CHAPTER 167

The landscape was exactly the same as it had been for the last couple of weeks. They still needed to watch their feet and step over the regular irregular gaps between the boulders that made up the ground. Despite that hassle, they could make quick progress courtesy of the way being mostly flat and clogged up with vegetation.

Yet for Tom and he presumed for all of them it felt quite different from every other piece of exploration that he had done.

All the stress that had been created the night Jeffrey died was behind them.

He had found out the names of the killers and now they walked beside him, bound to his cause.

It was more than a little surreal.

Today his journey in Existentia started for real. Everything preceding was just the prelude, an opportunity to extend the tutorial for a month longer, to regather some of the strength that they had lost when they were reborn to this new challenge. To remind themselves of what it felt like to be nothing in the greater scheme of things.

Another might have looked at his advances and patted themselves on the back. Tom didn’t. The counterpoint to that sort of arrogance was Mus or the trolls. There were people and monsters out there whose power was absolute relative to his current levels. Monsters who did not need to worry about strategy or how their vulnerabilities lined up with Tom’s strengths. Creatures who were so far beyond him that all he could do was to pray they did not notice him.

Their formation for the journey was practical.

Until Everlyn caught up, it was a simple setup. Jingyi was a hundred metres ahead of them, staying mostly within view. Once Everlyn joined him, they would have extra scout coverage and they expected to only see the scouts when there was an issue.

Despite them all being experienced solo survivalists, they did not take chances. They organised under the assumption that they would be ambushed, even if they didn’t know from which direction. Tom, as their strongest melee fighter was out in front. Sven, the second best melee fighter, had the rear-guard position to see off threats from behind, and then Rahmat and Thor protected each of the flanks.

The squishy healers, Toni, Keikain, and Harry were then pushed into the centre.

There were eleven of them, which was right at the point where their numbers would become detrimental to his quest. Why the oracle questions had determined that was something Tom didn’t understand. Against the enemies they were facing, the trolls or the wolf men, then as far as he was concerned extra fighters would make their task more achievable.

It was near noon, and Tom was happy with the pace they were setting. They were not travelling as quickly as Tom would have managed with just him and Everlyn, but not that much slower. Keikain was continually encouraging everyone to go faster. He was relentless in both his encouragement and his complaints when they slowed. None of the land they were moving through was new. Their hunting teams and scouts had explored a full half a day in every direction, so their only issue was the occasional emergence of the local wildlife. Monsters they had fought before and with the luxury of knowing their strengths and weaknesses. They were ridiculously easy to eliminate.

A giant lizard found them.

Tom tanked the charge. Rahmat destroyed both eyes with spear throws as it stumbled backwards from its collision with an immovable Tom. Sven acted as bait and when it tried to pounce to kill him, it impaled itself on one of Keikain’s earth spikes and that was it.

The monster died.

Without bothering to spend the time to process it, they jogged off once more.

Two hours before sunset, Everlyn caught back up to them right as they entered virgin territory. Humans hadn’t explored this far yet. Not that anything changed. The rocks were the same rocks they had been all along and the same crevices for them to jump across. Even an abrupt attack by a medium pack of ferrets did not trouble them. This time Tom’s and everyone else’s rank was higher and the ferrets even with a three to one advantage were easily taken care of. The group struck them in waves and they knew to target the weak spot on the top of their necks, which let the fight proceed far quicker than previously.

Just before dark, Jingyi returned to guide them to a small cave that he discovered.

“We’re staying here tonight.” The scout told them.

“It’s safe?”

“Yes Tom. It’s a surface cave and nothing is in it.”

Without hesitation, he hurried toward the cave to verify.

“But sure Tom, don’t trust the scout specced to find shelter for the night. Go right ahead and double check.”

He paused embarrassed. There were chuckles. He was torn with indecision. Part of him recognised that his instinct and need to check for himself was ridiculous. The other…

Tom moved quickly into the cave. Keikain amusingly enough was right on his heels. They grinned at each other when they both realised they were behaving like paranoid children.

That knowledge didn’t stop either of them from walking the cave and confirming that there was nothing hidden in the walls. Tom’s Earth Manipulation letting him sink his mind into the rock and triple check it was solid. He imagined Keikain was doing the same. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Jingyi, but there were various illusion spells and even monsters who could evade a scout’s senses. But they wouldn’t be sophisticated enough to look like rock to his Manipulation ability.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Satisfied, he left the cave, and the others had gathered out the front.

“Will it be safe to light a fire?” Michael asked flatly.

Jingyi nodded. “If the wood’s not green and it’s near the entrance, it’ll be fine.” The scout looked up at the sky. It was deep dusk, and it was already getting close to becoming dangerous to send a group to gather resources. “But you’ll need to hurry.”

“We can get sufficient wood from there.” Michael instructed nodding at a small grove less than fifty metres away.

“You should have gathered it while we moved.” Jingyi complained.

“We will, going forward.” Michael promised. “Plus, eleven of us here will make us a lot more visible than we’re used to, and those trees look like they could be converted to spears.”

“I get it.” Jingyi interrupted. “But in the future, we gather materials during the day. Now move. We want everyone inside by full dark.”

They looked at each other, and they knew Jingyi was right. Besides Tom’s spatial space, Clare possessed a reasonably sized functioning spatial ring and Thor a bulky back pack that did nothing for weight reduction but let him store a couple of wardrobes worth of space which could be packed with dry wood.

The primary melee fighters, including Tom, were sent out to gather what they could. They targeted the nearby grove. When they got closer, the trees looked like bamboo. There were hundreds of straight stalks that went four metres into the air. Yet, despite their appearance they were wood. And Sven, with a grimace used his sword to make quick work of them.

Two minutes of cutting left them with a pile of wooden shafts that were almost chest high. While Sven worked, Tom slipped through the dense trunks and sucked the limited amount of dead wood into his inventory. There was less than he hoped, but it should be sufficient to light the fire, at least to cook the evening and morning meals.

After packing Thor’s backpack with the green wood Sven had chopped, they returned to the cave.

Tom had been expecting it and sure enough the area immediately outside the cave had been transformed. The entrance had been about the size of a double doorway. Keikain had worked his magic to reduce that size to where Thor could slip comfortably through it, but anything larger would struggle. It was now a tight choke point that they could use to hold off a superior force. In addition, a deep pit had been built as an extra layer of defence. Given its impressive depth, Tom was sure Keikain had collapsed an existing tunnel or an underground room.

Tom assessed the distance and took a running jump across.

Michael steadied him when he landed on the two metre wide strip Keikain had left directly in front of the cave.

Once Rahmat, Thor and Sven had crossed the pit, they opened the backpack and started pulling out the spikes that were stored in there. Immediately, they started sharpening the edges.

“I assume these are for the pit?” Sven asked.

Tom glanced down and frowned. It was only a two metre drop, and he was not sure the wooden stakes would do much against the likely monsters in the area that would fall in.

Keikain waved his hands furiously. “No, no. I was thinking a spike thicket on this side of the pit to stop anything jumping across.”

Tom missed the rest of the conversation as he dropped the firewood off inside. When he returned, Keikain had won his argument. The group of them worked together. Thor, Sven and Rahmat sharpening the spikes and then handed them to Tom who would press it into the stone till it sunk a hand span in and then he would harden the rock around the base. By the time the stakes ran out, the barrier they had created looked nasty. It was a thicket of thorns radiating out from the cave mouth.

They wouldn’t survive long against one of the giant lizards, but it would stop the creatures in the danger zone for them. Anything ranging from dog sized to human would now struggle to get across to assault the cave entrance, and that was the size of monsters that had the potential to overwhelm them via the entranceway choke hold.

Curiously, he walked forward and checked on the pit and was impressed. Keikain had deepened the pit by another half a metre and also shaped a series of earthen spikes down below. They were only foot long spike but appeared to be super sharp. The memory of one of Keikain’s spikes piercing the giant lizard was still vivid. The ones below would be razor sharp and if he fell on them, Tom suspected the spikes would go through his skin and armour, excluding his pants like they weren’t there.

With the frontal defences installed, they retreated into the cave to the smell of roasting meat. The cave felt homely. There was more than enough space to spread out, but not so much as your mind would imagine eyes forming in the distant shadows.

“Two sentries at night.” Michael declared. “One at the entrance and the other watching the interior of the cave. Both positions need to switch every ten minutes with the exterior watch being maintained continuously. There are eleven of us. Tom’s excluded from those duties, so each of us gets a one and a half hour shift.”

“Why isn’t he included?” Harry protested instinctively.

“Because I’ve been speaking with Everlyn and his True Dreaming skill is brutal. It wakes him up multiple times per night and leaves him exhausted in the morning. He needs his rest because we need him to keep actively using it.”

Harry looked confused. “Is there something I don’t know? Actively use?”

Michael hesitated and glanced at Tom imploringly.

“The Skill lets me query specific aspects. It’s how I found out about the bloodlines. It also comes with a more traditional oracle function. One I can’t control.”

Sven chortled. “One of the ones that presents useless information that only makes sense after the fact?”

Tom smiled at that. “So far it’s assisted more than that. It identified Mus ahead of time and helped us deal with him. But more recently, it triggered on an enemy. One we can’t beat, so I need to use True Dreaming actively to find out its weaknesses.”

“An enemy?” Harry asked cautiously.

“If I’ve dreamt of it, then it means I’m likely to meet it in the future. Therefore, it’s vital that I uncover its weakness before then.”

They settled down for dinner. Michael made a point of sitting next to him. “From what Everlyn’s saying the impact of the dreams is severe.”

“Yes. But I’ll cope.”

“She also said it’s important that you use the dream each night, but if you’re too exhausted.”

“I said I’ll cope. I don’t need that much sleep, anyway.”

They ate in silence for a while.

“There are skills you could use to help.”

“Of course there are.”

“I’m serious. I researched them earlier.”

“Sorry Michael,” Tom interrupted. “I haven’t determined my Skill strategy. Till I do… I’m not spending a thing.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why wait?”

“Flexibility mainly.” Tom hesitated and then decided that everyone around him was on his team and there were no real secrets. “Also, evolutions.”

Michael quirked an eyebrow at that.

“I got a title that makes them much more likely. I don’t know whether to buy high tier skills and focus on evolving them or to do a similar process with lower tier ones. Then I have the evolution potions to think about. It’s tricky.”

“Your rank hasn’t improved since the wyvern. Are you holding off upgrading your levels for any reason?”

Tom yawned, exhausted. “As I said flexibility. For now, I want to keep the full amount, just in case. If the zone rank increases from fourteen I’ll upgrade then.”

“You look ready to crash.”

“I am.”

“Well, finish your food and I’ll research skills and brief you when you’re ready to spend your experience.”

Tom tiredly kept eating and even though everyone else was still wide awake, he lay down to sleep. He wondered what he should direct his skill at. The powerful creature? Maybe? But he sorted of wanted to know more about that trial. There might be allies to think about or enemies or even rules he needed to be more aware of.

Dreams claimed him and a short time later it shifted in a familiar way. Tom was instantly alert once more.