《The Third Threnody》 Prologue - An Old Man The sound of snow being trampled and a light whistling of the wind could be heard in a world painted white by snow, this place was devoid of life. An old man with hair as white as the snow he treaded walked up to a small rusted gate and pushed, the metal whined as it rubbed and scraped on it''s joints. "Heh.. even the gate cries here" the old man let out a short chuckle and proceeded deeper into the white haze. Rows of headstones made up most of the grounds, except a few scattered wild willows and the grounds keeper''s lodge. Nothing could be made out on the stones as they had all been buried by the snow, only the paths in between were cleared and navigable. The old man slowly crept up towards a specific grave, even in the snowstorm he knew exactly where he had to go. The old man knelt in front of a grave and stretched out his wrinkled bare hands to the stone, cleaning the accumulated frost from it. The tombstone read "Seralin Lantis - Forever Smiling - 5th October 2044 To 23rd April 2138". "I am glad I could convince the name carver to use your game alias, I know it was what you wanted." ''It would be wrong to use your birth name'' he thought to himself. Still kneeling on the freezing earth underneath his knees, his hands red from the cold, the old man could only grin and let out a few brief laughs that were tinted with a sombre tone. "You know I''ve visited you more times in real life after you died than I ever did when you were alive Seral, go figure right? Only death could bring us together." The old man leaned in once more to gently caress the edge of the stone like a lovers neck. Tears streamed down, warm against the cold ridges of his aged face. "I''ll never forget you Seral...." the old man looked down at the ground and opened his palms over the cold snow, tears dropped from his face slightly melting the snow in places. "Never!" the cry could be heard across the whole yard, dark birds scattered into the storm cawing at the sky. The old man knelt frozen for what felt like hours but in reality was only around ten minutes. The tears had stopped a while ago and the last drops had frozen onto his skin, he stared blankly into the ever white sky looking for something. He didn''t know what, but he was searching for it. "Hey! Old beggar do you have a death wish!" a voice boomed behind the old man who still knelt at the grave. He turned around to see a ragged middle aged grounds keeper walking towards him with a snow shovel in one hand and a flashlight in the other. "I... err... ehm.. I lost track of time, you''d do the same at my age!" he retorted back at the man while trying to pull his mind back together and thinking about just what his answer to that question really was. The old man slowly got up and wiped away much of the snow that had gathered on him, his bones ached and his skin had become red and numb. The grounds keeper walked over to him, feeling some relief when the old man was able still to get up and shake himself off. "Come inside, I''ll make you some tea and you can warm up by the fireplace. Can''t have anyone dying in my graveyard now can I". The grounds keeper gestured for the old man to follow and he did, a warm room was what the old man ached for at the moment and this man was the savior granting his pain some relief in troubling times. The wooden door opened and warm air quickly rushed out. They both entered swiftly and the old man closed the door behind them. He took off his thick overcoat and it cracked as the sheet of ice that had formed on it snapped in several places, the crackling noise served to only make him feel stupid for staying out in such harsh conditions. The grounds keeper motioned for the old man to sit down and he took him up on his offer without hesitation. This place was warm, not just in terms of heat but in terms of how it was put together, looking around the old man saw aged carpets, a slightly dusty mirror and finely crafted yet rather worn furniture. Yes, this place was a home. "Thank you for inviting me into your home, my name is Brandi... I mean Malcolm. Old habits die hard." The grounds keeper raised an eyebrow to Malcolm, knowing what he meant when he nearly said another name. That other name must have been his game alias judging by how he almost said it by accident. "An old fart like you plays a VRMMORPG? I don''t believe it!" He said grinning and patting Malcolm on his shoulder before taking the seat opposite to him. "Heh I''ve been playing since long before you were born, I''m 93 years old young lad and I''ve been playing it since I was 6!" With renewed vigor Malcolm announced his pride and joy, if he had the choice he wouldn''t take a single second away from the time he spent online, not one. "87 years?! Does that mean you were around for the launch of Zagon?!" The grounds keeper shot up with eyes giddy in disbelief. "I was young lad, actually I still carry the pendant that came with the original collectors edition." He made a smile as he gently grasped the metal pendant that was hidden under his shirt and revealed it to the grounds keeper who was shocked and still in awe. "That thing is worth my yearly wage! I''ve never seen one in real life before, I can''t believe I am getting to see one here, in my own graveyard of all places!"A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. "Hey sonny you never did tell me your name, oh and that kettle is boiling over." The grounds keeper turned around and jumped quickly at the boiling kettle, he got so caught up in the moment that he forgot. He quickly made two cups of tea and sat back down, handing one to Malcolm. "It''s Alex.. my name is Alex." He said still flustered at seeing such a rare treasure in real life and he gave out a small sigh to calm himself before taking a sip of his tea. "How long have you been playing Alex?" Malcolm asked with a clear motive in sight. "Hmm, I think around 32 years now. Nothing in comparison to you but I have accomplished a fair bit of my own!" he said proudly. "Oh? Do you solo play or party up?" a wry smile was plastered onto Malcolms face. "I''m in a party of three, been together for the past couple decades at least by my reckoning. Why do you ask?" Malcolm thought for a second before saying "So was I lad, we adventured together for over 240 years of in game time, mostly just the three of us. Me, Seral and Wendal were a single body and we knew eachother so well that we always knew what eachother was going to say well before anyone actually said it, we laughed together and cried together. In fact I can''t really remember much of my life without them, you wouldn''t believe what we''ve seen and done. Wars between dragons and creatures that still give me nightmares sometimes. The death of a tarrasque was a moment I''ll never forget, that fight lasted four in game days and it is only one of many memories. But those moments wither with time, the fear and the love. In the end they all become forgotten, my friends are gone now and only I''m left. The last one holding on to those cherished memories, but I''ll be gone too soon enough and then no one will remember those times. Kid if there is any advice I can give you it would be to live now, the past will wilt and fade and the future is always tantalizingly out of reach. There is simply nothing you can do about it and you only hurt yourself by trying" Malcolm finished his tea and glanced out the window to see the storm had quelled. His hands had returned to normal and he felt less rigid. "I''ve got one more grave to tend to, remember kid, life is fleeting, make sure to enjoy it." The old man grabbed his coat and left Alex''s home with a single destination in mind. With renewed vigor Malcolm strode towards the second grave he had intended to visit today, quickly arriving at his destination he cleaned the snow off the gravestone, it read "Wendal Curt - Always Kind - 22nd July 2044 To 17th December 2139". "Hey Wendal, you know it''s tough me being here you asshole. We used to visit Seral together and you were there when I first cried infront of her grave, I guess I saw this coming but it''s still your fault! How could you leave me here alone!" Furious he glared at the unmoving stone, a faint glistening set of tears gathering in his eyes, he wiped them away. "I forgive you Wendal, it''s the least I could do for you considering everything you''ve done for me". Malcolm''s heart gave a pulse of sadness to his entire body but he resisted the urge, giving the outside world a smile in return. Malcolm turned away and walked confidently to the gate that granted him access to this plane of painful memories. Each step harder than the one before it. Malcolm knew that every step he took away from his friends would be his last time being that close to them After reaching the gate Malcolm stopped, raising his head he softly said "goodbye, dear friends." ----------------------------------- The walk home was a blur, his mind was a mess of emotion and the thing in his chest didn''t help. He walked back home purely on instinct, a man without a motive. Upon arriving to his detached home he entered and headed straight for his bedroom, hunting the object that was the focal point on which his lives have revolved around. A jet black helmet with several lights and cables surrounding it, placed neatly on his bed. It was a virtual reality device, the name Sphere etched into it. Old hands clutched the device and he pulled it close into his chest. He stayed like that for a while. After a moment of trepidation heplaced the headset on and layed down on his bed. "Enter" he said as his vision went black and all of his senses were cut off, he came to the familiar darkness. It only took a few seconds for his world to change to a nostalgic sight. A world of green and blue quickly shot into the view of Brandish, a sight he had seen just before leaving for the graveyard. This was the cliffs of Ayhen, the sea crashed against them with massive force and the skies drifted calm fluffy clouds overhead. Brandish looked down to the three graves on the edge of the cliff, no players could be seen in this area because it had no value for experience points or loot in any way. Nothing spawned here, this was where Brandish, Wendal and Seral used to spend hours relaxing and resting after long days of dungeon raiding or resource gathering. The smell of Wendal''s cooking came to his nose and a whispering giggle found it''s ways to his ears. Brandish took a deep breath and got down onto the soft grass, his head up against the central gravestone and his arms stretching around the non-material bodies of his loved ones. "Logout" Malcolm opened his eyes, took off his Sphere and stood up to scan the contents of his room. On his table were a series of papers detailing his will and other things. In the corner of the room was a chair with a hangmans noose swaying above it. Malcolm Stood on the chair and attached the noose around his neck, with a single kick his senses disconnected once more and the darkness embraced Malcolm a final time. His last thoughts were of the first moment he, Seral and Wendal met. A sunny day in the cliffs of Ayhen, smiles and curiosity were on all of their minds as they embarked on what was to become their lives. A voice entered his mind while he bathed in the empty darkness. "Hello Brandish, I''m the goddess Beltrix. I have a proposition for you, my little waif." Chapter 1 - Rebirth "Hello Brandish, I''m the Goddess Beltrix. I have a proposition for you, little waif." The voice echoed in his head, an emptiness had enveloped everything around him and he couldn''t quite say where or what he was. "I can''t think with this voice in my head!" Could a consciousness shout? Well if one could then Brandish had managed it. It didn''t take long before he got a response, the world around him became real and two bodies appeared near each other, both somehow standing on an empty dark void. "Hello Brandish, you''re dead." Brandish just looked at her in front of him as he felt like he had been hit by a ferry carrying a freight train falling from a jet at 10,000 ft. He was unable to process what she said so he resorted to processing what she was as that was a mcuh simpler task. She was a 4''6" girl with long ashen hair extending to her lower back, she had eyes of deep hazel and there was a calm expression painted on her face with a hint of a smirk, as if she knew exactly what he was doing. She gave him a playful twirl as her kind smile turned almost devious. "You know, currently I''m inside your mind... so you are actually fawning over yourself mister, what a narcissistic little waif you are." "I''m de.. dea.... de..." Brandish was stuttering in an attempt to understand his situation whenthe little Goddess interjected "Dead, passed on, kicked the bucket, kaput. I''m hoping your only dead and not deaf because if you weren''t listening to me before I said that I have a proposition for you!" Finally calming down after a minute of frantic thoughts Brandish understood what had happened to him, he was dead now, he must be in some other realm. He was always a man that tried to ignore difficult and stressful situations with jokes and this was the most difficult situation he had ever been in. "Why do I get this feeling you''re going to try and sell me afterlife insurance little miss?" Now filled with a mess of emotions that varied from fear to curiosity he turned to his humour to lighten the mood. "Because I am! Sort of at least, you stand before Beltrix the Goddess of reincarnation and I have an offer for you little waif. I''ve seen your life Brandish, do you know how rare it is to see anyone that dedicated to anything? A game of all things, I''ve never seen a single person dedicate so much of their time from birth to death doing something that was so far detached from their real life. My job is to look into someones life and according to their karma award them another, but you are odd. Two lives in one soul, in one you lived like a hermit ignoring everything and anything around you, garnishing your karma with apathy and negativity." "In your other life you were the opposite to that, always outgoing and friendly. If I were to judge you based on your first life you would be reincarnated as a flea but your second life was where you truly lived so I am truly perplexed. So here''s my proposition, I''ll reincarnate you into a world completely different from your last but it will cost you. You''ll have to start from the bottom of the human world and rise up. That or I reincarnate you as something equally useful in the earth as you were previously for it. Which do you choose?" "Obviously I choose the other world! Who would even think about choosing to stay in a world where they never fit in." "Good choice, I hope I won''t see you again for a while little waif." The cute goddess waved to him as they both seemed to melt and drift back into the void, her image becoming smaller and more distorted as time went on until she was totally gone, Brandish felt tiny in contrast to the void. He felt lonely. ----------------------------------- A light appeared in front of his eyes and it quickly began to grow, becoming brighter and more intense until the void was gone and the only thing he could see was the blinding light around him. All that could be felt was pain, as the light grew closer and closer the pain only deepened and finally the light became the world, with his bodily sensations returning and pain easing he tried to talk, "aaaaaaaa *cough* *cough* ~crying noises~." Hands embraced the young child as it came out into the world, the cries weren''t the only sounds in the room though, but they were the only sounds the child could make out. ''I can''t see, I can''t see!'' The baby cried louder as it tried to talk. After a few moments went by the baby had mustered enough strength to open it''s eyes, just enough so that it could make out some of the details of it''s new world. The sight that fell upon them was not a pleasant one. A middle aged man was writhing and sobbing while collapsed on the unmoving body of a middle aged woman who looked calm and asleep on the bed, the floor was coated with blood and other worse smelling bodily expulsions. The only other person in the room was out of sight to the baby, holding it and standing still, somewhat frozen by something the baby had yet to understand. ''I''m a baby?'' ''I was just born, that''s it. I never thought it would happen so fast, now I understand why all babies cry when they come out, that was not a nice experience.'' The baby was thinking about this bizarre situation when it finally became apparent what was wrong in this room. "Don''t leave me! Not now Ves, not now! We have a child to raise Ves, you can''t leave me... a child." After a while of senseless babble, moans and cries the man pulled himself up like a puppet on strings and looked towards the baby, eventually walking in it''s direction and gesturing to take hold.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. "It''s... it''s a girl Jeral but I eh, I checked her ehh, there''s a small tail.. and ehm.. how do I say this? Demo..n she''s a demon Jeral." Still in shock the woman handed the baby to the man, she looked unnerved and agitated as she did so. The man received the baby in his arms and a shot of grief ran through him. ''Did she just call me a girl? Wait she said demon too.. a tail? I''m not human? My parents look human, no red skin or horns that I can see at least. This man is looking at me weird, he''s my father isn''t he? That Goddess did say I would start at the bottom of the human world didn''t she? I feel cheated. That''s my mom isn''t it? She''s dead, did I cause that...'' The babies mind was drifting down a melancholic path of self hatred, guilt and denial before it was snapped out of it''s stupor. "Status Check" Jeral said was gazing directly at his daughter, a blue screen materialized out of thin air infront of both him and his daughter. ''What is this? It looks like a user interface straight out of Zagon, I was just born, this is getting a bit much for my mind. This is just like the game, it''s in english and everything. Actually now that I think about it, my father and that woman both spoke english too, this is just way too odd.''
TITLE : N/A
NAME N/A LEVEL 1
RACE Human SUBRACE Demon
HEALTH 100/100 MANA 100/100
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INTELLIGENCE 1 STRENGTH 1
WISDOM 1 AGILITY 1
DEXTERITY 1 CONSTITUTION 1
CHARISMA 1 ENDURANCE 1
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MAGICAL AFFINITY
FIRE 0% WATER 0%
EARTH 0% AIR 5%
LIGHT 5% DARK 0%
ORDER 0% CHAOS 10%
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STATUS EFFECTS
Jeral trembled as his eyes quickly shot to the three abnormalities on the status screen. "A demon. A cursed one, why fates! Why me! You took my beloved and gave me a demon in exchange... my daughter!" He lamented at the innocent girl with him while looking with watery eyes at his child. But it all ended up fading into whimpers as he took a stronger hold onto his daughter, holding her close, holding her gently. Unknown to Jeral there were magical affinities on the status page too but they were invisible to him, only his daughter could see them. "Jeral, I''ve got to go. Do you want me to..." she was interrupted by the mans firm voice from across the room, "no one learns that my newborn child is a demon. No one. Not your mom or dad, not your friends or your lovers. No one. If someone turns out to know that my daughter is a demon without them finding out for themselves I''ll know it was you. If you do anything or say anything that could harm her it will be the last thing you ever do or say, do you understand me?" He stared at her and it seemed as if his gaze went straight through her, his eyes were intense and his sincerity clear. "... They will find out when she comes of age, I won''t tell anyone Jeral". The woman took a step back, fear evident in her expression. "When the time comes I''ll prepare for it. Until then I will not hear a word of this, or I will hunt you down, you can be sure of that". A few moments of eternity passed while the distance between the two felt so close that the girl wanted toscream, that is if she wasn''t suffocated by the tension in the room. Thankfully some semblance of logic took hold in her head and instead of just leaping out the nearest window she quickly and fearfully said, "I understand Jeral, I understand you fully." Her hands facing outwards at chest level, she quickly darted for the door and left the building, not looking back once. Jeral remained in the blood soaked room with his daughter and dead wife. He moved over to her bedside once more and he leaned in to kiss her still warm forehead while holding his newborn with great care. "I''m sorry Ves, I''m sorry for being away so much on the watch, I''m sorry for leaving dirty clothes scattered around, I''m sorry for going to the tavern and leaving you alone on my nights off, I''m sorry you won''t be able to see our daughter grow up. I''m sorry for everything Ves, I''m so sorry. I''ll make it up to you by being a better father to our beautiful daughter than I ever was as a husband to you." Tears streamed down his face, tears of pain at the loss of his wife and tears of joy at the birth of his daughter. Chapter 2 - A New Home Jeral was still frozen in shock at how much had happened in such a short period of time. He had yet to leave the room once since the labour had begun and even after an hour he couldn''t muster any strength, this room had become his prison. In his arms was his daughter, she was calmer than you would expect of a newborn and she had an intelligence in her eyes that could be seen by how she was looking at the world around her. She was only slightly smaller than two of his hands put together, she smiled up at him. "At the very least I can keep you happy heh?" Stroking her soft head he returned the smile. Unknown to Jeral the baby was thinking the same thing about him. Jeral felt slightly renewed and of his own accord he managed to leave the room that had come his prison. Jeral walked straight towards the front door that was still slightly open and he took a couple steps outsite while still holding his daughter. The baby turned to look away from Jeral with the little strength it''s current body allowed it. ''So bright, much better than that last room. I wonder how big this village is, the houses that I see all look like cottages, stone frame and thatched roof along with a wooden door. What a nice little place, I could enjoy growing up here. So much information to process though, my mother died before I even saw her and what was all that business about demons? My status said human but demon too, it must be some sort of curse I guess.'' Full of thought the young child parsed all the information she could gather about the lands in her immediate vicinity, there was much to learn. After breathing some much needed fresh air Jeral moved back into his home, bringing the child to a small room with little in it except a small table, a low crib and an open window with light curtains fluttering from the breeze. ''I guess this is my room then, I like it.'' "My precious little bundle of joy, I''ll have to leave for now. I''ll be back soon, don''t run away while I''m gone." Jeral said lovingly to his daughter as he put her down in the crib kissing her forehead. He left the room with much more morbid matters flooding his mind, if he had it his way he would have just stayed in that room with his daughter forever. ''So I guess this is it now, I can''t believe how quickly this just happend. Yesterday I was an old man living by himself and tired of life and now this! This is seriously one of the most extreme life developments I''ve ever heard of. This world has magic it seems, although I haven''t seen any magic the status message before did have something about that. Not just that but I''m a girl now, I don''t know how I feel about it but I guess it''s sort of fine, what''s the worst that could happen? Nothing I can do for a while, I suppose I''ll just try to sleep.'' ---------- In the center of the village a festival had begun, most of the folk who were not otherwise occupied were there, adding up to a crowd of nearly two hundred. Men and women of all ages were there and ale was plentiful, most of the commotion was centered near a large house built out of stone with intricate wooden frames as decoration and support. The evening was slowly coming into view as a myriad of torches, oil lamps and candles were lit. The twilight of the night was decending on the crowd and the moment they had all gathered for was about to come. A middle aged man approached a hastily put together stand in front of the manor followed by a much younger woman holding a young child, still an infant. "Thank you all for coming to the naming ceremony of my first daughter! I''m sure you''ve all being counting this day by each time you were woken up in the middle of the night by our little troublemaker!" a chuckle could be heard in several places in the crowd. "Well then, onto it!" He took the child from his wife and held her to be in view of the crowd. "I decided on the name this morning and with the first sundown of her first year of life I proclaim her name to be Joan!" The man on stage was beaming as a thunderous cheer resounded through the village, it was the sort of noise that could only be made by a crowd consisting half of drunken men and half of women angry at their drunken partners. ---------- In a world of white stood a series of large marble pillars which seemed to be touching the infinitely high light blue sky. They formed a path between two figuires, one of a very young baby which floated in the air and the other of an everchanging cloud of colours, the appearance of the cloud changed shape so often that it never had a real form, it was an incomprehensiblemess to the mind. "Hello little one, I am Kaw''Keth. I have blessed you because I took interest in your unsual soul and mind. It is not common to find a fully functionalconsciousness trapped within the body of an infant and for it to have a soul torn in twain is another mystery to me. Not many things have caught my interest in the eons little one, you have accomplished that much. We are currently connected telepathically and I have a question for you, what are you?" ''What am I? I guess that depends on who is asking, does it not? I don''t know what you want with me but the only experience I have had with gods is that they give me what I want, but always at a cost it seems. For now I think I''ll be me, an infant with a wanderlust, that is unless you have something to offer me.'' "Well I guess the times will tell who you will become then, little one. I''m glad I managed to stake first claim on you before the other gods noticed you though. The amount of curiosities that surround you are very numerous little one. The most distinctive of them is that you seem to have an open soul, something like that only happens once in the lifespan of an entire empire and normally the individual in question would have had to have gone through events so traumatic that their own soul divided in two. I''ve never seen anyone survive the process for long. Here you are though, an infant born like you should not have happend naturally, I am sure that there has been a lot of divine influence in your conception. That rises even further questions about why none of the other gods took interest in you though, so I''m awfully curious. I''ll ask you another question since you seem to want something little one, what do you want?" ''I want my mother back, this guilt is killing me. I never wanted anyone to die, but now she is and I can only think that it is my fault. I never even knew her but it still hurts me so much.'' The feeling of loss was strong, even though she and her mother never knew each other she still felt empty as if she had lost someone dear. "Sorry little one, that is something I cannot do. Life and death are outside of my domain, if I were to meddle in those affairs I would be stopped by the others. With that said there are many things I can do that they can''t and because you have just increased my interest in you further I think I will aid you regardless. Is there anything else specific you desire child? She took her time thinking about her current situation and what was ahead of her, it would simply be idiotic to let an offer of this magnitude go so she did not take the decision lightly. There were many things she could ask for but they all came from the same idea, the need for power. Becuase of her labours in her last life she had become adept at developing and using magic and short of asking if the magic in this world was similar to magic in zagon, which would reveal her origin, she decided to ask simply for magic. ''I want to be able to use magic, in my current state I know little of how to do so in this body or even if I can. I saw in that status window that there was something about it, I currently know nothing more than it likely exists here.'' If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. "Quite a good choice little one, although someone who had a different set of morals to me might think you had ulterior motives. You are right though, magic is present in this world but normally someone would have to train atleast several years to be able to chant the basic spells, only a small percentage in this world ever end up learning it. Since your body is incapable of the complex speech that would be needed to chant the spells it would normally be completely out the question for one of your age to learn how to use magic. With your unique soul though I think I could patch your mana flow to your open soul and allow it to have direct access to your mind, this would allow you to cast without chanting at all, the downside being you would have to learn magic from the ground up, instead of relying on chants to guide you through the motions you would have to use imagination and logic." ''You think you could? I don''t know if I should let a jumble of multicoloured gas mess around with my soul and my mind on a theory.'' "Heh, little one have some trust, I am a deity afterall. What do you say, want to use magic sooner than later? I have to admit that the thought makes me excited to get the chance to watch you from time to time, you might make the next few centuries a little less boring." ''Alright I''ll do it, what could possibly go wrong?'' "Good choice, just a heads up, this is going to hurt a lot and I might need to make some adjustments to your body, nothing major. I think it''ll look quite fashionable in the right light, bye for now then". ''wait what... paaa?'' ''PAIN! SO MUCH PAIN! ARGH! MY BODY IS BURNING FROM THE INSIDE AND SWORDS ARE STABBING MY MIND! ARGH AHHHH! ~internal screams~'' The newly born child awoke crying up a storm, outside the windows a crowd could be heard cheering. It was dark inside the infants room and the moonlight was starting to shine through a still open window, the curtains were softly swaying in the air, ignorant to the noise level in the room. Jeral heard the cries of his baby from the kitchen where he was sitting down with his face twisted by sombre thoughts. Rising from his chair he walked over to the room opposite to his current and gazed into the crib to see a squirming infant, eyes sore from tears. "Scared in your new room huh? I guess that makes two of us. Maybe you''re hungry too." Therejuvenated Jeral gently picked up his screaming daughter and tried to comfort her by humming and rocking her in his arms. After a while he walked towards the kitchen and retrieved a bottle he had recently procured from a travelling alchemist. He placed the bottle on the side and put a soft cloth on the kitchen table, laying the bundled child on top of it. ''Oh thank the fates it stopped, Kaw''Keth you asshole! You could have warned me earlier that it would hurt more than being pushed through a set a rusted serrated hot knives while drowning in a vaccum that made your skin boil''. The childs mind continued to go through strangely exact scenarios of painful encounters for a little while before she realised she had been moved. ''Huh I guess Jeral must have brought me here when I was crying. Is this the kitchen? Now that I think about it I am actually quite hungry.'' Now that a smile had been achieved on his daughters face he proceeded to change the cloth that had surrounded her with the one he had placed underneath her. After unraveling the cloth he stepped back, his mouth was agape and his eyes were shaking. Jeral had expected to see the start of a small tail and nothing more, no this was wrong. So wrong. Her hands each had a black gem rooted into their palms, the tops of her feet were the same and a large crimson gem was dug deep into her chest, they all seemed to have fused seamlessly with her skin and flesh and each had a thin line of twisting black and white which connected them to the gem in her chest. The tail was also present, it was only the length of her tiny hand but it was there, it ended with an arrowhead shape. All of this contrasted with her soft tanned supple skin and smiling face. Jeral knocked over the bottle he had placed in the table as he stumbled back, it shattered into many small glass fragments and a milky residue spread across the stone floor, the noise snapped him back into reality. "What is this?! Status Check".
TITLE : N/A
NAME N/A LEVEL 1
RACE Human SUBRACE Demon
HEALTH 110/110 MANA 100/100
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INTELLIGENCE 1 STRENGTH 1
WISDOM 2 AGILITY 1
DEXTERITY 1 CONSTITUTION 2
CHARISMA 1 ENDURANCE 1
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MAGICAL AFFINITY
FIRE 0% WATER 0%
EARTH 0% AIR 5%
LIGHT 5% DARK 0%
ORDER 0% CHAOS 15%
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STATUS EFFECTS
"What is this? I never heard of this god before yesterday and now this. What does it want with my daughter? Is this its sick idea of a blessing, warping her body with freakish additions?! This day just keeps getting worse. Wait how has an infant managed to raise two stats? Is that even possible?" ''hoho, look at that. A new wisdom and constitution point, my health went up too, I guess that must relate to my constitution level. I''m going to have to get used to these over the top things eventually, I better start now I think. I just hope I haven''t broken my dad''s mind already.'' Jarel grabbed his hair and pulled, this day was just about to make him go mad, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I have to clean up this mess..." As he went about picking up the shards and mopping the floor his daughter stayed still staring at her status window, excited beyond words. After ten or so minutes past Jeral got back to the task of feeding his daughter with a second bottle, she drank it but her first taste in this new world was the last thing on her mind. Chapter 3 - Strangers Night had long since decended on the town after an evening of celebration for the naming of the town mayor''s daughter. A peaceful quiet had taken hold in the manor allowing Ferald and Anna to get some much needed rest with their newly named daughter Joan. They sat near a fire nestled together, Joan was asleep peacefully in Anna''s arms. Their home was lavish and just by looking at the ornate fireplace you would know that they were well off, it wasmeticulously hand carved out of marble and on it''s mantlepiece rested many expensive trinkets made of gold and crystal. "Anna, this right here is what I live for. If I had the choice to be the emperor or sit here with you and Joan I would choose here every single time." The feeling was mutual with Anna and she merely replied with a heartfelt "I love you dear." As the fire crackled and it''s embers danced Ferald thought of what he had heard about Jeral earlier today. Jeral had a good relationship with the mayor and Ves was a friend to Anna. When Ferald was training with the guard, as was required of all nobility in the empire, Jeral was his junior. Ferald always remembered finding Jeral running around the camp or digging ditches as punishment for one too many witty remarks at the instructer. It actually became a habit for Ferald to talk to Jeral as he went about his menial tasks. One of the things about being nobility in a noble controlled training camp is that you would often find yourself with little to do and what little you were tasked to do only took a little amount of time. It was a rather boring experience. "I can''t believe Ves is gone honey, Jeral must be in an utterly terrible state. I can understand how he couldn''t make it tonight, I''ll just have to bring Joan over to him tomorrow." Ferald said while stroking Anna''s brunette hair. "I''ll come too, can''t have you saying something stupid like you normally do." Anna pushed her husband lightly and a grin appeared on her face for all of a fraction of a second before it turned into a frown. "Ves always was a source of encouragement to me, I guess she would have to be, considering the stuff Jeral used to do. She didn''t deserve to die, it''s just unfair." Tears fell onto Anna''s cheek from above, Ferald gave her a reassuring kiss. "I know honey, I know." -------- After feeding his daughter and having recovered from his discovery, Jeral layed her back down to sleep and went straight to a clothes chest in his bedroom. As he opened the chest he let out a quick whimper that was silenced prematurely as if he had something stuck in his throat, he bit his lip and carried on with his search. "I thought buying all of these little second hand clothes was a stupid idea Ves. You were so happy everytime someone gave you some little second or third hand mitten or scarf. You dragged me around on days off to get everything perfect for our child. You needed everything to be perfect." As Jeral carefully unpacked the clothes he folded and stacked them. The baby clothes were of various sizes and required sorting, some were simply far too large for baby right now. He got caught up in a sad trance because everything reminded him of Ves and it didn''t help one bit that all of this came so quick. Lesser trauma has led better men to insanity, but Jeral was stronger because of those who needed him. He had to be strong, for his daughter, for Ves. After gathering up a set of tiny clothes of mostly wool origin he laid them out. A woolen bleached white babygrow, a light red dyed jumper and white long socks along with a pink skirt of linen and a pair of deep pink silk mittens. "I can''t thank you enough Ves, even now you help me more than I could have ever hoped for." Jeral was getting into the habit of talking to the walls in the absence of his late wife. After all of this was done Jeral hit his bed like a log, his body and mind needed rest after today. A lot more rest thanthey would get. -------- After being put to bed the little infant tossed and turned, her mind was in turmoil and her movements reflected that. ''Why fates! Why! Why am I a fucking walking chandelier, I didn''t sign up to be a christmas tree! Kaw''Keth is there anything else you didn''t mention would happen, you knew all this and thought mentioning it wouldn''t be a good idea?! I did not give consent to made into a damned light fixture!'' Many more blasphemies were internally yelled at the ether, even Kaw''Keth didn''t know that there were so many insults you could spew about a gaseous appearing entity, he was proud of his work for it to garnish so much attention. It took most of the early night for her to calm down and start to attempt to think of solutions to the problem, to little effect. ''Argh, how am I going to hide this? This body is barely a day old, there''s no way I could do it physically. I simply don''t have the ability to get the clothes, or do anything for that matter. I was wrong, I''m not a walking chandelier, I''m an immobile chandelier, wait isn''t that just a normal chandelier? Argh! Actually in Zagon you could use illusion magic to change your form but I never saw anyone do anything so precise as to be able to hide only minor details of the body. Normally it was used to change into a monster or tree I think. Maybe in this world it might be possible but how would I even go about that? There was no illusion affinity in that status window so it might be impossible. I guess the only way to find out is to actually try learning magic then, here''s hoping I don''t burn the house down or open a portal to the dimention of pain.'' The infants body became still as she closed her eyes and focused on thinking various keywords for spells she knew of in Zagon. Nothing happend after a minute and she opened her eyes again. ''Hmm well I guess I''ll have to try something specific, what did that stupid God say again? I think he said he patched my mind and soul to my mana, I guess he did that with these lines and gems. Thinking logically these gems on my extremities must be drawing out something from this central core, unless it is the other way around. Perhaps if I try and focus on sending my energy out from my heart and gather it up in one of my hands I might be able to get an effect.'' Again the infant closed her eyes and focused, now with a theory in mind she was ready to test it. After only a few moments a fizzling blue-white bubble materialized in her left hand and her eyes quickly opened, giddy at the discovery.
Mana Mastery {Apprentice lvl.1}
--------------------- The ability to manipulate raw bodily mana in a basic manifestation.
You have gained 2 intelligence points!
The bubble in her hand popped in and out of existence for a minute or two before she began to feel very tired and fatigued.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Mana Mastery {Apprentice lvl.3}
--------------------- The ability to manipulate raw bodily mana in a basic manifestation.
Mana has been fully depleted. Mana lethargy active.
''Mhmm... sleep sounds pretty gooo...'' She passed out almost right away as the stress on her mind washed over her. --------- The light of dawn entered Jeral''s room, bringing him unwillingly back into the world of the living. A long yawn followed by the creaks of an old bed frame beckoned him to get dressed and leave for the town well. He felt like he was living in a dream world, people he knew were giving him odd looks as he went to get a bucket of water. Whispers could be heard and sullen gazes were everywhere, he said nothing as he returned home having accomplished what he set out to do. As if on cue he heard muttering coming from his daughters room. "Huh, talking to yourself already. I guess you take after your old man." Jeral retrieved his daughter and brought her to where he had placed her new outfit the night before. After some meager struggles on the behalf of his daughter he managed to put the new set of clothes on her, they really added some weight to her but thankfully the fabrics were loose and would allow for growth. ''Well I guess this solves the problem for now dad, but I do not want to live my life as a baked potato. I have already resolved myself for a future life as a demon chandelier, adding to my list of attributes is not a good thing. I will have to figuire out how to use cooling magic sooner than later it seems.'' *knock* *knock* The front door, which was attached to the kitchen, was being knocked. "Come in!" Jeral yelled, trying to reach their ears from his bedroom. The door creaked a little as it was opened and two people walked in, one holding a young child in her arms. Jeral, having finished dressing his child in enough insulation to negate the entropy of the universe, came to greet his visitors. "Ferald! Anna! it''s good to see you, sorry I couldn''t make it to the ceremony last night." Ferald looked like he was about to say something before his wife quickly strode to Jeral''s side, cooing and awwing. "Awww! So cute!" Joan, being dragged along was curious about the other child too as it was the first other child Joan had seen in her life. Joan reached out to touch the wrapped potato but could only feel the layers of fabric on it. "It''s a girl, she''s a cute one too. When she woke up this morning she was just muttering to herself, no cries, isn''t that right my little potato." ''Argh! Enough with the potato! I did not choose this life, the baked potato life chose me!'' "Aww, she looks a little bit angry at being called a vegetable, she couldn''t be cuter if the gods willed it. Oh I almost forgot! This is Joan, I''m sure she and your daughter will make great friends." Ferald perked up at the mention of his daughters name and closed the gap between him and his wife. "I picked the name myself, quite proud of my own creativity actually. It''s a combination of Anna and my mothers name Josephine." Jeral snickered, "Ferald you''re about as creative as a pen with no ink, I remember once in camp you tried to solve the problem of running out of nails by smashing the wood together with a rock." Ferald laughed with Jeral, "Well I guess I''m no carpenter heh heh." "Please take a seat, do you want some water?" Jeral motioned towards the table where there were four seats, Ferald and Anna both sat down. "Do you want to hold her Ferald?" "Yes I do, I won''t let you keep the hot little potato to yourself now will I." Ferald recieved the child in his arms with great care, like he was holding a cloud. Jeral quickly sat down and placed their mugs of water on the table. Anna placed a hand on Jerals knee while deftly holding her child with the other arm. "We heard about Ves, we''re very sorry for your loss. If there''s anything we can do to help just ask, we''ll be happy to do so." Those words hit Jeral harder than he thought they would, he knew something like that would be said on the matter but he didn''t think it would hurt that much, he dropped his head a little as troubling thoughts flooded his mind. "I''m ehm.. Thank you Anna.. It''s just that, I well.. I''m just coming to terms with what happend now and what with everything else, I''m just overwhelmed." A few seconds passed before Ferald responded. "Everything else? Don''t tell me those damned nitwits at the guard have you pulling hard work at a time like this! I''ll gut them!" radiating angrily at seeing his normally happy and socialable friend being turned to misery Ferald said all his thick head could scramble together. "No, it''s not that, if anything they''ve been sympathetic, even gave me a couple paid days off to get everything sorted." Jeral was now starting to realise the hole he was digging himself into. "If not work then what else? Don''t tell me, it''s the hemorrhoids isn''t it, I got the same problem. I can recommend a good cre..." Ferald glanced at his wife to see the raging eyes of a hungry and very angry dragon, a vein could be seen pulsing on her forehead and steam was about to escape her ears, it was a face that said if you keep talking I''m going to destroy you, honey. He grinded to a full halt mid-sentence, cowering like a beaten dog. Anna changed her facial expression back to a loving and empathetic friend and switched her gaze back to Jeral. "If you''re having trouble finding someone to look after her when you''re at work I can help you with that, she''s so cute I couldn''t refuse spending more time with her." She sent a sweet smile towards the baby in her husbands hands. Jeral had been backed into a corner, he never was good at talking or thinking and it showed here. There was no going back now, he just had to hope that he could really trust Ferald and Anna. "There''s something I have to tell you, it''s about my daughter. I don''t know how to say this, I don''t want to say it either but I''m going to have to eventually to someone anyway. I guess it''s good you two are the ones to find out, I feel like I can trust you as family. My daughter has some sort of curse, when I looked at her status there was also a blessing from a weird god I''ve never heard of before and worst of all she was born a demon. It''s so much information I''m having trouble letting it out, I don''t know what to do but I do know I love her from the depths of my heart and that I owe Ves to protect her. I need help." Anna gave another smile and a giggle "Hehe that''s all, nothing like that could stop me loving such a cute little baby!" she said confidently. Her husband on the other hand was apprehensive of all this information. "Demon.." He recieved another look of distain from his wife and quickly changed form. "We''ll have to keep this from the rest of the village, I mean... they wouldn''t understand. I''d do anything to help you Jeral, more now than ever. We''ll help you raise this child as good as can be done Jeral, I stake my name on it." His wife smiled, "Finally something smart came out of that big loud mouth of yours, it was bound to happen someday, what with the law of averages and such." All three of them laughed and even Joan gave her best attempt. "How do you feel about having a little sister Joan, I''m sure you''ll love her to bits." Anna snuggled her nose against Joans, rewarded by another little giggle from the cute baby. ''Hello uncle Ferald, hello aunt Anna.'' Chapter 4 - Farewell A couple of days had passed with not much happening after the visit from Ferald and Anna. Both Ferald and Anna now knew the full truth about Jerals daughter but nevertheless they both kept quiet on the subject and accepted it for what it was. Ferald was much more aware of the later ramifications that all of this could cause but with some encouragement from his wife he also vowed to keep the secret, something he wanted to do but knew that he should not. Jeral was finally starting to pull himself together from the loss of his wife and was able to act as a functioning person again with the help of his two close friends. It was too soon for real recovery to happen but he did not have the luxury of much free time. He had been called back to work today and he had resumed his day shift on the guard watch. Today was to be the day of Ves'' funeral, as was tradition it would not begin until sundown. Earlier this morning he had left his daughter at Anna and Ferald''s home before leaving to go to work. His daughter seemed perfectly fine with being parted from Jeral which had stung him a little bit but it also gave him hope that she would integrate fine with the rest of the village, even though deep down he knew what the future would have in store for his daughter. ------- Anna stood in the doorway holding Jerals daughter in her arms along with some things Jeral had brought for his daughter, like a change of clothes and a bottle. Joan had recently began to walk and she had quickly taken to it, being able to stand on her own now she followed her mother back into the livingroom. On their way they passed many expensive things, it gave more of an image of a palace than a village manor. Intricate paintings, wooden and metal ornaments displayed on marble pedestals and detailed archways intersecting the rooms and hallways. ''This house is so luxurious, in my old life all of this stuff would cost more than a decades wages! This building alone would be out of the price range of everyone, bar the extremely well off. I can finally be at home with my fellow chandeliers now, I hope they don''t bully me and instead accept me as their equal. All this moving around is a great change of pace from being with Jeral all day. Even though it has only been a few days I''ve quickly become bored with the life of an infant, I''m very glad I chose to learn magic, even though there are some downsides. My only highlight during these long days is using my magic until I run out of mana, I have no idea how much mana I currently have but my mana mastery skill has reached level 5 and it has started to become easier for me to feel my mana inside of my body. I think in a few days I might try experimenting, it could be dangerous though. An infant accidently conjuring fire could end up badly, on second thought, I think I might have to be cautious with that for now. Although finding some illusion magic would be a great help.'' The three of them spent the rest of the day going around the manor, Joan was really curious of her new little sister and Anna spent a lot of time doing general chores. Like anyone Anna never enjoyed doing chores but refused to get a maid because she was afriad that a maid might go on to become Ferald''s mistress. Around halfway through the day Anna sat down with Joan and her newly acquired potato, she breastfed the both of them. This activity brought up some very confusing and underdevoloped emotions in the potato but she eventually resolved that she was indeed an infant girl now and may as well take the benifits, not like she had a choice. ------- After dropping off his potato with Anna Jeral went straight to the guard barracks on the outskirts of the village. He carried a sword on his hip in its sheath and a buckler strapped to his back. He wore a mix of leather and cloth armour, with the leather armour protecting his vitals. The crest of the village was sewn onto his armour near his heart, it was the image of a bow firing at the sun. The walk took ten minutes and Jeral was in no rush to arrive, after twenty minutes he was standing outside the front door of the barracks. "Jeral! You''re back, we''ve been overworked since you left. I thought Demroy is going to have a heart attack if he had to pull another double shift." "Jeral, how are you feeling? I heard your kid''s a girl, I''m so happy for you man!" As Jeral entered he was accosted by the voices of his work friends, all dancing with great agility around the elephant in the room. None of them wanted to be the first to mention it and they had all deemed it better for Jeral to bring the subject up himself when he was ready. As he was bombarded by shoulders and faces Jeral put on his best acting face and assumed the form of the jovial working man. A smile on his face and wit in his mouth he began to one by one demolish all of his opponents. "Demroy on doubles? Hell I aint ever seen that fool do singles before, I can''t imagine the sorry state he''d be in towards the end of that, I can just see him pulling swords on little old ladies and patting dragons on the head." Laughter erupted in the entrance hall as the chatter went on, Jeral was starting to get a warm feeling in his heart back and he greedily embraced it. Eventually the talk settled down as everyone grouped up and went on their patrols, Jeral was told to go to the officer''s station along with Yrel and Tal''hid. After arriving, a well dressed man greeted them and they held their fists to their chests in respect. This man was in charge of this village''s branch of the guard, his name was Alexander Fisk. Alexander had bad blood with Jeral because of the fact that Jeral and Ferald were friends. Alexander had hated Ferald ever since Ferald had gotten the position of Mayor of the village when Alexander had always thought that he himself would have been far more suited for the position. "At ease, I''ve asked you three to come here because you''re our best scouts. Recently the forest monsters movements in this area have become far more agressive and forward, I want you to go and find out why. Our most up to date information says they appear to be fleeing the forest for an unknown reason, report back to me later today with your findings. Oh and try not to die, although if you come back with nothing I may just gut you myself. Dismissed soldiers."Yes sir" they said in unison before the three left the office. The moment they were out of sight of the guard captain they all took a sour facial expression. This was not the type of mission any of them wanted to do, it was dangerous, difficult and would take an entire day of hard work. "Just our luck eh Yrel, Jeral''s not a day back and the old man gives us a full day recon mission, I know he hates you Jeral but why does it always have to splash over on to us..." Tal''hid spoke while stretching his arms behind he leather helmet. "The forest always has me on edge, I hate it. Every step I take I freak out because I stepped on a branch and it snapped, this is giving me a headache." Yrel almost cried with her hands to her face. "I''m worried too, I don''t know if I like going towards something that has dire bears running from it and it''s not like I enjoy being the captains punching bag, there is nothing I can do about it though." The three of them kept on coming up with further reasons as to why their day was ruined as they walked around. After provisioning at the quatermaster the three left for the forest which was an hours walk away, it approached midday when they saw the treeline. They had not encountered much on the way to the forest as the area was very well secured and patrolled. "Tal''hid, if you don''t make it out of here alive, put in a good word for me will you." Yrel giggled at the agitated Tal''hid. "Hey why me! You have just as much of a chance to kick the bucket as I do!" Jeral saw the two bickering and tried to lighten the mood a bit with a joke, "Yeh, but I don''t think Yrel''s word would mean much in the afterlife." They laughed while suppressing the feeling of fear in their gut, the looming forest was not helping moral. Before they entered Jeral glanced at Yrel, "if you would do the honours." Yrel focused and began chanting a spell she had cast often before, it was the dark magic spell *Shadows Embrace*. "Malae tenebrae Orci Sed ad nostram."
Shadows Embace [ACTIVE]
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. The spell would last until either Yrel made it end by breaking the channel or until another magic dispelled it. This was an essential spell used in all scouting operations, it allowed the affected to pass into dangerous places without notice. Only a mage or a very strong monster could see through it, making it extremely valuable to have. The three guards maintained a close formation so as not to lose each other in the forest, Tal''hid knew this forest well and would be able to guide to other two back to the exit at a moments notice.Birds were flocking and crashing through the leaves, small animals were howling and the ground itself had a light tremor in it, the forest wasn''tnormally this loud. There was obviously someone or something disturbing the balance of nature and it wasn''t some adventurers hunting monsters. "Whatever this is, the more I think about it the less I want to find out." Yrel was getting a bit shaky at the thoughts of what could possibly be causing this much chaos. "I suppose it must be powerful for it to be having this reaction, but as long as we keep distance from whatever it is I think we''ll be fine in the shadows." The forest floor was trampled, leaves and twigs turned to mulch. The three treaded on deeper into the forest, fear pleaded for them to flee however their reckless fervor for completing the job pushed them on. An hour into their scouting mission they started to slow in pace, a presence had fell on them and they knew it was close. "What could possibly be exuding so much power? I really don''t know if it''s a good idea to go into that next clearing." Yrel was at her wits end, every fiber of her body told her to run. "I know, but we can''t leave now. All we have to do is see what it is then we can run back home. I am not going back empty handed, we''d be made a laughing stock." Tal''hid was playing the voice of reason but he knew exactly how the others felt because he felt it too. The trio cautiously crawled towards the source of the overwhelming pressure, in the middle of a clearing slept a huge figuire. Its feathers of red and green turned to black at their tips, it had a razer sharp beak that was the length of Jerals arm and looked as sharp as enhanted mithril. Talons dug into the earth like it was sand and it''s wings pulsated their impressive mass as it took each breath in its sleep. "That''s an elder griffon guys, I''ve only ever heard heresay about those things. I for one do not want to be around when it wakes up. We should head back and warn the guard." Jeral whispered to the other two, hewas trying to be as quiet as possible. The other two nodded and turned to make their leave. The three guards all ran back to the treeline, taking only a third of the time it took them to get to the elder griffon. After leaving the area that it''s aura stretched to they kept running at a reckless pace until they saw the edge of the forest once more. After leaving the forest they fell to their knees, gasping for breath, their faces were drowned in sweat and their hearts beated like drums in their bodies. The walk back to the village was a blur, they were just now realising how close they came to death. If that creature had noticed their presence they would have had no hope of survival, that thought had haunted them all the way back. When they got back to the barracks their comrades were in disbelief, more so their officer. No one could fathom why such a powerful beast would be here, a normally rather peaceful village. The three were sent home early, they couldn''t do any reliable work in the current state they were in. --------------- Jeral came to Ferald''s home and was greeted by Anna. "Hello Jeral, you look a bit shaken up. Did something happen?" Anna saw his pale face and had thought something bad happend straight away. "Yes, very bad. I''ll have to talk to Ferald about it too. How was my daughter? I hope she wasn''t too much trouble for you." Anna gave a smile, "not at all! She was the sweetest little thing, always looking around and pointing at things. Her and Joan are sleeping happily together in Joans room. When I tried to seperate the two of them Joan started to cry, I couldn''t bare it for long.." "It''s good to hear they are getting along, I hope they stay close. I''d feel relaxed if my daughter grew up with someone she could confide in, I never had that as a child but always wanted it." The two of them talked as they walked into the livingroom, there they met with Ferald. Ferald was enjoying a drink as they entered and he quickly motioned for them to sit. "Ferald you''re going to here this from the guard soon enough anyway but I thought I should tell you as soon as possible, when I was out on a scouting mission with Yrel and Tal''hid this morning we spotted an elder griffon sleeping. I don''t think I''ve ever ran so fast in my life." Ferald spat out his drink, "an elder griffon?! Here! What would such a beast want with us, don''t they normally live on the frontier mountains?!" Ferald didn''t have an answer to give him. "Yes they do, normally, but this one is here. That thing is a big threat, it could easily take out the whole guard." Ferald was growing uneasy at the thought. "I''ll have to put in a high tier request at the adventurers guild in Barrok quickly, just thinking of such a beast roaming freely around here gives me chills." Anna asked Jeral questions about what the monster was and he described what he saw to her, making it out to be much worse than it was. "Ves'' funeral will be tonight, I''ve already arranged everything. I hope you two will be coming." "That goes without saying Jeral, Ves was a great friend, the best I ever had. If the griffon came now I''d still find a way to make it to see her and say goodbye." Anna was trying to be strong while holding the floodgates back, Ferald comforted her and nodded to Jeral, assuring him that they would be there. "I''ll be bringing my daughter, she deserves to be there." "We''ll bring Joan too, I don''t think she would like all of us leaving her with a stranger while we went off." The three nodded and Jeral parted from them, going to Joans room and retrieving his sleeping daughter. Joan and her were nestled together, it seems Joan doesn''t care about how his daughter looks. The two of them layed together and Joan had her arms around her little sister, her little sisters head curled up in Joans chest. After going through the subtle and careful motions required to seperate the two without waking them he wrapped his daughter up and headed to the plains outside the village. ------- On the grass was a funeral pyre, a body wrapped in fine cloth was laying on its summit. All that could be seen around was grassland, mostly farms and farm animals. A few couple of hours of silence passed as everyone gathered together. The barns in the distance and the village behind were bathed in the last light of the day as the sun fell low in the sky, it flickered on the horizon. The world was painted orange for a short while before the darkness took hold. In total sixty-seven people had arrived, all friends of Ves. Ves was loved by many, a face that was at the center of the village. Jeral handed his daughter to Ferald as he himself was given a lit torch. As was tradition the closest to the departed lit the pyre. Sobbing could be heard across the plains as a new light was born. Jeral stayed close to the pyre until the moment the fire enveloped his wife. ------- ''Goodbye mom, sorry I never got to know you.'' The fire kept burning in the distance. ''This is real isn''t it? That really is my mom up there. That was my fault? If I had not chosen to come to this world she would be alive.'' The fire waved and danced in the infants eyes. ''I don''t think I was ready for this world, was I? Up until a few moments ago I was treating this like a game... I had treated my last life like it was a game.'' The fire calmed in her eyes as she forged her new will. ''This time I''ll truly live, my mom died so I could be here, I will become strong for you mom. I will not make the same mistakes I made in my last life. I will become strong, I will help others. I will live.'' Chapter 5 - Moniker A year had passed since Ves'' funeral Joan had been growing fast, just a couple days ago she had become two years old. She now had light brown hair that was down to the middle of her neck, matching her hazel eyes. After learning to run, jump and climb no place was sacred to her now. Joan was a very physical child, but today she ran around the house with new found vigor and excitement. She had been looking forward to this day, today would be the day her little sister would get a name. "Mommy, when can we go see little sis?" A pleading Joan looked up at her mother, giving her the watery eyes and stuck out lips that every child hones as an essential survival skill. "Not until tonight sweetheart, you''ll have lots of time to play her then, I promise." This was the fifth time Anna had been asked the same question by Joan, each time she looked into those little evil eyes her spirit waned slightly, she would break soon. ''I''m doing this for you Jeral, but I don''t know how much longer I can hold out in this war of attrition'', Anna sighed to herself mentally. ------- Her first year would come to an end tonight and Jeral would give her a give her a name. He had spent this past year in bliss, his daughter was truly a perfect child and Ferald was a great friend to have. "I was never any good with names, I''m going to screw it up, I just know I will." Jeral was pacing back and forth in his kitchen. Having put off picking a name to last day he had no idea what to pick now. He began sounding out random ideas in hope to find a good name. "jes... no no.. Kater... no.. Bre... nope. FUCK. ren..." His daughter had been observing her father fail terribly at the most basic of creative tasks, that last one had taken her attention and she finished it off for him "Renata.. daddy, Renata." His daughter had been learning to speak from a younger age than usual, a month ago she had said her first words and now she was starting to piece together phrases. Unknown to him his daughter was able to speak fluently now, she just hid it from everyone. "Renata? You like that name huh, it sounds pretty good actually, that''ll do." Jeral picked up his little daughter and spun her around in relief, she enjoyed the experience. Jeral and her ate lunch, afterwards they both washed and got ready for the event later tonight. Anna had sewn a special outfit for Jerals daughter to wear tonight, it was a light sundress style with a cream colour, it came with little grey leggings and gloves which looped around her middle fingers, concealing the oddity in the palms of her hands. Her hair had started to grow, it was still short and barely covered her head. The colour was peculiar though, white. Jeral had deemed it fine as there was no real stigma attached to white hair, it was just odd. On the other hand it matched her blue eyes very well. After everything was ready for tonight, Jeral decided it was a good idea for the both of them to get a little rest before the festivities. He put his daughter down to bed for an hour while he took a nap himself. After a little bit of shifting they both fell asleep. ------- A world of white was before her, with pillars of marble steching to the sky as if becoming one with it. She had been here before. Unlike the last time she was here she was now able to stand, this place looked much larger now, as if she had become smaller since her last visit. She knew that could not be true, she had grown to nearly twice her last size. ''This place has gotten bigger? Kaw''Keth why have you brought me here?'' The unstable mess of chaotic gas was ever present, always changing. There was beauty in his form, contrasting colours flickered in and out of existence around him like a light show. "The size of this place reflects the current state of the mind observing it, the more chaos present in their minds; the smaller it is, the more order; the larger. For me it is so small I am trapped here forever, for the god of order it would be so large they would never see anything other than emptyness. As for why I brought you here, that is a much more complicated matter, little Ren." This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Renata was deep in thought, last time she was here she made a painful mistake. She did not want to make another, whatever Kaw''Keth was going to tell her was likely going to make her situation more difficult, she had to be on the defensive. ''I am not your servant Kaw''Keth, Let that be known,'' The figure flinched, as if repulsed by what she said. "Little Ren, I have called you here because I have noticed that I was wrong originally when I thought no other gods noticed you. It is subtle, but I believe that your placement in this world was not as random as it may seem. There is a huge amount of latent energy underneath your village, it has the same traits that are only found in extremely powerful dungeons. I do not know which god is meddling with you but I can see that they have bound you to this dungeon. I advise you to prepare yourself. Originally the dungeon would have trapped you on your tenth birthday and I was unable to totally sever the connection so I have decided to make a compromise. On your tenth birthday you will be teleported to the dungeon but I have added an additional function to the previous gift I bestowed you. If you focus on your mana and will yourself outside the dungeon you will be teleported back out. I have also given you the option to go back too, with the same method in reverse." Renata was suprised by this sudden information, if it was correct then she didn''t have long to prepare for whatever this dungeon could do. Even with Kaw''Keth''s supposed help she couldn''t be so sure it would work in the way he said it would. Her mind was frantic, she had just been taken totally off guard. "There is one more thing too, due to the nature of the Dungeon you will only be able to leave once every twenty-five levels, I''m sure you''ll be able to manage though. Good luck little Ren." That sentence sent Renata into a mental frenzy, she would be trapped inside a dungeon of unknown origin with who knows what else for a considerable amount of time. The idea terrified her but she quickly remembered what she told herself a year ago. ''I guess I''ll have to up the schedule on getting strong, this world is not nearly as forgiving as I had hoped.'' ------- She awoke in Jerals arms, they were outside. "Oh hello there, it''s almost time you know, I''ll give you your name in a few minutes. Then you can go play with Joan." They were in the middle of the village and dusk was only a little while away. Less people had gathered than were at Joans naming ceremony but still around half the village was here. The guard had managed to sell the idea to the old man that they should all go in case a fight breaks out. Jeral got up on the stage and the crowd became quiet. "Thanks for coming everyone, I''m sure that this is the safest place this side of the continent right now." The thirty guards laughed from the sidelines. "Anyway I''ll get on to it" Jeral held up his daughter in view of the crowd. "My daughters name will be Renata." A brief moment of silence passed before thunderous cheers could be heard all across the village. Jeral put Renata down so she could walk around by herself, just as she got down from the stage Renata was tackled to the ground by a speeding Joan, thankfully she landed on a patch of dry dirt, so as not to ruin her dress. Wild eyes stared down at her, "Rennnat.. Ren! Let''s play Ren!" The two of them happily ran outside the village to the grass to play together. Two hours later when the sun was about to set and a lazy breeze blew over the grass Jeral and Anna found a pair of very young children sleeping under the shade of an old oak, both with an arm around the other. Chapter 6 - [Interlude] The mighty Seven years in the future Ramparts of impressive height curved around around the sprawling streets of a thriving city. Merchants, travelers and wayward souls came and went in mass. This was the city of Barrok, a beacon of trade in the empire. On the far side of the city was its reason for being, a harbour filled with cargo ships. This was no mere cargo either, the majority of those ships held a precious and highly valuable commodity, demon slaves from the forsaken continent of Reliqui. The city is split into four parts. Near the gates is the mercantile sector, on the other side the harbour holds the majority of the industry in the city. In between the two was the residential areas, the closer to the center, the higher the social rank. Directly in the middle of the city are two huge buildings rising above the rest, one is the dukes palace, the other is the cathedral. The city had recently acquired four new guests, a step above the common folk in power and presence. They strode through town with just one destination in mind, the adventurers guild deep within the city. They were made up of two men, one woman and one elf. The first man, who led the group, was tall and boasted a brutish strength as he casually sauntered along wearing full plate armour that covered most of his features. The second man wore a rugged brown robe, contrasting his blonde hair. The woman, was clad in thick leather armour and on her back a bow and quiver bounced as she followed along. At the very back of the party walked an elf of indicernible gender, many had tried in the past to work it out, all had somehow failed. The elf wore light cloth and wielded a long staff with a gem embedded in its top. The time was late afternoon when they arrived at the adventurers guild. The majority of adventurers had returned from their various quests and day work by now and the hall was packed. Conversation could be heard accompanied with clanking tankards bashing against wooden tables. The aroma of freshly cooked meat was wafting around the tables as more was brought out from the kitchen in the back. The large doors creaked open as the four stepped in, the doors magically closed after them with a slam. The adventurers sitting at the tables surrounding the entrance turned in a haphazard unison. Although it wasn''t unusual for newcomers to show up in the guild, what was unusual was for seemingly experienced and well equiped newcomers to appear without anyone knowing who they are. Every step they took glances were stolen without mercy, some even staring. People of lesser confidence would be cut apart by the sharp eyes but not these four, they were used to the adoration and attention their presence granted them. The plate wearing man caught a familiar sight in the corner of his eye, he directed his party towards it with haste. A large wall of wood stood before them and on it were placed hundreds of pieces of paper, each detail a seperate request. One such paper stood out from the rest as it had four red skulls stamped onto it, as the four read the paper they verified it was indeed what they had come here for. Monster Slaying : Elder Griffon [RANK SS 3] (KIll the Elder Griffon locateed in the forest outside of Gehna Village) The man in full plate armour pulled the piece of paper down from the board. All of the pieces of paper were enchanted to only come down when someones rank or party rank either exceeded or equaled the quests level. In doing so he silenced the room. He walked over to a counter filled with papers and ink jars with a man behind it. He placed the piece of paper on the table weighing it down with a card that had his basic status on it, including name, rank, party and party rank. The man swept up the two objects and looked back at the adventurer, "I have to warn you all before you take this quest. Four parties have already failed and died in completing this quest, do you still wish to accept it?" The man grinned and nodded his head. The clerk put the piece of paper in a filing cabinet and as he did the status card changed to read the quest details on it. After completing their goal for the day the party left the guild and headed out into the city to search for an Inn for the night. Finding a guard they slipped him a few coppers and he guided them to a high class Inn near the middle of the city. Outside the Inn was a large sign with the name "White Mane Inn". Upon entering the four were hit with a blast of warm air. The building itself was as ornate as they come, marble detailings aswel as thick wooden support beams elegantly carved with shapes of leaves and flowers. Everything about this place screamed high class, exactly what the party had wanted. They had spent far too many of their years together barely getting by and using the cheapest spots and none of them wanted to ever go back to that. "Greetings sir, we don''t get too many adventurers here. That will be four rooms yes? For how long are you with us?" The man in a clean suit held nothing but the best manners and held them perfectly. "Yes four rooms, just for tonight." "I see that will come to 64 silvers Sir." The butler was given the money and proceeded to show them to their rooms, before he left the four informed him that they would be down to the dining room in a few minutes after they changed and to have a table for four ready. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. After helping their leader take his plate armour off the other three left for their rooms, "See you in a bit Brian" the three said as they left the room. Before the elf could leave Brian yelled from across the room, "Going to be wearing the same robe downstairs like you always do Aewyn?" "You know I always do Brian, why must you ask me so much? This robe is fine, it''s enchanted to always be clean." Brian furrowed his eyebrows and waved Aewyn off. It had always irked Brian that Aewyn chose to only wear the most basic of clothing, he was sure that Aewyn could afford anything but Aewyn never once bought anything that wasn''t anecessity. Not long later the four of them were all downstairs in fresher clothes, except Aewyn who still wore the same robe as always. The table in front of them had all kinds of meat, slow cooked vegetables and fruit. While eating Brian started the conversation. "This will likely be the hardest monster we''ve ever faced you know. I doubt the basilisk we fought a month ago even compares. I am thankful for not having to drink any more of that foul anti poison though, what do you think about fighting an elder griffon Amy?" The girl who was delicately eating a stick of meat lifted her head to face the group. "I''m sure we''ll be fine, the only thing I''m worried about is it flying away. I think bringing some strong nets might help. I think as long as we have Vackan to heal us we''ll be fine." They all nodded to that and went on to discuss strategy for the rest of their meal. After eating they all retreated to their own rooms and slept for the night. ------- The next morning the four, all equiped in their combat gear, left the inn. "Amy, you can go get us transport to Gehna, any information on the place you can find would be great. Aewyn, go to the alchemists and mages guild to get us the potions and scrolls we''ll need. I''ll leave the camping supplies and tools to you Vackan. I''ll go to the slave market and get us two slaves for load bearing in the forest. See you all at the gate in two hours." An hour and a half had passed since they split up and all but Brian had arrived. Vackan had put all of the trips required supplies on a horse cart that Amy had hired to travel to Gehna. Aewyn found the two after getting several healing, mana and stamina regeneration potions along with scrolls of the Advanced tier magic *Full body bind*. In the other side of town Brian was still negotiating with the slaver he intended to buy from. "No no, that one is too weak, I am looking for someone that will not fall over after a miles walk." The slaver had gone through 6 others prior to this one and only one had Brian deemed fit for use. "Alright then follow me, I have some more in the back." The two walked through dark stone halls with iron doors at the sides, crying and whimpering could be heard from inside the cells. The slaver eventually opened one of the cells and a fairly strong looking demon came into view of the light. "Yes, that one will do." "Good. This one and the one from the front, that''ll come to 13 gold and 50 silver." After finishing the transaction Brian made for his party near the entrance of the city. The four of them left in the horse drawn cart together at around noon. Their destination was the village of Gehna where they intended to slay the elder griffon. "So Amy, what did you manage to find out?" Brian asked after the four had all got as comfortable as one could on a horse cart travelling on a dirt road. "The mayors name is Ferald, seems like he''s the one that put this request in. That griffon has been troubling them for quite a few years, stealing livestock and forcing monsters out of the forest. People say it just came out of no where around six or so years ago. So far it is yet to attack any people directly it seems. The village itself is fairly small too, only around 500 residents in total. The village guard seems to know where the griffon is so I think we should go them first thing." "Sounds fine, what about this mayor then, think we''ll be able to squeze some extra reward out of him?" Brian was ever the businessman. "It might be possible, this griffon has been troubling them for a long time as Amy said. We''ll be rich after this anyway regardless" Vackan replied. Aewyn hearing the talk of money gave his opinion, "Yeh, the mana stone out of that thing would be huge. I read about elder griffons in the mages guild today, turns out they are griffons that have lived in magic rich areas like ley lines for hundreds of years. I think the stone by itself will be worth well over 400 gold, but it honestly troubles me as to why this one has chosen such a weird place to nest. Normally their kind only live really far in the wilderness, where the mana is stronger. I think there is an unknown factor at work here." After a few whistles at the price tag Brian held out the harsh truth to them all. "Alright then, I know getting rich is what we all want but I know something we want more than that. Not dieing. That creature has already felled four other S class parties in the past, they went in thinking the same thing about getting rich and they all died. We will not fall for that mistake and we will not get carried away, at any point if it looks like we will lose the battle we will retreat. Got that?" Variations on "yep" came from the other three as they quieted down for the rest of the journey. Chapter 7 - The Leap In the present day There was a low hum coming out of Renata''s room that would make anyone curious as to it''s origin due to the fact that it was in the dead of winter and little to no humming bugs would be around. The true reason for this incessant buzzing was Renata''s magic, she had been practicing during all of her alone time and the results were starting to pour in. Renata was two years and a few months old now, on the cusp of toddlerhood for most but she would perhaps be the oldest toddler to ever exist. Renata''s most important advantage in this world was that she had just under three hundred years of experience and most of it was in a world that was truly brimming with advanced and complicated magic, the world of Zagon. It didn''t take Renata long to find out that the magic she currently possesed and the magic of that VRMMORPG had uncanny likenesses. Even though there were differences they were both based upon the same principles and this made our littlechandelier glow in joy, literally. Although it was a rough start she was just about to make her first breakthough, her first level one hundred skill.
Mana Mastery {Apprentice lvl.99}
--------------------- The ability to manipulate raw bodily mana in a basic manifestation
It has been sitting at level ninety nine for a few days now but she felt that she was about to make the breakthrough soon. It had taken such a long period of time because of her inability to replenish her mana using the normal basic techniques of meditation and potion drinking that most mages in the world of Zagon used. The former seemed not to work as it had always been seen as more of an addition to the game to make it more fun rather than an actual reality of how the magic functioned and the latter was impossible due to Renata''s total lack of potions, ingredients and the lack of knowledge to process and use them. Although she had a very good idea of alchemy she was totally unsure as to whether or not the flora of this world would be even close to that which she is used to working with. The statistic wisdom seemed to regenerate her mana slowly depending on how high she raised the statistic. Each point regenerated one mana every hour, this was a terribly slow method of mana regeneration as her mana pool had almost reached a capacity of three hundred, meaning that her current wisdom of eleven made her regenerate her mana almost once a day. When she slept though she would always fully replenish her mana pool. Understandbly if she awoke prior to when her body would naturally wake her up she would have a mana pool that was less than fully replenished and the degree to which it would be emptied seemed to be directly proportional to the amount of sleep she missed out on. All of this had left her with only a few options, none of which were currently usable. ''If only I could cast two spellssimultaneously I would be able to use *Spell Tapping* and I wouldn''t have any of these mana issues at all, I could be so much further ahead if only I didn''t run out of mana so quickly.'' Renata had been focusing intently on her *Mana Mastery* with the single intention of casting two spells in concert. Known only to a few in Zagon *Spell Tapping* was an extremely high leveled magical formula that required you to be casting an external spell already just to do anything. The spell worked by highjacking a spell to force it to chew through the latent energy in the world and send the purified result back to the caster of the *Spell Tapping*. Depending on the path of magic one treaded there were several ways to achieve infinite or almost infinite mana, some used portal like magic to summon it from other dimensions, some used blood magic to refine life energy and the list goes on. Out of all the methods spell tapping was perhaps the most difficult, least known and above all the most reliable. In Zagon Renata''s magic revolved around casting multiple spellssimultaneously to create powerful, unique and adaptive results. If there was one word to describe it, it would be elementalist. Although Renata''s magic has long since surpassed the realm of mere elements it still held the same concept of fusing magic together while fighting to create an astounding amount of possible combinations. -------- Two little feet could be heard slowly pit patting through the house followed by creaking floorboards. This was the noise of someone who was going very slow and trying to be quiet but was failing miserably. Renata''s face shot towards her bedroom door and a chilling sensation crept up her spine. ''oh no, please no, not again'' Renata thought to herself as she cancelled her current flow of mana and got into a fetal position at the back of her bed with her back facing the wall and eyes glued on the door handle as it slowly turned. The tension in the air was clearly visible as time began to slow down and as the door opened Renata closed her eyes and let out a pitiful squeak that you would assume came from a dieing kitten. "Umpf! Ahhhhh! Ouch ouch ouch... ahahahaha stop tickling no fair!" It would seem a fiery red haired huntress had successfully ambushed and tackled a cowering white haired light fixture of some variety and she went in for the kill. "Joan not there! It tickles! Nooooo Joan!" Her pleas were ignored by the predator who was truly ruthless, taking every advantage and using them to full effect, a massive smirk could be seen on both of their faces until Joan relented and released Renata. Renata was pouting while facing away from her older sister, hers eyes slightly red from tears of her most recent abuse. "Aww Ren come on, don''t be like that, it was fun." Joan pleaded but Renata only pouted louder and stuck her chin up in the opposite direction of Joan. "Well if you''re acting like that I guess I''ll have to tickle you until you beg for mercy... let''s see, I think I''ll start... Here!" Joan pounced once more on Renata and resumed her assault on the poor girl. This ordeal lasted for almost half an hour before Renata struggled free of Joans grasp and ran for the door and then outside, the notion of freedom pushing each of her feet infront of the other at a pace not akin to the average two year old. Renata glanced back to see the ravenous fiend chasing her and catching up, fear rose and she let out a loud scream as she further quickened her speed. "Bang! Umpf!" Renata while in her terrifed state had ran directly into a tree trunk that she knew very well, it was one of a pair actually and the pair belonged to Jeral, his legs were not the softest things to crash into and this was not the first time she had experienced the feeling. Joan had grinded to a halt when she saw Jeral and she quickly assumed the pose of the innocent child, hands joined and head tilted with a soft smile on her face. For one so guilty she looked so innocent. It didn''t take Jeral long to piece together the situation and the new trembling attachment that had a tight full body grasp on his leg gave him the last clue he needed to understand everything. "Joan, have you been scaring Renata again?" Jeral said in an exhausted tone to Joan, he was tired of all of the fuss the two would create. "No mister Jeral, we were only playing." Joan said in a very mischievous way while stealing glances at Renata. Jeral glanced down to his still shaking daughter and shook his head while speaking "now you two, play fair okay, I don''t want to see any of this fighting." Jeral pried his daughter loose and returned walking home and as he walked passed Joan she looked up at him with puppy eyes and impishly said "I promise you won''t see us fighting anymore mr. Jeral." Joan then proceeded to resume her chase and a face of pure betrayal was plastered on Renata''s face. Renata heard her father''s voice as the distance between them increased rapidly "Joan bring her back before dark or I''ll send Anna after you both!". A shiver went down Joans spine, she would be back with Renata before dark, this was certain in her mind. After a full afternoon of exhausting play both Joan and Renata split up after Joan left Renata back at her home. Renata''s body was bruised, scraped and above all, wet. Joan had "cleaned" her and herself just before they got back in the water trough at the village stable. Her wet feet slapped against the cold wood floorboards and her wet white hair was stuck to her face. Jeral shook his head before getting a towel and drying her off, partially poofing her hair up in the process, she looked akin to a human - cottonball hybrid right now and it only served to make jeral smile as he led her to the table where they ate their dinner. Jeral had managed to kill a dire boar while on partol today and had brought back some of the gamey meat to eat with his daughter, after giving a large amount to Ferald and Ves to cook up too. It was served with boiled potatoes and butter. The similarity in the food produce of this world and her last always astonished Renata but she was thankful she wouldn''t have to go without her favourite foods from times past. As they were eating together Renata thought about trying to get some information about this world from her dad, on many occassions she had pondered on many facts about this world like what types of magic there are, how high leveled most people are, what monsters are common and especially what monsters are near her. The list of questions was endless and like a normal child she was ready to voice all of them. "Dad, what is our village called?" "Gehna" he responded. "Are there other villages near here?" she asked, "Well... There is Varrok and Nurma, I guess they''re pretty close by, they are both bigger than our village though. Barrok is where most people go though, but that''s a city, it has huge walls and everything. I''ll bring you there when you''re older, it really is a sight to see." ''Good, good, a close by city would be nice to have, I''ll be able to use it well I think, especially once I get the hang of enchanting in this world. The only enchanted item I''ve seen was in uncle Feralds home, a sword he hangs of his fire. I would wager I could make lots of money with what I know. Best not get too ahead of myself though, still so much to ask.''If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. "I heard some of adults talking about mana and stuff, what does all that mean dad?" An eyebrow was raised on her fathers forehead as he didn''t expect her to ask something like that, but to him it fell well within the realm of normal things to hear about, it wasn''t uncommon for travelling merchants to try selling potions or magic trinkets like fire lighters in the village square. "Well mana is something almost everyone has, it''s inside of you like blood but instead of being red and coming out when you get a cut mana can''t be seen. Unless you use magic that is, your mother dabbled in some basic spells before she uh... she was good too you know! Damn I miss her..." ''Mom could use magic? well I suppose that''s understandable, I haven''t seen much but even a few people in this village seem to be able to use magic even if it is for very basic things like starting fires and so on. Dad is such an idiot, he always does this, he says something about mom then suddenly goes all melancholy on me and drags me into this sadness too.'' Renata got down off her chair and walked over to her father, putting a hand on his lap before she was picked up and embraced. She closed her eyes and hugged him back. ''I suppose it is nice to be held, I''ll forgive you this once dad.'' -------- After being carried back to her room and after a few minutes rolling around in a depressed fashion on her bed she looked up at the ceiling and then closed her eyes to focus on her mana channels. Her current project was to force her mana to not only form into one palm but instead to make it form into two balls with one in each hand. This was far easier said than done and was akin to doing a waltz with one half of your body and a samba with the other. For a child this would be totally impossible as the level of concentration required was huge but Renata was no ordinary child and had the magical experience of a battle hardend three hundred year old sage. The action was not hard for Renata but instead it was rather the fact that she had to carve new pathways and logic into her mana for her to be able to use her previously perfected magic in this new body. It finally happend after more than a year of trials and practice she made the breakthrough and like a burst dam her mana was formed into two brilliant balls of mana, one in each hand.
Mana Mastery {Apprentice lvl.100}
Mana Mastery {Journeyman lvl.1}
--------------------- The ability to manipulate raw bodily mana in a basic manifestation. The ability to cast two spells in a perfect harmony
You have gained 5 intelligence points!
You have gained 5 wisdom points!
Renata punched her fist into the air, she was absolutely taken by a wave of joy as she saw the result and read the notifications. She got up and began jumping in joy, she had spent so much effort in getting this that it felt like she was on top of the world and unknown to her what she had just accomplished was something only very old and very experienced mages were able to do. Not to say she wasn''t old and experienced, she merely didn''t look it in the slightest. If a mage were to see this they would likely either consider her a monster and kill her or a god and bow to her, this was a feat that was very rarely accomplished amoung mages in this world. With her goal finished and her celebrations over she fell back onto her bed before closing her eyes and promptly falling asleep. When Renata awoke her mind felt clearer than ever, which she attributed to her new statistical gains she had aquired after reaching the next tier of her *Mana Mastery* skill. ''I haven''t checked my status page in quite a while, I think I best do that, I''ve forgotten how far I''ve progressed.'' Opening ones status page was easy, all they had to do was say *Status* while thinking about wanting to open it and it would but for Renata it was even easier, due to her body modifications she could merely do the latter half of the deal and her status would now open and display for her, so she did. ''Status.''
TITLE : N/A
NAME Renata LEVEL 1
RACE Human SUBRACE Demon
HEALTH 110/110 MANA 300/340
-----------------------------------------------------
INTELLIGENCE 24 STRENGTH 2
WISDOM 16 AGILITY 2
DEXTERITY 3 CONSTITUTION 2
CHARISMA 5 ENDURANCE 3
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MAGICAL AFFINITY
FIRE 0% WATER 0%
EARTH 0% AIR 5%
LIGHT 5% DARK 0%
ORDER 0% CHAOS 15%
-----------------------------------------------------
STATUS EFFECTS
Renata was pleasantly suprised when she saw her current status. During the last year she had watched her stats as they grew and had come to several conclusions about their respective natures. It would seem that the physical statistics of strength, agility, constitution and endurance grew over time and it seemed that when she would be physically matured at around 14-20 they would reach ten in each statistic respectively. The mental statistics seemed to only grow when they were practised, inteligence grew when she learnt concepts and was able to fully replicate them whereas wisdom grew when she used her creativity or understood the underlying aspects of a certain thing. Dexterity seemed to be directly related to your perceptiveness and could be raised by completing actions that require exact motion. Finally charisma seemed totally random and had a tendancy to not only go up but also down, depending on how bad of a hair day you were having. Raising statistics seemed to take time and hard work for the most part but Renata was abusing the fact she understood far more than someone with just her age and statistics should know. This had sent her intelligence and wisdom values flying much higher than all her other statistics, of which she had little control over anyway. ''Now it''s just a simple task to copy over my old spell into this world, it would be so much easier if I wasn''t so used to all the little helping hands that Zagon gave mages but I suppose I''ll manage.'' Renata closed her eyes and began the fairly simple process of filling in the gaps in her old spell and attaching the spell to a normal ball of mana in her hand. It only took a few failed attempts before she felt the old sensation of mana pouring it''s way from the spell back to herself. Creating a spell in a day would be impossible under normal conditions but Renata did not have the need to make a new spell, rather she only had to slightly adapt an old one and for an experienced spell creater like Renata this was childs play. When she opened her eyes a flurry of messages were neatly displayed for her.
Spell Tap {Apprentice lvl.1}
Spell Tap is an extremely complex spell that has three separate basic functions and one optional function. The first of the three basic functions of this spell is to connect with an active spell and infuse it with an unstable amount of energy with the purpose of rending the surrounding passive world energy, making said world energy become active. Next the spell will abosrb and purify the world energy into refined mana that is attuned to the caster of this spell. Finally the the last function of this spell is to send the finished mana product back to the caster and channel it into the caster''s mana pool. If the spell detects any outsite interferance or experiences a surge in mana the optional function will trigger cancelling the spell before the third function can harm the caster. (Current Max Distance is equal to 100cm)
Congratulations!
For your first time creating a new spell of the 7th tier you have been awarded with access to the system vault and have been allowed to recieve items that amount to a total value that is equal to or less than1280 System Points!
You have gained 25 intelligence points!
You have gained 25 wisdom points!
Renata''s face grew a giant grin as she thought of all the possibilities this "system vault" could have. While her mind was still burning through all of the various things this could allow her to obtain she felt a strong sensation wash over her body and she passed out, when she opened her eyes she was in what could only be described as an enternally streching series of displays, sacks, libraries and much more. Chapter 8 - Grimoire Renata''s eyes were glowing with excitement, she never even remotely considered that she would have access to a place like this, especially at her age. The whole area seemed unending, there were hallways that seemed to stretch so far that they had horizons, some of the shelves were so tall they had their own stairwells. Anything you could think of was here, besides people, it was full of things but Renata could not spot a single person among them. She didn''t have much time to think about what she really desired before a message appeared in front of her eyes
Welcome! You currently have *1280* System Points or SP. To spend SP you must find an item of equal or less value than your current total of SP. To find an item you desire you may picture it in your mind and it will be brought to you. You may leave by saying the words "Leave System Vault", any SP that you have remaining after your purchase(s) will be kept until your next visit to the System Vault.
The message eased all of Renata''s fears as she now knew how to leave and that she wouldn''t lose all of her points if she chose to buy a cheap item. Renata had to think about what she needed so she sat down on the smooth floor and crossed her legs, an operation she had found more difficult now that she was a girl who wore dresses and skirts, it had never occurred to her how insecure you could feel when there is a direct line of sight between the outside world and your underwear, it was unsettling even when there was no one around. ''On second thought, I don''t think being a girl is okay, this sucks. I used to be able to do anything without having to worry about how I appear, now this. I can''t believe this gets worse, I just hope demons don''t have to go through all the usual biological bullshit that normal humans do, ugh''. It has become a common theme in Renata''s day for her to dread the future, the idea of her tail becoming noticeable and her horns getting tall enough to be seen through her hair. The many issues that being a girl simply brought about and above all the looming fate she had, being trapped in a dungeon when she became ten for however long gaining twenty five levels took. Because of all of this it was hard for her to focus, she had gotten into the habit of sitting down to do breathing exercises just to ease her stress before any decision. After a few hours went by Renata had managed to come up with what seemed to be the best item for her to purchase in her current state and it was an enchanters tool set. Making all the tools needed for enchanting would take Renata months at least and that was assuming that she could find all the materials, some of which would likely be really rare. Renata thought about an enchanters tool set and pictured what she knew them to be like from Zagon and before long a box appeared in front of her. Inside the box were many different chalks, dyes, dusts, papers, channeling rods and various other random materials, trinkets and vials that were all used in the crafting of enchantments. Renata squinted her eyes at the materials in the box as she recognized each of them and remembered their uses. ''This can''t be right, with only this level of tools I could only just about make common tier enchantments''. After looking through the contents for a few seconds Renata had a further message appear before her.
Replenishing Enchanters Set (Common) This replenishing enchanters set contains all of the tools and reagents needed for the creation of any and all enchantments up to and including the *Common* tier. All consumables and tools bound to this set can be replenished and repaired by pouring 10,000 mana into the mana gem located at the bottom of the box the set is kept in. This set may be upgraded with a *Crafters Set Token Tier 1* which may be acquired from the system vault. Cost : 1000 SP
''This thing is really expensive. It would take almost all of my points and I can only use it to make common tier enchantments, but that ability to totally replenish it''s contents with only mana is just broken, especially with my abilities. I wonder how much those tokens cost, I assume there must be quite a few tiers because it mentions the first tier of upgrade token''. Renata pictured tokens while thinking of the name *crafter set token* and before long six different coins appeared in front of her.
Crafters Set Token Tier 1 Used to upgrade a System Vault replenishing crafters set from Tier 1 to Tier 2, granting it the functionality to be used in the creation of uncommon tier products. Cost : 100 SP
Renata could afford the first upgrade and she would have some left over points but only getting to the uncommon tier was a disappointment, it limited the types of enchantments she could make by quite a bit. The tiers of the other tokens revealed the ordering and naming of the rarities of items that could be made, it went *Common - Uncommon - Rare - Epic - Legendary - Transcendent - Divine*. The price of the tokens increased by rather large amounts at the end tiers, it was 100 - 500 - 1000 - 2500 - 5000 - 10,000. ''This isn''t great, I really wanted to create a dimensional storage enchantment but the lowest tier of them is Rare, and even they can''t hold much at all, but it would hold my tools, money and small valuables. Maybe I could buy a storage item from here too? I seems like a waste but I suppose I won''t be able to make rare enchantments for a while, spell tapping is a rare type of magic that doesn''t require time forging mana pathways to work. I don''t think I will be able to create any of my spells beyond tier seven for quite a few years, it would be best to work from the ground up where pathways are concerned''. Renata pictured a weak dimensional storage item in her mind and it quickly materialized in her hands.
Lesser Ring of Holding Creates a pocket dimension and allows the depositing and withdrawal of items within the 1 meter by 1 meter space. Time does not pass inside the pocket dimension. Cost : 150 SP
Renata could buy all three and still have some leftover points, this was a pretty easy choice. The enchantments would give her a large power and monetary edge and the ring of holding would allow her to remain out of prying eyes for a while. When she moved a finger to the cost of each item she received another message to confirm if she wanted to purchase the item. After buying all three she dropped the token into the box and got a message asking if she wanted to consume the token to upgrade the item and she pressed yes. After the upgrading was complete there were new reagents and consumables in the box and the tools became higher in quality. With the current set she was certain that she could make any uncommon enchantment she knew of. Renata was well versed in the use of storage items and after putting the ring on her finger she stored away her newly acquired tools in her personal dimension. Renata was satisfied with her gains and was ready to leave. "Leave system vault" she said out loud only to be prompted by a final message confirming that she wished to leave, she pressed yes and she was instantly back in her room, lying down on her bed. The ceiling was dark, the room was cool and the only light came from the moon which was visible out of the corner of her window. She felt tired but the butterflies in her stomach refused to let her get any rest. So many possibilities had just opened up to her, now she could enchant items, begin down the elemental paths, create the first basic spells needed for training her body and above all she now had real hope that she would survive whatever the future had in store for her. No, she would thrive.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. -------- The next few weeks were full of intense magical training which was broken up whenever Joan would come over to assault Renata. In her previous life Renata always found earth and air magic to be the most useful and in the right hands they could be used to create utterly awe inspiring deadly attacks that had high precision. While there were many other elements and styles that would be useful to learn Renata wished to get those two up to a decent standard first. Because of the nature of mana, you needed to adapt your pathways to each and every element you intended to use, if you didn''t you would never be able to control what output your spell actually gave. It was similar to creating filters, they let through what you want and stop what your don''t. To refine these filters was done mostly through repetition, for air and earth Renata merely had to constantly cast, cancel and re-cast earth manipulation and air manipulation. These two skills only took a few hours to get but they would take years to be pushed into a usable state.
Earth Manipulation {Apprentice lvl.2}
--------------------- The ability to manipulate earth in a basic way
Air Manipulation {Apprentice lvl.1}
--------------------- The ability to manipulate air in a basic way
Each day Renata only got a couple hours to practice as she was either playing with Joan, talking to people around the village or she was with Jeral. This only left an hour or two in the morning and an hour or two at night for practice. For Renata this progress was really slow but if you were to compare it to that of the average magic user it would still be an insane pace. The fact that she had limitless mana when training was just a silly concept for all to even consider. The only draw back of using spell tapping was the damage you could do to the environmental mana around you if you overused it in the same place. Renata was well aware of the limitations of the technique and was very careful not to do any harm as she knew that if she disturbed the balance too much she could create chaotic mana or worse, corrupted mana. Both types of mana could create huge issues but the latter, corrupted mana, could warp nearby wildlife, destroy entire crops or it could even attract dangerous beasts to the area. The more Renata explored the village the more she found it rather nice, the village contained many little businesses like a bakery, a forge, an apothecary, a tailor and several other lesser places of interest like the local trading post, farmers square and construction lodge. Most homes had some form of trade, be it farming or crafting they all had their own little part in helping the heart of the village to keep it''s beat going. It was pleasant to watch the village wake up in the morning from her window. She could see all of the people mulling around, some taking tools to farms, others bringing water to each of their homes. The cherry on top would be the all of the chickens and ducks waddling around, if you looked closely you could almost see them yawning in the chilly mornings. There was no fear or troubles that lasted long here, in fact the only thing that was spoken of in strict terms was the nearby forest and that was only due to the possibility of monsters wandering around. They never went far outside of the tree line and when they did the village guard quickly dealt with them before anyone in the village would even know. Joan and Renata almost always ran around the same areas each and every day, first they would run through the muddy paths between all of the villagers homes, then they would go to the farmsteads to plead with the farmers for some fruit or berries, which with the application of the standard young girl big eyes tactic almost always worked. After raiding the farmers they would head to the river and dive in, splashing, dunking and otherwise drowning each other until they were cleaner than crystal. Once the sun would begin to set they would often sit on the stone bridge that overlooked all of the farms and hills in the distance, it always brought a little smile to Renata''s face when Joan would gently put her hand over her own and without even glancing at each other they both knew they were happy, the world was good and that the future was bright. -------- It was always a habit of Joan to drag Renata around when she would get up in the morning and her first thought would always be to run to Renata''s home where she would wait under the windowsill for Renata to wake up. She felt like she was guarding the room from anyone who would dare to be the first to see her in the morning. She was good at it too, to this day not a single person had managed to get past her and she was proud of that fact. Joan would steal gazes through the corner of the window when she felt like she wouldn''t get caught. The first time she had seen the strange ball in her hands she had forgot to move away for a few seconds and almost got caught by Renata. Joan really wanted to ask what Renata was doing but if she did ask then she knew that Renata might ask how she knew and the last thing she wanted to happen was Renata stopping her from doing her silent guard duty. In recent times Joan had spied and seen that the familiar ball had seemingly changed and that wasn''t all, there were now two of them and they both different. One seemed to be like a spinning cloud while the other looked like a rock that floated above her hand. The curious thing was that they seemed to appear then promptly disappear over and over again. Joan was able to look for longer periods of time now because Renata closed her eyes when she was practicing. Joan had mulled over in her mind how she would confront Renata and ask about the weird stuff she does in the morning and after a few days she decided she would just ask. If Renata wanted to stop her from spying on her in the future she would just ignore her and keep on doing it anyway. At the end of another day while they were both sitting in their usual spot on the bridge Joan mustered the courage she needed and asked. "Ren, what do you do in the mornings? I saw you doing that weird stuff". Renata''s face blushed a bright red, she had never expected Joan to learn about her morning exercises, she was still rather unfamiliar with her new female body and honestly she wasn''t able to convert her male habits to the new environment yet. Her mind raced as she began trying her best to come up with a good way to explain her somewhat lewd habits to her best friend. Thankfully before she came up with an answer that may have compromised the innocence of the young girl she was once more accosted by her friend. "I was just wondering cause those things that come out of your hands are really pretty, can I see them? Please?" Upon hearing the follow up question Renata''s mind screeched to a sudden halt quicker than a train crashing into a mountain. This was a much easier question to answer, albeit still a rather delicate issue it was not even close to being as tough to explain as what she was about to explain before. "Oh.. Well I guess, but you have to promise not to tell anyone. Okay Joan?" Joan nodded with enthusiasm and eagerly awaited what Renata would do next. Renata lifted her left hand out from under Joan''s and manifested a small and weak ball of swirling air. She made sure to only use a tiny bit of mana so that it was totally safe and it wouldn''t hurt Joan. Joan''s eyes lit up when she saw the orb and she slowly moved her own hand to touch the swirling clouds, when her fingers made contact with the orb the clouds gently diffused and began to swirl around her hand and creep up her arm until it was stretched so thin it blended with the surrounding air and disappeared. Joan''s jaw would dislocate itself if it fell any lower and her eyes were bouncing in excitement at what she had just seen. When Renata saw her she broke a sly smile while glancing at her, still gazing at the water below. A high pitched noise pierced her ears as she suddenly began to fall towards the water with what felt like a rather heavy body attached to her. Once Renata struggled free and managed to climb back up to the dry grass on the banks of the river Joan asked her another question. "How did you do that!" Renata couldn''t explain the exact way she just conjured that air to someone Joan''s age, it simply wasn''t possible, so she went for the easy route. "Magic." Chapter 9 - A Job Time in the village was very slow, every day Renata would be practising her magic so that she would be ready for the future, it was a slow process. Joan had begged Renata to teach her how to use magic but Renata was simply unable to teach her as Joan did not have the same voiceless casting capabilities that she did. Although one did not need to have the ability to cast voiceless to use magic, it would otherwise require knowing what the chants were. The chants for any spells could be gained in two ways, the first way was to learn an already existing spell chant. The second was to derive words of power from a spell formula that would bring out the effect. The latter option would take months to convert even the most basic of spells whereas the the first option relied on having access to pre-existing chants. Right now the best path was for Renata to try and convert some of her basic spell formulae into chants. Out of all of the elements to have water was the least dangerous for a child to learn so right now Renata was trying to convert her most basic water spell *water ball* into a chant for Joan. Although Renata now had an extra workload she didn¡¯t really end up losing much of the time she was previously using to practise, if anything it gave her more time instead. This was because Joan was now around her when she was using magic. This meant she could pretty much practise all day, even when she was playing. With everything steadily progressing Renata was ready to move on to her next project, enchanting. The one problem with enchanting was that Renata would need an object with an enough or better quality to enchant. If someone was to put even the most basic of enchantments onto a normal rock it would simply explode, the same went for normal plant matter and just about anything you would find easily around the area. Low level enchantments were normally cast on weak metals such as copper and iron, and were most useful when placed on to things like weapons, tools, and accessories. For Renata there seemed to be two ways she could get things to enchant without stealing. She could either buy them from a merchant who travelled through the village or she would have to find a way to get the local blacksmith to make something for her. Both options had one crucial flaw and that was that she was fresh out of cash. To remedy this she could either find some other way to purchase the stuff or she would have to find a way to make money for herself. The currency that was used by the village was fairly simple, there were copper, silver and gold coins. One hundred of a lower denomination would equal one of the next highest denomination. It would be far simpler if Renata could just use the coins to store the enchantments but sadly the metal they were made of was simply far too impure and purity was a very important factor when choosing a good material to enchant. Renata had spent quite some time thinking about what would be the best way to earn enough money to buy the rings she would need for enchanting. With all of the knowledge she had from her previous world and the things she learned from her centuries in Zagon she had plenty of skills and abilities which could be used to make money but it would be hard to find something she could do that would not give away who she was while also be something that someone her age could feasibly think up. She came to the conclusion that the best way she could earn money would be to find herbs and try to farm them, potions were present in this world and they were very valuable which meant that the materials that were used to make them would also be valuable. While it would be weird for a child to start crafting perfect potions it wasn''t so weird for a child to plant a few herbs, harvest them and bring them to an apothecary that could process them. -------- Renata was in front of the apothecary with Joan, the building was on the edge of the village in the direction of the forest. It was a simple one story home made of planks and logs, with a thatched roof. The door had a sign hanging over it with the image of a mortar and pestle painted on to it. Joan didn''t know why they were there and Renata had refused to tell her. "Ren, why are we at miss Sarah''s home?" The owners of the local apothecary were Sarah and Aaron. Sarah was the actual alchemist whereas Aaron dealt with all of the other things that came along with running an apothecary, such as finding ingredients. Renata glanced over to Joan for a moment before replying "money", Renata opened the door and walked inside, a bell rung as it did so. A musky and potent smell assaulted both Renata''s and Joan¡¯s noses as they went in, it reeked of something similar to wet grass mixed with bleach. In the front room there was a table that was obviously used for business matters, there were also plenty of boxes and barrels scattered around, some full and some empty. Joan was curiously looking around all the different boxes while Renata waited silently. Before long a woman came to the front room from the back with a confused look on her face, Sarah. "Oh hello there! You''re Jeral''s kid and Ferald''s kid aren''t you? Did they send you here for something?" Sarah was wondering why two kids had come into her shop, it normally wouldn''t be the place children would be interested in. "Nope, I''m here because I want to learn about some of the plants around here. Joan''s here because she wanted to come too." Renata didn''t ease Sarah''s confusion by saying this, for someone so young to even think about being interested in plants was beyond strange but she guessed she could humour her anyway. "Why would a little one like yourself be so interested in plants? Shouldn''t you be off playing in the river or tormenting the local poultry?" Renata shook her head as she replied, "Nope dad said that to get things I need money. He told me you use plants to make things for money so I want to know what plants are worth money." Sarah was taken by surprise at the entrepreneurship of the young child, it was very weird. Before Sarah could say anything else Renata decided it would be best to take control of the conversation before her proposal was rejected. "So are you able to show me what plants I can make money with?" Sarah wasn''t sure whether or not to even bother with the kid but frankly she had little to do today and she was bored, so she went with it. "Hmm, I suppose I could, but all of them grow in the forest, without your father there is no way you''re going there alone so I don''t think you''ll be able". Renata smiled, this was the exact line of thought she knew Sarah would go down. "But if you give me one plant with seeds I''ll be able to grow my own right here, then I can sell them to you". "Sorry kid, I don''t think you''ll be able to do that either, to grow herbs outside of the forest is really difficult and only experienced herbalists can do it. I doubt you''d be able to, no matter how much you want to. Even I can''t grow my own herbs, that''s why Aaron has to go into the forest so often to get the damn things". Renata only continued smiling, she was going to get what she wanted. "If you give me five seeds and tell me where the plant normally grows and what it looks like I''ll grow them. Just give me a chance, please!" Sarah was reluctant but no amount of resistance could hold against the sheer power that was the watering eyes of a child, it was simply an impossible task to say no to such a cute face. "Ugh! Fine, I''ll give you a few seeds but just stop with the waterworks, you''re worse than Aaron when I don''t cook apple pie. Just wait here, I''ll go get them." -------- Renata was going home with Joan after getting her seeds and asking her questions. Joan was still as curious as ever. "Are you really going to grow them Ren? Sarah said it would be really hard". "Pfft, hard? This is child¡¯s play for me, you can help too if you want. I''ll need someone strong to help me you know". Joan was giddy at the idea of getting to help, just like any child would be. Renata was ready to put her new slave... friend with benefits to work. After getting home Renata went inside and brought a shovel out to the back of her home where Joan was waiting. "Okay Joan, start digging I''ll make the fence", Renata went around the outside of village and started picking up sticks from underneath all of the random trees, specifically willows. After coming back she began to plant the branches into the ground and weave them in between each other until she made a nice small fence around the area Joan was digging, it was around three metres by two metres with the height being around a quarter meter. "Joan work harder. I want this whole area dug up, when you finish digging, I want you to dig it again. If you do a good job I''ll let you play with my tail after." With that Joan quickened her pace and began digging like her life depended on it.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Renata left and went around the village to gather all of the supplies she would need. First she went to the local pig farms and using her skill in bartering, she managed to borrow buckets for the day and brought back buckets of dung to the patch Joan was digging, to which Joan complained but Renata dismissed her cries and told her to keep working. Renata next went to the butchers home and went out to the back and took some of the waste bones, once she had a small pile she stopped bringing them back and started using earth magic to crush them into dust. Although it took a lot of mana it was not an issue for Renata. Renata then mixed the bonemeal and dung together with the shovel and began to dump it into the the ground. "Joan, dig and mix." Joan didn''t enjoy her task but she persisted for her reward. Renata brought fish guts that were also found behind the butcher¡¯s home and dumped them in too. The final thing she did was to empty several buckets of water into the ground. Joan was muddy, smelly and overall not very happy. Renata and her went to the river to wash after their hard day of work. The sun was beginning to set. Joan took full advantage of her time and played around with Renata''s tail, something previously forbidden to her, she enjoyed herself, much to Renata''s dismay and strangely it seemed to make her slightly aroused. When Renata got home she was greeted by a rather stern looking man who was wondering what she had done to his back yard. It had taken more than a few cute smiles and big eyes to properly explain herself but in the end Jeral simply gave up, he stood no chance after all, his daughter was the most cute evil troublemaker he knew and she was good at it. -------- The next day Renata was ready to plant her seeds. The seeds she had gotten were from a white thistle plant, when it grew it was a tall herb that was prickly and could sting you if you picked it in the wrong way. Its natural environment is normally the outskirts of forests. The herb itself was rather easy to grow but the reason why it was still better to pick wild ones was due to the quality. The pure white milk that could be found in its stems was a useful ingredient and if the plant was grown in the wrong area the milk would often turn black and become useless. Renata had made sure that the soil that she used for the plants was rich in minerals, which is one of the things she was going to do that would help the plant grow. The use of bone meal and even dung as fertilizer was unknown to the villagers as the level of technology and general knowledge was extremely low in this world. That fact alone would put Renata''s knowledge leaps and bounds above that of the farmers and herbalists of this world but that was not even the only thing she was going to use to her advantage. Plant magic was a combination of earth and life magic, and since Renata was already training her earth magic it would be possible for her to use basic plant magic to aid the growth of the herb. It would become troublesome if the villagers saw that she was doing something that a child her age would never think of so she made sure to make her activities hidden, Renata made sure to hide her knowledge of magic and technology. There were many different uses of plant magic but one of the more useful was the low level spell *Enrich Seed*. The spell could be cast on a seed when it is in soil that is already rich in nutrients, it would force surrounding nutrients to nourish the seed so it would be able to grow to it''s full potential. Normally using this on everyday crops would be rather time consuming and in general not worth it as it has a high mana cost. The real use of this spell was in making crops or more often than not, herbs, to grow in soils and areas where they normally would never grow. Better yet, if a magic caster were to cast the spell often while re-fertilizing the soil the seed would become the highest quality plant it could become. If the goal of the herbalist was to cultivate a perfect herb then this was the spell they needed. Sadly this spell did not increase the rate of growth as some higher tier versions of it do but that was not needed. It would also be really weird if Renata came back the next day with perfect fully grown herbs, no one would believe her unless she showed them her magic and that was a can of worms she didn''t want to open. Because Renata had not yet done much for her mana pathways in the terms of plant magic she found it really hard to even cast the basic spell from the magic type even though she was mentally versed in the highest tiers of plant magic. It took most of the day and more mana than even a seasoned archmage should normally have, but she finally ended up casting the spell on one of her planted seeds. The cast prompted her with an expected message, acknowledging her achievement.
Enrich Seed {Apprentice lvl.1}
A basic spell from the plant magic school. Must be cast on a seed that is in enriched soil, some seeds require specific types of enriched soil for the cast to be successful. When cast the spell will force the seed to become enriched. Cost : 350 mana
You have gained 2 intelligence points!
You have gained 2 wisdom points!
Thankful for minor increases in her stats Renata proceeded to enrich all five of the seeds she was given, an easy enough task for Renata as she had pretty much infinite mana at this point, so long as it was less than her total she would have no issue in casting the spell. Right now after the new gains her current mana was five hundred and ten, meaning she would have to fill her mana back up after every cast but it still only took her less than a minute to cast all five spells and that was with her terrible pathways for plant magic. With little else to do besides basic weeding and the daily spell casts Renata left the seeds to mature into fully grown plants. She wasn''t certain how long the white thistle would take to grow as Sarah didn''t know either when asked but Renata assumed as it was a common herb it would likely only take a month or two at most to become fully grown, at which point she would be able to sell the milk for a nice profit and she would have lots of seeds to make the next batch far larger. Thankfully she had a sla¡­ friend with benefits to do all of the hard work for her. With her money troubles seemingly solved, Renata went back into her usual routine. Daily earth and air manipulation training, converting her *water ball* spell into a chant and lots of time playing in the village with Joan. Jeral didn''t question Renata much about her strange behaviour concerning the plants, and he didn''t want to know why she was using dung and fish guts to grow them. Jeral merely accepted it after Renata gave him another cute face that he couldn''t ignore. The next few months were peaceful and Renata was waiting for her plants to grow because that would be when she could really get the ball rolling, she looked forward to the day when her efforts would pay off. Chapter 10 - Classes Renata was currently doing her usual morning routine of enriching her plants. They were growing quite nicely and it had only taken three months for them to appear fully grown. Soon she would be able to harvest them and bring them to Sarah to sell. Over the course of the last month Renata had made good progress with her magic training and she had almost finished the chant she was preparing for Joan. She had managed to raise the levels of her earth and air manipulation to just below journeyman, they were both currently sitting at level ninety nine in the apprentice level and with only a few more hours of training she would be able to push them over the edge into the next level. Her *Enrich Seed* spell had reached the end of the apprentice level just recently. Renata had been using it on her plants and the various crops she would find in the surrounding fields. Renata felt sorry for a farmer every time she saw their crops were growing slowly or were wilting so she took it onto herself to help them, all without ever telling them what she was doing of course. When she reached the end of the apprentice level she was surprised to see that she didn''t enter the journeyman level. She noticed two new things about her spell when she inspected it. First the spell had drastically reduced itself in mana cost, from three hundred and fifty to just one hundred. Secondly the level of the spell seemed to now be capped.
Enrich Seed {Apprentice MAX*.LVL}
A basic spell from the plant magic school. Must be cast on a seed that is in enriched soil, some seeds require specific types of enriched soil for the cast to be successful. When cast the spell will force the seed to become enriched. Cost : 100 mana
Renata was curious and she focused on the text that was in front of the level, hoping for further information. After a few moments and a couple haphazard taps she got another message that explained what the text meant.
MAX* (Spell Level)
The highest possible level for a spell or skill is determined by what tier the spell or skill belongs to. A spell or skill of tier one may only progress to the end of the apprentice level and a spell or skill of tier two may only progress to the end of the journeyman level and so on.
Leveling up her tier seven spell *Spell Tap* was surprisingly difficult due to how little it ended up actually being used. It currently supplied her with twenty mana per second, this meant with her current mana it took her less than a minute to fully replenish her entire mana pool. The spell was not normally learned by mages with such pitiful mana pools like the one Renata currently had, frankly it is a terrible overkill. She knew that she wouldn''t be able to make any progress in leveling it for quite some time. -------- Joan was at home with her mom leaving Renata with some appreciated alone time. She was currently outside in in her herb patch, she was slowly taking the plants out of the ground. With the amount of time and effort Renata had invested into the plants she didn''t want to damage any of them so she took her sweet time, digging each plant out by the roots. After an hour of very careful work Renata had finished harvesting each of the plants. They were long and green tubular plants that had wispy leaves on top. The seeds of the herb were located inside of those wispy leaves and Renata saw that each plant produced roughly an average of five seeds. Although she likely could harvest the seeds herself she felt that it was better to allow Sarah to do it for her, she wanted a good price for the plants and Renata did not want Sarah to say that they were damaged and give her less that what they were worth. Now that she had all off the plants uprooted she put all of them except one into her storage. It would be far more believable that she had managed to grow one plant by sheer luck than all of them. She took the plant she left outside of her storage with her as she went to the apothecary. The bell rung as she entered the front room and without much trouble Renata spotted Sarah in the front room carrying a box around. "Hey Sarah, I''m back!" Renata said while hiding the plant behind her back. "So you are, so you are. How did the seeds turn out? Don''t be upset if they didn''t grow, I told you it would be hard." Sarah gave Renata a motherly smile as she consoled Renata, little did she know that her efforts were in vain as Renata had actually succeeded in growing a plant. When Sarah''s eyes saw the plant she dropped the box she was carrying and it landed on her toe. "Howw?! ow ow ow... Renata how did you get that?" Sarah''s mind was torn between the pain and the curiosity before her. It was simply silly to think that a child as young as Renata would be able to grow something, less a herb that took skill. "I grew it!" Renata proudly stated, one hand on her hip and the other raising the plant above her head. "Grew it? You grew that? Here, let me see it." Sarah went over to Renata with a slight limp and eagerly took the plant from Renata. "You grew this, that''s a... that''s... good job!" Sarah was confused but happy with the child, she ruffled Renata''s hair and took a closer look at the white thistle, it seemed to be in really good condition. "You''ll make a great herbalist in the future if you can keep this up. Do you want to keep it?" Renata was smiling the whole time during their conversation, she had no intention of keeping the herb. "Nope, I was hoping you''d buy it Ms. Sarah." "Sure thing, I''d be happy to buy it, it''s much better than the ones Aaron brings in, they are normally worth twenty copper pieces each but since it''s your first one, I''ll give you fifty for it, how does that sound?" In rough terms twenty copper pieces wasn''t a small amount in this small bumpkin village. Renata had seen that a loaf of bread would normally cost one or two copper pieces, a cut of meat would cost maybe five to ten copper pieces depending on size and animal. The average family in the village had an income of roughly fifteen to thirty coppers a week. This all lead Renata to believe that fifty coppers was a pretty huge amount for just one plant, if she sold all of the herbs she had at the normal rate she would get a whole silver. Gold coins were manifesting in Renata''s eyes as she thought of all the money she could make just by growing plants. "Yep! That sounds great Ms. Sarah!" Sarah walked off with the plant and came back with a tiny pouch several minutes later. "Here you go Renata, is there anything else I can help you with?" When Renata took the pouch into her hands and felt the weight she began making a menacing grin on her face before quickly repressing it. "Erm yes... Can I have some more seeds?" Sarah nodded and went into the back room once more, five or so minutes later she came back and gave Renata another five seeds. "Good luck with those Renata, they¡¯re from the thistle you sold to me, I hope you grow them into plants as good as the one you just brought me." Renata nodded and gave Sarah another grin as she left the shop, money pouch in one hand and seeds in the other. She felt like putting off her main objectives for a while to spoil Joan instead. -------- In the middle of the village adjacent to the main road was the trading post. It was a small complex that was built with the road in its center, to each side were sheds for carts with smaller dirt paths that led into them. In front of the sheds, facing the road, were a series of wooden tables and crates. Depending on the day there could be anywhere from three to six people merchanting their goods. Most of the time there would only be the local food produce peddlers, but on some occasions a trader would pass through the village. They would often stop and set up shop for a day or two. Mostly they would be in the village so they could rest but because of the local monster infested forest they would stay to buy materials from the hunters and gatherers. Today was one such day that a merchant had stopped and set up shop, taking a rest from his trip to the city of Barrok. Renata with her seeds stored away in her ring had walked straight to the trading post from the apothecary. She still carried her money pouch that she had received from Sarah as she walked along. It was a rather slow day for the merchant so he was leaning on his table, scanning the light crowd around him for any potential. He spotted a curious young white haired girl walking towards him with ease, she really did stand out. Without much resistance his eyes were attracted to the pouch she carried, he smirked. "Oh hoh, hey there little girly. What I can I do for you today?" Renata clicked her tongue at being talked down to by the greasy man. On closer inspection he was a rather rotund specimen, his dark hair seemed to bound to his scalp with what one could only assume was the sheer amount of greasiness that the man exuded. His eyes looked at her in an almost predatory fashion as she attempted to talk to him. "Hello Mr. Merchant, I''m Renata." She looked at him expectantly for a second before he responded. "Oh, you can call me Lars. Was there anything specific you''re looking for?" He leaned over the table top to get a better look at Renata, she was shorter than the height of the table and it hid her. Taking a step back in utter disgust Renata restrained her urge to let go of her breakfast.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. "Yes err Mr Lars, do you have any sweets?" Lars nodded before he turned around and opened a box and pulled out a piece of scrap cloth that contained a bunch of gem like hard sweets. "That''ll be five coppers miss." Renata looked over the table at the sweets and confirmed that they were to her liking. "I''ll take two of those bags please." Renata said handing over ten copper pieces from her pouch, leaving her with forty. Lars took out another bag and handed both over to her after taking the ten coins. "Pleasure doing business with you missy". After getting the sweets Renata went straight to Joans home to find her friend. -------- Renata looked in through the front window instead of entering the house. She couldn''t see any sign that anyone was inside the front of the house so she walked around the back so she would be able to see inside the other rooms. When she came to the back of the house she saw Joan with a tiny wooden sword in her hands. Sweat was dripping from her forehead as she repeatedly swung the sword. Only a few paces in front of her was her father, Ferald. He was watching her attentively and failed to notice that Renata had started spying on the two of them. Renata waited until Joan had the training sword hefted above her head and when she was about to swing it down Renata jumped up and at the top of her lungs called out to Joan. "Hey Joan watcha doing!" Joan''s grip loosened on the sword as it was coming down letting it slide out of her hands and fly in a perfect arc towards Ferald¡¯s head. As Joan turned around to look for Renata, Ferald fell to the ground rubbing his head. "Ren! Dad is showing me how to use a sword, it''s so fun!" Joan turned around to see her dad rubbing his head with one hand and picking the sword up with the other, he was giving her a face that sent shivers down her spine. As the hairs stood up on Joan''s neck she turned tail and ran towards Ren. "Let''s go Ren, dad doesn''t look very happy!" The two of them ran from the backyard of Joan¡¯s home all the way to the river bridge that they always ended up at. The old cobbled construction had essentially been claimed by the pair. "Hey Joan, look what I got us. That slimy merchant down by the stalls sold me these sweets." Joan''s eyes glistened when she saw the multi-coloured treats and she eagerly took the bag that Renata was offering her. "Wow, thanks Ren. What do they taste like?" Renata shrugged her shoulders as they both ate a sweet, their lips pursed together and at the same time they both partially opened their mouths, "sour". The two of them sat on the bridge, kicking the backs of their feet against the stone as they happily ate their sweets. The sun was starting to set by the time they finished eating, they took their time savouring them as it was a very special occasion to get sweets, especially for young village children. The water below reflected Renata''s and Joan''s faces as they looked down, ripples from fishes preying on insects slightly distorted their image. "You like using a sword Joan?" Renata said as she flicked a pebble into the water. "It''s fun, I told dad to teach me so I can look after you. It''s my duty as your big sister to slice up anyone who goes near you Ren". Joan said this while tilting her head and making wicked smile that was splitting her otherwise innocent face. Renata inched away from Joan but Joan just wiggled back to the same distance, there was no escape. ------- Renata was back home after another evening full of playing in the river with Joan. It was time to push her air and earth manipulation over the threshold and see if they would be able to get past the apprentice level, she was unsure what tier these skills were and frankly she was really curious how much she could raise them. Without too much effort Renata pushed both of the skills into the next level, both had pretty simple requirements to advance which were obvious to one as skilled as Renata. To advance earth manipulation she had to be able to affect the density of the earth she created. To advance air manipulation she would have to be able to affect the pressurisation of the air she made. They were both very similar concepts, Renata had done this before in Zagon when she first learned how to manipulate those elements. The later stages were more complex but she was confident in her ability to replicate them in this world if she was given enough time. When she reached level one hundred in both skills she was prompted with six expected messages and one she didn''t expect
Earth Manipulation {Journeyman lvl.1}
The ability to manipulate earth in a basic way The ability to affect the density of any earth you manipulate, created or already existing.
You have gained 5 intelligence points!
You have gained 5 wisdom points!
Air Manipulation {Journeyman lvl.1}
The ability to manipulate air in a basic way The ability to affect the pressurisation of any air you manipulate, created or already existing.
You have gained 5 intelligence points!
You have gained 5 wisdom points!
Congratulations!
Due to the feat of raising three manipulation skills to the journeyman level you have been granted access to new classes. You may change your currently selected class preferences inside of your class status window.
Renata was happy to see that her manipulation skills could get beyond the apprentice level but the other message was totally unexpected, she wasn''t even aware that classes were a thing in this world until now, her status page said nothing about them at all so she just assumed it didn''t exist here. With her curiosity brimming she decided to investigate this new window. She opened it in the same way that she opened her other status window, by thinking it''s name with the intention of opening it.
Available Classes (By Rank) Combat Class : N/A
Rank 1. Earth Mage, Air Mage Non-Combat Class : N/A
Subclass 1 : Locked
Subclass 2 : Locked
Subclass 3 : Locked
This was a lot of information for Renata to process but she quickly got a rough idea of what all of these things should mean by their names. It would seem she could have a combat and non-combat class at the same time, granted she only seemed to have mage classes unlocked which she could only assume were both combat classes. The locked subclasses were a bit of a mystery for now. When she focused on each of the mage classes she was given an explanation of what they were in another message.
Earth Mage
Requirements (1) Three manipulation skills at the journeyman level, one of which being earth manipulation. Requirements (2) Five earth magic spells with a minimum of the journeyman level in each, one of which at least at the expert level. Earth manipulation at any level.
Benefits 5 freely distributable statistic points per level gained. All earth related magic costs 25% less mana. Learning rate of earth manipulation increased by 100%. Earth magic spells granted at level 10 and level 25 of this class.
Air Mage
Requirements (1) Three manipulation skills at the journeyman level, one of which being air manipulation. Requirements (2) Five air magic spells with a minimum of the journeyman level in each, one of which at least at the expert level. Air manipulation at any level.
Benefits 5 freely distributable statistic points per level gained. All air related magic costs 25% less mana. Learning rate of air manipulation increased by 100%. Air magic spells granted at level 10 and level 25 of this class.
Renata gazed at the descriptions of the two classes and noticed that it seemed there was more than one way to unlock them. For Renata the first option seemed easier as she had vast knowledge of manipulation skills from Zagon and acquiring them was no issue. She could also meet the other set of requirements but it would take a bit longer and leveling up manipulation skills first was always a faster method of learning a new school of magic. Any spell that was below the level of the manipulation skill it was related to would level up incredibly fast. While both classes seemed to have good benefits Renata felt it wise to sleep on it and try to find out more information in the morning. With a deep exhale she sprawled out on her bed and slipped into unconsciousness. Chapter 11 - The Road On the eve of Renata¡¯s eighth birthday¡­ *Knock knock* Renata¡¯s door was being knocked as she was rubbing her eyes, today was special, her dad had said to her that she would be going to the city of Barrok today. They would arrive on her birthday as the trip took more than a full day''s travel. Renata could simply use her flight spell to reach the destination in only a fraction of the time, but that would create issues. Renata got up out of her bed and spoke. ¡°You can come in Joan¡±, The door opened and revealed the figure of a young beauty, Joan¡¯s red hair had become more vibrant as she aged, it was a deep crimson shade which was a perfect fit for her now freckled face. Joan was going through a growth spurt and she was a full head above Renata in height. Renata on the other hand had aged into a delicate flower, her hair was as white as pure snow. Her frame remained slender but she was still formed enough not to appear sickly. Even though it appeared as if a strong breeze would steal her away it would be very wrong to assume so. Over the course of the past few years Renata had raised her skills to impossible levels and she was currently making good progress on unlocking much of her core spell set. Not to say Joan had not progressed in power either, under the strict watchful eye of her little sister she had also raised her spellcasting to a formidable level. Joan had also showed talent in swordplay and with the aid of her father, Ferald, she was not a little girl to be taken lightly. ¡°Ren, are you ready yet? We¡¯re going now, get dressed. I¡¯m really looking forward to the city. I hope it¡¯s got lots of sweets¡­ are you even listening to me?¡± Renata was in another world, her mind was yet to fully take in the stark change between sleeping in her bed and being in front of Joan. Joan crossed her arms and started tapping her foot and gave Renata a glare that sparked life and fear into Renata¡¯s motion. She quickly pulled her clothes out of her enchanted storage ring, an upgraded version of her previous that she had personally made after getting a more powerful set of enchanting tools, courtesy of her spell leveling. Oddly enough when she had questioned her father about things like the system shop she was surprised to find out that he, nor anyone else she asked in passing, had ever heard of it. Even when a passing army troop went through the village and she got the chance to ask a battle mage about it, even he was clueless. Renata put on a concealing outfit like she always wore. She chose to wear a leather jerkin style set with a silk top underneath. She also wore thin black fingerless gloves and leather boots. This was her current most powerful combat set, the whole set was enchanted by rare quality enchantments, the quality after uncommon. The whole set was enchanted for durability and secondarily had another useful enchantment that allowed it to fit the wearer perfectly, very useful for a growing young girl. Renata only wore the set in public seldomly, no one would think it was and an enchanted item and they would just assume that she got it modified from time to time. Renata had been granted a lot of freedom with her herb growing work and she had collected a fairly large amount of coin for her troubles. The two left the home and jumped onto the back of the horse drawn wagon that was taking Jeral, Joan and Renata to the city. Jeral gave the reins a tug and the horse began trotting down the dirt road into the distance. ------------------- As the trip was long it afforded Renata a lot of time to check up on her current magic progress and allowed her to check up on her current status page.
TITLE : N/A
NAME Renata LEVEL 1
RACE Human SUBRACE Demon
HEALTH 170/170 MANA 2340/2340
-----------------------------------------------------
INTELLIGENCE 224 STRENGTH 9
WISDOM 218 AGILITY 8
DEXTERITY 35 CONSTITUTION 8
CHARISMA 9 ENDURANCE 18
-----------------------------------------------------
MAGICAL AFFINITY
FIRE 0% WATER 0%
EARTH 0% AIR 5%
LIGHT 5% DARK 0%
ORDER 0% CHAOS 15%
-----------------------------------------------------
STATUS EFFECTS
Renata¡¯s stats had grown rapidly in recent years, pushing her into the territory that would normally be reserved for those who were veterans at magic casting. In fact, having intelligence and wisdom over two hundred was a benchmark that no normal magic student would ever pass. The normal seemed to around the one hundred and fifty range at the time of graduation. Her physical stats on the other hand left much to be desired and they only ever increased when she grew or in the case of endurance, when she set herself on fire while practising. Asking the children around her age in the village Renata had quickly found out that the average for the physical stats was roughly around eight to ten, at adulthood the average seemed to be fifteen. Renata had a head start on dexterity because of her spells which required aiming to practise and also because of the fine movements herbalism required. One spell in particular required a lot of fine control, *Shrapnel Bolt*. The spell was an extremely powerful weapon, the principle was a clump of highly dense and sharp edged earth magic that was shot through a vacuum using air magic that when it reached it¡¯s target would separate into its finer parts and tear whatever it hit to utter shreds. Renata had chosen this ability because at low levels it was unparalleled in destroying fleshy targets. It was utterly useless for hunting though, as anything it hit would be ruined. Unless of course you wanted to eat rabbit soup. Renata had prepared three offensive spells, one defencive and two for utility. All for the cause of being ready for the future. After unlocking her tenth spell a year ago she received access to a very useful new tool, something that helped collate her spells, the spell book window. While it didn¡¯t add any real benefit as of yet it was still very good, if she focused on a spell within it she would be reminded of it¡¯s spell formula, very useful if you had a lot of spells that you wanted to stay versed in. Sadly Renata already had an in depth knowledge of each spell in her possession and this feature would only become beneficial if she was learning a new spell. The road to Barrok was very bumpy, if it could be called a road at all. The road was made of the compacted dirt that was a product of it¡¯s use. Renata opened her spell window next to check up on the progress of her magic. Thankfully the window was easy to read as it was fixed to her vision and not a level point, so it moved with her.
Spell Name Spell Tier Spell Level
Mana Mastery N/A 82 (Expert)
Air Manipulation Master (IV) 43 (Journeyman)
Earth Manipulation Master (IV) 12 (Journeyman)
Spell Tap Divine (VII) 31 (Apprentice)
Enrich Seed Apprentice (I) 100 (Apprentice)
Shield Vortex Sage (V) 87 (Apprentice)
Flight Master (IV) 29 (Apprentice)
Eagle Eye Journeyman (II) 37 (Apprentice)
Concussive Wave Expert (III) 53 (Apprentice)
Compressed Wind Slash Expert (III) 64 (Apprentice)
Shrapnel Bolt Master (IV) 20 (Journeyman)
Her *Mana Mastery* skill seemed to skirt on the borders of what she considered a spell, a skill and a manipulation. After trial and error Renata had worked out that skills in this world were actually rather non existent. Anything that wasn¡¯t a spell held the suffix of mastery, such as sword mastery, which some of the village guards had. Manipulations of various magical things were merely a subset of spells. This had raised the question as to what exactly mana mastery was. Skills, or masteries, had definite tiers like spells do and as a result so do manipulation spells. *Mana Mastery* was the oddball in this whole equation, everything else had a very easily readable maximum level which corresponded to it¡¯s tier. *Mana Mastery* on the other hand, while seemingly being both a skill and spell acted like neither. It appeared to have no tier, this surprised Renata as she knew that in Zagon that *Mana Mastery* had a limit, a very high limit, but a limit nonetheless. Putting aside her musings Renata focused on the road, she was facing away from the direction she and Joan were travelling in, giving her a nice view as she went along the dirt road which was parallel to the river. Every so often she would spot an animal taking a drink at the banks or a fisherman sitting on the grass patiently. It was a sunny day now but if she used her *Eagle Eye* spell she could see that in the distance dark clouds were approaching, tonight was going to be cold. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. --------------- In front of their cart Jeral saw what seemed to be a group of camping travellers. The day was almost gone and Jeral had thought of stopping soon anyway so he pulled up his cart close to them, gaining their attention. ¡°Who goes there?¡± bellowed one of the bulkier men in the other group. Renata had turned around and seen that their group was fairly large. There seemed to be in the range of ten to fifteen people there. In reality it was a small caravan. ¡°Jeral of Gehna, may we camp with your group for the night?¡± The burly man gave Jeral a good look over and turned to talk to a scrawnier man in hushed tones. The scrawny man without much delay dismissed his company and strode towards Jeral at a leisurely pace. ¡°Of course! The more the merrier, I¡¯ve heard tell of a few marauders in these parts, an extra blade would be better to have than not.¡± Joan was the first to jump off the cart, she appeared to be in a rough state from the travel, her face was pale from motion sickness. She sprinted off into the nearby treeline on the side of the road. They had entered the forest only recently and as it was a small one it held little danger. The foliage gave some reprieve from the rain that seemed to be gaining force. Renata decided to stay put while Jeral yelled at Joan to not go far from the road. Renata and Jeral took out the pegs, supports and canvass so they could put up their tents. Thanks to Jeral being a veteran scout he was able to do it in only a few minutes with the help of Renata. Once finished Renata promptly scurried inside of her and Joan¡¯s tent for shelter. Jeral went off towards the other group to talk, telling his daughter to stay put. ----------------- An hour had passed and Renata was still alone, Joan had not returned. Renata was becoming more worried with every second that passed. When she poked her head out and looked to see her she found only the other group and her father, who appeared to be well on the way to drinking all of his coin away, this had been an issue ever since Renata was born. The loss of his wife and the stress of his child wreaked havoc on his mind, Renata didn¡¯t judge him for it as she had seen stronger men break down for lesser issues. As Jeral was likely of no help in his inebriation, Renata left the confines of her camp and ventured into the forest in the same direction as Joan, activating her shield spell, *Shield Vortex*, and her *Eagle Eye* spell. Both of them had a large mana consumption rate but as she simultaneously casted *Spell Tap* it become a null issue. The principle of *Shield Vortex* was to create an invisible shield that would use powerful air magic to create a vortex of wind powerful enough to deflect anything from projectiles to melee strikes. If a sword was swung into the vortex it would be ripped from the wielder''s hand and thrown into the sky, likewise the same would happen to any projectile. The most glaring weakness of this spell was the hole in the top of the shield, the eye of the vortex, less than a few centimeters wide it was only abusable be someone who knew how the spell functioned. Thankfully the spell always provided a layer of air around the caster so they could breathe. Sadly, any and all sound was blocked from the caster, at least at the low levels of the spell that Renata was still at. With the help of her enhanced vision due to *Eagle Eye* it was no issue for Renata to follow Joan¡¯s tracks as she walked along, her pace increasing as she went deeper into the unknown. When Renata spotted what appeared to be wolf footprints in the ground she broke into a full sprint following the trail. After a minute of running she spied the corpses of two wolves bled out on the ground. The track kept going and Renata spared no time for admiring what appeared to be the handiwork of Joan¡¯s magic and swordplay. A short distance from the two fallen wolves Renata spotted the rest of the pack, three other wolves were circling a large tree, they were trying to jump up to the top but were unable due to their frames. Renata spotted Joan, she was on the top of the tree that the wolves were surrounding. With her *Eagle Eye* Renata spotted that Joan was wounded, she had a gash across her left arm. Joan¡¯s short sword was at the foot of the tree, either she dropped it or she had thrown it to the side so she could climb quicker. Renata cancelled her *Spell Tap* momentarily while she fired off three quick shrapnel bolts. At her current level of *Mana Mastery* she was only able to cast three spells at any time and as she had plenty of mana she chose to remain as combat ready as she could. There was a half second delay between each cast as she took aim, this was not enough time for the wolves to even notice her presence. The spell killed each wolf in one shot as they all seemed to fall over in unnatural fashions. Joan didn¡¯t notice any of this happen. After a few seconds the absence of growls and barks sparked her curiosity enough that she stole a glance downward. When Joan spotted Renata looking up at her she jumped back in surprise, of course this meant that she propelled herself off the tree branch in a backwards fashion. Renata spared no effort to attempt to catch her, she was fuming that her best friend was stupid enough to go so deep into the forest alone that she got trapped by a pack of wolves. Renata crossed her arms and began tapping her foot. ¡°So, what do you have to say for yourself?¡± Joan groaned after her fall. When she looked over to Renata she was filled with energy. While still injured and with a slight limp Joan dashed over to Renata and tackled her to the ground. ¡°Thank you, thank you, thank you! I thought the wolves were going to get me! Thank you Ren!¡± After Renata managed to pry herself out of Joan¡¯s vice like grip, she stood up and dusted herself off she reached into her storage ring and retrieved a healing potion which she handed over to Joan, urging her to drink. When joan was half way through drinking the concoction Renata pushed the bottom of the bottle upward, forcing Joan to gag, when she finished drinking it Renata flicked Joan¡¯s forehead and have her a menacing glare. ¡°Sorry¡­ can we go back to camp now?¡± Renata nodded and turned away, Joan followed her as they walked back to camp. Renata was wondering if she had managed to level up her current class, air mage, but after a cursory glance at her class status window it became obvious that she didn¡¯t.
Available Classes (By Rank) Combat Class :Air Mage (Level 1)
Rank 1. Earth Mage, Air Mage Non-Combat Class : N/A
Subclass 1 : Locked
Subclass 2 : Locked
Subclass 3 : Locked
------------------ When the two got close to the camp they saw smoke, it was wafting in their direction. When the camp came into sight they both saw a stomach curdling sight. The ground was stained by blood, bodies were torn and destroyed. The smell of blood had been masked by the smoke, but now that they were close the smell of blood had become overwhelming. Renata could almost taste the rusty musk in the area, she quickly told Joan to get down as she prepared herself once more for battle. With her *Shield Vortex* up Renata strode a few paces toward the fire until she saw a group of men, men who were not there when she left the camp. These men were dressed in ragged clothes, their blades coated in a thick layer of blood. They were bandits, true scum. Whatever fight they had was now over, they were in the process of picking through the boxes and pockets of the dead. In total there seemed to be roughly ten bandits still standing, several appeared to be dead along with the others. Renata''s heart skipped a beat when she thought of her father, Jeral. He was here when she left, her mind was shattered and her world began to break apart. Renata had been leaning on her father, for food, for shelter and for love. The thought that he was gone was hard to think of. Regardless of her emotions, Renata pulled herself out of her stupor, she had issues that she had to deal with. The bandits felt secure after their fight, they did not expect a little girl to be prowling in the shadows, they did not understand what was happening as they each began to fall one by one. All they heard was a high pitched whistling sound followed by a vomit inducing squelching noise as one of their compatriots fell to the ground. In only a few seconds they were all dead, only a couple managed to draw their swords in time but none even managed to locate their assailant. Renata was in no mood to take prisoners as she mercilessly took each bandit out, one by one. After the last one fell she walked to the center of the road and began scanning the surrounding area with her *Eagle Eye*. In the bushes between the trees she spotted another trembling bandit, he appeared to drawing a bow and aiming it in her direction. Before he even knew what hit him he was dead, his heart torn to shreds by Renata''s *Shrapnel bolt*. When Renata was satisfied that all of the bandits had been dispatched she cancelled her shield and walked back over to Joan. Joan was shaking, she was unable to comprehend what had happened, much less what was happening. When Renata knelt down she embraced Joan in a hug, her arms refusing to let go, she never wanted to let go, ever. ----------------------- After an indiscernible amount of time had passed the two separated, Renata''s arms were almost locked into position because of how long she stayed static. Joan was still petrified. Even though Joan''s body refused to move it was easy to see her eyes darting from place to place. With Renata out of her line of sight she was given a view of the burning carnage in front of her. the wood from the carts and the cloth from the tents was smoldering, some of the bodies had even been caught in the blaze. Renata stood above Joan while stealing a gaze at her, she had no idea what going through her friend''s mind at this moment, she had no idea how she was comprehending it all. Renata decided that she would have to intervene, for Joan''s sake. "They''re dead, all of them. Bandits, they''re dead too." Joan shook slightly at Renata''s voice, Joan looked up to see her friend illuminated by the flames. "I''m going to find my dad." Renata walked into the nightmare and began searching, before long she found him there, his eyes vacant, his body pale and bloodied. Renata searched around for some cloth that had survived the fire and she wrapped him in a spare tent tarp. The cart they came in on had been spared from the fires too, Renata took all of the boxes off of the cart and hefted up the body of her father, it was terribly difficult for her frame but after a few minutes of struggling she managed it. The horse was long gone, she would have to pull the cart herself. Renata lifted up one of the shafts used for attaching it to the horse and she tried to pull. Renata pulled with all her might, her face contorting, her skin turning red. With a final wheezing grunt she gave up and dropped the shaft, but it did not fall. Renata looked to her left and saw Joan holding it up with the other shaft. The two looked into each other''s eyes before Joan nodded. Renata once more pulled but this time the cart began moving, the wheels had motion. The two pulled the cart night and day for what seemed like a dreamy eternity. all of the muscles in both of their bodies had long since given in, their bones ached and their vision was fleeting at best. They kept going, even when the rain tried it''s very best to stop them by trapping the wheels in muddy ground. They kept going regardless of how much their bodies urged them to stop. When Renata sighted the image of the village she gave in, collapsing. Joan did the same when Renata gave in, making the cart weigh just that slight bit more for her body to not be able to continue on. Renata¡¯s face was stoic, the rain masked her tears. Chapter 12 - Vengeance Renata¡¯s eyes opened slowly as the sharp light of day cut into them, she winced. When she attempted to move her arms, she noticed that not only was her whole-body aching and sore but her left arm was shackled to a heavy stone, she blinked as she gazed once more at her surroundings. She was in a stone cell, it was cold but light was entering through a grated window above her. Her clothes were torn and ripped revealing the black and white lines on her legs and arms that went between the gems imbedded into her body. As Renata was doing a full body inspection her heart sank, her tail, which was like a leathery robe that ended in an arrowhead was hanging outside of her clothes, it was in full sight. Everything was starting to come together in her mind. Someone in the village must have seen her after she passed out and probably by chance they had spied some of Renata¡¯s unique features and importantly they must have seen her tail, a clear indication that the person was a demon. Demons when found were heavily discriminated against, they are utter scum only useful as target practice or slaves in the eyes of most humans. If a random villager had found Renata and saw her true form it would be likely that they would have reported her to the guards who would have then most likely locked her up in a cell, this must have lead Renata to her current situation. From the distance footsteps could be heard on the hard-cobbled stone floor, the noise caught Renata¡¯s attention as she quickly assumed as best of a combat position as she could. Whether or not it was a good idea to fight whoever was coming was a subject that was currently being debated in her mind. If she used her magic and attacked right of the bat she would likely be able to escape but that did not seem like the best plan as she had no idea on the status of anything around. She did not know the fate of Joan, nor how or why Ferald had allowed her to be locked up. The only thing she did know was that they had thankfully left her with her storage ring, they must have simply assumed it was merely a small copper ring of little value because of its size. The steps got closer as Renata readied herself for any possible combat, if the approaching figure had anything less than pleasant intentions, Renata would have no problem blowing his mortal coil to pieces. When he came into view Renata struggled to recognise his face but was left with no results, she had no idea who this tall tan skinned man was, apart from the fact he appeared to be a jailor of sorts, he carried a ring of keys and a dagger that was sheathed at his thigh. The man took stock of Renata for a moment, verifying she was awake and at least mostly aware of her situation. ¡°You¡¯ll be staying here til¡¯ the caravan from Barrok gets here next, demon.¡± He spat out as he looked down on her, his ugly nostrils flaring as he gave her a devilish grin, presenting his terribly black and rotten teeth. ¡°Ferald will gut you when he hears of this, holding me here.¡± Renata viciously growled back at him. The man¡¯s grin only grew wilder as he began to stifle his laughter, it took him a few seconds to regain the small semblance of composure he struggled to maintain on a regular basis. ¡°Demon, you needn¡¯t worry bout that old piece of crap he was strung up this mornin in the square, seems he was harbourin some demon, awful coincidence aint it. Alexander Fisk is the mayor now and he sure as hell aint lettin you go, in fact he seemed pretty damn pleased you turned out to be demon, he couldn''t have hung that traitor faster, the mayor who kept a fuckin demon, piece of shit, he cried when he died.¡± He could barely hold back his laughter towards the end when he saw Renata¡¯s blank face. A force of rage was building from the Renata''s gut, it was seeping into her heart and all her muscles, her eyes were digging into the man in front of her. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up and with no effort at all Renata shattered her bond with an immensely powerful *Compressed Wind Slash*. The slash was so powerful due to her insane intelligence level, it not only broke the iron bonds like paper but it cut through the stone floor and into the dirt below. The jailor stood back as he looked in total disbelief when Renata effortlessly send out two more *Compressed Wind Slash* attacks followed by a *Concussive Wave* that together destroyed her cell door bars and smashed the jailor against the wall behind him. Renata was exuding power as she tore the fabric of world energy around her to pieces with little care, her mind consumed by rage and two objectives, rescue her loved ones and destroy Alexander Fisk. --------------------- Renata did not care that her clothes were torn, allowing everyone to see her demonic features, she did not care for modesty either, she only cared for revenge as she slowly walked across the village from the dungeon where she was kept. She was heading to the place she thought that was most likely for Fisk to be, the residence of the now previous mayor, his wife and Renata¡¯s best friend, Joan. When the people of the village saw Renata, a lot of them looked shocked and they were not sure what they should do. A lot of them had heard word of Jeral and his daughter, and his tragic death at the hands of his demon daughter. They did not wish to meet the same fate, they hid well away from Renata. As Renata approached the manor building she spied a group of guards angrily exchanging yells at each other. Renata recognised the guards of one side of the fight, they were Jeral¡¯s friends who she had met from time to time, they were guards who often worked with him, their names were Yrel and Tal¡¯Hid. Yrel spied Renata from the side of her vision, she quickly ran over and drew her sword in front of Renata, Tal¡¯hid followed suit and together they made a line between Renata and the other three guards they had just been arguing with. ¡°You pieces of shit won¡¯t touch her, she¡¯s fucking Jeral¡¯s daughter you spineless cowards. How could you do this to him, do you really think a small girl like her is capable of killing her own fucking father?!¡± Yrel was nearly frothing at the mouth with anger. ¡°She¡¯s a damn demon Yrel, come to your senses, you and me both know the law, we both know what demons are like Yrel. They are bloodthirsty killers. Hand her over so we can lock her up. We¡¯re not safe with unholy scum like her walking around in daylight, she¡¯s a damn monster who killed her own father.¡± Yrel and Tal¡¯hid were both aware of the law and they both knew that if they stood on the side of demon it would never end up well for them, demons were known as utterly bloodthirsty and despicable creatures that were either killed or captured on sight, they all knew this. In Yrel''s and Tal¡¯hid¡¯s minds Renata was not a demon, she was Jeral¡¯s cute, harmless, daughter. The stand still lasted for a quick eternity until Renata walked around Yrel and Tal¡¯hid and faced the guards that stood between her and the home that likely contained her target. The guards were all slightly trembling, this situation was all kinds of messed up in their minds. Their eyes were caught when they saw Renata¡¯s blank eyes tearing into them. ¡°Is Fisk here?¡± Renata broke the silence only to be answered by Tal¡¯hid from behind her. Renata heard him spit before he answered, ¡°he¡¯s in there alright, the piece of shit didn¡¯t have to think twice about the promotion.¡± Renata steeled herself, she would give the guards in front of her one chance, she was unsure if they deserved to die. ¡°Yrel and Tal¡¯hid are wrong, I am a monster, I am a demon. I did not kill my father though. But if you do not step aside and let me get to Fisk I will kill you. Move.¡± Renata¡¯s voice was chilled and sent shivers down everyone¡¯s spines, there was latent killing intent behind her words, it was itching to be unleashed. The guards at the door faltered for a moment before the unsheathed their swords and taking a fighting stance. Without blinking Renata shot three simultaneous *Shrapnel Bolt* spells, one for each heart in front of her. The three of them stiffened for a second before the light left their eyes and then ungracefully collapsed to the floor. Renata walked past the three corpses as she blew the door down with a *Concussive Wave* and walked through. She activated *Eagle Eye* and scanned the home for people. Yrel and Tal¡¯hid were shaking with fear as they watched the impossible display of magic and gore, even for them the sight was stomach turning, they were unsure what to do but they knew they did not want to stay where they were, they ran back to the guard house, they feared for their lives. Not long after Renata entered she heard shouts, a man was shouting. He was coming towards Renata, undoubtedly attracted by her loud entrance. As he took a corner he spied Renata from the floor above her. He started fuming when he saw the splintered door behind her and he ran down the stairs, his eyes in a frenzy and his face red with anger. When Fisk was at eye level with Renata he saw how vacant her body looked, her white hair slightly blowing in the wind and the sun reflected on the remarkably beautiful twisting lines on her slender body. As he took a full picture of the situation he saw that behind her and the splintered door were three of his guards, dead and gored. It was then that he stuttered because he saw her eyes, blue as the oceans, they held a rage that could not truly be expressed by words, a passionate yet almost sad rage that threatened to consume all that even gazed into it.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Where are Anna and Joan?¡± Renata broke the eerie silence. Fisk was barely able to breath no less speak but the creature in front of him was going to eat him if he didn¡¯t so by some miracle he managed to speak, his will to fight broken already. ¡°Anna died with Ferald, the runt ran off before we could put her in a cel¡­¡± His mouth stopped as his body took an impact, he barely had a split second to look down at his chest, it was torn to shreds yet he felt no pain, he merely lost himself as he fell to the ground, dead. Renata had enough information from him and she would not allow him to consume any more air than was totally necessary, she couldn¡¯t cope with being on the same plane of existence as him for even a second longer. He had caused the deaths of Anna and Ferald, he had driven Joan away, he did not deserve any mercy from Renata. --------------------- After leaving the building Renata saw that the whole area had been vacated, there was not a living soul anywhere near and there were no clues as to Joan¡¯s whereabouts. Her only hope was to turn on *Eagle Eye* and walk to places where her and Joan would often go, starting with the most likely, the bridge not far out of the village. Renata skirted the edges of the village rather than walk straight through it, she didn¡¯t want to find any more trouble, there had already been too much fighting, too much killing for one day. The bridge only took ten minutes to walk to from where she was so in only a short period of time she was there and she spotted Joan sitting on top of the curved wall of the bridge. The day was becoming darker as the evening sun was setting. Joan looked lost as she stared off into her own sun tinted reflection in the water. Renata¡¯s heart had calmed down when she saw Joan, no longer was it fuelling her anger but rather it was relieved, she hadn¡¯t lost everyone, not yet. Renata couldn¡¯t smile, there was still too much pain, but at least she was given a brief reprieve from the totality of her melancholic mind. She could imagine that everything was fine when she saw Joan at their usual spot, she could feel like the whole world was fine, just for a moment. Renata walked over to Joan and sat down with her in her usual place beside her. She placed her hand over Joan¡¯s, Joan''s hand was cold. Joan felt Renata¡¯s presence as she intruded on her self-imposed isolation, the comfort she felt when they touched hands helped a little with the overwhelming sadness she was experiencing, the tears had only recently stopped but when Renata touched her the flood gates opened once more, there was no amount of willpower that could best the grief and sorrow she felt, the loss of both her mother and father in a tiny span of time was so bad she wasn¡¯t able to think, no less talk. Her sadness was primal and her mourning was unfathomable. Renata was hurting too, badly, but she had the advantage of hundreds of years of experience, so she could keep going but she understood that Joan was far too young to be able to cope with everything that happened and there was nothing Renata could say or do right now to help, besides be next to her to cry with her, to help carry the burden, that was the only thing she could do. So, the two sat sobbing next to eachother for a couple hours, arms wrapped on to eachother, neither would let go first. --------------------- As the two calmed in each other¡¯s embrace they were both startled by an ear shattering roar coming from the large forest near them. They had heard this roar a few times before, it was the distinct sound the elder griffon had made the last time a group of adventurers attempted to slay it. The creature was the bane of the small village and had caused many issues in the past, enough for it to merit a kill order in the adventurers guild at Barrok. The creature had slain several groups of experienced and well-equipped parties in the past and after every fight it had a habit of flying up into the sky and from time to time go on a rampage, destroying a small farm house or something it found. It had yet to do significant damage as it always went back to its home before that happened. A few roars later and maybe five to ten minutes of what must have been a tough battle the beast flew out above the treeline, it was wounded and only had good function in one of its wings. Its flight was hap hazard to say the least, it only managed to barely fly outside of the forest before its wings gave in and the creature fell to the earth and skidded in the dirt close to where Renata and Joan were. The beast was terribly injured, it was bleeding and was missing a leg, a large portion of its wings was gone too. The claws and beak were broken and its feathers were dyed red with its blood. The creature could barely breath but it still managed to shakily stand after a few moments and through its one good eye it saw Renata and Joan. Renata noting the danger quickly pushed Joan backwards telling her to hide behind the wall of the bridge as Renata activated her *Flight* spell in concert with using the *Eagle Eye* spell to spot the weakest points the griffon had that she could attack. There was no way she could leave a creature this strong alive near them. There was no telling what damage it could cause or how many people it could kill if she left it alive and ran. Even in its heavily wounded state it would still be utterly devastating to the local population and it didn¡¯t seem like it would be flying home this time. After seeing that the creature was protecting the side of its neck with what was left of it''s wing Renata had found the mark she would focus on hitting. The griffon tried snapping at Renata as she flew around it fast, it was unable to reach her due to its injuries and thankfully so, this beast was so powerful that a full strength beat of its wings had a high chance of injuring Renata. The griffon even tried firing off magical wind blasts that surprised Renata at first but after getting a fell for it she could avoid them without much effort, her *Flight* spell was rather fast and it made her win almost every time against brute force enemies that relied on fighting on the ground. Because of the griffon''s broken wings it was effectively a grounded threat and this made it easy pickings for Renata. Renata fired off several *Concussive Wave* attacks at the creature to temporarily stun it so she could get a clean shot with her *Shrapnel Bolt*. The griffon''s hide was too tough for Renata to penetrate at her current strength but thankfully she didn¡¯t have to, she only had to hit the wounds that the creature already had, every time a *Shrapnel Bolt* hit its mark it would borrow under the wound and then explode causing huge amounts of damage, it wasn¡¯t long until the creature felt it was losing and it chose to muster all of it''s might into one final roar. The roar was so powerful that Renata was unable maintain her spells and her *Flight* spell failed. She plummeted to the ground and slammed into it, she was within striking distance of the griffon. Renata knew she was in extreme danger and her mind frantically thought about what she could do to save herself, in the next two seconds the griffon would be able to attack, it wasn¡¯t enough time to cast another *Flight* and get to a safe distance, her only hope was to create distance between them both, quickly. Renata winced as she knew her only hope would be to use a modified *Concussive Wave* to push them apart, or more accurately, push her away. The spell usually directed its force away from the caster but Renata would now effectively have to cast it on herself to save her own life. The blast didn¡¯t affect the griffon much but it sent the small frame of Renata well outside of the range of the griffon. Renata felt a couple of her bones fracture and she could only assume that she had caused severe internal bleeding on herself. By sheer power of will Renata cast another *Flight* and lifted herself up into the air and fired off a final *Shrapnel Bolt* using *Eagle Eye* and by a miracle she got it to hit the griffons eye. The bolt went inside of the griffon¡¯s head and exploded, turning its brain to mush, the creature was dead. Renata slowly drifted down to the bank of the river, she retrieved a healing potion from her storage ring and drank it before she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. ¡®Now is not the time to rest¡¯ Renata thought to herself. The pain was bad but she was alive and the beast was dead, she was safe for next short while, but soon people would arrive, she had to leave now. She briefly looked at the corpse and thought of the core that must be within it, she knew that it would be worth a fortune, but she had no time. Renata replenished her mana using *Spell Tap* and flew over to Joan. After a few quick breaths a message appeared in front of Renata. It was to be expected for killing a creature as powerful as the griffon was.
Congratulations! You have levelled Air Mage...x5
You have recieved 25 freely distributable statistic points!
Renata was happy to see that her class had levelled up five times and after a quick check she confirmed that her total level had a gone up by five too, both now sat at level six. Without much time to spend playing around with status windows Renata modified her *Flight* spell slightly so she could carry both herself and Joan, the mana cost and speed of travel would go down and she would need more focus but it was possible and with the essentially infinite mana she had it wasn''t too much of an issue. Renata also took out a fresh set of clothes from her storage ring and put them on, discarding the tattered things she was previously wearing. The night was approaching so Renata lifted both herself and Joan into the air and began flying, their first stop would be the city they had planned to go to not long ago, they were travelling to Barrok.