He couldn't see it even a few hundred yards away. Just like in the picture that she sent him via the link, there were some tents.
A few of them had a slightly torn roof, a few others looked sunken. Nor were there any torches or anything else that could light up the night. Nor could he make out any figures between the tents.
Still, to his surprise, the tents didn't look too weathered or show the classic signs of a struggle. It just seemed abandoned, or much more abandoned.
What confused him about it was the condition of the tents. You could call it a small tent village that spread out in three different layers. The first consisted of the tattered ones, clearly much older, but still new. The second layer was clearly newer, but also showed some signs of decay, with only a few showing signs of damage. While the third shift looked brand new.
Looking at the rock, the night sky, which was revealing a tiny part of its moons, seemed to reflect something on the wall. Apparently there were climbing hooks there? It had to be climbing hooks, because not everyone knew how to use earth magic. At least he couldn't imagine it.
The whole scene gave him very different feelings and thoughts. Was it people? Wasn't the plateau as dangerous as he thought? Where were you? Could he meet the first other people on the plateau? Well, except for the madman who didn't really matter to him.
Are they possibly hostile? Am I really trustworthy for the way I behave?
Crouching in the bush, he could only shake his head in a daze. He would never have trusted someone who spied on him first before contacting him. Yes, maybe he could understand the motives better from his position, but also the same distrust.
What did they want on the plateau? What was your goal? Why all the tents? Why did they have such different conditions?
This whole situation just got too chaotic for him in his mind. He wanted the first contact on his terms. Preferably somewhere outside the forest with normal people. Maybe a traveling merchant or a few simple villagers? At least one situation that was clearly under his control.
Finally he decided to take a little risk. They separated so that if they were discovered they could flee in separate directions. Leica was also able to sprint from it first, which left the impression of a stray wolf.
Slowly he began to sneak up to the camp, still keeping a proper distance and checking his breath as well as his heartbeat. Nervousness wasn't exactly known for doing stealth a special service.
Somehow he wished he'd worked more on his stealth skills in those moments. The camouflage was improvised, if not bad. You wouldn't have discovered someone so quickly on earth, but you could never really feel safe in a magical world with the most diverse races. After all, some of them could be designed to do just that.
Just before he entered the camp, he made himself as small as he could, something that, thanks to the new body, was not too difficult for him. If he was still 1.85 m tall, it would have been a different story. But with a height of 1.60 m, things looked a little different. From his hiding place he still couldn't see any movement in the camp, but that didn't have to mean anything.
It still cost him to overcome, not knowing whether there were Mana sensitive people in the camp, but what else could he do but let a small wave of mana sweep through the camp?
Unexpectedly, the wave actually encountered a few life forms that appear to be asleep. They were probably people, but he couldn't be that sure either. Still, who let his personal guard down so badly? How could you feel so safe to sleep in a camp without anyone on watch? Maybe there were other methods that ...?
He got no further, because suddenly a beacon seemed to light up the sky. Like fireworks, it shot up into the sky from the center of the campsite and began to illuminate everything around it. The thing reminded him of the military magnesium torch traps spun with a fine thread. These things were capable of lighting an entire battlefield.
The mana wave, weak as it was, had triggered some form of alarm. No wonder that the people in this camp were able to sleep so peacefully. With such an alarm system, he could have slept with his eyes closed without having to keep one open.
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After the sky lit up, he used the thought link to instruct Leica to hurry away to get the attention and then visibly disappear into the forest. A supposed animal that was on a hunt could probably hide the purpose of its presence. He made himself as small as he could until he was completely flat on his stomach on the floor.
Inwardly, he had to hope that they didn't go after her. A few seconds later a few voices rose in the camp. His senses took it in without further ado and he tried to soak up every single word. At least one could still get information from the situation.
Unknown 1: "Damn it, by all the gods and the gift of the gods, you dream of a couple of beautiful whores and then something triggers the alarm"
Unknown 2: "Oh, just shut up Radsin, grab your spear and let go check us out. With a little luck it got scared and hurried away. "
Radsin: " With a little luck. It is not conjured up. I want to go back to bed Kolmar ”
Unknown 3: “ Can you just go and see? I don't feel like getting killed because of you idiots. Almost one experience was enough for me, so get on with your FUCKING SHIT WORK !! "
Kolmar: " Calm down Jurg, we'll take care of it, just change the damn alarm. "
The two came pretty close to him, but always remained in the beam of light from the flare, if you could call it that. They stood there terribly sleepy, one looking into the distance and the other loitering more. With a link in his mind, Leica jumped out of cover far away and quickly moved a great distance to disappear as a shadow in the forest. The two of them had noticed its removal, and it stayed slow enough that you could see what it was before disappearing into the safe darkness.
Jurg:fuck “What thewas it now?”
Radsin: “A fucking wolf! Just a fucking fucking wolf!
Kolmar: “Sure got lost, but don't worry Jurg, no reason to shit. He's not going to eat you. ""
Radsin:Damn it willows , that thing was lucky to have passed the blood. I can still remember ... "
Kolmar: " Shut up, I still have nightmares about it. Within a day we lost a whole third of our group. Not even in the battle of that noble asshole that we did for ... "
Radsin: " Oh, don't start again. Let's go back Maybe I'll be lucky and Madame Kaelin will send me her girls again in my dreams. ”
The two chatted a little more and trotted back inside the camp. The whole thing was too sharp for him. One carelessness, no distraction, and a thousand other things could have gone wrong.
Only after he felt safe enough, the flare went out and a creeping feeling of security set in, could he exhale with relief, whereupon he began to slowly crawl backwards, still on his stomach. Using the night as a shield, he only straightened up slightly after 100 meters and ducked along the rock face.
As soon as the camp disappeared from view, he straightened up to continue a full sprint. He still wanted to know what was on the plateau, all the more after seeing that he didn't seem interested in it alone. His companion was already waiting in front of the side entrance, which he opened with a wave of his hand and closed again after entering.
Either they waited another night or they went up to the plateau that night. After some back and forth, he finally decided to wait for another night. In the best case, one that was cloudy, that could also disguise its ascent. Anything could help, nor was he a fool on such matters. The whole thing turned into a huge stinking pile of shit the moment Leica saw the tents.
That night, the two of them could not really sleep, but took turns with a simple layer of wax. They also stayed in the room on the first floor to have more than one escape route.
Most of the next day they also spent sleeping, because they simply waited for the night, and the change in the sleep cycle would make it easier to be active alone at night.
When he wasn't busy sleeping he would take a book from his attic and start browsing. He found a few books for personal entertainment among the dungeon literature, but this mad magician's tastes had been bizarre at best. In fact, they were the only books he never touched. The titles alone had been kinky enough for him.
In addition, it was always worth knowing which one you already had, to deepen it further, to consolidate it and perhaps to raise a few new questions. To make new notes. The heightened intelligence made it terribly easy to remember, but he still hadn't become a god.
Even if you remembered it, memories could be flawed, you could have missed things, or didn't pay the proper attention. He had already seen all of this in his last life, when he was tired of hanging over a book in the university library.
It was time to put the book aside as the sun hit the horizon and with it her ascent within the rock should begin. Looking at the sun he waited for the light to disappear above the last staircase on the plateau. His greatest fear the moment he hit the plateau was that their position would be compromised. That they waited there for him, caught him like a wild animal!
After the last rays had faded, he swallowed hard again and started to climb the last steps in the sparse cover of darkness. Shortly after his head got over the last step, he breathed a sigh of relief because none of his horror scenarios came true.
Instead he immediately began to make himself smaller, to observe and inspect the surroundings. There was only very sporadic forest on the plateau itself. You couldn't even call it a forest, rather it was a single tree that grew wild, but it was fairly spread out.
What was growing on the plateau was in direct contrast to the forest, which has already become an integral part of his life. Leica emerged from the stairs behind him. He had only two or three options. On the one hand, he could return to the location of the camp, where he could then venture a new look from above. Perhaps there was another camp at the same point on the plateau or it penetrated into the interior of the plateau.
Well, he could do without one more discovery, and whatever the people were doing there, most certainly had nothing to do with him.
So there was nothing left for him to do but go deeper. He conscientiously closed the stairs again with his stone molding so that it would not be discovered, whereupon they set out together.
The next thing that really surprised him was stepping on a path, although some stones were missing, there were still enough stones to be seen in it.
Though he expected some form of civilization to be up here once, the confirmation of his theory had still come as a slight shock to him. Whatever the others were looking for was almost certainly in the middle of this place or wherever the path seemed to lead.