Novaris. Quin. 905. AGC.

Nodel. Waning Crescent 🌘. Day 27.

The night passed without issues, and after a nice breakfast courtesy of Alyx, the party decided to make the last trek to the figurative edge of the forest. Tesilim himself couldn’t tell where this edge was, but at some point, Lili and Alyx decided they had walked far enough. Of course, he had asked how they knew this was the edge, and he had just been told that the density of the mana had increased. They were at a point where proper D Rank threats were going to start showing up, and the deeper they went, the stronger the monsters.

Tesilim had been wondering what exactly differentiated the monsters and decided to ask.

“Okay, so what makes these D Ranker monsters stronger than the ones we encountered before?” A question Alyx was happy to answer.

“Alright, Tesilim, so here is the deal. As you know we have Low, Mid, and High ratings for things. Now, obviously, each tier would be stronger than the last, but that isn’t always the case. The main issue is that it's all about the monster’s genetics and where it has grown up. This then causes very real tier discrepancies within even the three tiers of measurement.”

After Tesilim thought about it for a second, he found a decent comparison to something on Earth. Basically, there were dogs, but even then, the difference between their types was massive, especially when they began to breed with each other. Of course, even without breeding, certain breeds were just better. However, even within the top breeds, some were just better at certain things than others. Now, all that was missing was how magic actually affected things. Something he quickly learned about as Alyx continued his explanation after noting Tesilim was on track.

“Okay, the difference between the tiers is all about magic and monster type. A Low D Rank bush creature like the one we fought could easily take out a Mid to High-Rank bear. Why? Well, you saw why. The thing had overwhelming attacks and regenerative capabilities, and when placed against a lonely bear without any actual magical attacks, it would completely demolish it in a fight. That also goes for something like that shrub and a fire elemental. There wouldn’t even be a fight. The elemental just wins even if it just reached D Rank.”

“Okay, yeah, that makes sense. Would that difference in power still work between ranks? Could a well-suited creature like a fire elemental still take on a C Rank living shrub thing?”

“Oh yeah, absolutely. You won’t see such fights so close to this border, but further out, where the stronger D Rank monsters roam, you will find fights between Low C Rankers and powerful D Rankers.”

“Well, that's worrying. Could those C Ranks actually travel all the way here?”

“Yeah, there isn't any stopping them. Usually, they don’t, but many of them grow the same way we do by refining themselves with purer mana. As such, they all can feel that pain when you start using it, and the best way to dull it is through a proper fight. This means that bullying weaker foes doesn’t do much for them as their fighting instincts don’t really kick in. Sort of like how our adrenaline doesn’t start pumping if we aren’t in actual danger.”

“Okay, but that still means if a monster enjoys elf meat a lot, it could still pop up over here for a quick snack.”

“Exactly, which is why we have these patrols to try and stop them before it gets out of hand. However, if you decide to go solo and run into a Low C or High D rank, then it's either bad luck or your own screw-up. That's why we do teams.”

After that fruitful conversation, Tesilim was reminded to reroll his die as it had reverted at some point during the night. He got a four which then replaced his boots with the better ones. And as they didn’t disappear during their hour of looking for a new campsite, Tesilim guessed they would last for at least 12 hours. In regards to the camp, they wanted to find a permanent spot to set up for the week of patrol. This was the best way to do it, so they didn’t have to constantly make new spell circles that might not necessarily be the best.

Walking around, they eventually ran into a cave that was inserted into one of the few cliffs in the forest. Naturally, the cave seemed like a great spot to make camp, but the chances were that there was something living in the cave. And unsurprisingly, their worry was quickly proven right when a massive bear with large clumps of stone came waltzing out of the damn cave. Thankfully, the bear didn’t attack immediately and just stared at them as they stared at it.

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The party decided to slowly back away, as the bear clearly had no monstrous intention, and there was no need to get into an unnecessary fight. After the bear encounter, they continued their camp search and eventually found a spot.

It was a nice little clearing within a nice little grove of trees that gave them some privacy. Now that they had their spot, it was time to set up their camp. So, Tesilim was quickly put to work as he was taught how to set up a proper alarm circle.

Tesilim did not learn much of anything. He was simply too far behind in the ways of magic to actually get any of the information, and it all just sounded like mumbo jumbo to him. The only thing he got were some of the words used for it and that it followed something akin to enchanting but other than that, he didn’t know why anything did a thing. Of course, Alyx wasn’t happy and vowed to increase Tesilim’s teachings even more. All in all, it was still a decent learning experience, especially as he was mentally abused to learn a simple presence trick.

The trick was about using magic through his presence something that he had already been attempting. However, unlike before, when he had been trying to create the fire magic missile spell out of nowhere, this time, he had an actual target. The target was the ground, as to create the ritual circle for the alarm, the ground needed to be relatively flat and clear of crap. So, he was told to focus on the ground with his presence extended but focused in front of him. Then with that, he had to pour all his concentration and imagination into willing the earth to flatten. Naturally, he also had to channel his mana from his soul and direct it through his presence so it would then sync with his will and create the desired effect.

At first, Tesilim had just been wasting mana. However, eventually, he began to see some progress as some of the ground began to flatten. It was slow at first, but eventually, it became clear that he was actually doing something which really helped his motivation. Something else that helped his motivation was when Lili told him that Alyx was being unreasonable.

The gnome clearly had a twisted sense of what the average adventurer could do, and it was completely ridiculous to think Tesilim could do the ritual. In truth, most adventuring parties didn’t always set up rituals, as many didn’t know how to do it. This was often the reason why those who were considered versed in actual magical craft were so sought after. Wizards, witches, shamans, druids, and clerics were some of the ones who knew about rituals more than most and were often the ones in charge of such things. However, even then, it wasn’t guaranteed that they had such knowledge in the field. In fact, Lili herself only knew about it and could do it because of her long life span and thus long adventuring experience.

Once the camp was set, and since there was still plenty of daylight left, the party decided to head out and do some scouting.

The forest, as dangerous as it was supposed to be, was still a beautiful place. Sunlight filtered through the canopy, and a slow breeze swayed the branches of the many trees. Birds chirped, and many other small animals or insects scurried about as they went about their business. Tesilim saw a few foxes and other small creatures, and he was surprised that they could live in a place filled with dangerous monsters. However, considering that many creatures wouldn’t find them as suitable prey, he could believe that the ecosystem wasn’t fully destroyed and filled with monsters.

Tesilim and his companions also saw much bigger animals, such as normal bears, deer, and boars, all of which didn’t approach them. However, just as the sun was begging to lower and they were returning to camp, they were rudely attacked by wolves.

The freaking things literally emerged out of the trees around them, which completely freaked out Tesilim, who, along with Lili, began his body enhancement. In total, there were 15 wolves, and they all had weird bark-like skin and glowing green eyes. The wolves took a second to register their surroundings, which was nice as Lili was quick to take one down with her dark-imbued dagger while Alyx told Tesilim to get ready for a proper brawl before he began his chant.

Taking the warning seriously, Tesilim immediately boosted his body enhancement with a bit of pure mana leaving a burning sensation through his body. Thankfully, it didn’t last long as his adrenaline quickly kicked in while he rushed the nearest wolf with his boot's teleportation ability. The wolf was around 20 feet from Tesilim, and the elf decided to teleport above it before imbuing his boots with fire and letting gravity do its thing. Falling onto the wolf's back, Tesilim caused it to buckle while leaving a scorch mark behind. Seeing he had barely done any damage, Tesilim was quick to teleport away. Clearly, these weren’t some lowly monsters, and the fight was really going to be a tough one.

It was right as he was thinking about how tough the fight was going to be when Alyx finished his own flame missile spell before yelling out to him right as Tesilim felt a blast of heat behind.

“Tesilim! Focus, or you are going to die!”

Looking behind him, Tesilim saw a wolf that had been blasted with a clearly powerful flame missile that tore a chunk off the beast. Then, taking a quick look around the forest, he saw Lili barely managing to dodge five wolves, with one that had to be the pack leader due to its clearly massive size. Meanwhile, a few other wolves were harassing Alyx, though his shield held firmly.

Looking back over to his own wolf, he got hit in the chest with two large blades of wood that pushed him back while cutting into his armor. The blades didn’t penetrate his enhanced body, but they left some red marks on his skin.

“Okay fuck face! You want to tumble!? Then let's tumble!” Tesilim yelled as he smiled, and his boots ignited with even more flames. He quickly did a roundhouse kick to the wolf Alyx had struck earlier, pushing it further away from him. Then he rushed towards the blade wolf, who had sent yet another pair of wooden blades his way. However, this time, he saw them with enough warning and teleported out of the way. And after building some momentum, he decided to put to good use his busted teleportation abilities.