B5 C31: Seeing in Color

As the Lady Verin’Sylus lounged idly in her bed, she couldn’t help but reflect that two things were true at once.

Firstly, without a doubt, the past few months had been far better than she’d had any right to hope for. With her mana sealed and her condition unmanaged, Verin had expected each and every moment to be utter torture. Even with the handful of frost aspectors the grand magus had given them, Verin was pessimistic. Completely confined to her humble cabin bedroom, her mental state had hit an all time low.

And yet, somehow, things had gotten better.

She had an entire house to roam now, and more importantly, she had things to do in it as well. Freed from the stifling impulses of her old Etiquette skill, Verin had plunged headfirst into a handful of more mundane pastimes. While she’d been skeptical of them at first, Verin could admit that they now served as the highlights of her day. Though she wouldn’t dare tell the others, the day she’d first made a full, edible meal for herself, she’d felt a burst of pride almost on par with the day she’d grabbed her old Rime’s Ruler class.

She’d started woodworking. She was teaching Tess to draw. She tended to the plants in the garden.

All good things. Truly.

And yet. Just as she’d said, two things could be true at once.

For all that her life was better than she’d imagined, it still, for lack of a better word, “sucked.”

There was only so much wood carvings she could make before she went mad, and with her already sedentary lifestyle, she had little desire to cook more than she needed to, either. The garden, though she was fond of it, grew slowly.

Her life was, in many ways, devoid of proper enrichment.

If that weren’t enough, there was the pain. Though the frost converters helped immensely, they were woefully insufficient, and each day, she awoke feeling a full century older than she was. Wracked with aches and pains and filled with a dense and heavy fatigue, Verin couldn’t say she was a fan of her current life. In truth, it was only the hope that Calilah would soon return that kept her from sinking into a deep despair.

And to top it all off, there was the matter of her level. No longer bound by her Etiquette, Verin allowed herself an audible groan as she examined her system for the thousandth time.

Experience to next level: 200.

Damnable thing. Every time she saw it, she wanted to shout.

Unlike the other two, Verin hadn’t leveled in ages. The last time had been at the end of the air region, so long ago.

Which made sense, unfortunately. Though they’d cleared quite a number of regions since then, very few of them had offered her much experience. The forest, for instance, hadn’t contained any real fighting, with all of her experience being from the region’s quest. It was largely the same for the jungle.

The mental and spatial regions had been even worse, with no fights and no quests.

Even the fire region hadn’t been great for her growth. With the experience in each fight being based on a contribution system, the fiery foes had offered her little with how much they resisted her skills. Only the graveyard region she’d cleared with Calilah had truly offered her the experience she needed, but that was one region of many.

And even so, with all those obstacles in her way, Verin had gotten right to the cusp of the next level. When she’d entered the boss fight of the fire region, she’d been only 2000 away.

So when she’d finally read through her notifications after the fight, somehow, it felt like a slap in the face.

You have completed a hidden class quest!

Survive an attack that burns completely through your Advancing Glacier.

+1000xp

+1 Class Point

It was unjust! A travesty! What sort of measly class quest only offered a piddling thousand experience?

Never mind the fact that it had also unlocked a new class skill option for her -- one that increased her ice’s resistance to melting. Never mind that it was incredibly rare for quests to unlock new skills in the first place. She wanted the rest of her experience!

Not that it would have been that big an issue under different circumstances, but it wasn’t as if she could go out and kill a few scorpions for the last bit of experience. Nor could she level any of her spells or magic skills, as she was fully locked out of her mana.

Cooking, Woodworking, and Gardening had all helped, but as Common, Novice-tier skills, they only offered fifty experience per level. It was a damnably slow slog, and she could feel herself slipping farther and farther behind the others with each passing day.

And speaking of the others…

If all that wasn’t enough, it almost felt like Tess was avoiding her these days. Admittedly, she was glad that her presence wasn’t keeping her friend locked up in the house, but in the past weeks, Tess had left far more often than normal.

Verin didn’t need to be handheld. Hells, especially now that she could cook, it wasn’t as if Tess’s presence was truly necessary. And gods forbid, Etiquette or not, it wasn’t as if Verin was about to whine about it or throw some manner of tantrum.

But still.

Spending so much time alone and in pain was hardly good for-

Knock, knock, knock. As if her brooding had summoned the object of her thoughts, a sharp tapping sounded at her door.

Still polite enough to answer the door herself, Verin pulled herself from her bed to let her friend inside. The face that greeted her on the other side was both unusually tense and energetic, a far cry from the blank stare it had housed only months prior. While she tried to relocate them to the nearby table, Tess remained standing instead.

“Simply checking in, or to what do I owe the visit?” While she normally would have engaged in some small talk first, she could feel there was some greater purpose to the visit and decided to get straight to the point.

Thus, it was Tess, for once, who beat around the bush.

“Do you remember back when we finished the house, and you said that the dimension seemed ‘off’ somehow?”

What a bizarre segue. Admittedly she did recall the matter, but she’d long since dropped it. Unable to go outside without her pain intensifying, it wasn’t as if she was about to go and measure the exterior of their home in any detail.

Not quite sure where this was going, all Verin could do was nod.

“Well. I’m sorry for hiding it. And it took me a bit. And I really hope you like it, but it’s okay if you don’t, and you can tell me if something is wrong. But…”

With how unusually cagey Tess was being, Verin steeled herself for just about anything to follow. In the end, she failed miserably.

Because it was right then that Tess walked up to one of the walls of the room.

Abruptly, she summoned a blade of mana.

And she plunged it into the wall.

Before Verin could even process what she was seeing, Tess swept her blade to the side and then followed up with two precise slices.

In an instant, a perfect rectangle had been cut into the wall, and with a quick push, the wood fell to the floor with a slam.

Initially, Verin expected her pains to flare as the ambient mana outside rushed in through the opening. Peering through the opening, however, she was stunned to see that it did not lead outside. Nor did it open up to any of the rooms she knew, either.

Did… Did she hide an entire extra room of the house from me?

Verin wanted to say “How?” but the how wasn’t that hard to imagine. Most of the construction had taken place back when she’d been in the cabin, and Verin was never outside to view the exterior of the house. It wouldn’t have been that hard to hide from her, altogether.

The real question was why.

In something of a daze, she followed Tess into the new room, finding it to be rather nondescript save for some impressively large windows, including a few built straight into the ceiling. Save for a singular table, the only other features of note were a few empty frames hanging from the wall. Before she could ask what she was seeing, the system answered her unspoken question.

Art Studio

+2 to Drawing

+2 to Painting

While making visual art, gain +1 to Dexterity and Perception.

Those bonuses. They’re larger than any other room in the house. Did she devote more time to drawing these plans than all the others?

It was… impossibly kind. A remarkably sweet gesture.

And yet.

How am I to tell her that it is useless for me? True, Verin loved her art. She missed her sketchbook dearly, in a way words couldn’t quite describe. She would love to sink herself back into the artistic pursuits.

But carving into slabs of wood just didn’t do it for her. Even when Tess used her class skills to create a burning needle, Verin found something lacking from burning into solid wood. She needed-

“I know this would have worked a lot better if I asked, so some of these are probably going to be a bit off. But tell me if I need to remake anything, and I’ll do my best.”

And then, all at once, a large number of objects appeared from nowhere.

The most obvious was an easel, making the room feel remarkably less empty than it had before, but that wasn’t what drew Verin’s eyes at all. Instead, it was the smaller additions, all of which sat atop a small table, that pulled Verin in.

A few glass bottles with wooden caps, thick black liquid resting within. Larger stone containers sat to their sides, and as Verin peered within, she spotted every color of the rainbow captured, waiting for her.

Then, expertly carved, a number of wooden brushes were next, sporting a variety of animal hairs sprouting from their tips. A few pencils joined them, along with a handful of feathery quills and even a rubbery eraser.

It was… impossible. In her mind, no one should have been capable of creating it all with their current resources. Certainly not without a dedicated class.

But even all that paled in comparison to the final offering. There, stacked neatly into a high pile, was exactly what she’d been missing for so long.

“Paper…”

Oh, it was quite ugly, to be certain. Slightly brown and not entirely flat, it was a far cry from what she was used to.

And yet, for all of that, it was perfect.

Without realizing it, she began moving towards the table, only belatedly realizing that Tess was still speaking.

“... once I found some more graphite, the pencils were probably the easiest. And sorry if the eraser sucks. Arbor didn’t know what ‘rubber’ was, but we found an okay alternative, I think. Wasn’t sure what sort of ink you needed, either, so I made different versions. One is from plants, another from some charcoal I made, and the last is from squid ink. And did you know grinding up gemstones makes weirdly good paint? Gold too. Didn’t think that would work, but…”

As Tess continued to detail all the work that had gone into her new set of art supplies, a warmth began to well up within Verin’s chest, banishing all of her aches. Paradoxically, that warmth froze her for a time, forcing her to simply experience it. Bit by bit, all of the bitterness she’d been holding onto began to melt away.

“Tess. This very well may be the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me, and that is not an exaggeration or hyperbole. Thank you. Truly.” There was a time for keeping her emotions close to her chest, and this was not one of them. “I cannot say that I am glad for our ordeal with the fire region’s boss, especially when it didn’t even have the decency to grant us any rewards, but if it led to this, I cannot help but be at least a little happy for it.”

She’d meant her words to be a sincere expression of gratitude, so it was rather strange when she noticed Tess wincing, as if struck.

“Lady Tess? Did I say something wrong?”

Her friend’s mouth hung open before she managed to respond. “There, uh. Just to be clear, there were rewards from the fire region. I was going to give you the rings when I saw you afterwards. But, you know, you kind of… passed out. And then when you woke up, you… passed out again. And then the timing always felt off?” Sheepishly, she summoned a stunning crystalline band, carved from a red-tinted gemstone. Its sweeping curves were reminiscent of gentle flames.

Band of Refractory Conjuration

+2 Intelligence

+1 Constitution

Conjured materials gain minor resistances to most outside influences and moderate resistances to flames, heat, and melting.

It was a beautiful piece, and gods only knew she needed some replacement rings for her regrown hand. What struck her first was not the ring itself, however, but what Tess seemed to be omitting.

“Lady Tess. Did you not say rings, plural?”

Seeming to waffle once more, it was only reluctantly that Tess answered her. “Look. I know it seems kind of stupid now. But you made a big deal about your previous ring, and I had no idea that it was related to being mana shifted. I thought maybe it was an heirloom or you just really liked how it looked? So I know it doesn’t really make sense, but I hoped making a replacement might make you feel better.”

A new ring joined the first, clearly lower in quality, but somehow made all the better for it. In another display of her ridiculous competency, Tess had somehow managed to forge mithril, of all things, making a neat band with a thin line of lapis lazuli running through it. As Verin reached out to grab the two rings, she even noticed a small “V” engraved into the metal.

Mana-imbued Mithril Band

+1 Wisdom

+1 Intelligence

+1 to Frost Magic (up to Apprentice rank)

She did not know how to smith at all before we arrived here. How much work went into crafting this, just for me? Combined with the rest of the surprise -- the room, the art supplies, the paper -- it was all too much for her. With rising alarm, Verin could feel as her emotions broke free from containment, threatening to make her cry on the spot.

None of that! None of that. Etiquette or not, she didn’t want to stand there blubbering. Redirect. Take control of yourself.

An inkling of a plan came to her, and it was all Verin could do to put on a passably stern mask. Rather than hug her friend as she was tempted to, Verin dressed her down with only the barest hint of a smile.

“Keeping my rewards from me, are we Lady Tess? No, I’m afraid that will not do, especially when I have nothing to give you in return. As punishment, you will be my first subject to test these new supplies with. Go! Sit.” Her mask slipping, Verin failed to hide the glint in her eyes as she placed a suitable piece of paper on her easel, grabbing the ink bottles and a quill.

Dutifully and without complaint, Tess grabbed a chair and posed in front of the easel with a warm grin of her own. A good expression. With any luck, Verin would capture it.

The quill was a touch unwieldy. The ink, slightly thick. She didn’t care. With each stroke, a certain sense of rightness settled over the room, a puzzle piece snapping into place. The entire dungeon tossed aside, Verin lost herself in her work. The gentle curves of Tess the steadfast friend. The sharp edges of Tess the battle-hardened warrior. The nimble, sure fingers of Tess the chef, the woodworker, the smith.

It was only as the piece neared completion that something actually managed to pull Verin from her work. There was a notification waiting for her, but that shouldn’t have been enough. On top of that, though, a surge of energy rushed through her, nearly causing her to drip ink all over herself.

Drawing has reached level 37!

That, in and of itself, was practically a miracle. It certainly wasn’t as if Drawing was class aligned, after all.

But more than that, it granted her some experience. A Common skill. Journeyman tier. She could hardly believe it.

+200xp

Congratulations! You have reached level 18!

+1 Constitution

+2 Wisdom

+1 Intelligence

+1 Perception

+2 Free Points

And that wasn’t all, either.

Well before she’d hit level ten, Verin had placed a full five points into Perception to unlock Identify and other similar skills. On top of that, her new class granted an additional point to the stat every other level. Glancing at her stats, she couldn’t help but gawk at the number that greeted her.

Perception: 24

She knew it was foolish, in a way. They were in a dungeon. She needed every bit of power she could get. If anything, her recent brush with death should have made that even more clear.

But for once, she didn’t care.

With complete and total serenity, Verin used up one of her free points, adding it to Perception.

Congratulations! You have regained the first Perception threshold.

All at once, the scenery surrounding her shifted. The large windows in the wall. The skylights hanging above her.

Where once they’d looked out onto a dull and desolate expanse of black, now they erupted with color.

For the first time in far, far too long, Verin once again gazed upon the shifting, patchwork sky.

Despite herself, this time she failed to keep her emotions in check, and tears began to trickle down across her cheeks.

She thought back to her very first day in the dungeon. She’d been filled with such anxiety, uncertainty, and fear. Even as she’d attempted to teleport back home, she’d been pulled to that wondrous, beautiful sky, regretting that she wouldn’t have the time to paint it.

It was quite fortuitous, then, that she had new art supplies this time around.

Truly, I am blessed with some of the greatest friends. Even Cal, for all her… quirks, was out there trying to heal her. She would have to figure out something to do for the two of them. And as soon as she could, Verin was practically itching to start painting the sky.

But, of course, all of that could wait. Seeing her tears, Tess had pulled herself to her feet to check on Verin. Naturally, that would not do at all.

“Back down, Lady Tess! You will simply have to leave me to my tears for the time being. And after that, I am afraid you will have to bear with it as I hug you once or twice. Prepare yourself.”

For now, though, neither of them were allowed to move.

After all, she still had a drawing to finish, didn’t she?