January 20, 2019, 11:52am.

Even as Rufka and I cuddle in the two-person throne, I start on my efforts with twilight, creating a dusky orb in front of me. Twilight is the most finicky of the elements. From what I've discovered so far, there are more ways to change twilight than any other two elements combined.

However, none of my efforts have discovered a way to do damage with it. I wonder if that's why so few K'tharn use it. When we were talking about it, Tipan mentioned that the only user she knows of is Rufka's mother. She suspects there are members of the Aetherial council who know how to use twilight as well, as a couple are known elementalists, but she doesn't know for certain.

Even as I'm playing with twilight, I feel Rufka playing with my hair. Leaning into it, I watch as my twilight shield changes shape. Wait, could that be it?

I need to tie my spell to the surface of my body.

Creating a dizzying array of simple circle runes linked together, I attempt creating a shroud over myself.

The gentle playing turns into a sharp tug as my sight is suddenly blocked. I feel Rufka extricate her hand as I inspect the spell.

"Uhm, Lexi," Rufka quietly grumbles from where she's sitting beside me.

"Err. Yeah, Rufka?" I respond, trying to split my attention between her and discerning how well the spell is working.

"Did you just casually create an invisibility spell?"

"Invisible? Damnit," I reply as I dismiss the rune-structure. No spell appeared for whatever reason, but invisible isn't what I was going for. Also, seeing would be nice.

"Lexi, are you complaining about being able to go invisible?" Rufka questions, incredulity dripping from her lips as she pokes me in the nose.

I stop working on a revised spell structure to look up into her eyes. She's looking at me, but her eyebrows on the right side are both raised.

"No?" I try, hoping not to incur her wrath. I'm really quite comfortable at the moment.

She stares at me for another couple seconds before chuckling.

"You're almost as bad as my mum," Rufka chides while shaking her head.

Crisis averted, I lower my head back onto her shoulder as I reply, "I'm working on my twilight magic. I'm trying to create an illusion to allow me to pass as a K'tharn."

"Besides that wasn't a spell it was an effect," I mumble as I continue experimenting. We spend another half hour cuddling while I practice. Once most of my facet has recharged, Rufka reminds me of our teleport practice.

I think she's just getting miffed at me continually disappearing from sight. I'm still unable to create a disguise spell, but I've mastered a stationary invisibility spell. That only works in the dark.

Yeah, it's not amazing, but it's a start. Better than the murky shadows that I had the first time I experimented with twilight. And I can see out of it now. If I don't need to turn my head.

It's a work in progress.

This time when Rufka and I work on my teleporting, I start throwing low powered spells back at Rufka. My aim is amazingly bad without haste or pause. Unless she's standing still, I have a hard time hitting her. Actually, even when she agrees to stay in one spot it's difficult to hit her while dodging. I'm only striking her with one in ten shots.

I'm dodging another arrow from Rufka when suddenly a transparent barrier pops into place, causing me to halt. Glancing over to where Roberts and Tipan were sleeping, I find Roberts staring at us.

Then, without saying a word his eyes sweep the room before they rest on me again. Looking around, I realize we've destroyed most of the furniture. At some point, we also collapsed the entrance leading into the bathrooms. That has been exciting.

"Oops?" I offer as I clear a path to the bathrooms, triple reinforcing the attached entrance and hallway.

"Thank you," Roberts politely intones as he steps past me into his marked stall.

"No problem," I reply, stepping back into the main room where I begin cleaning up.

"I guess we got a bit carried away," Rufka opines as she patches some minor damage to the only intact bench.

"Maybe," I shrug. It was fun and it maxed my spatial and most of my elemental skills at 95. Once we sleep for the rest of the night… Err, day? Once I finish reading in five hours, I'm going to be really close to finishing my elemental quest.

Besides, repairing everything is good for my ceramics skill. As long as I'm infusing things with fire to bake it that is.

When Roberts is done with his morning ablutions, he rouses Tipan allowing Rufka and I to slip off to sleep. Which is when I realize I want Rufka to cuddle up with me, but I don't know how to ask her.

Instead of asking something that might only make things awkward, I head towards my previous bunk where I find Smoulder still making away in her nook. Now there's a cuddler I don't have to worry about messing things up with.

"Sleep well, Lexi," Rufka says from behind me, causing me to turn.

"You too, Roofie… Nope, forget I said that," I retract, waving my hand back and forth as if I can erase my attempt. "Sleep well, Rufka."

She chuckles at my words before slipping into her alcove across from mine. I stand there for a couple seconds before turning around and snuggling up next to Smoulder on the cold, hard-packed dirt. My improved health edge keeps it from being uncomfortable, but it's still no bed.

Even as I slip into sleep I swear I feel Rufka's golden eyes watching over me. They're a lot more comforting than the frosted brown eyes that normally plague my sleep.

When I wake in the afternoon, it's on my own without anyone shaking me or an alarm going off. Though the volume of Smoulder's rumbling should almost count. I start with checking my status, confirming that all my points have finished integrating. I'm officially at a hundred Intellect and Spirit.

Class

Cataclysm Seed

Level

Iron

1

ATTRIBUTE

VALUE

ADJUST

STRENGTH

-9

(+/-)

CONSTITUTION

11

(+/-)

AGILITY

16

(+/-)

ENDURANCE

8

(+/-)

INTELLECT

100

(+/-)

SPIRIT

100

(+/-)

PERCEPTION

38

(+/-)

RESOLVE

38

(+/-)

Integration Points

0

Iron rank

Progression Points

2

Iron rank

Storage

4.02

Cubic meters

Bonded Armour

2/3

Now that I know the mechanism behind them, it only takes me a moment to add my maximum storage and armour to my character status.

RESOURCE

CURRENT/MAX

[EDGE]

(REGEN)

Health

119/119

[6.7]

(60)/d

Stamina

115/115

[8.6]

(62)/d

Mana

630/630

[56.7]

(523)/d

Focus

521/521

[37.8]

(369)/d

Matrix

Facet

166/166

[13.2]

(129)/h

Resistance

[EDGE]

Mana

[49.25]

Elemental

[49.25]

Temporal

[79]

Spatial

[79]

Matrix - Skill Level

Knowledge - Skill Level

Mana - 95

Engineering - 51

Runic - 22

Gaming - 3

Spatial - 94

Survival - 17

Temporal - 95

Support - Skill Level

Combat - Skill Level

Cleaning - 72

Throwing - 13

Cooking - 0

Elemental - Skill Level

Crafting - Skill Level

Earth - 95

Ceramics - 54

Fire - 95

Metal Shaping - 53

Ice - 73

Stone Shaping - 65

Lightning - 95

Tailoring - 3

Metal - 95

Woodworking - 1

Stone - 95

Movement - Skill Level

Twilight - 95

Climbing - 8

Water - 95

Flight - 45

Wind - 86

Riding - 8

Running - 20*

Swimming - 10

My mana regen is so high that I could literally recharge the fancy standing circle protection on a daily basis. That's one hundred percent pure awesome.

As a side effect of this, I'm rarely not playing with magic. It's at the point where even while I'm checking over my status, I have flames and electricity skipping and arcing playfully above my hands as I give Smoulder morning head-scritches.

Now that my attributes are at a hundred, my personal next goal is to get Temporal and Spatial up. I'm almost tempted to stay in my room to practice. There's a high likelihood that as soon as I join the others Beth will take charge and we'll be out the door.

With that thought in mind, I dig a new practice chamber, leading down a set of stairs where my bed was, moments earlier. Even as I enlarge the room, I find water dripping through the pair earth. Baking more earth in response, I use it to direct the water away. Once I've cleared a decent-sized space, I start practicing.

It only takes me half an hour of pausing, teleporting and casting useless spells before I've raised not just my matrix skills but several of my elemental skills to a hundred. When teleport finally hits a hundred the hidden quest completion pops up.

"Hidden Quest Objective Completed: Master the Basics. Requirements: 1/1 Temporal Manipulation at 100, 1/1 Spatial Manipulation at 100. Rewards: 3 iron rank integration points. Increase Facet edge by 1.0.”

I might be a little greedy, but I really thought I'd get more integration points from this quest. Then again, plus 1.0 to my Facet edge is pretty huge when I think about it.

I invest two points in Perception and one in Resolve then finally go to join the others. My regular manipulation skills can easily be practiced while we're travelling.

When I emerge into the central chamber, the only thing I find is a note saying, "I hope you slept well, Alexis. We're all on the surface enjoying the sunlight. Westley."

Emerging from underground, I find everyone floating in the air.

Okay, I know I slept in a bit. And then stayed in my room to practice. But what the hell did I miss?

"Oh. Morning Alexis," Tipan calls, causing everyone to wobble in place. This is slightly exacerbated by Smoulder deciding that this looks like an opportunity to play, leaping from Beth's shoulder to Josh's elbow to Robert's knee.

As I apologize to everyone while recovering Smoulder, Tipan explains that she's figured out a way to create secondary levitation spells linked to her own flight spell. She's still in the early stages and it keeps collapsing if her attention wavers though.

Seconds after Tipan's finished explaining, Beth has us starting on our journey again. We're only a half day's travel from the Nexus point, and she'd like to get there, so we can access Raz's and level up.

I give Rufka a quick hug before we launch ourselves above the forest. We're not as tightly grouped today, each pair flying slightly apart as we enjoy the afternoon sun.

I'm partnered with Beth again, who's kind of chatty this morning. She decides to tell me a story of an adventure she had in Spain once. I don't really get her references, but she mentions a place called Del Prado or something she visited as well as several people she met.

One of whom she fucked then ended up having to kill. Her words. The casual way she describes it as an unexpected conflict of interest leaves me worried for Josh.

"Did you seriously kill an ex-lover?" I can't help but ask.

"Technically. But it wasn't like I had feelings for him. It was just sex," Beth shrugs, shifting on my back. "And he tried to kill me first. Or at least he was planning on it."

"Oh," I mumble. I hope that means Josh is safe. But does that mean she's just using Josh for sex? I guess it's none of my business.

"You okay, kid?" Beth checks, continuing before I can respond, "Sorry. Sometimes I forget not everyone's had the life I've had."

"Yeah. It's pretty crazy," I comment as we drift further away from the others. "So. You and Josh? Do I need to worry for him?"

"What? No. Of course not," I can feel Beth lean back in what I'm guessing is shock as she answers my rather blunt question.

"Okay. Good," I reply, drifting back towards the others.

"I'm guessing that means you've noticed our closeness," Beth asks quietly.

"Well, I saw you guys last night. Why? Was there something else?"

Beth doesn't answer for a second, "last night was the first time we were intimate."

It's weird hearing Beth use the word intimate. She's usually so straightforward yet now she almost sounds bashful. Yep. Weird.

I just nod, and we continue flying in silence for a while.

Eventually, we start talking again, Beth telling me another story about her past. This time about a job in eastern Europe. Nobody dies in this story, but one donkey does end up distressingly drunk. She assures me the donkey was fine.

We've just gathered as a group preparing to land when my continual practice with ice magic finally triggers the notification I've been waiting for.

"Quest Completed: Master the Basics. Requirements: 9/9 Elemental Skills at 100. Rewards: 11 iron rank integration points, Mana edge permanently increased by 1.0.”

Even as I follow Tipan to a nearby outcrop projecting above the trees, I wait, wondering if there's a 'next' stage. But once I've landed and let Beth off my back, I accept that I've finally finished the entire chain. It was nice while it lasted.

With eleven points, I increase Perception and Resolve to 45 each, then join the others for dinner. We all pull out several full plates before we're done. I'm not the only one who's been completing skill quests and it takes us over an hour before we're all satiated.

As we return to the sky, there's a bit of excitement as we engage in a piggyback version of Tipan's race. At this point, all three of our passengers are capable of slowing their descent enough that Beth thinks we should practice maneuvering fully loaded.

While in theory, I thought we'd be more careful with passengers, especially under the condition that we can't win without them. However, these delusions are soon revealed for what they are. Silly.

On the first corner, I drop Beth when Josh and Rufka bump us. I'm terrified for a second until I turn to find her floating on black raven wings a short distance below. We're behind for the first half of the race, only catching up when Tipan and Rufka collide, causing both of them to fly outside the ring as they recover their passengers.

Taking full advantage, Beth and I make it all the way across the finish line before the others finally catch up.

The best part is, we're even heading in the right direction. Tipan has several basic 'templates' for the challenge races. This includes the first one we tried, basically a 'return to start' challenge and several 'destination' challenges.

Once she discovers she gets credit for winning, even as a passenger, Beth has us try them all. By the time we make it to the Nexus, we've completed each version of the race over a dozen times, earning us even more integration points.

"Quest objective completed: Hell yeah! We're going to race! Rewards: 3 iron rank integration points."

We didn't do half bad, throughout. I almost finished the next quest by the time I look at the notification.

"Quest updated: Hell yeah! We're going to race! Requirements: Win five Aetherium Challenge Races using nothing but your own spells and skills, 4/5 races won. Rewards: Five iron rank integration points. Time: unlimited."

It also pushes my flight skill to 100 at which point it informs me I need to increase my attributes to increase it further. Huh, I guess flight is based on my magic stats.

Even though I only need one more race, we're finally at the Nexus. It's buried so far beneath the forest canopy, that if we didn't have the map, we wouldn't have been able to find it.

As we descend through the thick branches, I notice that there's a lot of sleeping wildlife in the nearby trees. There's a giant cat the size of a wolfadillo that just watches us pass. It reminds me of the jungle predators from home except it has six legs instead of four.

“Creature analyzed: Vexthera. Gene-seed D."

"This carnivore is highly territorial and mana sensitive. Despite this, they gather in large colonies, ranging over huge territories to hunt their prey. Rarely seen near K'tharn territories, these predators not only excel in ambushes, they know when not to fight."

"Name: (Concept of silent death at night)."

"Attributes: Physical; Low, Mobility; Medium, Magic; Low, Awareness; Medium."

"Attacks: Rending claws. Vicious Bite."

"Defences: Physical: Low. Magical: Low."

No one speaks as we get closer, everyone following my lead since I have the best indication for where the Nexus should be.

As we reach the forest floor, I finally spot what I assume is the Nexus.

There's a large tree, at least twice the girth of any of those around it. That's the least interesting thing about it. Its branches are home to more of the Vexthera. There are no fruit growing from this tree, but there are large acorn-like nuts hanging from its boughs. The bottom of the tree expands even further, creating a bulb, like an upside-down bowl woven from cherry stems. Under the hundreds of twisting roots is an open area, barely visible through the tangled mass.

Moving closer, I can see the edge of a table with several chairs set around it beneath those roots, all seemingly made of the same material as the tree itself. And in one of those chairs is a short figure who is lacking the extra set of arms and too many clothes to be a K'tharn. Yet they also have far too much blue fur to be human. They're not looking in our direction. And they don't appear to be concerned about being out here alone.

At least I'm guessing that's why they have their feet up on the table with the chair leaning back as they toss several dull grey objects in the air.

I look to Beth, who holds a hand up for the others to hold position, then motions me to drop her.

Letting her down, I float upwards as Josh and Roberts follow Beth's lead. Once everyone is in position, weapons out and armour activated, Beth calls out, "Hello there."

The figure catches the objects, each one making a heavy thud in their hands as they catch them before fastening them to their belt. Then they turn to look at Beth with a grin, their dark green eyes dancing behind their very fox-like face. They take in the rest of us with a glance before once more focusing on Beth.

"It's about time yeh showed up," they declare as they stand, stretching their lithe, muscled form to nearly two metres tall. A bevy of fox-like tails splays out behind them. I have to say, everything about them screams kitsune.

I mean, except for the wooden toothpick protruding from their mouth. And the newsboy-esque hat on their head. Or the rolled-up white sleeves and black suspenders. Not to mention the round grenade type explosives at their waist.

But everything else? Yeah, totally giving me forest fox spirit vibes.

"You were expecting us?" Beth asks, not aiming at the fox creature but keeping her pistol in hand.

"Aye. Pleasure to meet yeh," they greet while sketching a shallow bow.

"Nice to meet you too," Beth replies before slightly raising her pistol as she demands, "Who are you?"

"Ah'm Demo. I'm sure yeh have more questions but first, if yeh'd be so kind, yeh could tell me," they start, their grin fading as they speak, the toothpick hanging by just a sliver.

"What in Odeon's name did yeh do to me?"