Aetheria

Mira made it halfway up the stairs before the wet sound came again from somewhere beneath Briarwatch.

Kael still had a fist caught in the back of her robe.

"We are leaving."

Mira continued looking down the staircase.

The blue shape had disappeared, but something gelatinous was moving through the lower passage.

"We could look without fighting it."

"We entered Briarwatch to look around and ended up fighting a Level Seven elite."

"We won."

"That was not the important part."

Mira finally turned away.

Her temporary foot hung broken from the outside of her satchel. The Bone Disciple had left her nearly empty of Essence, Kael was not in much better condition, and the caravan was already several hours ahead.

Returning tomorrow was sensible.

Mira had discovered that sensible decisions became significantly harder whenever slimes were involved.

They climbed through Briarwatch, collected the materials they had left near the entrance and emerged beneath an afternoon sky already turning gold.

Kael used the old map to choose a route through the western woodland that would intercept the caravan farther south. Mira would have preferred to examine the Disciple's Body Method immediately, but travelling on one foot while keeping pace with him demanded most of her attention.

They caught the wagons shortly before sunset.

The caravan master waited beside the road with an expression suggesting that he had been preparing a speech for several hours.

His attention moved over Kael's torn sleeve, Mira's missing prosthetic and the additional bags of materials they were carrying.

"You found Briarwatch."

Kael nodded.

"You entered Briarwatch."

"Yes."

The caravan master closed his eyes.

Mira suspected counting was involved.

Eventually he pointed toward the second wagon.

"Get in."

Mira climbed aboard without argument. Her right leg had started trembling almost an hour earlier.

The whispertail cub emerged from her scarf once she sat down and stretched across her lap. One pink-tipped tail rested over the martial scroll tucked against Mira's side.

Kael dropped onto the opposite bench with his greatsword between his knees.

The caravan master remained outside.

"You have until Bellhaven to learn that when I tell you a road is dangerous, I am not recommending it."

Kael inhaled.

Mira kicked his boot before he could answer.

The wagon started moving.

Once the road became smooth enough, Mira took out the Disciple's Body Method.

The black thread around the scroll passed through a small bone bead. She loosened it carefully and unrolled the first section across her knees.

Ink drawings covered the parchment.

A human figure appeared in several basic positions from different angles. Lines showed force travelling through the feet, legs, hips and spine. Other diagrams showed how those paths changed when force arrived from the side, above or behind.

Mira read until the evening light became too poor to make out the smaller writing.

The Bone Disciple's movements made more sense now.

Reproducing them was another matter.

The method assumed two functional feet, articulated ankles, muscles capable of storing and releasing tension, tendons, ligaments and a living spine supported by tissue Mira no longer possessed.

Mira had bones held together by something she still could not properly identify.

That made the method more interesting.

The Bone Disciple had used an ordinary body's structure to carry force. Mira's body already moved despite lacking most of what the scroll considered necessary.

Something else had taken over those functions.

She needed to find out what.

Mira rolled the parchment closed.

Across from her, Kael was examining the Rare metal fragment dropped by the Bone Disciple.

He held it beside the broad base of his greatsword.

"You can't just put it in."

"I know."

Mira looked at him.

Kael smiled slightly.

"I asked one of the guards. There's a smith travelling with the caravan."

They found him after camp was established.

Doran's travelling forge occupied one side of a heavily reinforced wagon. Most of his road work involved damaged horseshoes, wagon fittings and tools.

Kael's sword interested him considerably more.

Doran examined the greatsword first and then the Disciple's Edge Fragment.

"Good material."

"Can you forge it into the sword?"

"Not here."

Doran turned the fragment over.

"Your blade isn't ready for it. Put something developed this far into weaker channels without rebuilding the weapon around it and you'll make the sword stronger right up until you send a serious skill through it."

"And then?"

"It breaks."

Kael's expression immediately lost some enthusiasm.

Mira moved closer.

"Because the material carries more Essence than the rest of the weapon can tolerate?"

"That's part of it. Construction, material quality, enchantment, Essence channels. Item Level rolls a lot of things together. Doesn't mean every Level Five weapon is equally good."

Mira thought about the materials in her satchel.

She took out the Rare quarry core fragment.

Doran's eyebrows rose.

"Where did you get that?"

"Eastmere quarry."

He waited until she placed it on the workbench before touching it.

"Level Nine?"

"Yes."

Doran looked at her temple robe.

Mira followed his gaze.

The cloth had survived goblins, river slimes, whispertails, an elite quarry slime, flying slimes and Briarwatch. Several repairs were already beginning to fail.

Mira put the core away.

Putting a Level Nine material into that would be ridiculous.

Better materials were not useful merely because she owned them.

She needed equipment worth improving first.

That did not mean the equipment needed to be ugly.

The thought settled easily.

If she had to learn how to make something strong enough herself, then she would.

Kael left the Edge Fragment with Doran until Bellhaven.

Later, beside the fire, Mira opened her status.

Three unassigned points remained from reaching Level Four.

She had been considering where they belonged.

The Bone Disciple had made one weakness impossible to ignore. Mira often understood where she needed to be before her body arrived there.

The artificial foot had made that worse, but the problem existed before she lost it.

She placed one point into Agility.

The second went into Spirit.

Mira kept the third.

The changes were subtle.

Her movements sharpened first. When she flexed her fingers, the transition between positions felt a fraction cleaner.

Spirit changed something less physical.

Her awareness of the Essence inside her became easier to hold.

Mira closed the screen.

One point remained.

She would spend it when she found a problem worth spending it on.

Something struck the underside of the wagon shortly after midnight.

Mira woke immediately.

The whispertail was already standing on her chest.

All five tails were raised.

Another impact came from beneath them.

Kael sat upright and reached for his sword.

Outside, the horses began stamping.

A guard shouted.

Mira grabbed her spear and moved to the rear opening.

Moonlight covered the camp.

Several guards were already moving between the wagons.

A small blue slime bounced beneath one wheel.

Mira's grip tightened.

Another followed.

Then five more emerged from the grass.

Kael climbed out first.

Mira followed more carefully, landing on her right foot and using the spear to absorb the impact.

One slime attacked a horse.

Kael intercepted it.

The greatsword rose into a high guard, then descended diagonally with the broad face angled rather than the edge. The slime hit the moving wall of metal and flew sideways before its body could wrap around the blade.

Kael continued the turn.

The sword travelled around his body instead of stopping.

His rear foot changed position.

The blade settled into a hanging guard on his opposite side just as another slime jumped for his back.

Frost spread across the flat.

Kael caught the creature there.

Its gel whitened on contact.

He stepped through, rolled the blade and drove the half-frozen slime into the ground.

The core cracked.

Mira met the next one herself.

The capped end of her spear struck its body and compressed it against a wagon wheel. Her increased Strength made the follow-up easier. The second impact shattered the bead inside.

Another slime changed direction before reaching her.

Mira adjusted with it.

The spear met the bounce cleanly.

A third came higher.

A small section of Blessing appeared above her skull.

The slime struck gold and rebounded.

The protection disappeared before it reached the ground.

Mira finished the core.

More blue bodies emerged from the grass.

Too many.

Kael looked toward the far side of camp.

"They're coming from the creek."

The caravan had stopped beside a narrow stream feeding into Redwater farther downstream.

Mira turned.

Moonlight reflected across dozens of ripples.

Something larger rose in the water.

Mira saw the white object inside it first.

Bones.

Five metatarsals.

Small phalanges.

Her foot.

For several seconds, every other slime in the clearing became irrelevant.

The creature climbed onto the bank.

It had changed.

The little River Slime that escaped the bridge was gone.

This body was broader and denser, dark blue through the centre with a core nearly the size of Mira's fist. Two long pseudopods rested against the ground and reformed constantly as the creature moved.

A familiar black fleck floated beside the core.

Information appeared.

Torrent Slime

Elite

Level 6

Mira stared.

The Torrent Slime turned toward her.

Its body compressed.

Then one pseudopod reached inside itself.

Kael saw it happening.

"No."

The slime pulled Mira's skeletal foot halfway out of its own body.

It held the bones toward her.

Waved them.

Then swallowed them again.

The camp disappeared from Mira's attention.

Kael looked at her.

Mira was already moving.

The Torrent Slime launched.

She pivoted around the spear instead of hopping directly away.

The creature passed beside her and smashed through a supply crate.

Mira turned with it.

There was no furious charge.

No wasted swing.

Something colder happened instead.

Her entire focus settled.

The slime had her foot.

It had carried it for days.

It had apparently evolved while keeping it.

Mira intended to correct that.

The Torrent Slime charged again.

She thrust.

Its core moved before the spear reached the outer gel.

The creature remembered.

Mira withdrew immediately.

Interesting.

She made the same movement again.

The core shifted.

Not from the spearpoint.

Earlier.

Shoulder first.

Arm.

Then weapon.

Mira reduced the preparation.

The next thrust began almost entirely from her hand.

The point entered before the core moved as far.

The slime recoiled.

Mira stepped after it on one foot.

The lack of her left foot interrupted the movement.

Gold flashed beneath the missing side.

A small plate of Blessing appeared against the ground.

Mira's shortened leg touched it.

For one instant, the barrier took her weight.

She pushed.

The golden surface shattered behind her.

Mira crossed the distance anyway.

Kael stared.

The spear thrust again.

The Torrent Slime bent around it.

A pseudopod snapped toward Mira's face.

A second gold plate appeared at an angle.

The tendril hit.

Instead of stopping against the barrier, it glanced away.

Mira was already inside it.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The spearpoint nearly reached the core.

The slime collapsed sideways.

Her weapon vanished into blue gel almost halfway to her hands.

Mira pulled.

The slime pulled back.

For one ridiculous moment, they stood at opposite ends of the spear.

Mira narrowed her eyes.

The slime stretched.

Kael was fighting three smaller slimes nearby.

He looked over at exactly the wrong moment.

"Is this the same spear it stole yesterday?"

Mira pulled harder.

"Not helping."

The Torrent Slime released.

Mira flew backward.

A small golden plane appeared behind her heel.

The barrier broke.

Her momentum changed enough that she landed upright instead of on her back.

Mira froze for half a second.

That had worked.

The slime bounced directly toward her.

Mira made another plate.

Not in front.

Beneath.

Her right foot touched gold.

She pushed off it while the barrier was still forming.

Her body rose sideways.

The Torrent Slime passed underneath.

Mira landed on the wagon step.

Kael stopped looking.

He had his own problem.

A slime launched toward his left shoulder.

Kael shifted into a low guard, let the greatsword's point fall past his leg, then drove upward with both hands.

The flat caught the creature underneath.

Frost spread through the body during contact.

Kael stepped through the rising motion.

Instead of allowing the blade to stop overhead, he let the enormous weapon continue behind his shoulder, turned his hips and brought it around into a descending cut against a second slime.

Weight became speed.

The second impact shattered the frozen core.

A third slime jumped.

Kael shortened his grip.

One hand moved partway up the flat of the blade.

He thrust instead of swinging.

Lightning ran down the greatsword.

The point entered the slime.

The electrical discharge reached the core before the surrounding gel could move it.

The creature convulsed.

Kael withdrew and finished it with the pommel.

The Torrent Slime was moving toward the creek again.

She went after it.

A pseudopod struck low.

Mira planted another small barrier beside her ankle.

The tendril hit gold and changed direction.

She stepped across it.

Her spear entered the slime again.

The core retreated.

Mira felt Essence moving through her body.

The same circulation she had explored beside the fire at Redwater.

She drew it through her shoulder, down the spine she should not have been able to use properly, through the strange connections at her pelvis and into the right leg.

The skeleton held together more firmly.

Mira pushed harder.

Her thrust accelerated.

The core barely escaped.

The slime struck back.

A blue arm hit her ribs.

Blessing appeared exactly across the impact.

The barrier took the first part of the force.

Mira allowed the rest to turn her.

The Disciple's scroll flashed through memory.

Force did not always need to be stopped.

Her body rotated.

The spear came around with her.

The shaft smashed the slime broadside.

Its core moved.

Mira thrust into the new position.

The creature barely escaped again.

Kael had reached the edge of the fight.

He stopped attacking when he saw the rhythm.

Instead, he moved behind the slime.

The greatsword settled into a long guard with the point angled toward the creek.

The Torrent Slime had nowhere simple to retreat.

It formed four tendrils.

Mira smiled.

Kael saw that.

"Why are you smiling?"

"It has more limbs now."

"That's good?"

"Limbs have directions."

The first tendril came toward her shoulder.

Mira slipped outside it.

The second came from below.

A small gold plane appeared.

It glanced away.

The third aimed for her spear.

Mira released one hand.

The tendril passed.

Her grip changed.

The weapon shortened against her body.

The thrust entered immediately.

The core moved.

Kael's sword was waiting behind it.

He did not cut.

The greatsword turned broadside.

A short rotational strike compressed the Torrent Slime and drove the core upward.

Mira saw it.

Something in her Essence control changed.

She gathered Essence.

A small point of warm gold formed above her fingers.

The slime reacted.

Its core moved toward the opposite side of its body.

Mira's eyes narrowed.

The quarry slimes had followed Essence.

This one did too.

She moved the light.

The core shifted away.

Mira separated the glow from her fingertips.

For an instant, it remained suspended.

Then it began collapsing.

Mira corrected the Essence flow.

Two tiny arcs spread from either side of the point.

They fluttered.

The shape steadied.

Kael looked at it.

"Mira."

She moved her fingers.

The little light followed.

Two wings opened and closed around a narrow golden body.

A moth.

Mira looked at the Torrent Slime.

The moth drifted left.

The slime followed the Essence inside it.

Mira sent the moth right.

The creature corrected again.

She created another.

The second came faster.

Then a third.

Tiny golden moths fluttered around Mira's hand.

They were beautiful.

That pleased her.

The Torrent Slime seemed considerably less pleased.

Three cores of Essence moved around it at different angles.

Its body shifted repeatedly as it tried to decide which source mattered.

Mira's spear struck from the fourth direction.

The point touched the core.

A crack appeared.

The slime exploded outward.

Gel hit Mira across the chest.

She lost balance.

A Blessing plate appeared beneath the missing left side.

Mira stepped on light.

For less than a second, she had two feet.

She pushed away before the barrier broke.

Kael's expression changed.

Mira landed beside him.

"Did you just stand on Blessing?"

"Yes."

"Can Clerics do that?"

The Torrent Slime fired a water lance.

Mira angled a barrier.

The stream changed direction and tore through the grass beside them.

"I can."

The Torrent Slime retreated into the creek.

Water rose with it.

Narrow streams lifted around the creature.

Kael moved first.

His greatsword came into a hanging guard across his body.

"Don't stand in the water."

"I know."

Lightning crawled across the blade.

The first water lance came.

Kael rotated the sword and caught the stream on the broad flat. Water exploded sideways.

The next came for Mira.

A gold plate appeared at an angle.

The lance ricocheted upward.

A third struck the ground.

Mira formed another barrier beneath her foot and pushed sideways.

Then another.

For three steps she crossed the creek bank without relying entirely on the ground.

Each golden surface existed barely long enough to take her weight.

The movement was ugly.

It was also fast.

The Torrent Slime turned toward her.

One of Mira's moths drifted in front of its body.

The slime reacted to the Essence.

Mira changed the moth's direction.

A second entered from behind.

The slime distorted between them.

Mira began understanding the control.

She did not need to move each moth continuously.

One could circle.

Another could hold position.

A third could follow a simple route.

The burden on her attention dropped sharply.

The cub arrived from the camp.

Five tails streamed behind it.

A smaller slime bounced toward Mira's blind side.

The whispertail intercepted.

Pink-white Essence flashed beneath its paws.

The cub vanished into several overlapping images.

The slime struck the wrong one.

The real whispertail appeared above it.

Essence concentrated through tiny claws.

The strike opened the gel and drove the core downward.

One tail snapped around a tuft of grass.

The cub used it as an anchor.

Its body reversed direction instantly.

A second claw strike hit the exposed bead.

The slime collapsed.

The cub did not stop.

It ran toward Mira.

Two tails swept opposite the other three.

Its body changed direction in midair.

The Torrent Slime fired a water lance.

The cub twisted between the stream and Mira.

One of its tails flashed.

A pale, crescent-shaped distortion snapped outward.

The water lance broke.

Mira turned her head.

The cub landed.

It looked equally surprised.

Kael saw it too.

"That one was new."

The five tails rose.

Faint pink-white Essence travelled through all of them.

The Torrent Slime attacked again.

This time the cub moved deliberately.

It spun.

All five tails opened.

A broader ripple burst outward.

The incoming pseudopod struck the distortion and bent several degrees off course.

Mira stepped through the opening.

So that was what five tails could do.

The whispertail wasn't merely balancing with them.

It could move Essence through them together.

Mira would think about that later.

The Torrent Slime still had her foot.

And now it had decided to make the situation worse.

A tendril shot past Mira.

She turned.

Too late.

The tendril reached her face.

Her glasses disappeared.

Mira stopped.

The slime pulled them into its body.

Kael lowered his sword slightly.

"Oh."

Mira stared.

Her foot floated near the centre.

Her glasses settled beside it.

The Torrent Slime compressed once.

Its surface wobbled.

Kael looked at Mira.

Then at the slime.

"I think it knows exactly what it's doing."

Mira opened her status.

One attribute point remained.

She put it into Agility.

The window disappeared.

Kael took one look at her posture and moved farther away from the direct line between Mira and the slime.

The Torrent Slime bounced.

Mira moved.

The difference was immediate.

Her right foot struck the ground.

A Blessing plate formed beneath the missing left side before her body could drop.

She stepped on it.

Another appeared ahead.

Mira crossed the distance on alternating bone and light.

The slime fired.

She changed direction.

A moth moved through the attack first.

Water destroyed it.

Mira created two more before the first disappeared.

Her Essence control sharpened with every attempt.

The moths did not need equal amounts.

Some were only bait.

Tiny shells of light carrying barely enough Essence to attract attention.

Others held more.

One hovered over Kael's shoulder.

He had a shallow water cut along his cheek.

Mira changed the structure inside the moth.

Not Radiant energy.

Minor Heal.

The moth drifted toward him.

Kael noticed it.

"What is this one doing?"

It landed against his cheek.

Golden light dissolved.

The cut closed.

Kael stared at her.

Mira was already fighting.

The Torrent Slime lunged.

Two offensive moths folded their wings.

They accelerated.

The delicate drifting shapes became golden streaks.

One struck the outer gel.

The second penetrated deeper.

Neither carried enough power to break the core.

They did not need to.

The slime recoiled from both.

Its core shifted into the exact space Mira had left open.

Her spear arrived.

The point hit.

The crack widened.

The slime slammed a tendril into her side.

Mira put a barrier against her own ribs at the last instant.

The impact still lifted her from the ground.

She twisted in the air.

A golden plate appeared beneath one hand.

Mira pushed from it.

Her body rotated.

She landed facing the slime instead of crashing onto her back.

Kael had stopped smiling entirely.

The Torrent Slime went for the creek.

Kael intercepted.

He settled into a high guard.

Frost ran down the sword.

The slime launched.

Kael stepped diagonally instead of meeting it head-on.

The greatsword descended along the side of its body.

The flat drove a huge section of gel downward while frost stiffened the compressed mass.

Kael let the blade continue.

The sword circled behind him.

His hands changed.

The next strike rose from below.

The enormous weapon handled like something half its size.

The frozen portion of slime lifted.

Its core became visible.

He thrust.

The slime moved the bead away.

That was what he wanted.

Mira's moths were waiting there.

Three golden shapes converged.

The first forced the core left.

The second drove it upward.

The third folded its wings and accelerated directly into the existing fracture.

Light burst inside the bead.

The Torrent Slime convulsed.

Mira felt the third moth disappear.

Not enough.

But close.

The slime's body expanded.

Creek water flowed toward it.

Kael shifted his stance.

"Now I'm using one."

Lightning replaced frost.

His sword came down.

"Crescent Sever."

The sword wave left the edge from a proper descending cut rather than replacing it.

Lightning travelled inside the arc.

The Torrent Slime flattened.

Electricity spread through the water-rich body.

Its core spasmed.

Mira ran.

A gold plate formed.

Then another.

Her missing foot never touched the ground.

The cub ran beside her.

Five tails glowed.

One false whispertail split away.

Then another.

Three.

The Torrent Slime tried to track them all.

Mira's moths joined the movement.

Gold and white-pink shapes filled the creek bank.

For the first time, the slime could not follow everything.

Mira could.

The core.

Her foot.

Her glasses.

Kael's sword.

The cub.

Two small slimes approaching behind him.

The next water lance forming on the elite's right side.

None of it felt equally important.

Mira knew what mattered now.

"Kael. Right side."

He moved.

The greatsword entered a low guard.

The slime attacked.

Kael caught the pseudopod on the flat and wound the blade around it rather than chopping through.

Frost spread through the contact.

He stepped.

Turned.

The sword carried the frozen limb with it.

The slime's body stretched.

Mira sent every moth left.

The core moved away from them.

Right.

Exactly where Kael was pulling the mass.

The cub sprang.

Its five tails snapped open.

A pressure ripple struck the slime's outer surface.

The core jolted.

Mira thrust.

The spear entered.

A pseudopod wrapped around the shaft.

The slime pulled.

Mira held on.

Its other tendril reached for her arm.

Kael saw it.

"Let go."

Mira looked at the spear.

The Torrent Slime pulled harder.

Her fingers opened.

The creature ripped the weapon away from her.

For a fraction of a second, it appeared almost surprised.

Then it dragged the spear into its body.

Kael looked at her.

"Mira."

The slime now contained her foot, her glasses and her spear.

Mira's hand went to her belt.

She drew Corin's heavy leatherworking awl.

Kael looked at the narrow spike.

Then at the elite slime.

"Of course."

Mira stepped forward.

The Torrent Slime fired.

A barrier redirected the water.

Mira entered close.

The awl changed everything.

There was no long shaft to announce the attack.

No broad preparation.

Her hand moved.

The point was already inside the gel.

The core shifted.

Mira changed direction at the wrist.

The awl followed.

The slime struck down.

Mira put a golden plate beneath her missing leg and pivoted around it.

The tendril missed.

Her other hand caught the ring built into the awl's end.

She pulled the point sideways through the gel.

The core retreated.

A moth attacked from the opposite direction.

The bead came back toward her.

Mira stabbed.

Crack.

The Torrent Slime recoiled.

Mira followed.

Kael watched her for half a second.

She had become faster the moment the spear disappeared.

Not because the awl was better.

Because she had stopped trying to fight at spear distance with one foot.

The shorter weapon suited what the Bone Disciple had forced her to learn.

The slime attacked.

Mira entered inside the tendril.

Awl.

Turn.

Barrier.

Step.

Moth.

The creature changed shape.

Mira changed faster.

The cub attacked from above.

Five tails spread and a pressure ripple compressed the upper gel.

Kael struck from the side with the flat of his greatsword.

The core had nowhere clean to escape.

Mira's awl entered the fracture.

Light gathered.

One of the moths landed on the metal ring.

Its wings folded.

The entire structure travelled down the awl.

Gold entered the core.

The bead split.

The Torrent Slime exploded.

Water and gel threw everyone apart.

Mira hit the creek.

Kael landed on one knee.

The cub disappeared into the grass.

For several seconds only water moved.

Then the Torrent Slime began reforming.

Its core was almost broken in half.

Mira stood.

The creature was still alive.

Its body gathered around the damaged bead.

One tendril reached internally.

Mira saw her foot.

The slime tried to pull it deeper.

"No."

Every remaining moth stopped moving.

Kael looked toward her.

There were six now.

Mira had not realized she was maintaining six.

They turned toward the slime together.

The Torrent Slime launched downstream.

Mira sent the moths.

Their wings folded.

Six points of light accelerated across the creek.

The slime twisted.

One missed.

Two struck gel.

The fourth drove the core toward the surface.

The fifth hit the existing fracture.

The sixth did not attack.

It curved.

Mira changed its path.

The moth went through the slime beside her foot.

The light expanded.

The surrounding gel recoiled.

Her skeletal foot came free.

The cub appeared from nowhere.

Five tails opened.

It caught the foot in its mouth.

The slime turned.

Mira smiled.

That was the first time Kael had seen her smile at it.

He decided he preferred the anger.

The Torrent Slime attacked the cub.

Kael stepped between them.

His greatsword came into a high guard.

The blade descended with the weight of his entire body behind it.

At the last instant he turned the edge away.

The flat struck the damaged core through the gel.

The bead cracked further.

The slime lost shape.

Mira went in.

Awl in hand.

One foot.

Golden plates appearing beneath the other side whenever she needed them.

Her movement no longer resembled the girl who had fought goblins beside a wagon several days earlier.

She entered around a tendril, redirected the next with her forearm barrier, pivoted from a temporary foothold of light and drove the awl into the core.

The Torrent Slime contracted around her arm.

Mira circulated Essence through the shoulder and torso.

The strange connections between her bones tightened.

She pushed deeper.

The core split almost completely.

A water blast struck her chest.

Mira flew backward.

Kael caught her with one arm.

The slime reached the creek.

Its broken core trembled.

Mira expected another attack.

Instead, a pseudopod reached out.

It still held her glasses.

The slime flung them at her.

Mira caught them against her chest.

Then it bounced downstream.

Kael stared.

Mira stared.

The cub stood several metres away with her foot still in its mouth.

The Torrent Slime bounced again.

Its body was badly damaged.

A goblin spear remained suspended inside it.

Mira took one step after it.

Kael caught her shoulder.

She did not fight him this time.

Her Essence was nearly gone.

Her ribs had shifted.

The slime was retreating into deeper water.

Mira watched it disappear downstream carrying her spear.

Kael followed her gaze.

"It gave the glasses back."

"It kept the spear."

"Maybe it prefers weapons now."

Mira slowly turned her skull toward him.

Kael looked away.

The cub approached.

Her skeletal foot was still clamped proudly between its teeth.

Mira crouched.

"Give me that."

The cub backed away.

Mira stared at it.

All five tails rose.

"You watched me fight for this."

The whispertail turned.

Mira moved.

So did the cub.

For approximately ten metres, an exhausted one-footed skeleton who had just fought a Level Six elite chased a five-tailed magical cat through wet grass for possession of her own foot.

Kael sat down.

He was laughing too hard to help.

Mira eventually stopped and looked at him.

Kael made an effort to recover.

It failed.

The cub took advantage and ran behind him.

Kael caught it as it passed.

The animal immediately tried climbing over his shoulder.

He trapped it carefully against his chest and removed the foot.

Mira held out both hands.

Kael gave it to her.

Mud covered the bones.

Marks remained where slime gel had held them for days, but every piece was intact.

Her foot.

For a while, Mira simply held it.

Then she positioned it beneath the ankle.

The bones aligned.

Something inside her leg responded.

A faint pressure travelled through the joint.

Mira adjusted the position.

The connection strengthened.

One toe moved.

Mira stopped.

She tried again.

The toe moved.

Kael had stopped wrestling with the cub.

Mira placed her foot on the ground.

The ankle held.

She stood slowly.

Both feet touched the earth.

The left side felt weak.

Delayed.

Strange.

But it belonged to her.

Mira took one step.

Then another.

The cub chirped.

Mira looked downstream.

Kael leaned against his sword.

"You are absolutely going after it again."

Mira adjusted her glasses.

The left lens was scratched.

The slime still had her spear.

More importantly, it was still alive.

Mira looked down at the heavy awl in her hand.

The loss bothered her less than she expected.

"Yes."

That answer contained considerably more promise than Kael wanted.

They returned to camp.

The smaller slime attack had already ended. Guards were collecting cores and membranes. Two horses had shallow water-pressure wounds, several crates were damaged, and one wagon wheel needed replacing.

The caravan master looked at Mira.

Both feet.

Then Kael.

Wet, bleeding and carrying a greatsword still shedding frost.

Then the whispertail, whose five tails were spread proudly behind it.

Finally, he looked toward the creek.

"I am not asking."

Mira thought that was wise.

The next morning, the caravan resumed travelling.

For the first time since the bridge, Mira walked on her actual feet.

The left remained slower than the right, but every hour improved the connection.

She practised whenever the road widened.

The goblin spear was gone.

Mira still owned the Briarwatch staff, but she left it tied to the wagon.

Instead, she held Corin's oversized awl.

The weapon barely reached beyond her forearm.

That forced her closer.

Mira preferred that more than she expected.

She worked through the first principles of the Disciple's Body Method without trying to copy the drawings exactly.

The scroll assumed muscles she did not possess.

So she ignored the positions that depended on them.

Balance still mattered.

Force still needed somewhere to travel.

Preparation still warned an opponent.

Her right foot pressed against the road.

The left followed.

Mira stepped.

Turned.

The awl drove forward.

She recovered without pulling the arm all the way back.

The second strike came from where the first ended.

Then the third.

Kael watched from nearby.

"That looks completely different."

"It is."

"You miss the spear?"

Mira thought about the Torrent Slime carrying it downstream.

"Yes."

Kael waited.

Mira drove the awl into the practice post.

"But this works."

That was the answer he expected.

Kael practised too.

His swordsmanship looked different outside combat, where Mira could see the structure instead of only the result.

He did not simply swing the greatsword through isolated attacks.

A descending cut finished in a low guard.

The low guard became a rising diagonal.

That movement carried the sword around his shoulder into another descending strike.

When the blade's weight pulled too far, Kael stepped with it instead of arresting the momentum.

Sometimes he shortened his grip and used the enormous weapon almost like a spear.

Other times he caught the flat with one hand to control the point through tighter movements.

The enchantments sat on top of that foundation.

Frost changed the purpose of contact.

Kael used it when he wanted the sword to bind, slow or hold something after impact.

Lightning favoured cleaner, quicker entries.

It travelled through thrusts particularly well.

Crescent Sever changed with whichever enchantment occupied the blade, but Kael stopped firing it repeatedly simply because he could. Most of his practice focused on creating the opening with ordinary swordwork first.

Mira understood why.

A skill was more dangerous when it finished a sequence instead of replacing one.

They practised until the caravan started moving again.

Later that afternoon, Mira sat on the rear edge of the wagon with her recovered foot resting against the step.

The cub slept beside her.

Mira opened one hand.

A point of light appeared.

The light remained.

She divided the Essence.

Two small wings formed.

The moth fluttered above her palm.

Mira made a second.

Then a third.

The third collapsed.

She tried again.

Kael noticed from the road beside the wagon.

"Are those the things from last night?"

Mira nodded.

"What are they?"

Mira watched one drift around her fingers.

She had not named them.

The shape had simply happened because a stable point with two alternating surfaces was easier to move than the shapeless motes she had tried before.

And moths looked better.

"Lumen Moths."

Kael looked at the three tiny golden shapes.

"That's a skill?"

"No."

He looked at her.

Mira moved one moth toward the scratch across his knuckles.

It landed.

The structure inside changed.

Minor Heal released from it.

The cut closed.

Kael stared at his hand.

Another moth hovered beside his face.

He leaned away from it.

"What's that one carrying?"

Mira folded its wings.

The moth shot past his ear fast enough to move his hair.

It struck a dead branch behind him.

Gold punched through the bark.

Kael looked at the hole.

Then at Mira.

"That seems unfair."

Mira recalled his lightning-covered greatsword.

The moth returned.

Slower this time.

Mira let it settle on one finger.

A fourth formed beside it.

Then a fifth.

Maintaining them was becoming easier.

The Torrent Slime had helped.

Mira disliked owing it anything.

That somehow made her want to improve them faster.

By the time Bellhaven appeared the following afternoon, she could sustain six for nearly a minute before their structures began destabilizing.

The town was several times larger than Eastmere.

Stone walls surrounded crowded roofs, workshops and narrow towers around a broad river crossing where three major roads met. Coloured banners hung throughout the district beyond the southern gate.

The road outside the walls was packed.

Merchants passed adventurers carrying weapons Mira had never seen before. A woman walked with a book floating beside her shoulder. Another traveller had small flames circling both wrists.

Two armoured men nearby were discussing a place called the Glass Hollows.

Kael heard that.

His attention immediately moved toward the guild banners.

Mira noticed something else.

A shop window beyond the gate displayed a black travelling coat with silver stitching and a layered ivory mantle over one shoulder.

The armour underneath looked flexible.

The clothing looked excellent.

Mira slowed.

Kael followed her gaze.

"Dungeon."

Mira pointed toward the shop.

"That first."

Kael looked at her.

"Equipment?"

"Yes."

His expression suggested relief.

Mira continued.

"I want to see how it's made."

The relief disappeared.

Mira walked on.

She was not choosing appearance because she thought equipment did not matter.

Equipment mattered.

Materials mattered.

Construction mattered.

Enchantments mattered.

She had learned enough in less than a week to understand that very clearly.

She simply saw no reason competence had to be ugly.

If something she wanted was impractical, she could improve it.

If it was weak, she could reinforce it.

If a weapon disappeared inside an obnoxious blue slime, she would learn another one.

Mira had spent most of her life solving problems other people considered difficult.

Aetheria had finally started providing problems difficult enough to remain interesting.

Several Bellhaven guards noticed her.

Hands moved toward weapons.

The caravan master called out that Mira travelled under Eastmere guild authority.

The tension eased slowly.

Mira had expected that.

Bellhaven did not know her.

Yet.

A notice board stood just inside the gate.

Mira caught several postings as the caravan passed.

Dungeon Survey — Glass Hollows

Missing Expedition — Hollowmere

Escort Required — Emberwood Road

Bounty — Razorwing Swarm

Cultivation Exchange — Essence Stones Purchased and Graded

Craft Apprentices Wanted

Her attention moved between the last two.

Kael was still staring at the dungeon notice.

The cub emerged beside Mira's cheek.

One of its five tails pointed toward a nearby food stall.

Mira adjusted her glasses.

Bellhaven was going to be busy.

Status

Mira

Species: Human

Class: Cleric

Level: 4

Experience: 79 / 240

Strength: 7

Agility: 11

Endurance: 6

Perception: 8

Intelligence: 10

Spirit: 10

Essence: 45 / 45

Unassigned Attribute Points: 0

Individual Abilities

Simplification — Common

Improves the ability to reduce complex problems into their most relevant components using available information.

Skills

Minor Heal — Common

Radiant Spark — Common

Blessing of Shelter — Common

Equipment

Temple Spare Robe — Common — Repaired, Worn

Ivory Cleric Scarf — Common — Narrow Gold Trim — Repaired

Reinforced Training Gloves — Common

Goblin Knife — Common — 9 / 21 Durability

Heavy Leatherworking Awl — Common

Briarwatch Disciple Staff — Uncommon

Beginner Tailoring Kit — Common

Worn Leather Satchel — Common — Repaired

Novice Cleric Token — Common

Goblin Spear — Taken by Torrent Slime

Currency

Copper Coins ×18

Small Silver Coins ×6

Gold Coins ×1

Low-Grade Essence Crystals ×2

Materials

Lesser Whisperstone — Uncommon ×1

Whispertail Claw — Common ×1

Whispertail Pelt Fragment — Common ×1

Black-Tipped Tail Fur — Common ×1

Corrosive Slime Core — Uncommon ×1

Corrupted Slime Core Fragment — Rare ×1

Dense Adaptive Membrane — Uncommon ×1

Azure Flight Core — Uncommon ×1

Cloud Membrane — Uncommon ×1

Winged Slime Pinions — Common ×4

Stoneback Carapace — Common ×2

Ash Hound Core — Common ×1

Wind Lizard Scale — Common ×3

Reinforcement Bone Token — Uncommon ×1

Key Items

Disciple's Body Method — Rare

Condition

Left Foot — Recovered and Reattached

Left Radius — Fractured, Splinted

Left Ulna — Cracked

Rib Damage — Recovering

Left Foot Coordination — Recovering

Companion

Five-Tailed Whispertail Cub — Unnamed

Observed Abilities

Fivefold Mirage

Whisperstep

Essence Claw

Tailwave — Developing

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