The team were driving along the ring road of the lake. All the locals in the region knew better than to come near the lake for hundreds of miles. The Bahamut was a diamond rank monster that was sleeping at the bottom of the lake hadn’t stirred in over fifty years, through multiple monster surges and they were keen to keep it that way. The Adventure Society tasked no less than three gold rank adventurers to patrol their sections of the lake perimeter to not only keep away any who would disturb the monster but to keep an eye on the lake for any sign it was waking to summon multiple diamond rank adventurers to deal with it, the longer it slept the more the Magic Society began to question its power even for a diamond rank monster. The diving villages that spotted the coastline were heavily regulated to make sure they were sanitised of any unwanted magical stimulus, the value of the material coming out of the lake was too much to not be harvested.
This lead to the team having an incredibly peaceful journey free of any complications. The gold rankers took care of any monsters of any rank around the lake to make sure they didn’t go near.
It was a rarity then that the team found themselves facing a small herd of lesser monsters in front of them. They weren’t hard to deal with, they were small bipedal dinosaurs, being lesser monsters they were more like large lean chickens without the feathers and sharp spiky teeth in their beaks.
They used the Serenity to chase them off the road and into the brush away from the lake, using spears from storage on the top deck to take them out without using magic so close to the lake. Teddy was showing the value of all of his practice with his knives as he pinned the monsters to the floor again and again. They all had multiple weapons training from the academy annex and even though it may not be their specialities they trained relentlessly in all disciplines and they all used this as good practice with moving targets.
They had finished with the monsters and Teddy had rounded them all up into a pile, retrieving all of their weapons into a separate pile covered in monster blood.
“Well is it safe to loot them?” James asked. “I don’t really want to take those weapons back on board for the blood to evaporate into monster smoke in a few hours.”
“I’m not sure, I don’t think it counts as a magic power, its a racial gift, the magic is in the monsters themselves thats breaking down, but as a quantity of magic added to the area its already here so I would say it should be safe?” Lucy said.
“Is it a risk we want to take for loot from lesser monsters?” Teddy asked.
“The question is does it make a difference?” Lucy added. “They’ll break down in a few hours anyway and this conversation was for naught”
“Just so.” A deep voice came from above them.
They all looked up in surprise. Seeing a colourful rectangular carpet flapping in the mild breeze with a man sat cross legged on it. The carpet was just big enough for the man and tilted at a severe angle so that he could look down over them, looking impossible that he could sit without slipping off. The carpet descended to the ground next to them and he stepped off. He was dressed in the same colourful blooming silks that Firenze had worn. His dark skin along with his clothes suggested they were from a similar area.
“Well met Mitchells, my name is Yaraballah, Firenze has told you to expect me?”
[Oh let’s not have any drama again.] Teddy put on the interface.
“Good to meet you sir, my name is Theodore, this is my monogamous wife Kyra and this is my brother James and his monogamous wife Lucy.”
Finistrey looked at him quizzically at the odd introduction and cracked a smile, then startled a low rumbling chortle.
“I take it my brother from our homeland is walking around beardless these days again?”
“Yes sir.” Kyra said.
“Not the first time and I doubt it will be the last! He is a good man, and a lot of love in his heart that he is all too keen to share. Please accept my apologies from my people on his behalf again, I take it if he is beardless and not with you that you were satisfied with his weregild?”
“We were, but why would he be with us if we weren’t?” Teddy said.
“Because if you found the weregild to not be the equal of the grievance than he would have sworn himself to you, such is the depth of the gesture. He would have served until the remorse was forgiven.”
The team chewed on that for a moment realising they almost had a gold rank asset attached to the team.
“There was no need, the weregild was unasked for and incredibly generous, his apology, especially from a gold ranker, would have been more than enough.” Kyra said diplomatically.
“Well, let me see if I can improve your opinion of my people further by aiding you in your quest. My replacement is here and she is working the far side of this section at the moment but is content to relieve me. Firenze explained your quest and where you need to get to, I have an acquaintance who is travelling the wastelands to the north, I can take you to him and he can take you almost all the way to the town you seek. But I must warn you, he is an independent gold ranker, one of few who is not bound to the adventure society, he is a friend of mine from old and will aid me as a favour.”
Teddy spoke for the team, they had already spent a lot of time talking about the opportunity.
“It’s worth it, if you trust him then we’ll do it. We’re being pursued by a foe we don’t understand and traversing the wasteland sounds like a good way to lose them.”
“Trust him is maybe a stretch but he has his own sense of honour and he will not steal from you or kill you out of hand.”
[What a glowing recommendation.] Kyra said on the team chat.
[Still better than getting ambushed on the long way round.] Teddy said.
“There is no time like the present if we are to rendezvous with him where I think he may be, he is a two day flight from where we are.” Yaraballah said.
“Flight? Sir we cannot collapse our vehicle stores the cargo which is resistant to dimensional storage.” Lucy explained.
“Oh, that is not a problem.” The gold ranker said, then gestured at the magic carpet on the sandy soil next to him. It rapidly grew, flattening the brush around it and even pushing over a tree and expanding over it without showing a ripple in the fabric.
Within moments it was big enough that the Serenity could easily sit atop it.
“Please, if you wouldn’t mind driving your vehicle on top? Firenze has boasted of the comfort inside your craft and I would be honoured to experience it for myself.”
Instead of going up to the top deck, which would have been a simple jump with his bronze rank attributes and powers, Teddy moved to the bow of the Serenity, he went to an inconspicuous part of the crystal outer and opened a seamless panel. Inside were a few controls which he used to remotely move the vehicle forward onto the extended magic carpet. He closed the panel after walking all the way round to make sure he was on with every wheel and made his way to the back to meet the others.
“Do we need to strap it down or anything?” He asked the gold ranker who had been talking to Lucy about the construction.
“No no no, nothing that I don’t want to will fall off this unless I desire it.”
“Well then, would you like the tour?” Lucy asked.
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They took him up the back. They showed him the two buggies that folded up like origami and stored seamlessly into the walls either side of the drop deck. They didn’t go up the central stairs to the middle deck but took him into the quarters, they showed him the workshop that had been a spare cabin and the other spare cabin that was currently being used to store the cargo that he then inspected and approved of. They moved to the bow and went up the internal stairs to the middle deck, coming out into the front seating area. It had wide plush seating that encouraged the occupants to sit and watch the scenery roll by from the wide windows that the crystal formed, they could be set to any amount of transparency from the inside but perfectly opaque from the outside giving privacy. He was impressed by the kitchen and the amount of amenities packed into the space, it wasn’t small as the vehicle was luxurious in size and it would be welcome in any home. As they got to the rear of the middle deck and the dining area he complimented the team on their decor, he took special interest in the ornate dagger. Teddy had used his knowledge of woodworking to mount it to a slice of wood, it still had the bark on the edges and he had sliced it at an angle to show plenty of it, he had used a dark shiny varnish to finish it to better highlight the dagger that Lucy had magically mounted to it. Kyra had given it pride of place on the wall. Yaraballah touched the hilt of his own dagger at his waist and nodded his head to the decoration before they took him out back and up the twin flanking staircases to the top deck. Once they had shown him the wheelhouse they all stood on the front of the top deck looking out.
“Thankyou, the longevity and privilege of gold rank has allowed me to see some truly marvellous things, your vessel is definitely among them. On that note I hope to show you at the start of your adventuring journey some marvels of my own.”
He raised both of his arms and the carpet, with the Serenity on board, rose off the floor and started climbing into the air and moving forwards. They soon left the ground far below with the Mitchells leant on the edge of the ship looking down. They were taken by surprise as they were misted with water from the clouds around them.
“Might I suggest we adjourn to below-deck?” Yaraballah said. “Having made my vessel as large to take yours it is unwise to travel so low and we will encounter much more cloud.”
They descended the stairs at the rear to the middle deck and closed the doors behind them. They sat on the front benches and looked at the world pass by beneath them in comfort. James brought over a tray of drinks and Kyra a plate of snacks from the kitchen.
“Sir, how long do you suppose it will take to reach the wastelands?” Teddy asked.
“Oh a day or two to pass the rainforests, then we must find him wherever he may be then negotiate passage with Baboa.”
“Negotiate?”
“Yes, as he is not in the society it means we cannot simply ask him to take you across the wasteland. But it also means that he cannot access certain facilities invaluable to a gold ranker that he must trade for, and that gives us the leverage to ask him for what we want.”
Teddy and Kyra movies into the kitchen, they were approaching evening and it was their turn to make dinner.
“So what is your flavour Mr Yaraballah?” Lucy asked.
“It’s just Ballah, please. We are on your vessel and I am your guest. I assume by your colloquialism that you are asking what sort of powers I have. I am a familiar and summons specialist.”
“Oh really? I haven’t seen any.”
“Over my long career I have long lamented the failed opportunity to have a familiar, I however am fortunate enough to have three bonded familiars and a plethora of summons I can call up, I made it my life’s work to better understand these powers and have developed a powerful stratagem with them.”
“As a solo adventurer or as part of a team?” Lucy probed.
“Ah a good question to ask someone in my position I think! Yes being a summons specialist does lend itself rather to teamwork. Summons are not the equals of essence user team mates. I started off travelling the world with any team that would take me somewhere new, I was always welcome as a unique specialist and found it easy to work in different teams rhythms. I have enough skill to pull my own weight just about without the use of my friends from the astral.”
“How is it that you managed to work solo then? If you spent your formative years as a team adventurer then surely that moulded you a certain way?”
“Over the years I found many techniques that worked for me. I imagine myself quite the inventor at times and I highly specialised in altering summon circles. I have devised multiple ways for each of my summons to be altered on entering this world to be more adaptive. Or simply stronger.”
Lucy looked gobsmacked, she placed her drink on the chair next to her, not realising when it tipped over, the crystal rippling, carrying away the liquid out of sight. She leant forward, pulling a notebook from her pocket as she did.
“We have some summons on our team…”
James has been watching this conversation for a while from another chair and suddenly slapped his knees and standing up.
“Well I can see this is about to devolve into some magical geekery so please excuse me.”
He left them to it and went and joined Teddy and Kyra in the kitchen.
A few hours later they had to drag Lucy and Ballah to the dining room table for dinner. They had cooked a traditional British roast dinner, an impressive feat considering none of the ingredients were ‘traditional’.
They had cooked the looted meat from the lesser monster attack they had been in just before Ballah picked them up. They had trialed a selection of tubers to find the nearest to potatoes and parsnips, they had a selection of other vegetables on the plate and they had found a worthwhile substitute for flour to make some gravy. They had added some of their favourite touches like bread sauce and Yorkshire puddings that they filled with the gravy. They served the meal with a fantastic red wine they had picked up in Vitesse, the city of flowers had excellent vineyards nearby.
“This is incredible!” Yaraballah said when he had his first few bites. The giant magic carpet seemed to not need direct control from the diamond ranker. “What is this we’re eating?”
“Sharp-toothed pheasants.” Kyra said.
“Those baby velociraptor type lessor monsters? The feather-less scrawny dinosaur type things?” James said looking down at his plate.
“Yes those, all that was looted was the breast, we pounded it flat, put some kind of Parma ham on the outside and pate on the inside then rolled it before roasting it.”
“Excellent, I’ve not had a meal quite like this before, and I have travelled quite extensively.”
“Well I’m glad you like it, this kitchen oven does the veg just right, fluffy on the inside with crispy outsides.”
They munched in silence for a while, enjoying the food. When Lucy took the almost licked clean plates to the kitchen she came back with sponge cake and custard.
“Kyra, I was talking to Ballah while you were cooking, as a summons expert he has a lot of experience with summons manipulation. We still have that diamond dust that I found in the mines? I’m going to try a few of his ideas with Ballah tomorrow morning to see about what we can do for your diamond golem.”
“Oh? What kind of changes does it make?”
Ballah licked his spoon clean and put it in his bowl, he rested his hands on his belly and slouched back contentedly. “Well Ms Kyra thankyou for dinner, as for the changes that can be made are dependent on the investment you are willing to put in. The manipulation is capped by rank as each threshold of advancement restricts the magic imbued within each summon. The basics are additions of naturally occurring armour, increasing lethality etc. After that it gets more complicated if you want to affect the intrinsic nature of a summon. My fire based summons will never produce water but maybe instead of flames they produce magma or a whip of fire you see? These changes come with prohibitive costs in terms of materials and are not lightly to be used. They are adaptive or finding the right advantage in the right fight that would otherwise be un-winable, the type of scenario maybe facing a summons specialist attempting to operate solo.”
“So we can make my golem extra thick or extra spiky?”
“Those would be the cheap options yes.” Lucy said. “And we have to test and adjust for your summon specifically. But we have some materials to get started with, enough for me to test the results and extrapolate.”
The team and first adjourned to the front seating, they turned the transparencies all the way down and watched the terrain pass by below them. They had hit the time of day where the soft sparse clouds around them were reflecting the setting sun in shades of amber and pink. Long shadows stretched below them, a privilege to see from such a height. They saw a roaming herd of animals, vast and vague from the height they were they couldn’t see with detail what the animal was but they were amazed at the quantity. It was like a scene imagined from before humans on earth had over expanded, before global warming ruined ecosystems and before greed took the natural grazing land for farming.
They saw they were crossing a threshold of biomes, they had travelled far already with the gold rank transport, the semi-desert landscape was fast approaching a thick rainforest ahead. The trees were monolithic, the canopy looked impenetrable like a mosaic of stones of green rather than leaves. They noticed the subtle climb of the magic carpet below the Serenity to maintain distance above the terrain.
“Damn that’s some big jungle.” James said. Summing up the horizon to horizon flora.
“And it contains some damn big threats.” Ballah said. “The jungles of Washeigh are the province of gold rank monsters. They are a hunting grounds for those looking for the challenge of isolating themselves against monsters to drive their way to diamond.”
Teddy thought to pull out the map they had received from the adventure society when they took the contract and check it over. Sure enough the jungle region came with a large red warning not to venture near and to route around to the east.
“Well this is sure to lose a tail I guess. We would have a serious problem if there’s anything following us that would risk following through or over this.”
“We are safe enough from this vantage, the benefit of the jungle being so thick is the occupants rarely take notice to what is above. Any that decide to not maintain this line of thought I have the strength to deter without incident.”
They had brought the wine from the table and were finishing it on the comfy seating. When the sun had set they said their goodnights, the two couples going below to their respective cabins and Yaraballah went out onto the top deck to stand watch while they traversed the dangerous territory.