I need to dig. I need to find Olivia. I need to find my Dad. I was panicking, searching through a pile of corpses. I killed them.

1.

Killed.

Them.

I woke up in a sweat. I was in my garden. My heart was racing. Kai? Peace. Nothing is happening. Ardisia? The arch is fine. She never sleeps.

It was another nightmare, but this didn’t go on and on and on. I got up. The garden was in the night phase, and the two moons were up. I had it synced with the world outside. With a flex of mana, I could turn on the sun, but I had no need. I could see fine, and this was my garden. My place of peace.

I got up. Dawn was only an hour or so away, and I wouldn’t sleep anymore anyway. I started my morning routine. My bronze-rank body felt amazing. My bronze rank. Body. I am bronze-rank now. It is still near the bottom in terms of power. Silver is the norm, but I am a lot sturdier and faster, and I feel amazing.

If I was at the academy, we would be going out to celebrate. I wonder how Val is? Sibs and Harry? My friends at the temples. I hope Jabari and Nkwe are fine. I really could do it with some backup, but I have no idea where I am in the world. I need to find a city with a water communication chamber and get in touch. I wonder where the nearest Temple of Death is. Is there one in the town I saw? All I would have to do is to get into the temple.

Why did this happen to me? Prince Zesiro and his stupid prophecy. It really can’t be anything else … unless the god of Undeath has it out for me. No, that doesn’t make sense.

I looked at my skills again. I am really set up to operate alone and for extended periods. I have a lot of versatility and a mixture of senses, offence, and defence. I am a one Leonid band. I was getting used to people, but I am also usually happy operating alone.

That doesn’t mean I want to be alone to celebrate key milestones in my life. Farrah, Gary, Rufus and Nia all helped me celebrate Iron Rank. I guess this time, it is just Kai, me, and Ardisia. And an astral space full of Smelly Auras.

I guess I should get down there to celebrate then.

First, though, I cooked some fresh Birdboar for Kai and me to celebrate.

Then I packed up the Arch and dropped into the astral space. My shield tower was looking worse for wear, and I spent a little bit of time shoring it up so I could get out fast if I needed to.

The iron rank leather was not there, but there were still black blobs still lying around that I assumed was my gunk. Not even the Smelly A’s found it palatable. It was dissolving but very slowly.

I moved well away from it and found a place to sit and test my aura.

I think I have fully stopped the mana drain from Iron rank Smelly A’s and almost completely from Bronze rank ones. I have certainly stopped them from passing through me. Now, they just make a gap and flow around on all sides.

My aura senses are good, too. I can watch them, and they don’t shrink into small balls anymore. That must be a defensive measure. Would shrinking my aura make it stronger? Oh. That is what I already do, but they don’t have a physical body, so they shrink down, and I don’t. I call it tightening my aura.

Some of the bronze-rank ones still sense me watching. They must be the stronger ones. My senses stretch up, and I glimpse some silver-rank ones on the edge of my senses. It is much easier now that I am fully bronze.

I spent the morning honing my senses and shoring up my defences. I had a quick bite to eat at lunchtime, but this body didn’t need as many breaks.

It was time to do more than just defend and watch.

I picked an iron-rank, Smelly A. As it flowed around me, I struck out with an aura spike. It recoiled and started to shrink, and I felt the mana drain start to get much more intense. I struck again, and the mana drain further increased against my shield. I was struggling to hold it at bay, and this was an iron rank Smelly. Then it struck and smashed through my shield and popped it like a bubble, and I was completely exposed to it, and my mana started dropping very fast.

I needed to stop this fast. Even though my defence had failed, my senses were still active—the benefit of separating them from the foundation up.

I reached out into the physical space where the Smelly was located, powered my Rend to extend my claws, and activated it. The drain stopped, but I could sense I hadn’t killed it. I put my claws back against it, and Kais started jumping out. His claws and teeth extended, and he ripped through the Smelly. There was nothing for Kai to land on, so they fell to the ground one after another, went back in through my feet' claws, and cycled around again like a continuous flow of rats jumping from my hand, falling to the ground and disappearing into my foot.

Kai could now attack the incorporeal, and the Smelly counted. As Kai was doing this, I was building my aura shield again. Stronger, I hoped. It was ripped apart in the first attack by an iron-rank creature. It needed to be stronger. Much stronger.

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The Smelly dissipated into nothing. I was glad my attack did not attract the attention of others. I was prepared to make a run for the exit if it had.

That was a big learning event. I was almost killed by an iron-rank creature. I need a much stronger defence. I need a stronger attack as well, but defence first.

I analysed what I remembered of its attack so I could emulate it and defend against it. I adjusted my aura spike.

When I thought I was ready, I chose another iron rank, Smelly. I moved so it would flow around me, and then I struck again. The attack had more effect, and the Smelly reacted the same. Then, when it had gathered its strength, it struck back, and my defence went flat again but maybe a shade slower than last time. I struck with Rend again and then a flow of Kais as before, but this time, I struck again with my aura as soon as I had a little control. It was too small and too little control. My shield had to last first.

When Kai had dissipated this Smell, I rebuilt my wall from the ground up and tried layering a second wall behind it. The second wall was thin and weak, but it was there. It was like I was exercising new muscles, and they were slowly growing in strength.

The third and fourth ones still smashed my wall in one go, but I was making progress. I took a break after that. New muscles need a break because they get tired quickly.

My attacks were improving as well. I was getting stronger in attack, and it would cause the Smelly to withdraw faster and gather mana faster.

The fifth Smelly, I hit the main prize. Not because my shield finally held, although it almost did, but because a Kai got the Mana Drain ability. They could get a permanent boost from what they devoured, and I was hoping this would be possible. I was actually hoping they would become incorporeal, but there are still a lot of Smelly A’s around.

My walls are harder, and my attacks are better. I found that making the attack sharper was the key. The penetrating power of Pierce. I guess it made sense as that was my first Essence.

Based on that, I started growing my defence as the Mighty Oak, both for strength and for toughness. They might penetrate the bark and a few layers in, but the oak was thick and strong. Well, it would be, eventually. Now, it was just a sapling toppled by the wind, but I was getting there.

When I took a break at the end of the day, I was holding up against the strongest iron rank Smelly, and my attack was hurting them hard. I have not managed to pop their aura yet, as they did to me, but they were never as weak as I was.

I meditated that night, and my aura rose again. That made sense, although it was now as strong as an iron-rank monster. It is a monster that specialises in aura, so there is that.

I went to sleep that night quite pleased with my progress, and I was wondering if I should try a bronze rank Smelly tomorrow.

I started the day with my usual routine. No nightmare this time. Tomorrow, I am going to start trekking out of here. I am not sure where to go yet. Not north and not south, so the choice is West to the mountain or east to the forest.

I started with an iron rank, Smelly, and I was pleased. My meditation had consolidated my gains, and I was stronger and faster than before, both in attack and defence. If I struck with repeated attacks from the start, Kai and I could almost kill them before they had a chance to attack back. Almost. I bet that is not going to be the case with the bronze ranks.

Holy Heidel shit! It was Like I was starting at the beginning again with the iron-rank ones, but they won't die. Rend, Rend. Kais two or three at a time because if I don’t kill it before it sucks me dry I am dead.

Holy Heidel tits, that was close. Rend used Mana, and my mana was dropping so fast. Kai does not use mana, but that was too close.

I need to go back to the drawing board because the Mighty Oak was not enough. Can I reinforce it with Resin? Can I wrap it in Cutting Web? Can I build a shield wall in front? Can I do all of that?

It took me several hours to break it down to its foundation and start again. I had just restarted the building when I realised I was still missing a key piece. The whole thing should be entangled with Ardisia.

This is my aura defence, and if you attack me, you will be cut, stabbed and poisoned. I am going to call this my Ardisia Oak Defence. Ardisia never sleeps.

I had my aura defence rebuilt, and I tried it on another iron rank Smelly. I struck them and let them do their worst. My defences held strong and, surprisingly, hit back with the aura of Ardisia’s thorny vines. Then I added my Piercing strike, and the iron-rank Smelly was gone. It dissipated without Rend or Kai.

Before I tried a bronze again, I added one more thing to my defensive aura technique. I added Blend so it would not be seen easily.

Time to take on the big boys again. Well, the mid-low boys, anyway.

This time as I struck the bronze rank, Smelly, I kept poking hard with my Piercing strike, and the reaction was fast. It withdrew, gathering its defences and power, and struck back. My Ardisia Oak Defence held, and I struck with Kai and Rend and Piercing aura attacks as my defence punished the Smelly for attacking me. The second strike tore through my defence and suppressed my aura, but I was well on the way to killing it by then.

That was a good victory. I need to get stronger, but I am happy with my defence, in particular. My attack is good, clean and sharp, but I think the defence has the potential to be spectacular. I just need to grow stronger. The best part is that even when my aura defence is crushed, I still have my aura senses active.

I rested and meditated before moving to another bronze Smelly. This went smoother, and I grew stronger. The next one triggered another Kai to gain a permanent boost. I now had two Kais with Mana Drain. I would need to suppress the aura of the one I was attacking to enable them to be more than an annoyance, but I was working on that. They would drain a small amount unless the aura was set against them, but if I could suppress the aura or poke holes in it and draw their attention away from the Kais, they could drain a lot. The Kais mana drain was moderately effective against the Smelly A’s.

I continued on like this until there were no more iron or bronze rank Smelly A’s near the gate. What happened was that the silver ones came lower. Nope, nope, nope. I was done and made my exit. My Ardisia Oak shield was enough defence against their normal mana drain, and I like to think the Blend component made me able to slip away. I was probably kidding myself, but that is alright. I got out with a strong, self-built aura technique. I would have liked to test it against the instructors at the academy to see how it compared, but I was happy with it.

My Resistant Fur rose from a slight resistance to mana drain to a small resistance. Better yet, my Aura of the Reaper went up to Bronze Four, which was amazing.