Chapter 233: First Fortnight

Chapter 233: First Fortnight

“There’s always another level up. There’s always another ascension. More grace, more light, more generosity, more compassion, more to shed, more to grow.”

Elizabeth Gilbert

The first fortnight went by quickly. I had soon grown accustomed to my new size. What I missed most from my childhood, though, were my elvish robes, which no longer fit properly. Still, the enchantments on them were the most crucial part of the clothing, so I had carefully cut the clothes open along the seams to preserve the enchantments on them, then patched them into the new clothes I had made for myself. They made for an unusual underlayer beneath my Arctic wolf and bear pelts, but they were still more than worth it when wandering the endless ice.

The days were simple and straightforward but busy with the number of activities we attempted to cram into them. Namir and I hunted in the morning with our team progressing further and further afield from the Thorpe. Most days, I could find some treasure and an animal or two. The hunts kept us comfortable as we continued to expand our wallets for our departure.

With us collecting so many lost knickknacks, actual items of worth, and the corpses of the monsters we had hunted, it soon became necessary to reveal my access to some spatial storage, lest we leave such uncovered resources behind or be forced to carry more than was comfortable. As always, the best or rather most entertaining way to reveal a secret or two was with a studied nonchalance. It was with great pleasure that I demonstrated my ability one morning out on the endless ice after killing another clew of Ice Wyrms.

The giants had set about harvesting their half of the tangle after removing the cores and gifting them to us. Bjorn had possibly left the two of them to us to harvest out on the endless ice without help to express some of his frustration over our previous agreement that anything else I might find would be mine. Maybe there had been some pressure from above after our first successful patrol and the hidden little treasures I had been able to bring back with me.

Either way, it wasn’t going to be an issue for me.

Opening a portal below the beasts, they disappeared into my spatial vault. Leaving Namir and I standing idly by as Bjorn and Eryk continued to harvest theirs while Ivar and Ragnar kept watch.

It took them a moment to notice. But then, much like with my sudden increase in height, the exclamations and questions soon followed.

“What?”

“Where?”

“You have a spatial beastcore?”ViiSiit novelbi/n(.)c/(o)m for latest novels

“When?”

“How did you afford that?”

“But there are no stone glyphs.” Bjorn objected to the disappeared corpses of our most recent foes without a stone surface on which to open the vault's door.

“There is more to magic than stone glyphs.” I avoided answering exactly how I had managed to do it and pointing out that I was only just now learning much about the stone magic of the giants.

Eryk quickly recovered, “Can you store ours too?” He cheekily asked.

Unsurprisingly, his father started to object, “That’s not necessary . . . ”

“It would be my pleasure.” I interrupted, placing my hand on the corpse and opening the portal below it to make it disappear. I was getting better and better at getting the vault to snap open and close and to size the portal to the size of the item I was storing. Soon enough, it would hopefully look like the items instantly vanished, but I was not quite there yet.

Bjorn knelt to stare at where the corpse had disappeared once more, this time in front of his eyes. He snorted in disbelief. “Well, we will be able to cover more ground quicker, seeing as we won’t be stopping to harvest the worthwhile harvests.” That was all he had to say on the matter. He never pried any further, simply accepting my ability and the help it gave them.

I always returned their share of the hunt when we returned to the Thorpe, occasionally returning them at the butchers themselves to speed the harvesting process and relieve ourselves from the mess. The butchers were happy to dress the corpses for a cut of the meat, especially from fresh ones like the ones I could produce, and my spatial vault quickly filled up with suitably salted, smoked and dried meats for the journey south. Wyrm jerky, hmmm.

It was not only our larder that filled up but also our resistances. Ice Wyrms cores continued to help level my Ice resistance, and alongside my cold resistance, the endless ice was no longer so bitterly cold to me and Namir. Even Nyx had developed a strong enough ice resistance to keep us company longer, although she still steered clear of the Gyrfalcon’s roosting in the Thorpe. She stuck close to me. within the Thorpe but was beginning to range a little further afield when we were out on our patrols.

I enjoyed learning Archery from Ragnar. Weapon Prodigy meant that my accumulated experience went to slowly moving that skill forward, but I had been able to pick up some new archery-specific skills that Ragnar had demonstrated: Precision shot, Piercing Shot, and Rapid Fire. This had made him inordinately proud of his teaching ability. Namir didn’t try to disabuse him of his pride by pointing out how quickly I had always gained and levelled skills, but Bjorn did look a little suspicious at the pace of my progress. However, the skills were soon to be needed.

One ice-dwelling magical monster explained the abundance of Gyrfalcons in the Thorpe. They also were the perfect target for my newly developed archery skills and highlighted the importance of Ragnar on the hunting team, Tundra Terrors. They were predatory birds with razor-sharp talons and the magical ability to call forth ice darts they would shower their targets with as they dived bombed them to cut them up in person.

Our first meeting came a little too close to disaster.

I had become focused on looking down and out rather than up in my search for monsters and treasures. They came from above and at speed. In fact, Namir was the first to spot them as he still ranged ahead of our group, as always.

“KAI, Heads UP!” His voice shouted, startling me out of a sensory daze. Raising my head to look at Namir and then higher up as I saw him pointing above us.

Directing my senses up, I saw the sudden ice storm falling toward us with a hunting pair of Tundra Terrors diving behind their magically made lethal hailstorm. They must have been circling high above my sensory envelope for me to have missed them.

My thoughts fled to Nyx. Would she be okay? Land monsters had never threatened her with her ability to flee beyond their reach but these she would have no such escape from. Nyx, though, was outside of their falling ice and smartly abandoned us. She headed out from where it would fall to Namir for protection rather than returning to us.

Now that I knew she was safe, it was time to focus on myself. I prepared to send a burst of heat up and melt the ice daggers attempting to pin us to the earth, but I did not have time before Bjorn yelled, “Shields up!” The four of them rapidly raised their circular shields above their heads as they dropped to their knees in practised motions.

I stood next to Bjorn and was covered by his shield as the hail of ice darts hit hard. Half his size, I did not even need to drop to my knees as I pulled my bow and arrow, aiming and shooting despite the hail of ice that my senses allowed me to see through without risking putting my head out into the falling icy death.

I watched as the Tundra Terrors found four perfectly healthy giants beneath them when they had perhaps expected ice-filled wounded warriors that they could finish off with their razor-sharp talons and render them corpses to pick over at their leisure. They aborted their dive, perhaps to look elsewhere for easier prey.

However, Ragnar and I would not let them leave at their leisure and let loose a pair of arrows that could not fail to miss at this proximity, with them losing speed to break their fall and angle away from us. A combination of Precision shots and Piercing shots buried our shafts solidly into their breasts and brought them crashing down to the ice, if not dead, mortally wounded. As Magical monsters they relied on ambushing their prey and their magic to down their foes instantly, not engage in battles with them, and they soon succumbed to their wounds.

“Well handled.” Bjorn nodded in acceptance of a job well done.

As we approached their departed forms, Eryk asked, “Why not use your magic?”

“Practicing my archery.” I smiled, pleased with the successful shot at speed. It was remarkably more complex to hit a bird on the wing than to hit a deer standing still all those lessons ago on Wester Ponente.

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“Why didn’t you notice them sooner?” Bjorn asked,aaa reminding me that I had failed to notice them in time.

Thinking about sweet progress, it was worth looking at my status when the easy levels were rolling in once more.

Status

Level: 65 -> 70

Title: Lord

Name: Callen Kai Caelus Kasai Silversea

Age: 10 Years 0 months 15 days

Métier: Hunter (Lv1 ->2)

Métier: Healer (Lv0 ->2)

Métier: Psion (Lv0 ->1)

Métier: Sage (Lv0 ->2)

General Experience: 1,357,000 /3,276,800

Health: 2000 Stamina: 2000 Mana: 2000 Psi: 2000

Trait: Long-lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted, Celerity, Durability, Supreme Strength, Charming, Lucky

Vitality: 200

Endurance: 200

Strength: 200

Dexterity: 200

Senses: 200

Mind: 200

Clarity: 180 ->200

Magic: 200

Charisma: 180 -> 200

Luck: 202

Free Points: 10

Resistances: Cold (Lv6->10), Ice (Lv4->8), Pain (Lv39), Poison (Lv11)

Skills Tier 1:

Dance (Lv100) Sailing (Lv100) Singing (Lv84) Trading (Lv83 ->84) Meditation (Lv85)Time Sense (Lv84) Balance (Lv75) Fishing (Lv60)Sneak (Lv57)Acting (Lv56)Drumming (Lv55) Whistling (Lv50) Farming (Lv59) Knots (Lv55)Draw (Lv59) Listening (Lv50) Stitching (Lv50) Humming (Lv50) Insight (Lv51->52) Glide (Lv45)Poise (Lv43) Grace (Lv43) Charm (Lv42 ->43) Composure (Lv41)Ambidextrous (Lv40) Silent Step (Lv32) Inspect (LV42->43) Sketching (Lv35)Drafting (Lv34)Lie (Lv26)Deft touch (Lv24) Posture (Lv22)Riding (Lv20) Cook (Lv26) Etiquette (Lv20) Appeal (Lv20) Sight (Lv20) Scent (Lv20) Detect (Lv20) Taste (Lv20) Measurement (Lv28) Carpentry (Lv20) Blacksmithing (Lv11) Mining (Lv10) Teaching (Lv15 ->19)Underwater breathing (Lv6) Hunting (Lv11 ->14) Skinning (Lv7->10) Skiing (Lv8 ->10) Tracking (Lv1 ->4) Brewing (Lv1 ->2) Glassmithing (Lv1 ->2) Alchemy (Lv1 ->2) Tailoring (Lv1 ->2) Pottery(Lv1 ->2)Precision shot (Lv1 ->2) Masonry (Lv1) Engineering (Lv1)

Tier 2:

Quick reflexes (Lv80 ->81) Sense Mana (Lv78 ->79) Spellcraft (Lv65->66) Spellsong (Lv65->66) Eavesdrop (Lv63) Order (Lv49->50)Linguistics (Lv41->42)Memorisation (Lv40->41)Recall (Lv40->41) Composition (Lv40) Stealth (Lv40) Mind Sense (Lv38->39) Observe (Lv32->33) Knife Arts (Lv33)Misdirection (Lv26) Haggling (Lv25->26) Martial Arts (Lv25) Transplant (LV20) Cruising (Lv49) Dart (Lv26->27) Heal (Lv21->28) Treasure Sense (Lv18) Intimidation (Lv12) Stone Carving (Lv1->5)Piercing Shot (Lv1)

Tier 3:

Echolocation(Lv73->75) Expel Mana (Lv71->72) Mana Manipulation (Lv70->71)Gale (LV70->71)Boil (Lv59->60) Ignite (Lv44) Melt (Lv44) Absorb Mana (Lv42)Command (Lv40) Deception (Lv26) Bargain (Lv23) Freeze (LV20)Racing (Lv34)Analyse (Lv19->20)Flash Step (Lv16->17) Seismic Sense (Lv16-17) Danger Sense (Lv13->14)Telepathy (Lv8 ->10) Smuggling (LV6->7)Rapid Fire (Lv1)

Tier 4:

Block Status (Lv100) Iron Man (Lv70->71) Parallel Processing (Lv50 ->51) Material Manipulation (Lv40) Stone shaping (Lv36->37) Mana Drain (Lv30) Sonar (Lv25 ->26)Flight (Lv22->23) Seafaring (Lv22) Air stepping (Lv8 ->10) Contract(Lv5) Magic Carving (Lv5 ->6) Rune Carving (Lv3 ->5)

Tier 5:

Mind fortress (Lv26) Omniglot (Lv26 ->27) Weapon Prodigy (Lv23 ->24) Music Prodigy (Lv31) Polymath (Lv15)Spatial Vault (Lv6->10) Astral Projection (Lv5 ->9) Multiple minds (Lv5) Enigma (Lv2)

Tier 6:

Sense Soul (Lv2 ->3)