22 Astra 10,391
The next morning Six woke early feeling surprisingly well and readied himself as fast as he could but when he finally came down Denny was already seated downstairs already enjoying a bowl of the Stallion’s soup.
The old man nodded at Six. “Mornin.”
Six nodded back. He hadn’t made any promises to Alison but he still felt like he gave his word, he had accepted the quest, that was basically giving his word. He would ask the man to wait but if Denny wanted to go, Six would go. Denny made no move to stand up though so Six sat down.
Denny slurped his soup, ”always good to fill up before you hit the road. Never know when your last meal will be. Soup for the boy.”
Six was in his early thirties, he was no boy. This rebirth must have really aged him down.
Olga brought him soup and he paid her and began to sip. He and Denny ate in silence for a bit before the ranger spoke.
“It’s a very hard life.” Denny spoke it as a warning.
“I've lived hard before.”
“Oh yee, not saying you didn’t, the city is a busy place but a simple place. Civilization is safe. There is a certain safety in numbers.”
Six was aware of that and the lack of assistance and the lack of outside influence was a double edged sword. Six was willing to potentially cut himself to live true.
Denny smiled and nodded. “That's a good thing to know about yourself.” He drank deeply and dipped some bread into the concoction. “It’s your choice.”
It was his choice. “I want this.”
Denny held his hands up in surrender and finished off the bread before standing. He gestured for Six to finish up and pulled out a pipe from nowhere. “Let's go,” he said.
“Well-” Six began before the door burst open and let the early morning light shine in.
It was Alison and she quickly focused on Six. She waved and approached, a tired smile on her face. "We're ready," she said.
“They're ready?” Denny asked.
“She demanded to follow me, I said no but I don't have a right to stop her and she is determined as all heck. I guess I said it was alright at the end there.” Six was half disappointed yet half relieved, Denny would put a stop to this, this was way outside their contract.
Denny gave her a searching glance and nodded. "I'm working for this man Six but traveling in a group is always welcome, the warmth and safety is hard to refuse. While this young man thinks he doesn't need any help, I will welcome it.”
“I’m not above help, I just want to be alone.”
“Then why hire me?” The old man asked.
“I'm not stupid enough to try this on my own.” Six grumped.
Denny gave Six a withering ‘I told you so’ glare.
“Anyways,” Six said. “They are following us, is this gonna have an effect on the price?
Denny thought about it for a second. “As long as she knows that I’m only out to protect you.”
Alison nodded immediately. “We expect no assistance. We are just interested in finding our way.”
Denny smiled in acknowledgement. “The price remains the same. Let us go.” He gestured to his dark dog.”Come on Koda,“ he called and the dog moved to his side.
They left the Prancing Stallion and Six left a silver tip for the innkeep. Working their way through the city to the western gate. They passed it but for a slight interaction with the gate guards and Alison. They spent more time and attention on her than either Six or Denny. She made it through though and Six could see a large group of people begin to move towards them.
Denny made a low hum of disapproval but smiled nonetheless. “I didn’t realize there would be so many. Let's keep moving. I’m sorry but I can't slow our pace for them, try to follow our trail, think you can do that?.”
Alison looked surprised for a second, before taking a grim face and stomping towards her people. She shouted at them to redirect and intercept rather than march mindlessly.
Denny began to stride off on the path alongside the river, going upstream.
“Don’t you want to look at the map.”
“You wanna get to the mountain?”
“Yes.”
"The big one?"
"Yes."
“Mountain’s this way.” Denny shook his head in disappointment but had a forgiving smile on his face. He continued on his way.
Six followed the man, they walked along a wide cobbled road that was called the West road. It took them past the shanty towns of the city, and into the beginning of farmland but it then curved north and Denny left it to follow the river.
Six looked back and saw a line of people trailing behind. Denny led him forward and the two of them began to outpace Allison's group. Denny didn't seem to be worried and began his instruction immediately.
"If you're in tune with nature she has everything you need, you just gotta think and be careful. It sounds like you are tryna become a hermit."
"That's the dream," Six said wistfully.
“Well if you screw up ain't nobody gonna be there to help.” Denny remarked.
Six nodded. “Safety first.”
“That's right so my first lesson will be on foraging. What's useful, edible, poisonous. I hope to have you past herbalism 15 by the time I leave." He stopped and scraped some moss off of a fallen log. "Sting moss. Poisonous, good for traps as it's fine to eat but grind it into a paste and it can be used as a weak paralytic. Easy to harvest, just make sure it doesn't get into any cuts on yer hands."
Six looked at his hands. They were softer than the gnarled mitts that he once had. Tree work was hard and Six hated wearing gloves so his hands always had a cut or two. These hands were clean. He scraped some sting moss off for himself and looked at the stuff. It was deep green, almost blue with the tips of the shoots a lighter colour. It bubbled with a light tingling prickle on his skin.
Plant Identified
- Stingmoss -
Quality: Mundane
Rarity: Common
Weight - 0.1G
Durability 5/5
Traits: Can be ground into a paste to create a minor paralytic agent. Material, Reagent.
“Cool. I'm lichen it," he said lamely.
Denny nodded. "It is a useful thing, I like it too."
“No, you know? Lichen it?” Six emphasized.
“What are you going on about son?”
“Eh, ah. Don't worry about it.” Six was never great at puns.
"...Well anyways." Denny moved farther along. "Sting moss is pretty common and can be found easily. Something like this," he said, bending down and picking a small root at the base of its stem. "This will actually heal ya, minimal as it does, tastes like not much and it's pretty common in the forest. It’s called Rootbust." Denny passed the small root over. “Give it a chew,” he said.
“Oh.” Six recognized that. “I bought some of that in town.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Probably overpaid for it too. Chew.”
Six shrugged, wiped off most of the dirt and popped the root into his mouth. He tasted mostly earth and was pretty sure it was just the dirt he missed, the actual root tasted like watery potato.
Plant Identified
- Rootbust -
Quality: Mundane
Rarity: Common
Weight - 0.1G
Durability 5/5
Traits: Can be chewed to provide a minor healing effect. 1HP per 5 minutes for 30 minutes. Material, Reagent.
Skill Increase: Herbalism - Initiate - 2
Nice, a level in Herbalism.
Denny explained. “You can be chewing this just about all the time, it’s harmless but not endless. Pick it when you find it, pick it at the base of the stem or you might ruin the quality though.” Denny kept moving along.
Six was having a hard time keeping up with the heavy armor he was wearing but Denny didn’t seem to mind, only pausing here and there to coach Six on moving stealthily with the plate. No skill increase prompts came despite multiple bouts of instruction. Six assumed he wasn’t successful at hiding from anything so he wasn’t awarded anything, still, he asked Denny about it.
“Well, many things affect skill acquisition and skill growth. I’m no scholar but from what I’ve learned it comes down to three main things. Affinity, pressure and mentorship. Have you had your affinities scryed?”
“Scryed? No, to be honest we don’t know about affinities where I came from.”
Denny raised an eyebrow. “Are you shitting me?”
Six shook his head. No magic back home.
Denny made a thoughtful face before nodding and explaining. “Affinities are values that determine how well you can progress through a skill. It’s an indication of one's ability to grow in a skill. If you have 0 percent affinity, gaining the skill is impossible and anysort of growth is impossible. Now, if you have 100 percent affinity growth is easy, natural, intuitive, sometimes one demonstration could prompt acquisition, sometimes it could spontaneously reveal itself.” Denny vaulted over a log. “Having 100% affinity in a skill is extremely rare, as is having 0% most humanoids are middling in most things, certain species may have weighted talent in a few skills but that is usually balanced by weaker affinities in contrasting areas.”
“That doesn’t seem fair. What if you want to learn something you have zero affinity for?”
“You don’t,” the old man grumbled.
“That's not fair.”
“Life’s not fair.”
Six nodded. “This is true. Fish ain't gonna beat the monkey up that tree.”
Denny nodded. ”Mmhmm. Now, look over here, see that print? Boar came through here a while ago. Keep sharp. Which way were they heading? Check the plants.”
Six slowed and checked the prints, orientating the hoof tips forward and looking at the folded grass and disturbed moss. He pointed back east, back towards Olisrosa and Denny nodded in confirmation.
Skill gained Survival - Initiate - 1
“Now, what do you think we should do?” Denny asked.
Six thought about that, Denny was asking for a reason. Six didn’t know how long ago these boars passed through but they were heading in the direction of the settlers. “Should probably double back and tell Alison about the boar, might be a problem. Are boar aggressive?”
“Might be. Good decision, let's go.”
It took them about a half hour to find the column of people walking along his rough and clumsy path. Alison was at the front marching with a few people chatting with her.
“Six. Glad you waited.” She said with frustrated relief.
“Nah, I turned back to tell you we spotted signs of a pack of boars in the area.”
“What am I supposed to do with that?”
“I dunno, tell your warriors to protect your flanks or something like that?”
“My warriors? You killed the people who were supposed to protect us.”
An older human woman leaned back in surprise.“This is the man who killed Carralevine?
“Dick move spreading half the story, Alison. Yea I did but Carralevine asked me to!” Now Six was pissed.
“I find that hard to believe!”
“Whatever, fuck this, I told you about the boars, I’m out.”
“Wait, you need to help us defend against these boars if they are around.”
“I don’t need to do shit, you need to tell these people the whole story. I didn’t even need to come back. I’m Ooooouuuut.”
“How about,” Denny broke in. “We have a sit and have a smoke and have a sip.
Six was not having it. “Denny lets go.”
“I need to rest my legs son. Sit down.”
Six sighed and instantly capitulated, there was no use arguing, he knew Denny was just being nice to Alison.
“Six, You’re gonna help right?” Alison asked again. “Most of us don’t even have level 1. You would be a big help.”
“I'm not even a fighter and you only asked to follow me. I don't like it when people move goalposts like that.”
“That's gonna change.” Denny murmured.
“What do you mean?”
“Could be seeing boars today, definitely seeing something tomorrow. You wanna live alone, you gotta be prepared to fight. Especially in the mountains.”
“When I have to, I will, not until then. And even then I don't want to fight for others. I am my responsibility, no more.”
Denny nodded. “Well, we will walk the rest of the day with these people, camp in a few hours most likely.”
Alison relaxed. “God thank you Denny, it’s been stressful trying to follow you despite how clear the trail is.”
“Yea the kid moves like an entire legion.”
“I’ve been trying to be stealthy,” Six said.
“Please don't make it any harder,'' Alison said, facepalming in frustration.
“I’ll see what I can do but I am just doing my own thing here.”
“Ten minutes, you can keep your people walking or wait with us, our trail will remain pretty clear.” Denny offered.
“No, we will march until we camp. We already took a break not too long ago,” Alison revealed.
“Watch out for boars,” said Six.
“Yea yea, boars. Got it,” Alison replied.
Denny sighed and nodded, gesturing for Six to follow him off to the side where they sat and let the peoples trudge past. Mostly human, but there were Minotaurs, Orcs… Muldstanii, Dwarves of two kinds, a few half elves like Elyria, bird… people? And all sizes of Lizard folk, horned and frilled. Most of them carried something on their backs and there were mules and horses burdened with goods. Maybe the rings were more rare than he thought.
He should have never given the one back. He chastised himself for such a selfish thought. Oh well, he shrugged. He was fine without it, he was lucky enough to have just one spatial ring. He did not need two.
The break went quick and the two of them quickly overtook Alison’s column blazing off ahead of the group again. This time as they moved forward Denny found an ideal spot for a large amount of people to camp. A slight hill in an open spot in the forest, trees pushed out and forming a perimeter. The setting sun was quickly making things dark. Six kept his eyes on the lookout for signs of boars but nothing presented itself and the settlers made it to their first camp unharmed except for some sprained ankles and sore feet.
Denny and Six had already set their tents up and now Six watched a mob of people have various amounts of success when erecting their own tents and shelters. It was strange but many were having a hard time of it, struggling and screeching. City folk.
The more capable were starting a few small fires, taking care of animals or helping others with their tents. There were a few children running around, mostly non-human. Six would find sleep in this but he had hoped to be free of the murmur of the city. Whatever.
He pulled some jerky out of his sack and began to chew on it while continuing his people watching until a chittering noise at his feet startled him into leaping away. His eyes tracked right onto the creature that had snuck up on him. It was the raccoon.
“You!” Six yelled, pointing at the beast. “How did you get here?”
The beast sucked its teeth at him and standing on its hindlegs looked at Six expectantly.
“What? Go on, get back to the city!” Six made a shooing gesture at the raccoon but it didn’t even flinch.
It only held out its little paws and licked its lips.
“How did you even?” Six asked himself while pulling some bread and more jerky from his sack.
The raccoon immediately perked up at the sight of those and fixed Six with those doe eyes.
He looked at the animal for a moment before tossing the thing some jerky which it immediately grabbed and gnawed on, happily.
“Is that your pet?” came a rumbly voice.
Six turned to see a grey stone skinned dwarf standing there, he wore a well worn uniform with a decent set of chainmail . An anvil shaped amulet hung from a chain around his neck. Hammers hung on his belt.
Six looked at him with trepidation. Six was a stranger here and kinda wanted to keep it that way. He wouldn’t ignore the dwarf though. “No,” he said, it was true. He had no idea how this raccoon had followed him all the way here but it was a wild animal, not his pet.
He looked at the thing, eating the food he provided, slouched with ease. I got a pet.
“I guess so,” Six said, accepting the responsibility of pet ownership.
An awkward silence extended between them before the gravelly dwarf broke it. “Did you kill Orifec?” This dwarf sounded literally like Richard Nixon.
The question froze Six. He weighed his response and chose carefully. “Yes.”
The dwarf nodded. "That bastard owed me money."
“You were his friend?”
“More like brother. We grew up together.”
“I'm sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you, if I could get his last possessions I would appreciate that.”
“No.”
“No?”
“Look I already went over this with Alison, they gave me their shit, go ask Alison for something because I already gave her what I was willing to part with.”
“You should at least pay back what he owed me. “
Six paused for a second. He didn't want to start a flood of people asking him for things. "What would I get for giving you anything? Orifec gave it to me."
“Well he was in no position to be making such decisions based on what Alison told us.”
“Who's us.”
“None of your business!”
“Well fuck you too bud.”
“You owe it to me, his brother, to give me his stuff.”
“Go fuck yourself.” Six was dumbfounded at the shameless pressure this dwarf was exerting.
“He gave it to you so it could be given to me.”
“You probably don't even know what I got from him.”
“That's beside the point.”
“I don't even know your name.”
“That too is beside the point.”
Six tossed the raccoon some more food and waved goodbye to the dwarf. "I don't want to talk to you anymore."
“Wait,” the dwarf pivoted in tone, “I actually want to make you an offer. My name is Gatbark Gunnbjorn, you recently came into some wealth correct?”
“Pretty sure Orifec’s last name was like Merrymace or something. You're siblings? I doubt it.”
“We matured in the same camps. We’re both Meteor Dwarves. Family enough.”
“I don’t know what a Meteor Dwarf is and how do I know you are who you say you are?”
“Alison will vouch for me and I'm an imperial officer. My colleagues can vouch for me.”
“And? I’m no imperial. I’m sorry but I can’t give out charity right now.”
“Not charity, investment. I'm looking to set up a business and I'm looking for investors.”
Investor was quite often another word for sucker.“And you need money?”
“You clearly have it, after your encounter with the original leaders of this group. You're pretty adamant that they gave you everything. You have the services of a high level guide. I just want my sister's things.”
“Pretty sure you weren’t her brother and how do you know my tutor is high level?”
“I couldn't analyze him.”
“Analyze?”
“The skill… analyze.”
“Oooh analyze,” Six said as if he knew what Gatbark meant. He did have an inkling of a trope. He assumed it was the other half of inspect, an inspect for living targets.
“So, it's pretty clear you got money.”
“I really don't.”
“Any investment would help… and my brother’s stuff.”
“What are you planning on doing?”
“Manufacturing and selling.”
“That's pretty broad.”
“Gonna start small with a general smithy and some house construction, expand from there. See what happens.”
“That's not a bad plan, probably really useful.”
“You bet yer damn ass it is.”
“Still, I’m going to hold off on a decision right now. Opening like you did really threw me off.”
“I understand, I understand. Offer is always open. Money to be made.”
Six nodded “Take er easy Gatbark.” He waved and Gatbark waved goodbye back. What an abrasive man.
Six went and crawled into his tent. He wanted to go practice the spells he learned but he needed privacy… or a license but that wasn't happening. Rolling over and listening to the snores and murmurs of the settlers he tried to fall asleep. His attempt lasted but moments before his feet were kicked.
Damn, he lost a point of health.
“What the fuck,” Six said sliding out of his tent.
Denny stood there, arms crossed, he laughed and smiled good naturedly. “Make yourself useful and go keep watch for a few hours, then go to bed.”
“Yes, that makes sense. Thank you, Denny. This is why I pay you the big bucks.”
“Shouldn’t say that so loud,” he grunted. “These people are desperate.”
Six went and patrolled the perimeter of the camp, seeing a few figures doing the same thing. He ran into Alison who was also on patrol. His focus was outward though, into the darkness of the forest. He did this for what he thought felt like three hours before Denny relieved him and he finally slunk back to his tent to slide into bed. The restful embrace of darkness took him almost immediately.