Lilith sprinted through the forest, like a shadow slithering in the darkness—silent and deadly.
She seemed to blend into the environment, as if her existence by itself was an extension of the place. Her aura was subdued, subtle, and nearly indistinguishable from anything else.
This was one other thing that she came to realize after she got some time to observe her new body.
Her presence was completely different, it was nearly identical to wherever she was. Her constitution was by itself a powerful concealment spell.
Lilith wondered if even a Rank 3 would be able to sense her if she created a Category 1 stealth spell...
[Lily, are you sure that you want to enter the Category 1 Danger Zone? Sure, I know that it might grant you some benefits. But you're technically not a Category 1 Calamity...]
Hearing her brother's concern in her mind, she felt somewhat frustrated by her problem.
She was extremely happy that she became a Calamity, but her joy was short-lived as her crippling situation was clear to her.
She didn't have a Calamity Core, which meant that she couldn't ascend to a higher Category.
She is, by her guesses, equal in power to a theoretical Peak Stage Category 0 Calamity. Which she suspected that none had really seen before.
There was a solution, but it meant that she had to kill another Calamity first...
Nevertheless, she was assured of her decision.
[Un, I think it's for the best. Although, on paper, I'm not powerful enough to travel through the Danger Zone without the possibility of dying, my spell-making ability will make up for it. It may be a good opportunity to learn more about myself.]
Calamities are measured through Categories, and Danger Zones are the same.
So, a Category 1 Calamity should be able to remain relatively unharmed in a Category 1 Danger Zone.
But, that's just theoretical. In reality, a team of one Category 1 Calamity alongside a few other Rank 2 Heavenly Ascenders is the minimum to conquer a Category 1 Danger Zone without having losses in their ranks.
It may also vary from one Danger Zone to another, and she didn't think that the Wailing Mountain was exceptionally dangerous.
She knew that, but decided that it was for the better.
Why?
Well, she didn't have much choice.
If she decided to retreat back into the Draconic Empire, the chances of her getting caught were not worth the try. Not to mention that she might run into that Water Calamity again.
Advancing to the Starlight Empire wasn't that good a choice either, at least for the time being.
She wasn't afraid of the humans that were guarding their border, but of the possibility of the word that a new rogue Calamity had emerged.
That wasn't a good thing for her now. Some of the factions might try to kill her, eliminating the unpredictable Calamity that is free in the world.
Others would try to recruit her forcefully, and if she rejected them, they would try to kill her as well.
All in all, she didn't want to appear in public until she became capable of hiding her status as a Calamity completely.
And that, would require her to create new spells.
Which is why she was going to spend some time in the Wailing Mountain.
Her brother chuckled.
[True, you had already created a spell a few hours ago.]
Usually, Heavenly Ascenders search for spells of their Pathway that were already created by other people and learn them, instead of creating one from nothing. Like the Dragonblight's Legacy that she found.
However, Calamities don't have that privilege.
There was only one Calamity of each Pathway, and they almost certainly don't have a Calamity inheritance available to them.
Furthermore, learning to create a spell early was far better than copying what others had already made.
But it was only a problem of time for Lilith, her true talent lay in her uncanny ability to create spells.
Before, she had her racial abilities as a Nightmare Elf, but they paled in comparison to her innate insight for creating spells.
She wanted to use her time in the Wailing Mountain to familiarize herself with her new powers and grow more powerful as well.
She would then head to the outside world, where her true identity would be known to only her and her partner in crime.
With that trail of thoughts, she sprinted faster through the forest.
She had healed further, her shallow wounds now fully closed and the deep ones had stopped being threatening to her life.
She extended her senses far and wide.
She felt everything within a wide radius, the flow of invisible heavenly essence in the world exposing everything to her.
It was a sixth sense that combined all the other senses and qualitatively improved them into a supernatural ability.
She could feel, hear, touch, smell, and see everything that was in contact with the heavenly essence—which was almost all of existence.
From within her body, heavenly essence was emerging by itself. It flowed through her pathways and flesh, nurturing them and fixing the damage done by [Output Overload] and her fight.
She changed her sprinting path several times, either to throw off any potential follower or to avoid coming in contact with some creatures that she found annoying to face.
From time to time, shadows flowed through the forest as well. The silent hunters that plagued the place.
But she ignored them and simply changed her path.
After a while, she finally reached the slope of the mountain.
She scanned it with her perception, then turned left and started heading up.
After walking for a minute or so, she was met with a vertical wall of rock.
Her fingernails suddenly grew longer, and she stabbed them on the rock.
Without delaying, she put her spear on her back and started climbing.
Her fingernails stabbed through like it was butter and she easily climbed for one hundred meters.
Then, she reached an opening of a cave that was directly on the slope, and immediately, she lifted her spear in a throwing gesture.
Shew!
Boom!
She strained her muscles, arched her back, and used her whole body to throw the spear. It whistled through the air, and a loud boom came from where it landed.
Lilith walked inside, not in a hurry. After all, she had succeeded in what she wanted to do.
The cave wasn't anything special, just a rocky hole inside the mountain.
After walking for a while, she reached where her spear had landed.
It was impaling a dead white eagle.