’s almost true, but it’s not.”

“Huh?” Erick asked.

Jane went, “Eh! I’m 95% correct.”

Kiri elaborated, “Pretty much across the board, the Script versions of HP skills are vastly superior to mana based spells. They’re very well made; near perfect in most cases. The Script was invented to prevent the abuses of the Old Wizards, after all.” Kiri said, “Warriors got a leg up on everything, including skills to buy. But they cap out at tier 4 for good skills. Everything past that is a waste, according to every warrior I ever talked to. They always go for more Stats after they get the skills they want.”

“No worries.” Erick destroyed the abilities, and felt the corresponding skills go slightly numb and distant from each other. At least that disconnected feeling was the same. He said to Kiri, “I’ll work on these and then [Hunter’s Instincts] after I understand the process better.”

“It’s time to hunt wyrms, anyway!” Jane dismissed the equipment she had summoned, saying, “I saw three of them while I was hunting fire essence in the Firemaw Mountains. Three wyrms, all over the course of a single day. But all three of them dove directly into the lava. They didn’t come back up.”

Kiri said, “If only they would all do that.”

Erick clawed [Stoneshape] through the stones of the arena, tearing it back down to sand, saying, “Teressa and Rats should be awake soon enough.”

- - - -

The sun was a blazing ball of fire, beating down from the western sky, as the group traveled south, across the sands of the Crystal Forest. The Wyrmridge Mountains loomed to the north, a grey white-capped wall of jagged stone, and deep green valleys. Practically impassible to all foot traffic, and too cold for Crystal Mimics to tear into. But that didn’t matter to wyrms. They came down from those mountains, insane with hunger, eager to eat the mimics that lived in the Crystal Forest.

Teressa pointed to the barren land all around them, leading the way, as she continued her narration of the normal wyrm lifecycle, “And once they get down here, the insanity really takes hold. They eat so many rads inside so many mimics that they truly become monsters. The ones you see north of the Greensoil Republic are level 30 to 50, with a few Cannibal Wyrms growing to 60—” She added, “They’re all cannibals, of course. So the moniker is redundant. But the Cannibal Wyrms will only eat other wyrms, and they usually stay in the forests and the mountains. That is, until they grow so large that everything looks delicious. At that point they venture out into inhabited lands. Anyway. The wyrms you get in the Crystal Forest are level 50, at least.” She swept her arm across the land, saying, “Up here, they’re level 50. If they last long enough to get to Spur, which almost never happens, they can get to level 70. Those things are true monsters.”

Rats trundled alongside Jane, his feet sinking slightly into the sand, adding, “Mog usually goes out and kills ‘em if they get that close. Or Killzone, if he’s available. Opal has killed a few, too, when Mog or Killzone couldn’t go for whatever reason. No one ever sees Opal’s fights, though. We just hear about them after the fact.”

Poi walked beside Erick, looking to him to say, “You might get called to provide such a service, occasionally.”

Erick hummed, and nodded, as he strode across the cool sands of the Crystal Forest, his feet gently sinking into the sand.

Jane gripped the straps of her backpack, adjusting the load, as she asked, “Why not let the adventurers do it? Surely someone would want to kill a level 70 anything. That’s a major boost.”

Poi said, “Because by that time, the wyrms have usually killed dozens, or a hundred people.” He added, “And besides: There’s a limit to allowing a monster near Spur. As soon as anything above a five star threat gets within twenty kilometers, a decision is made between Silverite, Mog, Killzone, and Merit. That decision sends the Army or the Guard out to kill the threat.”

Rats deflected, “Level 70 wyrms are super rare, anyway. Maybe once every four years?”

“About that often, yes,” Poi agreed.

Rats said, “It’s 3000 kilometers to Spur from here. Vindin kills almost every wyrm that manages to come through these parts.”

Teressa laughed, staring forward, saying, “But we are at the headwaters! They will come through here, and we will fight!”

Kiri strode across the sand beside Erick saying, “Isn’t everyone here over level 50, though? We get no benefit from this. Others would. We are denying easy kills to young warriors and mages.” She quickly added, “I see the benefit in killing monsters, of course. But… Well. You get what I’m saying, right?”

Teressa said, “A valid criticism. But here is where the breaker wyrms begin. We might find easy targets. We might find rookies in danger. We might find an easy target killing rookies, which then becomes a difficult target. Wyrms still gain levels. They are insane, monstrously hungry dragons, but they are still dragons.”

“I get that. I really do.” Kiri said, “Wyrms are pouring down from the forests north of the Greensoil Republic, right now. Some of them are evading towns and wyrming through the empty spaces, hitting central lands.” She paused. She said, “I guess what I’m saying is that shouldn’t we have some rookies with us, or something, and power level them? One percent Participation is still a lot of experience at level 20.”

Poi shook his head, saying, “No unknowns. Not at this time. Maybe not ever.”

Teressa glanced back as she walked forward, but quickly turned to face the path ahead, saying, “Poi is right. Wyrms are dangerous the world over, but the ones that make it through the Wyrmridge mountains are a tougher breed. Vindin is the major wyrm hunting town, and they do not allow anyone in to adventure there who is not already level 40.”

Erick trudged across the sand…

And so did everyone else.

Except for Ophiel. Tiny Ophiel flew just above Erick, with his eyes wide open, gazing across the Crystal Forest, looking for threats. Erick sniffed the air with [Scent Tracker], smelling greenery and cold, and not much more.

Erick looked around at his team. Jane wore her midnight blue [Conjure Armor], looking like a woman on a mission. Kiri and Rats trundled along under the weight of their backpacks. Poi stood strong at the rear, eyes alert, nostrils flaring occasionally, tendrils of thought coming off of his head, fading into the manasphere, like invisible strands of air.

And Teressa took point, leading the way, walking with a spring in her step and an obvious joy in her heart.

Erick looked to the west; the sun was hours away from setting. “So… How about ten Ophiel to speed this along?”

Teressa laughed. “As long as you don’t fight the wyrms all yourself!”

Jane said, “Go for it, Dad.”

The other three gave non-committal answers, but Rats suddenly looked more nervous than before.

Erick summoned three Ophiel, creating a flock above. Ophiel instantly moved to fly in formation with himself, as Erick asked Rats, “Want one to stay with you to [Teleport] you out of danger, if needed?”

Rats said, “Yes. Thank you.”

One of the Ophiel landed on his backpack, an extra tiny weight for Rats to carry. Ophiel trilled out a violin song as he settled into position.

Rats walked a bit taller, saying, “That’s a lot better.”

After several minutes of walking, Erick summoned another. And then another. Teressa occasionally glanced up with anticipation in her eyes as she gripped the straps of her backpack, causing the leather to squeak under her fists. After half an hour, Erick was up to the full ten. Eight flew in the sky, while one each rested on Erick’s and Rats' shoulders.

The Ophiels puffed up to full, three meter height, as they fanned out, flashing brilliant white wings and eyes in the afternoon sun, singing a song of violins and flutes. Erick told them they were hunting wyrms, and they seemed to understand. Maybe they actually did? All of the last few days training with Ophiel seemed to have stuck some knowledge into the [Familiar]. Hopefully it was the right kind of knowledge.

Erick asked anyone who could answer, but mainly Teressa, “Anyone know a wyrm hunting song?”

Poi said, “Please no singing.”

“Not on your life, Poi!” Teressa said, smiling wide, flashing her fangs as she looked up at the Ophiels. “I know one! It goes like this—”

Teressa sang, a deep, resonant song in some other language. Her words carried across the land, carried with the wind. Like a woman praying for fortune, and then going out to make her fortune. At least that’s the impression Erick got. Looking around the group, Rats and Jane walked almost the same as before. But Kiri and Poi strode across the sand, listening; Kiri hearing something primal, for sure, while Poi seemed to just enjoy the song. A slight smile alighted upon Poi’s lips. He was enjoying the song, now that it was actually in the air. Erick enjoyed the song, too, though he had no idea what it really meant.

Ophiel, though... Ophiel took up the song, the second Teressa had finished, booming out a semblance of her words, but without language, out across the Crystal Forest. Words turned to vibrations, and those vibrations harmonized into feeling.

Teressa laughed, saying, “They cannot say the words, but they understand the song.”

Erick sent them out, each in a different southern direction, along with a greyscale image of the yellow wyrm Erick had killed the last time he was out here. Their song changed, as a goal materialized across the chorus. Teressa laughed louder, saying something in another language, waving at the scattering Ophiel.

The song receded as Ophiel flew into the sky, south, hunting for wyrms.

Teressa said, “They’re going to find at least one. And it’s going to happen soon.”

Erick imbued them all with [Scent Tracker] and [Ultrasight], along with his recollection of the smell of carrion. The instructions were set; Ophiel was on the job.

After ten minutes, with no false positives, Erick felt that Ophiel might have actually understood what Erick wanted.

- - - -

Ophiel hummed Teressa’s song on Erick’s shoulder, as they walked across the sand—

“One of them vanished.” Erick stopped. The group stopped. Erick checked with a [Scry]. “Yup. Wyrm sighted.”

“Yes!” Teressa called out. “Where?”

Erick had the remaining seven Ophiel [Teleport] back to the group. They appeared by the group in ten foot tall blips of white. Kiri inhaled, readying herself. She dropped her bag. The others quickly followed, depositing their bags in the pile Kiri started.

Rats asked, “We’re really [Teleport]ing to the wyrm?”

“Yes.” Erick said, “But a kilometer away, like Teressa decided.”

Jane flashed out a long sword. Erick looked at the sword. It was three meters long, slightly curved, and dark blue. Jane tilted the sword so the edge pointed away from Erick, and the sword almost disappeared. It was thin. Super thin, actually.

Erick asked, “Is that strong enough?”

“If I use it right,” Jane said.

Teressa scowled, looking at the sword. “This is not being a proper defender. You must deflect the monsters from your group. Cutting them does not help with this task.”

Jane looked down at her sword, saying, “I’m usually on my own… Want me to play the proper warrior?”

“… No.” Teressa summoned a two meter long club. It was Erick’s height, but on Teressa's three meter frame, it looked appropriate. “This is fine. Do what you must.” She asked Erick, “Seen a special ability yet?”

Erick checked back with [Scry]. The wyrm had moved on, but it was still within sight. It was grey, and racing south, directly at an agave. The agave moved, it was a mimic, it tried to get away but the grey wyrm snapped it up. The wyrm’s head had been the same size as the mimic, so the whole monster was roughly the size of the yellow wyrm, if a bit smaller.

Erick watched as the grey wyrm tried to snatch up another mimic, but the mimic dodged. Jaws snapped shut across half of the mimic’s crystal spines, cutting the mimic in half, leaving the mimic with smoking wound—

No. Not smoking. Melting.

The wyrm ate the rest of the mimic, spilling green fluids across the sand as it moved, leaving melting, noxious puddles in its wake. Erick understood at least one part of the grey wyrm.

Erick came back to himself, and said, “A Decay wyrm, I think.”

Tendrils of thought connected from Teressa to everyone in the group. She sent, ‘Show us.’

[Telepathy] passed around, connecting every person to everyone else, and then to Poi, who took the tangled mess and made it something solid.

Erick sent to her, and then to everyone else, an image of what he had seen. ‘I did not see any spells, but it left a mimic melting before it ate the whole thing. Puddles of melted green sand left behind, too. It’s grey, and slightly smaller than the yellow.’

Poi sent, ‘I agree with this statement. The Decay ability means it likely has nothing else, besides the usual [Blink] and otherwise.’

Teressa smiled. ‘Full armor. Complete coverage. Don’t get splashed unless you’re me or Jane.’ Teressa flashed with grey magic, fully covering her body in thick grey armor, with a slit left open for sight. ‘I agree with Erick and Poi, but I disagree that the wyrm only has one trick. Decay is a lesser alteration. It might have more.’

Erick made himself as ready as he could be, layering a white [Conjure Armor] over his clothes. It looked terrible, like a skinny hazmat suit; but today was not the day for dressup. Hopefully all stray liquids would slide off of him. Everyone else did the same, with their own variation of whatever armor they thought was best. Jane glanced at Erick's armor and made a face behind her faceplate, but said nothing; it was time to work. Erick made Ophiel touch each member of the group.

Erick asked, ‘Ready?’

‘Ready,’ came the group reply.

In a blip of white, all of them moved two hundred kilometers south, south east. The Ophiel instantly transformed to their small bodies, and moved to Erick’s side, like a flock of inquisitive cats; each of them looking past the other to get a better view of what was happening in front of them.

The wyrm tore up the land in the distance, undulating across the afternoon sands; a grey sidewinder snake 70 meters long, its body barely touching the sand, its head moving to a point of stability until its body caught up, and then the head moved again.

The grey wyrm stopped. It whipped around, its milky white eyes latching onto Teressa; the largest morsel on the sands. It had seen them arrive.

Teressa raced forward, Jane at her side. The wyrm, silent as their kind always were, mimicked the silence of Teressa and Jane’s pounding footsteps. Teressa lifted into the air, a foot, then two and three. Not much, but enough to make a flying target. The wyrm’s grey eyes went wide, crazy, as the beast raced to meet Teressa, a kilometer distance still yet to cross.

Jane’s footfalls turned silent. She dipped low to the ground, her long sword trailing behind her. She darted right, preparing to strike from the side. Teressa hung there in the air, two meters off the ground, her mace pulled back behind her legs, a similar-sized shield appearing on the wrist of her other arm.

The wyrm came on, slamming across the sand, silent. Its body was a corpse in different states of decay. Clawed arms popped out of the body here and there, desiccated and dry, or wet and rancid. Its hide was half scaleless. Gore dripped from open wounds. Bones jutted out here and there, while its grey eyes glittered green—

That was a change.

Brilliant green mucus poured from the corners of its mouth, from the gaps in its skin. It was salivating. It was destroying itself from the inside out. It was hungry.

‘[Ward]s,’ Poi sent. ‘Like we planned.’

Erick [Blink]ed beside Teressa, then threw out a 2050 point [Crystalline Air] around her, like they planned. Yet another aspect of coming out here and hunting wyrms was to test abilities, and [Crystalline Air] had a very interesting one.

Crystalline Air, instant, short range, 24 hours, Solid Ward, 50 MP + Variable

...

You may increase or decrease the size of your Crystalline Air for an increase or decrease in Variable cost.

...

Decreased cost, meant 100 mana produced a 50 point [Solid Ward], but that 50 was then multiplied by four, because a Large spell had been transformed into Small. Meaning that Erick’s 2050 mana spent, after Clarity yet again doubled the effectiveness of his mana spent, materialized a 16,000 point sphere of sized-small, solid air around Teressa’s hovering form, briefly hiding her behind a storm of fractured light, as the very air turned hard. Teressa could still move through the space, though. She smiled, as the edge of her mace trailed a disturbance of fractal air through the [Solid Ward].

Erick [Blinked] back to his Ophiel, to Rats. Poi stood ten yards away, with Kiri. Jane hid in the shadows of the sand beside the path the grey wyrm would take to get to Teressa. As the spell turned clear, revealing Teressa still hovering, still taunting the wyrm, the wyrm had gotten much closer. Erick’s heart beat hard. His mind raced. He hoped the plan worked.

The wyrm reached the party. Its head was the size of the [Crystalline Air]. Teressa blinked backward, to her secondary position, as the grey wyrm chomped—

It tried to chomp.

Its head broke as it swallowed the four meter wide pearl of solid air, down its gullet, distending the body, breaking something inside of itself in order to swallow the magic. The crystal [Ward] did not break, but the wyrm did. It crashed around the sphere like a garden hose thrown against a tree. Somewhere in all that, the side of the wyrm’s body broke, releasing the locked-in-space [Crystalline Air]. The [Solid Ward] came out of the wyrm, intact; dripping with green slime. That didn’t stop the wyrm, but it did rob the monster of all momentum.

Which was enough for Jane to descend upon the beast like it was a lamb and she was a butcher. Her long sword flashed as the monster whipped around to strike the suddenly airborne target near it. Jane carved off three decayed limbs, then [Blink]ed away. The wyrm caught nothing but air. Jane had already [Blink]ed twice more; she was thirty meters away, and striking at another part of the monster’s body.

It couldn’t catch her, and there were other, larger threats right in front of it. Teressa launched at the monster, her mace swinging to catch the wyrm upside the head. Teressa connected. The wyrm did not. Its head went flying backward, splashing green goo from every wound along its body as the entire beast shook with the power of Teressa’s strike.

Teressa laughed loud.

Kiri launched a speck of fire at the body of the wyrm, not aiming, just trying to hit something. The speck struck an arm and ignited the body. Fire crawled across the beast. It didn’t get far, maybe only seven meters in every direction, but it burned the beast, and it kept burning.

The stench of carrion wafted over Erick like a passing dumpster. A dumpster that was on fire. Rancid, burning barbecue, was all Erick could think about. It was a horrible smell, but there was also something otherworldly and delicious about the stench. Erick almost puked.

Rats fired off healing spells. Erick saw him glow a faint white, almost pink, in rapid fire, like a strobe; five spells at once. Teressa, or Jane, or both of them, repeated Rats’ light, but much dimmer.

Erick, for his part, first dismissed the [Crystalline Air], then—

Jane leapt into the monster’s side, carving a great chunk from its body—

Carving through the monster. A third of the grey wyrm stopped moving and crashed to the ground, inert. The grey wyrm whipped around, eager to start devouring the largest thing in the area: itself. Jane moved again, faster this time, then cut off another ten meter length, while it tore into its own rancid flesh.

Teressa just watched the carnage, and Jane carved off yet another ten meter section, this time just behind the neck. The body flopped, and Jane cut again.

And that was almost the whole fight, done in a few cuts from a ten-foot sword by an accomplished warrior.

The wyrm stopped moving completely; the front half had been carved from the monster’s grand rad core. Jane leapt at the still wiggling section of the body, cutting deeper, severing meter sections from the body at a time, while the wiggling mass tried to recreate a head, to eat all of itself that had been scattered across the bloody, melting ground. But Jane got to the cores —three of them— and pried them out of the monster, one after the other, out of the flesh that enabled the cores to keep growing, severing the dragon’s corpse from its grand rad masters, who had driven the beast to an all-consuming insanity.

Jane [Cleanse]ed herself, spilling thick air into the sky, erasing green goo from her full-body coverage. She telekinetically picked up the three grand rads, [Cleans]ing them too, as she walked away from the carnage, throwing her sword back into the ambient mana.

Erick was the first to speak. He exclaimed, “Wow! Jane! That was amazing!”

Teressa dismissed the helmet of her armor, grinning as she said, “That’s why they made you a team leader so fast.”

Jane dismissed her helmet, too, smiling as she said, “Those things have a lot of HP, don’t they?”

“Regeneration and defense, is more like it.” Teressa said, “Getting through that defense is tough— and you move way too fast!”

Jane asked her, “Do you have [Polymorph]? It’s helped me get in touch with my physical existence in a way that I never thought possible...”

Rats was the first to ignore Jane and Teressa’s conversation. He moved to the corpse; the rest of the party soon followed.

An hour later, the corpse had been dissected and combed over with [Telekinesis] and [Metalshape] for any telltale signs that it had killed and consumed people. There were no badges inside of this one, nor chest plates, or coins, or enchanted gear; there was no sign that the beast had consumed any unlucky adventurers at all. After a while, Teressa commented that this was how a hunt was supposed to go.

Erick asked, from upwind of the carrion pile, “Did the [Crystalline Air] help?”

Teressa stared at the wyrm corpse, saying, “It was very good for stopping a charge and starting the fight."

Rats said, “Much less terrifying than what you did last time.”

Teressa smiled at Rats, saying, “I like it; if you want to keep fighting this way, I would not object.”

“Yes, please.” Rats said, “The [Solid Ward] makes a better blocking target than a person who could get bitten in half.” He shivered. “That’s never nice to see.”

“I have [Greater Treat Wounds],” Jane said. “Don’t get yourself killed and we’ll be fine.”

Kiri, Poi, Rats and Teressa, all stared at Jane for a moment.

Rats yelled, “How! I’ve been working on my quest for three years!”

“And the rich get richer,” Kiri droned.

Poi said, “Here for three months? And already with [Greater Treat Wounds]? Hard to believe.”

Teressa laughed, saying, “We shall hunt wyrms without worry!” She sang a line of her hunting song, and Ophiel instantly joined her. She said, “This is great!”

Jane glanced down from Ophiel, to Rats, asking, “What’s your quest like?”

“900 more terribly injured people!” Rats demanded, “What the fuck!”

Jane scoffed, “Oh my gods, Rats. What version of the quest did you get?”

Rats emphasized, “Uhh!” Then went, “The normal one!”

“The normal one sucks,” Jane concluded.

Rats said, “Yes. It does.”

“Do you want time to go volunteer at the church, Rats?” Erick asked.

“No.” Rats said, “It’ll take a while, that’s all. Don’t worry about it.”

Kiri glanced at the sky; twilight was near. Soon, the sun would set in the west, turning the heavens to pink and red. She said, “We’re about an hour from sunset. Another hunt? Or dig in for the night? And are you ready for me to burn the body away?”

Teressa said, “This was a good start. We can hunt more tomorrow. Don’t burn the body.”

Kiri said, “I have [Cleaning Flame]. It won’t cause a Feeding Frenzy.”

“Oh?” Erick asked, “[Cleanse] and altering to fire?”

“Yes,” Kiri said.

Teressa hummed, then said, “I was thinking a [Scent Ward] over the flesh instead, and then to burn it with actual fire, tomorrow, to attract more wyrms—”

Kiri asked, disbelieving, “Do you want to start a feeding frenzy?”

Teressa smirked, saying, “Yes.”

“Oh.” Kiri paused, then said, “Well. Okay. We can do that? Uh.” She narrowed her eyes at Teressa, asking, “You sure?”

Teressa smiled wide, saying, “Yes.” She added, “Look at us! Archmage, Jane, Poi and us! We can do a Feeding Frenzy. Easily.”

“You’re talking about attracting wyrms, right?” Erick asked.

Teressa answered, “Many wyrms.”

“I think we can handle it.” Erick said, “Then I’ll do the [Scent Ward]. Or—” He imbued [Scent Ward] into Ophiel, and sent several of them to layer the spell across the body. “They can do that.”

Five Ophiel flew across the land, to the piled body, layering [Scent Ward]s across the decaying corpse of the grey wyrm.

Kiri asked, “Are you sure we can handle a Feeding Frenzy?”

Teressa said, “Jane and Erick can both kill one of them on their own. That leaves the four of us to take care of the rest. It’s the middle of the season, so we should get about four.”

Kiri turned to Erick. “Are we really doing this?”

All eyes turned to him.

Erick decided, emphatically, “Yes. We are. Worst case scenario, we all [Teleport] away, and I set Ophiel at them.” Erick patted the Ophiel on his shoulder, saying to the group, “Camp a ways away? Come back in the morning?”

Poi said, “Yes, sir.”

Erick had Ophiel turn tiny and move, one to a person, to rest on their shoulders. “Please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times.”

Kiri stared at her Ophiel, and Ophiel stared at her. “What is that supposed to—”

The group vanished in blips of white.

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