[Beastborne: Voracious] (Book 5) Chapter 19

Hal dreamed.

Having been marked by the Kindred of Dream herself, his dreams were something more than the standard fare. That wasn’t to say they were prophetic or deeply insightful. No, instead they offered him ideas and possibilities that he had never thought of before.

It was rather strange, now that the potential was laid out before him.

His Bonecrafting was a unique crafting skill, one he could—and should—hone alongside his newer Aetherochemy. In fact, as he watched the shifting scenes of potentiality play out before him, he understood there might actually be a way to combine them.

And that didn’t end at just the two skills. He could combine other skills as well. The ingredients needed would be difficult to find and were undoubtedly painfully rare, but if he could collapse a few choice skills into one, it would be a game changer.

There was already so much that Hal had to manage every single day, if he could reduce his load even a little it would be a massive improvement.

These dreams were better than the ones that showed him Besal training and fighting for his life. Through them, Hal came to understand the sacrifice Besal had made in severing their ties. He could have tried to siphon from Hal, not out of malice, but out of need.

Hal didn’t think he could have denied him that. And he didn’t want to think of the outcomes that would result from that weakness.

He wanted Besal to live. He was a friend, a brother. And the last thing he wanted was to hurt him.

But with everything coming for him, he didn’t have the time to be weakened or hurt. He was already weak enough from the [Kol’thil Bleed] and his locked essences.

Seeing what he could do with [Aetherochemy] had him realizing just how closed off he was from what was possible. But he had things to do first. The Settlement needed seeing to, and he needed to get rid of that damned [Kol’thil Bleed] once and for all.

That, before anything else, was his new high priority. With that gone, he could train up his sigils properly and even absorb the ones that had been waiting all this time.

A deep, dark, soul-sucking memory of the Abyss drifted up across his vision and he slammed it back into the depths of his memory where it belonged.

He didn’t want to remember that lightless, horrible place. He had no idea how the Balesian Mages survived it and, truthfully, didn’t care. He never wanted to return there, and yet if Mithtir was to be believed… he carried a piece of the Abyss with him wherever he went.

That wasn’t exactly inspiring.

Despite his desire to never see the Abyss, he would like to speak with the Balesian Council again. They had seemed deeply insightful, and it was through their help, specifically Feril Ironbound’s aid, that Brightsong existed in the first place.

Hal would never have been able to turn the tides of the battle without the borrowed Iron Sigils.

He wished he could thank the man, even pull him out of those lightless depths. Their leader, Calamavi with the Prismatic Kol’thil, seemed kind and grandfatherly.

In fact, all of them seemed rather nice for people stuck in such a horrible place for thousands of years or more. All except Mithtir, whom he seemed to attract at the worst moments.

He still remembered the man, startled and surprised at seeing the Drakst. He had thought there was no way Hal could have defeated it, and it had felt so good to prove him wrong.

Maybe I should go check on the Dungeon and the Drakst, Hal thought.aHal

And that thought alone opened up the floodgates. In poured all the myriad responsibilities he had weighing on him.

For once, Hal didn’t let it get to him. He let them rattle off to the end of the list and carefully took note of each thing.

There was so much, but he had a capable council that could take a massive load off his shoulders and if he just focused on one thing at a time, he could get through the entire thing before long.

I have to get up first, he told himself.

Perhaps it was his contact with Dream, but Hal found that he could wake up at will most nights since their meeting. He also felt a strange tug just beyond his navel. It was an odd sensation and following it, he found that it led all the way to the Memoria Crystal and its tether to Aldim’s smallest moon, Hemel.

Disappearing from wherever it was Noth likely had him resting would be a horrible thing to do to his friends, and yet the allure was still there. Bright and shiny.

As dangerous and horrible as the place was, Hal liked that it was remote and utterly alone. It was his fortress of solitude, though it was really more like a shack.

And the distance between the Memoria Crystal and the half-room he had was too far to traverse easily. Granted, if he didn’t have to worry about safeguarding Komachi and Vorax… perhaps it would be easier.

There was always that hunger from Beastborne that told him the monsters there, while immensely powerful, were too juicy to pass up. If he could kill even a single one, he could harvest its essence and grow stronger.

Levels were getting harder and harder to come by for Beastborne. Fighting something far beyond his level might just be the ticket to getting out of the rut he felt he was in.

I wonder if this happens on other Worldshards? Do they also slow down and stop leveling up as fast, or do they just continually accelerate until people commonly have Levels in the thousands?

Hal would like to see one of those Shards.

Okay, time to get up for real this time.

Voices were always the first thing that came to him as he woke up from whatever ill that had plagued him. Hal had never been a very healthy child growing up, but even the constant doctor’s visits and days out of school seemed to pale at how often he was hurt on Aldim.

It wasn’t the same, however, because he always rebounded stronger and better than before, which he could not have said for Earth-based illnesses. Some days, he wondered how his old home was getting along.

From what little Midarian had told to him about, they had some good TV shows, but that was about it. He had left early in 2019, and aside from a few shows, he seemed to have missed nothing of importance.

As the voices of his friends filtered around him, Hal felt a pair of hands grab his shoulders and pull him up into a hug. He wrapped his arms around the familiar body, breathed deeply of her comforting scent and let himself just exist for a moment.

“Hal,” Noth whispered, “you are okay?”

He nodded and steeled himself for facing the day ahead of him. Noth gripped him a little tighter before letting go.

The first thing Hal noticed was how clear everything was. Something was wrong, but what?

“Hey there, Brown Eyes,” Mira said, coming into the small room.

He looked around curiously. This was not a place he remembered. Noth handed him a small hand mirror, however, and all thoughts flew from his head as he stared into a face that he had nearly forgotten.

He had brown eyes again. Dark coffee-brown eyes!

“You look like a proper Founder again,” Elora told him, sitting at a small table and bouncing Komachi on her lap. The little pobul was curled up in a blanket and fast asleep, though whenever Elora stopped bouncing her knee, the pobul woke up and glared with one eye until she started again.

Just to be sure, Hal felt his face and saw the motion in the mirror. He handed it back to Noth. “Thank you.” He turned to the majority of his council. “I’m sorry to have worried you, but I assure you I’m quite all right. In fact, I’ve never felt better.”

“I imagine having eyes that don’t keep your significant other awake at night is a bonus,” Angram said with a snort.

“At least he never needed a night light,” Mira chimed in.

“Okay, har, har,” Hal said, getting to his feet and surprised to find them so steady. Thank you, Besal.

He really did feel quite good. It wasn’t normal that he was so ready to seize the day. He could have gone a few rounds with Orrittam and Naitese right then and there, but training his dragonfire would need to wait.

“Since most of you are here already, if you don’t mind, I’d like to continue where I so rudely left off.”

Hal explained what his plans for Brightsong were. What the deal with Orrittam and Naitese meant for everybody, and what he was doing to safeguard their future.

With the tribes of the Shiverglades coming in a matter of weeks or less, Hal was pushing for some major changes and improvements. On that front, he was more than elated to hear about their newest member, Hamrin. The Gourmage, as they called him, seemed like a gift sent from the heavens.

Scavenging, foraging, and hunting were only possible with a small group of people. There were many people suffering under the Founder that Hal could shelter here, but they needed a steady supply of food and water first.

Water was easy enough; it was all around them. Even as the place turned to ice and snow, they only needed to dig deep enough to reach a massive supply of fresh water.

With the Ancient Dungeon nearby, Brightsong could also attract adventurers looking to Level Up and increase their strength. The loot from the Dungeons could be spent in their small town and then leveraged to upgrade the town further into something more.

All of that, of course, started with having properly secured borders and secured food. Without those two things, nobody would come and those that came wouldn’t stay long.

Hal told all of this to the council and listened to their ideas, their complaints, and their hopes for what they could do.

As the Quartermaster, Rondo knew enough about their stores of materials to be able to give a list of the items necessary to see this happen in the timeframe that Hal wished.

It wasn’t impossible, but it would take a concerted effort from every single person here.

Hal was more than happy with that. Once he had his [Kol’thil Bleed] under control, he could help even more. And while many other people were busy gathering materials needed, he could make the more exotic ones out of bone.

“That changes quite a lot,” Rondo said, readjusting his list. “If I brought you some rare items we have a low supply of, do you think you could create something similar?”

“I could sure try,” Hal told him.

The gnome brightened considerably.

Your Leadership has risen to Level 56 (61).

+1% Party damage (+61%).

+2% Leadership efficacy (+122%).

Hal looked at the prompt and frowned. Do I really need to see the total? I mean, it’s pretty simple math. Just looking at the bonus and the Level gives me a good enough idea.

With a little mental nudge, the System—Hal shook his head and reminded himself it was really Shardscript, not a System Prompt—now displayed something a little less annoying to look at.

Which was just as well because with his Founder Advancement from Leadership, every even Level of Leadership gave him a Level in his Manatree Skill.

Your Manatree Skill has risen to Level 25.

+3% Manatree Spell Potency.

Much better.

Hal deeply appreciated the Founder Advancement. It just fit. And it didn’t hurt that every even level would give him a Manatree Skill Level, and every odd gave him additional Experience.

The meeting, finished after a brief delay, finally concluded. Hal thanked everybody involved in getting him this cottage. It was a very sweet gesture and, although he didn’t like to admit it, he agreed with their reasoning for it. Some of the dwarves expected him to be mad about it, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Everybody went their separate ways except for Noth and, curiously enough, Mira.

The Dragoon stepped up and put a hand on her hip. “I hear you’ve been training with the dragons.”

“I have,” Hal said, getting to his feet again and stretching out his neck by rolling it back and forth. “I was actually about to go talk to them. You coming?”

Mira glanced at Noth almost as if asking for permission, but before Noth could make any sort of answer, Mira said, “Sure, sounds like fun!”