My talk with Sigmir had given me a few things to think about, considering my choices in this world and my personal way forward. The Divides gave a motivation to keep the level down compared to skills and special abilities in order to gain as much power as possible without levelling before crossing them. My class might be a bit of a trap, without guidance you could seriously hamper yourself or you could soar, like Alkmene told me during character creation. I currently had six serious skills to level, three Rune-Based skills, two direct Manipulation skills and Blood Magic which was a bit of an outlier. I had a feeling that I shouldn't try to gain more combat skills, those skills were more than enough for general combat, more would simply detract from each other.

Strength itself came in many forms, gaining knowledge would be great but again, Frozen Wastelands are kinda limited in libraries. But I could experiment.

First, I'd have to remake my Multi-Shuttle it was an incredibly useful weapon and with the Hard Ice concept, I could make it stronger than before. I sat down and like I did for the bridge, I channelled a Rune-Heptagon out of Hard Ice runes and was immediately amazed at the amount of Astral Power it took. Even in a half-meditative state my regeneration could not keep up with the amount of power flowing into the runes. I buckled down and used my Ice-Magic to shape the Ice in the process of it's creation, feeling that I'd be unable to change it once it was finished. I was getting light-headed from the Astral Power expenditure when I managed to finish the Shuttle-Shape and it's edges.

My original Frozen Shuttle had been about three feet long and a half foot across it's diamond shape, with four sharpened edges all around. The four shuttles that made up my Multi-Shuttle were each two feet long and a half foot across making the combination four feet long and a foot across. The new shuttle was three feet long and a foot across making it overall larger than the original or the small shuttles but smaller than the Combination Shuttle. It had taken all my Astral Power to create it but the result was worth it.

Skill increased You increased your skill: Ice Rune-Mastery [40/100]

Skill increased You increased your skill: Ice Magic [42/100]

   Hardened Shuttle of Ice Rarity Rare Type Special Base Damage 5 Damage Piercing Base Damage 12 Damage Slashing Strength Modifier none Special Effect Imbued - Due to the process used for the creation of this weapon, it is strongly in tune with the Ice-Magic of the Traveller Morgana. 25% lower cost when wielded by her Ice-Magic.

The single Shuttle dealt comparable damage to the Multi-Shuttle but would take a lot less power to use because it was a single weapon and had even a special effect for it. I would use the new shuttle as a main-weapon and keep the Multi-Shuttles close, just in case I needed close-up defence. Creating a full Multi-Shuttle out of Hard Ice was tempting but simply impossible, I'd have to quadruple my current Astral Power or get some Human Resources for my Blood Magic. But the concentrated effort of creating it had pushed my Ice Rune-Mastery and Ice Magic to the next point which let me gain a new Ice-Rune.

Before meditating on the new Ice-Rune, I wanted to do something else and for that I needed all my Astral Power back so I let myself sink into the meditation, letting it surge into me, relaxing in the cool flow of power, letting my mind roam and float in the flow. It was invigorating to feel the vastness of the Astral River close to my mind, but keeping me anchored to my body was taking a bit of a toll. I broke the meditation before the River could sweep me away.

Skill increased You increased your skill: Astral Meditation [22/100]

Soon, my power was replenished and I wanted to create something as a backup-option, for those moments when my Astral Power was gone and I had to rely on my physical body to stay alive. My idea was rather simple, I had a material that I felt was superior to simple Iron or Steel and I had quite a bit of training with Butterfly Blades, or Baat Jaam Do. I wouldn't get any system-assist for a while, until my character-skill would catch up with my mental skill but I believed that I could keep myself alive without it, if need be. With the same process I had used for the Hardened Shuttle, I was now creating two short Blades, as similar as I could make them to those I had in reality. I managed to make them both at the same time, hoping to get a set, similar to my Frozen Multi-Shuttle and the result was quite impressive, if I do say so myself.

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   Frozen Butterfly-Wings Rarity Rare Type Dual Blades Base Damage 5 Damage Piercing Base Damage 10 Damage Slashing Strength Modifier Low Special Effect Imbued - Due to the process used for the creation of this weapon, it is strongly in tune with the Ice-Magic of the Traveller Morgana. 25% lower cost when wielded by her Ice-Magic. Special Effect Coordination. These Blades are a pair. If both are used at the same time, their damage increases. These Butterfly Blades, made out of Hardened Ice-Crystals form a breathtaking Set of Crystal Blades, created to be used in concert. The material used makes them hard but also brittle and vulnerable to heat.

I might even use them in concert with my new Shuttle, using one of my thought processes for the Butterfly-Blades and the other for the Shuttle itself. But it would defeat the purpose of having a weapon close by, in case magic gets disrupted or my Astral Power runs dry.

With that done, I took out one of the Ice-Runestones and let my mind concentrate on the feeling of eternal, frozen solitude. I was trying to steer my mind toward the concepts of eternity and the hardening of Ice again but doing so caused my head to ache so I chose to give up. My mind embraced the tranquil feeling and I calmed down swiftly and a rune started to condense. Torpor, the immobility caused by freezing cold and hibernation. It was a rune targeted more at the mind than the body but it would help quite a bit with what was commonly called Crowd Control.

I came out of my meditation, opened my eyes and watched Sigmir for a change. She was done cleaning the pelts and was currently cleaning the sinews. Shortly after I had opened my eyes, she looked over and on seeing my eyes open, she smiled. “Could you make me another of those pots? I need one for the tanning-process off those pelts.” she asked.

I happily agreed and started to grind another bowl out of stone. It took maybe half an hour, then I had a nice, shallow bowl for her. I handed it over and she opened her pouches and took a small bag out of it that looked far too large to fit in. She went on and pulled a couple of tools out, now I was sure something strange was going on. “What's that?” I asked. “Hm? You mean my Bag of Holding? It's a rather common item, don't you have one as well?” I guess my expression told the story better than a thousand words because she handed me the second belt-pouch and gestured to open it.

I did so and before my mental eye, there was a space of roughly three feet cubed with various tools floating around in it. None was too large to go through the opening of the pouch so I guess that was the limitation.

Tutorial engaged Congratulations. You were handed your first Bag of Holding. Small Bags of Holding are common, their limiting factor is the connection between the Holding-Pocket and the Real Space, the larger this connection, the harder it is to make. Higher Quality bags may come with features such as temporal Stasis, shelving or sorting features.

Seeing my surprise, I guess Sigmir had sympathy with me and offered the bag to me, she had her second bag after all. I gladly accepted as we were in this together anyway due to the oaths we had sworn to each other. The opening was too small for weapons or even clothing but smaller items were easily held within.

When I saw a couple of cups and spoons, I raised an eyebrow in question at Sigmir, causing her to blush. “You were so proud the wood items you had made. I didn't want to upstage you.” Her earnestness caused me to feel like a fool but somehow it was funny to me. I jumped up and started tickling Sigmir as punishment. She started to wiggle around, trying to keep me from tickling her, but not really trying to get away. Soon we both were flat on the floor, me on top of her. It was a nice position so I simply kissed her and cuddled in. “What nice, comfy bedding you are, my dear. I could get used to this.” I whispered to her and kissed her again. This caused the blush that had been on her face the whole time to increase and her to nod shyly. “Un, it feels good.”

We continued to lie there, each in our own thoughts, interrupted by kisses every few minutes and enjoyed the closeness.

Far too soon, she gave me one last kiss and got up, saying that she wanted to start with all the pelts today so we had nice sleeping furs for tomorrow. Somehow that sounded very good to me so I did not try to keep her. Instead I made myself a small stone bowl to experiment with the Shadeleaf. I ground it into a paste and added water. The water caused the shadows to vanish and the whole thing turned inert. I guess water was not the solution. I cleaned the bowl and tried again, this time not adding water but adding magically active blood, hoping to keep the magic in the blend.

That worked better, I got Shadeleaf-Paste something that Inspect told me could be used to imbue other items in order for them to accept Darkness related runes. The whole thing also raised my Blood Magic quite a bit, I guess finding new ways to use one's skill gives a lot of skill-experience. I asked Sigmir for a couple of sinew-threads which she handed to me without question and soaked them into the paste, planning to have them in there over night.

If it worked like I hoped it would, I could use the threads to embroider runes onto our new clothes, maybe creating permanent enchantments that way or at least create runic formations in which I could pour Astral Power from a distance to create instant effects, similar to my use of magically created Icicles. I'd love to have a way to create something similar for Blood Runes in order to create something to heal or strengthen Sigmir from a distance. Currently I had not been able to create Healing-Magic outside of the Touch-Rune and I doubted that it would be different with the new Strengthen-Rune. I'd have to keep a lookout for something that might work, maybe some herb related to Blood or something similar.