Sam and Nara spent their day mapping the survey area and clearing out any hostile monsters they encountered. They did it both for experience and because the job offered a bonus for culling any dangerous creatures the survey crew encountered. All they came across that day were low-level wolves in packs of three to five. With Sam's new upgrade to her cartography ability, they snuck up on all the wolf packs and defeated them without much issue.

They set up camp about an hour before dark. Sam could have stayed awake for several more days, and Nara too. Still, Sam's mapping ability worked off her vision, so mapping at night wasn't beneficial. Plus, they weren't in a hurry, and Sam's core wasn't improving, so they both thought it best to play it safe when she mentioned that to Nara.

***

Sam finished putting a couple of logs in their fire pit, thankful it had survived her rage. She plopped down in their one surviving chair next to Nara, who put down the book she was reading and held up the Blade Tail hide for her to slip under.

"I like this one more than the Great Timberwolf hide," Nara said, running her fingers through the soft fur. The panther's fur was so dark it didn't even reflect the firelight, absorbing it instead.

“It is really soft." Sam agreed. "This is the System generated one. I wonder if it's the same as what Alexander will turn the actual hide into when he processes the body." Sam wondered absently.

"Oh, I'm sure it will become high-end stealth armor or a cloak of concealment instead of a cozy blanket like we're using it." Nara smiled.

They sat in silence for a while, watching the fire. Nara read the book on the local flora and fauna. At the same time, Sam, after a couple of failed attempts, started making arcane arrows for Nara. She had made one for her that morning after their first fight with wolves. Even though she hadn’t expected it to she was still disappointed when the Quiver of Replication had not made copies of them. They had finished the day using the normal steel arrows they had bought, which the quiver had no issue replicating with the understanding Sam would make as many arcane arrows as she could when they rested that night.

After a while, Sam looked at Nara and asked, "Do you need mana? You have to be running low by now. I don't know what Naris took from you or how it works, but you must be low." She had been respecting Nara's privacy by not checking her stat sheet, so she was genuinely curious at how much magic power the Sorceress still had in reserve.

"I…I'm good for now," Nara hedged, not looking at Sam.

"Hey," Sam said softly, resting her hand on Nara's thigh, prompting the woman to look at her, "no lies, okay? We are a team now, and we're both hurt. We need to trust each other with our issues."

Nara sighed and displayed her stat sheet for Sam. Sam was confused when she read Nara’s numbers.

“How do you have two hundred and fifty thousand mana points?” Sam asked.

Nara sighed again, "Let me first explain how summoning the blights changed my race." She closed her book and placed it in her lap, folding her hands on the cover as she collected her thoughts, then continued, "Before the blight summoning Tenarians was much like most other sapient races scattered across the three celestial bodies, Tenaris, Hallista, and Denaris." Nara drew three imaginary circles in the air before her, "when the blights were summoned, my species experienced an instant evolution." She closed her eyes, still speaking, "as one might expect when a magical parasite from an alternate dimension burrows into your soul." Nara's voice wavered a little; this was not a comfortable subject for her.

Sam leaned across Nara and grabbed her goblet off the small side table on her side of the chair. Sam summoned the bottle of the wine they had been sipping on from her inventory, refilling Nara's goblet while her friend composed herself. She took the time to replenish her own goblet before dismissing the delicious wine.

Thankful for the distraction, Nara drank several large gulps of her wine. Keeping the goblet clasped between her hands, she continued, "The blights burrow into our soul core. They are drawn there by this," she pointed to the center of her chest, where the pentagram was beneath the covers. "The spell that called the blights had two parts. One part was to open the portal to an alternate dimension and the other to tether the extra-dimensional creatures to all living creatures born to Tenaris." Nara stared blankly into her goblet, slowly shaking her head, "the king did not know what would come out of the portal but in his arrogance thought that tethering it to every living being on his moon would somehow force them into submission and give every citizen a powerful familiar." She chuckled in frustrated anger, "he…the king, was so wrong. What actually happened was every living creature on Tenaris wound up with a mark, and a parasite latched onto their soul." Nara looked at Sam with tears in her eyes, "That was nearly two hundred cycles ago…now every person born with even the barest hint of Tenarian blood has a mark, and since the portal is still open, a blight is summoned to their soul."

“How did you survive as a child?” Sam was baffled.

“Naris was dormant until I was of System age to level,” Nara said. She composed herself and continued, "Which brings me to the issue now. Have you noticed I don't have a wisdom attribute?"

When Sam nodded, Nara proceeded, "That was part of my race's rapid evolution. When a blight attaches to a soul core, it ruptures it slightly. Then, it uses itself as a plug to prevent excess mana from leaking out and poisoning their host. This greatly increased the energy limit for what I can store in my soul. It also removes the wisdom attribute in my status menu, freeing up my points to put elsewhere, so there is a small upside to being bonded with a blight.”

Sam paused with her goblet at her lips when Nara said that. “Shit, poisoned by a ruptured core? Damn, I’m an idiot! Maybe my crystal mana channels will help with that?” She was pulled out of her thoughts as Nara kept telling the story of her people's history.

“The rupture produces massive amounts of neutral mana, all Tenarians have neutral mana by the way, for the blights to feed on so they can exist in this reality, and it also gives them control over their host’s core. They can let mana flow from the rupture or stop it whenever they feel like it. However, my mana channels are my own and are replaced when Naris switches with me.” Nara looked concerned, “one thing they cannot and should not be able to do is allow their host to access their own mana. I should only be able to use mana I have collected from other sources. They cannot, or at least I thought they could not, block the absorption of their host’s mana. It is how they stay alive in this reality all the while forcing their host to absorb mana from external sources.” Nara trailed off.

"So, I'm guessing Naris isn't holding you back anymore. Why do I get the feeling that isn't good?" Sam asked when Nara stayed silent, staring at the red liquid in her goblet.

"Because if he doesn't plug the hole in my core soon, it will get worse; mana has already started overflowing into my body and is speeding up. If it keeps going unchecked, it can rupture my mana channels." Nara said. She held up a hand and formed a Magic Bolt. After staring at the blue teardrop of energy for a few seconds, she dismissed the attack and put her hand to her forehead. "I cannot burn the amount of mana overflowing my core already; there's just too much of it—but that isn't the worst part." She smiled sadly at Sam as she spoke, "Naris is dying; he's absorbing only the magical overflow from my core that doesn't dissipate into my body which means he's only getting a small fraction of what he should be." Nara held out one arm. Sam watched in horror as the smooth grey skin of Nara's arm became pasty white with splotches of light blue." staring at her arm she said, "this is what mana poisoning looks like. I’ve been covering it up with my shifting ability.” Nara held her arm up against Sam’s and curiously examined Sam’s arm, “I’m not sure how you aren’t being poisoned with your core being ruptured. I didn't want to frighten you about it before, and it looks like it's not affecting you so…" Nara trailed off again, and Sam let the silence drag, unsure what to say.

After staring into the flickering flames of their campfire for a minute, Nara chuckled at a thought, shaking her head, "You must have been terrifying when you fought Naris because he will not communicate with me at all and hasn’t moved since that night.”

"I was out of control, Nara. I'm sorry. I didn’t realize what I was doing.” Sam said truthfully, putting another log on the fire with one of her mana threads.

Nara smiled at Sam, "I wish I could have seen it. I bet you were even more amazing than the night you saved me." She coughed. It was a raspy cough, and Sam stared in disbelief as a faint cloud of blue mana puffed from Nara's mouth and blue splotches appeared on her cheeks. "I'm not sure what will happen first; whether Naris will die and take me with him, or all my mana channels will rupture, and I'll die of mana shock and take Naris with me." Setting her goblet down, Nara grabbed Sam's hand and, after another coughing fit, said, "I just wanted to enjoy one more night with you before—"

"Nope!" Sam said with force, making Nara jump and jerk back in her seat. Sam grabbed the fur blanket and yanked it off them, throwing it to the ground. She got up and, sliding Nara over in the chair, straddled her lap facing her. Staring into Nara’s poisoned milky blue eyes, she reached down, and ripped Nara's tunic open enough to expose the symbol on her chest, acting on a hunch. Not taking her eyes off her friend’s, she slowly pressed her right hand against Nara’s chest over the pentagram.

‘Bing’ Link attempt blocked. You do not have access to Nara Evander’s soul core. Request access? Y/N

Sam selected 'Yes' and whispered, "Let me in Nara. I need to talk to the little shit."

***

Naris didn’t know what this feeling was. “Why can’t I move? Is this…fear?” It was like a powerful weight was pushing in from all around, crushing him, not allowing him to move or even breathe. Whenever he thought about seeking comfort by absorbing the mana flowing from his host’s soul, an image of the monster Nara was traveling with appeared unbidden and the paralyzing emotion overtook him, forcing him to apathy.

Naris felt the weakness creeping into his soul. He knew he was dying and should drink from Nara's core, but all he could think about was those horrifying violet eyes… "I have never seen pure hatred and rage before, I suppose… She never even hesitated—nothing I did even slowed her down. Is this what it feels like to be prey? To truly know there is no hope of survival. I could have done nothing to stop her; she was so…pure. That is what a true monster is. I now know I am not a monster. I only play the monster."

"Knock knock, little shit," Sam the monster's voice echoed through Nara’s outer soul.

Naris shrieked in fear, "How did she get here? I haven't come out! I have held up my part of our agreement!"

“I said knock knock!” The monster’s voice was not so full of rage as it had been before when it warned him to stay inside his host, but it was forceful and filled Naris with dread.

Naris felt a hand grab his shoulder, and he screamed in terror. It had found him; she had found him. Curled in a ball as he was, he could not see the monster that had ahold of him, and truthfully, he didn’t want to see those eyes again.

"Please just make it quick," Naris said, resigned to his fate.

"What—seriously?" The monster's voice wasn't as loud now, and her grip on his shoulder lessened slightly. There was a long pause, and then she started laughing. She laughed and laughed the whole time. Naris expected her to end him at any moment. But the moment never came; her laughter eventually settled into a chuckle. She released the hand, gripping his shoulder, and patted him on the back, stating more than asking, "You have never lost a fight, have you? Oh my god, you are just as young and naïve as Nara! Just my luck, the all-powerful scary blight monster is just a scared little child hiding behind a facade of ferocity and desperation. Ha!”

Stolen story; please report.

"I'm not a monster," Naris's fear waned since the monster seemed willing to just talk. He defended his actions, saying, "I was given no choice by this…System. I was pulled from my home and forced to bond with the pathetic—um, Nara." He checked himself, worried he would anger the monster. When she did not strike him down, he continued, "I only do what I have to survive. You have no idea what it's like being trapped in here for cycles at a time, feeling nothing, only able to catch glimpses of the outside world through the seal in Nara’s chest. It is maddening, and when I can get out, the world around me drains me, and then it burns me, forcing me to fight and consume to stay alive! I hate this! I don't want to be trapped any longer!"

Sam hadn’t known blights were capable of such cognition. "Hmm, I thought of them as more of a ravenous beast than a sapient creature. I know Nara talked to Naris, but I never knew how it worked." With that thought, she asked Naris, "Can you control your mana drain? Like how much energy you siphon? Or do you turn into a greedy little shit and go for the kill every time you are released?"

"I…have never tried…regulating," Naris admitted slowly, "but I believe it would be possible." Suddenly hopeful, he asked, "Are you offering to let me out if I can regulate my siphon? Would you let me attempt on you?"

“Oh, hell no!” Sam said sharply and Naris ducked his head. She then asked, “Can you draw mana from a crystal? Didn't Nara say something about a soul crystal or something when I woke up from being frozen?"

Naris, whose hopes were crushed when Sam initially said no, was now hopeful again. "I can draw from a soul crystal, but only the Church of the Light deals in soul crystals, and they only give them to tamed blights so they may serve the church." He spat out the last words like a bitter poison on his tongue.

Sam's semi-incorporeal form floated back from Naris a bit, prompting him to finally uncoil and look at her, his joints snapping and popping as he did so. “He pops more than Nara does. What is up with these two and their insistence on contortion?” Sam thought as Naris straightened up to look at her; his black eyes were full of expectation and hope. Finally able to look at Naris without fear of being eaten, Sam thought, “he is nothing but grey sinew and bones. How could he have been so powerful?” What she said was, "You look like a whipped puppy."

"I am a Blight, not a Canidae," Naris said, confused.

“I meant the way you—never mind," Sam said, then asked, "If I make a mana crystal, do you think you can use that instead of a soul crystal? I don't know what a soul crystal is, but I can make mana crystals."

“Yes! I can drain anything with mana!” Naris said enthusiastically.

Sam held up her hands to calm him down a little, "Don't get too excited just yet. I have only made one so far, and it didn't hold that much mana," she saw Naris's disappointed look and quickly added. "I'll tell you what, if you promise to get back to doing your job and plugging Nara's leaking soul," she pointed at Nara's soul core, which even then had a geyser of blue mana gushing out of it, "I will start experimenting with making a mana crystal or crystals that will allow you to come out into the world without having to kill everything around you." She held out her hand, "deal?"

Naris stared at Sam's hand, momentarily mulling over what she offered. He could see no downside to the arrangement, so he clasped her hand and nodded, "Deal."

Sam yanked Naris in until they were nose to nose so fast he didn't have time to react other than a quick yelp of surprise and fear before her other hand wrapped around the back of his neck and squeezed. She whispered, "Good. Because Nara is my only friend in this world right now, I will no longer see her harmed by you. So help me, if you ever force me to fight you like that again and I end up hurting her to beat you back. I swear I will come in here, stuff you into that hole in her core, and stake your body to her soul for all eternity. So, I recommend you start thinking really hard about playing nice." She pushed him back with a broad smile, "Are we clear?"

Naris's blood was running cold, but he slightly nodded and said, "Very clear."

Clapping her hands, Sam said cheerfully, "Awesome! I think we're going to be great friends!" She pointed to Nara's soul core, "Now get to work!" Then she vanished.

***

Sam's mind snapped back to reality; her eyes slowly focused on Nara's still form in the chair. Nara had her eyes closed, but there was a gentle smile on her face, and already Sam could see the pallor of her skin returning to its healthy grey color.

“Naris must be absorbing the excess energy from her channels,” Sam thought as the blue splotches slowly disappeared from Nara's skin. She was about to say something when Nara started snoring softly. Sam stifled a laugh and tried to slide off the sleeping Tenarian without waking her, but Nara’s eyes popped open as soon as she moved.

"Hey, sleeping beauty," Sam said, "you're looking better already."

“You think I'm beautiful?" Nara mumbled, still waking up.

Sam was caught off guard at the comment, "I…it's an…I mean, yeah…but I was," Sam paused momentarily to compose herself and changed the subject. "You're cute when you snore."

Nara smiled, “so are you.”

“What? I don’t snore!” Sam was righteously indignant at the accusation. She shook her head, "that doesn't matter right now anyway. How are you and the little shit doing now?" Sam got off her friend and sat beside her, "You are looking much better already." She grabbed her wine and took a sip, continuing, "Also, it felt bizarre being inside you."

With a coy look, Nara's eyebrows raised at Sam's last statement, causing Sam to blush a little when she realized her phrasing. Nara's eyes were already unfocused, so Sam didn't interrupt Nara to correct herself; she assumed Nara and Naris were conversing, so she patiently waited for her friend to return to the real world and tell her what was said. She briefly considered touching Nara's mark to join in on their conversation but refrained.

Nara’s eyes refocused a few moments later with a look of excited wonder. She grabbed Sam's hand, practically bouncing in her seat! “Is it true? Can you make mana crystals? Why didn't you mention that? When did you find out? It doesn’t matter! What matters is that’s how you tame blights! No one but the church ever does it because of the massive cost to keep blights in mana crystals!” She paused just long enough to grab her goblet off the side table and quickly polish off the contents then hold it out for more before continuing, “it will take a mana crystal that can discharge at least five hundred mana a minute. Can you make those? How much do the crystals you make hold? Are they big? How long do they take to make? Are you going to refill me or what?” Nara looked from Sam to her empty goblet and smiled sheepishly, "Please…"

Sam laughed out loud, summoning the wine and filling Nara's goblet since she asked so nicely. She told Nara, "Oh, sorry, it slipped my mind. I made one for the first time ever for Alexander, the guy who owns the shop where we bought the quiver. Funny story actually, I kind of assaulted one of his associates when he surprised me.”

Nara slapped her hand over her forehead and eyes and interrupted Sam, asking, "Please tell me you didn't kill anyone!”

Sam scoffed, “What? No!” She looked at Nara accusatively, “Exactly who do you think I am? Anyway, long story short after I apologized for trying to ‘accidentally’ murder his associate, Bradley is his name, by the way, the associate, not the owner. Did I mention he was an imp? An imp nearly roasted me alive the first day I arrived on this planet." Sam realized she was now rambling, so she tried to summarize, “So anyway, Alexander, the owner, not the imp, was curious about the arcane weapons I used when I and I cannot stress this enough: 'accidentally' tried to kill Bradley the Imp. He wanted to know how I came across them, and when I lied to him about it, he threatened to press charges. So, to keep him from pressing charges, I made the first thing that came to mind. Since I was already in his magic workshop with all the mana crystals lying around, I just replicated what I saw and made a mana crystal to prove I wasn’t lying.”

Nara stared at Sam for a long moment, then said slowly, like she was talking to a child, "Sam, do you remember when I asked how your day was over dinner, and you said it was fun and told me about all your purchases?" Sam nodded, "Well, maybe next time you should tell me about nearly getting imprisoned by one of the most powerful and famous humans in the kingdom and then proceeding to make one of the most coveted items on the planet right in front of him.”

"For one, how could I have known he was famous, and for…um…two, he may have offered to equip me and a few other people for a hundred cycles or up to level one hundred and fifty if I made him something—really dangerous," Sam said sheepishly.

“And what did you say?” Nara prodded.

"I told him I would think about it and didn't trust him," Sam said truthfully as she formed a mana crystal in the palm of her hand, this time trying to tweak the structure as she layered her mana over it. It was much more difficult than the first one she had made, not because of how she was forming it but because of the hole in her core. It made all her magic slightly more challenging to use.

Sam pushed through, though, and soon had a fully formed magical crystal in her palm. She examined her work, sharing the information with Nara.

Mana Crystal: Pure

Quality: Flawless

Affinity: Error

Power: 318mp

Output: 85mp/min

Input: 1mp/sec

Uses: Multiple

Sam sighed; that had taken much more out of her than she was willing to admit, and it was nowhere near enough to keep Naris satisfied for any time. She told Nara, "It's not much, but it is only the second one I have made."

"Do you know how valuable this is?" Nara asked; then, answering her own question, she said, "At least one gold, Sam. That is how much this little crystal is worth. A crafter could do some amazing things with this little gem." She took the crystal from Sam and held it up against the light of their campfire, whispering, "flawless and pure…"

Nara tried to give the crystal back, saying, “I cannot accept this, it is far too valuable, and I don’t want to take advantage of you like this. We can find another way for Naris—"

Sam shook her head. "Keep it. Once we have enough, and if you're willing, we will try to let Naris out for a test run."

Nara didn't argue more and reluctantly stored the crystal in her inventory. She slid closer to Sam and leaned her head on her shoulder, saying, "Thank you, Sam. You are a good friend."

They sat in comfortable silence for a while. Sam made a few more mana crystals but had to stop because of the stress it was putting on her core. At Nara’s look she came clean about the black mist coming from her core. They discussed it a bit but as far as either of them could tell it wasn’t poisoning her so they decided to play it by ear the next day to see if it would be necessary to turn back toward the city.

In the meantime Sam went back to making arcane arrows as they were much easier to craft. Nara decided to get a few hours of sleep. She retired to their partially repaired and barely functional tent, leaving Sam to her mana crafting.

***

On the morning of the second day of their mapping job, a couple of aggressive Lightning Cervidae surprised them. The deer-like creatures caught them off guard because they had shown up as blue, the color of non-aggressive creatures, on Sam’s map right up until they attacked.

Nara now back to being fully functional took the lead and drew the attention of both the aggressive creatures to herself. Taking pressure off Sam. “Damn, she’s talented,” Sam thought as she watched in awe as Nara tanked a bolt of lightning from one of the attacking Cervidae’s horns while at the same time running up a tree. A few meters up the trunk, Nara kicked off the tree into a backflip, loosing three arrows in quick succession before another bolt of lightning blasted her off course and into another tree, which she used as a springboard to launch herself behind a small knoll but not before she fired a couple of magic bolts at her attacker. Another bolt of lightning blasted chunks of rock and soil through the air and across Nara when it struck her cover an instant later. "I bet if an Olympic competition combined gymnastics, contortionism, and archery, Nara would win gold every time." Sam thought, impressed at Nara’s unique fighting style.

Sam, distracted by her companion’s sleek combat abilities, barely had time to erect a shield when one of the Cervidae turned to her, launching a searing bolt of lightning in her direction. The lightning broke through her hasty shield, the magic backlash worse than ever because of the hole in her core. Sam was knocked back from the impact of the blast and barely managed to dive behind a tree before the next bolt arrived; bark and splinters flew everywhere when the bolt struck the tree.

“Why are they attacking us?” Sam asked Nara through their party chat function.

“It must be mating season,” Nara replied, “didn’t the book say something about them becoming aggressive during that time?”

“Yeah, it did,” Sam said, launching dozens of Arcane bolts from her threads to harass the lightning-launching deer creatures. She looked down at her chest when she felt an itching sensation. “What the fuck?” She exclaimed. There was a smoking fist-sized hole where some lightning penetrated through her shield and armor.

“Is my pain tolerance so high I didn’t even feel that? And how the fuck did Nara take two of those hits without even flinching!” Sam thought, adding as much mana as she could spare to heal the gaping wound in her torso.

“Are you okay?” Nara asked through their chat function. "And to answer your question, I have a high magic resistance. That's how I can take such a powerful attack. It stems from my neutral affinity—we’ll talk about it later." Nara jumped from her cover, sending an arrow toward the Cervidae attacking Sam's position; the one that had been attacking her was already down. Just as quickly, she ducked behind a tree, the rough bark blowing apart as a bolt of lightning struck its trunk. "Also, I think our thoughts are transmitted through the party chat function. What is Olympics?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Sam said while using her mana threads to shoot streams of arcane bolts at the aggressive beast.

"Stop, Sam, it's dead." Nara's voice rang in Sam's mind.

Sam stopped her barrage and peeked out from behind the tree she used as cover. She hadn’t even noticed the chime from the kill notification.

“These arrows pack a punch!” Nara exclaimed, walking out from her cover and holding one of Sam's arcane arrows. “Too bad they are only good for one charge.”

"Yeah, I don't get that," Sam said, "I can't figure out what I am doing differently with the arrows. All the blades I make can be recharged, but I cannot figure out how to do it with the arrows."

Sam looted the corpses, receiving nothing out of the ordinary, and then sat against a tree to continue healing herself. Nara sat beside her and kept watch while Sam meditated to speed up her recovery.

Once she was healed, Sam opened her eyes and asked Nara, "Should we do the cave with the whitlings next?"

Nara nodded, "We're almost finished mapping the area, so yeah. We can clear out the cave and finish the survey on our way to back to the city."

They had decided to head back to the city if Sam hadn’t gotten any worse or better after the Whitling job even though they had a few other contracts to complete. Sam’s health took precedence over everything else. It had been difficult for Sam to convince Nara to keep going even with that concession. But truthfully so far Sam hadn’t felt any of the effects increasing from the breach in her core. “I am a little worried about the black stuff, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting my channels.” Sam thought absently. “I’ll just have to keep a close eye on it.”