PreCursive

  The m, I took the time to check my Status as we were breaking down our hastily erected camp on the edges of the pteau. While my Outer Ring was yanking out pegs and folding the vas, my Core was pting my gains.

  You have gained seven levels!You are now level 142.You have gaihe General Talent, Flight!Flight has reached level 1!General ons Proficy has reached level 3!You have 70 u Virtue points. Level 140 Css ability ied. Would you like to review your Status?Y/N. A flying Talent. I was…a bit surprised to see that, to be ho. To my uanding, flying retty damn rare ability for most cssers to have. Grey didn’t have one, I believe, while Honoka did. That was the level of strength where incredibly profound abilities could mahat would allow you to take to the sky. But apparently, there was an associated General Talent with the ability to fly. I shouldn’t have been surprised, though. If there was a degree of physical skill and plexity to a task, then there was a Talent associated with it.

  For all of its fws, the System was ined to elevate such things.

  As I he increase in General ons Proficy with a sense of satisfa, I got the retively mu of allog my Virtue points out of the way.

  Then, I could see what my new Css ability was.

  Name: Nathaniel Eugene HartTitles: Unbound Liberator, Camity SyerLevel: 142Age:25 SolRace: Human (Precursor)Affinity: Terrestrial/CelestialCsses: Thornbde Acolyte (Unon)Professions: Aetherial Meldih: 2010/2010Mana: 64%Vitality: 2th: 100Spirit: 60Dexterity: 342Perception: 201Intelligence: 463Wisdom: 463Free Points: 0Options: [Talent Page], [Skill Page], [Profession Page]I grimaced to see that even after hours of rest, my Mana was still only at sixty-four pert. Even with all of my points in Wisdom, with all of its ability to increase the well of Mana avaible to me and regee it, the pool was still that low. It made me wonder just how much I had used st night maintaining my ethereal sword-staff, powered by The Stilnt Bde. I could only chalk that up to my poor ability to el the refined Aether.

  However…

  Something curious I had noted ever since I’d breached the level one-hundred mark was that every new Virtue point I gained just…didn’t feel the same anymore. As the numbers on my Status sheet pumped up higher and higher, the impact just wasn’t as stark as it had been. Sure, I still felt stronger, mentally quicker, and more powerful in general with each level up. But the difference wasn’t as stark as it used to be. When I had just gained my Status, and hell, even months afterward. Whenever I gained just one level, the increase in overall strength had been a nearly euphorisation. Not anymore, though. Now it was starting to feel like more of a noticeable surge through my body and soul, not unlike caffeine which was being ied into the firmament of my existence.

  It made me wonder if Virtues had diminishiurns.

  A thought for ter, though.

  Time to see what new present the System had gifted to me. Hopefully, it was a Skill this time. Some of my older ones saw limited use, these days, and I could use more options in bat. That was especially true because I was having my difficulties in eling my Mana, even though I was now a true Mage.

  Thankfully, the System didn’t disappoint.

  Just…not in the way I was expeg.

  Level 140 Css Ability (Thornbde Acolyte)Maion of Agony (Skill): Grasp heaven ah, and produce it before the wicked.What the fuck did that mean? That was su incredibly odd description for a Skill of mine, beyond everangeness I’d received in the past. I had no idea what this Skill was, or what it did. The vagueness of the description was the most extreme example I had seen from the System yet.

  “Screw it,” I said aloud, as my panions and I finished pag up the rest of our camp with Liora being the st holdover. Once again, the former assassin had been brewing another kettle of travel tea for those of us ined. I was waiting for my own cup to be finished, so I was standing closest to the Gnoll woman as she crouched o the embers of our campfire in the open air of the pteau. At her curious look, I smiled wryly at her. “I have to test a new Skill. You know how it is.”

  Uanding crossed Liora’s furred face, and she gave me an expet look as she poured a cup of tea for herself.

  Ha. I guess I was the m eai.

  Fine by me.

  I called on my new Skill, pointing off in the dire of the pteau’s edge, just to be safe.

  Maion of Agony.

  In the palm of my hand, a ball of ghostly blue fire erupted into being, roughly as rge as a baseball. I was so startled by this that my hand instinctively flinched away and somehow…dropped the fire. But it didn’t dissipate like I was expeg it to. Instead, it floated away to hover in front of me and began to shift and morph before my eyes. To my astonishment, the ball of fire torted until it was vaguely human-shaped, if not a featureless kind. Four limbs, a torso, and a head shaped from strangely familiar blue fmes floated in the air, and then it ged even more.

  Crimsohored from its back, rapidly shaping into what looked like a pair of tiny bird wings. From the chest, or rather heart area, more of the familiar crimson barbs sprouted to crawl up and dowhing's body. They spiraled up and down its minuscule limbs, giving more definition to whatever this was. Whehorns were fihe resulting creature almost looked like a fming blue fairy, imprisoned by bloody thorns.

  It floated in front of me, and to my astonishment…

  I could trol it.

  There was an odd mental link emerging from the creation eg itself to my mind, born by an invisible thread of Mana. Through it, I could feel the thing and give it rudimentary ands. At my urging, it fpped its wings, sending it to hover over everyone’s head. They stopped their preparations for travel to look up at the ball of fire and thorns, watg as I did my best to do a figure eight with it. The thing trailed blue sparks through the air, in an oddly enting manner.

  Renauld wandered up to me, looking at my creation inquisitively. “Hey, a Sprite Skill. Don’t see those every day.”

  The apparent ‘Sprite’ stopped in midair, as I turo my Healer friend with a raised eyebrow. “You know what this thing is?”

  The Gnollish man nodded, accepting a cup of tea from Liora. “Yeah, I’ve seen a few of these before. They’re almost always a Rare quality Skill, so, you know. They’re a bit rare. Sprites are a Skill maion that happen with Magi csses, used mostly as helpers. People who are really good at Animancy Magi kinda sorta copy Sprites, but they’re not as good. I don’t have one myself. Healers don’t usually get them, unfortunately. But I’ve always wanted one.”

  I o show my uanding, while Liazed up thoughtfully at my apparent Sprite. Her eyes flickered my way curiously. “But why blue fmes? This is not the fire of your Racial, nor is it the on theming of your bloody thorns.”

  I bli the question, looking at the Sprite again. I…

  I think I knew why.

  “It…probably has to do with my Assion Ritual,” I mused, studying the Sprite as it hovered in midair.

  I had never spoken about how Grey had o essentially save me, during the process of sparking my Mana. His owial aspected Mana had been needed as a terweight when we had made a mistake in designing my ritual. The result was that I had spontaneously acquired a sedary Celestial Affinity. Deep within my soul, the space was dominated as much by a ghostly blue fire as it was by the crimson red of my thorns.

  In fact, they were much like the fmes that prised the body of my Sprite.

  Huh.

  I guess the System aying attention to ges like that.

  It was as I was expining the odd circumstany ritual to my panions that something…odd happened.

  pletely out of my trol, the mental e I had with it shifted somehow. It was as if the anchor had attached to something else.

  The fming figure jerked in midair and began to move around in a much more humanlike manner, raising its tihorned fists to gaze at them in apparent astonishment. It fluttered through the air like a bird, drifting down to float in front of me. It waved as I realized what was happening. I couldn’t help but ugh.

  I had lost trol of it. Or rather…

  My Outer Ring had.

  But not my C. Somehow, trol over the Sprite had shifted towards my inner self. I couldn’t feel it within my mind, leaving me feeling oddly empty ihe Core though process grao me by Ringed Mind had entirely migrated over to inhabit the fiery Sprite. To better prove that fact it visibly trated and definition appeared on its fming fists, creating thorny fingers.

  The little shit raised both middle ones and zoomed around me, appearing almost to cackle as it reveled in its freedom.

  In response, I celed the Skill, causing the Sprite to dissolve into a haze of blue and red mana. Moments ter, I felt the now sulking C reappear within myself.

  Ha.

  Serves yht.

  Renauld bli the odd dispy, while Liora just handed me my own cup of tea. I sipped at it as the rest of my panions wandered up to join us, feeling very satisfied with myself.

  That seemed like a pretty good Skill, if I did say so myself. I could see plenty of uses for ara body, such as it was, that my C could occupy. Possibly even in bat.

  I wonder what else the Sprite could do…

  Still, it had one drawback. Keeping the Sprite active put a drain on my Mana. Even in the brief amount of time that the Skill had been running, I had felt it. It was slight, and nowhere near what the enhanced form of The Stilnt Bde required of me. But it was there, and it meant I couldn’t just leave the Skill running at all times if I wao be ready for anything.

  My C was terribly disappointed by that.

  My attention was stolen from my self-gratution when Azarus nodded behind me. I turned just in time to watch as a figure exited from the ring of tents in the distance, oher side of the pteau. From the familiar green and red battle robe the person was wearing, I could take a good guess as to who it was.

  We stood together quietly, as the rising form of Tarus on the horizon cast a green pall through the ever-present storm clouds.

  Kazuma came to a stop in front of us, looking…incredibly exhausted, holy. It looked like the samurai had been up all night, and after all the battle yesterday, I probably would have been wiped out as well if I didn’t get a. Even though Kazuma had been ag as a bodyguard for Renauld, that didn’t meaher man hadn’t been fighting just as much as the rest of us.

  spicuously, I noticed that the ed form of the Shōmetsu no Kiba was no longer on his back.

  I suppose the Lord of the Higanashi had made his decision on if he was going along with all of this.

  He took a deep breath, and to my surprise, bowed slightly at the waist to us. “I…apologize for all the trouble,” He said tiredly. “I assure you, I had no idea as to my apparent pns of my…‘aor’.”

  To my right, Bel snorted sarcastically. “Yeah, I think we could all tell.”

  Kazuma ignored her. The two of them had never gotten along. Instead, he looked up, his eyes briefly lingering on Venix, before meeting my own. I held the gaze steadily. “The officers of the Order of Solstice’s Fme have been appraised and affirmed their loyalty. The Order is preparing to do battle with Tatsugan, and there is no room for us in those pns. He has bid me to say that we should leave, and soon, if only to get a head start on the mountain.”

  I that and exged a gh my panions. Seeing no objes, I turned back to face him. “Will you be joining us?”

  Kazuma was quiet for a moment, but he eventually nodded. “If you will have me.”

  “I have no problem with that,” I said, bending down, pig up my pack, and swinging it onto my back to rest o my staff. “, let’s go. Venix, if you don’t mind, could you lead the way? Since we’re closer to the mountain, I’m guessing you’re more familiar with the terrain.”

  Venix tore his eyes off Kazuma long enough to nod at me. “Yes. Be aware, though, that although the Oni appear to have been culled, the danger has not yet passed. As we draw closer to the mountain, we shall begin to see more and more of the Wyrmkin. They are capable of evolving further than the Devouts we entered in the juhat includes the spawning of Primes.”

  We all his warning and followed after the Antium man as he led the way across the pteau.

  Away from the Order encampment.