Chapter 48: Chapter 48: Friends, And Story Time

Sara decided to gather a bunch of the nearby wolves for a quick meeting. She didn't bother summoning all of them, because she just wanted to check a thing, but she still got over 30 of them on just a quick round around the den.

I guess most of them are on this side of the road...

They all sat down in front of the den, and she asked: "So how are you all feeling?"

"Boss?" they sounded confused.

"You felt the humming earlier, right? The changes to your schedules should be working now. Are you all doing okay with needing to sleep? Do you know how to? Do you have places to go to when you need to rest?"

It was probably too early for any of them to feel sleepy yet, but since she had been told they would be sleeping in shifts, maybe Auntie System had instilled different levels of sleepiness in them.

"Oh! Yes, boss. The world let us know," one of the wolves assured her.

"The world... let you know?" Sara gave them a puzzled look.

"Yes, boss."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I'm not sure how to explain it better, boss. We just know now. The world told us how. But not with words. With... with our bodies, I guess," the wolf replied in somewhat unclear terms.

Still, Sara felt like she maybe understood. When you have an entire world to update, it would probably be like delivering a software update to all of them with the new functions installed, along with the knowledge of how they work. She felt pretty certain Auntie System could handle that much. In fact when the wolves referred to the 'the world' in that way, they probably meant the system.

"And you have places to go?" She really wanted to make sure of that point.

At first she had been prepared to offer them all places in the den, but then it had hit her. Even if she stuffed the floor of her den with mattresses from wall to wall, and maybe more on the walls, she might at best fit like 30 wolves, depending on how much they were willing to squish together. Or maybe even stack. Depending on how long they had to sleep there would be between 50 to 100 asleep at a time, and she didn't have the space for that without making a literal pile. And then she would have nowhere to walk but on top of them.

"Yes, boss. There are dens all over the forest," the wolf said. "They are not as big as yours, but they're enough for us."

That was a relief. So they had taken that into consideration when creating the world, even if the system wasn't in place yet. Or had the world been changed along with the update, so that these dens had only appeared that morning, and hadn't been there the day before? Well, it wasn't like she could go back in time to check. She'd keep an eye out while walking to see if she spotted any. Maybe she'd be able to remember whether she had seen anything there before, or not.

That was asking quite a lot of her shoddy memory, though. Maybe it was better to not worry about it.

"Alright," she said, and got back on her feet. "I just wanted to make sure. Thanks for your time."

"No problem, boss!"

Sara smiled at the wagging tails, and watched them as they also got up. Then she thought of something.

"Oh, actually, one of you..." She looked at the wolves, and noticed there was a familiar face there. Her bathing buddy. "You. I'd like to follow your pack around for a while." She still hadn't done the Thermal Vision training she had been thinking about.

They were a pack of four. All of them Dire Wolves. She had asked around, and apparently the Shade Wolves had all decided to keep going alone. Unlike the carefree nature of the Limber Wolves back in Merwyn, the Shade Wolves actually did the whole prowling, and stealthing thing. A result of having a more advanced AI script, perhaps.

She had spread the word for them to not hesitate to call for help, and of course respond to calls for help, but she wasn't going to force them into more than that.

* * *

When the pack saw their boss was walking behind them, rather than leading them, the wolves got curious. Usually they were fine walking in silence, but then the boss had come along, and started talking to them all. Even holding meetings. And just a little bit they had started talking amongst themselves as well. Not all the time. But sometimes. Mostly about the boss.

After they had done the whole survey escort thing, and gotten to work with the elves, word had spread about that too. Now more of the wolves wanted to do stuff like that, but they weren't sure if they should tell the boss, or not. The boss was the one who was supposed to do the telling, or at least that's how they thought it should be. They had come to an agreement amongst themselves that whenever something came up that didn't involve all of them at once, they would rotate who got to go. The boss did many strange things, after all, so it was almost certain that something was going to happen again.

One of those strange things was definitely how she was now following four of them around while just... looking at things. That seemed to be the only thing she was doing, and they couldn't figure out the purpose for it.

"What are you doing, boss?" one of them asked. The one that had started taking baths because of the boss.

"Hm? Oh, I'm just level- training my Thermal Vision. Having someone to follow around so I don't walk into things is very helpful."

That was another strange thing the boss did. She would be doing strange actions for a while, like how she had been running after the racehogs for hours, but not actually catching them, even though she could have. But then she had stopped doing that. Maybe she would do it again. Maybe not. The wolves didn't really understand it, but on some level they could tell it was making the boss stronger.

When they tried imitating her, they couldn't feel anything changing in themselves. Though just running after the racehogs, creatures they had never bothered with before, was kinda fun.

She would go up into trees too, even though it was unclear what she did up there sometimes. At least when she jumped on a deer from above, like the cats did, that made some sense. But sometimes she would go up, and then just come back down a little bit later, seemingly having done nothing.

They had also noticed that the boss seemed a little weaker now than before the world had changed. Perhaps it had changed the boss too. But they had a feeling she'd find a way to get back to her old self, and probably go beyond that too.

A lot of mobs, the wolves included, had an instinctual feeling about how strong other mobs were, especially those of their own kind. They couldn't see levels, or attributes, or stuff like that, but they could look at someone, and get an impression of how strong they were. They understood how to use their skills, and had become better at utilising them since the world started, but their actual base strength didn't change.

The boss was different. She had already been strong when she first arrived, and she'd only gotten stronger since. She could fight the deer on her own. They wouldn't be surprised if she could take on one of the biggest bears all by herself. Or at least she would be able to soon enough. Though they would rather help her out, than watch her do it alone. She had promised them that at some point they would attack bear territory.

They didn't know a lot about that area, because it was hard to get past the bears, and there had never really been a reason to. The area had plenty of bears, and even more deer, who kept fighting each other. While the bears were stronger, they often had to face more than one deer at a time, which maintained a sort of balance.

If the boss wanted to attack that... the wolves didn't really understand why, but they would happily follow her.

The boss was a strange one. But that was what made her interesting, and she had made all of their lives more interesting too. They were glad she had come along.

* * *

After walking around for a while, Sara finally got her reward, and parted ways with the pack.

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

She had wondered if there would be another kind of vision that would unlock, but maybe there weren't any more. She thought of X-Ray vision, but that might break too many things about how the game worked. If you could just see right through walls it would break the idea of searching for hidden rooms in dungeons, and such. It would kill some of the romance, and wonder. Or if it let you see through people's clothes... maybe it was for the best if it wasn't included.

[ Thermal Vision (Active): Lets you see the heat signature of targets, as well as other significant heat sources. Continuous effect. Effect increases with skill level. Warning: Makes it hard to see anything else, so try to not bump into anything, or fall off any cliffs. Activation Cost: 1 MP. No further cost while active. Refresh: 1 second.
Max level bonus: The outline of the rest of your surroundings is much clearer. ]

That much was true, she could see everything much better now, and could probably walk around on her own without bumping into anything. Actually if she combined it with the sonar ping from Keen Senses, she should have absolutely no problem. Whether that would ever be useful was a different matter, but at least she had finished levelling it, gotten the skill point, and could move on.

The sky was gradually changing from black, to blue, but she still had a little bit of time until sunrise. Mirielle had said she would come visit in the morning, and Sara was curious to hear about the update from the Residents' point of view. Besides it felt like she hadn't spoken to Mirielle on her own for a while.

Which she realised wasn't technically true, it was just a couple of days, but a lot had happened in those two days.

She probably had time to get Chomp, Rend, and Strong Poison Strike to max level before heading to the glade. Actually, she could just ask the ravens to alert her when Mirielle entered the forest again. They seemed to remember people quite well, after all.

After a quick think to consider the best way to approach this, she ended up heading up into the trees to look for deer from above again.

Heh, deer from above.

She didn't jump from too high, since she wanted some time to actually use her skills. Maybe some of her new ones too. Aaaaand... impact!

[ Nyolund Deer (Druid Lvl 24) Defeated. ]

[ Chomp Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! 1 skill point gained. ] [ Pounce Skill Level Up! ] [ Rend Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! 1 skill point gained. ] [ Shred Skill Level Up! ] [ Claw Expertise Skill Level Up! ]

She had only gotten two out of three on that one, but had gotten a few other things as well. Pounce was actually strong enough to push the deer back, though not quite knock it over. She still held off on using Crush, not feeling entirely comfortable with it.

Her lowered stats had probably helped drag out the fight a little longer. She hadn't used any of her buff skills, or magic either, to make sure she got the level ups. But after using SPS once, she had forgotten about it for the rest of the fight. So she had to find one more opponent.

[ Nyolund Noble Deer (Druid Lvl 25) Defeated. ]

[ Death From Above Skill Level Up! ] [ Strong Poison Strike Skill Level Up! Level Max Reached, Bonus Unlocked! 1 skill point gained. ] [ Savage Blow Skill Level Up! ] [ Solid Kick Skill Level Up! ] [ Pounce Skill Level Up! ] [ Shred Skill Level Up! ] [ Poison Enchant Skill Level Up! ] [ Claw Expertise Skill Level Up! ] [ Thorn Armour Skill Level Up! ] [ Solid Coat Skill Level Up! ]

[ Title gained: Max Journeyman: Reached level max on at least 50 skills! Perk granted: +3% skill experience points gained. ]

One of the fancy boxes popped up to congratulate her.

She had tried mixing in a bunch of different things that time. Even tried kicking to see if it was any better now, and it didn't seem to be. Curse her soft, fluffy feet. But at least she could have a look at the max bonuses for all three now.

[ Chomp (Active): You attack using jaws and teeth, or something with an equivalent function. Damage value: (1.1+(0.04*skill level))*attack power. (50+(1*skill level))% chance to inflict Weaken(?) status for 10 seconds. Critical hits inflict Bleed(?) status for 10 seconds. Cost: 4 SP. Refresh: 3 seconds.
Max Level Bonus: Critical hit chance: +5%. Bleed inflicted by this skill deals 50% extra damage. ]

[ Rend (Active): You attack using claws, or something with an equivalent function. Damage value: (1.1+(0.04*skill level))*attack power. Defence piercing: (10+(0.5*skill level))%. Increased durability damage. Increased critical hit chance. Critical hits inflict Bleed(?) status for 10 seconds. Cost: 5 SP. Refresh: 3 seconds.
Max Level Bonus: Critical hit chance: +5%. Bleed inflicted by this skill deals 50% extra damage. ]

[ Strong Poison Strike (Active): You make a fast attack with fangs, claws, or a sharp weapon that inflicts Strong Poison status for 10 seconds. Normal physical damage. Poison damage: (5+(1*skill level)) HP every 2 seconds. Cost: 4 MP. Refresh: 3 seconds.
Max Level Bonus: Poison duration: +4 seconds. Poison damage: +1 HP per tick. ]

The bonuses seemed pretty similar to what remembered from their non-upgraded versions. The poison was getting quite nasty, though. The higher up you got in levels, the more important it became to cleanse status conditions, probably. High Vitality would reduce the damage, and duration by a bit, but even so letting it run its course was dangerous. Having curing items, someone with a cleanse skill, or both was probably necessary past a certain point.

She hadn't gotten a character level though. Since she'd gotten one during the escort quest the day before, maybe it was too early to expect one. And she had enough to do that she didn't really feel like she could, or should dedicate herself to levelling up too much at the moment. Focusing on her skills was good enough for now.

It was a shame none of the attack skills could evolve again, but maybe that was a level based thing, or an evolution based one like last time. She'd probably find out eventually.

* * *

Mirielle hadn't been able to head out quite as early as she had hoped. Shortly after the day had started, while she was preparing things to bring with her (basically going around buying some food for Sara to try. She might try making something herself another time), she had been summoned to come before the Archbishop along with Bishop Luneria.

Archbishop Gundal Felutenna had been in the position since before Mirielle had joined the Temple, and was a respected figure said to look out for the city and its people rather than worry too much about the prestige of the Temple. At least that was the word on the street. Mirielle had never met him before, though she had seen him whenever he held mass.

They had faced a lot of questions about the reports both she and Luneria had handed in so far. Not to mention they had received a missive from the Palace that morning to start producing more of the alliance flower symbol accessories. Even if it was a request from the First Princess rather than the Queen herself, the Temple weren't really in a position to turn it down without a damn good reason.

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Not that the Archbishop had any desire to do so in the first place, but he had a lot of questions about the Guardian Beast, the state of the forest, and the previous day's mission.

The Oracle had been very busy conferring with the Moon Goddess lately due to the change in the world that happened that morning, and hadn't had time to get briefed on the alliance. She had been given a lot of information by the Goddess, and had then handed down a proclamation at dawn after everything was in effect.

The Temple now offered its members access to nature element skills. Having checked her own skill store, Mirielle had found Poison Bolt, and Thorn Bind in there. Even though they were cheap, Mirielle was still hesitant to spend her skill points considering how few she had left. Besides, her Holy Shackles had almost the same function as Thorn Bind, and was levelled much higher. This was probably more aimed at Wanderer Acolytes, or those with special interests, than seasoned members of the Temple.

Apparently they would be offering skill scrolls with a more diverse selection of nature skills suited for the Temple members, so she might have a look at that later. Rejuvenate and Mass Rejuvenate might not be a bad idea, if they were available. They healed in a slightly different way from light element spells, so they could improve her treatment abilities in some ways. Nature was better at treating certain things than light was, and vice versa. Perhaps even Regrowth was worth going for, but that might be too much redundancy. It would depend on how much the scrolls cost.

The one she really wanted to learn was Commune With Animals, but of course that one was still locked to Druids, and she was not in a position to perform a class change even if she had wanted to.

Speaking of the Wanderers, the Goddess had told the Oracle that a lot of new ones would be allowed entry into Moorhold now, so Milheen, and Meerna would likely become quite busy again. Things had really calmed down out there in the past couple of weeks, but now they were going for another round.

That was also why the Archbishop wanted to make sure the creation of more flower symbols would be going smoothly, and desired more details about how the alliance would work. They wanted to have them ready, and in place for when the new Wanderers showed up to enter the forest, as well as for the older ones who were already at that level. Mirielle couldn't actually help with making accessories, so they let her go once she had answered everything she could. After which she set out for the forest as quickly as she could.

She found Sara waiting for her at the glade, no doubt informed of her arrival. At the very least she doubted the wolf would just sit around since the crack of dawn. Hopefully not...

"Good morning, Sara!"

Sara shapeshifted into her Tree Form before she wrote a response:

"Good morning, Mirielle."

"Did I keep you waiting?" Mirielle asked, just to make sure.

"No," Sara wrote. "I've been dealing with various things until the ravens told me you had arrived."

"That's good. I ended up a bit busy myself as the Archbishop wanted to have a meeting this morning," Mirielle said with a slight sigh. Even if the Archbishop had seemed like a good person, it had still been nerve-wracking. "I picked out some food to bring you, but I'm not sure what a wolf likes to eat." Mobs didn't eat anything after all, unless they were tamed, and Mirielle didn't know any Rangers or Hunters that dealt with such things all that well.

"I think I can eat anything," Sara wrote in response. "Though not in this form. I'll have to save it for later."

"Ah yes, of course," Mirielle said, and took out her bag.

"What did the Archbishop want?" Sara asked.

"He wanted to know about you, the alliance, and the flower accessories. I told him what I could, but Bishop Luneria handled the brunt of it."

Mirielle couldn't resist checking Sara's status again while she was handing over the food. Things always seemed to have changed whenever they met. It wasn't possible to change the names of skills, at least not that they were aware of, so Sara couldn't hide everything. Most of it seemed to be the same, though it looked like she had upgraded all of her spells now.

Poison Arrow Alt? I haven't seen that one before.

"I see you've changed some things with your skills again," she said out loud. "You're up to medium attribute increase now?" That was slightly scary, even though she knew that meant it was probably not actually at max level yet. "And... Enhanced Movement?" She wasn't sure if she'd seen that one before either.

"Yes. A lot happened with the update, so I ended up having to rearrange things a little," Sara wrote.

Mirielle blinked. "Update?"

"I mean when the world changed," Sara wrote. "After it felt like the whole world hummed, my god informed me about how things had been changed, and they called it an update. There were a lot of new things that happened to my skills at the same time. So I was forced to rearrange what I have visible. I want to not seem too suspicious if any Wanderers use Identify on me."

'Update' was an interesting choice of word on Norax's part, but Sara still trying to not seem suspicious made Mirielle giggle. "I think it might be too late if you're aiming to not stand out. Becoming the boss of a fourth of the entire Great Forest of Ildhena is a big deal, you know."

It was cute how the treant seemed to sag a little before Sara wrote her response. "I know. When I first came to this world I just wanted to lay low until I became strong enough, but things have not been going my way in that department. All Norax told me was to live my life as I wanted to."

"So you weren't told to become the Guardian Beast?" Mirielle asked. She had assumed Sara had been sent to Hanoleav, even if it wasn't by the Goddess.

"No. That was more of an accident." Sara quickly erased the board before writing more. "Maybe accident is a bad word for it, since it was ultimately my own decision. I just hadn't expected to end up in that position in the first place."

"Then... maybe it was simply fate," Mirielle suggested.

"Maybe."

"So what is it you want to become strong enough for?" Mirielle asked. She could see Sara was hesitating, so she kept going. "Does it have anything to do with the previous life you once mentioned?"

Sara froze for long enough that Mirielle worried she had gone too far, and then she wrote: "Did I really mention that?"

"You did," Mirielle said with a nod.

Things went silent, as the chalk simply hovered in Sara's wooden hand.

"If you don't want to tell me, that's okay," Mirielle said, feeling like she had definitely pushed too far. Even if she was curious, she didn't want to make Sara uncomfortable.

Sara started writing. "You are the first friend I have made in this world, Mirielle. You're probably still my only friend, if I'm honest. I'm not sure what I would call the others, but I feel like I'm not at that stage with anyone but you. So I want to tell my story, but I'm worried you will think less of me afterwards."

Mirielle felt very flattered at being called a friend, and blushed a little. "I won't think any less of you, I promise," she said as reassuringly as she could.

Sara thought for a little longer. "Okay. I will try to keep it short." Then she wiped the board, and started writing until it was full.

"In my previous life I lived in a different world, as a human. The same world the Wanderers come from, in fact. But I died in some sort of accident I can't remember. Norax rescued my soul, and gave me a new life here in Moorhold, but they couldn't make a human again, so I became a wolf instead. A unique one with the ability to grow stronger, and bigger. I was promised that if I could grow strong enough, I could become a Resident of this world."

Mirielle's eyes went wide as she kept reading. It was not what she had expected at all, but it made sense in some ways. So Norax was not powerful to make her a Resident again, but had the power to make her into a mob that could eventually become a Resident? That changed so much about what Mirielle thought she knew. What if other gods had done the same as Norax? What if there were more like Sara out there? Maybe there were those in a similar situation to Sara, but who had been able to start as Residents? They wouldn't be able to go back to their old world, but otherwise would be more like Wanderers than Residents.

"It was rough at the start." Sara had filled another board. "But I found shelter among the wolves of Merwyn Forest, and was able to grow until I became a Mystic Wolf. However certain things had happened that made it hard for me to stay there, along with the fact that there was nothing left for me to grow stronger on. So my god informed me that Ildhena was somewhere I could go that had more wolves, and higher levels. I travelled across the Eronite Kingdom, crossed the border, and made my way into the forest. And then the next day I met you."

"I see..." Mirielle was processing this information. So Sara had been told by Norax to come here, but not given a directive of what to do. Everything had just worked out that way anyway. So was it fate, or divine guidance? Had they intended for things to end up like this all along, and known that Sara would naturally make those choices?

"So you see, I'm not all that impressive," Sara wrote.

Mirielle chuckled, and shook her head. "No, you are very impressive, Sara. Your story is truly out of this world." She couldn't resist the obvious joke. "But joking aside... do you still want to become a Resident?"

"Hopefully one day," Sara wrote.

"And... then you'll have to leave the forest..." That thought made her sad, but she didn't want to stand in the way of Sara's dreams, so she couldn't make herself say it out loud.

"If I want to grow strong enough, I will have to," Sara wrote. "But that is a bit of a problem. Considering the work I've put into building this alliance, I don't want to just abandon it when it's barely started. I have grown fond of the wolves here as well, so I don't want to abandon them either. And it's where I finally got to make contact with you, and other Residents. There's a lot here I don't want to leave behind."

Mirielle nodded. "Yes, I understand what you're saying." Just like she couldn't just abandon the Temple to go travel the world, Sara had taken on several responsibilities here.

"I have been trying to think of a solution. Maybe find a successor that can keep the alliance going even if I leave, but it's tricky since I'm the only one able to communicate with Residents, and with the Night Ravens. I don't want things to fall apart should I leave. So at the very least I don't intend to leave until I find some solution."

"Okay," Mirielle said. So Sara wouldn't be leaving right away. But eventually... Then suddenly she felt a wooden hand very gently pat her on the head.

"I can still come back to visit even after I leave, so please cheer up," Sara had written on the board.

"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realise..." Mirielle sighed. "I didn't mean to show that I..."

"I understand," Sara wrote. "But you never know. Maybe one day you'll have a super cute girl knocking on your door."

Mirielle giggled. "Maybe."

"Though come to think of it, I don't know where your door is," Sara wrote after erasing the board. "Maybe I should go to the Temple, and ask for you." She cleared the board once more. "But enough about that. I am curious to hear what it was like for you when the world changed. I don't know what happens inside the city, after all. Could you also feel the humming?"

"Yes." Mirielle nodded. "It's happened once before, when the Wanderers first appeared. Apparently there's going to be even more Wanderers this time, so I'm curious how things are going to end up. While I recognise their strength, and they certainly help out a lot... I'm still not sure how reliable they are in the long run. I recognise it's too early to judge either way. In a few years we'll probably have a better picture."

"Did anything change for you?"

"It did! All members of the Temple now have access to nature element skills. I checked my available skills for purchase, and found Thorn Bind, and Poison Bolt. I'm not sure if either is useful for me, though..."

"There is some overlap between Druid skills, and Priest skills," Sara wrote.

"Yes. Especially at early levels. We can both heal, and bind enemies. I'm not a hunter, or a fighter, so I don't think gaining a bit of poison, or thorn damage will help me much. I'd rather save my skill points for now," Mirielle said. "The Oracle's proclamation mentioned the Temple will get skill scrolls for us to buy cheaply, so I think I'll have a look at what they will offer. I haven't been able to check my world messages yet, since I wanted to get out here as quickly as I could, but I'll look at that later."

"World messages?"

"Yes, you know, the ones about skill levels, unlocks, evolutions, and such. We can check them, and interact with them at the Temple. I hear they also have facilities for that at the various Guilds, but I've always used the ones at the Temple." It made the most sense for Mirielle. There were other places, for instance the Palace that also had their own facilities. "Accessing the skill store is easier. I can even do that at home."

"I see."

"Come to think of it... how do you deal with that, Sara? Clearly you do, since your skills keep updating, but..." For some reason it hadn't occurred to Mirielle to question that until now.

"Another gift from Norax," Sara wrote. "I am able to see world messages wherever I am. Similar to how it is for Wanderers, I believe."

"I'm envious," Mirielle admitted. "I wish the gods would do the same for us Residents too." No matter how Sara thought of herself, it was clear that being favoured by a god came with some pretty big advantages.

"Maybe they will some day," Sara wrote. "But it can be quite overwhelming, so maybe only doing it where you're prepared for it isn't so bad."

The two of them kept chatting for a bit, with Mirielle filling Sara in on what the Archbishop had wanted to talk about, and making other small talk until Mirielle had to head back. She still had her duties past noon.