My breathing slowed as I continued to stare up at the jagged rocks protruding from the cave ceiling. Even though my health had long since been restored, whispers of phantom pains still lingered where the gnoll’s talons had scored deeply into my chest. Hesitant to move, Stella’s presence reminded me that we needed to continue on. It was possible that even more gnolls could show up at any moment. Coming forward, I rested my hands on my knees as I took stock of what happened. A mixture of relief and shock lingered.
My hands felt over my chest, but thankfully finding only unbroken flesh beneath the small holes that remained in my leather tunic. “That had been close,” I exhaled, letting go of the tension. “I’m going to be a bit sad though if my armor is ruined.” I wasn’t truly upset about my leather garb. In actuality, I was worried about how close it had really been there. A part of me wanted to ask Stella how low my health had been, but I thought better of asking.
“It certainly took a durability hit,” Stella said as she flew close to eye the damage. Five pairs of punctures showed beneath her inquiring eyes. “It’s magical though, meaning that it will slowly repair itself over time. Though if something is damaged badly enough, even powerfully enchanted gear won’t be able to recover past a certain point. You can’t see it, but I can see those small tears are already working. In a day or so, you won’t even be able to notice them.”
“Better the tunic took the brunt of that,” I said, finally coming to my feet. I had been expected to feel a little light-headed, perhaps a bit queasy, but quite the opposite reached me. My magic had really healed me to top condition, to which I was very thankful. Anywhere else, without that magic, I probably would have bleed to death after passing out from the pain I had endured. Looking around at the death surrounding us was a sight to behold. Looking upon the large wood door, I shook my head. “That was not a good idea, not at all. Slamming the door shut had me cornered with no room to maneuver.”
“Don’t stress yourself overly much, you had little time to consider what to do when that group showed up.” Stella was following along at my side as we worked our way through the new carnage.
“I am a firm believer that we learn the most from our mistakes,” I said, kneeling low to inspect one of the gnoll's bodies. There was a sheen of a thick, mucus-like substance running down its jaw. “It reminds me of a saying, ‘Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ I certainly don’t want to find myself surrounded by even one of these beasts ever again. I was barely lucky enough to make it out of that.”
“I’m just gonna say it,” I said as I rested up against the rough stone wall. The smell of smoke sat heavily in the air, a combination of the scattered embers from the firepit and the singed furniture from my fireball. “How that second battle went was on me, I can do better. I was too preoccupied with worrying that one of them would turn and run at the first sight of us. I feared that any reinforcements would have overwhelmed me. Apparently, three was enough, so a self-fulfilling prophecy, right? Cornering myself allowed for no flexibility or a chance to adapt to the flow of the battle.”
“That did seem to be the case. You triumphed nonetheless, so that should count for something.” Stella said with an encouraging tone.
“It was more luck than anything else.” I ran my hand through my matted hair. Whatever had been covering the gnoll has unfortunately transferred to me, and I was covered in it. “I was lucky to have boil blood’s stun effect trigger when it did.”
I pressed my back hard against a flat spot on the stone wall, the momentum pushing me away. “We’re in this together, so feel free to call me an idiot if you see me making another huge mistake.”
Stella smiled, a lighthearted chuckle following right her head, “I won’t be calling you that any time soon. Remind me to tell you about some of the mistakes Stouter made. Now that, that was stupid.”
“I look forward to it,” I said while tilting my head towards her. As we moved around the room, I pulled up my waiting notifications and the advantages of surviving such an intense battle with mobs far higher level than I found myself.
Quest Update: 9 of unknown gnolls defeated.
Experience Gained: Twitching Gnoll x3 (level ranges 8 to 9)
Spell: Lesser Boil Blood has increased to level 4. Spell: Heat Blood has increased to level 3. Spell: Minor Regeneration has increased to level 3. Spell: Minor Deflecting Shield has increased to level 3. Spell: Minor Shielding has increased to level 2.
Stella was hovering close to me and began giving me small furtive glances. Hearing several small sniffs in the air, I turned upon her, “Yes?”
The question in hung in the air. Stella scrunched up her face, looking me up and down. “So, anything we can do about that… stink?” Stella inched forward, pressing her small muzzle close to my sleeves before flinching backward with some speed. “You smell like someone took your clothes, covered them in gnoll spit, and locked them in a chest to bake under a noon sun for a month.”
Stella looked at me, expectantly. After half a minute, with no response forthcoming, she raised her eyebrows. “Well?” she pleaded. “You can’t just stand there; I won’t have it.”
“What am I supposed to do? I’m more than willing to do something–anything–but,” I looked around frantically. “Do you see a shower here, ‘cus I sure don’t.”
Stella did something on a screen I couldn’t see, shaking her head the entire time, before a leather bag appeared in the air between us. It fell to the ground immediately and I could hear water sloshing around inside. Stella looked quickly down and back up at me as if that said everything.
“It’s a waterskin,” I said slowly before comprehension dawned. “You can’t be serious?” What followed next was several furious minutes where Stella–somehow–levitated the waterskin, with at least another pair to follow, above me with the ice-cold water crashing helplessly against increasingly drenched form.
When it was said and done, Stella barked a laugh as she trotted up to hover next to me. I had ended up giving up, surrendering to the inevitable, simply standing motionless while Stella emptied another waterskin. The last one, fell empty to splat against the top of my head. and had been motionless face. We just stood there, seconds ticking by. Stella tilted her head to the side, coming closer to me once more before taking a quick whiff. “Better,” she said simply.
“Let’s agree to never discuss this again,” was my simple monotoned reply, not a hint of emotion present in my voice.
Level Up! Congratulations on reaching level 6. Tier 1 class characteristic attributes have been applied. You have 7 attribute points to distribute. Note – Now that you have chosen a tier 1 class, please know that at level 7 you will be able to select a new spell that is class-appropriate. This option becomes available again when you attain level 9.
As I finished reading the notification like every time before, a golden light that usually accompanied a level-up radiated around my body. In an instant, I was completely restored. I froze at the realization, my head twitching to the side. I was no longer soaked to the bone. My eyes looked down upon my completely dry clothing, the ice-cold water fading to memory. “Stell?” the question barely escaped my lips, the word barely a whisper. I sensed more than felt, that Stella wasn’t moving either. Seconds passed by, neither of us taking a breath.
“Nope,” Stella replied, with the quickest shake of her head I had ever seen. “We agreed not to talk about it.”
She knew it! My teeth ground in petty frustration. With the level up, there had been no need, not one reason, that we needed to clean the gnoll ‘gunk’ off my body. I hadn’t needed to feel the cold embrace of water as Stella ‘got rid of the dastardly’ smell. Had she known all along what was seconds away from taking care of it for us?
My eyes narrowed imperceptibly as I moved to face Stella, a finger of my right hand slowly raising into the air. I paused, letting out a long sigh as I plotted if it was worth it. “Consider yourself lucky,” a tiny smile tugging the corner of my lips the only hint that I wasn’t going to hold a grudge. “… this time, little one.”
With that proclamation, judgment forestalled for now, Stella began moving around with her normal grace. “Okay,” I said as Stella hovered close to my head. “Let’s figure out where to put these new attribute points.”
“Don’t forget about the extra points,” Stella said as my character sheet opened in front of us. “Now that you’re a necromancer, you get those three free points each level.”
“Oh, that’s right,” I exclaimed, any possible resentment blown from my mind at her words. “I had forgotten about those!”
“So, charisma, wisdom, and luck are all your lowest currently, all at eight points,” Stella said as she waved her paw, highlighting the three stats. “It would seem prudent to put at least two into charisma to get it to the next threshold, but should we do the same for Wisdom and Luck? In a pair of levels, those will reach it on their own.”
My thoughts were mirroring Stella’s. I would like to know the bonuses of for wisdom and luck, but with how close the last battle was, the points were better spent elsewhere for now. Nodding my head in agreement, I responded. “We’re going to be heading into a new town after clearing this cave, so I’d like to know what we’re working with when it comes to the charisma bonus. I’ll put two points there and the rest between strength, constitution, and intelligence.”
“Why strength?” Stella asked. “I get the other two for the extra health and mana, but why strength?”
“I don’t want to become a one-trick pony, well two in this case. Health and mana are of utmost importance right now, but I want to put more muscle behind my swings with my axe. I get a sense, with the tight corridors of these tunnels, I’ll have some melee battles to contend with,” I said. With no further thoughts from Stell, the decision was made; one point into intelligence, with two going into constitution, strength, and charisma. Confirming my choice, I was rewarded with the expected system message.
Charisma Threshold Reached. Benefits: Non-hostile creatures, such as non-player characters, are 5% more likely to offer a hidden quest or divulge additional information during interactions. You are also 5% more likely to persuade someone during those conversations.
“Nice,” I said as we read the message. “Oh, I’ve been thinking, is there any way to reset my attribute points? In my ‘past life,’ if you didn’t plan well with your character development, it could go badly and it could seriously hinder your future growth. So, some games allowed the player a way to start over and redistribute their points, though it was generally quite expensive to do so. I know I earn more points overall because of our connection and our superb ‘exalted acceleration’ trait, but are you aware of anything that would allow us to respec?”
Stella thought for a moment before answering. “It’s not out of the realm of possibility, but I wouldn’t count on it. I’ve never heard of such a thing, though my access is somewhat limited until we grow stronger. And, you’re right, you’ll have the advantage against other Hunters when it comes to attribute points as long as they’re not too high a level. Well, unless they were blessed beyond belief with a stronger accelerator than Moi,” Stella huffed. “So, doubtful, to say the least.”
I chuckled good-naturedly at her self-praise. Looking one final time at my character sheet, my highest stats were constitution, now at twenty-nine, and intelligence coming in at a respectable twenty-eight. When I reached level seven, both would reach the next threshold, so I would be looking forward to that for sure. “You ready to continue, Stell?”
She nodded and we made one final pass of the area, hoping to see if something else turned up after our earlier inspection. Unfortunately, we were disappointed. Yet, just as we were preparing to move on, Stella spotted something. Nearly crushed by a gnoll corpse, was another potion bottle that I had overlooked. It was carried in a pouch that looked to be made out of, as disgusting as it appeared, gnoll-skin. “Really, bro?” I asked aloud, disbelieving these beasts had actually done something so revolting. It was tied with a very thin cord that ran around the gnoll’s waist and, combined with the material, was nearly invisible to the eye. Inspecting the item, it was another one of the bottles of ‘gnoll brew of adrenaline.’
I’m not proud to admit it, but we searched the damnable beasts one more time, finding another pair of the brackish concoction. Seeing the abundance of this type of potion these foul creatures carried, made me give another thought regarding the bottles. Stella and I came to the same conclusion at the same instant. “The ring,” we exclaimed.
What followed was an overly energetic discussion on the synergy of the potion and my thus unused Ring of Blind Rage. We talked so eagerly about how the potion should cancel out the ring’s less-than-desirable effect that causes a complete loss of control, effectively turning me into a raging Hulk monster if I drank it, but… with the potion. The implications were intriguing. Under the effects of both, as long as the brew counteracted the ‘violent, uncontrollable rage’ I’d be in business. I was about to store away the latest find, smiling at the thought of not losing control and turning into an enormous green rage monster, when Stella coughed. Not getting the hint, I stared blankly at her and shrugged.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
She pointed at the potion, the foul liquid sloshing around within, when a whiff of its reek caught my nose. “God damn it, Stella.” With a long shake of the head, I put the bottle back into my inventory. “A problem for another day, I suppose, but let’s … keep that combo in mind.”
Stella giggled and returned to my side. With my axe in hand and a spell ready on my lips, we pulled the door and stepped back, waiting for anything to happen next. A cool breeze filtered into the room with a hint of gnoll stink on it, the stone hallway leading further underground. No light shone and not a hint of noise could be heard.
Looking at Stella, I nodded and loosened my shoulders. Activating sneak, we descended side by side. The air turned slightly musty and damp as we pressed forward, moving as silently as possible. By we, I mean me, of course. Stella never caused even a whisper of sound. Seeing her in the corner of my eye, I tried not to smile as she was crouched low in the air like she was a stalking, cat.
Deeper we descended, the tunnel twisting around with some instances the walls being so close together I needed to turn sideways to cross through. Once through it, I turned around eyeing up the crevice. The loose rocks and rubble showing that it was a new development, “The wall must have buckled,” I whisper. “Luckily it didn’t fill in the entire tunnel, though that would have meant any gnolls down here may have become trapped.”
Continuing deeper, we finally spotted signs of life. We had been walking for the past several minutes down a straight section when torchlight barely became visible ahead. Slowing our pace further, I readied my axe, feeling its trusty weight in my hand. As we got closer, the expected sound of gnoll barks and yips grew louder in our ears. Unfortunately, it sounded like far more than we had seen so far. Anxiety hit my stomach at the thought, I had been hoping for smaller groups, something more manageable for me and Stella.
The tunnel continued forward and as I approached the widening passage, we found that the entire left section opened up into a deep chamber below. The path we were on continued forward another dozen or so yards before turning into a bend out of sight, but to our left was a wide cavern gleaming with torchlight and animated gnoll noises. Being extremely careful, I peered an eye to get a better idea of our surroundings. We were essentially on a walkaway as if we were on the second story of a wide living area. If I took a single step to the left, I would fall straight down nearly two stories, not to mention I would fall amongst a swarming pack of excited gnolls.
There was no railing to protect anyone up by us from falling to the stone floor below, so we would need to be careful. As long as we were not foolhardy, we would be fine. Eyeing up the room, I saw down to the far left of the cavern a tunnel that, if I judged correctly, must wind up to the ledge we were on. That meant, if we caught the attention of the gnolls, even though they were twenty or so feet below us, they would likely be able to run up that ramp to come directly at us. That wasn’t encouraging but would potentially give us precious seconds if we alerted the pack of our location.
Stella and I held our position, our faces barely visible as we peered down intently. I was envisioning a fireball or two crashing down upon the group, but the room was twice the size of the last one. My fireballs only had a fifteen-foot explosive radius so, I would need close to four, maybe even five, fireballs to fill the cavern with fiery destruction. Remembering the relatively large health pools from the fight earlier, each gnoll would probably still be alive even taking two such explosions. Still, our elevated position gave us an advantage, nothing could attack us with our superior position while we were free to rain destruction upon them. The problem was the simple number of gnolls down there.
The cavern was another haphazard mess of stolen loot, crates, wooden boxes, and splintered furniture. Most of the items were intact, but some pieces were shattered making me think the gnolls had continued to rampage the area above even after the near cave-in we barely got through earlier. Instead of abandoning the loot, the gnolls looked to have shattered it to get it down there. The roaring fire that was greedily eating splintered wood hinted as to why they had taken such steps.
The smoke from the fire, to my initial surprise, wasn’t blanketing the area though as I had momentarily feared. The smoke curled up lazily and entered what looked to be a natural chimney of sorts. Lucky for the gnolls, I thought. It would have been splendid if the dumb beasts killed themselves with how large the fire was. By the look of it, they would run out of fuel within a day, at the very least. That meant they would be heading out, soon.
Three gnolls were arguing, near the far tunnel we spotted earlier. As I watched, one bit down hard on another shoulder causing the pair to tumble on the ground like fighting dogs. The third, yipped in excitement and occasionally snapped at the heels of two grappling on the stone. Two other gnolls were sitting comfortably near the fire, chatting along relatively peacefully, though their low voices were hard to hear at this distance and above the crackling of the fire.
Rounding out the pack below, three other gnolls were lying flat out on the cold hard floor. At first, I mistook them to either be dead or in a deep sleep because their bodies were contorted uncomfortably. One was even slumped forward, nearly upside down with his head bent at a bad angle. He was curled up like a ball and there was no way someone would fall asleep like that. As I watched, their chests rose and fell indicating they were in fact breathing, but there was no way that was sleeping with how sprawled out the three were.
We were too close to our enemies and, not wanting to alert them of our presence, I opened up our chat tool.
Xaz: Damn, the gnolls are more spread out this time. There are essentially three groups. Three by that tunnel, and I think it links to the one ahead of us, two by the fire, and three sleeping?
Stella: Remember the quest recommended two Hunters around level 9. Do you think this is too much for us? Oh, and those ones are not sleeping. Take a look at their description again, especially the last part.
Twitching Gnoll
For many Hunters, the word ‘gnoll’ sparks imagery of a yipping dog-like creature with bare-to-the-bone brains to match. The twitching gnoll, though, is quite a bit different from their lesser-evolved kin. Twitching Gnolls, over the centuries, have evolved with overdeveloped adrenal glands. As a result, they are constantly bombarded with overwhelming shots of adrenaline. As a result, they are in a constant state of overexcitement and are always, always, twitching. Hence their fitting name.
Unlike their smaller cousins, twitching gnolls have double the strength and four times their ferocity. Unfortunately for the gnolls, this constant state of alertness means twitching gnolls can never find even a wink of sleep. Worry not for the gnoll, however, as their brethren take delight in taking turns in knocking pack gnolls unconscious to temporarily address this biological defect.
Xaz: Well, that could be helpful if they are unconscious and not sleeping. We could use that to our advantage. Otherwise, I could lob a few fireballs down there, but I’d probably run out of mana before they were all dead.
Xaz: How long do you think those three gnolls are knocked out for?
Stella: Probably for a while. To get knocked out and stay out requires a pretty heavy hit.
Xaz: Hmm, here’s what I have in mind.
After running the plan across with Stella, she couldn’t help but agree. Starring intently at one of the unconscious gnolls, I began casting a spell as I kept my words as close to a whisper as possible. My fingers moved in articulate gestures, swirling invisible glyphs and runes in the air before me. The first Lesser Boil Blood completed, sending a nearly invisible ripple of heat to fly the sheer drop. Stella and I watched intently to see how the beast would react. Looking at the combat log, the spell definitely connected, but all that happened was a few twitches of the gnoll, like small spasms. The movement was not unusual for the mobs so it didn’t draw any attention from the poor beast’s friends.
Waiting for the full second cooldown for the spell, I started up a new casting, though this time on another passed-out gnoll. As before, heat sliced silently below, striking the comatose canine. Though, that one let out a yelp of pain, though stilled quickly beside the odd jerk or twitch. The pair near the fire turned and gave a hearty laugh at the gnoll’s perceived sleeping phantom pain.
Once more, waiting a full second, I started up a third casting of lesser boil blood. The spell’s magical power flowed down landing into the final sleeping victim. Our luck held. Once more, not a single of the three gave out a cry of warning or the intense burning pain that was surely searing the blood in their veins. With the first part of the plan complete, we had three ticking time bombs taking away great chunks of the gnoll’s health pools. Even better, I was positive that the total damage boil blood far exceeded their total health, making each a ticking time bomb.
Now, to get the second part of the plan going; trying to get them to group up. Moving quickly after the spell’s cooldown once more elapsed, I targeted one of the gnolls chatting by the fire. My mana pool taking significant dips with each new casting. Once more, a wave of cascading heat soared downwards to crash unerringly into our unsuspecting foe. When it connected, this time it got the reaction that one would suspect when one’s veins bubbled and boiled. The poor beast nearly jumped out of its skin and yowled with all its lungs.
Oh, how the angry beast moved now with such urgency; it looked as if he was breathing fire, his face darting back and forth. With the scalding blood coursing through his body, I supposed my thought wasn’t that far off the mark. A growl so deep and menacing sounded from the creature’s throat that it caught the attention of every other gnoll. In the second that followed as I watched, the gnoll under the effect of my spell appeared to have no idea where it had originated from. With a menacing step towards the gnoll it had been chatting with, and the fact it had a clawed hand raised high above it, the beast had decided who to blame. His once-friendly compatriot, looked up at the claw in confusion, not understanding what was happening nor what it had done to desire so ire.
As the taloned fury slashed downward, the bewildered gnoll didn’t defend himself in the slightest. Flesh and muscle tore under the mighty blow, nearly ripping the poor beast’s face off with the ferocity. Blood quickly flowed along with the yell of excruciating pain as the mob attempted futilely to hold together its ruined face.
Then one of the unconscious gnolls awoke, whether from the pain or his dwindling health pool, it mattered not. In its startled motion, it crashed down upon on friend, turning all its rage on the still knocked-out neighbor. Confusion reigned in the room as all three previously unconscious gnolls were now wide awake, murder in their eyes as they began turning on one another. Thankfully, these beasts were so dimwitted they couldn’t identify that it was a spell coursing through their bodies that had caused so much damage over a short period of time. There was little outward sign of the devastation being wrecked within, but that barely registered as their animalistic tendencies reached new heights, murder evident in their beady eyes.
My eyes turned to my mana bar in the corner of my vision. It had dropped to around forty percent, so I needed to be careful to not deplete it. Though, as I looked upon the carnage below, even the three far gnolls who had rushed forward, it was hard to tell if they were trying to stop the raging combat or knock the aggressors out. Either way, the thought that an intruder was using powerful magic amongst them so freely was far from their thoughts. Having a few seconds, I called a normal mana potion to my hand and unplugged it. The cinnamon liquid flowed easily down my throat. The battle continued to rage, so I quickly drank another, storing the now empty bottles back into my inventory. My mana pool was back up to a comfortable seventy percent and continued to move upwards with my natural mana regeneration.
Several seconds passed and the gnolls were in a mad brawl, viciously tearing each other apart. A few of the boil blood impacted gnolls were momentarily stunned at times, thanks to the special effect of the spell, which in turn opened them up more for devastating counterattacks. Finally, one of the affected gnolls fell dead to the floor. The battle was so savage, that I would have to check my damage log to see if it was my spell that killed it or another of its brethren. But what happened next, I was fully aware would happen and had planned for it. Once the beast's remaining health flatlined, step two of our plan started. Like a dam giving way behind the gnoll’s mutt-like hide, a tidal wave of superheated blood burst out in multiple directions. The power of the spell automatically targeted every other nearby gnoll and, thankfully for us, they had so graciously grouped up to engage in their pack brawl.
Boiling, sticky crimson blood crashed into the gnolls, taking away huge chunks of their health instantly. The damage was enough for another gnoll, that it died, creating a gruesome domino effect. Soon after, the second effect gnoll died. So too did the third and, shortly thereafter, the fourth. Searing hot blood misted in the air, each drop being magically pulled to any live foe. When the red mist finally cleared, all four of the previously dotted gnolls were dead, every single drop of blood being torn from their flesh to wreak havoc on their comrades. Their emaciated bodies collapsed into heaps of unrecognizable fur, teeth, and claws.
The remaining four gnolls writhed on the ground in agony, whole sections of their fur melted away under the intensity of the blistering lifeblood. The damage they had felt was immediate and had no damaging over time effect, so I needed to act soon while they were still distracted. Quickly inspecting a pair, each gnoll still had around twenty percent of their remaining health. The next part of our plan could have been several things, depending on what happened. We were fortunate with the stupidity of the gnolls, so I had a pair of spells remaining. Well, hoped for at least.
Once final lesser boil blood was cast under my breath and the wave of heat landed on a gnoll that was picking himself off the ground. It spasmed in pain, falling to the ground before the initial damage overloaded what meager health pool that remained. Once final burst of blood shot out like a fire hydrant as the three gnolls got to their feet, their eyes wide with fear at the sight of even more flying blood. With that, the remaining damage split amongst the three gnolls, who fell over dead, one after the other. Other than the fire raging below, the room went still and was deathly silent.
“Well, that was effective,” I uttered in amazement. I had done it. With a few spells, I had utterly destroyed a pack of eight backbiting gnolls. Granted, I had used my obviously overpowered spell considering my level, but it had done beautifully nonetheless. The temperature, even in such a spacious area, was sweltering from the effects of my spell thundering through the air so many times in rapid succession.
Stella was gapping along with me, too shocked to speak for a while. Finally gulping, she replied, “You know, planning ahead does work wonders when everything happens like you wanted it to.”
Quest Update: 17 of *17* gnolls defeated.
Experience Gained: Twitching Gnoll x8 (level ranges 8 to 10)
Spell: Lesser Boil Blood has increased to level 5. Skill: Stealth has increased to level 4.
“Yeah, that is so much better,” I said while staring down at the ruined corpses.
“Practice makes perfect.” Stella agreed.
“Hey, look at that,” I said as I reread the system message. “No more gnolls to deal with.”
Stella’s eyes were wide, little saucers, “Lucky for the gnolls, honestly. Hot… damn!”
Remembering the quest had a hidden objective from when we first entered, I pulled up the log and quickly read the information.
Quest – Cave of the Twitching Stalkers
Quest Objectives:
One – Defeat All Twitching Gnolls. Current progress 17 of 17. COMPLETED
Two – Find and defeat the final cave inhabitant.
“Well, that isn’t helpful,” I muttered in annoyance. “Plus, that sounds too ominous for my liking.” Eyeing the final part of the message, willing it to reveal something more, anything more, I relented. “It’s a boss.”
“It’s a boss,” Stella agreed, though if she was confirming it through some of her system magic or simply agreeing with me, I wasn’t sure. Either way, I still chuckled.