9 Unearthing the Unexpected

Rialyne hummed thoughtfully to herself. So this Devinhel was Kyferne's older brother then? And he was the one who sent him to the military as well as the one who tried to take his life after falsely framing him... She shrugged. Sounds like the typical noble family feud, plot, and revenge.

"Kyferne, place your hand on my bark. You could also touch my roots but that might be awkward."

The boy raised an eyebrow at the unnecessary ending remark. "Err, okay." He wasn't a small animal that could only reach her roots...

He stepped forward and placed his palm on the smooth, ridged surface. As he closed his eyes, he felt a soothing but powerful magical influx seep through his hands, into his core. When he opened his eyes, he spied faintly undulating circles from around a screen which just appeared before him.

「 Kyferne Ainsverith, will you form a two-week contract with Rialyne, the soul inhabiter of the Dielweiss Tree, and provide assistance to her in return for sustenance? [ Yes ] [ No ] 」

The boy furrowed his brows lightly. Why did this message seem so needlessly formal and uptight? It reminded him of how people spoke back at home. Even though he didn't want to become a soldier, he was glad to not have to act and speak the part of nobility.

He hit [ Yes ] and instantly, a torrent swept through his body. The overwhelming feeling made him tremble like a humble being before true power. Another screen flashed before him, and his eyes widened in shock at the amount of HP Rialyne had in her Domain. She was like a boss monster.

He remembered his own statistics of which he was proud. As a noble with inherent fire ability, his magical abilities were well above average. Additionally, his training in the military greatly improved his physical capabilities too. But this mere tree had almost two billion HP... Kyferne looked hopelessly at his status screen.

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Kyferne Charonhiem Ainsverith

Level: 37

Next Level: 48,316,554,329 / 687,194,767,360 EXP

Rank: [ Gold ]

Race: [ Human ]

Lineage: [ Noble ]

Class: [ (Hybrid) Fire Mage Warrior ]

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— STATS —

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Basic:

HP: 19,566

MP: 1,278

PATK: 435

MATK: 977

PDEF: 332

MDEF: 590

SPD: 574

FLX: 651

-

Special:

LUCK: 14

CRIT: 25

ARM: 10

BLK: 11

PEN: 12

-

Resistances:

FIRE: 51

ICE: 49

WATER: 8

EARTH: 14

WIND: 17

DARK: 20

LIGHT: 39

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Now that they were bound by contact, Rialyne could see Kyferne's stats. She was surprised by how strong he was. His noble lineage must've played a big hand in allowing him to be gold ranked and level 37 at a fairly young age. Although she hadn't met any other humans, she suspected that this was the case from all the creatures and monsters that she had encountered.

He also was like a glass cannon, typical of a fire mage that could deal powerful burst and explosive damage. She also wondered why he didn't have a basic attributes section. Rialyne asked Cardisys on the strength of his statistical composition and structure of his status screen.

"He's definitely more mage than warrior at this point, but he does have more physical strength and defense than most mages. Because increasing a stat that isn't an inherent or class strength is difficult to do, most people don't bother to increase both physical and magical abilities. Kyferne, however, has broken through the barriers to become a hybrid class. Now he can increase both stats equally efficiently given the right resources and opponents.

"As for why his screen doesn't list basic 'attributes', humans simply don't have them, and just overall stats are listed. The basic attributes section only appear for other creatures and monsters. While they level up their attributes upon growing and fighting with each other, humans level up based on training alone. It's their inherent skills and lineage which limit or boost their abilities, but in general, growth is not restricted to level like for creatures and monsters."

Rialyne soaked in the information like a sponge. Once again, humans were given special treatment from the world. This hybrid notion was also very fascinating, and it made her wonder whether she could break through limits too. She didn't have a class, but would it be possible for her to eventually gain one?

"You actually answered questions of mine properly for once," she smirked. "Do you perhaps like this Kyferne?"

Cardisys bristled at her teasing. "This is my job after all! I not always in the mood to mess with you all the time!"

"Oh hoh, so you admit to messing with me, huh? You little punk..." She bopped him on the top of his cell body.

"Hey!" Cardisys looked severely offended and abused. He turned away from her to soothe his mock injury.

Rialyne snorted at the childlike Cardinal System. Oh wait, wasn't she supposed to be nicer to him? Before she could move to console the shiny cell, Kyferne spoke up.

"So what now? Do you need me to do anything?"

Rialyne pondered for a bit before replying, "Not yet, in a few hours. You go do your own thing to settle down or train or whatever."

Since Rialyne only had two weeks to break out of these woods, she would have to expand her territory fast as well as figure out some way to travel to Arvon. She wanted to get involved in the coup and saw it as the way to begin her rise to world domination. Since Kyferne didn't want his brother in power, this was the perfect chance for her to take the throne for herself in the chaos of the fighting...

Unbeknownst to Rialyne's scheming, Kyferne set about fortifying his shelter before training his magic on some monsters. He had noticed a large group of Wildesmen in a southern section of the forest the other day. If he could pick out a group of two or three at a time, they would make great opponents for experience and physical stat training.

Meanwhile, Rialyne continued her usual process of Engrain approximately every hour while cultivating herself and her plants with Sap. She instructed Cardisys and her plants to fight any enemies within range while she sought out stronger monster opponents for herself.

She also hoped to contract more animals and possibly some more special monsters. At this point, she only had two, Brownie and Minty. The only reason why was because the hawk was a perfect scout, and the bunny was just too cute. However, she couldn't afford to waste her time on contracting useless animals like that rabbit…no matter how adorable and fluffy they were!

Rialyne glanced at Minty. She was too mild-tempered to be turned into a devilish combat bunny. But the idea was tempting. Just imagining the shocked horror of a rabbit ripping them to shreds was rather funny. The docile turned into something vicious… Ah, but she really needed to get these dark thoughts out of her head.

Returning to her task at hand, she scoured the newly 5-meter increased domain peripheries. Sure enough, she found a lumbering stone golem. And to her delight, it was also an elite rank instead of a common monster. Elite ranked monsters were weaker than Gold ranked creatures, but they were slightly stronger than Silver ranked ones.

[ Stone Golem ]

Lv. 15 [ Elite ]

HP: 990

MP: 104

Grinning, Rialyne pounced on the unsuspecting monster. She latched onto the rocky body and tore her way through the holes in-between the congregated stones. Fighting as a tree was so satisfying. She could reach all crevices and attack from all angles. Rather than being attacked by a single enemy, it was like the stone golem was being assaulted by multiple enemies from all sides.

The distressed monster compressed its rocks in an attempt to squeeze out the energy twines from its body while trying to quickly run away on its stout legs. While stone golems weren't inherently intelligent, as an elite ranked monster, it did know that this enemy was much stronger than itself.

However, Rialyne had hooked her metaphorical claws into the monster. If this stone golem hoped that it could escape anytime soon, then it was dreaming. Her speed outmatched this hunk of stone a hundred times.

But just as the dying monster let out its last raggedy breath, she noticed that golems were emerging from the earth. It had called out to its buddies for help. She counted several dozen. They were a mix of common and elite ranks. These would be a piece of cake for her and provide her with a heap of easy experience.

Just as she felt gratified with her luck, Rialyne spotted a huge fissure splitting the terrain several meters away. From this chasm, three enormous boulders trundled out. Two were the same size while the largest looked like a hill could be made on top of it.

[ Stone Golem ]

Lv. 20 [ Chief ]

HP: 4060

MP: 356

[ Stone Golem ]

Lv. 25 [ Lord ]

HP: 12207

MP: 850

Rialyne gulped. Perhaps this forest was a little more dangerous than she had initially thought.