“How do you know what these creations will be used for? You may have ideals and hopes, but no one has control over what they create once other people start to use it. These ships will allow for trade and expansion to places never thought possible, that I can't deny Estos, but they also pave the way for a new type of fighting. All of the counties in the realm will fight for the schematics to the mana drive that powers those ships, and there's no telling what the dwarves will make with it. You old friend desire finding that city too much and don't think of the cost that uncovering what was lost with Elmardis destruction might bring.”
-Elmer Hammio
Aster
I've learned that dirt has an accustomed taste. The first time I face-planted into the ground, I, like most people, spit it out. The dusty, grainy texture made my mouth dry and wasn't pleasant in the least. The same was true the next dozen times, but after losing count around fifty, I found I was glad the dirt was there to greet me. It was softer than stone and lacked any roots hidden under the ground like in the forest. To be honest, the taste wasn't too bad, really. It was kinda growing on me.
I felt the ground under my hands, or rather paws, ever so slightly shift as my two front legs bent to absorb the force. At the same time, I raised my back legs as the momentum carried me forward, and I planted them a little behind my front legs and proceeded to spring forward with them. The movement took half of my attention, and I repeated the motion, chasing the blue scales in front of me. I was running at a speed that I couldn't dream of reaching with two legs unless I was using a movement skill.
It was exhilarating and exciting, feeling the wind running through my fur and past my sides. If I wasn't so focused, I'd let out a howl or bark or something. That excitement and focus was blown out of my mind, in a literal sense, as Umbra spun to a stop, turning to face me and flapping her wings. The motion didn't send her into the air, but it was enough to throw me off my rhythm, and I floundered, missing a step. I skidded past her like a stone bouncing on water before coming to a stop, sending dirt flying, adding the promise of a long bath in the future.
“That was better than last time. You almost caught up.” Umbra's voice held a teasing note as she looked down, and I glared up at her, the screen oddly reminiscent of just a few days earlier.
Trying to catch a dragon in a game of tag sounded easy when the dragon promised not to fly, but not even knowing how to properly put two feet in front of the other was a big issue that evened out the field. Letting out a growl, I twisted onto my paws, standing up as I dropped Primal Shift. The feeling of vertigo and not sensing my surroundings only lasted a second before I could see again and found myself on my knees. That was still a big issue that would have to be worked on. Turning to glare up at Umbra, I narrowed my eyes. “That was a dirty trick. Creating winds with your wings isn't fair.”
“We agreed on me using no skills. Moving my wings isn't a skill, but learning to stop is just as important as learning to run,” Umbra said, curling her tail around her as she sat.
Crossing my arms, I huffed in slight annoyance but knew she was right. “I still want a rematch tomorrow. I'll have to practice getting my footing. Are you ready for the hunt? I want to see if we can get a class level this week and maybe a new type of meat to eat. I'm tired of birds.” I felt my stomach rumble at the idea of a thick steak from one of the four-legged monsters that almost looked like a cow in the next valley, but with the weird antlers and long legs was a bit disturbing.
“In a moment, first, I wanted to talk.” While Umbra's voice was natural and sounded normal, those words sent a shiver up my spine. No one ever wanted to just talk. There was always a reason. I gave her a suspicious look. “About what?”
My question was met with a moment of silence and a flick of Umbra's tail, and I narrowed my eyes. “About what?” I repeated.
“I've been working on my skills and evolved two, but there's a new skill I wanted to try getting.”
“Oh?” I felt my interest peak and wondered what kind of skill she could be lacking. She had a wide range full of different ways to fight. I was more curious about why she was asking me for what I was guessing was help.
“I was thinking of the Cooking skill and its wide range, but I wanted something specifically for baking. The only problem is..” She held up her claws, waving them.
I half smiled, rolling my eyes and pointing to myself, “I have cooking at what?” I glanced at my sheet, checking “Rank 4. I don't see myself as qualified to teach, but picking up the skill isn't hard, though, and I'm sure we can carve a big bowl or something for you to use why you're here.”
Umbra nodded, standing up fully and flexing her wings before she unfurled them slightly as she checked over her newly forming scales that were replacing the few that had been lost in the last few fights. I did my own checks, putting my hair up into a bunch and looking over my gear. My only real change over the weeks besides some wear and tear was the handful of rune arrows I now had. With part of each day focused on leveling skills, I spent more than some time making a few rune arrows, and while they took some time, they were a mix of Woodworking, Arrow Shaping, and Rune Carving, which allowed all of the skills to progress a bit. At a flick from her tail, I scaled up her front leg with a quick use of Stalker’s Movement, and grabbing the leather straps around my waist, I tied myself in.
As Umbra flapped her wings and built up the wind to bring us into the air, I made a humming noise through the bond as I mussed through the connection teasingly. I'd already seen why she wanted to learn with the bond, but I couldn't miss the opportunity. “Now Umbra wants to cook, but why could she? I mean, she prefers raw meat over cooked most times, prefers the snapping of bone over the crunch of seasoned meat.” I grinned. “Could it be that someone is missing a certain type of pastry that we've run out of? You know it takes flour or something to make cakes, right?”
The displeased rumbling under me as we lifted off the ground had me laughing. As we rose, I took out and slipped on my mask. Listening to it click in place, I continued, “I'm sorry. I know you enjoy sweets, and if I had the chance, I would have picked up more, I didn't think we would be in a camp for months on end in the middle of nowhere, didn't really think that one though.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Umbra shifted her body, bending with every wing beat as we rose and started to move forward. It was a second before she responded, “I can have unrealistic wants and can also look forward to when we get out of this dungeon. Cooking might seem weird for a dragon especially one lacking any way to heat food naturally, but the idea of making what I eat taste better is appealing.”
I nodded, and thinking about it, I started to explain what I knew about the various spices native to the Claw Woods. Most of the spices weren't common elsewhere, but there were ones that were similar. It made for a topic I knew quite a lot about.
The flight to the valley at the end of ours was quick, and we kept relatively low to avoid the swarms of Harrier Eagles that always appeared after reaching a certain height. The testing Umbra had done earlier in our arrival had all but confirmed they were a deterrent made by the dungeon to prevent what we guessed was avoiding the dungeon or skipping parts of it. The fact they always appeared as good as one or two were easy to kill and made a good source of a quick meal. The feathers were also great for arrows. We reached the edge of what I was starting to call the river valley because of the long, constant flowing river in the middle that stretched the entire length of the miles-long valley. Umbra stopped shy of fully entering the valley and landed on an angled ledge, her claws gripping the stone as she found purchase. Together, we looked over the options we had. Several challenges presented themselves, some we were used to. The biggest of which was picking the right beast to hunt. A grade one would be easy but worthless. Grade two held a similar issue with how little the experience would be with both of us fighting and splitting it. A grade four, well, we hadn't seen one, but there was no way in any of the gods’ prayers that we'd do anything other than run. Umbra had made that clear. As such, we were left with grade threes. The next issue was finding one that was split off far enough from any other monsters or waiting until one did, which could take hours.
“See anything tempting?” I asked, looking over the valley at the dozens of monsters I could see.
“Not yet. There is a group of six bipedal birds that are in mid-grade two that could work if we don't find anything.” Umbra mused, her head shifting as she scanned her sight better in this by far. We sat there as the orbs in the sky reached their maximum light output and then started to dim, going through options. The grade threes we did spot were either paired or in groups.
Our luck changed when Umbra's head snapped in one direction, and after a moment, she leapt into the sky. I didn't ask as she tracked something far off I couldn't yet make out, trusting her choice. Pulling my bow out of storage, I did a quick check and pulled an arrow out. After we were over the valley and starting to descend, lower Umbra spoke.
“There's something called a Sand Lurker near the river edge. It's flat and blends in well, but I spotted it when it jumped out of the sand and attacked a grade two monster. It's just under the surface now, probably eating. I figured it would make good practice for your archery.”
Rubbing the bow in my hand with a thumb, I looked at the direction she was facing and the sandline along the river. I couldn't see anything, but as we grew closer, I inspected the area of the mental image Umbra sent through the bond. It looked normal, and as we circled the area, I couldn't make anything different out.
Still, I pulled the arrow back on my bow and aimed, imbuing mana to build up a Frost Arrow before letting it loose.
It struck the sand, sending a small cloud into the air, but otherwise, nothing happened. Frowning, I took another arrow out and checked with Umbra that the spot the arrow had hit was accurate. It was.
“It must be deep under the sand. Do you want me to see if I can drag it out?” She asked.
“Maybe, but not yet. Let me try one other skill first. If that doesn't work, then we don't have much of a choice.”
Looking at the arrow, I let my mana fill it with my most potent archery skill, Frost Shard. The damage it had done to the dungeon boss in the last dungeon had been high. It was my hope that however deep the monster was, the skill would reach it.
The mana cost for the skill was much higher, and the transfer of the mana was only slightly faster than Advanced Frost Arrow.
As I watched the blue, glowing wisps of cold build on the tip of the arrow, I felt my eyebrows crease. The skill didn't require focus for the transfer of mana. If it did, the skill would be almost useless in combat, but something had changed in the moment. A small feeling, like a constant tug, had me watching the blue wisp of mana closely as it built in the arrow tip.
It wasn't a new feeling, just not really one I focused on often, but only now, watching the blue wisp of mana, I could tell something was slightly off. The mana leaving my body and building in the arrow was too slow, and too many of the tendrils of mana dissipated into the air instead of going into the arrow. I felt a slight annoyance as I figured out what was happening. My mana was being wasted. I wouldn't say I was a greedy person. I was more than fine sharing, most times, but seeing my mana wasted pulled on a cord in me, I couldn't stand for it.
“Actually, Umbra, can you give me a few minutes? There's something off with this skill.” As quickly as I could, I relayed what I'd found out, and as I did, I felt her even out beneath me.
“Take your time. We're not exactly in a rush.” Was her response, and I smiled.
Letting the skill drop, I watched the mana flow away. A waste but a needed one to fix this problem.
I watched the mana flow away, the blue glow leaving the arrow tip, and then as I started filling the arrow again using the skill I had.
The arrow was like a jug waiting to be filled. It was empty but could accept any mana, I knew that. If that was the case, that meant I could consider myself a river or a pond full of mana. If I wanted, I could use my own mana without a skill to fill the arrow like I had done before getting a class. The problem with that was all my mana did was reinforce the parts that were already there inside the arrow. It was useful but not powerful, like using a skill.
A skill added something to the arrow. I couldn't exactly say what, but it did add something.
The problem with the skill was it acted like a bucket with holes in it, at least in my mental analogy. That meant the extra step of taking mana out of the pond and moving it with said bucket full of holes to the jug resulted in waste on the trip.
My biggest confusion was why the skill resulted in waste. Was that just something that could happen with skills? Was it because I didn't get the skill through a class and instead purchased it? Was it because of the Progenitor system? I had no way of knowing, but I didn't like it and wanted it changed. My mana was, well, mine. I was the one who decided where it went and how it got used. Tilting my head, I brought the arrow closer as I dropped the skill, then started using it again, watching as the mana flowed away and then back into it.
As it was filled and some of the wispy tendrils dissipated, I felt my face twist into a scowl. This needed to be fixed, and there had to be a way. But if there was a way, wouldn't it have been mentioned in the Arilon Academy or at the Camp? For a second, I wished I had one of the professors to ask, but I shook that thought away. It wouldn't help to think of something I couldn't do.
Leaning back, I let out a groan, and feeling Umbra’s unspoken curiosity in the bond, I started to explain to her what was going on. As I spoke, I felt my annoyance rise again.
“Can't You just force the mana back into the skill?” Umbra asked.
The question was a simple one, but it struck me dumb. Could I just move the mana? It was mine, wasn't it?
There had to be a way to make the skill better, and there was only one way to see if Umbra's question held any merit and if it would work.