An Owl's Rise

Upon her awakening Evelyn found that there were no noticeable signs that any other beasts had come by and let out a sigh of relief.

'This place is fairly well hidden, and now that I have taken out its previous own it is empty and ripe for the taking. I suppose that is will do excellently for my base of operations while I hunt and gather in the gorge.'

Evelyn having had a peaceful rest in the hidden cave decided to make it her home during her time in the Elmot gorge.

It was not easily found, and in this dangerous place she was likely to find no better place to rest.

Once she had finished eating some breakfast, she went about preening her feathers and making sure her body was clean and in working order.

'I have finished up my morning routine and seem to be in good shape. Time to get back out there and see what I can rustle up.'

Carefully Evelyn exited the cave hidden by vines and scanned her surrounding in all direction.

Luckily one of the perks of being an owl was her ability to rotate her head all the way around which allowed her to observe her surroundings with only minimal movement.

When she was certain that there were no prying eyes anywhere around, she slowly hopped from thick roots and jutting rocks. Descending farther down into the gorge.

…

Weeks went by as Evelyn searched the gorge that was rich in magical energy for items she needed.

Many times she managed to find magical plants, beasts, or other minerals she required for alchemy.

Dozens of beasts that called the gorge home found themselves on the end of her talons and carved up for their materials.

Magical plants were also abundant, and most of them had been claimed by a beast already that was using them to propel themselves forward through the ranks.

Numerous of these beasts met their end to Evelyn's stealthy and ferocious attacks.

The gorge was thick with plant life, and she used the massive roots and vines that grew throughout the area as cover during her hunts.

Of course, she was not perfect, and sometimes would be noticed and receive a counterattack from her targets.

Other times she would find that no matter how careful she was that other beasts would get the drop on her.

The gorge for the most part was fairly dark, so beasts that specialized in ambushing their prey thrived there, and some of them were just as good if not better than Evelyn.

Still, her senses were honed well and her body tougher than it would seem thanks to the Aethersphere making sure she was as durable and strong as physically possible.

This allowed her to shrug off attacks most beasts at her rank would find devastating.

Her gravity powers also served as practically an unbeatable trump card.

Other than getting out of her range there was no counter to it, and only beasts that were very physically strong could resist her new extreme press magic that could push the gravity she could exert on a single creature to nearly forty times.

In her days in the Elmot Gorge she had taken out hundreds of beasts, taken possession of as many magical plants, and mined out hundreds of kilos of valuable ores.

At the current time she had managed to gather around ninety percent of the items she was looking for in the gorge and had competed all but one of the missions she had taken.

'Where am I to find these stupid Destaphia Roots. I have looked all over the walls of the gorge and even checked to see if they were growing in the beds of dirt that had developed in some of the dead and rotting trees that grow out of the side of the gorge. But still I have not found them. At the very least I need to locate them before going back in order to complete the mission I took.'

Evelyn was beginning to get frustrated that she could not find the remining items she was searching for.

When she had first started out, she found things quite easily, coming across useful beasts or magical plants within every few hours.

Yet now that she had obtained most of what she was after, finding the remaining things was becoming increasing more difficult.

In the end she figured that most of what she was after was likely in an area she had avoided going to.

The bottom of the gorge in many places contained the strongest concentrations of magical energy within the air and ground, making it rich with resources.

But with these rarer and more potent resources also came more powerful beasts.

So far Evelyn had avoided doing battle with anything stronger than a high grade awaken beast. Which in of in itself had been a bit of a struggle, since it was far stronger than the owl of the same rank she had beaten in the mission hall.

Still, she had searched all of for the Destaphia Roots in what she had deemed the safer areas of the gorge and come up empty.

Either they were very well hidden, or in order to find them she would need to brave going to bottom of the Elmot Gorge.

'There are bound to be all manner of things down there that are valuable. I need only keep my vigilance up and make sure not to antagonize anything I cannot handle.' Evelyn thought, psyching herself up.

Of course, she was not foolish enough to simply head into such a dangerous place, and pulled out some of the invisibility and scent dampening talisman she had and activated them

After that she drank a number of potions that would work together and increased her defense, speed, hearing, eyesight, and magical energy flow for the next eight hours.

The buffs were certainly less effective in relation to her current power since they had all been made when she was a fiend beast. But they still helped out.

'I am on a timer now. I need to finish this before the potions and talismans wear off.'

Plunging into the depths of the gorge Evelyn tucked her wings in and dove straight down.

So far, she had not made any rapid movements, but thanks to her invisibility and the natural quietness of owl feathers, she felt comfortable speeding her way down to the bottom.

Within just a few minutes of what was pretty much a free fall she could see the river that ran through the gorge and spread her wings to slow down.

With a few turns of her head she scoped out the general area she was in and found that this area of the river was moving fairly slowly and had a large bank on the western side.

Heading over to where the was solid ground she landed on the bank and found that it was slick with moister coming off from the river.

'Wow, the magical energy really is much denser down here.' Evelyn thought as she took in a few breaths.

She was certain that where she was now had the same quantity of magical energy as the advancement chamber after using a half dozen red magical crystals.

This was the kind of environment a beast would get stronger in simply by breathing in the air, but that meant that there were plenty of powerful entities that would live in such a rich environment.

Now at the bottom of the gorge Evelyn began scouring it for the item she was intently searching for, but even after five hours she had not found it.

However, she had already run into three different tyrant rank beasts and dozens of peak awakened ranks while at the bottom.

Luckily thanks to the stealth enchantments she had and by staying absolutely still whenever in these beasts' presences she had managed to get by undetected.

Nevertheless, the experiences had been nerve racking and she felt that her spirit could not take much more of being in such a dangerous place where she had already seen countless beasts meet their ends in bloody battles.

'I was right not to come down here at the beginning. This place is terribly dangerous. If even one of these beasts found me, I would be in trouble.'

Feeling that she was taking too much of a risk, Evelyn contemplated heading back up earlier, when she finally came across what she was searching for.

It was an area that was devoid of other beasts thankfully, and the dark green roots that were stripped grey were quite distinguishable from the vines that littered the area.

'Finally, there they are. Now all I need to do is dig them up and take the deepest part which is useful in alchemy as a stabilizing agent for many powerful brews. Melisandre told me how important it was for getting numerous ingredients that normally react poorly together to not create problems while brewing.'

Elated to have found what she was searching for, Evelyn landed down on the ground and began digging up the ground with a claw attachment that was shaped like a shovel. With it she was able to dig into the dirt much easier than with simply using her foot.

Quickly she cut through the top layer of roots and vines that covered the surface to reach the parts she wanted.

Yet a lack of information on the item she was trying to gather soon reared its head.

All she had found out about the Destaphia Roots was that they were located in the Elmot Gorge. And it was because of this lack of follow up that she had no idea how dangerous the Destaphia plant truly was.