Chapter 771: Mist (1/2)

Ilea wasn’t sure which one to choose. Immortal was the best one for straight up battle. The Beheaded was similar to her second stage of Pain Tolerance. A benefit in some situations but fear had a good reason to exist. For her current task she mostly considered the Wanderer title. She didn’t have any stealth abilities after all.

Only works in places unfamiliar to me, which I suppose the Still Valley would be. Not incredibly useful otherwise, but I suppose that’s the point. She wondered what going unnoticed actually meant from a magical perspective. Was it some kind of illusion? Light or Shadow magic? Or something that made her movements more quiet?

Friend is an interesting option too. Wouldn’t anyone seeing that immediately be suspicious of a title like that? Then I suppose any of these would raise questions and concerns. Deviant seemed like a good option too, if only when she was interested in learning new abilities. She already had three sets of magics she would’ve liked to focus more time on. All surely useful abilities for the future, or nice to have for potential evolution options. And yet here I am.

She selected the title and checked her status.

Name: Ilea Spears

Unspent statpoints: 0

Class 1: The Arcane Eternal – lvl 621

- Active: Archon Strike [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30

Class 2: The Ashen Titan – lvl 618

- Active: Mantle of the Titan [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 30

Class 3: The Primordial Arbiter – lvl 611

- Active: Primordial Shift [Enhanced] – 3rd lvl 10

General Skills:

- Ashen Limbs – 2nd lvl 12

- Arcane Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 30

Status:

Vitality: 2000

Health: 69840/69840

I suppose not having my Ice Resistance higher means I can level it more now, Ilea thought. The title didn’t make her feel any different but she supposed she was somewhat familiar with this mountain already. “I’ll be back,” she said to the elf standing next to her before she jumped down into the depths.

One thing the elves from the ice domain were adamant about was that she had to enter at the edge of the territory. Flying over it was practically suicide. That was if one couldn’t face the collective might of an Elven domain. This time she had a reason to be here. Testing herself against a domain could come later.

She flew close to the mountain side, a massive growth of ice visible to her right, the thing clinging to the steep incline like a limb grasping for stone. The air was already cool but as she descended towards the mist, Ilea could see ice crystals trying to form on her mantle. Nothing quite remained due to her resistance. She gasped when she reached the actual mist. A strange sensation of various magics, soon changing into a perfect stillness.

She felt more than heard whispers as she descended, her very soul fighting against the strange sensation. The feeling receded a little when she landed on the snowy ground. Her weight pushed her deep into the crunching bed of white, the mist still present and preventing visibility for more than a few meters. Her eyes couldn’t pierce it.

Ilea took in a deep breath, in the snow almost to her hips. Her lungs cooled before she breathed out, the air just barely visible as a seeping cold settled in her body. She could move and survive, but the resistances were more than necessary, both ice, and soul. Strangely, she felt the mist itself was packed with magic too but her perception was somewhat affected. In more than one way it felt like she was cut off from the outside world.

She couldn’t perceive her marks. Or not quite the same. In Kohr they were simply not present. Here she could feel a faint calling but the distance and directions were impossible to determine. By far the strangest phenomenon she perceived was the fabric itself. The wisps were present, but she had never seen them quite so static. Maybe with Icy. She wasn’t entirely sure. Her ability had improved vastly when the skill had evolved. Though she wouldn’t have been surprised to find an Ice Elemental in the vicinity.

Looking at the locator, she found the direction had changed. To the right instead of forward. Not particularly surprising. She couldn’t perceive the mountain side that should’ve been behind her. This place was certainly strange. With what she had seen, Ilea would’ve described it as some kind of middle realm. Connected still to Elos but in a much less tangible way than most other locations she’d been to. No wonder people can’t escape this place, she thought and looked up. Ilea assumed just flying up wouldn’t exactly bring her back to where she entered, but it wasn’t the time to test such theories.

The locator hadn’t led her astray so far, and she definitely trusted the taleen enchantments more than her own sense of orientation. Especially with how the space here behaved, neither her eyes nor her other sets of perception much of a help in what seemed like a wasteland of snow. For now, she refrained from generating more heat, the environment not affecting her much beyond a constant strain on her self regeneration and soul. The pressure on the latter was negligible with her high resistance and the fires of creation.

Ilea tried to teleport a few meters ahead but found her spell failing. Not failing. Freezing. She could see the remains of her attempt in the fabric, the connection stopped halfway through. She wondered how it affected other magics but decided not to bring more attention to herself than necessary. Her ash she could generate and move around, but everything was much slower than usual. Not so her own movements. She cut into her arm with some ash and healed the wound, her blood keeping the cold away as she recovered. It was slowed to an extent but not in a way she deemed problematic.

She spread her wings and pulled herself out of the snow, flying low over the landscape as she tried to see with her dominion. The mist certainly obscured everything, but she couldn’t quite make out how much of the effect was in the mist and how much of it was the cold itself. Perhaps there were even other spells woven into the environment to cause the effect.

Ilea flew slowly, not only due to a conscious choice. The arrow pointed in the same direction still but she felt the surroundings themselves played tricks on her mind. Perhaps they were changing but she assumed it was just a simple mist magic effect. One she could understand if used by simply another mage but this was an entire territory.