72 Days Left for Brokering Peace in Sector 12,560

I rose early the next morning, a habit that had become deeply ingrained in me since my first year-long visit to the tundra. Untangling myself from the pile of furs I’d buried myself beneath, I let my awareness expand.

The rest of the ‘human’ den was still abed. Even most of the wolves in the surrounding igloos were asleep. “Go back to bed, Prime,” Ghost said groggily. “It’s too early.”

I grinned. The pyre wolf was in the adjacent igloo, sharing her warmth with the other wolves, yet her mind was too attuned to mine not to notice my rising.

“We have a busy day ahead of us,” I said, slipping out of my room.

“Every day is a busy day,” she complained.

I chuckled. “True enough.” Bracing myself for the cold, I strode out of the human compound and onto the tundra.

It was snowing again.

“When is it not?” a voice demanded grumpily.

Turning my head to the right, I spotted two shapes emerging through the curtain of white. The larger was a void of darkness on which the falling snow found no purchase—Ghost—while the smaller was a near-indistinguishable smear of whiteness.

“Sulan,” I greeted the elder. “You didn’t need to get up.”

She snorted. “As if this one’s restlessness left me any choice,” she said, nudging Ghost in the shoulder.

Obligingly, my familiar danced sideways. It was not that Sulan could force the much stronger pyre wolf to move if she didn’t want to, but Ghost was Sulan’s pup in every sense of the word except the literal one, and I doubted she would ever seriously set herself at odds with the pack elder.

“You are leaving today?” Sulan asked.

“Only for a short time,” I replied.

A spurt of sorrow, quickly suppressed, shot through the white wolf’s mind. It was not for me, though.

“Ghost will be staying to continue her training,” I added.

Sulan turned to glare at the other wolf. “You didn’t tell me that,” she accused.

Ghost ducked her head. “I was going to surprise you.”

“Hmpf.” The elder’s blue eyes found me again. “Then why are we out here?”

“Two things,” I murmured. “The first is seeing to Ghost’s advancements.”

“I see. But you could’ve done that just as easily inside—where it’s warmer,” Sulan said pointedly.

That was true enough, but I wasn’t about to let myself be drawn into an argument. “Ready?” I asked, turning to Ghost.

The pyre wolf bobbed her head. “Yes, Prime.”

Without further ado, I turned my focus inward and called up her Class upgrade interface.

Assessing familiar’s suitability for a Class upgrade...

Class points available: 8.

Familiar’s rank: 6.

Upgrade requirements met.

Your familiar may advance her Class to rank 7 at this time by improving an existing Class benefit or by selecting a new one. Do you wish to proceed?

Responding in the affirmative, I half-heartedly scanned through the scrolling Game text that followed like I had on prior occasions, but without really expecting anything to catch my eye. It was the existing benefits that I was interested in.

Ghost and I had already agreed to upgrade her draining bite ability. Her death magic skill had reached tier two recently and was ready for advancement. Unfortunately, none of her other abilities were in a similar position. Otherwise, I would have had no hesitation in upgrading her class ability, manifest, again.

“It’s like we discussed, Ghost,” I began. “Draining bite is—”

I broke off.

Ghost tensed. “What is it?”

I scanned the hovering Game message again, making sure I’d not misread.

I had not.

“One of the new benefits on offer is a skill,” I murmured.

“Oh. A skill,” Ghost said. “I don’t need another one of those, do I? Let’s stick with upgrading draining bite.”

“Ordinarily, I’d agree,” I replied, “but this is no ordinary skill.” Focusing on the applicable Game text, I read it aloud for her Sulan and her.

New benefit: nether manipulation. This skill allows Ghost to manipulate the nether.

The Game’s description of the skill was damnably short, which perhaps explained why I’d almost failed to register its presence in the first place. But despite the Adjudicator’s less-than-insightful explanation, I felt my interest piqued. This was the type of skill we’d been looking for.

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Something different. Something rare.

Opening my eyes, I scanned the faces of the two wolves to see what they thought, but neither looked anywhere near as excited as I was.

“That’s it?” Sulan asked eventually. “That’s all the Game has to say about the skill? It’s for manipulating the nether? What’s so good about that?”

I chuckled. “It doesn’t sound like much, I agree. But I’ve only ever run across a handful of nether skills during my time in the Game—nether wizardry and nether absorption amongst them. There’s no two ways about it, nether skills are definitely rare—and valuable.”

“It sounds like nether magic,” Ghost put in cautiously.

“It might be that,” I conceded. “Or it might be a psi-based equivalent. There’s no way to tell from the Game’s description, but whichever it is, we can’t afford to ignore it.”

“What about the ability you came out here to upgrade in the first place—draining bite?” Sulan asked.

I brushed aside the question. “Ghost has plenty of Class points. We’ll improve draining bite after this.” I turned back to the pyre wolf. “So, what’ll it be? Do you want to learn the new skill?”

Ghost hesitated. “Shouldn’t we ask Adriel or Safyre what they think?”

I shrugged. “We could seek out their advice, but when it comes to the nether, their expertise is not any greater than our own.” I paused. “There’s one other consideration: jeweled pet and mage’s surprise. Assuming nether manipulation is a mana-based skill like I hope, I will also be able to use whatever spells you acquire.”

Ghost bobbed her head, finally convinced. “Alright Prime, let’s do it.”

I smiled. “Excellent,” I said and conveyed our choice to the Adjudicator.

Upgrade complete. Class points remaining: 7.

Ghost’s Class has advanced to rank 7.

Ghost has gained the master skill: nether manipulation.

Due to the substantial amount of stygian matter woven into her being, Ghost is in some respects akin to the void’s creatures. As such, she is one of the few Game participants able to learn nether skills.

Nether manipulation is a specialized school of nether wizardry, that focuses solely on manipulating free-floating nether. This includes dispelling, moving, modifying, and eventually creating nether. The skill itself does not provide your familiar with any immunity from the nether’s touch, however abilities to this effect may be acquired.

Note, as a familiar, Ghost may only manipulate nether that she is in direct contact with. She is unable to affect the deadly mists from afar. Ghost has no more skill slots remaining.

“Well, well,” I murmured. “This sounds perfect—especially considering our plans for sector 18,240.” Just how perfect gave me momentary pause. Was Ghost’s new benefit the Game’s way of pushing its own agenda?

“You think so?” Sulan asked, distracting me from my musings. “How is Ghost going to manipulate the nether if she has to immerse herself in it first?”

“That bit is unfortunate,” I admitted and, before the elder could grow more alarmed, added, “But Ghost’s ash armor already grants her a measure of nether resistance and that will only grow as she advances the skill further.”

Sulan glanced meaningfully at the younger wolf. “Then it’s a good thing she is staying behind. I will have to intensify her training.”

“Aww, Prime, why did you have to tell her that?” Ghost asked on a whisper thin mental channel.

“I heard that,” Sulan snapped.

Ghost ducked her head apologetically.

Sulan rose to her feet, unimpressed. “Come on then, pup. There’s no time to waste. We will have to reorganize your training to focus on improving your ash armor.”

I winced. There was only one way to advance an armor skill, and that was by taking hits, and I had a feeling Ghost was in for a world of pain in the coming days.

“Prime?” my familiar asked, looking at me hopefully.

I shook my head, denying her implicit request. Even if I was willing to risk Sulan’s wrath by rescuing my familiar, I wouldn’t. The dire wolf elder was right, after all. Given Ghost’s new skill, it made sense for her to focus exclusively on her armor training in the coming days.

“I’ll finish up here without you,” I said. Technically, I didn’t need Ghost’s permission when choosing her upgrades and besides, I could still contact her from a distance if necessary. “I’ll advance draining bite like we discussed and also get you a nether manipulation ability if one appears.”

And one was almost guaranteed to do so. The Game knew any magic skill was useless without an ability to train it, which would influence the new benefits it offered during Ghost’s followup Class upgrades.

Sighing heavily, Ghost slunk dejectedly after Sulan.

Chuckling at the pyre wolf’s antics, I sat down cross-legged in the naked snow and closed my eyes. I still had Ghost’s progression to finish, and then my own to see to as well.

✵ ✵ ✵

Much to my relief, my supposition proved accurate, and on Ghost’s very next upgrade, a nether manipulation ability appeared—or rather, two did.

3 new Class benefits are available, and 2 of 6 existing benefits are upgradeable.

New benefit: mist-taken. Your familiar can swallow a tiny portion of the surrounding nether, storing it for later use.

New benefit: mist-thin. This spell lets Ghost reduce the concentration of nether in the immediate vicinity.

New benefit: pinning paw. This ability allows Ghost to knock down her foe in a single hit.

Existing benefits that may be upgraded: draining bite and born again II. Existing benefits not available for upgrade: manifest, astral bite, diresight, and direshield.

“Two abilities,” I muttered, rubbing hard at my jaw. It was not that I didn’t relish the opportunity the choice provided, it was just that I was having a hard time deciding between them.

It had not escaped my notice that nether manipulation had one hard limiting factor: it could only be used in a nether-infested sector. For all the skill’s obvious benefits, it would be useless in an untainted sector. Mist-taken seemed to offer a solution in this regard, a partial one anyway.

Ghost being able to carry around even a tiny vial’s worth of free-floating mists elsewhere could be invaluable, especially considering my own nether immunity. Much, however, would depend on the exact mechanics of the ability and if she could simply eject the swallowed mist. On the other hand, mist-thin would undoubtedly be more useful while Ghost and I were in the nether.

It would likely also be easier to train nether manipulation with mist-thin. And in the short term, raising the skill was what mattered most.

“Mist-thin it is,” I murmured.

Ghost has gained the basic spell: mist-thin.

This is a channeled ability that allows Ghost to reduce the toxicity of the free-floating nether in a 10 yard radius by 1 tier. Mist-thin has no verbal or somatic components. Its activation time is slow, it consumes mana, and it can be upgraded.

Upgrade complete. Class points remaining: 6.

Ghost’s Class has advanced to rank 8.

“Ah,” Ghost exclaimed from afar as the Adjudicator fed the new knowledge into her consciousness.

“What do you think of the spell?” I asked.

“It doesn’t feel very useful.”

“It isn’t,” I conceded. “Not yet anyway. But imagine what it will be like at tier five. I won’t be surprised if you could thin the nether into nothingness by then.”

“Now that would be useful,” Ghost agreed.

I grinned. It certainly would.