I crawled forward, grabbed the severed leg of a Frost Spider and crawled back to be by Goldie. I wanted to compare colds. My Astral cold was deeper and more intense than the Frost Spiders. They could breathe out their cold, but I couldn’t get mine to leave my body. Could I copy them and breathe it out?

  What did I want it to do? Did I want to breathe it out like the frost spiders? That wouldn’t help me fight against them like their cold wasn’t very effective against me. Did I want a barrier of my astral cold? If I did, I wanted it to protect more than just me, as I am already resistant to their cold.

  The first thing was to see if I could breathe it out and use Spiritual Manipulation to keep it close to me. I felt this was getting closer to working.

  “Goldie,” The commander called, “Switch out for Eric!”

  Goldie moved off with her axe and shield, and Eric came to rest near me. I can’t practice with him close. That will give everything away.

  Then Yoboc and Hadal arrived. “I have food!” Yoboc announced. “We will set up a camp back in the tunnel a bit,”

  I moved to help him while Hadal moved forward, ready to switch out for one of the others.

  “Is this something?” I asked as we set up the keg.

  “This is definitely something,” he confirmed. “It’s not my something, but we can use it. It's serious, but not too serious. We now also know the upper crack exits to the surface. ” He raised his voice, “Sit, lad and eat. Your lack of Darksight limits you.”

  “So does this small tunnel!” I said. It was not the first time I had complained about the size of the tunnels. I had gotten taller, topping out at 2.6m high. I had also bulked out with the Dwarves' good food and lots of vigorous training. I think I massed more than my mom did, and I used to think she was huge.

  Dwarves top out at 1.5m, so the tunnel was sized for them. I am told humans average about 1.8m and elves at around 2m, so I am going to stand out wherever I go. Orcs are often 2.2m-2.4m. There is more variation in Beast-kin and Mer. The funny thing is that Mom thought I was small for a male polar-bearkin, and I am sure my dad was bigger.

  The problem is not my size. I have a lot of muscle on me now but very little fat. I need more fat. Fat is necessary for a Polar Bearkin.

  I pondered Yoboc’s reply to my question about him causing this. Could he have manipulated this? I decided this was not in his nature. He would not go against the other dwarves to get them killed. For that insight I earned an attribute point in Mental Perception. Mental Perception is about understanding people, and it is my lowest attribute for a reason. Maybe I am improving. Mental Perception also powers things like Identify, so that is also a reason I lack information on others.

  I sat as they discussed things and protected the end of the tunnel. I practised my breathing and Spiritual Manipulation. I wasn’t aiming for anything in particular. I was just getting my astral energy outside my body and keeping it close. I was doing it too. I kept it close.

  I checked with my Identify Skill. I was close to something. I am not sure what. I felt I needed more Spiritual Agility to make it work. I started to add points to Spiritual Agility, which also immensely helped my Spiritual Manipulation.

  When I got it to 20, a skill clicked into place. Cosmic Aura. I poked at the skill to try and understand it. It was an aura of astral energy that surrounded me, but what did it do? The aura strength was a function of my Spiritual Strength. This controlled how far it could extend from me and how strong it was. I think the distance was a tenth of my Spiritual Strength times the skill level. My Spiritual Strength was 25, so at level 1, it would extend 2.5m from me, but at level 5, it would be 12.5m and at Journeyman level 10, it would be 25m and even more if I grew my Spiritual Strength. It was only as strong as my Spiritual Strength.

  Controlling the size and shape is a function of Spiritual Agility, and I could change the size by making it smaller or changing the shape by reducing one side and extending another. It seemed to be volume-based rather than a cylinder-shaped around me. The cylinder shape was the default. I did have to be inside the aura, as it is my aura, which would limit what I could do until I levelled the skill.

  But what did it do? It didn’t seem to do what I wanted it to. It didn’t make the area freezing or warm, for that matter. It didn’t increase my senses in any way… or did it? My Spiritual Sensing did expand to fill the space. It didn’t get any more sensitive or powerful, but it also didn’t cost anything to fill that space. Sure, it was a small space at 2.5m around me, but it was my space.

  That is the key. It is my space. My Cosmic Aura is an area infused with the Astral. When I got the astral affinity, I was afflicted with cold, heat and void, but I don’t seem to be able to change the aura to any of these. I have an inkling that astral is also more than just these three, but I have to learn more. I do have a sense that I might be able to add these things to the aura if I learn the skills. Add on skills, if you will.

  This is strange. This is not what a Fire Affinity user gets. They can create fire, and they can use fire for all sorts of skills without addon skills, like Firebolts and fire arrows, flaming touch etc. I get a cosmic aura that sounds impressive but doesn’t seem to do much.

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  Earth affinity users can move the earth to create barriers, shields, and spikes and strengthen their bones. I get an aura that does none of those things.

  Is it of any use in the coming fight? I still don’t get what it can do, or is it just something that is there? It might be something that is just there. The Astral is there and always has been. What does this mean for me? I don’t have any boost to my Constitution or my mental or… wait. It does boost my spiritual energy. Level one does not boost it much… maybe 10%. If each level boosts it by 10%, then by Journeyman level, I will have double the Spiritual energy I would otherwise have. This is not boosting the attributes; this is boosting the total energy level. I have never heard of a skill that could do that, but I have to admit there is a lot I have not heard of.

  That is all well and good, but why do I need an Aura for this? A simple skill will do. Why does it have an aura around me that expands? There is more to it, as shown by Spiritual Sensing. I am not going to solve this now.

  The short answer is great in the long term but not helpful for this fight.

  Goldie interrupted, “The Commander, Eric, Sinmot, and Hadal are going for a test excursion down to the Rock Eater. You, me and Yoboc are holding the tunnel entrance.”

  “Ok.” I got my axe and shield and followed her. Yoboc had his bow and was going to provide support fire for the excursion, so it was really Goldie and me holding the entrance. “What do they hope to achieve?” I asked.

  “They are testing the strength of the spiders. The Commander wanted to see if protecting the Rock Eater was viable. They also want to know if they can spot the Matriarch and get a judge of her strength.” Yoboc replied.

  “If we can kill the Matriarch, then we can take our time clearing the cavern and protect Rock Eater because the number of spiders will not replenish.” Goldie explained, “We can reduce the number of spiders, but the matriarch will be laying, and in three weeks or so, small ones will appear and start growing.”

  “Only three weeks?” I asked.

  They both nodded.

  My lack of Darksight was a problem, and my Spiritual Sense was a blunt instrument at the moment. My Olfatory helped, and my training in the dark helped me with my un-skilled hearing. The spider's legs against the rock did make a slight noise.

  Yoboc started firing the occasional arrow. I was envious of his Darksight and Farsight combination. I couldn’t sense the other team at all.

  Yoboc and Goldie didn’t seem to sense my new aura. I had it on full to test that. It might be masked due to the amount of that aura in the rocks around us.

  “Do you guys sense anything spiritually around me?” I asked.

  They both took breaks at different times to check.

  “No,” said Goldie

  “Not really? Do you have a new skill?” asked Yoboc.

  “I will let you know when I do. Just keep an eye on me as I am trying different things.”

  “Sure,” Goldie said. “It wouldn’t do for you to be leaking like you lost control.” She looked at my groin for some reason.

  I passed my axe through a spider web, and it cracked and came apart. It did draw a spider out, though. Goldie and I killed it.

  The web was a cold fibre of some kind. So cold that frost and ice were building up on it. It was quite a strong fibre, which I guess it had to be to hold the weight of a spider.

  Yoboc was outside my aura when he checked, but Goldie was inside it, and she still hadn’t noticed. Those two had pretty good senses.

  I picked up the section of the cut web. Goldie noticed. “There is good money for decent lengths of that.”

  I didn’t care about coins. This was an item of spiritually charged material that I was bringing into my aura. I could sense it. I shut down Spiritual Sensing momentarily, and the feeling lingered. It was less apparent, but I certainly felt it as a foreign substance in my aura.

  Question. Does my Aura enhance my skills within it? Spiritual Sensing is not better in my aura, but it fills it with no effort, which will be great when my aura is bigger. Maybe the improvement is so small because the aura is only level 1, like the Spiritual energy? Do I have a 10% improvement in the skill? No, I would have noticed that when I turned my aura on and off. I checked, and there was no difference. Are skills cheaper in my aura? Spiritual Sensing is if I restrict it to my aura. The aura is too small at the moment.

  What other skills can I test? There is only Tremor, really. I put my hand on the wall above the tunnel and let loose a Tremor. Then I turned off my aura and did it again. Tremor is a function of my Spiritual Strength, so it is a spiritual skill. There wasn’t really a noticeable difference.

  “Shit!” my tremor dislodged a spider that fell on us.

  “Ivan!” Goldie complained.

  I spun my axe and severed some legs. It tried to freeze us. Goldie got behind her shield, and I also stepped in the way. It was really noticeable that foreign spirituality was entering my aura with the cold blast. Can I block it with my aura? I tried to thicken my aura and stop the foreign energy by focusing on my Spiritual Strength. It did seem to lessen it a little. The skill seems to be focused on the spiritual. A Cosmic Aura which interacts with other spiritual things, if only slightly at level 1.

  Together we killed the spider. The spiders were not focussed on attacking us. It is like they were exploring the cavern and occasionally came across us.

  “The Commander is almost back,” Yoboc warned.

  I shrunk my aura to fit my skin using my Spiritual Agility. The Commander and Eric are the two most skilled here, at least as skilled as Yoboc, probably more so in the Commander's case. They may have different skills than Yoboc or Goldie, and maybe different sensing skills.

  Shrinking my aura levelled it to 2. This will give me a 5m radius, but I can’t test it now.

  The Aura definitely improves my Spiritual Energy and has an effect on Spiritual Sensing and foreign Spirituality in my aura area. That is the conclusion I have come to. I don’t think it is necessarily opposed to foreign Spiritual energy, but I can use it to oppose it.

  I don’t know how undetectable it is, but it must be fairly undetectable, as Goldie couldn’t tell when she was in it.