A New Star Chapter 97 (Patreon)

Anything in the Wilds was dangerous, or attracted danger, or just had a constant potential to go wrong at the drop of a hat. Herbs that gave off such a strong scent were no exception, and such would often be guarded by the biggest, baddest beast around. If not, they would be contested by every beast and their brother for miles, which could get very messy, so it was always critical to pay attention when approaching something like this. I had several advantages, one of which being an entire plane separate from general reality that I could walk through that would do an awful lot of the heavy lifting in disguising my approach to a certain place or target.

And speaking of The Dark, I was becoming more adept at reading patterns in the inky black otherness. It was always hard to tell exactly what was happening within that strange place, but there were definitely pattern I was teasing out. Also, I had never encountered anything or anyone else in all my time walking the strange plane of reality, but that didn’t mean I ever let my guard down or thought I was alone. There were also time where I sensed something, far away and greatly shadowed as it might be, something moving in the distance that was more than a swirl of darkness or strange mana. One day, I may have to confront things that lurked in that realm, but that day was still in the future, as nothing approached me even yet.

The other problem with The Dark was that, even with the level of mastery I had developed, interacting with the regular layer of reality while within The Dark was difficult. Attacking out of The Dark and using it to negate enemy strikes was something I had quite some mastery of, but sensing the world around me, at least at any appreciable distance, was still difficult. There was something about the dimension, or pocket reality, or whatever it was, that really defied extending one’s senses back into the normal plane of reality. I’m sure this wouldn’t become a serious problem later with implications about that layer of reality’s extensive power and control.

Anyway, I had to basically stick my nose back out every once in a while to sense exactly where I was heading, the herb I was tracking giving off a very refreshing scent. Despite most magical herbs not have any kind of sapience or sentience, they did develop tricks as to how to do certain things. I doubted the herb was nearly as refreshing as it was promising it was from the strength and spread of the sent. Indeed, I would guess that the herb was not as powerful as it smelled, but was instead using the spread of such a refreshing and cleansing scent as a mechanism to lure more beasts and animals to it, all of which could help provide the herb with several benefits. Some herbs drank of the blood of beasts and the flesh of animals, some drank of their mana, and some used them to help spread their seeds and pollen, the herb essentially having evolved to not necessarily survive the encounters, but use them as a way to propagate.

Of course, that meant that I was going to have to deal with a whole circus whenever I found the damned thing, and that sentiment was proved right nearly immediately, as it only took me ten cautious minutes to come up to a little clearing in the wood. There was a small stream, maybe a pace across at most, flowing through the area, which itself would bear further investigating, as water sources in such a place often had all kinds of things in and around them. The stream passed through a small clear area of the forest, with a couple large rocks on the far side, looking like animals and beasts had used the spot in front of them for shelter more than once int he past. The rest of the clearing had likely developed from there, with animals and beasts keeping the area somewhat clear of vegetation and not giving a chance for any trees to grow back in.

The herb itself was almost comical, not that I thought it was something the plant had done intentionally, it was just that it was in a rather obvious position. Any observer walking up to the clearing, such as myself, in this case, would no doubt be put on alert just from the positioning of everything present, and the herb stood out like a sore thumb. There was a small little islet in the stream, about a foot across and two feet long, and on that little mound was the herb, the only thing growing out of that damp little patch of soil. It was about as high as my knee, if not a bit taller, and was a silvery green with golden flowers at the crown. I wasn’t sure what herb it was exactly, as there were a million kinds of magical herbs and each of them had something on the order of dozens of variations. It was really the work of a lifetime memorizing everything, but I would likely have quite a few of those to work with.

My grade in alchemy was certainly high enough that I could use some of that knowledge to help identify the plant and its characteristics, finding that the initial scent wasn’t all that far off the mark. It was some kind of herb that would clam the mind and create a deep sense of focus in anyone, or anything, that consumed it, and there were several powerful pill recipes that came to mind where the herb would be the perfect centerpiece. It would also be quite useful in a few different potion, though a potion to calm and clear the mind and ease any outside influence was the one that my memory and alchemy sense highlighted right away. Whatever I used it for, I knew this was a very valuable find, though I would have to examine it in detail to determine what grade it was and how useful it would be. Such things were not always obvious, even when observing an herb from close by, and any plant that was magical or spiritual by nature needed a thorough review to determine its rank and potency.

Of course, as I had previously mentioned, this was a massive setup, and I didn’t just rush into the clearing, nor leave The Dark at all, for that matter. I knew what was happening here, and the giant gorilla sunning itself on a piece of the rock on the far side of the clearing made it all the more obvious, though there were more subtle signs of what was going on. One might think that that was all to the danger here and plan how to take the giant, green beast out, but that was probably the least of it. I could sense, through having skimmed very close to the surface of The Dark, that there was something underground, something large and powerful just waiting for an opportunity. Most people wouldn’t have searched the branches as carefully as needed, but I spotted the two small, flying beasts that were perched opposite each other, one upstream and one downstream, both waiting to try to seize the herb. That was already four powerful beasts, but I could feel that there was more out there than just those four, though I couldn’t sense them right away.

It was enough to make me hesitate, but not enough to stop me from seizing the herb, though I would be smart about this. The many beasts were clearly in a delicate state of truce, and my only assumption was that even if they battled, they would want to try to preserve the herb at all costs. I could work with such a situation, and sometimes, the best course of action was the boldest course of action. I moved forward into the clearing, still in The Dark, and observed the area, finding that nothing reacted to me. It wasn’t just that nothing looked at me or moved, but that truly nothing reacted; I had been come adept at reading opponents over centuries of warfare, and everything from small movements to micro-expressions were things I could read easier than a simple book.

I paced the bounds of the clearing at first, finding one of the beasts that I had missed, an ungainly thing hiding in the shadows, though it was as nothing compared to The Dark. That made five that I had identified, and I was think there was probably a sixth, but I didn’t want to spend all day scanning for it. I observed the five I had found, including sensing what was underground, something like a mole or groundhog but of incredible size. After scouting the area, I moved over to the stream, observing all the beasts observing each other and trying to pretend they weren’t. I emerged from The Dark and pretended to grab the herb, though I didn’t really take it, and then quickly reentered the other plane.

The reaction was immediate and just as I predicted; the gorilla charged the herb without a second thought, and that caused a massive free-for-all to immediately develop as none of the other beasts could stand to see just one of their number become king. The flying beasts swooped upon the gorilla and slashed at him while the shadow creature made a grab for the herb but was stopped when the underground beast, a stone mole of some kind, exploded out of the ground and grabbed the shadowy thing. That prompted a massive brawl that moved away from the herb, which also proved my suspicions right, as a sixth beast appeared from upstream, a little insect-like creature that tried to skitter in and snatch the herb, but that was quickly stopped when the gorilla grabbed one of the flying beasts and literally through it into the insect.

Chaos descended from there, but my assumption about the value of the herb in the eyes of the beast was justified, as the massive battle, which even involved the use of more than one affinity, carried on well away from the herb. I could likely emerge and snatch it if I so desired, but I wanted to observe just who would come out on top of this brawl and how they would do it. At the same time, I was also keeping my eye on the herb, thinking that some truly stealthy beast might decide that this was the perfect time to make a move. That last bit never really materialized, which wasn’t surprising, but the fact that the brawl didn’t draw any other beasts or creatures from the surrounding area did.

It could be really hard to tell in the Shiverwood, but sometimes an area would be ruled by no more than an F-rank beast, while at other times P- and Q-ranked beasts would prowl a section of forest constantly. It looked like these six beasts were the local power players, and nothing stronger was close enough to interfere, or just didn’t care. Ranks were rather important, and that applied to a whole host of things. For example, unless I missed my guess, most of these beasts were around I-rank, and they very much wanted the herb to try to push through J-rank. They might even have been J-rank and trying to push through to K-rank, as it was a bit hard for me to guage exactly where a beast was at. That would likely make the herb at least J-rank, maybe even K-rank or higher, and that would be a big value for these beasts. At the same time, such an herb would have a rather limited effect on some Q-ranked behemoth of the woods; not that it wouldn’t such an herb if offered or if it thought it could get away with it, but it wasn’t going to get involved in some big, very noisy brawl that could attract unwanted attention if it didn’t need to.

I watched the fight for a while, seeing the mole and the gorilla do the best. That was mainly because of their toughness, though the gorilla was also surprisingly agile given its great size and strength. It was able to easily swat the flying beasts and the insect out of the air whenever they approached carelessly, and it even could block attacks or thrown objects from range if it was paying attention. My money was riding on the gorilla and the mole surviving to the end, and if they gorilla wasn’t too injured, it would likely take the whole thing. The mole was very tough, but it wasn’t all that strong, given its rank, and it was not at all fast. The gorilla was a real brute, and could likely crack through the mole’s tough shell if given a bit of time to work on it with no other beasts approaching.

When the brawl left the clearing entirely, to the point the beasts were entirely out of sight of the herb, I shrugged and casually emerged from The Dark, carefully harvesting the herb and placing it in a small container to preserve its freshness before stepping back into The Dark. Despite how I describe it, the whole process took no more than five seconds, even while being careful, and it was a good thing it did, at that. As soon as I was back in the other plane, a massive emerged right where I had been, coming out of the water of the stream to bite at me, though it was a second too late.

It was fascinating to observe, because the beast was doing something similar to me, but not quite as complete. As soon as I saw it and knew what to look for, I could see it had used an affinity to merge itself with the water of the stream, which was a very clever thing. However, it was not in a completely separate plane, as I currently was, and thus, once I knew what to look for, I could observe it and track its movement. The other beasts clearly had the same capability, as they had realized something had taken the herb right away and rushed back to the clearing.

The gorilla, smartest of the lot, detected our little waterborne friend first and attacked the stream, no longer needing to care about keeping the herb safe. The brawl continued from there, and the flying beasts were the first to be taken out, though they escaped rather than succumb to the damage. Of the remaining beasts, the stone was the next to retreat, which surprised me, but apparently it wasn’t in great shape and had realized it couldn’t win against the others. The gorilla had managed to drag the water beast out of the water somehow, likely using the gorilla’s affinity in some strange way, and it was ignoring the insect and stealthy beast to pound the water beast, which resembled a blocky salamander, into meat paste. It was clear the gorilla assumed the salamander had taken, and eaten, the herb, and was trying to tenderize the salamander before gobbling it up in turn.

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