This marked the beginning of two immensely enjoyable days of journeying together. He soon learned that Sophia was an excellent traveling companion. She was good company and didn’t ask too many probing questions right off the bat, waiting for Nick to reveal his story when he was good and ready. She had a keen eye and sharp reflexes.
So far, nothing nasty had decided that hunting them down was worth the effort, in part because between the two of them, they were able to spot most predators before they were seen.
As they put more miles beneath their boots, they gradually learned more about one another and their respective abilities. Sophia was deeply impressed by Nick’s maxed out foraging skill. She requested that he teach her anything it revealed about living off the land, which he was happy to do.
As their trust in one another deepened, they began sharing more about their past and what had happened during their tutorials, although each had secrets they were unwilling to reveal just yet.
It was clear by this point that Sophia’s tutorial had been even more traumatic than he thought. An ordeal filled with grim realizations and hard choices, where other people were just as dangerous as any beast. It made Nick feel lucky to have been alone for his. It gave him time to adjust to his new reality, without dealing with the worst parts of human nature in the process.
During this time, he learned more about her magic as well. She could summon up to five wasps back-to-back, but each spell cost stamina on top of mana, requiring twelve hours to recover from each casting. If she cast more than two wasps in a day, she couldn’t completely refill her mana pool. As a result, expending multiple summons in the same battle needed to be saved for defeating powerful enemies or as a weapon of last resort.
Nick felt a little stronger and tougher whenever Sophia was near, a consequence of her passive ability. It was on all the time, unless she moved it into her free slot, and had a range of about thirty feet. He was intrigued to learn that you could swap abilities in and out of your free slot without restriction, other than having your menu open.
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The downside was that the aura cut into her mana regeneration, but since the boost benefited her as well as her summons, she usually left it on.
The first time that they made camp for the evening, Nick found out that Sophia had taken the enhanced Survivor trait into her bloodline too. It meant that they were able to divide their nightly watch into two, four-hour shifts. Additionally, they didn’t need to hunt or forage any more often than he had grown accustomed to.
Nick got along with Sophia remarkably well, and they were well into the process of becoming friends. Although she was far blunter and more cynical than himself, she was a good, kind-hearted soul, and their sense of humor complemented one another’s.
They ran into far too much blackmist along the way. But thanks to what Nick had learned about its properties and the redfang hunters, they didn’t lose more time than was strictly necessary. After noticing his proficiency, Sophia had him share the story of being surrounded by the hunters, examining the feathers that he had pulled out of his jacket with interest.
Most of the beasts she had battled on the bog had been various forms of giant insects, including a nasty flying species that Nick was glad not to have run into himself.
Two days passed in a pleasant blur of hiking, hunting, and camping, the profile of the Tower of Rizzen growing larger by the hour. By now, Nick could tell that they were about a week away from arriving at its base, having learned how to process its scale at last.
Fortunately, there hadn’t been another global event to deal with along the way. While they spent considerable time chatting and getting to know one another, many miles were walked in a companionable silence. They both had a lot on their minds, and he had long since grown used to not speaking for hours at a time.
All in all, it was the happiest Nick had been since the System arrived and upended his life. It was nice to have someone to share these moments of profound beauty and poignant loss. A partner in his battle to save his planet and his people.
It was great to have another competent fighter at his side when facing the myriad dangers that called the bog home. Nick’s long stretch of solitude had come to an end, and he slept so much better knowing that someone reliable was standing watch while he was passed out.
As with all things, the good and bad alike, their moment of peace was not fated to last. Late on the morning of their third day traveling together, Nick and Sophia stumbled across the site of a massacre.