Ok, so maybe I won't be having so much spare mana to use this skill with. Mia thought absentmindedly as she mentally sifted through the immense amount of new runes she had at her disposal before she had about twenty to use, now she had... A little over a hundred. Mind magic and Shadow magic were both at fledgling rank, and she noted that shadow had more available runes then mind, but both of them still had a whole lot of them.

It didn't help that some runes from the two categories were basically just the same thing but with minor differences, so using them in conjunction, which was actually possible (part of the reason that getting the skill had knocked her out to begin with) because once you had two affinities with possible combinations you were automatically made aware of some possible combinations between them on top of the information you got from them on that rank up...

So yeah, returning to the prior statement, using them in conjunction was just made more confusing because of the ridiculous amount of possible combinations that could either be make or break depending on tiny differences between runes which only served to make sorting through all of this even more of a headache. Like for example, on shadow there was amplify, on mind there was also amplify except with a slightly different shape that served to represent the amplification of a mind based spell instead of a shadow one. That was one of the more clear cut differences, but you get the point. Telling the two almost exact same runes apart at a glance would be exceedingly difficult.

Mia's mind had been blasted with a lot of magic information when she had instantly unlocked fledgling mind magic. Which then synergized with all the shadow runes she had unlocked prior to that, so all in all, she had been hit with a little over a hundred possible inbuilt options in an instant as well as another hundred runes that she could use to custom build spells. Within the span of about two seconds. You try having that much information forcefully crammed into your mind in an instant, COHERENTLY by the way, and remain conscious for it. Tis not possible!

Moving back a bit, what woke up me up might ask? "You have survived a tier three flux" apparently. Leveled me up once and the notification got me up. Checked in on the cat, they're asleep down there. Not dead, definitely not, saw them breathing. Gonna try and get mind magic working before they're up, and uh... Check if it even works for communication to begin with. Right now I think I can set combination spells aside because well... That's a whole can of worms I'm not ready to open up yet, plus a lot of the inbuilt ones I saw were very... Offensively focused, lets just put it that way. Now there's just one thing I want to check before I check up on all of this... Status! Class!

Mia, Diminutive Shadow Wolf

Level 49

Strength 510

Dexterity 503

Constitution 754

Wisdom 280

Capacity 243

Intelligence 250

Charisma 121

Manipulation 100

Abilities, Riftwalker, Touched By Death.

Mia, Expert Mixed Fighter

Level 2

Class skills, Apprentice willpower III, Low Natural Weapon Combat I, Low persistence II, Low tracking III, Fledgling Magic Proficiency I, Fledgling stealth V.

Skills, Low Perception I, Low Mana-Life Boost I, Fledgling Mind Proficiency I, Fledgling Shadow Proficiency I, Natural born hunter.

Stat gain, +8 strength, +8 dexterity, +9 constitution, +8 wisdom, +8 capacity, +8 intelligence, +4 charisma, +5 manipulation.

Alright! Great progress, and looking at that many skills just. Makes me happy, yknow? Primal sense of ooo big number is big good. Though my stats per level definitely took a hit. I just hope this class makes up for it and is actually, you know, easier to level then the last one.

So, starting off. The most important rune in here is gonna be "Link." This is the one that actually makes mind magic work. It creates a link between the caster and the target. From what it looks like... It actually works on it's own? Just, without any other spells on top of it. Pick a target and cast link, you're linked, boom. Does that link do literally anything at all? Nope. That's where the rest of mind magic comes in. Which, is why I have to look through, all the forty different runes it has. How many things can you do with the mind, seriously? Why does it need this many runes...? Ah well, no better way to figure it out then to actually go through it I guess.

Alright, starting with the basics. We've got low medium and high. Power outputs for mind magic, no duh. No combination purposes, probably not much utility purpose either unless some kind of magic blocker exists. I'm gonna guess that this is either the kind of thing you put on low or full blast. No inbetween.

A few different runes here that aren't in shadow, for example, some directly offensive ones like "Attack" or "Subdue". But also some other ones like "Command" or "Dominate". I'm gonna guess the difference between those is the first two simply destroy somebodies state of mind whereas the other two control it. Frankly, I don't like the sound of either. How about communicate for a rune? She softly huffed in exasperation as she continued to search the pile of magic code, eventually coming across a rune that read "Translation".

That's good! Translation is good! So that means there has to be a communication rune too, right? I can't see there being anything to translate if I can't talk to somebody to begin with. Although this might be one of those situations where you're given like half the pieces of the puzzle and need to level it up again to get more... God I hope not. Sixteen runes to pick through still, for the love of god please give me something along the lines of communication.

"Extend", nope, "Chain", nope, where the hell is communication? There's translation so it has to exist... I've got two out of three requirements, "Link", linking two minds, "Translation", making the language understandable... Actually scratch that I don't need that, at least not to talk to another Riftwalker, but I still need a way to actually talk. So where is it? "Sleep", "Supression"... Nowhere! There is no communication rune! Am I missing something here?

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Mia pored over the runes once more, glancing over all of them once, then twice. Not a single rune that indicated communication as a focus... There's just... No way that the skill gives me a way to translate words, but not to speak them, right? Let me take a closer look through these runes... Maybe I missed a part of one of them?

She looked through the runes one by one, attempting to look at any underlying information in the runes. She would try to actually use them, but there wasn't anybody to test them on given that the only other presence there was the unconscious cat. Actually are they still unconscious? Mia peeked into the hole, yup, still out like a light. So nobody to test spells on. All she had to work with here was entirely theory.

"Reinforce", boost your targets mental power via your own mental energy. Nope not even close. "Subdue", dull your targets thoughts via your own mental energy. Still a nope. Well, how about... "Link". Creates a mental link between two targets. mmmmmmm... Well, it says a mental link, but how exactly do those links work? I did kind of just gloss over it... Maybe I was a little too worried about how many there were, and instead I should've just focused on the basics?

Mia blinked a few times, before looking up at the sky. She hadn't really been paying attention, and it wasn't like it was the kind of thing you passively noticed in such a dark place, but it had gotten rather dark. Mia figured she'd been at this for about an hour? I think I'll give the cat another... Thirty or so minutes? Though I'm not sure how long that'll be... Eh I'll give it a good amount of time before doing it. For now I'll compose my... Best possible mind spells, then do some testing when I wake them up.

...

Heeeeeeey sleepyhead... Mia tapped on the unconscious form of her acquaintance slowly and repeatedly. Helllooooo? They can't be that tired can they? Hmmm... There was a rune that boosted somebody else's mental power in return for my own right? I'm pretty capable of staying up at all times, so if I gave them some of my own energy that should work right? Alright, "Low, Link, Medium, Reinforce." That should work, right? Cast.

Shortly after she had casted the spell, Mia felt a foreign presence in her mind. A mass of thoughts and ideas in an unintelligible tangle of misshapen consciousnesses. On top of that, she could feel some kind of energy moving itself from one side of the proverbial bridge to the other. It was a rather small amount, but Mia could feel her own awareness dipping as the spell continued. The feeling was... A little uncomfortable. So after a few seconds, she cut the spell off.

Eugh... It's not like anything permanent but that felt... Weird. Very weird, I'd rather not do that again. Please tell me it was enough? Hello? Mia tapped on the cat a few times, and lo and behold this time they got up!

She did a little happy wiggle that you've probably seen a dog do before, just kind of shivering in excitement before putting together another spell. Alright PLEASE work! "High, Link, High, Translation." Just setting all the settings to max so it works for sure. Aaaaaaand cast!

"Why are they just staring at me...?"

"Oh my gosh hello! I finally got this spell working how are you I can't believe I got it to work what are you how are you doing how have you been are you worried and or afraid because oh boy was I afraid at first you have no idea how long I've wanted to talk to somebody but the other humans all just-"

A tidal wave of thoughts crashed into Willa's mind, a completely unfiltered slurry of thoughts making it's way through the mind link. The spell picking up absolutely every thought, subconscious or not.

"Holy crap why do you talk so fast hello what are you what do you mean a spell yeah I've been worried a whole lot how long have you been here the other humans are mean what exactly is happening right now why can I hear you in my head-"

And Mia got hit right back because the link was a two way street. The shock threw her focus out of wack and she'd ended up letting the spell dissipate, removing the link between the two. Mia stared at them for a moment, before shaking her head. Willa did the same

Ok I'm gonna... Try that again, but with a lower power this time... "Low, Link." Cast.

Once again a connection between the two minds formed, but this time all that Mia could hear was unintelligble gibberish. What the hell? Why does this have to be so finnicky-oOOOHHHH! THAT'S WHAT TRANSLATION DOES! It doesn't actually translate languages it just makes the thoughts legible, no duh! Ok, hold on.

Mia broke off the spell, casted it again, "Low, Link, Low, Translation." And created one final mind link.

"Ok, spell check, spell check, hello?"

"Hi?" A tentative voice asked back

"Oh my god it works!" The relief in Mia's mental voice was palpable enough for Willa to objectively hear it.

"Uh yeah, it does, who... Who are you?" Willa asked after a moment.

"Oh! Of course, sorry, it's been a little less then a week since I wound up like this I must be forgetting my manners. My name's Mia! How about you?"

"Uh... Willa, my names Willa..." He answered back slowly, confusion winning out more over any other emotion at the moment.

"Willa. Why-luh, that's a odd name, but nice to meet you!"

"Uh... Yeah, you too, care to explain what exactly is going on though...?"

"Oh! Of course, with pleasure."

Mia just knew this was going to be a good night.