“Now how the hells did you awaken before level fifty?”
Ram’s question hung in the air, as if by merely being spoken it charged the environment with static electricity. Leif wasn’t overly surprised Ram had figured him out, but he was surprised the goat cared enough to ask. After a moment of consideration he decided it likely didn’t matter if Ram knew or not, so he chose to answer truthfully.
“It’s not exactly a secret, several people already know and with how quickly you figured it out I suppose it doesn’t matter. The truth is I was once human, I died or something very similar and awoke with a new species and class. I was an unevolved tree for a little over a decade, but during that time I wasn’t really aware of myself or my condition. I slowly regained consciousness, gained levels and evolved. I’ve met people, animals and monsters. An expedition of students from an empire to the south, a clan of nomads with horns and fluffy white hair.”
“Oh.” Ram said, wrinkling his brow and taking a swig from his seemingly always full bottle. “I was expecting something interesting, but that makes sense.”
Leif cocked his head to the side. “I wasn’t aware that circumstances like mine were common. The people I spoke to about it didn’t know what to make of me.” The sound of tinkling glass came from the nearest cluster of ice shards as the remnants of what made up the elemental Leif destroyed slowly rolled across the ground.
“I don’t know about common, uncommon, whatever.” He said with a dismissive wave of his grimy hand. “It makes sense, but there’s nothing I can get out of it so I don’t care.”
Leif stared at the awakened beast for several seconds, grinding sounds came from behind the spriggan and began to grow louder and louder as the source drew closer. With a crack another elemental emerged from the pile of ice crystals. “Well, I’m sorry my situation isn’t more interesting to you.” He said flatly.
Ram grunted in amusement but didn’t speak further, his attention sliding off Leif and moving to the approaching elemental. “What about you? What’s your story?” The spriggan asked, crossing his arms and not looking away from the goat.
“None of your business, kid.”
“I know your family, I could always ask them.”
“They’re far away from this shithole, best of luck finding them.”
“So you do know where they are.”
“Of course I do, why do you think I ventured down from the mountains? I was making sure the forces battling over this region didn’t go in their direction.”
“I didn’t realise you were such a big softy.” Leif laughed, letting his aura unspool, it felt like letting out a deep breath.
Ram grunted. “You’re too cheeky for someone who can barely fight a baby elemental.”
“It’s a bad match up, they don’t have any life-force I can drain. Normally when I hit things I can syphon off a little bit of energy. Unless that power is somehow completely negated by me being suppressed, but I highly doubt it.” Leif said contemplatively.
Frigid mist built up in front of the shifting mass of ice as it drew closer. “No such thing as a bad match up, you just need to be stronger.” Ram said smugly.
The spriggan just stared at him for several seconds. “That… that’s so completely incorrect I don’t know where to begin.”
“Oh?” Ram said, tilting his chin in the approaching elemental’s direction. “Prove it then.”
A beam of condensed frost blasted out towards Leif but a golden half dome of force flickered into existence blocking most of the attack, it was angled in such a way that part of the beam was deflected to the side. Leif looked down at Ram, thoroughly amused.
Ram wiped the layers of ice off of his face and hair and glared up at Leif, he hadn’t moved an inch when the elemental’s blast had partially bounced off the spriggan’s shield and hit him square in the face. Leif watched as several emotions slowly played across his features, finally the gruff exterior fell away, and Ram laughed.
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Then Leif blasted away as a condensed fist of boiling storm clouds sent him flying through the elemental and tumbling head over heels into the nearest pile of ice crystals.
“I’ve been away from people too long, you remind me of my kids.” Ram chortled, rolling to his feet and putting away his probably magic bottle.
“I hope you treat them better than you do me.” Leif groaned, half embedded into the mound of ice, sparks of lightning dissipating off his prone form.
===
Leif sat atop a pile of shattered ice crystals, small shards of ice clattered together as the mass of what had once been a fragment of slowly reconstituting elemental crumbled into tiny pieces. This particular pile had spat out seven elementals, several of which were far larger, and far stronger than the first one he had fought.
This made it the hardest of the piles to defeat so far, over the past few days Leif had been working his way up and down the valley while Ram shifted between sleeping, drinking, or laughing at his attempts to fight the elementals while suppressing large swaths of his power.
The larger the pile, the stronger the elementals it would spit out, and Leif quickly came to realise that his ability to combat the larger monsters while holding back was woefully inadequate. It turned out the high level elementals had more than a few tricks up their metaphorical sleeves.
As for his progress, Leif found himself disappointed, though not overly surprised. He hadn’t gained any levels, a sure sign that advancing while having so many skills, combined with his higher maximum level made for a much slower rate of levelling.
A crash came from nearby and Leif turned to see the cause. Ram was taking what looked like a casual stroll through the middle of the valley, two elementals larger and more powerful than any Leif had defeated rumbled after him, one blasting a constant barrage of pure white light at the goat while the other tried to batter him with what looked like boulder sized fists.
The awakened goat didn’t seem to mind, maintaining a constant leisurely pace as he wandered about, whistling off key. Leif shook his head and focused on his own problems. Any second now…
Congratulations! Your fusion of the [Veil of Nature] and [Wave of Restoration] skills is complete!
You have gained the [Amber Blight Spriggan] skill [Shroud of Preservation]!
He had used up the last of the mana shards he had collected during his first multi-day outing away from the bluff over the past few days, slowly working towards the completion of this newest skill fusion. Leif had been disappointed to learn that ice elementals apparently didn’t produce mana shards on death, though the crystals that made up their bodies could be harvested for what Ram had described as ‘boring crafter shit’.
When Leif had asked Ram why that was the case, the awakened goat had simply shrugged and asked Leif if he knew why the sky occasionally pissed water. The spriggan huffed at the memory, and turned back to the description of his newest skill.
===
Shroud of Preservation:
Aspects: Stealth (Shield), Empowerment (Nature) (Life)*
You may cause a protective veil to cling to you or those you choose to bestow it upon within a certain range. Those under the effects of this skill are shielded from divination workings and have increased resilience against elemental damage.
Each use of this skill imbues a constant, but limited healing effect that is used to restore the target when needed.
===
He felt the previous form of the skill shift around him, changing into its new incarnation. [Shroud of Preservation] was almost exactly what he had envisioned when he had initiated the fusion attempt. It was partially disappointing that the minor stealth aspect had reduced in potency, but the system still seemed to consider it the core, or perhaps most important aspect the skill possessed. He wasn’t exactly sure what criteria was used to determine the leading aspect in the skill descriptions.
The range of use changing from touch to a nebulous, ‘certain range’ was nice to see, but he was mostly pleased with the healing aspect the skill had gained. Leif had tested [Wave of Restoration] and found this skill underwhelming. The healing effect had been less potent than [Healing Palm], and the range without using spellcraft to modify the skill’s structure had been disappointing.
Speaking of spellcraft… Now that [Shroud of Preservation] had a life aspect, I should be able to do this.
“Enhance.” Leif commanded, his voice making the air still and everything around him became slightly more in focus. Then the moment passed and Leif saw faint motes of golden light twist and twirl around him. He raised an arm, looking in fascination at the faint heat haze that shrouded the limb. Little specks of amber light floated within the shroud, likely visual representations of the skill’s ability to heal him should he receive damage.
He had used a not insignificant amount of his cultivated vitality to enhance the skill, but he sensed it had been a worthy investment of power. Leif stood and turned his attention to a nearby pile of ice, with a wave of his hand a longsword made of wood floated into the air to hover over his left shoulder.
Time to get those last two levels.