– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 214, Season of the Rising Moon, Day 31 –

“Aunt Brynn,” started Terry, “You mentioned once that you are aspect gifted in the air aspect, right? Why haven’t I ever seen you cast an air spell?”

Terry, Lori, and Brynn were taking a break from mana crafting practice.

“Is it not obvious? It’s because I do not care about the air aspect. If we were to discover that you would make the world’s greatest carpenter, would you stop your spellwork or mana cultivation?”

“Not a chance.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

“I have seen Terry’s attempt at whittling once,” interjected Lori. “Don’t think we have to worry about his wasted carpentry talents. That horse looked monstrous.”

“It was supposed to be a dog.”

“A monstrous dog.”

Brynn chuckled at their banter. ”Talents and interests are not always aligned. Fortunately, mages in Arcana are at liberty to follow their own interests regardless of other concerns. When I was a little girl, I once saw a show with animated dancing dolls. I knew then and there what I wanted to become. My passion lies in construct work and you cannot craft a golem out of air. At best, the air aspect can be used for enhancements.”

“Your golems at the training grounds do not seem to dance much,” remarked Lori.

“Meh. Practical applications pay better or at least more reliably. The crafting challenges for dancing and combat movement are not that dissimilar, though. I still like to relax on occasion by crafting small dancing golems. I can bring some if you’re interested.”

“Yeah.” “Please.”

“Alright, but if I start rambling on how to properly align the movement inscriptions with the carved mana lines, you will have to stop me. Otherwise, I may unintentionally give a whole lecture. While it could be educational, the topic is still a tiny bit beyond your qualification level.”

***

“Are you sure that you are alright?”

“Yes, Calam. My soul has completely recovered from releasing the wolf spirit. I am ready to fill my second soul spot again. Just like all the previous times you have asked me that question in the last hour, I appreciate your concern.”

Siling quietly added a muttered, “Somewhat.” The level of appreciativeness in Siling’s tone had decreased with each repetition of this conversation. By now, it was getting hard to detect.

“Just saying. Intentionally damaging your soul does not sound healthy.”

“Obviously it is not, but that is an unavoidable consequence of releasing a soul spirit. A soul can recover its energy just like you can recover your mana. If I required more time to recuperate, I would have told you.”

“If you say so.” Calam did not sound convinced.

“I have to admit it sounds a bit freaky,” said Terry.

Siling frowned, but chose to remain quiet.

“…also kinda awesome. I am not even able to sense a soul inside of me. Even if I did, I doubt I would have the nerve to fiddle around with it. Having an additional pet companion sounds tempting though. I can’t wait to see it in action. I figure looking at beasts from a spirit collector’s perspective changes your view on hunting as well?”

The frown had vanished from Siling’s face. She was happy at the open-minded curiosity.

“Guess I look at their abilities not only in terms of threat, but also in terms of their usefulness, yes.”

“There comes the last gate on our trip. Next up, Thundervalley.” Terry led the way through the dimensional gate.

The three took a moment to look around the protective outpost. Terry saw Leah in the distance and the two nodded at each other.

“This way.” Terry moved ahead.

***

“In my last hunt, it was my responsibility to look for the cloud badger’s tracks,” said Terry. “Don’t know how my mana sense compares to yours, though.”

“Not my strong point,” admitted Calam.

“I think I can do you one better,” said Siling. “I can let my falcon soul survey from the air.”

“You sure?” questioned Calam.

“Don’t you rely on the bear soul for combat?” asked Terry. ”I thought switching souls was troublesome.”

“This much is fine. The summoning and returning consumes energy, but there is no upkeep cost. I will have recovered before we engage the cloud badger.”

“Great. Do you mind if I activate my mana sense for your summons?” asked Terry.

“Not a bit.” Siling smiled and started her summoning spell.

The spell looked… weird. Terry could roughly make out the usual stages of spellwork, but the spell structure did not look like anything Terry had ever seen before. First of all, it did not seem to revolve around a normal casting center. Instead it circled around Siling’s whole body and several mana strands were even passing right through her body and coalesced at specific points.

During the priming phase, the primer flickered and changed color slightly whenever it moved through one of these points. After the priming had finished, the structure melted and stuck closely to Siling’s body like a glowing protective layer.

Siling moved her middle and ring finger on one hand from her forehead down to her sternum and then thrust them forward. The glowing layer followed the finger and converged at her fingertips. In the next moment, the glowing blob took shape and a white falcon with purple markings appeared.

Siling exhaled sharply. “There. All done.”

“It’s pretty,” exclaimed Calam.

“Neat,” said Terry. “I wondered how to distinguish soul spirits from the real thing, but I guess the coloring is somewhat of a giveaway.”

“Can I pet it?” asked Calam.

“Good question. Do they feel real?” added Terry.

“Sure. Try it.” Siling chortled and directed the falcon to fly over to her two companions.

“I want one,” said Calam and laughed.

“I am looking forward to the bear,” said Terry. “Always thought bears look really cuddly. If it was not for their whole mauling people schtick, they would make such great pets. Finally, I can have a bear cuddle.”

“Hey hey hey, wait a minute. We barely know each other and this is our first mission. Who says I will let you cuddle my bear on the first mission? What kind of lady do you— pfffffffffffft ahahaaha.”

Siling tried her best to keep a straight face. However, when she saw Terry’s confused look, she was unable to hold back her laughter.

When Siling broke out into laughter at her own joke, Terry caught on that she was kidding. He chuckled and shook his head. Terry was unsure why Calam blushed. However, he did not think much of it – Calam tended to blush a lot.

Siling let the falcon take off into the air and look for a cloud badger.

“So, how does this work?” inquired Terry. “You see through its eyes or something?”

“No. Sounds headache-inducing. I just kind of speak to it. Figuratively.”

“It speaks?”

“Figuratively. It won’t recite any poems, but you know – ‘movement’, ‘danger’, ‘food’, ‘pretty falcon’ – that kind of information can be communicated. The more intelligent the soul, the more complex the information that can be communicated. Birdbrain does not make for a great conversational partner, but what it lacks in eloquence it makes up for in wings and eyesight.”

“What about distance?”

“Depends on my mana control and soul strength.”

Siling stopped in her tracks and pointed. “Found one. Over there.”

***

“Everyone brought their scent masks?” asked Terry.

“Yup.” “Right here.”

“We want to immobilize it and then take it out by crushing its head,” said Terry. “I brought some sticky traps for the former and rented a war hammer for the latter.”

“A direct Kinetic Push should also work for crushing, no?” asked Calam.

“I hope so. Then we can use the hammer as backup without risking damaging it.”

“I would prefer to postpone experiments until I have my second soul spot filled,” interjected Siling.

“Alright.” “Sure.”

“So… The trap?” prompted Siling.

Terry summoned one of the purchased sticky traps from his storage bracelet. “Right here.”

“Is this mana crafted or…?”

“No. It has a pressure trigger in the middle and some pressurized liquid in the compartment inside.”

“How do we use it?”

“I guess we just place it on the ground and lure the cloud badger to step on the trigger.”

“Can’t we simply have Calam chuck it at the creature?”

“Sounds fun, but no bets on my hand eye coordination,” said Calam. “I am used to throwing out force, not objects.”

“Sounds like an experiment, so let us hold off for now,” said Terry. “We can place some food on it and move away, can’t we? We only need to put it upwind from the badger and it should get a whiff.”

“I could also help it along with a Breeze spell,” added Siling. “What do we use as bait? What does it normally eat?”

“Around here, apparently the death apples, but I don’t think we are qualified to harvest those. The cloud badger should be an omnivore. So any of our food rations should work as well.”

“Could we use the soul falcon?” suggested Calam. “Then we wouldn’t waste food.”

“Not unless absolutely necessary, please,” replied Siling. “Any damage to it will be transmitted to my own soul. Even a strengthened soul is only as strong as the potential of its core soul allows. A soul falcon is still a falcon, which is to say quite fragile.”

“That’s a no then,” said Terry.

“Mhmh, better to waste a sandwich,” agreed Calam.

“Not sure if we need a sandwich. I have some honey and jam with me. Let’s try that first.”

“Specifically prepared for today or do you have a sweet tooth?” asked Siling.

“I also have some chocolate with me, but no way am I sacrificing that.”

“Sweet tooth, got it. Should I switch to my bear soul?”

“Hmm…” Terry considered it.

“We could first see how the trap works out,” said Calam. “Maybe we don’t have to rely on the bear for combat. If we want to look for other badgers, the falcon would be more useful.”

“How long does the switch take?”

“Calling the falcon back only takes a few seconds and you have already seen the summoning invocation. Same duration.”

“In that case, I agree with Calam. Let’s wait and see if it will be necessary.”

They put on the scent masks and moved closer to the cloud badger. Once they were only a few steps away, Terry dug a small hole and put the trap inside so that the pressure plate would be on ground level. Afterwards, he spread some jam and honey on the pressure plate and pulled the cord for arming the trap.

Terry and the others spread out around the trap and crouched down. With the trap at center position, the badger was north, Terry west, Calam east, and Siling south. Terry and Calam stood a bit closer than Siling.

Calam gripped the war hammer in one hand. Terry was readying his barrier spear. Siling was preparing a metal-reinforced quarterstaff.

When everyone was ready, Siling activated her Breeze spell and directed the sweet scent towards the cloud badger. After a short moment, the creature raised its nose into the air and stepped towards the trap.

*Fluummmm* The trap activated.

“Squeeeee.” The cloud badger was now covered by a sticky substance. The creature immediately released its stench liquid and activated its air coating.

Unfortunately for the beast, the air coating did not remove the sticky substance that had already covered it. Instead of helping, the additional air flow actually worsened its condition by quickening the hardening of the sticky liquid.

Terry and company waited a few minutes like that. The sticky substance had hardened and turned more and more rubbery. The cloud badger had completely exhausted itself by struggling against it.

“Now?” asked Calam.

“Yes,” agreed Terry.

They both moved closer cautiously – step by step and eyes focused on the corrupted creature. After they were close enough, Terry activated his Blinding Flash glove near the creature’s eyes as an additional precaution. A second later, Calam had swung down the war hammer.

“Huh,” uttered Calam.

“That was it?” asked Siling incredulously. “I thought mana corrupted would be tougher.”

“Last time, my siblings and I did not bring a sticky trap,” said Terry. “Without the trap, its skin, its air coating, and its lightning charge are a lot more bothersome. Also be careful of its mouth. If the last one was any indication, then its spit may be drenched in death apple poison. You really do not want that on your skin.”

While Terry was talking, Siling had already moved closer and started her soul capture spell. After a few minutes, Siling opened her eyes and wore a broad smile.

“All done. I am now the official owner of a mana corrupted soul spirit.”

“Congrats!”

“However, it is still ethereal. I need to strengthen it with further souls before the spirit itself will be of use.”

“How many souls until it becomes corporeal?” asked Terry.

Siling shrugged. “Never strengthened a mana corrupted soul before. With normal beasts it ranged from three to ten. Double that for improving its power to the soul’s limit.”

“If every hunt goes as smoothly as this one, then it should not take too long before Terry can cuddle your badger,” said Calam.

“Huh? Why would I want to cuddle that stinky thing?”

SIling gasped and tried her best to look offended. “How dare you?!”

“Take this.” Siling used two fingers to tap at Terry’s shoulder.

*Ssstz.*

“Oww, what the—?” Terry was hit by a minor lightning charge.

“Uh, s-sorry.” Siling immediately felt guilty. “I thought it would only sting a bit. I should not have done that.”

“No worries. It did not hurt badly, but I did not expect that.” Terry massaged his shoulder in order to get rid of the numbness. “What was that by the way? I did not see any spell structure.”

“That’s because there was none. Give me a moment.” Siling concentrated with her eyes closed. After a short moment, the air started to gather around her and…

“Air coating?” Calam and Terry were stunned.

“Yup. Straight from the soul spirit.”

Siling’s grin could not possibly become any broader. “One of the reasons why I was looking forward to collecting the souls of magical creatures. Still consumes my mana, but no formal spellwork necessary.”

“Pfffft.” Calam was visibly strained with trying not to laugh out loud. Terry started to chuckle as well.

“What?”

“Nothing,” replied Calam. “Pfft.”

“You may want to bring a hair band the next time you try that,” suggested Terry and smiled.

After Siling had grasped the implication of these words, she quickly deactivated the spell and turned around to fix whatever was left of her hairstyle. The remaining electric charge on her fingers did not make the task any easier.

Siling turned around with a flushed face and a forced deadpan expression. “Glad to be of some entertainment.” She nodded at them.

“Yeah thanks.” “Appreciate it.”

“Next time you want to test a new ability on me, please be so kind as to inform me beforehand, will you?” asked Terry.

“Sorry for that,” mumbled Siling and she agreed with a nod.

“You can make it up to me by summoning your soul bear later. However, we should finish our planned quota first.”

Terry moved towards the cloud badger and took out one spray bottle of the dissolving liquid that was paired with the sticky traps. He started to spray it over the hardened sticky substance.

Siling directed her falcon to look for the next cloud badger.

“Will you be able to spray stinky liquid now as well?” inquired Calam.

“Nope. I know, pity right? Would have been great for pranks. Or useful at parties.”

Siling started to act out an imaginary scene.

“Hey there, pretty elf. Fancy meeting you here. Come here often? How about— squitt.” Siling gestured and imitated a noise that Terry assumed was supposed to signify spraying liquid.

“Alas, I can only channel the mana-related abilities directly. The purely physical abilities can only be used by the soul spirit itself.”

“I guess your scene would play a bit differently if you had to spray the liquid from an anal gland,” remarked Calam.

“You would have to install a butt window if you want to avoid ruining your outfit,” added Terry who was working on the cloud badger in order to dissolve the sticky liquid.

Siling’s face scrunched up. She puckered her lips, wrinkled her nose, and furrowed her brows. “That would send all the wrong signals.”

“If stench is enough,” continued Terry, “You could simply fart to dissuade the pushy suitor. If your bowels suffer from stage fright, I can introduce you to my brother. He can coach you.” Terry chuckled.

“Nah. That would still leave too much ambiguity for some. Also, who told you that elven women fart? That was supposed to be a secret!”

Calam rolled his eyes. Hard.

“Merely an educated guess based on my experience with dwarven women in the family,” replied Terry. After he had spoken the words out loud, he realized what he had said. “Please don’t quote me on that.”

Terry moved the badger a bit further to the side. He took out a jug of water from his dimensional storage and washed off the remains of the sticky solution.

“Found another one,” announced Siling.

“Mhmh,” acknowledged Terry. He put the cloud badger into the dimensional body bag provided by the Guardians.

“Try the Kinetic Push this time?” proposed Calam.

“Sure, why not.”

***

Terry’s group had hunted five cloud badgers before they called it a day in the late afternoon. The main reason why they did not hunt more is that Terry had only prepared five sticky traps. If they wanted to continue, they would have to restock in Barca or engage the cloud badgers without the traps.

They learned that force magic was sufficient for dealing the finishing blow, but it was a bit more cumbersome than the war hammer. The main challenge was that Calam needed to be directly on top of the cloud badger’s head. Otherwise, his Kinetic Push would simply throw the creature around instead of crushing its head into the ground.

It was definitely workable and could potentially save the rental fee for the war hammer. However, Terry felt more comfortable with a fallback option available. Since their day had been very profitable, he did not mind springing for a new war hammer so that they would not have to rent one every time. Even deducting the cost of a good quality non-magic war hammer would leave him with more than five hundred coins of profit for the day. Mana corrupted hunts were really on another level than non-magic beasts. A few more days like this and Terry would even be able to invest into a second barrier spear.

Luckily, Arcana was an empire of magic study. Magic and construct assisted blacksmithing was a lot more standardized and productive than the traditional craft. Additionally, there was no shortage of people trying to supplement their income with mana crafting. Consequently, average quality items and lower level spell imprints came rather cheap. Sometimes, it was even possible to pick up high quality items at a bargain. Of course, that was from the perspective of a mana cultivator doing mission work.

The price would increase rapidly for better graded items or complex spell imprints. If your strength kept increasing, then eventually ‘high’ quality might not be high enough anymore and you would risk breaking the equipment or you would have to hold back when using it. It could also get outrageously expensive if you desired chained, cloaked, or shielded spell imprints.

“Tea house in Arcana?” suggested Calam.

“Sure, I’m in,” agreed Terry. Five coins for mana-imbued tea did not seem as worrisome as in the past.

“Can we go to the Peaceful Porch?” asked Siling. “I heard it opened a week ago, but haven’t gotten a chance to go there yet.”

Terry shrugged.

“Sounds like a plan.” Calam smiled before pausing momentarily. He squinted at Siling with uncertainty in his eyes. “You’re not going to… make the waitstaff cry, will you?”

“Huh? What? Why would I do that?”

“Just checking.”

Terry chuckled before explaining their experience with Nassim.

“Wow, sounds like a real charmer,” said Siling with an exasperated expression. “Sadly, there are no healing spells for curing wasted personalities.”

“Illusion or dream aspect spells might work,” offered Calam. “Or maybe mind magic?”

“Yeah, I guess those could technically cure bad character traits,” said Terry. “Together with any other character traits and sense of identity or cognitive function.”

“I admit it may be somewhat of a drastic cure.”

“Siling?” Terry noticed that Siling had fallen slightly behind their step.

“Hm? Sorry, I’m hungry and trying to remember if the Peaceful Porch was supposed to serve cake.”

Terry chortled. “Anyway, I was wondering if you two have any particular mission type preference from the intermediate core curriculum?

***

“Pheww… I’m spent,” exclaimed Jorg. “Short break, please. Then we should switch again.”

Jorg, Lori, and Terry were on the training grounds. Even though they currently did no missions with each other, they were still having regular spars. They took turns battling one against two. The disadvantaged party was allowed to use bursts to compensate for the numbers difference.

Lori looked at Terry. “So your group is still going for cloud badgers?”

“Not for long. It has been profitable, but repeating the same mission does not help us advance in the curriculum and Siling’s cloud badger soul spirit has hit its strengthening limit.”

“Want to switch?” asked Jorg. ”Miguel, Gellath, and I are nearly done with the intermediate curriculum mission requirement, but…” Jorg made a dramatic pause. “We’re completely broke.”

“Again?”

Jorg shrugged. “If I had known what a pain the swamp boas are, I might have voted to stick with the badgers. At least until we had upgraded our equipment.”

“The corrupted swamps? Really?” Terry felt incredulous. “What the Wastes were you thinking?”

“Objection!” shouted Lori and raised a finger to the air. “Assumes facts not in evidence.” She guffawed.

“Yeah yeah yeah. Save it,” grumbled Jorg before shaking his head. ”Miguel is the only one not bothered by these wasted strangle noodles. They avoid him and his coldfire aspect like the plague.”

“Not too late yet,” said Lori. “We could lend you the coins for a sticky trap. And by ‘we’ I mean preferably Terry.” She stuck out her tongue.

“Anyway,” started Terry, “We want to take the mana cursed introduction class next.”

“That’s not part of the core curriculum, is it?” asked Jorg. He thought he might have overlooked something and he was not looking forward to taking yet another theoretical introduction.

“No, it isn’t,” replied Lori. “Why have you decided to take it?”

“Calam, Siling, and I looked at the gap between our mission record and the advancement recommendation limit. Siling is still one courier and one escort mission short. Calam misses a few gathering missions. We plan to do a multi-mission run to wrap it all up in one go.”

“Trying to complete the gathering missions on your way back?”

“Mhmh. We had a look at the open missions and the best fit is a mission a bit further out in the south. Escort some kind of scholar to Biant. Deliver a storage item to Delwood Fort. On our way back, we can stop in Corsteau.”

“And the cursed?”

“We searched for other missions that we could pick up for the trip and there is a perpetual mission for checking the local wildlife for signs of mana curse infection. Some researchers have marked certain animals before. They will hand us a device for locating the marked animals and then we need to scan the markings. The reward is surprisingly high.”

After explaining their reasoning, Terry turned to Lori. “How about your group?”

“I’m doing fine. We haven’t encountered any serious trouble in our missions and the pay is good. However, Alrik seems to always be pressed for coins no matter how much we earn and Elena… has an unfortunate tendency to break equipment.”

“Are you sure it is a good idea to work with Elena?” Jorg sounded worried. “Berserkers have—”

“A reputation, yes. I am well aware. She can’t help that her mana is blood aspected, can she?”

“No, but bursting is dangerous enough to begin with. Bursting with blood-aspected mana is madness. Literally.”

“Elena has it under control. She breaks a rented weapon here and there, but if it was not for her close combat ability, we would not be able to take the missions we do.”

“Hmph. Well, it’s your call, but if I were you, I would keep a blowpipe and some tranquilizer darts with me. Anyway, it is good to know that we will all be done with the intermediate missions soon. Everyone still in agreement with our pick for the advanced class?”

“Of course,” responded Lori. “In fact, I believe if you hadn’t suggested it, then Alrik would have.”

“No objections from us either,” added Terry. “That being said… You do realize that Ma will not be happy with our choice, right Jorg?”

“And that they will be able to identify you as the main instigator?” added Lori. “I don’t believe they will appreciate your little ‘loophole.’”

“Yeah yeah.” Jorg shrugged. “I would have to cross that bridge sooner or later anyway. Enough chatting. Next round?”

“It’s Terry’s turn.”

“Spears first, please.”

The three of them stood up. The twins faced Terry together. All of them had their practice short spears in hand. However, while the twins carried one in each hand, Terry only used one.

“Oh?” exclaimed Lori. “Only a single spear?”

“Thought I would try something new.”

“Mhh…” Lori narrowed her eyes. “Suspicious.”

“Maybe, he is just getting cocky?” offered Jorg before he gasped exaggeratedly. “Perhaps Terry has finally hit puberty?”

Terry rolled his eyes.

Lori snorted. “If lacking humility was a sure sign of puberty, you must have hit it at five, Jorg.”

“Sis, what are you doing?” Jorg gave a betrayed outcry. ”You are supposed to be on my team now. No siding with Terry until the round has ended. Verbal sparring is part of sparring, too.”

“Right,” replied Lori with a blank expression. “Time to get serious.”

Jorg started to circle around Terry’s left side so that Terry would be between him and Lori. It was one of their usual openings. Terry could not keep an eye on both at the same time and this opening forced him to move.

Only this time, Terry did not move to the side as usual. Instead, he burst forward into Jorg’s path. His spear was kept at his right and pointed at Lori.

Jorg thrust his right spear forward while Lori tried to circle around Terry’s right side.

Terry put his weight on his left heel and rotated his body to the right so that the spear would pass in front of him. Then, he rapidly struck out with his left palm against it before dodging Jorg’s second spear.

“What the—?” Jorg wanted to move forward, but was held back by his spear. “HEY!”

Jorg stepped and let go of his spear. The spear still hung in the air.

“So that is how you want to play it, huh?” Jorg grabbed his remaining spear and slowly moved closer to Terry.

Terry grinned. His mana crafting attempts had not been successful yet, but the crafting practice had been a tremendous boon for his spell control. It was enough to finally make the spell somewhat usable in normal combat. However, his inability to cast hands-free was still a major obstacle.

“Oh? Are we allowed to use spells now?” asked Lori cheerfully.

Terry’s grin immediately vanished. “Uh-oh.”

The next Terry knew, the earth beneath his feet had already been liquified and he was slipping thanks to a push from Jorg. He instinctively tried to catch his fall with his left hand – only to sink into the earth up to his elbow.

Terry sighed. “I hate that spell.”

“Aww, that’s too bad, because it’s my favorite!” Lori smirked at him.

“Mhmh, I am warming up to it, too. Maybe I should take some lessons from Lori?”

“…” Terry puckered his lips and tilted his head to the side. “You know Jorg, if you want to frighten me, you should try something more believable than you voluntarily practicing spellwork.”

Lori snorted and laughed.

Jorg frowned. “How rude! You could at least pretend a bit before you call my bluff. Come on, get up my muddy brother or are you going to forfeit?”

“Not a chance.”

***