Alright back from what mine as well be the dead at this point and with the latest chapter and the start of the second arc.
Disclaimer I don't own Rotsh
"So any idea what the place we're headed to is like?" Baxley asked.
"Only a few rumors. Supposedly the nearby forest that the settlement is located just outside of has a rather plentiful amount of various herbs and other ingredients for a variety of different potions." Bluebell answered.
The Hyena demi human raised an eyebrow. "Um last I checked there were numerous places like that throughout the entire world."
"True but what makes Herba standout is that unlike the rest of the world it has various ingredients that normally grow in various other regions."
Upon hearing eyes Audrey found her own interest being perqued. "Wait, just to make absolutely sure I'm not misinterpreting this, are you saying that plants and other materials that would normally only be found in other far away places or countries currently out of our reach can be found at the place we're headed to?"
"Yes, one example might be a dried desert root that can be grounded into a fine powder to be used as an ingredient."
"I assume that this root can normally only be found in a desert?"
"Of course however as I'm sure you guessed already the settlement of Herba is an exception to this regional normality."
"That's pretty convenient, I'll have to make sure to take full advantage while we're there." The Bow hero mused.
"Are you sure?" Baxley asked.
"Pretty much, I can get materials not only to refill my supply for when the need to instantly create items comes up."
"I should have figured as much." Baxley mused offhandedly.
"On top of that I can try out new recipes I've learned while also unlocking more new bow variants to add to my base states and hopefully new skills and equip effects."
"How about leveling up, is that part of the plan too?" Baxley asked.
"If it's possible but aside from our particular target we don't actually know if any other monsters around the place are around our level or at all for that matter." Audrey admitted before turning to Bluebell. "That reminds me, do you have any other information on Herba aside from what you just told us?"
Bluebell shrugged. "Not really, aside from being something of a hotbed for a fairly high number of ingredients, Herba Is essentially just another small sized settlement that you would find through the countryside."
"Meaning we'll probably have to ask the locals for more info." Audrey concluded.
"True but beyond that this entire quest should go far more smoothly than our previous one did."
Baxley leaned back on his seat. "That's something I can appreciate considering that we might be even luckier than you think in that regard."
Bluebell turned to him. "How so?"
"Considering that the guildmaster who offered us this mission clearly held disdain for me because of my lineage, I'm surprised he'd offer any type of quest that has a large reward at all."
Audrey silently narrowed her eyes whilst Bluebell replied to Baxley. "I can't deny that it wouldn't have been unexpected for him to deny any quest that offered a large reward to Audrey considering her stance on things when he already proven he has no problem shuning heroes if his treatment of sir Naofumi is anything to go by."
"We'll have to keep our guard up just the same while we're here." Audrey suddenly said drawing looks of confusion from her companions.
"Why? I doubt the guildmaster is planning on cheating us out of our reward." Baxley said.
"I Know but he might have something else planned."
"Hmn, you're not wrong there but if this turns out to be the case then it begs the question of what he does have planned."
"My guess would be for our target to kill us."
"That doesn't seem like a very good plan since we already know our target exists, if that's what he's hoping for then he should have outright lied about what was in the forest."
"Maybe but just the same we can't afford to be complacent about this quest. One thing you gotta bear in mind is that we only have the vaguest information about this unusual monster."
Bluebell placed a hand on her chin. "True, all we really know is that this creature has failed its fair share of adventures and that it has abnormal abilities for a monster."
Baxley sighed. "Basically what the guildmaster told us yesterday."
"That about sums it up meaning we don't know how strong our target is."
Bluebell "I wish I could refute that, but still we're not without our own strengths with our levels ranging from 30 to 34."
"Maybe, but if there's a significant difference between our own levels and that of whatever we're looking for it's going to make this quest that much more dangerous for us."
"Even so we can still do this. We've been through a situation like that back when we dealt with the wave and we were also at a disadvantage during the last mission so it's not like we've never faced any type of difficulty so far."
Audrey smiled. "You're right, I probably shouldn't spend every second being pessimistic."
"No you're just keeping yourself and us from becoming careless and slipping up."
Baxley smiled. "Yeah it's important to keep our guard up after when we don't truly know if the guildmaster is contemplating something against us or not." The hyena demi leaned back again looking to the sky. "Or me just for not being human."
"Well I can tell you it's well within his best interest to drop any such contemplations because if he ever tries to touch you or even Bluebell for that matter while there's breath in my body he's gonna dig his own grave."
Though he had at least gotten to know Audrey long enough to know she wasn't the type to condone or go along with any type of wrong doings, he couldn't help but be surprised by the bow hero's proclamation. "You'd really go that far for me? It might not benefit you."
"Of course, you and Bluebell are my friends, I'm not gonna stand by if anyone tries to hurt either of you, it doesn't matter if I benefit or not."
"You certainly aren't lacking in resolve to protect others. I supposed that's also while you're able to remain steadfast in supporting lord Naofumi."
"That goes without saying, I decided that I'd stand by any friend whenever they need it through thick and thin a little while after I got to this world."
"That a great conviction to carry, I'm curious, have you held it even as a child?"
"No it's not really, I only held it after the initial decision to defend Naofumi at the fake trial. If you're looking for someone who's actually lived by it for years then my friend Patricia would be whom you'd want to look to."
"Was she someone from your world?" Bluebell inquired.
"Yeah, she and I had been friends since we were little, she's always been by my side supporting me in times when I needed it most."
"It sounds as if you really admire her."
"I do, she's practically something of a big sister to me, and someone I've always looked up to."
"What was she like?"
"Supportive, Kind, and steadfast in what she believed in, often lending a hand to others if they ever needed it."
Bluebell found herself giggling a bit. "It is starting to seem like you took inspiration from this friend of yours when you decided to stand by sir Naofumi."
"Believe it or not that actually goes without saying, a large part of why I was even able to work up the resolve to speak out against Naofumi's unfair treatment was only because I knew her."
Baxley's curiosity increased that much more. "Would she have done the same for our god and stood by him like you have?"
"Without even the slightest semblance of hesitation."
"She must have been a really strong person." Bluebell mused.
"That's a complete understatement, when I told you Patricia was steadfast in her beliefs I mean when she decided to help me or someone else there or do something because she felt it was the right thing to do there was no changing her mind."
"Any particular instances you might be able tell about where this Patrica women's resolve had shown through?"
Audrey turned her gaze skyward whilst smiling. "Yeah a few years back when I was still in high school."
"High school?" Bluebell inquired with a raised eyebrow.
"Let's just say its a school for students between the ages 13 to 17 but that's not really relevant, what you need to know is during that period of time I went to one such place there a another student there who was…..a complete narcissistic and biggotted asshole to say the least."
"I'm guessing they had something to do with the story you're about to tell."
"They were the source of the trouble in it."
"Who were they exactly?"
Audrey internally grimaced, recalling the person she hated back in her world. "A guy who was popular with many of the girls who went to the same school at that time. His name if I remember correctly was Cain Jones"
Baxley let out a brief hum. "What exactly did they do that caused trouble?"
"To keep things simple he basically let his popularity with women go to his head. In a sense he was a great deal like Motoyasu."
"The spear hero how?" Bluebell asked.
"Much like how Motoysau acts like me and Raphtalia are his for the taking, Cain felt that any girl who caught his eye regardless of who they were close with was his for the taking by right."
"You mean…?"
"Basically if you caught his eye he'd pursue you even if you were already in a relationship with someone else since he would feel he was above them not unlike how Motoyasu tried to take Raphtalia even after being told she was in Naofumi's party.
"I see."
"Though one key difference was that Cain was capable of actually manipulating others around him rather than just being manipulated."
Bluebell thought about everything the bow hero had told her about this Cain person, making sure she had the correct picture. "From what you're telling us this Cain is basically an even worse version of the spear hero."
"Back before the duel that the king tampered with I would have said he was the worse of the two and that's ignoring what happened to Cadia."
"Fair enough."
"But that's all beside the point, going back to my initial story before we got side tracked basically, Cain I guess was bored with what girls he already had eating out of the palm of his hand and decided he needed a fresh addition to his harem."
"And he set his eyes on you?"
"Yep but unlike every other girl he set his eyes on I didn't have any interest in going out with him."
Baxley sweatdropped. "Um am I wrong in sensing a second but coming up?"
"No you're certainly not, when I said Cain felt entitled to any girl who caught his eye I meant he did not register the idea of being rejected at all so when I told him I didn't want anything to do with him he simply took it as a challenge and tried to get more forceful about approaching me."
Bluebell found herself cringing at that thought, she had seen more than a few arrogant minded men try to simply drag women off under the guise of showing them a good time to practically rape them in reality during her time as an adventurer. To think Audrey was put through something like this….well she wouldn't allow anyone else to try that with Audrey while she had breath in her body.
"When Cain tried to force me to comply with him I just remember getting really pissed and ramming my fist into his face full force and giving him a body lip in the process."
Baxley smirked. "Sounds like he got what he deserved."
"Yeah but even though I got the message across that I didn't want to become one of his harem, that wasn't the end of it, he was determined to make sure I paid for rejecting him."
"What'd he do?"
"He put out a false rumor that I hit him for no reason and pretty much his entire harem along with practically every student in the entire school bought it."
"Don't tell me you ended up in a situation like lord Naofumi's current one."
"While it was not exactly like Naofumi's ordeal I did end up a social outcast with everyone pretty despising me and thinking I was the scum of the earth not too unlike what happened to him after the fake trial and at one point Cain's fan club decided to try taking matters in their own hands and attack me."
"I'm sorry to hear you were put through that."
"It's fine because it was when they decided to take things to the next level that Patricia got involved and defended me forcing them to back off?" Audrey smiled recalling the actions of her friend.
"Thanks to her I realized I wasn't alone in that situation, that I had at least one person who was on my side. It meant more to me than I could ever put into words."
"Hearing that I can see why you look up to this friend of yours."
"Yeah, even though sticking by me ruined her own reputation at school Patricia didn't care, she stuck to her conviction to stand by me during one of the times when not only did I need it the most but she had nothing to gain from doing so."
"I see. Is that what inspired you to standby lord Naofumi?"
"Definitely, when I remembered how Patricia supported me when no one else would and how I had always admired her I worked up the courage to stand up for and standby Naofumi."
Baxley chose this moment to ask about another subject. "If you don't mind me asking, what happened with both of you in between that time and now?"
"If it's fine, though it's a bit of a long story."
Baxley simply chuckled. "It'll be a while yet before we reach the settlement of Herba so we have time."
Hearing that Audrey began telling the newest party member of all the events starting from the trial shocking both party members when she told them of how she had shot an arrow close to king's head when he tried to have Naofumi's funds seized shocking Baxley and Bluebell though it the shock was only momentary in the case of the latter on she remembered how much it angered Audrey seeing people go out of their way to wrong the shield hero at every turn.
From there the bow hero explained how she met Bluebell with the latter telling her personal parts in the story of the events surrounding the two along with the events of the second wave and the forced duel including Audrey chewing Naofumi out for his previous self deprecating mindset derived from not being able to attack anything.
After that, the two senior members explained the events that happened within Lute pertaining to the race Naofumi had to win in order to keep Mien from wrongfully extorting the villagers out of whatever they had left after the attack by the second wave.
Baxley simply took everything in silently trying to process it all, he was amazed with Audrey's devotion as well as the shield hero's actions but also disgusted with the princess and spear hero. "I think I got the better part of the picture but there is one thing I'm curious about."
"Shoot." Audrey simply replied.
"You've told me a bit about our god and even the spear hero if he can even be called a hero at this point but I've heard nothing about the sword hero or at least not in detail. What's he like?"
Audrey had to take time to think about it before answering. "I can't really say that much since we don't really talk to him all that much and from what little interactions I've had with him the best I can say for sure is that he's better than Motoyasu if that counts for anything.
Bluebell gave a disapproving look. "Audrey I'd say that being better than the spear hero means a great deal, the sword hero might not have done as much as you or Naofumi heroically speaking but he still helped us during the aftermath of the duel at the castle."
The bow hero sighed."Point taken, Ren at least shows some ability to see some of the king and his cunt of a daughter's obvious bull$×*, that being said however I wouldn't go carrying around an exaggerated opinion of him."
Bluebell wore a look of confusion which caused Audrey to explain the latter half of her previous statement. "While Ren might be able to do better than Motoyasu he still isn't taking the entire situation seriously, in his mind the fight against the waves is literally a game to him plus he has a self deluded superiority complex which makes him annoying to deal with and as for his actual competence on the battlefield, well if his actions during the second wave are anything to go by his priorities are in the wrong place."
"You're…..not exactly wrong, but still I don't think you should be so quick to dismiss him as worthless, at the very least he hasn't caused any harm to the people like the spear hero had done."
"Maybe so but…" Audrey trailed off.
"But?" Bluebell repeated.
"We haven't seen anything that he's been up to during the time between the waves or even during the second one for that matter technically since he was away trying to fight the wave's boss. So overall aside from not being the brain dead retard that Motoyasu is its more or less impossible to say he conpetent of a hero he truly is."
"Fair enough."
Baxley leaned back stretching his back in the process. "So basically your saying that his persona leaves a lot to be desired but that they have possible potential."
Audrey just shrugged "Maybe but whether or not that "possible" potential is ever reached depends on if that egotistical brat can get his head out of his ass and wake up to reality."
The party continued bantering about miscellaneous things for around another hour and a half before the driver announced that they were reaching Herba.
Immediately Bluebell took in the view of the village, excited at the prospect of seeing a new place before Baxley followed suit, inciting a smile from the bow hero.
Considering the dire circumstances and possibilities they discussed just earlier it was a welcome sight to see her party enjoying themselves while they had the chance. Deciding to see whether or not what Bluebell said about Herba being an unusual hot spot for local and foreign herbs alike.
Glancing around the endless grass fields on either side of the road and saw various plants of more than a few shapes and colors sticking out of the grassfields. Looking back in the general direction of the settlement Audrey saw a forest that was more akin to something of a fairly large grove that was just thick enough to conceal anything lurking within it as well as wide enough to provide a more than a few areas to cover once the search started just west of the village close enough to be within walking distance of anyone currently staying at Herba.
Honestly, with how close it was to the village Audrey would have thought it posed a very imminent threat to the villagers all together but the peaceful atmosphere she was getting from the settlement itself gave her reason to think otherwise. 'Have to ask about that if and when I have the chance.'
"We're here." The driver announced whilst giving the reins a tug, causing the horses to stop and subsequently bringing the cart to a stop. All the party quickly climbed out of the cart and thanked the driver before heading into Herba.
Glancing at the people in the town Audrey was pleased to see that none of them were shooting any scornful looks in Baxley's direction, her newest party member really didn't need to be put through any heartache because of his lineage especially given what he's been through already and personally Audrey wasn't going to standby and allow anyone to try anything against him.
"So do you have any idea what you want us to do first?" Baxley asked Audrey, who placed a hand on her chin.
"Head to the tavern or any other place so we can gather more information."
"Got it."
Bluebell decided to bring one more matter. "Say Audrey, I'm more than a bit certain you'll want to take some time to collect the various plants around the area just outside Herba but are you intending to do that before or after we deal with our unknown target?"
"Depends on what information we uncover about our target but more than likely it's going to be beforehand if only to make sure we're that much more prepared beforehand."
"I'd say it's better to do it beforehand without a doubt, the potential new bows might give you new skills that might be able to help us in the fight ahead."
Baxley nodded in agreement with Bluebell's statement. "Yeah it's better to be safe than sorry."
Audrey shrugged. "When you put it that way I can't really argue, not that I want but still you have a valid point. Anyway, with the order of our two primary tasks decided, let's find a tavern."
With that the group went to their intended destination, luckily since Herba wasn't a large city like the capital it didn't take much effort to find the establishment in question. Once the party entered they received a few curious looks much like how they did upon initially entering the village but nothing beyond that.
Seeing as they weren't about to be questioned or harassed, Audrey and the others made their way over to the counter where the proprietor greeted them. "How can I help you?"
"Just looking for a bit of information." Audrey replied.
"Whatever's causing disappearances in the forest?"
"You catch on fast." Baxley noted to which the owner in charge of the tavern shrugged.
"Aside from wanting to gather various foreign ingredients when there's a chance to do so the only reason people ever come here is to try and deal with the monster causing the disappearances."
"Well we're essentially here to do both but as you already deduced we want to learn what we can beforehand to heighten our chances of survival." Audrey said.
The proprietor smiled. "If you are thinking things through then maybe you might just have a chance in actually succeeding."
Audrey slightly raised an eyebrow. "I take it that everyone that's tried to deal with our target before us didn't?"
"That might be sugarcoating somewhat. Every previous adventurer before you came here full of bravado and hubris thinking that they had already won before they started and well if you heard the gist of what's been going on you can guess what became of almost all of them."
"They were added to the number of disappearances?"
"Exactly."
"You said "most" of them, does that mean they were survivors?"
The owner sighed. "Yes and no."
That wasn't the type of answer any of the party was expecting and all of them were left with more than a little confusion which showed on their faces and didn't go unnoticed by the owner of the tavern. "To elaborate, there were a few who actually returned from the forest; however they all had inquiries that were so grievous that they didn't live long after."
"What type of injuries are we talking about?" Audrey inquired.
"One guy was missing an entire arm, another quite literally had their entrails hanging out of their stomach."
"So we're dealing with the ability to tear through flesh and rip off limbs then." The bow hero noted.
"I don't know if that's supposed to be comforting for you."
"In and of itself it's not but that piece of information tells me that whatever we're dealing with has fangs and claws which might narrow down what it be."
The proprietor gave the bow hero an almost apologetic look. "Actually we have been given a description of the creature in question from some of them."
"Okay, I'm listening." Audrey mused.
"Contrary to what you most likely believe the few returnees that managed to hold on long enough to tell us anything all told us that the monster was I kid you not some kind of deer like monster."
"Deer….like?" Audrey asked.
"Yes that is really what they all said."
"I see…" the bow hero trailed off. Honestly to say that the description she got contradicted popular belief on what the monster could be was a massive understatement. It was one thing when the world Audrey was currently in turned out to have living balloons that'd try to kill you but the idea of a deer of all things being able to inflict the type of wound the owner had described felt implausible, whatever the monster was it couldn't be an ordinary deer like the ones on earth. "Anything else you can tell us?"
"A few of the failed adventurers were actually high in levels; some were even class upped."
"Class upped?" Audrey asked.
Bluebell chose this moment to speak up. "I almost forgot to tell you, once normal people reach level forty they need to undergo a ceremonial process called class up which essentially raises their stats exponentially and allows them to further their skills in whatever they might specialize in such as swordsmanship or magic."
"Meaning I'll have to look into getting you and Baxley class ups before much longer."
"Yeah, otherwise me and Baxley will reach a Plateau and won't be able to advance further in terms of levels without."
"Meaning level 40 isn't only the ideal time to class up but essentially the level cap without going through with it."
"Yes."
"So we're going to have to make plans for getting you two class upped soon."
"That might be a problem when the time comes." Bluebell replied.
"Why."
"In Melromarc we need the crown's permission, and on top of that the place where it's performed is the dragon hourglass housed by the three heroes church."
"Meaning getting any class up in Melromarc is more than likely-actually at this point it's guaranteed to be a fool's errand to even try."
"Then what do you plan to do?" Bluebell inquired.
"I'm not entirely sure at the moment, we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it, for now let's just focus on taking care of this mission."
"Right."
The tavern owner who was listening in silence just shrugged. "Hopefully you'll be able to figure something out with your personal problem but there's one more thing you should know about the monster you plan to fight."
"I'm listening." The bow hero replied.
"It only appears once every three nights from what we could gather here. At least it always seems to be around that time the adventurers going into the forest would disappear if they went in at all."
"I take that means we likely won't be seeing the monster tonight."
"You gotta wait two full nights before you go in, otherwise you'll find no sign of your target no matter how hard you try."
"So we got a bit of time before we can even begin our mission." Audrey mused.
"Are there any monsters around the area aside from the one we're planning to look for?"
"A few moth type monsters here and there within the forest around levels 23 to 26."
"Meaning we won't be able to gain any meaningful experience points from them." Baxley said before letting out a sigh.
"Sorry. But aside from the monster that's causing disappearances or deaths of any adventurer that comes here there's not anything of high enough level to make gains if you're close to reaching the level forty cap."
Baxley slumped in his chair while Bluebell tried to reassure him. "We'll be able to get a good amount of experience from our target and on the bright side we won't have to worry about any outside distractions."
"True but still I was hoping to raise my level into the mid thirties during this quest."
Audrey shot the hyena-type demi human a smile. "Don't worry after we've done this particular quest we'll look for a place with stronger monsters that we can fight to level up further."
"Right."
Audrey turned back to the proprietor and placed a small number of silver coins down on the table leaving the man confused. "My thanks for the information you gave us."
"If you insist but if you really want to thank me you and your companions can do it by coming back alive and well."
"That goes without saying." Audrey said as she and the others left the tavern with the discovery that her target wasn't going to make an appearance for another two nights and it was supposed to be some kind of deer-like creature, the bow hero still had a hard time wrapping her head around that part.
"So since we got all this time on our hands before the mission can even start what do we even do with all of it? I doubt collecting any foreign herbs is going to take an entire two nights." Baxley said, placing his hands behind his head.
"I've been meaning to practice with my magic more so I can use it with better efficiency, we could all use improvement in that area."
"You may be right in that regard but Audrey we need to get magic tomes for Baxley." Bluebell pointed out.
"You're right." Audrey replied before turning to her other companion. "Baxley I know you have support type magic because of that spell you have in your arsonal but do you know if you have any other affinity?"
"Not to my knowledge, in fact the only reason I know about my support magic is because of my father."
"I'm guessing he's who you inherited it from."
"Yeah, while normally people are born with random affinities more than a few people in my family through past generations have possessed support magic it was also my father who taught me the fast guard spell."
"Let's see if there's any shop that sells grimoires. I'd like for you to also learn new spells."
Bluebell pointed at a store that had purple curtains hanging along the sides of the entrance. "That place looks promising."
"Let's hope they got what we need." The bow hero mused before the party entered the shop in question. To their luck the establishment was indeed a magic shop which held various tomes, staffs, crystals and the like on its shelves.
"Hellow, are you by any chance interested in any of my wares?" The shop owner asked.
Looking over towards the shelves where the tomes were kept Audrey replied offhandedly. "We are hoping to find a tome that we can use to study support magic."
"Right over there." The shopkeeper indicated the direction the group needed to look in.
From there it became a relatively simple task of finding the item in question thanks to Bluebell. Once the group purchased it for around thirty plus silver pieces, they left and headed towards the immediate outskirts of the village. The moment they reached their destination, Audrey handed the newly bought tome to Baxley all but shoving it in his hand in the process.
"I want you to study from that tome and see if there are new spells you can learn as of this moment."
"What about you and Bluebell?"
"We're going to be doing the same thing on top of practicing the spells we already have within our arsonal."
With that both of Audrey's companions were reading through their respective tomes whilst Audrey went a little further out into the field making sure there weren't any immediate herbs around before she proceeded to practice the only current spell she knew.
"As the bow hero I command you, decipher the laws of nature and form a wall from the soil beneath my feet to protect me from harm."
Stretching her hand forward. "Earth wall"
A slab of land broke off from the rest of the earth and rose to the point of standing up vertically forming a makeshift wall. Audrey just shrugged at the sight.
While it was good that she knew the spell off the top of her head, she wanted to be able to perform it more efficiently. Otherwise she ran the risk of being attacked mid-chant. While odds were she wouldn't be able to completely nullify that said risk when she learned stronger spells, she was at least hoping and somewhat banking on the idea that she could eventually at least perform lower tier spells such as her current earth wall without the need for a chant.
She repeated the process of casting the spell almost ten times before she began to feel a better sense of efficiency with it. Audrey already knew if there ever came a point where she could instantaneously use her earth wall spell, she still had a long way to go, however….
Stretching her arm outward. She glanced at her stats and more so her remaining MP and suppressed a groan.
Audrey Alethea level 34
Weapon: legendary bow "locked"
Equipment: Iron armor: Def up (medium) impact resistance (very small)
Amulet: fire resistance (very small) slash resistance (small) Hp restoration (very low)
Hp: 1683/1683
Sp: 901/901
Mp 704/432
Sta:299
Mag 231
Def: 96
Agi: 601
Dex: 452
Rst:135
Skills: quick dash lv3, scouting lv1, transport bow lv1, rain arrow lv 1, chain arrow lv1, thunder arrow lv1
Spells: earth wall
'I gotta save some of my mp for any spells I might learn.' With almost half of her mp drained she had to obtain results now or put this off until a later date, potentially, no more than likely one after the mission.
She may have had two days but she actually wanted to spend tomorrow exploring the forest and getting an idea of its inner layout.
In a sense she was in a now or never situation. "I command you, form a wall out of the soil to protect me from harm."
"Earth wall."
Magic flowed from the bow hero's outstretched hand as she watched on anxiously after using the shorter version of the chant 'Please work.'
It felt like time was intentionally slowing down just for the sake of keeping the otherworlder in suspense while she watched the ground in front of her.
Much to her relief the sound of ground breaking apart was heard as a slab of land rose up creating a makeshift wall. Audrey smiled at her progress, while she still had to use a chant to cast the spell, the said chant was now shorter from what it had once been which saved her a few vital seconds to cast it.
With the out of the way she had one more thing to work on for that day in the form of adding new spells to her arsonal. Opening her tome in search for potential new earth spells, she began reading the immediate spells on the first few pages where the earth wall spell was located.
Reading over an article located below where the earth wall spell was located (not the earth spell itself), she found herself better understanding the explanation for it thanks to the time she put into furthering her reading skills in the Melromarc language.
Skimming over the information one more time in order to make sure that she truly understood it she nodded to herself before placing the book down, standing up and holding her hand out in front of her.
"As the bow hero I command you, decipher the laws of nature and form a projectile to send at my enemies."
Audrey visualized the spell in her mind as small pieces of the ground breaking away from the earth and floating into the air before gathering into a singler spot within the air just in front of Audrey's extended hand and forming a bullet shape rock of sorts.
The bow hero called the name of the new spell. "Fast earth shot."
The shot made from the earth shot forward, flying off into the distance at considerable speeds reaching a distance of somewhere between 25 and 30 meters.
Glancing at her personal stats, Audrey was pleased to see the spell was now registered under her list of personal spells along with her earth wall. Wasting no time the bow hero doved back into her earth tome and read a bit more coming to the earth hole spell.
Thanks to having already witnessed the spell in question back during the race Naofumi went through thanks to Mien's antics she already knew what the spell was supposed to look like so learning it was relatively simple.
"As the bow hero I command you, decipher the laws of nature and form a hole within the very ground."
Holding her hand out, she focused on the area she wanted to cast the spell.
"Earth hole"
Sure enough a decently sized hole materialized within the ground. 'Another spell down.' The bow hero thought before glancing in the direction of Bluebell, who was a bit of a distance away and from the look of her posture was potentially ready to cast a new spell of her own.
After going through a chant, Bluebell extended her hand outward. "Chain bolt." A stream of lightning shot from Bluebell's hand and struck a nearby boulder that was half embedded in the ground before flying away from it to strike a secondary target in the form of a solitary tree.
The swordmaiden smirked at her own success before looking around and finding a patch of exposed dirt within the grass plains and pointing to both her index and middle finger towards it and beginning another incantation followed by the another new spell name.
"Flame Pillar."
A miniature twirling pillar of fire manifested within the dirt patch and remained there in place.
Audrey had to admit her teammate was certainly no slouch when it came to learning magic, she already had magic spells from both of her respective affities, speaking of which. The bow Hero put her earth tome back in item storage and pulled out her wind tome before opening it.
Since she now had a small number of Earth spells she could use, the otherworldly hero had figured she should obtain some wind type ones also, lest she potentially fall behind Bluebell in the spell department. After around another hour of reading, the bow hero was relatively sure she had at least two more spells she would now be able to perform.
Audrey Alethea level 34
Weapon: legendary bow "locked"
Equipment: Iron armor: Def up (medium) impact resistance (very small)
Amulet: fire resistance (very small) slash resistance (small) Hp restoration (very low)
Hp: 1683/1683
Sp: 901/901
Mp 704/364
Sta:299
Mag 231
Def: 96
Agi: 601
Dex: 452
Rst:135
Skills: quick dash lv3, scouting lv1, transport bow lv1, rain arrow lv 1, chain arrow lv1, thunder arrow lv1
Spells: earth wall, fast earth shot, earth hole
With the amount of mp she had left Audrey knew she would have to call it a day as far as training her magic went once she casted the two spells and confirmed she could indeed use them and she had a feeling the Bluebell was in similar enough condition and even Baxley from the look of him.
Once she was at the ready Audrey began the incantation for her first wind spell. "As the bow hero I command you, decipher the laws of nature and form a raging torrent to blow away my enemies."
"Fast tornado."
A moderately sized twister materialized from the bow hero's palm and shot forward, much to her joy. That meant she could use the fast spell but that still left the second spell she studied from the tome.
"As the bow hero I command you, decipher the laws of nature and set a trap to send away my enemies to their deaths."
Audrey focused on the spot she wanted the spell to be casted. "Wind trap."
This time there was no visible result; however Audrey wasn't surprised by that, not because of any doubt of her success but rather of the spell worked according to her hud which soon showed her an icon confirming the trap was indeed there in spite of the spot looking otherwise untouched.
Now she just needed something to trigger it so she could see it in action. Looking around the immediate area it didn't take long for her to find a rock conveniently located next to her very own feet. Picking the stone up she tossed it right on the spot where the wind trap was set.
At the exact moment the rock made contact with the ground a torrent of Wind instantaneously materialized beneath the stone and sent it high into the air, high enough in fact that if it were a person or monster it'd suffer considerable damage upon landing.
"This'll definitely come in handy in the future." She mused to herself as Bluebell walked over.
"It's great to see you've made a great deal of progress.
Audrey glanced at her stats once more.
Audrey Alethea level 34
Weapon: legendary bow "locked"
Equipment: Iron armor: Def up (medium) impact resistance (very small)
Amulet: fire resistance (very small) slash resistance (small) Hp restoration (very low)
Hp: 1683/1683
Sp: 901/901
Mp 704/281
Sta:299
Mag 231
Def: 96
Agi: 601
Dex: 452
Rst:135
Skills: quick dash lv3, scouting lv1, transport bow lv1, rain arrow lv 1, chain arrow lv1, thunder arrow lv1
Spells: earth wall, fast earth shot, earth hole, fast tornado, wind trap
"I can say the same for you." Audrey replied. "These new spells will hopefully help us out against our….deer like target when the time comes."
"We'll have more at our disposal then when he faced the bandits who destroyed cadia or that one man who made an attempt on your life though even with that being the case we'll still have limits on what we can use or at least I will."
"You're fire spells?"
Bluebell shrugged. "I can't utilize them within those woods without setting everything alight and potentially Herba too."
"True. Still you should be able to use your lightning spells. Though you have to be careful to hit any trees if you can help it since lightning strikes can potentially start a wildfire if you hit one too many."
"If possible I'd prefer to rely on my swordplay during the upcoming fight."
"Okay, in that case since we're more or less done learning what we could for today, how about you spar with Baxley while I gather whatever foriegn herbs and other materials I can find."
Baxley raised an eyebrow. "You're looking for other things aside from herbs?"
"Yeah basically any materials or objects that help me unlock new bow variants."
"Are you referring to the different appearances your weapon can take on?"
"Yeah, basically each form is essentially a different bow and they give me boosts to my stats and on occasion new skills like the ones I used when fighting the bandits you worked for and that man that tried to kill me."
"So, you're not just trying to gather ingredients but use this as a way to get stronger."
"Pretty much, anything that helps ensure we all make it through this mission alive and not just join those who've disappeared and died is something I'm not passing up." Audrey said before walking away from her party members and over to an area where the forgien herbs were growing.
While the bow hero was by no means an expert in which plants originate from which location, it was definitely a small number that looked like they didn't blend in with the grassfields.
From the looks of it, overall Audrey would be able to obtain numerous bow variants but only of moderate quantity. Regardless, Audrey was satisfied with what she was seeing and began picking the various plants and storing them into her item storage while keeping a single sample of each out to unlock new bows.
One plant that caught the westerner's eye was a bush that had what looked to be usual looking chili peppers on it. Rather than the usual red or yellow they were a light sky blue color. Picking one, Audrey scrutinized it before her hud pulled up a title for the fruit.
Chilled winter pepper.
The bow hero clicked her tongue before she hypothesized that the fruit was in a certain sense the bipolar opposite of the traditional peppers. She couldn't prove it at that exact moment since she had no intention of eating it but she had the feeling she wasn't wrong. Placing it on the jewel of her bow, the bow hero waited for her weapon to absorb it.
Chilled winter pepper bow unlocked
Stat bonus: sps + 35 cold resistance + 20
Equip bonus: cold resistance up (large) spd + 10 heat resistance up (very small)
Skill: Frost arrow
Well that was definitely more of a plus then than Audrey could have anticipated, granted she'd picked up useful abilities from the least likely sources in the past already she still wasn't expecting to obtain a bow form with stats as high as the were from a fruit she found.
Still she had to be grateful this would without a doubt be of great use not only would it give her an extra boost to her greatest attribute when she had it equipped but it gave her an a new offensive skill she could use without worry of setting the forest on fire which she could likely do if she used her thunder arrow and hit the wrong part of the grove with it.
This new bow in spite of its unexpected origin would certainly be a go to weapon when the bow hero's actual mission officially started but for the time being she still had a few other variants to unlock.
Rotted root bow unlocked
Stat bonus: spd + 13 atk + 9 poison resistance up (small)
Equip bonus: decay effect (low)
Skills: none
Blue flower bow unlocked
Stat bonus: dex + 12 apothecary up (small)
Equip bonus: none
Skills: none
Winter grass bow unlocked
Sats bonus: int +4 freezing resistance up (high)
Equip bonus: none
Skills: none
The list included a few more but none that offered any major gains on their own. With her collection of herbs complete Audrey decided now would be a good time to see how her party was doing.
XXXXX
"I've got to say you're quite skilled." Baxley said whilst pivoting his body to a thrust from Bluebell before attempting to counter with a swipe of his ax only for her to block the attack with her shield before jumping back to create distance between herself and him.
"I've spent a good amount of time training prior to heading out to become an adventurer and meeting Audrey from there." Bluebell lunged forward bringing her rapiar around in a wide horizontal arc with Baxley managed to parry with a swipe of his ax before bringing his weapon back in front of him and following with an overhead swing which Blueblue met with a swing of her rapiar and smirking. "I have to say you're quite skilled yourself, I suppose that comes with the experience of hunting and fighting within Zeltobe's coliseum."
"You're not wrong." Both combatants dislodged their blades and backed up a bit, readying their next attacks. Baxley acted first lunging forward with a simple swipe which Blueblue deflected with a swipe of her shield and followed up with a side swing headed for Balxey's head who just smirked before ducking undering the incoming attack and countering with a side swipe of his own forcing Bluebell back once more. "Hunting allowed me to gain a feel for how to use a weapon and fighting in Zeltobe pit me against various opponents."
Bluebell ran towards Baxley directly but rather than trying to attack with her sword she utilized a shield bash forcing Baxley to match the attack with a swipe of his ax effectively causing both opponents to lock armaments.
However Blueblue followed up a swipe of her sword believing she was about to win the match by utilizing the opening she created when she forced her opponent into a weapon lock with her only to be taken off guard when Baxley not only managed to jump back in time to avoid losing the match right then and there but unlocked his ax from her shield causing her to stumble forward whilst bringing up his own weapon to swipe her blade aside.
With the tables seemingly turned Baxley came at Bluebell with an overhead swing believing he was about to be victorious in the spar however by some miracle the blue haired sword user managed to regain her footing a met Baxley's attack with another shield bash causing him to be the one to stumble backwards a few steps before he jumped back creating enough distance to allow himself the time needed to restabilize his own footing and ready his weapon for the next bout of the spar.
Throughout the course of the spar neither opponent had truly managed to truly gain the upper hand or any form of a visible advantage over the other. There were times where one of them might have gained ground for a brief period of time before they promptly lost it as quickly as they gained it but beyond that the match was locked in a long lasting stalemate, odds were the entire duel was going to come down to a war of attrition which begged the question of who would tire out first, something both competitors were well aware of.
As the two readied the respective armaments both opponents ran at the other with the intent of bringing the spar to an end via one final all out clash. The moment the two were within each other's attack range they traded blow after blow in a series of swings, parries, blocks, faints, evasions and more.
Seeing that either one of them could tire out at any given moment Bluebell made one final all out bid to secure herself as the victor of the spar as she waited for Baxley's next attack which came in the form of a wide horizontal arc swing.
Unlike many previous times where she'd either block, parry, and meet the attack with her own weapon she opted to step back just about out of range to the ax before thrusting blade forward and vying to position just at Baxley's through however…..
"Nice try!" Baxley exclaimed before bringing his ax back around, hitting Bluebell's blade with enough force to send the entire weapon out of her hand and changing the direction of his ax and bringing it back around once more with the intention of forcing Bluebell to yield.
"Same to you!"
"Wh-?!" In his haste to place his weapon at Bluebell's neck Baxley failed to notice that she was bringing her shield up in an upwards swiping motion right on course to intercept his own swing and was unprepared for it. The moment the shield met the ax head Baxley felt his weapon forced out of his hand and sent sailing a short distance away.
Both combatants starred each other down for a few long tense moments before both sighed simultaneously in exhaustion.
"It looks like this round ended in a draw." Baxley mused.
"Yeah. You really kept me on my toes throughout our duel."
Baxley let himself fall back into the grass. "I can say the same for you."
Before Bluebell could reply, both she and Baxley heard Audrey's voice. "I'll be the first to say that anybody would have more than likely been on the edge of their sight if what glimpse I saw was anything to go by."
Baxley smiled before sitting up. "Maybe you should have stuck around to see our spar from the very beginning, you would have seen a far more impressive show."
Audrey returned her companion's smile. "Maybe but just the same I had some collecting to do."
Bluebell gave Audrey a curious look. "Did it pay off?"
"Yeah, I even have a new bow variant that allowed me to gain a new offensive skill that should be a big help during the mission when it starts."
Bluebell walked over to where her weapon laid in the grass before retrieving and sheathing it. "I suppose this means we also have ingredients for more healing potions now."
Audrey could help but chuckle at that as well scratch the side of her head in slight embarrassment. "Of course. I'll be ready to create healing potions whenever the need arises."
"I'm happy to hear that, we can feel more confident in our abilities going forward."
"True we've both learned more spells and speaking of which…" Audrey turned her gaze to Baxley. "Were you ever able to learn any new spells."
"Yes. One called magic up which essentially raises an individual's intelligence stat in order to boost their magic attack."
"I have a few spells that should help us but I digress, let's go to the inn and pay for a room."
XXXXX
"That'll be twelve silver pieces." The receptionist said before the bow hero handed them the requested amount and from there was handed the key to the room her party would be using for the next three nights.
Audrey turned to her party. "Alright with that out of the way let's grab a bite before we have to retire for the night."
"You'll hear no objections from me." Baxley declared.
"I for one won't deny having appreciation for a good meal." Bluebell mused.
Audrey let out a chuckle at the latter's response, being aware of her bad luck streak prior to the two of them meeting. "I'm glad to see we're all in agreement." With that the bow hero led her party back over to the tavern where they'd ordered meals from the proprietor and informed them that she managed to collect a fair number of forgien plants.
Soon the group was served their food and began eagerly digging in when Bluebell decided to ask a question that weighed on her mind for a little while. "Say Audrey, do you have any idea what we'll be doing tomorrow since we won't be able to carry out the mission?"
Audrey placed a hand on her chin thinking about her teammate's question, to be honest she wasn't entirely sure herself, they could likely spend a fair portion further practicing magic but that would only last until they ran out of mp.
She had already collected enough herbs today from the nearby areas to last her more than a few weeks and found every new one she could along with the corresponding bow variants looking for any more would more or less be rather counter-productive in the long run.
Leveling up was out of the question since there were no nearby monsters for the group to hunt. Still it wouldn't do the group any good to just sit around twiddling their thumbs since they came here on a mission even if they couldn't start it right off the bat.
"Maybe we should survey the nearby forest."
"Are you sure? From what we were told the normal monsters that inhabit it are below our levels and also our target won't appear until the night after tomorrow.'' Bluebell said.
"True but a little reconnaissance might help us out, at the very least we have an idea of the place's layout and be able to use that to our advantage if at all possible.
Bluebell shrugged in recognition. "Fair enough, anything that'll help us with an unknown enemy that more than likely poses a high threat is nothing short of a positive factor."
Baxley gave the two a somewhat skeptical look. "That may be true but I'm sure it's not going to take the entire day for us to scope the place out, suffice to say we'll still have a lot of time left on our hands when it's done."
Audrey sighed. "True but at this point there's nothing that I can think of off the top of my head at this very moment so unless one of you has an idea how we can best use our time for the sake of carrying out the mission we're on successfully were likely just gonna have to cross that bridge when we come to it."
"She's got you there Baxley. In terms of physical and magic training and we've mostly made whatever gains we can for the time being, if we push it into tomorrow the most we could likely do is a few more sparring matches but we do need to be careful not to wear ourselves out too much less we not be in peak condition when we have to deal with whatever this monster truly is. I have no ideas of my own so unless you can come up with something yourself it's exactly as Audrey just told you."
Upon hearing this Baxley tried to think of some way the group could make the best use of their time in preparation for the night their mission started but ultimately found himself coming up short before sighing and throwing his hands up in defeat. "Okay I've got nothing."
Audrey smirked. "Then let's just do what we can tomorrow to the best of our abilities."
"Alright." Baxley conceded. After that the group finished their meals and returned to the inn to retire for the night. However before Audrey went to bed she pulled her monster egg out of item storage along with the incubator and placed it on the desk.
Had the bow hero stayed up just a little longer she would have noticed her monster egg given to her as a gift from her felo cardinal shake ever so slightly.
And that's another chapter down and the start of the second custom arc. For a while I was left at a crossroads of what I wanted to do with this particular chapter since like with the previous arc this one is going to be multiple chapters hence the pretty obvious reason neither situation took place with the mystery monster or bandits just yet.
Still I didn't want to make this a chapter with practically nothing happened so I tried to use it for a bit of a character reflection when it came to Audrey to show a bit more depth on her perspective when it comes to why she admires Naofumi and hates Motoyasu, basically the former's willingness to help others even if he doesn't necessarily stand to gain anything reminds her of Patrica whom she also admires and also how she despises Motoyasu since his entitlement to woman reminds her of the a..hole who ruined her high school life.
In terms of action, while I couldn't have the actual conflicts happen yet, I hoped Audrey and the others learning more magic and that spar kept you entertained.