Leaving the village was bittersweet, and several times as I began the journey north to Alberack I found myself fighting the urge to look over my shoulder. No journey begins if you can’t leave the starting point though, so I squashed down that budding homesickness as quickly as it arose. Within an hour, the village I’d called home for nearly twenty years was no longer visible behind me, and with that assurance all my hesitation and stress finally faded away.
With the rest of my life ahead of me, I was in no particular rush to make things happen on any time line, I just felt an overwhelming relief to leave the stifling rural town behind. Not that I disliked living there with my family and friends, but there was only so much room to grow. I felt as if a rather big fish in a very small pond. It was quaint. I no longer had any time or patience for quaint. Any growth was better than none, and the threat of stagnation hung over my family home like a cloud.
I began off to Alberack in earnest, taking my journey one step at a time, and frankly not worried too much about what may come. Gone were the days of being a level one child, I relished the challenges of my new life.
The first challenge to come was inevitably the hurdles of everyday life, and being on the road that meant making camp. No small task for the average traveler, but I was no average traveler. Not anymore. With the tremendous mana regeneration I was now sporting, Tier 1 spells could handle most basic tasks in the span of a few moments.
My campfire was lit by [Spark], [Clean] and [Camouflage] prepared a campsite, and [Alarm Area] took care of keeping watch. If I felt the need to, I could even pull on a Tier 2 spell here and there for things like [Create Water]. Of course, many of these spells were outside my specialization as Andras, so my efficiency wasn’t as high as it could have been, but their ubiquitous use meant I could at least remember them.
The only thing I couldn’t do with magic yet is cook. The moment I got an actually intelligent minion, I was planning to teach them cooking. Dry rations and field meals were passable, fine even, but I would often long for warmth in those early days of traveling. I debated keeping my travel plans close to big cities just so I could reliably find work, and by extension hot meals. That was a problem for when I actually arrived in a big city though.
My biggest concern before my arrival in Alberack was the final two levels in my [Void Mage] class. It didn’t seem that far away, but arrival in a new town as a freshly minted Tier 4 mage would be a fantastic boon for any negotiation I had to do. All things would come in time. I had several days to think about it as I meandered toward my first stop.
Of course, this all came crashing down rather suddenly on the morning of my third day of travel. It was just past dawn, the air was still cool and heavy with dew. At once, both the area of my alarm was triggered, rapidly, and I heard a shrill scream pierce the morning silence. Cain rushed to my side with a single thought, and the two of us began running forward toward the source of the sound.
Along the way, we found the source of the breach in [Alarm Area], just past the edge of my barrier, several large beasts had trampled through the forest and cornered a traveler, or perhaps more accurately, a follower. Standing there, with her back against a tree, and her faithful piggy companion interposing himself between her and the threat, was Leigh.
Immediately a surge of anger and conflicting thoughts rushed through me. I had to tamp those down quickly and refocus on the situation at hand to make sure everyone got out of this alive.
Right. This was a perfect chance to try out new skills, and If I was lucky it would even get me a level or two. As I whipped my eyes around the scene, drinking in every possible ounce of information, I mentally reached for one of my new skills. [Identify].
There were four large canine monsters crouching low in a semi-circle around Leigh, each one had thick rigid spikes running down their back, and two large fangs that extended past the jaw even with their mouths shut. One of them turned and noticed me right as I felt my skill take hold.
[Saber Wolf - lvl 32]
[Saber Wolf - lvl 41]
[Saber Wolf - lvl 29]
[Saber Wolf - lvl 26]
A momentary wave of confusion wormed its way into my mind with the results of the skill. These monsters were wolf variants, pack hunters by definition, yet they were all well into Tier 3, and their leader had just broken into Tier 4. These beasts should’ve been considered chaff monsters in a rural backwater, under almost no circumstances should they have reached levels this high. I knew Mom and Dad had high levels for their age, but I just assumed they were outliers. I really regretted not checking the levels of other villagers before I left, my sample size was just too small, did everything in this time period have crazy high levels?
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The last time I saw anything like this was… No. I can’t let myself get distracted. Distraction is death.
“Sigil can you take one of them?”
My familiar hissed right back into my mind “I will leave the weakest one to Cinder and his human. Level 29 is mine”
‘Okay. Four enemies. Sigil takes one. Cinder takes one. That leaves two for me, Kite, and Cain. Kite will go down to a single attack if he gets hit, so I should leave the fight up to Cain. Okay. Got it.’
In the span of a single breath, my body was flooded with instincts. Old feelings coursed through my veins and a flurry of notifications filled my mind.
Congratulations!
[Memory Therapy] has leveled up to 38.
[Soul Healing] has leveled up to 38.
[Clarity] has leveled up to 38.
You have qualified for the general skill [Two Souls, One Mind].
You have qualified for the general skill [Ancient Warfare].
You have qualified for…
I had to cut off the stream of notifications there before they got too distracting. My feet quickly carried me closer to the [Saber Wolf] pack; every second was precious time to prepare. Leigh was clearly frightened, and while my own merry band could communicate almost entirely mentally, she would benefit from a stabilizing force. Ugh, Children.
“Sigil, Middle Right. Cain, Far left. Leigh, you and Cinder are on the middle right. I’ll take the big one.”
My voice cut through the tension in the forest and every combatant snapped into action at the same time. I couldn’t spare a glance for the others as I bore down my opponent, fully focusing in on the largest wolf of the bunch. “[Identify]”
[Saber Wolf - lvl 41]
The wolf had a two-level advantage over me, which was usually not a problem when fighting in groups. I had to fight it alone so that level gap was going to have the most impact now. In the haze of battle, all other distraction fell away, and I could only feel myself and see my opponent. It felt right, natural even. Like I was born to do this, to struggle, to fight.
The wolf turned in a flash and charged me with fangs bared, its thick muscles rippled with exertion under an undoubtedly armored skin. I had to think.
‘I don’t have to actually kill the beast, I just need to stall long enough for my minions to catch back up. Direct damage is the biggest weakness of necromancy’
At my current level, I could effortlessly maintain a Tier 3 spell indefinitely, I could even handle Tier 4 for the majority of this fight if I had to, but there’s no point in holding back if it gets me hurt.
The wolf closed in the final few feet, and I snapped back to my senses, every instinct in my body screaming. I pulled on [Combat Footwork] and [Chant Omission], and both passive skills kicked into overdrive as I dodged to the side. The latter skill worked just fine, but [Combat Footwork] wasn’t quite a high enough level to get me out of the way in time.
I crashed to the side, the wolf activated some skill of its own, and a large spike shot out from its flank, scouring down my thigh as I tumbled to the ground. A quick glance at my status showed my health pool decreased by nearly twenty percent. I couldn’t risk getting hit again and further decreasing my mobility either.
My first spell was a wide area of effect, and I hoped it would have some spillover to help the rest of the fight. I activated [Aura of Dread] in its full Tier 3 form, and watched the wolf in front of me stutter as he prowled forward, not enough to stop him but enough to slow him down. I had no way to know how intelligent these beasts were, but my opponent clearly knew something is wrong.
The wolf redoubled its efforts, whirling on me in a rage right as I completed my second spell. When facing down a physical fighter like this, I could recall one way Andras frequently evened the playing field.
[Chant Omission] made the spell silent, and my hands fluttered rapidly through all the gestures needed to build my spell form. When it finally completed, a thick black mist poured from my mouth on the next exhale. My magic-infused mist swirled across the ground, hanging low and heavy as it coursed toward my enemy. [Greater Curse] was a rather versatile Tier 4 spell, every effect it could produce was a curse of course, but the type of curses varied.
The mist forced its way through the wolf’s ears, eyes, nose, and throat, and watching from the outside I swore I could see its form sag slightly under the weight of ‘Curse of Weakness’. The two spells together had overtaken my mana regeneration, instead actively costing mana from my pool to maintain. Checking my status, a precipitous drop in mana was growing higher every second.
‘Where is everyone? I need those fights to be over. Now.’
I cursed silently to myself, and my eyes snapped to the side just as I spotted motion in my periphery. I glanced in the direction just in time to see Cinder barrel out of the underbrush with Leigh right on his heels. The massive porcine slammed into the wolf I was facing at full speed, the momentum of Cinder’s bulk carried through and sent the enemy reeling.
A powerful war squeal echoed from the boar as he asserted his dominance. Leigh rushed into position between us, interposing herself between me and Cinder. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
‘Isn’t she the one that got us into this mess in the first place?’
Thankfully, the two of them had bought me enough time to survey the rest of the fight without too much risk. The low-leveled wolf was laying dead, Leigh and Cinder had successfully slain it. I could see Sigil and Cain still squaring off against their own enemies, but the advantage was clearly in their favor.
A brief but shrill cry pierced from overhead, Kite alerted us to her presence above.
‘Okay. The scales are tipping, I don’t have to stall anymore.’
I panted a few ragged deep breaths to draw in my focus and stave off the exhaustion of mana expenditure. Meanwhile, Cinder and the wolf were tearing into each other in a writhing mass of fur and tusk and spike. I wanted to end this fight soon, and I knew just the spell to do it.
No words were required and only a few motions, repeated several times, built up the spell form rapidly. [Dominate] did not produce any visible effect, but all the same, once the spell was completed my mind was hurled across the battlefield to collide with the wolf. We began the mental struggle for control, all while Cinder continued his own more physical struggle.
[Curse of Pain] activated.