Galus, Nepheli and Edgar had been guelingly training for the last three days under Blaidd's tutoring, he wasn't confident he could do jack all against anyone or thing bigger than an omen killer but it's a step in the right direction. Although there was a hiccup when Blaidd wanted to train Irina as well and Edgar had virtually bitten the poor pooches head off, but Galus saw something shift in her when Blaidd had asked that, Galus couldn't see her eyes but he almost expected her blindfold to catch flame.

It was the fourth day when they were setting off to Altus plateau, Galus was sure they'd reach there by sundown... Maybe.

Galus walked out of Seluvis' rise, he walked outside Lattena was field dressing a goat in the early morning fog. "There enough for the rest of us? That looked like maybe a two days worth of meal if we eat liberally."

Lattena turns, she wasn't wearing the chainmail hood, instead just the blue silver crown, her pale blond hair tied in a tail. "I'd say that sounds about right, I wanted to get a couple more, the manor has a liberal amount of salt so we could preserve the meat."

Galus unsheathed his buck knife. "I'll see if I can't finish this if you think you can hunt a few of those sheep things."

She looks at him. "You know how to field dress game?"

Galus shook his head. "I know how to cut meat better than I know how to shoot a bow."

She looks at him for a solid thirty seconds. "Come here."

Galus walked over to her. "Alright..."

She pulled on his coats tail and Galus got the hint and got to his knees, and she put her hand on his wrist and guided his keen knife through the flesh of the fallen goat, seemingly beneath the flesh and a good chunk of meat fell onto a cloth dusted with rock salt. She repeated the demonstration three times, before letting him do it on his own supervising him do it. When she watched him do it on his own, she nodded her approval when he cut the final piece of vein it went into the salted cloth which he wrapped with care, though he could see the once white cloths were slowly turning lightly red.

She nodded, grabbing her bow and quiver before climbing up onto Lobo's back and they rode off. Galus reached down and grabbed the bloodied arrow that she'd evidently set apart, and inspected the stained arrow, it's tip wasn't all that large and in fact reminded him of tips used for training and target practice though much sharper made for penetration, it was like if someone had taken a pencil sharpened the living hell out of it then transmuted it into metal. He looked at the seemingly black wood with silver engravings running up it's shaft, and on the other end it was fletched with blue feathers.

Galus set it down and continued dressing the game.

Edgar came out a bit later, out of his armor and just a simple tunic and trousers. He crouched next to Galus and nodded. "Need any help?"

Galus nodded, not looking away from the work. "If you can salt more cloths and wrap that would be great."

Edgar nodded. "Where is the master huntress by the way?"

Galus nodded in the direction where she rode off continuing skinning the meat. "I asked her to bring a bit more game, once we get to the mountaintops meat will be scarce, and I don't know about you but living off of frozen rowa berries for weeks on end sounds about as appealing to me as a one way trip to the Mariana trench."

Edgar closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and asked. "What's that?"

Galus smiled, slicing off a piece and putting it on a sheet of cloth. "It's a part of the ocean that is so deep that the pressure could crumble steel like parchment, hell, I heard once if you dropped a diamond in there and it'd turn it radioactive, don't ask me what that means, it's so complicated that I wouldn't know where to start."

Edgar just sighed. "I thought you knew everything." He said sarcastically.

Galus looked at him. "Pursuing knowledge is noble, pursuing all knowledge is arrogant, I'm not all knowing, I can't be, it's impossible, I'm as much all knowing as Marika is a true God."

Edgar huffed. "You still mock our way of life."

Galus nodded, a rather dark look on his concentrated face, the knife cutting flesh almost rhythmically until that side was cleaned before flipping the goat over. "Yup, I despise and mock any god who would cast away, hunt, torture, and genocide men who have beliefs of their own and committed the horrible crime of not abandoning them. I've explained this three times now and I don't want to explain it a fourth Edgar."

Edgar seemed to freeze in his work, Galus could fell a chill in the air as well, and it wasn't his icy tone. Galus turned seeing Ranni looking at them. "I trust thou'rt leaving today?" She asked.

Galus nodded and Ranni looked at the carcass. "I trust you will dispose of your mess as well."

Edgar looked at her. "I'll take care of it, Lady Lattena has gone to get a little more meat for us, we're going to be on the road a while."

Ranni looked at the meat. "Why haven't you cooked it yet? Don't you know it will go bad faster and you might not always be able to start a fire while on the road, it could rain or the snow and wind could cause any fire you make to be obsolete, this way it will be safe to eat anytime."

Galus snapped his fingers. "Ranni you're a genius as always."

She smiled turning to leave before a look of remembrance comes onto her face. "Oh yes, by the way, your armor is done, be sure to pick it up from Iji when you leave."

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Galus got the look of a kid in a candy store when he heard that. he took out an amber disk nearly the size of a small dinner plate. At a glance it had to be worth atleast eighteen thousand runes, and the glow in it's center was a healthy gold. apparently killing Gideon's three minions had given a lot more than expected. Blaidd came up beside Ranni and dropped something on the ground. Three heads of pale men with horns growing in places they probably shouldn't be, the trident mark on their faces spelled the rest out. "Sanguine nobles?" Galus asked.

Blaidd nodded. "Iji and I caught them trying to enter the manor, they didn't even enter the kill zone of the traps, we killed them before they could, Galus, what's going on?"

Galus sighed, wiping off his blade with a cloth and walking over to the dismembered heads. "Well, I'd fought one of those pricks before but they got away, told their boss Mohg about me, their boss Mohg has my boss Miquella, and now that they know I'm an acolyte of Miquella, they want me deader than a nail in the lamp room door because I pose a significant threat to their plans, it's far more complicated than that but that's the quick version, trust me, you don't want the long version."

Edgar started making a fire pit just in time for Lattena to come riding back, a dead sheep on Lobo's back.

Galus scraped the last bit of meat from the goats ribs. "Hey Lattena." He said in greeting.

Hours later the food was flayed, skinned, and cooked, before being salted, and whatever remained was disposed of, land octopi tend to actually be pretty docile when you drop them leftovers. They're scavengers, go figure.

Galus walked over to Iji, and set the amber disc on his anvil, after getting on his tippy toes of course. Iji picked it up like it was a penny and set it aside, before giving him a set of armor, it wasn't the most ornate and in fact it was quite spartan, platemail though so he couldn't complain too much, it seemed to be made of the same black metal as any of the Haligtree knights but it had the Haligtree crest embroidered onto the chest plate with ivory, along with a white cape, the same symbol hewn into it with what seemed to be black thread and had some pale fur around the collar, the helm was interesting, it was a full helm with a visor, but that wasn't the interesting part, the interesting part was what looked to be a Glintstone marble, that seemed to have been set aside. Galus picked it up inspecting it. "What is this?"

Iji looked at it. "It's an eye for you, it has a Carian rune of revealing, though it will only work for about a couple hours a day, it can pierce illusions reveal magic."

Galus took it, and with a lot of pain, popped it into his socket, before lowering the eyepatch again.

Iji handed him the rest of the armor, the greaves and harness and all.

Galus found it harder to equip than his old armor. And Iji showed him how, before undoing it and telling him to repeat the process, it took him two tries and Edgar showed him a trick knights learn to put on plate armor, as it is almost impossible to put it on by your self.

Galus takes out his whetstone and looks at it, before showing it to Iji. "Can you tell me what this is?"

Iji took the stone. "That, belongs to an old smith named Hewg, he forged weapons and armor for the demigods and mass produced weapons and armor for all sides in the shattering, becoming a war profiteer, rumors say that he did something to offend Marika, and nobody has seen him since, where did you get this?"

Galus pointed at his horse. "I bought this horse from a Kaiden Mercenary, he forgot to take off his saddlebags, it was in there."

Iji gave it back. "Must have been some mercenary, there's only three of those in existence, it can sharpen anything to an unparalleled degree. I'd recommend you keep that close, there are some who would kill for that."

Galus nodded. Putting it back into his saddle bag, but Iji held up a hand. "I have parting gifts for you guys as well."

Iji took out four items, the first was an ornate spear which gave off a chilled aura which he gave to Lattena. "In case you get knocked off your wolf."

Lattena nodded in thanks and grabbed it by the ebony shaft, Galus decided not to ask how he got the blue silver tip, regardless it reminded him of Loretta's Guandao, though it seemed to be a straight edged sword spear rather than the curved variant, it was also thinner and lighter. She gave it a spin and a glowing icy shard was launched when she thrust and Galus nodded in appreciation of the skill used to craft it.

The next was a large battleaxe that she handed to Nepheli, the likes of which was made similarly to her war axes in the shape of a storm hawk with it's wings spread out along the two large blades. It crackled with lightning at her very touch. It looked to weigh atleast a hundred pounds but he supposed Godfrey's genes coupled with a greatrune tied heavily to his bloodline likely helped immensely with that.

To Edgar was given a halberd, the likes of which looked much akin to Nepheli's new storm axe with stormhawk decor, he supposed that they both had ties to the storm lord, that reminded him, he should probably get her the stormhawk kings ashes, who knew, could come in handy, but then again he did not want to fight a grafted scion, not to mention that island was a one way trip. The halberd's blade was longer than most halberd's, running the shaft down a good two feet and the spear head at the top was about the same length, clearly made to be a cavalry weapon, it was like Lattena's spear made to be a cavalry weapon, though he can see it being used in a good style off the horse too.

Galus watched as Iji gave Irina of all people a new walking stick, but given the locations of certain ornate metal decorations, he had a feeling it wasn't a stick, which was proven accurate when Irina felt along a grove and unlocked the blade and unsheathed it, the blade was made of pure damn Glintstone, much akin to the moonveil katana, though unlike the moonveil the gem was a Carian blue, the blade was straight instead of curved like a regular katana, and he could see a faint glow in th blades depths. Galus saw Edgar wasn't happy that his daughter was even holding a sword. Galus had a feeling he'd have to deal with a blowout with Edgar, he was all for Irina having a weapon, he couldn't baby her forever she's an adult, and if this was about... Old fashioned beliefs, Galus would laugh his ass off if he tried to tell Malenia that she was a allowed to have a weapon.

Edgar walked over to his daughter, and tried to take the weapon from her but she pulled away, Galus started forward to step in but Lobo for the win, gave a growl from behind Edgar. "Edgar, if something happens to the rest of us she needs something to protect herself, and if that sword is what I think it is I'm confident that even the most inept swordsman would be safe with it." Galus said.

Edgar turned on him. "Don't tell me how to be a parent!" He yelled in a voice that drill sergeants would envy, it was all he could do not to salute.

Galus closed his eyes, took a deep, calming breath, hopefully putting some ice on the rising flames in his chest, and spoke as levelly as he could. "Edgar, she's an adult, believe it or not she's stronger than she looks, smart as a tack too, but if it would make you feel any better, I can train her, she can keep the blade sheathed and I can use a damn stick, there's a technique that I've heard of that a blind swordsman used where I come from."

Edgar glared. "I don't care about safety, I will not be having my child be going into battle! Not after the promise I made her mother!"

Irina shouted. "Enough both of you! I can speak for myself! I appreciate you backing me Galus but I need to do this myself." She snapped her head in Edgar's direction. "I'm keeping this, and I'm only going to overcome the obstacle of my lack of sight, I won't get in your way and will keep out of combat when necessary but he's right, what if you all die? What will I do if I can't defend myself?"

Edgar took a step back, trying to formulate a reply. "I- I-"

Irina took a step forward, hearing his voice and pinpointing his location and tapped him on the shoulder with her sheath. "I'm your daughter, but I'm not a child anymore dad, please..."

Edgar sighed. "Fine... We'll... See if we can't get you a proper teacher."

Irina smiled slightly, but that wasn't the end. "You will keep that sheathed unless it's an emergency. And, you will train with me, Galus, and Nepheli, every day." Edgar said.

Irina nodded, sheathing the Glintstone blade.

Edgar nodded, and Galus spotted something in the distance, Selen was walking down the hill toward them, for a second Galus wondered if she changed her mind, but when she approached Edgar and said. "Come back and visit sometime, alright?"

Galus snickered at Edgar sputtering like a seal that's been tased. A glare from Selen made Galus start feigning a cough to cover his mouth.

She slapped edger on his backplate, before turning to Irina. "How do you like the blade? Me and Iji collaborated on that particular project."

Irina smiled. "I like it, my father might be another story though."

Selen smiled, but didn't say anything.

Galus got onto his horse, he was glad they had run into a master smith like Iji, this was well worth staying a few days for, though the sanguine nobles had him worried, they closed in on their group in the mere three days they'd stayed in one place, that was good to know, it meant he could possibly set a trap for them. Though how they were tracking him he couldn't tell. "Thank you Iji, this will help us very well on our journey." Galus turned to Selen. "Could you accompany us until we get to Altus plateau?"

She sighed. "Why?"

Galus closed his eyes. "Remember the story I told you about dragon hunter Makar? Well, I thought you'd love the chance to study a magma wyrm in person, and this particular one is the man formerly known as dragon hunter Makar."

She looked unsure, then glared at him. "Is this about me researching the primeval currant?" She asked

Galus nodded. "I've seen you tread this path before, it didn't end well for you, or azure, or lusat, or any of the many others you get involved. This is your chance at a happy ending, please, don't blow it Selen."

Selen didn't look convinced, but Galus spoke up. "If you won't do it for yourself, then think of it as cashing in your debt, don't fuck with the primeval currant, it will end in tragedy." Galus leaned down and motioned for her to bring her ear over, before whispering. "I think that big lug over there might miss you." He said motioning to Edgar.

She smirked. "I think he'll live. But alright, I'll accompany you to Altus and not a step further."

Galus nudged her grinning.

She leaned away and sighed, before getting into the back of Lobo. "I'll see the creature, and make my decision, if it's half as pathetic as you described in your story then I'll trust you."