Learning a new skill was always a pain in the ass. Okay, maybe not as much if it came to a life and death situation, but adding a brand new skill set to an already existing set of skills took far too much time and effort from a person that sometimes, it was honestly not worth it in terms of the potential gains one would acquire from learning the given skill in the first place. It was also highly dependent on the person's competence since skills didn't just magically materialize in the person's head after a few tries in getting it right. No, it took years to build instinct and muscle memory to the point where you could use the potential skill to its fullest potential. There was a reason the best kids in playing piano started when they were, well, kids. "This sucks..." "You did ask for this, Leader," Lace chuckled at my misery. "You wanted to learn w

Okay... It was definitely getting warmer now. Shedding my fur coat to better acclimatize to the heat, the sweat running down my back was a welcome sign that we were finally leaving the cold nothingness of the north for the relatively temperate nothingness of... wherever the hell we were at the moment. The snow underneath our feet was still there, albeit thinner, and the forest behind us still screamed winter time to anyone that would see it, but looking beyond the horizon from our vantage point, the lack of white amidst the luscious green of the fields were a sight for sore eyes. Granted, it was still rather cool, what with the north winds still picking up behind us. Also... "I'd think that we were out of the north with what I'm seeing, but the better question would be where are we right now?" Lace removed the hood from her coat, letting her one br

"Cool..." My eyes drank in every last minute detail of the world around me, my heart trying its best to drown out the sadness and guilt roiling inside me with any kind of stimulus my body could find. The sound of street-side vendors peddling their wares, the smell of freshly cooked meat, the weird sense of nostalgia from seeing children running around barefoot playing a game of what looked to be tag. It all came to me in an avalanche of senses that I actually found myself drowning from it all. Finding myself in the middle of a massive market, I could only feel my feet walk forward as I let them dictate just where I'd go next. My mind was too busy processing the sights before me; of a bustling city that looked straight out of a medieval festival. It was clear that the nearby plains were giving this place riches in terms of sheer agriculture. And wouldn't that be the best for an

"T-This isn't a good idea, Sweetie!~" I ignored my unwilling companion's warnings as I braved the dark alleyways of the city. Far from what I saw earlier as a lively and bustling city, Ablegra seemingly turned into some kind of ghost town in under the span of a few hours as the silence smothered us like a fog on a horror game. "Lace? Love?" I called out as we rounded another corner. "I'm here!" "Stop yelling," Arya shushed me as we continued on my journey back to my true companions. "What part of dangerous do you not understand?" The urgency in her voice would've tipped me off earlier if I truly trusted her. Alas, her earlier stunt had put me off on that notion as I tightened my grip on her unnaturally cold wrists. "It's not like anyone's out here, right?" "You idiot," the blue-haired woman

Uhhhhhhhhhhh...... *rrrrrooooooaaaaghghhhhghhh......* Under the dim light of the midnight moon, the creature's face looked far from the regal majesty that its body movements can portray. With its bottom fangs extending up towards what appeared to be its nostril-snout... thingy... the closest animal I could possibly compare to it was an amalgamation of a wild boar and an... anglerfish? The dangling light in front of its forehead was sort of a kicker in all of this, providing a strange blue glow to the creature's face that it somehow looked like it was from the deep sea despite us being as far away from any sort of body of water as humanly possible. *rrrrrroaaghghaghahghahgagh.....* Its throaty grumbles reverberated through my chest as it seemed to be observing us for any sort of movement. Its blue eyes... was it even blu