Passing by the tunnels the group is forced to move to a side, around a dozen kobolds rushing through, eleven of them grouped up around one, in particular, wielding what seems to be a round white object, a quite heavy and big... Egg. After the passing of this small group the three continue, Ariara still in thoughts about when she heard Hero last... Only to then realize: The Lich called her and the reincarnated humans its 'heroes', does this mean there's only one of each race? Otherwise, why would he regard her as THE harpy hero and not just a harpy hero...
With more questions coming than going, she follows Bin into another tunnel, soon enough the group reaches a wide room, only having traveled giant tunnels up until now, what she sees surprises her: A giant green dragon laying on the ground belly up, giant green wings cover a grown tree's worth of space in both directions from the body, two pair of paws stretching out slowly in pain. Multiple Kobolds are also in the room, gently putting their paws in their own water buckets and afterward sprinkling the water on the dragon, Ariara wondering the reason they wouldn't just dump the water on the dragon, but writing it off as being gentle on the poor suffering creature.
Moving closer she tries putting a wing on the scales, only to jump back a bit, even staying close to the scales shows the heat going through them, this one having to be pretty sick...
Ariara sits around, for now, seeing as Kobolds are doing all the work for now, some bringing food and water, others keeping up their green dragon watering, and some even talking to it, her still not understanding but trying to keep track of their voice tones, albeit it could be a lost cause...
With Bin's duty over he heads to the two, Fimo also seemingly having been staring at the air, escorting them to this room's exit, Ariara giving one last glance back to the sick dragon before hurrying along, not wanting to fall behind.
As the two arrive to their quarters Bin opens a wood door, this time one that Ariara can pass through without having to crouch, and immediately heading off, Ariara humming at that, guessing Kobolds don't have a sign to say goodbye, or a word, not that she'd understand.
The room is pretty simple, two pretty large hay piles stretching out across it with some other necessities like a campfire, some water and food in it, not seemingly anything else. Ariara goes to sit down on one of those hay piles, thinking to herself that if she had a normal bodily structure she'd be right about knocked out now... Not that it mattered to the monster.
As she's idly looking at her status sheet she notices the bunny going to lay down on the same hay pile as her, shivering a bit... It's not really cold in the cavern, but thinking back to his nightmare that morning she doesn't say anything, not minding the company either way.
With her hit points bar filled she decides to make some tests, after all with a little bit of quiet maybe she can uncover some of the secrets lying beneath her status sheet. A silent wince passes across her face as she plucks a feather from her wing, her status sheet seemingly loading before her, a big ! appearing right next to the Self-Pluck ability, and a system message appearing right before her
Conditions met for Self-Plucks' Skill Evolution, Choose the Evolutionary Path
Healing Self Pluck: When Ariara uses one of the Skill Feathers to gain an ability, or generally when one of her skill feathers are put back in her wings, Ariara regenerates however much health she's lost when the feather was removed.
Altruistic Self Pluck: Other People can now equip Ariara's feathers instead of having to use them as limited items, but they are limited from person to person and the skills will be heavily nerfed upon their gain.
Painless Plucks: When a feather is plucked, Ariara doesn't feel the pain anymore, and she suffers less damage from losing feathers.
Ariara hums at the choices being laid out before her, she wasn't expecting this, instead, having wanted to try something else with a plucked feather, but all of these seem to be only beneficial... Well, then again... Altruistic Self Pluck could be used by her enemies as well...
Thinking about these choices for a few minutes Ariara comes to a few conclusion, Healing Self Pluck could become overpowered with time, as she could hoard tons and tons of feathers and be able to heal indefinitely, but it'd be a painful process and anyone near her could just stop her arms. Painless plucks felt like an easy choice, the pain starting to pile up, especially since she herself was removing them, but... Altruistic self pluck seems too sweet of a deal, being able to share skills she can take from people to her allies.
Deciding on the choice the pop up disappears, she decides on dismissing the sheet, wanting to run her little experiment before looking at it again, not wanting to be interrupted twice in a row. Moving the feather around with her mouth she tries touching one of the ice feathers in her wing, one in specific... The Heat Mitigator, this should prove two things, whether she can copy her own skills, which would be handy, and if she can decide which skill to copy from someone. The brown feather turns colors, becoming white. She smiles a bit at this, but is a bit saddened at a realization, how can she tell them apart? Maybe right now since there are a few it won't be a problem, but later on, it might become a trouble. In games, usually, people can use a skill to identify items, but she has nothing like that.
Sighing out she hums, could this solve the dragon problem? Opening the description for Heat Mitigator she hums
Heat Mitigator (LVL Max) - Ariara isn't affected by natural heat, her body producing a chill mitigating the effects of the fauna, this skill not helping in case of unnatural forces interfering, like skills or magical terrain.
As of right now, she doesn't have problems with the heat, but the skill does say it doesn't stop skills or magical terrain... And the Altruistic description did include that the skill would be a weaker version... Huffing at this reasoning she gets up, Fimo is quietly sleeping, peacefully on the bed, despite her not wanting to wake him up she is getting kind of hungry, and she wanted to explore these tunnels on her own. Putting the feather on the bed she checks her sheet
Ariara the Harpy
Level 11 (125/135 EXP)
56/63 Hp
23/65 Mana
Skills
Bird of Many Feathers (LVL 3) - Colorful Harpy (LVL 2) - Fire Starter (LVL 2) - Self Pluck (STAGE: 2 LVL 1) - Flight (LVL 3) - Harpy Eye (LVL 3) - Grass Blade (LVL 2) - Chlorophyll (LVL 5) - Natural Mana Hijack (LVL 1) - Heat Mitigator (LVL Max) - Icy Protection (LVL 1) - Healthy Omnivore (LVL 2) - Intimidate (LVL 1) - Frost Breath (LVL 2) - Minor Light Spit (LVL 1) - Minor Corrosive Light (LVL 1) - Dig (LVL 1) - Cook Apprentice (LVL 2)
Titles
General of Warfare - Traveler of Worlds - Reincarnated One - High Ranker - Opportunist - Skill Holder Apprentice - Minor Nature Affinity - Minor Cold Affinity - Leader of Trouble - Survivor of the Light Ant Stampede
The Harpy grits her teeth, the mana count has gone down... That 'minor' mana poison taking more of a toll on her that she'd prefer, it luckily having passed away. As she starts heading through the dark tunnels she notices six Kobolds peeking into a room, recognizing a few by their straps from before, when they were carrying around a dragon egg. Curiosity taking the best of her she heads to also peek inside, none of them minding, inside... Seeing the egg cracking.