NOVEL NEXT Chapter 18: Chapter 18: S+ Ranked Threat!
Wandering away from her base, Alchemy hummed as she wandered West.
"How far out were these bears that you saw?" Alchemy questioned.
{Roughly 50~ kilometers out.}
"So far? Two acres of land really is too small. Once I hit level 10, our amount of land will multiply, but even that isn't much."
A couple of miles wouldn't take her too long to run if she went straight to the last sighting of the bears, but leveling up was her top priority. Although she was pretty confident in dealing with the local wildlife, lowering her stats by 30% while fighting wasn't a pleasant thought.
"Maybe we could lure something into the [Consecrated Land]? Hey Sapphire, you wanna go hunting outside so we can level up?" Alchemy asked.
While normal units couldn't grant EXP to their ruler, [Hero] kills could grant both the [Hero] and the [Prospect] experience so long as she was within a certain amount of tiles.
Alchemy wasn't sure how far constitute a tile was since the base acreage everyone got was random, but she could figure it out.
Sapphire, trailing beside Alchemy, shook their head. They didn't want to fight if they didn't have to.
"Figured. Worth a shot. That aside, though, I can't decide if I like or hate our starting location. We have all the early necessities in abundance but absolutely nothing to speed up our progression. What do you guys think?"
{We believe it's too early to tell. We didn't get too good of a look at the materials of those bears, but they had Iron and Lead at the very least. If they have rarer resources, this forest is perfect.}
"Assuming there's enough of them to support our expenditure." Alchemy nodded in agreement.
Leaning over, Alchemy grabbed a pinecone-shaped object, examining it briefly before losing interest and tossing it. Aside from its discolored nature and unidentifiable plant life, this forest was nearly identical to one from Earth.
It even had normal animals with a few additions to them, granted. It was kind of boring. Her time here was anything but… But she wanted to explore. See the sites of this world beyond her starting location.
As she walked, a shadow appeared above her. Something from above began blocking the sun. However, before she could look up to see what it was, Sapphire rammed into her and sent her flying, followed by the sound of flesh being torn through.
{INCOMING!} The Thornskirmishers shouted.
"Owowowow. For the love of-" Alchemy Cursed until she managed to see what actually happened.
Sapphire had a huge gash in their side, the wound far worse than anything the wolves managed to do to them. Above them, the Thornskirmishers were engaging a massive bird.
"Sapphire!" Alchemy shouted, running over to her [Hero].
"What the heck! Why'd you jump in the way, you idiot!" She continued, putting her hand over the wound.
'I need to heal it, I need to heal it.' She thought, preparing to use her Divine Power once again, only to remember what happened last time.
This wound was so much worse, and she had less overall Divine Power as well. What if she failed? Was the risk of a permanent injury, something that could cripple her future prospects, worth a singular [Hero] that had no investment in?
Being a [Heroic Seed++] Gave Sapphire a level of potential that was rare even in the end game, but Alchemy was sure she'd eventually get another ally of similar potential.
'I'm such an idiot!' She screamed inwardly, flooding Divine Power through her body.
A burning sensation traveled throughout her body, from her heart to her lungs and into her arms. The feeling of power from before that caused her so much pain. She remembered the feeling.
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The burning sensation turned to stabbing as Divine Power left her body. But it wasn't as bad as last time, and the drain on her SP was significantly less.
'No, Less. Slower. Reel it in. It's in your body; it's a part of you. Don't treat it like a foreign body or waste that needs to be expelled.'
From the moment she got back to her base with Sapphire, Alchemy had been pondering how to control this power of hers. If the system wasn't going to assist her, she had to make it her own, no matter what.
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'Like a Muscle. Force it to move how you want. Come on, Alchemy!'
"SCRAEWWW!" The bird let out a deafening wail.
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The wound vanished as Alchemy used more and more of her Divine Power until, finally, the pain in her body resided, and the system gave her an ounce of good news.
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Breathing heavily as Sapphire's wound closed, Alchemy stopped herself from falling backward and stood up.
"I did it! Oh my god, I did it!" She exclaimed in excitement, only to look up and see her subordinates getting, for lack of a better term, their bug asses readily handed to them.
None had died yet, but three were already incapacitated, and the rest were narrowly managing to hold the bird off.
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As Alchemy looked at the Estimate Danger, Alchemy couldn't even be bothered to curse her luck. Things were going far too well for her these past few days, and it was only a matter of time before the universe decided to correct itself.
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"Oh, don't worry, System. You don't need to entice me." Alchemy scoffed, clenching her fist.
"I'm going to kill that fucking bird…"