The Giant Fanged Macaque Screecher opened with an attack that Elise really should have seen coming. It screeched, and the sound it produced carried mana that burst her eardrums and nearly knocked her out of the air. When she reoriented herself, it was already flying through the air toward her.
She used {Dart} 8 tis, the maximum before incurring the cooldown, to get away from the attacking monkeys, and then re-evaluated the fight slightly. The Screecher was stronger and faster than the regular monkeys… but that was it. Its screech attack wasn’t weak, but it wasn’t lethal either. The pain in her ears grew with every ti it used it, and the mana staggered her for a split second, but it wasn’t enough to significantly affect her fighting ability. Not with how poorly it tid its skill usage.
Five minutes later, all of them, including the Screecher, were dead.
[ You have slain Greater Giant Fanged Macaque, lvl 7 ]
…
[ You have slain Giant Fanged Macaque Screecher, lvl 14 ]
[ You have leveled up! 8 -> 9 ]
[ Strength 4, Agility 4, Dexterity 4, Fortitude 4, Charisma 35, Intelligence 14, Willpower 20, Mana 15, Mana Control 15 ]
Note that these numbers are different from the last level up she had. That's because, as ntioned in last chapter's author note, I realized that I kinda screwed up. These are the correct numbers, and eventually, I will go back and fix the old chapters.
With the fight over, Elise hovered in the air above their fallen corpses feeling a strong sense of disappointnt.
Why am I so disappointed? She wondered.
They were weak. Weak enough that she was barely in danger. And she had even gotten a level out of it. That should have been a good thing, right? Weak monsters giving free levels was always a good thing. But for so reason, she didn’t like it.
Since when was I like this?
She had never been aggressive or bloodthirsty or anything like that back on Earth. In fact, it was almost the opposite. She was quiet, and shy, and timid, and she literally couldn’t rember the last ti she had even tried to hurt a fly. And yet, here she was now, floating above a pile of corpses feeling disappointed about how easy it had been to make them.
Her thoughts were interrupted when a shadow passed over her head and Hans started raining his own {Fairy Dust} on her to help heal her ears. She imitated him, accelerating the process, and after a few minutes, her ears were mostly back to normal. They ached a bit still, but her hearing was fully back.
“You’re disappointed,” said Hans.
“I am,” she replied.
“Not going to try to deny it?”
“No. I’m definitely disappointed. I just don’t understand why.”
“It’s natural to be disappointed when sothing doesn’t live up to expectations.”
“But my expectations were to be in danger. Is it natural to be disappointed that you’re not in danger?”
“It depends on the person. It seems you value the rush more than your own safety.”
“I didn’t used to.”
“But you do now.”
“I do.” But since when?
“Then why not embrace it? It’s a trait that will serve you well no matter what you choose to do. As long as you can keep it under control, of course.”
“I guess…”
Hans definitely had a point, and what he said made sense, but Elise wasn’t sure how she felt about it. It was definitely sothing that would help her grow stronger if she didn’t get herself killed, and she needed to get stronger to be able to avenge the Grays. Even so, she found herself asking the sa question she had been ever since had ti to sit and think: What about after?
Just keep going, said a voice in her head. Why stop?
If I just make my goal to get stronger and enjoy the process, how am I different from Emilia?
Just don’t manipulate cultures into war for the sake of leveling, and you will be different from Emilia.
That was too valid a point for her to ntally refute, so she decided to set the internal conflict aside as Hans started talking again. It wasn’t sothing she needed to worry about just yet. She had to save Nick and Bianca and find Sophie and kill the warg.
“Looks like you need a bit of ti,” said Hans.
“Huh? No, I’m ready. I can think about that later.”
“I an to finish healing and replenishing mana.”
“Oh. Yeah. Right.”
Elise ditated for a little while to re-absorb and re-purify her mana while also occasionally using {Fairy Dust} to top off her injuries. After half an hour or so, she was fully recovered, and Hans once again led her deeper into the Jungle. They soon ca across a troop of monkeys with another Screecher. This ti, Elise tried to use {Suggest} to stop it from using its sonic attack. This did not work, and she was once again forced to take extra ti to recover her ears after the battle.
Hans used his own {Fairy Dust} again to help her heal, but to Elise’s surprise, he only got a few seconds out before he ran out. It only took her a second to connect that back to her own seemingly limitless ability to use {Suggest}. Her {Fairy Dust} also ran on Charisma, and she had previously been able to bless nearly entire cities with it before running out. She wasn’t even close to running out at that mont either.
She checked the description of {Rune of Fate} and once again saw nothing beyond what it had shown before. However, by this ti, it was finally off-cooldown. All 3 charges were available. She debated for a few seconds, then decided that she needed to test it. It was too powerful of a skill for her to know so little about it, and it seed to be tied to the mystery of Charisma.
But was it safe to activate it with Hans around? He probably wouldn’t hurt her, but what if he started worshipping her or sothing? The skill seed to be tied to Titania, goddess of the fey, and he was a fey. That would also be annoying. And he definitely didn’t want him bringing word back to Ostra about it. Could she really hide it from him though? Would he leave her alone long enough to test it?
It can’t hurt to ask.
“Hans?” she said.
“Is sothing wrong?” ca his distorted voice through her still-ruptured eardrums. “You stopped ditating a little while ago.”
“Can I be alone for a bit? I need to test sothing, but it’s… private.”
“What is it?”
“I can’t tell you.”
He pondered for a mont, then shrugged. “Sure. You can take care of yourself now. Do you want to just finish the hunting day on your own? I’ll head a bit deeper to get so practice of my own in.”
“That would be great!” said Elise, trying not to sound too excited.
“Do you know the way back?”
“I can figure it out.”
“Then I’ll see you at sunset.”
She watched him zip away into the Jungle, and not more than two seconds later, he was out of sight. She had no idea if he was actually going, or if he only pretended to leave, and was actually waiting behind a tree to see what she would do, so she got up and flew around a bit. She tried to appear like she was moving aimlessly, but was careful to keep an eye on the direction he had gone. Once she was reasonably certain that he was truly gone, she returned to where she had been ditating and closed her eyes.
Then, she opened them again, realizing that if she was going to test, she wanted to have all her options available. She couldn’t use {Suggest} without a target, so if she wanted to be thorough, she would need one. She went back up into the air, then started flying roughly straight back out of the Jungle. She didn’t want to run into another Screecher and have to heal her ears for a third ti that day.
About ten minutes later, she finally heard the slightly muffled sound of another group of monkeys in the distance. She stopped right where she was, knowing that with her damaged ears, the fact that she could hear them ant they were actually quite close. She found a relatively hidden-looking bundle of tree roots below and sat down and closed her eyes.
Titania? Are you there? I’d like to use the Rune of Fate right now please.
A familiar warmth flowed through her body, and when she opened her eyes, her wings were bathing the ground below her in soft golden light. Imdiately, she used {Fairy Dust} on herself, healing her ears in seconds and bringing the sounds of the monkeys into full focus. They were indeed, quite close. She would be able to reach them in no more than a minute, which was perfect. Before that though, she had so things she needed to test.
When not channeling the rune like she was now, it seed to passively let her use her Charisma-based skills a lot more than she normally would have been able to, while doing nothing for her other skills. The last two tis she had activated the skill, she had only used Charisma-based skills, so she had no idea how it affected other skills. She had refrained from using {Magic Missile} back then because she was worried about collateral damage from the super-charged attack, but after learning more about Charisma and the rune, she was starting to think she actually didn’t have much to worry about.
She was still cautious when she tested it, aiming the spell at a tree at the very edge of its range, but her hypothesis was proven… inconclusive. It was indeed stronger, but not so much so that it felt truly divine. It definitely didn’t get anywhere near as much of a boost as {Suggest} or {Fairy Dust} did. In fact, she couldn’t even tell if it was truly more powerful. It was more like it was just a bit more efficient, and she was able to channel a bit more mana than usual into it. Almost as though she was using a higher-level version of it…
Instinctually, she knew that she was onto sothing. It still didn’t make total sense. It still didn’t explain why {Suggest} and {Fairy Dust} got so much more powerful. If {Magic Missile} was a higher-level version of itself, then {Suggest} and {Fairy Dust} were evolved versions of the skills. The effects were increased so drastically that they could no longer be called the sa skill. {Suggest} beca more of a command, and the {Fairy Dust} blessings were at the level of sothing truly divine.
She guessed that this was because those two skills were Charisma-based, while {Magic Missile} was mana-based. That ant that for so reason, “divine power” did more for Charisma-based skills than mana-based, but the fact that it did anything for mana-based skills at all sort of ruined her theories. She had been guessing that Charisma-based skills ran on this sa “divine power”, but if it affected mana skills as well, that couldn’t be the case. Unless…
She gasped as an idea sprung to her mind. Mana was an energy that existed in the world, and could be sensed by anyone. Whatever the Charisma skills ran on was not. They functioned on so other unknown, mysterious kind of energy. What else functioned on an unknown, mysterious energy? The System! And the gods were the ones who commissioned the System, so it made sense that it would run on this “divine power.”
Except if it was also used by Charisma skills, then was it truly “divine power”? If everyone could use it, what made it divine? Nothing. That ant that her skill description must have been lying to her. It had done it before when it called itself the {Mark of Fate} rather than {Rune of Fate}. Why couldn’t it be doing it again? She checked the description again, but it still hadn’t changed.
What am I missing?
She knew she was close to a breakthrough. She was confident that most of what she had guessed was true, and last ti she had learned sothing new like that, it had updated the description. She was missing an important piece. Was it just the true na of the fake divine power? How would she figure it out though? It wasn’t like she could ask the System…
Wait! System, what is the true na of divine power?
She held her breath as she waited. It was a long shot, but if the System ran off divine power, then perhaps she would be able to get so real answers out of it now that she was overflowing with it.
“I’m sorry, you don’t have access to that information.”
She deflated for a mont, but then shook her head and tried a new approach.
I command that you tell what the true na of divine power is!
Elise tried to push the divine power flowing through her into the question. It didn’t work at all, but rather than denying her command, the System started doing sothing it had never done before. Its voice glitched, and made rapid stuttering sounds for a few seconds that eventually turned into a high-pitched whine before shutting off entirely. Elise waited eagerly for half a minute longer before the voice ca back.
“I apologize for the delay. The true na of divine power is aether.”
[ More information about {Rune of Fate} is now available. ]
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