She wasn't really tired yet, so she decided to keep going for a bit longer. Aina had said there were caves all over the place, so she banked on being able to find another unoccupied one on the way up. Even in daylight she should be fine, especially since she was well out of sight of the road by this point, but she probably had to be a little careful.
Now that she was in the next area, the height of the grass had decreased, which was both good and bad. At least she could see what mobs were around now, unless they were so small they didn't reach above the grass. More snakes came to mind, but she decided to push that possibility back out until it was confirmed.
Leaping her way into one of the few trees gave her a pretty great view as the sun crawled above the horizon. She had to take a minute to adjust her eyes to the light before she could scout around. What she could see were goats, the occasional bear, some birds... eagles maybe, though for once no wolves in sight. Maybe they weren't common outside of forests.
There were also smaller things that were harder to make out. Foxes? Actually, zooming in made them look more like large ferrets. Her cousin owned a ferret. It was a furry little bastard. Very briefly she spotted a hare hopping out of the grass before it dropped back in.
She was about to drop back down herself when she noticed movement on the rocks. Large lizards were crawling out onto the exposed patches of rock where the sun was now shining down. She could vaguely remember hearing that some types of lizard liked sunbathing.
Oh, they have little wings! Is this the first true fantasy monster I've seen? Actually, I guess magic ravens, and druidic deer are also very fantasy, but this might be some sort of juvenile dragon! Who doesn't want to see a dragon?!
It didn't look like much of a dragon, but she still felt excited as she landed in the grass again. She'd have to get a closer look.
A nearby ferret hissed at her much like a cat would when she dropped down, and then ran away before she could use Identify on it. She was even more sure it was a ferret now, but at least it had the sense to not pick a fight with someone much bigger than it. If it bit her in the ankle or something, she would use the full extent of her power to stomp it into the ground.
She moved briskly towards the nearest patch of rock, and entered Stealth when she figured she was getting close to possible detection range. It was trickier to Stealth through grass than the woods. Not just having less cover, which the cloaking effect of Stealth helped compensate for, but also because it was more obvious that you were displacing the grass with nothing to distract from it. Still, she got close enough to land an Identify on the lazing lizard.
[ Hill Drake (Beast Lvl 22) HP: 122/122 ]
Okay, so it was higher level than her, but even more curious was the class. She hadn't seen that on any other mob, even though you could say that beast was a synonym for animal.
Aina? What sort of a class is Beast?
"It is a mob only class that is usually applied to creatures that do not fit normal taxonomy. For instance there is no such thing as a drake back on Earth. Other mobs based on mythological creatures may also have the Beast class, but could also have a more regular class. For instance a gryphon is a Beast, while a pegasus is a Cleric. Really strong creatures like a chimera, or a full-fledged dragon are often Mythical Beasts, while entirely unique boss level monsters might even be Legendary Beasts. Really strong versions of mobs based on regular animals might also have one of the Beast classes. The advantage of a Beast is that it can have several skills that are usually associated with different classes. Similar to you, I suppose."
That last part almost sounded like she was making a joke, but it was hard to say for sure.
"Mobs with regular classes usually have a couple of non-class skills related to what animal they are based on, but Beasts often have larger variety."
Well then, it was time to have a look.
[ Active: ]
[ Chomp Lvl 2 | Rend Lvl 2 | Body Slam Lvl 8 | Tail Whip Lvl 8 | Leap Lvl 5 | Gust Lvl 5 | Fireball Lvl Max | Fire Breath Lvl Max | Poison Bolt Lvl 8 | Glide Lvl 5 ]
[ Passive: ]
[ Night Vision Lvl 15 | Keen Eyes Lvl 15 | Tough Scales Lvl 8 | Air Control Lvl 5 | Fire Element Up Lvl 5 | Strength Up (Small) Lvl 6 | Intelligence Up (Small) Lvl 6 | Fire Resistance Lvl 5 ]
That was a juicy set of skills. Most of which she had seen before. There were only a couple of new ones.
[ Tail Whip (Active): Strike with a sweeping motion of a tail, or something equivalent. Medium knockback force. Effect increases with skill level. Damage value: (1+(0.04*skill level))*attack power. Scales with type of tail. Cost: 3 SP. Cast time: 1 second. Refresh: 5 seconds. (Ai-note: While the skill compensates to an extent, your tail is not as solid or heavy as a dragon-type tail, so do not expect the same level of impact.) ]
[ Glide (Active): Use wings, a gliding tool, or something equivalent while in the air to slowly glide downwards. Channelled effect. Glide control increases with skill level. Activation cost: 5 SP. Slowly drains SP while active. Deactivation cost: 0. Warning: you will instantly plummet upon deactivation. Automatically deactivates upon landing. Refresh: 2 seconds. (Ai-note: You do not possess wings, or the means to use tools, so this skill will be disabled.) ]
Upon closer inspection, the wings of the drake were on the small side, which was probably why it could only Leap, and not fly. The wings were probably only used for Gliding, and to improve Air Control.
Aina? What does it mean by channelled effect?
"It means it needs to be actively maintained, as opposed to a continuous effect that automatically keeps going without any further input from the user. Channelled effects are consequently much easier to break."
So if you lose concentration while in the air, then you drop?
"Exactly."
So if there were more than 2 seconds before you hit the ground, you wouldn't be able to reactivate it. That was honestly not a lot of time once gravity got its claws into you, and depending on your abilities that could be a rough landing.
Though why did this one also have to have poison? She had run into so many things that had some way or another to poison their opponents. Maybe she should grateful to the Poison Resistance after all.
Speaking of resistances, the drake had Fire Resistance. Sara hadn't seen a lot of resistance skills so far. The only other one had been poison. She had to wonder if they were really rare, or just rare in lower level mobs. While she didn't exactly want to set herself on fire to level it up, it seemed like something that was better to have, than not. That and Fireball were the two things she wanted the most from this thing.
She was curious what the max level bonus for Fireball was, but upon checking the skill description it was... not there.
Does Fireball not have a bonus?
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"Unlocks, and additional abilities can normally only be viewed by the one who possesses the skill. So someone who used Identify on you would not be able to see the max level bonus for Howl, or Sprint unless they also had that skill maxed."
That information gave her a mix of disappointment, and relief.
As tough as the drake seemed, she felt like she had a decent shot at taking it down. Remembering the snakes suggested that Tough Scales was going to be an issue, but she had magic now to help compensate for that. Not to mention she could try out one of her brand new Druid abilities: shapeshifting!
Cat Form combined with Growth (which was only available for another handful of days) should give her a large boost to her Ambush. She had changed her mind to thinking she should take advantage of that while she could, mainly because of the level difference, and toughness of her target. It looked on par with the deer, which she felt she could handle at this point with the right preparation.
And if it failed she was only a few minutes away from her new respawn point.
Activating Cat Form was... unpleasant. Shapeshifting came with a sense of discomfort as her body morphed. Maybe that was part of why she was put to sleep while evolving. Hopefully it was something that would get easier the more she used it, because it was too useful to give up on.
Considering how the drake was curled up, it was a little hard to tell exactly where its 'behind' was, and her 'eye for weakness' as she had dubbed it only highlighted the heart, and head as usual. It was interesting, but not useful, that the heart was in a slightly different location compared to the mammal-based mobs she had seen so far. Going with her instinct she decided to aim her Ambush right at the exposed part of the back.
"GRARGH!"
The drake roared in pain as half its health vanished in one go. Sara immediately followed up with a Rend, but she could feel how her claws just slid across the hide, doing little damage. And it felt too tough to properly bite through even with Chomp. The Tough Scales were probably doing what they were intended to.
An instinctual Leap to dodge out of the way let her get away with mostly some singed fur as the drake unleashed its Fire Breath. She rolled across the rocky ground to put the fire out before it could spread, and did another Leap to create some distance between them. She did not want to be hit with the Burn status. Close combat didn't seem like it was a viable option any longer, so she would have to test out her ranged skills.
Deactivating Cat Form made her feel so uncomfortable that she staggered, and the drake was quick to take advantage of the distraction to cast a Fireball. She was only barely able to recover in time to throw herself out of the way, but not quickly enough to get out of the explosion radius. The air was filled with the smell of burned fur as she truly caught on fire that time.
Aina was right, she thought as she desperately rolled around the ground again. It hurt quite a lot. But she refused to allow herself to panic, and tried to use it to enhance her focus instead. She was able to cast Rejuvenate before getting back on her feet, and the soothing sensation nearly made her groan with relief.
She cast Thorn Bind on the drake that was trying to charge her. The sense of magic flowing through her body, and releasing into the world was almost intoxicating. But then... it didn't work. A frantic Leap let her escape the all too obvious Body Slam, but the drake quickly spun around, and cast another Fireball at her. Normally this would be quite bad, since she wouldn't have any way to avoid it, but thanks to Air Control she was able to change her trajectory enough for the spell to completely miss.
The drake looked distinctly frustrated, and shot her a murderous glare while she tried to figure out why Thorn Bind hadn't worked. Then it hit her. The rock. The vines couldn't break through the rock. Well, she had other options.
Mana flowed from her body towards the tip of her nose as she cast another spell: Frost Bolt. The drake was not able to react in time, and was struck in the side as it tried to get out of the way. It was now Slowed by the chill, and perhaps realising that trying to charge in wouldn't work at the moment, it returned fire with a Poison Bolt.
Not quite prepared for the speed of the bolt spell, even though she had just watched her own fly, Sara was struck in the leg as she tried to jump out of the way, which for the purposes of the system counted as a full hit. She didn't even have to see the icon to know she had been poisoned. The internal burning sensation was proof enough.
Two could play that game. Her HP was fine enough that the poison wouldn't kill, especially not with her resistance, so she decided to focus on offence, and fired back with a Poison Bolt of her own that the slowed drake had no chance to dodge. It took the hit straight to the head while Sara prepared another Frost Bolt to follow it. After a dodge to get out of the way of another Fireball, she cast a final Frost Bolt that finished off her opponent.
[ Hill Drake (Beast Lvl 22) Defeated. ]
[ Ambush Skill Level Up! ] [ Leap Skill Level Up! ] [ Frost Bolt Skill Level Up! ] [ Air Control Skill Level Up! ] [ Mana Manipulation Skill Level Up! ]
[ Skill Gained: Fire Resistance. ]
She had been focusing on what she wanted, counting on her luck to come through, and it had. She wondered how far she could push it. If she was able to reliably gain exactly what she wanted, even if it was only one skill at a time, then it was getting close to the sort of cheat skill Norax had wanted her to have.
It had been a rough fight. Even knowing the drake's skills she hadn't been prepared for how it fought, not to mention how she wasn't used to her own new skills either. Getting distracted by the discomfort of shapeshifting was the biggest blunder. Yet without that initial spike of damage her chances of winning would have been reduced. Or at least it would have taken much longer. The drake seemed to be weak to magic though, at least compared to how tough it was against physical attacks.
She cast Regrowth on herself to restore her lost HP. While the layer of leaves that grew across her felt weird, it was nice that her fur was growing back. The healing magic itself felt quite nice as well. So nice in fact that she cast a second one on herself for safe measure. She could really get used to this magic stuff.
[ Regrowth Skill Level Up! ]
Oh, thank you!
Well, the first couple of skill levels were probably really quick to get, so maybe she shouldn't be surprised.
A sudden thought struck.
Wait... Cat Form significantly increases my Agility, right? So wouldn't I be able to travel faster using Cat Form?
"Yes, but the speed increase is not as drastic as you might be imagining. You won't suddenly be going at Sprint speed without Sprint, since Agility is not the only factor that affects movement speed. Adventurer parties would have an awkward time travelling together if that was the case. It would still save you a few hours across the length of the journey."
Even with that caveat she wished she had thought of it sooner. She might have had less trouble shapeshifting if she had already used it a few times.
Turning into a cat again was still uncomfortable, but she had to get used to it. Looking at her short, dark fur she had to imagine she was a panther, or a jaguar. Or something quite similar. Regardless it was time to keep going.