In the morning I was woken up when Catherine just left the room. I got up as well and we ate breakfast. A bit of bread or some eggs would be a nice way to start the day, but since Catherine had been out for a while we were left with another serving of the stew. As long as it is kept cold enough it is good for a while. Although we didn't warm it up it still tasted good, and it went along nicely with a mana potion.
“We are going to the town today.”
Those were good news. I had been afraid of another day of menial labor, not that I dared complain. If we went to do some errands that were to my benefit I might consider the blood donation and hard work an acceptable sacrifice.
Taking along the saddlebags we left the house and prepared the mule. The shed was not closed, but it had still been there when we arrived at the back. It must be well trained, because it had taken care of itself the other day, but was still ready to leave at once.
We must be heading north, because the rising sun was sometimes visible through the leaves to the east. There was no kind of road here, and I might even be imagining that we were following a trail. There were few good landmarks I could distinguish and if I were left alone I would never find the way back just by going south.
The forest around here was very diverse. In between the different kinds of trees a wide variety of other plants was growing. I had never been one for nature before, but this place might grow on me. If I had the knowledge it might even be possible to live off nothing but the place itself. Comfort had also lost some of its meaning to me, and I didn't insist on sleeping inside anymore. For now I would still become lost and be unable to get by though.
While I tried to keep track of anything memorable, we were walking through some depression in the earth. When we came out on the other side a small pack of wolves already laid in ambush and charged right at us. It was no good habit, by I had grown a bit complacent around Catherine. She eliminated the charging wolves with one of her snakelike threads of darkness for each wolf.
I had given up on learning the way for now and decided to instead play around with the bit of mana I had lying around. As long as my regeneration was positive and I could depend on Catherine for safety I had no reason to keep my pool filled up.
Mimicking her spell I let some much thinner thread of darkness slip out of my right index finger. I didn't even have to focus on it like when I wanted to create a fireball. This energy felt very natural and I let it spin around, flying loops and making knots. The difficult part was to actually stop sending any more of the thread out of my finger.
Right now the whole body of the snake moved along right with me and I kept it in front of me to watch it doing tricks. I wondered if it was even substantial and let it rush against a tree I was passing. It went right through and out the other side. Of course the thread was thin enough to leave no real signs, but my senses told me that there had been hardly any interaction between the two.
I let the thread dissolve itself and held up my finger once again. This time I concentrated on giving it a heavy, corporeal essence. This time I could feel a slight effort, but the thread was still very thin. I let it dash around again, all the while keeping that state up. Then I let go. The thread remained, but felt like it had reverted back to its first form.
If used in the right way a small but thin thread could be very lethal, so the question was how durable it was. I dissolved my current one again and created the next. This time I poured the intent of physicality as well as firmness into it. It was quite a bit more difficult to keep two intents active at once. I was lucky that I almost didn't have to focus on it being made of dark.
Keeping it stable I tried letting it move around. The figures I could easily imagine it dancing before had become stiffer and letting it spin around in a curve took a longer distance than the instant spins I was able to let it do before. I tried to make it do an immediate back turn, but the front part of the thread lost its properties. I could catch my thoughts before the whole thread lost it, but now I had a front that spun around wildly and playfully, and a back that reacted more slowly but more severe.
Suddenly I realized, that the only thing I had been keeping up now was the physicality and had lost track of the durable part. I let the whole thing dissolve again. A long durable thread could certainly be used to tie someone up, but I would have to keep it up and spin it around many times, and this sort of movement was difficult to do with two attributes active.
The spells Catherine had cast might not have more than one or maybe two attributes. A physical object of sufficient size could easily hurt the target, but the wolves had never been flung away. They just collapsed on impact. So I had to try something else.
My next creation was a small globe of light, to change things up. I tried to imagine it searing anything it came into contact with, similar to a very hot fire but a burning of disintegration instead of consuming.
This spell was different from the others. It was intense and dangerous. I knew that this small globe could really carve its way through something. It also drained a substantial amount of mana. I could feel a strain when pulling the light out. I had to extract it out of the grasping, sticky hands of dark. Just keeping it active slowly drew on me, but now that it was created the double dipping effect of casting and suppressing for just one spell didn't seem to hold true anymore. Perhaps I could manipulate outside sources of light and dark without disturbing my inner balance.
I put those considerations to the side for now, because I wanted to test out the globe before it drained me empty. I let it flow through a leaf and it left a hole in its path. At the moment it had touched the leaf I sensed a deep vibration as the leaf was ripped apart. It was soundless but I had felt the process intimately. Luckily the leaf was thin, or the mana drain that came along with it would have been greater.
Sorceress has increased to Level 1.
The message completely shook me up. I had been completely lost in my experiments and lost track of anything else. Something still pulled on my mind and I looked back to find the globe still in place, but it was already loosing part of its searing power because I had lost track. I let it go entirely and it disappeared.
No longer interested in casting spells I first took a moment to get aware of my surroundings again. Catherine was still walking ahead of me and seemed unaware of my experimentation. The spells had not been audible, so perhaps they had really escaped her attention. There seemed to be no wolves around, not that they mattered, and I couldn't help but let my attention slip to more important things.
“STATUS.” I thought out the command.
Shalyne
Class: Sorceress Level 1
Profession: Enchanter
Stats:
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 8
Vitality: 6
Endurance: 8
Intelligence: 15
Health: 59/60
Mana: 20/150
Mana Regeneration: 1.50 mana/minute (5.50 mana/minute)
I had gained 3 Intelligence just for playing around with mana a bit. The effect of leveling up a class was immense. The fact that I had only reached level 1 was a bit irritating, perhaps I had started the same way as someone without the class and my previous class had only been acknowledged but not leveled.
What I only just now realized was how drained I felt. Of course I had spent a long time in a state without mana, so it didn't feel that strange. One does however become used to a more comfortable state quickly, so it was a noticeable difference to the last few days.
The change in my stats had a nice side effect. While I was still completely dependent on mana regeneration potions for sufficient regeneration, the regeneration I had left to spend on my own volition had increased to more than the double amount than before. The suppression of my aura usually took around 5 mana/minute. Filling up still takes a long time, but if I can increase my level just as easily as just now I could make very fast progress.
Compared to the passive stat increases leveling a class seems much more important now. That makes me wonder about the possibility of multi classing in this world, the effect of professions and what other tricks I am still unaware of.
The rest of the way went by quickly while I reflected on the way the spells had worked and possible ways of training. We kept on just silently walking and kept to ourselves.
After maybe two hours since we left the hut, the forest opened up and before us was an open valley. The morning sun sent rays of yellow light on the beautiful scenery. The valley was stretched long and only about a kilometer broad. Right through the middle ran a small river, flowing down from the greater heights to our current right where the sun peaked through two hilltops. To our left the outskirts of a city began to stretch out. In fact, the whole valley seemed like a rural extension of the city. The whole valley was interspersed with houses and fields. Some stood in larger groups and some isolated. To the sides of the valley meadows stretched up to the borders of the surrounding forest. A small road followed the path of the valley, mimicking the river in its own way.
We stepped out onto a meadow and sheep ran around around us freely. We passed a wolf like dog who was keeping a lazy eye on the sheep while resting in the grass. He was very large and seemed able to sweep away the kind of wolves we had seen in the forest without any effort. He gave us a short look over, but didn't deem us worthy of getting up.
After following along the adjacent borders of two fields, we reached the small road in the center of the valley. Then we traveled towards the city.
The whole neighborhood was long since up and bustling. People went from one place to another, often carrying goods of some kind. The amount some of them were carrying at once were massive and seemed more limited by how they could hold onto it than the weight of the items. Only few people seemed to actually struggle.
We drew a lot of looks and most seemed to linger on me a bit too long. Catherine sometimes exchanged greetings, but the road was busy enough that we did not have to acknowledge every person.
To our left a huge area was surrounded by a fence. Inside of it were many aggressive looking boars. They were more alike to the wild wolves than the domesticated sheep. At the end of the area stood a few partitioned of pens and the sound of a fight rang out from within, but I couldn't see what exactly was happening inside. Catherine did not seem bothered and just explained: “People come here to train.”
“If you kill boars, you get stronger.”, she went on to explain. Intentional fighting of monsters just to increase your strength was not a new concept to me. Actually breeding animals for that purpose seemed a bit strange to me. Of course I wanted to run around the forest and start slaying wolves, but along the weak ones a real monster might hide. Catherine hadn't been bothered by anything we had come across, but I considered her to be much stronger than anything we had met. For me the difference between two wolves might be a real concern. Deliberately training up against boars of a chosen strength was no bad idea. I put it on my list of ways to train myself.
We crossed the river, when we came across a small wooden bridge. Not far off from there we began to head directly to a group of houses. Catherine went to one of them and knocked on the door. When we didn't get an answer an older woman was just passing by.
“Do you know where Ms. Dain is right now?”, Catherine addressed the woman. She seemed startled, glancing around between us, but answered: “I think she went to the city something.”
If people speak properly, even a little understanding of the language goes a long way. When we had passed the other people on the road, there were some where even their greeting sounded unintelligible. The older woman right now however spoke clearly and I could almost follow what she said.
“Thank you, perhaps we will meet her on the way there.” Catherine spoke in a normal tone, but still seemed to try using words that I could follow. We left and crossed back over the river.
When we reached the city the road became broader and changed to pavement. Around us were a strange mix of different houses. Small shabby huts, busy workshops, and even a group of country houses which stood a bit isolated and were surrounded by fenced gardens. This place must be peaceful, because it took a little while until we reached an old city wall. A large gate stood open and there were even two guards posted there, but they didn't stop anyone and just observed the traffic.
While outside there had been a strange mix, inside of the walls the houses were of similar types. They were all built of stone and most were properly maintained, but were more than a few years old.
We turned right into another street and after a short while we reached a tailor. I knew I had to get some clothes of my own, but it made me very uncomfortable coming here. For one I was depending on Catherine again. And then I had no idea how to shop clothes as a woman. All I had seen so far were the simple sets of clothes I had worn, but they were no proper fit. The best would be to get some assistance and let one of the shop assistants handle the fitting.
One thing I firmly set on was, that I wanted my clothes to be practical. If I continued to live out in the woods and had to walk to town regularly there was no way around this. Wearing anything too feminine looking was also something I wanted to avoid. I knew I had to come to terms with my new status, but I didn't see how a skirt or dress would help there.
The shop was large and contained a lot of different clothes. Most were simple looking and in a few different sizes. Anything special might only be on commission with the right measurements. This tailor worked to provide for the masses, not any high clientele.
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Even with this selection I felt lost. I turned to Catherine in hopes that she might assist me somehow. I was a bit too ashamed to speak up, but she immediately took me to one of the assistants.
We were still here on my behalf, and I did have some option on what I wanted to wear. So I took heart and spoke out myself: “I need some practical clothes. Every part.”, while gesturing down my entire body. The assistant, a middle aged, stern woman took in my request and turned to Catherine. It must have been obvious, that I was in her care.
“A few complete something of clothes? Everything, including something something”. After I became unable to follow I just waited, while the two discussed in more detail what I needed. I waited and took another look around. The way we were the center of attention wasn't something I enjoyed and I was glad when the older woman took me by the hand and led me into a partitioned off corner of the shop.
She took out a tape and had me stand still while taking my measurements. Then she left me there and went off. There was a mirror on one of the walls in the corner I waited in. It was the first time I had seen myself like this since the game. In front of me stood a shy, beautiful woman. The clothes didn't fit her right. She seemed like a runaway. I was of course aware that I was looking at myself, but it still felt like I was looking at someone else. She didn't fit my self image at all.
Still watching the mirror I made some small movements with my arms, fascinated by the way the reflection followed along. I moved close to the mirror and whispered to myself: “This is you now.” There was a look of sad acceptance on her face and I had to turn around, because I couldn't bear watching her any longer. My thoughts were empty after that and only when the assistant returned was I pulled out of this sort of stasis.
She had returned with a nice stack of different clothes. The collection seemed surprisingly sensible, and though the cut of some pieces was not exactly to my liking it was not over the top. I would be able to live with it.
Then I had to try everything on. One after another the assistant added new pieces to a stack I was hardly able to reduce. I did take a few short glances in the mirror to check out whatever I was trying on at the moment, but tried to just inspect the fit and nothing else. Although the clothes were simple it was an improvement compared to the image I had given off in Catherine's clothes.
I even had to try out a few bras until I found one that was so much more comfortable than the one I had worn before. “This one.”, I returned it to the assistant. It was awkward to me, but after all the uncomfortable ones I had worn this bra was a much needed improvement.
Finally a nice wardrobe had built up. When I left the cubicle I was exhausted. Catherine waited outside, a few pieces of her own under her arm. We took the whole stack with us and Catherine paid the assistant. We then packed everything unto the mule and I was sure it would have been very difficult to carry it on our own.
“Thank you very much for helping me!”
She waved me off. She took a look around and no one was focused on us right now. She spoke in a slightly hushed voice:
“I do get enough in return. Your blood is worth a lot.”
At least she was frank about it. I decided to stop worrying about the money.
Just around a small corner was our next stop. We went inside and the moment the shoemakers eyes dropped on my boots I could feel his heart breaking. He must love his profession.
Without any consideration he forced my boots off and was measuring my feet while Catherine stood to the side and chuckled. I waited helplessly until he was done.
Catherine translated his heavy dialect.
“He has a pair here, that might fit you. In two weeks he makes a new pair.”
“Like my old boots?”
The shoemaker sniffed at the remains of my old shoes.
“Better ones!”, he struggled to speak properly.
I slipped into the surrogate pair and although it did not fit perfectly, it was more comfortable than my old shoes.
“I will take them.”
When we left it was only early noon, but the day had felt like much longer already. We bought some snacks from the stalls in the old town and settled into a corner for a little lunch break. By now the temperature was comfortably warm, and I almost fell asleep. The short break really helped me to recover.
We got up and followed the main street further into the center of the city. The next place we visited was a curious shop. From outside it looked large, but a bit shabby. When we went in I saw the shop any wizard must dream of. On tight shelves were crystals, different artifacts, books and scrolls and other miscellanea.
Close to the entrance was a counter and behind it stood a man of around 45 years. He was not tall and his head was already showing the first signs of balding. Behind his glasses however lurked the sharp eyes of a vulture.
“Ms. Kasilan.”
“Good day Mr. Heart.”
The two eyed each other in silence for a moment, while I was completely ignored. Catherine then stepped up to the counter and the two began to bicker. At some point it had turned into a war of haggling, but I wasn't really paying attention, because the shop around me was much more interesting.
All the items around me emitted mana, some more some less, and since the entire room was filled up with them it was amazing to witness. There were very few items in here, that were not in some way enchanted. While some items seemed to contain only a single simple intent, there where others I couldn't even begin to decipher. Especially the scrolls were something of which I had never seen its like.
The scrolls themselves seemed to be simple parchment with a few words written on them, there was an entire structure of mana built on top of them. It was like a complex building, interwoven, with passageways to and fro, every room had its purpose. There also seemed to be large parts that were polluted, ways that ended without reaching any point. There were rooms that seemed identical, strings that had knots, and essences that had run dry.
I had no idea what any of these parts symbolized, but it felt so wrong that magnificent constructs like these were so neglected. If I pushed some mana through some of these clouded paths, mana could flow there again. Then I refilled some of the empty rooms and they brimmed again, pushing out into the connecting pathways.
Some of the paths that were flowing normally began to become flooded now and the pressure may have become to much for the paths. I reinforced the paths, but the crossroads, which now had a steady stream of different energies changed their own essence. The entire thing slowly began to spin around itself, no longer steady on top of the parchment and started to fall over.
I tried to keep the structure balanced, but instead it began to build up an internal tension that kept becoming stronger and stronger. My inspiration had run out by now and I could only watch as the whole thing simply collapsed, unleashing an unfocused eruption of different energies. I tried to hold them down, because I didn't want them to destroy anything else. The structure had a lot of energy, that was released, but there was no single direction and most of it just turned on itself. I could barely hold down the bit that escaped, but it was a real strain to hold the pressure inside, until the whole structure had collapsed and lost its energy.
Letting out a sigh of relief I looked up to find that both the shopkeeper and Catherine stood right next to me. Startled, I jumped back. The man named Heart was throwing me an angry look and shouted:
“You can't something something. The whole shop could have something something. You will pay somet..”
Catherine calmly interfered: “I will pay for something. Nothing happened, so you can't...”
The two went at each other and I lost track. I realized, that I had acted carelessly. The structure before had seemed flawed, but everything I did had a consequence on another part of it and the whole stopped working in the end. Even now I had no idea what the thing could actually do as a whole, not to mention even any part of it.
Suddenly I felt a strange energy lock onto this place. It had a strong light aspect and felt like a target was put on the place. The other two didn't seem to notice but I was very nervous. The scale of it was larger than any spell I had sensed so far. It didn't seem aggressive, but I couldn't determine its nature beyond that. Should I try to leave here? It would have consequences to escape after breaking one of the items here and I wasn't sure which of the two was more dangerous.
Before I could decide I was drawn into the quarrel against my will. Catherine explained:
“He wants you to work for the damage. I can pay for the scroll”, she gestured to the drained scroll on the shelf, “but...”
“But the shop was in danger! That ...”
And they went on again. I just stood to the side and hoped this would play out well. After some time the two slowly came to a close when the front door opened. We took a glance over there to see who had come in. What on earth? For some reason Arienne had come here just when Catherine and I were here as well. Why did I have to suffer such a coincidence?
Catherine: “Gods, the child of misfortune...”
Mr. Heart wrinkled his brow even more than before.
“Out with you, I am busy!”
Arienne must be well known. And her chipper mood must be something she keeps up often. She did not let herself be chased out but instead joined in with the other two. I took back a few steps, because the ensuing argument was able to tear people apart.
After a long time both Mr. Heart and Catherine looked completely worn out and the thing came to a close. Arienne finally bought some scroll and Mr. Heart sat back down in the chair behind the counter, keeping to himself in silence. Catherine came up to me and said:
“Your day will be long.” Then she turned to Arienne and drawing on her last bit of strength said:
“Back Tonight!” Then she left.
I tried to follow after her but Arienne jumped in my way and grinned. She held out the scroll she had just bought. I wanted to follow after Catherine, but she just left me. Mr. Heart actually spoke up one more time in a tired manner: “Don't play around. Just use it.”
Reluctantly I took the scroll into my hands. It was similar to the other one before, but the structure was entirely different. How do I use this? I looked down on the parchment, where the text was written. The structure seemed to have one big exiting point there and when I reached for it with my sense, it opened up the pathways and a surge of energy connected with me.
The world around me seemed slower and I could almost see behind the structure of things. I looked at Arienne, who got a creepy smile and began chattering again, as if the argument before hadn't faced her at all. I wasn't able to understand what she said, but the entire way she built up her sentences and pronounced the words where following a pattern now.
She pulled me out of the shop and while I couldn't make out many words, the thing as a whole began to make sense. I saw a group of adventurers running through a forest, entering into a shop to buy a big battle axe. The battle axe fell into a river, stuck in the head of an ogre and Arienne ate one of the fish of the river.
The language started to make sense, but the story before me did not. It jumped from one point to the other, and everything triggered yet something new.
Intelligence has increased by 1.
The torrent of words never stopped. We walked through the streets, sat down on some stairs. Then we left the city and reached the valley where I had come in this morning. We sat down on a meadow and watched the sun move along the horizon.
Intelligence has increased by 1.
When the sun began to fall over the city I realized, that the day would end soon and I had yet to get back. Staying somewhere in the city over night might not be a huge problem, but I needed my daily drug in the morning.
“I have to get back now. I don't know the way, so can you please bring me to Catherine's hut?”
“Oh, right, she wanted you there sometime later on.” We got up. “You really have to do some training, or even a wolf could eat you. Not that you have to worry right now, you are in my company, and I am a great warrior.” We started walking. “If you train just a bit, you can kill any wolves without a problem. Ah yes, and you should remember the way. If you don't know where you are going you could end up anywhere. You see I once lost my way in the mountains and...”
Remembering the way through the forest seemed much easier now. There were a few landmarks that I remembered from the morning, but the path we walked was branded into my memory.
Intelligence has increased by 1.
“And this is how you kill a wolf the right way...”
At around two thirds of the way the clear mind state I had been in half this day drifted away. I took out the scroll and the the energy, that had come out of it, had become only a small stream. I could see that the inside was almost completely drained, and the structure started to crumble.
“Oh, is it already empty? I thought those things were supposed to last at least half a day....”
The light had become dim, but I was sure we were close now. I concentrated on the last bits of the way, because my memory didn't work as well anymore.
“Why are you living at the old witches house anyway? She is always grumpy and even when I'm buying something she acts as if I am an ogre. Not to mention the times when I don't need to buy anything...”
We reached the house just before nightfall. I am not sure if my comprehension of language had really increased in this time, because I still felt as if Arienne said nothing sensible at all. Still, I was thankful to her and still owed her an apology for yesterday.
“Thank you for teaching me how to speak today. I don't have any money right now, but I will pay you back for the scroll when I can.”
“Teaching? Ah right, that was the reason why I gave you the scroll. It's always a bit strange when people look at you as if they understand nothing you say. And you can forget about the scroll, it is a gift to my new best friend. I haven't talked to anyone this long in ages. The last time was when...”
Forget the apology. Forget compensation. I would avoid this woman however I could. New best friend? A shiver ran down my spine. That did not sound like something nice.
I knocked on the door and went in. Apparently there really was an unspoken law that prohibited Arienne from entering, because she stayed outside. Catherine was sitting in the lobby.
“Hi, I'm back. What do I do about her?”
“Send her off.”
I turned back to Arienne and thought of a nice way to get rid of her.
“It's late and I'm tired now. Thank you for returning me. Will you be alright going back at night?”
“That's not a problem at all. I see actually really well at night. I have been out at night so often by now...”
“Thank you. Good night.”
I closed the door. One moment there was silence. Then I heard from outside.
“Good night to you, too. See you soon.”
Her voice didn't show any sort of disappointment or anger, as if this was the normal way to say good bye. I waited for a while and when she said nothing else I finally relaxed.
With a long sigh I sat down on one of the chairs, exhausted from yet another day. Catherine smirked.
“Was it worth it?”
I had gained 3 Intelligence and had made a huge progress with the language, all in exchange for keeping Arienne company.
“No, it wasn't. I will never do that again.”
Catherine had cooked something out of fresh vegetables and brought me something from the kitchen. After eating I wanted to sleep as soon as possible, but still felt I had to talk about some important matters.
“So, what did you discuss with Mr. Heart?”
“The scroll you destroyed is a bit expensive, but I would have paid for it. The problem is, that he insists on the danger this was for his shop. As compensation he wants you to work it off. It is rare for him to take something other than money, so he must think your work will be worth more. I am sure I could argue the point with him long enough that he will take the money and leave it at that, but it is quite a bit and... if you work for him, he might teach you about his craft.”
“Does he know how to create those scrolls?”
“Yes he is a scribe and and there are only very few. In this town he might be the only one who knows this profession. He has taken on apprentices before, but as far as I know the only one who successfully became a scribe ran off directly after. The others did nothing but grunt work for little pay. You wanted a way to increase your mana, and becoming a scribe is one possibility. But you will have to force out every bit of information out of that idiot.”
“That profession fascinates me, so I will get him to teach me. If I have to do some menial labor on the side I can live with that. There is one other thing, how does this deal between us work out?”
“As I have told you, your blood is worth a lot. It is one of the ingredients for longevity potions, and my stock has run low. The problem is, that only the blood of immortal races can be used for this. Sadly, it can also be used to bind a person, and that is why almost every elf is very reluctant, and even they are rare here in the human territories. I promise you again: I will not use it in this way and only to create potions. I always immediately use all of the blood in the creation of potions, it is a huge risk to keep it for too long. An immaculate reputation is very important to get anyone to donate blood at all, and I intend to keep mine spotless.
The blood will cover any of your expenses for now, and once you don't need any more of my potions I ask you only to return any of the expenses I had in retrieving you. Beyond that, we can either make a new deal, or leave it at that.
As for your living here. You can stay as long as you want, but I expect you to help out in the house, independently of the other deal. If you want to move out you are free to.”
Catherine was quite to my liking. She was outspoken about all the issues I had with the situation and also frank about some things that could make one uncomfortable. It was a partnership I could live with.
“There are two concerns I have right now. I somehow need to be able to get into town, and I don't want to depend on people like Arienne for it. And I need some money of my own.”
“I will give you a bit of money, and as for the problem with the wolves... I have prepared something for tomorrow.”
She had a grin on her face when she added that last part. Funny to keep me hanging until tomorrow. Not that it mattered, my brain felt like someone had stomped it to mush. I called it a night.