Aurora replied, “That is the edge of Mistwood. The perspective is difficult to appreciate from here, but those trees are quite large, much larger than any surrounding Bosqovar. The forest is not inherently unsafe, though monsters in there tend to be of a higher level, perhaps high teens or low twenties. The real danger is how much the mist limits visibility. We can stay on the path and that should prevent us from getting lost. Alternatively, we could head eastward and skirt the edge of the wood entirely, but that will add an extra day of travel. I think you’ll get more experience against the tougher monsters inside anyway.”
Seth agreed and after several more minutes of resting, he and Aurora got back onto Pahan’s back and headed down the hill to Mistwood.
***
Seth dodged a swipe of the horned wolf’s claws and slammed his blade into its flank, activating Deliberate Strike before whipping his sword around and slaying the beast with Expose Breach.
You’ve slain level 21 Mistwood Horned Wolf, +4,127 experience, you’ve reached level 16, 7,181 experience until level 17.
458 experience diverted toward leveling Beast Bond - Pahan. Beast Bond - Pahan has reached level 6. 1,160 experience until level 7.
Seth panted and threw a dirty look at Aurora and Pahan, who lounged on a rock some distance away, Aurora chatting quietly at the big lion. Without looking, she tossed her finger in his direction and golden light enveloped him, closing the gash on his thigh from the fight with the horned wolf.
Seth stalked up to Aurora and Pahan, getting sick of their lack of concern for his safety during every monster encounter he handled, and heard the tail-end of the knight’s sentence. “And that’s why I’ll never leave my armor unattended around those ladies again!”
A rumble emanated from the great beast’s chest, he closed his eyes and tilted his head back. Seth had quickly learned that this was Pahan’s version of laughing.
The constant translating from Pahan to Aurora had gotten so tiresome as they had ridden that he had dug into some menus and found an option to allow others to hear Pahan’s speech. Even with the setting enabled, people had to be in Seth’s party to be able to communicate with the lion. At first, it had been great, but after a while the two had almost cut Seth out of their relationship, taking to one another as fast friends. He tried not to let his resentment show, but being a tag-along was almost worse than being a translator.
Seth asked Aurora what story she had been telling, but she said something akin to ‘you had to be there.’ He didn’t mention that Pahan had most definitely not been there whenever it had happened, and let it slide. As much as it may have annoyed him that they were so inseparable, he forced himself to remember that both of them had lived pretty solitary lives up until this point.
Aurora had doubtless had comrades in her Adventurers’ Guild training, but since being stationed in Bosqovar had likely lost touch with them. She’d mentioned (to Pahan) that the people of Bosqovar treated her more like a law enforcer, and so didn’t ever really visit unless they needed her help, and never really let loose around her.
Pahan, if his memory were to be trusted, had had several, maybe dozens of partners over his long life, but was cursed to barely remember them, good times and bad. Seth gritted his teeth and tried to focus on being happy for his newly-found friends.
Seth decided to take a look at his statistics page to take his mind off it.
Seth
Main Class: Level 16 Warrior (1,519/8,700) Second Class: None 576/576 Health Points 0/100 Fury Points Factions: None Stamina: 32
Dexterity: 36 (32 + 4) Strength: 63 (48 + 15) Intelligence: 16
Wisdom: 16
He’d gathered now that each of the statistics, stamina, dexterity, strength, intelligence, and wisdom all stemmed from his level. For every level he gained, his stamina and dexterity would rise by two, his strength would rise by three, and his intelligence and wisdom would rise by one. Because strength was the largest increase per level, and because he was gaining levels so quickly, Seth was able to feel the difference in his physical strength.
When he’d chopped wood for Thom on his first day in Morgenheim, Seth had had trouble lifting the axe above his head, but with a strength score in the sixties, he felt strong. He’d picked up a boulder three feet to a side that had to weigh hundreds and hundreds of pounds just to see if he could. While it hadn’t been easy, it was actually possible.
Aurora had shared that Seth’s strength was already higher than hers when he’d told her and Pahan about it, though knights were defense focused and gained stamina quickly instead of strength. Seth’s 576 health still felt painfully low compared to Aurora’s 1,818. And his armor didn’t block anywhere near the amount of damage hers did. And he couldn’t heal himself like she could…
Seth shook his head and blocked that train of thought out. He didn’t need to compete with Aurora, they were on a team.
Seth said, “Are you two ready to keep moving?”
Pahan stretched out, his hind quarters in the air and his huge paws stretched out in front of him. Seth watched the six-inch claws spring out of the lion’s paws and knife into the ground. Fighting ability or not, Pahan was wildly imposing.
Aurora said, “We are ready to continue.” Seth felt another twinge of annoyance that she’d answered for his beast companion, but didn’t voice it.
The two of them climbed onto Pahan’s back and the group was off again. They came to a point where a huge ravine snaked through the forest, sheer cliffs falling straight down into the ground. Seth was worried at first, but the rough dirt road they’d been following simply turned left and followed the ravine for a time.
After perhaps a quarter hour of running parallel to the ravine, the road led to one of the massive trees that had been laid across it, spanning the entire width. A large groove had been somehow carved out of the center of the fallen tree, turning it into a stretched-out U-shape, so walking across it had a form of guard rails.
The two humans dismounted and walked across with Pahan, not wanting to tempt fate, and Seth thought that Aurora hadn’t been joking when she said the trees were quite large. They reminded Seth of the giant redwoods in California, though were a much muddier brown in color. Their massive trunks stood like silent giants in the mist that seemed to emanate from everywhere. Seth wondered if the trees themselves were producing the mist.
As they walked, Seth daydreamed of finding one of the trees with a hollow large enough to build a small house inside, or at least building a treehouse way up in the canopy. Suddenly, without any reason Seth could see, Pahan stopped and stood stock still. Aurora’s breath tickled Seth’s ear as she leaned forward and said in an almost inaudible whisper, “Do not make a sound. I think I just caught a glimpse of a roaming champion.”
Seth almost asked aloud what a roaming champion was, but thought that it was wise not to break the whole do not make a sound thing. Pahan spoke to Seth then,
Some sort of basket was strapped to the shape’s back, and Seth could see large, lumpy objects that had to be the size of basketballs piled inside almost to overflowing. Seth felt a primal fear, deep in his gut, even though he didn’t even know what he was looking at. Was it just that Aurora had sounded scared of the monstrous figure?
For a tense moment, the champion stopped, and it looked like it may head toward the paralyzed group, but after hesitating, it turned and walked the other direction, deeper into the mist, and Seth lost track of it. After thirty seconds of continued silence, Aurora said, “I cannot sense it any longer. I think we are safe.”
Pahan
spoke up, he nodded his head in the general direction the colossus had headed,
He replied, At that, a new entry appeared in Seth’s combat log.
Wandering Arborist Level 26 Roaming Champion (Unique) Respawn Time: 2-4 weeks The oldest legends of the Mistwood speak of the Wandering Arborist. A fierce protector of the forest, the arborist splits its time between fighting any that dare to defile the Mistwood, and planting new Mistwood Monoliths in areas where the forest has grown thinner. Anyone strong enough to conquer the Wandering Arborist will be awarded with the seed of a Mistwood Monolith.
Seth said, “That is a super useful skill, Pahan. What is a roaming champion?”
Aurora replied, “Champions are extremely strong constructs that the wild spirits create. They are almost exclusively found very near to the spirit’s center of power, guarding its core. Roaming champions, however, are sort of a mystery. They’re just as strong as normal champions but don’t seem to need to be close to the cores. Instead, they can be found anywhere in the territory of a given spirit.”
Seth said, “Pahan, were you a roaming champion before?”
The great lion rumbled contentedly as he walked, and said,
Seth stared up at the big trees disappearing into the mist and, after a moment, said, “I really want one of those seeds.”
Aurora replied, “You’d have to assemble a party of people my strength or better to be able to take that champion on, though at your current leveling speed, you’ll be able to fill one of those slots soon.”
Seth silently vowed to return and claim a Mistwood Monolith seed one day, visions of his treehouse mansion flashing through his mind. All he had to do was keep getting stronger.
Chapter 15
The team had set up camp again that night, Pahan taking the watch all night while Seth and Aurora slept on the ground in two cloth bedrolls that the knight had packed from her house. Seth tried to argue with the big lion, offering to split the watch into shifts, but Pahan had again pointed out that he didn’t actually need sleep like the puny humans did.
The next morning they’d woken with the sunrise and headed down the dirt path again on Pahan’s back, munching on dried meat and stale bread that Aurora had packed as they rode. Seth very much missed coffee, and found that it took him quite a long time to feel awake without it.
Thankfully, he wasn’t getting any withdrawal headaches, which he attributed to hand-wavy goddess magic. Couldn’t she have just magicked him up a Keurig and some K-cups? Perhaps, if he was one of the one hundred to complete her impress me quest, he’d bring it up. On a whim, Seth willed open his quest log and noticed that the impress me quest details still said Claimed: 0/100. Apparently, the goddess of business suits was hard to impress.
Several more Mistwood horned wolves were dispatched by Seth along the journey, and he found that it became easier with each level. The Mistwood Monoliths began to be replaced by trees at a scale Seth was used to, and the mist reduced in conjunction. Before long, they left the last lonely gargantuan tree behind.
As the sun was reaching its zenith in the sky and Seth’s stomach was beginning to grumble, they rounded a corner in the trail and Seth caught his first glimpse of Vardon. Seth had reached level 18. The city stood in the center of a massive clearing of rolling green grasses. Not a single tree marred the prairie surrounding the city, and when Seth inspected the titanic yellowish stone walls, he realized that it may have been by design.
The huge stone walls were intimidating, as if Vardon expected to be holding off massive armies at a moment’s notice. The stone making up the wall had a slightly yellow tint to it, as if it was more suited to sit in the middle of a desert instead of a massive green prairie. It was difficult to gauge at that distance, but Seth thought the walls might be over fifty yards high. An enormous ditch was dug around the entire perimeter of the walls, though Seth couldn’t see if there was water or something else at the bottom from that distance.
Seth’s inspection of the city was interrupted with, unprompted, Pahan slunk off the path and into the trees and brush that flanked it. Thorns picked at Seth’s clothing as the lion made his own path through the dense foliage, and Seth said, “Pahan what are you doing?”
The lion didn’t immediately answer, but after a few more moments crashing through the brush he climbed up a small hill and turned back around, facing the path. He said, Aurora asked, “A fighting force?”
Pahan replied, The three of them watched the path silently and before long the group became visible as they crested a hill. It was a line of around ten wagons pulled by horses. Single riders on horses also led and flanked the group, and each of them had blue capes similar in style to Aurora’s red cape flapping in the wind behind them as they rode. Seth counted six blue caped people.
Before Seth could even ask aloud, Aurora said, “The Transportation Guild.” Seth heard a strange tone to her voice and looked over to see her lip curled in a hostile look directed towards the riders.
Seth asked, “Are they bad guys?”
Aurora looked at him, realized what expression she had plastered on her face, and took a deep breath before replying. “No, not necessarily, you can think of them more as my guild’s rivals. We’re the two largest fighting organizations in this country, and we have a habit of ending up on opposite sides of conflicts. The blue capes have spilled a lot of Adventurers’ Guild blood over the centuries. Even though nothing like that has happened in my lifetime, it’s hard not to hate them for what their predecessors did.”
Seth nodded silently and watched the caravan go by, heading toward the Mistwood. After they’d passed, he asked, “Where are they headed?”
Aurora said, “Likely Bosqovar, it's not safe for average merchants to travel through Mistwood on their own, so usually several of them will pool their money and hire a party of blue capes to get them there and back safely to trade their goods.”
Pahan clumsily crashed his way back through the thick underbrush and got them back onto the path, and the group continued toward Vardon. As they reached the edge of the huge clearing surrounding the city, Aurora spoke aloud, “Pahan, no offense meant, but you may scare the citizens of Vardon.”
Pahan hummed again,
Seth and Aurora hopped off Pahan’s back. Seth patted Pahan’s flank twice before triggering the summon skill again, and the big lion simply vanished in a puff of white mist. Seth stretched his sore legs and groaned, though Aurora seemed completely unphased. Seth attributed it to her massive stamina score, but still felt a little self-conscious at how sore he felt. The two of them headed toward Vardon’s southern gate on foot.
As they neared the imposing city wall, several other dirt roads joined the one they traveled on, and the road became wider and better maintained. Several people passed them heading out of the city, and every one of them made a point to greet Aurora, t
hough Seth couldn’t tell if they were genuinely happy to see her or just intimidated by her red cape and bulky armor.
They finally approached the gate to the city. Two huge wooden doors could be pushed closed from inside to block entry into the walls, but both were open. Two guards watched over the entrance, one to each side, though Seth wondered if there weren't more guards on and inside the walls near the gate. Seth expected the guards to challenge them, or ask what their business was in the city, but both nodded at them, and one said, “Adventurer.”
Seth panicked for a split second before he realized they were acknowledging Aurora, not nonchalantly stating his secret race. There really should have been a better naming scheme set up for that.
Seth took in his first view of the actual city itself after they passed through the gates. The area inside the walls was packed with buildings, and the streets seemed cramped and too-thin. Most of the buildings seemed to be made of the same yellowish stone that the walls were made out of, though he did spot wooden structures sprinkled throughout. Many of the buildings Seth could see were only two or three stories high, but over the roofs of some of those he could see larger structures looming further inside the city, roofs rising to sharp points.
There weren’t many people right inside the gate, but Aurora strode confidently ahead, heading up one of the streets that looked to bee-line deeper into the city, and Seth began seeing more and more people. They reached one point on the major road where both sides of the street were completely taken up by tents of varying size, shape, and fabric. Shopkeepers sold an incredibly wide range of items, and the citizens of Vardon were in a shopping frenzy. Seth asked Aurora, “Is this some kind of special merchant event?”
She answered, “No, this part of Utgar Way always brings a lot of merchants. This isn’t even the busiest I’ve seen it.” They kept walking, and Seth started to notice how everyone just seemed to unconsciously move out of Aurora’s way, and glanced at her cape after she’d passed. Apparently, the guild demanded respect in this city.
Quick Change Volume 1: Slyborn Page 10
