Head heavy and stomach gurgling with need, Lefie opened her eyes to a darkened tunnel, her head resting on Riza’s chest, as lucidity gradually returned to her mind.

Memories of yesterday, blurry with the fogginess of sleep, crystalised as the gears in her brain slowly warmed back up, picking up speed as cogent thought picked up.

It’s a bit chilly, She thought, staring at the tar-fed lantern as it’s ever-lasting flame flickered and danced within it’s metallic housing.

Unwinding herself from Riza’s clutches, she gave a brief look at her friend’s face before settling back in--albeit, with more freedom this time--as she brought up her leafy representation of her powers granted to her by the Old One.

Lefie

Level 13

Health: 80/80

Stamina: 80/80

Essence: 2371

Power: 4

Consitution: 4

Endurance: 4

Vim: 4

Essence: 118

Spirit: 77

Only two more levels to go. Then I’ll be as strong as Riza.

3 skill points available. Riza says to hold them, and she was right, but it goes against everything I’ve been taught!

A shuffling beneath Lefie distracted her from her thoughts.

“Shit. I fell asleep?” Riza’s deep, dulcet morning voice said.

“Sure looks like it. At least we weren’t attacked.” Miraculously.

“Sorry. I-I guess I was more tired than I realised,” Riza apologised sincerely.

“It’s fine; you’re only mortal.” The comment drew a strange look from her friend. “Actually,” Lefie begin, shifting so she was kneeling and looking at Riza’s face, “I have three skill points available. I know what you said about saving them but I feel like a burden in there!” Lefie said, pointing down the tunnel.

“You don’t-” Riza began, abruptly stopping and falling into thought, a demeanour Lefie was more than familiar with by now.

Barely two minutes passed, Riza’s eyes flicking to and fro, hands tracing shapes in the air, as she interacted with whatever the Old One was showing her, Lefie just watching her friend, before Riza finally finished her thought.

“What did you do to make the demon release it’s grip on me?” She asked out of the corner of her eye.

“I panicked and bought [Inner Flow]. I splashed a bit of water in your direction and used that to determine where it was.”

Riza chewed on that knowledge for a few seconds.

“Lefie. Do you trust me?” She asked.

“Of course,” The teenager replied with no hesitation.

“I wouldn’t suggest this unless I strongly believed it was absolutely necessary,” Riza said, squeezing Lefie’s hand in her own as emphasis. “Would you be willing to invest in another skill tree?”

“Sure?” Lefie drew the word out, not quite understanding what Riza was getting at.

“Okay,” Her friend sighed with relief. “The humanoid… demon, whatever it is, is stronger than a greater demon. That’s what I sensed. It’s also going to have more health than a greater demon.

“I cannot use [Leech] while in the fog. The only offensive thing I can do is command Spidey to attack but he’s weaker than a greater demon currently and I doubt he’d be as strong as one even at max level.

“I also have only one skill point left. I’ve got no way to grow stronger.

“So, Lefie. As much as I hate to ask, I need you to buy lightning skills and massively help out in fights.”

That’s… that’s a lot to take in.

Riza’s face was serious but also… scared. She looked worried about how Lefie would respond, her wide, beautiful eyes pulling at Lefie’s emotions.

“Yes. I’ll do it,” Lefie swiftly answered, a little surprised by her own conviction.

Relief flooded out of Riza’s body, her tense shoulders slumping and her grip loosening as the smallest of smiles appeared, soon replaced by determination.

Lefie found herself suddenly crushed by her friend, albeit only for a second or two, before Riza began to talk.

“Okay. First of all, you’ll need [Lightning Bolt]. That’s going to be the main damaging skill. What’s the tier 1 skills you see?”

Lightning

Foundation Tier

[Lightning Bolt] (1/10) -Learned

Shoot a bolt of lightning that deals 10 damage

Range: short

Casting Time: 1 sec

Cost: 1 essence

[Lightning Strike] (1/10)

Charge your fists or feet with lightning that deals 10 damage upon strike

Casting Time: 1 sec

Cost: 10 essence per minute

1st Tier

[Lightning Swiftness] (1/10)

Requirement: [Lightning Strike] (1/10)

Speed up your lightning parts by a little

Cost: 1 essence per minute

[Chain Lightning] (1/10)

Requirement: [Lightning Bolt] (1/10)

Shoot a bolt of lightning that deals 50 damage. Chains to 1 additional target for 2 damage.

Casting Time: 1 sec

Cost: 10 essence

[Conductivity] (1/10)

Lightning skills are more effective for each lightning skill activated within 1 minute, doubling at every 1000 skills

“Er… [Lightning Swiftness], [Chain Lightning], and [Conductivity].”

“What do they do?”

“[Lightning Swiftness] requires [Lightning Strike] and speeds me up. [Chain Lightning] is like [Lightning Bolt] but it does more damage and chains to another entity. [Conductivity] makes each lightning skill stronger for every other lightning skill I’ve used within the past minute.”

“How much stronger does [Conductivity] make you?” Riza asked after digesting that information, her voice rapid with excitement.

“It doubles the power every 1000 attacks.”

“Do you think [Double Cast]ing [Lightning Bolt] would trigger it twice?”

“Maybe,” Lefie said, beginning to see where Riza was going.

“Get [Double Cast].”

Like an obedient child, Lefie switched to the relevant skill tree and purchased [Double Cast], trusting whatever plan Riza had concocted.

She knows what she’s doing. I trust that she wouldn’t do anything to screw me over.

“Done.”

“What are the tier 2 skills for meta magic?”

Metamagic

Foundation Tier

[Alteration Mastery] (10/10) -Learned

Control the strength of an active essence skill with finesse

Cost: Changes with skill

[Seeker Mastery] (1/10)

Enhance the range of an active essence skill

Cost Changes with skill

[Maximise Mastery] (10/10)+ -Learned

Enhance the intensity of an active essence skill

Cost: Changes with skill

1st Tier

[Distinguish Life] (1/10)

Allow channeled essence skills to affect 1 additional entity. Additional entities experience a little of the skills effects

Cost: Original skills per additional entity

[Double Cast] (1/10) -Learned

Activate a single skill 2 times simultaneously

Cost: Changes with skill

2nd Tier

[Range Compression] (1/10)

Compress a skill's range to increase intensity

[Overcharge] (1/10)

Enhance the intensity of an active essence skill by a little while increasing casting time by a little

Cost: Changes with skill

[Triple Cast] (1/10)

Requirement: [Double Cast] (10/10)

Activate a single skill 3 times simultaneously

“[Range Compression], [Overcharge], and [Triple Cast]. [Range Compression] decreases the range of a skill while making it stronger, [Overcharge] increases casting time and cost to make a skill stronger, and [Triple Cast] is like [Double Cast],” Lefie swiftly reported.

“Hmm. [Range Compression] is free power and [Overcharge] lacks synergy with [Conductivity]. What will the range of [Lightning Bolt] be at level 10?”

“I don’t know. Probably medium?” Lefie said, unhappy she couldn’t give Riza precise numbers.

“Medium?”

“That’s how the Old One tells me range. Conjure and [Manipulate Water] are both short range skills.”

“It’s probably 20 metres,” Riza said, waving away the problem with an assumption. “We wouldn’t want to be near the demon so it’d likely be between 5 and 15 metres away from us. If it’s proportional, like [Maximise Mastery], that’s a 25% to 75% increase in damage.”

Riza fell to the ground, wiping away her numbers from last night and beginning anew.

“Let’s assume the numbers for every skill being level 10. That’s 10 points of damage every level. 1 essence every level. Maximise multiplies that by 3… [Double Cast] and a 25% increase results in a total of… 750 points of damage for 60 essence,” Riza muttered under her breath, turning towards Lefie as she said the final numbers.

“That’s… not a lot, is it?”

“Compared to the demon’s health total, no, but context is important. That takes 1 second. What’s your total essence?”

“2371.”

“About 2400, so you can maintain this for 40 seconds. That’s 30,000 damage after 40 seconds.”

“Oh.” Wow. That’s a lot more than I would’ve thought. That’s real? I’m that strong now?”

“Wait. Wouldn’t the demon kill us before then?”

“That’s a gamble. Hopefully, Spidey would keep it distracted but… I want to level up my skills to level 10 to make it safer.”

A necessary risk, then.

“That’s just the numbers for [Range Compression].” Riza jumped to her feet, body bursting with energy so early in the day. I think it’s the day.

“[Conductivity] is a bit more complicated.” She began to pace. “How should I do that? Create a table or a graph? Hard and time consuming, especially without a calculator or graphing software.

“Maybe I take a time and just work out the total damage from 0 until that time? Would 40 seconds do? No, I rounded on that and it could be an important difference.

“Number of casts, perhaps?” Riza fell to her knees once more. “Cost of one [Lightning Bolt] is 30, doubled to 60 with [Double Cast]. 1 second, 600 damage, 60 essence, 2 skill activations- wait.”

Riza’s head perked up, hand moving up and down in the air before pausing.

“Lefie. I think [Double Cast] does work with [Conductivity].”

“Really? Why’s that?” Of course she figured it out without having either skill, Lefie giggled to herself.

“[Double Cast]’s wording says it ‘activates’ a skill simultaneously. Sounds like [Conductivity] counts how many times a skill has been activated, so it should count.”

“Mine’s not that specific,” Lefie said with a hint of sadness in her tone.

“I wonder why that is. No specific range, no specific weight, vague wording. Could it be knowledge?” Riza mused to herself.

“Knowledge?” Lefie couldn’t help but ask.

“Yeah. I know what a kilogram is--I’ve held it in my hand. I know about density and certain materials' specific density. I know about other material properties and have tested them, like the tensile strength of a steel wire. I guess the system interprets that as me needing to know the weights of skills to be able to use them.” Riza’s voice wavered towards the end.

“Or maybe not. It’s an obfuscatory bastard; could just be doing it for ‘fun’,” She said contemptuously, quickly getting back to her numbers.

The Old One provides me more information on skills the more knowledge that I have? Then, that’s part of why Riza’s so strong; she knows so much.

Lefie’s ruminations were interrupted by Riza.

“You can cast [Lightning Bolt]s continuously for 39 seconds, taking 2340 essence total. You’d have cast [Lightning Bolt] 78 times, resulting in a bonus of 76%. I think; I don’t know whether it handles the [Double Cast] simultaneously or sequentially.

“In total, that’s 41,184 points of damage, a solid 11,000 more than the [Range Compression] method.” Riza explained, sitting up with a smile on her face.

Lefie had no response.

I can be even stronger? That’s…

“I’m not done yet,” Riza grinned. “Now, for [Overcharge]. Do you have numbers on that?”

“No. Not really,” Lefie sighed with disappointment. “It just says I get a small increase in power for a small increase in casting time. Doesn’t say the cost, like with [Maximise Mastery].”

“Shit. No maths, then. Too risky after seeing the numbers for the other two so I’m ruling out [Overcharge]. Which skill do you think is better?”

“The [Conductivity] one. It does more damage,” Lefie answered, slightly confused by the obvious question.

“And it scales better. Gets better the stronger you get more than [Range Compression].

“Going over everything, [Lightning Bolt], [Conductivity], [Double Cast]. You understand?”

Lefie eagerly nodded, her hand darting to the floating leaf and following the vein leading to the lightning skills and purchasing [Conductivity] as instructed.

“I’m done. I’ve got both skills now.”

“Excellent. Time for training.”

Name Riza Level 15 Health 100/100 Stamina 100/100 Essence

5000/5000 Power 5 (5) Constitution 5 (5) Endurance 5 (5) Vim 6 (6) Essence

5 (250) Spirit

75 (1140) Health Regeneration

100/day Stamina Regeneration

120/day Essence Regeneration

332/minute

Back to wondering what the fuck happened here. 5000 essence. 3000 more essence than before I took [Source of Spirit].

0.2 of 1140 is 228. Add that to my 5 essence and it’s 233. [Well of Essence] would multiply that by 5 so it’s clearly not that method.

I suppose the most logical thing would be for everything to be applied before [Knowable Essence]. In that case, 75 multiplied by 5, multiplied by 3 is 1125. 0.2 of that is 225, making my essence 230 total. Again, not the case.

So that must mean [Knowable Essence] considers base spirit rather than after the buffs are applied. In which case, 0.2 of 75 is 15. 20 total for essence, multiplied by 5 for 100.

That’s still different. It’s 250, not 100. What sort of fuckery is this?

If knowlable essence takes from [Well of Spirit] but not [Source of Spirit], that’s...400 essence. Now, too much.

Other way around. [Source of Spirit] first. That’s… 250 essence. Spot on.

Why does [Source of Spirit] get applied to my spirit when considering [Knowable Essence] but [Well of Essence] doesn’t? I can see two reasons for this.

Number one, when I got everything matters. [Knowable Essence] came after both the wells but before the source. How does that work? Fuck if I know, but it feels as arbitrary as everything else I’ve encountered.

Number two, boons work differently to skills. Why? No idea. How? I guess knowable spirit has a hidden feature where it only samples from base spirit. A boon must count as base spirit while a skill doesn’t.

Maybe true, maybe not, but none of this makes sense.

[Animate Critter] [Level up]

Fucking finally. It takes so long with me having to fill up Lefie as well.

“Riza?” Lefie asked out of nowhere, walking up in her singed, burnt robes with sweat lining her brow.

“Another top up?” The girl nodded, slumping to the ground and laying against Riza, breathing deeply as they stared into each other's eyes.

[Heal+]

Restore 190 health, 2 stamina, 2 essence to a living entity

Cost: 10 es/sec

5000 essence and still not enough to fill her up in one go. She shook her head slightly, somewhat amazed at how much of a boost a single boon gave her.

“Any level ups?” Riza asked, wrapping her arm protectively around her friend.

“[Conductivity] is being really stubborn and [Double Cast] has reached level 4. It’s just taking sooooo long,” Lefie whined.

“How long are skills mean to take to level?” Riza asked, gently stroking Lefie’s hair.

A guilty look appeared on the teeangers face.

“Well. Long. Longer than it takes you. Stronger skills are months or even year long endeavours to level. Chief left for a bit over a year once to level up just one skill. He said it’d be quicker away from the forest, closer to danger.”

Quite a speed up, then.

“Then stop whining. You should be grateful that I’m helping you; I spent a whole skill point on you!” Riza said in a teasing tone. Not that she particularly liked watching Lefie squirm but she wanted the girl to remain grounded. Both for her own sake and Lefie’s.

[Animate Critter] [Level up]

The notification sparks to life before Riza, quickly being dismissed as she plants her palm on Lefie’s back, refilling the teenager with essence as blast after blast of high-energy electricity darts from her outstretched palm, pummeling into the bodies of the demons before them.

Heal was only giving 1 essence per second but both Riza and Lefie felt confident in Lefie’s strength to handle the attack alone. Mostly. As long as there was no greater demon around.

Finally, the last demon falls to the ground, skin thoroughly burnt and pockmarked, looking like an overcooked turkey.

“I did it! I’m level 15!” Lefie suddenly shouted, turning around and jumping onto the tired Riza behind her, knocking the wind out of the woman.

“That’s great,” Riza said, not quite returning the hug. “What boons do you have available?”

While Lefie quickly looked over that, Riza ordered Spidey to her and subsequently die, only to be resurrected and killed ad nauseam as she grinded up her [Remnant Memories] skill.

“A few new ones: [Touched by Essence], [Party Animal], and way of lightning. Source of essence has gone, though,” Lefie said with a bit less enthusiasm.

“What does [Party Animal] do? Is it like the opposite of [Lone Wolf]?”

“Sort of. Doubles the power of skills that affect party members,” Lefie explained.

That’s interesting. Most useful for supportive builds, like a healer. Like me. I guess yourself doesn’t count as a party member.

Sounds like it would affect attacks as well, so makes skills with wide area of effects riskier to use.

“What boon are you thinking about getting?”

“Probably [Touched by Essence], unless you’re interested in joining a party with me any time soon?” Lefie asked, a playful smirk on her face. Riza shook her head.

“Not way of lightning?”

“No. Like, what if my level cap increases and I go back to water skills? My lightning skills would become obsolete as well as my boon.

“Also, the boon enhances my ability to see and sense essence so it could be helpful with aiming in the fog.

“Yeah. I’m definitely taking [Touched by Essence],” Lefie explained. A body-seizing shake ran through her for only a second before her eyes widened as she looked at the fog before both of them.

“Er. It’s certainly affected my eyesight,” She said vaguely, prompting Riza to turn around.

“I don’t see anything. What’s happened?”

“It’s no longer solid. Looks just like regular fog, now.”

“Can you see all the way into it?”

“No. I don’t know how far, really.”

“Come here,” Riza said, grabbing Lefie’s shoulders and marching her to in front of the fog. “I’m going to walk down the tunnel. Tell me when you can’t see me anymore.”

Picking up the corpse of Spidey, Riza disappeared into the fog, walking for a few seconds before hearing Lefie call after her. She placed the corpse onto the floor, resurrecting it and ordering him to sit whilst she walked back to her friend.

“About ten metres, so like ten strides or so,” Riza reported when she was right by Lefie. “Spidey. Return,” She called down the tunnel.

“That’s enough for [Lightning Bolt]. Hopefully.”

All of a sudden, the ground began to shake under them, the loose skin on the corpses wiggling as forces pulled them to and fro. Trickles of debris fell from the ceiling, loose rocks and stones missing the two as Riza protectively pulled Lefie towards her.

Shit. Shit. Shit. It’s an intense one; feels like the whole room is going to cave in.

An echoing crash came rushing out of one tunnel, a blast of wind signalling the collapse of one of the routes out of there.

Fucking really? Now, of all times?

Riza could feel Lefie’s grip tighten. Fuck me.

“We have to go. Towards the bunker. It should be safe in there.”

It felt like an hour Riza and Lefie were crouched inside the bunker, waiting for the din of destruction that poured in through the gaping entrance to quieten even slightly.

Cascades of rubble occasionally rolled and fell into the bunker, hitting the metal floor with disconcertingly loud thuds as the pair waited and hoped for everything to calm down.

Eventually, it did and a cursory investigation revealed even the fog-filled tunnel leading to the bunker had been closed off, a large, towering wall of compacted rocks, stones, and boulders blocking their way back where they came from.

Shit. We’re trapped. Just great. Lefie has two skill points and the worst fucking environment to train new skills in.

The unease Riza had been feeling while they trained had reached its climax, the nervous ticker inside of her almost begging them to get a move on.

“Riza? What do we do now?” Lefie asked from within her arms, voice admirably strong for their situation.

“I-I don’t know. I don’t want to spend days leveling your new skills up but I also don’t want to fight any humanoid demons whilst underpowered,” Riza said, struggling to keep her voice calm and collected. She had to appear stable.

“We can do neither. I can upgrade a skill now that they’re all at level 10.”

I forgot about that.

“You’re okay with that? Won’t it feel like a waste?”

Lefie shook her head, looking away for a few seconds.

“The upgraded versions of [Maximise Mastery] and [Lightning Bolt] will help me deal more damage. I’m going to take them,” She said, convincing herself as she spoke.

“Okay, then. I trust you.”

A shiver ran down Riza’s back, her mind aflare with activity as her carefully placed bare feet led her slowly towards the demons she felt before her.

She was holding Lefie’s hand--no longer necessary given the girl’s ability to see--as the contact helped stablise her, reassure her that she wasn’t alone, something Riza greatly appreciated with each step.

As soon as they got to the threshold of the canteen, Riza’s heart quickened and her hands became clammy as her legs felt pulled by a massive weight. Two hands held her own, a gentle squeeze comforting her.

Six minutes of uptime on a level 34 Spidey. I don’t know how much health the demon has but it can’t be more than forty, fifty, sixty thousand. Lefie can deal that much in less than a minute. We’re fine.

They walked in, hand-in-hand and Riza cradling two spider corpses to her chest, ready to infuse them with false Life at the first hint of trouble.

She sensed no greater demons nearby, the floor littered with beast demons and the strong signal coming from the alcove.

The signal began to move. Like the splitting of mitosis, one half stayed in the alcove, the other walked out into the main room, coming face-to-face with the pair.

It’s movements were unhurried and casual but Riza wasted no more than the ten seconds necessary to get Spidey 1 and 2 jumping out of her arm and clinging to the demon, repositioning herself behind Lefie to get out of the way after giving them their orders.

The room cooled to a chill, the metallic flooring bitingly cold on their feet as their muscles became stiff.

Lefie raised her arm like a gun, index finger pointed towards the demon as tendrils of lightning snaked their way from the fingertip, lashing out impossibly fast and striking the demon.

The humanoid barely reacted to the sparks, twisting its body to and fro to grab at the spiders, who had managed to climb onto its back and were chowing down with their mandibles, piercing the flesh.

Expertly dodging attacks, they bit and stabbed all over its body, working in tandem as they’d jump around, onto the ground and nearby furniture, to avoid its icy hands.

Spikes of ice grew from its back, arms extended with frozen claws. Nimbly, the spiders darted around, avoiding the suddenly emerging icicles as their grippy feet kept them secure.

Abruptly, the humanoid demon turned and suddenly lunged for Lefie, Riza harshly pulling her into a tumble, interrupting the shooting, and scrambling away.

Frozen blood coated the front of Lefie’s robe, large gashes taken out, the flesh quickly healing itself when Riza noticed.

Like a well-trained soldier, Lefie fought through the transient pain and pointed towards the demon again, whilst stepping backwards, and resumed her shooting, the [Conductivity] bonus still ongoing.

The demon gave off a loud, strangled gargle, the sudden presence of encroaching sensations prompting Riza to call off Spidey 2 to handle the influx of attacking beast demons.

The harassment lessened, a billowing chill of air swept through the canteen, forcing Riza to her knees as she instinctively wrapped her arms around her, feeling the wind cut to her bones.

A back-and-forth developed, with the only constant being Lefie’s never-ending Gatling gun of lightning. As each second passed, the blasts grew larger, the crackling louder, and the impacts greater.

After half a minute, each went from nothing to momentarily stunning the demon (if only for a split second), the skin beginning to singe and its movements slowing.

And then the lightning stopped, Lefie slumping into Riza as she breathed heavily, sweat lining her brow.

Swiftly, Riza ordered Spidey 2 back onto the enemy, the demon fully distracted by the two insects harassing it that it had no opportunity to set its sights on Lefie.

But still, Riza remained vigilant, robe shifted and her hand placed against the hilt of her dagger, keeping a careful watch on the situation.

The demon must’ve been greatly worn down by Lefie’s attacks, having sustained upwards of thirty thousand points of damage. The bitting and chewing of the Spideys brought the creature to its knees, a final chomp gouging a large chunk of flesh from the demon's neck.

[Level Cap] increased to 23

Riza felt… nothing, at first. Shock overwhelmed her, her emotions dulled, as she sat back, holding Lefie against her. Even the still present signals in her brain did nothing to stir her consciousness.

Even as they were reduced one-by-one.

That’s… That’s it? Just like that?

But something wasn’t right. Something felt off. Wrong. It took Riza a few moments to realise it but it was still there. In her head. A signal.

A signal just like the humanoid demon's.

The ambient thumping of her heart grew louder and more prominent, blood rushing through her as determination grasped her actions.

She recalled Spidey 1 and 2 back towards her, the pair having cleared out the beast demons from the room. Lefie grabbed them as Riza struggled to pick up and subsequently dragged the humanoid demon with them, running out of the room as fast as they could.

“Why-Why’d we leave. So suddenly?” Lefie gasped between breaths, hunched over and hands on knees. She was shaking, looking like she was about to collapse.

“There was… still something there. Maybe another humanoid,” Riza said, lying against the cold wall right in the entrance hall, eyes closed as she came to terms with everything.

“Did you get it? Have you increased your level cap?”

“Yeah. Level 23, now.”

Riza could hear Lefie sink to the ground, sprawled out in joy.

“Still level 15?” She asked the teenager.

“Yes.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s...okay. Couldn’t risk it.”

The comment did little to help the guilt in Riza.

The following few minutes passed in silence, both just recuperating with their menagerie of corpses beside them.

Eventually, however, Riza began to think again.

Life

0th Tier

Heal (10/10)+ -Learned

Restore 190 points of health to a living entity

Cost: 10 es/sec

[Leech](10/10)+ -Learned

Drain 110 points of health from a living entity

40m range

Cost: 10 es/sec

[Cleanse (Passive)] -Learned

You have immunity towards any toxin, disease, or contamination

1st Tier

[Sapping Curse] (1/10)

Prevent a living entity from recovering health for 2 hours

Casting Time: 1 sec

Cost: 5 es

[Animate Critter] (10/10)+ -Learned

Raise a corpse smaller than yourself into a level 18 zombie

Casting Time: 5 sec

Cost: 14 es/sec

[Life Sense] (1/10)

Scan for either a general or specific form of life

2m radius

Casting Time: 1 m/sec

Cost: 1 es

[Last Words] (1/10)

Extract thoughts from an entity that died within 2 hours

Casting Time: 1 min

Cost: 5 es

Hidden Skill

Requirements: [Heal] (10/10)

[Rejuvenate] (1/10)

Restore 100 points of health and regenerate any wounds to a living entity

Cost: 15 es

2nd Tier

[Reanimate] (1/10)

Raise a corpse into a level 0 zombie

Casting Time: 1 min

Cost: 10 es/sec

Requirements: [Animate Critter] (5/10)

[Inanimate Life] (1/10)

Bestow the gift of simple life to an inanimate object

Cost: 100 es

[Remnant Memories] (9/10) -Learned

Summoned entities are created with a 90% higher level

Cost: 30 es

Hidden skill

[Leech](10/10)

Animation skill (1/10)

[Parasite] (1/10)

Implant up to 2 parasites in summoned entities. When your health drops to 0, automatically drain all the health from a summoned entity regardless of distance

Cost: 100 es per implanted [Parasite]

3rd Tier

[Resuscitate] (1/10)

Bring an entity that has died within the past 2 minutes back to life

Casting Time: 1 minute

Cost: 1000 es

Requirements: [Rejuvenate] (10/10)

[Amalgam] (1/10)

Combine 3 summoned entities into one entity

Casting Time: 5 min

Cost: 500 es/entity

Requirements: [Heal] (1/10)

[Senescence] (1/10)

Alter the age of something by 2 minutes per second

Cost: 50 es/sec

Requirements: [Rejuvenate] (1/10)

[Raise Dead] (1/10)

Raise a corpse into an undead version of itself beginning at level 2

Casting Time: 5 min

Cost: 1 es/sec/level

Requirements: [Reanimate] (5/10)

Hidden Skill

Animation skill (5/10)

[Essence Monarch] (1/10)

Gain 2% of each summoned entity's essence regeneration

I’ve got my eyes on you, [Raise Dead].

Riza looked towards the corpse of the humanoid demon.

Level 24. Surely, that means you’d have two boons available to you? Do you even have boons? Skills? You’re not even human, after all.

I gain 5.5 essence every second, so I could sustain a level 10 summon indefinitely. That’s one boon right there.

But still nowhere close to sustaining itself.

Is there a way to game the system somehow? Nothing’s coming to mind.

Something to think about for the future.

The scuttling of many, individual feet came echoing through one of the many tunnels attached to this grand hall, rousing Riza from her half-comatose state as she crawled over to her collection of bodies.

She placed her hands over the cold, frosty bodies of the spiders, feeling the essence flow from her, infusing one and then the other with life.

“Rise, my pretties. Make mommy proud by killing some demons.”

With eager enthusiasm, Spidey 1 and 2 dashed off towards the sound, leaving Riza quietly chuckling to herself, drawing a strange look from Lefie.