Chapter 9:
In the end, despite Jessy stomping off and Sapphire following along, both girls came back without anyone else. They did spend more than a couple of minutes back over at the camp though, seemingly to talk to some people, but they were too far for Daniel to make out who it was. They also came back with some containers of water.
Sapphire took a sip out of one, then handed it to Daniel. “Pretended like we forgot to bring drinks.”
Daniel took it, and cast a quick spell on the water, before taking a drink. Then he handed it back.
That earned him a raised eyebrow from Sapphire.
“Just a poison detection spell.”
“Really?” Jessy said, sounding annoyed as she passed her bottle to Nathan who took it with a smile.
“Yeah. You two just went off and said who knows what? Maybe you told everyone, and decided the best way to take out the scary mage was to poison him.”
“And yet I drank it first,” Sapphire said slowly. “Which, you know, should have been an indication that it was safe.”
“Never can be too careful,” Daniel said with a shrug. “Maybe you had an antidote.”
That earned him a roll of her eyes as Sapphire sat down. "Right. Cause I'd just have that lying on me. Or anyone else around here would."
Jessy huffed and crossed her arms, but sat down as well. She was next to Sapphire and as far from Daniel as she could be without looking strange. “Whatever. You passed the test, I guess. Or you're so confident that you can brainwash us all. Or blast us with your evil magics.”
“Do you honestly believe any of that?” Daniel asked, mostly sure he already knew the answer to the question. “Like, you're not super religious and think I’m a witch or something?”
That earned him an exaggerated pout and a glare.
“Okay, okay,” Sapphire said, sounding exasperated. Seemed like she finally had enough. “You said you wanted to test him, too, Jessy. You’ve done that now. Can we move on? I want to get back to learning about this world. And about magic. We can continue to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t try anything, but at some point, we have to decide whether to offer up some trust or not.”
Jessy continued to glare for a moment before she blew out a breath and slumped. “Fine. Go on.”
“Thank you,” Sapphire said, before turning back to Daniel expectantly.
Daniel pushed back any annoyance he might have felt and decided to continue. It’s not like he could really blame Jessy for being wary or cautious. And if she needed to act exaggeratedly antagonistic to get over any fear she might feel, then he could bear with it.
“Okay, back on topic… Ugh, where did I leave off?”
“You were talking about how we’re in a Monster-infested wilderness that’s gonna get worse soon,” Nathan supplied helpfully. “And probably how we're gonna deal with that. Hopefully anyway. You’ve got a plan, right?”
Daniel gave a so-so gesture with his hand. “Kinda. I have ideas but not a definitive plan just yet. I know where we are in rough relation to where the nearest kingdom is, and other things in the area. As for fine details, I can make up for them with scrying. The main issue is deciding where to go.
“You see, right now we are a couple of days travel into the southern wilderness frontier of the Tarnith Kingdom. To the direct north of us is the county of Caminus. Also as you can see from here, south and to the west are a large range of mountains. Barbaric tribes endure rough harsh lives up there, creating a place for themselves up there, despite not having the strength to remove the Monsters from the region. Alongside them are primitive Yeti tribes that they often war with. Who are also not monsters, by the way. Yetis are more primitive than the mountain tribes, who are human, but they can be reasoned with.”
“And Monsters can’t be?” Jessy asked. Her wariness was still there, just under the surface, but the look of curiosity on her face seemed genuine.
“They can’t. I’ll explain that at a later time. For now, know that Monster isn’t just a term for animals and races we don’t like. They are wild beyond any animals and can’t be reasoned with, even if some of them are as intelligent as people.”
“So what’s wrong with the Tarnith Kingdom,” Sapphire asked before he could continue. “Since the mountain tribes sound rather terrible, yet you're undecided as to where we should go, I’m assuming that the Tarnith Kingdom is equally bad?”
Daniel bit his lip as he took a second to gather his thoughts. “They aren’t equally bad… And I think we should probably end up heading there. Approaching the mountain tribes in such a large group might cause issues, and if not then I’d have to leave most of you alone and head up there myself to negotiate safe passage. But going to Tarnith… we shouldn’t take a direct route north or else things could get pretty bad. This next part. Regardless of what you decide later, I think we should keep this to ourselves. At least for now. Like just the four of us. Unless we really have to. Just so it doesn’t get out that we know, or else it will cause more problems.”
Daniel looked to Sapphire to see if she would agree.
She shrugged. “It depends on what this secret is.”
“Fair enough,” Daniel said with a sigh. Then he continued to explain the absolute mess that was hidden within the Tarnith kingdom. Well, most of it. He kept the worst part for last.
He told them of the demonic cult that hid there, and the general dangers of demons and their cultists. He also told them of the County of Caminus to their direct north, and how they’d need to avoid it as it was ruled by a cultist. Finally, he started to tell them about the cult’s particular interest in them if they ever found out a certain fact.
“Why?” Jessy asked, voicing a question they were probably all wondering.
“It has to do with the title we got when we were summoned into this world. You can see it on your status if you haven’t checked. The trait is called Integrity of Soul. It makes it so that a demon can’t devour or corrupt your soul, as long as you don’t allow it access. Something you should all remember,” Daniel said, giving a very serious look to each of the three. “Souls are mostly inviolable, but powerful demons can overcome that. They CAN'T for us regardless of your level. So if the unthinkable happens, and you are ever captured. RESIST! Regardless of what they do to your physical form, what they threaten. As long as you resist, then they can’t harm the most important part of you.”
Daniel made sure to make eye contact with each of them again. To make sure they understood the seriousness of this. He wished he could tell the rest of the people from Earth this, but they wouldn’t take him seriously at all if he did. At least, most of them wouldn’t.
“I realize that if you weren’t particularly religious back on Earth, this might sound a bit strange. But souls are very real. Provably so in this world with magic. And in the end, you are your soul. Your brain and body matter, but at the end of the day, the soul is obviously the most important thing. I really, really want to emphasize this.”
He waited another long moment for everyone to process that before he continued. He then explained how the strength that Integrity of Soul gave them would be very valuable to demons if they could break them. And it was that fact that would make the cult extremely interested.
Of course, right after that, he made sure to reassure them that the cult in Tarnith didn’t know of their ability yet. And that they’d need to do some extreme examinations or sacrifice them to figure it out. Otherworlders were still new to this era, and there were few of them in the grand scheme of things. Only demonic cults would be interested in their ability, and the various cults around the world were very secretive. Even amongst themselves, they did not share easily, in spite of them working towards the same end.
Despite Daniel's attempt at reassurance, though, no one spoke for a moment after he finished. Jessy looked very worried and Nathan’s brow was furrowed in concern.
“Do you know how widespread the cult is in Tarnith?” Sapphire asked, breaking the silence. “And if it’s really bad, isn’t it worth setting up defenses here, and then you go negotiate with the tribes? Instead of risking going near people that would chase us so relentlessly?”
“Well the danger in Tarnith is only that extreme if they learn the truth about us,” Daniel said neutrally. He honestly didn’t like the idea, but he didn’t want to discount it either. “Not just the fact that we are Otherworlders, which will be pretty much impossible to hide, but the fact that we have Integrity of Soul and what that means. If we can keep that a secret, then the danger is much more manageable.
“As for how widespread they are…” Daniel hesitated before continuing. “Well, I have a pretty good idea about the major players that have been subverted by the cult. I don’t have a perfect list, but I know of places where we’d be safe from the cult for sure. At least for a time. And in that time, we could get our people trained up and able to defend ourselves. Right now, as we are, we’d be in danger just traveling through even the safer nations in this world. Let alone trying to make the trip to the mountain tribes. That danger is not to be underestimated, and is why despite the dangers of the cult, Tarnith is still an option.”
“So the choice is between more possible danger now and less danger later, or the reverse,” Sapphire said, frowning.
“Pretty much,” Daniel said. “But going to the tribes is a guaranteed danger. While we have a decent chance at keeping the Integrity of Soul thing hidden until we are strong enough to leave Tarnith. Like I said before, unless a cultist captures one of us, it's unlikely that they’ll figure anything out. Though… there is one more thing you should know about Tarnith…”
Daniel hesitated for a moment, then decided to just spit it out. “I know for a fact that the king, as well as the queen, and the prince, are cultists too.”
Three pairs of incredulous eyes stared at him.
He gave a helpless shrug. Then he went on to explain why going to Tarnith was still not complete suicide. As he did, explaining about the faction that worked against the royal family, as well as the neutrality of the adventurer association, he even started to convince himself. Kinda. It was workable, but at the same time, his memories of Tarnith made him dislike going there and doubt the idea.
Finding patronage under various organizations that even the king couldn’t walk all over was definitely possible with what they could offer in terms of knowledge from Earth. There were already plenty of rumors about Otherworlders out there, and what knowledge they could bring. That would be a decent bargaining chip, and Daniel also knew some things that could be used to earn some goodwill.
But if things went wrong again… It could be pretty bad. Then again, even as strong as they were when they tried to escape to the mountain tribes the first time around, they’d almost all died. So really, was that option any better?
He just wasn’t sure.
After Daniel finished, the four of them sat in silence for a long moment. He was waiting to see how they’d react and if they had any ideas. They were probably taking it all in, and seeing if they could figure out a solution.
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In the end, Nathan was the one to speak first. “Well… I’ve given it a lot of thought. And I think I’ve figured it out.”
Daniel raised a skeptical eyebrow. Nathan was far from dumb, but was there really a good solution that he’d missed?
“Yep,” Nathan said, grinning. “I’ve figured out… That we’re kinda fucked.”
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They spent the rest of the dinner throwing around ideas and asking more questions about their options. But in the end, they didn’t fully come down to a decision. However, it did seem like they were leaning towards going to Tarnith in the end. At least there they could be able to gather strength before running into some real trouble.
Daniel still wasn’t all that enthused about the idea, even if it might be the practical option.
As the sun finished setting over the horizon, and the sky fully darkened, the four of them decided that they would discuss things more tomorrow instead. Maybe some time to think would generate some ideas.
Before they split up though, Sapphire once again made Daniel promise that he would start teaching her magic soon.
Jessy on the other hand, asked if he would be able to keep any Monsters from attacking them at night. The huffy bravado she’d shown had disappeared as they talked, and she was back to being a bit wary and nervous. However, more of that nervousness was directed towards a potential Monster attack than Daniel himself.
From what he’d remembered, they hadn’t been attacked the second night, but he wouldn’t rely on that to keep them safe. He’d do some scrying to see if there were any Monsters nearby or seemed to be headed in their direction. If there were, he’d deal with them. And this time, he at least wouldn’t have to worry about Nathan finding out about him slipping away as he did.
Jessy was relieved to hear that, and despite her reservations, thanked him sincerely for keeping them safe before heading off with Sapphire.
Once they got back to camp, Daniel was ready to “go to sleep” already. Unfortunately for him, several other people disagreed with that and tried to drag him and Nathan off to discuss his “date” with Sapphire. They were, of course, a group of guys. Some were curious and eager for gossip like a bunch of schoolgirls, while others were jealous and confrontational.
It had taken far more time than he would have liked to deny and dismiss the budding rumors and accusations. That effort hadn’t been helped by him being unable to come up with a good excuse at first. Just why exactly would he need to have a relatively private conversation with Sapphire?
Well, in the end, he had decided to pretend like they had known each other back on Earth and were just catching up, now that the camp was a little better situated and she was less busy. Not everyone believed that, but they didn’t know enough to contradict him. Hopefully Sapphire wouldn’t contradict that before they had a chance to talk again.
He’d also made sure to outright say that they weren’t dating or romantically involved whatsoever.
Besides not wanting the animosity of the guys very obviously smitten with the beautiful young woman, Daniel himself was one hundred percent not interested. One year struggling mostly alone and trying to not think about his lost love and friends was not nearly enough for him to be ready for a new relationship. Combined with the fact that now his losses had turned into something far more complicated, and he was in no mood to entertain thoughts of romance.
That wasn’t even taking into account the fact that Sapphire was very unlikely to be interested. He’d won over one beautiful woman far out of his league once in his life, and he doubted he’d luck into that again.
With that pack of overly curious guys taken care of, Daniel had finally been able to beg off and “go to sleep.” Sleeping early wasn’t unusual for their group as long as you weren’t assigned to the night watch. With fire being their only source of light, and nothing besides talking and maybe singing for entertainment, along with the fear of what could be out there in the woods at night, many people chose to just sleep so they could do more tomorrow. Though there were probably many who decided they would rather sleep and forget about their terrible situation for a while.
Daniel, of course, didn’t actually go to sleep. Instead, after a quick whispered conversation with Nathan to let him know he was going, and what kind of illusion he was putting where he was sleeping, he cast his spells and snuck out of camp again.
Much to his relief, after he cast Detect Creatures, he found that there weren’t any Monsters close enough to the camp to cause problems. There also didn’t seem to be any more Monsters further away heading towards their camp. That was good.
Though he knew it wouldn’t last. Monsters would continue to return to the region as time went on and soon their camp would get attacked on the regular. The scouting groups would only be able to scout northwards as more monsters came. The majority of them would end up hemmed into their increasingly more fortified camp, hoping that their new classes and levels would be enough to allow them to survive.
It would be a mess if they stayed too long, even with him here.
And then there was also the goblin issue. Something twinged at the back of his mind about them… Something noteworthy. But he couldn’t recall it. Frustratingly, it felt important but he just couldn’t pin down what he’d forgotten.
The whole group was wiped out this time, so that should’ve been the end of the goblin menace. Except for the fact that they’d been heading straight for the camp as if drawn by the summoning. And while he didn’t remember any more goblins appearing, just the same ones harassing them again and again as they failed to kill them, he couldn’t help but worry at the strange behavior.
Briefly, he considered going south to where they seemed to have come from. In the end, though, he threw that idea away. He wanted to know what was going on with them, and perhaps check on the dungeon or dungeons that they must have come from. But that could cause an even larger issue.
Whatever drew them here might just be a one-time result of the summoning. Or it might not be and if he accidentally drew more into range they would head on over. And that was not something he wanted to deal with.
Not if he could help it. He’d keep an eye out in that direction, in case any more goblins wandered into range, but that was it.
In the meantime, he needed to work on trying to level more by practicing his magic and making better use of all those Monster crystals he collected.
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The next day Daniel woke up rather groggily. He’d stayed up a lot later than he probably should have. Part of the reason was because he wanted to do some actual enchanting and other magical work.
His crummy little pseudo-wands were truly abysmal, being unreliable, wasteful, and not all that strong. Their only advantages had been letting him cast force bolt spells quickly, instead of the several seconds it would take for him to cast it normally, as well as using mana from monster crystals instead of his own supply. But that was it. In all other regards, they were pure trash.
What he managed to create last night was… well… still not great. If he showed it to an actual Mage, they’d figure him to be some kind of bumpkin hedge wizard using only the lowest quality ingredients. But, it was better than those pseudo-wands. And it could be considered an actual wand.
At least the system agreed as he’d unlocked the Basic Enchanting skill. Not really all that useful to him right now, as he knew a lot more than what Basic Enchanting gave in terms of knowledge, but it did make enchanting easier overall. Even if it was only by a bit. Skills labeled Basic didn’t have too strong of an effect, even when the skills were connected to a high-level class. With him still being rather low-level, the effect was even more minor. But every little bit helped.
While the wand was an embarrassment, it would at least let him cast force bolts without the risk of it breaking and without using much of his own mana. Most important of all, the Monster crystals wouldn’t break due to instability, letting a lot of the mana go to waste.
Making that wand wasn’t the only reason he stayed up late, though. One of the other reasons was to keep an eye out for Monsters. Despite the results of his initial scry, and his future knowledge, part of him couldn’t help but worry that if he slept too soon he’d miss something important.
In the end, though, it had turned out to be a pointless worry. He’d found no hints of issues each time he scryed through the night, and nothing had attacked the camp when he eventually went to sleep.
So he’d kind of made himself tired for no reason. Well, at least he now had a wand that wouldn’t explode in his hand. That was something at least. Especially given that the only other weapon he would have on hand would be a sharpened stick. Perhaps he should make a better spear and find a place to hide it?
As he followed Sapphire into the forest, Jessy to her side, and Nathan to his own, he couldn’t help but want to say screw it and go back to bed. He wasn’t in the mood for talking about things right now. Or teaching. Or whatever else.
He missed being at a high level. While his constitution hadn’t been as amazing as a Warrior-type Class, being a high enough level in any Class made things like lack of sleep a lot less of an issue. That was something else he’d have to get used to until he was at a higher level again.
The worst thing about it all was that Sapphire was an early riser. And some time and some sleep had not dampened her desire to learn magic. She’d come to him first thing and then dragged him and Nathan off with Jessy in tow. They told the others who were awake that they would start foraging early, since, despite their best efforts, feeding 50 people was not an easy task.
That had still gotten him some dirty looks from some of the guys from last night who’d been awake. He really hoped that that wouldn’t develop into an issue in the future, but for the moment, Daniel was too tired to care.
And hungry. They’d left without eating, as it had been decided that meals would be a communal affair and people hadn’t all woken yet. The reason for that was so it was obvious that food was being split evenly with everyone, and to prevent complaints about people stealing food or getting more than others.
Might seem like something rather trivial, but people could get pretty crazy about food in a survival situation. Back on Earth, Daniel remembered there was a saying about that. Something about how people were only nine meals from anarchy or something? From his decade of experience, occasionally in much less prosperous places, he could say that that was very true.
So he didn’t begrudge whoever came up with the idea… much…
After probably fifteen minutes of walking, Daniel noticed something in the trees above. He perked up at the sight of them and stopped in his tracks.
Nathan noticed first and gave him a quizzical look but Daniel just smiled. Then, after a brief look to make sure no one else was around, he cast the cantrip Mage Hand. Not very strong at all, being only able to lift up to five pounds. But it was plenty enough to pluck some fruits from the tree above.
“Oh cool,” Nathan said after he noticed the red fruit fly down from above into Daniel's waiting hand. Then he perked up further as another one came down and into his hand. “Thanks, man. What is it?”
“It’s a Ranley,” Daniel said, casting a quick Cleaning Cantrip on it before taking a bite. Sweet and sour juices burst into his mouth as he bit into the crisp skin and then the much more delicate flesh beneath. A bit more ripe than he’d like, but it tasted really good. Though that might have just been how hungry he was. Skipping breakfast and a rather modest dinner the night before hadn’t helped with such things. “Kind of like a mix between an apple and a plum in terms of flavor.”
“Cool,” Nathan said again, peering at the fruit. It was red, round and almost had a glossy sheen to it. The inside, however, was green like a kiwi. He took a bite and hummed as he chewed before swallowing. “Pretty good.”
Daniel hummed in agreement as he continued to eat. Then he turned and pretended to just notice the two gazes looking at him. One was expectant. The other was rather unamused.
“What?” Daniel asked, innocently.
Jessy pouted, while Sapphire continued to give him an unamused look.
“Fine, hold on,” Daniel said, in faux exasperation. Then he cast the telekinetic spell again.
This time though, he split his focus and tried pulling both objects at once. It was much harder than it should have been. Though how much of that was him now lacking the skills to help with things like that, and how much of that was his body and his brain not having been trained, he didn’t know. It was just another thing he’d have to work on. A bit frustrating, but worth the price for a second chance.
Two more Ranleys floated down from above, wobbling slightly as Daniel concentrated on keeping control of the spell.
Once they were close enough, both girls grabbed one, and Daniel sighed as he canceled the spell. He could feel the strain in the form of a slight headache that was already starting to disappear.
“Is that spell that difficult,” Sapphire said, rubbing the fruit on her shirt as she looked at him intently.
“Not really,” Daniel said, shrugging. “But splitting my focus made it harder. It’s just something that needs practice to get better at. Anyway, do you have someplace in mind to find some privacy? Or were you just gonna lead us as far as we can go and hope no one comes in this direction?”
“My plan was gonna be the latter unless you have a better idea,” Sapphire said, before taking a small bite out of the fruit. Her eyes widened a bit as she tasted it, looking surprised at its flavor.
“I do,” Daniel said, nodding. “We’re far enough away already. I’ll just do some scrying to find a good place. Then I’ll set up some temporary illusion magic to keep the area private. That will save us a lot more time than trying to get far enough from the camp.”
Sapphire nodded at that as she took another bite of her fruit.
Jessy on the other hand had already finished hers. “That sounds great. Before that, though, can I have another? Or maybe two more? Actually, let's just take all of them with us. I doubt anyone else can grab those anyway. Ugh… if you don’t mind that is.”
Daniel just smiled at the girl's initial enthusiasm and nodded, “Sure.”
He chose not to focus on the hesitation she’d shown at the end, as if remembering who she was talking to. It's not like he could blame her for it. Ten years ago, Daniel would have been equally hesitant about someone who’d killed, even if there’d been a reason for it.