There was a blur of motion as I sat there, my back against the rock, stunned. I was monts away from death when suddenly the beast—no, the cat—appeared out of nowhere and instantly killed a larger bird than the one we had fought before. But for what? A al?
No, it couldn’t just be for a al; it would have no trouble killing whatever it liked for food.
I was broken out of my stupor by Jen rushing up to .
“Trev, are you okay?” she asked, her hand on my shoulder.
I also saw Hari and Milo co around the bird from the other side, their jaws open as they looked at the decapitated head before rushing over to us.
“Are you guys okay?” Hari asked, his weapon still in hand.
“Uh, yeah, sorry. Yeah, I’m okay, I think,” I muttered.
“We’re fine,” Jen said. “Keep the people inside the tunnel; we don’t need them to see this and freak out.”
As I looked over, I saw a few of the villagers approaching the exit of the stone tunnel, with Troy close behind them.
“Stay inside; it’s not safe yet!” Hari called out to them before turning back to .
“Trev, I understand you might need a mont to process things, but if you could please try to store that beast before we have to deal with panic over how it died, it would be greatly appreciated,” Hari said, gesturing to the headless bird.
I nodded and attempted to get to my feet but imdiately fell back to the ground. My legs were so weak.
“I got you,” Jen said, wrapping her arm around my shoulder and helping to my feet.
She practically carried over toward the creature, my legs shaking so much I couldn’t put any weight on them. Reaching down, I managed to store the Galvonson and its head before Jen carried to the stone tunnel, where she eventually set down next to Liane, who by this point was sitting with her back against the stone.
Jen passed her daggers to Liane before heading over to Troy, taking him outside and out of earshot.
“Did we get it?” Liane asked, her voice rough and sluggish as she pushed herself up.
“Yeah, we got both,” I said, my own voice cracking.
“Both?” She looked at , confused. “Yeah, we better talk about it later,” I said, even letting a chuckle escape.
“Is everyone okay?” she asked, putting her daggers away as she looked toward the stone entrance.
“Yeah, everyone is fine, thankfully,” I responded, closing my eyes and leaning against the stone.
In what felt like just a mont later, I was awoken by Hari shaking my shoulder.
“Co on, Trev, we’re going to head back to the village and rest there. The danger should have passed now, and it’ll be safer than travelling through the night,” he said, pulling to my feet. Crisplet, at so point, had co out of his orb and was in front of , shooting sparks at Hari.
“It’s okay, Crisplet,” I said, looking down at the little fla elental that seed to be trying to defend .
I felt absolutely exhausted, like I had run all day. Before I knew it, a small potion was handed to .
“Drink this, lad. It’ll help you get back on your feet,” Hari said. Following his instruction, I uncorked the small bottle and downed the yellowish-brown liquid.
“Yuk,” I cried, nearly spitting it out. Hari chuckled a little.
“Yeah, that one certainly doesn’t taste nice, but it will give you a small burst of energy, along with minor stamina recovery. How’s your hit points? I know you took a heavy blow there,” he said, looking over as he helped get to Sable. I reached down, picking up Crisplet, who turned back into its orb.
“My hit points? Err, about half,” I croaked, as Hari effortlessly helped lift onto Sable’s back.
It was only now I realised the stone wall that Milo had erected over us had been removed, and the wagons were turned around. I also saw the villagers huddled together, chatting, but it appeared all their stares were aid at the adventurer group, not .
I guess they didn’t see what really happened; that’s good, I thought.
A mont later, it felt like a refreshing wave overca my body. It was a bizarre sensation, and I really couldn’t explain it, but it felt as if a weight was lifted off .
“Ah, I see the Marathon Elixir took effect on you,” Jen said with a chuckle.
“Yeah, I feel great!” I replied, far too energetic.
“I’ll warn you, it doesn’t fix the exhaustion, just masks it. So, don’t exert yourself or you’ll be sleeping for days,” she said, still smiling. As she ca closer with her own horse, she whispered, “Also, I know it technically wasn’t you, but thanks for saving our lives. If you weren’t there and that cat wasn’t fascinated by your cooking, we likely wouldn’t have made it through that fight.”
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I really didn’t know what to say; it wasn’t after all, and that cat scared the hell out of .
After a short amount of ti, we let the wagons pass us as we took our usual spot at the rear of the caravan. Deciding I should check and clear away the notifications, I pulled up my status. What I saw nearly had fall off Sable.
“What the hell happened?” I asked, shocked, drawing the attention of Jen and Liane to my outburst, but I couldn’t look away from my notifications.
Notifications:
…
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat
…
You have reached Level 16 in Arcane Chef
You have 2 unspent stat points
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat
..
You have reached Level 17 in Arcane Chef
You have 2 unspent stat points
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat
…
“213 notifications?!” I called out. Even as I cleared those, more were appearing.
“What was that?” Jen asked, pulling her horse closer to .
“I just went to check my notifications, and I have 213—no, 217 now—notifications for a buff used in combat,” I said, almost in a whisper. Jen’s eyes widened.
While this was going on, Liane had moved over with her own horse. She looked much better herself. “What’s going on?” she asked, looking at the two of us.
“I’ll fill you in more later, when we won’t be overheard, but we had a shadowy visitor, who may have taken a al from Trev,” Jen said.
“NOT MY SPIDER?!” Liane yelled out, looking absolutely outraged.
I couldn’t help but feel a little bad. “Yeah, I’m sorry,” I said, scratching the back of my head. “It kinda saved our lives? And when Jen said to give it sothing to eat, it was the first one I thought of,” I tried to explain.
“Don’t you have a cooked boar in there?” Liane said, looking absolutely distraught.
It was only then that I rembered I had the leftover boar. “Uh, yeah, I forgot, I’m really sorry,” I said. Liane took a deep breath.
“It’s okay,” she said. “Milo said you’d both likely be dead if it didn’t show up, but we’re detouring to a place to get another one of those spiders after this protection job is done, and you both will be on my side, got it?” she said with a look that brooked no argunt. Jen just laughed.
“Sure, you have us on your side; you have my word.”
“You know, it’s terrifying to think of that cat with a major stealth increase. It’s already near impossible to detect. I can only imagine how scary it is with the buff,” Liane mused.
“It doesn’t need to be scarier; you didn’t see it,” Jen said with a shudder.
We rode for a while before Liane seed to straighten up, looking over at .
“Can we cook the Galvonson?” she asked hopefully.
“How... how would I even do that? You rember the size, right?” I said, flabbergasted. I wouldn’t even know where to begin cooking sothing so large.
“I don’t an the whole thing, but, like, maybe a wing?” She said, looking off apparently daydreaming about a giant bird wing.
“I’ll figure sothing out, even that wing is massive, though. It’ll probably need to be after we finish this journey,” I said, trying to think about how it would work. If I could convince Milo to make a large enough stone oven, then maybe I could slowly cook it, maybe even smoke it. But I wasn’t sure.
“I’ll think about how to do it,” I said. This seed to placate her as we went back to silently travelling.
Our journey back to the village was much slower, which is saying sothing because we really hadn’t moved fast when we left. As we pulled into the village, it was already dark. It seed Londor, true to his word, had not lit a fire. But at the sound of wagons coming into the village, we saw him hesitantly open his door, looking out into the cold night air.
Upon seeing the sa group return, I saw him rush out, heading toward Hari.
By the ti Liane, Jen, and I made it to the front, we had missed the start of the conversation.
“—The second one died as well. The danger should be over, but if you don’t mind, we would like to rest here tonight. My team and our charges are exhausted from the battle and extra travel,” Hari said to the old man.
“Yes, yes! Of course, we have several houses that are currently unoccupied. Let show you. We can talk later,” Londor said as he started directing Hari, Troy, and Saddie to so of the more run-down and damaged houses in the town.
“They are not perfect, I apologise, but these are all vacant,” he gestured to a group of three houses—one with its roof practically missing and giant claw marks in the wall. I didn’t want to think about why that particular house was vacant.
“Right, thank you for your hospitality, Sir,” Hari said. “We’ll discuss this further after a rest. If there is any trouble, do not hesitate to wake us.” He concluded to Londor as the old man bowed and then took his leave.
“Troy, Saddie, you two can take the houses with their roofs intact. We’ll fix up and take the third here. I think we all need a rest,” Hari said as Milo got to work fixing the house. A layer of stone covered the wooden walls, and the roof was soon filled in, leaving a dark stone house.
“Sounds good. See you in the morning,” Troy said, heading inside, Saddie following suit into her own house with Jordan behind her. I saw that Cee and Simon, the two drivers, had gotten to work organising and tying up the horses.
Crisplet had also burst back into its little elental form as it explored the house. It quickly found a fireplace, which burst into fla and looked like it had been burning for hours.
“Thanks, Crisplet,” I muttered, pulling out the boar from storage just so I’d have sothing to eat. Seems I wasn’t the only one, as one by one, the group ca into the hut, helping themselves to the boar before collapsing to the floor.
“Well, that was a fun day,” Milo said with a chuckle. “Safe to assu that cat is following Trev now, right?” he added, as the others just nodded, resigned that this was no coincidence.
“Right, do a favour, Trev. Don’t piss that cat off,” he said, letting out a hearty laugh.
Everyone ate their dinner, sitting around the fireplace that Crisplet was playing in.
“So, are we going to address the Buvul in the room here?” Jen said with a chuckle. “That cat literally one-shot the Galvonson in a heartbeat. How strong do you think it actually is?”
“The real question is what’s going to happen when it shows up in Boltron for another al from Trev,” Milo added, now with genuine laughter as he must have been picturing the scene.
“Gods, I hope they don’t make it angry. It will probably be able to kill everyone in that city before anyone remotely powerful enough to stop it even gets a ssage about it in the capital,” Hari said with a little concern. I couldn’t help but let out a nervous chuckle at that. I had no way of stopping it from showing up, and certainly couldn’t stop it from lashing out at those around .
“Well, I can tell you right now, it’s still out killing a lot of stuff at the mont,” I said, looking at my notifications and seeing another 106 sitting there.
“Oh? Did it go hunting after it got a al?” Milo asked, having not heard about earlier when I checked.
“Uh, well, ‘hunting’ is an understatent. No, it’s gone on an absolute slaughter. I’ve had 323 notifications so far…” There was silence after that as everyone just kind of stared at .
When it felt a little awkward, I decided to try to break the tension.
“At least I’ve got three levels from it so far,” I said, and Liane let out a laugh, breaking the thick tension.
We all chatted for a little while longer, watching Crisplet eventually find a comfortable spot and settle down in the flas. Then, one by one, we took out our bedrolls and followed suit.
Today had been a long, long day.
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