Chương 14: Chapter 10 - Burn Brighter 2/2

It took longer than the others expected for Karina to be able to summon any amount of fire again. Her mana regeneration wasn't a quick process, and because they could watch Karina's skin 'unburning,' everyone was painfully aware of how slow it was. For Karina in the moment, it was easy to forget that she was covered in those burns. She didn't feel any different, and her skin moved as easily as ever.

It was only when she'd do one of a thousand casual motions—rub her hands together, rest her cheek in her palm—that she would feel the charred surface and catch her fingers in the worrying cracks along her skin. By the time Karina got a fire going, Alyssia had finished the barrier, and a milky white film floated between all of them and the sky.

The burns receded off of Karina's face first, and then began receding down her neck, but at the speed they were going, she wouldn't have fresh skin until sometime late the next morning. Volrick was sitting on the side of the camp, a touch further away from the fire than Karina and Alyssia. He stared out over the horizon 'on watch' despite the fact that there was a barrier. Considering the first thing she'd heard about a barrier was how her presence was eroding it, Karina appreciated the sentiment.

Alyssia was sitting on a boulder across the fire from Karina, which sheltered their shallow patch of level ground. The 'campsite' was barely large enough for the three of them, but it was the most cover they were going to get. Beyond the edge of the barrier and a small grouping of malnourished saplings, the hillside fell away into darkness.

The first three times Karina tried to bring up her menu, she was met with a barrage of flashing messages that ended in one telling her that she wasn't 'safe' and needed to wait until she was to change her fates around. As it had been when she attempted to equip stealth back in the hallway, the definition of 'safe' seemed arbitrary. Or, if nothing else, it didn't seem to be based on anything objective. Maybe it was just when she felt safe.

Whatever it was, it was shortly after Alyssia pulled out some of the small amount of food the Church had given them to start their journey—they'd need to hunt later, but neither of the locals seemed worried about it—that she looked up at Karina.

"It might be time to try again," she said as she opened up a twine-wrapped package. Karina had already raised her hand to swipe her menu open.

"You think it's safe now?"

"I don't have an ascension waiting," Alyssia said.

"You'll have to try." That got Karina to look up at her before the attempt.

"You didn't get anything from the—what was the name?"

"Volatu," Volrick answered from his spot on the side of the camp without looking over at either of them.

"You didn't progress anything by killing the Volatu?" Alyssia shook her head.

"I've been using the same skills for a long time, and those are far from the first demons I've had to kill," she said as she finished unwrapping the package and put it to the side, picking up another to continue untying.

"Like I said back in the training yards, the progress rewards novelty and feats you haven't performed before."

"So, at some point you just stop growing?" Karina asked.

"No, progress just becomes much more marginal," Alyssia said.

"Main class levels become one of the fastest ways to level your fates—which is backwards compared to how it will be for you right now." When she'd finished her point, she nodded towards Karina's still-raised hand, telling her to go ahead. She swiped. The barrage of messages returned, too many words written in bright orange text that nearly blinded Karina for a moment.

Then, where there had previously been the message telling her to wait until she was safe, there was a sudden calm among the notifications, and the text arranged itself into polite little piles. Because of what Alyssia had said about it not being needed back at the Cathedral, it still felt childish to click at the menu, but with so many options, focus was simply out of reach. Karina found the notification she'd been waiting for. [Ascend Fate: Basic Pyrokinesis?] She accepted before opening anything else.

[Fate Ascended - Basic Pyrokinesis: Level 2] Across from her, the campfire shifted in the breeze. For a second, Karina pulled her hand away from the fire. If nothing else, she knew that Pyrokinesis took mana, and she was already running low… But who would she be if she didn't try? Karina reached out to the fire first, calling it to her. It answered, a lick of flame snapping over to her palm with surprising ease. She spun the flame on her hand, whipping it up into a miniature tornado, but it spun itself away.

That was certainly easier, but perhaps not the great revelation she'd been waiting for, but in the end it was still called Basic Pyrokinesis, and it had saved her life once. Back at the main set of notifications, she clicked the next one, [Fates Available], and a small list appeared under it. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

[Fate Available - Grappling] [Fate Available - Hand to Hand] [Fate Available - Tree Cutting] [Fate Available - Survival - Sand Barrows] Karina read each of them out loud. Alyssia chuckled at the last.

"What?"

"I hate the survival fates," she said as she stood up to hand Karina some thin salted meat from the church's package.

"Unless you're staying somewhere for a long time, they're just too specific." Karina stayed focused on the messages.

"Volrick said that he gained skills from hitting a certain threshold on a fate. Hiding his knife from Advanced Stealth - 2."

"Hideaway?" Alyssia suggested in Volrick's suggestion. He held up a thumbs up instead of turning around to address her.

"That's one of the better-known skills. A lot of warriors will level their stealth just to get access to it, even if they never want to use the fate again."

"So is there anything like that for…" She read the Fate again to ensure she was saying it right.

"Survival - Sand Barrows?"

"There might be something useful far along the path," Alyssia said as she returned to her seat around the fire.

"But most skills earned through the survival category are specific to the biome that they're for." She folded her hands in her lap.

"As in, you can only use abilities from the Sand Barrows in the Sand Barrows."

"Assuming that's where we are?" Karina asked.

"That's what a ranger would call this, yes."

"What do you call it?"

"The path back to the ba—""Whiteshackle," Volrick 'corrected.' That conversation still needed to happen, but other things had obviously taken precedence.

"Anyway, gonna assume tree cutting is also useless," Karina said before swiping down to dismiss the menu.

"Tree Cutting has some very useful skills within it if you are planning on using an axe," Alyssia said.

"Tree cutting?" Karina asked with a tone that added the 'seriously?'

"Gotta swing an axe to cut a tree." Alyssia bent over to grab a small branch that had fallen out of the fire.

"You're going to end up with a lot of fates you don't use much."

"Seems like a waste."

"It is what it is," Alyssia pointed out.

"You can't be good at everything, even if you try."

"Any other skills I should keep an eye out for?" she asked.

"Quiet," Volrick cut in from the side. While they'd been talking to each other, he had straightened, holding his hand up to signal for both of them to be silent. He took two steps to the right, adjusting his view to see the other side of a tree further down the hill. Karina tried to hear what he was tracking, but she couldn't catch anything other than the warm crackle of the fire. Alyssia watched the opposite direction from Volrick, her hair swaying slightly in a noiseless breeze.

Eventually, right after the fire snapped loudly, Volrick lowered his hand and then nodded to Karina.

"You were saying?" Alyssia prompted.

"Like Hideaway," Karina said.

"Anything I should work on that you know about?" Alyssia tossed the stick into the fire, and a small trail of sparks splashed out into the breeze.

"Protection would be worth pursuing. Beyond that, I don't know enough about your class to recommend a path."

"Something for running out of mana?" She stopped twiddling.

"I wish I'd had time to find you a better answer."

"We got kicked out."

"This is why I love the archives," Alyssia added.

"If I went there, I'd know. Or at least know for sure." The breeze picked up again. The barrier that Alyssia had laid somewhat muffled the sound of rustling grass and trees on the other side, but she'd been honest about the wind still being cold. She was a damned fire mage. How could she get cold? The smoke from the fire caught on the wind and turned. Alyssia moved to stay out of it.

"You said you levelled up your class. Right?" Volrick asked from his position at the side of the camp. His ashen skin was darker in the moonlight than Karina had expected, letting him blend into the background more than Alyssia ever could.

"Yeah. One second." Karina went to accept all of the fates before pausing again.

"Is there ever a reason not to accept a fate?"

"Not yet," Volrick said. Alyssia rolled her eyes at the incomplete explanation.

"You can only have a limited number of Fates at a time. If you accept one, then you need to remove another."

"Forever?" She chuckled at that.

"Could you imagine? No. But you lose any progress you have towards the next level of Fate if it's ever inactive." Karina considered the meaning for a moment.

"So if I'm fully slotted, and I get offered a new Fate…"

"Reject it and you can swap it in at a later time," Alyssia said.

"Yes. There's a ritual, mind you, but I can perform it. It's not too difficult." So for now there was no limit, but later there would be. Another thing to keep track of. Karina swiped the added fates away after slotting them into place. When she was back at the 'main menu,' she lingered for a moment. For that brief second, she knew the feeling. In the same way she'd felt the familiarity of the glasses, she understood the interface—a thousand options in a language she'd learned by using computers. Computers.

That was it. The System was just a computer display, written in light in front of her. [Cinder Mage - Class Level 2] [Passive Skill Unlocked - Charred Skin: First Evolution] [The skin of the Cinder Mage becomes hardened when consumed by Kindled Form, allowing for minor protection against mundane weapons.] Karina read out loud. Volrick responded with a 'hm.'

"Hm?" Karina asked.

"That's early for something like a mage armor."

"It might save you from having to dedicate a fate to defensive magic," Alyssia added.

"At least early on." Karina held her hands out in front of her, watching the cracks in her skin almost glow in the firelight. If they were hardened, that was safety, but she needed to spend her mana to have that safety next. That was going to be quite the balancing act when something was trying to stab her. After all, she didn't seem to control where the burns appeared on her body. Or maybe that was just a matter of 'not yet.'

"And first evolution?" Karina asked.

"Means that a later skill is going to replace it," Alyssia said as she held up her palm, which began to glow.

"I used to have 'Flash Cure,' which was a quick, low-mana ability to heal small cuts. But later it changed to 'Flash Mend,' which was just as fast and used the same amount of mana, but is stronger."

"An upgrade?" Karina suggested. Alyssia nodded.

"That's a good word for it." Volrick looked over his shoulder.

"A lot of heroes like my dad say 'Buff' or 'Debuff.' Never really caught on outside of the heroes, though."

"Those sound familiar," Karina said. She knew she had used those words before, but it was all so far away.

"That it for the class?" Volrick asked.

"Some stats, but I still haven't figured out what—""Those are usually applied in the background," Alyssia said.

"It just means that you're stronger."

"Is there a number for it?" Karina asked.

"No. Like mana, it's a feeling." Alyssia stretched as she spoke. She still hadn't gone for the food.

"You will find that your spells and skills hit harder than they did before for the same skill."

"But nothing—" Karina took a moment to pull the memory again. It was all games.

"Nothing like strength? Or agility?" Alyssia shook her head.

"If you wanna get faster, get running," Volrick said.

"Either that or find a class skill that does it. Some classes have 'em."

"Either way," Alyssia said as she finished her stretch, "nothing more? No skill choices to make?" Karina shook her head. There was one more thing, but it wasn't a skill choice.

"Good, always hard to explain those at early levels. Classes let you choose skills sometimes and—""And Fates."

"Thanks," Alyssia said.

"Sometimes you have choices to make, and they can be hard choices." She finally grabbed some of the meat from the first package.

"Something we can tackle later."

"When we're safe?" Karina suggested.

"Or when you level up again because we run into more demons," Volrick added.

"If?" Karina added. Volrick laughed at that. Alyssia didn't. She met the fire with a thousand-yard stare.