Level One: Blood Tower

A shaft of sunlight pierced through the opening of Jayde's tent waking her up. Sitting Jayde rubbed the sleep from her eyes, before stretching her arms above her head. Throwing back the top of her sleeping bag Jayde climbed out of bed. After getting her fire going, Jayde took stock of what was available in her spatial ring. When she had assumed she would only be stuck in the tower for four days, Jayde hadn't fretted about her supplies, but now that Jayde knew that she could be here for four months she was anxious about her supplies.

After rummaging through her spatial ring, Jayde smiled grimly to herself, she definitely didn't have enough food and water for four months. Jayde contacted Isha to find out if the desert sand wurms were edible, Jayde was delighted to find out that they were. Well at least I will have meat, Jayde thought. Since Jayde wasn't sure when she would come across another oasis, she decided to spend to the day collect and boiling water to store for her trek across the desert. While it would make sense to stay near the spring, Jayde was worried that she would run out of prey to hunt, so she planned to move out the next day.

Collecting a couple of buckets from her spatial ring, Jayde walked over to the spring filling them up and carry them back to her fire. Placing a pot filled with water onto the fire, Jayde then took one of the buckets of cold water into her tent so that she could at least wash. After dressing Jayde then returned to her fire, while waiting water to boil and cool, Jayde made herself a robe she could wear over her leathers to protect herself from the sun.

Once she was finished, she had a look at the rough coat she had made, while it would not win any awards for fashion it at least would keep her from getting severely sunburned. Putting the long coat on as well as the turban Jayde then walked around the oasis, picking up pieces of wood lying on the ground and storing it away in her spatial ring. Noting that some of the trees had various fruits and nuts, Jayde confirmed with Isha if they were editable.

Isha was pleased to point out which fruits and nuts Jayde could eat as well as some of the other benefits of each plant. One of the succulent plants was very similar to the Aloe vera plant available on Earth, and Isha confirmed that is had a lot of medicinal uses. Happy that she had something that she could use on her skin Jayde cut some of the leaves and stored them away. Remembering that she might have to make her own cosmetics Jayde carefully dug out some of the plants and sent them to Isha in the Pavilion to plant in her herb garden.

Jayde harvested the fruits and nuts growing on the trees and bushes and carried on picking up the branches lying on the ground. Picking up a couple of pieces of dark wood branches, Jayde noticed a fragrant smell coming off the dark wood. As the familiar scent of pine and lemon combined with a dry woody aroma filled her nose, Jayde looked down at the dark wooden branches in her arms in amazement.

Quickly bending down she placed the wooden branches on the ground, then lifting up one of the branches she scrutinized it. Seeing a small globe of golden resin, Jayde used her nails to scrape off the gum. Feeling the slightly oily resin, Jayde raise it to her nose, after breathing in deeply, her lips curled into a half smile, this smells just like frankincense, Jayde thought.

[Isha,] Jayde called out mentally. [Do you recognize this tree?]

[Hmm, why yes, that is a Black-Weed Meadow Viburnum. Mages used to use the oil from the resin from the tree as incense, but due to over-harvesting, the trees have become quite rare. Jayde you should see if there are fruits available on the tree, while the fruit itself isn't edible they do contain seeds that we can plant in your dimensional space,] Isha said his mental voice trembling with excitement.

Jayde hurried over to a small grove of the trees, happy to see many pump yellow fruits. Jayde picked all the fruits that she could see, sending them to Isha in the Pavilion. Jayde then inspected the bark of the trees and scape off any resin she could find, to her delight she was able to collect over five full buckets of resin, which she stored away in her spatial ring.

After Jayde had stored everything away, she spent the next hour interrogating Isha trying to find out if she could find other plants and trees that she knew. After trying to describe the scent of myrrh (being an earthy licorice smell with a hint of nut), but since Isha had no clue what licorice smelt like he couldn't really help Jayde. After some thought, Isha did suggest that Jayde should look out for the Scarlet Devils Thorn bush which was a thorn bush found in deserts, which also produce a resin that mages used for incense.

For Argan oil, Isha advised her that Silverleaf Screwbean Woundwort produce large nuts which seeds could be used as an oil which was edible and known to be excellent for the skin. The Silverleaf Screwbean Woundwort tree was fairly common on the Lower Realm.

The Yellow Sand Thimbleberry, which Jayde should come across in this desert, produced a fruit similar to lemons, while the Silky Green Gallberry had a fruit identical to avocado which was very common in the lower realm.

As for marigolds, after seeing the mental picture that Jayde project Isha suggested for Jayde to look for Gloriosa Possumhaw, a natural flower found all over Doha.

Jayde made a mental note of each of the plants she needed to investigate, the only thing missing now for her cosmetic cream was something similar coconut, projecting an image of coconut to Isha Jayde asked if there was anything comparable.

[Jayde only thing I can think of is the Three-Leaved Traveller's Windroot, but I believe these trees no longer grow in the Lower Realm. The milk contained within the fruit was highly beneficial to mages, so they were harvested to extinction.]

[Damn,] Jayde said.

[Um, you might want to try the market or your dimension upgrades, maybe you could find them there,] Isha suggested.

[Good suggestion,] Jayde said cheering up. Jayde made a mental note to check on the Three-Leaved Traveller's Windroot when she returned to the Pavilion. By midday, Jayde had filled up every available bucket she had with freshly boiled water and stored the water in her spatial ring. Looking at the water stored as well as the lily pods in her spatial ring, Jayde estimated that she had about two months worth of water for herself, Reiko and Yinxin — as long as they were careful with the water.

With all the wood that she had collected, she had plenty of firewood, and with all the nuts and fruits harvested, they would add a nice variety to any meat that she hunted during the next couple of months. With nothing better to do in the afternoon, Jayde decided to practice her new technique, the Art of Sword Flying.

Removing Thorn from her sheath, Jayde drew the spell runes onto the surface of her sword, stepping on to the blade of the sword, Jayde then channeled her magic into the runes to invoked the magic. The sword gently rose up from the ground. Jayde knew from the technique given that she had to keep a mental bond with the sword to direct the sword to fly.

Since this was the first time she was flying on her sword Jayde didn't want to fly too high in case she fell off, the last thing she needed now was to fall and break some bones. It was just as well that Jayde as so cautious, as when she directed the sword forward, the sword zipped ahead so fast that Jayde instantly fell off.

Jayde could hear Thorn howling with laughter in her mind as she landed on her ass.

[How about you give it a try and see if you can do any better,] Jayde hissed dangerously.

Thorn gulped, he had forgotten that his new master was an insane woman.

[Ahem, that's okay, anyway I can't leave the sword,] Thorn said with a voice betraying how relieved he was that he couldn't leave his sword.

Jayde's forehead furrowed at Thorn comment.

[You can never leave the sword?] Jayde asked.

[That's right, all weapon spirits are bound to their weapons, they can never leave.]

[What happens if the weapon is damaged or broken?] Jayde asked with a touch of concern.

[Well as long as the weapon is not obliterated, the weapon's spirit will survive, the spirit will suffer damage depending on the severity of the injury to the weapon, but they won't lose their life,] Thorn answered matter-of-factly.

[Oh,] Jayde said as she stood up and dusted herself off. As Jayde started to walk over to her sword lying on the ground a couple of feet away from her, Thorn's voice echoed through her mind.

[You know that you can just call me to you?]

Jayde came to a halt, cocking her head to one side she asked: [Really? How do I do that?]

[Just reach out through our bond and call me.]

Jayde closed her eyes as she examined the bond threads in her mind, Isha had shown her how to access these threads a while back. This small area was pitch black with a bright glowing light in the middle, the globe of light in the middle was silver in the center was a little red flame which was ringed by a golden brown glow — that light was Jayde herself.

From that brilliant light, Jayde could see three thick, lustrous threads which pulsed vibrantly. One led to a pure gold light, which Jayde knew was the Proteus artifact. The other thread led to a tree with a glowing brown bark and silver leaves, which was Yinxin, strangely enough, three small filaments branched out from that three leading to three small saplings.

When Jayde had asked Isha about it, he had told her that those three saplings were the three hatchlings, Isha had quickly confirmed that those threads would disappear when the hatchlings were older unless they decided to keep the bond with Jayde.

The other thread led to a flickering indigo flame with tiny silver and red sparkles, which was Reiko, before Reiko's change the flame used to be red. Looking around Jayde could faintly make out a new thread, it was a quarter of the size of the other threads, but as the bond between herself and Thorn grew this thread would thicken just like the others, this thin thread led to a small ivory star, the center of the ivory star glowed a flaming red.

Observing this private space, Jayde was surprised to see that small threads now linked Reiko and Yinxin. Her bond space was beginning to look like a spider web, Jayde thought. It really is beautiful. Usually, Jayde didn't need to close her eyes to connect with Yinxin, Isha or Reiko, but her bond with Thorn had just taken place. Reaching out mentally to touch the gleaming star Jayde summoned it to her, at the same time she opened her eyes.

The sword lying on the ground a couple of feet in front of Jayde rose up into the air and quickly moved to Jayde, raising her right hand Jayde promptly caught the hilt of the sword. This is so awesome, Jayde thought, staring at the sword in her hand.

[Hey Thorn, what is the maximum distance that I can call you?]

[Distance? There is no such thing as distance between a master and his spirit weapon.]

Thorn did go on to explain that the sword used it's own Qi to relocate, which meant the further the distance the more energy the sword would drain from the spirit dwelling within the weapon. If Jayde was to summon Thorn from a vast distance, she could potentially drain most of his energy, forcing the small fox into a coma, but a as long as Jayde fed her own magic into the sword Thorn would recover.

From White's reaction, Jayde realized that the fire sword in her hand was unique, but Thorn's comments about being damaged did worry her a bit. Jayde questioned Thorn about could harm him.

[Only a spirit weapon more powerful than me,] Thorn answered proudly.

[Ah, that good,] Jayde answered relieved.

[Thorn you mentioned that you can upgrade, so what level or class are you?]

[Ahem, I'm level one,] Thorn answered after a while in a small voice.

What the...! Jayde thought, pinching her nose with her fingers. Damn, I have an infant spirit weapon she grumbled to herself.

Thorn quickly injected, [A couple more days like yesterday and I am sure to upgrade.]

[Ah okay, but Thorn how can you still be a level one spirit weapon?] Jayde asked. [Didn't you use to have a master before?]

[Yes I did, but he didn't use me for combat, he had much stronger spirit weapons,] Thorn said sadly.

[Oh, well cheer up we going to be here for a while, so I am sure you will level up quickly,] Jayde said.

After reassuring the small fox, Jayde spent the rest of the day practicing her Art of Sword Flying technique. To Jayde's dismay theory and practical differed quite a bit. Jayde spent most of the afternoon falling off her sword rather than flying. It took Jayde hours to finally figure out how to balance herself properly on her sword. It was only after Yinxin pointed out that Jayde needed to use her magic to ground herself to the sword that Jayde finally stopped ended up on her ass on the ground.

It was just before sunset that Jayde could finally soar through the skies on Thorn, although she could not fly vast distances as the magic required to keep her flying was substantial. Jayde eventually returned to her camp — drained and weary but satisfied with her results. Eating an elven wafter bread, Jayde washed up before climbing into her sleeping bag. Within seconds of her head hitting her pillow, she was fast asleep.

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