Cursed Explorer of the Arcana

Martha keeps an eye on her new prodigy from a respectable distance with her Living Storm’s Domain. Far enough not to disturb the girl, yet close enough to jump in if need be. She’s more than willing to lose some of her free time to break in the newbie using this tried and true strategy that worked against the countless prideful children she came across. The girl might be talented and slightly special but becoming arrogant and complacent can lead to an early death no matter one's skills.

After walking deeper into the forest for ten or so minutes the girl crouches down and inspects a few broken branches. Oh, looks like she learned some rudimentary tracking from that old goat, thank the Gods he’s not completely useless.

With that said inspecting a few tracks can tell you much more than the proof of a beast lurking in the area. When, how big, how many, how old, their element and gender… It’s a complex art that requires quite a few years to master and Elyssia had only about a week.

This might teach her how little she knows without putting her hands in the fire. I pray she learns her limits as early as possible even if it means many disappointments rather than on a battlefield where there are no second chances.

Elyssia just follows the trail without a second thought, leading her even deeper into the forest, something she seems vaguely aware of, observing her surroundings vigorously while trekking after the beast that left those trails maybe three days ago.

Again, it's clear she has a great head on her shoulders but lacks crucial knowledge or the raw instincts to make something of the situation. She already passed two squirrels and that trail is at least three days old… a waste of time.

To Martha’s great surprise, the girl actually finds something only about five minutes later.

[Locust lvl 24]

Should be a Devouring Locust.

It's not the greatest start. Even though the creature is a bug, it's the size of a dog, extremely aggressive and fairly fast which makes it a difficult enemy for most ordinary mages. It's also a swarm insect which is further bad news although their population should be culled constantly. Thankfully its intellect is only slightly above that of plants which means that the appropriate tactics can bring down the creature easily. And it’s young, it can’t fly, yet.

Elyssia notices the bug first and crouches down to observe. The creature is reddish brown in color with powerful hindlegs and huge mandibles feasting on some smaller prey. The girl seems to have come up with a plan.

She’s in a perfect position to deal a decisive blow, but from what I’ve seen she doesn’t have the kick to kill it right away. Especially since the insect is facing away from her so the head can’t be targeted. What’s your solution then? Martha grins, actually enjoying the little bugger working her way through this challenge and curious to see what her fresh and unbiased mind might come up with.

That’s one big bug.

[Locust lvl 24]

I observe the creature from a bush right behind its back, trying to stay as quiet as possible while searching the area for any other movement besides the two of us. Its bone outside skin stuff… chitin, yeah, so it looks incredibly similar to some basic brown tree bark except for its slight luster and I would’ve completely missed the damn thing if not for it chewing down on a small bird judging by the feathers.

These are the irritating ones that buzz in the bushes at night, right? And when you drop some water on them the noise they make becomes all weird… How many sleepless nights did you fuckers cause huh? It’s time for payback.

Actually, does this mean there are mosquitoes as well? If yes then I declare crusade against them, to cleanse this world of their abominable forms. I fucking hate those bloodsuckers.

Back to the locust.

It doesn’t take much looking or thinking to realize that its chitin acts like a natural armor which leads me to the weaknesses of any and all armor Mom always complained about every other year. How it’s either mobility or protection… or a ridiculous sum of money. Joints, it’s always the moving parts.

Since the locust is turning its back to me the only targets in sight are its back legs which are many times thicker than the rest. This pair makes it jump so incredibly fast so without them it’d be as good as dead which is quite close to my goal.

I’m actually happy about finding a small but somewhat dangerous creature instead of the slow and massive types like the boar from yesterday. By the Gods that was only yesterday… Anyway, I’m trying to be conservative with my mana and there’s no way I have the reserves to take down… one, two three, four… at least four of those boars even with the white pebble in my pocket.

Gotta play it risky.

Earth is out of the question because prepping a shot would be noisy and I’m not confident about my aim with just a pebble. Fire is… not in a forest and not when I need something gone instantly.

The water magic the elf boy whose name I can’t remember used against me just hours ago flashes through my mind and an idea takes root, slowly budding into a full-fledged plan. Those flimsy water blades he used… let’s do that properly.

I can’t really just pull water out of my ass and conjuring it would go straight against the principle of being frugal with my mana so all I can do is slowly pull every drop of dew, sweat, and excess moisture in the air to slowly converge in my palm over the course of a minute. It was a race against time with the bug to eat its meal like it’s a race and the chance of it finding me by smell or some other random way.

Testing my theory right now isn’t really an option so I just go ahead and bring the ball of water to eye level, aiming like Dad usually does with his bow and building up pressure inside the sphere by trying to squeeze it from all sides. Water isn’t compressible so there’s really not much buildup I could do and the moment I allow a small, needle-sized hole in the ball water shoots out faster than my eyes can track.

The bug’s antennae snap upright as my shot misses so I quickly adjust and sweep the tiny jet horizontally, hitting both legs and severing none. That’s not to say the attack was a complete failure. The limbs are now hanging limp from the joint as the locust buzzes with its backside somehow, making a sound akin to raking a stone block, while clumsily turning towards me.

Actually, can insects even feel pain or is it just pissed?

With the bug basically crippled and only crawling around on its remaining non-jumpy legs I confidently reveal myself with my knife in hand. Need to reserve that sweet mana.

“C’mon twitchy, I’ll finish it fast I promise.” I call out to the bug albeit still carefully because it might still bite.

I swear I don’t feel bad whatsoever for trying to take this thing’s life. Maybe because it’s really ugly, maybe because its smaller cousins are really damn irritating, or maybe I’m just getting used to this…

The locust keeps hissing and crawling my way at a jogging speed so I get bored and just do the boar skewering earth spike again. In hindsight I also don’t want any of its blood or whatever bugs have to get on my hand so I’ll just be wasteful fuck it.

The pointy tip pierces its eye, the bug dies, the end.

[You have triumphed over the enemy [Juvenile Devouring Locust - Fire lvl 24].]

[The Class Skill [Mana Blade] has reached lvl 3 ->4.]

[The Class Skill [Mana Spear] has reached lvl 3.]

What a boring fight. I know, boring is safe and safe is good but… okay I have only stupid counterarguments so let’s forget about them.

“Martha messed up big time with this bet. Only about ten minutes and I’m already done with… one, two, three… I’m almost halfway there.” I giggle to myself, pondering on where to search for my next target.

Deeper into the forest we go of course.

However, before I can leave the clearing the sound of something rushing through the underbrush catches my attention so I pick another bush to hide in. The noise the locust made… it must’ve drawn some other predator from the area.

Except it isn’t just some other predator.

[Locust lvl ???]

The damn thing is almost as tall as me and bugs don’t stand upright. Its mandibles are buzzing with some sort of red energy and its weird bug eyes gleam like polished bronze.

Is this the mother?

Unlike last time my location is immediately exposed as the bug swirls toward the bush I’m hiding in and its hind legs twitch. I instinctively throw myself to the side, raising a Mana Shield to at least slow the monstrous locust, and screaming like the girly girls when they see a normal spider. I guess they’d pass out faced with this one.

With a shattering sound, my barrier collapses and shortly after the trees behind it follow. I hesitate for a second, lying on the ground instead of getting up as quickly as I can with the fear of death crawling up my back.

I almost died.

Instead of using my own limbs something hoists me up in a familiar way and puts me down, back on my feet.

“You shouldn’t be here.” Martha’s cold voice reaches my ears. “Don’t disturb my fun.”

With a flick of her hand a scrawny bolt of lightning, not too different from the one she threw at Victor during the lecture, gets launched and sinks right into the head of the massive bug. I only see a muted puck and a dim flash in the locust’s eyes before its body begins to crumble like charred wood.

“Those damn adventurers did a half-ass job again. That’s what you get when you outsource the work.” Martha grumbles, holding her forehead. “Are you okay honey?” She turns to me a second later without any actual worry in her eyes. Typical courtesy question.

“I- I didn’t need help,” I blurt out. “I could’ve run and continue the bet and-”

“Don’t you worry, this doesn’t count.” She interrupts my rain of excuses with a small chuckle. “It’s not your fault and this one was like six times your level, I’m not unreasonable. Keep up the good work and don’t worry, I’ll be around.” With that, she disappears in her signature move of abusing space magic.

Okay then, that was scary. Let’s not go too much deeper into the forest.

With that said…

[Your group has triumphed over the enemy [Devouring Locust Seeker - Life lvl 121]-[Tremor Tracker - Earth lvl 67].]

[The Class Skill [Mana Shield] has reached lvl 16 ->18.]

[The general Skill [Dodging] has reached lvl 16 ->17.]

[The general Skill [Reflexes] has reached lvl 14 ->16.]

A fiendish smile stretches across my face as I read the messages of my soul.

Oh, that’s one more Skill off the list and… lvl 121. Does this mean I already won-

“No this doesn’t count.” Martha appears right next to me and disappears the next second.

She does manage to scare the living shit out of me so I furiously stomp the ground where she stood while cursing even the air she breathes. I’m supposed to act like the child here!

With that said I wish I used any of my other Skills against the big bug. The Skill gains against opponents many times stronger than me are just crazy good. I know I shouldn’t be greedy but I am, everyone is, it’s just how people work.

Let’s not waste time, there are more things waiting to be killed. I’m starting to enjoy this a little…

This is bad, she’s doing well.

It’s been only about half an hour since Martha and Elyssia arrived to the edge of the forest and the girl just found another prey similar in level to the locust although without the advantage of surprise this time. A wolf, wounded and maybe even sick just by the color of its fur. It’s almost as if Aelion wants the girl to win this bet.

She’s terrible at tracking and makes no effort to hide her scent not to mention the sound of her movement and now this…

Should I make things more interesting? Martha ponders from her perch on one of the tallest trees in the vicinity. No. Let fate do its thing. If my theory is correct about the Blessed ones then her luck streak won't last much longer.

As expected the wolf turns aggressive as soon as it catches Elyssia’s scent. The beast knows it’s on its last leg and throws itself at the young mage with reckless abandon since it’s too weak to even flee.

Elyssia responds in quite an unexpected way yet just as Martha expected, throwing the reserved fighting style one would expect from a Mage aside and meeting the unexpecting wolf head-on. As if doing this solely to train her new Skills she kicks the ground beneath her feet following which a gnarly spear of earth springs out and penetrates one of the wolf’s legs. The beast’s charge gets cut short and the girl despite her age shows no mercy. She launches spear after spear into the dying beast, avoiding the head and maximizing her gains.

Ruthless? Maybe, but she’s efficient and the beast has no other purpose than becoming a stepping stone for her. It’s too sick to be eaten, too weak to hunt, and seemingly left behind by its pack. Death is a mercy.

After staring at her hands for a short while, maybe checking her Status, Elyssia runs off into the forest again, still on the hunt for more prey.

She might win this…

Man, my aim is so garbage! I aimed at its head and five out of five missed. Poor forest doggo… I feel kinda bad. I wasted a lot of mana trying to put it out of its misery and… okay the three levels in Mana Spear were pretty sweet I’m not gonna lie.

That was a level sixteen so I need quite a few more to claim victory so let’s keep this going, there can’t be that much time left until sundown.