Chapter 13:
“Well, it could have gone worse,” Nathan said as the two relaxed under a lean-to made of a single piece of shaped rock.
They had a campfire nearby. It was just close enough to keep them warm through the night.
“It also could have gone better,” Daniel said in annoyance. “Honestly that kind of stupid paranoid accusation was exactly what I’d expected, but it still pisses me off. Doesn’t help how damned annoying that loudmouth Joseph is. Gods damned asshole.“
“He is a bit of a prick,” Nathan said, shrugging. “But maybe he’ll calm down once we actually get out of the wilderness. The isolation probably doesn’t help the paranoia. Also, maybe we just ditch him after that?“
Daniel liked the sound of that. The only thing better would be if the man would have just said he wouldn’t come along. But then the small empathetic part of him pointed out that he’d be leaving the man to the mercies of the cult or monsters depending on where he went. And that as annoying and foul-mouthed as the man was, he didn’t deserve that.
God, it sucked being a good person. Or at least someone who wanted to be a good person.
“If we did that then he’d probably get grabbed by the cult,” Daniel said with a sigh before grabbing a bottle of water. Noticing they were out of water, Daniel cast Minor Water Conjuration and refilled the containers they’d brought with them to their little campsite.
Weary about other people sharing Joseph’s view, or just Joseph deciding to try his luck, Daniel and Nathan had gone through with their plan and made camp away from the others. They’d returned to the closed-off clearing that Daniel had taught magic in, making sure they weren’t followed. Then Daniel did some more magic practice by building them an earthen shelter and covering the clearing with illusions and an alarm spell.
At least they’d be able to get a restful sleep before the move tomorrow. Or at least, he hoped so.
“How bad would that be?” Nathan asked, picking up one of the refilled bottles of water and peering curiously at the water before taking a sip. He was slowly getting used to Daniel’s casual use of magic, though he seemed to want to inspect anything magical when given the chance. “And it’s safe to drink this, right?“
Daniel laughed and shook his head at his friend as he drank from his own bottle. “Yes, it is. The waters just condensed from the air with magic, instead of being created from it. Even then, water like that can be safe to drink as well, depending on how it was done. Though you should have probably asked before taking a sip.”
“Eh, you would have warned me if it was,” Nathan said with a shrug.
That was a pleasant change of pace from the angry distrust from Joseph. Even though Daniel hadn’t seen his friend in a long time from his perspective, it was nice to have him here. He’d lost so many people… but at least he gained someone back.
“As for how bad… Well, things would probably go very poorly for the man. Cultists aren’t known for being gentle when extracting information. And if they eventually figure out the worth of Integrity of Soul. Well, they’ll hurt him until he gives up, and then a demon will either devour his soul or use it for something… It’s honestly a fate worse than death. And as annoying as the guy is, he doesn’t deserve that.”
Nathan blew a breath of air. “Wow… That’s fucked up.”
“Yeah.”
“And we’re still going to the kingdom where one of those guys is king.”
“Yeah.”
“You said there were gods in this world, right?”
“Yep.”
“Did we piss them off or something?”
That caused Daniel to laugh. “No. No, we didn’t. This whole thing was an accident. Bad luck on our part as far as I can tell.“
“So there is no god of luck? Or Fate?”
“Not as far as I’m aware. And even if there was, we couldn’t have pissed them off all the way back on Earth.”
“Hmm…” Nathan hummed thoughtfully. “So what are our chances of ever going home?”
Daniel stayed quiet as he thought about it for a moment before answering as truthfully as he could. “Not impossible is all I can say. There are legends of mages in the past being able to travel to other worlds. Summoning magic is a thing, but typically they don’t summon things from other worlds but things like elemental planes and stuff. As far as I know, the summoning magic that messed up and also brought us here is rare and something preserved from ancient times.“
“It’s weird how extensive your knowledge is. I can’t help but keep thinking about theories of how you know all this stuff.”
“Keep those to yourself,” Daniel said, not unkindly but also sternly. “While I don’t like the geas, I don’t disagree that the fewer people that know how the better. This is a world-on-the-line type of secret so try not to even think about it. I should probably be more careful with how much I reveal… but it is a bit tedious, watching what I can say.”
Nathan let out a sigh. “Man, if we hadn’t known each other for so long, I would not believe that bullshit. But we do, so ok. I’ll try to not even think about it, even if it’s weird.”
“Thanks,” Daniel said, patting his friend’s shoulder before he got up and went to where he’d inscribed two scrying rituals.
“Gonna be a peeping tom again?” Nathan asked teasingly as he got up to take a look. Not that he would see much, as all the information from the scrying spells went straight to Daniel’s mind. He’d just see an eye appear and fly off for one of the spells and nothing for the other.
“No,” Daniel said with a small huff of a laugh. “This is the ritual I used to scry for Monsters.”
“Yeah but this is your peeping tom eye,” Nathan said with a laugh as he pointed a finger at the other scrying ritual. “What would Sapphire say if she knew you were looking at her in her sleep with it?”
Daniel rolled his eyes at that. “Probably something rude if you phrase it like that. And you know I asked her for permission. Did the same with Clark. Just to keep an eye out in case Joseph or someone else does something stupid.”
“Sure, sure.”
Daniel ignored his friend's teasing for the moment and cast Detect Creatures. He saw no signs of Monsters coming towards them, which was good. During the day, and as he was looking for a deer, he’d scryed a couple of Monsters wandering closer. He’d taken care of them, and even reached level 6 as a mage as well. That level-up didn’t come with any skill, but the boost it gave to all his skills was well worth it. And for his third day leveling up a class, it was great progress.
Next, he moved on to his completely normal and innocent scrying eyeball spell. After the spectral orb formed, he sent it flying into the air and back towards the camp. Since the end of dinner, and Nathan and Daniel's quiet departure, he’d been sending one back there every once in a while to make sure everything was still okay.
He wouldn’t be able to keep it up all night if he wanted to get a good night's rest, but it was best to check as much as he could while he could. Just in case. Even though Clark thought he was being paranoid. Though he didn’t get any complaints from Sapphire about it.
The eye approached the camp from the air so that it would be impossible to see its semi-transparent form at night. It then moved downwards until it was close enough that he could make out details.
There he saw their camp. A bunch of lean-tos, all now facing inwards towards a central campfire. The campfires still had strips of meat being smoked above it, to prepare for their journey tomorrow. Off to the side, a couple more fires were started so more meat could be smoked at the same time. Daniel would have offered to use some preservation magic on the meat, now that the secret was out, but the smoked meat should be enough.
On one-quarter of the circle of lean-tos, Daniel could see Sapphire and her faction of nine girls. It seemed they’d expanded to include several guys as well, though the guys would be sleeping in different lean-tos from what he could see. Next to them was Clark’s group, which was a mix of men and women, though there were more guys. Normally they weren’t so well organized like this, but it seemed they were grouping for the night. It would make them safer, just in case, even if they probably didn’t outright say that.
Aside from the people hanging around their lean-tos, some already asleep or trying to fall asleep, there were also the sentries. None were part of Joseph’s group right now, and he knew he could trust at least Sapphire to make sure they weren’t ever in a position where only those guys were on night watch.
Once he was sure they were safe, Daniel turned the eye to look at Joseph. He and his group, along with several other people were gathered on the other side of the circle of lean-tos. Daniel made sure to note who was with them, even as he lowered the eye to get a better look. When he was close enough, he started to channel what little magic he could through the eye to try and cast through it.
It was far more difficult than casting within sight, but possible to bridge the distance with the connection to the eye itself. It was difficult to do this without overloading the connection, but possible and easier than casting a more complicated spell that would allow him to scry sound as well. Instead, he created a very temporary ear construct, much like the eye, that floated just in front of the eye. He wouldn’t be able to move it or really control it, and it wouldn’t even last all that long, but it was better than nothing.
With practice, he could do much better, but for now, it was all he had.
Not that it seemed to matter all that much. Besides unhappy mutterings and conspiracy theories, he didn’t learn much from them. Either they didn’t have anything planned or were paranoid enough to think he might be spying on them…
Which admittedly he was doing. He probably should have felt bad about that. But considering he had no malicious intent against these guys, while clearly the same wasn’t necessarily true, and he couldn’t bring himself to care.
After several more minutes of not learning anything, the spell holding together the spectral ear couldn’t hold any longer and dissipated. The connection to the eye was also strained so he ended it there and sat back, annoyed.
“Anything?” Nathan asked, having gone back to lie down by the lean-to when it became clear there wasn’t really anything for him to see.
“No.”
“You sound annoyed.”
“If they are gonna act, I want it to be when I’m looking. And if they don’t act tonight, who knows what else they’ll do tomorrow. They could cause a lot of problems if they try something stupid while we're moving through the forest with Monsters around.”
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“Or maybe they're happy to just bitch about it, but are smart enough not to do anything like that when we’re all in danger.”
“Here’s hoping…” Daniel said with a sigh before sitting down next to the campfire. He’d considered going to sleep, but it wasn’t that late yet. He could still get some practice done. And perhaps check on the camp one more time before going to bed.
“Hey, want to see something cool,” Daniel said, mana already starting to form in between his hands.
“Sure,” Nathan said moving over. “What is it?”
“Shadow magic,” Daniel said with a grin as he converted the mana into shadow mana. The blue-hued light that had been forming in his hand turned a dark vivid purple and all-consuming black. “Just don’t try and touch this or you could lose a finger…”
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The next day, Daniel woke bright and early. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and just stared up as small rays of sunshine broke through the thick canopy above for a long moment. Then he shook his head as if he could shake his grogginess away before getting up. He gave the hard ground he’d been sleeping a short longing look before forcing himself to get to work.
Not the worst night's sleep he’d ever had, but he couldn’t wait to get back to civilization. Or at least get some enchanted camping gear.
Before taking care of any morning needs, Daniel went to his scrying rituals again and cast them both. Just to make sure there weren't any Monsters coming, as well as to make sure nothing happened during the night.
His shoulders relaxed as he finished and canceled out the spells. No Monsters and everything seemed fine at the camp. At least that was something.
With that taken care of, he moved to wake Nathan. They had a long day ahead of them. And if they were to get out of the wilderness while spending as few nights out in the wild as possible, they’d need to leave as soon as they were able.
After getting his friend up despite his groggy protests, the two of them made their way back to the camp. On the way back, he noticed a couple of trees with fruits and decided to pluck them all and bring them back to camp. The mana he used would be restored by the time they left. He also had a decent amount of mana replenishing food he’d foraged the day before. Their efficacy was probably already starting to wane, but it should be good in case of emergencies, at least for the day.
He’d have to make sure he kept an eye out for anything that could help with that as they traveled today. A mage could never have enough mana, especially in a dangerous situation. And his Mana Pool skill would probably not be enough if things got really bad. He also still had 6 Monster crystals to make use of. And if he did end up encountering Monsters, at least after defeating them, he’d be able to harvest more cores.
The people back at the camp were happy to receive the fruits Daniel brought back. A lot of them typically grew too high for anyone not skilled at climbing to get, and no one wanted to risk an injury to try and get them. And after confirming that they’d already eaten some, and Daniel had a spell to check if the food was edible, they were quickly gobbled up.
Daniel didn’t miss the looks of trepidation he got from some of the people at the mention of his magic, but he decided to ignore it for the moment. It was only natural to be wary of the unknown. It would only truly matter if it became something more than just wariness.
Despite many people already being awake when they reached the camp, it took a bit longer to get everyone up. Apparently getting to have full bellies for the first time in four days had tuckered many of them out and most were slow to wake. Daniel and everyone else awake decided not to rush them, as they would be in for a tough couple of days as they hiked out of the wilderness. It was for the best that they got all the rest they needed.
In the meantime, Daniel decided to make the most out of the extra time and prepare better weapons for the coming journey. While he would do his best to steer them away from Monsters, it was unlikely that they’d be able to make this trip without at least one encounter. So best to make them as prepared as he could.
Many gazes turned to Daniel as he got to work. He went to several of the trees surrounding them and cut as many large branches down as he could. He did this with glowing half-moons of mana that sliced straight through the branches. Quite the spectacle with people still very new to magic.
Afterward, he molded 50 spears from all the branches with a spell, and then attached sharp stone heads to the end of each of them. He got the stones from the ground, pulling them up from the earth with another spell.
When Daniel finished with his final spear, keeping it for himself while leaving the rest in a row for everyone else, he had drawn quite the crowd. They hadn’t been watching him the entire time, as Sapphire and Clark had been organizing everyone and their supplies for their coming trip. But as the packing of food, boiled water, and remaining supplies had finished, people had wandered over to watch him work.
It had been a bit odd being watched by so many as he worked, but he ignored the gazes and focused on the magic. Now, though, it was impossible to ignore all the curious gazes.
“Are you done,” Sapphire said, walking up to him and taking the spear from his hands with a smirk.
He rolled his eyes at her and bent down to pick another. “Yep. Fifty stone spears. Nothing amazing but will definitely work better than the wooden spears we’ve been using so far. Not just because of the stone tips, but I shaped each spear shaft so that they should be stronger.”
“Great,” Sapphire said, taking a moment to examine where the stone spearhead was secured in place by the wood itself forming around it. Much more secure than splitting the wood and using twine or string to hold it in place. “Then everyone line up and arm yourselves. Daniel’s gonna do his best to lead us around any Monsters out there but better to be safe than sorry.“
Everyone did as told for the most part, forming three lines of people to grab a spear each before making way for those behind them. Even those who’d supported Joseph yesterday had lined up as well and armed themselves, though several had glared at Daniel as they did.
Daniel did his best to ignore them.
Unfortunately, what he couldn’t ignore was Joseph. The man had grabbed a spear himself before he came over with several of his newly armed guys with him.
Daniel braced himself to see what the man wanted now and poured mana into his shield necklace just in case.
Sapphire on the other hand just looked at them calmly as they walked over. Clark, who’d noticed what was happening, grabbed Steve and made their way over as well.
“What now?” Daniel said, doing his best to sound neutral.
Joseph narrowed his eyes and his fist tightened on the spear he was holding. He stared at Daniel just long enough for it to get awkward before he continued. “Have you seen Alfred?”
Daniel kept his face neutral and his breathing calm. Internally he cursed, but he didn’t let any of that show on his face. He didn’t let himself stutter either as he spoke. While not a master of subterfuge, he also wasn’t bad at it either. He’d had to keep his cool under much worse circumstances. “Who?”
Sapphire, who was still by his side, didn’t react more than tilting her head from what he could see. Good. And kinda expected of her. She didn’t seem the kind of person to be easily caught off guard.
Joseph's glare intensified. “Oh, I think you know who I mean. Tall boring guy with brown hair. Had these stupid dumb square-looking glasses and looked like an office stooge. Ring any bells?”
“Not really,” Daniel said, frowning and tilting his head. “I’m not the best with names, and I haven’t really gone out of my way to remember everyone’s yet. Is there a reason you’re asking me about him?”
“Oh you fucking bet there is,” Joseph said, taking a step forward. “Cause no one's seen him since the day before yesterday. There were fifty of us. Now there's only 49. And you know what I think?”
“That I had something to do with it?” Daniel asked with a sigh. This was really annoying but expected.
“You're damn right I think you had something to do with it!” Joseph snarled before he went on. He went on for quite a bit throwing accusations before Sapphire cut in.
“Instead of spending all this time trying to blame Daniel,” Sapphire said, hand on her hip and with a heated glare. “Maybe we should actually be looking for this Alfred guy. Also, how long have you known about him missing? Cause if you’ve known for a while, and are just bringing it up now, it makes you the one that looks suspicious.”
“Oh, you think I’m the suspicious one?” Joseph said, meeting her glare with his own and taking a step forward. Clark and Steve took a step forward too, ready to intervene. Daniel was also ready to whip out his wand and send a low-power bolt into the guy's chest.
But Sapphire just stood her ground. “Yes. If you’ve known about someone missing and haven’t said anything until now.
After a long moment, Joseph scoffed and took a step back. “I found this out today after looking for signs of something being wrong. And surprise, surprise, I found something.”
“Alright,” Sapphire said with a nod, then she looked at Daniel. “Can you scry for this guy? See where he went and what happened to him?”
Daniel nodded at that while Joseph continued to complain. Yet Sapphire still managed to talk the man down to at least wait to see if Daniel could find the man. All the while, she argued that there would be no point in Daniel doing something like disappearing Alfred and there were plenty of other possible explanations for his disappearance. Especially with Monsters out in the forest.
She was an exceptionally good liar. Something to remember in case they were ever at odds for some reason.
Daniel resisted the urge to sigh as he continued to work. If he’d just waited, none of this would have ever happened… But at least no one was gonna suffer because of the bastard. Hopefully, the steps they took to obfuscate the death would be enough.
Daniel went through with using several different spells to scry. He didn’t actually cast most of them, just letting enough mana out to look like he did. It was only his final spell he used, the Scrying Eye, that he actually cast it as he’d need to cast it again later in front of others, and it was best that it not look different than how he did it now.
The last spell was necessary, as no one had anything of Alfred’s. Which was good since if someone had, then it would have revealed that Alfred was buried underground. That would definitely look strange and less like a monster attack and more like an attempt to hide a murder.
He wouldn’t have even mentioned the spell if it wasn’t for the fact that he might need to use it later, and someone would question why he hadn’t used it to look for Alfred.
Eventually, he led everyone interested to where he’d killed Alfred. There they found the blood tracks, along with the animal prints Daniel had left behind. He’d made it so that they went to a tree where there were claw marks leading up. It was meant to indicate the thing that had done the killing had traveled in the trees above to avoid questions as to why the prints hadn’t gone further.
After seeing this, Joseph started another round of accusations against Daniel. Thankfully they were able to argue away his lack of proof or even any reasons this could be Daniel. It also helped that most of the people who’d come, besides those with Joseph, were those who’d been following the lead of Clark and Sapphire. That kept Joseph from pulling anything and ended with him stomping off in a fury.
Daniel had wanted to be angry about this, but he just felt exhausted and annoyed instead. After all, while Joseph’s accusations were off the mark for the most part, Daniel had been the one to kill Alfred. But it was just to protect everyone from the man, instead of whatever nefarious purpose Joseph thought.
In the end, the whole ordeal took most of the morning and it was almost noon by the time they made it back to camp. Not ideal, but they still had time to make quite some distance before they ran out of sunlight. There were still some things that they needed to cover before heading out, but it was still doable to leave today. Which would be better than waiting another day and potentially giving people time to get cold feet.
Once they got back to camp, they rounded everyone up to discuss the upcoming trip. Sapphire and Clark led the discussion, as they’d already planned things out with Daniel yesterday. They went over the expected dangers, and made sure to emphasize the fact that Daniel would be doing his best to lead everyone away from danger but encounters with monsters could still happen.
Sapphire made sure to reassure the more reticent members that their large numbers, new spears, and guns would keep them safe, as long as everyone stayed and worked together. They even went over the basic formations that they’d tried to form if an attack came to make the most out of their large numbers and spears.
Considering how it went when they tried to practice it, it was unlikely that they’d be able to do it easily when it counted. Many people had seen this too and had made their worries known. Some louder and more aggressive than others.
If they had more time to practice and train, then perhaps it would have been less of an issue. But the more days they stayed out here, the more Monsters that would be in the way. It wouldn’t be as big of an issue if they’d been going straight north, but they need to head east first to avoid Lord Caminus. So leaving as soon as possible was a necessity.
In the end, as it seemed like some people might try and decide to stay, Daniel conjured up an illusion with a very rough map of the area. On that map, he displayed all the monsters he could scry from here, and what he could remember from his scrying yesterday. It showed just how many monsters were slowly returning to the area.
It hadn’t been enough to convince everyone, especially not Joseph’s group, but had been enough for the majority.
Afterward, It was decided that they’d eat lunch before setting out, which ended up turning into an impromptu meeting as people decided to ask more questions at lunch. A lot of it was directed to Daniel, and most of it was people who wanted reassurances of their safety and what Daniel could do to protect them.
Daniel did his best to assuage people's worries as he ate and soon they were ready to leave.
Everyone was carrying some of their of boiled water, the remains of their jerky, whatever else they brought with them from Earth, as well as one of the new stone spears. They were as ready as they were ever going to be, and despite some doubts still apparent, they set out to begin their journey.
As they departed, Daniel gave a quick prayer to the gods that the journey would go smoothly.
When a sudden chill seemed to run up his spine, as if in answer, he couldn’t help but curse.