The days passed quickly after my first expedition into the valley. I was able to spend my time in peace, cultivating my mana and growing in strength night by night, muahaha! Only it was getting excruciatingly difficult to even get a slice of mana into my inner gate. My flux also built up faster and faster, making me have to take more breaks than before.

While there was no progress in my ‘mana enriched’ Status, I had gained two more race levels from hunting food every once in a while. The points had gone into Constitution and Strength respectively with another point going into Strength coming out of nowhere. I figured I was still growing and that somehow gave me an Attribute every once in a while. I could not pinpoint any other reason at least.

The goblins had left me mostly alone. Luk came by every few days to say hello and I used that time to let some of my flux drop. We had no real conversation, he mostly just asked how I was doing and when he saw I was okay we would just sit there for a while. Sometimes he spoke about what was going on in the village but there was nothing special. Meeny was still under house arrest, Roguk made poison and Chef was cooking. At least I learned everyone just called the goblin chef ‘Chef’, he had a name but Luk did not know it.

Something had been bugging me for about two days now. My instincts told me to stay in my territory but they were no longer drawn to the node. I kept going to understand them better but I had to agree, there was nothing to gain from it anymore. It still produced mana, it just was not enough to reach my inner gate without dissipating in my body. And that created a lot of flux. I had reached the limits of what I could gain here. Now, would I listen to my instincts and just live here for the rest of my life?

It certainly seemed safe enough but then I remembered my journey here. The lightning-snake-dragon. There were monsters like that out there. And what if something found its way here? The cave would turn into a deathtrap. The only exits were above the waterfall and the tunnel to the goblin village. And maybe the rift below the node, if I could break the crystals covering it. The river’s exit was too small for me to pass through without diving, which I wanted to avoid at any cost. This all led me to ignore my instincts this once. Travelling through the lands might be more dangerous in the short term, but I was confident it would pay off. I was stealthy enough to get out of most dangerous situations.

So how would I go about leaving? I could just ask to be brought out again and then slink away in the shadows of the night. That somehow felt a little wrong. The goblins had helped me a lot. I could at least try to tell Roguk I wanted to leave. And I could let them have the node. No, that felt wrong. But the crystals outside my cave should help them out, right? Maybe I could use one of those to pay them back.

So I ripped out a large one from near my cave and made my way to the village. Goblins were out and about so it had to be night. I found Roguk in his hut concocting something in his pot again. Probably more poison. I hooted to get his attention.

“Mmh? Fio! Give me a moment. I’ll be right with you.”

A little curious I got closer and dropped the crystal on the table. Roguk was cutting up some kind of root in thin slices. I recognized it as something the scouts brought from the valley. After mixing it and some mushrooms I did not know about into the pot he turned to me.

“So, what brings my favourite owl here today?” he asked. I grabbed the crystal and placed it right in front of him.

Hoot.

“Is that from your place?”

I nodded.

“And you want to know more about it, hm?”

I actually wanted to know more about it so I did not interrupt him.

“It looks like a tenebrae crystal to me.”

He carefully picked it up with a gloved hand.

“Seems pure to me. Exanimis would be more green, it’s too dark for mortuus or vacuos. The only other option is perditio, but the monkeys had shadow abilities, just like yours. So I am thinking it should be tenebrae.”

I nodded. Hoot.

“These crystals usually form near nodes. Sometimes the primal aspects appear without a node nearby but I personally believe there are just very tiny nodes whenever that happens. Do you know about the primals?”

I shook my head. This was quite interesting. I would not be able to leave today most likely so it was fine to just listen for a bit.

“Okay, the primals are the foundation of our world. They are aer, terra, ignis, aqua, ordo and perditio. That is what the system calls them. In our language that would be air, earth, fire, water, order and entropy, though some call perditio destruction. That’s why I have to be careful with this. These primals combine into higher aspects, which then combine again into even higher aspects, often using some lower tiers to form new ones. Tenebrae and perditio are very similar in colour but perditio is a lot more harmful. Make sure you don’t touch a node stronger than your mana enriched status with perditio. It can shatter your core gate if you aren’t careful. The best-case scenario would be having to start from scratch.”

So, I got lucky? I think. Though I started absorbing this by accident. Also, how would you absorb perditio if it was so dangerous? There had to be some monsters out there using it right?

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“At least it’s not vitium. Listen, be careful about deep purple nodes. They taint the land around them and curse all living things to madness and bloodlust. Flux is similar, but it dissipates, so make sure you don’t build up too much, okay?”

I tilted my head and clicked my tongue. He could not have told me that earlier? He already found me with flux overcharge. Why not give me a little warning? Maybe I would not give the goblins my crystals. Even if I had no use for them.

“As an [Assassin] you should benefit heavily from tenebrae. It lets you hide a lot better.”

‘Thanks captain obvious.’

“Other ones you might want to look out for are the movement ones motus and iter. Vinculum for traps or venenum for poison can also be helpful. And if you’re really lucky you might find telum somewhere. It is the aspect of weapon or attack. That should be your strongest choice for aspect.”

That was too much, Roguk. How could I remember all that? He saw my confusion and tried to elaborate further.

“Okay, so, motus is movement, it’s white. Ordo and spiritus are also white, so don’t confuse them. Oh and there’s tempestas and gelum, and maybe pannus and perfodio? Those are more of a beige tone though.”

I tuned him out there. The only thing I got was ‘look for red’. Apparently red was iter and telum, travel and weapon. Both really useful. But there were other red aspects. Healing and life, or something? How many aspects were there? I would have to figure out a way to identify, or maybe even [Identify], these aspects by something other than their colour. A way to improve my [Owl Senses], maybe? Was there a vision aspect?

I interrupted Roguk’s increasingly confusing explanations with a hoot. Once I had his attention I pointed at my eyes with a wing. Then at my ears. It took me three tries to make him understand but then he finally got it.

“Oh, you want to know about improving your senses? Vision and hearing? Yeah, there is a sensus aspect. It is light blue. It shares colours with aqua and tutamen. And vitreus and potentia. Hmm. I guess these colours are really not that useful for you, huh?”

I nodded. I really needed a better way to know aspects than to rely on a system notification for my territory. I did not even know how I would claim a territory. Though my instincts would surely help with that.

“I guess we normally just figure out what is available nearby and make the best out of it. The node down in the valley is terra and venenum, by the way. I don’t think you would want the terra mana, but venenum could help. But don’t touch the node directly! It will overcharge you quickly and if you somehow survive and fully drain it, the explosion will kill you instead.”

I had a feeling that was not totally true, but I would still be careful. I was not even aware you could fully drain a node. Mine had just so much mana, it seemed to be almost endless.

Now though, it was time to say my goodbyes. Roguk had taught me a lot, but I really wanted to get going. There was this urge in me. I wanted to explore. And even though I was aware it came from my human side, I wanted to follow it. It might get me killed, but I would be careful.

My shadows slowly extended and wrapped around the crystal still in Roguk’s hand. I knew it had a little more substance and so I pulled carefully with a tendril. Roguk was confused for a moment, but he caught on quickly and put the crystal back down.

“What is it?” he asked.

I pointed at the crystal and then at the goblin. Then I pointed to where I knew the exit to the valley was.

“You… what? You want to pay me for going down into the valley?”

I shook my head and hooted. Then I waved with a wing and turned my body around while keeping eye contact.

“No, you want to leave? That… but why?”

I turned back to him and flapped my wings a few times. Hoot.

“Oh. I see. It must be cramped down here in our hole for you.”

Roguk looked down dejectedly. I felt a little bad, but I closed my heart. The village was no place for me in the long term.

“Well, I can’t lock you up or anything but before you go, hear my story. The story of our village.”

I… could do that. If it did not take too long. I nodded hesitantly.

Roguk sat down on the ground and beckoned me over. I stood in front of him and perked my ears. After a while of collecting his thoughts, the goblin finally started his story.

“This village is young, you know? We have been here for not even fifteen years. I was a youth back then, just about eight years old. Almost half of the goblins here were born after that. But the others, they remember. They know what it was like. Under their rule.”

He took a deep breath and wrangled his hands. His eyes were looking through the ground right in front of him as if he was looking at something else entirely.

“The mountain tribes had always been like that. The strong rule over the weak. It was just how it was. Us goblins were always the weak. The orks were larger and stronger. They had access to stronger nodes and better crystals. And they had better thaumaturges.”

I tilted my head and clicked my tongue. Thaumaturges? What did that mean?

“They used us for their magical rituals. Somewhere along the line, we goblins turned into their cattle. Only, they would use us carefully. And make sure we always were enough to reproduce. Slaves might fit as well. I grew up close to one of the greatest thaumaturges of the orks. He talked a lot to himself and so I learned about all the aspects. At some point, he figured out I had learned from his soliloquies. And he started teaching me. I still do not fully understand why, but it got me a lot of freedom. Enough to come up with an escape plan. That is another story all in itself, suffice to say, I got a lot of goblins out of the orks’ clutches. And we escaped to this cave with a haul of ignis and venenum crystals. The ones we use for cooking and lighting, you know?”

I nodded. So, those were all stolen. And this was a refugee camp? I understood that right, yes?

“So, if you want to leave, I will not stop you. But be careful around the orks. They would use you for their sick experiments. The last thing my teacher was working on was a way to go into the Empty. Something in his research led him to believe there were treasures and powerful nodes there he could use to grow his strength. If he can get his fingers on you, you might end up being fed to his spells or rituals.”

Roguk underlined his last sentence with a stern look. As if a father was scolding their child. I took a step back and flapped my wings, clicking my tongue in protest. There was no way I would get caught by someone without wings. Especially when there was no ceiling.

“Right, you can fly. That should help. But it’s not just this valley. The mountains south of here are all full of ork tribes. And goblins are everywhere as well. I heard some valleys are even ruled by goblin thaumaturges but I honestly don’t believe that. Still, any one of them might just use you for their sick rituals, so be careful, okay?”

I nodded. I would be careful.