Chương 35

The next day, the levelling spree continued, as we still needed to get more people to E Grade. However, today I had decided on going alone instead of with the group. While yesterday had been productive, I hadn't been able to really try out my ability and the new mana skill during combat. Before I went ahead and put the plan against the goblins in action, I needed to see how my ability worked during active combat. I was travelling through the forest, looking out for anything that I could fight against.

I had thought about intentionally making some noise while travelling, but that would've been extremely stupid. Instead, I moved about at a rapid pace, trying to cover as much ground as possible in my search. I was moving in a particular direction, but going at the place I had in mind in a sort of circular manner in order to give myself the highest probability of finding something else first. I almost missed it, but I spotted a weird creature soon.

It was up in the canopy of a tall tree, and seemed to be resting currently. It blended with the canopy beautifully, hence the reason I had almost missed it. A slight twitch in its rest while I was already looking in that direction had luckily alerted me to its presence. From what I could see, it had six legs, all curled up around the branch it was resting on. It looked like a weird amalgamation of a sloth, an anteater, and a scorpion. The six legs were furry at the top but ended up in a spike like manner.

It had a long, thin snout that looked flexible, and its fur was a mixture of brown and green, allowing it to blend into the canopy. It looked to be about 7 or 8 feet long, with more than 1 foot of it being snout only, and I had decided it was to become my first test subject. First, the limits of tactical insight. I knew that the skill gave me a small ping, letting me know if my decision was going to be favourable to me or not.

But yesterday the skill had remained largely silent, and I believed it was due to us working as a team rather than me individually. So perhaps one limitation of the skill could be that it didn't work when I was attacking with someone else. Regardless of if that were actually true or not, I needed to figure out if it had more limitations. Second, I also needed to test out if it worked indirectly. And this was a prime opportunity to try it out.

I simply thought about climbing the tree adjacent to the one where the creature was resting, and waited. However, the skill gave me no signal. Next, I thought about undoing concealed presence and then climbing the tree adjacent to the creature, still nothing. I did the same with climbing the tree the creature was lounging on, and the skill remained silent.

On the other hand, as soon as I thought about attacking the creature, the skill immediately started giving me feedback – informing me it was a bad idea to undo concealed presence and then climb, but climbing under the skill's protection and then attacking the creature netted a subdued acceptance of the choice. It only gives feedback when I am actively thinking about attacking something!

That was a key limitation and means that I couldn't blindly rely on it to give me an early warning about something I wasn't aware of. I wasn't sure if it would ping me if something attacked me when I was unaware of it, but I could have that tested by asking Lucas or one of the others to do it. I wanted to test my ability next, but honestly, that sleeping creature high up in the tree wasn't going to be a good opportunity for me to test it out.

I could climb up and kill it while it slept, but that wouldn't net me anything meaningful. So, I forwent testing the ability, and instead tried something else – using mana to attack. Ensuring that my mana was at a comfortable level, I climbed up the tree silently, soon finding myself level with the branch on which the creature was sleeping. I was behind it, so I couldn't quite see it entirely. Critical Sense highlighted that its closed eyes and ears were the only weak points.

I was going to go with internal mana manipulation, wanting to try attacking it with a rotating and compressed wind spell, but immediately tactical insight screamed at me to stop. I had barely started the skill and moved a smidgen of mana, but somehow that had to have been enough, as the creature's eyes immediately snapped open. It can sense mana! I stilled, and then backed away slowly onto another branch away from it. The thing was looking around, its long snout sniffing the air continuously in search of me.

I was relieved to notice that even though my mana manipulation had alerted the creature to my presence, concealed presence was still active. The thing looked around in confusion, now standing upright, allowing me to see how much flexibility its' six legs afforded it. Two of the hind legs were still wrapped around the branch securing it, whereas the two middle ones were stretched fully, raising it to an impressive height.

The forelegs were raised straight forward, making me believe it used them to skewer its opponents. I stayed in place, as the creature soon settled down again. I had inadvertently learned two extremely important facts just from this little experiment. One, there are some creatures that can sense mana, even through concealed presence. Two, using mana alone didn't cause concealed presence to fail, even when something had sensed the mana.

The buffaloes hadn't been able to sense my mana usage yesterday, so I needed to figure out which creatures could and which couldn't. The creature was relaxing again now, though it was still alert. Its eyes were shut but I could see its long snout still sniffing the air and moving about a bit. I checked my status and could see that my mana was dwindling down; I either needed to retreat or attack it right now. I raised my dagger and crept closer, intending to go the offensive route.

Earlier, the snout had been tucked in while it slept, so I hadn't been able to see it clearly. However, now that it was visible and moving about, critical sense highlighted its tip with the highest intensity. I could jump forwards and slash the tip of the dagger on the way, before reaching the ground. I looked down, and we were about one-and-a-half to two stories up in the air.

My stats had been enhanced by a significant margin now from when I started, but I wasn't about to test if I was solid enough for a jump this high yet, not without a healer close by. A broken foot out here alone would be nothing short of a death sentence. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Instead, I climbed onto the branch lower than the one the creature was on, planted my feet firmly on the trunk of the tree, and used Quick Step to launch myself at an angle going upwards and towards the adjacent tree; similar to what I had done against the goblin archers when I had just received my class. Perception enhanced, I could see my target clearly. The dagger slashed the snout, cutting the tip of the snout cleanly off in a wave of blood as the creature screamed in anguish.

I reached the tree adjacent to the one I had been on, turned around, and used quick step to launch off again. The anteater-scorpion hybrid was still reeling at having its nose lopped off, allowing me to strike it once more. I missed my target this time; the eye, due to the monsters' constant movements; however, I was able to score a deep cut on the side of its face, make it scream once again. I paused once I reached back to the tree the monster was on, assessing the situation.

It was still reeling in agony, and I had a feeling its snout was its most sensitive part. It still had its eyes closed and was desperately trying to do something to lessen the pain. Its forelegs were constantly flailing about near its face, trying and failing at offering some relief. I still wanted to try a mana-based attack, and this time, tactical insight hummed in agreement. I think it used its snout to somehow detect mana… weird.

I focused, channeling the mana within me towards my left hand as I raised the dagger within my right. Once I was ready, I launched towards the monster again with quick step, this time managing to hit its eye with my dagger. At the same time, the enhanced perception during quick step and my increased stats allowed me to aim and fire my first real spell – a crude version of a wind bullet. I felt the mana leave my hand, crossing the distance to the target in an instant.

I had focused on the spell being fast and having a rotating effect for penetration. The spell was aimed at the earlier cut I had made with the dagger right above the eye, and it struck true. The result was much more devastating than I had thought. Perhaps it was due to the amount of mana I had crammed into the spell; more than a quarter of my pool, or maybe it was due to it entering an already made wound; whatever the reason, the monster's face was obliterated.

The spell entered the wound and immediately a woomph sound could be heard, followed by the face getting blasted off in all directions. I had already reached the next tree, and still got hit by a few traces of flesh, fur, and drops of blood. The monster swayed in place for a few seconds, its legs clinging to the branch with whatever life they had left, before they went limp and the body slowly toppled to one side, before falling and crashing to the ground. Wow! I was beyond excited!

Sure, I had probably used a bit too much mana than I needed to, and instead of it penetrating like a bullet it had just gone off like a bomb, still, I had just cast my first attack spell! It also allowed me to have something I had been sorely lacking until now, a ranged option to attack! I waited for the system to inform me that I had gotten a new skill, but a notification didn't arrive. Instead, what did arrive was the smell from the destroyed carcass down below.

Mentally berating myself for getting distracted yet again, I looked around, went under concealed presence, and left the area. I paused about 2 minutes later, and used a bowl of water to wash off the bits of fur, blood, and flesh clinging onto me, then continued on. Soon, I came across a feline, the same kind whose body I had seen being carried by the kobolds some time earlier. This time, my focus was on wanting to test my ability. The feline looked remarkably similar to a black panther, both in size and colour.

I knew I could quickly take it down if I did a usual sneak attack, but sooner or later I needed to learn how to fight front-on battles. I would continue focusing on my Class's core skillset, but that didn't mean there won't be times when I would need to face an enemy head-on. Thus, I chose to undo concealed presence, ignoring tactical insight's protest. The feline immediately noticed me the second the skill's effect ended. It immediately crouched down and let out a warning hiss.

I readied myself, all my focus on the feline's muscles. My eyes could see the tiny contractions in the muscles, and I kept my sight on the hind legs while slowly moving towards the large cat. It hissed in warning again, but I kept closing the distance. Its hind legs suddenly bent a bit, and the muscles contracted completely. Now! I focused on the ground beneath the cat's hindlegs, and through my ability asked it to shift ever so slightly to the right. Simultaneously, I started quick step.

The ground obeyed, and the cat who had been prepared to pounce suddenly felt its footing disturbed very slightly, causing a fraction of a delay in its pounce. My steps were true, and I rapidly gained on it. Still, cats were famous for their reflexes even back on Earth, and here, enhanced by mana and the system, they were even more in tune. It was able to jump and twist out of the way of my dagger strike despite the disturbed footing, barely allowing itself to be grazed by it on its flank.

I stopped and turned around to see the cat had already landed and was about to pounce again. I focused on my ability, and this time asked a very small twig a bit behind the panther to snap, while at the same time I shifted my eyes in that direction for the briefest of moments before snapping them back to the panther. It saw my eyes move, and then the twig snap, and it immediately jumped high towards the side away from the twig, turning its head to look at my supposed ally.

I was already on the way, having quick-stepped as soon as its eyes had turned away. It was still in midair and searching for whatever had made the sound when I struck my dagger straight into its ear. My dagger went in cleanly, and struck something hard. Immediately, the panther went limp and fell onto my feet. I breathed hard and looked around. Finding nothing, I allowed myself to celebrate. My idea of using my ability to distract and disorient opponents during combat had worked!

There were still lots of ideas left to be tried, but I could envision myself becoming a threat due to a combination of sneak attacks, distractions, and mana attacks. I continued onwards towards the place I was headed to, going in a general direction rather than a definitive one due to not remembering the exact way. Before long, I noticed the sounds of the forest disappear, and soon, I came upon a familiar clearing. I searched around the area for some time before my eyes spotted what I had been looking for.

It's still here!