You have slain [Caster Fire Ant – LV 50]
Boost in Experience gained for killing a higher level enemy
You have slain [Caster Fire Ant – LV 50]
Boost in Experience gained for killing a higher level enemy
…You have slain [Caster Fire Ant – LV 50]
Boost in Experience gained for killing a higher level enemy
You have reached LV 13
You have reached LV 14
Janet was not imagining it. The blinking notifications in front of her eyes were indeed telling her that she’d been the one to deliver the killing blow to the 20 Caster ants that had been attending the Lava Spewer.
There was also a glaring lack of a notification regarding the precious dog-sized morsel of magical supremacy, which filled her stomach with fluttering butterflies. Had the tiny ant managed to escape?
Of course, Killing twenty juggernauts at the peak of Second Circle had netted her only two levels. The Systems were incredibly strict about XP gain when parties varied in levels to the extent that hers did.
She found the situation fair – otherwise an obscure Immortal Ancestor of a sect or clan would just raze an entire continent-wide empire in one sweep of his arm, in the process levelling up all his descendants to Tenth Circle, including the ten-year-old beginners.
That did not mean that she wasn’t irked that her XP gain was neutered to such a degree, still.
In spite of her complaints, Janet chortled as she imagined a fat-faced kid running around with the might to flatten kingdoms. It was that laugh that alerted her to a sense of discomfort that permeated her entire body. It felt like her every movement was restrained. She was unable to even shake her head at a funny thought!
Janet looked down towards her torso. Her eyes widened in question and panic. For some reason, her entire body was wrapped up in bandages.
“Sylthis!” she shouted at the top of her voice. “Darius, anyone! What the hell is going on?”
Janet had once pondered upon what it would take to kill her permanently. Absolute annihilation of her anima by spell or physical might had been her final answer.
Now though, she was forced to come to terms with the reality that if she was utterly confined, her movements arrested with a substance she just could not budge with her meagre Strength, whoever managed that had her at their mercy.
“Hey there, sleepy head?” the Cyclopean’s musical voice allayed Janet’s fear as she entered the tent. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m mummied up, Sylthis. I feel like a silkworm about to be boiled alive,” she glared, only to be answered by a genial, disarming smile.
“I’m glad you’re better, Janet. I was worried for a moment there.”
Janet felt a chill run down her spine. It took something truly extraordinary to rattle a Slayer.
“What happened? Did I die again or something?”
“Worse,” Sylthis stated with a hollow tone as she fed mana into Janet’s cocoon. A second went by before the bandages transformed into the leathers she’d come to love and treasure so much.
Sand-like flecks of black, scorched flesh dripped like sand from her clothes when she stood up. The damn things had become lodged in every seam and fold of her outfit, and were pinching into her skin.
Seeing her discomfort, Sylthis cast a cleansing spell that with a bright, calming light banished all impurity from Janet’s skin.
“Can I learn that spell yet?” she asked, fully serious. The miraculous spell could be used for all cleaning purposes from handling utensils to purifying wounds.
“Get to the Second Circle, then we’ll talk.”
It was the same answer as always. Until her core had undergone that minor evolution, it was yet too feeble to affect physical reality in the manner that spells could.
“Is she up?” Darius’ voice rang from the outside.
Sylthis cast a meaningful look at Janet before she led her outside. That look was the only reason Janet did not yelp in fright when she saw that the canyon was smoldering like a recently erupted volcano.
A stack of white, ashy smoke rose kilometers into the sky, and the air smelled like sulfur.
‘I won’t be able to sell the ant corpses in town, will I?’ she lamented. ‘It’s a destitute life for me for a little longer.’
Lying on Dariu’ lap was a book. Janet knew the particular cover he flashed her way as she emerged from the ash-covered tent before he stowed it away. It was one of the ancient treatises that ratified what Provinces and Guilds were to do in case of a devastating beast horde.
‘Gaia have mercy! We did not unleash the ants into the Havenhurst, did we?’ Janet was met with his cool eyes drilling into hers, no answer forthcoming. ‘Please, answer me!’
Unfortunately, Darius was not tapped into her thoughts, and thus could not reply to the desperate pleas of her telepathic voice.
“Come, sit.” An open palm indicated the empty stool to his immediate left. Sylthis sat on a similar stool to his right.
“Gentlemen, this is my second mentee, Janet. She’s the reason we came to visit this magical place.”
“Pleased to meet you,” she bowed towards the clearly battle-tested pair of Adventurers.
The naked greed and sheathed contempt in their eyes as they saw Janet’s leathers betrayed that affiliation. They probably thought she was some spoiled noble scion that had hired Darius and Sylthis to escort her to the impoverished Havenhurst region.
Her just having woken up sold that image quite effectively.
“Janet, these are Dale Potima and Rangu Maynard.” Darius introduced. “They come from Seldor-Tep’s Guild.”
That was the town where the three planned to exit the jungle. It sat on the end of a direct route to the inner continent, and thus boasted quite a booming economy. Janet hoped to sell some of her wares there and hopefully resupply before they departed for the bigger cities.
With the disaster in the horizon, it looked like another plan was needed.
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That aside, Janet evaluated the two strangers. Dale was a tall, bald, dark-skinned man whose demeanor seemed like a drawn bow. He was clearly battle-tested, as his eyes kept combing the horizon for threats. Attached to his belt was a sword that looked old and plain, but properly maintained.
From Rangu, Janet felt wariness and a measured curiosity. He was dressed in well-worn mage robes that had once been resplendent and decadently opulent.
On his right hand were five rings, one on every finger. Four housed a mana crystal of the primal elements. The final crystal was a dull green. It felt like Nature or Wood Affinity, but Janet could not be certain.
Such crystals were used to hold mana that could be used as a spell sacrifice to assist lesser mages in performing quick casts. The runes inscribed into the ring itself were meant to confer specific Mysteries into the stored mana over time, which aided in the formation of spell circles.
Their presence however was no reason to disparage the man’s skills. He was inside the Havenhurst, after all, where all manner of beast roamed. Anything that could aid a faster cast could be the difference between life and death. The man’s heavily wrinkled skin betrayed that he had lived beyond many such encounters.
The men bobbed their heads in a gesture of respect, something Janet returned in turn. She was weak, barely Second Circle, something anybody with a shred of experience could pick up on. Although she clearly carried some weight due to being Darius’ fold, the men were not obligated to be deferent to her.
“These men are a part of the Seldorian Guild. They brought a cohort of their students to level up in the Fire Ant Canyon,” Darius continued in a flat tone.
Janet already knew about that contingent. Sylthis had already reported their numbers, and that the students were all looking to break through to Third Circle. Clearly, they had arrived to either witness the eruption as it occurred, or had come to pester Darius in the aftermath.
“We call it the Lothrian Gorge these days,” the older man corrected cordially. Janet felt the map inside her head adjust to the new information.
What followed was a friendly back-and forth where Darius answered all questions as vaguely as possible. What the three were doing beside the Gorge was attributed to Janet’s curiosity. What they were doing in the Havenhurst was passed off as a convenient pitstop in their journey. As for the events that led to the eruption, Darius simply stated that they had no clue.
As forewarned, Janet kept her mouth shut. The conversation between the adults happened and ended, as her eyes simply tracing the billowing clouds of smoke in the horizon. She did not yet know whether to feel guilty.
With a simple shake of hands, the Adventurers said their goodbyes. Their darting eyes revealed that they might have left with more questions than answers.
“What do you think?” Sylthis asked after she set up a transparent barrier around the three of them.
“They obviously do not trust us.”
“What about you, Janet? Anything appear odd to you about them?”
Janet, still not used to having an opinion asked of her, followed the disappearing backs of the Adventurers with her gaze. Her first impression was that they did not know much of anything, but first instinct could be misleading.
“I think the mage tried to probe my core,” she revealed. “His Mysteries were a little too feeble for that to work, but I felt some foreign mana trying to infiltrate my channels.”
“That means they’re wary of us,” Darius stated. “Good.”
When Janet looked at him in question, Sylthis informed her that people that were fearful rarely dared encroach upon another’s secrets. They’d keep their distance, which was perfect with Sylthis keeping an eye out.
With that taken care of, Darius looked into Janet’s eyes. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine, really.” Just to be sure, she circulated her mana twice through her core and pathways. Everything seemed to be in place.
“You had us worried there for a second.”
“What happened?” she asked. “Did I cause the eruption?”
Darius answered her with a question.
“You studied the Thunder Owl pretty keenly as I’m told. What do you suppose would happen if you destabilized the arcs of lightning it keeps around itself at all times by killing it in a single instant?”
Janet actually had to think about that. The lightning was held in place by the owl’s signature flow of mana. Bolts did not lash out because the flows in the owl’s restive state did not project the energy field outwards. However, if that balance was to be broken…
“All the lightning would blast outwards in an explosion of bolts and supercharged arcs. Which would electrify the inert mana in the air, leading to more lightning…” she turned to look at the white clouds blanketing the pristine midday sky. “An accelerating cascade of cataclysmic lightning until the animating Mystery is spent.”
She looked towards Sylthis, who was nodding her head at the answer. “Is that what happened here? Did the Spewer really possess similar capabilities to the Thunder Owl?” her voice rose towards the end, the mere suggestion of her having acquired such a precious [Talent] sending her enthusiasm into overdrive.
“Not even close,” Sylthis laughed. “But you’re forgetting that the canyon is filled to the brim with minerals that can hold Fire mana. Also, the lower layers are home to the Brutalizers, whose carapaces are very famously used to feed forges. Add a destabilizing wave from a Spewer’s weave of mana come undone, and first the attendant Casters were vaporized, then the place went up in flames.”
“How did I…” Janet trembled. “How could I survive that?”
“You were singed to a crisp, Janet. Darius and I had to take Healing Potions to get ourselves back to working order, but you were scorched bones held together by your burnt leathers by the time we managed to get out.”
“It really was my fault.” Horror was plain on her face, before her expression turned to rage.
“If I killed that many ants, where the hell is my XP? Shouldn’t that have taken me past even Third Circle?”
It was Darius that answered. “You don’t continue to level once you’re dead, Janet. Like Sylthis said, just scorched bones. Even we didn’t know whether you’d make it.”
But all the dissipating souls of dead ants had sustained her. She had been so proud of activating her [Talent] without a need to injure herself, but it was that same feature that had probably restored her to life.
“I’m sorry, guys. I should have waited for your signal. Perhaps if you had taken out the Casters…”
Darius reassured her that what happened, had happened. There was no need to dwell on the past. He did state that there was a need to examine the triggers that led to spontaneous activation of her Soul [Talent], but he was otherwise understanding.
Sylthis just held her in a hug, happy that she had survived.
“Thank god you’re okay.” there was a tear in her eye. A small wind spell cleared it away.
“Anyway, what did you get? I know you successfully devoured the Lava Spewer, seeing how things turned out, but you must also have eaten hundreds of thousands of fire-attuned souls as well, Caster variants included. I wonder what grade your [Talent] is going to end up being.”
The only change in Janet’s status was the level-up. A quick dip into meditation revealed that her soul was in its closed state, just as had happened the last time it subsumed a soul in order to obtain its [Talent].
“I’ll let you know by evening at the latest,” she replied.
The question came to mind of how her soul had devoured soul matter to keep her alive while closed for the subsummation process, but that was yet another enigma she’d have to solve later.
She had just reconstructed all her flesh, organs, hair, you name it. Her hunger for solid, physical nourishment was like a lance of flame piercing into her insides.
Janet suddenly had a thought. Fire Ants looked enough like a steamed crab or lobster that she had to wonder; did Sylthis have a recipe to make their white flesh edible?
===
As aromas that could descend deities with temptation assailed Janet’s nostrils, she found her eyes getting drawn to the coals under Sylthis’ grill. The sensation was a lot like Insight, but more intimate.
She felt like she knew the fire. Like the element was an old friend that only required a “Welcome home, buddy,” and they’d embrace her in a hug that would banish all yearning.
The call intensified the longer she stared into the fire… until suddenly, there was heat in her right palm, like one of the coals had teleported into it. Janet swallowed with nervousness as she looked down.
Right there, in the crook of her palm, there was a tiny tongue of flame that sang to her core like a newborn baby. It needed mana, so she supplied it. The flame became a more vibrant red. It began to purr like a kitten.
So engrossed was she in playing with her new toy that by the time she looked up, Sylthis was holding a platter of fluffy white flesh slathered in Auroch butter that had little pieces of herb suspended inside it. Beside the aromatic flesh was a tiny bowl that held a brown mash of a root vegetable that tasted simply like heaven… especially when covered in the gravy from what Sylthis called her “special hogs”.
How long had she been playing with her flame?
Even before she took a single bite, she knew heaven awaited her tastebuds. Her head tilted upwards so she could thank Sylthis.
“No need, dear,” she smiled. “A special day demands it be marked with a special meal.”
With the smile inviting her to partake, Janet took a bite of the flesh and followed it with some of the mashed tuber. Her mouth exploded with flavor. She did not notice as her flame winked out, since all her senses knew in that moment was the heavenly tastes and textures of the fruit of Sylthis’ labor.
Ding!
You have unlocked General Skill – [Refined Palate] (Uncommon)
You have earned 3 SP
Janet swallowed the bite that she was convinced cost more than the aggregated sum of the wages she’d earned cleaning plates and polishing silverware. Sylthis was sporting a triumphant smile.
“Isn’t it ironic that I acquired a [Talent] from eating souls and the first Skill I get is [Refined Palate?]”
“I don’t think you factor anywhere in that eventuality. That’s the System’s way of validating my cooking,” Sylthis stated with her nose turned up comically to the side.
Janet agreed completely. Who thought an insect could be made that sumptuous?
As she took another bite, Janet asked, “This really was a great day, wasn’t it?”
“You have no idea,” Sylthis answered as she brought her stool right beside Janet’s and dug into her platter.