AN: Welcome back! To Maidens & Magic! Updates will be slow, working between two stories and college, but I'll do my best to keep these stories going for you all that are interested.
Well, the story didn't do badly even, just like one mildly negative review. But eh, guess I'm a softy. Normally I'd try and get a chapter of my other story in, but I just joined a D&D club, so I was a bit inspired for this. Although I'll admit, incorporating skill checks into the story is fun.
Cae has discovered signs of life and is on the chase, what happens next? Well we'll find out.
Enjoy!
Chapter 2: Spiders, People, Tigers, Oh My!
I ran and ran as fast as I could, pushing forth with heavy paws against the ground. The gunshots in the distance grew louder and louder, as the forest grew darker. Even I would admit it came across as rather ominous. Webs littered the treetops, making it immensely clear what I would be facing. Of course it had to be spiders.
I burst into a clearing with a loud roar rumbling out of my throat, spider-like Grimm all over and people fighting them. Huntsmen fighting them. A quick glance showed roughly ten or so spiders, and the dust and ash of many others already fading away. Then there was a much larger spider in the center of the group. Just at the sight of it, I already suspected I'd have a bit of trouble. I immediately put a few points into a Mage Armor shield to he safe
The hunters seemed to be doing poorly, struggling as they finished off numerous smaller Grimm.
A blue haired man with bright blue eyes grimaced as he fired shot after shot into the spiders, falling back into a portal to evade the attacks. A much more panicked woman with black hair and purple eyes seemed to be fighting with dust, wielding a staff to aid her.
The third member was a faunus, white hair and cold red eyes with rabbit ears upon her head. She fought with gun boots, which reminded me of Mercury's legs.
A fourth man was already dead, a giant set of fang marks on his chest. Tragic, but ultimately it didn't matter.
I just lunged past them all, eliciting a scream from the girl in purple. I tackled down a Grimm and launched a curse bolt into it point blank, aside from a small black crackle it looked like I had ripped into it so hard the spider exploded into dust from the sheer force.
+61 EXP!
+8 GP!
"What the hell!?" The girl yelled out, understandably shocked as I clawed at another spider, sending it fying.
"Just ignore it and focus on the spiders." The rabbit faunus said coldly, blitzing past in a flurry of cold mist to freeze two spiders and kick them to dust.
I so wanted a semblance… that one seemed especially nice. Speed and elemental damage? Sign me up. But that was a thought for another time. I couldn't risk getting further distracted.
Fangs banged against a thin blue shield around my body as I ripped through the giant spider, firing another curse bolt point blank to obliterate it. Although I couldn't do that trick too often. It was costly on my mana.
+53 EXP!
+2 GP!
"It has an aura!?" The man chuckled, more out of panic and disbelief than amusement, only to curse as his gun jammed, forcing him to return it to sword form. "Fuck…"
Growling at the Grimm, which seemed confused by my attack, I put half my points into SOL and let out a roar. My mind expanded violently, and I was almost confused by the sound that escaped me. A warbled, distorted, and violent roar. It sounded… wrong, a horrifying sound that echoed throughout the dark forest, immediately grabbing the attention of everyone and everything around me.
Immediately several spiders leapt towards me because of it, and I had to leap away to evade it. One spider managed to bite at my armor before I could dodge, but the others were taken out by the rabbit girl.
The purple eyed dust caster staggered back away from me in fear as I pounced, pushing past her to clamp my fangs down onto a spider nearby her, extending a tendril inside it to try and subtly kill it like that. I'm sure if anyone was paying close attention, they could pick up on it, but this was in a battle.
Adrenaline pumping, bullets flying, panic everywhere. I doubted anyone would notice a very small tentacle choking the grimm I was mauling.
+47 EXP!
+3 GP!
"It's on our side for now! Just focus on the Queen!" The blue haired man yelled, transforming his gun into a sword and slashing at it as his aura flickered. I assumed that meant it was getting low.
I felt mana swell up within me as the points took effect, it didn't restore what I had spent, but it was very helpful all the same. The hunters seemed to be handling some, but I still wasn't comfortable handling that giant spider yet. It was several times my size, hissing and chittering angrily as it spat globs of webs towards me.
I leapt back and forth, moving along in an attempt to evade, but I must have failed a check somewhere because I missed landing, rolling and staggering with a wince that broke my Mage Armor. I felt a glob of sticky webs slap against my body and pin me down.
"Tiger down." The rabbit faunus scoffed, both cold in power and personality it seemed.
"Shit! Clear out the last of the small ones." The swordsman cried out, hacking a leg off the big one, it looked on the brink of death.
"Got it!" The dust caster yelled, sending spikes of ice to impale into the remaining few spiders. Some of the small ones died instantly upon being stabbed with lances of ice, while the big one screeched in pain. I doubt it could take much more… and I wasn't letting that happen.
That's my kill.
I cast two spells at once, Eldritch Flare and Warp Elements. The flame purple flame burst around my body, avoiding burning me and reducing the webs to ash.
"Tiger's got a semblance!" The man yelled, looking at me like I had just grown a second head. Something to look into learning later.
"I thought its aura had broken?" The rabbit frowned in confusion. She was sharp, observant. I didn't like that.
"Who cares!" The man scoffed, stabbing into the spider with a heavy grunt as his own aura flickered.
I launched myself towards the giant spider and dug my claws into it, coating my paws in eldritch fire and firing a high powered curse bolt into it. A large hole ripped into its side, knocking it down and letting it fade away to ash.
+207 EXP!
+19 GP!
I was breathing and chuffed softly. I had used a chunk of mana, which was… a little tiring. However it wasn't too bad, since I was unharmed. Well, maybe a bit bruised because apparently I had lost a single point of HP in that tumble, but that didn't bother me too much.
I was more annoyed that it was just barely a few EXP away from leveling up, but that wasn't a huge deal. I could kill a beowulf and get to that fifth level.
I turned and stared at the party of three, and they all staggered back away nervously. I chuffed in amusement with a mental eyeroll.
"Well, well, had fun back there? Don't lose track of these few. Follow them whenever they leave. That's an order."
Why them? You haven't given me any orders before?
"Didn't you want civilization? Just do it." Gold enforced his authority and I felt a weight on my soul, I sent a mental confirmation as I began to walk away. I'd pretend to leave them alone and track them later.
"H-Hey, wait!" The caster called out for some reason, only to be hushed by the rabbit girl.
"Let the tiger go, Amy." The man said softly, almost… sorrowful. I imagine they were still processing the fourth man's death. It might not matter to me, but I still felt it fair to give them time to mourn.
"I fail to see your reasoning. Did I not show you already? Did you not see how pointless the death of a mundane soul is?" Gold scoffed in my head.
I'm not disagreeing, but while I'm still a speck myself, who also desires to live, I can at least honor them that much.
Even I was aware how much my view on many things had changed ever since Gold had shown me… all of that, but I wasn't so arrogant to expect other people to stop caring.
Nor had I stopped caring either.
I'll track them by scent after killing another beowolf to get that level up.
I hadn't strayed far while searching for Grimm, often heading back just to check up on them. They had buried the fourth man, Onyx, I think I heard them say, and were now just mourning. I was fairly sure the rabbit faunus knew I was hanging around, as I imagined those ears were pretty sharp.
I had come up with a cover story idea of sorts too. I was a Tiger Faunus, the humanoid form I was sitting in right now. My 'semblance' let me transform into a tiger monster capable of weilding flames, but I could only use them in tiger form. I hoped that made it sound plausible, but if it wasn't I could just use Suggestion to make them more inclined to trust me. I could get a lying spell this level, but I could also probably make one with effort, since I had some psychic spells to base it off of.
I blew on the D4 for good luck, staring at the glimmering golden numbers as I tossed it. A two, plus an additional two… four. Not great, really, but it made back the points I had spent in that fight. I tossed one of those into SOL, and another to DEX, just to round off my total stats.
I groaned in pain, but it didn't even compare to doing four points at once, as my soul increased in size just a little. It wasn't that bad really, I wasn't sure if Pain Resistance had increased or if I was just getting used to it. A quick check confirmed that indeed, Pain Resistance had increased.
I pulled up my status window, and my spell list to see where I could improve.
Name: Caerwyn Dior
Race: White Bengal Tiger
Player Lvl: 5 (002/500)
Class: Warlock
Subclass: (Locked)
Health: 22/22
Mana: 50/50
STR: 14
DEX: 20
CON: 12
INT: 16
WIS: 20
SOL: 20
SP: 6
GP: 131
Lien: 0
Class Perk Available!
New Spell Available!
I felt myself flashing a toothy grin at no one in particular, just generally prideful of my status. For a D&D sheet, that was phenomenal, which definitely made me feel great. However I knew that on a grand scheme of things, this was pretty low. It didn't make those three twenties any less satisfying though.
Then there was the obvious point of interest. The class Perk. I guess that was a benchmark benefit?
I clicked on the notification and a list of available perks opened up. Most of them were grayed out, much to my annoyance, but I supposed it was reasonable. Some were locked based on my stats, my other perks and feats, what I had or hadn't done yet, and stuff like that. There were so many that sounded great, like Higher Perception or Eldritch Soul, but were currently locked out.
However there were still a lot of possibilities even without that, and there were two I was torn between. Eyes of the Witch, and Familiar Bond. One was immediately beneficial. The Witch Eyes generally improved my eyesight, and could visually show me magical energies and even detect invisible entities and forces.
The Familiar Bond was something I was familiar with, and was fairly self explanatory. I could get a familiar that would, apparently, grow in strength with me. It would start out weak, but it would be an investment and according to the description, even shape how I developed.
"Any recommendations?" I asked the air, but unfortunately I didn't get any kind of response. I let out a sigh and bit my lip, glancing between the two perks.
In the end… I knew I wasn't going to ally myself with either of Ozma's or Salem's factions. I didn't like either of them. Furthermore, I doubted I would have many allies of my own with the path I had chosen… so someone to help out until I could clone myself would be helpful. Plus, it would be strong eventually.
Making up my mind, I decided to invest and selected the perk.
Familiar Bond: Much as you have your patron, your familiar has you. You gain a creature bonded to your soul that grows with you. It is directly tied to you, and thus, your growth may also be affected by it, but only in beneficial ways.
I waited for a few moments, and waited… after five minutes I sighed. "Gold, where's my familiar?"
"Being developed. It's not going to simply appear from midair. Patience."
"How long?" I raised a brow, and immediately a new window popped up which made me curse softly.
Estimated Development Time: 27:34:17
"Patience they say…" I muttered, before brushing my frustrations aside. It was just a part of investment. I had already decided to play the long game with this perk, so I shouldn't be upset at having to wait a bit more.
To get my mind off of it, I moved onto my new spell. I had definitely taken a psychic focus with my current spells, and I didn't dislike that, but I definitely needed to branch out. Part of me was tempted to take a physical buff spell but… why would I? I was a caster, eventually I'd be able to level anything before it could get close. Furthermore, I could also let my familiar fight as well.
Even if I did need to get physical, a few stats here or there could make me at least somewhat able to handle a physical spar. Maybe it was reckless but… I felt far more tempted to get an interesting spell.
I had warp elements, so I figured I could use that to make most elemental spells on my own. Most at least. Warp Elements didn't apply to ice for example.
I had plenty of mental spells that I could probably make new spells with through Experimentation. So the obvious choice for me was a spell that was in an entire new field.
Hex Mark: Blood Bond - Tier 2: Through direct contact, hold your hand upon a victim's skin for ten or more seconds and expend 15 points of mana to Brand a victim with your Patron's Mark and a Rune. Each time you activate this Mark's effect, you must pay an additional 3 Points of Mana. You must also expend an additional 1 point of mana every 24 hours to maintain this Hex Mark.
Through this mark, you may drain small amounts of health to heal yourself, or send HP through it to heal the target. You may recover or heal a maximum of 5 HP an Hour through this method.
There was an entire series of various Hex Mark spells I could choose from. This was one of the few Tier 2 Hex Mark spells, the rest were higher tiers. The main principle was runes and curses you could brand onto a target to achieve various effects. I wasn't sure if someone could cut the brand off, but even if so, it was a pretty useful spell for the knowledge alone that was entering my head.
The only issue with experimenting with this one is I would need test subjects… so it might take some time to invent new ones. Maybe if I found a criminal or someone ever attacks me. I didn't want to abduct someone to do it, that would get me in a lot of trouble.
Conjure Tentacle, Eldritch Flare, Minor Hallucination, Psychic suggestion, Warp Elements, Hex Weapon, Mage Armor, Curse Bolt, Rend Mind, and Hex Mark.
I was racking up quite the arsenal of spells, but I could do better. I wanted more magic. I drew upon the knowledge Gold had given me, the knowledge that let me cast Warp Elements. It was like the Shaping spells, but in exchange for being weaker it was an all in one. A Principle, as opposed to a specialized spell.
If it was a fundamental principle, it should be easy to expand upon it. Any annoyance I had about the familiar was gone, instead replaced with curiosity and excitement.
The chuckling from Gold in the back of my mind only encouraged me, as I gathered up my Mana. Instead of putting it into the air or the earth, I tried pushing it into the shadows around me. It fizzled out, but I tried it again.
And again.
And again.
I found myself biting my lip in mild annoyance once again. I suppose shadows were the absence of light, so it was a lot harder to grasp as it was more conceptual than material. I tried doing light as well, but I guess controlling a particle like a photon was beyond me as well.
"How much does it cost to buy an understanding of shadows…" I muttered softly.
"Buying knowledge, hm? Spoken like a warlock. However that is out of your price range as of now. Besides, you should learn some things on your own. You are given many boons from me, from perks every five levels to many spells, to your transformation. Prove you are worth it."
I sighed softly and nodded. "I understand. I'll figure it out on my own."
"Good. You're of no help to me if you can't transcend the basics on your own. I need a champion, so become one."
"Transcend the basics… huh." I muttered to myself, glancing back at the shadows. I didn't know if that was an intentional clue, but something clicked in my brain when hearing those words. Changing shadows like I had intended was so much more. You can't solidify shadows like you could make solid light because… well, shadow isn't a thing. It's an absence of something, merely an idea. So shadow magic was either one of two things, either converting shadows into a magical element, or using shadows as a medium to call something from another plane.
I highly doubted it was the latter, as that would be so wildly inefficient for the level of magical output. Although… that would explain the ability to teleport through shadows…
I had a lot to think about. For now, it was getting dark. I wanted to check back up on those three.
I stepped out into view and put three points into mage armor. I wasn't sure I would need it, but better safe than sorry. Immediately I had a pair of pistols trained on me, and I raised my hands in the air. "Hey, hey. I come in peace," I replied calmly, "No need to get trigger happy."
"Who are you?" The blue haired man said sternly, clearly wary of me. I wondered if I gave off some strange presence? As the dust caster girl looked especially nervous.
"As you grow stronger you will develop an even greater presence. As of now, you just unnerve some." Gold confirmed.
Well that wasn't ideal, but for now I could manage it. Maybe I should save up my GP for another perk to counter that… or perhaps not. There were better perks to spend my GP on, even if bad charisma was annoying.
"Did you forget me already?" I flashed a smile and wiggled my tiger ears. "Way to thank the back up."
"The… tiger? You're saying that was you." The rabbit faunus stared flatly, clearly skeptical.
"Yeah, it's my semblance. I transform into that fire beast. Can't do the fire thing unless I'm like that." I lied calmly, shrugging a bit as I used a bit of suggestion to reinforce it.
"That's… a pretty strange semblance…" The girl, Amy, muttered. "Huh…"
I dumped more points into suggestion to reinforce it. Sure, I could cast it for free, but it was too weak at that stage, and I was paranoid. I needed them to trust me.
"Yeah… and a strong one…" The man frowned, still skeptical as well. "Weird, but a wild tiger with an aura is also just as weird to be fair..."
"Exactly. I can change right now if you want?" I cracked a grin, trying to be a bit friendly.
"No. Don't. Why wait until night to approach?" The rabbit asked coldly, staring at me with a cold glare, as white mist seeped off of her. Tall, bunny ears, and white icy mist. I liked her, she was cool.
"I wanted to give you all time to mourn." I answered softly. "You lost a teammate, and I didn't feel right adding my issues on top of that without giving you some time."
"I-I appreciate that…" Amy muttered softly, seemingly the most trusting of me, while also the most intimidated. "What's your name? You look a little young to be a Huntress."
"My name is Caerwyn Dior." I bowed formally in greeting. "And uh… I'm not a huntress. My dad was a wandering one, he trained me. My airship crashed a long way back, and I've been running lost for awhile now." I tapped at Psychic Suggestion again, only a little bit this time.
"I see… must have been rough. Well, you have a strong semblance, so that probably helped. I'm Skye." The man said awkwardly, still cautious but much calmer than before. "This is Amy and Bianca, we were sent on an expedition… but our guide fell a few days ago and… now Onyx." He winced.
Amy looked down at the ground, crestfallen, while Bianca kept her eye on me. "Why do you have a tail and ears?" She questioned immediately.
Crap. I had forgotten I did that, before I knew I was on Remnant. I guess Gold had made my transformation have only ears by default for a reason.
"Uh, kind of an uncomfortable question… it's a birth defect…" I lied again, using a little more magic to nudge them into believing it. This was getting risky. I was worried using it too much would eventually get someone to catch on to what was happening.
"That's—" Bianca seemed like she was going to call me out on it, but Amy quickly raised a hand to object. "Bianca, uhm… i-if it's uncomfortable for her let's just talk about something else…"
It seemed Amy was especially susceptible to my mental influence, while Bianca was resistant to it. Suggestion wasn't a spell I wanted to use casually, but my patron had ordered me to stay with them, so I wasn't going to shy away from using it. Especially if it was just to let them give me a chance at building real trust.
Besides, was it any different than pouring a bunch of points into a Charisma stat? I didn't think so at least. I was just making up for my lack of one.
"Fine." Bianca just took a seat around a campfire and fell silent. She'd be a tough one to handle, but I could manage.
"Well uhm, aside from that… I don't suppose you all know how far we are from Windpath? I was on my way there." I asked, naming one of the only cities in Mistal I knew. Now that I thought about it, I also needed to invest in some information based spells.
"We're a few days away from Windpath." Skye replied with a nod. "We're heading in that direction ourselves. Care to join us?"
"Ah, well, uhm, I only really need directions. I wouldn't want to intrude…" I raised my hands in surrender.
"N-No it's fine… you helped a lot back there… I don't know if we would have made it without your help…" Amy gave a sheepish smile, light purple eyes twinkling with gratitude. Seemed she was quick to ignore my strange presence.
She was a kind soul. For some reason I felt inclined to ensure she was safe until we reached Windpath. It was the least I could do, if she was the one convincing them to bring me along.
"You sure?" I asked, cracking a half smile. "I really appreciate that…"
Bianca seemed uncertain, but Skye was quick to agree with Amy. "Yeah, Amy's right. You at the least deserve an escort for the help. We're leaving first thing in the morning. We'd stay but mourning any longer would draw in Grimm, and I don't know if Amy can handle that."
"What do you mean?" I tilted my head, and before Amy could answer Bianca interjected.
"Her semblance can send out a pulse that makes Grimm avoid us, but it's… taxing, and we never know how long the effect lasts. It doesn't help when we accidentally walk into a Grimm Nest." She hissed coldly. For some reason, I doubted that was all there was to it.
I winced just a little. "Ah… I see… again, I'm sorry for your loss…"
"It happens in this line of work… he was a good man. He liked animals. I'm sure he would have liked your semblance." Skye smiled sadly, nodding softly as he brushed away a tear.
"I'm sure he was wonderful." I nodded back, garnering a smile from Amy, and even a nod from the cold and hostile Bianca.
I took a seat around the campfire next to Amy. "So uhm… I assume there's going to be a night watch?" I asked, tilting my head a bit.
"Yeah, we'll take shifts." Skye nodded. "Two hours each."
"I can take the first watch then." I replied immediately. "You all deserve some rest after what happened."
"That's very kind of you." Much to my surprise, again, it was Bianca who said that. Perhaps much like she was wary of me, I had judged her too quickly as well. Not that her judgment of me was wrong per say. I was an eldritch tiger after all.
"Mm. We'll get some rest then. Thank you, Caerwyn." Skye replied, Amy nodding in agreement as well.
"Call me Cae." I replied with a nod back, grinning softly. While they all went to bed, I'd practice with shadow magic until it was time to rest.
I woke up with a yawn, stretching and pushing myself up. Since I hadn't been woken up, and everyone else seemed alright from a quick glance, I assumed there wasn't much trouble over night.
I managed to finally succeed during the watch shift, with Shadow Magic that is.
Arcane Darkness - Tier 2: You infuse your mana into the shadows and modify it into a fluid darkness that you may manipulate to your choosing. At minimum it costs 5 Points of Mana to create Arcane Darkness, and further points to create more or manipulate it.
It was incredibly cheap for a tier two spell on paper, but when actually using it, if I wanted it to be any good, it increased in cost pretty quickly. To put it simply, it was useless. The magical darkness was more fluid than solid, and hard to control. Doing anything with it sucked my mana up faster than I could currently manage.
The more important part was it confirmed that it was an unnatural element made through Mana. Which meant that, in theory, I could create others.
Like, say… a fire that burned cold instead of hot. That would be an interesting spell. I imagined it would similarly be inefficient though, so until I had enough mana to be flashy, or developed an affinity for it, I should stick with the basics.
"Did you sleep well?" Amy greeted, yawning as well. She still seemed a bit sad, but tried to smile through it.
"Yep, had a nice long rest." I nodded softly, rolling my shoulders as I pushed myself up as I opened my familiar window.
Estimated Development Time: 19:07:49
Tonight then, I'd get my familiar. I was hoping it would be something good, if it was a waste of my class perk I was going to be so annoyed.
"Good, because we have a lot of traveling to do." Skye said softly. "We need to drop you off at Windpath, and report our mission failure once we're near a CCT relay."
"Mm. Lionheart won't be pleased…" Bianca muttered, and I found myself blinking at that as I thought back to what I could remember of the show. They were sent here by Lionheart? That… explained them being sent on an 'expedition' out into the middle of nowhere at least.
I imagine they were all supposed to die.I… might have a word with Lionheart before I leave for Vale.
Although I wasn't sure if I could handle the backlash of antagonizing one of the four Headmasters just yet, I was tempted to anyway.
"What was the purpose of the mission?" I asked curiously, hoping to get more information on the situation.
"Scouting and extermination. Rumors had spread of a small Grimm Nest, it was… much bigger than what the info had said. We had taken out an Empress, five Queens, and many smaller ones, before you showed up." Skye replied with a bitter frown, even I winced sincerely at that.
It was a testament to their abilities that they had lasted that long. Still… if that Queen Arachne Grimm had given me that much EXP, how much would an Empress give me?
"That sounds rough..." I replied after that thought. Although admittedly I wish I had been there to help with the Empress, that would have been nice.
"Y-Yeah…" Amy just nodded in agreement, handing me some food, to which I nodded gratefully and began eating.
"So when do we head out?" I asked, speaking between bites of what tasted like dried turkey. It wasn't great, but food was food in the end.
"As soon as you're done. You overslept." Bianca answered with a slight huff, seemingly a bit peeved about that detail. I wondered if it was like in D&D, in which I had to sleep for exactly eight hours? It would be an odd detail, but not impossible.
Although I heard nothing from Gold in response to the thought, I would ask him later when he wasn't busy.
Perhaps I was also just simply tired.
"Ah… Sorry about that. We can go now, I can eat as we move." I stood up, stretching a bit dramatically.
"Alright then." Skye just nodded seriously. "We're due West to Windpath."
I simply nodded in response, smirking softly to myself as we began to head off. Civilization, here I come.
AN: Alright, first week of college down. Thankfully they were pretty easy on us this first week, but as my courses grow more intense my uploads may slow even further. This one is a bit shorter than the last, and for that I apologize.
I do have a Familiar for Cae in mind, but if several of you all agree on a creature for it I might consider changing that. It can be an animal, or a creature from any ttrpg. Keep the challenge rating reasonable though. We'll consider this a pseudo poll.
And additionally, I was a bit hesitant with that Hex Mark spell, do you all think it's balanced? Or should I revise that. That's my main query for you all.
Furthermore, I hope you enjoy Cae's traveling companions for while they're around.
The reviews!
Mrwinterdk: Glad to hear that!
Quazzio: Ah, I could have sworn… my bad then, I'll try and go back and revise that chapter when I have time.
Eshrew: I'll try and take the Flamesclaw method with not taking much dissing to heart until a few chapters in, but I see your point. With each system I make, there's pros and cons.
Cae can get strong fast, but she has no observe/analysis or titles with benefits for example like my other character, Sybil. Nor does she have a charisma stat, which she now acknowledges would have been useful, and is instead making due with Suggestion.
You're right that Gold did give it to her for ridiculously cheap. They also gave her a free pendant. Why that is I can't exactly spoil it, but Gold needs a champion for plot reasons. So they took precautions to help Cae out. They're generous with boons, but as they said, they're only willing to do so much.
Deals have catches too.
Eranore: Glad to hear that! I did want to mix the standard gamer style with TTRPG vibes, trying to model spellcasting a bit like a Ki pool but also like a standard mana thing, spell levels, keeping the act of rolling dice involved. I'm glad you like the system.
Onxio: That's an interesting suggestion. I mean, Cae is definitely taking a mental focus so far, and she is in Mistral right now.
Selfishgecko: Yeah I had others mention I didn't make that as entirely clear as I thought, I plan to revise that chapter
Raxon1221: Glad to hear it
Krowe: Ha! Yeah I can see the clear analogy there.
Darknachouva: Well definitely. She actively chose an ability that can damage someone's psyche, a life drain spell, and as shown, if it comes to it she's willing to use Suggestion. She's choosing magic that's generally frowned upon. Thankfully Cae actively doesn't want to join Oz, but yeah, those two aren't going to get along.
Ilayhyams: I got your Pm, you're all good. I plan to edit that first chapter to make it even more clear anyways. As for that, well, Cae wants aura, after all, who wouldn't? But she can't exactly ask her new travel buddies for it, because they think she already has it. However it will be stated that Cae's soul is explicitly different from most people. Tainted by Gold. What affects that has, I can't say.
I'll ask this one last thing, do you all want me to reply to Reviews in the AN's? Or would you rather I PM you?
See you all soon, hopefully! My next chapter I post will likely be my other story, but I'll try to do some of this too.
