Chapter 71: Let’s Train a Little
Nathan woke at dawn.
He got up carefully so as not to wake Liaraen. He left the tent. Checked the horse. Checked the embers. Everything was in order.
Then he walked to the center of the clearing.
And began.
First, he tested Soul Sense at maximum intensity. The skill expanded. It detected the horse. Detected Liaraen sleeping in the tent. Detected the small forest animals within an expanded radius. Detected, further away, approximately a kilometer and a half, a pack of wolves on the move.
*Range increased.*
*The range before the dungeon’s agile creature attack was approximately eight hundred meters. Now it’s approximately a kilometer and a half.*
*Nearly double.*
*Good.*
He checked the System mentally.
```
Nathan Voss.
Level: 8.
HP: 2,100/2,100.
Mana: 3,200/3,200.
EXP: 400 / 8,000.
ACTIVE SKILLS:
Soul Sense [Level 8] — ACTIVE
Soul Pulse [Passive] — CONFIRMED
Soul Reap — UNLOCKED
Death’s Domain — UNLOCKED
Pale Rider — UNLOCKED
Harvest of Souls — UNLOCKED
The Last Bell — UNLOCKED
DERIVED SKILLS:
Tactile Entropy — UNLOCKED
Minor Necromancy — NEW — UNLOCKED
Extended Harvest — NEW — UNLOCKED
Death Pulse — NEW — UNLOCKED
```
Nathan stood still for several seconds.
*Level eight.*
*I went up three levels during the dungeon and the slug fight.*
*And the stats also increased considerably.*
*And there are three new derived skills.*
*Minor Necromancy.*
*Extended Harvest.*
*Death Pulse.*
He checked the descriptions mentally.
```
MINOR NECROMANCY
Allows temporary reanimation of
recent bodies of creatures
or humans as partial servants.
Duration: up to 24 hours.
Simultaneous count: up to 3.
Cost per reanimation: 300 mana.
```
Nathan sat processing that.
*Necromancy.*
*Apparently I can do minor necromancy.*
*Good.*
*Apparently the seventeenth was exactly the kind of god one would expect to have a Class with necromantic capability.*
*Noted.*
He checked the other two.
```
EXTENDED HARVEST
Allows absorption of souls from creatures
eliminated by others within a
30-meter radius of the bearer,
if the bearer was present at
the moment of elimination.
Cost: passive.
DEATH PULSE
Expanded variant of Soul Pulse.
Instead of a simple wave, produces
a circular detonation in a 15-meter
radius around the bearer.
Effect: briefly paralyzes living
creatures, eliminates critically
wounded creatures.
Cost: 500 mana.
```
Nathan lowered his gaze to the ground.
*All new ones.*
*Good.*
*We’ll test them today. Carefully. And without spending all my mana before reaching Rendel.*
He started with Soul Reap.
He extended his hand toward a fallen branch from the nearest tree. Applied the skill to verify current consumption.
The skill activated.
The branch completely dried out in less than a second.
```
Soul Reap executed.
Non-living object.
Cost: 50 mana.
(reduced from previous 200)
```
*Reduced.*
*Level eight gives me improved efficiency.*
*Good.*
He tested Death’s Domain at minimum intensity. The cold wave extended approximately five meters. Cost: one hundred mana. Less than half the previous consumption.
He tested Pale Rider. He ran approximately twenty meters toward the stream. The skill activated passively due to residual death presence in the clearing (where small animals had probably died over the last few days). His speed multiplied by four without him actively requesting it.
*Pale Rider now activates even in areas with residual death, not just recent death.*
*Range expansion.*
*Good.*
He returned to the clearing’s center.
He tested Minor Necromancy.
He approached the small skeleton of an animal—apparently a fox—that was at the clearing’s edge. Extended his hand. Applied the skill.
The skill activated with a small green flash.
The skeleton vibrated for a second. Then it stood up. The bones recombined into a fox’s posture. The empty sockets where eyes should be glowed with a pale green light.
The fox turned to Nathan.
And waited for orders.
Nathan looked at it for a moment.
"Walk."
The fox walked.
"Stop."
The fox stopped.
"Return."
The fox returned to its starting position.
Nathan lowered his hand. Ended the reanimation. The fox collapsed to the ground as a pile of bones again.
*Apparently it works.*
*And consumes three hundred mana per reanimation.*
*Reasonable amount.*
*Good.*
He stood for a moment, processing everything he’d tested.
Behind him, Liaraen came out of the tent.
Nathan turned.
"Sprout."
"Nathan."
"Good morning."
"Good morning."
Liaraen approached the stream, washed her face, and approached the clearing’s center. She saw the fox skeleton on the ground. Looked at Nathan.
"Are you practicing?"
"Apparently. Successfully."
"Did that skeleton move?"
"It’s possible."
"Nathan."
"Yes?"
"Apparently you can do necromancy."
"Apparently yes."
"That’s amazing and disturbing at the same time."
Liaraen sat processing that for a moment.
Then, with a calm voice:
"Nathan."
"Yes?"
"I’m going to call that skill ’friendly necromancy’ when I mention it to other people."
"Acceptable."
"Because just saying ’necromancy’ in Aelthoren would produce reactions that are difficult to handle diplomatically."
"Understandable."
"’Friendly necromancy’ sounds friendlier."
"Acceptable."
Nathan smiled slightly.
"Come," he said. "I’ll show you the new skills. And then I’ll teach you the basics of human combat. Everything I know. In thirty days of accumulated experience."
"Alright."
Liaraen sat on a flat stone near the clearing’s center.
Nathan began explaining each skill with the efficiency he’d developed during the morning’s training.
---
Around midday, they stopped to eat.
Nathan sat on the flat stone beside Liaraen. Took out bread and cheese from the bag. They split it between them.
"Sprout."
"Yes?"
"How do you assess it?"
"Assess what?"
"Me. The progress. The efficiency. Everything."
Liaraen thought for a moment.
"Nathan. Apparently your Class has potential that doesn’t approximate anything official cataloging has documented. The new derived skills are going to be specifically useful in the future. And your progression from the dungeon attack to today suggests that the trajectory Kalen mentioned is real."
"Understood."
"And apparently that means that in two years you’re going to be at a strength level that currently doesn’t exist in any active catalog."
"Apparently."
"Nathan."
"Yes?"
"I’m going to tell you something I don’t know if I’ll be able to tell you again with this clarity."
Nathan looked at her.
"Go ahead."
Liaraen set the bread on the stone. Turned to look at him.
"I appreciate having met you," Liaraen said. "Not as a Hunter. Not as a rescuer. As the person I’ve had the only real conversation of my life with. And that appreciation is going to be a constant for the rest of the time our friendship lasts. Which I hope, specifically, is very long."
Nathan looked at her for a moment.
Then he inclined his head with his own version of the aristocratic gesture he’d seen Liaraen use so many times.
"I appreciate the statement, Sprout. And I return it. With the same temporal projection."
"Acceptable."
"Acceptable."
They ate the rest of the bread in silence.
And in the distance, toward the north, the Threshold Mountains that marked the border with Aelthoren looked sharper than the previous day.
Approximately thirty-six more hours of travel.
Then Rendel.
Then the crossing.
Then Aelthoren.
Then House Sael’thoryn.
And then whatever it was that Kalen had seen and hadn’t wanted to share.
Nathan looked at the mountains.
And with the new calm of recent weeks, he decided not to anticipate more than necessary.
*We’ll arrive when we arrive.*
*And we’ll face whatever needs to be faced when it appears.*
*For now, today is a good training day. And tomorrow is a good travel day. And that’s enough.*
He finished the bread.
And returned to the clearing’s center to continue the last hours of practice before resuming the road the next day.
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