After listing her new wears in the S.I.S.T.E.M. store, Sam started paying more attention to her surroundings. They were back in the forest, a place that had felt more like home than most.
"Before we run into any higher level beasts, let's get you girls leveled up."
{Ding! Your tame Iggy has leveled up to LVL 4}
{Iggy has gained +2 STP and +2 SKP}
{Ding! Your tame Tempy has leveled to LVL 4}
{Tempy has gained +2 STP and +2 SKP}
"We'll need to take out a few beasties before I can level you guys up again…might as well level you too Sunblaze. Oh and Jarvis can you change the beast bank setting to max again please. I should level it up again too. With so many tames it's going to get expensive."
{Ding! Your tame Sunblaze is now level 3}
{Sunblaze has gained +2 STP and +1 SKP}
{Beast bank is now level 7 with a maximum balance of 6400xp}
{Current balance 469/6400xp}
After adding a STP to vitality and strength to everyone stats and upgrading their skills, they continued on. Her plan was to at least get everyone to the same level. It would take some time…and a lot of hunting. On the bright side the dungeons would serve as a goldmine for XP. Less massive environmental devastation caused to the local wildlife too…although they were a little killy themselves.
There were plenty of beasts about, but most were so low a level they'd give practically no XP. Plus most ran at the sight of them.
Emphasis on MOST. As they passed under a group of closely packed trees, Jarvis was the first to notice.
{"Incoming flock of Zephyr Crows Sam. On your left, and right…ok just look up there's approximately six of them."}
Pulling her dagger and her short sword 'Tempest Blade' out she quickly blocked the one diving for her head.
{-5HP}
"Wow, that'll show 'em. Alright girls, let's show these birds who's boss."
Sam hopped off Sunblaze who made her way further into the woods away from the fight. She was carrying precious cargo and her saddle would safely hide her from the crows. The same couldn't be said for Sam, who was sent flying into a tree when one crow interrupted her landing with a blast of wind.
"Son of a… even with my enchantments that hurt." Swinging her sword towards the bird as she got up, she managed to get in an actual hit. The knockback enchantment threw the bird five meters into the air.
{-92HP}
"Nice, god I love this sword." She said attacking another bird. Using "Beast Command" she sent her orders. It would increase their execution speed and success by 10%.
"Ok, Syn, use your vines to knock them out of the air, then Tempy, hit 'em with static pounce once they're stunned, use chain dash as many times as you can." She told them telepathically as dodged another air strike.
"Iggy, it's you and me baby. I know you're not a combat tame, but you're still a cat. I need you to get into those trees. After I hit them with my arrows, if any of them get close, use "Campfire Spark" to set them on fire. If that doesn't work then go old school and use your claws and teeth. Just be sure you get away before they retaliate."
It took a while, but her method proved useful. Syn pulled crows right out of the air. Using the trees themselves as anchor points for her vines, she crisscrossed them between the trees to bring her vines in closer proximity to the birds. Tempy even used them as a perch from time to time to aim her pounces. Iggy even managed to take a couple wounded ones out herself with no need for Sam to take a second shot.
When they were finally done, Syn's passive Geenblood Bond healed any wounds she had along with her friends and tamer. Iggy hopped into Sam's arms reducing her fatigue and giving her stamina a boost. It didn't really take too long. She was at most slightly winded.
"Jarvis… I've been meaning to ask, but why isn't Stamina a stat?"
{"It is, Sam. It's calculated from Vitality, Agility, and Strength. Most people never see the formula directly."}
"Ah… so the fitter you are, the longer you can fight or run. Makes sense."
{"Precisely. Vitality gives your base endurance, Agility reduces depletion, and Strength helps with heavier exertion. Academy students learn this indirectly."}
"I'm afraid to ask…but what's the formula? Call it scientific curiosity. Plus it would probably be good to know in a fight how long I'll last."
{"Remember, you asked for it…Stamina Mechanics work as such,
Max Stamina Points (SP) = (V × 10) + (A × 5) + (S × 2)
For you Sam that means: (35 × 10) + (25 × 5) + (27 × 2) = 350 + 125 + 54 = 529.
So, you use roughly one stamina point every 10 meters while running. While in combat that number goes up to between 2-5 SP every time you dodge out of the way. 5-10 SP lifting, pushing or hauling heavy objects. That's also not taking any enchantments into consideration. So bottom line? You could continuously dodge, assuming that dodge took approximately three seconds, for a little over half an hour, or run 5,290 meters before you completely exhausted yourself. See math is fun and informative!"}
"Why do I ask these things?" She said to herself.
She looked around the forest floor and sure enough her looting enchantment worked perfectly. With Ten air affinity cores, she mentally reserved two for Tempy and the other rest for the eagles. She knew in their case, they would already be born Peakwing Eagles, but the cores would speed up their growth alongside the incubator.
She still had a few days to get the quest that would remove the tame limits on her, but with the western mountain range so close to the forest and grasslands, she was sure they would probably run into a beast that counted as coming from the mountain biome. Plus the quest for the plains stalker would check off another. There were also quite a few rivers in the area that emptied into the ocean. So maybe she could get a chance to include a coastal biome beast, once they were closer to Thrasien.
"Alright Jarvis, combat report please."
{"Coming right up, Sam."}
{Combat report:
Beasts Killed: 10
Level 10, Rare, Blue, Zephyr Crows X3
Level 11, Rare, Purple, Zephyr Crows X5
Level 15, Epic, Purple, Zephyr Crow x2
Total XP Gained: 5360xp
XP sent to Beast Bank
Beast Bank Balance: 5829/6400xp}
"Uh, Jarvis… your math seems off."Sam said confused by the higher than expected number
{"Up until now, you usually finished off the beasts. Due to the level discrepancy, since Iggy and Tempy are 6 levels below the crows they earn double the XP. Then your double double kicks in since they are technically an extension of you. Thus XP galore."} He replied snarkily.
"Oh, Sweet!" she said walking back to Sunblaze. "You girls performed wonderfully, good job." She said, praising her tames.
Now that she had a bit more XP to spend on them, she leveled up Tempy, Iggy, and Sunblaze to level six dropping her bank balance to 2760/6400xp
"Now Syn you can finally start to level up. Sorry for the wait." She said, rubbing the wilds head.
Syn gave her the wolfie equivalent of a shrug saying.
'As long as you share that meat I'm Happy's she passed along telepathically.
Shaking her head she pulled some of the crow meat out and tossed it to her
"Enjoy"
She tossed a few to Iggy and Tempy and they continued their trip west towards the grasslands. Her quest for the Windroot was easily finished, finding a cluster of it growing amongst some other plants she was harvesting.They were at the edge of the forest now so it wasn't too surprising the grassland root migrated a little. With her first quest done she went in search of the Swiftclaws to do a little egg stealing.
The bird in question turned out to be about half the size as the crows and much less aggressive. The only downside was their nests were built in the very top of the pine like trees they chose for their homes. The upside was that the whole flock seemed to nest in the same tree. After finding the tree of the flock she had been trailing, she managed to shimmy her way towards the nests.
Since the quest stated there would be a bonus for live hatchlings she looked for those first. Of the dozen nests she found two had hatchlings. Pulling some rope and crates from her inventory she gently removed the first nest and placed it inside. Looping and securing the rope to the crate she made a makeshift harness that held the crate in place on her back. For the second one she enlisted Syn to use her vines to carefully wrap around it, gently lowering it to the ground.
Just as she was placing the third nest into the final crate. The parents finally had enough of the interloper. She could understand now why the quest provided protective gloves. Other than the tree, the bird's claws would have left a nasty gash. Luckily her armor was enough protection and the birds were more of an annoyance.
Once safely on the ground they backed off. She was starting to wonder why she hadn't brought the cart as she stood beside Sunblaze trying to figure out how to safely attach the crates to her saddle. Since it had only been a couple hours since she left the city, and she'd have her own baby birds to deal with soon, she made up her mind to head back.
But first she checked the store. It had only been a few hours but she had sold some items already. Flush with some extra cash she bought the necessary items for another incubator then made the harness for it. She put the eggs inside and attached the whole thing to Sunblaze.
Saddling up she placed the other two crates in front of her and they turned around back to the city. After a few hours ride, and a quick chat with the gate guards she was back in the AHA headquarters. She was standing at the same quest counter that logged in her chosen quests. Currently she was waiting for the person who made the request for the Swiftclaw eggs. Apparently they were to be notified when the quest was completed.
It wasn't long before a woman with an impressive owl on her shoulder arrived. Her brown hair was gathered in a messy bun, not too dissimilar to a nest itself. She wore glasses that perches on her nose that say in front of sparkling green eyes. She looked like she had been in the middle of some gardening work from the looks of her clothes. Well worn shirt and pants, each had been repaired numerous times. The stains of earth and perhaps grass on her knees and thighs where she had brushed off her hands.
"I'm here! Were you the one who found the eggs? Where are they? Did you get any hatchlings? Of course you did, why wait around if you aren't here for the bonus." She said, rambling in excitement.
"Which of those did you want answered first? Yes I'm the one who took the quest. The hatchlings are in these crates, plenty of gaps for air don't worry, plus they've only been away from their parents for … three hours roughly. There's two nests containing four and three hatchlings respectively. And the eggs are in here." She said pointing to the incubator.
"What is that?" The woman, Janice Humphries, asked.
"It's something I created. I'm a Master Crafter and also a Beast Tamer. It's called an Embercradle Incubator. It keeps fertilized eggs at the perfect temperature for hatching. Tamers can apply their mana signature to synchronize imprinting. There's a hatching speed bonus of 300%. A survival rate increase of 40%, and you can alter the affinity of freshly laid eggs by altering the mana affinity alignment. Or I suppose you could give mundane eggs an affinity."
Sam explained.
"Fascinating! I don't suppose you're interested in selling it? Do you have any more? I'm a Beast Breeder and Tamer, I specialize in avian creatures. This would be invaluable." Janice said, the woman was almost bouncing. She was so excited.
"I am actually. Figured if the quest asked for healthy hatchlings, then you didn't plan to cook the eggs. So I whipped one of these up to keep them warm. Plus I didn't want to be responsible for someone else's chicks while caring for four of my own."
"Four of your own?" The woman asked.
"Four Peakwing Eagles. Going to hatch any day now. I'm terrified I'm going to kill them." She says laughing "Tell you what, if you can teach me how to keep these eagles alive or at least have some kind of booklet I could follow you can have the incubator for the cost of the materials. I think it came to about a hundred silver." She said wincing "I'm afraid I had to buy everything from the S.I.S.T.E.M. store. I was in the middle of the woods after all."
"Oh that's fine, and actually," she pulls an old batters book from her own inventory and hands it to her. "Here take this, I know it front and back. It has everything you need to know about raising avian tames." She says smiling at Sam.
"Are…you sure? It looks…well loved." She laughs gently "I can return it once they are grown if you want. I think four eagles is enough for me." Sam says putting it in her own inventory.
"I know every page and crease in that book. Keep it or return it. Up to you, but what you've given me is much more. This will ensure every egg hatches perfectly. I may contact you again for more."
"I'll be sure to keep an eye out for the resources on my trip. Maybe it won't be as expensive next time," she winks
They finish up the exchange. Sam comes out of the deal 120 silver richer with the bonus for the live hatchlings. She also handed in the Windroot quest since it was done too. When she asked what the alchemy voucher was for, she was told she could acquire a minor level potion, or common ingredients from the alchemy department on the second floor.
With no expiration date on it, she tucked it into her bag and went back outside. Back on the road, this time for a little tussle with some Dappledbacks.