I could still feel my enemy’s touch on my mind, but I felt more secure, now: with [Earth Magick] I could effectively map the stone around me, and my magical gaze confirmed what I’d already suspected: tunnels and caves were everywhere. It was likely that many creatures of this world had [Earth Magick], and they burrowed and built with ease.

I had plenty of space to retreat into, a veritable labyrinth to lose my new rival in… if they chose to pursue me.

For now, though, it seemed I had a reprieve: the lightning bolt had been for their curiosity. If they chose to chase me through the caves, I’d sense them getting closer with [Wild Bond] and could hide myself and hopefully buy some time with a cave-in.

I leaned against the wall and began to heal myself after the pummeling I’d taken from my fall. The pains across my body subsided, and I queried to see how much of my [Life Pool] I’d used:

?—[Life Pool] 21/100

I made a small noise of displeasure as I saw how low it was. I hadn’t reattached any limbs, or healed any mortal wounds, and had only fixed a minimal number of small fractures. 21?

[Life Magick 6] was at the lowest rank I could possibly make, but I’d still gotten very little from it.

I removed a whetstone from a pouch at my belt, then sat and began to sharpen my spear, whose steel tip had been blunted by the battle with the cat. As I did this, I channeled mana into my [Life Magick] skill, spending from my small stock of essence to replenish my [Life Pool] as fast as I could.

But my focus was still divided. I had to think.

While I was generally skilled in all things primeval, my greatest talents were lightning magic, surge magic, and rituals. Among my people, I was best known for my mastery of lightning—for some reason, hurling bolts of lightning had more weight as a conversation piece than most other skills.

A magical lightning bolt, as opposed to more natural magnetic lighting, was an ignited stream of mana that connected the caster to their target—or rather, as far into their target’s claim as the caster could push.

But unlike magical fire, which simply ignited and burned the mana, lightning magic recruited a high amount of [Focus] to compose a sophisticated spell that transferred energy from the entire line of mana into the end of the bolt, then further manipulated it into striking the nearest source of high-density mana—which was inevitably their target, a leveled creature with its own pool of mana on account of its [Source].

A long-range bolt of lightning required one to extend their claim across the required distance—and while claim and gaze were flexible, even high attributes and natural skill were insufficient to throw a bolt of lightning across hundreds of meters.

This was why the pure lightning skill, [Lightning Magick], had an unusual interaction with claim. Other elemental skills allowed you to extend your claim and gaze more easily through the relevant elements, as my [Earth Magick] did with stone and soil. [Lightning Magick] instead allowed you to easily extend your claim through dense mana, which meant that you could draw a bolt by dumping mana into the air before you, focusing to extend your claim through and just past the mana, dumping more mana there—and so on.

Mana tended to ball up and move around in the air—a solid line of it would start forming clumps that drifted away from each other, and very quickly. A little drift was fine—the spell would connect the clumps and form lightning’s signature jagged shape. But too much drift and the line would be broken, wasting the spell.

Hence, in order to use lightning, one needed high [Focus] both to order mana into lightning at all and to extend their claim long distances. They needed high [Source] just to meet the massive mana requirements. Most of all, they needed very high [Channel] to push the mana into the air and form the line fast enough that it didn’t drift too far, a process that was like the magical equivalent of laying track before a rolling minecart.

Above all, they needed skill. Casting a lightning spell with [Lightning Magick] could be as difficult as casting a fire spell without [Fire Magick], and unlike [Fire Magick], whose temperature increasing power had all manner of uses, lightning was only good for combat.

And yet the reward matched the difficulty: high power, high range, almost instantaneous, and able to be split across multiple targets, lightning had no equal when it came to offensive magic.

And among elves, I had no equal when it came to lightning.

I now knew several things about my enemy:

First, they had to be of high level, which I already knew, but they also had to have invested heavily in all spellcasting attributes.

Second, they had very likely been able to rely on lightning to kill almost anything they met, and may have grown complacent in trusting its use.

Third, they had to have a rare or exceptional class. Only tier 3 and higher classes could have pure skills of both [Wild] and [Elemental] types—and if they were a [Primeval Champion] like me their lightning would have been faster.

Fourth, I would need to compose a spell, one that wasn’t skill-based, to stop them from replenishing or absorbing mana if I wanted to kill them. It would also likely need to stop them from healing.

Fifth, if they weren’t coming to kill me now, it meant that they either hadn’t seen me break their lightning-bolt at the last second, or that they had seen, but didn’t understand enough to be afraid.

“Heh,” I said to myself.

For all that this new creature was a serious problem, I was in good spirits. Experience had taught me that even the most skilled spellcaster would lose most of their efficacy at the loss of just a single limb or vital organ.

And I could manage that much—oh yes.

My whetstone scraped over the edge of my spear, which shone under my witchlight. Unfortunately, focusing on spellcasting attributes would leave me too vulnerable to fight well, and the aspects that I’d gain from a place so heavy with primeval mana would mostly be physically-oriented anyway.

My enemy was likely so strong that even though they’d focused on spellcasting, the physical attributes I could gain in the short time that I had would barely break even with theirs. For now, my spear and my bow were my first choice in battle. I could always complicate things by relying on my natural spellcasting abilities if I got desperate.

The curious, malevolent pressure on my mind increased momentarily, and my rival spoke once more. Little one, they said. You are, perhaps, stronger than I took you to be.

I said nothing.

The mana, they said, their mental voice laced with confusion. It…. But it broke off into a kind of mental growl.

Perhaps they were in denial about what they’d seen? I had, after all, just shown myself to have abilities far beyond what my current level would lead anyone to expect.

What are you, creature? they asked at last.

I am an elf, I said. My name is Aziriel.

And that is why you can do as you did?

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I have done very little.

He made the mental equivalent of a growl. You know what I speak of. You clove my tongue of lightning before it was ignited. How is this possible?

I am a skilled spellcaster.

Another growl. How? You have no lightning of your own. If you did you would have used it in battle. If you did, you wouldn’t be as weak as you are.

It was, to his credit, all true. Nobody who could throw lightning bolts was to be caught fighting animals with spears at level 0.

I was not always this weak, I said. Most of my powers were stripped from me by the magic that brought me here—I am now level 0 for the first time in a long time.

My enemy considered this for a moment. Lies. You twist and wile still, elf Aziriel.

But I could feel their curiosity intensifying. They had clearly never learned to hide their emotions from the creatures they telepathically communicated with—and why would they, when said creatures were never intelligent?

Finally they added: I am Palefang.

Until now, the creature had been communicating with me fairly well despite its lack of language—its words were concepts, not concrete memories or experiences. And yet now I got a clear image: a vast cavern, and this creature, jaws stripping meat off the corpse of what looked like a rhinoceros.

And for a flash of a moment I felt their bloody teeth, their powerful jaws, the strength in their four legs—and I knew they were another great cat, and male.

I finished sharpening my spear, tucked my whetstone away, then rose and proceeded into the cave. Palefang said no more, and I didn’t bother him.

He’d come to believe me soon enough.

I had to wonder what sort of creature had built the tunnels around me as I moved forward. I found a few pale insects that looked much like the stealth ambusher I’d killed earlier, but with translucent skin. They ran from me as soon as my light touched them.

I walked on for a full minute, my light floating at the edge of my claim, idly concentrating on replenishing my [Life Pool] as I moved. Since entering the cave, I’d gone a long time without something trying to kill me compared to the rest of the time I’d spent here.

It wasn’t long before I heard soft pads against the stones ahead, something coming: soon enough it entered the circle of my light, apparently unbothered by it.

It looked like a large, scaleless gecko with pale, translucent skin. It came through the tunnel surprisingly fast, but as I’d walked I’d prepared a small spell—I flared my light when it was right in front of the lizard.

I shielded my own eyes from the flare, but was surprised to hear the lizard still charging me, its pace completely unaltered. I felt it pressing against my claim in the ground beneath me a moment later, but not as hard as the ooze had—I pushed it back easily.

Once it became clear it wouldn’t be altering any of the stone around me, the gecko halted, then tore a hunk of rock from the ceiling of the tunnel, pulling it into its mouth and shooting it at me with its magic.

I dodged to one side, easily: the rock was too big to throw fast, and I could both see and feel it coming. Then I charged as the gecko loaded another, lowering my spear.

It was a short fight: after I’d avoided the second missile, it was my spear versus its teeth and claws—and the lizard wasn’t as strong as the cat had been, while I had gotten stronger. I punctured its neck quickly, dancing back along the jutting stones of the cave as blood spurted from the hole I made and it tried in vain to close its jaws around me.

I struck again, and again, each time making holes in its neck. My spear had a winged guard at the base of its head to keep creatures from working their way up the shaft once they’d been stuck, and so I could use the spear to hold the lizard at bay just as I had with the hunting cat. Unlike the cat, though, it didn’t have [Regeneration], and very soon it had fallen into a quickly-growing pool of its own blood.

+ 782 Essence

“Still fairly strong,” I said softly, reaching down to touch it. I extended my gaze through its body, using [Life Magick] to get a sense of where its vitals were. The veins along its neck would be easy to slice, now that I knew where they were, and the shape of its skull meant it would be easy to shoot out its eyes, even from the front.

-1100 Essence: + 1 Level! (6 / 11)

+ 1 [*Primeval 5] (1)

+ 1 [Bestow 8] (1)

-1 [Bestow 8]: + 8 [Source] (18)

?—Essence: 117

I didn’t want to take a lot of spellcasting attributes, but some extra [Source] felt necessary, given how little mana I had without it. The density of the mana in the air meant that it would be easy to fill my mana pool, and so I really only needed enough to get me through combat without having to stop.

I moved further ahead into the cave. With any luck, there would be more of the creatures I had just killed: the fight had been fairly easy. With a few more levels, most fights would be.

Still, I was surprised I hadn’t been able to blind it. The cave mouths suggested that for whatever reason, these things spent time outside—but the surface was dark as night. Perhaps they’d adapted because of the constant lightning flashes?

I found another one not a minute later, killing it with fewer thrusts of the spear than I had the first:

+ 652 Essence

“Weaker,” I said, watching it bleed out in front of me. Its earth magic had felt about the same strength, but it had been slower, died easier—meaning they leveled physical attributes.

Within a few minutes, I’d killed a two more, working my way through the criss-crossed caves, trying not to stray too close to the entrances—I didn’t want to give Palefang another shot at me, and my current plan if they attacked again was to travel downward as fast as I could.

None of them granted any boons, but I gained enough essence for another level:

- 1100 Essence: + 1 Level! (7 / 11)

+ 1 [Bestow 8] (1)

-1 [Bestow 8]: + 8 [Aegis] (12)

?—Essence: 1079

You are getting stronger, Palefang said as I flicked the blood off my spear and moved further into the caves.

Always.

Do you think it will save you? he asked.

Definitely. No chance, I said. Even if the essence flows fast, limit does not rise easily.

A cold laughter filled my mind. Then why not lie before me, neck bared, if your end is so certain?

Call it my nature, I said. Besides, I’ve survived so far because I amuse you—perhaps I simply need to amuse you forever.

They laughed again. Even if you could, I will kill you before you grow strong enough to threaten me.

Ahead of me, I found another one of the giant geckos and charged. As I punched a few holes in its neck, my enemy went on:

You think I am foolish. But I know you mean to grow in power, then destroy me.

How? I asked.

All creatures such as we must kill one another, he said. None can match the strength we gain from our minds, and so when there is only one of us, we reign supreme.

Perfectly reasonable for an asocial carnivore. Especially in this place, where safety was seemingly found at the top of the food chain—and nowhere else.

I know you are trying to kill me, he repeated. But I also know that you know many things I do not—you are a being I have never seen, weak but not powerless. I must learn what I can from you. My eyes see much.

I scowled, my confidence waning. My talkative enemy wasn’t watching me because they were playing for their food—they were watching me because they hoped it would teach them something.

Not good. But the fact that I could use [Wild Bond] to hide myself from them would still help me escape when they came hunting.

What was more—as long as I kept showing this creature things it had never seen before without being too threatening, it would stay interested. I could do that.

Though I had to wonder—were they been an asocial carnivore, or had their intellect simply resulted in their self-imposed exile from what should have been their pride?

Suddenly the rock around me started to tremble. I stretched my magical senses as far as I could to try and sense what it was, but there was no need: a new weight fell upon my mind, another creature hunting me out with its [Wild Bond], easily detectable now because I had the power myself.

I found it with my senses a moment later—a large creature, female, coming up through the earth beneath me, its mind overwhelmed by one overriding instinct:

Protect the young.

“I see,” I said, somewhat dismayed. Hunting these lizards had drawn some attention.

Mom was here—and she’d come because I was killing her children.