162 - Grind

“Brother Samos, I awaited your call.”

Alexandra froze as the voice came out of the orb. She kept her mouth shut, afraid that whoever was behind the voice would understand that she wasn’t ‘Brother Samos’.

“Rock. Speaks,” Speck said, its shadow limb circling the orb in Alexandra’s palm.

Silence stretched as neither side communicated. The orb was still active.

Alexandra wondered if the person behind the voice would think something was strange. Probably, right? It seemed contact with her skin had activated the orb, so she was technically the one calling.

It was weird not to talk.

But if she talked, she would be exposed right away. Distorted as her voice might be after it went through the artifact, she was clearly no brother. Unless Samos had a feminine voice, but it wasn’t something she felt confident gambling on.

Minutes passed until finally, the voice spoke.

“I have yet to find someone willing to hunt a solar elemental.”

Alexandra perked up. A solar elemental? Was this Medh’s client on the other side of the call? Speck had robbed Izrum’s elemental source trader, and if solar sources were as rare as Medh claimed, it would make sense for the client to query several cities.

“I know time is on our side, but I feel myself falling to impatience.”

Alexandra listened.

“I’ve recently acquired a batch of bone elemental sources,” the voice continued. “I have hopes for the hunter who brought them to me.”

Bone? Wait…

“We will watch until the inevitable end.”

She frowned.

“Brother Samos?”

Alexandra gave the orb back to Speck, who hid it in its darkness dimension.

“That was Medh, wasn’t it?” she whispered.

“No. Coincidence.”

At this point, there was little doubt about the identity of the person behind the voice. Someone close to an elemental source trader, wealthy enough to afford a communication orb, and who had received a batch of bone elemental sources from a promising hunter…

Alexandra smiled. She was the promising hunter.

“Well, that’s awkward. Let’s make sure Medh never finds out you stole his friend’s orb. Those things are not cheap.”

“Not. Steal,” Speck explained. “Acquire.”

“I doubt you paid for it, pal.”

Anyway, she wasn’t about to return the orb. She didn’t want to expose herself as a thief, and it wasn’t like Speck would give it back. It was easier to pretend it never happened.

Besides, she fully intended to repay Medh and Samos by selling them a solar elemental source eventually.

“You need to be careful who you steal from. It could get us in trouble.”

“No. Regret.”

“Please.”

Speck didn’t answer.

“Let’s just get back to training.”

“Yes. Purge. Unworthy. Rocks.”

Alexandra tracked down another Silver-rank stone elemental. With Rock Destruction, clearing the construct got a lot easier. Since her mana kept regenerating from being out in the sun, she could keep the spell running long enough to get rid of all the rocks in the vicinity, leaving the source defenseless.

She found six in the afternoon and set up camp on the site of her last battle.

“Stop. Early.”

“Fighting at night isn’t good for me. My reserves won’t last forever.”

Speck slipped out of her body as the sun dipped below the horizon. Alexandra spent the night resting.

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The next day, she quickly completed her daily quest. It was a fifty-kilometer run. The same quest that had taken her a day and cost her a finger when she first arrived in Laika was now something she could do in two hours without pushing.

She then spent the entire day hunting stone elementals, keeping her targets at the Silver-rank while slowly making her way toward Oldwater.

The more she fought, the easier it got, and the faster she was able to clear her surroundings of rocks, neutralizing the stone elementals.

Alexandra reached the dried-up river bed leading to Oldwater in the evening. Not wanting to spend the night in town, she set up camp there and checked her progress.

Run fifty kilometers (50/50) -> Quest Completed: +10 exp, +1 CON

Daily Quest Streak: 125 -> 126

Destroy Rock 1 -> 10

Destroy Rock Training Quest Completed x 22 -> 3,080 contribution points

Solar Blast 6 -> 10

Solar Blast Training Quest Completed x 9 -> 1,220 contribution points

Manyfold Style 14 -> 15

Manyfold Style Training Quest Completed x 5 -> 8,000 contribution points

Giant Slayer 7 -> 9

Giant Slayer Training Quest Completed x 6 -> 22,500 contribution points

Tracking 5 -> 7

Aggressive Assimilation 7 -> 8

Contribution Points: 15,290 -> 50,090

She whistled. “It does add up quite fast.”

Her contribution points had more than doubled after a single day of work. Granted, most of her gains came from Giant Slayer, but she still had a lot to milk out of this skill. If the pattern held, rare skills should cap out at level twenty.

Silver-rank stone elementals had become trivial for her to fight, so the skill would take a while to level up too. Because of that, she also got more than she expected from Manyfold Style.

She almost wondered if she should stay in the stone fields until she earned enough to purchase a second uncommon skill, but in the end, her desire to return to Balrum won out.

Alexandra was still a little worried about the cultists chasing after Kam and Nara, and it didn’t feel fair to leave Willow in charge for too long.

Besides, she was still a few months away from Silver herself. She could always return later or hunt another type of elemental closer to home. The wood elementals, for example, wouldn’t pose a threat.

For now, she held off on purchasing the uncommon skill. Even if she could afford it, there was nothing she absolutely needed at the moment. She could take her time to browse the shop carefully and consider all her options. Perhaps it would be something to help her hunt that solar elemental. Then again, she thought she was already well-equipped with her solar skills, and just lacked experience and higher attributes.

Her hopes of avoiding Oldwater were dashed when, in the morning, she realized no caravan would be crossing the mud wastes before the next day. For a moment, she considered crossing alone, but in the end she opted not to. There was a reason why even Golds like Zeynep joined caravans and had people guide them to avoid the quicksand.

They spent the night there, and four days later, finally reached home.

Daily quests summary: Five Quests Completed -> +50 exp, +1 CON, +3 INT, +1 PER, New Skill Quest: Bow Mastery

Daily Quest Streak: 126 -> 131

She smiled as she passed the city gates. Bow Mastery probably wouldn’t be the most useful skill considering she could shoot solar beams with Rays of the Sun, but her Constitution and Intelligence had both reached one hundred points, and it was worth a celebration.

And by celebration, she meant selling off all the stone elemental sources she’d gathered.

“Zeynep is going to be jealous when she comes back. There’s no way I didn’t shatter her record.”

She made a beeline for Medh’s shop, making sure to remind Speck not to show itself and to keep the orb a secret.

She pushed the door open, rang the bell on the counter, and a few seconds later, Medh came out of the backrooms, composed as always.

“Already back? I thought you’d gone to the stone fields with Zeynep.”

Alexandra raised an eyebrow. “How did you know?”

“I have a great working relationship with Zeynep. Who do you think she’ll sell her loot to?”

“Oh. Okay.” Alexandra didn’t think much about it. “I did go with her. I just returned early with stone elemental sources for you.”

Medh nodded. “Stone. Very well. I can always use an extra source or two.”

“One?” Alexandra shook her head. “No. I have a hundred and six.”

“Six?” Medh asked. “That’s fantastic.”

She coughed. “A hundred and six.”

“What?”

He blinked at her.

“A hundred and six,” he repeated slowly.

“Give or take.”

He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again. “That is. That is a great deal of stone elemental sources.”

“I know. Zeynep’s going to hate me.”

“I don’t—” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Alexandra, I run a shop. I can’t possibly purchase this many stone elemental sources in one go.”

“Oh.”

“It’s not that I’m not impressed. I am. Deeply. A hundred and six is, frankly, absurd for the time you’ve been gone.” He paused. “But I can’t take them all. Not at a fair price, anyway, and there’s also Zeynep’s haul to consider.”

Alexandra’s shoulders sagged.

“Maybe I could spread them out,” he said. “Reach out to my colleagues around the basin.” He caught himself rambling and pressed his lips together. “Give me a week. I’ll take what I can now, and find buyers for the rest. I do want to keep working with you.”

“Medh, it’s fine. I’m not offended.”

“I know. I just—” He exhaled through his nose. “It’d be best if you targeted other types of elementals. Many hunters only do stone, so many requests go unanswered. For example, I’ve been trying to get my hands on a solar elemental source for years. No luck.”

Alexandra laughed. “I’ll get you one. But not now. You can’t expect me to hunt down a damn Platinum when I’ve yet to reach Silver.”

“No, no, take all your time.” He smiled. “If you do, to tell you the truth, the world will be a better place.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Tall claim. What can a solar elemental source do?”

Medh coughed. “I mean, we’ll both be richer.”

She nodded. Turns out Medh didn’t have infinite funds. She didn’t want to sell her loot for less than what it was worth, but she had no use for stone elemental sources. In the first place, she was only gathering them for coins to set up her guild.

Alexandra thought of her contribution points, of the extra stone elemental sources in her bag, of her quests… Medh might not have bottomless coffers, but he was rich. Perhaps they could work out a deal.

“Medh,” she said, “I have a proposal.”