30 The Petrified Forest
While it wasn't the most painful experience Sylvia had had, walking back to the town was definitely up there. Whilst she was fully aware that her wounds would have it the best from remaining still, as proven from minutes of ranged combat, she also knew that she had to get out of the forest before she could consider taking a proper break.
After an arduous hour-long walk, she had finally gotten back to the main pathway and could take a bit of a breather, slowing her pace even further to let her wound recover in real time. As she walked, she could feel her wounds recover in real time, like watching bamboo grow. Another hour later, she had gotten out of the forest and her body had recovered to the state where she could move with little issue besides the pain; the recovery and extra vitality from Geb's blessing was once more showing their worth.
Arriving back at the city, Sylvia was able to enter with ease this time, now having an adventurer's card. As it was already afternoon, she had to wait in line for a bit before a receptionist was free, though luckily it was a familiar face that greeted her. "Sylvia, right? You're back quite quickly; from your pouch I'd assume it's to hand in a quest." Grift gestured to the pouch of claws that hung by her side. "Yep, 144 claws, so it'll be at least 720 caro."
Whilst she spoke, Grift busily skimmed through a notebook. "That many claws for 5 caro a piece? That sounds a bit much for someone your level. Which claws were they again?" Though her brows creased a little at the price statement, she answered the question without hesitation, "Fast Wolves. The quest requires 100 or more of them, and a perfect quality one is 10 caro instead."
"Ah. That would explain it," he quickly flipped past a couple pages until he found what he was looking for. "Got it," he murmured as he read over the details. "Alrighty, it's a quest from Ross, then the pricing makes sense," he retrieved the pouch, emptied it into a tray, and began to count. "So how this works is that you get the base price upfront, then staff will review them compared to an example brought in by the requester, after which you can receive everything extra next time you inquire about it here."
"Lastly, your guild card is to be updated each time you hand in a quest, so please follow me." Sylvia followed him halfway across the desk to where the appraiser stood. "That makes sense. This way you'll get periodic updates all the time." "Exactly. Your card please." Handing over her card, she placed her free hand on the device in expectation for what came next.
"Damn, you really didn't sit around. From the 20-level jump, I take it you hunted alone." Along with her card, she got nine coins as payment for the request. "Yep, and I also figured out why people like to party up, though I think I'll stay alone for now." From his comment, she assumed that partying up reduced the gained exp, and when combined with her changing forms, sharing exp just gave another reason to not party up.
Shrugging, Grift replied, "You do you, just make sure not to die. You show too much potential to get killed because of hubris or greed. Also, before you leave, we at the guild would greatly appreciate it if it was in any way possible to bring at least a couple of the corpses, such that we can sell them. With that said, have a good day." "I'll see what I can do about that and have a good day as well." Having said that, she went back out into the city to kill some time, as her injury didn't leave her in a state for training.
As the evening came around, Sylvia met up with Enelise and Philip, and they went out for some dinner. Surprisingly enough, the two together had only earned slightly more than her, but they assured her that it'd change as word spread of their skill. In total, they had just over 15 panis.
"I'd say will be good to go if we can earn at least 15 times this amount, what do you say, Enelise?" "I'd prefer to get some 20 kilograms of steel and at least twice that much iron if possible, so that'll cost at least 80 panis. Then throw in some 40 meters of gründig for Sally, that'll be at least another 40 panis. Ironwood also seems to be fairly cheap here, so grabbing some 20 kilos there will like be 60. I can make the blåstål myself, so grabbing 10 blåmund would do, which is 30. We also can't go wrong with a couple kilograms of slåsten and some different herbs and spices, so let's just throw another 30 in there to account for price variations as well. This brings us to roughly 240 panis in materials." As the two spoke, Sylvia just tried her best to follow along as unknown material terms were thrown around with little regard for her understanding.
"Alrighty, so if work from the assumption that my job today was unusually fruitful, but that I can earn a bit extra from selling a carcass or two to the guild, then I can probably earn some 5 to 7 panis a day. Though that should be an increasing amount as I level up and my skill improves. As for you guys, should we just say 15+ from tomorrow on?" With them both nodding, Sylvia continued her interjection. "So that'll land us in the ballpark of around 20 to 25 a day, so anywhere from 10 to 12 days should be good."
"That sounds quite good. A bit longer than I'd have liked, considering those back at home, but still not unreasonable." Enelise gave her confirmation, and Philip quickly followed up. "Sylvia, while we're here, make sure to make good use of the guild training field to learn from other adventurers, as what you can learn from them will most likely save your life."
With all of that taken care of, Sylvia went to bed straight away to hopefully have recovered by morning; her regenerative power had repeatedly proved to be a great and powerful boon which has only grown stronger, so she hoped it'd come in clutch again.
----
Sylvia awoke early the following morning, her injury essentially gone with only a slight trace. On her way to the guild house, she ran into Halaetin's party, and they began to chat. From Mikhail, she learned that they were heading out for a couple days for a bigger quest. As such, they went their separate ways from the moment they got to the guild. On the quest wall, Sylvia found one that caught her interest.
>----<
Type: Hunting.
Rank: D.
Estimated threat tier: 3
Reward: 75 caro per corpse, 1 panis if only damage is a beheading.
Time limit: 4 days.
5-10 Adult Rock Rat corpses. They can be found all over The Rock Jungle, but beware of heading too far in. Corpses in too bad a state won't be accepted.
>----<
The target wasn't particularly interesting, but the location sounded like a perfect match for her. From the map, she discovered that The Rock Jungle wasn't much further away than the Lupinum area from yesterday. So, after getting confirmation from a random adventurer that it's possible to rent carts, she accepted the quest. From the clerk, she also learned that an Adult Rock Rat was typically half a meter long, and at least one and a half if the tail was included.
After stocking up on some more jerky and a small med-kit, Sylvia found the aforementioned wagon and cart lender. From there, she managed to rent a hand-drawn cart for 25 caro a day, though she had to hand over 2 panis as a deposit in case she didn't return. With all her expenses totaling 50 caro, discounting the deposit, she was ready to set off for the day. Since she didn't want to draw her cart for longer than necessary, she only continued until she was certain she was out of sight, which happened to be some point in the forest, where she pulled her classic trick of unloading it onto Frank.
It was easy to notice when she had arrived at The Rock Jungle, as all the plants around her were steadily being replaced with more and more rocks and what appeared to be trees made of stone. Intriguingly enough, her mental map was still updating, implying that this area was still considered as a forest, despite reminding her more of flat and gray Grand Canyon.
As more and more greenery disappeared, she could feel even the air becoming increasingly dry, but it surprisingly felt more refreshing. From that point, it didn't take long before she encountered her first enemy, a Bunniv.
Actually, upon closer inspection, it seemed to be an evolved version, as it had two tails with hammer shaped rocks at the end and a horn in the middle of its forehead, not to mention that its body alone was almost 1.5 meters long.
As soon as she approached, the two hammer tails slammed into the ground before it, and cracks where quickly rushing towards her. Having not faced the Earth element before, Sylvia wasn't too certain how to handle this, but she figured that she may as well try to block it with her own Earth mana.
It was at that moment that the feeling of fresh air made sense, as the ground felt unusually responsive to her intent. Instead of just blocking the cracks, they actually went backwards for a bit before a web of cracks formed in the ground, followed by a loud crunch as the webbed area fell into the ground.
Wanting to test her intuition, she called forth a spear, and the process was most definitely a lot faster, not to mention that the end product was quite a bit sturdier than usual, and all at a lower mana cost. Once it was probably enhanced with mana, she threw it at the creature, which tried to dodge, but it hadn't reacted quickly enough. As a result, the spear penetrated just above its tails and immediately exploded, blasting apart its behind. Noticing the lack of a kill message, Sylvia quickly went in for the kill with her spear.
>>
Killed Twin-tailed Bunniv lv. 59. Gained exp.
<<
Satisfied with her victory, she quickly used water to clean her spear before bringing forth the cart to load the beast into it. With all that done, she held out her palm and decided to test something. As her mana flowed out of her palm, she noted that it could go about as far from her body as usual, but once she made it Earth mana, it could suddenly stretch quite a bit further. "Ah ha. I get why this area is so rocky now; this whole region is influenced by a lot of Earth mana. That must also be why my magic earlier was a lot more effective than usual." With that in mind, she continued her trek through the jungle looking for rats to slay.
It took her over an hour to find her first rat, but she quickly noticed that it wasn't alone. A bit behind it were two other rats, who seemed to be guarding a small cluster of rocks. Since they weren't actually approaching her and the one in front only seemed extremely on guard, she figured they were likely guarding their nest or something. However, she simply shrugged her shoulders and prepared for battle, why should she care about the nest of a couple rats.
The rats themselves were quite plain, just a greyish sand coat of fur and what looked like rocks stuck in their fur. All it took was for her to take a few steps in their direction before they perceived her as an active threat and began to charge her down. Sadly, for them however, them approaching her in such a direct manner actually did more for her than for them, as she now knew to beware of any Earth magic that they might throw at her. Thus, she sent out a wave in the ground that not only made the ground beneath them shaky, but also pushed back anything they were sending at her. As a result, two spikes of stone shot straight up around midway between them.
Quickly, she followed up her attack by rushing in and thrusting her spear straight through the startled rat's head, just in time to recall that she could get paid better for beheadings as the kill notification appeared.
>>
Killed Adult Rock Rat lv. 59. Gained exp.
<<
As if they had learned from their deceased comrade's mistake, the two other rats didn't send any attack her way, but instead became greyer. After about half the distance had been covered, the one with the largest tail stopped, forcing Sylvia to split her focus further apart. In a trial attempt to deal with that, she sent forth her mana through the ground, wanting to pierce it from below. In an act that confirmed her intuition, she felt her mana be abruptly dispersed and slip from her control.
In the short time she had experimented against the charging rat, the back one had already done its thing, and her body realized that she had to avoid a small boulder coming her way. Instinctively dodging to the side, she noticed how close the charging one had actually gotten, with it almost within striking distance.
Sending out another pulse of mana, she launched towards the beast with a thrust for the head, concluding that a swift kill is more important than a beheading, at least when she's alone. As she was mid swing, she noticed that the entire head became increasingly rocky, with the rat seeming to be intentionally charging into the spear.
Milliseconds before the collision, it struck her what it was doing, but it was too late to act upon that realization. The impact made her feel like her shoulder was about to pop out of its socket and a mixture of cracks, snaps, and a bang could be heard, but the end result was that the brain was speared, and the rocky head faded.
>>
Killed Adult Rock Rat lv. 67. Gained exp.
<<
Immediately after killing it, Sylvia had to step to the side to avoid another small boulder, but this time she wasn't fast enough and had her right shoulder grazed by it, sending her stumbling away with a mumble. "Right, two opponents." Quickly regaining her balance, she charged the remaining one, which was when she noticed how it had been attacking.
From behind it, the tail swept up with one of the small boulders at the end. When it reached its peak, the stone flew away from the tail and straight in her direction at a decently high speed. However, this time she saw it coming, so she was able to react with ease, dodging out of the way long before it became a problem.
Wanting to test another thing out, she channeled Earth mana into her spear and struck it into the ground on her right and stepped forward with the opposite leg. In a single fluid motion, she took another step and swept her spear forth; the ground allowing it to pass through it like a liquid. Around a meter in front of her, the ground quickly spiked up and continued to grow, gradually curving towards the rat, whose tail was back in the ground.
As she'd hoped, the rat chose to dodge out of the way rather than attempt to disperse her mana, which somewhat confirmed her suspicion that mana dispersal was less effective, or maybe even useless, against projectiles. At the very least it didn't seem like a good idea to try, which made her relieved that she'd dodged to boulders.
With it being the first time she tried the attack, the aim wasn't particularly precise, so the rat avoided it quite easily, but that didn't matter much. Instead, she continued to chase it down, sending and exploding stone spear in front of it, stunning it shortly due to the shrapnel. In that short time, she managed to sink around ten centimeters into the ground and almost catch up. By the time it had recovered enough to try and combat her quicksand trap, she was close enough to keep it going, allowing her to close the gap enough to stab it in the neck, killing it and earning her a level up.
With it dead, she checked out the nest, just to find it void of any younglings. Since she now had the time to look at her equipment, she inspected her spear and found cracks running down through the staff and a couple centimeters of the tip had snapped off. Aware of her own lacking ability, she decided to just make the staff recover using nature magic. Recalling that the goblin's gear had had their stats worsened due to poor maintenance, she decided to check the current spear.
>>
Name: Sharp Steel Spear
Rating: Proficient
Quality: Acceptable (Great)
Strength: +6 (16)
Vitality: +6 (8)
Endurance: +4 (8)
Mana: +3 (5)
Wisdom: +1 (3)
Any type of cut or stab is 12% more effective.
Fire can be generated at the tip with mana, with a minor risk of the tip exploding.
The tip can be heated at the cost of mana, with a minor risk of the tip exploding.
A good spear made by the proficient blacksmith Enelise. Despite the poor condition of the forge it was made at, the crafter's incredible talent made it a weapon other proficient blacksmiths would be happy with making with a good forge. It was even mana crafted with an infusion of the crafter's fire mana.
Due to a powerful collision, the tip has been broken, damaging the infusion. The staff has been repaired through basic magic, but both it and the tip require a good blacksmith to take a look.
<<
The sharp drop in stats made Sylvia gulp, slightly embarrassed at having damaged her weapon so badly so shortly after receiving it. However, there wasn't anything she could do about that now, and she still had some rats to kill. On the positive side, she could still channel her mana through it, and she now knew a lot more about her targets. With all that in mind, she gathered up the bodies and set out to find more prey.
As she didn't want to encounter too strong enemies, she made sure her next few hours in The Rock Jungle were spent as far away from the forest center as reasonably possible, which in turn made her encounter a fair number of other, lower leveled, beasts. Though in the end, she managed to kill eleven rats and could barely stack them on the cart. Having completed her quest, leveled up two more times, and stabilized her cart, she made her way out of the forest and back to the city, without major injuries this time.
For her troubles, she got a base payout of 7 panis and 50 caro, with a bonus of 75 caro from three 'beheadings'. Besides those, she had five additional carcasses that she could sell to the guild, but they only netted her an average of 25 caro a piece, all totaling to 9 panis and 50 caro. With her money gained, she set out to find Enelise to show her the spear.
