Mid Evening - Early Fall : The Forest of Giants | Temnota

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  "SCREEEE-" *VWOOM*

  Plugging the lizard's throat with my aura as it screamed, I looked down at Eve from atop its snout and casually crossed my legs. "Alrighty, you're up Eve." It had been a few hours since Bel had gotten her kill at that point, and while it took a while to find a suitable target, it was time for Eve to have a turn.

  "I-I see..." Just like with Bel, her target was a Kuuxl, a tree lizard so big I could sit in its nostril, and while it was a touch bigger than the one Bel killed, it was right around the same level.

  Over five thousand levels higher than Eve.

  But even still, for this world, it was the easiest target you could find. -I don't think she'll be able to get through its skin though...- "Do you want to give it a go on your own? Or do you want to use one of my knives-"

  "No." As if notig the pessimism in my gaze, she responded firmly. "I handle a mere lizard..." Looking back at the drooling monster with a slight hesitancy, her thoughts seemed to race before finally steeling herself and pulliaff out of an equipment ring. *Vwoop*

  *Tap* Immediately gripping it, the woven vines making up the staff's body ed themselves around her wrist before she set the beautiful, deep blue gem at its end in her hand, and dragged it along her forearm.

  "Hooooh..." *WOOM* Letting out a heavy breath, she pulled so much mana out of her reserve that her aura dimmed noticeably, before raising her shoulders and pulliaff down her arm and across her chest as if drawing a b.

  -Hoh?- Feeling the mana accumuting in her hand, I watched as ily as a young child staring at their teacher.

  As much as I was trying to teach her a lesson, for that moment I became the student.

  Standing right in front of the lizard's mouth, she slowly raised her extended hand as if to point a bow at the brain of the creature before finally, her eyes snapped open, and a series of ruending from the tip of the staff lit up. "HYUP!" *FLASH-WOOM* Releasing her mana into them, a blinding fsh instantly flooded the air before a thick, meter-wide beam zipped into the lizard's mouth.

  It was a beam of liquid water mixed with psma at such a high pressure that it was on the cusp of solidifying into ice.

  A jet that could cut through diamonds with ease.

  At least that was the case oh.

  *OOOM* Watg as the beam was effortlessly deflected off the roof of the lizard's mouth, anger snuto Eve's eyes before she grit her teeth and curled her fingers with everything she had. *VWOOM* Gripping her aura encapsuting the beam and twisting her wrist, the beam tightened more and more with every passing instant.

  Until eventually, it's diameter thio less than a timeter and the spttering spray in the lizard's mouth ceased. *Swip* At long st, the beam got through its skin, and ripped a hole through its flesh.

  But she didn't stop there. *WOOM* Thinning it more and more, she got the diameter of the beam down to just a few millimeters before finally... *Vwoom* "HAH-" Gasping for breath, she fell to her knees and grabbed her head, barely mustering enough energy to look up and check if the lizard was dead.

  But unfortunately.. it still squirmed. *R-R-R-RUMBLE*

  While the beam mao pierce the lizard's flesh, the moment it reached the base of its skull, it simply deflected once more, carving away the surrounding flesh without leaving so much as a scrat the bone.

  "What a fug monster..." Watg the mix of blood and water pour out of the thin hole she made, she slowly leaned bad looked up into the opy before taking a few long, steady breaths to ease her nerves. "Talk about being bit by y... That was the stro peive spell I could muster and it barely got through its exposed flesh..." Smiling with a scoff as she id her staff across her p, her gaze drifted with a mix of uainty and ption.

  But while she was overthinking her own inadequacy, I could only stare at her with wide eyes. -If she just swung it around when it was tightened.. it could've sliced through enough arteries that it would have bled to death...- Given the level gap, I didn't expect her to even scratch its flesh, let alone bore through nearly a meter of it. -It's ohing to draw blood with a on I give her.. but to do it on her own...- Even if it was the ultimate version of a spell that would never see use in an actual fight, overing a level gap of several thousand was the equivalent of making a god bleed.

  Even if she didn't realize it.

  "Hooh..." Letting out a heavy breath, her gaze sharpened and fell ba the hole she made before she forced herself onto her feet and raised her hands tain.. and again.. and again, firing off a different spell each time in hopes of getting through the bone.

  But while the hole widened, and the damage spread, the bone never caught a scratch.

  Even after hours of spell.. after spell.. after spell.

  Until eventually... *Vwoop* Hearing a panel pop up, I looked over to see Eve's face lit by a familiar blue light before releasing my aura restraining the monster. -Looks like it finally bled out...- *WooOOOSH-SLAM* Pulling out my aura propping up its mouth, gravity promptly smmed it shut before letting me hop off and give Bel a few ges.

  Knowing that Eve's uanding of the world and her position in it was crumbling, a part of me wao go over and say something.

  However, it was for her own good that her world crumbled. -If she is to grow beyond the limits of her biology, she o uand that she is and will always be weak pared to other beings...- To truly grow beyond ones limits, you o e to terms with your own weakness, no matter how painful or ungeable those weaknesses may be.

  But while I was worried how Eve would weather the impending storm, after sitting with an exhausted, dark expression for a while, mindlessly reading through the kill-firmed panel tless times, her gaze did eventually steady, and before long, she looked back at me. "What is an 'experience cap'?"

  It was a simple question, but seeing the crity in her eyes brought a smile to my face. -Maybe I don't o worry about her so much...- "It's the maximum amount of experience you absorb in a set period of time." -If I remember right, my old system actually let me select the timeframe...- "What is the timeframe of the cap?"

  "Uh.. it looks like I choose that, there is burst, daily, and weekly... And by the looks of things, the daily and weekly will take time to absorb."

  -Sounds like my old system...- "Then choose burst, it will give you the maximum amount you absht now, but in a few hours, that cap will reset." pared to the other modes, it had by far the lowest cap and would in-turn waste the most experience, however, because the caps grew expoially with level, if you maxed the cap every time it reset, it was easily the fastest growth mode. "If this were an 'opportunity kill' that you would only get once every few years, you would choose a higher cap in order to make the most of this kill specifically, however, in a world where any kill would max your cap, burst is best."

  "I see..." Looking back down at the panel, her expression stiffened. "Then..." *tap* Seleg her mode and firming her choice, she immediately gripped her stomad grimaced while her face was lit with the light of tless panels.

  Simir to me ahe System had taken trol of her reserve to absorb mana at the fastest rate possible, a truly siiion, but just as she looked like she was about to vomit from it, I mao overhear her system reading out one of the panels. "Distributing remaining experieo on."

  -Huh?- Instantly snapping my gaze to her staff, still ed around her wrist, I darted over to her in a panic. "Hey, let go of your staff!" -This is an evolving on, if it ges form while she holds onto it, it might crush her hand!- But even as Eve's grip on it opehe vines ed around her wrist never let go. "Unequip it!"

  But, still in a daze, she couldn't do that in time. *VWOOM* Before she could eve to my words, a mountainous mass of mana flooded into the gem iaff, and its vine-like body turned into tendrils, growing and winding around Eve's arm before suddenly, without warning, digging into her forearm.

  "AAAHHH-!" Uo hold it in, Eve let out a gut-wreng scream before trying to grab her arm in a panily to stop herself and grit her teeth through a rush of tears.

  -Fuck!- "I'm gonna rip it off, just bare with me for a sec-"

  "NO!" Looking at me with a fiery gre, she gripped her bicep while doing everything she could to bear with the pain of the wooden tendrils digging through her forearm. "You 't.. break it..." *CrAcK* "-AGH!"

  Hearing her scream after the staff crushed the bones in her arm, I winced before ing up to her side. -Fuck...- "Then you o bear with it. If you flood your arm with mana, it will numb the area."

  *VWOOM* Almost immediately, a waterfall of mana flowed into her arm but it was too much for her. Without a sira sed, her pale, exhausted expression mixed with siess and she leaned over to vomit a blend of bile and thick bck goo. "BLEGH-"

  No matter how much I wao help, there was nothing I could do. After all, she seemed to have some sort of special attat to the on, and if I ripped it out, it would either break the on or rip her arm off...

  So.. over the course of the hour, I just let it happen.. trying to give guidance wherever I could while the staff dug into her.

  Until eventually, it stopped.

  "Hah... Hah... Hah..." Letting out endless, foggy breaths, Eve ale as a ghost and so exhausted she was simply delirious. However, as the pain finally stopped, and she finally looked down at the gem embedded in her palm, the wood c the back of her hand, and vines encapsuting her forearm like armor, there was a faint joy in her eyes.

  At least that was for the moment before she lost sciousness. *thump*

  Quickly catg her, I id her back to give her mind, overloaded by stress, pain, and fatigue a ce to rest.

  "Is she.. gonna be alright..?" Looking at her arm with nothing but worry in her eyes, Bel stood o me. "That doesn't look.. safe... It looks like a parasite..."

  Sitting down, I was quick to nod. "I got the same impression, but..." Looking at Eve sleeping rather soundly while bathed i, I could only sigh. "She clearly has some sort of attat to it, so we'll have to ask about it when she wakes up... For now, we just o make sure it doesn't spread into her body..." Gently setting my hand on it, I could more than easily feel a pulsing flow of mana as if feeling a heartbeat boung bad forth between her reserve and the gem embedded in her palm as if the staff was asking to spread its roots toward it. -What a freaky artifact...-

  It was unlike anything I had ever seen...

  However, after giving it some thought, perhaps that was just because the only evolving on I gave more than a bit of experieo was Draco, a on that ruly evolved.

  "Haah..." Looking down at my palm after taking off my glove, I looked at the bck mythril ring for a moment before pressing my thumb into it, and guiding mana through it.

  But as soon as my mahe ring, it felt as if a maze lit up inside of it, filled with endless yers, turns, and interses like some kind of circuitry—a puzzle of sorts.

  But that didn't ge that it was something I couldn't begin to my head around. -I have too much to learn still...-

  I o pick up the pace.

  As I k dowo Eve though, I really had to question if what I was doing was the right thing. -Even without my guidance, I'm sure she would be able to mah Earth...- Even if it was undeniable that she would eventually hit a limit.

  Closing my eyes, the se of Bree formally introdug me to Eve filled my mind. The day she asked me to protect her daughter from the horrors of the world.

  -But look at me now...- Slowly but surely, I was corrupting the child I swore to protect with the desire for power aowihe curse of strength, things that gave me purpose for many years, but brought havod regret to the minds of most. -Just like Bree...-

  I could only hope that she took her own path, cultivating those around her or cultivatih rather than endlessly pursuing strength because of the fear of death.

  Even if that fear was something that I had already unknowingly instilled in her...

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