Azrie Part: 1/2
Blocked. I stared at the pile of rocks ahead, almost everything had collapsed in on itself, only a few larvae remained alive, just barely. It took nothing more than the spikes of my shoes to get rid of them. Aside from Glim serving as light, the entire cave was just dark and the mana crystals had become non-existent, most of it were nothing but narrow passageways. A lot of places had become inaccessible, a lot of twists and turns were required to reach the initial entrance, but alas. The entire thing had truly collapsed.
Heading back was just as hard, but the place was empty, devoid of any kind of life after the larvae were killed. The only thing present was the wind that howled through the tunnels, desolate and lonely, only serving to gauge how big the space was, but not how much it had thrived. I closed my eyes and finally made it back to the main chamber that was now exposed to the elements. Small flakes befell, as the distant crystal ant slowly fell apart. The entire place was hard to walk on, and for a brief moment I had no clue what to do.
Then, my eyes wandered off to the side — the ant side.
◇ ◇ ◇
Blocked. I sighed as I returned to the main chamber. Every single tunnel was ultimately blocked by rubble, and looking up it was a precipice straight down, an impossible climb that I would never be able to do. I didn’t quite understand how far away the base level ground was, but I understood that even trying to climb it would take me multiple hours. And considering I had already used some time in the tunnels, by the time I was out, the Skirmish would end.
[Incubation Period: 0 days 10 hours 34 minutes.]
The ant nest was weird, it had a lot of eggs and storage rooms, some were full of seeds which I helped myself with. I ruminated a bit on the differences between the worm and ant nests, the ants had a lot more chambers, and some seemed to be subdivided. Though, between the two, both of them seemed to have a sort of burial site for the deceased, which I found odd. My eyes wandered around the clearing, I didn’t quite want to do nothing, but at the same time I felt lost. Well there was something I wanted to try, but that could wait a bit.
Instead, there was something more immediate I could do given that I pretty much had finished everything. And that was of course, the most exciting thing of them all. Testing out my shiny new skill! Well, truth be told, I had begrudgingly picked it, but it was best for me to grow accustomed to using it, and more importantly, grow used to its mana drain—and get used to the mana drain of things in general. My mana had increased by a lot, and I had to get to know myself once more. That said, I still had a general grasp, I was just looking forward to having more concrete information.
My mana was full, and with that in mind I grabbed my bow — the bushy one, Verex — and nocked an arrow from my ring, one of my leftover Common grade arrows. Pulling the string back I felt an odd sense of excitement as I aimed in no direction in particular. I took a deep breath and pushed mana onto the arrow, and then— I had a pause, one of doubt.
Should I enhance the string? I deliberated for a second before using Power Draw as well, even though it represented an extra mana drain, at the end of the day every single arrow that I fired had Power Draw usage. The string creaked within my fingers, raring to go with a bright green light, and the arrow quaked in anticipation, with a small smile I fired. The arrow zipped through the clearing and eventually exploded in the far distance, some rocks fell but ultimately that was it.
Then, I took a quick look at my mana.
Oh. A small gasp of surprise left me. I had already sort of noticed, but it just confirmed it for me. I had used less than one-tenth of my total mana on that. Huh. I remembered that Explosive Shot drained a lot of mana because of its grade, but now it felt almost… Affordable? Was that how it was supposed to be? Was I supposed to just use a volley of Explosive Shots to wipe any sort of threat from my face? I…
I could do that. I felt a slight amount of childish excitement. But there were other things that I had to try, namely my skill. Though, having double the mana I had previously just made me feel fantastic. It was a myriad of emotions really, but none of them were bad, and I simply felt fulfilled.
Pondering about what to test my skill with—what object, wasn’t exactly easy, well rather, it was between my arrows and a random rock. In the end, I just chose a rock. I moved through the rubble and found a rock, it fit snugly within my hand. It didn’t take long before I got an itch to push mana into it, and then— I was weirded out.
This is just like? I followed the feeling finding it to be exactly the same as the— I filled it with a minute amount of mana forcing it to expand to its sides, and at that moment a new feeling came, though I couldn’t exactly listen to it. My mana within became somewhat foreign, and I could no longer retract it. At the same time, I felt ready to throw the rock, the skill was complete. It shone on a pale white light and feeling self doubt I cranked my arm back and tensed my muscles, I increased the strength within my grip and swung. The rock became nothing but a pale light as it streaked through the air, and even though I knew I had to look away I just— stared. I was too confused.
The moment the rock hit the ground it blew up. Exploded into a bright flash that left me slightly stunned, and its sound was weird, it rang through my ears and made me blink as my vision doubled for a split second. Disoriented, I stumbled and fell to the ground with slight confusion.
Wasn’t that an Explosive Shot? A barely charged one?
I stood up shaking my head. Grabbing my bow I nocked yet another arrow, this time however, there was a purpose in mind. Without even thinking, I overwhelmed the insides of the arrow, or rather the walls, following the memory within my fingers, and aimed before performing a small hop. But at that moment, an intrusive feeling entered my finger, and as I fired—a bright flash occurred. I flew for a second before landing, though I didn’t feel disoriented. However, I had to blink a few times to readjust my vision.
The fake Explosive Shot was actually Flashbang? Though it didn’t make sense. It felt exactly the same to use, but now it did more after learning the skill.
Why?
Azrie Part: 1/2
Blocked. I stared at the pile of rocks ahead, almost everything had collapsed in on itself, only a few larvae remained alive, just barely. It took nothing more than the spikes of my shoes to get rid of them. Aside from Glim serving as light, the entire cave was just dark and the mana crystals had become non-existent, most of it were nothing but narrow passageways. A lot of places had become inaccessible, a lot of twists and turns were required to reach the initial entrance, but alas. The entire thing had truly collapsed.
Heading back was just as hard, but the place was empty, devoid of any kind of life after the larvae were killed. The only thing present was the wind that howled through the tunnels, desolate and lonely, only serving to gauge how big the space was, but not how much it had thrived. I closed my eyes and finally made it back to the main chamber that was now exposed to the elements. Small flakes befell, as the distant crystal ant slowly fell apart. The entire place was hard to walk on, and for a brief moment I had no clue what to do.
Then, my eyes wandered off to the side — the ant side.
◇ ◇ ◇
Blocked. I sighed as I returned to the main chamber. Every single tunnel was ultimately blocked by rubble, and looking up it was a precipice straight down, an impossible climb that I would never be able to do. I didn’t quite understand how far away the base level ground was, but I understood that even trying to climb it would take me multiple hours. And considering I had already used some time in the tunnels, by the time I was out, the Skirmish would end.
[Incubation Period: 0 days 10 hours 34 minutes.]
The ant nest was weird, it had a lot of eggs and storage rooms, some were full of seeds which I helped myself with. I ruminated a bit on the differences between the worm and ant nests, the ants had a lot more chambers, and some seemed to be subdivided. Though, between the two, both of them seemed to have a sort of burial site for the deceased, which I found odd. My eyes wandered around the clearing, I didn’t quite want to do nothing, but at the same time I felt lost. Well there was something I wanted to try, but that could wait a bit.
Instead, there was something more immediate I could do given that I pretty much had finished everything. And that was of course, the most exciting thing of them all. Testing out my shiny new skill! Well, truth be told, I had begrudgingly picked it, but it was best for me to grow accustomed to using it, and more importantly, grow used to its mana drain—and get used to the mana drain of things in general. My mana had increased by a lot, and I had to get to know myself once more. That said, I still had a general grasp, I was just looking forward to having more concrete information.
My mana was full, and with that in mind I grabbed my bow — the bushy one, Verex — and nocked an arrow from my ring, one of my leftover Common grade arrows. Pulling the string back I felt an odd sense of excitement as I aimed in no direction in particular. I took a deep breath and pushed mana onto the arrow, and then— I had a pause, one of doubt.
Should I enhance the string? I deliberated for a second before using Power Draw as well, even though it represented an extra mana drain, at the end of the day every single arrow that I fired had Power Draw usage. The string creaked within my fingers, raring to go with a bright green light, and the arrow quaked in anticipation, with a small smile I fired. The arrow zipped through the clearing and eventually exploded in the far distance, some rocks fell but ultimately that was it.
Then, I took a quick look at my mana.
Oh. A small gasp of surprise left me. I had already sort of noticed, but it just confirmed it for me. I had used less than one-tenth of my total mana on that. Huh. I remembered that Explosive Shot drained a lot of mana because of its grade, but now it felt almost… Affordable? Was that how it was supposed to be? Was I supposed to just use a volley of Explosive Shots to wipe any sort of threat from my face? I…
I could do that. I felt a slight amount of childish excitement. But there were other things that I had to try, namely my skill. Though, having double the mana I had previously just made me feel fantastic. It was a myriad of emotions really, but none of them were bad, and I simply felt fulfilled.
Pondering about what to test my skill with—what object, wasn’t exactly easy, well rather, it was between my arrows and a random rock. In the end, I just chose a rock. I moved through the rubble and found a rock, it fit snugly within my hand. It didn’t take long before I got an itch to push mana into it, and then— I was weirded out.
This is just like? I followed the feeling finding it to be exactly the same as the— I filled it with a minute amount of mana forcing it to expand to its sides, and at that moment a new feeling came, though I couldn’t exactly listen to it. My mana within became somewhat foreign, and I could no longer retract it. At the same time, I felt ready to throw the rock, the skill was complete. It shone on a pale white light and feeling self doubt I cranked my arm back and tensed my muscles, I increased the strength within my grip and swung. The rock became nothing but a pale light as it streaked through the air, and even though I knew I had to look away I just— stared. I was too confused.
The moment the rock hit the ground it blew up. Exploded into a bright flash that left me slightly stunned, and its sound was weird, it rang through my ears and made me blink as my vision doubled for a split second. Disoriented, I stumbled and fell to the ground with slight confusion.
Wasn’t that an Explosive Shot? A barely charged one?
I stood up shaking my head. Grabbing my bow I nocked yet another arrow, this time however, there was a purpose in mind. Without even thinking, I overwhelmed the insides of the arrow, or rather the walls, following the memory within my fingers, and aimed before performing a small hop. But at that moment, an intrusive feeling entered my finger, and as I fired—a bright flash occurred. I flew for a second before landing, though I didn’t feel disoriented. However, I had to blink a few times to readjust my vision.
The fake Explosive Shot was actually Flashbang? Though it didn’t make sense. It felt exactly the same to use, but now it did more after learning the skill.
Why?
