I stormed out of the meeting, mad at Golchev, myself, and the whole situation.
“I hate war,” I grumbled petulantly, feeling my biological age. I had gained a lot of power since my reincarnation in this world, but not enough to end all conflict. I had to get a lot stronger—without killing more people—if I wanted to make a real difference. All I could do was work to minimize the evil that I came across, and I was beginning to think I had hit my limit on that here in the north.
Leiren was sitting on a barrel nearby, with Treepo, my high treehopper familiar, in her lap. She played with his ears, tickled his belly, and booped his nose. Treepo chittered contentedly until he sensed my mood, jumping down and coming to my side as I telepathically recalled him and Buda to me. I could hear the sound of the wooly ramhog’s hooves as he started galloping over from wherever he had been sleeping, and turned to head towards the familiar so I could meet him all the sooner.
“What’s the matter?” Leiren asked, falling in step next to me. “You look angry.”
“I’m heading back to Teichar,” I grunted. Teichar was the first metal refining town I had helped to liberate, where I had met an old metal engraver.
Leiren frowned. “I thought we were headed south next.”
“Golchev may be. I’ve got other business.”
The footfalls of the Velgein scout slowed, and she fell back as Buda came into sight. It was not the first time I had headed out on some task, but perhaps Leiren could sense something different in my tone and mood. I could feel her staring at my back while I waited from my mount.
“Are you…” she trailed off, taking in my mood and my words. “Will I see you again?”
Buda arrived in front of me and I rubbed his snout, then mounted up onto his back with Treepo in tow. I glanced back at the beautiful young Velgein, staring at me with an unreadable expression on her face.
With a sigh, I pulled a piece of jewelry from my inventory and tossed it to Leiren. She looked down in surprise at the gold pendant with a small polished beast crystal inset into it. The item was one of my experimental enchantments I had developed with the engraver in Teichar, and while I only considered it a partial success, it was not doing any good just sitting in my inventory.
“If there’s an emergency, and only if there’s an emergency, press down hard on that crystal. It will only work once, so don’t waste it,” I said, turning to leave. I found Leiren’s presence uncomfortable given my young body’s changes, and I was mad at Golchev, but I had still spent time with these people and cared about them. Golchev was not entirely wrong about the Horuthian camp, and if the freedom fighters failed their offensive, they would need help before they were overwhelmed in turn.
Glancing back at Leiren, I saw her cupping the pendant in both hands, staring down at it like it was a valuable treasure. She turned her face up to me and gave me a brilliant smile, and I turned away, blushing.
“Bye,” I said awkwardly, and Buda took off with me in tow, sparing me any more embarrassment.
We spent the following days blazing a trail back across the northern lands towards Teichar, passing through the various towns and villages the resistance had liberated along the way. My thoughts churned over everything that had happened, oscillating through different emotions the whole time. At times I questioned not helping the resistance put down the last vestiges of the threat, ending the conflict with decisive aggression despite the cost, but cementing the peace and safety of the Velgeins. Other times, I questioned whether I should have involved myself at all, thinking about all the Horuthians that had died, and likely more that will die now that the Velgeins were on the offensive. I was fairly confident that the conflict would end if the Horuthian Kingdom withdrew, as at no time did it seem like the northerners would push down through the mountain pass, lacking the resources and power to do so.
Each time we passed through a settlement, I could not help but feel good that the people were returning to happiness, health, and safety. The peaceful people working towards their futures again helped give me confidence that I had made at least some right decisions.
Helping the north up until now had been the right thing to do, at least so far. If only I knew what the correct path forward was.
One thing had helped me at every step of the way so far, though, and that was getting stronger. That would remain my focus. I was also absolutely confident that the mysterious dungeons I had encountered in Horuth were a problem that needed dealing with. Were there any dungeons in the north? I had not encountered any yet, and I was not even sure if they would work the same given the lack of magic in the region. If there were, though, my power would be a boon in getting rid of them. Getting stronger would help me with that goal, as well.
Days of travel bled into each other, stopping infrequently to eat and sleep. My meat stores were severely diminished, from feeding myself and my familiars and donating food to the Velgein cause, but through the summer there had been limited game to hunt and what was found was needed by the resistance as it marched through the occupied villages.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
The closer we got to Teichar, the farther we got from the bulk of the resistance’s forces, and with the encroaching cold weather, more and more animals could be seen.
“I think we’ll have to take a break and get some hunting in,” I said to Buda and Treepo. A snort and a chitter-grunt were all the confirmation that I needed, and we veered northward to get a glimpse of what new wildlife had migrated south for winter in this region of the world.
We skipped past some birds and small beasts which, a couple of years back, would have likely derailed me for days or even weeks to study, catalog, and evolve. I could still feel the flicker of interest towards them, seeing some vastly different creatures from the jungle and ocean beasts I had grown up around, but I knew that they would provide limited experience and meat and that I could not afford too much distraction. I forged ahead towards a small herd of creatures grazing on some thin brush that managed to grow in the cold, rocky terrain.
The beasts of the herd were a large, four-horned goat-like creature with a shaggy white coat. Appraising them from afar with 3-point magic, I saw that they were called “quadhorns,” which I was actually familiar with already by name as some of the rations I had eaten through summer had been quadhorn jerky.
I noticed a large number of young in the herd, and saw that many of them were still drinking milk from their mothers, so I specifically looked for older males and quickly dispatched a few with stone projectiles. The herd responded and took off, leaving their dead behind, and I moved in to collect the bodies with my inventory skill, where I dismantled them and left behind the undesirable offal for scavengers.
Belatedly, I cursed myself for defaulting on using 4-point magic so automatically. The MP expenditure for projectiles was necessary to quickly take out multiple targets before they fled, but it still rubbed me the wrong way. Though my MP cap now was into the three hundreds, my MP was almost never full up. I relied heavily on MP potions made out of my stores of beast crystal for MP recovery, given how barren of magic this part of the world was. Every point counted now, and while I used what I needed to in battle and for healing my allies, it was a bit foolish to waste magic on weak prey like this.
The quadhorns, being prey animals and quite a bit weaker than I was, were not worth much experience beyond the first kill, but a herd like that would be trailed by a predator or two. My familiars and I followed the herd and settled down to stake them out in order to set eyes on their predators.
As night started to fall, I saw movement along the ground near the herd. I strained my eyes to get a better look at whatever was moving, but it blended in with the environment too well. I almost used magic to appraise it before I decided to just head in and find out the old-fashioned way.
On my command, Buda raced forward, and I hollered, startling the quadhorns into motion again. The camouflaged creature raced after them and away from us, and I pushed Buda faster to intercept the beast.
At our approach, the predator turned from the herd to deal with the surprise attack. Seeing Buda and me atop of him gave it a moment of pause, but instead of fleeing, it must have decided we would make a good replacement meal. The beast leapt at us as we came within striking distance.
My trusty baselard whipped out, slicing at the beast, which twisted in the air to avoid the strike. It was agile, but not so agile as to avoid any damage while in midair, and I managed to draw blood. I dismounted to better prepare myself to finish the predator off. The beast hissed, and when it landed to turn back on me I was able to get a better look despite the low light of the approaching night.
The beast was not that different from a mountain lion of Earth, if said predator was in the mustelid family instead of a large cat. It had a longer body than a puma and squatter appendages, which presumably meant it would not be fast over distances, hence the need to sneak up on the quadhorn herd. Its face was slightly pointier with cuter, rounded ears and a shorter, furrier tail, and it was smaller all around, with a coat color that was very similar to the reddish rock of the area. It was an impressive stealth predator, but exposed like this, it would fall easily to my sword.
Treepo grunted a warning and I glanced out of the corner of my eye to see what he was making a fuss about, and it was only then that I noticed that there were actually several of these beasts that had surrounded us. Clever stealth predators, then.
I was statue-still, my familiars following suit, waiting for them to strike first. A claw clicked against rock to my left, and I spun to catch the beast throwing itself at me. I slid forward while dropping to my knees, flicking my sword overhead to open the creature’s belly. Blood splattered down on me and the creature hit the ground, groaning. At the same time, Buda charged ahead at the ferret-cougar that I had previously been facing, smashing into it with his namesake ram attack, and I turned to see Treepo slash the third out of the air with his magic force claw strike. I winced, knowing how long it would take for him to recharge from that, but quickly moved to take over his foe since he would otherwise be at a disadvantage in straight combat.
The beast recovered and turned on me, but I was quicker with my baselard and stabbed into its ribs. The predator let out a shrill yowl, staggering away and pulling off my blade, but it would no longer have the benefit of speed.
I checked in with Buda to make sure he was handling the first beast, and saw him relentlessly stomping on the predator’s head. Yeah, he’s fine.
With haste, I finished off the other two to limit their suffering, then collected the three corpses into my inventory to appraise them the old fashioned way. I learned that they were called “rockstalkers” and I dismantled them for their loot.
“Not bad experience,” I muttered, and Treepo chittered at me. I squatted and patted his head, and Buda pushed his nose into my side looking for pats as well. “They were kind of cute though. Maybe I should tame one, see what it evolves into…”
Treepo grunted at me in quick triplicate and Buda grunted loudly, shaking his head side to side.
“Fine, fine, I know. No more familiars. For now.”
I thought back to some of the familiars that were no longer with me, friends who had helped me advance this far into my journey: Birdo the rainbow vicaw, who lost his life in my first dungeon; Vlad the abyssal whaloid, who I freed back to the ocean when I left Mirut; Gregory the flying nodmouse, who was living his best life as a napping caravan companion with a tamer friend named Bilgus. All were important to me for different reasons, each helping me at different points in their own ways.
“Right,” I said, standing and shaking off the memories while looking back towards Teichar. “Best be on our way.”