The beginning of the second week greeted me with the drizzle intensifying a bit with nothing more to explore I continued the routine, I ate, workout, grinded noticing yet another increase of two levels to the now level 8 Aragostas then practice with the machete form of the arcane blade, recovered through meditation and fought the 5 level 5 of the Palelings, meditated on concepts and the fight and so the days fell into a rhythm, 3 days later I was at level 12 when the never ending rain grew a bit stronger marking another 2 levels for the Aragostas and, one more level and a new addition to the ranks of the Palelings, identifying the pattern I optimized my routine yet again, mainly due to the fact that the machete wasn’t enough, I try on the second day to dual wield but it wasn’t as effective and I ended up with a fresh set of scars as a reward of my folly, changing yet again I began using the staff as a glaive to keep a distance between me and the creatures, which to be fair took me a while to get used to, when I finally got the hang of it 9 days later, in which I gained 6 more levels despite not getting a new page or skill, and here I was again in the same old cabin frowning at a series of new Issues, the main one was based on the integrity of my equipment.

  Wood Catalyst (Basic): System generated item provides +2 Arcana. Integrity 72%

  Cloak of minor arcana regeneration (Uncommon): System generated item provides +20% arcana regeneration Integrity 85%

  I still had 2 months and 11 days to get through and the book hinted at not being able to replace any of my equipment, so I’ll have to adapt yet again. The time itself presented a challenge because the creatures kept getting stronger and the weather started to look more than a bit ominous. With many ideas in mind I meditated myself to sleep, only to be woken up with the sound of thunder, causing me to jump up from the floor ready to fight, I relaxed and dismissed the arcane blade that I unconsciously summoned. This marked yet another rise in level for the local critters, but that was expected, shaking the startling effect of the thunder I decided to begin with my routine, by now being a level 18 I was pretty sure that my strength surpassed even top level athletes. doing hundreds of repetitions of different exercises in the span of 2 hours and not even breaking a sweat. After I was done I decided with more than a bit of resignation to put away both catalyst and cloak saving them for the challenges ahead revealing the increasingly tattered swimming trunks, who I hope would hold the rest of the ordeal. I continued with the usual “jog” which at this point was reduced to around 5 minutes, looking at the rough waters before me, the idea of a supernatural hurricane began to form in my mind, worried I resolve to keep a steady supply of Coco fruits in my inventory since the fruit didn’t spoil while kept in, something that I have been less than enthusiastic about, nevertheless survival took precedence, so after drilling a bit and recharging my reserves, I prepare my first arcane shot of the day, with another thunder falling in the precise moment as to augur new challenges I release the attack , this time however I was shot back at with a steady stream of water, I try to dodge but the attack grazed my left side, after recovering my balance I retaliate with a second arcane shot which managed to hit the crustacean but I knew that wasn’t enough to take it down so I channeled two extra shots, the first one generated on my left was released first hitting the creature square on, but not before the Aragosta manage a second attack, that one trough skill and a bit of luck was intercepted by my second arcane shot both attack fizzling at contact, another shot on my part put the creature in it’s last leg making it revert to a full on charge that was halted with two more shot on my end. after the fight I checked that the graze took around 8% of my Vitae on the statiscal side of things, while on the physical side of things a thin cut that managed to draw blood marked the point of impact, “I should avoid hits like that in the future” I say the words out loud, a habit that became more prevalent since the lack of human contact began to affect me.With each fight I became stronger the experience not only being reflected at my levels, growing used to the a do or die situations that plagued my routine made a palpable advance in my reactions and way of thinking, this fight in particular I considered valuable because ranged combat was something that I lacked experience with. Finally checking my notifications made the value increase even further.

  Congratulations you have reached Level 19.

  Congratulations you have gained access to the ability Arcane Shield (Tier 11 A): Create a protective shield made out of neutral affinity that can serve to block both physical and arcana based attacks. This spell- based ability can be casted in three different modes, buckler for 2 arcana to activate, 1 arcana per extra minute to maintain, kite shield for 4 arcana, 2 arcana per extra minute to maintain, and tower shield for 8 arcana, 4 arcana per extra minute to maintain.

  “About damn time” I proclaimed it has been more than 10 levels since my last ability unlocked, I try to use the ability but I wasn’t able to do it,I decided to try on but status didn’t gave me the chance to change, I try the mission as well but it was no dice, I then thought about skills and got a hit in the form of well “Skills”, noticing that my meditation skill, and both arcane skills were glowing blue, while the fourth and last having a similar blue frame from those previously mentioned with the only difference being the dimness in the frame, thinking that I could be similar to certain yellow rat having a limited number of abilities and thinking that I could lose of the previously learned skills I decided to wait until I could look at the book, which could get damaged by the ever increasing rain, leaving my studies for later, I continued the day as usual, I would have to be careful to not get hit…

  Two fight later I got hit in the right bicep after a failed attempt to block the water based attack with an arcane shot, even with the thin missing cylinder of flesh that extended to the shoulder reducing my Vitae by 12 percent, powering through I release one arcane shot after the other attacking until the oversized lobster was put down. The pain was more prevalent this time, the wound burned, and my vitae was still dropping so I decided to take the day off for the first time in weeks, retreating to the cabin. I began with restorative meditation until the burning sensation stopped. Opening my eyes I inspected the wound (Without the ability) to see that the flesh knitted back leaving another scar of the keloid kind. After stretching a bit I checked the book noticing a couple of new entries that said:

  Regarding abilities IV: Abilities may reference a particular archetype or classes, giving hints on how to progress and may hold an affinity.

  Regarding abilities V: the number of abilities available are tied to your current level, during the first 29 levels you can only use 3 active and 3 passive abilities, in case of accessing more you may swap abilities by accessing "Skill," Bear in mind that changing skills has a cooldown of 5 minutes, and deselecting skills does not erase the skill, further levels may give you access to further ability slots.

  Regarding affinities: An affinity can be defined as a conceptual energy that infuses an ability, this may include but not limited to elements like fire, water, earth, etc.; The lack of a concept or the mention of a “Neutral affinity” in name or description is a good indication that an ability lacks affinity. Bear in mind that you don't have to integrate an affinity into your core for it to manifest in a skill, but integrating an affinity into your core may enhance existing compatible abilities and even imbue abilities considered to be neutral. On the downside, abilities not compatible may be weakened or even lost.

  This was the longest and most insightful read I had since arrived at this place, and that fueled my next meditation, first I focused on the new way of combat even though guns were plentiful and available back in the place I have come to call my new home, I really had no interest in them, since BJJ got almost all my time (plus a bit chunk of my money) but basically as with most projectile based weapons you only needed to get hit in the right place to become past tense, and according to one particular history buff I had as a teacher positioning, and accuracy were key in this kind of encounters, which made me realize it’s hard to miss a size car monster even without a lot of perception, as for the Palelings I’ve had my few share of misses while my successful shots had been in short or even point blank ranges, this gave me pause to consider to reinforce my perception that yet again was lagging behind with that realization out of the way, my focus branched on ways to optimize the use of arcane shot, and also incorporate the newly acquired arcane shield, I kept exploring and playing scenarios on my head, using both skills could take a toll in my arcana so my end goal was to use the buckler option which I guess was the smaller to have my vitals safe while attacking, the challenge was a more than welcomed distraction, but maybe for another day since the previous attack wasn’t particularly pleasent. Opening my eyes I saw the same roof I’ve stared countless times, the ever diminished light and the clock marked that I still got a few hours for myself, but to do what exactly? Think of the ever growing storm, the thoughts of what is to come, and what is happening outside back home made me feel despair. What if I am not able to come back? What if I get stuck in this place? I began to hyperventilate, my vision grew blurry, so I acted before it got worse, standing up and exiting the cabin with the healthy coping mechanism of a well-adjusted individual. I went to test my new magic skills with a car sized lobster.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Trying to ignore my now growing anxiety I distracted myself on the way by changing around my abilities which was quite an intuitive process, changing the blade for the newly acquired shield, which I proceeded to try, unlike the arcane blade this shields were fixed to the place I summoned them, and despite my growing strength I wasn’t able to move them, this also look to be by design because neither of the three shield had a handle, besides sharing the glowing blue color with the rest of my arcane abilities, each shield was different in size, the buckler was circular and had the smallest size with around 30 centimeters in diameter, the kite had a teardrop shape and when placed correctly it would serve to cover from my chest to my knees, while the tower shield was rectangular in shape and with 1.80 meters was enough to covered my whole body, the last key difference I noticed was that compared to the other arcane abilities arcane shield didn’t received any benefits or reduced cost from its usage with the catalyst, and since I was already resigned to not use it I used my focalized meditation to top off my arcana, and continue my crustacean genocide. On my first encounter I tested the newly acquired skill against the Aragosta’s water attack and it held, I also noted when testing the mode that you could stack two shields on top of the other, with the tests out of the way I passed to the offensive, among the 3 options I felt the most comfortable using the kite shield, so that’s what I sticked with for the most part, a couple of hours later and after replenishing my arcana I switched out Focalized meditation in favor of the blade in preparation to yet another encounter with the now 8 level 6 Palelings, my speed managed help me to reach the top before the creatures began their assault. Thining their numbers trough well placed shots, I left 4 of the creatures to practice with my close range abilities, but before that there was something fun I needed to try, seeing that the remaining foes kept to the usual tactic to get close and try to stab me I waited until the last possible moment, to cast 3 shields in their kite form, all 4 of the damn things crashed and I couldn’t stop the laughter that escaped me, one of the creatures was actually knocked out, and the 3 remaining where stunned, I didn’t stop laughing not even when they resumed their charge, or when I put them down, the laughter turn into tears which flow freely from my eyes and that’s when I realized I wasn’t laughing anymore.

  Finishing the rest of the way back to the cabin, and after quite some time I managed to calm myself down, or at least calm enough to focus my attention through meditation, the assistance of the skill was invaluable, working as a barrier from intrusive thoughts, while guiding me towards more useful ones, chief among them affinities with cores being a close second, about the first one I had the Aragosta’s attack as reference due to having had a whole day of encounters I noticed that the shot didn’t came from its mouth, it formed quite similarly to my arcane shot with a small orb that exploded into a torrent of water that was enough to rip flesh, so I centered my attention on that I explored the sensation trying to recreate it my mind’s eye, however it was quite hard, so after a while I moved to cores where I was more successful. By definition cores were central to the existence of someone or something which gave me a hint, however the main revelation came when I remember the sensation that accompanied each activation of my abilities, even now with focalized meditation I could feel a slight tug coming near my heart, so I let myself go in the meditation focusing on the sensation I noticed that the ability affected my head so slowly I traced its origin back, starting with my head I found something akin to a vein running and connected to my brain, following it I noticed a full cobweb of similar but inactive conducts, that ended in my eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, and my whole face for that matter, that’s when I noticed that the sensation that highlighted that conduct was arcana, so I followed it descending through my throat and then my chest where another vein provided my lungs with arcana, that made sense since an element of meditation included managing your breathing, so I continue with now two lines that ended toward the left side of my chest and quite close to my heart. There it was, my core, with a spherical shape and connected to hundreds of thousands of conducts that I named magical veins, it felt powerful, filled to the brim with arcana, but at the same time it felt empty probably due the lack of affinity, maybe if I came into contact with arcana of a certain affinity I could get a general idea on how it worked, but wait, I have already came into contact with that, so I moved my attention to my recently scarred arm, for the most part it was healed, but there hidden between the wound there were remnants of foreign arcana, with a different feel to my own, I latched on to that remnant and managed to isolate noticing that slowly but surely was being purged by my own arcana, noticing there was a timer I focused on the sensation and actually managed to noticed two distinct sensations ? Feelings? Affinities! even with the definition it was hard to put into words, one part of the affinity was definitely related to water since it contained sensations, smells and concepts related to it, the second however was more complex it felt ancient, hard to the touch, and hungry both felt powerful and while keeping a distinct feeling from one another both concepts were connected. My musings didn’t last long after these discoveries, so I left my meditation drift from specific to vague until I fell asleep.

  The next day I woke up a couple of hours after dawn feeling motivated to uncover the secrets of cores and affinities, better yet I had a plan to achieve it, so feeling better than previous days I began with my morning starting with my unpleasant breakfast, then two hours of exercise, after that I finally allowed myself to check the book and its new entries that said:

  Regarding Cores 1: A core can be considered part of one soul serving as a conduit to manifest system granted abilities. As a spiritual-physical construct it can be marked through effort, feats, deeds, and the assimilation of affinities.

  Regarding Cores 2: Understanding and modifying a core could boost the capabilities of any denizen with access to the system, however one should be wary while attempting to do so since taking one way might close others.

  Despite the warning having a goal to look forward was excuse enough, besides previous entries in the book hinted that multiple affinities were a possibility, so at most I would be stuck with a water affinity until I had something that could be compatible, with that in mind I moved forward with my plan skipping my usual “bath” I settled for the constant rain to wash my body in the way to the beach, heading straight to the palm closest to my position I lured the aragosta whose first retaliatory shot was stopped with an arcane shield in its kite mode, from there I managed to attack two more times, I wanted to get hit but not yet so I moved while attacking waiting for another shot, which as soon as I saw was responded with a purposely careless kite shield which I know was successful by the burning pain originated on my left shoulder, so with the mission complete I finished off the crustacean and checked the wound it looked like a graze from gunshot, which I knew how it looked because I was a kid with scarce internet supervision, but at this point I was desensitize so with the wound still open I retreated back to a place a deemed safe still on the beach but far away from the palms and began with focalized meditation. Using the previous knowledge I was able to locate the wound and began trying to understand it and since the wound was fresh it still carried a lot of valuable information, making me see clear the two different affinities the weaker one was related to something bestial and aquatic and evoked the feeling of seeing a marine animal ranging from an octopus to a shark, and yes even lobster and aragosta, since I didn′t imagine myself ruling an underwater kingdom I focused on the water affinity who sure enough cause me to identify the power of a river, the depths of the ocean and the rain, the constant that helped stay clean, focusing on that last part made me realize that there was another source of the affinity and that feeling wasn’t localized to the wound, instead it covered my whole body through the drops that came in contact with my skin, but not only that it could be felt with the wind, and even in the distant thunder, so I focused on that sensation the wound long forgotten, my mind registered every drop of water, and gust of wind felt by my skin, stimulating the magical veins beneath a familiar sensation made me open my eyes.

  Congratulations you have reached Level 20.

  You have begun the process of assimilating the Water affinity.

  Checking my status screen for the first time in a while confirmed that fact.

  Name: Roberto B. (System enhanced Human)

  Level: 20

  Class: Mage

  Vitae: 190/190

  Arcana 45/45 (+2 Wood Catalyst)

  Strength 12

  Dexterity 13

  Endurance 13

  Intelligence 22

  Evocation 37(Regeneration +20% percent Cloak of minor Arcana regeneration)

  Perception 11

  Affinities: (None)

  Abilities: Inspect (Tier 11), Regenerative Meditation (Tier 11), Arcane shot (Tier 11), Arcane blade (Tier 11 )

  With that grateful surprise and a couple of more questions I carried on with my day.