4. New Skill and new adversaries
"Where am I? The last thing I remember… I was mating with Black Mane. But where is this? Why is it so dark?"
Hilda couldn't define the head and tail of the endless void. No matter what direction she looked, it was all the same.
A spark appeared in the middle of the darkness. The spark burned through the darkness like a fuse. One spark split into two, two into four, and soon it covered the entire floor.
"Isn't that the mana circle that elf was stuffing into the shards? Could it be that it was starting to take effect?"
"Hello there." The dark elf appeared in the middle of the magic circle. "You are finally trying to activate your mana core. It looks like you are really special."
[Ill-intention towards the host detected.]
[Nullifying the mental attack.]
Hilda was interrupted from asking what was going on by the sudden appearance of two prompts. A tiny section of the magical circle ceased glowing not long after.
"That must be the part that had the controlling array." Hilda walked around the magic circle, trying to understand what was written inside the array.
[Activating
[Activating
As soon as the pair of prompts appeared, Hilda thought the words written around the line on the ground would become apparent. But nothing like that happened.
The only change was that she was now more sensitive to the mana flowing through the magic circle. All she could see was that a ball of mana was continuously moving along the mana circle.
That mana ball was moving more on the part where the projection of the elf appeared while completely ignoring the triangle that contained the path that was supposed to control her mind.
"The mana ball can go in one direction on a line."
While Hilda was checking where the mana was moving, the projection suddenly said, "Now, I will teach you how to sense mana."
"Huh!" No matter which direction she walked, the eye of the elf always followed her. So she thought it could respond to her.
Hilda stopped before the elf, asking, "What is your name?"
"Meditation is the easiest process for sensing mana."
"It can see me but can't respond!" Hilda checked the part that had turned dark, wondering if it was always a recorded message or if it happened because she turned off that part.
"However, it would be impossible for a beast like you to comprehend."
"What the hell? At least tell me how to meditate."
The elf being recorded continued as if he didn't hear anything, "There is an easier way to detect the mana. That is to kill. When a living being dies, the excess mana that couldn't be stored in its core would leak. That is the best bet for you to detect mana."
And the elf disappeared.
"That's it?" Hilda walked over to the triangle, but nothing happened. "You didn't even teach me what I need to do after that."
Hilda didn't know what to do next. While observing this magic circle, she felt what seemed like mana, though she could not explain why it had triggered.
"Could it be because I have high intelligence and wisdom?" That was the only reason she could think of, as she was neither meditating nor killing someone.
Hilda was about to walk away, but as soon as she did, a black mana ball shot out of the triangle and touched her snout.
It then flew away. It roamed across the space before entering another part of the mana circle. Hilda checked the path it entered, but nothing happened.
Hilda walked around and returned to the first triangle and…
The ball shot out, touched her snout, flew around, and entered the same place.
"Okay." Hilda walked around and returned to the first triangle again. The same phenomenon occurred.
"The mana ball takes the same flying path every time and ends at the same place. Could it be that it is a test of whether I got the mana perception?"
Hilda returned to the beginning. The ball bopped her nose, and she followed right behind it. As soon as the mana ball entered the triangle, mana shot out. Hilda jumped back by instinct.
"How long has it been?" The projection of the elf turned towards Hilda, adding, "You took your sweet time, didn't you?"
Hilda already knew that it was a projection. She waited to return to the main topic.
"Now that you have learned to see the mana, you must learn to absorb it. To do that…" The elf paused as if it were thinking about something.
"This guy is such a poser. What is the need for him to act like he was thinking? He didn't even say the other form either."
"If you are not two years old, there isn't much to worry about. But it's better to be safe than sorry. Now that you have learned to sense mana, you should never eat the flesh of a gnoll. If you have matured, can sense mana, and eat gnoll flesh, your chance of becoming gnoll is higher."
"So, they needed to eat gnolls to become gnolls. That is surprising."
"You need to absorb mana and create a mana circle. This one." He pointed at the ground. Some parts of the magic circle started to glow. It excluded the part of the first triangle, the current triangle, and a couple more.
"Those might be the ones he had embedded in his projection. Would you look at that?" Hilda wasn't even surprised when she noticed the part meant to control her was glowing. It was a bit weaker than other parts, but it was glowing.
"You have the option to use mana to create a magical circle. This circle can absorb mana from your kills, allowing you to form your core."
"So you want to put the controlling array on my core?" Hilda had no problem understanding what the elf was trying to do.
What Hilda didn't expect were his following words. The elf disappeared from the triangle before reappearing in another one.
"If you put this circle into your heart, your core will form in your heart, and you will become a greater hyena. But to become an elemental beast… I don't know. Nobody knows how to become one." The projection vanished.
"What the fuck?"
"Before that…" another projection appeared behind her, surprising Hilda. "You are yet to become a demonic beast. So, you can't use the darkness. First, you must find out which of the four elements you are…"
The elf didn't get to end his word before the projection disappeared.
"Is it some kind of trick…" Hilda couldn't end her sentence before the space shook again. The quakes started to become more frequent before the space shattered.
"Why the hell did it take so long to wake up?"
"It wasn't the voice of an elf?" Hilda could not help murmuring.
"What the hell are you growling about?"
'It's the tamer.' Hilda jumped up, and the gnoll stood with a whip on his belt. Black Mane was still lying at the edge of the cave. A little blood was visible where it had been lying, even though everything had returned to normal.
"Come out." The tamer said angrily. Hilda did as she was told. The tamer blocked the entrance again.
"Nothing looks different about it." One of the gnoll mages commented when the tamer brought her in front of the shaman and other mages.
The shaman looked at her before slamming his staff on the ground. A mana ball shot out of one of the skulls hanging from the staff.
Her body wanted to look where the ball went, but she couldn't help but feel something was wrong, especially after what happened in her dream.
"It is still a beast. It could not gain mana sense in just one night."
Although one of the mages said it, from the looks in his eyes, she was sure the shaman wasn't convinced.
"Don't let it go out alone. Always stay with it." The shaman ordered the tamer. Just before they set out, he chimed in, "Make sure all the hyenas that are old enough to have babies have its offspring before they evolve."
**********
Two weeks later…
[Untitled]
Age: 1/34
Race: Gnoll
Grade: White
Level: 11 (11.9/12)
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Virtue:
Sin:
Condition:
Strength: 17
Dexterity: 24
Constitution:25
Intelligence: 100
Wisdom: 100
Charm: 8
Free point: 0
Element: *****
Skill: [*****]. [Bite]. [Claw]. [Night Vision]. [Dominance]. [Mana perception (white)]. [Ancient language knowledge (3.4%)]
Hilda was holding down a goblin with her paws. She opened her jaw and shattered the skull between its jaws.
It was just a little goblin. It was yet to mature. But it was enough.
"Don't eat." The tamer shouted. He came running and snatched the goblin's body away from her. It was too little to have a core, so Hilda let it go.
Either way, she wasn't going to eat it. She was more concentrated on the change that happened in her status.
[Untitled]
Age: 1/34
Race: Gnoll
Grade: White
Level: 12 (0/13)
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Virtue:
Sin:
Condition:
Strength: 18
Dexterity: 25
Constitution: 25
Intelligence: 100
Wisdom: 100
Charm: 8
Free point: 1
Element: *****
Skill: [*****]. [Bite]. [Claw]. [Night Vision]. [Dominance]. [Mana perception (white)]. [Ancient language knowledge (3.4%)]
Even though Hilda would have preferred it if both of those changes had happened to her strength, she was content with it.
The reason behind her sudden increase in leveling speed was that she was the strongest Hyena of the tribe. So, most of the day, she would go with the tamer to hunt. They hunted mostly aura-less beasts, but the number continued to increase.
Although it was slow, she finally leveled up again. It didn't change her stats by much, but she was still content because of her
[Dominance
Type: Active
** Decrease the stats of the enemies, who are lower level than the host, by 5 for five minutes.
** Increase the stats of the subordinate by 5 for five minutes
Cooldown time: 20 minutes.]
This skill appeared in her tab the day after she defeated Black Mane. At first, she thought it was because she defeated Black Mane.
[The host has used <*****>]
[The host acquired a new skill, <Dominance>]
She knew that unknown skills on the tab could steal others' skills. However, she didn't know how.
*Roar*
The roar shook the entire forest. The tamer cried and ran. All Hilda could do was follow what he had ordered.
The tamer, its two hyenas, and Hilda ran through the forest without looking back. The forest they were hunting wasn't too far from the new base they had set up.
Every time the tribe would conduct a raid or attack a human caravan, they would quickly change their base. Hilda had no problem understanding why.
However, there are too many demonic beasts in the area. There are goblins, gnomes, kobolds, and even a gnoll tribe in the area.
Some of the scouts had reported there were even a few orcs here and there, but the strongest being in the first is the brown bear.
And luck would have it, that very thing might have been the reason for the roar. Just when she thought things couldn't get worse…
They didn't notice where they were running. All the tamer was thinking about was running in the opposite direction of the roar.
Soon, they reached a clearing. Only then did Hilda notice that the growl was heading in a different direction. She let out a relieved sigh.
*Sharp*
An arrow flew from the front and hit the eye of the tamer.
*Gyyyyaaaaa*
The tamer screamed in pain as blood started to come out of the eyehole.
*Bam*
Hilda felt something hit her by the side. She noticed her foot was on fire by the side of her eyes.
She turned to check when Hilda felt something fall from the tree. Hilda jumped away instinctively. Still, the attack scratched her other side. She was sure she was bleeding, but there wasn't much she could do.
*Growl*
[The host had activated
Subordinate: 01
Adversaries: 08
Time limit: 04.59]
'What one?' Hilda looked around to find a pair of kobolds who had already beaten one of the hyenas to death.
'Something isn't right.' The kobold wasn't supposed to be much of a threat to them. They were too coordinated for the attacks.
She did not realize the kobold mage controlled them until she took another fireball to the face.
[
Time limit: 04:09]