NOVEL NEXT Chapter 233: First Fortnight
“There’s always another level up. There’s always another ascension. More grace, more light, more generosity, more compassion, more to shed, more to grow.”
Elizabeth Gilbert
The first fortnight went by quickly. I had soon grown accustomed to my new size. What I missed most from my childhood, though, were my elvish robes, which no longer fit properly. Still, the enchantments on them were the most crucial part of the clothing, so I had carefully cut the clothes open along the seams to preserve the enchantments on them, then patched them into the new clothes I had made for myself. They made for an unusual underlayer beneath my Arctic wolf and bear pelts, but they were still more than worth it when wandering the endless ice.
The days were simple and straightforward but busy with the number of activities we attempted to cram into them. Namir and I hunted in the morning with our team progressing further and further afield from the Thorpe. Most days, I could find some treasure and an animal or two. The hunts kept us comfortable as we continued to expand our wallets for our departure.
With us collecting so many lost knickknacks, actual items of worth, and the corpses of the monsters we had hunted, it soon became necessary to reveal my access to some spatial storage, lest we leave such uncovered resources behind or be forced to carry more than was comfortable. As always, the best or rather most entertaining way to reveal a secret or two was with a studied nonchalance. It was with great pleasure that I demonstrated my ability one morning out on the endless ice after killing another clew of Ice Wyrms.
The giants had set about harvesting their half of the tangle after removing the cores and gifting them to us. Bjorn had possibly left the two of them to us to harvest out on the endless ice without help to express some of his frustration over our previous agreement that anything else I might find would be mine. Maybe there had been some pressure from above after our first successful patrol and the hidden little treasures I had been able to bring back with me.
Either way, it wasn’t going to be an issue for me.
Opening a portal below the beasts, they disappeared into my spatial vault. Leaving Namir and I standing idly by as Bjorn and Eryk continued to harvest theirs while Ivar and Ragnar kept watch.
It took them a moment to notice. But then, much like with my sudden increase in height, the exclamations and questions soon followed.
“What?”
“Where?”
“You have a spatial beastcore?”
“When?”
“How did you afford that?”
“But there are no stone glyphs.” Bjorn objected to the disappeared corpses of our most recent foes without a stone surface on which to open the vault's door.
“There is more to magic than stone glyphs.” I avoided answering exactly how I had managed to do it and pointing out that I was only just now learning much about the stone magic of the giants.
Eryk quickly recovered, “Can you store ours too?” He cheekily asked.
Unsurprisingly, his father started to object, “That’s not necessary . . . ”
“It would be my pleasure.” I interrupted, placing my hand on the corpse and opening the portal below it to make it disappear. I was getting better and better at getting the vault to snap open and close and to size the portal to the size of the item I was storing. Soon enough, it would hopefully look like the items instantly vanished, but I was not quite there yet.
Bjorn knelt to stare at where the corpse had disappeared once more, this time in front of his eyes. He snorted in disbelief. “Well, we will be able to cover more ground quicker, seeing as we won’t be stopping to harvest the worthwhile harvests.” That was all he had to say on the matter. He never pried any further, simply accepting my ability and the help it gave them.
I always returned their share of the hunt when we returned to the Thorpe, occasionally returning them at the butchers themselves to speed the harvesting process and relieve ourselves from the mess. The butchers were happy to dress the corpses for a cut of the meat, especially from fresh ones like the ones I could produce, and my spatial vault quickly filled up with suitably salted, smoked and dried meats for the journey south. Wyrm jerky, hmmm.
It was not only our larder that filled up but also our resistances. Ice Wyrms cores continued to help level my Ice resistance, and alongside my cold resistance, the endless ice was no longer so bitterly cold to me and Namir. Even Nyx had developed a strong enough ice resistance to keep us company longer, although she still steered clear of the Gyrfalcon’s roosting in the Thorpe. She stuck close to me. within the Thorpe but was beginning to range a little further afield when we were out on our patrols.
I enjoyed learning Archery from Ragnar. Weapon Prodigy meant that my accumulated experience went to slowly moving that skill forward, but I had been able to pick up some new archery-specific skills that Ragnar had demonstrated: Precision shot, Piercing Shot, and Rapid Fire. This had made him inordinately proud of his teaching ability. Namir didn’t try to disabuse him of his pride by pointing out how quickly I had always gained and levelled skills, but Bjorn did look a little suspicious at the pace of my progress. However, the skills were soon to be needed.
One ice-dwelling magical monster explained the abundance of Gyrfalcons in the Thorpe. They also were the perfect target for my newly developed archery skills and highlighted the importance of Ragnar on the hunting team, Tundra Terrors. They were predatory birds with razor-sharp talons and the magical ability to call forth ice darts they would shower their targets with as they dived bombed them to cut them up in person.
Our first meeting came a little too close to disaster.
I had become focused on looking down and out rather than up in my search for monsters and treasures. They came from above and at speed. In fact, Namir was the first to spot them as he still ranged ahead of our group, as always.
“KAI, Heads UP!” His voice shouted, startling me out of a sensory daze. Raising my head to look at Namir and then higher up as I saw him pointing above us.
Directing my senses up, I saw the sudden ice storm falling toward us with a hunting pair of Tundra Terrors diving behind their magically made lethal hailstorm. They must have been circling high above my sensory envelope for me to have missed them.
My thoughts fled to Nyx. Would she be okay? Land monsters had never threatened her with her ability to flee beyond their reach but these she would have no such escape from. Nyx, though, was outside of their falling ice and smartly abandoned us. She headed out from where it would fall to Namir for protection rather than returning to us.
Now that I knew she was safe, it was time to focus on myself. I prepared to send a burst of heat up and melt the ice daggers attempting to pin us to the earth, but I did not have time before Bjorn yelled, “Shields up!” The four of them rapidly raised their circular shields above their heads as they dropped to their knees in practised motions.
I stood next to Bjorn and was covered by his shield as the hail of ice darts hit hard. Half his size, I did not even need to drop to my knees as I pulled my bow and arrow, aiming and shooting despite the hail of ice that my senses allowed me to see through without risking putting my head out into the falling icy death.
I watched as the Tundra Terrors found four perfectly healthy giants beneath them when they had perhaps expected ice-filled wounded warriors that they could finish off with their razor-sharp talons and render them corpses to pick over at their leisure. They aborted their dive, perhaps to look elsewhere for easier prey.
However, Ragnar and I would not let them leave at their leisure and let loose a pair of arrows that could not fail to miss at this proximity, with them losing speed to break their fall and angle away from us. A combination of Precision shots and Piercing shots buried our shafts solidly into their breasts and brought them crashing down to the ice, if not dead, mortally wounded. As Magical monsters they relied on ambushing their prey and their magic to down their foes instantly, not engage in battles with them, and they soon succumbed to their wounds.
“Well handled.” Bjorn nodded in acceptance of a job well done.
As we approached their departed forms, Eryk asked, “Why not use your magic?”
“Practicing my archery.” I smiled, pleased with the successful shot at speed. It was remarkably more complex to hit a bird on the wing than to hit a deer standing still all those lessons ago on Wester Ponente.
“Why didn’t you notice them sooner?” Bjorn asked,aaa reminding me that I had failed to notice them in time.
“They were out of my sensory range, and I have been concentrating on unearthing the monsters hidden in the ice,” I explained.
Bjorn nodded, thinking before stating, “Ragnar, remember to keep watch above.”
“Will do.” He replied, slightly chagrined. It seemed that they had grown a little too comfortable with me looking out for them and possibly neglected their usual roles in the hunting quad that they were.
“We must not grow lax with Kai searching the snow for us. Eyes up and out.” He commanded firmly as we set forth once more.
. . .
The afternoons I would spend plying my healing skills at the local market stall. These were the skills that were earning us the most healing away from the local aches and pains. A life from pain is almost without price, and they were generous in their contributions, recognising the value of my skills. Namir would man the stall while I was healing; when not healing, I would sell off our excess finds from our treasure hunting alongside statues, as requested by Fortuna. We now had a money chest, and its value was increasing daily.
My statues had become popular due to their novelty and, dare I say it, my skill. The giants had taken to requesting personal statues of themselves in various poses for friends and family, which they bought alongside statues of my patron and her enigmatic friend. Some had even requested a statue or two of myself and Namir. While not having been here long, we, too, were a novelty and, dare I say it, a little bit interesting. They came for the conversation as much as they came for the healing, statues and general goods I could supply. But every day, the stall grew busier and busier.
My new metiers, Hunter and Healer, had continued to level in response to the repeated use of the skills in line with their focus. They were not the only skills and metiers to be levelling, though—the evenings I spent with Völur, the Chief Vievisier. In return for hunting and clearing out the local area around the Thorpe, he was giving me lessons in their stone wizardry and glyphs to repay us after it was quickly realised that we had procured more than we needed to supply just ourselves on our journey south. Not that I was not still hoarding trade goods and supplies to take south in my spatial vault.
. . .
I was too small to haul around a mini monolith like Völur could. But with my stone shaping, I was exceptionally well suited to shaping the glyphs on the walls, testing them, then wiping the stone slabs clean to learn another. Völur was most impressed with my ability to wipe them clean again.
“When I learned each practice glyph required me to source another stone. I must have spent more of my apprenticeship hauling stone back to my master as I did carving the glyphs in them.” He rumbled enviously as he watched me wipe my work away.
“You’re a good teacher, chief.” I hedged with flattery. I wasn't sure how to appease him. I had no intention of pulling stone around if I could help it.
“You’re a quick student.” He replied. “Well worth the time to teach. Even if you were not helping our Thorpe fortify our borders.” He nodded in acknowledgement.
There was a lot to learn, and I had only just scratched the surface of what we had covered so far.
. . .
Völur was not my only teacher. I alternated my evenings to work with Bjorn’s wife, Varvara, who was also helping me to work on my runes.
“You can’t be carving your runes in wood, boy.” She objected when I first brought out the runes I had to trade. “Metal is the only way to go. You get better efficiency; they last longer and have stronger effects.” She had been vocal in her complaints when I brought a selection of the runes I knew carved into wood grown within my spatial vault.
“It’s all I had to work with,” I answered, lacking a foundry, ingots of metal and the tools to work them into runes.
“Even stone would have been better. I know you are working with Völur. But never mind, that is why you have come to me,” Vavara gestured generously to her forge. “Let's get started on etching these into metal. Then I can truly judge their worth.” She said.
The daily increase in my knowledge of glyphs and runes from my giant and part dwarven teacher pushed my magical and knowledge-based skills higher, levelling my Sage Metier in turn.
. . .
The only metier I worked on privately was that of my Psion. Late-night calls home to my family had that continuing to level. However, the increases continued dropping as I failed to gain as much experience for the repeated trips through the sea of souls. I did not risk venturing further afield happy to simply be able to shoot straight through to the receiving member of my family’s soul.
Brewing (Lv1 ->2)
Glassmithing (Lv1 ->2)
Alchemy (Lv1 ->2)
Tailoring (Lv1 ->2)
Pottery(Lv1 ->2)
Masonry (Lv1)
Engineering (Lv1)
The progress of certain skills seemed to show that life on the island was still moving apace. However, the family seemed to have discussed what they would and would not be telling me in advance, and I could tell that they were holding some things back to surprise me with on my return. But what they did tell me was impressive enough as it was.
. . .
Improving my Psion skills and levels was not my only private personal project. My spatial vault continued to grow as it levelled and I filled it full of the trade goods, supplies and raw materials.
After some trial and experimentation, my spatial vault expanded centrally with each level up, meaning that I no longer had to move the corner trees with each expansion and extend the branches between them along the left, right and rear walls. The front wall I kept open to allow an entry for the other personal project in the works. With Spatial Vault hitting level 10, each side of the cube was now 20ft by 20ft, which gave me four times the area to work with and lots of height for my corner trees to grow up to a reasonably decent height compared to the ten-foot saplings they started as. It was more space than I needed or knew what to do with. But I now had a ridiculous amount of shelving.
. . .
My dreams had not been interrupted since I started doing Fortuna’s bidding with the statues. She must have been pleased or at least satisfied with my progress. It probably did not hurt that luck was now ascendant once more across my attributes. The one stat that I could not improve through training meant that I would have to continue to add to it in order to keep it higher than my others. A stat - utory tax to display my devotion. Though I am sure that Fortuna could sense our relationship was more of a transactional based relationship rather than one based on faith.
With half of my allotted time for preparation complete my departure date was looming closer and closer. It seemed a shame to leave when I was making such swift progress. However, statue sales were beginning to slip, at least the ones of Fortuna and her friend. I was still making them and I was beginning to have shelves of them filling my spatial vault. I would not lack for statues to leave behind on our circumnavigation. So, stone carving continued to level up. I placed another statue on a shelf within my spatial vault.
I was making a lot of progress.
Thinking about sweet progress, it was worth looking at my status when the easy levels were rolling in once more.
Status
Level: 65 -> 70
Title: Lord
Name: Callen Kai Caelus Kasai Silversea
Age: 10 Years 0 months 15 days
Métier: Hunter (Lv1 ->2)
Métier: Healer (Lv0 ->2)
Métier: Psion (Lv0 ->1)
Métier: Sage (Lv0 ->2)
General Experience: 1,357,000 /3,276,800
Health: 2000 Stamina: 2000 Mana: 2000 Psi: 2000
Trait: Long-lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky
Vitality: 200
Endurance: 200
Strength: 200
Dexterity: 200
Senses: 200
Mind: 200
Clarity: 180 ->200
Magic: 200
Charisma: 180 -> 200
Luck: 202
Free Points: 10
Resistances: Cold (Lv6->10), Ice (Lv4->8), Pain (Lv39), Poison (Lv11)
Skills Tier 1:
Dance (Lv100) Sailing (Lv100) Singing (Lv84) Trading (Lv83 ->84) Meditation (Lv85) Time Sense (Lv84) Balance (Lv75) Fishing (Lv60) Sneak (Lv57) Acting (Lv56) Drumming (Lv55) Whistling (Lv50) Farming (Lv59) Knots (Lv55) Draw (Lv59) Listening (Lv50) Stitching (Lv50) Humming (Lv50) Insight (Lv51->52) Glide (Lv45) Poise (Lv43) Grace (Lv43) Charm (Lv42 ->43) Composure (Lv41) Ambidextrous (Lv40) Silent Step (Lv32) Inspect (LV42->43) Sketching (Lv35) Drafting (Lv34) Lie (Lv26) Deft touch (Lv24) Posture (Lv22)Riding (Lv20) Cook (Lv26) Etiquette (Lv20) Appeal (Lv20) Sight (Lv20) Scent (Lv20) Detect (Lv20) Taste (Lv20) Measurement (Lv28) Carpentry (Lv20) Blacksmithing (Lv11) Mining (Lv10) Teaching (Lv15 ->19)Underwater breathing (Lv6) Hunting (Lv11 ->14) Skinning (Lv7->10) Skiing (Lv8 ->10) Tracking (Lv1 ->4) Brewing (Lv1 ->2) Glassmithing (Lv1 ->2) Alchemy (Lv1 ->2) Tailoring (Lv1 ->2) Pottery(Lv1 ->2) Precision shot (Lv1 ->2) Masonry (Lv1) Engineering (Lv1)
Tier 2:
Quick reflexes (Lv80 ->81) Sense Mana (Lv78 ->79) Spellcraft (Lv65->66) Spellsong (Lv65->66) Eavesdrop (Lv63) Order (Lv49->50) Linguistics (Lv41->42)Memorisation (Lv40->41) Recall (Lv40->41) Composition (Lv40) Stealth (Lv40) Mind Sense (Lv38->39) Observe (Lv32->33) Knife Arts (Lv33) Misdirection (Lv26) Haggling (Lv25->26) Martial Arts (Lv25) Transplant (LV20) Cruising (Lv49) Dart (Lv26->27) Heal (Lv21->28) Treasure Sense (Lv18) Intimidation (Lv12) Stone Carving (Lv1->5) Piercing Shot (Lv1)
Tier 3:
Echolocation(Lv73->75) Expel Mana (Lv71->72) Mana Manipulation (Lv70->71) Gale (LV70->71) Boil (Lv59->60) Ignite (Lv44) Melt (Lv44) Absorb Mana (Lv42)Command (Lv40) Deception (Lv26) Bargain (Lv23) Freeze (LV20) Racing (Lv34)Analyse (Lv19->20) Flash Step (Lv16->17) Seismic Sense (Lv16-17) Danger Sense (Lv13->14) Telepathy (Lv8 ->10) Smuggling (LV6->7) Rapid Fire (Lv1)
Tier 4:
Block Status (Lv100) Iron Man (Lv70->71) Parallel Processing (Lv50 ->51) Material Manipulation (Lv40) Stone shaping (Lv36->37) Mana Drain (Lv30) Sonar (Lv25 ->26)Flight (Lv22->23) Seafaring (Lv22) Air stepping (Lv8 ->10) Contract (Lv5) Magic Carving (Lv5 ->6) Rune Carving (Lv3 ->5)
Tier 5:
Mind fortress (Lv26) Omniglot (Lv26 ->27) Weapon Prodigy (Lv23 ->24) Music Prodigy (Lv31) Polymath (Lv15) Spatial Vault (Lv6->10) Astral Projection (Lv5 ->9) Multiple minds (Lv5) Enigma (Lv2)
Tier 6:
Sense Soul (Lv2 ->3)