CHAPTER 51 - Camping
“I will go camping.” I say to the group in the middle of their reunion.
Everyone looks at me incredulous.
Usually, I stay quiet and just hear what they have to say just in case they come up with an interesting idea, but today it's different.
A whole week has passed since our confrontation with the vampires, and a small scout group we sent there to check on them came with good news. The vampires were doing what we agreed upon, and they hadn’t made any suspicious movement against us.
“The vampires haven’t shown any signs of getting revenge for now, and I need to get stronger to confront them in the future, so it’s actually the perfect time to do it.” I declare proudly.
Obviously, a lot of them disagree with my opinion.
“How can you leave us behind after everything that happened? What are you even planning on doing by camping?”
“What if they attack while you are not here?”
“What does camping have to do with all this?”
Panic ensues, but finally, I am asked the right question.
“Why?” Sera is the one who says it.
We did have our ups and downs along the way, but she is by far one of the sharpest and cool-headed persons of the whole group. She always looks for a solution to her problems instead of wasting time arguing.
I always liked her decisiveness, so I choose to humor her and let them all hear it. I was planning on keeping it to myself, but looking at how they have been doing so far, I don't think I will really make much difference. At most, it will be a waste of time.
“To learn magic.” I say with a wide grin.
I instantly get many of those faces that scream “What is this guy high on?”, nearly making me lose interest, but I might as well explain it properly and let them do whatever they choose with that information.
“I have been training these last few days, but it is hard to get better at something starting from scratch. I need teachers to show me how it’s done, and so, I am going to find them.”
I have been thinking lately, and for now, I should focus on getting better in what I already know instead of searching for new ways to get stronger.
I can’t risk it anymore, if I weren’t already used to controlling qi when I discovered mana I would have died instantly while mixing them unknowingly.
So, I plan on getting a lot better at both qi and mana control.
“I am going to the forests and mountains around the city to find those animals whose evolution transformed them into beasts able to manipulate mana, just like Bruma here.” I say as I pet her little fluffy head.
“I won’t abandon you, I will come back every few days to get news about how everything is going, and I will bring resources with me at the same time from my hunts.” With that, most of them seem to agree with my reasoning, even though I don't think they bought the teacher part.
‘Well, their loss.’
“I will leave tomorrow at dawn.” I announce, with no intention to back off.
“Most monsters around the base have already been cleared by me, but I will come back to do it again if you see their numbers spiral out of control, so keep an eye out for that.” After finishing everything I had to say, I leave the meeting to prepare.
I would love to bring with me some kind of armor or improved clothing, but I am unable to do that while we don't have a blacksmith on our own.
I have actually thought hard and long if it was worth it to look for another group of people that may be near to see if they have someone with those skills, but I push it to the back of my mind for the time being.
As long as I keep moving forward, I am sure our group will attract the people we need, it’s just a matter of time. Now, what I need to do is prepare for any attacks or ambushes from all the monsters in the vicinity.
I am not really a fan of leaving the group unprotected while I am away, but it is not like I can babysit them 24/7 anyways.
I have cleared the area of any potential threats, got them some better resources to create makeshift weapons from my hunts, and somehow stabilized the situation with the vampires.
‘It is time to move.’
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Dawn arrives, and I am ready to leave. I am just going to talk one last time with both sisters before departing.
I enter their room at the hour we agreed on and sure enough, they are both waiting for my arrival.
Maria is the first one to talk. “You got everything you need? We can get you more supplies if you want.”
“Well, now that you mention it. Do you have any maps about the area?” It can’t hurt to have a clear view of the landscape at all times.
“Sadly, we don't have one that shows anything about the mountains, but we do have one that can help you get a clear look from a bigger scale. It shows the whole city with the surrounding area, but there are no annotations on landmarks or smaller things.”
“So, a topographical one? Actually, that one might be even more useful than a normal one, I will take that one. I can draw on it the actual interesting places I discover.” I thank Maria for the map, and after some small talk with her and Sera, I set off on my trip.
It is still early in the morning, so there are not many people awake and I manage to leave unbothered.
Bruma keeps telling me through the link just how excited she is to explore the wilderness with me as I run throughout the city and onto the forest perimeter.
Once there, she jumps down from my shoulders and starts chasing me, staying close behind. Although she didn't like the feel of her paws on the city's roads or paved floors, she seems to really like a good run here.
I remind her to stay cautious through the link as we make our way deep into the forest. Each step I take, I send waves of mana that wash over the surroundings, scanning an area of about 100 meters all around me.
It’s a cautious approach that I decided to take from now on as I have no idea what kind of monsters or beasts inhabit the wilderness.
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My first goal for this first outing is to get an overall idea of the place and find a good place to settle a temporary hideout to use as shelter. The map I got Maria does help a lot in getting around, it hasn’t been a day yet and I already noticed that much.
Hours tick by, and I avoid running into monsters as much as I can, only letting Bruma snipe with her lightning the ones who get too close to us. Each time one of my scans shows me a den of monsters or a sign of one, I turn in the other direction and mark the place on the map.
Nightfall arrives, yet I still haven’t managed to find a safe place to pass the night. After running around all day, I have close to one-tenth of the east side of the city mapped out.
Taking into account that my current running speed should be about double the speed of your average human even without using qi, that's quite the big patch that I have covered.
After my pathing throughout the forest, I have marked dens, packs, and void areas where there isn't any particular group settled.
All kinds of beasts inhabit the forest. On my way here, as I slithered through the trees, I saw a couple of small packs of the armored panthers as well as some others formed by some variant of the native wolf, but more menacing and kind of stealthy. Probably some kind of magic that either casts shadows over them or sucks the light around.
That is precisely the thing that tells me that I should stop to rest. While I may not be too concerned about sleep as it seems like I can kind of avoid sleeping for a couple of days if needed, I do need to recover my qi before resuming the mapping.
I am relying on my scans to locate any threat close by, if not, I wouldn’t even have noticed the wolves with how stealthy they were, and I need qi to gather the necessary mana for the scans.
I could try to infuse my eyes with qi to see if it helps me in the dark or does something, but I am scared of blowing them up if I am not careful, even less doing so with mana.
I end up climbing a tall tree that I find secure enough for now, and I rest there for now. I lose some of the ability to replenish my qi due to being further from the ground, but the tree seems to help with my recovery somehow too, so it's bearable.
I let Bruma guard me as I recover, only using scans every once in a while just in case something slips by her senses. It doesn’t take that much time either, one hour after climbing the tree my reserve of qi is already at its peak, ready to be used again.
I tell Bruma and we depart again. This time looking for a secluded spot to settle down for the night.
As the night advances, growls and roars start to be heard every once in a while. Those packs I passed by before are most likely trying to catch their dinner. I am actually quite curious about what strategy they use and what they are even hunting, but it's not the time for that.
Feeling an eerie sensation, I proceed to scan our current location again. However, I don’t get anything useful, so I scour the place with my eyes. I see Bruma fidgeting around too, looking all around, not sure where the feeling is coming from.
With no clue about the source of the feeling, we continue on our way and finally arrive at one of the rivers that flow through the forest. It is a small one, the smaller one of the three that surround the city in fact.
It is wide enough that prevented anyone from passing safely before, yet big enough to prevent ships from sailing on it too. For my actual self though, I can just get some momentum and then jump over it.
I catch Bruma with my hands and commit to the jump, soaring over the river and landing on the other side of it.
The moment my feet touch the ground on the other side, that eerie sensation vanishes as if it was never there.
‘Huh, maybe some beast with some weird camouflage was stalking us?’ I wonder, but keep moving as I don't have any clue for now.
More careful than ever, we continue running, finally starting to climb the mountain, with slopes that reinforce that fact. Fewer monsters roam the place as we leave the thick cover of the forest, yet there are still some scattered groups and dens in smaller quantities.
Trees still plague the land, but the foliage is thinner and lets the moonlight pierce it and reach the ground, giving enough light to barely see. It helps that my eyesight improved, but even so, the moon shines brightly in the sky today.
Little by little, we get higher and higher, getting closer to the peak of the mountain. It may not be the tallest mountain around, but it is pretty famous due to the harsh conditions on its top. It has little life on it as most of its slopes are too steep, some of them nearing the 90º mark.
My intentions are clear, with my improved physique, getting to a high enough ledge of the mountain should be easy enough, even at night.
It makes it pretty much the best solution long term for my stay here, as the most dangerous threats to us are the bigger beasts of the forest, which have paws or claws that force them to stick to even ground.
The animals that can reach that high up are scarce, and they can only do so with caution. I am sure I can make the already steep walls even harder to climb artificially, at least the ones near my hideout so that only I can get there.
Having decided on that, I start climbing the rough surface of the mountain, not slowing down in the slightest. My improved body helps me to jump from rock to rock without an issue. The spots where even professional climbers would have issues are no problem for me at all as I can push my whole body with the smallest of clutches.
Fifteen minutes into my climbing session I can already see the top of the mountain ahead, so I start looking around for a cozy play to call home from now on.
I can’t manage to find a good spot to settle, so I choose to make my own. In normal circumstances, it would be nearly impossible to build on here or even bring anything to work with, but I don't need pickaxes or building materials.
I gather up mana with the help of my qi. I gather more than usual, to have enough to do it in one single step, but first, a bigger scan is needed. I do so, and it shows no signs of activity nearby, so I get to work.
I get a hold of the mana in the surroundings again, making it move and flow into the rock on top of me. I force it to synchronize with the rocks the same way I used before in my fights, letting me manipulate the actual shape of the terrain that it touches.
Once the wall is filled with all my mana, I move the chunks of rocks out of the way, creating a small cave, just about my size. I use the chunks I move as I dig to create a thin protuberance on top of the entrance, big enough to pin onto it some plants to camouflage the cave.
Seeing some grass growing on the wall, I try something new I wanted to confirm.
I gather mana again, but in a smaller amount now. Then, I try to synchronize it with the grass in front of me to try and feed it and get it to grow quicker. I feel the connection happen with the plant, and I send small bursts of mana to it, hoping that it survives and absorbs it.
The grass survives two bursts of mana and shows no signs of growth as its roots start to wither at a quick pace, making it clear to see with my own eyes.
‘I should have expected that outcome, but I should keep up these kinds of experiments to see the limits of mana.’ I sigh, remembering that I just wasted more mana while I still need to finish up hiding and expanding this place.
With the plan of growing my own grass out of the question, I am forced to climb back down, where I can fetch some small branches to bring with me on my way up and cover the cave.
I do a couple more trips than intended, but by the time the sun is about to start showing up again on the horizon, I have my hideout secure and the interior expanded the same way I created the entrance. I even smoothed the surface near the cave so that there is no place to use as footing to get in here for the rest of the wildlife that live in the area.
For the interior, I keep it minimalist, only digging enough space for me to lay down comfortably on some leaves I brought back with me in one of my trips to the forest below.
Even with the small dimensions of my cave, there was a lot of leftover stone that I needed to dispose of, so I chose to use more mana to fix it somehow. Thinking that throwing all the leftover stones down the mountain would be WAY too loud.
I first opted to try and condense the stone into dense bundles that took up less space, but it was far too inefficient and qi consuming due to all the mana I needed to use in order to pack and condense the stone in so little space.
In the end, I chose a worse solution that will have to do for now. I force the mana again under my control and synchronize it with the leftover stones that take up most part of the cave even after my tries to condense them.
I take hold of them and force them to go back into the wall that is exposed to the outside, using them to push out the already settled stones in that place. The stones I move take their place and the ones that already formed the wall are pushed outside, creating a thicker, newly added layer of rock on the outside, to which I would be completely oblivious if I wasn’t the one who did it.
Finally finishing up the construction of the place, I end up resting for a bit to recover all the qi I used on the construction. So I try my new bed made up of leaves and grass as I oversee the beautiful cave that my efforts created.
‘Isn’t it lovely?’ I think to myself.
Well, I will take a quick nap before setting off again, I will need to be at my peak to confront those beasts that control mana.