Chapter 44
Which meant it remained an ordinary Second-tier spell. However high its numerical strength climbed, it did not yet carry the unit of Senior Second-tier spell power.
As a Prime Second-tier Silver Dwarf, Lofnar had every right to look down on Elise's [Holy Light Arrow].
The others saw it differently.
As the mana fluctuations of the forming spell grew stronger, everyone waited eagerly to see its power.
Soon, a chorus of furious roars boomed from the cave.
Then the ground shook as if the hillside were tearing itself apart, and a black bear weighing well over a thousand pounds came charging out.
Leave it to a monster to be that absurdly big.
The thought flashed through Elise's mind.
The instant Chalmers swung his greatsword and forced the black bear to dodge, Elise seized the opening and loosed her spell.
The arrow of light ripped through the air, streaking toward the bear.
To guarantee the hit, she aimed for its massive torso.
"Roar!"
Second-tier monsters were not especially bright. On pure instinct, the black bear threw up a forepaw to block the [Holy Light Arrow].
The arrow punched straight through the paw.
Then, obstructed, it followed its spell structure and detonated.
Surging mana shredded the bear's paw, and shards of light stabbed deep into its body.
"Roar!"
When Awakened hunted monsters, speed decided everything. Victory or defeat could turn on a single breath.
Chalmers took his chance. Swinging his greatsword even as he stepped back, he laid open the black bear's left leg.
With a mangled paw and a ruined leg, the Second-tier monster was already trapped prey.
"Excellent battle!"
"High Cleric Elise, your casting is admirable!"
"As expected of High Cleric Elise."
Rosefire Mercenary Company launched straight into flattery.
Elise felt as if she'd brought her own cheering squad.
But when she considered what Rosefire was really after, she could only shake her head and smile.
"Pretty spell."
As Elise drew out a [Spirit Potion] and drank, she caught Lofnar's...
Praise?
What did he mean, pretty?
Shouldn't a spell be called powerful?
Dwarf, something is wrong with you.
Steadying her condition, Elise glanced at Lofnar and reconfirmed her judgment.
Not to be trusted.
"I'll help!"
While Elise kept watch from a distance, Lia charged excitedly toward the battlefield on her short legs.
"Li—"
Elise moved to stop the little thing, but Chalmers had already ended the fight, so she let it go.
She opened the system prompt.
[Holy Light Arrow Skill Experience +4,918.]
Nearly five thousand points—[Holy Light Arrow] now sat a little over twelve hundred experience from Level 5.
But she was still in the Pyreflame Woods. Having just drunk a [Spirit Potion], she needed to preserve her combat strength.
The experience grind would have to wait.
Next came the spoils.
Elise was very interested in that part.
It was exactly why she had learned [Appraisal].
She followed the others to the battlefield.
Outside the cave, the monster's blood soured the air with a foul metallic stench. The enormous black bear lay on its back.
Its right forepaw was completely shattered, the foreleg barely still attached.
Its left leg had been split open by a knight's greatsword, pale bone showing through.
Beyond that, the heaviest damage centered on the monster's neck.
Chalmers's small team of Church knights had bled the beast out—the method that best preserved the spoils.
"Bear-type monsters are usually earth-attribute," Chalmers explained, reading Elise's curiosity. "Water-attribute ones are rare. A bear-type with both water and earth attributes will be worth a great deal—if it has a magic core."
"I'm very good at processing monsters."
Lofnar spotted his chance to perform. He pulled out a hand axe, ready to demonstrate his craft.
"Wait."
Elise stopped him.
Under his puzzled stare, she gathered her newly recovered mana and cast [Appraisal] on the carcass.
[Appraisal Skill Experience +24.]
The prompt appeared.
Elise studied the Second-tier monster she'd helped kill.
[Bear-Type Monster: Common-grade Second-tier item. Dual water and earth attributes. The ring of blue fur around its chest hides a secret.]
She frowned.
[Appraisal] sorted items into five grades: rough, common, rare, excellent, and perfect.
Common-grade Second-tier was acceptable for this blue-furred black bear.
But this secret...
Mew.
Elise's pulse stirred as Tymis called out in her spiritual world.
She cast [Appraisal] again.
[Appraisal Skill Experience +74.]
[Blue-Furred black bear: Common-grade Second-tier item. Dual water and earth attributes. Beneath the ring of blue fur around its chest lies a special bloodline channel. Its blood vessels and heart form a complete set of natural magical patterns.]
So that was it.
Elise understood at once.
When harvesting the spoils, they needed to avoid damaging the natural rune structure inside the body.
"Strip out the blood vessels along the line of this blue fur, and process them together with the heart," she instructed.
Appraisal doesn't have effects that miraculous, Lofnar grumbled inwardly.
On the surface, he nodded along.
Then he processed the blue-furred black bear exactly as Elise directed.
And sure enough—beneath the blue fur circling the monster's chest ran a special network of blood channels.
Once they came out intact along with the heart, everyone present, Awakened all, could see at a glance that the undamaged structure was worth at least ten times more.
"Light above!"
"That must be a hint from the God of Wisdom."
"High Cleric Elise's [Appraisal] is incredible."
"An [Appraisal] like that is worth a fortune."
The members of Rosefire Mercenary Company cried out in genuine awe.
This time, they weren't praising her status.
They were praising her because that [Appraisal] was flat-out useful.
People went into the forest and hunted monsters for one thing above all others.
Money.
Elise's [Appraisal] uncovered information no one else could detect. For adventurers who spent their lives fighting in the wild, it was practically a divine skill.
Unfortunately, the adventurers who most needed such a divine skill could never learn it.
And the Awakened capable of mastering it rarely needed to risk their necks on constant adventures.
The world's unfairness dimmed the mercenaries' faces once again.
Standing nearby with his hand axe, Lofnar wrestled with himself.
He was relieved he hadn't belittled Elise out loud—yet he still couldn't accept that this "ordinary Second-tier Awakened" had mastered an [Appraisal] beyond his comprehension.
Elise ignored him.
She looked into the cave.