Essence Wave Book 2 Chapter 5 (Patreon)

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ****

I'm SO SORRY I missed posting on Wednesday! Here is the chapter promised. I'll be posting chapter 5 of Legacy of the M'Zee Sunday as normal. 

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

Night fell over the town, and Aly still wasn’t back. David and Colin stood inside one of the watchtowers, looking out over the plain to the west. “I’m getting really worried,” David told Colin.

“She’ll be fine,” he assured him.

“Wait, what’s that?” David said, pointing to the trees. “Aly and Dylan. Get Liz.” David leapt off the watchtower, easily reaching the gate. He turned and Sprinted down the switchbacks, pushing extra Mana and Energy into his Running Skill to keep his balance and increase his speed. Halfway down, he turned sharply and used Vanguard’s Charge to blast straight to the bottom, finishing the Skill twenty meters from the base of the plateau they’d turned their home into.

To his left he saw the Farms they’d placed with the Town Build Points, a dozen people planting seeds in the sodden earth. A little farther out, a couple of people were hauling bedding into the new Log House, returning from pillaging the houses of Nathrop. Vaguely in the distance, he could see one of their working trucks being filled with recovered items. Other than a mattress, they were too far away for him to see what they were grabbing.

Straight ahead of him, rapidly closing the distance as he Sprinted, Aly and Dylan limped towards them. Dylan was leaning heavily on her, his left leg a mess of blood. “Help me with him!” Aly cried out as David bore down on them.

“What happened?” he yelled back at her, skidding to a stop and scooping Dylan into his arms.

“We reached the Corruption without much incident,” Aly said, panting for breath. “The Daemon numbers are starting to increase again. There were dozens of Gremlins and Grunts, but only one Alpha. We were about to leave when a dozen Lurkers ambushed us. We fought our way out of it, but Dylan was injured. I managed to kill the last of the Lurkers, but the Alpha heard our fight and started to pursue us. I carried Dylan for a little while, barely staying ahead of our pursuers, until that storm blew in. The first lightning strike shattered a smaller tree nearby. I found a depression and rolled Dylan into it.”

“Did you get hit?” I asked.

“Just once. The Grunts and Alpha turned back, but the Gremlins didn’t. Ten found us, and I took them out pretty quickly, but the lightning was attracted to my spear. It did almost two thousand damage to me, and left me stunned next to Dylan,” she grimaced. “If the other Gremlins had found us, I don’t know that I could have done anything. Most terrifying experience yet.”

“Well, you made it back. We’ll organize a group to take out the Corruption tomorrow morning,” I said. “Let’s get you and Dylan to the healers, and we’ll plan from there.”

The three of them trekked back across the prairie. David did his best not to jostle Dylan, who’d lapsed into unconsciousness as soon as David picked him up. They were halfway across when Liz and Summer met them.

“Set him down, I’ve got him,” Liz said, her hands starting to glow. She placed them to either side of the gashes on his leg. Immediately, his body mimicked that glow, a green glimer reminiscent of tree leaves in the spring.

After about thirty seconds, Dylan sat up with a gasp. He flailed about, knocking Liz away.

“Easy there, bud,” David said, grabbing his upper arms and holding him still. “Let Liz get your leg fixed up.”

“It should be mostly fixed,” she said. “Not much I can do for system injuries though.”

“Sorry,” Dylan said sheepishly. “Uh, I’ll be good to go in a couple of hours.”

“Can you walk, or do you need assistance?” David asked.

“I can walk,” the young man said.

David held out his hand and pulled him to his feet. “Come on then. I haven’t had a chance yet, but I managed to improve the rarity of my Minor Health Regeneration, turning it into just Health Regeneration. I want to see if we can increase everyone's Skill a level or two.”

“Ooh, when did that happen?” Aly asked, grabbing his left hand.

“While healing my wounds earlier,” David said. “You got it, Dylan?”

“Might need some help, but not being carried,” he said. “I can limp back, but a shoulder to lean on would be nice.”

“I can help,” Summer said. “Plus my aura Skill will let us get back faster.” The fifteen-year-old girl looked at the seventeen-year-old Dylan with a shy glance.

Heh, that’s cute, David thought with a grin. She’s got a crush. The rest of the trek back went without incident. It took twenty minutes to walk the same distance that David ran in thirty seconds, but that was the power of Skills. While hiking, David quickly checked his notifications. Nice, Running and Sprint went up one.

Summer took Dylan to the Log House he was sleeping in, practicing the one healing Skill she had to keep his leg from getting worse. “I’ll look after him,” she told Liz, who smiled fondly and nodded.

Aly, David, and Liz met Colin, Josiah, and Emily in the map room. Aly quickly summarized what she’d told David, describing the area around the Corruption as open. “The buildings that were there previously have all been demolished. Every tree in a two hundred meter radius is gone,” Aly said. “I think they’ve been sacrificed to create more Corruption. It is still much smaller than the first time we saw it.”

“Good,” Josiah said. “I’ll put together a team to go with you four to cleanse it.”

“This should be a good opportunity to get some more people to level five,” David said.

“Yes, but we need to make sure they are safe too,” Colin said. “How many are you thinking?”

“Thirty total,” Josiah said. “Anything more than that disperses the Essence gain too much, and we don’t really have that many fighters to spare. We have hunters heading east and south, scouts to investigate Buena Vista again and go south to Salida and Poncha Springs. Alexander is teaching as many as he can how to farm, with the upgrades we can have a second shift of wood and stone cutters. We need more people, and more fighters.”

“Which is why some of the people who come tomorrow should be non-fighters,” David said. “We need to get more Essence in the hands of our crafters.”

“And we need to show the newcomers some of the sacrifices and danger that went into forging this city,” Emily said. “There’s been a bit of grumbling recently about the living accommodations.”

“Well, hopefully we can get a couple more Log Houses put up soon,” Aly said. “They shouldn’t take too long, as people get higher leveled and push their Skills up.”

“Good point,” Josiah said. “We’ll set up another few Log Houses, one up here and a few more down by the Farms. We’ll need more lumberjacks, and guards for the lumberjacks. Steven, one of the hunters, said he was accosted by a small pack of mutated wolves, though they let him leave without being molested once he dropped one of the two deer he’d killed. I’ve also heard reports of the occasional Gremlin or Grunt wandering around the forests east of us, and I don’t want to risk someone getting attacked unawares.”

“Man, managing a small town is more work than I thought it’d be,” David laughed. “Come on, I’m going to try and teach my Health Regen Skill to everyone in the Barracks. You should follow me. I’m hoping, since I increased my Skill’s rarity, it’ll increase yours as well.”

“Let me get who I’m thinking of sending tomorrow,” Josiah said. “Meet in fifteen.” With that, he nodded to the others, then left the room.

“Do you want to come tomorrow, Emily?” David asked.

“Yes, and, as much as I don’t want to include them, you should bring both Abby and Adi,” she answered.

“Adi definitely,” Liz said. “Her abilities as a Fire Mage are getting really good. With Aly, though, will we need another scout in the group, or should she be part of the exploration team headed south?”

“We can use a second scout,” Aly said. “Plus her spearwork is good enough to fight if needed. I’m not against a little nepotism and working to strengthen those I consider friends over strangers.”

“Getting our strongest stronger will help everyone,” David said. “But we still need to ensure that everyone else is getting stronger as well. For either of those, though, everyone needs to live, so let’s go teach a self-healing Skill.”

Everyone filed out of the building, jogging to the Barracks in only a minute or so. A dozen people, including Ashley and Spencer, were already waiting there. Over the next few minutes, another ten showed up. David knew most of them. Ashley, Summer, and Liz were going to take care of healing, with Summer using her Aura to speed up travel. In addition to David, Craig, Jennifer, Greg, and Daniel, a new guy, would be tanking. Colin would lead Steve, Mark, George, and Paul as the second line fighters.

“Second line, Colin?” David asked. “Not going to be a health tank anymore?”

“Nah, as fun as it was, it doesn’t really work in group combat,” Colin shrugged. “Maybe when it’s just the four of us, or something, but I’ve been practicing with a halberd. I can always fall back on the arm blades if the lines break.”

“Okay,” David said. He looked over to Emily, Adi, Abby, Aly, Julie, Jamie, and Lisa, who would be taking care of ranged attacks or scouting. “Everyone ready?”

Josiah and Michelle joined then, and said, “Now we are.”

“Well, then, let’s get this show on the road,” David said. He started to describe how he moved Energy in his body, directing it to the places that needed healing, and the pathway it had to take to form the rune. Colin produced a large chalkboard from a side room, and he drew the rune from the front, top, bottom, and back. He would sink into his core cave, examine the rune, then pop back out to adjust the drawing, telling the others what he saw and felt. It took a dozen tries, and four level ups for his Drawing Skill, but people were starting to understand what to do.

“The biggest thing to do is feel for how the Energy is flowing, and where it is flowing turbulently,” David said. “It should be smooth, and any points that are not smooth are wasting it.”

“I got it!” Summer said, jumping up and down. “Huh, maybe.” She sat and closed her eyes. David watched for a minute, then she opened her eyes and smiled. “That’s amazing! I got the Skill Health Regeneration, though it’s only Common. Liz, the middle is the same as Healing Hands, but the bottom and top are almost completely the opposite.”

“Really?” David asked. “Huh, gotta learn more about runes, but maybe you and I can work on making a similar Skill that uses Mana instead of Energy? I want to see if we can combine the two to make something even better.”

“Sure,” Summer said, blushing at her outburst.

“After we help the rest of them get Health Regeneration, though,” David said.

A few minutes later, Liz looked up, “Thank you, Summer. That explanation helped immensely. I managed to upgrade my Tiny Health Regeneration to Health Regeneration.” Slowly, over the next half hour, everyone in the room managed to at least reach Minor Health Regeneration, giving a boost to survivability. David even got a boost of two levels in his Skill from understanding it better due to teaching.

“Excellent job, everyone,” Josiah said. “Those of you who managed to learn Health Regen, teach your bunk mates.”

“Summer, walk with us,” David asked, gesturing to the door. “Let’s not be in someone else's bed space while plotting.”

“Okay,” she said, and followed him and Aly back to the Mayor’s Manor. The front room had Dan and Blake sitting in two of the six chairs Blake had made, looking at one of the books.

“Oh, sorry sir,” Dan said, hopping up. “We can come back another time.”

“No, no worries. What’re you looking at?” David asked.

“That Novice Cultivation Guide,” Blake said. “It has a bunch of diagrams on how to move Mana and Energy throughout your body through what it calls channels. If you do it well enough, it’ll turn the Mana and Energy into Essence! So we can level without having to hunt things.”

“That’s awesome. How fast is it?” David asked, leaning in.

“Uh, I don’t know, but it did say the first time would probably take tens of thousands of Mana and Energy to make a single Essence. I think it’ll be like any Skill, though, and get better as you level it up,” Dan said. “Still worth it for everyone who doesn’t know how to fight, or has a job in town and can’t leave to fight.”

“Well, does that include the two of you?” David asked.

Dan nodded, “I’m old, man. I’ll practice with my spear to help keep the town safe, but I don’t want to hunt Daemons. I’ll keep the water lift working, and help out with other engineering jobs around town, though, and this will let me stay relevant.” Blake agreed.

“Well, then you are now both assigned to get whatever Skill you can, and level it up until you figure out something even better,” David smiled at them. “Also, figure out if it is possible to transfer Essence between people, and if there is a way to buy Essence or get it some way other than killing and cultivation. Got it?”

“Yes sir!” Dan said, a big grin on his face.

“Though, Blake, we still need quite a bit of furniture. Though, I believe more is coming soon from Nathrop,” David laughed. “So don’t quit carving items. Heck, do a good job and maybe you can sell some through the Market?”

“That’d be neat,” Blake said, then shook his head. “But we shouldn’t keep you. We’ll move into the corner more, and let you have the table.”

“Thanks, but we’re headed to that room,” he pointed. “There’s a chalkboard covering two walls.”

“Well, good luck then,” Dan said.

“Thanks,” David said.

Aly and Summer beat him to the classroom. Summer had already started to draw up the rune for Healing Hands, so David moved to the other side and drew Health Regeration’s rune. They worked silently for a few minutes, and David grinned when his Drawing Skill jumped one more level, getting him ten Essence for a new Initiate Skill. Really need to spend some Essence before we leave. I can walk at least one Way tonight, take a few minutes in the morning to adjust to any changes or new Skills.

“I think right here is where the rune defines the power source,” Aly said, pointing to the top right of Healing Hands. “I found similar swirls on all of my Mana Skills, while the Energy ones had the more blocky structure that Health Regeneration does. Just changing that might be enough to get a Mana regeneration Skill.”

“Well, I don’t really want to change my Skill,” David said, “But I think I can make another. Just got to use Mana instead of Energy, I hope.” He sank into his core cave, then mentally reached out and grabbed a handful of Mana. He pictured the rune, forming it and directing the Mana to flow into its channels after passing through it. A minute of his subjective time later, the rune congealed, and immediately shattered. He was violently expelled from his core. “Ow, ow, ow,” he whined. “That didn’t work. The rune broke as soon as it formed.”

“Draw what you did?” Summer asked hesitantly.

He started to draw the rune he thought he created, then stopped. “Here, this doesn’t line up right at all. Even in the more blocky structures, there aren’t any true ninety degree turns, but this one here bends almost one twenty.”

“What if we did this instead?” Aly reached over and scribbled another two lines on the board in a different color.

“That might work,” David said, then continued to draw. They found another four spots of obvious instability, then went over it again and found another three that might be a problem. The workout of his Drawing Skill brought significant gains in the form of another five levels, and Summer said she had received it as well.

Finally, David tried to create it again. This time, it held for four minutes before it shook itself apart. As the shakes started, David tried to examine it to find out why. He smoothed out a couple of spots, but not fast enough to prevent its destruction. “Man, that hurts. Less than last time, at least,” David said, then noticed the pop-up that he’d leveled Pain Resistance. “Or that.”

They repeated this cycle three times, taking a little over four hours of discussion and experimentation, before David got the rune to accept Mana and not destroy itself. After sending a hundred Mana into the Skill rune after it solidified, he finally got the notification he’d been hoping for.

Congratulations: You have created the Skill - Minor Self Healing (U)

Description: Direct Mana into your body to heal minor injuries and restore blood loss. Extremely inefficient. Efficiency increases by a minuscule amount with Skill Level and Intelligence.

He looked up at the two Skills, Minor Self Healing and Health Regeneration. They’re both Uncommon, but Minor Self Healing is not exactly what I wanted. It’s also too big and takes up too much room in my core. Why didn’t they combine? “Hey, you, Skills. Smush together and make a new one!” He yelled up at the impartial runes. “Yeah, ignore this!”

He attempted to grab the runes with the same mental motions that he used to move his Mana, but they seemed to slip through his imaginary fingers. He tried a couple of different ways, but nothing worked. “Well, I can move Mana and Energy. Force them together that way.”

He pulled a stream of Mana out of the blue-white core, and a string of Energy out of its red-gold ball. Wrapping the streamers around their respective Skill, he then formed a plate of each. “And squish!” He screamed, forcing them together like Thor in Infinity War.

The Energy and Mana strings met first. They started spinning, pulling the two Skills together on their own, forcing the attached plates together. Both Skill runes collapsed into a ball, and notifications started to blink in his eyes. “Well, hopefully that wasn’t a really bad idea,” he said, looking on the mashed remnants of both Skills.