Chapter 32: Chapter 23: Staring at Maddened Eyes

Staring at Maddened Eyes

They are scared…? Why…?

Max and Jess… they are shivering in front of me… my little brother, protecting our little sister… he is protecting her…

My hands are shaking… and wet… I look down

Blood… blood… blood, blood, blood!

He is protecting her from-!

-----

HISS!!!

‘AAAHHH!!!’ why? Why? Why? Why?! WHY?! ‘I WON’T HURT THEM!!! I. WON’T. HURT. THEM!!!’ WHY DID I Had to see That?! WhY?! I’m shiVering! Need, to, control… ‘Why…?’

Shivering, cold, angry, shivering… cold… cloudy… cold… angry… cold… dark… tired… cold…

‘Status…’

‘Traits… evolve… Speed Boost…’ tired… close…

Cold… flowers… sway… cold… cloudy…

‘No… more… nightmares…’ cold… ‘Please…’

/////

The day the creatures in the forest started to fight against monsters, was a terrible day for Martha…

The doors to the shelters under every farm, were under an unmarked stone, but everyone was told that the biggest stone in front of the chimneys, was the one they needed to pray to open them. When one of them is opened is that the alarm of all the farms on that section of the shield is activated

Her family, friends, and herself managed to enter the shelter without problem, and unlike the first time she used one, the door closed properly… opening many hours later, after the guards and adventurers of the cities prayed on the shelters to open them and deactivate the alarm

But once the shelter was closed again, she started crying, the reason was something that she would never tell anyone. It weren’t her memories, like her adoptive parents believed…

It was due to what she got, by nearly killing the snake…

Martha was distressed, she understood that the snake was attacking the monster, not her, but she didn’t saw that, as a good reason for the punishment she was given…

Everyone had heard of that particular mark, and how no one should work with anyone with it, even if it was inactive like hers. It only could truly go away, with being unrelated to the death of the betrayed, or forgiveness…

‘Forgiveness from a snake…?’ only when she was alone, is that she dared to look at the mark on her body. It was a bloody red with the shape of a snake, the tail started somewhere in her spine, and the head was close to her heart… she didn’t knew if its location, was because she cut the snake there…

No one really talked about the details of the mark…

One day of Fall, Martha was using the latrine that came with their farm. The entrance to those, was a hatch outside the northern stone wall around their house. They where soundproof, underground stone rooms like the shelters, but one side was used to turn waste into fertilizer for the fields, and the other side was for taking baths. As a whole, it offered solitude, not safety

And it was the only place she dared to look at it

Once she was done, she washed her hands in a pail with cleaning liquid and got out, locking the hatch after her. Everyone did that, to avoid attracting a moving plant that liked to steal fertilizer, the aggressive plant smelled awful, and that wasn't the more irritating characteristic it had…

Martha vaulted over the short wall and moved to the door of her home, walking along the eastern wall, it was early in the morning and without seeing the cloudy sky, her mother said that it was going to rain the moment she woke up

They were relaxing that day as a result of what she said and-

“…!!!” Martha nearly fainted once she turned the corner seeing, the now bigger, white snake in front of her house. Martha fell to her butt, mutely screaming at how terrified she felt

‘Hello… sorry for screaming at you before’ Miriam nodded to her, a bit confused because until a few seconds ago, she couldn't detect the girl, and placed three Holy Blossoms on the ground in front of the door

Martha flinched once she saw the flowers, completely stunned by what she was seeing

“Ah…” the girl looked at the snake, seeing the enormous amount of scars on the scales of it, so many and so deep, that she couldn't see the wound she did with the knife in her apron’s pocket. She was particularly horrified by the big ones on the arm and eye

Miriam turned to go out of the walled section… but stopped and meet the eyes of the girl…

‘-I. Forgive. You.-’ she gestured using sign language to the redhead, to avoid scaring her with magic, and hoping that the meaning of her actions reached her, before moving quickly back to the forest

Ding

And as she moved away. Martha checked the notification she got

She could feel the thing on her side, going away and as she looked at the flowers she started crying, but as she turned to look back at the snake

Miriam was vanishing between the trees… and Martha would need years, before she talked with anyone about what had happened

/////

Ding

‘Give me a second…’ I look around… ‘I can smell a lot of humans here…’ I got scared by the smell as I got closer to the farm… ‘Would be bad to avoid them getting out… just to met them getting in…’ head to the ground… ‘Nothing…’ I have a bad feeling… ‘Status…’

‘Good… Traits… no…’ how frustrating… ‘I want to buy from Absorb-! Ah… right, you are jumpy… wait, can I focus on these items too?’ focus…

‘There we go… in contact with the scale…? Must be some kind of light refraction or…?’ there is no surprise with the wings, but… ‘What is that conceptual thing…?’

-Electricity and Snakes…-

…

‘What…? If lightning hits a snake, a toad, or a human the result is the same…’ no changes on the message… ‘If I upgrade you, can you tell me then…?’

-Yes…-

‘Then, I have something to look forwards to…’ I look back to the Items… ‘The Scale is useful in water… and maybe when it rains…?’ judging by the clouds, it seems it’s going to happen soon… ‘But they still make shadows, so it’s not perfect… but if I coat my body with a water spell…’

It’s going to be cold…

‘I wouldn't be able to use it on winter… Spells?’

‘Sonic Order…?’ if I focus on it I can see: Scream of terror, Empower… ‘That… isn't…? Where did this name came from…?’

-Imbue…-

‘My first spell…?’ no… I didn’t make this spell… ‘I… I didn’t said that word… I saw it for the first time… here…’

I just jokingly tried to do magic on top of the engraving… why did it triggered…? Is magic that sensitive…? Or it’s something to do with the symbol…?

‘…?’ smell of humans… ‘Need to go… river, water and maybe food, then… deeper…’ I don’t have enough magic to make another Eye Stone… ‘Can I make one that works on humans…?’ time to run

-----

Head to the ground…

‘Not good… the river doesn’t let me hear that far away…’ by the smell I think they are following me… ‘Status’

‘Maybe I can pretend to go south, hide in the water, move north as they go south…?’ my plan has a problem… ‘Even with the Cloak I’m going to cast a shadow… the fishes cast a shadow… this will hurt… Absorb… Buy Water Cloaking Scale-!’

/////

Her whole body burned and she clenched her mouth to not make a noise, but unlike previous times the pain was manageable, and just stopped her from moving…

‘Ugh… not as bad… but…’ it did made her hungrier, as the heat kept going ‘Need to keep moving-! AH!’ as she tried to move, she heard her body starting to crack and her vision blurred ‘AAAHHH!!!’

Miriam moved on the spot, coiling and trembled in panic for a few moments, until she heard a ripping sound coming from her body. She opened her mouth hearing the sound again, and realizing that she was molting, she started to use her hands to rub her scales…

‘What…?’ scales that were slowly turning into dust, as she saw once she got rid of the ones in her face ‘Weird… did Absorb…? It doesn’t matters…’ she made sure that her body was clean, when the heat was done, and looked back to the water ‘How do I look…?’

Her reflection didn’t showed any difference, but once she placed her hand on the water she saw it act as if it was a clear ice. It wasn't true invisibility, because she made a small shadow on the riverbank and noticed that the rocks through her hand looked displaced, or bent, as she moved it above them…

‘Not… as good as a fish…’ she pulled back her hand, seeing how the water that remained on top of her scales glimmered ‘If it can’t do a full covering… I’ll look more visible…’ she shook her hand feeling angry with herself ‘Damn it…’ it was good, but it wasn't a solution to her current problem

Miriam couldn't dwell on it for long, as she noticed the smell of her trackers again. Using magic, she made mud on the other side of the river, and shaped it as if she had moved on top of it, extending the track to a bush on the other side

‘Now I need to erase the ones here’ she moved to a tree further to the south, and once she was on its roots, she flattened the ground were she had been ‘Ia Stop. Gotta go…’ she moved under a bush, trying to not touch much of the ground…

Once she was gone and a few minutes passed, the group of adventurers reached the spot. Esp stopped for a second before smiling and crouching

“Clever girl…” unlike Veronica, he specialized in tracking instead of combat, and noticed her ruse by the state of the bush

“That line on the other side is fake then?” Andrew asked

“You can see it, so…” the archer smiled, making the swordsman roll his eyes “It’s too thin, this girl is a bit wider, she forgot her frontal legs too”

All of them got the information of Miriam’s base species due to the curiosity of the mage, and by hearing the request of catching a possible magic snake alive, they offered to do it

Neil kneel and grabbed a scale from the ground, it turned to dust on his hand

“Hmm…” he looked at the dust with interest, before gathering it on a vial, unaware that August moved forwards beyond the bush to the south, followed by Nathan

“Anything to add?” Andrew asked the mage, but he shook his head and the three of them moved to reach the other two

Esp quickly walked ahead of them and found more tracks, before addressing the others

“Good that this one hasn't improved her sneaking…”

“We should just rush it” the youngest of the group said as an answer

“Don't corner a creature…” surprisingly, August was the one that spoke, and since he barely did it (Unless Esp talked to him) the youngster closed his mouth

‘But… if the snake keeps going south, it’s going to corner itself…’

Their plan to catch her, was to follow her until she was too hungry to move, and in case she already ate something, they could wait until nightfall

The request lacked a time limit, it just stressed the need of having the snake alive. It was likely an experiment to extract the affinities of the creature

After a few minutes Esp stopped, gesturing at the rest to do the same, before crouching again. Neil looked at the focus on his staff while they were waiting-

“M-magic!” and everyone tensed at his call, but nothing happened and after a few seconds the glow went away… “A-again!” moments later it happened again, and that time the glow lasted for longer…

But they didn’t saw anything… making Nathan angry

“Is this snake toying with us?” while all of them could hear the anger in his voice, Andrew tried to see if there could be some kind of truth in his statement

“Why did we stopped?” so he asked Esp

“The snake did something to the ground here” the tracker pointed forwards, before grabbing a rock and trowing it in the middle of the open space

A rock that just struck the ground, not doing anything other that move some dirt where it hit…

“D-delay…?” the mage moved forwards and poked the ground with his staff “C-could she e-evolve s-soon…? To a h-human, I m-mean”

Andrew frowned at that, not because he disliked humanoids, or because the reward would be voided. None of them had heard of a reptile becoming humanoid, there were some rumors about insects, but mostly, only some old mammals became humanoids…

‘Most of them are to the south… far beyond the Line, on a coastal city protected by their own Line…’

“We really should contact with them…” he pointed to the south, and the rest understood who he meant “They could give us more information about becoming human-like…” he stopped as Nathan moved forwards brandishing his hammer

“The snake isn't one yet. There is a reward. It’s fair game” he kept moving making Esp call out to him before getting ahead of him

The rest quickly returned to their normal formation, walking along the quiet forest… alert for any sound… following the tracker for another hour, because none of them could see what he could…

“Did any of you found out what happen to the guy you all reported…?” Nathan quietly asked, annoyed by the long period of silence

“No…” Andrew said “He was only useful because that gray powder of his… and since no alchemist in the city, knows how to make something like it… it must have been something illegal”

“I-it it-itched!”

August grunted in affirmation at the mage’s words, before all of them stopped at another empty space by a signal from Esp

“Again…?” Nathan grumbled moving closer to the archer

‘Neil read that the snake couldn't be the new devourer… I know it’s supposed to have magic, but-!’

The roar of the Ruler was heard by everyone in the forest, making all of them stop and start counting, but before they could finish, it roared again. All of them tensed… but they couldn't heard the impact

“First that thing gets more annoying, then the weird creatures start appearing!” Nathan moved forwards ignoring the warnings of the tracker- “What is-?! AAAHHH!” and the ground sunk below him

He swung his hammer down as he fell, but the drop was only to the height of his knees and there wasn't any danger on the trap that Miriam made. His position looked a bit silly to Esp, making him chuckle, thankful that nothing bad had happened

“I told you to-” but as he was going to lecture the youngster

“FUCK THIS!!!” the enraged teenager rushed forwards

Making the others rush after him, not letting him get out of their sight, but after a few seconds-

“DODGE!!!” Esp saw something in the ground, just in front of Nathan. It was a long, hair thin line, drawn in the ground…

Nathan’s anger didn’t clouded his mind enough, to disregard the warning and jumped to his left, as Esp stomped the ground as he slowed, before firing an arrow forwards to the ground. Both Andrew and August had their weapons ready-

HISS!!!

As Miriam forced a wall of dirt to raise between her and the archer, uncovering her body and releasing her aura in the process. The arrow didn’t caused as much damage as the last one that Miriam blocked, but she knew that her wall couldn't resist more than another one

‘HOW?!’ in an instant her glare meet the guy with the hammer

“…!!!” he felt fear gripping his heart… and yet he managed to take a step in her direction-

HISS!!!

Miriam created spears between them and on the other side of her the wall, to stop the other two melee warriors trying to surround it, but once she felt something fighting her magic (the other mage), she stopped and escaped to the south, as fast as she could

Esp didn’t fired again because the task was to capture the snake alive… but he would have done it if she had tried to attack Nathan…

“We need to-! Wait!” he tried to give his opinion…

But the young warrior just screamed, charging ahead once the pressure coming from Miriam left him, the rest also followed him, trying to make him stop, without grabbing him

They expected him to get tired before any of them, but he only could think about fighting the snake, trying his best to keep it from getting away… he had seen that the snake could kill him, even if he didn’t got the Combat Gauge yet, he knew that she could have killed him…

He felt anger, because he mistakenly thought… that she didn’t saw him as a valid threat…

Miriam on the other hand, saw ALL of them, as a gigantic danger to her life and could only think about fleeing. It wasn't her fault that her face could only make one expression, other than neutral…

‘Ia Stop!’ she made sure her magic wasn't active, moving as fast as she could, pulling back her aura, so it also couldn't be used to detect her ‘Damn it!’ feeling how her body was getting tired a bit faster, that it did before ‘Stamina Boost tonight!’

She tried to keep running, but eventually she felt her body overheating and moved back to the river, drinking some water, before getting inside the river and trying to swim downstream. On the few times she moved her head below the water, she saw that the cloaking of the fishes didn’t worked as good there…

Without noticing that her eyes weren’t hidden underwater…

‘Weird…’ the fishes that fled away from her, looked like a distorted tube of light underwater ‘It still must be good for them, because their neighbors don’t know who is who… but what do they do when is time to mate-?!’

Her thoughts were interrupted by a fish that actually tried to attack her eyes from below

Crunch!

‘Asshole!’ but it didn’t lasted long, and she moved to the ground to eat it ‘Status’

She prayed before swallowing it, looking to the north as she let her body rest for a moment

‘I made a lot of pit traps and fake pit traps…’ she focused in her magic, she still had more than half ‘How did they found me, on one of the fake ones…?’

Miriam would never know that while following her, the adventurers only found one of her traps…

‘Need to evolve the sneaking too, I guess…’ she took a deep breath and keep moving south ‘I remember having a bad feeling about going in this direction before… maybe I can reach an “Out of limits” zone…?’ she didn’t knew, and kept looking over her shoulder as she moved

Minutes later she found herself staring on top of a cliff, to the forest in front of her, and a big stone nearby under a man-made roof, overlooking the forest below. The river to her right turning onto a waterfall next to her

‘Oh~ pretty’ she carefully moved to the edge and looked below, paying more attention to the cliff than to the river ‘It’s going to be hard to climb this… oh, this is a big Eye Stone… another one… many more…’ from that spot she saw part of the Line ‘How high do the wards work…? Are they here to stop the screeching idiot…?’

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She looked to the horizon, barely seeing the two lone mountains far to the south…

‘Shit… that is a long range attack… those things must be volcanic… maybe formed by a hot spot…?’ they were too far away for her to be certain, and she got distracted by some browning spots in the sea of green in front of her ‘Those must be trees with real leaves… I’ll try to find out what they are called, later’

Miriam backed away from the edge, and moved north a few meters, when she started to hear noises coming from that direction

‘Ia Imbue Eyes!’ she looked to the ground and tried what she couldn't do with the previous adventurers

STOP I’M A HUMAN

She wrote in the ground, but still moved closer to the cliff again. Not enough to cross the Line that she couldn't feel, or see…

“There it is!”

“Can you stop now?!”

But close enough to look trapped to the humans…

August was the first to see the message, and pointed it to the swordsman who gasped. Causing everyone to read it…

“What…?” the out of breath Nathan, was the first one to react “How did a snake learned to mimic that?”

Hiss…

NOT MIMIC

Miriam wrote it like that, because Neil and Esp aimed their weapons at her, once the ground started to move

“Who are you?” August asked and saw how the snake pointed at the ground

MIRIAM

“F-four plus f-f-four?” Neil asked and Miriam raised eight fingers. Both the mage and the archer lowered their weapons

“How many times you have evolved?!” but the enraged teen didn’t believed what was happening

Hiss…

She just raised three fingers to his question. Miriam didn’t wanted to answer it due to the fear of being seen as an easy prey, but still did it

“Bullshit…” Esp said in amazement “That aura is a Blooming Trait!”

Miriam shrugged, not really sure if she had the time (Or space) to write her life to the adventurers

It was such a human gesture, that Nathan was the only one, that couldn't believe (At least some part of) what Miriam was saying

“I don’t believe you!” his words made Miriam point to the ground again-

THEN I’M WASTING MY TIME

Before dashing to the cliff, And jumping off it, to the river below

Seeing her cross the Line, made all of them move forwards after her, but only Esp managed to jump, avoiding the last, shallow pitfall she made, and reach the edge-

‘Current!’ in time to see her disappear from his sight inside the water she made rise to catch her

“She can hide like a fish!” he exclaimed as the others reached his side a moment later. His words were confirmed the moment a glimmering Miriam got out of the opposite side of the river

‘Glad that Current worked for the jump… But that could have gone better…’ she looked at them, before dashing to the rustling trees ‘Not now!’ but she was so focused into getting away that she ignored them

Again it was Nathan the one that reacted first

“Shit!” he started to go climb down the cliff as fast as he could

“What are you doing?!” Andrew screamed at him

“She didn’t Fell! We can’t let a creature that can cross the Line, live or breed!”

His words were so simple, that none of the others could think of going against what he was saying, and all of them reacted accordingly

Esp basically ran down the cliff using his agility, Andrew climbed after Nathan, and once he grabbed the youngster, with some deliberated jumps, they reached the archer. Neil just made the ground shift and made an “Elevator” for him and August

SQUEAL!!!

‘SHIT!!!’ but Miriam found the reason why the trees were warning her and was running back to the river

A pile of muscles and fat of over two and a half meters tall, an almost humanoid shape, mostly covered in short black fur, with thick arms that reached the ground and ended in huge, sharp hooves. Its relatively short legs gave it a surprisingly fast speed, that was enough to not lose sight of the tired girl

SQUEAL!!!

The blade-like tusks of the beast were naturally red, just like the stripe of fur that started above its broken horn and flew behind it like a short cape. The instant Miriam’s eyes met the crimson eyes in the enormous head of the boar, she knew-

‘RUN!!!’

“FELL DESTROYER!!!”

SQUEAL!!!

That it had an evolved form of Berserker…

Esp after screaming the name of the beast, jumped to an outcropping of the cliff and started to fire arrow after arrow at it, catching its attention once one of them obliterated its right eye. This let Miriam get out of its way, by jumping to the river and swimming west for a few meters

The regeneration of the maddened creature, meant that the eye of the Destroyer, was whole again by the time it reached the middle of the river. Where it swung and arm to a charging August

CLANK!!!

He didn’t tried to block the strike, instead he used his shield to divert the powerful impact away from him, and ignoring how his shield got sightly deformed, he swung his ax to the head of the beast-

CLANK!!!

But his blow bounced, just making some sparks against the tusk-

SQUEAL!!!

And making him deflect another deathly attack, making an opening from Andrew to make a shallow cut, along the side of the Destroyer

Fighting in the middle of the river, wasn't ideal for any of them, but they all hoped that the beast was the one in the worse position

‘Earth Spear!’ seeing all that, Miriam hoped that they would accept her collaboration, but after she saw that three of her attacks break against its hide, she started to panic and released her aura, willing it to not affect the humans

She had no idea if she actually could do that, or if it affected the boar at all

“I-IMMUNE TO MAGIC!!!” Neil screamed to Miriam once he noticed her pointless attacks, Nathan was frozen next to him looking at the brute

‘WHAT?!!!’ she didn’t knew how he knew that, but she choose to believe him ‘VENOM DART!!!’ and fired her Sleep Venom-

SQUEAL!!!

But the pink cloud only seemed to make it angry at her…

Making it ignore the two men slashing at it, and giving two steps towards her-

‘CURRENT!!!’ before “Punching” down the torrent that Miriam made, to keep it away from her. His punch briefly sent all the water around him away ‘EARTH PILLAR!!!’ letting Miriam strike its face, hoping that more mass actually could do damage-

SQUEAL!!!

The unfazed Destroyer swung an arm to the pillar that struck its face, sending it towards Nathan

CRACK!!!

Neil made a wall that was sturdier that the ones Miriam did before, but the projectile still pierced it, barely slowing before hitting the teen on the chest, bending the metallic cuirass he wore, and making him hit the cliff-

Crack!

As if he was nothing more than a rag doll that was thrown by a child…

‘AAAAHHHH!!!’ Miriam forced her magic to rip the armor from his body as he fell and fired it to the Destroyer, the creature deflecting it away, burying it in the cliff-

“AAAHHH!!!” but leaving him wide open for another arrow from Esp (Using the same trick that Miriam had seen Dan do before) to destroy another eye, leaving it stunned for the enraged warriors to onslaught it, trying to outpace its regeneration

‘REGROW!!!’ Miriam missed that, in her desperation to heal the teen, at the same time that a crying Neil was trying to feed him a potion ‘RESTORE!!!’ and missed how much magic she was using to heal his wounds

“AAAHHH!!!” she only stopped as his legs twitched, and he actively tried to drink the brew after screaming

HISS!!!

Focusing her wrath on the beast…

Not thinking clearly, Miriam made two pillars tall enough to peek above the water, before grabbing them and turning them into two swords

“NEIL! THE TERROR STONE!!!” Andrew screamed, barely dodging a blow aimed at his head, of the now recovered Destroyer, retaliating with a cut on said arm

The mage stopped looking between Miriam and the teen, and made another platform to raise Nathan and him up the cliff

HISS!!!

‘EMPOWER SELF!!!’ Miriam made a challenging noise to the boar and as it turned towards her ‘AAAHHH!!!’ she willingly went Berserk, making the crystal on her chest turn red, like the glow around her body

Charging at the beast, as everyone around her now could smell blood in the air

Both warriors moved away from the Destroyer, they realized what Miriam had done and didn’t wanted to get in her way. Andrew was closer than August, in case he could help

Thanks to her Blood Soaked Trait, Miriam’s mindless state was strong, fast and proficient enough to fight that beast, even after her Empower faded to not drain her magic completely. She managed avoid four swings from the Destroyer, while cutting it with her weapons multiple times

But… her swords did less damage to it, than the metal weapons of the adventurers…

SQUEAL!!!

CRACK!!!

It wasn't enough…

As her first weapon was crushed, Neil reached the Stone and he started to pour all his magic into it-

Miriam adjusted her grip and managed one last wound on the maddened creature, but it did a backhand swing at her, that she tried to block-

At the same time that the Terror Stone glowed brightly…

SQUEAL!!!

Slam!

‘AAAHHH!!!’ and she was flung against the current, her crystal turning green again as she was snapped her out of her Berserker by the pain, with broken arms, and some internal wounds

SQUEAL!!!

The pressure coming from the Stone had distracted it, and turned the attack into a glancing blow…

“DIE!!!” since the Destroyer was frozen screaming at the Terror Stone, Andrew did the same thing that Miriam couldn't identify, and in an instant stabbed its neck “Ah?!”

But it wasn't enough to kill the boar. Its Berserker was powerful enough, to let it held the blade with its pierced throat as it raised its arms-

‘SCREAM OF TERROR!!!’

HIIISSS!!!

Miriam saw the glow in the Stone, unlike the humans she could still see the pattern, but by seeing it glowing she understood what they were trying to do, and tried to help using the last bit of her magic in a spell

The combination of the Terror Stone, her aura and spell, were enough to make the boar make a gurgling sound, and flee away from them…

SQUEAL!!!

After a few seconds of silence they heard it again, but it was going away…

‘Ow…’ Miriam looked at the humans as rain started to fall, becoming aware of her temperature doing the same, as she did her best to keep her head and twisted arms above the water ‘We good…?’

Both the teen and the mage were out of breath on top of the cliff while looking at her, the archer was looking around with his back against the cliff, the guy with the ax moving towards him. The swordsman was looking at her, but he just touched his armored chest with the crossguard of his weapon

‘We good…’ Miriam nodded to him and held her breath as she swam away with the current

Disappearing from sight as the rain started to fall heavily

…

Some minutes later the adventurers were under the roof protecting the Terror Stone, both to let Neil and Nathan to rest, and because they needed to guard the place until the Stone recovered

Now it was emitting a soft reddish glow, and didn’t worked as a ward temporally. The roof already sent a signal to the closest city, the city would send another group to guard the place, and to let them return to recover

Until then, they would need to stay there, but with Nathan’s condition, they were happy with waiting

“We should tell what happened, only to the guild leader…” Andrew offered to the rest, no one answered back “Maybe only inside a temple too…”

August grunted his approval after a few seconds, and since everyone was quiet, he assumed that they approved too

“Nathan did you checked your Status?” he asked after a few more seconds

“No… not ready… to read about almost dying…” was the pained answer he got “How… did that boar… Fell…?”

“It was old… that’s all I noticed…” Esp answered “Either another boar shoved it pass the Terror Stones years ago… or as a piglet it was dragged by the river… who knows” he shrugged

“Are we… sure that she…” Nathan sighed “She isn't going to… become a threat…?”

The following silence felt deafening, but was eventually broken by Esp

“That is not for us to say… you still scared about her… breeding?”

“No…” he sighed “I was afraid of… her becoming something… like a snake queen or-”

August shushed him, before explaining

“Don't give a gendered Title”

“Gah… sorry…” he groaned and keep quiet for a while

They all knew about a country to the west, whose ruler insisted in being called “King” despite being a woman, and how she made a baby with her wife, thanks to it…

That was the reason for the use of the word “Ruler” for many things…

“Can I have another potion…?” the teen broke the silence after a while, and everyone was alarmed at what he said, because those things were awful, but Neil gave him another one and regretted again, not being capable of healing magic…

…

By then Miriam had already prayed and ate a fish before getting inside a crack in the cliff…

‘Ugh…’ it was dry, but too shallow for her to use it as a shelter… ‘Status…’

‘Ugh… what title was that…?’

-Hunter Snake…-

‘Great… not even midday, and I already found a new way of painting a target on my back…’ she looked at the things she got, trying to ignore the pain of her body ‘I’m assuming the Pranking, it’s just the Trickster doing their thing… Traits…? I can’t open it… I don’t have the magic to use it anyways…’

Miriam was about to start talking to herself…

‘Yes’ she answered without hesitation, or fear ‘And I’m going to keep calling you Fist Mother… I’ll figure out if Aufiea is your name, the moment I become humanoid…’

Nothing else happened, so she just closed everything and tried to relax… as her body painfully fixed her arms