As he neared it it seemed as though it became more quiet as if the forest stopped carrying the tune across the distance too him The voice was a little more rough but the pitch was still impeccable Tykes stumbled through a large thorn bush cursing quietly to himself and then froze as he realized the noise had stopped
Looking up he saw briefly trees the rising sun sloping ground Donnyton lying below His eyes took in briefly a notebook and a pencil but then he simply blinked and looked at the humming woman who looked at him with a shocked expression
She was
Beautiful Tykes muttered
As Randidly slowly used repetition to memorize the distances each of the 20 different steps covered 10 powered and 10 unpowered he did not halt his training in spells For the first several hours he had been working on Root Manipulation and Summon Pestilence He chose these two for the specific reason that they required profound control to utilize correctly
So while he stepped he controlled a tightly packed stream of flies zooming to and fro sliding between an obstacle course he made on the spot with roots It was certainly challenging both because of his divided attention but also because Randidly was slowly coming to understand more about the skills
There were some things keeping the insects he summoned or the roots under control or in a specific shape that were hard But if he pushed and focused he was able to keep them on track or at least extremely close to what he wanted
There were other things like keeping the insects in a ball or lifting a boulder with the roots that were impossible either because of the skill level or his current stats Randidly wasn’t sure But it did mean that there were a lot of places that the utilization of his skill was sloppy
If he could succeed on all the hard tasks pushing himself to the limits of his potential he didn’t doubt that his skill level would rise giving him even more potential to draw out It was an endless cycle of intense training for small gains a path of tiny steps But for some reason Randidly couldn’t help but grin
This was exactly what he wanted If there was any benefit of the system it was that it was infinitely easier to see your own improvement Of course by the same token it was possible to see the vast gap between yourself and someone else Which could be discouraging but it could also be motivating
Idly Randidly wondered what the villagers had thought watching him fight against their squads But he supposed it was pointless to wonder From now on he planned on staying away from the limelight whenever possible Perhaps given a few months of intensive training on Randidly’s part the village would gradually forget about him leaving him in peace
He supposed he would always consider this his base When other Newbie Villages formed in the zone he would probably go just to check for signs of Sydney and Ace and also to slowly connect their villages into some sort of trade organization
But until then
Randidly closed his eyes and concentrated He was starting to get a finer sense of mana and stamina as well It was strange how he could feel their relatively minor influences over the strange pulse of Aether in his chest which had become a constant companion but he could And he could feel how he could burn more of the resource to have an extra effect when he cast his spells It was a small thing extremely small But this was after all an endless path of small steps
Eyes springing open Randidly pressed burning as much mana as possible a Ring of Flame exploding outwards around him
The heat scorched the nearby ground leaving charred parts of the ground Grinning Randidly flexed his fingers and began moving back through the 20 steps of the Footwork of the Spear Phantom Intermittently he would release Rings of Flame blowing damage outward Dawn was rising above him but Randidly did not pause he did not tire Because he craved to see the end of this path he was on
So he would tirelessly continue forward
Alana looked down surprised to find the small strange girl that was always hanging around Arbor As always her cheeks were smeared with ash Her brother as he always did was hanging around with a worried look on his face
What was strange was that in her hands the girl appeared to be holding a glowing seed of fire And there was an anthropomorphic rabbit standing next to her looking at Alana nervously
Alana coughed into her hand so as not to stare Er yes
The girl nodded seriously We’ve been given an important mission by the Ghosthound I need to escort this Ambassador and this gift back to their village Will you call one of the squads over to guard me
Frowning Alana looked at the Ambassador Rabbit He smiled weakly back at her Alana’s eyes returned to the three individuals in front of her an Ambassador Where is he from
The Ghosthound’s name gave her some pause and this strange girl certainly had some connection to him due to her relationship with his plant but Alana was still slightly suspicious Why exactly did this person look like a rabbit
The girl pointed towards the Classer compound It’s right this way follow me
Bemused Alana followed the determined girl As they walked through Donnyton Alana saw Devan and his squad and flashed him a hand signal Due to their long hours together during their trip to Franksburg they had hashed out some basic silent communication Not that it ended up being necessary because they were so much stronger than the people there But it was a good way to pass the time
Instantly Devan said a quiet word and his squad moved forward to surround Alana
When he arrived at her side he asked What is it
Alana ruefully gestured to the girl Apparently we are on a diplomatic mission a la the Ghosthound Guard the weird rabbit man bring a gift to his village something like that
Much to her annoyance as soon as Devan heard the Ghosthound’s name his face eased and he nodded tranquilly His whole squad followed suit and they spread out further surrounding the two children and rabbit in a protective formation Abruptly she regretted bringing up the Ghosthound After all she had no evidence that this was actually a mission from him If they ended up going on some wild goose chase
Embarrassed Alana wasn’t sure whether to speak up While she was struggling inwardly they marched into the Classer compound and headed towards the center Multiple squads were training but they parted quickly after seeing the group of them After all Devan and Alana both had quite a bit of influence and the girl’s face was known around Donnyton as being related to the magical tree
But the second looks they received were because of the floppy eared man glancing around nervously Still although it was an unusual sight after exposure to the system people weren’t moved enough by the rabbit man to investigate further and they swiftly refocused on their training
They swiftly arrived at the zone where the entrance to the kept dungeons were where a line of people waited but the girl lead them past that As she walked forward she approached a strange circle of stone on the ground that Alana had never seen before The girl turned around and smiled
It’s right through here The air shimmered behind her
Then she turned forward and took another step The air rippled like water and the girl disappeared The Rabbit followed her a second later After a small glance between themselves the two leading members of Devan’s team followed stepping forward and disappearing
Uh Alana began but after a few seconds one of those two reappeared gave the all clear signal and then stepped back into nothingness Devan and his squad quickly marched into the strange void disappearing before her
Uh She looked around No one appeared to have noticed their group had vanished Donnyton was a busy place with squads constantly coming and going training and disappearing into dungeons So their actions would probably not attract much notice
Should she report this to someone But if the Ghosthound really did send them to do this perhaps everyone already knew
Feeling something was out of place but unsure of what to do Alana stepped forward and was teleported to another world