Ember Abiss: Rot Mage

‘What A weird dream.’ Ember thought to herself as she wrapped herself in a warm cocoon of comfiness. ‘I'll just stay in bed for a few more minutes. I have a lot of mountains to cross.’

Ember shot up straight to a sitting position in bed. ‘I'm in a bed, why am I in a bed and not in my tent… no… no, no, no.’ She stood up examining the old style wood walls and flooring, anxiety growing each passing moment. ‘No lights… no outlets…’ She continued to examine her room. ‘It's true… I'm really gone…’ she sank back into the bed, Eyes growing blurry as a tear ran down her cheek. ‘Mom…’ Ember spent the next ten minutes crying in bed, trying to get a grip on her situation and emotions.

Ember jolted when she heard a knocking at her bedroom door. “Dear, take your time getting ready. I left some breakfast for you on the table, but I must head off to the library we will be opening soon. There is no rush for you to do anything this morning, but when you're ready to practice just head over to see Thorn. He volunteered to stay at home today and tomorrow waiting for you to feel up to learning.” Willow said in her best soothing, motherly voice. “Also I left you a gift on the table next to your plate. I wish you well, and have a pleasant day dear.” With that said Ember listened to the sound of Willow's footsteps grow distant until she finally heard the door open and shut.

“Hmph” Ember sighed, burying her head in her pillow. ‘Ugh… I need to get up. Wallowing around in self pity is only going to make me start to feel depressed again. That's the whole reason I left the house and started this crazy endeavor. Hiking, living in nature, and taking care of myself on the trail is what kicked it before, I hope it'll stay dealt with if I keep myself distracted with this training.’ Ember threw the blanket off of herself and rolled out of bed. ‘Might as well keep up my good habits.’ She thought to herself as she began her morning stretches.

Later that morning, once completing her stretches and getting dressed was taken care of she finally made her way to the breakfast table. “Yum!” She exclaimed. ‘This smells so good, I haven't had scrambled eggs in over a month!’ “Ehehe…” she chuckled to herself before tearing into her meal. It was a simple breakfast altogether, a large helping of scrambled eggs, a piece of toast, and what she assumed to be salt cured ham. Ten minutes later she had her head laying on the table with a pained grin on her face. ‘I ate way too much… but it was so good.’

After cleaning up her mess and taking care of the dishes Ember decided to make her way to see Thorn. ‘Putting this off won't do me any good. If I want to find my way home I'll need to survive in this seemingly more dangerous world and that means learning my new skills and how my affinity is going to affect my surroundings.’ On that thought she stood and made her way out the door. ‘Oh… how do I lock up? She didn't explain that part and I don't see any locking mechanism on the outside, and I only Saw the space for a beam on the opposite…. Honestly I can't remember Thorn unlocking the door when he brought me over last night. Does she only lock up when at home? I guess this place is small enough that everyone probably knows everyone. Bah! I'll try to ask Thorn before we head to the training place.’ After admitting defeat she turned, with her head slightly downcast, to head to Thorn's home.

Finally arriving at Thorn's gate Ember paused. ‘Is it okay to just open it and walk up? I don't see any gate guards or an intercom…’ “Eheh.” she chuckled to herself, ‘like they'd have an intercom without power… screw it, I'm going.’

Ember pushed against the bars of the metal gate blocking her path. Her push caused the gate to groan and creak as if it were going to move before a sharp clicking sound from a latch forced her to stop. “Fungus!” She exclaimed, taking a step back to check the gate for a latch she didn't notice. Not seeing anything she would assume to be a handle, lever, or latch she tried again. ‘Maybe I'm just not pushing hard enough.’ She thought to herself before leaning all one hundred pounds of body weight into it. The gate creaked and ground against itself but never relented.

“Ha shh shh…”

Ember heard a muffled, cut off laugh, coming from someone trying to hide their laughter on the other side of the gate. She looked up glaring at Thorn as he covered his mouth, chest still raising in amusement. “Shut up and open it!” She huffed, crossing her arms in indignation. “Humph.”

“Sorry.” Thorn said, raising his hands placatingly. “Something something something understand.” He chuckled, scratching the side of his cheek. “Uhh… register?”

Ember nodded sheepishly, realizing Thorn didn't understand most of what she just yelled at him. ‘Thank goodness Willow helped me make a cheat sheet for some written words last night. I should have Thorn read them to me so I can write it out phonetically under the English translation.’

Ember fell in line behind Thorn to follow him into town. “Hey Thorn, read this slow please?” She asked, pulling out the page of common words Willow and her came up with. He nodded before looking at the sheet and beginning to read them off to her. By the time they made it to the guild hall Ember felt that she had a decent grasp on the written and spoken forms of the keywords given to her.

“Here.” Thorn pointed out the sign board hanging above the entrance. The sign had the image of a shield with a sword and staff crossing before it. Beneath the image it read Vynewood Guild Hall written in the common language. ‘So far so good.’ she thought to herself. “Shall we?” She asked Thorn while reaching to push the door open.

“Yes.” He said, leading her to the shortest line. He spoke to the attendant for a few minutes Occasionally gesturing to Ember who just gave a smile and nod. After speaking the girl behind the desk turned around and entered another room just behind the employee side of the counter. She then returned with two forms in hand, one was given to me and the other to Thorn. ‘I wonder what he's filling out, does he have to vouch for me or something?’

Ember took out her cheat sheet and began to fill out the form. Name? Ember Abiss. Age? Twenty-three. Race? Human. Class if past the first milestone? ‘I think I'll just leave that one blank.’ role? ‘Hmm… I put some thought into this last night and I think I'd be a support or caster type. I'll just put both.’ Support caster. Level? One. Home town? Suches.

Once complete Ember handed the filled out form back to the guild girl. Seeing the confusion on her face Ember realized she wrote her age in Arabic numerals not this worlds common. “Sorry.” She said to the girl behind the counter, reaching her hand for the sheet to make the correction. After double checking her cheat sheet she wrote the correct twenty-three for the attendant to understand. She handed back the registration form with a slight look of embarrassment written across her face.

The guild girl accepted the form from Ember with a smile. She then turned to face Thorn, waiting for him to complete the rental form for the training ground and equipment. He appeared to be stuck on a certain section that Ember could understand.

Ember tapped on Thorn's shoulder. “Can I help?” She attempted to speak in common.

“Yes!” He look up at her, “Umm… which something for you?”

Ember tilted her head in confusion. “Something? Something means?”

“Ah!” Thorn exclaimed, “Hmm…” He then began to swap through a few gestures. He first imitated swinging a sword, next a bow, staff, stabbing with a dagger, and as he went to start another he felt Ember grab his arm giggling at his attempts.

“Hehe, which weapon for me?” Ember clarified.

“Yes.” Thorn verified.

Ember took a moment to think. ‘Hmm, I've only really used a gun as a weapon before. My knife was more of a tool than a weapon. I guess I'd be most comfortable with a staff, I could even double it as a hiking stick.’ “Staff… umm…” Ember tried to mime staff swing and jab.

“Staff?” Thorn asked while pointing at a staff resting against the table a man dressed in brown robes sat at.

“Yes, a staff.” She smiled and nodded in confirmation.

Thorn completed filling out the information on the form and handed it back to the girl along with eight copper colored coins.

The attendant led the two through the back of the guild hall to a door leading to a fenced in backyard that resembled a scene from a gladiatorial movie’s training segment. The guild girl held open the door for the two before handing their form over to an older gentleman behind a desk covered in wooden training weapons. He looked to be around Fifty or so with a long, well groomed, brown and gray beard. His hair was trimmed short, just long enough for nickel sized curls to spring up. His skin bore a natural tan, likely from his job on the training grounds.

“Hello girl, something something know how To use the something?” The man asked with a surprisingly deep voice. The words felt like they were resonating in Ember's bones.

“No.” Ember replied, shaking her head before looking up at him with a determined smile. “I want to learn.” She said with a heavy accent on the newer words she's learned.

“Something, something something something something? “ The man behind the desk asked, this time speaking a different language from common.

Ember tilted her head and lifted an eyebrow. “Umm… I’m learning common.” She held up her right hand with her thumb and pointer finger separated by about an inch. “Few words.”

The man ran his fingers through his beard in thought. “Okay. Thorn, teach her well.” He said with a glance directed to Thorn.

“I'm Quin.” He said while reaching out a hand to Ember.

Ember reached out to shake his hand with a big grin. “I'm Ember Abiss.” She spoke her name slowly and precisely for the man, knowing English was a much less tonal language.

“Ember Abiss?” He asked in clarification.

Ember nodded and accepted the well used wooden staff handed to her.

Ember gave the staff a few spins and before failing a single handed twirl, dropping the staff with a clack. The sound caught Thorns attention while he was accepting a wooden club causing him to turn and catch Ember scrambling to pick up the staff she just dropped. Thorn gave a light chuckle before turning Back to finish his conversation with Quin.

‘Come on Thorn. I don't know what goes into the checking out and approval process for us to use this place but I'm getting a little impatient.’

‘I wonder how Rot even works. Is my mana causing stuff to break down? Or does it somehow influence the natural process of decay? Maybe boosting decomposers? At least that kind of makes sense.’

Ember jumped when Thorn tapped her on the shoulder, jolting her back to reality. She nodded and followed Thorn around the training area until they made it to an area with four wooden training dummies. Thorn gestured to the dummy farthest to the left, “Yours.” Then he pointed to the one next to it. “Mine. Try your skill.”

Ember did as she was asked and approached the wood dummy given to her. ‘Try my skill… Thanks. Because I definitely know how to do that.’ Looking at it closer she could notice dings and dents all over. Some small chunks missing in the body left splinters jutting out randomly. “Eheheh” She chuckled to herself. ‘So glad I didn't say I wanted to punch things. But seriously. How do I activate Rot Aura?’

[Turning On Active Consumption Mode]

[Current Usage Rate: 1MP/S]

‘Oh, that was easier than I thought it would be, and only one mana per second seems pretty cheap. Status.’

[Name: Ember Abiss

Title: None

Race:Human

Age:23

Level:1

Class: “Locked”

Affinities: Rot, Nature, Void

Lifeforce: 50

Mana: 78/80

Ki: 50

Alacrity: 5

Acuity: 7

Vitality: 5

Vigor: 5

Tenacity: 8

Fortitude: 5

Active Skills: 0/5

Passive Skill: 0/5

Classless Skills:1/5

Rot Aura - lvl 1 ]

‘Neat. I've used two mana but I don't see any difference yet. I'll let it run for ten seconds then stop it.’

Eight seconds later she canceled her skill and started to examine the dummy for any notable difference. ‘I don't see any changes… Time to boost it.’ She thought to herself excited to see the result. ‘Activate Rot Aura at two mana per second.’

[Rot Aura 2Mp/s]

‘Alright, I'll run this one for another ten seconds and check again.’

Ten seconds pass with no visible changes to the dummy. ‘Stop’

[Rot Aura: Passive]

Ember examined the dummy up close, picking at the splinters and ridges for weaknesses. ‘Nothing again? Ugh. I want to see something now. Status… vitals?]

[Name: Ember Abiss

Title: None

Race:Human

Age:23

Level:1

Class: “Locked”

Affinities: Rot, Nature, Void

Lifeforce: 50

Mana: 50/80

Ki: 50]

‘Great, Rot Aura ten Mp/S for five seconds.’

[Error]

[Exceeds Skill Level Maximum Input]

‘FINE! Five Mp/S for ten seconds’

[Rot Aura 5Mp/S]

Immediately after activation Ember noticed a big difference. The skill seemed to be draining her mana quick enough for her to physically notice a difference in her body. She could feel coldness seeping into here where the mana left her skin and formed her aura. After 7 seconds past Ember stumbled, barely catching her balance with the aid of her staff. ‘STOP! Cancel.’

[Rot Aura: Passive]

Ember lowered herself to a cross-legged sitting position cradling her head. “Mother Fungus that sucked! Status!”

[Name: Ember Abiss

Title: None

Race:Human

Age:23

Level:1

Class: “Locked”

Affinities: Rot, Nature, Void

Lifeforce: 50

Mana: 15/80

Ki: 50

Buff/De-Buff: Mana Depletion]

‘Metatron please explain mana depletion.’

[Mana Depletion: user suffers from mild to severe headaches, nausea, and mental fatigue. Status condition activated when mana pool reaches 20%. Reaching 0 mana will cause user to blackout until a safe minimum level is reached]

‘Ugh! Please… how long until this fades? What do I need to do to remove the De-Buff?’

[Bring current mana values about 25% maximum capacity]

“"Urgh!” Ember groaned while flopping forward laying across her own lap. ‘No math… yes naps…’

“Ember? You well?” Thorn asked with concern in his voice.

“No… Yes. Mana depletion.” Ember replied, saying depletion in English. “ I don't know the word. Umm me… no mana?”

“Ah! Mana Depletion” Thorn answered her from beside. He squatted down so that he was at eye level with the tired girl. “Be careful…”

“Yes,” she replied slowly. She then lowered her head a bit. “I thank you Thorn. For this.” She gestured her hands around over her head. But now I think I need a nap. Or lunch and a nap.” She struggled to pull herself back up off the floor after relaxing here for a while. Thorn gave her a hand righting herself as she stood. She then handed Thorn the staff , and bowed. “Please return this for me? I need sleep. Going to Willow's to sleep the pain away…”

Thorn grabbed the staff and promptly returned all the rental equipment. When complete he guided Ember back out of the guild hall and back to Willow's house.

“Tomorrow?” Ember asked.

“Yes! But tomorrow the forest.” Thorne replied with a smirk. “Bye” he waved and turned to head home.

Ember raced back to her borrowed room and climbed in bed. She buried her head in the pillows to block out all the ambient light seeping in around her window curtain. ‘Goodbye headache, Hello fluffy warm.’ With a big yawn and stretch Ember fell asleep.