Ashley
When I wake up again, I find myself back in Blake's cavern. Which I'm growing used to by now.
What I'm not used to is seeing Blake sitting in a corner practicing his spellcraft with his eyes closed and multiple runes and spell circles flashing around him. Since I've woken up before him every time up till now.
I leave him be though. After all, I have my own things to deal with right now.
Like checking out my new mini boss sourced Skill Tree.
So I open my Skill Trees before navigating the mess of hundreds of Skill Trees to find the one I'm looking for. A process that turns out harder than I would've liked.
But any irritation from that search vanishes the moment I read the description for Alpha's Breath.
{Alpha's Breath – Allows the user to instantly expend all of their destruction affinity mana in a single powerful blast of destruction affinity flames from their mouth.}
That would explain why its breath attack was so powerful. It probably had a massive amount of mana converted to destruction affinity mana and blasted it all out at me at once.
This skill though... it'll be very helpful to me.
Very, very helpful.
Since I can adjust the amount of mana I put into the attack by converting a certain amount of mana into destruction affinity mana. Making the attack only use up said destruction affinity mana and not any of the other mana I haven't converted.
I can make it use up all of my mana to attack, or just a small portion.
I could even make it just use up a single unit of mana.
It may even end up being a stronger finishing attack than Frigid Tempest Call.
Actually, on second thought, it most likely is stronger than that. Especially because it's focused into a single breath attack instead of being spread out in a wide area like the tempest is.
I glance at Blake to find him still practicing his spellcraft, then I focus on the Skill Tree again. Just to look at what skills are offered branching from the root skill.
The first skill I see ends up being that very skill I saw the alpha using before. The one to heal from devouring other things nearby.
Which could synergize rather well with Incorrigible Appetite, which lets me eat anything. Not to mention all of my bite skills that are still piling up, what with the second skill branching from the root being a destruction affinity bite skill.
Either way though, I'm still not a fan of eating monsters. So it won't be very pleasant to use.
But I'll use it.
The universe seems intent on making me bite and eat things, so I might as well use the powers given to me.
Doesn't mean I'll have to like it though.
"If people outside of this Unique Domain heard that they'd cry tears of blood," Chaos comments, but I ignore him.
Because that's a them problem and not a me problem.
Chaos chuckles at that thought.
So my choice in the end is Alpha's Target.
Since I need something to help me more in one on one battles against something strong. Plus for tracking purposes.
And I can use this skill rather well against a mini boss.
I just hope the berserk part of it isn't too bad.
With that thought, I raise my head to find Blake with his hands held out in front of him and multiple spell circles with numerous shifting symbols and script flowing through them above said hands. All of different colors, albeit with a lot of purple mixed into each one.
They spin and shift over and over again before splitting off into twice as many circles and then just moving into the center in a single warping sound. Making all of them vanish in an instant.
Then I watch with my eyes widening a little as space begins to warp a little above his hands, just stretching to make the distance there look longer than it really is. Or than it should be.
Meanwhile bits of water and flame rush through it as if trying to attack something.
And for some reason, seeing this makes a rush of memories flood into my mind.
Memories of me sitting in some fancy bedroom in a high-rise far above the streets below, with Blake playing with far simpler magic in front of me as I clap my hands with a joyous smile on my face. My emotion quickly carrying over to him as he smiles proudly at his work and my reaction to it. To the fountain of water he made in the air along with the dancing wolves and ravens.
And that's not the only memory, because numerous other memories of me spending time with him as he played with his magic throughout our childhood flood into my mind. Just bits and pieces here and there, with little other memories attached to them besides some broken emotions.
Emotions that... leave the joy from remembering how we played back then beginning to fade a little bit.
When I finally return my focus to the present again, I find Blake smiling at me from where he's working before he gets up and begins walking over to me.
"You ready to begin collecting gunpowder?" he asks while reaching his hand out to me.
I blankly stare up at him for several seconds, but he just keeps holding his hand out to me with a patient look in his eyes.
So I eventually mutely nod and accept his hand, letting him pull me to my feet.
Then we teleport out of the cavern and begin heading over towards the closest fortress to begin gathering gunpowder.
But despite that, I just can't get those memories out of my head.
And it's... really...
I don't... actually know how I feel about them.