Even though she'd gotten the rest she had really needed and she had her stamina full, Kim still felt rather tired. She wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be a side effect from using that pond to teleport here. Which was all the more reason to not even entertain using that pond for that again. At least in Kim's opinion.
When everyone else woke up, in the morning, they seemed to have recovered enough to remember what had been announced the night before in regards to not only the announcement of the fire dragon having been defeated, but also that it would be an entire day before they announced what the next challenge would be.
For Kim, it felt more like an exercise in patience than anything else. Not so much in just waiting around patiently, but rather patience in dealing with others who were just getting on her nerves in general. Although, she could tell that they weren't doing that deliberately.
Kim speculated that it might be from how tired she felt, that things the others were doing, even if it was making weird noises when as some napped, or talked to themselves as others practiced with their weapons.
Kim also couldn't help but wonder if they'd been told everything about the fight with the fire dragon, since from the sounds of it, Patricia and Patrick hadn't done much overall in the fights, but the announcer had indicated that it was slain in part because of their roles in the matter. She couldn't say if it was merely a matter of perspective or if there was something else to it.
She could only assume there was more that wasn't being said.
Although, if it was a matter of being respectful towards Elwin and/or Leon, she didn't mind. She didn't care that much anyway, but it did make her wonder about what might have exactly gone on. Even if it was something that happened that Elwin hadn't noticed during the last confrontation.
She would have been surprised if Elwin had noticed everything going on around him as they fought the fire dragon, since battles at the best were rather chaotic. Then adding in a creature that was likely taller than you, kind of made it difficult to see what was going on, on the other side of it.
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Kim got up and decided to try some training herself. She figured that it would at least be something to pass the time, if nothing else.
Though, she also wondered if she should test out some of the abilities of her sword. As that way she'd be able to at least know what to expect if she used it in battle. Such as if some of the abilities that affected more than one target would be a cone-based attack or a line-based one, despite the fact that the only area of effect ability it had was the flame pillar, and that seemed more circular than anything else.
Still, she thought it would at least be good to see how far it's effect reached. Not to mention the possibility that it might even be possible to unlock new abilities with it. She couldn't say if that was possible, but it certainly seemed more likely now that her sword had essentially been upgraded from how it had been before.
Kim first thought she'd try out the ice pillar, just to see what it would look like. Not to mention that she felt it would be better to start the cooldown on that skill sooner rather than later. As she doubted she'd get much use out of it, but it certainly seemed rather overpowered, even with only being able to use it once a week.
Walking away from everyone else, so as to avoid accidentally hitting someone, Kim drew her bastard sword and held it in both hands. As she closed her eyes, she hoped this whole thing would be rather simple, since she had no idea exactly how she was supposed to go about using these abilities.
She imagined a pillar of ice, with the top coming to a tip, though she couldn't say if that was what she was supposed to be doing. The few times she'd asked Elmo or Elin about it, they didn't have any suggestions for her to work with. Just that she'd have to figure it out before she could use them. Even her tutorial hadn't been helpful about it.
As time passed and nothing happened, Kim was starting to wonder if the evening announcements would occur before she'd even figured out how to activate these abilities. An idle thought made Kim wonder if she might be going about this the wrong way. She remembered during their stay at the king's palace that Elin once remarked about the sensation of using her MP. Like she could feel it when her MP got used and became the spell she was focusing on.
Kim wasn't sure if that would apply here, but she also couldn't say that she knew what it was like to have MP get used up. She briefly thought to ask Owen, but quickly discarded that idea. She wasn't sure she wanted him to know about her sword right then. Partly because she wasn't sure if he wouldn't try to use that against them. Not that she really thought he would, just that she couldn't bring herself to really trust him. He was a man, after all.
Kim wasn't aware of the time passing around her. Just the sweat that was starting to flow down her body from the heat of the afternoon. She wasn't surprised at it, but it was a little distracting. Though, part of her wondered if maybe it wouldn't feel so hot if she could just get the pillar of ice to form. If nothing else, she couldn't help but wonder if it might give them a little shade to rest in if the ice itself didn't help cool down the surrounding area.
She wasn't sure if she was doing something wrong or if there was something she was missing, like a step or other, but nothing seemed to be happening. She was about to give up when she decided to try one last time before calling it a day.
Each time she'd tried, she tried a different tactic about trying to summon it. First she tried to will the ice pillar into existence. Then she tried picturing it in front of her. Then she tried imagining how it would come out of the ground, like the stalagmite the troll had created in order to kill Michelle.
Nothing she had thought of had failed. Each time made her more annoyed than the last. Still, she was confident that there was a way. She just hadn't figure it out just yet.
This time, she wasn't sure why, but she imagined the power floating from the sword to where she was imagining the pillar of ice to form. For some reason it didn't take as much energy from her as her previous attempts had. She wasn't sure why, but somehow she could feel something was different this time.
She wasn't sure what it was and was about to give up quicker than before when suddenly a round pillar of ice tore apart the ground in front of her and rose at least thirty feet in the air, causing the ground to rumble around her, it's tip as sharp as a sewing needle. The base of the pillar seemed to be roughly twenty feet wide from one side to the other.
Kim didn't hear the others come up to where she was. It just felt like they appeared out of nowhere, but she couldn't say that she was surprised at their arrival. She'd have been more surprised if they hadn't noticed it. Especially with how high above the hill in the valley it was.
"What was that?" Patricia asked, her eyes sparkling and her voice full of wonder.
Kim opened her mouth to respond when suddenly a feather appeared in front of her. It was like the feathers Elin had been finding every so often; Kim was pretty sure the total count was up to around twenty. They were each around six inches long and were various colors, but each the color of a regular fire. Red, yellow, orange, or even a mixture of the colors together. Each also gave off the light from a fire as it started to die down.
"Good evening contestants! Before each of you is a feather that will be your clue as to the next challenge. I'm sure many were expecting something similar to the previous challenges, but this one will require you to actually think.
"The feather in front of you comes from a very particular creature. Only one creature is known to have feathers like these. The challenge is to locate such a creature and capture it. That's all there is to it. However, killing the creature is not 'capturing' it, so you need to be careful about how you go about it. Aside from that, how you capture the creature is up to you. What will be considered a 'capture' is if you can get the creature to either submit to you or inside a cage. We really don't care which.
"In other news, we have learned that contestants have acquired items that could potentially give them an unfair advantage in these challenges. So, after reviewing said items, the committee has determined that provided the uses of said items don't directly involve the known challenges, with a few exceptions, they'll be able to function as they would have otherwise been able to. For exact details about that and the exceptions, see your tutorials. They'll be able to relate to you what you would need to know about that.
"Other than that, we hope each of you will give it our all in this challenge. Although, we apologize to our viewers from the fact that this one won't be as dangerous as the last challenge was."