Ren returned to his practice and formed slightly different variations of his firebolts. One was longer and spoke of the intent to penetrate the target. When he thudded it into a dead rotten tree while passing by, the tip of it slightly sank into the rotten wood. The mana expenditure was far greater though. Impractical, unless I fight a foe with thick skin or armor. ‘Or armor’ why would I imagine fighting men, having to burn them, what does this world twist my mind into?
Again, he focused on another design, infusing the intent for the firebolt to erupt at the tip. Forming it his mind began to ache, the attention to detail mixed with the damage done to him as backlash from eldritch touch combined into a thudding massacre on his ability to focus.
The creation slowly formed with the design and will he intended. When the time came to test out the attack it failed and erupted halfway to the target. His head splitting, he looked at the others.
Tayin and Hollwin met his eyes respectively.
Hollwin spoke first, “You are reaching for something you may not be able to attain for some time. I can see the wear on you is growing. Overexerting yourself is a terrible way to train your mana control. Mana control is about exact precision, with your injuries, these last few hours staring into your own mana have pushed you too far to keep experimenting. Just practice the basic form until we arrive, you do not have much time left so make it count.”
Tayin chimed in, “You are doing well, surprisingly so. Keep at it in the future, he speaks wisely.”
“Thank you both, I think I understand.” Ren stopped his experimenting and instead focused on the basic beginning of what he started. Adding too many new things at once has cost him a great deal of mana, over half of it reforming and precisely shaping the bolts over long periods.
The simple task of creating a pellet of mana and burning it was simple enough that he shortly began being able to watch his surroundings as he walked and formed them. Multitasking was key if he ever planned to shape mana like this in burning combat. An ax beak would tear you apart if you had to stand staring into your palm, activating an ocular ability, just to form a singular small attack.
As the pellets formed, he began trying to add the intent to move them, again he began to feel a small strain on himself, though it was quite bearable this time. Causing a pellet of burning mana to move in front of him while another formed, then another, and another. Eventually, he had a dozen of them scattered around him providing small warm auras all around him.
A large feline began stalking the party from behind as they crossed a small rocky outcropping that led them downwards into a valley. Ren’s mind was occupied with the creation and extinguishing of the orbs floating around him; he had no idea what was happening when a gale of wind nearly knocked him off his feet.
Tayin stood behind him nearly ten feet back, her bow in hand and an arrow flying into the stalking creature in the distance. Prowling down the rocky mountainside to their right, it attempted to jump to the side of the arrow. Instead, the arrow moved toward the great mountain cat and skewered it. A maelstrom around it quickly took its life.
Standing awkwardly as small orbs faded and extinguished around him Ren openly gaped. A small whirlwind surrounded her, yet she was unmoved and untouched by the force. It moved as if a ring of protection was ready to strike down any attack sent back at her.
“Damn, well, glad you’re here.” Ren sighed.
“Somebody has to keep us alive while you play magician.” A sly smile played against her serious eyes.
Ren’s attention immediately returned to his practice as he followed behind Hollwin, and Tayin behind him likewise.
He attempted to conjure forth a basic firebolt, its shape was small and weak compared to the stronger variants he had come up with. Casting it into barren earth to the ground at his side, it puffed and pittered out.
Again, he brought a small firebolt to him, the small fire making a plume of smoke as it burned a weed.
Hollwin glanced back, “Do not burn down this forest young one.”
“I won’t, I promise.”
Ren began bringing them forth slowly and letting them burn off into the ground. After several repetitions, Hollwin again spoke.
“Before us is the town of Lundare, they are a lumber harvesting town. Timber being their most exported good and near-exclusive export.”
“Glad I didn’t burn down the forest then.” Ren walked faster as they approached, coming beside Hollwin.
“So, as long as I do not find any odd magical beings here, am I free to explore and sell my items from the beasts?”
“Yes but let us find a place to settle first. I will make sure to inform them of your encounter and heal those in need.” Hollwin pointed to a small building, the Sleeping Ent Inn.
The party began its trek to the small two-story building, small by the size of what Ren thought but not quite remembered houses looking like. Hollwin entered first and nodded his head to a portly innkeeper. As all good innkeepers should be, lest they be a friend of the dark.
“A room for myself and this young man, another for the lady. I have the due of Silver upon tonight.”
“I will be glad to give you rooms for your due my good sir.” The small but round man bowed slightly to the old cleric. He demonstrated a small bald patch covered by swept-over gray hair with a slight remembrance of brown within it. “Right this way now, if you please.”
They followed the man until he showed Tayin her room and the accommodation befitting Hollwin, apparently, which was the largest of the four rooms within the second story of the inn. A small cot was dragged in for Ren while the old man was given a bed sized for three, it nearly took the width of the room.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
As the man left Ren asked Hollwin, “What is the due of silver?”
“As a cleric, it is my right to ask for a place to rest, I am owed quarter. Yet it is my duty to provide reasonable service, to heal the ill, diagnose illnesses incurable, mend limbs, and to deliver or recognize the young.”
“Well, that’s convenient now, isn’t it?”
“Yes, I would say so if you suppose having a duty to aid all people around you is a convenience, rather than a sacred duty.”
“Ah, yes well I see your point.” Ren looked into the rafters above, as it was quite better than looking at the slightly annoyed cleric. “Well, I better be off now.”
Having no possessions to drop off, instead potentially unlimited ‘spatial storage’ as the natives called it, he had no real reason to linger in the room besides for some shut-eye.
Passing through the hallway that connected the rooms he looked at the architecture of the building, in an odd way it felt homely yet different in a way he could not quite understand. The common room of the inn held the innkeeper, and now presumably his wife. She worked at a cauldron over the fire, a massive kettle that boiled up a tasty-smelling stew.
Asking for a bowl, and about where to sell his goods, he got to sit down and listen while filling himself.
The short man spoke, “The best place to take your goods would likely be the shop three down on the next street over, an apothecary lives there specializing in medicines made from the local woods. Anything else you can sell at the general store two buildings beyond that.”
Between gulps of the warm stew Ren spoke, “ -anks, this is -ery good.”
The innkeeper's wife turned from the pot and smiled. “Well, it best be young lad, when the cleric begins his healin’ I suppose many folk’il be ready for filling their bellies.”
Finishing off the bowl, he promised coinage when he returned from selling his goods.
Heading out he looked around for the street the stores were on, quickly spotting their signs he headed off towards them. The apothecary was a small building, half her home being located inside the store, the other half of the building being her crafting quarters as well as an area for merchandise.
The floor was covered in an ornate purple and yellow stitched rug, to Ren, it was a bit of an eyesore. The walls hung with drying herbs, bottled ingredients, and shelves of finished goods. Small price tags hung by white string tied around the corked tops of the bottles. Elegant script depicted the prices, but he had no idea what the actual values meant, most of the costs ranged from hundreds to twos and fives.
Looking behind the counter he found the poofy head of a woman. Brown-streaked blond hair came in fluffed and curly mounds, looking manicured yet entirely unruly. Extraordinary short, the tall countertop was obviously made for someone else.
Ren looked down on her and said, “I am looking for the apothecary’s master, is that you or…”
A tall woman with straight dark hair emerged from a curtained room behind the counter. There was an imperial look to her, tall and regal she gave off a sense of structure and guidance. Small hints of gray hung in her hair, and her face bared the smallest hints of aging.
Ren’s chest leaped slightly as the woman came out, finding her quite the sight. Silent blue eyes found him as she spoke.
“Welcome young sir, what is it you need?” She smiled with gentle ease.
“I- uh, need to sell some things, from what I gathered while hunting within the woods far off along the path leading up the rocky edge above the town.”
“And those are?”
“Here.” Ren summoned forth his items from his inventory.
Inventory:
* (2) Murder Rabbit Meat
* (2) Crimson Antlers (Common)
* (1) Dire Wolf Fang (Uncommon)
* (1) Great Bear Pelt (Uncommon)
* (1) Great Bear Claws (Uncommon)
* (12) Ax Beak Feathers
* (1) Venom Gland
* (1) Essence of Change (Rare)
First summoning the antlers and claws he presented them to her.
“The antlers I can do five for, each, the claws, twenty-five for them all.” She glanced up at him. “You have spacial storage? I would pay extraordinarily well for it.”
“It’s not for sale, sorry. I’ll accept the deal, now for these?”
Summoning the wolf fang, poison gland, and ax beak feathers he showed them to her.
“The feathers have no use to me, on the other hand, the poison gland I could be persuaded to do as much as fifty for. Now the fang is quite weak, two.”
“You have yourself a deal, my lady.” Ren bowed his head and handed her the remaining objects, returning the feathers back to his storage.
She handed him ninety-seven copper bits, the copper was marked by a mana signature and contained certain notches to show their worth. Three were marked at twenty-five, two as tens, and two as ones.
The copper bits sent into his inventory changed. At the top of his inventory was now a new time though it seemed merely to be a wealth tracker.
Inventory:
* Credits: (97 Cb)
* (2) Murder Rabbit Meat
* (1) Great Bear Pelt (Uncommon)
* (12) Ax Beak Feathers
* (1) Essence of Change (Rare)
“Well, I may have one more thing actually.” Ren allowed the essence of the change item to appear, a silver ball sat in his hand. A fleshy material that resembled the grayness of the shapeshifter.
“What… is that?” The regal apothecary stared into it.
“The essence of change.” I took it from the corpse of a shapeshifter.
“A shapeshifter, here? That’s quite odd, to be honest with you it would likely be too unpredictable for me to try and experiment with. Let alone the potential dangers of accidentally misusing it. I appreciate the offer but without proper knowledge, such a thing could be a great danger.”
Ren nodded, “Well then, I’ll be off.” Passing into the street he went down two more buildings stopping at a general goods store. Plain and simple, it was only a minute before he returned to the streets.
With an extra seventeen copper bits in his inventory, he headed back to the edge of the woods to continue his experimentation with Firebolt.
Unrelenting, he noticed the small flaming darts came easier and easier. His mana expenditure began to lessen as the creation was faster and easier.
Congratulations Eldritch Rouge Lvl. 5
+3 Dexterity +1 Willpower +1 Vitality +1 Intelligence +5 Free points
Mentally allotting his points from leveling up he looked at his stats.
Name: Ren
Race: Human
Alignment: N/N
Class: Rough level 5 Tier 1
Skill: Ritualism
Marks: Gate-Walker, Ascendant Slayer
HP:70/70 SP:60/60 MP:37/85
Attributes:
Str: 8
Vit: 14
End: 12
Dex: 25
Wil: 17
Int: 14
Free Points: 0
As the darkness of twilight began to creep under the trees intertwining with shadow, and the casted shade of clouds began to reach together as the dimming light failed, he turned his back to his practice. Walking back into civilization he thought of the progress he had made, the strength he had obtained. Most importantly he thought of the potential of what was to come.