After I gained the channelling ability, I thought about ways I could use my magic, I realized that, as long as I was alone, the cast-time of rune magic, forcing me to remain stationary, was highly problematic. At best, I could sling one or two spells but then my opponents would be upon me and few would give me time to destroy them at my leisure. The Ice Magic I'd gotten might help but I wasn't so sure. To do something useful while contemplating I started training it by letting an icicle fly circles, then figure eights at ever increasing speeds, until my Astral Power was drained.

I wasn't getting anywhere, until my eyes fell onto the Rune Stones, if stones could serve to hold runes, might different materials work as well?

My Icicle stopped right in front of my face and using Ice Magic, I engraved the rune for Shatter into it, then I let it float to the back of my cave, away from me and the fire, and focused on the rune I knew was there, there was even a bit of feedback from my Ice Magic, guiding me. It took more Astral Power than thought but then the Icicle burst, like my Shattering Icicle. Happily, I tried the same thing with a Concealment-Rune but when I tried to feed Astral Power into it, it felt wrong and when I pushed through the feeling, the icicle started to crack and then simply broke into fragments, none of them concealed. So, runes can only be engraved into fitting materials and Runestones are universal? Maybe, more testing would be required. Doing that with a Blood Rune gave the same effect, shaved ice. I picked the fragments up to put them from my living space, when one of the shards cut deeply into my hand, it was razor sharp. The blood flowing from my wound dyed the Icicle crimson, making it look brutal and eerie but also giving me an interesting idea.

I made a small bowl out of ice and started to collect some blood into it, using my magic to create more from my wound. It was hellishly painful but gave me something to experiment with. I didn't want to create new ice so I simply placed three chill-runes in a triangle around my bowl and channelled Astral Power slowly into them. It took a couple of moments but then I had a chunk of frozen blood, something I hypothesised to be both under the governance of Ice and of Blood. I shattered the bowl on the floor and used Ice Magic to float one of the pieces up. It worked but it took more than I thought it would, as if the Blood Ice was a lot heavier than normal ice. Then I realized that the idea to engrave a single rune into the Blood Ice was great but I had no blood rune that would be useful by itself.

I put the Blood Ice down and created a new, normal Icicle, with the intent to use it to try out if I could use multiple runes on one piece. So I engraved Ice – Mist – Chill, walked to the front of the cave and let it float out, no way would I want to set of another mist-explosion within my cave. I focused on the runes and tried to let a slow, steady flow of power trickle into them, making them slowly release their power. It worked like a charm, icy cold mist billowed outwards from the floating icicle, enveloping it and obstructing the view. I kept going, feeling that enveloping the surrounding area in mist would make my little hidey-hole more secure. I wrecked my brain but could not find a way to make it somehow permanent, a persistent enchantment, if you will, to create a steady bank of mist.

With that knowledge, I created both, Blood Ice Shards and plain Ice Shards, I managed to create two Blood Ice Shards, reading Shatter – Blood – Splatter, one reading Ice - Chill – Blood and a couple Chill and Shatter-Shards and one with Ice – Mist – Chill as a kind of smoke bomb. More, would not be handy to lug around and I wasn't sure it would be smart to overdo it with the self-blood letting.

Then I created a larger Icicle, shaping it like a weaver's shuttle, only thinner so it was basically a blade with a cutting edge all around, points at each end and an impossible small handle in the middle, so I could carry it. When I got a prompt to name it, I simply called it Frozen Shuttle, but that meant it was considered an Item so I inspected it.

Frozen Shuttle Rarity Uncommon Type Special Base Damage 4 Damage Piercing Base Damage 8 Damage Slashing Strength Modifier none This Blade made of Ice cannot be wielded like a normal weapon, it's created to be used by an Ice-Magician.

After familiarizing myself with my new weapon and boosting my Ice-Magic Skill to 8, I decided to head out. I refreshed the Icy Mist, just so it would be there, and headed out. Walking in the mist, I realized I was able to feel the engraved Ice-Shard as long as I was within the mist.

I applied my concealment-spell on myself and ghosted through the forest, looking for prey, when I heard something reminding me of chatter. Unable to understand, I crept closer and saw two strange, rat-like creatures. They looked sapient but not civilised. Suddenly, I heard something snap behind me and spun, looking at another of those rats, trying to sneak up to me with a club raised. I instantly used my Frozen Shuttle to strike at it, using quite a bit of Astral Power to accelerate it and clearly surprising the thing. While doing so, I observed it, getting

Snowbold, level 8, ???/???

'Oh, shit, the rat is a lot higher level than me.' raced through my mind when the Shuttle hit it into the side, throwing it off balance and causing a loud squeal to burst from it's snout, alerting the other two to my presence. Observing told me that they were level 8 and 9 so fighting was pretty much out. I jumped back and tossed one of my Shatter – Blood – Splatter at the wounded Snowbold, using a bit of Ice-Magic to guide it which caused my Shuttle to wobble dangerously. When I focused magic into the runes, now half-burried in the Snowbolds guts, the meaty ripping sound that was drowned out by its scream was like music to me and even the drops of purple blood that landed on my face could not quench my smile. The Log told me that a heavy bleeding-effect was applied to the Snowbold but now it's two allies came after me with a Vengeance. I firmed the control of the shuttle and used it to strike them away and parry but that made me unable to get anywhere and I was taking light hits and glancing blows, so I pulled the Ice - Mist - Chill Shard out and focused power into it. After that, my Astral Power was about half due to the expense of fighting with the Shuttle and letting both Shards burst. I oriented myself within the mist and shot two Shatter-Shards into the bleeding Snowbold, trying to worsen it's injuries. The squealing made it's allies rush to it's side and I managed to make a get-away under the cover of my mist. I kept running even when I got the message:

.

Snowbold You gain 25 EXP. For killing an opponent 6 levels above you you gain 15 Bonus EXP For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain 3 Bonus EXP You reached Level 3

Neat, so the bleeding-effect killed it? Useful. However I got the feeling that hunting them would be suicidal, I had been lucky that I got away in the mist and I kept running until my stamina was almost gone.

I moved around a bit, hunting some wolves and similar critters, whenever I found them alone, proving that my Frozen Shuttle was a good weapon. After a while of doing so, I saw another pair of Snowbolds, this time I was a lot more careful and watched them mull around for some time and then stalked them back towards their burrow. Then I decided to return to my own lair.

When I got there, I was happy to see that the mist was still clouding the hill-side making it hard to find the small entrance into my cavern but as I was able to feel the engraved Icicle, it was easy for me. I had another idea to make it even harder but first I channelled some power into the mist-engraving to get more mist. Then I sat down and used Concealment – Mist – Concealment, slowly channelling power into it and getting billowing clouds that mixed with the already existing mist. If it worked, the mist should conceal direction, making it hard to keep one's orientation when walking into it. The combination should give me quite a bit of privacy.

Suddenly, there was a blue box.

System Announcement Every First Wave-Beta Tester created their character. Special Achievements and titles will be distributed now. For being the only Tester to gain the “Natural Mage”-Trait you gain a title: Otherworldly Magic-Prodigy. Title gained You have gained a Title: Otherworldly Magic-Prodigy Of all those who travelled to this world, you are the most gifted Spellcaster. The Goddess of Magic smiles upon you and grants you increased Skill-Gain in all magic-related skills. She has also taken note of you. Such attention can be a blessing or a curse.