Rain quickly opened up her character menu to see what just happened.
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--Character Menu--
Name: Rain [ Soundless Rain ] {Hidden}
Race: Human
Evolutionary Path: {Esper} White Mist; Rank: F
Level: 4
Experience: 65%
Health: 95%
Power: F
- Only as strong as regular people
Classes:
- None
Abilities/Skills
- Shortsword Mastery; Rank: E
-Increases skill with shortswords (Or other similar weapons)
Potential Points: 2
- Can be used to unlock Classes and Abilities
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Rain could only look at her character menu in awe. No wonder the players went out and killed monsters. This experience gain was just too lucrative. Even if she wasn't getting the whole pot, she was still getting far more than she needed to. Leveling up twice for just assisting the death of two monsters, what would happen if she were to do this all the time? How high would her level get?
However, when Rain began to look at the notifications more closely, she was shocked to see her contribution. How was she able to do fifty-one percent of the damage to the first monster? She slashed it a few times and was the one to put the blade in the creature's neck, but Sunny was the one who was able to land the killing blow on it. Even more so for the second monster. All she had done was reduce its mobility and cut it a few times. Was it her -White Mist-? Was it that strong? Or were the things weaker than she thought they were? Or were her teammates stronger than she thought they were?
"They died rather easily, didn't they," Rain asked carefully. She didn't want to seem egotistical or clueless, but she asked it in a phrase that seemed a little curious.
"They're built to ambush, but since they got spotted, their greatest strength was taken away. All though they look threatening, they're rather weak when it comes to actually fighting," Alfred remarked. Rain put her hand on the belly of the panther, she could feel a remnant of her -White Mist- inside of the panther. However, the longer the thing was dead, the less she could feel the mist inside of it.
"Can you put your mist away Rain, it's giving me a headache," Benji said while rubbing his head.
"Uh... yeah sorry." Rain called her -White Mist- back and the area suddenly became clearer. Now that the fog was gone, and Rain was close to the corpse of the monster, she could see that the areas around the cut wounds looked sickly compared to the rest of the animal. Rain gagged a little, but she was able to keep her wits about her. She quickly cleaned her blade on the fur of the animal and moved away.
"It sucks that we can't take these things back to the town. They would sure create some lovely food and pelts," Sunny said a little depressed.
"You can still take the biggest teeth and their claws. They'll still get you some good coin," Benji said as a compromise.
"Huh, you are right. I can do that," Sunny said while she moved closer to the monster with a gleam in her eye. She proceeded to break off the claws and teeth of the monster. Every time there would be a loud and clear 'pop' as Sunny started to collect the goods. Rain quickly turned away as the sight was just too awful. Although it wasn't gruesome or bloody, the sight just disturbed Rain. Rain went back over to the other monster, the one she had killed first, and looked at the areas where the cuts were. She could find the deterioration of the muscles and skin around those areas too. To call it a deterioration wasn't wrong but it was more like rapid aging, and then those areas dying.
However, it still confused Rain a bit. What exactly does her mist do? Does it deteriorate muscles and skin, does it age things, does it eat the muscles? Could it sap their vitality? How does it also give people headaches? She figured that every time someone entered her -White Mist- they received a short migraine or something of the sort. How does that connect at all with what her mist has done so far? She needs to do more things to figure out what exactly it does. Curious, she called out her 'White Mist', the mist flooding out and surrounding the area around her. She watched the creature's wounds to see if the mist would react with it, but it didn't look like the mist was interacting with it. Rain sighed, and called back her -White Mist-.
She stood back up and looked over to the other members of 'The Wanderers' and saw that they were happily chatting. Sunny was pretty much bullying Benji, and he could do nothing but stubbornly resist, while Alfred happily watched, like a grandfather. Rain could only smile seeing their antics. It was like a dysfunctional family, but it still felt like a family nonetheless.
"Alright, let's keep going," Sunny said, ending their little moment of fun. "We still have plenty of ground to cover to find whatever is causing us problems. Do you know if they came from anywhere Alfred?" Alfred went and looked at the areas that the panthers had come from and searched around for a little before coming back.
"They didn't leave any tracks. Of all the animals, these ones are ironically the hardest to track," Alfred told them as he shrugged his shoulders. Sunny made an 'ugh' sound in response before she started marching off.
"Only one way to keep searching, and that's to move on," Sunny said.
"I hate her way of doing things," Benji lamented as he started to follow Sunny. Alfred looked at Rain before shrugging his shoulders and continuing to follow them. Rain could only lament to herself at Sunny's personality before joining them.
The further 'The Wanderers' made their way into the forest, the sketchier the environment became. They had to fight a few monsters along the way, all were different, but they all seemed like they were trying to stop their progress. Most of the time, the monster would run away before they could be defeated. However, the few that they were able to kill gained Rain another 33% experience. Yet although they moved around throughout the entire day, they couldn't find the supposed mastermind. 'The Wanderers' could only make their way out of the forest and back to Aeitha. By the time they made it to the town, the suns had already set, and the moons were out. Tired and sore, the group shuffled their way through the doors of AGB. Standing there waiting was Kalic.
"What did you find," he asked.
"Nothing other than monsters trying to protect something," Sunny replied.
"Think it could be the mastermind?"
"That, or it could be them trying to protect their nests and young," Alfred reproached. Kalic let out an exasperated breath.
"Alright, go out again tomorrow, and see if you can find anything again. We can't just give up so soon. I should be able to get another squad or two out there as well. Get some rest and get ready to leave again tomorrow morning. Heard?"
"Heard," everyone else responded. Rain was late in response so her voice ended up sticking out but no one noticed, or cared. The group disbanded, heading their own way around.
"What should I do now," Rain thought to herself. She had leveled up twice while she was out, so now she had two more potential points. 'I wonder if I can get skills from reading books?' Rain started to make her way to the library again, this time looking for a book that could possibly teach her something.
When she made it to the library and opened the doors, she didn't see Benji this time. 'Must be sleeping already,' she thought to herself. She chose to look in a different area than where she was last time, that area was just too weird now. Rain chose a random bookshelf before looking through it to find a good book to read and one that might be able to teach her. However, no matter how much she looked through the library, none of the books she found had anything good. Or at least looked like skills/abilities that were worthwhile.
If she couldn't get a book, then she would just go sit down somewhere. She was mentally tired from the day's expedition and just wanted to sit for a little bit. Rain started to make her way out of the library and started to head back to her room, however, once she made it to her door, she never opened it. She just stood there, staring into the door. If she goes into the room, she'll just sleep on the bed. However, it was already night and the town was asleep. Rain could only sigh to herself before she started to make her way to the courtyard. On the way there she received the notification that her body needed rest. 'Ya, ya, I'll just sit down in the courtyard for a little bit and think.' Rain thought to herself.
Once she made it to the courtyard, she saw that nobody was out there, so Rain took off her boots and walked into the middle of the courtyard. She sat down and crossed her legs, calling out the -White Mist- and she closed her eyes. She tried to feel around herself through the mist. Trying to see if she could feel anything at all through it. It was an effort committed in vain as Rain just simply couldn't feel anything at all through the mist.
Rain instead tried again to move it, to force it to do something, other than just sitting there. Much to Rain's dismay, it just simply wouldn't budge. It was like a numb limb that just couldn't be moved. You knew it was there, but the communication just didn't work. Rain could only be disappointed, however, she decided against calling back the mist. She was curious if sitting in it, alone with her thoughts would do anything, or if anything could happen.
Rain went through her breathing exercises and thought about things she could do or things that needed to be done. There wasn't anything in particular she thought about. It was more like letting her thoughts run wild. Each thought would lead to the next, and then to the next, like an endless river. Rain had lost herself in her thoughts.
Unbeknownst to Rain, the light from the moon was shining exclusively onto her in the courtyard. The rest of the courtyard was dark, with little light from the moon or torches shining onto it. Yet, she was clearly lightened up, like a spotlight from the heavens shining brightly upon those it had blessed. The air around her was gentle and calm, yet it was still flowing and circling her, creating a wall of wind. Her cloak and hair fluttered slightly in the wind but Rain didn't notice, still far too occupied by her thoughts. The wind was starting to speed up, and the moonlight was getting narrower. The two events continued to grow, creating a sense of anticipation and suspense. It felt like the building up to some sort of climax, but before anything could happen, Rain opened her eyes.