Lindle had never believed in karma before, but as he started to crest the cliff edge, sweating and gasping for air, he was starting to think this was retribution for his uncharitable thoughts toward the adventurers back on the trek to the academy dungeon.

For all that he thought he knew about traversing the Glacial Reach, Madam Holly had apparently somehow divined from the universe that this was something he needed to be humbled about since she had insisted they take one of her usual paths for traveling through the Reach instead of the common hunter or migratory paths. It would take them to their destination much faster. One of the easier ones, she had promised.

Apparently ‘easy’ for her was easy because she had physical stats dozens of times higher than his. She wasn’t wrong that it was a shortcut though, one straight through one of the beyond damned mountain ranges.

He had climbed cliffs, jumped massive gaps, and ran dozens of miles, all while she forced him to keep to a pace meeting her standards. The worst part however was that she wasn’t doing any of it with him, instead, she latched onto his back like a damned macaque several minutes after they left the village, telling him that it wouldn’t do to force such a frail old woman to keep pace with a big strapping young man as himself. It had resulted in another staring contest for a few minutes but he gave in. She was small, but combined with the weight of both of their supplies it added up.

He had been burning Aura points using the [Trek] technique and unstructured bursts of raw strength for hours just to meet her standards for time. His reserves were big, but he still needed to consume several Aura potions as he ran, which Madam Holly had begrudgingly allowed only because he had made them himself.

The only benefit of traveling this way was that he didn’t have to worry about monsters. Any that showed up Madam Holly had just stared at menacingly and flared her Aura, causing them to run away. Which was both good and terrifying, since the monsters in this part of the Reach were higher level than most in the woods were.

Lindle currently was lying flat and burying his face in the snow next to the cliff edge, cooling his overheating face and body. On his back, Madam Holly sat and hummed peacefully to herself. When she hadn’t insisted that he get up and continue moving after several seconds like how she had been doing for the past several hours, Lindle got up on his knees and looked back at her in confusion.

“Hm? Oh feel free to catch your breath, we’re almost there now.” She said nonchalantly, sliding off his back and onto the snow. Lindle heaved in relief and took out another Aura potion, taking big gulps as he downed it. He was almost out now, so he hoped that she didn’t insist on the same pace heading back. Looking around, the air was too thick with falling snow for him to make out much of anything.

“And where exactly is here? You still haven’t told me what I’m doing for my rite.”

“What we’re doing for the rite.” She said with a wink. When he looked at her blankly she hid a smirk and waved him off. “Mentoring is as much an act of adulthood as anything else, if I did any of the fighting or traveling it would be something I’ve done a thousand times before, it wouldn’t be much of a rite of passage for me then, wouldn’t it?

It would actually be sort of logical reasoning if she wasn’t smiling cheekily as she said it. “Fighting? Are you going to make me fight a monster? I thought I told you I was going to be a crafter, not a fighter or hunter.”

“I remember, I’m not that old. I said that a man’s got to be able to gather his own supplies, didn’t I? It’s not my fault most of the time you have to kill or fight off a monster to get them.” She gestured away from the cliff into the wall of snowflakes. “Down there is a pass that is one of the prime spots for a particular magical object that’s used as an ingredient, those Soarian merchants go crazy for the stuff. I think nabbing some should qualify as a good enough challenge for the rite.”

Lindle pursed his lips. Material gathering actually was a relevant skill for some crafters to have, especially for a wayfarer. Many crafters just paid for adventurers to gather valuable supplies from the Reach, but it tended to get expensive. His mother could afford it, but with the more unique circumstances around Artificer, getting them himself might be better. the system tended to offer better rewards to crafters who sourced their own supplies, so he would level up faster this way too.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“What is this object specifically? I can’t get something if I don’t know what it is.”

Madam Holly shrugged. “If you want to be a crafter so badly, you should be able to find and identify it on your own. You’ll know it when you see it. Don’t worry, I’ll keep anything too dangerous away from you while you search.” She gave him a pat on the back and pushed him slightly forward.

Lindle sighed, even if that was true he wouldn’t be able to find anything here if he couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of him through the falling snow. She probably expected him to take hours stumbling through the pass until he came across it or the snow eased up. However, if seeing was a problem, he had a solution for that. Lindle activated his Ethos sense. Immediately his awareness of Madam Holly’s presence skyrocketed, but he did his best to block it out, if he didn’t, it was even more painful to behold than the Librarian had been.

Instead, he spread his sense outwards. In the past few months, Lindle had done a lot to practice with his new sense, one of the things he had learned how to do was to extend it away from him. The specifics of what he was able to sense dropped drastically after a few feet, but he would still be able to vaguely make out the presence of something and its direction from him even if he couldn’t see it, especially if that thing was magic.

In front of him, he felt the presence of several sources of active Ethos that Nothing would call fabled. Crunching through the snow Lindle went deeper into the pass. This area seemed to be sandwiched between two ridges with rocky outcroppings on either side. He followed his Ethos sense like a compass to each source that called out to him.

The first few fabled objects he found were just some faintly magical flowers and herbs growing out of the side of the mountain. He pocketed them, but they weren’t anywhere near valuable enough to be what Madam Holly meant. He had taken to collecting anything that he could to stockpile for his birthday, though he didn’t let his alchemy get rusty either. Lindle had been worried that his years of training in alchemy would go to waste since Artificer was a completely different type of crafter, but Nothing had reassured him that it would remain a useful skill for him to have once he had his class.

After a few more minutes of Lindle making beelines for the closest source of active Ethos and a few more false finds, this new one seemed much more powerful. Lindle grinned to himself. Madam Holly had probably expected him to get lost long enough for a wandering monster to pass through and give him a fight for her to watch, but if he retrieved what he needed quickly enough he would avoid any danger.

Picking up the pace, this object seemed like it was fairly far high off the ground. He approached and walked up to a large stony outcropping reaching up into the air, he looked up but he didn’t see it. Grabbing onto the side Lindle started climbing, at least his muscles were warmed up for it, and without the Madam’s weight on his back now.

He scrambled up quickly, grabbing the ledge and pulling himself up. Looking around he saw a gathering of ice crystals in a circular formation. Getting closer, he got a better grasp on the type of Ethos he was sensing. There was a heavy amount of the Ice element coming from it, but not from the ice itself. He guessed that whatever the fabled object was it was inside the ice and growing it around itself.

Getting closer, Lindle looked inside, pushing aside loose ice shards to find what was inside. He felt his fingers brush against something other than ice, and he grabbed it, pulling it out.

Looking at his prize, Lindle froze as in his hand, he held a large egg, the shell white with blue speckles. It gleamed under his Ethos sense with dense ice energy, as well as being distinctly reptilian. It reminded Lindle of somewhat of Ice Wyrm scales he had sensed on sale in the market.

Knowing that her stats were high enough to hear him, Lindle spoke aloud. “So that’s what you meant by fighting.”

Behind him, he heard a loud clap and felt a burst of wind, the thick cover of snow all blowing away as the air cleared, the whole pass now visible. Looking back, he saw Madam Holly standing atop one of the ridges looking down at him, her hands together in a clapping motion. “Clever boy.” She praised, giving him a cheeky grin.

Below her, now revealed and looking around wildly in confusion with its two heads now that the snowfall was gone, was a white and blue speckled zmey. One of the smaller cousins of dragons, the wyvern was only the size of a snow panther or dire wolf, but they were extremely deadly.

Madam Holly reached down and grabbed a rock, winding it up, she threw it before either Lindle or the zmey could react, ricochetting it off the opposite ridge before the rock flew back past Lindle and into the zmey’s right forelimb, a loud crack as it’s bone snapped. Roaring in pain, it looked up to where Lindle was on the outcropping, its eyes snapping onto the egg he was still holding.

She gave him a thumbs up. “Softened it up for you partner!”

Lindle stared at her, she looked back unrepentantly without changing expression.