Will pulsed out with his cold aura fed by the mana of the springtime star. The wave of cold blasted out, causing the man to stumble and miss his shot. Instead the sword hit Will’s shoulder and did nothing. The man righted himself and stepped back before drinking a vial of amber liquid. Heat came rolling off his body in waves. It was nothing Will’s cold aura couldn’t overcome, but in the end, the cold aura wasn’t a weapon. Instead, Will decided to try something new. He extended his concept into his sword, filling it with the cold energy. Will saw a new notification pop up, and saw it was the second since the start of the fight, but decided to ignore it.
Instead, Will looked at his sword. His heart dropped, and despair filled him with emptiness. Will drew on his concept and pushed the unwanted emotions away to reveal the true beauty of the weapon in his hand. Patterned frost had covered the blade, extending it a foot farther than its normal length. It radiated cold, but not just cold. It was the cold of the place Will saw when he thought of his concept.
Will turned to the other man who stared at his sword in horror. Will attacked, and he could immediately see how much better this was. Tendrils of magic stretched back out of the blade and into him, strengthening his muscles, speeding his reactions and sharpening his senses. He could see the man’s mistakes, he could see his own mistakes in the void of his empty mind. He swung down and the man parried clumsily, barely sending Will’s sword to the side. Frost was left clinging to the other man’s blade, and Will could see the despair fill the man’s eyes.
Will did not stop. He swung, and the man parried. He stepped forward and swung again. The man parried, stepping back to gain some room. Will swung again, and the man stepped into a small hole, causing him to stumble. Will stabbed him in the neck, and watched as the man froze before his eyes. Will looked around at the horrified hunters. He raised his blade into the air and shouted at the top of his lungs. The hunters ran. Will deactivated his sword, returning it to its sheath.
He reset his control of his concept, keeping it completely locked away. He looked back at the body. He had just killed someone. A second someone. Someone who was likely just trying to protect their home. Will nearly retched on the ground. The man had been trying to kill him. There was nothing he could do. Without being able to talk to these people there was no hope of a peaceful resolution, especially when he had stolen from them.
Will went to the body. He couldn’t bury it, but this man might still have some things he needed, and so he looted the body. He took the fur coat first. It was even bigger than his and might be able to be used as bedding. He recognised the handiwork of the old man in the patterns on the inside. He didn’t want any of the man’s other clothes but he took his sword and a belt pouch and belt. The belt was meant to strap on over the coat, and Will did just that. It gave a place for him to strap his shortsword and new longsword more conveniently. The pouch contained a number of useful things like flint and steel, string, and other odds and ends. It also had a small bag full of rough coinage. It was all made of copper, but there were different sizes and denominations that confused Will. As much as he would like, it seemed there would be no simple conversion of gold to silver to copper. All in all there were some fifty coins, but they ranged from coins the size of a dime to coins the size of the chocolate gold pieces he always got for St. Patrick's day. He placed the coins back in the pouch, and added a pack of trail mix. He was hungry more often since not using his concept so much, but melting water was a pain. He would sleep with his water in his coat for the evening. Hopefully that would thaw it out. He also looked at the man’s boots, but they looked old and ratty. In worse condition than his own boots. With that done, Will loaded up and started away, looking at his notifications as he went.
Skill nucleation detected.
Stabilizing…
Stabilizing…
You have gained a new skill.
Skill: Swordsmanship
Level 1
Skill Swordsmanship is now level 2.
Skill nucleation detected.
Stabilizing…
Stabilizing…
You have gained a new skill.
Skill: Sword of Desolation
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Level 1
Skill Sword of Desolation is now level 5.
Skill Swordsmanship is now level 7.
You have slain Big Game Hunter Leader Level 17.
(Level approximated)
You are now level 8.
That was quite a lot. The fight had taken no more than five seconds, and he had gained that much. Will smiled and kept moving on.
He walked for several hours longer than he had to. He wanted to give the town a wide berth. He had no doubt that they would avoid coming after him, but he didn’t want to dangle the temptation before them. And so it was near dark again before he made it to the mountains. He found a hollow, and went inside, Koma following on his heels. The hollow was large, and looked like it had been a den for some animal at some point. Will settled in, wishing he had wood to make a fire. He had tried, but all the wood he could find was wet or green. Instead he simply wrapped himself in his two coats and went to sleep with Koma by his side. The next morning Will set out again, finding the main road and following it to the ruins he had glimpsed from the village.
It wasn’t until then that Will realized that there was something wrong. There were large holes in the snow where it was packed tight. Will couldn’t tell what they were at first due to their size, but eventually he figured it out. They were footprints. Giant footprints, or rather pawprints. They were the steps of a bear of gargantuan size. It made Will wonder if it was a good idea to come this way.
Of course it was then that the earth started to shake. Repeated impacts hit the earth, each one causing it to shake. Will found a patch of shadow and activated shadowmeld. It was just in time too, as the bear came over a ridge on the other side of the road.
It was huge beyond reason, easily the size of a two story house. Will pulled the shadows even closer as it passed by. It was a polar bear, already the largest kind of bear. Will wished he had the inspect modules. He suspected that he would be able to see a bit about why this thing was the way it was. Especially why it had flames licking out of its mouth.
The giant bear suddenly fell a few feet, and in rage it blew out flames that stretched thirty feet. The snow melted around it and it kept walking along the baked ground. It passed Will without noticing him, and Will watched it lumber away. Toward the village.
“Good luck.” Will said. And he promptly turned toward the ruins and set off. Koma stayed close on his heels, letting out a whimper every so often. Will picked Koma up and stuffed him in his coat, and then embraced his concept, allowing the power to rush through him. His fatigue lifted, and he started to run.
WIll arrived at the ruins in short order. The place was nothing special, being a few stone walls that hadn’t been knocked down yet. Will could see where the bear was making it’s den under a tower that was still partially intact.
Secondary repository detected.
Please make physical contact with the repository to download modules.
Repository 25m
Will walked further into the ruins.
Repository 20m
He walked around for a bit, watching the distance go up and down until he determined that the repository was directly below the tower. Right where the bear was making its den. He walked to the place, and started to dig through the rubble. He was only about four meters away from the repository, which meant that it had to be in the ground somewhere. Eventually, he found a trap door. When it didn’t open, Will was tempted to start throwing rocks at it in a little temper tantrum, but he cooled his head with a pulse from his concept, and looked at the trap door with manasight.
The entire door was glowing with magic. He could see the inscriptions through the metal. He could see how the mana bound the door to its frame. Unlike a regular lock, which only locked at one point, this magic lock seemed to glue the entire door down until the key was presented. However, Will could see one area that was different from the rest. It was directly under the etched depiction of a keyhole on the surface of the door. He could tell it’s function was different from the rest of the inscriptions. The mana flowed through it differently. In fact, it seemed to lead to another unique part. The second part seemed to draw in mana, which was siphoned off by the first part Will had noticed. And will could see that the first part could either allow the mana through or close it off from the rest of the inscription. It was a valve of sorts, and turning it off would turn off the lock.
There were other parts of the inscription that Will was sure was related to power management rather than the core function of the lock, but he had seen all he needed to. He pulled on his springtime star and infused a tendril of mana into the valve, turning it off. Already he could see a dozen ways that his effort could have been circumvented. This wasn’t designed to keep out anyone with even a modicum of skill. This was there to keep the elements out, along with giant polar bears.
The door gave an audible click and swung open, revealing a short tube with a ladder going down into darkness.
Will started down the ladder, making it to the bottom without difficulty. The ladder was metal, as was the whole tube, but there was not a single bit of rust. At the bottom was a large metal bulkhead door. Will spun the wheel and the door popped open.
Inside the door was a complete mess. That said, it wasn’t the mess associated with destruction, It was the mess of projects abandoned in the middle. Experiments really, as there was a large amount of complex diagnostic equipment scattered around. There were bottles of chemicals open to the air, and chemical experiments that were rotted, blackened, or simply splattered across their surroundings.
The one thing that seemed pristine however, was the giant sapphire floating in the middle of the room. It hung three feet off the ground, and was at least three feet tall by itself. All in all, the top came up to Will’s eye level. It wasn’t cut however, not like they would generally be. It was rough, but still polished along all of it’s contours. It glowed with a light that came from it’s center.