Chapter 30 — Horror Hounds (Part III)
Toren gazed up at the plaster ceiling above the sturdy bed he was lying on.
Camping in the jungle and having any of Warnel’s exhausted family share the overnight watch?
Really, Toren didn’t know what he was thinking to take a crafter family from tier-1 Greenvale out into a tier-2 jungle without proper rest or even the slightest bit of training. If they had been any slower and missed the chance to meet up with Joric…
Admittedly, as had come up during the dinner, staying in town was also dangerous, but even if the area close to town was somewhat safe, his intended plan—especially if they had missed the chance to purchase a pair of horror hounds as recommended by Alchemist Nalrevin—would have put the Hatterswick family in terrible danger. Assuming they managed any sleep and safely arrived at the orchard the following evening, there would still be the task of clearing the property of dangers—dangers that killed the previous family living there.
Doubly fortunate was that Falma seemed to take to the hounds. Toren had been worried from the way the [Alchemist] had described the creepy dogs and their actual appearance that the Hatterswicks would have found them too disgusting to have around, much less care for.
Joric and his siblings were eager to show Falma the stables and how to get the Skills needed to raise and handle the dogs. With Falma’s beauty and open personality, it was easy enough to see that the boys were interested in her. Not that Toren could blame them or Joric’s parents. With the talk of a shortage of women on the frontier, marriage prospects for the boys were likely few and far between.
Likewise, the older brothers had also initially shown interest in Laiya, sharing tales of jungle hunts and adventures, but found her apathy off-putting, maybe mistaking it for disinterest… or maybe it was the black catechism filled with dark vellum scrawled with blood-red letters that she was reading when resting during weapons training…
Haah, who was he kidding? It was definitely the girl’s new religion. He was sure she noticed the way the boys’ almost comical attempts to show-off cooled. Not a bad thing, really. Laiya probably needed time to work through everything that happened to her, and as he saw it, there was little risk of a future where she faced life alone unless she chose that herself.
At least, the weapons training had gone… not terrible. As with her parents, Laiya had both a [Cutting] Skill and the [Sure Cut] Ability—for cutting fabric and ingredients, the girl was quick to assert—that made her surprisingly dangerous with any edged weapon, and particularly so with the dead [Nightblade]’s enchanted blade. The Ability had been a factor in choosing a sharp leaf-headed spear for her over something sturdier.
It was yet again a reminder that anyone could become an unexpected danger when Skills and Abilities were involved. Toren was glad he had caught her father by surprise with that punch. A more serious fight might have left his armor damaged and him with more wounds to heal or worse.
That said, Laiya’s footwork and spear strikes were clumsy to the point that when not using [Sure Cut], she was just as likely to harm her allies and herself as the target dummy. The limited time firmly in mind, Toren had focused Laiya’s training on positional awareness and basic two-handed strikes.
The boys’ skill with archery on the other hand was very impressive, maybe even better than Toren’s own. Adding in their eagerly demonstrated Abilities, [Piercing Strike] and [Bull’s Eye], made them both well worth hiring even without the accompanying pack of hounds.
As far as armor went, his group was in as good a shape as could be expected. The gambesons purchased for Falma and Emina paired with a helm would protect them from most tier-1 beast attacks long enough for him or the others to get to them. When training under Sellim, Toren had been plenty surprised by how well the heavy layered cloth provided protection even against swords, at least until Abilities and enchanted weapons were brought to bear.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
For himself, Warnel, and Laiya, more serious protection was required and Toren agreed with Marton about armor with metal plates being a necessity. Obviously, the fancy articulated plate armor that nobles wore wasn’t a practical consideration for reasons of price and the jungle environment, but brigandine was ideal. With the individual plates stitched between the layers of cloth, it allowed for decent mobility and protection while still being quiet. It also had the advantage of the overlaps and gaps in the plates not being visible for ‘lucky’ stabs.
Though Toren called his prized armor ‘leather armor’, the leather was mainly there for protecting the inner layers of cloth and metal plates from water, blood, sweat, and such. Even with expensive alchemical treatments, beast hide would be unlikely to stop attacks from predators with Abilities that let them hunt other beasts.
And even as good as it was, the leather brigandine armor hadn’t been enough to save Yana and the guys from the locust swarm. The only real safety was with enchanted armors which they couldn’t afford—that, or reaching tier-2 when the mana began to naturally strengthen the body.
With Marton and Bessimi both tier-2, their strength went a long way toward explaining how they survived encounters by tier-2 beasts and criminal opportunists to thrive and build a family in this jungle.
Whether he could get strong enough fast enough to do the same…
Toren’s gaze went to the arm-sized metal tube now tied to his pack, a single-use enchanted device—a signal beacon—that the local steaders used to call for help from each other. Marton had sold it to them cheap thanks to Warnel’s negotiation effort. According to what he had been told, it would make a loud noise that tended to scare off jungle fauna and cast a beam of light into the sky.
Though Toren had formed an initial opinion of Warnel as incompetent and unserious, when it came to buying and selling, the man was surprisingly skilled, showing the right balance of impressed respect for the hound-raising family’s effort and results, piqued interest, and reluctance, garnering a much better price for the needed hounds and training than expected.
That wasn’t all. After seeing the sad state of Laiya’s weapon Skills and skill, Bessimi insisted they stay an extra day to train how to use the hounds.
They didn’t have unlimited time because Toren had already paid the deposit and scheduled an enchanter to come out to his new property, hopefully within a few days—apparently, traveling by tier-2 raptor or such, his property was only a couple of hours out. Assuming success at claiming the orchard, they’d also need to acquire such mounts for themselves if they didn’t want to live isolated from the town and its amenities.
Expenses after expenses. Toren’s life story.
Regardless, that meant even though Toren now readily accepted that his initial plan had been stupid, he couldn’t afford to delay too much more than that. Letting out an exhausted sigh and closing his eyes, he suspected sleep wouldn’t be far off after such a long day. Without a doubt, he would need all the rest he could get now while he could.
~~~
Name: Toren of Theravos
Race: Human
Age: 20
Profession 1: Level 2 Burningblood Berserker (1700/3000)
Status: Injured (Weakened collarbone: mending), Mild Soulstrain
Mana: 16/29
Strength: 16
Constitution: 12
Dexterity: 14
Agility: 12
Wisdom: 12
Intellect: 8
Will Power: 17
Perception 14
Appearance: 8
Charisma: 8
Luck: 10
Attribute Upgrade Points: 1
Traits:
Sacrificial Guardian
Abilities:
Burning Blood (Rank 1) Proficiency: Low
Slow Bleeding (Rank 1) Proficiency: Low
Ability Upgrade Points: 1
Profession Skills:
Pain Tolerance 4
Severe Wound Recovery 3
Berserker Knife Arts 1 → 2
Spear 9
Club 8
Focus Rage 1
Combat Awareness 3
Intimidate 2
Skills:
Theravos Language (Speaking) 15
Theravos Language (Reading/Writing) 10
Religion 10
Meditation 5
Bone Strengthening 3
Hunting 20
Butchering 13
Archery 19
Stealth 17
Arithmetic 4
Foraging 16
Tree Felling 6
Running 12
Mana Sensing 14
Danger Sensing 1
Wound Binding 8