ALL NOVEL 68. The Smart and the Brainless
Aurora finished checking the short sword's stats, so she pulled the item out of her inventory. Looking at the blade in her hands, she could only smile. The sheath was pure black with golden trim and golden runes etched down the centre of its length. The sword’s crossguard was similar with etched golden runes that glowed with a slight golden light, only noticeable due to the lack of light of the evening. The hilt of the sword featured a yellow crystal with energy visibly swirling around inside, while the grip featured simple black leather bound in an intricate way.
Aurora held the sheath in her left hand as she drew the sword with her right. The blade was only slightly shorter than the one currently at her waist, but was quite similar in design. It was straight and fairly thin with slightly glowing runes etched down the centre of the blade, the main difference between the two was the fuller of the blade was made with the same golden metal as the hilt which contrasted with the surrounding silver of the edge of the blade.
Aurora found herself enamoured with the beautiful blade, excitedly standing up and taking a few practice swings to gain a rudimentary familiarity with the weight and length of her new weapon. After a few minutes of practice swings, she attached it to her waist, replacing her previously purchased weapon which was returned to her inventory.
With everything now in order and her new equipment ready to be used, she quickly readied Sapphire to leave with practised hands. After a few short moments, she mounted Sapphire and started her trip south towards the border checkpoint of the Cealesian Empire.
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Passing the border didn't take long, after a brief exploration of why she was crossing at such a late hour and a short inspection, she was finally let through into the empire, the country that would be the centre of many events in the foreseeable future. Feeling a sense of relief that she had managed to get such a head start and now had both the freedom and growing backing to achieve what she needed, she turned her attention to the roads before her.
She was presented with three fairly well-maintained roads which was odd considering the relative remoteness of the location, deciding to take the road that led westward. Looking to the distance Aurora could see the slopes up to the mountain range she had crossed to her right and the relatively flat highlands to her left.
As she started on her trip westward her thoughts went to how she was thankful that there was no cloud coverage that would reduce the light from the full moon and by extension her visibility. Travelling with no visibility would have significantly increased the risk of surprise attacks from monsters active at night, and she didn't want Sapphire getting hurt because of her inability to see.
With the relatively uneventful trip along the road, her thoughts had a chance to wander towards her immediate plans as she travelled towards the Empire’s capital. Her first priority was levelling up to level 75 for her class awakening, the first step towards being able to fight on the same level as the veteran locals.
Due to the risk of death and the number of monsters a person would need to kill to reach a high level, most locals tended to be quite low level, with veteran soldiers who make up the majority of a country’s military being over level 75, and the most elite above 150.
In order to be able to fight on even terms when she entered the capital, Aurora needed to level up quickly on her way there. Thankfully, the Empire in its vast expanse had a large number of places where she could do that. Along the northwestern border, there were plenty of spots where she could find enemies, however, her current target was a little different.
Monsters in Cealus fell into two different categories. The first type was the relatively brainless enemies who acted more like they were programmed than anything else, and as far as was known about them, they were known as the Spawn of Sakeshza.
According to the various temples, the domains where these monsters existed were created as a trial for the races of the light to temper themselves and grow. The domains were described as ‘breaches between the world of Caelus and the Dark Plain’, and it was due to their nature that monsters would always reappear within a short time.
The second type was known as sentient monsters. These types were fully capable of independent thought, free movement, and growth, and varied in everything from goblins to wyverns and could be found anywhere across the world. While some could be interacted with peacefully, most, due to their nature, tended to be innately hostile to humans.
Curiously, some of these sentient monsters have been known to randomly spawn across the world from similar black portals to the Spawn of Sakeshza, leading to much speculation of the difference in their origins, especially since some cohabitate peacefully with races like humans and dwarves, only making the mystery that much deeper.
Aurora’s quarry this time is a group of sentient monsters that based on estimates from her memory, should be located somewhere along the northwestern mountain range.
From what she could remember of when she had just started playing Caelus Online, the first in game ‘event’ as it were was when a tribe of Gnolls, a type of bipedal nomadic monsters, had left the mountains for an unknown reason and had destroyed a number of villages. The slaughter had continued for a week until they were eventually annihilated at the walls of the nearby fortress town of Holsworthy by a mix of local guards and XP crazed Immortal Warriors.
Aurora had participated in the defence and from it had earned a decent amount of XP, so while she was planning her movements in the prior weeks, she had decided to attempt to find and attack the nomadic tribe to severely hinder them. While she did have plans set in place should she fail to find them, if she managed to lessen their numbers in advance, then it would only bring benefits.
While it may seem quite reckless to try and attack a full tribe of a couple of hundred gnolls that varied in level from around 10 to above 75, if she managed to kill enough of them to gain a decent amount of XP before dying, it would be worth her time. And if Aurora respawned within a decent distance, then in theory she could keep attacking them until she wiped out the entire tribe.
With that plan in mind, Aurora spent the next couple of hours riding along the road while keeping an eye open for the light of any fires in the mountains. Due to their nomadic nature, she could only estimate their approximate location based on the route they took in the past, meaning they could have come from any direction before leaving the mountains.
The time passed slowly with little signs of where the gnolls were currently located, however by around 1 am a flicker at the corner of Aurora’s eye managed to catch her attention. She brought Sapphire to a halt as she keenly inspected the slopes of a mountain in the distance behind the two mountains she was passing.
After waiting for a few moments she spotted the flicker again, right on the edge of the far side. Given where it was located, it would have been unnoticeable had it been just a little further around the mountain, so she considered herself incredibly lucky to spot it. After a moment's consideration, she remembered she had Fortuna’s blessing, so she was quite lucky.
Aurora ended her musings as she brought Sapphire off the road into a small collection of trees further up the mountainside. Tying her up and mentally placing a marker on the map in her menu, she started a slow jog towards where she had seen the light.
While there was a small chance that it might not be the Gnolls she was looking for and just some camping adventurers, finding the nomadic tribe was too good of an opportunity to miss and checking it out would only take a few hours out of her time.
Thanks to the brightness from the full moon that was providing enough light to see where she was walking, paired with her increased agility from levelling up, her speed was quite fast since she was able to nimbly navigate the uneven terrain.
It took Aurora a couple of hours of travel to locate the fire, having taken her a bit longer than she had initially planned as she had to alter the direction she approached the fire so that her scent was not being blown in the direction of her potential enemies. If she could gain the element of surprise, there was no point in alerting her enemies by being careless.
Her luck had been on point and she could now clearly see a camp of a few hundred crude tents made from untanned hides propped up by sticks, all erected across the shallow slope of the mountain she was ascending.
Aurora decided to get a better view of the camp so climbed up atop a nearby rock. After reaching the top of the large stone that was several meters high, she had a clear view of the small sea of tents.
As she focused on the campfires, she could see a few gnolls sitting around each one, clearly the selected guards for the night as they either lazed around or, for the more diligent of their number, patrolled around. The rest of the tribe she presumed were asleep under the crude shelters, much to her benefit.
Aurora took some time to note the rough layout of the camp, especially the slightly changing wind direction as it blew through the mountains, before she climbed down from her position. With a plan of attack now clearly formed in her mind, she steeled herself for the next step of her plan which she admitted disgusted herself more than it would have when she was still a man.
