In any case, she couldn’t stay here any longer. The sky rumbled with distant thunder, threatening again to pour its contents down on her. The hound might still be on her trail. Who knew what else was out there?
But where should she go?
She could continue following the cliffs, perhaps in the opposite direction than previously. However, there was a good chance she’d stumble past another summoning circle like the ones she or the hound appeared from. And there was a good chance that they’d summon another monster. She’d barely survived her previous encounter and wasn’t excited to try again so soon.
But if not along the cliffs, then into the forest? The sky had only grown darker above her since she’d been here. Was it the dying day or the burgeoning storm? She didn’t want to be in a foreign forest after dark, even if that dark was interspersed with the glow of lichen.
Besides, was there any guarantee that there were no monsters in the forest before her? If anything, the quest she’d received all but guaranteed there would be more creatures out there. And if she was caught between running from monsters in the open space between cliff and forest or in the underbrush of the forest, she’d pick the open space.
She’d try the other direction for a little bit, she decided.
Cass followed the wind, keeping the cliff to her left and the forest to her right. She didn’t let herself fall too far into her thoughts, instead keeping a close eye on the forest and the way ahead.
There was something else at the edge of her senses, beyond ordinary sight and natural hearing. An additional sense she hadn’t had on Earth. Hadn’t had as a human? Hadn’t had without the magic powers of the system?
It was like something layered on top of her existing senses. The way sound and sight didn’t overlap yet could still be pinpointed to the same place in physical space. Like being tired and hungry at the same time. One didn’t detract from the other.
She tried to focus on it. Tried to divine what it was trying to tell her about the world around her. But it was indistinct. Like a layer of static on a radio not quite attuned to the right station. It was frustrating. Like a ringing in her ears or squinting into the sun.
Cass set the feeling aside for the moment, letting it drift back into the background, the same way scent slips to the back of thought in the absence of strong smells.
Still keeping an eye on the way ahead and the forest beside her, she tried activating Wind Step again. Her body instinctively melded into the wind with barely a thought. Like deciding to take a step. Like deciding to walk across the room. Surprisingly effortless. But then, she was slyphid now, wasn’t she?
The world slipped around her while she was wind. It was disorienting, twisting around her in every direction like it was the world moving beneath her, not she dancing with the wind over the world. She fell out of the wind in moments, tumbling into a bruised pile yards from where she’d started.
She shook her failure off, glancing again into the darkening woods. Still nothing of note. Still nothing ahead. She took a few steps forward, waiting for the cooldown of the skill to end. In honesty, she was glad for the breather before leaping back into it.
One more glance ahead and into the forest. She stepped into the wind.
The twists made more sense to her this time. They were the result of riding the eddies rolling off the cliffs, places where the wind buffeted off the unyielding walls, twirling in place before gusting on. She rode them much further this time. Daring even to race along with them.
She could only hold on so long before tumbling out again in a disorderly heap. Still, she could not see where she started this time, and it must have been a full five minutes.
Better yet, her stamina was untouched and the skill was already off cool down. Cool down seemed to count from transitioning into the wind, not from transitioning out. Good to know.
Her Focus, however, had not been recovered over the trip. In fact, it looked like it recovered more slowly in wind form than while she was fully corporeal. Also good to know.
She could feel the strain of low Focus already. It was a mounting headache. An exhaustion that only her mind felt. A strain around her eyes. A dizziness like she hadn’t eaten.
Probably was best not to bottom out her Focus below the 50 needed to activate Wind Step too, now that she thought about it. As eager as she was to understand how it worked, it would be ill-advised to expend her escape move if she didn’t need to.
Properly self-chastised, she settled into a casual walk while her focus recovered.
Speaking of energy reserves, why wasn’t she dead tired? It had been the middle of the night when she’d been kidnapped. She had been trying (poorly) to sleep. The day had been a long one, full of hiking and goofing around the campsite.
Getting kidnapped was no small thing either, what with the two excruciatingly painful events and the mind-numbing stress of the whole ordeal.
And now it was… Well, she had no idea what time of day it was now. The clouds above were pretty heavy, blocking out a lot of light. How much exactly? She hadn’t the foggiest idea.
All she could say for certain was it wasn’t night. So either this part of this world wasn’t aligned the same with the part of Earth she had been pulled from, or she had spent significantly more time in the void than she thought.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
She pursed her lips. Neither option explained the whole not tired, not hungry thing though. Or the no longer needing to pee thing, now that she thought of it. She hadn’t gotten to the outhouse before being kidnapped. Her pants were mercifully dry. She didn’t need to pee.
Did this body just not need those things? Or was it that it was technically a new body?
She shook the question away and focused again on the forest around her. None of this would be useful speculation if she was ambushed.
She walked on, little changing. Her eye to the forest eventually paid off. What had seemed like an impassible knot of undergrowth proved to be laced with winding paths. Too wide to be game trails. Too overgrown to be called hiking trails. She had passed three entrances and spotted the meandering paths through the trees several more times.
It might have been the natural flow of water that disincentivized dense plants, heavy flow during storms ripping roots from loose soil. It might have been natural outcroppings of stone, preventing all but the hardiest of roots from taking hold. Or it might have been people who maintained those paths, just as they maintained the wide space between cliff and forest.
Something ahead cut off that line of thought. She spotted it much further out this time and quickly dropped to a crouch. It wasn’t much of a hiding place. Her blue raincoat was hardly effective camo. But it was better than standing and waving at it.
The ‘it’ in question was a heavy-set, rodent creature at least as tall as Cass’s waist. She focused on it, willing Identify to activate.
Terborn Wombat
Lvl 3
[A territorial marsupial. As adept at burrowing as it is at bowling over intruders. Known for its paralyzing shriek and the venom in its back legs.]
She scowled at the message. She had hoped, based on its size and proportions, it would be slow and lumbering, but its description suggested even if it was, it would have no difficulty catching her, either by ramming her or by paralyzing her in place. Was every creature in this world this dangerous? Or were only dangerous creatures summoned into this area? And why?
She appraised her state. Her back still hurt. Her focus was barely at half. Only her stamina had largely recovered. Could she afford to risk another encounter with another monster she knew next to nothing about?
But what were her other options? The hound was presumably still behind her somewhere. The wombat ahead. Mysterious woods to her right. She couldn’t just stay here forever, but it was certain danger no matter the direction she went next.
She clicked her tongue. No, not certain. The hound was certain danger. The wombat was certain danger. The woods were only highly probable danger.
She hated it. She didn’t want to go into mysterious woods. But she also did not want to face up against either monster she’d encountered.
Slowly, she slunk away from the wombat, backtracking to the last entrance to the woods she had seen.
The boughs of the trees formed an arch over the entrance, their bark dressed in iridescent lichen. The path was lined with twisting bushes and moss-covered stone. The moss glowed pale green. She took a tentative step in.
There was a tension in the air. Like electricity through a wire. It buzzed at the back of her head. That burgeoning sixth sense or just baseless instincts objecting to the unknown again?
Slowly, watching every creeping shadow, she padded forward through the glowing forest. A long stick lay over the path, the perfect thickness to use as a walking stick. Perhaps a little too narrow to be an effective staff. Her quest flashed in her mind.
She picked it up anyway, casting Inspect. It had to be better than nothing, right?
Zerden Madrone Branch
Class: Staff (Unrefined)
[A fallen branch from a nearby Zerden Madrone tree. Naturally hardened by the passage of time, the nature of this wood, and a quirk of this forest, this branch can take more of a beating than its thickness would suggest. A far cry from a polished weapon, but good enough for hitting opponents out of reach of your bare hands.]
Her eyes widened a little at the description. She hadn’t expected anything from the branch. It was an almost white wood, with a soft blue undertone, the bark long since stripped from the majority of it. It twisted into knots at one end while tapered narrower at the other.
Beginner Quest (1): Find a Weapon Complete!
Reward: Bonus Skill growth with chosen weapon type (staff), Beginner Quest (2)
Beginner Quest (2): Defeat an Opponent
[Now armed, it's time to begin your training. Find a suitable opponent for your chosen weapon and defeat them.]
Reward: Beginner Quest (3), Additional Bonus based on classification of Opponent
She frowned. That might have been the obvious next step based on the first quest but it was still unwelcome. She didn’t want to fight anything, much less seek out a fight. She’d much rather find some nice people who could point her to the nearest portal home.
Still, if her time here so far was anything to go by, she’d run into an opponent soon. Though, would she choose to stand and fight instead of running?
New walking stick/staff in hand, she continued down the forest path. She inspected the trees and brush as she went, learning most were common plants she had heard of before, though not these exact varieties. Pines and firs and oaks, ferns and wild berries. Two caught her eye among them.
First, the giant trees she had been calling blue-redwoods in her head.
Lightningwoods
[The tallest tree in the world, resistant to fire, thriving off lightning. These trees capture clouds in their tall spires, concentrating the wrath of the heavens over their domains.]
And second, the tree from which her new staff had come from.
Zerden Madrone
[Also called Lightning Madrone. Most trees of this family have wood that twists and cracks as it dries, making it a poor choice in structural construction. Zerden Madrone is largely the same unless cured in an environment high in the energy of lightning, where it will instead harden straight and without fracturing. The more lightning the harder and more stable the wood becomes.]
It looked like the madrone from the forests of home, twisting branches forming sparse crowns. Peeling bark revealing smooth almost white flesh. However, where every madrone she had seen on Earth had crimson bark, these were a deep navy blue. Just as beautiful and no less striking. These trees alone repelled the ever-present lichens that gripped the bark of the other trees, yet the living wood glowed with a blue-white light.
It seemed no matter where she looked, the forest was alight with glowing plants. But, she had yet to spot an animal. Perhaps they all cowered in fear of the impending storm. Perhaps there wasn’t much in the way of natural fauna with all the summoned monsters wandering about.
She eyed the sky again. It was difficult to see through the thick canopy above, but she could just make out the dark clouds. They continued their rumbling threats but held their contents tight. The uneasy quiet before the storm continued.