I had gone to the Castle Dour and told Canary of my expedition. She apparently decided to come with. I didn't particularly want to have a second follower. Viree was enough in my opinion. However She was also technically my boss for the whole legion quest line.
Although she did pay me. Apparently I would receive 5 gold and 20 silver coins for my pay every month. Getting silvers was a little annoying since it was added as a decimal inside my inventory. I wasn't a fan of the decimal. I could only agree though, extra hands was always useful. Not like my followers would stand in the middle of doorways anyway.
Now however I laid in bed. Laying down long enough eventually I drifted off. I woke up in the leveling up dreamscape. I had figured out how to put off leveling up so I was greeted with sadly only 4 level ups. However I had 8 perk points. Meaning I got like two perk points per level?
I couldn't complain with more perk points, but I had to wonder about how I receive extra perk points. My current best guess was that it gave a random amount between 1-3 perk points on level up.
I invested into more health, I could feel the change. Upgrading Health seemed to increase my physical fitness. I hadn't really noticed since I only ever put one or two points into it. With Mana and Stamina I just felt like I could use more magic or run further for longer. It was a nice feeling, but I likely wouldn't put a ton of points into health.
With those allocated, it was time for the perk points. Looking over my perk trees I was very uneven. I was actually surprised to see my one-handed skill was at 43 points. I kind of hated the one-handed skill tree though. The best choice was the dual wielding branch. While Axes were decent due to the higher decapitation rate. However almost all unique weapons were swords. I mean the best axe was the notched pickaxe or the rune axe.
It was incredibly annoying, none the less I placed three points into bladesman. It was still an increased damage and critical strike chance. Looking at the man branch of the one-handed tree had several new points. One branch revolved around power strikes, while the other was based on basic strikes. I decided to place two perk points in the basic strikes. The first perk was called Solid Stance, it didn't matter much to me. It just strengthened my grip on my weapon. The second perk I grabbed though increased crit chance on basic attacks.
Looking it over with the crit chance I was getting from Valdr's Crit. My estimated crit chance with a sword was 51%? That wasn't bad at all, though I had to invest 5 perk points. My Smithing Tree wasn't legendary yet, I did need to complete that. Thinking for a moment I decided to place the remaining three in a spread of areas. I placed one perk point in One-Handed proficiency, Enchanting proficiency, and Blessings proficiency.
It would help in the long run, specially since I needed to start on learning enchanting. A good method to do that might be the process of creating a spell that would increase enchanting or doing something with soul gems. Hiring a tutor would cost money, and I wasn't sure how it worked anymore.
Looking at my spells, I thought about what I should do. Staring at my spell list, perhaps I already had something that could level up my enchanting. The spell Soul Healing was something I had acquired. However when I used it, it didn't restore mana, health or stamina. Its description though was that it healed the soul. Perhaps I could heal a soul gem? Perhaps convert a black soul gem back into a pure soul gem?
I'll test it in the future. That still left what spells I should alter or fuse together. I selected Detect and used diverge. Though the expected result didn't come. Instead I received something a little unexpected. "Detect Player..."
It costed no Mana, while detecting other players. It also revealed them from stealth or other skills. It was a rather useful spell, revealing stealthie players was pretty good. I scratched my chin and selected detect again. Next I selected Drain Life. The expected result came out, I now had Detect Life.
I thought for a moment and looked at my passive effects. Splintered focus gave me a third spell slot. I actually hadn't really used it since spells used in that slot costed more mana. I selected Camouflage and Texture. The fusion of the two was ready, however using my third spell slot I selected Reinforcement.
I didn't expect that to work in all honesty. The spell I received made me widen my eyes a little. I "Mending! It's an alteration spell." I checked what it did and sure enough. Mending could repair damage by using a material of similar substance. It certainly was effective, I could already see the possibilities. Hell, I could test repair the broken Pale Blade. If it works, perhaps I could use it on the Razor. The cost of the mana was dependent on the repairs though.
I moved on from the thoughts about Mending. This time though I clicked on Living Blizzard. I had tried to alter certain spells and powers before. However I think my understanding of my abilities was a little lacking in the past. I selected Grant Frost Resistance and Ebonyflesh.
The ability to fuse them together appeared. Deciding to test something, I unselected Ebonyflesh and instead selected Oakflesh. The ability to fuse them disappeared. I could force it, but I knew what the result would be.
I reselected Ebonyflesh and fused the three spells together. However I didn't see the result as I jolted away from the dreamscape. I blinked a little as sleepiness left me. I had really woken up by force when the three fused.
"Did that mean it failed?" I opened my spell list and began looking through them. However I froze before I even selected a category. I had a new spell tab... I selected the Fused Spells tab. Within the tab was a single spell.
I rubbed my chin at the spell, the spell was named Frost-Flesh. It was listed as both an Alteration and Destruction spell. While looking at the spell i looked at a small mark to the side of it. Clicking on it the Fused Spells Tab vanished. Realizing what happened I looked in the Alteration and Destruction tabs. Sure enough Frost-Flesh was listed in both.
I clicked on the small mark again and the Frost-Flesh spell vanished from the Alteration and Destruction tabs. I looked back at Frost-Flesh. It was essentially a Frost Cloak spell fused with the Ebonyflesh spell. The spells description was interesting though.
"A spell created by Vek Frostwane either by luck or being guided by some kind of higher power. As the spell was created from his Atmoran heritage, understanding of Stalhrim Smithing, and Alteration and Destruction spell schools." An interesting spell description indeed. Could others create new spells like this if they had the talent and knowledge?
I was given a short-cut thanks to me selecting Alteration as one of my original skill trees. This occurrence actually gave a lot of insight. One could do a lot of things as long as they had the required knowledge. "So perhaps in the past I didn't fail because I lacked the astral, uh dream mana. Instead I failed because I lacked the understanding of the subject and possible outcome of the fusion?"
My thoughts strayed and I looked out the window. It was early morning, today I had slept inside the Proudspire manor. I got up and put a pin in my current thoughts. I didn't need to overthink about the current subject. Afterall it didn't benefit me much.
"I'll get Canary first, picking up Viree second. After that I'll rent a carriage to Whiterun. It would be good to pass Bloated Man's Grotto on the way. I'll check if Sinding is still there, after that I'll walk to the west watch tower.
I jumped up, equipped my armor and ran out the door.