Weirdly, it felt liberating to be back on my own again. Based on the map I had seen, I needed to head south through something called the Tasfor Wood to a place called the Boar’s den, perhaps a week away, and then east, over the river, along the shore of something called Lake Solan. Along the route, I should probably meet some Winnowrill Elves, and they could direct me to their city.

For right now, though, I needed to find a place to hunker down and hopefully dodge Shiana. I wasn’t too worried about her following me unless she had Rik’s band with her. She didn’t travel as fast as I could, and while she certainly had some woods skills, she was nowhere close to me, and probably not close to Gary the Sniper either, unless her race gave her some special abilities I hadn’t seen yet. Barring unforeseen circumstances, I didn’t expect to see her for a minimum of 3 days, when Rik should be coming back from his break.

Mae had mentioned that she would ‘meet me in the Winnowrill’. Based on Mae and Mnemosyne’s conversation, Mae’s abilities as a kitsune were more pronounced than I had seen, and possibly included some sort of foresight or precognition. Probably not very good precognition, but Mnemosyne had mentioned that no one’s fate was truly set in stone, which made me feel a lot better. The idea of an immutable destiny was… uncomfortable, and headed directly into philosophical and religious territories that, while I was not afraid to face, would take a whole lot of serious thought.

I was traveling at a good speed, was larger than before and less afraid of anything I might stumble across, and well aware of the fact that I should be more afraid than ever, without backup. I should be completely paranoid, but while I was certainly using every trick of cautious, silent, and stealthy traveling, I wasn’t feeling constantly on the edge of panic like I should be.

I had the most important ingredients for outdoor survival. Cooking implements, some tools, some basic supplies and spices, I was wearing actual clothes, my armor and shirt, and appreciated them. Time for the last, and most important need.

I had my sling but was not as impressed with the idea of whacking something with a rock as I had been previously. I suspect the magic I possessed could be channeled through objects, to a limited extent, and while my tail was a brutal enough weapon, I wanted the ultimate weapon for a martial artist.

I needed a stick.

I had found a maple sapling that had seemed perfect. It was almost two inches thick and nicely straight. Maple wasn’t the best possible choice, but it was what was available, and it should do a good enough job.

If Shiana WAS tracking me, she’d be moving much slower than I was, and I had time to carefully use one of my tools to saw it just above the roots. There were no serious knots, and it was almost four feet long before the branches began. I lopped the top off, and right where two branches began I started trimming. The slight knots that were formed from the branches and the root beginnings, once I evened out the thickness, would make slightly thicker and heavier ends to the staff.

I started collecting green branches as I moved because I needed to practice. I had temporal mana I intended to use, and I needed to practice my fine control. Most wood was nearly useless until it was aged appropriately, and if I wanted a decent weapon I needed to take that aging in hand, personally.

I carefully [pushed] temporal mana into the twigs I was holding, one by one, trying to minimize the actual effect. The first few twigs I [pushed] mana into disintegrated into a shower of brown leaves and rotting sawdust. When I had hit Bubbles with my frost-infused tail tip, she hadn’t frozen instantly, and I had a strong suspicion that creatures that had internal mana, whether gifted by bands or natural, were much more resistant to my effects. Maybe it was a product of sentience or just sheer complication, but while it felt like I had slowed her down a little bit, her legs hadn’t flash frozen the way that the tentacled monstrosity’s extremity had.

Bran, I have had enough comparison samples that I believe I can make a reasonable level comparison between you and other players with your [observe] skill. It won’t be entirely accurate, since classes vary in strength based on the way the players build themselves, but a reasonable movement speed and level comparison approximation is possible. Would you like me to add those to your character sheet?

Oh, and your essence manipulation has increased to journeyman superb since you are practicing reducing your flow, instead of simply enhancing it.

Your improvised fabrication has increased to Journeyman mediocre. It will increase more quickly as you practice with different materials. In general, improvised fabrication is considered an inferior skill to a practical craft skill, but it has improved to the point where it might be profitable to fold your metalworking skill into it rather than keeping them separate. Would you like me to do so? It will drop your improvised fabrication back down to Journeyman poor by doing so.

“Yes, and yes,” I said out loud, delighted. “I would prefer it if you could shift my cooking and other crafting skills over to improvised fabrication as well since something tells me I won’t be opening a professional crafting shop or restaurant any time soon. I think they are dragging down my survival skill, and could bring up my improvised skill.”

Noted. Please note that right now, with an unfinished foundation, this is easily done, but once your foundation is complete, shifting energy patterns like this will become extraordinarily difficult. You are correct, your improvised fabrication improved to adept poor, but your survival skill did not improve.

You may need to accomplish some feat of survival to get it to master level, or require some very specific training, or may require training in different environments to improve further. Or you might have to divide it into specific environments. I am a little clueless about how it works right now, and no other sprites are in range for me to ask. Physical tasks and skills are so out of my experience, sorry.

“There’s no reason to apologize, I am just thrilled that you can help me so much magically. Oh, I will pop into my soul space as soon as I can find a safe place to hole up, there’s a lot to talk about and do, and I have made some decisions about where I want to move my quintessence. And if you can find any verbs about my soul space, I’d like to focus on it.”

Sure thing. I was trying to work my way through the enchantment information we got when you pulled out of the band interface. We got a huge chunk of messiness, but a lot of it appears to be magitech, which I just don’t have the background to figure out. You might be better able to work it out yourself than I can. It will be a relief to work on decoding the draconic for you instead, but I was able to figure out some of it. :)

Did she just send me an emoji? Oi, I really hope there was no ‘cellphone’ evolution, or I might not get to talk to her face to face ever again.

I knew I was leaving behind a trail even an idiot could follow, with the spoiled branches, but I was getting more hopeful. Even moving, I was starting to get the aging effect minimized to the point where the leaves were simply turning brown and the branches were drying out.

I still wasn’t really tired, yet, as the sun started going down. I had hidden in the undergrowth several times as creatures moved by, and noticed a new kind of threat, a large reptilian creature that looked like a gigantic cross between an alligator and a chameleon. They were not particularly fast but seemed to have a good sense of smell, as they seemed to come alert when I circled them widely.

Swamp Drake

Threat: dangerous(7)

Swamp drakes are primarily ambush predators, similar to alligators, but better armored and faster on land. Like alligators, they prefer to drag their prey underwater to drown them, but they have smaller biting mouths and are perfectly capable of attacking on land as well.

Swamp drakes have poor eyesight and hearing and primarily survive on fish, but have an extremely good sense of smell both above and below the water, and will awaken instantly if they are hungry and sense prey. They are highly territorial and are only social during egg season.

Swamp Drakes can be tamed as combat pets, but their environmental requirements make them undesirable to most races.

Since I wasn’t particularly tired, I kept moving even after the sun went down. I knew that more predators were out at night, but my eyesight was also much better at night, and I wanted to avoid more travelers for the time being.

I moved away from the river as it got darker since I really didn’t want to set up a nest anywhere in one of the swamp drakes’ territories. I was skirting a large clearing deeper in the forest around midnight when a large rodent burst from a nearby bush, apparently fleeing from me and into the thick grass of the clearing. I caught the sight of massive teeth but didn’t have a chance to [observe] it before it was moving a line of grass deeper into the clearing.

I heard a rush of air, and a large… creature hit the rabbit, making me VERY glad that I had been skirting the clearing instead of crossing it. The thing was considerably larger than I was and resembled a patterned leopard with large, nearly silent wings. It had a feathered, rather than catlike, tail, and its head had a short hooked beak and large eyes and ears like an owl.

Gyre-owl

Threat: Very dangerous (8)

Gyre-owls are a monstrous cross between a cheetah and an owl. They prefer to strike from ambush and are not considered social. They are flying creatures that tend to dive in for a rake or deadly bite, and are smart enough to flee if they are outmatched.

Unlike Gryphons, they are considered untameable as combat pets, although they can be mentally enhanced to serve as familiars if they are subdued.

While the idea of having a pet as dangerous as that had its appeal, I had no idea how to subdue it without killing it, or getting killed in return, and I probably needed to talk to Mnemosyne to see if I could even have a familiar. I was still unarmed save for my sapling, and it wasn’t a very good staff yet. That beak would probably snap it off with ease, and its claws were far more dangerous than mine.

The gyre-owl flew off with its prey, and perched in a tree near the edge of the clearing, ripping it to pieces and swallowing the chunks. I was simply glad I had been concealed in the undergrowth and stealthing the whole time, or those chunks might have been me.

Note to self. Remember this is a combat zone, and helicopters or snipers are a serious threat. Look up more. I guessed that considering the threat levels of the local wildlife, I had left the ‘newbie zone’ behind.

I should be staying in the woods for more of my trip, so I decided to start looking for a campsite or shelter before the cold of morning. I was out of the heavy firs, so a convenient needle skirt was not going to work this time. Eventually, I found a large downed tree leaning against the branches of another, and collected branches to make a decent lean-to hiding spot beside its bulk. I strung several long strands of yarn between trees around the camp, just a few inches above the loamy floor, and hung little bronze clasps from my leather kit from the yarn above a rock, eventually concealing the strands with fallen leaves.

Last but not least, I padded the area with my little canvas and curled up in my blanket, eating a ration and working on my staff.

I put my frying pan down on the earth and put one end of the staff into it. I didn’t want to waste ingredients. I poured some of the leatherworking oil into the pan, surrounding the end of the staff. This was not the ideal oil, but it should work well enough for a stopgap, and apparently, my entire improvised fabrication skill was based around making something that will do in a pinch instead of the most perfect items. I didn’t want to fire-harden the thing, because a fire would be a gigantic sign pointing at my location.

Next, I started to lightly pour the oil down from the tip of the staff and then started ever-so-gently [pushing] temporal mana into it. By the time I was done, half of the oil had been absorbed, and while the wood inside looked rich and dark from absorbing the oil, the bark was looking frayed and a bit shredded. This temporal mana was sort of amazing since I had carefully aged the wood from the sapling like it had been sitting in the oil for six months to season. I collected the leftover oil back into its flask and then started peeling the bark off of the sapling.

I was originally intending to carve it, but except for trimming the ends a bit more, the wood was already beautiful and dark from the leather oil soaking into it. I know I had been warned, but I still carefully ‘pushed’ a bit of quintessence into the staff, about 10%.

I used a very fine file to sand some of the bits down, and then glued strips of the greenish Seeker leather around the top and the bottom, finally finishing them with some small tacks I had gotten for armor making to keep the leather strips tightly bound around the staff, and prevent splitting or other damage from striking something.

It was getting fairly close to morning, so I sat tripod and dived into my soul space. Mnemosyne was waiting with a pleased expression on her face, and said brightly, “I got another verb!”

“Oh?” I asked her simply, “The two we already have, plus observe, are pretty darned useful already.”

She nodded and fiddled with my character sheet. The new verb was sweet. It overlaid my understanding of conductivity, although it had major differences, as it would allow me to extend the reach of my abilities through [channel].

It allowed me to use another substance, as long as that substance was contiguous, to transmit a strand of essence as though my aura extended through the object itself. Using it burned a bit of my mana, and the range was not great, but it should allow me to channel one of my aspects through my armor, through my quarterstaff, or even a short distance into an object. My mind was filled with ideas of what it could be used for, from flash-freezing a lock and snapping it without having to freeze the entire mechanism, and maybe even finding a way to temporarily channel something into one of my sling stones. Magic rocks would kick ass.

I spent some time discussing it with Mnemosyne and finally tied in that quintessence loop she had been suggesting. It would prevent me from effectively channeling raw quintessence outside of my body anymore, but I could use it to ‘power up’ attacks, especially with channeling, without burning through what I needed for evolutions. To be honest, after her explanation, I didn’t like the fact that Shiana had a set of armor that I had used my personal quintessence on, especially when Mnemosyne showed me a thin thread leading from my core, outside of my aura, and off into the distance. Further threads were leading to my armor, shirt, and staff, but those were mine.

“That is exactly why enchanters don’t use raw quintessence, it creates a permanent bond. Magical items have to be powered in some fashion, and unless you have some kind of storage gem that holds mana with some kind of collection pattern, or a core gem that creates mana, most magical enchantments are only good for single use. Raw quintessence also tends to disrupt other bonds, which is why we were able to pull so much information off of Rik’s band when we separated. Your clothing block meant that you were the pet bond holder and the one that was spending all the mana to maintain the bond, not him.” Mnemosyne said.

I was busy spinning the thin band of dimensional mana into a new orbit and nodded to her.

“Because of the different players we have been exposed to, including the big flash of raw quintessence we got from defeating those two players, I have gotten a lot more information on how the bands work, but it’s still just… way out of my league.” She added.

She showed me a new bundle of free-floating information, and I started examining it. Ugh, it was a tangled, snarled mess. I needed to set aside real study time. I hated to keep putting things off, but I needed to catch some sleep. Ugh. I just needed an uninterrupted week. The bundle of band info, the scroll that was still a mystery, and I wanted to do something nice for Mnemosyne.

I checked my newly updated character sheet, nodded to Mnemosyne, and headed out. I had a ton of work to do, and as usual, not enough time to do it.

Bran’s Character Sheet

Brantley Gallagher Winterborne

Ice Kobold

Body size: Small

Evolution: 88%

Health: 100%

Body: Fair

Mana: 100%

Mind: Good

Fatigue: 100%

Reflexes: Extreme

Player level equivalent: 6

Speed: Great

Unenhanced Skill Groups

Logic: apprentice superb

Mathematics: apprentice good

Acrobatics: novice good

Physical Fitness: apprentice mediocre

Spellcrafting: apprentice fair

Piloting: apprentice fair

Socializing: apprentice mediocre

Security: apprentice fair

Magical Lore: novice mediocre

Enhanced Skill Groups

Survival: expert great

Martial arts: journeyman fair

Ranged combat: adept superb

Improvised Fabrication: adept poor

Essence Manipulation: journeyman superb

Stealth: journeyman great

Foundation: Journeyman poor

Willpower: journeyman fair

Innate

Ice Kobold

Unique soul

Kobolds innately gain trapmaking and scrounging at apprentice level, minor natural weapons, can swim at a trotting speed, darkvision, and minor regeneration.

Ice Kobolds in particular gain 75% cold resistance and 150% cold affinity.

Evolved Kobolds are considered small creatures, difficult to target for larger creatures, but are weaker and less resistant to damage.

Your unusual origins give you a unique soul for your species.

You gain combat meditation which includes mental time dilation, fear resistance, pain resistance, and the ability to access your soul space for mana manipulation and improvised spell creation.

Unfortunately, your special soul also gives you a minor penalty to social skills.

Evolutions

Silver Cord

Sprite Information Link

Sprite Materialization

Gifts and Traits

Draconic Language

Rhydian Language

Enhanced Quintessence Body

Aura Domain

Beginning Foundation

Enhanced Verbs

[Observe] great

[Push] fair

[Alter] fair

[Channel] poor

Aspects

Quintessence

Temporal

Frost

Animation

Illusion

Dimensional

Meridians/systems

Skin poor

Heart poor

Vigor poor

Muscles poor

Head poor

Bone poor

Nerve poor

Tail

Left arm

Right arm

Left leg

Right leg

For the next two hours, until the morning sun came up, I screwed around with dimensional mana. I knew what I wanted to do, and peered closely at the sprite habitat evolution for ideas.

I realized that it was possible, but I would have to tie it into the sprite habitat. Still, it would be worth it. I was able to create little pockets that only lasted a heartbeat, but it should be able to tie into my meridian extensions eventually.

I dropped back into my zone, this time using full zone because it had to be done quickly to tie them together. It was kind of funny watching how slowly everything orbited in my inner space while I was zoned, but at Mnemosyne’s surprised expression I grinned and started knotting things together at the same time as I fed quintessence into sprite habitat.

“What are you doing?” she asked, but I didn’t have time to talk. This had to be timed almost perfectly, and I tied off a line from the quintessence loop, with a lovely little knot from the channel verb made up of both mana essence and dimensional essence.

I finally connected it to the forming sprite habitat and started to explain. “Your sprite habitat evolution uses this type of essence. I wouldn’t call it dimensional essence, I’d called it spatial essence instead, because by dimensional it only means out to the third dimension, not cross-dimensional, I was sort of misled by the name a little, but I realized that I could do both you and me a favor at the same time."

"By tying a bit of spatial mana into your habitat, I could use the inner sphere of my little park as a pocket dimensional space. If I didn’t use your evolution, the park’s edge has no definition, and even with channeling trying to apply real mass to it would cause it to collapse, which would uhh… I guess make my soul collapse and kill me.”

I chuckled, “I realized that some objects could be tied to both reality and the inside, like that scroll. Pocket dimensions absolutely exist, but I had to rip off the idea from the bands, since they actually attach the pocket dimension to the matter, the literal substance of the band itself. I considered attaching it to the scroll, but if I attached the inside of the space to the scroll, if we materialized it outside, everything would collapse outwards. If we attached the outside to the scroll, if we brought it in here, it would be recursive containers, and I have NO IDEA what would happen.”

Mnemosyne nodded, “Very bad things. Starting with killing you and possibly ending with creating a singularity entity. A very bad sort of elemental. It’s worse when you drag the entrance of the bag of holding into the entrance of the bag of holding, if you just tried to pull a different dimensional space into this one, it would just dispel that space, but actually twisting dimensional portals into their own space is a very bad thing.”

I nodded, “Exactly. No crossing the streams. But your Sprite habitat is already an extradimensional space linked to my meditation park. So I realized that linking an extradimensional space through your sprite habitat to my space, will allow me to turn my incubator into a real world extradimensional space.”

I grinned, “Voila!” and stopped my zone. The breeze began to wave again, and I used my link to transfer my backpack right in. There my backpack sat, right here in my terrarium, and I was filled with incredible ideas for this space.

The best part is, it was not tied to the real world’s mass, it was tied to it’s volume. I could literally fit as much inside of here as I had space, and as my mana pool rose, I could fit even more.

A small wooden bridge, the one I had built as an eagle scout, crossed the stream. On the other side I had change the script a little, and a tall house, a cross between the Swiss Family Robinson’s treehouse and the fancy treehouse from the rated R version of Tarzan, rose up.

I grinned again at Mnemosyne, “Welcome home”.

Her shocked expression followed me as I slipped out of my soul space, noticing that my backpack and new quarterstaff were indeed gone, and then pulled the quarterstaff back out of the approximate area of my chest, sliding it back into my space.

I grinned myself to sleep. Isekai heroes were supposed to be overpowered. I wasn’t even close to it yet, but I could see it somewhere on the horizon.