Mel crept through the underbrush, tracking another grole to its nest. At least she thought it was a different one from the other day. Given how their go-to tactic when hurt was to flee to their lair, Mel couldn’t be sure. [Gaze of the Serpent], which she always used when hunting, made it almost too easy.

She kept [Omen Mark] in her back pocket in case this failed. It cost more than [Gaze of the Serpent], even accounting for its upkeep. With more of her mana in demand than ever before, Mel needed to keep a tighter leash on her expenditure.

There was nobody out here that would come to help her if she got into trouble. She had to make sure to hold at least half of her mana in reserve, in case something went wrong.

For the last couple of days, she had been going out in a wider spiral while hunting monsters to make sure there were no signs of Warren and his lackeys.

At first, she was worried that Jimmy would do something. He looked like the walking poster boy for white male fragility.

Warren must have a tighter leash on his men than I gave him credit for, Mel thought after she found no signs of anything other than herself and the other denizens of the forest.

Once the danger seemed well and truly passed, Mel returned to her previous task of clearing out the groles. In a lot of ways, they were like Warren. Big, powerful, and brutish. Brighter than they had any right to be, but they squandered their talents by causing more pain instead of making something good in the world.

Might have stretched that analogy a little too far, Mel thought to herself as she ducked down low. The grole’s heat signature was cooler than a mammal’s, but it wasn’t enough of a difference that Mel couldn’t make them out when they were excited.

Or bleeding, as this one was.

Quest Update: Nest of Groles

Objective: Locate the grole monster nest (1/1).

Destroy the grole monster nest (0/1).

Reward: (3) [Small Mana Potions]

She inched forward, curious why the grole had stopped in a nondescript dip in the forest. An old riverbed maybe? Whatever the case, it had clearly not been in use for a long time. The grole looked around and then gripped a broken tree stump.

With impressive strength, the grole uprooted the whole thing and then slipped beneath a cunningly hidden tunnel under the nest of roots.

Mel cursed and sprinted forward, but the stump was already falling back into place. Strength was her single Mundane stat. Though each stat she improved added to her body’s overall capability, there was too much of a gulf between Mundane and Copper. Even having every other stat at Copper, Mel still couldn’t lift the stump.

Should’ve used [Omen Mark], she chastised herself. Even underground, she could have tracked the grole.

Now she had lost it for good.

Mel hopped out of the dried riverbed and began to look around for other signs of movement. The ancient riverbed naturally collected items to cover up such signs, but there was no way that was the only entrance.

If there was a nest under her feet, it would need air. Which meant there was another way in.

Using her infravision, Mel found several vents in the forest floor worked so cunningly that they looked like exposed roots from afar. They glowed with heat to her vision, showing a warm purple-red.

An hour later, Mel found a hole large enough to fit her small frame.

Glad that she didn’t have claustrophobia, Mel wriggled into the tight space and pulled herself deeper inside. She went slowly at first, then as the tunnel opened up, she crouched and proceeded on hands and knees until the tunnel dropped straight down.

She could see moving figures below, but it was considerably harder to distinguish them in the warm room. The groles barely registered as much hotter than the ambient temperature.

Normally, that would mean she needed to switch back to her standard vision. Groles, however, could see in the dark. They didn’t have her heat vision, which she confirmed the first day by laying a few traps that would have been easily spotted with infravision, but it was close enough for their purposes.

Switching to human sight in the lightless abyss below would have given them a distinct advantage.

With the warmed dens near the ambient temperature of the room and rock, Mel could barely see them unless they moved. She grinned to herself, hardly deterred.

Despite only having four aspect skills, she had more than enough to deal with these creatures.

Using [Hidden Mist], she swept the cool, magical mist into the room. The groles were startled by its appearance, but they couldn’t tell its source.

As the surrounding environment was cooled by her mist, their bodies stood out like glowing beacons.

There are a lot more than I thought. Most of what she had first taken to be strange formations of rock were instead more groles.

She fueled the mist, pushing it deeper into the room to obscure everything. The groles began to panic, making odd barking noises at each other. Mel dropped soundlessly into the room, her legs folding up into a deep crouch to absorb as much impact as possible.

Sweeping her head back and forth, Mel examined the main chamber. It was connected to several others, including a smaller room with an awful, but familiar, reek.

Human bones were thrown into a pile in the back, along with other indigestible material. If Mel had been the sort to have misgiving about slaughtering an entire family tree of monsters (she wasn’t), seeing those bones would have been all the proof she needed to condemn the groles to death.

Mel pointed and used [Omen Mark] on a random grole. It sensed the magical intrusion and spun around in the murk, unable to find its tormentor.

Now for a little chaos.

She scampered forward, reaching out and touching the grole on the hip and darting away. A stack of [Decay] caused the grole to scream and lash out, hitting a nearby ally and causing a scuffle to break out.

Mel moved to the side and summoned her twinblade. Before the silvery ash dissipated, the cutting edge of the blade was already severing the delicate tendons of a different grole’s leg.

The creature went down in a heap, flailing with its muscular limbs ineffectually.

Under the cover of her [Hidden Mist], Mel sowed mayhem among the groles. With no idea who or what was attacking them, they attacked each other, unaware they were doing Mel’s task for her.

While the main room was otherwise occupied, Mel slipped out into a side passage her mist had filtered into. She had to pace herself, keeping the mist tight around her body to be able to see the groles.

She ducked a clawed swipe aimed for her head, spun a circuit and opened up its belly with a backswing of her twinblade. Mel came up, her twinblade spinning the other way, severing another grole’s arm at the elbow.

Both creatures fell back wailing in pain, allowing Mel to slip back into the mist and up against a wall. As more groles came to investigate the noise in the murky room, they collided and mistook each other for the threat.

It took less than an hour to wipe out every last grole. Those that weren’t killed by their own kind were put down by Mel. A few bled to death from the stacking affliction she placed on those unfortunate enough to be marked.

Moving her [Omen Mark] when a monster died was easy, allowing her to stack bleed once more. Her [Sanguine Coat] absorbed the brunt of the attacks, but she still didn’t survive unscathed.

Nobody could.

However, there was little that the groles could do against a nigh-invisible creature that pitted them against each other.

Mel wandered the grole caves, using her favorite aspect of [Sanguine Coat] as she made sure nothing survived.

Droplets of cooling blood lifted from the freshly slain bodies, joining her bloody coat that rippled like a scarlet pool as each droplet joined it.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

While she had disliked the aspect at first, Mel was coming around to its benefits. Not only did it give her a second health bar, she could “heal” any damage to her coat with additional blood. The weaker the blood, the more it took to restore her coat’s durability, but that hardly mattered when she could turn a clearing of monsters into a bloody massacre.

The ragged edges of her [Sanguine Coat] healed with the addition of new blood. Mel checked her coat, making sure it was fully restored before she released her draw on the surrounding blood.

The remaining ruby droplets, suspended in the air like a constellation of pain, fell to the ground as red rain.

Quest Complete: Nest of Groles

Objective: Locate the grole monster nest (1/1).

Destroy the grole monster nest (1/1).

Reward: (3) [Small Mana Potions]

Her inventory was filled with grole loot–mostly skin, bone, and claws–so Mel reacted fast to the three bottles appearing in front of her. She grasped them in one sweep of her hands, staring at their contents.

[Small Mana Potion]

(Copper Rank, Item)

(Common)

A stoppered bottle filled with an azure-blue liquid suffused with mana.

Imprint: Drink to recover a small amount of mana over time.

If only health potions worked the same way, she thought wistfully.

These mana potions were too precious for Mel to keep on her person, where they could easily break during combat. She swapped some of the grole loot for the three bottles, eyeing the grole bone with disdain.

Only Hal would get much use out of these, she thought, then froze. Why do I keep thinking about him?

----------------------------------------

Day after day, Mel prowled the forest clad in her hooded [Sanguine Coat]. She was growing increasingly restless.

She had been able to finally kill the fifth and last nocturnal monster, earning her a [Dark Ember], but it looked like she would never get that [Umbral Hood] from the [Seeking Danger] quest. Not unless her allies back at camp suddenly reversed course and decided to come out hunting with her.

That’s about as likely as Warren inviting me to tea and cookies to apologize for being rude.

Quest: [Seeking Danger]

Objective: Slay 5 different nocturnal monster types (5/5).

Reward: [Dark Ember]

Additional Objective: Deal less than 50% of the total damage (4/5).

Reward: [Umbral Hood]

She had tried every trick she could think of to deal less than 50% damage to a monster. Nothing worked.

The monsters that remained were not enough of a challenge any longer.

Mel cut down their numbers by relentlessly hunting in this area of the forested plateau. It made it easier to search the many caves and holes in the cliff face, but that only reminded her of what was coming.

The monsters in the caves were even weaker than those in the forest. What would the creatures back on the plateau be like? Would she feel like a god swatting at gnats?

For some reason she couldn’t pin down, that didn’t sit well with her. She didn’t want to feel strong just for the sake of it. She wanted true strength . Power that only comes from facing death over and over.

Anything else was a joke. A balm for a fragile ego.

She felt like a lion pacing in her cage, bored and wasting away.

Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little, she thought.

Still, there was a kernel of truth to it. Mel had yet to find another aspect. That didn’t seem like a good sign. She had figured another aspect gem would eventually show up. Now, Mel seriously doubted she could find one in this forested plateau.

And back up where she had first come from? There was no way she would find her final aspect.

It’s perfect for them…but not for you.

Mel shook her head at the voice. I can’t leave them.

Aspects only seemed to appear during situations of extreme duress. The first tomb, the giant serpent that nearly killed her, and then the Bloodtide Covenant and that whole nasty business. She had yet to find something that challenging. With each new aspect she gained more power, which only made it harder to find a proper challenge.

I need to keep pushing my limits. Somehow.

Or else she was going to fall behind in the competition if she hadn’t already.

If Mel had saved her Battle Points instead of buying [Fallen Realm Seeds], she could have bought the [Aspect Seeker Scroll].

Not that she was unhappy with having all five seeds for Mundane rank. She wasn’t looking forward to how much the Copper variants would cost though.

The difference in recovery was significant and further improved the healing effects of food.

If I ventured a little farther, I could find better hunting. Something that might actually test my mettle.

Despite Mel’s frustration, the growth of her four aspects had come a long way. Which only proved to her that they could have gone much further if she wasn’t holding herself back.

With another cavern cleared out, Mel dropped down onto a jut of stone and brought up her status, wondering when she’d find that last aspect.

[Mel Harper]

Race: Human

Standing: [#N/A] Exile (G-League) [1 st Echelon]

Class: Mystic

Rank: Mundane

Next Rank: Copper (90%)

[==Attributes==]

Strength [No Aspect Bound]: Mundane (Grade 0)

Agility [Mist Aspect]: Copper (Grade 3)

Vigor [Blood Aspect]: Copper (Grade 2)

Sense [Serpent Aspect]: Copper (Grade 3)

Arcane [Omen Aspect]: Copper (Grade 2)

[==Aspects==]

[Mist Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 3)

● [Hidden Mist] (Grade 4)

[Blood Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 2)

● [Sanguine Coat] (Grade 2)

[Serpent Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 3)

● [Gaze of the Serpent] (Grade 4)

[Omen Aspect] (Copper Rank) (Grade 2)

● [Omen Mark] (Grade 2)

How much of her day was spent searching caves with nothing in them? How many hours did she give up searching for a way back to her starting plateau instead of hunting monsters and seeking out quests?

I gained and completed more quests in the first seventy-two hours than I have in the last week, she thought to herself. It felt like she had run face first into a wall.

Pushing herself to her feet, Mel exited the cave and dropped [Gaze of the Serpent] to judge the distance of the sun. “I’ve got a few hours left before dark,” she said to herself. A look back at the section of cliff told her that there were more caves to check out.

Most were only a few feet deep, little more than alcoves. To her naked eye, they seemed unappealing and unlikely to offer anything of worth.

Activating [Gaze of the Serpent] again, however, showed a very different picture. The third cave was significantly deeper than the others. Mel immediately set off for it, taking out some dried [Catfish Jerky] Maddie had made. And yes, it was as gross as it sounded. Mel chewed her afternoon meal all alone as she searched for a path back to the starting plateau.

Away from progress and strength.