Once inside he was soon engulfed in another hug. He then had to recount his adventures for the past week. He didn’t lie, but perhaps he put a more positive spin on things. Even with that, his mother got on him about needlessly endangering himself.

  “Mom, you don’t need to worry about me. I reached Tier 4. There isn’t much out there that can threaten me now.”

  He saw that look in his mother’s eyes and decided not to push it too much. She was only concerned about him. Then his mother said something he had never expected to hear from her.

  “You aren’t the only one who hit Tier 4. I killed two fiends who attacked me while I was in labor, and it pushed me up. Not only that but one of them was Tier 5, and I scored the record for most damage in a single hit in all of Talos.”

  There was so much to unpack there. The reason for the extra guards suddenly became clear. She might not have any extra guards of her own, but Albret would be worried about having her attacked while in Miromar, and the church would be even more protective.

  “So wait, like you were giving birth and still fought.”

  She laughed. “What’s the matter? Didn’t know what a bad mama jama your mother was?”

  Jackson’s mouth hung open for just a second. “Uh, no, Mom. Just no. We’ve already come to a new world. You can’t start talking like that.”

  Mom burst out into laughter with that and it was contagious. Eventually, Jackson couldn’t help himself. They both ended up laughing so hard their bodies shook, at least until Caiden woke up. Apparently, he didn’t like being disturbed.

  It was perfect though because it gave Jackson a chance to see his brother awake. He knew babies slept a lot but honestly couldn’t remember if Sara had slept this much or not. Holding Caiden actually wasn’t that bad. At first, he was worried about hurting the little guy, but that quickly passed. Maybe it was his Dexterity that would have been superhuman by Earth standards, or maybe that was just the way it was with babies.

  As Jackson held Caiden, they discussed not only their recent battle but also their upgrades. Mom expressed a great deal of praise for Jackson for not rushing into learning any new skills until he had thought it through. She also filled him in on the prophecies from the Seer.

  Just like his parents, Jackson’s instinct was to go after Sara, but he agreed to follow their lead. It helped when Mom told him about Dad getting to talk to Sara, even if it was only briefly. The most shocking part was that Mom was actually not racing off despite the Seer’s words. They all were changing clearly.

  There was more news as she told him about the notes she had exchanged with Mira. It was shocking to think that his sister was on an entirely different continent. Then again, they were in a new universe so… From the information she had sent, it sounded like Mira was having quite the adventure. It was clear that Mom was worried about her too, but she tried holding it in.

  The final bit was about his dad. Apparently, Dad had made a new deal with the dungeon. He had initially been teleported away because of a quest related to his class. Jackson could tell that Mom was a bit miffed about it, but once again, she was taking it all in her stride. Dad was being vague about the deal with the dungeon and supposedly would be in Miromar tomorrow, so apparently, they would both find out about it at the same time.

  She promised to teach him some new spells in the morning but said that he should go and see his fiancé first. It clearly pained her to let him go, but the time between them had been so authentic that in some ways Jackson felt like he was getting to know his mother for the first time. He absently wondered if that meant he was truly becoming an adult.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “The danger in helping someone is how many other people it seems to upset.” – Journal of the Beast Queen

  Mountains- Sara Nelson

  Sara and her new friend ended up stuck inside the cave she had found for two days. During that time she heard activity in the distance but never saw any of the dwarves. Hopefully, that meant they were safe. She eventually had to go to sleep, and when she woke, the woman with the long red hair was still asleep.

  Whatever had happened to this woman must have been bad. The cuts and bruises on her body were all healed up now, but she was still sleeping. Worse, her face would wrinkle up and make all kinds of frightened expressions. Sara recognized when someone was having a bad dream. That didn’t mean she had any idea what to do.

  Or maybe that wasn’t true. Sara tried to think back to what her mother had done for her when she used to have bad dreams. Sometimes she would let Sara cuddle in their bed. It was so warm sleeping between Mom and Dad, but as she got older that wasn’t an option.

  Mom would come to her room though and sit on her bed. She would stroke her hair and rub her back while singing or even sometimes just humming a lullaby. Sara didn’t know any lullabies in draconic, but she could still hum the tunes to her favorite lullaby. Yeah, the one about the blackbird.

  As she sat there softly humming the tune, a single tear rolled down Sara’s face. She knew she was doing the right thing. This woman needed her help, but that didn’t mean it was easy. Sara wanted to prove she was big enough to do things on her own, but being taken care of was a difficult habit to break.

  The one positive was that she could feel her bonded monster friends getting closer by the day. They were still a ways from here, but it wasn’t impossible to think that they would reach her within a week. Then she heard her dad’s voice. He was speaking to someone. Oh, Altracia, but not the drake. Sara could tell the difference. Daddy was with the core.

  Her conversation with him was short, but she felt better. Leaving a note had made her feel bad. She didn’t want her parents to worry. It was good to be able to tell Daddy she was helping someone. Seeing him through that tiny portal gave her courage. He had always been larger than life. When he told her he was proud of her it made her sit up straighter.

  Then the conversation was gone, but it gave her a renewed sense of confidence. She was going to do this. She wouldn’t back down. She was a Nelson. She pulled a blanket out of the spatial pouch and used it as a pillow to cradle the woman’s hair.

  For a moment she considered if she needed to pull out another blanket but decided against it. This far up in the mountains there was a light dusting of snow, but it didn’t bother her, and the woman was so much warmer. Her skin was almost hot to the touch.

  Actually, Sara realized she needed a name for the woman. She had said the word Astag’naralrion, which still sounded familiar, even if Sara didn’t know why. Either way, it was too much of a mouthful to say. They had once had a kitten when she was little. They named him Mr. Black Boots after the sock-like pattern on three of his feet. But that had been too long for her, so the cat ended up just being Boots.

  While this woman wasn’t a pet, she would have to settle for something shorter. Asta. Yeah, that sounded like a good name. She repeated it to herself a couple more times, feeling the way it rolled out of her mouth. It clicked with her for this stranger and seemed to make the sleeping woman seem more like a real person.

  Now, though, Sara couldn’t sit in this cave any longer. She wouldn’t go far in case the woman woke up or worse the dwarves found the cave. But seeing her dad made her realize there was more to saving this woman. They needed wood for a fire. The supplies in her spatial bag would only last so long. She didn’t have one of the two-sided ones like the rest of the family, which could have been refilled from the other side.

  Strangely, that suited her just fine. Sara didn’t want to hide like prey. She wanted to go out and mark her territory. Something had changed in her. It was something to do with her connection with Altracia, but if possible, she was feeling more… She wasn’t sure what the right word was for it. More fierce maybe, but even that didn’t describe the intensity she felt.

  Another word came to mind. She remembered a news story she had heard about some wild dogs in Australia. The person on the TV had used a word she hadn’t understood, and she had been required to ask her dad about it. Now that word seemed to best describe the urgent feeling she felt rising within- feral. Yes, saying it out loud made it click.

  It was like she had been in a cage her entire life. When she fought to save the queen, she had felt the lock come off the cage. Its door had swung open when she flew north. And now as she stepped out of the cave it was like she was stepping out of that invisible cage.

  The mountain air suddenly smelt sweeter. It was cold and demanding without a hint of mercy, but she didn’t want mercy. She wanted to prove that she was more than some helpless little girl.

  Sara knew that she was far stronger than she had been before gaining access to her class levels and vastly stronger than on Earth, but instinct told her that the strength of her arms was not yet enough to carry the day. She would be a stealth hunter. So out she went to look for both wood for fire and food—preferably fresh meat.

  She didn’t have to look long as her increased senses from her bonded monsters told her that a creature was atop the crag behind the cave. It would have been a steep difficult climb, even with her enhanced stats, but what did she care about climbing? She had wings.

  Sara leapt off the side of the mountain and beat her wings as she gained elevation. In no time, she saw a mountain goat. Best of all it was munching on some berries. She could get wood, berries, and with a bit of trouble, some meat.

  The goat was much larger than her, larger than any goat she had ever seen, but that was the nature of things in Eloria. So much of what she was doing now was by instinct. She sensed that she could defeat it. That much was just the instinct of a predator.

  Under other circumstances, she might have wanted to befriend it, but now she wanted to eat it. She felt herself salivating at the thought. Dry rations from her pouch just weren’t the same. She needed this as a way of proving herself as well.

  So she flew up over it. Sara reasoned this would be easy. She would use her acid breath on it and that would be that. Her only concern was about damaging too much of the meat, but she would just have to hope for the best.

  Then she dove as she inhaled. A dense spray of acid spewed forth from her with the strafing motion Altracia had taught her. The acid hit the beast full in the face. It bleated in pain as the acid burnt into its eyes and was inhaled

  It shook its head complete with the great curled horns and trembled. This was obviously not an attack it was prepared for. The notification of the attack appeared, and she glanced at it as she circled around.

  Acid Breath Attack: 197+200 damage. Critical strike to vital portions- bypasses targets normal damage resistance. Total damage 794. Acid internalized. Greater mountain ram suffers 12 damage per tick for 2 minutes. Debuffed condition: Blindness.

  That was awesome. That much damage would have killed her in a single attack. Of course, that was just a reminder that she needed to become more durable. There were certain to be other creatures here that had attacks as powerful or even more so than hers.

  The disconcerting part was that despite the massive goat trembling and bleating in agony while trying to rub its face against the berry bush, it really didn’t look like it was close to death. She didn’t know just how powerful a creature it was. Her breath weapon was on cooldown, and while the acid it had ingested would continue to damage it, Sara didn’t believe that would finish it off.

  She had no choice but to attack it up close. She would make use of its blindness and pain, and so she pulled her spear from the spatial pouch and dove with all her might. A strength greater than the mightiest of Olympians pushed her forward.

  She braced herself for the impact but as prepared as she thought she was, it wasn’t enough. The spear tore into the ram from behind its shoulder blade. This time Sara had to really push hard to get through its hide. That shaggy fur was much stronger than she initially expected.

  Her drive drove the blade in, but it only barely penetrated the hide and dealt a measly 24 damage. The shock of the impact ripped the weapon from her hands and completely threw her off balance. Sara impacted the rock face and felt numerous bruises and abrasions despite her flight suit.

  The ram lunged forward, driving those powerful horns straight for where it guessed she was. Fortunately, a face full of acid left it not only unable to see but also messed with its other senses. Even then the glancing blow sent her flying ten feet and banged her up while costing her another quarter of her health.

  Her regeneration was capable of restoring her back to full health from the brink of death in just over a minute and a half, but she still felt strangely vulnerable. She hated to activate her gauntlet because she could only do so twice a day. Sara knew that until she could hunt with just her own might she would never be safe, but she also needed to finish this beast off.

  The gauntlet made her feel warm as she triggered it. Ruby red scales spread out over her body, making her stronger but more importantly more durable. Then she leapt forward using her legs and then her wings to cross the distance. The ram seemed to be regaining some of its vision back because it jerked away at the last second.

  That was too little. Altracia had taught Sara how to find the weak spots on creatures, and for the ram that was definitely its throat. At least that was the case with the limited length of her dagger and claws. The dagger of sharpness in her off-hand gained the bonuses from the claw.

  That allowed her to cut a deep gash across its throat. The blade’s magical effect pierced much of the damage resistance. In turn, this resulted in the large artery in its neck being torn open. Blood pumped out everywhere, but she was already moving past.

  She had attempted to rake its eyes with her clawed hand, but that portion of her attack was thwarted as it bucked at the last second. The damage from the cut wasn’t enough to instantly kill it, but the greater mountain goat was wobbling. Altracia had explained that bleeding out a stronger prey was often the way a young drake had to get its food.

  Steam rose from the blood as it spilled out, but then she noticed the wound starting to close. This wound would have been fatal on a lesser beast but perhaps not so with this one. Its health regeneration was great enough that it would survive. That just wouldn’t do.

  Sara drew in a breath trying to gauge if her acid breath was ready again. Almost but not quite. So she needed to keep that wound open. She was all in on this monster.

  So she activated her Amber Amulet, a defensive tool she had gotten when they first arrived in Eloria. That and the red scales would have to be enough to protect her. She threw herself forward and grappled with the ram. She grabbed on to its horns and hung on while trying to cut at the neck or at least keep the wound open.

  Then she felt it. The power of her draconic friend came to life in her again, and she leaned forward. The amber shield around her was beginning to crack from the blows the ram was delivering to her, but it seemed to not only absorb the damage but also diffuse the force so she wasn’t thrown backward.

  She point-blank released the acid into the creature’s wound and watched as the acid worked straight into the beast’s bloodstream. She flew back then lest it somehow damage her with its death throes. For the next two minutes it thrashed around on the ground, but it never managed to rise back to its feet.

  When it finally stopped moving, Sara got a notification.

  You have defeated: 1 Greater Mountain Ram level 31. XP: 186 x 2 (killing blow bonus) = 372 x 2 (Tier Difference) = 744 x 1.5 (racial bonus) = 1,116.

  You have gained sufficient XP to reach levels 18 and 19.

  6 stat points gained.

  Unspent stat points: 6

  56 character points gained.

  Unspent character points: 209

  Sara grinned. No wonder it had been so tough. It made her go all out, but the ram was Tier 4. So it was no surprise. She smiled at the gains she had just made. Jackson and Dad were always talking about leveling up. They made it sound like it was hard. She crossed her arms and smirked. They just must not be doing it right. This wasn’t that hard at all.

  Chapter Twenty

  “There is simplicity in not knowing what you don’t know. Pain may follow, but at least you won’t see it coming.” —Praetor Won Ki in the years after the exile.

  Mountains- Sara Nelson

  The biggest problem with the way she had killed the ram was that Sara was fairly sure it would make the meat inedible to others. Her natural acid resistance should have allowed her to eat it, but she couldn’t risk feeding this to Asta. It chaffed her a bit that she had been forced to resort to such a thing. She wanted to think of herself as a great hunter, but this felt like things hadn’t gone the way she wanted them to.

  All she could do was shrug and gather the other things she came here for. She opted not to spend any of her character points now, but she immediately dropped all six of her stat points into Constitution. Fighting the ram had convinced her that it was dangerous for her not to raise her health total.

  Now, though, she flew back down to the cave with a bunch of wood for a fire and all the berries she could pick. Her spatial bag definitely made this easier. She could only imagine how nice it would have been to have one back on Earth. All those trips that they took where Mom went over her packing and told her what she could or couldn’t bring. With one of these, she could have just taken whatever she wanted to.

  The meat might be ruined, but at least the berries were tasty. With that in mind, she flew into the cave. Asta was not lying down, and at first, Sara thought she was gone, but a moment of looking allowed her to find the woman farther back in the cave. There was a small pool of water back there, and the woman was leaning over it, peering at herself as though she didn’t recognize the face looking back.