Chapter 45
I took my and Coa’s dinner out of the cooker. I placed Coa and her platter on the small fold out stand. “Lynn, how much longer until the car gets here?” I asked.
“Approximately seventy more seconds, Mistress.” Lynn answered.
“Ahh, good.” I really wanted to get this bag of stuff sent off as soon as possible. I was curious about what Lynn would discover from examining them. I plopped a meatball into my mouth. Delicious. The food here wasn’t bad, but I definitely preferred the taste of my own supplies.
“Mistress, why don’t we make use of the ‘Spirit’ identity to get what we need?” She asked after a moment of silence.
“No.” I bluntly refused. “There’s too much room for uncertainties cropping up using that method. Plus, don’t forget what happened the last time we got mistaken as ‘Gods’.” I countered.
Lynn groaned. “Right. That was most definitely not an experience I wish to relive.”
“I’m definitely aware of the fact that it might provide us with benefits, but I just cannot bring myself to trust religious fanatics in any way. I think the demerits would rapidly outpace any positives to be gained from it. There’s also the little detail that I don’t know if I could adequately prove my spirithood. You mentioned that one of the methods by which spirits were identified is them possessing a non-standard class. Back at that first town and at the fortress, I was scanned, but my classes didn’t appear on the result. I don’t think my powers or strength alone would be enough. I think it would be hard to demonstrate that I was a spirit without showing the people Lullaby, and I have no intention of ever revealing her to anyone, if I can help it.” I explained.
“That’s true. With Lullaby’s current state, we wouldn’t be able to fend off a determined assault and some of our munitions and other goods would be extremely dangerous if they got into the wrong hands.” Lynn responded.
“Lynn, to be fair, I don’t think anyone on this world could match you for counting as ‘the wrong hands’. You’re pretty undiscriminating once you get going in causing widespread destruction.” I said.
“Mistress! That only happened the one time! The. One. Time. I never did it again!” Lynn cried.
“Are you sure? Let’s see. There was the time with the syndicate space station.” I started ticking off my fingers. “The time with the cartel on that water world. That group of mercenaries that you chased through eight systems while leaving me behind on an asteroid. Or how about the time you ended up assisting a rebellion by blowing up the seat of a corrupt government? Oh, yeah there was also-”
“Stop!” She interrupted. “I admit it! I go a little overboard at times.”
“Only a little?” I laughed.
“Okay, maybe a lot overboard, but there were extenuating circumstances in all those cases!” She stated.
“Yes, yes. It is surely just coincidence how often these ‘extenuating circumstances’ lead to massive destruction when it comes to you.” I teased.
“Mistress, you’re being very mean!” Lynn accused. “By the way, the car is directly overhead.” She said it a lighter tone.
I guess that puts an end to our banter. “Well, bring it down.”
The car came down and angled its way through the trees before stopping about four meters above me. It’s appearance scared the blazes out of Coa, and she left her plate of food behind and shot back to my neck. I briefly chuckled at her reaction. I picked up the pack and then hopped up to the car door, slid open the door and placed the pack down while exchanging it for the tiny case that had been on the seat. I glanced at the devices Lynn had prepared.
As expected, she had chosen the perfect tool for my current situation. One was a surveillance device that viewed the world in a few different ways at once, including detecting the fluctuations from psi use. In addition, the device came with a way of cloaking itself. I wasn’t sure how that would stand up against magic, but I was pretty sure it would be effective. With its small size, it wouldn’t be difficult to place it with psi without it being noticed.
The other item in the case was not something I had expected though. It was a security weapon. Just seeing it next to the camera, I knew Lynn had definitely already linked them together. She had done something unnecessary. If the camera detected a hostile this weapon would ‘neutralize’ them. With Lynn having made it, that would range between a limb getting sliced off, at minimum, or more likely a laser straight through the heart.
“Lynn, I think the security laser is a bit much. If the intruders are killed entering my room, there might be problems. Not the least of which being that I can’t interrogate dead people.” I pointed out.
“Don’t worry, Mistress. I took that into account! I’ve configured it to only target locations that will guarantee that they’ll live at least a few hours. More than enough time for any interrogation. After that they’ll probably succumb to their wounds and die, but that can’t be helped.” Lynn said proudly.
I sighed and took the security laser out of the case. I returned it to the car and shut the door. “Lynn, I don’t need such a thing.” I dropped back down my campsite.
“Fine.” Lynn said moodily. The car rose back up into the air and then after it clearing the trees, it shimmered becoming practically invisible.
Coa was still nervous, but when I placed her back at her food, it seemed like her fear was forgotten and her appetite took over again. I’m slightly worried that if someone tempted her with food that she’d gleefully let herself be kidnapped.
“I think tomorrow, I’ll finally make the time to visit an information dealer in the city. I’ll just use the visit as another way to spread the word that I’m interested in doing business with that Ghost group. For now, I guess it’s time to sleep before going back to the city in the morning.” I said.
“Mistress, don’t tell me you forget about that guild job you took?” She asked.
“Oh right, there was that huh? I guess I’ll go swing by those southern farms in the morning, ask a few questions, take care of those elk things, and then head back to the city. Should be done by midday.” I reasoned.
“Mistress, aren’t you taking an unknown beast too lightly?” She scolded.
I perked up. “Are you telling me that the elkans might be a decent fight?”
“Well, no. From the information in the books they’re only a bit stronger than your tamed wolves, but it’s still not good to let your guard down!” She said.
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“You’d think a fantasy world would have more interesting and exciting stuff. Other than that sabretooth, nothing else has even close to being a challenge.” I complained.
“Isn’t gathering the materials we require enough of a challenge?” Lynn pointed out.
“That’s true, but it’s not really the kind I can get excited about.” I sighed.
Coa interrupted our conversation by letting out a burp, followed by a satisfied purr before coiling up to sleep on the now clean plate.
“Coa has the right idea. It’s definitely time for bed. Night Lynn.” I said with a yawn.
“Good night, Mistress.” She replied
I packed away the cooking stuff and then crawled into my tent. I laid Coa down on the blanket, set my proximity alarm and then went to sleep.
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The alarm went off, so I immediately swept out of my covers with my knife in hand. I stopped stunned when I saw what had set it off.
One of those sloth lizards was wandering around my campsite, chewing on plants. It came up to my tent and smelled it a bit before plodding around it, obviously uninterested. I was going to go back to bed, but I realized I had no idea how strong one of these things were. Due to this idle curiosity, I pulled out my scanner and aimed it at the beast.
This beast spends most of its life asleep. They only awaken for short intervals every few days to eat before returning to their slumbers.
Level 71!? That thing? I was frankly astonished. I hadn’t expected them to be nearly that strong.
I glanced down to the device in my hand. I should probably be using this more often, but it would be really hard to hide its bizarre appearance to anyone of this world, especially any that knew anything about mechanisms. I also don’t really need it all that much. I mean, learning something’s level and a brief description rarely if ever gives me useful information. I can generally tell if something is actually a threat too without relying on this gizmo.
Whatever. Let’s just go back to bed.
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Once I awoke, I glanced around, but I didn’t see any sign of the sloth lizard. It had probably wandered off to find a tree to sleep in. I quickly prepared breakfast for Coa and I before packing up my camp and leaving. Since I was playing the role of an adventurer, I had set my main class as hunter and taken my bow and quiver out of my pack.
Like I had said the previous night, instead of wandering the forest without a direction, I’d first go talk to those southern farmers. Surely they could at least give me some kind of reference for where to search.
When I reached the farms at the south edge of the forest, I was a bit confused. I had expected there to be crops, but instead it seemed like the area was filled with livestock.
I called up the keyboard and typed out a brief question which got an immediate response from Lynn.
“Correct, Mistress. Elkans are carnivores.” was Lynn’s answer.
How can they be like elks if they’re meat-eaters!?
I trudged the rest of the way to one of the nearby farm houses. This farm in particular seem to raise pigs. That brought to mind an interesting observation. Wasn’t it odd that the variety of livestock was so normal? I looked around and only saw animals that I could have seen back on Earth. I wonder why there aren’t any farms raising actual monsters for livestock? Maybe they just aren’t around here? Didn’t that book in the library mention breeding sloth lizards? That guard captain mentioned raising serpent dragons too. Possibly monsters just weren’t treated as simple livestock and more as valuable commodities then? That made sense. Are there merchants that sell them or possibly a guild of some kind for beast masters?
Ahh. I’m letting myself get sidetracked. I stopped at the house and knocked. I tried to hurry the conversation with the inhabitants along, but once they understood that I was here to take care of their monster problem, I got an earful of complaining about the knights being no help and other such comments. Was it really okay for seemingly commoner farmers to say this kind of stuff?
Eventually, I managed to escape with the simple directions they could provide and I returned to the forest. According to them, the elkans always came from the treeline directly south and they believed the beasts were likely near some spring that was not too far from there. It was definitely a good place to start.
It was a jackpot. When I made it to the spring, a group of five creatures was there. Upon taking in their features, I felt forced to make a remark. “Lynn, how do those things look like Earth elks!? I don’t even know where to start.”
Lynn had been right that they were vaguely elk like at least when looking at just body frame and size, but then the rest was definitely not! The face looked more like that of a wolf and they had four eyes! Two in the front and two on the side. They also had four antlers rather than the two an Earth elk would have had and all the elkan here had them, though one in particular had extremely huge and more elaborate ones. That one was probably the male leader of the herd. The clawed hooves were definitely out there too.
“Mistress, they have four hooved legs and they have antlers. An Earth elk was the closest beast I could compare to on short notice to be of help to you yesterday in that conversation.” Lynn stated calmly. “They are about to attack.” She added.
Right.
I readied my bow and fired a quick shot at the closest monster’s leg. The beast was thrown off balance right at the start of its charge, which had the bonus effect that it also threw off the others that had been next to or behind it. I followed up that first shot until the whole lot was dead. It was a pretty boring fight. Only the large male even got close to me and that was because it managed to somehow shrug off the arrow that burrowed into its head.
Of course there was a tiny problem that arose after I killed the adults. The last assumed female had tried to cover them, but there were two small kids. I had sensed their more simple minds, but this was the first look I had gotten at them. Probably newborns by the look of things and likely the reason why the elkans had been raiding the farms nearby so often. I might like kids, but that didn’t really extend to monsters. I at least showed them some mercy by ending their short lives by putting them to sleep first.
Now I just had to slice off the antlers of these things to show I had gotten rid of them and I’d be done out here. I did that from afar with my one of my knives while I used the other to cut tidbits out of one of them to feed Coa. She was quite pleased with these unexpected offerings and I made a short game of floating the small chunks of meat around her as she snapped them out of the air. It was a short game because it didn’t take long to collect my bounty.
“Mistress, I was thinking. It’s not something we’re used to, but on this world, beast parts seem to have value beyond just being trophies. It is possible that a piece of a monster could be utilized in our ship repair.” Lynn said.
I laughed. “You think we could use dragon scales or something?”
“Yes. If they work for our purposes, why not?” Lynn countered.
I was taken aback by the notion. I really hadn’t considered options other than gathering the actual metals we required. Why would I have? Beasts themselves weren’t worth anything where we came from. This was a world with magic and true monsters though. That meant the possibility was there.
One flaw with this idea is that I have no idea how to accurately harvest from a monster. I’m sure that I’d most likely damage anything I practiced on or was working on for the first time. The other would be that I don’t think it’s likely that we’d find any monster that had something that could truly serve as a replacement for what we were missing.
“I suppose I’ll have to add learning how to properly take apart monsters to my list of things to do and finding out the properties of them. Thanks Lynn, I really appreciate the added workload.” I muttered sarcastically.
“Any time, Mistress!” Lynn quipped.
I stored one pair of antlers away in my pack and then bundled up the others as best I could. I had forgotten the obvious necessity of rope at the market. There was no way I could use the cable in my pack for that mundane task, thus I was forced to carry them until I reached that earlier farm. Apparently they had seen me trudging out of the forest and came to check on me. They were ecstatic that I had solved their problem and only too happy to provide me some rope, especially when I told them they were welcome to what was left of the beasts back at the spring, which I used to tie up the antlers so I could easily carry them back to the city.
It wasn’t midday yet, but it would probably be later than that by the time I got there. I just sighed and started moving.