Alexia

It turns out to be far easier to kill the bats when I’m safe on the ground than when I’m high up in the air, for obvious reasons. So I end up gaining levels rather quickly from the creatures, gaining more levels from them in just a single day than I did from the spiders in that boss area over the course of multiple days. Probably because there are just a hell of a lot of these bats all over the place, and Quantum Burst does a good job of dealing with them even with the large soul requirement of the skill.

In the end, I don’t stop killing the creatures for levels until I’m strong enough that I can just shrug off their attacks with my Quantum Body without any actual damage. Which is at about level fifty-seven. But I continue killing them after that anyways, just until I finally get the System Message for reaching level fifty-eight.

I stretch a little after heading to the closest cave to me, rather happy with my progress. And when I reach the cave, I begin moving through it in search of an interesting bat that I might be able to tame.

Let’s see… if I remember correctly, to tame a monster, I have to either beat it into submission and feed it food until it learns to fear me, or I have to do something to gain its trust. And generally the latter is better than the former in terms of tamed monsters.

But I’ve never actually put this knowledge to use. Only learned about it in class.

A class that I kind of assumed at the time was a waste of my time, since I already had all of my General Skill slots filled.

Not that it stopped me from getting a near-perfect score in it despite that.

It did make it so I was perfectly fine with forgetting what I learned for the class afterwards though.

Which is unfortunate right now.

Honestly, having a bat as a tamed monster would probably help for scouting purposes. Any flying monster in general, actually.

I continue walking through the cave until I eventually find the bats all sleeping at the end of the cave. So I move further in, trying to stay as quiet as possible, only for them to still hear me somehow.

Stupid sensitive ears.

The bats all begin moving, fluttering around and flying straight towards me.

Then I use Quantum Burst, sending a pulse of quantum energy around me and knocking away all of the vampire bats, some of whom hit the floor and others manage to retain their flight. But the majority that it doesn’t hit instead begin to fly closer to the entrance of the cave, afraid of the light.

Not that they matter. Especially since they can’t really leave the cave when it’s even brighter outside of it.

So while still keeping an eye on the other bats’ magical energy sources, I focus on the bats that didn’t fly away. Some of whom having been caught between a rock and a hard place. Literally. A large rock and the wall.

I frown at the bats, only for most of them to scramble to free themselves from the rock, quite literally ripping apart their wing in the process. Then they fly away, leaving only a single one behind.

Well this is unexpected.

I kneel down next to the crevasse between the large boulder and the wall, looking at the last bat remaining. One I honestly can’t tell if is dead or not, simply because it’s not moving at all.

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Very unexpected.

Let’s see if I can’t tame this little fella.

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Somewhere in Tutorial Block #108

Astrid looks out over the base from her spot on a tree, simply watching as the others sleep. Keeping guard from any would-be intruders.

The base has evolved from the original ruins with some stakes drilled into the ground on the outskirts and a fire with a makeshift shelter all the way to a much more established base. One with wooden spikes drilled into the stone, making up walls where the stone walls of the ruins don’t cover, along with three buildings for sleep, and a single large fire at the center of the base.

The buildings were made as sleeping quarters and storage, one building for Astrid’s original group, one for the princess’s group that joined them, and one for the storage. Each built by the group members while the others were off hunting monsters to level up.

Astrid raises her gaze to find Cass jumping down from one of the trees while giving her a wave and mouthing ‘Goodnight!’ knowing perfectly well that Astrid can read lips. So Astrid brings up the timer counting down to the end of the Tutorial.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Time Left Until the Tutorial’s End

15 days, 20 hours, 0 minutes, 5 seconds

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

It’s already four in the morning?

Astrid blinks at that in surprise before focusing on the trees around the base, ignoring the golden eyed girl as she moves to wake up one of her group members for their turn at keeping watch. But Astrid’s eyes quickly narrow when she notices a very brief movement in the trees.

Silence fills the base for several seconds, then she sees another movement, this time letting her catch sight of a flash of a man’s head as he crawls across the ground, moving away from the base. One with brown hair and a cloak covering the rest of their body.

Without any hesitation, Astrid taps on the second cord next to her in the tree, sending a pulse of mana through it that rings a bell in the structure built for her group, then she begins jumping through the trees, keeping pace with the intruder. But she doesn’t jump down to ambush him. Instead she follows him, leaving the others to prepare for any sort of attacks on the base thanks to her ringing of the secondary warning bell. One meant to signify a human intruder.

Astrid keeps as quiet as she can while she jumps from tree to tree, keeping pace with the man until over half an hour passes and she finds herself on the trees looking out over another base. And the moment the intruder gets out of the heavy foliage, the man having been trying to cover himself the whole way here with it, she recognizes him with a frown on her face.

Rodrick.

But he’s not the only one she recognizes, as she immediately finds various other familiar faces amidst the people in the base she’s arrived at. So she finds a good spot to keep an eye on the intruder, watching as he heads through the stone gates of the base made partially out of a ruins just like their own, and partially out of stone, signifying that they likely have some sort of stone magic user amongst them. Or an earth magic user.

Then Rodrick heads straight for the crown prince, whose silver hair is obvious at any angle.

Astrid narrows her eyes slightly, leaning into the tree after adjusting her positioning as she begins reading their lips.

‘They still don’t suspect anything from us,’ Rodrick says with a smile on his face as he kneels next to the former crown prince. Then he gets a look on his face that Astrid thinks is him chuckling or laughing. ‘They won’t be ready, Your Highness. That I assure you.’

So they are planning on attacking us after all. Elara and the Princess brought it up as an unlikely possibility, but a possibility, nonetheless.

She purses her lips for a second before seeing the prince say, ‘Good. Alternate with your sister to keep an eye on them until we strike.’

Guess it’s a good thing I noticed him. But when will they be attacking?

Astrid continues watching for a little bit, only to find Rodrick going to eat by the fire. Then his sister begins moving over to the prince.

But neither of them say anything that might be useful to Astrid, so she quietly identifies everyone in sight – which she notices is several more in number than she remembered being in his group originally – before making her exit, deciding that it would be best to head back to the base and warn everyone. Then she can come back and figure out when they’re planning on striking.

Several in their mid to high-level thirties. This could be a problem.