Our Mirage chamber sessions started getting more varied. Sometimes, we had to hunt nocturnal, burrowing, or flying creatures. If you didn’t have someone with the right skills on your team, how would you do it? We didn’t get extremes of environments, like oceans or volcanos, but we did get coastal, desert and mountains. Then, the information on the monsters started to be unreliable. Instead of one, there were two or three, or it was the wrong creature altogether. The time allocation stretched out as well.

Would we engage or withdraw? Were there civilians or property to protect? Monsters rampaging through towns were the worst. There were no long sightlines, and civilian casualties were bad. Groups of twelve were organised for that one so that one could see how we would do in a larger setting. I got the feeling larger teams would be one of the focuses of next semester.

The death rate dropped and then started creeping back up as things got trickier. I survived my next team-up with Astrid but not my one with Rudo, although that was not his fault—I don’t think. I was dive-bombed by a giant eagle I never saw coming.

The mirage chambers were amazing learning tools. We could try things with little consequences. This time at the academy was fantastic, and I am not sure I would get it anywhere else.

Our excursion into the astral space was coming fast. We were starting to form groups, and we would go into the astral with groups of our choice: no less than four people and no more than six. We would have a bronze rank third-year student as a leader. They were doing the leadership course and would be evaluated on how well they did. The astral space was real, and dying was dying in real life, so the tension was mounting.

One evening, Akemi came in so excited she was literally bouncing. “I did it, I did it, I did it! Thank you, Theo. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

I had no idea what she was thanking me for. “What is it Akemi?” Val said.

“I did what Theo said and used an Awakening Stone of the Air for my last skill. Look!” The air seemed to mist, and a light cloud appeared above her. I have summoned a Mist elemental!” she was bouncing again. “It merges with my Aura, which is Refreshing Mist Aura, and it boosts the stamina regenerating and adds a small healing to it. When it manifests, it can create an obscuring mist, and if allies are inside the mist, it will boost regeneration. Thats awesome. It isn’t so good in bright sun or dry deserts, but neither am I, so that is fine.”

“A healing elemental is so awesome, Akemi. Congratulations.” We took her out to celebrate. When all your skills are filled, then you really start to progress to bronze. Val had hers full before she arrived at the Academy, and most people had completed their final ones by now.

Except me. I still had two to go, which was fantastic progress, seeing as I started with eight vacant. I really wanted to fill mine before we started to level in the astral space.

I just didn’t know what stone to get. I had a lot of support skills. I needed to up my damage. Plants are not known for dealing damage except poison, and I have that covered. I still think something water-based would synergise well with the plant essence.

The Reaper essence is cutting and reaping. I looked through the farming-type stones, and there were ones for Grazing, Threshing and Tillage, but what would they give me? Should I go for another Reaping stone or the uncommon Harvest Stone? The two feast stones gave me very different skills: Hunters Feast and the Devouring Rats. This would be similar, and none of them seemed to be Melee damage except maybe Threshing.

Water-based stones came like Rain, Hail, Drops, and Ice. Akemi was my expert here. Hail seemed to be the most damage-oriented stone.

I decided I did not want a weapon-type stone. If my claws and Rend are my best damage, then I need my hands free. I had a lot of weapons I could use, and with my sharpen skills, I could make almost anything into a weapon.

Going into the Astral space has a chance of finding a stone, but I don’t want to leave it to chance. If I can’t afford what I want, then I might wait, but first, I need to settle on what I want.

Typical Melee skills like Cut, Chop, and Slice have as much chance of giving a weapon as an ability. I could take a random shot with another Hand stone that gave me Pierce.

What about a skill like Butcher? It is close to reaping and animal-orientated. Yes, it might just let me summon a cleaver, but it is orientated around slaughtering animals and cleaning and processing their meat. I put that high in the possible list. It could also mean killing indiscriminately and give me a berserker skill. A berserker skill is not necessarily a bad thing.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Then I realised I am more about intelligent fighting, not going berserk. Fighting smart is what I try to do. Planning and preparation are key for me. That is why I keep braiding more and more Cutting Web rope. I don’t know what I am going to do with it yet, but if I need it I will have it. I would not suggest anybody try climbing it without thick gloves. Really thick gloves.

I left Butcher on the shortlist with Hail, for now.

What about fighting non-flesh creatures? Rend will deal with incorporeal creatures, but what about rock and lava elementals? I need a big hammer. I can carry a hammer, and I will, but do I need skills for it? I think not at this stage. I will have to run from them. I am OK with that.

There is an awakening stone called Preparation. It is uncommon, but I do a lot of preparations. It is not directly melee, but if it empowered my prepared items, it would be worth it. From what I could see, there were a lot of different skills, often boons that negate damage or set up things for later in a fight. They were helpful in Melee, but not where I was heading… maybe. I put it on the shortlist. Reaping a boon sounded entirely possible. It was an Uncommon stone, so it was expensive.

What about a Hardening Stone? I was thinking about strengthening Ardisia. No, I need damage skills, which might limit movement. Although if it hardened objects, it would be great…. No. Too many other alternatives, I think.

What about a straight-up boost to the Power attribute? My Reaper Essence is on my Power attribute. What stones would give that? Mighty, strength, and power are all in-demand stones, and they would all boost my melee. Now, I think I am on the right track.

My list looked like this. Power boost, probably the Mighty stone over others, then Preparation, Butcher and Hail.

I chose the Mighty Stone. It is very common but also very much in demand, so it is quite pricy for a common stone. I expect that to be my power stone. Then the choice is Butcher or Preparation. I have left Hail off. If Mighty went to the Reaper and Power attribute, then it would be Preparation for the Plant Essence, as Butchuring Plants didn’t seem right. Preparation was uncommon, so I would have to wait a bit.

Akemi came with me when I went shopping for the Mighty Stone. I was a bit puzzled why.

When I went up to purchase the stone, she said, “I want to do something to say thankyou for your advice. I would not have my Dai without that advice. I know you don’t have enough to get your last stone, so I am willing to top up what you need for the Preparation stone.”

“But…”

“No, Your advice also saved me a lot of coins. Avatar was a legendary stone, and air was common. I have the coin.”

I am not sure I tried very hard to stop her. I did want a full set going into the astral space. Butcher was cheaper, but she insisted I get the Preparation Stone. She followed my advice, so in the end, I followed hers.

Preparation was a bit of a wild card stone. I did what I was surer of first and used the Mighty Stone.

Oh. OK. It's not a Reaper skill but a Plant Skill.

* Mighty Oak {Mighty Stone} Level 1

* Iron Rank: The power of the oak increases Strength - High Mana/sec

It increased my power like Quick Sharp Increases my Speed. High costs and so needs to be used in small bursts. It was not what I expected, but it gave me what I wanted: a boost to my melee skills.

The Preparation Stone was therefore going to the last Reaper Skill.

* Reaping Power {Preparation Stone} Level 1

* Iron Rank: Damage caused by using weapons created or enhanced by a Skill creates the Blessing of the Reaper - Boon, Stacking up to a limit defined by Spirit attribute.

It was a stacking blessing along the lines of what I had heard of other skills from this stone. Sharpen Skill at least enhanced all the weapons I used, and the traps I made from the resin and web would count as long as they did damage.

I felt what the Blessing of the Reaper was and wrote that down.

Blessing of the Reaper -

* Iron Rank: Syphon a small amount of health from the one damaged to create instances of the blessing. Bestow the blessings on a skill to increase its power, proportional to the instances used.

The blessing did damage by syphoning health, so that gave an extra damage boost. The Blessing will give me a huge burst of power if I save them up. Can I use it on any of my skills, including Reaping Magic? The answer seems to be yes, so if I have any instances of blessings left after a fight, I can increase my loot. It seemed I could also use them in my Tranquil Garden to boost the growth and healing of my familiars. That is an awesome stone. I could bestow the blessings of the Reaper onto my summons. This was so awesome.

Now, I feel like I need to do something to say thank you to Akemi.