CHAPTER 14 PART 1 OF 4
CUTE AND INNOCENT
Lucas woke with the dawn but couldn't open his eyes. The glare of the dawn light was intolerable enough from behind his eyelids. Living with his eyes closed wasn't all that different to living in the dark so he mentally moved his Map down into first-person mode, just as he had done in the cave. He began feeling around the immediate surroundings with his hands but was shocked to see that certain parts of his 3D rendition of reality had already been filled in with remarkable detail.
More detail was quickly coming in and it took him only a moment to realise what was going on, everything his Scouts could see was being updated into his 3D Map-construct, in real time. The implications of that were staggering, and opened up a lot of interesting possibilities. One of which was, apparently, not needing to use his own eyes to see his surroundings.
With some satisfaction Lucas got up. Korah was still sleeping, so Lucas collected the closest Scout. Now quite comfortable with the idea of handling spiders, he placed it on his shoulder facing forwards. It took a moment to help it understand that it should stay there. With the spider always facing forwards, feeding information to his Map overlay, it effectively became like a shoulder mounted camera providing him with a live video feed. However, the Map did not update well in real time.
Lucas watched some leaves apparently swaying in the breeze. The image updated only every half a second or so, creating an effect like a stuttering strobe light, or like a low framerate animation. On the bright side, it painted his world in detailed colouring that he had lacked when filling out the environment by touch back in the cave. The colouring was a little strange, bright hues and unusual shades, he supposed that was because it was seen through spider eyes.
It turned out that even a small boar had a tremendous amount of meat. Lucas sliced some off and sat there chewing, relishing the greasy taste. Last night it had tasted phenomenal and this morning it was almost as good. He started thinking over a design for a spider that made use of the ‘Spot and Ambush’ behaviour to create a dedicated Ambusher, but didn't get far. Every time he started planning, his brain would interrupt him by throwing up new questions about the world that he wanted to ask Korah. Was this world shaped like his? What level of technology did they have? How far was it possible to increase his stats? Did they have countries here, with kings or something?
In the end he simply sat and watched Korah sleep. When she suddenly sat up and opened her eyes Lucas was lost in thought, still staring at her. Realising he had been caught watching her sleep, he began embarrassedly fiddling with his armour straps. She was part way through a stretch and yawning when she stopped, noticing his Aura, and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Lucas’s strap pulling became quite ferocious as he realised his Aura would be broadcasting his embarrassment. Inwardly cringing, he stood up, coughed into his hand, and then walked off into the forest. An idea suddenly occurring to him, Lucas yelled out over his shoulder;
“Where is the nearest river?”
“Just turn left and keep going for a few dozen yards, you will see it,” Korah replied.
Lucas’ Map was already open so he simply zoomed to a bird's eye view, located the river, then zoomed back to first person. It was the same river he had drunk from on his first day. They had come further south from the area where he had first landed in this world, and here the river was much closer to the road. Combat Spider ranged ahead as he walked, on guard for any threats. Lucas’s two roaming Scouts adjusted their trajectory to catch up to him, and the third remained on his shoulder to compensate for his closed eyes.
The vigilance of his Broodlings proved unnecessary, as he made it to the river without incident. They set up a perimeter around the area as Lucas took off his armour. A few steps over the smooth stones brought him to the river's edge and he gradually worked himself into the brutally cold water.
Lucas’s skin had gone numb by the time he had scrubbed off weeks worth of grime. Lacking any kind of soap, he resorted to using fine sand from the river bed to scrub his skin and hair. Now that his hair wasn't glued stiff with blood and grime, it turned out to have grown to shoulder length. It wasn’t surprising considering the rate at which all physical processes worked here, but it still felt strange. He had never had long hair before.
He felt wonderful as he lay on the smooth rocks and let the pallid sunlight dry his sensitive skin. It occurred to him that last night, when he saw his reflection, was the first time he had considered washing himself since he landed here. Back home he often showered twice a day, finding it relaxing. Weeks of panic, desperation, and the constant fear of imminent death had suppressed anything other than survival instincts. Now, with his Broodlings ranging the area for threats, the relative safety felt like a luxury. If it was a luxury to be clean, well fed, and not in danger of a grizzly demise, then Lucas felt like he had earned it. He had landed in this world with absolutely nothing and had fought tooth and nail to make it this far.
When he got back to the campsite Korah was grinding a black stone against the blade of her axe, drizzling it with water to keep it damp. The campfire pit had been filled in and a few packets of waxed cloth were stacked on a nearby rock.
“You said you had a plan to kill Caleb?” She said, looking up from her axe.
“Ah, yea. I'm going to set up an ambush using this.” Lucas said, as he pulled out the Steel Seed from his inventory.
Korah looked at it for a moment, as if thinking.
“Have you been carrying that around in your hand since yesterday?”
She then glanced suspiciously at Lucas’s bear pelt, lying on the ground near the fire pit. Lucas walked over to it, suppressing a grin, then sucked the entire thing up into his inventory. Korah simply stared, blinking.
“Yea, um. I can store things in… a place.”
“Well, Ok. That sounds useful.” Korah said in a slightly incredulous tone.
“Oh it sure is, but about Caleb.” Lucas said “There is a lot of work I need to do, getting set up for the ambush. Do you know how far away he is from here?”
“He is camped in a Relic, two days to the south,” Korah replied, putting her sharpening stone in a pack and thumbing the edge of her axe.
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“Then we have today and tomorrow to prepare. I’m certain he will come for me now that he knows I’ve left the cave.”
“What makes you so sure? Also, why are your eyes closed? And… how can you still see me?”
Lucas tried to open his eyes, sharp glare forced him to shut them again immediately.
“I, um… I think it's because I spent a few weeks in a cave. My eyes became really… huge, and I can see in the dark, but I can't even open them during the day, yet. This little guy is seeing for me,” Lucas said, patting the scout on his shoulder gently.
That bit of information apparently needed to settle in, as her expression became vacant for a quiet moment. Lucas continued;
“As for how I know he will come for me, I have something he wants. It's obviously important to him. When I was in the cave I was out of his reach but now that I'm in the open, he will try again for sure.”
Korah waited expectantly, as if Lucas might explain what it was that Caleb was after, but when Lucas didn’t elaborate she didn't press him.
“In that case, how can I help?” She said, standing up and hefting her axe. “I have been losing this battle for a while now. I was ready to give my life for no more than a couple of his mercenaries, so if you have a good idea I will go along with it.”
“Alright,” Lucas said, cupping one fist in his palm. “First thing we need to do is hunt some monsters. I’ve got to make a lot of spiders.”
“Wait, you are making the… what was that word you use? Spiders?” Korah said with some concern, pronouncing the English word awkwardly.
“I thought you became friends with them through some kind of… Fey friendship magic.”
Lucas held up his hand, his Aura making it clear she should hold that thought. He had full Mana so he got out his Nexus and spent his entire mana pool hatching a new Scout on the spot. Korah got up and came close, leaning in to watch the little egg in Lucas’ hand grow and hatch into a new spider.
“By the waters! That is…! I have never seen anything like that. What kind of Nexus is that? I guess you picked up some Arach eggs in the cave. I knew there was a nest of them someplace here. That is why I stay on this side of the Old Road, they hunt on the other side.”
“It’s a Nexus of the Brood. I can make a variety of bigger ones for fighting too, like Combat Spider over here. But for that I need to kill monsters, and absorb their… energy.”
“When you say ‘mon-sters’, do you just mean animals?” She said, pronouncing the word ‘monsters’ in english.
Lucas didn't reply, suddenly realising that his translation ability must not be able to provide a direct translation of ‘monster’ to her language. It also meant that there was no real distinction between monsters and regular wildlife. Lucas wasn't entirely sure why he had been thinking about everything as a monster. After a moment's consideration he realised that was how his quest system had described them to him.
‘Was the quest system itself trying to make me feel better about killing everything I came across?’ Lucas suddenly remembered a quest popping up to coerce him into killing the Spriggan, which honestly had just been minding its own business. Putting the thought aside for now he went back to Korah’s question.
“Well, ah… Technically anything that's alive would work, I guess,” Lucas said, suddenly feeling hesitant as he realised he could probably use people too.
“So, you kill things and harvest their souls to turn them into giant spiders…”
After tapping her chin thoughtfully with a finger for a moment, Korah continued;
“Would it be possible to say… Wipe out an entire population gradually with an army of spiders that grows bigger and bigger the more you kill?”
“Well… yeees? I guess that actually.. could be possible,” Lucas said, getting nervous about where this conversation was headed.
“Well then, It's a good thing your Aura looks so cute and innocent,” Korah said, suddenly smiling and slapping him on the shoulder.
“But, you should probably not tell other people what you can do. Someone might decide they do not like the idea of anyone having that kind of power.”
“Yep, yep. I get how that could sound bad,” Lucas said, nodding solemnly.
“Ok, let us go find some souls for you to consume to power your ever growing army of ‘mon-sters’,” Korah said, then broke out into a loud laugh and handed him a couple of packets wrapped in waxed cloth.
Her Aura glowed with joy when she laughed. The warmth of it felt like a soothing balm at this distance, making him want to stay close in case she laughed again. But it also made him worry, not knowing why his Aura felt so cold in comparison, and so greedy for her light. The packets of waxed cloth turned out to be boar meat that she had salted and carefully wrapped. Taking a deep breath, Lucas put the meat away and zoomed his Map out to see his Scouts roaming the area.
“My scouts are combing the area around us, they should be able to spot anything nearby when we start to cover some ground.”
“Another very convenient ability.” she said appreciatively.
“Let us head away from the Old Road, most wildlife will avoid it.”
As they walked, Lucas began to let some of the pressure off the list of questions he had been bottling up for so long;
“So, are we… in a kingdom of some kind? Is, like, someone in charge around here to make the rules?”
Korah didn’t respond immediately, her face scrunching up a little as she considered the question.
“I don’t answer to anyone except my oath to the Nyx and my own conscience. Things are different in this land, especially the cities. There are lords, with opinions about what other people should and shouldn't be doing. Still, it is the people's choice to stay in the city and deal with that, so it is still by their will that they act as they do. Maybe I am not the right person to answer this, I too am a foreigner here. In my country people are bound by the oaths they take. Large villages will have a druid that keeps the oaths of the people that stay there. Each person must take the oath to become part of the community when they come of age, or they must leave. Every village has its own oath, but they are generally only that which is necessary for people to live in peace together. Do not steal from, or kill your kindred, things of that sort. Many young men will instead take an oath to some great warrior to join a warband and leave the village in search of glory.”
“So people just promise to be good? Seems a little shaky as a foundation for a whole society.” Lucas replied, trying to envision how that could work. “What’s to stop someone from making the oath with no intention of keeping it?”
“Then no oath was taken. You cannot take an oath without the intention to keep it. No bond will be created by mimicking the oath with empty words. The druid, and anyone nearby, will see the emptiness of such a farce.”
‘Right, their Auras would show their intentions,’ Lucas thought to himself, trying to come to terms with a world where you had to actually become someone who would keep a promise in order to make a real one in the first place.