~ CHAPTER 9 ~

THE MAGIC OF GIVING AND RECEIVING, PART 1

A few minutes later, I’d already filled the bottom of my jar back up again when I remembered I still had to breathe. I wasn’t sure if these fungi were as poisonous as the ones up above, but this time not disturbing them wasn’t out of fear, but respect. Like with the Creator Flame itself, whatever it really was, what I was doing now was sort of like creating a new relationship: thanking the mushrooms for the gifts they were willingly giving me. That made all the difference.

In truth, I wasn’t really sure what giving respect actually looked like. I’d never really had anything to do with it until now. Sure, I’d met plenty of people who said they were giving it to me, or who’d demanded I give it to them, and more than a few who’d simply demanded my obedience and then called it respect, but actual respect was something that was new to me. What did it really mean anyway?

I thought, maybe, it meant listening to what people had to say, or wanting to listen to what they had to say, but people said things in so many different ways. Like how the Keeper had taken the time to tell me everything I needed to know, including not just what I had to do, but why it was important. Things could be said by the Creator Flame, too. Like having me be chosen in the first place, or having its ink be made from such dualistically-natured fungi. I thought, maybe, that that told me a lot about its own nature.

Like the mushrooms and the Creator Flame, though, someone else had also willingly given me a gift recently, and as it turned out, I had not properly thanked them. Yet. When my head broke the surface she was zipping back and forth anxiously, and when she caught sight of me, her whole body seemed to deflate with a huge sigh of relief. “Fuck, I thought you’d got eaten or something!”

“Sorry!” I clasped my hands together under my chin for a second and cringed while gasping for breath. “It was just… incredible down there… That spell you cast was… amazing!”

She quirked her teeny little eyebrows at me. “Really? Shit, I’m glad you liked it. Were you able to find any of the fossils I needed?”

I nodded, feeling my hair tug at me weirdly where it had plastered to my shoulders. “Oh yeah. I found tonnes. I just, um… kinda got sidetracked though. There’s a lot more of my mushrooms down there as well, and these ones are like, infinitely better.”

“Huh, cool. So I guess you’ve still got a ways to go then?”

“Sorry, I’ll go down again to get one for you as soon as I’ve finished catching my breath.”

“It’s all good. I wasn’t going to leave you alone until your Stamina has stopped getting drained anyway, so take your time.” She smiled brightly at me.

I returned her smile just as brightly. “Thanks. Hey, you’ve really helped me out. I mean it. I think I was starting to get a little discouraged, but now I know what I’ve gotta do. By the way, I’m River.”

She giggled. “You’re in a river, you mean!”

I wanted to put my face in my palm, but settled for just groaning at her. “Bog.”

“Essy.” Her eyes twinkled as she extended her hand. I gave her a finger and we pretended to shake. “Nice to meet you.”

“Well then Essy, I’ll be in your care. For a few more minutes.” I popped open my menu and sent her a friend request.

A moment later an unexpected message popped up in my vision.

[Essy] has invited you to join her party.

[Accept] [Decline]

I immediately pushed the [Accept] button, and the bottom of my vision suddenly lit up with a cascade of transparent swirls. I was caught off guard, though, seeing that my name and Essy’s weren’t the only ones in the list.

[River]

Health 38/38 ~ Mana 24/41 ~ Stamina 18/41

[Poisoned: Yvinauch’s Kiss (12 min)], [Exhausted (12%)], [Inspired], [Metatransference: Minor Affinity for Air to Water (22 min)]

[Essy]

Health 6/7 ~ Mana 12/63 ~ Stamina 14/32

[Drained (62%)], [Exhausted (13%)], [Blessed: Minor Grace of Enyirj (14 hr)], [Spellbound: Minor Insect Repellant (3 hr)], [Metatransference: Minor Affinity for Nature to Arcana (13 min)], [Infused: Novice Mana Salve (4 min)], [Enchanted: Minor Intensity (6 min)]

[Tai]

Health ?/? ~ Mana ?/? ~ Stamina ?/?

[Offline]

[Aterina]

Health ?/? ~ Mana ?/? ~ Stamina ?/?

[Out of Range]

[Amii]

Health ?/? ~ Mana ?/? ~ Stamina ?/?

[Out of Range], [&^Null~]

[Desirée]

Health ?/? ~ Mana ?/? ~ Stamina ?/?

[Out of Range], [Intensely Focussed]

In addition to the two of us, there were four other names I didn’t recognize. I could guess that the Tai person was the Faerie’s so-called buddy who’d had to log out, but I hadn’t realised she already had a full party. Despite my surprise, my eyes were quickly drawn back to the long list of status effects under Essy’s name. I thought that Enyirj was the god of chaos, insanity, and… motherhood? which didn’t much make sense, but in any case it was not something an [Enchanter] would have been able to cast on themselves. The Minor Insect Repellant spell sounded infinitely attractive right now, but even that wasn’t what stood out.

“Wow, you can already cast spells for the Cardinal Affinities?!” I boggled at her. I was now convinced she must have been a beta tester, but even then she should have had to spend at least some time rebuilding her character.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Cardinal Affinities?” Essy gave me a quizzical look.

“You know, the four in the inner circle, isn’t that what they’re called?”

“Oh, yeah. I dunno. Well I had to practice that one. Faeries seem to have super high Nature Affinity by default, but it does me no good if I’m casting Enchantments all the time. It can actually work against me. Higher Arcana means most of my Enchantments are cheaper to cast, and I can cast more complex ones sooner.”

Before I had a chance to say anything else, I heard another voice in my head. It was a warm sounding young woman. <“Oh hey, who’s this? Welcome.”>

Essy smirked. <“Oh, just some chick I picked up down by the riverside.”>

I groaned again, and tried to focus my thoughts to broadcast my reply to the group. Unfortunately, I hadn’t had a chance to practice using telepathy yet. Before I could figure it out, the woman spoke again.

<“Very funny. Hey River, if that little fiend gives you any trouble just let me know ok? I’ll make sure she begs for mercy.”>

I finally managed to navigate to the relevant menu option and materialized a little window in front of me. <“Hey, sorry to intrude, Essy’s just helping me out quickly, and I’m helping her with her quest in return. Please don’t mind me.”>

“Dummy.” Essy grinned at me and spoke out loud. “You know it costs Mana to send telepathic messages right?”

“Who’s the dummy then? You’re the one who’s sixty two… three percent Drained aren’t you.” I grinned back at her.

“And you’re the one who’s poisoned. Or did you forget that spending Mana also drains your Stamina?” She stuck her miniature tongue out at me.

Ah, she had a point there. I hung my head. “Well, I guess I should get back under water anyway, then.”

“Wait a minute.” She zipped closer to me. “Your Const Enchant faded. Let me recast.”

I noted from the party interface that it only cost her a little over one point of Mana to recast her Enchantment on me. Apparently all that extra Arcana Affinity really wasn’t for nothing.

After that I dove back into the world of mystical underwater mushrooms and petrified little flowers. It actually took me two attempts to get the one Essy wanted, because apparently there were multiple types of flowers suspended down there, but soon enough she was happily mumbling to herself about all the things she was going to do with it while suffusing the air with magical diagrams. A few minutes after that, I had my jar filled almost to the line the Keeper had indicated.

I came up for air and pulled myself onto a particularly sturdy patch of land to catch a brief break. The swimming had been wonderfully easy and fun, but holding my breath down there while scraping resin and trying to keep from losing any, while also trying to keep my hair out of my eyes, had still taken its toll. I’d reached the very low break-even point with my Stamina a while ago.

The poison drained my Stamina at just over one point per minute, but since Stamina regenerated more quickly the lower it was, eventually it got low enough that it was regenerating at the same rate. For me this was just under ten Stamina, so as long as I was careful not to drain it too low while under water, a few short breaks were enough to keep me from Fainting. At this point the poison had just about worn off, though, so I was still feeling a little rushed to finish before I lost the hallucination-induced guides.

In the intervening minutes, I’d learned that the women we’d spoken to earlier in party chat had been Aterina, and that she was some weird mix between a [Phantom Blade] and a [Cleric], which explained the Blessing. Neither of the other two who were online had deigned to introduce themselves, though, although there had been a brief telepathic conversation between Aterina and Amii at one point that I hadn’t really been able to follow. I gathered that Amii and Desirée were doing something together back in town, so they were probably talking to each other in person.

As I sat there gathering my strength, I vaguely noticed something slithering in the corner of my vision, and suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by a squeak from Essy. “Fuck! River! Incoming!!”

That could only mean one thing, and it was definitely not good. I sprang to my feet and whipped around to face whatever was coming…

… and didn’t see anything.

After a moment of confusion, I finally caught sight of what Essy had seen. The waterway I’d just crawled out of was wriggling. I stared in horror, and slowly the water in front of me writhed over the bank, then began oozing and undulating upward until I was staring up at a monstrous face made up of nothing but a mass of roots and vines. I had no frame of reference for how tall the… creature… was, but my eyes came up to what passed for its chest at best. It was vaguely sort of humanoid, in that it appeared to have approximately four limbs, but apart from that I could only really describe it as a clump. The thing stared back at me with little black pustules for eyes, and for a brief moment, all was still.

Then it reached forward with a tentacled arm, and grabbed me.

~ ~ 26/1/1/14:04 ~ ~

Status: [River]

Class: [Novice Mistborn Magical Martial Artist]

Location: [Lower Spelltouched Wilds - Evelyn’s Bog]

Health 38/38 ~ Mana 25/40 ~ Stamina 7/41

[Poisoned: Yvinauch’s Kiss (2 min)], [Exhausted (66%)], [Enchanted: Minor Constitution (5 min)], [Metatransference: Minor Affinity for Air to Water (12 min)] Equipped Skills (5/8):

[Force Infused Palm]

[Myriad Fists]

[Imbued Defence]

[Unarmed Discipline (Passive)]

[Body Conditioning (Passive)] Statistics:

Defence +8

Resistance +4

Constitution +4 (+3)

Willpower +4

Endurance +4

Spirit (+1)

Strength (-66%)

Intensity (-66%)

Affinity: Air (-4)

Affinity: Water (+4) Equipped Items (2/8):

[New Arrival’s Simple Dress]

[New Arrival’s Simple Shoes]

Other Skills:

[Inscribe: Rune of the Creator Flame (0/1)] Other Items:

[Special Edition Founder’s Token]

[Novice Healing Potion]

[Novice Mana Potion]

[Small Glass Jar (86%)]

[Small Pouch]

[Vial of Silver Gemdust (10)]

[Small Iron Key]

[Sugary Biscuit]x2 Active Quests:

[Acquire Ancient Flame-Seared Ink]

[The Ancient Keeper of Runic Magic (Part 2)]