Caleb saw only that he had notifications to check.
He opened his eyes, and still saw just that.
He blinked.
Still nothing.
He reached out with his wind sense.
There was something, but the air around him was still.
Finally he switched to his metal sense, and finally he found something.
The area around him shone with the power of the magical glowing flecks, and Bogâs presence beneath him was doubly apparent as the dragon he lay on reached out through their bond.
âIâm okay,â Caleb whispered, reassuring himself as much as the dragon. âWhere are we?â
Bog sent that they were hiding.
âHow long was I out?â
Bog sent sensations of mild but not desperate hunger and a few other ideas.
âSo, we are being hunted, and they arenât happy we killed that thing?â
Bog nodded, and Caleb tracked the movement through his metal sense.
Since it didnât seem like theyâd be going anywhere anytime soon, Caleb checked out his notifications.
Dragon Bond has increased to level 8.
Mana Manipulation has increased to level 20.
Achievement: Iron Will
New Skill Earned: Iron Will
Juvenile Earth Basilisk (rare) has been killed.
Imperium Ventorum has increased to level 11.
Your class Dragon Rider has increased to level 4.
Power Attack (common) has evolved into Arcane Power Attack (uncommon).
âThatâs a lot.â
Caleb brought up his status screen and distributed his 3 points.
Caleb Kavilson
Class: Dragon Rider
Level: 4
Human
Abilities
Strength: 15 (8 + 7)
Agility: 8
Constitution: 8
Perception: 20
Willpower: 20
Acuity: 20
Resources
Stamina: 100/100
Stamina Regen: 0.96 per min
Mana: 238/261.8
Mana Regen: 4.28 per min
Ambient Mana: High
Active Skills
Mana Manipulation (uncommon): 20 - Bloodline
Arcane Power Attack (uncommon): 1 - Self
Dragon Bond (rare): 8 - Class
Imperium Metallorum (rare): 10 - Affinity (Metal)
Imperium Ventorum (uncommon): 11 - Affinity (Wind)
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Vortex (uncommon): 2 - Affinity (Wind)
Passive Skills
Magical Perception (uncommon): 5 - Bloodline
Dragon Bond (rare): 8 - Class
Iron Will (uncommon): Achievement
Traits
Caeli Soul: Bloodline
Wind Affinity: Major - Bloodline
Metal Affinity: Major - Class
Equipment
Dissonant Steel Spear: Dissonant - Journeyman
Smithing Hammer: Cold (poor) - Journeyman
Cold Steel Barbute of Strength: Cold (minor) - Journeyman
His status menu had gotten much longer in the last day alone. He focused on his newest additions.
Iron Will: Youâve pitted your will against a more powerful foe and come out on top. Gain a bonus to your willpower-based resistances.
Thatâs obviously from resisting the petrification, he thought, trying not to dwell on how close he must have gotten to dying if heâd earned an achievement for it. Those typically were only earned when one was a hairâs breadth from death.
Arcane Power Attack: Draw upon your stamina and mana to swing with extra power. The power of this attack increases with your strength, willpower, and level in this skill. You may only use mana if you have an Imperium for the weapon you are wielding.
That was a very welcome addition to his arsenal. Caleb played with the skill in his mind, feeling out how to activate it. He could feed it stamina, mana, or a combination of each. He got the sense that each resourced enhanced a different means of power. Mana would probably empower his Imperium-fueled attacks while stamina would boost his physical. Using both together, heâd be able to replicate the feat heâd done to earn the skillâall without having to devote so much concentration to the task.
He reviewed all his additions once more.
âWe should kill giant scary beasts more often.â
Bog grunted in disagreement.
***
Several boring hours in which Caleb fought the urge to test out his new skills out of a fear of discovery later, they decided it was time to make a break for it. The slain basilisk had been discovered, and the troglodytes were furious. It appeared that the beast was some sort of pet or idol. The ice men had searched the cavern briefly, but left when theyâd found no sign of the intruders.
Bog had used his Metal Affinity to hide the path heâd carried Caleb through in the glowing metal dust. Their hiding spot was simply a small alcove in the stone anyone could have seen if they got close enoughâthough Bog had licked all the glowing metal from the walls to remove the light that would give them away.
Though they thought they were alone, they decided to stay cautious. The pair skirted the outer perimeter, keeping well clear of the slain basilisk in the center. They continued on in this manner until Bog suddenly and loudly decided not to.
His head shot up into the air and sniffed in a way that only ever led to trouble.
âNo!â Caleb shouted.
Bog was off running and Caleb followed helplessly. He attempted to pull on Bog with his Imperium to slow the dragon down, but all that did was create a link between them that dragged Caleb in Bogâs wake. While that particular attempt to stay his dragon was an embarrassing failure, it taught him a valuable lesson heâd only just begun to touch on in the last fight.
When he exerted his Imperium Metallorum, he was the anchor for whatever force he exerted, and as such, he had as much hope of slowing things with his magic as he did with his hands.
The chase finally ended in front of two neat lines of stalagmites. Bog ran to a pile in between them and began digging through it with vigor. Caleb extended his Magical Perception out to the pile and found it was a mix of mundane metals local to the regionâexcept for something buried in the center. A heavy weight sat within, pulling on his perception in the way his equipment did.
Bog burrowed into the pile and came out shortly with the very piece of metal Caleb sensed.
âStop!â he commanded, sending his desperation. âI need to see that.â
Bog stopped mid-bite, and then whimpered before eventually dropping the metal. Caleb snatched it up before the dragon could change his mind, and Bog sullenly dove back into the pile. This had been the heaviest weight inside, but Calebâs burgeoning understanding of his new senses told him there wasnât enough pile there to account for all the metal he sensed, meaning other pieces around them were magical as well.
Caleb used his Imperium to gather all the metal dust around him within the two and a half meters he could exert his will. He gathered it all into a ball, but quickly found that it dimmed the light by blocking the metal in the center. A quick thought expanded the ball into a glowing cloud which illuminated the area.
By this light, he realized the outcroppings around him werenât stalagmites, but were in fact the rib cage of a large, snakelike beast.
âIt looks like there might be more than one of those things,â Caleb whispered to Bog.
He turned his attention to the piece of metal in his hands. It was horribly rusted, and a large puncture went through the metal in the center. Despite the damage, it had clearly once been a breastplate, though calling it that now was a stretch. The metal itself was earth-aspected and the mana within was structured enough that Caleb thought it might actually manifest an effect. That structure, however, was the real draw. The mana within was formed into a shape both alien and familiar. Alien in the sense heâd never seen it before, but familiar in how it reached out to the essence in his body.
âThis is enchanted,â he told Bog.
Bog sent the dragon mental equivalent of âduh, thatâs why I wanted to eat itâ as he emerged with a broken sword in his mouth.
Caleb wasnât sure what the ruined breastplate did, but the damage within was far less extensive than the physical damage. Much like he had improved on his masterâs blind enchantment work, he suspected he could puzzle out the missing pieces here.
âI think I can figure out how this works,â he told Bog, cutting some of his clothing into strips so he could tie the plate to his back.
Bog gave him a look that told Caleb heâd better figure it out or give it back so he could eat it.
He could try to hammer the puncture burrs and protrusions flat, but didnât want to risk the noise. Instead, he fastened it to his back backwards. As it sat, any blow to his back would get caught on the concave curve of the armorâthe opposite of what armor was supposed to doâbut if he was getting attacked there, he was likely already dead.
They continued their trek and Caleb joined Bog in gathering the magic metal, though he put all his into the various pockets and pouches on his clothing while Bog ate his. Caleb had to stop when he started to glow, light spilling out of containers that would no longer close.
The two made it all the way around the cavern and back to their dug-out opening without incident, then continued their journey to the stairway in the center. Luckily theyâd made a mess of a path through the ice their first time through, and the troglodytes had followed it back out in search of them. None had expected them to stay behind. Less lucky was that the stairwell was the only way out, and they had expected them to head for it.
A clearing surrounded the ice stairwell a hundred meters wide. The ice from above had been prevented from falling here or otherwise removed, and clear, unbroken knee-deep water filled the area. Bridges of ice spread out in three directions from the stairs, and troglodytes patrolled them. Far more than the pair could handle.
âWe need a distraction.â