Chapter 27: Chapter 27: The Human-Elven Border

[ Discovered Area: Eron Hillside West. ]

It turned out that going downhill was faster than going uphill. This was both common sense, and basic physics, yet Sara had not been prepared for just how much faster it would go. Sure, the uphill climb had been fairly steep, but it seemed much steeper going the other way. Unless the west side was genuinely steeper than the east. If she did a Sprint Leap she flew so far that she ended up taking fall damage, and kept rolling until she hit something that made her stop.

It had taken over half a day to climb up the hill. Even if you removed the distractions along the way, it was still quite a lot of hours. Now she had been going for probably about one hour, and she was roughly halfway down. And very bruised, and battered for it. She had taken shelter by a cave entrance near a rock that had quite abruptly stopped her from rolling even further down. While painful, it had at least let her take a break, and heal back up.

She could smell the rain coming behind her. In a sense she was racing it now. It had started approaching the lake just as she had left, and her trek downhill had been so fast she had outpaced it so far. This was giving it the chance to catch up, but she really needed a break after that ordeal. Cat's Feet had probably kept her from outright dying as she crashed her way down, but she had still been below 50% HP after hitting that rock. There were actually some flatter areas along the hillside. One of them being the one where she had so recklessly jumped off the edge of, wanting to see how far she could go. She had missed most of the rest of them, and rolled right over the ones she hadn't. They had slowed her down a little. Probably. Momentum, and gravity were terrifying forces.

[ Regrowth Skill Level Up! ]

That was better. After turning back into Cat Form, she figured she might as well take a look inside the cave while she was there. From what little she had actually been able to glimpse on her way down, it looked like the mobs were the same as on the east side. Meaning there might be a bear sleeping inside, in which case she could just leave again.

What she found instead was just a plain treasure chest. Again she made sure none of her senses reacted before she dared touch it. Inside she found 2 gold coins, a medium quality health potion, and a suspiciously good-looking loaf of bread.

[ Half-Fine Bread (Medium Quality). Fills 35% of the hunger bar. Consumable. Ingredient. ]

That was all it would tell her. She wondered what she needed to get a more detailed description. A crafting skill? Some sort of deeper appraisal skill? Or was this all crafters had to work with as well? Part of her wanted item descriptions that provided lore, and such things, but that was probably an enormous undertaking for the writing team. Maybe they could ask Aina to do it.

Even more disturbing was why it was still fresh. Did chests function on a similar principle to an inventory? Also an entire loaf of bread only filling you up a third of the way seemed silly. It was probably better if it was used to make sandwiches, or something. For the time being she stowed it in her own inventory.

She headed back outside. The main shower hadn't gotten there yet, but she could feel drops landing on her. This time she was a little more careful while going down, but she still wanted to get down fast. So long as she didn't tumble, and half-die again, there was nothing to really stop for. The bears were sleeping, the drakes were in the grass, the ferrets were probably being fiends, and the goats were chilling out. She was curious whether the rain would change mob behaviour, but not curious enough to hang around, and see for herself. She had already spent too much time on this journey, even though she would say most of it had been well spent. She was a lot stronger now than when she started.

Ah crap.

She had gotten distracted, and could feel her legs were starting to go out of control. In response she dug her heels in, and steered her direction towards a flatter portion where she could roll around a couple of times before stopping.

The rain was falling faster now, and if that turned the ground into mud then this descent would truly become a slide.

She gazed downwards from the ridge where it became steeper again, and she could see the bottom down there, even if the rain was rapidly obscuring it. There was also something... big, a little further beyond it. Like a massive building or something.

Taking her time, and not minding the rain, she eventually got down to the bottom. It was raining so hard by that point that she couldn't see very far ahead, no matter how enhanced her senses were, but at least now she was free to run forwards to her heart's content. Even if it brought up mental images of dogs frolicking in the rain.

The rain eased up the further away from the hillside she got, as if she was getting out of the path of the worst of it, and soon enough she reached another river that she decided to jump across.

[ Discovered Zone: Eronite - Hanoleav Border. ]

[ Discovered Area: Eronite Side. ]

* * *

Once she got across, and left the rain behind, she got to see what the big thing she had seen was. It was a giant wall. Apparently the border wall. That did seem like something a fantasy setting would have, but wasn't it a bit much? It had to be over 10 metres tall. How much over she wasn't sure. What was it they intended to stop? Giants? Maybe it needed that much to fend off siege tactics. She could hardly proclaim herself an expert.

It was maybe more of a fortress than just a wall with a gate. It was plonked in the middle of this valley, with walls extending into the sides, and terrain beyond that was hard to cross. She gazed back along the river to see the bridge, which didn't have a gatehouse like the one on the Merwyn side.

Yeah, that would just be superfluous, wouldn't it? But damn, fantasy settings don't joke around.

Her approach towards the wall was slow, making sure to not break her stealth. She wanted to scope it out as much as she could to find a good way across, around, or through. The gate was wide open, even in the middle of the night. The relationship between the elves and the humans was probably good enough that they didn't need to close their gates on one another.

That didn't mean a wolf could just stroll through. The guards would probably have some words, and weapons to say about that. And she had a feeling that Erase Presence wouldn't be good enough to let her pass unnoticed. Maybe not even if she had managed to hit max level.

She could see a lodging house, with a large stable next to it sitting close to the wall, but not too close. Which was interesting, but not helpful.

Honestly she could probably climb up the sides with little problem. The fortress was meant to stop armies, and their vehicles, to whatever extent those existed. It wasn't really meant to stop individuals with climbing skills, even though the soldiers would likely not be happy if they saw anyone doing that. And they certainly weren't meant to stop a wolf with the Spider Climb skill. She could even use stealth mode to not get spotted at all.

[ Night Vision Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! 1 skill point gained. ]

[ Condition Met: Character already possesses Keen Senses skill at level max. Skill Merge available. 1 skill point gained. ]

[ Merge Night Vision skill into Keen Senses skill? Price: 1 skill point. Yes/No ]

Huh?! Her train of thought got interrupted by a sudden assault of popups. Uh... yes?

[ Merging Skills... Successful. Keen Senses upgraded. Sub-skill Vision updated. ]

Things went really dark for a couple of seconds before her night vision turned back on, so to speak. She pawed the highlighted button.

[ Vision (Keen Senses): Range, and clarity of vision greatly improved. Able to zoom in on an area by focusing on it. Able to see the weak points of targets. Medium effect. Able to see perfectly in the dark if even a tiny sliver of light is present. Able to emit a sonar ping that can only be heard by those with level max hearing skills, which lets holder see an outlined image of their surroundings. ]

For passive skills the sensory enhancement ones seemed to have several active elements. So if she understood things correctly, in the event it was so pitch-black that even Night Vision wasn't good enough, she would still be able to 'see' her surroundings via sonar imagery?

But how does it work?

She tried to imagine it, and suddenly a sound like a chime went off. A wave spread across the terrain, forming what looked like a layer over the ground. It probably worked better when she was not in a wide open space.

The whole area between the river and the fortress was suspiciously open, in fact. As if it had been intentionally cleared. The only trees, or any other form of cover was right up against the sides. Having left the rain clouds behind it was a clear enough night that she probably wouldn't have felt safe without Erase Presence active. If the guards had anyone with Night Vision, they'd spot her moving black shape from way far away.

Now... what was I thinking about before I got distracted? Oh right, Spider Climb!

It would easily let her get around the side, but spiders were known for climbing up walls. What if Sara also just climbed right up, and over? She could probably climb with stealth active, but if she got a little closer first, and combined Cat Form's Agility boost with Sprint, and Leap she should be able to get enough momentum to basically run up the wall. And she really wanted to try it.

She crept closer. And closer. At max level Sprint would give her 20 seconds, so she couldn't start too early. She went far to the left as well, so she would be out of sight of anyone at the gate.

Alright...

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She looked up the wall. It was even more impressive up close. Very European castle style. She thought of one last thing. Quickly checking the skill store, she saw was up to 20 skill points. If there was ever a time to get Quick Feet, it was now. She checked the skill description to make sure it did what she remembered, and then hit the button. Improved dodge, tighter movement control, and quicker acceleration were the important points.

[ Skill Purchased: Quick Feet. ]

Okay, here we go.

[ Discovered Area: Torund Gate. ]

She started running, letting stealth break on its own. When she judged she was at (or close to) full speed, she activated Sprint, and shot forth with a burst. A few metres from the wall she used Leap to get as much vertical momentum as possible, stretching herself upwards. As her feet hit the wall, she kept running. It was going even better than she had imagined. She would have laughed gleefully if she could.

In no time at all she had scaled the entire wall, and came up on top with the momentum carrying her some way into the air. It was actually wider than she thought it would be. Maybe close to 10 metres across as well. Though that made sense. They needed a lot of space to move around on in case of an attack. There was also a pair of guards who looked very startled to see her come flying up, and landing in front of them. Fully illuminated by the surrounding mounted torches.

Crap.

Sprint hadn't run out yet, so she rushed towards the other end. They yelled something after her that she couldn't quite make out, but it was probably something like 'stop' or 'wait'. Which was not happening. As she reached the other side she did another Leap with as much horizontal force as she could, to give her enough momentum to get as far away from the wall as possible. It hadn't quite occurred to her in the moment that she was over 10 metres up in the air. Somewhere between 10 and 15. Cat's Feet might be approaching max level, but there was still only so much it could do.

[ Discovered Area: Ornar Plain ]

As gravity caught on to what she was doing, and started bringing the ground closer to her in a hurry, she did the only thing she could think of. Tuck into a roll. It even worked! Mostly. She still lost about half of her HP, but she avoided breaking anything. Without her skills that probably would have been really bad, but she was able to keep at least half of her momentum going, and activate Rejuvenate to recover a little.

Unfortunately there was another fortress in front of her, presumably the elven one. It was definitely similar, though the architectural style was a little different. It possessed a bit more flourish, and it looked like it was made from green marble, if such a thing existed. As if it tried to invoke the colour of the forest, while still being solid stone.

She couldn't hear, or sense anything behind her. The guards either didn't find the matter important enough to start a chase, or they hadn't reached their superiors yet. Regardless she was zooming towards the other side, intent on scaling that wall too. She activated Sprint again, feeling pretty certain she could get through a couple of them before reaching the other side.

As she got closer, she saw a couple of flashes from the fortress, and suddenly Danger Sense gave her a sharp warning. She quickly swerved to the side, and a sound of breaking ice could be heard behind her. So at least someone over there had spotted her, and didn't want her to get close.

Well, the scenery was rather barren, with only patches of short grass at best, so there was no place for her to hide from anyone who could see in the dark. Still, she had to be past the halfway mark of the roughly kilometre long stretch, so she could probably dodge a few attacks the rest of way. If anything she was impressed at whomever had managed to nearly hit her with a spell from several hundreds of metres away.

Oh, another one.

With a side-hop that only barely slowed her down she dodged that one as well. It was possible they had some sort of magical sniper rifle, or like a long range turret style magical tool. That sounded awesome, actually.

After another Rejuvenate she was about to pop Sprint again, but then realised the distance was too short. She would run out around the same time she hit the wall, or partway up, and it would be a terrible idea to stop, even for 5 seconds. She'd just have to go at a slower pace until she got in range. Another 10 seconds should do it.

Of course, as if jinxing herself, there were now several incoming pings from Danger Sense, as a group of arrows were heading her way. She really had to admire their accuracy, as all five of them were going to hit basically on top of her. But that also made it easier to dodge them all, so she veered to the side again, even doing a dodge roll for no particular reason. Once she was back up to top speed, it was time for the final burst.

[ Discovered Area: Haerun Gate. ]

Suddenly activating Sprint shot her beyond the path of the next set of projectiles coming her way, and she had no reason to check what they were. As before she did as much of a vertical Leap as she could, before running right up the wall. The attacks stopped, either because they couldn't hit her from that angle, or they were too shocked at what was happening, or both.

However Danger Sense really flared up when she launched up from the side, and she did an instinctual air dodge with Air Control, that she hadn't even been aware she could do, only catching one of the arrows fired at her before she was able to Leap off of the other side, completely ignoring all the angry shouting behind her. Rejuvenate had gotten her pretty close to max HP again, but that arrow had taken a nasty chunk back off. Either it was a lucky crit, or the guard was pretty high level. If she'd been hit by any more, she would definitely not have survived the fall, and even now it wasn't a secure deal.

[ Discovered Area: Hanoleav Side. ]

The most recent Rejuvenate tick took her back up to about 65%, and the previous fall took her down to about 40-45%, so some quick math said that if the distances were the same, she would survive with 5-10%. Maybe a little more since Rejuvenate was still going, and would get at least one more tick in before she landed. What else could she do? Death From Above? No, there were no targets to cushion her blow, so it wouldn't reduce fall damage. The entire border zone seemed devoid of mobs. There were only the fortresses, the soldiers who stood guard, and the travellers going through.

All she could do was brace for impact. At least there was some grass on this side that might give her a slightly softer landing. Another tuck, and roll, and back on her feet.

15%! Not dead!

Sprint was ready to go, and she zoomed towards the nearest woodlands, leaving her attackers behind. Either they had already given up, or their aim was bad enough that Danger Sense didn't bother warning her.

They'd need some serious speed to pursue her, and without some sort of impressive mount, or vehicle she doubted an elf could run fast enough to keep up, even if they also had Sprint. Especially not one in armour. And what was the point of worrying about one mob that hadn't even hurt anybody?

As with the human side there was a river to cross, but instead of a hillside, there were woodlands on the other side of it. Once she got there, she should definitely be safe. One more Leap!

[ Discovered Zone: Meerna Flatlands. ]

[ Discovered Area: Meerna Border Woods. ]

Once she'd gotten in among the trees, she searched for a safe spot to take a rest, and heal back up. That little stunt had cost a big chunk of SP as well, and had probably caused too much of a stir, but surely their lives would be more fun now that she had given them an interesting experience to tell their friends about.

There were several popups that had queued up as well, and now she finally had time to look at them.

[ Leap Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! 1 skill point gained. ] [ Firm Grip Skill Level Up! ] [ Cat's Feet Skill Level Up! ] [ Quick Feet Skill Level Up! ] [ Spider Climb Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! 1 skill point gained. ] [ Cat Form Skill Level Up! ] [ Air Control Skill Level Up! ] [ Solid Coat Skill Level Up! ] [ Rejuvenate Skill Level Up! ] [ Quick Feet Skill Level Up! ]

She wasn't sure if Quick Feet had actually made the difference between life and death there, but she had been able to speed up, and dodge pretty well, so it had probably helped.

[ Leap (Active): Able to leap further, and higher than normal. Scales with Strength, Agility, and Dexterity. The height, distance, and accuracy of the jump improves with skill level. Does minor damage if user lands on a target. Cost: 2 SP. Refresh: Whenever user's feet touch a surface, or a target.
Max level bonus: Damage done by Leap is doubled. Perfectly timed consecutive jumps cost no SP. ]

'Perfectly timed' sounded like a big caveat, but she might get some use out of that. She wasn't really jumping onto enemies for damage much, though.

[ Spider Climb (Passive): Improves climbing prowess, and speed. Lets user stick to almost any surface, and climb along it. Effect increases with skill level. Scales with Dexterity.
Max level bonus: Halves SP drain while climbing. No SP drain while immobile. ]

So she could just hang on the ceiling forever. Like actual spiders did. A slight shiver ran down her spine.

"Morning will break in an hour and 15 minutes, Sara. There is a nearby cave that would be a good respawn point. I highly recommend you take it after coming this far."

Thank you, Aina. I will take you up on that.

Wait, you mean there was a form of author's notes on this site all along? I guess... better late than never? All hail the mysterious bread!

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