ALL NOVEL Chapter 19: The first March
I was woken up in the middle of the night for my shift at watch. It’d been Marie’s turn before mine, and the older woman gently shook me awake as I roused myself up. We didn’t speak a word and made hardly a noise as I left through the tent flaps and stepped outside into the nightly chill.
Eden didn’t have very distinct seasons. Well it did have seasons, but they weren’t based on weather. Their summers and winters were all very mild, at least. What they did have were monster seasons, when the beasts would hibernate, or become extremely aggressive. Right now, we were in a relatively calm time, which is why the leyburn in the black sands had surprised us so much.
Despite the relatively calm seasons, it was still usually quite cold at night. Eden’s sun was quite a bit smaller than the one back on Neamhan, and if I didn’t have my stronger stats or Qi, this area would be freezing, even.
I rubbed my arms on my shoulders slightly as I took my seat next to the slowly crackling fire, taking care not to lose myself in its rhythmic up and down. Near me I could faintly hear Marie’s steps trailing off as she went into her tent. As the chill woke me up, I slowly let Qi flow into my eyes, helping me see in the dark.
After a quick glance around, nothing was approaching. In general, nothing should be approaching, given that Ann had set up a ward, but you could never be too sure. I let the Qi remain in my air, trying to practice my manipulation a bit as I shifted more and less of the substance to help my eyes.
It caused me a tiny bit of pain, but hardly enough to be even worthwhile mentioning. More like an itch in my eyeball, but it was also a fun thing to fidget with, as I watched the trees grow dimmer and brighter.
Of course, I still didn’t let that stop me from keeping watch. Once the cold of the night had woken me up enough, I let my golden Qi flow a bit more freely through my body again, chasing away the wisps of frost.
Then, the monotony of being on watch started. Not allowing myself to get lost in the fire, I methodically checked around us every so often. In between that, I thought on my situation. No one but me currently knew about the mirror Qi. I was unsure who to tell about it, too, even though I knew it would come up.
But then again, I was scared they’d kick me out if they knew about the danger I now was in. They probably wouldn’t, but there was a chance…
I shook my head.
It didn’t take much to realize I was spiralling and calm myself down. A deep breath helped me regain my composure, and a short moment of meditational thinking helped me get back on track.
My friends were here to stay, I was sure of it. They wouldn’t abandon me for something like this. Still, I’d wait until the proper time came.
For now, I needed to figure out a way to cultivate my mirror Qi. If I was stuck on the first step forever, it wouldn’t do me much good in future fights. But for it to keep pace with my gold Qi, I needed some kind of technique that made the two synergize. Not that I would’ve picked one that didn’t, having to learn a new technique could already be hard enough.
Also, I was willing to bet that no one alive knew a technique for this type of Qi, meaning I needed to invent one. My version of voyage was already heavily changed by me, but coming up with something from scratch might be tough. At least I had some experience to work with.
I’d have to make sure the idea of the method aligned with freedom. If it didn’t, it would clash with voyage, and that would be horrendous for my progression. Not a lot of plans spawned from that, sadly. I had a couple decent ideas, but none that really stuck.
To be fair, I was being picky, but you also needed to be when choosing your path. It was something to follow for a good chunk of your life, after all, if I’d picked something silly like unchanging for my core principle, the very fact that I aged would’ve fucked with it. So no unchanging mirror, then. Also no mirror gathering, I didn’t want to have to collect more gateways to advance.
Honestly, just having a name wouldn’t do anything by itself, but it would at least give me something to work towards. Then again, there were countless times where the name came after the thing, leaving me conflicted.
By the end of my watch, I was no closer to a solution, but after two hours had passed, I went and shook Emilia awake. She’d drawn the short straw and needed to be last watch today. I genuinely wished her the best, because it would be miserable.
My worries soon faded back into nothing as I collapsed into bed next to Ann, and fell right back asleep.
- - -
Waking up next to my love made any morning more lovely, pun intended, even if my night was spent in a tent. Luckily, even on the lower end of the levelling spectrum, you got resilient rather fast. Some of the more insane people, the kind that could level an entire castle by themselves, well. At that point, I liked to imagine that the floor wouldn’t bother me anymore at all, but for now, it was still a mild inconvenience.
The morning progressed slowly, a few swift kisses only to leave the tent far too soon. Then standing watch, gathering wood again, helping prepare things. The twins seemed less anxious to butt in now, though they still sometimes got into others’ way. It was kind of charming to see, thinking I’d been there once as well.
It took some effort to force the goofy smile off my face and get my focus together. I was something of a morning person, but something about keeping watch and sharing a tent with Ann made me more delirious than I usually was at this time. I stretched for a few moments, regaining my bearings, then took things more seriously.
Listening to the sounds of the forest wasn’t exactly exciting, but Liam only had so many eyes. As most things tedious, it was something we ran a rotating shift on. Ann was busy undoing her wards and muddling the mana signature. Would make it harder for any intelligent monsters to track us.
Hadn’t happened to us yet, but stories were nasty sometimes. Whenever most of a team got wiped out, you'd hear about it in town. I shuddered for a second, thinking that we could’ve turned into a story just like that, then shook it off. It was fine, we were here now.
After a simple breakfast, the journey continued almost without incident. There were a few straggler creatures, but the simple ones we could just wipe. Some bornins, red-furred goblin-like apes that swung from the trees, and a couple bunlas as well, rabbit-like creatures, except much faster and more aggressive. Both of them were omnivorous, fiercely territorial, and easy picking for anyone with a level over 2.
There were already multiple monsters we had to avoid, though. Krikrettans were native to the forests this far out into the wild, and they were nasty little beasts. Small, and insanely hard to catch, using wind Qi to propel themselves even faster. Equipped with dangerous claws and an extremely painful venom in them, too, they were nightmares alone. Shame they travelled in large packs.
Luckily though, we managed to avoid them all. Not engaging was the best defense, sometimes, and moments like these made me thankful to have Liam and Marie around. I’d scouted before, and I did a decent job at it, but the two of them were practically bloodhounds.
In what felt like a breeze, it had become night again. We rotated as normal, and soon went to bed after some talk. Things were a bit quiet, as they usually got during marches.
The next day, we fought off some more things. Eric got a small cut on his forearm from a stray splinter of bark, but quickly mended it himself. Bit by bit, we were making it further along, as the forest turned more hostile, and our path stopped being distinct from the surrounding floor.
Often it felt like we were blindly strolling, but Marie assured us she was using the sky to navigate safely. We were still moving towards the fort, and it was good enough for me. So, we marched on, and another day passed.
On the fourth day, the expected bit of bad luck finally came back to bite us again. On our path was a Zurulen, a monstrous giant with crystalline growths coming from its skin. They had an incredibly keen sense of smell, too, which meant it noticed us before we saw it.
Emilia reacted quickly when it broke through the trees, luckily, rushing forward to grab its attention. As soon as she did so, she had to deflect a blow aside using her shield. Her mace lashed out and caught the thing’s flesh, but quickly glanced off its hard hide.
It distracted it for a moment, though, and before the second had passed, the smell of plum blossoms wafted through the air.
Matt was a ruthless fighter, and when the monster's hand had touched the floor, his feet quickly tapped down on it, as he scaled up the thing. A few dozen petals danced forth from his blade, glinting in the afternoon sun, and snapped forward with him as he lashed out. The thing dodged his main strike, but a few of the petals still carved through its eyes, and the Zurulen let out a mighty roar, grasping at its face.
Quickly, my fellow frontliner stepped back, allowing me to step forward and drive my reinforced spear into the monster’s calves. It swatted at me like at an annoying fly, but I quickly fell back. Then, all of us began running.
Fighting here was a bad decision. Generally, the smell of blood would attract more monsters, and they certainly wouldn’t be joining the fight on our side. Maybe we could beat the thing with some commitment, but it hadn’t even raged yet, so we were still well within the danger.
Preserving resources was much more important here, so we quickly ran away, with Matt leaving a false trail of scent pointing somewhere else. I hardly understood how he did all that with plain swordsmanship, but a couple fancy stances and the smell of plum blossoms wafted in from the south. It would draw the Zurulen there, we hoped.
That day, we had to set up camp later, marching an additional two hours to be a safe distance away. I spent a few moments wondering why we couldn’t have encountered the damn thing earlier, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. So instead, I was stuck doing chores late at night.
The others were similarly displeased, though we all did our best to be polite nonetheless. Bit by bit, we went through our routines. I took first watch, just because I didn’t want my sleep to be interrupted, but everyone else seemed somewhat thankful.
Eventually, that time ticked by as well, though I had to swiftly behead another two bornins before waking Matt for the shift after mine.
Luckily, the next few days passed by without another big event. Going through the wilderness wasn’t easy on the nerves though, so when we finally saw the castle after about a week and a half, everyone was quite happy.
The twins especially looked worse for wear, so we hurried for the last leg of the journey, and made for the entrance to the outpost.