After making her decision to stay and explore the deeper parts of the forest, Aurora didn't stay around for too long. With her stamina recovered back to its maximum amount, she had no reason not to set out right away.
The slight problem was that she had no idea where exactly to go. After all, despite exploring quite a large area around her main sleeping spot (the cave she first woke up in), she had no idea in which direction was the edge of the forest, nor in which lied its deeper parts.
This basically meant that even if she didn't want to, she might end up finding a way to leave the forest.
'Not like it's a bad thing if I manage to find an exit, though.' But, even if that were to happen, Aurora didn't see any problem with it.
If she found the exit, great for her! She would then know in which way she can leave in the future. If she didn't find it, nothing would happen, as it's like she was trying to look for it anyway.
'Basically, no matter what I do, it's a win for me.' So, with a quick nod to herself, she set out in a random direction, hoping to find the forest's edge or some powerful monsters that dwell deeper in the forest.
Unlike before, when she was looking for some moderately powerful monster to fight, this time, Aurora didn't run at full speed. Since she didn't know how long it would take her to reach her destination, whatever that destination was, she wanted to preserve stamina in case she needed it.
This doesn't mean that she walked at normal speed. No, she still ran, but not at full speed. Who knew how long she would be running around like this before she finally found what she was looking for?
As time passed, it soon turned nighttime. It was already evening by the time she woke up after her fight with the Iron Wood Berserker, so if we add the time she spent learning about her new powers and testing her new skill into the equation, it makes sense that it would already be nighttime.
'Considering how late it was by the time I set off, I would say I've probably been running for around an hour.' To see for how long she could go for at this pace, Aurora decided to stop for a bit and check up on her stamina situation.
[SP: 102/118]
'Sixteen points, huh?' It was an acceptable amount, but still one that she didn't like much. As said before, she had no idea how long this little journey of her will take, so at this pace, in about for more hours, her stamina would drop below 50 points.
'I might have to take some occasional breaks to drink or eat something.' She reasoned.
'Now that I think about it, the description of my title said something about lowering my need for food, water, and sleep. It also said that my stamina consumption is uneffected. Quite contradictory if I say so myself.' Aurora fell deep in thought, but that didn't mean she was still just standing around.
No, quite the opposite, actually. In an attempt to waste as little time as possible, she already set off again, resuming her run.
'What it probably means is that while my stamina doesn't go down any slower, I should need to eat, drink, and sleep less to get it back up.' Coming to a very plausible explanation, she nodded her head twice and focused back on scouting her surroundings.
In fact, though it may not seem like it, Aurora wasn't just running around in a single direction. Rather, she basically split her attention into two, which allowed her to do two things at once.
While one half of her consciousness focused solely on running forward without stopping, only avoiding some obstacles in the way, the other half focused on spreading its senses all around her position. Multitasking, you know.
Actually, this was something that Aurora used to think about a lot. No, not the multitasking part. I meant the use of her senses in a way to scour the area around her.
When she went out to hunt some monsters, she usually stayed hidden in some bushes or something so she could launch a quick surprise attack on her target. While this worked on monsters with low levels, those above level 5 were sometimes able to notice her.
This was something that confused her quite a lot. After all, even though the system didn't tell her directly, she could easily realize that monsters were kind of stupid. This stupidity also didn't seem to go away when the monster got stronger, meaning that levels had no effect on it.
But if that was the case, how was it possible that higher-level monsters were able to sense her despite being hidden? This was when she got an idea.
What if it wasn't about being more intelligent but rather about having better senses in general? I know, that's not really something hard to figure out, but all this system stuff and monsters are very new things for Aurora.
Yes, she lost most of her memories, but. her intelligence and general knowledge she had as a human were still there. But this knowledge and logic didn't apply to something as unknown and magical as the system.
Aurora read through all of the system entries available to her in her free time. And indeed, among them was an entry about monsters in general. Unfortunately though, this entry didn't tell her much. It just told her that monsters are being made of mana and that they can't use magic.
This also further proved her theory of monsters being stupid, or rather, unintelligent. But the entry said nothing about some sort of special sense or something.
But if the senses of monsters and other beings alike got better as their stats got higher, why didn't the description of any of the six stats mention anything about sharpening and increasing senses?
This was when an idea crossed Aurora's mind. What if it wasn't directly about the stats either but rather about a being's aura?
Think about it. Whenever she encountered a powerful opponent, she could, to some extent, feel their aura. This was especially true with the Iron Wood Berserker, whose wild aura even acted as a shield for it.
But how was she able to feel the aura in the first place? First of all, she couldn't feel the auras of weak monsters, which probably means that the aura of a being must be at least a bit strong for her to be able to feel it.
Second of all, the stronger a being's aura was, the easier it was to perceive it. The aura's strength also directly influenced the distance at which she would be able to sense the aura of another being.
What did all this tell her? Absolutely nothing! She still has no clue about how she was able to feel auras in the first place. The only thing she knew was that even monsters can feel and sense the aura of another being.
But this changed after her battle with the Iron Wood Berserker. After the battle, Aurora received a special title, which provided her with a powerful, ultime-grade skill. And though the skill's description was quite vague, she had a hunch that it did more than the system told her.
This was indeed true, but she didn't yet realize what other effects it had on her. But one thing I can tell you for sure is that the skill Perfect Mind definitely increased her intelligence.
Now, I'm not talking about the intelligence stat but rather, Aurora's logical thinking in general. This is also something that improves with her intelligence stat, but the process is quite slow.
But the boost provided to her by the skill was quite substantial. And this increase in intelligence allowed her to finally find the answer to her question.
What allowed her to feel the auras of other beings was none other than her own aura. Shocking, I know.
Well, the way it works is that when two auras come into contact with each other, they collide and, in a way, compete. This collision between auras is exactly what allows beings to feel the auras of others.
If this idea of hers was true, then it meant that as long as she was able to spread her aura around her, she would be able to feel the presence of other beings.
So, while running, Aurora spent the last hour or so trying to somehow feel and control her aura. And just within this short period of time, she was actually able to do it.
She controlled her aura in a way that instead of concentrating around her body, it spread out into the area around her, which allowed her to see all the monsters nearby.
Of course, since her aura was still very weak, the range of this 'ability' was very limited. Not to mention the fact that her control over her aura isn't nearly perfect, further limiting the range.
But even then, the range was still about fifteen to twenty meters in all directions. This was a huge help since even though the darkness of the forest was no longer a problem for her, the trees all around her still limited her field of vision a bit too much.
Now, she could sense the monsters near her even if there were trees or other obstacles in the way. Of course, the monsters could also feel her since their auras were colliding, but it was not like Aurora was trying to be sneaky right now.
Be that as it may, Aurora spent most of the time she had while she traveled by training her control over her aura. By now, it had already been six hours ever since she started her little journey.
During this time, she hardly ever stopped. The only times she stopped were two quick breaks to kill a monster that didn't manage to run away from her and when she found a water source to drink from.
This way, the unfortunate monster became a quick snack for her, which allowed her to regenerate a lot of her missing stamina. The same could be said about the water.
But even despite that, her stamina was already starting to run low, and she would probably need to sleep soon. Thankfully though, she won't be needing any more stamina to run now.
Right, Aurora finally reached her destination. She found a new part of the forest that was very different from the one she was used to.
First and foremost, this place was a lot less dense and had significantly fewer trees in it when compared to the other part. The other thing of note was the obvious change in the color scheme.
The trunks of the trees here were kind of grayish instead of the plain-looking brown of the other area. The leaves and plants here were a lot different too.
Most of them were of various shades of red, orange, and yellow. Actually, a good way to compare the two places was by using seasons as a reference.
The part of the forest that Aurora came from mostly resembled the lush greenery of spring, while this place looked very much like a forest in autumn.
'Beautiful...' The overall aesthetic of this place left Aurora a bit speechless. This was the first time she was seeing a place like this with her own eyes. After all, she had no memories of ever experiencing an autumn.
'I like this place. Less trees means clearer and broader vision, lowering the chances of getting ambushed.' Finally coming out of her daze, Aurora curiously looked around, taking in the beautiful sight around her.
But just as she was admiring the beauty of this place, she got rudely interrupted as she felt someone entering the range of her aura.
She quickly took a battle stance and looked around warily, trying to find the being that tried to approach her just now. Just at that moment, her eyes finally fell on the first opponent she would have to face in this new region of the forest.
There, a gray-furred wolf stood with all four of its legs spread firmly on the ground. A series of low growls escaped the beast's mouth, as if it were trying to intimidate the small fox that stood before.
Of course, Aurora wasn't intimidated in the least. No, her focus was completely on something else.
'An actual wolf!? I can't believe it; it's not a plant!' What can I say? Typical Aurora. Sigh...