Chapter 95: Forest Stampede

Chapter 95: Forest Stampede

The next few days felt like a blur as my time was split between Whitney and Dewi. The downside was that I wasn't gaining experience towards my next level up, a fact that nagged at me. But on the other hand, my skills were receiving much-needed attention, and I couldn't deny the value of that.

Thanks to Whitney's direct tutelage, I made leaps and bounds of progress with my Rogue skills. I also felt like my [Vanish] was so close to a breakthrough that I could taste it.

In my time with Dewi, I finally unlocked the elusive [Multicast], which was an integrated upgrade into the [Multitasking] skill as I predicted. I was frustrated at how long it took for me to get this, and I still wondered if I'd even use it, as my [Sub Cores] could do the job for me with far greater efficiency.

I was also on the verge of a breakthrough with [Fire Magic], and Dewi was practically bouncing with anticipation for the day he could witness me casting my first [Fireball] spell. I had always thought [Water Magic] would get to five first, but Dewi had other plans with tutoring boosts.

While I didn't get as much numeric evidence of progress while training [Fire Magic], I did, however, get experience with adding the [Heat] property to all my current fire spells, raising their temperature and thus their damage significantly. I knew I could add it to my future spells with a little effort and without Dewi's guidance. In private, I tested out fully empowering one of my newly modified spells with the aid of my [Sub-Cores] and was startled when the flames started to turn blue!

And, in my own time, I managed to unlock the next level of [Ice Magic] and complete my Ice weakness debuff, called [Frigid]. The new spell seemed simple in that it would create a patch of clear frozen ice, a deceptive trap to cause an enemy to slip up, but it also revealed to me a brand new spell component of placing a sustained magical effect on the terrain. I immediately wonder about applications such as creating a patch of fire or acid.

'Or maybe frozen acid? Would that work? Would you slip, make more contact with the acid, and then melt? I have no idea, but it's worth exploring eventually!'

I had also decided to see if Dewi's crazy training method had any merit in an effort to raise my [Magic Resistance (Lesser)] trait. Unfortunately, the magic I had access to I had gained from consuming other types of slimes, meaning that I was inherently resistant to my own spells. While I could pick and choose between turning on [Acid Slime] or raising and lowering my temperature through [Blaze Slime] and [Cryo Slime], respectively, the resistances those traits gave my core weren't optional. The most effective and restrained method I found was exposing my core and then keeping a sustained [Kindle] spell directly under it.

'I mean... It makes sense. Why would you want to suddenly become weaker to fire? Even without [Pain Suppression], it feels more like a slightly uncomfortable tickle, and it takes ages before my health drops at all. Gone are the days where I nearly boiled to death.'

While the slower change of pace felt a little odd to me, I knew that from their perspective, there was a good chance that we wouldn't meet again for a long time since their group was disbanding and going their separate ways. Whitney was staying for another month or two before moving to the capital, and Roderick would be settling down, eager to spend quieter days with his future wife. Meanwhile, Evan and Dewi would return home, grab their things, leave for the capital together, and go to the church and Mage's Guild, respectively, marking the end of their shared adventures.

Also, I received word from Lisa through Luke that they had found the underground tunnel complex built by the orcs and killed the few stragglers who tried returning to it before ultimately destroying the entire thing with the help of a Geomancer.

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Close to their day of departure, Roderick burst into the room with a grin on his face. "There's a monster stampede in the forest, and I snagged us the quest to dispatch the cause."

Whitney and Dewi cheered while I looked at him questioningly. "Monster stampede?"

"Monsters are fleeing the southern forest; remember we encountered a lot of fresh spawns? All the recent deaths in there must have caused a bottleneck in the essence, which collated into spawning a higher-tier monster," Roderick explained.

While everyone chuckled at the comment, I raised my hand, "Actually... That might be possible."

"I didn't know you suddenly added Monster Tamer to your repertoire. You were really busy while we were after the smugglers," Roderick laughed.

"I haven't." I corrected him, "It's an elf trait. Although I can't guarantee success."

"Works for me. It's better than running around the forest for days and hoping we find whatever the cause is. No offense, Whitney," Dewi said.

"I'm sorry. I don't see your beloved fireball finding the monster for us." Whitney said sarcastically.

"Well..." Dewi said, scratching his head, "I could set the forest on fire, and if it burns down, we should be able to find the monster easier, assuming it survives."

Evan slapped Dewi on the head, "No. Stop trying to solve everything with fire."

"Five gold, he tries to solve his application to the Mage's Guild by setting the paper on fire," Whitney said with a cheeky grin.

"Ha! You'd be robbing me with such an unfair bet like that." Roderick responded with a bellow of a laugh.

The next day, we attempted our plan. Although Whitney had an idea, the hardest part was capturing a low-level beast without killing it. When we encountered a small pack of wolves fleeing, Whitney disappeared in a blur, appearing behind the wolf and striking it with the pommel of her dagger. The monster's body practically crumpled to the ground, and the others scampered away, yelping in terror.

"Shit, Whitney, did you kill it in one blow," Dewi said in shock.

"I'm pretty sure it's still alive; now we can tie up its limbs and have Evan heal it." She replied.

"Great. Now I'm healing monsters, what's next?" Evan said with a sigh. I chuckled mentally as, unbeknownst to him, he'd already healed one twice.

Once the wolf was secured, Evan cast his healing spell, and when it finally awoke, I attempted to communicate with it. I had mimicked the trait at its maximum level, hoping to overpower the monster through sheer trait levels. When I tried to mentally reach out to the wolf, it shockingly didn't respond with a voice but with vague images and feelings. I could feel its terror and question why I had captured it.

'Why can plants communicate with words, but this wolf can only communicate in pictures and feelings? Is this wolf dumber than corn, or is this the trait just being stupid?' I grumbled. This was not at all what I expected.