Chapter 34 - Blushing Admirers

It had taken them almost half the day to get to the area that the shadow tassel’s should be. Finding the plants wasn’t too hard once they were in the right area. Between Kiri’s perception and Frick’s ability to float around into little cracks and crevices, they had a good harvest within the hour, more than satisfying the job description from the Guild. There was a little left and the  excess would probably net them a little extra coin which was a nice bonus.

Kiri was doing most of the harvesting after Nate had butchered his first attempt. They’d agreed it wasn’t his forte and instead had him keeping an eye out for threats. Usually patches of herbs with affinities had some beast or another watching over them. That was the phrasing most people around the Guild used but Nate saw it for what it was. The beasts were hoarding the herbs, using them to improve their own affinities. He’d half expected a Razorlash to be here. Given their scales and preference for ambush attacks, an improvement to their shadow affinity would’ve been a good thing. But Kiri hadn’t seen any signs that one was lurking about, which left Nate a little on edge.

That wariness paid off as Nate was scanning the trees instead of the ground and saw the bird dive at Kiri from below the treetops. He flung up his second barrier as the rune on his robe lit up. The barrier was destroyed with the impact of the bird as it screeched in pain, bouncing along the grass. But it had done its job. Kiri was unharmed and up and moving, bouncing off pockets of air with Archer’s Step Skill. The pause as the bird recovered gave Nate a chance to hit it with an Identification.

Leoxepe Glider: Level 33

He still got minimal information with his Identification unless it was a rune or sigil, something he was hoping to change with its evolution. The Leoxepe finally stood and Nate realised the bird was bigger than he was. It was mostly brown and green but he could see black feathers mixed in amongst it, its beak longer than a sword and looking just as sharp, and its crest was pure black. He wondered if that was evidence of its developed shadow affinity. His perception was high enough to notice that it definitely had a shadow affinity Skill as the bird didn’t have a shadow beneath it, despite standing in one of the few areas of grass being hit by the sun.

The Bird cawed loudly while looking directly at him with one of its yellow eyes. A moment later arrows started to rain down on the bird, surprisingly failing to penetrate its feathered body. It took that moment to launch itself back into the air. Within seconds it had vanished, blending into the dark canopy. Why was it always ambush predators? Then again, would he really want to face a beast that was so strong it didn’t need to rely on ambushes to capture its prey? Probably not.

Scanning the canopy he kept an eye out as best he could for the bird. There was no way it had decided to flee. They’d barely injured it and they were stealing its herbs. It was coming back. Nate quickly pulled out a carved rune from his storage and activated Runic Replication, replacing a rune on his robe. Before coming out on this job he’d changed the runes in his robe slightly. He’d kept two barrier runes and his mana exclusion rune. He’d never found a situation that those weren’t useful in and he saw himself as something of the defensive specialist in their team. However, his Mighty Fire and Earthen Projectile Runes hadn’t really stood the test of time and he’d found a number of new Sigils to work with and had the time to play with his Runic Knowledge and Runic Modification skills to improve his new runes.

He’d created six new runes while studying, earning the Achievements to go with them. The Mana Gathering one was obvious, as he used it to barely maintain his mana gems. He’d also created an improved Life Drain rune replicating the goblin shaman’s enchanted staff. He had considered whether he could use that for healing by directing his Runic Intent but hadn’t gotten around to testing it. The final four were all copies of the same underlying principle and design with minor modifications to reflect the affinities they were empowering. Water, Wind, Shadow & Light. All paired with the ‘Strongest’ Sigil and slightly different geometrics to create four Journeyman quality runes that empowered specific elements. His plan had been to make flexible runes he could alter on the fly with his Intent. And he’d succeeded.

When they’d started out on this job he had prepared the Powerful Wind and Powerful Shadow runes on his robe, thinking he might be able to use the Shadow rune to find the shadow tassel’s. Now however he suspected he needed something else. The Leoxepe was using the shadows beneath the canopy to hide itself, he was sure of it. They should’ve spotted it sooner than they had and only the fact that the sunlight had been between the bird and Kiri had let them spot it. A powerful Skill for an ambusher and therefore something Nate intended to deny it. His freshly replicated Powerful Light rune activated and Nate spread his Intent, focusing it into shining the light in a diffuse pattern aimed above his head into the canopy. Producing enough light to illuminate the canopy cost him three of his five Intents, but it was worth it as both he and Kiri saw the bird circling silently, looking for an opportunity to dive.

Frick took that moment to flit out and yell at the beast, “Come on, bird brain. Dinners served. Yummy mage with bones so thin they’ll get stuck in your teeth! Come get it!”

It cawed at them again loudly, the frustration clear as it tucked its wings, diving at Nate. This time he was able to see the shadowy sheen over its beak and wings, a Skill perhaps? He steeled his nerves as it came for him, flooding more of his mana into his barrier and bringing his mana reserve down to half full. But it should be enough. He watched with trepidation as it crashed into his barrier. With Kiri the barrier had been a flat sheet of force above her head, anchored to nothing. However Nate’s barrier was anchored to him and fully encircled him. So when the Leoxepe impacted the barrier it dented the ground, shaking Nate within his bubble. But it wasn’t enough to break the barrier this time.

Nate and Kiri had fought a couple of other beasts as dangerous as this one and with less power and versatility. As the Leoxepe tried to recover, Nate raised his left hand, flooding his Powerful Wind rune with mana and creating a tornado in front of him that blew into the Leoxepe, using its own aerodynamic wings to pin it to the ground. His mana was draining fast but it wouldn’t take Kiri long. This bird had an unusually high Constitution, likely to handle the damage from its own impacts as it dived into the ground for prey. That made it incredibly durable. Nate might’ve been able to get around it with time, but Kiri specialised in punching through tough defences. Two seconds holding the bird down was enough for her to charge one of her Shadow Imbued Arrows which punched straight through the bird's head, instantly killing it.

Nate smiled. He was having less of an issue fighting and killing beasts in this dog eat dog world. Especially when they always attacked first. That was the thought as the processed mana from the creatures class cores washed over them and a notification started blinking in the corner of his eye.

Accrued Mana applied to Primary Class.
Level up…

Stats adjusted: +2 Dexterity, +1 Endurance, +2 Intellect, +2 Creativity, +1 Perception, +2 Mana Reserve, +5 Free Stats

Walk your Path. Reach your Goal. Become One with Mana.

He’d been expecting this for a couple of days now and instantly put four of his Free Stats into Creativity, with the remaining one going to Perception. That took his Intellect and Creativity to sixty, meaning he now had a sixth Intent to work with and a sixth Rune Storage slot on his robe. He watched his robe change, another star forming from the silver threads on the other side of his waist. At least the layout was consistent.

Kiri hopped down from the tree where she’d been waiting to get a clean shot.

“Good teamwork as always. You level as well?” She asked.

“Yep. Two to go till Class evolution. Hopefully that’s it until I can figure out evolving this Skill,” he replied.

She paused for a moment and glanced at him as she handed a knife off to Frick. They’d taken to having the Familiar look for Orbs. Then he’d throw the beast in his storage and they’d sell it to the Guild.

“You’re trying for a Mythic Class aren’t you? That’s why you’re struggling so hard. You’re trying to evolve a Legendary Skill to Mythic,” rather than sounding pleased she sounded a bit dejected.

“Yeah,” was the only reply he could muster.

She was quiet for a moment before she spoke up, the sound of Frick carving into the bird's chest in the background, “I hope you succeed. That’s how I got my Rare Class. Dad knew that if I had an Archer Class and then got a broad Magical aligned Skill to Rare before evolving my Class, I would get offered Arcane Archer. He managed to trade three Orbs he’d been holding onto for a long while, since his Army days, for a Skill Orb. It was Magical Aptitude. I got it to Rare and then… Well, he was right. I got the Arcane Archer Class. I was so happy.”

She paused again for a moment before continuing, “I know it’s not fair on you but it’s a little disheartening, you know? If you get a Mythic Class, will I even be able to keep up? Or will I just become dead weight that you have to carry.”

She looked away and Nate reached out and touched her shoulder, “Friends aren’t deadweight Kiri. And if I can get to Mythic, maybe, with Frick’s advice and my help, we can get you there too.”

Kiri just nodded and the conversation died away as Frick finished, declaring that there was no Orb. The walk back to the Guild was done in silence, each of them silently focusing on their thoughts. He was trying to solve the issue of getting Kiri to Mythic with Frick calmly explaining mentally that it wasn’t possible to skip tiers that he had ever heard of. Which meant that Kiri couldn’t take a Mythic Class until she was level one hundred and eighty. Possible, according to Frick, but decades of work. Maybe even longer.

After offloading the beast's corpse and getting paid for the shadow tassel job, the sun was finally setting and they split up with the agreement to meet up in two days for their next job. Nate managed to procure a blank book from the Guild and some charcoal at a decent price, not that he cared about the cost, before settling in at the Oaken Ring common room.

While he waited for his dinner to be brought, he took out his charcoal and book and got to drawing. He’d been planning this for a few days after discussing it with Frick. He’d gotten the Painting Skill, a Common Skill. Now he was hoping to get the Drawing Skill, another Common Skill. He was hoping that the two would have some Skill Synergy and he could combine them into something like an Artist Skill.

He glanced at the Skill’s description as he sketched and shaded, not noticing when his dinner was delivered, or the blush on the waitresses face as she fled his table.

Basic Painting (Common)
You’ve seen the beauty and horror of the world. Experienced love and hate, chaos and order. But your heart longs to capture those feelings in a way that they can be shared, or at the very least, released. So you paint. The world is your canvas. Adds part of the users DEX to the hand control while painting. % of DEX increases with Skill Level. 1% per Level.

Time fled by as he worked, occasionally nibbling at his cold food. The music in the background, quiet enough to lull him without distracting him as he made the final touches to his drawing before setting it down on the table. He’d not used charcoal much but light and shading were similar concepts regardless of the art medium and he thought he’d given the image the appropriate depth he’d wanted. It was a complete picture, not merely a sketch or someone's profile. The System seemed to agree as he got two Notifications, but he ignored them because as he’d set the book down, the subject of this drawing had been walking over to refill his drink and had caught sight of the image.

Valeria blushed furiously but couldn’t take her eyes off of the drawing. He’d drawn her behind her bar, hair up and drink in hand as she waved at the shadow that was meant to be another waitress. The bar, mugs and bottles were all drawn in but they were shaded in such a way to make them fade into the background, instead the focus on Valeria’s profile. He’d been very detailed in how he’d drawn her face and the resemblance was uncanny. A benefit of his high stats in intellect, creativity and dexterity he imagined. He loved that his Class made him a better artist.

Valeria opened her mouth once, then closed it, then opened it again, her words as honeyed as ever, “It’s a beautiful drawing m’...sir. Though I don’t know if I am a fitting subject for such a piece.”

“Do you like it?” He asked.

Valeria nodded a few times, unable to look at him as her eyes remained glued to the drawing.

Nate smiled. It was a nice feeling, to have someone appreciate your art. The sound of the page ripping as he tore it out of the book, keeping the drawing whole, broke the spell on Valeria and she looked up at him as he held out the drawing to her.

“It’s yours. Do with it as you will,” he said.

Valeria took the drawing hesitantly before one of the other waitresses moved over to take the jug she was holding. Valeria bobbed her head to him as she backed away.

“Thank you, sir,” she said quickly, before vanishing into the back of the inn. Whether to destroy the drawing or put it in something to protect it he wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter, he supposed. It was hers to do with now as she wished.

With that done he looked at his Notifications and smiled.

You’ve shown competency in a Skill.
Your achievement has been recorded.

Basic Drawing (Common)
Charcoal, Ink, Pastels, Blood, the mediums for drawing are many and you’ve discovered you’ve a knack for it. Useful for making maps, designing buildings or just for capturing the world so that others may see it as you do. Drawing is merely the method, what you do with it will define you, and perhaps, influence others. Adds part of the users DEX to the hand control while drawing. % of DEX increases with Skill Level. 1% per Level.

Skill Synergy discovered between your Basic Painting (Common) Skill and your Basic Drawing (Common) Skill. Combine these Skills to gain Novice Artist (Uncommon).
Proceed?

Walk your Path. Reach your Goal. Become One with Mana.

He’d been right. Thankfully he hadn’t needed to get a third artistic skill like sculpture. He’d be lying if he said he had any talent when it came to that area of art. But he’d been right and it was time to see what Skill Synergy looked like. Making his way to the stairs, he was so focused on getting to his room that he missed Valeria exiting the kitchen ,and the look she gave him as he ascended the stairs.