An Owl's Rise

Evelyn stared at the over three-hundred-meter-wide crater in the mountain in almost a daze.

The avalanche she had caused revealed the large scar in the side of the mountain that had been there for presumably a long time.

'Did a meteor hit it or something?' Evelyn thought, wondering where this massive crater could have come from.

It was truly astonishing to see such large hole in the side of the mountain.

However, from her current vantage point high in the sky she could see that while the initial impact only went around a hundred meters deep, there were numerous smaller tunnels in the crater that went deeper into the gargantuan mountain.

Seeing this, Evelyn's meteor idea seemed a bit off. Or perhaps the initial crater and the tunnels within it were wholly unrelated.

"Evelyn, are you not going to send off the signal?" Braulia asked while tilting her head in confusion.

"Ah, yeah. I'll do that now."

Turning her attention away from the cater Evelyn pulled out the signal talisman and once it was used sent off a large flare into eh sky which exploded like a firework.

This allowed the other owls in their squad to know that one of their missing members had been found.

"I imagine that you must be tired. Let us land and wait for the others to arrive." Evelyn suggested.

Nodding her head, Braulia agreed and the two of them descend and landed in one of the trees that had not been overturned by the massive avalanche that just swept this side of the mountain

Once there Evelyn who mostly wanted to just sit and wait in silence so that she could ponder about the crater, was instead forced into conversation with Braulia.

"I have heard you are and exemplary alchemist that is as good if not better than Adolophine. What kind of things go into your alchemy?" Braulia said with starry eyes.

Sighing Evelyn gave some random answer that were only surface level, but Braulia just kept asking questions and making conversation no matter how much Evelyn hinted she did not want to.

Naturally Evelyn found her sudden insistence on talking strange and annoying, since they had barely had any conversations before. But chalked it up to Braulia now wanting to get close to her rescuer.

'She should definitely not be so trusting. Just because someone helps you does not mean they have good intentions. You can easily end up in a far worse situation than before.'

A scowl came over Evelyn's face as she thought this and remembered the man who had killed her and her brother.

He had seemed nice at the time but turned out to be a real sadistic bastard.

'If I was there now with the power I have gained, I could rip him in half.' Evelyn thought as the unpleasant memory she normal kept buried.

Her mood becoming worse by the second, Evelyn was about to snap at Braulia when their attention was routed somewhere else.

The other owls from their squad were getting close, and Evelyn saw that they had found the other missing member

'Good, looks like Osten managed to survive as expected. I worked pretty hard to keep him alive before and he is fairly strong, so it would have been a shame if he ended up dead.'

With her thoughts being redirected away from her worst memories of her past life, Evelyn's deteriorating mood bounced back, and she was back to her more neutral demeanor.

Soon enough all of the members of their squad had reconvened.

"It is good to see you safe Osten. I am sorry that you got caught up in that because of me." Evelyn said.

Osten for his part was confused for a moment, but then remembered that the leader of their group had told him that Evelyn blamed herself for the avalanche.

"It is fine. No way to know that was going to happen. Anyway, it will take more than that to do me in." Osten said to reassure her.

After they had all settled down and finished up celebrating the survival of all their members, they got to discussing what their next move was going to be.

"I believe that we should head back to base camp and report what happened. We already got a good amount of information about the area." Adolophine suggested.

While they had not explored the entire area, they had gotten a fairly good idea about the composition of beasts and magical plants.

Also, it was already certain that this area had less magical energy than others they had been in so far. Barely having what it took for the single awakened rank beast they had seen to exist.

It was likely that this area would not even be worth developing at all due to its lack of resources and the environmental dangers.

However, there was one thing that Evelyn was still curious about and brought up the larger crater in the side of the mountain, about two thirds of the way up to its peak.

Of course, some of the other owls had seen it as well and their curiosity was piqued just like Evelyn's.

"Yes, I suppose it is possible that we might some rare beasts, magical, plants, or even ores in the vicinity. But we have already done quite a bit here and I do not want to put the squad in anymore danger when we are almost finished with the expedition. Adolophine said with a look of worry on her face.

They had nearly completed their mission and her entire squad had made it through without casualty.

Today though, she nearly lost two members to an avalanche and wanted to simply return back to base camp and wrap things up without worrying about the dangers of continuing to explore.

Still, she wanted the rest of her squad's opinion on the matter, since if any of them made a fuss that she had not done her job well enough in leading them on their exploration then it could come back to bite her later.

And unfortunately for Adolophine, the majority of the squad wanted to keep going and investigate the crater in the side of the mountain.

"Very well, we will commence our investigation tomorrow. I imagine that everyone is quite tired from today's incident." Adolophine said begrudgingly.

She really wanted to just call it at this point but could not deny the will of the majority of the squad at this point and time.

With their path decided, Evelyn's squad found a good place to rest for the night and set up watch like usual while the others went to sleep.

Upon the coming of the next night, they were all up and fairly energetic.

So far exploring this mountain had been kind of boring in comparison to the previous areas they had been in, but now they were raring to go.

The discover of such a large crater was soothing that had gotten those that liked exploring very interested, and Evelyn herself wanted to get a better look at the interesting sight.

"Let us go now. But make sure to keep a tight formation. We have made it this far and I do not want anyone dying this late in the game." Adolophine said before taking the lead.

Quickly they all ascended higher and higher as they headed for where the carter scarred the mountainside.

When they arrived directly above it, they could now peer into it much better than before and looked at it in awe.

'This really is a big crater. But those tunnels are the most ungual thing rather than the crater itself. I wonder what caused them?'

Looking down now that she was closer Evelyn could see that the tunnels were not shallow and went deep into the mountain.

Each one was quite a bit smaller than the crater itself but still large enough for any of the members of her squad to fly through.

"To begin with let us search the outside. We might find an exposed vein of a rare metal, or a type of ore used in alchemy." Adolophine said directing her squad.

Flying down lower the owls scoured the crater for anything that might be of value, but there was nothing there was rock.

'Hm, no meteor of anything at the center. Whatever made this crater is long gone. Perhaps it was even taken away in the avalanche yesterday which exposed this place.' Evelyn thought as she made multiple guesses as to why whatever made this crater was no longer here.

Within around an hour, the ten owls of their squad had determined that there was nothing of value on the outside of the crater.

Nevertheless, the tunnels that bored into the mountain still had secrets for them to uncover.

"Very well we will go through the tunnel that is closest to the base of the mountain and see where it goes. Just make sure to stay close and be vigilant. We do not know what could be within." Adolophine said before their squad flew into the tunnel to explore the inside of the mountain.