[Ding! The task "Protect the city of Rumbus from the wave of beasts" has been successfully completed!]
Arabel had almost reached the place indicated by Coco when she suddenly heard a notification from the System about the successful completion of the task to protect the city of Rumbus from a wave of beasts.
"Dan did it after all!" she thought happily, stopping and watching the notifications appear.
"Wow! 5,500 System Points!" Arabel was pleasantly surprised, because this was almost the most points they received for completing the task, not counting the sale of Sierra's blood essence for 6 thousand.
Arabel felt a surge of joy when she saw that the number of System Points had exceeded six thousand again. Looking at the number of dead beasts and their ranks, she felt proud of Idan.
But in less than ten seconds, a thousand System Points suddenly disappeared in front of her eyes.
"Eh? What's going on, System?" she asked.
[Your partner has used up almost all of his strength, and in order to recover quickly and come to your aid, he bought a Rank 4 pill for recovery], the System replied.
"Oh? A Rank 4 pill, yes..." Arabel nodded, accepting the System's explanation.
"So Dan's on his way here already?" murmured Arabel.
[Host, your partner has transmitted a message: "System, please remind Arabel to prepare carefully before acting. And also tell her to remove the obstacles that are preventing me from contacting Ned first."]. The system transmitted Idan's message word for word to Arabel.
"Hmm... okay, — Arabel replied. After the previous message, she had been thinking about what to do all this time.
She understood that she couldn't stand up to outsiders alone, so just barging in wasn't an option. She needed a plan.
But no matter how much she thought during the flight and no matter how many options she came up with, she didn't like any of them. Moreover, she did not know what to expect, and therefore most, if not all, of her plans were worthless.
"But I definitely have to do one thing. First of all, I need to conduct reconnaissance and get information." With that, Arabel looked at Coco, the fox cub, who was still trembling on her shoulders. Coco noticed Arabel's gaze and looked at her too.
"Fortunately, I have the best scout with me." Arabel said with a smile, looking into Coco's small, puzzled eyes.
Then Arabel began to move again, accelerating her flight. It took her a little more time to get to the designated location.
"Woo-woo-woo!" — Coco exclaimed, pointing at the dense forest. No matter how much Arabel peered from above, she couldn't see anything ahead, where Coco was pointing with her small paws.
"Disguise?" — Arabel thought about it. She did not dare to go there directly to find out what was hiding there. Instead, she found a hill with a view of the place Coco had indicated, and landed smoothly.
"How amazing that creatures from another world have such an amazing ability to teleport so many awakened Gold rank over such a distance," Arabel thought, remembering how much she had to overcome to find this place.
"Dan will spend the same amount of time as me," Arabelle was not happy with the realization of this fact.
"However, before making decisions, we should make sure if this is really the right place," she said, carefully removing Coco from her shoulders and gently stroking the fluffy fox.
"Coco, can you do me a favor? Could you go explore the area you indicated?" Arabel asked, trying to be as gentle and affectionate as possible. However, due to her transformation into an Ice Valkyrie, her words sounded too cold and distant.
Coco blinked at Arabel, but said nothing. She wanted to ask for sweets, but for some reason, in Idan's absence, she was a little afraid to ask Arabel with such a request.
"I'll give you a whole pack of candies if you do as I ask," Arabel said without waiting for Coco's response. She immediately moved on to an offer that Coco couldn't refuse.
As Arabel expected, Coco's eyes lit up and she nodded quickly, fearing that her mistress might change her mind.
"Okay, I give you my word that I'll give you as many as 10 candies if you find out everything that's going on there," Arabel said, listing all the details Coco needed to figure out.
From the number of opponents, the location of her younger brother, the prisoners, and many other issues, to finding Ned and the source of the interference, all these tasks required Coco's attention.
Her small brain could barely handle so much information, but she tried to remember everything her Mistress told her. However, in the end, she wasn't sure if she could remember everything. But hiding her doubts, Coco nodded and, opening the rift, disappeared.
With Coco gone, Arabel used ice magic to create an ice throne for herself and, like a queen, sat on it, surveying the space in front of her.
For Arabel, in her Valkyrie form, this place was her native element. She felt at home here, and her body was overflowing with energy and strength.
"Phew..." — Exhaling cold air, Arabel revealed her status.
Ignoring everything else, she focused on the line where the "Bloodline" function was located.
> _Human (Main) (Golden Rank)
> _Slot_1_Ice Valkyrie (auxiliary)(Golden Rank)
> _Slot_2_unavailable
When Arabel focused on the first slot of her bloodline, namely the bloodline of the Ice Valkyrie, an additional window appeared in front of her, displaying the percentage of synchronization. At the moment, this figure was 99%.
Yes, by this point Arabel had almost mastered her first bloodline.
During the ten days spent under Geminia's supervision, the synchronization percentage exceeded the 90% mark. However, after meeting her younger brother today and realizing that he's fine, that threshold has jumped to 99%.
«99%... Almost. There's only one percent left..." Arabel muttered, looking at the indicator. After spending some more time just looking at the sync percentage in thought, she closed the status window and closed her eyes.
Arabel understood roughly what she needed to do to finally overcome this last threshold of 1%.
When she opened her eyes, she was determined to achieve this goal and fully master her Ice Valkyrie bloodline, just as Idan had done with his Alpha of Fire bloodline earlier.
Although she lost the argument, Arabel did not want to lag behind him in terms of achievements and continued to become strong in order to be on equal terms with him.
Soon... A small crack opened in front of Arabel, from which a small ball of fur fell out. It was a little scout who returned with important information that Arabel needed so much.