Lyra brought the cup of tea to her lips, blowing gently on the hot liquid before taking a slow and deliberate sip. The tea was passable. Frankly the tea she made herself from berries in her Spirit Sanctuary was better, but this wasn't too bad, all things considered. In front of her, sat the three main characters of this human camp.
The Mage-Lady, now identified as Lady Helena Dubroise, Court-Magus of the Revean Empire.
The Knight-Superior, now identified as Captain James Stonard of the 7th Knight Order of the Revean Empire.
The Golden Warrior, now identified as his Highness Henry Gustavo Alberto Revean, second Prince of the Revean Empire.
And then there was Lyra herself, sitting opposite of the trio, feeling mighty uncomfortable. The moment she had been revealed to be an elf, the attitudes of the humans had shifted rapidly, and within seconds she had been ushered inside the camp, and then been brought here into his Highness own personal tent. One of the knights had then quickly brought her a cup of tea, which is how she found herself here in this awkward situation.
"We apologize for the earlier treatment, we did not know you were an elf, milady." Captain James said, stiff yet warm.
-"Are elves really that rare?" Lyra asked with genuine curiosity, sipping gently from the tea.
"Quite. But female elves are far rarer. You can see a male elf in the big cities if you get lucky, but I for one have never seen a female elf." Lady Helena said, as she too took a sip from her own cup of tea. Lyra raised an eyebrow in response, trying to wrap her head around this revelation. "Though their beauty has been rumored to be out of this world, and that appears to be true..." Helena added, which made Lyra blush slightly.
The Prince cleared his throat. "I am told elves are quite few in numbers, because only about one in ten children born to the elves are female. It may also take a few decades if not centuries for an elven lady to become with child." Prince Henry said, as he tossed one leg over the other, hands clasped together in his lap regally. He continued: "A blessing, The Empress called it. Otherwise we'd have been overrun by elves long ago."
-"Quite cynical..." Lyra remarked, which earned her a short "Indeed" in response from the Prince.
"Forgive me but... shouldn't you of all people know this? Being... an elf and all." Captain James said, leaning forward, studying Lyra intently.
-"Ah, well I have actually never met another elf either..." Lyra said bashfully, pushing her index fingers together.
"You've... never met an elf?" Prince Henry said, an eyebrow raised inquisitively.
-"No. I've spent my entire life alone here in this forest." Lyra answered, a half-truth. This life, her elf life, she had indeed spent alone in the forest. So she was technically not lying.
"I can't believe it... then again, you are an elf, so.." Captain James said, stroking his fiery red beard.
Then, the Prince spoke up, adding a bit of context. "This area of the continent is called "The Oberon Wilds", after my great-great Grandfather, Emperor Oberon, who once decided to march his entire army into the forest in an effort to tame it, to expand the borders of the Empire and add new, much needed farmland. However, not a single soldier returned. Not one. Ever since, no human kingdom has ever made any attempts at annexing these forests. Everyone knows that stepping foot in here is a death sentence...."
That was some heavy and juicy bits of information. Lyra had not expected her forest to be that dangerous, but it made sense seeing how strong the monsters in here were. However... this begged one very important question.
-"So... if it is a death sentence... why are you in here?" she asked slowly, looking at the trio. They in turn looked at each other, their shoulders sagging. It was the prince who spoke up first.
"Essentially, The Empress wants me and my loyal followers dead, because I threaten the position of my half-brother, who is the First Prince of the Empire. So while my father is bedridden from an unknown sickness, she sent me and my knight-order here, knowing full well we'd likely die."
Lyra felt as if she had walked into some medieval novel. Only thing she missed was a bucket of popcorn. This was indeed intense! And somewhat cliché. Princes with different mothers, the evil empress wanting to get rid of her own son's only competition. It all checked out.
-"Surely she can't just send you somewhere on a whim?" Lyra then asked.
"No, not just a whim, actually." Lady Helena began, only to continue: "Last few months, there has been an increase of monster attacks all around the border of the Oberon Wilds. Monsters from the forests have emerged, only to attack livestock and locals living near the forest. In the past, this has happened on occasion, but now it is a common occurrence."
Captain James jumped in, adding his own five cents: "Essentially, we were sent here to investigate why. Though in reality it is just an excuse to get rid of us and His Highness. Still, we cannot disobey a royal decree from the Regent."
Lyra nodded, mostly to herself. She then said: "But... these monster attacks are real, right? What could possibly cause that?"
"Our working theory is that a young dragon has settled deep in these forests. When a new, large apex predator emerges, the monster habitat will change. The former apex predators will be pushed out from their locations, which in turn will push other monsters, and so forth, resulting in monsters leaving the forest out of fear they may get eaten by something bigger and more dangerous." The Prince said, and suddenly, Lyra felt the hairs on her neck suddenly stand up. Surely, this wasn't all happening because of her, right? But... if it started a few months ago... that's when she enacted her "Trap" plan and began killing a lot of monsters near her Spirit Sanctuary, which also raised her stats an impressive amount to the point all other monsters actively avoided her. Which meant... she could be the new "Apex Predator" pushing the monsters out of their old habitat...
The trio noticed the change in Lyra's facial expression, yet they said nothing. Not yet. In silence, they all sipped their tea, waiting for someone, anyone, to speak up. It was the Prince who broke the silence first, when he said:
"Come to think of it... we haven't been attacked by any monsters for some time..."
"You're right, your Highness. On the way in here, we were constantly attacked by a myriad of different monsters, every hour of the day. But it's been silent now for quite a while... how strange..." Captain James said, and Lyra sank further and further down into her seat, studying her tea-cup intently. She felt the stares of the trio, watching her... judging.
"You... wouldn't know anything, would you, Lady Lyra?" Lady Helena said politely, a fake smile on her lips.
Lyra sighed and cursed quietly. These people were really sharp. Then again, it is not like she had meant to cause any trouble for anyone. So she yielded to her fate, and spoke up.
-"It... may... be because of me."
"Come again?" the Prince responded, regarding her calmly.
-"The monsters leaving the forest... that may be because of me. And you not getting attacked anymore, also me..." she said, running a hand through her light blue hair, her finger twirling a few strands of hair around it absentmindedly.
"You're saying... you are the new apex predator?" Captain James asked, his tone polite yet firm.
-"Correct." Lyra answered.
"You must be incredibly strong then." Lady Helena mused out loud, before adding: "Then again, that Area Translate spell, I've never ever heard of such magic. It must cost a lot of mana..."
-"Only three-thousand." Lyra said in response, which promptly caused Captain James to spit out the tea he was about to swallow.
"THREE THOUSAND!?" he shouted loudly, already lurching up to stand, but the Prince put his hand on the man's shoulder and pushed him back down again into his seat.
"Forgive me, Lady Lyra, but three thousand mana is an absurd amount of mana to have, and you say that is nothing to you?" Lady Helena began, her voice cracking slightly.
-"I wouldn't say it is nothing, but it is not exactly that much either?" Lyra said, truthfully. She looked at the trio, and then used her "Inspect[1]" spell on the three to see what kind of stats they had.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Name: Helena Dubroise
HP: 550 MP: 850
Level: 41
Race: Human
Age: 29
Stamina: 55
Strength: 25
Agility: 25
Spirit: 35
Intellect: 85
Job: Pyromancer (Apprentice, Novice and Intermediate level fire-spells costs 50% less mana to cast. All fire-spells deal an additional 20% damage.)
Skill: Detection (B) (Capable of detecting and sensing magic, traps and curses.)
Available attribute points to spend: 0
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Name: James Stonard
HP: 800 MP: 350
Level: 45
Race: Human
Age: 41
Stamina: 80
Strength: 60
Agility: 35
Spirit: 35
Intellect: 35
Job: Knight (May use Heavy Armor, which reduces all physical damage by 30%. Gains access to Aura-based weapon skills.)
Skill: Commanding Presence (A) (Can inspire nearby allies, granting them 20% more HP and Attack Power.)
Available attribute points to spend: 0
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Name: Henry Gustavo Alberto Revean
HP: 400 MP: 200
Level: 32
Race: Human
Age: 22
Stamina: 40
Strength: 55
Agility: 15
Spirit: 50
Intellect: 20
Job: Holy-Knight (May use Heavy Armor, which reduces all physical damage by 30%. Gains access to Holy spells)
Skill: Divine Blade (S) (A Holy Weapon attack which deals double your attack power + your spirit.)
Available attribute points to spend: 0
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hmm, so this is what the stats of relatively strong humans would look like. Compared to herself, it was indeed very little. But their skills were quite good, and suited their professions. The Prince was a bit lower level than the other two, but then again he was also younger. She rubbed her chin as she looked over their stats, which made Lady Helena react.
"Lady Lyra, you are having a rather odd expression..." she said.
-"Ah, forgive me, I was just looking at your status windows." Lyra responded calmly. Once again, Captain James spat out his tea.
"YOU HAVE THE INSPECTION SKILL!? THAT'S INCREDIBLY RARE!" he shouted, to the point the Prince felt the need to cover the mouth of the captain, to stop his outburst.
"Do forgive the Captain, but the Inspection skill is very rare. If you are born with that skill, you are essentially set for life. Any royal court would hire you, as would the Adventurer's Guild." the Prince explained.
-"Oh, I see. Well, I do not actually have that skill. I am just using a spell with a similar effect." Lyra responded.
"There's no way such a spell exists! It would revolutionize the entire world order!" Lady Helena now burst out, which prompted the Prince to use his other hand to cover her mouth now as well.
"Do forgive the Court-Magus, but she is right, that would be a highly sought after spell, should it exist. Being able to look at the status screens of others, even against their will, is so useful Kingdoms usually fight over the people with such skills. Even kill for it..." The Prince explained, clearly struggling with keeping up his own composure.
Lyra nodded, that did indeed make sense. Without such a skill, you'd have to rely on others being honest about their stats, or willingly showing their status windows. It would be extremely useful for most, to be able to just look at others status windows whenever they wished. Especially, like he said, the Kings and Queens, or the Adventurer's guild, which she assumed was some large mercenary organization which dealt with monsters.
"Would you perhaps be willing to show us your status window? Just to confirm you are the being which has pushed the monsters out of their habitat, I mean." the Prince said, slowly lowering his hands from his subordinates mouths. Lyra considered this for a few moments, then shook her head.
-"I don't think that is a good idea, frankly." She said. Nothing good would come from revealing just how strong she was to these people, and frankly she did not owe them anything. She had just approached them due to her own curiosity about the world.
"Then, how about a duel? You versus Me. That way I would be able to gauge if you are the reason behind the monster exodus or not." Captain James said, bashing his chest with a fist.
And just like that, Lyra found herself having to fight the Knight-Captain...
[1] Inspect: Spend mana twice the targets level to look at their status screen.