Mary was kinda ashamed of her behavior yesterday, but the noble didn't even see her enemy as a person, she went a little overboard. She would have to take care to not do that again. The days passed peacefully, and she started to form a friendship with Delah. They trained every evening. The lizard was a really skilled fighter, she had been trained by her father, who was an adventurer since she was a young child. As such they both won equally often. Mary could score three victories at first, but afterwards the lizard had adapted and managed to defeat her three times in a row.
She was really happy there were spells that kept you clean and removed any dirt and odor that accumulated over the day. She couldn't help but shudder, thinking how a world without these would be.
They left the immediate surroundings of the capital in the morning, so their escorts warned them to expect attacks.
Early in the morning she got a warning from Starshadow, he had spotted something up ahead. Looking through his eyes, Mary could see a small band of kobolds waiting in ambush. She was confident they wouldn't attack them, as they had the numbers. Kobolds were intelligent monsters after all and had no desire to die prematurely.
She was proven right, before the scouts of their escort even saw the monsters, they heart their group and retreated in the forest.
That continued for the rest of the day, Starshadow spotted monsters every hour or so, though none were desperate enough to attack a group as big as theirs. That night, about half of them were added as a sentry over the course of the night.
Mary was roused near midnight and instructed by one of the escorts.
“No need to tell me all that, I am a fully qualified ranger!”
“With seven and as a noble?” He looked at her in doubt.
“I really like forests!” He still insisted to tell her everything. Mary would have to watch her part of the forest for the next hour and then wait for her replacement before going to bed again.
About half an hour in her watch, Mary could see something sneaking up on their camp. She was sure no one but her could though, as she had night vision. She couriosly observed the creatures attempts to sneak up on them. As soon as it got near the fires, it would be spotted though. Mary took one of the stones they were given for beast like this one, and threw it in the night. It landed exactly where she wanted, impacting in front of their would be attacker.
It shrieked and ran back in the forest. When her replacement came, she drove off another three creatures.
The next day most people who had sentry duty were on the edge, the constant shrieks in the night had them thinking there was an army of monsters just out of their range of vision. The few that had real experience like her weren't bothered in the slightest, it was an easy watch and, more importantly they were not attack by anything.
This day, they were attacked for the first time, a group of evolved wolves jumping out of the forest. Normally such a small pack would never attack them, but their evolution caused them to become raging beasts, missing the caution they once had. The pack was a prime example of an evolution gone wrong, while mostly beneficial, sometimes an evolution went wrong, causing the animal to go insane and attack everything around them.
Their escorts dealt with these easily enough, though Mary had to zap one of the monster that got around them with a bolt of lightning. She felt three other people starting to prepare a spell as well, though some were obviously overwhelmed.
Mary got a thankful nod from the leader of their escorts.
Another week passed, and apart from the occasional monster attack nothing interesting happened.
In the third week, they were once again drew closer to a city, and the monster attacks stopped once again. The city would be their last stop in civilisation for quite some time. Afterwards they would reach the western mountains, the biggest mountain range in the empire. Moving through it would increase the time their travel took by another week. If they were to travel on even terrain in a straight line, they would reach the academy in just four weeks instead of the six they would need.
Alas that was not to be, as the roads were in no way straight and the mountains were not going anywhere anytime soon.
Early that morning, Mary spotted a group of bandits waiting in ambush. Their group was nearly as strong as Mary’s and as it was, they would run straight into them. She waited for a bit, and then had Starshadow shriek loud for everyone to hear.
She rode towards their escort.
“There is danger ahead!”
“And how would you know that?” Mary was looked upon with doubt.
“Starshadow is trained to warn me of danger. That shriek meant there is something waiting for us!” Luckily the woman was no idiot, and even though Mary’s explanation was a little thin, she still took it serious. She sent out her ranger to scout ahead, stopping the group for now. Twenty minutes later the ranger returned, telling them of a big group of bandits lying in disguise. He wouldn't have spotted them had he not searched for some kind of danger.
They were in an uncomfortable situation, their wagons meant they couldn't sneak through the forest, as they were unfit for off road travel. The Escorts rode in front of them.
“Listen up! We spotted a group of bandits up ahead and they don't look like they will leave anytime soon. Everyone of you who is a sorcerer or knows spells that can help fight them speak up now!”
In their group of twenty about half had some kind of previous magical or physical training. All of the nobles of course, as they got the best teachers from a young age. From what the ranger could tell, the bandits didn't have any mages on their own. He was wrong though, Starshadow spotted one who didn't have any obvious weapons on him. She decided she’d just zap him first.
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After distributing everyone capable of combat evenly throughout their group, the older students cast a shield that would stop any arrows from hitting them. Ten minutes later, they arrived on the ambush site.
It was chosen with care, the road used an old riverbed there, so the ambushers had a slightly elevated position. The think trees on either side furthermore concealed as the road was in broad daylight. While the first arrows started flying, they already started their counterattack.
Everyone capable of fire magic threw fireballs at the surrounding trees, forcing the bandits to come out in the open as the trees caught fire. Mary’s first bolt of lightning flew directly in the emerging mage, taking him by surprise. While the bandits had the theoretical advantage in numbers, they weren't prepared for their plan to fail. This group might have been quite capable on their own, and would have been a serious problem for most groups of the same size, but without their ambush they were just some normal humans up against fifteen mages.
After their mage fell, the bandits leader called a retreat into the forest. The bandits, already in disarray complied happily, even managing to pick up their mage in the process, leaving only a few of their number behind.
After securing the bandits caught, they continued their travel. Reaching the next city in the following morning. They reported they ran into bandits to the city guards, getting rid of their prisoners in the process.
Sadly, they didn't get to sleep in the city, as they reached it in the morning and still had ways to travel.
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The whole journey had been one of Mary’s best experiences so far. While sadly, they didn't need to do much fighting, as their escorts were capable of dealing with everything they encountered so far.
Except the bandits of course, but these had been an exception, groups as big as them were rare. It was bad luck really meeting a group this large in the inner parts of the Empire.
The different monsters Mary saw through Starshadow’s eyes were the best part. By now, she could quickly differentiate between the failed and normal evolutions. She was sure if her peers knew of the quantity of monsters in the forest they wouldn't be sleeping nearly as deep.
The variety of monsters was astonishing really. Luckily the monsters capable of endangering their group had far easier prey to hunt than a bunch of humans and as such, didn't bother. The monsters attacking were all failed evolutions or had no experience with humans and hadn't yet learnt to not bother them.
They collected some of the materials from the stronger monsters, but they didn't have enough space to take any serious amount of materials with them. Furthermore all added weight would slow them down when they would cross the mountains that could be seen looming in the distance.
The mountains were growing with everyday, and at the end of the third week they were finally at their feet. From her lessons on the geography of the empire, Mary knew the western ranges went up to six kilometers in height. They wouldn't get nearly this high, there was a pass through the mountains that would allow them to stay under the snowline, allowing travel the whole year.
That was disappointing really, Mary had never seen real snow in her life. She had seen it created by magic, but that wasn't the same as real one.
For the first time since their journey started, they stopped in the early afternoon. Crossing the mountains was dangerous, even though the road they would take did its job for centuries.
The thing was, the first safe spot to camp was half a day's journey in the mountains. The spots were more frequent in the pass itself, but the first day was consistent hiking upwards and there was simply no space for a nights rest.
Furthermore, they gathered food, as it was harder to find in the mountains. They were unclaimed by humanity and themonsters there were especially aggressive in defending their territory. Hunting was dangerous in there, at least in the first part of the pass, where they would reach up to two thousand meters of height.
The second half of the pass was a slow decrease in altitude, until they would leave the mountains again.
After a cheerful afternoon and refreshingly long rest, they set out in good spirits. An hour later, they started the ascend up the mountain. Like always, Mary watched the world through Starshadow’s eyes, keeping an eye out for trouble while simultaneously admiring the beauty of the scenery. While the mountains had been decorating the horizon for several days, seeing them up close was something different.
Compared to them, the mountain in the capital was a small hill! While they wouldn't even reach two thousand five hundred meters of height, they would still be hundreds of meters above the highest point of the palace.
They continued to travel for the whole day, starting to walk on foot on the second half of the day in order to give their horses some rest. Elwood didn't seem all that strained, but Mary chose to walk anyways, just to show support to her peers.
They reached the top of the ascend early in the evening. Everybody fell on their bedrolls with relief. While the way through the mountains was faster than travelling around them, but was way more strenuous. The pass was only used by small groups of adventurers or travelers, as any merchant wagons would get serious problems with the steep slopes. Even the small wagons they used would get some problems.
Mary was the only one of them that wasn't all that exhausted, so she volunteered to do the first watch, something greatly appreciated by the rest. The camping place was a big cave in the mountains side, excavated by mages centuries ago, and as such only had one entrance, as such you only needed two people to keep watch. Mary would take the first together with the leader of their group.
After everyone settled down Mary and Vamafre sat in front of the cave, keeping an eye out for any approaching dangers.
“You didn't seem all that bothered by the hike as much as the rest, why is that?” “I have a very good endurance, always had. I don't get tired as fast as others. Probably because of my heritage.”
“What do you mean, you are a noble?”
“I was chosen to join my house three years ago. I was found on the steps of an orphanage in the capital shortly after my birth.”
“Sorry I pried, I know how something like that is, the same happened to me after all, it was the reason I chose an academy as far away from the capital after all.”
“It’s fine, my parents are really nice people and see me as their daughter. I heard the useless part of the noble population can be cruel to orphans though.”
“Not only the useless part, I several of the nobles that got your family’s lands were equally cruel to me. I can tell you, the life in the academy my not be as easy as you are used to, but it’s way more honest. I don't think I will ever return there!”
Mary threw a stone at the vermin sneaking up on their cave.
“Your eyes are incredible, that ranger training really must have paid off! Why did you do it anyways, that's something nobles don't do normally?”
“I just like the feeling of moving in nature! I never feel like that in a city, it's one of the reasons I applied at the academy, it wanted to have some excitement in nature!”
“You are in for one hell of an experience, if you pass the first year that is!”
“You didn't say if I manage to pass the entry tests.”
“I don't have to, be both know you will pass them, the others may not be all that observant, but I am sure you are more capable than any of them can imagine. You may play the bored noble really well, but the way you always watch your surroundings, even if you know you don't have to defend yourself tells me enough.” Mary chose to ignore that, it didn't really matter what the woman thought.