I’m not quite sure what it was that woke me from my happy slumber. Perhaps it was another dream filled with strange shadows, or maybe it was the weight of the heart trees flower resting on my head, or it just might have been my skin feeling like it was on fire. Ya I think it was that last one.

Opening my eyes I saw that my skin was no longer the pale shade of white I had known. Now I was pink and everything hurt. Moving hurt, breathing hurt, and touching my hot skin definitely hurt.

Ooowwww. What the hell happened? Is this some kind of punishment for lounging around all day in the sun? If this is I promise I won’t waste time like this ever again! Lying there in pain I groan and grumble to myself questioning why this tragedy befell me and wondering how I could fix it. Wait! I have healing powers. Why did I forget about them? Mentally chastising myself I start to send mana into my healing matrix.

Almost immediately cool waves of relief wash over me. Groaning in satisfaction I stretch out my stiff muscles and get to my feet. My back and neck are sore and stiff but a quick pulse from my healing matrix fixes that problem. Never again, never again will I sleep on a rock. Getting to my feet I give myself one final onceover and notice something strange.

Even after healing my burns my skin didn’t return to its usual pale tone. Instead it is now slightly darker and is leaning in the direction of a pale golden tan. I take a few minutes to admire to new color and find it much to my liking. Maybe I was a bit hasty in promising to never lay in the sun again. If it made me look like this I might just do it again. That though will have to wait because I have a quest to complete.

Taking a look around I find that the sun is just starting rise. Damn I must have slept half the day and the whole night! Now I only have two days left to figure out how to stop the blight! Hmm, I can get pretty close if I push myself hard on running today and then arrive at the area on the last day early in the morning. I think that will work. Resting some distance away from the infected area should do me some good. I can use any extra time I have tonight to really crack down on improving my skills to make sure I am absolutely ready.

“Alright Mel I’ve got a plan so let’s head out!” Giving a happy little pulse in response Mel and I start our journey for the day.

Traveling today goes almost exactly like it did the previous one. I ran following the path laid out for me by my druidic instincts. The main difference today was that as I travelled, I also did my best to improve my magic.

Using it yesterday had seemed fairly easy, but I quickly came to realize that the wind had been helping me a great deal. Also practicing magic requires a certain level of concentration. With this added distraction I found it a little difficult to watch where I was running. I tripped several times and even ran right into- cough- almost ran into a tree.

The process was immensely frustrating but the longer I continued the easier I found it to split my focus. The one spell I knew that I was probably going to need was giving me the most trouble. I wanted to create a bubble of air around myself so that I would be protected from the blight while attempting to cure it. After hours of practicing I was finally able to get a wobbling bubble ten feet in diameter to appear around me.

“Mel look I did it!” I exclaim happily. No words come to me but I get a distinct feeling Mel is saying, “Really? You call that progress?” “Hey! I’m trying here! I’ll have you know that this is just the basic portion of the spell I’m going to make it better.” Silence. “Fine then just you wait and see.” I huff.

Despite it making things hard to develop new spells this was where I was happy to possess the spellweaver skill. Now that I actually had a spell to work with changing its parameters became much easier. Starting with the size I shrank it down and manipulated its shape until it formed a film about the width of my hand that covered my entire body. After fixing the shape I played with density, exclusion, and mana efficiency. It took a couple more hours but the end result was much to my liking.

I now could create a film of air around Mel and myself that provided clean fresh air continuously while not consuming much mana. Several times during its creation I had to chastise Mel for trying to absorb the spells mana, greedy little seed. By the time I was done experimenting with the air bubble I could cast it fairly quickly and maintain it easily.

Despite being pleased with the progress of this spell I did not want to rely solely on one thing. I would need some method of fighting or defending myself. Thus, I started my first experiments with offensive magic.

It was at this point that my understanding of wind failed me. That or I just didn’t have skills high enough to be of any use. No matter what I tried I could not get the wind to form into anything strong enough to scratch the bark on a tree. Slightly disappointed I switched from using wind mana to using my pure mana. Here I finally saw some results.

Through extensive trial and error, I was able to craft my first magical weapon, needles! Thin spikes about two hands in length seemed threatening to me. Made out of super condensed mana they were a bit unwieldy when I tried to move them with magic, so I just took to throwing them. This practice like the rest was slow work. At the beginning I missed everything and seemed to get a hit only by luck but hours of practice saw me improve greatly. By the end of the day I could hit every tree that I aimed at and was always able to land a spike in an area the size of two hands.

This was how my progressed. I would run and practice magic. When my stamina and mana ran low I would stop to rest, recover both and start running again. I ate wild berries when I was hungry and generated a cooling wind when I got too hot. Soon enough the sun began its decent below the horizon and I arrived at my resting place for the night.

Sweaty, tired, and sore I collapsed next to a small creek in the deepening shadows and started gulping down water. “Well Mel looks like we made it.” I gasp between breaths and gulps of water. “I think I made a lot of progress today, but I’ve still got a few more things to do before we can go to sleep.” I had practiced a lot of skills on my way here but there were a few that I had been holding off on.

The last thing I had to do today was reach the threshold level on mana channels and improve my coalescence skill. Sinking into meditation I once again entered my mental plain. There I compressed my core as much as I could getting it down to the size of two fists before needing to stop. Now comes the painful part. Bracing myself I quickly went through the process of improving my mana channels.

After recovering from the pain that wracked my mind and body, I just lay there basking in warm night air. By this time the sun had truly set, and the forest was starting to fall to sleep. “Well Mel it has been a long day. I’ve done all that I can to get ready. Let’s go get cleaned up. We can take a bath in the stream and I can check my status to see how far ive come.”

Slipping into the gently flowing water I sigh as it washes away dirt and grime while soothing my sore muscles. Closing my eyes in contentment I focus on the blinking dot in the corner of my vision to bring up the notifications I had been ignoring all day.

Ding!

Skill acquired! Light Resistance!

Light Resistance – You have either been attacked by an inept light mage or sat in the sun for too long. Surviving this you have gained a basic resistance to light. Improve this skill to reduce damage taken from the sun, or light-based attacks.

Light Resistance has reached level 1!

Humph well at least I know how I got all burned up but it didn’t have to be so rude about it.

Endurance + 4!

Mana Manipulation has reached level 10!

New skill ability unlocked!

Mana Manipulation – After learning how to manipulate the basic form of mana to a sufficient degree you have gained access to a new ability. You can now manipulate two forms of mana at the same time! Use two different spells, wield multiple elements at once, or combine them and see what happens! Increase skill level to improve control and unlock new possibilities!

New skill acquired! Throw.

Throw – When the enemy is out of range some people toss spells, some use a bow, but you throw things. With this skill anything becomes a ranged weapon! Acuracy and distance improve with skill level. + 1 Dexterity per skill level.

Throw has reached level 5!

Spellweaver has reached level 5!

Healing Matrix has reached level 5!

Coalescence has reached level 8!

Mana Channels has reached level 10!

Threshold reached! The skill Mana Channels has reached a threshold. Further improvement in this skill is no longer available. To improve this skill further you must improve its linked skills to gain a deeper understanding of mana.

Pain resistance has reached level 4!

“Wow Mel I made a ton of progress today!” I exclaim happily. A gentle wamth comes from Mel that I take as happy encouragement. “I know right! I got new skills and even improved on all of the ones that I use regularly!” Giddy with excitement I am about to pull up my status page and skills list when a new notification blinks up.

Ding! Hidden quest complete!

Hidden Quest: Speed Racer!

Get a skill to its threshold level before you reach level 10!

You have shown that you are not content to take the slow and steady road. Instead you joyfully speed ahead improving yourself at breakneck speed.

Reward: 5 Free stat points

Free stat points are gained when you increase your level or can be granted as quest rewards. You may freely spend these points to improve any attribute. Points are spent in a 1 to 1 ratio.

“Oh that’s cool. I had been wondering what those did. So Mel what do you think I should spend those points on?” No response. “Hmmm no contribution? I definitely could use them to improve my weaker stats but I feel like I shouldn’t waste them. My skills are already giving me a lot of benefits so I think ill save them up for a rainy day.”

Satisfied with my logic I open my status page to see the full scope of my improvements.

Status

Name:

Reiza

Classes

Druidic Defender lv. 1

Level:

1

-

Race:

Beast-kin: Celestial Fox

-

Gender:

Female

Final Class

-

Age

14

Atributes

Strength:

7

Stamina:

120/150

Dexterity:

24

Mana:

307/400

Constitution:

11

Endurance:

15

Free stat points

5

Intelligence:

37

Wisdom:

40

Luck:

9

Coalescence

8

Endless song

Healing Matrix

5

Light Resistance

1

Living enchantments

Mana Channels

10

Mana Manipulation

10

Mental Resistance

6

Natural Language

Pain resistance

4

Primal Senses

2

Soul Resistance

3

Speed Reading

4

Spellweaver

5

Throw

5

My progress amazes me, especially in the areas of intelligence and wisdom. MY stats and skills are looking pretty good. I can even feel the difference a few of them are making to my body. My whoughts have gotten much clearer and my ability to multitask has improved. Those improvements likely came from the gains to intelligence and wisdom. I also noticed that I could move a bit faster today. I believe that came from my improved dexterity. That stat must somehow link to speed. My strength… ya that one still sucks. I will need to start training with that soon or find a skill that directly improves strength.

I mull around in my thoughts for a little while longer. Thinking about ways to use my new skills and possible training I could do to keep improving my stats proves to be very relaxing. I find myself relaxing quickly and growing drowsy.

Not wanting to fall asleep on the ground again I decide to climb up a nearby tree. This should be at least a little bit safer than simply laying out on the ground. Finding a comfortable notch between a couple of branches I settle in for the night. Curling my tail around myself for added softness and warmth I mutter a few final words to Mel before slipping off to sleep, “Goodnight Mel. I don’t know what we will face tomorrow but I hope we are ready.”

Sleep claims me quickly, but it is not an easy sleep.

In my dreams I walk through a forest that is dead. Trees stand as little more than withered sticks, their bare twisted limbs reaching towards the sky. Standing atop one of these trees a figure wrapped in shadows and oozing a sickening darkness laughs.