Chapter 149: Stream

FieryKathy

“Hey Brianna, have you been to this exact beach before?” I ask while we walk a bit down the beach. We’re following Brianna’s lead. Right now the rain has somewhat lessened in intensity but it’s still coming down quite badly. 

“No, why?” Brianna looks back at me. 

“Ah… I was curious because you said you knew a spot to gather the vines at. 

“Oh. Yesterday when I was collecting the fruits I encountered a small stream that flowed into the ocean. I know a couple of vine species that really love to grow in the neighborhood of small streams of water so that would be a good spot for us to start our search at.” 

“Fair enough.” Nikki nods. “Let’s hope we have some good luck then, would be a bit sad to come back empty handed, wouldn’t it.” 

“I mean… technically I could teleport back to the city, buy some rope, and teleport back.” 

When I say that both Brianna and Nikki stop walking, making me having to stop walking too otherwise I’d bump into them. 

Nikki turns around and looks at me with a pensive facial expression. “While that’s incredibly smart, I’m pretty sure our survivalists would probably not like that as they would consider it cheating.” 

“I am not opposed to that plan though.” Brianna raises her hand. 

“Brianna, you do not understand how they can be. They’d be very very very disappointed. Let’s just keep Ami’s idea as a last resort option. But it is true that we need to keep in mind that that’s an actual option.”

“Hehe.” I chuckle and scratch the back of my head. It’s true that Hilda and Sam would probably be quite disappointed if we did it that way, although I’m pretty sure my sister wouldn’t mind at all. 

Our little group starts walking again and soon we reach the little stream which has carved its way to the ocean. Brianna then starts following her and we follow her from a couple of meters as well.  

While we follow our pocket botanist, Nikki pokes me and lowers her voice. “By the way, Ami. Have you already figured out what the bracelet does?” 

I look at my arm and jingle it around for a second. “Not really. It is still not giving me any tooltips or anything like that.” 

“Hmm. It’s already been a while since you’ve held it, you would think that you’d at least already know if it has any effects or not.” 

“I guess you can never know with strange old relics can you.” I shrug. “I’m just happy it doesn’t hurt like it did when I touched it.” 

“We’ll have to wait and see. But if you start feeling something is wrong with it. Tell us immediately, okay?” 

“I will.” I give her an affirmative nod. “But now that we are talking about magic… what was that spell you used back on the walker? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you cast it before… Same with Sam’s special skill….” 

Nikki laughs “Well, I can’t tell you about Sam’s skill, you’ll have to ask that to her yourself, but I got that spell and a bunch of others together with this new nifty staff.” She takes her staff out of her inventory and quickly shows it to me before stuffing it back. “I got them after we defeated the siege of the Dwarger capital. If I had to guess, I think that’s when Sam got her bow and skills too.” 

“I suppose that makes some degree of sense.”

“We can’t let Lise have all the fun Amicia themed things, now can we?” She chuckles and pats my head. 

“Hmmm… that’s true… it would be kinda unfair if my sister got all the things.” 

“I just wonder if Hilda got something too.” Nikki adds. “Logic dictates that if we got something, she must have gotten something as well, right?” 

“Now that you say it… She didn’t really get any action during the last fight so it’s not like she could demonstrate it. But then again, wouldn’t she tell me if she got something me-themed?” 

“Maybe she just wants to surprise you.” Nikki shrugs. “Maybe it’s some super cool spectacular skill that puts mine in the shade.” 

“I doubt anyone could put your meteor spell in the shade.” I giggle.

“Fair enough. It is quite amazing, that’s true.” 

-Maybe I should ask her when we get back, and then I can interrogate my girlfriend too as to why she didn’t bother to tell me about her skills either.-  

Nikki suddenly raises her finger as if an idea just popped in her head. “Oh, and before I forget, have you already used your skill points?”

“Ah… I don’t think I’ve been doing that since… I can’t actually remember since when…”

“Didn’t you get a tablet from Gamma?” Nikki asks. 

“I did, but if I recall correctly, she said you couldn’t ‘edit’ your skills with it.” 

“And have you done it afterwards?” 

“Not that I can recall.” I shake my head. 

“So, what you are saying is that you’ve been sitting on an absurdly big mountain of skill points all this time without even realizing it?” 

“That… might be the case.” Now that she mentions it I open my skill UI. The sight of which already seems so foreign to me that it must indeed have been quite a while since I’ve opened it. I quickly scour the page and find a number next to my skill point count. 

“142.” I read out loud. 

“142?!” Nikki calls out, making Brianna jump up. “Ah, sorry Brianna, it wasn’t directed at you.” 

“142 what?” Brianna asks with a confused look on her face. 

“The amount of dolls and stuffed animals Ami wants to buy for her room.” Nikki makes that up on the spot but I honestly couldn’t tell by looking at her that she was lying. 

“That’s an oddly specific and pretty big number, isn’t it?” Brianna looks even more confused. 

“Sorry… it’s a bit of an addiction…” I roll with the lie that was set up for me. -And in all honesty, having 142 plushies in my room, doesn’t sound all that bad-

“Ah, I see…” Brianna puts her index finger against her chin. “I think I know a shop or two in Hofudstadr if you need a recommendation.” 

“Thank you, that would be most helpful, even though we probably shouldn’t encourage her too much.” Nikki thanks Brianna with a smile. 

“Fair enough.” Brianna nods back and then walks on along the stream. 

“Nice improv.” I whisper to Nikki. 

“Thanks.” Nikki winks back. 

We stay silent for some time before we continue our conversation again in relative silence. “Just… make sure that you get through them…. 142 is a lot of skill points.” 

“Easier said than done… the amount has grown so high that it’s kinda overwhelming.” 

“And whose fault is that?” Nikki chuckles. 

“I know… I know… I will try to look at it when we get a break…” 

“If you need some help picking, you can always take us aside for some help, okay?” 

“I know. I’ll probably make use of that.” Just as I finish my sentence we arrive in an area of the tropical forest that looks rather different from the other part we were walking in just moments ago. A small waterfall lands into a pool of water from which the stream we were following flows. While the trees we’ve encountered so far were relatively clean from any vegetation, apart from some moss or mushrooms here and there, the trees around this pool of water are covered with all kinds of different vines, going from classical green to almost fluorescent yellow and different colors of blue. The colors explosion makes me think of certain incredibly expressionistic art styles. It’s a very beautiful sight to behold, even through the rain. 

“There we go.” Brianna smiles and takes a knife out of her backpack. 

“Are you sure these are not poisonous?” Nikki asks. “Those colors really don’t scream ‘hey I’m here, you can take me for your building materials’ if you ask me.” 

“We don’t need to eat them…” I comment. 

“True, but you generally don’t want poisonous sap to be touching your skin either.” 

“That would be concerning, yes…” I look at Brianna too. 

“They are fine.” Brianna confirms. “The roots of these vines and liana are actually a very good source of starch. And the only thing that comes out of these vines themselves is water.” 

“At least we don’t have to worry about that then.” Nikki nods slowly and takes out a knife as well. “But just in case… Ami… if you see us start acting weird, try to cast some antidote magic on us, okay?” 

“Weirder than you already are or…?” 

“Haha, very funny little kitty cat.” Nikki takes a second knife out of her own backpack and hands it over to me. “Just keep an eye on things if you start feeling strange.” 

“I will.” I smile and take the knife out of her hand. 

-Let’s start cutting away!-  

FieryKathy