Master Of None

As the sun set, the sounds of the march only grew. It was odd hearing the differences between the desert and mummified city compared to the marsh lands. This entire place seemed to come alive ten times more than any forest the group had been in.

When the sounds of splashing water were heard, Walker could use his keen eyes to find that there was some monster capturing another as prey. The lapping of water only grew as well as the tide rose in its cycle.

This growth of tide brought many fish monsters in to the lake and the march. It also brought a stronger smell of saltwater that had traveled back up through the math lands and toward the fresh water lake that was around where the group had camped out.

Tackling the first watch had been Walker’s way to see what might be around him. He had seen Mordant wander off to look for the darkness place. He also knew that Current had settled at the bottom of the lake. Both would be doing what they needed to prepare to encounter a potentially isolated race that had fled the destruction of their home many generations ago.

While the others had clearly been more exhausted than they let each other seem, Walker was amazed to see that Midnight had stayed up with him and refused to sleep. ”It’s kind of nice to be awake and see something new, right?” Midnight just huffed a little at Walker. She had given up on her dragonkin form to return to her more comfortable dragon form.

Walker had taken the chance to help her clean her scales as he had promised earlier. Small bits of sand were stuck in the crevices of her scales which were definitely irritating. This was just the cost of having scales in a desert. Midnight was a dragon and had not grown to adapt to the desert sands. She had to deal with this until she had left the place that caused it.

What Walker noticed even more though, was that Midnight’s scales had grown tougher than before. It appeared that as she grew, the scales were gaining a unique toughness shaped by the elemental manas that Midnight brought in and out of her body. Each scale seemed to hold a small amount of these manas that her body was using to shape them. It was an amazing realization and show of a dragon’s strengths.

Every single dragon had their affinity. The water dragons had water elemental mana which helped them shape their bodies and grow. But for Midnight, she had affinities with all elemental manas due to her true dragon champion bloodline taking over. This made her able to bring natural mana inside her body just like Walker.

The result was clear. Touger defenses along with increased growth. Walker had already sensed these things through his bonds with Midnight, but he had not looked closely enough to fully grasp what it all meant.

It was more than just her scales that grew tougher. It was her muscles, her skills, and her mind. That was why she was more adept in battling. Why she had jumped right in to the flow of fighting when Onyx had been showing off. She didn’t want to be left out since she knew that he had been working harder than anyone to prove that he had caught up to them.

Just seeing her little brother taking the lead ahead of her had made Midnight realize that she was growing too slow. Not that she was the only one that felt that way. Walker was slightly astounded and jealous as well. He felt that he was progressing too slow as well.

When it came to using natural mana, Walker felt that he had let himself down. He had not developed attacking skills with natural mana. He had only been able to use it slightly better. Had only been able to find better ways to buff others or just generally send mana to others. It was too little and had been too risky in fighting.

The next splash came from a little closer than Walker expected causing him to use the all around appraisal skill to see what was causing it before settling back down in to the scale cleaning routine he had going.

’Blue maw skink

This is an odd beast that will often hide in the dry mud of a march during low tide. However, when the tide shifts, they will come out to hunt small fish so that they can store it away within their burrows on small marsh land hills.

They are very quick but will never fight anything larger than themselves. Their blue mouths are this color because of the unique water affinity poison that they produce. It has the ability to thicken water and force fish to get stuck temporarily before dissipating too much.

They are able to swim but would prefer not to since they are easily slowed by water and eaten by larger predators. This is why they are…’

The blue maw skink caught on that something was watching it as it had just snapped up a fish. It jolted away from the area without even hesitating. This let Walker settle back in to his thoughts and routine with Midnight.

Sensing that Walker was stressed and deeper in thought, Midnight nudged him softly. She was sure that he was going to be trying harder to get stronger before approaching the demons again. Especially since the Fel empire had opened his eyes to life, death, spatial, and time manas. Not to mention what other mysteries were outside the normal study of the world.

These manas were something that she also wanted to learn about. especially since she had seen that they held a lot of power. The undead they had faced, all the mummies, had been influenced by the smallest of death manas. All because someone had gone mad and thought themselves abv to manipulate something they had barely even scratched the surface of.

Yet, it was true that the false death runes and false death god had been created right there. Had become some insane undead beyond what the party had been able to understand yet. That was too much for all of them to just let go. The entire party felt that they had not been able to grasp any part of the world just yet.

While this was all true, both Walker and Midnight were left in a position that meant that they had to learn. That they had to expand themselves and somehow condense what they learned in to one thing. The very same that they had done with elemental manas in to natural mana.

”I know, we have a long way to go for now.” Walker spoke softly as he looked over Midnight’s shiny and clean scales. She had a slight white hue to her scales like a little bit of light had been trapped in all of them. It was touched seeing that she had grown up a bit more even through the recent chaos.

”What do you smell?” Walker noticed Midnight arch her head up and sniff a few times. It was clearly a sign that another monster had managed to get closer to them without him noticing yet.

Through the reeds and grasses, Walker noticed the glint of the fire reflected back at them. His eyes sharpened while he used the all around appraisal skill yet again. This time he was able to jump up and prepare for battle since he didn’t like what he saw.

’Saltwater crocodile

This is considered one of the largest crocodilian monsters in the world that can exist today. They do not fear going out in to the ocean outskirts when they grow to adulthood. This is a young saltwater crocodile that will hunt within the marsh lands looking for larger fish and anything that dares enter its territory. In the next twenty years it will be able to hunt along the beaches.

Some have a small amount of dragon blood within them, but that is rare due to their slow aging and naturally slow reproduction. However, this allows them to develop very tough leathery skin along with powerful muscles. Do not underestimate their speed and strength.

While they will often hunt prey from the water, they will often ambush from the reeds or charge on to land if they sense prey nearby. The best way to scare them is using magical attacks since they are less resistant to magic than physical attacks. They will also…’

Walker ignored the small hints that they will make a lot of hissing and grumbling noises to warn other predators that prey is here. It is a strategy to get at least a bite of food from prey. Instead, Walker pulled a ball of flames from the campfire and prepared to scare away the predator before him. Even if it was considered a young one.

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