I forgot to wish everyone a merry Christmas earlier, but just in time for a happy new year!
They had a long day on the road once Maple began setting up camp. They were enjoying another small stew from which Maple was able to whip up using only some salt crystal and a good chunk of Syrup's most recent kill (a two headed dog creature).
"W-why does it smell so good." Rishia asked as she leaned over the pot.
"Fufu, it's a secret I learned!" Maple announced while licking her own lips, "The higher the mob's level, the more tasty they are. I think this one was… level 30?"
"So high!" Rishia announced as she looked over towards the corpse itself, "Hmm, is that how I leveled up?"
"Yes, everyone in the party gets experience from each other." Maple gave a short cheer, "Are you going to put your points into Magic?"
"Magic? Uh, I don't know the prerequisites of learning magic?" Rishia answered before noticing that Maple was still confused, "D-do you know them either?"
"Uh, eheh, nope." She admitted while scratching the back of her head, "I guess I always learned from eating monsters, since their abilities are like magic."
"Huh, well, uh, the Language of Magic is that we learn our magic from books of previous sorcerers. It is different from normal text as the Language can change between readers, and sometimes the book burns up when it is finished."
"That's so cool!"
"Yeah it is, but… I don't know any of it yet."
"Hmm… HMMMMM…" Maple began to think heavily about the mechanics of her original game, "Well, you said you leveled up right? Maybe put your points into Magic and see if you can read some of it afterwards."
"Really? Do I have a lot of these points?" The girl admitted.
"Maybe, how high of a level are you?" Maple just had to ask.
"Uh, I think 15 now."
"You have plenty! This is how you allocate the points!" Maple gave the girl a small instruction, followed by producing three books from her inventory, "Here you go!"
"Are those Magic Books!?" Rishia called out as Maple placed the book between them.
"Yup! It was a drop from one of the Monsters I killed. There is even the spell [Fireball] in this one!"
Shakily Rishia reached over and took the book, "That sounds r-really dangerous."
"Hmm, it might be. Don't worry though, I got some health potions here for you!" Maple brought out a small belt of pots. Honestly, she forgot she had them most of the time, yet she just kept hoarding them.
Seeing that she had a backup Rishia took the book and opened it. Her eyes widened as the book itself began to shine in her hands, pages quickly moving from one to another in quick succession. Within a few more moments, the shining stopped and was replaced with a silence.
"I… I know how to cast it." Rishia said. She extending her arm towards a bolder, "f-[FIREBALL]"
With that command a ball of fire was sent flying, smashing into the bolder with little to no resistance. If it was not for the recent rain in the area a major forest fire would have started from such a heat filled strike. Instead, everything around the impact sight was burnt into a nice crisp and the boulder left smoldering.
"Wow! That was cool! Hmm, maybe these books follow the rules of the game. As long as you have a high enough stat, you just need to read them." Maple said while handing over three more books, "So here, read these!"
Rishia was of course still staring at the devastation she brought forth in silent shock. Maple took the initiative by opening the book in front of Rishia face to break her line of site and read another new spell. The glowing of the page and the eventual dissolving of each book was the only indicator to grab the next one in the pile.
After the third she finally snapped out of it, "I-I casted Magic! And I have all this knowledge!"
"Hehe, se? This will work out!" Maple laughed with a smile, "Now you just need to keep putting points into magic and we will be awesome!"
"G-great!" Rishia herself cheered, "So, uh, do I need to level up more then?"
"Yup, the Wave is in a couple of days so we will need to get you as high of a level as possible. Kukuku, and I know exactly how to do that."
"O-Okay…" The girl said as she gave a steady yawn, "Ugh, this is going to be a rough night's sleep."
"Yeah, sleeping on the road takes a bit to get used to." Maple said while giving a slight chuckle, "Things are always a little scary, and you always see something at the edge of the campfire."
Rishia could not help but shiver, "Th-that sounds dreadful."
"Yeah, but it's been much better since I got Syrup!" Maple announced while hugging the creature who was the size of a small horse, "And now I got you too!"
"Th-thank you." The girl answered back with a blush.
"Kuku, I should be thanking you!" Maple said before patting the other girl on the head, "Now sleep tight, I got a skill that lets us know if monsters are near."
Rishia gave a nod, slowly nodding off into a deep slumber as she slid into a couple of blankets. As she did, Maple made a little comfortable place to sleep on Syrup's leg, her eyes occasionally glancing towards the shadows.
Maple did not lie when she said that things do go bump in the night. Even if she could not see in darkness, she would occasionally catched glimpses of figures moving around the camp sites. She was not worried though, the [Alert] skill would still wake her up if anything nasty came by. Even then,(unbeknownst to her) most of these creatures were much more scared of her, known to them as the [One who Eats the Living] or [The Devourer]. So she slept, listening to the rhythm of Syrup's breath.
The fire eventually went out, casting the campsite into the night's darkness. It was at this point that movement could be seen nearby, slowly within the shadows closer to the group. It would have been called a beast in how it walked, but a humanoid figure could be seen in the moonlight filtered through the tree. They were confident in their skill, though they were forced back like a frightened cat when the target began to stir.
"Hmm?" Maple's eyes looked around for a moment, now adjusted to the darkness that surrounded her. As her eyes shifted from one end of the place to another there was nothing in her view. It was frankly annoying, so does that mean a small monster woke her up? Well, she could not do anything now, already the skill was telling that whatever it was has left the area. With a yawn Maple went back to sleep.
However this was not the end of our dear assassin. They were obviously embarrassed to have been spotted so easily. So rarely did the targets actually notice them, and from as far away. She was not even ten feet from the encampment! Such an action was shameful upon their fellow shadows, very shameful!
So, with a softness in their step they slowly approached, their eyes steadily upon the Shield Hero. The Hero was its only target, even if the monster she was sleeping on would become a problem later. It was her order, from the crown, to take care of this problem.
It was about half an hour later that Maple rose again, this time with a minor headache coming along. Luckily it was thanks to her immense vitality that her mind was still at rest. Though she could also feel the soft ringing of her [Alarm] skill, so her eyes sharpened into the darkness.
"Hmm, still around are we?" Maple said as she grew a slightly coy smile. She slowly reached for a rock nearby, the item giving her a slight burn as she wielded it. However she was not planning on holding it for long anyways only tossing it toward the problem. "Stay away, I'm sleeping."
To her delight the tingling went away in an instant, allowing the Shield Hero to go back to go back to sleep.
As for the one who was looming over their target, they had the greatest heart attack of their life. Not once, but twice did its target become aware of its presence! She even threw a rock at them, almost hitting the face! Like come on, they are (supposed to be) a super sneaky ninja, not some carnival target!
With their anger almost boiling over, it slowly unsheathed a crossbow. It was their most reliable weapon, though admittedly not a favorite to use. However that did not matter now, since to the Shadow it was obvious the Shield Hero had some sort of detection skill.
Just as they began to line up the target, the Shield Hero moved again. The Shadow's brow was raised, but it would not flee this time. Even if it took longer to eliminate the target, they were going to finish their duty!
The Shadow noted how the Shield Hero began to move, looking more annoyed than anything else. She started moving about the lightless camp when she seemed to stop as it realized something. The Hero then reached into her bag to take out a cloth and placed it over her companion's face.
The Shadow was of course confused on what was happening, though this presented a chance. The girl had moved herself next to the monster that was supposed to be her pet, scratching the creature's throat as if in a playful fashion leaving her full backside toward them.
The Shadow drew back the arrow upon its bow, still questioning the confusing lack of armor on the hero.. Taking in a breath as it finally began to seize the chance.
Then a giant bolt of lighting came, narrowly hitting her!
"F-FUCK!" She screamed as the tree she was standing on broke and she started tumbling towards the forest floor. However, before the tree branch hit the ground, she performed a perfect academy flip and began her retreat! The Shield Hero had seen through her attack! It was time to abandon ship if any!
As for Maple, she heard an animal scream as it fell onto the ground. A moment later the feeling of her alarm went away. Maple got a feeling what was causing the alarm was not going to come back. So with that little problem finished, she once again laid down at Syrup's leg with a warm fuzziness in her chest.
Night quickly went away and Rishia wondered why a blanket was placed on her head. Of course the girl did not worry about it, but for she could only assume it was something Maple did in the middle of the night. However, the cloth was the least of Rishia's worries once Maple finally put her plan into action.
"WOOO! THIS IS SO FUN!" Maple yelled as the morning sun shined upon the two riding Syrup.
"FUEE!" Rishia screamed as she held onto Maple for dear life.
At this point Maple had given up on having any random encounters. The only thing was, without any there was no opportunity to level up Rishia. So Maple took the logical step of "if the monsters would not come to them, they would run the monsters over!"
"RAAAAAR!" Syrup screamed as the creature destroyed every tree in front of it. Many would try to run from the massive devastation it was reaping, but in the end nothing was safe from Syrup as it gave a blast of freezing fire to every creature that ran from it.
"Fufu, I am smart." Maple laughed while turning towards Rishia, "Rishia, want to take some pot shots at the monsters?"
"P-pot shots?"
"Yup, see Syrup is already doing it!" Maple said while waving her hand towards the Monstrosity terrorizing the local wildlife.
"I-I will try!" The girl steeled herself, shakily rising with her hands held out, "Alright, no [Fireball] as that will set the forest on fire. So, I will use [Frostball]!"
Maple watched in amusement as the girl next to her channeled a large blue disk before her. The disk soon began to light up, reaching a crescendo of blue light, "[Frostball]!"
[64 XP Gained]
Admittedly Rishia was not aiming at anything, just firing off the magic for the hell of it. It was to her surprise that in her feed she received a nice chunk of XP from the attack, "Did I… kill something?"
"Yup!" Maple cheered while giving the other girl a hug, "That was so awesome! Fire another one!"
"A-alright! [Frostball]!" Rishia obliged her Hero by firing another ball of freezing fire at a nearby tree, once again gaining a small chunk of XP.
"Again." XP Gained "Again!" XP Gained "AGAIN!" XP Gained!
Rishia was now just firing the spell off randomly, the ball of energy smashing into every enemy it came across. However with each blast the caster loses Mana. Mana deprivation symptoms start with the shaking of the hands, then a loss of control over your limbs. This of course can be overcome by sheer willpower, which is the reason Rishia was able to continuously fire her attack until she collapsed from Mana Exhaustion.
"Fue…" She said as she collapsed on the floor, "I… casted too much magic…"
"You collapse if you run out of Mana? That's so mean." Maple gave a short pout as she looked over her friend's condition, "Cool thing is I have a Mana Potion!"
Maple did not do much, just dumped it on top of the other girl's head and it began to glow a bright blue. Rishia of course was a little surprised; she instantly regained feeling in all her limbs. She slowly rose to a simple sitting position to not push her luck. There was no resistance from her body.
"So, how many levels did you gain?"
"Uh, seven! So many levels!" Rishia exclaimed in excitement.
"That's awesome!" Maple announced with a smile before looking upon the Horizon, "And look! We are about to arrive!"
Rishia turned for a moment in wonderment, her eyes soon gazing upon the Fortress City that represented all that was Melromarc.
There are quite a few legends about the city, especially its odd namesake. Nestled between several mountains in a valley and standing tall against the rest it was an imposing site. The silly name was given back when the place was not even the capital of the land. However when the Great War occured, the current King convinced the Royal Family to move all their operations to this city, and then he went about fortifying the hell out of the place.
Thus, it is known as the greatest bulwark against invasion. While its walls are short they can take a hit greater than any force monsters could generate. There were no trees that laid close to the walls, the King thought it gave men too much cover to approach the walls. Not to mention the blasted Horned Rabbit Queen would also take attempts at the wall, but with her death some of the operation could be cut back.
"I-I made it!" Rishia exclaimed with beady eyes of wonderment, "Th-thats Castle Town!"
"Yup! I wonder how Erhard is doing." Maple cheered with a smile, declaring what she shall do next.
OMAKE
The remains of the first fireball Risha casted was still smoldering when the natives began to gather around it. Trees older than the world lend their branches close with squirrels and birds gathering upon them. Creatures that roam the floors came close with others riding on their backs. A tree near the center of the circle began to speak.
" There is another one."
A gasp went through the gathered crowd as their attention turned to the oldest tree in the gathering.
"But, how could that be, I thought [The Devourer] only had one servant?" exclaimed one of the wargs.
"It seems they have gained another follower." The old replied.
"D-do, do they also eat all that counter them?" asked a song bird.
"Not what [The Devourer] already takes, though this one leaves this-" as the old one points to the ground. "They had also seemed to make winter fire with just a thought."
Mumbling went through the crowd. Many had observed humans that did as the old one said this new followers was able to do. What was concerning was the mayhem that followed the group:
"OH GOD" shouted the grass.
"Mistress Winter will burn us all?!" exclaimed a dire deer.
"Wait, Harold that makes no sense?" called another deer.
"This entire situation makes no SENSE!" yelled a giant eagle.
"Yeah, they even killed Grace. She was just a simple tree AND THEY KILLED HER!" shouted a tree.
"Silence" the old one spoke.
The crowd became quiet again. "We can not do much. Since [The Devourer] is the impromptu queen we can not do much in fight against her."
An unease went through the creatures
"What can we do?" asked a sapling.
"We can at least update the alert and call for a further clearance when the party enters again?" exclaimed a mouse.
"That will do for now," sighed the old one. " This meeting is now adjourned"
"FOR REVERNELL!" exclaimed the crowd.
Not a minute later the forest returned to its state of calm.
