CHAPTER 181

Once more, Tom was woken by someone shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes, expecting to see Keikain’s rough visage. Instead, it was Everlyn with a warm but uncertain smile.

He looked up groggily.

“Porridge?”

She handed him a plate filled with a chunky gruel that steamed slightly. It smelt divine, salty, meaty along with the hint of strong herbs. Rosemary perhaps. Physically, it was, well, calling it porridge was stretching the bounds of the words’ meaning. With an internal shrug, he dug his fork in and there was only a small amount of actual grain included. Barely enough to keep the pieces of meat together. He took a bite. “Stew?”

“Breakfast stew.” Everlyn agreed with the humour leaving her. “It’s what I called it too… The chef,” she lowered her voice. “Insisted otherwise.” She shot Keikain a look of distaste.

“You need to let it go, Evie.”

“It pisses me off how he’s trying to ingrain himself with us.”

“It’s better than him doing nothing.”

“And letting him do the cooking?” she shuddered. “They’re murderers. They’ve already poisoned the food once to send everyone to sleep.”

“The contract protects us.”

Everlyn shook her head. “There are always loopholes.”

“Not magical contracts. Especially ones that function off intent.”

She did not look convinced. “But I have it under control.” She drew up her sleeve to show a bracelet.

Tainted Food Detector.

This device can identify if a meal will have a harmful effect. Works up to and including Tier 4 poisons and enchantments.

Useable twice per day.

“That’s,” he started to argue and then stopped himself. He had been intending to launch into a lecture about proprietary and trust and then realised the stupidity of the position. They hadn’t earned any of that. If only his head wasn’t already fuzzy.

With a thought, he used Caffeine Jolt.

Everlyn had no reason to trust them. Even he who had seen both Keikain’s and Sven’s mindset was only confident they wouldn’t be betrayed based on the contract they had all agreed to. “Probably sensible.”

“It is… and don’t tell anyone but I’m pretty sure Rahmat and Harry have similar solutions. They both seem to pray before eating.” She winked. “Rahmat may be religious but… He seems extra devoted recently.”

“Good.” Tom glanced over to where Keikain was cleaning his cooking gear. His brain had clearly been scrambled for the last few days. They should never have allowed one of the murderers to take over the food supply.

With the caffeine flowing through his system and no forced True Dreaming event last night, his mind felt clearer than it had been recently. He was too willing to trust; he decided. It was a character flaw that extended to other people, skills and spells and even stuff he knew he might make mistakes in like creating a watertight contract. Curiously, he felt out the contract they had signed and focused on the clauses for the killers. The primary clause was a binding not to hurt another. It was absolute in its intent and include direct or indirect harm. There were additional provisos built into the structure. One that specified that they couldn’t use detrimental spells another halted physical blows, even those in self-defence were blocked unless an impartial old world jury would find that the other person was attacking them beyond reasonable doubt. Then and only then could they respond and were still restricted to using reasonable force. Killing the other was never reasonable on the first attempt.

The structures in place seemed solid.

Food Poisoning, he pondered that possibility and checked the clauses. He couldn’t see anyway that it could be slipped through. He looked back up at Everlyn apologetically and knew he had to say something. “You’re right. I didn’t even think… I’ve been out of it.”

“I know,” she agreed gently.

He ate another forkful. The breakfast stew tasted absolutely amazing. “Naming conventions aside, he knows what he is doing.”

Everlyn chuckled. “I don’t believe he is actually good, but he is definitely industrious and that along with attention to detail can compensate for talent. But he’s relying on his inputs rather than his abilities and he is running out of higher tier ingredients. Only the physically weak are getting the buffs today.”

“What are they eating?”

“Much the same as us from looks and smell. I think they’ve got different grains and meats. It’s also ten times longer to make the special stuff.”

Tom grunted at that. It was sort of interesting, but he didn’t really care and had no genuine desire to become a chef. Then a thought occurred to him. “When do we head out?”

She rolled her eyes. “As per tradition, when you’re finished.”

“I’m like the kid who sleeps in and then takes ages to put his socks and shoes on aren’t I?”

She laughed, and for the first time that morning the skittishness and uncertainty had faded away from her eyes. “You’re the problem kid, are you?”

“Yep.” Tom said, pretending to be proud.

She ruffled his hair gently. “You’re not Tom. This won’t make you a burden, and we’ll give you the extra sleep if you need it.”

“Thanks. There’s something about True Dreaming that makes me struggle.”

“Everyone’s noticed. But no one wants you to stop. I think everyone understands how important that skill is. Especially if running into the dragon is inevitable.”

“I know. I just wish I could use it more often. Every night is too much. Maybe once I get a few levels in the skills Michael recommended I’ll get there. But for now. I can’t do it. There’s so much I need to find out. More about the dragon, whether there are going to be allies in the tutorial we can recruit.” He shrugged. “I might discover nothing useful, but I want to try.”

“It’s all sensible. But Tom… Don’t over do it. We require you to be you. I need you to be you.”

Tom grunted in response and then kept scooping the food into his mouth. Keikain had successfully installed into all of them the urgency of their travel.

They set off right at the point of dawn.

It was too early.

Their progress was slow, too non-existent, and he was sure they were going to rouse the local wildlife.

“Stop looking so tense.” Everlyn ordered next to him. “Jingyi will signal if there’s anything for us to worry about, and then we’ll bunker down until it’s safe.”

She was staying close.

It was a break from the usual pattern where both Jingyi and her ranged further out to guide them around the larger threats. The current lighting being barely enough to see things had changed the approach. Everlyn had to be there to let them avoid ambushes that later in the day they could spot themselves.

The precaution was proved unnecessary, and nothing attacked them. The sun rose fully and they could move silently once more. The landscape evened out somewhat and without the broken ground their progress sped up. Tom was conscious of his dream the previous night and tried to get close to Sven, but the other man avoided the attempts.

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A shrill whistle cut through the low-level noise of the whipping mountain breeze.

They all responded with the deadly competency of survivors of thousands of battles. They might be individuals, and not used to a scout providing the warning signal on their behalf, but they still all reacted instantly. The formation that had descended into friends walking with friends broke apart as healers and the squishier mage types went centrally while Tom, Sven and Thor spread out to meet whatever threat the scouts had identified.

“Right over there.” Michael said, grimly. Tom glanced quickly and saw that he was pointing at the slope of the small but steep hill. They had become a feature of the landscape. A terrain aspect which was alien to Earth sensibilities because geography, erosion, tectonic forces or biology were incapable of producing those shapes, but there was nothing surprising about them after the tutorial. Existentia was different because it drew from who knew how many universes. The ‘hills’ if that was what they were, filled the area. There was as much flat land as there were hills, so it was simple to avoid the strange protrusions which were closer to a cone like a pyramid than a natural formation. A hundred metres high and a similar distance wide. If they were more closely packed, the valleys between the sides would have been a pain to navigate, but spread out as they were there was plenty of non-hilly ground to plot their course through.

Tom’s eyes went up the slope and spotted what the healer had identified. The monsters had just appeared over and around the point of the hill. They ignored the steepness and snatched bites of the green, purple grass as they moved. He studied them. Physically, they were small creatures that would almost come up to his waist, maybe a little lower, like the top of his thigh. The size of a large but not giant dog.

They had what Tom had termed the conjoined twin body shape. They were symmetrical, with two heads and no clear back or front sides. This version had four legs, a face on either side of the main body, and then a prehensile monkey tail coming out from the other two ends. Compared to a terrestrial earth animal like a cow, the head was replaced with a tail and the face had moved to be in the centre of each side where the rib cage was. Basically, if you looked at them from directly in front or behind, you would think you were staring at the back end of a normal-looking goat like creature with a weird tail. When you studied them from alternative angles, you would see the head in the middle of the legs and maybe imagine you were fighting some sort of crab or spider with fur. That was, until you saw the other side and understood the weirdness.

Tom was privately thankful for the tutorial. The first time he had seen this body type he had frozen up.

“Goats.” Everlyn’s voice came clear to them through her party communication skill. “Well, if you squint… a form of them, anyway. There’s no running. Jingyi and I are in position for ranged support. They are ranked twelve, but there’s about a hundred of them and potentially more…”

“Not important.” Jingyi interrupted.

“True. As I was saying, when they fight, they’ll try to hit you with their hooves or entangle you with their tails and then, if they see an opportunity, they will try to bite a chunk out of you. In some ways they’re sort of like piranhas so be careful. They are not beyond launching almost suicidal attacks if they think they can get a piece of you.”

“We hear you Everlyn.” Michael said.

Tom was already moving to take point in front of the others. Mentally, he was debating whether to use his meteorites, but the goat herd had taken the option from him by closing the distance so that they were no longer in optimal range. It was one of the primary weaknesses of the spell that he could only effectively use them if the target was at least a hundred and preferably two hundred metres away. “Any vulnerabilities?”

“No! I would have said it at the start if there were.”

“Sorry. I know you would have. I was just making sure.”

“I know. Better to be safe than sorry.” They could almost hear the eye roll that went with the snapped response.

Two rocks settled in his hands and he started making a Lightning Ball with a focus on it, delivering more electricity damage than physical. With this many creatures swarming, Tom knew it was better to delay a large group instead of eliminating a couple of them. The risk of being overwhelmed in the first few moments was a genuine concern.

“Sven and Thor defend the others.” Tom ordered even as he jogged forward to get space between him and the rapidly approaching herd. They were not charging yet, but they were still eating up the distance separating the two groups.

They would however charge. Tom had seen enough of these types of monsters to see that type of response would occur. While he was not a group tactician, it was pretty clear he would be best served breaking the herd of monsters when they rushed the team. With his tier five dodge skill, it was unlikely creatures of the same rank as him could touch him, even if they came with overwhelming numbers.

Hurt him badly, he corrected in his mind when he remembered the provisions around the Black Dodge’ inherited restrictions. He was definitely getting bruises out of the coming confrontation.

The herd milled forward, moving in a chaotic manner with almost as many goats facing away from them as towards and then one of the leading goats spotted them.

It hesitated, bleated…

Then it was like that transformed the entire herd. Every single goat orientated to face their way and then they as one stampeded toward them. Tom glanced back to find that he was thirty-five metres clear of the others. The goats were almost closer to him than his allies.

Companions who would weather the storm, Tom decided after a single glance. Keikain had already built defensive walls. It was the correct tactical choice and if Tom hadn’t possessed his powerful dodge skill; it was what he would have done himself. Find shelter if it was nearby, otherwise create it fresh.

While the deadliness of the herd had not changed at all, it had also been almost fully mitigated. The goats, from what he could see and reading between the lines of Everlyn’s assessment lacked the individual lethality of many of the monsters in Existentia. They were a swarming threat and provided you did not get overwhelmed by their numbers they should be easy enough to wipe out.

The structure might be normal stone, but with an Earth mage supporting it, Tom doubted the goats could break through it and if they couldn’t attack from all sides eventually, they would be ground away to nothing. His approach was more primal. He would engage the swarm head on and destroy it. More risky, but substantially faster.

Tom reached the spot he had picked for his stand. It was an area of flat stone with regular up thrusts of rocks spread every couple of metres. Theoretically, it was almost perfect for him. There was space to dodge, including opportunities to flip near one of the rocks and then kick off it without his feet having to actually touch the ground. That would provide an extra degree of freedom in movement and reduce his chance of being defeated even more.

He waited only an instant and then they were less than forty metres from him. His mind quickly calculated angles and likely outcomes. The monsters were moving too quickly and the way they moved across the landscape demonstrated their extraordinary agility. Aiming the rocks was pointless as they would dodge them. He passively searched for a different option and then twinged on an idea. They were moving like water in a fast-moving, shallow, rocky stream which resulted in the water splitting around the stones. The terrain funnelled them as they avoided unseen hazards. There were spots free of goats and others where they ran shoulder to shoulder packed like sardines. At the base of the hill, they came together in a thick mass and then were jumping over some sort of crack in the landscape.

Throw Rock.

The magical enhanced throw was on the way before his mind even fully processed the why and the second rock coming up to his ear to follow it.

The first rock smashed into the massed goats. It was almost impossible to miss, and it splattered into a goat with an ever so satisfying thud and the spray of a thick, orange mucus that had to be their version of blood.

Throw Rock.

Tom frowned. The goats had to possess some type of hive mind communication because less than half a second after the first rock hit. The pattern of movement changed. That laziness that had caused them to clump up in spots vanished.

They spread out.

Jumps stopped being purely functional as some goats leapt artificially high in the air like you would do to avoid a ranged attack. Some galloped higher than usual, others moved artificially low to the ground and his rock instead of pulverizing a head deflected off the top of a goat’s head that was lower than any heads had been a few moments before. It continued on and thumped into another, but once more it was not a direct hit and some of the speed had already been lost in the first deflection.

There was no spray of orange.

Both goats fell and there was a moment of chaos as they tripped their neighbours and others landed on top of the sudden pile. Five more of them went down, but none permanently and none for more than an instant. Compared to his hopes it was a failure.

With a sigh. He abandoned his rocks. If the missiles weren’t going to get clean kills, then they weren’t mana effective. The monsters kept coming and were twenty metres away from him and bunched together to his right.

Once more battle trance had him acting without conscious control. His pre-prepared Lightning Ball was shooting at the choke point before the opportunity had fully registered. It exploded right above the mass of goats. The sparks of electricity arcing out to hit dozens of the monsters.

They spasmed and fell, and the entire line collapsed. Tom then had no more time for strategic thought.

With his spear in his hand, he braced to meet the charge.

Arrows flew.

Everlyn from the side and Jingyi almost from behind the goat pack. He had probably been trailing them and only raised the alarm when it became a hundred percent clear they weren’t going to deviate away from the collision cause.

The first goat didn’t bother with anything fancy. It was running straight at him. It had bulged one of its eyes on either side out to allow it to see in front of itself and it launched itself at him with a tail leading coiling like a whip.

Tom shifted to the side.

Fate was created around him, and he poked with his spear. There was no massive thrust or glowing power infused strike to ensure penetration just a quick slash. This was a fight of speed and dexterity and he couldn’t afford his weapon to get caught even if he did have a replacement one. His spear tip cut a shallow gash on the creature’s leg.

Another hundred such strikes and it would be dead, he thought ruefully. But until he had a better understanding of the enemy’s anatomy and range of movement, he would not risk losing his spear. Plus, the longer it went the more fate would bend the entire battlefield in his favour.

Everything was slowed for him. Multiple goats were about to leap on top of him. The flanks were bending around to attack him from the side and his mind flicked through strategies. What to do? How much fate to invest? He needed more information. The critical question was whether this species’ fate would be primarily directed to offensive or defensive purposes because the answer to that would shape how the long the fight was going to last and whether he would need his own fate to survive it.