With all of Boreal’s clones now in place, Zalia wanted to talk to Delphi once more. They were in the cave waiting for Delphi to surface after Zalia had called out mentally. While they waited, Zalia opened her vault and took out the war map she had taken from the ruins of Hetheir.
She unfurled it, laying it on the ground and looked over the depiction of the lands around. A large section was blacked out where the pillar rose up into the sky but the rest of the map was like a satellite image of the forest from afar. She could actually see many green dots on the map where the collective lived within the pillar, though she and Boreal did not come up due to their stealth.
She heard a little splash and turned around to see Delphi had surfaced.
“You called?” Delphi said.
“Yeah, I have an idea. How far can the collective communicate?” Zalia asked.
“Quite far if we put our mind to it, why?” Delphi replied.
“Because, I have this map. It should show where any enemies are if they show up. It only stretches a couple hundred metres but any warning is good warning. I was thinking, if it does come to a battle then you could watch the map and tell me where the enemies are,” Zalia explained.
“An interesting proposition. There is a slight issue in that we cannot seem to see you on this map,” Delphi pointed out.
“I know but Boreal or I should be able to show you where we are through a connection if you make one,” Zalia said.
“It… could work, yes,” Delphi replied.
“What’s the issue?” Zalia asked, noticing the hesitation.
“... nothing. This should work, we can keep one of the collective watching the map at all times, if you would like to leave it here,” Delphi said.
“Fine by me,” Zalia said.
Zalia watched Boreal trying to slap around a small ball of ice.
“Look, I’m sorry if I have been a little upset recently. I want you to know I’m not so much upset at you as I am at the collective. I know you can only do so much,” Zalia apologised.
“Zalia, there is no me. I am simply a part of the whole, one piece of many,” Delphi replied.
“Isn’t there?” Zalia asked.
“No,” Delphi insisted.
“And yet, when we met you spoke out to me not as the collective but as yourself, a single voice,” Zalia mused.
“I had memories that many others did not. I was simply the piece of the many that had seen that moment,” Delphi explained.
“What more does it take to be oneself than the memories you hold, the voice with which you speak and the manner in which you act?” Zalia asked.
Delphi stayed silent at that, as if actually considering the words. Zalia wasn’t really the best at turning her thoughts into words but she felt like she did an alright job with that one.
“Boreal and I are very close to Bronze, I wish to be there before whatever danger arrives. Is there anything you need?” Zalia asked, breaking the silence.
“No, I… we will contact you if required,” Delphi replied.
Zalia did notice the slight slip in language. She felt a little bad for making Delphi question their individuality and it probably wasn’t her place to destabilise an extremely old culture with her attempt at depth of thought but Delphi was her friend, or so she thought. She was not upset at them individually, just the collective as a whole. It was a hard sentiment to get across when Delphi did not see any difference as she did.
Either way, she had to focus on levelling her abilities now lest they mean the difference between life and death later. The quickest of her abilities to level would be Hunter’s sight.
“Hey Boreal, time to play the game!” Zalia called over.
Ever ready, Boreal took off.
It took the next ten or so hours for her to finally reach Bronze in Hunter’s sight. Despite the fact that Boreal was getting quite good at hiding from her and hiding her tracks too, It was quite a push to get the level over that final threshold.
Congratulations! Hunter’s sight has gained two levels reaching Iron 20.
Congratulations! Hunter’s sight has reached Bronze 1.
Hunter’s sight will not gain further levels until all classes have reached Bronze.
Hunter’s sight - passive - body enhancement
Tin - The hunter tracks their prey. You can track creatures easier. When tracking you learn very basic information such as number of legs, number of creatures and general size of creatures.
Iron - you now learn how long ago a creature left tracks and may apply a Hunter’s mark if tracking it for more than an hour.
Bronze - you are now able to discern finer details from tracking your prey. These details include things such as maturity stage, general health and even the individual who left the tracks if they are known to you. Additionally, you gain an innate sense of direction.
Congratulations! Hunter class has gained two levels reaching Iron 20.
Congratulations! Hunter class has reached Bronze 1.
Zalia felt the surge of power in her body as the Hunter class finally reached Bronze, both her dexterity and strength attributes stepping over the threshold. While the Druid class had been an exhilarating feeling, the Hunter class threshold rank ups were always the most immediately noticeable. She stopped her tracking of Boreal to test the strength of her body, feeling its new speed and power.
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The feeling was intoxicating, a very palpable result to her continued survival despite the odds. Her mind had been quicker than her body before but now it had caught up, finally able to use the speed at which she was able to react to its fullest.
She withheld her exhilaration for a moment to check over her profile.
Profile - Zalia Taori
Health - Excellent
Mana - Full
Stamina - Full
Class one - Hunter - Bronze 1
Linked attributes - Strength, Dexterity
Active skills
Kill shot - Bronze 1
Hunter's mark - Bronze 1
Fight or Flight - Bronze 1
Passive skills
Hunter's Sight - Bronze 1
Survivalist - Bronze 1
Class two - Herbalist - Iron 15
Linked attributes - Vitality, Resilience
Active skills
Flora identification - Iron 15
Preparation - Bronze 1
Stasis - Iron 17
Passive skills
Harvester - Bronze 1
Herbal magic - Bronze 1
Unity class - Druid - Bronze 1
Linked attributes - Wisdom, Intellect
Active skills
Nature’s wrath - Bronze 1
Protection of the wilds - Bronze 1
Passive skills
Healing presence - Bronze 1
General Passives
Heat resistance - Bronze 1
Cold resistance - Bronze 1
Aura observation - Iron 7
Low light vision - Iron 9
Poison resistance - Iron 7
Mobility - Bronze 1
Stealth - Bronze 1
Trapper - Bronze 1
Teaching - Iron 7
Flight - Iron 5
Physical resistance - Bronze 1
Mental resistance - Bronze 1
Weapon proficiencies
Bow - Bronze 1
Sword - Bronze 1
Throwing Knives - Tin 17
Bonded Items
Druidic bow, Blessed by Starlight (Blessed Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Iron rank.
Duskwraith Armour (Heirloom) - Bonded Iron rank.
Ethereal Vault Gauntlet (Heirloom) - Bonded Bronze rank.
Aura observation and Low light vision had both been passively levelling as time had passed but she mostly ignored those now, happy to let them advance at the rate they would. They as well as the other low Iron passives would speed up once she reached Bronze anyways.
Other than that, her profile was looking beautiful, with only two more abilities to reach Bronze. Those were Flora identification and Stasis, both of which were quite hard to rank up in any easy manner.
No, Stasis she could probably level up with a day or two of filtering things in and out of it using Preparation. She wanted to get Flora identification to Bronze first though, just in case a change to Stasis gave her some sort of dimensional ability.
To do that though, she would most likely have to go explore other islands. She could probably get it in three or four days by spending most of her time inspecting the ever changing form of the Adastem. That would be incredibly boring though.
In the end, she did decide on that path. As boring as it would be, she didn’t want to get caught out on another island while she knew danger was coming this way. She also didn’t want to drag any more attention to the island she now inhabited by being seen travelling.
So, her mind made up, she settled in for the long haul.
Each hour stretched into eternity as she focused her mind on simply pushing to level this one ability. She only slept once during the entirety of the four days, her only other distraction the occasional break to level Stasis a little bit. In the end, however, it paid off.
Congratulations! Flora identification has gained five levels reaching Iron 20.
Congratulations! Flora identification has reached Bronze 1.
Flora identification will gain no further levels until all classes reach Bronze.
Flora identification - spell - targeted
Tin - Poison, cure or food, you'll know. You may identify whether targeted flora is poisonous, helpful, nutritious or all of the above.
Iron - You may now identify what element’s different flora contain.
Bronze - Your ability to identify flora extends to understanding their role within ecosystems, including their interactions with other plants and animals, aiding in ecological preservation efforts. Additionally, you gain knowledge about the historical uses and significance of the identified flora, allowing you to uncover hidden cultural or magical insights related to them.
Congratulations! Stasis has gained two levels reaching Iron 19.
Congratulations! Herbalist class has gained four levels reaching Iron 19.
The new effect was actually very interesting. She spent a little time after the four long days inspecting a few plants to test what it actually meant. Identifying her own plants yielded a few key pieces of information. Firstly, if they were a part of one of her ritual enchantments, the permanent ones made from the live plants, it actually told her of the plants role in that enchantment.
The more interesting facet of the ability came when she identified Bitterbalm. It told her of its common use as a herb used in cooking as well as an old use it had in a certain type of religious ritual. It didn’t tell her exactly what that ritual was or what its purpose was, only that it indeed had once been a thing.
It also better described the element that Bitterbalm encompassed, curse. She already knew that the curse element in fact caused a reversal of element when used in a minor ritual with another but the new ability stated that for her explicitly.
She used the ability on all the other herbs she had on her, quite interested in what she could learn.
Snow-leaf had historically been used by northern dwelling people as a form of cooling to preserve food and was still used in that way by the people more in touch with nature. There were no magical insights for the herb unfortunately.
Frozen Heart had a similar history in that it was often used by a tribal people in Endaria as a herb to help the sick and wounded recover. It didn’t tell her who those people were or where they lived unfortunately, maybe she could find them one day.
She learnt something quite cool when inspecting Flame-root. There were no magical insights but it told her how it was used in a ceremony by Those Born of Heat and Stone to create more of their race. She hadn’t really known how they reproduced as she hadn’t seen any young and the information made her even more curious. Were they somehow actually created from heat and stone?
She had a few questions for Glemp if she ever made it back.
Dodge-vine didn’t have much to say other than it was often treated as a weed by people yet had a very symbiotic relationship with many other plants in any given ecosystem it was found in.
Manifest didn’t have much history but she did find out that it was actually a result of a large density of magically invested creatures living in close confines. She remembered that it was found anywhere that a large amount of construction was found but apparently due to the large population, not the buildings themselves.
Each other herb had interesting little bits of information about how they functioned in their natural ecosystems but the one that caught her attention next was the Glowing cavern fungus.
According to her ability, it was actually commonly used in a religion around a god. A god in particular that she got the sense was one she knew. Once again, it didn’t explain the religion or the specific use of the fungus in the religion but it was just another piece of the puzzle that she was trying to solve around that crow god of hers.
She put the little tidbit of information to the back of her mind as she stood up from where she had been inspecting various plants. She had one last ability to level up and she was just about ready to reach Bronze.