While I was swinging my sword around, Alix set up a campfire and gathered some logs to keep it strong during the night.

He’s tense with the fall of the day, and it shows in his brisk tone.

“Hey Marc, go rest. I’ll take the first watch since I still have a loaded light accumulator.”

Right, got to be paranoid. He’s even got good reasons for it too.

“Sure.” I’m not that tired in spite of the physical efforts of the day. We paced ourselves and at this point my progress on traits has a very decent cumulative effect. I don't think I would struggle to keep up with anyone back home.

We’ve grown a fair bit.

We sure did.

“Well, goodnight to me then, don’t fall asleep Alix.”

“Sure, I’ll try not to get too bored!”

- - -

Four hours later, it took half a minute of Alix shaking me awake before I really woke up. His silhouette is a dark shape against the tapestry of faraway stars that fill the sky.

“Nothing happened.” he says while stiffling a yawn. “Looking out in the night is even more boring than you’d expect.”

I privately disagree as I push away my covers and stand up. Maybe on Earth, but I’m never getting tired of the clear nights of this planet. There is light to hide the stars and no other noise than our voices to disturb the quiet of nature.

“You said most monsters you’ve had chasing you are rather noisy right?”

“Either that or eerily silent, so don’t just count on your ears! But yes, mostly noisy.”

“Alright, I’ll pay attention. Sleep tight princess.”

“This is serious Marc, our lives might depend on it!” He adds, his voice hard.

Now he’s just being annoying.

“I know that, no need to get overexcited on me when I just woke up.”

I feel his stare as I grab my waterskin, but he doesn’t add anything and I’m soon alone with the stars to watch over his rest.

Things are decently clear with the dusty light falling from very far away. The outline of the mountains clearly stands out, and there’s just enough contrast to faintly make out the shape of plants and rocks alike. But all the color is gone obviously. I enjoy the sights for a few minutes before I start wondering how I'll pass the time.

Do you want me to boost our interface so that you can work on mana sense and manipulation with me?

Yeah, let’s do that.

I sit down between the softly smoking campfire and the stack of dead wood collected to feed it. I close my eyes and it doesn’t take long for the first motes to start appearing in that peculiar mind eye I've grown used to.

I’m startled by the density of mana within Alix. It’s already noticeably higher than in the air, making his sleeping form clear to my sense.

And that’s not even half of his maximum. I smile. Well Bob, let’s make him shine. I’m sure he’ll love it.

- - -

Turns out that pushing mana into someone quickly gets boring. After clearing our immediate surroundings dry of mana, we found a rhythm with Bob, He grabs it from out of my reach and I give it the final push in Alix’s direction. Not quite all the way, because there’s a strange phenomena that happens when mana becomes part of his mana pool, there’s a qualitative sort of change just short of his skin and I just don’t seem to be able to affect the mana mote anymore. It’s like it becomes a part of Alix and refuses to listen to me anymore.

I would have never noticed without my enhanced interface.

I also took the time to enhance my eyes, the valley below became as clear as if it was in plain daylight, but still colorless. I really want to figure out how to keep the effects of focusing mana when I move around. Considering how Alix moves his crazy structures all over the place, it has to be possible. The new trait that is suddenly there is both welcome and unexpected.

Arcanic Self-Enhancer (minor)

Deep inside, you hold the thirst of being more. You already walk paths of traditional physical growth, but as you explore mana manipulation, the path of enhancement through the arcane also calls you. This Trait helps you better control and understand the effects and nuances of focusing mana within your body.

This Trait improves your mind, as long as it isn’t lost. Currently : 1Int, 1 mana.

It didn’t bring any epiphany, because of course it didn’t. But now that I’ve met Alix, it’s clear that while the system won’t dump piles of knowledge all at once, it works in subtle ways that may add up to incredible effects if I give it the time.

What will this frankly imperceptible boost look like the day it’s called “Greater Arcanic Self-Enhancer (major)”? What will it allow me to do then?

Us. Don’t pretend I won’t be in charge of working that particular magic too.

The road is still endlessly long. Tomorrow we’ll finish the growth of mana sense to the minor stage. Not the first trait we got, but almost. The fruit of countless hours of work by Bob, months of work burned through in a fraction of the time by his determination. And a complete lack of any better thing to do.

Makes me wonder.

Say Bob, would you actually be able to move our body if you tried?

… Perhaps if you let me do it. But that would be so weird.

You don’t want to try?

Not really, it’s… scary somehow.

Weird and scary? Uh. I have the start of an headache from the mental effort of hours of mana manipulation. The night is as quiet as ever, I could have slept for the last four hours and nothing would be different. But then again, we wouldn't need to stand watch if we knew which is the night where things go wrong.

You know, we're just one and the same, but the system somehow empowered me, made me more. We're us, but I'm also a little bit me. I'm implicitly with you, and I don't need control because whenever you do something, I'd usually do the same in just about the same way.

Well, just let me know if you want to try. Could be useful just knowing it's a possibility.

A barrage of conflicting emotions reach me. Bob feels much more reluctant than usual.

Remember that very first night we watched the stars, in Wathamber, and you told me to make a wish?

Yeah. We didn’t even have the star-longer trait yet back then.

Well, I… I kind of wished for my own body. Learning about magic was sort of a part of that. Not to stop being us, but to be more, so that we both could be more.

Oh.

But now, you suddenly ask me if I want to try moving, and I know perfectly just how genuinely you said that. I kind of regret that wish now, I definitely want us to stay together.

Something is odd as his thought-voice goes through my head.

I’ll try moving.

Tears I didn’t feel forming are running down my cheeks, yet I smile. I must be tired, I'm getting all emotional.

Can't you tell? You already moved me quite a lot.