Master of none

Knowing what direction to travel in was a benefit, but also not knowing how safe the route would be put the entire party on edge. They had been working on improving Genesis for a while now without major battles, however, their habits had not died off.

Everyone was still alert and prepared to handle whatever came at them.

There was a lot of preparation for this trip, some of which allowed them to better use their strongest elemental affinity skills in the singular elemental plane. Alice for one was able to bring out more light mana from light mana crystals and mana gems stored with dense light mana.

This removed worries that Alice wouldn't be able to maintain her buffs or songs. It was the same for when they left the fire elemental plane and Remey would need fire mana. It applied to the others as well but matching the manas they might need.

Walker on the other hand worried about the natural mana within his body. He couldn't gather manas of all forms together easily within the elemental planes. He would always have one mana that was focused more than the others depending on where he was.

To combat that he was holding a lot more mana within his body than normal.

This was nothing dangerous, but a something he needed to keep some focus on while he traveled. Especially since he was being sent toward a more dangerous place within the fire elemental plane.

"We are not at risk of any monsters bothering us." Walker knew that this area was too peaceful. Since this was a place where the world's manas had an effect, the peace and calm was different.

Most peaceful places were peaceful within the elemental planes because there was a guardian, powerful figure ruling, or a true sage setting be rules. Otherwise, it was all wilderness to put in simpler terms. The perfect place for fights, rare finds, and whatever else the wilderness held.

"The monsters here are peaceful because the mana is peaceful. They know that there are not predators or anything dangerous so they aren't bothering us."

"Is this a skill too?"Gil had assumed he would need to focus a lot more on scouting, yet Walker was passing around the ideas about monsters and this area without any scouting.

"No, just a sense I get. I don't feel the same changes in mana as when we have been in areas with hunters. This place is also different because of the world's mana. It's balanced even though we are in the outer fire elemental plane and not the boundary or the deeper sections."

"So you are effectively using the known ecosystem to showcase what you are also sensing…" his idea of scouting was more hands on, but right now this was a good thing to know. Gil wondered if he could adjust his scouting g with all this in mind. Especially since the elemental planes would pose significant differences from the world's wilderness.

"I'll need you to scout out the more dangerous areas ahead. You and Midnight will be able to figure out where we might need to avoid. They are younger parts of the fire elemental plane. Might Bebe have unknown monsters we haven't seen."

"I can feel that though. The mana ahead of us is different. It's purer but also unsettled." Walker didn't expect that Remey would be sensing things he did not. Yet, she had a deeper relationship with fire mana as a whole than he did. She had grown her affinity and knowledge constantly in terms of fire mana.

"What else do you sense?" Seeing as everyone was relying in her, Remey didn't hide anything she felt.

"It's like when the fire elemental plane shifts to the bridge and more fire mana poured out the first time. It doesn't feel solid and it feels like something might be missing to it."

It made sense, the fire mana in new areas had been dropped in and needed to acclimate. But the mana not feeling solid could be dangerous in terms of what monsters might be attracted to a more dangerous area with potential prey.

"I don't think we need to scout, the field changes here." Gil pointed ahead of them.

The orange bushes appeared to be mostly gone now. Only a short walk and done this too, meaning the peaceful area outside of the bridges would be small and take many years of shifting planes to grow. The bright yellow grasses also grew shorter and a crimson shorty spiked grass took its place in clumps, like someone hadn't cared for the whole field and it was just missing the right growth because of that.

"That's inferno grass. Eating it will make it feel like your throat is burning. It's actually good for disinfecting wounds because the fire mana is very potent. It's dangerous though because of its spiky leaves it can get caught in the mouth or on the body." Remey brushed her gauntlet across and a few blades stuck to her.

"Then we might find more of what we know here." Alice knew of the potions used to purify some wounds using this grass. Remey had taught her once it was found and cultivated. She and Remey had spent a nice amount of time sharing information about healing medicines and potions. It made them both better.

"If you feel the mana might be unsettled and there is already known plant growth ahead, we can assume we will see more familiar things. The fire elemental plane is full of unknown, but this we do know. What could feed on these grasses?" With Su pushing the conversation both Midnight and Onyx listened carefully since they knew full well that Walker would have answers for them.

"There should be yellow flame boars, they are weak and smaller species of boar but they are plenty strong enough to cause some trouble. I don't see the tracks or digging they do in the ground though."

"You're right, I would expect there to be markings where they dig to set up their territory. They even uproot plants to make it easy to see that others shouldn't come in to their lands." Gil and Walker started to go back and forth with how they didn't notice any monster activity revolving around what they knew would eat grass like this.

"There is something though, it's smaller." Gil knelt down very close to the ground. His face was much closer but after a moment he got Walker to look more carefully too.

Indentations in the reddish ground were tiny. Three tipped footprints were slowly moving grass patch to grass patch.

"They look like a birds talons but so small. And I don't see feathers around." Any evidence other than this that a bird of some sort might be around was what left Gil wondering.

"Not a bird. Lizard." Snapping their heads up, Gil and Walker saw Midnight whip her tail out and shake a tuft of crimson grass.

Out shot a striped yellow and red lizard the size of a finger, it rushed away but gave Walker the time he needed to appraise it.

'Striped running lizard

This little monster will not always be little. It spends several years at a very small size hiding to gather outer and denser fire mana as nutrients. Once it has enough it will grow rapidly over a short time allowing it to begin preying on large monsters.

It is known to live very quickly and be hard for anything to capture other than the flame trial serpents, fire birds, and dragon blood weasels. While still considered a weak monster in its infancy, they hold valuable mana within them making the small materials from their bodies valuable…'

They didn't have any desire to capture them. But knowing they could grow much larger if they survived their time as prey made it clear that they would be a threat.

"I will start scouting now." Gil motioned for Midnight to join him as they moved ahead he was willing to see if larger monsters were indeed ahead of them.

Onyx remained by Walker's side in a smaller form, holding in his own shadow was a valuable surprise tactic he could use if a larger monster did appear.

"Their mana is the same that I sense. It's not settled." With Remey saying she felt the same mana form these little lizards, Walker knew all too well larger ones were a guarantee to be found.

"Then we need to start following and be ready to support. The grasses are more unusually grown ahead too, I can see much taller spots." His sharp eyes caught the sight of even taller crimson colored grasses. Enough that he and the sorry could hide behind if necessary.

Or a bigger predator.

"Out of peace and in to danger we go." Alice hummed a little feeling she was prepared to protect the others with her support Magic Songs.

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