[Omen of the Witchblade] Chapter 85 — Sulfur and Stone

They made camp near a prismatic spring, surrounded by sulfurous pillars and crystalline trees.

Gwen loped around the perimeter, doing a quick search for ingredients. She was followed by an overly enthusiastic Hush, who was trying to learn what was edible in the area.

Mel smiled, watching the little snake flick his tongue at a crystalline apple Gwen was holding up to him. She felt bad that he hadn’t been able to join in the battle with the plateau beast, but she didn’t have the time to bring him out.

Even if she did…he was so small. He would’ve been immediately destroyed. And while that hardly appeared to bother the little guy, Mel was trying to strengthen him.

The best way she had learned how to do that was to keep him out as long as possible. A fact that was in direct opposition to her only method of lowering the cost and cooldown of summoning him.

One thing at a time.

It was nice having other people pitch in and teach him things, like he was an actual living creature.

Heath seemed pretty pleased with himself. He had successfully glided down the plateau, carrying the much bigger Berserker in his arms. The effect was rather spoiled by the fact that his face was super red the entire time.

“I totally have a chance!” he whispered, completely out of touch with reality.

“Nope,” Mel said bluntly. She truthfully couldn’t tell whether he was joking or not. Or maybe it was that he hit his head a bunch of times. In a way, she envied his ability to be so willing to take risks.

As if he was always excited about what would happen to him next.

“Wanna bet?” he asked, bouncing on his boots.

“Gwen’s not some prize,” Thomas said sternly.

“I know that!” Heath said. “But if she’s not taken, I gotta take my chance.”

“She’s taken.”

That caught Mel by surprise.

“By whom?” Heath asked, surprised as well. “Mel?”

The silence that followed was like a pall over the world. Heath and Thomas stared at one another, unblinking, with blank expressions on their faces. Then Thomas’ eye began to twitch with anger and Mel broke into a peal of laughter.

“Woah, are you cackling?” Heath asked.

“What? No!” On second thought, it did come out a little like a cackle, but she wasn’t going to backpedal now.

You’re not changing me, Witchblade!

Mel shook her head and sat down near the campfire. “I’m going to look over my loot from the tarikan. We finally have a moment of respite.”

The [Blitz Pearl] was an incredibly nice find, the second of its kind so far.

[Blitz Pearl]

(Catalyst, Pearl)

(Rare)

Over the Ages, impurities in ambient mana precipitate into solid motes, growing in size and power until they become pearls. Even the smallest of seeds yearn to be something great one day.

Imprint: Mix into an ampoule to create a new concoction. Enhances movement speed.

Paired up with a [Wind Ember], she imagined the resulting [Primeval Brew] would be something that could severely bolster movement speed.

It couldn’t possibly compare to the training boost that was being regularly mixed into her [Primeval Brew], but she couldn’t maintain a perfect uptime on that.

Might be worth doing when I’m waiting for the cooldown on my Blue training potion to expire.

High Copper was vastly stronger than plain ol’ Copper. That meant achieving Iron would be an even greater milestone.

The faster Mel got there, the better. Though she doubted it was possible during this trial. There wasn’t much time left, and it had taken her nearly two full months just to reach High Copper.

The last couple of weeks had been little else but hardcore training, hunting, and grinding with the aid of meditation and training items.

They were in the homestretch. With little hope of getting Iron by the time the trial ended, Mel wondered if she should be looking for [Primeval Brew] recipes that enhanced her martial prowess.

While she mulled that over, she pulled out the greaves from the tarikan.

[Greaves of the Lion]

(Copper Rank, Armor)

(Legendary)

The power of a plateau beast has seeped into these greaves, imparting a facet of its prowess.

Imprint: Greatly raises physical defense. Increases kick attacks. Reduces the mana expenditure of animal type aspect skills. Increases movement speed and traction in difficult terrain.

She immediately swapped her old [Rustwing Boots] out for the new, Legendary kicks. Not only were they newer and less dirty, but they looked more her style.

There was something aggressive about the gold ornamentation. Plus, they further reduced the mana cost of her Serpent aspect skills while retaining the highly effective imprint of her old boots.

I wonder if there’s a way to strip imprints from a piece of equipment and store it for later?

She felt there had to be a way to do it. It could be that her ritual to reduce armaments to scrap automatically pulled out imprints. She wasn’t about to risk it by using the scrap ritual on her boots just to test the theory though.

[Hunt Token]

(Currency)

A token awarded to those who have successfully taken down a Mark. Can be exchanged for items at any Hunter Society chapter house.

No idea what that is, but now I really want the trial to be over so I can find one!

Mel took out the [Kindling Branch of Celestial (Red)], rolling it over in her hands. It looked like it was about to explode any moment, but she knew from past experience that it wouldn’t. She wasn’t sure what Celestial and Red would do, but a part of her was curious to use it. Kindling branches were exceedingly rare. Did she really have the luxury of looking for a color and type that suited her better?

[Kindling Branch of Celestial (Red)]

(Aspect Skill Item)

(Epic)

A charred branch from the Eternal Tree. Smoldering red embers fill the air with a sense of impending violence. The unmistakable Celestial vastness within the branch appears to contain far more than its physical form could ever hold.

Imprint: Use to unlock a Celestial type aspect skill of the Red variety.

Still, she couldn’t help but be a little bummed about it. “I wanted Violet,” she muttered. Some of her best aspect skills were Violet.

[Avatar of Askara] and [Sanguine Coat] were both Violet types, and they were flippin’ amazing. Yellow wouldn’t be bad either, now that her Witchblade class made her afflictions stronger. Plus, [Bane of Tartarus] and [Omen Mark] were Yellow.

Hush slithered over with a crystalline apple in his mouth. He dropped it into her lap and looked up at her with unmistakable excitement.

Even now, it was surprising to see that on a snake’s features. While she knew for a long time that there were mythical creatures out there that exhibited behaviors and intellect beyond what Earth normies understood, it was still wild.

She patted his head, which seemed to go over well. Hush hissed happily and curled up in a loose coil beside her knee.

Gwen lounged by the fire, a heap of crystalline ingredients laid out for anyone to try.

Heath picked up a piece of crystallized wood from the pile. “Huh, this is kind of like one of those training branches. Just says it’s a crafting ingredient though.”

“I tried to freeze it,” Gwen admitted, brushing some shards off her side. “It exploded.”

Heath’s eyes widened. “Cool.”

Thomas stepped between them. He used a long crystalline stick to just sort of…push Heath aside, then sat down in his place.

“Hey!” Heath said.

Thomas ignored him and took out a kindling branch. Mel’s eyes snapped to the Violet motes drifting off it.

“I’ll trade you!” Mel shouted at Thomas.

He looked at the kindling branch, then at Mel. “I figured you’d try to bum it off me somehow.”

Mel shook her head, raising her Red kindling branch. “Tradesies? It’s a Red Celestial type.”

Thomas looked at her, then at the branch. He turned to Gwen. “Did you want to trade as well?”

She shook her head. “I already told you both that I’m giving the next branch to Mel. She’s only got six skills. You already have double that.”

Thomas frowned, looking down at his Violet branch. Mel could see he didn’t want to give it up. She didn’t blame him. Branches were incredibly rare and if his theory was right about reaching Iron, they would all need a lot more.

His other theory, that they would get a kindling branch if they would have otherwise gotten an aspect gem, had already been disproven. Mel kind of hoped he was wrong about Iron as well.

How many aspect skills they would need was anybody’s guess. Maybe they were capped at four aspect skills each, or maybe there wasn’t a cap at all.

“Are you sure you want to trade a Red for a Violet?” Thomas asked. “This is an Enchantment type. I didn’t think you’d want it.”

Mel reached her hand out over the flames, opening and closing her hand like a toddler. “Gib.”

“You got a deal,” Thomas said, trading his branch for hers.

[Kindling Branch of Enchantment (Violet)]

(Aspect Skill Item)

(Epic)

A charred branch from the Eternal Tree. Violet embers flicker in and out of existence from its smoldering remains. Intricate carvings decorate the unburnt sections of the branch, each runic symbol shining with dazzling inner light.

Imprint: Use to unlock an Enchantment type aspect skill of the Violet variety.

“Hope you get something good,” Gwen told them both.

Mel and Thomas used their branches at the same time.

Please select an aspect skill to awaken: Divine, Mist, Blood, Serpent, Omen.

Crap, I forgot about that.

Mel had a Violet Blood and Serpent skill. She wasn’t entirely sure if there were limits to that sort of thing, but she didn’t want to potentially imbalance herself by having too much of one color in a given aspect.

Not until she understood Chroma and the colors better at least.

That left Mist, Omen, and Divine.

Violet skills created something tangible in the real world. Not quite summoning, but close.

While creating a literal summonable divinity would be awesome–or a spirit of some kind–she couldn’t imagine what that would be. The same went for Omen. On top of the fact that Omen was tied with Divine as her weakest aspect.

Thinking about Omen made her remember just how high her agility and Mist were. Why should her weakest aspect get two skills when her strongest only had one?

[Hidden Mist] was useful, but it wasn’t exactly the flashiest thing in the world. Plus, everybody and their mother seemed to know how to deal with her [Hidden Mist] by now. She needed something new.

Mel picked Mist aspect.

You awaken the [Condensate] Mist aspect skill.

[Condensate]

(Mist Aspect)

(Copper, Violet/Ability)

(Grade 1 [0%])

Cost: Modest Mana

Cooldown: Long

Condense hardened nails of mana within your environment, using their intrinsic connection to pull or push yourself toward or away from any single nail.

Imprint(Copper Rank): Conjure up to three nails embedded in a surface you can perceive up to 50 feet away. Using your mana, you can pull or push yourself from any nail(s) you choose. The surface each nail is adhered to must be strong enough to support your added inertial weight.

Mel’s eyes widened. Wondering if it really was that easy, she conjured a nail in her cupped hand.

Sweet.

That got everyone’s attention. They could see the Shardscript prompt of an aspect skill being used.

“Would you hold this?” she asked Gwen, who took it without question. “Just don’t let go, please.”

There was no telling how it would react without being embedded in something. She hadn’t thought it would work by just creating a nail, but there was nothing in the imprint saying it wouldn’t.

Mel was nothing if not thorough, especially when it came to her own powers. Being able to conjure the nails without having to place them in something opened up countless possibilities that she couldn’t even fathom at the moment.

“Please?” Gwen laughed lightly at that. “How unlike—”

Mel was too excited to bother wondering what else she was going to say.

Channeling her mana, Mel pushed on the nail and went flying end over end, smacking upside down into a tree. Gwen, unfortunately staring at the nail in her fist, yelled out as her fist was pushed back from the force of Mel’s leap.

Mel made Gwen punch herself in the face.

They both groaned on the ground, clutching their faces over thirty feet apart.