Chapter 32: Chapter 32: Fateful Meeting

[ Nyolund Deer (Druid Lvl 23) Defeated. ]

[ Thorn Bind Skill Level Up! ] [ Strong Poison Strike Skill Level Up! ] [ Rend Skill Level Up! ]
[ Savage Blow Skill Level Up! ] [ Insulation Skill Level Up! ] [ Solid Coat Skill Level Up! ]

Sara had vented her frustration on the nearest deer she had found, though she had been a bit reckless about it. She could take them alone, but it required focus to not take much damage, and she hadn't done so well on that front. She had almost gone into the red zone. It was probably best to ask some of the others to come along next time.

[ Regrowth Skill Level Up! ]

That was better. Her current theory was that taking elemental damage helped Insulation level up faster, and for Solid Coat... probably just taking damage in general. It was a defensive skill, after all.

She decided that for a change of pace, she would go have another look at Komeron. Which meant heading to the edge of the forest, finding a tall tree to climb, and seeing what she could spy over the walls.

[ Chameleon Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Upgraded! 1 skill point gained. ]

[ Chameleon (Passive): Makes the holder harder to notice as they blend into their surroundings. While standing still the holder's appearance will gradually change pattern and colour to match their background. This effect can be disabled for Friends, Allies, and/or Neutrals. Effect increases with skill level. Stacks with Stealth.
Max level bonus: Background matching still works while moving slowly, albeit at a reduced rate. Small effect. +50% skill efficiency while standing still. ]

If she remembered correctly, it had been a minor effect before. Which likely meant that small was better than minor. Aina had told her about quality levels, but it seemed like effect levels were slightly different.

Aina? What are the different effect levels?

"It starts at minor, then goes up through small, medium, large, major, and finally ultra."

So it had the same amount of levels, but it wasn't terribly relevant to her at the moment. She filed it away for the future.

Once perched on top of the tallest tree she could find on the edge, and with Erase Presence active, she had a look at what she could see of Komeron. The walls were quite tall, close to those of the border fortress, so a lot of the city was obscured from view, but the tree was even taller, so she got a bit of insight.

The largest building sticking up, its top visible even from ground level outside, was probably either the monarch's palace, or the temple. Actually, that other large building looked more temple like, so she labelled the bigger one as the palace.

The other prominent feature was the massive tree set in the middle of the city. Some sort of tribute to the idea of a world tree, perhaps. At the very least something with a special significance. It was larger than any tree out in the forest by a significant margin. Still not quite on what she would consider World Tree level, but it probably held some sort of power. It was possible it was merely a status symbol, like... that was where the city had started, but it could also be one of those... it took her a minute to think of the term. Spirit tree. That was another fantasy staple, and something fitting for elves, and Druids.

She enjoyed the aesthetic of the buildings she could see. They were more elegant than what she had seen of human architecture. Also just overall brighter. Using wood as the main basis rather than stone made a big difference. Though it was a little darker than Milheen, as if the wood was older, and harder. She wouldn't be surprised if it rivalled stone, as they probably treated it with magic to strengthen it.

It would have been nice to go inside. She wanted to see it at street level.

It won't be too long until I'm able to walk among people again. I'll definitely come back then. Another month. Maybe two at most. Just a small drop of time in what's going to be my new life.

She was just feeling rather impatient at the moment.

She wasn't sure how long she ended up sitting up there. She had just spaced out at some point, but there was nothing more to gain from being up there, so she hopped her way back down the branches.

For a moment she thought back on her early struggles with climbing trees, compared to how it almost felt like second nature at this point. She was a very weird wolf indeed.

[ Balance Up Skill Level Up! ] [ Cat's Feet Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! 1 skill point gained. ]

[ Cat's Feet (Passive): Reduces fall damage. You're as nimble as a cat. Reduction: (5+(5*skill level))%. If fall damage is less than 10% of max HP it is negated.
Max level bonus: Effective weight while moving, and jumping is greatly reduced. Can move across, and land on more brittle surfaces than before. Footsteps make less sound. With enough momentum you can even run across water. Warning: It is not equivalent to water walking, so if you slow down too much, you will sink. ]

What the heck is all this? This bonus is enough to be a skill of its own. Actually, I suppose it mostly requires a lot of explanation for what is centred around one idea... but still!

It was probably taking the idea of a cat's movement to its logical conclusion. It also gave her the feeling that this might be a much rarer skill than she had thought. And she got another clue to something she hadn't thought existed: Water walking. Though when she thought about it, it wasn't that far out there of an idea in a fantasy setting.

Now that it was fully daytime, she should probably investigate how it was different from night time. There should be some differences in which mobs were active, at the very least. Though she wasn't sure which had gone to sleep. It might be best to just keep her exploration to the east side for now, and only go into the west once she felt secure in how things were over on this side.

As she reached the road, and was about to cross over into the main part of the forest, she felt something. A strong mana signature was approaching. She recognised it. Had the elf come back for revenge?

Sara wasn't super keen on fighting her again, but she supposed the elf deserved a chance at payback. This time she would face her head on. No Ambush trickery. She wasn't about to make it easy for her, she would fight seriously, but at least they'd be on more equal footing. A high noon duel on the Komeron North Way.

Well, it might not be quite noon yet. While she had lost track of time, she didn't think it had been by that much. The position of the sun supported her hypothesis.

She stopped in clear view when she felt the elf was close enough to hit her Sense Presence range. She came into view at pretty much the same time as came around the bend of the road.

Is... is she running? Shouldn't she approach with more caution?

Sara felt very puzzled as she watched the woman come sprinting towards her, and then skidding to a halt when she saw her. Then taking a moment to catch her breath.

She suddenly remembered that she had resolved herself to not go easy on the elf, and cast Thorn Bind, then lined up her next spell.

"Wait! Please!" The elf woman shouted out as the vines wrapped around her, and it startled Sara enough to make her Poison Bolt shoot off course, and strike a tree trunk instead. "I just want to talk! Please!"

Talk? With me? How? I can't respond, you know.

Still, Sara decided to stop attacking. The elf was not here to fight, which was confirmed by how Danger Sense had no particular reaction to her, so Sara didn't have the motivation to do another one-sided kill.

"You..." The woman took another breath. "You can understand me, right?"

Sara could at least nod. The smart thing might be to just run, and pretend she couldn't, but the thought of communicating with a person intrigued her.

"I knew it! You're the Guardian Beast, aren't you?"

... eh?

Sara was lost for words. Even if that didn't really make a difference when she wasn't able to speak in the first place.

"My name is Mirielle. I'm a Priestess at the Temple of the Moon," the elf continued, though Sara had already seen that much. "I would like to discuss something with you, if you are willing."

Again, how?!

Sara sighed.

"Are you... not?" Mirielle sounded dejected.

That wasn't what Sara had meant, but she didn't have the means to respond.

Hang on... I can't speak, but I should be able to write, right?

She patted the dirt on the road. With the strength of Dig she should be able to make enough of an impact with her claws in it to make letters. So if she focused on wanting to use the elven language, it should work. At the very least it was worth a try.

* * *

Mirielle was a Priestess at the Temple of the Moon in Komeron, and had been so for a long time. Elves were long-lived, so she was older than she appeared by human standards, but still considered young amongst her own kind.

She was one of their top healers, and had learned to become one of their best Treatment specialists as well. She was well known, and well loved by the people of the city as she had helped out a large number of them. While she found it a little embarrassing, she even received special treatment herself when she decided to go out for dinner, and the like. At first she had tried to refuse, but in the end she had been forced to accept their gratitude.

Within the Temple it was a slightly different story. Her skills were highly valued, but she had not been able to advance in rank beyond what she needed to be taught Treatment. She was on the cusp of qualifying to becoming a Shepherd level-wise, which often led to promotion within the ranks of the institution as well, but Mirielle hadn't even been able hit the top rank of her current class.

The reason for that was simple. A lot of the officials, even higher up ones, thought she was weird. She spent a lot of her free time researching things not related to her duties. It wasn't like the religion forbid their members from having hobbies, but they considered Mirielle's fervour to be closer to obsession, and they doubted whether she was fit for higher office. Some even worried that she researched things not suited for the Temple.

The thing was that Mirielle loved history. Especially things regarding lost knowledge, myths, and legends. She pored over what she was able to find at the Great Library, spent her money on acquiring tomes and artefacts, and had invested in the expensive skills Decryption and Intuition. While the scrolls had been costly by themselves, the former was also infamous for needing some skill points even if you had the scroll. That was why it was usually only learned by people with rich sponsors, or eccentrics.

It wasn't simple personal curiosity, though. There was that aspect to it too, but she fully believed that if she was able to uncover parts of the lost past, she would manage to find things that would help out both the Temple, and the kingdom at large. Maybe that was naive. Others certainly thought so.

Then came her big breakthrough. A particularly stubborn book had finally revealed its secrets, and claimed that the Temple of the Moon used to revere more than just the Moon Goddess. Certain creatures related to the moon had used to be considered holy, but that practice had since been forgotten. Either deliberately hidden, or simply faded with time. It didn't offer much details on what had happened, but it did bring up the wolves as previously revered moon-related creatures.

But if she tried to just lay forth that knowledge without proper evidence, it might be considered blasphemy, so she had to be careful. In current day the wolves showed no sign of friendliness towards the elves, and the feeling was mutual. Much of the Great Forest of Ildhena had been deemed off-limits to the elves, and the wolves were a large part of why. Even the hunters were told to not venture too far inside. They had managed to retain control of the east, and important parts of the west, but the north and south were considered lost territory. Anyone wanting to travel there did so at their own risk.

The wolves were hardly the only threat, but they were the most persistent, and numerous one. If the elves tried to move too deep into the forest, the wolves saw it as invasion of their territory, and pushed back. But if it had been just the wolves, they might have been able to handle it. Unfortunately there were several other dangerous creatures that made the endeavour to establish control not worth the effort. They would need more resources. More people. Or allies.

While there were some that were hopeful that the recently arrived Wanderers could tip the scales, Mirielle wasn't sure how reliable they would be in sustained support. Most of them worked as Adventurers, and were focused on gaining power, and wealth. They were powerful help to enlist, but they rarely stayed around for long. Maybe that would change as the Wanderers grew more accustomed to this world, and more attached to it, but she didn't want to gamble on that. She wanted to focus on what already existed in the world.

The best clue she had was another book that broached the subject of special wolves. The legend of the Guardian Beast. It mentioned there being a glade just inside the edge of Nyolund where remains of a symbol marked what used to be a communications ground with the divine representative of the wolves. It could hold a way to contact the Guardian Beast.

The text was a little unclear on what exactly this Guardian Beast was, beyond looking like a wolf. As far as the elves were aware, there was no boss type among the wolves in the north. The book described it as a magical beast of great power, clearly standing out from its fellows. More or less saying 'you'll know it when you see it'.

The south, and the west had boss wolves that clearly stood out from their fellows, and the one in the west did seem like it might possess magical powers, but it was uncertain. They had never seen it cast a spell, but it seemed to use illusions that prevented them from getting a good look at it, so it was hard to be sure. It just didn't seem like it fit the bill of a Guardian Beast to Mirielle, not to mention it had never shown any interest in communicating. Assuming it was even capable of doing so.

So the north was her best hope. If she could find the Guardian Beast, or at least some clues as to where it might have gone...

With the book's guidance she had managed to find the entrance to the glade. It wasn't exactly hidden, but the path was so disused that it was very hard to spot. Inside she had found a completely tranquil patch of grass with a large statue of a wolf in the middle. There were no signs that the mobs of the forest ever entered the glade, so there was clearly something special about it.

The statue was about the same size as an actual Dire Wolf, and maybe once upon a time it had looked life-like, but it had clearly not been maintained for a long time. It was still in surprisingly good condition, but it was overgrown with moss and lichen.

While she didn't want to disturb it, she couldn't help looking around it for any sort of inscriptions, but there were none that she could see. Yet it was clearly not just a simple statue. Someone had made this, and placed it specifically in this out of the way location that obviously held some sort of special power.

After waiting around for a couple of hours with nothing happening, she had to return to the city to attend to her duties. As excited and curious as she was, she knew better than to ignore her responsibilities.

The next time she came she had been pondering if there was something special she needed to do. So she attempted to pray to it. If anyone saw her it would definitely be called blasphemy to pray to anything that wasn't the Moon Goddess. Maybe the Goddess herself would smite her for such an action. But in the end nothing had happened that time either, and she'd had to leave again.

The third time she wondered if maybe the state of the statue had anything to do with it. Maybe the lack of maintenance was an issue, so even though she worried that disturbing the statue might cause issues, she decided that she would attempt to clean it.

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With very careful application of Life Magic, and a soft cloth she slowly removed the moss and lichen. She tried to restore what bits of it she could, and it almost looked like it was gaining some lustre.

She got way too absorbed in the task, and forgot to pay attention to her senses until she was struck in the back. It was a severe blow at that, and pain lanced through her entire body. But she was able to retain her senses enough to quickly activate Arcane Blast, and blow away her attacker.

She didn't have a lot of combat experience, most of her levels came from her work (and her research), but she had to fend off the occasional mob when she went outside of the city. Her magic power was substantial, even among her peers, and her work had trained her to keep a calm mind in stressful situations.

As she spun around she cast Soothing Light on herself to recover her HP, and ease the Bleeding, then cast Holy Shackles at her opponent. Only to seconds later see vines sprout from the ground, and wrap around her. And then she saw her attacker. A wolf with an entirely brown coat, and blue eyes. She had never seen the like, and it caused her to freeze. The wolf hesitated for a moment too, giving Mirielle the chance to use Identify, and what she saw shocked her even more. She scrambled to open, and read every available window.

Then spell after spell struck her in succession while she was too distracted to react.

[ Respawn Timer: 19:59 ]

Mystic Wolf? Isn't that just a fairytale?

She had heard the story, of course. It was a common children's tale about a magical wolf who helped those in need, but it hadn't come up in the texts she had looked at, so it hadn't been on her mind as being related to this. In hindsight it seemed obvious.

The Target Status screen had just shown it was a Druid, and Druid mobs were reasonably common considering all the deer in the north forest. They were what the elves mainly hunted up there, after all. But it was the first wolf she had seen, or even heard of with a confirmed magic class. And while the Skill List hadn't looked suspicious at first glance, she had noticed that the wolf had used several non-Druid spells to finish her off.

Mirielle had a hidden skill as well. As a reward for maxing out Identify, and her hard work in general, she had been granted the special skill of the Temple of the Moon: Eye For Truth. It allowed her to see through lies, and deception. And it had let her know that this wolf was hiding its true status. She hadn't been able to see that true status, which meant that its means of hiding it were too powerful even for the Eye For Truth. It could only tell her that it was hiding something, not what exactly it was hiding. Perhaps it had some divine protection, which just made her even more sure. It had to be the Guardian Beast.

Maybe it had been offended that she had touched the statue, and taken her out for that reason. In which case she needed to hurry back, and apologise. At least it had resulted in the Guardian Beast showing up, but what came next was even more important. Bargaining with it.

* * *

It had been long enough since Mirielle's last death that she had forgotten how uncomfortable waiting to respawn was. Not to mention her timer was longer than last time. It was still not clearly understood what determined how long your respawn timer was. They were fairly certain it was related to one's level, class, and occupation at least, though not to what extent each was weighed. It was possible location affected things too, but not many were eager to do research on it.

That was another way in which a lot of Residents envied the Wanderers. They had something that allowed them to respawn instantly, and it seemed like it couldn't be shared with the Residents. Not everyone took that as a sure truth, and thought the Wanderers were simply hoarding it for themselves, but there was no evidence of that. The more accepted belief was that the world treated them differently as compensation for having to travel from a different world.

Mirielle had really wanted to head right back out after respawning, but that hadn't been possible. She needed to do some recovery actions after regaining her body, and then there had been a call for her services that she would never refuse unless she had to stop the end of the world, or something. So it ended up being a couple of hours before she could rush back out.

Well, she tried not to rush, because it would be unseemly for a Priestess of the Temple to run through the streets. She managed to make it all the way to the hunting post at just a brisk walk, but once she was out of sight she sped up a bit. There was a good chance that the Guardian Beast had left the area, and she would never find it again, but she had to try. Even if she couldn't secure its help, she wanted to at the very least apologise to avoid its wrath falling on the kingdom. If she made the state of things even worse while trying to help, she would never forgive herself.

It wasn't long into Nyolund that she picked up on a significant mana signature, and she of course recognised it as the one she had faced off against. At that point she broke into a run, wanting to catch up to it before it could leave. While she was no fighter, she kept herself in shape due to her occupation requiring a fair amount of stamina to be able to deal with all the patients.

When she finally caught up, she saw it was just standing in the middle of the road as if waiting for her. She stopped to catch her breath. Maybe she had overdone it with the running.

Then vines burst forth from the ground again, and in panic Mirielle shouted: "Wait! Please!"

The Guardian Beasts's next spell flew off to the side, so she took the chance to say more. "I just want to talk! Please!"

With no more incoming attacks, Mirielle tried to catch her breath as fast as she could. "You..." Another deep breath as the vines released her. "You can understand me, right?"

There was a brief pause, then the wolf nodded. She felt elated. Vindicated, even.

"I knew it! You're the Guardian Beast, aren't you?" she blurted out, and didn't catch the confused look of the wolf in front of her before she kept going.

"My name is Mirielle. I'm a Priestess at the Temple of the Moon," she introduced herself quickly. "I would like to discuss something with you, if you are willing."

There was a tense moment, and then the guardian beast visibly sighed.

"Are you... not?" Mirielle couldn't help feeling dejected. Maybe she really had messed things up. But at the very least she could apologise.

Or so she thought, but before she could do so, she noticed the wolf was scratching into the road with its claws. Mirielle could only watch with the utmost curiosity. Then it took several steps back, and it seemed like it was beckoning her to come closer.

She did so, being careful to not make any sudden movements, and she looked at the ground, which gave her another shock. There was writing. In elven letters.

"Hello. My name is Sara. I'm not a guardian beast, I am a wolf. I am sorry for killing you. People always attack me, so I didn't think anyone would want to talk. I'm not able to speak even if I wanted to anyway. This is the best I can do."

Ah... right... just because it's a Guardian Beast, that doesn't mean it's able to speak. But it can write.

Even if it... if she claimed to not be a Guardian Beast, a regular mob would not be able to understand or communicate with a person. It was a little frustrating that Eye For Truth didn't really work on writing like this, so she'd have to decide for herself whether or not she trusted what was written.

And the Beast had a name. Sara. Mirielle had thought a Guardian Beast would have a more grand, or mythical name. But the simple fact that she had a name was a big deal on its own. Named mobs were a known thing, but those showed up when using Identify. So this was rather a mob with a name. Unless that was the part she was hiding.

"I am also sorry for invading the glade, and disturbing the statue," Mirielle said. "I just really wanted to find you."

Sara cocked her head to the side, and then started writing again.

"Find me? Why? I only arrived yesterday, how did you know I was here?"

Yesterday? So the Guardian Beast has been elsewhere? She said people attacked her... did someone drive her off? That might explain why the wolves have been hostile for so long. But what a coincidence. Surely that's the will of the Goddess.

Mirielle had gone into full speculation mode.

"I didn't know you were away, I thought maybe you were hiding," she said. "Did the Goddess ask you to return?"

That time she did not miss the confusion in Sara's face, even though a wolf's face was shaped very differently from an elf's.

"The Goddess? What do you mean?" Sara wrote.

Was I wrong? I detected no falsehood in that reaction. Is there no connection between the Goddess, and the Guardian Beast after all?

She had to ask: "Don't you know the Moon Goddess?"

Sara started scribbling a bunch again.

"No. To be totally honest, I haven't been in this world for very long. And you are the first non-mob I have have interacted with outside of combat. There is a lot I do not know, but I hope to learn. And for that I need to grow stronger."

Mirielle took a minute to think. So Sara was not the Guardian Beast mentioned in the texts she had deciphered. Rather, she was a new one. Everyone knew that mobs did not grow stronger. They might grow smarter, or at least more cunning, but their strength remained the same. Yet if she was not misinterpreting Sara's words, she was different. A mob that could grow... so she was not at full power yet.

Well, a fledgling Guardian Beast is still a Guardian Beast. I am curious how she was born, but I should get back on topic.

The scholar in Mirielle would have to be suppressed for the time being.

"Well, the reason I was looking for you is because I was hoping to get your help, Sara."

Sara just stared at her for a minute, before writing her response:

"What sort of help?"

Mirielle tried to think of the best way to word her request.

"I think I need to explain a bit, but I will do my best to keep it brief," she started. "While the elven kingdom is not exactly struggling yet, we do have some serious issues, and the state of the north and south roads is one of them. We simply don't have enough people to keep them clear, and in good order. We have control of the east, but to be perfectly honest that is about it. Sure, we control the road to the west, but much of the wilderness is out of our hands due to various threats.
Unfortunately our attempts to reach out to the wolf leaders in the west, and south have not been successful."

Actually only Mirielle and a small handful of others even wanted to try, since everyone else knew there was no point in trying to communicate, let alone negotiate with mobs. Not even Druids expected much on that front. Even the few mobs that could speak, and looked humanoid had no interest in anything but killing when it came to Residents. But there was no need to say that much.

"That was why I wanted to contact the Guardian Beast of the north. Our legends tell of you... well, of someone like you, that we used to live in harmony with, but that partnership fell apart for reasons the texts I've found don't state. I hoped... I hope that with your help, we might be able to reclaim the north route."

In strategic terms the north was the least valuable route. Their diplomatic relations with the trolls were much colder than with their other neighbours, but if they got the road going again, maybe that would change. And it would give them a much better hunting ground. The deer meat, hides, antlers, and other bits that dropped were valuable enough that Mirielle thought it was worth losing out on wolf pelts, claws, and fangs to get a more steady supply. And there were more mobs deeper in where they were never able to push. Even if they sent Rogues or Thieves to scout, Stealth wasn't good enough to surpass the Keen Noses of the wolves, and jaguars, and the amount of people with Erase Presence was at an absolute premium. They were prioritised to work on other things.

"I still don't understand how I can help," Sara wrote, which made Mirielle realise she had paused for too long.

"Could you ask the other wolves to help us out? Or at least not attack us? If we don't have to worry about them, we might be able to re-establish enough control to officially reopen the road."

"The wolves aren't the only danger," Sara wrote. "I have already found jaguars that jump from the trees, two different types of demonic deer, and I've smelled bears that seem to sometimes wander close to the road."

Demonic deer? Is that how the wolves... or at least the Guardian Beast sees them? The thought made her chuckle a little.

"We are aware of those, but it would still help us a lot if at least the wolves would agree to not attack us," Mirielle insisted.

"I understand. I can talk to them, but I can't guarantee that they will listen," Sara wrote. "Come back to the glade tomorrow morning, and I will meet you there to tell you how it went."

"Okay. Thank you." Mirielle felt relieved. She didn't doubt that the wolves would listen to Sara, but she still tried to keep her expectations in check. "Ah..." It finally occurred to her to check the time. She still had time until her shift started, but she'd need to hurry back.

"I'm so sorry, Sara, but I need to head back right away. My duties at the Temple start soon."

"That's okay," Sara scribbled down quickly. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

If she ran all the way to the hunting post, and walked quickly from there, Mirielle should have time to freshen up with a quick bath before going to the Temple. They would definitely have questions, and objections if she turned up as a sweaty mess.

The Residents aren't aware/don't believe that the world has only been around for like five-six months, they naturally think this is where they grew up, and have always lived, so their perspective of things is a little different from mobs, and players.

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