Hilda reappeared in the blank space. It was usual for her to return to the space every time she slept. She had slowly gotten accustomed to it.
Now, she can even change her form inside the mental space. After studying the magic circle for a long time, her ancient language knowledge increased from 3% to 7%.
[Ancient language knowledge (7.1%)]
She still could not figure out how to say those words, but she knew what they meant. She was familiar with the left-and right-hand mana-bending symbols. She deciphered many such symbols, including one for combining two types of mana into one and another for stopping the flow of mana.
She had already remembered the mana circle by its core. It had reached such a point that she could draw it without retracing any lines. The only reason she couldn't form a core was that she didn't have enough mana to create a mana circle.
However, when she appeared in the blank space, she found something was wrong with the space. The inherently empty space was filled with mana.
The air was thick with various manas, including a yellowish mana that implied heaviness and a violent red mana.
"Earth and fire." Hilda had no problem understanding that the fire mana came from the core of the Kobold fire mage, and the earthen mana was from the mana stone.
Now that she had enough mana, she realized a few problems: She didn't know which element she was most comfortable with. She didn't know if the magic circle that elf had bestowed on her was natural.
'It is not like thinking would help me overcome the problem.' Hilda made up her mind to test it.
In the last couple of weeks of experimenting, she realized there wasn't just one black space but six, four limbs, a heart, and a tail.
The space in her heart was almost ten times bigger than the other five. Even though the realm she found herself in was merely a mental projection, it was nonetheless a component of the magical circle that the elf had bestowed upon her.
"Let's make a magic circle in the tail. If something is wrong with it, I can cut it off." Hilda had noticed a couple of gnolls who didn't have a tail. She felt it shouldn't be a problem.
Hilda closed her eyes, concentrating, as she reappeared inside the tiny space, no more than a couple of square meters.
She concentrated as a bright white string appeared in the darkness. It was a long string with no end. Then, the yellow and red mana started to appear.
Hilda took a deep breath before starting. There were very few things Hilda had endless confidence in. One of them is needlework.
Hilda could direct the flow of the mana, but she couldn't directly control it. What she could control was her seemingly endless white aura.
She formed a needle and a sting in the middle of the void using the white aura. The string's color changed as she ran the sting through the mana cloud. It now had a red and yellow hue to it.
Running the color string through the aura needle, she started sewing the mana circle in the darkness.
Unlike the elf, whose yellow aura seemed to weave a mana circle in a few breaths, Hilda took a long time to sew the mana circle in the space.
As soon as she completed it, it glowed brightly. Then, an empty four-foot crystal formed in the darkness.
'What the hell.' Hilda didn't expect the crystal to become a vacuum as soon as it formed. Both the yellow and red mana got sucked into the crystal.
When the entire mana was sucked into the crystal, the mana changed color. Instead of becoming orange, the mana decreased but remained yellow.
"So, fire isn't my time. I am more of an earthen type. Good. After all, wind and earth are the most abundant elements of nature."
Looking at the half-full crystal, Hilda couldn't help but touch it. As soon as she did, the yellow liquid gathered opposite her finger. A yellow string came out of the crystal when she pulled her finger away.
"So, the Kobold mage absorbed the earthen mana from the stone, ran it through the crystal, transformed it into fire mana, and then created the fireball."
Hilda moved her finger in the air like a conductor, and the mana string danced like an excited child.
"I can use it to make more mana circles." Hilda stopped herself from doing it. "Let's wait and see if there is some kind of side effect before deciding. For now, let's check the status first."
[Hilda]
Age: 1/34
Race: Gnoll
Grade: White
Level: 12 (2.3/13)
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Virtue:
Sin:
Condition:
Strength: 18
Dexterity: 25
Constitution:26
Intelligence: 100
Wisdom: 100
Charm: 8
Free point: 0
Element: Earth/*****
Skill: [*****]. [Bite]. [Claw]. [Night Vision]. [Dominance]. [Mana perception (white)]. [Ancient language knowledge (7.8%)]. [Earth Breathing].
"Okay? How the hell is my name suddenly showing Hilda? It shouldn't be because I can use magic now, right?"
Alas! No one could answer her question. So she checked the other changes. When creating the mana circle, she already felt she could understand the essence of the letter better. Hence the increase in knowledge.
"Earth element is understandable, and the <*****> must be because of the darkness that a Gnoll acquired when they evolved from Hyena. The condition is understandable, but what is this
[Earth Breathing
Detail: Recover 10 MP every hour.]
She was about to curse, saying she had no use in recovering MP. Then she remembered she could right now.
"Should I go and use some magic?"
Hilda opened her eyes to find herself beneath a tree. Black Mane was sitting in front of her as if guarding her. As soon as she tried to move, she squealed in pain. Black Mane was quick to turn around and check on her.
"What the hell?" Even if Black Mane couldn't talk, Hilda could understand the worry from its expression. It started to lick her wound.
"Stop it. I am okay now. You are making it worse." Hilda cried out loudly as Black Mane tried to rub itself against Hilda.
"Did you fall in love with me or something? Stay away."
Upon Hilda's rejection of its heartfelt concern, Black Mane let out a sad grunt. Hilda slowly sat up. When she looked around, she felt something wasn't right.
For starters, it was already dawn. So, at least half a day and a whole night had passed since she had lost consciousness. That wasn't a problem.
The problem was a deep stench of blood in the air. Looking around, Hilda found a lot of carcasses around her. It was like they had already eaten all the humans they had stored for an emergency.
As she was thinking, Black Mane dragged the upper torso of a half-eaten carcass for Hilda to eat. Although she was hungry, she couldn't help but wonder why the gnoll would do that.
"Could it be that they were preparing to conduct another raid?"
Alas! Black Mane stared back at her, unable to answer her question.
Then there were other hyenas whom she had never seen before. The number of hyenas was around 40; now, it has almost swelled to 100.
As the sky got brighter, Hilda found that it wasn't just Hyenas whose number had increased. The number of gnolls had also increased.
"It looks like something big is about to happen." Hilda decided that filling up her belly was the most important thing to do.
Hilda didn't stop until nothing, but the bones remained before moving to another half-eaten carcass.
"I must have eaten an entire carcass." Hilda looked at the little heap of bones that had formed around her just when she thought that she would get some rest.
"So this is the one they were talking about?" There was a pair of gnolls standing in front of her. "It looks like it could die any moment."
"I heard it was able to take down a mage."
"A mage?"
"It must be because the tamer must have helped. That poor bastard died, and this one must have taken all the credit."
'I have never seen these guys before.' Hilda continued to observe the pair of gnolls.
The gnolls and the Blood Axe tribe had brown skin with black spots. In contrast, the gnolls had stripped spots on their gray coat.
"What are you doing?" A few gnolls appeared before Hilda could think of the answer to the obvious question.
"I heard the Blood Axe tribe had lost their tamer. So, I wondered if I could help you tame a few of them."
"What the hell?"
"Look at this bastard."
"How dare you?"
Hilda could only sigh. The tamer certainly has high intelligence. Compared to them, the gnolls of her tribe are just brutes.
"Call a mage or the shaman." Hilda wanted to tell them, but there was no way they could think of that.
"Who the hell told you that?"
"The chief?" The tamer answers proudly.
"Your chief or my chief?"
"I think they were there."
"Okay."
'It is not okay, you idiot. Did he say to you that our chief has ordered?' Hilda wanted to knock some sense into them. 'If you don't stop them now, they might steal all your Hyenas.'
Hilda could feel mana coming out of its hand when the tamer turned towards her.
[Domincance activated.
Subordinate: 38
Adversaries: 72
Time limit: 04:59]
"Howl." Hilda's subordinates didn't even hesitate.
As soon as she gave the command, all the hyenas started to bark simultaneously, and a few hyenas from the other tribes joined in due to the pressure.
"What the hell? shut up." The tamer pulled out the whip.
Black Mane, on the other hand, was ready to defend Hilda. However, she stopped her in time. If an untamed Hyena had attacked them, it would have given all the more reason.
Hilda didn't give them the chance. As a result, a few of the whip strikes hit her, making her bleed from the spot, yet she showed no sign of retreating.
"Who are you?"
"Silent." As soon as she heard that familiar voice, she ordered. As abruptly as the barking began, it ceased.
The shaman couldn't help but throw a curious glance at Hilda. From the look on its face, Hilda was sure he had started to understand that she wasn't just a mere hyena.
"The chief has ordered them to tame our hyenas, too." Those idiot gnolls did one thing right.
"It was not like that…" The tamer was unable to finish his sentence before a few water balls struck its chest, causing it to fall.
Even Shaman hadn't expected Hilda to jump on him and bite his arm. Hilda tore it off his shoulder before the gnoll could understand what was happening.
"Ggghhhhhaaa…" The tamer screamed in pain.
"Don't attack." Hilda's order was louder. She threw the hand at the screaming gnoll and sat back before the shaman could say anything.
They stared at each other for a moment. The shaman turned towards the gnoll, ordering, "Take him away."
The other tamer, which came with the first tamer, was about to sneak away. The shaman stopped, reminding him, "It isn't just any beast. It received an enlightenment crystal from the Omen of Pleague, Lord Zahr. The great lich Skuld had bestowed the name Hilda on it. If it kills you, even your chief wouldn't be able to do anything about it."
The gnoll didn't dare to stay there anymore and was quick to run away. The shaman walked in front of Hilda and said, "The seed of their tribe is a great hyena. Kill it now."
"That guy is really decisive." Hilda couldn't help but feel relieved to see that the top brass of the tribe had a good head on it.
[Time Limit: 02:06]
Hilda had already pinpointed its location. Hilda walked through the sea of Hyenas, but none of them dared to look into her eyes. On the other hand, Black Mane continued to follow her like a proud deputy.
Hilda had expected it. The intelligence and wisdom stats of the great hyena were just 14 and 11. Even its dexterity stats were lower than hers.
Even with the penalty from [Dominance], its constitution and strength were over 30.
From the look on its face, Hilda knew it was afraid.
"Be a good boy and be my test rat." Hilda didn't know what it understood, but it turned around and was about to flee.
Alas! It was too late.
Five earthen ropes sprang out from the ground in front of Hilda's feet and tied down the great hyena as Hilda waved her tail.
However, it was just made of dirt and earth. As soon as it struggled, cracks appeared on the earthen rope.
Buffed Black Mane just needed that brief moment of restraint to spring into action and go for its neck. Hilda hadn't expected the fight to be over so easily. There was no doubt that it was because of Black Mane.
And Black Mane knew it, too. It came forward and sat before Hilda as if waiting for her praise.