There are many strains of lycanthropy, on both sides of the Demon War. Unfortunately those that are turned by the bite of a lycanthrope tend to lose their minds to the newly awakened beast within them. Because of this the lycanthropes of the Demons grow in numbers quickly while our own can never be truely trusted. Some few have however been able to control their beast when turned, all others must be put down. - Common Monsters

Adrian

I do not open my eyes until dawn, I hurt though my body is fine. I did not enter the Grey Dream, I could have but chose not to. I cannot trust it; its voice was too similar to that of the shadows I fought. I must recover before I go there again.

I stand up and get ready to leave the bank, I need to get food and water. While there is still salted fish that is not something that one should eat alone for multiple days in a row. The others are all still asleep.

I try to condense water with the frost fire but fail to get it to form. I frown this is bad, I also started to feel more pain within me. I can’t use my magic, I can’t let the Althaen figure this out. They want to kill me, they would have done so yesterday but were too scared to act.

I can’t risk traveling out into the rest of the Althaen camp, so I just sit in the sunlight on the stairs for the bank’s front entrance. I missed several days of training with the guards, a few more won’t matter.

I just let my mind wander and slowly feel my hunger and thirst diminish as if I was some sort of weird plant. Absorb radiation for sustenance, this is a really odd way to eat. It’s working so I guess I’ll just talk with the others and learn Althaen from K in the sunlight. Maybe move to the roof later.

After about an hour the others start to wake up, one of the elven sisters woke first. It’s Talia, she walked out of the room that Abagail was using before. She walks up to me, I begin to frown without noticing.

“Why are you just sitting in the sun?”

Should I tell the truth? I’ll end up telling K or Lysan and they will tell her. She will find out anyways. Even if she doesn’t realize what I am doing for her I don’t think she would risk her sister.

“Waiting.”

“For what?”

“To recover my magic.”

She stops for a second, she knows what the risk is.

“Why are you just waiting, we need to get out of here. What if they found out?”

“Bad things, but suddenly running away would tip them off. All they know is that I didn’t leave this building for the last few days. If I change from that action they will know something changed from the fight yesterday.”

“But what if they come and ask for you to cast something?”

“I don’t think they will. Why would they?”

“Because then they could act against you if you didn’t.”

“Do they have any reason to think that I can’t use magic right now?”

Talia stops for a moment. I don’t know what she is thinking, will she try to run? Use me as bait? I won’t let her do so if she tries, I should change the subject before she comes to such a conclusion.

“I promised Lysan I would listen to whatever it was you were trying to say yesterday. Now’s your chance.”

She takes a breath, “I was wrong to say all those things. I was wrong to judge you as I did. I was worried that you were like the others, I am sorry.”

Well at least she is apologizing, it even seems sincere. Since I didn’t say anything back she seems to have taken it to mean that I want an explanation. Am I still frowning? I probably am.

“Before we met you, my sister and me have been running from nobles for most of our century of life. Mostly we were moving from elven clan to clan; the elven lords were either apathetic to us, or treated us well until their sons wanted us. Then we would run away again, only for the next group to be the same. The human houses wouldn’t even try to hide what they really wanted.

None of the others who ever gave us hospitality ever really meant it. I was too afraid that you were lying to believe it. If you want to throw me away I understand, but please just keep my sister safe.”

There are tears in her eyes, she is truly sorry. A century of being betrayed over and over, no wonder she thought as she did. Should I forgive her?

“Talia,” she looks up at me. “I’m not going to just throw you away. I’m mad at you, you hurt me. Apologies don’t make everything better but at least you regret it.”

She moves to hug me, but I push her away; it’s mean but I haven’t fully forgiven her. “I’m still mad at you, give it time.”

Her arms drop to the side, she is still crying as she goes back into the bank. Why did she have to look so sad at me not letting her hug me? She deserves this but I feel a little bad, but I’m also still mad. Damn emotions, I’ll just go back to sunbathing till someone else comes by.

I am sitting on the roof, K teaching me more Althaen, when a small group of soldiers’ approach with a few crates. I suppose that is the winnings from my fight with Talphith. Wait, dammit. I forgot to take that chest Sunchaser gave to him.

The soldiers do not even walk the crates all the way to the door but are instead just placing them in front of the bank on the street. K starts to move towards them but stopped when she noticed I didn’t move. I want to see if they are even going to tell anyone that they have come.

It turns out that they either had no intentions to do so or were told to remove something from the crates first as they began to open one of them. K jumped down and started talking to them and they did not seem happy that she was there. They are not talking loud enough but K does point to the roof, after which I waved at the guards who looked over.

They are startled and immediately stop trying to open the crates while arguing with K. I should go down there, it doesn’t seem like the soldiers are going to carry the crates into the bank for me. I move down from the roof, I think I could jump down without problems but do not want to risk it.

When I turn back to the crates, the soldiers had already left.

“They were only to deliver, apparently, that means the front of our house.”

“It’s better they don’t see the barrel of stolen fish anyways. So, how heavy are the crates?”

K kicks one of them, it barely moved. “Heavy enough to need two people.”

I nod and help her move the first of the crates into the bank. The others notice us bringing the crate in and after seeing that there were more outside moved to help. Lysan and Abagail were however unable to move a crate as a team.

“These are rather heavy, what is in them” questions Bryan.

“Paper, glass bottles, and metal” responds K before I began my own response. She really has been learning English quickly. I’ll have to ask her how much of the question she understood later.

“That’s rather vague.”

And K is now looking at him in confusion. “We don’t actually know yet” I answer for her. Bryan nods and we get all five of the crates into the lobby. Now it’s time to go through our plunder. No, that is not quite the right phrase.

It turns out that most of the possessions of Talphith were mostly inherited by his students, collected due to debts, or returned to the house as he did not own them himself. The same was true of most of the others that ended up dying yesterday. There was however an accounting of the possessions that were sent to others instead.

The only name I could recognize in the papers was that a Jason Sunchaser received most of the possessions of the group, ‘for slaves who have not yet been paid for.’ He also took most of the items marked as slaves. What could he possibly need all these things for?

Regardless of whatever Jason is doing I did get some of the more valuable items. There was a breastplate, a few swords that I think are enchanted, the composite bows I gave the sisters along with the arrows, a few dozen tomes that seem to be introductory to low leveled magic, several dozen healing potions, a few books that seem to be histories from Althrá, quite a bit of clothes, and a rather large pile of coins.

There was not a single coin that was not made of copper. There is no reason for there to be this many, they are not even shiny. I returned the bows to the sisters, and as Bryan was the one that the breastplate would fit he took it. Bryan, Talia, K and me now each have a longsword. They are all a bit gaudy but they will work better than anything else we have.

There is no way that all these people had so many obligations to others. I do figure out on a whim that my Void Cache still works after placing one of the copper coins in it. Not too much I can do with that though. Over the rest of the day I move everything that we are not currently using into Void Cache as we all study each other’s languages.

I’ve fallen asleep, I don’t think I made sure not to enter the Grey Dream. I open my eyes, and that is where I am. An empty grey void filled with grey mist. I am not in as much pain as I was in the morning, but I still wasn’t able to use anything but Void Cache when I went to sleep.

Hoping that the things that run this realm do not attack me as me-but-not-me warns they eventually will, I think the questions that must be done to get the conversation mode working.

[You are hurt.]

“I’ll get better. Please show me the display.”

[Very well, let us know if you wish for aid.]

Gain: Magus 9 (+80SP, Sphere Upgrade, +1 Attribute), Human Kills: +20EP, Soul 1 (+5SP)

Demon Slain: +50EP, +100SP

Killing those few dozen people is worth more than all the goblinoids so far? That’s just not right, incentivizing destroying ‘humans’ for more than the tainted things. Something is not right. I’m also assuming the Shadow Dragon is the Demon that I killed, at least that one paid well. Not worth going magicless though.

Name: Adrian Ravnos

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Skills

Attributes+

Class

SP: 190

Traits

Magic

Languages

EP: 94

Alright store the SP, for the ever-increasing sphere costs, spend the EP then raise an Attribute.

Attribute Increase

Draconic

Infusion

Senses

I’ll just keep choosing draconic, not much point in walking down just part of another path.

Alternate Form 100

Senses

Void Power

I wonder if there if the other void abilities are available.

Void Step* UNAVAILABLE

Void Twist* UNAVAILABLE

And there are none, what of senses?

Darkvison 30

Scent 45

I don’t really need those at this time. I guess I’ll just pick up the Alternate Form. And now I just have four. Just as before there is no explanation as to what this does.

On to the Attribute point.

Attribute Point: 1

STR 22

DEX 25

CON 22

INT 26

WIS 26

CHA 26

APR 24

HP: 529

Mana: 160

I put the point in charisma, then the voice of the Grey Dream speaks up once more.

[More tainted are going to attack.]

Shit, and I don’t have my magic.

[We can heal your damage, but will have to charge SP for it.]

“Heal me then.”

I see the SP value drop to zero, the dream begins to fade.