"Am I getting closer?" Alistair asked hopefully.
"Nope, still partially visible," Riseth quipped as she looked up from a booklet in her hands.
"Is there anything interesting in that booklet?" Alistair asked, getting bored of attempting to bend light around himself.
"Somewhat, it is the diary of a monster hunter called Sharut. Notably, many of the environments out there match what this guy went through. At the beginning of the journal, he was a grade 8 Nair Elf who crashlanded on an abandoned star system interconnected by a local gate network. He traveled across all the planets in the system using the gates, trying to find civilization. He had lived on the planets for millennia without encountering anyone else other than freshly enlightened beasts tribes who saw him as a boogie man to be killed or run away from. He was unable to fix his crashed ship or rewire the gates and apparently decided to kill himself in a battle against the strongest beasts he could find but killed everything else instead, ending up at grade 6, though the diary ends there.
"He did not try to befriend the enlightened species or magic his way out of it?" Alistair asked, confused.
"From what I read, the guy was a bit of a self-important dick and not exactly the most patient individual, and he usually ended up killing the beastmen, or they ran as he ran out of patience or interest. This whole diary reads like a self-glorified wank fest like this line here: In this world I dwell, greatness shields me from demise, lament echoes deep..." Riseth read in a pompous tone.
"Wait, that's a haiku, a form of poetry," Alistair explained.
"It's not the only thing that's in here. On multiple occasions, he got bored and started to force the enlightened beasts into his service playing god," Riseth said with a frown,
"Okay, never mind. Fuck that guy," Alistair announced.
"Let's move out. I can stealth us both as long as you stay close. I have some arena matches tomorrow, so I'd rather not lose track of time here," Riseth requested, and Alistair obliged as he stood up to leave, patting off the dust he had collected on his lower body.
"Alright, but let's take this one slow. I suggest we head to the giant forest NE1 nearby. There, we can at least hide ourselves or use the terrain to lose bigger monsters in a chase," Alistair proposed while pointing at the map display in front of them.
"Good call. We might find some herbs there, and I borrowed some of the herbalist's tomes from Jessica. Also, that massive dead tree in the center looks like a failed world tree variant, so we might find some really good materials there," Riseth said excitedly.
"Oh, so this was a world tree. I wasn't sure, as tree sizes are all over the place compared to what we have on Earth," Alistair commented as they left the main keep heading toward one of the many mountain paths.
They walked down the path, only disrupted by an ambush of a white and gray scaled feline-like pack of monsters called Nari. They had the ability to dive into the snow to teleport, which made them somewhat tricky to catch, but once they pounced, Alistair made short work of them due to their lack of resilience. They then decided to communicate over the link without talking aloud to draw less attention. Eventually, they reached a near sheer cliff overlooking the forest below, the massive dead tree in the center a few kilometers in front of them looming over the rest of the canopy.
"Good thing we can fly; there is no footpath down this mountain," Alistair commented as he looked along the sheer cliff in both directions as a strong wind blew past them, much warmer than the cool mountain air.
They flew down the cliff, and Alistair could feel the cool air getting much more temperate as his [Comfort] enchantment regulated itself to regular usage. Alistair landed on one of the massive roots of the withered world tree, almost reaching the mountainside. Sounds of wildlife and insects could be heard, replacing the whistling of the wind they had gotten used to. Alistair would hold off on summoning King as he would draw the attention of the more territorial beasts until they found themselves in combat and shielded by the forest canopy.
"Are world trees common? I can only work off my knowledge from what trickled in from the other universes, and there they are rare where you would find perhaps one or two at most," Alistair asked Riseth.
"Pretty accurate. They are somewhat rare as a planet usually tolerates no more than one or two world trees, depending on the subspecies and their corresponding tier, and few planets have them naturally. However, Nessyra is working on obtaining some storage devices to store them and other large treasures for if we come across them during our travels," Riseth explained as she scraped some of the bark from the root.
"Of course, your ginkgo has priority," Riseth added reassuringly as Alistair looked at her curiously.
Alistair already knew this, as he had requested Nessyra during one of their first meetings to look into obtaining a storage device capable of storing his ginkgo tree as a high priority. However, she had reassured him back then that she had already been looking into such storage devices long before he had requested them. Sadly, they were highly sought after, so their current backup plan was to obtain the topic to create them and a space affinity measuring device, as a high space affinity would be crucial when dealing with storage devices and sub-planes.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Alistair nodded as he actively scanned the surrounding area with his [Conceptual Awareness], looking for natural treasures and beasts. He then attempted to highlight restorative and healing concepts in the hopes of spotting healing herbs, and he was successful as he heard a chime go off; a quick glance informed him his [Conceptual Awareness] had upgraded to [Rare] and now included the ability to highlight concepts of interests when used actively.
"Neat," Alistair thought he was already considering secondary perception abilities to supplement his [Conceptual awareness]. His latest idea was to make his nose not only more efficient at breathing in essence but also smelling treasures. In particular, the newly acquired [Luck] core made this approach appealing to him; if he could make a lucky nose for treasures, he would definitely attempt to make such an augmented organ. Alistair wondered just how many different approaches for body cultivation were out there. Alistair was quite certain at least somebody must have made a [Luck] foundation like he had done the [Heavenly Purity] foundation, though the only thing stopping Alistair from at least reinforcing his body with luck essence was its rarity; the material was quite sought after for magic crafting.
Alistair landed next to the light blue flowers growing throughout the small clearing he stood in; they had green stems instead of leaves, which were about as robust as a thin stick and had rows of small spheres on them. Sadly, he could not figure out much as his [Identify] just told him [Flowery Plant].
"So the bark is no good. It mostly feeds the environment, and I can't think of a real use for it other than compost for this forest; maybe there is still a Heart of the World Tree in the center. Even if it's a dead heart, it would still be worth getting," Riseth mused aloud as she approached from behind and bent over to look at the flowery plant he was looking at.
"When I looked at it with my [Coneptual Awareness], it pinged as restorative. Perhaps they are worth taking?" Alistair offered as he looked back at her.
She tilted her head, and he presumed she used identify unsuccessfully as she sighed before plucking the plant Alistair had been looking at and carefully inspecting it before crushing some of the flowers and pods and even tasting some of it. When Riseth squished one of the spheres, a tiny amount of white viscous liquid was squeezed out of them; she smelled it before offering Alistair to smell it, too. They smelled spicy, and he had to hold back from sneezing.
"Those are great for anti-venom ointments and pills. Flowers like these usually spawn after exposure to strong venoms, so I suspect this forest has or had monsters with venomous abilities. We should collect these with roots intact; we can then propagate and add them to our roster of herbs. Good catch, Mr. Legendary," Riseth said as she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before starting to collect the nearby flowers.
After they had collected all the flowers in the clearing, they headed for the center of the forest, Alistair pointing out plants that were highlighted with his Conceptual Awareness skill. However, most of the plants and herbs were weaker and less efficient versions of what they already had, so they left them alone. The one other standout was highly toxic mushrooms, which they could technically use to make poisons and certain cultivation pills. Sadly, Riseth was the only one able to harvest them without damaging them, so Alistair was on guard duty until she finished.
Shortly before Riseth was done harvesting the mushrooms, Alistair suddenly sensed bloodlust; he had not heard, seen, or felt anything change, but as soon as he felt it, his instincts, which had been quiet before, screamed at him to hide.
"Trouble, something's coming. We've got to hide!" Alistair said over the link as he used Blink to appear next to her, pulling her into the large holed-out tree stump from which she had been collecting the mushrooms. To her credit, she immediately used her skill to make them invisible as they left the stump through the other end.
They immediately stopped as the floor was littered with leaves, grasses, and bushes and would make noise if they walked through it. Riseth's flight was reliant on her wings, which would also give them away, so Alistair picked her up in a princess carry. Riseth suppressed a surprised yelp as he picked her up and flew them closer to the canopy.
"My Hero!" She said over the mental link while shooting him a toothy grin.
Alistair managed a weak smile, though he kept an eye out. The bloodlust was gone, but his intuition was now in overdrive as whatever had snuck up on them had a higher grade than them, at least that much he was sure of.
"Somethings spotted us, and it is clearly a higher grade, but I can't seem to spot it," Alistair said over the link.
"That's great. A sneaky grade 9 should be much weaker than a regular one; let's kill it!" Riseth responded over the link.
"Seems risky. My intuition is telling me to run," Alistair said worriedly as he put her down on a large branch overlooking the clearing they had just fled.
"Think about it: what are the odds that killing a monster of a higher grade than ourselves will give us a title and tons of records," Riseth posed.
Alistair thought about it, and he was sure she was correct. They were both incredibly strong for their grade, but while the stealth beast would be weaker, it would most likely be smarter. There was also the question of whether there was a difference between killing a higher-grade beast alone and as a pair and if it mattered if they did both or which came first. Riseth was slightly higher level with 43, though Alistair was sure he would win in a fight. Still, it would not be easy.
"Do you want to try and kill it yourself or together?" Alistair asked over the link.
"I would like to try it alone. But do feel free to jump in when I ask, or things go south," Riseth requested as they observed the nearby area.
Eventually, they heard a slight rustle, and Alistair, with the help of active [Conceptual Awareness], spotted the monster; it was a huge snake with eight independent heads, liquid dropped from its exposed fangs burning the ground beneath it, the skin was magical camouflage changing to whatever the background it was making it incredibly hard to spot as it slithered in near complete silence over the noise of the forest [Identify] [Nyuvwira - lvl ?].
"Wonder what happens when a creature with multiple heads turns humanoid. Are you sure you want to take this one alone? And do you have anything to neutralize the venom?"
Riseth paused as she looked at the creature slowly approaching the stump they had left earlier.
"Probably horrifying, and I do have some of the restoration potions that should work," Riseth said as her bone blades appeared in her hands.
Alistair had always admired Riseth's confident and straightforward nature, and he hoped she was not overestimating herself. As soon as the snake started slithering through the stump, Riseth took a leap of faith.