"Humans have rings too!" A surprised Andrea asked.
Sally had just shown her a skill that was meant to help her while hunting. Originally, Sally had expected it to take Andrea about a day to get used to the skill but after a few demonstrations, she was already casting it all around.
Sally shook her head in disbelief. She didn't know how such a talented person could have no idea what a Martial Soul was. She was clueless as to why Andrea was at a level even lower than a commoner.
Comonners tended to buy at least two or three Martial Souls to boost their own defense. Although they had mostly primitive Souls, it was better than nothing.
Andrea was so odd in her eyes.
"You don't want to do that too much," she stopped the over-curious girl. She was "scanning everything in the vicinity. "The skill uses mana and there is a certain limit to how much you can take from the atmosphere."
Andrea walked back to the bed and sat down. She was still too engrossed in the skill like a child who tasted sweets for the first time.
"Are you saying the mana is a limited thing?" She asked curiously.
Sally couldn't help laughing. She had never heard such a thing before.
"You are so funny!" She wheezed. "The mana sure is plenty but your body is the problem," she paused to breath.
"If a cart can carry 500 units of load then that becomes it's threshold," Sally added. She the continued, "Once the weight surpasses that line then it will be under strain."
Andrea nodded. She now understood but out of curiosity, she asked, "How will I know if I've reached such a point?"
Sally smiled at her quick understanding. "Good question. However, I want you to find that out in your own, so for the second skill.."
...
"Let me get this straight.. those are mini-planets out there, not moons?" Andrea asked with bewilderment. She thought taking the Souls of beasts was a surprise but now a planet had other planets around it like the sun?! It is insane!
"Your home planet don't have Beast planets!" Sally asked, equally as shocked as Andrea.
"Not that I know of.."Andrea said remotely. She was still analysing the shocking news.
Sally shook her head to orient her thoughts. After a moment she continued talking to Andrea, informing her what she deemed necessary.
"The Beast Planet you'll go to is already cleaned of high leveled beasts, should be relatively safe.." Sally mumbled.
"'Relatively'?.." Andrea frowned a bit. She didn't like gambling with her life, and on top of that all she was still a stranger here.
"The highest rank of beasts there should be Advanced and the majority of the population is primitive so.." Sally trailed off.
Andrea already knew she what she was going to say. With her combat experience she should be able to handle a primitive beast, unless they came in a hoard.
...
"Come back alive," Old Zen patted Andrea's back. He winked at her knowingly.
"I'm not going into a death match," Andrea rolled her eyes at the old man.
"Don't forget to check the beast first," Sally reminded her while handing Andrea a basket full of food. "And don't overestimate yourself, only go for two rings and below."
Andrea couldn't say a thing. She only smiled warmly at the other girl.
"I'll be back before nightfall, why all this food?" She asked, feeling like a child going to school with packed lunch.
Sally held her shoulders and turned her around to face the mirror held by the two pillars.
"Things don't always go as you plan my dear, be safe.." with these words Andrea walked into the white mirror. She suddenly felt like she was in a giant whirlpool and she got a bit dizzy.
When she managed to get her eyes to work again, she was standing in a huge stone plaza and a white mirror behind her.
When she walked to the edge of the plaza, she saw a forest like none on earth. The trees were humongous and it seemed likely the plaza was built on the tallest one.
There was a ladder going into the dark canopy of trees. Looking downwards, Andrea felt like a tiny ant infront of an elephant.
'Aah.. We'll be fine, you'll see,' Rina said lazily. She must have felt the emotional turmoil in her friend's heart.
Andrea sighed heavily then thought, 'It's only a hunt, nothing too big.'
'That is the spirit," Rina chimed in. 'I mean, how hard can it be?'
...
'Sh*t! Rina you have such a bad mouth!' Andrea screamed in her mind. She put all energy on her legs trying to run as fast as she could.
Behind her, an extremely large insect with mantis-like pincers chased her. Using the first skill she was taught, Andrea could see it had two rings, meaning it was an Advanced level creature.
'Why are you blaming me?' Rina felt offended. 'Why don't you try killing it first? You have the other skill right?'
Andrea wanted to answer but a vine suddenly wrapped around her left foot and she fell down. Her face lost color when she heard the unmistakable stumping of the beast behind her.
She turned to lay on her back and saw the huge critter storm out of the bush. It looked like a preying mantis but many times larger, almost the size of a bull. It had a blue exoskeleton and small dark eyes. Its pincers looked like a butchers knife, and carried a murderous glint.
The creature had low intelligence and didn't even see the vines that were holding its prey. It skittered across the clearing and tried to stab Andrea using it's arms.
Andrea felt her heart leap to her mouth. The speed at which it attacked was nothing to smile about. Andrea snapped out of her daze and rolled out of harms way. The pincers stabbed the ground like tofu and we're immediately retracted.
Andrea tried to cut the black vines using the knife she had but it moved like rubber. Seeing it won't work, Andrea raked her mind for ideas.
SWIISH!
The scary pincers split the air noisily as they moved towards Andrea's chest. Rolling away once more, Andrea formulated a plan.
While rolling on her side, she held the ink black vines between her feet. Due to the low intelligence of the mantis, it didn't change its attack pattern at all and after a little while, the creature had itself in a tangle with the vines.