Gasping, Asher woke up, jerking upwards in bed as he looked around for Loratta. The last thing he remembered was putting an end to the gang leader's reign before accepting his death within the collapsing compound. The fact that he was still alive…

Asher blinked as he finally realized where he was. Somehow, someway, he was currently lying in bed back in Samantha and Brian's cabin on the edge of the kingdom.

What..?

Before he could figure out what was going on, he realized he had a few new notifications, and he pulled them up.

Sever the Thread – lvl 2

Recall – lvl 2

Recall – lvl 3

Eternal Mark – lvl 10

Eternal Regeneration – lvl 19

Permanence – Lvl 6

Eternal Mark – lvl 11

Eternal Regeneration – lvl 20

Permanence – lvl 7

Personal Rift – lvl 14

"What the hell is going on?" Asher muttered, blinking at the sheer number of skills that had leveled up. The fact that so many of his passive skills had increased…

Asher started as the door to the bedroom was carefully opened, and Samantha walked in with a tray of porridge before quietly closing the door behind her. The moment she turned around and realized he was awake however, she froze, all but throwing the food aside as she ran forward and flung her arms around him.

"Oh thank the realms, you're awake!" she exclaimed, squeezing him tight enough that he struggled to draw breath.

"Samantha… what…?" he barely managed, wheezing and trying to tap out against her back. Thankfully, she must have realized he was going to lose consciousness once again if she didn't stop, because she finally let go. The hunter sat back on the bed, wiping tears from her eyes as she smiled at him.

"You're probably wondering what's going on, right?"

"Yeah," he nodded, looking around the room as if afraid this was all some sort of strange dream occurring right before he truly died under the collapsing compound. "How did I get here? The last thing I remember, I was in Whikoga."

"I was actually hoping you could tell me that," Samantha frowned, raising an eyebrow at him as she took his hand in her own and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Three days ago, Brian came running up to me, absolutely freaking out and claiming that you'd come back and needed help. At first, I thought he was playing some terribly messed up prank. Imagine my surprise when I followed him to the edge of the village just to humor him only to discover that, sure enough, you'd come back. Looking like you were teetering on the edge of death."

"Brian found me?" Asher asked, desperately trying to figure out what happened. Thinking back to his level up notifications, it finally clicked. "It must have been one of my newer skills… Recall. It should let me travel between marked locations at will. I thought I had to specifically mark them ahead of time for the skill to work, but I guess my Eternal Mark skill counts as well."

"And you marked Brian back before you left," Samantha finished for him, a look of wonder on her face as she realized he'd just accidentally teleported a distance that normally took a week to travel on foot. "Well, that explains how you got here at the very least. But what happened to you, Asher? You were covered in severe wounds and looked like you'd been bitten by three dozen venomous snakes!"

"I, uh… I was in a pretty desperate fight," Asher admitted sheepishly, pushing himself up into more of a sitting position and avoiding looking Samantha in the eyes. "Things might have been looking a little grim for me…"

"Explain. Now," she demanded, frowning as she gripped his hand even more tightly.

"It's kinda a long story," he said, scratching the back of his head.

"Then you'd better get started," she said, handing him the bowl of porridge and giving him her full attention.

"Alright," Asher sighed, wondering where the hell to even begin. After a moment, he figured he should just start from the very beginning.

"So on my way into the city, I met this weird merchant with an overturned carriage…"

It took him the better part of the morning and two additional bowls of porridge, but Asher told Samantha everything that had happened since he'd left the village. He'd been gone for nearly two weeks, so there was plenty to fill her in on.

Dealing with the thugs and meeting Rosh. Taking Rosh into his employ and conducting research within the library. Hunting down the deadly criminals and accidentally falling onto Loratta's radar. Even his training with Moxy and the brief stint he'd done in Loratta's compound before joining the coalition with Draken to take her down for good and rescue Rosh. By the time he finished up, explaining how he'd unlocked the last of his skills and used his strange final ability to kill Loratta for good before welcoming death and unintentionally triggering Recall, they were well into mid-afternoon.

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For her part, Samantha listened to his story with rapt attention, growing concerned and impressed at all the right parts in Asher's opinion. Thankfully, she'd approved of just about everything he'd done.

With only a few exceptions.

"You just walked right into the base of a man you knew had the Death element?" she repeated, looking at him like he was an idiot. "Asher, do you have a death wish?"

"I'm pretty sure my Complete Resilience would have protected me to some degree," he argued weakly, his face heating up as he realized it had been a pretty stupid thing to go along with in hindsight. He'd been so focused on saving Rosh, it hadn't even occurred to him that Loratta was purposefully sending him to his death. If Draken hadn't been as curious and understanding, there was a good chance he never would have left that first coalition meeting.

"I'm glad to hear you're betting your life on a 'pretty sure,'" Samantha drawled, shaking her head. "…Though I know you were just trying to save your new friend. Who also has a forbidden element."

Asher had contemplated keeping that one tidbit a secret from Samantha out of respect for Rosh before deciding he didn't want to keep any secrets from her. He was pretty confident she wouldn't run around shouting about Rosh's elements from the rooftops, and he figured saving the man from the bowels of Loratta's compound should have earned him a little leeway on that front.

Though there was one thing he'd left out of his retelling.

"Speaking of elements…" he said, opening his Personal Rift and pulling out the Water element Moxy had given him. "...I brought you a souvenir from the big city."

Samantha's eyes widened as she looked at the swirling blue sphere in awe, her fingers twitching without her even realizing it. "Asher… Is that what I think it is?"

"I thought about trying to find you a Lightning element, but you did say you changed your mind," he chuckled, turning her hand over and placing the element in her grasp. "Take it. I got it for you."

"Asher, I can't accept this," she stammered, finally tearing her eyes off the element and meeting his gaze. "Do you have any idea how much elements are worth? Even the more common ones like Water can still fetch up to fifty thousand shards on the market in the right conditions. That's a small fortune!"

Blinking, Asher subtly checked his new shard balance. He hadn't actually looked at it yet after killing Loratta and taking her shards for himself.

Shards: 388,291

"Trust me, I think I'm okay in that department," he laughed, enjoying the confused look Samantha was giving him. "Look, you told me before that the Water element often provides healing skills, right? Think of it this way. What if Brian gets hurt and needs you to heal him? Or I do something stupid again and need your help? I already have all three of my elements, Samantha, and I'm not hurting for shards. Go ahead and take it."

Part of him thought she was going to keep arguing with him, but it seemed he struck a chord by mentioning Brian possibly hurting himself. With a deep breath, Samantha must have willingly accepted the element, because the blue sphere suddenly turned into a liquid, spilling down over her hand and absorbing directly into her skin. With a gasp, Samantha's head rocked back slightly, and she shivered.

"Come on, what skill did you start with?" Asher needled her, grinning from ear to ear. He knew from his studies that the Water element's passive meant she could breathe underwater now, but the starting skill could be absolutely anything.

"Fountain," she said, her eyes glazed over as if reading her skill description. "Looks like I can conjure up water out of thin air now. If I'm reading this right, I think I can even turn it into an attack if I focus hard enough."

"That doesn't surprise me in the slightest. You should see what water is capable of if you pressurize it enough," he said, thinking back to the few times he'd seen people using pressure washers back on Earth.

Tilting her head to the side, Samantha pointed at his head. Just as Asher was about to ask what was wrong, a small stream of water erupted from her finger, splashing him directly in the face.

"Hey!" he sputtered, scrambling to block the water as Samantha started laughing. Wiping the water from his eyes, he opened them to find the hunter positively beaming at him, looking happier than he'd ever seen her. She also had a rather hungry look in her eyes, and a sly smile that sent shivers down his back.

"You know, you've been gone for almost two weeks now," she started, fully getting onto the bed and slowly crawling over to him in a way that eerily reminded him of being stalked by the awakened panther. "And if that wasn't enough, when you finally come back, you give me the element I've been dreaming of having for the last few years."

At this point, her face was inches above his own, and Asher gulped as he stared up into her eyes. The hunter's long, brown hair tickled his face, but he didn't dare move away.

"What's a girl to do?" she all but purred, leaning down to kiss him on the lips. That one kiss seemed to remove all the lingering tension in Asher's body, and he happily leaned into it. But just as he started to help her with her shirt, the bedroom door slammed open, and Samantha squeaked as she threw herself off of him.

"Asher! You're okay!" Brian shouted, sprinting over and all but diving onto him.

"Of course I am!" Asher wheezed, sucking in a new lungful of air to replace the one Brian had just knocked out of him. "I told you I would be!"

"Brian, what have I told you about closed doors!" Samantha demanded, still looking rather flushed as she tried to collect herself and subtly straighten her clothes.

"Knock before entering," Brian rattled off dutifully, giving Asher one more squeeze before leaning back and grinning up at him. "What happened to you out there, Asher? You just appeared out of nowhere right in front of me! I thought you were dead!"

"It's… something of a long story," Asher chuckled, trying and failing to hide his smile at the annoyed look on Samantha's face. While he'd decided to tell Samantha everything, he realized he was going to have to come up with a more censored version for her younger brother. "Tell you what. I think I might have dropped something rather important back where you first found me. If you can find it for me, I'll tell you all about what happened when you get back."

"Deal!" Brian shouted, leaping off him and going to run out of the room. Pausing at the door, he glanced back at Asher while narrowing his eyes. "Promise you're not going to leave again?"

"Not for a while. I promise," Asher reassured him.

That seemed more than enough for Brian, who nodded happily. "I'll be right back!"

Asher watched the energetic kid run out of the house, banging the front door behind him as he did so. Chuckling, he turned to look at Samantha, who was still a bit disgruntled from the interruption. "I'm glad I didn't scar him by appearing in front of him in that condition."

"Brian's tougher than that," Samantha said, shaking her head. "Hell, even the long stint we did in that wizard's tower barely seemed to bother him. Sometimes I worry he's just really good at hiding it, but I have no way of knowing."

"Maybe I can help talk to him later," Asher said, seeing the hungry look in Samantha's eyes return as he offered to help with her little brother. Grinning, he used Distortion to create a compressed tunnel of space between him and the door, before reaching out and slowly shutting it without moving so much as an inch from the bed. He couldn't help but laugh at the surprised look on Samantha's face as he turned toward her. "I think you were in the middle of asking me something? I figure Brian will look around for the 'thing' I dropped for at least an hour before he gives up."

"That should be more than enough time for our conversation," Samantha giggled, crawling back over to him and giving him a look that made his heart race.

"You better hope that regeneration skill of yours is as strong as you claim it is. I've got big plans for you now that you've come home."

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