On the Prowl

          Thankfully, when I woke several hours before dawn, my body had decided that it's protests from the night before had been enough. I had achieved a nominal 6 hours, apparently enough for my body and mind to rest. An egregious waste of productive time by my previous standards, but it seems this body simply requires more R&R, so it can't be helped. Besides, I had decided to relax from that weird perceived sense of urgency I had carried with me here for some reason. The last time I had felt so rushed was centuries ago - when I still had my original body. …Hmm maybe it's genetic? Like literally? Should I ask Noelle to check my thyroid or something when I see her?? Am I still sick!? Shaking my head at the morning induced doom spiral, I pulled myself from the quagmire of worrying about my health. I had to trust Noelle. She said she fixed me, so she did. 

With a deep calming breath to ease the slight tremor in my hands, I sat up and wrapped myself loosely in my jumpsuit. Another deep breath followed to cleanse my mind from extraneous thoughts and I fell into a state of quasi-consciousness. I was aware of everything around me in a, sort of, passive way but tried my best to not let the various stimuli affect me. All of the information entered my mind unfiltered at it's maximum capability, inundating me with various smells and sounds. I could hear the bustle of patrons in the common room in front of the bar. Hunters breaking their fast before earning their keep, a stray thought informed me. The sound of clinking forks, clanging pots, and the soft crackling of a cooking fire signaling the work still being done for their pre-dawn meal. The smells carried much the same information, though an undercurrent of pungent body-odor dispelled the images of softly rolled eggs and sizzling sausages that had tumbled through my head.

Another deep breath followed, clearing away disquieting images of unwashed bodies, and I focused on my minds eye after filtering the bevy of information away. My "vision" was filled once again with the alien colors and I couldn't help but be entranced by the strange shifting of pigments, before catching myself and taking another deep breath. Within this breath was a gossamer thread of will, a thread that pulled together errant clumps of energy and drew them towards me; though I did not take in the mana I had floating about, as I had reached my capacity overnight. It was merely there to refill me when I inevitably 'emptied the tank' with the following exercise.

Heeding Alyx's advice, I pulled on the power within me and compressed it. Or, rather, I tried to. It barely compressed together no matter how much force I used. However, I grit my teeth and pushed as hard as I could until I saw results. After some time, I was drenched in hot sweat and my veins felt as if they would burst. I had to be doing something wrong here, I was exhausted and my mana pool was empty. The only thing I have to show for it is a singular point in my exp.

With a thought, the perspiration covering me evaporated and I brought the temperature of my body down manually - easing its burden. Then, I simply meditated upon the energy still swirling around, though I had let go of the thread that pulled it when I realized the strength of will needed to compress my own mana. Mana that was refilling much faster than normal now that I think about it. 'How strange,' I thought while I tried to slow the filling of my reserves. With a flicker of what seemed to be annoyance, the energy around me stopped swirling and the growth of my reservoir returned to normal.

"Hah!" I couldn't help but shout out loud at this discovery, which broke my focused state. Not only could I drastically improve my 'recharge rate', so to speak. This may also be the key to quickly compressing the mana inside me. I was attempting to force a lake into a pond with the equivalent of my bare hands. If I utilize it's own mechanics, then I should barely have to exert any pressure at all. With fresh inspiration, I took yet another deep breath and mimicked the phenomenon I had accidentally created - but this time the whirlpool was centered upon the hole of awareness behind my heart.

To my joy, it worked! The mana seemed to envelop the blank spot until it was completely covered and grow thicker and thicker until the amount of power it contained was equivalent to the entirety of my own pool. Then, in a mind bending display, it seemed to simultaneously implode, shatter, and explode all at once. Checking my system after witnessing that, I was so enthused from seeing the (02/05) in my display that I was once again thrown from my meditation. I hadn't kept the time but if the first method had taken me an hour, then this new way took less than 10 minutes. 'Incredible! I wonder if Alyx knows of this? If she does, then why did she just tell me to 'compress' it? Yeah, I don't think she knew. Why would she try to stunt my growth in the first place?' Shaking off my paranoia, I set about replacing the mana I'd used so far.

When I finished the refilling of mana via my new whirlpool technique, I opened my eyes to see the light of dawn piercing through the window of the room. 'Awe shit,' I thought, 'I need to go hunting and be back sometime around noon if I want enough daylight to talk to her about this.' With that thought, I stood from the bed and willed my jumpsuit into its tighter configuration and summoned my new armor onto the mattress. The armor was a rather simple affair. Just bent steel tied to leather and cloth in such a way that its curves follow my body and leaves a bit of room for cushioning. It'll be pretty simple to alter it later on when I grow and add more on to it as well. For now, though, I place it all on me as quickly as I can.

I completely dressed in my armor - which consisted of splint mail cuisses, faulds, vambraces, rerebraces, breastplate and leather gloves. Then, to ensure the fit and comfort, I put myself through some basic stretches. The armor itself was only half-done, as it lacked any protection on my joints, the breastplate would eventually be a cuirass, and the faulds hung from the same belt as my small blade, rather than the armor on my torso. Though it should still afford me enough protection from Mortal beasts and their ilk and my range of motion was barely affected. I unsummoned the whole armor-set and resummoned it onto me - making sure the fit remained. With a nod at the solid feeling of my defense, I once again placed it into my inventory and pulled on my boots, loosened my undersuit, and covered myself in my cloak. Then, as quickly and as silently as I could, I stalked out of the inn and left the town towards the forest.

***

There I was, slinking through the underbrush, ready to put an 'arrow' through the skull of the strange beast before me. I was solidifying the image of my first real offensive spell in my mind when I heard a low-pitched twang and dropped as fast as I could to the ground. A sharp thud followed by a keening whine echoed through the woods only for the noise to be blown away by the intermittent winds common so deep within the forest. I could hear the crunching of underbrush growing closer as the beast tried vainly to take just one more step. A long fletched wooden shaft protruded from between the two sets of vestigial feathered wings that ran along its back, the beast was already dead - it just hadn't realized it.

After a few minutes of waiting, the beast had finally fallen and the hunter responsible had only stepped out when it hadn't moved for at least half of another minute. I cursed my luck at running into someone else so far away from the village, though something told me this was more than pure coincidence. With a grunt, the burly man pulled the arrow - one that was far larger than I'd have thought - from the beast and turned to face where I had been previously. When he was waiting for the beast to cease its death throes - and I was sure of his line of sight - I had circled where the beast had fallen. Now that he had turned, I was facing his right shoulder - a good bit further than I had been previously. I had just silently summoned my armor onto myself when a gruff, mocking voice rang out.

"C'mon out lass! Why don'tcha help me out wit' hauling this beasty back to town. A' can make it worth yer while, promise~." I couldn't completely see his face, but the half I did see had a nauseating smile that showed cracked and yellowed teeth. The sight actually had me regretting my enhanced vision for a moment, though that thought ended when he stalked toward where I had been and pulled a knife from his belt with his right hand. While he thought he was closing the distance, he continued his gross overdone villain spiel. "Less'go, pretty lady. Just do me and my buddies a favor and hand over that treasure o' yours. We'll even give you an escort all~ the way to the capital to make us all some more money. Whad'ya say, poppet?"

Right when he finished, he leapt with his right arm forward without warning - further and faster than I had expected - and skid along the forest floor when he tackled nothing but brush and rolled midair to land on his feet. The confusion and panic on his face almost broke the cold look I had forced onto my face as he scanned the surroundings for any traces of me. With a thought, I summoned my blade and stepped into his view, dropping the hood from my cloak as I did so. His eyes, when they found my figure, traced my armored body with a frown. My figure was mostly obscured by the armor, though in its tight state the jumpsuit did show the shape of the muscles moving beneath my skin as I hefted the great blade onto my shoulder. 

Trying to maintain the upper hand and gauge my opponent, I spoke with a thread of mana imbued into my voice. "And why on Earth would I do that?" The words rang out with a heavy presence, and I could see him shudder when the wave of power reached him. His eyes had a mix of caution, confusion, and a slight trace of fear - though not enough to outweigh the lust and greed present as well. He silently mouthed 'Earth?' before shaking his head and straightening from his readied posture, sheathing his knife and placing the hand onto the quiver on his belt - the massive longbow still in his left hand. "Now, now, Miss Wizard. We both know yer not foolin' anyone with this show o' yers. Just put the sword down and gimme the artefact and I might even letcha walk away. Not a fan o' muscle on my dames anyhow..." He said so, but the tension in his voice told me that I was successful in scaring the pig, though not nearly as much as I'd've liked - considering he hadn't run away with soiled pants.

With a shake of my head, I lifted the blade from my shoulder and easily pointed it at him. When he saw me point the blade - that was as tall as the one so easily wielding it - without so much as a tremble in my arm, his brow raised. Before he could try to degrade me further, I cut to the chase. "Whatever dude, if you really think you can take my 'artefact' from me then why don't you give it a shot? Instead of standing there and pissing your pants in fear from a 'dame' half your size." When I spoke I broke the cold façade and gave him a hawkish grin, daring him to actually try. I'll be honest, I was dying for a fight - the raised stakes of possible true death just made it a bit more... heart-pounding. All I have to do is win, and it won't matter.

The caution and fear in his eyes was replaced by a simmering anger and humiliation. He quickly drew what looked like the bolt for a ballista from his hip and shot it from his bow, all in less than a second. Reacting quickly, I spun to the left as I swung the flat of my greatsword towards it, shattering the arrow and making me rebound and stop my spin short. "Woah! S'lotta force in that bad boy, huh!?" I couldn't help but exclaim at the vibrations I felt run through my arms, leaving them slightly numb from the force. In response, he took in a short heaving breath and the arrow already nocked was enveloped in a pale glow. With an exhale, he released the draw - sending the devastatingly empowered length of wood hurtling towards me.

However, I had already been prepared and, as soon as I saw him draw so quickly for the second time, I jumped towards him at a diagonal - landing horizontal to the ground on the trunk of a tree at an angle to him. With a thought, I imbued my body with a significant portion of my energy and - before he even heard the bang of his missed arrow punching through wood - launched myself, shattering the tree I used as a launch board and snapping my fibula at the same time. I grit my teeth and pulled the trailing sword into a sweep with both hands as I planted my feet and drew a trench several meters past the shocked still hunter. With a groan, I turned to face the man and pulled the offensive spell I had been preparing before to the fore of my mind while I planted my blade to act as an impromptu crutch.

Before I could unleash the wind bullet I had wanted to use to fell the otter-bird-raptor-thing from earlier, the man fell to the ground - nearly sliced in half. With a sigh of relief, I summoned a "health potion" from my old world - effectively a nutrient bomb with programming - and downed the lemon flavored potion in one go. Whose decision it was to make the red potions so ironically flavored, I don't know. Though I had always wanted to give them a high-five for all the shocked, confused, and outraged faces of newbies I had been treated to in the past. I chuckled at the nostalgia the taste of the concoction had given me, and directed the nanites within me to repair the damage while I fell to my butt with a low groan to better take stock of the damage I had caused to myself.

I could tell the damage extended beyond the loud snap I had heard in that moment, but the true scope of it made me a tad bitter. With my jumpsuit pulled in such a way that it more resembled a leotard and my armor placed into my inventory, the constant compression on my legs had stopped and the full pain and damage had shunted itself into the forefront of my mind. I held back an even louder groan at the sight of my completely purple and black legs. The bruising extended even further and I could feel a good bit of soreness coming from all along my spine and shoulders. "I suppose enhancing a Novice's body with the power of an Adept was a bad call, huh?" I didn't expect anyone was nearby to answer my soliloquy, but the snapping of branches and the low growl of a predator alerted me that I perhaps shouldn't have been so careless.

Fortunately, summoning and replacing my displaced armor was quick and - even though it would take some minutes and a boatload more mana to speed it up even further - the healing of my broken and bruised body was coming along nicely. Unfortunately, beasts don't traditionally allow their prey to put itself back together. A series of dull thuds echoed through the thin forest, the sounds of wood splintering and a deep resonating growl following. Just as I pulled myself to my feet with another groan of pain, a deep bellow that shook my healing bones sounded off behind me. I whipped around, brandishing my blade and readying that same spell, only to freeze at the sight that greeted me.

Running on two digitigrade legs, what looked like a humanoid alligator at almost 3 meters tall had its massive mouth open and was rushing towards me. The sight of such a beast ignited a primal fear within me and I leapt to the side as far as I could before I fully registered what was happening. Thus, I failed to land correctly. Sprawled out on the ground, I could hear the bang of the creature smashing into a thick tree behind me. I quickly scrambled to my feet, then looked towards the tree that had stopped it in its tracks and my blood ran cold. Its powerful jaws had closed around a trunk that was at least a meter across, then snapped shut with explosive force - shattering the sturdy plant at the base. With a deep breath to calm my hammering heart and focus my mind, I pulled all my energy - save for what was healing the broken bones- into an outrageously large attack.

As the alligator-man shook its maw to expel the splinters of what remained of its victim, I threw the entire weight of my Will into a spike of ice that dwarfed the reptilian creature by half. With another gut-wrenching bellow, it met the spike head-on. It was trying to pull a repeat showing of its terrifying physicality. However, instead of being stopped upon the rows of thick teeth, the spike continued through its jaw and severed its spine with a squelch of cold flesh. It would have been nailed to the tree behind it, had either tree or spike survived the beasts teeth. The maw of the creature continued to close, despite the lack of further, input and shattered the ice that had claimed its life. 

With deep, heaving breaths I stood there shuddering from the intense experience and the adrenaline still coursing through me. "I... probably... should've... practiced... first..." I said between gasps of air as I eyed the cracked crystal that lay around the felled reptile. Gathering my wits, I focused the dregs of my mana onto my healing and walked over to the first beast that had been stolen from me. I promptly stored the thing and moved on to the body of the hunter who had tried to steal my 'artefact' and successfully stole my prey.

Searching his body didn't yield much, just some silver and copper he was carrying, for some reason, and the weapons and ammo he had: a ridiculously massive longbow that I could barely draw, a long dagger that looked like a short sword in my hands, and a 30-stack of thick wooden arrows that were a meter and a half long and were a complete single piece, fletching and all. Storing everything, including his belt that held the long quiver, sheath, and coin purse, I hobbled over to the massive beast that had surprised me and - after thoroughly confirming that it was dead - stored it as well. Releasing the breath I was holding when I approached it, I barely stopped my body from falling to its knees. Though the sudden gust of wind did that for me, as I was thrown several meters despite the added weight of my equipment.

Sputtering, coughing, and spitting the dirt I just ate from my mouth and lungs, I couldn't help but let out a loud boisterous laugh at the whole experience. With a shake of my head, I rallied my strength and pulled myself up yet again. This time, I planted my feet as I walked - as I had learned on my way further into the woods when I started this ill-advised foray. I walked obliquely towards the village, as I hadn't quite hunted everything I  had wanted to - only a few pieces of small game had preceded the otter-bird-raptor-thing. I wanted to provide more for both my coin purse and the restaurant that had been so kind to me, so I continued my hunting trip. Though I was on the lookout for a haven I could use to meditate and restore myself fully.

Such a thing did not magically appear before me, so I simply willed the energy around me into a whirlpool with a quick pulse of power as I slowly walked in a wide circle. When the flow was constant and I had regained some mana, I opened my system to check the progress of my exp. This action led me to groan again - not in pain, but pure frustration aimed at myself. I had forgotten my skills... those would have stopped all of this from happening in the first place...