BT - Book 1 - Chapter 97

Micah leaned back, hands on the hot rocks of the dungeon floor and let Regeneration heal the burns on his forearms.  The Decrepit Behemoth’s cooling body lay in the corner of the cave, the telltale inside-out twisting of Temporal Vortex written all over its misshapen and tortured body.

In the distance, Jo and Sarah gushed over the Dungeon’s loot, a sceptre that would aid the casting of Earth Magic, while Drekt looked on in bemusement.  None of them could use the weapon, but that didn’t stop the girls from chattering excitedly about it while Ravi padded over to see what had sparked the interest.

Nearby, Telivern snorted at him.

“I’m just anxious buddy,” he sighed, staring off at his friends as they tried to figure out a way to trigger the magic item.  “The Goddess said that Luxos is changing everything, but other than the ritualist showing up, I haven’t seen it.”

The deer walked up to him, lowering its muzzle and pushing the damp sphere of its nose against Micah’s cheek.

“I wish you were right.”  Micah reached up and absently began stroking his friend’s creamy fur.  “But I do think there’s something to worry about.  It’s like there is a drum beat behind everything, driving my life forward.  The past couple of years it’s been sedate.  I’ve been allowed to grow and develop at my own pace, but now the tempo is increasing.  It’s like reality itself wants to spur me onward, force me to march faster.”

Worry.  Support.

Telivern cocked its head, its giant dewy black eyes blinking at him as it chuffed out a breath before bumping its soft forehead against his, careful not to cut him with its razor sharp antlers.

“We’re gaining levels fast.”  He tried to give the stag a reassuring smile, but Micah knew that it could sense his anxiety through their physical connection.  “I just don’t know if it's fast enough.  Mursa warned me that Luxos’ priests would be antagonizing the Durgh in an attempt to start the war early.  I’m so used to knowing ‘when’ everything is going to happen that being left in the dark is killing me.”

“The worst of it is,” Micah muttered unhappily, “is that as much as I don’t want to loop again, I don’t think I’ll be able to.”

He scooted backwards, maintaining contact with Telivern’s head as he freed the hand he had been leaning on.  Micah reached up and ran the fingers of his newly liberated hand through the deer’s fur, both of his hands framing Telivern’s face.

“If Luxos is breaking the rules now.”  Micah sighed, closing his eyes as he leaned against his friend.  “Nothing is going to stop him from breaking them worse if I start over.  I could just as easily wake up as a thirteen year old with an inquisitor looming over me.  At least right now, I have enough power to fight whoever he sends after me.  If I go back in time, I’d be completely helpless.  My best case scenario would be getting enslaved by the Royal Knights.  They’d probably just kill me to stop me from turning back time again.”

Telivern’s warm breath rustled the shirt Micah was wearing under his armor.  He closed his eyes, sinking into the comforting softness of the deer’s fur.  Finally it snorted gently, pulling back its muzzle and licking his forehead.

“You’re right,” Micah smiled back at the stag as he pulled up his status.  “Worrying about it won’t get me anywhere.  Even if Luxos is breaking the rules, I’m a big boy with enough levels to deal with most problems head on.  If I’m worried about something happening in the Great Depths, I can just head there myself to check it out.”

Age 16 [ERROR] / 30

Class/Level Divine Candidate 32

XP 23,500/85,000

HP 3492/3492

Class Specialty

Chronomancer

Attributes

Body 36, Agility 36, Mind 73, Spirit 72

Attunement

Moon 32  Sun 3  Night 28

Mana

Moon 3522/3522 Sun 2917/3462 Night  3211/3526

Affinities

Time 10

Tier V - Foresight 9, Time Echos 1, Temporal Transfer 2, Haste 11
Tier VI - Temporal Vortex 7, Temporal Stutter 5

Wood 7

Tier I - Refresh 11, Mending 9, Plant Weave 12

Tier II - Augmented Mending 18, Root Spears 13

Tier III - Heal 11, Paralytic Sting 6, Explosive Thicket 6

Tier IV - Regeneration 9, Healing Wave 6, Poison Fog 8

Tier V - Panacea 1, Coma 1

Tier VI - Binding Vines 5,

Air 6

Tier I - Gale 8, Air Knife 18, Air Supply 4
Tier II - Wind Shield 8, Sonic Bolt 14

Tier III - Updraft 3, Pressure Spear 9, Sonic Orb 7

Tier IV - Flight 4

Blessings

Mythic Blessing of Mursa - Blessed Return, Ageless Folio

Skills

Anatomy  7

Arcana   13

Enchanting  28

Fishing   1
Herbalism  5

Librarian  5

Ritual Magic  31

Spear   27

-Wind Spear 13
-TITS  10

Spellcasting  39

More than anything, after killing the decrepit behemoth dozens of times, Micah’s mana was finally above where he’d ended his last loop.  High enough that he could leave Haste and Regeneration on continuously for multiple battles.

With the right array of magical items to account for the Durgh Khan’s specific abilities, Micah could probably fight the man on equal footing.  Still, level forty would be the tipping point.  Once he could evolve TI… Trevor’s spear skill, then so long as Micah’s ring of fire resistance was up to task, he’d be able to fight the Khan evenly with just Haste and Regeneration active.

Once he added in the strategic use of spells and the assistance of the sturgeon, Micah was fairly confident of his victory.  Still, he was eight levels away, an almost insurmountable gulf as the experience points he earned from raiding dungeons began to dry up.

“How come you’re not celebrating with the girls and Drekt?” Trevor flopped down onto the cavern floor next to Micah.

“Worrying about what to do next.”  He leaned back from Telivern, wiping the wet spot it had left on his forehead.

“I’m gonna be honest,” Trevor chuckled.  “I don’t envy that shit.  Even before everything went belly up with Baron Hurden you’ve had your work cut out for you.  Me?  I’ll take leveling up and stabbing monsters any day.  At least that’s something I’ve been able to grow into.”

“I have noticed you whining a lot less.” Micah flashed a quick smile at his brother.  “Given everything else that’s gone wrong, I have to say I appreciate the decrease in the problems I have to deal with.”

“I credit Drekt honestly,” Trevor responded, glancing off toward where the rest of the party was experimenting with the sceptre.  “I’ll readily admit that I was a brat.  Drekt explained exactly how dangerous your plan was, and he made sure I understood it.  That as much as I wanted to go back to the Lancers and just goof around, that was the impulse of a child that wanted to turn his back on reality.”

“Gods, I wish I could just turn my back on it,” Micah remarked sadly.  “As soon as I think I finally have things under control, something new and awful rears its head.  It’s like I’m rolling down a hillside and trying to stop myself but I just keep moving faster and faster.”

“Drekt thinks you can do it.”  His brother turned back to him with a smile.  “I mean, I clearly do too.  You’re my kid brother, but you’ve pulled miracle after miracle out of your pocket, but with Drekt it’s different.  He isn’t family.”

“He might not bring it up Micah,” Trevor continued, his voice slightly somber, “but he respects you a lot.  As much as he loves a good fight, Drekt’s not an idiot.  If he didn’t think that what you were doing was important or possible, he’d have walked away a long time ago.”

“I think I could tell,” Micah replied, turning his gaze as well to the rest of the party, “but it’s good to have the confirmation.  He’s been pretty good at supporting me when I need support and calling me out when I’m doing something stupid like relying on a daemon.”

“He tends to do that.”  Trevor smiled, his face blossoming with warmth as he watched Drekt shaking his head while Jo shook the sceptre, shouting random command words.  “It really helped me shape up as a person.  He has a way of not judging you.  He just explains how you’re wrong and lets you figure it out on your own.  Then, when you realize you’ve screwed up, he’s there with advice rather than an ‘I told you so.”

They watched the rest of the party, Ravi sprinting by and playfully grabbing the sceptre from Jo with her teeth before leaping into the air and flapping away.  Jo shouted something indecipherable and leapt after the fleeing panther.

“I stopped drinking Micah,” Trevor spoke suddenly, uncomfortable as he filled the silence.  “Drekt said it was becoming a problem and he stopped drinking around me.  I thought he was just being a jerk until the thing with Esther happened.  I found myself looking back on my actions and wincing.  I was impulsive, selfish and self-centered from the moment you started training me in magic, and alcohol was at least a third of that.”

Telivern snorted, leaning down to nuzzle Trevor.

“That’s great.”  Micah leaned over smiling and put a hand on his brother’s shoulder, squeezing gently.  “I’m really glad that you’re taking this step.”

“Yeah, well,” the older man mumbled, embarrassed.  “How are things with Jo and you going anyway?  You’re sixteen now so that rule she made about ‘not dating a kid’ is out of the picture.”

Micah paused.  The last couple of months had been a whirlwind.  Frantically setting up the defenses needed to defeat the daemon, followed by leveling up frantically as he tried to figure out Luxos’ master plan.

Between fighting monsters and setting up rituals, Micah just hadn’t gotten a proper chance to sit down with Jo to relax, let alone define their relationship.  A slight frown worked its way onto his face.  Whatever their relationship actually was.

They’d trained and talked together, but their relationship hadn’t developed further.  Rather, their interactions were either playful or frustrating.  It was more a matter of Jo teasing him the same way she did Drekt or Ravi, rather than any sort of flirtation between the two of them.

As for himself?  Micah wasn’t actually sure how he felt about Jo.  He didn’t dislike her, but most of their interactions involved him as her supervisor, explaining a new ability or how to fight an enemy.  There was certainly tension when he was with her, but more often than not it was the familiar tension before a tough challenge rather than anything romantic.

He still had feelings for Jo, but at the same time, Micah wasn’t sure whether they were genuine, or some sort of misguided nostalgia from the last time things were going right in his life.  Almost fifteen years ago.

“I honestly don’t know,” he responded finally with a sigh.  “I need to scout out Westmarch and the Great Depths, and that means heading out with her and Ravi.  I guess I’ll have to talk with Jo about it then.”

“You’ll know what you need to say, when you need to say it.”  Trevor reached up and squeezed Micah’s hand on his shoulder.  “Just don’t blow up the party right before we end up in some sort of pitched, life or death battle.  That’s my aesthetic and I can’t have you infringing on it.”

His brother smiled at him, and for the first time in a while, Micah actually let himself begin to believe that everything just might work out.