Flying was, without any doubts about it, one of the most enjoyable things out there, especially when it came to activities I could perform without Sigmir. Once she was back in the mix, things would shift a bit, but until then, it ranked at the very top of my list, alongside delving deeper into the arcane mysteries of the world.

Sadly, even with my insane affinity for Ice and Snow, the wind high up in the air was enough to chill my naked form to the bone, not that I let that stop me immediately, and after some thirty minutes, maybe an hour, I was starting to experience some serious shivers, strong enough that my stability in flight was getting threatened. Unwilling to drop from the sky due to utter foolishness, I reoriented myself and began my descent into the valley with the frozen waterfall. The wind battered me a little, but not enough to stop me, though I did make a note about the unusual amount of wind in the area and the Astral Power corresponding to it. This might be a place I would want to study even further; there might be something more going on here. Or, if not, I might be able to make something go on, possibly turning it into a place of Wild Magic that I could study for the next month or two while we waited for the snow to thaw so we could continue our journey further north.

It was odd; if I were to consider the next step of our journey purely on the merits of our current situation, I wouldn't want to move on. Here, we had our students drawing from a fairly large pool of people despite having met only two of the local communities. Two out of seven, maybe even eight communities, depending on how far afield one decided to travel, and yet, I knew we could decide to stay in the area and establish ourselves as a somewhat independent organisation. It would be incredibly easy; the people we had met were all fairly friendly, very courteous and generally as welcoming as one could hope so staying here was somewhat tempting. Especially for Lia, as her romance with Samantha had turned into quite the thing, to the point that Lia hadn't fed off me for a while, the last time being about a month before the longest night. Similarly, Alex had found some other sources of blood and nourishment, though I was fairly certain that they were taking their meals outside, though whether that meant they found some friendly racoon and had settled down with it or something else entirely I wasn't sure. Either way, they hadn't fed from me in a while, in fact, I had rarely seen them at all, spending their time either with Lia or outside the tower.

But, and that was the big thing, if we decided to stay in the area, I wouldn't be able to revive Sigmir, at least not within an acceptable timeframe. Without a Nexus, and some serious additional shenanigans, I would need a lot more power than the Grandmother, given that she hadn't revived Kallista's mate. Instead, she had made Kallista wait until the natural cycle of the world brought her soul back around. And even then, the Grandmother hadn't sought to draw out the memories from Adra's soul, bringing the person who used to be Kallista's mate back, though that might have been because it would essentially have killed Adra. Who knew if she could have drawn out those memories or even if she could have brought that soul back earlier if she had been willing to pay the price? Either way, she had, for whatever reason, decided to abstain from such spellcraft, though I was fairly confident that she had studied it. Maybe trying to create a better way of contacting her would be a good idea if only to figure out how Mundus fared and a general overview of things.

My contemplations had to end when the ground was getting a little too close to have my mind wander around, and I had to focus on the hardest part of flying, the landing. Though, at the end of the day, you'd always get to the ground, the difficult part was to make the transition as smooth and painless as possible. Luckily, I had previously gained the Aerial Grace trait, allowing me to accurately judge the moment when I had to flare my wings in order to bleed of the remaining velocity so I could land as if I had merely jumped off a ledge maybe a metre in height. Such a jump was nothing to me, thanks to my increased attributes, and I easily absorbed the impact with my knees before rising to walk over to the pack I had previously left here.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

As I walked, I focused on my wings, trying to figure out if there was a way to make them disappear without having to dispel or destroy them in some fashion, which I was incredibly uncomfortable with. I only had these limbs for about an hour, but they already felt part of me, just like my arms and legs did. Cutting them off would be cripplingly painful, especially as I realised that I felt these wings naturally, just like every other part of my body. They might have been created with magic but by now, they were truly a part of me. Sure, it felt a little strange how they incorporated my hair, turning it into something almost like the hood of a cobra, but it worked without issues. I could look around and move my head without the connection hindering or hurting me, something I had briefly been worried about when my hair became part of my wings.

Luckily, the faft that the wings were magical in nature meant they were incredibly malleable, at least compared to biological wings. It only took me a few tries to fold them in, not just lying against my back like some strange cloak hanging down to just above the ground but completely, having them disappear into my back and freeing up my hair. Two slightly strange ridges remained on my back, but unless somebody saw far too much of my body to make me comfortable, that was no problem. If anybody saw that much, they would have a much bigger problem than those two ridges.

Sadly, without my body in them, my clothes suffered from the incredibly cold air; what little moisture had been in them, freezing them into a gritty layer of ice. They would keep off the wind, but little more, so I needed something better if I wanted to get comfortable in a reasonable amount of time.

A quick thought and flex of my magic compressed some of the snow and ice all around me into a set of solid walls, arrayed into a simple box, perfect to keep off the wind and trap some of the heat I was planning to generate. Sure, the Ice would melt from the heat but it would take some time, especially if I enhanced it with some extra Astral Power. Then, once I had my box, I stood inside and started to conjure water above me, just as I had for my showers. At first, I kept the water somewhat chilly so I wouldn't shock my system too hard, and then I slowly started to increase the temperature until I was feeling comfortable. It was strange; I had almost forgotten what it felt like to be cold, so this was a slightly strange sensation.

Still, I didn't just luxuriate under my improvised shower; I also checked my notifications and had to grin when I noticed I had gained multiple traits.

The first one was probably the most important, telling me I had gained my Wings. A part of me wanted to snark at the system, telling it that I had noticed those two sails on my backs but at the end of the day, the system was only doing its job, though given that the notification also increased my Strength, Agility and Dexterity by five each, I wasn't about to complain.

My Strength sadly remained below the threshold for traits but my Agility and Dexterity both gave me one, though both traits were fairly specialised. Improved Proprioception, the one I gained for having fifty-five Agility, gave me increased proprioception, with an added note that it worked especially well for any additional limbs I might gain. If that wasn't a giant hint, I hadn't seen one, and it might explain why I had been able to fly as easily as I had.

The other trait, for having fifty-five Dexterity, was similar in nature, improving my dexterous precision, with a special increase for any additional limbs I might gain. Again, a giant hint, though I wasn't about to complain about it, especially not as there was likely a tail in my future, too. Maybe even more limbs. I wasn't about to discard that possibility, and any help I could get to shorten the learning curve was welcome.

Soon, I was finished with my shower, and after a brief application of Water and Fire Magic, I was dry, my clothes were dry and warm, and I could start my way back to the tower. Now, I only had to figure out a good way to use my wings while being at least somewhat clothed, which might be almost as hard as getting them in the first place.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.