Cen yawned and stretched awake after Medis came and got Jul.
Half five? She thought, checking her UI. Crystal. Where are they going so early?
At her side, Rel muttered in her sleep, her brow sleek with sweat. The caster passed a hand over the alfin’s wet hair.
“Shhh,” Cen whispered. “You’re okay.”
“I’m sorry…” Rel muttered, her voice shaky. “I’m sorry…”
“Everything’s okay,” Cen whispered, patting her hair.
With a final whimper, Rel turned and seemed to fall back into a dreamless state.
Cen’s [Sight] had never been the best in the party during the Climb, and looking back, she had made do with very, very little light. So, she didn’t remember much of Rel’s previous look, other than a general sense of unwellness, and of an aged and raspy voice that scratched her ears. Or perhaps, it was that Rel had recovered so dramatically once exposed to the Source, that Cen’s mind had trouble reconciling the two Rel’s.
The one she knew now, had vibrant strands of golden-brown hair that shifted subtly in the light, and her penetrating, emerald eyes gleamed with life and strength, almost sparkling in many hues of green. Rel’s skin was as smooth as can be, and her muscles and shape had filled.
But these were all external changes. Within, she was still Rel, and in this place of silence and darkness, where they could only whisper, it was easy to remember and dream of things best left forgotten.
My parents, Cen thought, sighing in the stifling darkness of their tent, Cor and Row still sleeping peacefully on her other side. I wonder what they are doing now…
She had been dreaming about them when Medis had, even if accidentally, woken her up as well. It had always seemed as though Cen’s relationship with her parents was perfect, especially when compared with Mul’s. But thinking back, with distance and hindsight, was that really the case?
She was the model operator single-handedly driving their team’s quota up. The hope of her parents to be elevated to the managerial class. Her parents had done nothing but pile encouragement, love, nurture and support her in any way they could… But would the story have been different had she not been that way? Had she been less useful?
Maybe that’s why I decided to leave, Cen thought. Because I already knew I was just their tool, and I was about to disappoint them.
Once she did, she would’ve likely seen a much different treatment, the same that Mul had always endured.
The lengos shook her head. No point in thinking about the past, nor of people that longer held any say or sway over her fate.
And no point in going back to sleep again either, Cen thought, looking back and down at her pillow, imagining the sweet stains covering it. Might as well make myself useful.
She crawled to the exit and carefully unhooked the magnetized seals of the tent, so as to not wake the other three. Once outside, she allowed them to softly click back into place, but didn’t bother zipping up the tent. They were in for an early rise soon.
Gad and Kur were whispering to one side, and by the looks on their faces the topic seemed serious, so Cen didn’t disturb them.
Instead, she spotted Nar meditating with his back against the hard plastic shell of the showers, and headed over to take a seat by his side.
She knew Nar was aware of her presence. He, Jul, Jaz and Gad had by now at least doubled all the sense attributes they had walked into the Brightnight with, and their significant [Awareness] allowed them to be on top of anything that went on in their surroundings. It was enviable, and though Cen could fight thanks to her [Sensory Augmentation], that was a skill she needed to actively maintain. She often wondered how it felt for them, to simply be aware of nearly everything that occurred in their vicinity.
She eyed Nar, his expression blank, his eyes still behind his eyelids. The perfect image of a delver perfectly in control of himself… These days, she hardly ever caught him resting, or enjoying a quiet moment to himself. Between continuing to improve his [Aura Blade], in search of that illusive, and to her, still crazy sounding second Nar that he swore controlled the blade of aura sometimes, Nar was also working with Gad, Jul and Sej to improve his sensing capabilities, working on Tuk’s suggested skill of forming a long edge of aura around his blade, working on his swordsmanship and physical conditioning with Leon’s help, sparring with Teb and Viy, maintaining his self-healing training, working to improve the new passive skill that had allowed him his pain resistance, and on top of all that, he was now also trying to unlock [Aura Sight] with her and Jasphaer’s help. And she wasn’t even sure if she was recalling everything that Nar was currently pursuing…
She sighed. If there was something Nar wasn’t doing, it was simply because there just wasn’t any time, attention or energy left to spare for it. His hybrid self-taking and insanely high DPS path was strict in what it allowed, needed, and what must be cast out.
Like all sorts of taunting capabilities, Cen thought, glancing over to Gad. Taunting seemed so simple during the Climb, but now, she spends hours reading and studying on it, and practicing.
Tun, Gad and Leon held regular meetings to discuss all topics of tanking. There were so many nuances to taunting and aggro management alone, so many differences and variables to consider. There was no way to excel at it without fully devoting themselves to the subject, which was something that Nar just didn’t have the time for… Imagine, not just all that studying and practicing, but also the development and training of the taunting skills themselves?
She shook her head.
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I too sacrifice something. Physical attributes. Senses. And gains that more and more, are just focused on the handful of attributes that use, Cen thought, recalling her latest gains. Attributes of the Mind and [Aura] came to her in spades, as they saying went, but of the rest? She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gained in [Constitution], and at twenty-eight points, she was tied with Jasphaer for the lowest HP in the party.
Such was the way of the caster. Incredible might or versatility, or both, at their fingertips… but from afar. And Cen had come to learn, and understand, why people like her were often referred to as glass guns. Mighty and powerful from afar, nearly useless up close.
She wouldn’t change her class for anything in the Nexus, of course, but she often found herself wondering about the others, and how it felt to be so physically enhanced.
They probably wonder the same about your Mind attributes, she chided herself, realizing that she had wasted precious time on useless thoughts. Right. Let’s get started.
[Creativity], like the other Mind attributes, was hard to notice and differentiate from how she had been before, besides the vague “I can think of more complicated ways to use my aura now!”. But [Shaping] was different.
She called forth a blob of aura as she always did, and she saw the pattern she was going for. She saw the lines of the hexagon forming, glowing in a darker gray in her mind, rather than her eyes, and she worked to shape her aura to match that pattern. The Master of Aura had called it a blueprint, and while some people were able to see it, not all of them were, like Tuk or Jasphaer.
Cen molded her aura to fit the shape, and borrowing from her [Aura Sight] to truly look her aura over, she found all the little dents and uneven spots in the hexagon and smoothed them over, working with a tireless patience until the shape was perfect. Well, until the shape was as perfect as she could discern it to be… Every time she gained in [Shaping] and improved her [Aura Sight], she found yet new imperfections, to the point she’d come to realize that it wasn’t a lack of practice, willpower or tenacity that kept her from her much-desired defensive skill. It was a lack of [Shaping]. Perhaps even of a stronger [Aura Sight] too.
Just as Nar hadn’t been able to shorten or widen the length of his [Aura Blade] at will, and had seemingly now reached another bottleneck on his practice of the skill, it had been [Ego] that had enabled him, and its lack which was blocking him from making another huge leap forward.
Likewise, her [Shaping] allowed her much besides that defensive skill, and she was indeed also padding her repertoire of skills by developing further modifications to the basic [Aura Projectiles]. Now, in addition to her [Piercing Projectile], she had [Exploding Projectiles], which further dispersed the damage of her normal [Aura Projectiles] in a wider radius, but which achieved much less single target damage. She was also working on figuring out a way to pack her [Aura Projectiles] with the same destructiveness as her [Scattering Drops], which, in Lim’s terms, worked pretty much like a caster’s shotgun. It would be incredible if she was able to pack the tinny pellets of aura into her much longer ranged [Aura Projectiles] and be able to detonate them over anywhere she needed them to, bringing down a rain of obliteration much further from her and the party.
The Brightnight had shown her just how naive she had been in recoiling from her two eradicating skills, [Scattering Drops] and [Orb of Erasure]. Nothing in there had mercy for them. They were either food, breeding ground, or something to be toyed with before being used for the previous two. With the addition of the assassins now targeting their lives simply because they had helped someone else, any leftover hesitation or doubts had been erased from her mind.
She still winced when she used the skills, her targets screeching as her [Orb of Erasure] stripped living skin and flesh from bone. But she had embraced the power of her destructiveness as a necessity for their survival, and whatever she did in life, as always, she would excel at it.
That said, nothing consumed her more than the need for that defensive skill… She couldn’t even tell why. Was it for self-defense, in a reality of physically enhanced beasts, monsters and people? Was it because she wanted to further boost her party’s survivability? Or, perhaps, was it because she was fighting to keep her path from becoming dominated by offensive aura capabilities? For if it did, what aspects of auramancy would she be barring herself from, in her quest to fully understand the energy from her very soul?
Does that mean I should look into buffs and debuffs too? she wondered idly.
Yet, while she relished the hundreds and likely thousands of hours she would spend across her lifetime in mastering new aura skills and constructs, she balked from the idea of doing so for buffs and debuffs. Self-enhancing was a necessity, and she would continue developing those sorts of skills as needed, but what she sought was understanding and control of her own capabilities. Or her own might, potential, and of how far she could go. Not in others…
“It’s looking good.”
Cen startled at the gentle whisper, and opened eyes she hadn’t realized she had closed. Turning her amber neon irises to her left, she found Nar leaning over to stare at her hexagon of aura.
“Do you see it?” she asked.
Nar sighed and shook his head. “I don’t think so… It just looks like the usual aura.”
“Keep at it. I have no doubts you’ll get it,” Cen said, patting his shoulder. She could now do a lot without ever breaking her focus and control over her aura, and the hexagon continued to hover above her outstretched fingers.
“If I do, it will be thanks to my two incredible teachers,” Nar said, then he raised a finger towards her aura. “Need a tester?”
She snorted. “Be my guest. It’s only going to fall apart as usual.”
Nar reached towards the hexagon and rested his finger against it. When nothing happened he snapped his head towards the caster.
“Cen!” he almost hissed in shock.
“Oh my Crystal!” she whispered, fully throwing her focus at the construct now. “Press harder!”
“I-I am!” Nar said. “Look, it’s even turning white!”
And then his finger was through the shape, and the aura was falling apart as it usually did.
“Oh, sorry. I went too hard,” he whispered.
“No… That was amazing,” Cen breathed. “I must be close to having enough [Shaping]! Let’s try again! The more I practice the quicker and the more points I’ll gain.”
“Shhh!” Medis’ voice cut through their excitement. “The Quiet is here.”
Cen cycled her aura into her with barely an effort of will, and her heart, so brimming with the taste of triumph and hope, sunk to her stomach. At her side, Nar leaned in closer to her.
“Don’t move. Hold your breath,” Sej said. “If it didn’t attack you yet, there’s a chance it will just go away.”
“It’s here with us,” Jul whispered. “Right above us.”
“Just hold still,” Sej said, her tone gentle. “It’s going to be okay.”
The seconds dragged, as if they didn’t want to move.
Cen didn’t dare to draw in more than little swallows of air, and a fresh coating of sweat flushed across her body as her heart beat so loudly she was sure the Quiet was going to hear. At her side, Nar shifted his weight, ready to spring up at any moment and fight for their lives.
Rallied by his bravery, she too cycled her aura. She doubted she would be able to do much if it came to a fast, close-quarters fight, but she would fight.
“I-I think it's gone!” Jul said at long last.
“Don’t move yet,” Sej warned them. “It could still be nearby.”
Cen’s heart continued to thunder in her chest, even as she allowed herself to feel some relief.
“It looks like it worked,” Kur said in the silence. “Congratulations Jul, on unlocking your [Awareness of Fear] and [Dreadful Grasp].”
Cen’s mind filled with whispered congratulations and quiet joy, and she added her own to it, but her heart was still hammering loudly against her temples. She couldn’t wait to get out of this dark, silent place. Even if it was into the Den, the most beast packed area in the entire Brightnight.
