Hera woke up late. For the first time in a while, she had an excellent night of sleep. Blue had sent her a text letting her know that she would be in Alex's room. It was after 11 A.M., Hera was already feeling a bit hungry. Getting up, she left the room and headed towards where her friends were. Apparently, Bonnie, Leo, and Mark had already left for their errands.
After meeting her friends, the trio grabbed a bite to eat and some supplies for the day. Hera checked her tablet to see if Helena had replied to the text she had sent to her the night before, but there was no reply. There was a decent chance that she would take some time to recover. Since Helena got hit by a creature more than 60 levels above her, it was nothing short of a miracle that she was alive. Seeing that there was nothing she could do but wait, Hera left the city heading towards the woods.
Alex assumed the teacher's role and started to explain what she had learned in her role quest. Every movement they made had the potential of giving away their position. They could not only create noise but change the smell of the area, or the temperature, or a myriad of things that a monster could use to discover her. The assassin made it clear that she was far from being a master at hiding, but she was improving at not making noise at first.
Alex talked about a few of the tests of her role quest. While hiding from wolves, she had to cover herself in mud to avoid their sense of smell. So they needed to be mindful of their smell. Avoiding scented soaps and looking more for things that helped make their scent as neutral as possible. The best way to hide from something was to understand what senses their target would use to perceive the area around it.
It was a bit surprising. Being an assassin felt similar to being a hunter. At least that was the impression that Hera was having. Although, all roles would benefit from having knowledge of their target. Alex kept explaining the different hiding strategies, but at the moment, most of them were unnecessary.
The frogs used their sight to locate their targets. Their sense of smell and hearing wasn't that advanced. For the day, they had to focus on not being seen and killing the monsters in one attack. Alex explained that the frog's weak spot would be at the base of the skull on the edge of the eyes. The skeleton was thinner on the neck and hollow in the eye sockets. Using the eye approach, they would need to sink their weapons deep to make a one-hit kill, but if they went for the neck, they needed a good strike to disable the creatures.
They agreed to attack only groups with three frogs so everyone could improve the skill. It didn't take long for them to find the first group. Hera and Alex were already familiar with the process, but this was a new thing for Blue. They had to explain the concept and give her a few trials runs where she tried to sneak up on them before feeling confident enough to do the same with the frogs.
The first few tries were less than successful. Blue ended up making too much noise, either by moving too quickly or not paying attention to her surroundings. The first army of frogs found them before even Alex got close. The second, Hera and Alex managed to kill their respective frogs, but Blue ended up tripping in a tree root and falling on top of her target. When they started to get tired, they would harvest the frogs and send it to Mondy to make some money.
By the end of the day, Hera felt she had improved slightly, and Blue could hide from the frogs with some consistency. At the end of the first day, Hera looked for ways to improve her hide more quickly. According to a few articles, the best way was to hide from creatures that were good at perceiving threats. The harder it is to hide from a creature, the better would be the result. Another option would be to hide from a person, but that method required multiple people.
Talking with the group, they agreed to try that method the next day. It was good for both hiding and finding things that were hidden, so it would be a nice two for one deal. At night they met up with Mark and Bonnie. The two talked about what they had done that day. Bonnie was really excited about the research she was making. She couldn't say much about it, aside from being something about items that had links to certain places. Mark told them how it was in the workshop. It was a lot of work, but he enjoyed the work. It was satisfying to create something with his bare hands.
Watching the two so happy about what they were doing made Hera realize that she was missing something. As much as it was fun to fight, it wasn't the same as when she found the cherry tree during her trial. She still wanted to get her new role skill, but after that, Hera was considering exploring the room for a while. Maybe someone wanted to come with her, but that was something she would worry about some other time.
During the next day, Hera, Blue, and Alex spent time in the woods trying the new training method. They took turns hiding from each other and trying to find them. The tracker would stay 10 minutes trying to find the other two. After that, the ones hidden had to get close and touch the tracker. Hiding from Blue wasn't much of a challenge. Only after she started to use her static buff, she managed to catch Hera before she tapped on her. Alex was still way too quiet to be seen by her.
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Alex was able to catch both Hera and Blue without much trouble. She could notice where the two were hiding before they even left the trees. Hera had some trouble to hide as she should. She wasn't that aware of what her body was doing all the time. More than one time, she ended rustling some bushes or stepping on a loose branch.
But after a while, she started to get the hang of it. She needed to do more than simply try to be sneaky. It was about trying to move with the environment. The concept was much more straightforward than actually doing it. There were too many variables to consider. If she paid too much attention to where Alex was, it was easy to forget about her surroundings. If she was focused on the environment, it was easy to lose track of Alex.
At one point, Blue suggested that they work together to reach the assassin, but that would defeat the purpose of the training, so they let go of the idea for the moment.
When Blue and Alex were the ones hiding, Hera would try to catch the hints of where they've been to find their tracks. She wasn't finding a good way to do that. Her pulse spell was useful, but it required some luck to hit one of them at the right time. She kept trying to figure out how they were moving around and tested to see if there was more to the tracks. There was no smell. Although some branches and footprints here and there, Hera wasn't a tracker, and she could only tell the directions of a few of the markings.
Around the third time, she was the one tracking, Hera remembered about Helena's spell. The one that would allow her to see the affinities of the target. Since Blue was using her electricity buff most of the time, and Alex had the wind sash, it was possible that she would find some trace of their mana.
By the end of the day, Hera was able to feel some distortion in the area where her friends stopped. She even managed to distinguish the signals from both of them. Alex mana was calm, and it blended with the environment very well. It was hard to feel it. It was like looking for an out-of-place shimmer in the air. Blue made the mana more violent. It flowed oddly, almost like it was following circuits on a board.
As Hera watched Blue's mana in one of the last times she was the tracker. The violent mana started to shift, and little by little, the mana shifted, turning to clouds. It looked like heavy thunder clouds with some small flashes inside them. Even with the grandiose look, it was hard to notice the mana. The cloud was smaller than a grape. If Hera weren't looking at it when it formed, she would've missed it.
She was distracted, looking at the clouds, when both Alex and Blue took advantage of the situation and tapped Hera on the shoulder. She jumped away, spooked with the touch.
Blue laughed, "You can't say you were not expecting that,"
Hera shrugged, "Not both of you at once."
"What happened? You seemed so close to being able to catch both of us," Alex asked.
Hera didn't answer. She was looking at the notification that had just appeared in front of her.
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Spell acquired
Affinity Sight
Allows the user to understand the elemental affinities of the target. The more mana used on the spell, the more sensitive the sight will be.
Base mana cost: 50 per minute
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She didn't expect to be able to get this spell today. After the assault on the wall, it became hard to think about being Helena's assistant. But now, even though she still was worried, Hera was able to focus long enough to learn the spell. Now she could start to help Helena.
"Hera?" Alex was staring at her friend.
"Sorry, I was reading the spell I got. It's something Helena gave me, so I can't talk about it. But it can help us a lot," Hera rubbed her eyes and opened a big smile.
"Oh, I thought it was the hide level up. I was surprised with the new text, although it could have been because of my role," Alex said.
"Wait, your hide is already rank 2?" Blue gasped.
"Yeah, it leveled up when I finished my role quest."
"That explains a lot, actually. I figured you had a talent for hiding," Hera said.
"Well, I can't say I do, but I did have fun in my test," Alex gave an odd smile to Hera.
Seeing the sun setting, the trio went back to the city. None of them was willing to deal with the giant toads.
They spent the next day doing the same drill, although they hunted a few frogs to get some money for the week. Eating out every day was starting to make a dent in their savings. By the end of the day, Hera managed to level up her [Hide] skill to rank 2
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Hide (Rank 2):
Improves your ability to erase your presence and blend with your surroundings.
The more your appearance harmonizes with the place you are in, the more effective this skill becomes.
Reduces the noise caused by your movement while interacting with yourself
Requirements: Not being in the line of sight of your target/ hiding place.
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Asking Alex about the noise reduction, the assassin explained that it meant that her clothes would make less noise. Not by magic, but she would move instinctively in a way to minimize the noise.
At the same time, a notification appeared in front of Hera.
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Quest Triggered:
Explorer's quest - Assassin Skill
You have acquired abilities that mirror that of an assassin. You may attempt the assassin role test to unlock the assassin related skills.
To begin the quest, head to a doorway, and the option to travel to the test area will appear.
Restriction: Quest must be completed within 24 hours of arriving in the test area.
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Hera read the notification a few times. The test would be in a different area, probably something similar to what the explorer's test was. What worried her was the restriction. She would only have one day to finish something that took Alex close to a week to do. Not only that, but she also needed to figure out a day where everyone would be okay without her.
Finishing the day of training, they went back to the city. As they were having dinner in a local restaurant, Hera received a text from Helena.