Day Twelve #5

Inis paid more attention to her surroundings as fights broke out among the various creatures and the packs they were a part of.

The smell of blood in the forest had become a lot thicker and it had reached where Inis was staying with Xeni and the other Gremlins.

Each of them were put through harsh sparring sessions and the order was slowly being restored among the group.

The main issue was that the strong scent of blood had caused many to wish to leave the home base that was up the tree.

They became more irritable and wished to seek out the source of the bloody smell but the moment they had acted on their instincts, a swift chop was sent towards the back of their necks.

Inis was sitting opposite Xeni and was busy discussing some things related to the recent events but then changed the conversation. "Are you certain that you do not wish to leave? You said that you have family.."

The voice of Inis had become a little clearer and her words were better pronounced without having to take as many breaks in between sentences.

Perhaps it was that she had started to adapt more to her body or it was the influence of her becoming a grade two monster but it had allowed her to no longer be burdened by such a simple thing.

The more that she had talked and practiced after she had broken through, the more improvement she had.

That was not the only change brought on by her new realm of power and the other was the improvement to her physical body.

Her Aether Energy was very pure and strong for someone at her current stage while it was quite easy for her to control.

The approach Inis had taken towards cultivating her own power was the correct one and the past experiences with manipulating energy in her previous life had let her get a better grasp over how she developed her use of Aether Energy.

The energy that she possessed in her previous life was far more abundant and needed far greater control to be able to use it along with certain magic or martial arts skills.

The current amount that she possessed was much purer and more powerful in essence than what she possessed previously but it was still a much smaller amount compared to what she possessed as a top ranking Dungeon Hunter.

Once she had practiced the use of it a little, she gradually got used to it and started to reign in any parts that had slipped from her control.

The conversation that Inis had brought up had been related to the family and those of the same race as Xeni and it concerned important issues that needed to be brought up.

Inis wanted to see where the heart of Xeni was and if she would change her mind in the future.

Inis had been generous enough to give a training method to Xeni that was unique and rare to the world so she had to be a little wary about it being passed on to others.

She had faced betrayal before so she did not wish to experience it once again so she had to be more cautious and feel out the intentions of Xeni.

It may have been passed on in order to test if it worked on other humanoid creatures but Inis did not wish to see it passed on to others from the hands of Xeni.

If she went home then it was more likely that Xeni may be swayed one day to pass it down to those of her clan in order to strength their overall power.

If that was the case then rather than possible being allies or friends, that betrayal of passing it on without the permission of Inis would only make their relationship sour and possibly lead to them being enemies.

If Xeni would become an enemy that had excellent potential as a Satyr combined with the training method that increased her rate of growth along with the quality of her energy then she and others like her would become a dangerous foe.

Inis did not know about her own potential but the Gremlin physiology and abilities that were available were much lower in terms of skill grade and species grades compared to the Satyrs.

Was Inis thinking too much about it and was being influenced by her past betrayal?

Perhaps she was but it was reasonable for her to think that way after giving everything she had to help overcome the Dungeon Era only to be stabbed in the back by her own partner.

That kind of betrayal had caused mistrust of others to develop within her even if she did have a kind of personality that liked to help put others and form closer bonds with others.

One way to develop a stronger bond with someone was to go through many trials and tribulations with them is what she had previously thought as she believed that all the life and death struggles with her partner had made them closer but she was wrong.

Inis did not know about the deep inferiority that her partner had developed over time and she did not know when his affair had begun which evolved into his decision to have her killed.

Her previous thoughts and what resulted from them were linked to the current situation since Xeni had already started facing several challenged and life and death situations along with Inis.

There was a complex look on the face on Xeni as she gazed off far into the distance.

It made it far more complicated once Inis thought about how Xeni had been the only real humanoid with intelligence and the ability to understand her that she had talked to and developed some form of relationship with since her rebirth as a Gremlin.

Some semblance of camaraderie or friendship was starting to form between them through their experiences but there was a bunch of nagging negative thoughts in her head that doubted it.

One thought that Inis had was that she was just feeling lonely and needed a connection with something so anyone would do and it did not really matter much anyway since Xeni probably did not feel the same way and would leave sooner or later.

Inis looked on as Xeni did so and displayed a hesitant look. 'She has done no harm to me yet… if she does become a problem later then I will just have to keep getting much stronger.'

Xeni turned her head back towards Inis before shaking her head. "I cannot return to them after leaving like I did and coming back as I am now will only bring my parents to be more upset and disappointed with me.

If it is possible then.. if you happen to become powerful enough to be able to offer them some form of help then I would ask that you listen to my requests in the future. I promise that I will put in more efforts to help you if you can consider such a thing."