The next morning, we ate our breakfast and as soon as the sun crested the horizon, we set out.

The storm had moved on overnight and we were left with a dazzling blue sky and the harsh glare of white snow. It was blindingly white. I reflexively cycled Ki to my eyes and the needles of pain reduced and my eyes adjusted.

Remembering how my Jade Dragon’s Scale Armor was translucent but tinted, I had an idea that might just work to make new sunglasses. Neither Cody nor Rowan had anything to protect their vision in these conditions, and I could let one of them use my pair of sunglasses.

“Hold up a minute guys. It’s way too bright out here. You might damage your eyes. Let me try something,” I said to the group.

I cycled Ki through my Dermal Meridian like I did for the armorer technique, I also cycled Ki through my Mind Meridian while I pictured the results I wanted. I pictured aviator goggles, opaque Ki making up the band around my head, the frame going around my eyes and dark tinted lenses over my eyes. I wanted to cut the light by at least half.

After five to ten minutes of focusing, the Ki formed according to my will and vision. I felt the solidified Ki manifest around my head and covered my eyes. When I opened my eyes, the glare was much reduced, but not quite as dark as I wanted. I focused some more and the darkness increased marginally, it was enough that I no longer needed to squint from the snow glare.

Congratulations, you have created a new Ki Technique

Please name your new Technique

To keep my new techniques thematic, I decided on the name.

Jade Dragon’s Eyes

Rank 1

Type: External Armor

Ki cost: 20

Defense bonus: 5

Duration: 1 hour

Effect: Create condensed and hardened Ki goggles that reduce incoming light by 60%. Provides minor resistance to damage.

The end result resembled the scaled eye ridges of a dragon, and the semispherical lenses were a dark amber in color. They looked pretty bad ass to me.

“Okay, my technique idea worked. Here one of you two can use my old sunglasses,” I said to Cody and Rowan.

“Here you can use mine too,” magnus said, handing his pair over. He then pulled out a grey beanie and cut two slits in it before pulling it on over his head. It stretched down over his ears and down to his nose. “There, primitive snow goggles,” he said.

“Dude, you look like episode one daredevil,” I said with a chuckle.

“It works so no biggie.” Magnus replied.

Cody and Rowan put on their new sunglasses with a relief and profusely thanked us. Once it was all settled, we set off up the pass. I was really hoping there would be a settlement of some kind in Evanston.

“Um… before we go. I have something to show you guys,” Rowan said. His voice was quiet and unsure.

“Okay, what do you got bro?” Magnus asked.

Instead of telling us what he had to show, Rowan started casting. It took a dozen seconds for his spell to complete, but when it did, we were all impressed.

Standing five feet at the shoulder and built like a tank, the Drake was an amazing specimen. It sported slate grey scales, clawed feet, huge fangs and a set of spiraling horns that were reminiscent of a ram. I used my Identify on it.

Slate

Earth Drake (Aeon)

Level 10

Hp: 207/207

Stamina: 396/396

Mana: 276/276

Defense: 40

“Damn, Rowan. That thing is built like a tank,” I said. “How long do your Aeons last now that you’re an official summoner and all that?”

“Between my new class and this staff,” Rowan answered, while gesturing with his new staff. “Sparks and Ember can last for forty-four minutes each now. But Slate here, he will stay for a full eight hours. I had to spend a thousand creation points to extend it that long, but it was worth it. I won’t slow you all down any more, I can ride him and keep up.”

I was just considering what Rowan would use for a saddle, when I noticed the back of Slate. There was a space that was smoothed out and had ridges in front and behind. It looked like the drake had a built-in saddle, it was only missing the stirrups which might make staying in place a bit harder.

Rukia sniffed around the horse sized draconic creature. She let out a happy bark and bounded away before springing back. Tail wagging, she looked ready to play with this new companion.

“Enough, Rukia,” I said with a laugh. “We need to get going.”

Rukia looked at me with huge sad eyes for a moment, before letting out another bark and dashing off to play in the snow.

At Rowan’s prompting, Slate lowered himself to his knees to make it easier for Rowan to climb up into the built-in saddle. Once he was secure, they stood and we were ready to make like Autobots and roll out.

* * *

With the road covered in ice and snow, only Rowan had a fairly easy time. Whenever we stopped to rest, he would summon Ember and had him radiate heat. It was an interesting application of mana, there wasn’t any spell or ability. Ember just burned his mana to increase his temperature. It wouldn’t last too long, but it did make the ten-minute breaks to refill our stamina more bearable. It was kind of like sitting around a small camp fire on a chilly night.

All in all, it took us nearly seven hours to make our way out of the pass and into Wyoming. There was only one scare as we traveled. High up on a ridge, there was a magnificent snow leopard. It was a couple thousand feet away, but Magnus and I could still feel its aura. It radiated a domineering and icy aura that we did not want to mess with. It had to be somewhere in the middle of the energy cultivation stage, and could crush us like a bug. We sat still for nearly half an hour after it left, just in case.

It was midafternoon when Evanston finally came in sight. For the first time in what felt like ages, we saw people. They were moving around in small groups, some with basic equipment that looked to have been purchased from the System Marketplace, while others in the same groups were bundled up in stained and torn clothing. They looked like they were scavenging from all the mostly intact buildings.

Whenever a monster attacked a group, they worked together to bring it down. From the distance we were, I could make out the flashes of magic, and other supernatural abilities. They weren’t the most efficient, but they had numbers on their side and worked together.

I had hopes that this meant there was a strong community of survivors here. Somewhere civilization could start rebuilding itself, not ruled by some petty tyrant.

After walking around a couple more bends in the hallway, we caught sight of a settlement. Encompassing what looked like a small shopping strip a ten-foot-tall fence stood. At its entrance were two armored figures with swords at their belts and shields on their backs. A slow-moving line of people led to the gate. Each person was stopped by one of the figures, they touched hands or items were handed over before they were allowed in. in a few cases some were turned away.

“What do you think?” I asked the group.

After a moment’s thought Magnus said, “It looks like there is a toll or fee of some kind to enter. There are some tents set up outside the building. And it looks like only some are allowed in the building itself. Not exactly what I would call a post-apocalyptic utopia.”

Rowan slid down from Slate, rubbing his thighs and backside with a groan. “Ugh, I thought walking all that way was bad.” While he stretched out his sore muscles he continued. “It may not look the most welcoming, but I don’t see anyone abused or anything. We going down there to check it out?”

“Yeah, we need to sell off some of our loot and pick up some supplies,” I said. We had a good amount of credits already, but I really wanted to empty out what I could from my storage ring and hoped to pick up some Ki based crafting materials and maybe some spirit stones. I knew the others wanted to pick up a few things for their own use as well.

“Rukia, I need you to stay by me. Don’t go running off, we don’t want you to scare someone and get hurt,” I said. I pushed my intent through our bond and held her eyes to make sure she understood. We didn’t need to make any enemies here, who knew how far away the next settlement was and if they were friendly or not.

After I knew Rukia would behave, Rowan dismissed Slate and we all took the next exit down into town and took our place in the line to enter.

“You lot aren’t from around here, state your purpose for entering Evanston’s Trading Outpost” the guard to the left said.

Troy Gardner

Warrior Level 9

Hp: 140/140

Stamina: 224/224

Mana: 140/140

Defense: 30

“We are just passing though, looking to sell crafting materials and pick up supplies” I answered the guard politely.

Troy Gardner looked over each of us carefully, probably using Identify or a similar skill. He took in the slightly damaged look of our armor, lack of visible weapons and the massive size of Rukia. “Five hundred Credits for entry. Each.”

“Five hundred? Each? That highway robbery man.” Magnus said.

“If you don’t have the credits, you can give us equivalent value in goods.” The guard said. “If you don’t like it, you can leave. And before you think to start any trouble,” he let out a piercing taxicab whistle, like he was a New York City native. Half a dozen armed individuals came trotting over, armed to the teeth and ready to fight.

I put my hands up and patted the air. “Easy, take it easy friend. We don’t want any trouble here.” I tried my best to de-escalate the situation. While I wasn’t happy that they wanted to take two thousand credits from us, they had the power in this situation, unless we wanted to resort to bloodshed, we would have to either capitulate or leave. “We can cover the entry fee, no need for things to get out of hand.”

I held out my open hand and he cautiously took it. I willed him my five hundred before saying to the others, “Just give him the five hundred they want.”

Magnus, Cody, and Rowan silently paid their fees and we were allowed to enter.

You have entered the territory of the Evanston’s Trading Outpost

The owner of this settlement must have taken the Settlement Specialization Core for his or her medium perk option. I wondered what bonuses and options it gave them compared to what I recalled from the weigh station hamlet system menu. Unlike the Snowville and weigh station settlements this settlement had its walls all the way to the edge of their territory instead of just around their building.

I looked around and saw a bunch of people hovering around metal barrels feeding fires and trying to stay warm. There were only a few children which made me more worried for my son Drake, many people looked sick or injured and they all looked dirty. We weren’t exactly the picture of personal hygiene, but we did get a good wash in the other day. Though from the scent I caught when I shifted my armor, we were well past due for another.

Looking around I noticed that, aside from the main entrance the armored people were coming and going from, there was a side area with a line of people. At the front of the line was something that looked a bit like a bank teller window. Looking more closely, people were putting items on a counter top that were then inspected one of the people on the other side of the counter. If I didn’t miss my guess, that was the shop area.

I pointed out the line of people to the others and said, “I’m pretty sure that’s where we go to buy and sell. Looks like they don’t allow direct access to the City Core.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Magnus said.

We started to walk over to stand in line. But when I glanced over my shoulder, I saw Cody walking off towards one of the groups of people huddled around a barrel fire. “What is he doing?” I asked. The confusion only lasted a few moments.

Cody knelt down in front of a child, maybe six or seven years old. He said something to what I presumed to be the kid’s mother, then touched an obviously broken leg with his glowing hand. He was going around, healing the sick and the lame. I hoped he didn’t use all his healing charges for the day, but I couldn’t just go over there and tell him not to help the sick and the injured.

“Let’s get in line. He will join us when he runs out of juice.” I said to Rowan and Magnus.

We turned away and went to the back of the line where a pair of men, in very basic and battered leather armor, were chatting amiably with each other. Part of what they said made my ears perk up.

“I been savin up for one of them combat arts. My mana pool is shit and my regen’s even worse. I’d rather use my stamina in a fight than magic, no cast times either. Ye just use it and bam, power attack to the head.”

“Excuse me, sir. Sorry I couldn’t help overhearing what you were just saying. What is a Combat Art?” I interjected. If it ran on stamina instead of magic, it should be useable by anyone.

“Eh? Was that? Ye aren’t from round here, are ye?” He asked.

“Sorry, no. we are just passing through and need to gather some supplies.” I answered. “About those Combat arts?”

“Right, well I guess not everyone has heard about ‘em I suppose. Warriors like me get one free when we picked our class. But we found out that ye can buy more of ‘em.”

“But what is a Combat Art? Is it like a martial art or combat style??” I asked.

“No, not really. I’ll tell ye what, if ye gimme two hunered Credits, I’ll tell ye all about ‘em.” The man offered.

I considered it for a moment. As a group, we’ve been fairly fortunate on gaining credits and loot. These people didn’t seem to have much, and I couldn’t begrudge a man from trying to make a bit more coin when he could. “Sure, but only if you answer all of my questions about it.”

We shook on it and I willed him the two hundred credits.

“Alright son. A Combat Art, well it’s kind of like a spell, but without all that hand wavin and flashin light nonsense. Here lemme give ye an example, my Power Attack, it increases the Damage of one attack by thirty percent, but reduces yer aim and speed of the hit by fifteen percent. It costs thirty stamina, don’t have a cool down and ye can chain them to really knock the piss out of dem monsters. Ye understand now stranger?”

“Yes, I appreciate it. Can any path learn these Combat Arts? Or is it only for those on the Path of Mana?”

“Oh, everyone can learn them, it don’t matter what Path ye be on. It all works the same.”

“Okay, how much do they cost then?”

“Ten bills, no less. Fer them cheap ones, anyhow.”

I nodded, a thousand credits per combat art, not too pricy for a practical ability. Not cheap either, but doable. “Thank you, I think you answered my questions.”

“No prob, no prob at all. Don’t need any more of us dyin out there than already died.”

I let the man get back to his conversation and made sure the rest of my group heard everything I just did.