The path was thoroughly soupy by this point. Something most locals were likely quite aware would happen this time of year. There certainly wasn’t nearly as much aggregate(or inclusions?) in the road here. Meaning there actually was some consideration for infrastructure outside the cities.
Despite the grandiosity of the city, it surprised me. These lands sat in a middle ground between sect and grimy low-fantasy. They weren’t quite superhuman enough to simply terraform with the wave of a hand, and remained a bit too close to mortal to totally disregard the management of the chaff populace. I considered reducing the hypothesized power ceiling. The paladins I’d seen thus far felt much closer to a murim power level, but their practices and aesthetics insisted something bigger lurked in their history.
Which is quite the deduction for noticing a road I previously saw had more rocks in it than nature dictated.
So we had two lonely days of travel, with a brief guest appearance from a trio on foot who did not deign to reciprocate my greeting. My scouts gathered marginal amounts of experience from the wildlife, while I resisted the temptation to hoard all their flesh. Tall prairie grasses shrank down, with occasional remnants of human habitation buried in the soil.
They rarely showed signs of violence— It could be that
Not long after we began passing the old bones of houses, we moved through a village. Since we weren’t meant to stop here, it would be unusual to do so. I simply waved and briefly inquired about Ullool.
“Not the place I’d choose to settle down, but work with what you can.”
A lean weaver gave an unfavorable comment from his stoop in passing. No one else was present to chime in, and nothing else of note occurred.
Tagalong Girl did not speak up, despite clearly hearing his words.
Tsk, ask what he means, don’t just assume I know what I’m doing. Even if I did, you should still want to know yourself.
As we left that village behind, prairies turned into farmland, pastures, and small groves for producing wood. Beasts and monsters hid with much greater difficulty, the light of human development shining ever brighter. We passed through several of these hamlets a day, the land being cultivated to its limit.
Veering east towards our destination, I slowed Sparky’s pace just a hair as we pulled over to the side, letting a larger caravan pass. Their procession was larger than most of the settlements we passed, 37 strong.
“Were you able to see what those two wagons carried?” Despite letting them gain some distance, I spoke in a hushed voice, indicating the caution she should take.
“No, but that was a Disciple in the lead with at least two adventurer groups. The Church uses their own forces, so it’s probably a personal project used to expand his own power. One that takes a lot of power. He’s likely to be ambitious and aggressive.” She kept her voice quiet in turn even as we pulled away.
“Two higher ranked Disciples in the wagons. Reevaluate.” At least if the density of death aura on their weapons was anything to go by. As hegemons, opportunities to spill blood weren’t all that common. Even trying to sniff them out, I’d not found much aside from the Poran and that fellow in Terdri.
But as we got closer to Medean, I could smell that hot iron scent getting stronger. My extra hands could find plenty in turbulent waters, even if my protégé wasn’t quite ready.
“With three Disciples, they wouldn’t include a third at lower rank as an equal. Most likely, he wasn’t included as a conspirator. That means it’s official business, but with that many outsiders?” She looked out the back towards their receding figures. Trying to focus silently, she was missing the obvious.
“Manpower.”
Her brow furrowed in deep thought. Unconditionally she trusted the answer given, but it was conflicting with her view of the Church. Not caring would be one thing, however the scale of their operations truly was beyond comprehension. They certainly didn’t lack manpower.
“It’s a logistical issue. Terdri is under the immediate control of Medean, but look how long it takes to travel. Have you kept track? Resources are only as good as your ability to access them.”
I watched the fields go by as she tried to process it all. With our pace slowed, we would stay one more night, and by noon the next day we would be in Ullool. Close enough that I could get a little more information, and far enough that pressing on didn’t make sense.
Pulling us over into a pasture’s edge alongside the typically overdecorated fence, I flipped my hands over a few times. With handfuls of impure, grainy clay rubbed deep into the creases and nails, they looked much like the hands of a long time potter, albeit a fastidiously clean one.
could wipe it all out in a moment, so I needed to hold off until after integrating to properly wash my hands. Alas, there were few other finishing touches to add to this ‘disguise’, so it felt like not enough effort was being put in.
“I’ll be back in a moment.”
I knocked on the front door, ta-tata-TataTataTa, a pattern I found that seemed to be the Derrish equivalent of the Shave and a Haircut rhythm.
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Waiting for the occupant to descend to answer me, I began taking the time to rally my troops. The undead heavenly net was going to need a new set of guidelines for a stationary approach. So far they’d yet to catch anything truly interesting, and the low grade prey wasn’t exactly doing wonders for my experience.
But the holistic nature of this world did allow me to brute force some solutions I was too lazy to properly enact.
At the edge of my CCR, a chimeric skeletal abomination received new orders— although it wasn’t actually a single creature, those were outside my level. Really it was a goblin skeleton with a host of smaller skeletons sitting in its ribcage. The chipmunks served as positional memory cores for the locations of friends, foes, and manually specified objects of interest, most of the birds were set to communicate information with the rest of the network, snakes were on risk assessment… Basically, instead of the tedious process of setting up an intelligence all at once, it was highly modular AI.
Also it looked absolutely cool, what with the snakes wiggling like boney guts, little claws forming spikes, a grand ‘living’ halo of wings. This one had an experimental defensive lacquer, an ominous verdant and ashen tint. An adventurer might mistake it for a boss monster instead of a discount information relay system. Not that they would ever get the chance since it prioritized stealth.
After giving new orders to the Goal Voles situated in the skulls, the chimeras writhed about as the different parts of the body harmonized in their new objective. Soon they were sending out runners(the least decayed zombies) to inform those actually out in the field.
Then, following their standing orders, they would likely begin congregating within 4 kilometers of Ullool. It was based on hearsay, but they would most likely submerge themselves in the stream where the previous potter(Fredrick(not that I had any reason to know his name from their perspective)) sourced his materials.
However… were they all going to fit?
Since inventory space was limited, despite the hit to my soul power reserves, I aggressively reanimated just about everything I touched so as not to leave a mysterious trail of bodies. Instead there was quite the horde of undead in my direct vicinity.
A small matter!
Finally after delaying slightly to look at a weapon on the table, but being too lazy to get it, the occupant came down to open the door.
“Good afternoon, the name’s Aldrich.” Offering a hand to the man with prominent veins and a faint odor of acrid tanning solution clinging to him, he tentatively took it before even hearing me out. “I’m a potter on my way to Ullool.”
He glanced towards the sun, confirming its position.
“Harran, just another woodworker. My older brother is actually a potter a couple villages west of here. It wouldn’t be too much trouble to put you up for the night.”
“That’s generous, but actually I have a few people with me. My wagon is parked a bit off the road, I was just giving advance notice before letting my horse graze. We’ll stay out of your way.”
Aldrich, cover story for Alric, and true identity of the Green Ascetic, would be a little more forceful. And Harran’s personality was best avoided with Tagalong Girl around.
“Moving into a new home can be difficult. Knowing how to keep busy, finding new people to talk to—” (Something he’s obviously struggling with) “making it feel like home again… there’s a lot of work that goes into this sort of thing you know? The scriptures talk about this sort of thing, putting in the effort to understand and affect your surroundings.”
What a painful error. In my haste I’d misunderstood the distance as self imposed, possibly religious in nature, perhaps the efforts of someone retreating into their craft, someone incorrectly interpreting the will of Tias as rejecting society to train. All potential routes to acquiring a contact of some potential import.
Alas, unlikely events happen every moment. Pushed out of his hometown by his brother, aimlessness harshly punished by Derrish society, he remained ostracized. Rather, Harran simply held no qualities of note. Scattered attempts to blend in did just that, ironically making it so he was not ‘seen’ as he wished to be.
An irritatingly tepid person when it came to teaching Tagalong Girl heroics. He wasn’t in the wrong, just… too irritating to deal with.
“We would hardly come all this way without a plan. After a quick rest, we’ll reach Ullool near dawn. I’ve had enough delays on this trip already.” I decided on clicking my tongue in disapproval. “Even if the heavens dispose, it’s only a minor roadblock.”
A non-committal person who touched on religion in this devout society, his eyes darted back and forth to the floor. Unwilling to properly agree or refute, Harran meagerly hoped I would follow up my own statement instead of taking his own stance.
Good, I’d managed to extricate myself from the product of my poor personality prediction. I stepped back with one foot preparing to pivot away, when he managed to force out a final phrase.
“Communing is also important.”
“That’s a simplification of the scriptures that came about from a sermon roughly 300 years ago. It combines the Listening and Giving foundations, and was only ever meant for commoners. If you’d ever taken the time to speak with a Vara about the matter, you’d know the issues conflating the two would bring. I’ll leave that to you to learn.” I finished spinning around and left Harran standing with his door open.
Hah, ask a Vara about it? How would anyone connect those dots? It’s just coincidence I learned of it. But so long as it was true, this reproach wouldn’t bite me later.
Tagalong Girl peeked out from the wagon as she heard my approach, while Ria had fallen back asleep. Hmm, maybe another mana infusion before the rest of us turn in for the night?
“Lucy!” I called out “Start a fire, and prepare something hearty.”
Head pulling back into the cart, a pack was tossed in a gentle arc, with her following close behind. Her spear bore most of the weight, ploughing the ground and taking out a few unfortunate shrubs. Still a little sore from the balance training, but there likely wouldn’t be another chance for some time. Working while dead tired is also worth practicing.
Starting the fire with no effort, she set up a pot and began boiling water. Then her indecisions began. A potato in one hand, and some flour in the other. After a minute of contemplating, she decided against the effort needed for dumplings. Herbs necessary for a spicier dish, or one that focused more on the savory aspect? Take a minute, choose the savory herbs because that’s the essence of a ‘hearty’ dish.
“Decide once on a goal and the path will be clearer.” I started sewing up some of our worn clothes to keep busy. “Alas, the situation is such that Aldrich shouldn’t be pushing his nose into too much business unnecessarily. I seem to be giving off too much of an arrogant and confident air for that to make sense— so we’ll be heading into Ullool with less information than planned.”
She kept seasoning the meat for a bit longer. Hmm. Maybe I was overdoing letting her go at her own pace?
“When we arrive then, what should I be doing?”
“Doing? You’ll still need to make time for training, but there’s no mission for you here.”
“Isn’t that a waste of time for me?” She stared deeply into the simmering stew, tossing a little more fuel into the fire.
“A waste? Restate your premise.”
“Spending time doing nothing is a waste. It’s not doing nothing, it’s…” Struggling to find words, it didn’t suit her objective focused nature.
I finished patching a tear in one of her shirts before moving on to her sentence.
“Just accumulating life experience. Even without a goal or reason, all things contribute to your understanding of the world. And you could do with a little more dirt at the moment.”
“But without direction—“
“We won’t be moving any time soon, you don’t need direction for this. You’ll continue to improve, but that doesn’t take 12 hours a day. Talk to people, run around on your own, this life of yours doesn’t have achievements to speedrun.”
Trying my best to coax her, she poked aimlessly at the meat and potatoes keeping them under the surface of the stew. Until it was ready, I stayed quiet, hoping a lack of distraction would encourage her to actually think about the matter more deeply.
“The food is good. It’s got some delectably overwhelming flavors in it.”
Engrossed in her own bowl, Tagalong Girl simply gave a grunt of affirmation. It was already her third helping. At least she treated herself well in that respect, there was no shyness about eating until she felt properly full.
With a silent
I softened the flavors of the soup before bringing it to the much more mild Ria. After jolting awake after a touch of mana, she also began eating, savoring the illusory flavor.
How much more exciting will our routine in Ullool be, I wonder? Hopefully just an ‘interesting’ level of excitement, and not a problematic one. That sort of thing was best left to the Alric, or rather Aldrich of tomorrow. Since he wouldn’t know what was going on yet, it’s fine to not know, and thus ignore it.
“Make sure you clean up and repackage everything Lucy. Goodnight girls.” With that, while not particularly necessary, I pulled out a bundle of cloth I used as a pillow and fell asleep on the front bench of the cart.