***4 DADC (Days After Dungeon Creation)***

“So… much… reading…” Joram muttered as he prepared breakfast.

Myra looked at him, concerned.

“Is he OK…?” she asked Asami, who was more-or-less eagerly awaiting breakfast at the dining room table with her.

“Mmnmmm,” she mumbled, glancing over at Joram as he continued cooking in a daze. “It seems that the Great Protector provided him with much information regarding the creation of Dungeons,” she said as her tails slowly waived to and fro.

Myra just about choked on her water when she heard that. The Great Protector wasn’t something that gave out information easily. In fact, there were entire Paths dedicated to exploring and discovering aspects of the Great Protector, like [Sage], [Scholar], and [Diviner]. They were highly sought after and cultivated.

She’d heard that in the largest cities, they had “universities” dedicated to higher learning. From politics to architecture to advanced mathematics to linguistics, they sought to teach it all in the hopes of producing one of those incredibly rare Paths.

That Joram had been “provided” information by the Great Protector, Myra wondered if his [Creationist] Path was something similar to a [Sage] or something.

Given the requirements that Joram had shared with them, which they’d then made him promise to never share with anyone else- ever!-, she had in inkling that [Creationist] was… crazy. Sure, he hadn’t shared all of what the Path could do, but given just how fast he was progressing with… everything, she was sure that it was at least a [Legendary] Path. Which was, once again, crazy.

“Yup, it’s crazy,” Asami said, nodding.

Myra blinked, then smiled at Asami Miki.

“Anyways,” she started, keeping her voice low. “Has he made any progress with the [Ancient Garden]?”

“Mmnmmm,” Asami mumbled/hummed again. “He’s already added a few more plants to the bottom level; all of which are medicinal plants. He then added some weird worms that he claims will be useful later,” she said, shuddering a bit. “He’s also reclaimed the other levels of the old Dungeon and done weird things with them.

“But what’s kind of neat, is that he’s been expanding above ground. He’s added more plants to the ruins, but also some sort of wild boar that he thinks will make good game for hunting. And some weird deer/rabbits. They’re kind of scary,” she finished with another shudder.

“’Deer/rabbits’?” she asked, not quite sure if she wanted to know. She wasn’t a [Hunter], so the likelihood of her having to deal with them was relatively low.

“Yeah, they’re about knee-height with antlers like an elk or something,” Asami said, shaking her head. “With how fast rabbits are, I’m not sure that giving them horns was a good idea.”

Myra nodded at that, thinking that the [Hunter]s would probably be taking them down with bows or spears… which was what they used to hunt with, anyways…

Then she remembered that Asami had been a fox not two months ago, and it clicked. Those new horned rabbits would pose a significant challenge to any fox that tried to take them down without using a Skill or magic or something.

“Are the boars at least normal?” she asked, hoping that they wouldn’t prove to be a cross with another dangerous animal.

“Mmm, yes. Though, they’re a bit shorter than what we’re used to seeing around here. And rounder. Much rounder,” Asami said, now distracted by the smell of the omelettes that Joram was cooking for them.

Relieved, Myra took a moment to appreciate the scents of breakfast. She was very glad that Joram had made his herb garden, as she had been worried that he would run out of his delicious herbs and spices. She didn’t know why he’d insisted on building an entire building to house it, though. They were just plants.

But to each their own, she supposed. If it meant that she’d have access to the deliciously prepared food from here on out, she’d help Joram build as many “greenhouses” as he needed…. Though, she hadn’t actually helped build the first one. But, at least she’d… cheered him on? Something.

She was still amazed at how fast Joram could build structures now that he had a Path. The main house had been built faster than she’d thought possible before he’d gotten it. Afterwards, he’d gone on to build the greenhouse and upgraded the walls around his bit of land. Well, huge section of land.

Only the [Farmer]s and [Rancher]s normally dealt with sections of land that were 20 acres in size. And he’d bought twenty of them.

Ridiculous.

Well, at least he was having fun. And teaching them. And… spending time with them, which made her extra happy given how badly she’d behaved on their first meeting. Which still embarrassed her terribly every time she remembered that day.

But also caused her a bit of wonder at just how much of an impact it had had on her. She still overheard her parents marvelling at the “changes” they saw in her whenever she went home for a visit. Even Kal gave her a hard time which, really, was expected of her twin.

“Oh, right,” she said, remembering what she’d spoken of with her family the day before. “There should be a caravan arriving in the next week or so,” she said, returning her voice to normal conversation-level.

Joram turned around, omelettes plated and in hand as Asami just nodded, eyes fixed on their breakfast.

“Oh? Is there anything interesting that usually arrives with a caravan?” Joram asked, placing a plate in front of each of them, then took a seat at the head of the table.

Myra looked across to Asami, whose tails were waiving happily as she dug into her meal, then shrugged.

“They usually bring a wide assortment of things,” she started, trying to remember what usually came. “Things like metal for the [Blacksmith]s, cloth and fabric for the [Tailor]s and [Seamstresses], books, and… slaves…” she finished with a frown as she remembered that last detail.

“Slaves? Like, people that other people own?” Joram asked, looking a bit displeased.

“Yes,” she said, then took a bite of her omelette, chewed, then swallowed before going on. “The humans are… barbaric. I know that slavery is common throughout the world, but the ones in this kingdom tend to focus on non-humans.”

“Are there… a lot of non-humans in this country?” Joram asked, now looking curious.

“I guess so? I mean, I’ve never left Kirkwall, but from what mother has shared, it should be roughly seven parts human, three parts other races,” she said with a shrug.

“I’ve met Magmyr and Ilyana already, so does that mean dwarves and elves live here too?”

“Mmm, not too many, actually. The elves tend to stick to their own country, but do have settlements all over the place. The dwarves, though, tend to stick to their mountains, preferring to mess around in their mines and such.

“But, I’d say that animal-kin take up the largest population outside of the humans. We’re a relatively small village here, though I hear that other foxkin villages can be found in the region. Other than that, there are bearkin, catkin, cowkin, deerkin, dogkin, mousekin, rabbitkin, sheepkin, and wolfkin everywhere.

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“Well, there are also the various scaled-kin, but they tend to prefer the warmer regions. Aside from them, there’re the demons, but they tend to stay on their continent due to humans not getting along with them terribly well.

“Well, that’s an understatement,” she said, shaking her head. “Mother says that every decade or two, the human countries organize crusades to ‘cleanse’ the world of the demon ‘infection’, or some such ridiculousness. I don’t know why they hate them so much, though. Maybe it’s their natural connection to Mana like mother says?”

Joram looked at her for a bit, frowning as he thought about things. She couldn’t blame him, as she’d been more than a little shocked to hear about all that when she was younger. The human kingdoms, countries, and empires would even go so far as to [Summon] “Heroes” to fight for them. Ridiculous.

“Is the demon continent very far from where?” he asked with an odd expression on his face that she couldn’t quite read.

“Yes…? The coast is actually on the other side of the forest from here,” she said, pointing west by northwest. “But Asten, out kingdom, keeps a strong presence along the coast, so you don’t have to worry about an invasion or anything like that,” she hurriedly said, trying to reassure him.

“Are the ‘demons’ so different from humans here?” he asked, looking more curious than anything now.

“Well, they can be, yes,” she said, remembering her lessons and the various pictures she’d been shown. “Their skin can vary wildly, from the same shades as we have to reds to blues to greys to even black. Not too many brown demons though, which is weird.

“Oh, and they can have horns that come in almost any shape and size. And tails. And wings. Oh, and they can have claws and scales, but their scales don’t usually cover them like a scaled-kin’s do. Just along their arms and legs usually.”

“Huh,” Joram huh’d, rubbing his bearded chin. “Are they, I don’t know, generally ‘evil’?” he asked, looking more than a little bit interested.

“If you believe the humans, yes,” she said with a sniff. “Mother says that she’s worked with some in the past, and they seemed to be just fine.”

“Huh,” he huh’d yet again. “I kind of want to meet some now,” he said, now looking more interested than before.

Well, she said that, but it was still incredibly hard to read his expressions given how… stoic he looked all the time. And his small ears. And lack of a tail. She was going by how his eyebrows moved slightly together and his tone. Even his eyes seemed to slightly narrow. If she hadn’t spent so much time together with him, she would have probably mistakenly interpreted his expression for annoyance, or anger.

“Well, some can be found here and there, according to mother,” she said, hoping that she’d read him properly.

“Maybe I’ll go and have a chat with her later, then,” he said, nodding to himself and relieving her anxiety somewhat.

Asami also nodded at her, redoubling her relief. It had become a thing, Asami nodding or shaking her head at her after she’d made a guess about Joram’s expressions. Some had been terribly wrong, while others had been fortuitously accurate.

Sure, when he was actually annoyed or angry about something, it was easy enough to tell. Like when she’d been so… willful when they’d first met…. She nearly shrank in embarrassment remembering how terribly she’d behaved then, but managed to keep her expression neutral. Though, Asami did smirk at her a bit, which caused her cheeks to heat slightly in response to that.

Spirit foxes are a blessing. Spirit foxes are a blessing… she repeated to herself over and over again, keeping the mantra in her head until the urge to throw something at Asami subsided. Which was hard given the mirth she saw dancing in the woman’s eyes.

“Well, I’m off to practice some more,” Joram said suddenly, snapping her back to the moment. “I feel that I’m close to figuring out a few things,” he finished with a grin, nearly causing her to lose herself again.

“Oh, OK,” she replied eloquently as he got up and left.

“Let’s go practice some more,” Asami said as she got up while collecting her dishes to deposit into the sink.

Myra followed after gathering her own dishes, now deep in thought.

* * *

‘You’re thinking about sexy demons, aren’t you,’ Avi suddenly piped in, making him lose control over his little air, cold, and water bubble.

‘… I can’t deny that…’ he replied, bringing everything back together again. ‘But I’m also wondering about the whole nurture over nature debate. Are “demons” inherently evil, or is it their environment that causes it? Are these even the same demons that Altaea knew? Or are they more like what’s portrayed in a lot of pop-culture back home? Specifically, in manga, manhwa, and all that,’ he finished as he kept tying to feel the differences in the… flavour of mana when he created ice.

‘Those are good questions, all of which I cannot answer,’ Avi said as she watched him practice. ‘Though, given how similar things are here to pop-culture compared to what was in Altaea’s homeworld, the possibility that they’re closer to Eastern media is more likely than them coming from the Abyss.’

‘Well, that would be good,’ he said as he worked. ‘I’d much rather that be the case, especially with our being so close to the coast and all.’

‘Well, we don’t actually know how far the forest extends from here. It could still be hundreds of kilometres away from here.’

‘True. But, on a planetary scale, that’s still pretty close. Maybe I should start working on the [Nomad] type stuff soon,’ he mused, thinking about Powers like [Teleport] and [Greater Teleport] along with [Planeshift]. Well, he wasn’t so sure [Planeshift] would be entirely useful, or safe to practice given that he didn’t know of any other planes of existence in this universe. But the [Teleport] type Powers would certainly be more than useful.

Well, the Astral Plane was likely a thing, given that he could pull ectoplasm from somewhere to make his astral constructs, let alone anything with [Ectoplasmic Creation]….

Thinking about the [Nomad] stuff again, he thought that anything that could allow him to travel farther than [Dimension Hop] could allow would be especially useful. Yes, it was a useful Power, but still quite short-ranged.

‘That would be recommended. Especially if you could create teleport beacons; specifically, the portable kind,’ Avi said, looking thoughtful. ‘Given how important your new friends are to you, having a way to either get to them or to get them to you in an emergency would be invaluable.’

Joram nodded at that, still using [Multitasking] for all it was worth as he split his focus between a few things at the same time. Then he grinned as he felt the difference in mana when the ice was created.

Congratulations!

You’ve levelled the following Skills:

- Aerokinesis 20 -> 21

- Skill upgrade: Aerokinesis -> Aerokinesis, Improved

- Cryokinesis 20 -> 21

- Skill upgrade: Cryokinesis -> Cryokinesis, Improved

- Hydrokinesis 20 -> 21

- Skill upgrade: Hydrokinesis -> Hydrokinesis, Improved

Seeing that notification, he smiled even more. Then a thought occurred to him, so he glanced as his Skill Tab and noticed that he’d somehow missed that many of his Skills were now “Improved”.

Taking a closer look, any Common or Uncommon Skill seemed to go get “Improved” once it passed level 10, or rather, got above 10 skill ranks. Seeing as how his Kinesis Skills were mostly Rare, and that they’d improved at rank 21, he supposed that Rare Skills advanced after they reached rank 20. In this case, when they reached rank 21.

Looking at his Epic Skills, they seemed to advance after rank 30, which would mean that Legendary Skills would likely advance after rank 40. Which would be a serious pain. Like, how long would that take? What benefits were there to getting a Skill to “Improved”?

Then he looked at his Status and noticed that the damage variables for his Kinesis Skills had changed somewhat. Doing a bit of math while taking into account his many modifiers, he guessed that “Improved” improved damage by about 1.5 times or so. The ranges seemed to increase by about the same, so maybe it was an overall improvement of 1.5 times or so…?

He shrugged, then noticed [Toughness] on his status and blinked. It was listed under the “DR” section, which led him to believe that it increased his damage reduction. Which was awesome. On a whim, he pulled up the Skill just to make sure.

Toughness

You’ve taken damage so often and so severely that you’ve managed to become resistant to such inconsequentialities.

Benefit:

- Your Skill Total in Toughness reduces the amount of damage from physical sources that you take.

- Elemental Damage is not included in this reduction.

“Huh,” he grunted, pleasantly surprised at what he read. ‘More damage reduction means better survival,’ he sent to Avi after getting a questioning look from her.

‘Very true,’ Avi said, nodding. ‘Now, will you start practicing the psychoportation powers?’

Joram nodded as he dismissed the screens/panels. ‘I’ll just refresh my [Astral Seed] first, though,’ he sent, thinking about how terribly things could go when practicing teleportation-type powers.

* * *

“Joram?”

“Yes, Asami?”

“As much as I appreciate your form… why have you chosen to show it to me at this time?” she asked, taking in Joram’s impressive physique while a grin spread her lips wide.

“Oh shi-”, Joram said, then promptly vanished from sight, much to her disappointment.

“What was that?!” Myra demanded, face redder than Asami’s red-tipped ears.

“I believe that he’s now practicing [Teleport],” she replied with a sigh. “A shame that he didn’t stay longer, though.”

“What?! No! That’s not decent! We need to be mar-,” Myra spluttered, but caught herself before she said what was truly on her mind.

“There, there,” she said, suppressing her smile and patting Myra on the shoulder in the hopes that the young woman would soon calm down. “I’m sure that we’ll get there eventually,” she finished, causing Myra’s face to once again ignite.

Instead of responding, Myra wisely chose to get back to practicing. Very enthusiastically, she might add.

Asami joined her, for as cool as she played it, she too was a bit more than a little bit flustered by the sudden- though welcome- show.

Now, how to take advantage of this turn of events…? She mused, going through the “kata”, or forms, by rote at this point. With Joram planning to visit the coast, surely there will be other opportunities….