While using the canyon wall to bypass the Gulf Buffalo herd, Samantha thought over what other approaches they could use to safely travel through the forest. Trying to push forward without more preparation had proven to be a fatal mistake–one she needed to remedy. She was still afraid that staying in one place would give nearby spirit beasts the opportunity to close in on them, but the alternative had proven to be more dangerous. What if she had run into a predatory spirit beast instead of herbivores? Would she have been able to revive herself and Silas if they had been eaten? She had no idea, and she didn’t want to find out.
Harold’s idea to spend a few days enjoying the cooler temperatures wasn’t practical, but it did have its merits with a few alterations. If they could build a temporary shelter that would allow for quick escapes while they more thoroughly explored the area and its inhabitants, they’d have a better shot of surviving. She also wanted Harold to build up a stockpile of useful alchemical concoctions and experiment with the local flora of the forest. Dying almost immediately to the first spirit beasts they came across had shaken her confidence, and she wouldn’t be comfortable moving forward until she felt like she had accounted for as many situations and possibilities as was reasonable.
After several hours of climbing, they finally left the herd a fair distance behind them and were able to descend back to the canyon floor into an area that looked relatively defensible. Following a quick rest where she did her best to recoup some of her energy, she explained the plan she settled on to Harold.
“Ha! So you admit that my idea was superior after all? I knew it.” he said smugly.
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re–” she stopped herself mid sentence, searching for a less rude version of what she really wanted to say.
“Insufferable? Arrogant?” he offered blithely, “All the time! I never paid them any mind though. It’s just the price one pays for genius. Lesser minds always misunderstand me.”
She rolled her eyes, “If everyone is saying the same thing to you that’s not a misunderstanding, that’s an observation. You are being insufferable.”
He shrugged, “I am who I am, and I’ve already made far more accommodations to ‘getting along’ with you than I would normally stomach. I don’t know what else you expect from me.”
“I was expecting basic manners and someone who didn’t have the emotional maturity of a spoiled child, but you’re right. That’s too much to ask of a self-proclaimed ‘genius’. How silly of me.” she said sarcastically.
He spluttered at the scathing remark, but didn’t immediately respond.
“Whatever. Let’s just get camp ready.” she finished dismissively. She grabbed her canvas sack from her bag–which was still glued to the sand spider–and walked away to start on her own tasks.
Silas leaned forward on her shoulder so he could look her in the eye, “So, I really can’t eat the good stuff?”
“If Harold can’t find a good use for the plants you find, then you can eat them.” she clarified.
“Aww!” he whined, “What if I don’t get to eat any of them?”
She smiled as she felt some of her irritation wane, “Then I’ll give you one of the spirit pearls I have left over as a reward. How’s that?”
He tilted his head as if thinking the proposition over, “Alright… in that case, follow me.”
Silas hopped down off her shoulder and led her to a silvery plant a short distance away. Curious about what it was, she used [Inspect].
Silver Frond (Uncommon)
An herb native to the Great Gulfs that possess moderate restorative properties.
She easily pushed her fingers into the dirt to pull the entire thing up by the roots. She had heard that sometimes the roots of plants had different effects than what grew aboveground, so it was better to take the whole thing with her whenever possible.
Over the next couple of hours Silas led her to dozens of potentially useful plants with [Herb Hunter]. If their descriptions were any indication, she had a feeling she’d need to hand over quite a few spirit pearls in the near future to appease him. She briefly considered spending one of the two new bond ability points on getting [Herb Hunter] for herself as well, but knew other abilities would be more helpful. Besides, Silas was doing a great job and he couldn’t harvest the plants as effectively on his own.
When her canvas sack was suitably full of plants, she headed back to camp so Harold could look through what they’d found. When she arrived, she found Harold working on a nearly-completed stone structure. Using the cliff face as the back ‘wall’ of the building, Harold and the sand spider were making quick progress by using rocks as the primary construction material. By carefully selecting and placing the rocks before gluing them into place with [Secretion], he was able to make incredibly sturdy walls. In the short time she’d been away they’d already started working on what looked to be a dome-like roof.
Noticing her approach, he turned and pointed an accusing finger at her, “You! You didn’t tell me I could earn additional bond ability points!”
“Oh, you got one?” she asked, genuinely surprised that the selfish man had managed it.
“Yes, I earned one for the collaborative construction effort on our shelter! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“If I told you, you probably wouldn’t have gotten one.” she explained. “Bond points come from deepening your relationship. If I told you and you started trying random things to purposefully earn them, it wouldn’t be genuine. That’s my theory, anyway.”
“You don’t know for certain?”
“Nope. We could test it if you like. I could tell you how I earned a point with Silas right now, and if you do the same thing and don’t get a bond point then that would support my theory. Or, you can figure it out for yourself over time and not miss any opportunities to deepen your bond.”
Harold immediately responded, “Tell me. If I still earn the point, think of how much I could immediately gain just by copying you!”
“Alright, so long as you’re certain.” She waited for a breath to give him the chance to change his mind, but continued when he showed no signs of hesitation, “I got a bond ability point from giving Silas a name. Try that.”
Harold scrunched his eyebrows together, “You got a bond point for that? Fine. I’ll give her a name… a good one…”
He continued building the shelter while mumbling potential names under his breath. Samantha couldn’t make out all of them, but heard some truly horrendous ones like ‘Legs’, ‘Speedy’, and a variety of completely normal names that just didn’t fit.
After a few moments he held up a triumphant finger, “Sandy!”
A little on the nose… but not the worst name he could’ve chosen.
“Well? Did you get a bond point?”
“No. Seems you might be right. I’ll have to keep this in mind going forward…” He glanced down and his eyes lit up when he saw the full bag she carried. “Nevermind that for now. Hand it over.”
She wordlessly held out the bag and he greedily snatched it out of her grip. As he emptied the contents and sorted the herbs into neat piles, he practically bounced with childlike excitement. Each new, mysterious plant seemed to energize him in a way that she’d never seen before, and he quickly became completely engrossed in examining them. It was like he had forgotten anything else existed.
Seeing as how the spider had the shelter construction under control and she didn’t want to leave camp again until Harold told her which plants were the most useful, she decided now was as good a time as any to spend her new bond points. She looked through the list of available bond abilities and narrowed down the selections with survivability in mind.
Rank 2 of [Swift] would make the ability more efficient, but apart from making it so she could boost her Agility for slightly longer it wouldn’t be the most impactful choice. Silas had [Herb Hunter] already, so she didn’t feel that would be a good use of points either. Rank 2 of [Translucence] could enhance her stealth abilities, but even stealth was not a completely reliable defense. Her encounter with the buffalo herd was proof enough that spirit beasts could utilize more than just their physical senses to find her. [Antler Genesis] and [Piercing Strike] were interesting, but it seemed like she would be fleeing from beasts more often than not until she grew stronger. Neither of these abilities would significantly help with that. That left something from [Jackalope of All Trades], which she pulled up in her mind's eye.
Jackalope of all Trades (Rank 3)
*Mongrel Bloodline
(1/3 Bond Ability Points Invested):
Always Close [1 BP] - You and your bond will gain the ability to instantly swap places or transport to the other’s location so long as movement to the other party is not impeded (qi cost increases with distance).
Moonlight Step [2 BP] - You gain the ability to set two waypoints (5 qi reserved per waypoint). So long as you stand under the light of a true or artificial celestial body, you can spend half of your overall qi pool to instantly transport yourself and your bond (as long as you are within 5 feet of each other) to a waypoint.
Duplicate [1 BP] - Your bond gains the ability to manifest and control a second body formed from qi, which can be dispersed at will. Each body can use their abilities independently, but cooldowns take twice as long.
Abundant Spring [2 BP] - You and your bond’s qi pool and regeneration combine into one (40 + 50 = 90 base + 24 from meridians = 114 * 2 * 1.2 = 273.6 qi pool, 10 + 10 = 20 base * 2 * 1.2 = 48 qi regen/hour). Your bond’s cooldowns will be significantly reduced in exchange for a small consumption of qi per ability use.
With the two bond points she could either choose both [Always Close] and [Duplicate], purchase only [Moonlight Step], or buy [Abundant Spring].
[Always Close] and [Duplicate] could potentially have some neat synergies, but she didn’t know how helpful it would really be in practice. Being able to transport without any distance limitations was awesome, but at a rate of 1 qi per 10 feet she wouldn’t be able to go that much farther than the 500 feet she could already do. It was possible the skill had a different distance to qi cost ratio, but since that wasn’t mentioned in the description she couldn’t rely on that. [Duplicate] could add to their fighting force and possibly give her and Silas a new ‘target’ they could transport to or switch with, but it didn’t increase Silas’s offensive capabilities. Since [Duplicate] doubled his cooldowns, his skill usage would be the same overall rate. Another thing to consider was that she didn’t know how difficult it would be for Silas to effectively control both bodies at once. He had a hard enough time learning how to fly when he got wings, so how much harder would an entire second body be? It was possible that the body was somewhat autonomous, but again, that information wasn’t specified so she couldn’t rely on it.
[Moonlight Step] was a skill with incredible utility and potential, but it would be a gamble if it would be of immediate use or not. If she could set waypoints in spectral form it would allow her to travel almost anywhere she wanted instantly and safely. If she couldn’t, though, its usefulness wouldn’t be fully apparent until after she’d already arrived at a desirable destination. She could possibly set a waypoint in a ‘safe’ spot that she and Silas could flee to as they traveled, but this ability only worked for them. Anyone else in their group would be left behind. She didn’t think that the gamble was worth it, even if it meant the ability would be lost to her after she spent the last two points for this rank of [Jackalope of All Trades].
That left [Abundant Spring]. While the other abilities’ effects could possibly be mimicked or replicated with various arts, there were very few ways to permanently increase qi-related attributes or cooldowns. This art would give her nearly 100 more qi to work with and boost her potential qi regeneration to 1.6 a minute. Regenerating qi at that rate would let her remain in spectral form indefinitely, so long as she wasn’t using other abilities. Having a greater qi pool and regeneration rate would also directly empower her and Silas’s qi offensive and defensive capabilities. Again, she found her thoughts drawn back to the Gulf Buffalo fight. If she had been afflicted with confusion as Harold and Sandy were, would all of them have died? What other nasty abilities did spirit beasts in these canyons possess? Preemptively shoring up her and Silas’s defenses would ease some of these worries.
The only downside was that Silas’s abilities would start using qi. This meant that either of them could render the other unable to fight due to accidentally overusing their newly shared qi pool. However, she felt like that this was still a good trade-off for the benefits gained and believed clear communication would make the problem surmountable. Besides, both would technically have more qi available to them since Silas’s ‘qi pool’ would now benefit from bonuses from her qi saturated body. Add to that he would be able to use his abilities more frequently, and the choice solidified in her mind. There was only one last thing to check.
“Silas, I’m planning on purchasing [Abundant Spring]. Do you have any concerns about this considering it’s going to significantly change how your abilities will work and how it will tie us even closer together?” Since these skills came from Silas, it was possible he knew something at an instinctual level that she didn’t. She also didn’t want to blindside him with such a big change when it affected both of them.
She could feel his attention shift from whatever he was doing to ponder her question. She expected him to respond quickly, but could sense that he was deeply considering something instead. He finally responded after several minutes, “I’ll need time to get used to it. Won’t be able to fight well right away. Will you be okay?”
She was surprised that that was the only thing he mentioned. He was not the indecisive sort, and was anticipating something more serious with how long it had taken him to answer, “I think so. How much time will you need?”
“Not long. Don’t know for sure.”
“Alright, I’ll make it work. Was there anything else you wanted to mention? Anything else I should know?” Still feeling like he wasn’t communicating the full picture to her, she gave him one more opportunity to speak up.
“Nope! Go ahead, I’m ready.”
She couldn’t shake the feeling that he was holding something back from her, but she didn’t get the sense it was bad. So, she decided not to press him further for now. Having secured his agreement, she spent the two points and a new notification appeared.
Bond abilities selected! Changes have been made to your status page. Changes have been made to Silas’s status page.
As she finished reading the message, the binding thread between her and Silas began thrumming with power. Curious about what changes were about to happen, she quickly jumped into spectral form to observe the binding thread.
She watched with fascination as two new strings–a thicker string coming from herself and a thinner one coming from Silas–wrapped and twisted around the primary binding thread. As they fully extended and settled into place, she could see that the three strands had taken on a braided appearance. Interestingly, though the qi flow within the original binding thread remained relatively ambiguous, the two new strands clearly only moved in a singular direction.
Congratulations, you have reinforced your expanded binding thread! You have tied the souls of you and your bond together more tightly, and as a result, some bond abilities may benefit from an increase in efficiency or effectiveness.
Changes have been made to your status page.
She canceled [Spectral Projection] to return to her body.
“Woah! That’s tingly!” Silas laughed, “You doing okay?”
“I’m fine. Getting a larger qi pool or better regeneration doesn’t really have a sensation for me. How is it to use your abilities now? Is it as hard as you thought?”
“Let me go check.” he said excitedly, “I’ll let you know.”
She chuckled at his enthusiasm, “No problem. I’ll check out the changes to our status pages while you do that.”
As Silas bounded away, Samantha pulled up their profiles and scanned over all of the changes.
Name: Samantha Cray
Age: 17
Attributes:
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Aptitude (Approximate Max Value):
Strength: 13 => 14
Average (23)
Agility: 22 => 23
Extraordinary (41)
Endurance: 17 => 19
High (32)
Resilience: 15 => 16
Average (24)
Tenets:
Ambition
Determination
Slight advantage when penetrating qi defenses of higher ranked cultivators
Slight advantage when defending against qi offenses from higher ranked cultivators
Slight advantage when engaging in battles of will with higher ranked cultivators
Cultivation Rank: Low Bronze
Pattern: Peerless Tempest (Low Bronze - Rare)
Core: Rebirth (Contains Vortex Mark)
Qi Pool: 102.0 / 273.6
Base: 50, Meridian(s): +24, Abundant Spring: +40, Qi Saturation (x2), Jackalope of All Trades (x1.2)
Qi Regeneration: +96 / hour (+1.6/ minute)
Base: +10, Abundant Spring: +10, Sage’s Rumination: (x2), Qi Saturation (x2), Jackalope of All Trades (x1.2)
Cleared Meridians:
Heart: +1 Endurance, +3 Qi pool
Mind: +Mental Processing Speed, +6 Qi pool
Skin: +2 Resilience, +3 Qi Pool
Left Foot: +1 Agility, +2 Qi pool
Left Leg: +1 Strength, +3 Qi Pool
Synergy: +0.5 Agility, +0.5 Strength, +1 Qi pool
Right Foot: +1 Agility, +2 Qi pool
Right Leg: +1 Strength, +3 Qi Pool
Synergy: +0.5 Agility, +0.5 Strength, +1 Qi Pool
Passive Arts:
Prey’s Awareness (Bond Ability)
Qi Cost: N/A
Standard Effect: Gain increased awareness of your surroundings. Affects all senses.
Alternate Effect (‘Sphere of Dominion’ Rank 1: 15 foot sphere): Can enter a hyper-focused state that greatly enhances spatial awareness of immediate vicinity.
Poison Connoisseur (Bond Ability)
Qi Cost: N/A
Inherit the toxin processing abilities of your bond. You will more easily gain resistances to any poisons you encounter.
Current Resistances:
Draff Toxicity: Rank 3 - 22% (-¾ effectiveness and duration)
Corrosive Poison: Rank 2 - 59% (-⅔ effectiveness and duration)
Sleep Poison: Rank 2 - 9% (-⅔ effectiveness and duration)
Paralyzation Poison: Rank 2 - 6% (-⅔ effectiveness and duration)
Hemotoxin: Rank 1 - 35% (-½ effectiveness and duration)
Jackalope of All Trades - Rank 3 (Bond Ability)
Qi Cost: Variable
Effect 1: You and your bond will gain the ability to instantly swap places or transport to the other’s location while within 1000 feet of each other so long as movement to the other party is not impeded (0.5 qi/ 10 feet).
Effect 2: If your bond suffers a killing blow and their body isn’t completely destroyed, their spirit will reside in your dantian for up to a month and their physical form will be put in stasis. If their body is not restored to a survivable condition within that time, your binding thread will be dissolved and your bond will truly die.
Effect 3: You will gain a 20% overall increase to qi pool and regeneration and your bond will have 20% faster cooldowns
Transfer Vitality (Bond Ability)
Qi Cost: N/A
You and your bond can share healing or regenerative energies through your binding thread. If shared, the healing effects can be split equally between the two parties (effects for each party will be halved) or full effects of the healing can be passed through the bond (the other party receives full effects of the healing).
Combat Arts:
Inspect (Common)
Qi Cost: Variable [+50% Efficiency]
By focusing your spiritual senses on a target and expending qi, you can either retrieve basic information or gain useful insights that can be used in combat.
Swift - Rank 1 (Bond Ability)
Qi Cost: 0.5 qi/second [100% Efficiency]
For every 0.5 qi points spent per second, gain +1 Agility. While active, your steps gain perfect traction.
Flurry (Bond Ability)
Qi Cost: 1 qi/second [100% Efficiency]
By spending 1 qi point per second, your kick speed will be doubled and kick damage will be increased by half.
Translucence - Rank 1 (Bond Ability)
Qi Cost: 1 qi/30 seconds
For every 1 qi point spent, you will become partially transparent for 30 seconds. Remaining motionless while translucent will make you exceedingly difficult to spot.
Indomitable Body (Rare)
Qi Cost: 1 qi/6 seconds
Expend 1 qi point to saturate a chosen body part with fortifying energy, temporarily increasing the Resilience of that part by 10 points for 6 seconds or until the energy is spent absorbing damage.
Cloud Step (Rare)
Qi Cost: 1 qi/ platform
Meridian Requirements: Left Foot, Right Foot
Spend 1 qi point to create a solid surface of condensed qi directly beneath a chosen foot. This platform will remain a steady and usable platform until one second has passed or the user chooses to move their foot to another place.
Flawless Healing Touch (Rare)
Qi Cost: 10 qi
Meridian Requirements: External reaching meridian
When touching near an injury on yourself or others, you can near instantaneously heal the wound to perfect condition.
Utility Arts:
Geas (Common)
Qi Cost: Minimum 5 qi/geas
By reserving 5-20 qi of your overall pool, you can form a contractual thread between you and your target. Each contractual thread can be assigned a single, well-defined task which the target must be able to reasonably complete. If the target knowingly refuses to complete the task, they will receive damage to their cultivation base proportional to the amount of qi reserved. When the task is completed, the contractual thread will be harmlessly dissolved and the invested qi will no longer be reserved.
Spectral Projection (Bond Ability)
Qi Cost: 1qi/minute
You gain the ability to temporarily project your consciousness outside of your body. You can maintain the projection for the cost of 1 qi per minute, and upon canceling the ability or running out of qi your consciousness will be returned to your body.
Telekinesis
Qi Cost: 1 qi/lb
Meridian Requirements: Mind
For every point of qi invested, exert one pound of force for 10 seconds on any object.
Mindsets:
Sage’s Rumination (Rare)
Qi Cost: N/A
Embodies unshakable tranquility and allows one to maintain a meditative state without entering a trance.
Hyperfocus (Uncommon)
Qi Cost: N/A
Meridian Requirements: Mind
While this passive mental technique is practiced, reaction and mental processing speeds will be doubled.
Spirit Bonds:
Lunar Wolpertinger (Rank 5 - Low) [ View More ]
Silas - Lunar Wolpertinger
Rank 5 - Low
Attributes:
Aptitude (Approximate Max Value):
Strength: 8
Average (16)
Agility: 20
Exceptional (28)
Endurance: 12
Average (16)
Resilience: 10
Average (16)
Active Abilities:
Passive Abilities:
Thump
Cooldown: 6 Seconds
Cost: 1 qi
Herb Hunter
Leap
Cooldown: 2 Seconds
Cost: 0.3 qi
Poison Connoisseur
Swift
Max duration: 10 seconds * Endurance
Cooldown: 20% of duration
Cost: 0.1 qi/ second
Prey’s Perception
Translucence
Max duration: 5 minutes * Endurance
Cooldown: 100% of duration
Cost: 0.5 qi/ minute
Iron Gut
Antler Genesis
Max size: 0.5lbs * Resilience
Cooldown: -1oz / second
Cost: 0.5 qi/ lb
Transfer Vitality
Antler Shot
Max size: 0.25lbs * Resilience
Cooldown: -1oz / second
Cost: 0.5 qi/ lb
Savage Bite
Cooldown: 12 Seconds
Cost: 2 qi
Offered Bond Abilities:
Bond Ability Points (BP) Remaining: 0
Swift (Rank 2)
[2 BP]
For every 0.5 qi points spent per second, gain +2 Agility. After ability ends, effects will linger for a short time before returning to original levels. While active, your steps gain perfect traction.
Herb Hunter
[1 BP]
Like the Lunar Hare, you have the uncanny ability for finding the best quality herbs around.
Translucence (Rank 2)
[2 BP]
For every 1 qi point spent, you will become mostly transparent for 60 seconds. All other signs of your presence will be partially muted (sound, smell, aura, etc). Remaining motionless while translucent will make you exceedingly difficult to spot.
Antler Genesis
[1 BP]
You can spend at least 1 qi point to grow an antler from any bone. Size and shape of the antler can be affected by increasing qi investment during creation. Once disconnected from the body, the antler will continue to exist for 1 minute or until consciously dismissed.
Jackalope of all Trades (Rank 4)
*Mongrel Bloodline
(0/4 Bond Ability Points Invested):
Forge Light [2 BP] - Like the Celestial Hare, you gain the ability to manipulate light into a solid state. Properties and duration of forged objects will vary depending on light source, light intensity, and initial qi invested.
Abundant Spring (Rank 2) [2 BP] - You and your bond’s qi pool and regeneration combine into one. Your bond’s cooldowns will be significantly reduced in exchange for a small consumption of qi per ability use, and can be eliminated entirely by expending additional qi. For one minute each day your bond can call upon their Empyrean Stag heritage to increase in size, Strength, and Resilience relative to your shared maximum qi pool.
Spectral Projection (Rank 2) [2 BP] - You gain the ability to temporarily project your consciousness outside of your body or to any location you can clearly visualize for 1 qi per minute. By expending additional qi, you can manifest a weak, semi-transparent physical form. Arts used while projecting will no longer incur a qi cost penalty. Upon canceling the ability or running out of qi your consciousness will be returned to your body.
Mongrel’s Feast [2 BP] - You can permanently sacrifice bond abilities in exchange for an amount of BP’s equal to their cost. Sacrificing an ability with the potential for multiple ranks will yield BP’s equal to the total cost of all ranks. Sacrificing a purchased ability will yield a full refund of invested BP and BP for any remaining rank potential. Sacrificing the unpurchased rank of an ability you already possess will yield BP for the remaining ranks and halt that ability’s potential progression.
Piercing Strike
[1 BP]
*Mongrel Bloodline
Spend 1 qi point to coat and reinforce a small area with piercing energy and increase the damage of the next attack by half. Qi coating will last for 5 seconds or until a target is struck.
Most of the items that had changed since she last checked her status page were unsurprising. The attribute increases, new tenet, updated qi pool and regen values, increased paralyzation poison resistance, and addition of [Spectral Projection] and [Telekinesis] to her utility arts were expected. One new addition was that the transport ability within [Jackalope of All Trades] had received a bonus from reinforcing her binding thread. The total distance she could travel had doubled from 500 to 1000 feet, and the cost had halved from 1 qi/10 feet to 0.5 qi/10 feet. It still wasn’t quite as potent as [Always Close] would have been, but the upgrade did take some of the sting out of missing out on the ability. Apart from that, what drew her attention most were the changes to Silas’s active abilities and the appearance of Rank 4 of Jackalope of all Trades in the offered bond abilities section.
After [Abundant Spring]’s effect was applied, all of Silas’s cooldowns were now only 20% of their original values. This was easiest to see with [Leap]. [Leap] initially had a cooldown of 10 seconds, which was reduced to 8 seconds after purchasing Rank 2 of Jackalope of All Trades, and was now further reduced to 2 seconds. There was also slightly more detail about the ‘variable cooldown’ abilities than Samantha had access to previously. While she had a fairly decent grasp of the abilities’ limitations before, it was nice to see some clear-cut values now.
Silas’s version of [Swift] had always been slightly different from the one he gave her. Rather than be able to artificially pump up his Agility for as long as he had qi to fuel it, it was more accurate to describe it as allowing him to instantly change his direction and speed with much less physical exertion than such maneuvers would normally require. Along these same lines, as long as the ability was active he could maintain his top speed with the same amount of effort as a normal, slower pace.
Now, he could keep [Swift] active continuously for 10 seconds for every point of Endurance he possessed, and the cooldown would be 20% of however long that continuous duration was. For example, if [Swift] was activated for a full second, it would only be 0.2 seconds before he could activate it again. The qi cost was also extremely affordable at a mere 0.1 qi/second. [Translucence] had almost the same exact system, except the maximum continuous duration was 5 minutes for every point of Silas’s Endurance, the cooldown would be 100% equal to the amount of time the ability was activated, and the qi cost was 0.5 qi/minute.
The cooldowns for [Antler Genesis] and [Antler Shot], in contrast, were not ‘all or nothing’ like [Swift] and [Translucence] were. Rather, Silas had a maximum size/amount of antler he could create in a short period of time and every second would restore some of that ‘spent’ limit. In other words, if he created a maximum sized antler rack that weighed 5 pounds, he could create a smaller, 1 pound rack after waiting a full 16 seconds.
Rank 4 of [Jackalope of All Trades] was incredibly interesting. The first thing Samantha noticed was that the three abilities she didn’t choose in Rank 3 were now gone from the list, but she could purchase Rank 2 of the abilities she did invest in. In keeping with the ‘mongrel’ theme, there was a new ability called [Forge Light] to represent the Celestial Hare bloodline that existed within Silas. There was also something called [Mongrel’s Feast], which would apparently allow her to trade any bond ability–purchased or not–for bond points. If she was understanding the skill correctly, it was a must-have selection. Not only would it allow her to gain bond points by sacrificing abilities she wasn’t very interested in purchasing (like [Herb Hunter]), but it might even let her exchange abilities she wasn’t able to purchase due to bloodline limitations. If she had [Mongrel’s Feast] at the last bloodline rank, would she have been able to trade in [Moonlight Gate], [Always Close], and [Duplicate]?
She’d need to choose [Mongrel’s Feast] first to test out her theory, but it would be difficult to decide what skill she would try and sacrifice and which she would purchase. Luckily, she had time to consider what would work best for her circumstances before making any permanent decisions.
While she considered all of this, she observed her available qi slowly ticking down. Silas apparently was having a grand time exploring his reduced cooldowns.
As if her thought had summoned him, he called out to her, “Samantha, come and watch this! Look at what I can do now!” The delight both in his tone and flowing through their bond was infectious, and she found herself smiling.
“Coming!”