It took several days for Sil to recover enough to begin his combat training. as a result his clothing creation had grown a great deal while he was stuck on bed rest. He also discovered the threshold of his passive growth skill. After clothes summoning reached level 5 it no longer grew passively. It did however provide him with a discovery, At the 5th level the skill both granted a skill point and gained an upgrade, a passive form of improvement to the spell itself. Sil was debating on which upgrade to choose this morning while he ate his breakfast. 

 

"Just to many good options, hopefully upgrades come every 5 levels so I can pick up most of these" Sil thought to himself.

 

Sil's combat training would begin tomorrow, today he and his family were moving out of the awakening house to return to their actual home. The day was busy but Sil was quite happy to be up and moving. With his creation skill leveled up he was finally able to make clothing that was more than a robe. At the moment he was wearing a dark blue shirt with white pants, the shirt was a low-cut v neck and the pants looked like silk house pants, but he was more comfortable now at least.

 

Given that they brought very little to the house and his old clothes had already been donated, they did not have very much to bring home, so the transition was very quick. being back in his own room was bittersweet though as he would be getting rid of all of his clothes now. Sil decided to take a walk while he thought about what he should spend his upgrade and skill point on. He had narrowed down the skill upgrade to 3 choices.

 

[Improved Design]

 

[Allows the expansion of clothes summoned to take on styles seen by the user]

 

[Armored Clothing]

 

[Clothes will now provide skill equivalent defensive protection, protecting wearer from damage]

 

[Cold Gift]

 

[User may now bring summoned clothes directly onto their body or the body of a chosen humanoid, clothing summoned on someone other than the user can be used to restrain the target.]

 

Improved Design was tempting, it would give him the ability to start wearing clothes like what he was used to again. Armored clothing was also fairly good, but diamond skin took care of most of his defensive needs, he just had to be careful not to be hit buy any large, heavy, magically empowered fists again any time soon. Cold gift had an offensive trait to it that he really liked though, it was a tough choice. 

 

As Sil walked along he considered the skills, “I think Cold Gift is the better option, I’ll definitely look into improved design after I get my next upgrade but something that could slow down the next kidnapper that comes after me seems like a good idea."

 

In the end Sil decided to go with the Cold Gift upgrade. The new skill however was in some ways easier to decide on, he needed a defensive or physical enhancement skill to improve his third trait. Looking through that list he felt like there were some new additions since the last time he looked at the skill menu. Inspecting one revealed it to be a hybrid skill, related to his growth in the other traits augmenting the skills of this trait. 

 

[Frozen Backlash]

 

[Hybrid Skill - Active: When activated users Diamond skin gains increased defensive properties based on the level of the skill, in addition physical contact will cause damage to anything that comes into contact with user. Weapons will become cool, potentially becoming brittle and breaking. Organic contact will result in result in the lingering cold effect from the Soul Freezing Armament. Damage generated from this skill grows with the Soul Freezing Armament trait.]

 

[Queen's Guard]

 

[Hybrid Skill - Active: Grants the diamond skin trait to chosen allies within the skills radius. Skill radius is governed by the Ruler of the Frozen Domain trait. "So long as the queens guard stands, the queen cannot be harmed" Greatly enhances users defense so long as any effected by the skill act to protect user.]

 

[Ruler's Physique]

 

[Hybrid Skill - Passive/Active: User gains increased stamina and recovery time. As the skill grows less sleep will be needed and the level of exertion required for exhaustion grows. When inside the rulers element, user can draw from that element to continue without rest until the element is exhausted.]

 

"Those are all good skills... but what should I choose..."

 

Sil debated with himself for a while until he went out to begin his formal combat training. He soon discovered that life had a way of telling him which skill to choose. 

 

Fanella did not like having to wait to train her student. Even more so she did not like having to wait because her student asked a friend to hit them with an empowered attack to test their defensive capabilities, only to end up with a broken arm and a long recovery period. 

 

"Of all the foolish adolescent things you could come up with" she said shaking her head at Sil, "If you ever do something that stupid again, then forget you know me."

 

Fanella had devised for Sil a training program. Clearly the girl needed to train up her body if she had dreams of fighting. That training regimen was brutal, she ran Sil ragged from moments after arriving until it was time for lunch. Long distance running, lifting heavy sacks, attacking training dummy's she had set up, the pace was constant and by the time lunch arrived Sil could barely move

 

"Alright kid you have ten minutes to eat and rest before we start again" Fanella stated as she ate her own lunch.

 

Fanella watched as Sil grew more and more exhausted throughout the day. She planned to push Sil to her absolute limit to see what she was capable of.

 

As Sil sat exhausted as he stared at his skill menu, deciding that he did not really have a choice if he wanted to survive this level of training. After selecting Ruler's Physique, Sil could feel his body recovering a little faster, and the growing burning sensation in his muscles began to fade away.

 

The afternoon training was just as brutal as the mornings, and Fanella found herself astonished at what appeared to be Sil gaining a second wind. Her young student was pushing just as hard as they had that morning and the rate at which the exhaustion was setting in seemed to slow down as well. They started running faster to each practice area. Fanella made Sil attack the practice dummies more aggressively, to the point where Sil felt even more exhausted.

 

"*pant* *pant* I feel like ... *pant* .. I'm going to pass out... *pant*... at this rate"

 

" Keep pushing Sil, we need to find your limit!"

 

"Then *pant* I guess we’re going see what it’s like when its active *pant*"

 

Sil activated his newest skills active ability.

 

Fanella looked on as the air around Sil turned a shade of blue, and seemed to be slowly drawn into Sil, that same blue seemed to radiate off of Sil even as it was being drawn into her, creating an almost mist like quality surrounding her. As they continued pushing that mist grew smaller and smaller, until eventually Sil collapsed from complete exhaustion, deactivating the skill as the cold he radiated could no longer keep up with the ability drawing it in.

 

" A physical build snow girl *pant* will wonders never cease, *pant*I could barely keep up once that mist skill activated."

 

***********************************************************************************************************

 

drip...

 

drip...

 

In a forested area well away from Sil's small rural village a man was walking slowly, one hand holding his side and the other dangling uselessly.

 

"Stupid brat!" he would occasionally yell. 

 

It looked as though he had been through a rain shower without a cloud in the sky, his body covered in so much sweat that he was dripping wet. 

 

Jesen was suffering from the worst week of his life, he had been sent on an easy gopher mission. Go find a pretty young girl for auction, bring her back, do not damage the merchandise. Simple easy money, below Jesen's skill level, or so he thought. Everything had been going so well. He and Shelk had gotten to a small remote village, the first day they were there they overheard someone talking about a new snow girl having just awakened. They managed to sneak into the house and make it into the girls bedroom without making a sound. 

 

Then everything went wrong. when the brat woke up, she grabbed his hand and suddenly he found himself screaming in pain. Shelk tried to shut him up but the kid just reached over and grabbed his leg, causing the oaf to fall over grabbing his own leg. When the kid reached for him again Jesen jumped back and ran away, smacking his hand against the door frame as he left. Since then his hand had been useless, and to make matters worse the kid had even managed to graze his ribs as he ran away. Both spots where he had been touched were even now freezing cold.

 

At first Jesen rushed as fast as he could, trying to get back to his employer to report what happened. The job was botched but that brats power was outside of the norm. He should have been back days ago, but after getting away from the kids house, he found that his side had ripped open from the line of cold where he had been scratched, moving to much or too aggressively would make his skin tare. 

 

A few more days and he should be out of this forest and close to his destination. When he made it to town, he would get himself fixed up and work to make up for this serious blunder. Shelk would take most of the blame since he was the one captured but Jesen would not come out of this unscathed. Thankfully, his ability allowed him to restore his lost blood from every time his side would rip open. He was deep enough in the woods that it was unlikely anyone would find his trail, though even an idiot would spot what was left behind.

 

Jesen continued shuffling along, trying his best not to reopen his injury. Behind him the trail stretched on, showing slaughtered animals that he had encountered in the forest, their bodies split open and their hearts removed. with each heart he had grown stronger and was able to run again, but he knew doing so would only make things worse again. The forest floor itself stained in the color of so much blood. In time the trees themselves would take on that color, giving that area a new name. The Forest of Blood.