(SA) Chapter 20: Parched (Patreon)

Why was this so hard? Everything inside me told me that I should be able to do this, but I just couldn't. I breathed deeply, and the paper trembled within my grasp.

A hand covered mine, steadying the movements of the paper.

"Hey, relax. It's alright. You're doing much better that you did four days ago, can't you see?" She pointed at the paper as if it was something to be proud of.

"It still wouldn't work properly, were I to cast it." I frowned down at the ritual, Lifeblood of Lazarus. At least, that's what it was supposed to be. I'd screwed it up so badly that it couldn't really be considered that. I'd been working on this for the past four days, and I still hadn't made a copy of the ritual that we'd deemed worthy of using the materials on.

"But you could still channel mana into it without it exploding, yeah?" She looked it over again to make sure she wasn't wrong. "The first one you made probably would've just drawn mana until it exploded. Great progress!" She patted me on the back.

"But it will have basically no effect at all. I'd guess that it would be maybe half as efficient as the original?"

"What makes you think that? What's so bad about the ritual?" Sybil asked, trying to bait me into letting her convince me that it wasn't a bad attempt. I was stubborn though, and started listing things off anyways.

"First off, the Mana Containment Circle is all wobbly, and-" I started, but got cut off by Sybil.

"We've been over this part before, Abel. The circle will work just fine. This ritual doesn't need to have a perfect circle, since it's got a basic Switch rune and doesn't work off of ambient Mana. Don't worry about that part. What else?"

I grumbled a bit, but agreed. "I made the swirl in the Target rune too rigid. The Target and Intent runes are also too close together."

"And what will that do?" She asked.

I thought it over for a moment, but refrained from whipping out the grimoire for this. I was certain I knew the answer to this one. "The Target rune won't fully utilize the blood taglock provided because of the swirl, thus wasting some of the final product. The Mana will have the intent to heal, but it won't know what it's healing. A portion of it will just disperse, wasting the materials and preparation. Because those runes are too close together, I won't have as much time to apply the blood/healing potion concoction. The ritual won't get the chance to apply its intent. Overall, this ritual would not only misdirect an amount of the Mana, but that which did go where it should wouldn't be as effective as it should be."

"And that's all?" She asked, smiling at me.

I looked over my work again. I couldn't find anything else wrong with the diagram, so I just nodded.

"See? Progress. Y'know, this all would've been much easier if you'd just taken my advice and started with a Tier 1 ritual."

I rolled my eyes. When I first said that I wanted to try making a ritual, Sybil had suggested that I start with a Tier 1 to get the hang of it. Apparently, that was how most families taught their children rituals, of which, almost everyone knew one or two by the time they themselves got to Tier 1.

The way that rituals were rituals were classified meant that a Tier 1 ritual had three or four runes, while a Tier 2 had five or six. A Tier 0 ritual would, in theory, have one or two, but those didn't really do much. The most you could get from a Tier 0 ritual was a very minor explosion. Tier 1 rituals weren't actually that much better. They were mainly used to create stuff, mostly raw materials. The price was exorbitant when compared to Skills, but it allowed common people to, for example, start fires with a mere thought and wave of their hand.

While these rituals were easy to make, and certainly held their utility in certain situations, they weren't quite what I was looking for. I needed more than an undirected spark. What I wanted was a way to keep Sybil, and perhaps even myself, alive when things got dire. Healing rituals at Tier 1 were practically nonexistent, as the most they could really do is slowly attune Mana in the environment to have a healing intent, but then they wouldn't be able to have direction, which was what really made rituals pop.

Most combinations of runes in Tier 1 and Tier 0 just resulted in very minor explosions, ones that could easily be made many times more efficient if their creators would have simply upscaled them by a single rune.

"I'm too far in now to turn back. Not to mention, settling for a Tier 1 was never something I was going to do, you should know that."

"I do," she acquiesced, "but the point still stands. This is hard. The fact that you're jumping headfirst into this when people who are actually dedicated to the craft take months to make their first Tier 2 ritual, and most people don't make their first for decades, certainly doesn't make it easier."

"It's a good point, but I would have never been able to settle for practicing a lesser ritual when I could've just jumped into the one I was really after. I would've been disappointed in myself for wasting all that time."

She nodded. "Are you going to be moving on to the next attempt now?"

"No, it's getting dark. I'd rather wait until morning, get a good nap in." In fact, the sun was only barely present over the horizon, and the moon was rising in the north. I still found that weird, even though I'd spent the past week working at these rituals until the night came. Well, not just doing that. I did take breaks, but I mostly just watched Sybil practice her own stuff during those breaks. She didn't spend all her time helping me out, after all. Sybil wanted to practice her Class Skills and her preferred weapons before she Tiered up. She'd told me that the next Tier was very important, as it was where she would be getting her first Racial Evolution.

Apparently, Semi-Monstrous Races received an Evolution every three Tiers. This was in addition to the one that the Humanoid species got every five levels. That was the first I'd heard about it, so I asked her what she meant by that. She'd given me a chuckle, and told me, "Well, how did you think gods worked?"

According to her, every fifth Tier was called a "Rank up," referring to the "Divine Ranks." She had explained that the gods were, for the most part, just regular individuals who had amassed immense amounts of power, and had been blessed with immortality, as well as a slew of other "godly" Abilities. At Tier 5, one became a Minor God. At Tier 10, that Minor God would become a True God, then they would Evolve into a High God, next an Omnipotent, and then, finally, an Asiety. That was where beings such as the Endless System, The Creator (who was suspiciously similar to the one worshiped by Christians back on Earth), Azathoth, and Khaos existed. That brought a bunch of questions to my mind, but at the time, I'd figured that I had questioned Sybil enough for the day.

Anyways, Sybil was mostly swinging her arming sword around, but she sometimes brought out what looked like a kunai attached to a tiny chain. It made me think of that one guy from Mortal Kombat, the one who kept telling people to "Get over here!" It was quite beautiful when she used it, but it didn't look like it would be all that practical in battle. Instead, it looked like more of an art form for her, and when I asked, she said it was mostly for her to focus and channel her energy. Something like meditation.

By the end of her training sessions, she'd be sweating and panting hard, but she'd usually recover within a few minutes. Still, her skin would be pallid, and I'd be forced once again to wonder just how her physiology worked. If vampires drank blood, then where was the water coming from? And her skin was usually really cold, so did she really need all that much liquid coming off her?

Oh well. I didn't really mind all that much. It wasn't like she smelled bad. She usually just smelled of rosemary, with the occasional hint of lavender. Not that I was sniffing her, it was just the high stats. And no, that's not just an excuse for appreciating the way a hot lady smells. Definitely not.

She would usually come and help me for about an hour, then she'd go back to pushing herself. It felt nice, to have someone take time out of their life and goals in order to help me out with something that was important to me.

Honestly, Sybil was just awesome.

"Then I'll take a nap, too."

We both went back into Hickory's house. The man had suddenly disappeared after we'd gotten all the kids back to their houses. The only trace of him and his daughter was a note telling us that he'd be out of town for a few months, but that we could help ourselves to the house, as well as anything in it. He'd also told us that we could help ourselves to as much food as we wanted, since it would all be spoiled by the time he got back.

They had a refrigerator- that is, a runic ice chest- but most of his food would have still been bad, and he felt that we'd at least earned some food.

Because of that, Sybil and I had decided to stay at his place, at least until Abel had managed to figure out the Lifeblood of Lazarus ritual that I was working on.

I made my way to the room I'd woken up in after the battle with Killion, and made myself comfortable on the soft bed. A few moments later, I'd managed to put myself to sleep.

I woke up to the smell of cooked eggs and bacon. The smell made me smile, both because of the memories it brought back, but also because I knew who'd made it.

Sybil was accustomed to waking up much earlier than I, and on the first day, she had decided to make me breakfast. I'd eaten it, but told her that she didn't need to worry about me getting enough nutrition, since I had my Fasting Feature and was perfectly capable of making my own food. She'd nodded at me, then given me a smirk, and since then, I'd woken up to breakfast every day. I didn't strictly need it that often, but to be fair, I also didn't need to sleep every night. It was just a comfort thing for me, and she knew it. Still, she put the time in to make me food every morning.

I quickly scarfed down my food today, and sat there for a moment, contemplating how utterly delicious it was. It was like Sybil had some kind of Chef Profession, but I knew that wasn't possible, since she had a combat class, and Semi-Monstrous Races could only get one or another.

As I sat there, a question formed in my mind. What was Sybil eating? Or, rather, drinking. While I understood that vampires probably didn't need as much nourishment as humans, since they lived off the Mana contained in blood, that still didn't explain the fact that I hadn't her drink a drop during the past few weeks.

With that question on my mind, I went into the house's backyard, where Sybil, as usual, was already practicing with her arming sword. I watched her for a while, and waited until she needed to take a break. She always got really shy when she noticed I was watching, but today, I just ignored it, and approached her with a question.

"Are you thirsty?"