Nate could feel Quilly's excitement as he picked up the moon-engraved compass. Small sparks of magic made his fingers tingle. He pressed the button and it popped open, gears turning as the needle shifted. But then it began to make an intense whirring sound as the needle spun faster and faster. The gearing folded out, expanding into the symbol of a bow, the drawn arrow in the shape of a quill.

  And just quickly, the entire thing seemed to melt into his hand. Quilly appeared in his view and was dancing around, glowing a dark green light. Nate's vision filled with the light and as he shook it away, he found himself in a completely different place.

  It was a forest, but half the trees looked like they were made by a steampunk cosplay enthusiast. It was strangely quiet as he let Terry out to do a bit of scouting.

  Nate: Quilly, you good?

  Quilly: I've never felt such power! It's like I can sense the whole realm! Sort of.

  Nate: Where are we now?

  Quilly: Hunting's Grounds. Not on Terra.

  Nate had to sit for a second.

  Nate: The realm of a god?

  Quilly: Yep! Pretty neat!

  Though he completely agreed, Nate couldn't help but wonder why.

  Terry darted behind a tree, reappearing with a large cyborg spider twitching as he chomped it down, dark liquid oozing from his mouth.

  “Gross,” Nate said before the notification rolled in.

  Your familiar has consumed the Hunting energies from the Hunting Cyber-Spider. Astral Drain has absorbed the energies from this creature and begun a transformation. Current progress: 0.1%. Consume more creatures within Hunting’s Grounds to transform Astral Drain.

  Quilly: I’m getting some weird input from somewhere deeper within. Oh! It's a quest!

  Quest: The Hunt is On!

  Objectives: Slay the three Great Beasts to draw out the Crimson Tiger. Then slay that too!

  Reward: Blessing of Hunting

  This quest cannot be declined.

  “Love a good mob hunting quest! Terry, I don’t get to tell you this often, but none of our friends are here nor do I see any non-monster types thus far, so I guess it’s time to feast!”

  Terry released a gleeful roar that shook the nearby trees and leapt up into the trees. Nate summoned his bow and followed.

  At the top of a nearby tree, completely invisible, Hunting stood watching as Terry gleefully crunched down on another Cyber-Spider. She smiled as three other spiders shot out strands of sticky metallic thread, trying to tie up the Astral Maw. A translucent orange arrow burst through the overgrowth to pin one of the spiders to the tree. Another followed shortly thereafter, snapping two of its legs. Terry hopped down, snapping tree limbs as he slid down to consume the easy meal.

  “You will be my greatest hunter,” Hunting whispered as she watched Terry.

  Your familiar has consumed the Hunting energies from the Hunting Cyber-Spider. Astral Drain has absorbed the energies from this creature and begun a transformation. Current progress: 5.0%. Consume more creatures within Hunting’s Grounds to transform Astral Drain.

  Perception has increased from Novice 20 to Novice 21. Total Health has increased by 1. Progress to Level 29 at 36%.

  Nate sat in the forest firing the occasional arrow and pointing out new targets as Terry happily hunted. As he had time for the first time in a while, he looked over his stats interface page, noting several perks he hadn’t had much chance to utilize.

  Ignatius “Nate” Arkwright

  Level 28 Human Novice

  Health: 354/354

  Fatigue: 427/427

  Magic: 358/358

  Sigil Stones: 5/5

  Interface Sigil Stone. That's me, your friendly neighborhood Quilly! We're awesome together and we get shit done through quests and achievements and such. Also, now with the Eclipse Compass I can sense the directions of the other artifacts we need to create the Versal Bridge.

  Lucky Sigil Stone. Once activated, you gain an increase in your overall luck and unlock the Lucky power.

  Power: Lucky. At the cost of Magic and Fatigue per second, you gain a burst of extreme luckiness. The cost depends on how hard you push the luck.

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  Familiar Sigil Stone. Once activated, you gain one Familiar Slot and can gain a familiar. Familiars grant you abilities based on the creature and your current rank. You may use certain essence gems to teach them new abilities.

  Current Familiars: 1/1

  Terry. Astral Maw.

  Granted abilities:

  Power: Astral Step. Cooldown: None. Cost: 30 magic points per second, 30 fatigue points per second. Effect: Create an astral portal between two points you can see within a number of feet equal to your total Magic. Portal can be set at any angle, but both portals are created at the same angle.

  Power: Node and Link Sense. Upgraded from Astral Sense. Passive ability. Cooldown: None. Your Astral Sense, once only able to detect the presence of magic, can now also identify the nodes and links used in magic items of your rank or lower.

  Power: Astral Drain. Passive. Astral energy consumed by your familiar while it is within your aura refreshes your Hunger, Thirst, and Exhaustion, and refills your Health, Fatigue, and Magic by a small amount.

  Vampiric Sigil Stone. Once activated, you gain the ability to drain life from living things you can touch, and unlock the Charm power.

  Power: Drain. When touching a creature, you can absorb their life energy, refilling your Health, Magic, and Fatigue. A willing creature is drained faster than an unwilling one.

  Power: Charm. At the cost of Magic and Fatigue, you can magically charm living beings with which you interact. The cost depends on their rank and level compared to your own.

  Serendipitous Symbiosis Correlation Stone. Once activated, you gain the ability to temporarily fuse together with your familiars, absorbing their health into your own, and you unlock the Manifest power. While fused with your familiar, your Luck and Familiar based abilities cost less to use.

  Power: Manifest. You can, while fused with your familiars, manifest them as armor or weapons. While manifested as such, your Magic and Fatigue maximums are reduced by an amount that varies based on what equipment the familiar takes on. Manifested weapons and armor are more affected than normal by your Lucky power.

  Crafting Skills

  Alchemy - Novice 21

  Bowcraft - Novice 15

  Carpentry - Novice 25

  Wooden Durablility. Novice 25 Carpentry Perk. Passive Ability. Cooldown: None. Objects, including weapons and armor, you create using wood have increased durability when created using your Interface Podium. Buildings built with said materials have increased resistance to siege weaponry and seismic forces.

  Clothier - Novice 20

  Cooking - Novice 25

  Powerthirst! Novice 25 Cooking Perk. Passive Ability. Cooldown: None. When creating a drink that reduces your Thirst, you can imbue the drink with your Magic to reduce the consumer's Exhaustion level by 1 percent per 25 Magic used. This effect will fade if not consumed within 15 minutes after its creation. This ability may be used once per day.

  Leatherworking - Novice 20

  Smithing - Novice 25

  Malleability. Novice 25 Smithing Perk. Passive Ability. Cooldown: None. Objects, including weapons and armor, you create using metal are minorly easier to shape when using your Interface Podium.

  Racial Skills

  Adaptive Transfiguration - Novice 35

  Doppelganger. Novice 25 Adaptive Transfiguration Perk. Passive Ability. Cooldown: None. Touching a creature saves them to a list of choices you can access through your Interface Sigil Stone. When selected, your race changes to perfectly match them.

  Indomitable Spirit - Novice 20

  Resourceful - Novice 26

  Loot Goblin. Novice 25 Resourceful Perk. Passive Ability. Cooldown: None. When looting slain foes, gain a small chance to loot double any objects that are usable by the Resourceful skill.

  Tenacity - Novice 25

  Persistence. Novice 25 Tenacity Perk. Passive Ability. Cooldown: None. Your Tenacity Power’s cooldown is reduced from 1 hour to 10 minutes.

  Arcane Skills

  Alteration - Novice 26

  Improved Mending. Novice 25 Alteration Perk. Passive Ability. Cooldown: None. The magic cost of your Mending spell is reduced by 25%.

  Conjuration - Novice 25

  Soul Bound. Novice 25 Conjuration Perk. Passive ability. Cooldown: None. The duration of summoned weapons and tools is doubled.

  Divination - Novice 8

  Enchantment - Novice 25

  Node and Link Sense. Novice Enchantment Perk. Passive ability. Cooldown: None. Your Astral Sense can now identify the nodes and links used in magic items of your rank or lower.

  Evocation - Novice 22

  Illusion - Novice 8

  Restoration - Novice 24

  Battle Skills

  Archery - Novice 30

  Trajectory. Novice 25 Archery Perk. Passive ability. Cooldown: None. You see a translucent line indicating your arrow’s trajectory.

  Athletics - Novice 25

  Meteoric Strike. Novice 25 Athletics Perk. Active ability. Cooldown: 1 minute. Cost: 25 MP per foot radius. When landing from a distance greater than 25 feet, you can deal bludgeoning damage to an area dependent upon your magic expenditure.

  Blocking - Novice 15

  Heavy Armor - Novice 16

  Heavy Melee - Novice 20

  Perception - Novice 20

  Unarmed - Novice 22

  Stealth Skills

  Acrobatics - Novice 35

  Padded Soles. Novice 25 Acrobatics Perk. Passive Ability. Cooldown: None. Your falling damage is reduced by 25%.

  Disguise - Novice 10

  Light Armor - Novice 31

  Lithe Fit. Novice 25 Light Armor Perk. Passive Ability. Cooldown: None. Light armor provided 10% more protection and your Fatigue regenerates 10% faster while wearing all light armor.

  Light Melee - Novice 22

  Lockpicking - Novice 20

  Sleight of Hand - Novice 18

  Sneak - Novice 29

  Cling to the Shadows. Novice Sneak Perk. Passive ability. Cooldown: None. Cost: None. When leaving shadows while hidden, you remain hidden for up to five seconds. Attacking, using a power or spell, and certain other actions negate this effect.

  His character sheet was really starting to fill up with loads of information. Most of the perks thus far had been passive, but that was just fine with him. The Loot Goblin perk was coming in very handy as he looted the corpses, making sure Terry left at least a little of each spider he ate.

  Nate and Terry continued to hunt, slaying spider after spider. Once the progression of changing Astral Drain reached 10 percent, the ground shook. In the distance, Nate saw the trees beginning to shake as something enormous pushed its way toward them. He was able to identify the creature right as it entered their line of sight. Its body was the size of an RV, its legs extending much further than that. It knocked several trees down as it surged forward.

  Great Beast: Apex Hunting Cyber-Spider. Apprentice Rank.