I moved through the mists along the edge of the cliffside, my gaze reaching out into the thick red glow, looking for wildlife or clusters of mana.

I found a frost elemental in short order, the same small, speedy, quilled variety I’d already encountered two of. But surging my bowshot was enough to overcome its speed, and my own [Frost Magick] was enough to simply knock its icy daggers out of the air. It fell in short order, granting the same [Element 1 / Frost 1 / Mana 1] boon that its kin had.

It seemed that this thick layer of mist held a high concentration of elemental or element-wielding creatures. Nothing with [Air] keys so far, of course—that would be too fortunate. But given that the layers of mist were seemingly omnipresent, we would theoretically have access to a robust set of elemental key.

It was good news, but it also meant that the hunting parties we put together would need some way to deal with entities that were resistant to mundane attacks. The elementalists would do well, but the mages would do better. No one could deal with pure elementals better than a dedicated binding mage.

I found two more smaller earth oozes, killing each without much challenge using my lightning. I found another large stretch of manaflower vines growing between more upthrust stones, then searched them to find another pair of the shell-clad fire spitters and killed those, too.

Then I paused to assess my resources. I had to be close, at least:

?—Your Boons, Keys, and Essence:

Essence: 48 571

14 [Armor 1 / Life 1 / Missile 1]

2 [Animal 1 / Reptile 1 / Wild 1]

2 [Armor 1 / Fire 1 / Life 1]

1 [Body 1 / Wild 1]

2 [Earth 1 / Missile 1]

1 [Elemental 1 / Frost 1 / Mana 1]

1 [Mana 3]

Some more [Body] keys and a little more essence and I’d be able to make [Primeval Mana Hide] as planned. One of the guards I’d killed at the flowerfall had offered a [Body] key. With any luck there would be hundreds of them in all and I could reap in the keys… but that seemed like wishful thinking. I’d be happy to find a few dozen of them and finish my skill.

The path along the cliff’s edge was jagged and winding. More and more I found wedges cut out of the rim of the swamp’s canyon, steep drops that I assumed led down into micro-valleys like the one I’d found when I first got here. Around these I met two more of the hunting cats, netting myself two more [Body] keys.

I found what I was looking for shortly afterward.

The vine began before it reached the cliff’s edge, and I saw the multicolored lights of its flowers through the mists before I saw anything else. I scowled as I came close. From below, the cliff had risen into the mists and disappeared, leading me to believe that it rose out of the upper mist layer, not that it ended inside it. The mists blocked vision, and so I wasn’t in an ideal position if I attacked from within them. I could aim my bow with my gaze, but that didn't see nearly as far as my eyes.

I gave the tangle of vines a wide berth as I ran around it, hoping not to draw the attention of any of the flying insects. On the side closest to the swamp, the ground rose out of the mists just before it ended as a steep drop overlooking a luminous red cloud. This was better for my purposes, but still not very good.

It took me a minute to run around to the other side. There I found the terrain to be more favorable. The rocky ground beneath me angled downward, and I emerged below the mist layer near the far end of the vine field. Perching there on the cliff’s edge, I had a view that stretched for hundreds of meters down into the flower-coated canyon.

I grinned as I feasted my eyes on the beautiful sight of the flowerfall and its army of attending insect drones. I’d start with them—the last time I’d killed a few, their guards had converged on me shortly afterwards.

I conjured a shard of frost, then used it to draw a circle in the tuff at my feet, taking advantage of the fact that my [Aegis] applied to equipment and missiles. Like the circles I’d used thus far, this one was small. A simple line drawn through stone couldn’t hold much in the way of mana, and the circle reflected that.

I drew two more, each equidistant from each other and the first, then filled them with as much mana as they could stably hold. The three of them together could contain a little under two thousand mana, each circle a luminous pillar of magical power in my gaze.

Then I began to shoot the drones out of the air, each of them giving me a small slice of essence. Just as before, it didn’t take long before all the insects I could see were converging on me—but unlike before, I had unlimited arrows and more than enough speed to bring the bugs down at a rate of hundreds per minute.

My heart beat and my string thrummed as the swarm came for me. Insects fell from the sky to be swallowed by the cloud layer below, wings glittering red as their bodies spun through their descent. Even with my mind focused on the dual tasks of keeping mana in my circles and fast archery, I had a rare kind of moment where I felt a oneness with the loveliness of the world that stretched out beneath me, a purity of both experience and purpose. I loved doing what I was doing, and I was doing it for the best of all reasons.

It was the sort of thing that I would want to tell Alcuon about. I thought this and then sighed, the moment ruined. Normally, he'd be the one I most wanted to tell about everything I’d done today. I knew from experience that I’d be thinking that I should tell Alcuon about this or that for a long, long time. But he was gone.

Ninety-nine percent….

With a flash of frustration, I surged [Strength] and shot a nearby drone so hard that it burst into pieces. Grief and horror would have been so much easier to handle if they could just feel awful; if they didn’t steal the good moments, the good feelings, too.

The pony-sized guards that I’d fought earlier came, though now none of them came anywhere close to the range they needed to throw their stingers. As before, a few granted me [Body 1 / Insect 1 / Missile 1] boons, but not many: I got 4 boons from killing more than two dozen of them.

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Then the insects flying toward me began to retreat, and I scowled. I’d been hoping for more, and I doubted I’d be able to hunt them out in good time. I’d gotten some essence, but not more than I had for killing the missile-grazers.

Then there was a huge burst of foliage halfway down the cliff opposite me, and I saw that the insect colony had more defenders to put forward. Two massive, armored black mantis-creatures emerged from a cave in the rock, leapt the distance of the chasm with ease, then began coming toward me. There was no sudden roar to announce their presence, and the fact that they emerged on the other side of the canyon meant that I didn’t feel the tremors of their movements, not at first.

I began channeling the mana out of my circles as soon as I saw them, extending it almost straight downward toward the head of the closest mantis. Stressing both my natural channeling and focusing abilities to their limit, I unspooled the mana of the circle—more than a thousand of it—into a wavering jagged line that I ignited once it was in range of the bug’s face, a distance of almost forty meters.

The world became nothing but red and black, the bright flash cutting it into light and stark shadows. In an instant, the bug’s upper third was blasted to pieces, and it changed from an intimidating mass of forward momentum to a corpse sliding down the cliffside, then halting and hanging limp as vines lashed its legs in place.

+ 13 651 Essence, [Body 2 / Life 2 / Wild 2]

I grinned as I saw the boon: [Body] aspects were just what I needed.

The other bug still charged toward me, and the [Life] aspect in it's partner's boon told me that it could heal; I’d want to kill it with another lethal lightning bolt rather than commit to a war of attrition and hurl smaller bolts at it the way that I had the earth ooze.

I shot a few arrows into the other insect while I crossed the distance between us, simultaneously channeling more mana into my circles. Once it had come up over the ledge, however, I began to run away from it.

It was easy enough to stay far away from it. With [Surge of Might], I could clear the creature with a leap, or gain a sudden burst of speed as I sprinted away from it. But as I fought the creature, I started to think that I didn’t even need to use it—I had simply become too quick to let even a fast melee attacker like this one catch up to me.

I leapt and sprinted over a wide area, staying clear of its claws as it chased me too and fro. Soon I’d channeled enough mana into my circles, and I ended the creature’s life much like I had the first, one cacophonous bolt of lightning that pushed me to the limit of my abilities.

+ 12 428 Essence, [Body 2 / Life 2 / Melee 2]

I watched the creature fall into a limp, smoking heap, satisfied. Despite its apparent high level, it had been an easy kill.

It would be like that for a lot of wildlife, now that I had both strong physical attributes and lightning. I wasn’t invincible, but I could hurt most things at a range and move very, very quickly. Most animals simply couldn’t deal with that combination.

I had to think back to the earth ooze that I’d fought earlier, a creature that had granted much less essence but had taken almost the same amount of lightning to kill. It had at least granted a better boon.

?—Your Boons, Keys, and Essence:

Essence: 101 861

1 [Body 2 / Life 2 / Wild 2]

1 [Body 2 / / Life 2 / Melee 2]

1 [Earth 2 / Elemental 2 / Body 2]

14 [Armor 1 / Life 1 / Missile 1]

2 [Animal 1 / Reptile 1 / Wild 1]

2 [Armor 1 / Fire 1 / Life 1]

4 [Body 1 / Insect 1 / Missile 1]

2 [Body 1 / Animal 1]

1 [Body 1 / Wild 1]

2 [Earth 1 / Missile 1]

1 [Elemental 1 / Frost 1 / Mana 1]

1 [Mana 3]

I examined these and had to think. Up here, on the slopes, the danger of aerial predators was greater, hence more [Missile] aspects from creatures who had to defend against diving predators, which meant more [Life] aspects because they needed to regenerate their projectiles. Both were valuable—and in the swamp, I could get [Body] aspects from the apehounds and spiders, with the latter also granting [Armor] aspects.

It would be better to harvest [Armor] and [Body] from the swamp and save the valuable [Missile] aspects for the colony… but that was something to remember for later. I’d kill fast once I could fly.

Time to get stronger:

- 3 [Body 1 / Insect 1 / Missile 1]: 3 [Body 1]

- 2 [Body 1 / Animal 1]: 2 [Body 1]

- 1 [Body 1 / Wild 1]: [Body 1]

- 6 [Body 1], 2 000 Essence: 2 [Body 2]

- [Body 2 / Life 2 / Melee 2]: [Body 2]

- 9 [Armor 1 / Life 1 / Missile 1]: 9 [Armor 1]

- 9 [Armor 1], 3 000 Essence: 3 [Armor 2]

[Primeval Hide 9] + 3 [Body 2] + 15 000 Essence: [Primeval Hide 10]

[Primeval Hide 10] + 3 [Armor 2] + 15 000 Essence: [Primeval Hide 11]

And with all the keys at rank 3 or higher, I could add a third rank 3:

[Primeval Hide 11] + [Mana 3]: [Primeval Mana Hide 14]

[Primeval Mana Hide 14]

[*Primeval 5] + [Armor 3] + [Body 3] + [Mana 3]

Base [Primeval Resonance] + 50% for calculating this skill’s [Aegis] bonus. (135%)

(This bonus is added to, not multiplied with, other bonuses to [Primeval Resonance])

+ 4.35×[Bestow]×[Primeval Resonance] to [Aegis]. (143)

This skill’s effect is reduced if you wear too much protective clothing. (-0%)

This skill absorbs mana from your surrounding environment. Mana absorbed is reliant on the mana available, your overall surface area, this skill’s rank, and your [Bestow]. Current absorption: 24/Second

Exclusive: You cannot have other skills with [Armor] aspects that provide bonuses to [Aegis].

I laughed. In normal environments, the added mana absorption of [Primeval Mana Hide] was merely a decent bonus. The real purpose of building the skill was to eventually build [Primeval Spell Hide] by adding a [Weave 4].

I pushed some mana into the world around me just to deplete my mana pool and then watch my skin absorb it at an alarming rate. I’d fill my mana pool in twenty seconds or less just from walking around in the mana-dense air, no concentration required.

I moved back to the edge of the vine, then threw a few lighting bolts at it. It shriveled, but didn’t catch fire. Instead steam rose from the small flames that caught where my bolts had stricken.

The vines weren’t very flammable, and the flames that I did create were quickly doused with conjured water, becoming nothing more than a cloud of steam. The little bit of damage that I had done to the vines healed shortly afterward, and I guessed that the plant likely had a lot of resources to put to the task of healing itself.

With no idea how long it would take to exhaust the thing’s resources, and no way of efficiently burning the vines away once I did, I set off back toward the colony. Hassina surely had a few [Air] aspects for me by now—and once I got into the air, getting the hunting parties ready would be a breeze.

A smile of anticipation spread across my face as I ran the distance toward the cave. There were few things more deserving of anticipation than flight—and I’d already built a crucial piece, [Primeval Mana Hide].

Soon I would be in the air.