Chapter 30: Dangers of [Affinity]

At half past two in the morning, Crimson’s thoughts amounted to one thing: ‘well, that was a lie.’ He’d peacefully gone to bed at roughly ten pm, a fairly normal time for him, but he’d woken up at two, and hadn’t been able to fall back asleep in the half hour since.

He had gotten a full night’s rest in four hours.

Crimson, after logically putting the pieces together, realized it was obvious to him that a high [Affinity] for [Mana] somehow meant that he needed to sleep less. At a guess, he’d also probably need to eat less from now on. That guess was the result of experience - ever since he’d gotten his [Blessing] he’d needed to eat more than before it, but now his appetite would probably decrease once more.

Why?

He had no clue!

At best guess - and running under the assumption that mana is a form of spiritual power - then he needed less physical energy to support his body, so items like sleep and food which both help the body recover and gain energy became far less important. He didn’t have enough evidence to prove or deny this theory, so he elected to accept it as the truth until proven otherwise.

With a sigh, he rubbed his eyes, then sat up. He had wanted to ask Nav about items of Wolfkin culture, things to do or to avoid, but he’d never had the opportunity. Because of that, it was for the best if he didn’t go for a morning run - he might seem suspicious to the alert wolfkin. It was probably also for the best if he didn’t really interact with any other wolfkin until he knew what would and wouldn’t offend them.

He walked to the front room and went to the fire place. Because of all the furs and decorations on the wall, the heat had been insulated pretty well, and it wasn’t very cold, but he wanted something to do, and tending the fire wasn’t a horrible idea - especially when he was confident he could keep it running purely with magic and avoid wasting firewood.

With a flick of his fingers, he built, then cast the [Kindle] spell. From there, he spent half an hour tweaking with and messing with the spell until it did more than create some sparks like flint.

It was pretty much just a candle, but he couldn’t expand it any more, so he dismissed the spell and sat back to let his mana to recover. In the dark room, he thought about Alois.

With the way that [Affinities] work, just having an [Affinity] to [Void] wouldn’t be a problem, it was the fact that it was also paired with an [Antithesis] to [Mana]. If he even had just a Rank 5 [Affinity] to [Mana] there would have absolutely never been an issue, but from asking, he’d found that he had a Rank 2 [Affinity]. To understand how dangerous that was, if it was Rank 1, he would be dead outright. It seemed that his [Blessing] was both killing him and keeping him alive at the same time.

It was killing him because [Affinities] are fluid before the [Blessing] is received. They can even change day by day as the person changes, but after the [Blessing] is received, they’re stabilized. It’s still possible for them to change, but the conditions are few in number and difficult to achieve.

It was keeping him alive because leveling up increases life span. Even with his [Affinities] killing him, the rewards he’d received for reaching Level 50 should have given him years of life, enough to counteract the effects of ‘Void Poisoning’ for a time.

He probably didn’t have much longer to live.

If he’d had a Rank 4, or even Rank 3 [Affinity], Crimson could have done something. The [Rituals] he knew for [Affinities] covered every [Elemental Affinity] from Rank 3 to Rank 8, and most [Dynamic Affinities] from Rank 3 to Rank 7. [Mana] and [Void] were the exceptions - he didn’t know any of the rituals for [Void], and [Mana] covered from Rank 3 to Rank 6.

There was literally nothing he could do for Alois.

Crimson sat, brooding in the dark for a time, before trying to modify [Kindle] once more.

—————

Around the edges of the wooden door over the entrance of the cave, Crimson could see the first rays of dawn finding every crack they could and peek through. He had spent the entire night thinking frustrated with Alois’ problem and failing to modify [Kindle]. The structure of the spell was simple, but he believed that would have been a help in modifying, but after a time, he’d realized it was a hinderance.

It was like trying to put a gallon of water in a small cup.

Realizing that, he’d been forced to rework the entire spell from the ground up, and had finally succeeded in creating a [Flame] spell, but…it was a failure. The spell was far too complex for the simplicity it should have. Since he didn’t know what he was doing, there were a lot of redundancies in the design and it had been patched haphazardly together. [Lesser Healing] should have been a more complex and difficult spell, but this one was so poorly made that it made that one seem like child’s play - it took him a full twenty seconds to cast in its current form.

Part of the issue was unfamiliarity - he didn’t work with fire magic very often - and part of the issue was mentality, his mind was full of other things and he couldn’t concentrate properly.

If only he knew more about the [Blessing]. If he knew the conditions to affect [Affinities] more strongly, he might have been able to do something. If he’d met Alois years ago, before the man got his [Blessing], he might have been able to do something. Wait…

From behind him, Crimson heard foot steps. Light, and soft, they were only barley perceptible, and they were coming from the forbidden corridor.

Slowly turning around, his vision was greeted with an emaciated girl, thin as a twig. She was very short for a wolfkin, a head and a half shorter than Crimson, and her mottled grey hair was limp and unhealthy, but made her head look three times bigger because of its sheer volume. From the fur on her ears, to the fur on her tail, and the hair on her head, she gave the impression of a grey wolf.

She had well structured features beneath it all, with thick eyebrows and eyes that were downturned at the corner, giving them a sleepy look. Her eyes as well were only barely visible, they were almost completely closed and he could only just barely see the flickers of clear blue underneath.

Her lack of weight made both her jawline and her cheekbones stand out sharply, her sunken cheeks giving the already prominent features an eerie cast.

She - Rhea - seemed to regard him for a long moment, before walking down another tunnel - the one leading to the kitchen - and leaving him confused.

He couldn’t tell what kind of person she was from that interaction, he hadn’t been able to make clear eye contact with her, but she didn’t seem very friendly at the very least - not that it particularly bothered him.

Not long after she went to the kitchen, sweet and savory smells started to suffuse the room. Summoned by the smells, the two other wolfkin slowly appeared. Neither seemed bothered by the early morning hours, but Nav was supporting Alois to help him walk over to the dining table and slump into a chair.

After sitting in a chair himself, Nav beckoned Crimson over to the table and sat him down before seeming to realize something and rushing into the kitchen - assumedly to help Rhea cook.

The silence between Alois and him was quite heavy, but it wasn’t awkward. Crimson was used to silence and Alois didn’t seem to mind it either.

After waiting for a bit, Nav tottered in, carefully holding several dishes and doing his best to not spill or drop any of them.

Crimson was a little intrigued to see a lot of red meat at the table for breakfast, much like with dinner. Unlike what he’d had the night before, this ‘beef’ was cooked with a sweet smelling sauce, and a savory soup was served on the side. Rhea came a few seconds after Nav holding a wooden tray and set the cups from it one by one in front of each of them. The contents were literally hot water. Not tea, coffee, hot chocolate, or anything like that. Just…water?

He did a quick glance around, to make sure that it was actually for drinking and not for something like washing his hands, but Alois was indeed slowly sipping at his, before thanking Rhea.

Crimson mimicked him, taking a sip of the water, then stopping and staring at if for a few seconds. It was spicy, like a lot of ginger root had been added to the water.

Glancing over at Rhea, he thanked her awkwardly, but only received an indifferent glance before she returned to her food.

After finishing barely the meal - his appetite had decreased - Crimson sat back, completely unsure what to do, but fortunately Nav came to his rescue, whispering to him, “You stand and bow to the host and the chef, then look to the sky and say ‘viskor fylees.’”

Crimson nodded then repeated the ceremony, receiving a small bow from both Alois and Rhea before Nav did the same thing.

‘Viskor fylees’ after thinking about it for a long moment, he was able to understand that it meant ‘I live another day’ - not exactly what he’d been expecting, but it sort of made sense.

Both he and Nav sat down together, then Alois spoke heavily and slowly, “Rhea, you are to escort our guest today. He is to join in viskor fylaum with the other young wolfkin. Join them as well.”

‘Viskor fylaum’ - ‘I live tomorrow.’

Rhea looked at Alois pensively, then spoke, “What’s even the point? I’m going to die anyway.”

Surprising Crimson, Alois’ voice changed, his tone became kinder, and he switched to Kiiwolf to say, “The only one who decides if you get to live another day is you, you don’t have to lay down and let death catch you. I’ve taught you everything I can, you won’t make my mistakes, and you’ll be able to run for longer and make it further than I did.”

She gritted her teeth for a long moment, then spoke, also in Kiiwolf, “Father, I’m already weaker than you were at my age. I don’t have any chance! I’m already too weak to hunt, too weak to gain any strength, and I’ve still got a few months to my adulthood. The Gods won’t bless me, they’re leave me to rot!”

Alois looked at her sadly, then said, “You body may be weak, but you are smarter than I was, and your will is stronger than mine. You still have a chance, you still have a life before you.” After a long pause, he continued, “For as long as I live, you shall not give up on your life, understood?”

After a long moment of petulant silence, Rhea finally said, “Fine. For you, I will still try. But once you die, it won’t be long till I follow, no matter what you or I try. There’s no fixing us, Father.”

Alois chuckled gently, “You never know what the God’s have in store, they might already be preparing a way for you to over come this. I promise you this little pup, the Gods will not leave you to rot. You shall be greater than I ever was. Even your coming of age prayer contains that promise.”

Rhea muttered in a low voice they could all hear, “What god’s cursed freak even wrote that thing. They know way too much.” She shuddered a little, and Crimson felt…very uncomfortable. If he was ever confronted, he would blame it on his new [Title: Holy Interpreter].

He firmly ignored the piercing glances from the other two seated at the table, and did his best to make it seem like he was zoning out. Alois didn’t know he could speak Kiiwolf, and Nav didn’t realize that he was fluent - only passible on a basic level.

Well, he couldn’t speak it very well yet, some of the words were uncomfortable in his mouth, and forming the actual sentence structure himself was a bit difficult, but he could understand pretty much everything he heard at this point.

After a bit of silence at the table, Rhea spoke to him in Common, “Come on, my Father has directed us to attend viskor fylaum together.”

He slowly stood, and she coldly led him out the door, he glanced back, feeling guilty about leaving his dishes behind, but was waved on by Nav who started clearing up the table.

They started making their way down the mountain, the trip was about the same speed as when he’d walked up because Rhea wasn’t moving that quickly, but on his own, he figured that he’d be able to make the trip in a quarter of the time. What was fascinating was that they were descending fast enough that it looked like the sun was setting. It was once just above the horizon, but was swiftly being covered. Glancing at the ground, he could see that everyone down there was still shrouded in shadow - the sun hadn’t even made its presence known to them yet.

After just fifteen minutes, the amount of caves they started to pass sharply increased, and they ended up stopping on the corner of one of the switchbacks, where a group of young wolfkin were forming up.

At a glance, Crimson could tell that they were all roughly his age, with maybe a few years wiggle room of older and younger.

He followed Rhea as they went to the edge of the group and started waiting, time passed, and even a few other races started to join the group. A few humans, some dwarves - even other beastkin. Once the sun - from where they could see it, had completely risen, an older wolfkin - seemingly in his thirties - walked to the front of the group and shouted for them to form into lines.

Crimson just followed Rhea’s lead and found himself in line with no issues, while some of the other races were getting shouted at.

“Heya Rhea!” He heard to his right and glanced over to see a very short young boy leaning across him to speak to Rhea on his left.

The boy clearly wasn’t a woflkin, but considering his height and build, he was either a twelve year old human, a dwarf…or maybe a leprechaun? He was a full two and a half heads shorter than Crimson - a head shorter than Rhea, and was just as thin as she was, but he looked healthy. He had a ruddy complexion, thin nose and lips, big eyes, an androgynous build, dark brown hair, and jade colored eyes.

Rhea glanced across Crimson at him, then said briefly, “Hello Talis” before turning her attention back to the front.

‘Talis’ grinned, then craned his head back to look at Crimson, “She’s not much of a morning person. She’ll at least talk to ya at noon, even if she hates us both right now.”

Crimson looked him in the eye, carefully clearing is mind to not pressure the kid, but curious as to what he’d see from his will, and saw the oppressive, hungering greed that writhed in the kid’s eyes. He could practically the kid slowly going mad from it.

Coldly glaring at the kid, and couldn’t hold himself back from saying something as he spoke slowly, “You ought to be careful, or you’ll destroy yourself.”

“Huh?!” Talis said in shock, but was unable to say anything else as the older wolfkin called everyone to order.

They began to stretch as a group, led by the instructing wolfkin, then they were instructed to jog to the bottom of the mountain.

Crimson didn’t find that aspect of the exercise difficult, but paced himself to follow Rhea, who he could see becoming more and more angry with each passing switchback, before she finally spat at him, “Are you mocking me?”

He looked at her in confusion, “No? I was just following you because you’re the only one here I know.”

She growled at him, “Then wait for me at the bottom! You’re mocking me by holding back right now, so get moving!”

With a grimace and a shrug, Crimson took off, practically sprinting down the slope as he was introduced to the new experience of sprinting on an incline like this.

It was less running, and more controlled hopping down the slope, but each landing had to be carefully done, or else he would fall or run into someone else. He had to carefully slow at each switchback - which was far more difficult than usual - before speeding up again.

It took roughly three hours for him and Nav to climb to Alois’ den the previous night at a walk, but it took half an hour for him to sprint to the bottom from where they’d started. If he was more skilled at what he was doing, he might have been able to manage it even faster.

Leaning down, he rested his hands on his knees and panted. This kind of running engaged a different kind of muscles than his usual type of running, so it was more exhausting than he’d expected - especially since he’d needed to be in careful control of his muscles at all times.

Looking around, he noticed that he’d been the fifth person to reach the bottom, everyone else who beat him looked older, and were less winded. The instructor was looking at him with some surprise, which made Crimson feel quite satisfied.

Instead of just lazing around, Crimson started to stretch, allowing his burning and hot muscles to stretch comfortably as he went through the first three levels of [Amzair], the body strengthening form he’d been learning for a year. With his raised stats, he could easily do the first three levels of it, but the fourth level was still far beyond his capabilities.

After half an hour of that, Rhea finally caught up, and she collapsed, panting on the ground next to him. It took another ten minutes after that for the last straggler to show up - Talis, the kid who had spoken to Rhea at the beginning of the run.

He wasn’t breathing hard, and it looked like he hadn’t pushed himself at all. Amusingly, Crimson wasn’t the only one to notice, because the instructor walked up to him and started yelling, which didn’t seem to bother the kid, until the instructor started shadowing him for the next aspect of the exercise: an obstacle course. After the course, they lifted weights, then ran back up to where they started. By that point, every one was exhausted - even Crimson, but he was happy about it. It had been a long time since all of his muscles were burning.

Crimson was also very happy to be the first person to finish the run. By his own estimation he wasn’t the fastest runner there - certainly the least experienced with running up slopes - but he was the best person there at pacing himself. The four who had beaten him to the bottom of the mountain during the first part of the run had gotten way too competitive over lifting the weights, then pushed themselves too hard during the run back, causing them to slow, and allowing Crimson to pass them.

He slowly started to stretch, and waited for Rhea to come back.

It had been a fun training, but he wondered when he’d start his real job.