One month later.

Spring was in full swing. Birds sang, flowers had bloomed to turn the grass into colorful carpets. Local insects that looked suspiciously like bumblebees buzzed around. The air was filled with cries of things trying to eat and fuck each other. It was all very distracting.

Viv closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The clearing she had used to test her blight spell was now a nice meadow dotted with plant arrangements that Varska had curated to make the place more zen. Or the Helock equivalent, whatever. It was nice.

Viv breathed carefully and extended a hand. Gestures were important until you got a good feel for it. She felt her own mana push out and willed the color to remain trapped inside.

It was an extremely complex feeling of separation, akin to feeling in two places at the same time. It was also unnatural, in the sense that she had to go against those instincts that made her so good at manipulating black mana. It had taken her weeks of effort to get it right.

Colorless mana gathered in a ball in her hand. Contrary to its black equivalent, this one was tame. No, more than tame. It was not ‘alive’.

Viv compared her experience to using software. Colors were the normal, basic functions. They were what the creator of the software had made available to the users. Thus, using colored mana felt natural to most casters, because they were manipulating the consciousness of Nyil in ways that it allowed.

Moving colorless mana was like delving into the programming of the software and changing its functions. Playing with the code, so to speak. With her experience of intellectual property rights Viv almost expected a sort of resistance from Nyil itself but it was not the case. Colorless mana just felt… neutral. Indifferent. It was not so much reluctance as inertia that made it difficult to yield.

Viv infused the energy in a pair of linked ‘seek’ and ‘north’ glyphs, and watched as the sphere flattened and gained an arrow pointing in front of her, to the deadlands.

“Yay, it worked.”

It was completely useless as things went for now, but, well. Progress. She checked her stats.

Current status:

Mana channels (apprentice mage) Extreme compatibility Divine spark: luck Draconic Surrogate Mother

Mana distribution:

Black 100%

Current attunement: 19.1%

Her attunement had increased again, which was a consequence of her constant training. The more attuned she was, and the more complex and powerful spells she could cast. Varska had talked about strategic spells that could change the weather for weeks, alter the course of a river or raze a small city. Those were still far away though.

Her mana channels had also improved. Besides helping her cast faster, it also made overcasting less likely. She could exert herself for longer periods of time without falling. The better her channels were, and the easier she could exhaust and recharge her mana without burning out. It helped with her training since she could keep going for longer periods of time.

Sometimes, Draconic Surrogate Mother appeared as Draconic Surrogate Mommy when she summoned the interface, but it changed back to normal when she took a second look.

Both Finesse and Power had improved as a result of her favorite way of recharging mana: meditative trance. She would go through a series of complex and relaxing motions under Solfis’ direction. He had taught her a sort of soft martial art designed for casters, as far as she could tell, and it had the advantage of providing a full body workout. Kind of like dancing.

Solfis and Varska agreed that most adults plateaued at the low twenties in stats that had a limited impact on their career. After fifty years, dedicated people could get to thirty or above across the board. That meant that someone like Gogen must really have started low to still be so simple. Possibly, she was a little bit daft.

Her Focus and Acuity had risen by two and Willpower by one. That was the result of a strict daily training regimen that would have driven her crazy, were it not for how well-tailored it was to her abilities and mood. Even then, very few people could match that incredible speed. She could thank her two bossy trainers and her traveler’s blessing for such stellar progress.

General skills

Polymath

Beginner 3

Athletics

Intermediate 2

Survival

Intermediate 1

Householding

Apprentice 8

Hand to hand combat

Apprentice 6

Pain tolerance

Intermediate 8

Small blades

Beginner 7

Intimidation

Intermediate 2

None of her general skills had progressed. That was expected. For Nyil to offer a reward, one had to show dedication, and Viv simply had no time to work on anything but magic. All her efforts had gone towards her path skills.

Path skills

Meditative Trance

Expert 1

Mana manipulation

Intermediate 2

Mana sense

Intermediate 1

Danger sense

Apprentice 3

Mana absorption

Intermediate 2

All her skills had reached the third tier, except for Danger Sense which lagged behind. She had only reached apprentice by attending an expedition in the deadlands to rid a specific area of burrowing undead centipedes. There was no way to train easily in Kazar.

Not because of a lack of techniques. Solfis was sure that he could have her improve.

It was because of Arthur.

First, the tiny dragon’s intuition and senses were simply off the chart. She could feel a trap coming from miles away and warned Viv every time. Second, she attacked whoever tried anything. Spars were ok, somehow. Surprise attacks were not. The only thing they could do was to burrow traps in training areas for Viv to fall into. It was inefficient, but Viv refused to confine Arthur while she trained.

The last interesting thing was path progression.

Black Witch 1/5

She had reached that milestone after learning her fiftieth glyph or so. It did not feel that significant, and perhaps it was not, but she imagined that a proper witch would have some flexibility in her casting.

According to Varska and Solfis, the third step on the path was where a lot of people were stuck for a long time. It required an advanced mastery of one’s chosen field to move on, and that was also why most folks branched out once afterward. Varska was considered a promising genius for reaching the fourth step at such a young age.

Viv closed her eyes and refocused on the world outside. The compass she had created still hung in the air by her side. She felt a dim connection to it, one she could keep alive with minimal effort.

Viv willed the orb to disappear and stood up. It was time to go to a more practical part of the training.

Then Arthur landed by her side and rubbed her own forehead.

Arthur kept growing up and the amount of meat required to feed her meant regular hunts at the edge of the forest. She could now reach Viv’s navel when sitting on her hind legs. Surprisingly, she was still light enough for Viv to carry easily. Her wings were huge too.

One notable difference was that her horns were growing. Dragons had one set of horns curving back from above their head to protect their neck, but they also had horns above their eyes that only came out later. As to why, Viv wasn’t sure. For now, only two black spines poked out

They were apparently very itchy.

“There, there.”

Viv massaged the scaly skin around the nubs, gently at first, then deeper as Arthur relaxed.

“Squee,” Arthur signaled, bringing Viv’s ministrations to an end.

“Alright then.”

Varska had some knowledge on dragons from her youth in Helock. There was, in fact, extensive documentation on the massive creatures. Unfortunately, most of them were historical recountings of conflicts and strategy books. There was not a single book about dragon-rearing in the entire Param continent. Of this, the smooth mage was sure.

“Guess it’s up to me, then,” Viv muttered to herself. But writing would come later. Now, it was time to empty her channels by casting powerful spells. Solfis addressed her from the edge of the clearing.

//The target is set up, Your Grace.

Viv looked down towards Kazar to see a standing target made of a stone held up by several logs. Marruk stood nearby, hands on her waist and wheezing quite loudly. Viv whistled, and the stout Kark gave a sign and moved away.

Viv was almost entirely confident in her aim, but it still irked her to shoot a spell with friendly people downrange. That was just wrong.

Viv poured power into a sphere, then drew the runes for projection, distance, and power on it, then she infused it with the meaning of destruction.

The sphere was perfectly silent as it formed, like most of Viv’s spells. Sweat grew on her brow as her mind stretched to the limit. The task was as complicated as juggling several equations at the same time. It would have been impossible for her only three months ago but now it was just a strenuous exercise.

Black mana was as eager and willing as ever. Getting better at manipulating did not change it, or make it grow. It changed her. It made her understand and coax the flow better. Nyil, the world, offered the power, Nous, God of Magic, offered the path to use it through the interface. It was up to Viv to make use of the opportunity.

“Arty.”

The sphere veered like a comet, arching beautifully throughout the air on a tail of pure darkness.

And Viv finally saw a kid running up the path behind it.

Viv’s focus wavered. The spell lost cohesion in that very moment. Viv gritted her teeth and, through a supreme effort of will, breathed back life in frayed connections. The baleful projectile went through the target without stopping and crashed heavily in the grass beyond, taking a chunk of wood on the way. The running boy stopped dead in his tracks although the spell never even came close to him. Marruk had moved towards him just in case, but in truth there had been no real danger.

Not that Viv was going to admit it.

“What the fuck were you thinking?!” she bellowed. Everyone knew that she used this place to train. She had no official right to do so but she was on public land, and no one in their right mind could watch someone shear off a rock with the power of their mind and bitch about it to their face. Even the guards gave her a wide berth. So what was the little twerp doing here?

To her surprise, not only did the boy not run away, he actually tried to reach her. Marruk gently stopped him with a hand. He started babbling. Viv closed the distance.

As she looked on more, she could tell that the boy was young, probably around ten or something. She was not very good with kids’ age. He wore the typical undyed loose pants and shirt combo of the Kazaran children. His sleeve was torn off and he was bleeding a little bit. He was also completely out of breath.

“Yes? What’s going on?” Viv asked.

The boy stepped back, dark eyes bloodshot and red from crying. He frantically recovered a dusty pouch from his one pocket and shook the thing in front of Viv’s nose.

“You are for hire, right? The temple hired you and so did the Baranese, right? That’s what my Ma said.”

“Hm. Yes?”

“I want to hire you! I’m serious! I got…”

He opened the grubby pouch and spilled the contents in the palm of his hand. It was a meager prize.

“... six iron bits, a real nice pink stone and half of a real core, I swear!”

It was a piece of quartz. Viv was sure.

“And what task did you have in mind?”

“My friend and his sis. They were with me. We got ambushed by beastlings!”

He spat on the side of the road.

“We got split up. I think they could still be alive. Please, help me find them. Please!”

“The guards won’t help?” Viv asked, surprised.

The boy tried to spit again but he had run out of saliva and just sort of did a ‘pblblb’ sound.

“Those good-for-nothings won’t help unless it’s a real threat to Kazar. Please… it’s already been ten minutes.”

Viv could not find a reason not to try.

She could not let a kid die.

She knew that helping now meant that she would be helping again but, come on. A kid.

“Alright. Lead the way, quickly.”

Viv expected Marruk to complain but the tall Kark woman was already running to get Solfis. It was, apparently, time to hunt.

But Viv knew why the guards would not have helped.

Beastlings did not take prisoners.