We left the scout headquarters after we finished stocking up, the building was too damaged to serve as a defensible shelter, and started to search for somewhere to camp for the night. I recalled Alan from the sky over the village to help with the search.
Alan will find a nest for the Great Mistress and her mate!
Thank you little guy. I gave him a few scratches on the head before he went on his way.
Vel and I walked around the western part where I used my sphere to look and my familiar took the east side and did the same. He was intelligent enough to know what we were looking for and report when he found it.
It took around an hour before we found somewhere safe enough. Most of the houses had their doors broken or worse. From the outside, the building was in good shape, only some of the window shutters were broken. The biggest damage was inside. The stairs leading to the upper floor had been destroyed. Which was useful for us as it would prevent most monsters from climbing up.
"Found something," I said and pointed at the house. "House is in good shape but the stairs up are destroyed, we can use that as a choke point."
"Oh, good idea," Vel said. "Let's check it out."
I recalled Alan from his search as we entered the house, it would take a few minutes for him to fly back. Vel grew a temporary ladder for us to climb and pulled it behind us. The lack of stairs would prevent most monsters from climbing up. Vel also grew a net of thorny branches over the opening to block any spiders from coming in.
The second floor had several bedrooms. All of the futons were disturbed in one way or another, the inhabitants had been abruptly woken up in the middle of the night. This house had likely hosted multiple families related to each other. There were six adult futons in three rooms and two shared rooms for around eight kids.
Alan flew in through an open window and perched on the dresser.
The Great Mistress found a nest first. He seemed to look around for a few seconds. It is a good nest.
Can you keep an eye out for trouble during the night?
Alan will watch over the nest.
I picked the master bedroom and pulled out a clean set of futons for us while Vel prepared us something to eat. She set up a small cauldron with several fire stones underneath. I filled it with conjured water and she prepared a simple soup with some of the vegetables we had collected and more hog meat.
We ate mostly in silence. I sat against the wall with Vel leaning against my side. The day had been long and all the preparations we had made had exhausted me.
After that, I vanished my armor into my storage amulet and slid into the futon, Vel snuggled beside me. I took her into an embrace and we fell asleep. Both of us were too tired for anything more.
----------------------------------------
The next few days turned into somewhat of a routine as we were hopelessly waiting for any sign from Niu. Vel and I would wake up, eat breakfast, then go explore the village until lunch, after that we went back to exploration.
We took care to explore all the workshops we came across and packed at least one crate of materials from them, it would have been a waste to leave them to rot; and, as much as it pained me to admit it, we would be able to sell them. If we wanted to track down the attackers we would invariably need to deal with people from outside the villages. Having materials to trade for money or barter with would be extremely useful.
----------------------------------------
When we were exploring around the village gates, I noticed something I hadn't spotted the first time and I felt like an idiot for not having seen it earlier. There, partially trampled by many boots, were grooves in the dirt. Wheels.
Vel looked at me strangely as I walked around the small plaza and examined the ground with my sphere. I meticulously followed the tracks and managed to approximate a map. Three sets of two axles had come in, this meant two wagons. They had entered in a single file and stopped in an arc around the plaza. When they continued, they left deeper grooves. This meant they had increased in weight.
> Gained General Skill Investigation at rank 1, level 1
I raised an eyebrow. I quickly checked the description.
Investigation (Rank 1, Level 1)
Improves your ability to notice details around you when this skill is active. Increases the accuracy of logical deductions when correlating clues. This skill does not guarantee correct conclusions, higher skill levels allow to spot incorrect conclusions more easily.
It was an odd but useful skill to get.
"The attackers came with wagons," I said and pointed at the tracks, "loaded them up with captives and bodies then left."
"Why would they take the bodies?" Vel asked. "The villagers I can understand but …"
"I have a feeling I don't want to know," I grimaced.
The tracks left the village and followed the trading path.
"Let's follow the path when we leave," Vel said.
I nodded.
----------------------------------------
During the evenings, I spent some time meditating and went over my skills. As both Vel and I had reached rank four which had unlocked class specializations. We decided to check what was available. Unlike classes which had hidden requirements to unlock, likely the reason why I didn't have any secondary class yet, specializations were visible even if the prerequisites weren't met.
A specialization usually added an aspect to a class. For example, a druid could choose to specialize in a specific element, a ranger into familiars or archery, or an artisan into specific techniques. Third tier classes, which I had, allowed up to three at once.
Most of the options for Mystic Knight were relatively underwhelming from the overlap with other martial classes. The one from this set I was the most interested in was the Sharpshooter for the bow skills but it was surpassed by the mystic equivalent. There were three in particular that interested me. The Mesmer was an illusion specialist and had skills to create fake clones during combat, the Kineticist added elemental attacks without the need for dedicated spells, and the Mystic Archer which was a better version of the previously mentioned Sharpshooter.
Mesmer
Requirements
Rank 4, Magic Combat at rank 3, Any illusion magic, Wisdom of 100
Skills
Phantasm (Create an illusory duplicate of yourself)
Mimicry (Mimic the appearance of another humanoid)
Kineticist
Requirements
Rank 4, Magic Combat and Magic Strike at rank 3, Any elemental magic, Strength or Agility of 100
Skills
Kinetic Blast (Short range elemental attack)
Kinetic Infusion (Infuse weapons or strikes with elemental properties)
Metakinesis (Modify kinetic abilities)
Mystic Archer
Requirements
Rank 4, Magic Combat at rank 3, Any shot skill at rank 3, Bow Mastery at rank 3, Agility of 100
Skills
Mystic Shot (Combines the effect of all shot skills)
Mystic Aim (Increases accuracy with ranged weapons)
My other class was where things got interesting. I skipped over the boring elemental specializations and honed in on the more exotic ones. The first was Runic Witch, unlocked with high metamagic, it gave access to runic casting which allowed for on-the-fly alteration of memorized spell and runic inscription, a way to store a spell into an object. Next was the Crystal Witch, specialized in the creation of mana crystals. Combined with runic inscriptions and earth magic, I had an idea of how to develop a unique combat style. The final one, Spirit Witch, was an evolution from Shadow Familiar and focused on spirit summons as the name implied.
Runic Witch
Requirements
Rank 4, Arcane Magic at rank 3, Metamagic at rank 3, intelligence or wisdom of 100
Skills
Runic Magic (Knowledge of runic magic)
Runic Casting (Allows the use of runes to cast or alter spells)
Runic Inscription (Allows the storage of spells on objects with runes)
Crystal Witch
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Requirements
Rank 4, Earth Magic at rank 3, Arcane Magic at rank 3, Metamagic at rank 3, intelligence or wisdom of 100
Skills
Crystal Magic (Knowledge of crystal magic)
Crystal Growth (Transform stone under your control into mana crystals)
Spirit Witch
Requirements
Rank 4, Nature Magic at rank 3, Shadow Familiar at rank 3, intelligence or wisdom of 100
Skills
Spirit Magic (Knowledge of spirit magic)
Spirit Familiar (Replaces Shadow Familiar, Summon a spirit as a familiar)
Spirit Summon (Allows the summoning of spirits temporarily, 1 per rank)
Spirit Contract (Allows the contracting of spirits, 1 per rank)
The first roadblock was the requirements, all the specializations needed rank three skills and one hundred in various attributes. Next was the cost, two hundred and sixteen essence for all six specializations. I had enough essence to purchase them but that didn't take into account the need to raise my attributes and skills. I needed to prioritize. My reserve of essence was due to the large increase in levels, it also meant that it would be harder to gain any further levels.
The obvious choice was therefore to upgrade my essence perks first.
> Upgraded Essence Mastery rank 2 for 48 ES
> Upgraded Essence Well to rank 2 for 24 ES
> Upgraded Essence Absorption to rank 2 for 24 ES
Next were the attributes. The specializations I wanted required primarily mental attributes and agility. At four points per essence spent thanks to the mastery perk, I didn't need to spend as much.
> Increased Agility from 71 to 103 for 8 ES (+32 points)
> Increased Intelligence from 96 to 120 for 6 ES (+24 points)
> Increased Wisdom from 85 to 101 for 4 ES (+16 points)
> Increased Spirit from 84 to 100 for 4 ES (+16 points)
> Increased Clarity from 79 to 103 for 6 ES (+24 points)
Finally, the skills. Only three needed to be raised to get all of the Mystic Witch specializations I wanted.
> Raised Skill Nature Magic to rank 3, level 20 for 10 ES (+40 levels)
> Raised Skill Arcane Magic to rank 3, level 20 for 10 ES (+40 levels)
> Raised Skill Metamagic to rank 3, level 15 for 10 ES (+40 levels)
And with everything in place.
> Purchased Specialization Runic Witch for 36 ES
> Purchased Specialization Crystal Witch for 36 ES
> Purchased Specialization Spirit Witch for 36 ES
> Skill Spirit Familiar replaced Shadow Familiar
Alan felt strange for an instant, I received over my link with him.
I upgraded the skill, I sent, you are a spirit familiar now.
Alan understands! He is grateful for the upgrade.
I gave my status screen a final look. It had grown quite a bit thanks to the new options, I dreaded the day I had one more class.
Name
Liscura Van-Niu
Ancestry
Dark Elf
Status
Level 82 (Rank 4) | 115 Essence
Health: 900/900 (+120%/h)
Stamina: 985/1130 (+166%/h)
Mana: 3060/3700 (+307%/h)
Focus: 105/201
Bound Items
[Hidden]
Primary Class 1
Mystic Knight
Skills (5/10)
[Hidden]
Primary Class 2
Mystic Witch
Skills (4/10)
Nature Magic - Rank 3, Level 20
Arcane Magic - Rank 3, Level 20
Metamagic - Rank 3, Level 15
Multicast - Rank 2, Level 10
Spells
Nature: 4/4 major, 7/7 minor
Arcane: 4/4 major, 4/7 minor
Specialization 1
Runic Witch
Skills
Runic Magic - Rank 1, Level 1
Runic Casting - Rank 1, Level 1
Runic Inscription - Rank 1, Level 1
Specialization 2
Crystal Witch
Skills
Crystal Magic - Rank 1, Level 1
Crystal Growth - Rank 1, Level 1
Specialization 3
Spirit Witch
Skills
Spirit Magic - Rank 1, Level 1
Spirit Familiar - Rank 3, Level 1
Spirit Summon - Rank 1, Level 1
Spirit Contract - Rank 1, Level 1
Familiar
Skills (4/6): Share Senses, Shadow Step, Skill Conduit, Spell Conduit
Templates (1/6): Shadow Raven
Secondary Class
[None]
Perks
Blessing of Gaia
Essence Mastery (Rank 2)
Essence Absorption (Rank 2)
Essence Well (Rank 2)
Perception Domain
Magic Perception
Major Grimoire (Rank 1)
Minor Grimoire(Rank 1)
Improved Senses(Rank 3)
Night Vision (Rank 5)
General Skills
Combat Skills [Hidden]
Knowledge Skills
Medicine - Rank 2, Level 24
Herbalism - Rank 2, Level 22
Alchemy - Rank 3, Level 25
Survival - Rank 2, Level 12
Investigation - Rank 1, Level 1
Utility Skills [Hidden]
Mental Skills [Hidden]
Languages
[Hidden]
Resistances
[Hidden]
Attributes
Strength: 60, Agility: 103, Vitality: 60, Endurance: 63
Intelligence: 120, Wisdom: 101, Spirit: 100, Clarity: 103
I sighed and dismissed the mental window. I would test all of that later, I was famished.
I stopped my meditation and stretched my limbs. My feet dangled from the side of the roof of our temporary residence. I kicked off the ledge and landed on the balcony below. The smell of stew in the air guided me towards our bedroom where I found Vel next to the cauldron. She had kept the broth alive while we were at the village and the taste had only improved with time.
"Smells great," I said as I gave her a kiss.
"A curious Night Hunter tried to peek. I added it to the soup." She said with a mischievous smile.
"Too curious for its own good," I chuckled.
With the barrier down, monsters were prodding at the edges of the village.
"We have to leave tomorrow," I continued, "it has been three days already."
Vel sighed. "You're right. One last night then?"
"One last night."