A faint blue mist lingered around Shin, more densely than before. He sat with his eyes closed, leaning slightly as though sleeping peacefully, immersed in the mana.
[Vigil has reached lvl. 10. 25 attribute points rewarded.]
Shin opened his eyes from his focused trance and without respite held his hands close apart. Vigil in one and Rest in the other, he willed them together. The relieving of fatigue, the absorption of surrounding mana, he desired both and push that will forward into the skills.
[Acquired rare tier skill Meditation lvl. 1.]
‘Increase mana recovery, natural healing, and relieve fatigue.’
[Achievement: Skill Fusion I. 25 attribute points rewarded.]
Shin tested out the new skill. The increase in mana recovery and rest granted felt less than what the next tier of skill should grant but it caused no fatigue of any kind in return. Time, it seemed, was the only cost. A suitable replacement for the need to sleep. The only downside being that he needed to immerse himself in the skill to the point of severely degrading his perception of the world around him but it was still better than being unconscious.
With that endeavor finished, Shin glanced through his status sheet. Cushion and Holy Screen were the pair that seemed most obvious to visualize but he didn’t like the idea of making Cushion more situational. It hadn’t been much use to him so far but that was only because he hasn’t been prioritizing it. At max level, and more importantly, its upgrades, it would be sure to find a place in his combat.
None of the other skills seemed like they were even that compatible, none aside from his two summons. He thought it over before deciding to call over Inari to get her input. This would affect her most of all, thus her opinion was most important. Shin felt for the distinct and familiar thread and grabbed hold, mana coalescing into a white fox, lying prone and labored, blood spilling from a nasty gash across her side.
Shin spun into action, pouring a healing potion over the wound and casting Treat Wounds. The wound closed slowly, too slowly. With Inari over on this side now, he could feel how precarious the state of her life was. A burst of will through his spell advanced it to uncommon tier Cure Wounds and he poured all the mana and attention he could fit into the skill, straining every bit of control he could to wield it more effectively.
Minutes passed and the deep gash slowly became a laceration, then a cut, and finally a scratch that closed up. The white fox opened her eyes but remained lying down, weary and despondent. Shin calmed down once it was clear she would survive, his heightened intensity fading away.
“Is it dangerous over there?” Shin asked. He wasn’t clear on where spirits went when he sent them back but they came from somewhere and lived in between the times he summoned. Inari didn’t respond, and seemed reluctant to broach on the topic.
“I might have a way to make you stronger. I could fuse you with that angel.”
Inari glanced at the radiant guardian but again gave no response.
“It’s up to you.”
Shin sat and waited. Moments passed before Inari stirred and struggled to her feet. She raised her head and looked into Shin’s eyes with determined pride. He felt her answer intuitively and channelled all his focus. Mana surged around Inari. Shin made her the focal point, willing the fusion to grant her everything the radiant guardian had and place her in complete control.
A golden holy light and spiritual blue mana surged and swirled together, enveloping the white fox. Shin felt the two different energies melding and breaking apart, fiercely fighting the intent to blend together as one. Shin took hold of both in his mind and forced them to fuse, suppressing their resistance. The colors swirled and rebelled and yielded, gradually melding into one purplish blue flame.
The flame shone a bright light covering the whole area in its hue before bursting apart into a thousand tiny shimmering stars. In the center where the flame had been stood a woman dressed in intricate silk garbs like that of a warrior monk, white its base with red linings and a dark purple undergarment.
Long straight white hair flowed down behind a fox shaped mask covering all above her mouth, red markings etched on both in the same pattern as had been on her face, and three lush red tipped tails swayed behind her. In each hand she held a wide gladius almost long enough to be called a shortsword.
Inari moved her arms slightly, then slashed the air with impeccable technique. She burst into a flurry, more graceful and deadly than Shin had ever seen, as though she had always been in this form. She came to a stop and copper blue fire enveloped on of her blades. She flung it at a tree, turning it to cinder in moments. Another burst of moment brought her in front of Shin. Her swords vanished away and she stood proudly, with a familiar posing.
“Yeah, you’re strong.” A smile formed on her lips at the praise she sought. Shin inspected her status to see exactly how strong.
[Mystic Kitsune Guardian (rare) - Intermediate Peasant rank]
Strength - 157
Agility - 198
Constitution - 102
Vitality - 126
Dexterity - 172
Perception - 135
Force - 180
Spirit - 169
Control - 151
Willpower - 172
Skills:
Greater Trick Fire lvl. 1, Keen Cut lvl. 1, Greater Paralyzing Eyes lvl 1, Greater Celestial Fire lvl. 1, Superior Sword Combat lvl. 1,
Traits:
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Hallowed (epic), Windwalker (epic), Lesser Soul Weapon (rare), Greater Will-o’-the-Wisp (Rare), Lesser Poison Resistance (rare), Lesser Disease Resistance (rare), Lesser Curse Resistance (rare), Lesser Charming Resistance (rare),
Her stat total doubled that of the hobgoblin brute, meaning she was a rare variant. The spread was fairly balanced too, signifying her to be a magic warrior type, an assumption backed up immediately at a glance of her skills. A blend of kitsune and radiant guardian abilities, they were all mostly upgrades of the former skills, with Keen Cut having a magically sharpened edge to its empowered strike, reminding him of the skill the redcap used.
She attained a few more resistances but the three epic tier traits stood out. Hallowed, an improved version of Holy Body, not only protecting her from necrotic and infernal attacks but empowering holy type attacks as well. The Windwalker trait allowed her to run in the air as if it were solid ground, adding a whole new dimension to combat. Shin could imagine just how to utilize that. And most notably Lesser Soul Weapon, the source of the two gladiuses. It was a part of her, it seemed, able to call and dismiss them at will without cost, and they possessed an innate ability, one that harnesses a skill into the very being of its blades.
The summon skill itself earned some attention from Shin. There was no constant mana drain as with calling spirits, instead operating just like a summon skill. It had a duration but no designated limit, the skill being uniquely concerning Inari, Shin guessed. It was also very costly, 100 mana by Shin’s estimation. As the focus drifted to mana, Shin put 22 points into Strength.
[Rank has advanced to Greater Peasant. 50 attribute points rewarded.]
A prompt to select two common tier skills appeared. Shin already knew what he would spend one of those options on.
[You had acquired common tier Mana Screen lvl. 1]
A magic shield better suited for general purposes, and one he planned to fuse in short time. As for his second option, there were some martial art skills he felt needed but he was entirely certain he could acquire those on his own. What he had just recently come to feel urgently was that his healing was severely lacking.
Treat Wounds, now Cure Wounds, itself seemed fine. It was his low Force to blame. However, he had no intention of giving it any more attention than before. The way his build had progressed gave him a certain ideal in mind, one that did not include diverting points to Force. But the close call Inari had faced was fresh in his mind. He needed to adjust his healing skill.
[You have acquired common tier Stimulate lvl. 1]
Rather than healing externally through Force, this skill invigorated the vitality of the target, which included speeding up the natural healing process. It wasn’t quite what he wanted but the further upgrades and fusion would give him the desired skill. If anything, it should at least prove more effective for high Vitality targets like Inari compared to Cure Wounds at the moment.
With that settled, he allocated his remaining points. 30 to Agility, his most important physical stat. 31 to Perception as Inari’s movements just now looked blurry to him, a significant problem that needed to be addressed, and all remaining 92 points into Spirit.
[Human Spiritualist (uncommon) - Greater Peasant]
Strength - 50
Agility - 100
Constitution - 31
Vitality - 34
Dexterity - 33
Perception - 60
Force - 24
Spirit - 221
Control - 83
Willpower - 36
Skills:
Cure Wounds lvl. 1, Holy Screen lvl. 4, Summon Mystic Kitsune Guardian lvl. 1, Cushion lvl. 3, Advanced Martial Combat lvl. 10, Quickstrike lvl. 10, Befriend Spirit lvl. 1, Meditation lvl. 1, Mana Screen lvl. 1, Stimulate lvl. 1,
Traits:
Body Supremacy, Eyes of the Spirit King,
With his physical stats now, he could deal with uncommon intermediate rank monsters on his own, based on his fight with the hobgoblins. That would need to be about enough as his priority once again and always needed to be Spirit. As he advanced to greater rank, so had Inari with a 20% stat boost to show for it, and based on the mechanics of summoning, so had her cost. The skill was quite gluttonous and he had other skills that needed attention.
The gluttonous skillbearer in question nudged Shin which grew into outright ushering him by the back into the forest. Shin glanced at her then sprinted off, content. He had worried somewhat that the fusion would sap some of her individuality but it seemed there was no need for concern.
On the contrary, he could feel more of her emotions and understand her feelings even more clearly, a connection he felt in the pit of his soul as though they were bound together. And that connection, Shin felt as she dashed goadingly around him, told him she wanted to show off against some enemies.
---
Vicious screeches missed their mark by a mile. Inari darted over the rocky forest like lightning, magical sound waves exploding against the ground around her. Two strides through the air claimed another victim, severing the harpy in two. She blurred again, several more seconds giving a half dozen more to the soil.
She effortlessly sidestepped another screech and spat out a large ball of ghostly fire. The fireball rippled and stretched into a flat wall, slamming into a trio of harpies setting them all ablaze. Inari turned to face a fourth behind her but an arrow took its life before she could. She glanced down at Shin using one of the sparse trees as cover before an overwhelming wail took back her attention.
A grand harpy, beautiful as she was fierce, lorded over Inari from the sky. The harpy queen flapped its wings and knocked the fox warrior back to the ground. A shallow victory as Inari took to the skies in a flash, darting around and over gusts and blades of wind. The frustrated harpy queen drew her breath into a skill and the fox made her move, glaring the ruler of the skies stiff and with a lunge, slashed her apart. Inari darted over to Shin holding out the head of the harpy queen to gloat.
“Yeah, you won.” Shin praised, for good reason.
The harpy den they, or rather she, had taken out were greater rank uncommon tiers. The creatures stood six feet tall with talons like solid leather armor and claws as sharp as knives. They flew freely by the feathered wings on their arms and could produce magical attacks of wind and sound. The den of two dozen was not something to be so easily slaughtered as the white fox of death in front of him did with impunity.
[Harpy Queen (uncommon) - Greater Peasant rank]
Inari nudged the distracted Shin in frustration and tapped the deep purple gemstone embedded in the harpy queen’s forehead. Shin carved out the gem with a skinning knife, pouring mana threw it as he does his inscription brush.
[Royal Harpy Gem (uncommon)]
Material for a profession, Shin guessed. Inari beckoned him to follow out of the corner of her eye but Shin didn’t move. “We have to wait.”
Inari geared up for a silent complaint but suddenly vanished, the duration of her summon having run out. Shin anticipated as much, having kept the time in his head, but what fell outside his expectation was the feeling of something entering his soul, distinct and familiar.
There was still a bit of time needed to gather the mana needed to summon her back to question, so Shin hopped off, scouring through the corpses to find the things Inari didn’t bring back. Next to the other pieces of the harpy queen, he found what he was looking for, a beak shaped headdress adorned with feathers.
[Windfury Headdress (rare)]
‘Lesser Wind Amplification: Increases the potency of wind abilities twofold.’
Not useful at all to him or Inari but it was valuable all the same, if only to trade for something that was. Shin glanced around with spirit eyes and dashed upwind, away from the stench, to take a seat and meditate. It only took half an hour before he cast his summon and Inari returned.
“Did you go inside me?”
Inari nodded. By her unusually mellow behavior it seemed it wasn’t something she expected either.
“Boring?”
Inari pointed to her eyes and then to Shin’s. She could perceive everything he could, Shin understood her meaning in totality.
“At least she’s not stuck in the dark…” It wasn’t ideal but she at least had something to keep her busy in the downtime. And that downtime would be significant. At roughly 150 a summon and at lvl 3, 50 minutes for the duration, Shin wouldn’t be able to keep her out most of the time even at maxed level. But the longer the better and he still needed to level his skills, so there was no time to waste. Shin sprinted down the mountain face back towards the forest and Inari followed with ease. It would be a busy week.