247: Growth
As the caravan started moving in the morning, I noticed Milo was joining us at the back for once, which really broke with what normally happened, so I had to ask, right?
“Milo, why are you back here today?” I said.
Milo had a huge grin. “Lewie and Crisplet are up front today, but I’ve also got some things to look into and won’t be as observant at the front.”
“Look into?” I questioned.
Milo nodded. “Yeah, so obviously I nearly ran out of mana yesterday, and I am very familiar with my normal mana regeneration time. It’s been consistent for years. That was until yesterday, when I seemed to have regained mana much faster than expected.”
“Could it have been the food we ate?” I asked.
Milo nodded. “I’m not ruling it out. It didn’t have mana regeneration exactly, but there’s certainly a possibility. However, you might not recognise it being your first season out travelling, but what we’re seeing here is not normal either.”
Milo gestured around us as we moved through the forest, and looking around, I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary myself. The forest floor was covered in mosses, random bushes and plants, and genuinely just looked like a normal forest floor.
Milo smiled. “The problem, Trev, is the growth this is at right now is what I’d expect near the end of spring, not immediately after winter ends. Everything is growing faster than I’d expect, and it’s not like we had a particularly warm winter which would help explain it.”
“The mana pulse,” Jen said from the side.
Milo nodded. “I think so. I think it’s having a far greater effect on the world than we even thought. We knew it could have a knock-on effect on the creatures, faster evolution and growth, but it’s affecting everything.”
“What’s that mean for us though? More danger?” I asked.
Milo nodded again. “Yes, for one, but if my theory is correct and my mana regenerated faster, then it also means we could gain levels faster as well. After all, more mana is more experience if you use it.”
My thought jumped to the next topic as I looked to the front.
“So, who’s drying the road if you’re back here?” I asked.
Milo laughed. “Crisplet insisted. I think he sees mud as some sort of enemy right now, as it’s being attacked with some pretty extreme heat.”
While Milo moved on to reading his notes, I moved Sable over towards Jen.
“How did Crisplet go on watch?” I asked.
A beaming smile came across Jen’s face. “He’s a natural at it, honestly. Seems to have a proper sense for anything heat-related. The first hour was spent killing any insect that approached the house. Then I think he got annoyed with how many there were, so he set up that firewall, which burnt solid for at least a couple of hours.”
It felt good to know that Crisplet was helpful. I was worried they were just accepting the help to be kind, and I didn’t want to be a burden or make watch harder.
“That’s good to hear. I don’t know how much experience he gained from it, but it seemed like he had fun,” I said happily.
“Can’t you see his stats?” Liane asked.
“I can, but it feels intrusive now that I’m not making any choices. Plus, I know Crisplet likes to show off new stuff. It would probably upset him if I knew about everything ahead of time,” I explained.
“You’re strange,” Milo said simply.
Causing Jen to laugh. “Just figuring that out?”
It was only really then that I thought about the others’ stats. I had seen Hari practise every day, Jen most days, and Milo was always in a book, but I really didn’t know how they earned experience.
“How do you guys earn experience?” I asked bluntly.
“Fighting, mostly,” Liane said.
“So you didn’t gain any experience while we were in the capital?” I continued.
They all seemed to take their time thinking about this one. Liane was the first to answer. “Honestly, I probably earned the least, but I made plenty of gains in my stealth, which is currently nearly level ten.”
“No evolution?” I asked curiously.
Liane laughed. “I have some there, but none of them are very useful right now compared to just having general stealth. Skills like forest ambush or street shadow would be very useful if I were permanently in one or the other.”
“I gained two levels while in the capital. Both came from lessons with Sylverith. I don’t exclusively gain experience in combat, although it’s certainly the fastest method, or at least it was,” Milo said, still reading.
Jen and Liane both looked at him, shocked.
“When did this happen? You never mentioned it at all!” Jen said, sounding outraged.
Milo laughed. “You never asked.”
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Liane was laughing next to her, as Jen let out a loud sigh.
“In answer to your question for myself, Trev, I didn’t gain anything in the city. I get most of my experience once we get out in the wilderness and forested areas like this, when I can go hunting,” Jen said.
I nodded, turning back to Milo. I pushed further. “You said you got two levels. Did you get any evolutions from it?”
A grin spread across Milo’s face. “I did! Although I won’t be able to complete the quest until we return to the capital. I need to learn three more draconic runes or spells.”
Jen looked shocked. “What do you mean, or spells? I’ve only seen you work on the runes. You haven’t been pestering Sylverith, have you?”
“She offered!” Milo said, sounding offended.
“She’s still a dragon,” Jen said firmly.
A giant grin spread across Milo’s face. “Exactly! You want to know how many mages have learnt something from a dragon in the last age?”
“Not many, I’d say,” I said. I couldn’t help but laugh, though.
“One. Just me. There are no recorded instances of a dragon teaching any human spells, and certainly not runes, in any recent history from the last thousand years or so. I will not pass that up,” Milo said very seriously.
“You could be the first dragon mage!” Liane said.
Milo didn’t respond, but he clearly didn’t take Liane’s comment as a joke, so I had to wonder if he’d even consider that. The earth and air magic seemed so incredibly versatile. I couldn’t imagine giving it up.
Jen didn’t push it further. It was very clear this was a point of pride, and one that I have not truly appreciated.
***
When we stopped for lunch, the first thing that happened was Crisplet rushing over and expressing joy, strength, and pride.
“You’re doing awesome. Jen said you were great on watch too. Not a single bug or creature got past you,” I said happily.
Crisplet let off a large burst of sparks before racing to the pile of wood Jen was setting up for a fire, before it burst into flames as well.
Looking around, I noticed the forest here was getting to be rather dense, the trees still towering above, casting everything in shadows, and the ground was covered in moss and leaf litter, with scattered small bushes and struggling saplings.
“Is that running water?” I asked.
Milo nodded. “Yeah, there’s a natural spring in here. If you didn’t have a mage and were running low, it’s a great place to refill.”
Looking around, I spotted something with foraging that stood out compared to everything else. I couldn’t see it clearly, but it looked to be a fern or a small plant with several bent spikes glowing blue. It was only just past the edge of the clearing.
“Milo, could we go over there? There’s something glowing very blue with foraging just past the treeline,” I said, pointing.
Milo looked before peering at the others who were sitting around the fire.
“Are you sure it’s close?” he asked.
Nodding, I said, “It’s one or two trees back. Super close. It looks new.”
With a sigh, Milo agreed, leading the way in the direction I pointed.
It didn’t take long to find exactly what I was looking for. It stood out in the sea of brown and green. There was a fern that appeared almost white, with a tinge of yellow-green on the tips of its oldest leaves.
As I got closer, I realised the plant itself wasn’t white, but it was covered in a white fuzz, almost like hair all over it. When I pointed it out to Milo, he looked confused.
“That’s the one. It looks like the core of each leaf is glowing bright blue, while the rest looks very dull,” I said, approaching.
Milo didn’t move with me, instead standing still.
“Everything okay?” I asked, halting when I realised he wasn’t following.
Milo shook his head. “I don’t know. Another oddity. I know that plant. It’s simply named a crystal fern, and most people wouldn’t go anywhere near it due to each one of those hairs being able to inject some venom into you.”
I shrugged. “It’s absolutely showing up as blue to me, so I guess I’ll just need to clean it properly and remove the toxins?”
“That’s not actually what is odd, though. That shouldn’t be growing here, and if it was simply the mana from the goddess, it’s grown too fast, way too fast, so I wonder if it was already here?”
While Milo was in his dilemma, I wasn’t about to miss my chance. I had my good gloves on, so I wasn’t worried about any hair-like spikes. So, bringing out my knife and extending it to be long and sharp, I approached, taking a firm grip of the leaf before cutting it at the base.
I was very careful to make sure nothing was touching me. Even if it wasn’t dangerous, the idea of very fine hairs stabbing into my skin wasn’t enjoyable.
Storing it, I saw it was uncommon, but I’d likely need to go to my book on herbs and ingredients to see if I could find any real details on it, especially if Milo had not seen it be used before.
Not wanting to push my luck any further, we made our way back to the camp where everyone was having their lunch, catching Jen’s attention immediately, who seemed to read Milo’s facial expressions.
“Why does he look really happy, and you look incredibly concerned?” Jen asked with a chuckle.
“I found a new ingredient!” I said happily, seeing some sparks come out of the fireplace.
“Mmhmm, and him?” Jen said.
Milo didn’t answer, choosing instead to just quietly sit down next to her, before a small bubble of air mana rushed past me. It felt like it barely covered Jen, Liane, Milo and myself.
“The plant he got, a fully grown crystal fern. It shouldn’t be here. This forest isn’t dense enough in mana,” Milo said.
“We’ve already seen the effects of the pulse, though,” Liane started.
Milo shook his head. “No, unless it grew to full size in a little over a week. This looked like it’s been growing for months.”
“Could it be Sylverith’s shift from the forest to the capital?” Jen offered.
Milo again shook his head. “She’s still been deep in the forest the whole time. The only time we know that she has left was to collect the seed.”
“And the village situation,” I corrected him.
Jen raised an eyebrow. “Not a topic for now, but you’re right, Trev. I mean, perhaps that’s what has caused it, but I can’t see how it spread here.”
“We should be okay at the dark forest though, right? We have Lily after all,” I said happily.
Milo frowned. “I hope so. With all these signs, I’d normally be advising strongly against the dark forest route. I suspect for normal travel it’ll be far too dangerous if mana levels have drastically increased.”
I was putting a lot of faith in Lily, but it was also my duty now to see all the towns on the edge of the forest, right? Sylverith specifically asked for the towns to not destroy her forest.
When lunch was over, Milo went back to the front of the caravan, clearly concerned about the developments, and Crisplet stayed at the front as well, causing Luis to drop back.
“Something happen at lunch?” he asked as he came alongside us.
Jen shook her head. “It should be fine. Just seeing some concerning signs. Might be a more dangerous trip than we expect, is all.”
Luis let out a sigh of relief. “Great, because I’m itching to kill something strong. I’ve not tried half of these new abilities yet.”