An Owl's Rise

Evelyn popped her head up out of the water and was ready to unleash her full powered attack on whatever was moving around nearby.

Yet she was surprised to see that it was another owl.

With this realization she sucked the magical energy back into her body, as the attack she was preparing was certainly going to be lethal and would have gotten her disqualified had it connected.

Still, she did not lower her guard down at all, and slowly approached the bank of the pool of water, before getting back onto dry land. All while staring down this other owl.

Like Evelyn they appeared to bear a resemblance to the great horned owl from back on Earth, though this one had almost entirely white feathers.

However, these where not quite like the ones that the snowy owl had, and it appeared that its feathers were almost clear.

Though along with the majority of its feathers being the nearly clear white, it had a spattering of sliver looking feathers, much like Evelyn had some that were green and purple.

'Looks like she is one of the few owls left that are at the high tier of the fiend beast rank. But she seems just as cautious of me as I am of her.' Evelyn thought while looking intently at this other owl.

The two of them had a stare down for a good minute, before the other owl jumped off the tree and began flying away, seemingly not interested in trying to tangle with Evelyn.

Letting out a sigh of relief, she was quite grateful that had ended peacefully. Since right now she could not really fly with her body being soaking wet.

Nevertheless, now that there was no danger around, she raised her wings and covered herself in her heavenly flames, while also bringing up a gust of wind.

This combination quickly dried her off, as she evaporated the water and blew the moisture away from her with her wind.

'Well now that I have used magic as a hair dryer, or in this case a feather dryer, it is time to get going.'

Taking back off into the sky Evelyn continued her hunt for the necessary items needed to pass the second trial.

Currently she had five such treasures in her possession that would count towards her goal of ten, making her halfway there.

But she had definitely used up a great deal of time, and she was less mobile now than before so she needed to be swift.

At this point she figured she might have around an hour and twenty minutes left, and if she was really unlucky, she might have to go to her back up strategy and wait to ambush any owls returning to the starting point and steal their hard-earned treasurer.

Of course, she wanted to avoid this, if at all possible. Since starting fights like that could end up in a huge brawl with multiple owls involved.

'Oh, is that not a good hiding spot.'

Seeing a deep gash in one of the thick trees of the jungle, Evelyn cautiously approached it, constantly turning her head around to catch sight of any danger.

When she got closer to the scar on the tree, she sent out a small gust of wind that hit against it.

She wanted to makes sure that there was not anything living inside their that might lash out at her.

Luckily nothing seemed to react, so she slowly moved over and peered inside.

As she looked into this gash in the tree, she could see that it ran deep, and as she had suspected at the bottom of it there was some sort of large seed.

Looking at it she could see that it was both blue and brown, meaning it likely was from a plant with an elemental affinity for water and earth.

Unfortunately, it had been put pretty deep in this gash on the tree, and there was no way she was going to be able to reach it normally.

'I suppose I will just have to break my way in then.' Evelyn thought after contemplating what to do for around a minute.

At first, she had thought about trying out some of the tools Mason had left her and seeing if she could grab it that way. But soon she remembered that her physical strength was actually quite impressive, and that she was already far stronger than any human ever had been on Earth.

Going to work quickly she pulled up the wood and broke it away to get to her prize.

Yet as she did a cloud of dust billowed out from the scar in the tree and surrounded her.

Not taking any changes she stopped breathing and closed her eyes, while creating a gust of wind around her to blow the dust away.

When she was certain it had all dissipated, she looked around and quickly spotted a small bag that had been left that she had not spotted.

'Those bastards! They trapped the magical plants and beast cores they left. Talk about brutal. I guess that this is far from the peaceful scavenger hunts I went on as a kid.'

Fortunately, she had managed to use her magical affinity to protect herself, but any owl in her situation without the affinity for wind magic and a quick wit, would have been hit with a paralytic powder and certainly been unable to finish this trial.

'Well, there is another one.' Evelyn thought as she scooped up the seed and placed it into her bag.

With one more item down, she continued on searching the jungle for more hidden goods.

Quickly with her keen eye she began collecting all manner of hidden beast cores and magical plants.

Most of them had traps that had been laid nearby them, but after almost being caught once, she was very cautious and used her superior intellect to disarm all of the simple traps.

Along the way she also took on some of the beasts of the jungle. Targeting mostly those at the high tier of the fiend beast rank and collecting their cores.

By the time she figured she had around twenty minutes left to get back, she had managed to collect a staggering twenty-six quality items, owing to her keen eyes and lack of trouble she managed to get in after dealing with the snake in the pool.

'It looks like taking things a bit slower and being cautious worked out quite well. I was able to avoid any real threats by being aware of my surroundings, which in turn also helped me spot areas that would be good for hiding treasures in.'

Feeling elated at having gathered so many resources, Evelyn began thinking about which ones she wanted to keep for herself.

If all she needed was ten to pass, then she was certainly not going to give up the other sixteen when they would be very useful to her.

Though currently she was having a hard time deciding which ones she wanted.

She did not know what any of the seven magical plants she had gathered were, but she did know she wanted to try and work more on alchemy, and that they might be useful for that endeavor.

'I believe it will be best to just hand in ten of the high-tier beast cores I got. I have the most of them and can live without them easily enough if they get taken away.'

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