This scouting mission threatened to be a huge one. It could take up to a year, depending on how I approached it. The overwhelming scope threatened to crush me but I tried to see it through the lens of opportunity. It could be either drudgery or an opportunity to have a lot of adventures.
As I passed through the heavy foot traffic going to and from the city, my mind went to the map. The first thing I needed to do was to decide what area I could scout in a single day. In a good road, in a straight line, over plain terrain, and my current Attributes, I could hike somewhere between forty and fifty kilometers a day. Half as much more if I used a forced march, less if there's bad terrain or I had to stop to check trails, signs of monster passage, and scout. Way less if I had to stop to fight, or if I had to detour around unexpected obstacles.
With that in mind, the area I could cover while scouting for threats was from twelve to fifteen square kilometers per day. That was considering I would scan a swath two hundred meters to each side and do not overlap that. Inside a forest, seeing that far would be impossible but these estimates weren't meant to be accurate. They should give me a basis to work out of. As the saying went, no plan survived the enemy, but without it you wouldn't either.
The whole trip would take over a hundred days, then. It wasn't guaranteed to find every single monster den in the area but again, that wasn't what the job was intended for. I believed now that Alice wanted me to know the lay of the land, to familiarize myself with the duchy, to visit the villages and hamlets and to get to know people. She should've known better. My father always said that hard work earned two rewards. Its own and more hard work.
If I had any previous doubts I was made to be outdoors, those doubts had completely vanished now. The openness of the field, the blue sky above me, the freedom of choosing where to go and what to do, the excitement of adventure and discovery, it all conspired to lift my spirit and soon I was trotting along the road. The eastbound one, out of three connecting the city to other fiefdoms. A chain of mountains to the west made foot travel impossible and nobody bothered building a road that way.
At least for a couple dozen kilometers out of the city, the road was wide, with several lanes of traffic. The slower lumbering wagons stayed on the edges, while the faster traffic occupied the center. On either horseback or on foot, fast Couriers or Runners dashed back and forth as a blur, carrying priority mail and deliveries. The pavement was magically and alchemically reinforced to endure such speeds.
Suspicious Merchants stared at me until they identified the Guild tabard I wore. Then, their expressions changed to one of respect. I shared a smile with them and went on my way, earning nods or tipped hats as I overtook their wagons and caravans.
The energy made me feel fantastic. The first hundred Attribute points doubled that particular ability and the difference was the starkest. I pulled my updated Status to check.
Soul Scout (rare) Level 6 Strength 62 Dexterity 43 Endurance 43 Intelligence 47 Wisdom 39 Clarity 10 Charisma 11 Health (HP) 60 Mana (MP) 19 Stamina (SP) 45
Scouting Rank 2 Reduce terrain penalties to movement by 10% per Rank. Increase the effects of Intelligence to find tracks by 10% per Rank. Perceptive Effects of Attributes on Perception increased by 50%. Scout’s Duty For every twenty levels of creatures killed based on intelligence you gathered, you gain 1 Attribute point randomly assigned to Dexterity, Endurance, or Wisdom. Your own kills do not count toward this Trait. This is a Parallel Progression. Wilderness Survivor When in any natural setting, your needs for sustenance are reduced by (25 + Endurance / 10)%, to a maximum of 95%.
My HP, MP, and SP were excellent for my level but my level was too low. The Horror bite I took in the Dungeon ate through my (smaller at the time) HP pool like it wasn't there. But let's imagine that the small HP at least prevented the wound from being worse than it was.
Digging through my internal menus, my Class granted me fifteen base resources per level, on grounds of being Rare. These points were split between 7 base HP, 3 base MP, and 5 base SP per level. Then the values were adjusted by my Attributes. These resources had the effect of having an almost quadratic growth rate, as both the base value and the Attribute modifier grew.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
I kept jogging down the road. My plan was to start at the nearest edge of my designed range, and then go in a spiral pattern, scouting out toward the twenty-kilometer limit. The reasoning was one borne of survival. The most dangerous monsters were further away from the city. Monsters didn't spawn near large agglomerations of sapient creatures, unless it was in the Labyrinthine Depths or in a Dungeon. When they did spawn, they were weaker the closer they were to a settlement. The Priests said it was a mercy from the Gods. Stronger monsters spawned in the wilderness, far away. Sometimes, when they made their way to the large population centers, the odds of finding someone increased with the proximity. A strong monster caused much more devastation than a weaker one and disrupted the delicate ecological balance of the wilderness. Because of that, they were spotted sooner than a weaker monster that could fly under the radar.
An hour later, I left the main road to take a side trail to the first settlement in my route. Whitemeadow was an idyllic community for retired Soldiers and City Guards who didn't want to deal with the chaos and hubbub of the metropolis. I wasn't expecting to find anything worth reporting there. The retired warriors were all high leveled for such communities and would deal with such threats.
Once I was a far distance down the trail, I felt a sudden rush of energy. The sensation was so strange that I had to slow down. I was full of energy, even though I had spent two hours running and jogging already. My head felt light and my mood, giddy. I feared it was some sort of airborne poison. I held my breath and produced a handkerchief doused in a neutralizing agent for most generic poisons. After moistening the powder with my own spit, I pressed it against my nose and mouth, forcing the air I breathed to go through the fabric. The powder tickled my nose and cost around five silvers, but it was better than dying.
I moved off the trail and scanned my surroundings. Dropping to a crouch, I breathed slowly and moved even slower, trying to keep my heart rate down. I frog-walked to a nearby grass patch and waited. If someone had been alerted by me triggering this attack, they would soon come to see if the trap caught someone. Since I was still conscious, it was either a weak toxin meant for...
The ridicule of my rationalizations was too much. Weak people? Unclassed? Why would bandits waste such a valuable poison to capture people who had little money and no means to defend themselves?
No. The explanation must be something else. As I waited and pondered, I felt the rush of energy abate and then vanish. I was in full control of my faculties and my body, a fact I confirmed by exerting each muscle in my body in order. Toes, calf, knee, thighs, and so on. I kept breathing slowly and...
I wasn't feeling any ill effects of breathing in so little air. I removed the handkerchief and stowed it back in its pouch. It needed to be washed and dried before another dose of the neutralizing agent could be applied to it.
As a test, I drew in a big lungful of air. Then another. I felt nothing odd for the first few times, and then the rush of energy came back. Examining it, I felt like I was hyperventilating. And that was the first clue to solve this mystery. The second was my own status.
The Perk Wilderness Survivor reduced my needs for sustenance by 29.4% at my current level. That probably included oxygen as well as food and water. With my needs reduced to roughly seventy percent, a full lung of air now provided almost half as much oxygen as my body needed after accounting for the Perk.
I sat on the grass and laughed. The excess oxygen wouldn't cause any ill effects but the funny ones remained. I had to account for this Perk whenever I was in a natural setting. I had to reduce my rations by the same amount, to keep from fattening myself. I also should control my breathing to make sure I wouldn't hyperventilate.
But it was a big benefit. One of the minor issues with prolonged fighting was that one would run out of breath but I had a boost in breathing efficiency in a natural setting. And this Perk would probably let me stay underwater and hold my breath for longer. While Endurance by itself already had a minuscule effect on that, the Perk would become exponentially more useful as it reached the cap. After all, a 90% discount would increase my apnea time by a factor of ten. But a 95% discount increased this factor to twenty times.
I just had to remember to regulate my breathing to bring in what I needed, not all the air in the world.
*
*
Whitemeadow was a quaint, cozy, and beautiful community. It was a village by size but by wealth it could be almost a noble district. All the retirees were successful guards or soldiers during their active-duty life and now they had the money to spend on beautiful houses. They sported the latest architecture and even some enchantments for comfort and commodity. The elderly residents all had high levels and high physical Attributes. Even though their bodies were already in their twilight, they were still stronger than the regular bandit. One consequence was that crime in this village was close to zero.
I entered the village proper and felt my Perk deactivate. I moved back and forth a few times, committing the feeling to memory.
White picket fences sheltered flower gardens from passersby. Those colorful gardens were a balm to the senses. The smell of the flowers tickled the nose and calmed the heart. Some children ran and played on the cobblestones, unafraid of being trampled by a horse, oxen, or an Ocypus' serrated legs. The village felt like it was frozen in time, too lazy and unpreoccupied to rush for anything. A newcomer, thus, was like a pebble striking the surface of a still lake. It sent ripples through the community, drawing attention to me.
A group of children who were playing Knights and Bandits with wooden swords ran toward me.
"Halt, intruder! Identify yourself," A seven-year-old kid demanded with a squeaky voice.
"Hey, are you an Archer?" Another one had his eyes glued to my quiver.
"Are you with the military?" A fierce girl with a tiny sword in one hand and a lot of bruises on her left forearm from blocking swings of her playmates asked.
"I'm with the Adventurer's Guild," I replied, pointing at my badge and tabard emblem.
"Whoa!" Some kids reacted with shock.
"Is there a dangerous monster nearby?" The second kid asked. "Are you going to slay—"
"Don't be silly," the first one cut in. "My dad would slay any monster that dared approach our village!"
"Even a dragon?" A third boy challenged.
"Now, now. Don't tease your friends," I intervened before a fight could break out. Not that they weren't bashing each other with the wooden swords already.
Koiphyvvian people were sturdier than the eye could see. Even before the System became part of one's life and granted those ten points to all Attributes. The toddlers had to develop enough muscle to deal with the planet's gravity before they could walk. The world's magic infused each being and granted subconscious body strengthening. I once heard a venerable wizard say that in other worlds, people could jump really high and even vault over houses. Off-worlders who fell on our planet needed a period of adaptation before the body strengthening kicked in and allowed them to function.
"You still haven't stated your business!" The imperious boy demanded again.
"I am visiting my great-grand-aunt," I said. "Do you know of Major Isolde?"
"UH!" Some gasped.
"You're the Major great-grand-nephew?" The fierce girl asked.
"That's correct. Do you know where she lives?" The girl answered my question with a nod. "Lead the way."
Isolde, a military major in the city army, was my only surviving relative now. She was a two-hundred-year-old human, kept alive by her massive Endurance score. And it fell on me to tell her of my father's death.