Asuna finishes eating before Kechara does, but instead of going to sleep like she normally does she seems to be listening to me read. When I stop and ask her if she understands what I am reading she shakes her head. With Kechara being a sacred creature and the guardian, her intelligence is understandable.
Asuna on the other hand is still a normal beast, so how is she able to understand me so well? Out of curiosity I put Asuna in my lap so she can see the book and I start trying to teach her the elven language. To my surprise, Bones moves behind me so he can see over my shoulder and follow along.
Maybe his intelligence has gotten high enough for him to start being curious about things. The thought of being able to talk to him in a language no one else can understand is appealing. So I go further with the lesson than I originally planned to, only stopping when it is obvious Asuna can't stay awake any longer.
Since Bones doesn't need sleep I continue teaching him even after Asuna has fallen asleep. I even give him the basic combat book so he can study it while he is on watch. As I am about to use my sacred power on Kechara I spot movement from the corner of my eye.
When I turn to look I see something protruding from the barrier, like a black tentacle reaching towards me. Wondering what it wants I merge my senses with it, from what I can tell it is basically saying 'Please sir, can I have some more?'. I would prefer to have more information before doing anything, but since it is just a barrier I don't really see how it could hurt.
After debating it for a minute I decide to give it half my sacred power, then I feed the other half to Kechara's core. Then I lay down in the circle Kechara made with her body around Asuna and go to sleep. When he sees me get up in the morning Bones comes over and hands me the book back.
In elven I ask if he read the whole thing and in answer he gives me a nod. Putting the book away in my pouch I pat him on the head and tell him good job. Then I start a fire and start cooking breakfast which as usual wakes up Kechara and Asuna.
Once we have all eaten I tell Kechara that the plan is the same as yesterday. She will take Bones and scout for driders and breaches while I follow the path towards the summit. Before I leave though I send my senses into the barrier to see if anything has changed.
The amount of changes stuns me for a minute, the barrier is far stronger than the last time I looked at it. Not only is the barrier stronger, but it actually feels alive now, as I study it I can feel it looking back. I don't sense any threat from it, if anything it seems to be grateful to me for giving it my power.
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Probably the best thing is I can no longer sense a single breach in the barrier. As I continue looking around I can sense several places where the barrier is under attack. When I focus on one of those points somehow I am able to see what is going on.
The vision is a bit weird since it is in black and white but I can tell there are driders trying to break through the barrier. It seems now that the barrier is stronger it is able to reflect some of the damage. Because, each time a drider attacks the barrier the drider seems to get injured.
While I can't tell where any of this is happening in relation to my position it should mean Kechara only needs to worry about any driders already outside. To my surprise when I am looking around I find a new section where the barrier seems to have expanded.
The pillar in the middle of the city now has a part of the barrier wrapped around it. If one were to look at the barrier from the outside now it would look a lot like a donut. It makes sense since I could feel that the core of the barrier was inside the pillar.
However, it seems the spell that created the barrier didn't do this, so somehow my power allowed the spell to evolve. This would seem to support my theory that sacred power is a higher version of mana. The fact that it was able to improve a spell cast thousands of years ago is what is truly impressive.
The more I learn about my power the more glad I am that I absorbed the guardian's core. Sure having to start over was a pain but I can now do things I couldn't even imagine before. The best part is I have only just begun to discover what it can do, who knows how much I can grow in the future.
When I separate myself from the barrier Kechara is already gone with Bones and Asuna is sitting watching me. As I smile at her and pick her up, I notice she has grown a little more. A quick scan shows her core has grown as well, so I put a small amount of energy into it.
Then, still holding her in my arms, I walk out of the tunnel and head back to the path. As I follow the path I keep my movements slow and steady, I've been having trouble breathing. Considering how high up I probably am it isn't too surprising, but I don't have any gear to help.
So I am just going to have to slow down until my lungs can adapt to the thinner air. Both Kechara and Asuna don't seem to be having any similar problems, but this is their home. It is only going to get worse the higher I go, but since the temple is up there I don't have much choice.
For lunch I end up just sitting down on the path and feeding Asuna some raw meat. For the past hour I haven't seen any trees or caves, I am starting to worry I may have to camp outside tonight. There is plenty of snow so I might just have to try to figure out how to make an igloo.
It is a cloudy day but not long after our lunch break I find myself walking through the clouds. A bit later I find myself above the clouds and the view is like I just walked into yet another world. It is beautiful and awe inspiring, the clouds are so white it is hard to tell where they end and the snow begins.
Looking back at the mountain I can actually see the summit from here, looks like I will reach it tomorrow. The problem is I still can't spot anywhere decent to try and camp, especially since I don't have a tent or anything. Another worry I have is that even though I can see the top of the mountain I don't see anything that could be the temple or the library.