To my annoyance, it hadn’t been enough. Despite killing any and all Shattered I came across on our trek back to our shelter, I didn’t manage to get either Darkness Rune Mastery nor my actual level to ten. It was a massive pain in the rear, even if I was planning to get those last points in Rune Mastery by experimenting. As for the actual level, I would get it during the night, allowing me to use the points before I went hunting for racoons or rats.

Not completely tired just yet, I decided to get some work done before going to sleep. Looking at the new clothes I was planning to embroider, I decided to work with the cloak first, simply because it had a larger, likely easier-to-work-with surface area.

Looking at it, I realised that I needed to do something else, before actually putting the stitches in, I needed to ensure the runes remained in the shape I was creating them in. I wasn’t quite certain what would happen if the material the runes were embroidered in shifted around, distorting their form and possibly their function, but I didn’t want to find out, not outside a laboratory setting with precautions in place to keep me safe.

So, the first step to creating my Cloak of Concealment was to add a rigid section into the cloak, using some debris I had found in the abandoned building. It was set roughly into the middle of the cloak, making it so the hard section would simply hang down my back normally, but it made the cloak a little heavier, and less pleasant to use. I had no idea how I would handle that problem with the shirts, I didn’t want to wear a hard surface, but I would cross that bridge once I reached it. Maybe I could train myself to reduce the runes’ size to the minimum, not the easily hand-sized runes I was planning to use now. Size made them easier to embroider and given that I had very little ability in that, I wanted to make it as easy on myself as possible.

Drawing onto the section with a bit of dust was quite easy and I finalised my plans for the runic formation. Three Concealment runes in a triangle, linked to two Darkness runes, a simple formation but hopefully one that worked well. I had considered adding Chill and Blood Runes to it, to give the concealment a focus to suppress any senses that targeted my Vitality or the warmth of my body but decided against it. Those runes would make it much stronger against enemies using such senses but the runes I had now drawn would make it a stronger general-purpose enhancement and I could still use the other runes if I encountered enemies that had those special senses. Even if I suspected the Shattered could feel vitality and use that special sense to find other living beings, or maybe some sort of sense that allowed them to find other humans, that would somewhat track with a Shattered falling to a gang of racoons. Or it might be something else entirely, I wasn’t sure.

When I pulled my hair over my shoulder, so I could get a better look at it and the state my recent conditions had left it in. The last few days since the change had been hard and my hair had always been one of the few physical features I had taken pride in, and thus meticulously maintained. But with the change, I hadn’t been able to do anything but cleanse it with Darkness Magic, making me fear the worst.

To my pleasant surprise, the hair was nicely glossy, with traces of Astral Power twinkling along the strands, giving it a somewhat otherworldly look. Just for that, the Magical Hair perk was worth it, even if it had some drawbacks when it came to enemies using a strand of hair as a magical focus to attack me. But it also meant that I could do what I had planned, use those same strands of hair to create suitable crafting material.

Staring at one long strand of hair, I focused, trying to move the Astral Power within my hair to focus as much of it as possible into that strand. At first, it was difficult, the hair wasn’t as connected and fluid as the rest of my body was and the Astral Power within reflected that. If my normal Astral Power felt akin to water in the way I could direct it, the Astral Power in my hair was more akin to tar, sticky, viscous and thoroughly unwilling to move as I wanted it to.

But with enough time and patience, I managed to give the strand of hair I had focused on the odd light-absorbing quality of Darkness-aligned Astral Power, making it stand out to both my mundane and magical senses. While trying to keep as much of the power contained by sheer force of will, I pulled on the strand, ripping it free in one fluid motion. It hurt far more than it should have, a stab instead of a pin-prick and I could feel the drop in my available Astral Power. Looking at the strand through my magical sight, I could see that some of the power was fading into the environment but another part seemed to remain within, seeping into the physical structure, just as I had hoped it would.

Nodding to myself, I began stitching, carefully tracing the runes I had drawn, without actually connecting them just yet. Just one stitch after the other, slowly but surely weaving the strand of hair into the fabric of my cloak.

It took over an hour, and dozens of hairs, to finish just one rune to my satisfaction and by that point, the sun was rising and I was starting to get seriously tired. Cuddling up to my canine pillow, I went to bed, sleeping the day away. There were some noises in the distance, but nothing loud or urgent enough to truly rouse me.

And so, I slept the day away. My dreams took me back to the misty mountain deep within my mind, where I could doze on the slopes, watching the clouds go by. It was quite amusing to a small part of my mind, that I was dreaming about sleeping, but when it came to dreams, the dreams of my mountain were some of the most pleasant. Especially when I heard Sigmir’s voice in the wind, asking me how my day went. Talking to her, even if only in a dream, filled me with bittersweet emotions. During those moments, it was wonderful, my mind was at peace and my heart calm, even if there was a small, nagging part of me that reminded me it wouldn’t last and that soon, we would be separated once more. Separated by the boundaries of reality, between the living and the dead, separated until I managed to gather enough power to shatter those boundaries and get her back to my side.

Early in the afternoon, I woke back up, my mind filled with conviction, even if my heart was aching from the separation from Sigmir. Letting out a soft sigh, I promised my beloved that I would find her, that we would reunite. No matter who or what stood in our way.

Silva looked at me, confusion filling her canine face before she started to pace around, trying to find with whom I had been talking. Chuckling to myself, I prepared some food for her, and myself, making sure I was fed before I continued my work.

There were four more runes to weave and by the time I was finished, dusk had settled in. The work on the cloak wasn’t quite done, there was one more step. Carefully channelling my Astral Power, I focused on the runes, staring at the fabric through my Magical Sight. I could see the paths my Darkness Rune Mastery tried to use to connect the runes into a working formation, where it tried to force the Astral Power to go through the fabric and did my best to memorise those pathways.

Once I had a good idea of how the formation would connect, I began tracing those connections with more of my hair, trying to give the magic a path of least resistance. It was slow-going, there was little rhyme or reason to how those paths were flowing, but with my Sight, I could get an idea.

Finally, I was done and could look at my completed work. The cloak looked a little strange, not because of the almost invisible embroidery, my hairs were blending in nicely with the silky material, but due to the metal I had used to reinforce the area around the formation, making sure that it wouldn’t bend or fold and disrupt my work.

Looking at my notifications, I had to smile. The work on the cloak had been enough to push Darkness Rune Mastery to ten, just as I had hoped. But surprisingly, there was another pair of notifications that I hadn’t expected.

You have reached level ten. The Touch of a Dragon lingers on your soul. You gain +1 to all attributes.

That, I hadn’t expected at all. Depending on how often I got such an attribute-boost and what else the trait did, the Dragon Touched trait might be insanely powerful or somewhat underwhelming. Something to find out in the future, especially as there had been a part about calling upon the Dragon’s Flames, something I wasn’t yet ready to even test, simply because of the Powers involved. My eyes began fluttering as I felt the minute changes settle over my body, while yet another set of blue boxes appeared, telling me that I had gained traits.

Trait gained You gained a Trait: Nimble For having fifteen Agility at your level, you gained a fitting trait. The Nimble-trait increases your sense of balance and makes it easier for you to dodge attacks or move silently. Special Ability gained You gained a Special Ability: Rune Projection For having 20 Intelligence at your level you gained a fitting abillity. The ability Rune Projection allows you to instantly project a runes into a Formation, without drawing it. The Astral Power Cost to project a rune is double it's normal cost. The amount of runes depends on your Intelligence. Instantly projectable runes: 1

One was familiar, the other not so much, but that might just be my memory. If I had such a trait in Road to Purgatory, its passive nature had simply been too mundane to burn itself into my memory.