Thankfully Madam Holly didn’t immediately force Lindle to drag the zmey corpse all the way home. After pointing out how late it would get if they ran for another several hours back, his injured state with low HP and nearing potion toxicity, she had mercifully conceded that they would be better off setting up camp and heading back in the morning.
Most rites took course over multiple nights anyway, Madam Holly had joked “It might be seen as odd for us to come back without spending a single night out in the cold. They might think we failed!” Speaking with a grin, amused at the idea that people would think that a high-level Veteran would fail a trial meant for children. Lindle doubted most people in Glacerhine even knew that they were out on their milestone rite, Lindle had only told his friends and family. The other elders would know obviously, though Lindle wondered if Madam Holly had told anyone else. She did mention a husband, perhaps he would be at the after-ceremony.
Lindle set up camp while Madam Holly constructed an ice box to put the corpse inside for the night. She simply ripped out and shaped some stone from the outcropping where it had made its nest with her hands and filled it with snow.
“Shame you poisoned it, we could have had some draconic meat for dinner. We’ll have a Butcher remove it and eat it for the ceremony instead.” She said casually as she stuffed the zmey’s body into the icebox.
Lindle nodded as he tried to start the fire, both of their tents ready behind them. Chip wasn’t with them this time and he didn’t want to waste Mana, so he was using a flint and steel. He grumbled to himself as he failed to hit the right spot to make the sparks land in the firewood. Dexterity was his second lowest stat, he never managed to raise it above 3 despite years of alchemy practice, just average. He simply wasn’t as precise with his hands, too thick and large. He could only hope that once he started gaining stats from levels instead of natural development Artificer would provide a decent amount. Crafting classes usually did as far as Lindle knew.
Madam Holly hummed and watched him struggle as she sat down on the other side of the fire pit. She didn’t offer help, which he was grateful for. She was amused for sure, he could see it on her face, but at least she didn’t insist on making it worse. When he eventually got the fire going and sat back in the snow she hummed again.
“So, not a big fan of zmey’s? A bad experience with an ambush or something?”
“Huh?” Lindle looked up at her. “No not really, never even saw one up close before today.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Really? I could have sworn you were doing your best impression of a berserker rage back there. I said I admired the hustle, but I don’t think rage training is something most crafters learn, up until then you were doing pretty much what I expected one do to do in a fight.”
She was referring to the training some of the prospective barbarian classtakers took growing up. Anger was a powerful thing, if someone was planning to lean into theirs for the rest of their life in a fight then the village martial instructors taught them how to access it more readily as well as control it. Eventually, they would be able to mix it with their Aura into their muscles to push past the limits of their physical stats to [Rage]. His giant blood meant he could do the first part of slipping into it quickly naturally, but not with any of the control, lucky him.
“Yeah… no I’m not trained in that, it’s just something that happens. I try to keep my distance in a fight usually.”
She tapped her chin and grinned. “I know some pretty good [Rage] techniques that could come in handy for you.”
He grimaced. “I would prefer to not get so angry in the first place. I hate how I feel when it happens, I would much rather be able to keep myself under control.”
She tilted her head. “Control huh?” She seemed to consider something for a few seconds, glancing at his hands. “In that case, how about a technique that’ll help you do that and give you more time to think in a fight?”
Lindle blinked, suddenly a lot more interested.
She grinned, reading his face. “I thought so. It’s called [Flow]. You can think of it almost like the inverse of a [Rage] technique. I learned it from a wayfarer from across the ocean.” Lindle noted that she used the term wayfarer like the Soarians did.
“What tier is it?” Lindle asked. “I’ve learned some tier 1s before.”
“You know tier 2 spells but not any tier 2 techniques? With your Aura reserves?” She sighed dramatically. “It’s only tier 2, so hopefully it won’t take you too long to learn. We have time to kill.”
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Well, of course, it was only tier 2 to her, with her levels she probably knew tier 7 techniques, but at least it wasn’t tier 3. That was the real first leap in difficulty.
“The first thing you’ll want to do is draw out your Aura points up from your pool and into your brain. [Flow] is a sustained technique so don’t just take the pattern and use up all the points at once.” Madam Holly proceeded to instruct Lindle on how to form the pattern of points. Pushing his Aura to stimulate his mind and perception. When [Flow] was active, she told him that it would slow Lindle’s perception of time and enhance his sense of clarity. With enough proficiency in it, she told him it was possible to overclock the technique and cause everything to seem still while he thought.
“I use it sometimes to think up good insults mid-conversation with Elder Fogarious.” She snickered.
They continued the practice as the moon started dimming in the sky. Luckily the weather had been clear, Lindle didn’t want to experience a storm while high up in the mountains. He didn’t spot any monsters either, though if it was because of Madam Holly or that they were inside the dead zmey’s territory he wasn’t sure. There was no sign of its mate either, but there were weird rumors about zmey mating habits, so he didn’t know if its absence was normal or not.
Lindle’s large Aura pool meant he could throw a lot of points at practicing the technique over and over, taking rests to eat and let his pools refill and injuries heal. It was more expensive as a tier 2 in terms of points, but since he wasn’t managing to activate and pay the overtime cost of keeping it active and just attempting to form the initial portion he could manage. He had felt like he was getting a pretty good grip on it several hours in as the moon started the dim before Madam Holly paused mid-sentence and looked towards the cliff they, well actually, Lindle climbed up.
He stopped trying to form the technique and looked as well. “What is it?”
Madam Holly didn’t say anything for several seconds as she looked at the cliff edge before a small grin spread across her face. “Why don’t you go take a look over the side of the cliff Lindle?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Why?”
“You can’t expect a frail old lady like myself to go and be checking over the sides of suspicious cliffs when a strapping young dragon slayer such as yourself is here with me.”
He didn’t budge. “First of all, zmey slayer, you could get me roasted for implying anything else, and second of all, why is it suspicious.”
She shrugged and popped a ration into her mouth. “Old lady hunch.”
He sat still for several more seconds, but it was clear she wasn’t going to say anything more. Lindle sighed and got up, heading for the cliff. If she had sensed something and was making him go look it probably wasn’t dangerous. He paused. Wait, no, she would definitely send him if it was something dangerous like a monster. He rephrased in his head, she wouldn’t send him if it was anything likely to eat him before she could get a good laugh in and then save him. He started walking more quietly.
He activated his Ethos sense as he crept closer, but he didn’t get anything. The Ethos of things like people or monsters didn’t seem to radiate as far as other kinds of magical objects as it seemed from his inability to notice the zmey earlier, but it was worth a shot.
He got on his knees, ready to spring back with a potion ready, as he poked his head over the side of the cliff and looked down. What he was expecting to see was some kind of monster climbing up, maybe a dire mountain goat, those were terrifying. What he did see, however, was very different from a mountain goat, though to him probably more dangerous. A teenage girl.
“Thalia?” He shouted down towards the girl climbing up the cliff.
She looked up in surprise. He recognized her from among his former classmates. Thalia was almost two years older than him but still a lot shorter, with straight black hair going down her back and amber eyes in the mask-like marking on her face. Her raccoon tail swayed in the wind behind her. She was wearing warm clothing with symbols of various animals and spirits over them.
He hadn’t seen Thalia much ever since her own milestone rite, the two of them didn’t interact much when they had lessons together. If he could remember correctly she had been learning magic and wanted to become one of the druids. Judging by the necklace with the circles mark around her neck she had succeeded.
“Lindle!” She sighed in relief. “Thank the gods you’re still alive.”
Lindle reached down a hand and she grabbed it, letting him help her the rest of the way up. “What do you mean still alive? I’m fine, I was with Madam Holly.”
“Exactly! When I heard you were going with her for the milestone rite I got worried and followed your trail all the way out here. Are you okay, has she made you do anything crazy?”
Lindle blinked. “Oh. Well, it wasn’t pleasant, still healing up from fighting a zmey, but I’m alright. We’re going to go back in the morning. How did you even know about it?”
Thalia spread out her hands and cast a spell, soft green light washing over Lindle's body. He felt the injuries that hadn’t healed yet close up as his HP refilled. “She wouldn’t stop talking about it, she was giddy about it for the last two days.”
Linde’s face bunched up in confusion. The two of them heard footsteps in the snow next to them before he could say anything, looking over to see Madam Holly smiling cheekily at them both.
“How sweet of you to show so much concern my dear Thalia. I feel flattered by your confidence in me.”
Thalia huffed as she looked up at her. “Hello, Grandma.”
Grandma?