Chapter 39: Chapter 29: Silent Stone

Silent Stone

The Ruler didn’t fired an attack after that roar, leaving Miriam to look around once it was over. She noticed one of the trees that raised above the rest, and started to move towards it

‘I’m going to climb that tree, and see if I can find the cliff’ she kept glancing around, to the water and to the trees around…

‘W-what are you trying to do!?’ but that message made her stop immediately in fear ‘Why did I got another message that gets cut before the-?!’

‘NO IT’S NOT!!! WHATEVER IT IS!!! IT IS NOT-!!!’

‘AAAHHH!!!’ she nearly collapsed after reading that, but Miriam shook her head ‘No! It’s a prank! Status! Traits-!’

She couldn't open it, and her mind froze. The only part of her body that was moving was the tip of her tail, and the noise it was making wasn't enough to snap her of the shock that she was feeling-

Puff!

‘Ah!!!’ but the cloud of pink smoke, that struck her face, did it ‘Where?!’

A buzzing sound started to bother her, but she didn’t felt pain from it. Miriam could look around trying to find the source of the attack-

Puff!

‘Ugh! There!’ it was a meter long six legged insect with a short, but sharp looking proboscis, that she found on top of a nearby branch, it was making the buzzing sound too, but she didn’t care about that at the time ‘Ia! Imbue Fangs!’

On top of its head a red bag inflated, and it compressed firing another pink cloud towards Miriam

‘Venom Dart!’ but she ignored it, and retaliated with her own sleep venom, making the insect fly after taking the hit on its head ‘Do you have Immunity Self too…?’

The unknown creature wobbled in the air, before landing on the ground and collapsing…

‘Nope… Ia Stop…’ she moved towards it while praying

Crunch!

Ding

And ate her breakfast once she was done

‘Status…’

‘Finally… reaching fifty is going to be a pain…’ she finished eating and looked around before looking at the sky ‘Thanks for the boon… I hope it’s not wasted on me…’

Miriam looked back to the tall tree and resumed moving to it, still intending to climb it

/////

‘Almost there…’ she had been focused on not falling, doing her best to stay as firmly attached to the bark as she could ‘Here… the few branches above look too thin… for me…? What…?’

Once she got as high as she could, the result confused her. There wasn't a lake below her… just trees…

‘WHAT?!’

She had drank water from it, before starting to climb the tree next to it. Miriam couldn't understand what was happening and started to look around

Only part of the cliffs that surrounded the lake, were visible, disappearing as they got further away from her position, at that height she couldn’t see the cliffs on the other side. Carefully moving on top of another branch to look north, didn’t let her see the cliff with the Terror Stones either, just trees…

The sea of trees around her, seemed to extend eternally…

‘Ah…’ she looked at the tree she was holding to ‘You all… are insane…’

‘No!’ she hissed at the message that appeared, before looking at where the lake was supposed to be… ‘This… should affect fliers… right…? So they need to stay close to the ground… and… give a chance for the prey to fight back…?’ she aimed a hand on the direction of the water, and started to chant her spell ‘Vessel!’

Waiting for a few seconds as her magic was being used, she finally saw the sphere of water, once it was a couple of meters below her. To her, it reflecting the light of the morning sun, was sudden, but she assumed that from below, it was obvious from the moment she started

‘Ia Stop’ she let the water fall, pleased to hear the splashing sound after waiting for a moment, after it disappeared ‘Sound… the trees aren’t blocking sounds… then the screeching idiot can’t see me…? Is he a bat…?’

Miriam looked further to the south, and saw the two mountains far away…

‘Yeah, at that distance and with an illusion on the whole forest… he either has… perfect vision… or he is blind and only has points on hearing… the second would explain the… noise… this bastard makes… if he is a bat…’

She shook her head, trying to calm down, her body was starting to tremble due to the memories of the noise…

‘I… hmm… if I want to make a heating stone… can I make one for blocking sounds…? Oh…?’

Any further planing was interrupted by a red creature, that started to fly on her direction from the visible cliff. To her, as it was getting close, it was a bird with four wings, and it seemed like it had no legs

‘Venom Dart!’ the bird got struck once she felt it was close enough, and it started to make a high pitching sound ‘AAAHHH!!!’ as it unsteadily tried to reach her position ‘Ow!’ but it stopped suddenly and the bird dropped to the nearby water that Miriam couldn't see

Splash!

‘I… better get that before a fish does… ugh… no flips…’

She moved to a slightly lower branch and dashed to the direction of the water while preparing a spell, nearly losing control of the jump as the tree helped her to reach a further distance, hearing something making noise on the water below, as she fell

‘Aaahhh!!! Current!!!’ and when she saw the surface, Miriam made the water rise and catch her

Pushing the bird to the side, and deeper into the water

Crunch!

Ding

Where she finished it and moved with it to the shore. Observing its long neck and beak, before confirming that it had no legs, once she was on the ground

‘What are you…? Status?’ she shook the excess water that was on her scales before reading

‘Stone…? What do you…?’ she looked at the cliffs around the lake ‘Oh’ she grabbed the bird on her mouth and moved away from the water. Not wanting to be on a place were a bird might be able to see her… but she still moved to the tall tree again, and gave it some magic… ‘Wait… the illusion…’ before remembering what she just learned

Miriam prayed and swallowed the creature behind the tree…

‘But with my luck… the birds can see through the illusion…? Maybe…?’ she wasn't sure, but as she looked around, Miriam couldn't dismiss the idea ‘I’m going to keep moving… don’t want to be on the north side of the lake with Porkus…’

/////

Hours later, she used a moment to rest as midday arrived

‘Hungry again… lake…?’ her rest was being used to determinate what was the best choice ‘Or cave…’

The cave was the main reason she had decided to stop, the ground had started to rise slowly as she moved to the cliffs to the west of the lake, and as she found a sunny spot on a rock, she also found the entrance to the cave

‘On one hand, I can’t see in the dark…’ even with placing her head on the entrance to the cave, and hitting the ground, The vibrations just told Miriam that the cave was deep, and she started to feel other paths underground ‘On the other hand, I might be able to raise the levels of my swimming on the lake… wait…’

She looked fearfully to the water slightly below her

‘One of my Calamities needs… Underwater Adaptation… right…?’

-Yes…-

‘Hello…’ the message closed, leaving her to stare between the two places ‘Ah…’ saddened by her situation… ‘Can’t… let it evolve…? Or… is that adaptation a Bloom thing…?’

Ding

‘Ugh… Status…?’

‘…? Ah…?’ she looked up ‘Nail…?’ after ten seconds of waiting she looked back at the screen ‘Ok… then… I suppose that I can’t get angry with this… Absorb…? Oh…? The Hood is back…?’ she looked at the Item Venom Claws ignoring the Item that had appeared again ‘I’m not going to buy the Venom Claws… get rid of it…’ she shivered as it went away from the screen-

Hiss!!!

She closed all the screens immediately, trying to forget what she had seen, trying to stay calm. But no matter what she tried, Miriam couldn't ignore it…

‘Crap… can’t… is that the top level Item in the shop…?’ so she started asking questions… ‘How do my custom venom compare…? Just having one of the requirements enough to be a Calamity…? Or do I need to kill a god, with venom, for this to count…?’ questions that somehow, calmed her… ‘Status… Species…?’ she was unable to enter the Evolution screen ‘Don’t worry about this Miriam…’

Minutes passed with her repeating her last words over, and over again…

‘What else can I do…? Venom Control…?’

Miriam tried to alter every custom venom she had made, but was unable to do anything and she entered the shop

‘How do my custom venom compares…?’ she tried to rationalize it ‘If it’s just the maximum possible “Power” of the venom that I have purchased… plus the poison bonus that the Helper mentioned… maybe my custom venom counts as Advanced already…?’

She started to move to the water not closing the screens

‘That would be the best outcome… if I’m skipping more that one Item… then… one out of four…’ she turned her attention to the store ‘Hmm… if I buy the Strong Paralyze, then… I’ll have sixty three points left… in case Absorb tries to upgrade something again… fine, let’s do that’

Before the purchase finished, movement coming from the water got her attention

Splash!

Hiss!

A large reptile jumped at her from the water, trying to bite her with its large, broad mouth filled with blunt teeth. She barely managed to avoid the bite, and forced the ground to held the reptile by the midsection, as Miriam coiled her long body around its shaking head and torso

‘Crocodile!!!’ and started to squeeze it, unaware of how her aura had released ‘Fuck this lake!!!’

The terrified reptile tried to get away from her, but both grips didn’t allowed it to bite, or spin, nor to retreat. Its tail kept making loud noises as it hit, and stirred the water. Until it lifted its head, using its frontal legs, and slammed Miriam against the ground

‘Aaahhh!!!’ but she didn’t relented, and the moment it tried to do that again, Miriam made the ground rise with them, making it unable to move due to the lack of a grip on the ground and the pressure on its back, squeezing harder-

Crack!

Ding

Until it stopped moving, and she started to drag it uphill, once the ground was back to normal

‘At least… it’s not like the ones back ho-’ she shook her head, not wanting to think that word ‘Back in that world… those crocodiles were twelve meters long… nearly as scary as a spider… this one is what…? Two meters…?’

Miriam prayed and started to swallow the reptile, once she felt safe with the distance to the water, pulling back her aura at the same time

‘Really…? That’s the name…?’ even if she had called the creature small, she noticed that fast movement while digesting, was unlikely ‘Ugh… I suppose that I can make the heat and silence stone…? Wait… that’s the name…? Not a weird one…? Hey that happened with that Armored Lizard too!’

She waited, but didn’t got an answer

‘Helper answer this: they don’t have weird names because they are… too far removed from my… evolution branch…?’ that was the first thing that came to her mind

-Update Required…-

‘Damn…’ but didn’t got an answer…

/////

Making the Heating Stone came first, she had no idea of how to start with the drawing for the other one, and suspected that the first try might leave her without magic for the rest of the day

One change she had made for the design, was the use of a four pointed star, to represent “Up” on the heat releasing side

‘Not enough space to make a five pointed one…’ she looked at both sides of the stone she had used, then looked around, even if there weren’t vibrations, other than the lake’s, around ‘Looks good… I hope this doesn’t drains me… Ia, Imbue Arms…’ she made sure that her hands were touching both drawings ‘Ia! Imbue!’

Miriam was particularly focused on her magic reserves, while she was trying to imbue the stone…

‘Eh…?’ and was left completely confused, when her magic stopped moving to the stone ‘Ia! Imbue…! Eh…?’ a second attempt did nothing ‘That little magic…? Really…? I can make about… twenty before I reach half my magic…?’

She turned the stone on her hands, looking at both sides, but not seeing anything different from before

‘A failure…? I…’ she shook her head, dispelling her emotions ‘Too early to tell… tomorrow I might see if the engraving works or not’

Moving back to the water, she place the heat absorbing side up, and surrounded the stone with others, just in case something caught fire from a failure on her design. She also shaped the ground, to push plants away in an area of a meter around the rock

‘Should work… tomorrow at sunset I’ll try to flip this and see for how long I can feel heat… if it works…’ she saw something flashing red near the cliffs, and moved back near the cave ‘Time to make the other one…’

/////

It took her a while to think about a way of drawing what she wanted, and carving it on the stone was a slow process…

‘I made this too complex…’

There was a circle with wavy lines inside, that represented sound. From it, waves moved towards another circle, with two other circles one inside the other, and in the middle a seven pointed star

The waves moved around the circles avoiding them

‘It makes sense to me… but is a pain to draw…’ she finished the engraving and looked at it with critical eye ‘Tomorrow I’ll try to figure out, how to carve this with magic… if they work… Ia Imbue Arms…’ taking a deep breath she prepared ‘Ia Imbue…!’ the stone absorbed more of her magic than the other one ‘…?’ but at first, to her nothing had happened…

It took her a moment…

‘Ah?!’ but once Miriam noticed that there weren’t vibrations around her, she dropped the stone in shock, not hearing anything once it landed ‘AH?!’

And she moved away from it, until she reached at a meter of distance from it and she started to hear again

Hiss!!!

‘HAHAHA!!!’ making her celebrate the success

Ding

‘Status! Hahaha!’

‘Oh…! Oh…? Hmm… interesting… thanks for the Boon!’ she thought the last thing looking at the sky, before closing the screens and looking at the stone ‘I should stay away from it, until I know how the screeching idiot reacts to it’

Miriam used magic to float the stone closer to the cave, and moved to a place were she could see both of her stones. Then she placed her head on the ground

‘Hmm… the stone feels different to the trees…’ to her, the vibrations from the water ended less abruptly near her stone, in comparison to a tree… ‘But mine feels… pointy…?’

Before she could thing more about that, from her location, she saw a Stone Screamer flying above the lake. Its beak opened towards the water, and made the same sound that she had heard with the previous one

‘Aaahhh!!!’ hurting her, even if it wasn't aiming at her. She forced the stone to move back to her ‘Ow…’ stopping the noise once she grabbed it

The surface of the water was alive with activity where the bird was aiming, some of the fish even jumping out of the surface, but Miriam saw the bird change direction towards her. Opening its beak again while getting close

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Silently…

Miriam prepared and waited for the bird to fly close. Her bite being silent nearly made her release the bird, due to the speed it had, only the feeling of breaking bones on her mouth, made her certain that it had been a successful attack

Ding

‘That… was weird… at least I can still hear the alert…’ she dropped the bird on the ground, confirming that it lacked legs too, and made the stone float away again ‘Status?’

‘Silent Stone isn't a bad name! It’s a descriptive one…! Thanks for the help’ she nodded to the message, before praying and eating the bird ‘That… should be enough until tomorrow…’

She remained in that spot while looking around, part of her didn’t wanted to hear the noise from the Ruler, but the fear that he would fire an attack to her creation, felt too possible to ignore

And as the sun was getting low, the high pitching sound started

‘Aaahhh!!!’ and intensified, for a far longer time, before the Ruler roared

SCREEEEECH!!!

‘Why are you aiming at me?!!!’ that is how it felt to her, as she tried to not move under the pain the noise was causing to her ‘AAAHHH!!!’

Fifteen seconds of pain…

That was what Miriam had to withstand, before the creature stopped making that noise, and Miriam struggled to remain still even after it was over…

‘It… feels… like he’s going to aim again… ow…’ she tried to relax her breathing while waiting ‘I’m going to devour you… without praying…’ that idea made her shiver with how ridiculous it was ‘Wow, I’m lame… need to think better threats…’

She only felt relaxed enough to move, when a big fish jumped from the lake, making a long arc and a big splash

‘That was a big fish… ugh… staying on this lake, might not be a good idea…’ she moved to a tree and gave it some magic before climbing ‘Ia Stop…’ once she was comfortable, she kept looking at the surroundings ‘If that is the maximum size for crocodiles in this lake, then… I might have gotten lucky with fighting one in the shore…’

While waiting, she remembered to open the screen for her custom venom and improved what she could

‘I don’t think that I should stay here… but if I go further south, will the humans still try to follow me…?’

Uncertainty started to fill her heart, she didn’t saw herself as being capable of clearing her mind, nor she needed to meditate, it was a day were she hadn't used much magic

‘What do I need moving forwards…?’ her mood was decaying with the temperature ‘A good sword…? I need to improve the Stone Shaping spell first…’ her memory went back to the attack the adventurer did against her ‘Need to figure how to do that too… more water magic…? I should get more water spells… a water blade…? Oh right, the water coat…’

Miriam looked at her hand, while thinking about the details of that spell

‘How thin the water can be…? Can I make the spell, so it doesn’t cool me…? How do I make it stay there?’ that last question seemed simple enough for her to think about ‘Just the word Coat? Sticky? Lingering…? I like that word…’

The tree started to hide her, and she decided to rest…

‘A light spell…? I can’t just use my eyes for that…’

Try, to rest…

/////

The pig is forcing me to watch the… something… the television is empty without a screen

“Can I go now?” the time on a watch on the wall, keep jumping randomly forwards “I can’t be late again…”

“Why can’t you just be normal?! Men are supposed to do this!”

Fuck you

“Not me” I stand up from the couch and move around it, staying away from his reach “Will be back later…” she is looking at us from the door frame

I’m not stopped as I go out of the living room-

“Keep being a loser! And you are going to end up dead!” but he can’t avoid giving his ‘Advice’ of shit…

“Don't say that!”

‘What…?’ that woman is actually defending me…? ‘Why…?’

I go up the stairs not making noise, and once I’m up, I kneel trying to hear them…

“You can’t say things like that”

“Why?!” only one of them is hard to hear…

“He can use that as an excuse, to not maintain us once…”

I don’t need to hear the rest of her words… I learned a long time ago, that she only saw us, as a way for them to not work…

“That’s why we have the spare!!!”

Fuck both of you! Fuck both of you! Fuck both of you! Fuck both of you!

‘My head…’ my head is hurting… ‘No… what…?’

/////

A feeling on her head woke her up, the cold was making her slow to do that, and it took her a few seconds to see a small branch tapping her head

‘What…? …?!’

Snort…

The presence of the Fell Destroyer near the tree that was still hiding her, terrified her

‘Ia… Imbue Arms…’ and she struggled to think of a plan ‘Empower… Self… Level 2’ but managed to at least use that spell, to make her body not as bothered by the cold ‘Ia Stop…’ she was grateful that the glow coming from her spell, was blocked by the tree ‘How long until sunrise?!’

-60 seconds-

‘Shit!’ the message stayed there as a countdown ‘Need to think of a way to make the Sleep Venom invisible!’

The little time she had left wasn't enough to think about that, the beast was sniffing between her and the water, on top of the designs for the stone she had made on the dirt, and the cave was wide enough, for even something bigger than the Destroyer, to chase her inside it

Floating the Silent Stone towards her and sneaking away, wasn't possible, the beast was facing that direction…

‘Ia Imbue Fangs!’ she would need to lose it on the forest ‘Ia! Gather! Aim! Motion! Speed! Shock! Stun! Lingering!’ she had the venom held on her mouth, and didn’t dared to breath as the countdown was nearly over, moving her body to the best position to flee

And the Fell Destroyer noticed her, the moment the leaves started to shift-

‘Venom Dart!’ the exact moment Miriam used her spell-

SQUEAL!!!

Jumping to the ground, and dashing uphill while preparing another spell

‘Ia! Dash! Sprint! Run!’ not daring to look back to the violent vibrations right behind her ‘Self Speed Burst!’

Hiss!!!

Miriam had no time to feel happy about the spell working, while she was gaining distance from the beast…

‘AAAHHH!!!’ she was getting very hungry, very fast

SQUEAL!!!

But no matter how much she pushed herself, the beast wasn't giving up, and she couldn't see another creature to distract it with

‘Ia Speed Burst! Stop!’

Once she reached the top of the incline, Miriam had to stop her spell, considering the distance she had achieved as a good thing. Her Energy Eater being the other reason

Now that she had reached that place, and while still fleeing, she started to consider the way out of that encounter

‘Do I jump the cliff?! And hope that the lake is less annoying than Porkus?!’ that seemed to be the most feasible choice at the moment ‘I have no idea of what the thing below me is!!!’

The loud noise of her chaser, was echoing under her, but she couldn't stop to find out what it was

SQUEAL!!!

SLAM!!!

Nor she could look back to see what the Fell Destroyer was doing, all she could focus was the clearing that was getting close-

‘…?!!!’ but every fiber of her body screamed for her to stop-

CRASH!!!

And she barely managed to do that, before the beast landed on the clearing, with its arms making steam…

‘DID HE JUST PUNCH THE GROUND?!!!’ steam that told her, how the creature took flight…

Snort…

/////

“Shit…” Mordauntless covered his mouth as he tried to calculate any outcome other than death

“She got this! She got this!” De was cheerleading for her on top of a spinning table

““He is about to roar…””

But the Triad’s announcement, made all the gods shiver

With one eye focused on the gods, and other on Miriam. The Guardian waited…

‘This is it…’

/////

With its arms twitching the Fell Destroyer turned, and glared towards Miriam, still shaking its head to clear the effects of the venom

‘Fine…’ she made sure that her arms, eyes, and fangs were Imbued ‘I was getting hungry…’ she placed a hand on the ground, while the beast crouched and started to tremble ‘Ia! So I-?!’

But the Ruler choose that moment to prepare for a roar, stopping the angering boar

‘HAHAHAHA!!!’ and making Miriam gleeful… ‘SO BE IT!!! Ia! Sound! Vibration! Volume! Potency! I’m not afraid of you!’ because those vibrations revealed what was below them…

SCREEEEECH!!!

‘CHALLENGING ROAR!!!’

HIIISSS!!!

The fear on the eyes of her chaser, made everything worth it to Miriam

SCREEEEECH!!!

‘Secret Tunnel!!!’ but she still took her escape route down, barely aware that Porkus ran to the cliff

She only could focus on moving down, feeling the vibrations that were making the shape of a tunnel where she was going

Miriam’s spell didn’t worked against stone, but she could tell there was a gap, and used it to fall into the tunnel-

BOOM!!!

Just as the projectile exploded above her

‘AAAHHH!!!’ deafening her for a moment, barely leaving her conscious enough to move away from the spot she landed, dodging rocks and dirt that dislodged from the roof

/////

Alive…

The black ball… wasn't the target for that attack, and even at that distance, the Ruler could tell that it had a chance of surviving it before he attacked…

Alive…

The chase that the Ruler decided to interrupt, had made the nearby weaklings flee…

Alive…

The white line had survived… meaning that his Deed had been interrupted…

SCREEEEECH!!!

Again…

Very few times in the last century, he had taken flight to the north. An event that the cities forming the Shield feared, even if only once in that time he had actually attacked them

But it was the first time he did that… out of wrath…

/////

Miriam managed to heal herself, stopping most of the pain wreaking her body. She had heard the third roar of the Ruler, and the vibrations weren’t stopping…

‘Ha… haha… is that so~?’ she knew what it meant

‘Easy~’ part of her, worried that she was going insane… ‘I can smell breakfast~’ but seeing the rocks that had fallen, thanks to the light coming from her eyes, she was already planning what to do…

Even if the stench of monsters filled the cave…