It was the next morning that Cass finally opened the notifications from the previous night’s fight. She could barely believe what she saw.

Herald of the Pass has been slain.

[You have defeated the Herald of the Pass in Mortal Combat. For your part in its defeat, you have been granted a share of its treasure. Find and collect treasure to claim.]

Beginner Sub-quest: Defeat the Lords’ Heralds Checkpoint (3/3) Completed

[Reward: Chance to Manifest Treasure, 1 Choice of 3 options.

1. Trait, Increased Skill Gain, Single Dex skill

2. Skill, Awaken Racial Skill

3. Buff, Minor, Stat]

Level Up!

Level Up!

+ 2 Dex

+ 2 End

+ 2 Wll

+ 2 Ala

+ 8 Free Points

Atmospheric Sense has increased to level 10

Wind Step has increased to level 6

Elemental Manipulation has increased to level 10

Two whole levels? Two! She’d barely done anything. Just threw a single stone spear and got snatched up. The value of killing a Herald was just that impressive.

She was still in pain from the wounds the epherwing had inflicted on her so she decided to set a few more points aside for Frt. Her Dex was growing pretty large at 26 since she gained one with every level no matter what. Since it and Str worked together, it might be a good idea to put a point in Str to keep them from getting too far out of balance.

Otherwise, things looked like they were on track for the plans she and Salos had made. She settled on:

Str 12 -> 13

Ala 30 -> 32

Res 27 -> 30

Frt 12 -> 14

There were also the rewards for beating the epherwing. Bonus skill growth, a new Racial ability, or another stat buff? All three seemed like reasonable choices.

Picking up another slyphid racial skill made her nervous, but the two she had were indispensable.

Hey, do you know what other racial skills slyphids get? She asked Salos.

Oh, is that one of your rewards? He asked.

It's an option, Cass confirmed.

Slyphids have a higher-than-average number of movement skills, like your Wind Step. They also tend to be given things relating to light, air, or aether.

What is aether? Cass asked. She’d just sort of assumed it was a fancy word for air.

It's the living space between Continents. Salos said. It's the connective tissue of the air. It connects disparate places and things.

So an air bridge? Cass asked.

I guess. That's a crude way to put it, Salos said with a scowl. If your air bridges also transport energy, potential, and life.

Cass had the distinct feeling that she was still missing something but didn’t know enough to know what that might be. She let it go. Did you get a reward too?

He nodded.

What did you pick?

Stat boost. With my level locked under yours, I will need as many of those as I can get these furry mitts on.

Cass snorted. Which stat did it end up being?

Wouldn’t you like to know? He chuckled mischievously in her ear.

As long as it isn’t Will, I don’t care, Cass said.

He scowled. Way to be too serious about it.

Well?

Strength, if you must know, he said finally.

Oh, nice.

He snorted indignantly. Watch out, I think I’m stronger than you already.

I’m pretty sure you were stronger than me before that point anyway. Cass paused. How does that work, though? You’re so much physically smaller than me, and you don’t look more muscular than you did before.

We’re Spirits, Cass, Salos said dryly. When are you going to get that through your thick skull? Our bodies are the way we conceive of ourselves, more or less.

You conceive of yourself as a cat? Cass asked incredulously.

More or less. Listening skills, he playfully chided her, I thought that was the one thing you were good at.

She snorted and flicked him on the nose. Okay, more or less. So, what does that mean?

Right now I’m constricted to a feline shape, so the skill twists my self-perception through the lens of the feline form, which gets me this.

Okay, Cass said slowly, but what does that have to do with stats and muscles?

I don’t conceive of myself with hulking muscles, that’s something for Strength centric types. What I look like and my stats are almost entirely unrelated. It's one of many advantages of being spirit-bodied.

There were so many questions buzzing around in Cass’s head. She finally settled on: That doesn’t explain how or if size and stats are related.

Oh, that's entirely dependent on whether one is physical or spirit-bodied, Salos said with a shrug. Spirits like us have what are called Absolute stats. Two spirit-bodied beings with equal strength are equally strong. For physical-bodied beings, however, the stats are Multiplicative. The nature of their physical form multiplies the power of their stats. This is where you see large things making more out of strength stats and smaller things making more out of dexterity. This effect is more pronounced at low levels and becomes less and less relevant as the levels get higher.

Why? Cass asked.

Salos shrugged. No idea. It was never something I researched.

Then if we were both pulling on a rope in opposite directions, Cass said, you’d be able to yank me along with ease? Even though you’re probably an eighth my weight?

Probably, he agreed.

But if we were both physical-bodied?

It would be more of an open question, he said. I think you would probably win, but I’d put up more of a fight than you’d expect.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

What if I was physical-bodied and you were spirit-bodied?

I’d win again, he said.

Circling back, Cass said, realizing they’d wandered pretty far off her original question. What should I take for my reward?

A stat buff or a Slyphid skill? Salos asked.

Or skill growth, Cass supplied.

For you, specifically, I’d pick the Racial skill. You only have two. Three racial skills will move you up to the standard for a young adult in their late teens.

I’m in my twenties, Cass protested.

Leveled in their late teens, Salos dismissively corrected, No one cares about your age.

And that’s a good enough reason?

You are a slyphid, he reminded her. You get more stats per level than most. Do you really need even more stats? As for the skill growth, skill growth on a single skill is fairly lackluster in comparison to your other options.

Fair enough, Cass said.

She looked over her choices one last time. Salos was right though. Maybe her decision would be different if she knew which stat would be boosted by option 3 or by how much, but then again, maybe it wouldn’t.

She selected option 2 and felt the rush of power as a new skill awakened within her.

Racial Skill Awakened: Confounding Mists (lvl 1) (Racial)

[The Aether is a place of mystery to most, something with few well-traveled paths and much unknown. Not to the Slyphid, though. For the Slyphid it is a true home. You are no exception.

Draw a piece of the aether where you will and confound the senses of those caught within it.]

The skill settled in her mind, familiar yet new. Like it had always rested just above her heart, yet alien and unnatural.

In short, she was as uncomfortable as ever with how comfortable the process was.

What did you get? Salos asked.

I thought you said not to tell anyone my skills, Cass teased.

He kneaded her shoulder impatiently. You know I wasn’t including myself in that!

You definitely were when you said it. Cass chuckled.

He pouted. Okay, maybe I was. Things were different then.

She snorted and shared the new skill with him.

Oh! Aether summoning. Very good.

Seems like I’m destined to be a rogue, not a mage, Cass said with a sigh.

Bah, you’re a terrible rogue. Let me handle the rogue-ing. Besides, a mage without rogue skills is a dead mage. You’re fine.

Cass chuckled. If you’re sure. Should I try this out now?

No, never use new toys in front of strangers. He shot a less than surreptitious glare at Alyx.

“What are you two talking about?” Alyx sighed.

“System rewards,” Cass answered truthfully.

“Don’t tell her!” Salos whined.

“Oh, did you just pick?” Alyx asked, entirely ignoring Salos.

Cass nodded.

“What kind of racial abilities do Slyphids get?” Alyx asked, “Er, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“Why would you think she’d pick that?” Salos challenged.

Alyx raised an eyebrow. “Because, allegedly, she’s only been here for a couple of weeks and Racial abilities are as rare as they come. You’d be stupid not to pick one when you can.”

“What, exactly is special about them?” Cass asked.

“They don’t count against your maximum skill count,” Alyx said, “While still granting milestone rewards. Even a useless skill is valuable for the stats they can provide. And, frankly, there aren’t many that are useless.”

“There is a max number of skills?” Cass asked.

Alyx sighed. “I can’t decide if you're telling the truth or just really committed to the bit. Your world can’t possibly not have skills. How could it not have skills?”

Cass shrugged.

“Yes, there is a max number of skills,” Alyx said with a tired sigh. “There is a hard cap at 27, but they get progressively harder to level up the more you have. Having more than 18 is uncommon.”

“And Racial skills don’t count for increasing the difficulty either?” Cass asked.

Alyx nodded.

“But wouldn’t a stats boost be a better choice if you just wanted more stats?” Cass asked.

“Sure, but as I said, the skill is very rarely useless and had a better chance of complimenting my build than shoring up a stat I don’t care much about.”

“How do you mean?” Cass asked.

“System stat rewards have an above average chance of applying to your lowest stat, and never apply to the highest one.”

Cass glanced over her stats. Yes, without the buff she’d gotten for defeating the Herald of the Forest, Vitality would have been one of her lowest numbers.

Salos had gotten it for Strength though, and if she remembered right, that was hardly his lowest stat.

It happens occasionally, don’t mention my buff out loud, Salos said just as Cass opened her mouth to comment. She shut her mouth again.

“I don’t hear you telling us what your Racial Skill is,” Salos interjected, bringing the conversation back to the beginning.

“I didn’t get especially lucky,” Alyx admitted. “Second Wind.”

“That’s not bad,” Salos said. It recovers Stamina and sometimes Focus instantaneously. One of the most common Human Racial skills. Not an uncommon one for most physical-bodied races too, actually. If she didn’t already have it, she was basically guaranteed to get it.

“Everyone hopes their Racial Skill will end up as one of the greats,” she said with a shrug.

“Perhaps your next one,” Salos said.

She snorted. “Cute. No. I doubt I’ll encounter another feat to awaken a racial skill again.”

“What?” Salos asked.

Alyx looked at him funny. “What do you mean what?”

Salos sighed. “I feel as if we’ve done this routine already, woman. What did I say that doesn’t meet your expectations?”

“You’re the one that needs to explain your confusion, cat.”

Salos glared at her. “Everything about your statement was outlandish. What do you mean about you doubt you’ll encounter another feat? You’re a young woman, you’re leveling at a good pace. You’ll go far if you can keep this up.

“But more importantly, what do feats have to do with awakening skills?”

“How else would someone awaken one?” she asked.

“Immersion in your culture? Connection with your origins? Tutelage by your elders?” Salos suggested. “How did you get the ones you already had?”

She shook her head. “I can’t decide who’s stranger, you or Cass. I didn’t have any racial skills. Barely anybody does. It's a point of pride to have one. Especially the right ones.”

The last sentence was said in a lower tone. Bitter and hushed.

Salos was shaking his head now. “That isn’t how that is supposed to work.”

Alyx shrugged. “It is what it is. Maybe things are different where you two are from.”

Salos opened his mouth to argue but changed his mind with a shake of his head. He settled beside the fire, a frown on his lips, deep in thought.

“Anyway, I’m going to try my new skill now,” Cass said.

“No!” Salos shot back up.

“I need to know how it works and Alyx shared hers already.” Cass glared down at him.

He glared back. Her poor decisions do not obligate you to reciprocate.

I don’t hear you arguing that I don’t need to know how my skill works, Cass replied.

I shouldn’t need to! It's your skill, you should just know!

Cass ignored him. That was ridiculous. That wasn’t how knowledge was supposed to work.

And yet, to some degree, he was right. She did know how to use it. She held a hand out and pulled at the skill. A mist gathered around the outstretched hand, thickening further with every point of Focus she pushed into the skill.

The mist–no, the aether–expanded, coiling around her and the camp. It held her, safe and secure. It filled her lungs, sweet and clean.

The mist was too dense to see through with her eyes. And yet, Atmospheric Sense still showed her Salos leap to his feet in surprise in front of her. She could see Alyx flinch, her hand clenching around her sword’s handle. Cass could feel every flame of the campfire dancing desperately to burn off the aether surrounding it.

This was the way the world should be. The air outside the effects of her skill had been hollow. Empty.

It was like she had lived in the dark all her life to only now step into the light. Like she had only known cold and now felt the sun’s heat for the first time.

“Cass, cut it out!” Salos yelled. The aether smothered his voice entirely, the vibrations of his voice dampening to nothing a matter of inches from his mouth, yet Atmospheric Sense brought them to her anyway.

“What is this?” Alyx yelled, her head darting around, her eyes squinting futilely through the aether. Her voice too was lost to the mists yet carried to Cass via Atmospheric Sense all the same.

Their panic was palpable, something else was going on. She disabled the skill and the aether dissolved around them. Cass savored the feeling until there was none left and she was again standing bare under the cloudy skies.

“What’s wrong?” Cass asked.

Alyx and Salos stared at her.

Alyx spoke first. “That was awful! What was that?”

“Don’t just smother your allies in aether!” Salos shouted.

“That was aether?” Alyx grimaced. “Abyss, no wonder ships avoid the stuff.”

Cass wasn’t any clearer about what was wrong than she’d been a moment before. “I thought it was nice?”

Alyx shook her head. “How can you call that nice? Are your words translating right? Good? Pleasant?”

Cass nodded.

“She is a slyphid. It is a slyphid thing.” Salos sighed. “Cass, only slyphids are comfortable in high densities of that stuff. Most races find the energies of aether disorienting and suffocating.”

Cass’s heart thumped in her chest. “Could that have killed you two?”

He shook his head. “No. Well. Probably not. Not unless disorientation kills.”

“It felt like the world was spinning around me,” Alyx added.

“Sorry,” Cass said. An unease oozed through her. Perhaps it was nothing more than regret for jumping into trying a new skill without knowing the risks to her companions.

Perhaps it was just the contrast between the hollow air around her and the memory of the aether in her lungs, like drinking lemonade after eating candy.

Perhaps it was just the rapid loss of Focus from activating the skill. It had dropped about 100 points from filling the campground.

Or perhaps it was the realization that there had been nothing human in her reaction to the aether.

“Well, you know now,” Salos grumbled, settling back down. And you’ve gone and shown that one.

Oh hush, Cass said. She’ll see it anyway eventually.

He kept grumbling but didn’t fight her.