Chapter 10 No Pain No Gain.

Isaac walked over to the campsite with Aria. “What now? Do we head to this town or outpost or whatever?” He asked.

Claus grunted and shook his head. He pointed to the bedrolls then to Isaac and Aria. “You’re right, we do need to rest so we can level.” Aria replied. “Okay Claus, you take the first watch. Isaac you get second. I have a date with El’No so I’ll need my full four hours in a row.”

“You are meeting your goddess just like that?” Isaac asked with a raised eyebrow.

Aria sat on her bed roll and explained: “We all level differently. You are a caster so when you rest your mana pool will expand as your mana pathways relax. It’s pretty much the same with all casters. The real difference is how we level. A wizard might level because of some magical breakthrough. A sorcerer from countless hours of practice. A warlock from doing as their patron commands. A druid levels from their connection to nature, it’s unclear how exactly for anybody not a druid.”

She continued: “For clerics like me when we do something our deity likes they may grant us a level. For me it was probably everything you told me. Unfortunately I will only be level six so I still won’t be able to cure his petrification.” She gestured towards their stone companion. “Claus just needs to rest up and he’ll get the rest of his level. He leveled up in the middle of the fight I think but he won’t get some of the benefits until he lets his body rest and heal.”

“What do you mean benefits?” Isaac asked. As far as he knew nothing happened when he leveled up other than an increased mana pool. He sort of remembered not being able to hold as much when he first got here but it was hard to tell. He had assumed it was just his imagination.

“Well, sometimes we get new magics or techniques. Magics are broken up into two categories. For magics there are Spells and Abilities. Abilities are magical effects that require mana but are activated entirely by your will and focus. Those are the magical abilities you use by pulling directly on your mana reserves.” Aria explained until Isaac cut in.

“Everything I do is an ability then. I don’t know how to use my magic any other way.” He stated and sat down as well on the now empty bedroll. It was empty because the stone scout and his new rig was set off to the side.

“That is because you haven’t had proper training. Unfortunately I don’t know any spells that only use dark mana but I do know some that are mostly dark mana that we can try later.” She assured him. “Anyway spells require you to picture the effect and speak the chant and or perform hand gestures. Some even require specific components to be cast like a hawk feather for Slowfall or a flawless diamond at least six inches across and four inches tall for Resurrection.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Timeout. There’s a spell to just bring back the dead?!” Isaac exclaimed. He was under the impression that it was a god only thing.

“Yes. However, it comes with certain restrictions like who can use it and how they died and you have to ask the soul if they even want to come back and after all that the god of death has to be alright with it.” She explained nonchalantly as she grabbed a piece of jerky out of an identical tin to the one Isaac had found earlier.

“Huh.” Was all Isaac could say as he stared at the dying fire for a moment. “Will it be alright for you two if that goes out?” He gestured at the dwindling flame.

“Yeah we’ll have to switch to just one torch at a time. We had so many extras we could waste a few like this but we don’t have enough to keep it going for another eight or so hours.” She said and took a bite of her jerky.

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Isaac looked at it for a second. “You got anything more substantial? I could go for something actually filling.” She looked at him for a second, then behind him as if she was looking for something. She looked back at him and smiled sheepishly.

“You didn’t resurrect with food did you?” She asked hoping she was wrong. He shook his head. “I have some bread but other than that it’s just jerky.” She said and reached into her pack. She handed him a piece of bread about the size of his fist and a few pieces of jerky. She then dug through their companion’s pack for his waterskin and handed it to Isaac as well.

“Thanks.” He smiled and gratefully accepted the meal. He dug in and gestured for her to continue.

“Techniques are a lot like abilities except they pull from another source. Mostly the person’s stamina. I once watched a monk burn himself out in under a minute from using them too much. He collapsed mid battle.” She explained with disappointment written all over her face.

“That’s a lot of information. Thank you.” He replied while still stuffing his face.

“No worries. Now we sleep and later you can answer some more of my questions.” She said cheerily and then laid down, covered herself in her blanket, and fell asleep without waiting for his response.

Isaac looked over to Claus who was staring out into the dark cavern. Finally getting a good look at the mountain of a man Isaac figured he was probably about eight feet tall and three feet wide. He was truly giant. His armor was dented in a few places and covered in some brown blood, probably from the monster, and had lost its shine.

“How long were you two fighting that thing?” Isaac asked, still looking at him.

Claus shrugged and looked over to Isaac. “Thirty.” Was his reply in a voice so deep it was further underground than they were. If Isaac had to describe Claus’ voice he would say it was like what he imagined stone trying to talk would be like.

Isaac looked at him for a second then replied: “Seconds?” To which Claus just nodded. “I guess you guys really did most of the work then huh?” Claus shook his head then pointed to his eye.

“You. Lucky.” Then he turned back to gaze into the myriad of tunnels connecting to their cavern.

“Huh.” Isaac replied and turned to look at the now sleeping Aria. He ended his darkvision ability so he could see in color again and notice the soft reddish-brown that was her hair and her tan skin. She was beautiful but not in the steal your heart type of way and more in the bartender type of way Isaac thought.

‘I wonder how I know these things and why? I’m gonna have to start making a list of questions for Zei or Rei if I ever see them again.’ He thought. His musings were interrupted by Claus who grunted and turned to look back at him.

“Sleep.” He ordered in as flat a voice as he was probably capable of. Isaac nodded to him and curled up on the bedroll. He pulled the blanket over himself and slowly dozed off.

—

A while later, Isaac had no way to tell how long, Isaac awoke to Claus lighting a fresh torch. He sat up and rubbed his eyes wondering why everything was so dark. “My turn?” He asked.

Claus turned and looked at him for a moment in thought. Then seeming to have come to a conclusion he nodded and set the new torch up. He rested it in a small stand that looked like a plus sign with a cup welded to the center of it to hold the torch. He then walked over and laid down on his back on his bedroll.

Claus still hadn’t even opened his visor on his helm but seemed to already be dozing if the slow and deep breaths were anything to go by.

Isaac stood up and looked into the darkness. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, breathing in the shadows. He felt a connection to them, like they were whispering to him but he couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. He pulled some of his internal shadows to his eyes so he could see again and opened his eyes.

The cavern was just as he had last seen it. The corpse was still there. Bloodied and scorched. Isaac walked over to the rock Claus had been leaning against and sat on top of it. While there staring at the same holes and the same dead, unmoving, monster he began to get bored.

He felt for his mana and pulled it towards his hands again. He reached for the death mana and it obeyed. It coated his hands in their dead black flames. He just stared at them for a moment, watching them fall towards his lap only to dissipate after a few inches. He then felt for the mana pathways in his hands, the veins and arteries for his mana.

He slowly began to notice something about them. The ones in his hands and a little of the ones around his core were different from the rest. They were tainted. No? Infused. With some of his death mana. This infusion was why it didn’t hurt him when he used it in his hands, he reasoned.

‘If some of the mana pathways around my core are infused then that must mean I did it by accident earlier. If that's the case then I can infuse all of them if I’m willing to suffer for it. If I do though I’ll probably be able to heal myself like how I did with my hands.’ His face had undergone many differing expressions while he went through this inner monologue.

‘My insides don’t hurt anymore which must mean it doesn’t cause any damage I can’t just heal from. Well, no pain no gain.’ He took a deep breath, looked around the cavern again and back to his new party members, then steeled his nerves. This was going to hurt.