The next morning when Kyle woke up Nemesis contacted him to tell him about the information that she had received from the System.

“So, what your saying is that I have another good reason to go after the Empire?” Kyle asked. “Or at least some of the more powerful people in the Empire and any soldiers who get in my way?”

“Well basically yes,” Nemesis replied hesitantly from where she sat in her pocket dimension.

“Good, that was what I was planning on doing anyway,” Kyle said in a tone that made a chill run-down Nemesis’ back. “At least until I get my sister back.”

“W-well that’s good,” Nemesis stuttered. “But I’ve also been asked to ask that you keep civilian casualties to a minimum.”

“Well I have to get a lot stronger before I’ll even be able to do anything to even a single Imperial soldier without your help so you might have to remind me then,” Kyle pointed out. “And even then, I’ll make no promises.”

Nemesis opened her mouth to answer but couldn’t think of a good way to answer that particular statement for several seconds.

“Well how about this then,” she said when she had decided how to respond. “I’ll remind you when you get strong enough and you don’t attack anyone who doesn’t attack you?”

“If you insist,” Kyle replied. “But if they try to stop me getting my sister back then I’ll consider them to be my enemy and deal with them in any way that I feel is appropriate at the time.”

Nemesis reached up to rub her forehead in exasperation. She could’ve sworn that she had a headache coming on except that she was pretty sure that goddesses couldn’t even get headaches. If Kyle kept acting like this then gaining more followers and priests would be a long and difficult road so she was really hoping that this was just a phase that he was going through because of his recent losses.

“Alright fine we’ll talk later then,” Nemesis decided before cutting the connection between them before she got any more annoyed.

Kyle blinked as Nemesis’ presence in his mind faded away suddenly. It had been weird enough when she had started talking to him as soon as he had woken up but then she had stopped just as suddenly. Maybe he had done something to upset her?

“Hey Kyle, come and get breakfast!” Galdon said from his seat by a nearby campfire. “We’ll be heading back to town as soon as everyone is ready!”

“Fine,” Kyle nodded as he got to his feet and walked over. Sonia was also sitting by the fire and looked up at him with red and swollen eyes as he sat down next to her. It was obvious that she had slept even worse than Kyle had and even his sleep had been patchy. Hal seemed to still be asleep for now. The red-headed young man still hadn’t spoken a word since they had found his mother’s body yesterday and had refused to so much as eat a single bite of food before he fell into a restless slumber.

Galdon handed Kyle a small wooden bowl of porridge that he had cooked up in a small pot and Kyle silently started spooning the bland mixture into his mouth even as Galdon held out the small pot of honey that he had brought with him.

“Well alright then,” Galdon shrugged as he put the pot down next to Fi who also received a small bowl of porridge. “I guess I’ll just leave this here.”

“Don’t mind him Galdon,” Fi said quickly as she spooned a little honey into her bowl of porridge before blowing carefully on it. “He’s just in a bad mood.”

“I know and I don’t blame him” Galdon nodded. “I’ not exactly in a great mood myself. More importantly, you Levelled Up from killing that soldier, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess that means that I can’t stay at the school anymore?” Kyle asked as sadness flashed across his face for a second before it smoothed back out to the blank expression that he’d had since killing the soldier.”

“Yes sadly,” Galdon sighed as he shook his head sadly. “Those are the rules that I agreed to when I got permission from the king to open the school and even, I can’t break them.”

“That’s fine,” Kyle replied. “Nothing that’s happened here is your fault. Least of all me killing that soldier yesterday.”

“I know,” Galdon nodded. “But I can’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if we’d left town the previous night.”

From what they had been able to discover while they were searching, the town in the hopes of finding survivors the Imperials had attacked about the same time that they had left Greenhearth yesterday. That fact had only served to drive the already low morale of the Adventurers even lower and Alistair had started blaming himself despite Galdon’s best efforts.

The Adventurers would be staying to help the kingdom’s army assault the camp that the Imperials had made in the hills. According to the scouts the Imperials didn’t seem to be aware that they were being watched but despite their best efforts they had been unable to spot any signs that the captive survivors of Farholt were still present at the camp which lead everyone to assume that they had already been sent through the portal that they believed was in a small structure made of stone blocks that sat in the centre of the camp.

A few minutes later Hal woke up and silently joined them, sitting next to Kyle and eating a few mouthfuls of bland porridge before putting his bowl down.

“Sorry, I’m just not hungry,” he croaked when Galdon raised an eyebrow at him.

“That’s fine, Galdon replied quickly. “I don’t blame you for feeling that way. Alright let’s get packed up and start heading back to Farholt. You three shouldn’t be here when the army arrives. I’ve known the woman in charge for a long time and if we’re still here then I have no doubt that she will try to draft you into the army as well as the Adventurers that we brought with us.”

“Okay,” Kyle nodded. Despite his burning desire to go after the Imperials who did this as soon as possible he also knew that he wouldn’t last more than a few minutes on a battlefield at his level of power. Besides he had heard the report that the scouts had given Alistair and Galdon before he had gone to bed last night so he also knew that he wouldn’t find his sister or anyone else from Farholt there.

As soon as they were ready to leave, they made their way over to where the mounts had been left last night where they found the two of the Adventurers waiting for them. One was Kamilla the scout who had decided to go back with them since she had a child waiting for her at home and the other was the same Elvish woman who had given Sonia a ride on the way here.

“Thank you both for volunteering to help me take my students home,” Galdon said as they approached.

“It’s no problem,” the Elvish woman replied in a soft voice that matched her gentle appearance. “I only really work as a travelling healer. I just have an Adventurer’s permit because it makes it easier to travel between settlements.”

“Ah, yes I remember Alistair saying something about that,” Galdon recalled. “Alright then, let’s get going.”

Everyone nodded, even Hal who was still looking lost after what he had witnessed the other day and soon, they were on the road once more. They were going a bit slower this time so it would be late by the time they got back to Greenhearth. Nonetheless Kyle decided that this was as good a time as any to go over the other gains that he had received from his recent Class Upgrade.

After talking with Fi he found out that his new Magic School had three spells that seemed to show off different aspects of the school itself. The first two were fairly standard looking spells that looked identical to spells that Telram had seen in the Schools of Light and Darkness but the last one was a bit different and was probably the most useful one.

“Alright Fi can you show me the new spells now?” Kyle asked. They were using the telepathic link that they had gained when Fi had upgraded their Soul Bond during the siege of Greenhearth. They didn’t sue this ability too often because of how odd it felt but neither could deny that it was useful in situations when they didn’t have a lot of privacy or it was difficult for them to talk normally for some reason. Both of these things were applicable right now so taking advantage of this ability made sense.

“Sure,” she nodded from her spot wrapped around Kyle’s shoulders. She was holding tighter than normal because of the rather rough gait of Galdon’s Kul’dan but Kyle had yet to raise so much as a single word of complaint.

Kyle blinked as the blue screen appeared in front of him and started reading.

School of Divine Retribution

Rank 1- Master 1 Spell to increase Rank

Spells

· Light Arrow- Fires a bolt of light that deals 11-14 Light Damage. Costs 15 MP. Casting time: Instant. Spell Mastery 0%

· Shadow Bind- Binds an enemy in shadowy coils for up to 30 seconds. Costs 30 MP. Casting time: 1 second. Cooldown 1 min. Spell Mastery 0%

· Counter Shield- Creates a barrier that reflects up to 20 points of damage back towards the attacker before breaking. Costs 45 MP. Casting Time: Instant. Cooldown: 3 minutes. Spell Mastery: 0%

“Well you were definitely right about the first two spells being pretty ordinary ones,” Kyle told Fi who nodded. “But that third one certainly looks interesting.”

“Yeah,” Fi replied. “Those first two spells might seem the same as spells that you could’ve learned from the Schools of Light or Dark magic, but I get the feeling that they’ll be a bit different when you upgrade them.”

“Alright can you bring up my Status now I need to use my Unassigned Stat Points,” Kyle requested next. “Then we’ll move onto your stuff.”

“Sure,” Fi replied and the blue screen in front of Kyle was quickly replaced by his familiar Status Sheet. After considering his options Kyle decided to place 3 Stat points into his Constitution to raise his HP and HP regen, 2 into Wisdom, 2 into Intelligence and the remaining 2 into Willpower to increase his MP and MP regen. Once he had done this, he gave his Status one last look over.

Statistics

Name: Kyle Fergusson

Race: Aethereal Human

Level: 5

Class: Chain Manipulator

HP: 187/187

HP regen: 1.7 p/s

MP: 189/189

MP regen: 9.2 p/s

SP: 179/179

SP regen: 8.5 p/s

Str: 14(8)

Dex: 24(10)

Agi: 29(12)

Con: 17(10)

End: 17(11)

Int: 16(12)

Wis: 15(11)

Will: 18(11)

Exp to next Level: 3%

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

Still need to increase my Constitution more,” he noted. “But balancing out my Mental Stats so that I can use my magic more should be more useful for now.”

Thankfully his new Class increased his Wisdom and Willpower every time he Levelled Up, so he was freer than ever to use his Unassigned Stat Points to increase his Constitution. But that didn’t mean that he was going to use them all to increase his Constitution either.

“Okay Fi let’s have a look at your Status now,” Kyle said. “You can go ahead and select that Companion Type that you wanted.”

“Okay selecting Support Caster now,” Fi replied happily. “Here’s the details.”

Companion Type was similar to a Class but didn’t provide quite the same number of benefits in the form of either Stats or Skills. Also, once a type was chosen that was it. You couldn’t change your Companion Type later on like you could with a Class. The number of Stats a companion would receive when Levelling Up would increase when their partner gained a higher Tier Class but other than that this was the last big change in her capabilities that Fi would ever experience.

Companion Type selected!

Support Caster

A Companion type that increases the companion’s ability to cast spells and increase the capabilities of their partner.

Abilities Unlocked: Shared Spells. Improved Mana Pool. Boost Strength.

Ability Slots increased to 15.

Ability Points per Level increased to 3 (+1 from partner’s High-ranked Class).

Stats per Level: +1 Intelligence. +2 Wisdom. +2 Unassigned Stat Points.

“Okay, can you show me what your new Abilities do while you assign your stat Points?” Kyle asked once he had finished reading the new notification which was immediately replaced with a new one.

New Abilities Unlocked!

Shared Spells- Allows the companion to use their partner’s spells for 150% of the normal MP cost. Lvl 1. Cost to improve: 5 AP.

Improved Mana Pool- Increases the Companion’s MP by 50. Lvl 1. Cost to improve 3 AP.

Boost Strength- Increases your partner’s Strength Stat by 1-3 points for 1 min. Cost 30 MP. Cooldown: 2 min. Lvl 1. Cost to improve 2 AP

“Well your new Shared Spells Ability seems like it should be really useful and anything that increases your MP is a good thing in my book,” Kyle mused and Fi nodded absently in reply as she assigned her Stat Points. “Unfortunately, I don’t think that we’re going to get a lot of use out of your Boost Strength Ability.”

“Agreed,” Fi replied as she finished what she was doing “But having that Ability means that I can learn other Boost Abilities by using my Ability Points. Alright here’s my newly updated Status. I decided to increase my Constitution and Agility.”

Statistics

Name: Fi Fergusson

Race: Quetzalcoatl (Divine Beast)

Level: 5

Companion Type: Support Caster

HP: 60/60

HP regen: 0.6 p/s

MP: 140/140

MP regen:7 p/s

SP: 40/40

SP regen: 4 p/s

Str: 4

Dex: 5

Agi: 13

Con: 6

End: 4

Int: 14

Wis: 14

Will: 8

Exp to next Level: 3%

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

“Okay, yeah that works,” Kyle nodded. “Well then, now all we have to do is spend our Skill and Ability Points, right?”

“That’s right,” Fi agreed. “You have enough Points saved up to unlock the Footwork Skill and have more enough left over to unlock a cheap Skill or a new Bonus for one of your Skills if you want.”

“Hmm, definitely unlock Footwork,” Kyle nodded. The extra Skill Points that he had received from becoming a Divine Champion were a nice bonus. “And then can you bring up the options that I can still afford after that?”

“Okay I can do that,” Fi agreed as she spent the points to unlock the Skill and then brought up the other Skills and Skill Bonuses that he could still afford.

“Huh, that’s interesting,” Kyle muttered to himself as he read one of the Bonuses for his Chain Manipulation Skill. “A chain that I’m manipulating with my new Skill doesn’t get any of the Bonuses that the Skill normally gives me. Fi can you tell me something; does the damage of a chain that I’m manipulating with Chain Manipulation scale off my Dexterity like it normally does or off my Willpower?”

“Let me just check,” Fi replied blinking in surprise as she discovered the answer. “Huh, what do you know it does scale off Willpower.”

“Well in that case I need to get this Bonus, don’t I?” Kyle asked as he pointed at the Bonus in question.

“Yeah that would seem to be a good idea,” Fi agreed. “Do you want me to unlock it?”

“Yeah,” Kyle nodded and Fi assigned the points before bringing up the new information about Kyle’s Skills.

New Skill Unlocked!

Footwork-Mastery

Level 1-0% to next Proficiency Level

Allows you to make your movements faster and more efficient. Unlocks related Sub-skills

Current Bonuses

· Increases movement speed by 5%

Sub-Skills

Flash Step- Allows you to move faster than the eye can see in the direction that you choose. Cost 25 SP. Cooldown 30 seconds.

New Bonus Unlocked for Chain Manipulation

Increases damage dealt by telekinetically controlled chains by 5%

“Okay you have three Skill Points remaining,” Fi told Kyle who nodded thoughtfully.

“Good, I already have plans for that,” he replied.

“That Racial Skill that you’ve been looking at?” Fi asked.

“Yeah I’ve been wanting to get the Manavore Skill for a while now but there was always something that felt like it was more important,” Kyle nodded.

The Manavore Skill was a Mastery Skill that would increase Kyle’s MP regen and allow him to do things like absorb some of the Mana of enemy spells among other things and Fi definitely agreed that it would be a useful one for him to have.

“Right, now it’s your turn,” Kyle told Fi who nodded in agreement.

“Well now that I have access to your spells, I should probably focus on improving my healing or defensive capabilities,” Fi mused as she brought up her options and started scrolling through them.

“Agreed,” Kyle nodded. “You probably can’t upgrade your Restore spell again with the number of Ability Points that you got, though right?”

“Actually, I could but I don’t think that I will,” Fi replied. “I think that I might upgrade my Flight Ability so that I can move faster and unlock the Gentle Radiance spell which is a weak area heal.”

“Okay that sounds like a good idea,” Kyle nodded and Fi spent the points before bringing up what would hopefully be the last screens that they would have to look at for a while.

New Ability Unlocked!

Gentle Radiance: Heals any allies in a 5m area for 5 HP per second over 2 minutes. Cost 45 MP. Cooldown 5 min.

Ability Upgraded!

Flight- Allows the companion to fly at speeds of up to 20 km per hour. Lvl 2 (Cost to improve 3 AP)

“Whew, that was a lot to go through,” Kyle grumbled and Fi nodded in agreement. “Worth it though.”

“Oh definitely,” Fi agreed quickly. “It’s actually impressive how much stronger you are now. I’d estimate that you’re about as strong as the average Level 7, maybe Level 8 Adventurer and if you keep up with your training that gap should only widen in the future.”

“How are you two doing back there?” Galdon asked loudly over his shoulder. “Finished going over everything that you gained the other day?”

“Yeah,” Kyle nodded in reply. “I’m sorry about ignoring you.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Galdon chuckled. “That sort of thing is pretty private. Now, if you wanted to give me an idea of what you’re capable of I might be abler to give you some advice but that would be up to you.”

Kyle nodded thoughtfully at this offer. Galdon was the Principal of the Adventurer’s School for a reason and Kyle couldn’t actually find a reason not to ask the old man for advice. After a couple of minutes deliberating, he decided that he had nothing to lose and everything to gain from asking Galdon for advice.

So, as the Kul’dan galloped along the road back towards Greenhearth he started explaining some of his new capabilities. Galdon nodded thoughtfully at times and asked the occasional question when he was unsure of something before offering a piece of advice. Some of what he told Kyle was something that they young man had already thought of but sometimes he was surprised by the advice that Galdon gave him.

Time passed fairly quickly as they talked and soon the sun had set behind them but Galdon didn’t call for a halt and they kept moving along the road towards Greenhearth. Just as Kyle was starting to wonder when they would finally reach Greenhearth he spotted the massive grey walls of the Dungeon town in the distance and despite all of the horrible things that he had experienced over the past couple of days he smiled. Looking around he saw similar expressions on the faces of Hal and Sonia.

He wasn’t looking forward to having to explain what had happened to Damian but it would be good to see his other friends again.