“You seriously don’t even have to try to hold it together? What about Mana Ball?” Cyn was dumbfounded, and it was reflective in her tone. The group had encountered a hostile creature near the lake, when they were nearly in sight of the mine entrance. It resembled a brown bear, if a brown bear had two heads and a long, fluffy tail. Inspect had told Cyn it was a Urul, and they were highly territorial. Since it was only level fifteen, Cirrus, Sam and Cyn had hung back to allow the others to fight it on their own. No reason to pass up easy experience, and some of them clearly needed the practice.

  Watching the fight highlighted a few things for Cyn, including the gap in fighting experience between different members of the raid party. Juls and Geoff were... not having a good time. They both protested the idea of even attacking the Urul, wanting to try and sneak around it instead. Geoff fought fine, though he was almost overly defensive. His passable competency was not too surprising, since the warrior had been successful in holding off Vampires when Cyn and her party arrived on the floor. He just did not want to fight.

  Juls did not do well at all. She had long hesitations between each attempted shot with her bow, and kept glancing back at the three bystanders as if she was waiting for permission to stop. They did not give it to her, even if her pathetic attempts were painful to watch.

  Mountain and Fish, on the other hand, were eager but downright reckless. Mountain’s fighting style with his long polearm would probably be good, if there was not another person in melee range of him. Part of Geoff’s defensiveness could likely be chalked up to having to constantly watch out for the other warrior’s weapon being swung too close to him.

  That, and the fireballs.

  Fish had had zero hesitation to just start lobbing fist-sized balls of red flames as soon as the lower-level members of the group were prompted to attack the Urul. Her aim was careless, leading to many minor burns for Mountain and Geoff, and a small fire that Cirrus, Sam, and Cyn ran to put out using their waterskins before it spread. As effective as it was, something else stood out to Cyn. Just how easily the other mage seemed to be able to create and throw nearly identical balls of fire. There was some variation, due to the nature of fire itself, but the core orb created by the skill remained a perfect sphere from what Cyn could see.

  Cyn had never been able to create a perfect sphere with Mana Ball, and the few times she used Light Ball since acquiring it she had not created a perfect shape either. It just took too much work, too much focus, too much time to do. She had been settling for something vaguely round, and not too bumpy. After the fight was over, feeling only a little inadequate, she had to ask Fish how the other woman had managed to get the shape so perfect every time.

  Only to be met with confusion. The skill made a fireball. The only thing Fish did was determine the size by how long she channeled the skill for, and throw it. Rubbing the back of her neck and frowning, she responded to Cyn’s question, “I don’t even know what you mean by ‘hold it together’. It explodes when it hits something, or I miss and it gets too far away. Mana Ball was the same.”

  “You don’t... do you know if it’s the same for Del?” Maybe it’s just something special about Fish?

  The other mage shrugged, likely having not even thought about asking someone else about how their skills worked. Instead, Cirrus, who was close enough to listen, stepped in to comment. “I can’t speak for Del, but I have a mana-using skill. All I have to do is turn it on and off, and make sure I do not run out of mana and pass out. Otherwise, it just does exactly what the skill description states.”

  “Huh.” Confused, she waved off any further questions for the moment with the explanation she needed to think as the group continued towards the mine. She wasn’t keen on sharing details of her non-standard skill, even though her party already knew about Freeform Mana Casting, but she would probably have to soon since Cyn had just made it blatantly obvious she was not sharing the same experience using skills that others were.

  Cyn just wanted a few minutes to think first. Hubris altered her experience with using skills, she already knew that. She was not even terribly surprised to hear Cirrus mention passing out when he ran out of mana. That was probably some kind of safeguard that Hubris removed for her.

  What Cyn found puzzling was the fact that she first used Mana Ball before gaining Freeform Mana Casting. She had found the skill frustrating and difficult to use, leading her to abandon it quickly in favor of something that felt more stable and natural using Freeform. Learning that other mages did not have to shape the ball, or even mentally hold it together after throwing, was shocking. She had already suspected that her ability to feel her mana flow through her body was likely abnormal, but the idea that - even in that very first use of Mana Ball before gaining Freeform - she had had significantly reduced System assistance and far more direct control of the mana than she should have been capable of was confusing. There had been nothing on her menu to indicate she was supposed to have an ability to do that, or that for some reason the System was not helping her like it should.

  Not until she stubbornly gained Freeform Mana Casting, anyway. But now it seemed like that non-standard skill gain was more of a side-effect from something else she already had, rather than a lucky boon on its own. But why? And why did only certain skills appear to be affected? She had never had an issue with using Restoration or Purify. Were there other things she was regularly doing or dealing with that Cyn did not know was abnormal?

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Those were the questions looming over Cyn, and unfortunately the trees and lake to either side of her held no answers.

  Sighing, she looked down at the pouch on her tabard. Spam was inside, though she had to use one hand to pull open the pouch to see it since the frog was curled up all the way at the bottom. The familiar had been fluctuating between scared and upset over the past two days, and adamantly refused to leave the pouch. “Any idea what’s weird about me, buddy?”

  Cyn did not expect much of a response to her whispered question, so she was surprised when three black eyes opened to stare up at her and Spam gave a quiet chirp. It did know. Not that that was much help, since her communication with the familiar was based on vague feelings and not words. Cyn felt her shoulders slump. “Well, fuck. If only you could talk, and tell me what is wrong with both of us.”

  Letting go of the pouch opening so it could fall shut, she ignored the raised eyebrows around her and slowed down as they approached their destination. Cyn could see the mine entrance at the foot of a high cliff now that they had left the tree line near the lake. The entrance appeared worn, but not nearly as decrepit as the inside of the mines on Cyn’s first floor of the dungeon. As they entered, Fish and Cyn both activated their diadems for light. While the pale blue light the item gave off had been comforting when Cyn first saw it, now that she had spent time out in the sunlight again it was almost eerie. But it served its purpose, and the group could see the tunnel clearly ahead of them.

  The group spent only around an hour inside the mine before the Berserker was ushering them back out. There was no sign of giant spiders, thankfully, but there was a concerning amount of damage and instability in the support beams according to Sam, and he did not want to linger longer than they needed to. Him and Mountain would need supplies in order to make repairs. At least they were all able to pick up some small bits of ore to allow the smiths to start crafting while the builders worked on stabilizing the mine. Cyn also noticed signs of the burrowing creatures, notably what looked like small burrow entrances where the ground met the cave walls, but did not catch glimpse of any of them. She would have to come back during the repair process, or after Sam declared it safe.

  Most of the group was eager to return to camp, but not Cyn. Once they were back outside, she couldn’t help but glance to the lake to the north of the mine entrance, and subsequently the black stone tower that jutted up from the island at the lakes center. The tower looked as though it was on the verge of crumbling, and while she was curious about its possible purpose, she was much more interested in whatever Dana had seen in the lake. Before the group moved out, she spoke. “I want to go take a look at the water; can we wait a few minutes to head back?”

  Geoff quickly spoke up, “You don’t want to do that. There’s some kind of big snake in there.”

  “That’s exactly what I am trying to get a look at. But you should probably stay back. I have a skill that reduces hostility towards me and I am not sure it will work if you are too close.” Geoff shook his head in disbelief, but made no more protests as she turned and walked towards the waterline.

  It was Cirrus who stopped her instead, stepping forward to grab her arm and sounding genuinely concerned. “Wait, Cyn. That thing’s seriously dangerous. Why do you need to see it?”

  She stared down at the rogue’s hand, only answering once he let go. “My profession is Creature Handler, and I haven’t gotten enough opportunities for gaining experience in it. I seem to get most of my experience from interacting with or fighting new creatures. Whatever is lurking in the water will definitely be new to me.” Looking at his face, Cirrus seemed puzzled so she tried to reassure him. “I don’t intend to fight it. I just want to look.”

  He didn’t seem reassured, or less confused, but allowed her to continue toward the lake unimpeded. The water looked crystal clear, but the sheer abundance of aquatic plant life Cyn could see as she got close could create an abundance of hiding spots for anything lurking in the lake. She suspected the water was quite deep, despite being able to see the bottom in places, though it was difficult to judge. Cyn was just basing her judgement off of the perceived height of the dark green, kelp-like fronds that grew nearly to the surface of the water.

  Only a few feet back from the water, she stopped and watched for any signs of unusual movement, beyond the gentle sway of the flora that was expected. While the fronds made up the bulk of the flora, she could also see some more colorful shrub-like plants that grew in clusters across the lakebed. The near stillness of the water almost felt like a warning, the lack of fish an unnerving danger signal for the predator she was sure lived there. It took less than a minute for her to catch sight of something moving further out into the lake, parting the fronds in its path. If it was a single creature, it was very long. And it was moving towards her. Cyn probably should have backed up more, but she really wanted to get a good look at whatever it was.

  Her anticipation ratcheted up until, finally, the creature came into sight, gliding smoothly forward through the water as the fronds thinned near the shoreline. Her first impression upon seeing its head made Cyn think it was some kind of axolotl, mainly due to the frilly tendrils that grew out of the sides of its head. But its serpentine features quickly overtook any resemblance to the amphibian of Earth as it continued towards her, its long and limbless body clearly covered in small, overlapping, off-white scales. The serpent’s most striking feature was the six pale red eyes, three on either side, that lined the creature’s head, the black slitted pupils focused entirely on Cyn as it stopped just short of the water’s edge, keeping its massive head beneath the surface.

  Big danger noodle. I think I could fit inside its mouth...

  Feathered Brine Serpent - Level ?

  ? A rare ambush predator native to deep oceans.

  ? Possesses a highly potent necrotic venom.

  ? Parts of this creature are edible.

  I shouldn’t have stood so close to the water.