My conviction was broken a minute later when Roguk came in with a bowl of rats. Maybe I could enjoy some comforts now and then instead of living in the dirt.

Since flux overcharge was gone from my status I gave my shadows another shot. They came out fine but my head still hurt a little. There seemed to be some leftover flux still in my system. Or I had broken something but that should appear in my Status, right? I went with sore muscles after training too much and smothered the rising panic in my heart before it could take me over. As the shadows receded beneath my feathers, Roguk smiled at me.

“Looks like you’re doing much better now. I would recommend taking it easy for another day or two. The system doesn’t show all the details, especially in Status.”

I hooted once and nodded in thanks. While it was possible to just sit in bed for another night, I decided to get my body moving after breakfast. Sitting around all day was nice every once in a while but I had already done that yesterday. It was time to get some action! The action turned out to be not much at all. I left Roguk’s hut and spread my wings. After a few circles above the village, I was no longer feeling sore and took off to the forest. The goblins had opened up the barrier permanently now. Once I arrived at the forest another few circles brought me in front of my temporary home. With some trepidation, I stepped up to the entrance. My cave was empty with exception of the crystals. The node still sat there right in the middle swirling as if nothing happened.

This time I wanted to be more careful. Instead of letting my human fantasies of magic drive me to self-harm, I listened to my instincts. And immediately had to stop myself as I was extending shadows and walking towards the node. This was something I instinctively wanted? But it hurt me? There was only so much energy my body could take before it started harming me. Maybe my instincts would make me stop before it came to that?

For now, I decided to heed Roguk’s advice. I would spend another night just resting. No reason to disregard his opinion.

After my next hunt, I was too bored to keep sitting around. I wanted to keep going, keep growing. A little headache would not stop me! But I was not reckless. My instincts told me to draw in more energy from the node, but I made sure to keep a close look at the amount of energy going in and how I reacted to it. There should be a time to disengage safely and I hoped my instincts would tell me when, but I wanted to verify.

So I started again. Absorbing more energy through tendrils of darkness latched onto the node crystal. I simply let my feelings guide me while watching my inner world. Slowly but surely something seemed to fill up. As if there was a tank for mana, or maybe flux, layered on top of my body. It already held a little bit of energy when I found it and was slowly filling up. It felt purple for some reason I could not understand. How could it feel purple? Instead of racking my brain I simply took it as it was and kept a mental eye on my tank. Meanwhile, more darkness flooded into my inner gate. There was little to adjust for me, I just let it do its thing. The air energy though stayed inside the node. Maybe because I was using a darkness type Skill it only naturally drained dark energy?

A bit of tugging led to air energy settling around my wings again. This time I was watching for it but I still was spooked when my tank filled up exceedingly quickly. Before it was like a small trickle as if someone had not fully closed the tap. Now there was a veritable river flowing into me. I cut off my connection to the crystal immediately. The mana around my wings was still sitting there. It faded very slowly and filled up my flux. There had to be a way around this. Otherwise, I would get knocked out by another flux overcharge. So I pulled on the air mana and dragged it towards my inner gate. At first, it barely budged but after a few tries, I successfully dragged some smaller tendrils off my wings. As soon as they reached my gate, the energy was absorbed instantly. And then all the mana still on my wings shot right to my core and was slurped up like ramen noodles.

I sat there for a moment dazed by what just happened. Apparently, I had no air mana before and was not automatically absorbing it? That was my conclusion at least. Quickly checking on my flux I found it to be still just as high as before but no longer rising. Instead of forcing my chances, I decided to rest until my next meal again. That turned out to be very smart. The flux slowly left my body and once outside the cave I even noticed it dropping faster. Staying away from the node looked to be draining my excess energy faster. I decided to spend a little more time away from the node. Until I had restored my peak condition unless that took longer than a night.

I arrived at the goblin village around breakfast time. Most goblins were in the square having their meal and chatting here and there. I had just eaten so I kept circling above for a bit. As the goblins started to go about their day, I noticed a small group move towards the tunnel I had not explored yet. The one opposite of the way towards the forest. Of the five goblins, I knew only the one in the lead. Grag. I dropped from the air only to stop right in front of him.

Hoot.

The goblins flinched back a little at my entrance but they recovered quickly. Grag even let out a small laugh.

“Ha, you got us good there, Fio! Way to sneak up on us, when we least expect it!”

I proudly straightened up and spread a few shadows around me.

Hoot.

“Nice of you to say hello, but we really gotta get going, you know?” Grag said and gestured towards the tunnel.

I nodded and half turned to walk in front of them, before pointing at the tunnel with a wing and tilting my head.

“Ah? You wanna come with us? Sorry, but that’s too risky. You got the baboons rooted up quickly but the $%&/ are on another level. Can’t just waltz in there and kill the leader to get rid of them, they got three villages in the valley.”

I was confused. Sure, there might be something dangerous, but three villages in a valley? We were quite a bit underground. This tunnel must lead upwards then. Were there more goblins? Oh, but then he would have said goblins and not that other word. It had to be an intelligent species but I had no clue what it was.

I flapped my wings slowly, miming flight and spread shadows around. I could stay unseen.

“Mm, yeah, you’re pretty stealthy, but I can’t let you come with us. At least not without clearing it with chief and the other scouts. If anything goes wrong it's over for the village. Don’t wanna be responsible for that and I doubt you would either.”

I considered for a moment. I really wanted to see what was there. Another intelligent species, one the goblins were troubled by? Maybe I could find a few high-value targets there? For now, I decided to let it be. It was the next place to go. If there was a valley with civilization I could maybe find some more friends? Wait. Did I want to let my instincts guide me or live after my human desires? Ugh. This was so troublesome. It was definitely dangerous to go into a place the goblins were this scared of. My curiosity wanted to explore but my instincts told me to stay here where I had food and shelter. I would come back to this. For now, I stepped aside and let the scouts through with a nod.

“Thanks, girl. Appreciate it. We gotta get going. I’ll ask Roguk later what he thinks about you coming along down the valley. See ya!”

And with that, the goblins left.

I was disappointed and wanted to follow them. But since I had already pushed the monkeys to go crazy I understood where he was coming from. Again I was without anything to do. The village really did not offer much entertainment. I could make my way up to the ravine where I originally came in from or maybe fly the other way down the underground river, see where it originated?

Then I realized, there was no need to explore. That was my human side. I could just follow my instincts and sit at home all day. Guarding my territory, as a normal owl would do. So I flew back to my cave. As I arrived, something felt off. It did not take long to figure it out. The moment I stepped into my cave, I spotted her. Right next to the node crystal a goblin was lying on the ground. Not any goblin, but one I knew. Meeny. Something inside me clicked at that moment and I let out the loudest [Intimidating Screech] I had until this point in my life. Just as I jumped forward and threw out shadows to prepare for battle I noticed there was no reaction.

I landed on her body and poked and prodded her with my wings and feet. Nothing. She was still breathing, but it was very shallow. Only once my shadows touched her prone form did I realize what had happened. Because through those shadows I could feel the flux raging through her form. Was this what flux overcharge looked like from the outside? She was completely helpless. I was really glad the goblins had brought me to safety. But this was a golden opportunity. I could get my revenge. Wait, no. That was a completely human emotion. There was no need to hurt her for revenge. Although, she had intruded into my territory. So I felt rather miffed about letting her off. My instincts told me to chase her away. That was obviously not possible when she could not move at all. Instead, I decided to learn more about flux overcharge.

The energy going through her body was only noticeable when I formed a connection with my shadows. Then I could feel a purple something flow from somewhere deep inside, probably her flux tank, outwards through her body and seep slowly into the air. A small amount also entered my body through the shadows I connected and even through my feet still standing on her stomach. The flux going through my feet was almost impossible to feel though. It was just too little. I looked a little closer and made sure to disconnect my shadows regularly to avoid charging up my own flux tank. That was a stupid word. What else could I call it? Vessel? Reservoir? Container? It was not really any of those. It looked like a tank to my inner eye, but it acted more like a tolerance. Similar to alcohol, going over a certain limit would just plain knock you out. Yes, flux tolerance. That felt right.

I kept watching Meeny’s body, specifically her inner world, or what I could see of it. There was no gate or tolerance I could make out. She should have them as well, but it was probably not possible to feel another person’s, or rather another being’s, inner mana. There seemed to be something in the way. It felt like both distance and obstacle at the same time. But only one of those at any moment. Maybe with a lot of practice, I could one day see deeper into other beings? As long as they let me at least.

I took a long time observing the flux in Meeny’s body. It looked to be in the way of her consciousness. There was less flux going out through her head than in other places. Not for a lack of flux going there though, her head was very close to what I had observed to be the source of the escaping flow. Instead, it looked like something was pushing back from inside her head. Maybe that was her soul? Or she had her inner gate there? I was uncertain what it was, but something was going on. At this point, I started to get hungry again. And no later than I thought that did I hear steps coming up to the cave. Two goblins, judging by the sounds, made their way slowly towards me.

“Fio, are you there?” I heard a familiar voice ask. It was Luk.

I hooted in response.

“Can I come in? I have a favour to ask.”

I considered for a moment. What would he think if he saw me sitting on top of an unconscious Meeny? Then I decided I did not care. Meeny was a bitch, but I had not hurt her. There should be no harm in letting him in. So I hooted again trying to sound affirmative.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Luk answered and I heard him make his way forward.

As soon as he laid eyes on the cave he slumped. Holding a hand to his forehead he shook his head slightly.

“Should have known,” he whispered to himself. My superior ears still made it out clearly. Then he rightened up again and nodded at my seat.

“I wanted to ask you to help to look for Meeny since she had disappeared but it seems you already found her.”

Hoot, I answered with a nod.

“She overcharged on the node?”

Again, nod.

“Ahh. Well, not much to say there. She thinks she’s a big deal super talented and everything but Roguk won’t let her go down into the valley so she always looks to prove herself. This time her stupid idea was to nearly kill herself, huh? Do you mind if we just take her to the village? Roguk is probably gonna set someone up to watch her. A few weeks of house arrest seems like a good punishment, what do you think?”

Talented? She was not really that impressive. Sure, I had only seen her fight once, but that was a pretty normal fight. I would expect nothing less from a hunter. At least I could let her be someone else’s problem now. So I nodded to Luk and together with Jiro, who had tagged along, they lugged her back to the village.