The speed of the beasts was quite bland, probably as fast as a normal person could run in the real world. After the first ten minutes looking outside, the attention of the people moved to inside the carriage. The two NPC soldiers were outside guiding the Hurgs moving the vehicles, so all the persons around Zortex were travelers. From what he could see, he surmised that his traveling companions were divided in two trios, a couple and then himself and a girl. As expected, his peers started presenting each other, all telling their names in a jumble of hand shakings and smiles. It would have been easier if everyone spoke one at a time. In the confusion he could remember only the name of the guy sitting close to him, a certain Gaber, and the name of a girl on the other side of the carriage, Maya. And Jake of course. After a minute of pleasantries the dreaded moment arrived when Gaber faced him.
“Hi, I am Gaber. I had seen you around the training center, but nobody could tell me who you are, especially with that smoke always covering your face. Since we will be here for a while, can you tell me your name?”
Gaber looked at him quite friendly, better than Zortex expected, but in that instant everybody looked at him ruining his mood. Zortex knew that he was not ready yet to speak to real people, especially with women present, so he did the only thing he was able to do in the past. He moved his hand and with a finger he wrote Shad. In that moment Jake intervened:
“Me and Shad trained together once in the Spear courses. He told me that he cannot talk and he must keep his face covered at all times due to a special quest he is doing. When he will be done he will get a powerful skill and then he will tell me how to do it myself. Hmm…at the time he was just wearing bandages, so maybe he has advanced to a new step in the quest! That’s the coolest thing I have seen until now!”
As expected Jake could not keep his mouth shut. He is the kind of guy that likes to be at the center of attention. Although I don’t remember telling him that I will share the quest with him. Anyway it suits my situation.
Jake was part of the trio with other two guys that Zortex had never seen, probably frequenting the training center together by the way they were dressed. The other trio had two girls and a guy, and the couple looked like they were lovers. The last girl looked familiar to Zortex, but he could not recollect from where, so probably she was just a student at the wizard tower that he had seen in passing.
“Ok, so the mystery is solved. Your name is Shad. You probably know, but you are quite famous between the other ‘noobs’ in the city. Always shrouded in darkness and making no contact with anybody apart from NPCs. Good luck with your quest, but I would kill myself if I had to go more than a few days without speaking with anybody.”
Zortex made a nod and went back to stare at the floor as usual. After that people stopped approaching him, obviously reluctant to interact with a person that could not properly answer back to them. Unluckily the trip could become so boring that someone would even challenge the issue, especially Jake. Zortex could not train his most obvious spells while riding the carriage, so he focused on the skills that could not be seen. Sonar was the most obvious skill, but to not waste his mana regeneration he also focused on his Slimification. He had many ideas on how to make use of his slime body, but they were not as easy to develop as the noob spells he had just learned. The one he wanted to master as fast as possible was the fingertips stickiness: instead of a tentacle he wanted to slimify only the tip of the fingers, and once he succeeded he would make them sticky. In his mind he imagined himself scaling a wall the same way Spiderman did in the movies. He already could scale it when he was in full slime form, but he was way too slow and open to enemy attacks. The theory was simple, but the practice was really difficult; at the moment he could only slimify the top of his index finger of the right hand, and if he tried to make it sticky sometimes he would lose control and return to normal. To complete the full spell he would have to do it for all fingers of both hands and also the toes of his feet, however he still couldn’t even tentacle his left arm. That was also something to train he thought. He also added to the list the ability to sprout tentacles from every part of the body, like Pravin did, but he was afraid that would be something far away in the future.
I am stuck with the Slime Class, so I should make full use of it. I have already thought about so many way to improve myself, but it is too freaking difficult to train. Maybe Shadow Slime Warrior is considered a high level Class, so it could be even more difficult to refine than high level spells. Anyway I have eternity in front of me, so I should not expect to be finished in a couple of years, otherwise there would be no point in living a thousand lives.
Two days later everybody was completely bored. There is something about staying closed in a vehicle for long times that makes you anxious to get out. People kept chatting and chatting, but after a while everyone needed some silence. On the other end Zortex was thriving in this situation. After all he spent months in complete darkness with nothing to do but getting lost in his own thoughts, so a couple of days were nothing to him. He also took out all his bandages and covered his face so much that he could hardly hear or see anything around himself, so that way he was able to catch some sleep. They had made only three stops to eat and traveled through the nights, because the Captain said that they were behind schedule and the guys from the other city would reach Asiago before them. During the pauses people went out and shared the food prepared by the soldiers, so Zortex didn’t have to take out his own, to his appreciation. Always better to keep his food reserves to the maximum. His companions went around to make friends with the other travelers from the different wagons, but he preferred to find some place quiet and train a bit more hid Decay Bolt. When the guards signaled everybody went back to their own wagon without any mix up as ordered by the Captain, to avoid for anyone to be left behind for some confusion. At dawn of the third day the merchant caravan separated from them turning left at a bifurcation, as they were bound to one of the bigger cities on the west rather than the smaller towns where they were directed.
Did they even need our protection? Until now all the scenery was villages and farmland. If there was anything dangerous it would attack a village rather than a caravan with its own guards. I guess that you could never be safe too much. Of course depends on the costs. I wonder how much is the salary of a merchant’s guard? Maybe I should always get hired by one of them every time I need to travel between cities.
Six days after departure their group reached destination. One day less than expected to make good of their late start. The most exciting thing were a couple of flying lizard-butterfly beasts that flew over their caravan for a couple of hours. The soldiers told us that they are called ‘chald’ and they are not very dangerous for humans. At most they would attack small childs, but usually they are just looking for unprotected supplies or leftovers. They never came close enough to be attacked and they left after their attention was drawn by something else in a nearby small forest.
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Asiago was a small town of around five thousand people, protected by a wooden wall of two meters height. They reached the town square and dismounted from their vehicles, to everyone satisfaction.
“Ok everyone. You have until tomorrow morning to relax and prepare for the mission. Meanwhile me and the other guards will set up camp close to the North gate of the town. When you want to retire for the night you can come there. If it’s not good enough for you, you could always rent a room in one of the inns, but it would not be cheap with all the people who have arrived for this hunt.”
Captain Cvor told us and started to walk away, then he stopped and turn around to say:
“Just a reminder for you who are blessed by the Gods….turn this town as your respawning place. I don’t think you want to make all the trip back here by yourselves, maybe to find out that the mission has been completed. We will meet here tomorrow at dawn.”
And with that he left.
Zortex was left alone, so the very first thing he did was to look at the inns close to the town square, before all rooms would get booked. After 30 minutes looking around he had to give up. There were free spots, but they were bloody expensive. All the innkeepers were making a fortune with the excuse of the Srenc attack. Not only them, but almost all shops had raised ten times their prices. Probably in normal conditions the stuff here would cost half or less compared to Onara city, but with so many customer coming all at once the prices skyrocketed. There wasn’t much else to see, so Zortex retired in the camp raised by the Captain. He needed a night of good sleep to get in the best shape to undertake the mission the day after.
Zortex woke up for his breakfast one hour before dawn when the soldier roused the travelers who decided to stay in the camp. Most people didn’t sleep much in Endless, so only half of the travelers had found their way to the camp. The other stayed up all the night partying or preparing themselves or socializing or whatever. After breakfast the town square started to fill up with groups of travelers, both from Onara and Carmignano. The other city camp was situated on the west side of the town and it contained almost fifty travelers, just like them. All in all there were around one hundred fighters ready to march.
“I am Captain Canter and this is Captain Cvor. We will be coordinating the attack together. If we disagree I will be the one who has the final word. Is everything clear?”
A soldier spoke standing side by side with our Captain. People just mumbled a yes, not really knowing why was that a question.
“Just to make sure you understood the mission I will repeat it. We are here to destroy a colony of Srenc which has established itself in the nearby forest. Is that clear?”
People nodded with their heads or just did nothing.
“For the next week we will do recon missions. To our first estimate there should be a tribe of around 500 Srenc. Your job will be to scout the forest and pinpoint the location of their main village. Is that clear?”
Once again people mumbled a yes, not really sure who should be answering that question.
“Srenc usually go out in hunting parties from three to ten of them to gather food. Higher level Srenc stay closer to the village while the young and weak go around to hunt and level up to get stronger. In the beginning you will spy on this hunting parties to check where they are bringing back the food and then kill them to reduce the number of enemies. Considering your average strength there is no way for us to take on 500 enemies at once. You must wear down their forces while getting stronger yourself. Is that clear?”
“YES!” Three guys he didn’t recognize screamed making fun of the whole speech. Captain Canter actually looked happy about it.
“We will divide our forces in groups of four-five people to cover more ground, but strong enough to win a battle against their hunting parties. We have already organized the groups based on your skills and experience. Personal relationships have been taken into account. If you are not happy about it we will discuss after the first day. Now me and Captain Cvor will pass around and form the groups. Each group will be escorted by one city soldier to guide them in their first experience. Is that clear?
“YEEEEESS!” Now it was five guys shouting and then laughing hard about it. Paying more attention Zortex understood that they were actually quite drunk. Apparently the parties last night ended later than he thought.
Afterwards the soldiers started dividing people. Zortex ended up in a group of four people. With him there were Jake, Rizza and Gera.
Why I am again with Jake? It cannot be a coincidence…or is it? Rizza is the girl from my kart who was alone at the beginning. She should also be a magician. I don’t know this Gera. She has a rapier and light armor, so she should be a high agility warrior. Hmmm. So Jake as a tank, Gera as a rapid warrior to fill the gaps and deal close damage and me and Rizza attacking from a distance. I can also handle spear and sword, so I can help on the front line if needed. The typical RPG group.
Rizza had light blue hairs and dark skin. Her height and body looked average and she was wearing a black dress which made her look like a witch. On her hand there was a wizard staff. Gera was as tall as Zortex and with very pale skin, almost white. Her hairs were a dark purple, the same color of her eyes. She was wearing a leather armor non that different from his own.
Ah! Now I remember. Rizza is the girl I saw that night I went back to the temple after leaving the sewers. I was looking for someone to follow to the training center, but I skipped her to follow the two dudes. What were the names I gave them? Nah, it doesn’t matter.
Jake moved forward and said:
“Ok guys. Two nights ago Captain Cvor went around asking questions about classes, skills, preferences, friends etc. The others thought that he was just socializing, but I understood that there was something behind, so I went to speak with him directly when he was alone. He told me that he was going to form groups based on the information he had, so I already told him who I wanted to be paired with. I asked for Shad and Rizza to join me, and also for my other two friends over there, but it seems like the Captain was not fully convinced by my choices. Anyway I happy to be with you guys.”
So that’s why….but why me? Not that I cared about someone else, but I know for a fact that Jake is not that talented. I hope that he got a lot of training in the last few months, otherwise we will be in trouble.
“Let me explain. I had a little spar with Shad in the past and I know that he is good at it. I don’t know why you are saying that you are a wizard right now, but also as a warrior you could handle yourself quite well I think. I asked for you for that reason. About Rizza….well, there is no need to hide things….we have met in our carriage and talked and spent time together during the pauses and…well… we are dating right now. I want to spend time with her, but if we got in different groups we would be separated for who knows how long. I hope to not cause too much trouble if we get lovely-dovey sometimes.”
Crap. I got my mind under control right now, but it will be painful to have them fucking a few meters from me when we will camp out in the open. What to do?
“Fine by me, but don’t think that you can start fucking each other during the mission. You can have all the fun you want when you are here in the town” Gera interjected.
Bless you woman Zortex thought.
“OK” Jake said looking disappointed. Rizza was just staring at the ground seemingly embarrassed.
Jake was looking forward to have plenty of sex in the next few days, that bastard. He should think about the poor guys around him who aren’t getting any…..well, unless Gera is willing….but that’s impossible.
Before my teammates could continue talking the Captain announced that we should move outside the city in the direction of the forest. The excitement started to raise in the travelers as most of them had never been into a mission, the same as Zortex, although he was already level 8 and they were probably level 1.
Time to test myself.