"This is boring," Nyx complained. "How long do we have to stay here watching?"
Atop a thick branch in in a moderately tall tree, Sage released an annoyed sigh and looked up from her notes. "Until the creature you want appears."
It had been five days since the two of them left the cave to look for a beast Nyx could {Devour}. In that time they had seen multiple wolf packs, Trenton Gazelle herds and a pair of Grandhogs, the latter of which Sage killed to break her week and a half fast. Unfortunately, the cat had shaken its head at all the creatures they had encountered.
It turned out her dear Familiar was not interested in the forms of canines and swine. According to him, they looked stupid. If I'm going to sacrifice my dignity by taking on embarrassing forms like that they must at least have compelling abilities, he had declared. He wanted to {Devour} an arcane beast.
In response to this Sage had revealed to him the only such creature in these parts was the Umbral Felis, which she had yet to see. Even if they did manage to get one, what would be the use of it? The Umbral Felis' ability to move through shadows was a downgraded version of Nyx [Shadow Travel], so {Devour}ing it would not bring anything new. Even so, after hearing the creature was feline Nyx decided that was the beast he wanted. The only reason she did not veto his decision was because she figured him gaining the form of a Grade 4 beast was more useful than his tiny feline body.
Too bad there were no Grade 2 beasts in the vicinity. Nyx being able to assume such a form would be way more useful to her than a shadowcat. Sadly, beasts of that calibre were a rarity.
All beasts with a Physique above Grade 3 were arcane beasts; that was to say, they all possessed an ability of some sort. For example, when wolves matured their Physique usually hovered around Grade 4, Grade 3 in extremely rare cases. It would take an estimated five to eight normal men just to bring down the weakest of these beasts, however a moderately competent band of mercenaries could slaughter a pack of them. That was why no one regarded them as a huge threat.
However, there were recorded cases of some individuals among the species mutating in the winter. Their fur would lose its shade and they doubled in size, while their strength multiplied and they gained the ability to manipulate the cold. Winter Wolves; even among Grade 2 beasts they were at the forefront. Apparently one of them could bring ruin to an entire city. Including those whose Physiques had entered the Grade 1 category, there were few recorded cases of anyone beating such a beast singlehandedly.
Even Sage was not sure how she would fare if she met one.
When such a creature appeared the Mercenary Guild would immediately go on high alert. All other assignments would be put on hold for the purpose of wholeheartedly focusing on the annihilation of the beast.
"We haven't moved from this place for two days," Nyx pointed out. "And the shadowcat has not appeared. Why don't we actually go and look for it?"
"Because we tried that already and it did not work out."
The first three days in the woods were spent trying to locate an Umbral Felix. They had covered most of the forest area but the creature continued to elude them. After much searching without anything to show for it Sage decided to hell with it and came to the river, where she picked out a comfortable tree to lodge in.
The Umbral Felis might have an ability similar to Nyx's {Shadow Travel} but it was still a living being. Different from an elemental, it still needed the basic necessities of life. Food could be found anywhere in the forest but there was only one place to get water.
Unfortunately, the river was not a stub. Sage did not know where it ended or began, but she was certain it flowed from outside the forest into the Trenton Mountains. There was good reason to believe it burst out onto the other side of the mountains, into Lethia. With the river's length, even if a shadowcat came for a drink, there would have to be a great deal of luck on their part for it to come to the section they oversaw.
Sage had practically given up on such a miraculous event happening when she picked this spot. It would be great if the creature actually appeared here, but she would not be peeved if it did not. After settling in the tree she had spent more time engrossed in books than watching for the cat's wanted prey.
The first thing she had done was fill up her slots with Dark attribute spells, particularly of the necromantic type. 3rd Order [Minor Strengthen Undead], 5th Order [Moderate Strengthen Undead] and their 7th Order counterpart [Major Strengthen Undead] were added to her core. Original she was opposed to learning the spells, but now that she had decided to seriously study necromancy it would be foolish not to learn them. She had also decided to delve into the osteomancy sub-branch, engraving 6th Order spells [Bone Wall] and [Bone Spikes].
As a senior necromancer she was qualified to learn the undead healing spell [Repair Mortis]; unfortunately the geezer had not had that particular spell, which was why she did not gain access to it until she took the Cryptmaker's books.
The problem with [Repair Mortis] was that it was of the 7th Order, which made it inefficient and a total overkill when it came to healing minor injuries. The Cryptmaker, being the expert in necromancy he was, had used the spell as a reference to try and develop similar spells of the lower Orders. Sadly Sage only needed a single look to see that they were absolute crap. It took her several hours to modify them before she deemed them satisfying enough to ingrain them. They were 1st Order [Heal undead], 3rd Order [Heal Undead II] and 5th Order [Heal undead III]; names as imaginative as any in the spellcasting profession.
She had also learned the 7th Order flesh rending spell [Harm].
Although her main concern had been learning necromantic spells, they had not been her only focus. First off she learned a 7th Order version of her favourite defence spell; this one was called [Void Barrier]. Other 7th order spells she learned included [Blizzard] and [Quake], although for those two she had to [Teleport] out of the forest to the open plains that separated Ysh's two largest cities.
During that time she had also taken some time to pay her favourite elf a visit. As usual the brothel mistress had not been pleased to see her, but she had not shot down the trade opportunity.
"Master!" Nyx's voice was a hiss that returned her from her ruminations. He seemed shiver with excitement as his little paw pointed out of the tree. "Look."
She followed the trajectory of the paw and saw a quadruped on the other side of the river approach the water's edge. It was lynx, standing close to a metre tall with a length double its height. Its body was slender, similar to the cheetahs in her previous life, with an obsidian coat and golden eyes. Although there were no large critters nearby its head swivelled from one direction to another, making its alert nature known. It also made certain to only step on shaded ground; which, considering the sun was close to setting, was practically everywhere.
Fuck me, it actually came!
"Don't move," she hissed back to the cat, slowly closing her book.
Silently, the two of them watched as the vigilant creature approached the water. The caution with which it did so puzzled her. The Umbral Felis was practically king of these woods, there was no beast in the forest that could threaten it. Then why was it so cautious? Had it encountered something else? Humans perhaps? The fact that it had appeared before nightfall was also another puzzling thing. From what she had read the creature was nocturnal.
It's probably nothing, she thought, watching the Umbral Felis.
When it made it to the river's edge the beast looked left and right one more time before finally lowering its guard and dipping its head to drink. It was then that Sage decided to strike.
Activating the abilities {Lightfoot}, {Invisibility} and {Blink}, her sight blackened for an instant before clearing up to reveal the creature's rear in her view.
There was not a sound from her actions, she was certain of it; however, the beast suddenly perked up from its drinking post. Somehow it had sensed the threat to its life. Its reaction to this was swift, however, before it could disappear into the shadow it was hit by her [Greater Chain Lightning]. The black lightning penetrated its body before carrying on into the stream. Afterwards the only sound that came from the creature was a thud as it hit the ground, dead.
"WE DID IT MASTER!" Nyx exclaimed happily as he popped out of her shadow. In a softer tone he continued. "We actually caught a shadowcat!"
"Right?" she responded with a smug smile. "Aren't I just the greatest?"
"Definitely!" the cat agreed.
"Good. Then next time you should stop bitching and wait like a good little pet," she shot him an annoyed glare after dropping the smile.
"Yes master," Nyx agreed, but it was clear his attention was elsewhere.
He pounced over to the Umbral Felis, prodded it with his paw, before turning into a mass of what could only be described as darkness and engulfing the beast's carcass. The process took ten seconds in which the darkness compressed back into the cat. His emerald orbs looked back at her with immense pride as he puffed out his chest.
"Haha Master. I can now fight!"
Darkness covered him for a second and cleared to reveal the form of the Umbral Felis.
Race: Familiar (Elemental- Darkness)
Physique: Grade 4
Mana: A (Blue)
The improvement was not at the level which the cat would actually be useful to her in a fight, but at least he would not be so useless anymore. Nyx eyes were still emerald despite the fact that the shadowcat's had been yellow. Another thing she noticed was that {Shadow Travel} had been slightly strengthen.
"That's great," she commented. "Now we can finally leave this place."
It was time to go test out her expertise in necromancy. When she had holed up in the cave the first thing she had done was look for information on how to create an intelligent undead. The answer had been the 8th Order spell [Create Sentient Undead], which had to be used in tandem with a ritual. This spell she had already engraved among other spells.
Honestly, at this moment Sage had already acquired the qualifications to Advance; but, like hell she was going to do it so soon!
During these passed two days, when she had not been engrossed in a book, she had captured little critters and tested [Create Sentient Undead] on them. So far, the results had been satisfactory. Now she just had to test it on a human.
Sage had the perfect candidate in mind.