"So, what does such a 'Shrine' entail exactly?" Stahl asked as he leaned against the railing of the area above the meeting room that they were currently at, before Xenia swiftly grabbed a small pouch out of her pocket. It in itself was simply a small jute bag, but it had a few colorful strings tied to the top, and it obviously wasn't just a simple bag.
"This, for example. A shrine can have many different forms, and everything that ends up acting as a conductor for prayer toward a god counts as one. This bag here contains different plants and gems that are usually connected with the God of Magic. The strings on top are simply colors often connected to him. You can't do much with something like this, but it at the very least helps you with every day things, or is a good base to work with when going for larger rituals." She explained, before stepping up closer toward Xenia, who leaned forward to take a better look at it, although he swiftly turned away again.
"Oh damn, the smell of that stuff is strong as shit!" Stahl exclaimed with a wry smile, and Xenia nodded her head with a sigh. "Yes, it is. I usually have it packed away in another bag together with the other 'Handheld Shrines'." She explained, before Stahl slowly crossed his arms.
"Alright, and I really just need a small bag like that filled with plants and rocks?" Stahl asked with a frown, and Xenia nodded her head. "Basically, yes. As I said, anything that acts as a proper conductor is enough. And it's not 'rocks' it's gems and crystals. You should know that they have a lot of magic power by now." She answered before handing Stahl a different small bag with Brown and Green strings tied to the top. It didn't smell nearly as strong, but it was still quite pungent, like the sap of a tree stuck to your fingers after going out for a walk in the forest, and picking up small pieces of wood to play around with.
With a somewhat calm feeling, Stahl then looked at Xenia. "What do I do now?" Stahl asked, before Xenia just smiled back at him. "Now, you're going to make a nice salad." She explained, and Stahl looked at her in surprise.
"Salad? Seriously? Not a complex concoction, not some legendary cursed item, but a salad?" He asked with a wry smile, looking down at the bag he was holding again.
"Yes, a salad. And preferably before the sun goes down, we're getting to the next town tomorrow morning." The High-Elf said with her arms crossed, before Stahl nodded his head. "Alright, and what kind of salad am I making then?" He inquired, before Xenia handed him a few ingredients, which one usually wouldn't necessarily expect in a regular salad, most of which being different leaves and herbs you can find in most forests, as well as some small nuts.
"A salad with this. The ratio doesn't matter, just go for it by gut feeling. This should actually give you the cooking skill as well, now that I think about it." She said with a light laugh, before Stahl nodded his head and placed the bag to the side, before sitting down cross-legged on the ground, with a wooden bowl and the different ingredients in front of him. But when he grabbed the first few leaves, Xenia stopped him.
"Yup, stop. Just think a bit, I said Witchcraft is about receiving energy from the World, and in no way did you do that yet, right?" Xenia told him, and Stahl nodded his head with a frown. "Yeah, but I only did that at the end with Shamanism as well. I thought maybe that comes afterward." He responded, so Xenia just shrugged.
"Good point, actually… Well, then let me just explain. The bag I gave you is my Shrine for the God of the Forest. What you need to do, is pour your mana inside of that bag and have that mana connect straight to your own body. It's easier if you wear it around your neck, actually. It's already been established as a shrine, so the effect happens immediately." She explained, before Stahl sighed loudly and used the string around the opening to hand the bag down from his neck, before he poured his mana inside of it. And immediately, he could feel something that he didn't expect at first.
There was a gentle flow of mana slowly being established in the place where the mana from his body and the mana inside of the 'Shrine' bag connected, the former leaving his body, the latter entering his body. But the mana that he had poured into the bag had changed, and had a pretty different feeling to it overall.
While regular mana was both hot and cold at the same time, this mana was simply cold, but pleasantly so, like a light breeze.
Surprised, Stahl looked up at Xenia, who was currently wearing the Mana Spectacles that Eisen had made for her, and she nodded in satisfaction. "Okay, good. The world is giving you its energy after you made an offering to the God of the Forest. Now, you need to try and somewhat 'isolate' that energy so that you can pour it into the different ingredients while you're making the salad."
Slowly, Stahl nodded his head and then did as he was told, trying to move the 'World Energy' away from his usual mana. Luckily, it acted basically completely like mana itself, so he didn't need to worry about not being able to control it. And soon enough, with slightly chilly fingertips, he finished putting together the salad, and was surprised to see the result.
[Cooking Skill Learned]
[Witchcraft Skill Learned]
[You made a Witch's Forest Salad]
"Oh! So that's really a thing then..?" Stahl asked with surprise as he saw the notifications, all the whilst being pretty glad that he got two skills at once, before Xenia nodded her head.
"Of course it is! It's Cooking Witchcraft. There's many types of it, though. I have a book or two somewhere around here with some different types of Witchcraft, you just have to take a look at which ones you like the most." She explained, so Stahl stood up with the salad bowl in hand.
"Meaning basically, Witchcraft is making different things and pouring World energy inside of them?" Stahl asked, and Xenia scratched the back of her neck. "That's somewhat it, yes, but not necessarily. Sometimes you need a proper ritual to work everything out, especially for high-grade items. And I'm not sure you're necessarily going to be able to make better items with this just by pouring world energy inside of them while you're making them, I haven't actually tried that out yet. It might just somewhat define them differently." Xenia explained, so Stahl slowly crossed his arms.
"Huh… Alright, got it. Well, what am I doing next, though? Just making more salad?" He asked with a smirk, but Xenia shook her head. "No, no, that was just an easy way to get you the skill, because you don't actually get it by making a shrine. But you can gain a good amount of experience by making shrines, so that's all we're doing until you ranked up. Then we're getting you the Prayer skill, and I teach you what you need to do with Divine Energy. And then, you figure out everything else you need to, get your element, and then we continue." Xenia said with a light sigh, feeling a little tired after today, and Stahl scratched the back of his neck with a smirk.
"Got it. I'm actually really excited for my element! I think I'll learn a few more crafting skills though… Right now, I barely have any proper ones of them compared to my other elements, and I want to get a proper balance going." He explained, as the two of them, plus Thul and the undead, returned to the Meeting room, where Xenia grabbed a few different materials and items, as well as a book with information on different gods, before Stahl then began to create small 'Shrine Bags' for different deities. He chose to go for six major gods. The gods of Combat, Craftsmanship, Magic, Life, Death and Art.
He thought that would be a good enough choice, and Xenia didn't seem to have any complaints either. The gods she chose for her handful of shrines were a bit more precise, all of them being lower gods under the gods of Nature or Magic.
The rest of the proficiency that Stahl needed to gain was done so by crafting different things, mostly food, in the form of small snacks, so that Stahl could level up his new cooking skill as well. And then, they finally reached the second-to-last hurdle to overcome before properly finishing his lessons under Xenia.
The Prayer skill. As it was time to have Dinner now anyway, and everyone made their way to the dining hall now, Stahl and Xenia chose to ask the Pastor for the god of Skills to give him the Prayer skill afterward.
And quite coincidentally, Xenia, Stahl, Jyuuk and Evalia got to the Dining Hall at the same time, so it was obvious what happened next. Xenia and Jyuuk chose to sit somewhere alone for a little while, and Stahl and Evalia did the same, although it was far more awkward for the latter couple to do so.
"So… How was your day?" Evalia asked after a while once they sat down with their food, before Stahl chuckled lightly. "My day was great, really. I trained a good bit with Brody, and then learned Magic from Xenia. We're continuing after dinner, so that I learn how to use 'Divine Energy', and then that's it for now until I get my element." He explained, before Evalia smiled at him.
"Alright, good, then you have all the time in the world tomorrow, right?" Evalia asked with a big grin, and Stahl already knew why she asked, and it wasn't just for the 'Acting' skill practice.
"Yes, I have time nearly all the time we're in town tomorrow. I'll need to go and meet with Komer for half an hour or so, because he's letting me do the purchases tomorrow so that I can get the Trading skill and then get it to Rank 1, but other than that, I'm all yours." Stahl replied with a wink, before Evalia returned a smile.
"Got it. We're actually staying in town a bit longer than we expected at first, so how about… You and I go eat Dinner together tomorrow?" The young artist asked with a light blush on her cheeks, and Stahl looked at her with a frown, although not a real one.
"Aren't we eating together right now?" He asked, before Evalia looked at him surprised and down at the food, before nodding. "R-Right…" She replied with a sad tone in her voice, before Stahl laughed quietly and reached for Evalia's hand, while his own was nervously shaking.
"I'm kidding. Of course I want to go out with you tomorrow night. You're unexpectedly shy sometimes." The young man replied, but Evalia just replied with a light glare. "Well what do you expect… I haven't done any of this stuff before… Dating is hard if the world immediately finds out about it, especially when you're a teenager." She said with a sigh, but Stahl just smiled.
"Oh, so you don't want the world to know? I already posted it on social media…" Stahl said embarrassedly, once more just kidding, and this time Evalia at least caught on to that. "Of course you did. No, but seriously… I would prefer that nobody finds out about this before, you know… We actually have an idea what 'this' is." The artist explained, so Stahl simply nodded his head.
"I was thinking the same thing."
