Over the next three days I continue to sacrifice the enhanced seeds I create from ten of the original corrupted seeds. Then I go about my task of fixing the foundation, while Nora works on her Endurance. Instead of spending a lot of time with Nora talking about the Empire I spend time in the evenings working on new uses for shaping. Nora is exhausted from her training, so I let her get as much rest as possible. I focus on trying to create more forms of air shaping. I still have dreams of one day running through the air from one air shaped step to the next. For now, I am trying to shape platforms, walls, and thin bands of solid air. I am thinking that most of the air shaping are very hard to see even in full sunlight, so I could make bands or air to break a charge by making them at knee level. They just must be strong enough to survive the impact, which would cause some damage to whoever hits it. Especially if it is a mount, it would probably throw the rider. This occupies my evenings, but despite getting better and quicker and summoning the different shapes I still have not received a spell and I am not sure why.

On the morning of the third day I wake early and sacrifice another seed reaching 100 faith points and I choose to upgrade the Altar to level two and as I inspect the altar I see the following.

Altar Level 2 Faith Point Capacity 0/1000

The Twin Gods may now access the Faith Pool

New Powers:

Sanctify - Allows the user to remove any corruption/curse from a creature, range 1000 feet from altar, cost 10 faith points

Heal - Allows the user to fully heal one creature, range 100 feet from altar, cost 10 faith points

Cure Disease - Allows the user to cure one creature of any disease, range 100 feet from altar, cost 10 faith points

Sacrifice Upgraded to two uses per day

Upgrade to Level 3 needs 1000 faith points

Ah, I pull out ten more seeds to fuses them together and then sacrifice it on the altar for the second use of the day. Now as I inspect the altar I see 25/1000. Wow to get to level three is going to take a while unless I merge more seeds together. I start to turn to work on the foundation, when the altar shimmers and an open book with a quill as a bookmark now rests upon it. As I cautiously approach the Altar and the book I can see writing appearing on the exposed page of the book.

Book: Dear reader, I am Twin God Poth and I must thank you for raising my altar. I am using the faith points you gained to communicate with you, but I must be quick as this form of communication will use one faith point per minute. The book itself cost ten faith points to create and holds ten points. It will drain points from the altar, while it rests upon it. You can write a response using the quill. I must now ask for your aid. My father has imprisoned me and I need your help to escape. Whether you accept or not, you must leave by tomorrow morning. My father will sense the altar now that it is level two and will send someone to check on it.

Poth stops writing, so I pick up the quill and write the following.

George: Greetings, I have a quest to find out what happened to you, which led me to your church. I could tell Vera where you are.

Poth: The System restricts Vera from getting involved in the affairs of the other Gods, even in this case sadly.

George: Very well I accept, what do I need to do?

Poth: I am held in the Mountain of Fire and the only way to get here is through the Temple of the Silver Moon, which is in the land of the Fae. If you can make two sacrifices tomorrow I should be able to make a container for forty faith points, which is what I will need to break my bonds.

George: I can make two sacrifices like that tomorrow. Can you erase the text in the book in case anyone else finds it?

Poth: I can, but I will leave it up to you. Just place your finger over the area to erase and think erase to wipe the text out.

I glance over and see Nora still sleeping, so I turn back to the book.

George: I have the Deck of Fate, can you tell me how to use it? It is currently missing three cards.

Poth: Incredible and it makes sense, how else would you get the quest to find me. Tomorrow place the Deck on the Altar and it will absorb all remaining faith points. After that you can use up faith points to draw a card, but I will need forty to break my bonds so please only draw a card that will keep that amount remaining. After it is charged with faith you will get a menu to select that should explain its uses.

George: Thanks that will help.

Poth: Very well. We should stop talking as this has already used two faith points. Remember only use the book if you absolutely need to, as it cannot be recharged.

After I put down the quill I get a notification.

Congratulations

You have completed the Quest “What Happened to Garth and Poth?”. Rare item awarded, Stone of Enhancement. The Stone of Enhancement allows the user to boost any one skill by three skill tiers for one minute. This is a one-use item and is not soul bound and will be lost on death.

You have discovered a Hidden Quest “Rescue Poth”. Free Poth from his imprisonment. Reward: Unknown.

I don’t need to wake Nora; the notification already has. I show her what is written in the book before erasing it. We discuss where to go. Nora says based on the map I have we are in the north west corner of the Domain of Light. If we head to the southeast for about twenty miles we will reach the town of Tierva. From there we can get a ride to the city of Fairun. Then on to the Capital. Nora knows someone that may be able to get us to the Temple of the Silver Moon in the Capital.

We go back to training, Nora working on her endurance and I switch to trying to use my Fire Shaping in combination with Fire Dart to see if I can come up with something more powerful.

I take a seat and summon a fire dart in my hand without releasing it like when I first learned to channel with the Captain. Next, I reach out with my Fire shaping and try to make the dart burn hotter. My first experiment is a failure as the dart flares and pops burning my hand. As I cradle my hand casting minor heal on it I think about what I observed. By feeding more mana into the dart using my shaping it became unstable.

I summoned another dart and this time I tried to sense the fire with my fire shaping ability. I can feel the threads of mana from my hand into the dart. When I tried to add more mana to make it burn hotter I was adding more channels into the dart outside of the spell. This time I try to feed more mana through the existing threads of mana. I see them swell with mana, but get a notification I am channeling, which is not what I want. I dismiss the dart and sit there thinking on the problem.

I cast fire dart again and this time I try something different. I focus on the existing dart and without adding more mana I try to compress the dart making it more powerful by increasing the mana density. My first attempt causes the dart to flicker and wink out. I try again and this time I slowly increase the pressure and try to feed in slightly more mana. I must repeat this several times to find the right balance. After several hours of this I have a headache, but also get a new notification.

Congratulations

You have discovered a new level three spell, awarded 1500 XP, fame +15

, Level 3

Basic Level 1 (0% progress to next level)

This spell creates a compressed sphere of elemental fire that explodes on impact for 15-45 points of base damage plus five points per skill Tier level past Basic. Can create an extra compressed sphere for each Tier past Basic for an additional 30 mana per bolt.

Range: 90 feet plus 20 feet per skill Tier level past Basic

Cost: 60 mana

Please assign a name to the spell.

Nice, I select Fire Bullet as the spell name. I stand up and walk outside the temple to target the scattered stones around the church. Now that I’m not going to be rebuilding the church after all. I cast for another three hours. During that time, I manage to cast fifteen fire bullets before having to rest for six minutes to be able to cast again. I cast fire bullet 240 times before taking a break with Nora. This raises my skill with fire bullet to Beginner 1.

I talk to Nora over lunch and when she finds out about my advancement she seems a little grumpy mutter something about my oversized mana pool. This pops my bubble until I remember how much leveling endurance really sucks. After lunch we both go back to grinding.

Six hours later I have managed to cast fire bullet 480 more times and I am bored out of my mind. I have taken to running around the church ground jumping and doing cart wheels while shooting stones. I am now up to Advanced 7. Very nice progress. I get Nora and we eat some dinner. I see that she is just slowly and methodically eating, so I try not to talk about my advancement. I must ask her several times to find out where she is in her training. She says she has an Endurance of 12 and gained the Numbness skill. I congratulate her and she just grunts a response. She is gaining much faster than I did on my own. I make her stop and go to bed, since she is mentally exhausted. We need to be fresh when we leave tomorrow. I go back to practicing my fire bullet, but just aim at the dirt to reduce the noise, so Nora can sleep. I get in another three hours until it gets dark reaching Adept 3. I go to my bedroll and as I relax I bring up my Character Sheet to review all the changes. My XP is all still going to the Deck of Fate, so no change there.

George Peterson Age: 16 Level: 15 XP to next Level: 59,045/67,500 Class: (Mage)

Arcane Shaper Race: Harrow Titles: Reborn Fame: 1805 Str: 24 Melee Damage Modifier: +14 Agi: 20 Range Damage Modifier: +10 Dodge: 14% (+4%) Con: 25 Health / Stamina: 125 / 125 Health / Stamina Regen: 25% per min End: 54 Pain Threshold: 44% Int: 80 (5) Mana Pool: 870 (70) Wis: 49 (5) Mana Regen Rate: 27.75 per min Cha: 14 Trade Modifier: 4% Per: 64 Favor: 0 Abilities: Night Vision, Ritual Magic (Basic 8, 40%), Fire Shaping (Advance 2, 21%), Water Shaping (Advance 1, 0%), Earth Shaping (Novice 1, 56%), Air Shaping (Basic 1, 0%), Light Shaping (Basic 7, 0%), Dark Shaping (Basic 1, 0%) Skills: Bows (Basic 5, 0%), Cartographer (Basic 1, 0%), Crafting (Basic 3, 0%), Daggers (Basic 4, 66%), Dodge (Basic 9, 80%), Enduring Flame II, Herbalism (Basic 8, 44%), Inspect (Basic 9, 72%), Jeweler (Basic 1, 0%), Lore (Basic 3, 53%), Maces (Basic 5, 0%), Mana Chain (Basic 2, 50%), Mana Manipulation (Expert 6, 26%), Numbness II, Parry (Adept 2, 32%), Reading (Basic 2, 0%), Skinning (Basic 9, 72%), Spears (Basic 5, 25%), Stealth (Adept 1, 32%), Swords (Adept 1, 11%), Temporal Shadow Step (Beginner 1, 91%), Trading (Basic 7, 25%), Unarmed Combat (Basic 1, 0%), Veil Spells:

Fire Shaping - Burning Hands (Basic 1, 0%), Fire Bullet (Adept 3), Fire Dart (Expert 3, 37%), Fireball (Expert 1, 7%), Ignite (Novice 1, 66%)

Water Shaping - Concealing Mists (Beginner 1, 2%), Minor Heal (Expert 1, 20%), Ice Dart (Novice 1, 33%), Ice Storm (Expert 1, 12%)

Earth Shaping - Mend (Novice 8, 23%), Sense Stone (Beginner 2, 13%), Shape Wood (Basic 1, 0%)

Air Shaping - Lightning (Basic 1, 0%)

Light Shaping - Light (Novice 1, 66%), Mana Dart (Novice 4, 20%), Shield (Expert 1, 23%)

Dark Shaping - Dimensional Shaping (Basic 1, 60%)

Ritual Ward (Novice 6, 93%) - Type: Raw Mana Protective Ward Equipment: * Unallocated Status Points: 0