They spent the whole next day at the ruins, and treated themselves to a second good night of sleep. But first they had dinner, although Livia kept her mouth too busy to properly chew.

"First thing we need to change is how you think about your Skills,"

Both Casters looked surprised, they knew Livia was just an Aspirant [Hammerer]. Then again, she did say she'd "read the books" of their future children.

This was going to take some getting used to.

"Harold, you healed Kalle after he got his arm stuck in the fire, but since then you've only been self-casting [Regenerating Form], why is that?"

Kalle had almost forgotten that he was healed by Harold, it wasn't a part of the memory he liked to dwell on.

Harold tried to explain, but even he could not remember how he’d done it. "Ugh, we tried it before, it worked on my muscle aches but when I tried it on the two of them it didn't work, they felt nothing at all."

Livia hid a smirk behind a super-subtle cough. "And did you really want them not to ache Harold; really, really want it?"

The question made him blush and start stammering. "O-of course I did!"

But they all got the message, you couldn't cast Spells of that magnitude half-assedly. When they were in a state of survival nothing was done half-assed, so with proper commitment the Spell had worked.

"And you Kalle, no more keeping secrets. Your tier 10 Skill, as soon as you have the mana or whatever it requires, you need to start talking."

This confused the two brothers and Kalle blanched a bit, but Livia knew what she’d seen him put on her when she was talking to them earlier. Kalle spoke up after a few moment's pause.

"It's called [Words of Fortitude], are you sure it will remain as effective now, Livia?" He tried lamely.

"Yes, come one. Don't be a dummy man, how long could you keep it a secret anyway?” She was looking at him like an idiot, which he was very unused to, from anyone. I don’t like it, but in this case it may actually be earned. Sigh.

“Some Skills may have a minor improved effect on unknowing targets, but you don't need to hide Spells from your partners. They'll unconsciously allow energies they recognise from you, but a stranger could be inclined to put their walls up, you know? And not everyone can control that well enough to let a Spell in on a whim,"

The [Esperlock] had to nod along at the sense of that. The thing wasn’t that Kalle wanted to keep secrets; but once he had made the choice not to share the Skill for such a reason it was a bit hard to just change your mind on a dime, despite having realized over time how it was probably not a big deal.

"And Harold, about your [Nourishing Remains], you need to start using it." Harold looked reluctant. Very reluctant.

The way the lads figured the Skill worked was as an emergency ration that would allow even a putrid corpse to become edible if Harold cast his spell on it. But as they explained this to Livia she couldn't stop laughing.

"You're badly underestimating how flexible your magic is, if it's not diametrically opposed to your magics very nature then you can probably do it, it's just a matter of increasing costs,"

This really brightened Harold's day, because he'd figured his [Touch of Chaos] worked like that. But if it was true to a degree of his every Spell then that really opened up possibilities he had not yet had time to properly consider.

"For example, I know we badly wanted to get out of there, but I'm sure you could have done something to those mosswolf corpses and somehow 'Nourished' your path with it, because it's not just a food Skill… It's a magic Spell Harold,"

Both Kalle and Oscar looked worried, they sensed what was coming, but Harold had an eager look in his eye. "That's why I think we should head back to the battle site tomorrow and see if we can't have you make yourself something," Livia looked like she was still thinking "And then afterward we can head back to Salcret for a while, instead of finishing the trip to Dormata now that it's autumn and we're low on supplies and the toughest part of the trip is remaining,"

Stolen story; please report.

She nodded to herself, suddenly seeing a pretty straightforward path for them.

"You'll all get to winter back home!"

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So when they woke up the next morrow Livia got them marching and getting ready to return to the site of their terror. It wasn't that they were afraid to run into more mosswolves, is what they told themselves.

They'd both gained a pair of levels, and despite having a good amount to go until level 10 both Casters still felt like they could handle the same fight a lot better now. Especially with Livia there to hold the back with Oscar from the start, even if Harold's remaining wasps were still banged up and Kalle could use some protective gear since his leathers had been burnt to a crisp.

It was just that they knew, with a cloying awareness, that they could be doing such things so much better prepared if they waited until later on.

Livia was adamant however, that they not let this fear fester and stick in their minds. They were going right back and if they couldn't handle this much even after preparing an extra day then they didn't have the steel. She used a different word, one that took quite a while to figure out from context, but when they asked her to explain it she refused.

They arrived at the large boulder with the former campsite as they left it, and upon looking around it seemed like very little had happened, other than some small animal trails having disturbed the ground since their departure, likely coming to dig for the blood.

The short tree that had been tackled was still leaning a bit, and the brush hiding the corpses remained untouched.

They gathered around the rather smelly bodies and Livia steeled herself before she borrowed the dagger from Kalle to go and make a few incisions in the fur and muscle, exposing specific bones.

Next she walked three times away from the bodies, in each cardinal direction, and whispered strange unintelligible words at each end.

She hesitated a minute, but then spoke confidently. "Harold go ahead."

The inexperienced [Chaos Druid] went to sit by the remains, and activated his spell.

Nothing seemed to happen, but he kept casting and pouring mana through the Spell.

Then both his arms suddenly shot forward and he started shaking and chanting; he went to move the different parts to better match some constellation only he could see–and then he started setting the different sticky bones to his body, but not fusing anything to his clothes, only testing each pairing and moving on to the next.

Then he started tearing the strange, mossy hide. Reconfiguring the flesh and muscle, while sharpening the bones and empowering his [Nourishing Remains] in minor bursts, again and again.

He was shaping something. A piece of equipment fit for the [Primordial Druids] of old.

When Harold was done his older mates stood transfixed, still in awe at what had happened; but Livia played it cool.

The remains left on the floor barely looked different, those chunks had been discarded.

What Harold instead came out with looked like it had been crafted by an expert. He was looking at it in awe as he came out of his druidic stupor, and Kalle and Oscar were still looking nearly as amazed.

He went to lift the suit of armor, or the suit of bone rather. The mossy fur remained, and the bones were now magically empowered but still flexible.

When Harold put it on they all matched his limbs and gave them the deadly edge he'd sorely missed having the other night. He could feel how this was going to give him what he needed to develop a completely personal and deeply animalistic fighting style.

And that was when the mood was interrupted by a strange clonking clap. None of them wanted to believe it, and at least when they looked to the top of the boulder it wasn't a mosswolf waiting there, somehow clapping its paws together.

No. This was worse. Clop, clop, clop.

It was a Cloven.

Clop, clop, clop.