-Faraaz Kazi

After a long morning and a long bath, John found his way out into the clearing of his home to take stock of his domain and consider his immediate future. It was a refreshing feeling to see everything functioning more or less as he expected. Maera was playing around in the fields, Mithra was corralling her children and trying to keep them orderly enough to watch efficiently, and Sophia was resting atop his home, her eyes seeming vacant but very casually following the Neko children as they ventured further away from Mithra's watchful gaze.

None of them actually ever needed help. On the rare occasion a Neko child did escape her grasp, it wandered back quickly, its youthful excitement fading in the face of actual adventure. More than once young Midoriya bounded away from Mithra's grasp, explored only a few feet of the unknown grasses, and quickly bounded back as his innate fear of the unknown sent him crawling back into his mother's arms.

"Alright… time to get ready for a grind," John said mostly to himself, leaning against the door frame of his home. Maera would surely notice him soon, and he had to be ready by then, else he risked losing her attention entirely. John browsed his Skill Trees once again, combing over each individual detail so that he could try to decide how to re-spend his abilities.

The first thing he noticed on his fresh examination was that Dungeon Barriers were now a Skill Point addition under normal Barriers. After he'd spent so much time farming specific equipment and enemies, John didn't feel too bad immediately spending one of his remaining three points on that. Farming specific materials was a vital skill, so he immediately acquired that additional ability.

Beyond that, John was honestly a bit torn. His skill points were certainly less plentiful, but he also had a lot less to put them toward. He gave a lot of skills a quick glance and dismissed their abilities due to them being mostly unimportant or not having immediate use. The most obvious of these was Lesser Heal which according to Evellyn had been renamed to only Heal due to John's abilities affecting his spells, despite it sharing the same basic description.

John eventually spent his points after what felt like most of an hour wasted debating the merits of his abilities. With Dungeon Barrier and Enchanting chosen, John was surprisingly hard-pressed to decide where the rest should go. He thought about putting both of them on Crafting and seeing what ability was unlocked when he learned all three advancements of a particular skill, but as much as John wanted to put the war against the Cabal behind him, he knew he probably wouldn't be lucky enough to do so.

Eventually John settled on the most appealing course of action - reclaiming his former abilities. So the first point went into Long-Distance Relationship, which allowed his Siphon ability to function over a number of feet equal to their relationship score, the same as the identical Tethered by Love ability once had. Forked Lightning for his White Lightning spell was also the same, it even went so far as to share the same name, and John gladly took it. He was getting closer and closer to having enough mana to really make use of the spell's full capabilities.

For Talent Points, though, John had to let a lot more go. With his (apparently) extremely low level, John only got the points for unlocking his two Talent trees… there was no way he was going to give up Twin-Soul Resonance, even with its year cooldown. Sadly, a quick test of the ability on Maera confirmed that his point reset hadn't reset its cooldowns… it was reading well over three hundred and fifty days still remaining before it could be used on the Neko again, leaving him with only Lunaya, Mithra, and Sophia available. But the next ability caught his eye…

Twin-Soul Resonance Stage 2: Mind
This skill allows the user to absorb the physical form and mind of one of their creations or another being which shares a piece of their soul. The user will gain the physical and mental stats of the absorbed being for as long as this skill is maintained, and the absorbed being will share all of the user's senses, while being able to communicate mentally with the user. During this time, the user is able to utilize any techniques of the absorbed being which do not require a non-human form or body characteristics the user does not possess on their own, and the user will possess any proficiencies of the absorbed being for both combat and non-combat purposes. All abilities which require unavailable traits and the absorbed being's experience are unavailable for use. If the user performs any acts which the absorbed being would consider abhorrent, the technique is immediately ended and may never be utilized again on the same being. Either the user or the absorbed being may end the technique early at will. If the user is killed while this technique is active, both participants will die. Any injuries sustained by the user will affect both the absorbed being and the user after separation.
Mana Cost: N/A.
Duration: 1 minute per level of user. After acquiring this technique, Stage 1: Body will have its duration extended to 10 minutes per level of the user.
Cooldown: 1 year Cooldown, unique to each individual being. Shared cooldown with Stage 1: Body. However, after acquiring this technique, Stage 1 will only trigger a one-month cooldown.
Restriction: May only be used on willing partners, with a relationship score above 150, while they are gazing into the user's eyes.

"That's a hard yes," John said, actually speaking out loud in his excitement to reach forward and mash the button. "Evellyn, wasn't this locked behind a level gate before, or something? Why is it here now?"

"The same reason your points were reduced and your skills trees have been pruned significantly," his digital assistant replied, fading into view immediately. "To provide a more effective arsenal, and since you have changed significantly since your system was originally put into place, a new system was designed which concentrates your mana allocation and body's power into more compact, efficient forms. It limits your variety somewhat, as you've noticed, but allows you to focus on unlocking more powerful abilities faster. You'll encounter far fewer level restrictions on your abilities, although they still won't show until you meet the point requirements, even if they aren't locked behind a level."

"Damn, wish I'd had this a while ago,” John mumbled, gazing wistfully at the cooldown on Maera which hadn’t been reduced upon picking the ability. “I'd almost have Seras back off cooldown, and it'd last a lot longer," John said wistfully, reading over the full description of the skill one more time before slamming it closed. For now both versions were going to have to remain more or less finisher moves… which he was fine with. Honestly, the idea of having one of his creations sharing his mind went a lot further than just borrowing their power and letting them tag along as a cool accessory.

"Is Myaster ready yet? Maera wanna fight!"

"Alright, alright, we're just about ready," John said, smiling and gently patting his Neko's cheek. She was the only one who had joined him - Seras was enjoying her afterglow a little longer before donning her full regalia and Sophia had taken an early morning trip to harvest fruit.

"One last check - Evellyn, how's the new dungeon interface?"

"Completely functional. Enter any relevant term into the search bar, or tell me what you're seeking out, and I'll set up the parameters."

"Perfect," John said, smiling at the new information in front of him. Instead of picking specific enemies or terrain, there was now a wealth of information about the enemies he'd be facing, including stat ranges, loot tables, and even the detailed forecast of the next 24 hours for the environment he'd be walking into.

"Shall I set it according to our previously discussed requirements?"

"Make it so," John commanded, nodding his head. The interface whirled and set up all the proper details, setting it so that they would be facing a cluster of Arcane Golems in an environment similar to his home, but with a mixture of natural and creature-made underground tunnels weaving through the land. The picture of the creatures wasn't quite what John was expecting; his WoW days had colored Arcane Golems in his mind - what he got instead was a cluster of seemingly normal-looking rocks but with arcane runes appearing to hover in the air around them in tight rings, with magical essence leaking between the individual rocks and holding them together with just a scant few inches between each major piece of rock. John could still make out limbs and a somewhat misshapen head, but it was a far less sophisticated thing than John had imagined.

"Little rough around the edges, but we're here for their loot, not their schematics," John mused, nodding as he pressed the button to conjure the dungeon. Evellyn winked out of existence with the window, and John had just enough time to ruffle Maera's hair before the two of them were pulled through the space between worlds.

Fading into his new world, John couldn't help being reminded of his second dungeon excursion… the one where he'd met Seras. The Barrier that was formed was quite similar, essentially being the field around his home, with a massive tunnel leading down into the ground reminiscent of the cave wall they'd entered. It was just as dark and foreboding.

The thought actually brought a smile to his face. Not only because of remembering how he'd met Seras, but because of how much more confident he felt as they strode in. He wasn't the youth who'd been scared by a horde of bats so long ago, nor was he the same Gamer who barely understood his own abilities.

Now he was a Gamer with a really cool sword, who understood his abilities at least 30% of the time.

Maera mewled and hummed with excitement as they plodded into the cave entrance, her hand clasped in John's tightly. The Neko had taken to walking on two legs when spending time away from her sister with John, often clinging onto his arm or holding his hand. Apparently the attention and affection was well worth the still less preferable movements for her. He thought about hushing the albino girl, but the struggle of getting her to remain quiet was probably not worth avoiding the attention of a few mid-level enemies, and John was enjoying her happiness and excitement too much to blunt it with worries.

John pulled one of the scrap pieces of wood out of his inventory and lit it with a quick burst of fire from his palm, holding it out as a makeshift torch. The light wasn't really adequate as the tunnel started to widen, but it gave them a few yards of vision and it lasted far longer than John's mana reserves would have with continued release.

Of course, within the mostly quiet and echoing hallways, that meant it was only a matter of time before the first golem approached them. John heard it before he saw it, thunderous stony footsteps reverberating as they slapped the dirt and stone flooring below them. The creature actually came into John's vision from a surprising distance; the arcane tethers holding each pebble and boulder together were slightly luminescent, just enough for John to pick them up from about twenty yards away. Of course, by that point, Maera had been twitching at his side almost uncontrollably for several seconds; her keen eyes saw much farther in the darkness than his own.

"Maera, go. Watch your claws though, no telling how hard-"

John didn't get to finish his sentence, the Neko having bounded off so swiftly that she very nearly threw him off balance as she half-pulled on his arm. The golem was still in the process of raising its arm for a first strike when the Neko bounded up to it and started treating the rock-formed creature of the Abyss as her own personal climbing post.

The golem was surprisingly fast for its size, but it had nothing on the speed, erratic movements, and unpredictable nature of a playful Neko. Dashing not only along its limbs but between the very gaps of the individual pieces of rocks, Maera managed to avoid every blow that was sent her way; the Golem's own fists collided with its body, inflicting very little damage but certainly seeming to piss it off.

As the Neko ran across the golem's body, dragging fangs and claws wherever she thought appropriate, the golem stretched and reached in vain attempts to pry the Neko off of itself. During one particularly vigorous motion, John spotted something between the lower abdomen bits of the golem. Amidst the subtle but vibrant glows of the arcane bonds surrounding each part of the golem's body, John saw a specific stone with a stronger glow than the rest. Its own rocky composition was emanating the violet hues, and John recognized a magical core if he'd ever seen one.

"Judging by what Evellyn said about arcane magic leaking into rocks, that's probably the stone that was infused with mana and infected the rest of them. Should function like a normal arcane core… probably," John thought with a reasonable measure of confidence. Steeling himself, he placed his hand upon the hilt of his newest weapon… and drew the Fang of the New World, ready to properly use it for the first time.

The sound of steel ringing against its sheath as it was drawn seemed to echo against his ears, but neither the golem nor Maera paid any attention to it. That was all the better for John - it gave him a chance to truly test the Moon Clan's smithing skills. Approaching the golem mostly unnoticed, John slipped into one of Etriyya's forms and drove the blade forward in an instant, finding the greatest opening he could amidst the rocks and pebbles surrounding the key stone.

John needn't have been so selective. The few bits of mineral between his blade and its target were so casually sliced apart or sent ricocheting away they might as well have not been there at all. John had snapped the fragile metals of his Order blade so easily he had genuinely worried about handling this blade, but it seemed to thrum in his hands, as if urging him to give the blade all he could deliver and more. The golem's core was cleaved through in an instant, and the rock seemed to scream with the sound John imagined a cave collapse would let loose as its body began to waver.

Critical Hit! 227 DMG!

"That's a lotta damage," John thought wryly, unable to stop the smile on his lips before he drew back and sliced forward in a wider arc, a bit of battle-lust overpowering his more tactical side. No longer seeking the easiest path, instead only striking in a way that posed no threat to his agile Neko creation, John watched with glee as the blade sliced apart the rocks in its path. It passed through stone effortlessly and ruptured their arcane ties as the bits of stone were rent asunder entirely, and at the center of it all, the core bit to the elemental shattered into a dozen pieces as a damage reading passed John's eyes unnoticed.

The golem collapsed in a pile moments later, very nearly on top of John as he withdrew himself. Maera escaped just as the large chest plate she was latched onto began to shiver, leaping free of the tumbling pile just in time to land beside John, curling up to him and curiously looking at his sword.

"Myaster got new weapon? Maera is jealous. Maera can't bite rock!"

"Well, not yet," John laughed, kneeling down and rubbing his hand along the Neko's brow. Given how much his own physical stature had improved just by basic training, John felt almost certain Maera would one day be able to either bite, claw, or more simply smash her way through that rock, but it seemed like these creatures were perhaps just a little too durable for her at the moment. Still, she made an excellent distraction.

"Maera serious! Maera want a cool weapon! Metal fangs for Maera?"

John wanted to say that he wasn't sure how those would work… but with his Crafting ability, the idea didn't seem so ludicrous. In the long-term, it was probably better for her not to be grinding her teeth into stone too, so…

"You are just full of wonderful ideas Maera," John said with approval, storing his torch in his inventory for a moment and then playfully grabbing Maera so that he could lift her up and nuzzle against her cheek with one arm. "I'm so glad to have you by my side. Until we can make those, just don’t break any of your teeth or your claws!"

"Myaaaster, Maera has to go play with the new golems!"

In typical cat fashion, the moment Maera got the attention she always seemed to crave, she was already thinking about how to escape John's grasp. He couldn't entirely blame her; the sounds of distant but heavy footsteps echoing down the hallways told him all he needed to know about the number of approaching enemies. John set Maera down gently, being sure not to grind any part of his blade against her, then watched as she bounded off into the darkness to seek out their foes. Bringing the torch back into his hand, John set after her at a brisk pace, fingers travelling to the flat of his blade.

"Let's find out how well magical beings hold up to a rune designed to dispel magic."