The lane from The Green Table's side street fed him into a residential belt that traveled in the direction he needed to go. The row houses here sat on stone foundations, their upper floors a grid of dark Mycari timber with shutters drawn against the approaching second dusk. A few dozen yards ahead runelamps began coming to life as the shadows deepened. Cal continued toward Mirathra's main Hearthsong Inn and let his mind drift to thoughts of dwarven consonant clusters and phonetic keys. He shifted the pack against his shoulder and picked up his speed, thinking of the tub in his room and how good a bath with a book sounded after a long day.
The ten-yard bubble of his [Sphere of Perception] shrieked in warning.
Two spikes above, one behind, and one from the alley mouth to his left, all converging simultaneously. Cal twisted and dropped his weight before his brain named the threat. A crossbow bolt punched the air where his neck had been and buried itself into the shutter across the lane with a woody crack. A pair of throwing knives came in low from the roofline behind him. One skipped off the cobbles a foot from his ankle, the other opened a stinging line across the meat of his right calf.
He rolled off his shoulder and came up with Bael'zhar clearing its sheath. The harvesting knife slid into his left hand as an afterthought, the recent acquisition of [Ambidexterity] and [Dual Wielding] deciding it for him. A green blur launched from an alley mouth with a curved blade already reaching for the space where his kidney would arrive, but Cal was somewhere else by the time the strike closed. [Flicker Step] put him three feet sideways and the swordsman's momentum carried him past.
A second attacker came off the roof. Long-limbed and lithe, with a straight blade in each hand. He landed in a crouch that ate his impact and was already charging.
Cal ignited [Crimson Overdrive] and Stamina roared through channels that still felt the effects of the day's sparring, while also threading a stream into the nerve cluster to activate [Liminal Breath]. Time stretched, and Cal finally swung his perception to take in his foes.
Four of them. Two blade-forward closers pressing him in the lane, a crossbowman working a second bolt into the groove from a second-story balcony across the way, and a fourth just now dropping the crossbow to draw a short-hafted axe, a low D, his aura a bar of red weight against Cal's senses. He was surrounded, and they held the high ground.
Cal caught the roof-lander's first cross-cut on Bael'zhar's spine, redirected the second with the harvesting knife against the flat, and gave ground on purpose, one step, then two, quickly dancing sideways to keep two from his back. A third throwing knife whooshed past his ear. The alley-mouth Mycari re-entered the fight with a low thrust Cal turned aside with a step and a twist of the wrist.
The axeman was suddenly two long strides closer than he should have been. Cal broke contact, dashed fifteen yards to the mouth of a dead-end service gap between two row houses, and held the choke point.
The pack moved in. Two closed the distance to hedge him while the axe wielder swapped back to his crossbow, and the other crossbowman dropped down into the lane to get a better angle, weapon raised. The swordsman in green planted his boots in the lane a few yards away and grinned.
Why do I get the feeling nobody's coming to help me?
Every shutter on this street had been closed before he turned the corner, and every shutter had stayed closed.
[Perfect Memory] recalled the four men in road-scuffed leathers at the restaurant. One who'd looked at him for a fraction of a second. They'd settled up at the bar towards the end of his stay and walked out unremarkable, after he'd eaten a meal with them in the room and told himself everything was fine.
Blood ran warm into his boot from the calf laceration. He set the sting against the ambient dial of his [Pain Tolerance] and let it recede to the level of an itch.
"C—," the swordsman started. Cal dropped his Legacy to keep the words from stretching, while winding down Overdrive to save his resources.
"—omfortable?" The elf's common tongue carried the round vowels of a Mycari raised in the Virethane. "Take your breath, dull-ear, and enjoy it. There won't be many of 'em left."
Cal ignored the man and took in the fight. Tactically he was facing three high E-tiers and one low D, their auras all feeling martial in nature. They carried a mix of weapons and were skilled and well-coordinated, with enough talent to use some movement Abilities at the very least. Cal had plenty in the tank and his perception showed no reinforcements in range, although there were clearly Mycari peeking through shutters all around them, as he mapped with his mind's eye.
"You know who paid us?" the swordsman asked. He lowered his sword and waved off his own question with his other hand. "Course you don't. You've been living like someone who thought the story ended, but you murdered a Blackbriar heir, ya bastard. Things certainly didn't end there for his father."
The knife wielder next to him wheezed out a laugh.
"There's been standing coin from Herod for your head," the swordsman went on, "since before the snow melted. We'd have walked past you tonight, just an idiot stumbled into the wrong business—except a fancy human in the dinner house had a word on the way out. Said your name. Said the Blackbriar coin was real, and he'd match it through Herod if we did the work tonight."
Oh, that slimy little...
Cal gritted his teeth while doing his best to keep his face blank.
It looks like I've got some unfinished business in Deadfall after all, and a certain "fixer" I'll need to fix for myself.
This guy was talking because, apparently, he wanted Cal to know who was killing him. Like he thought it was a done deal. Maybe it wasn't for Cal so much as it was for the people watching and listening through their shutters. It didn't matter. What mattered is they'd stopped pressing him, and that was really, really, stupid of them.
With a surety born of his physical Impartment and perfect sphere of awareness, he slid the two weapons he was holding back into their sheaths faster than anyone could react, while sending Mana to his silver void ring and withdrawing his spear.
The swordsman's bluster sputtered out while the knifeman next to him went very still.
"Mongrel," spat the axe-wielding crossbowman from the back. "You dare show that stolen weapon in front of us."
"He's got a ring," said the crossbowman next to him. "This job keeps getting better and better. We're gonna be rich!"
"A half-blood carrying a true Mycari spear," the swordsman ground out, "is a thing that needs dealt with whether the coin is there or not."
Cal ignored them and restarted his Legacy, knowing things were about to kick off again. The world slowed as he pulled Mana to begin drawing the spellwork for [Combustion] a foot in front of his sternum—the quick four rune explosion he'd used to kill Narbok. The last time he'd cast this Spell it had taken his hand and left him with a memory his body still felt.
The first two runes formed. He was reaching for the third when the two elves in front pushed towards him and the two in the back fired. The pack broke onto him all at once.
The Spell fell apart before he could complete it. Cal dropped his hand back to his spear while dodging the bolts, [Combat Analysis] having given him the read on the angles well in advance.
[Crimson Overdrive]
[Dash]
[Lancing River]
Stamina charged in his legs and detonated up through his hips as he darted past the sword and knife wielders, who managed weak glancing blows to his armored shoulder and torso as he dove past, heading straight toward the crossbowman who had dropped from the balcony. [Spear Mastery] did the rest. The combination crossed the yards between them in a burst of red light, the spear-point riding a glut of transferred kinetic force. The Mycari had enough time to see him coming and no time to do anything about it. The spear took him through the ribs and out through the base of his spine, and Cal was already ripping the shaft free by the time the man's crossbow clattered onto the street.
One.
A throwing knife took him high on the left shoulder, too shallow to slow him. The axeman next to him had quickly drawn his weapon and swung, but Cal ranged it with a small burst of Stamina. Another [Dash] pulled Cal further away from the oncoming enemies and gave him the space he needed.
He planted his feet in the middle of the lane, and this time he built the spellwork where he wanted it. Ignis. Ventus. Condense. Project. Wrapped into a spiritual vise. The runes hung in the air and glowed, banked and volatile.
The rushing axeman saw them, and he did a quick re-calculation. He circled sideways, wide, giving the hanging construct a respectful berth, keeping his eyes on Cal and the axe up.
Cal advanced on him, using the longer reach of his weapon to force the man to stay between him and the runes hanging in the air. The construct claimed the center of the lane now, and the axeman was treating it like terrain, a hazard with fixed edges and something to route around on the way to the kill.
A hard feint at the elf's lead hip moved him closer to the waiting Spell. The axeman gave the ground, trying to keep his arc away from the banked runes, while the two other Mycari charged in.
The knifeman reached Cal first. He'd taken the near side of the construct at a run, both straight daggers up, and cut in from Cal's right. Cal met him without leaving his spot, parried high with the spear-head, swept low with the butt, and drove [Sundering Strike] through the meat of the shoulder. The knifeman wheeled away to save the arm, and his retreat crossed the axeman's circle and jammed it, both elves checking their footing to keep clear of each other. Cal spent that half-second pressing the axeman another foot toward the runes.
The swordsman came slower, swinging wide around the far side of the construct behind the knifeman with his curved blade ready.
The axeman glanced at the runes. [Combat Analysis] caught the change in his stance a breath before he moved, balance rolling to the balls of his feet. He came in fast and hard, trying to close inside the spear's reach and bodily shove Cal away from the spellwork.
Cal met the charge with the spear held short and took the axe-led shoulder-drive on the braced haft. The impact beat down his arms until he rolled with it, stepping through and grappling the man, rotating all that momentum on his heel as he spun and fed the axeman's own rush right where he wanted it.
Into the runes.
Cal threw the man backwards while catching his falling spear mid-air and triggered the Spell.
[Combustion] was for close work, and the power this time was greater than the first. E-tier Mana with E-tier control. The detonation walked the line between concussion and immolation, taking the axeman across the chest and the throat and the underside of the jaw. The pressure wave shoved Cal backward a few steps and rang his bones like a hammered cup. His face burned and his eyebrows singed.
The axeman's body hit the cobbles in a few torn pieces separated by a smear of char.
Two.
The lane went bright and then dark and then bright again as the runelamps registered what had happened. Somewhere in a building above him a child started crying but was quickly stopped, muffled. No shutter opened.
Cal's ears rang and his eyes watered, but his sphere wasn't bothered.
The knifeman was still on his feet, favoring the shoulder Cal had opened. The swordsman had lost his composure. He was staring at what was left of the axeman with his mouth open and his blade held loosely. Cal chose the knifeman because he was still capable.
He came in on him behind a [Dash], and this time it was pure [Spear Mastery]. He drove a powerful thrust off his back foot. The elf parried it wide using his good hand, but Cal redirected the man's own force, rolling the shaft over the parry to drop the spearhead down onto his forearm. The blade carved a line from wrist to elbow. The second knife came up as Cal vanished with a [Flicker Step] to the elf's blind side, spear reversed and butt into temple. The knifeman staggered.
The man was good, and he tried to recover. He got a foot planted and brought both blades up into a guard, but Cal saw the defensive posture forming and broke it. A low sweep with the spear's haft hooked the man's ankles and tore his feet from the ground. The blades came down on reflex, cutting nothing. Cal was already inside the man's guard, driving the spearpoint up under the chin.
Three.
Cal pulled the spear free as the body went still. His sphere caught the fourth man's decision the instant it happened. The swordsman had done the math of being the last man standing against an opponent the four of them couldn't handle, and his feet were already turning. He ran.
Watching him go for exactly the half-heartbeat it took to confirm the direction, Cal saw him flee toward an alley mouth, deeper into the residential belt. He held the spear in his left hand, tore the throwing knife out of his shoulder with the other, and threw.
The blade crossed the twenty-five feet of lane in a flash of silver and red. The point went in at the base of the skull. The swordsman took two more steps before his body remembered it was dead, and then he went down.
Four.
The lane was silent again. He stood in the middle of it with a spear in one hand and an aftertaste of charred fat in his nose, every shutter on both sides still closed. A whole street of people had watched four of their own die and hadn't opened a single window or made a sound.
Freaking Mycari, man. Whatever. I'm not sticking around to see if more show up to try and finish the job.
The silver ring on his left hand opened, and he swept the axeman's remains into it, everything he could grab quickly. Then the knife wielder, blades and all. The crossbowman and the runner last. He was on his knees over the final bloodstain when the first cry went up.
A woman from a second-story window above the alley shouted out an unmistakably performative wail.
"Murder! Murder in the lane! Someone bring the guard!"
A second voice picked it up two windows down. Then a third. The shutters that had held all through four deaths began to bang open one after another, and the neighborhood discovered its lungs.
Cal stood, stowed his bloodstained spear in his void ring, and began to run, eating the street in long bounds. He used his [Spiritual Perception] liberally but noted no signs of pursuit.
"—half-blood, saw him, saw him running—"
"—four of ours, four, in the lane behind The Green Table—"
"—get a runner to the outpost—"
The voices thinned as he put distance between himself and the ambush site. Three blocks away the neighborhood architecture shifted and the tension began to bleed out of his shoulders. The waiting batch of notifications came due, and he let them run.
[Your proficiency with Sundering Strike (E) has increased to Adept]
[Your proficiency with Combat Analysis (E) has increased to Expert]
[Your proficiency with Grappling (E) has increased to Adept]
[Your proficiency with Combustion (E) has increased to Practiced]
[Your proficiency with Throwing (E) has increased to Practiced]
He ran for what seemed like hours and finally, two streets from the Hearthsong, in a stretch of avenue where his own feet were the loudest sound, he slowed. Cal let the sphere pull back into place and stopped actively checking his surroundings with his perception, taking the time to work through the events of the evening.
[Perfect Memory] replayed all of it and would not let him unremember a thing. The Spell he'd invented killing a young man outside Deadfall had helped kill four more men collecting on that blood-price in the streets of Mirathra. A father in Deadfall was paying real coin to avenge a son whose death kept compounding. And a professional criminal named Loric Thane had sat across from Cal and declared peace while planning a double cross.
Herod's coin was in the wind and would send more crews—better ones next time, once the story of four bodies reached the enclaves through whatever channels moved that kind of information around the province. Loric was an active adversary with completely unknown associates.
The Hearthsong's windows glowed warm at the end of the avenue. He climbed the front steps of the inn with the same stride he had left it with that morning, and the door opened at his approach.
In his room he threw the bolt and set the dwarven language primer on the desk. He'd work the phonetic key tonight anyway. Sleep would come or it wouldn't.
The water flowed hot from the runic spigot, exactly the way he'd thought about it a street and an ambush ago. He drew the spear back out of the ring and leaned it against the tub before he got in.
OK y'all, I'm not trying to get hopes up... but I really, really like how this week's chapters are turning out. Just a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy them all!
The new job continues to be a monster, and I had to spend 4+ hours in the office today (Sunday) which sucks. My job is a salaried 8-5, M-F, yet here we are. I think I'll be able to get my head around it eventually, but the work/life balance is non-existent at the moment and I'm afraid something is going to give. Speaking of which, I didn't get to nearly as many of the edits I'd had planned for Book 2 in the last two weeks of my posting hiatus on RR, but... I at least was able to get to some of them.
The details are below. The TLDR is... I retconned a bunch of Skills for Cal. Most of them are around magic/casting related stuff, but there are some Skills for shields/shortswords/knives in there as well. Basically trying to fill in some of the gaps I'd felt existed in the numbers going up, especially in the casting space. Abilities and Spells are supposed to be kind of comparable, with one for Stamina and one for Mana, with Skills realized across the board. And I just... hadn't given him actual magic-based Skills. It's been a big miss on my radar for a while, so thanks for putting up with the glaring oversight.
The other big retcon I was hoping to get in by today was around the crafting progression/quality system, which was kind of teased a bit? Stuff like "Superior" and "Exceptional" craftsmanship, or that "Masterwork" potion Aurelian covets. But I crapped out and couldn't get it implemented how I wanted with web novel posting schedules, and mental bandwidth. Hopefully, I'll be able to chip away at it in the coming weeks, because it should put a bit more meat on Cal's alchemy prowess in Book 2, as well as inform why his potions were so identifiable when Jakob was selling them and gets tortured (as in, they're going to be higher quality than Zarven's slop--red flag). Spoiler/not spoiler because unfortunately retconning, but yeah. That's the plan.
Anyway, here's the massive backlog of Skill edits. For clarity, the vast majority of these updates were dropped in line with little-to-no prose modified around them. The additional quote is to provide context to the Skill gain, and about where it fits in the chapter. I plan to pull them all forward, as the story progresses, so you're not super missing anything by skipping the read, but this will hopefully provide a level of continuity when I start slapping them in.
Also here's a list for reference:
Stamina Channeling
Mana Channeling
Rune Scribing
Rune Stabilization
Knife Slash
Knife Stab
External Casting
Spell Layering
Parallel Casting
Shield Block
Shield Slam
Shield Brace
High Guard
Spell Modifying
Combat Casting
Crosscut
Spell Crafting
Internal Casting
Shortsword Thrust
Cross Guard Parry
Overhand Chop
Gut Thrust
Draw Cut
Have a great week!Jon
***
REVISIONS
Chapter 17: Adding basic spiritual energy channeling Skills
He focused on the warm kinetic energy swirling in his muscles. He extended his right hand and used his Intent, picturing it flowing down his arm and gathering in his fist. And it worked! Kind of. A surge of heat flooded his limb, a feeling of potent readiness. He tried to clench his hand, to imagine a punch empowered by this new strength. Instead, the unchecked energy poured into his fingers and they spasmed uncontrollably, snapping backward into a painful hyperextension. A hot, ugly pain shot up his wrist and he cried out, cradling his hand.
Crumb!
[New Skill Gained: Stamina Channeling (F) - Novice]
The power was certainly there, wild and untamed. And channeling it without training was just as certainly a sure way to hurt himself.
Shaking his throbbing hand, he decided to try the next option. It felt calmer and less volatile. He held his left palm open and willed the cool current from his core to gather there. Again, it obeyed his Intent. A distinct pool of the cold blue energy formed just above his palm, but almost immediately started to get dispersed. He had to continually feed it for it to stay visible. Ok, this is… somewhat working. Now what? I need to do something before I run out of it! He pictured a fireball, a classic from every fantasy game he'd ever heard of. He imagined heat, flames, a sphere of destructive force. The charge in his hand heated briefly then dissipated into nothing, leaving only a faint tingle.
[New Skill Gained: Mana Channeling (F) - Novice]
Chapter 26: Stamina channeling backfill
He tested his theory, focusing his Intent on creating a sustained concentration of Stamina in his legs. He commanded the Stamina from his entire system to converge into his lower body, holding it there. While his arms and chest felt oddly empty, his legs grew unnaturally dense and hot, vibrating like overloaded engines. He took a step like he'd seen Hatch do.
The world blurred. It worked! He shot forward a full ten yards in a controlled surge of speed.
[New Ability Gained: Dash (F) - Novice]
[Your proficiency with Stamina Channeling (F) has increased to Practiced]
Chapter 54: Stamina channeling to Adept
It was one unbroken flow. The spear drove forward, the final expression of a seamless transfer of momentum that began in his heel and whipped through his frame. A lunge that rocketed him forward and moved into a thrust that was timed to fully unload where he knew she was going to be.
The spear struck true.
The iron tip hit Rielle's sternum with a sound like a hammer striking an anvil. Her [Life Shield] manifested in an instant, the silver barrier flashing between his weapon and her chest as she was knocked back ten yards to the ground.
The ward held for a few moments, then shattered.
A chime and a translucent blue window coalesced into existence before him.
[New Ability Gained: Lancing River (F) - Novice]
[Your proficiency with Stamina Channeling (F) has increased to Adept]
Chapter 57: to Expert
Caleb's thoughts reeled back to the fight, to the cascade of chimes he kept subconsciously dismissing in the heat of combat. Ah crumb, I forgot and there really are a lot of them. He was so fixated on the aftermath of the fight that he'd ignored the System's warnings entirely.
His stomach twisted as he pulled up the notifications.
The first one gave him pause.
[New Ability Gained: Crimson Overdrive (F) - Novice]
A moment of pride slipped through his apprehension. So that's what it was called. The System had recognized his desperate innovation, his synthesis of multiple techniques into something new. He was also glad to see he'd ranked up his other new Ability.
[Your proficiency with Lancing River (F) has increased to Practiced]
[Your proficiency with Stamina Channeling (F) has increased to Expert]
Chapter 69: Cal gains basic rune casting Skills
Cal couldn't stop. He continued this grueling practice; each attempt a conscious effort to keep the Mana dense and hold its shape against the dissolving atmosphere. With every try he improved and felt like he was making progress, but the full, stable [Control] rune remained frustratingly out of reach. His Mana pool drained rapidly. The well of mental energy in his lower abdomen grew shallower with each cast, the sensation of fullness replaced by a hollow emptiness. His skull began to throb, a headache building behind his eyes that likely signaled complete magical exhaustion.
Finally, he drew on his reserves and found nothing left. His core was dry.
[New Skill Gained: Rune Scribing (F) - Novice]
[New Skill Gained: Rune Stabilization (F) - Novice]
Chapter 70: Adding some knife Skills from fending off Narbok
His right hand flashed upward, the harvesting knife a blur of steel as its blade sliced across the bottom of Narbok’s wrist, severing tendons and forcing the Mycari's grip to spasm open.
[New Skill Gained: Knife Slash (F) - Novice]
***
Cal followed him, gripping the handle of the dagger sticking out of his palm with his right hand around his own knife and ripping the blade free.
Before Narbok could scramble away or refocus on activating his bloodline, Cal drove the stolen dagger down. It sank deep into the meat of Narbok’s thigh, just above the knee, the blade lodging into the femur. He did his best to grab it with his impaled hand and drove the Mycari’s leg to the ground, holding him in place.
[New Skill Gained: Knife Stab (F) - Novice]
Chapter 76: Gained external casting and improved other magic casting skills, and amended prose for a skill name change with parallel casting (I think I called it double cast before)
The blue wireframe vanished. In its place, a perfect, tear-shaped flame materialized two inches above his hand. It burned with a steady, deep red-orange glow, flickering gently as though responding to a breeze that only it felt
A soft chime echoed in his mind.
[New Spell Gained: Conjure Flame (F) - Novice]
[New Skill Gained: External Casting (F) - Novice]
***
That final rune completed the construct, and when he willed the ward to cast, the glowing blue scheme flared and vanished, consumed by the ignition. In its place, the surrounding air went dead silent.
The hermetic bubble engaged, a shimmering cube of distorted air that muted the sounds of the village. The drip of water vanished. The distant murmur of voices ceased. He stood in a pocket of absolute stillness, a cleanroom carved from will and Mana.
[New Spell Gained: Isolation Field (F) - Novice]
[Your proficiency with External Casting (F) has increased to Practiced]
[Your proficiency with Rune Stabilization (F) has increased to Practiced]
[Your proficiency with Mana Channeling (F) has increased to Practiced]
Chapter 77: gaining spell layering skill and parallel casting; adjust dialogue to match
While the flame hovered in front of his left palm, completely stable, his right began to draw a second, far more elaborate schematic in the air. The ten-rune framework of the [Harmonize] Spell completed. He pulsed his Intent, and the schematic collapsed inward, igniting into a humming sphere of purple light beside the steady blaze of [Conjure Flame].
Two separate, stable Spells, held simultaneously.
[Your proficiency with Conjure Flame (F) has increased to Practiced]
[Your proficiency with Harmonize (F) has increased to Practiced]
[New Skill Gained: Spell Layering (F) - Novice]
***
His hands moved near his chest to weave the complex engine of the [Ventus] and [Cycle] runes at the formation's heart. A final motion brought both hands above his head, drawing the [Null] rune to seal the apex.
He triggered the ignition. The sapphire glyphs flared with brilliance and then vanished, replaced instantly by a transparent, shimmering barrier.
[Your proficiency with Isolation Field (F) has increased to Practiced]
[New Skill Gained: Parallel Casting (F) - Novice]
[Your proficiency with Rune Scribing (F) has increased to Practiced]
***
Selara turned to Cal, trying to stifle her mirth. "What my brother means… is that a caster's Intelligence is what allows them to bear the immense runic load of a complex Spell. The more runes you hold with your Intent, the greater the arcane force placed on your mind." She glanced at her brother, her grin returning. "My dear, arrogant sibling couldn't manage the seventeen runes of the [Isolation Field] until his own Intelligence attribute was at the peak of F-tier. And even then he could only manage one Mana stream… but you just parallel cast!" She started to dissolve into laughter again. "And he—he—he kept turning his nose up at you! It's too poetic!"
Runic load? Parallel cast?
Chapter 87 - adding new Skills to completement Cal’s use of the shield
"Brace! Thrust! Recover!"
The chant drove the battle's heartbeat. Shields rose to absorb impacts while spears drove forward to kill, the line resetting for the next cycle in a vicious loop.
[Your proficiency with Shield Block (F) has increased to Practiced]
***
Cal looked down. Two corrupted spiders, each the size of a dinner plate, were scuttling beneath the shields. Ria's spear slid through the gap between Cal and Berrick, impaling one. The spider convulsed and went still. Cal slammed his shield down on top of the other crawler to pin it, then choked up on his spear and drove it through the spider's head.
Ding.
[New Skill Gained: Shield Slam (F) - Novice]
***
"Brace! Thrust! Recover!"
The chant continued on relentlessly. The lieutenant's instructions never faltered, the metronome keeping the machine running throughout the battle.
[Your proficiency with Shield Brace (F) has increased to Practiced]
***
The rhythm resumed.
[Your proficiency with High Guard (F) has increased to Practiced]
And the machine ground on.
Chapter 90: adding a harvesting Skill up after the rotter fight
Shaking his head, he tried to force his grip still through sheer physical discipline, and the blade sank into the decayed flesh. He worked slowly, compensating for the reoccurring tremor with small incisions until the stone came free intact. He added it to his pouch and moved to the next corpse.
The task took on a cadence. Cut. Pry. Wipe. Move. Cut. Pry. Wipe. Move. His mind could focus on the immediate problem of harvesting, on the placement of the blade and the angle of the cut.
[Your proficiency with Harvesting (F) has increased to Adept]
Chapter 92: increasing magic skills
He had modified the extraction Spell to bypass the [Container] rune, shooting the essence directly into the adjacent purification magic. Gravity did the rest. A pool of luminescent liquid gathered at the bottom of the pot as the ferns turned to dust on the shelf.
[Your proficiency with Extract Essence (F) has increased to Adept]
[Your proficiency with Purge Impurity (F) has increased to Adept]
[New Skill Gained: Spell Modifying (F) - Novice]
[Your proficiency with Spell Layering (F) has increased to Practiced]
***
Cal immediately targeted the blue-cap spores, processing them before the first reaction could cool. One by one he processed the necessary ingredients until he severed the connection to the existing Spells and transitioned, his hands finding a new beat. His right wove the temperature control matrix of [Thermal Manipulation], wrapping the cauldron in evenly distributed heat. Simultaneously, his left hand constructed [Harmonize].
[Your proficiency with Thermal Manipulation (F) has increased to Adept]
[Your proficiency with Harmonize (F) has increased to Adept]
[Your proficiency with Mana Channeling (F) has increased to Adept]
[Your proficiency with External Casting (F) has increased to Adept]
Chapter 100: improving skills and giving Cal combat casting after snake fight
The massive body twitched in a drawn-out shudder, then stilled.
And that's when the nerve cluster behind his eyes burned out.
Time snapped back in a disorienting blitz. Sound roared. Vision blurred. The serpent’s immense corpse collapsed, its dead weight hitting the cavern floor with a thunderous crash that vibrated through the stones.
A soft chime sounded in Cal's mind.
[New Skill Gained: Combat Casting (F) - Novice]
[Your proficiency with Parallel Casting (F) has increased to Practiced]
[Your proficiency with Rune Stabilization (F) has increased to Adept]
[Your proficiency with Mana Channeling (F) has increased to Expert]
Chapter 117: Cal gets a Skill after killing Griven; adding spell crafting and increasing combat casting
Cal slashed his blade in a tight arc, slicing across Griven's forearm. The Mycari let out a choked cry as he lost the grip on his spear, and before he could react, the shortsword came across in a second, killing stroke. Steel flashed as it passed through his neck.
[New Skill Gained: Crosscut (F) - Novice]
***
The Spell erupted.
A solid sheet of white flashed through his closed eyelids, while a concussive crack pushed his head sideways and a ringing drone began in his ears.
[New Spell Gained: Flashbang (F) - Novice]
[New Skill Gained: Spell Crafting (F) - Novice]
[Your proficiency with Combat Casting (F) has increased to Practiced]
***
Before the word could complete, Cal ignited the Spell.
Fire tore Narbok Blackbriar apart.
The compressed inferno detonated inside him; the incorporeal form that had protected him from every spear thrust doing nothing to stop the blast. Fire and concussive force expanded outward and for a horrifying instant, the Mistblood bloodline collapsed. Flesh and bone became solid just in time to be ripped apart by the eruption. The grey vapor vanished, replaced by a spray of superheated gore.
At first, Cal felt the impact more than he heard it. A sodden whump of displaced air and heat that stank of cooked meat and threw him back a step.
[New Spell Gained: Combustion (F) - Novice]
[New Skill Gained: Internal Casting (F) - Novice]
[Your proficiency with Spell Crafting (F) has increased to Practiced]
[Your proficiency with Combat Casting (F) has increased to Adept]
Chapter 126: increasing spellwork skills now in E-tier
A vertical seam split the air before him. Its edges danced with chromatic aberrations and bands of displaced color. Through the widening aperture, Cal saw charred debris and morning sky. The air pressure differential created a soft whoosh as the atmospheres of two locations sought equilibrium.
The Mana cost increased to a steady drain flowing from his core to sustain the connection. Significant, but against his E-tier reserves, manageable for a time.
[New Spell Gained: Portal (D) - Novice]
[Your proficiency with Rune Scribing (E) has increased to Practiced]
***
Paying careful attention to positioning, he placed the two [Ventus] runes in a line between his casting position and the target area, with the two [Ignis] runes set beyond them, closer to the bodies. The idea was directional flow: his Intent would project through the air runes toward the fire runes, creating a pipeline of accelerating airflow that fed and carried the flame in the direction he intended. He added a [Condense] rune on the far end of the fire side to tighten the output into a concentrated cone rather than allowing the effect to disperse.
Here goes nothing.
He ignited the new Spell.
The Mana draw hit harder than expected, noticeably heavier than a simple linear increase should have been. But the effect was undeniable. A directed torrent of wind-fed flame roared from his outstretched hands and engulfed the line of bodies with searing intensity. The heat generated was enormous, forcing him to step back before he adjusted his Intent to exclude himself from the Spell's nearby area of effect, although he could still feel the heat where it burned. The fire roiled yellow at its core, orange at the edges, and slowly consumed everything it touched.
[New Spell Gained: Immolation (E) - Novice]
[Your proficiency with Spell Crafting (E) has increased to Practiced]
Chapter 134: Cal gets Skill up for basic shortsword thrust; increase to spell modifying
Cal stepped over the twitching remains and drove his shortsword upward into the worm's exposed underside, dodging his own spear as he plunged the blade into the section still within the foundation. The final heart was pierced. The worm went rigid in a death spasm before it finally went limp.
[Your proficiency with Shortsword Thrust (E) has increased to Practiced]
Chapter 130: spell modifying skill up
He rebuilt the schematic in his mind, rudimentarily attaching the [Vox] rune directly to the [Null] rune, and then drew the plan in the air with his Mana.
Igniting it, he felt the construct accept the design without resistance. The runes blazed. The Spell stabilized. Cal pushed it outward, anchoring the silent, two-yard sphere around the rain barrel once again.
[New Spell Gained: Soundless Isolation Field (E) - Novice]
[Your proficiency with Spell Modifying (E) has increased to Practiced]
Chapter 141: Adding some more shortsword Skills picked up during this time skip
Maybe I should have stuck it out at F to try and learn more masteries? Bah, there's nothing for it now.
Sword work had been an enjoyable project. Bael'zhar was finer than his Legion-issue gladius and more responsive in his hand. Vane drilled him through the shield-wall vocabulary until the motions felt automatic, while Arany pressed him on every defensive sequence the Legion taught. Repetition layered the techniques into his bones.
[Your proficiency with Cross Guard Parry (E) has increased to Practiced]
[Your proficiency with Overhand Chop (E) has increased to Practiced]
[Your proficiency with Gut Thrust (E) has increased to Practiced]
[Your proficiency with Draw Cut (E) has increased to Practiced]
Chapter 145: more spell skills
Cal immediately fished two Mana potions out of his belt pouch and thumbed off their stoppers, tossing them back. The replenishment hit a heartbeat later as a flood of icy energy topped up his Mana font and pushed the ache behind his eyes back into manageable territory. Then he raised his hands to cast [Soundless Isolation Field]; all to aid in his efforts at stealth.
[Your proficiency with External Casting (E) has increased to Practiced]
[Your proficiency with Rune Stabilization (E) has increased to Practiced]
***
He thrust the glowing knot of runes straight up into the night and fired the Spell.
The world flashed white, followed by a concussive crack that sent the bandits reeling. Having already squeezed his eyes shut, Cal opened them to a camp of lurching, blinded men.
[Your proficiency with Combat Casting (E) has increased to Practiced]