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The Gatekeepers Series
Chapter 18: Mighty Bow

Chapter 18: Mighty Bow

Tim took a bite of his roasted bird while thick gray clouds slowly passed the fissure view leading into the sky. The mostly straight incline offered few places he could leverage to climb. Not impossible, but the distance between sides was too great to press himself in between them like a parkour expert would. His rope was too short, in this form. He considered using aura magic to lengthen it like he had the pouch. The difference between the two tasks was significant. He’d increased the pouch by a foot; this would take that times a hundred. For now, he needed to refuel on this spicy delicatessen.

The bird was surprisingly juicy, and the seasoning Ky traded him only added to the firey kick to the tastebuds. So much more than seaweed. He didn’t even mind spitting out the bones. His Danger Sense had a low-level emission that worked even in the food he ate. He knew before his teeth hit the bone where it was and how to chew to easily sift the good from the bad. It was like brushing your teeth on the moon. The wonder in the mundane cooked him with fascination.

Tim opened his reward notifications between bites.

Self Defense Level 10 Bonus - Gained new melee defense skill: Hand to Hand, Level 1 as well as White Belt within Rryeg’s Order of the Squire discipline.

Wear the belt as you train and in battle and utilize Spirit Memory to access his forms if you cannot find a living disciple to teach you. The belt’s phy core will document and gauge your efficiency to reward you with new colors. At higher color belts, you’ll gain the ability to perform more difficult forms. Rryeg’s Order delivers a combination of fast, hard blocks and defensive jabs and has a ten-belt path to the top. Qualifies as a defensive bonus while equipping a single point of attack per belt. As a white belt, Lv. 1, you gain Rryeg’s thimble to aura activate on your middlefinger stab for lethal attacks to deliver your poison. Other forms in this discipline will utilize your bracers and set you up for Double Whammos or buying time until you can regen to cast an aura blade.

All sub-category spells under Self Defense have a 100% boost to length of spell.

Protection Level 10 bonus - Some of this was drained in allowing the activation of full aura form when your health is reduced to ten percent or less. Skill: Aura Form granted at level 1, though you can gain XP in this skill through partial transformation and management while in Fade. You’re an Oil and Water mage. Part of your success will depend on adapting to the various forms that you take as your power works through you and circumstances challenge you.

Additionally, you are granted a one-hundred-foot base for battleground effect and maximum of 1,000 feet.

You are also now granted Skill: Aura Shield, a shield generating spell that doubles as an aura storage. The top ways to increase defensive strength and storage depth are with use, aura crafting and cultivation mana.

Small Blades Level 10 Bonus - critical hit upgrade to 35% chance. Added skill Catch: can now train and increase catching items, including weapons.

Small Blades Upgrade grants a secondary weapon skill, plus you can now equip Tier 3 small blades.

Options for secondary weapon skill:

Archery

Broadswords

Poles and Spears

*Next option granted at Small Blades Level 20

His Small Blades had already evolved to being able to throw axes and other small blades, but he wasn’t going to penetrate the hardest armor with those. When he started to fade, his up close and personal attack style presented high risk. So as much as he enjoyed the feel of charging an enemy, it made sense to add ranged attacks with more power and accuracy than hurling a small blade. Archery gave him the greatest distance and bows and arrow enhancements offered the greatest power potential at this point. He studied some of the inherent advantages to the ranger class. They owned unique gifting in accuracy, stealth (which worked very well with ranged attacks), and more bonding with animals like he had the cloefen fish.

Granted Aura Bow Lv 1

Knots twisted in his left forearm, pressing outward and tearing muscle. Spasms forced his other hand under his elbow. The burn from muscle tearing absorbed into the magic creating a pocket within his left forearm. Magic drew light from the pocket as it split open. A strange depth hollowed out what should contain muscle and bone. Inside, a sigil shaped like a human eye with an iris made of a stretched hunting bow hovered like a spell blueprint waiting for him make it real.

“Don’t pull that until you’re ready to fire an arrow,” Dryfu said, blinking away the sleep in his eyes.

“Okay. Yeah.” Tim found a ring like an ornamental handle for a chest drawer at his wrist. I can’t not… “You up for some night hunting? I hear it’s the smartest thing a guy like me could do before retaking his castle.”

Dryfu chuckled good naturedly. “In this case, I agree. You need the practice.”

“Now I need to figure out how to make arrows.” He acknowledged a notepad icon beside the notification for his Aura Bow.

Item description: Tier 1 strength Aura Bow capable of generating arrows from your aura reserves.

Weapon crafting skill added. You can now craft aura arrows to store for later. As your skill increases, you can craft stronger arrows that fly farther and can be modified along your Oil and Water path to fluctuate between physical and aura or magic.

Weapon qualities:

Attack: +13

Defense: +1

Durability Rank: F - Cooldown of ten seconds after three shots.

+1 to all fields at level up.

So his weapon was its own level?

Not necessarily the weapon, but your ability to make it. You form it new every time using aura in your body and the skill level as one way to power it. The complexities of your other attributes play variable factors as well.

Magic Hunt Level 10 Bonus - Objects protected by aura or magic have their own signal within your local search. At Tier 3, your perimeter to hunt aura and magic created with Tier 3 or below is increased to 1,000 yards. You can also combine this with Aura Armor to create keys and keyholes. If there is no keyhole, that must be created first. MP cost depends on the subject and distance. Use your inherent senses and gifting to break down the best way to unlock a spell’s defense to create the keyhole or to find the way it was meant to be unlocked.

Your familiar, Indi Jo reduces MP cost from 15 MP to 10 to summon, and past the two minute mark, MP drain reduces from 10 to 5 MP per minute while gaining +3 Attack and Defense to his base of +7.

What’s the difference between aura and magic? Is that just semantics to call that Magic Hunt if it hunts aura too?

It hunts both, but since you earned it before becoming an Aura Mage, it will remain the same skill in name only.

Gotcha. I was thinking earlier of stretching my rope if we try to climb out instead of traveling through.

Dryfu didn’t seem to like that idea, scratching at his cheek as though Tim's words were a gnat.

“I’m not saying we do that, just wondered if I had that kind of power. I am an Aura Mage with Cultivation evolution producing c-mana and a magic point storage, but not a tracker for how much aura I have exchange in a Draw.”

Tim chuckled nervously, thinking of how this wasn’t Earth and his old security job which could have been mastered by a monkey in a bowtie. Finally, he had the chance to prove he could do something heroic, maybe even do something he loved. Running for his life had lost its appeal real fast. But the development of powers through that survival kept him going, not to mention the burden of finding and helping his friends.

He connected with the Ranger’s inherent desire to protect the innocents of this country and world. Every time he wove Gregor’s poem into his Protection spell, it rooted him to the mission against Chane and the cartel’s bloody mission.

The fallen of Squire’s Castle also weighed on him. They were tied to that, too. All of that, and he felt like he needed to clarify semantics. “Sorry, Dryfu. I’m kinda weird like that.”

“You’re not wrong. We might have to climb out. The Murphy has the aura from eating those people, which it could have used to grow and spread out or strengthen and bare down on its home defense. That could have several ramifications to what we’ll encounter in the tunnels leading back to the castle. The hunt has woken many creatures as well, similar to cicadas in your world and how they hibernate. They’re up now too, and far more threatening.”

Tim’s passive hold on his Danger Sense spell kept an eye on the movement within the tunnels, some larger than him. Many were small but with alarming power, and some mostly aura. These floated through the walls like Ptolemy, meaning they could close in on any threat with ease.

“Right,” Dryfu spotted another bug. He carefully wound counterclockwise with a wing out, then spun it back and launched into a sideways corkscrew attack. At the end he stuck out a tiny spear and cracked the rock. Inside the new hole, dozens of antlike insects activated their emergency withdrawal. Dryfu snatched up enough to slow down and let the few remaining crawl back into their cracks. “Good to keep an eye on our neighbors. They may force us up yet, though climbing also means going the long way to the bridge and it seems from your Danger Sense that Lias already has that secured.”

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“Agreed. We won’t rush into anything, but our advantage seems to be the stealth plan through the tunnels.”

“Until it isn’t,” Tim added lightly.

“Right. It wouldn’t surprise me if Gregor and or Jil tracked their movement here, so waiting may not be the worst thing.” Dryfu patted his enlarged tummy where ant heads and limbs slowly pressed up from inside, failing in their last fight against Dryfu’s digestive juices. “I need to rest and recover from our water-fall. To your question, most people who cross through to Vignyia don’t develop this extra sense perception to see aura. When you passed through the doorway to this world, aura energy interacted with your spirit, waking it to see life differently. Not everyone can intercept that and turn it around to evolve into a Cultivator or an Aura Mage.

“Aura and Spirit are essentially the same, like the sun is with the light it produces. Light rays are like aura produced by the spirit. Your abilities involve being able to read that aura. At times, you may distinguish friend from foe as that aura reveals the intentions of the spirit that made it. The aura of inanimate objects is aura from the spirit who interacted with it. It takes MP or c-mana to extend the aura into these objects.

“That’s part of your gift and how you make Aura Blades or Aura Armor. Your advanced level in Draw allows you to steal more than MPs; you’re stealing the strength their spirit made in the aura you collect. Your Spirit Memories skill enabled you to collect remnants of aura left behind by their spirit, though it is not their spirit as a whole that you absorbed, the difference is negligible. The Newall Book of Lost Souls argues that these remnants are left behind by lives lived so abundantly that their parting blesses our world with their strength and mission. Jerim Kosteen’s Treatise on the Walls of our World discusses his mission to eradicate all aura remnants and aura mages because of his fear that it stains our world with lies and empty powers. His father was murdered by an aura mage eighty-eight years ago. Just north of Wachamia’s border, a castle by a lake called Lostrock Castle was home to one of its generals, a roller named Nikas “Thunder” Kurtz, whose legendary slaughter of Kiber paladins escalated our war and ended with his death at their hands. Now, his son, Jerim Kosteen is one of the leaders and funders in the under the table deal between Zevehe, Wachamia and the Dutchy."

“A roller?” Tim tried some of his ayl syrup on his bird meat to get more carbs and sugar for his depleted energy.

“Rollers are a nasty class, and his area of effect was legendary. One broke the backs of a thousand fully armed Kiber paladins in one clap.”

Tim squirmed at the thought of a single broken back. “How’s he do that?”

“Their gloves are magically enhanced. A combination of sound and kinetic energy created when he claps with his enchanted gloves. The mixture of hot and cold between the two, and the frequency of the magical reaction rolled the paladins and their steeds in ways their bones weren’t meant to go. It’s too sudden and powerful for even Tier 4 strengthened enemies. The only reason his allies survive is a special shield wall formed behind him, which also magnifies the sound toward their enemies. The clap creates a magical shield around the wielder.

“On top of revenge for his father, who no one really confuses for having been a healthy relationship, what Jerim Kosteen really wants is Kiber’s access to the peninsula, its ports and its location to the reef. His propaganda against aura workers has disrupted their influence and ability to walk freely, pretty much anywhere but Kiber, Witesbu and a few of the smaller cities in Childockia. Kosteen’s book resonated with the outer rim countries and their general distaste for the “unnatural.” It helped that he funneled proceeds from his book and to create his Kosteen Shipping company, which started with locals who cared only for the well-paying jobs and bonuses. Local jobs and his connection of shareholders worldwide who were willing to invest in its growth developed that enterprise into a competitor with Hai Trade Company. It’s also set up this power play to hurt and occupy the military resources of enough of Kiber’s allies to open his path through their front door. And a few back windows, I’m sure. He’ll settle for nothing but eradication down to the bloodline.

Tim’s blood boiled at the thought.

Dryfu saw it, purple eyes wide open and antennae cocked back in a symbiotic reception of his rage. The insect’s smile showed he understood. “That’s why I’m glad the Whisper placed me with you. I want their head on a pike even more than you.

“The difference between magic and aura is illustrated by Thunder’s Roll spell. They see magic as chemical reaction activated by an outside force in the whisper realm’s magic. It’s okay, Jerim says, because it’s merely a tool, whereas aura magic draws from your life-force. Even to the point of changing you, as you’ve seen with the fade. That change is ‘unnatural,’ he writes, and coined that term to describe wandering spirits and anyone even tangentially connected to aura mages and their sub-classes.”

“Sounds like a classy guy.”

Dryfu’s antennae sloped forward with his squint’s narrowing on Tim in mock anger. “Hilarious.

“This cauterization between the physical and magic and those who reform with aura allows them to justify the use of magic because it’s not drawing from them has magic inside magic users, or magic inside the items that they use such as his father’s gloves. He’s also afraid because the aura mage who killed his father has followers.”

“Jil was saying how Kiber has won the jewel for seven more years than the other countries and are heavily into magic growth. Is that related to this?”

“Bingo.” Dryfu pointed his tiny hand at Tim. “They are the greatest threat to his global plan. The countries have been at war for a long time. Nazis used fear of impurity to unite enough of a power base to force the remainder into compliance. Jerim is onto something similar. The more influence he had on shipping, the more he was able to control information and send his many voices and fists to coerce allies and foes alike. The Council of the Rim voted to switch funding to Jerim’s Kosteen-branded companies, helping him branch into numerous industries outside the Pillar. Unlike any Pillar country in our history, Jerim has invested in the outer rim and rumor has it he stands the most to gain from the production of nixstone and rogue leveling. With his branding, he’s on his way to introducing a bill that would make rogue leveling products legal.”

Tim’s Politician skill trickled with the itch of new XP, as gently as a shiver under cold air. Tim set down the bones and skin remains of his bird breast. The syrup hit the spot. He was ready to move.

“Good?”

“Mhmm.” Tim drank the last of his canteen’s water. He had been putting off the trip back to the falls to refill or searching further into the tunnels for another reservoir. “How exactly does legal work? I get that the Hunt is this world’s way of balancing who gets the leveling jewel for the year. And I’m sure the industry that’s grown on the one in seven odds of hitting jackpot year to year would be ticked.”

“How much more ticked do you think the outer rim countries are to be excluded from that lottery?” Dryfu asked rhetorically, reading Tim’s mind as he considered that, too. “Now’s there chance to even the scales. Legal depends on who’s writing the laws and whether they have the power to enforce them. The pillars are the pillars because the Shuepaya tree only grows in these countries, despite plentiful efforts and wars fought over those trees. They simply won’t bear fruit in the leaves that drop to reset the jewel. There is something about this land that their roots will accept. You better believe that created a divide between pillar and outer rim, despite many who tried and still try to erase those barriers.”

“The way you talk about it, you still sound hesitant to side with the Outer Rim or that unification process,” Tim said.

“One element of the rogue leveling system is that it has opened a Wild West of opportunity, with those caught by local authorities often being swept away for favors and funding to be inserted into Kosteen’s workforce or the cartel, whomever is closest.”

“But they work together well? Is that a thread we can pull on?”

“Oh certainly. Partnership by mutual benefit at this point. It won’t always be. I don’t want to wait until their enemies are too small to matter before we try and set them against each other. The issue is how. My knowledge of the Dutchy politics and the way things work around here will help, to a degree. It also makes stykillers a target for them and their allies because we know so much.

“My time with my prior partner we had a similar vigor for breaking through barriers and establishing our own territory. I might still have some friends on the inside.” Dryfu licked his eyeball and tucked the pink tongue back in his mouth as quick as a blink.

Tim’s mouth choked on his tongue in a repulsed reaction nearly as quickly swallowed. He thought he’d be used to that by now, but eyes grossed him out.

Dryfu winked. “I may have gotten carried away–I did–in my last life. I have a chance to do better this time. If we can help the sentients of the Outer Rim, I’d like that. We have to be careful who we’re helping with that though as the trident of Wachamia, Dutchy and Zevehe are poised to use an Outer Rim balance to further strengthen their core strength within the pillars. The two are tied.”

“What do we do?” Tim asked. “It’s just a few of us.”

“You’re doing okay. Those are an impressive list of skills.”

“Thanks. And thank you for your help getting them. That’s a lot of information just out of my question about magic and aura. I appreciate it. We can keep going if you want, but I need to get some more water and would like to do that before nightfall.”

Burnt red rays colored the cloud spotted sky. Thankfully they were on the west side of the waterfall, so they’d get a bit more sunlight before it passed over one of the higher ridges. He’d been hoping one of his rings cast by Danger Sense would have picked up one of his friends by now, or better, that they’d show up on his doorstep. Apparently, that wasn’t in the cards, so far.

A bird landed on a ridge twenty yards up. His poison treats had spent well building up his trapping and alchemy skills in storage, now it was time to build up some Aura Bow. “It sounds like Kiber could be a solid ally. How would they like to know where exactly to snap the trident, and can your people get that information?”

Dryfu’s face cocked in a manner of admiration. “I can certainly look into that if we survive that far.”

“Thank you,” Tim said, with a nice tang of Negotiation XP on his tongue.

He hooked his finger into the bow sigil. An aura smoky ring lifted at his touch. Its light yet stable connection produced a stark reminder that he was one of the unnatural. Same with the space in his thoughts harnessing an idea to craft an arrow instead of retrieving the bow.

Correct. Either or both can be accessed from that ring.

He did his best to picture the feathers and strong shaft of an arrow in his mind. As he pulled on the ring, his thoughts became form and aura feathers and the bottom of an arrow formed as though it were a key being withdrawn from a lock. It sucked on his aura supply in healthy measure. A “66” appeared in his HUD, indicating the total arrows he could form with his current aura storage. Good to know, thank you Dryfu. He could get some good practice in with those. Or maybe he’d let Indi out for another spin. “Can he ride on my arrows?”

“Th…” Dryfu stopped mid-word. “You could certainly try.”

“Okay, fair point. I will, but maybe not the first try. I’m guessing that would impact accuracy and distance?”

“Yeah.”

“Got it.”

His new power didn’t come with much for instructions. He pulled the ring outward until the arrow tip was free from his wrist. Not bad for a tip, though it reminded him more of the marked stone tip in Age of Empires when you were first tier.”

“Yeah, that’s a basic, level one arrow,” Dryfu added. “It’ll work though. The weight and unpolished form will show its worth in your distance and accuracy.”

“All the more motivation to level the skill, both in crafting and bow.”

Somehow the removal of the arrow from his aura supply also unfolded the bow, but not all the way. The bow’s aura frame was a silver base with black engravings up the inside of the bow. A green thimble appeared on his finger pulling the string.

Rreyg’s Poison - Activated. Potential threat has entered attack vicinity.

Nice features.

A green pulse emitted from the thimble and ran down the faint line tethering the ring to the bow. When he reached an end and couldn’t pull any farther, a second gear allowed him to pull the string toward his chin. This opened the bow to its full height. Yellow light traced the symbols engraved in black, lifted them out of the base and turned them to write out in English:

Power, Speed, or Accuracy. Choose 1.

Accuracy came to mind first. He could work around not having Speed, even though it would be nice as a later option. Power was a close second, but power meant nothing if you missed your target. And it gave away your position. He could deal with lower power and speed for now as long as he hit his target more often. “Accuracy” remained bright while the others faded away, then the letters spiraled down to absorb into the tip of his left finger.

Gained Sniper’s Sight Level 1 bow modification. You can now measure accuracy percentages and interference symbols to with colors for best sniping your target: Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red are your four color indicators with 75% and above marking a Green shot, then 25% lower with each color. If wind is interfering, three wavy lines will show beside the Shooter’s Eye, the ring attached to your target. If it is distance, a number of feet or other measurement will indicate how much closer to the next color you’ll have to get.

His target turned a beady blinking eye on Tim. Yeah, you should be scared. An aura scope encircled his view and tightened like an eye until a yellow ring formed a small target on the bird. No matter where on the bird Tim aimed, the ring remained yellow. A secondary tab opened beside the shooter’s eye with symbols for wind and closing distance of -17 feet to close the gap from yellow to green. He crept closer until he was almost right under the bird. The wind symbol remained but the shading in the ring shifted from yellow to faint green as the distance symbol disappeared.

He loosed his shot. The bow string snapped forward, launching the arrow at the bird. It flailed a little in the air, but the short distance kept it on its mark long enough. The bird bolted mid-flight. The arrowhead caught it in the backside and pushed its aura in like an unwelcome syringe. The bird wailed and spun away from the source of pain. It managed half a flailing turn before clenching still and falling into Tim’s bag.

His XP storage bloomed across Hunting, Aura Bow, Sniper Sight, Item Crafting and Alchemy. On his way back to camp, he read that his poison had been the trigger for Critical Hit. Was its wail echoing into the hearing of a bigger creature the reason it was called a threat? It doesn’t seem to have any attack concern, he thought as he turned the bird’s tiny claws.

Eyes pointed at him reflected in the dark of the shaded tunnel.

Tim reached for the bow ring to craft another arrow.

The thing that pounced into view was no bird. Its teeth glistened with saliva. Tim felt its hunger and drive to end it with him.

Not so fast, pal.