Kael and Lira listened and headed toward Mira and Rico. Sylas then took Luis to the Xoliti Clan member while making sure to keep a watch on the kids' shadows.
Luis followed him in silence, listening to his footsteps as he stepped on the cavern floors while staring at the glowing Azurin crystals.
As Luis arrived with Sylas, the Xoliti Clan member who was sitting on the floor looked like he was just about to finish putting a barrier on the kid before him.
"Okay, Luis, just follow what this nice man says and then head over to the circle, okay?" Sylas said while raising a fist towards Luis with a thumbs-up gesture.
Luis nodded and stared at the Xoliti Clan member. He had a fierce look with a sharp gaze, but it wasn't a scary or unkind look. As the kid before Luis got up, the Xoliti Clan member gestured to him.
"Come sit down here,"
he said, pointing at the same spot the other kid sat.
"Extend out your right arm all the way and turn so you're facing away from me while the right side of your right arm faces me."
Luis did as he was instructed, and then he looked to his right and saw the man's fingertips glowing. After they started glowing, he slowly started to trace a few patterns on Luis's arm. Luis could feel the strange sensation of the energy on his arm. It wasn't anything that felt too gross or weird that would make him tingle, but instead, it just felt warm.
The man spoke as he worked.
"What this does is protect you from attacks multiple weak attacks and even one strong hit from an elite-tier aura user. But it will break after the attacks, and it doesn't last long either only one day. I can make it stronger, but then the aura usage amount increases too much, and I won't be able to put one on everyone. Another thing it does is help you hide from detection blessings."
As the man finished the sentence, he raised the finger he was using to trace on Luis's arm. The symbols still glowed for a few seconds before disappearing.
"And that's it. You now have a barrier for one day, but don't rely on it too much."
"That's it?"
Luis replied in surprise. He hadn't expected it to end so fast it only took a minute or two.
"Yep, that's it. Now go join the rest."
Luis stood up, still a bit surprised at how fast it was. He couldn't even feel the barrier unless he really focused on it, which surprised him more. When he did focus on it, the barrier felt like the rock golem blessing but more complex. He didn't know how to explain it, but it felt like they had the same principles, except one was way more advanced.
Two days passed with nothing happening. Both the days had the same rhythm helping set up tents, and staying with Rico, Mira, and Sylas because they weren't allowed to not be in a group. Luis had just spent the last two days using his aura disk and trying to advance to the new tier.
On the second day, he was almost there. Luis was able to split his two cores into four cores but he was not able to keep them stabilised. When the core increased in size after splitting it took too much concentration from Luis to keep their shape. It felt like the aura was going against him not wanting to become a core. In the end, Luis was able to keep the four cores for five minutes but after that, they broke apart. Luis wasn't able to try again as when the cores broke the aura dissipated outside of his body.
Luis planned to also practice today as he felt that he was almost there, he felt that he needed a tiny step more. However. today Luis could feel anticipation for something in the air, he realized what it was when he overheard two adults having a conversation.
He heard them talking about finally leaving the place tomorrow morning. Luis was excited to finally leave the place. The realization placed a sense of urgency on him but it also felt uneasy to leave there, it felt like it was a calm before the storm.
Luis was looking at the glowing crystals on the wall while moving a small box to the temporary cooking area set up when someone lifted up the box from his hands from beside him.
Luis looked to his side realising it was his dad. "Let me help you move this kiddo."
His dad said as he grabbed the box with a smile on his face.
"I could have done it myself," Luis said to express that it wasn't tiring to lift it.
"Yeah yeah I know you can Luis, I came over for a different reason. I saw how hard you have been practicing the last two days and how you were so close yesterday. So I came to ask if you wanted to try something different today for practice."
Luis nodded in excitement "I can do it right now.!" he said eagerly because of how monotonous he was feeling the past two days.
"Well, kiddo it will be a bit challenging. We are gonna have some first-hand experience fighting a low-tier creature. Are you sure you're up to it?"
Noah said in a serious tone.
Luis tensed up a bit because his thoughts went to the last time he had fought but he still said with a small pause "Yes I can do it"
Noah not speaking seriously anymore replied in a kind tone while smiling
"Okay let's drop this off first and on the way I'll tell you what we are gonna be fighting."
"Also let's go remove the barrier from you, let's make it one that only stops detection blessings and not attacks."
Luis nodded in agreement.
"Right before we go there let me tell you what we will be doing. We are gonna go after Sand Strikers. They are the same shape as sand rats the ones that were near the villages but these are more agile and smart. They only move in groups and can launch sand multiple times in succession instead of just once in a few seconds. And there's something special about their sand. Their sand attacks can pierce the skin. So you're gonna have to have great aura control to move your aura to guard against the attacks."
"Their attacks are not strong enough to go through your golem blessing but they all tend to start targeting the same place if they can't pierce the skin of a creature. So you're gonna have to move the aura in your body to make your skin more durable where they are attacking. The fight is gonna test your reaction time and some practical experience for your fight. So you ready?"
Luis didn't immediately respond he felt anxious at the thought of fighting again but he also felt a strange sense of excitement to be able to finally have some practical experience instead of just training. Looking at his dad's calm demeanour he got the confidence boost he needed.
"They don't sound too strong I can do it" Luis replied.
"Okay let's go then."
Luis had expected to walk out of the caverns but after he and his dad took the box to the cooking area and then went to the Xoliti clan member to change the barrier, his dad just told him to stand still. Which is when they were engulfed by shadows and teleported outside the caverns to the middle of a forest. The sun shone brightly through the leaves above them.
Luis had expected the area to be surrounded by jagged rocks like where the golems were but to his surprise the area was lush with greenery. It also felt weird seeing the sun for the first time in a while. Luis's sense of time was ruined because of being in enclosed spaces like the Wrift caverns and the shadow prison.
Taking Luis out of his thoughts Noah started explaining about the surroundings.
"I know it's surprising but all the caverns are below this forest. There are small caves that lead to the caverns all around this forest. This forest is also dangerous it mainly has mid-tier creatures or tier two creatures depending on what you call them."
"The sand strikers are one of the only low-tier creatures here and that's only because they hunt in groups. There are even some high-tier creatures that roam around in the forest. Well you don't have to worry about that Aunt Sera said she will pull any creatures higher than tier one away from here so you don't have to worry about encountering them."
Luis replied by nodding as he was still taking in the surroundings.
- - -
Low Tier/Tier 1
Low Tier Rank 1
Low Tier Rank 2
Low Tier Rank 3
Middle Tier/Tier 2
Middle Tier Rank 1
Middle Tier Rank 2
Middle Tier Rank 3
High Tier/Tier 3
High Tier Rank 1
High Tier Rank 2
High Tier Rank 3
Unclassified Tier