It was fascinating, just how good Lia was at running interference. Not only did she manage to keep Kira from disturbing my rest, she made sure that nobody did. While I had woken up during their conversation, I had remained in a dozing state, not quite awake but also not fully asleep. It was a state I had plenty of experience in, though mostly from my time on Mundus, when Sigmir and I had slept together and I lingered in her arms, enjoying the warm, comfortable embrace. Even now, I could feel the sensation of her arms wrapped around me, evoking fond memories and bittersweet dreams. My mountain, the place where I could lay down my head and rest, it was so infinitely far away and yet, I could almost feel it next to me, calling for me. How I missed her.

A plate of food was what actually pulled me from my daydreaming memories, the scent of a fresh, home-cooked meal simply too strong to resist. Lia had managed to talk Kira into bringing down some food, allowing us to eat in peace. From what I had overheard, Lia had convinced Kira that she, Lia, didn’t want to attract too much attention, at least not until it was clear if her healing had been a fluke miracle or something reproducible. If it was the first, nobody needed to know that one Shattered had been healed, if it was the second, we’d have to be incredibly cautious.

The topic of Lia’s creation was what we discussed while eating. Mainly, I was giving Lia background information on the current state of the world and the events of the last few days. Given that she had gone from her ordinary student life into this basement, with only some scant information I had given her before going to sleep, it was a minor miracle that she had managed to set things up as well as she had.

Either way, plans would have to be put in motion, some ideas accelerated and others discarded.

Once I finished my food, another topic came up. Namely, how to feed Lia. she wasn’t human any longer, and while we didn’t plan to introduce her as a vampire, her needs had changed. Food was still necessary for her, her body needed those basic building blocks to work, but she also needed blood. Or rather, she needed Astral Power and the only way to replenish that was by taking in blood, at least that was what her character-screen implied. It had come up during our discussion of her traits and special abilities, some of which were incredibly powerful, while others were restrictive to the extreme.

To both of us, it was obvious that simply preying on the local humans would be out. Partially because it would weaken an already threatened community but also because it would harm our standing. If we wanted to remain in the vicinity, if I wanted to keep working with the local spellcasters, we needed that standing. I couldn’t be seen as a predator, not after the levels I had gained by creating Lia. As amusing as it was, with those five levels, I was likely over-levelled to the point that nothing out there would give EXP if I hunted it down. Just too weak.

Simply waiting and working on my skills was an option but not one I wanted to take. I wanted to keep gaining more levels, I wanted to keep getting more powerful and for that, I apparently needed to teach, or create or however the system distributed EXP. The message I had received after Lia’s creation hadn’t mentioned a fixed value of EXP I had received, but five levels. It was possible that the amount of EXP distributed that way wasn’t dependent on the level of the person doing the teaching but was defined as a percentage of a level. If that conclusion was true, a feat that was rewarded with five levels at level twenty would reward the same five levels at level five hundred. Only that the threshold to qualify as a ‘miraculous feat of creation’ was likely far higher for a higher level.

Sadly, there was no manual to read, and certainly no customer support to ask, unless I was willing to try calling the celestial customer support, or however people called their prayers now. Maybe summoning demons worked, there were legends that they answered questions if the right deal was struck. And they shared quite a few characteristics with customer service people or HR. Lawyers, too.

Who knew what legends were actually true, or at least somewhat connected to the system, and what were just tales of old. Not that I was about to summon some demon, or pray to some god to receive answers. No, I wanted to understand the world on my own, by testing and experimenting to see what worked. If I were just handed all the answers, I would soon become terribly bored and likely go look for new challenges. And at that point, a dwelling far from any other habitation would become necessary.

But sadly, when it came to understanding the reward structure, I was running into a bit of a problem, namely a lack of consistency. Teaching Lia magic, mainly Darkness Magic to block Identify hadn’t rewarded me any EXP at all, despite the effort on my side and the rewards on her side easily outstripping the efforts I had made to teach the students at the Gym and Lia’s results were quite impressive. She wasn’t able to consistently manage to block Observe, but she was getting there, especially once I put together a pure darkness spell to do just that. I was another of those simple spells, using a gesture and a hissed word to activate, making me far more interested in that class feature than I had ever been before.

Before, I had managed to strip the drawing of the needed runes from the casting of a spell, and while the mechanics still didn’t allow the spell to be cast while moving, it was a step in that direction. If I managed to accomplish a similar feat, or somehow managed to create spells that could be cast on the move, it would be a major feat, not only for me but also for my students. Sure, such spells would likely be far less efficient but there was always a tradeoff, just like my ability to instantly project runes had such a trade-off.

The last thing I did before Lia and I headed up to meet with the rest of the people here and converse with those I had been sent to find was put four points into my Intelligence Attribute, bringing it to twenty-five, catching that major milestone. The last free point was added to Intuition, hopefully allowing me to catch the twenty-five once I reached level thirty and got another boost from the Dragon-Touched trait. Which might just have some connection to the Titanic Ambition Trait, now that I thought about it, that one had mentioned Draconic Desires.

The moment I mentally pulled that lever and distributed the points, a blue box popped open, informing me that I had gained a trait.

Trait gained You gained the trait: Arcane Adept For having an Intelligence of 25 at your level, you gained a fitting trait. Your quest on the Arcane Path is not limited to the Elements and Magics you have an affinity for, instead your drive to learn and explore is boundless. Your affinity with all Magic is increased.

Just reading the blue box stunned me for a moment. It was, quite frankly, insane, or it had the potential to be. As so often, it depended on the fine print, which was sadly so fine that it wasn’t even there. Though, even if it was only a small boost, it was universal and thus, incredible. Closing my eyes, I tugged on the darkness around me, curious if I could feel the difference immediately.

At first, I wasn’t able to tell if there was a difference. The Shadows around me heeded my demands, just like they always had. It might have taken a little less power, but without extensive testing, I doubted I would be able to tell.

Curious, I decided to test it with my newly discovered Wind Magic. Sure, I knew less about the skill but I had far less affinity to begin with, hopefully making an improvement more obvious.

Gently tugging at the air around me, I immediately felt the difference. The wind was more responsive and it took far less effort for a minor breeze to spring up. A quick thought stilled the wind, returning the cellar to its previous quiet as I became even more curious. Would I be able to learn Earth, maybe even Fire magic?

The mere thought of wielding fire immediately disgusted me, but at the same time, a part of me wondered. Just how would it feel to dominate Fire, to make the very flames that might burn me one day my proverbial bitch? Somehow, that felt far less repugnant to me.