The two men also used the Awakening Stones of the Eyes, which was a much simpler ritual then the other ones they went through. Both of them did awaken vision powers, which was totally expected.
Normal vision powers usually let adventurers see in the dark, or see ambient magic, Fenrir’s perception power for example just heightened all of his normal senses. Amon’s let him sense strengths and weaknesses of friends and allies, previous injuries that never healed correctly, blind spots in vision, weak spots in their armor. Oscars however was weird, it let him see a faint red mist around people, the mist took the form of different actions the person was considering in the near future.
He saw Amon waiting for him by the door, multiple versions of him fidgeting in different ways. The images around the two workers were much denser, their practiced demeanor becoming much more apparent.
The two men left the room, and as they were headed for the exit a woman stopped them, she looked completely alien, her whole body was a transparent blue, making her look more like a ghost or spirit then a person. She approached the two men, only because they were in close proximity, she was really on here for Oscar.
“Oscar Wyvern.” She said, her voice was slow and pensive, reflecting no emotion “I am aware that you know me not in this form, but I have been on this journey with the two of you”
“Uhhh, who are you?” Oscar asked as she floated towards him. Oscar saw that the man behind the desk was just as confused as he was, some versions of him attacking the spirit, or the men, and some of them tried to run away, his different thought processes trapping him in a zugzwang.
“I suppose an introduction would be for the best, I have not a name, but for the last 16 years I have taken the form of a book, titled “A Beginners Guide to Staying Alive” I am sorry for the deception, but you must understand I had no choice” The Book Spirit said.
“Wait, you were the book?” Oscar Asked
“What book?” Amon asked before the spirit could answer
“Long story, but I got a book that’s been guiding me since then” Oscar answered, neither person in his presence was confused by what he meant when he said “since then”
“I was the book, yes.” The book responded
“Is there nothing else I can call you other than book?” Oscar asked
“I am a knowledge elemental, if you wish to call me that then you may” The floating woman said.
“I meant something more like a name.” Oscar requested.
“As I said 8 sentences ago, I do not have a name, feel free to call me whatever you’d like”
“What do you think of Fionn?” Oscar asked.
“The guy that ate the fish?” Amon asked.
“If that’s all you got from that story you’re dumber than I thought” Oscar reprimanded.
“I do not need to eat, and even if I did, the concept of fish disturbs me” Fionn added unhelpfully.
“Wait, how do they disturb you?” Amon and Oscar asked at the same time
“I dislike the way they move.” Fionn said simply.
“What is a knowledge elemental?” Oscar asked.
“A knowledge elemental is a convergence of thought.” Fionn said.
Oscar sighed, and put his hand to his head “Anything else you can tell me about them?” He said slowly.
“Most of us are formed artificially by the goddess Knowledge, to carry out specific tasks.” Fionn said
“That actually is helpful, is that what happened with you?” Oscar said
“I am not at liberty to share that information” Fionn said
“What about why you’re here?” Oscar asked
“I am not at liberty to share that information” Fionn said as if she was her own echo.
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Oscar looked at the 4 adventurers. Rodrick's and Calida's pre-images were closely bound to them, Onwny's was similarly bound, a bit less close, but there was also always a version of them that pulled a book out of their satchel to read. Fenrir on the other hand didn’t have any, it’s not just that his mirrors were closely gathered, but there was none.
“Do you mind if I try something, Fenrir?” Oscar asked
“Go ahead” Fenrir said, Oscar almost immediately summoned his spear and thrust it at Fenrir’s head, confident he would dodge, and even if he didn’t there was no way he’d do any serious damage with one thrust of his spear.
Fenrir didn't move much, only moving his head to the left by no more than a dozen centimeters. Oscar never saw any version of him dodge it in the future, which led him to his conclusion.
“You don’t think, do you?” Oscar asked
“What the hell? You attack me then you call me stupid?” Fenrir said
“I never called you stupid, I said you don’t think. I meant that you act solely on instinct” Oscar said
“Oh yeah, I do that, what about it?” Fenrir said, as if he never got attacked in the first place, the adventurers understood it was an experiment of his new power.
“The vision ability that I got, it lets me see what people intend to do, you don’t really show up any different.”Oscar clarified
“Your ability is called Master's Eye’s, it grants the ability to perceive a faint “Preimage” of the intentions of nearby enemies and allies, allowing the user to anticipate actions a few seconds before they occur.” Fionn said, like a textbook came to life, not entirely inaccurate.
“Who is that?” Rodrick asked
“Knowledge Elemental” Fionn and Onwyn both responded at the same time.
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“What the hell is that? Knowledge isn’t an element” Rodrick stated
“A knowledge elemental is a convergence of thought.” Fionn and Onwyn said, still in sync.
“Yeah we’ve been hearing that since we left the Magic Society.”
The adventurers met in the center of the adventuring guild where the bazaar was in full swing, they had put in a rush order for trail clothes the previous day, and were poking around the shops while they waited for them. Trail clothes were a luxury, they offered the ability to clean themselves, repair themselves, and regulate the body temperature. The clothes were already made, and magically enhanced, but they needed to be altered, in total there were 6 full sets, including britches.
Amon and Oscar were promised that they would get suits of armor when they arrived in Arde-glaw. Arde-glaw was their final destination, where Onwyn’s original teacher lived, but their path would cross with some more towns: Falan and Dreska being the main ones, but a few others as well, they actually planned to stay the night in a few of these towns.
Arde-glaw was almost directly south of Shran. There were two paths that were favored by the adventurers, one that pretty much carved a path due south, this was the more dangerous of the two, it was faster, but there could be some weaker Silver Rank monsters on that path. Meanwhile the other path started with them going west at the beginning, and east at the end, this was the safer of the two, but would take longer, and would not have as many towns, which would make the whole thing last even longer due to exhaustion. The group eventually decided on the more dangerous path, due to the unknown time constraint.
The final piece of preparation was Fenrir’s wolves. Fenrir had an ability that allowed him to summon 5 wolves as his familiars, during the harrowing fight with the Woodland Guardian they had put in a lot of work, finally getting too Silver Rank. They needed to be resummoned, but after they would be much stronger, most importantly gaining the ability to serve as armor for others. This armor wasn’t the equivalent of Silver Rank armor, but it would keep them alive for long enough if they encountered a Silver Rank creature.
Summoning a familiar was taxing work, the first step is to find all the materials, Fenrir already had that, he knew he’d have to resummon them at silver rank, and so when he could he bought all of the resources. Onwyn had an ability that could store all of their supplies, including all of Fenrir’s resources. The second step was to assemble the actual ritual, which had its own process, primarily was to find or create an area of correct magical density, too little magic and the ritual wouldn’t be fully completed, too much and it would become uncontrollable. For a summoning circle specifically it could invite more than just the creatures you were summoning to the physical realm. Onwyn helped with that step, one of the abilities from their Magic Essence let them stabilize, and effect magical flux. Fenrir prepared the circle, layed out all the quintessence gems, spirit coins and other miscellaneous materials.
The last step was to do the chant: “Let my voice echo out past the boundary of eternity. Your fangs to be soaked in the blood of my enemy, your claws to raze the flesh of my opponent, and your eyes to gaze upon the fallen bodies of my foes.” During this chant, the room they were using in the Magical Society branch slowly got darker, but after the ritual was completed, a projection of the silvery moon appeared above the circle: casting the whole room in a full moon's light. A dark fog creeped around the entire room, and eventually, with faint, distant howls, coalesced into 9 wolves, each one becoming a tail on Fenrir’s lower back.
Familiars could do something called “subsuming” each familiar subsumed into a different part of the user, their eyes, their aura, their flesh. Fenrir’s wolves were subsumed into Fenrir’s legs, and while subsumed every Familiar gave their user a passive bonus, these ones heightened Fenrir’s speed and reflexes. The bonus they get at Silver Rank allows them to become a sort of suit of armor, providing defense and speed to any person wearing them.
They had all shopped, restocked, and resumoned, they were finally able to leave, due southward.
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They had left in the early afternoon, meaning they were well out of Shran by the time the sun had begun to set. The two fledgeling adventurers clad in misty armor which enhanced their speed, the more experienced 4 were able to go at a decent pace, although still not their preferred pace.
The sun hung low in the sky, bathing the field where they had stopped in a brilliant golden hue. They didn’t have any tents to set up one of Rodricks from his mirror essence let him create a copy of any building he had ever seen, at iron rank it would barely cover one of the hotel rooms they had slept in the night before, but his bronze version could make an entire house, and when he reached silver rank he could probably make the whole hotel. Today he chose a house that he had stayed in previously. He chose it for one specific feature of it, a battleground. The battleground wasn’t huge, but it was definitely better than fighting in knee high grass. The flat compound dirt would make a predictable combat zone.
“Do you know the 2 methods of advancement?” Rodrick asked Amon and Oscar who were sitting cross legged in front of him. The other three adventurers were inside the house, Fenrir and Calida cooking, and Onwyn and Fionn sat across them with a map unfurled, planning tomorrow's journey.
“There are two?” Oscar asked, Amon wanted to fein intelligence for as long as possible
“The bad way and the hard way. The bad way is using monster cores. If you use a looting ritual or have a looting power then most monsters will give you some, there's a low level ritual you can do, each one boosts a random ability by a bit.” Rodrick said, then continued “That’s the bad way. The hard way is simpler, cheaper, and better in every single way. By doing the bad way you remove your ability to do it the hard way, so don’t do it that way”
“We get it, tell us the right way” Amon said, “For Oscar of course” he added after a pause.
“Oh yeah, the way we’ll be doing it has three pillars. Physical training, Essence training, and then consolidation, to train your body, we’ll be doing 3 things. Muscle building, Stamina building, and finally Combat training. Today we’re skipping the first two, the walking is enough of stamina, and your muscle training will mostly be in the mornings”
“We’re going to fight each other?” Oscar asked expectantly.
“No, of course not, you’re going to fight my summon” Rodrick said, a duplicate of him stepping out of his own body, while the first one left the arena. “This is a reflection sentinel, my summon from the mirror essence. It takes the form of any person I knew when I was at the rank it is now, it’s a Bronze Rank, but it can only go to Iron Rank, so it’s taking the form of me when I was that rank, complete with all of my abilities. I named it Jeremy, because it sounds like Gemini” Amon and Oscar looked at eachother.
Jeremy summoned its sword, and began approaching Oscar and Amon. Oscar summoned his spear and Amon entered a low combat stance. Oscar’s spear had a small blade at the end, but it was made for piercing rather than slashing, Jeremy’s blade raised to slash down at Oscar, while Oscar slid between Jeremy’s legs, raising his spear and attempting a thrust with it.
It slid off the air between them blocked by a shield, this was going to be much harder than he thought. Oscar heard a clap ring out before he realized he was where Amon was, and Amon was now where he had been, using his Invincible Stance to root himself down, and began punching Jeremy, who quickly turned around to face Amon. Oscar ran at the two raising his spear to his side, trying to add as much force to his spear as possible.
He just needed an opening and he thought that Amon was trying to give him one, instead Amon was just trying to fight Jeremy. Amon used his Shield essence ability to create a floating barrier in front of Jeremy’s sword, restricting his movement and making sure he can't swing his sword properly, Jeremy responded by kicking Amon in the chest; it would have sent him flying if it weren’t for Amon’s Invincible Stance. Instead it just felt like it broke every one of his ribs. Jeremy lowered his sword and swung it full force at Amon’s neck. At the last second he slowed it down and tapped it against his neck.
“You’re dead” Jeremy said with a beaming smile on its face, its voice sounded exactly like Rodricks but it echoed, as if coming from inside an empty cave.
Jeremy turned around just in time to catch Oscar, it didn’t have enough time to actually use an essence ability, but it could put its sword’s broadside between the two. The spear impacted harmlessly with it, before Jeremy raised it to attack, Oscar could see the way it was going strike and dodged before it even made the attack. This ended up being the wrong move of course, because Jeremy readjusted and striked at where Oscar was now. Oscar was off balance and couldn’t dodge correctly, he tried to block the blow with the shaft of his spear, but the sword cut right through it, passing between his arms and aiming right between his ribs. He stopped a hair’s width before gently tapping his side
“You’re dead as well, I win!” Jeremy said gleefully “Let’s go again after your abilities are off cooldown” Both Amon and Oscar currently had abilities they couldn’t use right now, namely Oscars spear, and Amon’s floating shield and Invincible Stance abilities.
After they were off cooldown they fought again, losing terribly again and again. They took a break for Amon and Oscar to eat dinner, but continued again afterwards. They fought until well after the sun had set, neither of them ever so much as landing a decent blow.