Forest Buffet
The trial started exactly ten minutes after the three of them registered, leaving me with barely any time to prepare. Jiyun wore her hanbok, slightly dirty from all the fighting, though not covered in blood. Saia was able to consume any organic matter and clean them fairly easily. Her sword was sheathed and secured to her waist. She also had a small ring that gave her the [Lesser Stamina] skill, which allowed her to fight for longer. Her boots were also a reward from a rift and provided her with a tiny increase in her leg strength, which increased movement speed.
Aurora still wore the gambeson they got from the last trial, which looked more like a dress on her lithe and shorter body. In her hands she carried a staff they got as a reward that gave no skills but was sturdy enough to be a dangerous weapon. Daehyun had been teaching her how to use it properly and she had gotten good enough that she only rarely hit herself on the head. At least it gave her something to protect herself if attacked up close, though last time she panicked and a bird managed to pick her up, so perhaps it would be best if I made sure nothing ever came close to her.
Saia flowed over my body, forming the basic armor set, as we worried her drone wouldn’t be transported if she wasn’t on my person. The armor had grown somewhat as she had gathered more mass. Now she covered my upper torso and neck, shoulders and arms, as well as my legs from feet all the way up to the mid-thigh. Soon she’d be able to cover me whole. Though, the actual protection her current form provided wasn’t near what a full armor could. She couldn’t activate her protection engrams in this setup, nor was it structurally as solid as she would like, seeing as how I wore clothes beneath.
But armor wasn’t high on my list of priorities, I didn’t really need it.
The transport to the trial happened swiftly, dropping the three of us in a deep forest, surrounded by massively tall trees whose canopy prevented us from seeing the sky. Still, there was enough light coming through that we could see, though we were in a deep shade.
“Look!” Aurora exclaimed and pointed at a small stone pedestal with a golden plaque on top of it.
“Saia, scout around please,” I said as I followed Aurora and Jiyun.
She flowed over my body and formed her drone, then flew off to circle our position.
The plaque was the same as the one we had encountered previously, giving information about what they had to do. Though, this one was a bit more informative.
Trial of the Forest—Entrance Seven
Goal of the Trial—The area is filled with beasts, gather as many points as possible. Only points gained inside this trial will count toward the total. The trial will last for three days, and the top three challengers at the end will be granted a reward.
Beware! The Forest is home to four Kings and an Emperor, who rule over other beasts. Killing any of them will grant additional points.
Shadow Ferrorn King; Third Investment—30,000 points.
Golden Flame Angul King; Third Investment—30,000 points.
Stone Dragon Tortoise King; Third Investment—30,000 points.
Starry Sky Spirit Owl King; Third Investment—30,000 points.
Calm River Ungoir Emperor; Fourth Investment—90,000 points.
“Well,” I started. “That’s interesting. Two of these kings are animals from Earth.”
“What do you think that means?” Jiyun asked.
“Who knows, it is already apparent that the Grand Spell is taking a bit more of an active role in all of this,” I waved at the plaque. “Whether it has taken animals from Earth and improved them, then placed them here, or it just recreated them or whatever else, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that we have a good opportunity here.”
“You don’t think about going after any of these, are you?” Aurora asked with a shocked expression on her face.
I pointed my finger at the first beast king on the plaque. “I’ve faced a ferrorn before, on Ish Vimza, both a young one and a mature one that was in its Fourth Investment.”
And that was back when I was just a Fledgling Vampire with no Mask, I was far stronger now. But this also gave me a reference point, a Third Investment ferrorn was considered a powerful beast, and I was confident that I could take it.
A smile rose on my face, this was an amazing opportunity for me. The blood I drank on Ish Vimza gave me on average between one and two carvings, and that was on Kirios, this place counted as Earth or rather Terra and Suul’Dar, which meant that the increase Investment gain was active. I could push myself ahead just by going around and drinking blood. I didn’t even need to kill the beasts myself, people would be leaving carcasses everywhere, I only needed to find them.
I felt almost giddy at the opportunity.
“Hey,” Aurora started. “At least we don’t need to fight other challengers.”
I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Oh honey,” I said slowly.
“What? It’s a trial about killing beasts!”
Jiyun cleared her throat. “It’s a trial about gathering points. Killing people gives you their points. And seeing as how Marianna is near the top of the list right now, killing her would probably guarantee someone the win.”
Aurora’s mouth hung open as she looked from one to the other. Then she threw her hands up in the air. “I hate this place.”
I chuckled, but then sobered quickly. “I say we go for the kings, beast outside usually gave between a few hundred to a few thousand, split three ways that is going to be a lot of beasts if we want to take the top spot. Not that we should avoid any other beasts, we should kill anything in our way.”
Jiyun and Aurora exchanged looks, then turned to look at me as Jiyun spoke. “And what about other people?”
I tilted my head before answering. “I’m not going to attack first if that’s what you’re worried about. Though I don’t have much confidence that others will leave us alone if we meet up with them. The Suul though, I’m not taking any chances with them.”
Jiyun dipped her head. “I agree.”
“That’s the plan then,” Aurora said, then turned to look back at the plaque. “You know, if these names are literal, I could probably track this Stone Dragon Tortoise King.”
“Good thing we brought you then,” I smiled at her.
She stuck her tongue out at me, but her eyes sparkled mischievously. Then she closed her eyes and with an expression of concentration used her skill. I’ve grown more sensitive to her skill, so I felt it ripple across the Way. It was a strange sensation to describe, almost like I felt a sudden change of pressure in the air.
Stolen novel; please report.
“I got a lot of big stone formations, but nothing that’s moving, though I guess the beast could be resting. Maybe we should check some of those?”
I nodded. “Grand Spell would’ve infused Source in the animal, mutation usually comes with growth, from what Shadow told me at least.”
“This way then,” Aurora pointed and we followed.
Saia would come back eventually with her report, her drone always knew where I was, so it wasn’t an issue. And then I could send her out to search for other kings, or this emperor.
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Tracking down the king beasts proved a bit of a challenge. Saia’s scouting had discovered a few beasts in the area, and without anything else to go on we headed toward the closest one. It was a big brown bear, one that was obviously changed by the Source. It wasn’t larger, but instead it had horns on top of its head that curled forward, it was unclear what other changes it could have, but I knew that it would have at least some skills.
I could scent it at a distance as we huddled behind a giant root of a tree and looked at the bear pushing its snout in a big bush, looking for something. By now, I was fairly adept at telling how powerful beasts or people were, at least roughly, by the smell of their blood. The more Investment the target had, the more appetizing their blood smelled.
I would put this one in between the First and Second Investment, with a few carvings up or down error margin.
“Okay,” I started. “Aurora, you distract it with that ground wobbly thingy you do, I’ll go ahead and smack it on the head, and Jiyun you go around and stab it in the back. Saia you fly above and make sure that nothing comes and pounces on us while our backs are turned.”
“Wobbly thingy?” Aurora nearly screeched.
I jumped on her and pulled her down as the bear raised its head. “Shhhh,” I put my hand over her mouth, her wide eyes looked back at me.
“Great,” I said as I saw the bear turn in our direction. “Same plan, only faster. Aurora go!”
The blond jumped to her feet and pointed a hand at the charging bear as Jiyun started sprinting away from us and Saia took to the sky. I felt the bear activate a skill and its speed increased as it leveled its horns at us.
The ground beneath its feet shook and a crack opened up, the bear slipped and toppled, skidding across the ground. I rushed forward, raising my serpent-tongue spear for an attack from above.
The bear noticed my approach and roared as it pushed with its legs and tried to skewer me. I danced aside and swung, opening a gash on its shoulder, spilling blood all over the ground.
Before it could recover, Jiyoun blurred at its back and stabbed her sword through its stomach all the way to the hilt. The bear’s cry of pain accompanied a quick attempt at turning around, and I took advantage. With a quick step, I got close and stabbed my weapon through its neck straight down into its body. The bear shook for a few seconds, refusing to die, and then slumped to the ground, as its last breath drew near.
I didn’t wait for it to die, and instead got close and bit into its neck, drinking deeply.
“Uh, gross Marianna, you couldn’t have waited for like two minutes,” Aurora said from the side, but I ignored her.
Memories flooded my mind, the bear moving about the forest, encountering other beasts, the biome of the forest changing often. From a distance it heard a shrill call of an owl and ran, leaving a territory where the tree trunks were white and the leaves above black.
I shook my head and pulled out of the memories, then stood. Jiyun had her eyes averted while Aurora looked at me with morbid fascination in her eyes.
Saia landed next to me, her drone now almost coming up to my hip.
“Some help please,” I tapped my chin and Saia’s eyes flashed.
“Statement: I am not your personal cleaning service.”
“Oh, please, you want to eat anything that has even a tiny bit of Source infused biomass, and look,” I pointed at the bear. “We got you a whole bear, the least you can do is help the girl out a bit.”
Saia’s eyes narrowed, then a tiny portion of her separated and swallowed up my face.
“Thash nosh—argh!—” I tried to speak, but my words came out all muffled as she spilled over my mouth and nose.
Aurora laughed nearby, and Jiyun cleared her throat.
“That got us eight hundred points each,” Jiyun said as I pulled Saia away from my face enough that I could speak.
“How do you know?” I asked as Saia finished and flowed down my body and to the ground to rejoin the drone.
Jiyun just pointed above her head, a fading number 800 floated there. I blinked and looked at Aurora who had the same number. I raised my head and saw that I had the number floating above me too. In a span of another two seconds it faded completely and was gone.
“Okay then,” I said slowly. “Guess that’s how we know, wait, do we have to do the math or… Saia, you’re on math duty.”
The dragon gave me a look of utmost contempt, but didn’t comment.
“Okay, I have some information. It looks like there are several different biomes of the forest around, the trees change colors. I’m going to make a guess and say that each king and emperor live in a different biome.”
“What would this one be then?” Aurora asked as she looked around.
I followed her gaze. “Green leaves and tall trees, I don’t think it matches any of the big beasts’ names, maybe the Shadow Ferrorn?”
“You said that you encountered that type of beast before, what was it like? How dangerous?” Jiyun asked.
“Very, it’s like a cross between a big cat and a lizard. From what Shadow told me the species living on Ish Vimza evolved through the Source so that it had increased strength and a kind of aura of terror. Seeing as how this one was called Shadow Ferrorn we can assume that it has Shadow skills. It shouldn’t be as strong as the ones I fought on Ish Vimza though, well the mature one at least. The bear did pass through a dark biome on its way here, so perhaps we can find the ferrorn.”
“Let’s go then,” Jiyun said. “We don’t have any time to waste.”
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We spent the entire day pushing forward, following the bear’s memories in reverse. We encountered a few beasts along the way and dispatched them quickly enough, none were over the Second Investment, at least I didn’t think so. Aurora gained two carvings, bringing her up to Ninth Carving, just one away from advancing her Mask to the Second Investment. Her Investment was tied to utilizing the earth or stone, it didn’t require combat but it did require using her skills to achieve some goal. Mindless use of skills didn’t do anything. That was what she told me at least, I was sure that there was more to it, she was an Exemplar and had learned from the dwarves directly. That they had allowed her to take one of their respected Masks was incredible. Shadow had told me that that rarely happened.
Jiyun was close as well, she had been on her Ninth Carving before they entered, though her investment was more related to her use of the blade and got less for just fighting and killing.
I on the other hand got another full Carving. Getting investment from blood was really unfair, for everybody else at least.
We’ve gotten close to 2,000 points each, which I thought was a nice haul for half a day. We rested for a while until Saia flew back from her scouting and landed next to me.
“Report: Humans ahead a group of two.”
We got to our feet and ready. “What gear do they have?”
“Feedback: Metal armor and weapons.”
So, they had geared in the challenge or had primitive gear made before heading in. Not many had things like that.
“Aurora, Jiyun, you go ahead and meet them. I’ll be nearby.”
Aurora raised her eyebrows. “Why?”
“I want to see what they’ll try to do without knowing that I’m around.”
Jiyun nodded. “A vampire’s presence will change how they’ll act.”
With that, Saia told them a more precise direction and they were off, while I followed after them at a distance.
It didn’t take them long to meet up with them, and I hurried forward so that I could hear more than a hushed murmur.
“—We should continue together, there is strength in numbers,” one of the two men said. He was tall, carried a double-sided axe that had a larger head but a shorter handle than what such a weapon should have. It occurred to me that it could’ve been a dwarvern weapon because of the handle length.
The other was just a handspan shorter than the first and carried a sword. Both had the same armor, a gambeson like Aurora’s with an identical breastplate secured over it. Obviously rewards from the rifts.
“We can take care of ourselves, thank you very much,” Aurora huffed.
I blinked; I had missed the start of the conversation but this… Oh no.
“Two little girls like you, all alone surrounded by beasts, we could help you out,” the other one said.
Oh no no no. I nearly stepped into a tree from shock. There was no way this was really happening, no way these people were real, not here. Do they not realize where they were? No one was here if they were weak.
“Thank you, but we don’t need any protection,” Jiyun said stiffly, her hand gripping the handle of her sword tightly.
“C’mon,” one of the men started. “We’re just trying to help; you don’t need to be a bitch about it.”
I nearly gagged, and that was my cue.
I walked up behind them, in clear sight of Aurora and Jiyun, though the two men heard nothing.
“Yeah,” the other man spoke. “We should team up, we could take down beasts faster, get more points, look after each other’s back. We’re both a man short.”
“How did that happen?” Jiyun asked, and I paused just behind the two men, interested in learning why they were just two. I didn’t sense anyone else nearby, nor had Saia reported anyone either.
The taller of the two men seemed emboldened that Jiyun wanted to continue the conversation that he spilled immediately. “We partnered up with Jean Dubois, you know that guy that was in the top ten? But the fucker decided to abandon us once we read the trial rules. Well screw him, we don’t need him!”
Jean Dubois, I remembered the name, he was the only one among the challengers that had arrived with a full set of armor, and one that looked like it had been made from materials common on Kirios. I had a suspicion that he was one of the Exemplars that had made a deal with one of the Kirios factions and was equipped by them.
“What about you two?” The other man asked. “Someone left you or did you lose someone? This place is dangerous after all.”
Aurora tilted her head. “We never said that we’re alone,” she made it sound so innocent, the way she said it, but her eyes betrayed the mirth she attempted to keep in.
“What?” They stiffened, suddenly realizing that perhaps they didn’t stumble upon two helpless women in the woods.
I was close enough now that I could touch them. I leaned forward and whispered.
“So, you’re going to protect our helpless little selves?”
They yelped and turned, readying their weapons. I saw the moment they fully took in what they were looking at. I had Saia in her armor mode, but that left my face clear. They could see my eyes, and I saw the exact moment when they realized what I was.
I wrinkled my nose as one of them quite literally pissed himself.
“Ah damn.”