He rushed to her and grabbed her shoulder, casting [Greater Restoration]. Maja flinched and looked up at him, her eyes quivering. "What did you do?"
"I?!" David asked, flabbergasted. "You did sothing, didn’t you? I just tried resisting it."
"How did you resist it? Not even—" Maja’s words were cut short as she coughed again.
David raised an eyebrow. How had he done that? It was clear Maja had tried sothing—but she failed, paying for it with pain and blood. But what exactly had happened?
He closed his eyes and caught the culprit in the act.
His Advanced Class Skill, [Indomitable Will], had been triggered. He hadn’t noticed it earlier, but now that he focused, David sensed it clearly.
The Advanced Skill had protected him. It blocked Maja’s attempt—whatever it was—at his behest.
Did it activate instinctively, or had he triggered it by resisting Maja’s move?
“You shouldn’t have done that,” David said, patting Maja’s back.
She finally regained her composure and looked at him with a mix of fear and defiance. “I was just trying to show you what I can do… There was no need to treat like this…”
“I…” He stopped himself, deciding against fueling the brewing conflict. There was no need to fight.
“Sorry about that. It was an instinctive reaction. But what did you try to do? It felt weird.”
“I wanted to show you my other Class Skills. One of them, to be precise,” Maja muttered, looking like she was torn between staying angry and calming down.
Suddenly, her eyes started twinkling gold. “Can I show you, or will you hurt again?”
David nodded, and the weird sensation returned. The space around him distorted, but he didn’t resist this ti.
Suddenly, the scenery changed. One mont, he stood before Maja, and in the next, he was behind her.
“See? Everything is fine!” Maja said, failing to hide her exhaustion as she breathed heavily. “You’re heavier than I expected.”
David’s hand reached for the spatial storage. “Or my necklace is.”
He could hardly hide his excitent. Maja’s Skill left a deep impression. To think it was possible to teleport soone else through space with a re glance.
How often could she teleport him like that? Was there a limit to the distance? How much energy did it consu?
He needed more information!
“You look tired. Was it that much of a challenge to teleport a few ters by looking at ?” David asked, intrigued.
“It’s a lot harder,” Maja nodded. “Portals co the easiest to . They cost less, cover more distance, and don’t strain my mind as much, but they require more ti to materialize. I can also jump through space without a portal, and I can bring you along by touching you.”
She touched his arm and teleported them closer to the gates of the Dwarven Sanctuary. David noticed the guards tense, but their discomfort wasn’t his concern.
“This thod is still fairly simple. It doesn’t drain much mana either, but it strains my mind more because I have to be more careful where I want us to erge. As long as I see where I want to end up, it is simple. However, it’s a little bit scary if I don’t see the landing position, and I am forced to spend more ti perceiving the other end to make sure I don’t kill anyone. Myself included.”
He made so ntal notes as they crossed the final steps to the gate. The dwarven guards blocked the entrance with their spears and glared at him.
“I want to visit the Artificer. She has so of my—”
“We are on break,” one of the dwarves snapped, while the other added, “No entrance until our break is over.”
It was plainly obvious what they were trying to do. They wanted to make him suffer, but David couldn’t care less. He turned to Maja with a smile.
“So, you can use portals for long-distance traveling with multiple people. Then, you can teleport on your own without a portal and bring soone you touch along. The second thod is faster, but it can be a little bit more complicated if you cannot see your destination. That’s not too bad either if you teleport high into the air. You can escape fast and deadly perpetrators by teleporting high into the air,” David summarized, already forming plans on how to use them. “But you can also teleport soone with your eyes alone. From the looks of it, the last Skill is rather energy-consuming—it probably strains your mind a lot as well—but it seems to be as fast as your individual teleportation.”
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“I can also touch you or objects and teleport them to the designated location. I don’t have to travel with them,” Maja added quietly, eyeing the dwarven guards warily. “But teleportation through vision is the hardest. It consus the most mana and ntal power.”
That was expected. Teleporting oneself already seed like a complex task, but doing so by rely looking at soone must be an ordeal. However, teleporting through vision was also the fastest and easiest ans to keep Maja away from danger without losing the benefits of teleportation.
“Enemies can block my teleportation. Not as easily as you did, and it doesn’t hurt as much, but they can still do it. I learned that lesson when I tried teleporting a Goblin Warrior from a ravine using vision teleportation,” Maja shuddered.
Ti flew by as they delved into a lively discussion. David learned a lot about Maja’s persona and the powers she could summon with her Secondary Class. Portaligist was an incredible Class.
So much so that David ignored the dwarven guards when they finally made space for them. Maja had to pull him ahead, and they finally returned to the Dwarven Sanctuary.
Only now did he realize how much the Sanctuary had changed during his weeks with the Rift Core. There were far more houses than before, and a lot more prehistoric monsters road the streets.
However, the most interesting specin was still Maja with her Unique Class. She was still a little reluctant, maybe even shy, but David watched her lower her guard—slowly but surely, he was breaking through her defenses.
Despite her lack of confidence, Maja had powerful Skills. Though similar, each Skill had unique functions and features, David noted, expanding on his ntal notes. As long as she used the right Skill, Maja would have no problems with the range of her teleports, energy consumption, or destination perception. The only issues were timing, the weight she could carry through teleportation, and how to bypass wards or other defenses that blocked spatial travel—if any were installed.
Learning about the current limits of her Skills was intriguing, but so was the information about the items she could carry. Portals did not consu more mana regardless of the number or weight of the people and objects passing through them. The sa, however, could not be said for the other Skills.
David added so tasks to his to-do list and noted down a few for Maja as well. He wasn’t sure if she would follow them, but he could at least try. It would help her—and himself, of course.
He felt a twinge of sadness when their conversation ended. They had arrived at the workshop, the sound of tal striking tal reaching his ears.
The mont he stepped inside, he noticed the workshop had expanded. More forges had been installed, and the workbench was now wider, allowing two masters of their craft to work simultaneously. But what intrigued him most was the shift in the workshop’s atmosphere. It was no longer as tense and heavy as before. Instead, the Dwarven Blacksmith and the Tirac Artificer seed to have found a solution. They worked seamlessly together—the blacksmith remained near the forges, lted the materials, and forged them swiftly before forwarding them to the Artificer.
They exchanged only a few words, but none seed necessary. Their work was smooth and appeared flawless.
After watching them finish several parts made from a material he had never seen, David cleared his throat. Their heads imdiately snapped toward him. The Dwarven Blacksmith pointed his forging hamr at him and cursed in the dwarven tongue while the Artificer walked over.
“I was certain you forgot.” She shook her head, conjuring several objects from her spatial storage.
The Artificer looked at David and handed him three objects—three crimson spheres interwoven with black and gold veins, which beca more intricate upon closer inspection. He also noticed silver letters, minuscule and barely visible to the naked eye, engraved atop the black and golden veins. They were seamlessly connected, beautiful—magnificent even.
“I could have created larger Blood Storages, but you told to keep them small. I doubt you understand how difficult it was to ensure they would store an acceptable amount of energy. lting Bloodstones and reforging them would have been easy, but no! You wanted small Blood Storages to fit into your pockets. I wasted several Bloodstones just to create the perfect alloy, and more broke when I added the enchantnts. Do you even realize how—”
At so point, David tuned out the Artificer’s rambling. While he was interested in the principles behind the Blood Storages’ creation, he would much rather test them right away.
His Blood surged into the Storages, depleting his Source within seconds. However, the energy reservoirs were still empty. Six Blood Droplets weren’t enough to fill them.
“Amazing,” David gasped, closing his eyes as he felt sothing new. A familiar pressure weighed on his Source. It was not uncomfortable, yet it resembled the binding of new Skill Runes. But as far as he could tell, he wasn’t binding any new Skills. Thin crimson threads oozed from his Source and surged toward his right arm, seeping from his palm and reaching for the Blood Storages. The threads made contact with the engravings and vanished.
The threads were severed—the remains retracted back into his Source. But sothing was amiss. A tiny snippet of the thread had fused into the engravings instead of disappearing entirely. It lingered there, allowing for easier access. He sensed a connection between the Blood Storages and his Source. It was thin, barely noticeable, but present.
That was... unexpected, David thought as he pocketed the Blood Storages. He attempted to store them in his necklace first, but the Storages refused to enter the spatial storage. That made keeping them on him a bit more difficult. What if his pockets got torn or burned during battle? Would he lose the Blood Storages just like that?
He shook his head, his mind drifting back to one of the plans he had devised when he first told the Artificer about the Blood Storages. It was a little barbaric—quite a lot, to be fair—but David thought it was worth considering.
“How much do I owe you?” he asked, his hand resting in his pocket with the Blood Storages.
The Artificer waved dismissively. “Nothing. No—don’t look at like that! I won’t accept anything. I already kept the remaining Bloodstones, though only fragnts remained after my failures, but I cannot take any money after you saved us from the Hordes. Asking you for any more would make feel bad.”
David didn’t push the issue. He doubted he had enough to pay her anyway, so he simply thanked her sincerely.
“Don’t get wrong. This was a one-ti thing. If you hire again, I will charge you the full price,” she clarified.
That was fine with him. He doubted he’d need the Artificer’s services anyti soon—not with the treasures in his pockets.
As long as they work as intended, David thought, the corners of his lips tugging upward. Excitent swelled within him. He looked forward to his experints—with his Blood Storages, but also with Maja.
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