Chapter 27: Hunting For Gain
Kivas stood at the edge of the shelter, the last of the mist curling against her bare soles.
The sky above them had adopted the strange dullness of dusk, yet no moon traced its way across the sky.
One by one, Kivas equipped the arsenal Samael had brought.
She tied the Flask of Imbued Equilibrium to a rough strap across her waist, improvising a belt from coiled plant-fiber and reinforced bark. The bottle clicked against her hip with a soft pulse. Its contents swirled calmly, golden and waiting.
The Voidwood Fang slid into a sheath she had stitched from dried hide scraps, positioned against the small of her back. It was light and balanced, barely felt unless she reached for it.
The knowledge that it could bypass shadow-aligned cores intrigued her, suggesting elemental systems and deeper soul mechanics she had yet to explore. The Well of the Soul had told her many things, but so much of it remained cryptic, and so much of it was untold, cloaked in shifting glyphs she still struggled to interpret.
This world kept secrets beneath secrets.
She slipped the Chitinous Sigil ring over her index finger. It adjusted its size automatically, cold at first, then strangely warm. A faint shimmer pulsed when her mana rose.
"The fact that there is an item that helps resist an attack against a certain species really makes this world more of an RPG game than anything.
The Driftwool Wrap settled over her shoulders, black and soft as silence, the edges barely visible against the filtered light. When she tugged the hood up for a moment, her outline dimmed in the shadows, faint mist curling tighter around her presence.
The Staring Pearl she tucked into a leather pouch also fastened to her thigh, its cold weight resting like a promise she'd rather not have to use.