For a moment, after the figure of Sirius vanished, I was stunned. We had succeeded in our quest, had managed to hold back the centaurs long enough to allow the wolves to do what they had to do. But now, why did it feel like we had failed, that the wolves had lost despite our efforts? They were eternally bound to their dungeon, encaged by their own volition.

Shaking my head, knowing that it had been what they wanted, I focused on the messages I had gained. They allowed me to see the benefits of the last few days in a numerical way, especially when I realised that I had gained two levels, bringing me to level 65, thanks to the massive amount of EXP gained from the quest.

Sadly, there was also a notice that my previous respawn-point in the Wolf’s Den was no longer viable and it had been placed at the point I had selected before, the inn in Kolyug.

Additionally, the item I had gained was an accessory, worn in the ear, giving me a boost to Intuition and Agility, while also signaling that I was a revered friend of the Wolves of the Northern Wind. While I wasn’t quite sure what that would mean to other beings, the simple fact that it gave me an additional point of Intuition and two points of Agility was more than enough reason to wear it. Holding the chain to my ear was enough to engage it and after a slight pinch, it was affixed to my ear.

I watched as the others did just the same, putting on the trinkets. But I also noted that they looked a little shaken, unsure about the course of events.

“Now that the wolves are safe and out of the picture, we can take off the gloves. If worse comes to worse, we can simply continue our journey. Let the Centaurs feel what it means to fight ghosts!” I snarled, eager to take out my anger and the strange feeling of failure on someone else. And, given that the Centaurs were the cause of the wolves’ problems, they were a convenient target.

“Adra, you once told me that your magic is grounded in nature. Remember the book we were lent in Yaksha, with the various plants in it? If I told you about one of them, could you, either with your magic or without it, find a sample of that plant?” I asked, a plan forming in my mind.

“I think so, it would depend on the plant. Some of them are easier to find than others, even when using magic.” she told me, after a second of contemplation. “Why, what plan are you hatching now?”

I could see that she was a little worried, especially after the last stunt I had pulled, she hadn’t been happy to see me deliberately use my blood magic to defile a large stretch of land, most likely because it reminded her too much of the situation in Tegi.

“I don’t plan to use Blood Magic, at least not directly. But I think with the commotion and the constant attacks of the Nethersprites, Rai and I should be able to sneak into their camp and take a good look at their supplies, adding some special seasoning. We just need to find the right one, so we can gather some of it. And maybe I can strengthen the seasoning with a bit of magic, to make sure it has the right kick to it.” I explained, a smile slowly stretching across my lips.

Looking at the others, I noticed that Sigmir looked a little conflicted while Rai wholeheartedly approved. I could understand both of them, Sigmir disliked stealthy and sneaky tricks, partially because she couldn’t defend me while I was sneaking around without her, partially because such tricks had once brought her low, almost killing her. She felt it was dishonourable to use such means but at the same time, she knew that they were sometimes the best way to go. On the other hand, vengeance and retribution were concepts she liked, even if she preferred to go about it more openly, instead of with a knife in the dark. Rai, on the other hand was now fully adapted to sneaking and striking from the most advantageous position, if that meant poisoning the supplies of your enemies, it was their fault for being unable to prevent you from getting into their camp.

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Lastly, Adra was keen on stealth and ambushes but, amusingly, didn’t like to deal in retribution for some reason. But she would stand with us, despite her misgivings. She would even help us, as we were a team.

Before logging out to go through the video of the various plants in the area, looking for a nicely poisonous one, I decided to take care of allocating the attribute-points I had gained. After a moment of contemplation, I decided to push my intelligence to forty, using the fact that I had gained one point of intelligence from my class. Judging by previous allocations, getting to forty should increase the amount of runes I could project instantly, maybe even give me a higher number of runes to combine at the same time.

Special Ability gained You gained a Special Ability: Rune Nonagon For being a Natural Mage and having 40 Intelligence, you gain the ability to link nine Runes into a single spell. This is an advanced form of rune-magic.

Special Ability upgraded! Your Special Ability, Rune Projection, was upgraded. For having 40 Intelligence or higher you gained an ability, based on your play-style. The ability Rune Projection allows you to instantly project a runes into a Formation, without drawing it. The Astral Power Cost to project a rune is double it's normal cost. The amount of runes depends on your Intelligence. Instantly projectable runes: 5

Special Ability gained You gained a Special Ability: External Astral Power Control Every Natural Mage has the ability to control Astral Power, even after it left their body. For having 40 Intelligence or higher, you gained an ability, based on your playstyle. The ability External Astral Power Control greatly increases the influence you can exert over your Astral Power, even after it left your body.

I had to smile, looking at the new abilities. Two were expected, upgrades of earlier abilities, but the last one could be incredibly powerful or incredibly weak, which I would have to try out. It was easy to guess why I had gained it, one of my most used abilities in recent times had been the ability to create large-scale effects by releasing Astral Power into a ritual, using it to keep some control over it. Now, it seemed that this ability would allow me to do that even better, with less losses and greater control.

But before I lost myself in testing out my new ability, I logged off, opening the video-file I had made of the herbalism book I had borrowed in Yaksha. I had read it before but I wanted to make sure that the plants I remembered were the most useful for my plans.

After watching it, often stopping to allow me to carefully study the images and text, I had a few plants that sounded promising. Wolf’s Berries, Monkshood, Nightshade, Bane Leaf, Hemlock and Dream Seed, all those plants had the potential to give the centaurs a bad ingestion, some of them merely problematic, others seriously deadly to the point that I planned to gather some extra for my ‘just-in-case’ pouch. Delivering poison was quite easy if you could easily craft needles around a substance and even control those needles afterwards, letting them fly as you pleased and shatter with a mental command. No need for carefully forged daggers, no need to mess around with glass vials, just a few prepared needles that I could use as needed. Especially the oil extracted from Dream Seed made me curious, it seemed as if it was a powerful hallucinogenic, so combining it with my Mind Magic might create interesting effects.

Having a nice list of poisons, I looked through the forums if there was anything that caught my eyes but other than a rather funny reaction to my puppy-video, this one of another player who had managed to somehow befriend a pride of lions and was playing with their cubs, nothing really stood out to me. But if I managed to create a trend of players befriending animals on Mundus in order to create cute footage, I was quite happy with the result.

Once everything was taken care of, I logged back in and told Adra what I was looking for, how the plants exactly looked and what conditions they preferred. To cover as much ground as possible, Adra and I would use our magic to search, Lenore and Ylva would search on their own, while Sigmir and Rai would head out together, that way, everyone was relatively safe while having someone with good woodcraft on their team.

After a quick check what time it was, we decided that Adra and I would start immediately while Rai and Sigmir would prepare dinner. With a smile on my face, I started to lay down a scrying formation with Lenore, looking forward to giving the centaurs a dose of medicine.