[h2][center][color=F0E68C]Asteria[/color][/center][/h2][hr][hr]
Asteria was just about to leave the lake and head back to the goblin boss’s corpse, when she was interrupted by the system message that notified her of two level-ups and the option to evolve. Instead of heading back to the group, she crouched in a shadow next to a rock some meters away from the lake and studied her options. [color=F0E68C][i]So many interesting skills, and so many of them that would be hard to get on my own…Now which ones to choose?[/i][/color] Asteria knew she wanted to invest a bit into magic, purely out of curiosity, but how much should she? 

Certainly, there was also utility in magic, as had clearly been demonstrated by Jason’s earth affinity magic attack that had finished off the boss. But she was still worried about the whole mana regeneration issue – the only ways she knew for sure to regenerate mana were sleeping or using one the steadily diminishing number of mana crystals. There probably existed skills that could help to restore mana naturally, as evidenced by the Meditate and Mana Drain options that she apparently had in the list of unusable skills. The question Asteria was deliberating over was whether to invest so much into one of them or not. In the end, she decided to take a bit of a risk… [color=F0E68C]“5 points to Mana Sense. 9 points to Mana Drain,”[/color] she said, then waited a bit for the changes to take effect.

Next, she studied and thought over the evolution options. [color=F0E68C][i]Adult rat, Ratman and Mongrel are all attractive options. The first two can practice dexterity and crafting, while the last one is a strong predator…I wonder how Mother Rat would react to any such evolution though, especially if I turned into an obviously different species.[/i][/color]

Asteria was unable to finalize her decision in regard to evolving, partly because she wasn’t certain what to aim for and partly because she was interrupted by the ominous system message and concurrent change in the environment. She could practically smell the now heavily permeating scent of [i]death[/i], could see how [i]darkness[/i] became a definite, solid part of the environment. [color=F0E68C][i]…Is this because of all the senseless slaughter we were involved in? We just made this cave into some sort of a…a zombie/apocalypse horror-setting. Should we just leave? Or take responsibility and try to fix it? And what will the remaining enemy goblins do?[/i][/color] Asteria was now pondering on something else, but was interrupted yet again – this time by Jason’s shouting demand to follow him. Asteria, despite everything, couldn’t help but feel suspicious that he, of all people, seemed to know exactly what was going on…But she felt that trying to fix the situation was probably the moral, correct decision. Though if things turned south, she was more than ready to suggest that they run.
 
With that in mind, Asteria focused on her sight and scanned the cave, hoping to catch sight of Jason as he made off wherever it was he wanted to go. Conveniently for her, Jason soon rolled straight past her, heading even further into the depths of the cave, to an area almost directly opposite of where she remembered the Dire Rats’ nesting area to be. Asteria then nudged Mother Rat, squeaked a few times, and even added, [color=F0E68C]“Please follow me. This is important!”[/color] Hoping the monster ally would follow as usual, Asteria used her speed to an advantage as she made a mad dash after Jason until she caught up. She saw that Digbie and a pixie were already following Jason and joined the group. 

[color=F0E68C]“So, we have some more craziness to deal with? Jason, you seem to have an idea what might be going on…Also, I’m assuming the others are still on their way. I wouldn’t want to handle this whole death vibe thingy with just the four of us.”[/color]

[@Guy0fV4lor][@ReusableSword][@Gardevoiran]