Chương 513: Chapter 514: Return

As we trudged back through the forest, there was very little chatter among the villagers. I didn't feel the pressure and low spirits that followed a total defeat - but it also didn't seem like people were in high spirits, either. Ultimately, we had lost a scout, failed to find a decisive weapon to kill the fog banks, and then we had been forced to retreat from the battlefield with no spoils of war. It would have been strange if we were in a good mood afterwards, even if we had slain two fog banks as well.

I sighed, as we trudged back through the mist.

"Feeling down?" Asked Felix, in a voice barely above a whisper. I nodded.

"These things are way too troublesome to fight. Their intangible bodies make it hard for the warriors of the village to fight against them, and while they are somewhat vulnerable to fire, it's way less than I was hoping for. I was kind of hoping that a few fireballs from a regular [Fire Mage] could wipe out a fog bank. Instead, a bunch of our [Fire Mages] exhausted themselves to barely take down one enemy. Also, we lost a scout." I fell silent before a moment, before I sighed again.

"I couldn't save him. I know deaths happen a lot, but…" Felix gently reached out and patted my back, before he seemed to reconsider his actions. Then, he just leaned over and wrapped me in a big hug, which did make me feel a bit better.

"I'm tired of people dying," I said.

"I know it's not something we can prevent. We aren't omniscient or omnipotent. But I'm still tired of people dying while I can't save them."

"Sometimes, I can't help but feel you're the best of the four of us, Mir," said Felix, as his voice dropped even lower. His voice was now quiet enough that I could barely hear him, despite my [Perception] stat amplifying my ears to crazy levels. I doubted any of the others could hear us - which was probably what Felix intended.

"Every time someone dies, you always seem to feel it way more. I admit, sometimes I feel like I've lost some of what it means to be human, after all of our constant deaths and rebirths. After we joined the Market and learned how death usually works, as well as our own immunity to long term death I think I've started to grow a bit callous, at least by the perspective of normal people. I still try to help people, but I don't really… grieve about people dying, most of the time.

You haven't grown a detached to life and death as the rest of us." <I don't think that you've grown callous - you're just better at coping with all of this than I am, > I said. Felix sighed, and then gently patted my head, before he finally released his hug and set me back on the ground. <Sometimes, adaptation isn't a good thing. We've grown a lot through the past few worlds. We've grown stronger, we've done great things, we've helped people - but we've also lost a lot of who we are along the way, > he said.

<Some of it was necessary - but we've changed. > Before I could think of a reply, Anise snuck over and wrapped me another hug. <We haven't changed that much, > said Anise. <Being sad is normal. We tried our best, and people died anyway. We can't do anything for him, though - all we can do is keep moving forward and helping whoever is left. Besides, there's not much you could have done to save him - he was dead before we even arrived.

I don't want to resign myself to seeing people die over and over again - but if there's anything I've learned from the last two worlds, it's that we should also be realistic about what we can and can't accomplish. Help where we can, give up where we can't. It's not like you could stitch his ruined corpse back together, drag his soul back from the ocean of souls, and resurrect him. > I blinked in surprise at Anise's words.

I had never really thought about resurrection before - at least, not in the way Anise had described it. However… Anise's statement gave me a completely new question, one that I had never considered before. If my magic grew advanced enough, was there anything stopping me from resurrecting people by pulling their soul out of the ocean of souls, stapling it to a body, and then using magic to tighten up the connection between the two? I had a sneaking suspicion that the answer was no.

The Market worked on almost the same principle. The only major difference was the fact that when we reincarnated using the Market, our newborn bodies seemed to pull us in of their own volition. If I had a way to use magic and create the same 'pull', I didn't see a reason why resurrection would be impossible. I spent a few moments thinking about what it would actually mean to learn how to resurrect people, before I shook my head and dispelled my fanciful thoughts.

Even if it was possible to resurrect people, it was certainly beyond my current abilities. I doubted that would change in the near future, either. It was something to think about in the distant future, not now. As I ruminated on fanciful future ideas, we finally returned to our settlement. It was now surrounded by a wall of enchanted bonfires, surrounding the village. To my surprise, the enchantments protecting our village hadn't created a literal wall of flames, which was what I had originally imagined.

Instead, our protective barrier was comprised of several low bonfires, each of which had an enchantment stitched into it that could make it explode into a much larger fire at a moment's notice. About half of the adults that had stayed behind were stationed near the bonfires, in order to feed them mana and keep them burning without any new wood. These Mages also had the secondary job of activating the bonfires if an invasion happened.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. I assumed that the other half of the adults were keeping track of the kids - which sounded like a nightmare job. Around twenty adults trying to keep track of nearly 900 children sounded like a major headache. I sighed, and shook my head. Things were touch now - I just hoped they would get better soon. Once we made it past the wall of bonfires, I took a moment to sit down and look over my System notifications.

The first one was from the local System. You have leveled up! Frost Void Mage has advanced from level 66 to level 70! +12 Free Attribute Points (X4) +9 Sense (X4) +9 Mind (X4) +9 Vitality (X4) +20 Mana (X4) As usual, all my new Stat points went into Mana. Then, I stopped for a moment to admire my levels. I had not expected to get four levels from killing a single, medium strength cloud of fog. That was a lot of levels for a single monster. Especially since my current level was rather high.

The levels after 60 were much harder to acquire, generally speaking. After level 60, it usually took several kills to get a single level, and the monsters one needed to hunt also became exponentially more dangerous. Clearly, the fog monsters here were an exception. If we did manage to find a way to regularly kill them, the average level of our village would skyrocket. Seeing that System message actually made me feel a lot more hopeful for the future.

We were still in a very awkward position, but if we managed to find a more consistent way to hunt the fog clouds, that could easily turn around and give our fledgeling settlement a huge future advantage. We just needed to find a way for people other than me to hunt these things. It also meant that I could reach much higher levels of power in this world than I had been anticipating - which meant that I could take more back with me to the Market.

I wasn't quite sure why the mist cloud had given me such a large levelling boost, but I wasn't going to complain about a blessing. The next thing to do was choose yet another Feat. This time, the choice wasn't hard. There were three options, but one of them seemed much better than the alternatives. Level 70 Feat Choice (Pick 1) Frozen Space You have constantly used your skills and abilities as a frozen void mage to manipulate space, and have gained the ability to warp both space and time using your mana.

Effect: Create a skill that allows you to add a small amount of extra essence to any attack. If this attack hits an enemy, it will slightly alter their interaction with space itself, causing nearby space to attempt to confine them and trap them. This will make regular movement harder, and also make all forms of spatial interaction harder for them - teleportation may cost more and be slower to activate, or may outright fail, for example. The first reason I chose this particular Feat was simple - it was a Skill.

That meant it was easy to take back to the Market with me, and it could also grow. I still needed to get the skill to level 1, or Basic Grade, in order to take it back to the Market, and it would do nothing until then - but it was still something worth celebrating. Once we managed to resolve the first problems with establishing our settlement, I could spend a few years grinding out my Skills and creating my next rune, if all went well. After that, I processed the Market's System messages.

Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Hungry Fog for the first time. New Skill Created Born of my Flesh - Sacrifice part of your body and a moderate amount of essence to create a 'summoned monster' based on what part of your body you have summoned and how much essence you consume. Summoned monsters require a moderate upkeep cost every second, in essence and in body parts (this can be paid using flesh, blood, or any other components of your body that you feel comfortable sacrificing).

I blinked in surprise after seeing this Skill. On one hand, it did have some potential. On the other hand, this skill seemed impractical. I was probably uniquely suited to use this skill in this world, since I could actually regrow missing limbs if I had the essence for it - but the cost of regrowing a finger was way too expensive. I seriously doubted the enhancement to my combat skills that this Skill provided would be worth the ridiculous essence cost.

It seemed like a skill that looked good on paper, but wasn't actually practical. In the end, I opted not to pick it up. Finally, I shuffled through the last few System messages, which were just Achievement notifications. Slaughter: Kill a Hungry Fog for the first time.

Influence: Make a moderate contribution to a battle defining the future survival or collapse of (unnamed settlement) Power: you have leveled up a (3-facet) Compound Spark (X4) Achievement +1, 400, Achievement +5, 000 Achievement + 1, 200 (X4) This brought my Achievement total from 284, 824 to 296, 024. I felt a strange mixture of joy and sorrow after I finished working through my System notifications. Then, we returned to our beds to sleep for the night.