The morning sun finally broke over the horizon, its streams of light lighting upon the sweaty and tired group of caravaneers as they dug through the charred devourers’ remains. Glade wasn’t entirely certain what they were looking for, but neither did he care. He was exhausted and was looking forward to some solid sleep.
The good news was that the fires were mostly out, the fire breaks having served their purpose in containing the blaze. All that was left was a blackened scar in a sea of grass. There had been some touch and go moments throughout the night, where he and Kedryn had to use their limited magic reserves to reignite areas as more and more devourers surged from the ground; an unusual occurrence for such a small nest according to Helmund.
Still, he wasn’t complaining. Only three men had been severely injured, the young Rory who had been caught too close to the devourers being the worst case. But thanks to Riya, the young man would likely make a full recovery. That, and there were the other benefits to be considered.
You have defeated 18 x level 1, 14 x level 2, 9 x level 3, 3 x level 5, and 1 x level 7 Ratkin have been defeated. You have been awarded 1,604XP ((8,744 base / 23) + (8,744 x .14 Strategist/Tactician Bonus)).
You have defeated a Devourers Nest and have been awarded 3,145 XP ((18,568 XP base / 34) + + (18,568 x .14 Strategist/Tactician Bonus)).
It had been a few days since he had gained any relevant experience and was a bit disappointed that he hadn’t gained a level. He was only a few hundred experience away from level 14. It was too bad that the system seemed to include all of the horses for XP distribution when they had stampeded. Then again, they had done most of the work for them.
Shrugging the thought away, Glade continued to read his notifications.
Congratulations! The constant flow of the Unknown Egg’s spell, combined with its Resonant attunement level, has resulted in increasing your Living Flame (Fire) Mana Channels! Attunement assessed at a 16% attunement, Sympathetic Rank.
Congratulations! You have learned the spell Ember Stream! A stream of embers flows from you, targeting any and all threats until either you run out of enemies or mana, whichever comes first. Area of effect: 40 meters. Damage: 1 HP per attunement rank per ember. Current damage: 2 HP per ember.
And there it was. He had finally learned the Ember Stream spell, though his spell was far less powerful than the egg’s, which meant he would likely rely on Ember’s help for the foreseeable future.
“Do you think they’ll find anything?” Kedryn asked, bringing Glade back to the present.
“Pardon?” he asked, wondering exactly what Kedryn was asking.
“Do you think Grant and his men will find what they’re looking for in the pile of dead bugs?” Kedryn responded while fighting off a yawn.
“I’m not even sure what they’re looking for,” Glade said with a shrug, fighting off a yawn of his own.
“They’re looking for the queens,” Helmund interjected, surprising them as he approached from behind. The half-elf merchant looked absolutely exhausted in his soot stained travel clothes with dark circles under his eyes. “Or more specifically, their mana shards. The Free Cities pay a bounty for every one we bring in. It's the only way we can prove that we defeated a nest.”
“Any luck in finding any?” Kedryn asked, his curiosity muted by the tiredness in his voice.
“None yet, but we’re certain there were at least four queens in the nest. Possibly more,” Helmund replied. “Typically, we’d stay put until we found them followed by another day of rest. But I don’t think that’s such a good idea considering our cargo.”
Glade nodded along, having considered the same issue. It was obvious the ratkin had used the nest as a trap. A poor trap considering how easy it had been to defeat them, but a trap nonetheless.
The real question was if that was the end of it or if there was another mastermind behind the scenes.
“How long until we leave?” Glade asked, glancing toward where Cirea and few others were searching through the pile of rotting ratkin. She, like him, thought there was something more going on and was looking for any evidence that supported those fears.
“We’ll give it another hour or so, but we should be on our way sooner rather than later,” Helmund replied. “Also, I wanted to thank you for your assistance last night. Without your timely intervention we would have had to abandon the nest.”
“It was our pleasure,” Kedryn said, hiding another yawn behind his hand.
“Yer thanks be all well and good,” Bragden replied, stomping up to them. “But I think that some o’ that bounty should be comin our way as well.”
“Naturally,” Helmund said with a smile, but Glade could hear the disappointment in the tone of his voice. The merchant had likely thought he could claim the bounty without sharing the spoils. It didn’t matter much to him, but the gleam in Bragden’s eye made him believe things were about to get interesting. “We wouldn’t dream of keeping your equal share from you, though that is dependent upon us finding those queens.”
“How ‘bout you and I define what that equal share might be afore we leave,” Bragden replied with a wicked grin. “I’m thinkin 70 - 30 to us, seein as we were so instrumental in keepin the nest contained as well as handling the ratkin.”
“Why, if I didn’t know you were such a stalwart friend, I would think you were trying to rob me blind,” Helmund replied, dropping his smile. “While I absolutely acknowledge your team’s significant contributions, I cannot see how you came to the conclusion that it was worth 70% of the bounty. I might go as high as 35% to you, and that is being generous.”
“Ha! Now who's robbing who?” Bragden snorted, his eyes narrowing. “If it wasn’t for young Ked and Riya here, you’d have been overrun by the slagging devourers in moments. Not to mention that it was us who stopped those ratkin.”
“And who’s supplies and manpower was it who made the containment possible in the first place?” Helmund replied. “And don’t try and pass off the ratkin as your own success. Cirea is my brother's bailiff who answers to me while she is part of this caravan.”
“But it was us who had the Horse Lord run over the bloody things,” Bragden snapped back. “He wouldn’t have done it without us communicating with him.”
“Ah yes, the Horse Lord,” Helmund snapped right back. “You’re lucky that you didn’t damage any of my property with that stunt. For that alone I should drop your share to 20%. Maybe even less!”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“You’re property?!” Riya screeched, stomping into the conversation from where she had been silently watching nearby. “How dare you insinuate that Lun’Svet is something to be owned…”
Glade watched in bemusement as the negotiations devolved into a shouting match between the three.
“Do you think we should intervene?” Kedryn asked as they watched Hemlund back peddle from a now glowing Riya.
“Not in the slightest,” Glade replied, enjoying the show.
“We might get the trading or negotiation skill if we do,” Kedryn added.
“Not even remotely worth it.”
The argument lasted another several minutes until Helmund threw up his hands.
“Fine! I’ll go as high as 40% of the bounty to you, but not a penny higher! Not that it matters, seeing as how we haven't found a single queen.”
“50-50,” Bragden snarled, his arms folded. It looked like Helmund was about to explode in frustration, but the dwarf wasn't finished. “Contingent upon if we find those queens for ye.”
Helmund stopped, eyeing Bragden up and down with a discerning eye.
“You have a way to find them?”
“Mayhap that we do,” Bragden replied noncommittally.
Helmund continued to stare at the dwarf like he was weighing the benefits. Not that it was much of a choice in Glade’s opinion. 40% of nothing was still nothing. Helmand wasn’t stupid.
“If you find them in the next 10 minutes,” the caravan master said slowly. “Without our help, then I’ll split the bounty with you, 50-50.”
“Done,” Bragden smirked before turning to Glade. “Ye can go dig up those shards now.”
There was just a brief moment where Glade considered ignoring the surly dwarf, but he had to admit, the overall negotiation was a baller move. Instead, he activated his specialty and honed in on the six glowing spots in the piles of dead bugs. It took him less than three minutes.
“Adjudicator’s preserve us,” Helmund gasped, looking at the burnt remains that Glade placed on the ground in shock. Five of the queen’s were easily 8 or 9 inches in length, each one with a glowing shard embedded at the base of their skulls. But it was the sixth that really drew everyone’s attention. It had been buried under a huge mound of dead beetles and was easily the length of his arm. The dead beetle had a distended abdomen and massive maw as well as what looked like a jewel embedded in its forehead.
Glade used his aura sight.
You have discovered a Lesser Devourer Core comprised of Corporeal (?%) and Earth (?%) mana! Increase Aura Sight to learn more.
Size: Unknown
Purity: Unknown
Charges: Unknown
Value: Unknown
“A slagging devourer core!” Bragden spat, glaring at Glade as if this turn of events was all his fault.
“No wonder they nearly overwhelmed us,” Helmund said, stunned by what was in front of them.
“Care to share with the rest of the class?” Glade asked, too tired to try and figure things out on his own.
“It means that your share just tripled in value,” Helmund replied. “Maybe even quadrupled if we can convince the clerks how dangerous this really was.”
Shaking his head at the less than helpful answer, Glade turned to Riya for a further explanation.
“Core monsters are really rare and very dangerous. A devourer with a core? Well, it rarely if ever happens. They can breed drones and other queens in a matter of seconds, which explains why we had such a hard time killing off this nest.”
“I’ve run across a devourer core before,” Helmund jumped in. When they all looked at him in disbelief, he explained further. “The auction house runs into all sorts of unique treasures. We sold a devourer core many years back. There are many beneficial effects that can be garnered from such a core. But one of the more terrifying traits it has is that they can regrow a queen if left alone.”
Glade just stared at the muted brown core sticking halfway out of the queen’s skull, his tired mind pushing through all the potential implications of what Helmund had just shared.
“Anyone else ready to leave?” he asked.
“I’ll inform Grant,” Helmund replied, already walking away from the group. “Why don’t you bring those with you so we can place them in a secure container?”
“Good idea,” Bragden said, glaring at Glade. He could practically hear him growl ‘slagging branded’ as if it were all his fault.
The others also turned back to camp, leaving him alone with the corpses.
“Don’t worry, I’ll get them back for you!” Glade called after them. Only Kedryn waved his thanks, the others simply ignoring him.
Grumbling, he pulled off the pack on his back and began reorganizing its contents so he could fit the remains. As he did so, his hand brushed up against Ember’s egg.
A thrill of excitement met his touch, his emotions mixing with those of his bonded friend.
“Great job last night,” he passed to Ember. “We wouldn’t have been able to do it without you!”
Ember beamed with pride, the knot of emotions that was their link brimming with excitement.
“We helped!” A chirping voice came to his mind.
“Yes, we helped,” Glade smiled, pulling the blanket that was wrapped around the egg back. What he saw nearly caused his smile to falter. From the outside, it didn’t look any different than it had before. Black as night. But this time Glade was looking at it with his mana manipulation spell active. Void black mana clung to the egg, doing its best to choke out the little spark that was Ember.
“Why sad?” Ember asked him in a series of images and emotions. “We helped!”
“Does it hurt?” Glade asked instead, staring at the cloying mana and wondering how hard it must be for Ember to simply survive each day.
“Feel much better!” Ember replied, his joy infectious. But Glade could tell that his friend still struggled. That the pain was still there, just lessened from what it had experienced from its miserable existence. Riya had cautioned him once about the egg, especially since they didn’t know what kind of creature it was. But at that moment, all he could see was that his friend was in pain. A friend that had helped him time and time again.
It was time to return the favor.
Without giving himself time to rethink his actions, Glade reached out with his mana manipulation spell and pulled. At first, nothing happened, the abyssal mana refusing to let go.
The link between himself and Ember wavered for the briefest of moments causing a moment of panic.
Glade redoubled his efforts, pulling at the cloying darkness while sending what comfort he could through their bond.
In that space between moments where their minds connected, Ember understood what Glade was trying to do and pushed. Seconds passed as they both pushed and pulled, until finally, with a roar of triumph, a portion of the abyssal mana tore free.
“YES!” Ember cried, elation and freedom ringing through their now strengthened bond.
Congratulations! By removing part of the Abyssal Taint, your bond with the unknown egg has deepened! All shared attunements, powers, and communications have been increased by 15%. Remove additional Abyssal Taint to enhance your bond further.
Glade smiled, letting go of the abyssal mana. There was a moment of concern when the mana fell to the ground instead of dissipating like it normally did, but it was soon forgotten as his ability to see mana faded with the spell.
“More free! Less pain! Again! Again!” Ember trilled inside his mind.
“I need to rest,” Glade sent back, a genuine smile on his face as he felt his tenuous grip on his spell waiver then fade. His mana was practically empty, but he didn’t care. The egg had lightened in color. Instead of all black, there was just a hint of burnished gold. “We’ll keep doing this when I’ve recovered. Don’t you worry.”
Ember’s glow of love and excitement was almost more than he could bear.
In moments, he packed up the dead queens, making certain they were nowhere near touching Ember, and took off toward the camp, whistling. It really was a good day.
As he strode away, he, nor anyone else, noticed the tarlike mana slowly creep away.