I looked at the three of them chuckling around as though they were little kids in a field. My eyes scanned through their forms, and I evaluated them. Luna was the most useful because she had the scroll, and though I’d read its text once, I might need it again, so I had to keep her close. Stan was the weakest, because he didn’t really seem to do much. The guy was a vampire who was scared of the dark. I was just looking at him as a possible scapegoat at this point. And then there was Valentine, the sneaky woman who had somehow tricked me into bringing them all along on what was supposed to be my solo adventure.
I recalled Helen’s words—You should find someone else to tag along with. You don’t have to always be alone.
I could tell with one look that, between the four of us, I was the only one who was dead serious about getting Aegil. To them, this seemed like a happy adventure, a vacation from their lives. Even Valentine, who actually had a good reason to want to go after it.
An icy sensation spread over my chest, and wrapped around my heart.
You know why I can’t be around people, Helen? I looked up at the sky. Because no one can ever understand me.
Not even you.
***
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Sunset had neared and the forest had darkened.
There were three people before Stan, but he didn’t step toward them. He stood alone, watching the people speak to each other.
That was how it had always been.
He had been excluded from everything when he was young. He had been excluded from everything when he got older. He’d even gone homeless before. He just didn’t belong anywhere. There was no place that would take him.
It would have been better if the Knights had just killed him.
Luna and Valentine laughed as their conversation flowered. Their lips moved, but Stan couldn’t hear the words they spoke. He was in a silent word again. Alone as usual.
His eyes moved past them, to the young man on the other log. Violet eyes stared at Stan and then moved away, as though they were a snake on the hunt.
“If only Pan were here right now,” Stan said, his voice impossibly soft.
His master had left, and with that, his whole life had come crashing down. And why not? There wasn’t much of a life left now. Stan had always believed he was being redeemed, that as a creature of darkness he was changing into someone the city accepted. Then Pan had left.
It was almost like the world was playing a big joke on him, as though it liked to tease him with images of a good life and then take it away.
Stan just wanted to be a part of something. Was that really too much to ask?
He knew he wasn't wanted in this group. Levi clearly hated him. He’d made that painfully obvious by calling him all kinds of names. And Valentine … well, she'd stood up for him, but he doubted whether or not she actually cared. It looked as though even this group of outcasts didn’t have a place for him.
That hurt. If he didn’t have a place even in a group like this, then did he have a place anywhere?
A part of him didn’t want to find out. He’d rather die in ignorance than in grief.
A sparkle shone from his right. Normally, Stan would have stumbled and run at the sight of something unfamiliar, especially if it was coming from the darkness. And yet, he didn’t feel that way today.
He felt the fear, sure. But he also felt a compulsion to tread into it.
He guessed he had a death wish now. That seemed about right.
Stan stepped between the trees, and no one paid any attention to him. No one ever did. No voice called out, and no people stepped toward him, and he didn’t care that they didn’t. The sparkle shone radiantly through the darkness—a point of light twenty yards away. He tugged his blanket tighter around him, as though the light would seep into his body if he didn’t.
Who knows? Maybe it would.
“I wonder if that might kill me.” Stan stumbled forward.
A howl echoed outward, and his knees went weak. He collapsed to the floor and scrambled around.
Wolves. He shook. He might actually die now, and his limbs shivered violently from just the realization.
As though everything he had thought of before was wiped away, he turned around, and dashed back to the camp, away from death. Levi and Valentine were up on their feet and were peering into the forest, while Luna was stumbling around yelling something he couldn’t understand. Maybe they were searching for him. His heart skipped a beat. Maybe someone cared.
And then the howls echoed through once more, bringing his stupid mind back to reality. Everyone turned to his direction, and their eyes stared through the trees.
“Wolves!” Stan yelled. His chest clenched.
Maybe this was his chance.
Was he being useful now?
***
“Damn it, Stan!” I swung my fist through empty air.
“I-I didn’t bring them here.” The vampire was sprawled over the forest floor. “I swear!”
I looked past him, into the forest, and glistening eyes emerged from fifteen feet behind him. Easily more than ten wolves.
My hand hovered over my short sword, and my fingers traced lines along its handle. Can we actually attack them? I wondered. How strong were they?
I stared at their forms, and activated my Analyze skill. But nothing happened. Damn. I gritted my teeth. The creatures were still shrouded in too much darkness for me to use my skill on them. I don’t even know how strong they are, then.
The good news was five seconds later, my skill finally activated, and I found out.
The bad news was they were much stronger than I was.
As if it was possible to be weaker. I grabbed my short sword and looked at them.
The brown-furred wolves stepped up, and stopped five yards away from where we stood. They had yellow eyes, but of a pale yellow, almost a sickly kind. Their teeth shone and they howled softly as they moved closer.
DING!
Race
Forest Wolf
Level
19
As strong as the Henway twins, I thought. I scanned another two wolves, and found them to be around the same level as well.
Valentine threw her hands up. “Fewora!” A white light flashed from her palms.
Oh, gods. I gripped my short sword’s handle. The creatures all howled and then charged at us.
“They didn’t get scared?” Valentine stepped back.
I glared at her. “They get aggravated by flashes of light.” I hunched down and focused on the running forms. I held my short sword at my side now. The first wolf leapt at me. I swung hard at its underbelly, and my blade cut into its skin. It yelped, but its body slammed down on me.
I dropped to the forest floor like I was a piece of paper and the wolf was the paperweight, holding me to the ground.
“Heliosa!” Valentine yelled. A ring of light emerged around her, and surged out. The line of white struck the wolves, and they slid away. I looked at their health bars.
Wow, that actually did a lot of damage, I realized. It had taken down at least 30% of their health, and in the case of two wolves, up to 60%.
Howls sounded once more, less numerous than before. Two more beasts surged toward me, bearing their teeth as they did. I pushed the dead wolf off me and tried to stand up, but the beasts had already jumped to my form.
I held my arms up, and jumped back. One of the wolves fell short of my position, but the other hit the spot and its teeth sunk into my forearm.
I yelled in pain and thrust my other hand—my weapon hand—at it. The wolf detached its canines and jumped back. My sword passed, harmless, through the air, while pain sunk down my other, injured limb.
“Damn wolf,” I muttered.
“Luna help!” The elf slid to the space between all of us. She opened up her Ga’em menu and tapped through four screens, all in just seconds. A stream of light surged into her palms, and she rushed to the nearest wolf—the one charging at Valentine.
Her hand curled
into a fist and the light within it condensed. The next thing we knew, the wolf’s head was rolling over the ground, away from us.
“Luna help,” the elf said again. She held a double-sword that had an obsidian-black handle, with a silver blade on either end. Threads of gold formed tiny patterns at the centre of the handle, the only decoration on the weapon.
“Wakeen!” Valentine yelled. A white aura emerged around Luna.
A speed boost, I realized.
The elf smiled. “Luna go kill bad wolves now.”
She grabbed the weapon with both hands and shot forward, aided by the princess’s spell. The wolves all turned to her, and a few of them stepped back, but it was too late. She spun the weapon fast and leapt onto a wolf. The blades cut through the skin on its back, and before it could even howl out, its head had been cleaved off its body.
I hadn’t even followed her motion away from that wolf, and I found another two on the ground, decapitated. In less than ten seconds, all of the wolves had dropped to the forest floor, all beheaded.
DING!
Congratulations! Your party has defeated:
Forest Wolf Pack (Lv. 17)!
The wolves came, they saw, but they most certainly didn’t conquer. Which makes sense, because wolves aren’t soldiers. Reward: 2000 XP.
I dismissed the screen, and glanced up at the elf. She twirled her weapon once more, and then it dissolved into a stream of lights, disappearing within the darkening air.
“You’re a Berserker?” Valentine’s eyes were wide. “I’ve never seen an elf with that class before.”
Luna smiled, but said nothing.
Stan stood away from us now, and his knees were visibly shaking, even though he had that blanket of his trailing over them. I sighed. What am I supposed to do with this guy?
I looked down at my short sword. There was a streak of blood on the side, and I wiped it against my pants. I hadn’t felt the fire and ice this time, and somehow, it was … disappointing.
Am I that addicted to it? I wondered.
A chuckle echoed from my right, and I jerked my head to the sound. What was that? My eyes darted through the trees, but there was only darkness in there.
Luna cocked her head. “Is Death-Man okay?”
I looked at her. “Didn’t you hear that?”
She blinked. “Hear what? Luna didn’t hear anything.”
She didn’t? I looked at Stan, but he shook his head as well. What the heck? I stared into the darkness. What was that then?
“Anyway….” I looked back at everyone. “We should—wait, where’s Valentine?”
Luna pointed behind me.
I turned around and saw the princess kneeling down before the wolves. Her hand was flush against their furry backs, and her lips moved. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but her eyes were closed. A prayer? I wondered.
She stood up and moved onto another wolf, and did the same thing. I blinked. “Valentine, nightfall is approaching. We need to decide what to—”
Her eyes shot to me, but she said nothing.
Neither did I. And neither did I want to. Not when she had that kind of a glare.
Luna slumped down to a log, and interlocked her own fingers. The vampire stood a foot behind her, facing the other way. He rubbed his eyes profusely, and I thought I heard a sniffle.
I frowned. Is he crying? I stepped in his direction, but then something caught the corner of my eye. The skies and the air had darkened considerably now, and within all that black, a flame of orange flickered through.
“What the heck is that?” Stan whispered.
“No clue.” I turned to the princess. “Valentine, there’s a weird light in the distance. I’m going to take a look.”
“Take someone with you,” she said, without skipping a beat.
I waited a few seconds. “Fine.” She was still talking to dead wolves so I turned to Luna. “Luna, can you—”
“Luna sleepyyyyy.” The elf slumped forward in her sitting position and yawned loudly.
Brilliant. I muttered. Just brilliant. I slowly turned to Stan.
The vampire fidgeted. “I-I can come with you, if you’re okay with it.”
“Sure.” I walked into the forest. “You better keep up with me.”
Ugh. This is not going to end well.
***
“A-Are you sure it’s safe?” Stan stumbled through the forest.
“Probably,” I said, as I stepped over a fallen branch. The fire shone brighter through the darkness now. We were getting closer to whatever this thing was. A minute or so later, the trees spread apart a little, as though the forest had turned scarcer. And five minutes later, I could see the actual fire instead of just the flickering light.
The forest dipped down about five feet, and there was a wide circle of grassy field — a glade — about a two-thirds of a mile in diameter. A fence of wood stood deeper in and within it were wide tents. A tall fire rose from deeper inside, probably the centre, and the smoke rose into the air. A thin entrance into the enclosure stood in my line of sight, and there were a moderate group of Knights, about ten, guarding it, with about twenty more placed at regular intervals along the walls.
Stan pointed at them. “I-Is that….”
“Yup.” I gritted my teeth. “The Zevalon Knights. Why the heck are they camping down here?”
Maybe this isn’t the squadron that is going around to save the princess, I thought.
Footsteps sounded from our left. My eyes darted in the direction, and I saw two silhouettes emerge through the forest.
I pointed to a nearby bush. “Hide,” I hissed at Stan. The vampire stumbled and fell back behind the thick greenery. I looked up at the tree next to me. It’s got enough branches. I leapt up to the smallest one and pulled myself higher up.
The men got closer, and I managed to make out their forms. They wore silver armor, like everyone else, but the designs on the silver were much fancier.
Higher-ups in the force, I realized. These weren’t the everyday foot soldiers.
One man chuckled as they walked down the path. "Seriously, just what the heck is this ‘Aegil’, anyway?"
My eyes widened. What? I blinked. Did he just say Aegil?
"Not sure," his friend replied. "The Sage mentioned it a few times. I have no clue what it is."
“All that talk about relics, and still no mention of the princess’s whereabouts.”
Something weird is going on, I realized.
"Maybe we can ask Elya about it."
"He's the only one we can. Joseph doesn't know a damn thing anyway."
Laughter echoed into the air as the men walked away. Their voices faded and they disappeared into the darkness.
Stan shuffled out of the bushes a few seconds later. "I think they're gone." He looked up at me. "Levi?" He blinked. "Hey?"
I sat in my tree, staring into the darkness through which they’d disappeared. The words I'd heard repeated in my mind, hammering the scenario into my head.
They knew about the Aegil. These lowlifes are after the relic as well.
Fire and ice surged through my blood and the sensation shot into my heart. I clenched my fists. This was the last straw. All I asked for was to be able to do what I wanted in peace, but every step of the way, some bloody idiot stopped me.
“I’m ending this." The flames and ice seared my inner self. "These bloody fools have been in my way for far too long."
***
“Luna still sleeeppyyy,” the elf complained with a yawn.
I took my eyes off her and looked at Valentine.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
I nodded. “This is a necessity,” I said. “Unless you’re fine with letting the Knights have their way.”
She bit her lip. “How certain are you they have information about the relic?”
“Very. They said a sage told them about it.”
“A sage, huh?” she asked. “So we have to do this.”
“Things will change drastically
depending on whether these Knights know where the relic is located or not.”
She sighed. “Fine. I guess we don’t have a choice.” She looked at me. “But I’m only helping you get into the place. I’m not infiltrating their camp with you. One, it’s dangerous; and two, I don’t want to.”
I nodded. “I wasn’t going to ask you, or Luna either.” I looked at the elf, who was still yawning atop the tree log. She’d give me away in seconds.
Valentine narrowed her eyes. “Just … what are you going to do in there?”
“What?”
“No death.”
I frowned. “Huh?”
“You’re going on an infiltration mission,” she said. “There shouldn’t be a scenario where you need to kill someone. So don’t.”
Stop telling me what to do. My jaw clenched, but I wore a wide smile on my face. “I understand.”
She eyed me for a second. “If you say so.”
I looked at Stan. “Come on.”
The vampire looked at me for a moment and then stumbled behind. “W-What are we going to do about getting in?”
“I’ve already got that figured out. Those Knights were heading deeper into the forest when we saw them. They should head back soon, given it’s night time now.”
“A-And?”
“Infiltration becomes easier if you’re dressed like the enemy, particularly if you’re dressed like high-ranking members of the enemy force.”
“So we’re knocking those men out?”
“That would be the very fun way of doing that,” I said. “But unfortunately, those Knights are likely many levels above us. They’re the higher-ups in the Zevalon Knight Force, after all.”
“So we’re not knocking them out?”
“Well, we are. In a way.”
Stan cocked his head, but said nothing.
Where is it? I thought as we walked along the trail. I looked down at the shrubs. “Ah, there.” I stepped to a thick outgrowth—a shrub with large, magenta shaded leaves.
Ascend: A World of Ga'em LitRPG (The Chaos Emperor Book 1) Page 14
