Tim’s hands glowed an aura outline in translucent pink and purple. Everything else inside the hazy perimeter of his form was transparent. The river’s current passed through him with about as much catch as a rope net lost astream.
Aura Mage Form - Activated.
Okay, that’s interesting. Somehow he’d gone full aura. It felt like he’d survived, but what if this was like an afterlife? The light helped a little considering the deep darkness everywhere else. Was it water? In Aura Mage form he felt no temperature, only fluctuating resistance, possibly from wind or water.
Animal Signs detected foreign bubbles around him, partially hidden in the dark. Fear of breathing led to the realization his lungs didn’t hurt. His mind wasn’t fizzing on the verge of unconsciousness. It was clear.
Belt Protection OOo
One of the three circles disintegrated, leaving two next to the notification. A timer. He didn’t know how many he’d had total. The fall must have made him pass out. Faint memories carried him as far as a deafening roar and sudden blindness. Now he kicked and stretched both hands for what he hoped was toward the surface. The bubbles had gone that way.
Wait. Bubbles? If he wasn’t breathing–and that was a problem for airside Tim–then where did the bubbles come?
A fish with a two-foot beak lined with razor teeth wiggled into point-blank range. Tim started to swing an arm down to block. The fish stuck its mouth at his arm and bit down. Its beak passed right through, then aura collected at its tip, along its gums, and spread over its head. It jerked away. Tim’s aura mask felt the mass under his control like wrapping it in a blanket and withstanding its fight.
It bit him again. Its beak passed through his aura stomach and double dipped the thickness of aura spread across its sea-floor camouflage scales. As his aura absorbed into its gills, a smooth inhale filled Tim’s lungs. Fresh air beyond understanding. His Belt Protection bubbles increased from one to two. How was he doing that? He ran out of MP before the waterfall?
Belt MP - 42 MP
Storage was activated when your heart rate fluctuation triggered safety parameters, combined with reaching Protection Level 10. You can now change into full Aura Form when at 10 percent or less health. Opening the chest with your phy core unlocked access to the belt’s synergy and enchantments.
Well, thank you Rryeg!
His aura encompassed two-thirds of the fish–identified as a cloefen fish, level 3–and took over with its muscles to allow Tim to send it swimming for the surface. The fish’s ID card added a symbol that looked like a rope harness.
New skill evolved within Aura Mage: Aura Bond. At the initial stages of this skill, the bond connects through ingestion with your aura. The higher your aura percent housed in their body the higher the likelihood of bonding. A subject’s elemental affinities and other defenses will impact that percent of success.
His aura attachment dragged him along like a kid with his giant puppy. The Belt MP trickled down slowly enough to consider hanging around, especially if his friends were sunk. Tim slowed the ascent and leveled the cloefen as he sent Danger Sense into the depths. Dryfu! Papa Ptol!
Can ghosts sink? He hadn’t seen the old man since they submerged.
The cloefen dipped and dove. Tim’s aura turned it into a serpentine glow globe cutting through silt and floating bits of waston weed. Tim’s hand swept through the mass and caught it in his fist. Aura heated his hand and transformed the weed into its base form, absorbing its nutrients. Tim caught another handful. His MP rose to 16 with the digestion and an avenue opened where he could cut off the drain from Rryeg’s belt. He declined it for now, choosing to keep both storages open. A heartbeat later, a man swam into view. Algae and moss Skin stretched over bone. Black fangs over cancerous gums jutted from his extended mouth.
Gafka Level 8
Tim equipped Aura Blades and his dagger.
The gafka’s trident shot through him. Pain electrified. The gafka withdrew his trident. No blood. Tim dove and stabbed his dagger. The gafka parried and sliced a barb across Tim’s face. Again, electric pain unlike what he should have felt. No blood loss, but his HP dipped into the twenties. It hadn’t been much to begin with, but the gafka’s strikes knocked a half dozen or so each time. Parrying in this strange aura form offered an easier stream, as though unrestricted by sore muscles and greater weight. His aura form flowed. The gafka showed how it could flow, flapping his fins and spinning into a bite through Tim’s cheek. -8 HP.
Tim’s backup plan caught up with the gafka as the cloefen fish speared it in the side. Tim stabbed the gafka. Flesh sizzled and hardened into rock. Tim’s dagger scrapped against the sides as he yanked it free. The gafka had bled when his cloefen caught him. The aura blade turned him into stone, and it kept spreading. The gafka fought and started to sink. Tim kept his dagger out and used his Aura Light to enhance the visibility. A flash of aura reflected from the rocks twelve feet below. Tim kicked and dove, catching a handful of weed to fist into strength.
Another gafka and her friend swam into his path. Tridents jabbing their glistening silver tips. Tim equipped his aura axe and deflected the tridents wide. A back tip slashed him in the side. His HP sank to 13. The weed slowed the decrease. He stretched his axe out to collect more and pulled it in as he kicked toward the light source. Dryfu! Wake up!
The gafka circled around and built speed for the kill. Tim caught Charlie the cloefen and sent him at the first. Its beak jabbed the beast in her hip and drove her back. The other zoomed around the interference and rebuilt her speed at Tim. He oversold his divebomb toward the rocks, then at the last second looped back up with the aura form’s grace. His axe sliced a nasty gash up her stomach. She bit into his back and swam through him. His HP clocked down to 7. Bubbles rose from the cracks ahead.
Dryfu spun like a missile into the circling gafka. Tim’s axe strike send a wide fissure of black rock from waist to shoulder, slowing her reaction speed to Dryfu’s wing whipped barrage. Tim sliced through a thick row of weeds, switched the axe to his other hand and did the same to the other side. While he dragged those in and chewed through a fat piece, he searched the rocks around where Dryfu had emerged. Honing into the power in his belt, he sent a ping of Magic Hunt into the water.
A signal flashed back. There. Tim kicked through the weeds.
A mana ray awoke out of thin air. Blue and gray aura flushed out from its center as its cloak deactivated. It whipped its tail at Tim’s hand. He rotated sideways and jerked his wrist like Ky had shown him, catching the tail and looping the blade. The manna ray lashed out with its V shaped triple fang. Tim split its face in two with the head of his axe. The pouch! He found it resting on a blue plant shaped like macaroni Analyze read as urnabow moss, an aura enhancer and worth snatching if he could.
Tim unequipped his axe, looted the manna ray and gafka available in a notification and swam with dagger out toward the pouch. He shaved the moss off the rock and deposited it in the pouch with the treasure.
You have gained two levels in Magic Hunt! Now Level 11!
Tim dismissed the notification without opening the star next to it.
Charlie the cloefen has perished.
Tim’s gills faded. His air bubbles disintegrated as he kicked for the surface. At one and a half he gave his lungs a sweet taste of fresh air.
Belt is out of MP. Shutting down.
His aura form breathed out of exhaustion. With each cycle out, his physical form returned from the inside out. He reached the shore a good hundred yards from the base of the falls. Taking cover under a tree, he climbed its roots to park on the forest side. Once his weed replenished his MP enough, he cast Battleground and started a Protection spell. He wove a mixture of Gregor’s poem with a new one grateful to have survived the waterfall. Before passing out he remembered Dryfu tapping him on the temple and then telling him to rest. He’d take first shift.
Sleep had its fill.
***
Tim awoke to daylight and Dryfu chewing on the decapitated remains of a green bug not unlike his grasshopper ancestry.
“Don’t judge me. It took a lot of work to keep you safe through the night.”
“Thank you.” Tim didn’t see any threats right away and he felt well rested, though plenty sore still. That might take awhile.
A notification cog in his HUD indicated unread status updates.
See notifications?
Just health and Eq.
Eq: 0
HP: 103
MP: 82
*level up to spend.
Nice. Though not that his nixstone finally wore out. His stomach quaked, calling him toward food. He took out some of the waston weed from his pouch and shoveled the slimy noodles into his mouth. A squirrel creature scurried over a root and behind a tree, reminding him of their ghost friend’s absence. “Did you see Papa Ptol go over?”
Dryfu shook his head. “No. And I didn’t see him last night either. I could use some rest once you’re good.”
The sun was nearing the midpoint of the welcome blue sky. “I’m sorry about oversleeping. I–”
“It’s okay. Your aura fatigue and Eiyero hangover combined to knock you out.” Dryfu hopped onto Tim’s knee. “Welcome to the dark side.”
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“How’s that?” Tim touched his cheek where the gafka bit through him. It hurt at the time, but his testing through the morning stubble went without any scars or wounds. Memories of the gafka turning to stone after he stabbed them flooded his mind with questions.
Dryfu climbed to Tim’s shoulder as he stood to stretch. “The elemental interaction between your dagger in its aura form and their undead nature created a stone effect. You’re blessed with many of the items you have. Though that was still a heck of a fight.”
“You weren’t too bad either. How did you swim so quickly.” He mimicked the tornado spiral Dryfu had made when he shot out of the pouch.
“That’s a new one. Boosted Dexterity and Strength and earned a Propeller skill. It takes a lot out of me though, so the cooldown at this point makes it more of a rare move to hold onto.”
“So, what’s happening to me? I woke in the dark water with Aura Mage Form Activated and a Rryeg’s Belt protection spell combo.”
“A full activated aura form at your level is possible, with help, but the cost will likely show itself for a few days.”
“Yes, I saw that. As part of my Protection reaching level ten.”
“Good! The dark side joke is because other spirit-based creatures, most, but not all of whom earn their forms permanently as they passed into the afterlife.”
“Did I?”
“No. As you suspected, your Protection skill combined with the Rryeg belt aura reserves forced the transformation into your Aura Mage form. Part of your Oil and Water path is evolving through both physical and aura forms. Your body had an instinctual reaction helped by a spark of phy power. The cost will affect your physical movement and general sense of being stuck in a body–”
“Like living in a bed of nails.”
“Yeah.” Dryfu chuckled. “Kind of like that.”
He sent out a first of the day Danger Sense before leaving the protection zone. The enormity of threats in the area sent a chill through him as upwards of a few hundred threats pinged back. None too close to prevent them reaching a dry set of rocks on the other side of the dam keeping the bay around the falls contained. Within about five acres, this mountainous forest had a few encampments and several pathways with passing soldiers and traders. And nearly all of them were here for him or profiteering off the gossip that he was here. Tim added their numbers to his mental map. The goblins and panthers had tripled and a hint of either Lias or another artisan waited within their ranks. His mind wasn’t sharp enough to break through their defensive network beyond the sense they were hunting him and any friends. Since his tracking Lias to the last skull, the artisan had increased his defenses. No doubt a spell protection had been cast with the knowledge of their last battle combined with the intel the goblins gathered from chasing him.
I should have done that as soon as I opened my eyes.
The hangover also affects your wisdom early on. You need to regain your strength and we need to get somewhere safer than this.
A pack of stone backed badgers entered the water on a b-line for him. Their speed might only take a few minutes to cross.
Tim turned to the woods leading west. Maybe southwest. The steep terrain slanted away from the waterfall and the fort to flatten along a wide stretch of thick forest. At the top, falls ways, the steep terrain climbed five stories.
“It’s okay,” Dryfu said and pointed him down their side of the river. “There’s a tunnel under the falls. That’s how many of the shady dealers entered Squire’s Castle.”
Tim started after Dryfu. A small tree with brick red apples caught his eye.
Balinwal Tree. Its fruit is safe if the stem isn’t white. Rich in vitamins and applies a 30-10 HP/MP regen boost per serving.
A nice dose of XP stored in Foraging.
“Don’t dally,” Dryfu said. “Grab as many as you can and come on.”
“I know. I can sense them. I'm starving though and this waston weed needs something sweet.” He foraged two dozen before Dryfu barked for him to get a move on, now. The badger things were close to the shore and swimming for the dam to cut them off.
Tim ate on the run, annoyed that these things were making him rush his breakfast. The apples were a delicious mix of sweet tea and… watermelon candy. The aftertaste sent shivers of strength into his aura channels.
He finished two by the time they reached the cave entrance. Large flat rocks formed a mini dam and below that a plank rope bridge crossing a white-water rapids delta spreading into the mountainous forest. On this side of the main waterfall, the steep slope was covered in trees with dangling willow branches and ivy. Even his climbing skills would be tested too much to do that in his condition, especially if they had a tunnel that would be–
It might be safer.
Oh?
The company on the outside tips the scales. We’ll have our hands full in here, too. So check your notifications and do what you need to before we get company.
They entered a tunnel eroded by water long ago and narrow enough Tim hoped it didn’t get any tighter. As it was it would be hard to run.
Pear shaped birds with beautiful colored feathers hung folded from their perch’s scaling the wall above. Their awareness of Tim and Dryfu put them on the defensive, though the height difference might be why they hadn't flown the coop yet.
Tim thought of setting a trap. What Jil taught him wouldn’t work if the badgers climbed over the cage.
You’re right.
Tim worked up a poem with most of last night’s, plus a prayer for his friends to find them, then wrote it into a protection spell on their trail. His twenty five MP spend gave them two and a half hours, roughly. As he learned on his run from the panthers, the opponent’s levels and skills affected the duration.
That doesn’t mean you can’t lay a trap for those birds.
Tim hadn’t thought of that. In checking his inventory, he found two useful nuggets from the subtext. One, is these birds, zetklers, will eat the waston weed. The second took more digging, but deep in his alchemy skill and aura mage symbiotic options, he found one to combine gafka with waston. Within minutes of ingestion, their bone marrow would turn to stone and they’ll drop like flies.
Tim picked the widest place in their path with the best view of the zetklers and out of view of the path entrance. He sat there and told Dryfu to get some rest. “As much as you need. I’m going to work on my skinning skill.”
Tim tested a theory about the difference between cultivation and magic. With his regen in c-mana, he trained his body to burn the renewable resource first. The river had forced him to.
He found c-mana to work well enough at smaller tasks when used by itself. Things like creating the gafka laced seaweed so it would deliver the two-minute delay wasn’t easy at first, but he got it done. Boosting abilities with c-mana, or torching it, as he called it because it burned under his skin, created a harder to control, sudden burst of power. It didn’t matter so much if he burnt the gafka chunks, but if he overshot the percentages of components, it ruined the spell and the meat.
The seaweed strings from his first dozen tries were never eaten. It took untainted seaweed to get the birds back for his second batch. Some of those caused the bird’s necks to enlarge, choking them out in seconds. It took hours and him leaving to hang out in a rut in the wall watching before they bought on his third batch. This one stored ten times the XP as his second batch.
He earned enough by sunset to gain two levels in Alchemy. The way leveling worked without nixstone or a leveling jewel was his XP stored high enough to earn multiple levels once he gained the necessary jewel power. An irritable twitch in his lips reminded him constantly of the Eiyero withdrawal. It was hard to sew the aura into his weed traps, too.
Taking a skill element from Aura Armor, he sewed the spell into the gafka as he sewed it into the weed. The second batch had its quickest success through the ones where he’d sewn the aura to be seamlessly hidden in the folds between pieces. He didn’t know if it was through sight, taste, or smell, but the birds pecked around and then abandoned some of his second batch where he knew his aim had been off. He tried using only c-mana to make a Protection spell in the walls. Pieces broke off and he lost more c-mana–a lot more–than he’d tried to spend.
Protection barely had any left. This experiment developed a feeling that treated magic points like oil to coat his engine and the main source of fuel, while c-mana was an accelerant that made everything better. When used by itself, he found he could do some small things with just c-mana, but only in a pinch and the risk of wasting his c-mana on a failed spell was 80-90 percent.
He trapped eleven birds in the end, and took his time freeing their spirits, unlocking nine without their mana wasting away like mist burning off their bones. The mana they stored was tiny compared to the Takekuma, but all combined, it gave him enough to fill Magic Hunt and Protection. His plan for tonight was to secure the hollowed out six by six space he intended to make their camp. If he couldn’t stand holing up here for the night, he might go hunt for some Takekuma, but that was a huge if. He cleaned the birds and stoked a fire like Ky had taught him prior to settling in to resolve his stat notifications.
Congratulations! You have retrieved the fabled Squire’s oshi. Magic Hunt has expanded to Lockpicking Level 3.
Aura Mage gained two levels!
10 AP to spend.
You have unlocked a rewardable quest. As the new owner to the Squire’s oshi, and Rryeg’s belt, you will gain a 40% boost to any XP gained in retaking the castle. In two days, that boost is reduced to 15% indefinitely.
Quests in process:
1. Master the Oil and Water path.
2. Find the leveling jewel
3. Capture Chane
4. Recapture Squire’s Castle
5. Build up and protect the Burg
Mini-quests in process:
1. Find Chris and keep him safe.
2. Find Jil and team and help them with their mission for Childockia.
3. Unlock the secret of his relationship with the dealer, Jao and what it cost to buy the door.
4. Further develop vine ability to enhance Protection and Battleground abilities.
5. Recruit Krows.
6. Uncover the secret of the Padstoligan Treasure
7. Help the Hai Trade Company withstand the Cartel’s efforts to overtake shipping and land transportation.
His mini-quests ran a long list of potential XP gainers such as how much for trapping the rock badgers or how much he sold his goods. Each item had a range for worthy sales to being ripped off and the value in XP to his Negotiator skill as well as his Skinning skill based on the value he could sell them for. Surprisingly, his gafka corpse could net 20 gold pieces. That wasn’t anything compared to the value of his oshi poison or even his gotr blade in this local economy.
The system’s order showed the kinds of XP value it placed on accomplishing his goals. Their accuracy to how much he internally desired their completion was arguably the same.
He cut some roots free from the walls to use for a spigot system Melody had built to roast multiple hides at once. With four birds skinned and pronged, he struck his campfire to life. Not a minute too soon with the chill. He didn’t think Dryfu would mind if he hung out in the buff while his clothes dried by the fire.
The stykiller was still sleeping anyway, but even if he woke up, they were both adults and his clothes were musty. Before bed he’d do his best to pursue an idea about creating a 70/30 physical to aura constructed pillow out of the feather supply. The tutorial included in his Oil and Water folder included an extensive explanation about how he’d have to care for his aura form in all things, not just in battle. A 70/30 P/A pillow would have enough physical support to keep his head off the ground and comfortable, while the thirty percent to aura would absorb the dead crystals formed from aura fatigue. At his level in Aura Armor, the pillow was the best ease of creation to cost ratio for relieving his aura fatigue and Eiyero hangover. The gafka bracelets were something he could take into battle and would stay on him even if he turned into full Aura form. Their cost in MP (40) was high and he was nearly out of the waston weed. He figured he had enough for a full refill once he rolled for his new levels, and of that, he’d rather spend the MP on hunting and foraging if he went out.
He snapped off the rolls for his two levels while waiting for the birds to cook.
9, 8, 6, 10.
New MAX HP: 160
New MAX MP: 111
He pulled up his AP to think of how to spend the ten points.
Str 18, Dex 15, Con 19 (-1 racial), Wis 20 (+2 seconds to c-mana), Int 13 (+2 racial), Char 6
Occupying the most space in his thoughts was building out from a core in Constitution and Wisdom to withstand the body damage of being an ODub Mage. More of the same as he looked at the second-tier attributes, Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence as helping him creating and controlling his powers.
+3 to Wis
+3 to Con
+1 to Dex, Str, Int and Char
New AP
Str 19, Dex 16, Con 22 (-1 racial), Wis 23 (+2 seconds to c-mana), Int 14 (+2 racial), Char 7
His skills lined up as:
Level 12 Ranger
Level 7 Aura Mage
Forestry Lv 5
Foraging Lv 6
Self Defense Lv 10
Parrying Lv 7
Fleeing Lv 8
Danger Sense Lv 9
Protection Lv 10
Party Oversight Lv 7
Analyze Lv 7
Brother and Sister’s Keeper Lv 8
Horse’s Keeper Lv 3
Poison Resistance Lv 4
Torture Endurance Lv 3
Healing Lv 8
Recovery Lv 8
Ally Maker Lv 6
Politician Lv 4
Interrogation Lv 3
Small Blades Lv 10
Riding Lv 2
Tracking Lv 5
Hunting Lv 6
Skinning Lv 4
Magic Hunting Lv 11
Aura Blades Lv 3
Aura Armor Lv 2
Spirit Memory Lv 2
Trapping Lv 4
Evolutions:
Cultivator
-Oil and Water path
Tim had a fair amount in storage for his next leveling trip but seeing how some of his skills had gained the next threshold excited him. He now had four skills at level ten or above: Self Defense, Protection, Small Blades and Magic Hunt. They seemed as good as any at this stage in his life here. Four bonus notifications with symbols like stars waited for him to access them. Dryfu snorted awake, popping up from lying down to fighting stance. Tim waited for him to catch his breath. His black eyes were wide with alarm. “It’s okay, Dry. We’re safe. I’ve protected this alcove so we can rest here. Are you alright?”
“Yeah.” Dryfu shook it off, easing his tail down to rest on Tim’s knee. He rubbed his wing against his face, smoothing something Tim couldn’t see. “Good job. This looks secure enough for the night.”
“I was just going to open my level ten bonuses. You game to go over them with me?”
Dryfu soared for a landing on the wall and snatched a bug from a crack. After gulping the rocky shape down his gullet, he said, “Yes. Let’s have a look.”