Erith silently crept through the underbrush, stalking her prey. She and Ray had been tailing a pack of wild boar since this morning. They had finally stopped to rest a few minutes ago. Seeing their chance to get all four remaining kills for her threshold quest, they set up a sneak attack. The signal came from Ray as he made his perch in a tree overlooking the pack. Erith exploded into motion, charging straight at the nearest boar. Ray released his first arrow, infusing the bow with the 30 MP needed to make it a constrictor shot. It slammed into one boar, startling the pack as a green snake appeared. Arriving at the same time as the arrow, Erith ignited her sword and quickly dispatched her first target. Another constrictor shot flew over her head and landed true, entangling another boar. As panicked squeals echoed, Erith sprinted after the pack, fleeing in all directions. She caught one right as it tried to dash around a tree, ending its life before it knew what happened. As two targets remained tied up, she strolled back to where Ray's arrows held the frantic animals, feeling relieved. They had done it and she could now pass the first threshold. Not wanting the animals to suffer anymore, she quickly finished them and heard the confirmation of her triumph. From his perch in the tree, Ray climbed down and approached Erith.
"Congratulations—" Ray said, pausing as he saw Erith's unhappy expression.
“What's going on?” He asked.
“Your panel selection had hundreds of choices, didn't it?”
“Yes?”
“Hmm, that's odd. I only have five.”
The statement shocked Ray. He knew the quest had said that it offered the panel choice based on performance, but there was no way that he had outperformed Erith by so much that he got hundreds more options than her.
“Well, no point dwelling on it. I probably would have selected the same option, anyway.”
“So, what did you end up choosing?” Ray inquired.
“The martial panel. It sounded the most useful for the direction that my class is going.”
Erith explained the panel to him in more detail after testing it out. That is how he learned it was used to learn and improve different techniques. Erith, for example, was currently using it to improve her sword-fighting capabilities. Ray was still unsure of how she could follow the directions on the panel so easily until she explained it displayed a phantom enemy that would help her train the selected technique. She practiced with it long into the night after the setup camp, insisting on taking the first watch. The night passed by peacefully, with Ray waking up and keeping watch until dawn. After waking Erith up, they quickly packed up their camp and continued on their journey. They were just a half day’s walk from the Carinthia forest’s end and wanted to push on as fast as they could. The sun was halfway through the sky when they saw the edge of the treeline. Ray stopped to admire the scene that stretched out before them. Golden brown grass, tall as his waist, stretched for miles across the rolling hills, its dry stalks whispering in the breeze. Erith put her hand on his shoulder, taking in the view.
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“We made it!” she said.
“We did, but now comes the hard part. The map that your grandfather gave me only covered the edge of the forest. We will have to proceed without further information.”
Ray responded.
Erith nodded with a determined expression on her face.
“We just need to continue south, right?”
“Yes, there should be a city called Gramith in that direction, and from what I heard, there may be people there that have reached the first stage of ascension.”
Ray answered.
“Let's be more careful in this area. Who knows what creatures live in the plains.”
Ray nodded, imagining all manner of monsters that could be lurking within the rolling hills and tall grass that they would travel through. Anxious but ready to continue their journey, Ray took the first step out of the forest he had ever taken without being teleported. They continued walking throughout the day. The only obstacle they ran into was the howling wind that blew across the open land. Deciding to make camp for the night, they used a hill as a wind brake and rolled out their sleeping bags. Ray agreed to take the first watch and sat atop the hill to give himself a better vantage point. It was getting close to when he would switch with Erith when he heard something moving in the tall grass coming in their direction. He looked toward the sound and saw three lines moving at a high speed. Unable to reach Erith in time, he threw a nearby stone at her, hoping it would wake her. Not having the time to watch if she would wake up from the stone, he drew his daggers and moved to intercept whatever was coming in their direction. The next moment, his world became a blur of teeth and claws as three panther-like forms burst from the brush and attempted to slash him open. He quickly dodged out of the way of a swipe hedging for his chest and brought his sword breaker up to parry another of the beasts. A shriek of pain escaped the beast as its attack, intended for Ray, rebounded upon itself. With one creature stunned for a moment, he could gain enough breathing room to stab one creature in its left shoulder after he skilfully dodged its gnashing maw but he had made a miscalculation as the beast that he thought to be stunned burst from the tall grass and carved a gaping wound into his side. He let out a yelp of pain, clutching his side and grinding his teeth to push through it. Seeing his injury, the creatures attacked with renewed ferocity. Ray narrowly avoided a clawed attack, but his relief was short-lived; he tripped, dropping his dagger. Hitting the ground on his back, the beast immediately set upon him before he could rise. It pounced and snapped its teeth toward his neck before scratching in pain. Ray shoved his sword breaker into the closing jaw and activated the reflective skill. The beast's jaw broke from the recoil. Sensing the opportunity, Ray drew an arrow from his quiver and gouged it into the creature's eye with as much force as he could muster. Its body fell to the ground, twitching. He did not have time for rest, however, as the two other creatures set upon him with a renewed rage. Ray spun around and attempted to punch the one on his right while raising his sword breaker to intercept a claw strike from his left. As his fist contacted its jaw, he let out a shriek of pain. It felt like he had just slammed his hand full force into a brick wall. The beast, however, seemed unphased by the blow, and with nothing between it and its target, it lunged.