[Leela] Chapter 3: Setting Out

[Throndir]

Plunk still continued to look blankly at you.

"The wolves like my muscles!" Ragkur said as he continued to flex.

Efrit was still laughing, but managed to calm himself down enough to translate.

"He means, yes, they have wolves... But I'm not sure if that would help you any... Wolves would be just as strange as a giant flying horse. And Plunk... isn't really that wise."

[Ella]

Leela Steading

Disappointment flitted across Leela's face. In the end... she should have just asked Efrit. Even if he had been away from the village for a while, he still probably knew better than the others.

With a sigh of resignation, Leela looked at Zavan and Efrit. "I don't suppose either of you have any sort of ability or magic to make an illusion so that the wolves might look like horses to the humans?" She asked them, her voice full of doubt. Sure, Zavan had that mosaic censoring skill and sure, she had something that made it sound like she should be able to alter her own appearance at the least, but she did not want to get her hopes up. "Or perhaps we could make some disguises of some sort for the wolves or Azure Shadows? If not... we're going to have to walk after we reach the border."

[Throndir]

Zavan shook his head.

"One of our generals was a master illusionist... Unfortunately neither I nor Efrit have that kind of magic. We could potentially disguise one of the tribe of Azure Shadows... But disguising a wolf to look like a regular horse might not be possible."

[Ella]

Leela Steading

"Well... at this rate, I guess we'll just have to see if we can do that when we reach the border." Leela sighed.

She had been about to head back to the carriage and tell those in her party they should head out when she realized she had not yet actually introduced herself to the goblins. Quickly turning back to the gathered group, she spoke to them.

"I, Princess Leela Steading, summoned hero of Roshandan, thank you all for your time and apologize for scaring you with the earlier encounter with Efrit. When I have returned from my mission, I plan on returning here to discuss plans for the future of the goblin villages." She had thought of saying get to know them all, since she had personally interviewed pretty much all of the imps already, but she was not sure that she could handle meeting each individual goblin and trying to hold a conversation with each one if they were all like their two goblin leaders.

After giving a brief farewell to the goblins, Leela turned to return to the carriage. Although the trip to the goblin village had not provided them with the mounts she had hoped for, it had at least provided her with a companion who she might be able to bring with her to the human settlement without causing alarm. Key word: might. She did not want to get her hopes up.

"Well, we should probably head out." She told the others of her party as she walked.

[Throndir]

Eventually your group made their way into the carriage. There was more than enough space for you in there. The imps started talking amongst themselves the moment Efrit showed up. A lot of them welcomed him back, and they were all generally excited for the carriage to take off again.

Soon enough, Roadmarech started to fly up again. The goblins had waved, and a few moments later, you were speeding westwards towards the border.

"You managed to grow your claws out like I did... Along with teleporting much like the imps... Is this your heroic blessing?"

[Ella]

Leela Steading

"Uhm..." Leela hesitated, glancing at Efrit and then at Abi. She was not sure how many people she wanted to know about the details of her blessing. She still did not fully trust Efrit enough to be comfortable telling him what little she knew. Though... she guessed he might be able to figure it out for himself at some point and knowing more of his abilities so that she could copy them would probably be useful. Looking back and forth between the two generals and the imp, she sighed in defeat. It was best if they knew what she was capable of so as to plan properly for the future.

"Yes." She admitted, but rushed to add, "But I would like this information to remain just between us for now. I think it could give us an upper hand when dealing with other groups as long as they don't know what I can do. When I used it against Efrit earlier, I had hoped it might both surprise and intimidate him into agreeing... If I had known about the fire, I wouldn't have wasted time trying it."

[Throndir]

"Hmm... Why don't you try out the ability I did, Princess?" Efrit said grinning.

As for Zavan, the demon general nodded.

"Heroic blessings can come in all forms... Since we are heading to the human settlements to the west, there is a chance that you will run into their hero... For that man, he is unrivaled in his speed. Even when I clashed with him in my full transformation, I was not able to keep up with him. I have yet to even injure him."

It will take 4 hours to reach the border. Feel free to state what actions you do in the next 4 hours. (You could fit in 1 Training, or 2 Expedited Trainings)

[Ella]

Leela Steading

"No." She turned away from Efrit without adding any more to her curt response.

"Super speed, huh?" Leela muttered to herself, looking down in thought. "That could be useful..."

She looked up at Zavan, calling up her status. "Status."

"There are some limitations..." She paused to change her current title to "Princess" as well as to check how much mana she had available before moving on to concentrate on each of the titles she had related to Mimicry before concentrating on Mimicry itself to see if any information about it had changed.

"The titles I have associated with it made me think that maybe I could look like another person or creature, but when I tried to make myself look like Abi -Abi, absolutely do not go around repeating any of what we're talking about to anyone." She cut herself off mid-thought to add the warning to the little imp, who she could see was hopping around in excitement about the information she was hearing.

"When I tried to look like her, I got some sort of notification saying that the ability is not yet unlocked. I take that as meaning that I might be able to unlock that feature in the future. The descriptions of the titles say that my blessing is more efficient and that copied abilities can last for an entire day. So I am assuming that I have to "renew" copied abilities I would like to use by watching a person with the ability I want to copy perform it. I don't see any limits as to how many abilities I can copy and so far have only done the two you saw today."

"It is because of the time limit for how long I can use the abilities that I copy that I was hoping you could teach me how to use your claw ability. I figured that even if it is inherent, maybe I can use my ability to copy it to study it so that it can become a more permanent ability. Otherwise... I'd have to copy it from you if I want to use it or just make due with the alternative technique you mentioned before, and I think an ability like that would be super useful to have. I wouldn't have to carry a dagger on me if I could turn my own nails into weapons. By the way... What was that thing you did where parts of your skin became scaly? Is it like snake or dragon scales? Do they provide extra defense?" Her eyes were sparkling a little when she brought up the scales.

[Throndir]

"That particular ability gives me scales with resistance to fire, normally it is a sound strategy when fighting against a fire user such as Efrit. Not only that, it increases my natural defenses."

Leela Steading
Teacher of Demons
Level 25

Condition: Healthy

HP: 69/69
MP: 46/89
STR: 24
DEX: 29
CON: 29
INT: 12
WIS: 16
CHA: 17
MAG: 37

Blessings: Quick Learner, Mana Sensitivity, Translate All, Personal Status, Summoned as Demon Hero, Mimicry

You see nothing new with the descriptions about Mimicry.

"As for teaching you the claw ability... There is magicka that can create a similar effect."

[Ella]

Leela Steading

"I suppose that is an inherent ability as well? Is there a similar thing to it that I could learn? How much mana do you need to use for it?" Scales increasing her natural defense sounded cool just by itself, but to also give resistance to fire made it something Leela definitely wanted.

Leela moved to sit in one of the seats and waited for Zavan to join her so that he could begin teaching her how to use the alternate claw ability, and hopefully something similar to the scales ability as well.

"I am ready to learn."

Spoiler

Leela will do training (expedited if she can also learn something like Zavan's scaley ability, too) on the way to the border. Ready to move on as long as some of the training is roleplayed in the linked thread.

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