Congratulations, [Mana Thread] has leveled up!

Alex smiled at the screen. It was becoming more and more clear that the System rewarded someone for pushing the limits of their skill, especially the last few levels before advancement.

For the last few hours, Alex sat with Sam on the steps leading from the living room into the gym. While Sam had been practicing his meditation, Alex had been testing different ways to alter his [Mana Thread] skill.

The thought came when he was attempting to lay a full-sized ritual with his threads, and the ratios weren’t quite right because of how thin the threads were. While he could have still activated the ritual, he had a feeling that it would have been at the cost of more mana or reduced efficiency.

One more level and I can advance the skill. I wonder how the System will change it when it jumps up to Journeyman. I’ve only evolved two skills so far, this will be my first advancement.

“At this rate, she’ll be ready to fight a monster by spring,” Olivia said from the floor next to Sam.

Alex rolled his eyes and let a thread dip into the pouch at his waist. He sent it snaking toward Olivia, but she saw it in time and was able to draw one of the knives he’d gifted her with the dagger belt. She used her mana manipulation skill to coat its blade and cut his thread.

“Ugh, I should have never taught you that.”

Olivia snickered. “It’ll be good for you not to get too complacent. Also, you know I’m right.”

Alex groaned and shook his head. “One, she’s already fought a monster. It’s how she awakened. Two, you’re way too critical of her.”

“Am not. Also, she told us that the Hunters Association sent an entire team with her to kill the monster,” she said, but when Sam cracked his eye and looked at her, she turned red in the cheeks.

As Sam opened his eye, it was obvious to the both of them that he’d been distracted as the ethereal field of grass that had been under them retracted back into the teenager.

“Hey, both of you are supposed to be training!” Alex said with mock stern.

“I’m bored of training,” Olivia said while standing. “I want to spar some more or head into a Rift. I feel like I’m right at the edge of getting a new skill.”

“Well, you can’t spar with them. They’re more than ten levels down on you and without a class. Plus, you’ve got to work in a bit, no time for a Rift.”

“We could-“

“We’ve already sparred five times this today. Even with my levels, you’re better at hand-to-hand than me.”

She gave a small smile at that and then turned to look at Sam. "What about you, Sam? You're going to have to learn how to defend yourself at some point."

"No thanks," Sam said while looking at his hands in his lap.

"Okay, here. I've got an idea." Alex stood and called over to Mark and Sarah. "Hey, you guys! Come over here for a second!"

Mark didn’t take his eyes off of Sarah, but he called over his shoulder, "Yeah, okay, one sec!"

Alex watched with a smile as Sarah used a light short sword that was supposed to represent something close to what Alex used while fighting. Her blonde hair was up in a ponytail and she stepped forward on a heavy front foot as she awkwardly tried to both slash and stab the sword.

How did I never realize that she was so uncoordinated?

While Alex wasn't the most athletic person, he felt that even without the aid of stats, he was more coordinated than she was. To Mark's credit, he was extremely patient and encouraging with her over the last half-hour as he held his shield and allowed her to practice swinging the sword.

After a few more swings, Mark lowered his shield and held up his hand to give Sarah high-five. She returned the gesture and slapped his hand, though her shoulders sagged and the wooden sword dragged across the rubberized flooring of the gym.

Despite her somewhat sour attitude, Alex couldn't help but feel a sense of pride. Several times over the last month, he had felt the need to apologize to them for not letting them know what he had gotten himself into. But now, seeing them working together to get stronger and work with him made his heart soar.

"I just don't want to hit things," Sarah was saying to Mark as they approached.

“Well, that’s good,” Alex said, rubbing his hands together. “Look, I feel like this is where we should have started, and I feel stupid for not bringing it up sooner.”

Olivia and Sam both looked at him with interest.

“Wait, where’s Val? I want all of us here for this,” Alex said as he looked around. He felt through his bond and could sense that the small wyrm was in the direction of the kitchen.

Well, maybe medium-sized is a better descriptor.

Val!

He projected the last thought through their bond, and within moments, the flying blue creature zipped into the gym from the open living room door. It reminded Alex of a dog as he watched his companion fly to each person in the circle and either try to headbutt them or their hands. Once the greetings were finished, he settled on Alex’s shoulders.

“Alright, like I was saying. This is probably where we should have started; I just wasn’t thinking about your progression like I have been thinking about my own. How do you guys feel about sharing skill and trait info with each other.” He put the statement out there and let them process the idea before continuing. “I know that this is pretty personal information, and it’s really not something that we should be sharing with people… but my whole idea with this,” Alex gestured at the house around them. “is to try and build a place for us to all work together and grow stronger. The first step in that is going to take a little trust.”

Mark shrugged, and Sarah glanced at Olivia, who had her chin in her hand as if thinking.

“I already know all of your traits from different conversations. I think a big part of us working as a team, though, is going to involve all of us making sure we know what the others are capable of and helping each other improve.”

“I don’t mind sharing,” Mark said, putting his shield into the spatial pouch he’d begun to carry on his hip.

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Alex gave him a look. “I didn’t think you and Sarah would mind. I’ve known you guys for years. I was thinking more about Sam and Olivia.”

Sam turned a bit more red and shrugged, “Yeah, okay.”

“I don’t mean to put you on the spot. But I think this really should be the first step…”

All eyes turned toward Olivia, who still had her chin in her hands. There was a tense moment before she started laughing and waved her hand. “Of course, I’ll share. There does need to be some sort of serious talk about keeping this private, though. With me being a Peacekeeper, it could cause problems if my information is spread around.”

Alex was nodding before she even finished her sentence. They all agreed that the information was extremely private and talking about anyone else’s trait or skills was strictly off limits, regardless of the situation.

Alex went first, reading his trait for everyone and fielding a few questions.

“Wait, so stat weights,” Mark said, leaning forward. “that’s like you put in a point, and it counts for more? I’ve seen that in a few games before.”

“Yeah, I didn’t really get it at first. But when I put a point into Willpower, it counts as three points each time I put one in. But, I can only put points into Willpower.”

Mark’s eyes went wide, and Sam looked skeptical.

“What about class points?” Olivia asked, already thinking of ways to get around the potential shortfall of the trait.

He smiled, “Class points and Titles will still put points in other stats for me.”

She snapped her fingers and nodded along. “That makes sense. You said you got some titles. Is that how you’re so fast and strong, even though you can’t put points in other stats?”

Alex scratched his head, finding it a bit funny that they’d been getting so close in other areas, yet hadn’t even taken this step to get to know one another. It all felt so personal and like he was sharing some big secret. “Yep. I’m a bit worried, though. I’ve been reviewing some of the advanced ritual manuals that Eura gave me, but some of the concepts for the ritual compositions just keep slipping away. I’m worried that even though my magical control is getting insanely high, I won’t have the intellect to understand stronger spells.”

There was a slight wince from everyone in the semicircle. Alex shrugged and played it off before looking toward Sam.

“You want to go next?”

“Uhm, sure. I have {Nature’s Refuge}. It says, ‘When at peace, the Awakened manifests an ethereal domain of nature around themselves. The Refuge will increase the Vitality and natural regeneration of those within its embrace.’ That’s what happens when you see me trying to meditate and the grass and stuff appears.” Sam said. He finished a bit awkwardly, but the group could all hear him getting excited while reading the description.

“Oh, I thought your trait had something to do with healing,” Sarah said, looking at him closely.

“Well, it kind of does… The increased Vitality will slowly help someone heal. But I think it’s strong when combined with my class passive.” He looked at Alex, who nodded encouragingly.

He’s definitely getting more comfortable with the group. This is a big step for him. He’s got to believe that no one is going to abuse him for his healing powers here.

“Well, my Class is Verdant Healer. The passive says, ‘All of the Awakened One’s healing abilities are amplified when they or their allies are within areas rich in nature. Additionally, healing spells cast by the Verdant Healer have a chance to cleanse negative status effects.’ When I was working with Master Jiu, we found that my Nature’s Refuge counts as an area of ‘rich nature.’”

“Ooooh!” Mark said, bouncing from one foot to another. “That’s so cool!”

They continued to make their way around the group. Sarah and Mark didn’t have a class, but their traits were interesting to Olivia, who hadn’t seen anything like them. Mark had a trait that had a very vague description that said that Mark would gain a bonus to all stats when he was defending another person. They all agreed it was something that would require a lot of testing. Sarah’s trait allowed her to see someone’s aura, and no one was quite sure what that meant.

When questioned further, she said that everyone had different blobs of color around them that moved and changed depending on their emotions or thoughts. She said that her work was helping her to test a lot of things, but no one was quite sure what an aura was yet. Alex and Olivia promised to keep an eye out for any information from the Guild’s resources and to help her in her testing when possible.

Olivia went last, and everyone thought her trait was the coolest of the bunch.

“What?!” Mark yelled, “I’m so jealous! Read it again, read it again.”

“{Shadow Affinity}: Increases effectiveness of stealth abilities and shadow abilities. Naturally gifted with the ability to use and channel shadow affinity mana.” Olivia laughed at his infectious energy.

Alex found himself smiling as well. Partly because he found her laugh adorable and partly because he felt so happy to be home and share this new life with his friends. “Well, now that we’re all on the same-”

Valtherion ran his forehead into Alex’s, and the group laughed. Alex rubbed his forehead and looked at the wyrm who had turned his head up and away as if pouting.

“Alex, stupid. Val is best.”

“Yeah!” Mark cheered, happy to see that the impressionable companion had begun to repeat the phrase that he was teaching him.

“Ugh- stop corrupting him,” Sarah said.

“Okay, okay. Everyone, Valtherion, has a trait called {Mana Glutton}. It allows him to store any mana that he absorbs to double his normal mana capacity.”

Olivia whistled, “I’d love something like that for my magic.”

If a flying snake could move haughtily, Val did it. He almost sauntered as he made a lap around Alex’s head in the air.

Everyone laughed again as it was all too obvious to them what emotions the wyrm was feeling.

“As I was saying,” he looked at Val pointedly. “Now that we know where everyone is at, I need you all to start thinking of a path forward. It doesn’t need to be specific, but have a goal in mind and talk with me or the others about it. One thing that Eura stressed during our training, and I’ve seen it more and more in Guild articles, is that the System is based largely on intent. It’s designed to help us and force us to progress. This gives you more flexibility than you might think when trying to advance your skills. Take the next few days and think about it. Come to me when you have an idea, and we’ll put together a training plan to start working toward that goal.

“I want to help you guys get stronger and start to catch up to where Sam and I are at, but I can’t stretch my attention but so many directions. I need everyone to be reading articles from the Guild and getting a better idea of how things work and what they want to do. It hasn’t been announced yet, but Elana mentioned that there would be some sort of team competition happening soon where we can earn contribution points as a team and help out the Guild.”

Everyone nodded along and agreed to Alex’s plan.

“She mentioned that to you?” Olivia asked, surprised. When Alex nodded she gave a short hum, “She probably wasn’t supposed to do that. It hasn’t been announced yet. But, since you already know, we might as well capitalize on getting our group ready.”

Alex nodded again, “I agree.” He saw Mark from the corner of his eye as a grin spread across his face, and he shifted his weight in anticipation.

“I’ve been looking into how non-combat classes work, and I think I’ll try to take Edwin and Gabby to awaken in a Common Rift tomorrow or the next day.” Sarah frowned and started to say something, but Alex held up his hand to forestall her. “We talked about this before they were even hired, and they were interested. I want them to awaken and begin getting experience in classes related to their jobs to get the proper class; with noncombat classes, it is apparently just something that happens over time. After we’re done making a game plan here, I want to try and get all five of us here on a list to get into a higher Rarity Rift and we can plan to stay there for a few days. With the time dilation effect, that will be the most effective way for us to level up and get you guys some experience.” He let out a sigh at the end of his small speech and saw Sarah deflate.

“I mean, if it’s what they want…”

“I made it very clear that they didn’t need to do it in order to get the job. That’s why Clara isn’t coming, she wasn’t interested. She said that she wasn’t willing to risk her safety while her son depended on her.”

She nodded again, and they chatted for some time before wrapping up the conversation. Alex let them continue to talk about random things from the news as he pulled out his phone. He scrolled through the available Rifts and found two Uncommon Rifts that he could put a reservation for five people on. They didn’t give him an estimated wait time like the Common Rifts did.

He sighed, hoping that the wait wasn’t long before scrolling back to the top of the list. He looked through the available Common Rifts and smiled as he found one in particular. There was a several-day wait to get in, likely because it was Friday, but Alex couldn’t help but smile at the irony.

It’ll be worth the wait.

“Hey, I’ll be right back,” Alex said, standing from his seat on the stairs. He ruffled Sam’s hair as he turned to walk into the house and find Gabby and Edwin, likely at their own living quarters by this time of the evening.

“Let’s move to the living room unless you guys are going to keep training,” Olivia said. She grumbled but said she could practice more of the mana-shaping exercises on the couch before she had to go to work.

Sarah asked if Sam could use {Nature’s Refuge} again. She liked the feeling of sitting in the ethereal grass and the sense of rejuvenating energy it gave her with the boost to Vitality.