Mentally minimizing the window, I focused my full attention on the wall as I tried to confirm what I had sensed. Sure enough, there was a subtle weakening of the wall. But it was weird. The weakened point wasn’t a structural weakness – well, not one that was caused by someone building this section wrong.

  No, it was like something had purposely weakened it. Like they had been, over the course of years, slowly degrading the glue stones that it was made from. Adding a microscopic crack here and a hole there.

  None of which was visible from the outside. It wasn’t even visible to a cursory scan. Honestly, I wouldn’t have found it if not for my curiosity about the mortar holding the stones together. It was the glue that held everything up and it was fairly well done.

  Bits of magic were woven into the mortar. Millions upon millions of the things pulled one stone to another. Each woven thread looked like it was a part of a massive tapestry made from the thinnest and strongest spider web threads out there.

  It was the lack of connections on one side of a rock that caught my attention. They were not cut or anything. No, the rock that they were connected to had split down the middle at some point. Likely as a result of some minor earthquake or something. It was honestly surprising that no one had noticed.

  Then again, what were the chances that the guards were scanning the wall for weaknesses? They were too busy guarding the gates and preventing people from leaving after all. Stupid idiots. Oh well, their loss, our gain.

  An effort of will, and a small bit of mana later, the wall had a nice little mark. Nothing too obvious unless one knew what to look for. Now, to let the priest and the rest of the group know about the change in plans. Judging by the sun, it would only be a couple of hours until sunset. Sure, Xander wouldn’t be here with transportation by then, but something told me that no one really cared. Not when they had been planning to escape before I had arrived. Still, it might not be a bad idea to postpone the festivities until he arrived.

  As I turned to head back, I selected my primary tree.

  Are you sure that you would like to select FoxFire as your primary tree? This cannot be undone.

  With a simple confirmation, the three icons connected to that node dimly lit up and became legible. Two were connected to one of the other trees, while the one between them was on its own.

  Black Fire – No longer will your fire give off light by default.

  Seeing as that option was connected to the rogue tree, it made sense. With it, one would not have to worry about revealing their presence. The one on the other side, connected to the healer node, was something that made a bit less sense.

  Silver Fire – No element is strictly meant to damage. After all, they make up every living thing. Fire is no exception. No matter how fast or long one's life is, it uses energy. Now take some control over how fast this occurs. Speeding it up and slowing it down as needed.

  It sounded like a body augmentation ability, but what did it have to do with healing? Was it only linked because it affected the body and the cells that made it up? Or was there a possibility of using it to speed up the healing process?

  Not knowing what to think, I moved on to the last option.

  Fire Bug – small flames cost no mana to create nor maintain.

  Well, god damn. That was one hell of an option. Even if the flames it made free were no bigger than my pinky nail, it was big enough to intercept a few spells. Then there were the little orbs of fire I had used on the vampire. Surely those were small enough to count. With this, I would be able to keep those little things floating around my body indefinitely. Vampires be where.

  Hand in front of me, I conjured up five little orbs of fire. Each light blue flame flickered but sure as shit, they were free. Too bad I still had to maintain some mental control over each. So there went the idea of keeping a few of the little things at the ready at any point in time.

  With a sigh, I returned to the screen. The Fire Bug node had gone from a silver color to one of gold as two connected options lit up.

  Pyromatic – Unless under the direct control of someone else, fire no longer burns you.

  Sticky Fire – Allows you to decide how sticky your fire is. Should it slide down the wall and pool at the base, or should it stick to your target? You decide.

  Okay, two more decent options. Wait, what would happen if I made fire invisible and stuck it to a trip line? Or added it to something I threw at an opponent? So many good options, but how many choices did I have?

  According to the species screen, I had nine more choices left, or one. Given that there were not nine different trees, I had to guess that the one pertained to trees I could open. As I looked back at the options, I realized that there was really only one option that made sense.

  With a single effort of will, the Moonshadow tree lit up. Unlike when I unlocked the first tree, only two new options lit up.

  Shadow Boost – Stepping into the shadows and out of the light provides a minor boost to your movement.

  Shadow’s Burden – The shadow around you is a part of you. Increase or decrease how dense it is, thus slowing down or speeding up projectiles and movement to a minor degree.

  Neither were as good as I thought they would be. Sure, they were decent on their own, but they had nothing on the options that FoxFire offered, but maybe the better options were hidden, waiting for me to unlock enough nodes to show me them.

  As I approached the church, I made a decision. In addition to my earlier purchase of Fire Bug, Black Fire, Sticky Fire, Pyromatic, and Silver Fire would do for now. That selection would take half my points and provide me with a fairly decent start, at least until I figured out how to gain more points or decided on what else to select.

  The moment the purchases were finalized, a wave of heat washed over me. With it came the knowledge that, if I wanted, my body would push itself to the point of breaking. Hell, with a bit of mana, I could force every cell to go beyond that point. Not that I would. Not when I could feel the cost. After all, nothing was free. Even with that cost, it would be a decent thing to keep in my back pocket for when it was needed.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Actually, now that I thought about it, what was the difference between this ability and Body Fortification? Both boosted my body's ability to exert itself, albeit in slightly different ways. But at their base, how did one differ from the other? Was one better? It was as if Silver Fire was meant to be a general ability. It contained a way to theoretically speed up healing and increase one's abilities while Body Fortification was purely meant to boost one's abilities.

  Even as I entered the church and was guided into the basement, I could not figure out the difference. Unfortunately, any ideas or experiments I had would have to wait. I needed to focus back on my current task, getting these people out of here.

  My eyes scanned over everyone. Many of them were resting, but others were packing up. It was as if they thought that we would be moving out at any time. Honestly, depending on what the wolf had to say, that might be the case. As if he had been summoned, the beast seemed to materialize out of the shadows next to me.

  His eyes were down as his mind worked through something that had him pissed off. As he came to a stop, his eyes lifted to meet mine. His expression lightened, but beneath the mask, I could still see the stormy expression. The clouds gathered as they prepared to release their fury upon the unsuspecting earth below.

  “I take it the reconnaissance didn’t go well?” I asked.

  “No,” his growl was low as he looked off into the distance. “It is as though they know that we are still here and what we are planning.”

  “What makes you think that?” I nearly jumped as a soft-spoken priest appeared next to me. I had not even heard his breathing, let alone footsteps until she spoke.

  “The number of patrols are increasing.” Lance didn’t seem as surprised by the priest’s sudden appearance. “I think our escape has to be now or in a few days.”

  With a shake of my head, I pushed my surprise to the side as I spoke up. “One of my close friends…” Lance growled, but I ignored it as I continued. “Should be in the area sometime tomorrow. He is driving a transport that should be able to carry everyone here.” I hope. “That being said, I don’t think the gates are a good option.”

  “They are the weakest part of the walls.” A well-muscled leonine man spoke up. He flinched back as Lance stepped between us, cutting off my view of the man and his toned body. Sure, I had been checking the man out, but not because I was interested in him sexually. I was jealous of his muscles. They were way more defined than anything I had ever managed to develop, even now with my stats so high.

  With a roll of my eyes, I stepped around the stupid wolf and his misplaced loyalty. “There is a weak point in the wall not far from here.”

  “Such a thing is not possible.” Someone cried out from halfway across the room. My eyes swiveled to look for the sound of the high-pitched voice to find a man sitting crosslegged against a nearby wall. In his lap was a book filled with what looked like handwritten notes and calculations. What they meant, I had no clue.

  “Why?” I asked, curious as to how he could be so certain.

  “Because the wall is checked and monitored daily by a specialist.”

  “Yeah, I ain't doing that job right now Nicholas. I also haven't been allowed near the walls for the last month.” Someone else yelled from across the room. As soon as those words were uttered, every bit of color in the bookish man’s face drained away.

  “But, but…” was all he could mutter.

  The other man answered the unasked question. “It wasn’t for a lack of trying. I just wasn’t allowed near the damned thing. Got arrested every time I tried.”

  Lance turned to me. “How long would it take you to break through the wall?”

  I had to stop and think about the question. Sure, I could bust through the wall, but there was more to it than that. The section would need to be cleared enough to allow women and children a way through. Which meant that I would have to remove the debris as well as make the hole big enough. Then there was the fact that I had just gotten a bit of a power boost. How much it would help was yet to be seen.

  So I ended up giving him a guestimation. “Five minutes, maybe ten.”

  The answer, to my utter shock, caused his eyes to lift. “You do know that the wall is magically…”

  “Reinforced by threads of mana woven throughout.” I interrupted. “Yes. But whoever has been weakening that section took it into account.”

  “Then we leave tonight.” The older priest said from the hall. I was coming to suspect that he was the head priest or something. That belief was reinforced when the silent female priest gave him a slight bow. “Everyone, get as much rest as you can. No telling when you will be able to do so again.”

  The bookish man ignored the priest’s suggestion. Choosing instead to write something in his notebook as he muttered curses and obscenities. While he was quiet, the rest of the room had settled down enough that I was still able to make out a bit of what he was going on about. From what bits I got, it sounded as though he was doing math and trying to figure something out.

  Myself, I just turned and walked to the nearest wall to sit against. To no one's shock, the damned wolf followed me. Sitting next to me, not saying anything as we watched everyone else settle back down.

  He was the first one to break the heavy silence that hung between us. “If you want…”

  “I don’t.” I had an idea of what he was going to say and there was no way I was going to take him up on his offer to use his lap for a pillow. The last time was a mistake. While it was not my choice, it was not something I wanted to repeat.

  “But surely…” He tried to point something out.

  “No.” Again, I interrupted him. “Get this through your head. The only reason I am even letting you near me is because you have been helping these people and they will trust what you say. After we get out of this city, you will leave me alone or so help me…” I let the threat hang between us.

  Given how his ears drooped, it looked like I finally got through his thick skull. Seeing it brought me a bit of shame as I had been the one to put it on his face. Which was stupid. There was no way I cared for this stupid man.

  But then, why did I save him from Linda and her minions? At that time I could have dropped a massive fireball into the middle of the hole and killed most of them in one go rather than nearly dying in a fight I could have avoided. Was it because I felt bad seeing him in such a state? Or was there a bond between us even then? Was it affecting my emotions and decisions when it came to the wolf, preventing me from outright killing him? Maybe it was time to send Inari my first question.

  How does one get rid of a mate bond?

  I hesitated for a moment before clicking the send button. Her reply came in two forms. While the text appeared in the window, a tiny fox walked out from behind it. As it spoke, he looked over at the man sulking next to me. “Why would you want to get rid of your bond?”

  I had no doubt that if I spoke, she would hear me, but a tiny part of me did not want him to hear any part of this conversation.

  Well first off, I want to return to being male. Second, I could never trust him. Not after all he did.

  “While under the control of another.”

  Is that supposed to make it better? People still died, some might have even done so by his hand. If not for our current situation, I might have just killed him and been done with it.

  “Now, now. No need to go that route. Sure, it would sever the bond, but not in the way you want.” A paw lifted as I moved to type, stopping me. “But, I will tell you what. Give the bond a full year. If you feel the same way at that time then I will personally deal with the bond.”

  A YEAR!?!

  “Yep.”

  That is too long. I can do a week. A month max.

  “Nope. And you will find that a year is not all that long. Not when you might live a couple hundred years even if you don’t continue to push forward as you have.” Her words caused my mouth to drop open.

  What do you mean a couple hundred years?

  “And here I thought you had taken some time to learn about Kitsune after being changed into one. Okay, so some of the stories are wrong.” Her paw spun through the air. “As you know now, given that you have a second tail, congratulations on that by the way, we gain our tails by completing various trials.”

  Which makes no sense to me. Surely you didn’t gain your tails via the system. I mean, you are a god and all that. Nothing should be more powerful than you.

  Inari’s avatar dropped to the ground and started to roll around. Her barks of laughter were broken up only by her words as she tried to speak. “Nothing more powerful than me. HAH. That’s funny. Most of the gods up here could squash me. A few would if given a chance. My scrappiness and other abilities are the only thing keeping me safe. Well, that and the threat from creatures that make the entire pantheon look like children playing house.”

  She took a moment to compose herself before continuing. “But you are correct. I did not gain my tails from a system. That does not mean I didn’t go through various trials though. It is just that the requirements were unknown. Every family was in a race to figure out the path to power. I just happened to be the first to succeed. Shortly after, people started to worship me. That worship eventually led to my transformation into a goddess.”

  While I couldn’t see her eyes, the avatar’s eyes looked to be staring off into the distance as if recalling a memory. Something jerked her back to the present. “Anyway, back to your initial question. No, I will not tell you how to break your mate bond. Come back in a year.”

  And what about making me male?

  “Reach five tails, then we can talk about it.” With that, her fox avatar slunk behind her text, vanishing. While I could still send her a message, something told me that I would regret it. If not now, then later. To my right, I found that Lance had his head down and eyes closed. I took that as my queue to do the same.