[@Zeroth] [@Stabby]

	Femus Loncut awoke as the pattern of movement in the forest began to settle into the pre-dawn stillness.  That stillness was a brief period of precious time for him.  He settled himself and began to meditate, focusing on rapidly circulating the mana through his body as well as increasing his capacity further.  In addition, he began to try to increase its density and his ability to manipulate it.  His desire in these meditations was to lay the groundwork for more rapidly casting spells and also to gather mana ahead of time such that he could cast dissimilar spells in rapid succession.  His body was still frail and so he needed speed, accuracy, power, and tricks.  This place could only shelter him for so long.

	This particular tree was old and had many holes.  In fact, unless this greenish wisp was very wrong indeed, it was dying.  That had made it an excellent place for him to train.  He didn’t consider his chosen hole in a tree to be his home.  He was still too weak to have such a luxury.  Still, he had found a small enough hole that only wisps, pixies, and slimes would be able to enter it.  It was also deep enough that he could conceal his ambient glow inside it.  The smell of ozone still drifted about at the entrance.  But, those outside would not be able to tell much about the strength of the wisp that lived there.  Uncertainty was an effective deterrent in a world of savagery where a single reckless move could mean death.

	Even more valuable than the concealment offered by the hole was the fact that this old tree was home to several vines and a certain number of blue flowers, the same blue flowers that had been part of his earliest memories in this body.

	He changed his meditation as the time of stillness passed and the subtle noises of the forest day began.  No longer completely focused inward, he began to analyze his surroundings.  He examined the blue flowers, the tree, the vines and tried to sense the flow of mana around him.  He also used Monster Analysis on the pixies that were beginning to fly about near other trees, the other wisps, and every form of self mobile life he could see from the opening of his hole.

	He maintained this state, meditating as needed to maintain his energies, until he noticed that he was beginning to become aware of the sound of combat from the goblins.  At this time he slowly and cautiously emerged from his hole, doing his best to continue the accelerated circulation of his mana while in motion and being prepared to fire a Mana Orb 2 at anything that tried to ambush him.  But, nothing did.

	Rather, at the moment he emerged from the hole in the tree the whole forest was stunned to silence by the sudden destruction of a significant portion of a distant mountain.  Unfortunately the cause had escaped his notice so he did not have an accurate idea of where the event started.  But, he knew that anything on that level would be so powerful as to make comparing himself with it… utterly pointless.

The casual burp of such an existence would be enough to instantly kill him.

	But, its actions could also be beneficial.  The whole forest had been shaken and much would change as a result.  Femus took up a position close enough to the ground to strike accurately with Mana Orb but made sure to drift around in the manner of a common wisp.  He didn’t want to stand out as he waited for the inevitable.  Such an event would displace many creatures and they in turn would force others to move or act.  This was not a time to hide in a hole.  This was a time to be predator, not prey.

	Creatures of many kinds suddenly rushed from the forest into the open, recklessly rushing across the goblin territory.  Femus took a moment to choose a target. He needed practice and training.  So, he would choose a target that was already likely to be consumed by something else in short order.  He could always simply withdraw after achieving the kill.

	It was then that he spotted a female pixie attacking a dire rat.  It was a typical form of attack for a pixie.  The only odd part was the timing.  The pixie struck before shielding itself.  That… wasn’t usual.  A dire rat could kill an unshielded pixie with a single bite.  For the shield to come second would mean that the pixie was planning ahead for a possible counter attack.

Pixies don’t plan ahead.

	Femus used Monster Analysis on the pixie even as he fired a Mana Orb 1 at the same dire rat that she had attacked.  There was a small chance that he might have found someone interesting, perhaps another fish caught in the Demon King’s net.  By using only a first level Mana Orb he was concealing his real strength as well as hiding his own intelligence for the time being.  He needed to know more before he could decide whether or not to kill this pixie as well.


[hider=Skills]
Monster Analysis 	1.0
Level Growth
Mana Orb 		2.0
Lesser Force 		1.0
Levitation 		1.0
Meditate 			1.0
[color=ed1c24]Shield[/color] 			0.1
[color=ed1c24]Suppress Presence[/color]	0.1
[color=ed1c24]Alert[/color]				0.1
[color=ed1c24]Faster[/color] 			0.1
[color=ed1c24]Harder[/color] 			0.1
[color=ed1c24]Soil Manipulation[/color] 	0.1

[/hider]

[hider=Inventory]

[/hider]