The hag let out a blood curdling screech as the end of her staff began to glow. A pale white blue light shone from the end of the staff and the temperature inside the room noticeably dropped.

  At the same time Bjorn and Meira lept into action. Bjorn lunged forward, sword in hand pointed at the hag’s chest. Meira began casting a spell, her hands wreathed in a yellow light as her eyes began to glow the same color as her hands. Even though spells were powerful, swords were still faster.

  Bjorn crossed the distance between the two of them in a flash, his sword point directed at the hag, on his current trajectory he would run her through. Her attempts to keep the light out of her eyes must have worked just enough that she was no longer blinded. She saw Bjorn coming and raised her hand to swat away Bjorn’s sword.

  The closer Bjorn came to the Bheur hag a chill began to set in to his body, making his movements slower and just a little harder to complete. His movements were faster than the hag’s but the slow from the cold was just enough to tip the scales back in the hags favor. The tip slowed down just enough that the hag managed to get her hand on the flat of Bjorn’s blade and redirect it past her body.

  If it was earlier in Bjorn’s career he would have over committed and left himself open. Thanks to Alaric’s teaching he didn’t do that. As soon as he noticed that the lunge was going to the side he planted his foot and rotated the blade in his hand and swung back towards the hag with all of his might.

  The hag’s staff came down and intercepted Bjorn’s attack. Metal sank into hardened wood as his blow was stopped short in its descent. “Duck.” Meira’s voice came through the room. Through countless hours of fighting together Bjorn’s mind didn’t even have to think and he just reacted, dropping to the ground.

  In his descent to the ground the hag’s leg rose up to meet Bjorn on the way down. Catching him in the shoulder and throwing him away from the monster. It wasn’t the intended outcome but it accomplished exactly what they were trying to do. As Bjorn flew free of the path of Meira’s spell she released the stored magic that she was holding. A lightning bolt arched through the air faster than the hag could react and slammed into her chest.

  The bolt’s path wasn’t exactly straight as lightning’s path never is. It caught her low in the chest, it lifted her off of her feet a few inches and sent her backwards as the lightning arched through her body. This sent her back out the door she was making her way through and out into the night.

  Bjorn recovered quickly from the kick as soon as his body stopped rag dolling across the ground and he got to his feet. That was when he noticed in the corner of his vision that his health was lower than he expected it to be. He was too focused on his attack before to notice the slow health drain that he had started to take when he was close to the hag.

  Bjorn picked himself up and continued to press the attack. This time though instead of continuing after the hag he made a move against the staff. When the hag was thrown out of the house the staff stayed right where it had been lifted to. When the hags hand left the staff a small almost translucent blue bubble surrounded it. The stone at the head of the staff continued to slowly pulse with the same ice blue light. With each pulse the temperature in the room continued to drop.

  Bjorn swung his sword at the staff and his sword got stopped mid swing. Where the swing ran into the small bubble a ripple ran through the rest of the bubble the same way a pebble creates ripples when thrown into the water. His first two swings were stopped by the bubble. But as he stood near the staff his body continued to grow colder and colder, slowing down his movements even more.

  He was so distracted by the staff that he hadn’t noticed the yellowish glow that spread across Meira’s hands once again. Two seconds after her first spell cast she cast her second spell of the fight. Yellow light infused Bjorn’s body and his movement speed picked up once again. He felt the effects of Meira’s haste spell come over his body giving him decent movement speed again, making his attacks land faster.

  On the third full power strike the bubble began to show cracks forming where his sword struck. By the fourth the cracks spread across most of the bubble looking very similar to spider webbing glass. He raised his sword for a 5th strike and swung, and missed.

  The hag recovered from Meira’s attack and held her hand outstretched towards her staff. It shot away from where it was transfixed and flew into her hand. This unexpected movement made Bjorn’s 5th strike completely miss. Swinging wide as the resistance he had expected was not there.

  The ugly hag leveled the staff at Bjorn where he stood half covered by the doorway and a thick jet of cold energy flew out of the end of her staff slamming into the area Bjorn was standing. Meira’s haste spell managed to speed him up just enough that he was able to duck behind the stone wall of the kitchen. The cold energy beam curved as it flew and slammed harmlessly into the side of the wall instead of into Bjorn.

  Meira made her way up and next to Bjorn as he hid. Slightly worried she threw a glance at her husband and saw something that she didn’t expect to see, something she never thought she would see again. Bjorn’s face was determined, and he had a look in his eye that she hadn’t seen since the day with the Mauler. His new found docileness was gone and in its place was the cold calculating killer that she had come to trust and count on when it really mattered.

  The look was there for a moment before it became shrouded in darkness. Bjorn was angry. Angry that their home was under attack, angry that the hag had the gall to try something, and finally angry that she was putting his family in danger. In that moment he wasn’t even thinking about his revulsion to killing and violence, no he was thinking about how to kill this hag in the most painful way possible.

  Darkness began to pool around Bjorn and his eyes normally a bluish green became totally encased in black. It only took 1 second to cast his spell but in the heat of battle 1 second was the difference between life and death, so it felt like an eternity. He watched Meira hold on to the energies for her magic so she could realise it’s destructive powers whenever she wanted. As envious he was of that skill he had never been able to replicate its ability.

  In the moment where he felt all of the mana changed and gathered into the tips of his fingers ready to be released he struggled to hold on to that feeling. Normally when he cast spells he felt the mana condense and then when the spell was finished it flowed out of his body. He struggled mentally with the wild, now destabilized mana that had gathered in his limbs to hold it in.

  He held that feeling as he could hear the ice energies leave the hag’s staff and slam into the stone. The spell he wanted to cast required him to have vision on his target so he didn’t want the power to dissipate sooner than he wanted.

  As he held on to the mana within his body he felt the mana ravage his pathways that he had developed over months and years of magical training. He felt as the mana pathways just like veins that covered his body began to burn and burst. He only needed to hold on for a few seconds. His arms and hands began to feel as if thousands of needles were being shoved into both the bone and the flesh of his hands. Hold.

  Just when he thought he could no longer hold onto the power he was feeling the sound of ice slamming into stone stopped. Bjorn was so focused on holding in the power he almost didn’t realize that his moment had come. Luckily he wasn’t alone, he was never alone anymore. Meira’s magical healing spell slammed into Bjorn, relieving some of the fogginess that settled over his brain.

  Bjorn turned the corner, made eye contact with the hag with her malevolent look on her face, and let his spell go. Strands of dark energy shot away from Bjorn’s body quickly crossing the distance between the two of them. It slammed into the hag and the energy quickly began to cover her body. A moment later it was all transferred into her body and it rapidly made its way to her eyes. The mana blotted out the light that was filtering into her eyes.

  A prompt showed up in the middle of Bjorn’s vision, with a mental command he minimized the prompt. Meira’s healing magic slammed into Bjorn again as he moved forward to go on the offensive again. The hag moved forward to meet Bjorn head on. Her claws shot out aiming for Bjorn’s throat. Meira’s haste spell doing work once again. His increased movement speed allowed him to slightly duck enough to where her swing missed Bjorn. The effect of Bjorn’s blindness spell helped him dodge.

  On his way back up he took a swing at the hags arm trying to hamper her movement. His sword connected and was stopped dead, not cutting into the hag. A thin sheet of ice began to coat the blade of the sword. The metal of where it came in contact with the hag began to change colors as it underwent rapid chilling, and the cold began to seep into Bjorn’s body once again. By then the dark energies from his blind spell had run their course and her vision was completely restored. It lasted nowhere near the 15 seconds that the spell said it would last.

  Bjorn and the hag exchanged a few rapid blows neither one gaining an advantage in the exchange. She used both her hand and the end of her 4 foot staff to try and hit Bjorn. Bjorn dodged each attack and tried to get in close with his sword. Each time it came near the Bheur hag’s body the blade continued to get colder and colder. It was getting to the point where the sword was starting to hurt his hand to hold as the metal was now leeching the heat from his hands. As the fight was going it wouldn’t last long, and not in his favor.

  In a moment of desperation he did two things. The first thing that he did was drop his now too cold sword and grabbed his ice enchanted dagger. He used it to block an attack from the hag. To his surprise the dagger didn’t gain a sheen of ice. Based on what happened to the sword he expected that to be the outcome. Some part of him registered that the dagger was probably immune to the effects of being in close proximity to the hag.

  The second thing that Bjorn did was activate a power that he gained from his survival skill reaching skill level 10, called who needs warmth. The first part of his power instantly dried his clothes, which in this case didn’t do much for him. The second part though was what he needed. Warmth spread throughout his body starting from the center of his chest and spreading into his extremities. Just like that his movement speed returned to normal and he was once again faster than the hag, especially with the haste from Meira.

  With everything that happened with his attacks so far he realized that it was useless to attack the hag for the time being, even Meira’s lightning bolt failed to leave a mark on the woman’s chest. The hag had tried to protect her staff while trying to deal damage with it. Taking a gamble Bjorn went after that instead.

  Now that his reaction speed was back to normal he had the advantage and quickly landed another blow on the staff. The small bubble that had protected it until this point shattered with the sound of splintering glass. The dagger kept descending and slammed into the staff, cutting deeply into the thick gnarled wood that made up the body of the staff.

  This angered the hag. With a high pitched scream she let out a burst of ice imbued energy which caught Bjorn sending him flying backwards for the second time this fight. His back slammed into the stone of the kitchen knocking the wind out of him. He crumpled to the ground.

  Meira finished casting a spell from the door of the kitchen. If Bjorn was more cognitive he would have recognized the spell she was casting. A ball of condensed air magic left her hand and began to cross the distance between Meira and the hag.

  As that was happening the hag raised her staff and the gemstone in the end of it began to pulse rhythmically once again. She began to chant in a low guttural voice. As she did that she raised the staff above her head and she began to slowly spin it over her head. From the end of the staff a thick strand of ice attuned mana flowed. It infused with the surroundings and a circle around her began to form. Wind picked up and the snow they were fighting on began to get swept up in the wind. In a matter of moments a mini blizzard had formed around the hag. Somehow a wicked grin crossed her face, even though she didn’t have any lips to form the smile itself.

  Meira’s ball traveled through the blizzard unaffected by what it had to travel through. When it reached the end of its trajectory it exploded outwards, coating the area in a thick mist. The strong smell of ozone filled the air. Meira wasn’t finished with her combo though. Everytime she cast the second half of this combo it was in a tunnel to stop the storm from spreading towards those she wanted to protect. Or she cast her shield spell around her and her allies.

  This time however she cast her shield around the hag, trapping both Meira’s storm and the hags blizzard. It was hard to see what exactly was happening inside the bubble as both Meira’s summer storm and the hags blizzard affected vision. If they could see inside they would see the blizzard trying its hardest to freeze the mist of Meira’s spell. But the mana that comprised Meira’s spell fought against the constant water based mana that tried to eat away at it.

  It was only a matter of time before the air magic began to reach the point where lightning began to form. The first flash of light and immediate crack of thunder echoed throughout the clearing. The sudden loud noise woke Alaric up and he started to cry. Unfortunately the sound was drowned out by the next crack of thunder, then another. This kept up for 10 long seconds with as many flashes and cracks of thunder.

  On the 9th crack there was a different sound that emanated from inside the bubble. This crack was the distinct sound of wood splintering. When the sound of wood splintering filled the clearing 1 half of the combined storm inside the bubble began to fade, making it easier to see inside the bubble, but their vision was still blocked.

  The warring energies fought together weaking both sides. Meira’s spell normally lasted a minute, but the warring energies drained most of the power of her spell. So at the end of the last second the magic dissipated and the view inside the shield spell became easy to see once again, mostly. There were thousands of cracks that ran through the magic shield obscuring their vision a different way.

  While fighting together they found out that spells that Meira cast had absolutely no effect against her shield spell. It was as if the mana inside her body did no damage to itself. This meant that the damage that happened to the shield spell came from the hags blizzard spell, even with it weakened by Meira’s summer storm spell.

  The shield spell that she knew was also an active spell. This meant that she was able to continually pour mana into her shield spell to continually repair the shield. That was the only reason it remained intact. Meira’s prodigious mana pool made it so that she could keep it contained. Even so, she was almost completely out of mana after casting the two spells in quick succession. She rapidly regained mana, but in these types of fights it still wasn’t enough to make a difference. It would still be several minutes before she recovered enough mana to cast a meaningful spell. Several hundred mana was spent maintaining the air shield.

  All of this happened in less than a minute.

  When the power from both spells faded Meira released the air shield spell, it fizzled away. Now that they had a clear view of the clearing they saw the hag was laying on the ground. Her hand which was holding the staff was now blackened and shriveled. There was 1 final scorch mark on her ribcage where the last lightning bolt slammed into her body. The cold that permeated her surroundings was starting to dissipate every so slightly as it returned to a more normal winter condition.

  She slowly stirred from where she lay. Meira looked over to Bjorn where he lay gasping as he just regained his breath, then she looked back at the hag who was slowly trying to return to her feet. Meira cast one final spell. Lightning arched away from her hands as she cast her lightning bolt spell. It slammed into the body of the hag knocking her back and onto her back one final time. Meira watched the hag to make sure that she wasn’t going to get up and was finally dead. After a few moments of stillness Meira turned back to Bjorn and helped him to his feet.

  Bjorn got to his feet grasping his knife from where it fell and stood next to Meira where she was fussing over Bjorn. “Is she dead?”

  “I think so.”

  “I didn’t get any xp from her death. If she was dead, shouldn't we have gotten some?”

  “Yeah.” Meira said, turning back to where the hag lay. She didn’t know what to do as her mana was completely empty. She could drink a mana potion but didn’t want to because the fight was obviously over. Bjorn could easily finish the hag off from the state it was in.

  Bjorn just nodded with grim determination and walked over to where the Bheur hag lay. He looked down at her damaged and broken body and raised his dagger high. He plunged it down into the hags body right where her heart should be.

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  When the dagger fell and punctured her body the hag's coal black eyes shot open again and with surprising strength threw Bjorn back off of her, ripping the dagger out of his hands leaving it embedded in her chest. At the same time she rolled away from where Bjorn had been. Meira’s last lightning bolt threw her close to the edge of the cliff. When she tried to roll away from Bjorn she rolled right off the side of the cliff and plummeted 60 feet landing on the stone covered ground at the bottom of the cliff.

  Finally they got the kill confirmation, as the experience notification popped up. As well as a few others. Bjorn put those notifications to the side for now as he went to check on Meira. She was fine, so they made their way inside and shut the door to help preserve some of the heat that was still inside the house. They would deal with the dead hag in the morning.

  As they made their way inside they were able to finally hear Alaric crying from where they left him wrapped up in his blankets. They hurried over to where Alaric lay crying and Meira picked him up. His skin wasn’t cold to the touch so he should be fine.

  One thing that happened when Bjorn gained buffs was they would appear in the upper left hand corner of his vision. A small timer would appear inside each of the buffs to say how long that buff would last. As it slowly ticked down nearing the bottom it would start to flash to indicate that it was running out. Which was happening right now.

  3…

  2…

  1…

  When the timer hit zero the minor buff from ‘who needs warmth.’ ran out. Immediately his head felt light, and his vision swam. He barely had time to read a new prompt before his vision went dark and he passed out.

  You are suffering from extreme hypothermia.

  When Bjorn next was conscious he was aware of 2 things. The first was that he felt warm and pleasant. The second that his body ached. He sat up just as he would have any other morning, only slower than normal due to the ache. He looked around to see Meira laying at the foot of the bed with Alaric bundled up in her arms. Her head laid on the bed while the rest of her was set on the ground.

  Bjorn threw the covers back, the rustling sound stirring Meira awake. She blinked bleary eyed at Bjorn and her face lit up with a smile. “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah, I am alright, why wouldn’t I be?” Bjorn asked, confused.

  “You and I fought a Bheur hag 4 days ago. You don’t remember that?”

  Bjorn chuckled. “Yeah, right. 4 days ago I just finished working on the south wall of the alchemy hut. I think I would remember if I fought a hag.” When Bjorn swung his legs out of bed and onto the floor something felt slightly off but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

  Meira was giving Bjorn a concerned look. “No honey, 4 days ago we got into a fight with a hag and you got entirely way too cold. I got you inside and warmed up, and your health continually dropped. I have spent the last 4 days monitoring you trying to keep you healed up. You had no visual wounds but your health continued to drop. Why don’t you lay back down and give yourself a few moments.”

  As Meira spoke something in the back of his mind poked at his conscious mind. Confused what that was, he started looking around at his body. His vision stopped on his right foot. It was black up to the arch of the foot. Where there used to be 5 toes there were now only 2, the big toe and the one right next to it. That was when what was bothering him finally clicked into place. He had no feeling in his right leg from mid shin downward.

  He poked at it with his finger and found the feeling odd. He could feel his leg with his finger and the skin underneath his finger. But where his brain told him he should feel the poke in his leg the feeling was completely void from his mind. The now black skin that covered his foot felt oddly like the grain of wood when he ran his hand over it.

  He looked back up at Meira. “Tell me what happened.”

  So Meira did just that, at first she filled Bjorn in on the events that transpired the night they fought the hag. “After you collapsed I rushed over to you and you felt cold to the touch. I did the trick that you taught me and put my finger to your neck to check for a pulse. When I felt a pulse, but weak I knew you were still alive. I picked you up and moved you to the bed and bundled you up in the bankets there. I then started a fire and made sure the room was plenty warm, next I curled up in bed with you using my skin to help warm you up.”

  Tears began to form in the corner of Meira’s eyes but she kept talking. “It was a long rough night, as your body kept drawing heat from me, but it worked. By morning you had regained the heat you had lost during the fight. I thought that it was over, but when you didn’t wake up I started to get worried. After the war party timed out and I was no longer able to watch your health bar I grew even more worried. During that time when we were in the war party I watched as your health would slowly drop down, so I periodically cast my healing spells on you to keep your health topped up.”

  Her eyes started to dry and her voice became less thick with emotion. “That next morning the neighbors came to check on us. Apparently the sound from our fight carried through the night and woke them up from where they slept. The sound from our fight was so frightening that they didn’t dare try and find out what happened until the morning. They came to make sure we were alright, and see if we knew what caused the sound. You can imagine their surprise when they found out that the sound was us.”

  Bjorn just nodded. “I can imagine.”

  “Anyways, they had no idea what the creature was that attacked us in the night, but I am certain that I am glad that it attacked us and not anyone else. Now that you are awake and alive it is obvious that we were going to be the only ones who were able to kill the Bheur hag. If it wasn’t us that someone else would have faced it and been killed because of the fight. I also have a sneaking suspicion that our rough winter has been because of that hag.”

  “Why do you say that?” Bjorn asked laying back in the bed drinking in everything that happened. As hard as he tried he wasn’t able to remember anything Meira was talking about. He had no recollection of the fight that she said that they partook in.

  “Well you know how almost every single day for the last 2 months its been a tough winter? Snowing every single day, the wind has been blowing hard.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well after we killed the hag the very next day it returned to how it's been for the last two winters. Sunshiny with occasional wind, there hasn't been a bit of snow since then. Anyways getting back to what we were talking about. The next morning the neighbors found us and the dead hag. Word has quickly spread around town about what happened. Larry came out and talked to me about hypothermia and explained how me warming you was likely a mistake. At least at the rate I did.”

  Bjorn looked confused. “Why is that a mistake?”

  “Apparently rapidly warming a body that is suffering from hypothermia can be just as deadly as the cold itself. We don't know why or how, just that it happens. But seeing how you seem fine that shouldn't be a problem right?”

  That was the first time during their conversation Bjorn truly looked at Meira. Her forward body position, the way her eyes kept darting around his body, the way she was slowly scrunching up the blanket in her hand. She was nervous. “Come here.” He said, throwing the blanket back once again.

  That was all the prompting she needed. She picked up Alaric and moved next to Bjorn in the bed. Bjorn wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close to his body. I will be fine. There might be some sort of lasting effect of what happened, but I should be fine. I feel alright.”

  Warm tears sank into Bjorn’s shirt. They lay like that for long hours, Bjorn whispering sweet nothings into her hair as she clung onto him. This was a new side to Meira he hadn't really seen during their time together. She generally presented a strong, unbreakable woman. It was almost odd to see her vulnerable like this. Sure there had been times where she cried, they both had, but it was the first time where he felt like she was trying to hold it together. He was so used to her strength that it was almost disconcerting to see the other side of her, this more open side.

  Eventually she fell asleep and Bjorn extracted himself from her. He picked up Alaric who had woken up from where he slept but hadn't started crying. He made his way out into the main part of the house and sat down with Alaric in his arms. He made his way into the kitchen and found himself something to eat. Then he settled in to go over his prompts over the last few days.

  Congratulations you have gained a new skill: Delayed casting. There are few things in the Eld as powerful as being able to decide when and where your magical powers take effect.

  You have advanced your skill: Delayed casting. You are now skill level 2. You may now hold your spells for 2 seconds before the power from your channeled mana starts to eat away at your body.

  You have started to suffer from mild hypothermia. This is nothing major as long as you are able to return your body to a warm state.

  You are now suffering from moderate hypothermia. Your movement speed is reduced by 20% due to the cold that your body has began to suffer.

  You are now suffering from severe hypothermia. Your movement speed is reduced by 40%. On top of that you have a constant health drain applied to you as organs are no longer able to properly function.

  Congratulations you have gained a new skill: Grace in combat. Not everyone who fights is able to prepare themselves for the fight, often times you have to fight un-armored.

  You have adavanced your skill: grace in combat. You are now level 2. Your natural armor is increased by .2

  You are now suffering from extreme hypothermia. If you manage to survive you will likely suffer permanent loss of bodily functions or even loss of memory as your brain begins to cool. Warm yourself up before freezing to death.

  Level up!

  You have 4 attribute points to distribute.

  Your buff from who needs warmth has expired.

  Congratulations you will no longer be freezing to death. Instead due to how bad the hypothermia in conjunction with how your bodily temperatures were returned to normal you have suffered the following effects.

  You have frostbite on your right foot. You have lost all motor functions in those areas. Due to how extreme the frostbite was some of your toes snapped off in the rewarming process.

  You have lost memories of the events leading up to you suffering from hypothermia.

  Your bond with your soul partner has deepened. You have gained the following effect. You may now use the connection between the two of you to know the current value of each other’s resource pools.

  Finally Bjorn began to piece together what truly happened to him and where he went wrong. During his fight he had activated his power ‘who needs warmth’, which ultimately led to his downfall. The power stated that it made his body feel like it was in an 80 degree room. He thought that it meant that he gained the benefit of being in an 80 degree room. His dumb mistake not understanding what he read led to him almost dying. It allowed him to ignore the effects of what was slowly killing him, not save him from his problems.

  It was a foolish mistake, one that Bjorn couldn’t believe he ultimately made, but there was nothing to be done about it. What is in the past is in the past. So instead of lamenting his mistake he decided to try and figure out the new power here and Meira had. He searched his mind until he found that pocket in the back where he constantly felt Meira’s presence and tugged at it. The feeling kind of came naturally, he didn’t have to command his interface to get what he wanted, he just had to feel and Meira’s health total appeared.

  Health: 301/320.

  Stamina: 53/290

  Mana: 784/784

  He always knew that Meira had an impressive mana pool, but he never realized how impressive it truly was. Bjorn smiled down at Meria where she was cuddled close to him and softly stroked her hair. He was wondering why her health pool wasn't maxed out but figured she was saving her mana in case something happened to Bjorn.

  Eventually Alaric woke up and started crying. One thing that happens as a parent is that you can start to tell the difference between your child's cries. This cry was without a doubt a hungry cry, he was still young enough that he had to breastfeed so Bjorn made his way back into the room and woke Meira up so she could feed their son.

  She looked up at Bjorn when he woke her. This was hardly the first time that he did so for this specific reason so she took Alaric back and started to feed their son. “I think we rattled Aiden.”

  “And what makes you say that?”

  “When they came to check on us the next morning they found the hags body laying on the ground. She was hardly something pleasant to look at, so that spooked him. But what I think took the cake was the shape we left the hag in. Her body was hardly in good condition. Oh with that in mind your enchanted dagger is over there. I retrieved it from her chest.”

  Bjorn looked over to where Meira was pointing and saw the dagger sitting in its sheath. Bjorn walked over to it and identified it. Its durability hardly decreased, but it was missing some of its charges, it was sitting at 45 out of 51.

  He wanted to test out how the whole expending soul stones to regain charges on enchanted items worked but he put that to the side for now, he would be back to that when he and Meira weren’t talking. “We did tell him and everyone in town that we used to be adventurers.”

  “Yeah, but I think that they either didn’t believe us, or didn’t realize what we were capable of. Caiden and Adriana had some ideas after you have been training them occasionally, but they never got the full extent of what we can do.”

  “I doubt this will be a problem though.” Bjorn said after stowing his dagger and coming back over to lay down next to his wife.

  “You're right, I doubt there will be a problem from this. I do think that people will treat us with more respect though. It is one thing to be told that your neighbors are badass killing machines, it's another to actually see proof of it.”

  Bjorn frowned slightly at that last statement. “I still don’t like it. Killing I mean.”

  Meira realized that the clarity that Bjorn had finally seen must have been erased and he was back to his more gentler side. Instead of making a comment about it she changed the subject.

  Several hours later Bjorn was sitting in the main room of their house with his dagger in one hand. In the other he held one of the soul stones that Meira had made. She started carrying around a small pouch of soul stones on her belt so that she could catch the soul of something she killed.

  As it turned out the stone around their house could only make low quality soul stones. There were multiple grades to the stones. They ranged from petty to rare, at least as far as they knew. The order went: petty, lesser, common, uncommon, rare. The petty soul stones could be made out of any old stone that they came across in the fields. The lesser could be made from the shavings of granite that Bjorn made.

  They also learned that there was a limit to the size of stone that could be used to create soul stones. Nothing greater than an inch across could be used to create the stones, if the stones were too big than the spell would fizzle. The shape also didn’t overly matter, or really the amount of material that was used as long as it wasn’t larger than an inch across. As the transmutation process happened the stone would reshape itself changing form. Sometimes the stone would grow in size as it turned into the soul stone, sometimes it would shrink in size. There were probably some more in depth criteria for what could be used to make the soul stones that they didn’t know.

  Meira also learned that each creature had a different grade of soul to be captured. Most animals that they came across were either petty or lesser in their grade. That grade seemed to be based mostly on size of the animal at least from their testing. Bjorn had a theory that it was also based on intelligence but they had no real way to test that variable.

  They had a small handful of soul stones that were filled with souls. As it turned out you could fit a petty sized soul in any sized soul stone. But a lesser soul had to go in at least a lesser soul stone. Meira had killed several small animals that were in the garden or in the fields, each time she did so though she made sure to cast soul trap before she killed the creature. She apparently tried to capture the soul of the bheur hag and failed to capture it because they didn’t have a soul stone large enough to fit the hag's soul.

  As Bjorn sat there with his dagger and soul stone he was currently trying to shove the stone into the dagger. Unsurprisingly that had no effect. Next he tried piercing the soul stone with the tip of the dagger, maybe thinking it would be absorbed if the container for the soul was ruptured. That also had no effect, on both the dagger and the soul stone. The durability of the stone dropped by a few points and the tip of the dagger bent slightly.

  Eventually he realized that it was probably a simple task. Instead of physically pushing the two items together which would obviously never have worked, Bjorn placed them near one another and willed the two items to combine. As with everything else in this world all it took was a slight mental command and the world reacted.

  Would you like to expend the power from your petty soul stone to refill some of the charges on your cold enchanted high steel dagger? Yes/No.

  Bjorn mentally clicked on the yes button and the once inanimate objects underwent a slight change. The soul stone began to slowly pulse from the constant light embedded in a filled soul stone. A tiny stream of rainbow light began to slowly rise out of the stone and start to make its way over to the dagger. The stream was tiny and looked rather, for a lack of a better term, petty. When the stream reached the dagger it slowly began to sink into the metal of the blade. As it did so a thin sheen of rainbow light coated the blade.

  The stream didn’t last long before it fully vacated the soul stone, only a few seconds at max. Once it was free of the soul stone the structure of the almost transparent gemstone began to crumble, after a few seconds it fully crumbled into dust, which that too didn’t last long. The dust evaporated as it fell towards the ground.

  The soul light slowly made its way into the blade. Once the power had been fully transferred over the faint rainbow light sheen that had coated the blade of the dagger sank into the blade returning it to its normal look. Upon closer inspection it almost looked like nothing changed on the dagger so Bjorn used his identify ability on it.

  All of that effort to recharge 3 charges. He was hoping for at least more than 3 charges. Though he couldn’t complain that much as the petty soul looked quite pitiful as it floated through the air to fill the soul stone. He absent mindedly wondered if there was a difference in petty souls, if there were more charges gained based on how powerful of a soul was used. It was rather obvious that a lesser soul would provide more power than a petty one and so on and so forth.

  Finally he paid attention to the blinking icon in the corner of his vision that told him he had a new prompt.

  Congratulations you have gained a new skill: Enchanting. There are few things that all of the scholars in the Eld agree on. The one thing that is unanimously agreed upon though is that enchanting is one of the most powerful skills in all of the land. Be careful crossing a master enchanter, if he is a warrior on top of an enchanter there is only one thing left to do, run.