Queen in the Mud

Book One

By Maari

Queen in the Mud, Book 1

This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2020 by Maari

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review.

Cover design and artwork by Monomus

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Thank You

Prologue

I felt as though I’d been asleep for a very, very long time. Occasionally I’d rouse from my torpor to a world of utter, impenetrable darkness only to have my fleeting consciousness fly away from me back into a dreamless slumber.

Recently, my bouts of lucidity had grown more frequent and lasted longer. It felt like I was being pushed on all sides and after testing my limbs, it became clear that my range of motion was severely limited. The limited movement I was capable of felt sluggish and unresponsive.

As terrifying and confusing as the experience was, it was actually not uncomfortable. The sensation might be likened to being tightly wrapped in a warm cushion where no matter how much time passed, I never needed to eat, drink, or use the restroom. In fact, I wasn't certain I was even breathing.

'Am I dead? Is this what death is? Or could I have had some kind of aneurysm or stroke, and I’m still alive in a hospital bed somewhere?' Those kinds of thoughts floated up between gaps in my memory where I'd drifted away from self awareness.

While fidgeting in my dark prison, I combed over anything I could remember that might illuminate the dark fog pervading my memories. Even thinking proved to be difficult and my thoughts and memories felt as though they were coming from a vast distance through great effort.

My name is Naomi. I’m 19 years old as of last October and I’m a first year college student. If I had to describe myself, it would be that I’m remarkably unremarkable. Average grades, average looks, average intelligence, I’m basically the definition of a normal girl. The last thing I remember… is just going to sleep after a long night of gaming. I had school in the morning. I somehow get the impression that I won’t be making my classes.

I’d long since given up on seeing anything in this unassailable cloud of absolute darkness. My new world was a sea of constricting shadows but in a rare moment where I opened my eyes, I caught sight of a flicker of movement in the corner of my vision. A blinking dot. How long had that been there? I didn’t remember seeing anything like it the last time I had opened my eyes. I tried to wiggle my head in the direction of the dot only to find that its position remained fixed in one spot in my periphery even as I turned to look at it.

I focused on the blinking dot in the corner of my eye and a transparent window popped into my vision, the first thing I’d seen besides darkness in what felt like weeks. The window looked… wrong. It was like staring into the static on a TV. It hurt to even look at. I tried to close my eyes to banish the painful box but it remained in my vision even with my eyes closed. Slowly the static faded and innumerable shifting lines condensed into barely legible, distorted letters in the window.

Non system compliant entity detected.

Deleting… Failed.

Converting entity to match system compliancy… Failed.

Translating system to match entity specification… Success.

Enabling entity interface… Success.

Entity is now classified as system compliant. Assigning…

As I read the message in the window, the disconcertingly shifting and vibrating text seemed to calm until it was perfectly legible. The experience was not unlike staring into a computer screen in a pitch dark room. Non system compliant entity? Was that supposed to be me? And the first thing it tried to do was delete me?

The window suddenly and without provocation blinked out of my vision and I was left again in darkness. Darting my attention again to the periphery of my vision like a drowning person clutching at straw, I found the dot again and focused on it. Another window popped up, this one much smaller than the previous one with a single word on it: Status. Confused, I focused on the word and the window expanded before my eyes.

Status information limited due to deficient Intelligence and Wisdom scores.

Name: Naomi

Race: Unknown

Level: 1 (0 / 30)

HP: 2 / 2

SP: 4 / 4

Strength: 1

Agility: 2

Constitution: 1

Endurance: 2

Intelligence: 0

Wisdom: 1

Uh, excuse me? My intelligence is a whopping ZERO? More importantly, this is definitely a character status sheet for something like a game character. This must be what it meant by ‘entity interface,’ then? It’s also really bare bones as there isn’t much of note in here. Would I see more information if my intelligence and wisdom were higher? Also, why is my race unknown? Last time I checked, I was definitely human.

HP, that’s health points… and SP must be stamina points. I’d played enough games to recognize those right off the bat. My HP is only 2, though? Doesn’t that mean I’m super weak? I feel like that’s way too low, like I’m gonna fall over dead the moment a stiff breeze blows past.

Trying to focus on anything else in the window in order to glean any more information turned up nothing. I did, however, succeed at creating health and stamina indicators in the corner of my vision by… willing them into existence? Evidently the interface display could be altered by thinking about the changes you wanted made. The end result was a little HP: 2 / 2 and SP: 4 / 4 in the corner of my vision.

'Well, this finally solves it.' I mused to myself 'I’ve clearly lost my sanity.' I’d have thrown my arms up in defeat if I were capable of the movement, but I settled for a non committal shudder before drifting back to sleep.

Recently, my cushy prison seemed to be shrinking. My already limited range of movement had decreased even more from how cramped it had become. Nothing had changed in my status window in the countless amount of times that I’d checked it since. I wanted nothing more than to stretch out my aching legs. While I wouldn’t consider myself to be claustrophobic, my fear of being slowly crushed to death seemed extremely rational at the moment.

Out of frustration I fought back against my cage, pushing against it as I attempted to stretch and wiggle my body as much as I could. I was about to give up my struggle when I felt something give, even if only slightly. A very dim light faded into my vision as part of my prison gave way with an audible crunch. I very nearly cried out in joy at the sound.

Time to pack my bags, I’m breaking out of this prison!

I redoubled my efforts, unceremoniously smashing my face against the weak spot. I pushed with all my strength using muscles I didn’t know I had. Really, muscles I didn’t know I had. Is that a tail? The spot finally gave way with a crack as bright light streamed into my eyes, momentarily blinding me. My vision slowly came into focus as I crawled on my belly and used the last of my energy to push myself the rest of the way out of my egg. I crawled out, exhausted, into the thick mud beneath.

Chapter 1

SP: 0 / 4

I laid, exhausted, on my belly in the damp mud next to my egg as my breath came in ragged gulps. It took everything I had to get out of that thing. My eyes were still a bit blurry as I took in my surroundings. Thick muddy banks bordered a huge body of water that stretched out as far as I could see. Behind me, a lush forest ran parallel with the lake but not quite making it up to the water’s edge. Birdsong rang out from nearby trees and the buzzing of the occasional insect reached me as I drank in my surroundings while regaining stamina.

Sparing a glance towards my egg, I noticed several other eggs nearby, all of them quite large and speckled with the mud that nearly enveloped them. They didn’t appear to have hatched yet. My brothers and sisters, maybe?

Body half submerged in mud, I took a moment to consider how surreal and bizarre my current situation was. To put it frankly, I was extremely confused. One moment I laid down in my bed to go to sleep, and the next thing I knew, I was spending weeks or maybe even months in an egg. The worst part about being in that egg was just how incredibly boring it was. All I could do was sleep and check my status over and over even though it never changed. Really, I was just glad to finally be out of there.

As soon as I could move again, I tried to get up off my belly and stand up to find that I couldn’t quite complete the motion. Sparing a glance down toward my arms I quickly realized why. My arms and hands were very clearly not human. I brushed the mud off one of my legs to get a better look.

My skin was a glistening pale pink with silver splotches every here and there. The soft looking skin continued down my hands and smoothly transitioned into sharp claws at the ends of my fingers. Craning my neck to get a better look, I saw that at the end of my body was a thick tail that tapered off at a rounded end. With a strange and unfamiliar set of mental acrobatics, I managed to awkwardly move the new appendage around.

With trepidation growing in my chest I started moving toward the waterline. It took some effort to get acquainted with walking on all fours but I made it to the sky blue water at the lake’s edge and peered down into the still water at my reflection. Round black eyes stared back at me from a reptilian face. I’m a lizard. Well, not a lizard precisely. I look more like a salamander or a newt. I opened my mouth and, seeing a round white tongue and a row of needle-like teeth, I deftly exclaimed

“Gehh!”

Well, that wasn’t exactly what I meant to say. Seems that I’m not capable of speech. Makes sense, I guess a salamander wouldn’t be able to talk. That’d be absurd! I tried to manage a self deprecating smile as I peered down into my reflection for a long moment in mounting incredulity. I’m not even human anymore. Oh, my race! I quickly pulled open my status screen, and instead of the unknown where race would be, It seemed to have updated itself.

Status information limited due to deficient Intelligence and Wisdom scores.

Name: Naomi

Race: Crater Lake Lesser Salamander

Level: 1 (0 / 30)

HP: 2 / 2

SP: 4 / 4

Strength: 1

Agility: 2

Constitution: 1

Endurance: 2

Intelligence: 0

Wisdom: 1

I’m really getting kind of tired of that ‘deficient intelligence and wisdom scores’ message. Still, there was some new information here. Crater Lake? Is that the lake here? I glanced past the transparent window in front of me out at the seemingly endless lake stretched out before me. As if to respond to my inquiry, a window popped up in my vision.

Wisdom check automatic success. Reason: Birth place.

Information display modified to reflect deficient intelligence and wisdom scores.

Current Location: Lesser Crater Lake.

Description: Big lake. Lots of tasty fishes! Blue fishies tastiest fishies!

I gawked at the message. Are you messing with me?! I swatted my hand at the display as if trying to smack it out of the way in irritation. Looks like the first order of business will be raising my intelligence stat so that I don’t get these useless prompts anymore.

If this is the lesser crater lake, just how huge is the greater crater lake? Also, what exactly is a Lesser Salamander, anyway? Questions buzzed through my mind as I glanced back down expecting to see my salamander face staring back when instead I saw my reflection distorted by ripples on the water's surface.

Suddenly something erupted from the water’s surface a small distance off from me and charged straight for the nest of eggs I had just come from. I stared in shock and horror at an enormous snake creature as its massive body slithered out from the lake’s mirror-like surface. Unhinging its jaw to display huge, gleaming white fangs, it casually crunched through the eggs without a second thought.

I froze on the spot as I stared at the colossal monstrosity devouring the clutch of eggs I had just hatched from. This was the strangest snake I’d ever seen. It had these two thick, stubby arms tipped with nasty claws pressed against the side of its body, but in spite of those arms, it still moved and acted like a snake. Although most snakes aren’t the size of a semi truck, so that’s worth consideration. A transparent prompt flashed into my view as I stared frightfully at the beast.

Examine attempt successful. Results limited due to overwhelming level difference. Results limited due to deficient Intelligence and Wisdom scores.

Name: (None)

Race: Crater Lake Lesser Water Serpent

Level: ???

Skill discovered: Examine

Description: Closely examining an object or creature will bring up system information on the subject of your scrutiny. Results are dependent on your Wisdom stat. Masters of this skill can identify even artifact grade items and learn the abilities and weaknesses of their foes.

Effect:

+1% Wisdom effect on Examine skill checks per skill level.

+.1% Chance to instantly trigger Examine skill on target per skill level. This effect may only be attempted once per target.

Note: Your deficient intelligence score is actively impeding the results of this skill. Raise intelligence above 0 to regain normal functionality.

Skill: Examine has levelled up to level 3.

A flurry of notifications blocked out my vision and I hurried to close them. With a mental flex, I blocked any notifications except Examine from automatically opening again.

What the heck is this, I hatched from an egg and immediately this boss monster like creature shows up? So much for game balance. The level difference between me and this serpent is so big that I can’t even see its stats. There was a skull where its level should be!

I decided I’d better get away while it was distracted eating my unfortunate brothers and sisters and with a glance at the lake, I considered that it might be safer to escape into the forest. There might have been more of those serpents in the lake and I definitely didn’t want to be lunch.

Trying to shuffle my way toward the forest actually proved more difficult than I had anticipated due to the thick mud leading up from the lake. Remembering my tail, I planted it flat into the mud and swished it back and forth like how a snake would, finding it much easier to make my way through the mud that way. The dot in my peripheral vision began blinking, but I decided I’d ignore it until I was safe again. That was the exact moment the Serpent finished its meal and looked up, directly at me. As our eyes met, a frigid shiver ran down my spine and I started thrashing faster through the mud towards the treeline.

I can only describe the sound that peeled out from the Serpent as a shrill screech that shook me down to my core. Flocks of birds abandoned the trees they had perched in and the lakeside became uncomfortably silent. I could only hear the wet thumps of footfalls as the Serpent began its pursuit.

I thrashed wildly through the mud, finally reaching solid ground and sprinting on all fours into the thick foliage. I hoped in vain that this would save me, but after hazarding a glance behind me I caught sight of the serpent crashing through the greenery as it bellowed out another ear-splitting screech, eyes locked directly on me as though it’d never lost sight for even a second.

My blood ran cold.

It quickly became apparent that this serpent was faster than me. Much faster than me. The meager distance I managed to create before it noticed me was rapidly shrinking as I sprinted through the thick forest, breath coming hard and cold through my lungs. My muscles ached like I had never felt before. How far had I run? I couldn’t even tell anymore.

I felt the serpent’s breath on me and in an act of desperation I jumped straight up. The Serpent’s mouth closed around the spot I’d just occupied, taking in a mouthful of dirt. It raised its head to snap at me mid-air and after a range of movement I’d call hopeless flailing, I managed to smack my tail against the Serpent’s nose and propel myself into the side of a tree.

Smacking awkwardly against the tree, I fell down to the ground with a sharp pain shooting through my back for only a moment before the adrenaline banished my ability to feel the injury. I couldn’t afford to stop even for a moment and again returned to scurrying across the dirt and darting between trees.

I’m going to die. This thing is definitely going to kill me. Those kinds of thoughts raced through my mind as I desperately dodged through the foliage which only served to infuriate the Serpent further as it struggled to maneuver its large body between the trees. The lumbering beast shouldered a tree out of its way, sending it crashing down to the forest floor and screaming in blind fury as a patch of scales on its shoulder cracked off.

I heard the faintest ringing of wind chimes. In desperation I looked in the direction of the noise to find a clearing some distance away. I don’t know why I so eagerly rushed towards the clearing when the trees were the only thing that had kept me alive up to this point. Somehow I knew that if I just made it to the clearing, I’d be safe.

My Stamina had long since reached zero. Continuing to run was draining my Health instead of Stamina and my gait had become increasingly unsteady. My vision faded in and out and I felt like I was close to passing out. I tripped over a root that sent me tumbling onto my back down an incline, tearing painfully at my skin before I slammed a shoulder heavily into a fractured stump, arresting my momentum just enough that I could start running again.

The serpent screamed in rage as I passed through the trees into the tall yellow grass of the clearing. I felt for a second in fear that it was going to follow me, but it stopped heavily at the edge of the treeline and glared at me. It advanced a step or two into the grass then quickly - fearfully - retreated back to the trees.

The serpent glared at me, its eyes full of unappeased bloodlust. I returned its gaze from inside the clearing before the monster let out one final, furious screech and clawed a tree nearly in two out of rage. The Serpent finally turned and left in the direction it came. I stood for long moments staring at the spot the Serpent stopped, adrenaline still slamming through my veins.

I glanced to my Health indicator. HP: 0.3 / 2 I hadn’t even taken a direct attack from the beast and I still almost died. Dark red blood ran down my lacerated back and stained my pink and silver arms.

I very nearly passed out right there in the soft yellow grass that had saved my life, but decided I had to find shelter first or else I might end up running from something else… or dying outright. That monster ran away instead of coming in here after me and that fact was certainly not lost on me. What could be here that would terrify such a powerful monster?

It might have been best to leave and find a place to rest in the forest, but I simply didn’t have the strength to travel any further in spite of the danger. The clearing was mostly all yellow grass, but the occasional dead tree stuck out from the sea of yellow. I started toward the closest dead tree. The grass came up to nearly over my head but I still managed to drag my battered body along until I found myself looking up at a greyish black tree that must have died long ago.

I climbed up to a low hanging branch using my tail to gain a bit of leverage to push myself up. Pain wracked my body and red blood dripped down the dead branch I perched on. Turning my head to get a look at the damage, I found the soft pink skin on my back torn up and bleeding profusely.

The pain was so severe I could hardly think of anything else. I stifled a sob as I rested my head on the dead branch. As if the heavens heard my crying, a few stray raindrops pattered against my head. Within minutes, a steady rainfall came showering down. The rain felt nice and cool. Comfortable. My consciousness mercifully faded away, giving me a needed reprieve from the pain.

Chapter 2

‘What in the hell is a Choko-choko?’ I thought to myself as I peered down from atop my branch. I was woken up by weird barking sounds, the rain having stopped some time in the middle of the night. It was morning now with the sun peeking out between distant mountains, painting the sky in shades of pink and orange.

My wounds still ached with a dull pain, but it had actually subsided a bit since last night. The high pitched barking was coming from an extremely unusual orange fur-covered animal. It looked kind of like a fur-covered egg, or maybe a really hairy jelly bean. It was about the size of a small dog and ran around on little bird legs, the only part of its body not covered in thick fur. They don’t have any other features and I don’t think they even have eyes.

Running around in a big group, they really just look like furry eggs running around on sticks for legs. It actually looked kind of hilarious until I saw one open its mouth. I say mouth, but it’s more like nearly two-thirds of its body cracked in half to reveal row upon row of vicious fangs.

Examine attempt successful. Results limited due to deficient Intelligence score.

Name: (None)

Race: Choko-choko

Level: 4

HP: 5 / 5

SP: 8 / 8

Strength: 4

Agility: 4

Constitution: 1

Endurance: 3

Intelligence: -1

Wisdom: 0

Skills:

Pack Hunter: Lv 6

Iron Jaw: Lv 3

Sprint: Lv 5

Jump: Lv 2

Description: Scary fur-mouth. Not tasty. Run away!

Hah! This guy is even dumber than I am!

I watched as the furry jelly beans chased after some kind of big half-moose half-elephant looking creature that wandered into the yellow grassland. One of the Choko-choko jumped straight into the moose and chomped down hard around its flank. The moosephant - that’s what I’m going to call it - protested loudly and tried to tear the furry attacker off with its trunk. It succeeded, but the Choko-choko took a chunk of flesh with it.

There was a pregnant moment afterwards where the moosephant shuffled nervously, searching for the pack of Choko-choko in the tall grass before all hell broke loose. I averted my eyes as the moosephant’s death throes echoed out across the golden grassland. To my surprise, a notification popped into my vision.

Examine attempt successful. Results limited due to significant level difference. Results limited due to deficient Intelligence and Wisdom scores.

Name: (None)

Race: (Undiscovered)

Level: 6

HP: 28 / 28

SP: 30 / 30

Strength: ???

Agility: ???

Constitution: ???

Endurance: ???

Intelligence: ???

Wisdom: ???

Skills: ???

Description: Not mean. Hairy four hoof. Not tasty.

Wait, is this the moosephant? I had been observing it for several minutes and Examine never triggered to show me its status. Maybe it doesn’t show failures, and this time it just took a while to work? Also, the description seems weirdly fixated on how tasty a creature is…

While mulling over how the Examine skill might work, I peered over a pink shoulder at my back to see it covered in dark scabs. HP: .6 / 4 Wait, wasn't my max health 2 yesterday? SP: 6 / 6 My stamina went up by two as well. My health last night was at .3, but now it's at .6. Either my health regenerated, or it changed to reflect my new maximum. I guess in this world, there's some truth to the phrase 'whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.'

At any rate, it’s been hours since I went to sleep in the rain and my wounds still hurt pretty bad, but not nearly as much as last night. Out of the corner of my vision I noticed a familiar blinking dot. Focusing on it, I brought up my notifications in order of priority. I definitely don’t want to get swamped with layers and layers of notifications like last time.

Race name accepted. As this race of creature was previously undiscovered, entity NAOMI has given it the name MOOSEPHANT.

Rewards:

Experience +35

Wisdom +1

Scouting skill experience acquired.

Level up! Experience requirement to reach Level 2 has been met. You have one statistic point to allocate.

‘Only one measly stat poi-’ my internal monologue cut off as a jarring sensation shot through my body like jumping into a hot spring after running through the snow. It wasn’t a bad feeling. Actually, it felt great. I just hadn’t expected it.

When the feeling faded, my wounds had been completely healed. No more torn skin on my back and the dull ache in my bones had faded away. I might have jumped for joy if I wasn’t balanced on a dead branch that may or may not break off from the action. I was so relieved from being healed of my lacerations that I almost forgot to check the rest of my notifications.

Skill: Examine has levelled up to level 4.

Skill discovered: Scout

Description: Scout skill influences your ability to traverse untamed wilderness and your ability to see over long distances. Master Scouts can travel through rough forests faster than they can on roads and can see for miles even in perfect darkness. This skill gains experience through exploration and discovery of unknown creatures and zones.

Effect:

+1% Movement speed through rough terrain per skill level.

+2% Vision distance per skill level.

-1% Darkness effect on vision per skill level.

Note: +2% Movement speed through Mud and Water per skill level due to racial synergy with this skill.

Skill: Scout has levelled up to level 3.

This skill looks so useful! All of my surroundings are forests, lakes and mud as far as I’ve seen, and the ability to see in the dark would be a huge asset. I’m not sold on the vision distance, but it might be useful at higher levels. I’m definitely going to try to level this as much as possible. It really was a stroke of luck finding that moosephant though. I’ll have to keep an eye out for more undiscovered stuff to level this guy up!

Skill discovered: Jump

Description: The ability to increase altitude through the manipulation of your appendages.

Effect:

+2% Jump height per skill level.

-.5% Jump stamina cost per skill level.

Skill: Jump has levelled up to level 2.

Skill discovered: Sprint

Description: The ability to drastically increase your speed on foot or in water by expending Stamina.

Effect:

+1% Maximum speed while sprinting per skill level.

-1% Stamina drain from sprinting per skill level.

Note: Base sprint speed bonus for your race is 50% at maximum exertion. All effects are additive.

Skill: Sprint has levelled up to level 9.

Yeah, these seem pretty par for the course. What really surprises me is how fast my Sprint skill shot up. I guess that’s what happens when you run yourself half to death from a giant angry murder snake.

I'm half tempted to just sprint everywhere just to try and level this skill up as much as possible. They can't eat me if they can't catch me, right? Sprinting everywhere I go seems like it would be a pain though... I wonder if Sprint levelling up so much is what saved my life while running? An extra 9% sprint speed is nothing to shake a snoot at. I nodded sagely before moving on to the next notification.

Skill discovered: Tail Manipulation

Description: Your skill at using your tail for tasks requiring dexterity, precision, strength and speed.

Effect:

+3% Control over your tail per skill level.

Skill: Tail Manipulation has levelled up to level 3.

Skill discovered: Tail Vault

Description: The ability to use your tail to jump or to increase the effectiveness of a jump. This skill also influences your ability to lift your body with the assistance of your tail.

Effect:

+2% Tail Vault skill results per skill level.

-.5% Tail Vault stamina cost per skill level.

Why is it that these are the skills I’m most excited about? My tail has been.... Well, I guess it’s been pretty useful so far. I mean, when I was running from the Serpent, it actually saved my life! It’s pretty difficult to control though. Figuring out how to move it around is like learning how to walk all over again. I idly swung my tail back and forth from my perch on the branch. In any event, I’m interested in figuring out what else I can do with my tail. I’ll have to keep an eye on these skills!

Skill discovered: Death Resistance

Description: You cling to life jealously and with all of your effort. Keep scurrying in the mud, little girl. I am watching you, and I will claim you eventually.

Effect:

+.1% Chance of avoiding, nullifying or resisting an attack or effect that would result in your death per skill level.

My skin crawled as I read the last prompt. I felt the air go still and an uncomfortable pressure settled around my shoulders. The barking that I’d grown to accept as background noise while reading my prompts suddenly faded away to silence. An icy chill ran down the side of my face like fingers of frost.

I didn’t see anything. I didn’t hear anything. The fingers kept crawling down the side of my face for a long moment that seemed to drag on for ages.

Then it simply let go, and the pressure released. I let out a deep breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.

The barking came back as though it had never stopped. What was that? I shook, claws dug into the grey wood all the way down to the first knuckle. What… Was that?

I tried in vain to calm my pounding heart. Shaking like a leaf on a branch, the creeping sensation of frozen fingers on my skin was still fresh in my mind. Did I gain this skill by narrowly avoiding death while being chased? It’s been less than 24 hours since I hatched and I’ve already nearly died.

I have huge snakes chasing me down, vicious orange furballs that will probably tear into me the first chance they get, and now the UI wants to murder me? What’s next?

My stomach rumbled loudly in response.

Chapter 3

Name: Naomi

Race: Crater Lake Lesser Salamander

Level: 2 (5 / 38)

HP: 4 / 4

SP: 6 / 6

Strength: 2

Agility: 3

Constitution: 2

Endurance: 3

Intelligence: 1

Wisdom: 2

Skills:

Examine: Lv 4

Scout: Lv 3

Jump: Lv 2

Sprint: Lv 9

Tail Manipulation: Lv 3

Tail Vault: Lv 1

Death Resistance: Lv 1

After finishing with my list of notifications, I was pleased to find that each of my stats had gone up by one since yesterday. The only exception was Intelligence, which is what I spent my level up point on. With that, I finally managed to get rid of the frustrating deficient Intelligence message that popped up everywhere and I was pleasantly surprised that it gave me more information in the display.

I can focus on individual words in my status now to gain more information on them. The downside is that they’re all hopelessly vague. Take Strength, for example:

Statistic: Strength

Description: Influences Strength-related tasks, abilities, skills and effects.

Nothing about how I get more Strength points, and I didn’t even get a notification that it had gone up. The only thing I can think of that took a lot of Strength was when I was breaking out of my egg. The rest of the day I spent fleeing for my life from that snake bastard.

I shot a glance over to the spot where the Serpent had stopped yesterday, the tree that it nearly clawed in half a constant reminder of its savage power. My stomach complained loudly again.

I’d spent almost half the day perched on this dead branch and it seemed like I was nearing my limit. The sun beat down on my back and dried out my skin.

I need to find a pool of water soon, it feels like my skin is about to start cracking under this sun. I’m a water creature, after all.

I glanced furtively toward the clawed tree again. Fear mingled with hunger danced through my chest. What if there’s another one? Another Serpent?

My claws dug into the dead wood.

Death Resistance was right. I don’t want to die. Even in this life, in an unknown and bizarre world, I will cling to my life jealously. No one is coming to save me. I’m the only one who can help myself. I need to be strong.

Using the sun’s position for guidance, I determined that Lesser Crater Lake was to the south. The yellow grassland stretches out far into the north, and by now I’ve realized why the Serpent refused to follow me into this place. The Choko-choko are practically invisible in this sea of yellow and they seem to attack with no fear even against opponents many times larger than themselves.

The yellow grassland doesn’t have any bodies of water that I can see, so going North is out of the question. In that case, I’ll make my way into the forest and head East looking for water.

I’ve spent enough time huddled in fear on this tree branch. It’s time to go.

I wrapped my tail around the branch and lowered myself into the yellow grass. This tail really is pretty useful. It’s way stronger than my arms, too. My notification dot blinked with an unusual blue color in my periphery, but I decided I'd wait until I’m in the forest to check it. I can’t afford to let my guard down in the yellow grassland with all these murderous furballs running around.

Making my way slowly through the grass, I made sure to stop and stay low whenever I saw movement. Slow and steady.

I had nearly made it to the treeline when the grass in front of me rustled. I froze, and a moment later a Choko-choko came into sight. This one was small, even for one of their kind. Examine flashed quickly before my eyes. Before leaving my branch I’d adjusted Examine to only show me an abridged display when I’m in danger.

Name: (None)

Race: Choko-choko(Adolescent)

Level: 2

HP: 3 / 3

SP: 5 / 5

Skills:

Pack Hunter: Lv 2

Iron Jaw: Lv 1

Sprint: Lv 3

Description: Choko-choko are small orange fur-covered creatures inhabiting the Golden Grassland. Their meat is too tough to eat.

'Even with higher intelligence you’re still focused on eating them, then?’ I nervously joked to myself.

This Choko-choko was weak even by their standards. It growled at me, its body vibrating from the action. It suddenly let out a small bark and jumped into me. I had been expecting this of course, and swung my tail to smack it out of the air, home run style. That was the plan, but instead the furball chomped onto my tail and hung on. I yelped and smashed my tail into the ground, eliciting a surprised “Gurk!” from the Choko-choko.

Afraid of its pack mates coming to its aid, I sprinted through the golden grass, tail flailing wildly with a Choko-choko still embedded in it. I darted through the lush golden grass in a gait much faster than I had managed yesterday in my flight from the Serpent.

The Choko-choko growled as it held onto my tail, vibrating and digging its teeth in deeper. Finally making it into the treeline, I sprinted up to a sturdy looking tree and repeatedly smacked my furry assailant into the side of it. With each smack against the tree the Choko-choko let out a wet “gurk” as if trying to bark with its mouth latched around my tail and covered in wet blood.

With one last swing I felt its jaw slacken and a quick Examine confirmed that it had perished. I cautiously swung my tail in front of my face and pulled the creature’s teeth out. With a wet squelch, the blood-drenched orange corpse plopped onto the forest floor.

I collapsed onto the damp leaves littering the ground next to the blood-soaked furball’s body, making sure to keep an eye in the direction of the Golden Grassland for movement. It was doubtful they would follow me into the forest, but my cautious nature won out.

Fighting off the Choko had depleted my Stamina, but my health had fortunately only dropped to 3.5 / 4. I would have anticipated my health to be lower, but my tail isn’t exactly a weak spot so I suppose it makes sense. Despite looking pretty… well, chewed on, it actually doesn’t hurt that much and the bleeding has already stopped.

My first real battle has been a victory! I pumped a little reptilian fist in the air. The blinking dot in my periphery had an unusual light blue coloration to it. I remembered seeing that after hyping myself up to leave the dead tree that I’d made into my temporary rest stop. All of my notifications thus far had been a transparent silver color. Intrigued, I pulled up my notifications.

Rare Character Trait Discovered: Determination

Description: You’ve hardened your resolve in the face of death. You are filled with Determination.

Classification: Noble Trait, Rare.

Disposition: Neutral.

Effect:

Immunity to mind altering effects up to Legendary classification.

Immunity to mind controlling effects up to Legendary classification.

30% reduction in perception of pain.

This is it! This is my ace in the hole, my star player! That pain reduction is a life saver. My thoughts immediately returned to my painful night spent sleeping in the rain. Immunity to mental effects? That’s just the cherry on top. With this, fighting for my life just might be a bit more bearable. I spared a glance toward the blood-covered orange fluff before returning to my notifications.

Enemies Defeated:

1x Level 2 Choko-choko(Adolescent)

Experience Gained: 4

Experience to next level: 29

Skill discovered: Tail Attack

Description: The ability to use your tail as a weapon. This skill influences direct physical attacks with your tail such as slams and wrapping attacks.

Effect:

+3% effectiveness to physical tail based attacks per skill level.

Skil: Tail Attack has levelled up to level 2.

Skill: Tail Manipulation has levelled up to level 4.

More tail skills! Even at level 3, Tail Manipulation was already pulling its weight. It still feels a bit awkward controlling a brand new appendage, but I’m slowly getting the hang of it. I really had to smack that Choko-choko around a lot to finish it off. Maybe in a couple more levels my tail will really pack a punch!

While celebrating my new tail skills, I stood back up from my spot on the leaves and started heading East through the rough foliage. There was no way I could have eaten that Choko-choko I killed. It was all teeth and fur, barely any meat on it. Plus, I’m dying to find out if the blue fish really are the tastiest fish. My stomach rumbled loudly as I thought about food. I brought up the last notification waiting for me.

Skill: Sprint has levelled up to level 10. Level 10 bonus effect unlocked due to racial synergy with this skill.

Bonus Effects:

(Level 10 Racial Synergy) You are now capable of running on water while sprinting. May transition from swimming to running on surface water if momentum requirements are met.

Yeah, I’m definitely a water creature all right. I need to find a nice lake with lots of fish to make my home and put this new skill effect to good use.

I drooled a bit at the thought of fish.

The fact that getting this skill to level 10 gave me a bonus effect is pretty interesting. I wonder if that’s the same for all of my skills?

I tail vaulted over a large root and peered down an incline in the terrain. A moosephant turned to regard me, huffed, and walked away. ‘Hey buddy, don’t go to the Golden Grassland, alright? It’s bad news over there.’ I thought at him as I passed by.

Walking along the forest floor with the scent of fallen leaves and damp earth hanging around me proved to be quite cathartic. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid when I left the relative safety of my tree branch, but now that I’m out here under the forest canopy I’m glad that I did. If these trees are the same size as back on Earth, then I must be around the size of a dog, coming up to a person’s knees or so. Pretty big for a Salamander!

I paused as the slightest sound like wind chimes in the breeze reached my ears. Out of pure curiosity, and beyond good judgement, I searched for the direction of the sound. They chimed again, this time a bit quieter. ‘This way..?’ I mused to myself and started towards the noise.

I headed down an incline dotted with sparse foliage and underbrush. I heard the sound of running water well before I spotted a river winding lazily downhill. A strange tingling sensation swept over my skin but I pushed forward towards what sounded like a waterfall. When I made it through the trees my jaw dropped open in awe.

The river let out into a large lake sparkling with crystal blue water. Suspended in the air above the lake hovered chunks of earth and rock with great waterfalls pouring forth and onto neighboring floating islands. Many of the floating chunks carried rich greenery and some were tethered in vines. Other islands floated freely through the air above the lake in a gentle circumference. The waterfalls came in dazzling streams as they merged into the lake below. On the far side, a second river led downhill, fed by the lake of floating islands.

As I stared in awe of the breathtaking sight before me, a cascade of silver fish darted up from the lake’s surface and glided through the air on glittering, translucent silver wings. ‘They look like angels. Silver angels.’ The thought ran through my mind as I stared in admiration. I watched as a Silver angel swam up one of the waterfalls and jumped out, gliding down over the lake.

What is this place…?

Wisdom check failed.

Entity q6rxm%7 override accepted.

Current Location: Mana Anomaly Enzirus

Description: A Mana Anomaly located in the crater lake cluster. Rumored to have once been the site of a great battle between ancient Magi.

This Anomaly produces endless water with a mild regenerative effect. Regenerative effect of the water is lost when removed from the vicinity of the Anomaly. Additional properties of the water have yet to be discovered.

Localized gravitational disruption has been reported in the area. Gravitational disruption limited to local geology, Reason: Unknown, Unprecedented.

Additional effects of the Anomaly have yet to be discovered.

Now this is what a wisdom check is supposed to look like.

A sinking feeling settled in my stomach.

Mana Anomaly? This place really is incredible.

I didn’t dare to take another step forward.

One of my biggest problems since coming here is that health doesn’t automatically regenerate. Or if it does, it regenerates very slowly.

A cold chill blew past, leaving me shivering on the lakeside.

If I can recover my health just from drinking the water here, then this place is a precious treasure.

I’ve been trying to ignore it since I saw this wisdom check, but I can’t. I had failed this wisdom check. What is this override? Who is this Entity q6r…

My notification indicator began blinking. The familiar chill returned again, more slowly this time. Carefully, delicately, the wind dragged fingers of frost against my body. My skin crawled and my breath caught in my throat. A notification blinked insistently in the corner of my vision.

Skill Deleted: Death Resistance.

Skill Discovered: Death Resistance

Description: An Anomaly attracted to an Anomaly? How quaint. Hello again, little thing. You’ve done well to keep out of my grasp thus far. I have high hopes for you, dear. Thank you for your offering earlier, as poorly executed as it was. I hope you enjoyed my reward for you. Let’s both hope you continue to be an entertaining thing to observe.

Effect:

+.1% Chance of avoiding, nullifying or resisting an attack or effect that would result in your death per skill level.

Skill: Death Resistance has levelled up to level 2.

The invisible fingers of ice raked across my body. Some were just strong enough to leave small cuts and thin trails of blood ran down my skin in random locations. I wanted desperately to run but my limbs wouldn’t heed my instructions. A primal fear left me paralyzed as though under the mercy of a malicious predator.

The fingers dug deeper as I shuddered in place. I won’t die here. Not when things have finally gone my way. Not here. I released the breath I’d been holding, coming out in a visible mist through the frozen air. I shuddered a single footfall through a murky cloud of vitriol and malevolence.

No sooner than my foot sunk into the mud before me, the frost melted. The blood that mingled into the damp dirt below vanished before my eyes, the cuts that had rent my skin sealed themselves as though the damage had never been wrought.

‘I thought I was supposed to be immune to mental effects…’ I thought as a sudden wave of exhaustion washed over me. I had thought that, but I already knew the answer.

That was no illusion, it was too real. Something has been speaking to me through my skill, Death Resistance. This… thing that has been watching me has the strength to warp the world on their whim.

The exhaustion of walking miles through untamed forest finally caught up to me. Overwhelmed by my recent test of mental fortitude, I struggled a few more heavy footsteps into Enzirus’ sparkling waters and collapsed, halfway submerged in the blue crystalline water.

Chapter 4

I awoke to the insistent rumbling of my growling stomach.

It had been two days since I hatched from my egg and I still hadn’t found a single thing to eat. I rubbed a clawed hand against my shrinking pink belly.

It was still early morning with the sky lit in a shade of deep blue that heralded the imminent sunrise. I watched as a large boulder floated over me, passing over gently.

The silver fish were already gliding through the air above the lake on silver fins stretched out like wings, chasing after flying insects that happened to pass by. I would feel bad eating something so beautiful, but I’m in pretty dire straits at the moment. I can’t afford to be picky.

Today’s mission is to eat a bunch of fish!

My thoughts lingered on the events of last night. I can’t allow myself to give in to fear. If I give into despair here it could quite easily lead to my death. I have to keep thinking positively, keep pushing myself forward. The best that I can do is remain cautious.

Finding Enzirus was a huge boon. This mana anomaly, Enzirus, produces infinite water that can regenerate wounds. My tail has already been completely healed and I’m in perfect health.

I extracted myself from the soft mud of the lakebed, stretching out before planting my tail in the mud and tail vaulting into the air above the lake. I splashed heavily into the crystal clear water, kicking my legs to keep myself afloat.

Swishing my tail left and right propelled me easily through the water at a surprising pace. I took in a deep breath and dove down, arriving at the lake bed after a minute of swimming. I’d nearly turned back to the surface from the surprising depth, but finally caught sight of the bottom of the lake. Light filtered down through perfectly clear crystalline water and danced along the lake floor like stained glass.

It seems the silver angels keep mostly to the water’s surface as I haven't seen any down here. Even after over 15 minutes of watching and observing them, Examine still hadn’t produced a status page on the flying silver fish. Examine is a great skill, but it can be pretty unreliable.

I passed by a large number of fish on the way down to the lake floor, but they all escaped much faster than I could chase after them. Colorful schools of minnows passed by and a couple solitary blue and white fish lazily swam past. Maybe the strange qualities of the water allow for a greater amount of life here?

Examine attempt successful.

Name: (None)

Race: Crater Lake Bluescale

Level: 2

HP: 2 / 2

SP: 13 / 13

Strength: 0

Agility: 2

Constitution: 1

Endurance: 3

Intelligence: -3

Wisdom: -3

Skills:

Swim: Lv 22

Description: Blue fish commonly found in the Crater Lakes. Delicious either raw or cooked.

You! It’s you! The blue fish I’ve been looking for! The supposedly most delicious fish in the Crater Lakes. My mouth hung open in anticipation and my stomach rumbled loudly, audible even under water. The fish, possibly sensing danger, immediately darted off out of sight.I feel so slow compared to some of these fish. Well, his Swim skill was level 22.

In the future I’ll need to make a net or fishing pole to catch these guys a bit easier. It might be a bit difficult with my hands the way they are, though. I can’t move my fingers with the same precise motion as when I was human, so crafting tools might take some doing. For now, I’ll need to find a way to hunt them as I am.

I trotted across the lake floor with the assistance of a slow swishing motion from my tail.

Clouds of sediment kicked up behind me as the lake floor inclined downwards, further and further into the crater. How long have I been down here? I haven’t felt the need to breathe for at least 15 minutes, and I can easily keep going. I must be around the middle of the crater by now and the incline is only getting more sheer as I move forward. I kicked off the floor and swam forward, keeping an eye towards the bottom of the lake. The incline in the lake floor took a sharp turn downwards and led deeper and deeper into the crater.

‘This has to be the center of the lake,’ I thought as I swam in place, peering under me into a tunnel of water leading straight down.

It went further and further down into the earth until light could no longer pierce its abyssal depths. I heard a nostalgic sound like wind chimes jingling together. It was louder this time. ‘Are you down there…’ I caught myself thinking as I gazed into the pitch darkness.

What’s down there? I frowned and shook my head. I was getting an ominous feeling from this tunnel and my danger sense was going off.

This is an adventure for another day.

I backtracked across the lake floor, still not having bothered to surface for air. Carefully creeping up on a Bluescale fish lazily drifting through the water, I suddenly used my sprint skill to get a boost of speed, trying to snap the prey into my open mouth. The fish easily skirted out of my reach and swam off.

This might be a bit harder than I had expected. I laid down on the lake floor, wrapping my tail around myself in a circle and resting my head on it. I need to approach these problems more intelligently. I need a plan.

I could make a rudimentary net out of vines and drag it through the water. There’s plenty of vines on Enzirus’ floating islands. The problem with that plan is that it would take a lot of time to complete, so I shelved it for now. I could try covering myself in the mud on the lake floor and wait for something to pass by. That actually might work, and I could even use a tail vault to launch out at it.

Considering my options while resting on the lake floor, a brown fish scooted along, sucking up the scum that settled into the loose sediment. It was a remarkably ugly brown fish covered in grey spots. It carried its blob-like body across the lake floor with tiny fins on either side of it.

I half-heartedly reached out a hand and grabbed the fish. It squirmed for a moment before seeming to give up and die with a puff of water from its mouth. I stared incredulously at the pathetic excuse for a fish.

An Examine window easily popped into my vision.

Examine attempt successful.

Name: (None)

Race: Crater Lake Scumsucker

Level: 1

HP: 0 / 1 (Dead)

SP: 2 / 2

Strength: 0

Agility: 0

Constitution: 0

Endurance: 0

Intelligence: -3

Wisdom: -3

Skills:

Swim: Lv 8

Sneak: Lv 2

Description: Brown fish commonly found in the Crater Lakes. Edible, but disgusting.

I squeezed the squishy blob of a fish in my hand, its blubbery flesh stretching and spilling out between my fingers. Ever since coming to this world, I have never wanted to cry as much as I do right now. Yes, I’m going to eat this thing.

I hesitantly pushed the rubbery blob into my mouth while trying not to gag. Bleuuugh. Why does it need to be so chewy? Giving up on chewing it, I swallowed the blob whole. ‘Well, that was utterly revolting!’ I cheerily thought to myself, setting out to find more Scumsuckers.

Once I could recognize the shape of the ugly brown Scumsuckers against the lake floor, gathering them proved to be quite simple. They put up almost no resistance, and by midday, through great suffering and reluctance, I filled my stomach with them. By the end of the day, a burning inspiration to learn to catch those Bluescale fish filled me. I spent the evening collecting vines from the floating islands.

I had been at a loss for how to reach the islands until I remembered my new sprint bonus effect. I sprinted across the water’s surface and finished with a tail vault onto a low flying rock. It bobbed as I landed but kept its altitude.

From there it only took a couple more tail vaults to make my way up the islands. I stopped on one of the larger floating islands with vines hanging off its edges, binding smaller islands into its orbit.

My claws easily cut through the vines growing along the island, and before long I had a couple piles to work with.

For now, I decided I’d make this island my home. The surface was the size of about half a football field, if a bit larger. Patches of healthy green grass, bushes, and other foliage made up the island’s surface. Strange, alien looking trees with smooth white bark covered in pink swirling shapes sprouted from loosely packed dirt.

Near the center by a large white-pink tree, a small pond fed into a stream running off the side of the island. One of the endless water sources, I deduced. The water here glowed a slight cerulean blue as I watched the sun dim behind the forest’s trees.

I spent some time after the sun had set starting on my net by the glow of the endless water spring before yawning, curling up and resting my head against my tail. I surveyed my notifications amongst a staccato of lightly buzzing insects.

Skill discovered: Swim

Description: Your skill in moving through liquid. This skill also determines how well adapted you are when diving into deep water. Masters of the swim skill can dive unassisted into the darkest depths and hold their breath for days on end.

Effect:

+2% Swim Speed per skill level.

-1% Deep diving effect on the body including increases in atmospheric pressure per skill level.

Note: Lung capacity bonus is negated due to your racial ability for underwater breathing.

Skill: Swim has levelled up to level 4.

I let out a mild chuckle. I’d been holding my breath the entire time I was exploring the lake when I could have been breathing normally. Oh well, at least I know now.

Enemies Defeated:

6x Level 1 Crater Lake Scumsucker

Experience Gained: 6

Experience to next level: 23

I actually got experience from killing those blobs? It did take a while to find that many of them since they hide whenever something swims by. This seems like it might be a safe way to level up, if a bit slow.

Skill: Examine has levelled up to level 5.

Skill: Jump has levelled up to level 4.

Skill: Tail Manipulation has levelled up to level 6.

Skill: Tail Vault has levelled up to level 4.

It’s not too surprising how fast my tail skills are going up considering how much I use my tail. I had used Tail Vault quite a few times since leaving that tree branch. I was only able to get up to this island by combining Sprint with Tail Vault. Many of the other floating islands are still well out of my reach, but maybe with a couple more levels I could visit them too.

Rubbing at my weary eyes with a clawed fist, I yawned sleepily before settling in for a night by the glowing spring.

Chapter 5

Hello and welcome to Naomi’s Survival Show! Today we’ll be learning how to build a fishing net out of vines! Watch as Naomi realizes she has no idea what she’s doing! Sit back and relax while she expertly ties together vines using hands that practically have knives on the ends of them, easily tearing through her hard work!

Suffice it to say, I’m a bit grumpy. It’s not all bad, though. The vines are actually quite thick and tough, so I’m not worried about them breaking from the weight of carrying fish.

Deciding I needed a bit of a break, I picked up my things before setting off on a different project.

When I woke this morning, I spent some time watching the floating chunks of rock and dirt from atop my new home, a large floating island in the Mana Anomaly Enzirus. I came to the conclusion that I needed to learn a bit more about these floating rocks if I’m going to be living here.

I quickly found the rock that I was looking for while carrying a long length of vine coiled into a loop hanging from my mouth. It was a pretty small floating rock, only a bit larger than myself. It floated around the lake in a lazy circle, fairly close to the edge of the lake and not too high up that I couldn’t use my Sprint and Tail Vault combo to jump onto it.

The rock bobbed up and down as I delicately balanced on it. I carefully tied the vine around and around the rock with the assistance of my tail, making sure not to accidentally cut the vine with my claws as I worked.

Finishing with the knots, and with the rock sufficiently bound with vines, I rode along on the makeshift platform until I spotted a tree that came right up to the lake’s edge. With the end of the vine clasped in my mouth, I sprinted off and across the surface water, the rock bobbing down and nearly touching the lake’s surface from the sudden burst of momentum.

I quickly tied the vine around the base of the tree before it could be pulled taut.

I’d gotten this idea from seeing the floating rocks tethered to larger floating islands. The vine slowly straightened into a line as the rock floated away before stopping in mid air and floating in place, unable to continue on its path while bound in vines.

I pumped a small reptilian fist and smiled broadly in triumph, a display which would likely look a little creepy with my pointed teeth. I can use this. No matter what, I can use this. I nodded to myself, still smiling.

Gripping the vine tightly with my tail, I started reeling the rock in. My recent advances in Tail Manipulation gave me a significant amount more control over my tail, and by now I could move it as easily as I could my arms. It was more than up to the task of pulling the small boulder in closer and closer.

The floating rock grew heavier and heavier as I pulled it away from its previous orbit, pulled as though by some magnetic force to return to its familiar loop over Enzirus' sparkling waters.

Letting go of the vine, the rock sailed through the sky at a rapid pace until it came to a brisk stop at the end of its leash. A small cloud of dust and a pebble or two shook loose from the small boulder, floating motionlessly over the lake. Different designs for traps were flashing through my mind when my notification indicator began blinking. I checked it while contemplating my plans. Curiously, my character status sheet popped up.

Everything seemed roughly the same except... Oh! My Intelligence went up! Even the system thinks I’m smart. I tried focusing on different parts of the UI to see if there was any new information to be gleaned from it.

Race: Crater Lake Lesser Salamander(Adolescent)

Description: Crater Lake regional variant of the Lesser Salamander species. Generally considered to be a low threat monster. Their tails are considered a delicacy, and enterprising Adventurers will slaughter them by the droves in order to sell them, or to get a taste themselves.

Racial Traits:

Waterbreathing: This species is capable of breathing underwater.

Prehensile Tail: This species has a highly dexterous tail capable of grasping objects. Effect: Enables the acquisition of specific Tail-related Skills, Mana Focuses, and Masteries.

Simple Intelligence: This creature is deficient in Intelligence. Effect: -3 to the Intelligence stat.

Evolution Threshold: ???

Base Racial Mana Conductivity: ???

Right, I’m going to go ahead and ignore that unsettling part in the description. So it was this trait. This trait was the cause of my suffering. Simple Intelligence. If it wasn’t for this stupid trait, I would have started with 3 Intelligence and had all of this information right off the bat! I’m lucky I haven’t wandered into any adventurers up until now. I might have sauntered right up to them with a wave of my tail and a “how ya doin’?” I sighed deeply with a slight shake of my head.

There’s a couple more interesting things mentioned here, but focusing on them doesn’t produce any results. I’ll need to check again when my Intelligence hits 3. Unless it’s my wisdom that influences whether I can see information in these prompts?

Intelligence seems to unlock different parts of the UI and how passages are worded, and wisdom is involved when using Examine and when doing wisdom checks. As for how wisdom checks work, I have no idea. Very rarely when I ask a question, a wisdom check will pop up with some relevant information. Well, I won’t find out how this system works while standing here speculating.

I took a few steps back toward the waterline, stopped, frowned, and hugged my tail to my chest. My tail? A delicacy? They want to eat my tail?

I resolved to avoid any humans I might happen across in the future. Particularly those who might look like adventurers.

I made the trek back to my new home in a much better mood than when I had left. Not only are my plans of creating a fish-hoarding enterprise showing promise, but my most elusive stat increased naturally.

I have a lot of plans for how I can use these floating islands - I could make traps to protect myself or to catch prey and it might even be possible to pull in other floating chunks to expand my home island if I ever need the extra space.

I paused, half way up to my home island in Enzirus, and looked out at the lake. The silver angels glided and danced through the air after riding up gentle, endlessly falling waterfalls, their scales illuminated by the evening sun in dazzling displays of pink and orange.

This place is safe and secure. I have all of the food that I could possibly need right under me.

I frowned, watching the sun start to dim behind the treetops. If I let myself be lulled into a false sense of security, to hide here in this safe place, then I’ll be no different from when I was shivering on that tree branch, too terrified to even climb down.

A certain resolve came over me as the last flickers of my new sun gave way to a deep, star-blanketed blue. I’d never seen the stars like this before in the city I lived in on Earth, all constellations and distant galaxies in a radiant display. A pale grey moon hung suspended in the sky, sending moonlight dancing along treetops and muddy banks.

Something, some day, will come here to hurt me. Either I can protect myself, or I can scurry through the mud to my next tree branch.

I need to be stronger.

~~~

The next few days passed by amicably. My fishing net was coming along well and I’d started making small scouting expeditions out into the woods beyond Enzirus.

Turns out that Moosephants are actually pretty common in the area as I crossed paths with the docile beasts on occasion. I can always tell if they're around because they have a peculiar way of marking trees by rubbing their behinds against them. Yes, I can always tell when they're around. I vaulted over a tall root. From the smell.

Every time I found tracks on the forest floor, I tried to follow them through the woods, hoping to find an undiscovered creature, but each time the trail went cold and I came out empty-handed.

I did, however, find one more unidentified creature by pure happenstance while trekking through the forest. It was a huge beetle, almost the size of my head. Seeing that, I very much wanted to turn and leave without any further examination, but I powered through my apprehension and studied the creature.

I heard this guy before I saw him, actually. A long blunt horn crested his face that he repeatedly slammed, in a regular rhythm, into the side of a tree that he clung to. A few minutes passed in observation before Examine popped up.

Examine attempt successful.

Name: (None)

Race: (Undiscovered)

Level: 3

HP: 8 / 8

SP: 4 / 4

Strength: 4

Agility: 0

Constitution: 4

Endurance: 2

Intelligence: -2

Wisdom: -3

Skills:

Horn Attack: Lv 26

Steel Shell: Lv 6

Rolling: Lv 4

Jump: Lv 2

Description: Black beetle uncommonly found in the unclaimed lands. When not searching for food, they endlessly practice using their horn against trees to increase its level. Elders of this species can grow quite large, and have horn attacks well into the expert ranks. Delicious, if a bit gooey, they make for an excellent stew.

Nope. Nope, this is where I draw the line. I’m not eating beetles. I’ll take my Scumsuckers over this guy, I don’t care how delicious he is. As for his name, well… He looks kind of like those little pill bugs on Earth except with a big horn on his head.

Let’s go with something silly. This guy? He’s a Crested Pillbaby.

My notification indicator started blinking.

Race name accepted. As this race of creature was previously undiscovered, entity NAOMI has given it the name CRESTED PILLBABY.

Rewards:

Experience +35

Wisdom +1

Scouting skill experience acquired.

Level up! Experience requirement to reach Level 3 has been met. You have one statistic point to allocate.

I was ready for it this time. The physical sensation of levelling up washed over my body leaving my extremities tingling as I shivered from the unusual feeling. It was like diving into a pool on a hot day. It felt refreshing. I’d been hunting Scumsuckers the last few days and even with their small trickle of experience I had still been a ways off from levelling.

I glanced over at the beetle, entirely unbothered by my presence as it repeatedly bashed its head against a tree. Imagining some random explorer happening upon this thing and seeing its name nearly had me busting up in laughter.

Ah yes, the great Crested Pillbaby of the unclaimed lands! Back in my day we used to ride these babies for miles.

Skill: Scout has levelled up to level 5.

Two whole levels! I’d been trying to find a way to level up my scout skill since the effects were just too strong to ignore, but even with all my exploring it hadn’t levelled up even once. At level 5 it gives me an extra 5% movement speed in rough terrain, 5% improved vision in the dark, and my vision distance is increased by 10%. While the sprint skill gives me an extra 10% sprint speed at level 10, that’s only while I’m sprinting. The scout effect is always active, even when I’m walking.

The best part, though, is my racial synergy with the Scout skill. That 5% bonus movement speed is doubled to 10% in water and mud. A couple more levels and I might even be able to catch those Bluescales without a net!

I was about to allocate my new stat point into Intelligence when I stopped myself. Discovering the Pillbaby had given me an extra point in Wisdom, bringing me up to Wisdom: 3. This was actually a good chance to confirm one of my theories on how the system worked. I focused on my race, checking to see if any more information had been added from the increase in my Wisdom.

The only new thing added to the screen was: ...Evolution Threshold level 5? What is that supposed to mean? Does something happen when I reach level 5? The idea made me a bit nervous and I tried focusing on other terms, but nothing new came up. I put my level up point into Intelligence, and started focusing on things in my interface. Nothing new came up.

Every point in Intelligence has given me a new section in the UI except this one? To be fair, it could have added something that I just haven’t seen yet.

As for why I’ve been putting all of my points in Intelligence and Wisdom, it’s just because I don’t know enough about the world. I have a hunch that unlocking more features of the UI with intelligence will be very important and wisdom directly influences the amount of information I’m given in system prompts. Knowledge is power, after all.

For the last few days, I’ve been dedicating both my mornings and evenings to building the fishing net. The rest of my time is either spent hunting for Scumsuckers or exploring the woods.

While working on the net, every once in a while I’d take a dip in the glowing water spring I lived by. All along my body is a thin layer of translucent slime, and if it wears too thin from being in the sun too long, I feel like my skin is going to dry out and start cracking. Let’s not talk about my slime layer, though. It’s rude to ask about a girl’s slime layer, okay?

Anyway, I should be able to finish up the net tonight! I’d considered making a smaller one to save time, but I’m a firm believer that if I’m going to do something, I’d better do it right the first time.

Making this net has gotten easier and easier the more I work with it. Tail Manipulation makes itself known even here as I pull apart vines with the useful appendage or hold them in place while I work with my hands. I almost never cut the vines on accident anymore and my knots come out good and strong.

While moving vines with my tail and tying knots with my hands, my notification indicator started blinking green. I opened it while continuing to work on the net.

Uncommon Skill Discovered: Scrimshaw

Description: Uncommon Crafting Skill. This crafting skill represents a form of artwork traditionally performed on bones or tusks. Experts in the Enchanting skill consider Scrimshaw to be a primitive and inferior form of enchantment. It can be performed with a variety of mediums including carvings, dyes, or mana formations. Scrimshaw can be used on items, equipment, or living creatures and may bestow physical, psychological, or magical effects. This skill also governs the ability to craft with natural materials without the assistance of tools. This skill is more easily acquired by races inclined to a tribal lifestyle.

Effect:

The ability to create Scrimshawed works of art on an item, piece of equipment, or living creature. Quality and Durability of the resulting effect is directly dependent on mediums used and skill level.

+2% Speed and effectiveness while crafting with natural materials without the assistance of tools per skill level.

My hands paused midway through a loop while I read the prompt. Scrimshaw? Did I get this from making this net out of vines using only my hands and tail?

This is the first uncommon skill that I’ve found and it seems unusual. I’m glad that I get some bonus speed to finish up this net, but I’m more fascinated by the idea of using this to give things I craft added effects. It says Scrimshaw can be used on living things too? If I practiced enough with this skill, could I give myself buffs using dyes?

To be honest, I don’t know where I’d even start. I’ll shelve that idea for now, but I plan on keeping an eye on this skill once I start crafting more stuff.

Before long, I found myself putting the finishing touches on my new fish trap. While it’s a pretty simple design, it was all I could come up with on short notice.

The net had to be set manually and the floating rock I’d tethered in vines earlier had to be pulled out of its orbit. When I released the boulder, the motion of it jetting through the air pulled the net shut and out of the water.

After finishing the first test run, I nearly danced with joy with how perfectly the trap worked. I’d netted 6 fish with one cast, all of them Bluescale fish, and I eagerly carried the net up with me to my pond on the large floating island I called my home. In order to keep the fish alive and fresh, I tied the net in the pond so the fish couldn’t escape and extracted a few for my dinner.

After filleting, descaling and deboning the fish, mostly using my claws, I spread out my meal on the waxy surface of a large, round leaf I had taken to using as a plate. Fond memories of visiting sushi restaurants back on Earth floated through my mind and I wished I had soy sauce to go with my bluescale sashimi.

As it turned out, soy sauce wasn’t necessary at all. The fish melted in my mouth with a flavor and freshness superior to any fish I had ever tasted on Earth. As I slowly ate, taking time to savor every bite, my eyes watered up and tears threatened to spill out.

I had spent the last seven days I had lived in this world eating garbage, and this is the second time I’ve wanted to cry over my food. It was worth every bit of effort. These blue fish really are the most delicious fish.

Enemies Defeated:

12x Level 1 Crater Lake Scumsucker

2x Level 2 Crater Lake Bluescale

1x Level 3 Crater Lake Bluescale

Experience Gained: 19

Experience to next level: 17

Skill: Jump has levelled up to level 5.

Skill: Tail Vault has levelled up to level 5.

Skill: Tail Manipulation has levelled up to level 8.

Skill: Swim has levelled up to level 6.

Chapter 6

Ever since finishing the fish trap, hunting for food only took a fraction of the time it did before, and I was normally able to secure enough food for the next day as well. The trap worked wonderfully, and the net was holding strong after each use. A good meal every day made a world of difference for my morale. Gone were the days of slurping down Scumsuckers!

A few days had passed since I finished the trap and I spent more and more time exploring the woods outside Enzirus. I had already resolved to grow stronger, and this was the perfect way to start.

The surrounding forest became more familiar to me with each trip. My Scout skill had even gone up by one just from the amount of exploring I’d been doing. A couple of times I’d managed to hide behind foliage as monstrous creatures passed by but hadn’t managed to get an Examine off before I lost sight of them.

The most incredible of the creatures I found was truly gargantuan. I’d found a large rock formation in the woods that rose above the treetops. I had just begun climbing it in an effort to gain a higher vantage point when a huge stone gray eye cracked open and shifted to regard me, rock dust falling off from the motion.

The creature let out a calmly rumbling murmur as its body shuddered and slowly began to rise. I quickly fled from the titanic creature with a tail vault down to the forest floor. The stone creature rose to its full height on three thick rock-encrusted legs, easily towering over the forest. The vines and moss hanging from its craggy rock-covered carapace swayed in the wind as it took a lumbering step through the forest greenery, careful not to crush the trees underfoot.

Its calming murmurs shook the ground as it sang, carrying its body through the woods with a gentle gait.

Unfortunately, not all of the forest’s creatures were as amiable as that peaceful titan.

It was nearing nightfall as I made my way through the dense greenery making up the forests surrounding Mana Anomaly Enzirus. Shadows danced between rays of lingering sunlight as I followed familiar paths across the forest floor.

That’s when I heard the laughing. It started as a quiet chuckling from the shadows behind trees. I very nearly mistook it for human laughter, but it was just slightly off. Too high pitched, and with an air of malevolence. ‘I have time. They haven’t attacked yet.’ I thought to myself, my skin prickling as yellow eyes licked and appraised me just out of sight.

My breath came in shallow gulps. Intelligence. Outthink the enemy. I had several advantages on my side. I knew this area of the forest very well as it was only about half a mile from Enzirus.

The laugher came louder and more shrill now, new voices lending to the cacophony echoing between the trees.

I headed in the direction of a small clearing where an old moss-covered tree had collapsed to the ground. The entire time I’d been out here exploring the wilds, I’d been thinking. Planning for when I would need to fight for my life in these woodlands.

I quickly set to work breaking the thick branches in specific areas on the fallen tree with my tail. With the tree’s current state of decomposition, preparing my rudimentary weapon proved to be a simple task as branches snapped and fractured under the firm hold of my tail.

The laughter bordered on raucous screams as I prepared for a last stand. I coiled my tail around a large stone. The laughter is a misdirection. They will attack from behind. A voice rose over the others in a jarring chorus of derision. In response, I shot my head in the direction of the voice and the monsters took the bait.

A single black shape bolted out from the trees and shadows behind me, near silent footfalls striking the soft forest soil. I spun, carried by the momentum of my swinging tail, to face the creature as I hurled the heavy stone directly into its face. A splattering of gore and blood erupted from the creature’s caved in head as its body collapsed and slid across the mossy dirt, carried by its momentum.

A second black creature was already nearly on top of me. The monster was vaguely canine-shaped and about the same size as me with tar black quills covering its body. They’re fast. I tried to dodge out of reach of the wicked claws adorning its quill-covered paws but I wasn’t quick enough. The creature left long lacerations across my side, grinding torturously against my ribs.

As the black beast passed by me, it attempted to bite into the middle of my tail, maybe trying to hold down or damage my strongest weapon. That was a big mistake. I twitched my tail out from under its mouth and caught it in the throat, coiling my tail around its neck and chest, lifting it from the ground.

It pawed helplessly against my tail, scoring small cuts but not doing any real damage. I swung the creature through the air and impaled it onto a pointed branch on the decaying tree that I’d prepared for this exact reason.

It sank all the way down to the rotting wood, laughing nervously between bloody coughs while kicking its legs uselessly.

Their faces were ugly quill covered things overtaken by large batlike ears. Interspersed laughter still echoed out between the trees lining the small clearing.

I shook from the adrenaline coursing through me. Thick red ribbons of blood flowed down my side from a deep set of clawed gashes. HP 2.3 / 6 That attack must have done more damage than I had realized. An Examine window opened up and I quickly surveyed it while watching for movement.

Examine attempt successful.

Name: (None)

Race: Shadowlurker, “The Laughing Horror,” “Laughing Demons”

Level: 7

HP: 6 / 6

SP: 10 / 10

Strength: 3

Agility: 7

Constitution: 3

Endurance: 5

Intelligence: 3

Wisdom: 2

Skills:

Jump: Lv 3

Sprint: Lv 12

Fear: Lv 18

Sneak: Lv 9

Bite: Lv 7

Pack Hunter: Lv 11

Razor Claw: Lv 8

Description: A black spine-covered canid that haunts the unclaimed lands. They are nocturnal creatures that hunt in packs exclusively at night. While they are not physically strong, their real strength is in their psychological attacks. Their laughter is the stuff of nightmares and can drive even battle hardened warriors to insanity. Entire camps of adventurers exploring the unclaimed lands often succumb to these monsters. They often avoid well lit areas such as towns or villages.

Good! Get rid of those nasty tail-eating adventurers. I spit a bit of blood into the dirt, still shaking from exertion but prepared to fight at the first hint of movement. The laughing quieted and I no longer felt the gaze of their yellow eyes on me. They must have given up. HP 1.9 / 6 The floor felt unsteady under my feet and I listed to the side, catching myself before falling over. The night air felt colder than normal and a frigid chill settled over me. I barely had the strength to shiver anymore. With a glance to my side, seeing my health continue to fall, It dawned on me that I was dying of blood loss.

Please be enough. I opened my notifications.

Enemies Defeated:

1x Level 7 Shadowlurker

1x Level 9 Shadowlurker

Experience Gained: 48

Experience to next level: 29

Note: Experience gain from (2) enemies augmented due to a significant difference in level.

Level up! Experience requirement to reach Level 4 has been met. You have one statistic point to allocate.

I sighed in relief as my body stitched itself back together. My breath came easier as the pleasant sensation passed over me, the fatigue lessening as blood returned to my veins. When I opened my eyes, I noticed that the cold chill I’d felt when suffering from blood loss hadn’t vanished. In fact, it had only gotten colder.

The damp earth of the forest floor crusted over with frost. Ice crawled across the blood-soaked spines of the deceased Shadowlurkers. A chill wind whispered past as fingers of frost caressed my cheek.

Skill: Examine has levelled up to level 6.

Skill: Tail Manipulation has levelled up to level 10.

Skill: Tail Attack has levelled up to level 7.

Skill: Scrimshaw has levelled up to level 3.

Name: Naomi

Race: Crater Lake Lesser Salamander(Adolescent)

Level: 4 (31 / 60)

HP: 8 / 8

SP: 8 / 8

Strength: 3

Agility: 5

Constitution: 4

Endurance: 4

Intelligence: 3

Wisdom: 3

Skills:

Examine: Lv 6

Scout: Lv 6

Jump: Lv 5

Sprint: Lv 10

Tail Manipulation: Lv 10

Tail Vault: Lv 5

Tail Attack: Lv 7

Death Resistance: Lv 2

Swim: Lv 6

Scrimshaw: Lv 3

Traits:

Determination

Note:

You have one statistic point to allocate.

Through great exertion, you have raised the base values of Strength, Agility and Constitution by one.

Chapter 7

I took a deep, calming breath while driving down the primal fear boiling up inside me. My breath came out in an ice blue mist as I pulled open the expected notification.

Skill Deleted: Death Resistance.

Skill discovered: Death Resistance

Description: Hello again, little thing...

Effect:

+.1% Chance of avoiding, nullifying, or resisting an attack or effect that would result in your death per skill level.

The text was different this time. The letters and words came gradually, as though being handwritten in real time. A sinking feeling settled in my stomach as my fear threatened to overwhelm rational thought.

Is this thing, Death Resistance, learning better methods of talking to me?

It seems you’ve been busy, dear. The text scrawled along, unperturbed by my growing apprehension.

The frigid cold crackling and hissing across the clearing had a degree of intensity much higher than in previous displays as stalactites of ice formed on branches of trees and leaves froze a solid blue.

These… creatures are pawns of mine that shed a great deal of blood in my name.

Tendrils of ice weaved through the thick spines of the Shadowlurkers, reaching their yellow eyes and glassing them over in blue frost. The body of the impaled Shadowlurker shuddered slightly against the branch running through its chest. Hands crawled across my shoulders and neck, burning from the intense difference in temperature.

Is this thing going to kill me? I heard a faint whisper of laughter, vaguely feminine in nature, as the air shook. It was as though the very wind was laughing at me.

No, dear. I don’t want to kill you. I merely want to make you stronger, in the hope that we may meet face to face. I felt the cold humidity of breath against my ear. I dared not look. We have much to discuss.

The impaled Shadowlurker slid from the branch that had skewered it, dropping lightly to the frozen leaves and frost-crusted soil beneath.

To that effect, I have a gift for you.

The Shadowlurker, with its ice-laced quills and gaping hole through its chest, raised its head and met my gaze. The sickly yellow of its eyes had turned to a deep, crystalline ice blue. Frozen flames danced in its irises with an otherworldly intelligence.

There are limits even to my power, and time is growing short. Come, little thing.

The Shadowlurker turned and started toward the treeline, not bothering to look back to see if I followed. Insistent frozen hands urged me along, their hold too unyielding to permit escape. I had no choice. I followed the Shadowlurker through the trees, lit only by cold moonlight.

Ice crawled along the ground around each footfall the monster took, growing around its claws and quills before cracking off when raising its paw for another step. The creature seemed entirely undisturbed by the gaping hole through its chest.

It was unnaturally quiet and still in the forest as I followed the frozen path the Shadowlurker left behind. The prompt’s window, still near-transparent, lingered in my vision.

Originally, I had thought that this thing was just observing me as some sick form of entertainment. This exchange, however, proves that it needs me for something. I get the feeling that it could easily kill me at a moment’s notice, but it won’t. The reason I’m alive right now is because, for some reason, it needs me.

Stopping at a small cave set into a hill, the monster turned to regard me, eyes dancing with frozen blue flame amongst crystal irises.

My gift is to lead you here - what you find inside is from another.

The ice-encrusted corpse took several steps toward me, its piercing, burning blue eyes locked on my own.

I am known for my kindness, not my patience, little girl.

The hands binding me finally released. The blue flames in the Shadowlurker’s eyes gave way to a dull yellow, body left standing with ice encasing its frozen corpse.

Do not disappoint me.

At that, the oppressive atmosphere dispersed, leaving me shivering from its after effects.

Skill: Death Resistance has levelled up to level 3.

I very much did not want to enter that cave. It was less of a cave and more like an animal burrow, small enough that a human would need to crawl on their belly to make it through the passage. All of my fear and exhaustion told me to turn and run from that hole in the ground. To go scurrying through the mud to the safety of my floating island.

I had nearly convinced myself to turn and leave when I heard the tiniest sound of wind chimes in the breeze.

The tunnel was narrow in places and nearly pitch black as I pulled myself through hanging roots and loose dirt. My scout skill’s dark vision just barely allowed me to see a few inches through the murky darkness.

Before long, a soft blue glow illuminated the tunnel walls and the passage opened up to a more easily navigable size. A dense forest of light blue mushrooms of various sizes grew along the walls and floor, easily lighting my way forward.

These mushrooms glowed as bright as a torch and I briefly considered the applications of such a useful natural light source. Perhaps my scrimshaw skill…?

I gasped when I saw it, a nostalgic feeling rushing over me. I didn’t know what I had been looking for when I came in here, but I knew the second I saw it.

All the way through High School, I’d used the same messenger bag to carry my books and school supplies. It was a simple brown leather bag that I carried from my shoulder across my chest.

It was the exact same, down to the coffee stains and frayed edges. I hugged the bag to my pink chest, a random assortment of objects inside poking at me. Surprisingly, a notification popped into my vision.

Examine attempt automatic success. Reason: Entity q4rxm%7 qualification met.

Item Name: (Unknown)

Item Type: Anomaly. Non system compliant object.

Item Classification: Artifact.

Effects:

Indestructible: Durability statistic on this object is disabled as it cannot be destroyed by any currently known means. This object is a permanent fixture in the System.

Transdimensional storage: This object allows the storage and retrieval of items from a transdimensional space. This object can store any item so long as it can fit through the opening. Items require time to retrieve from this object depending on their mass and weight. There is a maximum limit to the amount of mass that can be stored inside this object. This object retains one half of the weight of items deposited within it.

Note: This object is an ancient item-type anomaly with the ability to warp spacetime. This object has passed through the hands of kings and emperors alike and is said to have been lost to the annals of time. Many attempts at researching this item and its extradimensional storage space have met with failure and in some cases, insanity. In spite of being an anomaly, it is highly stable and safe to use.

Skill: Examine has levelled up to level 9.

How is it that my bag followed me into this world? I remember that first message I ever got when I was still growing in my egg about how I was a non system compliant entity. Well, it turns out my bag is a non system compliant object. I don’t know what to make of that, if I’m being honest. Apparently it got here a lot earlier than I did if it’s considered to be ancient. I don’t know how I feel about so many people having manhandled my backpack.

On the plus side, it seems like an extremely useful thing to have with me. Back on Earth, this bag was my constant companion. I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t an indestructible transdimensional anomaly capable of warping spacetime, but I do have a tendency to forget minor details.

The objects inside my bag poked against my chest. Overcome by curiousity, I opened it up and upended it. This was my first time getting actual loot! With an indecent smile plastered across my face, I gently shook the bag while it was overturned.

Nothing came out.

Confused, I reached a hand inside. Oh, it really is bigger on the inside! I grabbed an object that was vaguely square shaped and pulled it out. Tried to pull it out, that is. It felt like the thing I was holding hit a snag as I retrieved it and would only come out at a set speed. It didn’t take very long, maybe around ten seconds, but it was an unusual phenomenon.

I held a brown leather-bound book in my hands, clasped shut with a leather strap. Shining golden script ran along the binding in a language I couldn’t read. Intrigued by the glowing script, I attempted to open the book but the strap wouldn’t budge no matter how I jostled, cut or insulted it.

Giving up, I slowly removed the rest of the items from my messenger bag. The end result was three books, all of which I couldn’t open, and eight glass jars. Two of the books were in that same golden script, and the third had a silver coloration to it, rather than gold. One of the jars had a strange silver liquid in it that moved in a peculiar way similar to mercury.

I set the jar of silver liquid in front of me. Come on Examine, don’t let me down now! I glowered at the silvery gray liquid and to my excitement, Examine popped up!

Examine attempt failed. Reason: Wisdom requisite not met.

I sighed. Well, the real treasure here was my bag. I packed up all of my new things except for one glass jar. Shuffling over to a patch of glowing blue mushrooms, I carefully cut along the stalk of a smaller mushroom with a clawed finger, dropping it into the jar. I repeated this a couple more times until the jar was full.

Skill discovered: Herbalism

Description: Collection skill. The ability to identify crops, herbs and natural reagents.

Effect:

The ability to attempt to identify natural substances and discern their effects. Results are dependent on Wisdom values and skill level.

+2% Effect modifiers from consuming natural substances per skill level. Caution is advised, as this bonus also augments negative effects.

Note: Herbalism has been absorbed by the superior classification Skill: Examine and has gained all associated effects.

I hadn’t been expecting the new skill and was pleasantly surprised. Maybe with this, I can start searching the woods for useful herbs or edible plants! As delicious as Bluescale fish are, I would love to get a bit more variety in my food.

I stared down at the glowing mushrooms in the jar, hoping for examine to pop up with some useful information on my new makeshift flashlight.

Examine attempt failed. Reason: Wisdom requisite not met.

Way to take the wind out of my sails, Examine! Pull your weight, what do I pay you for?! I shook an indignant pink fist in the air.

With a sigh, and with nothing left for me in this cave, I put my arms through the straps of my messenger bag and pulling it over my head, wearing it as a brown backpack as I made my way out of the cave. I held the glowing mushroom jar in my tail to light my way through the dark of night as I started the trek home.

Chapter 8

I’d been spending the day looking down over the sparkling lake of Mana Anomaly Enzirus, my home. No matter how much I looked out at this incredible sight, it never became mundane and never lost its splendor. Endless waterfalls spilled out from the sides of foliage laden floating islands dotted with trees and hanging vines. Floating boulders lazily traced a circle around the lake as I let out a contemplative sigh.

I sat at the edge of the island I called home and considered my status page. Both my Intelligence and Wisdom were at 3 now, and I had a stat point to allocate from my last level up. While Intelligence unlocked interesting features in the UI, I really wanted to get more information from Examine so I could better understand the world around me. Examine's results were based not only on its skill level, but by how many points of Wisdom I have.

After some deliberation, I went with Wisdom, bringing it up to 4. My tail skills had really shot up since last night. My Tail Manipulation was at 10 now, and my Tail Attack had gone up five levels all the way to level 7 just from fighting the Shadowlurkers.

It was only last night that I’d fought off a pack of monsters known as Shadowlurkers, a creature that hunts at night using psychological attacks to disable their prey. I’m certain that the only reason I was able to survive was from my Determination trait, which gives me an immunity to mental effects.

Even with an immunity to their strongest weapon, they still very nearly managed to kill me, and I’d only survived with quick thinking and strategy. In the end, they were only animals. They couldn’t account for my outmaneuvering them.

While I managed to avoid the insanity-inducing fear effect, their shrieking laughter haunted my nightmares last night and I barely got a wink of sleep. While the Shadowlurkers were terrifying, my last interaction with Death Resistance is what really chilled my blood.

I watched as the flying silver fish swam up waterfalls and glided down over the lake. In the nearly two weeks since I had arrived here, Examine had never actually worked on these glittering fish. There was something about the way their scales caught the light that told me that these creatures were special.

I gazed after them as they danced and zipped through the air, splashing through the waterfalls before rising back into the air on fins stretched out like wings. Realization dawned on me as I watched them.

I leaned in, studying the paths they took through the air, seeming to defy gravity. I almost never saw them actually enter the water. These were real and true flying fish.

Examine attempt successful.

Name: (None)

Race: (Undiscovered)

Level: 8

HP: 14 / 14

SP: 12 / 12

MP: 25 / 25

Strength: 1

Agility: 8

Constitution: 7

Endurance: 6

Intelligence: 5

Wisdom: 6

Skills:

Mana Coalescence: Lv 34

Arcane: Lv 9

Glide: Lv 18

Swim: Lv 6

Mana Focus: Ambient Condensation

Mana Conductivity: High

Description: A silver fish found only in the vicinity of Mana-type Anomalies. They are known for their ability to swim through fields of ambient mana. This creature has a high dependence on the dense mana surrounding the Anomaly and would quickly die when removed from it. This is one of the few known ways of killing this creature, and by far the simplest. Their scales are the only known naturally forming source of the legendary metal Quicksilver, and as a result, they are near impervious to both physical and magical attacks. Mana acquisition and use is instinctual in this species, and they are capable of certain Arcane spells and effects. This creature is the evolved form of the Bluescale fish.

It’s a magical fish. It’s a magical fish wizard that flies around casting fish magic. I thought I’d stopped letting this world surprise me, but this one just came out of nowhere. Incidentally, this fish has a higher Intelligence than I do. I’m not surprised how this species is considered undiscovered on account of how long I’ve had to study them to actually get Examine to work.

I hesitated to pull up my notifications. This would give me the experience needed to reach level 5.

My evolution threshold.

This body had been inconvenient in a number of ways. My arms and legs were too short to be very useful for anything other than walking and running. I couldn’t stand on my hind legs unassisted, and my hands suffered from a lack of precision and sensitivity that my human hands had been capable of.

As a result, I’d needed to focus almost entirely on using my tail. It was an incredibly useful appendage that I had grown reliant on for my survival. At first, it was difficult to control the brand new appendage, but over time I got acclimated to using it. Every time Tail Manipulation levelled up it became faster, stronger, and more precise. A couple more levels and I’m certain I could use it for writing or drawing.

I didn’t know how this evolution would work, and I hated diving into the dark uninformed. I was only spinning my wheels in the mud, though. I had already made my decision. This fish is a Silver Angel.

The world vanished before my eyes into a canvas of pure white.

Race name accepted. As this race of creature was previously undiscovered, entity NAOMI has given it the name SILVER ANGEL.

Rewards:

Experience +35

Wisdom +1

Scouting skill experience acquired.

Level up! Experience requirement to reach Level 5 has been met. You have one statistic point to allocate.

You have reached your evolution threshold and must choose your evolution path. You have exactly one chance to choose your path and this option will never be available again. Additionally, you may choose to continue your life as a Crater Lake Lesser Salamander.

The paths available to you are determined by your statistics, skills and traits gained up until this point.

Additional information regarding these race paths compared to your current race will be available to you in order to better facilitate an informed decision.

Evolution Path: Crater Lake Greater Salamander

Classification: Basic

Evolution Prerequisites: Level 5 Crater Lake Lesser Salamander

Description: Crater Lake regional variant of the Greater Salamander species. This monster is much more dangerous than its lesser counterpart at nearly three times the size. Instead of the one tail that the Lesser Salamander has, the Greater Salamander has two tails. Adventurers rejoice when encountering this monster as two tails make for a much better meal than only one. 99.8% of evolving Crater Lake Lesser Salamanders follow this evolution path.

Racial Traits:

Waterbreathing: This species is capable of breathing underwater.

Prehensile Tails: This species has two highly dexterous tails capable of grasping objects. Effect: Enables the acquisition of specific Tail-related Skills, Mana Focuses, and Masteries.

Simple Intelligence: This creature is deficient in Intelligence. Effect: -3 to the Intelligence stat.

Evolution Threshold: None

Spawning: Asexual reproduction. Three times yearly, 4-5 eggs per clutch. Spawns Crater Lake Lesser Salamanders.

Base Racial Mana Conductivity: Low

Evolution Path: Salamanderkin

Classification: Rare

Evolution Prerequisites: Level 5 Lesser Salamander, 3+ Intelligence, 3+ Wisdom

Description: A sapient(cognitively humanoid) Salamander capable of advanced reasoning on par with other sapient races. They are capable of acquiring and using language. This species is primarily bipedal, but occasionally uses quadrupedal movement to increase their movement speed. While their hands are much more capable of precise movements compared to the Lesser Salamander, their tails remain their primary appendage when interacting with the world.

Racial Traits:

Waterbreathing: This species is capable of breathing underwater.

Prehensile Tail: This species has a highly dexterous tail capable of grasping objects. Effect: Enables the acquisition of specific Tail-related Skills, Mana Focuses, and Masteries.

Overeating: This species is capable of converting food in excess of daily nutritional needs into experience points. This species will starve to death much faster than other races when food is not available. Rate of experience conversion is dependent on both the quality and quantity of food consumed.

Evolution Threshold: Conditional

Spawning: Asexual reproduction. One time yearly, 1-2 eggs per clutch. Spawns Salamanderkin.

Base Racial Mana Conductivity: Moderate

Evolution Path: Fialis Vi’alna

Classification: Epic

Evolution Prerequisites: Level 5 Lesser Salamander, 3+ to all characteristics, one Death-type skill.

Description: A cursed monster said to be guided by the Pillar of Death herself. Only one individual of this species has ever been confirmed. The Elvish word Fialis Vi’alna, “Dreamreaper,” is used in their ancient legends telling of a monster that would wipe out entire Elven villages leaving only the pale husks of corpses in its wake.

Racial Traits:

Darkvision: This species is capable of sight even in complete darkness.

Scythetail: This species has a bone scythe at the end of its tail. This scythe is used to perform the Soulstealing ability. Well adapted for decapitating or otherwise eviscerating its enemies. Effect: Enables the acquisition of specific Tail-related Skills, Mana Focuses, and Masteries.

Soulstealing: This creature is capable of stealing the characteristic stats of its prey. Statistic theft is slow and torturous. This ability can only be used on humanoid species. This creature gains its sustenance from the thoughts and memories of its prey and must drain one sapient creature each month or it will starve to death.

Evolution Threshold: Conditional

Spawning: Asexual reproduction. Once every 50 years, one egg per clutch. Spawns Fialis Vi’alna.

Base Racial Mana Conductivity: High

Evolution Path: Royal Salamanderkin

Classification: Epic

Evolution Prerequisites: Level 5 Lesser Salamander, 3+ Intelligence, 3+ Wisdom, Noble-type trait.

Description: A royal variant of the Salamanderkin race. This variant of the species gains access to unique Mana Focuses and Masteries not available to the standard variant. A Title is awarded to the first in a line of Royal Salamanderkin when specific conditions are met.

Racial Traits:

Waterbreathing: This species is capable of breathing underwater.

Prehensile Tail: This species has a highly dexterous tail capable of grasping objects. Effect: Enables the acquisition of specific Tail-related Skills, Mana Focuses, and Masteries.

Overeating: This species is capable of converting food in excess of daily nutritional needs into experience points. This species will starve to death much faster than other races when food is not available. Rate of experience conversion is dependent on both the quality and quantity of food consumed.

Evolution Threshold: None

Spawning: Asexual reproduction. One time yearly, 1-3 eggs per clutch. Spawns Salamanderkin.

Base Racial Mana Conductivity: Very High

I had been staring at a blank white space, the entire world having vanished before my eyes, when a wall of system windows opened up before me. Reading through the prompts carefully, I looked over the different evolution paths I had available to me. I had to be careful and certain of my choice as it would determine what I spent the rest of my life as.

Well, let’s go ahead and throw Greater Salamander right out. The only real thing it had going for it was that it has two tails instead of one. While I do love my tail, it was just too mundane to consider it as an option. Since Salamanderkin was just a weaker version of Royal Salamanderkin, we’ll throw that one out too. The Royal version got access to unique Mana Focuses and Masteries, whatever those were, and I wanted them. I was a bit concerned about this Spawning section, but decided I'd worry about it later. There were really only two options here.

Fialis Vi’alna. The prospect of turning into something so horrible unsettled me deeply, but I swallowed my apprehension. I had to give this decision my full consideration before choosing. I had decided that in order to ensure my survival, I needed to get stronger. This was one potent path to realizing that goal. If I chose this evolution path, I would certainly get stronger. However, choosing this race would require that I murder people. Regularly. I’m not capable of that.

The only reason that I hadn’t immediately dismissed this race path as an option was because of one of its prerequisites. It required a Death-type skill. Death Resistance. That thing, that spoke to me through system notifications and threatened me with creeping ice. It had told me that it wanted me to get stronger. It wanted to speak with me, face to face.

Is this what it had meant when it said it wanted me to get stronger? Had it been grooming me to turn into this monstrosity that feeds on the minds of its victims? What will it do if I refuse? That was the fear that left me rooted in this spot, amid an endless expanse of white.

Only two weeks ago, when I had just arrived in this world, I found myself hurt, scared and crying in a tree branch overlooking a sea of golden grass. Hopeless. When I pulled myself together, I hardened my resolve to survive in the face of this dangerous and uncertain world. I vowed to get stronger. Fialis Vi’alna. This would certainly make me stronger, but that was not the kind of strength I had meant.

I was only spinning my wheels in the mud, though. I had already made my decision.

I opened my eyes, the first Queen in a royal line.

Chapter 9

“Test, test. Mic check. One, two, one two.” Thankfully, my voice was still female, if a bit androgynous. The race path that I had chosen, Royal Salamanderkin, changed my body in some meaningful ways.

I was now able to speak, stand on my hind legs, and my hands were much easier to control. My fingers still transitioned into pointed claws at the ends, but with the added control it shouldn’t be too hard to work around them. It would have been much easier to have crafted my vine fishing net if my hands had been like this.

My stomach shifted uncomfortably as I took stock of my new form. Ugh, I’d need to go get some food soon. My notification indicator blinked in the corner of my vision, but I decided I’d look at it later. I was too enamored with my new race to bother with it at the moment.

Rather than the small dog-sized creature that I used to be, I was now roughly the same size as your average human. Stretching and wiggling around, I felt like I had the incredible flexibility of a professional contortionist. This body was incredibly easy to control, and I felt thankful that this was the race I’d settled on.

There was, however, one thing about my race I felt a bit apprehensive about. Evidently my race is non-gendered and reproduces asexually once yearly. As interesting as that is from a biological standpoint, I’m not really looking to have children. At least, not at the moment.

My stomach shifted again painfully and I rubbed a hand against my pink belly. I turned and headed back to my pond where I had stored a couple fish I’d caught the day before.

Several hours later, I found myself looking down into the mud where three porcelain white eggs laid half-submerged next to the glowing pond I lived by.

I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s just say that I found three eggs and buried them here in the mud. For some reason, I just wandered off, found three eggs and buried them here in the mud. For science. Let’s go with that.

I folded my arms as I stared down at my progeny, frowning thoughtfully. Apparently as soon as one of my race reaches adulthood, they immediately produce children. I was woefully unprepared for something like this, and while looking for a distraction from this uncomfortable situation, I pulled open my notifications.

Skill: Scout has levelled up to level 8.

Skill: Examine has levelled up to level 10. Level 10 bonus effect unlocked for this skill.

Bonus Effects:

(Level 10) You are now capable of using Examine to attempt to identify magical items and effects.

I gawked at the new bonus effect I’d unlocked. I had just assumed that Examine would work on anything regardless of if it were magical or not.

I found a dry place on the ground and sat down, curling my tail around myself in a circle as I went through the process of removing the items I’d found with my bag. For whatever reason, when removing an item from my transdimensional storage bag, I could always grab the exact item I was thinking of whenever I reached inside.

Examine attempt success.

Item Name: Skill Book: Mana Coalescence

Item Type: Magical Book

Item Classification: Epic

Durability: 30 / 30

Effects:

Reusable: This object is not consumed on use.

Information Transfer: This object will transmit the information contained within directly into the mind of its user.

Description: ???

Examine attempt success.

Item Name: ???

Item Type: Magical Book

Item Classification: Epic

Durability: 26 / 26

Effects:

Reusable: This object is not consumed on use.

Information Transfer: This object will transmit the information contained within directly into the mind of its user.

Description: ???

Examine attempt success.

Item Name: ???

Item Type: Magical Book

Item Classification: Uncommon

Durability: 62 / 62

Effects:

???

Description: ???

Examine attempt success.

Item Name: Jar of Activated Quicksilver

Item Type: Reagent

Item Classification: Rare

Durability: 5 / 5

Effects:

Spellcasting Reagent: This object can be used as a reagent for casting spells.

Enchanting Reagent: This object can be used as a reagent in enchantment.

Description: A jar of liquid mana-activated quicksilver. This liquid is the best conductor of mana currently known.

I shook with joy when I saw all of my new loot, a giant smile stretched across my face. I swished the liquid quicksilver around in its jar and idly wondered if I might be able to use this with my scrimshaw skill. I could always test it out later.

Of the three magic books I had, two were written in a glowing gold script and the last had a silver colored script rather than gold. The book with silver script was the uncommon quality one that, strangely, I barely got any information on.

I picked up one of the golden scripted books and held it up in front of me. This, however, was what I was really interested in. This skill book evidently teaches the Mana Coalescence skill. I have no idea what that means, but it sounds like it would let me cast magic! I beamed at the book as I imagined casting fireballs and magic missiles.

Do you wish to use this item?

Yes

No

“Yes!” I smiled as I yelled out the word enthusiastically. Moments passed, and nothing happened. I cocked my head to the side in confusion.

A monster? I was activated by a monster? The voice spoke directly into my mind. It was a man’s voice. This lizard wants to learn to use magic? A lizard wizard? He laughed heartily, the noise reverberating through my skull. He spoke with an air of dignified confidence that one might expect a venerated professor to have.

“I’m a salamander, not a lizard.” I corrected him, very nearly wanting to drop the book from the surreal experience thus far.

Ah, it speaks! English, no less. The language of the ancients. Were I not a magical book now, I wouldn’t understand a single word you say, er… He paused for a moment, and I felt the book looking me up and down. Girl? I nodded. Girl.

I set the book on my lap, still sitting on the grass by my pond. He didn’t say anything. I stared down at the book in my lap.

“Um, is something wrong?” I broke the silence.

Oh, no. No, I was just examining your body.

I slowly covered my chest with my arms and looked away, suddenly feeling a little exposed. I was naked, after all.

N-No. The book stammered. I was examining your mana channels. Your innate mana conductivity is the highest I’ve ever seen.

“Is that good?” I inquired, having relaxed again while looking down at the odd book. Despite being a bit strange, I didn’t dislike him. His voice reminded me of my father’s, and it put me at ease.

Yes, girl. The conductivity of your mana channels influences how easily you can coalesce and control mana. Most mages need to work for years to reach your level of conductivity... The book answered my question somewhat halfheartedly, as though he were considering something else while speaking before trailing off. There was a moment of contemplative silence before he spoke again with a note of finality in his voice. Girl, do you wish to learn to use magic?

“Y-yes.” I answered, decidedly less confident than when I had activated the book. A moment passed as a gentle breeze ruffled the patch of grass around me.

Why? The book asked with a careful, serious tone.

I paused before responding, taking time to carefully consider my answer. I couldn’t exactly tell him that I just thought it sounded cool.

“I want to be able to protect myself.” I stated with as much confidence as I could muster.

Pick up a sword. Why magic?

I stared down at the book as I chewed on the question in my mind.

The truth of the matter was that I didn’t know anything about magic. That tiny lecture on mana channels was the most I’d learned about magic in the entire time since I’d arrived here. More than anything, I was just curious.

The book was right, I could just as easily learn to use a weapon or practice more with my tail. That might have even been more efficient than learning to use magic, but the thought left me feeling unsatisfied. I wanted to learn magic because I wanted to know how it worked.

“I want to better understand the world.” I murmured, just barely audible over the rustle of leaves in the wind.

Good. I felt the book giving me a pleased smile through the tone of his voice. You are a promising student. My name is Archmage Thaddius of Adria. I will gladly teach you what I know. Are you ready?

“Yes.” The book suddenly unlatched itself and the cover flew open. Pages began flipping rapidly against its binding. The book shouldn’t have been this thick, but the pages kept flipping as arcane symbols danced and dotted through my vision.

Blue lines, magical circles, theories and formulas flew through my mind’s eye. Information, thoughts and feelings crashed into my head, entirely not my own.

It was less of a rush of understanding and more of a deluge of raw data. The sheer weight of it was like sitting under a waterfall pouring onto me as I struggled to keep from collapsing and passing out from the strain. In only a second, it was over. I wasn’t sure what had changed, until I felt it.

The world was different now. I don’t know how I would describe it. It would be like explaining the concept of color to someone who could not see.

I felt the mana around me, in all of its complexity and all of its power, as though it were my own skin. I felt the leaves rustling in the breeze, I felt the gentle flowing of water down the stream leading from my pond, I felt the dew hanging from blades of grass. Tears ran down my face and dotted against the leather-bound book that had already clasped itself shut.

Shhh, girl. Thaddius calmed me softly. You will grow used to it in time.

Skill discovered: Mana Coalescence

Description: The ability to sense and manipulate mana. Allows the channeling and collection of mana through mana channels. Also influences efficiency and control when using mana.

Effect:

Ability to sense mana. The range and accuracy of mana sense is dependent on skill level and Mana conductivity.

+2% Efficiency in mana expenditure when using mana in any way per skill level.

+1% Control of both mana flow and resulting effect when using mana in any way per skill level.

Enables MP Statistic.

Note: You will be able to select a Mana Focus when you reach level 10 in this skill.

Name: Naomi

Race: Royal Salamanderkin

Level: 5 (6 / 75)

HP: 12 / 12

SP: 12 / 12

MP: 35 / 35

Strength: 3

Agility: 5

Constitution: 4

Endurance: 4

Intelligence: 7

Wisdom: 6

Skills:

Examine: Lv 10

Scout: Lv 8

Jump: Lv 5

Sprint: Lv 10

Tail Manipulation: Lv 10

Tail Vault: Lv 5

Tail Attack: Lv 7

Death Resistance: Lv 3

Swim: Lv 6

Scrimshaw: Lv 3

Mana Coalescence: Lv 1

Traits:

Determination

Through great exertion, you have raised the base value of Intelligence by one.

Chapter 10

I sighed in boredom as I stared down into the pond that I’d made into my home. Thaddius had been instructing me in mana manipulation, and this was my current assignment. He’d told me to sit down next to the pond and focus on disturbing the surface of the water using only my mana.

Evidently all the book had done yesterday was unlock my potential to use magic, not actually teach me how to use it. I’d thought that since he was a magical book, he could just download all the information into my brain, but of course it wasn’t that simple. When I mentioned that to him, he said something like ‘Magical books are no stand in for hard work, girl!’ before laughing and segueing directly into an endless dissertation on magical theory.

According to Thaddius, mana manipulation is a deeply personal experience and one person’s understanding of it may vary greatly from another’s. Since magical books are a method of directly transferring information from one person to another, only the most foundational understanding can be gifted and the rest must be learned.

To that effect, Thaddius spent the rest of the night endlessly lecturing me until I wanted to smack my head against a tree.

To be fair, I did spend the first few hours honestly trying to coalesce my mana and disturb the water, but after over four hours of nothing happening, I started feeling a bit disheartened. I glanced over at the three eggs in the mud a little ways off, looking for a distraction from my boredom.

To be honest, I still haven’t decided what to do with those eggs. Part of me says ‘Who cares about some stupid eggs? Just crack them and make an omelette. Don’t think about it so much.’ Of course, I know I would never do that. The thought of hurting these eggs makes me sick to my stomach.

Another option might be to take the eggs and bury them somewhere else, far away from my home. That way they would have a fair chance at life and I wouldn’t need to feel guilty. I have no obligation to take care of these eggs. I didn’t choose to lay them. That’s what my own parent must have done, after all. The one that laid my egg just left me to fend for myself against a massive egg-eating serpent.

I frowned at the thought of that serpent hunched over my own eggs with its jaw unhinged, drool sliding down their porcelain white shells, abandoned by their mother. I know that I could never do that to them. I could never permit something to hurt my children.

Girl, I see you fidgeting over there. Are you thinking about something useless? Thaddius reprimanded me gruffly.

“Sorry.” I quickly apologized, glancing in Thaddius’ direction.

Coalescing mana is all about focus, girl. Having a strong focus and maintaining a mental representation of your mana is really the most important… Thaddius started off on another endless lecture and I turned my gaze back towards the pond.

Last night, Thaddius explained to me that he had been an instructor at a magic academy in the kingdom of Adria several hundred years ago, and that his true self had long since died of old age by now.

In his early 50’s, he had taken the position of headmaster of the magic academy and was given the rank of Archmage due to his passion for teaching. Shortly afterwards, he diligently crafted this magic book as a memoir to future generations so that his knowledge would never be lost to time.

Are you listening, girl? Thaddius interrupted my thoughts.

“Yes. Focus is the most important part of coalescing mana.”

Good. Now focus, and try again.

Feeling a bit bad for ignoring him, I turned my attention again to the pond. I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling for the pond with my mana sense. I tried to push and squeeze my mana into shape to get it to coalesce meaningfully. I grit my teeth, a deep frown creasing my face, while trying to force the mana into shape.

No, girl, not like that! You look like an old miser squatting over a chamber pot. I shot a glare over at Thaddius. Think of magic as a way of negotiating with the world to follow your will. Mana is a living thing. Speak with it gently and it will treat you well.

I sighed and refocused, considering his words as I closed my eyes. On some innate level, that explanation seemed to resonate with me. I’ve never been the sort of person to try to force others to my will. Hearing him refer to mana as a living thing is no surprise to me after learning to feel the world around me through the movement and interactions of ambient mana.

My range for mana sense is around 8 or 10 feet at the moment, and Thaddius assures me that it will grow as I strengthen my mana channels.

I relaxed and focused on my mental image of what I want my mana to do. All mages are capable of some amount of telekinesis, and it was always the first thing taught. I attempted to create a small telekinetic force moving in a small circle to create a disruption in the water’s surface. Rather than forcing the mana, I allowed it to collect naturally around my mental image. It worked.

I traced a path around the surface of the lake with my mental image, creating ripples wherever I moved it. I broke into a big smile at my success for only a second before I started losing control. The image wobbled in my mind and as I lost control, it became harder and harder to keep the mana in shape.

The pond exploded as though someone had thrown a huge rock into it, sending water up and around me. I shot a worried glance towards my eggs and, seeing that they were fine, let out a sigh of relief.

Thaddius was laughing loudly in my head before he spoke up. Good! You really are a promising student. I was certain we’d be sitting at this pond for a week before you could do that. Now tell me, what did you do wrong, girl?

“I lost focus.” I muttered, glancing away as I admitted my mistake.

Yes. Thaddius seemed pleased with my response and I could feel his approval in the tone he used. You did well today, girl. Go get some rest and wake me up in the morning. You still have much to learn.

“Thank you, Master Thaddius.” I nodded my head at the book, but I had already felt his presence fade from my mind. I wiped the water that had splashed against his cover and carefully tucked it away in the bag hanging from my shoulder.

Despite my state of mental exhaustion, I still had a bit of work to do. I finished the night with a net full of freshly caught fish, enough to last me a few days. Tomorrow I wanted to test something out, and I would need a lot of food.

Skill: Mana Coalescence has levelled up to level 2.

Skill: Swim has levelled up to level 6.

~~~

“Ueeeegghh. No. No, I can’t possibly eat any more.” I burped and rolled over onto my side, my pink belly distended from eating too much. I held my hands over my mouth as the fish I’d eaten threatened to come back up. Keep it down, keep it down!

Oh hey, this racial trait that converts extra food into experience sounds great! Let’s choose that race, it’ll be great Naomi! We’ll eat all the fish and become super strong! Great idea, Naomi!

I burped again and rolled onto my other side. I had just assumed that I would be able to vacuum up everything I saw and reap the rewards. Well, this is what I got for making assumptions. My stomach complained loudly at its mistreatment. I patted a soothing hand against my bulging belly. Why is it that just the other day I laid my eggs and it’s only now that I look like a pregnant mom ready to pop?

Still too lazy and nauseous to stand, I pushed my body across the soft mud by the pond using my tail. I stopped when I reached my eggs. I’d been thinking a lot about them the last few days. On Earth, I’d always assumed I’d have kids one day. It was something I had considered to be in the far future, when I had a steady job and could support myself. It was never an immediate concern. Not like right now. I stared into the white shells half buried in the mud.

A flicker of light across the shell of one of my eggs caught my attention. Surprise and concern brought me to look closer at the egg. Barely visible wavy blue lines travelled across its surface. I closed my eyes and looked at them with my mana sense and gasped. Mana was pooling and swirling around the eggs. Unexpectedly, an Examine prompt popped up.

Examine attempt successful.

Name: (None)

Race: Salamanderkin

Level: 1

Mana Conductivity: High

Active Effects:

Expedited Growth: This creature is benefitting from being in a location that is highly conducive to life. Plant growth and expansion is faster in the area. Pregnancy duration and egg incubation times are significantly reduced so long as they have contact with mana-suffused waters.

Estimated Incubation Time: 2 Weeks, 3 Days, 7 Hours, 55 Minutes…

Description: A Salamanderkin egg. This individual is the immediate progeny of a Royal Salamanderkin and will inherit a higher Base Mana Conductivity than is average for its race.

The Mana Anomaly Enzirus. When I had first learned about this place, the prompt had said that additional effects had yet to be discovered. If that was the case, was this an effect that hadn’t been discovered yet? It explains why there's so much life in the area. When I swim through the lake, I’m constantly amazed by the huge amount of fish swimming by. All of the vines, the grass and the weird white and pink trees growing on the floating islands, all of the rich life that covered this Mana Anomaly, was all of that because of this effect?

My notification indicator began blinking and I checked it immediately. My wisdom had gone up to 7. I take it this is the system’s way of agreeing with me, then?

I sighed and stared down at the three mud-speckled eggs before me. I was going to need to deal with this problem a lot sooner than I had realized. I slapped my hands onto my cheeks and smacked my tail into the ground repeatedly. “I’m not ready to be a single mom!!”

Chapter 11

Good! Good, girl! Thaddius praised me as I traced shapes across the water’s surface.

I’d spent the last week practicing day in and day out with Thaddius. I had even stopped my scouting expeditions into the forest as I felt that this was more important. I could always continue my exploration once I’d gotten better with magic. I listened to Thaddius’ lectures diligently even when my head throbbed from mental exhaustion.

My daily intensive study of magic had brought my Mana Coalescence skill up to level 4. I had a great deal more control over my mana now as I could easily trace shapes through the water’s surface with telekinesis and I almost never made the water explode anymore.

You’re a natural at mana coalescence, girl. I think you might be ready for the next step.

“Next step?” I turned to him, clearing my mental image and releasing my mana harmlessly.

Yes. Mana coalescence is taught in three steps. The first, Telekinesis. The second, the basic elements - Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. And the third, Mana Focus.

“Mana Focus?” I perked up, recalling how when I chose my new race, the description stated that I would have unique Mana Focuses available. I had no idea what they were and I was dying of curiosity.

Yes. We aren’t ready to talk about Mana Focuses yet, however. That is a discussion for when you have a stronger understanding of your Mana.

I frowned and crossed my arms.

Be patient, girl. Most mages take months to do what you have done in only one week. The time will come when we talk about Mana Focuses, but for now we will learn the basic elements. Now tell me, when you sense Mana, what do you most easily see?

I closed my eyes and cocked my head to the side, focusing on my mana sense. I felt the water in the pond as it slowly fed into the stream leading off the island. I felt the life around me, the trees and the grass.

“Water… and life.” I hesitantly answered.

Girl, do me a favor and raise your hand up.

Looking back at Thaddius in surprise, I did as he instructed, raising my right hand.

Good. Now smack yourself on the head. I’d do it myself, but I don’t have hands. What is life full of?

I smacked myself on the top of my head. “Water.” I sheepishly answered. Thaddius had a way of making fun of me whenever I said something stupid and, well, I have a way of sticking my foot in my mouth sometimes.

Water is your primary element. In time you will be able to use the other basic elements to a degree, but you will only ever excel in water. Thaddius, perhaps noticing the dissatisfied frown crawling across my face, spoke up in a louder tone of voice. Perhaps you have the misconception that water is weak? Tell me, girl, what is life full of?

“Water.” My eyes went wide in surprise at the idea that I might be able to manipulate the water inside of a person’s body.

Yes. Those whose primary element is water are highly valued for their ability to heal wounds and even, over time, regrow lost body parts. Combat applications of water are myriad. While not as destructive as fire, not as swift as wind, and not as resolute as earth, water is versatile.

My mouth dropped open and I turned to look down at my glowing pond with a new respect. Mana Anomaly Enzirus was capable of healing my wounds, but that was only when I had access to its regenerative waters. When I fought the Shadowlurkers, I would have surely died of blood loss if I hadn’t managed to level up from the fight and restore my body.

It was a constant risk going too deep into the forest. Were I attacked too far from Enzirus, I could die well before I was able to return to the water to heal myself. If I could heal my injuries with my mana, I could explore further into the forest. I looked back at the magic book with newfound ambition.

“How do we start?”

Skill: Mana Coalescence has levelled up to level 5.

My studies were coming along well. Thaddius had made me begin by drawing water out from the pond and attempting to hold it in a globe suspended in the air. After countless failures, I finally managed to collect the water and hold it mid-air.

Maintaining the mental images necessary brought on a sort of serene meditative state as I slowly shaped the water with my mind, gently guiding it with my mana.

After a particularly productive day, I informed Thaddius that I wanted to take the rest of the day to work on another project. I’d been dying to try out my Scrimshaw skill but hadn’t had the time.

At first, I had put off practicing with the skill simply from the fact that I didn’t have any items that I could use it on. After some consideration, however, I came to the realization that it doesn’t need to be something complicated like a metal sword or a piece of armor. Infact, the Scrimshaw skill seemed to prefer natural materials crafted by hand over forged ones.

I went from floating island to floating island looking for it. It had to be the perfect shape, the perfect size for what I had planned. I wouldn’t accept a branch from any tree other than those that grew from Enzirus. Before long, I had found it. The perfect branch as though it were grown for exactly this purpose, growing from a tree whose roots flowed between streams of glowing cerulean water. I reverently carried it back to my home island and sat down by the pond next to my eggs.

I closed my eyes and felt the mana swirling around my progeny, still growing within the confines of their white shells. I’d been at a loss for how the actual carving and inscription was supposed to work. What shapes were best? Was there a specific pattern I had to follow? I hadn’t been paying attention to what Scrimshaw was telling me.

I traced my mental image along the length of the branch, mirroring the flow and patterns of mana swirling around the growing life. I began my inscription, delicately carving the wood with my claws. It didn’t need to be precise. It didn’t need to be exact. That isn’t how nature works. Life is a celebration of mistakes.

Hours passed as I carefully carved flowing patterns into the wood. Not once did I open my eyes as I guided my movements entirely by the flow of mana and the mental image I maintained for hours on end as though in some meditative trance.

It had been nearly a month since I crawled from my own egg into the mud beneath. This world was as beautiful as it was surreal and dangerous. I’d needed to adapt to survive. I had finally found a place where I could live in relative safety, a place where I could carve out a home for myself. I had been lonely, though.

I’d enjoyed speaking with Thaddius, but he was only capable of talking about Mana Condensation. I still wasn’t sure how magic books worked, but it seemed they had some restrictions.

In only a few days time, I would have a family. I smiled at the thought that I wouldn't need to be lonely anymore.

The last shavings of wood fell to the ground as I finished the carving. I’d been watching the mana almost lovingly condense around my mental image and I already knew the final step to complete my new staff.

I waded into the endless water source that was my pond and slowly submerged it in the glowing water. Light and mana gathered in the spaces where I’d carved away the wood. This would have been impossible before I had learned to control mana.

When I pulled the staff from the water, green leaves and blue flowers sprouted from the wood in a testament to Enzirus’ love for life.

Critical Crafting Success.

Item Name: Lifebloom Staff

Item Type: Staff

Item Classification: Rare

Durability: 70 / 70

Average Attack Damage: .8

Effects:

Regenerative: This item slowly regenerates Durability points over time. Should its Durability reach 0, the item will be destroyed and it will not be able to regenerate itself.

Infinite Water Source: When supplied with mana, this staff will produce infinite mana-suffused water. Produced water will remain suspended in the air around the top of the staff so long as there is mana available to maintain the effect.

Description: A mana-suffused staff delicately crafted by a fledgeling mage out of love and respect for the natural order.

Skill: Mana Coalescence has levelled up to level 6.

Skill: Scrimshaw has levelled up to level 8.

Days had passed since I finished my staff. I stood over my eggs with the end of my staff planted in the mud.

It would be any moment now. Any moment now, and they would fight to break free from their own dark prisons. I smiled as I watched the gently shaking eggs. I was excited to meet them. One of them shook harder against their confinement.

Barely audible over the gently flowing water, a crack appeared across a porcelain white shell.

Chapter 12

The white shell cracked apart as a small silver head popped out. Immediately, my notification indicator began blinking a dull red, but I ignored it.

The little creature pulled the rest of the way out of its egg and plopped into the mud, breathing heavily from the exertion as the rest of its long tail slid out from the opening. The other eggs were beginning to crack and shake as their inhabitants fought to escape them.

The little creature in front of me had a primarily silver-colored skin tone with thick lines of glimmering gold running down her body. That shimmering silver and gold coloration gave this child a sort of regal appearance. The little one struggled to stand on her back legs, blinking several times before looking up and meeting my gaze. I idly wondered how she was able to fit in that egg when she already very nearly came up to my belly in height.

“Queen?” She stared at me with admiration in her black and gold eyes. Astonished that she had only just hatched and already was able to speak, I opened my mouth to respond when another head popped out of its egg, wiggling to escape its confines.

“Sisters?” The silver child had turned to watch as her other two siblings were born. She’s a smart little thing. Before long, two other children laid in the mud, their exhaustion evident from the way their small chests heaved up and down. The first of the two to stand up had a mud brown skin color with tan flecks as though someone had flicked tan paint on her body.

When she caught sight of me, she immediately charged through the mud.

“Queen!” My staff fell and slapped into the mud beside me as I fell to my knees and caught her in my arms in a hug. The silver girl gasped and rushed over to join in. The third child, looking a bit embarrassed, shuffled through the mud towards us and hugged my arm. She had pure midnight black skin with wavy silver lines like my own.

After washing them off in the pond, I sat them down on dry land with a couple fish. I had been a bit concerned for their health due to their slim and skinny bodies, perhaps making up for their height. They eagerly tore through the fish I supplied. Particularly the brown one. The most reserved out of all three of them was the black skinned one, and the silver girl had a refined way of eating her meal while examining the world around her.

Well, for starters, I couldn’t exactly keep referring to them by the color of their skin.

“I’m going to give each of you names.” I stated, looking down at the children as they ate.

They each glanced up at me as I declared my intention. The silver girl nodded enthusiastically.

It really was incredible how they had only just been born and already understood me. I briefly considered how a species could have an inborn ability to comprehend and speak their mother’s language before shaking my head and returning my focus to the task at hand.

The silver girl stared up at me as though hanging on my every word, still nibbling on a fish clutched between her clawed fingers. We’ll start with her, I decided. She had this kind of regal air to her and her silver and gold colors made me think of a royal princess. A princess in the mud? I smiled down at her, considering different names that might suit her.

“Gwendolyn.” I declared. “Gwen for short.”

“Thank you, Queen!” She closed her eyes and bowed her head, a big smile filling her face. She whispered the name a few times to herself as though she was tasting it.

I nodded, happy that she seemed pleased by my choice.

I shifted my gaze to the black and silver child who had been slowly eating her meal while staring down into the ground. She gave a surprised jump when she noticed that my attention had fallen on her. Her midnight black skin and silver lines reminded me of a cloudless night with a gray moon hanging in the sky.

“Luna. Your name is Luna. It means the moon.” She looked up at me and quietly asked what a moon was. I laughed and told her I would point it out when night fell.

That just left the brown girl. Her colorations made me think of a type of American midwest salamander called a mudpuppy with her deep mud brown with tan flecks across her skin. I pinched my mouth into a frown as I couldn’t think of anything other than the word mudpuppy.

I mean, she belongs to a species of sapient salamanders so there’s really no rule that I need to follow human naming conventions. And on top of that, it really did seem to capture her personality. She tore into her fish, not noticing as I stared at her.

Gwen glanced between her and myself before lifting her tail and poking her in the head with it. “Queen is looking at you!”

The brown skinned girl looked up with a confused “Hah?” before turning to me.

“Your name is Mudpuppy. That’s your name. Mudpuppy.”

“Oh. ‘kay.” She said flatly before returning to digging into the fish. Gwen glared at Mudpuppy and softly smacked her tail into the ground a couple times in irritation. Luna demurely watched them as she nibbled at her meal.

I smiled at them and turned my attention to the flashing red notification in my periphery. I’d never seen a red notification before and briefly felt concerned that something bad might happen.

You have acquired a new title:

Queen

Description: You are the rightful Queen of a nation. Long may you reign. Title inheritence defaults to Primogeniture and additional inheritence laws may be acquired through research.

Effect:

Unlocks the settlement interface and allows you to claim a location for your capital city. Alternatively, a city under your control may be selected as your capital city. If this Title has been upgraded from the Duke or Duchess title, your previously set capital city will be maintained.

Primogeniture: This title will be inherited by your firstborn child. Current Heir: Gwendolyn

Your Heir, so long as they are a Salamanderkin, will immediately evolve into a Royal Salamanderkin upon inheritance.

Would you like to claim Mana Anomaly Enzirus as the location for your Capital City?

Yes

No

My mouth gaped open and I, myself, began softly thumping my tail against the ground. I was too lost in thought to hear Gwen asking me what was wrong with concern on her face.

Was this because of my Royal Salamanderkin race? Wait, didn’t it say that I would get a Title when certain conditions were met? I vaguely remember it saying something like that. It meant title as in, like a rulership title? There’s no way I could be a Queen. No way.

I gulped and tried to calm down. At least it doesn’t seem dangerous. For whatever reason, I couldn’t dismiss the question without selecting yes or no.

I doubt that anyone would care if I claimed this place on account of never once having seen a human or even someone human-like in the entire month I’d been here. Well, if I’m going to claim anything as my plot of land, it’ll be Enzirus. I selected yes.

The notification blinked out of my sight and I was immediately aware of Gwen standing in front of me with an expectant, concerned look on her face. Mudpuppy stared blankly at me with Luna behind her, both her hands clasped together as she nervously swished her tail in the grass.

I looked down at Gwen and sighed. I gave her an apologetic smile, leaning over and placing a hand on her head.

“Everything’s fine. I’m sorry for worrying you.” At this, Gwen nodded and calmed. Mudpuppy had already wandered off and plopped into the mud by the pond. Luna watched her quietly while seated on the grass as Mudpuppy rolled around, laughing. They were still children, after all.

“Do you want to go play?” I asked Gwen, giving her an encouraging smile. She returned a big grin across her face and nodded. “Make sure they don’t wander away, okay? Stay by the pond.”

“Yes, Queen.” Gwen straightened up at this, as if I had just given her marching orders, before turning and diving into the mud next to Mudpuppy.

All of this time I’d been struggling to get stronger just for my own benefit. For my own survival. Things were different now. My hands tightened around the wood of my staff. I gently traced my claws along the carvings I’d made from watching their mana as they grew.

I knew it from the second I saw them. My strength wasn’t for myself anymore. It was for them.

Mudpuppy dove into the water and thrashed around a bit. As she was capable of breathing underwater, I wasn’t terribly concerned. Gwen picked up a mud ball with her tail and threw it at Mudpuppy while laughing. Mudpuppy, seeming to have figured out the trick to swimming, dove underwater and surfaced, returning fire with a mud ball of her own. It missed and slapped into Luna’s chest, eliciting a surprised yelp.

Where does this Queen title enter into the mix? I’m not certain about ruling a country, but… Well, I don’t exactly have a country to rule, anyway. It’s just myself and three children. Four people is hardly a city.

I pulled up the new Settlement UI. Population, production, infrastructure, defense, sanitation, aesthetics… There was a great deal of information, statistics and graphs here that would no doubt be useful for the ruler of a thriving city. Nearly all of it was empty, of course. There was only one working adult and three children with no buildings to speak of, so that was to be expected. A section labelled Perks caught my eye and I pulled it up.

Settlement perk points are awarded at these population thresholds: 0; 50; 500; 5,000; 50,000

All default Focus-type perks will be available. New perks may become available through research and analysis.

You may reassign one perk point once a year.

You have one perk point available.

Available Perks

Production Focus: +10% speed on all work performed in the settlement.

Agriculture Focus: +10% to both growth speed and yield of crops. All crops harvested in the settlement will grant higher morale bonuses when consumed.

Construction Focus: +20% construction speed of buildings built in the settlement. 10% chance that constructed buildings will be upgraded to a higher quality level.

Mining Focus: +20% speed when mining for resources in or in the surrounding area of the settlement. +5% chance to find rare materials when mining.

Crafting Focus: +10% speed when crafting with any crafting profession. 25% chance that crafted goods will be upgraded to a higher quality level.

Martial Focus: +15% modifier when increasing your Army or Militia’s Discipline. +10% morale bonus for all citizens.

Research Focus: +15% speed for research performed in the settlement.

Hunger Reduction: (This perk is always available.) All citizens in this settlement require 50% less food in order to meet their nutritional needs.

I folded my arms and considered the different perks available. Even when I’m the only one benefitting from these, they’re actually still very useful. I certainly wouldn’t mind having a faster crafting speed considering how long it took to build that net.

On the other hand, this Hunger Reduction is very interesting. It seems like it’s the kind of perk that’s around for when a city falls on hard times and is struggling to feed its people, but it actually synergizes really well with one of the traits of my race. Since Salamanderkin convert extra food they eat into experience, this perk might allow us to gain more passive experience just from overeating.

I’d been testing out the overeating trait recently, and found that there was still a maximum amount of food I could eat before feeling sick. The experience gained from overeating was very small, around 1-2 experience a day if I don’t eat until I want to puke, or around 3 if I do.

Also worth mentioning is that I stopped getting experience points from killing fish at level 5. As a result, my current experience growth has slowed considerably. I’m only around half way to level 6 even after two weeks of stuffing my face. I’m very interested in how much this perk might bump up my passive experience gain. The little ones could benefit from this perk too since they had the overeating racial trait as well.

I nodded to myself and selected the Hunger Reduction perk. Now that I thought about it, we had plenty of fish stored away. An evil smile spread across my face as I called over the mud-covered children.

“It’s time to do some power levelling.”

Name: Naomi

Race: Royal Salamanderkin

Level: 5 (39 / 75)

HP: 12 / 12

SP: 12 / 12

MP: 35 / 35

Strength: 3

Agility: 5

Constitution: 4

Endurance: 4

Intelligence: 7

Wisdom: 7

Skills:

Examine: Lv 10

Scout: Lv 8

Jump: Lv 5

Sprint: Lv 10

Tail Manipulation: Lv 10

Tail Vault: Lv 5

Tail Attack: Lv 7

Death Resistance: Lv 3

Swim: Lv 6

Scrimshaw: Lv 8

Mana Coalescence: Lv 6

Traits:

Determination

Titles:

Queen

Chapter 13

“Mudpuppy, what’s that in your mouth?”

“Hah?” She chewed on the squishy brown blob she had clutched between her hands while returning a blank stare at me. “Fith.” She flatly stated without bothering to take the blob out of her mouth as she spoke.

I frowned and reached over, grabbing the blob and wrestling it out from her mouth like you might with a dog and its chew toy. I held a chewed-on, drool covered Scumsucker as Mudpuppy stared after it with her mouth agape and tail wagging.

“You’re really living up to your name, you know. You actually like these?”

She nodded, reaching up for her prize treat that I held over her head. “Chewy.”

I sighed, giving in and handing the brown gelatinous blob back to her. I turned to go check on the other two. Gwen had been practicing her Tail Vaults and Sprinting so that she could get up to our home island unassisted. Her skills were progressing nicely. Luna watched her quietly from a spot on the grass.

It’d been a couple days now since they were born. Things were certainly lively around here and my serene days of silently practicing mana coalescence had all but vanished into thin air.

Incidentally, when I first practiced mana manipulation and water magic in front of them, all three of them stood around me with stars in their eyes. Particularly Luna, who sat next to me and quietly asked me questions about magic that I did my best to answer. On occasion I’d need to ask Thaddius for clarification. Luna was quite taken with Thaddius, and held the book in her arms as she watched me practice.

Mudpuppy was the first to lose interest and when she wandered off, Gwen followed after her in order to keep her from getting in trouble. There was definitely a bit of sibling rivalry developing there, but despite Mudpuppy’s rowdy personality, Gwen was always faster and stronger. It was no accident that Gwen was the first to hatch from her egg.

I had asked her to try and keep Mudpuppy from getting into trouble or hurting herself and she eagerly accepted the task. Gwen had this unwavering loyalty to her that made me trust that she would do her best.

I’d been trying to get them to eat as many fish as possible to get them to level up quickly with the overeating trait. When I explained my intentions, both Mudpuppy and Gwen readily stuffed themselves with fish until they couldn’t do anything but lay on the floor and groan. I knew the feeling.

Luna was much more resistant after her first attempt at overeating, and refused food shortly after she hit her limit. I didn’t want to force her, since I knew how uncomfortable it was, so I let her off the hook after telling her to just do her best. I couldn’t help but give in when she gave me such an apologetic look.

My mana coalescence studies had slowed down recently. I had only just managed to reach level 7 Mana Coalescence last night and had learned a couple more applications of water magic. I was now able to mend small cuts and wounds using water magic thanks to Thaddius’ careful instruction. It wasn’t much, but it would do well enough to slow or stop the bleeding until I would be able to get back to Enzirus.

One of the most basic water-based attacks is to sling a thin line of water quickly through the air and score cuts against an enemy. “Water Blade” as Thaddius called it. Evidently, highly skilled water mages could manage several water blades at a time and even pair it with defensive water-based spells.

I wasn’t quite at that point, but even with just my single water blade, it was potent enough to cut a sapling in half. The only real issue was mana cost, as I could only cast Water Blade around 5 or 6 times before I depleted my mana.

Level 7 Mana Coalescence was a kind of breaking point, evidently. Thaddius informed me that from here on, practicing in a safe place such as the pond would yield much less proficiency with the skill. There was a certain kind of battle-forged focus that all mages needed to learn on their own through direct combat. While I could still level the skill through diligent daily practice, it would be many times faster to just use my magic in battle.

Much to my discontent, Thaddius declared that we were at the end of what he could formally teach me, and all he could do from here on was offer guidance and encouragement. He asked me to come speak with him when I reached level 10 in Mana Coalescence and was ready to select my Mana Focus. Thaddius had been my greatest ally since coming here and I owed him a lot. I readily agreed to his request.

Of course, he said all of this in a much more long-winded droning lecture, but those were the main points.

“Gwen. You’re in charge until I come back. Stay by the pond. I should be back in the evening. If you run out of food, you remember how to use the net, right?”

The three of them nodded. Even Mudpuppy had a serious look on her face. I’d tethered a couple low-flying boulders in vines and made a pathway down to the water’s surface so that they could climb back up to the home island if needed. On the lowest hanging rock I made a basic ladder with loops tied into it so they could climb up to the pathway. All they would need to do is reel in the ladder when they were done and nothing would be able to follow them up.

“What do you do if a monster shows up?”

“We hide in the mud until it’s safe.” The three replied in unison.

In the month that I’d lived here in Enzirus I hadn’t been attacked once on the lake, but the occasional aggressive-looking monster had found its way to the water’s edge. Even that wasn’t much of a risk because of our floating home. Mostly the monsters would either use the lake as a watering hole or hunt for fish before going about their business.

Luna was staring at the ground and swishing her tail nervously in the grass. I pulled Thaddius out from my messenger bag and held the book out to her.

Mana Coalescence could be dangerous. Particularly for those who couldn’t focus and hold the necessary mental images, but Thaddius assured me that it wasn’t uncommon for children to learn the skill. I’d resisted his assurances that it would be fine, but after taking some time to consider, it was clear that these children would need to learn to protect themselves eventually. That was simply the nature of the world they lived in. I wasn't arrogant enough to think I could keep them safe forever. Luna was the most calm and level headed out of all of them, and I decided to trust her with learning magic, for now.

“Thaddius, if she gets hurt, I’m ripping your pages out and throwing them in the lake.” I declared, staring daggers at the leather-bound book.

D-don’t worry, girl, the little one will be in my care. Yes, I will shape this young pupil into the perfect image of a…

I grinned at the three triplets as I turned and headed for the edge of our floating home. Once Thaddius started up, he was going to be talking for a while. Luna had an uncharacteristic smile spread across her face as she hugged the book to her chest. They watched from atop the floating island and waved down at me as I passed through the treeline.

The forest was the same as always. Birds and bugs went about their business as I trudged through the grass and loose leaves making up the forest floor.

Back on Earth, I hadn’t properly respected the luxuries that I’d had available to me, such as having a soft bed to sleep on at night. Speaking frankly, I was tired of shivering on the cold ground every night when I went to sleep. Since building a bed was out of the question, I thought I’d settle for the next best thing - a pile of furs that I can sleep on. They would even help keep me and the little ones warm at night. This was my first objective for the current excursion into the forest.

The other reason I had chosen to set out on this expedition was that I needed to improve my Mana Coalescence skill. That would mean fighting monsters with either telekinesis or water magic, and between the two I was much better with water magic.

I was still in my egg only a little over a month ago even if it feels like it’s been years. When I first saw that status screen in my egg, I had the nerve to think that I was going to find myself in a fantasy world and delve into ancient ruins and dungeons, slaying monsters… Well, it turns out that getting hurt actually hurts, and monsters are actually terrifying. Those were lessons that I’d learned immediately after leaving my egg and I wasn’t about to forget them.

Before all of this, I was just a normal kid. I’d never really gotten badly hurt before, I’d never been in any fights, and I certainly hadn’t been in any life or death situations. I wouldn't exactly call my current self battle hardened, but I'm not nearly as naive as I used to be.

I walked past a Moosephant that turned and snorted at me before going back about its business. I’d missed walking through the forest like this. I hadn’t had time to go scouting ever since I started Mana Coalescence training, and that was several weeks ago. I crunched softly through fallen leaves and underbrush heading due west among the soothing forest scenery.

I’d decided to head west from Enzirus until I reached the Golden Grassland. The Choko-chokos there were some of the lowest level monsters that I’d found and would make excellent practice for levelling up my Mana Coalescence. On top of that, they had thick orange furs that would be perfect for bedding.

The plan was to make my way there, gather some furs and then return to Enzirus before it got dark. That would mean a lot of walking, though, as the Golden Grassland was several miles away through rough terrain. To save time, I might be able to just stuff the bodies in my bag and skin them when I got back to Enzirus.

I’d been disappointed when I found out I couldn’t train my Mana Coalescence as well as I had been out of combat any more. Combat is dangerous, after all, and it’s not just my survival hanging in the balance anymore.

From the moment they were born, those children have more or less been able to fend for themselves. If they had to, Gwen and Mudpuppy could easily supply enough Scumsuckers to live on, and Luna evens out the team with her intelligence and level headedness. It’s a far cry from human children where we’re pretty much useless for a couple years.

However, it’s not lost on me that if we were attacked at our home, I would be the only thing standing between our assailant and those girls. It's imperative that I become strong enough to protect them.

I heard the tinkling of wind chimes tapping together and redoubled my efforts, turning toward the sound. Before long, I found myself looking out at a sea of yellow grass. I’d been too terrified to make the connection the last time I was here, but this place really reminded me of home. I lived in a small town in California where golden grass grew rampant among the rolling hills. The yellow grass grew right up to my porch and my father would always complain about going out and cutting it back.

Fortunately I’d made good time, and I had the better part of the day to do my hunting. I walked up to the edge of the yellow grassland and shifted my attention to my mana sense.

Detecting living things was surprisingly difficult since their internal mana isn’t any different from the mana in the grass or foliage around them. It was mostly a difference in density of mana, and even that can be pretty hard to sense with my modest skills. I spotted a Choko-choko hiding in the grass and fed some mana into my staff to produce a bit of water. The water levitated around the head of my staff in droplets suspended in the air.

I walked through the grass, my preparations complete. Before the Choko-choko could turn to attack, I slung a Water Blade at it horizontally through the air. The golden grass sheaved apart as the water connected, the orange furball falling to the ground in two halves with a wet, bloody plop. Its little bird legs twitched for a few moments after its death.

I was in a moment of self-congratulation at how I had killed a monster without getting hurt when a Choko-choko jumped at me.

I hastily attempted another water blade but fizzled the spell in my haste. Somehow I managed to swing my tail to intercept the Choko-choko mid air and volley it back into the yellow grassland, pro volleyball player style.

That had been the plan, but instead the furball chomped onto my tail and hung on. I yelped and smashed my tail into the ground, eliciting a surprised “Gurk!” from the Choko-choko. I glanced back at the treeline before shaking my head and giving a much harder smack into the ground with my tail. The monster went limp and I gingerly pulled my bloody tail free from its jaws. I shoved the two bloody corpses into my messenger bag.

I moved my tail in front of me and looked the damage over while preparing my healing magic. It throbbed in pain and red blood dripped down to the ground.

Gritting my teeth, I focused water magic over the site to stitch together my wounds. I hadn’t actually needed to do this before since Enzirus' healing waters always tended any minor scratches or cuts that I acquired from my daily chores. If I messed up my visualization of the mana flow, it would cause a burning pain across the wound and slow my recovery. Even small wounds took a considerable time and mana investment to heal.

I caught another Choko-choko trying to sneak up on me through the grass and immediately slashed it in half with a Water Blade. I gathered the body and returned back to the trees, my mana already nearly depleted from the Water Blades and the healing magic.I frowned down at my tail and fed healing magic into it as I bore the stinging pain.

These were weak monsters and I’d already let them injure me. How can I protect anything if I can't even kill some weak furballs? I slapped my cheeks, trying to snap myself out of that useless mindset.

I was here to train, and I would tear through as many Choko-chokos as I could in one day! I am Naomi, the nightmare that keeps Choko-chokos awake at night!

I continued through the grass, slashing most of the little orange monsters apart before they could retaliate, but on occasion I’d have one clamp down on me and I’d need to slow down to heal myself after killing it. The more of the orange furballs I encountered, the easier it became to see them with mana sense.

It finally came, the notification that I’d been looking for, and my Mana Coalescence rose to level 8. Even if I hadn’t gained a respectable pile of Choko-chokos to skin, that alone would have made this trip worthwhile. My bag was getting pretty heavy even with the 50% weight reduction so I decided it might be best to turn and head back home. I didn’t want to be caught out in the forest at night. Not when there were Shadowlurkers around.

I'd turned back towards Enzirus in the east when the soft, nostalgic sound of wind chimes reached me. I paused in the yellow grass where I stood. The tinkling chimes sounded again, just barely audible among the sound of wind sweeping through the golden foliage. I turned in the direction of the chimes, making my way through the grass as I climbed over a gently sloping hill. My curiosity was boiling over and I could afford one last detour before heading home.

Something that Death Resistance once said when I found Enzirus crossed my mind. ‘An anomaly attracted to an anomaly.’

I had heard the chimes at Enzirus when I first found it, and the only reason I had found my bag in that cave was because of the soothing sound of those chimes encouraging me to explore it. Could it be that the chimes represent some kind of innate ability to locate anomalies?

Anomalies, from what I understand, are extremely rare and come in different types. I’ve already encountered two of them, though. One of them happened to be my messenger bag from Earth.

I crested the golden hill and peered down into the golden valley below. I hadn’t known what I was looking for until I saw it. My skin crawled, but the familiar frost wasn’t here. I cautiously approached an old ruin set among golden California grass.

Enemies Defeated:

3x Level 2 Choko-choko(Adolescent)

8x Level 3 Choko-choko

5x Level 4 Choko-choko

Experience Gained: 16

Experience to next level: 12

Skill: Tail Attack has levelled up to level 8.

Chapter 14

Each shuddering footfall brought me closer to the house I grew up in. My stomach felt like it had gone upside down and stars danced in my eyes.

I tried, desperately, to pull myself away, to keep from approaching, but my body refused to listen and carried me closer and closer. Whatever this thing is had pulled me into its snare and wasn’t letting go. The world spun around me and yet I kept walking. I was briefly aware of throwing up on myself before, senses overwhelmed by the phenomenon, I collapsed and drifted away into unconsciousness.

I dreamed.

I had a dream that I’d been sent to another world. A world that shouldn't exist, that couldn't possibly exist.

My body moved without my direction as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and glanced over at my alarm clock.

“Ah! My alarm didn’t go off!”

My skin crawled as fleeting, impossibly old memories clawed their way back into my conscious mind.

I was helpless to respond to my growing apprehension as my body moved on its own accord.

I rushed to get dressed, throwing on whatever band shirt and shorts I had lying around. “Oh, Naomi, this is what happens when you spend all night playing games…” My voice rose up in self-recrimination.

I shouldn’t be here. This isn’t my reality anymore.

I yanked my shoes on and rushed to close the window, briefly glancing out at my yard below as I pulled the window shut. Yellow California grass spread out across the front yard up to the street before the ground broke off and floated into the sky.

All rightness and sanity ended at that skyline. Chunks of earth floated away among debris and telephone poles. Lightning peeled across my dreamscape. Endless waves of creation and destruction boiled over in the malignant sea of chaos before me.

I latched the window shut and rushed towards my bedroom door. “I’m going to be late for school!” I would have stopped if I could, but my body was beyond my control.

Something about this day, about this one moment in my past life set my teeth on edge. Some deep, repressed section of my subconscious screamed warning bells in my head.

“Naomi, slow!” My little sister frowned at me with her arms folded. She was 9 years old. She held her favorite stuffed animal in her arms - an orange furred egg with little bird legs sticking out of it. “I’m gonna be late because you can’t wake up!”

Upon seeing my sister, some half-conscious, foreign thought floated through my mind: This shouldn’t be possible. They took this memory because I couldn’t bear it.

“I’m sorry! Are you ready to go?” I watched as she pulled her backpack on and ran out the front door. She stopped and turned on the porch to look back at me, silhouetted by yellow grass and the churning miasma of interdimensional chaos roiling behind her.

I couldn’t turn back. I would have screamed and begged for us to not go if I could have. I was forced to watch as a helpless passenger as I lightly trotted up to my little sister who gave me an innocent smile. I’m so sorry.

“It’s time to go, Naomi!” Right as she spoke, the timeworn memory dissolved into a chaotic series of sounds and imagery that tore through me like a hail of bullets.

Asphalt, twisted metal and broken glass.

Finding my little sister.

Blinking emergency lights and the mournful wail of a siren.

My breath fogging the respirator and white hospital lights.

Whirring machines, tubes and cables fought to keep me alive as two men spoke in hushed tones.

”...and she is an organ donor.” The doctor stated.

A man in a black suit and tie leaned over me, doubtful. ”Is she still alive?”

”Yes, and she’s a match. The other five have already been selected - we won’t find another more suitable than her.”

”...Do it.”

There was a sharp blast of pain and then nothingness. Those were my last memories before I died.

Wisdom Check Failed.

Entity q6rxm%7 override accepted.

Current Location: (Unknown) Temporal Anomaly

Description: A highly unstable Temporal-Type Anomaly present in the Golden Grasslands. Due to its exceptionally dangerous nature, all research attempts have ended in failure. Extreme caution is advised when approaching this Anomaly.

I was aware of being dragged through the dirt by my tail. Slowly, I felt the effects of the Anomaly lessen on my body. An intense migraine left me bleary-eyed and waves of pain shivered across my body. Whatever had been dragging me across the ground sat me up against something and a swift slap across the face brought me back to reality.

I looked through foggy eyes at a man with long blonde hair with a big smile stretched across his face. He was a huge man with the thick-muscled physique of a professional bodybuilder, clearly visible from his lack of a shirt. He wore a simple brown robe tied around his midsection with the top half hanging down around his waist. He gave me a glittering smile as he stared down at me.

“Al viaaru mor’pienu val shieli?” He cocked his head and jabbed a thumb back at the Anomaly, the ruin of my house some distance away.

“W-what?” I blinked at him and frowned as I raised my hands up to my throbbing head.

I looked up at the strange muscular man. His eyes had a shifting blue color, occasionally turning to white before returning to a bright sky blue, like a cloudy sky.

“English. How nostalgic!” He let out a rumbling baritone of a laugh that he abruptly ceased after a moment. I hadn’t thought it possible, but his smile stretched out further across his face. “When is this? Ah, don’t answer. That’s a very complicated answer and I don’t trust you to get it right. Monster, I asked you what you were doing in that Anomaly?”

“Anomaly..?” I grimaced as painful memories wracked my brain. I’d been so terrified in that dream. It hurt so much. I felt like I was remembering something that I had forgotten long ago. The memory of my own death. How could someone forget something like that? “I… felt drawn to it. When I saw it, I had to walk to it. Who are you?”

“Ah! How rude of me. My name is q3rxm%7, the Pillar of Time. You, however, may call me q3.” He gave me a stiff bow before rising back up and staring down at me with his broad smile.

I could tell he was trying to make himself presentable, but something about him set my teeth on edge. There was something decidedly inhuman about his mannerisms. I could tell that I shouldn’t mince words with this person. His genial demeanor couldn't be trusted.

“Now, that right there?” Q3 jabbed his thumb towards the building. “That’s a Temporal Anomaly. Temporal is a pretty big word, do you know what it means, monster?”

“T-time. Having to do with time.” I cautiously answered him.

“Good! Good job! You get a gold star. I’d give it to you, but I’m fresh out of stickers. I’ve found that mortals like stickers, it lets them know when they’ve done a good job.”

I stared incredulously at the strange man while my migraine throbbed in my temples.

He beamed down at me with shining white teeth. “Now, this is a Temporal Anomaly and I’m the Pillar of Time. That makes this Anomaly my business. Now why, exactly, is a little monster like yourself wandering into my business?”

“I- I told you. When I saw it, I couldn’t help but walk to it, like I was being pulled in.”

A scowl crossed his face for a moment before returning to his bright smile, as though he were shifting immediately between two extremes in emotion. This q3 really creeped me out despite his attempt at a kind appearance. He raised a hand to his chin and furrowed his brow as though deep in thought, or at least trying to appear like he was.

In an attempt to dispel my uneasiness, I broke the silence. “What is a Pillar?”

“What an excellent question, for a monster! Some might call us gods, but that isn’t quite correct. Perhaps in this world, but no. The word ‘Pillar’ refers to our physical shape on a layer of reality above this one. Our sole job is to retain the sanity of System so that she may continue our voyage through the endless sea.” He nodded at me as though he had just answered all of my questions in one stroke. The truth of the matter was that I was even more confused than before.

I opened my mouth to ask another question but he held up a hand.

“Let me be frank with you, little monster. You have q6’s stink all over you. I don’t know what that frigid wench wants with this Anomaly, but she won’t get anything from it. Would be best to shove off before I decide to break her toys.” He loomed over me now, the promise of violence glinting in his blue eyes with an unshifting smile spread across his face. I opened my mouth to speak and he raised both of his eyebrows as though waiting for my response.

“I’ll go. I’m sorry for bothering you.” I knew when I should cut my losses and leave. This wasn’t a battle I wanted any part in, after all. Something told me that if this man chose to kill me, my death would be assured.

“Excellent! Let’s not speak again, then. I won’t be so merciful next time, little monster.” He stood straight up, nodding down at me. “English! It must have been 76,452 years since the last time I spoke English…” With that, the man vanished. He was there one second, and in the time it would take to blink my eyes he was gone. I cradled my aching head in my hands.

I dug the end of my staff into the ground and propped myself up. I hadn’t quite recovered from the effects of the Anomaly just yet, but based on the position of the sun, I only had a couple more hours before nightfall. I would have time to think about this strange turn of events on the way home. I steadied my breathing and tried to focus as I made my way through the tall yellow grass while heading eastward toward Enzirus.

I hadn’t been planning on spending the night out in the woods, but it looked like that would be inevitable now. I had been unconscious for hours after I wandered into that Anomaly, and even if I rushed I wouldn’t make it to Enzirus before night came.

When night falls, the Shadowlurkers go out to hunt. I was only barely able to survive their attack last time with preparation and familiarity with my surroundings. Even with magic, I might not survive a direct confrontation. For that reason, I would need to find a place to hide through the night. A cave would be ideal, but a clearing in the trees would give me room to fight if it came to it.

Even past the immediate danger that I was currently in, I was more concerned for those three children back home. They would certainly be worried when I didn’t return home in the evening like I had promised. Mudpuppy would want to go search the forest, but I’m certain that Gwen and Luna would be strongly opposed. I promised myself that they would be alright, and that I needed to focus on my own survival at the moment.

Once I had recovered enough from my encounter with the Temporal Anomaly, I started jogging quickly through the woods, looking for a place to hunker down for the night in relative safety.

What even was that dream? It felt so real. It was like I was forced to watch as my body moved on its own. I remember being so terrified that I would have hurt myself to stop what was happening. That chaos in the sky - that wasn’t even what I had been afraid of. It was something else, like I was reliving a long forgotten memory - and in that memory, I had died. If what I saw was real, and I had just watched myself die, then where am I now?

The last sliver of that memory where, barely conscious, I heard two men speaking over my bed came back to me. They mentioned that I was an organ donor and that I was a perfect match. A match for what? What did they do to me?

I sighed and shook my head. I wasn’t going to figure it out based only on some half-remembered, hopelessly chaotic memory.

That man, q3, had deeply unsettled me despite his attempt at putting on a friendly air. I got the impression that he didn’t understand human facial expressions and just defaulted to that broad smile.

He was like a robot instructed to emulate a person only to fall into the uncanny valley. The result was disturbing. He introduced himself as the Pillar of Time, and gave me some information on what a Pillar is. He had stated that their job was to make sure the system stays sane? When he talked about the system, he spoke as though it was a person, even going as far as to call it a 'her.' Is the system alive? That entire interaction left me with more questions than answers.

Now that I think about it, I had gotten another override from q6rxm%7. That was the same as the override that let me see a wisdom check on Enzirus. That man had also mentioned q6 and referred to them as ‘that frigid wench.’ Based on that, is q6 the person behind Death Resistance? Are they also a Pillar? I very much don’t want to be involved with such dangerous sounding people, and it worries me that I still have no idea what Death Resistance… q6, wants with me.

I paused as I saw something in the woods. It looked like a small shack or house built out of wooden planks. It was located in a small clearing in the trees. I didn’t know why a house was out here in the middle of these unexplored woods, but I didn’t care. It was getting dark. I heard a rustling in the leaves behind me paired with a light chuckling sound. Shadowlurkers.

Here we go again.

I took a deep breath and poured a bit of mana into my staff, producing a lightly glowing cerulean water that spun in ringlets suspended floating around the blue flowers and green leaves sprouting from the wood. They mocked me from behind trees with their chittering, crazed laughter.

“All I managed to kill last time was two of you. This time I’m going to kill your entire pack.” I gave them an empty threat as I edged backwards towards the house.

The laughter shrieked among the trees as two black-quilled canids charged out at me. I slashed a water blade at the two figures horizontally, catching both of them with it and staining my water with the red tinge of fresh blood. The first fell to the ground in two bloody halves and the second stumbled forward with its head nearly cleaved in two before collapsing into the dirt.

I’d put a lot more mana into that one attack than normal in order to cut through their tough quills and was already down to ⅔ of my total mana. If this turned into a battle of attrition I would surely lose. The most that I could hope for is that they give up and leave once I kill enough of them.

I retreated slowly towards the house as a veil of twilight cast purple shadows across the mossy soil. The laugher howled in frenzied bursts through the clearing but I steadied my breathing and focused on looking for movement.

I had nearly made it to the house when another Shadowlurker shot out from the treeline, not caring to remain silent as it screamed at me in laughter. This one was much larger than the others. I slashed at it with a water blade but the monster jumped over it as it laughed at my ineptitude. Uttering a colorful explicative, I raised my staff, catching the creature in the mouth. The thing knocked me to the ground, gnawing at the wood in its mouth as it tried to reach me. Its claws tore into my skin and my crimson blood mixed in with the soil.

My mana was down to half.

Looking to capitalize on my weakened state, two other dark shapes darted out from the treeline. I laid pinned under the beast as its teeth clamped inches away from my face. I’d been relying too much on magic. As a result, I had forgotten about my most powerful weapon.

I wrapped my tail around the midsection of the black-quilled monster and with a concerted shove from my staff, pushed the monster backwards. I carried the movement around in a circle as I held the creature midair and hurled it at the closest black shape charging at me. The two collided and collapsed to the ground.

I quickly shot a water blade at the second black shape, which tried to dodge but I corrected my blade and slashed across its spinal cord. The canid shouted out choked laughs as it pawed at the dirt, its hind legs refusing to move as blood drained out of its wound.

I sprinted towards the house. Another monster charged at me. I slashed a water blade at it but the thing dodged around my attack while shrieking in laughter. I brought my staff around and cracked it across its quill-covered head right as it was about to reach me.

That managed to disrupt its momentum enough that I was able to push my way into the house and slam the door behind me. I grabbed a bookshelf and slid it in front of the door. I leaned my bleeding body against the bookcase as the monsters slammed at the door, shrieking with demonic laughter and bloodlust.

My blood pooled on the floor from a large number of small gashes across my body from when the Shadowlurker had pinned me to the ground. HP 7.8 / 12 These monsters seem to have some kind of ability that allows their attacks to cause a lot of bleeding. Anticoagulant on their claws? They disable their prey with fear and then bleed it to death? What horrible creatures.

The monsters slammed against the door as they taunted me. I charged a bit of healing magic into my wounds to stop the bleeding. I didn’t want to use up all my mana in the event I needed to cast more water blades to defend myself. The monsters kept slamming against the door for another 30 minutes before the laughter finally calmed down. The only sound left was the dying cries of the Shadowlurker I had incapacitated with a cut along its spine.

This house was made of simple wooden planks. There was an assortment of furniture including a desk and a chair in addition to several bookcases stocked full of a library’s worth of books. In the corner was some kind of sleeping bag with a dessicated skeleton lying inside. The previous owner, I assumed.

Finally, the mewling whimpers of the dying Shadowlurker drifted away and I decided that it must have died of blood loss. I huddled against the bookcase, not daring to move from that spot in case the monsters returned.

Still shaking from the adrenaline rush, I checked through my notifications, having levelled up from my fight with the Shadowlurkers. After some deliberation, I put the level up point into Wisdom. If I wanted to know more about the world, I would need Examine working its hardest. I was glad that Mana Coalescence had levelled from the fight, but I was too exhausted to celebrate at the moment. Finishing with my notifications, I settled in for a long night in the dark.

Enemies Defeated:

1x Level 8 Shadowlurker

1x Level 9 Shadowlurker

1x Level 10 Shadowlurker

Experience Gained: 73

Experience to next level: 33

Level up! Experience requirement to reach Level 6 has been met. You have one statistic point to allocate.

Skill: Mana Coalescence has levelled up to level 9.

Skill: Sprint has levelled up to level 11.

Skill: Tail Manipulation has levelled up to level 11.

Skill: Tail Attack has levelled up to level 9.

Through great exertion, you have raised the base values of Strength and Agility by one.

Chapter 15

I had fallen asleep at some point in the cabin that had saved me from the Shadowlurkers. I must have only slept for a couple hours as the sun still hadn't risen yet. I sat up from the rough wood planks that made up the floor of the cabin. The floorboards around me had been stained in that burgundy color of dried blood from before I could heal my wounds.

I hadn't realized how much I had bled from just those relatively minor injuries. Scattered pages from the horde of books ferreted away in bookshelves had fallen and been rendered illegible from the bloodstains.

That battle last night had been intense. If I had fizzled even a single spell I may very well have died there. That practice with the Choko-chokos, as simple as it was, helped me immensely with my battle focus. Focus was everything when it came to magic, after all.

I had been careless, though. I had gotten this powerful new weapon - Water Blade - and I completely disregarded the weapons that had saved my life before, such as my tail. I could have easily found a rock and used that in lieu of a water blade to save mana. I hadn’t been thinking, though. I need to use every tool at my disposal if I hope to survive and protect the things that I care about.

I had some time to kill before the sun rose and I could make my way back to Enzirus. I had strayed from my previous path on my mad rush to find shelter, but I had a good idea of where I was and finding my way home shouldn't be too difficult.

I stood up from my spot at the door that I’d barricaded with a bookshelf and started exploring the cabin. It was a very short exploration on account of the cabin only being 3 small rooms without doors. In one of the rooms was an old skeleton lying in a sleeping bag that must have died ages ago based on the decay.

In the corner of the room I caught sight of a chest that hadn’t been visible from the door. My treasure sense was tingling and I crept up to the chest and gingerly pulled it open.

At a glance, I knew that this treasure could beat any legendary sword. I had tears in my eyes as I held up a big cast iron cooking pot. I thought of all of the fish stew I could prepare with this guy. I could even gather some veggies in the wild with my herbalism extension on Examine and throw that in the pot. No more raw fish for dinner!

All the stuff in this chest was mundane, but exceptionally useful for life out in the wild. Whoever this guy was, he came prepared.

There was a sewing kit in here with several spools of thread, a large box of nails and something that Examine confirmed was some kind of hammer. A long length of rope, some kitchen knives, a hatchet, flint and steel, a frying pan. All of this stuff I threw into my messenger bag. The cast iron pot nearly didn’t fit, but I managed to squeeze it in.

There was a short sword in a leather scabbard but an Examine prompt indicated that it wasn’t anything special. A sword didn’t sound particularly useful considering my race’s short and relatively weak arms. It would be dangerous to wield with my tail, too. I decided to leave it there in the cabin.

My bag was already pretty heavy with all of the Choko-choko corpses still inside and I had just added even more stuff. The 50% weight reduction was doing its best but it had gotten to be a real pain to carry. That one extra point of strength I got from the fight was, literally, already carrying its weight.

The only other valuable things in this shack were the books, and there were a lot of them. A quick glance through their pages made it clear that this wasn’t a language I had ever encountered on Earth. Still, I was interested in taking them with me. It would need to wait, however, as I didn’t want to add any more weight.

After a moment of consideration, I chose a book at random and pushed it into my bag. Maybe Thaddius could at least tell me what language it was, even if he couldn’t teach it to me. This shack was a couple hours hike from Enzirus, but if I could remember its location I could come back for the rest of the books later.

I was anxious to get home and set out as soon as the morning sun peeked over the horizon. Using my tail to support the heavy bag hanging at my side, I jogged through the wilderness. Those girls were no doubt worried and I didn’t want them to do anything rash like searching the woods for me. I passed by several of the forest’s creatures as I made my way into more familiar scenery.

In some cases, there were animals in this world that looked exactly like how they would on Earth. Fish, for example, more or less looked exactly the same. Birds were hit and miss with some of them looking like typical Earth birds and others were… well… One time on a hike I saw what I can only describe as a flying platypus. It had a huge wingspan with fur-covered eagle-like wings and honked like a goose.

I’d immediately stopped where I was and tried to get Examine to pop up on the ridiculous looking creature but it got away before I could pull up a prompt on it. I was helpless to do anything but watch as it flew off into the sunset, honking the entire time. I haven’t seen one of those majestic bastards since. What the heck does something like that even eat?

I finally caught sight of Enzirus as the tinkling of wind chimes indicated that I was nearing the anomaly. Hefting the bag over my shoulder, I sprinted across the water into a tail vault onto the rock and vine pathway I had made days earlier. I made my way up to my home to the excited and relieved cries of three little salamander children. After dropping my bag on the floor, I sat on a rock and regaled them on my adventure.

Both Gwen and Luna sat there wide eyed with their mouths hanging open as I described my harrowing battle with the Shadowlurkers. Mudpuppy, however, wore a complicated expression the moment I mentioned that I’d gotten hurt in my encounter.

These children were growing fast. Both Gwen and Mudpuppy were level 2 now and grew slightly from having levelled up. I had lost the adolescent tag on my race once I hit level 5 and I didn’t have any reason to think they would be any different. Luna, due to her resistance to overeating, was still only at level 1 and the same size as when she had just been born. Gwen and Mudpuppy both stood a full head taller than her. Luna excelled in other ways, however.

She’s like a little knowledge sponge! The little sprog doesn’t even fall asleep mid-lecture, unlike another student of mine. Thaddius gave Luna glowing praise while she hugged the book in her arms. She even properly thinks before she speaks! It’s been a real treat teaching such an eager student.

I glared down at Thaddius and briefly considered my previous threat to rip his pages out and throw them in the lake. Maybe I could settle for defacing his leather book cover. A couple rude doodles wouldn’t hurt him too much, would they? Luna gave me a warm smile, a gesture that was uncommon for the shy child. I sighed and dropped a hand onto Luna’s head as I praised her.

Now came the dirty work of skinning the Choko-choko corpses. I reached a hand into my bag and pulled out an orange furball, dropping the bloody thing into the dirt with a wet plop.

Gwen and Mudpuppy hovered over me and watched as I used my claws to try to cut the pelt off. Luna was busy practicing telekinesis on the other end of the pond.

It was my first time doing something like this and I messed up a couple times, tearing the pelt in places or accidentally cutting through it. When I finished with the first Choko-choko, I felt confident that I could do a better job skinning the next one. I also felt a bit queasy from all the blood and flesh strewn about, but I didn’t want to look weak in front of my kids. I could try to salvage this tattered pelt later.

The anatomy of a Choko-choko is pretty odd. My biology class didn’t prepare me for some of the alien organs that spilled out of this thing. The smell nearly made me want to puke. Gwen took a couple steps back with a disgusted look on her face and Mudpuppy wrinkled her nose in distaste but continued to watch.

They are designed to rip huge chunks of flesh off of a monster, but they don’t have a stomach that can accomodate that much food. If I had to guess, I would say that their mouth doubles as a stomach and when they find something to eat, they lay low until they can digest what’s in their mouth.

I pulled out another couple bloody Choko-choko bodies and Mudpuppy walked up to my side.

“I’ll help.” She stated matter of factly, looking to me for approval. Gwen hesitantly approached with a disgusted look still on her face. She walked around the pile of organs. “I’ll help too.”

“You don’t need to force yourself to help if you don’t want to.” I nodded at Mudpuppy who was already crouched over one of the bodies. Gwen shook her head and approached one of the orange corpses, holding up her claws. “I want to help my Queen.”

Try as I might, I could never get them to call me anything other than Queen. If I suggested that they call me mom, they would respond with a confused look and something like “but you’re the Queen.”

At any rate, we managed to skin my quarry fairly quickly and the end result was a large number of orange pelts. Once they had been skinned, we removed all the fat and flesh still stuck to the pelts and washed them in the stream. I was worried about the water ruining the pelts before I remembered that I’m a water mage and could easily just pull the water off the pelts without damaging them. I felt a little dumb for not realizing that sooner.

Removing the hammer and nails from my bag, I had my helpers stretch the pelts against a tree as nailed them in. They would need to dry for a couple days before they could be used and I didn’t want them to shrink too much. The only reason I knew anything about skinning animals was from all of the survival games I used to play. And they say video games don’t teach you anything!

The last part of the messy ordeal was to dispose of the pile of bones and meat left over from the process. Their bones were too thin to use and I couldn’t think of an immediate use for the teeth.

I had been entertaining the idea of cooking the meat for dinner, but the horrid smell had changed my mind on the matter. Instead, we just pushed the small pile of refuse off into the lake. Fish jumped and splashed around the water where the bodies and lumps of flesh floated.

I thanked Gwen and Mudpuppy for their hard work. Mudpuppy had gotten very good at skinning the bodies and nearly kept pace with me. Gwen wore a disgusted face the entire time she was working but still did her best without complaint.

“I got a skill.” Mudpuppy declared, looking up at me. “Skinning.”

“What! I didn’t get anything!” Gwen crossed her arms and pouted.

Skill: Scrimshaw has levelled up to level 9.

“Oh! One of my skills levelled up too.” I was surprised that Scrimshaw influenced my ability to skin animals. Why had I gotten Scrimshaw and Mudpuppy only got Skinning? Was it like how herbalism was a weaker skill than Examine? Could there be a redundancy in skills?

Wisdom check success.

Skill Acquisition is based on these factors:

Individual’s proclivity towards a specific skill

Individual’s knowledge, both formal and personal, regarding a specific skill

Individual’s time investment in learning and practicing a specific skill

Lightning has struck! Thank you, wisdom! I never doubted you even once. I’ve been beefing you up every level and now you’re finally pulling out the big guns!

Okay, so based on my previous question, the reason why I have Scrimshaw and Mudpuppy only got Skinning is because I have a higher personal inclination towards that skill? I wouldn’t exactly say I know a lot about crafting stuff by hand, but I do feel like I understand Scrimshaw much better after making my staff.

This also explains why I haven’t gotten skills like sneak even though I’ve been hiding in the bushes or behind trees whenever I find aggressive-looking monsters in the woods. I mean, I can be pretty clumsy. I would be the worst ninja.

I shook my head and looked down at Gwen and Mudpuppy. It was time to work on another project and I would need their help to finish before it got dark.

“Go gather some dry wood. Fallen branches would be best.” I reached into my bag and handed the hatchet to Gwen. “Be careful with that. It isn’t a toy. Chop the wood if it’s too big to carry. Work together, please.”

The two of them looked confused but they accepted their task and set off across our home island looking for firewood. Watching the two of them reminded me of going camping and looking for firewood in the forest with my little sister. I would have liked to go with them, but I had a different job to do.

I searched the forest just outside of Enzirus for any interesting plants or foliage that stood out to me. When something caught my eye, I would try to harvest some of it and attempt to bring up an Examine prompt on it. I didn't know much about plants, but my Wisdom was really working overtime here. Most of the things I looked over weren’t edible, like this moss that I found.

Examine attempt success.

Item Name: Argo’s Beard

Item Type: Vegetation(Moss)

Item Classification: Basic

Durability: 1 / 1

Effects:

Flammable: This object easily catches fire.

It was useful in other ways, though. This would be tinder for a fire, after all. I collected a fair amount of the moss into a jar and stowed it away in my bag. I spent the rest of the evening searching for different kinds of vegetation.

Examine attempt success.

Item Name: Barrow Root

Item Type: Vegetation(Root Vegetable)

Item Classification: Basic

Durability: 1 / 1

Effects:

Edible: This naturally occurring object is edible.

Examine attempt success.

Item Name: Milgrass

Item Type: Vegetation(Grass)

Item Classification: Uncommon

Durability: 1 / 1

Effects:

Edible: This naturally occurring object is edible.

Minor Warming: This object, when prepared in a potion or meal, gives a minor warming effect.

Minor Illness Protection: This object helps to prevent and fight off minor illnesses.

Examine attempt success.

Item Name: Crabroot

Item Type: Vegetation(Root Vegetable)

Item Classification: Basic

Durability: 1 / 1

Effects:

Edible: This naturally occurring object is edible.

Delicious: This object, when prepared in a meal, gives a slight morale boost.

The real find here was Milgrass, and I had almost skipped it since it looked like normal grass, just a bit fluffier. It was actually quite common out here too, so I wouldn’t struggle to find some when preparing a meal. The smell was kind of like if you mixed garlic and onions together into one pungent plant. Crabroot was aptly named as the way the roots spread out made it look quite a bit like a crab. The Delicious effect had me very excited to cook with this particular vegetable. Barrow root just looked like a brown carrot.

I headed back to Enzirus, picking up a couple choice pieces of wood as I walked through the forest. The first order of business would be making some bowls, since I had planned on making a stew.

Arriving back home, I found Gwen and Mudpuppy standing proudly over a respectable stack of firewood. They had really busted their hump working today so I praised the two salamander girls and told them to look forward to dinner. I sat down by our pond with a couple hunks of wood that I planned on turning into bowls. I tried carving out the shape with my claws, but they really weren’t suited for woodwork and I quickly got frustrated with my slow progress.

If I could use a water blade to cut the shape out, it would go much faster. The problem with water blade is that it needs to be slung through the air extremely quickly in a thin line in order to do any damage. When I’m moving water that quickly, it’s very difficult to accurately control it. If I could make a stationary blade based on the same idea…

I lifted a globe of water out of the pond and held it a few feet away from me. I stretched it into a line and tried to force the leading edge to move at a fast enough speed to cut, but couldn’t quite get it to work. Either my image would fall apart or the water would just fail to get up to speed.

If I couldn’t move it in a straight line, what about a disc? I lifted another globe of water out of the pond and flattened it. I spun the water around as fast as I could while maintaining my image. The water all gathered at the outside edge, making a spinning ring of water. This idea seemed like it might work, and I practiced it a bit more before setting up a chunk of wood on a flat rock.

The ring of water bit into the wood sending sawdust through the air, but it looked like it was working. I took a deep breath and began turning the ring, cutting a hollow area into the chunk of wood.

I had now created a new kind of water spell that cut as well as water blade while remaining stationary. I grinned at my triumph and considered all of the applications I could use this new magic for. It would even be useful in battle as a more close combat type of attack or if precision was needed. I resolved myself to practice with this new spell so that in the future I could easily use it. To that effect, I had the perfect thing to practice on.

With all four bowls finished, I got to cooking. I don’t mean to brag, but I’m a pretty great chef. I was the one who cooked all the meals for my family back on Earth, after all! My mother passed shortly after my sister was born and my father was often busy with work. As a result, the responsibility fell onto me to cook dinner for my sister and I.

Before long, a fragrant Bluescale fish stew was going over a campfire. All three girls, even Luna, stared hungrily into the bubbling soup as I scooped it into the wooden bowls I'd made.

All four of us earned a bit of extra experience from overeating that night.

My first hot meal I’d had since coming to this world kept me warm throughout a cold night spent sleeping under the stars. Sometimes life wasn’t so bad out here.

Chapter 16

“I want to learn to fight.” Mudpuppy looked up at me as we walked through the forest just outside Enzirus.

The forest canopy was taking on yellow and orange tones from the change in season and dry leaves were already falling onto the forest floor. We crunched through them as we searched for wild vegetables to bring home for dinner.

I very nearly wanted to refuse her request outright. The thought of one of my children getting hurt while fighting made me feel sick to my stomach, but I swallowed my trepidation. This is the untamed wilderness full of violent monsters. Teaching these girls how to protect themselves is an imperative if I want them to be able to survive out here.

I want to be strong enough to protect them, but if I were to die out here and leave them alone, they would be subject to all the cruelty that the world can bear down on them. I don’t know what will happen in the future, all I can do is prepare for it in the present.

“Why?” I thought I had better test her resolve. I wasn’t going to permit it if she wasn’t dedicated. If she’s gone as far as to ask me, then I trust she had already given it considerable thought.

It had been weeks since I came home from my expedition to the Golden Grassland and both Gwen and Mudpuppy had reached level 3. They weren’t so little anymore and both reached up to my chest in height. Mudpuppy had been acting much less like a rambunctious child recently so I brought her along to help with chores from time to time.

“I want to protect my Queen.” She declared, crouching down to harvest a patch of Crabroot. “I want to protect my family.”

I crouched down next to her and helped with the patch of roots. We quietly collected the vegetables and I opened my bag so that she could place the ones she had gathered inside. We had enough to last us a few nights.

“We had better get started on your weapon, then.” I glanced over at Mudpuppy as I brushed the dirt off my knees. She tried to hide a grin as she followed suit.

~~~

“I think a spear would suit you best.” I laid out the materials in front of us. I’d gathered a long, sturdy length of wood and prepared a bit of rope to tie on the spearhead. Mudpuppy found a gray stone with a flat shape that I planned on carving down into a point using my water saw.

Cutting stone with my water saw required a greater degree of exertion than with wood as it was prone to fracturing and destroying my work. I had to be patient and file away at it until the shape was perfect. Next, I used my claws on the spearhead to carve in a Scrimshaw pattern. I traced delicate carvings along the spearhead while maintaining a mental image so that mana could fill the gaps. I finished by tying the spearhead into a groove I’d made in the body of the spear and Examined it.

Crafting Success.

Item Name: Ornate Stone Spear

Item Type: Spear

Item Classification: Uncommon

Durability: 50 / 50

Average Attack Damage: 2.8

Effects:

Resolute Edge: The edge on this object will not deteriorate from durability loss and will remain at peak sharpness until the item is broken.

Description: A wooden spear fitted with an ornately carved spearhead.

Skill: Scrimshaw has levelled up to level 10. Level 10 bonus effect unlocked for this skill.

Bonus Effects:

(Level 10) You may perform Scrimshaw body art on yourself without fear of negative effects from the reagents used. This effect does not protect against extreme heat or extreme cold.

Well, that’s an interesting bonus effect. I’d been wanting to try out body art with Scrimshaw, but this was one of my biggest concerns. There are types of materials that can kill you even from just rubbing it on your skin.

Take the activated liquid quicksilver that I have, for example. I had originally likened it to mercury from the way it moved, and there are types of mercury that can kill you just from touching it. That was the big reason I’d put body paint on the backburner. I’d be certain to try this out pretty soon.

I promised Gwen that I would make her something later. I actually had a few ideas about weapons that might be useful for our race such as a tailblade or tailaxe attached to leather straps. Our tails were still our best weapon and it was worth considering ways to extend their functionality.

But for now, we would rely on spears. Swords would be too impractical as our arms are too thin and short to have any real reach. A spear was the safe choice here.

I held the weapon out to Mudpuppy. She took it reverently in her hands, looking it over with stars in her eyes. I hadn’t seen her so excited over something since she was playing mudballs with Gwen.

“Practice with that carefully. It isn’t a toy. I’m trusting you to not hurt yourself, okay?”

Mudpuppy looked up at me and nodded rapidly. She then abruptly trotted off to go practice with her new weapon. I sighed as I watched her run off, hoping I hadn’t just set her up to hurt herself. She would need to figure out how to use it herself. Aside from the obvious, I didn’t know anything about how to wield a spear, after all.

I walked over to the pond and sat next to Luna, who was practicing magic with Thaddius on her lap. She had her eyes closed, likely focusing on her mana sense. She had finally hit level 2 and was still shorter than the other two girls. I initially thought she was doing telekinesis practice on the water’s surface but there was too much movement for that.

“Wind magic?” I asked with a surprise in my voice. Luna jumped with a start, evidently not realizing that I had sat down next to her. I gave a quick apology for surprising her before Thaddius piped up.

Yes! This little sprog has already reached level 4 in Mana Coalescence! We only started practicing Wind magic today and she’s already showing a great degree of control.

Luna looked a bit embarrassed from all the praise, but hugged the book closer to her nonetheless. She frowned and looked over at me.

“I wanted to be a water mage like my Queen, but my primary element was wind.” She gave me an apologetic look as though she had failed me.

“There’s nothing wrong with wind! You’re doing a great job.” I gave her a hug and praised her for the hard work she did every day studying magic. I for one certainly knew how much knowledge was necessary to be able to cast magic and was amazed at her progress. My abnormally high Mana Conductivity had allowed me to cut corners and that was how I’d been able to learn magic as quickly as I did. Luna needed to work a lot harder for it. She was certainly a brilliant child.

Pulling out two magical books from my bag, I sat down next to Luna as she resumed her practice with wind magic. Only recently had my Wisdom stat risen high enough that I could reveal the names of the two books, but they were entirely unhelpful in identifying what they actually taught.

Examine attempt success.

Item Name: Compendium: Common Volume

Item Type: Magical Book

Item Classification: Epic

Durability: 26 / 26

Effects:

Reusable: This object is not consumed on use.

Information Transfer: This object will transmit the information contained within directly into the mind of its user.

Description: ???

Examine attempt success.

Item Name: Skill Book: Blue

Item Type: Magical Book

Item Classification: Uncommon

Durability: 62 / 62

Effects:

Information Transfer: This object will transmit the information contained within directly into the mind of its user.

Description: ???

A compendium for what? Of course I’d asked Thaddius, but he couldn’t tell me anything about these books. From what I had learned from my interactions with Thaddius, it was clear that he only had a portion of the memories he’d had in life. Presumably, he only had access to memories that had been documented in the book.

Since magical books are a means of transferring memories from one person to another, I was apprehensive about using an unknown book. What if they had put some really horrible memories in it?

Also, what in the heck is Blue? How is a color a skill? This book isn’t reusable like the other ones. At least the other book, Compendium, sounds a bit more official.

I shoved the skill book for the ‘blue’ skill into my bag and held the Compendium in my hands. My curiosity was boiling over and I really couldn’t wait to figure out what these books do. They could be a real treasure!

What if it was a Compendium for how to craft weapons, or tools, or for buildings? Or maybe it was another book on magic, and taught common forms of magic? A prompt popped into my vision, asking if I would like to activate the book. I threw caution to the wind and selected yes.

What language? Immediately a voice entered my mind in much the same way that Thaddius had. His voice had a very proper form of speaking as opposed to Thaddius’ more gruff speech pattern. I immediately imagined a business-like receptionist seated at a desk.

“English..?” I stated uncertainly while staring down at the book in my hands.

The ancient language of English is not included in the common volume of the Compendium. The Historic volume is what you are looking for, but keep in mind that there is very little information on English due to its age. Please ask a librarian for assistance in locating the Historic volume. Have a nice day.

“Wait, no, I speak English!” I tried to correct the book, but I already felt his presence fade from my mind. Librarian? There’s no librarian out here in the wilds! This book was seriously confused. I activated it again, eliciting the same response from the fastidious man.

What language?

“I speak English.” There was a long pause before the man replied.

You again? I’m certain that the linguists here in the Royal Library of Adria would be interested in studying your language. Now, if that’s all-

I interrupted him before he could cut off the conversation again. “T-this isn’t a Library. We’re out in the wilderness.” I stared down at the book in a moment of silence before the communication cut off again. I felt like he kept on hanging up the phone on me and I was getting more frustrated by the second. Grinding my teeth, I activated the book again.

With an exasperated sigh, the man gave his usual line with decidedly less motivation than before. What language?

“This language…!” I reached into my bag and pulled out the non-magical book I’d taken from the shed in the woods. Well, I tried to take it out. It took an awkward 5 seconds of slowly pulling it out of my bag, during which time the book sighed again, before I could wrestle it out of my bag and thrust an open page at him.

This Compendium has a limited range of external senses. Please picture the text in your mind’s eye and I will assist in identifying it for you.

Glaring down at the book in irritation, I did as he instructed.

W...Well, you certainly are forthcoming about your interests. This must surely be the wilderness if you cannot identify the common human tongue. This language is called Elsian and is spoken by most humans on this continent as well as many nonhuman races. This language is included in the Common Volume of the Compendium. Would you like to learn it?

“Y-yes?” I stuttered as I answered, a bit taken aback by the prospect of learning a language from a magic book. Maybe I could even read those books in the shed with this knowledge?

The book immediately flew open and the pages began rapidly flipping by as a huge assortment of information flew into my mind. I was nearly overwhelmed by the huge deluge of words and grammatical syntax flowing into my mind. My head slammed with pain as thousands and thousands of words mingled into my memories.

In only a second, it was over and the book’s leather strap refastened itself and clasped shut. I wanted to collapse on the ground from the intense throbbing behind my eyes, but I did my best to ignore the pain as I opened the Elsian book.

As though the script were my own native language, I read the book in my hands. ‘Steamy romance stories to get you in the mood.’ I frowned and opened the first page. Oh. Oh no. Where's he putting that?! I slammed the book shut and threw it into the pond as my cheeks burned bright red. Disgusting!

I crossed my arms and idly slapped my tail against the ground. That magic book was useful, but I hoped I wouldn’t need to use it again due to how frustrating the experience was. With the Elsian language in my arsenal, hopefully I wouldn’t need to worry about a language barrier if I happened across someone out here in the wilds.

If I’m lucky, the other books in that shed might have some useful information, as opposed to… that. I glared at the floating waterlogged book in the pond. It was too late to go collect the rest of the books, so I decided to work on another project.

I crushed up some glowing blue cave mushrooms in a bowl and added water, mixing until it turned into a thick, glowing blue liquid. Examine failed to pull up anything on my glowing mushroom concoction.

I didn’t exactly like the idea of smearing mushroom sludge all over my body, but I could always wash it off in the pond. Luna paused her mana coalescence studies and looked like she was trying not to laugh while she watched me smear glowing blue slime across my skin. I painted myself with a fashionable mushroom-themed motif. Scrimshaw responded best to the artistic approach.

Active effect added: Glowing

Classification: Basic

Description: Due to Scrimshawed body art, your skin is glowing blue. This effect will last for approximately 8 hours or until the pattern is damaged or removed.

Wading into the pond easily removed the effect. The glow had been pretty weak, making the effect almost useless. The effect was too small to do anything but make myself an easy target in the dark of night.

I didn’t want to give up with my Scrimshaw body art just yet, though. It was possible that if I made a different pattern, or used mental images to influence mana formation, it might respond differently and give a different effect. On to my second test. I pulled out my jar of liquid Quicksilver, pulling up an examine prompt on it.

Examine attempt success.

Item Name: Jar of Activated Quicksilver

Item Type: Reagent

Item Classification: Rare

Durability: 5 / 5

Effects:

Spellcasting Reagent: This object can be used as a reagent for casting spells.

Enchanting Reagent: This object can be used as a reagent in enchantment.

Description: A jar of liquid mana-activated quicksilver. This liquid is the best conductor of mana currently known.

Twisting the jar open, I dipped a claw into the liquid. The material tingled comfortably against my skin with the softness of velvet. I pulled my finger out and looked over the silver covering my claw, considering what kind of pattern I could make with this quicksilver.

I cocked my head to the side and wiped some along the silver lines running across my body. I had expected the liquid to simply give my skin a shiny layer of silver over my normal silvery lines, but instead the liquid sank into my skin.

I stared worriedly at the spot on my skin for a moment before the tingling sensation returned and the shiny quicksilver appeared on the surface of my skin. I wiped some off with a digit and then relaxed. The remaining liquid quicksilver sank into my skin again. It was an unusual feeling, but not uncomfortable. I flexed and pulled the silver out of my skin again and continued to paint along the silver lines on my body. Thirty minutes passed, then an hour.

I finally finished coating my lines with quicksilver and relaxed, allowing it to sink into my skin. The difference was like night and day and before the prompt even popped up, I felt mana flow into my body with a greater ease and my mana sense expanded by several feet.

Active effect added: Quicksilver merged Mana Channels

Classification: Epic

Description: Due to Scrimshawed body art, you have partially merged your Mana Channels with liquid Quicksilver. Your Mana Conductivity has been artificially enhanced, augmenting mana-dependent abilities and increasing your mana recovery rate. Due to the mana-activated quality of the medium, this artwork has been upgraded from Rare quality to Epic and will not expire unless intentionally removed.

My jaw dropped and I flexed again, causing the Quicksilver to collect on the surface of my skin as I looked it over in surprise. Gwen walked around me, admiring my shining silver lines. Luna watched from afar with her mouth agape, Thaddius still clutched in her arms.

Releasing, the shining quicksilver sank back into my skin, giving way to my normal silver lines. I would add more of the metal, but I had emptied the jar even doing this much. This effect was worth it even just for the increased range in my mana sense, but it even increased my mana regeneration.

If I closed my eyes, I could still feel the tingling of the liquid metal under my skin pulling in mana. Thankful that I had stuck with the body art practice after the fluke with the mushrooms, I opted to keep the liquid quicksilver effect for as long as I could manage. I spent the rest of the evening at the edge of the pond practicing magic with my newfound capabilities.

Chapter 17

The day after I had learned the human language, I set out in the morning for the house in the woods. I’d made an effort to remember the way back to the house, but as this was still unfamiliar forest, it took me several hours before I found the shack that had saved me from the Shadowlurkers.

My dried blood still coated the wood planks making up the flooring and several overturned books had been rendered illegible from the stains. Several bookcases running against the walls housed hundreds of books of varying shapes, sizes, and colors. I hadn't the slightest idea how someone could have brought a library's worth of books out into the wilderness, but I was glad that they had. I began the long process of sorting the useful books from the useless ones.

My bag could easily carry all of the books in this place, but there were a lot of them. The weight would make it very difficult to go about my daily chores and I didn’t have anywhere to store them at home without ruining the delicate books. It really was high time that we started building a house. I was tired of roughing it out here in the woods.

Just last night, Luna shook me awake in the middle of the night complaining of a huge bug she found in the blankets. When I went to dispose of the offending insect, I found out that Mudpuppy had already eaten it.

Several hours passed as I tried to sort out the useful books from the recreational ones. Some of the books didn’t have any titles on the cover or the binding and I would need to crack it open to try and discern its contents.

It was an odd feeling, using a language that I hadn’t made any real effort to learn, but I could easily read each of the books despite the unfamiliar script. Before long, I had multiple piles of sorted books around me. This place was an absolute goldmine of knowledge. There were crafting guides, books on construction, technical manuals on how to effectively wield certain weapons, books on agriculture, animal husbandry, cooking, smithing, and so on. It was like someone emptied out a library.

Entertainment was in short supply out here in the wilds, and I selected a couple recreational books to take with me. Additionally, I stored away several more useful books, such as a couple promising books on construction and one book on spearmanship. Mudpuppy would be excited to read about more formal fighting styles, even if learning that kind of thing from a book was inefficient.

I hated leaving the rest of the books here, but several hours had passed since returning to the house, and it was time to return to Enzirus. We would need to focus on building a house so we could keep the rest of the books at home. And to keep Mudpuppy from eating more bugs.

When I returned home, I had all three of the girls learn Elsian from the Compendium and we began poring over the different books. As expected, Mudpuppy immediately began practicing with the spearmanship book and her flailing around with a spear in her hands was looking more like an actual combat style. Gwen and I had been studying the construction books. Fortunately, there were even pictures and diagrams of different kinds of houses and buildings we could make. In a few days time, we could start constructing our own house and both Gwen and I were getting fired up for the project.

The days passed peacefully on the lakeside. I’d needed the time away from violence and bloodshed after fighting those Shadowlurkers, but I hadn’t been making any progress on Mana Coalescence since I hadn’t been fighting any monsters. I only needed one more level and I’d be able to select my Mana Focus. Thaddius had refused to talk to me about what it was up to this point and I was dying to find out. Those were the things I was thinking of while working with Gwen to net some fish for dinner.

A dark shape from up above briefly cast a shadow over us as we worked and I curiously glanced up into the sky, looking for the cause. It was large, nearly the size of a house. From its forearms stretched out large wings that carried it through the sky. Vibrant reds, yellows, blues and greens made up its colorful scales. Its draconian face searched the land below for signs of movement. It locked its slitted eyes on Enzirus.

Examine attempt successful. (Instant Examine Effect)

Name: (None)

Race: Quildora Wyvern(Adolescent)

Level: ???

Description: Wyverns are distant relatives of Dragons. Where Dragons have four legs and two wings, Wyverns have four legs with the front two doubling as wings. Some Wyvern species are only capable of gliding with their wings, but the Quildora is adept at flight.

The Quildora species is known for their extreme aggression and will attack any living thing it sees, sometimes to their own detriment. When one arrives in an area, ecological devastation follows.

“Go hide in the mud!” I barked at Gwen, who jumped and looked at me with fear in her eyes. The thing was already descending, and to my horror, I saw that its eyes were locked on my home island. Mudpuppy and Luna were there.

I flew across the lake’s surface as fast as my legs could carry me. It was the fastest I’d ever run but it didn’t feel fast enough. I slammed my tail into the water, vaulting onto the stone pathway and immediately crashing my tail into the stone, vaulting faster and higher towards my home and shattering parts of the pathway that broke off and fell into the lake.

I lost sight of the Wyvern as it dove through the trees and heard it land heavily onto our home island. I grit my teeth and swallowed the fear for my family that threatened to render me senseless, sprinting through the familiar trees towards our pond.

I had already conjured my staff’s water as I broke through to the clearing where we made our home. As soon as I caught sight of the Wyvern, I threw out the strongest Water Blade I could manage with all of my strength and fear pressed into it.

The monster faced down the two girls at the edge of the pond. Mudpuppy stood in front of Luna with her spear levelled at the enormous Wyvern. With trembling hands, she protected the small girl that had fallen to her knees in the dirt. The monster lunged forward with the claws on its forearm aimed at the brave salamander girl.

My Water Blade slashed against the creature’s neck, leaving a small cut against its thick scales but failing to draw blood.

I was hopeless to do anything while Mudpuppy desperately stabbed her spear at the Wyvern as it swatted her away, sending her flying through the air. She collided heavily with a tree and fell, bloody and limp, to the grass below. She wasn’t moving. She wasn’t getting up.

Time slowed to a standstill. My daughter lay broken in a bloody mess, slumped against a tree. My eyes shifted from my fallen child to the creature that had done this.

I am not a violent person. I have no desire to hurt anything just to see it in pain. But in that moment, something inside me snapped. Some kind of innocence that I had desperately tried to hold on to since arriving here chipped and broke off. Any consideration for self preservation flew away.

I would rip this thing in half even if it killed me.

My blood boiled as rage carried me across the grass towards my target. Luna quivered as she stared up at the monster, tears streaming down her face.

Three water blades slashed into the Wyvern’s eye and the beast screamed from the unexpected pain, red blood spraying out into the clearing as it listed sideways and fell heavily into the pond, immediately thrashing to get a footing on the muddy ground.

I stopped at Luna who looked at me, terror-stricken and paralyzed with fear. I wrapped my tail around her and threw the child behind me and out of range of the monster as it exploded out of the pond, sending water and mud flying across the clearing as it screamed.

I was only able to throw out a single water blade that glanced against its tough scales before it caught me. My staff clattered out of reach as it wrapped its claws around me, holding me in place. One of its eyes was rendered a bloody, useless mess and the glare from its only remaining eye promised death.

Mudpuppy’s spear stuck out from between the scales on its chest, causing a small stream of blood to run down the monster’s torso. It opened its mouth, displaying rows of gleaming fangs, and moved to bite me in half.

I didn’t have any water. My staff was gone. I stared up at the colossal monster as it opened its mouth, barely able to move.

‘Always thinking with magic, and forgetting your most powerful weapon’ I chided myself as I stared into the beast’s maw. I readied my tail, which hung free from the wyvern’s claws, and put as much force as I possibly could into smashing Mudpuppy’s spear deeper into its chest. I felt the spear tear through ligaments and grind against bone as the creature screamed in pain, immediately throwing me to the ground.

The wyvern shuddered and retreated a few footfalls back, smashing into a tree and tearing up its roots from the dirt.

The Quildora lifted its claws to its chest and ripped the spear from the wound, sending spurts of red blood from the injury before throwing the spear to the ground. It locked its one good eye on me and glared with undiluted hostility, drawing its teeth out as it prepared to attack again.

The blood-tinged pond water had resisted at first, but I was insistent that it cede to my mental image. Two spears of water hovered above me ready to be launched at a moment’s notice.

These were the fruits of my magic practice after merging my mana channels with quicksilver - I could now hold two mental images at once. I returned a glare at the wyvern as we stared each other down. My mana wouldn't last if this turned into a battle of attrition, but I wasn't going to die without a fight. The monster rumbled a deep growl, pawing at the ground with its claw-tipped hands and churning up dirt. Blood oozed from its wound in a thick river of red.

With a derisive snort, it spread its wings and leapt into the air, giving up on this battle before it could be injured further. The beast disappeared from sight behind the treeline as the sound of its beating wings faded.

The moment I saw that it wasn’t a threat any more, I turned and sprinted for the wounded child lying broken in the grass. My tears were already flowing freely when I lifted my daughter’s limp body into my arms. Many of her bones were broken and blood flowed freely from gaping wounds that marred her brown and tan skin. My magic couldn’t heal broken bones.

“No no no no no” I sobbed as I rushed her towards the pond, still tainted with blood from the fight with the wyvern. I lowered her body into the water, hoping that the regenerating effect might save her life as my tears splashed and dotted her face. I cupped a handful of blood-tinged water into her mouth. “Drink the water, you brave girl. Please.”

Long moments passed as I held Mudpuppy in my arms among bloodied water. Blood clouded and defiled the once beautiful pond. Grass had been torn up in the fight and dirt and blood lay sloshed around the clearing. All was silent save for my sobbing as I cradled her. Mudpuppy sputtered and coughed blood onto my chest and I cried out in relief. She took a couple ragged breaths before opening her eyes and looking at me.

“I got a trait” She choked out between broken coughs “Courage.”

Epic Character Trait: Courage

Description: You’ve stood in the face of certain death to protect another. Having the courage to protect those weaker than yourself is the first step in cultivating a truly heroic spirit.

Classification: Noble Trait, Epic

Disposition: Good

Effect:

+50% Skill acquisition rate for one branch of martial-based skills, selected at the moment of trait acquisition. Additionally, you will acquire a relevant skill from your chosen skill branch.

Any attack that would kill you will instead leave you at 1 health point. If your maximum health is less than 100, you will instead be left at .1 health. This effect may not be triggered more than once every 12 hours.

Bleeding and environmental effects cannot bring your health to 0 and a direct attack must connect in order to kill you. Instead, these effects can only bring your health to 1 or .1 if your maximum health is less than 100.

This trait must have saved her life. Mudpuppy had huge gaping wounds on her sides where the wyvern’s claws gouged her. The lacerations slowly stitched themselves together in front of my eyes. She would need to stay in contact with the water for several hours to heal all this damage. I hugged her tightly to me as she stared blankly off into the distance, possibly looking at her system notifications.

That wyvern had paused when it saw Mudpuppy with her spear. Those few moments before it attacked was the difference between Luna being alive or dead right now. Mudpuppy’s courage is the only reason that I didn’t lose a daughter today, in more than one sense. I grit my teeth and glared down at myself from the reflection on the calm surface of the bloodied pond.

I wasn’t so naive to think that Enzirus was safe. I knew that one day something would come here to hurt me and my family, and when it finally did, I was only barely strong enough to repel it. Even fighting with all of my strength, I nearly lost two of my daughters and only narrowly managed to keep them alive. I spent the entire fight under the assumption that I had already lost one of my children and that I would need to put my life on the line to protect my remaining two.

That moment, right before Mudpuppy was swatted away like a bothersome insect, when my water blade slashed harmlessly against the wyvern’s neck was when my heart nearly stopped. I was just so helpless. Even with all of my efforts at becoming stronger so that I could protect the ones I care about, I couldn’t even cut through that monster’s scales. The only reason no one is dead right now is because of Mudpuppy and her bravery.

I want to make a place where my family and I can live without the threat of death. A place where children don’t need to fight to protect their loved ones. Enzirus isn’t a safe place, but it could be, with some time and effort. If we had proper defenses, this battle might have turned out very differently. Even just a building would have kept the wyvern at bay for long enough for me to arrive. If this is the untamed wilderness, why don’t we just tame it? It’s time to make this place into a real home.

It’s time to start building.

Skill: Examine has levelled up to level 11.

Skill: Jump has levelled up to level 6.

Skill: Sprint has levelled up to level 12.

Skill: Tail Vault has levelled up to level 6.

Skill: Tail Attack has levelled up to level 11.

Skill: Mana Coalescence has levelled up to level 10.

You have unlocked a Mana Focus slot!

For reaching the prerequisite thresholds, you have unlocked a Mana Focus slot and may select a Mana Focus. It is possible to acquire additional Mana Focus slots from various Traits and Effects. You may select a Mana Focus from those in which you qualify for. This decision is permanent.

Mana Focuses allow you to expand the functionality of the magic you use through a perk system. When you select a Mana Focus, you will automatically learn the first level of its parent skill. For example, if you select Arcane Focus as your Mana focus, you will recieve the Arcane skill. For each level in your Mana Focuses parent skill you acquire, you will receive one Focus perk point.

Perks chosen in your Mana Focus cannot be reset. Perk choices are randomized based on your understanding of your Focus and perks that aren’t chosen may or may not appear again in the future.

Through great exertion, you have raised the base stat values of Strength and Endurance by one

Chapter 18

It was several hours before Mudpuppy’s wounds healed completely. Scars covered the considerable areas where her gaping wounds had been, leaving long claw marks across the side of her body. While I found this fact dismaying, Mudpuppy was proud to wear the scars and reassured me that they weren’t painful in the slightest.

When I questioned her about her Courage trait, she stated in her matter-of-fact manner that she had chosen Spearmanship as the skill for the bonus. She had gotten the skill ‘Nora-Lealu Spearform,’ which was the fighting form used by the ‘Nora’ people, whoever they were.

Evidently the spearform involves using incredibly fast spear attacks to clear distance to the enemy in the blink of an eye. I was curious about the new skill, but Mudpuppy could only tell me what she read from the notification. When she selected Spearmanship, she just suddenly understood the basics of the new spearform, as though she had just read it from a skill book.

The little brown salamander girl nearly had to push me away to keep me from fawning over her for the rest of the day. In the end, I relented and began the long and arduous job of cleaning up the hideous mess the battle had made of our home. Even using water magic to speed up the process, cleaning the clearing around the pond took the rest of the night, and I eagerly collapsed into the blankets with the 3 little salamander girls before calling it a night. Tomorrow I had some plans to set in motion and I would need the rest.

~~~

“I need to borrow Thaddius for a bit.” I informed a disappointed Luna, who had already settled into the mud for Mana Coalescence practice immediately after breakfast.

After explaining that I’d reached level 10 and that I was ready to select my mana focus, she gave me an awed expression before suddenly thrusting the book into my arms and asking if she could watch. I felt that this was something I had to do on my own, a reason which she despondently accepted before resigning to practice wind magic on her own.

I walked away from our home clearing until I was looking out at the vast crystal blue lake of Enzirus with its endless waterfalls and dazzling flying fish. I sat on the edge of our home island and set the magic book in my lap. I had chosen the very same spot where I had selected my race path. It had only been around two months since that time, but it felt like years with all that had happened. Life comes at you fast out here in the wilds, and I’d been living a much more eventful life since coming to this world.

“I’ve reached level 10 in Mana Coalescence, Thaddius. You asked me to talk to you before I selected my Mana Focus.” I spoke to the brown leather book. Glowing golden script ran across the cover in a language that I could easily read now. ‘Skill Book: Mana Coalescence.’

So you have. I’ve never had a student reach your level in Mana Coalescence in such little time. In mere months you are already at the brink of selecting your Mana Focus! For most it takes years, girl! Thaddius chuckled and I unconsciously slapped my tail against the ground.

I was a bit impatient to learn what all this work had been leading up to. Thaddius’ voice took on a more serious tone and I calmed my tail as I listened intently to him.

It’s good that you came to me before choosing your Focus. As is the case with many things in this world, this process can be dangerous for the uninformed. As you have learned, Mana is a living thing. However, you expend mana that collects in your body in order to power your magic - where does that mana come from, girl?

I blinked in surprise at the easy question. I had learned this the first day I spoke with Thaddius and acquired the Mana Coalescence skill. “My mana channels.”

And where do your mana channels collect mana from? Somehow I could feel Thaddius smiling at me. Either he was satisfied with my answer, or he had just fed me a trick question.

I frowned down at the book and shook my head. I didn’t know the answer to this one. I had only been told that mana coalesces in your mana channels and that was that. If there was some ultimate place where it came from, or if it gathered from the surrounding ambient mana, either way I didn't know. If I answered this question, I would be guessing. Thaddius hates guesses, so I waited for him to speak.

Your mana channels are a part of your body designed to interface with your soul. Your mana - as an extension of that process - comes directly from your soul. Since all of your mana comes through the filter of your soul, it will color the kind and type of magic you are capable of using. Your soul limits your use of elemental magic to water, for instance.

Now, for the subject of Mana Focuses. The concept is simple. If your soul limits your ability to cast magic, then why not simply alter it so you may use a greater variety of magic? Of course, as we are discussing modifying your own soul, you must exercise extreme caution when selecting a Focus. A Focus that you are not predisposed to can tear apart your mind. You must select a Mana Focus that resonates with you.

I stared wide-eyed at the book and gulped hard. This was all sounding a bit more dangerous than I had anticipated. I’d hoped that I would simply select a focus from a list of available focuses and that would be that. Of course, it was never going to be that simple. I would need to alter my own soul in order to become stronger.

My frown turned into a toothy grin as I looked out at the lake below me from my perch on the floating island. This was no different from what I’d already been doing since coming here. I’d already needed to throw away much of my old ways of thinking in order to survive in this vicious world. So what if I had to rearrange my soul?

“How do I start?”

~~~

The world blinked out of existence. The flowing of waterfalls failed to reach my ears anymore and the scent of green grass from my island no longer lingered in the air. My eyes yielded only a familiar murky darkness.

A tingling sensation settled across my entire body. At first it was simply unpleasant, but within moments it increased in severity until it felt as though a storm of broken glass was trying to push me away from my destination. Even as I wanted to scream in pain, I pushed on. This was my soul’s defenses - it was pushing me away in order to defend itself. Thaddius told me it would be uncomfortable, but this was a step well beyond discomfort. Why are my soul’s defenses so severe?

I blindly pushed through the torturous storm of glass until the sensation suddenly ceased. Dropping to my knees and panting hard, I struggled to regain my composure with the lacerating pain still fresh in my mind.

Fingers and toes. Long light brown hair. I was back in my human body. I stared nostalgically down at my hands as my breathing calmed. I hadn’t realized it before, but since my soul was human, it made sense that I would take this form. It almost felt strange to not have razor claws on the tips of my fingers.

I was in some kind of man made corridor made out of smooth steel. White electrical lights easily lit the passage. I braced myself against a wall and stood up slowly. My body felt weak and frail, and even the act of standing was difficult. I wore a teal hospital gown.

This place was somehow familiar. A memory that I had pushed to the back of my mind resurfaced - from that time in the golden grasslands when I had wandered into the temporal anomaly. This place reminded me of those last flashes of images and sound at the end of that broken dream.

Goosebumps ran across my skin and my hair stood on end as I stared down the long metal corridor. The steel floor was cold against my bare feet. I kept a hand against the smooth metal wall as I walked forward.

Yes, I’m sure of it. I was in a stretcher, half conscious, the last time I was here. This was the place where I died.

Up ahead, I saw a sign written in English pointing to an adjacent corridor. ‘Engineering.’ The path I had been following continued on a bit further before blurring out of reality. I guessed that I wasn’t supposed to go that way and turned down the path towards Engineering.

I came upon a sturdy looking metal door. A panel, looking something like a tablet computer, glowed a faint blue with text scrawled across it. ‘Administrator access required.’ With no other way forward, I raised a hand over the tablet to give it a poke when the screen flashed a green color and the door unlatched, sliding open among the sound of rushing air.

Shivers ran across my skin and my breath caught in my throat as I stepped through the doorway.

The large room was circular and featured 6 small towers, or… pillars, placed equidistantly in a circle around some great object in the middle of the area. The central object was composed of several rings rotating around a cube that floated freely in the center as though in defiance of gravity. Blinking lights and lines ran across its surface. I felt that this strange thing in the center of the room should be the object of my fascination, but it wasn’t. Instead, I felt that what I was looking for would be found in the outer ring of pillars.

All of the pillars were identical. They had a smooth black surface that occasionally lit up with blinking lights. Each one was a bit taller than myself, maybe reaching around 6 feet in height. Why did this room feel so nostalgic? Something that q3, the Pillar of Time, had told me came back to me and I parroted his words.

“The word ‘Pillar’ refers to our physical shape on a layer of reality above this one.”

I frowned and placed a hand on the closest pillar. Similar to how a magic book speaks with its user, a voice entered my head. The same voice that I had heard in the Golden Grassland.

Q3, The Pillar of Time.

I removed my hand from the pillar. I looked around the room at the other pillars and clenched my teeth. Goosebumps ran across my skin, both from the cold permeating the air and from some unknown sensation. Something told me I should leave, that I wouldn’t want to find what I’m looking for. I clenched my fists, and deciding that I had come too far to leave now, I moved from pillar to pillar, placing a hand on each.

Q2, The Pillar of Space.

Q1, The Pillar of Knowledge.

Q6, The Pillar of Death.

Q5, The Pillar of NIL.

All of these voices were unknown to me, though I somehow recognized the female voice of q6, a voice that belied danger and violence even with such a simple phrase as introducing her name. The most curious of the lot was q5, a robotic sounding voice that one might expect from a text-to-speech program on a computer.

I walked to the last pillar and stopped before I could place a hand on it. I gulped hard and stared down at its black surface. This was the last of the six pillars and by process of elimination, this would be q4. Unlike the other pillars, no lights flashed across its surface, no signs of life inhabited its cold black metal

My hair stood on end and my breath came in feverish gulps. Tears formed in the corners of my eyes and my hand shook with tremors of fear. I don't know why my body responded this way, but I couldn't help this incredible unease. I laid a hand on the cold surface of the dead pillar. The sound of static surged through my mind and the world distorted and twisted before giving way to a world of pure white.

~~~

The disconcerting exploration of my soul was still fresh in my mind as prompts flashed into my vision. The experience unnerved me deeply. I had considered the idea that I had some kind of deep involvement with the pillars in this world, as evidenced by q6 immediately reaching out to me when I arrived in this world. This all but confirms that theory. Specifically, I have some kind of relationship with the fourth pillar, q4.

I could think about this later, however, as these thoughts were distracting me from more immediate concerns. This white space reminded me of the time that I had selected my Race path. Unlike my race selection, however, there were over one hundred options to choose from in the list of available focuses.

There were focuses for fire magic, lightning, earth, wind, mental magic and even unusual ones like illusion magic or jumping magic. I spotted Blood magic from the list of focuses and shuddered.

Almost all of these felt… wrong for me. I remembered Thaddius’ warning to only choose a focus that I felt was suited to me or else I might seriously damage my soul. With that in mind, I looked through the list again, searching for the focuses that felt like they would fit me.

That brought me down to a list of five focuses to choose from.

You have reached the interface point in your soulscape and may now modify your soul with a Mana Focus.

Any modifications done on your soul are permanent. Additionally, you may decide to leave without performing any modifications.

The Mana Focuses available to you are determined by your statistics, skills and traits gained up until this point.

Unless otherwise stated in the selected Mana Focus, all previously available forms of magic will remain available to you.

Mana Focus: Water Focus

Classification: Basic

Description: A Mana Focus that retains the versatility of water magic. Water Focus is a non-specialized Mana Focus and its practitioners are capable of performing a wide variety of magic, though not as well as those who have specialized in a specific field. Despite how common this Mana Focus is, it is still exceptionally powerful.

Advancement in a Water Focus will provide additional functionality to a broad range of water-magic based abilities.

Mana Focus: Healing Focus

Classification: Uncommon

Description: The Healing Focus is one of the most highly valued Mana Focuses. Practitioners of this Mana Focus are capable of incredible acts of healing, including reattaching body parts, regenerating lost limbs and organs, and curing a variety of diseases and ailments.

Advancement in a Healing Focus will provide additional functionality to healing magic.

Mana Focus: Mist Focus

Classification: Rare

Description: This rare Mana Focus deals specifically with mist-based water magic. Practitioners of the Mist Focus are capable of obscuring an area in an impenetrable blanket of mist that may carry a variety of effects, the most common of which being illusions or mental attacks on those present in the mist. This Focus is well adapted to area-based attacks and effects. Selecting this Mana Focus will replace your mana sense with the ability to sense things present inside of your mist. Additionally, you will no longer be able to use standard water-based magic.

Advancement in a Mist Focus will provide additional functionality to mist magic and increase the density and range of the mist produced.

Note: While this mana focus has been selected by other individuals before, there are no current practitioners of this Mana Focus.

Mana Focus: Salamancer Focus

Classification: Epic, Unique

Description: The Mana Focus unique to the royal line of Salamanderkin. A Salamancer is capable of using tail-based magic to augment their physical abilities. All tail-based skills will be modified to reflect their newly acquired magical effects. Any magic cast using the mana channels in your tail will be stronger, more mana-efficient and more stable.

Advancement in a Salamancer Focus will provide additional functionality to tail-based magic. Additionally, at Salamancer skill level 20, you may select a second Mana Focus.

Note: This Mana Focus is Unique, as no individuals have ever claimed it before.

Mana Focus: Quicksilver Focus

Classification: Epic, Unique

Description: The ability to liquify the legendary metal Quicksilver and use it as a casting reagent. With a Quicksilver Focus, your body is capable of producing liquid Quicksilver and storing it in your skin. The amount produced is dependent on relevant skill levels and maximum mana points.

Advancement in a Quicksilver Focus will provide additional functionality to Quicksilver spells and effects.

Note: This Mana Focus is Unique, as no individuals have ever claimed it before.

If I wasn’t currently in an incorporeal state, I’m certain that my heart would have skipped a beat. Even with the list thinned down considerably, all of these focuses sounded extremely strong. I somehow got the impression that most people who made it to this point would only be able to choose between basic and uncommon focuses, but I have rare and even epic ones available.

Deciding that I would carefully consider each of the options available to me, I started from the top. Even the basic water focus was a strong contender with its highly versatile nature. I wouldn’t have lasted this long if I wasn’t capable of both offensive and healing magic. This focus was overshadowed by stronger options, however. Who would choose a basic option when you have epic choices available to you?

The healing focus was very interesting. I had wondered on several occasions the extent to which Enzirus’ waters might be able to recover someone’s injuries. In the case of Mudpuppy, if I selected this focus, would I be able to heal those horrible scars that Enzirus had failed to fix? What if one of us lost a limb while fighting, would the regenerative waters be able to regrow that? Something told me that it wouldn’t be able to regrow limbs, not if it couldn’t properly regrow the damage that Mudpuppy acquired. That alone was the reason I considered this focus for a long moment before moving down the list.

Mist Focus. This one is very interesting. One of the big problems with my current magic is that I only have single target attacks. There was that one time that I managed to hit two Shadowlurkers with a single water blade, but that was more luck than anything.

With this focus, I could be a real threat in a situation where I was outnumbered. Also, illusion and mental attacks sound like an interesting direction to go with my magic. The downside that I wouldn’t be able to use normal water magic anymore is a big concern, however. What if I couldn’t use healing magic anymore because of this? It was an interesting option, but maybe a little too risky considering I’d lose my normal water magic.

Finally we’re at the epic quality focuses. With this first one, I wouldn’t be a lizard wizard anymore, I’d be a real and proper Salamancer. Instead of having a plain ol’ regular tail, I could be swinging around a magical tail! After seeing this, how can I go back to having a regular non-magical tail? The main downside to this focus is the lack of information on it. I have absolutely no idea how this might change how my magic develops, though I can’t see an epic quality mana focus being weak. On the other hand, this focus will allow me to select a second focus at skill level 20, making it the strongest long-term investment.

Quicksilver Focus. This must be available from the Scrimshaw effect that merged quicksilver with my mana channels. Out of all of the options available, this one looks like the strongest. I mean, it has the word “legendary” in its description! You can’t just say that and then not have it be crazy strong. Additionally, I would be able to produce liquid quicksilver just like the Silver Angels that fly around above Enzirus. What would I be able to do with a potentially unlimited amount of legendary metal?

I’d be fooling myself if I said that I was considering the other focuses. It really came down to a decision between these two. I get the feeling that the quicksilver focus would give me an immediate power spike and the Salamancer focus would give me less immediate power, but greater potential in the future with its second focus slot.

It’s a decision between short term and long term benefits. When I put it that way, I’m inclined to boost my long term potential by selecting the Salamancer focus. On the other hand, what might have happened in that fight with the wyvern if I had the quicksilver focus available? I very nearly had lost two of my children and almost died, myself. There is merit in choosing the short term benefit when my family’s survival is at stake.

In the end, there really wasn’t any question in what my decision would be. I knew it the second I saw it. I couldn’t forget about my most powerful weapon, after all.

With my decision made, the ever present white background gave way to the familiar landscape of Enzirus’ glittering crystal blue waters, waterfalls and floating islands. I had a habit of coiling my tail around in a circle in the ground when sitting, as it was the most comfortable way to sit. I felt my mana channels expand and power pulsed through my tail. I opened my notifications and diligently read through them to see the benefits of having become a newly minted Salamancer.

Skill discovered: Salamancy

Description: The ability to perform tail-based magic. Acquiring this skill will modify any current and future tail-based skills, effects, and abilities. This skill is the parent skill for a Mana Focus.

Effect:

+1 Salamancer Focus perk point per skill level.

Magical modification of all current and future tail-based skill, effects and abilities.

Note: You will unlock an additional Mana Focus slot when you reach level 20 in this skill.

Skill modified: Magical Tail Manipulation

Description: Your skill at using your tail for tasks requiring dexterity, precision, strength, speed, and magical aptitude. This skill has been augmented with magical effects.

Effect:

+3% Control over your tail per skill level.

+1% Spell power when channeling magic through your tail per skill level.

Skill modified: Magical Tail Vault

Description: The ability to use your tail to jump or to increase the effectiveness of a jump. This skill also influences your ability to lift your body with the assistance of your tail. This skill has been augmented with magical effects.

Effect:

+2% Magical Tail Vault skill results per skill level.

-.5% Magical Tail Vault stamina and mana cost per skill level.

Ability to tail vault mid-air by expending mana.

Skill modified: Magical Tail Attack

Description: The ability to use your tail as a weapon. This skill influences direct physical attacks with your tail such as slams and wrapping attacks. This skill has been augmented with magical effects.

Effect:

+3% effectiveness to physical tail based attacks per skill level.

Tail attacks send out a mana-based shockwave of force capable of inflicting damage at a slightly increased range. This effect does not consume mana.

Name: Naomi

Race: Royal Salamanderkin

Level: 6 (89 / 94)

HP: 12 / 12

SP: 15 / 15

MP: 35 / 35

Strength: 5

Agility: 6

Constitution: 4

Endurance: 5

Intelligence: 7

Wisdom: 8

Mana Focus:

Salamancer Focus (1 perk point available)

Skills:

Examine: Lv 11

Scout: Lv 8

Jump: Lv 6

Sprint: Lv 12

Magical Tail Manipulation: Lv 11

Magical Tail Vault: Lv 6

Magical Tail Attack: Lv 11

Death Resistance: Lv 3

Swim: Lv 6

Scrimshaw: Lv 10

Mana Coalescence: Lv 10

Salamancy: Lv1

Traits:

Determination

Titles:

Queen

Chapter 19

I sat on the edge of my home floating islands among waterfalls and flying silver angels. The morning sun peeked out between forest greenery as I set Thaddius onto the grass next to me and stood up, stretching and flexing my tail that now pulsed with magical power.

I had just finished reading through my notifications after selecting the Salamancer focus and received some interesting new abilities that I was dying to test out. Specifically, my new magical tail vault allowed me to vault mid-air.

It was time to fly. I grinned from ear to ear with toothy, pointed salamander teeth as I set my tail into the grass and launched myself off the cliff with a quick thrust of my tail. I watched my MP carefully as I did this, but the action only cost me stamina. I might have overreached a tiny bit by immediately jumping into a free fall.

Flailing my tail while trying to activate the magical part of the magical tail vault only sent out shockwaves of force where my tail swung, travelling for two or three feet before dissipating. Strangely, these shockwaves also slightly arrested my falling speed.

I grit my teeth, watching the rapidly approaching lake below me as I continuously failed to activate my new ability. Hitting the water would be painful, but the regenerating effect could easily handle any injuries. It wouldn’t be able to heal my pride, though.

While falling, I created a mental image around my tail and tried to ‘expend’ the mana to tail vault mid-air. There was no change and I continued to fall. Evidently I had to do something special to activate this ability. Even with the tail shockwaves slowing my falling speed slightly, the water’s surface was growing closer as I struggled to trigger a mid-air tail vault.

If creating a mental image around my tail didn’t work, what else could I do? I don’t have anything to press my tail against, so performing an actual tail vault mid-air is awkward and unintuitive. If that’s the case, maybe I could create an object I could vault against?

I created a mental image of a flat disk of mana as I fell. Pressing my tail against the area where the created image would be, the mana channels running along my skin reacted and I felt the mana as though it were a physical object. I immediately launched myself off the mana platform with as much strength as I could manage and took off at a terrifying speed into the air. High into the air. Very high.

My home island blurred past me as I sailed at a breakneck speed into a bright morning sky. My mana was completely empty. Evidently putting mana into a tail vault makes it exceptionally powerful, and I had put everything I had into it. Looking below me as I continued to fly through the air, I gulped as a sudden sense of vertigo left me feeling queasy from the substantial distance from the ground. I immediately looked away and clenched my teeth.

I had succeeded in doing a magical tail vault, but had succeeded a little too well - the distance from the ground was rapidly increasing as I flew higher and higher. I was in a bit of a dangerous spot here, with no mana left to tail vault and my tail shockwaves wouldn’t be able to slow my fall enough to safely reach the ground. I may have been a little too overexcited.

Looking forward as I shot through the air, I saw that my trajectory was nearly in line with one of the highest floating islands over Enzirus, an island that had previously been well out of my reach due to the sheer altitude. No waterfalls fell from this island, and from its uneven rocky surface grew green grass and occasional vines common to Enzirus. This island would have to do.

I swung my tail to create shockwaves that would alter my momentum towards the island. This was going to hurt. I braced myself, bringing my tail in front of me to protect from as much damage as possible from the impact.

The island shuddered as I collided with it, sending sparse rocks and dust cascading down from the impact site. I grabbed at a tangle of vines hanging precariously off the edge of the island and groaned from the pain throbbing from my aching, abused tail. That 30% pain reduction from determination was really pulling overtime here.

Pulling myself onto a ledge, I found that rather than what I had originally thought was uneven rock was actually a carved stone staircase inlaid into the side of the floating island. These stairs were definitely not natural. Someone had carved them into the rock, making this the first evidence I’d found that other people had discovered this Mana Anomaly before. Curiosity dispelled the pain that wracked my tail from the recent impact as I started up the stairs.

This island had been far too high up to see details such as stairs from my home island. At that thought, I glanced over the edge of the island toward the lake below and immediately regretted the action. I sidled against the rock wall as I continued up the staircase, feeling a touch of acrophobia setting in. Why had I thought that flying was a good idea, again?

The top of the floating island consisted of simple green grass with no other defining features besides a single stone set in the middle of the area. I frowned, finding this a bit anticlimactic, and approached the only object of interes. Inscribed writing ran along the stone, carved directly into its gray surface and marred only by patches of green moss. My frown deepened. It was a gravestone. I reached down and brushed away a patch of moss obscuring some of the text.

‘Here lies Archmage Thaddius of Adria

Student to Royal Mage Luna

Proud retainer to the Queen of Adria

To live and die in the service of my Queen,

There is no greater honor.’

I stared down at the gravestone in silence for long moments. Wind blew past, shifting the grass loudly and carrying the expected chill from being at such an altitude.

I had always known that Thaddius was dead, but it just didn’t seem real to me. It took until now for it to really sink in that the book he had left behind might as well be his ghost.

This would explain why Thaddius hadn’t been surprised by the Mana Anomaly - he likely already knew about it. Enzirus was even his final resting place.

This grave raised a number of questions, however. Royal Mage Luna. I frowned, considering the coincidence that his mentor’s name would be the same as my daughter’s. It wasn’t possible that they were the same person. My daughter is only a child, and Thaddius himself informed me that he had died hundreds of years ago.

Even if it’s only the product of a title, I am technically a Queen. I’m constantly reminded of this as my three children refuse to call me anything else but by that title.

I chewed on one of my claws as I paced back and forth in front of the gravestone. It was a nervous habit that I really should quit, but fortunately I couldn’t damage my claws with my teeth, so there wasn’t much to worry about. I wasn’t sure what to make of this gravestone, but I couldn’t just chalk it up to coincidence; I would need to ask the book when I got back home.

I resolved to explore the remainder of the island before finding a way back down to my home. A basic plan for how I would get home was forming in my mind - a series of controlled falls arrested by occasional small magical tail vaults - but it would take some practice to figure out how to avoid spending my entire mana bar in one mid-air vault.

I returned down the stairway that ran along the side of the floating island, curious of what might necessitate a staircase in the first place.

A stone staircase such as this one is actually quite treacherous to climb. The cool mist from the abundant waterfalls in the area even managed to find its way up here, rendering the stone stairs slick and slippery. To add to the difficulty, the wind was quite fierce up here, and stubbornly pushed at me as I climbed down the side of the island turned grave site. I found it amusing that I had stood against madness-inducing monsters of darkness and even a wyvern, yet I’m afraid of a wet staircase.

I finally reached the end of the stone stairs only to find disappointment. The path simply terminated at a smooth stone wall, leading nowhere. Thinking I might find a secret passage, I searched the wall, running my hands along the smooth stone and turned up exactly nothing. I kept searching, even looking at neighboring walls, which were just as featureless and smooth.

Discontented, I sat down right on the spot, wrapping my tail around myself to stave off the piercing wind. Who the heck builds a staircase that leads down to nothing?

I sighed and opened up my character sheet. There was something I was curious about that I hadn’t gotten around to. I had immediately tried using my new tail vault ability when I acquired the Salamancer Mana Focus and hadn’t even looked at the talents that I could spend my one free talent point on. I brought up the mana focus section of my status sheet, willing the perk interface to open up.

As this is your first time opening the Mana Focus perk interface, a brief explanation will be presented.

Your available perk choices and their costs are based on your understanding of your Mana Focus at the time of perk generation. Generated perks are randomized and do not exist in a perk tree.

Perks chosen through the perk interface may or may not appear again in the future.

Perks chosen in your Mana focus cannot be reset.

Mana Focus: Salamancer Focus

Available perk points: 1

Abilities

Deflector Tail: This ability allows you to deflect mana-based attacks and spells using the shockwave produced from your tail. There is a chance of failure when performing this ability against a mage that is more highly skilled than yourself.

Perk Point Cost: 1

Levitating Tail: At lower levels, this ability will allow you to charge mana into your tail so that you may fall at a safe speed. With practice this effect can be strong enough to suspend the user mid-air. This ability does not cost mana to use, but slightly reduces mana regeneration while the effect is maintained.

This ability may be modified by future perks.

Perk Point Cost: 1

Lesser Bloodthief Scythetail: Channeling this ability will create a mana-based scythe blade on the end of your tail that is capable of draining its victim’s blood and restoring the user’s health and stamina. Mana is slowly consumed while channeling this scythetail. Any excess blood drained by this blade will instead pay for its channeling cost until fully expended, at which time it will return to draining the user’s mana.

This ability may be modified by future perks.

Perk Point Cost: 1

I began thumping my tail against the ground excitedly as I read through the available perks. Nothing cheered me up like getting some new items or powers.

All of these choices only cost 1 perk point, so I could select from one of these three. Maybe perks would cost more than one point in the future? Deflector tail seemed pretty interesting, but I couldn’t in good conscience choose that ability when I hadn’t found a single spellcaster aside from Thaddius in the entire time since I’d come to this world. Infact, I hadn’t even seen a normal person, let alone a mage.

The Bloodthief Scythetail looks like it would be powerful, and it can evidently be upgraded with future perks. Taking this ability would make me into some kind of mage that fights in close combat. It was only two days ago that I fought against the Wyvern and I had only just barely managed to drive it away, nearly losing my life in the process.

It would give me another weapon in case something like that happens again, but if I'm being honest, I feel like this ability doesn't really fit me. I can’t picture myself draining the blood of my enemies like some kind of lizard vampire. This Bloodthief ability makes me uncomfortable, but I have to seriously consider it for the sake of me and my family's safety.

The last perk in the list was the levitating tail. This perk had the immediate benefit of helping me get home from this ludicrous height. That fact alone makes me want to purchase this perk right off, but I already have a plan for getting down as is - I could use small magical tail vaults to slow my movement downward and aim to land in the water. Even if I hit the water hard, the regeneration effect would bring me back to full health. I had to consider this perk from a long-term perspective, not just for its immediate utility.

If I’m going to be using my new magical tail vault a lot, having this perk to protect me from falling to my death would be a great help. I can definitely see myself jumping to my death by accident without it.

Judging by how quickly my magical tail vault had sent me flying, if I could use this ability safely, then it would greatly expand my range of exploration. Lastly, it would be wrong to say that there is no combat application to this ability. The description seems to indicate that I could levitate in mid air if I practiced enough. I would be well out of reach of any melee-focused attackers, such as the shadowlurkers, and could easily dispatch them with water magic.

Lastly, this perk can be upgraded with later perks. While this levitating tail wouldn't directly give me any new weapons, it would improve upon my existing skillset.

I nodded to myself, selecting and purchasing the levitating tail perk. There were too many benefits from having the utility that this ability would provide. I had been tempted by the immediate promise of power from the scythetail, but it wouldn't have any benefit outside of combat.

If I could cover more ground in one day on my expeditions with levitation and learn more about the surrounding wilderness, that alone would make levitating tail a better investment than the scythetail. Information was my most valuable commodity.

No windows popped up to confirm the selection, so I brought up my status window and focused on my Mana Focus. A window came up with the Levitating Tail perk, but no new perk choices were brought up, possibly because I didn’t have any points to spend.

I didn’t feel any different. Standing up, I stretched and flexed my tail, but nothing happened. Other than jumping off the island, I didn’t have anywhere I could test out my levitating tail ability, and I didn’t want to risk failing to figure it out before having an unpleasant encounter involving the ground and gravity.

Earlier when I had jumped off my island, the most that would have happened if I failed to tail vault mid-air was suffering through some pain until the regeneration kicked in. I wasn’t in any danger. This island was an entirely different matter, however. It was so high up that I struggled to make out details at ground level, even with the scout skill’s extra vision distance.

The high vantage point afforded me an unmitigated view of the surrounding geography, but it was nothing I didn’t know already. Dense forests stretched out to the horizon, broken up by lakes, some smaller and others so huge that you might mistake them for an ocean. I spotted what was most likely the lesser crater lake far to the southwest - the place where I was born. To the north, a distant wall of unbroken, jagged mountains stretched out as far as I could see. It might be possible to traverse them with my new magical tail vault, but exploring to the south would be much easier.

I searched the smooth stone walls at the bottom of the staircase, looking again for some kind of trigger or false wall. I couldn’t accept that this staircase led all the way down here for no reason. In a moment of inspiration, I shifted my attention to my mana sense. A great deal of water lingered in the air around me and collected on the surface of the island’s stone. Running a hand across the stone wall as I walked across the path, I suddenly stopped. I detected a small body of water on the other side of the stone wall, barely detectable and faint through the thick stone.

In my excitement I nearly lost sight of the water with my mana sense, but managed to steady my nerves and focus on the water. It was in some kind of bucket, maybe? The entire area on the other side of the wall was bone dry and all I could see with my mana sense was water, making me effectively blind.

The stone awkwardly resisted my attempts at pushing mana past it, but I eventually succeeded in forming a mental image on the other side of the false wall and gathered up the water. Forming a flat sheet, I pushed it up against the wall, using the borders where the water met stone to get an outline of the area. I couldn’t find any levers or buttons, but as I was searching, a loud clunk sounded out from the wall. Surprised by the sudden loud noise, I lost concentration and dropped my mental image as I instinctively stepped back.

The wall slid into the floor accompanied with the loud grinding of stone against stone. The seams that should have made up the edges of this passage had been completely imperceptible, even under scrutiny. As soon as I stepped into the stone passage, torches lit up the room from sconces along the wall. They produced no smoke, and as I passed by them, I discovered they didn’t produce heat either. Perhaps they were magical?

I walked past a wooden bucket, surprised that the water that I was sure would be all over the floor had gathered itself right back to where I had collected it from. I understand the torches, but who would make a magical bucket? I sighed, already knowing the answer. I could definitely see Thaddius doing something like that, all the while endlessly lecturing an unfortunate student on the proper use of bucket magic.

A symbol on the wall to my left glowed with a light blue color, just bright enough to trace out the character. Curiously, I gathered up water from the bucket and pressed it against the glowing symbol and the glow flashed once then faded. The wall began rising again, sending a loud grinding sound through the passage. Pushing the water against the symbol again brought back the glowing blue character and the wall settled back to the ground. Fascinating.

Now feeling sufficiently confident that I wouldn’t be trapped in this place, I walked through the corridor into a well lit, decent sized room. In the center stood a plain-looking, small stone pedestal holding some kind of strange glowing rock. Artistic shapes and symbols were carved into the stone walls and lit by flickering orange torchlight.

This pedestal and the stone resting on it was the only thing present in the room. I scrutinized the glowing stone suspiciously, getting the feeling that if I picked it up, either the floor would let out from under me or a big boulder would drop and bowl me over.

Other than the green glowing symbols carved into the stone's surface - carvings which shared similar shapes and geometry with the symbols carved into the walls - it looked like any other smooth round rock. The pedestal it rested on didn’t seem to have any pressure plates I could see. I gently lifted the stone from the pedestal, ready to tail vault if any traps sprung to life.

Nothing happened. I stared down at the weird rock in my hand. An examine window popped into view.

Examine attempt success.

Item Name: Return Stone

Item Type: Miscellaneous

Item Classification: Uncommon

Charges: 3 / 3

Bound area: Mana Anomaly Enzirus

Effects:

Return: The user of this item and their equipment are teleported back to the site this object is bound to. This item may be used to teleport more than one person at a time, but one charge is consumed for each person. This form of teleportation is stable and safe. There is no maximum distance restriction on this item.

Charges: This object may be used multiple times before its magic is depleted and rendered inert.

Description: ???

I beamed down at the green-glowing stone with a newfound appreciation. Not only would this rock bring me straight back home from anywhere, but it could be used three times! I was a little disappointed that it couldn’t be used indefinitely, but even with its limited number of uses, it was an excellent treasure.

I tucked the stone away in my bag and shifted my attention to the symbols on the walls. It seemed that each section of the wall displayed several self-contained murals. They were made up of simple geometry and varied greatly in their composition but I couldn’t discern anything else from looking them over.

Confirming that there was nothing else of interest, I turned to leave. I’d had my share of tomb raiding and it was time to go home - I could always come back to look at those carvings on the walls later.

I stopped in my tracks, realizing that technically it was Thaddius’ tomb that I had just raided. Well, if that barren room even qualified as a tomb. I resolved to apologize to the book once I got home - I had other things to discuss with him too, after all. The curiosity about what was written on his gravestone was eating me up, and I wanted to ask him about it as soon as I could. Once I stepped out of the stone passage, I gathered water from the bucket and deactivated the glowing blue symbol on the wall, sealing the entrance.

After making my way back up the stone staircase, I practiced tail vaulting and levitating down. It took a few tries, but I got the hang of it fairly quickly. Levitation only took a little purposeful mana circulation through my tail’s mana channels, and maintaining it was simple enough.

Magical tail vaulting, or mana vaulting as I started calling it, took a more delicate touch. The first time I’d activated it, when I flew to this island, I accidentally put one hundred percent of my mana into the vault and went tearing through the air. There might be situations that call for that kind of speed, but for now I needed more control.

I practiced carefully with mana vaults, aiming to use no more than ten percent of my mana for each vault, levitating gently back down to the island after every use.

An hour of diligent practice passed before I felt confident enough that I could make my way home without hurting myself. I gave Thaddius’ grave one more considering glance before turning and jumping from the ledge, floating gently down to my home.

Chapter 20

~ Somewhere near the East Elsian Coast ~

I sat on a freshly fallen tree, holding my hands over a campfire only barely managing to ward off the murky darkness of night. The forests of the unclaimed lands were as dark as they were dangerous. Not for the first time that night, I considered how the fires and torches we’d set up around the campsite were the only thing keeping the laughing demons from setting upon us with their maddening shrieks of laughter. I occasionally glanced the briefest flicker of yellow eyes appraising us from the shadows, waiting for one of our caravan to leave the safety that the light gave us.

This trip had me in poor spirits and even poorer company. The other guard on nightwatch, a burly, scarred man by the name of Yaro, tossed another log into the crackling fire. Yaro was a real bastard, and I nearly groaned when I learned that I’d be spending the night shift with him. I had opted for silence, but perhaps out of boredom, Yaro turned his perpetually disdainful glare towards me and spoke.

“You seen the new cargo we picked up?” The man locked his resentful eyes on mine and I returned his gaze.

“Of course I did, that’s all everyone’s been talking about. Keep saying we’ll be rich, and all that.” I replied with a deep frown creasing my face. This was the last thing I wanted to talk about - the entire business had me thoroughly disgusted. I wanted to finish with this job and never look back.

“Like you’ll get a single half iron out of it.” The man grunted at me as a toothy grin crossed his face.

I hadn’t come out here to the middle of nowhere by choice. That was no secret, of course, and Yaro treated me with an even higher degree of distrust than the others.

“Bloody girl keeps crying. All last night - couldn’t get a wink of sleep.” Yaro intoned with no small amount of hatred in his voice as his grin shifted into a scowl. “We treat her like a princess, letting her ride in a wagon, and she spends the whole time crying like a babe taken from ‘er mum.”

My frown deepened the longer he spoke. While slavery of monster races was legal in the human realms, the enslavement of humanoid races such as humans and elves was almost universally illegal. That had been one big reason the pale, violet skinned elf girl hadn’t been clapped in chains with the beast races and forced to march along with the caravan. If they were going to illegally enslave the girl, they would at least hide the crime from any prying eyes.

Even over a month’s travel from the closest human settlement, we occasionally came across groups of nonhuman travellers as we explored the northern reaches. Most of them were of the half-human, half-monster variety, but there were a few full blooded monster races in the groups as well. The half-human type of beastkin typically had primarily human bodies with the addition of features from monster races, such as ears, scales, claws or eyes.

Fortunately, the mana contract only required me to perform guard duty for the caravan. The slavers were the ones who clapped those travellers in chains while I helplessly watched. I could have averted my eyes to spare my heart, but I had to watch. I wouldn't turn away from their suffering. The ragtag and disorganized refugee groups full of escaped slaves and hopeful free people put up little resistance, though the spilled blood would indicate otherwise.

Evidently the violet-skinned elf girl had been spared from this horror, as she easily surrendered with no resistance when the slavers found her wandering in the forest.

Another reason the elf girl hadn’t been put in chains and walked with the other captives had to do with the kind of injuries and damage that are associated with forcing people into a death march through untamed forest. The beastkin that the slavers had captured on our trip north would occasionally collapse from sheer exhaustion and either be beaten until they got up, or left to drag behind a carriage until they died as an example to the others not to disobey.

No, sparing this girl from that is not from any kind of sympathy. The kinds of people who voluntarily become slavers have no sense of empathy or compassion. Instead, such injuries would lower her price when trying to sell the girl off. She was just too valuable to risk damaging.

The girl was a special kind of elf from The Muerre Isle, a mysterious landmass off Elsia’s eastern coast. The huge island is constantly protected by an impenetrable cloud of fog and terrifying ocean currents capable of tearing a seafaring vessel asunder. The only knowledge anyone in the human realms has of it is from the Muerre elves who visit the mainland only every one or two hundred years.

The incredible rarity of her race was what had the slavers I was running guard duty for so excited. Frankly, I had doubted that they existed until I had seen the scrawny violet-skinned girl myself. I was doubly surprised that the slavers had been able to recognize her race. I would have been able to tell from looking at her - I was well read and didn't know of any other violet-skinned elves - but like hell if I would have told the bastards.

Growing visibly impatient with my silence, Yaro spoke up in a louder tone of voice.

“Not going to dignify the likes of myself with a response, my lord?” He sneered as he delivered this jab, clearly aiming to get a heated response from me. He must have been particularly bored if he was picking a fight. Roused from their sleep from the loud voice, a nearby slave, a boy with catlike features and ears, looked towards us from where he laid on the cold ground. His catlike eyes flickered gold from the light given off by the campfire.

I considered just maintaining my silence, but frankly I was bored as well from the hours spent staring into darkness.

“I’m not a noble anymore. I was disowned.” I answered flatly. Yaro knew this too, of course. The sadistic man wanted to get a rise out of me, maybe so he could beat me within an inch of my life like how he did with any slaves that would catch his ire. I wasn’t going to give him the chance.

“Oh? Why’s that, my lord?” His grin widened and his eyes taunted me.

“You know why.” I put a little more heat into my voice than I had meant to as I glared at Yaro from across the campfire.

I lost everything because of that bet. I couldn’t be upset at my parents for disowning me - they didn’t have any choice. Having their heir be the kind of man who consorts with slavers would have ruined our house. I had been overconfident, thinking that in only one duel I would win access to a Skill Book on Mana Coalescence - a thing that would otherwise cost a king’s ransom. That was well out of the means of my modest family’s coffers, even if we were a noble house. I was overconfident and naive.

Everything was my fault.

I stirred from my thoughts as the sound of a young girl’s sobbing reached me. Yaro looked immediately furious at this, and rose to his feet with a particularly nasty expression on his face. He turned and started towards the wooden wagon the girl had been imprisoned in as he grumbled angrily under his breath. In his current state, he might even go as far as to hurt her. I hastily spoke up before he could make it to the wagon.

“The boss was clear not to lay a hand on the girl, Yaro.” I calmed my voice as I spoke. There was very little I could do to help the girl without going against my contract, but this was well within my bounds. “He wants her in perfect condition.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt her.” He shot a malicious grin at me. “Just gonna have some fun.”

“He wants her in perfect condition.” I repeated, resting a hand on the hilt of the sword hanging from my waist.

I’d seen this man fight before when he and the others captured the various nonhumans we happened across. He relied on his large size and brute strength to overwhelm his enemy, even if his enemy was only a desperate husband defending his family. I, on the other hand, had been trained in swordsmanship as a matter of my upbringing and was a duelist of some renown.

Yaro was a real bastard, but he wasn’t stupid. He may have me beat in strength, but my agility and swordsmanship skill would take him apart.

Yaro flicked his eyes between the sword and me for several seconds before spitting into the dirt and reluctantly turning back towards the campfire. He suddenly stopped, glancing at me with a sadistic grin before delivering a swift kick into the cat boy that had woken up earlier. The boy yelped in pain, curling defensively into a ball as Yaro drew back to kick him again.

“That’s enough. He’s done nothing.” I spat the words out as I rose to my feet, hand gripped so tightly on the hilt of my sword that my knuckles turned white.

I wanted to run the bastard through with my sword, but my hands were tied with that mana contract. He would need to do something that would justify my cutting him down, and I desperately hoped he would. He was an irredeemable sadistic piece of filth that deserved to die.

Yaro shot me a glare, clearly thinking about delivering one last kick out of spite, but apparently thought better of it. Instead, he spat on the cowering boy before returning to the campfire.

“You’re a real stick in the mud, Thaddius.”

~ Naomi ~

I floated gently down to my home island, trying to keep from looking down. I was completely safe so long as I maintained my levitation, but my fear of heights kept rearing its ugly head and I couldn’t help my queasiness. Once I got the hang of the skill, it was easy to maintain my levitating tail. I was certain that I could even maintain it while using other forms of magic, making my plans of floating above melee attackers and picking them off with water magic increasingly feasible.

Today had been a great day. Not only had I finally gotten my Mana Focus, which I’d been working towards for months with Mana Coalescence, but I had even acquired an interesting teleport stone. With my new mana vault ability, I would be able to explore much further into the wilderness and I could use the teleport stone to return home at any time.

It would take more practice with mana vault before I would feel comfortable enough to use it in the wild where there were trees I could smash into, but I was hopeful that I’d get the hang of it within the next few days. Mana vaults required a surprisingly delicate use of magic and was remarkably difficult to control. It was like having a car with an accelerator that was way too sensitive. Even a small tap would send me lurching forward. I wasn’t certain I’d be able to use it in combat without a significant window of opportunity due to how delicate the mental imagery was.

I was dying to try out the other benefits from my Salamancer mana focus too, especially the new bonus from tail manipulation.

Magical Tail Manipulation allowed me to boost my spell power by channeling magic through my tail. At my current level of tail manipulation, I would evidently get an 11% bonus to my spell power when channeling magic through my tail. An 11% bonus is nothing to scoff at and could easily be the deciding factor in a life or death battle. This also stacked with my bonuses from Mana Coalescence, which, at level 10, gave me an added 10% control and effect to my magic, and a 20% higher efficiency when using magic.

In a roundabout way, increased spell power also helps with mana expenditure because I don't need to use as much mana to gain the same effect. Each and every level not only boosts my efficiency in using mana, but also raises my upper limit.

The only problem with magical tail manipulation is that I’m not entirely sure what ‘channeling magic through my tail’ entails.

Yes, what did it entail? Pfft. I’ll need to save that pun for later.

I finally touched down on my home island. It felt good to have solid ground under my feet, even if the solid ground was actually suspended in the air by some unknown anomalous gravitational phenomenon. I gently slapped my cheeks, careful not to scratch my face with my claws. I had more pressing things to think about.

I walked through the grass towards where I’d left Thaddius, the magical book on Mana Coalescence, by the edge of the island. I couldn’t help my overwhelming curiosity about what I had found on that high flying island.

Thaddius’ grave.

The gravestone had indicated that Thaddius was the student of a ‘Royal Mage Luna’ and that he was the retainer to the ‘Queen of Adria.’ I'd be embarrassed if it did somehow turn out to be some crazy coincidence, but I knew that couldn't be the case. Even if he tried to play it off like that, I don't think I would be able to believe him.

I wouldn’t claim I knew what was going on here, but I could tell something was off.

I reached the book, left in the green grass overlooking the lake of Enzirus. The afternoon sun glinted off the crystal blue water, often disturbed by silver angels who skimmed along the surface of the water before separating with a flourish and soaring back up into the air in a gravity defying dance. I sat in the cool grass next to where I had placed the book before testing my mana vault ability. It had been several hours since then.

I wasn’t sure how I would ask Thaddius about his own grave. I’d been considering this while I floated down from up high. It was a difficult and uncomfortable subject to talk about and I'm not exactly the most socially adept person.

I mean, back on Earth I spent most of my days by myself playing video games in my room. If charisma was a stat, mine would probably be 0. Honestly, I didn’t know how Thaddius would respond to my questioning. Fortunately, the book spoke first.

Finally come to collect this old book then, girl? Nearly thought you’d forgotten me out here. Thaddius chuckled heartily. If he had been worried, he certainly didn’t show it in his voice. Not that I’m complaining. Feels nice to get some sun from time to time.

“Thaddius.” My tone of voice betrayed a somber mood brought on by my thoughts on Thaddius’ grave. Noticing the atmosphere, he waited patiently for me to speak. His voice brought me away from my anxiety. I had just been needlessly worrying about how to ask him. Thaddius was the kind of person who had little patience for mincing words with indirect speech. If it was him, the direct approach was always the best. “I found your grave.”

Long moments passed in silence before Thaddius replied. I see. He spoke in an uncharacteristically subdued tone, as opposed to his normal loud and boisterous voice.

A particularly strong gust of wind blew past, ruffling the grass around where I sat and swaying the hanging vines in the breeze. I didn’t need to see this; instead, I felt it through my Mana Sense. The Mana Sense that he had taught me.

Much sooner than I would have thought. Color me impressed, girl.

I opened my mouth to speak, wanting to ask about the grave, but he beat me to the punch. Unfortunately, I was never able to properly entomb myself. I died in my cabin some ways away from here to illness. The grave is empty.

I gaped at him when he said this. I’m really kicking myself for not asking him about the cabin. Whenever I asked him about things other than Mana Coalescence, he would always act a bit flustered at not being able to answer the question. It was like I was pointing out holes in his memory. It made me feel bad when he inevitably couldn’t answer.

That’s why I hadn’t bothered to ask him. If that cabin belonged to Thaddius, then he was the one who had left all those books and tools that I had appropriated. He had helped me even more than I realized.

My thoughts drifted to the memory of finding that dessicated corpse in the cabin. That was the body of my friend and mentor, left unburied for so long.

Girl, are you thinking of something useless again? Why is it that your lizard face is so easy to read? Thaddius pulled me away from my thoughts in his loud, confident professor voice, maybe noticing my expression and trying to pull me away from that depressing line of thought. Tell me, girl, what do you know of magic books?

The question surprised me. He had taken this discussion in an unexpected direction, but after taking a moment to consider it, it was clear why he would begin here. This was a conversation where I needed to know about his limitations.

I had spent some time considering magic books, much of it being based on my interactions with Thaddius. Learning a language from the Compendium had been a completely different experience than my time with Thaddius. The pretentious man in the Compendium acted more like a curator of his work and the only time one needed to speak with the man was when selecting a language to learn. Thaddius, on the other hand, had to actually teach his subject matter due to the convoluted way Mana Coalescence was taught.

It was hard to say which one was a better representation of magic books. I’d gotten the impression that Mana Coalescence was an unusual skill because of the specific progression in how you trained it. If someone tried to learn magic on their own… Well, honestly, I have no idea how they would first learn Mana Sense. After that, they would just be guessing at how to learn telekinesis, then figure out their element.

If I was on my own, I would probably still be stuck at telekinesis. And that’s assuming I had somehow learned Mana Sense on my own.

I was getting a little off track here. Magic books. The truth is, I didn’t have enough experience using magic books to say if most of them worked like the compendium or if they worked like Thaddius’ book.

I understood the basic concept, however, and decided to provide this in my answer.

“Magic books are a way of instantly transferring information from one person to another. The books take on an… imprint of the creator’s personality. They aren’t a perfect copy of the creator’s memories, and instead only contain the information present in the book.” I answered as clearly and concisely as I could without mincing words, even if his lack of memories were something of a sore spot for him.

Good. Yes, that is a correct assessment, but lacking in details. However, I can’t fault you for that, girl. Thaddius cleared his throat, his sign that he was about to jump into a lecture - one of the few lectures he had ever given on a subject other than Mana Coalescence. I was particularly interested in magic books, and paid close attention.

Magical books such as this one are rare and take years of life to complete. I mean that quite literally - the creation of such a book saps away years of your life as recompense. Creating a magical book is often done at the end of one’s life, and the time at which they finish their creation corresponds with their time of death.

Additionally, since the magical book’s mind is a copy of its creator’s, the creator must prepare themselves mentally to become a magical book. There are such cases of magical books losing their sanity either immediately at their creation, or after years of circulation.

Memories are the primary element in determining how much life the book’s creation will cost, and the time required to craft the book increases as more memories are added. This book, for example, took me four years to complete. There are other considerations as well, such as how a book may sense the world around them, their reusability, and their ability to interact with the world around them. All of these increase the life price.

Life price? I gulped hard as I stared down at the book in my lap. Thaddius had given up years of his life to create this book that I was holding? He was middle aged when he made this book. When he crafted this magical book, had he…

The image of that skeleton huddled in the blankets inside that house came back to me and I frowned. This book truly was his ghost.

Thaddius didn’t interrupt me from my thoughts this time, allowing the unspoken question to linger in the air. Several moments passed, neither one of us wanting to break the grim silence, before he spoke.

Do you remember the reason why I created this magical book, girl?

I looked up from the patch of grass that I’d been staring down at while lost in thought. He had told me his reason for making the book shortly after we had met.

“You wanted to leave this book for future generations so that your knowledge would never be lost to time.” I recited from memory.

This response elicited a placid chuckle from him before he responded.

Good memory, girl. That was something of a half truth. I might as well have said I made it for past generations.

I screwed my face up in confusion as I stared over at the book. Past generations? It wasn’t like him to speak in cryptic riddles like this.

No, I made this book so that a salamander girl named Naomi would find it and become the best mage to ever live.

My skin prickled with goosebumps as I stared down at the book in my hands. He had never called me by my name before.

In seeking for a way to correct my irredeemable failure, I abandoned the future. I weathered the storm of the Temporal Anomaly hoping that I might find you, but when the tempests of time abated, I was too early. Hundreds of years too early. With me I brought supplies, tools, a great deal of books and a special bag with which to carry them all. The Temporal Anomaly, even with all of my years of preparations and precautions, nearly killed me. I died slowly to a wasting illness while crafting this book in the desperate hope that it might reach you.

That it would give you the power you will need.

That it would forgive my failure to keep you alive.

That it might save your life.

The man who normally spoke with the true uncontested confidence of a venerated Archmage carried an uncharacteristically reverent, even apologetic tone in his voice.

Yes. I crafted this book for the Queen who would rule a Kingdom that spanned the Elsian coasts. For the Queen who may bring the realms of humans and nonhumans under a banner of peace. My Queen.

The Queen of Adria.

Chapter 21

I lay on my back staring up at the stars. The three salamander girls always scrambled to be one of the two who got to sleep next to me at night. Normally it was Mudpuppy and Gwen, but tonight, I had the shy and reserved Luna curled up in a ball on my left and Mudpuppy quietly snoring away on my right. Nights were cold out here, and I was thankful for the orange fur blanket that the four of us had worked together to make.

I couldn’t sleep. I had so much to think about, but when I laid down with the purpose of thinking it all through, the stars above me were the only thing that came to mind. Vastly different constellations than Earth’s lit up the night sky, stretched out across the horizon in a dazzling display of twinkling lights.

I exhaled a deep breath, with all of my stress and concern coming out in a visible mist in the cold of night.

The blanket of dazzling lights yawned across the night sky. Time, by nature, was ephemeral and fleeting. Depending on how far away these stars were, some of them would have long since burned out and died from the immense passage of time before their light could reach us. These shining stars were all that remained of them, a ghost from when they burned brightly for the universe to behold.

Time. Time was a tricky subject, and I had a complicated situation on my hands. Thaddius was from the future. Specifically, he was from my future, where I had been the Queen of a vast realm. A future where I had died. Thaddius, in trying to save me from that fate, fled to the past in order to change the future.

These last few days have put the matter of my death into perspective. It’s a funny thing to put into words considering how adamantly I’ve tried to escape death thus far, but to be honest, I’m not concerned with dying. Fighting that wyvern made it clear that there were worse things than death. It was frightening how quickly I had made the decision to trade my life for the continued survival of my children.

I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to die. I had been depressed and terrified when I first arrived in this world, but not once did I ever want to die to escape it. That first message from Death Resistance had been spot on - I would cling to life with all of my strength. However, I won’t cling so tightly that I lose sight of what is most important to me.

In order to save my life, Thaddius made this magical book. Otherwise, I would have struggled for who knows how long before learning magic on my own, if such a thing was even possible. I suppose in Thaddius’ timeline, I must have learned magic somehow on my own. That’s assuming that I learned magic and then taught it to Luna, who in turn taught it to Thaddius.

Time travel, according to Thaddius, is an unheard of thing. When he stepped through that Temporal Anomaly, he was prepared to die. In some sense, the anomaly truly had killed him. But not before he could craft a magical book to leave behind for me.

That time-lost archmage had been in a difficult situation. He was dying, slowly and painfully from an unknown ailment brought on by traversing the temporal anomaly. He had to carefully choose the memories that would be contained in the magical book he created. If he failed to complete the book before he died, all of his sacrifices and suffering would have been in vain. He could either include as many memories on Mana Coalescence as possible, or focus on including the events of the future in the book.

This had been why he explained his limitations as a magical book. He gave me vague assurances that writing the fated events of the future in a non-magical book would be ‘extremely unsafe.’

There was a delicate balancing act in his decision to focus only on teaching me to use magic with the limited memories he could include in the book. If he changed too much with his actions then any form of future prediction would be useless in the best case and potentially harmful in the worst.

As a result, he had no memories of the future. I would find no guide to escape whatever great threat had extinguished my life in that abandoned future.

I don’t know what kind of person I was in Thaddius’ history - in that alternate future - that would inspire him to such lengths to protect me. Likewise, his involvement has changed things and he is certainly aware of that.

Even if he had scrawled down the future in writing, would that future still hold true? Will I become that great Queen that he respected so thoroughly that he died just to give me a chance to survive?

It sounds impossible to me. That Naomi sounds like a very different person than who I am. She must have been incredible to inspire such devotion.

But she isn’t me.

~~~

I wanted to spend the day working on our house with Gwen, who was taking the most active role out of all of us in planning the construction project. I wanted to help, and planned to in the evening, but for now I had other plans. There was something that had bothered me since speaking with Thaddius yesterday. It would take around half a day to set it right.

Thaddius was still unburied in that cabin in the woods. My teacher was a good person and deserved to be put to rest. Even if my feelings on the matter of his time travelling were confused and uncertain, that didn’t change the fact that he had helped me immensely. I wanted to pay my respects and bury him properly in his grave.

I spent the first few hours that morning practicing mana vaults and levitation. Originally I had thought that levitation was the most simple ability I’d learned since becoming a Salamancer, but some devoted practice revealed that it was more complicated than I originally thought.

In normal use, Levitation would slow both my falling speed and my horizontal movement until I was slowly floating downwards. Using it in this way was extremely simple, but there were actually several moving parts in this ability combining to create that effect.

Levitation could cancel out both lateral momentum and slow my descent. However, those were separate abilities. For instance, if I carefully channeled my levitation, I could invoke only the slowed descent and maintain my horizontal momentum. This way I could quickly fly through the air without using a bunch of mana to try and maintain my altitude.

It also had the added benefit of making my flights easier on my stomach since I wouldn’t be constantly bobbing up and down in the air.

With further practice, I think I could use the levitation ability to slow my momentum horizontally and correct my trajectory without having to come to a full stop. Kind of like channeling the ability in only one direction. That’s the theory anyway, but I’m way off from being able to pull something that complicated off. For now I would need to do things the mana-inefficient way.

I practiced for two hours before I felt confident enough to take my new manner of transportation out into the wilds. The cabin would have taken me a little over three hours to reach on foot, but I reached it in only a little less than an hour by flying. I was certain that with more practice I could easily make it in half an hour.

My fear of heights was still holding me back and I felt queasy whenever I looked down as I soared over the treetops and the wind whipped against my skin. This ability was far too useful to let something like that hold me back, even if I needed to occasionally take breaks to calm down.

Finally arriving at the cabin, I carefully gathered Thaddius’ remains in the sleeping bag he had died in. All that was left of him were his bones, the rest having decayed away over however many hundreds of years this shack had entombed him.

I had been an Anthropology major in college, and the sight of bones wasn’t particularly disturbing to me. I was used to it, actually. If Thaddius was any indication of what normal humans were like in this world, then they weren’t noticeably any different from Earth’s humans.

Well, there was one unusual thing about his remains - He was missing a hand. The cut was at his right forearm just below the elbow, and it was peculiar. There were several rings of scarring against both the radius and ulna around the area where his arm had been cut off. It looked almost as though the arm had been sawn off, regrown, and then cut off again multiple times. The thought of it made me shiver.

I couldn’t fit Thaddius’ remains in my bag and decided to simply make the trip back home on foot. It would take longer, but it would have been too difficult to mana vault through the air while carrying something that cumbersome and delicate. I would need to mana vault to make it up to his grave site, but I’d deal with that when I got to it. The aged, wooden door to the shack, still bearing the claw marks from my battle with the Shadowlurkers, clattered shut behind me as I prepared to make my way home.

With a bag of bones in my arms, I settled in for the long walk back home.

~ Gwendolyn ~

I bit back my tears as I tried in vain to focus on the book in my hands. I had chosen an out of the way place in the forest to do my reading today because I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep myself from crying like a pathetic child. The last thing I wanted was for someone to see me like this. That would only increase my shame.

I love my Queen. She is unbelievably kind and gentle. I know that if she saw me like this, she would hug me and try to make me feel better. She would tell me that I don’t need to worry, that everything would be okay. She would tell me just to do my best.

But my best isn’t good enough. I am hardly any use to my Queen.

Initially, I had been given the task to make sure that Mudpuppy didn’t get into trouble. Back then, Mudpuppy always got into trouble, and I had my hands full with watching her. When the Queen made a spear for her, she started spending all her energy practicing with it.

I practiced with her all the time using long sticks in place of actual weapons and kept up with her very well. That practice was valuable, but looking back on it now, the clumsy way we moved was more like formless flailing.

She began studying that spearmanship book intently and started beating me more often than not. I read the same book as her, but Mudpuppy was surprisingly talented with a spear, and it was all I could do just to compete with her.

Then the wyvern attacked. My Queen had immediately ordered me to hide in the mud. I had been absolutely terrified and didn’t dare refuse her orders. While I quivered helplessly in the mud, Mudpuppy nearly died trying to protect Luna against a foe that completely eclipsed her in strength.

Everything changed after that battle with the wyvern. That day marked an end to childish innocence. Mudpuppy in particular turned into an entirely different person from the experience. Before, she had this boundless energy that she spent in everything she did and spear practice was just as much playing as it was actual combat preparation.

Now, she had this stoicism and calmness that unnerved me on some level. In the few times we had practiced sparring with spears since that battle with the wyvern, she completely decimated me with movements I could barely follow. She moved purposefully and with a sort of grace that would have been impossible only a few weeks ago. This was the effect of gaining that Courage trait and choosing spearmanship as her skill.

Mudpuppy was becoming something truly incredible.

I listlessly leafed through the pages in the construction book in front of me as my tears threatened to spill out.

That wasn’t what had me upset, though. The magical book Thaddius finally had a free moment away from tutoring Luna today, and I approached him looking to learn Mana Coalescence. If I am not good enough with the spear to stand out, then I could make a purpose for myself by learning magic like Luna.

When the pages finished flipping against the book’s binding, I gained the Mana Coalescence skill.

And that was it. No eye-opening sixth sense, no perception of the world’s magical energy. The world was just the same as it always was. All I had gained was a single skill.

Thaddius explained in an apologetic voice. He told me that I was unfortunately not well suited for Mana Coalescence, and teaching the skill had been a partial failure. I could learn to use telekinesis, but I would never gain an element-based form of magic. I would never experience mana sense. I could tell he felt sorry for me from the tone of his voice.

I quickly dismissed myself, gathered a book on construction and headed out here to the woods. The book would at least give me an excuse to be out here even if I couldn’t read it in my current emotional state.

My tears finally broke free and streamed down my face. I couldn’t help it. Compared to my incredible sisters, I was useless. I didn’t deserve to be my Queen’s heir. I was just someone with little value that needed to be protected. Just a pathetic crying child.

I sat in the soil against the trunk of a tall tree and cried softly for several minutes as I clutched the book in my trembling hands. The world around me carried on as usual with birds chirping from their perches and small animals scurrying across the forest floor, indifferent to my distress. When I finally calmed, I reached a hand up and wiped away my tears.

I needed to be useful and important to my Queen.

I want to be someone that my family can rely on, but I wouldn’t accomplish that while sitting here wallowing in self pity. I need to become stronger. The time to act like a child has come and passed. It’s time to grow up.

I brushed away the last of my tears. It wasn’t like I would never be able to use magic. I could still learn telekinesis, though I had reservations on how useful that might be. My Queen and Luna gave me the impression that telekinesis was the weakest form of magic.

When I first saw the Queen performing water magic, I had been completely enraptured. Her magic was elegant and beautiful. I had fostered the childish dreams that one day I might become a powerful mage just like her. I wasn’t upset when Luna was taught magic first - she had a real talent for it, and she had the endless patience and industriousness to study for hours and hours with Thaddius to progress down the path of magic.

I wasn't a child anymore. I couldn't let such a small setback like a lack of aptitude for magic upset me so much. If I fall apart as soon as something goes wrong or I make a mistake, I won't be useful to anyone. I need to be much stronger than I am now.

If I wasn’t suited for defending the people I care about on the battlefield, then I would find another purpose for my life.

I ran a clawed hand over the cover of the construction book in my lap. Constructing our first buildings wasn’t glorious work, but it was a start. If I could learn this well enough, maybe the Queen would even start relying on me.

I flipped to the blank pages at the end of the book where I had started drawing plans for the house I wanted to make. There were other blueprints for buildings outlined in the book, and some gave exceptional bonuses. We could even upgrade our house later with a kitchen that would offer morale bonuses and additional experience from overeating.

And then there were defensive structures such as a tower that gave bonuses like enhanced vision range. If we'd had something like that before, we could have seen the wyvern well before it had reached us. We could have hidden and no one would have been hurt.

Alright. No more crying and feeling sorry for myself. If I want to carve out a spot for myself as my Queen's heir, I'll do it with sheer effort and determination. I’m going to build the best buildings the Queen has ever seen!

I stood up from where I had sat by the tree and slapped my cheeks with the palms of my hands, a habit I had picked up from emulating my Queen, and made my way back through the dense greenery and underbrush to my home.

Chapter 22

~ Thaddius ~

The last lingering orange coals of a dying campfire glowed under blackened logs as the afternoon sun peeked through the dense forest canopy. The wind carried a chill indicating the turn of season, and the leaves had even started taking on the characteristic yellow and orange of fall.

That was why I sat here around the faintly glowing coals where we had made our camp the night before. Surprisingly, we hadn’t packed up to continue our travels that morning. Instead, in the morning I watched as several groups of ‘hunters’ stepped out into the dense forest beyond our camp with iron shackles ready for their prey. Past experience told me that they would return in the evening with captured and bloodied beastkin in tow.

This was much further north than almost any expedition would ever go. I suspected that the slavers were looking for more Muerre elves like the girl in the cart, otherwise we wouldn’t have come this far north into unexplored territory.

To that effect, they evidently had taken the day to hunt for more people to enslave.

Disgusted by the thought, I spit into the loamy soil at my feet. A girl, the only other person sitting at this campfire, glanced over in my direction with her usual guarded expression. Her white robes clearly indicated her station as a member of a company of Acrelan Bloodpriests and the enormous greatsword sheathed on her back drove the point home.

A normal person wouldn’t be able to even carry something like that sword, let alone swing it. However, these Bloodpriests come from a country and religion where spilling blood is a form of prayer, and the battlefield is their altar. That’s why they wear these white robes - they are a canvas with which they may proudly display the blood they’ve spilled. How they keep them so perfectly white in spite of that fact, I have no idea.

The country of Acrela puts their children, both boys and girls, through brutal and torturous military training to fill the ranks of their warrior culture. It isn’t unheard of for them to join bandit camps or become mercenaries for hire as they search for a place to spill blood and die in the name of their faith.

The means of their employment are… complicated, and by nature, violent. I only know about these things because of my upbringing as the heir to a noble house. It still surprises me how the leader of this slave caravan was able to win over a company of these Bloodpriests.

I didn’t mind these religious folks. They were well behaved and a few of their people made for surprisingly good conversationalists. This girl in particular, Ryiah, often traded stories with me as we walked with the caravan. I would consider her to be a friendly acquaintance, if not a friend outright. Her company was vastly preferable to the slavers who made up the bulk of the manpower here.

Like the rest of the Bloodpriests in her company, Ryiah carried herself with a perfectly straight posture. Her robe, belted in the midsection with a simple cord around her waist to keep the cloth from moving during combat, loosely wrapped around a surprisingly lithe and slim body considering the sheer strength she boasts to be able to wield such a greatsword.

“Thaddius.” She spoke with the tone of a well-disciplined soldier. Her eyes flicked to my right hand. “Let me see your mana contract.”

I blinked in surprise before holding out my right hand for her inspection. The lines that made up my binding mana contract glowed a faint blue on the back of my right hand and part of my wrist. She let out a soft, contemplative ‘Hmm’ as she examined the magically binding contract.

“When does your contract end?” She glanced up at me with hard eyes.

“When the job is over.” I answered.

She furrowed her brow in thought as she mulled over the subject. She suddenly frowned and opened her mouth to speak, but paused as she flicked her gaze up to meet mine. She spoke carefully with gravity in her voice. “And when is the job over?”

I went to answer, to say that it would be when we make our way back to the human realms, but I stopped myself. I had assumed that would be the case, that I would be able to leave as soon as the slaver caravan returned to a human city, but the wording for the contract hadn’t been exact.

A bead of sweat ran down my forehead in spite of the lingering chill hanging in the air.

The wording had been ambiguous about when I would leave the service of these slavers. ‘When the job is over’ could very well be until they don’t need a guard to watch their caravan, not when we get back to town. This caravan had been running for years according to the slavers I spoke with.

The realization sunk in slowly until I felt like throwing up. Ryiah’s typically hard eyes flashed with sympathy as she regarded my darkening expression.

I stared in growing horror at the glowing blue magic lines framing my wrist. This contract is less of a temporary burden and more of a lifelong shackle. They can keep me here for as long as the caravan keeps running, stringing me along for as long as they like. Forever.

I would be guarding these filthy slavers from danger for the rest of my life, just as much a slave as the people clapped in chains that I transported.

“At least you can die with a sword in your hand.” Ryiah frowned as she tried her hand at comforting me. Of course, only an Acrelan would find the prospect of a violent death to be a comforting thought.

Maybe she was right, though. Maybe death was my only way out. It was vastly preferable to this enslavement.

Even if all the slavers died off, that wouldn’t guarantee my freedom. That scenario might just leave me stuck guarding the ruined remains of a destroyed caravan until I starved to death.

All these last few months I’d been thinking of where I would go after finishing this work with the slavers. I had been disowned and banished from my family, the sole thing that I had dedicated all of my strength and dedication to, and I couldn’t even return home. I had nowhere to go and not a single coin to my name.

Uprooted from everything I know and care about and shoved into this despicable caravan, my heart is in tatters. I have watched these disgusting men drag their female slaves, screaming and crying, into the bushes to have their way with. I have seen children and elderly cut down for being too slow or too weak. Wanton sadism and fear is what truly keeps these wheels turning, and I would never escape it. Perhaps death truly was my best option.

A swift kick to the leg brought me out of my thoughts with a start and I turned to find the dirty face of a slavemaster scowling down at me.

“Yer turn ‘ta go on patrol, Thad’s. Go on ‘en feck off then, yeah?”

My mana contract flashed brightly against my wrist and my hand trembled for a moment before I stood from my seat. Seeing my downcast expression seemed to bring the slavemaster some kind of perverse pleasure and he flashed a somewhat toothless grin at me.

What if…

I glanced down to my right hand at the blue lines making up my mana contract. I wasn’t ready to give up just yet. As I walked to the treeline to start my patrol, I summoned up my tattered will to live and turned to look at Ryiah. A barely noticeable smile crossed her lips as our eyes met and she gave a small nod.

What if I were to cut off this hand?

~ Naomi ~

This bag of bones wasn’t heavy, just awkward to carry. I had considered simply dragging it behind me as I made my way back to Enzirus, but that would risk damaging the old bones on the uneven terrain. I didn’t want to disrespect my mentor’s remains, so I was stuck carrying the awkward bundle in my stubby pink salamander arms.

It had already been a little over an hour and a half since leaving the cabin when I saw a thin line of smoke, presumably from a campfire. At first I thought that the girls must have started a fire back home, but it wasn’t in the direction of Enzirus. I was still several hours from home, and those girls wouldn’t venture this far away without my permission.

If it wasn’t one of my kids, who was it?

I couldn’t help my curiosity and before long I found myself slowly creeping through the underbrush towards the source of the smoke. I was regretting being just about the least stealthy person alive as dry leaves crunched under my feet, even as I tried to walk on tiptoes. If there really was someone out here, there’s no doubt they would hear me coming from a mile away.

I gently set the bag of Thaddius’ bones against the trunk of a particularly tall tree. Mana vault would have let me climb to the top of this tree with only one vault, but I still didn’t have that much control over my new ability, so I instead used a series of regular tail vaults to scale its height. Balancing on a thick bough near the top of the tree, I brushed away leaves to get a better view of the clearing the smoke drifted up from.

People. There were almost one hundred people down there at first glance, and most of them were gathered around these big wagons headed by some kind of large pack animal. Leaning further forward on the branch I perched on, I tried to get a better view of the caravan.

My excitement came to a full stop when I saw the chains and shackles. The very first time I find people out here in the wilderness and they’re slavers.

The slaves made up the majority of the people in the caravan. Most of them looked predominantly human save for some animal-like features like ears, tails or scales. There were a couple bipedal monsters in the mix as well, seated in chains with the other slaves. There were children there too.

I ground my teeth in frustration. I knew that if I found anyone this far out in the wilderness they would most likely be dangerous adventurers or explorers, but I wouldn’t have thought I’d happen upon slavers. Fortunately, they still weren’t close enough to Enzirus for them to be a threat to my family or my home. I had time to figure out what I wanted to do, if anything.

For now, I would return home and keep the three girls from wandering out into the forest. I still had Thaddius’ remains to bury, and I wanted to quickly finish that task so I could figure out what to do about these slavers.

I had dropped deftly down to the forest floor and turned to gather the bag containing Thaddius’ bones when I heard the rustling of leaves behind me.

A lightly bearded man stepped through the brush, clad in leather armor with a sword hanging from his hip. He regarded me with blue eyes and an aloof, slouched demeanor. He flicked his eyes from the bag I was reaching for back to me and frowned deeply. A grimace crossed his face as his right hand, faintly glowing with blue lines tracing out a pattern on his wrist, trembled slightly.

He set his right hand on the hilt of the sword at his hip. The sound of a sword leaving its sheathe filled the silence as he met my eyes with a regretful look.

“W-wait.” I spoke in Elsian as I held up my hands in a placating gesture.

His eyes widened for a moment in surprise before turning to pity. “I’m sorry.”

His posture shifted for only a fraction of a second before lunging forward. He closed the distance between us with an inhuman speed and I could barely follow the movement of his sword as it came for my neck.

An instantaneous reaction with my tail was the only thing that kept the sword from taking my head. The tail vault managed to turn a fatal wound into a grievous one as the blade raked and lacerated my side, cutting a deep gouge into my flesh. I cried out as red blood gushed and sprayed from the wound, painting the forest floor a deep crimson.

I managed to land unsteadily on my feet only to see that the man was already upon me for a second attack. I narrowly managed to dodge the blade with a movement that would be impossible without this exceptionally flexible body. The man was already preparing for a third attack, chaining his swings with fluid motions guiding his blade through the air at an unnatural speed.

I had stored my magical staff away in my bag in order to carry Thaddius’ remains through the forest. Without it, I wouldn’t have any water to cast magic with.

I tail vaulted over his horizontal swing, landing several feet away from the man as a new wound opened up along the length of my tail. The pain didn’t reach me through the adrenaline slamming through my veins.

I didn’t have time to remove the staff. I hadn’t tried this before, but I was desperate. This man was really going to kill me. I traced a mana pattern inside of my messenger bag, finding the familiar shape of my staff in the amalgamous interdimensional storage space.

The tail vault had bought me away from the man but the moment of reprieve was already coming to a close. He was nearly upon me again with that flashing blade as I fed mana into the staff inside my bag.

It worked, and conjured water appeared inside my bag. I yanked the water out of my bag with a mental gesture and immediately slung it into a dense yet roughly cast water blade. The blade slashed against the man’s side, tearing through the leather armor and scoring a shallow wound in his abdomen.

The swordsman stopped his attack immediately, his blade mere inches away, and leapt backwards. He carried a shocked expression and he placed both hands on the hilt of his sword. If his posture had been laid back before, he was the picture of caution now.

At the last moment, right before the water blade cut into him, I fumbled the attack and diverted it into a non-fatal area, only causing superficial wounds. The idea that I might kill this person had unnerved me so thoroughly that I had fumbled my magic. It was one thing to kill an animal in self defense, but this was a person. The idea of watching someone die from my own actions sickened me.

I can only hope that I hadn’t just thrown away my only chance at survival.

“Mage...? A hedge wizard? No, you’re a proper mage.” His voice was familiar, but I didn’t have time to consider it while I channelled mana into my bag and pulled out the resulting water. Healing magic stitched together my wounds as I watched the man who paced back and forth some distance away from me.

It had only been several seconds since the battle started and I was already down by over half my health. I took in deep rasping gulps of air, the brief exertion already having exhausted me. The man opposite me showed no such fatigue, and didn’t seem bothered by the bleeding wound in his side.

As my wounds closed up, I locked eyes with the man. He was a much more skilled fighter than I was, but that didn’t change anything. I hated the idea that I might need to kill this person in order to survive, but I steeled my nerves. I wouldn’t hesitate to defend myself. As my mental image shifted, the globe of water shaped into a water blade, ready to be thrown out at a moment’s notice.

The water blade was just a diversion, though. I prepared to mana vault away, straight through the branches above. Retreat was my only option.

The man seemed to have relaxed a bit since falling back, though he still tightly clutched the sword at his side. The blue lines glowed brightly against his wrist, sending tremors through his hand. His eyes never left mine, no longer full of pity, but the caution of a seasoned fighter. His frown deepened as he watched me shape my water into a blade.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice you pulling your punch with that magic attack. I’m your enemy. Defend yourself.” This man’s voice really was familiar. His hand shook at his side, the blue markings burning white hot as lines of steam sizzled off from the mana formation. He grimaced from the pain and readied himself to attack. The man spoke again through gritted teeth. “Why is your lizard face so easy to read?”

My eyes went wide in realization right as Thaddius launched forward with his blade carving an arc through the air. In a split second decision, I shaped my water blade into a globe of water and smashed my tail into it, giving up on mana vaulting away. The shockwave from my magical tail attack carried the water into Thaddius, drenching him with water and pushing him back several feet but doing no real damage.

I quickly formed a mental image using the water covering his body in the idea that I might be able to stop his movement using water magic. Thaddius shuddered forward slightly and gave me a shocked expression before charging at me again, much slower than before. It had worked, but only reduced his speed rather than completely immobilizing him.

Thaddius’ strength was such that he could just overpower what I was capable of doing with magic. It took nearly all of my focus just to maintain the effect, but dodging his attacks was more realistic than before when I could barely follow his movements.

I gasped with raspy, exhausted breaths as I ducked and dodged around the warrior’s sword, always only a hair away from cutting me apart.

This was Thaddius. His voice was the same, just younger. He even rebuked me for diverting that water blade away from a fatal blow using the same tone of voice the magical book used.

I ducked under Thaddius’ arm as his sword flew overhead, watching as his faintly glowing right hand passed over me. The tremors in his hand vanished while he was fighting.

His behavior had given me the impression that he didn’t want to fight me. The first thing he had even said was an apology. He had given me time to regain my strength after I spared him a death blow from my magic, and I could tell how much that glowing blue formation had hurt him just from watching his reaction. He was being forced to fight.

I ducked under a horizontal swing and lashed out with a tail attack, pushing Thaddius back several feet. The bag of bones caught my eye. Those were the remains of that time travelling archmage.

The skeleton had been missing its right hand, cut off halfway through the forearm. Had that been how that other version of me solved this problem? Had she freed Thaddius from whatever magic this was by cutting off his hand?

Thaddius is a right handed swordfighter of remarkable skill. If he were to lose that hand, it would make sense for him to put all of his focus into magic.

Was this how that great Queen that the magic book spoke of earned his respect and admiration? By freeing him from this magical enslavement?

Thaddius lunged forward with his sword slashing out at me, rapidly closing the distance despite my efforts at slowing him. Ignoring the throbbing headache it always brought on, I created a second mental image, forming a water blade. I lined the blade up with his wrist and tightened my slowing effect on Thaddius.

It was almost as though time had slowed to a crawl as I held the water blade aloft. Thaddius’ sword carved through the air lazily as steam poured out from the burning white lines on his hand.

This is what that great Queen of Adria had done to free her most loyal retainer in that abandoned future. The future in which that version of me had died. The way the magical book had described her, she sounded like a truly incredible, magnanimous ruler.

But it was like hearing stories about someone else, someone much greater than I am. Was it enough to follow her footsteps? To walk the same path she walked and create that same empire anew? To cut my friend’s hand off, stealing away his ability to wield a sword, in order to seal that future in stone?

Thaddius’ eyes pleaded with me to take his hand. Steam sizzled off the magical formation on his wrist as he struggled to buy me time to launch my blade.

Where was this doubt coming from?

No. No, it isn’t enough to follow that dead Queen into the grave. My mentor gave his life so that I might have a chance at survival. I wouldn’t waste his sacrifice like that. No, it wasn’t enough to emulate that time-lost Queen.

I had to surpass her.

Thaddius’ eyes went wide as I dissipated the water blade and further strengthened the slowing effect on his body. I mana vaulted forward, closing the distance between us as swiftly as possible before he could react. I slammed bodily into the man with my shoulder, sending him crashing into a tree. He struggled and thrashed against me as I wrapped my tail around his right hand.

I closed my eyes and opened my mind to my mana sense, focusing on the arm I had tightly wrapped in my tail. The enchantment making up the inscription on Thaddius’ hand glowed with mana more dense than anything I’d seen thus far. I worried for a moment that this might be past my meager ability, but I swallowed my doubts. The markings were remarkably similar to how scrimshawed body art worked, but with some significant differences. Mainly, the density of mana packed into the lines.

Any hope of deconstructing the enchantment flew away as I realized how complex the mana formation was. I still had one other option, but it was reckless. I could try to overcharge the enchantment by feeding excess mana into it. Even with scrimshaw and standard magic, doing this led to varying results. Sometimes the magic would dissipate harmlessly when it passed a threshold, and other times it would dissipate… well, explosively.

Having already made my decision, I pushed mana from my tail towards the blue lines on Thaddius’ wrist. It rejected the foreign mana, pushing back with some kind of defense mechanism that resisted my input. I traced a mental image along the lines as though I were performing scrimshaw art and began forcefully pushing the mana through. It still resisted, but the defense finally broke and mana began rushing into the enchantment. This would have been impossible if I hadn’t learned to utilize mana formations when crafting with my scrimshaw skill.

To my surprise, I felt the added bonus spell power from channeling mana through my tail activate, amplifying the effectiveness of my brute force attempt at disenchanting.

Thaddius thrashed against me as the enchantment lit up like a branding iron. This time, I felt the pain as well and the white hot enchantment torturously seared my skin as steam billowed out from around my tail. I tensed and bit my tongue from the intense pain as I struggled to keep the flow of mana pouring into the inscription. The taste of blood filled my mouth.

Black imperfections appeared across the rapidly darkening blue lines, growing the longer I pumped mana into it. My MP was redlining by now and I released the slowing effect on Thaddius. Every last drop of mana would count. I poured the last of my mana into the lines and collapsed to the ground out of sheer, debilitating exhaustion.

Thaddius slumped down with his back against the tree, staring with a pained expression at the back of his right hand. Black lines had replaced the blue that the mana contract had originally occupied. I could no longer feel magic from the burned-out enchantment, and his hand no longer trembled uncontrollably. His sword clattered to the side, no longer forced to wield it against me.

Thaddius was still sitting there, staring at the back of his hand with an inscrutable expression by the time I was able to move again and push myself up from where I collapsed in the dirt and leaves. He sat quietly against the tree as I channeled healing magic into my remaining injuries before turning to him.

“Does it hurt?” I broke the silence.

He continued to stare at his hand for a moment before nodding slowly.

“I don’t know if my healing magic will work, but I’ll try.” I walked over and knelt beside the young swordsman. I hovered a small globe of water at the tip of my tail. “Give me your hand.”

He looked hesitant for a moment, but held out his hand to me. I ran healing waters across it, clearing away the black lines and revealing silvery scars that traced along the lines where the enchantment had been. Relief filled his expression as my healing magic banished the pain. I mended the injury to his flank too, while I was at it.

“Thank you.” He whispered, barely audible over the leaves rustling in the breeze as he continued to stare down at his hand. He spoke up a little louder and looked up at me from where he lay slumped against the tree’s trunk. “You’ve saved me from a life of slavery. I can never repay the mercy you’ve shown me.”

Thaddius shakily stood, picking up his sword from the patch of dirt where it had rested and slid it into the sheath at his side. “But there is something I must do, and I’m afraid I will likely die in attempting it.” He took several steps in the direction of the slaver caravan before listing to the side and colliding with his shoulder against a tree, breathing heavily.

Disenchanting that mana formation must have really exhausted him, because instead of righting himself, he remained propped against the tree as he tried to catch his breath.

“You want to attack that camp?” I stood from where I had been sitting on the forest floor and walked over to stand by the haggard warrior. “The one full of armed slavers?”

“I have a plan.” He turned to look me in the eye. Despite his clear exhaustion, his eyes burned with determination and resolve. “I’ll slip back into the camp, pretending to come back from guard patrol, free the slaves from their bindings, and use the chaos to get my revenge.”

Clear, efficient, and reasonably well planned, given the situation. Exactly what I would have expected from Thaddius, with only a few exceptions. I must have earned his trust if he was willing to lay out his plans for me. “They’ll be able to tell immediately that you aren’t under your mana contract anymore without the glowing blue lines. We have no idea what side effects could come with burning out a mana contract, and it’s clear you are in no shape to fight, even if you can somehow unlock the bindings.”

Thaddius kept his eyes level with mine, his mouth stretching into a frown as I pointed out all the flaws in his plan. Even so, the determination never left his gaze.

“I have another idea. Come back to my home, rest up, and we’ll think of a better plan.” I proposed. “How long do we have before they break camp?”

“...Three days, give or take.” Thaddius answered hesitantly. “You have already done so much, I couldn’t possibly-”

“It’s decided then.” I declared, cutting him off as I went to gather my things from the forest floor. “I’m not letting you die out there on your own after fighting so hard to save you.”

Thaddius took a bit more convincing, but finally agreed to come with me back to my home to rest up before the assault.

Three days. We had three days to go to war.

Skill: Jump has levelled up to level 9.

Skill: Magical Tail Manipulation has levelled up to level 13.

Skill: Magical Tail Vault has levelled up to level 9.

Skill: Magical Tail Attack has levelled up to level 12.

Skill: Mana Coalescence has levelled up to level 12.

Skill: Salamancy has levelled up to level 4.

Skill discovered: Dodge

Description: Your ability to dodge incoming melee, ranged and magical attacks.

Effect:

+2% effect of Agility when determining the speed and efficacy in which you dodge incoming attacks per skill level.

Skill: Dodge has levelled up to level 5.

Skill discovered: Physical Resistance

Description: This represents your body’s ability to resist physical damage such as cutting, crushing or stabbing.

Effect:

-1% to all incoming physical damage received per skill level.

Note: Physical damage reduction resulting from this skill cannot exceed 90%.

Name: Naomi

Race: Royal Salamanderkin

Level: 6 (89 / 94)

HP: 15 / 15

SP: 15 / 15

MP: 40 / 40

Strength: 5

Agility: 7

Constitution: 5

Endurance: 5

Intelligence: 8

Wisdom: 8

Mana Focus:

Salamancer Focus (3 perk points available)

Skills:

Examine: Lv 11

Scout: Lv 8

Jump: Lv 9

Sprint: Lv 12

Magical Tail Manipulation: Lv 13

Magical Tail Vault: Lv 9

Magical Tail Attack: Lv 12

Death Resistance: Lv 3

Swim: Lv 6

Scrimshaw: Lv 10

Mana Coalescence: Lv 12

Salamancy: Lv 4

Dodge: Lv 5

Physical Resistance: Lv 1

Traits:

Determination

Titles:

Queen

Through great exertion, you have raised the base stat values of Agility, Constitution and Intelligence by one.

Chapter 23

“What’s that brown bag you’re holding?” Thaddius broke the silence as we walked under the shadows of a forest canopy painted with the shades of fall.

I shuffled the bag of bones in my arms - they weren’t heavy, just awkward to carry. I would have liked to avoid having this conversation by depositing the bones in my interdimensional storage bag, but they wouldn’t fit through the opening. As it was, they were slowing me down.

“...Do you want me to carry it?”

“N-no. It’s alright. Sorry for being so slow.” I responded, looking in Thaddius' direction.I had only just saved him from the mana contract that had forced him into a life of subservience, and it would be another couple hours before we arrived at Enzirus. These bones were the remains of the time traveller Thaddius, my mentor and magic instructor, and it felt a little too weird to let him carry his own bones to their burial. “It’s important that I carry it myself.”

One of his eyebrows quirked up and then he nodded sharply.

We had agreed to stay quiet until we were out of range of the slaver camp. According to Thaddius, patrols around the perimeter were frequent, and there was also the threat of the ‘hunters’ finding us.

The hunters ventured out quite a bit further away from the camp than the normal patrols, and they were composed of veteran fighters and trackers that were used to fighting in rough terrain. The hunters’ excursions around the slaver camp increased in range the longer they set up camp and became familiar with the terrain, and since they had only set up camp that morning, they wouldn’t stray too far from the patrols surrounding the caravan.

Thankfully, Thaddius had experience with tracking and was able to cover our tracks well enough to fool any hunters that might catch our trail as we moved along the forest floor. Finally, the young, bearded swordsman assured me we were out of range of the hunters for the time being.

“My name is Naomi, by the way.” I glanced in Thaddius’ direction. Of course I already knew his name, but I didn’t want to broach the issue of time travel this early. I figured I would tell him eventually, but I’d wait until the time was right.

“Thaddius.” he declared. “No surname. Not anymore, anyway, but that’s a long story.”

I nodded at him, agreeing not to bring up what was likely to be a prickly topic. Instead, I wanted to ask him about something he mentioned during our battle.

“What’s a hedge wizard? You brought it up during our fight, saying that I was a ‘proper mage’ instead, like it was something surprising. Are mages rare?”

He stopped in his tracks and fixed a wide eyed stare at me. I stopped as well, shuffling uncomfortably under his scrutiny. Finally coming to some apparent resolution, he began walking again, and I hurried to keep pace with him.

“It makes sense you wouldn’t know about these things way up here in the unclaimed lands. I doubt you’ve had any contact with humans at all. This is common knowledge where I’m from. The phrase ‘hedge wizard’ is what we call people who use the skill ‘Mana Convergence’ to control mana, unlike true mages who use ‘Mana Coalescence.’ I’m far from an expert on the topic, but from what I understand, Mana Convergence uses external, raw mana to cast magic, and Mana Coalescence uses an internal supply of mana.”

”Hedge wizards are inferior in almost every way to a proper mage like yourself. Worse, the magic they use is as dangerous to themselves as it is to others. Their magic is so dangerous to use, that sometimes the ideal method of fighting a hedge wizard is just to wait until their own magic kills them.”

”Hedge wizards are the most common magic user you’ll find, and even they are rare. Maybe around one in ten people can become a hedge wizard, but most won’t ever try. The ones who do, mostly belong to isolated sapient races like batkin or hoblins that are ignorant or indifferent to the danger associated with that kind of magic.”

This was the first I’d heard of another kind of skill that could use magic. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, considering I had already found skills in the system that were evidently redundant, like how scrimshaw and skinning both had an effect on your ability to skin animals. I’m not interested in such a dangerous sounding kind of magic, but the idea of learning multiple ways of casting magic was interesting.

“If one in ten people can become hedge wizards, how many can become true mages like me?” I briefly considered my previous decision to take the levitating tail ability over the spell deflector tail, but decided that it synergized too well with mana vault to have justified taking deflector tail. The levitation ability was just too good.

“That’s a difficult question to answer, because it’s largely political. In the kingdom of Seren, where I lived, there were only seven mages in the entire kingdom. Some realms don’t have any mages at all, and they are considered to be weak as a result. Mages represent a significant asset to a nation, and kingdom-wide celebrations are held when a new mage is acquired.”

”A single experienced mage is the match for over a dozen trained warriors, and anyone who fears them is well justified. There are multiple paths a mage can take, and all of them are immensely useful - They can become weapons of war, healers capable of working miracles, enchanters that bring about technological marvels…”

Thaddius spoke with an uncharacteristic amount of excitement in his voice. Clearly he was very interested in the subject of mages, and his sentiment towards long, informative lectures was no different from the Thaddius I already knew. Still, this was the first I’d been able to learn about magic users in the outside world, and I found it fascinating. Evidently my status as a ‘proper mage’ was more impressive than I had originally thought.

Thaddius seemed to realize he was rambling at this point and cleared his throat.

“To answer your question, maybe around one in a hundred could become a true mage, but it isn’t that simple. The problem has to do with training. If there was ever a way to learn Mana Coalescence without using a magical book, it’s been lost to time. And trust me, people have tried.

There are only two known magical books capable of teaching Mana Coalescence, and they are both held by a neutral party created purely to hold and protect the books in question. Before that neutral party was created, vicious and bloody wars were held with the sole purpose of acquiring a magical book, considering how priceless they are..."

If I could sweat, I'm certain I would have been drenched by now. I resisted the urge to nervously chew on my claws as I plodded along by Thaddius' side.

"The books passed through hands frequently with assassins and thieves flourishing in the bloodbath. The amount of blood shed just to gain access to those books was so immense, that the existing nations, even the ones in current possession of the books, came together in agreement that something had to be done to stop the constant warfare, theft and assassination.”

”An agreement was struck, and The Order of Mages was made to hold the books. Rather than having to wage war to gain access to the books, a kingdom can pay with a massive pile of gold to get one of their prospective mages a chance at learning from one of the books. Naturally, that means that only the most rich countries in the world get access to mages. Seren is one such country.”

“Which begs the question,” Thaddius turned and fixed me with an inquisitive stare, “How did you, a lizard in the middle of nowhere, become a true mage?”

“Well,” I smiled sheepishly at my companion “I have a magical book.”

Again, he stopped in his tracks with a wide-eyed stare.

~~~

The rest of the walk back to Enzirus was lively to say the least. Fortunately, Thaddius was polite enough not to yell at me, but I could tell it was no small feat of will holding him back from that. He immediately jumped into a lecture on why I should never tell anyone, especially a stranger, that I had a magical book in my possession. He made it abundantly clear that the thick expanse of forests separating me from the human realms wouldn’t save me if they learned I had such a priceless item.

Thaddius might have only just met me, but I already knew him well enough that I wouldn’t hesitate to trust him.

I hadn’t known how truly rare and valuable a magical book on Mana Coalescence was, and I agreed to be very careful about who I told about it.

Now that I think about it, doesn’t that mean that the time traveller Thaddius was really incredible for being able to create a treasure like this? I glanced down at the bag of old bones in my arms in respect.

The swordsman was in the middle of a lecture on the depths of human greed when we passed through the last copse of trees and foliage separating us from the glittering crater lake of Enzirus. My companion immediately went silent, and I grinned at him as he observed the floating islands of endless waterfalls.

It really was a spectacular thing to see, and even after months of calling this place my home, I sometimes caught myself staring out at the vibrant floating islands in appreciation. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say this place saved my life.

“I’ll go pull the vine bridge to the shore. Otherwise you’ll be swimming, and it gets cold at night. Doubly so if your clothes are wet.” Thaddius gave me a small nod, not taking his eyes off the floating islands as I went about my preparations to accommodate a guest.

I rapidly climbed to my home island with a series of tail vaults and put away the bag of bones I’d been carrying for later burial. I then found Gwen, and gave her a brief explanation of what had happened and to tell Mudpuppy and Luna not to let slip the real identity of the magical book. I already decided I was probably going to tell him eventually, but I didn't want anyone blurting it out on accident in the meantime.

With my preparations complete, I climbed down the vine bridge that I’d made by tying together floating stones with vines. Originally I had made it so that the three kids could climb up to our island without having the ability to sprint on water and tail vault. Since sprint and tail vault are some of the abilities they practice the most, only Luna still needed the bridge to get back up to our home. Not that she leaves our home island much - evidently it’s easier to practice wind magic at a higher altitude.

I tied off the bridge on the branch of a tree and walked over to where I’d left Thaddius. He’d been staring out at the lake this entire time with a slouched posture and his hands stuffed into his pockets.

“Something like this… I’ve never seen anything like this before. How are those massive rocks floating like they’re weightless? You live here?” he flicked his eyes over at me.

“This is the mana anomaly Enzirus.” I stated simply with a smile, “It’s my home.”

He replied with low hum before turning and walking towards the vine bridge. “You’re pretty interesting, you know that?”

I grinned in response as I walked with him.

“You don’t know the half of it.”

~~~

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Gwendolyn, but you may call me Gwen.” Gwen intoned respectfully, giving a small bow of her head.

“I’m Thaddius.” the swordsman returned her bow and matched her respectful tone. “The pleasure is all mine.”

“It’s the first time I’ve ever met a human…” Gwen noted as she looked Thaddius up and down with curiosity painted plain as day on her face. “You’re taller than I thought you would be!”

“And hairier, too.” Mudpuppy stated flatly from where she sat perched on a rock near the fire pit, the orange flames of a cooking fire glowing against her brown and tan-flecked skin. She snuck a couple curious glances at the bearded warrior when she thought we weren’t looking.

“Puppy, that’s rude…” Luna complained in a small voice. Thaddius gave her a warm smile and she wiggled in embarrassment, finding herself without a magical book to hide behind. I’d gotten enough hell over that book today that I thought we’d put it away for the night, though Luna protested when I took it away.

“Hah?” Mudpuppy looked up from where she’d been poking at the orange coals in the fire pit with the point of her spear. “Ah. Sorry ‘thads.”

“Not at all. I’m not surprised that I’m the first human you’ve met. We don’t normally come this far north into the unclaimed lands.” Thaddius responded.

I handed a wooden cup full of hot tea over to the bearded swordsman which he accepted with a curt ‘thank you.’ It was just a simple tea blend I’d made from local leaves, but it had a good flavor and I was pretty proud of it.

“Why is that, if I may ask?” Gwen took a seat by the fire, but turned her intrigued face over to our guest. “Everything I’ve read of humans indicates that they are the curious sort that love to explain the unexplained and explore the unexplored. Adventurers make their living that way, even. In light of that, much of these northern forests are largely unexplored. How come?”

“Those mountains to the north.” Thaddius jabbed a thumb roughly towards the jagged, seemingly endless mountain range that stretched across the horizon. Those misty peaks were visible even now under pale moonlight and between the trees. “We call those mountains ‘The World's End,’ the graveyard of dragons. It’s the breeding ground for some of the strongest monsters in the world, and most people wouldn’t want to live near such a dangerous place. Dragons are all but extinct now, but their descendents - Wyverns - still prowl among those heights and sow destruction wherever they lurk.”

“We fought one.” Mudpuppy chimed in, suddenly looking more interested in the conversation and pointing at the three scarred claw marks against her side with the tip of her tail. “A wyvern.”

Thaddius’ eyebrows raised in surprise and he glanced over at me for confirmation.

“Yes, a juvenile Quildora.” I nodded over at Mudpuppy. “She was able to hold it off until I could come and scare it away. She’s tougher than she looks!”

“I look plenty tough!” Mudpuppy yelped in complaint.

“Still, a Quildora? It must have been a female. A male would have fought until it died. Not the smartest species of wyvern out there, but very dangerous nonetheless.” Thaddius folded his arms and fixed his gaze on Mudpuppy’s thick scars. He seemed to be hesitating to ask something. “How did you… well, how are you still alive?”

“I have the trait ‘Courage.’” Mudpuppy boasted with a self-satisfied grin plastered on her face. “It lets me survive an attack that would normally kill me and makes me really good with a spear.”

Mudpuppy grinned at Thaddius, maybe searching for confirmation or praise in his expression, but he may as well have turned to stone. A frown stretched across his mouth as his brows knitted together. He simply stared into the flickering, crackling flames of the fire pit. Several uncomfortable moments passed in silence before he finally spoke.

“I see. We will need to discuss this. Tomorrow. In the morning. And I’ll see how good you are with a spear myself.” he finally met Mudpuppy’s gaze, but rather than praise, a flicker of something like pity ran through his eyes.

“A-anyway, we should be getting to bed. It’s getting late.” I interjected, looking to disperse the uncomfortable atmosphere. “I’ll gather the spare blanket for you, Thaddius. Sorry to say that we’ll be sleeping under the stars tonight. At least it’s safe!”

“Thank you, that’s more than enough.” Thaddius gave an embarrassed smile and nodded at me.

Having set out the blankets in our normal sleeping spot, I put out the campfire with a quick motion of my water magic. I briefly considered pulling Thaddius off to the side to talk to him, but I ultimately decided to let him rest. I was worried about his reaction to Mudpuppy's trait, but that could wait until tomorrow. Rather than curling up in bed, I had one last thing to do before I could turn in for the night.

I searched through a sea of stars above me for a specific island high above and shuffled the brown bag full of bones in my arms as I spotted my destination. Setting my tail against the ground, and with a carefully practiced movement, I mana vaulted into the sky.

Mana vault was a very finicky ability, much too inaccurate to use with any kind of finesse. Compared to a normal tail vault, with which I could control my movement to a certain degree of accuracy, mana vault was like being fired out of a cannon. Terrifying and exhilarating, but severely inaccurate. It would be far too dangerous to use without the ability to fine-tune my fall with the levitating tail ability.

Rather than slamming face first into the island like the first time I’d mana vaulted to it, I carefully redirected my trajectory with levitating tail and landed gently on the grassy surface. I approached the time traveller Thaddius’ gravestone and set the brown sack full of his remains in the grass as I retrieved a shovel from my messenger bag.

I dug my mentor’s grave under moonlight as the wind whistled around me. My arms ached by the time I was done and patting down the dirt with the flat of my shovel.

This is the final resting place of my mentor, the Archmage Thaddius of Adria. A time traveller that was so loyal that he sacrificed his own life to give his Queen a chance at survival. It’s because of him that I learned magic so early. Knowing what I know now, it must have taken that time-lost queen years to learn magic. I can’t imagine how she survived. I will do everything I can to ensure my mentor’s sacrifice is not in vain. I bowed my head deeply to the gravestone in respect.

I peered over the edge of the high-flying island at the ground far below. Now that I think of it, wasn’t this the first place I ever allocated my mana focus perk points? Back when I had chosen my levitating tail ability that I use so often.

I sat with my legs hanging off the side of the island and opened up my status page. It indicated that I had three mana focus perk points to spend and focusing on that area of my status page brought up two options.

There was an option to look at new abilities or to spend perk points to augment my existing abilities. All I had at the moment that could be upgraded was just the levitating tail ability, so I brought up the window for new abilities.

Mana Focus: Salamancer Focus

Available perk points: 3

Abilities

Shockwave Shaping: This serves as an upgrade to the mana shockwave produced by physical tail attacks. It allows the shockwave to be manipulated by freeform mana shaping techniques, such as shaping it into a blade or guiding its movement. While producing a tail attack shockwave will not cost mana, shockwave shaping will consume an amount of mana proportional to the resulting effect..

This ability may be modified by future perks.

Perk Point Cost: 2

Distracting Tail: This ability triggers a minor psychic effect on an opponent, influencing them to aim their attacks at your tail instead of more vital areas. Additionally, this effect may cause the opponent to fumble their attack or spellcasting attempt.

This ability may be modified by future perks.

Perk Point Cost: 2

Deflector Tail: This ability allows you to deflect mana-based attacks and spells using the shockwave produced from your tail. There is a chance of failure when performing this ability against a mage that is more highly skilled than yourself.

Perk Point Cost: 2

At first, I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. I had really wanted to take the scythetail ability that I missed out on last time I spent my perk points. There was a very real possibility of violence in the next few days with hostile slavers at my doorstep and I needed a more potent offensive ability than what my water magic allowed.

Also, the ‘deflector tail’ ability originally cost one perk point but now it costs two? What gives? Does buying an ability make future abilities more expensive? If ‘augments’ allow you to upgrade abilities you’ve already bought and abilities get more expensive for each new ability you get… Then it’s almost a question of if I want to have a lot of weak abilities or do I want to have a small number of very powerful, buffed up abilities.

In the end, I went with Shockwave Shaping. The idea of having a psychic attack in my arsenal with ‘Distracting Tail’ was intriguing and also served as a counter to other mages, but it just didn’t fill my current needs for a stronger offensive ability and I was unlikely to run into another mage any time soon. Maybe I would take it in the future if it came up again as an option.

I closed the menus and gave my tail a few experimental swings. I saw the resulting tail shockwave with my mana sense, a kind of sixth sense that lets me ‘feel’ the mana around me. It was a strange feeling to say the least. Normally I could only sense the mana inside of water, as I was a natural water mage, but the mana in my tail shockwave had a very different… feel? Flavor? It’s impossible to describe what having another sense is like.

Water mana had an innate gentleness to it and was content to stay unmoving unless disturbed. The mana in my tail shockwave was completely different; it needed to move. Fortunately, my practice with shaping water magic paid dividends here.

My first instinct was to try and slow the shockwave down so that I could get a better look at the mana I was working with, but the more I slowed it, the faster the mana dispersed until the wave of force dissipated completely. It also didn’t help that the shockwave normally only lasted for around a second before dissipating naturally. I needed to do a tail attack and immediately shape the resulting shockwave.

If I had to give this kind of mana a name, I would call it motion mana, since movement was integral to its use. It was interesting to work with a kind of mana other than water.

After quite a bit of trial and error, I managed to shape the shockwave into a rough blade of force, easily shearing through the tall grass around me. I could tell that the power was much stronger than a normal water blade, but lacked the range of water magic, as the shockwaves dissipated the further they flew. With more practice, I might even be able to compress the shockwave and increase its range or guide it mid-flight.

I opened the mana focus perk page again. I still had one more perk point to spend and if my theory was correct, I would have two abilities I could augment now, and I wouldn’t be able to afford any new abilities. The list of abilities I could augment popped into my view.

Mana Focus: Salamancer Focus

Available perk points: 1

Ability Augments

Levitating Tail: Augmenting this ability with a perk point will increase the maximum slow-fall effect of this ability as well as allow you to levitate above the ground up to a certain height. Additionally, you will be able to cause a small anti-gravity effect on surrounding inanimate objects.

Perk Point Cost: 1

Shockwave Shaping: Augmenting this ability with a perk point will increase the maximum range and power of shockwaves produced by tail attacks. Additionally, you will be able to attach a minor, qualifying spell effect to your tail shockwaves for an additional mana cost. Only spell effects learned through the Salamancy mana focus may be used in this way.

Current qualifying spell effects: None.

Perk Point Cost: 1

I guess the levitating tail ability didn’t qualify as a spell effect that shockwave shaping could use? I mean, it’s a spell that only works on myself, so that could be why. Maybe if I bought the augment for levitating tail, I would be able to attach it to my shockwaves? Pairing it with the psychic attack from earlier was also a fascinating idea.

Even without any spell effects I could use, the added range and power would be a huge help with using this new weapon. I bought the shockwave shaping augment, bringing me down to zero total perk points.

I gave my tail a couple more practice swings, marveling at the added range and strength that the augment added, before stifling a yawn. I’d been up here for over thirty minutes just swinging my tail around, and it was already late at night. It was about time I went back home.

I stood at the edge of the high-flying island and gave my mentor’s gravestone one last glance over my shoulder. With magic swirling around my tail, I stepped off the edge into freefall, confident in my ability to land safely on my home island.

Chapter 24

~ Mudpuppy ~

An involuntary yelp of pain escaped me as a heavy crash against the top of my head sent pin-pricks of pain shivering down my spine. White noise suffused my mind and a deafening ringing filled my ears. Too disoriented to stand after such a blow, my body fell limply to the ground as my spear clattered out of reach. White-hot air filled my lungs as I panted against the cold ground.

“Already this wiped out after only a little light sparring?”

My body groaned in tortured protest as I turned to face my opponent: a bearded demon of a man whose only joy in life is to cause pain and suffering to those in his presence. He loomed over me with a wooden practice staff in one scarred hand and a sadistic smile smeared across his face.

Thaddius leaned over to offer me a hand and hauled me up to my feet.

“Can you not hit me so hard? I thought I died.” I whimpered as I rubbed the bump on my head.

“Absolutely not. There are two reasons why we can train this hard.” The demon held up two fingers. “The fir-”

“The water and my Courage trait.” I cut him off, not willing to suffer through another long winded speech. “No matter how hard you smack me around, you’ll never kill me ‘cause of my Courage trait, and the glowy pond water will take care of any injuries.”

“...Correct.” The man calmly stated. If he’d been irritated by my interruption, he didn’t show it. “And do you know why I hit you so hard?”

‘Maybe 'cause you like hurting people?’ I almost said before sighing and shaking my head to clear it. I didn’t hate Thaddius. He was doing this for my benefit. I’d even been excited to have someone new to spar with. I just hadn’t expected it to hurt so much.

Slipping the tip of my tail under the practice spear from where it lay on the ground, I flipped it up and into my outstretched hand. “It’s ‘cause I wasn’t strong enough to stop you.”

“Partially correct.” The warrior frowned down at me. “I hit you that hard because in a real fight, taking the full force of an attack like that would mean your death. You need to feel the weight of that mistake so that you never make it again.”

“My trait would keep me from dying.” I uneasily pointed out with a frown tugging at the corners of my mouth.

I assumed the stance of the nora-lealu spearform that I’d learned from acquiring my Courage trait, raising the practice spear and holding it close to my chest. We’d only been training for a little over an hour, but already my hands ached and my arms shook with exhaustion.

“That’s a dangerous way to think.” Thaddius raised his hand, telling me to stand down and I planted the end of my spear in the dirt with a relieved sigh. “It’s time we talk about that trait of yours.”

Thaddius found a large boulder to sit on and I followed suit. Realizing that this conversation might take a while, I groaned internally. And I’d been hoping to escape another lecture... At least it was important this time. The man cleared his throat and began.

“‘Courage’ is an epic character trait that has been held by some of the most powerful champions to ever live. Valeheim of the North, the ageless dragon Bristlehammer, Crix’Thithim of the Shifting Sands and other legendary warriors in history are said to have held it.” He levelled a piercing gaze on me. “Normally I would insist on finding someone with the ‘Inspect’ or ‘Examine’ skills to confirm that you do in fact have it, but… Well, frankly I can tell from your scars. You would be dead right now otherwise.”

Of course I already knew that. If the wyvern hadn’t killed me outright, I would have quickly died from the absurd amount of blood that I lost while the Queen fought in my stead. Courage kept me from dying from blood loss, keeping me perpetually near death. In order to actually die, I need to take a second attack after the courage trait activates and saves my life.

“Valeheim of the North sought to unite the savage northern kingdoms under one banner. His crusade swept across the northern realms unabated, subjugating tribal and feudal lords alike. None doubted the unrivalled genius behind Valeheim’s mastery of the chainblades, a weapon unique to the North. Stories were told of his ability to shrug off injuries that would kill any other man.”

“That is, until one night, where a rival army managed to corner and behead him on the battlefield. This didn’t kill him. No, he survived because of his Courage trait. Rather than kill Valeheim, the enemy opted to capture and imprison him. His head was kept in a wooden box for sixteen years, never able to recover and never able to die.”

“With their former king presumed dead, the lords that had bent the knee in the northern conquest declared their independence, splintering the united realm Valeheim sought to create and unravelling his life's work. Even so, when his former allies finally learned that their hero was being held in a state of constant torture, they rallied the old banners to rescue him. The years of isolation and suffering had driven him irreparably insane. Ultimately, he was mercifully executed and laid to rest.”

Thaddius frowned at me from where he sat and let his words hang in the air in silence. I found it impossible to remain calmly seated, bothered by the disturbing story. I paced back and forth, lightly slapping my tail against the dirt as I thought.

Somehow, it didn't feel real to me. Like it was something distant and far away, but the truth was that I could end up like that, caught in a state of constant torture for years until someone showed me mercy. Of course I don’t want to die, but that would be much, much worse.

I stopped my pacing and took a deep breath. I raised a clawed hand to my side and ran my fingers down the deep scars left from my brief fight with the wyvern. My Queen asked me if my scars pained me. That was the first and only time that I ever lied to her. The truth was that they ached all the time, a constant reminder of my failure to protect my family. A failure that I would never repeat.

I faced down that monster knowing full well that I would die because of it. Something like this? It didn’t change anything at all. Give me fear or pain or death, I will protect my Queen until my last.

I turned my gaze to Thaddius, who had been quietly observing as my thoughts played out over my face.

“I like that look in your eyes. Seems like you found your resolve.” The bearded man nodded at me approvingly from where he sat, balanced on top of a large rock.

“I’m not strong enough.” I tightened my grip on the practice spear in my hand. Even though his primary weapon was a sword, this man was much more skilled than me with a spear. I closed my eyes and bowed my head to the man sitting cross-legged above me. “Please teach me.”

“Well then.” He stood, popping his knuckles and fiendishly grinning down at me with a wooden spear clutched in his hand. “We have our work cut out for us, don’t we?”

He leapt off the rock, landing lightly in front of me with his spear held with two hands. He advanced in one fluid motion, carving the point of his spear through the air.

I deflected the stab and made for a counterattack, but the warrior never stopped moving. His combat style was a constant state of fluid motion; even when his attacks were completely blocked, he continued his movement as though he had expected it all along. Not once had I managed to catch him off footed.

The butt of his spear came racing up to my face as I readied my counterattack and only barely managed to dodge it. In the next motion, he disassembled my counterattack and brought the spearpoint towards my neck. I smacked it off course with the shaft of my spear and used the disruption to backpedal.

The Nora-Lealu spearform that I used came from the master spearmen of the Nora people. It was a strange feeling, having learned this spearform from my Courage trait. It was like having someone else’s memories stuffed into my head. It almost felt like at one point in my past, I just suddenly became a human, and a master spearman at that.

It made me feel closer to my Queen, who had memories of being a human before being born here. That was a confusing matter all on its own, though.

No matter how much time passed, these foreign memories never faded.

Even so, having those memories shoved into my head didn’t automatically let me use the new spearform. I had to reflect on what those people did, how they held themselves, their mental state. This was made more difficult by the fact that the Nora people were human, and their spearform was based around how human bodies move.

Salamanderkin were balanced differently, had longer, thinner bodies and much shorter legs and arms. Using this spearform still improved me as a warrior, but it was a challenge to adapt it to my anatomy. Specifically, my tail got in the way. I lifted it off the ground to better approximate the correct stance set out by the Nora, but I struggled with balancing on my feet because of it.

A properly executed Nora-Lealu attack was lightning fast, impossible to defend against. The Nora spearmen could clear the gap between an enemy in a fraction of a second with masters of the spearform even able to fight like that while mid-air. This was a fighting style that relied on overwhelming offensive ability.

Fully fledged warriors using the Nora-Lealu could be recognized by the green lightning that danced along the length of their spear. I’d seen that lightning plenty of times in my memories, but I’d never managed to do it myself. I very much wanted that badge of success.

I held my spear close to my chest, turned sideways and widened my stance. I threw my entire body into the attack. Properly executed, green lightning would rage across the length of the spear. Not a single spark lit up along mine. Properly executed, the attack would near instantly impale the enemy. Compared to that, I was slow.

Thaddius pivoted around my committed assault but didn’t manage to completely dodge it. I cut a small gash into his wrist, drawing blood. This was the first time I had ever managed to put an injury on the hardened warrior. My reverie was short lived though, as the butt of his spear smashed into my stomach and sent me flying into the lake.

I’m not too proud to say that I threw up a little.

Thaddius dipped his wrist into the healing lake water and gave me a beaming smile from where he crouched.

“You actually cut me! Look at you, only a couple hours and you’re already improving. Like a fish in water! You know how many levels I have on you? You’re fantastic, you know that?”

I groaned in response, rubbing at my stomach from where I lay plopped in the mud by the lakeside. I certainly didn’t feel fantastic.

“However,” The warrior’s face turned stern as he looked at me. Here we go. First the carrot, now the stick. I lifted my head to look him in the eye, preparing myself for a verbal lashing. “That was far too careless. Any soldier worth his salt is going to punish you for putting yourself open like that. Even if I hadn’t dodged, you’d be in no position to evade, block or parry an attack.”

Suppressing a sigh, I plopped my face back into the mud. Thaddius continued his assessment of my fighting ability.

“Normally I’d train you in my own style of fighting, but frankly, whatever it is that your trait taught you is better than anything I could teach you.” He stood and planted the butt of his spear in the ground, looking down at me. A contemplative look crossed over his face. “But I feel like you aren’t using it correctly.”

I looked up in surprise. He was right, after all. With what I know about the spearform and the amount of time I've practiced with it, I should have a couple sparks of green lightning on my spear. Pushing myself up into a sitting position, I motioned for him to continue.

“Naomi uses her tail much more in battle. She uses it for mobility, offense and defense.” Thaddius pointed out. The mention of his fight with my Queen had me grumbling internally. I was still frustrated that she was in danger and I wasn’t there to help. “You, on the other hand, don’t use your tail at all. Why?”

“It’s not in the spearform I use. It’s for humans.”

“That’s what I thought.” Thaddius sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

I thought that humans had a little too much hair. They were a little gross to look at, actually. I can’t imagine the Queen looking like this, even if she used to be a human. Did she also have hair all over her face? I shuddered at the thought.

I shook my head to clear it. I was getting distracted.

“It’s holding you back.” Thaddius declared, his tone permitting no dispute. “If that fighting style doesn’t work with your body, you can’t force it.”

I looked up at him in surprise. “What should I do, then?”

“Make it yours. Deconstruct the style you’ve learned and use it to make a new one. A spearform that works with your body and capitalizes on your strengths.” Thaddius jabbed a finger towards my tail.

“You want me to make my own spearform?” I couldn’t help the incredulity from leaking into my voice. I was just an amateur, and something like that should be far out of reach for me.

“They all start somewhere. I’ll help you, of course.”

It isn’t like I hadn’t thought of making my own combat style using the Nora-Lealu spearform as a skeleton, I just wasn’t arrogant enough to think I could actually make anything better. The Nora perfected their martial art form from generation to generation over centuries. How could anything I can make compare to that?

Maybe it would be possible with Thaddius’ help. There was nothing to lose. I nodded at him and stood.

Thaddius nodded back at me as though this was the only answer he would have accepted. He spun his spear and levelled the point at me. “Let’s get started.”

~ Naomi ~

A cleanly executed shockwave blade bisected the tall grass around me. I’d been practicing this new technique all day, and the yellows and oranges of sunset told me my training today was coming to an end.

I had finally managed to use shockwave shaping to consistently form a blade every time. As a result, the area around me was littered with upturned dirt and deep gashes into the earth due to my failed attempts. I felt a little bad tearing up this beautiful little island, and gave an apologetic glance to Thaddius’ grave.

I enjoyed training up here and looking out at the world arrayed around me from this vantage point, so I decided to make it my training spot for the day.

I’d had considerable success with practicing my new Shockwave Shaping ability and producing shockwave blades. Successfully executing the technique and compressing the bladed part of the shockwave slightly increased the range and massively improved the cutting ability of the blades. It has no where near the range of a water blade, but the destructive power of a shockwave blade easily dwarfs anything that I can do with water magic.

The main problem was that I needed to be nearly in melee range to use the ability. It also took good reflexes to successfully cast, since the window of time I had to shape the ability was so narrow. I’m confident that in time I’ll get familiar enough with shaping shockwaves that using them will be second nature, but right now I’m suffering from a lack of practice.

The same was true for all of my salamancer abilities, really. I had only just recently gained them and I haven’t had the time to thoroughly practice them. I felt much more comfortable using water magic, which I had already been practicing for over two months now.

I glanced over my shoulder, down to Enzirus below me. There was a group of moosephant watering themselves at the lake, and I spotted Thaddius and Mudpuppy training with practice spears far below.

I was concerned that the younger version of my friend would be different, but evidently my fear was unwarranted. He was the same person, just less wizened from age and experience. Always the teacher, and the patience of a saint. It was amusing thinking about him teaching Mudpuppy how to fight. He definitely wasn’t going to go easy on her. If that magical book had legs, I'm certain he would have been chasing me down to do my magic practice. Hang in there, Mudpuppy!

The real reason I was up here, training alone, was that I was feeling very anxious. I needed time alone to think and plan. There is a large caravan of hostile slavers nearby and that fact had been wearing on my mind all day. It’s why I had chosen to practice combat magic and dedicated so much time to it today.

Thaddius had given me his compliments, saying he was impressed by how well I had handled myself in my battle with him, but I still felt inadequate. Our fight had been over in minutes, and it was extremely one-sided to begin with. I spent half the battle desperately trying to keep from being cut to ribbons by halfhearted attacks from the swordsman. When I brought my magic to bear against him with a water blade, he shifted from trying to kill me to trying to use me to cut off his hand.

If he had fought seriously, there would have been only one possible outcome. I would have been slaughtered.

How would I fare against slavers trying to capture or kill me or my family?

We still had maybe two days, according to Thaddius, before the caravan started moving again. We didn’t know where they'd be going from there - they could head back home or they could come straight towards Enzirus. Thaddius was going to attack their caravan before they started moving again. That was his deadline and he wouldn’t budge on it.

Naturally, I argued with him over stubbornly sticking to this deadline. I pointed out how the best offensive strategy would be a series of traps and withering assaults aimed at damaging the wagons, thereby slowing or incapacitating the caravan. His rebuttal was that these slavers were already familiar with those tactics and that experienced forerunners and scouts would identify our traps and ambushes beforehand, throwing away our element of surprise.

Additionally, there is evidently a practice of ‘slave raiding’ where caravans are attacked for the sole purpose of stealing away their slaves and as a result, brutal countermeasures are in place. Once it becomes clear that the slavers are outmatched, it’s common practice for the slaves to be executed. For exactly that reason, a slow offensive is not acceptable.

Thaddius assured me that the plan with the best chance of success was a fully committed assault. The best opportunity for one would be at the exact point where they are preparing to pack up and leave their campsite and many of those same scouts and hunters are away, busy with clearing a path forward for the wagons.

The clear and obvious problem with that plan was simple.

Thaddius might be a powerful warrior, but there were over fifty experienced combatants in that caravan. He might be able to take out a couple on his own, especially with the element of surprise, but there was no way he could take them all by himself.

I admired his bravery, but acknowledged his lack of tactical planning. Thaddius’ plan was basically suicide by proxy. We had the advantage of a premeditated ambush. There was a way to win, we just hadn’t thought of it yet.

To be honest, I hadn’t decided I would get involved just yet. If I decided to join and fight by Thaddius’ side, I could very easily die because of that decision. That’s not even considering my family. If I were to go to battle - especially a battle with as dire odds as this one - I can’t imagine that Mudpuppy would let me go alone. I can’t handle the idea of one of them getting injured or worse because I arbitrarily chose to go to war. I can’t afford to take this decision lightly.

Even so, if I do nothing, Thaddius will die. I don’t want that.

Choosing to fight the slavers would mean that people would die because of my actions. Could I actually kill someone? What kind of person would that make me?

They’re slavers. If they’ve come this far north, hunting sapient creatures like myself, then they should be prepared to die because of it. Of course I find the idea of slavery repugnant, but what right do I have to judge the people from this world? They come from a culture entirely divorced and alien from my own, and suffer from a lack of modern sensibilities and norms that I inherited from my reincarnation. I didn’t decide to be born here as a freaky giant salamander. This isn’t even my world - whatever those people decide to do is none of my business.

I dug my fingers into the dirt next to where I sat on the edge of the island that was the archmage’s tomb. It smelled like cut grass and upturned earth from all of the practice I’d done.

I watched from above as the small herd of moosephant watered themselves. The larger ones drank first, and then stood guard for the rest of the herd. A baby, still uneven on its legs, drank last as its mother watched over it.

I was just making excuses, making this pointlessly complicated when it was simple: I was scared. I already knew that I would protect those that I care about. I knew it from the second that I offered to let Thaddius’ stay at my home, and I know it now.

There was no way Thaddius was going into battle alone.

~~~

The night ended in much the same way as normal; I made dinner and we talked around the campfire. Mudpuppy and Thaddius spoke animatedly about a new fighting style they made called ‘Sala-Lealu,’ occasionally standing up to demonstrate a stance or movement. It was some kind of style based on the form that Mudpuppy learned from her trait. I wasn’t sure why she couldn’t just use the form she learned from the trait, but I was glad she was learning to defend herself nonetheless.

Additionally, that night I had finally reached level 7, exclusively from the overeating racial trait that salamanderkin were born with. I patted my belly contentedly, and let out a rather unladylike belch in response. They couldn't all be glorious level-ups earned from the heat of battle, after all.

I struggled to decide on what stat to put the level up point into. I was caught between putting it into constitution for more health, or intelligence for more mana. Or I could put it into Agility, and bravely run away from anything that tries to kill me. I finally settled on putting it into Intelligence. Mana was my bread and butter, and having more MP meant I could stay in the fight for longer before bravely running away.

The next morning, at Gwen’s request, I helped her by chopping down trees and rendering them into rough but usable lumber. I even tried with limited success to use two water saws at once to speed up the work, but I had to go back to using only one when the headaches became too much to handle.

If we managed to assault the slaver caravan and release the slaves kept captive there, they would need to be sheltered somewhere. We couldn’t exactly let them wander in the forest or the shadowlurkers would get to them. Because of that, Gwen’s plans for building a proper house had been put on hold in favor of hastily erecting shanties and lean-tos as a temporary solution.

She took to her task with zealous devotion.

By the time that night came, a very tired looking Gwen had four such structures to show for her work. None of them had doors and because of the rushed work, they were fairly shoddy looking, just planks nailed together. One was leaned up against a big tree by our pond for support.

They would only last for a couple weeks and Gwen was planning on thatching the roofs tomorrow, though we didn’t have the ideal kind of grass nearby for roofing. The best would be using the yellow grass in the choco-choco fields, but we couldn’t risk making the trip with slavers around. She agreed to use the reeds that grew on the banks of the nearby river as a temporary stand-in.

I’d been very impressed with how quickly she had worked and made sure to lavish praise on her. She beamed up at me proudly.

Both Mudpuppy and Gwen were level four now and came up to my shoulders in height. Luna was the shortest of the three because she couldn’t force herself to overeat for the extra experience. She was still level three. At level five they would be considered adults. It was shocking how quickly they had grown up; it had taken them less than two months.

As the night wrapped up, we moved our blankets into the new makeshift shelters. There was plenty of room for us, but in a few days, if everything went well, it would be much more crowded. We had the start of a little town here in Enzirus.

~~~

The next day was very busy. Thaddius, with a sword strapped to his belt, and Mudpuppy with her spear in hand left early in the morning to scout the enemy caravan. Before they left, I gave Thaddius a meaningful glare and the warrior replied with a curt nod. I took that as his guarantee to see my daughter home safely.

I wondered if I was being too trusting with the young swordsman, but shook my head. We had a big battle ahead of us and it wouldn’t do to be questioning the loyalty of one of my few allies.

The atmosphere grew more tense as time passed and the battle loomed closer and closer. Evidently I wasn’t the only one that had been practicing combat magic over the last two days. Luna’s command over the wind was steadily growing in ferocity. She had just hit skill level 7 in Mana Coalescence and her control over wind magic almost mirrored my water magic.

In a demonstration, the quiet girl led me over to a tree near the edge of our island. A claw of wind whistled through the air and gouged grooves into the wood, sending a spray of splinters off to the side. The wind claw wasn’t as strong as my water blades, but the effect was still potent.

She then held up both her hands and lurched forward. Fallen leaves, dirt and branches were sent flying through the air as a roaring torrent of wind rushed by. I held up a hand to protect my face as the wind tore past. Anyone in the path of that would have been thrown off their feet from the sheer force of it. She looked up at me, panting from exertion.

Luna was shaping up to be a very skilled mage.

“I-I’ve been reading about the northern kingdoms of m-men.” Luna started once she caught her breath, stuttering in places. With shaky hands, she held out a book to me that we had taken from the shack in the middle of the woods.

It was a thick, leatherbound book titled ‘Cultural, Religious and Hierarchical Structures in the Northern Realms.’ I leafed through the pages and couldn’t help but be reminded of my old college textbooks. It looked really boring.

“I, um, think that most of the s-slavers will be from the North.” Luna fidgeted as I looked at her.

“That makes sense. It’s closer to us, geographically. Did you learn anything interesting?”

She nodded several times in quick succession and looked down at the book in my hands, speaking more eloquently as she paraphrased the text. “The North is made up of scattered tribes and feudal kingdoms, and they all have their own cultures and religious practices. Surprisingly, the slave trade in the North is only very rarely done for profit, and more commonly done for religious and cultural reasons.

”The local governments often pay for slaver caravans made up of either their own warriors or mercenaries. Um, the group nearby is probably made of mercenaries. It's more complicated than this, but generally speaking, the government then distributes slaves freely to those who need the labor.”

“Huh. That’s a lot different from how my world was. A long time before I was born, in my country, slavery was done for profit. I just kind of assumed it would be the case here, too.”

“Ah.. um, y-yes, I thought that would be the case as well, but I was wrong... It turns out that the majority belief in the North is that some beastkin races can’t live on their own without human support. They think that some beastkin have become so reliant on humans that if they went back to the wild, they would suffer, starve and die. They think it’s good and pious to give beastkin people work, food and a place to live. Even if they force it on them.” Luna tapped her claws together and looked up at me. “The humans think they’re helping them.”

“Well, they’re not! Anyone would prefer to have freedom. They’re just making excuses so they can have free labor.”

“W-well, actually…” Luna held up her hands placatingly and turned to look away, continuing in a quieter tone. “They normally pay them for their work. Um, it’s much less than a human, though.” Luna fidgeted for a moment before turning back to look at me. “That said, I… I love my home. I don’t ever want to live like that.”

“And you won’t.” I placed my hand on her head and lowered myself to her eye level. “I promise.”

~~~

Like the day before, I spent the morning helping Gwen with the makeshift shelters. I collected reeds from the river that the lake of Enzirus fed into while Gwen bound and tied them with twine that was among the supplies from the shack in the forest. This would do for temporary roofing, and it was just in time.

The sky was a dark overcast with a tumultuous wind rustling the forest. The trees whispered with the wind among flashes of lightning and the deep growl of thunder far in the distance warned us of a coming thunderstorm.

We wanted to get the roofing up before it started raining, and even Luna took a break from practicing magic to help us when she saw the hurried pace of our work. Thanks to her, we finished with time to spare.

It was around midday and I was practicing tail shockwaves on the island of the Archmage’s tomb. I glanced over my shoulder at the lake below me. I was growing more and more anxious with the rumbling of distant thunder. I couldn’t help the feeling that something was wrong. Something didn’t sit right with me. Something was coming, and it wasn’t just the storm.

I saw them the moment Thaddius and Mudpuppy burst through the treeline. They hurriedly climbed to our island and I dropped off the edge of this high-flying island to meet them.

Mudpuppy panted heavily, leaning on her spear for support. Thaddius showed no such exhaustion and looked at me with a grave expression.

“They’re leaving early. Tomorrow morning. We saw them packing to leave.”

I gave a relieved sigh before turning to the bearded man and giving him a deep frown. This was bad, but it wasn’t the worst case. We could still work with this. “In the middle of this storm?”

“I spotted a friend who was on patrol. She confirmed it. I’ll be going tonight. Well... now, actually. If I leave too late then the night creatures will come out and make a subtle approach impossible.” Thaddius closed his eyes and knitted his brows together. Taking a moment to draw a deep breath, he bowed deeply to me, his hair falling to obscure his face. “Thank you for all that you’ve d-”

“No, Thaddius. I’m not letting you go to your death out there.”

Thaddius looked up in surprise before composing himself. “I… I have to do this. The things I saw them do... Those bastards need to die for-”

“You’re not going alone. I’m coming with you.” I folded my arms and glared daggers at him, daring him to object. I had already made up my mind and wouldn’t show anything less than my full resolve.

Mudpuppy stepped up beside me and planted the butt of her spear into the mud. “Have a lot more to learn from you, ‘Thads.”

Gwen retrieved a spear of her own and stood next to Mudpuppy. “I want to help, too!”

Luna quietly stepped up beside me as well.

I hadn’t been idle for the last two days. The entire time, I had been thinking. Chewing on different ideas, different plans of attack. I looked at all the resources at my disposal before settling on one idea. It was rough and dangerous, but it might work.

“Don’t worry.” I summoned up my most reassuring smile. The ominous rumbling of thunder sounded as a light drizzle of rain began. “I have a plan.”

Chapter 25

An ear splitting scream sent shivers down my spine and the very trees quivered in fear with the raging storm. The apoplectic, furious monster behind me paid no heed to the trees between us, smashing them aside as it advanced at full sprint. Wind howled around me, sending the heavy deluge of rain sideways into my eyes and face, nearly blinding me. It was everything I could manage just to keep my bearings.

This was the worst plan I’ve ever had. Just an absolutely terrible plan. How could I have thought of something so stupid?

Hey Naomi, here’s an idea, remember that colossal snake that almost killed you when you were born? How about we lead it over to the slavers and use it as a diversion! Nothing could go wrong with that!

I cast a nervous glance over my shoulder at the Greater Serpent nearing on me again, eyes burning with hatred and rage. It screamed in a deafening display of raw fury as I met its eyes and I immediately threw myself forward with a mana vault, narrowly avoiding crashing into a tree with the sudden, breakneck acceleration.

It seems this big bastard wasn’t idle in the last few months since I was born. A quick examine prompt informed me that he had evolved into a Greater Serpent since I last saw him, and gained considerable mass since then. If he was the size of a semi truck before, he was closer to a full blown train now.

Two stubby, thick legs like huge tree trunks tipped with massive claws lay pressed up against his body, occasionally clawing at the earth to propel himself forward. It was more like he was swimming across the land, using the claws to propel his snakelike body forward at a much more rapid pace than something so massive should be capable of.

I was initially worried that I would struggle to find him in the small window of time I had to lead him to the slaver caravan, but finding this ornery monstrosity of a snake turned out to be simple enough due to his massive size. When he saw me, a flicker of something like recognition ran through his eyes before his shrill screech echoed through the forest and the pursuit began anew.

I ducked and dodged over the shadowswept forest floor as the storm raged around me, lit only by the occasional flashes of lightning and deafening rumbling of thunder overhead. I propelled myself forward with a combination of mana vaults and levitation, weaving through the trees desperately despite the limited visibility.

I guided my movement almost completely with my mana sense, as there was enough water around from the raging storm that I could ‘feel’ the mana around me in a perfect sphere. This wasn’t a perfect solution for the lack of visibility, but somehow I hadn’t yet smashed full force into a tree. There were a number of close calls, though.

For a moment, I felt the colossal serpent slow its pace and I turned to look over my shoulder again. I couldn’t have him breaking off the chase before we made it to the caravan.

The serpent suddenly lurched forward, sailing through the air straight at me, fangs bared. I yelped in surprise and ducked under the monster’s gaping maw with a tail shockwave to break my momentum, rolling across the forest floor and gaining a score of bloody scratches along my side. A tail vault from something so massive?

I did a tail vault of my own to escape being crushed under the serpent’s mass as my shockwave blade connected with its underbelly, eliciting a pained, rage-filled scream in protest from my pursuer.

I’m almost there. Just a little further.

As I pushed forward through a wall of wind and rain, the monster thrashed through the forest and overturned trees, sending them crashing to the forest floor. I finally caught sight of the clearing where the caravan made camp through gaps in the trees. The alarmed, nervous shouting of men indicated they were already preparing a defense against the shrieking monstrosity trailing behind me. The advance of this colossal serpent was hardly subtle, of course.

Two mana vaults brought me into the clearing over the caravan, and one final one sent me flying straight up into the air, forcing the serpent to lose sight of me.

The serpent crashed through the last copse of trees with an ear-splitting screech, sending the terrified ranks of defenders immediately into chaos. The leaders of the defending slavers shouted over the slamming of rain and thunder, desperately trying to bring some semblance of order back to the broken line and offer some kind of resistance. Spears and swords found their way to the serpent’s hide, scoring cuts and gashes along the brown scales.

Under the flickering flashes of lightning, the serpent screamed in defiance and crunched its jaws around a man in full plate, tearing him open like a tin can.

I touched down to the ground on the other side of the clearing by the wagons and slaves, hidden behind the trees. Thaddius, Luna, Mudpuppy and Gwen came from their hiding spots to meet me, their faces grave and determined. Thaddius handed me a thick cloak like his own, stolen from scouts they had dispatched along the way. The severity of the storm offered excellent concealment for the rest of our plan, but my skin tone could scarcely be called inconspicuous. The cloak would offer additional camouflage, and I quickly slipped it on over my head.

I nodded at Thaddius, who drew his sword and advanced from the treeline briskly in a crouch. I followed behind him as stealthily as I could manage, tugging the hood over my head.

Everything had gone to plan so far. From here, we would dispatch any guards protecting the slaves and I would use my water saw to cut through the shackles as Thaddius covered me. Mudpuppy, Gwen and Luna would serve as the rearguard, and lead the slaves away from the fighting. They each carried jars full of glowing blue mushrooms which, for now, they kept concealed to the best of their ability to avoid detection. These mushrooms would deter any shadowlurker attacks as they led the slaves back to Enzirus.

Many of the guards watching over the slaves had already left to join the line of defenders who were somehow keeping the serpent at bay. The pained screams and shouting of the slavers filled the air under flashes of lightning, their voices only audible in the gaps between the deafening rumbling of thunder. Under the brief illumination of lightning, I saw the casualties already piling up in chunks of mangled flesh interspersed with crunched iron. We had to work fast before the serpent slaughtered them all and turned to lesser prey.

Thaddius slipped a hand over the mouth of one of the few guards protecting the slaves and impaled him through the back with his sword. The guard struggled for a moment with muffled screams as the swordsman twisted the blade in his back, silencing him.

The guard I had been creeping up on must have heard my approach - I’m admittedly not the most stealthy person out there - and turned towards me with a surprised expression. Before he could yell out a warning, a shockwave blade left the man in two halves that fell to the mud at my feet. I was immediately sickened from the results of my attack, but I didn’t have time to reflect on it.

I approached the first set of slaves who were shackled to a length of chain attached to a wagon with a tarp that was dangerously close to being torn off by the vicious winds whipping by. The slaves, all of them beastkin of various types, shied away from me in fear. No doubt they had just seen me cut a man in half, so I couldn’t blame them for being afraid.

“Don’t worry, I’m here to save you.” I spoke in a low tone as I summoned a spinning water saw. A murmur passed through the slaves as I got to work, sawing through the iron chain.

The metal was proving difficult to cut with the rotating ring of water, and I briefly considered using tail shockwaves to more quickly sever the chains, but I ultimately decided to stick with the water saw. I didn’t have enough control over the shockwaves to keep from making a lot of noise and collateral damage. Additionally, the water saw was less expensive in mana cost because I could accurately control the power I put into it.

I looked up in surprise when I heard the startled voice of a man nearby. He was pointing at me as he yelled into the wind and rain.

“The.. The slaves! They’re stealing the-” The guard’s voice ended in a rasping, bloody gurgle as a spear plunged through his neck. Mudpuppy pulled the spear free, spinning it in her hand before she turned to retreat back to the treeline.

While the guard’s shouting was likely drowned out by the storm, it was possible someone heard him. I anxiously pushed the whirring water saw faster through the chain link. The water saw worked its way through the chain, and before long, the first set of slaves were free.

“Go on, follow Gwen, she will bring you somewhere safe.” I pointed the slaves, still linked together with chains and shackles, towards a break in the treeline where Gwen was waving them over.

I moved on to the next group of slaves who were chained to a carriage, with Thaddius following by my side with his sword drawn.

A body came tearing through the rain from the direction of the serpent and crashed into the side of the carriage. The enormous beast screamed a shrill screech in fury, but I didn’t feel it drawing any closer. I sucked in nervous gulps of air as I stepped over the broken, dismembered body of one of the defenders and got to work cutting the chains.

“I was wondering when you’d show up, Thaddius.” A woman spoke in a calm, level tone with the chaotic cacophony of battle behind her. She wore a simple, white robe belted with a cord of rope at her waist. The woman clutched the hilt of an absurdly massive claymore in her right hand, making no indication that she struggled to carry such a huge hunk of metal. Her eyes were impassive and she carried herself with a stance like a well disciplined soldier.

“Ryiah.” Thaddius calmly spoke, sword held at his side. I could see him tensing up as he stared the girl down.

I finished cutting through the chain, and motioned the slaves to the treeline, keeping an eye on the two warriors as I moved to the next set of slaves.

I struggled to read the girl’s expression, especially through the thick rain, but I didn’t get the impression that she was about to attack. She raised her free hand and brushed a drenched lock of black hair out of her face, and then she spoke. “The leader of this caravan has an enchanted item. The Ring of Burning Blood greatly enhances the wearer’s physical capabilities far beyond their normal maximum. The trade-off is that it’s unbelievably painful to use and it drinks your blood to maintain the effect.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Thaddius’ voice carried a cautious note as he held his sword aloft.

“The ring is a holy relic for my people.” She answered immediately. “It’s why we’re with the caravan. Years of service of one of our bands of blood priests was his price for the relic.” She stood, unmoving, with her back perfectly straight and posture impeccable, as she addressed the bearded warrior opposite her. “I am dissatisfied with the direction my service has gone under his leadership. If you will give me the ring after we rip the man’s head from his shoulders, I will gladly defect to your side.”

Thaddius dispassionately studied the thin woman before him as wind and rain raged around them. "And the rest of your blood priest company?"

"When you approached me earlier today, I thought you might try something like this. Ah- well, that is..." She turned her head and with her free hand, she gestured towards the screaming serpent behind her. "I didn't expect this, exactly. Fine piece of work, by the way. It's madness over there."

"Can't take credit for the snake. That one's courtesy of my new friend."

"Right. Anyway. I told my company to promptly find themselves elsewhere. They're somewhere in the forest, on 'guard duty.' If I get the ring, great. If I die, the lieutenant takes over. No harm done." The girl paused for a moment, before adding: "Except to myself, I suppose. My loyalty for one ring. What's your decision?"

Thaddius glanced over at me and I nodded a quick approval. If he trusted her, I would too. The swordsman turned back to the white-robed woman. “Deal.”

“Excellent.” A small smile crossed her lips and she raised the claymore from her side as though it were entirely weightless. How strong was this girl to be able to hold that monstrous sword so effortlessly?

Thaddius waved her over to a nearby carriage. “See if you can somehow get these locks open. We don’t have the... key...”

Ryiah’s claymore cleaved into the door, splitting the locking mechanism in half. She then yanked the handle of the sword to the side, wrenching the mutilated door open. A very terrified violet-skinned girl in a white dress cowered in a corner of the carriage.

“Blood priests aren’t well suited for humanitarian acts, Thaddius.” Ryiah gave the swordsman a level stare and rested the flat of her claymore against her shoulder.

Thaddius declined to give a response, instead pushing past her and coaxing the girl out of the carriage.

I turned my attention back to my work and severed the chain that I’d been sawing in half. I motioned the slaves over to the spot in the treeline that we’d established as our escape route. We were almost halfway done now, and I hurried towards the next set of slaves shackled together with a length of chain.

The door to a large carriage right across from me burst open and a number of armed men filed out into the rain and wind. A woman with freckles, cat ears and not a stitch of clothing sobbed quietly in a corner of the carriage. An examine prompt indicated that the men were all over level 20, and with stats and skills that would put mine to shame. Panic washed over me. They were so close that if they just turned their heads they would see me.

I dropped to my belly and crawled through the mud until I was under the carriage. Even as I did this, I didn’t dismiss my water saw that continued to steadily chew through the next link of chain. Several slaves inched closer to the carriage, using their bodies to keep the nearby soldiers from seeing me.

To my relief, I caught sight of Thaddius and the white-robed woman with the claymore hidden behind a wagon. Good. We needed to keep the element of surprise for as long as we could.

I couldn’t hear what the nearby enemy soldiers were saying over the storm and discord of battle, but they were looking in the direction of the serpent, and didn’t seem to have noticed that many of the slaves were missing from the caravan. One of the men, taller and bulkier than the others, made a gesture towards the serpent and the other soldiers drew their weapons and charged.

The tall, iron-clad man observed the battle from a distance as heavy rain drummed a staccato of war against his armor and lightning crackled among black clouds. The serpent screamed in pain as one of the new fighters joined the fray with a dazzling display of swordsmanship.

My water saw finished cutting free the slaves and the chain separated with the light clinking of metal.

The man’s body tensed for a second, and to my horror, he turned his head in my direction. Gray eyes met mine for only a moment before his body burst into blood red flames. His mouth cracked into a wide smile as crimson flames licked and danced around the plates of his armor.

Thaddius and Ryiah reacted immediately, throwing themselves towards the man who turned to meet them. I quickly motioned the slaves to our rearguard and sprinted to the next set of slaves, giving up any notion of stealth. I immediately sunk another water saw into the next length of chain and cast a nervous glance over my shoulder at the vicious battle unfolding behind me.

The burning warrior fought without any weapons whatsoever, instead using only his iron-gauntleted fists that billowed blood-red flames as he swung. He was unbelievably fast, maybe faster than even Thaddius. The ominous, glowing crimson flames didn’t produce a lot of light, but they did trace an outline of the man as he darted around the attacks of my two allies. I could barely follow his movements with my eyes.

In one motion, I watched him duck under Thaddius’ horizontal sword swing, punch the flat of Ryiah’s claymore to divert its path, and deliver a kick into Thaddius’ side that sent him flying backwards. Thaddius rolled across the ground, carried by the momentum of that powerful attack before coming to a stop. He held a hand to his broken ribs as he pushed himself to his feet, still clutching the shortsword in his hand. He straightened as though he were completely uninjured and lunged forward, diving back into a deadly dance of fists and blades.

I desperately wanted to help, but I had my job just as they had theirs. I needed to free the slaves so that Thaddius could fight with no reservations. Also, I wasn’t sure that I would even be able to help at all in a fight like that. Their battle was completely out of my league.

As I sawed through the chain at a furious pace, I caught glimpses of the fighting behind me.

Ryiah’s arm was broken and she wielded her claymore one-handed in her left hand. She was still holding her own, but she wasn’t able to go on the offensive nearly as much as when she was in peak condition.

An injury like that was well out of my capabilities to heal. Enzirus’ water could heal it, but the lake was too far away. The best that I could do was cut through these chains as fast as possible and try to offer support. I ground the water saw into the chain as hard as I could, and the metal separated with a loud squeal.

I tail vaulted to the next group of slaves and slashed the chain in half with a shockwave blade, tearing up the metal chains, part of the wagon’s rear wheel and the ground in one swift, powerful motion. We were out of time, and I needed to cut the remaining slaves free immediately before things got ugly.

Thaddius and Ryiah fought desperately against the man wreathed in red flames. The man threw a burning punch towards Thaddius’ face, but the swordsman brought up his blade and impaled the incoming fist along its length, splitting his forearm in half. The burning pugilist’s smile only grew wider as the wound opened.

He backpedaled and clutched at the grievously wounded arm with his uninjured one, his face warring between excruciating pain and an expression of sheer bloodlust. He settled on a manic grin as thick ribbons of blood gathered from the wound and floated towards a ring on his uninjured arm. The flames grew more intense as rivulets of blood seeped into the ring. The man shrieked out a deranged laugh as he stared down the exhausted and injured warriors opposite him.

“Thaddius you bloody traitor! From the start I knew it was a bad idea taking you on my caravan.” He hacked out another bout of laughter and coughed up a spray of blood as he did so, grinding his teeth as he tried to swallow the agony of the bloodflames dancing around him.

If the man had been paying attention, he might have seen a massive shadow approaching behind him. Thaddius and Ryiah stepped back in a slow retreat.

The burning warrior must have thought he was intimidating them, and he continued his tirade, shuddering a step after them. “You know what I do with traitors? I cut them up into chunks and feed them to the lurkers, you dumb bastard! You could have run, but you came right back to me! And you, blood priest, don't think I've forgotten about you!”

He strode towards them, furiously delivering promises of unendurable torture as he walked confidently through the violent storm. He was still delivering empty threats when a massive set of jaws closed around him. The metal armor covering his body squealed as massive fangs easily tore through the protective plates.

The serpent tossed the still-burning body of the pugilist into the air as the man screamed. It opened its jaws and swallowed him whole.

The clearing was still for a moment, save for the slamming of rain and rumble of thunder. Bodies littered the area, some dismembered beyond any recognition. I cut the chain to the last group of slaves and hurried them to the escape route. The massive snake hadn’t gone uninjured from the vicious battle; its body was a bloody canvas of wounds. The serpent glared at Thaddius and Ryiah, who shuffled a slow retreat, clearly uneager to become the next casualties to this monstrous snake.

Lightning crackled above and with a furious scream, the serpent burst into a blood-red flame.

Chapter 26

Crimson flames danced around the serpent as it shrieked out a scream of rage. The air around me vibrated from the empowered roar, deafening my ears with a shrill ringing. I slammed my hands over my ears, trying to fend off the sound echoing through my head.

A foggy darkness clawed at the edges of my vision, threatening to send me into unconsciousness. The moment seemed to crawl on forever, and at some point I fell to my knees. Finally, the serpent had exhausted its lungs and finished its scream, but the disorienting aftereffects still lingered as I stumbled to my feet, struggling to just stay standing. My heart slammed in my chest and I felt sick.

I looked up to see that Thaddius and Ryiah weren’t faring much better. They were still standing, but were in no shape to fight.

The serpent thrashed about in the clearing, shuddering as it examined its own body. It was clearly in terrible pain from the bloodflames and, with the simple mind of an animal, it couldn’t understand why. Blood floated from the gargantuan snake’s plethora of battle wounds, forming into thick ribbons of blood. The ribbons flowed around the crimson flames swirling from the terrible beast’s flesh, looking for a path to feed the ring.

A snake, of course, was not the intended user of the ring of burning blood. The ring was inside its own body, and the thick ribbons of blood twirling through the air had no path to reach the ring as it was.

So they made a path.

Thick spears of blood shot through the serpent’s scales, tearing straight through the monster’s flesh. And the more wounds the serpent acquired, the faster blood surged forth and tore new pathways to the ring. The serpent’s scales slowly lost their vibrant luster as blood was pulled from gashes in its flesh.

But even now, with its own blood tearing the serpent apart from inside, the monster didn’t die.

Another pained scream peeled out from between the gleaming fangs of the serpent before it lowered its head and searched for a new enemy to take out its pain and fury on.

Several slavers had survived the battle up to this point and, seeing the enemy that had been tearing them to shreds suddenly empowered, immediately gave up the fight to flee for the trees. Still struggling to recover from the ear-splitting screech, they scrambled and staggered into the darkness of the forest.

The serpent didn’t seem to notice or care about the slavers fleeing the clearing, instead settling its burning, slitted eyes on Thaddius and Ryiah. Thaddius had dropped to a knee, holding a hand to his side, and Ryiah wasn’t looking much better. Rain sizzled off its burning scales as the monster pulled back to strike.

I reacted immediately, tearing forward in a mana vault straight at the gargantuan beast. Ominous thunder rolled overhead.

The serpent lashed forward with all the force of its bloodflame-empowered body, straight towards Thaddius. He looked up in surprise and shock at the massive, fang-filled maw threatening to tear him apart.

In my haste, I accidentally tapped my tail into the ground as I tore through the air, sending myself into an uncontrolled spin. I desperately swung my tail along the arc of my spin, sending out a massive cartwheel tail shockwave and barely managing to shape it into a blade at the last moment before I hit the ground.

The massive circular shockwave blade tore up both the ground and the serpent’s underside in a full moon of blood and drenched soil, sending it off course just enough that it wouldn’t take my ally in its jaws. That didn’t stop the considerable momentum of the massive snake though, and colliding with the serpent’s body sent both of my allies flying a dozen feet away, splattering and rolling across the mud-slicked ground.

Blood from the serpent’s fresh wound speared through the monster’s flesh, eliciting another painful scream from the behemoth. The injury wasn’t nearly as deep as I had hoped, but the fresh blood still managed to injure it. The seething snake thrashed about as it tried to reorient itself after its massive attack.

I searched for my allies and caught sight of Ryiah’s white robe some ways away. Thaddius was struggling to his feet, but it was clear that his wounds couldn’t be ignored any longer.

“I’ll distract it long enough for you to escape then I’ll mana vault away!” I shouted at the blood priest. She seemed to have heard me through damaged ears and the slamming rain, because she pulled Thaddius’ arm over her shoulders and retreated towards the forest, broken arm hanging limply at her side. She gave me a meaningful look over her shoulder, but I was already turning to face down my old nemesis.

The greater serpent locked its eyes on me and recognition flashed across its face, quivering in hate, rage and pain. It reeled back to strike, and I dodged to the side. The ground I’d just occupied exploded as the crimson-red flaming snake tore into the spot. Immediately, the serpent’s tail came whipping towards me, tearing through and snapping trees, sending them crashing down as it aimed to body slam me.

I tail vaulted straight up to avoid being crushed. The rain and wind tossed my cloak around as I fell through the air above the serpent.

This wasn’t going as planned. I had hoped to focus on avoiding the creature’s attacks to keep it occupied, but it was too fast and too strong. As it was, I wouldn’t last much longer in a direct confrontation. I would need to mana vault away to escape and use hit and run attacks under cover of the storm to keep it distracted long enough for my allies to get away.

Reorienting myself mid-air, I mana vaulted away. Right as the acceleration of the mana vault sent me flying forward, I heard a sharp crack and a line of trees exploded from the sheer force of the serpent’s movement. Alarmed, I turned to see a massive, burning tail whipping towards me at a breakneck speed. It was too fast. There was nothing I could do.

I blacked out to the feeling of overwhelming pain and the sickening sound of bones cracking.

I woke with a gasp, rain slashing against my face. An insistent ringing echoed through my head as the air vibrated. My vision swam and I couldn’t seem to focus my eyes. How long had I been unconscious? My health indicator blinked red in warning.

I had crashed into a tree and lay there with my back against it, half submerged in mud as the rain slammed around me. My body thrummed in intense pain, particularly along my back.

A growing apprehension settled over me as I tried to move, sending a series of startling cracks and pops down my back, accompanied with brief, sharp pains. I struggled to move my legs and tail in the mud below me, sending blasts of pain through my body. One of my legs was broken, and there was something wrong with my back. The serpent’s scream ended but the disorientation lingered as I, in growing terror, fought to keep the world from spinning around me.

I wouldn’t be able to move with these wounds, let alone fight.

I reached out to the rain and channeled healing water to my injuries, but I knew it was hopeless. This kind of injury was well out of my ability to heal. I’m not even certain if Enzirus’ healing waters could completely restore this kind of damage.

The ground rumbled underneath with the movement of some colossal beast lurking in the shadows of the clearing before me. I tried to focus my eyes, desperately searching through the trees, rain and darkness for the monstrous serpent. A quick flicker of faint crimson movement and a heavy rumbling in the ground suggested it was still nearby.

Lightning flashed across the sky, lighting up the clearing for a brief moment. Several white robed warriors faced down the gargantuan form of the serpent. The monster looked much more disheveled, the crimson flames waning as blood from the beast’s considerable wounds slowed to a trickle. It looked like the skeletal outline of a snake, almost drained dry.

The ring had been doing its work while I was unconscious.

But it was still moving, and the warriors were not faring well against the monster. Several of their bodies lay in the mud, unmoving, and the few remaining warriors displayed significant injuries. Ryiah fought with her massive sword held defiantly in her left hand, her broken right arm hanging uselessly at her side.

They were fighting for their own benefit - to acquire the ring, of course. If the serpent escaped into these unfamiliar woods it might be lost forever to them, so I understood the necessity for them to come and fight. However, from my perspective, I couldn’t see their intervention as anything other than an attempted rescue. A rescue that wasn’t going well.

The serpent crushed one warrior under its cadaverous body, the clear outline of ribs tracing lines along its bloodless, pale scales. In the next moment, the serpent closed its jaws around Ryiah. She struggled futilely in retaliation before the faintly burning, near-skeletal monster crunched her body under its massive fangs. Her claymore fell from her hand, embedding itself in the earth below.

The woman’s body dropped to the ground as the enraged attacks from one of her fellows found its way to the beast’s flank, bringing forth a scraping wheeze of pain from the serpent. Ryiah’s body lay still and unmoving as rain and death fell around her.

As I watched the blood priests fall, one by one, I came to the realization that I was going to die here, effectively paralyzed and half submerged in mud. If the serpent didn’t kill me itself, the shadowlurkers would make short work of me.

The serpent raised its head to the sky when the last blood priest fell to its might and let out a shrill scream into the night sky.

I grit my teeth and braced myself as the air vibrated with the empowered screech.

Terror and fear of death raged through me unabated. My fractured ribs ached as I tried to take in slow breaths to calm myself. There was no point in giving in to my own fear. This was a good way to die - I had liberated a slave convoy and fell while trying to rescue my friend. A respectable death. My daughters were most likely fine. They had the safest role in this assault out of any of us, and it isn’t as though they’re defenseless. They would be okay.

The serpent lowered its head and began casting its still-burning eyes around the clearing, searching for something. Searching for me.

A lingering, regretful sadness settled into the back of my mind as rain fell around me. I was tired of fighting. More than anything, I just wanted to go home. I thought about Enzirus, that magnificent lake of floating islands and waterfalls. I thought about catching fish and making dinner for those three kids. They weren’t really kids anymore - they were just about adults now, but I struggled to think of them that way. It’s been such a short time since they were born, but they grew up so fast.

Thick sheets of rain slammed around me, churning up the earth into a thick mud. The serpent cast red, slitted eyes across the trees as it looked for its next victim, dark red flickers of flame still crawling along the length of its massive frame.

When had I started thinking of that floating island as my home? I hadn’t really been in this world for that long - only a few short months, but when I thought of home, Enzirus was what immediately popped into my mind. In a lot of ways, I felt much more alive in this world than I ever did on Earth. It made the idea of dying that much harder.

Rain thundered around me.

I balled my hand into a fist and grit my teeth. No, not yet. I was still alive. I didn’t have the luxury of giving up just yet.

In the past, I’d been saved from death by levelling up. I flicked my eyes to my notifications, skipping past the odd skill level ups to find my experience gain. I had dispatched one low level slaver in the assault on the caravan. Well, he had been low level compared to the other slavers, but he was still higher level than me. Even so, I had managed to finish him with only one shockwave blade, a testament to the vicious power of the magical ability.

Enemies Defeated:

1x Level 9 Human Male

Experience Gained: 27

Experience to next level: 91

Note: Experience gain augmented due to a significant difference in level.

Not enough. Not even close to being enough. Fortunately for me, there was a big chunk of experience points right in front of me.

The serpent swept its eyes over the trees lining the clearing, searching for me. From my pathetic, broken state, I coughed up blood as I watched the monster. The beast’s hearing must be similarly empowered, as it immediately turned to meet my gaze. Its eyes flickered with the last remaining coals of bloodflame, a crimson blaze lingering in the depths of its slitted eyes.

I bared my teeth in a bloody grimace as it turned to charge at me. The colossal, near-skeletal monster let out a croaking hiss, a drained attempt at one of its ear-splitting screeches. We were both dying.

My body screamed in pain as I raised my right hand and conjured a water blade from the rain around me. I struggled to hold the image as pain raged through me. The serpent clawed at the ground, lurching towards me as its rib bones ground against the earth.

I launched the water blade and it dashed against the monster’s hide, the pale scales tearing easily, and left a surface wound. A small trickle of blood rose from the injury and speared into the monster. It continued to thrash towards me with the dregs of its strength.

Another water blade flew from my hand, cutting a deep groove along the length of its body. It hissed out another scream, putting the last of its strength into the rage-filled screech as it neared on me, fangs bared to tear me apart as its final act of revenge. The air vibrated and my head swam as the awful death throes of my nemesis echoed through the trees.

I struggled under the pressure of the screaming serpent to conjure my last water blade. The monster pulled back to strike, and my water blade traced a path towards the beast. It tore into the serpent’s right eye, sending a splattering of blood into the rain and wind. The thick ribbon floated into the air, dancing between raindrops with the crimson grace of Death itself, before finding the most direct path to the ring.

It tore through the serpent’s skull, and the great beast struggled its last, collapsing at my feet.

Enemies Defeated:

1x Level 39 Greater Crater Lake Serpent

Experience Gained: 390

Experience to next level: 0

Note: Experience gain augmented due to a significant difference in level.

Level up! Experience requirement to reach Level 8 has been met. You have one statistic point to allocate.

Level up! Experience requirement to reach Level 9 has been met. You have two statistic points to allocate.

Previously, the sensation of levelling up had been a pleasant one. This time was very much the opposite. I felt it as the vertebrae of my spine realigned, clicking and snapping into place. Broken bones swam through my body to return to their correct position. My body groaned and cracked painfully as my injuries were repaired.

When the sensation faded, my body ached so thoroughly that I was nearly in agony. Shivers of pain ran down my spine, and I struggled to move my legs and tail. Half of my health bar was grayed out, maybe as an indicator for the extent of my lasting wounds and I struggled to stand on shaky legs. My lower body felt somewhat distant and hard to control.

I removed my staff from the messenger bag hanging at my side, using it to prop myself up. I limped forward into the clearing and past the corpse of my nemesis. Even through the terrible pain shooting down my back, a grin tugged at the corners of my mouth.

I survived.

Out of the corner of my eye, and obscured through the rain and darkness, I glimpsed the outlines of two people. One loomed dangerously over the other with what seemed to be a weapon of some sort. My back popped and cracked painfully as I cautiously limped towards them.

~ Gwendolyn ~

I was worried about my Queen. She had stayed to fight, and that monster was so terrifying. I could still hear it screaming, sending shivers of fear trembling down my spine as I passed between trees under dark and storming clouds.

I could feel Mudpuppy’s disappointment that she wasn’t there to protect the Queen and I empathized. I hated the idea of having her be in danger, but we had an important role to play.

There were around fifty or sixty freed slaves in total, based on a quick headcount before we started the long trek back to Enzirus. Their chains rattled, still shackled together as we trudged through shadows and rain. The Queen hadn’t had time to completely cut them all loose, and the various beastkin dragged a length of chain behind them across the soaked earth as we walked.

Mudpuppy took point, with myself at the end of the group and Luna up ahead. I watched her jar of glowing mushrooms bob up and down as the small girl bravely cut a path through the rain. I clutched my glowing jar tightly in my hands and held it higher up, nervously glancing to the darkness on either side of me, frightened of the monsters that may linger beyond the safety of this faint light.

The Queen was adamant that we understood the danger lurking in the darkness of night.

Our pace slowed to a halt as a woman tripped over something in the dark and fell over, yelping in pain. She had a tail much like mine, though hers came to a sharp point at the end and was covered in scales. Those same purple scales were present from her hands up to her elbows.

I was about to step up to the girl to help her to her feet, but a strange man came up to her first. He bent down to help her up, and I was surprised to see that, while he was still shackled, the chains attached to his shackles had been ripped off from the links of iron connecting him to the other slaves.

This man was unusual in several ways - he was the only old person out of all of the slaves. Long, unkempt salt and pepper hair fell around two bone-colored horns protruding from his forehead. Those horns curved at a sharp 90 degree angle to run parallel with his head. Other than his horns, he looked completely human.

“Can you stand?” The older gentleman asked softly as he held out a hand to her. She tried to stand, chains rattling together, but fell back to the ground with a whimper. “Ah, no good. You’ve sprained your ankle.” The man frowned down at the girl in sympathy before looking in my direction. “Pardon me for asking, but how much further away is this safe place you’re bringing us to?”

“At least another two hours at this pace. Is she okay?”

“I see. Thank you. And yes, she’ll be fine.” The man gave me a reassuring smile before he reached down and picked up the girl in his arms. Her face lit up a bright red but she didn’t protest; just looked away in embarrassment. In spite of his progressing age, he easily carried the woman without any visible strain. “I’ll handle this. Let’s continue on.”

We hurried to catch up to the rest of the group, following after Luna’s pale blue light. I was curious about the unusual horned man. He exuded this aura of calmness and composure that I found comforting. I resolved to ask his name later once things had settled down. For now, I had to stay vigilant.

We walked like that for a time as the sound of fighting at the caravan faded into the raging storm. Every now and again the distant shrill of a monster’s enraged scream would drown out the pouring rain and my worry and anxiety over the Queen’s safety would resurface.

Then it happened. My breath caught in my throat as I spotted a pair of glowing yellow eyes staring at me from a patch of murky darkness between the trees. More yellow eyes followed suit, watching as we walked. Our pace became frantic as the voices of frightened people alerted others to the danger.

And then the laughter started. That sickening, mind twisting laughter wrought of nightmares. It started as a small, mocking snickering, and quickly grew to a shrieking cacophony as more voices joined in. Yellow eyes danced in the shadows as fear and panic swept across the group.

Any semblance of order vanished as people began to run. The laughter echoed around us, broken up only by the booming roll of thunder.

An irrational, overwhelming fear clawed its way into my mind, leaving me shivering and gasping for air as my heart slammed in my chest and the shrieking voices echoed between the trees from a dark place beyond sanity. Even still, I held up my pale blue jar of mushrooms in a desperate bid to fend off the howling beasts. Somehow my legs kept working as I ran with the group.

Some people screamed in terror and others just fell over, paralyzed in fear from the laughing demons. They were dragged through the mud by their chains as others ran as fast as their legs could carry them.

One of the hideous, twisted black quilled beasts darted out from between the trees, screaming in laughter as it charged. In my panic and haste to avoid the monster, I dropped my jar. The glass shattered and mushrooms scattered across the ground to be swallowed by the muck and rain.

A pit settled in my stomach as I realized the extent of my mistake.

The beast cut me off from the group, and I fell to the ground to avoid being bitten by it. I desperately waved my spear at the monster, hands shaking in uncontrolled terror. The black-quilled nightmare lunged at me and I scrambled away. More of the monsters stepped out from the trees and made to surround me for the kill, taunting and mocking laughter broken up only by the roll of distant thunder.

The group of fleeing slaves grew more distant as they fled from the shadowlurkers, and I was now alone in the dark with monsters at my heels. I turned and ran in the only direction that hadn’t been blocked off as the beasts tried to circle me.

They gave chase, raucous laughter following close behind as they charged after me. Among the pouring rain, a chill white fog licked at my heels as I plunged through the darkness. Any time I tried to change course or veer to the side, another yellow eyed beast would slip out from the shadows and rush at me, and I would have to return to my previous direction to avoid being bitten.

Shrieking laughter came from every direction and the world spun around me as I ran from this waking nightmare. It might have only been from that fleeting lapse of sanity as I fled under dark forest canopies, but there were times when the howling voices of my pursuers mixed with the frigid storming winds into something that sounded almost like words; Like the monsters in the darkness were barking orders at each other in their own primal, twisted language.

The beasts would come just close enough that they could attack, but always failed to deliver, stopping just short of biting me. They would immediately back off whenever I fearfully swung my spear in their direction, even if they were at no threat of being hit by it.

If my mind wasn’t in tatters from the screaming laughter, I might have felt like I was being herded, forced to move in a specific direction.

I lost sense of time as the trees blurred around me and my legs burned from exertion. I finally broke through the trees into a familiar clearing and the voices of the shadowlurkers behind me grew faint. Rubbing tears from my eyes, I tried to slow my slamming heart.

I recognized the wagons and the massive body of a dead serpent by the trees across from me. I was back at the camp of the slave caravan.

I wrung my hands nervously around the wood of my spear, clutching at it like it was my lifeline. Somehow I had managed to keep hold of it as I ran. Everything was still save for the pouring rain. The snickering of shadowlurkers echoed in the distance and ugly fear reared up in me again as I remembered my flight from them.

Yellow eyes watched from the treeline as a large man ran out from between the trees and into the clearing with me.

The man held a large axe and the fearful shivering of his eyes suggested that fragments of his sanity had flown away under assault from the screaming demons. I wondered if that’s how I looked when I found my way into this clearing. He glanced nervously over his shoulder before shuffling further away from the trees, holding his axe at the ready and prepared to fight for his life should the monsters give chase.

The man noticed me with a start and trudged through the mud with heavy footfalls, axe at his side.

I pointed my spear at him, hands shaking as I backpedaled. “S-stop! I don’t want to fight you!”

The man paused as I spoke and a dark expression settled over his face. Maybe he was thinking, because he stood like that for some time in silence as rain beat against his shoulders before he finally spoke up. “I never knew lurkers could talk until just tonight. In those horrible, demonic voices they said ‘Kill and live.’ Even as I ran and my legs burned, even as my allies tripped and fell behind me and were torn to shreds, they said it over, and over, and over again. ‘Kill and live.’ I thought they were taunting me, talking about killing me, but I was wrong. It was a demand.”

His fingers tightened around the handle of his axe as he raised his head to look at me. There was a half-maddened, fearful look in his eyes. “They led me here. They want me to kill you. I’m sorry. Even animals deserve better than this, but if it’s you or me, then it’s going to be me.”

”Wait!” I pointed my spear at the man advancing on me as I retreated slowly. He approached faster now, boots thumping through the mud as he readied his weapon. “Y-you don’t need to do this!”

His expression hardened as he raised the axe over his shoulder in the pouring rain. I brought my spear up to defend, but instead I awkwardly tripped over my own feet and fell on my butt. The axe soared narrowly overhead.

As I scrambled away from my attacker, who was caught in the heavy movement of his weapon, I stabbed the point of my spear into the man’s calf, eliciting a sharp, resentful yelp of pain from the man.

“You little piece of..” The man glared at me and held up his axe again, limping forward. He swung his axe in a broad arc and I brought up my spear to block it, dodging away to lessen the blow. I had finally gotten my bearings, and my training with mudpuppy helped me execute the movement fluidly.

My eyes went wide in surprise as the axe split my spear in two halves like it was cutting through air. Unimpeded, the axe blade met with my neck in a spray of blood and I reeled back in shock. I clutched the two halves of my spear in my hands as blood spurted from my neck wound.

The man drew back again like a woodsman felling a tree, axe pulled over his shoulder. Tears spilled from my eyes and, with my mind clouded in pain, I held my hands up in a useless, mindless defense.

As I watched the man pull back for the swing, thoughts raced desperately through my head for any glimmer of hope or some solution that didn’t involve my death. I was too slow to dodge, and the shock from taking an axe to the neck had me off balance. I wouldn’t make it in time.

I squeezed my eyes shut as I waited for certain death. Rain slammed down around me, washing away the blood flowing from the deep wound in my neck. Chilled fog swirled about the ground as raindrops pattered against the mud and the muck. In the distance, lightning flashed and thunder replied, but my death never came.

I opened my eyes to see the man still standing over me, but with a stricken and astonished face as he stared at the severed stubs where his hands used to be. He stumbled backwards and fell to the ground as new wounds opened up on his body.

The Queen walked through the rain and mud with eyes full of a fury I had never seen in her before. Gone was the kind, patient person who had raised me, and in her place was someone who carried the authority and severity of a true monarch. Water fled from underfoot and not a drop of rain landed on the cloak that fluttered in the inclement, storming winds. Water floated in glowing rings around her staff and mana swirled in the dark, slitted depths of her eyes.

She saved me. The Queen saved me.

My body felt heavy and I dropped to my knees, struggling to breathe. The Queen rushed to catch me before I fell into the mud, and her staff, abandoned, splattered into the muck.

”Queen, you saved me.” I felt tears welling up in my eyes again. The Queen was my hero, and she had saved me from dying alone in the dark.

”Shh. Everything’s going to be alright. Let me take care of this.” She held me against her chest as glowing healing water tried to close the axe wound in my neck. I could see the worry in her eyes, but even so, she gave me the most reassuring smile she could muster. “You’ll be fine, don’t worry, okay?”

Freezing wind slashed by like the edge of a knife and frost crackled across the drenched forest floor. Blood ran from my gaping neck wound, dripping and sizzling against the ice forming at my feet. I hardly had the energy to shiver. I was so unbearably tired.

As I felt my consciousness fading, the rain slowed until droplets hung, suspended in the air as though time itself had frozen. The Queen ignored all of this, only continuing to channel healing magic into my injury. It didn’t hurt anymore. I didn’t even feel the frost crawling across my skin. Shallow breaths turned to white mist in the frozen air.

I felt myself drifting away to sleep. The Queen was trying to say something to me, but I couldn’t hear her anymore. I couldn’t hear anything anymore. Perfect silence in the middle of a raging storm.

There, in that frozen moment in time, I faded away into unconsciousness.

Chapter 27

Raindrops hung suspended in the air and slowly froze over as a frigid cold, white fog stung my skin. Somewhere in the distance, a lightning bolt was frozen in time, bathing the clearing in a pale white light. The freezing air was completely still in spite of the raging storm.

I held the unconscious body of Gwendolyn as frost crackled across her skin, freezing the deep gash in her neck in a layer of ice and keeping her blood loss from progressing.

I cradled my daughter in my arms and tears threatened to spill from my eyes. If I had just been a little faster, I might have kept her from being hurt. My healing magic couldn’t reach through the ice coating her wound, but she wasn’t losing health points any more. I wasn’t sure if my healing magic would be enough. I bit my lip and hugged Gwen to my chest as I fought off tears.

A body rose from the unmoving corpses spread through the clearing, the end result of the assault on the slaver convoy. Ryiah, in her blood-tinged white robes, stood among the death and carnage around her, pale in body and expression as death cast a macabre mantle about her frame.

Fog swirled in a slow, reverent vortex at her heels as her wounds closed like the cracking movement of glacial ice. The structure of her face shifted and she grew slightly taller. Straight black hair fell around narrow shoulders. Inky black blots stained her white robes, spreading until a thin, knee-length black dress swayed around her unnaturally pale, bloodless body.

There was a natural beauty to her in spite of her middle age. She dispassionately surveyed the battlefield with crystalline, ice blue irises that each housed a frozen blue, flickering ember as crows feet creased the corners of her eyes.

Death stepped over the bodies of the dead with bare feet that clicked sharply against the ice-encrusted ground as though her body itself was frozen solid.

“Hello again, little thing.” In her voice I heard the faintest tell of a smirk playing across her face as she came to a stop behind me.

I didn’t turn to look at her as I continued to fail at getting healing magic to work through the ice coating Gwen’s wound. I wiped away my tears before replying in a small voice. “What do you want, q6?”

“Oh?” Her smirk grew into a predatory grin as blue flames danced in her glacial eyes. “Is that a way to speak to the Pillar of Death?”

“If you’re going to kill me, let’s just get it over with. I’m really not in the mood.”

She laughed with a voice that could rend glaciers. “Look who’s gone and grown a spine!” The jovial quality to her voice leaked out until all that was left was cold malice. “Good. You would be useless to me if you did nothing but quiver in the mud at my feet.”

I didn’t reply. I had suspected that she wanted something from me, and what she just said proved it. Q6 started walking again, frozen white feet clacking against the ice coating the forest floor as she circled me. Her stare was like the burning, unblinking eyes of a predator preparing for the kill.

I gave up on using magic to heal Gwen’s injury. It was clear that I would need to deal with Q6 before I could try and save Gwen. I struggled to my feet, my battered body creaking, popping and groaning from the movement. I was so exhausted, both physically and emotionally - poor shape to be meeting with a supposed god of death. Even so, I raised my head to meet q6’s stare head-on. The corners of her mouth curled upward and a disturbing smile creased her eyes as she began to speak.

”I’ve been watching you closely, little thing. I love your work.” Her smile widened as she gestured towards the unmoving corpses in the clearing. “Though perhaps a little too chaotic to be practical. In the future, you might consider strategies that allow you to control the battlefield, rather than fill it with unmitigated chaos.” The frozen clacking of her feet against ice filled the silence between her words. “I have a question for you, little thing,” she drew out the words as white fog licked at her heels, “what do you know of the Pillars?”

I watched her circle me for several seconds before answering. ”...You’re something like gods in this world. There’s six Pillars, and you’re the Pillar of Death. Your job is to preserve the system’s sanity, though I’m not really sure what that means or how the system could go insane in the first place,” I said, reciting what I had learned from my encounter with the Pillar of Time. “I don’t really know anything else.”

The pale woman, unblinking as she stared at me, raised a hand to her chin and considered my words for a moment before nodding sharply. “Not entirely correct, but close. We are not gods.” She smiled sharply. “Longevity has given us considerable power in the system’s eyes, and lesser creatures sometimes elevate us to a false position of godhood. It isn’t unprecedented for Pillars to be revered and celebrated as gods, but a true god cannot die.” Her eyes narrowed as she glared down at me. “For a Pillar, death is something of a prerequisite.”

”Why are you telling me this?”

”I want you to understand my limitations. My position has levied restrictions on me. Checks on my power and authority. In short, I need you to do something for me, because I can't do it myself.” Q6 stopped, her eyes shifting to the unconscious body of Gwen before flicking back to me.

”Your magic is not enough to save that thing.” Q6 gestured to Gwen. “You will fight a losing battle to stem the blood loss, and tonight, it will die in your arms. Tomorrow you will bury a member of your family.” In one smooth motion, she glided towards me until she was only inches away, her burning eyes boring holes into me. I barely kept from flinching back in surprise. An evil smile crawled across her face. “I can save it. It’s in my power to heal its wounds.”

Death straightened her back with a series of sharp pops and cracks and looked down on me from above.

“I have a deal for you, little thing.” She started in a voice as smooth as velvet and as deadly as the point of a blade. “I will save this thing, in exchange for One. Little. Favor.” Death carried a smile as severe as a headsman’s mercy as she punctuated each word in her singular demand.

Frozen air swirled around me. I was apprehensive to say the least, but the fear of losing Gwen forced me to at least consider the Pillar of Death’s offer. I bit my lip and grimaced. “...What is it you want me to do?”

“Telling you that now would require making you privy to information you are best left remembering on your own.” She gave me a disdainful frown as she glared down at me. “All you need to know is this: You will be bound to accomplish one task for me, or die trying.”

I frowned and looked down at my hands. She wants me to do something, but she won’t even tell me what it is she wants me to do? She could order me to do literally anything. Gwendolyn would be saved, but at what cost? My throat was dry and I drew in quick, nervous breaths. I looked back up at the tall, pale woman. “Why me?”

“I said it before, didn’t I? You are, yourself, a living anomaly. Not unprecedented by any stretch, but most living anomalies are only twisted hunks of human meat, devoid of any spark of intelligence or insight. You are different. You were intelligent, rational, and had access to memories of your old life. You didn’t have a body, but, of course, that was easily fixed.” Q6 glared at me from where she stood. Frozen white fog swirled around her. “As a pillar to an anomaly, my hands are tied in ways that yours are not. This is why it must be you.”

“Now tell me,” Death reached a pale, bony hand out to me as crows feet wrinkled the corners of her eyes. “Will you make a deal with the devil?”

I balled my hand into a fist and let out a deep breath that came out as a fine white mist in the chill air. It was my understanding that there were few people who would view themselves as inherently evil. That she would refer to herself as the devil was a step beyond disconcerting.

I drew a deep breath and closed my eyes. Every inch of my body ached horribly and my mind was frayed with rampant emotions and exhaustion.

Think. This decision could have far reaching consequences. Even when the alternative is the death of one of my children, I have to think carefully. No, it's exactly for that reason that I need to think carefully.

Q6 is clearly trying to manipulate me into making a snap decision. She chose to appear before me in my weakest state with my daughter’s life held in the crossfire. However, I don’t think she was wrong about my ability to heal Gwen’s injury. She was already unconscious and before the frost set in, my healing magic had been far too slow to fix such a severe injury. If we were at Enzirus, the healing water paired with my healing magic might have been able to save her, but we would never make it back in time, even if I carried her and mana vaulted the entire way.

If I accepted the deal, Gwen would be saved. In my exhaustion and uncertainty, I almost accepted immediately. It would be so easy, and she would survive. I would need to take care of whatever task it is Q6 wanted of me, but at least Gwen would be alive.

But it was too easy. It was far too tempting to give away my freedom like this if it meant that someone I loved got to live. I needed to be stronger, smarter. There was a way to win, I just hadn’t thought of it yet.

A flicker of realization dawned on me. In a way, Q6 had saved me without me even accepting her deal. She had frozen time and given me a moment to think. I slid a hand into my bag and closed a fist around the item I was looking for.

Drawing in a slow breath, I opened my eyes to look at the Pillar of Death who was contemptuously staring down at me, her hand still extended to offer her deal.

”I refuse.”

A flicker of amusement danced across the Pillar’s expression at this declaration and her glare increased in severity, the blue fires in her eyes burning in cold rage. “I see.” Her hand dropped to her side. “We will meet again.”

”I don’t doubt it.” I stated as I pulled the recall stone from my bag, reaching down to wrap my arms around Gwen. I met q6’s eyes and activated the stone, the world blinking away into darkness as Gwen and I teleported back to Enzirus.

~~~

Death stood among the bodies, staring at the spot where the pink salamanderkin and her daughter had just been. She clenched her fists together, and she couldn’t help but feel relieved. It had been a cruel trick even by her standards, and some part of her was glad it hadn’t worked.

Q6 had no idea that the girl had a recall stone in her possession. She didn't know where she might have found something so rare. How long had it been since the Pillar of Life had so thoroughly dismantled her plans like that? Q6 never thought she would admit it, but she missed that naive, kind girl she had once hated so much.

She didn’t know what that anomaly was, and it had frightened her how similar it was to the Pillar who had died so many thousands of years ago. It shouldn’t be possible for her to still be alive, but the events of tonight had proven it.

That was most certainly Naomi; q4, The Pillar of Life.

Chapter 28

In the blink of an eye, I had gone from the middle of a forest clearing under the baleful glare of Death herself to the dark hidden room I’d found in the high floating island I called the Archmage’s tomb.

I clutched at Gwen and felt a warm trickle of blood flowing from her neck wound, no longer blocked by the ice magic that q6 had employed to keep her from dying during our negotiations. Gwen's head lolled to the side, limp and unconscious in my arms. Glowing healing magic spun through the air and pushed into the wound, slowing her health loss, but not stopping it completely. I needed Enzirus’ healing water immediately if I was going to save her.

I pulled her across the stone floor, ignoring the painful cracks and pops along my back and formerly broken ribs and opened the door mechanism. The storm was still in full force outside as I immediately threw myself off the edge, gripping Gwen tightly in my arms. Wind roared and rain slashed against me as I fell through the sky.

I adjusted my fall to land directly in the pond on our home island. At the last moment I activated my slow fall ability, rapidly slowing our descent before we splashed down.

Gwen’s health points still ticked down slowly as we settled against the muck at the bottom of the glowing pond. I focused healing magic on her wound to further amplify the regenerating effect and waited with mounting concern. Her health loss stagnated for a moment, then around 15 seconds later, she lost a decimal point of health.

She was still taking damage, and she really didn’t have any health to spare.

Panic swept over me as I struggled to push more mana into the healing magic, but 20 seconds later, another decimal point ticked away from her health pool.

With a start, I realized how stupid I was being. I brought my tail around, focusing on channeling mana through it as I held the mental image for healing magic. I was a salamancer, not just a water mage. The power of my magic was amplified by 13% if I channeled it through my tail, and my magical tail manipulation skill had probably levelled up since then too.

Thirty agonizing seconds later, Gwen’s health ticked up by a decimal point. I sighed in relief, continuing to channel magic into Gwen’s injury. Several minutes later I ran out of mana and watched as her health crawled down again. When my mana regenerated to full, I returned to healing. I did that over and over again, healing and resting. Her health was slowly climbing.

Two hours of off and on healing later, the regenerating water of Enzirus was enough to slowly regenerate her health and I could finally breathe easy. The storm had slowed to a slow pitter patter against the surface of the pond above me.

My hands were shaking. I had almost died tonight, my daughter almost died, and I watched as my allies, Ryiah and her bloodpriests, actually did die. I had no control of that situation. If I had thought of a better plan, or maybe convinced Thaddius to wait longer, would Ryiah still be alive? Would Gwen have gone uninjured? And then there was the meeting with the Pillar of Death. The thought of that frozen corpse made me shiver.

I had won by a very narrow margin, but the price of that success left me feeling frustrated and regretful.

My mouth filled with water as I took in a deep breath. Once you got used to breathing underwater it was really just second nature. I tried to calm myself down, breathing slowly. I’d done my best with limited resources and manpower and managed to pull out a victory against a superior force. The fallout could have been much worse.

I was completely and thoroughly exhausted and wanted nothing more than to fall asleep in the muck at the bottom of that pond, but I had spent two hours staring at a purple blinking notification indicator in the corner of my vision and the curiosity was killing me.

I pulled up my notifications.

Enemies Defeated:

1x Level 8 Human Male

Experience Gained: 24

Experience to next level: 9

Note: Experience gain augmented due to a significant difference in level.

Skill: Scout has levelled up to level 9.

Skill: Jump has levelled up to level 11.

Skill: Magical Tail Manipulation has levelled up to level 17.

Skill: Magical Tail Vault has levelled up to level 13.

Skill: Magical Tail Attack has levelled up to level 14.

Skill: Mana Coalescence has levelled up to level 15.

Skill: Salamancy has levelled up to level 8.

Skill: Dodge has levelled up to level 8.

Skill: Physical Resistance has levelled up to level 2.

Epic Skill discovered: Inspiring Leadership

Description: The ability to inspire courage and loyalty in your subordinates. Those who follow you do so out of respect and appreciation and will fight harder under your command. Your words carry more weight and people listen when you speak.

Effects:

+.5% To all primary attributes for those who are directly under your command per skill level.

+1% Morale to troops under your command per skill level.

You may specify any number of subordinates and split all experience gains that either you or the target(s) receive. This effect is only active while your subordinates are in the aura radius of this ability.

+5% Aura radius per skill level.

Note: The effects of this skill only apply when the affected individuals are present in the aura’s radius. You do not directly benefit from the effects of this skill.

Skill: Inspiring Leadership has levelled up to level 2.

Inspiring Leadership? I really wish these skill notifications told me what I did to get these skills. It could have been from cutting slaves free, or maybe it was from when I distracted the big snake so my allies could get away.

However I might have gotten it, this skill was amazing. It also paired really well with how my species grows up faster the closer we get to level 5. I would need to test it out to figure out what the aura’s radius is. I might even be able to power level children up to adulthood.

On second thought, that might be a bad idea. It’s too dangerous out in the woods for little kids, even if I’m defending them personally.

My tail manipulation had gone up by a ton, maybe from all that healing I did just to save Gwen. All of my other skills had gone up a moderate amount and I even got a level in Scout, which I hadn’t seen in a long while.

My agility and endurance stats went up by one each and constitution went up by two all on their own. That brought me to a total of 5 strength, 8 agility, 7 constitution, 6 endurance, 9 intelligence and 8 wisdom with two unallocated stat points.

The last few levels I had been putting all of my points into intelligence, which made sense considering how I’m a pretty bread and butter mage type. I briefly considered putting a point into agility to better handle the high speed that tail vaulting throws me into, but decided against it.

The real choice was between intelligence and wisdom. Intelligence gave me 5 extra mana for each point and wisdom seemed to influence mana regeneration rate. I decided to put a point into each, bringing intelligence to 10 and wisdom to 9.

My Salamancy skill had levelled up four times, which meant I had four perk points ready to spend. I was curious what new skill or upgrades I might get with them, but I was a little too exhausted at the moment to make that decision. I wanted to take my time and think my choice through.

With my notifications settled, I checked on Gwen. She was at full health now and the wound to her neck healed over in a scar against her silver skin. She was still unconscious.

I pulled Gwen up to the edge of the pond so we weren’t breathing water while sleeping and collapsed in the mud next to her. Moments later I drifted away to sleep.

The night was calm, cool, and quiet under the receding storm.

~~~

“Excuse me?” I rolled over in the mud to the other side and heard and felt the patter of small footsteps and someone kneeled down over me. “Um, Excuse me?”

I cracked open one eye. A young boy, no older than seven or eight, with red, slitted irises, spiky red hair and a horn growing from his forehead squatted down in the mud next to me. Occasional patches of red scales dotted his light brown skin and he fixed me with a curious stare.

“Um, one of the lizard people told us you could cut our chains? When you woke up?” He jingled the shackles joining his wrists together and gave me an oblivious smile. Kids. So impatient.

“Salamanders, not lizards.” I groaned as I pushed myself up to a sitting position, sending brief flashes of pain shooting down my back.

Sleeping in the healing water for hours had only healed two tenths of a point of the wounds that grayed out just over half of my health bar. My health was currently at 10.2/10.2, with a maximum of… 21, once my wounds healed. At that rate, it would take almost two months to recover from my injuries!

I rubbed my back and sighed. The truth was, after a fight like that, taking it easy for a while didn’t sound so bad. I looked at the boy shuffling eagerly on his feet. He had a head of bright red hair like an explosion and it bobbed up and down with his movement.

“Show me your hands.” I gathered up the mental image of a water saw. “Hey, stay still! You’re wiggling around like a monkey.”

I held his hands steady with my own and then sliced the cheap iron restraints free from the boy’s hands. He cheered and reached out, giving me a big hug before running off.

I rubbed a hand against my throbbing spine, suddenly knowing how older folks with back issues must feel. I glanced over my shoulder to see that a line of people had formed behind me, murmuring to each other and shuffling on their feet as they patiently waited for me.

The person in the front of the line carried just about the least fitting physique for someone with cute kitty ears - he was giant and thoroughly muscle-bound like a professional weight lifter. He gave me an awkward smile as he jingled the shackles that looked tiny around his massive wrists.

Not for the first time since I had been born here, I wished that this world had coffee. I settled in for a long morning of cutting chains.

There was a peculiar show of deference and respect placed on me as I cut through each set of shackles. People would close their eyes and bow their heads to me. They referred to me with names like ‘your highness’ or ‘the queen,’ no doubt a trend started by my daughters. I corrected them whenever they called me a name like that, telling them to just call me Naomi, and often I would get a surprised or confused look in response.

A gentleman with gray hair dashed with specks of black - the only older person I had seen so far - offered me a wide smile as he held up his shackles. Two bone colored horns jutted from his forehead and sharply turned at a 90 degree angle to run parallel with his head. He stood with impeccable posture, the heels of his feet pressed together like the stance a fencer might fall into on reflex.

“You must be the Queen that everyone is talking about.” The man offered a crisp bow. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, your highness. My name is Briham.”

I gave him a smile in return and began cutting through his shackles. “It’s good to meet you, Briham. My daughters refer to me by that title, but you can just call me Naomi.”

There was that surprised look again. Briham recovered immediately and raised a hand to brush a long lock of gray hair behind one of his horns. “Pardon my asking, but you have the Queen title, is that correct?”

“Well… Yes, that’s true. This is hardly a kingdom though. It’s just a collection of shanties and my daughters up here.”

“An excellent start to a budding village.” Briham gave me a bright smile, rubbing at his wrists as the shackles fell off before folding his hands behind his back. “It is customary for a person with a title such as yours to be addressed in a particular manner. It’s considered to be a sign of respect, and after your heroics last night, I doubt there is a single soul here who would disrespect you. The people here know who their savior is. The Queen in the mud, they say.”

I looked down at my body and blushed furiously as I realized I was covered in mud. I had slept in a muddy puddle next to the pond, after all. I summoned up water magic from the nearby pond and washed off the muck that had been drying on me.

Briham’s smile grew wider as he watched my casual use of magic. “Please call for me if I can be of any use, my Queen.”

“Thank you, Briham.” I nodded at the older gentleman and he gave me a stiff bow before turning to walk off. I considered the remaining people waiting to have their chains cut. I suppose I could let people refer to me by my title if it was that important to them.

There was an incredible variety to the beastkin here who had been freed from slavery. The huge majority looked human for the most part, but a dozen or so were more of the full-blooded monster type beastkin, like my own race.

There was a slender, feathered family of human-sized birds with a large wingspan. They looked kind of like owls with antlers, except thinner, and they wore colorful robes around their feathered bodies. I was surprised to find that they were capable of speaking Elsian with some difficulty, though I struggled to understand their accent.

There were lizardmen, a tall, thin and silent person with glowing eyes covered from head to toe in a black cloak that seemed to be alive, and then this girl.

She left a layer of slime on everything she touched. Her eyes rested at the end of eye stalks as he tried to look over the small crowd of people for me. When she came up to me, her eye stalks merged with her opaque, lime green skin and she looked somewhat like a human. A human covered in green, translucent slime and with green slimy hair pouring out over her shoulders in a goopy mess.

I gave her a smile as she held out her wrists, bound in metal restraints. I wouldn’t treat her any differently if she was a slug girl - she was just as welcome here as anyone else. I most certainly wouldn’t say anything about the slime she dripped all over the place. It was rude to talk about a girl’s slime layer, after all.

She blurbled something out as I cut through her manacles. I blinked and asked “What?”

She made the noise again, staring at me deadpan as bubbles fizzed out from her mouth. Oh. She couldn’t talk, or at least I couldn’t understand her. She blurbled again in what appeared to be a ‘thank you’ when I finished cutting her chains. I waved as she walked away on slimy green legs.

With the chain cutting finally done with, I stood up with the help of my staff and set off to figure out where Gwen was. I had gone to sleep right next to her but when I woke up she was gone. I had been worried about her, but I hadn’t had an opportunity to get away and track her down. I found her in one of the wooden shanties, being looked over by…. Mudpuppy?

We met eye to eye now, with Mudpuppy giving me a toothy grin. My mouth dropped open. She was an adult!

She laughed when she saw my face and spoke up. “Bunch of lurkers popped up last night. With Luna’s magic, we chased them off. I took a couple out on my own. Got a fear resistance skill for the trouble, and made it to level five.”

“Then, Luna too?” I felt my face unconsciously scrunch up into a frown, which prompted more laughing from Mudpuppy.

“No, no. She jumped up to level four, but five is still a ways off for her. You should have seen her fighting, though! She was all- Whoosh, woosh! --PAH!” She thrust her arms forward in a grand gesture, then brought her hands down to rest on her hips, pride for her sister shining in the grin on her face. Mudpuppy leaned against the rickety wooden wall and turned her eyes down to Gwen, who was still unconscious.

“How is she doing?” I asked.

Mudpuppy scratched at her head and frowned. “She’s just been sleeping. Doesn’t wake up for anything. Made a mess of herself earlier, but we cleaned it up.” Her frown deepened and concern colored her face as she stared down at her sister. “I’m getting worried, you know? What happened out there? We were attacked by lurkers and then Gwen was just… gone. Then we come back and find you two sleeping in the pond.”

I scratched my head and fixed Mudpuppy with a considering gaze. I hadn’t known they were attacked by shadowlurkers until now, but it seems like they handled them without too much trouble.

Prodded on by Mudpuppy’s expectant expression, I gave a small sigh and spoke. “There are some things I haven’t told you or your sisters. Maybe it’s about time we had that conversation… but, not now. The short answer is that Gwen was attacked and left unconscious.”

“You know that I would follow you anywhere, right? You are my Queen.”

“I’m not sure that I’ve done anything to deserve this kind of loyalty.” I stated honestly with a frown.

Mudpuppy gawked at the candor of my comment and immediately shook her head. She shuffled on her feet in silence for a moment before seemingly finding her words. “I believe in you. You’ll be a great Queen. I know… I know it hasn’t mattered much before - it’s just been the four of us all this time, but things are different now. There’s a whole lot of people out there who are far away from home. They’re scared, hungry and injured. They need someone who will tell them everything’s gonna be alright. They need a leader.” She pointed a claw at me. “That’s you.”

“You really have grown up!” I tried to pick my jaw up off the floor as Mudpuppy laughed again. I smiled and laughed with her this time.

“I’m not so good with words, but I hope I helped.” Mudpuppy gave me an apologetic smile.

“You did, thank you. I guess I just wasn’t feeling very confident after everything that happened last night.”

The brown-skinned girl’s expression became complicated as she thought. Concern and solemnity looked unusual on her normally casual demeanor. “If you ever need anything, or if I can help in any way - come to me. Lean on me. You don’t need to do everything yourself anymore. Rely on me so that you don’t need to risk your life, alone, against monsters. Please.”

Mudpuppy’s expression trembled and a frown tugged at the corners of her mouth. Her eyes looked a little misty, and I could tell she was fighting to hold back tears. I reached out and pulled her into a hug. She wrapped her hands around me in kind, hugging me tightly. Mudpuppy raised a hand to wipe at her eyes as I answered her. “I promise.”

The moment passed and before long, Mudpuppy spoke up. “I have something to show you.”

“What about Gwen?”

“It won’t take long. She’ll be alright.”

I nodded and followed Mudpuppy outside, past the throng of people milling about our home island. They parted to let us through as we walked by and several of them bowed their heads to me as they watched us pass. I stood up a little straighter and tried to smile at them as jabs of pain shot down my back.

We came to the edge of our home island and Mudpuppy tail vaulted onto a neighboring floating island. She looked over the gap between islands to me. “Think you can make it? I can find some vines if you need help.”

I stretched, sending cracks and pops across my battered body. The tail vault sent sharp pains echoing through my entire body, and I needed to sit and rest for a while before standing again. Mudpuppy helped me to my feet and retrieved my staff for me.

We walked through a grove of trees to find a glowing pond that was smaller than the one on our home island. Luna sat near the muddy banks with a book in her lap and Thaddius leaned against a tree with his arms crossed. He nodded at me as I approached.

Mudpuppy dropped to her knees and brushed away a thin layer of mud at the edge of the pond. Two porcelain white eggs lay half submerged in the mud. Mudpuppy stood, fists pressed against her hips, looking very proud of herself.

For the third time that day, my mouth dropped open in shock.

Chapter 29

I fumbled my water saw, sending a splattering of water across the ground and all over the hunk of wood I was working with. My thoughts kept wandering and before long I ended up fumbling my spells, one after the next. I was really struggling to concentrate with the recent news.

I’m too young to be a grandma!!

Although, if it’s Mudpuppy, I’d bet anything that her kids are going to be extremely cute. I can’t wait to spoil them. I'll give them sweets, and fish cookies, and... No, pull yourself together! I'm going into grandma mode way too soon!

I slapped my cheeks. Focus, focus!

There weren’t anywhere near enough wooden bowls for everyone, but fortunately I could use magic to craft them relatively quickly. We decided to go with stew, since it’s easier to prepare a lot of it at once. I already had the soup stock, made with bluescale fish, boiling away over a low flame nearby.

I tasked Mudpuppy with gathering the assorted wild vegetables we regularly cooked with. She was the best choice for that job for a variety of reasons - she knew exactly what to look for, having frequently accompanied me on those trips, and she would be able to defend herself if she was attacked in the forest.

I asked Thaddius if he could guard Mudpuppy’s eggs while we went about our chores as I wasn’t sure how our guests would respond to having him around. Not only was he the only human here, he had been a former guard of the caravan that had enslaved these people. He’d fought to free them, but it was storming severely at the time and many of the freed people might not have witnessed his heroism. We would need to make sure everyone knew that he was a friend.

That left Luna with the task of gathering more bluescale with the fishing net. She didn’t look particularly excited about her assignment, but I wasn’t really able to do it on my own with my current injuries. She looked as though something else was occupying her thoughts and had half a mind to speak to me about it, but she turned to leave for the nets before I could call out to her. I could always ask her what was wrong later, I figured.

I went through the necessary mental gymnastics to produce a water saw, which whirled through the air with all the cutting force of a professional bandsaw. We had prepared this lumber for constructing houses, but the storm had left it completely waterlogged in the rain. That wasn’t an issue for me, though. I was a water mage, after all, and simply pulled the excess water out of the wood.

I lowered the circular blade of water into the wood and then rotated it, cutting out a hollow area. I then rotated it again on the outside, finishing one crude bowl. They were rough and crudely made, but it was quick work. A notification blinked away in the corner of my vision right as I finished this last bowl.

Skill: Scrimshaw has levelled up to level 11.

Curiously, my Scrimshaw skill seems to work even when crafting things with magic. I focused on the rough bowl in my hands and the item description readily popped up.

Crafting Success.

Item Name: Shoddy Wooden Bowl

Item Type: Miscellaneous

Item Classification: Uncommon

Durability: 5 / 5

Effects:

Sanitary (II): This item lowers the incidence of foodborne illness. This effect is moderate.

Description: A simple, roughly crafted wooden bowl. The faintest remnant of the mana used to craft it still lingers within this item.

It’s fascinating seeing the effects of my scrimshaw skill on something so mundane, but the sanitary effect is actually very useful. It might even be worthwhile to actually sit down and make a better effort at crafting quality bowls in the future rather than trying to churn out as many as possible in a short time like I’m doing now.

I even came to find that I enjoyed doing this kind of work. It was strangely cathartic after such a violent and adrenaline filled night. It gave me time to think, if nothing more - and I had a lot to think about.

I had come very close to dying last night, and that fact sent tremors through my hands. I had been so in the moment that the weight of that realization didn’t hit me until much later - just how incredibly close I had been to death. Of course, that wasn’t the first time I’d narrowly survived a life or death encounter.

I had even died once, back on Earth. Those last few moments from that corrupted memory resurfaced and I remembered those two men speaking over my unconscious body just before I died. One of them said something like ‘five others have already been selected’ and mentioned that I was an organ donor. I had brushed it off at first and allowed myself to forget about it, but I couldn’t get it out of my head.

What did they do to me? How did I get here?

I considered my disconcerting experience with selecting my mana focus. In order to unlock my focus, I had needed to interact with my own soul. I remembered visiting the engineering section of that long metal corridor, finding six pillars and resonating with the dead, lifeless one.

Q4rxm%7. Five others had already been selected. I was the sixth.

I shook my head, finding that I had been staring into a finished wooden bowl for several minutes. The bowl clattered into a growing pile at my side and I pulled up another hunk of wood.

Drawing conclusions like that wouldn’t do me any good. Even if it’s true, it doesn’t explain why I’m here, or even what here is.

A number of spectators gathered as I demonstrated such a casual use of magic. Among others, the boy with the horn, red scales and exploded hair that I’d met earlier that day watched with unabashed amazement from a few feet away. I had to remind myself that most people in this world have never seen an actual mage. In the wider world, being a mage is almost exclusively a privilege of the rich, and even then it’s rare.

I carved out bowl after bowl as people gathered around, first attracted by the smell of a rich stew bubbling over a campfire, and then impressed by the rare sight of a mage weaving magic through the air. I was nearly finished carving out bowls by the time Mudpuppy returned home and set down a sack full of various herbs and wild vegetables.

“Thank you.” I smiled at her as I dropped another wooden bowl into the stack.

Mudpuppy nodded with a neutral face. “Queen, Thaddius said he wanted to talk to you when you got the chance.”

“Did he? Better go see what he wants.” I set aside the hunks of wood I’d been carving bowls out of and reached out both my hands to Mudpuppy. “Here, help me up.”

“Anything else you need me to do?”

“Could you help Luna with the nets?” I rubbed a hand against my aching back.

Mudpuppy nodded sharply and set off towards the fishing spot, giving me a wave as she passed through the trees.

I made my way to Thaddius, who was protecting Mudpuppy’s eggs on that neighboring island. For now, until people knew to stay away from those eggs, we would need to have someone watching over them. It would be terrible if there was an accident.

I vaulted the gap between islands and groaned in pain from the movement. I would need to focus on recovering from my wounds for the next few months. There was no way I could use most of my salamancer abilities in this state.

Thaddius was seated by the edge of the pond with his shirt off and was pressing a slightly glowing, wet piece of cloth to his ribs. His chest, all the way from his shoulder to his left hip, was severely discolored in painful shades of purple and red. He glanced over his shoulder at me, but didn’t give any indication in his expression or stance that he was in pain.

“There you are. Good, I wanted to talk to you.” He dipped the cloth into the pond, wrung it out, and pressed it against his injuries.

I watched from nearby, leaning on my staff for support. “About the battle?”

“Well, partly about that. What happened after I left? Ryiah and I parted ways once we escaped into the forest. I would have been useless with these injuries, so I came back here.”

“I fought off the serpent for a little while before it landed a devastating attack on me. I was out cold for minutes because of it.” I frowned as I recounted the events of last night’s battle. “Ryiah and those other white robed people came to fight the snake and bought me enough time to recover.”

“And Ryiah?”

“Dead. I’m sorry.”

“...What a shame.” Thaddius let out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair. “How about the ring?”

“I didn’t stick around to dig through the snake’s body. I imagine it’s still there.”

Thaddius nodded and had a thoughtful look about him as he wrung out the cloth soaked in healing water. “Would be a good idea to do a salvage operation if possible. In addition to the ring, that caravan had weapons, armor, and months of supplies that would be useful going forward.”

“Going forward?” I shot the bearded warrior an inquisitive look.

“Right. That’s what I wanted to talk about, actually.” Thaddius set the cloth aside and pulled a tan-colored tunic over his head. “Your daughters call you ‘The Queen.’ Why?”

I blinked in surprise. I hadn’t expected this line of questioning. He hadn’t asked me about this up until now, so I figured he was just going to ignore it. “Because of my race, Royal Salamanderkin, I got the ‘Queen’ title. I’ve tried to get those three to call me anything else but by that title, but they have some kind of predisposition to calling me ‘the Queen’ because of it.”

“I thought it might be something like that. Monarch titles are a closely guarded secret, and, frankly, I don’t know much about them other than that they’re powerful.” Thaddius looked away, frowning as he stared into the faintly glowing pond.

Motes of light flickered and floated up from the depths of the pond’s endless water source and faded away before reaching the surface.

To be honest, I hadn’t been very impressed with the Queen title so far. It had enabled a colony interface and given me the opportunity to select ‘settlement perks’ which gave some decent bonuses. I had mostly ignored it up to this point, but it’s possible that it would have additional functionality once more people joined the city.

Thaddius tapped a finger against his knee as he thought. Finally, he spoke. “It isn’t much right now, but in time, this place could be an actual city. Some - maybe even most - of those people you saved might even be willing to join you in making something here.”

“We saved them. It wasn’t just me.”

“You’re the one who cut their chains. You’re the one who gave them a safe place to lay their heads. You’re the one getting ready to feed them. You saved them.”

Thaddius looked over his shoulder to meet me eye to eye. I didn’t have a response and just kept quiet. I clutched my hands around the lifebloom staff that I had carefully crafted with scrimshaw right before the birth of my daughters. The colorful flowers sprouting from the wood always held their vibrant color even as the season turned.

Mudpuppy had pointed at me and called me a leader. At the time, I felt like she was just seeing what she wanted to see. She and her sisters see me as their Queen, their source of structure and leadership, and so she encouraged me to fill that role.

“So, the question is,” Thaddius spoke up, breaking me out of my thoughts. “What are your plans? Will you make this place into a proper city? Will you build a nation up here, far from the eyes of the human realms? What will you do?”

I’d had a lot of time to think about this. It was simple math - if it only took a couple months for a salamanderkin to reach adulthood and my kind lay eggs as soon as they grow up, then we had a recipe for exponential growth.

In a couple years, Enzirus could be a bustling city. I could almost see it - Bridges joining floating islands among waterfalls, buildings, people with their own culture. It would be hard work, but I think I want to live in that city nestled into floating islands.

I had neither the confidence nor the arrogance to think I could lead something like that, but there was a very real possibility that the Queen title would mean something in the future.

I took a deep breath and nodded. “I want to try. Even if all we have up here is dirt and mud and rain, I want to try and make something here. I want to make this place into a proper town.”

“I see.” Thaddius nodded and spoke in a smaller voice, as though talking to himself. “...I suppose we should make this official, then.”

Thaddius rose to his feet and turned to me. He drew his sword and, dropping to his knee, placed the tip of it into the hard-packed earth at my feet.

His voice was heavy with the weight of his words. “I offer a pledge of loyalty to my Queen. I will find a life of purpose in your service and for as long as I live, I vow to serve as your loyal retainer. I will guard you and your interests with my very life. My Queen, do you accept my pledge of loyalty?”

I fell into shocked silence as I stared down at the man kneeling before me. Seconds passed as a cold breeze ruffled the leaves and branches around us. Thaddius waited patiently for an answer.

“Why?” I asked in a small voice.

Thaddius was quiet for a long moment with his head bowed as he gathered his thoughts. Then he spoke. “I wasn’t planning on surviving my attack on the slavers. I lost everything by being forced into the service of those people - my nobility, my family, my home, my purpose in life - all of it. I was shamed and disowned and left with nothing. I thought it might be better if I died here in this forest in some halfhearted attempt at redeeming my honor. You saved me from throwing away my life.”

“In the few days I have known you, you have risked your life to protect people you don’t even know. You have saved not only my life, but you have saved those who others would deride as lesser, or inconsequential. Kindness is rare in this world, and it must be protected.” Thaddius kept his head bowed as he spoke. “I believe in you as a leader. I think that you will build something incredible here, and I want to be there by your side to see it.”

Frowning, I tapped my claws together as I considered that time-travelling archmage who had sacrificed so much for my sake. “...There are things you don’t know about me. Things that might change your mind about this decision.”

The swordsman replied immediately without raising his head. “I offer this vow with nothing less than my full conviction. Whatever path you take, I will follow you unflinchingly. Do you accept my pledge of loyalty?”

As I drew in a deep breath, having been pulled in by the gravity of the warrior’s pledge, I vowed to myself that I wouldn’t betray the trust being put in me. With as much confidence as I could muster in my voice, I answered the swordsman who knelt before me. “I do.”

~~~

So many things were happening so quickly. Mudpuppy’s eggs, Thaddius pledging himself to my service, the very real possibility of developing a city here. My slow-paced life up until this point had been completely upended.

Thaddius seemed to be searching for a reason to live and found it in devoting himself to my cause. I wouldn’t doubt his loyalty - his future self had even gone to the extent of travelling back in time in order to save me. Speaking of which, it was really about time I levelled with everyone about all the strange things happening in the background; My reincarnation, time travel, my interactions with the Pillars, the strange relationship I seem to have with the Anomalies in this world. I owed them some explanations, but I wanted to wait until Gwen recovered. She deserved to be part of that discussion, too.

With my meeting with Thaddius done, I went back to work. My claws made dicing herbs and wild vegetables a simple task, and they all went into the bubbling pot of stew. Fresh caught bluescale fish, courtesy of Luna and Mudpuppy, were promptly descaled, gutted, filleted, and cut into strips that went straight into the pot.

I actually had a little free time before it was done cooking and I was dying from curiosity over what I might be able to buy with those four Salamancy perk points I’d earned from the battle last night. The mana focus menu popped into my vision at my prompting, displaying the potential upgrades I could invest points into.

Mana Focus: Salamancer Focus

Available perk points: 4

Abilities

Bulwark Tail: This ability provides both passive and active effects. The passive effect causes the skin on your tail to harden and grow rigid chitinous defensive plates. The active component of this ability allows you to significantly augment the defensive capabilities of your tail for a short amount of time, significantly reducing both physical and magical damage. The active component of this ability continuously drains a moderate amount of mana while in use.

This ability may be modified by future perks.

Perk Point Cost: 3

Transmitter tail: Using your tail as a magical mental transmitter, allows the transmission of thoughts as a form of two-way communication over long distances. The maximum range of this ability scales with your Salamancy skill level.

Perk Point Cost: 3

Cultivating Tail: By channeling mana through your tail, you are able to actively encourage the growth of herbs and crops. The effect is significant, allowing months of growth to occur in only the span of hours. This ability continuously consumes a large amount of mana while in use.

This ability may be modified by future perks.

Perk Point Cost: 3

My jaw dropped as I looked over my options for advancement. These abilities were all so good! At first glance the ‘Cultivating Tail’ ability might seem like the weak link out of the three, but when I consider the amount of food I might be able to produce with it, let alone the potential of growing herbs for medicinal or alchemical use, it seems like a very powerful tool for a fledgling city. Doubly so considering that my race can gain experience from overeating.

The only problem was that food really wouldn't be a concern for a long while, considering how prosperous fish were in Enzirus' crater lake.

While the idea of increasing my defense was appealing, I didn’t want to restrict my movement with these ‘chitinous plates’ that bulwark tail would grow. If those plates slowed down my tail, they might be more of a hindrance than a benefit, especially considering that I am most certainly not a frontline melee fighter. My tail is my most valuable weapon, I can’t afford to slow it down!

Out of the three, Transmitter tail was a deceptively interesting choice. While it didn’t offer any direct combat potential or the long term agricultural benefits that Cultivating tail promised, it did allow for long distance communication, which may be more valuable from a tactical perspective.

Given my recent decision to assume a position of leadership, this form of long distance communication could prove invaluable.

It was a difficult choice between Transmitter Tail and Cultivator Tail, but I ultimately decided to go with Transmitter Tail, paying three perk points and bringing me down to a remaining total of one. At this rate, the next ability would cost me four perk points.

With a mental gesture, I brought up the Ability Augments section of my focus perk page.

Mana Focus: Salamancer Focus

Available perk points: 1

Ability Augments

Levitating Tail: Augmenting this ability with a perk point will increase the maximum slow-fall effect of this ability as well as allow you to levitate above the ground up to a certain height. Additionally, you will be able to cause a small anti-gravity effect on surrounding inanimate objects.

Perk Point Cost: 1

Shockwave Shaping: Augmenting this ability with a perk point will increase the maximum range and power of shockwaves produced by tail attacks. Due to previous augmentation, you are currently able to attach a minor qualifying spell effect to your tail shockwaves for an additional mana cost.

Current qualifying spell effects: None.

Perk Point Cost: 2

If I wanted to put the point into augmenting an ability I already owned, I would only be able to upgrade Levitating Tail, since Shockwave Shaping cost two points after already augmenting it once before. Part of me wanted to just take the Levitating Tail augment just to lessen the burden on my injured body with the added ability to levitate over the ground. I held off, though. It just wasn’t worth it at the moment to spend that point, so I decided to try and wait and save up my points for now.

Painful pops and cracks came from my wounded back as I pulled myself to my feet, stretching out. It was about midday now, judging from the sun’s current position. The stew should be just about done.

Mudpuppy, true to her name, was lazing happily in the mud by our pond. I raised the tip of my tail into the air and after wiggling it around uselessly for a long couple moments, I managed to send a message to my mud-covered daughter. Mudpuppy, can you go collect Thaddius for me?

Mudpuppy rolled around in the mud in confusion, searching for me as I tried to suppress my laughter. Queen? She replied

Yes, this is a new magic ability I learned. I can talk to you from far away like this. I waved at her when she caught sight of me. The stew is ready, can you go get Thaddius?

Yes, Queen! She thumped a fist against her chest after rising out of the mud before heading towards egg island. What exactly has that soldier been teaching her?

I returned my attention to the people milling about our home island. A few sat huddled under the several hastily built lean-tos that had fortunately survived the storm. Others sat by the pond or wandered about, pacing aimlessly.

The atmosphere in the crowd of people had been decidedly somber up until this point. These people had been subjected to terrible conditions immediately after being torn away from their homes and families. There was a distinct, muted fearfulness that came along with the uncertainty in the air.

I couldn’t take away all of their worries and pains. I couldn’t give them back their families and I couldn’t bring them home. But what I could do was give them food and shelter.

Before long, Mudpuppy, Luna, Thaddius and myself were all handing out bowls of stew to our hungry guests. People of all different races sat around our home island with a warm meal and thankfully, contented sighs and even conversation started to break out. Several children buzzed about with renewed enthusiasm. I spotted that one boy with the spiky red hair and red scales seated next to a bulky man with the same hair and scales. His father, I realized.

Having finished handing out bowls of stew, I stood and cleared my throat. In a surprising show of attentiveness, Mudpuppy and Thaddius seemed to realize I wanted to say something and they silently took up positions on either side of me. Luna looked like she was suffering from a bit of stagefright and wrung her hands nervously off to the side.

I nodded to Thaddius.

The warrior on my right spoke up, easily casting his voice over the idle conversations filling the silence. “If we may have your attention, the leader of this settlement, Queen Naomi of the Royal Salamanderkin, has something she would like to say.”

Silence swept over the crowd as the eyes of over fifty people settled on me. This was easily the biggest group of people I’d ever spoken to at once. Butterflies buzzed in my stomach as I drew in a deep breath.

“Hello everyone. My name is Naomi and I’m the leader of this small village. I wanted to take a moment to discuss our future plans in the hope of lessening some of your fears and concerns.”

“First off, you are free now. You’re welcome to come and go as you please, though I would warn you that the surrounding forests can be very dangerous. Especially at night.”

That comment brought about a quiet murmur over the crowd and several nodding heads. They knew very well the dangers lurking in these dark forests, having been attacked by shadowlurkers on the trip here. Some of them were clearly still coping with that fear.

I continued to address the crowd.

“As you can see, our village here in the crater lake of Enzirus is not well suited to accommodating so many guests. I hope to change this, though. We plan to build a city of beastkin here in the wildlands, far away from the influence of the human kingdoms. I want to extend an invitation to everyone present to join us in that effort.”

More murmuring passed through the crowd.

“If you decide to stay, you will be given food, shelter and safety. In return, I ask that you work to earn your keep. We will need all the help we can get in order to make this place into a proper city.”

Ideally, I wanted to pay everyone for their work, but we weren’t exactly at the point where we could work that out just yet. I didn’t even know what this world’s currency was, let alone own any. Food and shelter would have to be enough for now.

“Again, if you want to leave, no one will stop you. We will even do our best to equip you for the journey. Alternatively, you might wait until we are capable of fielding an expedition of our own and return home that way. However, it may take as long as a year before we are capable of making the journey.”

“Lastly, I want to ask for volunteers to help salvage the destroyed caravan. There are a significant amount of supplies and resources left over from last night’s battle and we want to claim them before the forest does. We will need to leave in around half an hour in order to make it back before nightfall. Do we have any volunteers?”

Surprisingly, several people stood up and stepped forward. The first to volunteer was the older gentleman with the horns, Briham. That muscular cat-eared man, the father of the boy with the exploded hair, and even the slug girl stood up among others. I was afraid that no one would want to make the trip back there, but fortunately, over a dozen people had volunteered at my request.

“Thank you everyone!” I beamed at the crowd. “Please enjoy your meal and feel free to get seconds if you’re still hungry, there’s plenty to go around.”

As I stepped away, conversation flared up with people discussing the recent news amongst themselves. I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. Talking in front of so many people like that was freaky!

“Okay, we’ll have to move fast to make it to the caravan site and back by nightfall. We could have done it tomorrow, but I’m afraid of animals getting into the supplies.” I spoke to my two followers.

“Queen, you should stay here. You’re still hurt.” Mudpuppy stared at me fixedly with concern in her eyes. She thumped a clawed brown fist against her chest. “Let me go instead. I’ll keep them safe.”

The bearded warrior nodded at Mudpuppy, arms folded. “She’s right. You’re in no shape to be walking miles through untamed forest.”

I wanted to argue, but I knew that they were right. It was so strange not having to do everything on my own. Somewhat contented with the fact that I can use my new transmitter tail to keep tabs on them while they conduct the salvage operation, I nodded with a sigh. “Take Luna with you. She’s getting very strong with magic now.”

“Yes.” The small voice of Luna replied in quiet assent. I hadn’t even seen her approach. “In that last battle, I reached level 10 in Mana Coalescence, unlocking my mana focus.” Magical electricity danced over her black and silver claws. “I chose a path of shadows, lightning, rain and wind. I am a storm mage.”

Chapter 30

The salvaging team headed by Mudpuppy and Thaddius were well on their way to the site of the destroyed caravan. They had persuaded me to stay behind on account of my lasting injuries from the battle with the serpent, but I couldn’t help my agitation over not being there while they were out in the deep forest. I needed to hurry up and heal my busted up spine so I wouldn’t be a liability!

Mudpuppy patiently responded to me with a status update every time I connected to her with Transmitter Tail, but I could tell she was getting a little frustrated with giving me the same response - nothing new since the last time I dialed her up.

I switched to Luna, wiggling my tail in the air until I got a lock on her.

Queen. A small, quiet voice entered my head. Luna somehow noticed my connection and spoke before I had the chance to.

Hey! I wanted to ask about your new mana focus. What is storm magic like?

Luna was silent for a moment, maybe gathering her thoughts. In her quiet voice, and curiously without that nervous stutter that normally interrupted her speech, she began explaining her new mana focus. It’s a large scale type of magic, meant to be used against armies or during sieges. The drawback is that it’s weaker than other focuses in small scale conflicts. The first ability I learned lets me conjure a storm over an area I choose. I chose this focus because it greatly expands the kinds of mana I can shape.

I nodded along as she spoke. Luna could be so quiet, but as soon as you ask her a question, she is an endless font of knowledge. It made sense - It was rare to find her without a book in her hands.

It was surprising to hear that her mana focus allowed her to shape different types of mana. When I had gained the shockwave shaping perk, I went from only knowing how to shape water mana to being able to shape motion mana too. Would it always take a perk or a mana focus to learn to shape different kinds of mana, or could I learn to do it on my own?

Maybe it would be helpful to ask that old friend, archmage and resident enchanted book about the subject of shaping new forms of mana when I got the chance.

So, you can shape wind, darkness, water and… lightning? How awesome is that? Shooting lightning bolts all over the place?

Yes, Queen. Luna replied immediately. Although my control of these mana types is suffering from a lack of practice. Wind magic remains my strongest asset, though I have had some success with practicing darkness shaping on this recent outing.

I cocked my head to the side in confusion. I thought you would have focused on Lightning magic?

Luna’s voice carried a tinge of regretfulness. Unfortunately, it seems that in order to practice lightning magic in any real capacity, I need to shape lightning during an actual storm. My control isn’t good enough to use it on a smaller scale without the assistance of a storm. Darkness, however, is abundant even during the daytime in the forest’s shadows.

I nodded. It made sense - to practice with water magic, you needed water nearby. For motion magic, you needed motion to work with. At least you can summon storms. It’s good that you have a reliable way to generate lightning mana.

Yes, Queen.

My conversation with Luna had me thinking about the subject of mana shaping in more depth. In a lot of ways, freeform mana shaping was a much weaker form of magic compared to abilities purchased through a mana focus, but they benefited from being exceptionally versatile. That versatility had a significant cost though, as shaping tended to be very lossy as far as mana use goes.

Or at least, that was my impression of mana shaping through my experience with water magic. I had only recently learned to shape motion mana and I hadn’t even considered the idea of using it to shape natural forms of motion like walking, jumping, or throwing something.

With a start, I realized I might be able to detect this new form of mana through my mana sense. Water mana existed in all living things and permeated the air in the form of water vapor. The lake far below me and the pond nearby lit up easily in this sixth sense. If there had been any additional types of mana, it would have been drowned out by the vast density and luminescence of the water mana drenching my mana sense.

I closed my eyes, focusing on my ability to sense the mana around me. Gwen, lying unconscious next to me in this lean-to, still hadn’t awoken since sustaining grievous injuries in our battle with the slaver caravan. I was worried, and had spent the last few hours watching over her. I watched with only my mana sense as her chest rose and fell in a slow rhythm. Then I slowly expanded my awareness to its maximum range, extending out several meters in all directions.

This entire time, I had been trying to intensify the effect of my mana sense to make mana more vivid and easily seen. Instead, this time I tried doing the opposite. The water mana washed away slowly as I tried to lessen my receptiveness to that specific form of mana.

I’d gotten so used to having this sixth sense around me at all times that losing it was actually kind of frightening, like having a blindfold pulled over my eyes. Even so, I pushed through that trepidation until I could barely feel the water mana around me.

What was left was muted, similar to what I had felt when I first learned mana coalescence, but there was most certainly still something there.

It was subtle in small movements, and more noticeable in larger ones. I watched as the rising and falling of Gwen’s chest generated nearly imperceptible amounts of motion mana. Someone outside stood up, and motion mana slowly bled away from their body.

It was like watching dust falling off of someone as they moved. I could only see the dust, but I could make out the shape of their body through the negative area that the dust flowed around. A child excitedly ran past, her fluffy tail trailing behind her, her cat ears twitching and flattening against her head in the movement. I watched the burst of motion mana fall off her body as she ran before the dust fell still and faded away to nothingness.

I drew a deep breath and faint traces of motion mana crumbled off my own movement, carried into the air as I exhaled.

Opening my eyes, I allowed the water mana to bleed back into my mana sense, lighting up my awareness of the world again in all directions. Glancing out the open doorway, I saw that same child running about, happy as a clam. I let out a relieved sigh.

It was surprisingly unnerving watching the world exclusively through the motion it makes, but at least I proved that I was able to sense that new form of mana. If I practiced with it, would it be easier to see it with mana sense? It was worth a try.

A notification blinked in the corner of my vision. Curious, I pulled it up.

Skill discovered: Mana Filter

Description: The ability to restrict your senses towards a certain form of mana. With increased aptitude in this skill, you will be able to better fine tune the effects of your targeted sensory deprivation.

Effects:

Targeted sensory deprivation toward specific forms of mana. Fine-tune control increases with skill level.

Note: Mana Filter has been absorbed by the superior classification Skill: Mana Coalescence and has gained all associated effects.

Oh! So not only had I gained useful knowledge about motion mana, but I also got a new skill for my trouble. Like how the herbalism skill merged with my examine skill, this new one merged with mana coalescence, immediately giving it a significant boost from connecting with a level 15 skill.

I’m not really sure if I like the idea of depriving my own senses, but if it allows me to better make out the subtle movements of motion mana, it may be worth it. I might even grow used to the lower input from my mana sense, like how your eyes adjust to being in a dark room.

With that in mind, I adjusted my ability to sense water mana, finding it much easier to do than before and bringing it down to a point where I could make out the crumbling, dustlike movement of motion mana. It was faint, but noticeable.

Queen. I nearly jumped out of my own skin as Luna’s quiet voice slipped into my mind. Was I maintaining Transmitter Tail this entire time? I turned my head to find my tail still wiggling away in the air behind me. My bad.

Hey Luna, anything new?

Luna’s voice was calm and collected as she appraised me of the situation. We’ve arrived at the destroyed caravan. It’s mostly the same as we left it. There are even some.. Wh- Hey! D- Don’t lick me! Stop!! Eugh! Eeeeuu~~ Luna’s voice tapered off as her voice grew more and more distressed.

Luna? Are you okay?

Yes! Yes, I’m…. Eugh, I’m okay. She sounded embarrassed, not to mention grossed out by whatever just happened. This thing… Thaddius says it’s called a Gurba. It’s a big… furry… thing. They pull the wagons and carriages. It thought I was a salt lick…

I struggled to hold back my laughter.

Eugh… I’m covered in drool… Luna admitted reproachfully.

I couldn’t hold it anymore and burst out laughing.

Wiping away a tear, I told Luna I was going to switch over to Mudpuppy. She was technically the one in charge of this operation and was less likely to be getting slobbered on by beasts of burden.

Fortunately, their expedition to the destroyed caravan had been without any complications. Mudpuppy filled me in on the salvaging operation’s progress as our people searched through the assorted supplies strapped down on wagons. Some of the supplies - most of it dried foodstuffs - had been ruined in the storm, and evidently one of the gurbas was killed and partially eaten by wild animals overnight and several more were simply missing.

That was unfortunate, but we had expected to be carrying all those supplies back by hand. The fact that any of the pack animals survived at all was a lucky break.

They were mostly just sorting through what had been ruined in the storm and loading anything useful or valuable into the wagons that had survived the assault. Thaddius had succeeded in recovering the Ring of Burning Blood after carving through the remains of that massive serpent.

I wasn’t sure what we would do with that artifact. The memory of that serpent’s emaciated, bloodless body with its scales clinging against its bones reinforced my apprehension towards using the item. It was true that it offered a significant power boost, but was the risk worth it?

There was also the matter of the blood priests to consider. This item was held up as a holy relic to them, and I wouldn’t deny that those white-robed warriors had saved my life in the battle against the serpent. That ring was theirs for the taking, but they had all died in the battle. Even so, I still considered it to be rightfully theirs.

If other blood priests come looking for the ring, I would readily give it to them. They earned it.

Aside from the ring, the caravan’s wagons were a treasure trove. There were weapons, armor, clothing, a good deal of dry food that had survived the storm and alcohol. A whole bunch of alcohol.

Well, it’s one way to keep your people happy. It wouldn’t be going to waste.

Gwen rustled next to me, then slowly opened her eyes. “...Queen?” She asked, bleary-eyed.

“Gwen!” I rushed over to her, helping her sit up. She was still very pale and weak. The deep scar across the side of her neck served as a reminder of how close she had come to death. “Are you okay? How are you feeling?”

“...Hungry.” Gwen yawned as she scooted out from under the orange fur blankets she occupied, rubbing sleepily at her eyes.

I smiled at her and dismissed myself to go fetch something for her to eat. When I came back, she looked much less woozy, but still sat patiently under that orange choko-choko fur blanket we’d all made together. I handed her a bowl of stew which she eagerly tore into.

“Woah, take a second to breathe. There’s plenty more if you’re still hungry.” I refilled her bowl after she finished with the first one.

She hadn't even been unconscious for a full day, but it was clear from her appetite that she was absolutely starved. I'd spent hours that morning maintaining healing magic on her before she stabilized. Healing magic was more like helping to speed the body along in its natural healing processes - it makes sense that she would need to eat more to make up for the nutrients her body used to heal itself.

“Queen,” She spoke after cleaning her bowl and dropping it into her lap, “What happened after I passed out? ...It was so cold, everything was freezing over.”

“Oh, I used this.” I pulled the recall stone from my bag, showing her the small rock with faintly glowing green symbols carved into it. It was down to one charge left, so I wouldn’t be able to pull that stunt again. “It brought us back home and I was able to heal you with the help of the regenerating water. As for the frost, well… Let’s wait until everyone is back home. That’s going to be a long story and they deserve to hear it too.”

Mudpuppy had been right. This entire time, I’d been trying to do everything on my own. It took me getting severely wounded to see that I needed to start relying on my allies. My daughters weren’t little kids anymore - I needed to learn to delegate.

It was time I laid everything out.

No more secrets.

Chapter 31

I’d already told my daughters that I had memories of my human life before reincarnating into this body. At the time, with me being the only adult they had ever actually met, they took it in stride. That was just the norm for them - for all they knew, it wasn’t unusual at all.

Thaddius’ reaction, however, was one of shock and confusion. Such a thing was thoroughly and completely unheard of in this world.

Prompted by his interest, I talked at length about my life on Earth - the technology, society, my place in it - much of it wasn’t new to my daughters. By now, I’d spent many nights around a campfire telling them stories from my human life. We mostly enjoyed singing songs from my old world. Ironically, ‘Killer Queen’ was a huge hit with them. What can I say? My kids have good taste.

At the time, I was a 19 year old shut-in college student with a penchant for excessive video gaming, so I could hardly call myself knowledgeable in world affairs. If my major was in anything other than cultural anthropology I might have been in a better position to be reborn into a fantasy world.

Incidentally, while I was going over my skills, Thaddius explained that my education on Earth was most likely why I immediately learned the Examine skill. Apparently it’s a skill that old scholars get after learning enough about the world to qualify for it. The fact that I effectively learned it immediately after being born here is an indication of how well educated I am as a person compared to people in this world.

I continued on to explain everything that had happened since being reborn; My first interaction with q6, finding Enzirus, my strange ability to detect anomalies, finding my messenger bag, wandering into the temporal anomaly followed by my meeting with the Pillar of Time and so on.

Thaddius patiently listened to my story, only occasionally interjecting to ask a question or for me to clarify something. When I reached the part about the enchanted book on mana coalescence, I held nothing back.

Luna was cool as a cucumber the entire way through, not flinching as I described my disconcerting interactions with the Pillars and my vision when selecting my mana focus. Mudpuppy had grown unusually serious and stern-faced, her claws settled into the well-worn grooves in the haft of her spear as I spoke. Gwen, who was still resting under the orange blankets, wrung her hands and frowned with worry in her eyes.

“And so, last night, I met with the Pillar of Death in the flesh. She rose from a pile of corpses and offered me a deal to save Gwen’s life.” I glanced towards the silver girl in question, whose face slowly shifted into one of shock.

“...Queen, you didn’t, did you?” She nervously asked, the corners of her mouth tilted into a concerned frown.

I shook my head. “No. The risk was too much, and I refused to be made into her slave. If I hadn’t thought of a plan to save you on my own, I probably would have taken her offer regardless of the consequences. I’m not proud of that, but it’s the truth.”

I sighed, tapping a claw against the wood of my staff before speaking with some finality.“And that brings us to now. Q6 has been following me in the shadows ever since I was born. Something is moving in the background, just out of sight, and it seems I may have no choice but to get involved. That, with my defiance to a god of death, may mean we are all in danger because of me.”

Everyone was quiet after that. Especially Thaddius, whose brows were pinched so close together I was afraid they’d get stuck that way.

Surprisingly, the next person to speak was actually Luna in her calm, quiet voice. “If there’s something lingering in the shadows, then all we need to do is pull it, wriggling, out into the light.”

I glanced, curious, in her direction. “What do you suggest?”

“We need more information. I’ll search the books for any information regarding the Pillars, and why one of them would be targeting you.” Luna met my gaze, delivering her assessment calmly, and with a level of confidence that I hadn’t seen in her before. The way she held herself and spoke had changed from the expected timidity I was used to seeing from her. Maybe her mana focus…? “If there’s anything in those books about the Pillars, I’ll find it.”

I nodded at the small black and silver mage. It was a good start, and it’s possible that a certain time-travelling archmage might have hidden some clue in the books he had brought with him. I doubted it, but it was possible.

Thaddius let out a deep sigh and unfolded his arms as he turned up weary eyes to meet mine. “I would like to speak with this book you mentioned.”

After handing him the rune-covered, faintly glowing book from my bag, Thaddius settled into a nearby spot with his back against a tree and stared down at the leather-bound cover. He removed a brown, unmarked glass bottle from a satchel hanging from his hip and took a long swig. Then, properly boozed up for the conversation at hand, his eyes unfocused for a moment before he began speaking with… well, himself.

Gwen pulled herself to her feet and looked between Mudpuppy and I. “I want to go talk to all the new people out there. I’ve been looking forward to meeting them for days now. Thank you for telling me about all these difficult things, Queen.”

After I gave Gwen a nod goodbye, Mudpuppy stood up to leave as well but stopped to rest a clawed hand on my shoulder. “Queen, I’ll follow you anywhere. Even if it means I need to stand against death itself.”

“I know.” I forced a smile. “I’d never question your bravery. I just hope you'll never need to.”

Mudpuppy nodded at me and walked off towards the island’s edge, maybe to help with unloading the wagons.

I struggled to my feet, rubbing at my aching back as I rose. Ugh, would I really have to put up with this for almost two months?

I glanced over towards where Thaddius sat, a wide frown stretched out over his face as he glared daggers at the book in his hands. Slowly, he reached for the bottle of alcohol next to him and downed the rest of its contents in one draft.

...Looks like that conversation is going well.

Thaddius had never heard of the Pillars, but had recognized one of them by name - ‘Q5, the Pillar of Nil’ - as the god the Acrelan blood priests worship. The Pillars were evidently not well known in the wider world - or at least not by that title. I agreed with Luna - it was important we gathered as much information as we could about them in order to figure out why one might be haunting me. Hopefully her studies would turn something up.

Stepping out of the lean-to where we’d had our meeting, I caught sight of Gwen waving me over with a big smile on her face, the silent unease from before all but vanished. She stood next to a tall, familiar gentleman with a pair of unusual curved horns. His long salt and pepper hair, now tied back in a neat ponytail, trailed behind him as he walked.

“Briham.” I nodded at him.

“Your highness.” He pressed a hand against his chest as he cut me a stiff bow.

Gwen gave the two of us a surprised look. “Queen, you know Mr. Briham?”

“Yes, we met earlier. He was kind enough to offer his help with the salvaging operation.”

“Yes, I was hoping to speak with you about that, your highness.” Briham offered me a neatly folded piece of paper. “I helped your daughter, Mudpuppy, in cataloging and documenting the results of our recent salvaging operation for your later perusal. This is a comprehensive list of the resources we were able to acquire.”

“Oh! Thank you! This is a huge help.” As I opened the paper to look it over, Gwen scooted closer to me in order to steal a glance as well. Briham stood as attentive as a true professional, waiting patiently for me to finish examining the document.

We now had fourty-two weapons, mostly swords, spears or maces. There was one crossbow that had been taken from the body of a slaver, several bows and a decent number of arrows.

In addition to a large assortment of clothes - all of them patchwork and threadbare - we had gained several dozen sets of armor. The majority of it was leather, but a couple pieces of metal armor were mixed in as well.

Unfortunately, there were few tools or trade goods to be found as the caravan was mostly focused on combat. There was, however, a great deal of unspoiled food and alcohol in their stores - maybe around a month’s worth. That would help cover the upkeep for having so many more mouths to feed.

Earlier, Mudpuppy had pushed a satchel full of coins we’d managed to loot from the caravan into my hands. I didn’t really have any frame of reference for how much this pile of coins was actually worth, but they were all listed out in this document: 133 half iron coins, 61 full iron coins, 68 silver coins and 18 gold coins. Total wealth: 255 silver and 43 irons.

I folded the note and slipped it into the brown messenger bag at my side. “Thanks again, Briham, you did good work.”

The fastidious man bowed his head at my praise. “Thank you, Lady Naomi. However, there was one more thing I was hoping to discuss with you.”

“Sure. What’s up?” If my crass demeanor bothered him, he didn’t indicate it in the slightest.

“I wanted to discuss your intent to build a city here. I happen to have some experience in administration and wanted to offer my assistance.”

I perked up at this, glancing next to me at Gwen who mirrored my excitement at potentially getting our first new citizen. “You want to join the village?”

“Perhaps in some temporary capacity, yes.” The older gentleman gave me a warm smile. “I am not one to throw down roots, but I find your ambition to create a city of nonhumans to be admirable. I would very much like to see you succeed in building a thriving city here. For that reason, I wanted to offer my help. If you would have it that is, my Queen.”

“Well, like I said, you’re free to come and go as you please. Any help you can offer would be fantastic. Doubly so if you could help with managing the city.”

Briham stood a full head taller than me, in no part due to his impeccable posture. He folded his hands behind his back and gave me an apologetic look before clearing his throat and speaking.

“Pardon, my Queen, but I was hoping to help in a different way. Having a dedicated administrator during these first few years of development is integral to building a thriving city. Small mistakes in development right now can have significant consequences for years or decades to come and a good administrator will help prevent those mistakes. However, I have been wandering the world for a great long while now and I do not plan on stopping any time soon.”

“Instead, I would offer to personally train one of your people to fill this role as administrator. ” A small smile creased his eyes as he settled his gaze on Gwen, “As it so happens, I already have a suitable person in mind.”

Gwen’s eyes widened to a comical size and she quickly looked back and forth between Briham and myself. I suppressed a smile of my own and turned to look at her.

“What do you think, Gwen?”

“Yes!” She blurted out with barely restrained enthusiasm, startling herself with the volume of her own voice. “I want to be useful to my Queen.” She slapped a hand against her chest and, maybe to hide her furiously blushing face, bowed her head in a rough imitation of Briham’s earlier show of deference. “Please teach me!”

Seeing the wiggling, embarrassed silver salamander girl in front of him, a smile bloomed across Briham’s face until his composure broke and he let out a deep, rolling laugh.

I joined in too, laughing along with him as Gwen’s blush deepened. He had seemed so stiff at first, but it was good to see that he had a sense of humor. I liked Briham - he had this kind of grandfatherly air about him that put me at ease.

“Oh dear. Yes, quite.” Briham tried to reel in his laughter and compose himself. He folded his arms behind his back and cleared his throat again, but the warm smile never quite went away. “It looks as though I have my work cut out for me. I should warn you, I am a strict and demanding teacher. I expect you to work hard and live up to my standards.”

“Y-yes! I won’t let you down.” Gwen bowed her head again over and over.

“Excellent. Now, while I have your ear, your highness,” Briham turned to me and held my gaze, “I want to discuss the current housing situation.”

I nodded, surprised at how quickly he had shifted gears. “Yeah, it’s not great right now. There’s too many people and too few buildings to house everyone.”

“The current state of overcrowding is an issue that must be addressed immediately.” Briham declared as Gwen studiously watched from the sideline. “Spending much longer in these conditions will have a considerable impact on morale. Additionally, more people from this group will be willing to join this village if they see living conditions improve in short order.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. What do you recommend?” I asked.

Briham placed a hand on Gwen’s shoulder before speaking. “I recommend that my apprentice and I organize a construction effort and build several more temporary shelters by nightfall tonight. Tomorrow, we can further organize the city’s industry and focus on building permanent shelters.”

“Tonight? It’s already getting late, will you really be able to put up more lean-tos by sundown?”

“The lumber, tools and materials are already on hand - it’s only a matter of labor.” Briham gave a small bow of his head with Gwen mirroring his gesture a moment later. “Give the word and I will make it so, your highness.”

“It’ll be good to have a roof over my head.” I nodded my affirmation at the tall horned man. “Let’s go with your suggestion.”

“We will begin immediately - With your leave, of course, my Queen?”

“Of course. Thanks, Briham.” I grinned at the both of them.

Briham gave me a stiff bow and held it. He stared sidelong at Gwen until she, flustered, realized her mistake. She turned to me and bowed her head as well, holding the same pose as her mentor.

I watched as they walked off together, Gwen staring fixedly at Briham as he spoke. Gwen was still technically a child, being level four, but as I watched them leave, I couldn’t get over how much she had grown in only a few short months.

With my staff to lean on, I walked among the busy throng of people carrying and unloading supplies from our earlier salvaging operation. I thought I even saw Mudpuppy hauling and stacking crates from the island’s edge.

We couldn’t actually get the wagons up onto the island, so they were currently down by the lake’s edge. The same was true for the Gurbas - They would need to live out by the lakeside until we found a better solution. We could at least keep campfires going where we tied them up so that the lurkers wouldn’t get to them overnight.

So much had changed since I first came to this place. I had spent so much time alone, half starved, eating those nasty scumsuckers until I could make a net out of vines and catch some real food.

Things were different now. Over half a dozen times since coming to this world I’d nearly died. I’d pulled myself out of the fire each and every time and come out just a little more experienced, just a little more battle hardened.

I remember being so paralytically terrified of this world that I couldn’t even find the courage to climb down from a dead tree branch. Now? I faced that very same serpent that had nearly taken my life all those months ago and came out the victor. I could tear through a field of choko-chokos without so much as lifting a finger. I could fly circles around a Quildora Wyvern with mana vaults.

Things were different now. I had people to rely on and the strength to defend them.

I found my way to Thaddius, planting the butt of my staff into the dirt near where he sat, back against a tree as he stared, thoughtful and listless, off into the distance. Seeing me, he picked up the enchanted book from a patch of grass next to him and held it out to me.

Tucking the book away in the brown bag at my side, I broke the silence. “So, want to talk about it?”

“...Yeah, I think so.” Thaddius sighed heavily and met my eyes. “Can’t believe I turn into such a crotchety old geezer. You know what he said to me? He called me a naive and shortsighted child!”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Yeah, he can be like that sometimes. One time he said I looked like an old miser squatting over a chamber pot.”

Now it was Thaddius’ turn to laugh. It tapered away until a somewhat disheartened, wistful look settled over his face. “That old archmage went to great lengths to carefully control what you learned of the future that he came from. Everything is completely off the rails - our timeline is nothing like his was.”

“Wait.” I stopped him, holding up one of my hands. “He actually told you something about the future?”

“In a roundabout way. It was an accident, slip of the tongue.” Thaddius frowned and ran a hand through his hair. “That old man mentioned the name of his wife. Married for over twenty years, apparently. Her name was Ryiah, proud captain of a company of blood priests.”

“But she…”

“Died. Last night, in the caravan battle.” Thaddius nodded. “I found her body in the clearing.”

“...I’m not sure what to say.” I shuffled on my feet uncomfortably. This time travel business was messy and complicated. I felt terrible over Ryiah - if I had only been a little stronger, I might have been able to save her. “I’m sorry, Thaddius.”

He shook his head and waved me off. “No, casualties happen when you take up a sword. She was a warrior, she knew the risks. It’s just…” He trailed off, a complicated expression playing over his face. “I don’t know. I think I still need to process it, this is all a massive headache. Anyway, before I forget about it-- here.”

Thaddius rifled through one of the pockets in his trousers and pulled out a simple-looking silver ring and dropped it into my palm.

The warrior gave me a hard expression before cautioning me. “I don’t need to tell you that this thing is dangerous. Be very careful.”

I gave him a quick nod and held up the ring for inspection. Of everything in the caravan, this was easily the most valuable object by far.

Not that you could tell by looking at it, that is. It was just a simple silver band with no adornments. The only peculiar thing about its appearance was how light caught on it in an odd way - it showed some shapeless crimson… thing reflected in its curvature. There was a decidedly sinister air about the ring and just holding it filled me with a profound sense of unease.

My skin prickled. Some deep, primal part of my brain told me that as I was staring at this ring, something else was staring right back at me. I felt like I was being watched, and whatever this thing that was pacing and leering on the other side of this silver ring was - It was hungry.

Under my scrutiny, an examine window popped into my vision.

Item Name: Ring of Burning Blood

Item Type: Ring

Item Classification: Artifact

Effects:

Blooddrinker(Self): Consumes blood to power other effects of this item. Only the user’s own blood can be consumed to power this effect. The blood drain rate increases in pace as the user’s health falls. This effect is constant and misuse may result in the user’s exsanguination.

Burning Blood: The user’s body is engulfed in bloodflames, multiplying the user’s Strength and Agility scores by three, reducing all damage received by 50% and reducing all stamina usages by 90%.

Dead Man’s Trap: When the user’s health pool falls under 10% of its maximum, this object stabs claws into the user, rendering the item impossible to remove without amputation or death.

Set (Blood Relic Set) Effects:

(3) Nullifies all negative effects associated with the items belonging to this set and all items operate as though fully powered with blood.

Description: An ancient holy artifact belonging to the religion known as 'The Red Faith,’ it is said that the blood god Nil himself forged this ring from his own flesh. Like its master, the ring always hungers.

Skill: Examine has levelled up to level 12.

Skill: Examine has levelled up to level 13.

As if speeding up the blood drain wasn’t enough, it actually chomps down when you reach 10% health? This thing isn’t just malicious, it’s downright evil. Among the rest of the bonuses, at a massive fifty percent damage reduction, I could easily understand why someone would consider using this item, but I still feel like it’s far too dangerous.

For now, it’s going to be tucked away somewhere that it won’t hurt anyone. I’ll figure out what to do with this thing later.

Slipping the creepy ring into my bag, I looked up to find Thaddius staring, transfixed, on something in the distance. Behind me, the enthusiastic honking of what sounded like a flock of geese echoed through the trees.

“Naomi, what in the world are those?” Thaddius asked, bewildered.

I turned to see a massive flock of familiar yet entirely bizarre creatures flying south from the snow-tipped mountains north of us.

These guys! I had only ever seen one of them and only for a fleeting moment before it flew off.

Nearly blotting out the sky above us, a migrating herd of some creatures like a cross between a platypus and an eagle flapped their massive wings and paddled with their beaver-like tails. It was simultaneously outlandish and spectacular as the large brown-furred animals honked spiritedly like geese flying south for the winter.

People stopped what they were doing, children pointing fingers into the air, a hammer hung suspended mid-swing as the worker cast bewildered eyes skyward. Villagers stepped out of buildings to see what all the commotion was about and stopped to watch the flock of animals peacefully passing over us - and making a real racket while doing it.

A notification began blinking in the corner of my vision. Rather than looking, I turned to Thaddius, a huge grin on my face. “What are those? Well, that’s a flock of majestic bastards.”

Race name accepted. As this race of creature was previously undiscovered, entity NAOMI has given it the name MAJESTIC BASTARD.

Rewards:

Experience +35

Wisdom +1

Scouting skill experience acquired.

Examine attempt successful.

Name: (None)

Race: Majestic Bastard

Level: 8

HP: 27 / 27

SP: 16 / 16

Strength: 7

Agility: 6

Constitution: 9

Endurance: 5

Intelligence: 1

Wisdom: 2

Skills:

Flying: Lv 17

Tail Attack: Lv 6

Sprint: Lv 5

Jump: Lv 2

Swim: Lv 11

Construction: Lv 7

Mana Conductivity: Low

Description: This creature is the descendent to a series of chimeras magically engineered by an ancient mage. Over hundreds of years of natural breeding, any magical qualities inherent to this species were lost.

While normally solitary creatures, they flock together when migrating south for winter. While typically flighty, if their nest is threatened, they will swoop by and bash their opponent with their powerful paddle-like tail.

Level up! Experience requirement to reach Level 10 has been met. You have one statistic point to allocate. The mastery system has been unlocked.

I stood easier on my feet as the level up’s healing power ran through me, not needing to lean on my staff so much for support as a portion of my wounds were mended.

Thaddius glanced over to me with a bewildered look on his face, hand rested on the hilt of his sword. I turned around to face the honking cacophony behind me, beaming widely. I spotted Gwen, Briham and Luna, all three of them having stopped what they were doing to look up at our honking visitors. Mudpuppy, off to the side, had dropped a crate into the dirt and drew out a long "hah?" as she stared into the sky.

Among the roaring waterfalls, behind laughing children and under all this madness and excitement was my home.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Name: Naomi

Race: Royal Salamanderkin

Level: 10 (26 / 230)

HP: 21 / 21

SP: 18 / 18

MP: 45 / 45

Strength: 5

Agility: 8

Constitution: 7

Endurance: 6

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Mana Focus:

Salamancer Focus (1 perk point available)

Skills:

Examine: Lv 13

Scout: Lv 9

Jump: Lv 11

Sprint: Lv 12

Magical Tail Manipulation: Lv 17

Magical Tail Vault: Lv 13

Magical Tail Attack: Lv 14

Death Resistance: Lv 3

Swim: Lv 6

Scrimshaw: Lv 11

Mana Coalescence: Lv 15

Salamancy: Lv 8

Dodge: Lv 8

Physical Resistance: Lv 2

Inspiring Leadership: Lv 2

Traits:

Determination

Titles:

Queen

Queen in the Mud

Book One

Thank you for reading!

I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who has helped and supported me through the process of writing the first book of QITM. This has been an absolutely fantastic experience and I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

I would like to thank several people and communities for their help and support:

The wonderful community on Royal Road. Thank you for all your constructive criticism and feedback on my early work, you guys really helped me grow as a writer.

The people over on /r/litrpg who offered a great deal of valuable advice when I was first starting out with this project.

All of my supporters on Patreon. I plan on putting sneak peeks for the next book up there for my supporters! =)

Thank you Dani for the beautiful typography for my cover. Congratulations for your baby boy, wishing you lots of love and happiness!

Lastly, I want to thank my mom. She was my biggest source of encouragement from day 1. Love you mom.

Thank you again and I'll see you in book two!