Night fell upon the forest as the trio headed back. They had overstayed their welcome in the woods and were forced to use Brivaria’s light to guide themselves back to the lodge. Well, Brivaria and Trixie used the light. Kseniya seemed relatively fine navigating in the darkness with or without it.
Ezben and Marie were awaiting the group. Meals were prepared and kept warm until their arrival. The humans were likewise still awake and sitting in the same corner of the room as they had been earlier. The pair spoke quietly but no one paid them any mind.
All eyes and ears were on the lamia as Kseniya proudly boasted of their accomplishments. To hear the lamia tell it was to think there had been a veritable army of spinners and Pseudolith had been twenty times its size. Still, the snake woman wove an amusing tale. The angel doubted there had been only one group of spinners in the forest despite its size. She wasn’t entirely certain the couple would be safe but the death of the Pseudolith likely meant at least one source of pressure sending monsters south would be eased.
Kseniya didn’t seem inclined to mention the magic sigil as part of their story but lying by omission was still lying to the angel. She spoke up.
“One more thing.” All eyes turned to Brivaria save for Trixie who was still very much enjoying her food. The dog had heard her name, barked her support for whatever was being said about her, and then gone back to eating. “We found a magical sigil in the dirt near the Pseudolith. Do you have any idea what it was or might have been?”
“No. I am a hunter by trade and my wife has many skills but neither of us have taken a magic class nor more than a handful of such skills,” Ezben replied with a frown. Brivaria nodded.
That was unsurprising. What she knew of humans was that they gained maybe one mana every two levels. Spells and skills that used mana were less useful to a people who could only use a handful before being completely out of mana for a day. Taking mana-less passive skills or skills that used stamina was far more useful to them.
That was part of why Brivaria was upgrading what she could to skill-spells. One major benefit was decreased mana cost. Of course, she was supposed to be taking more passive skills so she wouldn’t be running out of mana every single day herself. Oh how those resolutions crumbled upon seeing the shiny new skills in a brand new class.
“Oh but you are so cute,” Kseniya butt in causing Marie to blush, “who would want to harm such cute humans or the very, very nice inn they run? I think those would be some very mean people, you know? Do you know of any? I could visit them! I do not think they would cause problems again, you know? I am very persuasive!” And direct, Brivaria thought. Ezben shook his head and then Marie did as well.
“Our lodge has never had any major problems. Most people who visit are happy to have a roof, a warm bed, and some good food.” Marie was interrupted by a happy wuff from Trixie at the mention of the inn’s food. Brivaria narrowed her eyes at the dog. Trixie wore a doggy grin but the angel could sense a critique on the food she carried. Maybe it was time for Trixie to experience the joy of one of those silver rations. “We’re well-liked by Tenome to the west and Keaton to the south, we think.”
The four continued talking. Surprisingly the conversation shifted toward Brivaria’s skills and fighting style. The couple was shocked to hear that she mostly fought with sword and shield alongside a handful of spells. Kseniya was interested to learn Brivaria had a healing skill. Those were rare outside of a select few classes that had fairly strict requirements to gain during advancement. The conversation quickly circled back to the winged girl’s status.
Kseniya said the angel was a spellblade while Brivaria told the innkeepers that the adventurers guild called her a paladin. The angel was glad it wasn’t a cultural norm to speak of classes by name. While Kseniya referred to herself as a poison mage, Brivaria doubted that was the exact name of the lamia’s class. She was equally glad it wasn’t expected for her to name her own class. It was a little ominous sounding, she had to admit. Oddly enough, all of the talk caused both innkeepers to give one another wry expressions. The angel chalked it up to low awareness as she didn’t particularly understand the inside joke.
When the topic of payment came up, Kseniya looked at the offered coin purse and turned to Brivaria.
“Little angel, I have a proposition. I do not feel good about taking this coin when you did much of the fighting against the mole thing, you know? It feels wrong for my coin purse to be full and yours to be empty. I would to split this coin with you. It feels as though there is a debt owed and I do not like that feeling,” Kseniya said quietly. The snake woman was more serious about this than she’d been for any conversation since returning. The angel was less bothered but considered it.
“Well, we’re both going to Pemburne and they do have an adventurers guild there. Why don’t we split the whole thing? I can take half of this and you can take half of the guild reward.”
“I suppose that is fair. Shall we leave for Tenome tomorrow morning?” The angel should have seen Kseniya’s question coming. She wasn’t crazy about making the journey with the snake woman. She had nothing against Kseniya except the lamia was slow. Trixie and Brivaria moved extremely quickly on their own. The angel had been relieved when Trixie proved herself so speedy. It would have been rude to decline so she relented.
“Yes, we can travel together,” Brivaria replied. “I don’t sleep so we can leave when you and Trixie are ready.”
“You don’t sleep? What an unfair advantage that must be for gaining levels. None-the-less, beds and sleep are too comfy to give up. I suppose I’m not so jealous, you know?” Kseniya grinned and Brivaria returned it. She angel admired the performance boost that came with full sleep. Plus she wondered what the oblivion of sleep felt like.
Having met Kseniya and spent so much time looking into the snake woman’s slitted eyes, Brivaria decided that would be her project for the evening. She moved to sit on the bed in her given room and Trixie hopped up to flop on the soft mattress next to her. Whatever was in the bedding was supremely comfortable and the dog wasted no time stretching out.
Brivaria raised her knees up and sat the mirror against them so she could look at her own eyes. One hand held the mirror while the other pet Trixie. The dog made happy sounds which eventually turned into sleeping ones. Using Lesser Shapeshifting, Brivaria began trying to copy the lamia’s unique eyes.
It took several hours of practice but eventually the angel had a pair of slitted pupils for her blue eyes. It had been difficult and she realized she was pushing the boundaries of what the skill would allow. Minor adjustments to her body that were already within the realm of possibility were what the skill was designed for. Major adjustments that were likewise rather simplistic such as enlarging or shrinking her wings were harder thus required more time or mana. Full scale changes like turning her legs to a tail were impossible. The eyes were both a major adjustment in one sense yet still fairly small in another—just barely within the scope of her ability.
Tragically, after all that work Brivaria found that her vision was slightly worse. It did have one specific improvement as she could definitely see better in her small room as it was fairly dark. This was likely why Kseniya had so little trouble moving through the woods after nightfall. The angel decided to keep experimenting with between the two types of eyes. Her light magic meant seeing in the dark was not a necessary skill to have but she wanted to see how fast she could make the transition without expending mana and also see if she could get enough practice to lower the mana cost should she ever want them quickly.
The next day the group gathered in the common room and ate breakfast. Truly the blonde angel had no appetite for the food. She only took one meal a day when left to her own devices though she fed Trixie during rest stops. The dog was ravenous. Even then she wasn’t so rude as to say no to her hosts. The meal was pleasant, the trio bid their goodbyes to the Red Lodge, and they were off.
The frenetic pace the angel had previously set slowed down to something more sedate. That combined with Kseniya being able to keep Trixie company on the ground gave Brivaria the impetus to truly spread her wings and fly. This wasn’t the challenging, low-to-the-ground flight she’d been doing so much of recently. No, this was the good stuff as she saw it. She rose higher and higher until the wind currents were more than sufficient to carry her along.
It was wonderful. The angel’s beautiful, white wings were fully extended letting her catch the wind in full. Her feathers basked in the cold wind and warm sun while she drifted along. She rose to just below the cloud line and gazed around. The road was small. Trixie and Kseniya were tiny. Greens, yellows, and reds filled her vision as she gazed across miles upon miles of land, most of which was wooded. Yet again, she was humbled by the natural beauty of the world around her.
The first couple days passed just like that. Brivaria would soar all day save for taking meals with the lamia and dog. Trixie would jump on her every time the winged girl landed. It was fun flying so high but she could tell the dog missed running with her. Trixie loved attention and Brivaria loved giving it to the affectionate golden hound. That was why she decided to walk the rest of the way with the pair or, at least, fly low to the ground.
Throughout the trip to Tenome, the winged girl was also pondering her skill point. It bothered her that it was unspent just as the previous had. She was so used to having her skill selections told to her by elders. In the time before, she rarely had a skill selection available for more than a single turn. After much thought, she narrowed it down to four choices.
Aura of Decay (Passive)
You constantly emanate an aura of decay which causes creatures and objects around you to decay, suffering weakness and a reduction in all attributes, if applicable. You may adjust the strength of the aura by putting additional mana into it and exclude creatures and objects as desired. Intensity scales with arcane, size scales with presence.
Bolt of Decay (Active)
You may channel mana into a projectile that flies toward a target of your choice. Upon striking a creature or object, the subject of the skill begins decaying and suffers a reduction in all attributes, if applicable. Cost and intensity scale with arcane.
Contact Decay (Passive)
Creatures and objects which touch your body begin to wither and decay. You may exclude creatures and objects as desired. Intensity scales with arcane.
Lingering Decay (Passive)
All skills and spells you possess which can inflict a form of decay have their duration increased. Duration increase scales with spirit.
Unless she kept the Decaying Lightbrand class for another 10 levels, this would be her last skill from it. This meant she had to think extra hard about the choice.
Of the four, Bolt of Decay was her fall back option. It was the skill-spell upgrade to the spell she already possessed and was actively using. She’d briefly considered Luminous Desecration but the spell had the problem of stronger, more dangerous enemies simply leaving the area. It worked on the slimes because they were low level and dumb. It would not work on anything smarter and she had no present way to trap them in the area of effect.
At first glance Aura of Decay seemed like a straight upgrade over Contact Decay. It was only on the third rereading of the skills that she noticed the difference. “Wither and decay” was in the description of Contact Decay. Withering Ray was killing magic meaning creatures that touched her could outright die. It would probably not be very effective. Central features of any given class were usually more potent than any of the skills that offered additional effects. Regardless, it was still an interesting difference and importantly Contact Decay required no mana.
Aura of Decay would not wither nor kill directly but it had all the benefits of an aura skill including scaling with Brivaria’s high presence attribute. Whatever the demon did back in the Pit of Rusek had changed Brivaria’s attribute growth. That was unheard of. Her endurance, spirit, and awareness were all lower than they’d been previously. Meanwhile her arcane and presence were higher. In fact, arcane was dramatically higher. When she eventually returned to her original level, the winged girl would have much more formidable magic at her disposal. The losses in health, mana, and stamina would make her more fragile however. There were always trade-offs.
Lingering Decay was the last of her four options. It was also the one she was leaning toward choosing. It had the shortest skill description but the most far-reaching consequences. This one skill would increase the duration of all her light-related skills and spells. Since Produce Light upgraded into Bleak Radiance, that meant that even her most basic light ability would be improved. That wasn’t all as her infusions would last longer on her sword. The decaying effects upon her foes would last longer as well. Notably this meant that a withering infusion on her sword or Withering Ray would be far more deadly albeit with the caveat that a battle had to go long enough for the increase to be relevant.
On the last night before they were due to arrive in Tenome, Brivaria selected Lingering Decay. She agonized over the choice and hated not being able to have both Aura of Decay and Lingering Decay. In the end, she needed passives that would make her stronger and Aura of Decay was yet another way to spend her mana despite its deceptive tag. Having options she liked was a good problem to have. She quietly side-stepped considering what her fellow angels might think of her class and skill choices. They would understand eventually… probably.
Name: Brivaria
Race: Angel
Class: Decaying Lightbrand
Level: 18
Stats: Health 47/47, Mana 81/81, Stamina 59/59
Attributes: Physique 35, Endurance 24, Arcane 39, Spirit 41, Awareness 24, Presence 42
Active Skills: Healing Touch, Holy Bulwark, Tailwind
Passive Skills: Inventory, Lesser Flight, Lesser Shapeshifting, Lingering Decay, Rest, Traits (Angel)
Magic: Light of Decay