Year 1, Winter, Second Month, First Week.

The day after the feast.

Diana got up feeling full of energy.

‘Strange... Maybe this is the effect of yesterday’s feast. The day seems colder but I feel like I have too much energy... Is it the fire element influence? If so, it suits me very well...’

After having breakfast, Diana went out to look for the Chief to discuss when they should go hunting.

Surprisingly, Chief Omero wasn’t home when Diana woke up. This wasn’t the only abnormality happening in the village. When Diana passed through the village she noticed that a lot of villagers were up doing something inside their huts or around the village.

Now, she was pretty sure that yesterday’s feast gave the villagers more disposition. Unfortunately, she also figured that the fire influence would make them more sensitive towards cold, the snow felt colder than ever.

Initially, Diana was afraid of having to look everywhere for the Chief, but he was very close to their hut, talking with other Elders in the central square.

When she got close to them she noticed that the Heating Circle was still active. Since their hut was close to the central square, Diana could understand why her grandfather could come so early, but she was surprised to see that grandma Marlen and Old Bill were also here.

“Hey Dear, are you also feeling the energy from yesterday’s feast? It has been a long time since I felt so energetic, it’s a pity that it also makes walking on snow more difficult.”

Grandma Marlen greeted Diana with a smile.

“Diana, we’re discussing the possibility of maintaining the Array active and rotating the villagers to do something here.”

Diana nodded showing she agreed with him.

Since they were maintaining the Array active, Diana requested a small part for the team’s training. She wanted them to be sharp for their first winter’s hunt.

.........

“Please, can you reconsider?”

Alfeur pleaded to the grieving couple.

“I already told you. We don't want any part in this!”

Since the Heating Circle started working, the villagers would pass most of their time in the square. Even the sick villagers were now moved to a pavilion in the square.

However, Carion’s parents refused to join them. They still blamed the team and chief Omero for the death of their son and couldn't bear to see them happy.

Alfeur gave up on convincing them and returned to the village square.

Once he was out of their hut and his feet touched the snow, he couldn't help but wince in discomfort. Snow has finally descended upon Eastern Serion, but this time around it didn't catch the Caiset villagers unguarded.

.........

‘Master AI, I was thinking about improving the weapons... Besides enhancing their material and elemental properties, can we do something more?’

‘-- Of course. There is always a way to improve something. Do you have something in your mind? --’

‘Humm... Not really, but I think we should make more use of the elements. After seeing the salamander attacking, I realize the extent of the elemental power. Until now, we only used some of its properties to enhance the weapons...’

‘-- Since you are considering better ways of using the elemental powers, I can teach you a Rune that might be useful. --’

‘-- The Focus Rune is used to increase energy density. --’

The Rune form appeared on Karl's mind.

‘-- The Rune’s concept is Concentration. It has the aspect of Density. It works by increasing a specific energy density in target or the Rune. --’

‘Cool! If I use it to increase the elemental energies in the weapons, what would happen?’

‘-- The elemental properties would also increase. There is even a chance of element manifestation depending on the quality of gathered energy. --’

‘-- Keep in mind that the Focus Rune has good synergy with the Stimulus Rune. Normally, except for wind and earth, there is not abundant elemental energy available in the environment. Even for the wind and earth, the quality of elemental energy is lacking because the energy is dispersed. Therefore, the Focus Rune can help greatly by gathering the scattered energy. However, for the water and fire energies, even that becomes a difficult task. For such cases, I would advise using an elemental crystal associated with the Stimulus Rune and Focus Rune. --’

‘Why not use only the Focus Rune to increase the density of the elemental crystal? You taught me to be mindful of my energy spending’

‘-- That would work too, however, the elemental energy would be used up easily and you do not have unending resources. Therefore, is more efficient to use the elemental crystal only as a reference. Then use the Stimulus Rune to increase the elemental energy and further concentrate it with the Focus Rune. --’

.........

‘Damn... That’s not what I imagined... I thought I would be fighting against all sort of deadly and unholy beasts but... I never imagined I would be stuck crossing a swamp for days...’

After entering the Death Forest, Lew’s party didn’t meet any enemies but was instead greeted by an endless swamp. To make matters worse the swamp was highly poisonous so they couldn't relax.

When they entered the swamp and realized that it was poisonous the Fighters could only use the magic energy to expel the absorbed poison and keep it from affecting them. Consequently, their pace was greatly reduced.

The Mage’s group, on the other hand, had other ways to deal with the swamp. Of course, they also got tired after dealing with it for days.

Initially, the Mages didn’t save energy to deal with the uncomfortable and toxic situation. The Wind Mage circled a thin layer of Breeze around his body keeping at least the poisonous mist and humidity from reaching his body.

Unfortunately, he couldn't keep the elemental spell for more than a couple of hours due to its expenditure.

When the problem started, the water Mage had to step up. She wasn't the most helpful in a fight but she was very resourceful in this kind of situation. Every five minutes, she would use Water Cleanse to wash out the toxins from the Mages’ bodies. Fortunately, the environment didn’t lack water.

The Enchanter was also resourceful. At first, he used a Levitate Spell to keep him from being soaked, however, he couldn't afford to maintain the spell constantly. So he only kept the Repel Spell around his body to keep the toxins and mud at bay.

Lew couldn’t help but be amazed when the Spellcaster cast the spell. Since he constantly absorbed energy from the surroundings, he could feel when the Mage moved the energy around.

He was very curious about how Spellcasting worked. With the Elemental Mages, Lew didn’t have much awe, not that he would underestimate them. It was just that their craft was really straightforward. Control over an element was powerful but lacked wonder.

As far as Lew knew, the Spellcasters worked directly with magic energy, like Fighters did, another thing that would fuel his interest. But how could they do so much more with the energy was a mystery.

Paying close attention to the Mage, Lew discovered a few things. When he was Spellcasting, he would most times close his eyes and concentrate, once that happened Lew would feel the magic energy move.

Then, he would see a faintly glow over the spell target. Finally, the Mage would open his eyes and chant something in a language that Lew never heard.

Right now, Lew was observing him recast the Repel Spell. The magic energy was circling his body and before he opened his eyes, it glowed faintly. What Lew couldn’t see was that the glow started from a symbolic Key drawn by the Mage’s spiritual energy and moved to the magic energy around his body.

“Repello.”

After the chant, the spell was active and he only needed to supply magic energy to keep it working.

Not long before, something broke their boredom.

A long purple viper dashed from a branch to attack a Fighter that was leading the group. The beast was so fast that the Fighter couldn’t react before it bit him. When the fangs closed around the man’s arm, it released venom painting the region black.

The black painting continued to expand in the Fighter’s arm. He screamed and used his sword to cut the viper off. The group got full alerted, but that didn't prevent other Fighters from being attacked when hundreds of vipers dashed from the dead-looking trees.

The wind Mage acted fast enough to keep the vipers from reaching Mage’s group. Summoning the wind around him to form a Breeze to slow the beasts’ dash forward.

The earth Mage gathered the poorly available soil to form an Earth Shield and block further advances. The water Mage also used the environmental water to Form a Water Ray and intercept the enemies that got close.

Instead of preparing a powerful fire spell, this time around the fire Mage decided to summon flames on her palms and engage the vipers closely. Once she grabbed a beast it would burn and die quickly.

The Enchanter also opted for a fast approach. He formed a Space Key using his spiritual energy. After energizing it, he stretched his arms towards the enemies. The magic energy would move forward and once he focused on a target, he would chant:

‘Motios.’

The target would glow before being pushed backward. Fortunately, most targets would die after hitting a tree or stone.

The fight didn’t last long. The enemies were weak, a second rank LT beast, that only offered danger because it attacked in large numbers and only if its poison was given time to work.

That's why the Mages decided to attack upfront, instead of preparing any powerful spells.

After the vipers died, the Fighters recovered the visible poison crystals while the quiet life Invoker used Minor Healing to cure the bitten Fighters. The whole reason for contracting a life Invoker was to fight against death-hybrid attacks. Her powers were especially effective against the death attuned effects.

.........

Two weeks quickly passed, and the villagers had got together two more times to feast on the rest of the salamander’s meat. Also, the Array has been active since their first feast, but today they would turn it down momentarily.

A lot of villagers were sad because they were used to being inside the Array, especially the elders.

However, today was a very happy day for Diana, she was going to get her elemental enhanced weapon.

Although the fire crystal was being used to power the heating circle, they decided to also use it for Diana’s weapon.

First, Karl told them that a fire-enhanced weapon would be more effective against the ice beasts, which would be more common in winter. Finally, the team would also need to take the energy crystals being used to power the circle, which would leave it with a very weak effect. So they decided that the Array should be deactivated while they hunt.

Since they would only do it a couple of times and would come back fast, it wasn't a big deal. Even so, they couldn't keep moving the sick and elders around because of the cold. So, both groups would stay in the pavilions even without the heating circle working.

This wasn’t ideal, but their previous accommodation wasn’t much better either.

Diana finished breakfast and ran to meet Karl, she didn’t care about the increased sensitivity towards the cold because she was too excited.

Midway to his home, Diana met Karl carrying her sword. Apparently, he knew that she would come running after breakfast and decided to meet her on the way. She thanked him and quickly started to test it.

.........

“There you go...”

Mary finished helping a sick elder to drink soup. She checked if his temperature was normal. Seeing that he didn’t have a fever she breathed a sigh of relief.

She moved to serve the next one, adding some crushed basil leaves. The herb was raised indoors in a clay pot and valiantly fought against winter's cold to survive. She hoped that it would be enough to reduce the woman’s fever.

“Mary, dear... Could you please go call the Chief.”

Mary put the pot down and got close to understand elder Said’s instructions. The elder gently placed a hand over her shoulder and said in low voice.

“Winter is a rough time, my dear... I know you hoped that the recent changes would make things better, but our world is unkind... Unfortunately, she couldn’t resist...”

Mary looked at the three years pale girl lying over a straw bed, the feelings buried inside her started to boil.

The pain which was usually seen in the girl’s expression, even when she slept, was gone.

Elder Said took comfort that the child was finally in peace. After getting a disease and suffering for months the girl could finally rest.

Mary ran out, filled with sorrow and anger. She located the Chief talking with other elders, but she couldn’t say the words. She only cried.

“Another one died...”