Chapter 170: Staying Grounded

  I was looking forward to seeing my progress. I felt healthy and fully recovered after a week of full meals, and the ring of sustenance had slowly increased its effectiveness. I had not been training in my spare time, but I still felt like most of my strength and crity of thought had returned. I was not expeg too many gains, as the period since my st reading was minimal. I was mostly focused on my illusion affinity—how much had it increased from just a single major essence?

  I reviewed the left side of the tablet first, moving my food prep items out of the way to read the results.

  Physical

  Mental

  Magical

  Strength (+4/+0)

  49/80

  Intellect (+2/+2)

  31/56

  Aether Pool (+0/+0)

  16/22

  Power (+1/+0)

  47/84

  Reasoning (+4/+0)

  48/61

  eling (+6/+1)

  27/58

  Quiess (+3/+0)

  33/49

  Perception (+2/+0)

  52/61

  Aether Shaping (+0/+0)

  8/8

  Dexterity (+2/+1)

  41/61

  Insight (+1/+0)

  33/49

  Aether Tolerance (+3/+1)

  35/51

  Endurance (+3/+0)

  67/95

  Resilience (+2/+0)

  47/71

  Aether Resistance (+0/+0)

  8/19

  stitution (+3/+0)

  45/69

  Empathy (+2/+0)

  14/22

  Prime Aether Affinity

  Space

  Coordination (+2/+0)

  44/63

  Fortitude (+1/+1)

  49/90

  Minor Aether Affinity

  Time

  My physical attributes had normalized to their retive levels before we were chased into the Elven ruins and nearly starved ihe library. My mental attributes showed modest gains from a few essehe magic attributes showed the most impressive gains, with eling increasing by six points aher tolerance by three. I assumed this was due to the ley line being so close to the dungeon and the faster rate at which I could recover my aether. With my eling increasing, it meant I would see gains outside the dungeon as well—if I ever got outside of the dungeon.

  Tw weakood out: my aether pool and my ability to shape aether. So far in this dungeon, I had not discovered any essences for either magic attribute. There wasn’t much I could do about my poor luck, but I had enough esseo st me weeks.

  I moved everything to the other side of the table to read my magical affihe only ge was with my illusion affinity.

  Rare Magics:Space: 98 Time: 90 Dispt: 61 Materialism: 9 Worlds: 88 Void: 22 vergence: 74

  Unaffiliated Magics (Unon):Charm (Mind): 5 Illusion: 3 Cirvoyance: 0 Prote (Guardian): 30 Neancy: 0 Celestial: 0 Abyssal: 0

  Elemental Magics (on) Fire: 0 Air: 0 Water: 0 Earth: 6 Lightning (Energy): 8 Spirit (Healing): 23 Nature (Pnt): 0

  I had unlocked three points in the illusion affinity, raising it from zero to three with a single major esse was not eveely enough to gain a new spell form, and it was half as effective as the apex earth essence had been in awakening the affinity. Still, the awakening of the illusion affinity had been just as painful and unpleasant. I still smelled like dried vomit, even though I had left the soiled clothes behind.

  Sighing, I started to work on dinner, shaving bear meat with Maveith’s new skinning knife. I could only take one essence a day without risking being overwhelmed. I had told Maveith and Raelia to do the same, but Castile had told me during my first dungeon delve that you only o wait an hour between ing simir essehough each successive one would be unpleasant as the body ime to recover.

  Could I raise one of my magic affinities high enough to imprint a new spell form? If yes, should I pursue illusion or earth essence? I had tex and one major essence of illusion remaining. For earth essences, I had tex, six major, and one minor essehere was also the possibility of getting more earth essences from the sand scarabs. I had books in my dimensional space with spell forms for both affinities.

  The meat started sizzling. I cooked it in small batches and sampled eae. The cooking was more for Maveith since I had the ring of sustenance. Maveith rolled over at the smell, fag me. Sleepily, he asked, “Did it work?”

  “Did what work?” I asked, feigning ignorance.

  “You took out the tablet table, Eryk. I know you do not wao see your readings, but it is obvious you wao see if the suffering you went through was worth it.” I had to remember that Maveith was not dumb and that I was beiransparent.

  I admitted calmly, “Yes, I awakened my illusion affinity. Do you want to try to awaken one of your affinities?” Maveith sat up, his nose wrinkling at my lingering st.

  “No.” His voice echoed in the room. “I am happy with improving my physical prowess. How long was I asleep?”

  “More than two hours, less than three.” I did not have Maveith’s uny ability to know how much time had passed. “After you eat, you go back to sleep. The ring has reduced my sleep to just two or three hours now. Although, I do want to use the amulet at some point.”

  I started frying slices of purple potatoes in the remaining bear fat while Maveith quickly devoured five pounds of shaved bear meat. He had lost a lot of weight but utting it ba quickly. It was awe-inspiring how much food he was able to e. I drank water and popped a few slices of purple potato into my mouth. Even if I burned my mouth, I could heal the blisters easily enough. I was starting to use magic without even thinking about it. Finally satiated after eating fe potatoes after the bear meat, Maveith asked, “Are we going to pursue Castile?”

  “Yes. But first, I want to harvest the sand scarabs one more time,” I admitted. “I want to try and increase my earth affinity high enough to imprint a spell form for earth on my aether core.”

  Maveith’s eyes danced excitedly. “That would be amazing, Eryk. I would suggest my earth spell form, shape sto has beeremely valuable to me and would give us something in on.” His green eyes sparkled eagerly.

  “I will see wheime es, Maveith. I still o raise my earth affinity high enough to imprint a spell form.” Maveith ate some apple-berry jam befoing back to sleep.

  I turned my attention to the coffee cherries. I was not a coffee addict, but I enjoyed a m cup on the way to work a lifetime ago. I husked all the berries, giving me a handful of white, slimy beans. I took a moment to enter my dreamscape amulet and find the passage for cava, the dessert drink made from beans. Unfortunately, there were no recipes to follow, so I was winging it. I tried heating them in a pan—they smoked fiercely but eventually browned.

  I ground the beans up and added boiling water ohey were dried. I let the sedimele and tried a sip. I spit out the bitter, grassy-tasting beverage. My heart thudded in my chest, and I felt the turmoil in my aether core. Thankfully, I hadn’t swallowed the brew. These coffee beans tained raw aether. They were an alchemy ingredient, not a wake-me-up beverage.

  Maveith was still sleeping, and I did not disturb him while I ed up. I removed my armor ahrough my sword forms. I was only mildly rusty. Even with ing essences, I o start getting into the mi of training both in the dreamscape and outside of it.

  When Maveith stirred again, he rose to do his business in the corridor, and I set myself up for a nap with the amulet. As he returned, I eled aether into the amulet. First, I firmed in my dreamscape library that I had the book for earth spell forms. It was there, but I would wait to study it until my affinity reached a suffit level.

  I opehe scorpion room and spent three hours practig with Konstantin, Xavier, and Maveith. It felt good to focus on fighting people instead of monsters. I also missed Konstantin’s repeated—encement. Zorana wao fight with me as well, but I deed her requests a her py with Oscar, who was begging for attention as well.

  I sealed everyone in the scorpion room again, as we were getting close to finding Castile. I guessed she would want to use the amulet. On an impulse, I created a likeness of Raelia. She immediately rolled away, drawing her ons, and started swearing. “Where am I? Who are these people?” She poi me. “Legionnaire, what treacherous space have you seo now!” She pointed her legacy bde threateningly at me.

  I had expected Raelia to react this way—her form and personality were drawn from my subscious. Maveith moved to calm down the agitated elf. With a smirk, I informed her, “Wele to the dreamscape, Raelia. We talk aime.”

  “What is a dreamsca—” she started to say, but I was already exiting. I sat up and was disappoihat the sour, acidic bile smell still lingered on my body. Maybe I could use the mouthwash as a body wash to elimihe smell? No, it was best to save the mouthwash.

  Maveith was rolling his essences in his hand, probably trying to decide whie to e. “You take another one, Maveith. Everyone is different in how long they have to wait between essences. If your stomach gets upset, you’ll know your interval between ption.” What I told Maveith was the truth from my perspective. He took another quiess essend put it in his mouth, sav the effect.

  “Has it been a day since we killed the scarabs?” I asked Maveith.

  “No, Eryk. There are still about four hours before a day has passed,” Maveith grumbled. We walked back to the sand room and waited in the corridor. Maveith snacked while I studied the dead scarabs, waiting for the duo absorb them.

  They disappeared in a blink, and two small swirling sand funnels formed, followed by a third, a fourth, and a fifth. “Maveith, it’s time.” I stood and cracked my knuckles. It went the same way as st time. I killed two scarabs in the sand but did so closer to the corridor. I removed the collector before the fight began, allowio use it on the sand scarabs between kills. When we finished, I took two major earth essences and three mih essehe reward chest only held se silver s and non-runiate jewelry with some impressive emeralds.

  I now had a sizable colle of earth essences. Ba the safe room, I slowly pced one of the major earth essences in my mouth. Fshes of phantom pain made me hesitant to e my sed earth essehis was aest. If I had truly unlocked the earth affinity, I shouldn’t have to gh that pain again.

  The graih essence dissolved in my mouth and was hard to swallow. My stomach suddenly cramped. “Shit!” I said, and Maveith moved to steady me. I held up my hand to hold him back. “No, I am fine. Just an upset stomach. It’s w normally.” It took a few minutes before I felt the essence assimite pletely. The brief pain erhaps because I had not waited long enough between essences, or maybe this was a sign that I was not fully healed from opening my illusion affinity. I o be mindful over the few weeks. I used my healing spell form to try to detey damage in my mana els but sensed nothing wrong—though perhaps my healing spell form could not detect issues with mana els?

  I took out the tablet table, and Maveith turned his back, making me feel guilty for not trusting him. I used the table, reset it, aur to my space. “Okay, Maveith. Let’s go find Castile.” As we walked into the unknown corridor, I smirked. My earth affinity had increased from six to eight.

  ? Chted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne

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