The Raven, as she had recently taken to calling herself, held her nose high in the air and boasted proudly. "Looks like I got the most kills this ti. Maybe you're losing your touch in your old age, teacher." Getting no reply to her jabs, The Raven looked over at her ntor.
The seasoned fighter was looking down at the last Grey Wolf he had killed, and scratching his beard as he usually did when lost in thought. Squinting towards the party's handso boxer, he finally spoke. "You felt it too, didn't you, Kim?"
Crossing his arms and nodding, the pugilist replied. "Indeed. I noticed it near the start of the fight, watching us from the treetops. I felt it leave shortly after you killed the last wolf. Do you have any idea what it was?"
Frowning bitterly, the swordsman scanned the surrounding canopy. "...No. I know every creature native to these woods. There are none that fit the description. I didn't look at it directly so as not to spook it, but it was too big to be a bird or sli. It was the size of a child, at least."
Walking to the side of the fighter, the sheep-horned priestess tried to follow his gaze into the thick foliage with her horizontally-pupiled eyes. "Maybe it was a scout or hunter? One of the shorter races, or just young? I've seen so pretty small kids selling beast bits at the hall before."
The swordsman shook his head. "No, that wasn't a sapient. The way its body moved was all wrong. Maybe it would be possible for a powerful ascendant with so weird Rare Skill, but if that were the case, they wouldn't be so incompetent at hiding. No, it's more likely it was an opportunist hoping to ambush whichever side won the fight if they were weakened enough."
"Actually, I don't think that's the case either" interrupted Kim. "When that wolf tried to sneak up on Ovis, I was struck with an illusion of noise coming from behind . I looked behind myself by instinct before I realized what it was, but it was thanks to that spell I was able to notice the attack."
Once again bringing his hand to his beard, the swordsman finished his ally's thought. "And the only one who could have sent that illusion was whatever was watching us, right? So, it was helping our side, even though we had the advantage at the ti. If it wanted to eat the scraps from the fight, it should have been helping the wolves."
Kim expressed his agreent with a firm nod.
"Oh well, I'll report this to the Association when we get back to town. For now, Suzy, help butcher these wolves."
Leaning forward and fists clenched, she yelled "It's The Raven!"
Unaware it had been noticed, Mud proceeded towards the river clearing in which it had previously hunted slis. As expected, it quickly found a Green Sli after arriving.
Instead of dropping on the wriggling gelatinous glob like it usually did, Mud decided to experint with its spells as forms of attack. First, it tried sending a burst of concentrated Mind elental mana to create the loudest noise it could manage.
The sli reacted imdiately to the artificial stimuli, pulsating and grasping wildly for the source of the disturbance. While it appeared extrely agitated, the attack didn't seem to do any actual damage to the monster.
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Switching to its other spell, Mud tried to move the monster with Telekinesis. As it pushed on one side of the Green Sli, the creature responded imdiately by sending several grasping tentacles in an attempt to envelop whatever had touched it. Since the force was purely the result of mana, the sli grasped only at empty air. Continuing to prod the flailing sli, Mud found that while it could nudge the monster around, it wasn't able to exert quite as much force as it had managed when it tried the spell on inanimate objects such as rocks and furniture. Perhaps a result of natural resistances? As it was, the sli could be pushed a bit. Lesser Telekinesis lacked the strength to crush the monster or lift it into the air. Similarly, while mud was able to pull parts of the mbranous surface of the sli by pinching it between two opposed forces, the grip wasn't strong enough to actually tear it apart or cause any noticeable damage.
After spending a long while experinting with Lesser Telekinesis, Mud opened its status and noted that it had only spent ten mana points over the course of the session. An amount which would likely recover completely before it managed to find another sli, based on past experience. Either these Psionic spells were considerably efficient, or Mud's mana pool was as impressive as the demon Jabrax had previously implied. Either way, it appeared Mud was safe to use these spells freely without worrying overmuch about the mana supply.
Satisfied it had learned all it needed about the spells, Mud fell upon the sli in a whirlwind of dirty tentacles, killing it.
[Experience Gained: 29]
Mud continued hunting slis until noon. As it hunted more, a worrying trend started to beco apparent. The slis were giving less Experience than the day before.
The difference was slight, but consistent. While before the slis had given values hovering around the mid-thirties, now the value was closer to thirty on average. The Green Slis themselves were just as strong, and in so cases even stronger, than the day previous. The only difference that could account for this incongruity was Mud itself; it had gained a level. Since the value of Experience depended on the difficulty of the opponent, perhaps the golem growing stronger had made the enemies comparably weaker, and therefore less valuable. If that was the case, that ant Mud's plan to simply hunt slis repeatedly until it had several thousand levels would have to be adjusted.
After the fourth sli of the day, Mud was greeted by the long awaited announcent.
[Mud Golem Species increased to Level 3]
[Skill Points increase to 1]
Wasting no ti, Mud opened its status.
Na: Mud Golem
Level 3 Mud Golem
Class: none
HP
6/7
SP
0/0
MP
120/140
Spells: [Psionic] Lesser Telekinesis, Paracusia
Skills(1): Climbing 3, Housework 8, Mathematics 3, Psionics 1, Sneak Attack 3, Stealth 3, Unard Combat 4, Amorphous Form ®, Dictionary (U)
Status Effects: Incomplete (Articulation Runes)
The HP and MP once again increased by the sa amount as last ti, perhaps a standard feature of leveling? Aside from that, the only change was that another skill point had appeared. After quickly scanning the Skill list to make sure there were no new options, Mud did as he had previously planned and purchased "Enhance Skill: Dictionary (U)".
At that mont, Mud felt a curious sensation very different from the usual flow of information that followed acquiring a skill. Instead, it felt shifting and sliding in its soul. This wasn't the first ti the golem had felt a sensation from its soul; when it had first obtained Dictionary, it had felt sothing take shape within itself, and when it had ford the contract with Jabrax, it had felt a distinctly different kind of pressure. While the sensation was unusual, it was not uncomfortable, and after a mont sothing seed to click into place. The experience left Mud’s soul feeling much the sa as before, but with a subtle feeling of increased complexity.
[Dictionary (U) Skill mutated into Almanac (U) Skill]
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