Chapter 42: Scouting

"How many levels did you gain today, Alysara?" Chyzu asked. We are walking back to town after killing the Chayaotmos.

"Thirty-seven," I answered.

"Day one and already a third of the level of an average Kheshamo..." Chyzu said depressingly.

"Killing monsters is good experience, especially when they are higher level than you, and she killed some of them by herself; honestly, I thought she'd be higher," Esofy said.

"I was capped at level thirty for the first round of monsters," I said as we passed the ice rock that I usually sat on for music practice.

"Usually, that is not a problem, but be warned, after level one hundred, it gets harder to level. Levels one through one hundred are easy; after one hundred the most levels you'd gain are from breakthroughs and skill levels." Aunty's fiance, Lionr, chimed in. After the Aydomr incident, Chozu met Lionr, and they helped each other get past the tragedies they experienced. Aunty is pregnant again, but Nyam seemed to have gotten past her jealousy issues. Nyam, being three years older than me is already well into training to be a potterer like her mother.

"Assuming we don't have to kill several high-level monsters," Esofy said.

As the village came into view, we started saying goodbyes.

"I'll talk with the elders; this is an issue which concerns not just our village but all villages," Esofy said.

"I'll come with; you should have a mage to help discuss how to deal with these things," Chyzu said.

I went to the bath nearest our shop; my family should be there at this time.

"You're late Aly, been playing with your new class?" Mom said as she relaxed in the waters. The twins were currently splashing water at each other and giggling. They don't know their bond yet, but perhaps it might be a good idea; getting to level fifty at least should result in a decent race evolution; they have about one year to practice.

"You haven't heard yet?" I asked, surely news of the Chayaotmos should have spread by now.

"Heard what?" Dad asks, a little concerned now.

"New monsters have shown up, Chayaotmo; they are..." I trailed off. An illusion should be a better way to tell them. I used [Dreams of Reality] to recreate what I saw, Color is not something I can recreate, but a near-transparent eel with three rows of long sharp teeth shouldn't be hard to make. But it might scare the twins, so I refrain from doing so. Instead, I use my skill to make an invisible one, Knowing my parents can see it with their [Mana Sense] "I've been helping the Kheshamos fight them since they aren't too high level, but there's the issue that a nest may be somewhere."

I started washing my hair and tails, Using a comb and brush to get any knots out.

"Aly, it's-" Mom started.

"Not my responsibility to fight them. I know, but they were attracted to the explosions I made, so I was responsible for the first ones," I cut Mom off. She was a little annoyed.

"So that's what that sound was," Dad muttered.

"Anyway, I still want to help, I got a lot of levels today, and with my new class, I should be able to stay safe. The monsters a dumb and fall for illusions, so hiding with invisibility should work too."

"Just make sure to stay with the Kheshmos when you do fight them and don't do anything risky."

The twins switch to chasing my familiar around. I had it fly just out of reach.

After getting home, I decided that a good defense against the water-based eels would be a good idea to prepare for. Naturally, earth weaved mana will be ideal for defense. Now, Should I prioritize physical defense or magical? The monsters seem more focused on physical, but they are also focused on the piercing and slashing offenses if I am to go by their teeth.

I started weaving a gambeson of earth silk alternated with ice silk and decorated with my beauty mana silk. The gambeson would be very hot to be in, so I need the ice mana for cooling. I'll have dad add earth steel plates to it. I made sleeves for steel plates to slide into for the added protection; I'll seal them in once that's done. The brigandine and gambeson hybrid reaches my knees and elbows, leaving my forearms and shins exposed; I did this to have some mobility, and even if I lose a limb regrowing it is possible, just very slow.

And with that, the rest of my Kyhosa mana reserves have been used up. I really need more mana and mana generation, don't I?

Well, I am sitting on five hundred status points. Why don't I put a hundred into both mana and mana generation? A tenth of my base mana and mana generation is twenty, so a hundred points is two-thousand each; wow, literally ten times my current mana.

Then let's get strength, agility, and endurance to an even twenty; my armor will be heavy, and I need to make sure I can wear it effectively. For extra spell power let's get intelligence, wisdom, and charisma to forty, I don't want it to get too high or it'll make my breakthroughs and skill levels hard to get. Lastly, I'll put a hundred points into vitality.

Now, before I actually spend the points, let's use this chance to observe how my core changes with vastly more generations. But first, I need to empty my mana, so I have a clear picture of what's going on.

After emptying my mana as much as I could, I activated my State of Perception and allocated my points into generation. Suddenly like a light had been turned on, I saw, in the very center of my core, a star grow brighter and give off a wave of mana as the generation suddenly grew. Other types of mana were made too, mostly beauty but some elements as well. I wonder if I can consciously make elemental and essence mana; it would help a lot with mana weaving.

I decided that it was worth a try, first essence, beauty essence, as that seems to be the easiest for me, even if essence mana is in general harder to make. I focus on my core, more specifically, the star that generates mana. I first focus on entering a State of Core; hopefully, it's something I can do. I lost track of time, entering ever deeper into a meditative state. A sudden burst of beauty mana notified my success.

Instead of celebrating, I use my current state to observe what's going on. My Core, perhaps Core Star? Whatever it is, it's creating light element mana with beauty identity; now, I focus on the light element and get another breakthrough. Other types of mana are still being produced, likely mistakes in the generation process or maybe just a byproduct.

Gradually the beauty mana lessened, and instead, light mana is being produced at a greater degree. Now to focus on what is causing the other mana types to be created. However, Before I could start figuring out what was going on I was shaken awake by my sisters.

"You sleep too much, Alysara!" "Mom says we have to go to the Lojyo," the twins said, Each pulling one of my arms. I let myself get dragged off to the gathering.

I played music with the others at the gathering, and for show and tell I displayed fireworks, reshaping my fairies with [Shape Beauty]. The ball exploded high in the air, as high as I could send it; it wasn't at full power. Then I started small fireworks show by overloading fairies with [Fairy Empowerment] and sending off an occasional fairy explosion. I checked my messages before I went to bed.

Ting! Summoner's Core has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Summoner's Core will now continue leveling past level 20!
…
Ting! Summoner's Core has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Summoner's Core will now continue leveling past level 40!

Summoner's Core: You've managed to increase your mana production, letting you produce more mana
1st Breakthrough: You've learned how to manipulate your core to increase how much mana you can hold
2nd Breakthrough: You've entered the State of Core, letting you increase the effectiveness of your breakthroughs.
3rd Breakthrough: You've learned how to manipulate your core to consciously produce essence mana, allowing you to produce mana needed for spells letting you tap your reserves less.
4th Breakthrough: You've learned how to manipulate your core to consciously produce elemental mana, allowing you to produce mana needed for spells letting you tap your reserves less.

Ting! Summoner's Core has obtained level 4!
…
Ting! Summoner's Core has obtained level 22!

Ting! Sense Mana has obtained level 211!
…
Ting! Sense Mana has obtained level 213!

Ting! Fairy Empowerment has obtained level 15!

Ting! Your Class, Fairy Summoner, has obtained level 38! 15 status points awarded.
…
Ting! Your Class, Fairy Summoner, has obtained level 43! 15 status points awarded.

Ting! New passive skill available, State of the Fairy! Would you like to accept this skill?

State of the Fairy: By entering a state of focus, you can increase the effectiveness of your fairies by 2 percent per level.

Unused stat points: 204
Mana: 200 [2200] (+1188)
Mana Generation (/hour): 200 [2200] (+4928)
Vitality: 100 [1100]
Strength: 9 [19.8] (-3.96)
Agility: 12 [20.4] (-2.04)
Endurance: 10 [20] (-2)
Intelligence: 32 [41.6] (+8.32)
Wisdom: 24 [40.8] (+8.16)
Charisma: 18 [39.6] (+7.92)

The next day I had a sudden realization, If I can compress mana into strands to make silk, why not compress those strands even further?

Experimentally I did so, finding it quite hard to compress it any further than twice the silk. Seeing as how I am not at a high enough level, I abandon the experiment.

I asked dad to make me several plates for my armor that I showed her.

"I need earth steel, with as much earth mana as you can get," I requested. For the gem we have several Domr pearls. I find that gems added to an item increase its enchantment allowance, but there are diminishing returns. Three gems bring the most benefit; after that, one would just be wasting money. It'd take three more, a total of six gems, to have three times the first gem bonus enchantment allowance.

Enchanting sort of makes the whole thing become one. When you apply the mana and apply it to everything, the enchanted item stops being considered a collection of parts and more as the sum of its parts, enchantment included. This means enchanted items, if the enchantment hasn't been worn away, are very hard to repair; one can't just recast the enchantment, the allowance doesn't go down, which means recasting it won't work. That is, if you aren't making a single enchantment, a single enchantment can easily be reapplied because there aren't any other enchantments messing things up.

What this means is that an item with several enchantments can only be repaired by a master enchanter, someone who can extend the enchantment, which is a breakthrough even I haven't gotten yet.

It will take roughly seven hours for me to refill my Kyhosa; in the meantime, I watched Dad work. The metal she was working with seemed to be normal ferrous steel, but it had tons of earth mana fused with it. This made the steel very tough and hard to break, but it's very brittle.

The best steel is, of course, true steel, steel with steel essence. It is both very durable, if not more so, and isn't brittle; one could even make the best spring steel that never deforms its shape with it. Unfortunately, such steel is very rare and is better used for weapons.

I'm fine with normal earth steel; even if the plate breaks, the armor is still functional.

It wasn't long until I was summoned for a meeting with the elders.

"Probably wants me to help with searching for any nests. We still haven't covered everywhere we could." I inform dad.

When I got there, there were five others, everyone who could move their [Sense Mana] spheres.

"Now that we are all here, let us explain for those who don't know the full situation," Guklaro said. "Yesterday new monsters have been found, young monsters this suggests a nest nearby. Your goal is to find any nests and mark their location. There are six of you, so each of you will be responsible for a direction, except Alysara; since her level is the highest, she will be responsible for scouting the furthest areas."

After a few more minutes of debriefing that included what the monsters look like and also report any sighting of the monsters regardless of any nests, we started looking. With my two smaller spheres, I sent them in opposite directions as fast as I could move them. I could already see a few lone Chayaotmos.

"One young one in the south, two north," I reported. I could hear the elders marking a map after I noted the rough distance.

"Found three in the east"

"one in the north-west"

It went on like that for hours. Once at my max distance, I started moving in the circles, both spheres covering opposite directing. Seven counted in a location. Three. Five.

"I found a large one!" I said. Noting the size had to be as large as one of our boats, easily three or four times the size of a young one. "east-southeast."

I scan the area, finding dozens at the very edge of my range. I snapped my other perception to that location to extend the range of my sphere. I didn't see the actual nest, but there is a school of the eels circling an area, some leaving to join the ones circling others swimming to the center. They were all large enough to be five or even six times the size of the young ones.

"I found something, a lot of those large ones, larger than the lone adult. I can't actually see the nest site, but this seems like it is. Twenty-one kilometers to the east-southeast," I reported. I even saw tiny baby eels, well, about the size of mundane adult eels but babies for these monsters. The baby Chayaotmos are leaving.

"Let's get on a boat and get closer so you can have a look into the actual nest," Guklaro said.

"It should be safe enough sounds like we won't have to go far," Tusile agreed.

We got on a boat and rowed until I can see the nest. I could see hundreds, maybe even thousands of eggs on the seafloor. Above them was a massive orgy of a hundred eels constantly going at it, and when they tired, they move to the outer edges only to be replaced by more.

"...Yeah, If we don't get rid of them soon, we are going to be swarmed by these monsters," I said, monotone.

"What did you see?" Guklaro said.

"...They seem distracted, to make more. Maybe two hundred in total?" I was uncomfortable by the turn of events.

"I see, that's a lot, and it sounds like it will only get larger."

After getting back, we explained everything to the warriors and mages.

"How are we going to get rid of all of them? We expect them to be in the one-fifty to two hundred range, and they are major tier or greater," A mage asked.

I had just the idea.

"Storage items, We drop storage items in and have it explode, hundreds, even thousands of storage items. We get as close as we can on boats, then with flying dresses, we drop them."

"That's a great idea!"

"Where are we going to get all the materials?"

"Will it be strong enough to kill them?"

"We only have three enchanters in the village, you included."

There were a lot more pessimistic opinions than supportive, but it was a start.

"Dark mana silk and rock," I answered.

"No," Guklaro said. "It will take too long, and rock is a valuable material. It'll be easier and faster to just pick them off one at a time."

"I agree. They are stupid and fall for traps easily with illusions we can lure them away or provoke them somehow." Tusile said.

"Thinking outside the box is great; unfortunately for this specific problem, a more simplified solution seems to work best" Yukika gave the final nail in the coffin.

"Picking them off seems easy; we can have multiple groups handling this, we can make short work of them," a warrior said.

"You seem to be forgetting that they are level two hundred major monsters," Esofy challenged. "This isn't some low-level Domr we are talking about; this is an unknown enemy, with unknown abilities. The Aydomr killed six of us; imagine two hundred of them!" Esofy gave a stern glare.

"Esofy's right. They are in their natural habitat, and they may have ways to capsize our boats; I will never again fight powerful monsters without being fully prepared," Chyzu said. Several nods of agreement came from the Aydomr survivors. "Aly's plan may not work, but it shows that she is thinking of safety first, striking from a distance where they can't get us."

"They are in the water, and as long as we are on boats, we are always at risk," A mage said.

That gives me an idea.

"What if we make the boats fly then?"