The trip back to North haven took almost a day. Everyone was utterly exhausted from avoiding multiple big bands of goblins, like the first group they had beaten before.
It took Milly considerable time, roughly an hour of meditation, to regain enough focus for a big fireball. This was dragged out by constant interruptions and Bumpy roads. In the end they had an amazing haul of 40+ goblins slain over a day but that came through constantly juggling the risks. Bary was out after taking that drain ray and Marlin could walk and look scary but his shield arm was too numb for proper use.
Marlin Marveled at how he didn’t feel a thing not really exhausted but his stamina was sitting at 1/4th.
That was really the best part as far as Marlin was concerned. No matter how you felt, the system was straight up fact.
His system was already a lot less numerical then most, he might be analytical, he was a ’feel it’ kind a guy, through and through, he relied on gut and instinct. The description’s told him a lot more than some random numbers did.
”Guys is it just me, or do I mostly talk shit to the enemies and take punches? That last fight… I didn’t even use my trusty axe once.”
“You talking shit to them and not us, is the best part about you bro.” Bron responded as he slapped Marlin on the shoulder with a big grin. “Makes my job a lot easier, besides that axe throw was sweet.”
”Ow yea i did throw my throwing axe”, Marlin mumbled.
”As scary as it can be sometimes when you take shit to the face like a moron,” Milly droned, “without it, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to throw that fireball, so babe, You do you, it’s working.” She smiled, “it was awesome blowing up those goblins.
“dats firballz waz BIGgg!!” Both Jerry and Gary imitate a big explosions with their arms as their eyes sparkle from recalling the devastation.
Bary tried to as well but he could barely raise his arm and still wheezed. The drain spell did a real number on Bary. He would, by Milly’s estimate, take 3 days to recover properly from the Massive drain on his stamina.
That was the worst part of the Drain spell it sucked your stamina, the resource the living body needed to heal or benefit from healing spells and potions. The weird thing about the drain spell, was that instead of dealing more damage when it struck a critical area it drained a vastly higher amount of stamina, magic being specific and particular as always, the necrotic damage had been warded off by Milly’s protective spells but the stamina drain was something Milly’s protective magic did nothing against.
Bary had hit 0. As a ’lesser’ creature, he was bound to Marlin. Through this bond Marlin had innately supplied Bary with just enough stamina, for Bary to not die but it was definitely a chink in his armor.
A weakness inherent to him and his Minion’s. He would have to do some thinking on how to prevent this from happening again. More stamina was Bron’s answer and from what Marlin could tell, that was probably the best solution but it did mess a bit with his plans and his build and he was wondering if it was even worth it in the long run. If he could somehow tap into Billy’s Immense reserves of it, that would answer his problems.
“The road is long.” He sighed out loud.
”it sure is today.” Billy agreed.
The moment the walls of North haven came in sight, everyone breathed more easily.
The talk of the town, about rising Goblin numbers, had been no exaggeration. They had avoided the last 3 goblin groups. Not willing to risk a fight this close to exhaustion.
”Hey it’s Gromwull” Marlin said as he pointed forward. In the twilight of the setting sun, A large hulking figure, in the far distance, soon came in sight for everyone else, grouped with 2 others. A Kin Male and a High Nurr huntress from the looks of her bow. Marlin saw her play hard to get with the High Kin Male.
“Im practically blind compared to you Marlin.” Kotak spoke, “and I was always told I got amazing eyesight.”
Marlin smirked smugly, “you get used to it.”
”It always makes me uncomfortable, you seeing each blemish and imperfection so clearly.” Milly said while shifting uncomfortably, She adjusted her thick hide armor. It was tight around her chest.
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Body shaming was not done ever, to someone’s face in this world but with the smug looks of superiority, many of the Nurr females gave Milly, they might as well have.
Marlin wondered if it was simply people having a lot more muscle tissue in this world then back on earth, that warped his views, often he did a double take looking at some very thin Nurr women walking around in North Haven, back on earth they would have been super models, each single one.
To Marlin, they looked anorexic. The Rok’nurr the exception to the rule, with their muscular amazonian/conan the barbarian bodies.
The high’nurr, the classical smug superior elves, had thin graceful bodies with perfect, aesthetically pleasing faces.
The problem for Marlin, was that they were far too aware of that fact. The nasty arrogant look many of them had didn’t do them any favors.
He hated how they made Milly feel.
North Haven had made her very conscientious about her body shape. Kin were slim compared to the T’jut. Nurr were slim compared to Kin. The Difference between Milly and the average Nurr, was big.
Marlin calling them elves prior to their Goblin hunt, had drawn a lot of odd looks, no one explained it to him as to why that was bad.
Marlin walked over to Milly and whispered, “let’s have a lot of ‘intense snuggles tonight’ but you gotta tell me why calling Nurr, elves, is bad.”
Milly blushed at the thought of it, “they simply hate it because it’s a word that was introduced by ‘distant travelers’ like yourself and not them. They don’t have a word for it in their own language so their whole culture convinced itself it’s some thinly veiled insult from primitive Kin.”
“That’s it? That’s the reason? because they are paranoid?” Marlin was baffled.
Milly shrugged and nodded. The other group of 3, came closer and they greeted Marlin and his band.
”Hail, Had a good hunt?” Gromwull walked forward spear casually slung over his shoulder. Kotak took the lead and responded. “Yes, ‘Finika’ God of the hunt, smiled upon us today.” He did some sort of Customary bow and Gromwul did the same.
“Any leads on prey for us?” The Female Nurr huntress walked up and took out a map from a metal cylindrical cone and rolled it out. Kotak pointed and gave a quick rundown on where they spotted the packs of goblins they avoided and the rough number.
As with all people in this world, especially the Nurr, she was incredibly beautiful definitely not as skinny as the Nurr in town. Living an active life put well toned muscles on her bones.
Marlin didn’t even need to hear the fuming of Milly to know she was, so he grabbed her and kissed her, whispering, “that bag of bones got nothing on you”. It was a bold faced lie but Milly eased.
“One day you gotta tell me who hurt you so bad Milly.” Marlin looked at her with concern. She shrugged, “I’ve always been like this dear, the betrayal back all those years ago, just made it worse,” Marlin nodded and walked over to Gromwull who was standing alone, Bron had struck a conversation with the High Kin male, Marlin heard the Priest call itself a Follower of Artis god of War.
”Hey I thought you ran solo, what changed?” He asked Gromwul.
“The rising numbers of Goblins. They are tricky with their size for me and to be honest this was a long time coming. Found myself 2 allies, with a bit of luck we will make it work.”
Marlin Nodded, “yea watch yourself, I underestimated the little buggers myself, I was surprised at how tenacious they can be. Is it normal for them to be this numerous?” He looked ar Gromwull.
Gromwull nodded, “from time to time.” He answered and continued. “Especially when trouble is brewing, they seem to be able to smell it, with that war looming.”
Marlin didn’t respond just nodded.
Kotak finished up.
“Im impressed, I knew the t’jut were natural born hunters but you guys don’t leave anything to chance do you?” She said as she was flirting with Kotak. Kotak for T’jut standards, was incredibly skinny, clearly the female Nurr was into him. Marlin noticed how the High kin priest was uncomfortable with the flirting and he decided to act.
”Alright if that’s all, we gotta go hit the hay and turn in these ears,” Marlin waved the bag of cut Goblin ears in the woman’s face who scrunched her nose in disgust.
”ugh why would you do that? The guild will take you for your word!” She stepped back.
”10 or 20 sure but not 41, definitely not with me in the group.”
the priest whistled between his teeth, “nice haul! How did you manage that?”
Gromwul grunted, “with 8 and you in the lead,” he looked at Marlin and no one contested it, “im not really that surprised. You took some blows though he looked at the wheezing Bary.”
“Yea a couple of drain spells took out the fight of me and Bary, we need to sleep, happy hunting and watch your back.”
The 3 said goodbye and Marlin started walking,
“Hey not to be an ass but was that necessary?” Kotak asked. As Marlin walked at the front.
Marlin looked back and the Woman was back to playing hard to get. “Something tells me that priest was persuaded to tag along and that woman had something to do with it. As a priest that dude needs to have his head clear, can’t have him be pissed at his ‘would be friends’, right?”
Marlin searched Kotak’s face, Kotak was incredibly difficult to read for Marlin, which was refreshing for Marlin. he felt he could actually have a normal conversation with the man. “Did I misread it? It didn’t seem like you were into her all that much, definitely not as much as that Rok Nurr chick back in town, Bayla was it?”
Kotak sighed, “it wouldn’t kill you to miss some details now and then man, but yea Bayla, with all the stress I forgot about her for a bit.” He smiled, yea I do like Bayla a hell of a lot more than Nuil back there. Still first round is on you.” He grinned.
Marlin was about to comment how the first 3 rounds were usually on him anyway but he kept his mouth shut, no need to make it 6 rounds.