Water dripped down creating a chill touch that ran down my cheek like the finger of the dead checking to see if I was alive. My eyes shot open, and I looked up, seeing cracks in ancient wood show the sky above. It was full of silver and amethyst clouds, with three orbiting suns circling overhead, poking into view beyond the clouds.

My head felt foggy, and I pulled myself up, seeing I was sleeping in a layer of mist that looked like my bed. The whole scene felt off as I looked around, seeing a derelict library. Fallen bookshelves, books that had rotted into nothingness and wet sand. A lot of sand. There were other beds in little nooks, with translucent forms resting under shadows that clung to them like mist.

“What fresh nightmare is this?” I asked. My voice felt muted, and rolled off my tongue, creating physical letters that floated to the ground, staining the floor with black ink. “This better be a dream.”

I kicked out of the mist bed, seeing my feet were not normal. They were giant paws, I looked down at my body to see it was covered in fur. More shocking was the fact I was in a woman's body. I looked at my hands, or well, paws and poked at my chest. The loose shirt bounced as the big, soft handfuls jiggled side to side. I smirked and poked at my belly, feeling a wall of hardened flesh.

My amusement was cut short as I heard a dry skittering noise. This new body reacted on its own, my head snapping in the direction of a door barely hanging on its hinges. The outline of the door frame melded into the stone, making it impossible to tell where stone or wood started. From the gaps around the door the skittering sound grew, turning into a torrent of moving legs as hundreds of bugs poured into the room. The tiny bugs swarmed towards me, and I felt my heart leap into my throat as I fell out of the bed and ran. The other beds vanished as others ran to join me as we sprinted down the long sand covered hall. In the shade it was hard to make them out until one bound up beside me.

The head of this person was akin to that of a hyena, with a black nose at the end of their muzzle, and a shaggy mane of hair. Their whole body was covered in fur, layers of cloth armour and patches of metal clipped to their gear. They looked up at me and I felt a swelling of pride, of loyalty and kinship. Their mouth then opened to reveal some rather sharp fangs. “Faster! If they catch us I will throw myself at them. The pack must survive!”

The room grew dark as bugs fell from the cracks in the roof, one of them landing on my cheek. I slapped it and looked at the cracked black paw pad seeing the bug twitch. It was an earwig.

I gagged and flailed my hand, accidentally slapping the hyena guy beside me on the back, pushing him ahead of me slightly. He used the momentum to pull up his shield and shout, or more so bark, out a quick phrase I couldn’t understand.

The hyena man shot ahead at a blistering speed, fire igniting wherever he stepped, and an aura of heat surrounded him. The book shelves burned, the mouldy, damp books igniting soon after. The bugs burned, and popped like kernels of corn adding more mayhem to the mix.

“Aura of absorption!” a diminutive, thin female hyena person ran up beside me, clutching a talisman of bone, antler and silver wire. A pulse of magic surrounded the handful of hyena people following me, and the fire no longer hurt. “I-I can hold it for now chief!”

The shield charger ran into a wall and cracked his head off the stonework, knocking himself down. I felt drawn to him, and I pushed hard, feeling the massive, long legs under me propel me like an olympian. One of the burning bookshelves fell, and I effortlessly slid under it, and when a beam snapped off the roof I felt my arm move on its own, slinging a heavy headed axe at it. The axe hit with tremendous force, and the runes on the side flared up, blasting it apart with thunder magic before it teleported back to my hand.

The bugs descended on the downed party member, surrounding him like a wave of black sea water, swallowing him up. I plunged a hand into the horrible pile and felt his arm. With easy effort I pulled him out, slung him over my shoulder and ran with the rest of the pack.

What the hell was my strength? I pulled up the character sheet, seeing it fade in and out of existence. The border, the font of the text and how the tabs were all set up were way different, but at least I could see the stats screen.

Strength 19

Con 16

Dex 13

Int 8

Will 14

Chr 11

Damn, the girl must have hit the gym a lot.

The hallway opened up to a courtyard open to the sky. The sandy dunes were sprinkled with rain, and between them were four towering obelisks of pitch black stone with white chalk runes that glowed with inner light. Suspended between them was a swirling ball of pure magical energy that made my fur stand on end, and orbiting around the ball between the obelisks were huge stone discs, kissing the sand below. When the stone disk ground against the sand it was kicked up and pulled into the ball, vanishing from sight.

“The portal is unstable, we don’t know where it will lead!” the hyena holding the talisman said. She stumbled, blood dripping from the corners of her eyes. “Go on-”

I just slung her over my other shoulder. A bark escaped my lips, and a voice not my own came out. “Faster you mutts! We are all getting out of here!”

With the last drips of adrenaline the pack ran into the ball of light, getting thrown out on the other side. A weakened, crumbling stone wall appeared, but the momentum was too great and I ran face first into it, and shattered it. Cold air ruffled the fur on my face and I saw we were going straight over a cliff. Spells were thrown around, shouts came out, and my hands pulled out a coin with feathers stamped into the sky. Our fall slowed down, but we still bounced off the rocks, slid down the cliff side and rolled until we came to a heap at the bottom. We were bruised, battered, and I heard someone pop their shoulder back into the sockets.

Snow under us had cushioned our arrival and I looked up the cliff side. Past the heavy snowfall I saw a set of walls, with brass capped domes. It was a damaged fortress on the mountain.

They were at the four keeper dungeon.

The tower they had teleported to crumbled to the side, and the hyena pack laughed to themselves, pumping their fists into the air, and hugging each other. Their celebrations came to a halt when one of them pointed up. I followed their claws to see four towering figures at the edge of the cliff face, and bugs spilling over the cliff.

Tension filled my jaw. “Run.”

…

I woke up, again, and looked at my hands. They were my human hands, and I pulled the covers down to see my bare chest, with regular human chest hair, not a bunch of fluff.

“What the hell…hey Livy, you around?” I asked.

Scholar Livy

You didn’t pause our watching, something I would like to remind you to do when you use the restroom or bathe. But, what troubles you student? You seem tense.

After filling Livy in I saw a few entries start to appear. The hyena people were like me, realm travellers from another world. They were fairly rare around Ewyerner and their race name wasn’t recorded with definite proof. It started with a Yip- sound so people had taken to calling them Yippers.

Their entry listed them as hunters with a strong family identity. People were very pleased with the close kinship they had should they become a friend of the Yippers. Small towns liked them too since they loved to fight powerful monsters and would give them supplies in exchange for culling the numbers of problematic creatures around their areas.

Scholar Livy

How strange this vision invaded your dream. You recorded there was a shrine of Icharn at this location, did you have something from it? Scholar Bo’s best guess is that the magical explosion from the portal overwhelmed it, and only now that you are in the region this ‘memory’ came to you.

I rolled out of bed, flopping onto the floor. After getting properly dressed I poked around my office. With the various trinkets and weapons I found the necklace I had gained after I fought the dream vampire doll girl. It felt warm in my hand, and the faint scent of ozone came from it.

“Weird. I hope they're okay, those guys with the bugs were unsettling,” I said, shivering. “Uh, I hate bugs.”

Scholar Terrive

Come on now! Moths are really cool!

I put the necklace back in the little box I had for it. “Fine, but only the big ones or the ones that are super fluffy.”

My feet wandered to the kitchen where I found the chef minion whipping up some sandwiches for a couple of minions taking a break. Something was bubbling in a huge pot on the stove for lunch, and it smelled great, but it must not have been ready yet. Seeing me he made one more sandwich and slid it towards me on a plate.

I ate in silence, still feeling unsettled from the dream vision. The minions’ work was still underway, but it was going extremely well. They just needed a little more time around the mine area to hide the dungeon, while still leaving some caves and a path to the goblin tower open to the villagers. I was bound to get more questions from the other leaders, and I needed to show them at some point like I promised.

I checked my own personal progress and dropped my sandwich.

Current Experience : 5250 / 3900

You have experience waiting at a nearby quest location!

-Shrine of Ishaka

The joy was still undercut by the unsettling feeling. I needed to follow up on that lead that wolf-kin had mentioned. Maybe that thing he saw in the forest was one of the hyena people. If those bug things were still chasing them then I needed more power.

The smell of hot food brought more wandering feet in, with Sten and Bent arriving in good spirits. Slung over their shoulders were towels, and each of them had a sweatband on their forehead, with Sten having three more to keep his beard in check. The chef made more sandwiches and a helper minion fetched everyone a drink.

“Morning boss,” Bent said. He accepted his personal giant mug, and took a big sip. “Ah, that’s better.”

“Morning. Do either of you know where Rolada is?” I asked.

Sten sat down with a gruff grunt in his seat. “Up top with the villagers. They were playing a game in the streets so instead of jogging with fresh air we hit the gym. Are you alright? You're as pale as an underearth watcher, looks like you’ve seen a ghoul crawling on the mine walls.”

“Just restless. Actually would you two like to help me? One of the villagers saw a creature outside the walls and I wanted to make sure the nearby woods are safe,” I said.

Sten lifted his mug towards me, and I caught a hint of his smile beneath his big dark beard. “You're asking a dwarf if he wants to get caught up in a possible brawl. Of course.”

Bent balled up his huge hand into an equally big fist. “Ready to go boss man.”

I downed the juice in my mug and shook my head. “Sorry, I got a few errands first. I need to look at the shrine, find the trainers and level up first.”

Sten downed his mug and tossed it aside, much to the annoyance of one of the drones wiping the walls. “We will meet you up top. We get to stretch our legs after all, eh Bent?”

Bent grunted and touched the scars on his arms. “Making the woods safe sounds good to me, we need to keep the little ones safe. Let me get some lunch and my new coat on.”

I went to the kitchen to get some of our travel rations, along with some water. As I rummaged around the storage larder I shouted over my shoulder what the other two wanted. Bent and Sten weren’t fussy, and I rooted through the nearest bin for jerky.

The chef minion rounded the corner with a scowl. He held a wooden spoon like a weapon, but seeing me he put it down and rolled up his sleeves, moving in to help.

I stepped back with a few wrapped packages of salted cheese from a barrel we got from Rodney, a bag of boar jerky, and dried fruits. Recovered from the goblin tower was a handful of dented water canteens that I filled up with fresh water, and one wine bottle, suggested by Sten. I wrapped them in a cloth, or some strips of burlap before sticking them into my magical satchel.

The item list appeared in my vision over the bag, listing the plethora of items inside, and a warning telling me between my spare equipment, camping gear, spare clothes and now foodstuff I was getting close to the limit.

“Merp!” The chef minion tugged on my sleeve and brought me to the stove. He jumped up on a stool and pulled a cover off the pot he was working with. Inside was a bubbling mass of oil or fat, and dough balls. He took one out with his wooden spoon, sprinkled salt and sugar made from our crops over it, then put it on a plate for me. “Yum.”

I blew on it to cool it off and nibbled on it. The inside was packed with salted meat and vegetables. The savoury salt and sweet sugar made it delightful, and the hot food warmed up my core too. “These are good.” I took another bite, and waved my hand over my mouth. “Very hot too. Can I get some of these for the road?”

The chef minion gave me four thumbs up and pulled out the rest from the pot before throwing more uncooked ones inside. He sent me off with the bundle and I headed down to the shrine, hearing the dwarf and ogre crowd the kitchen as they told the chef what they wanted in theirs.

I had one more stop before heading out, the shrine. I poked my head in to find Yara kicking back in a stool beside the altar, reading a book labelled ‘The Princess and the Dragon’.

I knocked on the frame. “Hey Yara-”

Yara threw the book across the room, making it vanish from sight. She was looking extra red today, and she put an elbow on the altar, leaning heavily into it. She smiled and spoke with a very casual tone. “How can the priestess of Ishaka help you today Josh?”

I pointed at the altar. “I’m getting Rolada and Elkan so they can use their teaching talents to help me level up. Could I grab those quest rewards out of the shrine?”

Yara stood up and looked at the altar. “Just a second. I think I might have accidentally lumped yours in with the other rewards I can hand out.”

Yara tapped the air, and looked at the altar. “About six hundred experience, six skill points, and a boon of calmness. The rest is locked up and I have to give people quests to touch it.”

Scholar Bo

The boon of calmness is for stress relief, and provides a positive aura around you, giving you a bonus to friendly charisma skills, like persuasion. It might be a good idea to hold onto it until you have to do public speaking.

“I’ll take the experience and four skill points,” I said while entering the room and found her book. The cover was plain red with black text. I opened up the book to its first page which showed an illustration of a magnificent dragon coiling around a tower with a princess clutching a sword and staff in the window. “Looks fun, I might take a read of it later.”

Yara’s hand touched the altar and she pulled away a golden ball of translucent light, offering it out to me. My finger touched the ball and I felt euphoric, light footed and graceful. I felt powerful, the magic in my veins aligning with my soul, lifting me an inch into the air. The gold light washed around me, taking the shape of a translucent woman hugging me from behind, and ruffling my hair before vanishing, leaving sparkles of light to fall on the ground.

“Damn it!” Yara thrust her hands towards the floor with a ‘what is this’ pose. “Why is there glitter everywhere?”

The floor and my shoes were coated in a thin dusting of gold and silver powder. I levitated back down and the sensations vanished. It was nice while it lasted.

Gift from Ishaka’s altar.

+650 Experience

+4 Skill points

“Why don’t you take the other two, and get yourself something nice? If you need one of the extra ones we can talk about it, and make up a quest,” I said.

The smokey ring appeared and I could feel Yara was tense. Feeling inspired I gave her a hug, and at first she was hesitant, but returned the gesture. The hug was brief and when we separated I gave her a pat on the back.

Yara’s eyes lit up and she nodded. “I have a few, but for now I think it would be this one.”

Bountiful Healer’s Touch

Requires 3 skill points (reduced from 6)

Your cure spells are empowered. You heal 25% more health, and mend flesh, rejuvenate blood and knit bones together faster, and with more efficiency.

At the dawn of each day you receive 3 healer charges, these charges can be used in place of mana points for any cure spell.

There was a grey box under it and it listed more requirements before taking the talent. Of course it required a spellcasting class, access to a type that could heal, and at least one cure spell before taking it. It was also very expensive usually, but seeing how magic healing had saved all of our asses at some point I was very willing to invest.

I gave her a friendly nudge, and nodded with approval. “Take it. It’s useful and -”

“Or this one,” Yara said, her smile starting to show, and her hands shaking with excitement.

Malicious Devastator

Requires 7 skill points (reduced from 9)

…

Following it was a dense block of text, and only having woken up I waved it off, logging it for later.

I stepped away giving her space, more so for my sake. If I could I would have sat down and looked over every option, but I wanted to get my own strengths bolstered before heading out. Yara wasn’t really paying attention to me, looking at her own character sheet. “Have fun.”

An impossibly strong grip held my shoulder, and Yara slid into view, her magenta eyes critical of me. “Not even going to offer one of these?” Yara plucked a fried dough ball out of my pack and chomped down on it. “Where did you get this?”

“Kitchen.” I gave her a playful nudge. “Better go before Sten and Bent get the rest.”

Yara let go and went upstairs with me, breaking off for snacks while I headed up top. Rolada was easy enough to find outside as I followed her voice. She was in the heart of the town watching two teams of villagers kicking a misshapen ball back and forth, trying to kick them into overturned buckets.

“Kick his ass! Show them why beast-kin are the best on the field!” Rolada shouted at the wolf-kin lining up a kick. I saw her finger’s sparkle and her tail tip turn reddish pink from white.

Knowledge Arcane : Success!

+1 XP gained.

Bardic magic can take many forms, from song, to chants, even a mere dance. This natural magic they can exude inspires the one in their sights, granting them a boon to a skill check, an attack or a chance to turn fate and evade a deadly attack.

With a sharp eye such effects can be noticed.

The boots on the wolf-kin’s feet looked like they had a glimmer of pink around his sole when he kicked the ball. The sparkles died down once he made contact and the ball shot forward, curving in a perfect arc, slamming in the bucket and knocking it end over end.

I joined in on the applause, waiting to see what Rolada would do. Her fox ears vanished under her hood as she went to sneak away running right into my chest. “Hi Josh, watching the game too?”

I raised my eyebrow, and eyed the bucket. “It was a magical experience for sure.”

Rolada coughed into her fist. “Oh was it?”

The handful of villagers separated and I showed Rolada the bundle of dough balls. I mentioned needing Elkan and her for levelling up and for a heartbeat I thought I saw worry in her eyes. I brushed it off as she was embarrassed for being caught using magic to cheat, and she led me to one of the better houses in the town that had a short fence around it.

In the shade of one of the defensive towers was one large house the minions had tried their hand at doing something different. It was two and half stories, with an attic, and a balcony. The roof was gently sloped, and was collecting snow around the edges. I was curious why they did it, until I saw that the easier slope was in line with one of the tower’s wide view ports. Someone who could jump fairly high could get up or down in a hurry.

“Well look at that,” I said with a smile. I gauged the distance and figured with my wizard shoes it was within my range. “Pretty neat.”

Within the fenced area were misshapen pots with frozen dirt for a future garden that had a swept walkway. The place outside looked clean, with two tone walls of bright white, and dark wooden beams, with a foundation of solid stone. The steps going up led to a porch with a swinging bench to watch the horizon.

Rolada folded her arms and frowned. “They took some advice from Lin and I, making us a little town house. We used it as our little getaway to gossip, even brought up some furniture. It looks like someone has been poking around, figures.”

I stepped back and looked at the sides, seeing the house was built fairly similarly to the other houses dotting the area. Unless you were facing the house you wouldn’t see it was different, except for the attic making it just a touch taller. I led the way and knocked on the door, hearing a call from within. Inside was a coat room, and beyond that was a stately hall with a big dark staircase leading up the second floor. Branching off it was a bare kitchen and dining room, and on the other side was a sitting room.

I poked my head into the sitting room seeing Elkan reading a book by a fire. The hearth had a pot over the flames, cooking some kind of stew up. A dozen wine bottles were tossed into a wastebasket in the corner, and I pointed at it.

“Having a party without me?” I asked.

Eklan snorted, and put his book down on a low table. “Those were here before we got here. I hope it's okay if I borrow this one for now. It’s out of the way, and quiet. ”

Rolada groaned and took the fried dough ball bag from me, heading for the seat across from Elkan. I grabbed a larger, more cushioned chair from the wall by the window, sitting between them. Rolada opened the cloth, revealing the fried dough balls now at a much more comfortable temperature to eat. I called up my character sheet again, finger poised.

Current Experience : 5901 / 3900

Would you like to level up?

Yes / No

“So how does this work with you too?” I asked before stuffing my face again.

Elkan wiped his beard on his sleeve and held up a dough ball. “You see normally when you level up Ewyernar’s little watchers give you the options based on what you have done, trained for, or learned from study. When someone with a training talent is nearby we give you a few more options, some we might not even have ourselves, depending on the talent rank.”

Rolada nodded enthusiastically. “I managed to research a whole bunch before you guys got back, and just barely managed to pick it up. I got one for magical teaching, because even though you're a wizard and I’m a scholar bard, our arcane magic is slightly different. Now I can still help you.”

I hit yes, and was flooded with so many options my eyes watered. I brushed past it and pumped my fist in the air seeing I had over nine skill points to work with right now. “Hell yah.”

At the top was a new tab, called class specialization. When I opened it I had the option to rename my class from Battlemage to something else, take on another class or tweak mine with a bunch of sliders. It listed a ton of things to improve on, from martial talents, magic, crafting, social skills and more. I scoured through it, and didn’t see anything keeper related, but I sent it to Rolada first.

“Oh, Josh got the option to multiclass or branch off,” Rolada said. “Damn, you beat me there too. I know Lin got that recently, but she’s staying the course. Also wow these are tasty, we need to have these again.”

Elkan chuckled into his beard, and raised his big eyebrows. “That hogwash? Too many folk try to be everything all at once at fail. Listen lad if you like where things have been going stick with it. If you wanted to branch out to be more charismatic, or better at weaving baskets you could. Try it out, but don’t make any changes yet.”

I touched the magical talents slide, making it higher, causing everything to go down a hair. My talent list appeared, showing I could purchase the next step in spellcasting for tier 3, getting magic at the level of fireball. When I returned it to normal it vanished, meaning I would have to wait until the next level. The fireball ring felt heavier in my pocket, I still could have the power, it would just be a little reduced until I got to that tier of magic myself.

“I see. I have slid more towards physical combat, and other stuff,” I said.

When I brought it back down to normal I had a set of ‘spellblade’ talents appear.

-Requires 1 additional martial talent

Elemental Weapon Exchange

Requires 3 skill points

Your ability to weave might and magic has reached new heights, even from the lowliest of spells. In battle you become a conduit of magic, dealing devastating damage both up close and afar.

After casting a spell that deals elemental damage a weapon in your possession gains an elemental charge for 1 minute. This charge deals elemental damage equal to half your spell casting level, plus 1 on your next strike. After dealing damage to a creature or object the effect vanishes.

-This is a passive effect and can be toggled on or off.

It looked simple and effective, it even worked off my tier zero spells. I checked the fine print under it to see more good news. It only picked up wasted potential mana, so it wouldn’t harm my spells, and it even reduced mana blight a tiny bit. But what was better was there was a follow up talent.

Bestowed Elemental Weapon Exchange

Requires 2 skill points

Your ‘Elemental Weapon Exchange’ talent now affects nearby friendly creatures at a moderate distance. This buff applies to an amount of creatures based on your spellcasting attribute, if they remain within your range.

(Currently affects up to 6 other creatures.)

“Whoa, hold on a second,” I said, sitting up fast, spilling some of the filling onto the table. “I think I got something here.” Elkan leaned in, and Rolada tilted her head in curiosity. “I easily get off half a dozen spells in a big fight, and while on my own that’s not a lot of damage that's a lot different with the team.”

Elkan put his fist down, looking at me sternly. “Get it. It might sound small, but it can make a humble farmer's pitchfork a deadly weapon. The old iron might get turned, but that magical fire or ice will blast a regular wooden shield apart, or pierce normal armour.”

Rolada’s wide grin sprung out on her face and she laughed. “I know where this is from. There was a little wizard cat granny that never carried a weapon. She helped out people from troubles, slinging snowballs to trip baddies up. Too many got close for comfort so she made this talent, so if one got in her face they got a blast of ice to go along with their concussion from her frying pan.”

“Let’s see what’s new for martial powers,” I said.

Defensive Swordsman I

Requires 3 skill points

Your ability to deflect incoming blows grows. While holding a bladed sword-type of weapon you can enter a defensive stance and expend stamina to grant you increased ability to parry attacks, and even slice arrows out of the air. Each time you will make a skill check using your blade skill, gaining reduced effect each time this talent is used in quick succession.

It was the newest talent to pop up, and while it sounded pretty good the fine print was brutal. It had to be activated, creating a constant stamina drain as long as I was in the stance. It was good when you were facing a more skilled opponent, essentially doubling up your skill level as a defensive bonus. But then you were facing a more skilled opponent, now exhausted after only blocking. Maybe the following levels made it way better.

I had a list of options that must have come from Elkan. Most of them were axe and hammer focused, talents to improve wearing heavy armour, and using shields with all kinds of new abilities. There was even one for mounted combat, all very interesting, all very not me. In his list was one set for going down a path of becoming a master of a single weapon type, improving accuracy and damage, but I wanted to remain flexible for now. In fact I wanted some practice with that new bow.

I dug into the talents, finding a few I had from before, bringing up the one that was looking good.

Martial Momentum - Rank 1

Requires 2 skill points

After landing a melee attack on an opponent you gain a minor buff to your strength and dexterity. Landing additional attacks further improves your strength and dexterity until reaching a maximum. Once fully stacked this buff duration lasts for an amount of minutes equal to this talent's rank.

Maximum boost to Strength and Dexterity : +2

“What do you think of this one?” I asked. “I can either double down with my lesser mark spell, or use it on something else while still having this.”

Elkan sent a request for it. “Ha! You don’t even need this old dwarf. Looks like a fine one to me. I think it's from Avvatari, they are famous for their light skirmishers that fight hard and fast before breaking off.”

Lastly I had one interesting option, coming from Ishaka’s shrine.

Profane Gift - Calling a devil muse

Requires 1 skill point

With a smile rising to his eyes, and face full of grit he strode into that devil’s lair, armed only with his wit. He said to the goddess, “hey now, don’t you touch that fret. I have a need to accomplish, and can prove it from this writ. I ask that you let me play the lyre better than any liar. Then you can name your cost on my head.”

Gain 5 skill ranks to one untrained skill or tool, such as an instrument. Within 1 year Ishaka can summon you at any time to her court to perform with this skill to ensure you have trained, and improved with it.

It reminded me of a fun tune from back home, about a devil playing the fiddle for a young man’s soul. The rest of my current talents were the same as before, or small five percent improvements that were not very efficient. I had one that might have been a keeper talent that was hidden, but I left it, just in case Elkan might see. I reached out to touch my new talents, leaving me with two for a rainy day.

Martial Momentum - Rank 1 added!

Elemental Weapon Exchange added!

Bestowed Elemental Weapon Exchange added!

I clenched my hands feeling new power fill my veins. The connections of magic rose up to my fingertips, and a new found wave to weave power into objects came to me as an instinct. My hands could impart power to things I held, and on my forearm a tattoo appeared before vanishing from sight. I narrowed my gaze, seeing the magical lines in my arms, and there I saw a coat of arms appear in grey ink. A sword crossed with a spear, with flames around the spear head, while ice and snow danced around the sword. When I touched my arm I could see they weren’t really there. It did bring up a menu letting me change the weapons on it for aesthetic purposes.

I plucked the last fried dough ball off the table, and tossed it up, catching it. “Thanks for the help you two, I think things are starting to get a bit more interesting.”

A knock on the door shook the wall, and it creaked open. “Let’s go Josh! The wolf guy is coming. Let’s go kick its horns in!”

Rolada squeezed me with a quick hug and I pet her fluffy fox ears. She tapped me on the nose and then my heart. “Don’t be long, I want to read a story with Lin and you.”

Elkan stood up, shook my hand, and clapped me on the back, pushing me towards the door. He gestured to the pile of empty wine and ale bottles in the corner. “I’ll see about cleaning this place up. A dwarf should never live in a dirty fort.”

Rolada’s grin faltered, and she frowned, annoyed at her place getting taken. “You know there's another place I think that could work great…”

Outside the big house the big ogre was geared up and looking terrifying. Bent had on a heavy vest covered in metal plates, with big shoulders guards and oversized spiked gloves. The crusader style helmet made him look like a giant knight, strong enough to kill a man with a single punch. Which to be fair he probably could.

Sten was also sporting a few additions. Around his shoulders was a mix of leather and chain designed to glance off blows, and a thick breast plate over his chainmail doubling the protection to his core. The dwarf turned around with his arms out, showing it off. “Pretty nice eh? Don’t worry, it’s standard stuff out of the tower, nothing too fancy.”

“Looks awesome, and since we are going to be fighting together I have a fun new power to help,” I said. I turned to the wolf-kin, seeing his leather gloves, boots and padded armour. In his hands he held a big wooden shield and a battle-axe. “Glad to have you. Since you know where it was, your team lead.”

He gave a swift nod, causing his hood to flop back. He had a leather and metal cap, with holes for his wolf ears. “I’m Tennu, I’m not the best fighter, but I’m quick on my feet so I can help guard you…as long as there’s no fireballs.”

Tennu, Wolf beast-kin, Level 2 Shield Hound

Tennu shook my hand and set off on a jog, leading us out of the protection of the walled settlement. While he might be the lowest level here he had an incredible level of cardio, as he eeked us up to a light run. He had to force himself to slow down so he didn’t outpace us.

We went out of sight into the forest, a few minutes from town along the coast. As we went he pointed out where he saw the creature, and how he went further into the forest before doubling back in an attempt to lead it away from the town. We slowed to a crawl, watching out for any signs, but saw none in the damp, cold forest.

Bent huffed and rested his hands on his hips. “Good run. I need more training in this armour though.”

Sten rested his pick on his shoulder and swept the earth ahead of him with a hand. Frost collected around his glove from the wet mist coming from the river. “Weird tracks. Two toes like a deer, but instead of a hoof it’s clawed.” He looked up at a broken branch overhead. “Taller than Josh, but less weight.”

I held my sword in a low guard around my hip, the blade collecting moisture around the fuller as if drawing in the cold. “Let’s stay close. If we don’t find anything in an hour we can head back. Maybe Tennu did give it the slip.”

Tennu pointed his axe to either side. “Three paces, slow steps.”

We fanned out and moved ahead between empty shrubs and hearty pines. The air shifted, bringing more moisture, and the clouds passed overhead, making it dark as night. I looked to my side and couldn’t make out the wolf-kin or my friends.

The mist rose up around my ankles and I took a step towards where they should be, moving under a snow ladened pine. The melting water in the needles ran down my cloak, dripping off me, splashing onto the ground. I took another step and heard a crunch, not from a wet branch but something else. Under my foot I saw a squirming insect. Another one dropped down from up high, and I slowly looked up.

I gulped. “Ah hell.”