Elijah opened his spellbook and looked at the new additions:
Archetype: Druid
The druid is the defender, ally, and cultivator of nature. Features bonuses to natural Regeneration, energy density, and One With Nature.
Required Aspects:
[Scholar], [Nature]
Spells
Touch of Nature
Harness the power of nature to heal yourself or an ally.
Snaring Roots
Call upon nature to summon a snarl of roots to bind your enemies’ movents.
One With Nature
Draw power from nature.
Eyes of the Eagle
Briefly enhance your eyesight with the power of a fearso raptor.
Ancestral Circle
Create a place of power.
Nature’s Bounty
Encourage the growth of plants.
Storm’s Fury
Call forth the power of a storm and harness its might.
Essence of the Boar
Harness the stamina of the boar, increasing Constitution attribute by five (5) points. Usable on allies.
Essence of the Monkey
Adopt the coordination of the monkey, increasing Dexterity attribute by five (5) points. Usable on allies.
Class: Animist
The animist is a shapeshifter who can take on the characteristics of various beasts.
Shape of the Predator
Take on the shape of a mighty hunter, vastly increasing your Dexterity and Strength attributes and giving a minor increase to Constitution. Spellcasting is suspended while Shape of the Predator is active.
Despite the lingering feelings of sadness, a sense of excitent washed over Elijah when he saw his new spells. Essence of the Boar and Essence of the Monkey were both impressive enough, but his eyes were imdiately drawn to Shape of the Predator. Still, he forced himself to focus on what he considered the more mundane spells.
Essence of the Boar would increase his Constitution attribute by five points, while Essence of the Monkey would serve to do the sa for his Dexterity attribute. The real question was whether he could keep them both active at the sa ti. Before, he’d been able to intuit that keeping One With Nature active was the limit of his current abilities, but now that he’d gained a class – or maybe it was because he’d gotten a couple of levels – he felt that those limits had been expanded. So, without further ado, he cast Essence of the Boar.
He imdiately felt the effects as his fatigue washed away. Sure enough, when he opened his status, he saw that his attributes had increased according to the spell’s description. That success prompted him to cast Essence of the Monkey as well. However, that was when he got the first disappointnt. He couldn’t keep One With Nature, Essence of the Boar, and Essence of the Monkey active at the sa ti. Two seed to be the limit.
Which presented sothing of a conundrum. Both Essence of the Boar and Essence of the Monkey gave quantifiable increases, while One With Nature was a bit more nebulous. Still, just because it wasn’t reflected in his status didn’t an that it didn’t co with benefits. One With Nature made him feel stronger, faster, and more durable, even if those gains weren’t represented in his status.
So, the way he saw it, the choice was whether or not he wanted an all-around increase from One With Nature coupled with the specific increase that ca with either Essence of the Boar or Essence of the Monkey. Or he could just remove all mystery from the equation and use his two newest spells to gain quantifiable increases in his attributes.
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Elijah sat there for a long while as he considered the pros and cons of each combination. But in the end, he decided that he would always keep One With Nature active, largely because it didn’t just co with benefits to his physical abilities. Rather, it also ca with a more esoteric connection to the natural world that he’d begun to take for granted. Without it, he knew he’d feel a little lost.
As for his second available enhancent slot, he chose to use Essence of the Boar as a default, then switch to Essence of the Monkey as needed. That would protect him from any surprises by increasing his durability while giving him the flexibility to respond to threats according to the situation.
Satisfied with that strategy, Elijah shifted his focus to his status. Or more importantly, to the free attribute points he’d yet to allocate. However, to his surprise, he only had four unspent points. Frustrated, he cycled through his various notifications until he saw one he’d sohow ignored after choosing his class:
Class: Animist automatic attribute allocation:
1 STR, DEX, CONS, ETH, REG
“What the…”
Elijah trailed off as he realized what it ant. His days of being able to guide his attribute allocation were over. Instead, because of his class, he’d get a single point in every attribute each ti he gained a level. While that made sense, he found that he was a little disappointed. After all, he didn’t like the idea of losing control over his own developnt.
Still, it only took him a few seconds to realize that that wasn’t necessarily the case. When he’d closed the minor dinsional rift, he’d been awarded three free attribute points. So, if he wanted to keep a handle on his own progression, he would need to continue to do those sorts of things.
Which was probably going to happen sooner rather than later, considering that the panther was now dead. Now, the island didn’t have any guardians left besides Elijah himself. He had no idea if the cat had been closing those rifts itself, but Elijah suspected that that was the case.
Suddenly, he started to realize that his progression had just beco far more important than ever before. He needed levels as well as the attributes and additional spells that would co with them. Otherwise, he was going to be overrun by the Voxx, the invaders from across the strait, or both.
First, though, he needed to allocate his four free attribute points. To him, it felt like an easy decision. He had the ans to augnt his physical attributes, either directly via Essence of the Boar and Monkey or indirectly by keeping One With Nature active. And it stood to reason that, as he leveled, he’d gain more enhancent slots as well as the spells to increase his other attributes.
But so far, his limiting factor had been Ethera. There was an argunt to be made that Regeneration was just as valuable, but Elijah found himself discounting that line of thinking. If it ca down to a fight, there just wasn’t enough ti for Regeneration to make much of a difference. However, being able to cast one more Storm’s Fury could end up being the difference between life and death. So, he chose to allocate all four points into Ethera, thus increasing the number of spells he could use before his core ran dry.
Na
Elijah Hart
Level
10
Archetype
Druid
Class
Animist
Specialization
N/A
Alignnt
N/A
Strength
12
Dexterity
11
Constitution
12
Ethera
20
Regeneration
14
Attunent
Nature
Cultivation
Body
Core
Mind
Soul
Wood
Unford
Opal
Neophyte
Looking at his status, Elijah felt a deep sense of pride. It felt like an eternity had passed since he’d washed ashore, and in that ti, he’d been entirely remade. Certainly, he was still a long way from the superhuman levels that he’d imagined when he’d first accepted that magic was part of his new reality, but he was well on his way.
After letting a long sigh, he moved his focus to the most important item on his list. He opened the spell’s description:
Shape of the Predator
Archetype: Druid
Class: Animist
Level: 10
Take on the shape of a mighty hunter (Mist Panther), vastly increasing your Dexterity and Strength attributes and giving a minor increase to Constitution. Spellcasting is suspended while Shape of the Predator is active.
Contagion
Physical attacks made while in Predator form also inflict a minor infection.
“Wow,” Elijah breathed as he read the description. He would have been happy with the transformation alone, so he was ecstatic to find that another ability was included. He didn’t know if it was just a characteristic of being a Mist Panther or if it was awarded as part of his Animist class progression, but he figured that ti would answer that question. For now, he was eager to finally use the spell that he expected to define his class going forward. So, without further ado, he stood, then dragged Ethera from his core while focusing on Shape of the Predator.
By that point, he’d recovered all of his Ethera, so his core was entirely full. However, the mont he cast the spell, that changed. His Ethera rushed out of him in a tidal wave, draining every last ounce of the energy and leaving it absolutely bare. However, Elijah barely noticed the headache that inevitably followed. Instead, he was entirely focused on the transformation that ca soon after.
Unlike what he might’ve expected, it didn’t hurt. Nor was it pleasant. It was just odd, feeling his bones rearrange themselves. He fell to all fours as his body continued to change. His organs shifted, his muscles reford, and midnight fur sprouted all over his body. And after about thirty seconds, the transformation finished.
The mont it did, Elijah was overwheld by his own senses. He could sll everything. The small animals who made their ho in the glade. The nearby bushes of his garden. The tree itself. He even slled an acrid scent that he imdiately interpreted as belonging to his human body.
But it wasn’t just his sense of sll that had been enhanced. He also heard things he never knew were even there. The slight chitter of a squirrel that was at least a hundred yards away. The flap of a bird’s wings. The scurrying insects underground. It was everything Elijah could do not to lose himself amidst the cavalcade of sensory input.
His vision and sense of touch had been affected as well, though not to the degree that his sense of sll and hearing had been enhanced. He collapsed to his stomach, burying his face between his paws as he struggled to adapt.
If he hadn’t already experienced sothing similar when he’d cultivated his Neophyte soul, he never would have been able to endure it. However, because he’d done so, it only took him a few hours to co to terms with his new, much stronger senses. When he finally did, he couldn’t help but marvel at just how much he’d never noticed before.
For a while, he just lay there, his tail swaying back and forth as he took it all in.
Then, at last, he pushed himself to his feet and took his first steps as a Mist Panther. To his surprise, his body seed to move of its own accord. Or rather, like he’d been a panther all his life. A good thing, too, because he had not relished the idea of learning how to walk on four legs. But now, he could focus on everything else.
Without further delay, Elijah took off across the glade, moving far more quickly than he’d ever moved in all his life. When he reached the tree line, he bounded forward, kicked off one of the sturdy trees, then hit the ground running. That’s when he noticed an enticing scent.
He followed it easily, and soon enough, it started getting stronger. With every step, the sll beca more potent until, at last, he found the culprit. Without even thinking, Elijah pounced on the fat hare, clamping down on the back of its neck with his mighty jaws. Then, he shook it, breaking its neck.
Elijah didn’t even realize what he was doing until he’d already consud half of that rabbit. But when his mind caught up to his wild instincts, he recoiled. A mont later, he ntally cancelled the spell.
His reversion to humanity took a lot longer than his transformation into a panther, and when it finally completed, the headache he’d felt coming when he’d first cast Shape of the Predator returned in force. When it did, he collapsed onto his rear and just sat there, burying his head in his hands until he’d regained enough Ethera to take the edge off.
Once he felt a little better, he looked around and realized that he’d traveled a lot further than he’d intended. As a Mist Panther, he’d moved so quickly, and his mind had focused in on stalking the rabbit so thoroughly that he had completely lost track of anything else. That would be a danger he’d have to mitigate in the future.
The sa could be said about the instincts that ca with his transformation. It was perfectly natural for a panther to kill and eat raw animals. But for a human being? That was sothing entirely different, and the mory of that rabbit’s raw flesh between his teeth twisted his stomach into knots.
Finally, the spell itself was incredibly Ethera hungry, draining every bit of the magical energy from his core. So, it was clear that he wouldn’t be rapidly transforming forms anyti soon. In fact, the next ti he used Shape of the Predator, he intended to remain that way for a while, if just to get his proverbial money’s worth out of the spell.
All in all, though, Elijah was impressed with the ability. It had perford far better than he could have expected, and the sense of power he’d felt as a mist panther was overwhelming. Perhaps if the spell had been available when he’d stumbled upon the battle between the trio of invaders and the island’s guardian, then the panther might have survived.
Elijah sighed.
That wasn’t fair. He had no reason to feel guilty. He had done everything he could, and even if he’d had access to Shape of the Predator, it wouldn’t have made much difference. The invaders were simply too strong.
Or rather, he was too weak.
But that was going to have to change. So, he pushed himself to his feet and returned to the Grove. There, he gathered his staff and set off toward the stream so he could wash the taste of raw rabbit out of his mouth. After that, he would co up with a plan that would hopefully shore up so of his weaknesses.
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