Chapter ten
Evelynn and Francesca woke early that morning and busied themselves finalizing their inventories, it was still dark, and stepping outside they could see their breath in the chill morning air.
At the guild they met with Asteride who was going over their journey one last time. Peter would not be coming, he would have to stay and look after the guild hall, just like Rhea would have to stay at the temple while Francesca was away.
It was going to be quite the journey; they would be away for probably an entire week. Mount Lockwood was near the center of the forest, it would take a few days to walk there, and they would have quests to do, as well as trying to find Evelynn’s mother.
That is if they could even find her, any fairies would be hard to find. But they would come out occasionally, they figured surely if Evelynn was there, she would make herself known. They also had some sweets to help with that, and she was sure Francesca had stashed away a little mead somewhere.
The monster they would be hunting sounded rather dangerous, a clockwork chimpanzee, they were hunting it because it had spawned a few months ago and Asteride had been meaning to deal with it himself but never had found the time.
Apparently, it was quite the story of its evolution, it would have started out as some lesser monkey type, evolving into a chimpanzee and then it would have to spend a long time in some ruins or similar and evolve to the clockwork variety.
After which it would leave the forest and ascend the mountain away from the trees.
Asteride described it to her but told her he could probably kill it on his own, depending on how far it had developed its mastery of time, probably not far because its only a few months old.
It wouldn’t roam at all though and wasn’t very aggressive, but the longer it stayed in one location the stronger it would become. And due to their fighting style, they would destroy a lot of inexperienced parties.
It was a very thematic unit, embracing the time magic it was known for. You would have to destroy it twelve times, each time a bell would chime, and it would rewind the time on its body, repairing itself. And every time it came back it would get faster and use its abilities more.
A natural trap for the unaware.
It could also slow down time around its body, allowing itself to move faster, at higher levels it would look like it was teleporting around the battlefield. Truly masterful Clockwork chimpanzees could even freeze time around themselves in a small bubble for a few seconds.
Other than that Francesca would be scouting for Ivy and magical plants with her magic, and there was always a reward for the pelts of most furred creatures and any goblin slayings.
While this was all interesting there was another thing taking Evelynn’s attention, or namely a person. They were bringing another adventurer interested in fighting the Clockwork Chimpanzee.
He was on the shorter side, with shoulder length fiery red hair, and he looked like a warrior monk of some sort, in a short sleeveless robe and a large belt around his waist.
Francesca told her that he was a brawler with a cool head, and that his name was Gyali, he had been at the guild for a while now.
The modern practice amongst Agni followers was to temper the fire within and release it in controlled bursts, as opposed to the more ancient style of the consuming flame, the literal berserker barbarian by the sounds of it.
Both styles would use flaming fists and body enhancement and similar magics, but the way they went about it was vastly different.
And it was instantly noticeable which they were, by their cool and somber attitude the warrior monks differed greatly from their lesser practiced rough and outgoing ancient style berserkers.
Either style was rather taxing on the body though, they loved their healers, perhaps the most out of any class. And we had two healers, it was a good mix.
Gyali looked around his mid to late twenties, he also had a sister we would be meeting up with. She had traveled ahead to make camp for them near the mountain, she was this ancient style berserker type and was impatient to get started.
It sounded like he was worried for her, probably quite the hot head if Evelynn was guessing correctly.
Francesca also let her know that he would be sharing a tent with her father, Evelynn would be sleeping in her tent. For some reason Evelynn had to know that.
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They said their goodbyes to Peter, Evelynn promising to try and remove her mark again, she had to sleep properly last night.
Walking to the edge of town the two men took point as the fighters of the group with Francesca and Evelynn behind them. Everyone was walking except Evelynn who found it easier to flutter alongside Francesca, her mana regenerating enough to keep her floating.
To go faster she would need to change it around and eject mana backwards, flapping to stay in the air. She didn’t want to do that until she could fly higher though.
Setting out from the town, saying their last goodbyes to the guards at the gate, left Evelynn a bit emotional. Lockwood had been good to her, mostly, and it was all she had known in this world so far.
Soon, however the drudgery of travel set in, there were trees. Many trees. Always trees and the path.
She talked to Francesca, she talked to Asteride. She even introduced herself to Gyali and talked to him for a while.
He was on a quest to slay a worthy fighter, the clockwork chimpanzee sounded like a great trial for one such as himself. Evelynn had to agree, it sounded like a challenge worthy of showing your martial prowess.
The monster would be a tough brawler like himself, quite the smart one too.
Asteride talked to her about her skills and role in combat, she would protect Francesca due to her high endurance and her [Ethereal] making her quite resistance to damage.
However, with her low weight and lack of strength she wouldn’t be holding them for long. And she wouldn’t be able to kill them herself, her class essentially forcing her to be a pacifist.
She didn’t understand the non-lethal part of it, she wasn’t exactly going around smacking people in town.
Asteride said she could hit things and it would hurt them some, but really, she could only delay the fight herself. One thing she could do though was to make them sluggish with her [Holy Blood Magic].
She could also try a bunch of emotions like fear or anger to enrage them. Also doing the opposite to allies, boosting courage or dosing them with small amounts of adrenaline.
It would be difficult in battle though; everyone would be under pressure for time, all had to help fight. And she would have to be careful, dosing allies with emotions like that can lead to bad decisions on their part.
A bit of courage is nice, adrenaline might not always be welcome though.
Francesca was busy, reading a book Rhea had given her to “further her studies as a priestess” she said, it had a few small spells in it, but mainly advice on how to use her nature and earth mana’s effectively, as well as advice on using her root and vine spells.
The one about adding thorns to them made Evelynn think she might in for some quite gory battles.
Of which they were just approaching their first, a goblin of course. ‘Classic’ thought Evelynn.
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It was ugly, a dark green colour, long pointed ears sharp teeth and small claws. It looked vicious.
It also looked too small to be a real threat. A good head shorter than Evelynn, who was a head shorter than the Guild master herself.
Looking in the bushes on the side of the road they had caught it unawares, it looked up and saw them. Screaming it ran at them, a wooden spear in its hands.
And it was over fast, Asteride wanted Gyali to fight it so that he could see what he was capable of.
Which was quite impressive, at least to Evelynn, the others didn’t seem surprised at all.
He dodged the spear, grabbed it, punched the goblin in the stomach then delivered a flaming kick to its head and it died.
Kind of gory though, burnt flesh and a huge wound on the goblins face showed the damage. The kick would have probably done it without the flames.
Next, they came across a few lone wolves, three of them. Not enough for a pack, but enough to threaten a solitary traveler for sure.
Evelynn tried using her magic to slow them or confuse them somewhat, but it was difficult. They had long fur which she had to push her magic through.
Bit of a bust, she offered to heal Gyali’s hands up, but he refused saying he needed tough hands.
Francesca told her not to worry, their job would come later in the travels. Plus, she would level up soon.
Healers were both in high demand and in low demand explained Francesca.
You probably wouldn’t need one if you were just doing a one-day simple quest which is what a lot of people would do. Working from the town they lived in.
Using potions and other healing products to get by for the day, enough to keep them in a fight and get back to town to a real healer. Healers often were stuck dealing with the population they had to serve, they couldn’t leave for extended periods of time.
Also, most classes had their own protections, like mages using elemental or mana shields, fighters using armor and body enhancement. It was also quite safe engaging from range a lot of the time.
However, longer journeys like this one, probably taking a week or more, a healer would become much more useful, you couldn’t just walk back to town.
You would also want a healer in more difficult monster hunts, or for specific healer quests like a plague.
But for slapping goblins and wolves, picking flowers? Childs play for a coolheaded warrior monk and a guild master. Francesca could probably do this on her own using just one of her magics.
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They pitched camp that night not far from the trail, you guessed it, amongst the trees.
The trees were interesting enough, a quite dark coloured bark on them, but bold green leaves, otherwise they just looked like trees. Leafy leaves, barky bark, treey tree. Same old trees as earth, just a little bit different.
Mount Lockwood, looming closer now, left the air chill, the forest making it damp. They lit a fire between their tents, not opposite sides, but a bit of room between them for privacy, then they sat down for a meal.
Deer, of course. We had some fish from the merchants that go through town, but deer tonight. We wouldn’t be gone forever though; we would have fresh food for most of the trip.
Emergency rations left something to be desired, jerky, crackers and travelers' meals.
It was the first night Evelynn had spent outside in this world, it had also been a while since she had camped on Earth as well.
Surprisingly similar though, she could hear the hoots and screeches of some birds in the darkness, the scurrying of little creatures. A shiver would run down her spine every time she heard a howl, wondering if she would ever get used to it.
They talked a while around the campfire, but honestly there wasn’t a lot to say. They had walked most of the day and were doing it again tomorrow.
She talked about their fights, and asked what she could do.
Level up and stay focused, it would be nice if they didn’t need healing after all. Fair enough, I guess.
Asteride said it was ok, there would be more monsters tomorrow to experiment on, and that he wouldn’t fight their target on his own.
They went to bed saying goodnight and closed their tents. Apparently, they didn’t need to keep watch, the fire would keep many creatures away and Francesca set a few vine sentries. They couldn’t fight, but they could spot intruders.
Adventurers of all kinds had been doing this a long time, they knew their jobs, they had a lot of tools to handle various situations.
Francesca said goodnight to Evelynn then lay on her back smiling and falling asleep. Evelynn wasn’t so sure why, but since she got that book from Rhea, she had been much happier. She wondered what was in it.
Evelynn tried to sleep, but it was hard. It had been days since she had… and she was feeling it. She tossed and turned in her bed that night, trying her hardest to stay still and fall asleep, she was sharing with Francesca after all and didn’t want to wake her.
It was getting quite late when she decided she had to do something about it, she hadn’t explored herself at all since arriving here and she was frustrated.
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Helps, keep them coming. Votes: 24 88.9%
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Distracting, keep them in the glossary. Votes: 3 11.1%
