10/9 13:51 (Autumn, Night, Mysterious Island)
"I hate you!" Sider's scowl widened even further once she found the end of the corridor, no more rooms or other corridors leading anywhere but at further walls, her axe held securely against her right shoulder, before she prepared to do something that would be incredibly annoying for her.
The nails of her left hand lengthened into claws covered in Earth-Attribute Mana to alter their proprieties before she neared them against her hardened stone greataxe, closing her silver eyes while focusing some of her own Qi within her ears to both sharpen her earing and fortify her wolf ears in advance before she scratched her claws against the shaft of her weapon, generating a very shrill sound and leading her to wince in pain.
An high and immensely annoying scratching sound filled the corridor completely, her canine ears leaning up to feel as much of it as possible before she proceded to the next step, her Mana flowing in the rocky floor of the cavern to continuously alter the ground, electricity flaring from her body in as casual a pattern as she could make before stepping hard on the ground repeatedly, the sound of her steps joining the chaos she was causing in the room.
After a further ten minutes of this painfull acoustic mess, she found her way thanks to her sore ears nodding satisfied to herself, before stopping, grabbing her axe firmly with both of her hands, turning towards one of the walls of the corridor, running forward at full speed before swinging at it, channeling her Vital Energy and Unique Skill "Berserker" through it.
Her temporary weapon's blades and top half shattered immediately because of the pressure exerted by her Unique Skill, the Thunder Gems detonating and their force being dragged along with the shockwave and being forced into crashing against the wall that was in her way.
Its durability showed no resistance towards her attack's raw destructive power, quickly and violently exploding apart in a shower of dust that rained down upon her Mana barrier as Sider, unwilling to take any risk with the flying stone shards, released her Mana in an explosion to deflect the shards away from her.
Sider did not hesitate, bursting right through the cloud of dust, swinging her axe immediately around to decapicate a Fake Goblin that was waiting to ambush her, her right foot kicking forward to send its body flying away from its head, grabbing this last one and crushing it with a show of overwhelming physical prowess, electricity coursing through them both the next instant.
She threw the head away from herself soon after, trying to nail another one of the Fake-Goblin's chest, before jumping over the swing of a sword launched by a third Fake Cultivator, spinning in mid-air while transforming her right foot in a bestial version before kicking forth, her claws disarming it of its sword before she grabbed its wrist, pulling it in close, twisting around herself and smashing it into the ground beneath her feet, her hand gripping it firmly.
"Now let's see how you work!" She affirmed, threateningly.
She twisted her wrist, breaking as a conseguence the Goblin's own before punching down, shattering its elbow and observing both the speed of its own healing and its durability, before turning her other hand into a bestial version and cutting it open, trying to observe its physical Qi Circulatory System, confirming the presence of a single Meridian compared to the eight that a proper Cultivator at the [Foundation Establishment] Stage would have, while being careful to maintain a layer of Mana between herself and her test subject.
"I see, so you skip the First Stage entirely by being born with an already present, biological [Foundation] that you merely need to fill with Qi… An ingenious trick, I must say." She complimented, before crushing her dying opponent's head into paste with a flex of her hand. "The First Stage, [Qi Condensation], doesn't offer anything in particular, it's merely the point when someone can actively use Qi and is being irradiated by their own Qi, facilitating their growth, but it's nothing more than a start to either processes and is nothing particularly important in the grand scheme of things. The only flaws of this method are the low quantity of Fake-Qi stored in their Qi Circulatory System and its inefficiencies in its use.
"This would explain why that one at D-Rank was so much more dangerous than the rest of you, it was older and had more time to accumulate Fake-Qi and to learn how to use it and this would confirm another thing. You Fake-Goblin do not Gain Magicules like natural Monsters, do you? In its place you gather this Fake-Qi. Which means that I should not be here once the days end or I would inadvertently do the same." She nodded to herself, satisfied, before opening her hand and letting the corpse drop to the ground.
Sider concentrated her awareness down deeper in the ground, forcibly altering the ground beneath her feet into a chasm that led deeper in, a process that was much more temporary and costly as evident by the fact she needed to constantly emit Mana to maintain it against the island, falling down around ten meters before, her silver eyes focused, impaling the sharp, crystalline butt of her greataxe, the only remaining part, into the wall of her newly-created chasm, stopping her fall in mid-air and detonating it by using her Unique Skill on it again, blasting a hole in the wall she launched herself in, finding a new, occupied at least for now, room.
She stood up fully, her Mana flaring around her body to dust off her clothes, left hand throwing a sharp stone towards one of the Monsters she found herself before, a reptilian, humanoid Monster, around 160 cm tall with dark blue scales and glowing red eyes, a Monster that was probably descendent from this place's version of a Kobold
Around its body a visible aura of Fake-Qi manifested itself, easily shielding it from the force of the attack, especially considering its hard scales, sure, but allowing the Werewolf to observe the way it used its Qi to either learn something herself or at least better understand the level of her future opponents and in so doing she saw that while it was still at the [Foundation Establishment] Stage, it was much more advanced in quantity of Qi itself and refinement of both its body and Qi Circulatory System, being probably at the Fifth Step equivalent.
"I see. This will be harder than I thought" She affirmed to herself, punching forward once and being unsurprised when her semi-casual attack was dodged with surprising, or perhaps not all things considered, martial skill and she found herself having to dodge a coordinated flurry of blows from six of its seven compatriots while the seventh moved away from them, starting to quickly Chant and form a Magical Circle before itself.
The Kobolds, the counterpart of the Dragonoids created by either True or False Dragons using Monsters, mostly Goblins, instead of People as its base, showed off their Draconic descendency, if so it could be called, by opening their mouth and releasing small but quick bullets belonging to various different Attributes, forcing her to continuously dodge and interrupting her attacks before she could ever really take the advantage in their confrontation.
Sider quickly grew weary of this tentative of theirs to buy time yet found their coordination to precise to just rampage, deciding to improvise a solution to her problem that wouldn't necessitate the use of her Unique Skill as it would be the third time she used it in too short a period and was starting to become dangerous if she used it so casually.
The dark-skinned beauty stomped down hard, the ground rippling beneath her as a small boulder ripped itself away from the earth beneath herself, being kicked up before compressing in a small sphere that she launched forward with a second kick, aiming to disturb their harmony.
With the same purpose of it was the quick release of Lightning around her body, buying herself enough space to stretch out her arms, two long staffs of compressed stone erupting at her sides, her hands pulling from the soil underneath her control a pair of large, single-bladed axe.
"Let's go!" She exclaimed, her excitement exploding as her eyes shone more intensely.
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10/10 3:52 (Autumn, Day, Midrar, Base)
Luna carefully analyzed the map of the area around Nealet that Sabel was able to recieve thanks to her father, map that specifically showed the locations of the known Dungeons around the city and a brief description of them.
She nodded before indicating a certain Dungeon somewhat away from the city and the route that was currently calling to her. "Here is where she . Do you have any idea of anything in particular happening in this place?" She asked her Mates calmly only to recieve a negation from both Sabel and Mafel, her eyes moving to her remaining Mate, her face stuck in a pensive expression.
"Can you show me a map of the whole of Midrar?" She asked simply, nodding once she recieved it by Mafel as her fingers quickly moved over it to find the approximate location of the Dungeon and the city of Nealet, percorring the path numerous times before finally stopping at a certain point between the two.
"The ambush will probably occur around here." She nodded satisfied before explaining herself once she saw the curious gaze of her Mates. "Well, Luna is explicitely the target and she is a Lunarian, right? Well, even if they don't know what it means to be such, they should still know that she is a Vampiric, right? Well, around four, five centuries ago, in one of the last battles of the Moonlight Empire, a Curse was Casted Targetting all Vampiric Beings to weaken them greatly and, even if it weakened over time, it is still present and effective to this day."
"I see, an ideal place to battle a Vampiric Being then. How did you know?" Mafel asked, curious about both the information she just asked and the Curse itself.
"Well, my mother helped to both develop and Cast it and, well, she was very proud of her work." The blonde sheepishly affirmed, turning her gaze away from her Mates' own, embarassed by their interest. "It was apparently a very reguarding offer when it comes to her reward, considering the type of Summoning it was. She apparently gained the equivalent of more than two years of worth in just a month between Energy and materials. In addition if a Vampiric Being dies while the effect of the Curse, well, it not only lenghten its duration but it also transfers a little bit of Energy to her." The Phoenix explained quickly, trying to brush off her Demonic parent's actions.
"Impressive." Luna calmly complimented. "I will endeavour to memorize the feeling of the Curse then. It wouldn't do to forget the works of one of my mothers-in-law, especially if I experience them myself." She shamelessly affirmed, a sharp smile on her face before she turned her attention towards the forth member of their group, their little Human currently very distracted by both the fact she was on Luna's laps and the arm currently trapping her against the Lunarian's chest, poking her in the cheek a couple of times to take her attention. "Tomorrow, you three are going to leave towards a Dungeon before going towards my fake destination and slowly move back towards me. Once the ambush starts you can be free to rush back."
A sharp grin formed on her lips as she continued to silently plan her future battle and, as if to crown her animosity to the whole World…
*Luna's Ability Skill "Oath Making" E increases to D-Rank.
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