Ursal Broad-Fang finished draining his gourd, and slammed the empty container onto the table in front of him. A female Elf, noticing the actions of the Bear-Kin, sauntered over to the table and placed a filled gourd in front of Ursal. A deep grunt was her thanks, and Ursal placed a few pieces of silver on the table for payment. The Elf chittered in gratitude, sweeping up the silver and sashaying back to her counter, the spines erupting from her back swaying hypnotically.

The Bear-Kin took a draw on the new ‘bottle’, and placed it back on the table with a sigh, quickly followed by a loud burp. The Wolf-Kin sitting across from the vulgar Bear-Kin wrinkled his long nose and shook his head to get rid of the stench. Sighing at the vulgarity of his counterpart, the Wolf-Kin took a sip from the gourd he had been nursing for the past four hours.

Wincing at the sharp taste, Lupik Brave-Paw sighed again. “I still do not know how in the Five Hells you are able to find the worst places to get a drink in any city we go to.”

Ursal grunted around the gourd covering his lower face, and Lupik was barely able to make out the garbled words of ‘best nose’. The Wolf-Kin shot a glare at his alcoholic sponge of a partner, and sighed again. “… Thanks for this, though. I needed this. I can’t believe they’re…” The Wolf-Kin floundered for a moment, before growling quietly to himself and taking a long draft of his gourd.

Coughing as the fiery liquid hit the back of his throat, Lupik hurriedly put the gourd back on the table. Ursal raised an eyebrow at the Wolf-Kin, before snorting and taking another draft of his drink. Sighing in contentment, the Bear-Kin gently placed the gourd on the table and leaned forwards, trapping the sputtering Wolf-Kin in his beady eyed gaze.

“It was not your fault, Lupik. The Mageous made his choice. It was either he sacrifice himself, or we would all have died. There was nothing that you could have done to help.”

Regaining control, Lupik stared into the swirling brown liquid within his gourd, snarling at the reflection. “That’s the point. I panicked, I froze, and then I scampered away like a pup with my tail between my legs.”

The Bear-Kin raised an eyebrow. “You took an arrow to the leg.”

Lupik paused, then growled again, slamming his fist into the table. “It doesn’t matter! I brought shame to the proud lineage of the Brave-Paw pack. If I wasn’t such a flea-stricken coward, maybe we would have been able to drive the Orcs back long enough to escape!” The Wolf-Kin’s voice, which had been steadily rising, fell back down to a whisper. “It’s all my fault…”

With a loud smack, Lupik’s head snapped to the side. Raising a hand to cup his injured cheek, the Wolf-Kin stared in shock and hurt at the Bear-Kin across from him, his large meaty paw still raised from the slap.

“Enough with your ‘what-if’ scat, pup.” Ursal growled at the Wolf-Kin. “There is no use. It will change, and do, nothing besides crush yourself. If you want to make sure that this never happens again, then do something about it. Wallowing in your self-pity does nothing. Now, drink.” Taking his own advice, Ursal drained the last of his gourd, and slammed it onto the table.

Anger flashed through Lupik’s eyes, before the Wolf-Kin sighed and followed Ursal’s lead, draining the rest of his drink. Eyes watering, the Wolf-Kin mimicked his friend and slammed the gourd onto the table with a gasp as the liquid burned through his body.

Ursal grunted and nodded at Lupik, before standing up. “Come, let us see how the Lady is fairing with the negotiations.” Roughly grabbing the Wolf-Kin, Ursal hauled him upwards and began to walk away, leaving a few pieces of silver on the table for the Elf.

Lupik shook his head, trying to clear the burning in his throat. “… Thanks again, Ursal.” The Wolf-Kin could feel the alcohol worming its way into his mind, muddying his thoughts. “You’re… a great friend.”

The Bear-Kin grunted in affirmation, and began to drag the tipsy Wolf towards their destination, not noticing the mimicked scene on one of the bridges connecting the Elderwood trees, where a female Elf, dressed in a simple robe with a small emblem bouncing across her breast, was dragging what appeared to be a Beast-Kin without any beast-like traits around by the hand and chattering constantly to it with her bestial language.

______________________________________________________________________

“Wait, what the hell do you want from me again?” Jake stared around at the flat that the Elf woman had dragged him to. The wood was scarred, burnt and thoroughly used, runes pulsing on top of the wooden boards. Jake kneeled down towards the closest one, running his hand over the etched rune. It lit up with a golden glow at his touch, repelling his hand from coming in contact with the wood. His [Disciple of Change] skill translating the rune to the word [Protect].

“Your magic! I want you to show me what you can do!” The Elf woman was bouncing up and down with excitement, and Jake could have sworn that stars appeared in her quartet of eyes as she stared at him. “I’ve never seen what a self-taught mage can do! I’ve also never heard of a Tri-Elemental! What spells have you created? What combinations have you formed? What sub-elements do you have? What…”

“Alright, alright.” Jake quickly waved his hand in an attempt to stop the torrent of questions coming from the excited Elf. He stood back up, and scratched at the stubble growing on his chin, thinking. “I could show you some of the things that I’ve been working on, but I want something from you too.”

The Elf tilted her head at him, confusion plastered across her alien face. “And what do you want?” Her eyes widened, and she took an involuntary step backwards, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m not looking for a mate.”

Jake blinked, then shook his head. “Where the hell… No, I don’t want to have sex with you.” Where the hell did that come from?! How would that even wo… nope, not thinking about it.

The Elf blinked her lower eyes, confusion resurfacing on her face. “So what do you want?”

Jake shook the thoughts from his mind, and turned back to the Elf, gesturing at the pulsing runes littering the floor of the flat. “Knowledge. I have no clue what these rune things do, or how they are used. I also want to know why it is such a big deal if someone is self-taught.”

The Elf shuffled her feet, runes dancing across her skin. “I don’t know…”

“How about a… what was it called, quid pro quo, I think? Basically, I show some of my magic or answer a question, and then you answer one of mine. If one of us doesn’t want to answer, we can move to the next question or end it there. Does that work for you?”

The Elf scratched at the ridge running down the center of her face, thinking. “… I guess so.”

Jake grinned, and nodded. “Alright, you can go first.”

The Elf grinned back, her needle teeth glinting in the light from the torches spread throughout the flat. “I want to see you use all of your magic in a single spell.” She gestured towards the trunk of the Elderwood, its bark heavily tattooed with glowing runes. “You can use the Tree for your target. The runes will protect the Tree, so don’t hold back.”

Jake turned slowly to the gigantic trunk, thinking. All of them? I… don’t have a clue. What can I do with shadows, fire and air? Maybe…

Closing his eyes, he brought an image to the forefront of his mind. Raising his right hand, palm facing towards the tree, he began to cast. An orb of molten flame the size of Jake’s head appeared before his outstretched hand, its purple light blindingly bright within the natural darkness of the flat. Four tendrils of darkness slowly expanded from the human’s shadow, slithering up his legs and chest towards his raised arm, before reaching out and wrapping around the roiling ball of fire.

With a clench of his fist, Jake ordered the shadows to contract, forcing the ball of flame to condense into itself. The shadows continued to constrict, small streaks of purple flame peeking out of the relentless tendrils, until the compressed ball of roiling flame and strangling shadows was the size of a clenched fist.

Opening his eyes, Jake turned his fist until his thumb and pointer finger were on top, and then extended those two fingers outwards. With a grin and a muttered ‘boom’, Jake snapped his hand backwards and upwards, imitating the kickback of a pistol.

With a crack of exploding air, the projectile of shadow and brimstone shot screaming into the tree. The shadows splashed against the tree, and a muffled thump that shook the entirety of the towering Elderwood tree reverberated through the Dark Woods, startling countless birds, beasts and Elves.

Jake paled slightly at the feedback from the explosion. Shit. Cancelling his magic, he watched the shadows constricting the tree fade away into smoke, revealing a smoking crater that stretched a fair distance into the trunk of the tree, large enough for Jake to lay down in without having any part extend onto the flat itself. Small purple flames danced within the crater, cheerily eating through the bark of the tree.

The runes surrounding the crater had darkened, their magic spent to protect the rest of the tree from the explosion. The rest of the runes glowed dully, and Jake noticed many of them going out as he watched.

Jake slowly turned to the Elf, and grinned sheepishly. “Oops.”

The Elf tore her slack-jawed gaze from the tree, and shook her head in a daze. “… What by the Five Pillars was THAT! THAT WAS AMAZING!!!” The Elf woman ran to the crater, gazing with wide eyed rapture at the amount of destruction such a spell caused. “I’ve never seen something so ingenious!” She turned back to Jake, her eyes shining. “Why did you compress the fire? Is that why it exploded so violently? I would think so, and you used the shadows to contain the blast within the tree itself. I would have never thought about doing that!” The Elf woman began to wave her hands around wildly, then turned back to the tree.

Jake blinked at the Elf’s response to him almost destroying one of their sacred trees, completely lost. … What the hell… Multiple notifications appeared before him, blocking his vision of the extremely excited Elf woman.

Congratulations! You have discovered a new Magical Proficiency! Dark, Fire and Air have combined into Eldritch! Magic Proficiency for Eldritch has been set at 33% ((Dark+Fire+Air)/6). Your insights are strange, Fleshling. Your achievements, quite noteworthy for one from this plane. We have found you… interesting. Savor this taste of our strength, and we shall return when you have garnered more… Notice! You have gained the attention of… something, or somethings. It is impossible to contact these beings, for they will find you when you are ready. Be prepared. New Spell Created: Void Bolt Just great. I’m gone for two days, and you get noticed by things not from this world. Two. Days. What the hell is wrong with you? Why can’t you be normal? Why… well, I guess I did bring you here to not be normal. Ugh, fine. It should be interesting at the least. Here’s your spell. Mana Use: 40 m per Bolt (Charging costs additional 25 m/s)

Jake stared at the notifications for a moment, before slowly waving them away. … So I take it you’re back, Giggles?

Yup! I’m just going over what you’ve been able to get through since I’ve been gone, going over some updates to the calendar, and just general skill maintenance.

Jake glanced over at the Elf, and seeing her still drooling and mumbling to herself about the crater, turned his thoughts back to the goddess. Should you be telling me about this? Didn’t you get in trouble for giving me too much information, or something like that?

I did. But, from what my counterpart… instructed me on, I can give away general information, without going into the details. Basically, I’m going to be your fairy godmother that points you in the right direction without feeding you the answers.

Jake scratched at the back of his neck. Isn’t that what you’ve been doing?

… I don’t honestly know. Maybe? I’m sure that I’ve gone a little overboard sometimes, but I don’t think that I’ve given anything away that a normal person living on this world wouldn't know.

Before Jake could respond, the Elf ran towards him. “I want to see something else! That was incredible! What mastery do you have? What sub element was that? Did you make a new one? Did you-“

Jake waved his hand violently, trying to stop the tirade of questions. “Wait! It’s my turn to ask you something.”

The Elf froze with her mouth forming another inquiry, and then her face transformed into a pout. “Fine. What’s your question?”

Jake bent over and poked at one of the glowing runes running along the wooden boards of the flat. “These runes. How do you make them? This isn’t the first time I’ve seen something like this, but I don’t have any idea how they work or are made.” Jake’s mind goes back to his first day in this world, and the attack by the savage wolf being controlled by the magical collar wrapped around its neck.

The Elf hummed to herself, before nodding to herself, the spines trailing down her back bobbing back and forth. “Runes are said to be the language of magic. When written down, and infused with mana, they will perform their written action based off of the elemental affinity of the person who imbued the rune. For example, if a mage with the affinity of Water created a rune of ‘Repair’, the rune will use the Water affinity to repair the object the rune is scribed on.” The Elf gestured towards the crater within the trunk, and Jake turned and saw the wood knitting itself together. A single rune glowed brightly with an emerald light at the back of the crater, and the wood regrew around the rune. Continuing with her speech, the Elf turned back to Jake. “That is the ‘Repair’ rune in action with an affinity for Nature. It regrows flora and has an increased healing power for fauna as well.”

Jake glanced at the emblem on the Elf’s chest, of a hand cupping a growing plant. So she isn’t agriculture? Shaking his head to clear the thoughts, he nodded. “Alright, I think I understand. What’s your question?”

The Elf’s slit nostrils flared slowly, and she sighed. “I have so many, but you’ll only let me ask one.” She hummed to herself, thinking. “How about this. How long have you had your affinities? Were you born with them, or were you gifted them by your Patron?”

Jake scratched at the stubble on his chin, thinking how to answer the question. I knew this question was going to show up eventually. Any help, Giggles?

I just told you that I can’t feed you any information. You’re on your own here Puppet.

Jake groaned internally. Fine. He turned back to the Elf, and nodded. “I received it from my Patron around a year or two ago.” I have no clue how quickly someone earns proficiencies, so let’s give me a little wiggle room. I know for a fact that earning Master in around a month or two is insane.

Oh, look who’s learning how to be a little more intelligent with their half-truths. I like it.

Jake mentally waved away the message as the Elf nodded. “While that is incredibly fast for someone to gain the strength that you have, it makes sense in the fact that you have a Patron.” The Elf nodded again to herself. “What’s your next question?”

Jake paused, thinking. Umm… I don’t know. I really only wanted to know about runes. I need to figure out if I can make them work. From what I understand, it sounds just like coding back home, with some random crap thrown in there. I think I can work with that. What else do I… Oh!

“How would I go about creating a magic item? I have something that tells me to add it to an existing Formula. I have no idea what that is.”

The Elf tilted her head to the side, blinking her upper pair of eyes. “What are you trying to make, and what item do you have?”

Jake paused again. “Uhh… I don’t know? A staff, maybe? And the item is a Heart, if that helps at all.”

“Wooden or metal?” The Elf turned her head away from him, and her eyes darted back and forth as if she were looking through a screen.

“… Wood?” Jake was completely lost, having no clue what the Elf was working towards.

The Elf nodded, and reaching into her Inventory, pulled out a long piece of wood. A smooth metal cap rested on one end of the branch, and inert runes were scribed along the length of the wood. At the head of the staff, ten small branches spread outwards and inwards, forming a nest of interwoven branches. The Elf tossed the staff to Jake, who caught the unwieldly stick of wood, fumbling slightly.

“This should work. Basically, all you need to do is imbue the runes first, and then bring the Heart towards the epicenter of the staff’s core.” She pointed towards the knotted head of the stick. “The runes will allow the staff to harness the power of the Heart, and protect it from breaking. It won’t last for long if used as a weapon for long battles, but it should work very well as a catalyst for your spells.”

Jake blinked, staring at the staff in his hands. He moved his attention to the Elf, who was smiling a knowing smile with her needle teeth at him. He opened and closed his mouth, before forcing out a quiet “Thank you.”

The Elf’s smile turned predatory for a moment. “Of course, but I expect repayment.” The Elf reached into her Inventory again, and pulled out a small metal rod. “I want you to imbue this wand with all of your affinities. It will give you some practice, and also repay me for the unfinished staff that I’ve given you. What did you call it? ‘Kwid-Pro-Kwo’?” The Elf’s smile grew larger.

Jake blinked, and chuckled. “Close enough.” He put his new staff into his inventory and moved closer to the Elf, gesturing towards the wand, which the Elf placed into his hand. “So, how do I do this?”

The Elf moved around to his shoulder, and began pointing out specific runes on the wand. “This is the ‘Intake’ rune. Will your mana into the rune and it will draw the magic into the item.” She traced a circular line running from the ‘Intake’ rune towards another rune, which had tens of small lines dancing outwards from it towards the other runes. “This is a ‘Transfer’ rune. It converts the raw mana into a usable energy source for the rest of the runes. These two runes are required in almost all Runecrafting, especially in the art of Artifice.”

Jake nodded along with the explanation. “So, force the mana into the ‘Intake’, which codes into the ‘Transfer’, which regulates the mana and sends it to the other runes. Got it.” Placing his thumb on the encircled vortex that symbolized ‘Intake’, Jake breathed out slowly. As he breathed, he imagined his mana as a river, flowing along his arm and down his hands into the metal stick.

Small flames burst into being along his arm, and danced with the giddiness inherent to fire. Tendrils of shadow creeped downwards, caressing the tongues of purple fire, and a small current of air began to swirl above Jake’s hand, entering into the rune carved rod.

A trail of pulsing purple and black light moved outwards from beneath Jake’s thumb, flowing outwards in a circle. The trail connected with the ‘Transfer’ rune, which quickly filled up with the light. As Jake pushed more mana into the rod, the ‘Transfer’ rune pulsed twice, before rivulets of the light wormed their way around the rod, connecting to the small runes etched into the metal.

The Elf watched in avid fascination at the combination of affinities, before gently placing her hand on the humans shoulder. “That is enough, God-Ling. I thank you.”

Jake released his control of the mana, watching the fires fade and the tendrils disperse. He handed the now fully charged wand back to the Elf, and sighed. “That actually took a lot more out of me than I thought it would.” He muttered to himself, pulling up his status screen to see that it had drained around a tenth of his massive mana pool.

The Elf nodded, eyes enraptured upon the charged wand. “It does…” Her voice petered out to silence for a few moments, before she shook her head and stored the charged wand into her Inventory. “I believe it’s your question, right?”

Jake raised an eyebrow at the reaction of the Elf, and nodded. “Yeah, I don’t know what I wa-“

A notification blocked his vision, and Jake’s eyes widened at the contents.

Congratulations!

Your pet Mizutsune has evolved into a [Quad-Tailed Frost Bound Fox]!