Ember Abiss: Rot Mage

“Shhh…” Thorn hushed while pointing a short distance away. “Listen closely. It sounds like rabbits fighting for territory.”

Ember slowed and walked softer as she approached the area Thorn pointed out. She stealthily peaked around a tree and could see two cat sized rabbits charging each other. Each had a sharp looking curved horn growing out of their forehead that they used in an attempt to gore their opponent after a short scuffle of kicking and biting.

“I’ll shoot the one on top, once it goes down, rush in and finish off the one on the ground.” Thorn whispered next to Ember before smiling and giving her a thumbs up. He stood slowly so as to not catch the attention of the squabbling rabbits and pointed at them. “Now.” He announced firing a small bolt of electricity at the rabbit pinning the other. When the bolt made contact the rabbit let out a pained squeal before collapsing on its side convulsing.

Ember stood there in shock for a moment before Thorn nudged her from the side. ‘Right, I have a job to do too.’ She thought to herself. She took a deep breath to calm herself before charging out into the clearing. As she reared back her staff to smash the rabbit she paused to turn on her rot aura.

[Rot Aura: 5MP/S]

She swung the end of her staff down on the skull of the fallen rabbit, ending it swiftly in one clean strike. She then watched to see if her magic was having any effect on the corpse, noticing it had begun to swell slightly like it was filling with gas. ‘Gross, I hope it doesnt pop. I know bacteria starts to break stuff down after death but if it goes too fast will it be catastrophic?’

She was pulled out of her thoughts when the convulsing rabbit started making a pained groaning noise. She looked over to see a dark blackish red foam frothing out of the creature's mouth and nose. ‘It did say it did damage. I wonder how I'm hurting them though?’ she pondered until the rabbit coughed up meaty chunks mixed with black coagulated blood. ‘Gross! Off off off!’

[Rot Aura: Passive]

Ember quickly turned away and fought back the urge of puking after seeing such a horrible sight.

“Spores! that's gross.” She complained, unluckily she had turned just in time to see the side of the original rabbit she had hit showing signs of stretching before it popped in an explosion of decaying blood and viscera. Throwing blood spatter and chunks right at her hitting her favorite hoodie.

“Mother funguuuuu…” She started, but dropped to her knees facing away and emptied the contents of her stomach.

“NEVER!” She yelled. “I never want to see that again, it was disgusting. I can smell it, we need to leave this area.” She stood up after wiping her mouth and spitting the remaining bile out. “Rot is a terrible affinity.” She said flatly, eyes downcast and looking at her hands. ‘I did that… Thorn electrocuted the first one we met in one shot but this one seemed to be able to hold out after his first shot connected. Lightning affinity is so much cleaner… and probably faster… less painful… and gross to watch.’

“Thorn… i…is there a way to change your affinity?” She asked with a desperate sadness to it.

“No, it is a part of you, and I don't see why you would want to change it. That was awesome.” Thorn replied, not hiding his excitement at witnessing a new magic.

“No.” Ember stated bluntly not bothering to translate. She let out a small growl of annoyance before switching. “No, it was disgusting. The first one that I hit exploded! Blood and guts everywhere! My only clothes are going to smell like the inside of a corpse. Ahhh!” She ended her little tirade with a yell as she threw her arms above her head.

Thorn watched as Ember paced around in a circle and shouted, doing his best to hold back his laughter at her animated frustration. “I'm sorry. When we make it back to the guild and turn in our bounty you can get a new set. We have two of the six horns we need to collect now, so just four more and we can leave. Honestly I think your Rot trick on the dead one made gathering the part easier.”

Ember glared back at Thorn. “I'm not going to the guild hall like this.” She said while gesturing down her body at the blood spatter and grime. “I want a bath first. No one wants to smell this and I don't want to be seen as a gross foreign girl.”

Thorn led them away from the remains, the smell already reaching the putridness of day-old roadkill, and deeper into the woods to a more densely forested area. As they walked Ember tried to focus on the sounds all around her. She heard birds chirping and singing in the treetop, a constant droning hum from the insects and bugs flitting around weaving in and out of bushes and branches. Some more daring ones dive bombed her ears and neck.

“Please tell me your magic world doesn't have ticks and chiggers? I've been walking through here all willy nilly not paying attention to the grass and bushes I walked through.” Ember pleaded half heartedly after coming to the realization that it feels like spring and she's in the woods.

“What are teecks and cheeggers?” Thorn asked back, not quite pronouncing the English correctly.

“ah, umm. The first are bugs that bite you, bury their heads under your skin and then drink your blood until you remove it. They carry diseases too. The second one is a super annoying bug that does the same as ticks but they itch like crazy and they are so small you have to kill them by suffocating them with a cream or something.” She explained loudly. “Two things I don't miss from home…”

“Oh! You are in luck then. I've never heard of anything like that. The only blood sucking bugs I know are mosquitos. Normal and beast varieties.” He explained.

Ember’s eyes grew wide when she heard him say beast mosquitos. W…what makes a beast mosquito a beast? She asked nervously.

Thorn put his hand out in front of Ember motioning for her to stop and get quiet again. “Beasts can use mana. Average animals and bugs can not.” He whispered, “Horned rabbits use mana to jump and kick harder.” This time he moved a branch aside to show a single rabbit chewing a nut of some kind. “Rare ones can have an affinity and cast magic from their horns. I've never seen one myself though, and I've hunted them in this area since I was sixteen.”

Ember watched the rabbit munching on some nuts while Thorn explained the differences to her. ‘What kind of horrible things can a magic mosquito do?!? I hope I never see one while I'm here.’ she thought to herself.

“What do they do with affinities?” She asked.

“It depends on the specific element. I've heard of super fast lightning rabbits, some have nature mana to grow plants. It can really vary.” He replied.

“Same tactics as last time?” He asked in a more hushed tone, starting to show sparks on his finger.

“Yes.” She replied dejected. “I'm not using my aura this time.” She stuck her tongue out and made a gagging face.

“Fine, but it won't level up that way. You will have to use it if you want to see it get stronger or change.” He explained.

“Change?” Ember asked with a curious head tilt.

Thorn let out a small chuckle before responding. “After this.”

A sparking blue white bolt shot from Thorns finger quickly stunning the rabbit. With a chuff Ember ran out from behind the bush with her staff at the ready.

[Rot Aura 5MP/S]

She felt a rush flow through her as her aura kicked on, blasting her mana out in a three hundred and sixty degree dome. As she approached she could already see the Aura taking effect. The rabbit's gut swelled and She spotted the tell tell black and red foam beginning to froth out of its mouth. The sparks had stopped coursing through the creature’s body. Its front paws scratched uselessly in the dirt unable to drag its swollen decaying body anywhere.

‘So gross! and looks like torture. I'm so sorry Mr. Bunny’ With that thought she slammed the butt end of her staff into the skull of the rabbit. It's head crushing under the force letting her feel the skin crawling sensation of the bone crackling like an eggshell through the wood.

[Rot Aura: Passive]

She stood there panting, feeling completely drained with a constant twinge of pain behind her eyes. “Spores! I hate this freaking headache!” She shouted angrily, “I need to boost my mana again so I don't have to worry about feeling this again.”

‘Metatron vitals.’

[Name: Ember Abiss

Title: None

Race:Human

Age:23

Level:1

Class: “Locked”

Affinities: Rot, Nature, Void

Lifeforce: 50

Mana: 5

ki: 50]

“Ughh…” She groaned in a mix of tiredness, frustration, and pain. “Break time please… I'm out of mana.” she asked as she leaned back against the closest tree. ‘The plants here are kinda weird… It has the white bark of a birch but is as big as an oak.’

Ember leaned her head back and shut her eyes in an attempt to meditate and regain mana faster. Unsuccessfully.

…

Three dead rabbits with only one more exploding and two puke breaks later Ember and Thorn had made their way back to town. Remembering the conversation from earlier Ember asked again. “How can a skill be changed?”

As they made their way through the streets Thorn began to explain the concept to the best of his abilities. “When a skill maxes out, it has a chance to evolve based on how you have used it or tried using it. Like this.” He formed a baseball sized sphere of white light in the palm of his hand. “This is my Hard Light skill. It's typically used as a mobile light source while exploring but I want to use it offensively.” He said as he threw the ball of light at the brick wall of a building they passed. It hit the wall and immediately popped and disappeared in a flash.

“I'm trying to force more mana into the skill to strengthen the ball but it feels like I'm still missing something.” He stated, sounding a little dejected at his lack of progress. “So to sum it up. Try to make it do stuff it normally doesn't want to do while training the skill often as well.”

“Okay, I understand that. Cool orb by the way. But how can I manipulate my aura to not go gross roadkill on me?” Ember asked, curious on the subject.

“No clue.” Thorn said with a stupid smile on his face. “We are here. Do you want to turn it in with me this time or wait out here again?”

“I'm not going to let people smell me like this if I don't have to. I'll wait. I’d rather make a better first impression on any other staff. I'm already known as the girl that doesn't know the language… or didn’t? ” She answered, bringing forth a cascade of her own questions crashing into her mind. ‘Okay how can i speak so fluently already? I dont know all the words but i seem to soak up everything after having it explained to me once or twice. I thought languages were supposed to be harder than this. Maybe i should learn Elf or Draconic next.’ She giggled at the thought. ‘But for now I need to collect my share from the rabbits, then clothes, then I'll finally get to take a bath.’ She smiled at the thought of being clean again.

A few minutes and some upturned noses later Thorn finally returned from the guild hall. As he came back over to her, Ember saw him smiling at her.

“Your first quest was a complete success!” He said proudly, tossing her a deceptively heavy small sack . “I'm glad I could assist with your training today.” He smirked when he saw Ember’s eyes widen as she peered into the money bag. He felt bad about her only set of clothes from her home getting stained with, hopefully, only blood. So he gave her the full reward for six jackalope, nine silver, and threw in a little of his own to help her get something nice or a backup, backup set. Same time tomorrow?”

“Yes. Same time tomorrow.” She replied with a smile as he turned and began heading home.

“Oh, ThornWait!” She shouted, causing him to turn around again.

“Yes?” He questioned.

“Where is the clothing store?” She asked shyly, wishing her reading was as useful as speaking.

Thorn let out a few laughs before pointing down the street to her right. “Shopping district. You will find clothes, weapons, armor, and anything else you need to survive over there.”

“Thank you!” Ember shouted back to him after turning to sprint straight to the clothing store.

[Name: Ember Abiss

Title: None

Race:Human

Age:23

Level:1

Class: “Locked”

Affinities: Rot, Nature, Void

Lifeforce: 50

Mana: 25

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 2 ]