The route to the city was filled with wonders.

Jerome had gotten used to the spiky tree trunks by now. The blue underbrush was old hat, even when it reached out to nuzzle his legs like some sort of photosynthetic puppy. The purple fist-sized insects buzzed around happily ignoring whatever violence was occuring.

However, as he ventured farther away from his spawn point he saw new sights.

A giant armadillo-type creature bathed itself in a waterfall, seeming to take pleasure from the pounding water on its brick-like hide. Its tail, which had a terrifying spiky ball on the end, whipped back and forth happily. Occasionally it would bounce off the stone cliff face and chip off bits of rock.

Jerome snuck up to the creature, curious.

You have learned the skill Sneak.

He placed his hand on the beast, hoping to gain its power. The beast turned ever so slightly to look at him. The movement of the hide scraped Jerome’s palm and caused him to flinch. Three percent of his health bar gone from the monster simply adjusting its position!

The monster stared Jerome in the eye. Was it intelligent? It was either extremely docile or it knew, instinctively, that Jerome was no threat in either intention or power. If a fight started he might get one Recoil Burst off before the thing trampled him.

Jerome backed off. When he had gotten to the relative safety of dense trees (the monster would have to knock some down to reach him) he checked his transformations.

Would you like to transform?

* Krystyna (human, level 9, 20 hours left)

Rats. He couldn’t transform into the monster. There must be some sort of minimum intelligence requirement.

He continued on.

When he first accepted the Quest he had rushed off in a random direction, hoping for some sort of map or directional arrow. Instead she’d run after him and explained his route to the city.

There were dozens upon dozens of gnoll towns and villages (such as the one Krystyna had tried to befriend), but there was exactly one large gnoll city. That was where money was offered for crystals and where he have the best chance of finding the scrolls and the bag of holding.

They were lucky to be fairly close. “Fairly” “close”.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Five hours, according to Krystyna. Knowing her that meant walking quickly, straight ahead, stopping for nothing. Jerome meandered a bit, stopped to pet the scary armadillo, and even rested sometimes. He guessed it would take about ten hours. Well into the night.

He could have cut straight through the plains, of course. They were in a strip of forest by the coast, which protruded out in a thick peninsula. Cutting through the peninsula would take about two hours, there would be fewer distractions, and he wouldn’t have to worry about gnoll patrols or a sudden visit from unfriendly ockdine. However, Krystyna had made him promise not to travel across the plains. She said it was ‘too dangerous’, and Jerome had no reason to disagree; anything that scared her scared him.

Map of the area + Jerome's path [https://s3.amazonaws.com/fiction-images/new-australia-jeromes-path.jpeg]

He eventually hit coastline and followed it, keeping it on his right. There were sandy beaches which he could have walked on, but it felt weird being too close to the sea. Ockdine could be anywhere. His last battle with them had been a little too close, and there was no telling what other tricks they had. They were probably more powerful closer to their natural habitat.

Thus Jerome walked at the treeline, watching both the beaches and the trees for danger. What he saw instead were more wonders.

One-foot-high twelve-limbed mammals, vaguely resembling fuzzy spiders, making their way through the forest and chomping down on the big purple bugs, catching the flying insects in springy heroic leaps. One of those things could probably jump onto his face, wrap around, and…

Okay, maybe they weren’t wonders precisely - more like terrors that were currently uninterested in terrorizing him.

On the beach were small sand-worms no longer than his arm which burrowed lazily in and out of the swash zone where waves caressed the shore, sucking up land and sea creatures alike that were unlucky enough to cross their paths.

Eventually the sandy beaches turned into small rocky cliffs.

When he got closer to the city he started running into more gnoll patrols. He headed deeper into the woods so that, when they passed, he had more room for maneuvering and more options for where to hide.

Sneak has reached level 2.

When they passed he tried to be far away and downwind. If they were anything like classical fantasy gnolls their key characteristics were amazing noses and constant infighting. Of course, classic fantasy said gnolls were huge and yet the ones Jerome had seen were only five feet. Classic fantasy clearly distorted some things — including the strange de-emphasis of octopus-creatures.

Once, about six hours into the journey, he heard (or maybe felt) a giant thud. It reminded him of the thud when the ockdine had crashed into the forest near him and Krystyna. Shortly thereafter he saw a pack of gnolls running as fast as they could towards the sound.

Interesting.

Then, about eight hours in, he found a road.

Not a path. A road.

Jerome guessed that the road would lead to the city, and he followed in parallel, making sure to duck down and be still whenever someone passed.

Sneak has reached level 3.

Night fell and he slept.

In the morning it was only an hour’s travel until he saw the city. It was then time to start the trickiest part of the Quest: infiltration.