Scouting

Took me a while to figure this out… there is monster blood together with their smell going in the general direction of the flowers…

‘I blame the headache…’ there is some more in the floor… next to three small holes, something that has been repeating for a while now ‘The Pests stab the ground as they go…? They might be dragging something…? Yes, this looks like a dragging mark’ show me this a few days ago and I wouldn't be able to know this… ‘Need to pay more attention to the traits that I get…’

-Can I keep blaming you?-

‘Sure, go ahead’ there is still some smell of Jumper too… ‘Monster working together? As in different kinds…?’ dealing with multiple small ones while paying attention to the top of the trees… ‘That sounds painful, can creatures do the same? I mean can we cooperate like they do, but against monsters?’

-Good question…-

‘So, not backup for me… maybe, I haven’t seen two creatures and a monster together yet… I really want to sigh…’ the annoying part is that every time I try, it either becomes a mini hiss, or no sound happens at all… ‘More reasons to-!’

Boop

‘Wah!’ back! Back! Back! ‘What the…?!’ something hit my nose?! ‘No pain… but what was that blue thing?’ there is nothing around, just the trees…

I extend my right hand forwards and start moving…

Clink

‘What…?’ there is something blue stopping my claws from going further…

Clink Clink Clink

‘A… what is the word…? Barrier…?’ it only appears if I try to move east… ‘Um… the tracks… are going north… so they can’t…? What is that noise?’ head on the ground… ‘It’s coming from the east… but far away…if this is a circle then in the other side of it…? Let's go around the south side, just in case the ones I’m tracking are nearby…’

Moving south… ok, the barrier is a circle, I needed to move a bit forwards to touch it this time… keep moving…

‘This is new… any idea of what made this?’ I move a bit further south… I check again and… the barrier goes through a tree…? I don’t think the tree is harmed though…

-What do you think is doing it?-

‘The trees… how would a spell like this work-?!’

Ska! Ska! Ska!

‘I know that sound…’ ear to the ground… ‘Yeah, more or less at the other side of the circle…’

I have an idea…

‘It’s probably a bad idea but…’ I move in the direction of the sounds

-Oh no…-

‘Wait and see!’ they… should be behind this tree ‘Going up!’ need to make sure I don’t make noise… ‘Ok, my arms are much better for this now!’ number of reasons to be happy about the purchase: plus one!

Now I got up to the branches… I hope this is the tree to see-!

‘The flowers!’ they are a bit further ahead! ‘This barrier is around the flowers?! Then how-?!’

Thump!

Ska!

‘Right… three of them, they must like that number… Sharpen… no, first Ground, then… Sharpen, Mold… mold should go before too… Ground, Mold, Sharpen, Form… Earth… Lance…? Spear…? I really should have practiced this before…’

Deep breaths

/////

The three monsters kept jumping forwards towards the barrier, being pushed back every time. They couldn't stop this behavior, even before they got out of the Spawner, that monster was already irritated by whatever was behind this barrier

And that irritation was inherited by every monster it made

But just a few were actually sent to try and destroy whatever it was, a monster that wasn't focused in their main priority (making more of them) was doomed to starve to death

At least most of the basic ones were…

Just like most other monsters that had been sent to this barrier, these Pests were jumping, charging and trying to bite the blue barrier and would have keep doing it, but…

‘Ia! Imbue Eyes!’ the monsters stopped their actions and started to look around, becoming aware of a nutritious prey nearby ‘Ground, Mold, Sharpen… Form!’ unaware of were she was and getting hungry

Miriam in the other hand, was suffering

She was trying to hit all of them, with three different spikes, at the same time. The focus she was placing on splitting her vision, mind and magic on the monsters, without adding more words to her spell, worsened the intensity her headache and caused her to waste more magic, than what was needed for her attack

‘Earth Spear!’

Her strained spell finally triggered, causing three sharpened spears of compacted dirt to be thrust from the ground. None of them was vertical, they were coming out to one side or another, but they did what they were supposed to do, even if the monsters weren’t impaled by them

All the Pests were killed, one lost its head, another got cleaved by the middle and the last one almost was perfectly bisected from the head to the rear

The attack caused a cloud of blood and guts to be launched to the air, staining the surroundings red

‘UGH!!! UGH! Earth Shape!’ she tried to not be bothered by the sight in front of her, but the pain in her head was strong enough, for it combined with the scene, to overcome her ability to ignore the horrible things she had done so far

Ever since the first mouse she had buried, a part of her had tried to stop herself from collapsing, this time she got very close to it…

For multiple reasons…

/////

‘Ugh!’ looking away… I got the ground to look good again… if you ignore the- ‘Keep it together… Ia Stop… get down… away from-’

-Go to the flowers-

‘Eh…?’ can I do that? ‘How? If I couldn’t-! Ugh!’ the smell!

Go down! Go down! Go-!

‘AAAHHH!!!’

Thump!

…

I fell…

‘Ow…’ at least I was midway down… ‘My head really hurts…’ I got upside down in the fall… I turn upright and move to the flowers looking away from… that ‘That was awful’

-You feel pity for monsters?-

‘So far I have only seen mindless ones, but that doesn’t means that I’m happy by breaking warfare conventions!’

-True Monsters are just that. They are unable to develop a Mind or a Soul like a Creature or a Humanoid can. If you see a Monster with a Soul, then it was never a True Monster, but a Creature that evolved, changed, or was forced to look like that-

‘Some humans are monsters, you know?’ another message window appear next to this one

-Emphasis in the True part of my statement-

…

‘Alright…’ I reach the flowers… and rest next to them ‘I’ll try to stop getting affected by this…’

-I’m not telling you to stop feeling. That is one of the things that makes you, you. Miriam-

Where was this kind of support before…? Not complaining just…

‘Thanks-! OW!’

Hiss!

Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! My stomach!

‘Ow! Status!’

‘Why?! Ow! Was it that… no… wait… Deeds In Progress…’ two of them increased by one ‘The venomous is at four- ow! And the poisonous is at two… so it was the first fish that-?! OW! Got… me like this…’

My headache is feeling worse… the tree shakes…?

-Eat one of the good flowers-

‘What-?! OW!’ the tree shakes again ‘But these-’

-Don’t be stubborn this time please! Just eat one!-

‘I don’t need to-?!’ one of the plants nearby shakes! ‘Is every plant in this forest like this?! OW!’ it… has one of the good flowers…

-No, they aren’t. EAT IT!-

Moving closer… feel like lead… everything starts to feel slow…

‘Ugh… I can’t…’ I need to push my body up with my arms ‘Ow’ but I can’t make my neck lift my head… ‘Cutting it…?’

I manage to lift an arm without me falling to the ground and move it to the base of the flower…

‘Sorry…’ I cut it and it falls… dragging my head to it… ‘How do I eat-! Ow… this is soft’ vision blurry… move head to a side… bite… hard to swallow… ‘It’s in…’

…

‘Ow…’

-----

Ding

‘Ugh…’ did I fell asleep? ‘Did I really needed to eat the flower?’

-You could have survived it, but can you tell me how did you planned to get food while feeling like that?-

‘Ok, I get it… thanks…’ my body still feels stiff… ‘Ow…’ and raising my head from the ground is a chore… ‘This tree… is not a Sturdy…’

It looks pretty much the same… yet, somehow, I know It’s not… the leaves of the tree are of a much richer green color and the ones in the top seem to shine… that is the only difference I can see

‘Thanks for letting me get closer’ I nod to the tree and wave at it… ‘But… you let those three get past the barrier the first time I was here, because…?’

The tree is, obviously, silent… the plant next to me is already making a new bulb…?

‘You work fast… thanks for the flower’ I nod to it too

-Aren’t you going to see?-

‘Don't want to… do you know why I had to fight those three here?’

-I cannot talk with the trees Miriam…-

Somehow I think that I just got lied to…

‘Fine… ugh… Status…’

‘Why…?! At least I’m not poisoned anymore… ugh… was the joke title necessary?’

-I fail to see how that title is a joke, please check the Shop-

‘Don't want to… and I can’t buy it, just hide it…’

-I can’t hide this one, idiot…-

‘Absorb! What did you do this time…?! EP Shop…?’

‘What…? How-?! Why is the name of the Item changing?!’ I rest my head in the ground…!

…

‘No Nail?’

-It’s an Item that was going to appear eventually. What the ANOMALY! Did was: unlocking it way too soon! But you can’t really buy it until it naturally unlocks… I think…-

‘You think…?’ this is… unnerving… ‘What kind of Deed is that related too?’ probably not going to get an answer but-

-It’s not… related to a specific Deed…-

‘…?’ perhaps I shouldn't ask more about this… I think… I know what I need to do… ‘How… scared are you about Absorb’

-A lot…-

Then… I really should…

‘Triad! Deities that rule over the Status! Please send me an Item to stop Absorb!’ bracing for a Nail now…!

…!

…?

‘No…?’

-Seems that way…-

‘But at this rate-!’

‘You?! But…! But…!’ are they ok with each other?!

-But what?-

‘Ugh… The Trickster… I don’t know the whole story… and I might have forgotten something because of the Magic Drain… but the one that caused Mordauntless to get hit by the Ever Burning Flame was…’ deep breaths… ‘You cannot confirm anything related to the gods, no matter if it is an old tale coming from another world, right?’

-What gods?-

‘Ok, then I’ll ask Singer when I meet her… and it happened a long time ago, Mordauntless probably already forgave his… sibling…? I can’t remember if the stone specified a gender…’ I raise my head from the ground again… I feel a bit better… and my Status says none again… huh? ‘Didn’t I just…? Weird…’ I move away from- ‘Wait… I should give some energy to the tree and the plant of the flower…’

I look to the bulb in the plant next to me… It’s pure white… do they get the color before or after they bloom? What determines if they are a “good” flower or not? Can the “good” compound be isolated and made artificially…?

‘Ow…’ my headache is coming back… ‘Ia Imbue Arms…’ claws in the ground ‘Imbue-! Aaahhh!’ all the flowers are pulling! ‘Ia Stop! Gah! Ow… greedy things…’ I move to the tree… ‘Around half left… how much did… I… wasn't in conditions to check the void after the… multi-spell…’ another thing to practice…

I reach the tree… near the place where I slept before going back carrying the flowers out… second difference: the roots don’t reach as high, in comparison to the trees around it…

‘Part of me… wants to call this tree more… real? Somehow…’ claws in the ground ‘Imbue… Ia Stop…’ I look back to the flowers… ‘Did they pulled my magic again?’

Imbuing, feels like a pull in the tip of my fingers. This time I felt the pull towards the tree and towards the flowers at least one meter away…

‘Greed? Or… the “good” compound needs so much energy to be made, that the plants do anything to make it…? Is that why there are so many decoys…?’ there is a “good” flower nearby… I can see the stamen… ‘Oh! Right!’ I move to the flower…

…

‘How do I make wind?’

Differences in pressure… temperature differences… rotation of the planet…?

‘Not… useful… I have no idea of how to mimic any of that…’ besides Narrow I have just been doing… some really stupid stuff… ‘Narrow… if I were to hunt more magical creatures then I might… I really cannot let anything kill me… if something dangerous gets it and kills a strong human… the Triad didn’t send me anything to stop it, but is there a way to limit it or…’ this damn headache…

I look at the flowers… deep breaths… limit… limit…?

‘Ia Imbue Arms’ there I go, jumping the gun again… but with this word it may not kill me… ‘Wind, Limit, Pressure, Change, Displace’ I move my arms from one side to the other! ‘Breeze!’

Whoosh!

‘Yes!’ I see some pollen rising from the flowers nearby and it moves and lands in the ones in the other side ‘Not useless…! But it did used more magic than I expected…’

…

‘Nothing? Status?’ there is nothing new appearing in front of me… ‘Huh… weird…’

-What were you hoping for?-

‘I got two Deeds related to Water and Earth before and I just used a Wind spell so…’

-Two upgrades required to answer what you actually want to ask, Miriam-

‘Ugh… I would prefer to know about that before I get that old… I suppose that means that a blade of wind, is out of the spell book for now…’ I move away from the flowers and look down placing my hands in the ground… ‘Then…’

I don’t have thumbs, but thinking about blades made me want a weapon. Claws or not, having things that reach further away should be good… I remember a thing called… push dagger…? But I’m not sure if my fingers could maintain the grip of something similar to that…

‘Earth Shape!’ my arms sink in the ground ‘Ia! Grip, Form, Condense, Sharpen’ I pull back feeling the grip on my wrists ‘Earth Blade!’ my headache flares again, trying to maintain the mental image of what I want… ‘Ow… Ia Stop… it worked… ’ I look down… ‘Kinda…’

The ground took the shape of two rings around the palm of my hands and around my wrists, three “beams” of dirt connects them, one on both the top and bottom side of my hand, the third is in the inner side, were my thumbs should be

On the outer side and growing out, is a thick, sharpened chunk of compacted dirt that extends forwards making two single edged blades attached to both of the rings in my arms…

‘Heavy…’ I can barely lift them, so I rest them on the ground… ‘The second ring should be closer to my elbow… they are too long’ nearly half my length… I think… ‘So: thinner, with the second grip further away from my wrist and shorter blades… with that, I should have another emergency weapon that aren’t my arms…’

…

…

-You ran out of magic…-

‘I know… I’m going to meditate and then go for something to eat…’

-----

‘Ia Stop’ done, the earth is looking has it was before… ‘The plants drained a fair bit of my magic has I did that…’

The smell of the monsters is still around…

‘Ugh…’ can’t believe I have eaten those… ‘The Spawner must be nearby too… do I want to go look for it, from here, or, from the Sour cluster to the north…?’

I don’t think that this tree is going to let me past the barrier, while blocking anything that starts chasing me…

‘River, then to the Sour trees. I have no idea if the Eco Deed is going to make the trees fight with me, so I’ll fight from that side…’ I can always run north… ‘I… don’t want to do… something that would get other people involved…’

My headache is still there…

‘Not the kind of thing I expected when becoming a girl… I wanted dresses and finally letting my hair grow, I hated every single time I had to… shit, can I even get hair now…? I… I-!’

-Calm down, or you are going to get more Strained-

‘But-! Ow…! Ow!’

…!

…

‘Ugh…’ my headache scrambled my brain again… ‘Why my… brain… brain… oh… smooth reptile brain… that is why I’m suffering… my body physically can’t… ugh…’ the pain It’s starting to lower… ‘Calm down…’ I need to ignore the frustration in my throat… in my heart… ‘My body is not ready… ha… hahaha…’

-What is so funny?-

‘I thought that I had skipped my transition…’ this is ridiculous… but makes some weird sense to my pained mind… ‘Does this count as my transition…? Hahaha… and I need to keep bottling my emotions… haha… ugh…’

Ding

‘Status… eh?’

‘Now is that I get it…? Bullshit… Traits… this screen is a mess… oh… I have three of them…?’

-That Trait includes mental pain, not just physical. Miriam-

‘Oh… are my childhood traumas hiding something else?’

-I have no idea…-

‘So… how are things hidden from you…?’ the message goes away… no answers… ‘Alright… I need to eat’ I look to the tree and nod, now I move west ‘Food that doesn’t smell like, that, please…’

/////

Miriam had been moving away from the flowers and towards the river for a few minutes, trying to ignore her hunger until she finally managed to detect a different smell from monster’s guts

‘New… and small?’ she wasn't sure about the amount, the new odor was mixed with the smell of chewed plants

She paid more attention to the ground around her, but didn’t see any track nearby, so she moved slowly forwards and carefully moved under a bush, silently moving towards the new smell until she saw them

‘Two… rats?’ bigger than normal mice and with enlarged rear legs, that reminded Miriam of those of a bunny… ‘Near the size of Pests…’

They weren’t looking at her, as they chewed the leaves and fruits of a Soft Bite, something that Miriam committed to memory as she moved closer to them Imbuing her eyes

‘No… I can do this with my arms… Ia-’ but she changed her mind, just before one of the rats looked back

Squeak!

And saw her

She attempted to hit both with her claws, but she only struck the unaware one as it started to turn while the other jumped to one side-

Crunch!

But Miriam’s bite was faster than the fleeing creature

Squeak!

A third rat appeared nearby, bigger than the other two and with a loud noise it bared its fangs and charged jumping towards Miriam

‘Earth Shape!’

Crack!

Its charge interrupted by impacting against a spike hastily made, the whole thing cracked from the impact and the rodent fell to the ground, as Miriam delivered a bit of her venom to the one in her mouth, before letting it go and with another crushing bite, she killed the newcomer

Ding

/////

‘Ok’ I look to the rat that I got with my claws, but It’s not moving ‘Status?’

‘Alright…’ I use some of my venom on this one ‘I… think I can eat all of them…’ pray and swallow… ‘Don't think about it…’ pray and swallow ‘Don't think about it…’ venom, pray and swallow… ‘Don't… did I just…’

-In this place, Creatures don’t need to be part of the same family to travel in a pack. I also have hidden the Specialization for small creatures in the shop-

…

‘Thanks… water… I… need to clean myself…’ the leaves of the trees around here… ‘Lack the shine…’

-Eyes…-

‘Ia Stop…’ I really want to sigh…

/////

Miriam wasn't sure if she was above or below the small waterfall she had seen before, she just knew she was somewhere in the river she didn’t recognize, Miriam also couldn't smell any animal nearby

Her need to relax and the fact she was full, made her rest in a spot not so close to the water after drinking and cleaning her scales

She expended the next few hours alternating between sunlight and the shadows of the nearby trees looking around

Miriam also tried to ignore the superficial scratches she had caused herself on some places

The river became wider and shallower on that area, not enough for her to ford the river, but shallow enough for her to expect a giant spider appearing at any moment

But she didn’t really moved from that place, until she noticed that the sun was getting low

‘Um… more water and see if I can fish…’ she smelled the surroundings for a moment ‘Nothing close, there is still some smell of blood in the place where I washed, but the wind is not telling me anything’

She moved towards the water, reaching it just as a screen appeared in front of her

-Miriam! Check the shop!-

The stressed girl was about to do that-

Splash!

Hiss!

When the mouth of a fish opened as it jumped towards her right ahead

By instinct, she used her arms to keep the mouth from closing, but she didn’t dared to bite the insides of it due to fear

‘Ia! Imbue Eyes!’ so as the fish and her struggled on the edge of the river, she tried to maintain her sight away from the mouth and to the ground, the effort on her muscles almost causing her to give up ‘Earth Spike!’

Until she finished her spell, with the intention to pierce the brown fish. Making a sharpened tube of mud that hit the creature on one side and launching it away from the water with a superficial wound bellow the gills on its right side

‘AAAHHH!!!’ her arms ached, but her anger managed to overcome the pain as she moved to the brown scaled creature while imbuing her arms ‘Magic Slash!’ she struck the wounded place deepening it and moved back to avoid the tail of the fish, before attacking again ‘Magic Slash!’ and three more times after that

Beheading the fish

HISS!!!

/////

‘AAAHHH!!!’ calm down, it’s dead ‘Aaahhh!!!’ calm down, it’s dead… ‘Hate this… ow… I hate this…’ I have dinner now… ‘Ugh!’ I look to the river… ‘I didn’t saw this one… no shadow…’ I look to the fish… ‘Maybe… it’s not using what the others do? Could this one just… use its natural color…?’

That feels possible to me…

‘Lucky prick… ow… using those points to get stronger… ow…’ well, not so lucky now… I move to the river to drink water ‘What you were saying?’

-Guess what the ANOMALY! Did…-

‘Oh, right…’ that is enough water, I move to the fish’s side… ‘Status…’

‘Fitting name… EP Shop… what… what is this…?’ focusing on the thing…

‘…’

-Miriam?-

‘The Trickster is right… well… half right…’

-What do you mean?-

‘Absorb is my best tool, sure… but this thing being 400 EP in cost is not something I find amusing…’ the name of this item doesn’t change like the one Mordauntless warned me about… ‘Can you tell me anything about this?’

-Just that I’m surprised you didn’t get “Nailed” for it…-

‘Should I ignore the discount and get this if I can?’

…

-Calculating…-

…!

-You have about 50% chance of dying, if you buy it before your next evolution…-

‘…’ I look up ‘Are you entertained?’ I look to the message ‘Thanks you… but if I get the points I might take the risk, sorry’

-What worries me, is that I think… this Item might be the first of a chain… but I cannot be certain…-

‘…’ I facepalm ‘Why…?’