Book 3, chapter 19

Zee awoke from a dreamless slumber, her eyes slowly opening. Soft brown canvas rustled above her, letting in the faint light. She took a few minutes to simply lie there, taking stalk of her surroundings and her body.

She focused on her spatial ripple skill, scanning the area around the tent. She found Greg, sitting atop the stump of a fallen tree, scanning the forest for danger. The others were nowhere to be seen, out of range of her sensory skill.

Once she confirmed it was safe, she focused on the next pressing matter like wrangling in her aura. She grimaced as she took hold of her slowly dispersing energy, re-compressing it. Passing out was always such a pain in the ass.

It might take her days, or even weeks to recover the energy she had lost. With her aura dealt with, she moved on probing the aches and pains in her body. Most of them were gone by now, aside from a sharp pain in her side. Her body felt much better than expected.

The others must have used one of her E-grade healing pills, considering the state of her body before she passed out. She let out a deep sigh. Using one of her very limited E-grade pills already was a big loss, though she wasn't that upset about it.

Being alive and poor was far preferable to being dead and rich.

With a deep breath she calmed her mind falling into a deep meditation. The world river slithered around her, ebbing and flowing, covered in brackish hues.

Excitement filled her as her attention locked onto the flame flickering happily in her chest. It no longer had the soft light of a candle, instead burned with the luster of a rune lantern.

The heart of fire danced to an unheard rhythm, It's odd movements mesmerizing to watch.

She could feel it. Even in its passive state, the heart of fire helped her. With every beat the aches in her body lessen, her fatigue gradually fading.

Not only that, but she no longer felt the faint hints of impurities left behind by the Antidote pills she was taking every two days.

Or maybe it was that natural treasure she stole from that beetle? She hoped it was the former, but the latter wasn't so bad either.

Having her bloodline talent cleanse her body of impurities would definitely be a great outcome.

It would save her the massive cost of paying for medicinal baths to cleanse the toxins. The heart of fire might even be able to cleanse her body of that toxic smoke now that she thought of it.

It was an interesting hypothesis, one she wouldn't test because she wasn't a complete lunatic. The toxic smoke of the dead world was something she would test her newly enhanced bloodline talent on.

It would be interesting to see what else her new talent did

She turned her mind to the world river around her. Dragging in that toxic energy was like drinking sewage. Separating the filth was a distinctly uncomfortable experience, though she was betting it wasn't near as bad as putting that stuff into her splinter.

A whirlpool formed in her mind, funneling into her splinter. The splinter pulsed, releasing a wave of pure energy that radiated outward into her body revealing a spiderweb of hairline cracks along the splinters surface.

A smile tugged at her lips as she scanned her body using her inner sight. She didn't need the status to tell her something had changed, but it certainly helped.

(Zee Viotti.

Race, human, common.

Splinter, Formation stage.

Class, Spirit sorceress, Peak F rank, fifteen percent bonus to foundation. This class's rarity is dependent on your spirit companion.

Spirit companion, Early F rank, Rarity, Transcendent.

Splinter, plus thirty five percent potency.

Body, plus fifty percent potency.

Mind, plus fifty percent potency.

Spirt, E grade, plus seventy percent potency.

Soul, plus fifty percent potency.

Skills, plus forty percent potency.

(Proficiency increased, spirit echo, Peak, has reached sixty five percent mastery.

Proficiency increased, summoner, Peak, has reached fifty four percent mastery.

Proficiency increased, Wayward walk, Peak, has reached forty nine percent mastery.

Proficiency increased, spatial ripple, Peak, has reached three percent mastery.)

Spark of insight. Compression.

Boons.

The bloody hunt.

Boon of the spirit.

Boon of the blood Drunk Gorger.

Boon of despair.

The ever-burning flame.

Giant slayer.

Burning wrath.

(Bloodline Talent, Heart of Fire, E.)

To say that she had taken a large step forwards, was an understatement. All of her skills had leaped forwards at a crazy degree.

Her spatial ripple had jumped all the way to peak F rank.

Apparently slaughtering hundreds of bugs in bursts of wanton destruction was a great way to increase her proficiency.

Granted, she had almost died, but that was pushed to the back of her mind after seeing the gains.

(Heart of fire, E, bloodline talent.)

Zee perked up excitedly. The ever-burning flame, or the heart of fire as it was now called had ranked up to E grade in one go. And that wasn't all she got. Accompanying the ranked-up bloodline talent was a boon.

(Burning wrath, boon, plus five percent potency to body, spirit, mind, and soul.)

Allison was going to be so mad, given Zee got another boon, and basically by accident. She smiled, maybe she should keep this one a secret.

Zee pushed down the covers, revealing her naked torso, only covered by bandages wrapping her abdomen. Zee inhaled sharply as she sat up, feeling like she was being stabbed all over again.

"Ohh, you are finally awake," Dern said, relief radiating from the splinter in her mind.

"Ouch... Getting stabbed sucks." Zee groaned.

"Maybe you should think about that next time before you charge a Clackson hive queen." Dern rebuked.

"Says the guy that got skewered by the same beetle as me."Zee countered.

"I was busy fighting a swarm of the little ones and didn't see that big jerk coming, whereas you charged the queen by yourself like an idiot. "Dern said.

"You could at least pretend to show sympathy for my plight," Zee grumbled.

"Why? If I do that you will be even more emboldened to do stupid things." Dern retorted.

"Look, I am sorry alright, I should have listened and left that beetle alone," Zee said, looking around the tent for her clothes.

Dern sighed in her mind. "You keep saying that, but you never listen to my advice," Dern said.

Zee ignored his complaining rifling through her things piled next to the bed. For some reason, there was a distinct lack of clothing, which wasn't too big of a problem. She picked up her spatial storage necklace, using a wisp of mental energy to peer inside.

With a mental tug, she pulled a spare set of combat robes out.

It was super weird to sense space fold for a moment. She could both see and feel it at the same time. She blinked, returning the robe to the pocket space.

A thin bubble of space wrapped the robes before space folded once more. She performed the same action a few more times, trying to gleam something from the process.

Was this an unforeseen benefit of her spatial ripple skill reaching peak F grade? Or was this an effect of her newly evolved heart of fire? After a few minutes of testing, she shook her head.

No insights, but that was expected. Space was notoriously tricky to comprehend. It was not something she could grasp after only a few minutes.

Her aspiration to gain insight into the concept of space would have to be put on hold for now. At least until she recovered. The last vision made her pass out. Experiencing another bout of inspiration so soon might actually kill her.

She shook her head. Pushing for more power so soon after nearly dying. Was she crazy? Zee didn't feel crazy. But then Again, all crazy people probably thought that.

Zee pushed those useless thoughts to the back of her mind, slipping on her robes. It was extremely uncomfortable, given she was still injured. She strapped on her empty scabbard, troubled that her sword wasn't around.

She wasn't too worried, as she felt a small tug on her mind. She focused on that feeling and sighed in relief. Her sword wasn't too far away. Zee pushed through the tent flap, into the shade of a towering tree.

Greg stood and leaped down from his perch, giving her a nod.

"Where are the others?" Zee asked.

"Harvesting the beetles for valuables," Greg said, gesturing over his shoulder. "About ten minutes that way."

"How long have I been out?" Zee asked.

"A full day and a half," Greg said with a shrug.

"And you guarded me the whole time?" Zee asked.

The burly ranger grunted in acknowledgment, his expression hard to read. She smiled up at him.

"Thanks, Greg, I owe you one," Zee said, striding past him.

"Don't mention it. It was no trouble." Greg said, following close behind her.

"How are the others?" Zee asked.

"Fine," Greg grunted.

"How is the harvesting going?" Zee asked.

"It's going good," Greg said.

Zee sighed, giving up on her efforts to communicate with him. The large Armenian was as always not the best conversational partner. She focused instead on walking, heading in the general direction Greg had pointed.

It just so happened to be in the same direction as her sword, which was a relief. While they were walking, Dern cleared his throat nervously in her head.

"What is it?" Zee asked, wearily.

"So, you know how my form was destroyed last fight?" Dern asked hesitantly.

"Yes."

"Well, now I am hungry," Dern said.

"Hungry? What do you mean, you don't even eat." Zee said.

"About that. I simply haven't needed to eat because I have been able to survive off your residual energy. Having my body destroyed so many times has changed that."

The stench of rotting ichor and burning flesh hit her nose, as she strode into an area of the forest littered with the dead. Zee pinched her nose, eying her team, who looked exhausted as they rifled through the corpses.

Zee approached, the others looking like they were almost finished harvesting all the beetles. Allison tore a small crystal from a beetle's skill, her arms drenched in ichor.

The princess walked over, not seeming affected by the blood spattering her clothing.

"What in the stary hells just happened? You went on a murder spree, before passing out." Allison said, scowling at Zee.

Still trying to wrap her mind around the massacre around her, Zee shrugged.

"I thought you wanted us to kill the hive queen? I did that didn't I?" Zee asked.

The princess gestured around at the piles of smoking dead, many turned to ash from her spiritual decay.

"This is not what I meant. You were far too reckless." Allison said.

Zee let out a pained laugh. "Ya, I didn't expect that either. How was I supposed to know the fruit I ate would do that to me?" Zee asked.

The princess let out an exasperated sigh. "You found a random fruit, and just ate it? Without checking to see if it was poisonous or not?" Allison asked.

"Sound's like a bad thing when you say it like that. It turned out alright didn't it?" Zee asked.

"Do you call passing out a good outcome? You need to restrain your impulses. You could have gotten us all killed." Allison said, her tone so sharp it could cut.

Zee shrank back, startled at her friend's angry tone. Allison deftly stepped around and over piles of crushed bodies, pausing mere feet in front of her. The princess folded her arms, displeasure written across her face.

"We need to talk about your rash behavior," Allison said sternly.

Zee might normally make some quip and try to brush it of, but the princess looked deadly serious.

"About what?" Zee asked.

"About you taking unnecessary risks. Don't you realize you could have died? Eating that fruit was not only a danger to yourself, but to us as well. You put all of us in danger." Allison said, gesturing behind herself, towards the rest of the team.

"But, I killed the hive queen,"Zee said meekly.

"And that was impressive but the fact of the matter is, you almost killed us as well." Allison scolded, her expression hard to read.

Zee glanced over the face of the others, who did not look happy with her in the slightest.

"Sorry," Zee grumbled, looking anywhere but her friend's eyes. The princess rested a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently.

"Just be careful okay? Your habit of leaping head-first into danger is worrying. If not for that E-grade pill you gave me, you would have died." Allison said.

"I may have gone a little… overboard." Zee said.

"A little?" Allison asked dubiously.

"Okay, a lot, But I got something good to make all that pain worth it," Zee said.

"You lucky little wisp. Please tell me you didn't have another breakthrough so soon?" Allison asked.

"Uhh, I didn't have another breakthrough," Zee said with a cheeky smile.

"You are such a liar. What did you get this time?" Allison asked.

"I evolved a bloodline talent I got," Zee said. Even now, she could feel it, the heart of fire beating like a drum in her chest, urging her forward.

"You have a bloodline talent, and you just evolved it," Allison asked, giving her a look of mute incomprehension.

"Yes, and no I am not going to tell you what I got," Zee said.

"Now that's just rude. After putting us through all that work, you are keeping us in suspense?"Allison asked getting nods of agreement from the others.

Zee smiled. "Of course, I will definitely reveal one of my core secrets to everyone. While I am at it, want me to divulge the rest of my status?" Zee asked sarcastically.

"Well, you don't need to be an ass about it."Allison said.

Zee patted the taller woman on the shoulder, cringing at the ichor coating her robes. She gesture towards the dead hive queen, not yet harvested, her sword still lodged in its skull.

"So, what do we do, with this squished beetle?"Zee asked, eying her handiwork with a morbid fascination.

The princess shrugged. "Not much left to harvest. The splinter should still be intact, though the rest looks like it's been repeatedly run over by a carriage." Allison said.

Zee glanced around at all the other dead, which included dozens still charred beetles, having been burned to a crisp.

"Well, hopefully, we can get something of value from this. Have you guys found anything good over the past day?" Zee asked.

Ilukna sidled up beside the princess sliding an arm around her waist.

"We have been harvesting their splinters, but the corpses are rotting. I say we toss the rest of the corpses into a spatial storage and let the Kelvish dominion decide how many contribution points to give us for them," Yukna said.

Zee glanced over at Bastion who was elbow deep in bug brains having just pried a splinter from one's head.

He examined the bloody splinter, a happy smile tugging at his lips. He looked like he had just found a gold mine.

"I agree with Yukna, though with one caveat, we harvest all the splinters first," Zee said.

The princess nodded.

"Even if someone in our team crushed half of the splinters, we should be able to make a cartload of Dara by selling all the splinters," Allison said.

Zee gave the princess an affronted look.

"I say we deduct from her share for needlessly destroying so much money."Bastion piped in, already tearing out another splinter from a new beetle.

Zee gave him her sweetest smile. "I could always take back that spatial storage I gave you. I bet you would have a lot of fun carrying everything stored inside." Zee threatened.

Bastion coughed, glaring at Greg who burst out laughing.

"I must have misspoken. What I meant to say was that we should split the spoils evenly." Bastion said.

"That's what I thought,"Zee said.

Allison patted her on the shoulder with a hand covered in ichor. "Since we are splitting it evenly, you have to help us harvest the splinters," Allison said, with an evil smile.

Zee grimaced, but couldn't argue. It was only fair after all.

They set to work, harvesting the splinters from the heads of the beetles, and tossing the bodies into a spare spatial storage. It was a good thing she made an extra in case of emergencies, as she really didn't like the idea of so many corpses in with her other supplies.

Zee wasn't all too excited about selling the gem-like splinters, but she did have other uses for them. She was going to keep some for use in combat, but the vast majority would be used to advance her cultivation.

She was hoping that she might be able to use these splinters to gain incite into her spatial affinity.

After all, these beast splinters had a unique trait. Infusing them until they burst always created a small ripple of energy pertaining to the person's affinity.

In Zee's case, they would create a small, unstable tear in reality that would last for a second before fading.

A second didn't sound like a lot, but she had three hundred and fifty mid-F-grade splinters after all the corpses were harvested.

She also took the hive queen's splinter, which was much larger and more valuable. After the spire hawk, and now the hive queen, Zee had two E-grade beast splinters.

Bastion was going to be sick to his stomach when he found out how she was using them. She couldn't wait to see the look on his face when tossed all that money away to open a small portal that only would last a few seconds at most.

All in all, it took them another day to harvest everything. Or at least she assumed it was a full day. It was hard to tell, given the sky stayed the same yellow gloom all the time.

Yukna had a fancy device that kept track of time, which was nice, given they had a deadline. But that was a long way away. They still had six months to gather valuables, before the Kelvish dominion would open a portal for them to leave.

Zee wasn't sure how that was going to work. Surely they weren't going to make one for each person right? Maybe just one large one.

Her thoughts were rudely disturbed, as three men, each about seven feet tall strode out from the dense jungle, radiating blood-drenched auras.