Alright, what else do we have here?

Sofia first identified a bird in the distance, one of the benefits of her new eye, which allowed her to get a closer look at the birds with the optical zoom and also somehow made it much easier to identify distant objects.

[Ironbeak Karoa - Lv. 196 - Imprint power : 0 - Effect : none]

‘Flesh-eating birds, usually scavenge in flocks of 5 to 8 birds, their hard beak lets them break open skulls to get to their favorite parts of the meal’

So brain-eating birds. Well, I’m not worried, I don’t have one.

Level 196 and still 0 imprint power though…

Seeing something move around around the treetops, Sofia identified that as she tried to get a better look at it. The creature looked like some kind of giant furred centipede.

[Wulff - Lv. 160 - Imprint power : 0 - Effect : none]

‘These low to the ground, six-legged ‘wolves’ exhibit the usual pack behaviors of wolves, they are competent ambushers, tree-climbers, and never venture in open terrain’

Already stepping foot into that forest sounds like a bad idea. I don’t really have a good tool to get rid of many small monsters like that at once without using either an explosive bolt or the rot. Unless I switch back to the glorious title.

I don’t really do well in cluttered environments like a forest.

It looks like I need to search for the stronger monsters if I want to get good imprints, what about those things?

Sofia identified the monsters whose gnarly heads were standing out in between the treetops.

[Forest Overseer - Lv. 249 - Imprint power : 0.3 - Effect : +30 Stamina]

‘Known as the guardians of the forest, this sub-species of trolls boasts the same usual toughness and regeneration, they protect other forest-dwelling creatures from outside and flying threats in exchange for a constant supply of fresh fruits and berries’

As I thought. Stamina though… Not very interesting.

It really makes me wonder if I should just get all the imprints I see, or if It’s better to pick and choose. I do have a full year ahead of me, but I also need to reach those extra ranks and it can’t be easy.

Also, 0.3 imprint power, 30 stamina points. So an imprint power of 1 is equivalent to 100 stat points? So upgrading to mana hearts E rank is already 5000 stat points. I’m guessing each rank is easier than the next… Let’s say it doubles each time, that would be 120 000 stat points by the time we reach A rank… Sounds about right, I think? Maybe a bit low? I don't have much of a reference point for level 250+ statlines.

And this prompts another question, are the -30% stats currently on our mana hearts applied before or after we receive the other stats from the heart. Or does it only apply to its own other stats? Is that something you can answer, Mr Scribe? That feels like an important detail.

Sofia felt a slight sparkle of pain in her head.

That’s an answer, alright, not too sure what it means, though.

She opened her status sheet, finding it unaltered, and wondered how she should interpret Mr Scribe’s answer until she had the idea to identify her mana heart again.

[Nascent mana heart of Aphenoreth]:

Rank : F tier

Imprint power until next rank : 0/50

Effects (on use) :

All stats -30% (-60%, applied first) (F rank base)

Wager bonus (Glimpse from beyond) : Unlocks new unique ranks past the maximum

Wager penalty (The consequences of your actions) : Cannot regain life

Time before setting : 9 months, 33 days, 1 hour

Oh! Thanks a lot. So it’s only for the stats I already have. That makes it a bit less attractive… But then again if it even goes to something like +50% then I’ll get +100% with the crown and that’s already 500 000 extra stat points. Can’t really complain about that.

Alright, so far these monsters look mostly harmless. Let’s see if I can find something other than the trolls to try out the mana hearts first, see how they work. I’d rather not do that in a forest. The birds fly pretty high, flying low must not be safe.

Get in, Pareth, let’s get a view from higher up.

Sofia flew straight up alongside the tower for what felt like about ten kilometers, she was already above the highest clouds, and the tower just kept going up, but she had to stop. The flows of mana just above her suddenly became very wild. It would be hard to fly through there, and she might even get hurt by the mana storms.

“Damn, I get what Kyle meant. I wouldn’t want to step through there unless I have no choice. Though… I might be able to get past it if I fly from within the tower?” In the end, she decided to worry about it later, as she didn’t want to start with the moons right away, and instead, spent a moment observing the land below, committing the tower’s surroundings to memory.

No signs of civilized life anywhere. No ruins, no roads, no houses… The sky is green and the plants are blue… Feels like I’m in one of Aurelia’s paintings.

Something caught Sofia’s eyes in the distance above the forest. Is that bird on fire?

Once again, she used Richard’s eye to look at it from closer up, finding it funny that she was using the highly-advanced magical item like a magnifying glass more often than the used it as an actual storage item.

“It’s actually on fire! Not hurting, though, it seems. Is that a Phoenix? Will identify work from that far away?”

It took a few seconds, but her identify spell did reach the creature.

[Firebird - Lv. 249 - Imprint power : 2 - Effect : +200 Mana]

‘These large birds use their fire breath and fiery wings to scare away predators, their alimentation consists mainly of fruits and nuts, they are a fearsome threat in the sky, but their fire dies down when they sleep, making them an easy prey’

Cheater is really a title worthy of its name. An easy prey at night… Good to know, but I don’t think I need to wait. Still, it’s going pretty fast so I should fly closer.

Sofia stayed at the highest altitude she could, and flew in the direction of the fiery bird until she was right on its position, following it from several kilometers above.

I need to wait until he’s not above the forest, preferably.

Sofia followed the Firebird until she could see the end of the forest on the horizon. If it keeps flying in a straight line… I can start now.

Raising her scepter, she channeled a piercing bolt, sinking more and more mana into it until about half of her total reserve was waiting in the palm of her hand as a long plasma javelin.

The head is too small to hit. Should I target a wing?

With a loud thunderclap, Sofia released the bolt as the bird started flying over the plains beyond the forest.

A clean hit.

The angel’s bolt pierced through the bird’s back, leaving a gaping, charred hole almost perfectly centered through the middle of its abdomen. The bird cramped with a jolt and started falling from the sky.

Sofia quickly flew down, and she received a notification before the bird even hit the ground.

‘You have defeated [Firebird - Lv. 249 - Imprint mostly intact]’

The bird crashed and tumbled in the tall grass and Sofia landed right on top a few seconds later, Pareth immediately appearing next to her and securing the surroundings.

How do I do this, now?

Unsure of how to proceed, Sofia took her mana heart out of her armor, and held it above the corpse of the bird as large as herself, whose fire had died down with its death. Nothing happened, so she sent some mana into the mana heart, and she felt a reaction from it, but when she identified it again, the description hadn’t changed.

Remembering how Kyle had held the stones against their foreheads in the shuttle, Sofia pressed the rock against the corpse and sent some mana into it again. This time, she could clearly feel the ambient mana contorting around the stone, something had been sucked in.

Again she identified the stone.

[Nascent mana heart of Aphenoreth]:

Rank : F tier

Imprint power until next rank : 1.86/50

Effects (on use) :

All stats -30% (-60%, applied first) (F rank base)

Mana + 186 (372)

Wager bonus (Glimpse from beyond) : Unlocks new unique ranks past the maximum

Wager penalty (The consequences of your actions) : Cannot regain life

Time before setting : 9 months, 33 days, 1 hour

Mostly intact… I got 186 points out of 200. And got definitive confirmation that 1 point of imprint power in 100 stat points.

That’s a seven percent loss for just one hole? I killed the thing in a single hit and yet… This really shows the value of Pareth’s bonus.

Blasted the damn bird right through the spine… Sofia thought as she observed the dead bird. Bookie won’t want to eat that… Fire breathing, though? She grabbed the admin’s dagger and sliced through the bird’s neck, storing its skull in her left eye. Clean it up later, will be nice for the choir.

She almost flew right back up after slotting her mana heart back in her armor and sheathing the dagger, but she looked back at the charred hole she had made through the bird, and let her scepter levitate next to her as she reached out with her hand to grab a chunk of charred meat. Making her armor open up near her mouth, she gave it a taste.

“Oh I’m going to be eating good this year!”

She stored the entire bird’s carcass and left the scene of the crime.

This trial isn’t too bad so far.

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