Slowly pushing my Astral Power into a ring I was enchanting, I felt the small ripples and flares as my magic tried to make contact, to complete the cycle. Minute changes allowed me to track where I needed to push a little harder, and where I needed to force the issue to make it so the enchantment would work out.

It was the first actual ring I was enchanting, as opposed to a few more or less suitable knives. Those had worked out pretty well, to the point that the system recognised them as uncommon and had bestowed the Enchanting skill upon me. As I continued working on them, I even gained a few points in the skill, making me think that it was time to try something new. Similarly, working with the Enchanting Skill had increased my Crystal Magic by yet another point, bringing it to nine.

Namely, rings. This ring wasn’t just supposed to make wounds cut by the blades I was enchanting worse, turning them into cursed wounds that kept bleeding, the ring I was enchanting was supposed to increase an attribute while it was worn. Only strength, so the items weren’t truly suitable for me, but even if an extra point or two of Strength didn’t make a difference to me, it made a difference to Lia or Silva. Or to Alex, who might be the one who’d benefit the most from such a ring, simply because their combat style needed a certain level of strength to get their tinker-toys into the right area. Sure, the sling and slingshot they were using helped, giving them extra range and accuracy, or allowing them to send multiple projectiles in quick succession, but slinging an item, or drawing back the slingshot required strength. And strength was, most likely, their weakest attribute. Having a few extra points might be incredibly worthwhile for them, allowing them to focus their free points, if they received something like that, on different areas.

Just as I thought I found the right way with the ring, a noise disturbed my concentration, causing me to flinch and my Astral Power to push in a slightly wrong direction, messing up the channel I had been carving. Letting out a soft curse when I realised the ring might be spoiled beyond my ability to fix, I closed my eyes, trying to keep frustration from making me toss it against the wall. It wouldn’t help, not in the slightest, and it would only mean I needed to pick it up again.

Instead, after acknowledging that the failure had pushed my Enchanting skill to level four, I opened my eyes and checked where the noise had come from.

Standing in the door, was Lia, looking at me with a bit of concern in her eyes.

“Mother, we are almost out of food for you,” she told me, causing me to frown. I hadn’t really been paying attention to our supplies, a foolish mistake if there ever was one, though when thinking about it, I realised we had hung around this area far longer than I had originally planned.

“Also, it’s almost night, you told me to remind you. If you don’t eat soon, we’ll be wasting darkness, I know how much you loathe that,” she added, a cheeky grin on her face. Letting out a snort, I pushed myself out of my lotus position, having noticed that the traditional way of sitting helped me concentrate and even focused my magic, though only to a minor degree. When experimenting with the complex enchantments, I could use any help I could get, even if I needed to stretch afterwards for a bit.

“Thank you, we might need to take a night or two to get some fresh supplies. Hopefully, the city hasn’t been completely looted clean of non-perishable goods, I fear that everything that could perish already has,” I nodded, shaking off the annoyance I had felt when she interrupted me. I had asked her earlier, but time had run away from me. With the quickly advancing spring, the days were getting far too long for my taste, leaving us far fewer hours of blessed night to work with. Soon, we’d be limited to a scant couple of hours every night, greatly limiting my options for outside work. I would have to make sure to have something prepared for those long, boring days, I certainly wasn’t looking forward to them.

I was incredibly glad that my affinities had expanded, decreasing the suffering I would be under from the heat, or I might just melt into a puddle of highly annoyed elven goo. Firn Elves, even those with some draconic tendencies, weren’t made for the heat, I wanted some frozen tundra with blizzards and bitingly cold wind, not the muggy heat we’d be exposed to soon. Hopefully, I’d manage to get enough power by that point to turn part of our cellar into a permanent winter wonderland for me to relax in, regardless of how hot it got outside. I probably was already there, but it depended on the temperature, the size and the insulation of the area I picked. I mean, how big was the difference between a nice winter wonderland and a fridge, there couldn’t be that much of one, right?

“Do you think we can head towards the outskirts? Maybe not necessarily to the farm, but at least to the fields, I’d like to have some Blood that isn’t either potent enough to knock me for a loop or tasting of rancid grease. Hunting down a few animals might just be what the doctor ordered,” Lia asked, giving me her best attempt at puppy-dog eyes. Given that I had caught her training those with the help of a few of the dogs from our Army of Dogs, her approximation was quite accurate by now. I was still able to resist, even if it took me a lot of effort and made me wonder when I’d get the notification that I gained some sort of title as a heartless monster or something along those lines.

I could understand her desire to have some normal blood. The few times she had taken in mine, since I had crossed the Divide had left her out of it for hours, to the point that she had complained about a splitting headache for the rest of the night. While there might be a beneficial effect, simply from the too-potent power within, I could see why she didn’t want to suffer from the side-effects while in hostile territory.

“Certainly, I’m sure Silva would enjoy some fresh meat and I wouldn’t be against it, either. This change I have undergone left me a little famished,” I admitted, knowing that my body was trying to compensate for the rather major shift I had undergone, leaving me starved for the actual building blocks I was composed of. Sure, I had eaten extra rations but the canned goods and non-perishable foods we had didn’t exactly provide a balanced diet. It also wouldn’t surprise me if a dragon’s diet was more directed towards the carnivore side, as opposed to the mostly vegetarian, at times even vegan, diet I previously had preferred.

It didn’t take us long to pack what little we needed to get going. Just a spare set of clothes, our weapons and some food, nothing heavy, nothing cumbersome, just enough to make it through a day or two, more if I bothered to carefully launder the clothes with my magic. By now, magical laundry had been something I could almost do in my sleep, Water Magic coming in clutch once more, but it wasn’t something I enjoyed. But it was better than stinking to the high heavens. It was quite amusing how simple some parts of life became with broad magical abilities, something I realised every time we visited the farm. Compared to the general state of people there, Lia and I were living the high life, especially now that I had gained the Zevarra Agha.

Some of the spells the Grandmother had included within were household spells, something I had found quite amusing back on Mundus. Why would I truly care for my ripped clothes in a game, so how useful was the strange non-elemental spell to mend clothes actually? Incredibly useful when living in a broken society where few people have the skill to actually stitch clothes back together, let alone smoothly mend them together. Sure, I could only cast that particular spell while holding my book and I had no idea how it actually worked but it did, so I wasn’t overly bothered. The only downside was, I couldn’t teach the spell to anyone, given that I had no idea how it worked. Other than, follow the damn instructions, channel magic into the formations on the page and wave your glowing hand over the tears you want to fix.

Maybe it was something I should put some extra effort into, so I could teach it, even if a part of me wondered if keeping the spell to myself wasn’t worth it, simply to retain a certain mystery and prestige. A subtle showing of my power, demonstrating that I was better than them. At least better dressed.

But that was a consideration for later. Now, Lia and I were travelling through the city, happy to let the Withered remain where they were for a few days, glad that we didn’t have to fight for our lives as we did every night. Even slightly insane elves and literally blood-thirsty vampires needed a bit of relaxation every now and then, even if relaxing for us was to acquire the supplies we needed for more killing.

Acquiring supplies, most likely by killing things.

I really needed a better hobby, maybe a vacation. Somewhere cold and dark.