Together, Lucas, Mary, Belinda, and Harry left the house without any ceremony or noticeable amount of effort put toward blending in. They just started walking toward the south gate as if they were on a routine run to the market for bread. The only thing noteworthy about their procession was their slightly advanced pace, but ironically, that is what allowed them to blend in the most. With everything going on, everyone that wasn't hiding away was moving to and fro quickly.
After Lucas had given in two the fact that the two women would be coming with them--which didn't truly take long, as his hesitance was born merely of surprise, not reluctance--the four of them held some discussion about how to get out of the village. Harry and Lucas felt they would have to sneak out, but Mary of all people informed the other three that no orders had actually been given not to leave the village.
The best thing they could do to get out unmolested was to appear as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
From the way she spoke, Lucas's mother seemed oddly familiar with this sort of behavior. With ever passing day, he became more and more curious about her past and whatever she had been running from in coming here--but none of that was immediately relevant.
"What's the plan once we get to the wall?" Lucas asked from his position at the back of their group.
"Let me handle the talking," his mother said. "I should be able to get us past the gate without issue, and we'll play it by ear from there."
Lucas nodded, trusting in her ability to do as she said, and moved on to another issue. Their small group was heading straight for what might end up being the most dangerous situation he had ever been in, and now that he was level 50, he wasn't getting any more free stats till his next Class evolution. It was time to distribute what he had.
With half his attention, he did his best to follow behind the other three without stumbling, and used the other half to bring up his status. He had precisely 140 free stats at the moment, and while it wasn't a perfect number, he distributed them according to the same pattern he'd previously been using.
It hadn't failed him yet, so there was no reason to change things up. The eight leftover stat points went into STR.
[Lucas]
[Free Stats: 0]
[HP: 920/920]
[MP: 1380/1380]
[STR: 61]
[DEX: 94]
[VIT: 92]
[WIS: 138]
[INT: 136]
At another time, he might have been proud of the growth his status displayed. Unfortunately, he had some idea of how woefully insufficient it would be for what came next...
All too soon, they came up on the wall, and Lucas no longer had time for nerves. The gate itself was closed and locked down and there were precisely three guards keeping a constant vigil over the surround area. Only one had eyes on their direction, but he spotted the four of them immediately.
"Halt! The gates have been locked down by order of the Elders' council!" the man called out as if they weren't already aware.
Belinda slowed down at their head, but the four of them only stopped once they were within comfortable-speaking distance of the guard, upon which Mary stepped forward. Lucas noticed the two others posted atop the wall turn slightly in their direction to pay attention, but they were otherwise left to deal with the man on the ground.
"Gerald," Mary greeted the guard as she stepped forth.
"[Healer] Mary," the man stiffly nodded back to her, "can you explain why the four of you have come here?"
Gerald's eyes flicked between each of them, catching on both Lucas and Belinda, before returning to Lucas's mom.
"We need to get through," she stated simply.
The guards up above glance down at them momentarily at her words, and Gerald sighed heavily. "I'm not allowed to open the gate, Mary. The situation sucks, but the council has decided what is best for the village."
"My brother is out there, Gerald," Belinda shot back at him. "Your friends, fellow guards--have you already forgotten about them?"
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"What she means," Mary quickly interjected before Gerald could rise to Belinda's accusation, "is that we still have a chance to get them back. Please let us past."
Gerald furrowed his brow and looked between them. Then he sighed and shook his head. "I'm not allowed to open the gate..."
Belinda took a step forward, but stopped when Mary put her arm up in her path.
"...but I received no orders on preventing anyone from climbing up and over," he continued. "None of us like any of this, so if you think you have a chance at getting our people back, then go. I won't stop you."
"Thank you," Mary told him, and Belinda gave him a respectful nod.
"You sure that's wise, boss?" One of the guards up above called down. "That kid is the one that can supposedly deal with the infection. Won't the Elders want him here?"
Gerald turned around and looked up at the man that'd spoken. "Think of it this way: if we lock everything down and fortify the village, no one else will get infected and we won't need him here. The Elders' desires are secondary to that. Ultimately, none of them are our Commander."
There was a moment's pause before the guard replied back. "Fair enough. Alright you four, climb up here and I'll help you over the other side."
Gerald waved them forward and went back to watching the approach to the gate, and the four of them began ascending to the post one at a time. Harry went first and was soon out of sight, followed by Belinda. Then it was Lucas's turn.
He climbed up the ladder to the post as quickly as he could and was soon beside the other guard. Lucas was about to hop over the outer edge as the others had when the man suddenly stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. He looked up, instantly ready for a fight or argument, but was met with surprise.
The guard shoved a small bundle in Lucas's hands and clapped him on the arm. "Food, for the journey," he explained. "Just a bit of our rations, dried meat and nuts, but you all will need it more than us. Good luck out there, and bring everyone back alive."
"Uh, yeah, will do," Lucas lamely replied. The guard responded with another clap on his arm, then hoisted Lucas over the edge and lowered him a little before letting go. He fell the remaining distance and landed in the wet grass with little more than a soft thud.
Did any of us think of food? It will take to find the goblins and get back, and it is kind of a valid concern. I guess we could have hunted something, and we have Harry with us. Maybe Belinda has something, but still...
Putting aside that thought, Lucas pocketed the bundle of rations and moved to the side just before his mom came dropping down. She landed with even less effort and impact than he had, somehow, and wordlessly gestured for him to follow as she set off toward the tree-line, after the other two.
They met up with Harry and Belinda there and proceeded, but a dozen paces into the forest, their journey was interrupted by a cacophonous rumbling. One and all, they stopped and quickly turned to look behind them, just in time to see the village wall start rising up, extending into the air.
The process was slow and far from subtle, creating quaking shocks that disturbed Lucas's footing and required him to devote some focus to remain standing. Panicked cries and startled squawks filled the air as the impact of this unreal display of magic was felt throughout the forest. He had to imagine that every living thing for miles was at least somewhat aware of this event.
Frankly, Lucas didn't have any words, but Harry summarized his feeling nicely.
"Bloody hell...he's even raising stone to cover the gate!" the [Hunter] pointed out.
The walls didn't stop growing until they had nearly doubled in size to about four-times the average height of an adult, and the location of the south gate was only indicated by an earthen bulge in its length. From all indications, the event wasn't isolated to the south wall, either. The feat was...well, it was monstrous.
"How high a level is Elder Falon?!" Lucas hissed.
His mom was the first to recover from her shock, and she grabbed started ushering everyone on as she answered. "It doesn't matter," she said, "all this means is we are not likely to get back in until this threat is over. We need to keep going."
"He'll be forced to undo this when everything's done," Belinda added, "the villagers won't stand for being confined to a hole in the ground forever."
Lucas's mind was still dwelling on the absolute absurdity of one [Mage] raising the earth like this, and had little time to address the implications of Belinda's words. Just the shear amount of mana he perceived surrounding the wall was insane, and every bit of it was uniformly controlled.
It put things in perspective a little. Lucas was growing, but relatively speaking, he'd only taken the first step or two on his path.
Eventually, he managed to recenter himself in the moment and on the task at hand. They'd made it far enough into the woods that the village was out of sight, following an obvious trail of disturbed undergrowth. As Lucas took account of the surroundings, he thought he spotted a few intact footprints as well. Tiny ones that would be close enough to a human's if not for the talon-marks.
"Think we'll be able to follow this all the way back to wherever they're based?" he spoke up to fill the silence.
Harry looked back at him and put a finger of his lips, gesturing for Lucas to be quiet. "Maybe," the [Hunter] said. "We don't know how far they could be, and their could even be a few of them in the area acting as scouts, so it is best to be quiet."
Lucas answered nonverbally with a nod as his cheeks heated a bit. He'd never tracked anything before, and the act of stalking like a predator did not come naturally to him, but he was still a bit embarrassed by his mistake. He turned his efforts toward practicing [Stealth], rather than attempting conversation.
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Around three hours, and several Skill levels later, they stopped to make camp. The goblin's trail had proven incredibly easy to follow the entire way, mostly carving a straight line through the forest with the only marked development being when another path joined it and continued in one direction. There was no telling how much further they had to go, and it was getting dark out, so for safety's sake their group moved off to the side and into a nearby clearing.
It had been chosen as their stop for the night for the old, knotted and pitted oak providing cover at its center. None of them had brought anything like a tent, so the tree became their shelter.
"I'll take first watch," Mary said as they were settling down, "followed by Belinda, Harry, and finally you, Lucas. Everyone, get some sleep. Tomorrow, we find our people."