Gwen was there, as always, when I opened my eyes.

I took a deep, steadying inhale.

The frost that had wracked my body with pain before came out differently now. My breath was still chilled and yet it wasn't nearly as painful.

Then again, the mana that had frozen me stiff, and almost given me my second death, had been forcefully brought under my control now. So it kind of made sense that it'd be more tolerable to me at this point.

Gwen had pulled herself around me. Her massive body was curled around my own like a mother around a kitten.

She was warm and very fuzzy.

"Hey," I said weakly.

Gwen's feline, animalistic, eyes gazed down back at mine. "Hello."

I laughed.

Gwen purr-growled.

"I almost died again," I said. "Someone up there has something against whacking me."

"Whacking?" Gwen asked.

"Making me swim with the fishes," I further explained.

"Swimming can be nice," Gwen added, "but I think you're using a metaphor I don't know."

I raised a eyebrow in false contemplation.

"Sending me off to the farm?" I asked, not quite ready to let her off the hook.

Gwen growled for real, but even more good heartedly this time.

"I can feel your bad joke, Clarissa," the panther said, referring to the emotions she could access through our soul bond.

"Oh, yeah, I guess that's back," I said and slowly began to sit upright. "I'm glad."

I had become so used to the bond's presence over the past days that I hadn't realized it'd already come back, after being hampered momentarily by the Southern Ruler's mana.

My head was swimming and a number of alerts were flashing in front of my face.

Skill notifications, the lingering level up prompt, etc, were all scrolling before my eyes.

One textbox in particular caught my attention and surprise most strongly, but it also promised slightly more effort than some of the others, so I temporarily shifted to dealing with the second most interesting of the prompts.

[You have completed the quest The Webspinner's Lair.]

[Are you ready to receive your rewards: y/n?]

"What happened to you, Clarissa?" Gwen asked me.

I tested the joints in my arms. The increased healing capabilities that the System granted me were pretty impressive, even if my regen rates weren't a focus of my build.

As far as I could tell, the higher my Health pool the more superhumanly durable I became. I figured I'd always still have my very real limits though.

"Well," I grunted a little as I shifted myself onto one knee before slowly raising up to my feet, "while I was mulling over whether or not to try and pry some information from the monster's mana, it decided for both of us and tried to go all Candy Stripers on me. Just with less tongue."

Gwen made a puzzled sound as I rubbed the back of my head; the base of my neck was still somewhat numb from the bad case of flash hypothermia I'd experienced.

"A movie reference?" the panther asked, her ears perked up in interest, "is it good?"

I laughed. "God no."

"Anyway," my face grew a bit more solemn; I was damn happy to be alive, but this whole fallen world mess was proving to be some heavy shit, "turns out Galadhel used to be a normal person. Some of the monsters in this dungeon too it looks like. Bottom line is that the boss monster and his lackeys invaded this world and turned everything to shit."

Gwen growled. "Evil."

"Yeah, but don't worry," I continued, "we're going to figure out how to put it right. Even if that just means killing everything behind this mess."

I felt a tiny bit of rage and discomfort rising in my chest.

An image of Galadhel's tear covered face played back in my mind. She'd cried when I'd made my promise to try and save everyone.

I wouldn't break that promise. She'd saved me. I'd do everything I could to help her people, even if it just meant giving them the same mercy I'd given her.

My solemnity grew into a small frown.

I didn't want it to come to that though.

"I believe that is the right thing to do," Gwen agreed with me.

I exhaled my frustrations.

Learning about the catastrophic collapse of a society sucked, but it didn't help to dwell on it I guess. I was sure I'd be facing the issue head on in due time anyway.

"Yeah, but for now," I clicked in the affirmative to the quest reward prompt, "we have loot."

The textbox dissolved underneath my touch and I watched in interest to see what form my first quest reward would take.

The reward prompt faded into a glowing white that then began to take a more three-dimensional and altogether larger shape.

The energy continued on, lengthening and growing, until it had morphed itself into the form of a familiar staff.

[Galadhel's Staff [R]: The staff of the high priestess Galadhel. Allows the user to fuel their spells with the latent energy of the environment. Reduces all spell costs by thirty-percent after all other effects.]

There was something poetic about taking up Galadhel's staff.

"Well damn," I said. "Not terrible."

Then again the idea of using a staff somewhat clashed with my fighting style, where a big stick might not be best for hit and run tactics, but at the end of the day I guess I couldn't be altogether too choosy with what loot I got.

I reached my hand out to grasp at the floating item, but as I did so, the staff began to glow once again.

[Customizing quest reward to user preferences.]

Really? Convenient, but that meant the System was all but reading my mind... I'd have to revisit that issue later if I ever got the chance.

Just as it had before, the staff shaped and changed itself to become not a staff.

The quest reward shrank, condensed, and widened out to become a thick square.

Finally, the layer of glowing energy broke off away from the revealed item like embers from a fire to show just what I'd received.

[World-Blessed Spellbook [R]: A spellbook constructed from the mana of high priestess' Galadhel's staff. Reduces all spell costs by thirty-percent after all other effects.]

The book, now visible in all its grandeur, was beautiful. Its cover was the same gold filigree traced, white silver that the Caliban capital's metallic-like buildings had been.

My prize hovered, bobbing up and down slightly to a gentle rhythm, with its empty pages splayed out before me.

A spellbook, huh? It looked small enough to just keep strapped to my person if that was all it took to get its benefits.

Yeah, this reward definitely suited me better than the staff and, because of its origins and abilities, it still carried Galadhel's legacy with it.

I reached out to claim the quest reward.

The book floated slowly to meet me, falling into my hands.

[Do you wish to bond with this spellbook? You may claim and integrate other books into this one in the future, but it will forever remain the foundation upon which other powers are integrated: y/n?]

I really wasn't too surprised with the notification. It seemed the System had layer after layer of complexity, seemingly accounting for every thinking and playstyle.

Lasting choice or not, I didn't hesitate to select yes to accepting the item. The System said I could claim other books in the future, if it even came up, and I needed power now.

Besides, I wasn't going to let Galadhel's parting gift go to waste. I didn't know the Caliban too well, but I felt a certain connection to her pain and struggles to remain a good person--as I figured any decent human being would've.

The moment the book had settled onto my outstretched hands, the previously bare pages flashed with a hundred small syllables and designs, all traced in light and fire.

I watched in real time as page after page of diagrams and sigils representing my understanding of each one of my spells were created and engraved by the glowing flames.

Oddly enough, the explanations and images all felt like they were ripped straight from my mind. Even despite never having really tried to break my magic down too intellectually, it seemed my instinctive knowledge had been converted down onto paper and each word and graph felt intuitive.

And even more interestingly, as I held the book, I felt a power flowing from it and into me. It was a calming, mind stretching pulse of stern encouragement.

Thanks to this new energy, I felt my understanding of the arcane grow as the pages of my new spellbook flipped by in front of my face; each of the diagrams and texts changed slightly as the power of the tome itself streamlined my methods of spellcasting into being more efficient.

"Wow," I said as the pages finally stopped flipping by and the book slowly floated up from my hands once more.

The tome did a single circle around my head and then, with a trademark flash and a temporary vanishing, appeared into an ornate tooled holster that formed from yet more shapeless light around it.

I shifted my leg somewhat to test the comfort of the book and its conveniently included carrying case, but found that it was all but unnoticeable.

I glanced back to Gwen, who had raised herself to rest upon her haunches.

"How does it look?" I asked her.

"Like you're wearing a book on your leg," the panther purred back drly.

I cocked my head a bit. "Technically fair."

I moved my attention from the panther, over to the corpse of the Webspinner, or rather where it should have been.

I'd already absorbed the mana and essence of both halves of the soul chimera, so it's body was nowhere to be seen.

From what I'd seen with the Western Ruler, I would have assumed there would be no loot orb either, but apparently that wasn't a hard and fast rule with boss kills.

Because, to my surprise, the System had given me a notification that there were unclaimed loot orbs in my general vicinity once I'd woken up.

I'd chosen to ignore the prompt, momentarily, in favor of the more clear rewards of my completed quest, but now it was the next thing up in my priorities.

After my feet had carried me the some two dozen or so feet from where'd I'd collasped and over to where the Webspinner herself had died, I reached my hand out to touch the floating ball of energy hovering there.

The expected textblock then spilled out beside the orb.

[Loot List]

1. Map to the Eastern Basins: A map that will lead you through the Darklake Swamps and into the Eastern Basins, domain of the giant Bres, Lord of Nothing.

Well, the System may have been varied and customizable, but I wasn't sure anyone could ever accuse it of being subtle.

For whatever reason, which was a whole other matter of concern that even Galadhel couldn't shed much light on, the omnipresent power wanted me to kill all of the dungeon's guardians.

Apparently it wasn't above railroading me onto its desired path easier.

I had a feeling that once I looted the map I would get a--

[You've discovered a new Quest.]

[The King's Justice]

Quest Conditions: Slay or otherwise permanently defeat Bres, Lord of Nothing.

Time Limit: None.

Rewards: 1 Rare Magic Item.

Do you accept this quest: y/n?

Just as I'd expected, a text notification popped up the moment I placed the item into my inventory.

"It looks like we have another quest, Gwen," I said to the panther. "If you're still up for it?"

Gwen growled in response as I opened and scanned the minimap.

"Good, the System just threw a map to the Eastern Ruler's territory our way," I explained, "looks like we'll have to feel it out once we get there but it'll at least take us out of this place."

"I'm tired of all this swamp," I added as I activated the map I'd received in my inventory and then selected the option to share the minimap that resulted from doing so with Gwen.

"I don't mind the swimming," Gwen remarked, "but it smells horrible here."

Now having Gwen's go-ahead once again, I accepted the offered quest on behalf of both of us.

"Right?" I said casually as, no longer being concerned with any further System notifications, I glanced towards the massive sealed doors of the ruined cathedral.

I began to walk towards the sealed exit.

"I wonder if it's still burning out there," I remarked.

Gwen fell in step behind me. "It is."

I looked over my shoulder to the padding along panther. "Yeah? Can you like--"

"Smell it," Gwen finished my sentence and answered my question preemptively.

I sniffed the air and just didn't catch it like she did. "Nope."

I returned my gaze back to the tightly closed cathedral doors. My vision narrowed as I reached out to touch Gwen's senses.

I felt the cat breath in deeply, partly through her mouth and somewhat through her nose, as was her way.

The panther damn well almost saw another layer of reality through her senses as if she had access to an entirely different sort of sight.

It was a little overwhelming, honestly. Still if I focused in just right, catching the perfect beat in Gwen's scenting, then yep I could catch the smell of combustion and ash that she was talking about.

"There it is. I got it now," I commented to my friend, knowing she would feel my mental touch reaching out to her. "Wish I could do that whenever I wanted."

The panther swished her tail. "You could probably make a spell."

"Hmm," I looked up to the cathedral doors, probably once beautiful in days past, and place my hands upon it as I spoke to the panther, "probably."

The doorway didn't budge much when I shoved it.

Somewhat annoyed, I leaned my weight into my efforts and activated a momentary surge of [Accelerate Adrenaline].

I'd only used the spell for a single second, but it was just enough to grease the wheels and get the traction I needed.

I was already getting used to using magic in my everyday life, in the small moments, I realized.

Then again maybe there was something to only using small bursts of a spell like [Accelerate Adrenaline] and conserving it for those make or break points where it could do the most work at the least cost.

The wide arched passageway parted before me and my eyes were greeted by the peaking light of the expected blue and red inferno.

I'd known my magic had spread a fire all across the swamp, sure, but I'd almost forgotten how crazy bright it had gotten outside the cathedral despite the crimson moon still very much sitting high on the horizon.

I slipped between the body sized gap I'd pushed open between the two doors, allowing my hands to slip off of the already stilled wood.

Gwen curved her body through the doors and trailed behind me.

My eyes glanced up to my minimap.

It seemed we needed to go very much northeast if we were going to follow what was, at least as best as I could tell, the most expedient route to the Eastern Basins.

"Clarissa..." Gwen's voice, laced with a new edge, caught my attention.

The panther lowered herself and rumbled with a warning in her stout, snow furred chest.

"What is it?" I asked and immediately shifted my awareness into Gwen's eyes.

"Skulkers," Gwen slurred the word. "I smell them."

The cat's superior vision was already locked on a series of moving shapes in the distance. The hulking figures were staying a good bit back from where the worst of the flames were.

"I see them," I confirmed to the panther, trusting her to know that I was seeing through her eyes.

I flexed my hand and, to my surprise, my new spellbook flew out of its bag to trace the curves of my body and float behind me.

Over my right shoulder, the book opened, and, flipping to a certain page, a magic circle glowed off of the tome's parchment.

"Hmph," I said as my [Raging Blade] expanded out and formed into my hand, "they don't like fire."

Gwen growled. "Should you show them some?"

"These things might be people," I commented, "or they might just be monsters. Either way, though, they're hunting us and I'm tired of it."

"Let's stalk around back," I told Gwen. "We can show them that we're not the same prey as before."

---

The enchantments on my armor made it pretty easy to get close enough to ambush the monsters with [Mana Blink] without them even seeing me.

My body formed from out of the air right behind the biggest looking Skulker.

The muscles in my arm clenched and surged as I activated [Accelerate Adrenaline] at the exact moment I thrust my conjured sword through the throat of my target.

"Boo," I said to my victim, without a bit of jest, as my weapon lodged itself into its flesh.

But we weren't alone.

Another Skulker to the right snorted at me and turn-lunged, claws now raised, at me.

The Skulkers had been fast to me before. Almost too swift for me entirely. Definitely too quick when they worked in numbers.

The Webspinner's threads, meanwhile, had been downright impossible to trace with the naked eye.

I was used to the latter now, however, and the former just wasn't comparable.

My magic flowed through my body, bouncing from my arms to my legs like a direction changing stream, and I used the added energy to shift just so out of my incoming enemy's way.

My sword, though, I left in the throat of the first Skulker who now gargled and tripped back in pain and confusion.

Meanwhile, when the second monster's head neared that of the first, I activated [Raging Sorcery] and watched, this time with a slight self-satisfaction, as both of the creatures' heads were caught in the self-destruction of my conjured weapon.

The next monster came in at me from behind. My mana sped senses allowed me to catch the sound of its big feet sloshing the water in my blind spot.

I turned my eyes over my left shoulder to glimpse my would-be assasin.

My body disappeared just as the creature was moving to swipe at me.

The moment the monster's arm fully extended , leaving it vulnerable, I appeared half bending, my hand already reaching out to place itself upon its chest.

Where I touched it, a flash of magic engraved itself onto the Skulker's flesh.

Not one to waste the moment, with my free hand I began to conjure another flaming sword.

Then I was gone, teleporting once again.

Fully well alerted as they were by this point, the monsters that had been lumbering away in the fire-lit shadows were now coming in wild waves from the half-darkness.

I intended to meet each one.

My body reappeared in front of another of the beasts and, as it brought its claws down in surprise towards my face, my blade reached a length in its formation process long enough to allow me to deflect the impromptu attack as I then pierroted behind the monster with my superior footwork.

I grunted in frustration, though, as I found myself to have misdjudged the force of the mob's strike, sending me slightly off balance as I rounded to its back.

Thanks to my mistake, my timing was now off.

Two more of the Skulkers tried to take advantage of this as one appeared, sprinting upon all fours, from the woodline and another broke through a grouping of small saplings to charge at me indiscriminately.

Idiots. Fast, strong, and sturdy, but so damn stupid and predictable once you understood them.

Before completely changing my focus to react to the new arrivals, I quickly planted my hand, and another magic circle, on the back of the monster I'd already swirled around.

Following that, my body shifted through space again, and just as my second extra-strength flame rune exploded--taking all three of the monsters it caught in its blast with it.

I glanced around, as my body reformed, some fifteen feet from the one other Skulker that I'd planted a fire rune on.

"Looks like you're the last one," I said, doublechecking what I was seeing just to be sure, "I imagine Gwen has the others torn up by now. But me? I have something I want to try out."

The rune-marked Skulker growled low at me and took a step back, the first time I'd ever seen one of the things retreat. Then again, all of its friends were now smoking or hole ridden corpses half-submerged in the water, and it'd only been about a minute since I'd popped in to spoil their little game of thinking they were the hunters.

"Oh no," I said, "you're not running away just to attack us when we're not ready. Appearing and disappearing as you monsters see fit. That's over."

My eyes glowed, hot blue and red at first, but, as I called on a more unfamiliar power now within myself, a crisp and pale color overtook the flame's aura.

A trail of the same fire wisped up behind the Skulker. It was a fire the color of glacial ice.

The Skulker lowered its bodyweight, perhaps trying to guess at which direction it should try to lunge at to attain safety.

"You almost killed my friend last time," I said as the flaming circle of frostfire spread around the monster, connecting fully to itself now.

The walls of flame didn't waste time as they wisped up from the water covered ground itself; apparently this new type of flame didn't have any issue with liquids.

To its credit, the frightened Skulker did eventually jump forward--but only as the threatening circle of fire around it became an inferno.

I heard a yelp of pain from inside the blazing, freezing tornado I'd created; no doubt coming from the beast testing out the solidity of the walls I'd forged.

I was watching my mana closely, as all this happened, noting that the power I'd gained from the Southern Ruler didn't use any more mana than a normal fire spell.

In fact, switching between my normal flames and the frostfire seemed to merely be a matter of intent and me willing it to happen.

Interesting.

I reached out my hand and closed my fist. A puff of chill escaped from my palm as I did so.

My frigid inferno grew in violence and in size as its flaming walls thickened.

The Skulker and it's considerable strength struggled for a few moments, but soon I felt the resistance against my spell weaken and then dissapear completely as the flaming prison's victim was eventually fully consumed by my cold fire.

I gave it a few moments, confirming the silence, before I lowered my arm and the inferno began to wisp into nothing.

At my gesture, the beautiful fire slowly died out and the now unmoving Skulker was revealed.

I slowly approached the monster, making sure to keep the flame rune that still resided on its chest on a hair trigger mentally.

But the still upright monster didn't move, no matter how closely I approached.

Once I was a little outside arm's distance, I took in the breadth of my new power's work.

The Skulker's skin was blue through and through; it's joints were covered in thick ice. Its feet were frozen fully into the swamp by thick sheets of contoured frost.

The little trap I'd activated had cost me a lot of mana, but so too would a normal flaming tornado like that.

And, costs aside, it'd been the perfect proof of concept.

For the first time, ice magic made sense to me.

Fire burned up the energy trapped within matter and changed its state by transferring the heat of my mana into a target.

My frost fire, meanwhile, did the opposite and drained the energy out of anything it touched.

As my brain was finally coming to better understand the nature of temperature based magic, a lighting bolt cracked into life next to me as my large panther companion stepped out of it and into the swamp water proper.

"Did you do that?" Gwen asked me as she circled the frozen Skulker.

"A new trick I picked up from the Webspinner," I admitted.

Gwen scented the air. "Is it dead? It smells very cold."

I paused and looked into the iced over eyes of my victim.

"I think so?" I half-asked the panther.

The cat growled with sass.

Author's Note

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