Being subjected to an energy I didn't recognize, even if it was the result of a blessing, was a bit of an eye opener.

  There were other ways to affect the world and grow in power, though they obviously weren't as popular as mana and essence. Or whatever the fuck Knights used.

  I already knew aether was a thing, I just didn't know what it was. Alvir decided to be his usual self when I mustered the will to ask him. The asshole took some morbid pleasure in holding knowledge close to his chest. He'd tell me eventually, but eventually was too long. I was going to leave Anik as soon as spring came, if only because I was ready to take on a dungeon on my lonesome without a guaranteed death.

  Fighting in groups was fun and having people to rely on was comforting.

  But essence split depending on contribution, however that was supposed to be calculated, so being part of a group would stall the already sluggish pace of enhancing my body.

  Besides, my skill with magic wouldn't grow if I was being coddled.

  So I was going to leave, most likely for Ortium. Not just because my brother stayed there for most of the year though...I was actually dreading seeing him again. What would he think of what his little sister had become?

  But no, there was something much too tantalizing waiting by the city for me to hold off on going there.

  So, if I wanted to get as many tools as I could before the End came, then I needed to be proactive. Which...involved a whole lot of meditating.

  I couldn't think of anything else, people didn't awaken to mana through brute force, it just happened. For all I knew, these mysterious energies worked the same way. The fact they weren't well known amongst the populace like essence or mana meant they were likely much rarer too.

  At least to control.

  I tried figuring out what made blood special at first, but that led to a whole lot of nothing alongside anemia. Apparently mend found it a lot harder to replace iron than it did blood, which was fair. It was kinda stretching my concept to include iron as something that was mine. Though it did still count. Maybe I could collect iron slowly by bleeding myself over a few months and make a sword out of it?

  Sounded like a pain in the ass.

  Controlling my blood directly revealed nothing as well. I even went to the library and bought a book detailing basic rituals and tried a few. Irritating to make, but watching my blood fuel a ritual to deal with my iron deficiency was amusing enough to make up for it.

  Didn't grasp anything though.

  So, meditating.

  Aether or whatever else was out there existed, I just didn't have the capacity to sense them. Like how a persons eyes couldn't see in infra-red. In that respect, trying to make it happen with sheer force of will was a bit silly, wasn't it?

  Silly or not, I'd dedicate some time to trying on the off chance it worked.

  "Idiot," the demon huffed.

  I glowered, what did this little shit know? Demons were masters of magic, but I hadn't heard of them being able to control anything else. Likely it was just trying to goad me into a reaction. It seemed to find entertainment in my frustration, of which there was plenty since most of the time I was stumbling through all this blind.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The demon hummed, and the tune sounded something like a deer's final bleat. "New. Deal?"

  Knowledge flooded my mind, terms and conditions and a ridiculous price.

  "Fuck off," I growled.

  The imp blinked, then shrugged, not at all bothered by my refusal.

  I rubbed the headache away and continued to with my effort to find anything at all. I looked through my soul, scoured my spirit, but I had yet to search my body

  Looking inside my body was...hmmm...technically I could already do that? The spirit was so intertwined with the body that the difference got a bit muddled, in the ethereal sense. I assumed that was why my passageways seemed constricted to my body, or even attempted at petty mimicry.

  The two were intrinsically linked, and to look at one was to look at both.

  Which was a problem, considering I only used my senses to observe the spiritual side up to that point. The idea that something might reside in my flesh spawned from blood being able to fuel rituals. If blood could hold something mystical, then why not bones?

  So, I tried to pull my attention to my body.

  I wasn't successful, at all.

  I didn't know what to try next, so I just did variations of more of the same until eventually I gave up.

  I let out a sigh alongside a series of grumbles, and looked outside. The sun was starting to crest the horizon, which meant I had to go if I wanted to be on time for magic lessons. Alvir...knew too much. Too much to make sense, did he have a contact with someone in the universities? Or did the coven manage to infiltrate academia?

  It was a horrifying train of thought. Also quite interesting.

  Meant that there might've been a way to sneak past whatever witch detection tools the empire had. Very valuable knowledge to have if I ever found myself under scrutiny. Two people I cared for knew what I was. Both of them completely fine with that fact.

  Society, at large, was not.

  I was lucky, and I wasn't about to let that luck make me complacent.

  I had a feeling that he wasn't going to volunteer that information willingly, but that was fine. I still had plenty to learn, and could figure out that shit once it was time to leave the city. Which would be soon.

  Then, dungeons.

  I was a bit excited to see what all the fuss was about.

  I didn't know shit about dungeons except for the beginner ones in the kingdom and those the protagonists of the game found while travelling a bit of the empire on their way to end Armageddon, and I doubted that information was reliable. Dungeons were things of never-ending descent if the rumours were to be believed.

  In the game, they were an excuse for raid bosses.

  Bosses that appeared on the fifth floor, sometimes the third.

  The entrance had monsters that could destroy my hunting group, with difficulty sure, but the outcome would be clear. Cities like Ortium or Florain wouldn't exist if their foundational dungeons were that insane. Maybe the dungeons got worse in the End? Somehow?

  Or maybe it was just endgame bullshittery, and the dungeons would stay the same in reality.

  Considering magic and attaining power was so drastically different, the chances were fifty-fifty.

  Not exactly the time to start daydreaming. I shrugged and got up from the floor, putting on a pair of thick fur boots I got for winter and walking down the steps to the inn proper.

  "Ah! My best early riser, how goes it?"

  I blinked and turned towards the innkeeper. "I'm fine?"

  "I'm sure, I'm sure." He nodded. "Say? You wouldn't be happening on your way to that fancy jewellers on the east, are ya?"

  "I am, did you need something from Alvir?" I sighed.

  Gardo gave me a wide smile. "Well, I was wondering if you couldn't put in a recommendation for my daughter? She knows how to handle trinkets well enough where she'd make for a valuable apprentice!"

  "Sure, but I make no promises."

  He nodded happily and I made my way onto the streets, letting out a huff of air that turned into mist. Plenty entertaining. I didn't know how the heating worked in the inn, or anywhere else in the city, but it made the transition from in to out a bit jarring. Took a moment for my body to settle, which was fucking hilarious.

  Bodies didn't settle in the cold, you just got used to the temperature. I, however, had absorbed enough essence at this point to where the winter was still cold, just not nearly as cold as it used to be. I wondered if Loklan could've strutted the streets in the nude and been perfectly comfortable.

  The thought got a snort, and I headed east through the utilitarian streets of the north. It got more convoluted the further I got from the inn, wealth seemingly making people crave inconvenient city planning.

  Or they were building around the mansions, there were a few of those.

  Altogether too pretentious to exist, but who was I to tell the nobility to waste their coin? Let them enjoy themselves while they could, while everyone else suffered.

  How the world worked, and I wasn't in any position to change that.

  Would I if I was?

  Alright, hmmm.

  Classes have been going well? Just the first few but it doesn't seem all that bad so far, writing is also going well! Except for a few plot holes that need to be patched up. Idk, do I have the funniez today? Don't feel like I do.

  Made some acquaintances in the program, got some notes from the lectures, all that jazz.

  Fuck, I want to talk about so much but just about all of it is spoiler territory :(

  The horror.

  Anyway, imma get back to struggling with writer's block now (after studying of course).