Zalia woke up to the gentle sounds of Boreal purring. She was curled up in a patch of slush, her face tucked away under her paws. While Zalia was used to sleeping in all kinds of conditions, the slush was a new one to her that probably wouldn’t be super comfortable. Boreal seemed to really enjoy it though, the healing effect she received from the cool soft ice probably quite relaxing.
Zalia stretched, letting out a quiet groan. She felt refreshed, having slept well for a good two hours, somewhat longer than her usual these days. She did feel a kind of strain, a mental pressure that came from living in hell. She rarely had time to properly relax, almost always under the decaying effect of the corrupting aura that permeated the entire place. Her garden was the only place she could really truly be at peace amongst the plants with the corrupting aura suppressed to the point she could barely feel it.
She had a few things she wanted to get done, mainly levelling her abilities as quickly as possible now that she had some defences set up. A small fallback position in the woods, defences for the caves and a hell of a lot of traps around the place did have a calming effect on her. Whatever may come.
She had actually come to the conclusion that dealing with whatever was coming as soon as possible might be a good idea. While she was a hunter herself and quite used to the game of cat and mouse that a hunter and its prey undertook, she was very rarely on the prey side of it. She didn’t really like the idea of spending an indeterminate amount of time running from an unknown threat.
So it came to them fighting whatever it was and hoping it wasn’t some Emerald or Diamond rank creature from the depths of Cormaine that wanted to eat her soul. It probably wouldn’t be. Hopefully.
Besides, her and the collective would be stronger together. She didn’t necessarily disagree with the idea of standing their ground, it was the lack of information about what was coming that irked her.
Not wanting to wake up Boreal, as she was being way too cute at that moment, Zalia decided to work on her two Herbalist abilities instead. Stasis could wait for the moment but levelling Preparation and Harvester could very well be quite useful in the near future.
She went and sat down in her little earthen floored garden, breathing in the fresh air. Much as she had done not so long ago, she began her slow rotation of harvesting using Stasis and Preparation. Harvester would naturally level through the use of the others.
Something she had noticed from her ability to grow back plants from the herbs she harvested from others was the ones that became potent from the Harvester ability actually grew into plants that were themselves more potent. Her instincts told her that this was one of the reasons that the ritual arrays she was making worked as well as they did. That didn’t work on the Bronze ranked herbs, those she couldn’t really use to good effect just yet anyways, but it would in due time.
The feeling of approaching Bronze was intoxicating in a way, knowing that a ledge for a large increase in power was just around the corner for her, one that would increase her chances of survival drastically. So she sat for a few hours, her trance only interrupted by Boreal coming down to see what she was up to and then leaving her to it.
Slowly, her abilities levelled one by one.
Congratulations! Preparation has reached Iron 19.
Congratulations! Stasis has reached Iron 16.
Congratulations! Harvester has reached Iron 19.
Her heart gave a little jump with each level, knowing that the next would be an upgrade. It took another two hours before another message dinged in her mind.
Congratulations! Stasis has reached Iron 17.
Still, she sat in focus, circulating her healing through the plants, into herself and back through the plants. Carefully trimming and storing pieces of the plants she could feel with the Iron rank ability of Harvester. That feeling had evolved from sensing their location to sensing their shape as well.
Another three hours of her trance later, another message floated in front of her.
Congratulations! Preparation has reached Iron 20.
Congratulations! Preparation has reached Bronze 1.
Preparation will gain no further levels until all classes reach Bronze.
Despite her wish to read through the description of what the ability did, she waited. Shortly after, another message appeared.
Congratulations! Harvester has reached Iron 20.
Congratulations! Harvester has reached Bronze 1.
Harvester will gain no further levels until all classes reach Bronze.
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.
Bronze - You may harvest entire plants in their healthy form to be transplanted later. These can be stored directly in your Stasis ability or bonded item ‘Ethereal Vault Gauntlet’ under those abilities' normal conditions.
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.
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Bronze - Plants you harvest of a rank lower than yours are granted additional potency to match your rank. Additionally, plants that are transplanted by you have increased resiliency.
Zalia read over the changes a few times and once more was pleased with the results. Originally she had thought the abilities were changing to more encompass how she was using them but she could see now that they were changing to become more how she wanted to use them. The difference was minute but distinct.
She also didn’t miss that one of her abilities actually referenced a bonded item now, this being the first time any of them had done so.
She tested Preparation and found that she could take an entire Bitterbalm out of the ground and into her Stasis. She re-dug the hole she had just taken the plant from and summoned it from stasis right into the hole.
Bitterbalm (Potent)(Resilient) - Iron rank - Use in a ritual to add an element of Curse
The new tag told her it was now resilient, meaning it would survive better. She smiled brightly at the little plant, happy with her ability. Her other classes' powers allowing her to survive and kill with efficiency were all well and good but the simple joy of being able to treat her plants well was pleasant.
She tried the same thing on a Dodge-vine except when she took this one out, something very fundamental had changed about it.
Dodge-vine (Potent)(Resilient) - Iron rank - Use in a ritual to add an element of Protection
Zalia froze. She knew that Harvester said it would increase the potency to match her rank but she hadn’t thought it meant it would raise the actual rank of the plant to match hers. That… actually raised some issues. Herbal magic allowed her to reproduce the effect of a herb she had used in a ritual of a rank lower than her own, where this would increase the rank of herbs to her rank. She would have to be careful about using any herb at its current rank first before harvesting it lest she be unable to reproduce its effects at all.
Nevertheless, the effect was still powerful and would allow her to upgrade the herbs she already had to the same rank as she was. Not wanting to waste any time, she immediately got to it.
It was another four hours of work to go through and transplant each of her Tin rank plants in such a way that they didn’t disrupt the ritual arrays they were a part of. As she finished the first room though, she could feel as the effect of the ritual grew stronger until the pervasive aura of corruption was nowhere to be felt. Underground at least.
The small hideaway she had made up in the forest was significantly improved by the rank up of the Dodge-vine plants there but still did not entirely block out the aura. It was now more comparable to how it had been underground previously. Not entirely gone but still a background afterthought.
Once that was all done, she returned to the cave to try and find Boreal. Finding Boreal nowhere inside, she went to the cave entrance to see if she could track her friend at all. As usual, it did take her a little while but her combination of many abilities and experience overtook Boreal’s natural stealthiness.
She followed the tracks for a short while before finding one of Boreal’s icy clones hiding up in the boughs of a tree, a trap made by the shared Trapper passive Boreal and Zalia shared. She smiled at the icy clone hidden up above and continued tracking, realising what Boreal had been up to while she had been busy.
As she thought, she found many more of the Boreal clones hidden under roots, up in trees and within viney plants. She found Boreal after a short time and saw her forming another icy clone with her own abilities, the clone crouching down under some undergrowth and sitting perfectly still.
“Boreal!” Zalia called out.
Boreal spun about.
“Zalia!” Boreal answered, dashing forwards.
Zalia braced herself and caught the fluffy missile in a tight hug.
“I see you’ve been busy out here,” Zalia commented.
“Traps for the corrupt ones,” Boreal explained.
“I can see, I fear anything entering these woods should be quite scared by now,” Zalia replied.
The comment wasn’t entirely untrue, they had turned the forest in the immediate area around the cave entrance into a death trap for anything Iron rank and even possibly a Bronze rank if they weren’t careful.
Zalia frowned at Boreal.
“Did one of your abilities rank up again?” she asked.
“Frost!” Boreal exclaimed.
“I didn’t even notice, sorry. Congratulations!!” Zalia said.
Zalia checked it out.
Frost Adaption - passive - body enhancement
Tin - you have incredible resilience towards snowy and icy terrain and environments. This includes ignoring the majority of cold and cold based magic damage and walking easily on ice and snow.
Iron - you have a passive healing effect based on how cold the temperature is.
Bronze - The passive healing effect is increased. Additionally, you may now receive a small amount of nourishment from cold temperatures, reducing your need to eat. Finally, you may emit an icy aura that creates a severely chilled area around you.
She gave a low whistle.
“Now that, is a nice upgrade. Do you even need to eat anymore?” Zalia asked.
“Need, no. Want,” Boreal explained.
“And how about that chill aura, want to show it off?” Zalia prompted.
Boreal did just that, emitting a chill that permeated the air around them, frost crackling on nearby surfaces. She then manipulated the frost into icy spikes and shapes, controlling it with incredible skill.
“Aren’t you one fancy cat,” Zalia said.
“Cat?” Boreal asked.
She realised she had never really called Boreal a cat, the large feline with semi-translucent icy spikes sticking from her shoulders, back and tail granting a quite fantastical look compared to your regular house cat.
“It’s like you, but small with no magic. No cool shoulder spikes either,” Zalia explained.
“Weak, but still friend?” Boreal asked.
“Well, kind of. For my world no magic is normal. They’re actually quite successful hunters,” Zalia replied.
“Strong friend!” Boreal corrected herself.
“Yeah, not anywhere near as strong as you though,” Zalia said.
“Boreal strong, Zalia stronger,” Boreal said, bobbing her head down a little.
“Phh, you’ve beat me in a fight before,” Zalia replied.
“Zalia very gentle,” Boreal said.
“I’m sure you could hold your own. Besides, you’re so close to Bronze now!” Zalia retorted.
She could see with Aura observation that Boreal was on the cusp of reaching Bronze. Her last ability to rank up would be Cute convincement which meant it would most likely receive a big change, if her tier rank ups worked the same as Zalia’s.
She was a little sad at that and hoped it wouldn’t remove Boreal’s cute powers. She liked those.
“Come on, let’s finish these traps of yours and head back shall we?” Zalia said.
Boreal responded by forming her icy aura into another of the trap clones.