The cleanup of the battle went quickly with the reinforcements Mage Eldan had brought with her. They were all high-leveled mages and fighters who quickly took charge of the prisoners. They seemed nonplussed by Pax’s group and exactly what role they’d played in the battle, but were diligent in obeying the orders of Eldan and the other superior officers.
Pax did his best to ignore the surreptitious glances that moved between his crew, their companions and Whisper. Some looked intimidated and wary of the Tamed beasts, while others looked intrigued and even jealous.
Whisper seemed to enjoy all the attention. She delighted in prancing around with Eldan and startling everyone she could. News would definitely get out quickly about Tamed beasts now, especially with Finrick and Ironfist’s companions already back at base.
By the time Pax and his group had returned, the senior troops had finished getting the pertinent information from Langley’s group and moved on to quiz the new rebels. They snatched Titus up immediately, asking him a lot of questions and noting all the details about his group.
Pax stopped and just watched for a few long moments, his eyes drinking in the sight of how his brother looked and moved. He wore a full set of mixed leather reinforced by plate armor with the occasional mismatched piece. Cuts and dings were evidence of hard use and the ease with which he moved made Pax wonder exactly how high his Strength and Agility were.
Eldan caught sight of them and hurried over, an inscrutable look on her face. A flicker of relief crossed her face. “Glad we didn’t lose any of you. Any serious injuries?”
Pax shook his head, but pointed to where Rin had sat down on the ground and tucked Eris onto her lap, carefully dribbling more potion into her beak. She pulled her package of pillows and mats out, propping some under Eris and spreading the rest out for the others to use.
“We almost lost Eris, but Talpa helped us find her in time. I pulled her back with my healing. She’s recovering now.”
Eldan immediately moved to crouch down beside Rin with concern, something Pax wondered if she’d have done before Taming Whisper. He saw Eldan pull out and offer a potion while whispering something about being willing to try her air healing spell if Rin thought it would help.
Rin gave her a grateful smile before looking over at Pax as one hand continued to stroke Eris’ feathers. “What do you think?”
Pax moved over and crouched down to lay a hand on Eris. He felt her muscles twitching, which was a good sign. A quick flex of Healing Others to look inside showed everything progressing well. “I think she’ll wake up soon. More healing potions won’t really help. Her body just needs a bit more time. I bet you’ll be able to feel emotions from her before she fully wakes up, too.”
Excitement replaced the worry on Rin’s face. She turned back to Eris, ignoring Eldan, and closed her eyes, focused intently on her companion.
Pax moved to sit down, gratefully leaning back on one of Rin’s cushions.
“Well, keep the potion. Your crew needs another backup for emergencies.” Eldan held out the potion to Pax while glancing over their group. “We can’t let anything happen to our secret weapons, right?”
Pax took the potion, giving her a weary, but grateful smile. He ignored how her words made a few of the closest rebels give them even more curious looks. Instead, he lay back and let his friends’ buffing fields wash over him and help ease his mind and body. It was a relief to relax in relative safety after everything they’d gone through since their early start that morning.
After a quick glance around to ensure his friends had settled down too, Pax closed his own eyes and slipped easily into Meditation. He pushed a soothing field of healing energy to his head first and then out in a loop through his arms and legs.
Pax sent small clusters of energy to focus on the remnants of his battle injuries, not completely back to strength after taking the healing potion. He wasn’t in any danger now, but his entire body just felt drained. Pax had pushed himself harder than ever, and his body was letting him know. Hopefully, a break to recover would help him make it back to base without dragging too much.
As he felt the trickle of incoming mana increase and ease his strained channels, Pax realized the challenges he’d gone through had pushed him to new levels. He’d been so focused on working on his secondary paths on the trip here, he’d barely paid much attention to the rest of his menu.
A quick peek showed him the nearby crowd wasn’t ready to move out yet, so Pax took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and opened his menu.
A flood of notifications scrolled by. Pax scanned them, noting the important points with growing excitement. Almost everything on his menu had changed, even if some only a little.
He’d leveled both Bulwark to 3 and Flashbang to 2. Combined with his bonuses from leveling Mana Sight, Meditation and Taming when he’d helped Grinheld Tame Galeheart, her howlstorm direwolf, he was up to 31 leveling points. 14 more and he’d be a level 4 mage, with all its bonuses. He’d earned a bunch of evolution points, too, but his total was still down a net of 6 from evolving Mana Projections, Runes, Golem and Aeroshift.
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Pax’s grin widened as he watched the bonuses to his paths scroll by from Taming the adult beasts earlier in the day. If only they could have been beasts using secondary mana types, then he’d have a simple path forward to level 2 in each one.
Remembering how brutal that last battle had been, standing between the two opposing groups, Pax was glad to see it had gained him new points in both Strength and Endurance. The extra point in Insight had come from his work healing Eris along with gains in Heal Others. It made him excited for the future of Taming as he learned to understand the inner workings of beasts better.
He mostly ignored his non-mage skills, since none of them had leveled. Though he found it interesting that he’d gained a few points in Unarmed Combat from the recent battle. It must have been when he deflected arrows with a gauntlet covered in Windscale Shroud. Crazy.
He’d gained a few points to his mana skills, including his new Mana Projection skill which he was excited to see was close to leveling. But the gains were from the Tamings, not the battle. It was definitely on his list to explore battle applications of the powerful new skill he’d paid so many evolution points for. Seeing how close it was to leveling, he noted which mage skills and spells might help him reach level 4 the fastest.
Mana Projection, Heal Others, Haste, Windscale Shroud, Aeroshift Reservoir, and Scorching Touch were all within fifty points of their next level. A handful of challenging battles or Tamings should be enough to push some of them over.
His coin count made him shake his head in amazement. He not only had more than enough now to pay the 10-gold tuition payment that had been hanging over him for so long, but he got to keep it all now.
The only thing that made him wince was the lack of spending opportunities at the base. Hopefully, as it grew, and the crafters made progress, there’d be a chance for him and his crew to find better gear. If anything, he’d be able to make a great start if they ever won the war and could go back to regular living.
When Pax finally came to the end of his notifications, he decided he needed to look at his entire menu to get a better overall idea of his progress and current status. He toggled it to show all the gains he’d made in the last month, way back from the start of the war games training at the academy.
Realizing he’d have little to do with the academy for the foreseeable future, Pax also toggled off the academy and war points, replacing them with a line reminding him about his active quest.
***
Name: Pax Vipersworn
Race: Mixed Human (monster-touched)
Age: 16
Bound Location: Quarrybrook (provisional monthly)
Class: Mage
Element: Light (Hidden)
Specialization: none (Hidden)
Primary Paths of Understanding: (Hidden)
Flame: Level 4 - 117/400 (+114)
Air: Level 4 - 100/400 (+70)
Water: Level 4 - 75/400 (+64)
Earth: Level 4 - 103/400 (+80)
Secondary Paths of Understanding: (Hidden)
Lightning: Level 1 - 39/100 (+22)
Ice: Level 1 - 50/100 (+32)
Nature: Level 1 - 47/100 (+35)
Magma: Level 1 - 31/100 (+18)
Level: 3
Mage Leveling Points: 31/45 (+26)
Health: 113/113 (+9)
Mana: 146/146 (+4)
Attributes:
Strength: 13 (+1)
Agility: 14 (+1)
Endurance: 15 (+3)
Intelligence: 17 (+1)
Insight: 14 (+2)
Charisma: 12 (+1)
Skills:
General Active:
Identify Level 4 (Common) - 24/400 (+108)
General Passive:
Skinning Level 3 (Common) - 174/300 (+44)
Butchering Level 3 (Common) - 191/300 (+61)
Clubs Level 3 (Common) - 33/300 (+29)
Shields Level 2 (Common) - 147/200 (+43)
Battle Strategist Level 3 (Uncommon) - 107/300 (+77)
Unarmed Combat Level 1 (Common) - 48/100 (+13)
Mage:
Universal Mana Projection Level 3 (Epic-evolved-2) - 291/300 (+117) (Hidden)
Light Mana Sight Level 4 (Rare) - 70/400 (+111) (Hidden)
Elemental Meditation Level 3 (Common) - 58/300 (+98)
Light Healing Others Level 2 (Rare-evolved) - 154/200 (+28) (Hidden)
Instinctive Runes Level 2 (Uncommon-evolved) - 41/200 (+16)
Mana Merge Level 3 (Epic) - 111/300 (+109) (Hidden)
Illuminate Level 2 (Common) - 24/200 (+15) (Hidden)
Universal Beast Tamer Level 4 (Rare) - 71/400 (+164)
Companions (2/2)
1. Talpa: Level 3 Earth-based Talpasauria Shade
2. Whisk: Level 4 Polymorphous Vorax
Spell Shaping Level 1 (Epic) - 43/100 (Hidden)
Spells:
Light (5/5):
Haste Level 2 (Common) - 147/200 (+34)
Hallucinate Level 2 (Rare) - 47/200 (+14) (Hidden)
Flashbang Level 2 (Rare) - 1/200 (+18) (Hidden)
Extrasensory Sphere Level 2 (Legendary-evolved) - 107/200 (+67) (Hidden)
Ghostlight Illumination Level 1 (Legendary) - 44/100 (+22) (Hidden)
Water (1/1):
Water Blade Level 2 (Common) - 81/200 (+18) (Hidden)
Air (3/3):
Chain Bulwark Level 3 (Elite-evolved) - 11/300 (+78)
Windscale Shroud Level 1 (Elite) - 65/100 (+46)
Aeroshift Reservoir Level 1 (Epic-evolved) - 62/100 (+47)
Earth (1/1):
Earth Skin Level 2 (Rare) - 10/200 (+8) (Hidden)
Flame (1/1):
Scorching Touch Level 1 (Uncommon) - 80/100 (+11) (Hidden)
Lightning (1/1):
Overcharge Level 1 (Rare) - 41/100 (+31) (Hidden)
Ice (1/1):
Ice Mirror Level 1 (Uncommon) - 40/100 (+28) (Hidden)
Nature (1/1):
Animate Flora Level 1 (Elite) - 16/100 (+7) (Hidden)
Magma (1/1):
Primordial Golem Resonance Level 1 (Epic-evolved) - 21/100 (+12) (Hidden)
Class Evolution Points Unused: 13 (-6)
Inventory: 1/30 available.
Coin Count: 14 Gold, 70 Silver, 7 Copper (Net Increase: 7 Gold, 82 Silver, 15 Copper)
Quests:
Crew Quest - Strengthen the People’s Rebellion (multi-part)
***