Sergeant looked sure of himself, although he obviously didn’t like the news. He didn’t even look away, just kept his eyes locked on Rumbler until the man turned away first. My master had gained a lot of confidence and self-possession since he’d sat before the guild leaders a week ago. Rumbler continued:
“Among those fifty-four people in the village now, the average level is thirty-two. Yours is just seventeen… Although you are the only Beast Catcher, and your value is obvious. We’d like you to stay. But your little sister Julie is just level fourteen, and the village already has a more experienced Healer…” Rumbler gestured toward the grieving widow in her dark funereal veil.
“I won’t stay without Julie!” Sergeant said without hesitation.
“Don’t interrupt your elders!” Rumbler barked, loud enough that the walls seemed to shake. Oh, my sensitive ears! I was nearly deafened. Rumbler and his ancestors must have earned that nickname (or surname, who knows) for that loud, deep-bass voice. “There’s also your girlfriend, Shelly. She’s far below the average level too, and many believe that there should be no place for a veich in a human village.”
“Essentially, you alone take up three spaces out of seventeen…” Washington began to speak, leaning forward, but Rumbler cut him off with a gesture and continued.
“Spaces are in high demand. And I believe that you must earn the right for Julie and Shelly to stay in the village. There’s one thing… it’s not entirely pleasant, but necessary for all of us. Soon we’re going to sort the people into categories. Some will stay on the island. Some will be allowed to remain on the condition that they leave the village at night,” for some reason, Rumbler glanced at the Engineer as he said those words. “But all the same, there remains a large group of people that we have nowhere to put. We can’t let them stay here, but we can’t throw them to the winds of fate either. I suggest we equip them with everything they need, give them supplies, take them to the energy barrier and send them off into the big wide world. That’s the best our village can do for them. Your girlfriend Shelly said that she went to the barrier with a group of veich Hunters. Take her with you. She can show the way. For her, successful completion of this mission means she has the right to live here. Viking and Yarik will go with you. Just in case the people don’t want to go. Do you understand your task? Then be ready to go in an hour.”
Chapter 38 [Sergeant]
Road to the Big Wide World
I WENT AS THE MASTER of the beasts of burden and defensive animals. Shelly was our guide. My sister insisted on coming with us to help manage the mounts. We were also assigned two of the old guard, the fearsome level 36 Warrior Yarik and the muscular ginger-haired Carpenter by the name of Viking. They were to keep order. I was confused; why had they given us the Carpenter instead of one of the Hunters, who were better suited to long hikes? But the village council must have known what they were doing. We also had twenty-four freed slaves. All of them had were high-level, but still poorly adapted for surviving on their own. There were three women and two children among them. They’d gotten clothes and shoes from Rumbler’s Refuge, some weapons, and the bare essentials; bags, clay crockery, flint and steel, tools. There were twenty-nine people in our group in total, and it was a two-day hike to the energy barrier that separated the sandbox from the big wide world…
Any of the old guard that knew the new world’s game laws would have recoiled in horror before the difficulty of this mission from our new leaders. There were as many of us as had been in Pan’s Landing the previous night, but we had fewer defenders, no defensive firewall, no palisade or strong walls. But we still had to go. For the sake of my young sister Julie, who needed a place in a protected human village, and for the sake of my girlfriend Shelly too. The alternative for us three was banishment, which was tantamount to a death sentence. Solo players and small groups didn’t survive the new world. If only because they couldn’t have all the skills needed to survive at once — without more people, the group couldn’t hunt and gather, heal wounds and sicknesses, fight dangerous creatures and the night beasts, build solid houses and collect all the necessary resources.
It confused and bothered me that, in his speech to the expedition, Rumbler had called Yarik and Viking ‘experienced veterans of survival’ that would go with the group of settlers out to the wider world and help them create a human settlement there. But I was told their role was somewhat different — to escort the humans only to the barrier and to maintain order, stop the former slaves in case they rebelled along the way and tried to turn around. I didn’t reveal their plan. I knew perfectly well that if I did, there would be no discipline or order, and we could put a big fat cross over the mission.
My sister saddled Atlas the giga-komodo and we loaded the heavy goods onto him. I traveled on the Marsh Mistress — maybe she wasn’t good at long journeys, and she’d lost one of her legs and was limping on two more, but she’d make a great defender if we encountered dangerous predators. On top of that, the Marsh Mistress needed to eat after her injuries and restore her lost hit points. Shelly saddled both creeping crocodiles. I didn’t plan on leaving my pets at Rumbler’s Refuge. Who knew what could happen to them in the three or even four days while I was away? Anyway, Tick-Tock needed to heal and level up, and nobody would help him do it but me and my companions.
After consulting with Shelly, we decided to split our journey into two legs — the first to the river meadow, where we’d camp for the night, dividing up the group into smaller groups with fewer than nine people each. Then we’d try to survive the night. We’d leave the creeping crocodiles there in the morning, since the terrain turned to hills and cliffs, and then make one long hike all the way to the energy barrier before nightfall.
* * *
At first, everything went surprisingly well. The group quickly moved along the river bank, spurred on by loud meows from Whiskers on my shoulder; the kitten was on form today, examining the humans with interest as they walked, and ever meowing. Must be sharing his thoughts in Cattish. The settlers smiled happily when they looked at the commanding furry critter. They joked that it was leading the battalion and keeping up the pace. We all knew we had to hurry to reach safe ground by nightfall.
We walked around five miles at a fast pace before we pushed into the swampy forest. The roots of plants hung in the air all over. A thick net of vines above and squishy, marshy soil below slowed our progress. Until now, Atlas and Irosaurus Regina had made it through marshy ground without much difficulty, so I didn’t expect any trouble here either. But the humans on foot and even the clumsy Marsh Mistress ran into problems. Big strong men sank up to their waist in the mud. The children were up to their necks… And then Shelly spotted some venomous snakes and other dangerous beasts who had appeared in great numbers in the murky waters ahead. They had a clear interest in our group.
We had to split up. My sister took the children on Atlas and Shelly took the women on the creeping crocodiles. That part of the group headed onward to the river meadow, to make dinner for the others and set up camp.
I went the long way round with the other men, through the faraway forest. At some point, I saw wet footprints appear on the Marsh Mistress’s carapace just a step away from me. The invisible shoes were small. Clearly a woman.
Tracking skill increased to level fourteen!
“Hey, Avelia!” I greeted her quietly, so that the others in the group didn’t hear me. “Tired of walking, decided to take a break?”
“Hello, Sergeant!” I was right — it really was the sherkh Swordmaiden. “No. I wanted to find out why you took a turn. You were headed for the river meadow, from what I heard. Has something changed?”
Hiding nothing, I explained why we’d changed course and told her where I was headed on the Marsh Mistress along with the two dozen men behind me.
“Then err rightward, or you’ll miss it,” the invisible Swordmaiden suggested. “I was actually sent to confirm that you humans really are going across the barrier. And not settling the land
s that my people have already claimed. The sherkhs won’t suffer new settlers. We will consider settlement an act of war. Bear that in mind, humans!”
If she wanted to convey a warning to all humans through me, then I wanted to ask for more details. It also wouldn’t hurt to learn about the abandoned veich settlements newly resettled by humans. And find out where the border was with the sherkh claims. I could tell her about the crossbow I found too. But a gentle splash from the left told me that the girl had already jumped off the cruel arachnoscorp. Never mind. I felt sure I’d get the chance to talk to the omnipresent Swordmaiden again.
I heeded Avelia’s advice and adjusted the arachnoscorp’s course. It took some effort, but eventually we found hard ground and soon saw the familiar field where the Orshi-Ur pack Hunters had made offerings to the chimeric monkeys that dwelt in the faraway forest. I dismounted, jumping onto the ground and stretching my aching legs. Then I told everyone to collect the local bright red berries and bunches of wild garlic, and to put it all on the big flat stone nearby. I repeated it again for Viking and Yarik, who seemed to think the order didn’t apply to them. They hadn’t heard of the offerings from the Hunters of the river settlement, so they hung back at first, even thought I was playing some kind of prank. But I pointed out the huge furry figures occasionally peeking out from behind the tall trees, carefully watching us from the dark forest. That worked. Together, we collected a whole heap of berries within ten minutes. The herbs we collected didn’t even fit on the stone.
I didn’t have a special birchbark horn like the veichs used, so I just cupped my hands and shouted into the woods. I didn’t have to call for long before a huge black male ran out into the meadow. It looked like the same one that took the offering last time. Rippling muscles, a long tail with a bony tip, half a ton of dry weight. A terrible beast. No wonder some of the humans reached for their weapons.
Chimeric Monkey. Chieftain. Level 69 Male.
“No weapons! Don’t make any sudden movements or look him in the eyes. Let the chief smell us!”
It was definitely the same beast, although it had gained noticeably in level and weight in the last few days. The chieftain of the apes recognized the kitten at once and smiled joyously, baring yellow teeth. Then he lightly poked the little critter on its soft side, trying to get a meow of displeasure in response. That was enough to pass me and Whiskers. The black ambled on by us.
He clearly felt respect and admiration for the Marsh Mistress. The chieftain buzzed something excitedly and very slowly, gently touched her carapace on her injured front leg — he seemed to be trying to tell the arachnoscorp that his intentions were good, and asking the creepy spider for the same in return. The chimeric monkey had no interest at all in any of the other group members. The chieftain walked along the line of humans indifferently, sniffing each. He stopped for a couple of seconds next to an empty space — maybe sniffing the invisible Avelia, although I wasn’t sure. He might have just been catching the wind in his wide nostrils and checking if he’d missed anyone. Then he roared back at the forest, calling his troop to dinner.
“Let’s go! The chimeric monkeys are letting us through the forest!” I said, climbing onto my tall mount.
“So our Hunters didn’t even have to fight them?!” Yarik asked in amazement. “Hell, we went hungry in the spring for no reason?”
“Yeah, you didn’t have to fight the chimeric monkeys,” I said. “Just show them that humans respect their territory.”
Speaking of respect, mine went up noticeably in the group after I got us past the monkeys. Until now, the settlers, each of whom was at least ten levels above me, had just watched the Beast Catcher with interest, as if asking each other: who the hell is that freak in the weird armor up on the big spider? Now they began to ask who I was, how long I’d been playing, even asked for tips on surviving in the wilderness.
My respect skyrocketed again later, after I led the group through a dark forest full of all kinds of beasts without a single loss on the side of the humans. I even managed to catch some game along the way with the help of the Marsh Mistress. A woman by the name of Nonna Avetician even discretely asked if I had a companion in this world yet. She was around thirty years old and a level 35 Forager. I answered in the affirmative, although I didn’t tell her my girlfriend’s name. Then I asked about her strange game class. From what I understood, foragers spent all their time in the woods and knew all about berries and mushrooms and so on. But this was clearly her first time in the sleepy forests of the new world.
“Mushrooms are the primary food source for thousands of miners in the Pharaoh’s coal and iron mines,” the woman readily explained. “There are mushroom plantations both on the surface and even underground. They grow a few different types of edible mushrooms, some narcotic ones for the Healers, poisonous types for the Alchemists. The women look after the mushroom houses, transplant mycelium to new plantations, feed them, harvest the mushrooms. It’s monotonous and exhausting work.”
That caught my interest, and I asked Nonna to point out any useful mushrooms she saw. I didn’t know anything about them. Three minutes passed and our group could already see the fires of the other part of the group as we moved across the meadow. Nonna pointed out a small scattering of unprepossessing gray mushrooms on thin stalks. She said they were edible and even delicious. They were often reserved for the nobles — the players closest to the Pharaoh.
Just as we passed the mushrooms, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned. Nothing remained of the patch of mushrooms but their cleanly cut stalks. So Avelia was still following me. And sherkhs ate mushrooms too.
* * *
Our large group stretched out along the river bank for nearly half a mile. On my advice, Yarik and Viking split the group up into six smaller squads with five people each for the night. We needed more than two hundred yards between neighboring groups. I made sure to check the distances myself. Then I brought one from each group to see a platform high up in the trees, built once by Varya and my sister. I showed them how to make a solid cot from woven branches, how the girls tied the structure in the trees and how to make a ladder that can be pulled up. I pointed to the sun as it descended to the horizon and told them they had just two and a half hours. After that, anyone not safe in the trees would be eaten by the night beasts.
That was more than enough motivation. All the groups made it in time, even with plenty of time to spare. By sundown, all the humans had eaten and were hidden up the trees. Shelly, Julie and the kid Jerry, who happened to be in my group, collected blue flowers for the giga-komodo. I sent them up to get some sleep before tomorrow’s long hike. Myself, I stayed down by the big campfire, watching Atlas, now unburdened, as he sat and slowly chewed through the hay provided for him. I wanted to make sure that our beast of burden knew to roll up into an impenetrable ball when night fell. A couple of yards away sat the Marsh Mistress, already almost fully recovered after last night. She was still missing a leg, but it didn’t seem to bother her.
It was time! A howl from several directions at once declared the presence of the night beasts. Shame. Although I’d put the fear into the settlers traveling with me, I’d secretly been hoping that the dangerous beasts wouldn’t appear here — twice now, they’d failed to show on the river meadow. Although there had been far fewer players then — two in one place, three at the most. At the sounds of the howl, Atlas stopped chewing and instantly curled up into an armored ball. I climbed up onto the Marsh Mistress and looked around. Where were they..?
A group of Feelers appeared. Just four of them, and the strongest was level three. It made me laugh. Was that it?! I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Sic ‘em!” The Marsh Mistress obeyed my command and dealt with the small group in seconds.
I walked along the river bank on the cruel arachnoscorp, clearing the other groups of night beasts at the base of the trees. Meh. Not even sport. I was like a fox in a hen-house. The strongest Feeler was just level five — seemed like their maximum l
evel was limited by the number of players nearby.
For the last, sixth group of five Feelers, I decided to dismount and take them on with axe in hand. In my armor, with my visor down, leaving the overly strong Marsh Mistress behind me. Just one of the Feelers gave me trouble, hanging off the elbow of my left arm, but it couldn’t bite through my giga-komodo plate armor. A minute of waving my axe and there it was — a level-up!
Hand-to-Hand Combat skill increased to level seventeen!
Heavy Armor skill increased to level six!
Monster Riding skill increased to level fourteen!
Your character is now level eighteen!
Reward: three skill points and one mutation point (total available: eighteen).
Leaving the Marsh Mistress to eat her well-earned supper of night beasts, I returned to the fire. For some reason I felt sure that Avelia would make an appearance soon. Actually, ‘for some reason’ wasn’t quite right. I’d seen the sherkh several times already. The girl once let slip that her species could be detected in the infrared spectrum, ‘thermal vision,’ as she’d put it. And I’d found the mutation, a modification for the Eagle Eye skill. The ability cost ten mutation points, but I decided it was worthwhile. I was sick of surprise visits from invisible watchers.
There she was! Coming closer. The most awkward part was looking past the girl and making as if I couldn’t see her as she crept closer. I felt certain that Avelia wouldn’t like my new skill. The sherkh Swordmaiden only spoke to me because she was sure she could break contact and disappear at any moment.
She came to within a couple of paces and stopped. “Sit down by the fire, Avelia,” I said after a while.
“Ugh. Demon! You detected me again, Sergeant! How?!” The angry Swordmaiden appeared in her form-fitting dark clothes, outlining all the curves of her female form, with a black hood on her head and a dark mask over her face. I immediately noted the yawning holes in the dark cloth on both elbows, her right shoulder and right side. The girl had no crossbow either, and the throwing knife holsters at her belt were empty, though she had a quiver of arrows.
A Cat and His Human (League of Losers Book #1): LitRPG Series Page 32