Magic?

Braxton spent the rest of the week looking up magic. He found a lot of basic nonsense. Most of what he found was just conjecture. Real magical references are few and far between. He had to reach back in human history. The pyramids and beyond had references to spells. Ancient tribal tales from many cultures talked about magical spells and abilities too.

The things he learned hinted that magic was real. It was just something lost to time. The invisibility was still active four days later. He was learning how to control it. He could turn it off but, when he went to sleep or forgot about it, he would revert to being invisible.

Braxton started thinking about the different skills and abilities he had seen creature use. He made a list of all the strange skills he had seen. Burrow was near a magical ability but, Alpha could identify it. It was tracked as a skill. The poison cloud the Blast Reapers used was one skill that didn't seem magical. Braxton hadn't drank any blood since this happened. He had yet to try that.

He figured out wearing cloths, he couldn't make his gear invisible. His wristwatches also stayed visible. They were small enough they were mostly unnoticeable. That fact made the skill less useable. He drank a few more of the vials of Stone Ghost blood. He spaced them out over the next day. The blood he had taken recently didn't take long to absorb. It was averaging under thirty minutes a vial. He was curious if the invisibility was like his skills, if it had levels he might be able to extend it to items he carried.

The next day, he woke up and the watches were no longer visible. Then he put on clothes. He was able to make them vanish too. He was not able to make multiple layers vanish though. Where he had underwear his pants stayed visible. He was able to make a small sword or dagger vanish too, but anything larger than two feet would remain visible at the end. Handguns could remain invisible too. When he fired them the rapid movement made them shimmer. The empty casings seemed to appear out of thin air and fly away from him.

The skill wasn't able to work on his armor. He wasn't sure why. It may have just had to much mass at this point in time. It might be hat he needed more blood to power up his ability too. Unfortunately, he had run out of the blood. Unless he dipped into the vials he set aside for Vixen. He did have a lot more control over when he was invisible now than he did he day before. If nothing else that was a huge plus.

Braxton walked in the living room. Vixen was sitting on the couch shopping for new weapons she had studied about. "I've got a little better handle of his skill. It could be better. I think more of the creature's blood can make it a lot better. It's difficult to tell when it gets stronger." Braxton informed her.

"Well go kill a few more then." Vixen retorted.

"I didn't kill the first one. I stumbled on it. It got caught in another creature's body I was in the middle of killing." Braxton stated honestly.

"Well you won't find any of them here. I've got work to do. This license wasn't cheap. I need to stock up and get a stockpile ready for the base camp. Go have fun." Vixen didn't seem like she wanted to be bothered.

Braxton kissed her on the cheek. Then he geared up again and went back into the portal. He drank a vial of the Reaper blood. Alpha's voice broken the silence "Blast Burrow Reaper blood consumed."

"Good things are getting back to normal." Braxton thought to himself.

Ickthous wasn't in the base camp. He looked around but didn't see him around in the local region either. It wasn't of grave concern yet. His work space was fairly empty. That might mean he had a load of gear he was returning to his village. Braxton hoped that wasn't the case. For one thing, he could make the trip instantly. For another he didn't want the bodies and parts piling up around camp.

Braxton took the crossbow he left. It was clearly designed for him. It was smaller than the first one he had made. He only left one quill with it. Braxton assumed he took the rest for himself in a quiver. As he walked out of the camp, he saw a body in the minefield. He collected it. "Blast Beetle discovered." Alpha's notification informed him.

The body was badly mangled. He wasn't sure how long it had been there. He took it back inside and tried to drain the blood. What came out was a clear liquid. He smelled it. The aroma was like sweet smelling flowers. He only got enough for one vial. The creature was about two feet long. It was shaped and marked like a ladybug. It was blue with black spots. He had seen Hess before in the trees but hadn't bothered with them before.

He found the flesh and removed it from the body. Then sliced it then and put it in he dehydrator Ickthous had setup. After that was done he went back out hunting.

He activated the Moonlight Halo and went to the path he had cleared the Reapers from. It was a new area for him. It wasn't long before he discovered a small pool of water that seemed to well up from underneath the ground. The trees and plants he found in this area were more normal. The leaves were white but the trunks were brown.

The Reapers were smart creatures. The animals have to go past them to reach water and back to find food.

He looked around for something that looked interesting to kill. He wanted to kill Stone Ghosts but, as yet he had no way to find them. He saw a couple black looking bears. These looked different from the last one that ended up being a Parasite Creeper. Braxton was in no hurry to shoot one of them. These ones were not alone. There were three in the group.

Braxton passed them over, he kept an eye on them. As he looked everything over, he reloaded the rocket launcher and the grenade launcher. He saw many more creatures in his section that looked like aggressive species. The plants were not lighting up with the Moonlight Halo. He was pretty happy about that. Those were stranger than most things.

There were miles of possible targets to pick from. There were various forms of insects. Herds of Buffalo similar to the type that stampeded towards him and Vixen. There was a herd of elk looking creatures. He decided on killing one of these. The legs on them had blades. Their hides looked like they may be thick. He was to far away to tell. Looking through a scope could tell a lot but judging a thick hide was not exactly easy sight.

He summoned his 20mm sniper rifle. The elk was a bit over two miles away. Not a long shot for this weapon. He wanted a head shot. So many of his recent kills had lost a lot of their precious blood. He squeezed the trigger and watched. So many of his recent kills had been so difficult he was waiting to see what hell unfolded next. To his shock, the bullet hit the animal and it dropped. "Blast Battle Elk killed." Alpha reported.

Braxton walked to the site of the body. The aggressive creatures didn't bother him, as long as he stayed out of their way. There was plenty of game animals. They eyed him cautiously but that was all. It was odd. Braxton didn't complain. It was a nice change of pace. He put the elk in his storage and returned to the base camp again.

Ickthous was back in his workshop. He had killed a black armored ant it was a small creature. Two feet long just like the ones that Vixen and Braxton had been chased by. The only difference was the color. "I wouldn't kill to many of those. We don't want a whole horde of them swarming the camp. Me and Vixen killed thousands of them and they kept on coming. They wouldn't stop coming." Braxton explained.

"I could use thousands of them. This thing has pretty solid armor. The quill crossbow killed it easy, but it deflected my sword strikes every time." Ickthous replied.

"Just be careful. We can't just get a new house and you can't fight all day everyday. There are bigger ones that will come after you get tired killing the little ones." Braxton stated knowingly.

"It'll be fine. You find anything good today?" Ickthous inquired.

"A big elk. It was the first truly easy kill I've had beside those snakes." Braxton responded as he summoned the body.

"Nice. I should be able to make axes and maybe a sword out of those legs." Ickthous said eyeing them greedily.

"Knock yourself out. If you need me to take anything back to your tribe let me know. I can make a quick stop. I've got a question for you. Have you ever heard of magic?" Braxton questioned.

"Of course, my people have magic. What are you looking for?" Ickthous inquired.

"What kinds of magic are there? I think I might have found some magic. I'm tying to figure out how to grow it and maybe acquire more." Braxton explained.

"With my people only the royals have magic. The Queen's family all have magic. She has kids and sends one to each tribe. Most of their kids don't pass magic to the next generation. So the next Queen has to keep sending her kids to tribes that her grandmother populated with a child. Our magic can add ten times your weight to your body. It makes most people unable to fight. Then we can kill them all easily. There are many other type of magic. It is not something I know a lot about. Our people used to fight a lot, when I was a young Hazul, I was taught which magics our enemies had. I've forgot most of that knowledge." Ickthous informed him openly.

"So you can't tell me much more?" Braxton verified.

"Not really. You need to find a shaman or a mage. Not that it would be easy. It's isn't something I've had to worry about for a long time. Your people are different from ours. You don't belong here but you can survive and gain great benefits from being here." Ickthous stated plainly.

"You know I don't disagree with your assessment at all. I'm just trying to make the best of a bad situation that was thrust upon me. I'm also trying to make sure your people are not put in harms way." Braxton replied sharply.

"I know. Celious wouldn't trust just anyone. I'm just an old warrior. Sometimes I say things I shouldn't. The Tritops were among our enemies before. Many hard battles were waged with them. Your people's presence could break our peace treaties. I shouldn't worry about that. I'm here for weapons and armor and you are helping me with that." Ickthous responded apologetically.

"I didn't know that. It doesn't surprise me. My people have fought many wars against other groups of our own people. There is an older connection between our two worlds then I have figured out. It's amid the myth and memory of our history. I hope to find answers as a search." Braxton replied softly. He was deep in thought trying to make sense of the gates and how they linked up with this world.

"I need to prep my blood from this kill. Then I'm going to go pick up some more supplies. Maybe I'll get some new research accomplished too. I'm glad to see you can hunt for yourself now." Braxton said as he got to work again.

The elk provided almost fifty vials of blood. As he was finishing that batch up Alpha chimed in again "Blast Burrow Reaper blood absorbed. Earth Walker skill acquired. Vitality +1."

Alpha display Earth Walker skill, Braxton thought. The UI lit up with the information.

Earth Walker move through earth and stone. Movement rate thirty feet per hour. Skill level 1.