Chapter 79: Getting Closer

Chapter 79: Getting Closer

Erani, the Dryad, and I kept walking throughout the entire day, thankfully with no interruptions so far. Even though my Health had previously been at a precarious 24, with the help of Regenerate, by the time the sun set, it got all the way back up to full, at 310. Normally, it would’ve taken all of today and tomorrow to even get close to that point, so I was very much enjoying the benefits of the Talent. Wounds closing, burns fading away, it even got to the point where I felt a bit guilty ridding myself of all my injuries while Erani and the Dryad had to suffer away as we walked.

It turned out that the healing ability the Dryad got was only able to be activated once per week, which was worrying. I supposed it made sense – 50 Health plus curing someone of all their wounds, poisons, and other afflictions was powerful, and the System liked to put restrictions on powerful abilities like those – but I still wasn't excited to hear about it.

Oh, and, of course, there was the topic of the Dryad. We talked as we walked – or, we communicated telepathically – and cleared a lot of thing up. First, she finally knew where we were actually going, now. And she even agreed to come along with us when we explained to her just how wide of a scale this invasion was happening on. It wasn’t just the forest she inhabited, it was the entire kingdom. And there were many, many more enemies than we could kill.

Once she understood the level of threat this forest faced, she agreed to leave it behind for now. Her reasoning was that she couldn’t get stronger out here, constantly fighting for survival, so if she wanted to come back and defeat the Demons, she’d first have to leave and get to the point where that was possible.

In my opinion, it felt like she may have just been trying to rationalize a basic survival instinct with her desire to protect the forest. She wanted to leave because if she didn’t, she would die. When I started suspecting that about her, though, she frowned at me and called me mean. I didn’t even say anything about it, but apparently her emotional empathy could detect things that were even that complex. Or maybe my incredulous expression gave it away.

However, one of the main things I talked about was’t with the Dryad. It was with Erani. Since the Dryad couldn’t understand our Human language when speaking aloud, we could easily converse with each other without her knowing what we were saying. And, of course, there was no way for me to say something that both the Dryad and Erani would be able to understand. Any time I wanted to say something to Erani, I had to say it in our language.

So, while we did have some regular conversation – we were walking all day, after all – we also heavily discussed the prospect of telling the Dryad about Minute Mage. She’d been around us for a while, but she still had no idea I could go back in time. We ended up coming to the conclusion that we’d just tell her when it came up. It’d become more and more apparent over our travels that, while she wasn’t hostile, the Dryad disliked me as a person. She didn’t ever make much effort for idle conversation with me, had called me mean more than a few times, and overall seemed to only tolerate my being here.

Needless to say, telling someone who was obviously not quite fond of me about such a power could cause some tensions. So, ideally, saying something during a time where we also demonstrated its usefulness would probably go a long way in mitigating any aggression she may have felt.

While we walked, I also practiced my Spells. I’d increased my Soft Cap twice, from 6 to 8, so I was basically just going through each of them and Ranking them up to the new Cap. Ray of Frost got a nice upgrade, going from 53 damage to 59, and the Dexterity debuff also went from 6 to 7. Its Mana cost also increased, of course, from 23 to 24. Gravity Well also got a similar upgrade, with the gravity increase going from 45% to 55%, and its Mana Cost going from 11 to 12.

The main upgrade, though, was Ethereal Armor. When I first cast it, I was surprised at the exact way the effect worked. I’d initially assumed it’d summon the armor directly on my body, already worn, but that wasn’t the way it functioned. Instead, when I cast it, I was prompted to choose between Dark Plate or Light Plate – I chose Light – and then, once I made the choice, in a bright flash, a glowing set of armor dropped on the ground in front of me.

I had to manually put it on, figuring out all the straps and pieces over an amount of time that I was a bit embarrassed to admit the length of. But, eventually, I had it all fastened onto my body. Thankfully, it was unnaturally lightweight, not even approaching the weight of actual metal plate, or even something like chain mail. But it still felt strange to wear something that so thoroughly covered my body. The hard gauntlets especially messed with me. Still, it seemed like it was treated as an extension of my body, since Noxious Grasp still worked when I was wearing it.

The armor had a constant glow, but once I put it on, I didn’t notice the light that much. The helmet was open-faced, but I could still see the plate in my peripheral vision, and it didn’t seem too bad. But when I mentioned that to Erani, she said that she could barely see my expression because the armor was so bright.

Luckily, it didn’t seem to project that light too far into the forest, so we wouldn’t need to worry about getting seen because of it.

Your Intelligence information rank has increased.

Due to increasing your Intelligence information rank, you have been granted the following benefits:

-Trailblazer Title has begun collecting data on holder. All future thoughts, decisions, actions, emotions, and movements will be logged.

-Logged data will be used as Intelligence Information Rank increases further.

I was at 18 Intelligence already, so it seemed like I wouldn’t have to wait long to see what it meant when it said ‘logged data will be used’.

I just hoped it didn’t use it in a way that hurt me, or something.

I shook the thought from my head. There was nothing I could do about that for now. Instead, I just needed to get back to what I’d been working on. Which was, of course, practicing Noxious Grasp. With the discounted price from Light Plate, I earned Spell XP almost twice as quickly, and by the time the sun had set, I’d gone from 98/461 Spell XP to Rank 11 to 266/461. I was really feeling just how expensive the Ranks got after 10. If it took this long just to get to 11, how long to get to 20?

And, of course, just how sweet would the rewards be for doing so?

As we walked, sun setting behind us, I began to notice the forest’s look changing. The usual greenery was slowly turning a sickly yellow. Trees had more and more dead branches, the grass was thinner, and generally there was less and less vegetation. Instead of the vibrant brown dirt, the color of the ground turned into a dull gray.

Really, everything around me just felt totally dead. I realized I hadn’t seen a single animal in hours – not even a corpse. What was going on here?

But before I could even ask, I noticed something off in the distance. With the trees around us now dead and lacking leaves, I could see much further than normal. And, off at the edge of my vision, there it was. A mountain. I could only see the very top of it, peeking out from above the brown tangle of tree branches, but there was only one thing it could be.

Kingdom’s Edge was finally in sight.

Fight through there, and we’d be free.