If there was one thing I had to say about the Withered, it was that they were consistent and persistent. For almost two weeks, we had been venturing into Racoon City, killing more of them each day, gaining EXP and quite a few skill levels as we went and their response to our attacks didn’t change. Sure, they increased the number of Hunters sent after us on some days but most of the time, they just sent enough to drive us away.

It was that consistent response that had started to make me worry if our attacks actually did anything or if we were just wasting our time. Sure, we gained levels, but what if their response was designed to keep us doing as we did, occupied and not trying to figure out what was actually going on?

It was a startling realisation that, while the Withered didn’t change their way, we hadn’t really changed what we were doing, either. We might mix up the details, the area we attacked, the paths we took and even the method of attack but overall, we ventured into the outskirts of their territory, killed one or two Skulkers or a few Husks, killed the Hunters coming after us in response and retreated.

We needed to change things up on our end, we needed to find out what the Withered actually were, what they were doing and if there was a need to interfere more in their operations. If not, we could continue to grind them down, killing them night after night, and gaining EXP that way. At the end of the night, the EXP we gained were quite plentiful, far better than anything other than the Dungeon.

In the time we had been killing them, I had levelled multiple times, and had reached level forty-three, gaining another boost from my Dragon Touched Trait. That, plus the attribute points I had saved up were enough to let me push either Intelligence or Intuition to thirty, forcing me to pick between the two. I had decided to pick Intelligence, gaining a useful special ability and another powerful trait.

The special ability wasn’t flashy, at least not when compared to some of the other abilities I had gained before The Rune Heptagon Ability did nothing but allow me to link seven runes into a formation but that simple-sounding ability opened up a host of other options. I had used it on Mundus and I would happily use it here.

The trait, on the other hand, was one that needed a lot of explanation, or maybe exploration. On its face, the Magical Interference Trait merely told me that it allowed me to use my Astral Power to interact with all forms of magic in my vicinity. It sounded rather grand, though the only use I had managed to find for it so far was that it allowed me to use Mind Magic to scramble the communication of the Withered. Given that doing so caused a massive, and massively hostile, response from the Withered, I hadn’t experimented with it. Just the one time had been enough, the sensation of feeling hundreds, maybe thousands, of psychic signatures all coming for me was not one I enjoyed.

But the constant killing hadn’t just improved my level, my other skills had gained as well, especially now that I had the Zevarra Agha at my disposal, something I could study during my downtime. Sure, casting spells directly from it didn’t improve my skills, but studying those spells, experimenting with the concepts involved and trying to cast them without the book? That certainly improved my abilities.

And the improvement showed, my skills went up across the board. What I considered my Core Skills, Ice, Blood and Darkness Magic and their respective Runic Masteries all went up by a point or three, mostly thanks to repeated usage. Experimenting with them was fun but I focused on the other skills. Ice Magic reached level thirty-three, Darkness Magic reached level thirty-one and Blood Magic got to level twenty-seven. Similarly, Ice Rune Mastery got to level thirty-two, Blood Rune Mastery to twenty-eight while Darkness Rune Mastery reached level thirty-one and I managed to learn the Curse-Rune, allowing me to weave my magic into lasting maledictions that I could set on my foes. An interesting concept, with a wide variety of use. Not only could I use it to harm my foes, I could also use the concept to dispel curses from others. The curious part was that I could stretch the meaning of a Curse quite a bit, to the point that it affected a large swathe of magical effects. Sure, the efficiency went down the further I stretched things, but that only meant I needed more power to achieve an effect, not that I couldn’t do something.

My more obscure magical skills also benefited especially my Mind Magic. Despite being very careful not to focus on the offensive potential of the skill, just being within the area of influence of a whole host of psychic creatures, the skill had gone up by a lot, a whole six points, reaching level thirty-three. Astral Meditation didn’t benefit as much, I continued to delve into the Astral but it only went up to level thirty-one. Maybe I had been reading a little too much, though, given the advances in other skills, I wouldn’t complain.

Sadly, Death Magic was not one of those skills. It remained stubborn and difficult to use, trying to channel it continued to hurt. Despite my wish to learn it, I only managed to gain a single skill point, bringing it to level nine. By this point, I decided to focus on other things, simply because it didn’t feel like Death Magic was worth it. Sure, it was an incredibly powerful skill but only if one could wield it. As it was, I would most likely kill myself before I managed to master it. Maybe that would change at some point, but for now, I had better things to spend my efforts on.

Namely, the other elements, their runic masteries and what I could do to combine them. Water Magic reached level thirteen, and its Runic Mastery got to level fourteen, possibly thanks to my attempts to recreate the Water Mirror I had based my original shadow scrying on. Sadly, I hadn’t managed but it was a work in progress.

Wind Magic got a bigger boost, reaching level fifteen, its Runic Mastery level eleven, allowing me to learn a new rune. Namely, the Sound Rune, an interesting, and weirdly fitting, one as I had primarily used Wind Magic to help with my concealment. Scent and Sound, both could be considered elements of the Wind.

However, as much use as I got out of Wind Magic during our nightly battles, Fire and Earth Magic hadn’t advanced far enough to make me use them in battle. Thus, they were relegated to experimentation, though even that showed interesting progress. Earth Magic was bumped up to level nine, its Runic Mastery advanced to level seven, which I considered good progress. My Fire Magic achieved a similar growth, despite my discomfort with the element. It got to level seven, too, while the Runic Mastery reached level five.

But ultimately, the biggest advance wasn’t in my already established skills but in my attempts to gain new ones. First, I managed to recreate the phenomenon of Wind Magic striking sparks with itself by introducing Fire Magic into the mix. I shocked myself a few times, mostly when the conjured lightning grounded itself randomly, but I managed to gain the Lightning Magic skill, not that I had managed to do a lot with it. Maybe if I combined it with Water Magic, to give it a medium to travel through, or if I could use Wind Magic to create a guiding tunnel or something along those lines. For now, it wasn’t useful but I would get there. Eventually.

The second new skill was a slightly unexpected one, gained by experimenting with Earth, Fire and Ice Magic, each bringing its own part to the table. Using Earth as the base, Fire to refine and Ice to give it structure, I managed to gain the Crystal Magic skill. It might be somewhat derivative of Ice Magic, or maybe Ice Magic was partially contained with Crystal Magic, but there were some similarities between the skills. Not enough to allow for a direct transference of ability from one to the other but enough to give me a bit of innate understanding of Crystal Magic. Curiously, it seemed that metals were considered Crystals in this paradigm, though controlling them was difficult, let alone conjuring or changing them. Metals generally weren’t malleable, even when magic was introduced. Or maybe especially when magic was introduced.

I had been trying to turn the blades I had taken from my home, right after the change, into something useful but so far, I hadn’t really succeeded. I could control them with my magic, but it was sluggish, a far cry from the nimble grace I could achieve when wielding my Frozen Shuttle with my Ice Magic. But it was progress, opening up avenues I hadn’t considered before. Lots of avenues, given just how important metal and metal products were, to say nothing about the potential esoteric uses of crystals. But that was something I had to explore at a later date, for now, Lia and I wanted to head deeper into Racoon City.