Tamijet went into town and yet Kiresula and Ikandijenja talked as much in whispers or even drawings ont the ground as they could. They shared their own experiences of the system and the green skills. Ikandijenja explained that after reading many books, she gained a skill that increased her mental acuity, but was uncertain what exactly that referred to. Kiresula explained it and showed her stats. Ikandijenja gasped at the sight. “How?!” she just asked.

Kiresula explained her encounter in the dungeon.

Ikandijenja looked really sad all of a sudden: “So,... there is a way to improve but it is almost completely inaccessible to other glitchlings?”

Kiresula shook her head: “It is not that hard to gain a class. We so far have only unlocked enchantment and magic classes, so you’d not be able to do so here.”

The gaunt glitchling looked confused: “Why?”

The [seferian mage] explained: “This area is a synthic magic deadzone. If we went to Rainbow House, we might be able to. In the dungeon maybe as well, but I don’t know if you ever used magic recovery or reclamation techniques.”

Her counterpart asked: “I mean, I am sure that you can easily go there with your galactic [Endurance]... or [Fortitude], I guess, but me? Even when I starve myself, I don’t get green stats in this one. Just in [Agility].”

Kiresula looked thoughtful: “Maybe,... maybe I can use a spell to increase your [Fortitude]? I am not sure how well it works as I have just received it from the dungeon.”

The glitchling considered it: “That sounds okay, I guess. I just hope that it works, yannow.”

There was a pause before Kiresula nodded. “The main issue is the synthic magic. Or the lack of it. I have just about zero feeling for how far we can go.”

The rail-thin glitchling breathed in, thought for a moment and nodded: "I guess…, we just need to try! Good thing that in my current state, you don't need to increase my [Fortitude] that far. Just up to 150."

Kiresula stared at the other glitchling. "What‽ You famished yourself to one hundred-freaking-forty nine‽"

Said other glitchling nodded, her face showing an unlikely combination of pride and shame. "I wanted to see all of my green stats. And that was the only thing that I could think of that lowers the blue ones."

Kiresula looked impressed. "That takes a lot of courage and ascetism!"

Ikandijenja made a noise of agreement.

"But I worry about you. Please start eating again!" Kiresula said, "We will get you out of the stat lurch somehow!"

"Could you please only promise that when you have some kind of proof that it is possible?" The thin glitchling looked annoyed.

Kiresula showed the dagger that Mayana made for her: "This helped me: it has some nasty blue debuffs for the one carrying it. It helped me to get my stats into the green."

"How‽" Ikandijenja asked in excitement.

"Mayana is not only the best wifey ever, she is also a capable enchanter." She whispered: "Both blue and green."

Ikandijenja whispered back: "She's a glitchling?"

The response was whispered back: "No, but she has a secondary, green class and can control both kinds of magic to a point."

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"What‽" the famished glitchling almost fell down in shock, "How did that happen?"

thinking back about this fondly, she explained: "We worked on synthic enchanting together. It was basically an attempt to detect synthic magic."

Ikandijenja's eyes lit up: "She made these rods that people use to detect broken, or I guess, synthic magic? I have seen Tamijet carry one."

"Yeah, well, I help with it. I put the synthic light spell into it. Technically, she can do so but a higher capacity for synthic magic helps."

"Can I use her dagger to get into the green?" Ikandijenja asked hopefully.

"If you can channel synthic magic into it, yes." Kiresula agreed, "though it won't do anything to your Endurance."

The other glitchling looked confused for a moment, then she understood: "You have Endu… Fortitude of over 255?"

Kiresula nodded: "Yeah, I got a boost when I got my class. And another one upon the level up of my class."

"Wait, what‽ You gain levels in your classes, not in general?" Ikandijenja asked.

"It looks like it. Anyways, let's try the spell, shall we?" Kiresula suggested.

As Ikandijenja nodded, she suddenly was hit by something. It felt like something hit not her body but her very essence. She shuddered for a moment, then she felt better. More energetic, more alive, more there, so to say. She checked her status and gasped.

"Is your Fortitude green now?" Kiresula asked.

Ikandijenja responded in the affirmative: "It's ten over. Can you hold it up?"

Kiresula grimaced: "Yes, but actually no. I don't need to actively keep it up. I just need to provide the initial magic and it remains up until that spell expires. The problem is that this spell drinks magic like a drunkard drinks booze. More than 200 Seren per cast. We should hurry our tails off."

Ikandijenja looked shocked for a moment, then grabbed pieces of dried meat and put it into a pocket in her tunic and wanted to put her current book in another pocket, but Kiresula took it from her as it looked heavy. “You need all of your Might for other purposes. Don’t burden yourself.” Then, they were underway.

They were not as fast as Kiresula would be alone, but she didn’t mind. Ikandijenja occasionally had to pause for a few breaths and then continued. She moved herself through the forest methodically, taking advantage of each of the 48 points of Fortitude, the spell granted.

"If someone asks you who you are, just choose a one or two syllable term. Many glitchlings use a new name." Kiresula said a while in.

"They do?" Ikandijenja asked.

Kiresula nodded: "They do. I got the nickname Kysan."

Ikandijenja responded: “I get that. I can use Siki. Like the character in Tavud and Siki.”

Kiresula agreed: “Siki, who died in the battle of Shannha Sei in the war of succession of the old empire. One of the major reasons why Pasha Mokalad came to power.”

“And rang in the silver age of the empire.” Ikandijenja continued, “indeed!”

Kiresula agreed and while they walked, Kiresula explained some things to Ikanijenja about how magic developed in the silver age and how it led to the discovery of several System classes. This was the kind of fluff that she loved to tell in class to make people remember the information regarding spells. Ikandijenja had never been in her class, so she seemed to be reasonably impressed and gave frequent verbal nods. When the spell ran out, they were near the main path. Kiresula asked the other glitchling to stay hidden, gave her the book and then hurried to the dungeon, sat down near the entrance and used Serenity to restore her magic. She felt her magic restore swiftly. As she did so, she heard voices, albeit too quiet to understand what they said. She could hear that they were angry and that they were having a huge argument. She heard a female voice seemingly on the defence while three male voices were on the attack. After a while, she thought that she recognised the female voice as Kedsel, the [Holy Guard]. She heard them approaching thus she hid better in the foliage of the forest next to the entrance of the dungeon. If there were [Cleric]s involved, she didn’t want any part of it.

Getting her magic up, she listened to the argument that slowly drifted into earshot. The woman, possibly Kedsel, said that she understood the rules of the church, but she had no choice to accept the changes. The others shouted over each other and over the woman. Kiresula had issues understanding what they were saying as they were all talking over each other. The fragments that she heard mentioned things like heresy, church rules and forced class removal. Kiresula felt shocked. How could that happen and why would that happen here? Why did they metaphorically drag her to the dungeon?

Kiresula heard a slap. Then, she saw Kedsel being dragged into the dungeon by four [Cleric]s. Kedsel shouted: “Please, don’t drag me in there! I have no idea where the core is!”

Kiresula had no idea what happened, but decided it was better to stay away from whatever happened to her, even though she really wanted to intervene. [Cleric]s were bad news.