Edwin jogged alongside Inion, who casually floated through the air at approximately eye level. Well, ‘jogged’ was perhaps something of a misnomer. While prior to Joriah he might have classified his pace as just shy of a sprint, these days the effort didn’t even wind him.

“…and, of course, she decided to finally trust fall just then and totally caught me off-guard. I technically caught her, but that was mainly in the ‘my body acted as a shield to make sure she didn’t hit the ground’ way. She subsequently proceeded to pretend to not trust me for the next six months.”

Inion shook her head, chuckling, “That was entirely self-inflicted. Did you ever get the chance to redeem yourself?”

Edwin shrugged, a motion lost in the bobbing of his torso as he twisted his way through a tangle of branches, “The… last time I saw her, yeah. She was heading out and finally, finally let me have another chance to catch her. I succeeded.” He smiled sadly.

“That must have been recently, then?”

“No… No. It was… what, four, five years ago?” Emotions, get back into your box. Not right now.

Inion seemed to pick up on how he was feeling, though, and incredibly didn’t ask any further questions, the two falling into silence save for Edwin’s footfalls across the dry leaves.

Edwin dodged around another tree. While at first his daily runs had been around the clearing, that soon proved to not be enough of a challenge. Jogging through the unexplored parts of the Verdant kept him much more on his toes and helped him also improve some of his other Skills.

Plus, this way they could cover more ground in search of talsanenris berries and other magical plants. While she’d remained cagey about her limitations, from what Edwin could figure out Inion could leave water more or less freely, but suffered from a fatigue similar to how Edwin felt when sustaining Firestarting over long periods of time. However, being near him helped alleviate some of that pressure thanks to their Bargain.

On a spur of the moment, Edwin decided to pick up the pace and started to full-on run, pushing himself to a full sprint for short bursts of time. He didn’t go at full speed, though. If he exercised too hard, he’d want more food before long, which he tried to generally avoid. Still, he was getting close to the point where he could run at nearly full pace indefinitely. At worst, he had to drop from a sprint into a run to catch his breath. Beyond that, he didn’t seem to have any limits beyond purely how much energy he had in his body.

Survival, he found, didn’t provide him with extra energy from food- which was what Inion claimed Eating did- so much as it allowed him to go longer without it. It was a subtle difference, and not even one which actually was apparent all that often, but it resulted in Edwin only needing to eat once a day at most, usually once every two to three. After that, he’d start to get hungry… and stay hungry, but with no impact to his actual energy levels. It was a similar story with water, though he still got thirsty fairly regularly.

As he waved Inion to slow down, Edwin pulled out his canteen and downed its contents, gratefully chugging the cold water within.

“Water break?”

“Well.” He cut himself off with another swig from the bottle, “Yes, but that’s not it. I think I felt a twinge from my mana sense a short way back.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Not sure what it was, but….”

“You’re still hopeful.”

He shrugged, “Basically.”

“Well, fair enough. How far back was it?”

“Oh, not that far…”

Even with both of them keeping their metaphorical mana eyes out, it still took quite a bit of time to actually pin down the location of what Edwin had spotted. Once they did, though, it was quickly apparent why it had been so tricky to find it.

“So… does this mean there’s a magical oak tree nearby somewhere?” Edwin stared at the tiny object he’d dug up.

“It must. I’ve never seen a magical acorn before, but I don’t know what else might have produced it.”

“The squirrel that buried it?”

“Couldn’t have done it, as I’m sure you’ve surmised. The mana within it is far more complex than anything even you could do, let alone a forest creature.”

“Any clue how to track it back to where it came from, then?”

Inion just made vaguely noncommittal noises in response.

“Sounds about right.” He sighed, “Well, may as well get started?”

------

It proved to be significantly easier to track down the oak tree than Edwin had anticipated, which was in large part thanks to the sudden appearance of numerous magical plants as he headed towards the northeast. It was turning out to be quite the profitable run today!

With Inion’s aid, he was able to dig up a budding hispera bush, prized for its golden berries; a patch of sinbalyne flowers, whose white petals could produce an anesthetic effect; and even a flowering bulb of molai, a neutralizing agent.

Level Up!

Harvesting 37 → 40

Neither Edwin nor Inion could feel the cause of this influx of magical plants, though, which while not inherently strange, did seem slightly odd. Usually, there was some kind of obvious source of excess mana, which would encourage the growth of magical flora. That said, with this being the Verdant, such an external source wasn’t strictly required, as a powerful nature-attuned ley line ran through the entire forest, prompting rapid growth in mundane plants and encouraging germination of magical plants.

Even then, it was strange to find so many magical plants this close to one another, which pointed to there being some replicable cause of higher mana in the area. He had, after all, just doubled the size of his magical plant collection in less than an hour.

After some time walking, the two eventually came across a massive oak-like tree, its trunk stretching far into the canopy above them, casting the entire forest in an emerald glow, the signature indication of a glassleaf tree.

“I think we found it.”

“Really? What could have possibly been your first clue?”

Edwin shot a halfhearted glare at Inion, who merely giggled.

“That.” He vaguely indicated at the colossal forest titan, towering as it was over even the largest mundane trees around them.

“Hmm. But did you see what’s causing that?”

“Wait, what are you referring to? Something specific? What?”

Inion nodded towards the trunk of the tree, and while it took a moment, nestled as it was in the shadow of the colossus, he spotted a very particular plant. Black leaves, white berries… yep, looked like it.

“Talsanenris?”

“It’d explain the tree,” she agreed, “Even without the berries, the bush functions as a… node, of sorts, collecting and releasing life-attuned mana. It probably was just a normal oak tree before it picked up that little shrub, and now look at it.”

Edwin cast an eye up, and up, and up… “All from that tiny little thing? Will it have the same effect growing it at Obairlann?”

If what the Grimoire- and Niall, for that matter- said about the berries were even half true, it should be trivial to grow a sustained crop of them. And if it would have this sort of an effect on his garden or possibly even Obairlann itself, then… sheesh.

Inion dashed his hopes, though, “No. It’s easy enough to cultivate, but unless it’s growing in a natural location, it won’t have quite the same effect on its environment. Perhaps a slight benefit, but nothing nearly so extreme.”

Edwin frowned, “Are we sure that it’s actually the bush that’s making these effects and isn’t just a symptom of the sorts of environment that would cause those sorts of things to happen?”

Inion shrugged. He figured. Something to look into if he ever had time.

Still, no sense lollygagging. He didn’t know how long his would-be transplanted herbs would survive without being properly planted, so he needed to grab the berries and start heading back. Even approaching the tree, he could feel his Mana Sense lighting up from just how much magic was permeating the area. It truly was spectacular.

He knelt down to start picking berries, only for some sixth sense to light up warning him he was In Danger, and as he stood up, his brain starting to process a warning call from Inion- it was already too late, as sharp claws dug deep into his back.

He collapsed to the ground, even as his mind was screaming at him. Well, his mouth was screaming as well, but they were for very different purposes. He felt the piercing pain lessen slightly, and he took the chance to scramble towards the base of the tree and turn around to see what was attacking him.

He couldn’t properly see it at first, some Skill getting in the way, but Identify worked well.

Mature Deepwoods Panther

Well, that was just great. What were you supposed to do in a big cat attack again? He didn’t have his stick with him- he left it back at camp, but he did have a hunting knife with him. It was easy enough to keep it with him, and with a flourish, he withdrew the shining blade from where he had it holstered.

Just in time, too, as the big cat lunged at him, whatever camouflage it had wearing off just as its claws tore through his haphazard defense and his shirt, lacerating his shoulders while its jaws opened and tried to go for his throat. Edwin was barely able to fend off getting his throat torn out by tucking his head in and bending forward, Flexibility helping him get his entire head beneath the panther’s jaws as they snapped closed on empty air.

He felt the cat’s rear claws dig into his legs as it tried to knock him off-balance, but Edwin just laughed. The cat had to weigh some two hundred pounds, which would have absolutely pinned Edwin once upon a time, but now? Compared to the sorts of weights he easily hefted in a single hand these days, two hundred pounds was nothing. Sure, it was on giant meathook-like claws instead of carried in his arms, but the weight was the same, allowing him to easily avoid falling.

The jaguar was clearly not anticipating him to resist, and Edwin was able to use the opportunity that presented to twist his arm at what would normally be an unnatural angle and stab at the cat’s chest.

The tip of the knife dug in slightly, but nowhere near enough for a sizeable blow. The cat yowled in pain and tried to disengage, but Edwin wasn’t letting it get away that easily. As its claws were pulled out of his flesh, he grabbed it by a limb and threw it into the air. As it slammed into the tree trunk behind him, Edwin took a moment to ensure that he wouldn’t be attacked by a second one. Other than Inion warily trying to get close to him, it looked clear.

When he cast his gaze back towards the panther, he had a double-take as the beast seemed to have utterly vanished. Could it turn outright invisible? Shoot. He thought its Stealth skill had worn off. Perhaps it was more effective against the tree bark?

Well, no matter. He had practice dealing with foes he couldn’t see. A barrage of Infused Identifies later, he had the blasted cat tagged with a persistent Identify box letting him know where it was.

So far as he could tell, it had grabbed onto the bark of the giant oak tree and was preparing to pounce back onto him. A split second later, the panther was mid-pounce trying to take Edwin by surprise once more.

Now that he was prepared, though, Edwin was far more capable of avoiding the attack. Not that he actually managed to do so, but this time he was capable of properly defending himself, and the panther recoiled a single paw as Edwin managed to leverage the cat’s weight against it, piercing the pad of its foot with his dagger.

He nearly lashed out with Firestarting as the cat withdrew, trying to burn his assailant to a crisp, but stopped himself. If he accidentally burned the talsenris bush, then this would be for nothing. Perhaps more crucially, he wouldn’t be able to use it to help heal himself afterwards. He’d keep Firestarting as a backup, but without a way to truly control where the Skill affected, he couldn’t use it as a ranged attack.

A melee attack, though. That he could control. Edwin threw his dagger at the circling cat, who tried to dodge. The result was just that instead of striking the panther in the throat, it took out an eye, and it roared in frustration. It wouldn’t survive with only a single eye, and Edwin could tell the moment it decided to not flee, but instead try to kill him for the pain he’d inflicted upon it.

It was an oddly cognizant decision for an animal, but he didn’t have time to ponder that as he needed to deal with a two-hundred pound predator lunging at him one last time.

Edwin straightened his back and reached out with his hand. The moment he felt fur touch him, his skin tear under the claws and teeth of the cat, he unleashed everything he had.

Mana Infusion.

Firestarting.

He felt as the flames blew back onto him, his magic not protecting him from fire meant to harm, to kill. Edwin screamed in pain as his hand began to burn and fangs closed around his wrist. The teeth pierced effortlessly into skin, tearing through muscle, cracking bones. All the while his hand was literally on fire, and the excruciating pain drove all other thoughts from his mind other than one.

BURN.

BURN WITH ME.

He started to feel faint, and the headache of pushing Firestarting to its limits set in, though it was minor compared to the agony of his arm.

Then, as suddenly as it started, he felt the pressure let up, and the supernatural strength behind the cat’s body faded away.

He still took the full momentum of an adult mostly-apex predator directly onto his torso, though, and while Packing helped him not be crushed or have any bones break, it didn’t keep him from being knocked off-balance before he could avoid it.

He unsteadily took to his feet, heart pounding as adrenaline flooded his system. A faint grin crossed his face as he looked at the lifeless body of his attacker, smoking as the corpse tried to burn up from the inside out. He canceled his Skill and kicked the corpse, “That’s what you get for… messing with me.”

His thoughts were sluggish, mind clouding over. But at least he had talsanenris berries now! The bush hadn’t been crushed. It wasn’t a complete loss, and he could use them for healing potions to fix himself right up. He was slick with sweat from exertion, and he wiped his forehead as he retrieved his blade from the panther’s skull. He spared a glance at his arm and-

Oh. That wasn’t sweat, was it? Was that really all his? Surely at least some of it had to have been the panther’s blood, right? Ooh. That didn’t look good.

...Wait, was it nighttime already? He didn’t think he’d been gone that long from Obairlann, but why else would it be getting dark?

Inion’s voice barely pierced through the murk to reach his mind, but as his consciousness slipped away, he couldn’t understand a word she said.