Mia stirred awake. Her head felt like someone had pounded it in until she gave up. She groaned and rubbed her temples as a flickering fire caught her eye. The heat emitting from it felt like being wrapped in a warm hug and the tingling feeling in her body started to dissipate. She sat up and looked around at the camp, then saw Lily and Kate sitting on bed packs close to her, staring at her wide-eyed.
“You’re a wizard, Harry,” Kate said, looking at her and shaking her head.
Mia snorted out a laugh, then groaned in pain.
“A what?” Lily asked in confusion.
“We read it in a book. You wouldn’t understand.” Kate laughed.
Mia tried to smile, but her body felt like it had electricity pouring through her. Warm fur for the bedding brushed against her hand as she sat up straighter to look around the camp set up in the middle of the forest. The hooting of owls and random rustling of leaves filled the night air. It comforted her. She spent many nights outside listening to the same sounds on her farm.
“Do you remember anything that happened, Mia?” asked Lily.
“Not really.” She said closing her eyes and shaking her head. “I remember not wanting my story to end in the hands of Horven the tentacle monster.” Mia said, taking a long deep breath as Kate laughed. Mia nudged her friend aside, smiling herself. “Was it that bad?”
“You were like a one-man army, Mia” Kate stated matter-of-factly.
“What do you mean?”
“You turned into this superbeing and blasted our way through those tunnels and out of the dungeon. I don’t even know how you knew which way was out.”
Mia shrugged. After she struggled to break free of the tentacles, she thought she could hear Lily’s voice. Then: flashes of her childhood. She remembered each time her father went away on business trips, her scheming stepmother would force her to sleep by the fire pit and would dare Mia to tell her father, claiming to withhold food if she did. Mia knew that even if she did tell him, he might not even believe her, as her father always chose to see the good in people.
Mia shook her head and laughed. “I don’t remember much after going into the pit,” she said, scrunching her face.
“What was that power?” Lily asked as she moved closer to her.
“I really don’t know.” Mia responded. Lily and Kate gave each other a sideways glance before turning their attention back to her. Mia sighed.
The sky was pitch black, not one star twinkled, and the moon seemed invariably absent. The air felt cold. Even through the fur of the bed pack and the fire burning close by, she shivered. “How long have I been out?”
“You’ve been sleeping for almost two days now, Mia. We kept moving until I thought we were far enough away that Tess would have to search very, very hard to find us.”
“I’m surprised you even survived that. You looked like someone lit you with purple fire and had light beams blasting out of your hands while levitating in mid-air. It was terrifyingly awesome…and that’s the last time I’ll admit that!” Kate gave her a sly grin as Mia scoffed and smiled.
“It looked similar to an ability I have that lets me consume jin. Whenever someone shoots a spell at me, I can absorb it and replenish my jin up to my maximum rate. Any excess jin is lost. Is your power something like that?”
“I think so.”
Mia looked through her power set. Her was lit with Akasha Vision notifications that she chose to ignore for the time being. She checked her status page and looked confused.
“I’m honestly not sure. I think I used a combination of a skill and an ability. One was called Spirit Mode and the other was called Absorb Jin. One was using my jin as a physical weapon while the other took in the ambient jin. I have no idea why I was glowing like that, though.”
“It must have been your jin being transformed into a physical form. I’ve never seen that kind of power used quite like that.”
“I couldn’t control it.” Mia said, looking at the palms of her hands. “It was more like the power was controlling me.”
“That’s why I suggest training your jin control. It will make that an even more powerful spell one day.”
“That’s a scary thought, but I have a question,” Kate interjected. “What are we going to do now, we can’t hide from them forever if they’re after us like you say they are,” she asked Lily.
“I think we have enough distance between us that we have a head start to the guild house. We will be protected from them once we get there.”
“Do you think we should skip Ogden?” Mia asked, concerned whether stopping before the guild house was a good idea.
Lily shook her head. “We need supplies like food and fresh water. This dimensional storage space has its limits.”
“What good is it for then?” Kate asked, rolling her eyes.
Lily gave Kate a look then sighed. “I understand where you’re coming from. We should arrive there just before nightfall tomorrow, enough time to resupply, then we’ll leave again at dawn. Plus, there’s this inn that serves the best food.” She added with a grin.
“Ok, I’m with you.”
“Me too, but I do have another question. Mia kept saying something over and over, but I couldn’t understand it, do you?”
Lily shrugged. “I’m not sure, it happens passively to spell casting. I believe words of power are an ancient language. I’m sure they mentioned something about it in training school, but that was a long time ago.” Lily stated.
“Interesting,” Kate replied, looking between her and Lily.
“I’m still trying to figure this out. It seems the more I think I understand, something else happens.” Mia shook her head.
Lily laughed heartily. “You’re going to have to get used to that. Being an Akasha can be…unpredictable. Your spells, your skills, your abilities, all of them are unique to you. I hope you grow well into them.”
Mia half-smiled, then was prompted by a nudging to check her Akasha Vision alerts. Before she could relax and read them, Lily interrupted her thoughts.
“We need to keep moving before daybreak, I want to get in and get out of Odgen, so we can get to the guild house before the end of next week.” Lily said, as she settled into her bed pack. “If I know Tess, which I unfortunately do, she isn’t going to rest until she tracks us down. Hopefully, she didn’t copy my jin into a tracker stone, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“I say we head out just before first light,” Lily continued, “Ogden is only 60 kilometers north from here, where we should be ok for a moment. We need to replenish supplies and get a good night’s rest before we make the rest of the journey to Sagev.”
“Well, this is going to be fun,” Kate huffed as she crawled into her bed pack.
With that, Lily turned and went to sleep.
“You still with me?”
“Till Kingdom come, Mia.” Kate turned over in her bed pack, leaving Mia with the chance to finally go over her neglected alerts.
Akasha Vision Alert – Quest complete.
You have defeated Horven the Dungeon Boss of Lost Souls
Reward: Ring of the Wanderer
Reward: +7500 exp.
Reward: +1 gold crowns
+10 silver crowns
+100 copper pieces
Congratulations you have reached core level 5
+3 Stat Points
+150% HP
+250 JP
Akasha Vision Alert: System Inventory unlocked
System Inventory- Level 1
Hold up to 5 items in system inventory dimensional storage space. Multiple items of the same class count as one space.
PL Modifier: +50%
Current items: 4/10
Akasha Vision Alert: New Spell unlocked – Water whip
Water Whip – Novice- Level 1
Jn cost: 30 jn
Cooldown: 10s
Effect: cast a water stream from your hand that lashes out up to 15m for 5s.
Dmg: 40-50hp
PL Modifier: +50% dmg
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Akasha Vision Alert: New Spell unlocked – Air blast
Air blast – Novice- Level 1
Jn cost: 10 jn
Cooldown: 1s
Effect: Cast a blast of air up to 15m.
Dmg: 10-20hp
PL Modifier: +50% dmg
Mia gaped, then quickly checked to see if Kate and Lily were still sleeping. Their loud snores told her the coast was clear as she quietly got up to try out her new spells.
The river was nowhere around them. Lily and Kate set up camp in a small grove in the middle of a thicket of trees in the forest. Mia reached into thin air and pulled out the ring. It shone bright gold with a red symbol etched on top. She slid the ring down her middle finger and an alert popped up.
Akasha Vision Alert: Ring of Wanderer Activated
Durability: 200/200
Item PL: Epic
Quality: Well-crafted
Weight: 0.1kg
Effect: Cast a cloak of invisibility around wearer
Cooldown: 1 hour after destruction or deactivation.
PL modifier: +25% durability (+50% personal PL modifier)
A shimmering white light enveloped around her before dissipating. Everything looked the same to her, but she shrugged. Mia decided that she had walked into the forest enough so that she wouldn’t draw too much attention to herself.
Mayim sot
A long stream of water flowed out of her hand, its thickness narrowing to a thin point at the end. She whipped her arm in a circle and the water followed making a loud crack at the end. She smiled brightly, then waved her arm, spinning around like how she read about in her stories. The water spun around, promptly smacking her right in the face. Mia squealed in pain as the spell dissipated, not wanting to make too much noise, but the stinging sensation caused her toes to curl. She suddenly felt unsure if trying out her next spell was worth it. But Mia took a deep breath in and decided to try it out, anyway.
Mia pointed her hand towards a nearby tree as words of power flowed from her lips. A gust of wind shot out of her hand as her whole body flew backwards and into a tree behind her. Mia huffed as her body slumped to the ground. She groaned as she tried to regain her bearings, not knowing which way was up at the moment. Mia closed her eyes, then sat up, shaking her head.
“I’d say that’s enough for one day.”
“Us, too.”
Mia turned to see Lily and Kate. In her concentration, she didn’t realize they had been watching her, both sitting on a large tree stump. Kate’s smug grin made her groan again as Mia slowly got up and walked over to them.
“By the way, I think your invisibility thing turned off, we can see you again.”
Mia checked her Akasha Vision notifications and a bright red one said that her cloak deactivated on impact. Mia huffed, Some ring, she thought.
“Come on, let’s get as much rest as possible tonight. Tomorrow we are going to move fast so we can get there. I hear they are all set up for the Festival of Kel and I can’t wait to see it.”
Had it been that long already? The Festival of Kel was over a week away the night the palace was attacked. Now it seems the day of the festival had finally arrived. The walk back to their makeshift camp was eerily quiet as they settled down into their bed packs. Mia stared at the dark sky as Kate put out the fire, then drifted off into sleep.
***
Right at the break of dawn, the trio made their way through the forest. Lily showed Mia a map feature in her Akasha Vision which gave her a rough estimate of her surroundings and of those she had previously traveled. Fortunately for them, Lily had traveled much of the forest and knew how to get to Ogden from where they were.
Mia gathered from her Akasha Vision that they were in the Forest of Atrean, far away from the palace. There were so many things that she needed to explore about what she could do, but didn’t know where to start. She decided to pull up her stat sheet again.
According to Lily, Akasha gain experience based on the difficulty of the task presented to them. Akasha Vision then auto-assigns experience rewarded. By gaining enough experience, one could level and would be awarded one stat attribute that you can assign. Mia assigned her three attributes into constitution, wisdom, and luck. Constitution and wisdom for obvious reasons, and luck because who couldn’t use a bit of extra help?
Lily taught Mia how to travel through the forest on the limbs of the trees using her jin. Kate fussed as they sped ahead then waited for her to catch up.
Although she used spirit mode and absorb jin ability to free them from the dungeon, she couldn’t access them in her Akasha Vision. It looked like the skill and ability were gray instead of blue. Lily said she couldn’t explain it either or why her levels were so high, but she knew someone at the guild who might have an idea.
The journey was long, but they traveled without rest and made it to Ogden before dusk. The tree canopy left enough room for light to pass through as they saw the stretch of forest just before the break and the large wall and gate of Ogden.
They kept pressing forward, moving swiftly as they came to the city gates. Fully armored guards ushered people in and out of the town, the crowds making the guards on horses scream for order. A pair of guards stood directly in front of the tall solid wooden doors. The doors were fully open to allow merchants with large carts and traveling families through the tight security. The large stone wall that encircled the town was too tall to climb, and even if you did, there were archers ready at the top.
“Evening, gentlemen,” Lily said as she strolled up to them with the most magnetic smile Mia had seen on her.
“It will be six silvers and six copper for the lot of you” one of the guards demanded.
“Well, aren’t you charming” Lily said as Kate scoffed.
“Either pay or move to the side,” the other guard said to Lily sternly.
Groups of people walked in and out of the gate as the Festival of Kel was in full swing. Mia could hear the sounds of lutes and drums in the background and the smell of spices captivated her attention. The guards heckled travelers as they went through the gate, demanding a different price from what they quoted to the last.
“I think they’re robbing us,” Kate whispered as Mia watched Lily speak with the two guards. Finally, one of them shouted for her to leave.
“All right, all right, no need to get fussy,” Lily retorted as she threw her hands up. “But what if we don’t have any?”
“No crowns, no entry,” the first guard said to Lily.
Mia didn’t know how to activate her ring to produce her cloak or the cost of the toll with hoards of people around to see her. It would be a lot harder to explain it to the guards. Mia pulled Kate and Lily back towards the fence line and away from the crowds. She activated her invisibility cloak and watched the astonishment cross their faces as white light shimmered around her.
To Mia, it looked like she was wearing an ordinary cloak made of soft black cloth. Mia pulled back the hood and watched Kate’s eyebrows raise in surprise.
“Invisibility cloak?” Lily asked.
Mia beamed. “I wonder if we can get past the guards with this?”
“It would be a good idea, but we wouldn’t be able to shop in any of the stores without a ticket from the guards.”
Mia huffed then deactivated her cloak. She did the math and decided that she would need to break down her gold coin if they were all going to get in. Mia reached into her dimensional storage space and produced the gold crown, the shine of it gleaming in her hand. Lily went wide-eyed as Kate scoffed.
“Was that a quest reward?”
Mia nodded as Kate snatched the gold crown from her hand and bit it.
“I guess this thing is real. That magic power is scary. Can it always produce coin like this?”
“Yes, which is why I think the Akasha don’t want the humans to raid the dungeons. It gives the gold to them rather than coming back to the Akasha guilds. Them having a permanent dungeon means they have permanent access to crowns if a monster were to loot it.”
“Humans can get quests, too?”
“Not quite. In dungeons, when humans raid them, if they are able to defeat a dungeon boss, then a loot chest appears filled with gold crowns and precious gems. The Akasha can use the gems for potions and rituals, while the humans use them for jewelry or adornments. Akasha also get magical items instead of some of the gold as well.”
“So the Akasha feel that the humans are taking their stuff?” Kate asked, just as her stomach rumbled.
They hadn’t eaten since they left the dungeon. Lily had given them the last of the food she could find. Not wanting to eat any meat and have the smell attracting attention, they decided to wait until Ogden before they got food.
“I told you three, no coin, no entry.”
Mia handed over the gold coin and the guard smiled wryly.
“Let’s just go,” Lily said, pulling her and Kate inside.
Ogden was a small province within the Kingdom of Talis. Mia vaguely remembered learning in training about Ogden, which was a mining town.
“I love this festival!” Kate declared excitedly.
Mia laughed. Bright, multicolored lanterns hung in the air on strings, their color sending patterns of light dancing on the ground below. Delicious scents wafting from seemingly everywhere filled her nose with joy. Fried and sweet aromas made them even more hungry as the lights danced in front of their eyes.
They made their way down the main road as people filled the streets visiting many local shops or stand. Laughter and singing rang through the air as music filled every corner, putting a big smile on Mia’s face.
Lily pointed to a sign that said Goose Egg Inn. The inn was tall with multiple windows. Mia noticed there was a small garden in the front, which was kept neatly trimmed, and grew fresh herbs. Banners and lights glittered the walkway, and they stopped to marvel at the beauty of it. The large window on the main floor had glass panes where you could see straight into the inviting hearth. They looked at each other, nodded in agreement, then walked inside.
The inn was cozy and full of life. People filled the inn wall-to-wall as a band played lively music in the corner. Tables and chairs were neatly placed around the room, with a bar area that was stationed close to a small door, and busy servers brought patrons their orders. As they walked inside, Mia could feel the warm welcome from the large fire in the hearth. They found a table near the bar area.
A woman with red hair and eyes that held years of experience, promptly greeted them as they sat down.
“Evenin’, ‘nd welcome to the Goose Egg. I’m Lorna and I’ll be a helpin’ ye out tonight. What’ll it be’?”
“Three ales and three of your house specials,” Lily responded. Lorna smiled and left for another table with the same introduction. Moments later, Lorna returned with three mugs of ale and a promise to return with food shortly.
“What is this deliciousness?” Mia asked, looking down into her mug of ale as if seeing one for the first time.
“You’ve never had it before?”
“No, I always thought it was for people who had nothing else better to do with their lives.” Mia shrugged as she gulped the rest of it down.
Mia noticed that the musician who was originally performing when they first arrived had gone, and a new one took their place. The musician had a long cloak with a hood that hid their face. Mia shrugged it off as the musician sat down with a small lute and began to play. Lily’s eyes shot from wherever she was looking, straight to the musician singing on stage. Their song was a stark contrast to the band. It was a slow ballad about a missing lover. Lily’s brows furrowed.
“It can’t be.” Lily whispered sternly. Mia’s face scrunched, and Kate’s eyes glanced over to look at the musician as well. “What?” Mia asked in confusion.
“It’s nothing.” Lily said back, her eyes not moving.
“I’m confused too, what are we looking at?” Kate said, not so much in a whisper. A few people turned to look at them before they resumed their conversations.
Lily sighed and looked at Mia. “I’ll explain it later.” The musician bowed to a light applause and exited the stage, then vanished into the crowd. Lily frowned, then shook her head as the first band resumed the more upbeat music.
By the time the song was over, Lorna had brought the food to the table, and all three were happily finishing their plates. Lily asked Lorna if they had rooms available for the night and Lorna told them to talk to Mrs. Gibbs. Lily left the coin on the table, and all three headed towards the rooms.
“Hey, if you had coin for food, why didn’t you pay for the toll?”
“I thought you had it, I didn’t know they were going to take the whole thing.” Lily explained.
“Yes, you did.”
“I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
Around the corner from the bar area, a neat little desk stood with stairs leading up to the higher floors behind it. A short, bright faced woman appeared out of nowhere as they approached.
“Welcome, welcome!” The woman said with a wide cheery smile. “I’m Mrs. Gibbs, the Inn Keeper. Will you all be stayin’ wit us this evening?” Mrs. Gibbs had a warm glow about her and a lighter accent than Lorna. Her hands were worn as if she worked with them all of her life.
“How much for two rooms for the night?” Lily asked.
“One silver crown each.” Mrs. Gibbs stated. “There’s a communal potroom per floor and you’ll get a hot breakfast in the mornin’. Fresh towels are in the linen closet next to the potroom.”
Lily counted out the coins from a mysteriously produced pouch and handed them to Mrs. Gibbs. The woman smiled, then her face turned a beet red as she shouted in another language.
“I hear you, no need to shout.” A voice called from upstairs.
“We appreciate your business.” With that Mrs. Gibbs left as quickly as she came. Mia turned to see a familiar set of green eyes and bright bushy red hair bound down the stairs.
“Pip!” Mia and Kate shouted in unison.
“What in the gods name are you two doing here? I’m not late getting back am I?”
“We were just about to ask you the same question,” Mia laughed. Pip held out her fist for Mia, then embraced Kate as Lily looked between them in confusion.
“Pip is our last tent mate and friend from the Kings Guard.”
“This is my home. My mom and I have lived here ever since my Ba died when I was a wee lass. She runs the inn while Lorna, my aunt, runs the kitchen.”
“Pip, was it?” Lily asked. Pip nodded. “Could you wait a moment?” Lily didn’t wait for a response before she darted off back towards the bar. Mia looked between Kate and Pip, then shrugged. They all trudged up the stairs until they came to the third floor. There were four rooms, two on each side of the hall.
The walls were colorful with bright pictures and plants strewn around everywhere. At the end of the hallway was the potroom, just as Mrs. Gibbs stated. The room was spacious with two large pots along the far wall. In the center were the wash stations. Kate took a look at one of the pots, then plopped down. Mia and Pip stared at her. Kate just shrugged and grunted as she continued.
“Kate you are positively disgusting!” Mia said half-heartedly as Kate explored the wash stations. Pip laughed.
The trio walked out of the potroom, and Pip showed them where they would be sleeping. The room was simple. There were two beds on either side of the walls and a nightstand in between them. There was a dresser and writing desk near the door and a small chair in the corner. A candle was already burning on the writing desk and two lamps were fixed with candles onto opposite walls.
“Alright, I’m bored. Pip, I need you to show us around. I’m sure Lily can manage without us for a bit.” Kate said as she pulled both of them back out of the door.
Mia smiled, she felt the same way.