Chapter 37 - Darkwood Hollow V

“It’s barely moving...”

Claire groaned as she once again failed to manipulate the tiny pebble sitting two feet in front of her. It would budge each time she magically pushed or pulled it, but that was all it ever did. Not once had it moved a significant distance, no matter how hard she focused.

“This is useless,” she mumbled, as she gave it another try. “I can’t tell if it’s my fault or if the spell just sucks.”

“What’s useless?”

Sylvia dropped down from her perch atop the mossy runic rock, landing first on Claire’s head before leaping to the forest floor. She was looking much more energetic than she was earlier. Her ears were perked up and her big puffy tail was swishing back and forth.

“Nothing.” Claire uncrossed her arms. Wait, I’ve got an idea.

Smirking, the serpentine halfbreed silently cast a spell, creating a full power wave of force as she moved to press her palm against her four-legged companion’s nose. A harmless prank. Or at least that was what she thought until Sylvia was suddenly displaced. The fox started screaming and flailing the moment she took off. Catapulted into the forest, she soon vanished behind a two meter tall mushroom.

Claire slowly blinked several times in succession. Once over her initial surprise, she began looking between her fingers and the shroom Sylvia had passed. Was not using my hands the problem?

She followed through on the thought by focusing on the pebble and curling her fingers inwards as she cast the spell. Surely enough, it worked. The tiny rock floated towards her, stopping just shy of her fully clenched fist before losing all momentum and plummeting back towards the ground.

Flicking her hand forward caused it to react again. The rounded stone flew straight into a large brown mushroom, boring a hole right through its soft flesh.

“Ow!” cried the critter standing behind the toadstool.

“Oops.”

“Is that really all you have to say, after putting me through all that!?” Sylvia complained as she walked back into the clearing. She was moving around on just her hind legs with her frontal paws held against her forehead. “I told you to stop testing your skills on me!”

“It was an accident,” said Claire, as she magnetted a tree branch straight into her palm. “Did it hurt?”

“Ummm, well the rock kinda did, but the spell didn’t. I was kinda panicked because it was really sudden, but it just felt like you were lightly pushing me really fast,” she said, as she rubbed her head. “Wait a second! You really were just testing the spell on me, weren’t you?”

“Not really.”

Claire reeled in a second branch with her free hand as she pushed and pulled on the first at random. Both instances of the spell seemed to work just fine regardless of whether the two objects were moving in the same direction.

“You know, I’m really surprised you decided to become a force mage. It’s a pretty weird class and it’s kinda hard to use since you still need to use weapons and stuff.”

“Weren’t you the one that told me about it?”

The two-legged snake put one hand behind her back and tried manipulating both objects with just the palm still held in front of her. It didn’t quite seem to work, but it wasn’t because they were too heavy. There was a clear correlation between a target’s mass and how quickly she could move it around, but weight was not the reason the spell was failing. Sylvia was heavier than both branches combined.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I was actually expecting you to pick it! Almost nobody does since it doesn’t go well with most other pure mage classes.”

“Well I did.”

Size seemed to be even less of a factor than weight. The club was much more difficult to control than a branch that was just as thick and twice as long. At the end of the day, the limiting factor seemed to be that she could only control one thing with each hand, regardless of whether that thing was an antler, a leaf, or a fox.

Log Entry 856

Basic Force Manipulation has reached level 2.

“Oh are you going to switch sides when it turns? It’s gonna happen really soon, and I think we should probably stay on the same side.”

“I’ll try not to,” said Claire, as she eyed her resistance skill, “but I don’t know if I can.”

“Ummm… I think it should be pretty easy, so I’ll just stay on this side for now,” said Sylvia. “The forest is a lot more comfy. There’s way too much water in the marsh and I have to use up all my mana if I want to stay dry. The swampy fish don’t really taste good either. The ones in the lake are much better. Oh, do you like fish, Claire? We can go catch some later.”

“Better than frog,” said the half-snake. “When?”

“We can go fishing whenever you want. Actually, let’s go right now!” Sylvia raised her rear and waved her tail to and fro before she started bouncing around excitedly.

“Not fishing. I meant the other thing.”

“Oh, the whisper? Ummm… I’m not sure exactly, but it should be soon, really really soon. My fur’s already really really tingly.”

Does that mean I should be able to sense it?

Claire closed her eyes and directed her attention outwards. She focused on Detect Force Magic whilst probing her environment with her mana. But she didn’t find anything. Nothing stood out to her until the moment the bell suddenly started ringing, at which point she was thrown into a torrential flood. It started weak and quickly grew stronger, just like it had when the halfbreed had first experienced it, but this time, Claire didn’t suddenly collapse once it reached its peak strength.

Because it wasn’t nearly as potent.

The excessive clattering was still obnoxious, but it didn’t feel like her head was being split apart, at least not anymore.

Picking force mage is already paying off.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed past her migraine and focused on the spell that was its source. There were several different sensations affecting her. Some were physical, like the two forces pulling her up and down, while others were magical, like the one that was prodding at her brain.

She wasn’t sure what to make of any of them, so she spent the first minute or so silently observing. The upside down force slowly grew more powerful while the one keeping her grounded waned. Measuring them was still outside the realm of her capabilities. She wasn’t able to pin any values to the vague sensations, but she could tell that the stronger one would soon be overtaken if she continued to do nothing.

“How am I supposed to stop it from flipping me?”

The question served as a trigger. The bell rapidly quieted down, vanishing alongside all the other sensations that accompanied it. The only one she could still feel was the one keeping her grounded, and even that disappeared as soon as her focus began to wane.

Log Entry 857

Basic Force Resistance has reached level 2.

Is that it? That was… anticlimactic.

Claire blinked a few times, raising her ears to confirm that the knell had really gone away before turning to her fuzzy companion.

“I think I did it.”

“See? What did I tell you? It’s really easy. All you had to do was answer when it asked you if you wanted to swap, right?”

“Not exactly,” said Claire, as she got to her feet. “Let’s go.”

“Huh? We’re leaving already? Are you already done testing all your stuff?”

“For now,” said the rogue, as she eyed her MP. She had only played around for about ten or so minutes, but there was only a quarter of it remaining. I’m going to have to be more careful with my mana.

“That was quick. Well, up to you I guess. Where do you want to go now? Is it the Citadel? Or maybe the lake so we can go fishing?”

“The burrow.”

“You mean the one we slept in last night?”

Claire nodded.

“Oh... really? That’s kinda weird, but okay. I think we should be able to get back pretty quickly. Why do you need to go back anyway? It’s still gonna be light out for a long time, and if you sleep now, then you’re just going to wake up in the middle of the night.”

“I need a new cloak.” The bluescale stuck her fingers through a few of the countless holes riddling the tattered garment as she lifted it. “This one’s done for.”

“It does seem kinda messed up, but are you really sure you wanna go back? Isn’t the third trial supposed to have a time limit?”

“Third?”

“Errmmm, you didn’t hear that! I didn’t say anything!” The fox darted behind a tree.

If the task is the third, then what were the first two? Maybe killing the hellhog and the bird? Wait, if it’s killing things, then what about the mimic and the shaman? Or what if it was something else altogether, like touching the first two rocks?

“Come on, Claire! Hurry up! I’m going to leave you behind if you don’t get moving!”

One annoyed sigh later, the half lamia climbed into a tree and chased after her four legged companion.

___

Claire spent the trip deliberating the use of her ability points. She had 48 to spend, but no idea as to how she was supposed to allocate them. More wisdom was going to be necessary if she wanted to be able to summon her spirit guardian, whatever it was, but she also wanted to continue investing in vitality. It and spirit were the only two scores she still had under a hundred.

She knew that she would be able to drastically boost her health if she managed to get the stat past the three digit threshold, but throwing all her points into her life force would prevent her from acquiring the mana she needed to test her newest toy. A solution didn’t come to mind regardless of how much time she spent weighing the two options. She was still just as conflicted by the time they reached their destination.

For the most part, the return trip had been uneventful. Not a single raven was spotted throughout, which was to say that Sylvia spent nearly the entire journey blabbering away. The conversation wasn’t entirely one-sided, as Claire would respond when prompted, but it was safe to say that the fox had done over four fifths of the talking.

“We’re here!” said Sylvia, as she passed a familiar uprooted stump. “It should be right under that bramblewood tree.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll wait here. All you need to do is grab some of your stuff, then we can start heading over to Borrok Peak, right?”

“No,” said Claire, as she moved towards the den’s entrance. “None of my other cloaks fit me. I need some time to tailor them.”

“None of them fit you? Did you lose a lot of weight or something when you started leveling up? I guess that does happen sometimes. Oh well, whatever,” said the fox. “How long is it going to take? There’s some stuff I want to do, but I’m not sure if I have enough time since you’re probably going to want me back whenever you’re ready to go again.”

“A long time. I’m tired and I want to sleep.”

“Oh… so does that mean we’re not going anywhere until tomorrow morning?”

Claire nodded.

“Okay, then I guess I’ll go do my fox stuff now. I should be back by sundown!”

“Bye.”

“See ya! Don’t step out and get lost!”

Standing up on her hind legs, the fox vigorously waved one of her forelimbs before turning around and vanishing into the foliage.

She’s finally gone.

Claire heaved a sigh as she descended into the burrow. It wasn’t as if she disliked the fox, but the four-legged critter had far too much energy.

The underground lair was still exactly how she had left it; her bag sat in one of its corners while a pile of dirt, branches, and goodies occupied another. Casting her gaze on the supposed storage unit left her with an itch in the back of her mind. She was curious as to what a fox’s belongings were supposed to entail, but she didn’t bother investigating. There were too many things for her to do, and looking through the canid’s things was far from the most important thing on the list.

Grabbing the bag, the rogue laid its contents out on the floor. All in all, there were seven cloaks, two pairs of pants, a shirt, and a tailor’s kit. Sewing tools aside, most of the garments were made of cloth. That was precisely why the only leather mantle caught her eye almost immediately.

Like everything else, it was meant for its rightful owner, someone twice her size. Putting it on revealed that a whole third of its length draped behind her. The shawl’s width was equally as problematic. She would slip right out of it lest she put on the hood, regardless of whether the fastener was in place. The halfbreed was going to need to make several major adjustments before she could wear the undeserved acquisition.

This needs some ear holes. It’s too tight.

Grabbing the scissors, she made an incision in the side of the hood, only to find her efforts completely and utterly futile. The mantle started to shine as soon as she cut into it. It was enveloped by a faint blue light, one that originated from the countless once-invisible runes running along its edges. When the glow faded, a few moments later, the cut she made was gone, fully restored by the object’s latent magic.

Oh, great. One of these stubborn things? Just my luck.

Claire heaved a sigh as she tossed the garment aside. She knew what runecloaks were. Everyone did. They were so highly coveted that even the rich struggled to acquire them. Her father had only a small collection ranging somewhere in the scale of a few dozen, and that was only because he had picked them up on the battlefield.

Under normal circumstances, the halfbreed would’ve thought the acquisition a lucky find, but permanently altering a runecloak required a high leveled tailor. And while she was many things, a tailor was not one of them.

With a frustrated sigh, the force mage decided that it was time to cast productivity to the wayside. She was exhausted from all the fighting and she didn’t have the patience to deal with an article of clothing capable of actively working against her.

Laying atop a bed made out of the softest cloaks in her collection, she closed her eyes, slowed her breathing, and drifted off to the land of dreams.