Chapter 8: Death (1/2)
Having to blink away twice, she healed the sustained damage she received in between the teleports. Her clothes took the brunt of the heat, the leather armor and traveling clothes not looking as good as they had three months ago. Blinking again, she dodged another fire breath. ‘You’re annoying...’ she started to rapidly advance towards the beast while healing herself. Blinking left and right occasionally to confuse the beast, she got closer and closer. She had learned that the Drakes would not use their breath if the target was moving too fast.
Reaching the beast, she prepared a punch to its left side but the Drake looked towards the ground. And breathed fire. The flames spread around the Drake and covered it completely. Her extended right hand still on fire, Ilea shook it out after having blinked away backwards. ‘Might be why it’s black...’ smelling the burnt flesh, she grimaced ‘Been a while since one of them got me that badly...’ a smile returning to her face, she moved into a stance ‘It’s also been a while since I was that excited to fight one of them.’ Repeating her move from before, the Drake did the same thing and pushed her back. She didn’t get burned this time but still couldn’t reach her adversary.
‘I don’t have any ranged attacks...and I doubt I can outlast it with mana...’ blinking back towards the Drake, she kicked from above while the fire spread around herself and the beast. ‘The only thing I have that it doesn’t...’ the flames engulfed her and she screamed. Her kick connected and she warped away, immediately using Reconstruction. ‘...is healing...but fuck that hurts...’ The beast looked at her with anger in its eyes. A deep roar filled the clearing.
She dodged two more cones of fire as while advancing again. Her Reconstruction spell working overtime through the whole fight. With her current level and mana quantity it wasn’t an issue. Reaching the Drake again the same event repeated. Two punches staggered the beast as Ilea gritted her teeth through the fire and flames, her clothes and armor getting scorched in the process.
‘bing’ ‘You have learned the General skill Heat Resistance.
Ignoring the warnings of your parents and friends, you refuse to not stand in fire. This skill will help lessen the damage and pain a little. - lvl 1’
“Perfect timing...” blinking in again she kicked at the monster. Trying a new approach the Drake didn’t burn her but snapped at her with its sharp teeth in a flash of movement. Ilea screamed as her right arm was crushed by the beast’s strong jaw. Finding herself unable to blink away, she used her free arm to punch at the Drake’s head. Her mana was rapidly draining as her Aura spell, healing spell and her Destruction spell each were being supplied. This continued for four seconds, her health declining slowly. The Drake, seeing itself at the losing end of the exchange let go of her arm, jumped back and released fire again.
Blinking directly above it she got a kick in before the drake moved its head to the ground to cover itself in flames again. With bloodshot yellow eyes and blood around its mouth, the monster stared at her. Ilea didn’t look much better as she returned the stare. Unceremoniously, the Drake collapsed. ‘It’s still alive...’ she noted, working hard to heal herself. Ilea fell down to one knee, breathing hard. Her eyes never left her adversary as her burned body slowly formed new skin. Patches of her once nice traveling clothing were blackened or completely missing now but it still held together.
After a minute of healing she blinked to the beast and kicked hard in its unprotected belly. Then she blinked away again. She did this two more times until the Drake stopped moving completely.
‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Drake]. For killing an adversary 30 or more levels above your own you receive bonus experience.’
‘ding’ ‘Azarinth healer has reached level 47. 5 Stat points awarded’
“Damn, that guy was over lvl 76...” quickly going into meditation she slowly walked up to the downed Drake. She noticed in the past couple months that she could see any beast’s level with up to 12 levels above her own. When she leveled Identify to two, the limit increased to 14 levels above her own. Which meant she could see the Drake’s levels after a while, some were even below her own. They did vary greatly though, likely a product of their territorial behavior.
Reaching the Drake she started to remove its scales. ‘This is much harder than any others so far...’ finally penetrating the closely connected scales she removed one
[Charred Drake Scale – High Quality]
‘Nice! So far they were all just Drake Scales...’ she kept removing scales for the better part of two hours, enjoying the sun in the clearing. The height of summer having passed two months ago, it was still rather hot. At least she thought of it that way, the climate and seasons could be different here than they were on earth after all.
“Now how the fuck am I going to move them...I don’t have my backpack here and I’m like two hours away from the temple, even at full speed...” looking down at the pile of scales she sighs “I really want them though...” filling any pocket in her burnt clothing and her cloak, she managed to get around a third of them.
‘Guess I’ll have to come back tomorrow...’ seeing as it was already late in the afternoon, she made her decision. ‘Don’t want anyone taking them though...even though I haven’t met a soul around here so far.’
Leaving the clearing she used her hands to dig a hole in the soft earth and then put the remaining scales in there. Around twenty scales now rested below half a meter of dirt. Scratching a nearby tree with a nail Ilea marked the spot. ‘Let’s move back then...’ speeding up, she ran through the forest towards the slope with the temple. Occasionally she scared off some wolves. They seemed to have retaken a big part of the forest after the Drake population suddenly plummeted for some weird reason.
Stopping sometimes to grab any Cinderberries in her path, she reached the temple around two and a half hours later. Getting some grass from the chamber, she sat on the roof of the temple and enjoyed the sunset. Eating berries and Bluemoon grass had again become the norm after her supplies ran out a month ago. Eating wild animals wasn’t an option either anymore with her salt gone. It would nourish her of course but the taste was bland. ‘Cinderberries still taste great...I love them.’ the damage she sustained from them was reduced greatly by her high poison resistance. She didn’t even have to use her Reconstruction spell anymore while eating them.
Having finished her meal, she warped down to her chamber and deposited the Charred Drake scales. Nearly a third of the library room was now full with various scales and bones. The new population of wolves helped her greatly by removing the meat from the dead Drakes. The bones were too dense for them to eat, probably even hurting their teeth when trying to gnaw on them.
“Bone armor here I cooome!” Ilea said as she lay down on her bed. “I think tomorrow I’ll go back to Riverwatch. It’s been two weeks since good food and the festival starts soon anyway. Guess I’ll finish up here in the morning, pack my backpack and go get the rest of the charred scales. Maybe I can sell them in the city or have something made from them...I doubt my money’s enough for that though.”
Checking her stats as she did every evening she grinned. The incredible progress she made in the past three months a testament to the Bluemoon Grass and her ability to fight much higher level beasts nearly all day long for all that time. She had even gained some stat points apart from the ones received from leveling her class. ‘I’m so glad the Drakes are such a bad match for my class and skills. If I were a swordswoman or a simple fire mage I’d be dead a hundred times over...and with no healing...’ shuddering at the thought she closed her eyes and soon fell asleep.
Her gained stats amounted to three to five in every category. Leveling from 15 to 47 she received 160 Stat points. Ilea distributed them with a focus on Vitality, Endurance and Wisdom. She didn’t neglect any of the other stats either though.
Name: Ilea Spears
Class 1: Azarinth Healer – lvl 47
Unspent Stat points: 0
- Active: Destruction – 2nd lvl 17
- Active: Reconstruction – 2nd lvl 8
- Active: State of Azarinth – 2nd lvl 14
- Active: Blink – 2nd lvl 10
- Active: Free Slot
- Passive: Body of Azarinth – 2nd lvl 3
- Passive: Azarinth Fighting – 2nd lvl 15
- Passive: Magic Perception – lvl 8
- Passive: Free Slot
- Passive: Free Slot
Class 2: None
General Skills:
- Elos Standard language - lvl 5
- Identify - lvl 3
- Meditation – lvl 2nd 4
- Poison Resistance – lvl 16
- Heat Resistance – lvl 1
Status:
Vitality: 90
Endurance: 76
Strength 50
Dexterity 50
Intelligence 70
Wisdom 80
Health: 900/900
Stamina: 760/760
Mana: 779/800
Reaching the second stage, her skills gained new effects. In addition to the increased power and cost reduction at each of their own level ups. She noticed that all skills in Azarinth Healer with percentages would grow 0.5% higher with each level.
Skills: Azarinth Healer:
Active: Destruction – 2nd lvl 17:
Send a destructive pulse of mana into your enemy with every punch or kick. The stronger the physical force, the higher the damage caused.
2nd stage: The amount of mana used per strike can be regulated with a maximum of 20 mana per strike.
Category: Healing
Active: Reconstruction – 2nd lvl 8:
Send a healing pulse of mana into yourself or your ally with a touch. This skill can be channeled.
2nd stage: Your control is increased greatly, you can now focus your healing on specific parts of the body.