Note to the reader: *.......* means he's saying that in his head.

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Chapter 11

While I was sleeping inside the tent my dreams drifted to my past again. After I left active duty in the marines I stayed with Steve for a while. I knew I couldn't stay forever since he had a girlfriend now and they were planning to get married. I had a little money saved up, but I needed a job so Steve asked his girlfriend Emily if I could help at her work. She was a veterinarian and she took me on as her assistant. I really enjoyed the job a lot more than military work. Eventually I got my own place, but the assistant job wasn't paying enough so I started taking side jobs that my marine buddies introduced to me. They were mostly body guard jobs, but since I liked the assistant job I didn't drop it in favor of the better paying body guard work.

I was woken up by Tallie and told it was my turn to be on watch. I climbed out of the tent and sat down beside a fire. It was hot in the cave, but we needed the fire for light. Since Tallie was going to sleep I had to use a normal fire to push away the darkness instead of his fire ball. Apparently Haluk and Balor were carrying fire wood so I was able to use that along with some of the herbs I found around the camp. I was alone so I started working on a little project that involved the herbs I had been collecting.

What I had learned so far about fusing herbs with mana was that they become hard as metal, but return to their natural state when I pull the mana back out. I also could freely manipulate them if I concentrated. I thought about using plants to restrain people in a fight, but it would be difficult since I had to be touching it to make it hard as metal. I could wrap someone up with plants, but they would be able to easily break free unless I touched the plants and sent them mana.

I decided to make plant armor and weapons. One of the herbs I found in the dungeon was asclepias which is known as milkweed in my old world.

(This is milkweed)

Spoiler :

It's bark can be used to make strong natural rope which I would be able to manipulate with my nature magic. During my time on watch I created a bunch of this rope and tested out hardening it and manipulating it. I made it slither away from the camp to see how far it had to go before I couldn't manipulate it anymore. After it got five meters away from me it stopped moving so I knew I could only control plants within 5 meters then I pulled the rope back.

I made the rope thin and started sewing with it and added some of the leaves from other plants. I ended up creating a coat with a scaled leaf look. I removed my jacket and put my new one on under my cloak so that it was directly touching my skin. If I sent mana to it then it would harden which I could use as armor. It was a type of living armor that I could freely reshape. I tried to cut through it with my dagger, but with mana sent to this armor the dagger couldn't cut through. It only covered my chest, but I could make it spread all across my body creating a complete set of plant armor with leaf scales.

I could make it form blades over each arm to fight with. I also formed a bow, but I couldn't fire an arrow made from my armor since everything I formed was connected. If I wanted to use a bow it looked like I would need to make my arrows separately. No one would be able to take my weapons without tearing it off my armor first. I put my other coat on over top my leaf armor coat to hide my new attire. I had taken quite a while to finish it so I never woke anyone else up for there time to guard. I did keep track of how much time passed. We headed out immediately after the others woke up. Balor was a little mad I took over the watch by myself, but he got over it.

The only hostile creatures we encountered so far were wolves and now we were currently standing at a dead end in the cave.

Balor:"This is the entrance to the ice hell. We need to be more cautious in there so don't separate from the group for any reason."

He stepped toward the dead end and disappeared. The others didn't act surprised so I thought this must be normal. Haluk disappeared next then Tallie and when it was my turn I stepped forward and my vision went white. Snow was everywhere around me and I felt a bone chilling cold. It looked like we were in a snow storm. I wasn't sure if we were outside since there was light, but I couldn't see the sun.

I wrapped my arms around myself shivering. Balor, Haluk and Tallie were a few feet in front of me and had pulled out heavy coats from their packs that they were putting on. Sasha appeared next to me with a different hooded cloak on. She must have changed before entering the ice hell.

They were all wearing winter clothes now while I shivered in my leaf armor, light jacket and cloak. None of them kept me very warm.

Balor:"You're cold aren't you. Next time bring clothes to change into."

Balor pulled out another coat and tossed it over to me.

Balor:"You can borrow that. I want it back when we leave."

Becket:"T-T-Thanks."

I put it on and immediately felt a lot warmer. It was a brown fur coat that went down to my knees. Balor was bigger than me so I had to wrap it tightly around me. We tracked through the snow for a while before small white creatures surrounded us and were a little hard to see. They looked like small polar bears, but with longer claws. They weren't very strong so Balor and Haluk defeated them all. I cut a small chunk of meat off one of them and popped it into my mouth. I realized what I got from this creature immediately. It was thermal insulation to protect against the cold. I could feel my mana create a thin layer over my skin which was not visible and I was overcome with warmth. It seemed to be an ability that activates on it's own.

I didn't need Balors coat anymore, but since it would be suspicious if I gave it back now I decided to keep it. We continued to walk for a few hours when Balor told us to take a break. Tallie made a fire for us all to sit around and get warm. The snow had stopped falling and I could now see an icy roof high in the sky.

Balor:"We'll reach our scouting location soon so we'll camp here and prepare for whatever we may encounter tomorrow. Becket the herb you're looking for will probably be there too."

I nodded then stood up.

Becket:"I have to pee. I'll be right back."

Balor:"Don't go far."

Becket:"I won't."

I put some distance between us since it would be a little awkward if they found out I was a guy this whole time and didn't say anything. After I was done I decided to check my title stone since I had forgotten to until now.

Becket:"Identify."

InformationNameBecket EdwinRaceElfAge102Account Balance0TitlesEnvoy Of The Fairy Princess

Knight Of The Fairy Princess

Keeper Of The Fairy Princess

Blessed One

Wandering Soul

ExplorerMagicsNature

Language Comprehension

Wing Manifestation

Healing Saliva

Thermal InsulationBlessingBodily Augmentation

(Through Ingestion)Assigned JobHerb Collecting

I knew where the thermal insulation came from so the healing saliva must have been from the wolf meat.

*Thats useful.*

I pictured myself licking my wounds like an animal. When I got back they had already set up the tents.

Balor:"Same sleeping arrangements as last time. I'll take first watch."

Becket:"No I'll take the first one. I've got some stuff I'd like to do anyway."

Balor:"Ok but wake me up if you hear anything."

Becket:"Ok."

Everyone went to sleep while I set in front of the tents stoking the fire. After I was sure they had all fallen asleep I took off Balors coat and started practicing with my new armor. When the armor grows to fit the rest of my body I have a green scaled armor look. The red cloak and certain joints that needed to bend in order to keep my high maneuverability were the only things not covered in green leaf scales. I also decided against a full face mask since it might hinder my reaction time and narrow my sight. Instead I had a high collar to protect my neck. I practiced moving around in it and producing weapons with it.

The first set of weapons I created were blades that were connected to the sleeves of the leaf armor. They extended out over top my hands, one on each arm. I was having a hard time with the flow of the weapons, but I adapted fast. I could also change the shape of the blades depending on the situation.

The next weapon set I created were whips that were also connected to the leaf armors sleeves, but they extended out at the bottom so that I could grip them. If infused with mana they became stiff so I would have to wait for the tip of the whip to touch my target before infusing it with mana then I had to immediately reabsorb it. The whip would be flexible without mana and hard as steal during an attack then return to being flexible once the mana is pulled back.

These two sets of weapons could be pulled back into the armor so to others I would appear unarmed. I liked the combined look of my green leaf scale armor with my red cloak so in celebration and to get a little exercise I ran around killing and eating monsters close to camp with my two new weapons. The only new magic I got was called primal sensing which allowed me to feel the presence of monsters and high killing intent close to me. I used it to hunt down more monsters, but it gave me a weird feeling so I stopped using it. The more I used it the more beastly I felt. I started running around on all fours and growling before I noticed it. After turning it off the urge to hunt was the only thing I still felt from it.

I was siting by the fire after killing a few more monsters when I heard something out in the snow, but saw nothing. I was suspicious so I turned on primal sensing for a second and felt a strong presence. I leapt towards the thing and had my armor create claws for me to fight with. The primal sensing made me want to wrestle with the creature with out a sword or whip. It was completely white and buried in the snow.

It sprang out towards me and we clashed in the air before falling to the ground. It was about my height covered in white fur with long claws on all fours and a tail with a single claw on it. It's face had a human shape but a much bigger mouth with jagged teeth. It tried to claw me, impale me with it's tail and eat me all at the same time. I first sliced off it's tail then picked it up by the neck and shoved my arm through it's chest pulling out it's heart. It's claws had hit my chest, but weren't able to get through the armor.

It's body went limp and I let it fall to the ground. I took a bite out of it's heart.

Becket:"A little chewy, but not bad."

I took a few more bites then my chest felt like it was on fire. I dropped the rest of the heart and fell to my knees. I wanted to scream, but I was able to control myself. I started breathing heavily and clutching my chest. I pulled all the armor back into it's coat form and quietly endured the pain. I looked up to the sky trying to take my mind off of the pain when I saw a claw headed right towards me. I threw up my arm to block, but realized at the last minute my armor wasn't up. I kicked off the ground to send myself flying backwards and the claw barely cut my arm leaving four lines. Blood trickled out, but it wasn't a serious wound. I gave the cuts a quick lick and stood up.

My chest was still hurting so I was slightly hunched over. The beast standing before me had a hole in it's chest and looked really angry. It was the same creature who's heart I just tour out.

Becket:"How are you still alive?"

It rushed towards me, but this time I didn't feel the need to wrestle with it since the primal instincts I get from primal sensing had worn off. My armor grew out along with the dual swords I created and practiced with earlier. I immediately took the beasts head off. I sat in the snow next to it until the pain in my chest stopped. I decided to cut the creature open and found another heart.

Becket:"So it had two hearts."

I touched my hand to my chest to feel my heart beat and found that my guess was right. I could feel the beating of a second heart in my chest. It was a very strange feeling having two heart beats. I decided to check on my title stone.

Becket:"Identify."

InformationNameBecket EdwinRaceElfAge102Account Balance0TitlesEnvoy Of The Fairy Princess

Knight Of The Fairy Princess

Keeper Of The Fairy Princess

Blessed One

Wandering Soul

ExplorerMagicsNature

Language Comprehension

Wing Manifestation

Healing Saliva

Thermal Insulation

Primal SensingBlessingBodily Augmentation

(Through Ingestion)Assigned JobHerb Collecting

Becket:"Hm. So having two hearts isn't listed on here."

I buried the creatures body in the snow and went back to sit by the fire. After a while I noticed the claw marks were already healed. Licking it rapidly sped up the healing process. Elves already healed fast so any wounds would likely not last long if I apply some of my saliva. So far I had only seen shallow cuts heal, but I was confident a deep one would heal within a day. I did wonder if I could regrow a limb, but I decided not to try.

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