Rosha tilts her head, “are they real kitsune? I thought most of the magical sentient creatures like that are more one off type things. Like how there are dragons. They aren’t a race so much as there being a dragon connected to a specific volcano with each having its own unique thing going on. Sure there are enough partial dragons living out there but the actual thing is more singular.”

Courtney shrugs, “that’s mostly true. The biggest difference comes from the myths more than anything else. A good example is there are a few lower tier dragons who came about from a carp leaping over waterfalls and such. With kitsune they tend to just be old foxes who gained their tails with age. Now there are some actual foxes who have managed this feat but a lot more come from the foxkin. Of course a fox turned kitsune is more powerful like how a naturally formed dragon is stronger than a carp turned dragon. Anyway, foxes and foxkin can grow more tails with both age and level. At 100 years old they gain wisdom, really helpful for a fox who plans to live longer. Hitting the big two double O and level 50 gives their original tail magic and their race changes to kitsune. Then if they can manage to reach 300 years old and level 75 do they get their second tail. This age gating is quite popular with the devs so you get things like lamia being able to turn into a medusa and other similar evolutions. Lets us players dream of gaining that power while making sure hardly anyone actually does before they matured enough to handle it.”

Rosha tilts her head to the side, “oh”. Jason can only sympathize with her over getting stunned by the sudden info dump. Then he thinks of something, “Your a black catkin. Does that mean if you ever team up with a witch you gain the ability to curse others with bad luck?”

Rosha smacks the back of his head, “She’s a pantherkin. Plus your thinking of familiars. The source material for that says they aren’t actually normal cats but rather a demon in the shape of an animal. You better not be saying my cute little healer is a demon!”

Courtney smiles while Jason holds his hands out defensively, “of course not! She is clearly an angel, it was just a random thought.” Courtney’s smile turns into a smirk at this, “of all the things I could be an angel isn’t one of them. I duel focus in magic as a healer and and illusionist and I must admit guiding us there is partly selfish. Kitsune both in myth and NeoRealm have spectacular illusion magic. Rumors of illusions so elaborate as to be indistinguishable from reality abound. We are too low a level to even think of getting that but it shows the potential for their magic. You can develop any spell into a more powerful version. It doesn’t take a genius to throw more mana at a fireball to make it bigger. However if you want a specific version which splits into multiple fireballs. It would be a lot easier to learn it if you use the fireball spell whoever created the barrage spell started with.”

Rosha wants to interrupt the info dump at this point but Courtney seems really passionate about the subject so she can bring herself to do it. Courtney seems to notice this and almost stops there but can’t help but continue. “This is not much of a problem with simple spells like fireball as they are now standardized. From fire starter, to fire spark, to fire bullet, to fireball, to fireball barrage, and so on. Basically, any spell you can learn free at the guild when you start will have many paths you can take it down without worry. No need to worry that the fire spark you learn from one person will be incompatible with turning into a meteor spell later on. Only mostly though and that is why kitsune illusions are important to me. There are some special versions of even basic spells that can be worth seeking.”

She pulls up a window and then only shows the name of her skill to the two. “For me in particular I have the basic silent image spell. Nice enough, just does what it says on the tin. What I really want though is, ahem, Silent Image (Variant). Now neither of you will have seen a skill like that yet” Jason narrows his eyes, “but if the skill is different enough while still warranting the same name the System will slap variant on it. Then in the description it will explain what this variance comes from. The silent image variant I want will mention the kitsune origins of the spell and how it more closely matches reality.”

Jason shrugs, “so what does that actually mean for you?” Courtney smiles in a way that just screams ‘so glad you asked’ and she continues. “Most players avoid illusion magic unless they start in some position to learn such specialized magic. Locals have an easier time with illusions because the System can read their minds. We however have to train very hard to project our thoughts out to the System. Even with a telepathy biomod the needed detail to make illusions work how you want is crazy. The best most people can do looks like those historical examples back from when they first used CGI in movies. Horrible messes that clash with reality so no one will mistake them for real. Learning the kitsune illusion spells will cause the System to smooth things out for me. It is the mental equivalent of going from having to draw a circle freehand to having a compass to do it with. I still get to decide the radius but it is harder to make it anything but a circle. My illusions of a black cat will be what the System considers a generic black cat instead of an attempt at sculpting the black cat my neighbor had when I was growing up.”

Courtney almost starts to explain further but Rosha covers her mouth with a hand. Jason pats her on the shoulder, “yes yes, a very good reason to go there. It sounds like we have a direction to go. Tomorrow we can check the Adventurers Guild for any quests that direct us out that way while updating the party. However, I think we can all use a good night’s sleep. In fact Rosha looks like she is ready to turn in right now so let's split up for the night.”

Akhier

Thank you for reading! Next two chapters free on my Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/dragonheartednovels ), five chapters beyond that for only a dollar, and many more for five dollars (two chapters release a week at this tier).