Frostbound

Annabeth

Anna was doing something that she wasn't supposed to. Her Mom always lectured her on it whenever she was caught, but she couldn't help herself this time.

It was too important!

'Sneaking around is bad!'

'Eavesdropping is wrong!'

But they were talking about her! That should be permission enough to listen in, right?

Well, it was a skill she'd gotten good use out of in the Castle, and her Dad always told her she was as quiet as a mouse. Anna had never intended to get so good at it, but when there was nothing else to do but sneak around, it was hard not to get better at it.

Getting caught and scolded sucked so she had to be good!

Her legs cramped while her Mom and Uncle Topher talked about stupid stuff, and it wasn't until near the end of the conversation that it became important. Who cared about the rest of it when they finally brought her up?

"Wait, what? What about you or Jonathan? You're her parents after all?" The sound was muffled as it traveled through the heavy door, but she could still make out Chris's voice.

Her Mother's was a lot more recognizable, "Sometimes, I forget how stupid you can be."

"What's that supposed to mean? I'm just saying that if she needs someone to train her, Jonathan is the obvious choice. He's trained many and kept them safe with his defensive skills, and he did a great job with Sarah. Why does she want me? I don't know how to train someone." Chris said, exasperated.

Her Mom sighed, "You won't be her sole trainer, Chris. There'll be a number of us showing her all the different Classes. Gabriel, Rachel, and I will teach her what mages do and how they fight. Ashley and Sam will introduce Healers. Hal and Carrie for Rangers. Mitchell and– well, just Mitchell for Rogue. And you, Austin, and Jonathan will teach Warrior."

"That's a lot of people just for Little Anna. Does she even know which one she wants, or are you trying to get her familiar with all of them before she decides?"

"She's still young, and her choice is still three years away. I want to make sure she knows what she's picking." Her Mom's voice was tight, and Anna nearly scoffed.

She'd told her Mom which one she wanted already! She wanted to be a Warrior! Like Dad and Uncle Topher! Maybe, if she were good enough, she'd be a Mage too, like her Mom.

Like the Valkyries from the stories! They were awesome!

Anna remembered Uncle Topher saying that hy-bri-dizing was bad. He said, 'Being useful at one is always better than being useless at both.'

"That makes sense." Chris sighed, "I can free up some time then. How often is she to train with me?"

"She still has school, but for most of the day she's free. I'm thinking we rotate through the Classes so you'd see her every Fifth day. I'll try to get Austin to stay for longer, but you know him. Eventually, it'll just be you and Jon teaching her."

"Alright then. Every Fifth day doesn't sound too bad. Especially if the time's split three ways." Chris said, "Does she know what Profession she wants? She won't only be choosing a Class?"

"That, I'm not sure of. Every other day's something different." Her Mom said. That wasn't true either. Sure, she may have changed her mind a few times, but not nearly as much as her Mom said.

"What about Josh, then? Will he be joining in?" Chris asked.

He better not be! I had to wait until I was eleven, and he just turned nine!

"Not yet. He's still too young." Her Mom said, thankfully.

"You know, at some point, training someone at that age will be the norm," Chris commented.

Her Mom sighed deeply, "I know, but I want them to stay kids for just a little longer. If I could, I'd wait until they were 16, or maybe even 18, but I don't think Anna will wait that long. She'll find a way with or without me."

The conversation had turned back into boring topics, and Anna could feel that it was coming to a close. She had to get away before they found out that she'd been listening in.

She controlled her feet so as not to make a sound on the stone and quickly made her way back to her room. Staying quiet was difficult as she was vibrating in excitement.

She was finally allowed to train! She couldn't wait!

Chris

Abigail finally turned to leave, but stopped. "Oh, before I forget." She took off a small bag at her waist and laid it on my desk. "Jon worked his skills, but they were still rather expensive."

I upended the bag and saw skill shards tumble out. I'd seen a few from the Dungeons already, but not this many all at once.

[Dash]

[Charge]

[Wind Manipulation]

[Hammer Mastery]

[Taunt]

[Wind Blade]

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

There were six new skills for me to absorb. After using the Skill Orb for [Piercing Strike], it would make seven new ones. They were all Common, but hopefully they wouldn't stay that way. There were a few more I wished to add, but I couldn't afford it. I was already scraping the bottom of the barrel to come up with the funds for those six.

"They're usually a few dozen silver per skill, but to get them here, it was more like a couple of gold per. Asinine prices, but there's nothing else we can do." She informed.

Until our own Dungeons started producing more, or more like people started selling them instead of keeping them, we were forced to buy from the Merchants. After the people gathering them were saturated, they would start trickling to the open market.

The total gold we spent was all I personally had. I didn't dip into the city's funds, as those were already earmarked for projects Abigail needed money for. Plus, it wasn't my funds.

Sure, I was the Leader, but it was a waste to blow our budget on a few Common skills for me personally.

Earning just a single gold was not as easy as it sounded. Our City pulled in roughly a gold and a half every month in taxes. Now that the City funded itself, I could keep all my earnings from the Dungeons, but that wasn't as much as it sounded.

Each run was only a few silvers a day. It took a while for it to add up to a gold.

I usually let Vincent keep most of the money from the equipment I enchanted, as he used it to buy more materials. The rest of my 'income' was technically the City's.

The Crystals weren't mine personally. Plus, paying the miners and buying the materials required to first build the mine cut into most of the first profits.

Bah, I don't want to get into it right now. Balancing the red and black wasn't as fun as smashing some monsters around.

I had started my daily Dungeon dives back up, and now that there were a few more floors, it would be even more profitable. Then I could spend it with the Merchants again. I wouldn't even have to check with anyone on how to spent my own money.

Most of my time would be Crafting, though. A lot of it. I had eleven levels to go and I wanted to pick them up quickly.

"I'll be in my forge unless I'm needed," I said before Abigail left. "Let me know when the next person is ready to evolve. How far away are you?"

"I'm close, but I'm waiting until I forge my first Circle. I thought about waiting for my Anchor, but I don't feel close to it at all. Even with Jon helping, it's still slow going." She said.

"How is he, by the way?" I asked. Jonathan had been in rougher shape than me after the fight. A first for us. Usually it was me.

"Still recovering. Injuries to the Spirit take time to heal, and we don't have any Healers that can heal the Spirit." She said sadly.

I knew something felt off with him after the battle, but it wasn't until he awoke and felt it out that we realized what it was. He tore his Spirit. None of us knew that was even possible, but he somehow did it.

Abigail spent her Personal Points to gain information about it, and we learned that if you draw too deeply from it and drain your Spirit Energy too much, it can cause your Spirit to strain and tear.

After hearing that, I realized that I'd come close to doing it a few times myself. After battles, when I awoke with my Spirit aching and it was sluggish to regenerate, that meant I was close to tearing it, and I had overstrained it.

Jonathan went beyond even that, and literally couldn't use his Spirit yet. If he did, it would only make it worse. He had to wait for it to heal completely before he could start using it again. It was also why he felt diminished to my senses. The power he usually had was leaking out of him. The good thing, though, was it wasn't permanent. He was healing and the tear was mending.

As Abigail said, it was a slow process.

Knowing that he tore his Spirit, it made me question how the man was still alive. If he couldn't use it during the fight, how did the Orcs not kill him? He had to have been low on mana and already injured, gaining a wound such as that had to be debilitating.

It reminded me of how sure Abigail was that her husband survived the fight, and after some inquiries, I found out why.

Jonathan had fallen. After tearing his Spirit, he was on his last legs when Abigail forced him underground. She'd literally buried him so that the Orcs wouldn't kill him.

It was also why he was so covered in mud and dirt when she brought him back.

"Good luck then. Let me know when you'll be leaving." I said.

With that, my rundown on the situation was fulfilled, and I was ready to start working. I had a lot to do, and none of it would be quick. I needed to resummon my hammer, remake my armor, work on my Skills, and so much more.

But before all of that, I needed to absorb all the new books we bought, which wasn't going to be easy.

I looked at the rough stack I had sequestered away and sighed. They were rather packed full of information and took a few read throughs to get it all. Even then, I looked back every once in a while when something came up.

Even though I really wanted to try out my new skills, I put it off.

Annabeth

The next few days were torture! It was one of the biggest downsides to listening in when she wasn't supposed to. She couldn't mention anything about it or else her Mom would know.

Instead, she had to act oblivious and wait until her Mom brought it up. It was awful! She almost slipped a few times, too! To speed things along, she'd been especially annoying asking about it, but even that didn't work!

But the day finally came!

She was to learn with the Mages first, even though her Mom knew she wanted to be a Warrior. Her pleas were ignored.

Instead of learning from just her Mom, Uncle Gabe, and Aunt Rachel, like she expected, her Grandma and Dad were there too. And so was Elliot! She didn't know him that well either, which made it weird that he was here. Grandma was a Mage, so it wasn't surprising to see her, but the others weren't even Mages.

"Alright, Anna." Her Mom started. "We aren't sure this is going to work, but we're going to try something. Come stand here for a second."

Anna did as her Mom asked while everyone else stood in a circle around her. It made her nervous to be surrounded like this, especially with Elliot in the room, but she followed along.

"We're all going to release some mana in the air, and we want to see if you feel anything." Her Mom said, "It's okay if you don't, but we just want to try."

Ha! Her Mom was trying to play it cool, but she knew what this was about!

Everyone here had a different affinity! Water and Earth from her parents. Ice and Fire from Uncle Gabe and Aunt Rachel. Wind from Grandma and Metal from Elliot.

Sensing mana was tough, but Anna had done it before. There wasn't a lot to do during their Camping Trip in the woods, so she usually spent it trying to glow. She'd seen Chris and Austin do it first and tried relentlessly to figure it out.

It had been years since then, and she'd gotten better at it. It was still insanely difficult, but she could do it. As they started to release mana in the air, Anna shut her eyes and tried to focus.

She scrunched her face up in concentration. At first, she felt nothing. Just like every other time mana was discussed. She'd felt it thicken before, sort of like going too deep under water in a pool, but she'd only seen it a few times.

She tried her best to do it now.

She focused harder, and colors began to appear in her head. Her Mom was a fountain of the purest blue. It was super pretty! Her Dad was like the dark soil in the garden. She hated planting the garden as the dirt was sticky and smelled bad.

Aunt Rachel was a mix of orange and yellow that looked exactly like a raging fire! It felt stuffy, like Uncle Vinny's forge.

Grandma was grey, like the clouds when the sun didn't show. Elliot was also grey, but in a different way. His color felt heavier somehow, even though that didn't make sense.

All of those were cool to look at, but only one was the prettiest! Uncle Gabe's was an Icy Blue that glimmered in her mind. It felt off somehow, like something was missing or it just wasn't quite right, but his was definitely the most beautiful.

It reminded her of Uncle Topher. There were a few times she'd tried to sense mana with him near, and it was always easier.

"Do you feel anything, sweetie?" Her Dad asked, breaking her concentration and making the colors go away.

She was mad at first, but answered, "Uncle Gabe is the prettiest." She turned to Aunt Rachel, "You're too stuffy."

Annabeth wasn't sure what was so funny, but they all broke out in laughter.

They better not be laughing at me!