In the end, Kat did manage to get some sleep… well it was meditation, but Kat was more than willing to accept that as 'real sleep' now that it seemed to be her only option. Her mind was able to more easily wrap itself around the problem, and even though she couldn't think about it directly, Kat would wake up more sure of herself than before. She may not have yet reached an answer, but Kat now felt that she could live with whatever she did choose in the end. Only time would tell if these assumptions proved true.
When Kat woke up, she dusted herself off and jumped down to Xiang, abusing her exceptional vision to take a look at his wound without bothering to ask. Kat knew it would save her some time and attention. To her surprise, it was mostly healed. The cut in Xiang's outfit was still present, confirming that he did in fact only have one outfit, and through that gap Kat could see fresh pink skin.
*Hmmm, so his healing is fast, and truly exceptional for a human. But he isn't human anymore… or not base human anyway. He is a cultivator with qi, and really that means he heals decently fast.*
"Are you ready to leave?" asked Kat
Xiang put away his sleeping bag and turned to Kat "Yes. I believe you said we'd be close. I would like to get to them sooner rather than later. I will have my revenge, and I'd hate for them to get time to run away"
*Pretty sure that they are going to be in their base, so I doubt they plan to run everywhere… Does he think they are scared of him or something? Surely not right…* Kat shrugged and turned away, ready to start walking again.
It didn't take long for Kat's thoughts to turn back to Xiang's regeneration though, and how maybe it wasn't that great. *Am I just spoilt?* Kat remembered all the times she had been able to heal back from incredibly deadly wounds. That one time she carved her front up with gravel, or the time she got stabbed multiple times in the chest.
*Ah, good times really. I suppose his regeneration is rather impressive by any other standard than my own. You know. I wonder how good my regeneration is comparatively. Hey System, how good is it?*
User Kat's regeneration is considered to be a higher tier mostly due to the lack of scar tissue generated, the fact that it will scale well with increasing Ranks as the cost is mostly fixed even when repairing stronger skin. Finally, the fact that it allows for the reconnection of limbs is considered powerful. User Kat's regeneration may lack in speed at the higher end until Rank up.
That being said, most other higher tier regeneration is cheaper, is accompanied by stronger skin and muscles, or in some cases such as high tier Gluttony regeneration, is completely instantaneous and free as long as the demon contains enough bio matter. Furthermore, while reattachment of limbs is considered high tier, User Kat does not seem to be able to completely regrow them, which is also a sign of high tier regeneration.
*Huh… well, I'm still pretty happy with it. Though… how does Xiang's regen compare?*
Without direct details, it simply appears to be a slightly increased healing factor. More examination would need to be done to determine if scarring is possible, and what the upper limit is. With current information, it would likely be considered to be the lowest form of regeneration.
*Ok. I'll keep that in mind.*
With that, Kat let her awareness settle into the surroundings. She wasn't sure where the base would be, but running into it blindly would be a problem. Kat started to pay more attention to what she was hearing and even boosted her ears. Kat's first attempt was to supply her ears with as much energy as they wanted to try and hear everything in the forest.
This turned out to be a horrible idea. There was too much she could hear for her to sort out individually. It was fine if she was just searching for a specific noise, or if she was trying to ignore it, but trying to actively parse the sound of everything in hearing range was too much.
Kat tried to slow down her mind to compensate, that way she could hear each sound, mostly separate from anything else. This actually worked for a bit, and Kat was able to get a decent idea of what was going on around her… the problem with this method became quickly apparent… though mostly due to luck.
Kat spent a few perspective minutes in this mode, hardly moving, before giving a quick glance to her energy levels. They had dropped a good chunk, and she had only really taken two steps as she was making sure to keep her body moving at more normal speeds.
*Shit. This is actually a large drain on my reserves. I'm not sure I can afford this sort of expenditure. It's not too much I guess, but time wise, it probably has only been five seconds at most… and that IS a lot of energy for five seconds even if it feels more like two minutes.*
Kat completely dismissed her enhancements and went back to trying to investigate with her ears in more standard operation. It was still pretty good, but detail was lost alongside range. Kat was tempted to try to apply only a bit of energy to her ears, but decided to wait until she had completely restored her demonic energy.
It only took a few minutes for this to be true, and when Kat applied a small amount of energy to her ears, she instantly noticed an interesting detail she'd been overlooking. Normally, the clarity of what she was hearing wasn't quite high enough to pick this out, and when she was in her slowed state, there was still so much information she didn't notice.
At this midpoint, Kat could tell that somewhere, around one or two hours ahead of her, was a square of complete silence. It wasn't super obvious, as sound travelled around and through the area. Kat was sure she could hear things from further away and to the side, which should have been impossible if the area blocked sound completely.
The main thing that gave Kat pause was that it was a perfect square. Once she focused on the wind whistling through the trees to the exclusion of all else, this fact only became more clear. *Well now. I bet that has to be our destination. It's… smaller than I expected. I think it's only slightly larger than the outpost we found. Which is a little strange… surely that can't be right?
Hmm, no I think I'm just bad at estimating the distance using only my ears and NO sound. It has to be larger. Unless… well if they can make something to make the noise completely silent… maybe it has a lesser effect around the edges? Just because the square is obvious doesn't mean that's the absolute limit. Maybe the square has to be silent.*
Kat tried to focus her hearing a bit more, letting it take in the sounds around the square, and found that she was completely correct. Now that she was looking for strange things it was clear that there was a second square around the original.
*I see, so there's a weaker version of it around the edge. Must be something important in that silent compound, with the more standard stuff in the larger area around it. I can hear things which I had thought was the wind and maybe some birds because they were too quiet to be anything larger…
That's probably wrong though. With sound dampening there is a good chance I can't hear the wind, but I can hear people yelling and moving around. A shame I can't hear what any of them are actually saying because that would be a massive help.*
Kat let herself slow down, in an attempt to move next to Xiang, and when she made it to his side, she whispered. "We are only an hour or two out now. What do you want to do?" asked Kat
"Well, obviously we should make haste. We can assault their compound right now!" said Xiang
Kat shook her head. "Well, first off, it's still a good deal of walking. Second, we don't know what the place looks like, and third, have you given any thought to simply stealing from them as they have you?"
Xiang grit his teeth. "Just theft is not enough. With the damage done to the village I'm unsure if we could even survive the year. Their punishment must be substantial and swift" said Xiang.
*Come on… surely, I can work something out right?* Kat's desperate mind managed to latch onto a decent idea.
"Ok… look I understand that Xiang" said Kat "But hear me out what about if…