[66]

Our side trek around the ghoul horde left us worried about whether we could pick up Reynold’s trail. We passed over the Sandes bridge and skirted west of the path his group had taken for miles, sticking close to the great river to avoid ambushes. It was a fortuitous coincidence that the river was so close to our path as it made attacks from the opposite bank impossible. The bulk of the ghouls were located across the Sandes, and its pure mountain water allowed us to keep our mounts topped off. After all the heavy fighting it took to reach the bridge, proper rest became more important than ever. West of the river, our ride northward became an almost leisurely pursuit.

The downside was that we had to ford back across the river at the foothills of the Blacknails. Finding a spot tame enough for us to cross during summer was not an effortless task. We ended up having to travel north nearly two days extra, almost to the mountains themselves, before we felt confident enough to cross. Though the crossing went well, we were all cold and miserable by the time it was over. Our trooper companions, having fought and nearly died against the enormous horde of undead, never complained once about the extra time it took, nor the danger of the Sandes itself.

We all hoped that Reynold’s team was intelligent enough to head west toward the river. It would have put them directly on a collision course with us since we essentially paralleled their path directly north.

That they had not done so was a bad sign.

Most plausibly, it meant that they could not outrun the ghouls hounding behind them and all died. All of us, I think, were okay without that outcome, but it had the drawback of not giving us a way to confirm his death. After all, we would not go riding into the horde to look for the selfish bastard. Still, we had to at least try to confirm he was alive. I especially did not want to live in a world where that orange headed scum got to breathe the same air as me.

There was a distinct, if unlikely, possibility that he headed further north than we did. None of our trooper companions believed that likely. Putting the monsters and more powerful undead aside, going into the frost covered mountains themselves without the proper equipment was suicide. Further, where we crossed by horse was supposedly the safest place besides the bridge itself. Reynold’s team would have to have been desperate to attempt it, and we would have probably spotted their corpses floating by in our run up the river.

Which left the last course of action: They ran east at the mountains. A likelihood that was nearly as bad as Reynold joining with Gozmyr. Heading east along the mountains meant a trek through hundreds of miles of uninhabited hinterlands. Nothing was out that way but cold and rocks. Only the most desperate or stupid bothered to go into the region northeast of Ergentein. So, if Reynold’s group had done that, it meant that something had outmaneuvered and forced them in that direction. Worse still, we would have to go there, too.

We sat around a low campfire half a day east of the river.

Melted or chopped up, black-skinned undead rested in pieces at the base of the low hill we sat upon.

“Those corpses were a lot tougher to kill,” I said to my somber companions.

“Yeah, but they gave a lot more essence,” Raxx said with a subdued smirk.

“They are also more infectious,” a trooper pointed out.

“That’s a thing?” Joy asked.

The man nodded. “The ones up in the mountains are closer to the original Gozmyr taint. It makes them harder to kill, and a lot more dangerous. As you saw, they don’t really move quicker or anything like that, but even a slight scratch could be your end.”

“Hells!” I said. “I wished I’d known that before rushing in.” At the time of the attack, when they pulled their horses back, I thought it had been because they wanted us to get more experience. It had only been a pack of five of the frostbitten zombies.

“It’s our fault for not warning you,” the young officer said. “I’m sorry for that. The old ones like this usually stay in the tunnels. We are living in dangerous times.”

I accepted the explanation—they did not exactly have the time to stop me from charging off. My confidence in combat had grown, and with it so had my risk taking. The zombies were just what I needed to push the rest of the way into Rank 6.

“You can say that,” Raxx said, laughing. Somehow, his goofy heckle always lightened up my mood.

“If you guys don’t mind taking the watch, I need to focus on my upgrades.” I said, standing up to brush dirt off and get my waterskin.

“Oh! You finally ranked up?” Joy said over a mouthful of nuts. It was a miracle she stored so much of her foodstuff into a magical pouch. Supposedly, it was a bag of seeds that produced a fully formed nut whenever she withdrew a kernel. The device had made her life much easier than ours.

“Yep!” I said, beaming. My progress had slowed down considerably without the aid of essence stones. Fighting off hordes of creatures for every scrap of essence was far more in line with what other ascended experienced for growth.

“Well, let us know…” Joy said, leaving off her sentence as her brain caught up to the rudeness of the question.

“Not a problem,” I said with a chuckle.

Joy and Raxx were now Rank 4, and well on their way to 5. Because of their ranged capabilities, they could take in essence at a much higher rate than everyone else in our party.

But what Joy really wanted to know was what happened at Rank 6. Achieving the sixth rank marked the end of “first tier” spells. It was the first major power spike that separated us from everyone else. Barring exceptional personal resources, most did not reach Rank 6 until their second years. All three of us were eager to see what would happen.

I got my waterskin from my horse, then took a nice long calming drag. My thirst finally satiated, I pulled open my soul ledger and plopped on the ground.

A tier 1 spell is upgradeable for Mastery. The selected spell will become the highest possible rank (rank 5) and become an at will ability with no Willpower drain. Please note, you cannot select a spell from this tier for mastery ever again.

Choose:

Detect Magic

Detect Poison

Darkness

Identify Disease

Magesilk Attire

“Whoa!” I said, unable to help myself. One of my spells would permanently become an ability! No more hours of grinding or mumbling arcane words that were borderline embarrassing.

My instinct was to choose Magesilk Attire right away. It was by far my most cast spell, especially out here with the gnashing undead. But I suppressed the instinct and examined each entry with due diligence. The spell I chose would be permanent, and it would exclude the rest of the list for all time. There was no other way to gain Mastery.

Both Detect spells were far too niche to be useful. I liked the idea of being able to always sense magic or poison, but I rarely felt the need to cast either spell. To my mind, they were perfect as they were: spells that I could use when I needed.

Darkness, on the other hand, was a more tempting option. At rank 2, the spell already impressed me. Being able to drop a field of darkness over enemies instantaneously would give me a huge tactical advantage. Unfortunately, the problem with it was that it also blinded my compatriots. Joy was a short bow user, and Raxx enjoyed softening up targets with wind blades before engaging them in melee. A team like Reynold’s, which used spell casting to launch fireballs indiscriminately at enemies, would benefit from the mastery of Darkness far more. Admittedly, my teammates might have more area effect abilities later on, but I still felt this choice was too important to gamble.

I wanted to rule out Identify Disease, as it had the same basic problem as my detection spells. A stray thought stopped me from doing just that. What would I do after Ashmere? Did I want to spend the rest of my life fighting monsters like the regulars? Identify Disease was a simple spell in practice, but it had a very lucrative potentiality. Combining it with my growing herbalism and alchemy skills would allow me to live a peaceful and fulfilling life, healing the sick. The spell as it was now was a huge drain. It would take a lot of Willpower investment for me to use it regularly enough to offset the Mastery.

But then I thought about Reynold’s smug face as he cut my father down, laughing as the village that raised me burned. It did not matter that I disliked, or even hated, many of them. They were still my people, and not all of them were bad. None of them deserved the fate that coward had given them. Could I beat that bastard without maximizing my combat potential?

I had done it once before, but it would not be that easy the next time. Reynold was an idiot, but pain is an excellent teacher. I could not stake everything on Hypnotism working again.

Sighing to release the welling of hatred, I closed my eyes for a moment. When I opened them again, I calmly selected Magesilk Attire for my Mastery spell.

Next up, I looked over my attributes. Now that many of them were at 7, I did not want to waste any further points on anything below that threshold. It was way too hard to bring them up with training that way. Knowing Perception was a key attribute for me, I placed one point in it, bringing it to 8 then the other in Constitution. Constitution had felt like the most useful stat until this point, and my sentiment on the matter had not changed. Having greater endurance let me work harder and longer on every other attribute. I was excited to see what having it as a 9 would do for me.

Following that, I placed my new skill point in Poleaxe, bringing the skill to B. I was now so adept with the weapon; it had been like I had picked it up since the time I could walk. And for that, I was extremely pleased.

Last, I looked over my first new tier 2 spell, Sicken. At rank 1 it would cause a person to be violently ill for several hours, having symptoms of both a regular flu and stomach variety. I could not wait to use it on Reynold.

Name: Harald Horste

Ascended Class: Hexcaller

Rank: 6

Essence: 1,513/2,200

Attributes

Strength: 6

Agility: 6

Constitution: 9

Intelligence: 5

Perception: 8

Willpower: 7

Presence: 7

Boons

Flawless Face: Your face is unforgettably perfect. Your looks will draw the opposite sex in, however you can never wear a disguise or hide in a crowd.

Know thy Enemy: Those that hold spite toward you cannot hide it from you with deceit.

Abilities

Fate Shielded: You are immune to curses.

Evil Eye: You can inflict Hexes with your eyes and can see in perfect darkness.

Summon Familiar: Call a beast to permanently aid you. Never Alone: Extend the range of your connection to your familiar, and summon them to your side, from anywhere, once a day.

Mastery: Magesilk Attire

Hexes

Haunt (Rank 2): Curse a person with minor auditory, visual, and olfactory hallucinations for 24 hours. This will make it difficult for the person to get restful sleep. Usable on one person at a time.

Hypnotize (Rank 2): Cause someone who is looking you in the eye to enter a trance. May not work on someone with a higher will than you. Will break three seconds after losing eye contact.

Tongues (Rank 1): Curse that causes a person to spout nonsense for fifteen seconds. Usable one an hour.

Spells

Tier 1

Detect Magic (Rank 2)

Detect Poison (Rank 2)

Darkness (Rank 2)

Identify Disease (Rank 2)

Tier 2

Sicken (Rank 1)

Charms

Hidden Weapon

Skills

(Class) Herbalism: E

(Class) Alchemy: E

(Class) Enchantment Curses: F

Reading and Writing: A

Contracts: D

Math: C

Knife Fighting: E

Cooking: E

Skinning: E

Tracking: E

Poleaxe: B

Wilderness Traversal: E

Monster Lore: E

Stealth: F

Hand to Hand: E

Wilderness Survival: E

Crossbow: F

Horsemanship: F