TMLoCL - Chapter 51

Im am frustrated because I had to post this from my phone...

There is a lot we don’t understand about Monster behavior. Between their near-infinite combination of traits, the rarity of Inspect abilities or magic, and Monster’s overt belligerence in the face of study, only the most common and weak Monsters have much known about them.
So asking about the hows and whys about how they fit together on a large scale - their ecology - is an almost pointless task. We cannot explain how they will react to our actions, or the impact we will have on the systems in a previously untouched Monster habitat.
What do you mean, “what do you mean?” I don’t know why Monsters are attacking your town, and neither does anyone else.
What should you do? Move your town or build walls and hope that the Monsters have valuable parts.

- An overheard snippet of a conversation between a [Lord] and a [Monster Researcher] shortly before the researcher was thrown out of the [Lord’s] castle. By way of a window.


*Cadence Lee (as Hewka) POV*

I woke up to Rei gently scratching my head. I have to admit that it felt really good - definitely one of the advantages of this form and this life.
“Hey Hewka, you are pretty popular, aren’t you?” Rei greeted me with a smile. This was obviously true, I was a princess. Humor (and perhaps a little draconic vanity) aside, I wasn’t really sure I would call myself popular. It was something more like notoriety…
“We have a campsite and a schedule,” She continued, partially aware of my inner thoughts. “Let’s head over and get set up and we can fill you in on the plan.”
It turns out, to no one’s surprise, that the Captain wanted to make use of my ability to fly for scouting. That would keep me from a lot of the experience, so Rei had managed to negotiate something with a bit more action. The camp attracted a lot of monsters every day, but they were usually not very powerful, hence the lower-levelled adventurers that were hesitant to walk past me. Our party was a tad overlevelled for all of this, but it was a good opportunity to train Tamlin and my Skills.
The occasional powerful monster was usually handled by Captain Hamel during the day or Captain Mindy, the night captain, during the night. There were one or two other powerful soldiers hanging around in case things got dangerous, but most of the defence was handled by adventurers. Aside from that, usually monsters attacked individually or in small groups, but occasionally would form into a wave. There pretty much was always a fight somewhere along the perimeter.
That was where Rei and I came in. The rest of the party would form a core part of the defense for an area, while Rei and I flew above the area doing double duty scouting and as a quick reinforcement for groups that might need it.
“You know,” Chaurl spoke to me conversationally as he helped started a fire to prepare dinner, the other part members setting up the tents. “We really need to spend some time thinking about how to integrate Hewka into our party better. She is a really unique aspect to our team, but often that boils down to her and Rei flying off to do their own thing.”
After confirming that no one was nearby listening, I replied to him directly, “I think that you are right. I often worry about how much I am contributing… What can I do to work with you better?”
He laughed and waved his hands, “no, no, you misunderstand me. I think we should build ourselves around you.”
“What happens when I die then?” I didn’t think that was the best idea, to be honest, and asked the obvious. “I know, better than anyone, that I am not invincible. Eventually, something is going to kill me.”
“Well, honestly, if the party member that can literally fly away is dead, chances are we all are,” Chuarl says with a smile, only for Karlin to burst his bubble.
“Sorry, Chaurl, I agree with Hewka. Making tactics around her, I can agree with, but full builds? There is a lot of risk in that much specialization."
“I second that,” Rauvin chipped in. “That might work in an army, where people are focused on their roles, but for our party? What happens if Tamlin and Rei get married and settle down somewhere?”
He said the last part with a joking tone as Tamlin and Rei blushed and sputtered, but the point was well made. It wasn’t just death that could pull the party apart, but life in general, and then where would they be?
“But the potential! There are a lot of opportunities here. Very few parties have access to the sky, we would have a lot of jobs open to us that others couldn’t do.” Chaurl continued to argue his point as he started to toss vegetables into a pot. “The very best parties synergize, how would this be different?”
It felt like our party had been arguing a lot lately, and it kind of felt like it was my fault. Or, at the very least, caused by me. I didn’t like this. It was already a struggle just to think, and I didn’t want to fight people I actually like anymore.
“Enough, please,” I interrupted the argument. “I do not want you to do that. I don’t want to argue about it. Just, please… Don’t.”
Thankfully, that ended the argument, but by the next day I had to admit that I really needed to kill and eat something. I was becoming a bitey stress eater, and I was fine with that, fidgeting as Rei began to put my saddle on.
“Don’t worry, Hewka,” Rei whispered as she gave me a scratch under the leather of the saddle. “I have your back.” She paused and then grinned, “Quite literally, I suppose.”
I gave a chuff of amusement as she swung up onto my back and we took flight. The further I got from the ground, the better I felt, some of my instincts quieting a little. The sun was just rising, and my vantage gave me a great view of it coming over the trees. Below us, adventurers were changing their shifts and the miners were getting up to start the first of theirs
The rest of our party was moving out to the northern edge, exchanging greetings with their overnight counterparts. We flew above them, observing the forest below. Thankfully, it had been somewhat cleared both to aid in defense and to supply lumber for the mine camp, so it wasn’t too difficult. The first thing I noticed was that there were already a fair amount of monsters filtering in.
None of them were strong - in fact, they were quite weak - but the numbers surprised me. I had known, intellectually, that the camp was under constant attack, but now I am wondering why. I’d have thought they would have started to depopulate the nearby forest. At the very least I would think that every monster that was dumb enough to take a swing would have wiped themselves out by now. The monsters didn’t even all belong to the same or similar species. They should be fighting each other, but they were mostly making a beeline for the camp.
Wait, do bees make lines? I feel like they zigzag around and that expression doesn’t make sense…
A quick pat got me to refocus on our first target of the day! A relative of that damned cat that gave me so much trouble before, this time was very different. I started my dive, using Aerokinesis to muffle the sounds, and just before impact Rei loosed an arrow into the monster. Its surprise and pain was quickly followed by my talons as I slammed into it and slammed it into the dirt!

[You have defeated a Lvl. 7 (Adult Stone Lynx) and earned party xp!]
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 6!]
[You have gained +6 Str, End, Vit, Per, Mgc, and Agi! You have gained +5 Dex and Wil! You have gained +4 Acy and Cha!]

“Holy shit, it is a gods damned Wyvern!” Someone screamed and in my peripheral vision I saw a bow being drawn and spun to meet the attack, but it never came. Another person, presumably part of the same adventurer group, smacked their team member on the head and scolded him for being an idiot.
“Even if you didn’t listen to anything I briefed you about, you didn’t notice the rider on its back!? Pay attention before you get us in trouble! Sorry about this idiot, ma’am.”
I could feel Rei’s bemusement. It didn’t take Analysis to know that these kids were new to the Adventurer role, so I doubt they would have done much damage. Actually Analyzing them showed a couple of [Warriors] and a [Rogue].
“I am rather glad not to be shot,” Rei responded. “Are you out here alone? Stone Lynx’s aren’t common, but they aren’t exactly rare either and are on the stronger side for a beginner party.”
No kidding. I still remember my own fight with a Juvenile version, it was hardly a walk in the park. Although this attack was far easier, it only looked easy because Rei and I had worked together and chained a bunch of Skills and Abilities into a short time frame, backed up by the power of my dive.
It turned out that they were from the “night shift” and had stayed to get some extra XP and maybe materials. Of course, all the parties with them had pulled back to switch with the ones waking up in the morning, so they had been left out alone to fend for themselves. It was pretty stupid, to be honest, but I was hardly one to judge. Wyverns in glass houses and all that.
Ultimately, it wasn’t our place to admonish them. Rei just sighed and I once again took off into the sky. If their party had a healer Class of some kind, they probably wouldn’t have needed our intervention. Considering the culture of this world, they probably even had open Class Slots.
“Hey Rei,” I sent my words to her via a mix of air magic and our bond. “Have you ever thought about picking up a healing Class? The more I think about it, the more I wonder why everyone doesn’t pick up at least a few Levels in one.”
I think it would synergise well with your [Wyvern Rider] Class.” I continued. “I do regenerate, but with some healing on top of that we would really be able to do hit and run attacks with my poison and hit way above our Level.”
“That might be a little more complicated than you imagine it,” Rei noted as she looked down at the forest below us. “Healing in general is complicated unless you are a Divine caster. Healing Magic, as a Skill, is notorious for its massive mana consumption, difficulty to Level, and its risk to damage the recipient.”
A Class could do a lot of the heavy lifting and alleviate those issues, but actually qualifying for one of those Classes is easier said than done. Even if I did, the difference would be minimal. The only people who can use Healing Magic to any real degree are [Priests] of Alet, but they don’t like to use it. Of course, they don’t really need to because they have access to Divine healing.”
I bank South, continuing to make a large circle around the camp. It was actually fairly easy to orient myself because the forest was thinned nearby the camp. The closer you got, the less trees there were, and the further, the more.
In hindsight, it made sense that Healing Magic could be dangerous. Come to think of it, I had rarely seen any healer or medic that was not somehow connected to gods outside of my first life, and in two of my lives I had died under the care of some kind of medical professional. I didn’t blame them, but I also recognized that it was hardly an easy job. However…
“Yeah, but you are immortal, Rei.” Rei had both the time to learn and practice, while also the near-certainty that, with her infinite lifespan, that she would at some point need healing. Considering exactly how Vitality worked with Elves, I’d go so far as to say that the ability to heal herself was actually more relevant to her than others. “It isn’t like you lack time to practice, and I have [Regeneration] and Chaurl’s help anyway. So if you did mess up, I would still probably be fine. And if I wasn’t fine, it would be sad to say goodbye, but it wouldn’t be like I was truly dead. I just would be off to another world, and another life.”
I could feel the discomfort and concern emanating from Rei through our bond. She didn’t respond for a time and we flew through the morning air in silence, except for the wind and the steady movement of my wings.

Rei’Reihammara Solily POV:

The sheer lack of concern that Hewka had for her own life was difficult to grasp, even with the bond between us letting me experience exactly what she was feeling. I had to wonder, was she chosen by whatever force was behind her because of that, or was the attitude caused by her being chosen? According to Hewka, she has died in pain three times - two of which were her being violently killed.
Was it a product of one of her instincts, or some strange combination of them? That seemed unlikely, most creatures had some will to live, but it wasn’t impossible. Monsters that had some variant of a healing Skill tended to be more belligerent and less cautious, so did Monsters with decently strong hides or natural armor. Hewka had [Regeneration: Minor](lesser) and [Salutivore] for healing, plus she had [Scale Armor: Minor], [Lesser Wyvern Hide], and [Gale Wyvern Hide] for defense. Actually, [Toxic Skin] also likely encouraged her to take hits.
All of those were racial traits she had inherited from previous evolutions, with the exception of [Gale Wyvern Hide], which meant that Hewka might naturally be a bit more blase about taking hits, but…
It didn’t really feel like that to me.
Maybe this was enhanced by her instincts, but my own instinct was that this was something natural to Hewka, and it worried me. She just didn’t care about her own life like another might, or even about the pain she experiences when she gets hurt. While it likely had contributed to her meeting me, I didn’t think her attitude was a good thing overall. Hewka was reckless, easily distracted, and her evolution path meant that she had the [Abilities] to tank hits, but also lacked the Health to make use of them against a serious opponent.
Hewka was going to get herself killed, and she wouldn’t even care.
“Hewka, I am not going to risk your life like that,” I tried to pour my concern into the bond, but it quickly became tinged with frustration when her response was just mild amusement.
“I wasn’t suggesting you try and heal me when I was in critical condition as practice,” she clarified, peering down at Monster in the forest below before dismissing it as weak enough for the others to deal with. “I was saying that we could damage me on purpose and use that to practice. If we start with minor flesh wounds that will heal easily by themselves, you won’t really have much to mess up.”
That might be true, but it was unquestionably worse in terms of what it said about the way Hewka thought.
“Hewka, I am not going to cut you up, for practice!” I exclaimed, my frustration turning to anger. “Do you even realize how insane that sounds? No, don’t bother, I can feel that you don’t!”
“How is that more insane than my training with Ylma!?” Hewka squawked back. “She literally lit me on fire! Would it make it more acceptable if I took injury in some other training? That would actually be fairly efficient, actually…”
She trailed off at the end, and it was clear Hewka understood nothing about what I was saying. Pain and damage may have been a consequence of training, but it wasn’t the point of training or even integral to it. There was a difference between getting hurt in training and purposely cutting up an ally for your own gain.
For all that Hewka was concerned with morality and ethics on a large scale, her views on a personal level were… Warped.
They flew in silence for a while as the sun slowly rose into the sky. Despite the awkward atmosphere between Hewka and myself, I still found flying breathtaking. The forest was a dangerous place, but from up here the sea of trees was beautiful. It was amazing to think that Hewka had lived a life where there were no Monsters and all of this could simply be enjoyed.
Unfortunately, I could not spend much time looking outwards and had to turn my attention downwards. The gold mining camp attracted a lot of Monsters, even ones that probably should know better. While many Monsters were unintelligent and naturally belligerent enough to attack anything, many more were smart enough not to throw themselves into an impossible fight.
An [Adult Stone Lynx] was a felineform monster. Attacking the out of position adventurers was well within its normal behavior, but approaching an area where so many Monsters are killed, and is so full of human activity, was unlike them.