The rest of the night passed quickly. Luna had a lot to think about, last day's events only added to a long list. When the sun had risen over the horizon Luna left her perch and hopped back down. For once Evelyn was not yet up and Luna got busy collecting some sticks to get the fire going again.
She then rummaged through her backpack and started snacking on an apple, waiting for her companions to wake up. It wasn’t long until they both woke and they were eating breakfast together.
Their plan for today was to follow the coast. According to Luna’s map, it would take them at least three days before they reached the valley north of the hill chain and they had to be careful since they had no idea if there were other monsters nearby. Luna realized that she could not even go and hunt in the evening, neither Evelyn nor Fiona had a Skill to see in the dark, and leaving them alone in an unsafe location, which was everywhere, was not going to work.
Luna had once again forgotten about Evelyn’s wondrous Inventory. Luna could just hunt whenever there was a chance and then Evelyn would store the carcass. Depending on the size of the animal that would normally be impossible, the weight too much to carry all day. Luna would have to get used to the possibilities the Inventory opened up, while they were traveling together.
After breakfast, they packed up and got on the way. After a few hours of travel, the cliff towards the ocean had started to flatten out and they could use the smooth surface to travel a lot quicker than through the over knee-high grass. All kinds of birds were nesting on the cliff face and Luna got sick of their noise rather quickly. Towards evening the ground got rougher and they had to turn inland for a while to go around.
Over the day they talked about different things and Luna had told them about her childhood in Creek Springs and joining the Pathfinder Guild. She left out the parts about Everwood or her race. Nobody on this continent knew about that and she wanted to keep it that way. This time they set up camp between some trees, between them was the only ground not covered by grass and therefore usable for a fire.
Luna was treated to another very tasty dinner and wondered about the Skill that went into the dish. “Aren’t you both Alchemists? How can you cook this well?” She asked while slowly blowing on a spoonful of rice with vegetables and meat.
Evelyn grinned. “Ha. Yes, we both are alchemists. But we both have a very high Skill in cooking and if you have an Alchemy Class, high Cooking Skill, and complete an achievement, you get the option to upgrade to a Tier 2 Class, the Culinary Alchemist. We combine Alchemy and Cooking. Isn’t it brilliant?”
Luna looked at her unbelieving. “So when you said that you wanted to study your alchemy in peace, you were talking about standing in a kitchen and working on recipes?”
Fiona quickly corrected Luna’s expectation of what the class did. “It is not just a class like Cook. You still stay an alchemist and you learn to extract tastes and combine them, like brewing a potion. Which we can still do by the way. The recipe you are now eating took me 3 months of work until I was satisfied with the result.”
“So why the ice magic?”
Fiona grinned. “So that I can make ice dessert of course.”
Luna rubbed her eyes. Those two were crazy. Culinary Alchemist, what kind of Class was that? She finished her food in silence and just before she flopped down on her bedroll she remembered that she had recently leveled up and gained a new Skill. She quickly explained what Safe Haven did and activated it. In her vision, a small pulse of blue light went out around them and lingered in a radius of roughly five meters around them. Both Evelyn and Fiona had looked on curiously and walked the perimeter trying to figure out what the mana lingering there did. Evelyn even checked it from the outside and could not detect the mana signature after she left the effect.
In the end, they decided to trust the Skill and not set a night watch. Luna had barely laid down when she was fast asleep, dreaming of manic mages working in kitchens.
Luna woke up completely refreshed when the sun was already up. Catching up on the lost sleep had led to her sleeping in, but nobody complained. Over breakfast, Luna requested access to her trunk and she watched fascinated as Evelyn held out her hand and the trunk simply appeared on the ground. She rummaged through the contents until she found the four books on dungeons.
She held them up and asked if Fiona would like to read the introduction later and gave her the book when she confirmed it. Evelyn browsed through the contents and commented on the good quality of the books, then made the trunk disappear again and Luna stuffed the books in her backpack. Whenever they would stop during the day she would pull out a book and start reading. At some point, Evelyn had requested a book as well and they exchanged little tidbits of information about how the authors thought dungeons worked.
They settled into a comfortable routine. During daylight they would walk further north and when the sun started to set they would start looking for a good place to rest for the night. With each day they slowed down further, as the urgency to leave behind the human settlement evaporated. Luna commented on it during one of their stops and both Evelyn and Fiona agreed that there was no point to hurry without a clear destination.
The slowed pace allowed them to finish their respective books and they had learned quite a bit of new information. Normally only monster corpses would disappear inside a dungeon and loot would only drop from the same dungeon monsters. This begged the question of why the human corpses had disappeared and none of the books mentioned the phenomenon.
Luna thought that it might have something to do with Nature's Bounty, but could not mention the theory without having to explain the Skill itself, which would cause all kinds of trouble. The description was too fitting. The corpses had dissolved and had been quite literally fed back to the land. Was this Skill supposed to work inside of dungeons? Why did the corpses of the bandits she killed with Joan not disappear? Luna could not wrap her head around it. It felt like she was missing a massive amount of context and basic knowledge that should go along with what she had learned.
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Compared to her time with Joan hunting the bandits the trip was luxurious. They set up a fire every night, had warm food, even if Luna did not manage to hunt fresh food. Evelyn had assured her that the Inventory Skill had very real limitations on how much she could store, but they were not going to run out of food for a while yet. Luna had started gathering fruits and wild vegetables over the day and in the evening Evelyn stored them for later.
In the end, it took them nearly ten days to reach the river valley. When it had become apparent that they were getting closer, Luna had led them further inland. After checking her map she was sure that there was no forest on the north side of the hill chain and they should get a good look at the valley. Then, without any warning, they climbed over a small outcropping and the valley opened up before them.
Just as Luna had remembered the hillside was rocky and only grass and a few bushes were growing up to the river edge. Nothing stood out at first glance and they decided to get down into the valley and then travel upriver. The sparse vegetation on their side of the river made it ideal to travel, even if the small stretch of gravel beach turned out to be very uncomfortable to walk on.
That night, while Luna was gutting a rabbit she hunted earlier, both Evelyn and Fiona suddenly jumped up and looked north towards the forest, which was only barely visible in the twilight before night truly fell. Luna had not seen or heard anything and saw no reason why both of them reacted in this way.
“What is it?” Luna asked them while cutting up the rabbit into nice pieces of meat for their dinner.
After a few seconds, Fiona turned around and sat down next to Luna. “Something big is over there in the forest. At least big enough that we could feel the Mana from quite a distance. I’ve never felt anything like it.”
“So you have no idea what it might be?” Luna inquired, but already expected the headshake she got from Fiona in reply.
Luna shrugged and focused back on preparing the meat for breakfast. Fiona had pulled out a satchel filled to the brim with small spice and herb bags. She sprinkled some spices and herbs into a bowl, then added a bit of oil. The well-seasoned meat was then propped up on sticks close to the fire, but not inside the flames.
When they were done Evelyn also returned. She had remained and watched the northern forest as if waiting for something to happen. “My mana sense is blocked by the forest. I cannot make out what that mana pulse was, only where it came from and that it is stationary. I would very much like to take a look if that is ok with you Luna.”
Luna pondered their options. What exactly was her purpose out here? She wanted to explore, so an interesting location was exactly what she was looking for. “Alright with me. I am here to explore, no point going around interesting locations.”
They spent the evening talking over dinner and then went to bed. Luna slept through, but Evelyn and Fiona told her that they had both woken up when the same Mana pulse happened again. Over breakfast, they discussed their route. First, they would have to follow the river long enough to find a shallow area where they could cross, although swimming would also be possible with Evelyn storing all their things to prevent water damage.
Their luck was good and they were able to find a shallow area where the river was running over some rocks and gravel. They waded across without any issues and from now on followed the forest line. Without the easy ground, the other river bank had offered they slowed down yet again. Trees and bushes were growing up to the river edge on this side and were a serious hindrance.
At some point, they stopped in a small clear area near the river and ate lunch. Luna was already feeling the exhaustion coming. She was constantly working with her machete to cut branches and brambles growing in their way and it was starting to take a toll. Luna decided that she would need a longer break.
Luna had been sitting near a tree and she simply propped her backpack against it and leaned back to simply enjoy sitting and doing nothing. A short while later, Luna must have dozed off for a bit, she too felt the prickly sensation of mana in the area. “Did it just happen again?” Luna asked them and received a nod in return.
“I think it is happening at regular intervals, three times per day. One around noon, one in the evening, and one in the night. We will be able to confirm that theory later.” Evelyn responded. “Ready to get going again?”
Luna got up with a yawn and stretched. After shouldering her backpack again she once again took the lead. Their progress was slow until Luna cut down one last bramble and stumbled out of the forest onto a stone-paved road. It was in disrepair with weeds growing everywhere, but the forest had not reclaimed it. Not a single larger plant was growing from between the stones or at their edge. It was like a drawn line right next to the road where the forest simply stopped.
Evelyn and Fiona had stepped on the road behind her and were just as speechless as Luna. Why was there a road going through the forest, who had created it, and more importantly, when had they created it?
They got over their surprise quickly and went on to check out the road. They could not find any signs that would point towards who had built it, but it offered them an easy way into the forest. With a clear goal they started moving faster again, all three of them curious to find out what might await them. The trek through the forest had taken them too long and when they came upon a rest area near the road, they decided to stay there for the night.
The place reminded Luna of the rest stops along the kingdom roads, where she had rested with the merchant caravan on her trip to the capital. Only instead of a solid wooden wall around the place, it had a formation of 8 standing stones arranged around the central fire pit area. Evelyn was inspecting the stones and exclaimed in surprise.
"This is a magic formation. I think we can activate it and given the location I'd bet that this creates a shield to let travelers rest in safety. Come over here and look at this rune on the stone close to where we left the road." Evelyn told them, waving them over.
Luna and Fiona reached the stone where Evelyn was waiting. On the stone Luna could make out a weird flowing script and while looking at it Luna suddenly suffered a severe headache. She rubbed her temples and looked again, only to realize that she could read the weird letters. "Safe Haven". Luna said without thinking about it.
"What do you mean Luna?" Fiona asked her.
"I can read it. It says 'Safe Haven', the same name my Skill has for resting in the wilds."
Evelyn was looking at Luna sceptically. "How is it possible that you can read that? It is a runic inscription, we often saw these in dungeons at doors or in safe resting areas. Nobody could decipher them, we only learned from their locations, and after testing, if they had magic effects."
"Don't look at me like that. I have never seen that kind of runic writing before in my life. I just looked at it, then my head started to hurt and when I looked at it again I could understand it." Luna told them defensively. She put her hand on the rune and injected some mana, it took a while and she felt her mana pool slowly draining, but then the rune and the standing stone started glowing in a faint blue light.
Luna removed her hand and looked around. All the stones were now shining in the same unearthly blue, then they started connecting to each other with translucent blue lines. It only took a few seconds, until a blue dome formed over their camp.
Evelyn and Fiona had jumped back when the stones started glowing and were now curiously inspecting the area. "It feels just like your 'Safe Haven' Skill. It reminds me of the safe areas in dungeons, but those were always in rooms that automatically activated when you closed the door."
"I would not know, I have never even seen a dungeon before," Luna told her. "Can we start preparing some food? I am famished all of a sudden."
The fireplace held the next surprise. What had looked like some burned sticks in the fireplace turned out to be another magic formation. Evelyn looked it over curiously and cleaned off an area where she had found more runic script. "Can you read that too?" she asked Luna.
"It says 'Eternal Hearth. Whatever that might be." Luna replied after looking at the script for a few seconds.
This time it was Fiona who could offer an explanation. "We know that one. It is a Skill used by crafting Classes that need constant and easy access to a flame. It creates a flame of medium heat that slowly burns on wood, but can also only feed off Mana."
Fiona stepped up and put her hand on the rune and a few seconds later a merry yellow flame sprang to life. "Who built these places? We have not seen anyone around other than the settlers. No smoke on the horizon, no settlements. Now we find an abandoned road, a resting place with runic scripts? It makes no sense!" Fiona complained.
"No matter, we are lucky to have found it." Evelyn replied.