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Beginning from Nothing: Book 1 of The New Age
Chapter 11: Hunter Becomes the Hunted

Chapter 11: Hunter Becomes the Hunted

New adventurer recruits without prior combat experience are classified as F- rank. These adventurers are commonly required to complete a five-month combat course followed by a one-month wilderness survival course at one of the Adventurer Guild’s training sites. During this course, recruits will be required to display basic skills in tracking, reading, writing, cooking, hunting, cleaning, monster identification, and self-defense. Upon completion those individuals determined to pass will receive a new rank, commonly F+ for the top of the class and F for the remainder, and be given full rights as a guild member. – History of a New Age, pg 41 (cont.)

She was ready. Over the last week she had gotten used to her new spells and casting spells through her staff. She had fought almost a dozen of the Blazehorn Deer, which had become more numerous as she had neared the center of the crater, and had been surprised how much easier it was to kill the things with a pair of intermediate spells at her disposal.

It wasn’t just the increase in power, though that was notable. The spells were significantly faster to use and the ability to modify the effects of the spell on the fly could not be underestimated. In particular, the seeking function made it much harder for the fiery mammals to dodge her Thunderbolts. Especially when combined with the effects of Overcharge and her new staff, which allowed her to far more accurately predict the movements of her opponents and aim the initial launch of the spell respectively.

Overcharge had actually proven to be far more difficult to get used to than she had originally expected and was the primary reason for her change in timeline from one day for adjustment to an entire week.

She had been unimpressed at first. In its base usage, the difference was negligible. She noticed more, felt like she had an extra second to comprehend things or change her movements. Just enough time to help reduce her natural clumsiness or rebalance when she stepped in a hole. Nothing extreme.

Then she pushed the spell to its limit. It was incredible. Like the entire world was moving half speed. Trying to move in that state was difficult, as her own movements were drastically slowed as well. Like she was moving underwater or with weights on her ankles and wrists. She had actually hurt herself on her first use, trying to move too fast and pulling one of the muscles in her arm. That had required some downtime for the swelling and pain to reduce, and had served as a cautionary tale for the spell. It only gave her more time to notice and come up with a plan, not more time to actually implement that plan.

It didn’t even really increase the speed of her spell casting. Like with her muscles, trying to push the mana through her veins too fast would leave her with burning pain and an ache for the next day or two. She could manage a slight increase in casting speed, the limit that her body could handle, but it wasn’t a speed she couldn’t have managed without Overcharge given time and practice. She could, however, split her focus while casting the spell. It took time for the mana to unbalance. Not much time, but enough that Overcharge would allow her to occasionally look away and not suffer a spell failure. This would probably be more helpful when she had spells that took longer to cast, but it was already proving useful for reducing her vulnerability when casting.

“Time to do this Bob! I’m going to tear Scarface and his goons apart.” Asher’s Cheshire grin as she said this would have been enough to send a shiver down any observer’s spine, and it was almost a shame that nothing was around to witness it. Well, almost nothing.

“Yes mistress.”

#

The first step, tracking down Scarface’s pack, was always going to be the easiest. They had been pursuing her for weeks now to varying degrees, all depending on their stomachs as far as she could tell. Like many carnivorous reptiles, they seemed to have slow metabolisms compared to comparable sized mammals. They would chase her hard for a few days, barely giving her any chances to rest, then flag for another few days as individual members of the pack broke off to hunt and fill their stomachs. Eventually the entire pack would call a halt to their hunting of her, beyond a handful of scouts left to observe her, and go looking for large prey to fill their stomachs. These excursions leaving her a day or two of relative peace, they had quickly stood out.

These hunting days were also the only ones when their lilting cries would cease. Usually their hoots would fill the ash cloud behind her at all hours of the day, only falling off at night (again excepting a handful of smaller scouts). While the echoing nature of her surroundings and the calls themselves made it difficult to get any concrete sense of distance between her and them, it did allow her to track when these hunting days were coming as the number of calling throats reduced. She could then plan out these restful, for her, days a little in advance.

She mostly used the break days to intensively train her spells, unworried about the potential for a violent interruption. This time, though, it would serve as the perfect opportunity for a counter attack.

“What do you think Bob? Tomorrow or the next day for when they go off hunting?” She knew it was likely to be one or the other. The timing was right.

“The average number of days between their hunts according to your observations was approximately five and one quarter day days mistress. Tomorrow will be the fifth day since they last departed to hunt.” She could detect just a hint of obnoxious amusement in the mostly monotone voice. Just enough to let her know something in there was probably paying attention.

“Tomorrow it is. I expect you up bright and early to help me out!”

#

As she expected, when the sun rose the next morning, she didn’t hear a hint of the Certilia behind her. They likely wouldn’t be gone long though; the increased presence of Blazehorn Deer was as much a boon to the voracious predators as it was to her. The plentiful prey would allow them to spend far less time hunting than in the first days. She’d have to act fast.

Rushing back in the direction she had come from, she quickly found one of the smaller Certilia. The pack seemed to almost exclusively leave them behind to watch her when they went hunting, needing the size and strength of the larger members to bring down their prey. The small ones would usually get whatever remained of the carcass when it was dragged back.

That worked for her, less danger in this first step. Acting quickly, she threw a Thunderbolt at the thing. This Thunderbolt had been tuned to stun the creature, rather than do as much damage as possible, and the small monster only had time to let out a single piteous squeak before its limbs ceased and body went numb. That was when she released the more deadly strikes, leaving a blackened and smoking corpse.

The other scouts would be on their way. The final cry of her victim had been short but piercing, and the creatures seemed to have fairly good hearing. She needed to prepare for their arrival if she wanted any chance of escaping unharmed.

Soon three balls of lightning were floating behind her, slowly charging with power. She had also begun throwing out a few rocks she had prepared over the last week. Each stone was marked with a depiction of the Sky’s Eye, the strange rune remaining the same despite the evolution of her Thundertrap spell. She had high hopes for her new spell, and had specially created these traps to deal with a number of weaker creatures. As one final preparation, she cast Electropulse Enchantment twice more. Once on herself and once on the body of her first opponent.

#

When the dozen or so other scouts finally reached her location, they were greeted by the sight of the tall, two-legged creature with fur on her head like the lava pools their mother called home standing menacingly over the prone form of one of their own. Social instincts and pack mentality taking over, they quickly mounted an offensive to save their sibling. Never seeing the telltale glow of mana on the inconspicuous rocks all around them, most never had the opportunity to discover their error in judgement.

As the first individuals crossed the invisible line of defenses Asher had constructed, waves of power pulsed outward and caused over three quarters of their number to vibrate uncontrollably as the electricity ravaged their insides. Immediately, before the attack could even register, three great bolts of lightning smashed into the front of their line with a sound like the sky tearing in half. The bolts did not stop there, branching out and aggressively spreading throughout their thin ranks.

The sound of sizzling flesh and smell of smoking meat soon filled the surroundings as the three blasts intermingled and reinforced each other’s terrible destructive power, leaving their targets, or at least those that managed to live, heavily injured and terrified. The enemy of the nest, the large two-legged creature that had scarred their elder brother, hadn’t even moved and her terrible power had broken them.

The bronze skinned creature, creator of flashing lights and searing pain, callously reached down and tossed the now obviously dead body of their sister. Then that, too, burst into a bubble of pain. Only two of them made it out, and they quickly broke away to seek out their elders. The feast would need to be postponed. Their enemy had decided it was done running. The pack needed to be together to complete this hunt.

#

As the remaining pair of Certilia fled into the cover of the ash cloud, Asher could only sigh and look at the screen telling her she had levelled up once more. She had been trying to take out the entire group so there would be plenty of time to prepare for the next part. Despite the large number of spells cast, she was still feeling pretty good after dumping most of her gathered stat points from level ups into Intelligence. The three simultaneous Greater Thunderbolt had been almost too much for her control, but the ten-point bump in her Acuity had helped immensely.

They hadn’t all been equally powerful of course. She had cast them separately and left them to charge up around her, taking her time to cast each of three spells enhanced with Branching Bolt as perfectly as she could manage. She was lucky the Certilia had been so eager to charge in, as the first had been nearing its limit when she launched her barrage.

“This will have to do Bob. No way I get a better chance than this for stage two. We need to find the clearing from earlier. The one with the tallish cliff. I think it was an hour back from here.”

“I am sorry mistress; you lack any form of tracking or mapping skill and I am unable to assist.”

“All good buddy, your voice has been keeping me sane the last few days.”

There was a brief pause as the invisible intelligence seemed to debate it’s answer before eventually responding, “As you say mistress.”

As she ran uphill, Asher ran over the next step of her plan in her head. She needed to cut the head off the snake. Without leadership, the rest of the pack would hopefully be easy pickings. She needed to take care of Scarface.

“It’s not the epic, one on one final showdown I was hoping for, but I can’t leave him to lead his minions into slowly wearing me down. I need to take him out first. My best bet on that front is probably a shock and awe approach. Heh.” Asher laughed to herself lightly at her own pun. It was good to joke, helping her shake off some of the stress and worry about the upcoming fight.

When she made it to the clearing it was exactly how she remembered. Rather then sloping down gradually, a wide cliff face with a seven- or eight-foot drop split the clearing into two parts. Above was a sloping plane heavy populated with some kind of fern, while below was a fairly flat patch covered with deep cracks in the dry earth. The ash had not yet covered the entire clearing, which was a lucky break for her. If she needed to, she could have made it work without vision. Being able to see would make this much easier though.

The first step was to place more Electropulse Enchantments throughout the area. Again, these were designed mostly to stun the weaker ones. Sacrificing power for a wider range of effect. However, in addition to these, she placed a number of stronger spells toward the center of the clearing. These would only affect one or two targets and would require something to directly touch them, but would be far more damaging to whatever target was hit.

Finally, she prepared her greatest surprise. The pair of spells and nearly two thirds of her mana pool left her with a pair of runes that were no different in design. Each of them crackled with the electricity stored within and she could smell the ozone in the air though. The glow of leaking magic power coming off of them was so bright it would be impossible for anything to miss their presence. That was alright though, she wouldn’t give them time to react.

Prepared, Asher Thunderstepped to the top of the cliff and hid in the greenery. Staff clutched close to her body and mana slowly regenerating she prepared for her next strike against these tenacious foes. They had chased her for weeks on end without remorse, now she had thrown that pattern into upheaval. Time to see just how committed they are to hunting me.

#

He was old now, for the pack. Another few years and he would be old enough they would drive him off. He would need to establish his place as an individual hunter then. Like mother had. For now, though, he commanded his little siblings. They would do as he willed. Even when the strange two-legged creature had left him blind in one eye and weakened, he had proved his strength to his siblings and established his place in the pack with the oldest siblings still trapped on the other side of the river.

It should have been an easy kill. One against many and the prey barely strong enough to escape just him. Instead, the lava-headed creature had continuously eluded them. She left specs of the world’s energy in her wake meant to harm them, but only the younglings fell for such simple tricks. As she had gotten trickier, leaving the stones in crevices and around corners, it had become enough to slow the pack down.

When they got too close, she would throw balls that buzzed like the angry insects he had once subsisted on. While that wouldn’t be enough to stop them all, it would give pause to those he sent to the front of the pack and gave her time to gain more distance. If they actually managed to close, she would use her strange flash of light to appear somewhere else and force them to continue the chase.

She was weak now though. Running out of energy and cornered. That was when the pointy headed, fire spitting four legs would turn to fight too. Still, the two legs would have some trick. She was too sneaky not to. He would see them though; her magic was too loud. The hatchlings might not have figured out the trick yet, but most of those close to him in age had figured out how to read the flow of the world’s energy like him. How to recognize when prey was gathering it for an attack.

Guided by the hatchlings back to the sight of their confrontation, he could only growl at the site of so many dead siblings. They weren’t that big of a loss. The newborns would have cannibalized each other as they grew anyway, leaving only the strongest few to reach the next stage of the life cycle. Mother always had more eggs hatching, he would simply bring a new clutch into his pack. It grated on him though, made the others feel that he was unworthy to lead. That could be a problem.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Finding her trail was not hard. The prey’s power left a peculiar scent, like the air after one of the few storms that would pass through his home. She hadn’t learned to hide it away within her yet, and it leaked behind as surely as mauled prey would leave behind blood. Only when she used her little flash of light was it hard to find where she was gone, as the trail would suddenly end. When that happened, he would send the pack out in all directions to pick up the scent again. The task was not a difficult one as the magic left its own large marks on each use.

She would fill his stomach soon, punishment for leaving half the world black and dulling his scales. She had used her tricks and wiped out his scouts, but such weak powers would not work on the main force of the pack. Ahead he could see a clearing, filled with the pale glow of her power in his vision. From here the real battle would begin.

Calling back his pack, he had them gather behind him and prepare to enter the clearing. The largest would enter first, smashing the magic on the ground and allowing the hatchlings to approach without danger. In the center of clearing was a strange magical tear, the telltale sign of the two legs using her strange movement skill. When they got to it, he could begin the search for where she had come out.

At first the plan was a total success, the largest four members of the pack, including himself, pushing their way forward and hitting anything that glowed with their tails. World’s energy would pulse out when they did this, causing their limbs to stiffen for a moment before they pushed on. The other younger members of the pack stayed on the very edge of the clearing. They were ready to charge in if something changed, but out of the energy’s range.

It was the packmate to his right that discovered the second kind of trap, with disastrous consequences. This one was far more powerful, creating a blinding flash of light that dropped his brother and left the brother convulsing on the ground.

As he and his siblings were distracted, she appeared in a flash of light and a sound like the air was splitting in two. A bright rune glowed on her chest and a second was stuck on the tip of a strange wooden stick she held up, ready to drive down into his body. Two orbs circled her head, crackling with more of the World’s Energy and every instinct in his body screamed at him to run away.

Before the searing image of the first flash could be blinked away, a second flash of light pulsed out from her body. Great blue and white fingers of power flashed from her body and struck each of his three companions, throwing them back with a blast and leaving their bodies shuddering on the ground. He leapt toward her, only to find the stick interposed between them and driving down to pin him to the ground.

Dodging to the side, he crouched down in preparation to leap at her only to be struck by one of the orbs that had floated above her. The pain was intense, far worse than the last time he fought with her. She had grown, perhaps too much for the pack to handle. He just needed to get a single bite in, then signal the retreat. They could flee back to mother. She would handle this two-legs.

As these thoughts passed through his mind, the stick in her hands touched him and his mind went blank. Reality fading into a white void and rolling pain as every part of his body contracted until it felt like he was trying to turn himself inside out. The last thing he heard was a strange sound from the two-legs. One he could not understand.

“I told you you’d fry.”

#

As Asher lay on her back, gasping for breath and vision fading around the edges, she could only stare into the sky and smile. She’d pushed up against the limit of what Overcharge allowed with that stunt and her aching body and veins let her know she was paying a price for pushing them past their limits. A blue rectangle floated above her and a grin slowly spread across her face. Success, it had been a success. What she had done was reckless, crazy, and possibly stupid. It had also paid off in spades, as she had expected. Fuck, it had been a success! Catching her breath, she sat up and laughed. As the joyful sound echoed out over the flames and ash, green heads turned in her direction. Baleful slitted eyes glared upward toward her to indicate their displeasure and soon she would have to make another jump. For now, though, she could continue to freely express her pleasure.

The fight had gone better then she could have hoped. She had put out those traps to split up the pack of Certilia, leaving Scarface with only his strongest companions. She hadn’t expected the monster to try to disarm the traps, sending only a handful strong enough to actually withstand her weaker versions of the spells to destroy them. When she had seen her opportunity, the entire group distracted and one of Scarface’s three guards incapacitated, she had Thunderstepped down and released another version of her Electropulse Enchantment that she had placed on her own body. This one had been created to strike any creature between 3 and 10 feet of her with as much power as possible, and she had stuffed a lot of mana into the rune. Only having three targets had increased the power even more, leaving even her surprised by how much damage they did.

The last enchantment rune, the one on her staff, had been slightly less expensive, but even more dangerous. It was the closest version of the spell to her old Shockhand spell, continuously feeding electricity into the target as long as the rune had mana. Because of the higher level of the spell, it was far more dangerous than the component spell had been. She had burned the flesh down to the bone at the point of contact before blasting the body with her remaining Greater Thunderbolt for good measure. Then she had Thunderstepped away before the rest of the pack had recovered enough to charge her.

It had left her almost entirely out of mana, and a powerful migraine was beating her head like a drum, but the second stage had been a success. With her first strike she had thrown them off balance. The second had destroyed their ability to easily recover. Now it was time to punish them, to break any notion of her being prey in their eyes again. She just needed a moment to recover first. In her vision the box still blinked.

Congratulations, you have killed a blood rival. This monster had previously tasted your blood and bent every bit of his body, mind, and soul to consuming you. You, in turn, had declared him an enemy you must destroy. You have succeeded and his body lays at your feet. You have received additional Experience and Evolution Points in addition to that rewarded for the kill in recognition of your effort. You have gained 50 Racial Experience (25 base*2 for Blood Enemy). As you have no class, you have gained 0 Class Experience. You have gained 50 Evolution Points.

Congratulations, you have gained a Rare Reward from the shop for killing a Blood Rival. You have received Certilia Hide Battle Robe. You have received Awakened Vial of Draconic Blood – Diluted (Certilia).

Congratulation! You have collected 100 racial experience and leveled up! The core of your existence has strengthened as you pursue survival. You have gained 12 Free Stat Points to distribute. Access your status page to spend these and strengthen your chosen stats. You have gained 15 Evolution Points. As you are in a dungeon, the wild mana is extra dense. Additional Mana has been brought into your core. You receive one extra Mental Stat Point and 5 extra evolution points.

#

The pack was split. Half wanted to pursue the two-legs that had killed he-of-one-eye-and-blackened-scales, while half wanted to retreat. To run back to mother in case this new and unknown threat continued to attack the pack.

He-who-is-largest pushed for the pack to pursue the two-legs. She was prey, and prey must be caught and eaten. Prey did not turn on its predator and live to talk of it. Prey did not kill members of the pack without repercussion. Prey ran and hide and died. The two-legs was so close, up a measly little climb. They could hear her even now making her strange, grating cries.

He-who-has-killed-most urged otherwise. Prey did not do those things, but the two-legs was not prey. Not anymore. The two-legs had grown, though not in size. She had been like a youngling before. Weak. Vulnerable. Easy takings. Now she was not. She had grown her fangs and they must retreat. She cried out in victory because she knew they were no threat.

Without one-eye, there would be no resolution to this. Not without fighting. Largest and killed-most had been rivals since their birth and neither would concede their point without someone stronger to make the decision. They would fight and the pack would be weaker for it. At least that was what the pack expected, until the two-legs appeared above them once more.

She wore a second skin now, one of the same brown, red, and yellow coloration as their own scales. Though it did not cover all of her. The upper part of her top limbs were covered, with long bits hanging down like their wings and lengths hung off to either side like a new pair of tails. In her hands she held the burned stick she had used to kill one-eye and a ball of World’s Energy blazed above it. Even largest realized at that point that killed-most was right, and the pack fled back into the ash.

#

As the pack fled into the grey cloud, Asher managed to pick of a few of the medium sized Certilia with her Branching Thunderbolt. She probably could have waited a bit longer, let them tear each other apart, but she didn’t want to let the pack settle in under a new leader. As long as the two that had been growling and circling each other were both alive, their entire leadership structure would be in chaos. Now it was time to break them.

The pack wasn’t hard to track, though they moved fairly quickly. To her surprise, they were still headed downhill. She had assumed they had a nest or something back in the direction she had first run into them, but that did not seem to be the case. It made her thankful that she had turned on them rather than continuing to run. If she had been headed even deeper into their territory instead of out of it as she had assumed, that could have ended very poorly.

Now, though, she was the predator and the disorganized group was ripe for being picked off. As she’d previously noted, the smaller ones were severely lacking in stamina, and the larger ones were not stopping to carry them as they fled from her. That left the weakest vulnerable, and she took advantage.

Using her lightning, she would kill them with a single blow as she ran. Soon she had eliminated what she believed to be the majority of the scouts the pack had left, which made her feel much more secure in her ability to get away if she needed to. The bigger ones couldn’t move with nearly the same speed, their maintained pace being a small amount slower than her own light jog. Because of this, throughout the chase she was able to occasionally overtake and kill one or two of them at a time.

Individually these creatures no longer possessed a real threat to her, and the Evolution Points she received reflected that. The experience, however, was still impressive. The little ones would give three or so while the larger would provide ten to fifteen depending, though these reduced throughout the afternoon as she leveled. Between her increasing level, the pack tiring, and the shrinking number of enemies she had managed to whittle them down to half their number by the time something changed.

#

It happened as the afternoon began to shift into evening. The ash cloud had begun to lighten in color, like when it indicated a clearing. Instead of only being in a specific direction though, this time the change was uniform throughout the entire area. Additionally, the telltale orange glow of lava flows was everywhere, indicating a greater concentration of that particular danger then she had run into yet. A truly massive amount of the superheated rock must have been present to produce such an effect. At the same time, the remaining Certilia began to hoot.

The sound was more morose, stretching long seconds and warbling in low tones while their hunting cries tended to be short, high-pitched sound. Soon the entire pack was taking up the cry, seeming not to talk to each other but to something else.

“That could be bad Bob. What am I looking at here?”

“An ash cloud mistress.”

“Not what that means! I assume the answer is nothing, but what can you tell me about that cry the Certilia are making?”

There was a slight pause before Bob eventually answered, “Certilia are known for their barks, whistles, and ‘laughs’ mistress. Each of these high-pitched cries are well documented by locals and are commonly taken as a sign to avoid the area. Only particularly young Certilia are known to regularly create deeper sounds, believed to be meant to alert their caregiver without causing the sound to be piercing enough to draw attention.”

“Oh crap…”

#

They were close, so close. So many siblings lost. The pack was ruined, they would have to disperse among the others. Only a single hatchling remained and even largest had been killed when he fell behind. They had made it home though, and that was the important part. The put up the cry and begged mother to help them. No response came, but they knew she would help. She wouldn’t leave them to die.

As the cloud of ash finally cleared, they gazed upon her home. A lake of lava filled the center of the basin, split into smaller ponds by crisscrossing isthmuses of pumice and obsidian. The very center of the lake was impossible to make out, surrounded by a haze of heat that warped and roiled the air. The beach of this massive pool was home to a large number of lava flows, both wide and narrow, that made working one’s way around the outer edge of the lake dangerous and difficult.

As they ran across the black and red rocks, they finally heard it. An answering cry that left one of the closer lava pools rippling. It was deep, far deeper than the sound any of them could make. A rumbling roar that seemed to shake them to their bones. Then the surface of the lave began to bulge, a convex meniscus of blazing earth as something pushed against it from below. Finally, the surface tension snapped and mother was revealed.

She was far larger then even the biggest in their pack, likely standing as tall as the two legs herself and far longer. A fin ran down her back and to the tip of her tail, replacing the club the young Certilia all shared. Her mouth opened and she let out a long hiss at the site of them. Then the two-legs broke through the haze and her attention shifted.

Mother wouldn’t welcome their company, not for long, but she would kill any non-family that trespassed in her territory.

#

Asher didn’t know exactly what she was expecting when she left the cover of the cloud, she just knew she hadn’t expected the largest Certilia she had ever seen crouched and glaring at her. It was larger even then the skeleton she had seen when she first arrived in this universe, a dinosaur from children’s nightmares brought to life.

“Well Bob, I think that means it is time to run again. Think she will chase me?” Asher’s voice was soft and nervous as she did her best to make herself seem as unthreatening as possible to the massive creature.

As the beast chuffed and drew its head back like a tortoise pulling its head into its shell, Bob began to elaborate on the scene in front of her, “Certilia Matriarchs are highly protective of their nests. The eggs require constant care and many other monsters consider them a delicacy. Additionally, smaller members of the species are known to run off with the hatchlings or eggs to create or reinforce their pack.”

“So probably not to-,” Asher was cut off from what she was going to say next when the matriarch shot her head forward and something flew toward her.

It was a squirt of some yellow liquid and as it neared, Asher Thunderstepped to the side. She was glad she had a moment latter when the liquid splattered on the ground and she caught a whiff of the horrific smell it was giving off. As she watched, she saw that some of the mysterious fluid had landed on the small plants decorating the beach. They were rapidly developing black spots wherever the splatter landed, quickly causing entire stems to wither and die.

“Larger members of the species are noted for spitting their poison and occasionally mouthfuls of lava to ward away intruders without leaving their territory or nests undefended,” Bob continued as his mostly monotone voice lightened somewhat.

“Message received. We are getting the fuck out of here Bob.”

“As you say mistress.”

As Asher backed away and returned to the cover of the ash, the matriarch huffed and trudged back into her pool, leaving Asher wide eyed at the realization that these things lived in the lava itself. The remainder of the pack began curling up on the beach, arranged in a loose cluster in case she attempted to return.

Free from pursuers for the first time in weeks, Asher sat down and began to think about what to do next as she reviewed her Status Page.

Status Page

Name: Asher Sophia Goche

Class: NA, Level 0

Race: Human, Level 8

Constitution (L): 81

Resistance: 92

Resilience: 110

Strength: 97

Endurance: 92

Dexterity: 87

Intelligence (G): 165

Wisdom: 118

Acuity: 130

Perception: 74

Charisma: 109

Luck: 118

Evolution Points: 121

Class Experience: NA

Racial Experience: 12/100

Free Stat Points: 36

Mental Stat Points: 3

Skills

Scarification Tier 1

Self-Regulation Tier 1

Endurance Hunter Tier 1

Hysterical Strength Tier 1

Enhanced Charisma Tier 1

Jack of All Trades Tier 1

Abilities

Thunderstep

Overcharge

Spells

Branching Bolt

Greater Thunderbolt

Electropulse Enchantment