A couple of days after arriving at the beach for the first ti, we were still following along the shore. Rex said that he knew the location of another family. One that was closer than where we t the Mnems. And right now, we were still trying to figure out what was the best way to invade the Eater nest. One option was to fight it head on and kill everything inside. But without any information about how many Eaters were inside, that was a gamble, to say the least.
The stealth route also had issues, naly, what would we do if we were caught in during the infiltration? Considering we would have an entire nest of Eaters to deal with, our fates were pretty much sealed.
Hell, we didn't even know if the nest was the right place to go. After all, all we had to go from was the information that Lethea gave us, and that wasn't entirely reliable. Not that we were doubting what she told us. But the problem was the ti fra. She got the information about the Eater hatchling a long ti ago. If we were going off the assumption that it was the sa type of creature that we were looking for, there was a chance that it didn't even exist anymore. Eaters might have evolved beyond the need for a hatchling or they might have created a new version of it entirely.
Then again, that didn't matter all that much. And that was mostly due to the skills she gifted us. The first and likely the most important was called {Vault Of The Static mory}. And according to the description which we could see directly from the pearls, it would allow us to extract the mories of a creature and store inside it. We had no way of actually accessing that skill and we would need a specific different skill to use it, but it was pretty obvious that this was the way Lethea had for us to discover and save the mories of whatever we were fighting.
Although, the System made clear that this particular skill was not perfect. There was a good possibility that pieces of the information would be missing once they were extracted into the vault. The information between the ti that it took between getting the skill, getting the mory inside the vault, and accessing the tools could slowly corrode the information.
I asked why and the answer was one that I should have expected. Because we were not high tier enough to be using that skill. We would be wielding a lesser version of the original and because of that, so of its aspects were much less potent than the original. It really sucked, but there wasn't much we could do about that. Aside from trying to level up, but I had serious doubts that we would be able to reach tier three before we were going to deal with the nest.
Then again, that might be the right way to go about it. Get stronger first and then go after this. But it was hard to think about things in that order when soone told you that the fate of the world rested on this particular information.
The second of the skill pearls was called {May The Waves Carry My Voice} and, as the na suggested, it was a skill that allowed us to communicate through short distances. Or long distances if we were using it in the ocean. This should be the sa skill that Lethea was using to talk through the rest of the jellyfishes. At least, that was Riley's assumption. We all saw the benefit of this particular skill. As long as we were within 50 ters [164.0 ft] of each other, we would be able to communicate as if we were side by side. Even if we were whispering, it would still be effective.
Unfortunately, the skill was expensive. It required two Energy for the duration of one minute. And to make matters worse, all of those who were going to be talking or listening to the conversation needed to have this skill activated for it to work. Otherwise, the recipient of the ssage would hear only a strange mumbling in the air. Again, this was another issue created by the difference in tiers between us and the skill.
The last of those pearls had a skill called {As I Flow So Does The Current}. And it was the one skill that benefited the most. Even amongst our group, I was the one who gained the most. And that was all thanks to {Elental Imbuent}. The skill, {As I Flow So Does The Current}, allowed anyone who had it to gain so strength when moving underwater. In addition to making their attacks slightly damp. According to the System, this was supposed to be a tier 4 skill that would let us wrap water around our weapons and arms before we struck. Which would both permanently activate the empowernt effect, and also increase the damage we could do thanks to that extra elental force attached to the skill.
And while depending on how moist the rest of the group was, they would still benefit from the increase in physical prowess. For , it was different. When using that skill together with {Elental Imbuent}, I was able to get the full benefit of it. And even more importantly, I was able to create water. Not by spitting or anything, but create water with my very hands. This completely changed our travels, as we wouldn't need to stop and fill up water skins. We wouldn't need to worry about going thirsty and even if we wanted to use so water to put out a fire, that was also a possibility.
The cherry on top was the fact that the water I created would also be frozen by Astrid's attacks. And one of Riley's spells could send an electric current through it. They had figured out how to create a small burst of lightning, which apparently was sothing present in their master's journal in a way that made it seem very important.
"Maybe just because she was a moth." Michael joked.
"What do you an?" the witch asked.
"I an, moths are attracted to light. And there were those bug zappers in the old world. Maybe that's why this spell is so important to them. They used to get zapped and now want to be the zappers."
As silly as that sounded, it also had so semblance of logic. Which made us assu this was really the case, even though we might never truly know.
In the end, we made a decision. Riley and I would have {Vault Of The Static mory} on our {mory Bank}, Astrid, Michael, and Rex would have {May The Waves Carry My Voice} in their {mory Bank} and all of us would have {As I Flow So Does The Current} as a new part of our skill set. That decision ca due to two factors. First, that was the only skill any of us had seen so far that had both an active and a passive effect. Passively, it would increase our physical abilities as long as we were in water, and the active effect could also allow us to wrap our weapons or body parts in water to deal more damage with our attacks. In addition to triggering the passive effect.
But secondly, the human body was made out of water. Because of that, the skill would always be at least sowhat active. According to the System, we would always be receiving at least 20% of its effects. Which already changed things quite a lot. Riley beca able to sleep for just seven hours to have a full night's rest and Astrid was bumped down to around five and a half. The witch also was capable of walking for much longer before getting tired. And even {Body Regeneration} seed to be affected by the skill. Increasing its recovery properties when the ability was activated.
Speaking of which, the quest that I had gotten so long ago to turn my title, Enduring Heart, into a skill, was finally completed. And the System showed the skill that to did not occupy a mory slot. It was sothing attached to the title that I could share with anyone at any given mont. {Heart Of Endurance}. Essentially, increases the natural recovery of one's body. As well as any recovery effects that affect the holder of this skill.
According to the System, this was not as powerful as my own title. As for one, it required so Energy to work. Without it, the skill wouldn't function. And secondly, if there was soone with the exact sa amount of points in body and the exact sa level that had that skill and tried to recover from an injury, they would still take longer than I would have to. Not much, but the worse the wound, the more stark the difference would be.
All of this happened in the past few days after we t with Lethea. On the beach, we conducted all those tests and made those discoveries to verify our understanding of the skills we had acquired. One strange thing that we noticed during these past few days was the constant presence of the glowing lights in the ocean. We could only see them in the middle of the night but it seed like the jellyfishes, or should I say the Mnems, were still following along. None of us was entirely sure if that ant Lethea was following us or if they understood that our presence at the beach ant that we wanted to talk. Either way, we assud that after a few days, they would understand that this was just the path that we were taking.
There were a couple of monts where we did consider going into the water to ask them about what was going on, but the experience of eting them was too jarring. No one was truly trusting those beings, and we had no intention of putting ourselves in harm's way just for this clarification.
Still, we were reaching a very large city different from the smaller ones that we had to go around in the past couple of days, and Rex pointed in that direction.
"Your family, little man?" Michael turned to the Rodenti.
"No. Other family. But family still."
"We go?" Astrid asked.
"I don't know, are they usually hostile, Rex?" I asked.
"Hostile?" Rex turned to face with a confused expression.
"I an, are they usually angry at other people?"
"Oh, yes. All families are. Always angry. But nice too."
We all groaned, understanding that we wouldn't be able to just talk with those Rodenti. And would have to deal with them in a different way. But, at the sa ti, we decided not to go straight away. It was already getting late in the day, although the sun was still out, and we didn't want to et them after a long day of travel. It would be better for us if we only approached this new family once we were properly well rested. Or at least that was the plan.
Unfortunately, like a great number of things that were happening to us, our plans didn't matter. The mont we started to approach the city, seeing its tall buildings crumbling on top of each other, its white streets overgrown by plants and vegetation, and the eerie presence of destruction that radiated from the area, we saw sothing else. The one reason for all that destruction. A large Eater, much larger than most we had seen so far. The creature was stepping into the city, going deeper and vanishing between the tall buildings that still stood. Only to suddenly be attacked by large explosions and a swarm of Rodenti who tried to climb on top of it to destroy the monster.
It was pretty clear that this family that Rex wanted to see was in the middle of their own battle. And before any of us could say anything, our Rodenti companion started running towards the Eater. Towards the family in hopes of helping them. With a quick glance at each other, and my companions ran after Rex.
We were supposed to be going after an Eater. We were supposed to be fighting those creatures in order to discover how to save the world. And since we were doing that, we might as well start now.
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