Turning a Mana puddle into a Mana pond.

I take my time reading through the notices, laughing at some and groaning at others. I am pleased to see I've reached Apprentice in two of my Skills, but considerably less pleased that one of my rewards is being withheld due to lack of experience. On an intellectual level, I understood that two combat encounters (that weren’t over in seconds, unlike the ‘fights’ with the Screamer Beasts) were probably not enough to judge anything by, but the denial still smarted a little. ‘It’s obvious I was getting Leadership Exp for non-combat things. Why not give me a non-combat Sub Skill? Weird System.’

Shrugging, I mentally move on to other things. I had gifts to give out, which, whilst I was definitely excited to do, could wait until this evening. I had some new reading materials on the divine which I intended to go over, as well as that book on tactics, but again, those could wait.

For now, all I really needed to do was assign my new Attribute points. opening up my character sheet, I consider my options. As things stood, I was only one point away from the next tier in Intelligence. Whilst I'd probably earn a point of Intelligence for something before my next level, my gamer sensibilities would riot if I didn’t spend a point there. That left four. The sticking point for me was with Wisdom. Whilst I was only two points away from the next tier, Strength was still lagging far behind.

In the end, two factors decided it for me. First, I had been receiving a steady steam of Wisdom Attribute points from Achievements and other sources, but the same absolutely couldn’t be said about Strength. Second, I was immensely curious about what I’d receive for upgrading my Being again, and wanted to get there as soon as humanly possible. Opening my character sheet, I assigned my points, one to Intelligence, Four to strength, then pressed confirm.

I quietly sat in the camp chair, waiting for something to happen. A ripple runs through my body as my muscles begin twitching, growing denser. The feeling is a little uncanny, but I still take a moment to appreciate the change, grinning as I feel my body become that much more powerful. That, of course, is when the second part of the transformation hits me like a train.

I grunt in discomfort as an invisible **** wrenches at my core. Before I can steady myself, the process reverses, my core somehow tugging back. With a whoosh and a gurgle, I feel something filling me, somehow icy cold and yet boiling hot at the same time. That’s as much as my addled brain can handle, because when I come back to myself, the process is over, and a new notification hovers in front of me.

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Congratulations! By increasing your Intelligence to 25 or above, the Attribute has crossed its second threshold. For crossing the second threshold in Intelligence, you have been awarded a Perk: Mana core 2:

Mana core 2: You have continued to travel down the path of the mage. Your Mana core, the little seed planted inside of you, has shown its first signs of growth. Whilst the change to your core itself is small, the effect the change has on the depth of your magical reserves is anything but. Deep within your being, the seed of a Mana core has formed. With the increase in the size of your Mana core, your body’s capacity for mana has permanently increased. Your MP to Intelligence ratio has retroactively increased from 10 points of Mana per point of Intelligence, to 25 per point.

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‘Hoooooooooly fuck.’ Checking my character sheet with a slack jaw, I confirm the information in the prompt. My mana pool had just more than doubled.

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‘That's certainly going to help,’ I happily muse to myself. ‘Not only can I cast more spells now, but I have a much bigger buffer to help avoid killing myself whilst copying or creating spells. Speaking of which…’ Mind now focused on my profession as well as the knowledge that I could level it with a single copied spell, I check to see if the girls are finished with their second task.

They aren’t. I watch them for a moment as they debate something, arms waving and mouths soundlessly forming words I still can't hear. My mind wanders, and can’t help but return to the unsettling warning in the last Achievement. My interactions so far with Abby had been mostly positive despite her being a humongous pervert, enough that I had grown quite fond of the goofy goddess’ antics. The warning gave me pause.

So far, I had been unconsciously thinking of her as some sort of chaotic-horny (the classic bard alignment) **** of nature. ‘I need to stop thinking like that, and start questioning her motives. For now, I’ll take the notifications advice, trust, but verify. So, what could a goddess want with me and my family? Why is information granted to the rest of my family withheld from me? Why is a System Admin involved?’

All good questions, none of which I had answers for. A small frown forms as I pick over what I knew, leading to a sigh of frustration when, rather than answers, I merely think of more questions. ‘What have my family been told that makes them want to go along with this? It’s all but stated that I am going to have to sleep with other women if I want to progress in this profession. Hell, the Quest to unlock it has that as a requirement. Why then are they ok with this, or, more accurately, willing to put up with it?’

Then there was the whole incubus thing. 'Was it just a name, or was it more than that? Would picking a branch named after a demon really come with no negative consequences?' I wanted answers. ‘Well, why not use this as a test? Both Abby and the System Admin want me to take this Branch, so I have some wiggle room. Trust, but verify, right?’ Quietly, so not to distract the girls, I murmur, “hey, Abby?” I don’t have to wait long for a response.

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Abby: Oh, hey! You’re finished with your notifications! Get anything nice?

Adam: Quite a bit of interesting stuff, actually. Listen, can we talk?

Abby: You’re breaking up with me? After I put out and everything? :’(

Abby: Kidding! What’s up?

Adam: I know there is a lot that you can tell my family but can’t tell me about this Profession. I’m not going to put you in the awkward spot by asking you to tell me things that you’ve already said you can’t tell me, but you never really explained why you can’t tell me, but can tell my family beyond ‘it’s the rules’. If you can tell me that, and also assure me I won’t turn into a demon if I end up picking the Profession, I’d be a lot happier.

Abby: We did sort of rush past that bit, didn’t we? I can’t tell you much, but what I can say is it comes down to a matter of choice. You’ve been told bugger-all because you need to be free to make the choice without being swayed by the bigger picture.

Abby: As for the girls? The only reason they’ve been given a teeny-tiny peek at the bigger picture is because, without their approval, we both know you’d never take the Profession. What I said before still holds true, there’ll be no hard feelings if you don’t pick Hedonist.

Abby: With the demon thing, I’m currently trying to get you more information, but progress is slow. Oooooh thats a thought, and it’ll actually help a bunch! Adam, the demon thing is a big sticking point, isn’t it? You can’t see yourself picking something with such negative connotations without access to more information, right? *Hint Hint.*

Adam: Errrrrr, Sure?

Abby: Sweeeeeeet! Thanks Adam, you have no idea how much that helps! By the time you are ready to choose, I’ll hopefully have answers for you. With that, I’ve got to scoot. I may be out of touch for a while, so don’t miss me too much! Bee Tee Dubs, if you want to help a girl out, feel free to dedicate any sexy times you have to me. All you need to do is think, 'this nut goes out to my girl Abby'. It’s just like dedicating a song to someone, if the lyrics of that song were just ‘fuck me harder’ over and over. Oh, and if you want to help get a girl off… I’d be more than happy to watch. ;)

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With that, the chat window closes without any prompting from me. Moments later I feel a part of me unclench, as if a pressure lifts from my shoulders. It's subtle, to the point that I only realise that there was any pressure at all when it lifted. I could guess what it meant; Abby’s attention had shifted elsewhere. ‘Good to know.’

I glance up when, from across the fire, I hear the low murmur of conversation. My movement catches Ash’s eye. With a grin, she says, “here we were, thinking you were waiting patiently for us to finish, when instead you were away with the fairies!” I smile sheepishly, shrug, and say, “I’ll have you know I was talking with…” I almost say Abby, but stop myself, unsure if I can share her name with everyone. “…the goddess.” I finish lamely, deciding to err on the side of caution.

That response draws more than one raised eyebrow, so I hastily talk them through my conversation with Abby, then rapidly change the subject. “What about you guys? What was the second task about?” Lisa and Mum share a pained look, so I sigh and add, “let me guess, you can’t tell me?” Lisa nods, then says, “Yeah, same deal as last time. All we can say is that there was a certain measure of gambling involved, and we won’t find out the results until… something else happens.” I raise my eyebrow at the odd statement, but decide to leave it alone when Lisa shoots me a pleading look.

Instead, I glance at the sky, frowning at the roiling carpet of grey. ‘It’s definitely going to rain.’ We’d been stuck around at our campsite longer than I think any of us intended this morning, and daylight was still burning. With the amount of time we'd messed about this morning, moving on soon was probably a pretty solid idea. Despite that, I still was deeply curious about my other Profession. Shrugging, I decide to put the decision to a vote.

Grabbing everyone’s attention, I say, “so, despite our… productive morning, we’ve been here this morning for much longer than intended. Now, I’m no meteorologist, but those certainly look like rain clouds to me, it might be a good idea for us to pack up and get going A.S.A.P. That being said, we have Spell books to trade, and I would very much like to level up Runesmith. If it helps any, one of the spell-book’s I have is for a spell called Rain Shield.”

“I know what I want to do, but I wanted to ask what you guys think as this decision effects all of us. Should we head out now and get more of our walk done before getting rained on, should we learn some new spells and head out then, or should we take the time to learn some new magic and see how Profession leveling works?”

After a brief decision, the girls place their votes. “Okay, so, option two it is. Looks like we’re learning new magic, then moving on. Let me just grab my books…” Taking a moment to dig through my inventory (which is beginning to get a little cluttered) I grab the two spell tomes I’d earned, the Water Magic tome: Rain Shield, the Life Magic tome: Stabilize, as well as the book Ash gave me yesterday, the Air Magic tome: Minor Shocking Touch.

I open my mouth, intending to start things off, when I hear a happy, “I’ve got books too!” from the other side of the fire. Em practically bounces towards me, a slim book bound in red leather and a second book bound in a pale yellow clutched in her hands. Her enthusiasm is adorable, and I am about to tell her that when I see the glint of mischief in her eyes.

Before I can say much of anything, she plonks herself down on my lap and presses the two books into my hand. Seeing my confused look, she smiles impishly at me. “Spell tax.” Her voice is entirely serious, only adding to my growing bafflement. She snorts at my look of profound confusion, then leans in and plants her lips on mine. ‘Oh. Okay then.’ The kiss is brief, and before I can get my bearings and properly kiss her back, Em hops up and returns to her seat with a triumphant grin on her face. She sits down with a satisfied sigh, then notices the four bemused faces looking back at her. She blushes, shrugging a little as she says, “what? We said we were cool with PDA? Anyway, I’m fresh out of embarrassment, considering... well.”

All eyes shift to Mum, who shrugs, grinning sheepishly. There’s a moment of awkward silence before a voice pipes up. “Wait, I gave my book up yesterday. Do I still get to take the spell tax?” Turning to Ash, we all share a chuckle when we see her standing with her hands on her hips, foot tapping in mock irritation and an outrageously fake pout on her face. I pretend to ponder Ash’s words before nodding solemnly. “I’m prepared to allow it.”