Reid's breath steamed against cold air. The past two days of travel had been mostly silent. He stayed in his own thoughts, and spent a good amount of the time just feeling himself, and all the changes his breakthrough had caused. Nyx's silence mirrored his.

The temperature had dropped precipitously, and he now felt stinging cold against his arms and legs if he left himself unprotected. Just like the volcano, the environment here affected him the same way weather had back before he awakened.

Not that he minded the cold.

Reid was used to dealing with fluctuations in temperature, and Pennsylvania saw its fair share of snow. There were times when Reid had to shovel two feet of white powder off their driveway, in the quiet early hours while most of the neighborhood slept. He could hear the scrape of the shovel's metal band as it dragged across pavement, and the strain in his back from throwing snow up and into the yard. He would use a heel to smash the chunks of half-iced bricks thrown onto his property by the plows, or pick them up and haul them out of the way with his hands.

On some lucky days, Susan would be both home, and rested from her shifts. His trek back inside, sweating, numb, and damp, would lead him to her smiling face as she dropped a single, large marshmallow into a mug of powdered hot cocoa. It was a happy respite between the manual labor, and the drive into work.

They were quiet, odd days. Most of the world was asleep. Parents home with kids celebrating a delay or cancellation of classes. The only people on the roads were the ever-wonderful humans that were snow plow drivers, and the idiots like Reid that still had to get to an office. He carved out a separate role for critical service workers, minimum-wage fueled heroes that kept the gas stations and coffee shops functional, like ports in a storm. In the later years, where money wasn't quite as tight, he would sometimes stop into the gas station that had 99-cent hot coffees. It was a midway point between home and the office, and he would shoot the shit with an eclectic mix of oil-stained work shirts and well-worn white collars as they collectively avoided the cold. Then, it was back to a car heater that sort-of worked, and to an office where the lot was never properly plowed.

Reid missed a great many things, but the idea of hot cocoa and coffee left him practically salivating. He wondered whether either drink was something common in the awakened cosmos. Coffee might no longer have any affect on an awakened person, but it was possible it could still be brewed for taste. Then another thought struck him - it was possible the expansion and change that happened to Earth had ruined the coffee belts around the globe. Panic rose.

"Nyx, is coffee a thing in the cosmos? Is chocolate a thing?"

"Well that's a dumb question."

His breath fogged the air. "Nyx!"

She let out a quick laugh. "Of course it is. Coffees, teas, juices, you name it, it exists. I mean, it's not going to be a 1:1 match of what you remember from Earth. Just like apples have different flavors."

He breathed a sigh of relief. "That's fine. That's good. I miss coffee."

"I'm sure you-" The notification flashed in his face and caught both of them off guard.

Your faction cleared the Main Enemy Camp!

-

NOTICE: A member of your faction has performed a unique feat. Two Accolades awarded to [Hugo Vux]:

Covert Conqueror Earned for defeating an enemy camp or stronghold without being seen Slightly decreases observable presence when in combat, in hiding, or when near enemies.

Unrelenting Earned for engaging in continuous combat actions against an enemy force for more than twelve hours Slightly enhances resource regeneration.

-

Quest Completed: Faction Wars! You have earned your place as the dominant faction in this tutorial space through total conquest. Celebrate your victory. Rest your forces. Set your sights on the horizons outside of this limited space, where your faction can continue to grow.

Final Performance: Clear or Conquer Enemy Camps and Fortresses (14 / 14) Defeat Enemies ( 861 / 861 ) Clear the Main Camp(s) ( 1 / 1) Defeat the Enemy Faction Leader within this Tutorial Instance ( 1 / 1)

Secret Challenges Completed: Liberated Fighters. Freed prisoners from enemy faction(s) and had them join [The Osteal Empire]. ( 923 / 923 ) Blitz Campaign. Conquered any Three Camps within three days of each other.

Achievements Upgraded!

Challenger I -> Challenger II (Earned for completing a quest on the highest possible difficulty) When you complete future challenge areas or event quests, rewards are increased.

New Achievements Earned!

Total Victory Earned for winning a faction war by conquering all strongholds of an enemy force Grants a small offensive bonus to forces in your faction when they attack an enemy stronghold of any kind.

Merciless Earned for killing all members of an enemy faction Any of your faction's forces will cause a small amount of fear and unease in an enemy faction's forces.

Delegator Earned for having faction members complete at least 90% of a questline's objectives Grants slight bonuses to leadership and competency awareness.

QUEST REWARDS BESTOWED

- Skill: [Weather Resistance] - Skill: [Warband] - Accelerated Growth Skill Awarded: [Gills]

- Equipment: [Gauntlets of the Chief] - Equipment: [Sanguine Crown] - Accelerated Growth Equipment Awarded: [Cartographer's Bangle]

Final Experience Awarded: 50,000,000 xp ( +32,000,000 xp)

Experience: 658,083,501 -> 740,083,501 / 838,860,800

Hugo had done it - and he'd wiped Belar's final base off the map in a tremendously short amount of time. Maybe he'd gone straight there with the trio in tow, or maybe they'd split up? Reid knew Hugo was strong, but taking on an entire base himself seemed unrealistic. Hugo fighting for over 12 hours straight seemed unrealistic. Reid couldn't do that. Hugo had also gone entirely unseen... maybe something slow and steady had allowed him to keep going until everyone else was dead? The accolades Hugo had earned only gave a small glimpse into the truth behind the battle. Reid had far more questions about the accomplishment than he had answers, but the one thing he knew was that he was damn impressed.

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More than eight hundred enemy soldiers were dead and gone. Every one of their 14 bases, conquered. Their leader, dead. Vuxarinans, free.

All that, and bonuses for Reid in the form of multiple accolades, skills, and equipment.

Finishing the faction questline finally gave his challenger accolade an upgrade - which meant another was probably coming once he killed the final beast lord. The total victory one would probably be useful for whatever other forces Belar still had on Vuxarina itself. He wasn't sure if he would actually find benefit in merciless and delegator, but it wouldn't be the first time he had less-than-perfect achievements. In the end, they all built his xp multiplier.

The experience was... a bit disappointing, honestly. Especially because he'd gotten five times that amount less than 3 days ago. Reid had hoped for a much larger total, commensurate with what he expected a full questline should offer. The beast lords were certainly granting him more, and that was just on the stages themselves. He wondered himself to two possibilities. One, he didn't get a ton of experience because he wasn't personally involved in much of the quest. That one made sense, logically. Two, Belar was weaker than the beasts - by far - and as such, there was less experience for defeating them. Both sounded like they could be correct explanations to Reid. In reality, the whole thing was a bonus. He'd barely participated in the questline, and yet he'd been given a reward for its completion. Maybe this faction thing wasn't so bad after all.

Reid turned his attention to the new skills.

Weather Resistance [basic] Passive Skill. Slightly reduces the impact of natural forces on the user. With mana expenditure, users may also slightly reduce the impact of controlled or severe elemental aspects.

Warband [common] Passive Skill. Grants a small combat bonus whenever your faction members form a party. Bonuses granted based on faction leader's mana and the size of the warband formed.

Gills [epic] Active. Scales with Level. Allows user to breathe in any liquids that have dissolved oxygen. Mana expenditure scales inversely with the dissolved oxygen content available.

The chill in the air seemed to lessen when the notifications rolled in, and now he knew why. Weather resistance wasn't a perfect answer to the issues he was looking to solve, but it was useful nonetheless. Not being as impacted by weather, and having the ability to expend a little mana to lessen the impact of enemy attacks? That was a good deal.

Warband was... good, maybe? He didn't really see how that was a skill that would benefit him, but he wasn't going to look down his nose at a passive skill that might make things easier for the Vuxarinans. He just needed to remind himself to tell Hugo, or to have Nyx remind him to do it - then they could benefit from the effects.

The last one... was strikingly similar to the Gills skill offered to him at the midway point of his beast lord questline. The new option mentioned 'any liquid' instead of snorkel's 'underwater' reference, and had mana use scale with the dissolved oxygen content of the liquid, instead of ramping with exertion. There was also a question in his mind around the 'limited breathing' term that had been in the snorkel skill. That wasn't present in Gills. It simply offered that he could breathe in liquid with dissolved oxygen.

It was, in theory, the most useful skill he'd gotten since his Calcification. Breathing underwater just wasn't something he could do, and this solved that very real and very relevant problem. He didn't doubt there would be more enemies like the turbo turtle, somewhere in his future. Now he had a tool to make going after them a reality.

One odd part to the rewards was that things - equipment - hadn't popped into existence in front of him. He found them in his storage ring. That was quite convenient.

The gauntlets were simple leather and iron things, with oversized plates on the back of each palm. The sanguine crown, likewise, was a thick ring of heavy iron that had half-moon protrusions every few inches along its length. The bangle was distinct from the others. It was intricate silver filigree inlaid with with a mix of blue, green, and brown gemstones. The clasp of the piece looked like an old paper scroll partially unrolled, with a fountain pen laid out in its center.

Gauntlets of the Chief [F] Increases the efficacy of troop movements and command structure. The plates on each gauntlet may be struck against one another to generate a sound that forces in the local area will hear, regardless of other noise levels.

Sanguine Crown [F] Generates feelings of confidence and optimism in nearby faction members when worn by a faction leader. Non-faction members will regard the wearer more highly.

Cartographer's Bangle [Rare] Rank: [F] Traits: Bonded, Cartographer's Eye

Bonded This Bangle is bonded to its owner through the use of simple energy matching. Anyone that attempts to wear this bangle without a matching energy signature will fail. Attempts to identify this bangle will only show the bare minimum level of information, depending on the level of the identifying user.

Cartographer's Eye The wearer may expend a small amount of energy to capture a vantage point and generate a system-accessible map of surrounding visible areas. Detail and accuracy are affected by visibility, presence, and vantage point. Creating multiple vantage points will improve the accuracy of the map. Maps may be shared with faction and party members.

The crown and bangle were... junk.

There was no better way to describe it. "Listen to me" gloves were entirely unnecessary, and they didn't even have a rarity shown, which meant they were considered basic. Breaking up Marrow, his linked armor, wasn't going to happen - and that meant no new gloves for his kit. Nor was he going to put on some stupid iron crown. He didn't need it, couldn't envision himself needing it, and didn't want to wear it even if there was a time it might be useful. Staring at the new, system-given pieces of metal, Reid made a realization about himself.

He wasn't a crown guy.

But bangles?

Reid was going to rock the hell out of a bangle.

He had been relying on Belar's map and a combination of his own notes and hand-crafted bone maps to keep himself moving in the right direction. Though - he would be the first to admit he wasn't exactly certain of where his feet were taking him some of the time. His transcribed map of the area from dirt to bone and paper was... more than a little unreliable. He'd been mostly reliant on quest markers to ensure he ended up getting to the beast lords like he intended to - and there wasn't a guarantee he'd have that kind of aid in the future. Also, chances were slim he'd be able to grab another fully functional map off Belar once he got out of the tutorial and onto Vuxarina proper.

So, a chance to properly figure out what was going on in a given area, and share that with others, like Hugo?

Reid altered his armor so his bone gauntlets would fit over the new gear, and even made a solid bulge where the weaker-looking metal laid on his arm. Useful piece equipped, he debated whether to just leave the other two in the snow. They reluctantly ended up back in storage. Maybe someone would find them useful.

Reid pushed power into the new item - now under his armor - and watched a faint pulse of multicolored light emanate in a small circle around him. It faded after a few seconds, and Reid felt new possibilities in his system interface, and followed them.

At first, he thought he was looking at a two-dimensional map, colored to roughly match the snow, grass, and trees of the area surrounding him. But his bangle was better than that. Reid accidentally tilted the map when trying to zoom in, and saw that it was, in fact, a three-dimensional rendering of the surrounding area. Even better, the scope of the map reached further than he could see with the naked eye.

"This thing rocks."

"Glad you like the bangle. It wasn't easy to push towards that and Gills, but we managed to get very close to what I wanted on both this time."

"Oh - thank you. Sorry, I forgot you can do that. You can't actually tell it what to give me, right?"

"Correct. Influencing, not instruction."

"Well, they're great. You know, Nyx, I might be coming around on this whole faction leadership thing."

"You don't say- Hang on, Reid, the map is moving."

Reid twisted the visual of his surroundings, and saw four hazy mounds sliding across snow. Initial surprise sent him back to read the item's description again. He didn't expect a real-time map, but it seemed that was what the 'presence' reference was for. He shook away the interface, and double checked his kit. All the pieces were there, and ready.

When the indistinct mounds first came into view on the horizon, Reid felt a tug of possibility and activated one of his lesser used skills.

-

Identify Successful!

Arctic Skink - Spawn of Crinoptera Level: 49 Skills: Glacial Flow, Ice Burst

-

That was... unexpected. Identify usually had trouble working at ranges as far as this, and it didn't give that much information. Something told him it was another boon from aligning all his metaspaces together. That accomplishment was proving to be a gift that didn't stop giving.

His train of thought was derailed by the worst possible realization.

Crinoptera's spawn were goddamn lizards.

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