Chapter 21: Chapter 21: Unexpected Correspondence

She had gotten side-tracked for a while, so she hoped to finally make some real progress. Admittedly it had been great progress towards to her strength, but not in terms of distance left to reach the elven lands.

In all honesty she still wanted to get more of the skills from the bears, but even with her current knowledge, and improvements it would be a hell of a time. And she wasn't even guaranteed to get what she wanted. The attack skills were so-so, since magic was lot of fun, and her current melee attacks were fine, but getting any of the passives would be a boon. She especially wanted Solid Coat, since Defence remained her weakest point. 5% would currently just give her 2 extra points, but it would go up in the future, and the resistances were nice.

Though even if she wanted to fight another bear, she couldn't see any of them outside at night. Her guess was that they had all retreated into their caves, which was an even worse place to fight one. She'd have to kite it outside first, which was also risky depending on how deep the cave was. They had Pursuit, after all.

She turned on Sense Mana for the first time, and it was a strange experience. At first it was almost like nothing changed at all, but then she started getting weird feelings. As if the flavour of the air had changed. She went into stealth mode, and crept her way forwards. The range on Sense Mana was still short, so she'd have to get closer to the mobs to see if she could tell anything.

The hares didn't cause a big reaction. There was a faint white-blue glow, almost like a small flame in their centre. Or perhaps core. The ferrets and goats were much the same. The goat was maybe a little clearer. And when she looked really closely, there was a tiny reaction from some of the herbs as well. Very odd. But it felt like none of these things had a lot of mana in them, so she was curious what something more magical would look like.

While thinking about that, she started wondering where the drakes went at night. They had just come crawling out onto the rocks from... somewhere when the sun rose. When it went back down they presumably went back to wherever they had come from. She detoured towards the closest patch of rock, and intended to do what canines were known to do: Follow scent trails.

First she made sure it didn't smell like bear. She'd recognise that scent anywhere at this point. Then it was time to sniff her way to victory! Uh... discovery. Whatever.

It only took her a couple of minutes to find the answer. The drake was just wandering around. It was hard to spot in the grass, as basically only the wings stuck out, but once she knew what to look for, she saw a couple of others as well. Apparently they were roaming mobs at night, and presumably them going onto the rocks was their way of going to sleep until nightfall.

Did that mean the bears just sat in their caves all night, and on the warm rocks all day? They were hardly roaming in that case. To be fair she had so far only seen two bears, and they had been moving when she spotted them at sunrise. One of them had savaged a berry bush, before charging after something in the grass, which she had assumed to be a hare. Maybe the one she had fought had also done that, and was just resting afterwards.

So... sleep, wake up, eat, and then sit on your ass for the rest of the day. That sounded like an alright life, actually. It was just that personally she would get too restless.

As for Sense Mana, the drake definitely looked brighter in that regard. Like... the mana flame was bigger, and felt... hotter? Stronger? The feeling was hard to put into concrete words. It wasn't completely obscuring the mob or anything, but it was a little disorienting. It didn't seem like too much, though, so she'd keep it on for the time being.

Actually... maybe she should attack the drake. It would let her see what Sense Mana was like in combat, and the drakes still had some useful skills for her. It was probably worth going for.

Even with Sara's reduced stealth ability, the drake didn't have any idea she was sneaking up on it. It was just ambling along without a care until the moment it was struck in the back. More than half of its health went away this time, and she decided to charge a Savage Blow as the lizard spun around. Claws and teeth might have a tough time against the scales, but this was a blunt attack right to the head. She wasn't able to send it flying, but it sure got Stunned before it could do anything.

She followed up with a Poison Strike, a Frost Bolt, and then a Thorn Bind before she jumped out of melee range.

Though as soon as the drake recovered, it let loose its Fire Breath, completely obliterating the vines holding it.

Ah, right. Fire would destroy those easily.

Still, it didn't have a lot of health left, so one more Frost Bolt did the job. It was almost too easy.

[ Hill Drake (Beast Lvl 23) Defeated. ]

[ Skill Gained: Fireball. ]

No level ups, huh? Well, compared to the bear this was easy peasy. And I got what I wanted.

Feeling assured of easy victories, she went after another one.

[ Hill Drake (Beast Lvl 22) Defeated. ]

[ Skill Gained: Glide. ]

[ Savage Blow Skill Level Up! ] [ Frost Bolt Skill Level Up! ]

The exact same strategy had worked wonders, and even gotten her a couple of level ups, but not the skill she had wanted. It seemed like her luck was still a little spotty. Maybe she should do another short prayer to Norax before the next one. She had managed to beat the bear after the first one (even if that might have been coincidence). Or was that too selfish?

Also she wanted a little more challenge. Maybe she should take the next one on head to head without any ambushing.

So when she found the next one a little further up, she opened with a Thorn Bind from range. As expected the drake immediately unleashed Fire Breath to destroy the vines, but while it was distracted doing that she had struck with a Frost Bolt, which was followed by a Poison Bolt. She dodged a Fireball, before returning one of her own. It did little damage, but she wanted to get a little experience on it. About a third of its HP was gone now.

Next she expected a Poison Bolt, which she might as well just tank considering her resistance would mitigate the worst effects, so she focused on casting another Frost Bolt. But what came out of the drake's mouth was not a green bolt, but a yellow one that struck her at high speed.

Guh!

Her cast was interrupted, so she used Leap to try to dodge whatever was coming next, which looked like another Fireball. But when she tried to steer away with Air Control a sudden jolt interrupted her, and she took the Fireball straight to the chest. She rolled around in the grass, which thankfully was healthy and moist enough that it didn't easily catch on fire.

When she regained her senses the lizard was right on top of her, and bit into her flailing leg, but she launched a Kick with the nearest free leg right at its head, then another when it let go, which staggered it enough that she could follow up with a Savage Blow, and another barrage of spells that took it down.

[ Hill Drake (Beast Lvl 25) Defeated. ]

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[ Skill Gained: Fire Element Up. ]

[ Kick Skill Level Up! ] [ Poison Bolt Skill Level Up! ] [ Fire Resistance Skill Level Up! ]

Yeah, yeah, rub it in, will you. But what was that skill it used?

Aina spoke up. "Lightning Bolt. Certain mobs can have more skills at higher levels."

Sara felt foolish for getting conceited. She had been plain careless, a lesson she apparently hadn't learned from her earlier fights.

I really shouldn't be taking risks just because I'm bored... she thought as she cast Regrowth on herself.

She had gotten the things she wanted the most out of the drakes, so she might as well leave them alone now. If she happened to spot another one at level 25 or above she could try to get the Lightning Bolt too, but that was just her greed talking. It was probably better to keep climbing up the hill.

There was a cave right ahead, and with a mix of curiosity and apprehension she decided to take a look inside. With Erase Presence and careful steps she headed inside. At first it seemed empty, but then she spotted a bear sleeping in the back. Its mana signature was smaller than the drakes'.

[ Brown Grizzly Bear (Fighter Lvl 23) HP: 161/161 ]

It was lower level than the previous one, and the back of the cave was more spacious than expected, but she still didn't like the idea of fighting it. It was about 10 metres back to the outside of the cave, so it was hard to say if it would bother following her the entire way even if she woke it up. It would be a rough fight either way. She figured it was best not to, and snuck even more carefully back outside, then started to make her way even further up.

"Sara. There is an anomalous item in your inventory."

Huh? What do you mean?

"I suggest you look for yourself."

She did so, and in the top left slot was an envelope. A familiar looking one.

[ Hi there! ]

[ It's me again! I hope you're doing well. Or maybe you aren't, since you've resorted to praying to me of all gods. I'm guessing Aina gave you my name? I'll keep this brief, since my influence hasn't fully recovered yet. Listen, first off, I didn't do this because I wanted a new follower or anything. I just thought it was a shame to end like you did. Not giving you my name was on purpose, but you found out anyway. ]

[ Still, your actions are appreciated. Gods get stronger with faith, after all. I will be totally honest: I'm unsure if I can really do much about what you're praying about. Sorry, kid. I'll try, but no guarantees. The silver lining is that if you keep it up, I might be able to directly help you out again sooner. Maybe a quick prayer every day? If you can get others in on it, then even better. Nah, just kidding. You should live your life as you want. Plus Aina will probably get upset if I try to influence you too much. Gotta be careful with the fledglings. Still, it's an option. Just saying. ]

[ That's all for now. From yours truly, Norax the God of Fortune. I wish you the best with all of my heart. It would be fun to actually meet you some day. ]

Sara had not actually expected to hear from that 'bit of a god' again. And all because she prayed a couple of times?

What is all that about?

"I assume it is another letter? I am unfortunately unable read anything created by a god's influence."

It is, yeah. What do you mean by 'influence'? The letter mentions that word too.

"It is something Norax explained to me. The gods do not have unlimited ability to make changes in the world, their power is limited by the concept of influence. The more they have, the more they can do. I am not privy to all the details, but I got the impression it charges over time."

The letter says something about it also growing through faith and prayers.

"I can see that being the case. That probably means there is an upper cap on how much they can acquire without getting more followers."

But is there no god with unlimited influence? Like The God?

"I did not inquire about such an existence."

Oh. Sara felt pretty sure that would have been one of her first questions, but Aina's mind worked differently.

"Regardless I witnessed Norax's influence accomplishing things beyond the rules, and abilities of this world as the developers created it. I suppose you could call them genuine miracles. Presumably other gods are capable of similar feats. The problem is that anything created this way I cannot actually see. It is like a void in the system where I have no insight. If I know what to look for I can see the void itself, but not what resides within it. It is frustrating."

For someone who kept watch over all of Moorhold, not being able to see something sounded like an issue. Meanwhile Sara was left wondering what other gods there were, and what they might be doing.

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