The Story of a Protoss

A few days have passed. Eventful days filled with constant progress.

Now there are only four hours left until they have to return to the Eternal Tree.

Our friends are currently relaxing on the small clearing in front of the western entrance.

Idan is visibly exhausted. Five days of constant hunting, absorption of energy and body tempering has taken its toll on him.

Our protagonist is worse off. She had been the main fighting force as Idan is more suited for a role similar to an assassin and supporter. With his high agility and dexterity, he would sneakily set the first strike and constantly distract the prey from forming a structured defense or attack.

Should the situation get dangerous he would swoop in and release a flurry of attacks targeting the eyes and nose of the prey. Disrupting its attack and attempting to cripple its senses. Like this, he was mostly out of immediate danger. He was hit quite a few times but nothing critical. It mostly healed swiftly during their daily tempering.

Our protagonist on the other side suffered a lot more. Giant cuts and bruises can be found all over her body. Most are already in the process of healing. Some have turned into scars and will disappear with time. As of now, they would use the time to discuss their tactics as there are still a lot of things to improve.

They improved massively but five days will not turn them into master fighters. What they found out is that particular fighting styles from Earth and other worlds can be combined.

Styles like Jiu-Jitsu, Krav Maga, and kickboxing are effective ways to subdue, cripple or otherwise fight beasts and humans alike.

Other fighting styles from other ancestors like Hibash or Wild Style are similar but with more focus on energy infused attacks. Combining those styles, the product would be a very effective fighting style as not many people are focused on martial arts.

At some point, martial arts are deemed unnecessary. True masters, of course, continue their martial arts studies but a lot of people, and mostly the common cultivators, neglect them at some point. Mastering these styles would serve as a giant advantage.

What they found astonishing is Idan's growth. And literally his growth!

He previously was only slightly taller than a normal flying squirrel but as of now, his hight increased by almost half.

Adult flying squirrels range from 25 to 37 centimeters in length. Right now Idan is 50 centimeters long and slowly the outline of muscles is visible on his shoulders and legs.

The controlled distribution of energy seemed to not only raise his natural talent but also further his capability to evolve and mutate.

Before they went hunting they had a short discussion about the utilization of energy and its effect on muscles blood and other aspects. It was meant to raise Idan's awareness about the capability his body represents. By integrating these theories and applying it during his body tempering his strength increased and his deficits slowly disappeared.

He has not become a perfect allrounder but one can see the positive effect. His agility has slightly risen while his defense and strength has taken a sharp turn around.

Previously the distance between his "stats" only rose the stronger he became. Now, this gap is slowly being filled. Indirectly offering an increase to his already strong agility and dexterity.

In the future, he would, most certainly, be able to fight weaker strength focused opponents, even while disregarding his main focus.

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Having discussed their progress and new ideas for combat and training, they both had to hurry. They took longer than expected and needed to get back to the Eternal Tree.

Standing up and moving back into the cave, they entered the all too familiar cave with its constant blue ambiance.

On their way to the slope, leading to the upper clearing, they did not need to hide. During their training and hunting phase they also hunted inside the cave and after two days most beasts avoided them by themselves. The majority of beasts is in the third or fourth stage. Only a few beasts reach the fifth stage and even they would not be able to pose a problem to them.

They might get a scratch but as long as they don't make a mistake it is impossible for a fifth stage beast to defeat them. There would have to be a group of them, but most fifth stage beasts are solitary individuals. Only wolfs or similar predators would hunt in a group. And herbivores don't hunt so no need to consider them.

Moving through the cave they return to the small grass field for the last time. They doubt that they will return in the near future and as this place holds some form of sentimental value they would at least like to visit it before they leave.

After remembering the events of the past days our protagonist throws a last glace at the field of grass and decides to depart.

She previously dug up the ground around here. She wanted to know how these flowers grow from the stone ground.

What she found was a 5-meter deep layer of soil. Smooth slightly wet and a dark shade of brown. As she contemplated why soil was suddenly where the stone ground was supposed to be, she decided to check with her memories. Something she forced herself to always do.

She often did not do so and during the hunt, it often proved to be idiotic. If she had, from the start, checked all available information on what they found and hunted she would have had a much easier time.

Somehow this always slipped her mind. Despite her attempt at staying calm, she was always surprised and astonished by what she found. Witnessing so many new things often made her forget something so simple. At one point she mentally chanted "Check with the System" until she learned to do so by reflex. From that point onwards the hunt became somewhat easier. No surprise attacks from unexpected attacks.

Having left the field behind them they finally arrived at the slope leading out of the cave. Climbing upwards and using the vines to reach the ground above, they were back in the clearing.

They had previously come her during their hunt and since then the clearing had changed a lot.

Ever since they first came here the clearing had started to "repair" itself. New trees grew at insane speed and the ground leveled itself. Grass and flowers grew and mushrooms sprouted out of the ground.

The previously big clearing shrunk by half and trees slowly conquered the devastated ground.

Following their memory, they both fell into a slight jog and made their way to the meeting point.

While above ground they were more careful. The possibility of meeting multiple stage 5 beasts was much higher. Descendants of the territorial ruler would often form small groups. Sometimes 3 perhaps 4 stage 5 beasts made up the main fighting force of such groups.

They meet one during their hunt and had to run for their life. Fighting 3 stage 5 beasts is not the problem. They would be able to escape. But add stage 4, stage 3 and stage 2 beasts and the matter gets much more complicated.

That was the one time they really had trouble during their hunt. They learned to avoid such groups and how to spot them. Reducing the possibility of meeting such a group again.

Jogging through the forest they neared the Eternal Tree. The barrier that cut off the tree from the rest of the forest had receded and the clearing was "freely" accessible.

Arriving at the clearing they looked around. There was no sign of Emma and Lar'ge. It looked like they would have to wait a bit.

Still much better than them noticing how she had not spent her time near the tree and had broken her promise.

If they had to be honest:

They were excited! This was the first real "adventure" for our protagonist and while Idan has meet humans before and had seen a lot more. Those interactions were mostly rather negative and it was his first time to enter a human town or city.

What would they see? What would they experience? Who would they meet?