“Different flavours,” Mia said, nodding at the small group gathered before her. “Yes, that’s exactly right. The aspect gives different flavours to an element, but doesn’t inherently change it.”

  “Did you ask about Fused Elements like Storm?” Helene asked from where she was leaning over the counter. “I know my Bloodline can cheat and make it anyway, but how do regular people ever manage to make it?”

  Mia shook her head slightly, glancing up at her mother and running her gaze over the gathered group hanging onto her words with rapt attention. Sadly, none of them spoke Imperial Common, so she had to relay everything she’d learned from Nikki back to them … which meant she had been doing her damn best to engrave every bit of information that left the blue-haired woman’s mouth.

  Not that she was grumpy about that, or the slight headache it had caused. Quite the contrary, it was just the mental workout her Memory stat needed.

  [Base Memory: 6 -> 7]

  If her gut wasn’t wrong, she had been just a slight push away from getting not one, but two points in the same session. Sadly, her headache had been pounding into the back of her skull with a sledgehammer by that point, so she had made a hasty retreat after promising to come back later. Nikki seemed happy to know she’d get a conversation partner again, so she had waved her off with a smile.

  “I haven’t,” Mia said. “And I don’t even think she knows. Though I suppose they’d have to get some other way to change their mana to Storm mana if they don’t have a Bloodline to passively refine ambient mana into it. A Natural Treasure, maybe? Or maybe they can get a Storm aspect first then go from there. Hell, Nikki mentioned creating affinities from associated aspects, so I’d say maybe even just making a fire affinity could be possible if you partition a bit of your mana and apply a fire aspect onto it? If that’s possible?”

  “Don’t look at us for answers,” Mark said at Mia’s self-doubting look. “I don’t even know how to make use of my own Darkness affinity. This theoretical stuff is flying miles over my head.”

  “Do you know what these ‘base elemental aspects’ for Air should be?” Lina asked, leaning forward.

  “I know swiftness and lightness should be among them,” Mia said. “But that’s it. Maybe it’s in one of the books? I have a book on elements, it might be in there. I can lend it to you, if you want?”

  “Yep, I’d appreciate it.” Lina nodded, leaning back into the sofa with a thoughtful look.

  Mia looked around and found everyone thinking over the little lesson she’d given them. She’d tried to relay everything she’d learned from Nikki in a digestible way, but she wasn’t sure she succeeded.

  The only ones not in a thoughtful daze were Carmilla and Brent. To the first of whom the new information was more a curiosity than anything, as she already knew everything she needed to reach a higher power while the latter took it all in with a stoic look.

  With the man not being a mage, Mia wasn’t sure how much of what she’d spoken of would be useful to him. Likely not much, if any of it. Though she might be wildly off mark as she knew basically nothing about the differences between those who used mana and those who used Ki.

  “Sooo,” Mia said, levelling her gaze at Brent to start some small talk while she let the others digest the lesson. “You told Zeigler about the peeper we’d seen? Was it one of his?”

  “I did, and it was not,” Brent said, a light frown forming on his face. “He even had someone with some divinatory powers look over the place, as well as some people with extraordinary senses, but the only thing they found was ‘lingering mana’. They think whoever was there was protected by some serious magical Wards or some shit. No scent, no mana signature, no nothing left behind and you said even sound was silenced in the whole building.”

  “Yeah,” Mia said, keeping her voice low so as to not bother the others. “Carmilla caught it first. It was like the building didn’t allow any sound to leave its walls, it was like a void in our hearing.”

  “I doubt it was a beastkin,” Carmilla whispered, sitting down beside Mia as she awkwardly pushed a tray with some snacks on it onto her lap. “They never seemed to have enchanters, especially not ones of the calibre needed to make wards of that level.”

  “Thanks.” Mia beamed up at the redhead, snatching up a bite-sized potato patty and received an awkward, but happy smile in response. Really, Carmilla was sometimes just too adorable, despite being a big bad vampire … Mia stopped that thought in its tracks.

  Carmilla was adorable when she was trying to be flirty in her own, awkward way. There was no ‘despite being a vampire’. Mia had to strangle that way of thinking to death sooner rather than later.

  She bit into the patty, her smile staying put as the fried deliciousness hit her tongue. Before the next bite, she dipped it in a bit of sour cream. That was what heaven tasted like. Most may disagree, but Mia had caught a taste for it the first time she’d stayed in Budapest.

  Hungarians just loved putting the stuff on everything. Bread? Sure. Soup? Absolutely. Pancakes? Sure, just mix it with some powdered sugar beforehand.

  Mia was still unhappy with her changing palette, but as some things changed, the more they stayed the same. Among the things that remained unchanged was her love for the treats, so she happily snacked on the latest treats her mother had cooked up.

  Food had been an ever present worry, one lingering in the back of her mind, but she could finally let that one worry rest now. Whatever deal Zeigler had made with Jeff, Mia wasn’t privy to it, nor was she interested in it, but she was at least glad it meant starvation could be ruled out as the main source of death for the population of Graz in the coming weeks.

  Or months, possibly years. Mia thought. Who knew whether the global economy would ever recover even to a fraction of what it’d once been?

  For all they knew, every city would have to be self-sufficient from now on if it wanted to continue existing.

  “Maybe it’s whoever tried to kill us?” Mia murmured, a frown flitting across her features.

  “We’ll know when we catch them,” Carmilla stated simply, not even bothering to shrug. “I doubt they’ll stop watching and skulking about. I now know to pay attention to bits of space void of sound so they’ll have a harder time getting close to us and I doubt they have any artefacts that’d allow them to run faster than I can chase them.”

  “Why didn’t you catch this one then?” Brent asked and Mia was about to glare at him, but the man looked merely curious, not accusatory so she crushed the urge.

  “It’d have meant leaving Mia alone, in an open square,” Carmilla said, sending a meaningful glance at Mia who smiled happily in response, intertwining her fingers with the redhead’s.

  “I see,” Brent said, giving a rueful chuckle. “It’s nice to see there are positives to the world going to shit.”

  “The world will get through it,” Helene said from over at the table where she looked up from a large book she’d been leafing through. “Don’t be so pessimistic. The worst is behind us.”

  “I pray that you’re right,” Brent said, giving a small sigh before shaking himself out of his fugue. “There are- … Huh.”

  “What?” Mia asked, looking over at the older man who was staring cross-eyed at the air before his nose. He had a slightly dumbfounded look on his face too, so Mia was getting curious what could have stumped him so.

  “Check the Obelisk Quest,” Brent said simply, a small grin tugging at his mouth.

  Mia did so, and it took her a moment to realise what he’d meant. The counter had gone from two out of five rifts being destroyed in the city to three out of five.

  “Seems like that crazy elven dude actually managed it,” Mark said in wonder. “Last I heard the idiot went into the bird rift all by himself.”

  “It could be,” Brent said. “Or one of the beastkin delving the critter rift had gotten greedy and decided getting the five times multiplier for the rift-destruction beat the basic rift-clear rewards. Even if it would also earn them a nasty beating once they’d gotten out.”

  “Hey,” Mark spoke up, jumping to his feet. “Didn’t Clive also have a Darkness affinity? Do you think he’d know how to work that into my armour?”

  “ … you won’t know until you ask?” Mia said after a moment.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “True that,” the dwarf grinned, then scuttled away and jumped into his shoes before throwing the door of the apartment open. He was halfway through when he stuck his head back in. “Does anyone know which room he got?”

  “The one next to ours,” Helene said. “To the left.”

  “Thanks!” Mark said, then shut the door.

  “Urh, where were we?” Mia asked, trying to grab onto the line of thought she had right before Mark jumped into the conversation with little success. “Rifts?”

  They talked for a few more minutes, and Mia made herself stay despite her rising urge to head back to interrogate Nikki about a dozen new things.

  Mia had been so wrapped in the aspect and element talk that she’d forgotten to ask about other things she’d wanted to know like whether her runic-model would tier-up, stop taking in new runes or self-destruct the moment she tried to push it beyond 100%.

  It would stand to reason that she should be able to upgrade her runic-model to Junior grade without even a Rank Up. If what little she knew of Skills and how they upgraded was true.

  The System should not only allow her to push ahead of the power curve, but reward her for it. Just like it should reward her for spending the majority of her evenings nose deep into her Junior grade runic theory book and every shred of free time thinking about spellcrafting and mana theory.

  Still, she stayed. These were her friends, and Brent was opening up a little. Mia didn’t know what exactly the man was going through, but he had been more stoic than a statue for weeks. She still remembered the constant jokes and snarks he’d thrown around when they’d first met, so she knew how weird his state had been.

  Plus, she’d never say no to spending time with Carmilla and Helene. Lina was alright too, whenever the blonde actually stopped to relax and just unwind for a bit. The intensity she had when training was still something that slightly … intimidated Mia. Normal people didn’t have a drive to improve like that.

  She just wished things would calm down a bit. Lina had promised to take both her and Carmilla on a girls’ trip through a shopping mall — to build up both of their dreadfully lacking wardrobes, at least according to Lina’s standards — and whatever else they’d like.

  It was something to look forward to. If- … When things calmed down, Mia was intending to get a breather. Not much, but just enough to feel like she was a normal person and not some war-machine only living for getting stronger.

  Baths, a restaurant, hiking … maybe even going on an actual date with Carmilla was on the schedule.

  Just the thought put a smile on her face. Looking at her fingers intertwined with those long, elegant fingers ending in pretty crimson nails, her smile widened even further. A date sounded like a dream. It wouldn’t be the first one she’d been on, God only knew how hard she’d tried to get a girlfriend before meeting the vampiress, but it never quite worked out.

  Still, she knew this date would be perfect. Even just a walk through a park holding hands and talking sounded so idyllic when she knew it would be with Carmilla.

  Despite technically dating, Mia still felt like she was barely scratching at the surface of the iceberg that was Carmilla as a person.

  So she started plotting, making new plans to join the ones she already had but these ones would have the goal of getting to know her vampire a little more.

  *****

  “How are you feeling?” Mia asked, a hand grasping Carmilla's hand while the other reached over to grab her mother’s who was slouching off to the side.

  “Slight headache,” the vampiress said, waving off her concern with a smile as she stood up, her tongue licking at her lips absently. “Those things are tasty.”

  “That they are,” Helene said, though it was more of a groan than actual words as she held her head with an arm through a grimace. “It really is like a brain freeze.”

  “Want me to get you something?” Mia asked, turning her focus on her mother who just shook her head and patted Mia’s arm.

  “I’m fine,” Helene said. “It’s already starting to go away. I’ll be good in a minute. The two of you can get ready in the meantime.”

  Mia looked over her shoulder, making eye contact with Lina who looked clearly impatient but managed to give Mia a smile despite it.

  “I’m in no hurry,” Lina said. “I’ve waited a day to eat those damned super fruits, I can wait a few more minutes.”

  “Thanks,” Mia said, nodding thankfully before turning back to her mother. “Really nothing? Not even a glass of warm tea or something? A warm towel perhaps?”

  “I could use some hot chocolate,” Helene mused, but grabbed Mia’s wrist as she moved to make one. “I’ll make it myself, it’s really fine. If you really want to help, give me a comfort hug?”

  Mia huffed a little, but acquiesced easily and sat down next to her mother before encasing her in a warm hug.

  Helene hugged her back and Mia relaxed subconsciously and closed her eyes as they just stayed like that for a few long seconds.

  There were as many ways to show one’s love and care as there were people alive, but physical touch was one of the more common ones. Mia was pretty sure she’d gotten her inclination towards it from her mother, in one way or another.

  Helene drew in a deep breath and pulled back, all smiles as she looked at Mia, “Thanks honey, I needed that.”

  “Sure,” Mia said easily, smiling at her mother before glancing over at the blonde who was doing her best not to fidget from the impatience. “Think you’re good to go now?”

  “I should be well enough to look over you while you eat your gems,” Helene said, standing up with a soft grunt that made her sound older than she physically looked.

  Mia hummed, reaching into her pockets and fiddling with the two prismatic gems there as she waited for Lina to prepare her own slices of fruit — Natural Treasures she’d gotten from the goblin dungeon — and waited for everyone else to get ready. The probability of anything going wrong was basically nil, but knowing her mother and Carmilla were watching over her should anything go wrong calmed whatever lingering nerves she had. Though likely not as much as it calmed the two women in question, both were worrywarts in their own way, not that Mia minded, the care felt nice.

  “I’m ready,” Lina said, eying a slice of some translucent yellow pear held in her dainty fingers.

  Mia nodded slightly, taking one bead-like gem out of her pocket. After cleaning it of dust and whatever dirt it could have stuck to it, she popped it in her mouth and closed her eyes instinctively as it melted into some ethereal energy the moment it touched her tongue.

  Her mana roused in response, flowing up her channels and melding with the new energy. It surged through her veins, resonating with her body and spirit as it flowed into the core of her being. It didn’t do much, all things said, but Mia felt it might have carved some new pathways into her spirit, sharpened some edges and rounded down some others.

  [Attunement (Arcane)] 31% -> 35%

  After her mana settled back down, roiling in her pool almost happily — if such a thing was possible — Mia took a few moments to bask in the afterglow. She wasn’t sure whether her spirit became sort of overstimulated from the gem or not, but she was happy to wait a little to make sure the next one wouldn’t be more painful.

  Lina was still nibbling on her fruit slices when Mia felt herself ready to go ahead with the second gem and popped it too into her mouth. Much the same as before happened again, though if Mia wasn’t wrong, it was slightly less potent this time.

  [Attunement (Arcane)] 35% -> 39%

  Four percent again, though Mia still felt she was just barely over the threshold between 38% and 39%. It’d take one more gem to get her that Trait it seemed, though she’d also noticed that her Attunement went up by itself. It was a much slower process, but her books had made it clear just increasing the harmony of her spirit and Affinity would increase the Attunement by itself. Also, that was how almost everyone did it. The System was just spoiling people in the Realm Event, or perhaps it just spoiled every {Newcomer}.

  Mia stood up and stretched, her back gave a round of satisfying pops and then she rolled her shoulders before grinning. She felt good. Almost every System given treasure she ate had left her in a blissful state afterwards, unless she ate too much of them at once of course. Even the brain-freeze fruits left her mind feeling clear and fluid in a way that she never knew was possible beforehand.

  “I am … going to- ah fuck it,” Mia started, but shook her head midway through. Her original plan had been to sit right back down and sink into meditation to attempt changing her aspect over to Order. Alas, she was feeling far too energetic to sit around for a minute longer. “I’m going to get some exercise in. Anyone who wants to join is welcome to do so.”

  With only some slight cajoling, everyone in the room joined Mia and they quickly found a small dingy gym on the ground floor next. There was even an old indoor basketball court just next door, since apparently the building they were in had been a primary school not long ago.

  It gave them everything they needed. Lina pounced on a leg-press machine, intent on squeezing as many stats out of the thing as she could while Helene settled on an indoor bicycle.

  Mia still felt like an overly energetic cat who’s got the zoomies and dragged Carmilla over to the open basketball court.

  “Let’s play a game,” Mia said, her eyes narrowing at the vampire who tilted her head curiously. They both wore only yoga shorts and a pair of white t-shirts, so Mia had to keep her focus on not staring at her girlfriend’s lean legs left bare for her to see. “Tell me if it’s too much of a … tease on your instincts, but I think I could really use some practice in trying to keep away from a melee opponent who is in turn doing their best to wrestle me onto the ground.”

  Carmilla blinked, her mouth opening for a denial, but halted for a moment of thought. In the end, she gave a slow nod, “I suppose I’ll never learn to control my instincts better if I don’t push my limits … but are you sure you want to subject yourself to this? I might go a bit too far if you push my prey drive too much.”

  “I asked for this,” Mia said, her breathing turning a bit harder at the implication and the glimmer in Carmilla’s deep ruby eyes. “I trust you to stop before I’d die or get too injured. A bit of bruising and such could be easily healed by my ring.”

  “You do know I’m much faster than you, right?” Carmilla asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Yeah,” Mia said, drawing the word out thoughtfully. “Can you just not use any sort of body enhancements? Just pure stats.”

  “My Agility is at 20,” Carmilla said with a smirk and Mia had to stop for a moment to let that sink in before she just shook her head ruefully.

  “It should be fine,” Mia said, nodding to herself. “We won’t know until we try! Okay. Come at me, your win condition is getting both of my shoulders on the floor for three seconds.”

  “Alright,” Carmilla said, her posture going slack and sinking into a languid crouch as she eyed Mia through narrowed eyes. She almost purred as she said the next words, “I’m ready.”

  There were a good forty metres between them and Mia readied a few tricks she had prepared. Blunted Bolt and Shield were both ready for casting and Mia also let her mana course through herself, priming her energy channels for a quick surge of mana should she need it.

  “Okay.” Mia smiled, keeping the quiver out of her voice as she stared into those twin pools of blood holding her captive. “On one we start. Three … two … ONE!”

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