Zilly left the group before they got back to the caravan, determined to go it alone until they got to Oud’s Bog, which was only a couple days away at this point.

When they returned with the captives, there was a small delay as everyone helped to transfer the guards’ packs from the open-air cargo wagon to other places. Then they used the cargo wagon to transport the four bound bandits. Rye smiled and bragged about getting to ride while everyone else walked until Pio threatened to gag him.

Zerif called the caravan forward, and they started moving again.

Those members of the caravan who hadn’t come along looked relieved to see the captives, and Brin got the feeling that everyone considered the matter settled. He moved his position in the line of wagons here and there, eavesdropping on what conversations he could, and found that most people assumed they’d caught the entire group.

That line of thought could only benefit the person who’d tipped off the ones who escaped, but Brin never saw Zerif, Pio, or Sion talking to anyone about the bandits. Or talking to anyone at all, really.

The day passed, and no monsters attacked. When night settled, Hogg approached Brin. “Come on. It’s you and me tonight.”

He didn’t pause to let Brin argue so Brin had to trot to catch up to him. Marksi scuttled alongside him, and then passed him to disappear into the forest.

“If we’re both leaving, who’s going to keep an eye on our prisoners?”

“I’m still keeping an eye on them,” said Hogg. “I can still monitor a few places at once, even if my Visible Eyes aren’t as useful as my invisible ones used to be. On that note, it’s driving me crazy that I need to keep them at a distance where I can't hear anything."

"I can do an Invisible Eye now. I could pitch in on that front," Brin offered.

"You can do one, and it takes your full concentration. Zerif’s tent and wagon are both warded against eavesdropping, so what we really need is an eye on them at all times, hoping they'll let something slip."

He hadn't really noticed it before, but the trees here were a bit sparser than the area around it. The forest had big breaks where there would be a quarter mile stretch of prairie grass and wildflowers. He had stopped watching his feet, adjusting to the fact that he didn't need to worry about accidentally stepping into mud or a hidden puddle. They were nearing the edge of the Boglands.

"We're definitely suspecting Zerif, right? This caravan was near Sudd's Bog when they attacked the first time, and you told me he's a spy for Prinnash. I imagine there’s a lot of uses a spy could have for a group of adventurers and bandits. Plus he's high level, with a non-combat Class. It makes sense that he'd be able to send messages in some sneaky way right under your nose."

Hogg nodded. "He's the most likely suspect, but it could honestly be anyone. I doubt Sion was worried about who might be able to overhear him when he told Pio and Zerif. All this speculation is useless without more information. We need to get you to level 35 as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, about that. We’ve been talking about [Split Focus] being necessary for a Lightmind, but I also got the impression that I needed [Persistent Casting]. Which one am I hoping for, here?”

Hogg answered. “Either one would make up for not having the other, but eventually you’ll want both. [Split Focus] is better overall, but I'm curious about what kind of glass magic you'll be able to do with [Persistent Casting]."

"So the plan is just to get to level 35 and hope it's one or the other?"

"If you don't get one of those at 35, then it's time to find a priest because the gods are mocking you. Alright, this is far enough."

Brin looked around. They'd chosen an area with only a few odd trees in a small run of prairie. The ground was covered in knee-high grass, and was surprisingly treacherous with the number of mole holes that covered the area.

Brin looked around, but didn't see anything. "Huh? What are we doing here? I figured you were bringing me to some kind of monster."

"We'll get to that, but first we should work on your sounds. Here." Hogg handed Brin a sheet of bark paper, with one short sentence in the Language. When he flipped it over, he saw an entire page of words. "The backside is the anti-eavesdropping spell I showed you yesterday. Memorize that on your own time. For now look at the short spell there. That's Sound Amplification."

Brin read the words out loud, and felt the magic take hold. First try. It didn't seem to be doing anything so he said, "Hello." It came out "HELLO!" sounding exactly like when your seven-year-old nephew discovers a microphone for the first time.

Brin smiled, but then frowned in anxiety. That was loud. Had they heard that back at camp?

"Don't worry. I'll be blocking all sound from reaching the caravan. Now go ahead and get that spell memorized. I don't think I have to tell you this, but you'll need to be able to cast it on the fly without any words of Language, so concentrate on the way the Language is moving your power and see if you can reproduce it on your own. Oh wait, hold up." Hogg whistled and Marksi dashed in from the forest to hop up into his arms. "I'll protect Marksi's hearing, too. Go nuts."

Brin cast the spell again, and this time didn't hesitate to play with it. He shouted "HEY!" as loud as he could. The sonic blast hit like a punch to his ears and left them ringing, but that quickly faded.

The next time he cast the spell, he also spared a thought to put a void of sound around his ears. It worked and he felt the magic take hold, but when he talked he couldn't hear it to tell how well it was working.

With a bit of practice, he figured out which words he could push mana into to make it even louder. He jammed in as much mana as he could until he hit the limit. This is where he saw the usefulness of this instead of the "bang" part of his Flashbang spell. The upper limit was much larger, and he was getting more sound for less magic. He blocked his ears, and then let loose with another yell.

The grass bent in waves and the leaves vibrated on the trees. With his ears silenced, he wasn't exactly sure how loud it went, but he was pretty sure it would've punctured the eardrums of any human on Earth. Hogg and Marksi didn't react at all, of course.

He noticed one other thing with this test. He could also control the direction of the sound somewhat. He put a moderate amount of mana into the spell, pointed it away from him, and let loose with another "Hey!" He barely heard the sound, more from it echoing against the trees than the initial noise.

"How well is this going to work as a weapon?" asked Brin.

"It'll work really well as a distraction, and against certain specific people or creatures it can be devastating, but don't count on it for everything. Hearing damage fixes itself pretty quick, and anyone with a high-level combat Class will have some kind of resistance or counter for it."

That didn't feel right to Brin; in his world you could get permanent hearing loss from going to too many concerts. But his instincts were often wrong about the limits of a System-enhanced body, and now that he thought of it, the ringing in his ears had faded much too fast.

Now that he had a little bit of a feel for it, Brin used [Directed Meditation] and started practicing. He cast the spell, cutting out a single word of Language at a time and practicing until he could get the same effect without it. Then he removed another word and kept going.

The practice was painful and monotonous, but [Directed Meditation] helped him remove any stray thoughts or distractions and kept him moving forward, one piece at a time.

Stolen story; please report.

The minutes dripped by. Marksi got bored and shuffled around, and Hogg had a blank look on his face that meant he was focusing on something his Visible Eyes were seeing. Brin ignored them and kept working.

Finally, he finished the spell without the Language, and with it stored in [Memories in Glass], he'd be able to do it again. It took him about five seconds to cast, but that wasn't good enough. He kept working on making it faster. Three seconds. Two. Good enough.

Through training you have increased the following attribute:

Mental Control +1

[Call Sound through Glass] has leveled up! 25 -> 26

Brin stood up and stretched. "Alright, I think I have it."

"About time. Alright, I'll fetch you some monsters." Hogg lifted an arm, and a flurry of black, flapping shapes burst into existence and flew into the air, spreading out into the night.

Marksi perked up in interest, and Hogg lowered him to the ground. "You'll get to help with this, too! There's a breed of carnivorous moth that can be a danger to lone travelers at night. They mostly feed on bugs or bats, but they don't stop growing until they die, and can reach preposterous sizes. Some of them are big enough to lift people into the air, and I saw one once that was big enough to eat a horse. Like their favorite prey, they hunt with echolocation, and they're extremely sensitive to loud sounds. Here's what I have in mind. Brin, you're going to knock the things out of the air and Marksi will finish them off."

Marksi danced in place, swinging his tail in a circle in eager anticipation.

Brin scanned the sky, feeling a bit worried. "Are you sure they aren't dangerous?"

Hogg snorted. "Of course they're dangerous. Didn't you hear me say some of them eat people? They've got poisonous stings and they can be near completely silent in the air, which is a problem because most people forget to look up. Don't let them bite you, Marksi. Brin, help him out any way you can, but sound magic only. You aren't allowed to fight directly."

Brin nodded. "When will they get here?"

"Look up."

Brin did, and saw many flitting shadows in the sky above. Even with his darkvision, it wasn't easy to differentiate Hogg's bait-bats from the moths, but now that he was concentrating he saw the difference. It was the shape--they were rounder and their flapping was softer. Most were smaller than the bats Hogg said they preyed on, but he saw a few big slow shadows with wingspans of five feet or more.

How to approach this? He could shout at them from down here, but that wouldn't be very efficient. He also didn't want to make all the moths rain down on Marksi at once. Better to start small.

He chose a single owl-sized moth, and cast his Bang spell together with Amplify Sound. He cast it from below the moth, aiming it straight up.

The moth fell out of the sky.

As soon as it hit the ground, Marksi was on it. He extended his claws, growing them out further than seemed natural, and sliced the moth's tail off, removing the danger of its poisonous sting. Then he sliced it to pieces, tearing into it with animal ferocity.

You have defeated: Stinging Moth (12) Due to level disparity, experience has been reduced.

Marksi turned to Brin with a happy grin, eager for more. He had to admit, that had been cool. It was neat to see the dragonling use the minor shapeshifting power he'd gotten when he'd eaten that hexed stone. Marksi hadn't used it much before; he'd just picked a size and shape that suited him and left it there.

Brin was a little less careful this time, and exploded a sound bomb in a large cluster.

The moths dropped out of the air. Marksi darted from one to the other, finishing them off before they could move.

Brin shrugged, and laid waste. He expanded the size and scope of his sound attack, trying to hit as many as he could. A huge crowd of moths fell to the ground, but he noticed that this time a few of the larger ones fluttered a bit to slow their fall. On the ground, they twitched and started to rise.

Marksi was already killing his way through the group, so Brin couldn't sound bomb the entire group again.

He used directed explosions of sound to stun a moth just as it crawled to its feet, knocking it down again. Marksi reached another moth who'd started to recover, but the dragonling was faster and clawed it in half before it could sting him.

Brin cast the spell again, as soon as he could make it, re-stunning the moths as fast as he could.

Before long, they all lay dead.

Summarized Battle Notification You have defeated: Thirty-six Stinging Moths Due to level disparity, experience has been reduced.

Brin saw a huge shadow in the air. Its wingspan was nearly nine feet across and even though Brin could only see it as a black shape against the night sky, he felt like the creature had an ethereal quality. No feathery insect wings should be able to lift a body that large, and no creature that large should be so elegant. It flowed smoothly through the air, practically dancing, and acting for all the world as if gravity were only a suggestion.

Brin grinned. "This is the big one!"

He cast Amplify Sound with a Bang, hitting the monster square-on with as much magic as he could push into the spell. The effect was immediate. The giant Stinging Moth dropped.

Too fast. It wasn't falling; it was diving.

"Dodge!" Brin called, but he needn't have bothered. Marksi swerved away from the beast, quick as thought.

The giant moth swerved faster than should be possible, darting after Marksi on a dime. It was closing on him.

Brin cast another sound bomb. This one rocked the giant moth, stunning it for only a fraction of a second.

That was enough. Marksi pivoted and jumped on the moth, slashing claws through its wide but thin wings. The moth spun in place and bit at him, but Marksi was already on the ground and running again.

Marksi zig-zagged, trying to get away, but even with the injured wing the moth adjusted easily and chased him along the ground.

Brin hit it with another sound bomb, but it dove at the last second and only got hit by a part of the effect. It landed on the ground, and Brin couldn't see Marksi. Had the monster caught him?

Brin grabbed his spear and stepped forward, but something stopped him. He looked down to see one of Hogg's shadows holding his spear firmly in place.

"Sound attacks only," said Hogg.

Brin shouted, projecting his own voice with his spell. "STOP!" Not having to put any mana into Bang meant that he had more for Sound Amplification, and it crossed the distance between him and the moth like a vengeful storm. It hit the moth like a wave of psychic force, knocking it to its side.

Was that enough to free Marksi? Was he still alive? Brin still couldn't see him beneath the moth. He hit it with another shout, stunning it.

The moth shrugged this one off a little faster, and began to laboriously pull itself into the air. But where was Marksi?

He regretted this entire thing. Everyone kept telling him to let Marksi grow by letting him get into danger, but this was too much. That thing was a man-eater, and Marksi was barely a snack. Had it already eaten him? Its mouth didn’t look big enough to do that in one bite…

The ground shifted, and a spout of earth popped up, followed by a shimmering rainbow lizard. Marksi had been underground. He must've fled into one of the many molehills. His claws were round and circular and his nose was pointy, like a mole. He'd transformed himself into a digger to get away.

Even as Brin watched, Marksi's claws and face started to morph into their normal shape. He launched himself at the moth from its blind spot, landing on its back. He clawed the moth viciously.

For the first time, the moth lost all semblance of its ethereal elegance. It flapped wildly in the air, twisting in circles to try to buck the attacker off, but Marksi couldn't be stopped. He slashed the wings at the base of its body, until they lost their strength and they landed on the ground.

Then Marksi grew his fangs longer and bit the moth at the base of its head. He twisted side to side like a dog going for the kill, tearing the moth's flesh. It kicked and twitched, fighting to the last.

Finally, it died.

You have defeated: Stinging Moth (31) [Call Sound through Glass] has leveled up! 26 -> 28

Brin cheered. Marksi hopped down from the moth, pleased as a plum, only to be scooped up again by Hogg who checked him over for injuries. Marksi was totally fine, but Hogg kept asking if he was hurt or tired or anything, clearly more worried than he'd let on during the fight.

Soon Marksi started getting impatient and made his way back over to his kill to start to carve into its center.

"Hold on, I'll do it," said Hogg. He stepped up and neatly sliced a line through the moth's thorax, opening it wide. Marksi dipped his head inside and pulled it out again with a thumb-sized gemstone in his teeth. He looked at Brin questioningly.

"Go on. You earned it."

Marksi popped it in his mouth with a nod of satisfaction. There was no doubt in Brin’s mind that he would’ve eaten it either way; he was just making sure that Brin knew the right answer.

His scales froze in their rainbow shimmering and Marski burped. His eyelids started to droop. Brin picked him up. “Come here. I’ll carry you home.” To Hogg, he asked, “How much do you think he’ll change this time?”

“Don’t expect a huge transformation every single time. Growing up takes time. So no level, huh?

Brin shook his head.

Hogg tsked. “I was hoping you’d get an easy one for hunting with sound for the first time. Well, no matter. There are always more monsters.”