by Han Yang
“And these?” Jark asked.
“Not worth hauling. We’ll overload the donkey and leave each of the goblins carrying long daggers. The rest we burden,” I ordered.
They frowned, not liking that we suddenly had to haul our own gear, but no one pouted. A few minutes later, we set off to the north. It would take a week and a half to get through the strivian jungle with a whole lot of wildlife to get through.
Even if I suspected the trip to be arduous, the extra gear and Z certainly had me feeling better about our chances.
CHAPTER 22
Ikara Valley
Sparkling brown eyes fixated on me with lust. The first morning after we had our own tent, Tarla wanted to escalate our relationship.
I had to pluck roaming hands free of a developing situation between my legs.
“Tarla, I’m enjoying our light conversations, but there’s still so much to get to know about you,” I said, giving her a tender kiss.
“Have I ever told you I like swimming?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I enjoy it too and miss it. The water on Nordan frightens me.”
“Wild water?” she asked, snuggling into my shoulder.
I didn’t fight her when she traced fingers along my body, and I returned the favor. She nestled in tighter, realizing I wasn’t following.
“Many human cities contain lavish and items of excess now that the world is filled with magic. My father and my… mothers enjoyed a nice estate. We had a pool and Mother Melina was a water mage and Mother Zelli a fire mage. Together, they would fill and heat it. Or cool it from Mother Serrin, depending on the season.
“Some of my fondest memories are about playing pool games. When you have a nice home and excess mana to spare, swimming can become amazing. Anyway, no, I’ve never swam in the wild waters. No one does,” she said, enjoying my embrace.
“Sounds like fun. A bathhouse, a hot tub, and a cool pool. Yeah, I like that idea a lot. Something to look forward to. And some intimate time when we’re somewhere safe,” I said, kissing her forehead.
She sighed, “You sure you wanna wait?” Her eyebrows bounced with a smirk.
I sweetly tucked her red locks behind her ear, enjoying this new side of me.
“Yeah, for now, anyway,” I said, hoping to not drive a wedge between us.
“Bath bucket’s ready,” Bell called out, her voice coming into the tent.
We had pulled the first guard shift even with the skeleton goblins set to rotate our camp counterclockwise. I felt somewhat secure knowing we had a decent setup going and people awake in teams. Being first meant we slept in a smidge, and now Bell was letting us know it was time to get up.
I grabbed a dirty shirt to cover my naked form and Tarla asked, “May I wash you?”
“Yeah, I don’t mind. Just sex is something I’d rather save. Plus, you look great naked,” I said.
“Gross,” Jark said, his voice matching footsteps nearby.
“I could stand to hear more, Brother,” Tarla countered with sass.
I chuckled and Tarla joined me behind the tent. The soft grass gobbled up the water we used to rinse the nastiness off us. While we bathed, she hummed a tune that Jark sang. I told her of competition pools and how I swam in high school to meet girls. For a few minutes, the Ostriva jungle seemed peaceful.
After the bath, I almost geared into my seat soaked armor from a hard march yesterday. A single whiff had me diverting to a robe. I equipped my sword, grabbed a shield, and exited behind Tarla.
We had found a nice meadow in the jungle in the middle of nowhere. The jungle being full of life wasn’t a lie, just most of it ran from our path, instead of attacking us. The short grass, clear sky, and early morning breeze allowed for a serene sight of colorful jungle encircling us.
Asha whittle a stick into an arrow, Jark placed firewood by our fire, and Bell gutted a rabbit by a fire with makeshift seating. I went about breaking down the fire with a hatchet from one of the bags. Having simple tools again made a big difference.
“Can we name the cat?” Bell asked while everyone went about their morning tasks.
The skeleton cat was set to hunt creatures smaller than itself and boy was it good. A dozen birds laid in a pile, their colorful feathers marred in blood. The cat even hunted while we marched, and the Z was starting to add up.
“Would you be willing to do the honors?” I offered. “I’ve been calling it jenix because it doesn’t even tell me if it's a boy or girl.”
“I always wanted a cat. Dad said yes, Mom no, so you could imagine how that went. The jenix snuggled with me last night, not sure why it likes me. Kinda like the cat over the centaur. Anyway, if I were lucky enough to get a cat, I told myself it would be named Lumpy,” Bell said.
I chuckled. “No turning this into a fat cat, but I’ll rename him for you,” I said.
Minion: Jenix Jungle Cat.
Health 9/9. Level 1.
Sentient Cat.
Fighting Abilities: Highly proficient.
Memories intact.
Upgrade Available. Consume 18 mana and 3 Zorta (YES) or (NO)
Repair missing claw: 2 mana of 30 available.
I tapped the name Jenix Jungle Cat with a mental thought. A prompt asked if I wanted to change the name, and a few inputs later, our cat became Lumpy.
Lumpy the kickass nimble cat that was about ten times scarier than the goblins.
“And done,” I said with a smile. “How about the goblins?”
“One, two, and three works for me,” Asha said with a snort. “These feathers are great for fletching. If I can get all these plucked, we’re talking about a good trade item for those not in the jungle.”
“Lumpy is awesome,” Tarla said, breaking down our tent with the donkey waiting to be strapped down.
Jark returned with a final haul of wood and asked, “What’s the plan today, Boss? More hard marching?”
One of my new changes was I would never be called master again and went with boss instead. I just couldn’t stomach being an evil overlord everyone referred to as master.
“A day of mostly training,” I said, finding a log to sit on. “Followed by a hose down and about three hours of marching before dark.”
“You want to take our time in the valley?” Bell asked with confusion. Her hazel eyes lingered on me with concern.
I nodded and said, “Yeah, I do. I have a problem. I don’t know how to fight and Asha does. Like, I get it, stick sharp pointy end into bad guys, but there has to be more to it,” I said.
“Certainly is, and gear plays a factor,” Asha said, continuing to refine his arrow.
I nodded and said, “At least I have a shield now, but yeah. The other thing is we need to have a hard discussion about upgrades.
“Asha, Jark, and Lumpy are all capable of being upgraded. Same with the goblins, and hear me out. They’re shit now, we know that, but maybe not at level twenty, and they’re cheap to improve, so it might be worth it. However, we’ll waste the Z frivolously. So, there’s that, and then I don’t know if we should invest our sudden windfall of Z on ourselves or save it for a better shopping experience.”
Asha said, “We need an ice mage, a shield mage, a wind mage, an earth mage, and the list goes on. Not to mention we need horses, proper gear, and for you a crossbow or something simple. I can kill just fine. Jark can zap decently and improving your magic would make your spell how much deadlier?” The elva asked this last question directly to Jark.
“Uh, no idea, but it's not even half my old power, and my old power was fairly weak. I’d love some better gear,” Jark said then pointed to his sister. “Tarla is growing in power and her staff is a cheapo.”
“Hey, this cost five gold,” Tarla said proudly. “But he has a point. I vote we hoard, minus for Lumpy.”
“That seals the deal… almost. Any objections to ingesting small orbs to keep carrying size down and hoarding our ten Z orbs?” I asked the group.
I glanced around, seeing a circle of nods. I
couldn’t level up anything yet anyway, so this was a bit of a moot point at the moment.
Bell pulled out a set of wooden bowls and said, “Upgrade Lumpy, and if we can get more we should.”
I grabbed the bowls from her with a smile, dishing everyone’s soup breakfast.
“Lumpy come back please,” I said as if he were near.
The skeleton cat returned after I handed out breakfast, and I went into his menu. I healed him first then went into his upgrade menu.
Upgrade Available. Consume 18 mana and 3 Zorta (YES) or (NO)
I selected yes, and the bones collapsed to the trampled grass. A swirling black magic rushed into the bones, fueling them with power. The bones expanded and contracted, cracking loudly as they grew.
When the pieces of the cat began dancing with jarring motions, I became fixated.
The swirl of magic condensed into a single point, pulsing with power. A final surge ended with an explosion of black mist.
When the magic dissipated, the Lumpy reformed and raced to sit by Bell. The priestess of Caitlyn reached down to administer loving pets.
Lumpy grew, not by much, but the bones were stronger and bigger. I pulled up his data sheet.
Minion: Lumpy.
Health 14/14. Level 2.
Sentient Cat.
Fighting Abilities: Highly proficient.
Memories intact.
Upgrade Available. Consume 10/58 mana and 37 Zorta (YES) or (NO) Due to lack of mana upgrade cost is 95.
“He gained five health, and I can upgrade him again when I improve my mana. I wonder if he will keep growing in size or reach a limit,” I muttered.
I glanced around to see shrugs.
“Are we tracking individual gains?” I asked. “For instance, what the single hunting goblin brings in versus the centaur versus Lumpy.”
Bell opened her mouth then shook her head no, instead.
Jark cleared his throat and said, “Boss, are you wanting to keep a running tally of our finances?”
“Yeah, I think it's great to see what Lumpy earns for our group on a daily basis. Eventually, we can stack it against us raiding a goblin cave or something,” I said.
“I can try to help Bell,” Jark said.
Bell eyed him down her nose, not giving any input. I had to wonder if she was trying to keep him away somewhat by her dismissive nature.
Her eyes shifted to me, and Bell said, “I’ve never been the best at keeping a balance. I only managed the tally up to this point to help keep things fair. Speaking of which…” She opened the ledger, thumbing to a page. “I ingested fourteen Z this morning through Lumpy’s catches alone.”
I let out a slight whistle. That amount of Z in Tarb would go a long way. It did equate to about forty-five small birds, though.
Asha chuckled, setting his knife back into its sheath and setting the wooden arrow down. The elva said, “Lumpy is wonderful, and it feels like cheating to have him catch birds while they sleep. However, we clearly need a win. Alright, you’re serious about the training?”
I nodded, slurping up the rest of my soup. I went to the water bucket to rinse the bowl out. After a quick dry with my robe, I set the bowl and grabbed my shield.
“What should I do?” I asked.
“Well, I suggest getting out of your morning robe and into your armor,” he said.
I grumbled but realized it was the right thing to do. My gear was strung out to vent over the donkey. I bit my inner cheek to get through the nasty stench until it became semi-normal. When I returned, Asha nodded in approval.
“Better. Now I recommend holding your shield up and attacking that tree,” Asha said, pointing to a random jungle tree at the edge of the clearing.
“What? No special moves? No fancy footwork? Just swing at a tree?” I asked, shocked. “That tree looks nice enough. What’d it do to you?”
The elva chuckled and shook his head, enjoying the banter. “Have you ever heard the saying of crawl, walk, run, and then soar? We use it for our young, but it fits here.”
“Uh… yeah, I had a buddy's dad who was in the army. He used to say that all the time, minus the soar part. I’m not following, though. Isn’t attacking running in this instance?” I asked.
“If done correctly, indeed. You’re a youthful spirit, Boss. However, you’re not a youth. I can’t build you up from scratch as I did before. Therefore, I must mold the current you into the new you. Holding a shield up and swinging a sword for an hour will leave you a huffing mess,” he said.
“Alright, so it's muscle training for now,” I said, accepting his guidance.
I withdrew my sword, raised the medium sized shield, and swung at the palm tree. The blade buried into a flaking shell of bark type substance. When I yanked the stuck blade free, it ripped the casing off the tree. Now that I had extra weight on my sword, I had to pry off the blade.
“I assume that was part of my lessons,” I grumbled.
“Sure was. Always think about where your blade is going to end up as much as how much damage it will do. If you fully drive your sword through, let’s say, a minotaur’s back, and the big brute falls, your blade won’t come free,” Asha said. “Now, if you drove your blade in only deep enough to pierce the heart and yank it back out quickly, you might keep your weapon in hand.”
I could rationalize this even if I had zero clue how deep a heart went or how to control a jab to that degree.
“Does bone stick to a blade like this tree shell did?” I asked.
“Typically, no, but if I’m cutting bone, I’d dulling the blade and having to increase the power of my swing. Therefore, a harder swing means I have to plant my feet more firmly and am now exposed because my ability to maneuver decreases,” Asha said with a smile.
I watched him pluck a few feathers, heading back to my training. I knew if I did a few hundred pushups I would work my upper body muscles just as well, but this way, I could feel the blade and the shield.
And feel the blade I did. The first obvious lesson was that I swung a sword like a bat, and that grew old quick. I swapped to tighter movements but still felt clunky in my abilities.
After fifteen minutes, my triceps and shoulders burned. Even my shield arm became numb. I stopped whacking the tree, seeing my blade appeared the same.
The weapon had come from a discard pile, and it never carried a sharpened edge, and we had no whetstone. Another problem to add to our growing list.
I plopped down by the dwindling fire and was handed a dead bird. During my swings, Lumpy had vanished, leaving us to grab more kills.
I stared at the pigeon type parrot, zoned out in my thoughts as I began to pluck feathers. Twenty or so minutes later, the burn in my arms subsided. I rose from my spot and went back to work killing my pretend foe, the glorious tree which could thwart my efforts with ease.
Bell and Jark practiced their water golem magic after Lumpy returned with a live bird. Time passed quickly. Everyone found busy work to improve their situation. By no means did we become masters, but we did start a new routine.
By hour two, the birds were plucked, my arms were rubber, and I realized it was time to move on. We left that clearing far earlier than I expected, and I had to accept we had a long way to go, both in our progression as warriors and our journey to the north.
CHAPTER 23
Ikara Valley
Skeleton goblin one led our party on the trail north through the jungle by a few hundred paces. Off to the sides, Asha and Lumpy were hunting parallel to our path. The other two skeletons stayed in the rear, and the heavily laden donkey walked in front of me.
Bell had joined me to talk, the two of us having to shift from back and forth and side to side often as the path widened and waned. The sibling chatted away behind us, and we made decent progress.
“I have an issue,” Bell finally confessed.
“Alright,” I said, figuring something was up. She had that distant look in her eyes and was constantly fidgeting with her brown hair by taking from a pony
tail and out over and over again.
“Jark,” she whispered, eyes darting over her shoulder.
I merely let out a grunt, dodging a tree root, and then holding back a frond from whipping her face. Jark was and wasn’t a human. More importantly, he acted within the parameters we set.
Could he betray us? No, I think it would run counter to his current existence. Wonder what pissed her off to the length she’s whispering.
My lack of a response didn’t stop her from explaining. “He wants to be romantically involved, and you stuck me in a tent with him and Asha. I’m all for the occasional drunken debauchery, I’m a devout believer of Caitlyn after all, but, Damien, it's… it’s odd. He’s warm, and he breathes, but he’s literally undead.”
“Yeah, I get it, but I’ve seen Tarla dead twice now. The gods clearly have powers beyond our understanding. Maybe he can be a full human again and get taken off my minion list. If you were to ask me, that’s the whole point of all of this, to turn to the gods for help,” I said, gesturing to the greater world.
“Even if he was fully human, I’d. Arg, it’s hard to say these things,” Bell grumbled as she struggled to find the words she sought. “Especially to you. I’ve not been a lonely woman, except when I decided to.”
“You’re losing me, Bell,” I said, not catching on. “What’s the problem and how can I help?”
“I woke up with Jark snuggled into me and his hands in places they shouldn’t be,” she complained.
“That’s a valid complaint. When it was just us three in a tent, I also had unintentional hand placements when I awoke,” I said.
“Yeah, but you always apologized, averted your eyes without me forcing you to, and you never squealed with a giggle like a little boy,” Bell said, adding a foot stomp along our trail.
“Ah, thank you for understanding there is a difference. I can fix the problem in two ways. You can sleep with Tarla and -”
“That,” Bell said quickly.
I frowned, not loving the idea of forfeiting my snuggle partner.