January 31, 2019, 1:11 pm. Shortly before being drowned in a grown K'tharn's tears.

Luckily, Kellica's tears are short lived as she wipes them away, saying, "Thank you. I... Sorry, I didn't think you'd include me."

Not the reaction I expected. Didn't even occur to me that it'd matter. I'll admit, despite my mom's attempts, I never felt like the odd kid out when it came to group activities. Was always more worried about her than what anybody else thought of me.

Yay, fringe benefits?

"No problem. You're here and part of the team," I say, waving my hand at the rest of the building. "But I didn't even get to the cool part."

"Oh?" Roberts asks, setting aside a book he was paging through.

"Yeah, I made a bathhouse! Even has showers, just add water. And heat, if you want it. Okay, so it's not perfect," I say, waving that away. "But it's private. And we all have magic now anyway."

"Hmm. Love it," Rufka says, stepping up and pulling me against her. Then she whispers so quietly it sends a chill down my spine. "Perfect size for two."

I... that hadn't been something I'd considered when designing the baths. I just wanted it to be big enough to stretch out in. But I don't tell Rufka that, snuggling against her instead.

Our inspection of the bathhouse is cut short when Smoulder decides to test how well it will work as an obstacle course. Instead of trying to convince her otherwise, I just create more of a course off to the side that's actually a challenge for her, using as many elements as she can handle. Which at this point is most of them. Right as I create a veil of twilight to make it harder for her to see the waterslicked ice near the peak, I get a notification.

"Hidden Objective completed. Requirement: Use all nine elements at once. Rewards: 9 iron rank integration points, 9 Mana edge."

Unlike the previous rewards, I can actually feel the difference this time. A small reduction in the amount of mana it takes me to finish Smoulder's obstacle course.

Analyzing the bathhouse, I get the notification I was waiting for.

"Object analyzed: Bathhouse. Iron-grade structure. Built by user Pandora."

"Quest objective completed: If You Build It, They Won't Come. Rewards: 7 iron rank integration points."

"Quest updated: If You Build It, They Won't Come. Description: Create structures that will endure for ages. Requirements: Create 0/5 copper grade structures using Stone Manipulation, raise Stone Shaping skill 100/200. Reward: 21 copper-rank integration points. Variable."

Nice. More than enough points to get my Resolve all the way to 110. And I can max Agility too, since it only goes to 100. Which is still way more than I would've expected back on earth.

Turning to the others, I tell them about the hidden quest objective, which leads to several of them starting experiments. And shows me how much harder it is for other people to use more than one element at a time. Well, more than four. It's pretty easy to use elements that have some kind of synergy, like ice and water. Or even water and lightning. But using water and fire at the same time?

Apparently, not so easy.

So, while Kellica leaves to continue her unfinished trials, I start trying to teach the others how to use all nine elements at once. Which leads back into me trying to teach them how to use Twilight.

"This should be handled by the ring," Rufka says, not for the first time as I try to help her get the basics by adjusting the colour of her disguise ring's fur. But it's not working.

"Perhaps something smaller in scope?" Roberts suggests while tapping his steepled fingers against his chin.

"Oh! Good idea. I just did my eyes the first time I experimented with Twilight," I say, causing Rufka to squint at me. I blush, but wave it off with a smile.

Rufka closes all four of her eyes for a few seconds, and when she opens them, they're the same dusky yellow I associate with Twilight.

"Good job," I tell her, squeezing her shoulder. "You made your eyes Twilight!"

"I... That doesn't sound like they're blue. I wanted blue," Rufka states, crossing her arms as she closes her eyes again. Tilting my head to the side, I hear Tipan giggling behind me as Rufka waves me away.

She remains like that, her eyes Flashing between colours as I work with Tipan and Roberts to use multiple elements at once, now that they've also unlocked Twilight by altering Tipan's disguise ring.

Which turns out to be easy. Just add a touch of Twilight. As long as there's a little bit of Twilight mana in the working, they're able to hold different elements in place longer.

By the time Kellica has finished her trials, everyone has completed the hidden objective. Even Rose, despite his wonky System. Not Smoulder, of course. That would be wrong. Or that's the impression I get from her anyway.

We don't have time to finish teaching Kellica before the next boss fight triggers. Again, we're surrounded by a bunch of elementals. These ones are strong enough that the single blast doesn't completely destroy all of them. The Ice and metal ones each take two shots.

As I drop out of pause, Roberts chuckles. "I expected this to be much harder."

I nod as I read the system notification.

"Zone Quest Hidden objective completed: Challenge Requested, Challenge Given. Hidden requirement: Complete all Lesser Challenges without failing. Rewards: 2.4 Mana Edge."

Okay, the Mana Edge reward is going up. That's good. We're going to have a lot of Mana Edge by the time we finish.

"Objective completed: Challenge Requested, Challenge Given. Defeat the Lesser Elementals. Rewards: 10 iron rank integration points, 1 iron rank class progression point."

"Quest updated: Challenge Requested, Challenge Given. Requirements: 3/3 days remaining."

Wait, did it... It reduced our remaining time available. Again.

I can't help but squint at Roberts even as I move to open my status. Pretty sure this one's on him.

With my status open, I drop the point into my class and look at my new ability.

"Limits of Mortality: Each different element used against a target will reduce their resistance against spells of all other elements. This effect can be applied once using each element."

Yep. Absolutely taking that.

Then I drop the rest of my points into Endurance... But I pause before I confirm, then move them over to Strength and Constitution. More health is good for keeping Alexis alive.

STATUS

Class: Cataclysm Seed

Level: Iron-8

ATTRIBUTES

Strength: 50 > 55

Constitution: 50 > 60

Agility: 90 > 100

Endurance: 60

Intellect: 125

Spirit: 125

Perception: 106. > 110.

Resolve: 106. > 110.

Integration Points: 0

Progression Tokens: 0

Advancement Crests: 0

Storage: 7.94 > 8.45 Cubic meters

Bonded Armour: 3/6 > 3/7

RESOURCES

Health

Pool: 454/474 > 454/514

Edge: [31.6] > [34.3]

Regen: (339/day) > (381/day)

Stamina

Pool: 475/485 > 475/514

Edge: [36.7] > [39.8]

Regen: (401/day) > (415/day)

Mana

Pool: 1070/1123 > 1070/1144

Edge: [85.8] > [103]

Regen: (1056/day) > (1080/day)

Focus

Pool: 1050/1117 > 1050/1149

Edge: [80.7] > [82.6]

Regen: (1011/day) > (1053/day)

Matrix Resources

Facet

Pool: 338/370 > 338/376

Edge: [25] > [25.3]

Regen: (312/hour) > (320/hour)

Yep. Nice to see that go up. Not at all regretting that my cap is lower than it would be with most other classes. Nope.

Wonder if I could set up a reflexive time stop for if I get reduced to less than half health? I've found other ways to interact with the interface. I should talk to Wyonna. And Genitha.

I've only just messaged Wyonna when Rufka collapses on the lawn, clutching her stomach while letting out great peals of laughter.

Even as Wyonna tells me she'll think about how we might execute the emergency time-pause, I move over to Rufka.

Kneeling down, I look around as I ask her, "Uhm, did I miss the joke?"

"I..." Rufka tries to respond, but then starts laughing again. It takes her three minutes and twenty-two seconds to calm down enough to finally get out the words, "I did it. Finally, did it."

"Did... What?" I ask, her hand held in mine.

"I finally unlocked an upgrade for my class!"

Pulling Rufka off the grassy surface of the floating Island, I brush a strand out of her hair as I ask, "What sort of class upgrade did you unlock? Are you taking it?"

She pulls me into a hug, answering my questions over my shoulder. "Astra's Sheath. And no, I'm not taking it. At least, not yet. But it lets me see the conditions. And now maybe I'll be able to figure out some more upgrade paths. Then I'll finally be rid of this Vaus-damned class."

There's something special about her swearing about a god-named class using another god's name. But I don't comment on it.

For all of two seconds.

"Vaus-damned Chosen of Astra, huh?" I tease, tweaking her nose while referring to her unupgraded class.

Rufka just rolls her eyes, which is far more forgiving than she should be.

She spends the next few minutes fielding questions from the rest of the party while I help Kellica. Though I do listen in. Turns out that completing ten hidden objectives was the main requirement. But one of the others was completing a specific dungeon that's not even there anymore.

"Does that happen often? Dungeons disappearing, I mean?" I ask as Kellica squeezes her eyes closed for the seventh time.

I meant it for Rufka, but Kellica answers instead. "It's not actually gone. We just don't know the entrance requirements. Just like with Elementalist’s Peak."

Her eyes open, and she's frowning as she looks over to the others. "There are a lot of dungeons like that. Usually they're more dangerous. A lot of K'tharn don't come back from hidden dungeons."

"Oh?" I reply, watching as Kellica manages to lose her focus again.

"Of course. Every Taken is taught which myths to avoid," Kellica says, even as she closes her eyes to try again. I'll say this for her, she does have a good work ethic.

We continue working for another few minutes, and it's only when I decide to take a different approach that we're able to make any progress. Instead of just having her make the changes herself, I start doing it for her, while being wasteful with the mana so she can detect it. Well, I'm wasteful on the third attempt. My first two were so subtle and efficient she didn't even notice.

It works, Kellica managing to complete a small orb of disparate elemental energy. Her eyes take on that distant stare of notification reading for all of 0.1 seconds before she whoops out a cheer. Then she schools her face as she turns, bowing to me. "Thank you for your instruction, tel'thoni."

Welp, there's a word I never expected to be heard applied to me. Pretty sure Tipan would die to have Genitha as her great teacher. But only cause she can come back to life now that she's purchased the Resurrection ability. First thing her and Rufka did after they became Citizens.

"Uhh. You're welcome," I say, patting her shoulder awkwardly.

Before I can say more, Rufka's nabbed me away, pulling me towards the bathhouse. "Bout time you're done. We need to break in the bath."

Glancing back at the entire rest of the party, who are all watching as Rufka steers me towards the relative privacy of the bath, I can't help but have my face go red.

Maybe I can make the walls thicker.

That might not help with my embarrassment, but it'll keep anyone from overhearing us.