by Ryan Rimmel
Chapter 16 – On the Road Again
“Took you long enough,” hissed Su-Kar, tossing her final empty vial into the fire.
“He broke my leg! Sorry that it took me a moment to crawl down the stairs,” groaned Phillip.
Both of them sat in silence for a long moment. The warmth of the fire was both enjoyable and healing, as it provided a buff that restored Stamina faster. Not that it mattered much. While they had survived, they were both broken from the battle.
“The temple Acolyte will be here soon,” stated Phillip, watching the fire for a bit longer. “Did you ever find your nose?”
Su-Kar said nothing in response, her hands cradling something.
“We should burn down the town,” said Phillip seriously.
“Not enough time now. Maybe after we catch her,” replied Su-Kar, wrapping a cloth around her further damaged face. Being stuck in a fire while it slowly cooked you for twenty minutes was not good for your complexion, even if you had Arcane Armor activated.
“You can still track her, right?” asked Phillip.
“Yes, they are moving west. I suspect they are headed to the Vineyards,” stated Su-Kar, her voice terribly hollow. To Phillip, she sounded like some sort of lich. He involuntarily shuddered. Tales of those horrible creatures always made his skin crawl. If he was going to fight a lich, he wanted someone a bit tougher by his side.
“We can’t stop them alone. I’ll summon a messenger,” replied Phillip, as the Acolyte timidly stepped over the smoldering rubble of the inn.
***
I groaned. We had been nearly a mile outside of town before I’d gotten over my Stamina Crash. There had been a bridge, and Julia had dragged me onto it before I’d fully recovered. We were making our best possible time on the road beyond the town, but it wasn’t nearly good enough. The road continued to the west for as far as the eye could see, surrounded on both sides by tall trees.
Julia had replenished my Hit Points almost as soon as the battle was over. That was different. Normally, I’d be walking around with some slight injuries due to the need to conserve healing potions, but Healing magic was better at some things than others.
Healing magic excelled in fixing Damage and Injuries. Spells like Heal Damage were far better than a healing potion for taking care of Hit Point loss after battle. However, now that I had been exposed to Healing magic, I’d spotted a few obvious weaknesses.
Heal Stamina, for example, was manifestly worse than a stamina potion. It was a higher-level spell that provided an inferior return on investment, with 50 Mana recovering only 10 Stamina. Of course, if you were in a Stamina Crash, that 10 Stamina was enough to get you up and moving again. Maybe that was the point.
“How did they track us to the town?” Julia asked. “Did you not cover our tracks well enough?”
“I didn’t cover our tracks at all after the first few miles. I placed a bunch of traps, though. If they’d followed us, they should have tripped some of them,” I responded. We continued down the road until I spotted a point where someone had recently walked onto the road that wasn’t using a trail.
“Wait,” I stated, coming to a stop. My Tracking skill activated, showing me that someone wearing very fine boots had cut through the woods. Su-Kar wore similar boots.
“You think they came this way?” Julia asked.
I considered my Tracking skill for a moment. “I don’t think they are tracking us conventionally.”
“What do you mean?” asked Julia. I walked several paces into the woods, finally spotting a pair of tracks that matched Su-Kar and Phillip’s, probably. They were on the north side of the road. They sure found us easily enough.
We had been on the east side of the river and had more or less followed it until we got to the town. Su-Kar and Phillip had been on the west side of the river. They hadn’t been following us with the Tracking skill at all.
“I mean, they aren’t following our trail,” I said, gesturing to the tracks. “They came into town from across the bridge. These tracks aren’t very old.”
“My teacher…” started Julia, before shaking her head and swallowing. I knew from firsthand experience that Mental magic sucked. Julia adjusted herself. “I stepped out to take a bath, Su-Kar was waiting in the room when I got back.”
“I didn’t mention you to anyone while I was renting the room,” I said defensively. After meeting at the temple and enjoying our pies, we had gone to the inn together. There had been a short gap when we’d broken apart from there. She had gone to check out the room, and I’d gone to check on my sword at the blacksmith’s. Feck.
“Shart, how could they be tracking us?” I asked my former shoulder demon.
“Let me check,” stated Shart. He was quiet for several long moments, as the sound of typing filled my head. “Ha, I see it. There is a tracking spell on the collar that Lasso Lady is wearing. You should ditch her. She is a worthless waste of skin.”
“I need her to summon you back to Ordinal,” I said.
“Um, yeah, like I was saying, let’s check on Counterspelling that,” stated the demon.
I began probing the collar with my Counterspell skill, poking it until I found the slight trace of Mana that seemed to race off into the distance. I eyeballed where it went, then brought up my map. Unfortunately, the Mana from the Tracking spell didn’t point to the caster.
“You can’t use that to track your tracker, if that’s what you are hoping,” said Shart. “Tracking Mana is only going to lead back to wherever they dug up the stone they used. That’s why local stones are better. Less lag.”
I’d long ago given up on trying to understand magic, but my Arcane Lore skill chimed in. I got a very detailed, technical explanation of how Tracking magic worked. Obviously, Shart was correct. You could cast a tracking spell using an unworked gemstone as an anchor and something from the object you wanted tracked. The stone was destroyed in the process.
The weakness of the magic was the gemstone used. The point where you cast the spell was the anchor for the whole spell. There was a connection between the anchor, the place the anchor was mined, and the tracked object. The longer that connection was, the less accurate the tracking spell became. You needed a high quality, locally mined stone for the best results.
With the use of Arcane Lore, assuming that Su-Kar had cast the spell in Angwin, the response would come every five minutes. The signal would take longer the further away from Angwin we traveled, but nothing stopped the caster from just casting the spell again locally. The best thing to do to prevent them from quickly finding us would be moving around with a large group of people. Crowds and movement both reduced the accuracy of the spell significantly.
“They are tracking you through your collar,” I said. Julia swore, touching the collar and getting shocked again.
“Will she be able to do it again?” asked Julia.
“She needs to have gemstones to cast the spell. Good luck finding any in town. As you like to say, I am a thief,” I said, pulling out a handful of uncut gemstones. I was pretty sure I had stolen more, but only one of my pockets was intact. My Quick Steal perk allowed me to steal things when I was punching someone. Su-Kar’s potions had been protected against my efforts, but her gemstones had been accessible. At the time, I’d stolen them because they were valuable, and she looked like the kind of girl who would miss them.
Julia smiled. “Well, there is a time and a place for everything.”
“Yes, but she will still be able to track you as long as you are wearing that collar,” I said. “Eventually, she will find another gemstone and recast the spell to get a better reading.”
“Well, it's a good thing we can work on this together,” she replied after a moment. Hesitantly, she added, “We are a great team?”
I stared at her flatly for a moment. It would be so much easier to just ditch her. Too bad I needed her, at least for the time being. “Yup, great team.”
She let out a breath. “You know, there may be an upside to you being a
thief. Do you think you can just pick the lock on the collar?”
That was an idea. I put my hand on the back of her neck and examined the tight collar. The moonlight wasn’t helping me much, so I lowered her head slightly to get some more light on the lock. Bringing my eyes nearer, I examined the clasp more closely.
“Ahem,” she said finally. I looked up into her eyes and realized my face was very close to her face. She was propped up in my arms; I’d inadvertently swept her off her feet.
“Sorry, I don’t think I can pick it, especially with my current supplies,” I said. She started to frown, but I continued, “If I can get some higher quality picks, I might be able to do something.”
“It's cursed too,” warned Shart, as I set Julia back onto her feet.
My Curse Breaker skill was higher now. It only took me a moment to latch onto the curse. It was a measly 250 pointer, and I still couldn’t do anything about it.
“Maybe in a few more levels,” I said to Shart, “Or if you could unlock my Mage class.”
“I figured that out, but you aren’t going to like it,” replied the demon.
“Hit me,” I said.
“Choose the strange god that allows you to use a Magical Core,” said Shart. I cursed silently. Of course, there would have been a god who used a bit of Arcane magic, just like there was a god who used a bit of sword.
“Can I change gods?” I asked.
“Nope, maybe you shouldn’t do things while the great, all-knowing Shart is unavailable,” suggested Shart smugly.
“I had a choice of magic or sword,” I said, “There was going to be a sacrifice either way.”
“Point, but there is another option for you to regain your arcane magic,” continued Shart.
“What is it?” I asked.
“You hit level 15 in Cleric and take the Arcane Adept Path. It lets you cast both Arcane and Divine magic,” said the demon. “Arcane Adept activates all your magical cores, instead of just your Fire and Biological Aeromancy.”
“So that Path would activate my Plasma core?” I asked, considering.
“Just your basic cores, there is typically more involved in activating an Advanced Core,” asked Shart, groaning. “It’s not impossible though. All you would need to do is work on a few skills.”
“That sounds easy,” I began.
“A few incredibly complicated, hard to master, rare skills,” grinned Shart. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. “
“My Biological Aeromancy core was easy enough,” I countered.
“That is an alternative Core, the same but different than your Aeromancy core would have been,” stated Shart. “You might think it is marginally better, but your Core requires more effort to use properly. An Advanced Core is just better.”
I considered that. Biological Aeromancy had a bunch of limitations compared to a conventional Aeromancy. Aside from my most powerful spell, most of the options in Biological Aeromancy were pretty limited. Further, the Stamina requirement was really build dependent. Su-Kar was a higher-level caster and she only had 50 points of Stamina. She couldn’t cast Bio-Lighting more than once but had been able to cast multiple variants of the Lightning spell at me in rapid succession.
For my build, Biological Aeromancy was useful. If I ever went full caster, then it would be worthless. It was better to focus on the Advanced Cores. Apparently, they had all the bonuses and none of the drawbacks.
That was for the future, though. My current problem was that I was still unarmed and covered in blood. Furthermore, Phillip had covered my new clothes in ax slashes. I could use Mend to reattach the material, but, in a lot of cases, the material wasn’t there anymore. It was still better than the loincloth, I supposed, until a breeze hit me. I recognized the feeling instantly.
They are flapping in the breeze again.
Activating my Counterspell skill, I was able to temporarily sever the tracking link to the collar. It was trickier than I expected but still well within my capabilities. Su-Kar could probably cast the spell again, but doing so would take time. Hopefully, it would give us an advantage.
“That should give us a few hours of free movement,” I said. Julia nodded and began to pray. A moment later, a ward flickered to life around her. It hovered there for a moment before becoming transparent.
“That’s better,” she smiled and looked at me. “Anti-scrying ward. They will still be able to track this accursed collar, but the ward should reduce the details they are getting from it.”
I ran us backward for a good minute, finding a side road cut off from the main. It went south into the woods and appeared to be a human-made trail, not quite a permanent path. The number of people traveling in this area was substantial, meaning it would take Su-Kar and Phillip even longer to locate us. It was a bit of a shame; I did enjoy making Phillip’s life harder than it already was. Along the way, I grabbed two heavy stones that seemed perfect for ruining someone’s back. I gave one to Julia, and we waddled off the road. Carrying our burdens off into the forest, we left much deeper footprints than we had before. That, along with our shoes being common, should adjust our tracks enough to give our pursuers fits.
We walked in silence for a good fifteen minutes. Well, I walked in silence. Julia grunted more and more until she finally dropped the rock and straightened up without further comment. The countryside in this part of Falcon was hilly and woody, but there was a major road up ahead. If we could get to it and move quickly, we could blend in.
“All I wanted was a night in an inn,” groused Julia.
“All I wanted was a sword,” I grumbled.
“I reckon I might be able to help you with that,” said a massive man, as he stepped out of the woods. Even by my adjusted standards living with Sir Dalton, this man was large. His skin color alerted me that something was off, even before I got a good look at his face. He was light green. I squinted again, making sure I wasn’t just seeing things in the moonlight. Nope, light green he is. He also had two massive tusks protruding from his lower jaw. As I continued staring, he tilted his hat and said, “Howdy, pilgrim.”
“Who are you?” asked Julia, whose name tag now showed up as Angela. She was using the Disguise skill, which seemed like a reasonable precaution.
“Well, ma’am, my name is Cole. I’m out here making sure my wagon isn’t ambushed by any untoward folk,” stated the man. My Lore skill identified him as an orc.
“We aren’t planning on ambushing anyone,” I said, as the orc walked closer to me. He was wearing all leather armor, including what I could only describe as a fifteen-gallon hat. That hat would have been a novelty on a human. On an orc, it looked really good.
Julia stifled a groan. I didn’t understand why until the orc continued. “I’m just trying to get my caravan moving again, that’s all. Perhaps you folk could be of some assistance? You scratch our backs, and we’ll scratch yours.”
There was a “Hear, hear!” from the forest.
“So, do you want us to join you?” I cautiously asked. There were quite a few more unseen voices from the forest than I really would have preferred.
“Orcish hospitality,” said Julia. “They are super nice but always plan on staying a bit. We need to move.”
“Why, thank ya, ma’am,” Cole said, tipping his hat at Julia. “We aim to please. However, I’d like to get us all moving as soon as possible.”
I considered that for an instant before shaking my head. Getting annoyed, I stepped toward him. “We don’t have a lot of time. We need to be heading west.”
Cole eyed me before shrugging. “Well, why didn’t you say so. We need some skilled people who could assist us in our journey to the west. I could offer you a pair of pants if you at least come to the wagon.”
“We need to get moving,” said Julia flatly.
“Let's at least hear them out,” I countered. “I’ve got a bad airflow situation down here.”
“Seriously,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Serious shrinkage,” I continued,
“I’m dealing with a frightened turtle situation.”
“I will mend them for you,” she hissed.
“That requires material to work with. We could use some cover from the two people who are constantly trying to kill us,” I continued.
Julia looked at me for a moment before turning to Cole. “Why do you need skilled people?”
“Well, moving a caravan is tricky business. We have only been averaging a league or so a day. We are asking all travelers if they have the Administration skill.”
“You need an Administrator for a caravan,” I thought. We sent caravans to Narwal all the time and never needed an Administrator. Though come to think of it Mar always did seem to spend an inordinate amount of time preparing the caravan.
“The minimum skill level we need is Journeyman,” Cole shrugged. “There are painfully few Journeyman Administrators walking around in the world.”
“Have any luck?” I asked.
“I don’t need luck,” stated Cole, eying Julia and me very carefully. “I have a trait that lets me sniff out certain skills, even if you are hiding them. My actual profession was a Lawman. It came in real handy to be able to know who had certain skills.”
“Ah,” I said, stepping back slightly. I bumped into Julia, who was squarely behind me now.
“So, I’ll ask again, could one of you help us with our predicament?” he continued.
“Give us a second,” I said, stepping away from Cole with Julia. “What’s your Administration skill at?”
“Expert,” she hissed, “but I’m using my Disguise skill at the moment to appear as a temple Acolyte named Angela.”
I glanced at her. Not only was her name coming up as Angela, but a quick Lore dive showed her as a simple Acolyte, rather than a Zealot.
“So, just say you are an Acolyte with the Administration skill,” I replied.
“I’m claiming to be an Acolyte of Tony. They don’t do Administration at all. If I was an Acolyte of Pepper, I could claim that,” she continued.
“Well, I have the Administration skill,” I said, as Cole began impatiently tapping his feet.
“A Novice rank isn’t going to help us,” spat Julia.