It took a while but eventually Caiden returned. In his hand he carried a small vial with less than a dose of healing potion. The liquid was more of a pale sickly red than the vibrant red that was normal. He bent down and uncorked the vial cradling Bjorn’s head. “This is all I could find. The lab is a mess, I am guessing that they looted it.”
He put the vial to Bjorn’s lips and he drank the liquid down. He hadn't really listened to what Caiden was saying as the boy spoke. His mind was still too filled with grief so he just went on autopilot. Even though the healing potion wasn't strong enough to really do much to heal him it did stop the slow trickle of health depletion.
As he felt some strength start to return to his body he picked up a knife from where it lay and put it in his mouth. He then began to cut away the bonds that had held his hands together. The method was rough and lacked any type of grace. He cut his wrists and hands several times as he cut through the bond. Caiden, Adriana, and another villager all tried to take the knife and help Bjorn, but a growl stopped them dead in their tracks.
After his bond was cut free he dropped the knife and caught it in his hand. He stood to take stock of his situation. He was maimed, he couldn't fight, at least not in his state. He had to take care of both Meira’s and Alaric’s body. He had to do something about the blood dripping off of his stump. There wasn't much he could do, but he could handle his stump for now.
He took a good look at the raw flesh of where his hand used to be. The weakened healing ability of the healing potion did some work on scabbing up the stump, but there was still some blood leaking from the end. The potion that Caiden had found was less of a healing potion and more like vinegar. It had been near the end of its life and had lost most of its healing properties.
He left everyone behind and walked into the tool shed where he found some dirty cloth and he wrapped it around his wound. Using a bit of rope he found he tied the cloth in place around the stump. grabbing a shovel with his free hand he walked out and up the hill. The 5 villagers who were there saw Bjorn and began to follow.
As he walked up the hill his eyes were downcast. When he got to the top of the hill he finally saw what likely tipped the town off to there being an issue. The home that he and Meira had worked so hard to build together was still slowly burning. The majority of the house had burnt down. Here and there there were still small fires burning. Of the four walls the only part of it still standing was right next to the kitchen. A portion of the floor collapsed as well, filling in the basement. Shattered glass and clay tiles littered the ground where their lovely stained glass window had once sat.
He stood there for a moment taking in the scene. A delegation of villagers climbed to the top of the hill and began trying to put out the fire. Ignoring the bustle in front of him he walked around the outside of the building. He walked over to where he and Meira had spent many evenings together watching the suns set, her favorite thing to do, and he began to dig.
Over the next several hours he dug a hole that he could use to bury his family. During that time almost everyone who lived in Leefside came and went from his farm. There were many who came to find out the story, to offer their condolences, or to help out. Those who wanted a story were quickly turned away by those who were helping. Those who offered their condolences were wasting their time as Bjorn didn't listen to what anyone else had to say. He was emotionally spent and all that was left was a grim determination to set his family to rest.
Throughout the hours of work the only two who stayed consistent were Caiden and Adriana. They didn't question what he was doing or question if he wanted help. They just bent their heads and worked in silence with Bjorn. There was only one person who got an answer out of Bjorn when they came and asked, and that was hunter, the old male leader of Leefside.
“Are you planning on burying Meira and Alaric here?” Hunter asked.
“Yes.”
“I think we should do a ceremony for her tomorrow with everyone in town. She was loved, I think it would be good for everyone. It is what she would have wanted.”
“Shut the fuck up.” Bjorn said as he stopped half fumbling with the shovel. “By you saying that you didn’t know her. You never knew her. She was kind, yes, but she would want vengeance against anyone who could do what they did. Have your ceremony if you want, but after I bury my family, I have a job to do.”
Hunter tried saying something else to kind of argue with Bjorn but as soon as he started speaking Bjorn shot him a glare that sent shivers down his spine. Hunter hadn’t always spent his life in Leefside, in his younger years he had traveled a bunch and saw the wider world. He saw a great deal more than most in the quaint little town. When he looked into Bjorn’s eyes, the man that he used to know was gone. In its place was a man of pure rage, of anger, a monster. It unsettled the elder, so much so that he decided it was time to go.
During the several hours that Bjorn spent digging the hole with the only two people left he cared about the townsfolk hadn’t been idle. Several had come together to build coffins for Meira and Alaric out of the wood stocks that they had set aside for winter projects. Another several took the time to clean the corpses and redress them in non soiled garments. They then gingerly set them inside the coffins and made the bodies look at peace.
When Bjorn was happy with the two holes he had dug for his family he dropped his shovel without saying anything and went to retrieve his family. He was surprised to find them both laying in coffins with lids right to the side. He bent down and whispered gently first to Alaric and then to Meira.
“I am sorry I didn’t have the strength to save you. I am sorry you had to suffer the fate that you did. I swear to you that I will make those who did this to you pay. I swear this will not go unpunished. I swear to you that I will never be weak like that again.” After his proclamation he kissed Alaric on the forehead and then he repeated his words to Meira before kissing her as well. He then took the lids of the coffins and struggled to put them in place. He wasn’t quite used to having only 1 hand. One final thing that he did before closing up the coffins was check Meira’s hand for the wedding band he had made for her. It was gone, and he was pretty sure he knew who took it.
Luckily for him Caiden helped out by securing the lids on the coffins. Then he, Adriana, and the Jenkins from town helped Bjorn carry his family up the hill one at a time. At the top of the hill a small contingent of people had set up a vigil. Bjorn placed them each in their respective holes and grabbed the shovel.
“Should we say a few words before we bury them?” One of the women asked.
“I have already said my peace.” With that proclamation he began to bury his family. It was a slow laborious process. Many different times someone tried to take the shovel from Bjorn to help the obviously hurting man. Each time they were convinced to back off by either a scathing remark or an intense glare.
Over the hour or so that it took Bjorn to bury his family the vigil began to disperse in ones and twos. Eventually all that was left was Bjorn and the kids.
“What now?” Caiden asked.
“I am going after the ones who did this to us.” Bjorn said in a hollow voice.
“We are coming with you.” Adriana said.
“No you're not.”
“Yes we are.” She said with a little heat in her voice.
“No, this is my curse to bear, this is my responsibility. I won’t have you staining your soul. Mine is already blackened, I will go alone.” With that Bjorn stood.
“Where do you think you're going?” Caiden asked getting up to bar Bjorn from leaving. “You aren’t trying to leave are you?”
Bjorn looked Caiden in the eye for the first time that day. “No, I am not leaving yet. There were 13 of them. Half of them had professions. One of them was level 43, I can’t beat them as I am now, without preparations. I need to see what they took and what was left behind. If I go out there now it is as good as committing suicide.”
“Oh. Okay.” Caiden said his posture relaxing. “Let me help. Also just so you know that one who was standing over you got caught. They tied him up and have him locked up in elder Hunter’s house, seeing how it is the sturdiest house. ”
Bjorn stopped walking towards the alchemy hut and immediately changed direction to walk down the hill. This time it was Adriana who stopped Bjorn. “Going there won’t do you any good right now, he is unconscious, apparently they weren’t overly kind when they got their hands on him. Besides, you are in no state right now. Go in the morning. It will be the better choice.”
Her words stopped Bjorn in his tracks. He stood there conflicted. On one hand he wanted to make the man suffer, on the other he knew he needed rest. His severe concussion debuff had decreased.
Your severe concussion has lessened to an intense concussion. Your light sensitivity has greatly diminished. You are no longer pained from quick and sudden movements. You have regained access to some of your skills and magics. You will suffer from a 50% decrease in mental function. These effects will remain for the next 7 hours and 32 minutes. Once that time has elapsed the effects of the concussion will remain, but will lessen.
Even though it was better it was still by no means great. Some part of his brain told him that he should be in better condition before confronting the man. Once he had the trail he wouldn’t want to come back and prepare, he would want to follow the trail. Against his current wishes he knew that the kids had his best interest in mind.
“Thank you.” He said as he turned back towards the kids. “For everything. You helped today more than you realize. It is starting to get dark. You should go home. I am going to pick through what is left before it gets too dark.”
Bjorn could see tears starting to well up in both of their eyes at his heartfelt thanks. “I am not going to leave you alone tonight. What if they come back?” Caiden asked.
“If they come back there is nothing you can do to stop them. I may be crippled now, but I could still put you down, easily. They made me look like their bitch.”
“Say what you want.” Adriana said defiance in her eyes. “But I am going to stay here tonight and help you sort through what is left.”
Bjorn just nodded and got to work. Most of everything that was of import was gone. Early on in their days together on the farm they would keep their most valuable items inside their bag of holding and portable pocket. As the years went on more and more of the more valuable items ended up getting left out and about on the farm.
There was a cubby that Bjorn made inside the alchemy hut. It would have been almost impossible to find without destroying the shelves. He knew that there were skills that made it easier to spot hidden cubbies and false bottoms. So to combat this Bjorn had built a shelf directly over the cubby. After he filled it he left it covered, and forgot about it.
When he walked into the herb storage room of the alchemy lab he found that the shelf was still in place. Others were broken and thrown around but that one was still intact. Although he had to maneuver items inside the room he was eventually able to remove the shelf and get access to the cubby. He had dug out a 1 foot by 3 foot by 2 foot section and lined it with fused stone. Then he fused the stone flooring together and set it over the hole. With his reduction in the weight of stone he was able to lift it out of the way with ease, even with the lack of a hand.
He set it aside and took stock of the items he had left behind in there. There were 8 spell books in total, 3 of sonic magic, 1 additional fire spell, 2 death spell books, a book of weak arc lightning, and finally a book of weak mend bone. Also in that cubby they had left almost all of their collective money that they have stored up over the years, that included the money from Alaric, Tayla, and Rickie, that too went into his bag of holding. There was a single bottle inside the recess, that was the bottle of trapped agony. As he put that in his bag an evil grin crossed his face, he knew some people he could use it on. Last but not least were a few items that Meira and Bjorn decided to keep as remembrance of their fallen comrades.
Once everything was back in his bag of holding he got up and began exploring around his lab. Almost everything was either smashed or ruined. He did manage to find a total of 6 unbroken vials, and a basic alchemy set that he had stashed away in the corner. They had apparently taken all of his dried herbs and either took them or used them to start the fire in the house.
He was going to explore inside the house but Adriana convinced him not to. It’s structure wasn’t the most sound as it was after the fire, and besides the only things left in there would have been sentimental items, and that was only if they hadn’t gone up in flames with the rest of the house. With that done the only two places he had left to check was the shed and the freezer he had built.
There wasn’t much in the shed seeing how they mainly stored their tools down there. Fortunately for him they had decided that his bow and arrows weren’t weapons, they were tools and they had left them in the shed. He was able to retrieve his drow bow and his arrows, both of which went into his bag of holding. The last thing he wanted to grab was the ice stone in the cave under their house.
The trio walked around and ended up inside the cave. Bjorn walked to the center where he had suspended the stone that radiated pure cold by a rope. He grabbed a hold of the rope and immediately he felt the heat begin to be leeched out of his hand. With a yank the rope shattered. The stone had been working overtime as it had frozen the rope solid.
With all of his preparations that he had ready he made his way back to the shed and settled in for the night. Before he tried to fall asleep he said all of the names. Jarred, Sonia, Theon, Vincent, Vivian, Zain, Gnack, Ramsey, Luna, Brog, Tslla, Killian, and finally Kairon. He had thought he would struggle to fall asleep but as soon as he stopped and closed his eyes he fell asleep.
That night he barely slept. As he lay there in the dark he stared off into space. Each time he finally did drift off his dreams would be plagued by the events of the day. Over and over he would see his family die, get raped, and violated. Each time he would wake up again in a cold sweat. Sometime in the early morning Bjorn finally decided since he wasn't able to sleep very well he would go through his prompts.
Due to the callous murder of your son one of your tenets has advanced. You have advanced vindictive. Upon seeing your son's dead body. You were filled with rage, this was not enough to advance your tenet. After seeing the casual disregard for his corpse however, that has affected you on a deeper level. You now will deal 50% increased damage instead of 40% against someone who has killed a loved one recently. Additionally you deal 20% less damage. This hadn’t changed from the previous effect. This effect will only trigger if you know who it was that is responsible for the death.
This is truly a sad day. After witnessing the brutality that was shown to your child you were then forced to watch as your wife was violated. This has awakened something inside of you. A single minded focus, a desire to see the same pain you feel on your enemies. Nothing else in your life matters to you as much as seeing them suffer. You now will deal 75% increased damage instead of 50% against someone who has killed a loved one recently. Additionally you deal 40% less damage instead of 20% less damage against anyone or anything not involved with their deaths. You also gain a 25% resistance against all forms of damage from those responsible. These effects will only trigger if you know who it was that is responsible for the death.
Not only was it your wife who has died, she was also your soul partner. You have failed her in more ways than one. With her death there are more consequences currently than the apparent. You have lost your increased mana regeneration rate of 1 because of your bond. You have lost the ability to move while channeling a spell.
Meira had explained to Bjorn that the base regeneration rate for mana was 100% per day, that was assuming that you had a wisdom of 10. This rate is increased by each point in wisdom, meaning someone who had 15 points in wisdom would regenerate 150% of their mana per day. Meira’s ability increased the base number of regeneration, this made it so that Bjorn would regenerate 200% of his mana per day with a wisdom of 10.
Even though your soul partner’s life has been extinguished, the connection between the two of you has left a mark on your soul. This mark has augmented your mana regeneration, even though the link is gone an echo of the power remains. Your base mana regeneration has been increased by .2
You have been maimed. Even though your body is dense with vital energies the damage isn't something that can be easily fixed. You have lost your right hand.
Know this! You have made a blood oath of vengeance to the Eld itself. You have exactly 1 year from the oath to fulfill the oath or you will suffer extreme consequences.
The universe has viewed the oath that you have vowed and has determined that you are righteous in your vow. Due to other unknown circumstances and with the nie impossibility of this endeavor the Eld had decided to help you.
You have been given 1 free activation of your synergy “latent potential.” Do with this what you know.
Be aware. Something that has been given has the potential to be taken away. Complete this mission given to you by the Eld itself before the time limit. If you succeed you may keep the powers gifted to you by the free activation. If you fail that power and likely more will be ruthlessly ripped from your body.
Would you like to activate your synergy, “latent potential”? Yes/No.
Know this! The success of your quest given to you by the Eld is dependent on everyone responsible's death. Every single one of them must be dead by the end of the year.
People left to kill. 13/13.
Almost without thinking Bjorn was about to click yes on the prompt in his face. Then he stopped to think about it for a second. The last time he activated this ability it stripped him of all of his levels and reset him to level 1. He was pretty sure that he was going to do that again. After all, if it happened once, why not again? Was that the best move right now?
On one hand it undeniably made him more powerful, or at least gave him the potential to be considerably more powerful. It allowed him to negate the attribute loss from his detriment. He still had no idea how many growth points he would get from the reset. He was sure that the growth points that he spent last reset was well worth it. Just like the name implied it gave him more potential to be stronger, faster, more versatile. There were so many different ways he could augment his body to make it easier to get his vengeance.
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To play devils advocate that power could very easily lead to his own death. Currently his vindictive tenet was activated. He would deal 40% less damage to anything he tried to fight, unless it was those 13 bastards. If he got reset to level 1 it could spell disaster for him before his attempts for vengeance even began. He was weak and would need as much power as possible to make them pay.
Ultimately he decided that the benefits outweighed the drawbacks. With surety that he didn’t actually have he mentally clicked “yes”. Once again his body began to float up against his will and he felt the same feeling of his mind expanding. In an instant he watched a universe be born, grow, and eventually die. Somehow he felt every single living being in that universe throughout its life.
As he watched the final light of the final star wink out of existence he felt the shared pain and hopelessness of the last vestiges of life in that universe. His mind was wrenched backwards once again and it traveled through both space and time and unerringly slammed back into his body. The reddish orange light began to quickly fade as Bjorn slowly sank back down to the stone floor of the storage shed. Just like last time the memory began to quickly fade away leaving him feel as if a part of his being had been ripped away. Soon that feeling too faded, but some small part of him retained the power he had felt while his mind encompassed a universe.
Nothing felt inherently wrong with his body like he did last time. He wasn’t sure if that was because he lost his levels, or because he had lost less than he had last time. Without an answer he pulled up his character sheet.
A weight lifted off his chest at the sight of his level still being 8. With that everything seemed to be in place still. Fortunately it looked like the only thing that changed on his character sheet was his growth points, of which he had 39. With a wicked smile at the fact that his task seemed to be that much more achievable. Something within the Eld must have liked him.
He was just about to open his menus for ‘latent potential.’ but just then he heard a fearful voice come from the corner of the shed. “What was that?”
Bjorn paused and looked over to the corner of the shed where Caiden had been sleeping. It was the first time Bjorn had ever seen fear on the boy’s face. That was even accounting for when he told Bjorn and Meira about what Aiden had been doing to him and his sister.
“You have nothing to fear. That was a power that I have. It made me stronger, I am only able to activate it every once and a while. I have only done it once since I have come to this world. It gives me the potential to be nearly unstoppable one day.”
“Oh.” Caiden said in a low guarded voice. “Okay.” He settled back down under his cloak and kept his eyes on Bjorn.
Bjorn did a quick once over on his surroundings and noticed something was missing. “Where is your sister?”
Caiden did a once over just as Bjorn just had. “I don’t know. She must have left in the night.” He looked out the window on the wall Bjorn’s back was against. “It is almost dawn anyways.” He nodded to indicate the horizon.
Bjorn stood up from where he sat on the floor and looked out the window. There was a faint glow on the horizon. “So it would seem. Go back to sleep, I will keep watch over you.”
Caiden nodded and finished nestling himself back into the ground. He didn’t close his eyes to sleep, instead he just fixed his eyes on Bjorn and he watched the man.
Ignoring the stare that was boring a hole in his face Bjorn began digging through his menus once again and looking for the power he needed. This task would be difficult as it was, unlike last time, where he bought powers that gave him long term power, this time he needed something fast and immediate.
Of course the first thing he went for was the increased attributes per level. He didn’t even have to think about it and he made his first purchase.
Increased strength: 1: Gain 1 strength point per level to distribute.
Growth points remaining: 38
Upon purchasing the first attribute per level his body immediately began to morph as his muscles grew in an instant and his body grew thicker in a matter of moments. Apparently the attributes were applied retroactively. At first he was happy with his purchase that faded just as fast as it came. Before he purchased the first level of increased strength all of the increased attributes per level was at 1 growth point per level. After the purchase however, that number increased to 10 points to purchase the attribute per level.
It wasn’t prohibitively expensive for his current pool but he wanted to wait to buy the next level as he wanted to make sure that there wasn’t anything better. No free ride as it would seem. Unbeknownst to him Caiden’s eyes were the size of saucers as he watched Bjorn’s body shift before his very eyes.
The next few purchases he made were a no-brainer to him.
Attribute efficacy: 2: Increases how much each individual attribute affects your status by 10%
Natural armor: 2: Increases your body’s ability to resist damage. As a human the base natural resistance your body has is +0 armor. Purchasing this will give you a natural armor rating of 5.
Physical resistance: 2: Gives you 10% resistance to all physical damage.
Growth points remaining: 34
Attribute efficacy II: 10: Increases how much each individual attribute affects your status by 10%
Natural armor II: 10: Increases your body’s ability to resist damage. Your current natural armor value is 5. Purchasing this will give you a natural armor rating of 10.
Physical resistance II: 10: Gives you an additional 10% resistance to all physical damage.
After getting his physical resistance he pulled open the resistance tab and very quickly closed it again. He saw that he could get resistances to all different kinds of resistances but unfortunately they all cost 10 growth points apiece.
He began digging through his options. For the briefest of moments he considered ‘Base regeneration.’ but for the moment temporarily decided against it. His reasoning behind this was that it would take a full year to regenerate the lost body part. He didn’t have that much time. If he had extra points at the end he would buy this but for the moment it wasn’t worth it.
There was a new option that surprised him though and without hesitation he bought it. As well as the subsequent upgrade, the third one he held off on though.
Decreased metabolism: 2: Your body begins to gain the ability to gain its substance from ambient mana. Decreases the amount of food, water, and sleep your body needs to survive through the day by 20%.
Decreased metabolism II: 5: Your body begins to gain the ability to gain its substance from ambient mana. Decreases the amount of food, water, and sleep your body needs to survive through the day by an additional 20%.
Decreased metabolism III: 10: Decreases the amount of food, water, and sleep your body needs to survive through the day by an additional 20%.
Growth points remaining: 27
For almost the entire time he was in the Eld he had Meira to watch his back. That was no longer the case, and without a doubt he was at his most vulnerable while he was asleep. For him to decrease the amount of time he needed to sleep each night would be a massive boon and without a doubt would pay dividends in the future.
There was another new tab that caught Bjorn’s eye; it was labeled “Status effects.” With some excitement he mentally clicked on that page and a large sprawling list of various different status effects were listed. There were hundreds and the vast majority of them were not anything that Bjorn had ever heard of before. What was common to almost all of them was that they granted immunity to their respective status effects.
No, what peaked his interest is the possibility of immunity to a certain effect, so he kept scrolling, and scrolling. Eventually he found exactly what he was hoping for.
Unconscious: 5: Purchasing this will grant you full immunity to the status effect: Unconscious. It does exactly what it sounds like. You will be immune to falling unconscious from all magics and physical blows landed on your body.
The 5 points cost seemed to be pretty stock standard for each of the purchases as he scrolled, a bunch of 5’s ran past his vision. After he purchased his immunity it faded from his vision. He knew though that the upgrade joined the completed tab at the very bottom.
Growth points remaining: 22.
With his remaining growth points he went back and bought something that he skipped over the last time he had access to these points. For 2 growth points he bought increased health recovery and increased mana recovery. This increased his base health recovery to 2% per day and increased his mana recovery by 25%. This made him regenerate 32% of his max life per day. With all of his increased mana regeneration he recovered 225% of his maximum mana per day. It came from his purchased upgrade, the remnant of his bond with Meira, and from his wisdom of 15.
With both of those purchases he was left with 20 growth points left over. He wasn't entirely sure where he wanted to spend the points. As he looked he saw a bunch of new options that weren't there before that could be useful but nothing overly jumped out at him.
It was extremely tempting to purchase ‘prodigious growth’ as an extra 50% xp from all sources would be amazing, he had a long way to go to make up the 35 level difference between himself and Kairon. That extra xp would sure make it easier to catch up. But doing so would wipe out the remainder of his growth points, and that benefit felt like it didn't give enough to justify the purchase. His next thought was to purchase another free attribute point to distribute per level. That was actually what he was leaning more towards. It would give him a total of 6 attribute points per level, something that would greatly help him on his quest. More is always great. So he ended up biting the bullet and purchasing the upgrade.
More attributes II: 10: Gain 1 extra free stat point per level to distribute.
More attributes III: 100: Gain 1 extra free stat point per level to distribute.
Growth points remaining: 10
At first he expected the price of purchasing an additional attribute per level to double in price, not increase by a factor of 10. 100 points seemed extreme at first, but given that it would give him the most attributes per level out of almost anyone he has ever seen he figured the price wasn't extreme.
After that purchase he only had 10 points left to spend. Now that he had 10 points left to spend and there wasn’t anything overly jumping out at him as the power he needed. So he made a purchase that he had laid aside for the time being.
Base regeneration: 4: Gives you a slow regenerative force. This force will allow you to slowly regenerate any part of your body that has been cut off, removed, or lost. The body part in question will be fully regenerated exactly 1 year after it has been removed from your body.
Base regeneration II: 8: Gives you a slightly faster regenerative force. This force will allow you to slowly regenerate any part of your body that has been cut off, removed, or lost. The body part in question will be fully regenerated exactly half a year after it has been removed from your body.
Growth points remaining: 6
For his remaining 6 points he thought about it for long and hard and eventually he came up with what he wanted to spend those last points on.
Darkvision: 1: Gives you a basic dark vision allowing you to see up to 30 feet in pitch blackness. This enhanced vision also spills over slightly into your night vision and you are able to see slightly better in low level light.
More spells: 4: This upgrade will give you a new random spell that you can learn in any one of your spell schools of basic magic. Just so you are aware, this randomness doesn’t always mean you will learn a useful spell or even a spell that is of the appropriate level of your spell school. You will gain a new spell every 10 levels.
Increased mana efficiency: 1: Decreases the mana costs of spells you learn by 5%.
With his last three purchases he was finally out of growth points. It was unfortunate too, as when he bought more spells a new purchase became available that he would have liked to spend his growth points on.
Upgrade magics: 5: Purchasing this upgrade will strip one of your basic schools of magic away from you and all of the progress you have made thus far in that magic. This magic will then be transformed into a new combination magic. The power of the new combination magic will be determined by the total skill levels in your school of magic that was lost. You will be given at least three new spells of your new combination magic. The amount of spells gained will be determined based on how many spells you lose from your basic elemental spell school.
The implications of the upgrade magics was wonderful, but currently useless. Sighing he ended up putting the possibility of the upgrade aside for now. He would definitely revisit this upgrade later, but for now wishing for what he didn’t have would be useless. So instead he just closed the screen that was in front of his vision.
By the time he finished the sky outside the hut was blue and the day was well on his way into the morning. During the hours Bjorn decided where he was going to spend his growth points Caiden has fallen asleep again.
Moving slowly Bjorn got to his feet, hoping to avoid waking the boy. The effort was futile as Caiden jerked awake at hearing Bjorn start to shuffle around. His breathing accelerated as he was startled awake. “Sorry.” Bjorn said. “Didn’t mean to wake you. Where is your sister?”
“I don’t know. She wasn’t here this morning when you woke me up.”
Bjorn honestly hadn’t even noticed, he was too busy reading his prompts and making himself stronger. As he stood to his full height he marveled at the new feeling of power that coursed through his body. It was always incredible feeling how your body changed when you allocated your attribute points.
“No matter.” Bjorn said, dismissing the boy from his mind as he walked over to a small table that he and Meira had built together to serve as a work bench. He grabbed a hammer and a handful of nails that they had planned to use to make a sawmill inside with the flour mill. A piteous chuckle left Bjorn’s lips at the thought that those projects would never get finished now.
For his part Caiden stood up from the corner and watched Bjorn as he stared down at the nails in his hands. Even though the action seemed like it only took a few seconds to Bjorn. In reality he stood there staring down at his hand for long minutes. Eventually Bjorn let out a weak laugh that sounded directed towards himself. That laugh broke the spell and the man began to move heading towards the door.
“What now?” Caiden asked. The man stopped at the doorway with his hand on the frame. He slowly turned around and made eye contact with Caiden. Previously when he looked into Bjorn’s eyes he saw a grounded man, who knew exactly what he was doing and where he is going. Now however all he saw was a broken man. He was filled with pain and sorrow, but there was a quality to his eyes that Caiden hadn’t seen yet in his eyes. It wasn’t until years later that Caiden finally understood what he saw that day. It was the look of an unhinged man, a dangerous man, a crazy man.
He stood there for a moment before replying. “It’s time I have a conversation with Killian.” He turned and walked calmly out the door.
