That wasn’t the case in Crystal’s clearing.
I left first thing in the morning, after sunrise and a hearty breakfast. Fish, of course, and some berries from the previous day. Unfortunately, I still had no option for coffee since I couldn’t grab any of that furnar jerky, and Eklil’s tea wasn’t something I was willing to waste.
Before I said my goodbyes and started off, I had a good, long look at the sky.
How does it get so blue?
I had a similar thought on my first day on Oresstria. Throughout the chaos of the past few days, I’d had little time or reason to look up, much less marvel at the pure azure that surrounded Areestra. Which was a shame, because this was one of the things that I came to appreciate most about Oresstria, just the mundane beauty of it and how clear the colours tended to get.
Especially the sky. Daytime beauty made up for the nighttime tarry blackness.
I lingered for a few breaths, staring up, basking in the warm morning light, feeling myself grow excited for a new adventure. Maybe I should’ve worried at that, at how easily I was stepping from one harrowing misadventure into a possible another, but I couldn’t be arsed to think deeper on this. Not just then.
“Human no eat fruit off ground.” Crystal pestered me as she accompanied me towards the edge of the clearing. “No attack shadow stalker. Yes? It eat you. Shit out bones. Bad death.”
This side of Crystal kind of creeped me out. Like a mother hen clucking over her chick, she badgered me relentlessly up to the edge of the forest. Tusk just followed in her wake, letting out those deep animal sighs every time he looked up at me.
Much as they’d annoyed me originally, and much as Crystal still did, I had to admit I’d miss the pair. They’d been some of the most loyal friends I’ve ever had, and I wouldn’t say that lightly. I don’t think anyone in life would’ve taken so much as a scolding on my behalf, let alone get impaled on a dozen spears just to make sure I wouldn’t get trapped underground.
Crystal had done that. For all her faults and all my griping, she’d nearly died trying to keep me safe. I didn’t exactly know how to handle that information or my feelings towards the gnark. A lot of prejudice still coloured my views of her but, hopefully, I was getting better at keeping a more open mind about the people I met.
“You two take care of yourselves,” I said, somewhat awkwardly as the long shadows of the forest spilled over my boots. “We’ll be in touch.”
“Human ask if human stuck,” Crystal said, then sniffed loudly, beady eyes narrowing my way. “No be stupid. Yes?”
“Fine, fine.” I laughed, then bent and scratched Tusk behind his bald head. “You take care of the troublemaker, big guy. Don’t let her blow herself to bits, okay?”
He let out a low grumble, the headbutted me straight in the groin. Hard enough to hurt, not enough to ball me over. Tears crowded at the corners of my eyes.
I turned and slipped into the cool shade, cutting the long farewell short.
“See you.” I waved over my shoulder.
HER MAJESTY, CRYSTAL OF CLARITY’S FALL, CROWN PRINCESS OF ALL GNARKS: No eat yellow moss.
HER MAJESTY, CRYSTAL OF CLARITY’S FALL, CROWN PRINCESS OF ALL GNARKS: It mean animal pee on it.
“She’s actually royalty?” I asked after parsing the whole absurd title. “I thought she was just delusional.”
Eternity puffed out smoke. “She has named herself and likely believes it. Whether it’s true or not, I cannot say.”
“Please tell me there’s a way to change someone’s name in the chat.” I sighed heavily. “And if there isn’t, just lie. For my sanity’s sake.”
“I can change it for you, if you’d like.”
“Just name her Crystal, please. Not that whole sausage string of a name she’s given herself.”
“It is done.”
I had my direction. My pack hung on my shoulder, mostly empty now, with most of my stuff I kept in the ring, its weight a comfort I’d grown used to. The sword bumped gently against my leg. I missed the weight of a shield on my arm, and resorted to spending some of my gold on replacing the one I’d lost. After all, I had a lot of skills that needed a shield.
It was indeed a perfect day to head off to unknown parts and meet unknown danger.
I got ambushed again by headcrabs, not an hour later. The fucking things were everywhere in the Brightleaf. Less an issue nowadays, but their bites still stung, and that drool was still fucking gross.
I made short work of this particular nest, then spent some time inspecting the trees around the slaughter site. There had to be some way to tell when I was due another meaty rain of huggers.
Deep scratches in the bark signalled where they’d climbed the trees, along with the dried, crackling resin that formed where they dragged their tongues over the wood. Marking territory, maybe?
Still, it made spotting these places easier and maybe I’d manage to avoid other mishaps. Part of it was that [Forager] skill I’d gained before, part just paying more fucking attention to my surroundings.
It came as little surprise when I started inspecting one of the headcrabs more carefully and discovered I could yank out their teeth. More like, I could press a thumb at the base of the longer fangs, push hard on it, and it would pop out of its socket with a wet squelch and a thin drizzle of blood.
Thin, long as my finger, serrated, they showed up in my inventory grouped up in a set of ten, but offered very little other information aside from “may be of value to specialised vendors”. Which was enough motivation for me to go around the ten or so corpses I’d dismembered and grab as many as I could yank out without breaking.
By the end of it, I had thirty-one teeth. In a bag, in my inventory. Something suggested I could also skin the fleshy things, but that was too gross for me.
That was the day for the most part. Walked. Saw signs of either headcrabs or, as was one case, spiders, and then looked for alternate routes. Slow and steady, I was heading away from Harriet’s Heap and my dungeon there, cutting a jagged path towards the map’s border..
Eternity kept quiet for the most part, and I was thankful for the silence. It gave me time to think ahead and to plan. Maybe I would find some information for Methol’s quest in the next dungeon. But did I want to? Finding clues would inevitably lead me to some new form of danger, if the Harriet’s Heap dungeon was anything to go by.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Still, no harm in just trying, I supposed. At least I knew it would be a clear sign of danger and could get my ass out of there if need be.
The first night alone in the forest went by quietly. I lit the lamp, set it at the base of a tree, then settled down against the thick trunk, drew the rain covering over myself, and slept pretty much peacefully. Come morning, I was amazed at how rested I felt and how easily I’d slept rough.
Another day, another few ambushes avoided, more teeth collected, and even a spider scared off. Coward got slapped with the sword so hard that it disappeared into the canopy and left me spinning in place for minutes before I realised it wasn’t coming back.
Animals understood fights they couldn’t win. Maybe just some posturing would scare most of them away if I really tried. Food for thought.
It’s not really fun to walk through a forest alone. Sure, my map filled up steadily, new danger areas showing up, together with various other neat tips—such as places with good fruit or mushrooms—but it was still a lot of walking, dodging branches, cutting myself on sharp twigs, and generally getting bitten by a variety of weird insects. Most left welts in their wake.
At least I collected fruit and berries as I went, filling up my pack but not really daring to store much inside the ring since I had no idea what really happened there to food or drink. Eternity couldn’t tell me.
“There are several methods of creating a reality marble,” the dragon explained. “Some of them aren’t suitable for storing food. I cannot tell at a glance which method was used to imbue this ring, so best you avoid doing anything too drastic.”
“I’ve shoved the bag in before. Came out alright.”
“A container in a container may trigger special rules. Without a more insightful inventory, you must assume every reality marble is a risk.”
Made sense. Somewhat. I preferred, anyway, to keep the bag on me. The only things I kept in the marble were dried herbs from the iepurran village, the teeth I collected, and that mana sword. Didn’t want to fall down some hill somewhere and get blown to kingdom come along with the blade.
I spent the night worrying about clouds rolling overhead. Though thunder rolled and lighting creased the night, it didn’t rain. Just kept on grumbling and sparking all through the night and throughout the next day.
No rain. Just a chill in the air and the rustle of wind through the leaves. Birdsong became quieter, fretful, coming in short bursts between the sheets of distant thunder.
Moving through a forest is interesting in the first few days. Then grows stale as the way gets longer and longer, trees followed by more trees followed by even more trees. At least the wildlife remained consistently interesting.
My patch crossed more of those weird deer, some creatures that looked like foxes though they had the freakiest long tongues that basically dragged along the ground, and even some of those wolves that I’d seen in Carmill Hill’s attack. They kept far away from me, only showing up in the shadows here and there, yellow eyes tracking me, freaky tentacles on their backs writhing through the air.
Routine set in by the end of the third day.
EKLIL EHREEN-SEN: How are you faring in your travels?
KLAUS: I’m bored, Eklil. If you can believe that.
EKLIL EHREEN-SEN: Knowing you, I am not surprised.
EKLIL EHREEN-SEN: Have you crossed the river yet?
That was a problem that loomed on the horizon. My path on the map clearly intersected the river at some point, and I had no idea how I’d get across when that happened. I hoped, maybe stupidly, that the bit of forest I could see on the map would curve somewhere, and prove that I didn’t actually need to reach the other shore to get where I was going.
KLAUS: Not yet. Haven’t even reached the thing yet.
KLAUS: Can I expect a bridge or something?
EKLIL EHREEN-SEN: There are several, yes.
EKLIL EHREEN-SEN: Be careful of lying tax collectors. There are some who may try to take advantage of your need to cross.
EKLIL EHREEN-SEN: Give them nothing. They carry no authority. Your weapon should be enough to frighten them away.
KLAUS: Good to know. How’s the family?
Talking to Eklil passed the time. I avoided talking to Crystal unless I needed to, because otherwise she demanded to know every move I’d made and every thing I’ve eaten. There was being caring, and whatever unhinged lunacy her affection entailed.
Overcast day passed into overcast night and I had to light my second candle. The next thing I should do was try and find some bees and harvest wax from them to make another candle. I still had plenty of materials for at least ten more days, but it paid to be prepared.
I set up camp at the base of the largest tree I could find before it got too dark to carry on. With the storm rolling above, that was still pretty early in the day and my progress had been slow. Still, better to set up and rest before I’d be poking my eyes out through the dark.
Something was wrong.
I felt it the moment I lit my lamp and set it down next to my small fire pit. A few drops of rain sizzled above, through the leaves, and the wind moaned. A chill ran up my spine, digging cold fingers into my neck.
I felt watched and my danger sense skill set its now familiar tingle up my neck.
With sword in hand, I turned slowly in place, mental finger on the [Adrenaline Surge] and the [Eye track] skills. It wasn’t any more special a place than any other campsite I’d made. This part of the Brightleaf was mostly tall, ancient trees stretching high into the sky, their leafy crowns high overhead, with little vegetation around for lack of light.
Nothing but the snaking roots poking out of the ground, their shadows long in the light of the lamp.
No movement.
Not even a shadow creeping around.
I forced myself to calm, to breathe and to lower the sword. I had the lamp lit and was safe. Just for added comfort, I set about making myself a little shelter out of some rocks and the rain tarp. That storm swirled above and seemed ready to finally pour itself down. The scent of ozone wafted on the air and my hair tingled, as if I was about to be struck by lightning.
My fire burned low and my small pot barely steamed. I sat with my back to the tree, the tarp stretched overhead, held in place in one spot by my knife, and in the other by a rock driven through the bark. It wouldn’t flap away.
I watched the shadows, uneasy, still unable to shake the feeling of eyes crawling all over me. Maybe it was my imagination. Or maybe I was growing paranoid, now that I actually watched where I was going.
Dinner forgotten to cool in the pot by my side, I moved my lamp closer to where I sat on a tangle of roots poking out of the ground. For something to do, I got out my whetstone from my backpack and set about caring for my sword. It was long overdue.
Stone scraping on cloudsteel. The sound sharp. Sparks leapt off the contacting surface, disappearing into the dark. It kept my hands busy and my mind clear, eyes wandering the darkness, trying to peer past the long, dancing shadows my fire cast.
The feeling never left me. It grew worse, poisonous in how it slithered through my nerves. If not for the work, I’d have fidgeted myself into going out there to search whatever it was that caused me to feel that way.
I should’ve noticed it earlier.
The silence.
Beyond the low moans of the wind and the shuffle of leaves, there was nothing. No birds sang. None at all.
“Fuck,” I growled. “Eternity. Lamp.”
The dragon didn’t ask for any clarification. It immediately leapt off my head to the lamp and the light grew brighter. I’d figured out from our previous run in with this thing that Eternity could strengthen the lamp’s effect. It had been doing that every night we spent with Crystal.
There she was. To my right. Half-hidden behind one of the trees. Glacial blue eyes staring my way with the intent of an arrow fired at my heart. Snow-white hair. Gaunt face. Human-looking, but now I knew better.
She didn’t say a word but narrowed her eyes against Eternity’s glare.
I didn’t stop my work. Couldn’t. If I stopped sharpening the blade, my hands would shake too much to be of any use. I’d hoped I wouldn’t get into this situation again, not after Methol chased the Nobody away.
I’m never that lucky. The creature hadn’t gone far.
For now, she didn’t come closer. I forced myself to meet her stare and, this time, I didn’t feel compelled to go to her. Never again, now that I knew she very literally wanted to eat me.
‘You never go near these things.’
I heard Methol’s words as if she were right next to me, again pushing forward to face the creature. I stood still, measured my breaths, and kept working, mind racing through my supplies, my total rune activation time, and how far I could run if I chose to try.
Morning was a long way away. First came the noise of rain splashing on the tree tops. Then a cold drop hit my forehead and burst apart. The storm was upon me and all I could do was huddle with the lamp beneath the tarp.
Behind the Nobody something advanced through the wet night. Light glinted off a horn sat atop a massive head. A thick, red tongue flashed across fangs the size of my palm.
I got the impression of a black tiger the size of a moose prowling the edge of the light, silvery eyes reflecting the light in rainbow hues.
The fucking Nobody had brought a monster along.
[Shadow stalker adult]
[Risk assessment: Severe threat to life and limb]
END OF BOOK 1