As the days passed Violet and Luna slowly delved deeper into the Elemental Valley. The further east they traveled the greater the mana density and the more common it was for them to encounter beasts over level 40. In fact they discovered that they were no longer able to fly freely as flying beasts far above them in strength dominated the skys.
They learnt that the hard way on the second day when a small flock of odd 4 winged giant sparrows dove and attacked them. They only managed to survive thanks to a healthy mix of luck and skill, and liberal use of void step. That is one thing they learnt then, thanks to both of them having the skill when Luna was on Violet’s back they could actually travel together when Violet activated the skill. Granted Violet couldn’t travel as far as she could by herself as the distance seemed to be limited by Luna’s low level with it. Still it was a great discovery and was very welcome.
Their exploration did come with some fun side adventures as they explored the various valleys that dominated this landscape. Their was a wide range that they found varying in both size and how concentrated the mana was. The smallest that they found was barely 500 meters long and 20 meters wide yet was so dense with shadow mana that it was impossible to see anything within. Until Violet coated their eyes in the void.
Then they had the misfortune of seeing some of the horrors that called this domain home. Twisted abominations of shadow flesh skulked around engaging in brutal combat with whatever came across their path. After observing the endless carnage for a few minutes they both agreed that they did not want to investigate that particular valley and swiftly moved on.
They encountered numerous nature valleys full of verdant greenery and home to innumerable different beasts, it was from these valleys that the topside was populated from. They had taken to calling the strangely flat plateau they stood on topside to keep things simple for them.
Other than the nature aligned valleys most other denizens of this domain tended to stay within their own valleys. This was particularly true for the more extreme environments such as fire, lightning and ice.
Speaking of ice this was one valley that Luna in particular demanded that they properly explore. And so the duo dove down into the snowy wonderland. It was a truly picturesque landscape, the valley itself was one of the larger ones being dozens of miles long and at least 5 miles wide. It was dominated by large evergreen trees that were coated in a mixture of frost and snow. A perpetual blizzard seemed to slowly travel from one end of the valley to the other stiring up the snow and blocking all visibility for the half an hour that it was present.
Luna had a great time as she traveled through the snow and ice with ease. The large snow drifts seeming to part in her wake, Violet meanwhile was having much less fun. Even with Luna’s blessing of the Arctic the cold still penetrated her scales and she soon found herself having to be constantly moving else she may freeze. Costing herself in the void on top of the Arctic blessing was soon a requirement and was thankfully quite effective.
A number of beasts called this domain home from actual snow leopards that perfectly blended in with the environment to large woolly mammoths that slowly meandered through the valley ever in search of food.
They did consider fighting one of the mammoths, right up until they watched one of them flatten a bold snow leopard in a single thwack from its trunk. Having just battled one of them in a fight that left both girls bloodied and tired they wisely decided to not bother the giant fluffy murder machines.
They did also notice a theme with some of the valleys as they traveled however, in some of them, particularly the ones with very high mana concentrations. Certain fruits would grow that positively thrummed with that elemental mana type.
After fighting off a guardian of sorts in that same Arctic biome they gained access to one such fruit and once Luna ate it she was greeted with a surprising but very welcome notification.
[You have consumed an item rich with Ice Mana. Your familiarity with this element grows.
+5 to Constitution and Wisdom]
After they discovered that it became their goal to delve into as many valleys as possible in search of similar fruits and natural treasures. Each one was guarded by a particularly strong beast and the actual effects varied from boosting fire resistance for a burning pear violet ate to boosting jump distance and reaction times for a wind infused berry. Most of them did offer a flat amount of stats normally anywhere from 5-10 total. But one thing was for certain after almost 2 full weeks of diving into the various valleys the gains were wonderful.
Species - Adolescent Void Dragon
Speciality - Void (+2 Agi, Int, Wis)
Class - Apprentice Void Wielder
Constitution - 52->75
Intelligence - 93->113
Void Manipulation lvl 16->18
Void Bolt lvl 18->20(MAX)
Void Spear lvl 16->18
Dragon Aura lvl 11->12
Companion bond with Luna lvl 9->10
Void Shield lvl 12->15
Telepathy lvl 2 ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by novel~fire~net
Mana Reinforcement lvl 10->12
Pain tolerance lvl 6->7
Species - Arctic Leopard Beastkin
Speciality - Arctic Ice (+2 Agi, Str, Int)
Class - Arctic Void Companion
Constitution - 61->75+5
Intelligence - 64->81
Martial arts lvl 15->16
Evasive Footwork lvl 13->15
Multi Strike lvl 14->16
Blessing of the Arctic lvl 2->5
Ice Strike lvl 17->20(MAX)
Companion Bond with Violet lvl 9->10
Arctic Ice Manipulation lvl 14->16
Spear Proficiency lvl 15->17
Healing Presence lvl 10->12