Delve

Now we are talking! I can recover to full in around an hour and a half, up from two days when I started! I still can't leave my attack aura on 24-7. Nowhere close. Should I really try for that? I'm starting to get a bit concerned at my low health pool. A few points in strength could go a long way... No, not yet. I'll just have to be extra careful. More mana regen means I can use my skills more, which means they will level faster. I'll stick it out to 100 clarity at least.

His plan set, Rain applied his points and then pulled up his skills to consider what to do with his skill point.

If I want to level up winter, I need to be able to pump more mana into it. Extend helps, I think. I wonder if I can use amplify at the same time? Do they add, or multiply? Either way, looks like something I'd want eventually, so I might as well take it. There, done.

Rain closed out the menu. Already running winter in the background, he focused on the skill, trying to amplify the effect. It took him a minute, but he soon figured out how to apply the effects of amplify and extend at the same time. It wasn't as simple as just pumping more mana into the spell. By focusing on what he wanted, power or range, he could select one or both to activate. It was an unfamiliar sensation, but he knew it would become second nature in time. Winter was already starting to feel that way, with him needing less and less attention to maintain it. He played around with the skill a bit more, pulling open his statistics panel to check the numbers.

Up to 135/hr with amplify alone. Doesn't help much. Yet. And the cost multiplies, so it uses 1.44 per hour with both amplify and extend active.

Deciding to take his new resolution to be careful to heart, Rain closed out of all of his menus and kept watch over the edge of his campsite while he waited for the meat to cook. He didn't think it was likely that something big like the musk wolf would be around, not with him being in range of the city's patrols. Nonetheless, he kept a careful watch as he rested.

He wanted to test out amplify on his other auras but forced himself to wait as his mana regenerated. After a while, the meat over the fire was starting to burn, so he took it off and eyed it skeptically. Figuring that overcooked was better than undercooked, he took a hesitant bite. As the meat met his tongue he immediately choked and spluttered at the aggressively pungent flavor that assailed his taste buds. He ejected the meat from his mouth in a spray of saliva and dove for his waterskin.

Gah! What the shit?! It tastes worse than a slime! How is that even possible?

Belatedly, Rain remembered his purification aura could deal with this sort of thing, so he activated it, using amplify to quicken the effect slightly. The oily taste in his mouth seemed resistant to the aura, but it did begin to fade. Rain canceled the aura after around a minute once all trace of the flavor had been scoured from his mouth.

No eating monsters. Anton was right; Hegar was an idiot for trying to cook that musk wolf. Blech, that was awful.

Rain angrily kicked the fallen piece of meat into the fire and started packing up. He scraped at the tattered Skiffun hide with his knife to remove the last bits of flesh. He then blasted it with purify for a couple minutes, leaving it looking clean, if a bit ragged from his amateur attempt at skinning.

I'm never doing that again, not even if this dang fur is worth 10 Tel. I'm not a fan of fur coats, even if they are made from murder beavers. It might be a different world, but I am sure as hell not going to start clubbing baby seals.

Once it was clean enough, Rain tucked the fur into his pack, then turned to the fire. He tried an amplified refrigerate, but the ring of frost didn't even make it all the way to the flames before losing to the heat. He canceled it once he saw that it wasn't working and that his mana was starting to drop too low for his comfort. He kicked dirt onto the flames instead until they went out, then started pushing back through the brush towards the road.

He slowly made his way back to the city, draining his mana by alternating purify and refrigerate when it got close to full. He was being careful not to use his skills while there were other travelers in sight and also making sure not to let his mana drop below a quarter. Reaching the city as the sun was starting to go down, he approached the guards at the gate. With the armor masking their faces, he couldn't tell if it was the same pair that had been there when he left. They waved him through when he showed his adventurer's plate though they didn't seem happy about it for some reason.

Rain dragged his aching feet to the guild to turn in his quest. Gus wasn't there, so he instead went to a line staffed by the old man who had guided him to the bunk-room on his very first night in the guild. The quest was accepted and he was paid his 20 Tel, but he had needed to show the man the fur as proof that he had killed the beast. The guild refused to buy the pelt, but Rain was happy that it hadn't been totally worthless to bring along.

Feeling rich, Rain made his way to the tavern for meat and mead. Now safe in the guild, he was a bit freer with his mana, blasting passers-by with full-powered purification. This was met with mild alarm followed by confusion, the effect of the aura being pretty subtle if you weren't covered in excrement. Still, Rain felt no need to experience the scent of medieval hygiene if he didn't have to.

He enjoyed his supper, then spent the evening in the tavern, trying to hold a conversation with the group that had gathered around him once they caught on to the effect of his white aura. Looks like I'm pretty popular, Rain thought, looking at the clean faces of his admirers. Nah, they just love me for my aura.

Eventually, everyone in the tavern had gotten a good cleaning as well as several of the tables and a good section of the floor. Rain had learned a bunch of new words, taking copious notes in his notebook with the adventurers even filling in the written forms of a few things for him. By the time Khurt came over to kick everyone out or get them to cough up for the bunk room, Rain was dead tired. He paid his two Tel and decided to call it a night, relieved at his much improved financial situation.