"Pit?" Felix realized he was sitting up, braced precariously between two thick branches. His heart thudded in his chest as he belatedly noticed the danger he was in; they had climbed this tree to sleep. Though it wasn't a magic tree, it was a very tall conifer with remarkably little sap on its bark, and that meant it was the winner. Felix looked at the night darkened forest around him and regarded Pit, who was delicately poised two branches away.
"What's up? What happened?" The skies were clear and filled with dazzling starlight, the majority of the moons having set already, leaving only the smallest two hovering over the horizon. It was early early morning, something like 3AM if he were to use Earth time here. As far as Felix could tell, the days and nights felt a good deal longer than back home, but he wasn't sure.
Pit rustled his feathers a few times, taking a moment to preen his wings with his eyes closed.
"Oh c'mon," Felix pled, rubbing an eye with the back of his hand. "I was having a nightmare. It was...it was not great. I'm sorry for scaring you. What happened?"
Pit chirped happily, regarding Felix with his big golden eyes. Felix couldn't help but smile. Then the tenku turned and gestured with his black-dipped front paw, toward the east. Felix turned.
It took him a minute to see it, but between the shifting branches and thick foliage, he could see fire.
"People," Felix gasped. "Pit! We've gotta check it out." Felix shifted to climb down but a blinking in his vision arrested his attention.
Oh right, my notifications. Guess I was too tired to go through them last night. This night? Earlier. He sighed. I should check them. There could be something useful in there.
Felix settled back against the tree and with a placating gesture to Pit, toggled his notifications.
Stone Shaping is level 16!
...
Stone Shaping is level 23!
Fire Within is level 25!
Fire Within is level 26!
Congratulations! You Have Reached Apprentice Tier In Fire Within!
You Have Gained:
+10 WIL
+5% Control Of Internal Mana
Deep Mind is level 24!
Felix clenched his body as a rush of information and power flooded his system. He reached a steadying hand to a nearby branch, but his sudden spastic grip snapped it in two. As the feeling faded, he regarded his hand with dull eyes.
I'll never get used to that. The burst of stats and Skill levels seemed to be hitting harder recently, and Felix wasn't sure if that was because he kept getting them in big batches or another reason. He had to get that under control. Now that his Strength was so high, he was afraid he'd hurt himself or others someday.
Shaking his head, he focused in on the last few notifications. He'd reached Apprentice Tier in Fire Within, which made sense after he'd used it to escape the mountain; if its past utility was any gauge, having that Skill in Apprentice Tier would be extremely useful. As a reward, he'd gained more Willpower and greater control of internal Mana. While the Willpower was welcome, he could honestly say it was his least needed stat. He almost wished he'd earned Strength or Vitality, but Felix wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Especially here; horses probably had razor sharp teeth and ate people on the Continent.
However, the percentage of increased control for "internal Mana" was definitely cool. Felix figured the pathways and looping of his Mana he sensed when using Skills was all internal Mana, and that had only brought him benefits so far. Sitting up in a tree, about to climb down and investigate a mysterious fire in a dark forest, Felix honestly felt excited to find out what else he could do.
How strange life had become.
Felix carefully climbed down, fully utilizing his Born Trait to recall the exact handholds it took to climb this tree in the first place. He made it to the ground easily enough, but not faster than Pit, who glided from tree to tree, bouncing here and there until the tenku padded quietly to the earth.
"Show off." Pit rubbed consolingly against his legs.
Quietly, the two of them crept forward into the dark, Stealth and Skulk both activated as they maneuvered through the plentiful shadows. They separated several times due to the terrain, but Felix could always feel the general location of his friend, like an extra limb or something.
Is this because of the Companion Pact? He could sense Pit like a warm bundle of emotion in his chest, comfortable in a way he couldn't quite verbalize. Pit felt like eagerness, joy, a little aggression and a lot of hunger. Whatever this Skill was, however it worked, Felix delighted in it. Pit was one of the few good things he'd encountered on the Continent.
Fifteen minutes of skulking through the darkness, and Felix started to notice stone structures rising from the wild overgrowth all around him. Vine choked walls and ivy covered archways that led into empty grottoes, they were the remnant marks of a place long abandoned. Trees dominated much of the spaces, greenery bursting up from stone pavers and filling the wind-worn cracks in the structures all around him. Felix felt a sinking feeling as he regarded the ruin of a stone causeway, pitted and overrun by tree roots as thick as his thigh.
Exploration is level 17!
This place has been abandoned for decades. How long does it take for a forest to reclaim civilization? Ten years? Twenty? Again, magic threw his guesses off, but this place had not seen much settlement in a long time.
Maybe this is just the poorly maintained outskirts? He tried to remain hopeful as he moved closer to the fire, the light of which was starting to fill much of the causeway. Felix kept to the shadows as he crept closer, keeping his breathing even and his steps light. If he weren't moving so carefully, he was sure he would have missed it: there was a thin coating of ice on the ground.
Kneeling to inspect it, Felix was surprised to find how cold it felt. The evening was chill for late spring, but couldn't be colder than 60 degrees. Why isn't it melting? Waves of cold pulsed from the small bit of ice before him, and looking forward Felix saw the ice had coated a large portion of the road and even crept up the side of a few crumbling walls. Ahead the road opened up into a square of some sort, though it was mostly filled with fifty foot tall trees. The ice extended for some distance into the square, though it did not approach the trees themselves.
What is this? It wasn't natural, that was certain. Felix regarded the ice with his Manasight, and he discovered a whirling pattern of pale purple-white Mana that pulsed steadily outward. It's growing, he realized. What is doing this?
Felix padded into the remains of a building, barely more than two walls and a section of roof, and peered out of empty window casements. His breath caught, only moments from eliciting a loud gasp.
Breath Control is level 17!
Just beyond his ruined shelter, the world was absolutely coated in frost. Ice was several inches thick on the undulating pavers, exploding outward from the center of the half collapsed ruin of two large buildings. At some point the structures had fallen into one another, and now they supported the other's weight like a precarious stone tent. Ice covered the crumbling details of these buildings, cascading across their surfaces horizontally, as if a bomb of wintry weather had detonated here. A few foot long spikes dotted the ruins and ground, all angled away from the center where a cheery bonfire burned as bright as the sun in the dark night.
All of this would have been amazing, were it not for the two hulking figures within the ruin.
Eight feet tall with dark blue skin, they were bald save for scraggly beards of white hair. Overlarge ears stuck out from their heads, and their jaws were heavy and thick. The creatures wore dull iron armor covered in scraps of discolored fur, and Felix spotted a couple large blunt weapons laying on the ice.
Name: Unknown Risi Warrior
Type: Giantfolk
Level: 26
HP: ???/???
SP: ????/????
MP: ??/???
Lore: Giantfolk are known for their great strength, boundless stamina, and poor intelligence. Be wary.
Strength: Strength and Endurance
Weakness: Intelligence, Dexterity
Analyze is level 20!
Felix gulped. The two came up with the same information, both of them were level 26. One of the two stood up and paced, grabbing it's metal club off the ground. Muscles the size of Felix's head flexed as it easily hefted the club onto its shoulder.