Berries, fruits, and apples were not as tasty as meat. Red pondered on the reasons why this might have been the case as she looked over her Stats. Noticing the constant mention of ‘hunt’ in the description of her Skills, she realized that what made them so tasty was that it was earned.
Plucking fruits from a tree was too easy. It was like taking berries from one of the village children. The tree had to be living for her to gain any sense of gratification.
“There is no thrill of the hunt when it comes to plants.” Red nodded to herself.
She was currently levelling her Skills deep into the woodlands. Few hunters from neighboring villages frequented this place, and an animal path that was used as a highway for the villagers ran near the trees she used as punching bags.
Fruits, meat, and wares were hauled either in baskets or by horsedrawn wagons. She imagined how much larger those villages must have been to need so much food. Then, she scaled it up further, unable to see how a city of more than a thousand people was sustainable.
Faces of shock and worry filled the faces of the passing villages who watched the young girl bash the bark out of the trees. At one point a worried woman offered her a red apple.
“I hope you’ll feel better with this gift.”
“Nutrition! Thank you, village lady!” Red smiled and hungrily scoffed down the apple down. She did not bite it.
Rather, she used her upper teeth like a blade and scraped it around till the apple was no more. Then, she immediately returned to leveling [Punch] as it was her weakest Offensive Skill.
“Y-You should really stop. I think the tree’s had enough –!?”
Suddenly, the lady noticed the dent in the tree. Surely, it could not have been caused by this girl, she thought nervously. But upon watching closer she noticed that Red’s knuckles emitted steam with each consecutive impact.
“O-Oh… I’m sorry.”
“Are you going already!? I wanted to talk more! You’re the first person to come talk to me outside of my village!”
“I-It’s important. Please understand.”
Those punches were not for show, and the woman, perhaps feeling guilty for intruding on Red, offered a small box of apples and immediately parted ways. The sudden silence was punctuated by the dull thuds of her punches. In due time, she had gained yet another level in [Punch].
< Punch Has Gained a Level >
< Punch Has Become Punch I >
“YEAAAAAH! Two days of work and I finally gained enough to get the evolved version of it!” She shouted at the top of her lungs.
Distant hunters recoiled and lost track of their prey due to the noise, as fawn and easily startled animals immediately fled their aimed arrows. The echo of her voice weirdly sounded like a collection of faint curses.
But she didn’t care.
Because she gained a level!
LEVEL : 35 AFFINITY : Amalgamation
Hatchling Red
ATTRIBUTE : Identity CORRUPTED NAME : Red HP : 16,500 ^3/min
MP : 15,000 ^3/min
AGI : 32 RESIST : 50 AGE : 0 ATT : 550(+35)
MAG ATT : 170
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O : 31 D : 0 ORIGIN : Original ATT DEF : 350(+50)
MAG DEF : 150
S : 13 E : 8
< ACTIVE SKILLS >
(O) Huntress’ Slash II [3/10]
(O) Punch I [0/10]
(S) Friends! [3/10]
(E) Appraise Object [8/10]
Several levels were gained during her 5 days stay at Hearth Village. But she gained them slowly compared to when she was in the cavern.
Earlier, she had asked Snow why this was the case.
Levels were finicky and ill understood amongst the Blessed according to Snow. For a Healer it was as simple as repeatedly using the same Skill repeatedly, whereas for more physical Skills one needed to utilize it in increasingly difficult situations to further its growth. This meant that combat was the best way to level up.
However, there was an issue with this too. The creatures of the Central Forests of Justicia were too weak despite being around their same level now. The Spiked Boar were among the most dangerous of creatures of these forests, yet they could be killed in only a single slash.
“Plus their Stats are way too weak to take. What do you think, Agate? It is worth going through the trouble of getting more stronger or should I just be happy I can live here as a human?” Red asked the voice in her head.
The First Milestone
< Achieved after reaching level 50 >
Her answer came in the form of a target level. Snow described the Milestones as a method of evolving. The Nexus granted the Blessed new Skills, Abilities and Professions depending on the lives they lived. From what she knew, it was not something one could control.
However, the answer she received from Agate was different.
< There will be choices to look forward to >
“Who to believe? A person that can’t lie, or a voice that likes keeping secrets? If that’s true, then does that mean I’ll change physically too? I like being a human. But I want to be a human that’s bigger in all the right ways too!”
Villagers whispered amongst themselves as they pitied the poor girl on passing.
I should speak internally, shouldn’t I? Snow said it was dangerous to talk about being a Blessed.
She raised her sights past the trees, spotting a pale structure that rose so high that she could not even see its tip. The colossal structure was the Nexus, the axis mundi of the world. Second nights were known to sweep across Elysia due to its immense size.
Red had to wonder how that thing was considered a natural object.
“It kind of looks like the rock we saw underground. It has the same color of the egg we found too.” She muttered to herself.
The Voice replied with something else, as though to skirt around the topic of the Nexus and the stones.
Nex Megalopolis
< One of the largest bastions of civilization after Paradise. Houses millions of people not limited to humans >
“Oh hey! That’s where Snow wanted to visit one day!” Red hummed. “Millions of humans… I can’t even imagine that! But non-humans? How does that work? Wait, don’t tell me… Animals can talk!?”
Red was not aware of the existence of other Races besides humans. It was not because she held humanity as superior to others, but simply because she was ignorant of this fact, and she didn’t know whether to believe Agate.
Snow would certainly have an answer to this.
Red wiped the stains of her clothes with a wet washcloth. Items would remain wet even when stored within the Dimensional Storage. This also meant that food could be preserved indefinitely.
She learned a little bit about hygiene and how to keep herself tidy thanks to the village. Hygiene didn’t really matter to her since she didn’t produce waste, though that didn’t exempt her from bathing.
Red had also helped with many chores, but she was a little too strong for some. Woodchopping was easy, scrubbing clothes on the other hand resulted in her tearing a few of the women’s favorite dresses.
It always scared her that she’d do something that would get her kicked out. But the fact that she was still allowed to live with them meant two things.
“I’m useful, and I’m cute.” She nodded to herself. “That’s why Snow keeps me around to herself!”
Delusion
< The act of being deluded >
“Heh. You can’t scare me with words I don’t understand!”
Red plucked an apple from the cargo and pulled it to her mouth. Moments before she could sink her teeth into the apple, she heard a scream echo in the woods. The apple hung by her mouth as she furrowed her eyes.
“Hm… Weird. It’s just like yesterday.”
The scream did not belong to a human, so there was no need for Red to intervene. It was a distorted, guttural screech that could only come from an animal. The scream was joined by a cacophony of clashing steel, interrupting her yet again.
“… Grrr…” She grumbled, conflicted whether to aid them or not.
In one hand it was none of her business. They were not a part of her village, and she did not want to attract attention to Hearth Village.
On the other hand, wasn’t it the right thing to do?
As a human being – shouldn’t she help fellow humans no matter what?
It was certainly a skewed, naive way of thinking.
But it was the only way Red knew how to be human.
“Ok, Red. It’s just to see what’s happening.” She promised herself before disappearing into the forest.
* * *
The apple she held plopped into a patch of grass at the base of an oak tree.
Its sheen was different from the rest of the bunch. It was golden, yet black fluids oozed when it cracked into two like a rotten egg. The innards were nothing like an apple, its poison seeping into the soil.
A low-pitched rumble came from the branches of the tree, its trunk groaning as though in torment. It ramped up as its branches twisted, shedding its leaves as it formed many long thorns along its trunk like a giant rose without a flowering bud.
Then, it screamed with the same frequency as the one Red had heard earlier.