Syl

Chapter 95: Forest Stampede

The next few days felt like a blur as my time was split between Whitney and Dewi. The downside was that I wasn't gaining experience towards my next level up, a fact that nagged at me. But on the other hand, my skills were receiving much-needed attention, and I couldn't deny the value of that.

Thanks to Whitney's direct tutelage, I made leaps and bounds of progress with my Rogue skills. I also felt like my [Vanish] was so close to a breakthrough that I could taste it.

In my time with Dewi, I finally unlocked the elusive [Multicast], which was an integrated upgrade into the [Multitasking] skill as I predicted. I was frustrated at how long it took for me to get this, and I still wondered if I'd even use it, as my [Sub Cores] could do the job for me with far greater efficiency.

I was also on the verge of a breakthrough with [Fire Magic], and Dewi was practically bouncing with anticipation for the day he could witness me casting my first [Fireball] spell. I had always thought [Water Magic] would get to five first, but Dewi had other plans with tutoring boosts.

While I didn't get as much numeric evidence of progress while training [Fire Magic], I did, however, get experience with adding the [Heat] property to all my current fire spells, raising their temperature and thus their damage significantly. I knew I could add it to my future spells with a little effort and without Dewi's guidance. In private, I tested out fully empowering one of my newly modified spells with the aid of my [Sub-Cores] and was startled when the flames started to turn blue!

And, in my own time, I managed to unlock the next level of [Ice Magic] and complete my Ice weakness debuff, called [Frigid]. The new spell seemed simple in that it would create a patch of clear frozen ice, a deceptive trap to cause an enemy to slip up, but it also revealed to me a brand new spell component of placing a sustained magical effect on the terrain. I immediately wonder about applications such as creating a patch of fire or acid.

'Or maybe frozen acid? Would that work? Would you slip, make more contact with the acid, and then melt? I have no idea, but it's worth exploring eventually!'

I had also decided to see if Dewi's crazy training method had any merit in an effort to raise my [Magic Resistance (Lesser)] trait. Unfortunately, the magic I had access to I had gained from consuming other types of slimes, meaning that I was inherently resistant to my own spells. While I could pick and choose between turning on [Acid Slime] or raising and lowering my temperature through [Blaze Slime] and [Cryo Slime], respectively, the resistances those traits gave my core weren't optional. The most effective and restrained method I found was exposing my core and then keeping a sustained [Kindle] spell directly under it.

'I mean... It makes sense. Why would you want to suddenly become weaker to fire? Even without [Pain Suppression], it feels more like a slightly uncomfortable tickle, and it takes ages before my health drops at all. Gone are the days where I nearly boiled to death.'

While the slower change of pace felt a little odd to me, I knew that from their perspective, there was a good chance that we wouldn't meet again for a long time since their group was disbanding and going their separate ways. Whitney was staying for another month or two before moving to the capital, and Roderick would be settling down, eager to spend quieter days with his future wife. Meanwhile, Evan and Dewi would return home, grab their things, leave for the capital together, and go to the church and Mage's Guild, respectively, marking the end of their shared adventures.

Also, I received word from Lisa through Luke that they had found the underground tunnel complex built by the orcs and killed the few stragglers who tried returning to it before ultimately destroying the entire thing with the help of a Geomancer.

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Close to their day of departure, Roderick burst into the room with a grin on his face. "There's a monster stampede in the forest, and I snagged us the quest to dispatch the cause."

Whitney and Dewi cheered while I looked at him questioningly. "Monster stampede?"

"Monsters are fleeing the southern forest; remember we encountered a lot of fresh spawns? All the recent deaths in there must have caused a bottleneck in the essence, which collated into spawning a higher-tier monster," Roderick explained.

"So all the low-rank and low-leveled monsters start fleeing. Multiple adventurer groups usually get dispatched to control the stampede until the source is killed." Whitney continued.

"And Roderick snagged us the position! So we get to blow up some big nasty, a perfect final adventure." Dewi cheered with a grin.

"And I'd like to invite you to join us, Syl," Roderick said, "Think of it as a trial run for your future dungeon run, not to mention a fun farewell before you disappear into the world and get up to all sorts of crazy adventures I can only imagine."

"You had me at the big nasty monster," I chuckled.

It was a short rush to grab supplies and head out as soon as possible, as the quicker we dealt with the monster, the sooner the stampede of monsters would end. It would potentially be a multiday expedition as we needed to travel south and then into the forest, retreading our previous steps. However, this time, at a much faster pace since we didn't need to protect a trade caravan.

The road south was highly trafficked by all manner of adventuring teams, although none surpassed our group in levels. These teams would be culling the monsters that emerged from the forest, an important duty to prevent civilian casualties. While Roderick was the party leader, Whitney was in charge of directions and scouting, and it wasn't long before she directed us into the forest.

I thought we would need to fight monsters to travel deeper, but most monsters seemed more interested in fleeing than confronting us. That certainly didn't stop us from taking potshots at them, and the level difference between us and them meant that we did end up killing a few of the beasts. Any we took out meant the adventurers guarding the forest edge had an easier job. It felt oddly nostalgic, killing forest monsters again.

"It's a pain when they flee because when they finally decide to stop, they could be deep within civilized territory," Roderick muttered.

"It's strange how many are leaving the forest entirely. Usually, they'd flee towards a leader of their species. I can understand the wolves fleeing since Syl killed the Blade Wolf, so they likely don't have a new leader yet."

"Oh..." I murmured, "That... Might be my fault."

"Ah. You did mention hunting throughout the forest." Whitney commented.

"Don't worry; nobody will ever fault you for reducing the monster population," Roderick said with a reassuring grin.

We continued trudging through the forest, although the source of the stampede was still not found despite Whitney doing her best. I tried to help with my [Tracking] skill, but it was pretty much useless at level one without shifting a wolf nose to track scents.

'Well, I can't expect a skill I've neglected and forgotten for so long to be suddenly useful.'

"It's too bad we can't just ask the monsters for directions," Evan commented offhand while we sat around the fire for our first night in the forest.

While everyone chuckled at the comment, I raised my hand, "Actually... That might be possible."

"I didn't know you suddenly added Monster Tamer to your repertoire. You were really busy while we were after the smugglers," Roderick laughed.

"I haven't." I corrected him, "It's an elf trait. Although I can't guarantee success."

"Works for me. It's better than running around the forest for days and hoping we find whatever the cause is. No offense, Whitney," Dewi said.

"I'm sorry. I don't see your beloved fireball finding the monster for us." Whitney said sarcastically.

"Well..." Dewi said, scratching his head, "I could set the forest on fire, and if it burns down, we should be able to find the monster easier, assuming it survives."

Evan slapped Dewi on the head, "No. Stop trying to solve everything with fire."

"Five gold, he tries to solve his application to the Mage's Guild by setting the paper on fire," Whitney said with a cheeky grin.

"Ha! You'd be robbing me with such an unfair bet like that." Roderick responded with a bellow of a laugh.

The next day, we attempted our plan. Although Whitney had an idea, the hardest part was capturing a low-level beast without killing it. When we encountered a small pack of wolves fleeing, Whitney disappeared in a blur, appearing behind the wolf and striking it with the pommel of her dagger. The monster's body practically crumpled to the ground, and the others scampered away, yelping in terror.

"Shit, Whitney, did you kill it in one blow," Dewi said in shock.

"I'm pretty sure it's still alive; now we can tie up its limbs and have Evan heal it." She replied.

"Great. Now I'm healing monsters, what's next?" Evan said with a sigh. I chuckled mentally as, unbeknownst to him, he'd already healed one twice.

Once the wolf was secured, Evan cast his healing spell, and when it finally awoke, I attempted to communicate with it. I had mimicked the trait at its maximum level, hoping to overpower the monster through sheer trait levels. When I tried to mentally reach out to the wolf, it shockingly didn't respond with a voice but with vague images and feelings. I could feel its terror and question why I had captured it.

'Why can plants communicate with words, but this wolf can only communicate in pictures and feelings? Is this wolf dumber than corn, or is this the trait just being stupid?' I grumbled. This was not at all what I expected.