Zalia tracked the creatures for about two minutes before noticing something strange about the tracks. There were about thirteen of the creatures but that wasn't what was strange. What was strange was that a few times she had seen tracks that looked more human than Garroi,
"Hey, do you know of any people living out here?" Zalia asked the man who had led them to the tracks.
"No, I'm the only one who comes out here often," the man replied.
"I only ask because it seems like the pack that left these tracks were tracking something else. A human," she said.
She looked up at the rest of the group,
"These tracks are relatively fresh too," she added.
"So?" Lady Indis asked.
"Well here's my thinking, this man here is the only one to come out here, the beasts are tracking someone and relatively recently. I don't know how good they are at tracking but if they're any good…," Zalia said, trailing off as the others finally seemed to get it.
"The town," Ember whispered.
"The town," Zalia agreed.
The group began making their way as quickly as they could back to Bur.
⪼ ⪢ ℋ 𝒶𝓃𝒹 ℋ ⪡ ⪻
They arrived just as a resounding scream could be heard through the forested area.
"Oh no," Zen said.
Zalia took off her bag, pulling her bow out of it and stringing it. She quickly ran up again, faster than the rest of the group due to her mobility, especially in a forest.
"Zalia, find any stragglers of the Garroi back within the village. Zen, get their attention. Ember, you know what to do," Lady Indis instructed.
They arrived in the small town of Bur to a horrific scene. The pack of Garroi had found the town. To the right, a group of eight of the beasts were surrounding a house trying to break through the walls and door. Further into the town Zalia saw five more, each of them trying to find a way into different houses. As they entered the town, Zalia began shooting at the ones further in. The one furthest into town managed to break through a window, entering a house. She also cast a Dodge-vine ritual on all her allies. She saw the villager with them moving back away from the pack of Garroi.
Zen let out a resounding sound, the strange noise vibrating through the air. It was almost a visible sound, yet one that couldn't be heard. The sensation was extremely strange, though the effect was immediately visible. The Garroi that were still in the street immediately turned and charged in their direction. Zalia had taken down two with her arrows, hitting the two creatures straight through the skulls and punching most of the way through. The third and fourth creatures further into the town had also received an arrow each, one in the leg and one in the shoulder. She slung her bow across her back and drew her sword, sprinting down the street to the house one had broken into. Meanwhile, Indis was charging some kind of lightning energy within her hands and all over her body, standing away from Zen or Ember. The lightning arced between her body and the ground, spitting up chunks of dirt where it impacted. Ember was standing close to Zen, ready to back him up when the Garroi got close. Zalia didn't let that happen though, as she got closer to the large pack charging in their direction she activated Nature's wrath, binding the whole group in place as thorny vines dripping with some kind of poison sprouted from the ground, wrapping around the creatures. She sprinted around the group towards the two creatures further in, drawing her sword.
Approaching the first creature she drew her dagger from behind her back and threw it at the creature. It didn't hit blade first but achieved its goal as the creature flinched back a little. She used the creature's hesitation to get in close and swing at its head. The strike connected, cutting most of the way through before coming to a stop. The creature had swung at the same moment as her unfortunately but its claws had deflected off a metal plate on her leg armour, leaving deep scratches in them. She let go of the sword as the body dropped, un-slinging her bow once more as she saw the second creature approaching. It was greatly slowed both by the poison she used and the arrow in its leg so Zalia carefully aimed, used kill shot and released. This arrow slammed straight through the creature's head and embedded into the wall of a house a further ten metres behind it.
She slung her bow again as she put her foot against the body of the first creature using the leverage to pull her sword out. She sprinted once more for the broken into house. As she reached it, the world lit up and she heard a thunderous crack and a loud explosion behind her. She ignored it hoping her Iron rank teammates could easily deal with the bound creatures. She vaulted through the window, ignoring the quickly healing cuts she got for the action, and found a scene of chaos before her. The room was a cozy living room with a fireplace now a complete mess. A bloodied metal fire poker lay on the floor nearby two creatures wrestling. One of them, a person, was holding back the smaller creature using a light wooden chair. The creature was above as the man on his back fended it off desperately. Unhesitant, Zalia ran up, applying Hunter’s mark and slammed the sword through the creature. Or, tried to at least. It jerked around at the last moment hearing her approach and got away with a deep cut across its side.
She could see its right arm was a mess, assumedly where the blood came from on the fire poker. She didn't have enough poison to cover her sword so she couldn't play the waiting game with this one and would have to act while she had the advantage. She stepped forwards executing a basic strike but the creature stepped away, dodging. She could see the creature beginning to frenzy, increasing in size and muscle mass. She didn't know how to deal with it but continued attacking. Each of her simple attacks were dodged and she didn't have another dagger to use as a distraction. An opportunity came when the brave townsman arrived wielding the fire poker once more. He charged in, swinging the improvised weapon with as much power as he could muster. The creature, now much larger and significantly stronger, easily blocked the blow and delivered a powerful blow in return its bladed arms ripping into the man. Zalia took the opportunity the man gave her, activating Kill shot and stepped her back foot forwards as she extended her two handed grip towards the creature, blade point first executing a simple thrust. The creature was fast but not fast enough. It only managed to bring its arm up to catch the blade through the hand as the sword continued and pinned its own arm to its chest. Zalia let go of the sword as it stumbled backwards, unable to keep her grip without being pulled over. She watched as the creature slowly pulled the blade from its chest but didn't give it an opportunity as she unslung her bow in the close quarters and put an arrow right between the creature's eyes.
Zalia quickly focused her healing on the man, stabilising him before she opened the locked door to look outside. She saw from a distance as Zen and Ember finished off the last two of the creatures. Zen deflected a swing from one of the creatures and used the momentum of the deflection to swing the mace around, crushing the creature's head. Ember moved in more fluid motion, severing a hand before impaling the creature then pulling the blade out and immediately beheading it. Near to them, where she had immobilised the pack of creatures to begin with, lay a steaming and charcoaled pile of the creatures, the obvious result of Indis’ lightning magic funneled into one giant lightning blast to obliterate them. The woman had actually gone unconscious from the mana usage. Zalia shook her head at the risky tactic but stayed where she was, focusing the healing on the man. She went and retrieved her sword as her heart calmed down after the fight. It had ended in less of a hunt and more of a battle but as far as she knew they had saved the people in the town avoiding any serious injuries, two healers being present after all. After killing the final Garroi, Ember came to check up on Zalia. Zen remained to guard Indis.
“You’re well?” Ember asked.
“Fine, this guy could use some extra healing though,” She replied.
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Ember walked over and touched the man, a burst of healing entering his body and quickly sealing up the remaining wounds across his torso and arm. Ember's healing was significantly stronger than Zalia's. This was due to the fact that Ember’s healing was not only buffed by passives but active abilities that used mana. It made her healing stronger but also required resources and as such, could run out. Zalia much preferred the slower but seemingly infinite healing her aura gave her. She hadn’t yet run out of mana like Indis had just done but she had come close. Using both her long cooldown abilities from the Druid class usually got her close to but not quite being out of mana. The fact that her wisdom attribute increased as her Druid abilities did was a large contributor to that, increasing her mana as it levelled. Zalia watched the healing as she checked her messages,
Congratulations! Escape has increased by three levels reaching Tin 11
Congratulations! Hunter’s sight has increased by three levels reaching Tin 18.
Congratulations! Survivalist and associated skills have increased by three levels reaching Tin 19.
Congratulations! Hunter class has increased by three levels reaching Tin 11.
Congratulations! Flora identification has increased by three levels reaching Tin 18.
Congratulations! Preparation has increased by three levels reaching Tin 19.
Congratulations! Stasis has increased by three levels reaching Tin 18.
Congratulations! Harvester has increased by three levels reaching Tin 20.
Congratulations! Harvester has reached Iron 1.
Harvester will not progress further until all classes have reached Iron.
Harvester - passive - skill enhancement
Tin - The herbalist harvests herbs and other flora, with which they do what they will. You gain an instinctual understanding of how to harvest flora of your rank and lower. When harvesting flora of your rank or lower it has increased potency.
Iron - You are able to sense nearby herbs and flora of a type you have already harvested before.
Congratulations! Herbalist class has increased by three levels reaching Tin 18.
Congratulations! Nature’s wrath has increased by five levels reaching Tin 16.
Congratulations! Protection of the wild’s has reached Tin 16.
Congratulations! Druid class has increased by five levels reaching Tin 16.
Congratulations! Mobility has reached Tin 7.
Congratulations! Sword - Weapon proficiency has reached Tin 5.
“As always, fighting seems to increase skills by a lot more than anything else,” Zalia thought, inspecting her newly Iron rank harvester ability.
She could already sense quite a bit of Dodge-vine around the place but that wasn't really required anymore. The part that would be important was the herbs of the rank of her ability that she couldn't just reproduce with Herbal magic. She could also now gather herbs of the potent variety of the Iron ones she had. They wouldn't have any added effects but they would be stronger than before. Zalia and Ember made their way over to Zen once they were done healing the man in the small house. He had fallen unconscious after the strike but would be fine now, besides the destroyed house. It seemed like the people of Bur were tough though, so she wasn't particularly worried for them.
“How is she doing?” Zalia asked Zen.
“Alright I think, just a little mana burn,” Zen said.
“Used up all her mana?” Zalia asked.
“No, just channeled way too much without releasing it,” he replied.
Indis had an ability that let her over-cast a spell by channeling more mana into it than it required. It was what she had been doing before Zalia had run off, channeling one of her lightning strike abilities. Apparently holding too much mana within your body was just as detrimental as running out of it. Zalia began focusing her healing on Indis, hoping it would help with her recovery. Ember narrowed her eyes at Indis as Zalia did so. The other of Ember’s healer class abilities allowed for her to understand the injuries and state of a creature's body.
“The low but constant healing is actually helping quite a bit where mine would cause more damage,” Ember said.
Zalia just grunted in response,
“I wonder if healing energy is some form of mana…” Zalia thought.
Zalia walked around, picking up her dagger and arrows and inspecting the corpses. She marveled at the destructive force that had been wielded by Indis as she looked at the smoking pile of ash and charcoal that remained of the Garroi she had struck.
Zalia pondered the situation she was in. On one hand, she probably couldn't have handled these creatures herself in this situation but on the other, she most definitely could have if she was prepared enough. She would have arrived in the town earlier if she didn't have to wait for the others and as such probably could have caught the creatures before they arrived. Alternatively though, she wouldn't have known the way to the town and so might not have even arrived in time at all. She did have to admit there were a couple advantages to having a team but still preferred to going it alone.
Indis eventually woke up and they began making their way out of Bur and back to Endelbyrn. The people of the town thanked them with some small pieces of food and a couple coins but it wasn't much to speak of. Zalia also wasn't really here for money or food and so didn't take any. The man Zalia had saved was particularly thankful, telling her his house was open to her any time she visited and just to ask for anything she needed. Zalia waved him off saying it was something anyone would do. That wasn't necessarily true but she didn't want the thanks. After another day and a half’s journey they arrived back in Endelbyrn, Zalia gaining another level in both her sword proficiency and mobility skills during her morning routine. She was quite close to reaching the Iron rank and was excited to see what her other abilities had in store for her once she did.
Arriving back in the keep of the Morning’s shade, Zalia found the cleaning rooms once more and washed away the blood of battle and dirt of travel. The simple and quick method of washing was extremely practical and Zalia loved it for that very reason. They were not required to take a guard shift that day since they were back from a contract. During the year she would train under supervision, Zalia wouldn't have to pay for any of the facilities or trainers but she would also not make any of the money from the contracts taken and completed. They would be given a weekly stipend of a single gold coin, which was more than enough for her. She could always make a little more selling Tin rank herbs to herbalists within the city if she had to, since she didn't really need them anymore. Having the day to herself, she bid farewell to the others and went to find the sword training instructor. They were available during certain time slots during the day, this one holding sessions within the same colosseum arena that she had been tested in. She found the instructor there, already training a group of three people. She was quickly integrated into the session, taking up one of the others as a sparring partner and beginning her training.
⪼ ⪢ ℋ 𝒶𝓃𝒹 ℋ ⪡ ⪻
It was two hours before she stopped, having been pushed to the edge of her stamina as she was hit over and over, failing to dodge, parry or block whatever strike was coming her way. Luckily her healing was enough to take care of any bruises or even cracked bones as they fought, the teacher letting them go a bit harder due to her Healing presence. She left the arena sore despite the healing, having gained another two levels in her sword proficiency bringing it to eight. Despite the relatively small amount of levels gained she felt like she had definitely learnt quite a lot about her weaknesses and failures as a sword wielder. If she kept attending the classes, she felt she would get quite good, quite quickly. She went out of the city after another pass through the cleaning rooms and began walking around picking herbs and watching tracks. She stayed long enough to gain another level in each of her active Herbalist skills,
Congratulations! Flora identification has reached Tin 19.
Congratulations! Preparation has reached Tin 20.
Congratulations! Preparation has reached Iron 1.
Preparation will not progress further until all classes have reached Iron.
Preparation - spell - targeted
Tin - The careful preparation of herbs, poisonous or healing, can enhance their effects. You may magically dry, cut or otherwise prepare various foods, herbs and other similar items that are plant based.
Iron - Preparation can now be used to magically harvest plants. All bonuses from harvesting manually are still applied. You may also dry, cut or otherwise prepare foods that are not plant based.
Congratulations! Stasis has reached Tin 19.
Congratulations! Herbalist class has reached Tin 19.
It looked like her herbalist class would be the first to reach Iron, something she was happy about. The utility the class provided her was incredible, increased even more now that she could harvest plants and herbs just by walking near them and thinking about it. She could also prepare foods without a pan, knife or other utensil which would be very cool if not anything else. Zalia smiled as she walked through a small forested area, magically picking, preparing, putting into stasis and then storing herbs as she walked. Being able to sense them and harvest them without sight or movement was truly amazing, the casual magic no longer foreign or scary to her but normal and convenient.