Of course, one single evening couldn’t exactly solve all the talking we needed to do. I wasn’t unaffected by this news. It was surprising, and for a while, when Ann was already asleep, I’d wondered whether it changed how I should think of her.

Eventually, I had decided that… it shouldn’t.

She’d trusted me with this. Because she thought I deserved to know. Despite being afraid.

Was it a bit of dishonesty? Well. I suppose she could have told me earlier. Then again, this was the kind of thing one would keep secret, no? I… couldn’t bring myself to hold it against her. She deserved kindness. Was I the first person she’d ever told? I would not make it hard for her.

After everything, she was still the same Ann I’d fallen in love with.

I took a deep breath. We spent much of the next morning quietly, with things feeling slightly awkward, though I made sure Ann knew I was not mad at her. I held her hand, and kissed her cheeks, giving her smiles. She nodded a little at me, but put a finger to her lips. She didn’t wanna talk, and that was fine.

Acknowledging it with a nod, I let her take her time. We got ready for the day and stepped out of our room. Marie had prepared a simple breakfast and we ate together.

There was a coppery smell of blood in the air, coming from upstairs, but none of us commented on it. Something had died during the night - and it wasn’t us, so it didn’t matter.

Reya, Liam, Matt, Emilia, and Chris joined one after another, grabbing their own bits of food. We still had the ability to survey the area, and while eating, Cass and I shared senses. It was a calm morning, contrasting yesterday night. Ann and I sat shoulder to shoulder.

Today, we’d begin hunting in the city.

We didn’t have forever to clear it. The eclipse proper would start in just about two weeks, after all. So, maybe… eight, nine days tops? A bit ago, that would have been impossible, but not anymore. The wellspring realm let us recover Qi much faster, and with Reya here to supply first aid, we could get back into fighting shape again pretty quickly.

So, after a rather quiet morning, I summoned my spear, listening to the growing hum inside it. Soon, that nascent spirit would awaken. Only a matter of time.

For now… it was time to clean up.

- - -

Bleeding. I was bleeding again.

I hardly felt the pain as I reached for the monster, ripping out the gateway shard it held. The glass under my skin rippled, and the shard sunk into me.

[Gateway:

* Strength: 18

* Fragments: 23

* Figments: 3]

Three fragments and two strength. Not bad for a first hunt.

We’d split into smaller groups to hunt down more monsters, always staying near enough to reinforce one another. Slowly, we were carving minor paths of destruction through the city. Marie and I had teamed up to take this monster down.

It was a chain wielding thing with too many limbs, turning the pieces of metal into a whirlwind. I had blocked one with my spear, but it bent around the shaft and slammed into my arm, flaying my arm open. Blood was pooling around me, and as the adrenaline wore off, I suppressed the pain with [Iron Will].

“Good job,” Marie called, jumping down from a nearby roof and landing next to me. “Can you keep going?”

“Yeah,” I said, through a mild grimace. “Give me ten minutes and I’ll be ready to go again.”

With a nod, the archer jumped back onto the building, keeping a look on the area to make sure I could recover safely. I also saw her occasionally take potshots at the monsters the others were fighting. A hint of plum smell once found its way over, and I saw a blast of pink over the rooftops.

“Flashy Rat,” I whispered to myself, smirking a little. My Qi coursed through me, golden glass covering my wound and preventing me from leaking more blood as it slowly healed. New skin grew over the facsimile of flesh.

The skin wasn’t perfect. I could only facilitate the growth of it after all, not make sure that there were no scars left behind. It would, however, stop me from bleeding, and make my arm fully mobile again. Which meant more hunting.

Five minutes passed, and there was a thin layer of pale, pink skin. Another ten minutes later, it didn’t feel too raw anymore, looking more like a bad sunburn than the flesh wound it had been minutes before.

“Took a bit longer than I thought,” I called to Marie, “But I’m ready now! Let’s head out?”

It was me with her, since I could heal myself rather decently, and Marie could stay out of danger.

Emilia was with Reya, since the cleric could heal her up, Liam with Chris, both having decent self healing ability, and Matt was paired with Ann to… burn the enemies down before either were hurt. Not exactly perfect, but they both had methods to avoid getting hurt, so it worked decently enough.

Ann had also revealed to me that she could perform the most minor of healing with the tiny bit of lingering divinity she held. It was a true source of it, meaning she could grow it, but it was still slumbering and tiny, so she could barely use it. Just rough to close a couple scrapes.

Amusingly, the healing was flawless, which was what contributed to her lacking any scars and having such smooth skin. I would have been jealous but… I wore my scars proudly, so that was fine.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Alright! Moving out. Follow me. Enemy about fifteen buildings ahead. Looks like an agility type,” Marie said.

“Got it! Following!”

Marie dashed over the rooftops, and I remained briefly behind her. Through her eyes, I saw the enemy in my mind. A creature too thin to be called lean, almost stick thin, but with vicious claws and dense muscle fibre that looked woven from shadowy lightning.

“Marking,” Marie told me, her voice a whisper on the wind, reaching only my ear. She drew an arrow and shot it at the same moment. It broke her hiding abilities, but landed true on the creature, giving it a faint glow and leaving a mental tracker on it.

“Engaging!” I called, grasping my spear tightly and dashing forward. It didn’t hold a gateway fragment, so this should be doable.

- - -

Three minutes of intense battling later, I was on my back, panting for breath. The thing was unbelievably fast. It also had lightning and shadow affinities, stunning me whenever I stepped on one of the dark spots between buildings, until Marie lit up the area with brightly glowing arrows.

Eventually, we wore it down. The creature was blazingly fast, and unbelievably powerful, but its techniques drained a lot of energy it seemed. Which I had felt, too. One had clipped my leg and burned a lightning pattern right into it.

“Should I call Reya?” Marie asked.

I was still catching my breath, and took a bit to answer. “No,” I said, eventually. “It’s fine. The Qi’s gone. I can heal.”

“Got it. Scouting,” she told me. I gave a short nod of affirmation, and she was gone to the rooftops again.

Slowly, as I coursed my Qi, the burn faded. My skin and muscles had become tougher, and my levels made my base form even more powerful. It was why armor was going to slowly become redundant, unless we got some kind of soulbound artefact. Something to consider spending contribution on.

Eventually, the pain was gone, and I could move my leg again. Healing “smaller” wounds like this was great practice for my technique. That gold-glass blending I had done for the wraith was becoming a little more natural, too. Improvements were… so much easier, with all these talents.

‘Thanks again, Cass,’ I thought as I rose up from the ground.

[You are very welcome, Bell.] she assured me.

Taking a breath, I centered myself. “Ready!” I called to Marie.

The archer gave me a nod. “Marking,” she whisper-spoke to me, firing off an arrow.

And so, I fought again.

- - -

[Mirror Wellspring advanced to 4th Step.]

At the end of a very long day, I was breathing heavily, my clothes were sweat through, and frequently marked with holes and bloodstains. I dragged my feet back to the house, where the others sat. Liam took my spear, pulling out a whetstone. He and Emilia were on weapon maintenance.

I got handed a bundle of clothes. Ann soaked them in their magic, washing and drying them, before Reya and I repaired them. Matt and Marie were cooking, while Chris kept a lookout, this time.

Incidentally, they left their rock-hound body at base, while using their human shell to explore some of the nearby buildings around the monsters we’d cleared out. Hopefully, there would be some usable things amidst the rubble.

We also chose them because… well, Chris could stomach the bloodstains a lot better than most of us. Especially if there weren’t just stains.

I took a deep breath, taking my mind off those thoughts, and focussing solely on sewing. We were avenging the people, and that was all we could do. So, for now, what I needed to do, was make more patches for the others.

We ate dinner together, too, once Chris’ human shell was back. They ate with us, bringing some spoils from their inventory. More canned food, a couple pieces of usable fabric, spare blankets, soft paper, eating utensils… It was all rather helpful.

After dinner, I looked at my gateway again.

[Gateway:

* Strength: 29

* Fragments: 27

* Figments: 4]

It had grown a lot. So much so that I closed my eyes and mediated on it again, the outside world slowly fading. I stepped through the gateway inside me, like I had done so long ago, finding myself in the astral again.

Cass was there, with mirrors floating in the air all around her, letting her see through reflective surfaces back on Eden. “Heya!” I called out to the spirit.

She turned to face me. [Oh! Bell! Hey there. Checking your progress?]

I nodded. “Just that.”

[Well, let me say, today has been a good day hehe! See for yourself.] She quickly flew past me, pointing in the direction where the gateway was.

Then, I turned around and saw it.

Looking at my own gateway was still a surreal experience. It felt a little like seeing myself stand in a different place. It was, after all, so intrinsically connected to who I was. Really, it was a part of my soul.

Compared to last time, it had certainly changed. Most noticeably, the actual mirror surface itself was now spotless. No longer covered in little cracks that were still mending. It had a beautiful silver-gold frame, which looked to be covered in fingerprints.

My fingerprints, specifically. There were also four handprints at the top of the frame, shimmering with the same silver gold. Two seemed full of the liquid, while two were still refilling. Those must be my figments, then.

The fragments also still manifested around the mirror, though rather than showing in pieces attached to the actual mirror part, they now hovered around it, like a secondary frame made from shards of glass. It looked… pretty.

I reached out and touched them, the sharp edges feeling harmless to my skin. It was part of my soul, after all. I smiled. It felt stronger. Reinforced by part of who I was. If this kept going, the keepers wouldn’t be able to take it from me anymore.

Soon, I’d be truly free again.

I took a deep breath, letting that sink in. Free. What an amazing thought.

[Beautiful, isn’t it?]

Smiling, I nodded, then looked around the whole of the astral again. “Where do I see its strength?”

Cass floated next to me and put a hand to the back of her head. [Ah, that’s a little more complicated, Bell. But you’ll notice it if you try to walk further away from the gateway.]

“Hmmm,” I hummed my agreement, then did as Cass asked me to. She, meanwhile, sat down weightlessly on my shoulders, letting her legs dangle. I didn’t mind carrying her along.

The first dozen metres came easy, almost effortlessly. Really, it felt like I was floating, almost weightless. Then, for two dozen metres, I felt normal. Like my body was filled with Qi, and I could walk for ages.

After that, though, that strength faded, and I was left feeling mundane for a bit. Still fit, but not nearly as strong. The further out I went, the more that feeling of weakness crept in. After another dozen steps, I felt drained, as if I’d just ran a mile.

Exhaustion was deep in my muscles, and as I moved further, my pace slowed down to a crawl. I felt the tether to my gateway, the way it sent me strength, but it was just ot enough. I couldn’t move forward anymore.

Taking a single step back, I went from a borderline decrepit state to something somewhat manageable, and as I neared the gateway again, I began to feel as good as before. I took a minute for my breathing to settle again, then turned to Cass. “I see. The strength determines how far out that tether reaches?”

[Essentially,] my keeper nodded along. [It determines our territory, since it also works not only to strengthen you, but also suppress anyone who steps into here. So it’s essentially our strongest defense mechanism. Any foreign body that comes close to our gateway will feel just as weak as you did before.]

“So, how much strength to stop the keepers from stealing it?” I asked. If it was what decided the suppression, then it was probably one of the most important stats for that purpose.

[Over fourty, definitely. If you reach fifty, we’ll be safe from almost anything, even if you use another gateway entirely.]

I nodded. That was the goal then. We were staying in the city for a little while, and the eclipse meant there probably wouldn’t be a shortage of usurpers with gateway fragments anytime soon.

All I had to do was collect them.