Aether Beasts

The rest of our hunting trip was not as eventful as Misty's battle with the death beast had been. In the end, we'd come across a few beasts of the nature affinity and dark affinity along with more murwogs, a ton more murwogs. They truly were the most common beast on this floor, and we'd gotten to see just how deadly there were again when we came across the largest group of them yet, tearing into the same type of beast Misty had fought. Dozens had fallen, but they'd kept on attacking, and with their fleet wood spears, they'd eventually brought it down. We hadn't stayed to watch them devour it though on our way back we had taken the core that had been left behind.

The murwogs couldn't take the essence from the death beast's core because they were of the water affinity, so they'd left it and we'd picked it up on your way back to the treehouse. It would be very beneficial to Misty who had said draining the bear had topped her up quite a bit.

Misty remained silent for the most part during the rest of the trip, and I didn't even need to look at her or check my bond to know that she was thinking over what had happened, over how she had almost lost control. I couldn't imagine how it must have felt since it was such a contrast. That beastial like Misty was nowhere to be seen now, just the Misty I knew, the blonde who always had a look of curiosity on her face and an interest in anything that caught her eye. I knew the beast wasn't a separate entity, it was just another side of her that had come and developed with the change from human to vampire, but sometimes it was hard to believe. I wondered how she'd been when she had it fully in control when the beast and Misty were whole and now two parts fighting for dominance.

When we arrived back at the treehouse, it was not to a pleasant sight.

Zirani was waiting for us in the dining room with new and improved elixirs.

"Please tell me that's not what I think it is," Sandra groaned as she glanced over at the vial that held a crimson liquid, similar to the old strengthing liquid but darker.

"It's the new and improved body strengthing elixir," Zirani replied with a smile. "I expect to use these from now on, two a day like before."

I sighed. "Let's get it over with."

Zirani shot me a sympathetic look. "You'll get used to it just like you did the last one."

"I don't want to get used to it." Sandra grimaced. "I use to look forwards to baths, now I dread them."

I had to agree with that, but just like before, I took my vial and headed to my room where I filled my tub with water before pouring the liquid in. The water turned a dark red color somehow even more disturbing looking than the bright blood red from before. I hesitated for a long moment before i took a deep breath and began to enter the tub,

I felt my whole body shudder the moment my foot touched the water and it took all my willpower to force myself in as my body began to heat up from the inside while my flesh felt like it was tearing and being pricked by thousands of needles.

It was then the longest ten minutes of my life, and when the water was finally clear again, I stayed still for a long moment just breathing heavily, full of relief that it was over. I knew I needed to do this to become stronger, but damn I really hated it. It's not like I'd never felt pain, but this was just the worst. I'd always preferred cooler temperatures rather than heat, and the burning of my insides combined with the pricking made it truly feel like a form of torture.

"You ok." Zirani was stood in my doorway. "I know it's not comfortable, trust me when I first used something like this I screamed the entire time."

"I find that hard to believe," I replied. I couldn't imagine someone as strong as her screaming in such a way.

"I was young at the time," Zirani explained. "Still a dryad under my mother's care. Even before I'd taken the path to becoming as I am now, I'd always wanted to learn to fight even if just to defend myself."

I pulled a towel from my ring and began to dry myself. "And how long before you got used to it?"

A thoughtful look appeared on her face. "It was a few weeks before I stopped screaming altogether. You have to understand that dryads fear fire, more than you can know, and the burning within was… unbearable."

I winced as I imagined it. It was bad for me, but a being of nature burning from the inside? That must have been hell.

"Do you still have a fear of fire?" I asked.

Zirani smiled and shook her head. "No, not anymore. Now, when you're done changing meet me in the dining room with the others, I need to over a few things for tomorrow."

With that, she left and I quickly dressed in a set of steel heart combat robes. They were all I wore nowadays since they were the only clothing I possessed that was self-cleaning, although I did still have a few pairs of clothing that my aunt had packed for me all those weeks ago, I wasn't about to wear jeans and a shirt when hunting or training.

Misty and Sandra were already in the dining room when I arrived, the latter looking like she'd just come out of a fight. Her body was slumped and she looked both tired and pissed. Misty looked completely fine, which was due to her vampire constitution. Lucky her.

"You look…awful," I said as I took a seat next to Sandra.

"I fell awful." Sandra glanced at me. "I didn't think it could be that much worse than the first time."

"Well you got through it," Zirani said with a smile. "That's all that counts."

Sandra shrugged. "I guess so, please tell me none of the other elixirs are as bad."

There were a few new types of elixirs on the tale along with a blee pill with white streaks. I recognized the blue elixir as the aether gathering elixir, but the others were all unfamiliar.

"No, none of these will cause you any pain," Zirani promised as she motions to the pill.

"The pill is a simple condensation pill, that you will drop into your aether gathering elixir. It will dissolve and then you will you drink it." She plucked up a pill and one of the aether gathering elixirs. "Together these two will help you not only gather more aether when meditating but also help the process of condensing your essence."

She placed them down and picked up one from each of the two new elixirs. One was a dark green while the other was pinkish. "This pink liquid you see is for healing. One drink and even serious wounds will be healed. Use it sparingly as it takes a lot of resources to make even just this small account. As for the green, well that is only for Aiden I'm afraid. I couldn't find the right sources to create variants for you two."

Sandra frowned. "What is it?"

"It's like the pill, but only for those of the nature affinity," Zirani explained. "Aiden is going from Iron to steel which will not be easy at all. Simple mediation will only take him so far and if we don't want to wait years then were going to need elixirs like this one. When the time comes we shall do the same for you two."

Sandra and Misty looked only slightly annoyed but both nodded in understanding.

"Is that it?" I asked with a yawn. I felt extremely tired after all the fighting and running we'd done today, not to mention the bath of pain I'd just taken.

Zirani nodded. "Get some sleep, training begins early tomorrow. Our goal is to get all of you to the third level of infusion and ready for your second cores, by the way, Misty have you decided if you wish to change your core at all?"

Misty shook her head. "Not yet, I'm still thinking about it."

"Well try to make up your mind before you get your core to the iron stage." Zirani pointed at her. "It will be a lot harder then if you want to change it."

I walked away as they continued to speak, heading to my room. I pushed open my door and yawned loudly as I flopped onto my bedroll. I let out a sigh as my body relaxed, and soon I fell into a deep sleep.. No dreams haunted me that night.