Chapter 4

  To See In Absolute Darkness

  Sitting up against the side of the thin oak tree that was home to Pearl, her siblings, and their kids, Nik wondered what it would be like to have wind abilities. He knew in theory that there were various elemental skills, but had no idea how any of them would work in practice.

  Aside from adventurers, the elements came naturally to a few of the monster species, but that was something that they were born with. It was something that was innate, from what he understood at least. He hadn’t ever heard of any being taught between species.

  The only ability he had gotten so far, and used, was his Shield Bash. Never in a lifetime did he think that he would ever acquire a shield, and then even further, use that shield to hit someone. There was a lot of luck that went into that encounter, and he knew it.

  I shouldn’t have survived meeting with Sir BlackDagger, and I shouldn’t have survived fighting two adventurers at once, he thought to himself. I can’t rely on getting lucky forever. Something has to change. If Nik had to fight in order to survive long enough to find his new home, then he would need skills and abilities to come out on top.

  Nik still had an extra stat bonus to apply, too. As he pulled up his stats, he pondered over what he needed most. There was an odd part to the system that he found a bit jarring. It was almost like he intuitively knew what everything meant, even though he had never heard it all explained. He knew what it meant to be strong, because he had never had much strength, but in combat Strength increases the amount of physical damage you could deal.

  Agility was pretty handy for getting in and out quickly, while also affecting your chances of being successful in landing your attacks. Fortitude makes you more resistant to damage and gives you more endurance. Intelligence, well, that gave you a bit more intuitive combat strategy while also increasing elemental damage output. Perception grants you awareness of your surroundings, and in general increases the strength of all of your senses.

  Charisma is your natural ability to persuade and manipulate the people around you, but it’s not as bad as that explanation makes it sounds. Lastly we have Luck. Luck increases your chances of scoring a critical hit and it gives you a small boost to skill growth. “If I am going to be an elemental skill user, then I will need intelligence,” Nik stated as he increased the stat to 6.

  Pearl descended from her tree to hover behind the screen just as he confirmed his stat point increase.

  “Are you done staring into the middle distance, yet? Or do we need to start your training some other time?” she asked with evident sarcasm.

  “No, I’m ready! Just tell me where to start.” Nik responded as usual with enthusiasm. With a look of mild amusement she waved for Nik to follow. Standing on his bandaged leg was not a whole barrel of fun, but he followed his new teacher. Limping along, he tried to use his bad leg as little as possible. They stopped just a few dozen paces from the faery hollow and she motioned for him to sit.

  “This is not the fun part,” she began. Nik sat studious, anticipating some sort of tough physical training as she continued, “You will need to learn to understand how the wind interacts with the world. Faeryfolk have an innate understanding that we nurture as we learn to fly, even the pixies with their single set of wings. You do not have either of those advantages.” Pearl looked at him with her amused smile from earlier returning, only this time with a sadistic twist that wasn’t there previously.

  Directing his eyes upwards, she said, “I will have the monotonous task of pruning a couple of the branches from this tree today in the slowest method possible. You will have the task of watching as I remove each leaf from those branches one by one.”

  Nik started, “Wait, you want me to watch you trim leaves?” Pearl’s sadistic smile grew even wider.

  She seemed even more excited at the prospect of him suffering from tortuous boredom as she told him, “No, my student, you are going to watch the leaf. Watch how it falls, how the air alters its path to ground. Once the leaf touches the ground, I will remove the next leaf, and you will watch that one fall.”

  Nik was suddenly much less enthusiastic about his chances of learning an elemental skill than he had been at the beginning of this conversation. Pearl only laughed at the look on his face as she flew up to the branches.

  “I have put a lot of thought into this, Nik. You are just going to need to trust me. Now watch the leaves.”

  While being whole-heartedly thrilled at the idea of using neat wind abilities to help him achieve his goals, this is not what Nik had in mind. He had imagined that it would be so much more interesting than trying to stay focused on a task so complete in its mind-numbing monotony that it was hard to stay awake, much less remain engaged. The leaves fell one at a time, and Nik did his absolute best to analyze the way they fell. The way they tilted and spun, given a gentle nudge to the side at each shift in the breeze.

  He gave his all to stay awake, and yet, his eyes slammed open at the sting of a tiny sprite’s hand across the scales on his forehead.

  His teacher didn’t seem to have any care for his pained protests, commanding “Again! Now keep your eyes open and watch. If you want to learn the wind skill, then you need to understand the wind. The way it flows like water, bending, and swirling as it interacts with the world around us. Now, watch!”

  Nik nodded in obedience and continued the observation of leaves. It was still just the same as before. Nik knew the reason she was making him perform this exercise, but that didn’t make it any less difficult to keep his mind from wandering for the hours he sat there. He woke to another stinging slap, this time on the end of his snout. With a yelp he fell over from the tree his back had been resting against.

  “Alright, that’s enough of that for today,” she said.

  “Wait, that's it?”

  Pearl answered him with what may as well have been a threat for all of the encouragement it gave him, “Until we do the same thing again tomorrow. Now go find yourself a meal, and something to stimulate that sleepy brain you have got.” Finished with her instructions, she vanished into the canopy above before he could even respond.

  Returning to the main area of their hollow, Nik was whisked away, taken in by a group of elderly pixies and sprites. They had each wanted to make sure that he knew which mushrooms and berries were good to eat, and which ones were not, in any quantity, safe to consume. They were very helpful, if not just a little overwhelming. To his surprise, the system gave him an alert in the middle of their fawning.

  Skill gained: Foraging Level 1!

  “Okay, now that was so much faster and easier than the rest of my day has gone,” Nik exclaimed as he began testing his new skill out. It looked like the system would give him more information now, on edible plants and fungi. He got the sense that higher levels of the skill might even help him with locating them.

  One of the elder pixies named Sorel Figbug had her grandson, Brethon, help him gather some berries and mushrooms to make a meal for the hollow to share in the evening. Brethon even showed him something new. The leaves of a special vine native to the area had an odd, almost smoky, bitter taste. When ground and added to the mushrooms, however, it was almost like a peppered jerky flavor.

  Nik had to lower his voice from almost shouting at Brethon, “This has to be the most delicious thing I have ever tasted!”

  “If that’s how you feel now, then just wait until dinner,” Brethon said with a pleasant smile.

  Walking back from gathering ingredients, with young Brethon atop his shoulder, Nik was surprised to see the hollow draped with chained strands of flowers. They were a mixture of every color Nik had ever seen grow. All of them sprinkled with a dust that made them glow against the sky that had just begun to darken. The trip with the younger Figbug was a diversion for the celebration they were holding in his honor, and the little rascal was in on it. His voice was the first to shout, “wooooh!” in his ear, the split moment before the hollow rang out in cheers. They had put this together for him, the kobold with no friends.

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  He smiled as he was surrounded by the flapping wings of faeryfolk throwing a sparkling glittery powder over him. There were shouted thank yous, and praises for his bravery. It was a bit much, but it also felt so nice to be appreciated. There was one person he noticed, who was staying to the outskirts of the celebration. Pearl had a sad smile on her face, and Nik couldn’t understand why she wore it. Doesn’t she feel the same as the rest of her kin? he asked himself.

  Nik wasn’t left with much time to focus on her, though, as small hands pulled him to the center of the festivities where a meal was already being set to table on the surface of large flat stones.

  Sitting on large serving bowls of curved bark were piles of sun-dried, seasoned mushrooms, and what they called frostberry sorbet. Brethon was right, white-blue clustered berries were the most delicious thing he’d ever eaten. His mouth was cooled by its natural temperature, and refreshed by its sweet tartness. The consistency was something he’d never experienced before either, and he begged the fae for their secrets. Apparently, he was out of luck for now, since it required some sort of cooling done with the use of a wind skill ability.

  “I need to hurry up and figure out this wind skill thing,” he muttered to himself.

  The party continued with songs and dances of the faery culture, which few others had ever seen. Nik truly felt, in this moment, he was the luckiest creature on the first tier of the tower. He couldn’t stay here, but they would be a part of him forever. The festivities calmed as the night grew deeper, and the party goers dwindled in number to just a few going to work as the clean up crew.

  He was approached by Pearl who, giving him a weak smile, said, “Thank you, Nik. Now get some sleep. You have got some leaves to watch in the morning,” her smile perking up at the end of her orders.

  Smiling in return, Nik half whispered, “Goodnight Pearl, and thank you, too. In all sincerity, I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”

  She smiled back at him, but there was no joy in her expression. In her usual form of departure, she simply turned and flew up into her familial tree.

  The next day was much the same as the day before, aside from the jovial party of course. Nik trained, attempting to maintain focus on the leaves. He would eventually fail, before continuing to do the same thing all over again, and again. The day after that was identical to the one before. Nik never complained. That is, Nik never complained out loud, but he thought, this is wearing on my sanity. It went on for two more days beyond that, before Pearl had mercy on him.

  “Okay, you must have seen a million leaves falling at this point, are you ready for the next step?”

  He almost didn’t let her finish speaking before he responded, “Please, yes. For all that is beautiful and pure in this world, please.”

  She started to give him a dark look before calming, and giving him just a light verbal slap on the wrist, telling him, “You know I had to slice off every single leaf for that, and it was all to get everything ready for the next part of your training. Come on, follow me, and you will understand.” She led him through the hollow and north to a small clearing that had a large fallen tree at its center. Leaning against it was a pieced together fan made from hundreds of oak leaves, tied and woven together over a wooden frame of branches.

  Pearl hovered behind, coaching him on his form as she had him swing his fan of leaves towards the fallen tree. Tossing a light-colored powder ahead of him, she said “Watch the way the fan fills with air and the powder swirls around the fan mid swing. See how it swirls after, even as it is pushed away from you, and the air that rushes back in to fill the space behind it.”

  Nik replied, “Yes, teacher.”

  “Good, now use your mana to push it towards the log.”

  “What? But I don’t have a skill for that. How am I just supposed to make that happen?”

  Pearl sighed, “I told you to do it and I am the teacher. By listening to my instructions and doing as you are told, that is how you do it.”

  Nik shook his head and returned his focus to the task he had been given. Focusing on pushing out with his mana was awkward. More than that it was impossible in a way that holding onto air was impossible. It felt like trying to force your eyes to see in absolute darkness.

  He swung the fan. Nothing. Again. Nothing. Hours went by with the same results, Nik sweating from his efforts. His leg painfully throbbed in protest, trying to keep him up through his repeated swings of his fan at the tree.

  He swung, and he swung, then he did it some more. His eyes went wide as he felt power filling his chest. His mana drained through his shoulder and into his arm. 5 points of mana gone, flowing from his arm, through the fan, and twisting in with the air that swelled its leaves.

  Flying from the edge of curling torrents a crescent shaped burst of solid air cut forward into the bark of the tree.

  Skill gained: Wind Level 1!

  Now you can fan yourself off with the best of them

  Wind ability gained: Wind Slice!

  Mana Cost: 5

  The forest around them went quiet. Nik and Pearl both looked on at the gash of missing bark that was carved out by Nik’s new ability. Spinning to face each other they simultaneously began celebrating their success.

  Nik exclaimed, “I did it!”

  “I know, I almost cannot believe all of that worked!” she said in response.

  “What do you mean? You didn’t know that the training would work? I watched leaves fall everyday for a week.” he said in complaint.

  Pearl smiled back, and said smugly “Yes, you did, and it worked. I had a theory that knowledge and understanding played a part in why some skills were innate. It turns out that I had been correct.”

  Nik let his frustration go with a sigh, his mood returning to joy at their success.

  “It did work, and I shouldn’t be grumpy about it. You taught me an incredible skill and I am forever grateful for this gift.” Nik said with a small bow.

  Nodding her head back at him, she faced towards the hollow and said, “You should stay here to practice that some more and then meet me back with the others.

  As usual, her six wings carried her away before Nik could respond. He did as she instructed, emptying his mana pool at the tree trunk, and leaving a pile of overlapped furrows in the wooden surface. Physically exhausted, he dragged his limping feet to his temporary home.

  The faery hollow was something very special and Nik knew it. They were a community, a family, and they took care of each other. They lived in harmony, and in a perfect unison with the forest around them. They didn’t even have a leader; they just deferred to their elders. The goblins would squabble over every little thing, make up, and be best friends immediately after. These pixies and sprites were something different. He would have chosen to stay with them, if he could. However, that wasn’t possible, and his leg was feeling better every day.

  The next day he trained on his own, alternating between his new wind slice ability and throwing his spear wobbling in awkward trajectory through the air. This became his daily routine, he would help with foraging, eat with faeryfolk, train his wind skill, throw his spear badly, practice some stabbing and slicing motions, and then go to sleep. His time here was more than valuable, in so many different ways. As the days went by he leveled both his foraging skill and his wind skill; neither appeared to have any new ability with the one new level each.

  His training with the spear also paid off as he unlocked the spear skill. The beginner spear skill’s 5 MP cost ability was called Dual Strike. It was like a phantom copy of the spear took form, inches from the real one, as he made a lunging attack. Unlocking the weapon and shield skills were much easier than the elemental one, maybe because they were simple to understand.

  Waking up and helping to gather berries, mushrooms, and bark, Nik could feel something different in the air. It was a companionable quiet. The mood around the hollow was dampened. Nik thought he knew why. Everyone knew that it was time for him to move on, but nobody wanted to say it out loud. He went through his normal routine that day, but not with the same amount of effort that he had been putting into it before. Then there was the odd moment when he’d noticed Pearl. With a weariness in her dour expression, she looked much more depressed than even he felt.

  That night he went to sleep knowing that in the morning he would leave.

  * * *

  The strength required to use an orcish longbow with such a heavy draw weight had forced Mor to get stronger. The daily practice as a child had been the base of everything that she was today.

  They won’t be laughing anymore. Not when I am no longer an apprentice. Not when they see me return to the herd as leader of the hunt, she thought.

  She was looking at a paw print in mud, left behind by one of the local predators, when a crack rang through her head. The blow had come from the unseen fist of Drutha, the current leader of the hunt, and her teacher.

  “Not aware of your surroundings, again. How can you be a hunter if you can’t even notice yourself being hunted?” Drutha said as he shook his hand, flinging off the blood he’d drawn from her lip.

  Mor wiped the dripping crimson from her chin. “Of course, Master, I will try to be more aware in the future,” she said while inwardly cursing at her failure.

  “Now student, tell me what you allowed to distract you.”

  “Paw prints, here, and over there. Then, claw marks on the trees ahead. It climbed from there.”

  “And what does that tell you?”

  She considered her response, testing it against her lessons, before giving voice to her conclusion. Then she gave Drutha his answer.

  “The beast is hunting.”