While the party moved away from the coast, Lanek mused about the information he had been given. We’re dealing with trolls now? Not even big hulking, regenerating trolls but skinny seafaring ones? What else is out there?
“Hey, Liv. Are there other types of trolls out there? While we’re on the subject, what other races does your village deal with?” Lanek asked, both because he was curious and so he could distract himself from the bone-deep weariness that bottoming out his mana had caused. It was interesting to him that bottoming out his mana in one go made him feel like he was going to collapse while using it all in a gradual manner just left him a bit tired and in need of sleep.
“Aye, there are other trolls out there, but I really don’t think they are related to the sea trolls. There are mountain trolls that are absolutely massive. The bastards are as tall as ogres but twice as wide. My people have had to fight off in the winter when food scarcity drives them out of the mountains. They’re about as dumb as ogres, honestly. There are bog trolls as well, but they are lanky beasts taller than a man but still strong enough to rip someone’s limbs off. They are wily creatures as well and hard to kill since they regenerate their wounds unless they are attacked with fire.” Liv explained.
Interesting, that’s a pretty big range of creatures. It sounds like all of the troll archetypes from fiction back home are present. There’s probably one out there that turns to stone in the day or that’s as tall as damn mountain.
Liv continued her explanation after Lanek waved for her to go on. “As for what we’ve had to deal with, well, there are mutated raiders I’ve told you about before. On top of that, there are numerous types of orcs and goblins roaming about as well as beastmen. Hell, one of the most fearsome sights that we could see was a minotaur galley. Thankfully, every time we saw one it was simply passing by. If they had stopped to raid, I wouldn’t be alive to talk about it now. They eat pretty much all of their foes and are apparently next to impossible to escape on the seas due to their unnatural stamina and strength. There are also sea hags and merfolk. I’m sure there are more, but those are the only ones that live in groups, tribes, or clans.”
“I see. The orcs and goblins have a lot more variety than I thought. That’s not even counting the beastmen and minotaurs.”
Liv looked at him in surprise. “There are numerous varieties of pretty much every sentient race. In some cases, the races are older than humanity, such as the draconids, saurians, and trolls. It only makes sense that they’ve spread far and wide while adapting to their new environments.”
“Sorry, I need to stop thinking of this world like the books back home. Goblins, orcs, and trolls were portrayed in my world with very little nuance. They were dumb monsters for the most part and utterly evil. Different varieties may exist in some of those fictional worlds, but the core usually stayed the same.”
“Ah. I think you’ve already figured it out from our friends back in Caelis, but those races are far from stupid. In some cases, they learned agriculture and other skills from the more “civilized” races, but some of those races also learned from “barbaric” races. A good example is seafaring and shipbuilding. My people’s history makes it clear that we got that from the sea trolls. If I’m remembering correctly, our history also teaches that the concept of taming and riding animals was actually learned from orcs.”
“Huh, that’s actually really interesting. It’s pretty clear that there are a shocking number of things in this world that existed in fiction back in my world, but it’s not a perfect representation by a long shot. Thanks for the history lesson and wake up call, Liv.” Lanek said.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“No problem. How are you holding up? You look like you are barely hanging on.”
“It’s rough. This happened when I dedicated the tree back in Caelis, but I passed out immediately. I’m not sure if I’m more resilient now or if losing all my mana wasn’t as bad this time, but I’m barely hanging on.”
“Shit. Pharaoh! Do you see somewhere we can hide while Lanek rests? It doesn’t need to be perfect, but we need it soon.” Liv called out to the tressym.
A few moments later, the tressym landed atop Yuri. “I spotted something that we could use, but it’s not great. It’s a small group of three trees, but if you make camp between them and don’t start a fire, the tall grass all around should hide you well enough. I’ll guide you there now.”
The party followed Pharaoh, deviating from their due west heading to take a route to the northwest instead. The small stand of trees was not as close as Lanek would have liked, but he managed to hold on for the hour it took to reach their destination. Upon arriving, Liv quickly took charge and ordered him to dismount while she set up their bedrolls and handed him some food.
There was no hesitation from the furballs when she gave orders to them as well. Kazuma and Sanguineus were ordered to keep watch while Maximilian and Yuri were to stay near the trees and hidden in the tall grass as much as possible. She also made it clear in no uncertain terms that moving excessively would be a bad idea as it could easily give away their location by disturbing the grass more than it already had been by their passage.
After the camp was set up and everyone was in position, Liv sat on her bedroll and prepared for sleep. Next to her, Lanek had already succumbed and had fallen asleep within seconds of finishing his meal. She stared at the dranrid for a moment before giving a quick prayer to the Great Bear that they would be able to rest safely.
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Lanek awoke in the middle of the night, feeling a bit better but still far from being back to normal. He stared at the sky for a few minutes before he took a deep breath and entered the Mark of the Herald. His companions had been providing him with a steady supply of reward stones and he was hoping that the stones would provide him with a means to recover more quickly.
Once within the armory of the Mark, he immediately focused on limiting the selection to gear that was better suited for a mage or magic user. Once the Mark complied, Lanek sacrificed the gauntlets that were part of his karuta yoroi for a pair of dark brown leather bracers with silver studs. He felt a pang of loss that faded almost immediately when he saw what enchantments were now available. A range of enchantments that hadn’t been available for his armor had shown up, with options such as spell cost reduction, mana regeneration, and even some options to increase his mana pool. However, many of the offensive and defensive options that had been available with the gauntlets were now gone, including strength and constitution boosting enchantments as well as durability enhancements.
I wonder why the System or the Mark limits what enchantments can be placed on different types of gear. Maybe it’s a restriction of the Mark and not enchanting as a whole. I’ll have to experiment or ask Ivan to see if we can get around this. I don’t see why heavy armor shouldn’t be able to impart a boost to mana regeneration, especially since Paladins are a thing in this world.
Returning his focus to his bracers, Lanek added both the mana regeneration and spell cost reduction enchantments before finalizing his selection and flinching a bit as a large number of reward stones were removed from his person. Focus, I still need more gear. I need armor that is compatible with mana enhancements. God, I really hope that I won’t have to wear robes or something to pull that off.
Thankfully, he wouldn’t have to sacrifice protection completely as the Mark rapidly changed the selection based on his thoughts. At first, Lanek’s fears seemed to accurate as robes of various styles and types dominated the selection, but those vanished as his dislike of that option and his need for more protection than basic cloth ran through his mind. Hide armor began showing up that was made from a wide variety of materials, ranging from griffon hide (which he immediately dismissed, he didn’t need Idril to see that shit) to raptor and bear hide. Some of the most expensive options were those of beasts he had yet to encounter, such as dragon and wyvern. Many of them bore embellishments that he wasn’t sure were needed, but that he had to admit looked quite impressive, such as fur or scales from the creature the armor was crafted from. He was very happy to see that there weren’t any with something ridiculous like an animal head or skull on the pauldrons, that had always seemed both impractical and silly to him.
However, he was now faced with a pretty big problem. There were way too many options and he had no idea which ones would be the best fit for him. This might take a while...