Convergence: Eclipse Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Is It Edible?

Read chapter 12 of Convergence: Eclipse by J.L.Hollingwell on NovelPedia.

Plants and flowers are an amazing source for food and nourishment. The entire existence of some species has evolved around the abundance of a single variety of flower or plant. The variety and adaptability of nature is truly a marvel. Professor Ilya Lif, Fronox Academy One quick - and cold - wash later, and Laurie was moving again, continuing to follow the river. He didn't want to use up all his mana, so he practised throwing the stone up and down with one hand whilst swirling a small stick through his fingers with the other. He had to stop every other step to pick up either the stick or the stone but got better and better as the day went on. I'm getting better at this too quickly… Is that because of my stats? Or was I good at this stuff before? Not like I’d know, if I was. After another few hours walking, the river widened into a large pond. Several clumps of the flat, umbrella-shaped trees crowded the edges, and as he approached Laurie could see animal footprints covering its muddy banks. Some were hoof-like and others were clawed in a way he hadn't seen before, with the imprints of two smaller claws scratched either side of one larger middle claw. What kind of animal could have made those? Hoping for a decent lookout point, Laurie found a likely-looking tree, and scrabbled and scrambled until he had managed to scale the trunk and lay himself along a sturdy branch overhanging the water. Laurie guessed that the hoof prints were from boarling chargers, and hoped the others were tracks from the mysterious “scale hides” mentioned in the quest the GM had given him. If they were, he could just wait here and ambush them when they came back to drink. Hopefully, he could complete both quests just by letting the animals come to him. Laurie lay in wait, trying to remain as still as possible, watching and listening intently. He tried to keep his mind from wandering back to the cave, as it tended to do when he wasn’t busy with a practical task. He couldn't practice with his stick and stone whilst trying to remain hidden - he couldn’t even fidget - so he tried to distract himself by mechanically thinking over other options for glyphs he might need, and how he could try to create them. Laurie waited there for several hours. Just as the lack of movement was becoming unbearable, he heard a snorting noise behind him, and the sound of clopping hooves. There! Three boarling chargers were walking under his tree. He focused on each, and boxes appeared next to them, all with the same description: Boarling Charger: Level 3. They looked just like the original boarling Laurie had first encountered in the forest - sandy brown, with bristly hair and curved tusks that jutted out of each side of their mouths. They grunted and snorted as they moved to the water's edge, looking around before lowering their thick heads to drink. Laurie waited for a moment to see if any more were coming, but there was no sound other than the snuffling and splashing of the three drinking from the pond. He activated his umbral step and shimmied down the tree as quietly as he could. He held his breath as he crept up behind the creatures, heart beating hard, certain that they would turn and notice him before he could get close enough to act. When he reached touching distance of the middle boarling, he dropped his umbral step and summoned his shadow blade. The moment he did, all three of the boarlings raised their heads and sniffed. Laurie quickly made a punching gesture and willed a shadow blade to shoot out, aiming at the one in front of him. The creature twitched and squealed as the incorporeal blade passed right through it. It tried to run, but its back legs spasmed awkwardly and the boarling fell snout first into the pond. Laurie danced backwards as the two either side spun to face him. They stamped their feet and charged him; he waited until the last possible moment before rolling to the right, summoning a new shadow blade, leaving it hovering in the air in the path of the