Having finished his analysis of the connection, Alistair inspected the Nature elemental still sitting inert in the center of the stump beneath the hovering Heart of the World Tree. Alistair knew while those elementals were among the most powerful monsters around, they stood little chance, this one in particular, since his fire affinity was quite high, so burning this oversized shrubbery with the help of Dexter and King should be a walk-in the park. Or so he thought. The damn thing was surprisingly fire-resistant. While his fire was definitely effective, it was not as one-sided as he would have expected, and all Dexter did was run away and dodge brambles.
"God damned, Dexter, can you try and help a little?" Alistair called out as he hacked at another tangle of thorns and spikes lashing out at him.
"I can't. This thing doesn't exactly have a mind for me to break yet. Elementals in the wild are most often a lingering concentration of a concept that has grown old enough to gain something like surface-level consciousness. This Elemental does not even have a soul," Dexter yelped as he ran in circles around the edge of the stump, his stubby legs not exactly well suited for movement on land.
Alistair recoiled a little in surprise at Dexter's in-depth explanation. "What the hell, just how elaborate is that skill of yours?"
Alistair wasn't exactly stoked that Dexter could not help him in this fight, as summoning the dog-like creature reserved a not-inconsiderate amount of his mana pool to maintain. Alistair found a newfound appreciation for the signet ring's enchantment, which was integrated into his armor. Maintaining a Grade 9 monster was expensive. Alistair would guess a dedicated summoner without gear could only maintain three, maybe four, higher-tier summons at a time. And It would reserve most of their energy reservoir to maintain them.
King used his Sonic beam to wreak havoc on the wood element still perched on top of the edge of the stump, cutting down any brambles and projectiles coming his way.
Dexter mostly used his telekinesis to keep the wood elemental from grabbing him as he continued to run. Alistair, who was closer to the core of the elemental, had to occasionally cut down the tendrils reaching out for him with his Razor Aegis, the razor disks wreaking just as much havoc on the elemental as King was. Alistair regretted not pulling the plug on this sooner as the Elemental had been gorging itself on the powerful life concept of the heart. Alistair was using his Dispelling Aura spell to prevent the elemental from further draining the Heart of the World Tree. His focus was strained by the many spells going on, which prevented him from using a new technique he had been developing.
Alistair had been developing a battle sphere technique, and it required some of what he considered advanced yet simple arcane constructs to be imprinted on his spheres to work. He would conjure the usual spheres of force and fill them with different concepts to unleash blasts in his stead. By now, Alistair had a lot of experience with that technique, as he had developed it himself and used it in many of his skills. He would feed these spheres with Mana and Qi remotely through an arcane connection as they would fire their payload at the targeted enemy. The most difficult part was when certain concepts needed a longer-range delivery system. Alistair suspected he was already stretching what was possible for his Grade with that particular skill. Still, it was incredibly powerful, allowing him to unleash a cacophony of different concepts upon his enemies and free him up to act independently until directed, just like his Razor Aegis did.
Dexter, who had finally managed to get some distance between himself and the tendrils, paused to catch his breath. "It's an incredible skill," he conveyed telepathically. "I had a large selection of great skills for my first selection, but that one was an Incredible one. And because I'm smart, I picked that one. But all the other skills went away for others once I picked. The skill is called Akashic Beast Compendium."
Alistair realized that he had also been offered a higher-tier appraisal skill during his initiation. Unlike him, Dexter started his journey in Grade 9, which presumably allowed him to have a much stronger version. Alistair also realized he would need to clue Dexter into the tier list he was using. Alistair was not sure what a great or incredible skill was in relation to his own tier list, but it sounded quite high-tier. Sadly, since the compendium skill had been granted by the system, it meant that it was instinctive in nature, so they would not be able to have him transcribe it. Dexter would have to encounter or be asked about a particular beast to share his knowledge.
The wood elemental finally grew lethargic enough for Alistair to land a decisive blow and damage the elemental enough for the mass of branches and brambles to go inert. Alistair did not level up from the experience, though it did not surprise him as his intuition told him he would need to beat a few of those before he would accumulate enough records. Alistair stored what was left of the elemental body and telekinetically retrieved the large hovering heart. Alistair looked at the strange wooden curled-up and knotted treasure. He knew there would most likely be a ton of uses for a treasure like this. The only idea that came to mind for utilizing its incredibly strong life affinity, besides harvesting essences, was to toss it in a vat filled with water and gradually convert the liquid into healing potion ingredients. However, he suspected the crafters in his clan could devise a more effective use.
Alistair turned to Dexter, who casually strolled up to him and reached out telepathically. "Are we going for the next treasure?"
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
It took Alistair about half a week to track down all the elementals he and Dexter knew of getting a wide assortment of interesting and potentially valuable treasures. The Chrysolite treasure was a particularly interesting one as it continued to leak liquids, trying to form a chrysolite environment around itself once removed. Alistair felt the treasure attempting to freeze his hands, but it failed to penetrate his resistance. It was a polyhedron with many holes, from which chrysolite liquid flowed. He knew storing the treasure would be a waste and that they should at least collect the liquid, as it could be used as a valuable material component. Alistair had gained three more levels, bringing him very close to his next skill selection.
Riseth, who had been busy working on the spacecraft and helping James teach the Neshan shipwrights, had joined him a few hours ago and had been enamored by Dexter's cuteness, much to Dexter's delight. Alistair had told Dexter how he could weaponize his cuteness and debated whether he should out him since Dexter had chosen not to say anything telepathically yet. Fluffy, in particular, wasn't a big fan of the new attention hog and was quite jealous. Alistair, who thought it was a good way to show Riseth how she was too trusting of beasts, chose not to say anything unless Dexter did something too mischievous or when he felt the time was right. It did not take Dexter very long as he constantly begged for treats with his big eyes and occasional sniffling, pretending to be sad. Riseth had bought those treats for King and Fluffy.
"I'm sorry, little guy. I can't just give you more for being cute," Riseth said reluctantly as she petted Dexter, who sat on her lap.
They were mounted on King, who flew towards the location where Dexter had indicated the pseudo-dragon was buried. The waterways connecting that particular underground chamber connected to where they had first encountered Dexter in the glacier-like biome. They would have to dive or wait for the monster to dig itself out and hunt it down from there. Thinking it would be a good moment to expose the little bugger as he enjoyed a belly rub, he addressed Dexter out loud.
"Alright, Dexter, where do we need to land? We should arrive at the Glacier Biome shortly." Alistair inquired.
Riseth looked at him confused, then shocked when Dexter's voice rang out telepathically. "Aim for that pointy-looking glacier surrounded by smaller plateaus."
"What the fuck? You can talk?" Riseth exclaimed.
"Yes, I can Talk," Dexter confirmed.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Riseth questioned Dexter before turning to Alistair. "Or better yet, why didn't you say anything?"
"You did not ask me anything," Dexter retorted innocently.
"I thought it would be a good learning experience," Alistair added.
She narrowed her eyes at him before looking down at Dexter, still in her lap. Dexter tilted his head and let out a whine like Alistair had instructed him to do when he got into trouble looking at her with his big, round eyes. Alistair could tell she wasn't really mad, but she was more flabbergasted and curious about the reveal.
"Did you teach him that shit, or is he just a natural?" Riseth asked incredulously, looking down at Dexter.
"A bit of both, to be honest," Alistair said with a chuckle as they landed on the indicated site.
Alistair then caught her up on Dexter's abilities and what had happened in the last few days as they stood next to the water. Dexter was happily splashing and zooming around in the ice-cold water. Alistair and Riseth fed more mana into their Comfort Array to counter the extreme cold. As they followed Dexter, they proceeded to follow the Yagan down some tight tunnels underground. It turned out that, much like Riseth, Dexter had incredible Dark vision. After swimming for some minutes, they slowly breached the surface of an underground chamber. A loud scraping and scratching sound accompanied by rumbling and growling echoed in the chamber. The room smelled of damp rock and earth, and Alistair could sense the pseudo-dragon further down the tunnel it was digging. The tunnel had a steep incline, and based on the time it took them to descend, the creature had made it roughly three-fourths of the way to the surface.
Alistair and Riseth snuck up to the tunnel entrance trying to get a better look at the creature and the tunnel. It became quickly apparent that it was rather tight for the pseudo-dragon as it did not take the time to make a lot of space for itself, eager to leave its prison.
"We could just charge a bunch of powerful attacks and ruin its day," Riseth observed.
Alistair thought about it. The monster would have to crawl backward down the tunnel to engage them, and an easy victory would be pretty much guaranteed. However, it would also waste a lot of materials. Of course, pseudo-dragon parts could be compared to a higher-tier wyvern or drake, so it would not be incredibly valuable to them compared to those of a dragon, but it still felt wasteful to him. He could further disrupt its movements while Riseth Dexter and Fluffy would kill the monster. Fluffy had extraordinarily powerful poison, and Dexter could attack the monster without damaging the body, while Riseth could abuse any openings and use some of her new mind attacks.
Alistair could only make out the creature's backside. It had muted white-grayish scales covering all of its body; its long lizard-like tail swished back and forth as it clawed at the rock face. Its hind legs were thick and had a set of long gray claws that dug into the rock and dirt beneath. Its leathery wings were tucked closely to its body, already weathered and torn. Alistair could not really make out much of its head and front claws.
"Alright, I'll teleport, get a hold of its tail, and try to hold it in place or at least slow it down. The rest of you try to kill it without damaging it too much. This is basically shooting a fish in a barrel." Alistair told them over the Akashic Link. Dexter was able to receive those messages but could only respond telepathically while nearby.
"What an odd expression. Do humans store live fish in barrels?" Riseth inquired curiously.
"I am honestly not sure. They probably did in the past, but never mind that. It just means it's a very easy task," Alistair explained.
"We just say it's like getting favors from a drunk," Riseth added.
"Yours is better," Alistair conceded, "but I feel mine is more applicable considering the situation."
Riseth flashed him a smile as he turned his attention back to the pseudo-dragon.
"Alright, I'm going in," Alistair announced as he teleported and grabbed the lizard-like tail holding the monster in place. He radiated his bloodcurdling aura, causing the monster to panic and try and scramble. Still, Alistair effortlessly stole its momentum, holding it in place as Riseth, Fluffy, and Dexter engaged the monster.