The moon’s silver glare beamed down into unyielding darkness. The stars in the unlit skies were breathtaking, their magnificent beauty a stark juxtaposition to the decrepit land.
Beside a dimming campfire lay a pile of sloppily cleaned boar bones, half-eaten vegetables and herb stalks. Beyond the light of the fire's dying coals, a canyon loomed large. It was rough, scarred, and spoke of a centuries-long gradual desolation.
In the shreds of silver moonlight that made it into the canyon's cracks, tiny black shapes scuttled about upon the naked rock. Every twitch of the eye revealed another thousand of them.
“Boss, we have a situation,” Sylthis shouted, her voice ringing melodic from her tent.
“Do I have to wake up for this?”
“We might have company. You can continue with your torpor if you feel that that is more important.”
“Okay, okay. Sheesh!” Darius grumbled. “Children these days… no respect.”
There followed a rustling of fabrics, then a wavering in the weave of ambient mana as a mid-40s looking man emerged from his tent. “What is it this time?”
Sylthis was standing outside her tent. Her eye panned through the grey, dead landscape, a pained expression twisting her features.
“I can’t believe they let the jungle get denuded to this extent.” Her voice sounded mournful, somber.
“I know where you’re coming from, but this is not another Dead Zone.”
“Yeah, I know,” Sylthis replied after a few beats of silence. “I can’t keep comparing every terrain-altering arthropod colony to the crazed Demon Hordes.”
Darius nodded his head and hummed in agreement. His eyes never left the grey expanse.
No life would ever take hold here. Not shrub, not moss, not even blasted fungi. The Fire-Ant colony that called this place home made sure of that. But like it or not, the ants themselves were one of the Havenhurst Region’s main income-earners.
They produced high quality materials in their mineral-strengthened red carapace, Their presence here also led to nigh-infinite generation of Fire-attuned mana crystals.
Most importantly, the canyon was where Guilds sent their younger members to level up. There was no better source of fire-attribute XP anywhere in the entire Province.
“So,” Darius began, retracting himself from his wandering thoughts, “It sounded like something had you pretty flustered when you called out.”
Sylthis let out an exhausted sigh, then summoned two stools from storage. Darius waved away the offer to sit, so Sylthis dismissed one of them.
“There is an Adventuring party two kilometers to the east. All novices, but they have a Guide and a chaperon with them.”
“Do you mean Wayfarer Guide, or just another well-travelled Adventurer?”
“I’m not sure, but I’d go with the well-travelled option. He’s dressed a tad too conservatively for a Wayfarer.”
Darius chuckled at the insinuation, then turned to look at a newer-looking tent that was placed a bit more centrally compared to the other five in the makeshift camp. If one looked closely, they’d notice some wisps of shadowy mana leaking through the tent’s seams.
“Do you think Amurag chose her for the clothes?”
“I would. Those leathers are pure Mystery. Have you tried Appraising them yet? They just register as ‘Janet’s Outfit’. The Goddess literally transmuted magic into exactly that- a cloth, specifically made for Janet.” Sylthis extolled. "The girl is walking around wearing a materialized concept of an outfit!"
Her sight pierced through the tent, landing on the girl sleeping within. She was huddled inside a cocoon of shadow that looked a bit like an envelope.
In her own admission, Janet had slept inside that pocket of shadow since the night she Awakened. According to her, the insides were perfectly insulated, and she felt as if she was sleeping in a cloud of magic.
Sylthis understood the sentiment. Most magic practitioners would spend all their time immersed in their elements if they could.
“The envelope still impenetrable to your Scrying?”
“The Class seems to have made it even more sturdy and compact," Sylthis answered. "You don’t think…”
“The shadow is not interfering with the spatial expansion inside the tent, so I doubt the cocoon is somehow creating a separate space,” Darius answered. “Even with her talent and potential, casual feats of spatial magic should take her quite a while longer.”
“But you still think the way it manifests shows an understanding of spatial geometries.”
“Obviously,” Darius reiterated. “Have you heard her speak about her ‘Realm of Souls’ or about 'the underlying fabric of mana'? Some of the concepts and Mysteries acquired from such first-hand contact are indispensable to understanding the nature of the Spheres. Pair that with the elemental envelope, and a pattern seems to emerge.”
“But she’s too young, and has too little power for innate spatial magic to make sense.”
“Exactly!" Darius concurred. "But then you account for the fact that her Shadow [Talent] has an Arcane Rarity, and conventional logic flies out the window.”
“What if her two [Talents]…”
“Don’t even bring that up,” Darius shook his head defeategly. “Combining two [Talents] at First Circle would contradict everything we know about the Systems.”
Darius was truly vexed by all the paradoxes Janet embodied. She had admitted that the first soul she took after Awakening – a weak leopard unattuned to any element – might have happened through a combination of Shadow and Soul. She described her Talents having combined naturally, her soul extending its influence into physical Reality through a construct of shadow.
“That is the realm of Immortals, Sylthis. A soul wielding influence over the physical world is not a thing to be taken lightly.”
"Nor is the possibility of imbuing souls to inanimate matter, but here we are," Sylthis reminded Darius of a recent development.
The conversation on Janet’s peculiarities carried on. The two theorized and laid down hypotheses, but one simple truth reigned supreme. The two most powerful deities had jointly granted Janet a Twinned Blessing. That, above all else, pointed to some larger plan being underway, and their Party’s involvement in whatever that was promised both great danger and massive opportunity.
With that discussion completed, they went on to converse upon the issue at hand. The next day would mark Janet’s first contact with the Adventurers Guild. They needed to be prepared for any… mishaps.
The girl was not one to leave a threat to her life with an intact soul. A horde of eviscerated locusts on their way to the canyon told the tale. She had not left even the lower leveled individuals alive, killing all simply because they could pose a threat when left room to grow.
Before they returned to bed, the two agreed upon a plan to minimize contact. If that proved unsuccessful, they prepared a contingency to minimize damage. It involved introducing Janet to one of the Adventurer kids that looked to be around her age.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Most of the time was spent discussing how to get past Janet's paranoia. Again, the locusts would play the fall guy.
===
Morning came, and Janet felt her mind come alert. The cocoon of shadow around her dissipated like wisps of flame, the mana dissipating back into the environment. With the shadow, she had no need for blankets or bedsheets. a perfect wildland survival hack.
A quick read through her Status brought a smile to her face. She was now LV 9, just one level away from the halfway point through the First Circle.
Her Class, the newest addition to her repertoire, drew her eye like a centerpiece in an exhibition. She was finally fully connected to her Shadow [Talent] and could employ it to full effect.
For the umpteenth time, she read through the description.
Class: [Binder of Shadow]
Woven by a skilled Formations Master from the Spell [Shadow Bind], the Class epitomizes the strengths inherent to the Shadow Affinity: raw manipulation of mana and mana constructs, perfect control over oneself, and unrivaled dominion over elemental shadow.
The Class description read like an advertisement, until one realized that it was meant to serve as a warning.
[Shadow Bind], the spell Sylvia had chosen for Janet’s Class anchor, was never meant to bind a foe. That was a secondary effect. Its main purpose was to bind one’s elemental [Talent] and contain the rigors of their Affinity.
Shadow was known to be a caustic element, like Corrosion or Rot. In the depths of perennial shadow, no light could penetrate, and thus no life could persist. Shadow mages were known to be self-immolating, self-sacrificing menaces who took their internal struggles out on the world.
It was the reason why the Party had settled on that Spell for a Class Anchor, and why most sane shadow practitioners used it for their first Class. Had Janet been a lunatic who cut off pieces of her shadow to fuel every spell, the anchor would have helped put a stop to that.
Yet, like all magic, the Affinity was a double-edged blade. The same caustic properties of Shadow could be inflicted upon another, but with a catch: one had to bind their shadow to the target’s.
There were all sorts of risks to that, the least being impurities of foreign mana crossing into one's core, and the worst being a melding of souls at the moment of the target’s death. That almost certainly led to insanity. Luckily, Janet could devour souls, so that was not much of a risk.
After the Class description, Janet ran through the Class Skills on offer, along with their advertised capabilities.
[Shadow Bind] – free.
Bind your foe’s shadow to your own and hold down your enemy with fetters of shadow.
As per every Class Anchor forged from a Spell, the first Skill was a version of the Spell itself.
The Skill was exactly what it sounded like. It was eerily similar to what Marius had done all those weeks ago.
The Skill essentially would extend her shadow and connect it to the target’s, melding them together temporarily. Since shadows were a part of a being’s fabric of mana, melding two shadows together essentially made them into one entity, like squishing two balls of clay together.
For Janet, that opened all sorts of opportunities, like an effortless soul-capture.
For normal mages, it allowed the Binder to directly affect their target by pumping caustic shadow into their mana systems. Failing that, it allowed them to use their target’s shadow to trap them in constructs powered by their own mana.
Mana they could no longer control since it was pumped full of another’s Affinity.
No wonder Marius’ cocoons had been so unbreakable.
[Shadow Authority] – 12 SP
The Binder’s mana is her own, her shadow but another limb. She beckons, and all others join her crusade. She is queen over all that is umbral.
To Janet, that sounded like an extension of [Shadow Bind], until Sylvia explained how the Skill would allow her to essentially rip shadows off of other objects – and people – to bolster her own shadow.
It sounded a lot like how she created [Construct Field – Shadow], but Darius had been quick to point out that not everyone could command ambient energies as easily as she.
Instead of calling on ambient energies to bolster their constructs or expand their range, a normal shadow mage would just take control of other shadows around them, in the process inflicting debilitating injury to all magical beings around them.
It really was a wonder why the element was not more beloved.
Nonetheless, the Skill's combat applications were easy to see. The Skill employed as an opening move would render all opponents injured and open to attack, with barely any expenditure of energy from Janet. The fact that the torn shadow could be employed in another attack was yet more evidence of Shadow's extreme utility.
[Caustic Shadow] – 20 SP
In Shadow’s depth, all wither and droop lifeless. Shadow’s kiss corrodes, for in its depths none may see light. The Binder’s foes are but vessels of succor. Siphon from them, and live to see one more day in the perilous depths of night.
[Shadow Bind] allowed a shadow mage to meld their soul with another being’s. This Skill… oh, boy! This one allowed them to basically infect their target’s cores with shadow.
Shadow that they were very much not equipped to deal with.
Brian had helpfully pointed out that if he ever wanted to kill her without too much hassle, all he had to do was inject a couple hundred fire-attuned MP into her system. Since she did not have the Affinity or the [Talent] to help her get it under control, the rampaging foreign mana, not even shaped into a spell, would burn her up from the inside in mere seconds.
This Skill was essentially the same thing, but slower-acting, and magnitudes more torturous.
It looked like everything was adding up into a fun skillset. And yet despite the grim nature of the Skill effects, Janet could not deny the power on offer.
[Mirage] – 50 SP
Your silhouette is a blur, but another shadow on the horizon. All falter at this sight of your billowing cloak, for to gaze into the shadow is to come face to face with the Reaper.
An illusion, accompanied by a mental effect.
The Lancing Deer, who was apparently called Amurag, had supposedly done her a solid by messing with her mind. That whole incident reeked of plans within plans, seeing how many advantages that single encounter had yielded. Janet really hated what that said about her self-determination.
Apparently, a person's Skills and magic were affected by a person’s experiences. Who knew?
If one was struck by lightning – natural, middle-of-the-storm, 300-million-volt lightning – and survived, their Skills might receive a stunning effect.
It was due to that thing called Mystery.
Inside humans and beasts, Skill templates determined how mana flowed, and what effect that flow created. In nature, ambient mana was by and large, inert. Where Mystery was added into the mix, ambient lightning mana became thundering bolts, fire mana liquefied stone into the stuff of volcanoes, and oceans froze overnight into continents of ice.
The concepts that drove such events were called Mysteries. Even though they could generally be studied and understood, they could never truly be replicated. At least, not by mortal hands.
Luckily, Mystery was what differentiated a Skill from a spell, and as long as one was sufficiently affected by a spell, they acquired a Mystery seed that they could then cultivate and add onto their own power.
Janet shuddered at the thought of training for the [Fireball] Spell. To attain that seed, a comprehension of the Mystery beneath the Spell, one had to face an actual exploding ball of flaming gas.
Janet had faced a mental spell, or however many Amurag had cast on her. As a result, Janet’s magic toolkit now entailed a mental effect.
[Lesser Shadow Wisp] – 200 SP
A seed of shadow come to life, the Binder but a humble gardener. The seed takes root in shadow. Beware, for the gardener never loses sight of her plantlings.
Sylvia had taken a spit take when she saw [Lesser Shadow Wisp] on offer. It was the cutest, most hilarious thing Janet ever saw.
Apparently, this last Skill could eventually be upgraded to one that could create a living, thinking being made entirely of shadow: an Elemental.
The whole Party had gathered to read, reread, and boggle over the Skill’s description. They were dumbfounded that the Skill cost so little, and that what the Skill described was even possible.
Wisps were creatures constituted of ambient mana that somehow gained consciousness by receiving a soul. They absolutely were living creatures.
Technically, wisps were only as powerful as simple bacteria, but they were living nonetheless.
That Janet could create life… that would rub a lot of people the wrong way. Religions and Guilds alike would be in arms if ever that Skill description was brought to light.
The part where the wisps could take root in shadow was taken to mean that if she deposited a wisp into a person’s shadow, and used along with her [Cartographer] Skill, [Shadow Wisp] gave her a tracking ability that was undetectable, possessed an infinite range, and one that would last forever.
A person took their shadow everywhere, after all, and wisps were known to survive world-ending cataclysms.
Although Janet yearned to put the tantalizing Skills on offer to use, Janet’s System did not recognize her as eligible for the Class as of yet. Her First Circle was still not closed, and an unfilled Stat tally precluded her from the bounty that was a fully-functional Class.
That meant her Class Skills were yet out of reach.
However, now that her [Talent] was bounded by a Class, she could earn more XP, and thus could power through the remaining Levels at a faster pace.
The Class also opened up the option for her to aggregate all the excess XP into free points, or better yet, SP with which to purchase and upgrade Skills.
For instance, her Vitality was maxed out. The static increases to the Stat had been going to waste without a Class Framework to aggregate them. That was now a thing of the past.
The icing on the cake? The horizon was blanketed by millions of insectoid beasts ready to cede souls, XP, and high-quality materials to her hungry, impatient, impoverished self.
Her goals for the expedition into the canyon were as follows: earn as much XP as possible so she could finally close her First Circle, collect a similar amount of Fire-Ant carcasses, so she could convert them into money when she finally got to town. Lastly, she wanted by the end of the expedition to have earned enough SP for at least the [Shadow Authority] Skill.
Something told her that 'all that is umbral' did not simply end at mere shadow. Could there exist creatures within the realms of shadow that she could entice into her service with the offer of a few souls?
The next few days would surely tell.