Gnomes are few in number living mostly among the nation’s in the southern section of Althrá. They are known for creating amazing objects of power without the aid of magic though such objects tend to be as harmful to the wielder as they are to the target. While their own communities have no centralized leadership the oldest and most knowledgeable of them handle quarrels between the others of the community. When under the rule of others they tend to be law abiding citizens except in the cases of what is banned from research by that group while allowed by the informal council they have.

Lykou

I walk into Alana’s hut to find that like yesterday Analais is filling the bowls with stew as he started a few days ago as Alana will likely go into labor any day now. While she does not complain I can tell that she is having difficulty in just getting around with how swollen her belly has become.

I sit at the table while being able to tell with a glance that Alana’s bowl has the most substance to it, while Analais’s has mostly broth. As I sit at the place that they have always had me sit Alana asks me a question.

“Kylana is going to come over for lunch tomorrow, do you have any good gossip for me to bring up?”

“Maybe, she told me to ask you what a Paring Howl was” I answer knowing that she hasn’t left the hut in the last four days.

“What brought you to that subject?” she asks with absolute attention.

“She was telling me that I should take some sort of trial to be recognized as a hunter this new and full moon. . .”

I don’t even finish the sentence before both she and Analais begin laughing. Alana catches herself from falling out of her chair and Analais rushes over to support her. His laughter ends there while hers continues for a few more moments before she with a smile says, “that’s good, is that for real?”

I nod, and she says “oh, I’ll never let her forget this” with a grin.

“So, care to let me know what is going on?” I ask.

“I think you can explain this one better” Alana says while looking at Analais.

“Basically, it is a free for all fight to determine which female or females will be your mates.”

Okay, on top of how fucked up the idea that combat is a sensible way of deciding who is 'mates' with who; what is the whole mate thing about anyways?

My face must have shown my thoughts on this matter as Alana starts speaking, “it isn’t as messed up as it sounds. The females get to fight too and if we want a particular male it isn’t difficult to help him fend off challengers or keep an unwanted male back until some other male defeats him.

Though Kylana wanting you to be involved I can’t defend. Though none of the actions mates do are involved and only when the wolves take over under the full moon is the final decision made by them to accept each other or not. If you wake together at dawn you share your wolf names with each other.”

“So why would she want me to be involved? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Probably to give her daughter an option that’ll make it easier for her to postpone taking a mate for at least a few years” Analais comments.

I frown though it is not that surprising as the only reason that she is teaching me magic is to get her daughter to work harder and improve but at least I get something out of that arrangement. What would I even do with a woman? Are there even benefits to this?

Being a hunter will get me out of Naliya’s class and with Kythia teaching me while we wait for my mana to recover I don’t really need her class anymore and could progress more using the time with her instead. Not sure if training with Kythia will even be an option though I will probably have to hunt for food in the morning. Would I be expected to build one of these huts? Now, I am not sure if I am better off with the privileges of adulthood.

Then again that memory with the silver haired woman felt really good. I wonder what Kythia would look like at her age. If I take her mother’s figure as a base. . .

. . . she would look almost exactly like the woman in that memory. Did I remember the future? That place looks nothing like anything in the village though. We didn’t look like there was as much age difference as we have though.

“What are you thinking about?” Alana asks with a smirk. She is enjoying this, she has spent way too much time alone in the house.

“If I should play along with her plan” I answer.

“Play along? Do you mean to do as she plans?”

I nod to her question and Analais speaks next.

“I would go for it. Kythia will in time most likely be the alpha female as her mother is and a beautiful woman.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be against sneaky planning?” I ask him.

“Yes, but as a runt other than under the new moon it tends to be better for me to not be direct.”

I nod, that reason seems like a pretty good one. I don’t think regular wolves are this honor centric though Kylana does not seem to be as focused on straight up battles as the others with her scheming to aid her daughter.

"What are mates anyways?" I ask.

"I knew that you would end up asking" Analais smirks before turning to Alana and asking, "how much do you think we should go into?"

"I think you should go on a walk to the woods so I don't have to hear it all" she answers.

He stands up from the table while nodding and I soon follow him out of the hut and into the woods. Is this supposed to be something uncomfortable to talk about?

Once we leave earshot of the village Analais starts talking and we stop, "mates are a male and a female that live together. A smaller pack within the pack, and no the children are not mates to the adults whose den they live in."

"What about the huts that have more female adults in them than males?" I ask, not having the question he answered without me asking in mind anyways. If the childen have to go through a Paring Howl to have a mate then they obviously aren't mates with whoever they are living with.

"The male is mated to all those females."

"You can have more than one? Then why is it called pairing?"

"Because the act of mating can really only been done by two people of opposing genders at a time. Let me explain and I'll come back to your questions later.

Now, a mated pair or group live together. Their mates until whoever they are mated to dies. Males sometimes will take on additional mates as the other males of the pack die in defense of the pack but the females will stay loyal to their mate until he is dead and some even choose not to become another's mate afterwards. Any questions so far?"

I shake my head and he continues, "pups are produced by the mated pairs within the pack. The act of mating itself is what creates them."

He pauses and I nod, then he asks me a question, "what is it that makes you male?"

"My penis" I answer as if it was the stupid question it is.

"Good, now fairly soon you body will start changing. Rapid increase in height, bodily hair but most significantly that part of you will get larger. After you have gone through enough of this period of change girls will start drawing your eye. It'll feel ackward and uncomfortable at times but that is because it is your body wanting to do a very specific act with them. Which is the act of mating."

Analais pauses again for a moment as if waiting for a question that I do not ask before continuing,

"Mating itself is rather simple, you will end up being excited by nudity in females. While excited in this manner your penis will grow even more and become very firm. Females have a hole where you have your penis and when they are excited it will prepare itself by becoming damp. Once both have done so, put your penis inside the female and do whatever feels good after that.

Soon enough you'll feel like urinating inside of the female and that'll feel even better than what you had been doing before. That would be you passing your seed into her that may become a pup."

This seems really familiar, as if I had heard it before. I think this is what I was doing that felt so good in that memory where I said the silver-haired woman's names.

"No questions? You do not even seem to be suprised, have you already been told about this?"

"It sounds familiar."

"Then what is the most important thing to remember?"

"If the girl isn't enjoying it she isn't likely to let you inside her again?"

"I was going to say, the more the female likes it the more she'll let you ride her, or her ride you but that is just as good."

Neither of us say anything for a moment. We then return to the hut in silence.

“So. . .” Alana asks as I reenter the hut.

“Gossip all you want with Kylana tomorrow, I need to think for a few days” I answer.

She frowns but nods and I can see her thinking as I finish my bowl of stew and excuse myself to rest.

Gain: +2 XP Bodybuilding, +2 XP Finesse Training, +5 XP Battle Sense, +10 XP Sense Motive, +35 XP Arcana, +35 XP Meditation, +15 XP Melee, +15 XP Spear, +40 XP Hand-to-hand, +65 XP Apprentice, +45 XP Brawler, +30 XP Man-at-arms, +5 XP Mana Resistance Training, +5 XP Anatomy

Lykou

Gender: Male

Race: Void Draconian?

Age: 10

Strength 15

Intelligence 15

Mana Potential 9

Skills

SP: 142

Dexterity 15

Wisdom 14

Mana Potency 7

Languages

Titles

Agility 16

Cunning 13

Luck 16

Traits

Options

Endurance 14

Willpower 17

Perception 12

Magic

???

Vitality 14

Alertness 15

??? 1

Classes

Racial Class

Appearance 15

Charisma 11

Health 160/160

Mana 13/13

I smile at the accumulated SP but I feel that it is still not enough. That I will need more, that I will always need more.

Wait, what is Mana Resistance Training?

Mana Resistance Training

While one of the crudest ways of strengthening mana, it can be done by having to push against the mana of another as you manipulate your own.

Increases Mana Potency

Unable to progress without outside assistance

I stare at this screen. Mana can be trained as a muscle, just not without help, but when did I push against someone else’s mana today? Teaching Kythia, that method of teaching her having her piggyback on my own spell so she can learn it.

This is not however a perfect solution, a partial one but it isn’t like I can spend hours and hours a day working with this method. Maybe a few times a day but that won’t be enough to be significant. Can I try just pushing against her mana, not actually casting? That would almost eliminate the mana cost if it works though I don’t know how I could convince her to do something like that.

I should try some sort of refinement in case I am not able to get the needed outside help or that help lacks the time it would take to be significant. But how? Slamming my mana against itself? Centrifugal force to push out impurities? Compression?

Too many things to try but could it be risky to do some of them? My heart is the core of my mana so it could be fatal it something goes wrong. I also don’t have any way of testing if it will work without trying it on myself. Should I ask Kylana? I’m going to need to talk to her about plenty of other stuff anyways. . .

With a breath I turn further inward, forcing away my conscious thought as random fragmented memories begin brush up against my mind’s eye. As I still have no idea how to do more than sort of tell what the subject of a memory might be I grab one at random.

In an instant, I find myself in a very different body than the one that I have always found myself in. I am not in the grown teenage form that I’ve become somewhat familiar with. I feel the rushing wind as I move a limb that I do not normally have to shift my direction through the air as a pleasant feeling of warmth entering through another pair of limbs on my back as they to move to propel me forwards and upwards.

The crisp clean morning air and warmth bringing me comfort and seems to slowly begin to energize me as the memory goes on as if I was consuming the light that fell upon me. After what feels like a short period of I land to see a few people standing in front of a building as if they were waiting for me. The silver haired woman, two of the red-haired elf and a fourth woman that I have not seen an any of the few memories I have stumbled upon that were from before this. Three red tipped yellow tails wag behind her as I begin to shift, muscles moving and bones shifting around as my wings retract back into my back. My body rapidly shrinking into human form clothes appearing out of nowhere the instant that the transformation is complete.

I smile as the four women each give me a kiss but before a single word is said the memory ends.

I am a dragon. I am a flying and maybe fire breathing dragon. Can I still do it? Do I have the ability to turn into a dragon? There was something about it in my Traits according to the Architect’s system but it was marked like it was disabled. How do I get that back?

Adrian

The walk home from the graveyard of Karthas was far faster than the track to the village though somehow it was even less enjoyable as Brightblade literally forced us to march without rest. Like before he did not permit speaking though none of my friends were in the mood to speak.

Yesterday we entered through the gates of the city and I have finally heard its name as the City of Sacred Flame. Now Bryan, Abagail and me sit at the table in the common area to the quarters that we were given. One that is smaller than the previous to reflect that our group is smaller.

“We need to do something, we can’t just sit around here until they send us out again” Bryan says.

“What can we even do?” asks Abagail

“We need to get out of here” I say.

“They won’t just let us walk out of here” Bryan replies.

“Then we sneak out. A smuggler or some group of thieves has to exist somewhere.”

“Won’t that be dangerous?” Abagail asks.

After a moment’s thought Bryan responds, “no less than continuing to serve as the summoned fodder, and the casualties among the soldiers was even worse than ours.”

“Following the Althaen does not seem to work well for anyone” I comment with sadness in my voice.

“We won’t be able to get them to help without something in return. We need to come up with something that we can offer to get help.”

“I’ll take care of that” I say, I should be able to find something of value with my magic.

“How? We don’t have anything of value” Abagail says.

“I’ll find what we need, even with my magic if I have to.”

“How?” Bryan asks.

“Either theft through teleporting an object or preferably by cheating at games of chance.”

Bryan nods though Abagail seems more confused than anything else but I have yet to fully explain what I can and cannot do to them. Only a brief overview of some combat potential.

“Anyways, I’ll find some valuable somethings. Don’t ask questions just find someone that’ll get us out of here and get stronger” I continue.

“There is something else. After Brightblade knocked us out I had a dream. In it I was taught some magic” Bryan says as I begin to get up.

“What kind of magic?” I ask.

“Divine magic, here I’ll demonstrate” he says before drawing a symbol on a piece of paper before muttering words that I feel as if I am blocked from truly hearing even though they are in English.

The pencil drawing seems to shimmer unnaturally before a pale blue light appears above the paper.

“That seems easier than what I’ve been trying to do” Abagail comments.

“It is, the caster barely even shapes the mana.”

“Can you do the same without whatever outside assistance your alluding to?” I ask.

“I have not tried; the invocation cannot be the same and I do not know enough theory to figure out what is should be on my own.”

“I’ll get useful books for you one way or another. But first I need to sleep.”

I finish getting up and turn to my room. There are a few things I’ve yet to try in the Architect’s system and one of them may be rather important.