A Shadow in the Mist

“Djinn spawn at various levels of development depending on the amount of tangled ether in the area, but they are not stuck at this level. Like us they can advance in level, usually by killing other djinn of different elements. However, if there are humans nearby, all djinn regardless of level or species will band together to destroy them.”

- From Bestiary Volume I by Templar Daniel Blackstone

Cain- Saturday, August 17th, 564 AB

I collapsed in the dirt after completing the obstacle course. After feeling the experience of connecting to my Relic it was a lot easier to try and reach for my skills, but it still wasn’t within my grasp. At least now I felt like I was making progress, slowly breaking through the mental barrier between me and my skills.

I helped Enoch to his feet. “Thanks for your words the other day,” I said.

“About what?” he asked.

“What you said about my fear,” I said. “It reminded me of something my mother told me, that my fear was a tool to keep me alive. I think that’s how I finally made a connection with my Relic. I needed to embrace that fear, not just try and ignore it or push it aside.”

“Well hopefully I’ll make a connection soon too,” Enoch said.

Rineer walked over to us tossing an iron ball from hand to hand. “Are you two ready for sparring?”

“Actually sir,” I said. “I was wondering if we could go into the Mist? Aranea asked me to hang some wards there, and you said you’d teach me to be a proper woodsman.”

Rineer looked at me thoughtfully and nodded. “So I did, but Enoch still needs to learn to call his Relic. You will hold his spear for him. Enoch, I want you to keep ten paces from Cain at all times. I will sneak up and attack you as you move through the forest. You need to spot me and block my attacks as well as focus on summoning your Relic.”

“Yes sir!” Enoch said, a bit of eagerness in his voice.

Thirty-minutes later we dismounted and let our horses graze at the edge of a patch of fog land. The air was chilly even with the heat of summer burning its last. I was glad for the undershirt Aranea had made for me, the smooth silk warm against my skin. Enoch, Rineer and I were all in the same party. Each of us were also linked to our wives. This was always done for Mist Wardens so if we died, our families would at least know of it and not think we’d gone missing or gotten lost.

“Move out and keep your eyes peeled,” Rineer said. “You see a djinn, work together to take it down. If for some god forsaken turn of luck you run across a Jtunn or a Demon do not engage it. You run back here and let me handle it. Cain, you place those wards wherever you see any etheric threads.”

“Yes sir!” Enoch and I said. Rineer sighed, then disappeared into the forest growth.

I stepped into the Mist.

Quest

Type:

Search

Difficulty:

Lethal

Search the Mist and find the Soul Forge to upgrade your interface.

Reward: Soul Anvil, 15,000 XP

Yes/No

I dismissed the forbidden quest and kept moving.

Enoch and I moved through the forest, doing our best not to make noise. Our eyes moved through the trees, searching for the foliage and haze for any threats. The fog lands here were massive. A fog land was always circular, and they came in various sizes. From only two miles across to fifteen miles. The ones across the Mistwall Mountains were always overlapping with each other, making them able to contain unseen threats that couldn’t be cleansed. A djinn could spawn up on the mountain slopes, level up and evolve, becoming a serious threat by the time it got down to civilization.

We were on the outskirts of the Mist so we weren’t likely to see high tier djinn, but it was always a possibility. Enoch grunted as a spear hit him in the stomach from a bush, then his father was gone and Enoch pushed himself up from the ground. Pressing on, he and I kept scanning the ground, trying to catch sight of his father before he struck. I also kept an eye out for him. He hadn’t said he was going to test me but he also hadn’t said he wasn’t going to. Enoch managed to block the next attack, his hand stretching out towards me trying to summon his spear from where I loosely held it in my left hand. This kept happening as we moved deeper and deeper into the Mist.

Every once in a while, I spotted strands of prismatic ether threads drifting through the air. These threads would be invisible to anyone without a core but were as visible as a candle in a dark room to me. I set up the wards, hanging them from the branches of trees. Enoch continued to get attacked, and I would be soon out of Wards.

Rineer popped out of the forest. “Hold up,” he said, raising his hand. “You're approaching a skitter nest.”

I stopped. I’d never seen a living skitterer, only drawings. They looked like giant centipedes with bladed limbs and an arrow shaped head, barbed feeder tendrils like a catfish, and a bident stinger on their tail. They only lived in the Mist, they couldn’t survive out of it, Their carapace was as hard as steel, and they were extremely venomous, both in their stinger and the barbs of their feeder tendrils.

“What do we do?” I asked.

“Don’t approach them,” Rineer said. “They are fell beasts, but they aren’t djinn, and aren’t a threat to civilization. Move around them, we don’t want to rile up their nest.”

Enoch and I started moving to the east. I began seeing the ruins of the old-world structure. The skitterers always made their nests in the ruins of the old world. It was suspected that skitterers weren’t native to our world, but had only come to our world after the Breaking.

Enoch stumbled as Rineer hit him across the back of the head and disappeared into the undergrowth again. I only had six wards left to hang up. I started turning back towards where we had left our horses when I heard something. The sounds of breaking tree limbs were coming from our right. I moved towards it, activating Ghost Walk and hiding the sound Enoch and I made. We peered out through some bushes into a field where a massive djinn made of earth fought. Dozens of mist djinn surrounded it, Imps, beasts and several soldiers all carrying various spears.

Mist djinn looked like they were made of yellowed bone, moss and leaves. As if they had stepped out of an overgrown crypt. The earth Jtunn was fighting all of them and, despite its higher tier, wasn’t faring too well. Djinn that weren’t mist djinn couldn’t see through the Mist just like us. This meant the earth Jtunn was fighting only as far as it could see, not even the length of its weapon. It could strike based on hearing, but mist djinn were renowned for their stealth.

Quest

Type:

Hunt

Difficulty:

Hard

You have spotted a large group of djinn close to civilization. Exterminate them to keep them from advancing in tier and level then wreaking destruction upon humanity.

Reward: A grade breastplate, 500 XP

Yes/No

I motioned for Enoch to move back. Rineer had told us to run if we saw a Jtunn and that wasn’t even including the two-dozen other djinn. We started to move when Enoch stepped on a twig. It wasn’t even that loud a sound, especially with the heavy crashing of the earth Jtunn’s club, but Enoch was outside the small radius of my Ghost Walk and the sound he made was still enough to attract the attention of a single Mist Imp.

As soon as it saw him it screeched loudly. The infighting between the two elemental groups stopped and they turned as one to focus on him. The mist imps chittered, the jaws of their masks clacking together in excitement as they used their skills to hurl javelins of mist at him. Enoch ducked behind his shield, the attacks bouncing off. Two mist soldiers rushed forwards, their much larger spears lunging forwards.

Enoch’s spear flew out of my hand slapping into his hand, as much to his surprise as mine. The djinn spread out, fanning around us to encircle us. The earth djinn lumbered forwards, its life and death duel with the mist djinn forgotten as a mutual enemy was discovered. Rineer appeared behind the earth Jtunn, plunging his spear into its back. He appeared in front of it, or at least it looked like he did. There was still an identical copy of him where he had stood a moment before and they both stabbed independently, both seeming to do damage to the djinn.

“Defend each other!” Rineer shouted. “I’ve got this one just don’t let the other distract me!”

I hit yes on the quest prompt.

“Hurricane Step,” I said, appearing behind Enoch, my targe blocking a javelin of mist aimed for his back.

The mist imps were out of ether and so rushed us in melee. One on one an imp was no problem, and even an old woman with a pitchfork could take one. In groups however, they were like wild dogs. Able to bring down prey ten times their size. Mist beasts and the two soldiers moved in, though they still had some ether left in their cores. Spears stabbed forwards or were thrown. Most missed, or bounced off our shields. Though one did graze my cheek, drawing a thin line of blood. The spears disappeared after landing on the ground, reappearing back in the djinn’s hands, similar to how we could summon our Relics back to ourselves.

I needed to break up their lines, not let them just converge on and surround us. I used Hurricane Step, appearing behind the lead Mist soldier.

“Mist Blade, Lunar Smite!” I said, driving the ethereal blade of Achlys forward through its back.

The Mist Soldier spasmed, but it wasn’t dead yet and it spun around to impale me with its spear.

“Fog Form,” I said.

The attack passed through me as I repositioned and was in the middle of a group of imps and beasts.

“Cyclone Strike,” I said and cut through five of them instantly.

58 XP gained, 5 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 4 ether gained

“Wind Phalanx!” Enoch shouted.

He stabbed forwards towards me as I was rushed by another group of djinn. Half a dozen spears of silver ether shot forwards, passing through me harmlessly but spearing the djinn charging me, stopping them in their tracks. The two Mist Soldiers focused their attention on me, the other djinn followed the higher tier djinns lead and all began to rush me. Fear stabbed into my heart as the horned skull mask of the djinn chattered and focused on me, the pale blue etheric points of light in the black sockets of their masks all focusing on me. I let out a breath, willing myself not to freeze as I kept on the attack, blocking the spears with my targe or knocking aside them with my Relic.

The Mist soldier’s thrust their spears forwards, activating skills of their own.

“Fog Form,” I said, as an ether spear made of mist rammed right through where I had been.

The next attack I blocked on my shield as Enoch moved up next to me, more imps and beasts surrounded us. We both began cutting into them using our skills in rapid succession. I didn’t have to worry about accidentally hitting Enoch with my skills since we were in the same party. The combination of Lunar Smite and Cyclone Strike cut right through the lesser djinn, easily disrupting their forms and turning them into piles of mulch and yellowed bone.

75 XP gained, 9 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 10 ether gained

I turned aside the much larger spear of one of the Mist Soldiers. Imps were very small, only coming up to my thigh. Beasts weren’t much bigger, coming up only to my waist. Soldiers were where they started jumping up in size, becoming as big as a man at around six feet minimum.

Enoch moved around, blocking spears with his large round shield. He grunted as a spear hit him in the back, but his leather breastplate and the gambeson beneath kept it from sinking deep into the muscle of his back. He pushed past the pain and stabbed the djinn I’d already wounded in the back.

55 XP gained

An imp got up behind me silently and stabbed forwards, the bone tip of its spear burying itself in my hip. I screamed in pain, turning around and slashing out, but the imp jumped back dodging my counterattack. I needed to be faster and stronger. I swept Achlys through the corpses on the ground by my feet harvesting them. They were Mist Djinn so I’d only gain a minimum amount of corruption, but every bit would help boost my trait’s stat bonus.

10 corruption absorbed by your Relic, 10 corruption absorbed into your core

There were two dozen lesser djinn left as well as the other soldier. Enoch took out a third of the imps with his Wind Phalanx, but the soldier was rushing him with its spear. I activated Hurricane Step with a verbal command and appeared in front of it ducking low. I rammed Achlys into its gut. Djinn didn’t have internal organs, but damage to the ether that formed them would still kill them. The djinn twisted as my blade tore through it, spinning around to stab at me. I sidestepped the attack and Enoch rammed his spear into its back. I stepped forward, raising Achlys two-handed above my head.

“Lunar Smite!” I shouted.

I brought down the extended etheric blade over the djinn’s head, cutting through its mask and leaving it a pile of bones and leaves on the ground.

62 XP gained, 1 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 12 ether gained

I bent and quickly absorbed the remains of the djinn.

28 corruption absorbed by our Relic, 28 Corruption absorbed into your core

My body was moving even faster as I had a close to fifty percent boost to my stats. Enoch blocked the spears of some djinn. I was down to a little below half my ether, and so was he, but the two-soldier djinn had been handled. We both dove into the pack of remaining imps and beasts activating our area effect skills.

“Cyclone Strike,” I said, whirling around and destroying six imps and a beast.

58 XP gained, 7 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 15 ether gained

Enoch took out the rest of the djinn with his Wind Phalanx. Only one imp remained, and he speared it through the chest. Rineer was still fighting the Jtunn and I realized Enoch and I had an opportunity here; this was a much higher tier djinn than we could typically take down at our levels and tier. However, with Rineer in our party we would get the same XP as he did when it died if we contributed to killing it. There would be some risk, but I was high on victory and with the Jatunn unable to see in the Mist we had the advantage over it.

“Enoch throw your spear!” I shouted to him. “Hurricane Step,” I said under my breath.

I appeared behind the Jtunn’s right leg and drove my dagger into it. “Lunar Smite, Mist Blade!” I said.

My Blade sank through the false stone plates that made up its shell into the swirling storm of dirt and sand that made up the core of its being. I jumped back, disappearing into the Mist as it turned, swinging its heavy club to crush the ground where I had been. Rineer dropped from the air landing on its left shoulder. Enoch threw his spear, getting past the djinn’s massive stone shield and striking it in the chest, hitting a hole in its armor and driving his spear deep into its etheric mass.

Rineer drove his own spear down into the gap between its stoney armor and neck, disrupting the etheric energy that formed the djinn. He leapt back as the djinn twisted its massive horned head, trying to gore him. I teleported under it, driving my sword up before disappearing in a gust of wind. Enoch held out his hand, his spear ripping itself out of the djinn’s chest and smacking into his palm. Enoch moved forward quietly before lunging forwards, driving his spear into a gap in the djinn’s armor at its knee.

The djinn roared and swung at him with his club, but Enoch activated his shorter ranged teleport appearing five feet to the side, the club missing him entirely. Rineer drove his spear into its back again as the djinn scrambled to keep track of us all, moving unseen through the Mist.

Finally, Rineer’s Spear hit it again in the neck and this time it dropped. The ground shuddered as the false etheric stone hit the ground, looking like a rockslide had appeared in the forest.

123 XP gained

Quest Succeeded

You have successfully completed the Quest, Hunt, Hard and exterminated all the djinn in your immediate vicinity.

Reward: A grade Breastplate has been added to your inventory. 500 XP gained

Level Up! You have reached level 11! 15 Stat points are available to spend, Ether core increased by 5.

I put five points into my agility and two points into each of my other stats. I pulled up my character sheet, looking at the changes I’d made and checking my Core’s current corruption level and my health. I’d only taken the one hit in the battle, but we had been facing mostly low-level djinn and were in a group.

Core Level

11

Experience to Next Level

491/670

Relic Name

Relic Element

Relic Type

Achlys

Mist

Dagger

Name

Cain Le’meer

Hit Points:

343/386

Hit Point Regen:

11 per minute

Armor Points:

89/89

Armor Point Regen:

11 per minute

Might

Agility

Endurance

Will

Senses

Clarity

32 (48)

82 (124)

18 (27)

13 (19)

12 (18)

12 (18)

Ether

Corruption Level

51/89

51/89

Trait

Tainted Power: Your statistics increase by 1% for every point of Corruption in your Etheric Core.

Primary Passive

Secondary Passive

Mist Sight: You can see through the Mist without impediment, it is visible to you only as vague haze in the air.

Mist Walker: You have immunity to the effects of the Mist able to breathe freely within it with no hindrance.

Mist Skills

Ghost Walk: Masks all noise made for 30 seconds in a 5ft radius around the wielder.

Cost:

3 ether

Mist Blade: For 10 seconds attacks with your Relic pass through 1” of material.

Cost:

7 ether

Fog Form: Body and worn equipment becomes intangible making you Immune to all damage for 2 seconds.

Cost:

5 ether

Moon Skills

Lunar Smite: A sword of silver light extends out from your blade for 1 second dealing Moon damage equal to your current Core’s charge.

Cost:

4 ether

Celestial Healing: Closes wounds across a single creature’s body restoring Hit Points equal to your current Core charge.

Cost:

10 ether

Wind Skills

Hurricane Step: Move yourself and one other creature up to 200ft in 1 second as your body and all your equipment is turned into wind.

Cost:

3 ether

Cyclone Strike: Deals Wind damage equal to half your Core charge to all creatures within your weapons reach.

Cost:

6 ether

I looked over my stats, seeing my actual number along with the altered number from my trait’s percentage bonus. Looking over my skills, I noticed a single other change. Hurricane Step, by far my most used skill, had changed. Evolving into its next tier. It wasn’t limited to just teleporting myself anymore, and its range had doubled. Its cost had also gone up, costing three ether for each use instead of the previous one ether per use.

My fingers flexed as I examined my relic armor. It had only grown by maybe the width of my pinky nail, but it had been enough to advance my tier a bit farther. Once all my other skills had evolved, I would pass from the Page tier to Squire. The cycle would repeat until I got to Exarch tier and my skills stopped evolving.

“You’ll have time to admire your character sheet later,” Rineer said. “This clearing is a good place to set up the rest of those wards. Do it, then help Enoch absorb the rest of those djinn. I’ll take the big one here. We’ll split loot then head back to our horses.”

I quickly hung the rest of the wards Aranea had given me. I absorbed a dozen imps, bringing the corruption in my core to eighty-one out of eighty-nine. The burning was unpleasant, but Aranea would be able to absorb it from me later. Enoch handled the rest of the low-level djinn until he was close to his limit as well, and Rineer took the rest.

We had gotten three dozen imp cores, a dozen beast, two soldier and a single Jtunn. We had also gotten three etheric gems. One was just an imp gem but the other was a soldier and third, and most impressive, was a Jtunn class earth etheric gem. One of the Mist Soldiers spears hadn’t crumpled to death with its body. Djinn weapons were similar to Relics in the sense that they held skills. Anyone who held them could use the skill if they fed the weapon some etheric energy, but the only way to do that was by using a charged monster core or by having your own internal core. The weapon was still valuable. Every soldier or town guard carried a djinn weapon on them, even if they didn’t often use them. But it was always good to have the option.

“We got a good haul,” Rineer said. He picked up the Jtunn class gem, “This is too valuable for one of us to keep. I’ll have it sold and split the profits with the three of you tomorrow.”

“You’re the one who actually killed it,” I said. “You should be the one who gets the loot from it.”

Rineer shook his head. “Not how this works. When you’re in a party, everyone’s contribution is worth the same contribution. It doesn’t matter if they’re just distracting, providing support or doing the damage, you split everything equally.”

I shut my mouth and shrugged.

Rineer placed the Jtunn’s monster core in my hand. It was about the size of a robin’s egg but perfectly round and mostly clear, only a bit of sparkling golden light inside it showing it for what it was.

“Keep that,” he instructed me. “You’ll be instructed during your training on how to fill those but think of them like batteries. You can store excess ether from your core inside them. When you’re low on it in battle you can then pull it out to use it. Never pull all of it out or the core will crumble to dust.

I held up the core examining it more closely.

Type:

Monster Core

Grade:

B

Ether:

8/122

Rineer handed Enoch the two Soldier cores. “These are for you; I’ve already given you several Jtunn cores but once you learn how to fill them, I want you to always keep as many cores filled on you as you can. Don’t bother with imp or beast cores, just sell those for commoners to use.”

He picked up the Mist spear. “Either of you want a trophy or should I just sell this too?”

I shook my head and Enoch did the same. We split up the rest of the imp and beast cores evenly and agreed to split the money we got from selling the other two ether gems. We left the forest, but I’d need to come back in about a week to collect the wards and bring them back to Aranea.

Aranea- Sunday, August 18th, 564 AB

Cain and I went down for mass the next morning. The mess hall had been transformed, the tables all gone and pews put in their place. We found a spot to sit together as more and more people piled into the pews. Soon the whole castle was in attendance. There was a church in town but we didn’t attend there with the town’s regular parishioners. We bowed our heads as the priest stood before us opening the holy text to read from it.

“At the height of the old world, when mankind thought themselves gods, the heavens broke above us. The sky fell upon the earth and wherever it touched, the Mist rose up. Ether rose from the earth and descended from the skies above. From it came the djinn, given to test those who remained. But mankind was still arrogant, and sent their men of iron to battle the djinn in their place,” the priest read.

Mother Leora rarely read about the dark days of the breaking, but they were usually the primary focus of most sermons. I kept my head bowed, listening as he recounted the history of our ancestors.

“The men of iron fell one by one as the djinn spawned in greater and greater numbers, their corruption not being cleansed,” the priest continued. “Then by the grace of God a Relic was created by accident. The Voice spoke to that first Warden, giving them instructions to purify the taint of the djinn from the earth. More Relics were created, and more Wardens arose. But they did not yet know how to cleanse the corruption from their bodies. King Nicholas of the Europa Republic took up the sword, becoming a Warden to defend his people. One by one these Wardens fell to corruption, becoming Warlocks. Our Ancestors thought their powers over the djinn, and the ability to control them, was their salvation.”

“Then their new saviors began to go mad. They engaged in all manners of debauchery and hedonism. Their lust for women, for the tainted flesh of djinn, and for power knew no bounds and they set about to conquer all mankind. Our ancestors fled to the wilderness and abandoned fortresses, taking a remnant of humanity with them. They learned to pass on their corruption to women who became the first Weavers. The Warlocks, in their lust for power, turned on each other and made war until only King Nicholas and his fell coven of Warlocks remained.”

“Our ancestors, under the guidance of the Voice, slew these Warlock Kings one by one, at last killing King Nicholas in the holy city of New Roma. These brave Wardens formed the first council of Templars, uniting the Wardens of Europa under the banner of the church. For five hundred years we have listened to the Voice and obeyed its instructions. Greatest among these is this, “you shall not suffer a Warlock to live.””

“Amen,” I said, chorusing along with the rest of the congregation.

After mass was finished, Cain and I went back to our quarters. There would be no training today since it was the sabbath. I had prepared food for us yesterday, since no kitchens would be open in the castle. While labor and cooking on the sabbath were not forbidden, it was discouraged. I convinced Cain to come with me to the library, showing him the castle’s massive catalogue of books.

“Isn’t this amazing?” I asked him, my fingers running along the spines of the tomes and volumes.

“There certainly are a lot of them,” Cain agreed, but I could tell his heart wasn’t in it.

“You don’t like books?” I asked him.

“It’s not that I don’t like them,” he said. “I just haven’t had much time or need for them before. I’m a Warden, my life has been defined by preparing to become one and training with weapons. It hasn’t given me much opportunity for much else.”

“But think of all the things you could learn!” I said, taking a tome off a shelf. “This is a bestiary on djinn and fell beasts by Daniel Blackstone.”

I opened it up, showing him the various sketches alongside the text, depicting Dragons and Demons. As well as the mutated beasts that inhabited the wilderness. Terror Bears, Dire Wolves, Spine Cats, and the myriad of other corrupted animals that had fed on djinn and evolved into ferocious monsters.

Cain looked through the book for a bit but eventually set it down. “This is interesting, but it’s not applicable for me. Most of this is theory, rather than hard facts. There isn’t anything here like weak points or known strategies for taking them down.”

I let out a sigh. “Probably because you Wardens don’t write that stuff down.”

It seemed that Cain didn’t share my love of books. He still spent some time in the library with me, but I could tell he wasn’t there because he enjoyed it. We spent the rest of the day resting, taking a walk through the town and castle gardens before retiring for the evening. I drew the corruption I had taken from Cain into thread, my body screaming with the pain.

Quest Succeeded

You have purified yourself of corruption and converted it into a stable form of etheric energy.

Reward: 850 XP gained

Level Up! You have reached level 11! 5 Stat points are available to spend, Ether core increased by 15.

I let out a sigh of relief as the pain of pulling out the corruption ended, as abruptly as it had begun. I pulled up my character sheet, putting one point into each of my physical stats and the other two into Senses. I looked through my character sheet and noticed a change in one of my skills descriptions. This made sense since one of Cain’s skills had evolved. My advancement as a Weaver was tied to his, and even if I got to a higher level than him my skills would only advance when his did.

Core Level

11

Experience to Next Level

525/670

Bonded Element

Mist

Name

Aranea Le’meer

Hit Points:

265

Hit Point Regen:

7 per minute

Might

Agility

Endurance

Will

Senses

Clarity

8

8

8

31

15

10

Ether

Corruption Level

177/177

0/177

Trait

Final Stand: You gain +1% regen rate for every missing point of ether in your Core.

Primary Passive

Secondary Passive

Mist Sight: You can see through the Mist without impediment, it is visible to you only as vague haze in the air.

Mist Walker: You have immunity to the effects of the Mist able to breathe freely within it with no hindrance.

Mist Skills

Siren Song: Your voice sings out in a hauntingly beautiful tune for the next 30 seconds inflicting Pacify on creatures who can hear you and Clarity on allied targets within hearing distance.

Cost:

15 ether

Mist Veil: Your body becomes blurred by a veil of mist making you harder to hit for the next 20 seconds inflicting a 50% miss chance against you.

Cost:

8 ether

Ether Familiar: You conjure an elemental spirit of Mist to serve as your familiar. It will last until destroyed and is resummoned casting time 5 minutes. Your familiar has the ability to consume wild ether threads and spin them into ether thread directly.

Cost:

20 ether

Moon Skills

Lunar Ray: A blade of silver light shoots from your hands up to 100ft striking a creature you can see dealing your Core maximum charge as Moon damage.

Cost:

3 ether

Silver Purity: Closes wounds across a single creature’s body and removes any Disease, Infection, Debuff, or Curse affecting them.

Cost:

10 ether

Wind Skills

Voice on the Wind: Link yourself and up to 3 others to be able to speak even at whisper up to 200ft away for 10 minutes.

Cost:

9 ether

Sweeping Hurricane: A rushing wind pushes away anything not secured down in a 40ft cone in front of you.

Cost:

5 ether

Closing my character sheet I pulled Cain into the bedroom with me. I wanted to start our family, and pushed him down on the bed.

Aranea- Sunday, September 1st, 564 AB

The next two weeks passed as the fall term approached. Cain and Enoch continued to train with each other every day, but he still hadn’t unlocked the ability to use any of his skills nonverbally. Despite this, I didn’t see the same frustration he had before he had learned to call his Relic to his hand. Cain had set up a practice dummy in our room and every day before bed practiced throwing his dagger at it. The blade wasn’t weighted for throwing so, most of the time it struck with its hilt or at an odd angle, but he was slowly getting better at it.

Cain brought me my Wards back and I began slowly absorbing the ether from them, turning it into thread.

Quest Succeeded

You have purified your wards of corruption and kept djinn from spawning.

Reward: 425 XP gained

While not as much XP as I got for purging the corruption I gained from Cain, it was still enough to advance me another level.

Level Up! You have reached level 12! 5 Stat points are available to spend, Ether core increased by 15.

I used my stat points to increase all my physical stats by one again. I wanted to get them all to ten, then I would focus primarily on my mental statistics. I put my remaining two points into Clarity, raising it to twelve.

A clatter of metal on stone roused my attention and I looked up to see Cain catch his dagger by the hilt as it flew back into his hand. I smiled. When he first learned to summon it, the dagger had only dragged slowly across the table. Now it flew faster than an arrow when it returned to him. I was happy in our cozy little life. The fall term would start tomorrow, and I was eager for Cain’s and my new adventure to begin.