It wasn't long until Rory was following her serpent companion, as she had been the one who'd been hunting when he'd been working prior. What surprised him was that they began to wind around the volcano rather than either moving up or down. Following her for an hour, they eventually found themselves at what looked like a forest of clay-colored pillars with branchlike appendages, almost as if someone had given up halfway through sculpting a forest from clay. It went on for quite some distance, with dips and valleys along the side of the mountain.

"Huh, ain't this something?" Rory said as he took in the scenery. It was odd to see a 'forest' of clay, much less on the side of a volcano. "So, this has been where you were off committing mass murder?"

Eia flicked her tail at his shin, a surprising amount of force from the move.

"Oh, relax," Rory said, chuckling. "I know you're trying to push to A7 as fast as possible."

The snake was closing in rapidly, and her pace had only accelerated in the short time they'd been in this new volcanic region where the monsters never dropped below tier six from what he had seen so far.

"It's wild to think when I first met the Khan of Blue Lightning, it was only tier six, and you're soon going to be past that," Rory said. While it felt like they were rapidly catching up, the fact of the matter was that when it took something like twenty years for A6 to A7, but something like eighty to a hundred years based on his estimates for A7 to A8, there would always be some degree of 'catch up.' Rory had never had a chance to investigate the tier of monsters that could be found in the underwater world where the Khan spent most of its free time. Still, Rory wasn't looking to be eaten by a sea monster either, nor was he looking to offend the Khan of Blue Lightning by intruding.

Now, how fast one ascended was primarily determined by personal motivation, ability, and even a bit of luck. Tiers that had taken Rory no more than a month to cross became a year-long or even years-long journey of hurdles to some of the citizens of Ehkorrus as they tackled life from a much more mundane standpoint; the lack of significance found in such a lifestyle resulted in an extremely low net gain of ascension energy.

Even when Rory was within Ehkorrus, he was seldom idle; he was always thinking about something new, working on a project, which often resulted in large windfalls of ascension energy upon completion.

As a tier seven, Rory had a strong suspicion that it was the 'final' tier most people would likely ever realistically reach. An enhanced lifespan could only go so far; if A7 to A8 took Rory eighty years, it wasn't hard to imagine a world where it would take others two or three hundred years. Rory wasn't even sure that their elongated lifespans were that elongated at this point.

Put simply, not enough time had passed to make any conclusive claims regarding such subjects, even if Rory had suspicions.

"But those thoughts are neither here nor there," Rory said aloud, shaking the meandering thoughts aside. "Hunting, right?"

Continuing to follow Eia, Rory was finally able to make out some of the monsters that Eia had been preying upon. Meandering through the clay-like trees were small packs of bull-like monsters that resembled a fusion between a bull and a fish, adorned with red gemmed crystals.

"Not the weirdest monster I've seen, not by a long shot, but it's up there," Rory muttered. Their tails reminded Rory of what he had come to expect from mermaid tails in old movies and storybooks, but their fur was weird, fish-scale-like filaments. The outcropping of red crystals like oddly pretty bunions didn't help in that regard.

Brutal Kelpie

Level: 67

A kelpie born of a more brutal landscape, it is unknown how the once-aquatic monster found itself adapted to an extreme land-based environment. Although it has not lost its entire aquatic affinity, it has evolved to incorporate earthen elements, resulting in an affinity for mud and clay-based concepts.

"Well, that might explain the weird clay trees."

Eia looked between Rory and the pack of Brutal Kelpies as if looking for permission.

"Go for it. I want to watch for a bit."

Rory had spent so much time in Ehkorrus preparing to leave Ehkorrus that he hadn't had much time to observe Eia as she would hunt on her own. It wasn't that he had never seen her hunt, just not in recent times.

Watching the serpent, she seemed to blend into the earth as she slithered forward, on the prowl-

Can snakes prowl, or do you need legs for that?

-Preparing to ambush one of the kelpies. As Eia got close enough to one of the monsters in the peripheral, she sprang into action, striking the monster with her fangs and anchoring herself in as the rest of her long body instantly began to coil around the beast. For a moment, Rory saw the red crystals adorning the beast begin to glow, only for the glow to vanish a moment later as Eia pulsed her aura, her affinity corroding the kelpie's aura.

Once more, I must acknowledge that holy shit, her affinity, and aural toxin stuff are overpowered.

It hadn't even been a real fight; the minute her fangs had latched onto the lesser monster, it had already lost, as her pervading aural toxin had destroyed its ability to fight back. The disruption of the energy within its body physically weakened it and magically suppressed it.

How exactly would I deal with that?

While Rory had no suspicions that Eia would suddenly turn on him, that didn't mean that she was unique in her aural toxin abilities. Considering countermeasures was, therefore, not an unwise idea.

From what I know, when it is just a matter of contact with her aura, it's enough to repel it with your aura, assuming you're of similar strength. Her fangs are another matter altogether.

The greater your vital forces, the easier it would be to resist, but outside of ascension, the only real way to enhance one's vital energy was investment in durability.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

I do have venom resistance, but I'm not sure that would extend to aural toxin. Maybe if it were specifically from a serpent-type monster, but any other source of aural toxin would probably bypass it entirely.

Being practiced in manipulating your aura would probably help, making it easier to 'isolate' the toxin within your energy. Still, there was no guarantee that it would work either.

Hmm. Going to have to spend more time thinking about this.

Eia, meanwhile, was in the process of swallowing the kelpie whole. While it was bulging her body, it was far less than an entire bull-like monster should have, as if just the act of passing through her gullet was enough to begin breaking down the dead monster into nutrients.

Snakes are weird.

The rest of the kelpies had huddled up after one of their own had been taken, stamping their feet but not daring to charge outward at risk of being taken as well. It didn't help that, on command, Eia could seemingly vanish as she blended into the background.

"She's like a super snake," Rory said as he watched Eia returning at a leisurely pace. She could constrict, had an exceptionally dangerous venom, a strong body, the ability to camouflage herself, and tough scales.

Oh, and an ability to nullify small amounts of channeled pneuma.

Once Eia had returned, she looked at Rory as if proud of herself.

"Yeah, you made short work of that kelpie," Rory laughed. Still laughing, it petered out as Eia's body contracted for a moment as she opened her jaws before expelling a pile of bones.

"Huh," Rory said as he looked at the pile of bones. "That's nifty…. But also, ew."

Hypersonic digestion. Go figure.

Looking at the pack of kelpies, Rory cracked his neck before brushing some non-existent dust off his shoulders.

"I guess it's my turn."

While Eia was great at hunting down a single target in a way that left almost no room to fight back, she wasn't the best at battling groups of similar-tier monsters.

Rory, meanwhile, had no such qualms.

Drawing his hand back, a bow appeared instantly as he knocked the bowstring. A moment later, a red-colored crystal appeared as Rory took aim.

Twelve barely above mid-tier-six monsters. A high-tier-six might be a warm-up, and a pinnacle-tier-six could even be a bit interesting.

But mid-tiers?

Nah.

There was one good thing about the pack, and that was it was the perfect opportunity to test an idea he'd not long ago while working with his Green Thumb skill.

Releasing the arrow, it shot forward faster than a hypersonic bullet, striking straight through the skull of one of the kelpies. Flexing his intent for a moment, the show didn't end there, as from the kelpie, vines exploded outward, lashing outward before impaling the next closest bull monster, taking root.

Oh, shit.

Rory took a step back, suddenly dazed.

Yep, fuck, that's exhausting.

Rory had a better understanding than most about taking a skill and breaking it down, making sense of its components that could be applied elsewhere. Green Thumb had been a skill he hadn't put much thought into for quite some time, but as he'd spent time using it during his planting session, a question wormed its way into his mind.

What was causing the growth?

It seemed like a stupid question; the answer was obviously energy, but the why was what Rory had found himself pondering. His eventual deduction was that it was the empowerment of a concept, as most things were.

Rory wouldn't pretend he fully understood the depths of anything relating to whatever concepts were at play. Still, just the notion that there was a concept for growth seemed obvious on its own.

When Rory was younger, he had utilized quite a variety of trick arrows before growing out of them; they were more of a hassle than worth it, as he outgrew their usability. With that said, there was one trick arrow in particular that he had liked over the rest: ghost vine arrows. They would lash out with ghostly vines and ensnare anything nearby.

Having been the progenitor of the arrows and made quite a few in the past, it wasn't hard for Rory to add the arrow to his projection arsenal upon reaching A7; the ghost vines weren't physically 'real to begin with, after all.

The bloody vines continued to run amok between the kelpies, sowing chaos as Rory regained his focus.

But it fucking worked!

The biggest issue with projection magic was that they weren't permanent. Sure, Rory could make them last far longer and make them far more tangible using his lattice affinity, but they were still just projections.

His blood affinity could be selectively applied, adding some conceptual weight but not much else.

His ghost vine arrows had never been tangible, though, making them perfect for incorporation into his projection arsenal. Born of actual growth and plant concepts, Rory had considered that there was a slight possibility that when he projected the ghost arrows while infused with his blood essence and finally adding a touch of the concepts he felt from Green Thumb, the resulting arrows could bridge the gap from temporary, ephemeral projections to true permanence.

Which was precisely what Rory was witnessing. In fairness, the spectacle didn't play out quite as he had expected; it wasn't the arrows themselves that had been truly made manifest, but the resulting blood vines that exploded out from the primary target as they fed off their vitality, but it was still more than Rory had honestly hoped for.

"Blood Vine Arrow acquired," Rory said with a proud smile. Given that he couldn't earn combat skills like others could, he had mentally opted to name some of his pseudo-skills. Was it partially out of pettiness? Yes. Did Rory care? No.

The kelpies were finally beginning to gather themselves, realizing the dangers of standing too close to one another as they attempted to stamp out the bloody vines, like fibrous intestines with a life of their own. Before they could fully recover, Rory fired several more regular arrows, enough that the kelpies were unable to escape as the blood vines fully ensnared the pack.

"I will admit," Rory said with a partial frown. "It is a bit, err, gruesome."

His grandparents had once loved a rather corny horror movie, The Thing, which involved a fleshy-looking monster that could 'invade' the bodies of others.

Or so that was what Rory remembered of the movie; he had been too young, so he'd quickly run away in fear as they had watched it.

Either way, what Rory was looking at now reminded him uncannily of scenes from the movie, the vines still growing into what looked like a fleshy, writhing mass of mindless intestines.

"Hmm… Maybe less focus on growth concepts the next time."

Eia looked at him; even for a monster, Rory could read the discomfort on her face.

"Yeah, it's not pretty," Rory sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Work in progress, I swear."

It took several minutes longer until the vines stopped sprouting, dropping flaccidly to the desecrated ground.

"Well, it got the job done," Rory finally said as he approached the mass. "Just, maybe we don't eat any of this meat."

What he had really needed was the bones, and there were still more to collect. He had briefly considered using the coral trees for what he was looking to do, except the coral trees were only ranked as common. The absolute worst thing would be for an unexpected integrity failure, either losing what he was working on or potentially even dumping himself into some hot magma.

Thus, monster bones from tier-six monsters.

Spending another three days hunting through the area, Rory finally had enough bones for his project. Making his way back to their cave, Eia remained behind to continue gorging herself. 'Home,' Rory dropped the bones upon the floor, hands on his hips.

"Alright, build materials handled."

Grabbing his crafting knife and a small hammer, Rory got to work. Carving and chiseling, he planned to shape the tough bones into proper struts and beams that he could interlock. First, he would fashion a grate over everything but the innermost portion of the magma whirlpool. Then, he would begin to fashion a 'cage' that could suspend a crucible within, allowing him to start proper melt-working. It was still quite a distance from the setup he envisioned, but baby steps were required.

Eventually, he planned to replace the bone materials with proper building materials. Still, there was a limit to what he had available at the time.

Beggars and choosers and all that jazz.

Settling into his work, time seemed to pass in a blur as the bone grate was built, eventually placed over the slow-moving whirlpool.

Of course, once that was done, there would only be more things to do.

"Well, no one can accuse me of being lazy."

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