67 Carriage Ride

Chapter 67: Carriage Ride

/The hunt is always exciting. To be on the prowl, to stealth and draw near, and then to chase. The difference between the hunter and its prey, and the raw, animalistic nature of it all combine to make hunting so thrilling.

But it's also complex. The art has many parts to it, first and foremost even gathering equipment. Camouflaging in the middle of a forest, lying in wait with concealed weapons. If you do not prepare for a decently long stay, perhaps you will never find any prey.

Of course, that is not all there is, the second part might be tracking, for example. Sometimes, lying in wait simply isn't enough, and one must seek out their target. Yet, to find an animal in its natural habitat is something not so simple. Finding tracks in soft earth, or mod, covered by leaves and rain, is an art in and of itself, and an indispensable part of hunting.

Still, this is not enough. Next up is stealth, silently closing the distance to the prey. It is easiest to conserve stamina with this, as once a hunter strikes, the chase should be cut short. Still, getting close by itself is a challenge, always needing to be wary of the prey's sight, the smell one has, the noise one makes, the direction of the wind. It is a difficult endeavour, with a distinct set of challenges.

And finally, there's the chase, should it come to that, as well as the decisive strike. Usually, you should not need to chase the prey, yet occasionally it may be unavoidable. Still, then it is all the more vital to land a decisive strike.

In hunting, your very first attack should be the last. If you do not kill the prey, at the very least it should be crippled, unable to run, and badly hurt. Only a matter of time until you catch up, then. But if your first strike barely pierces the skin, you have failed.

Perhaps tomorrow will yield better results, as you forge your art with patience./

"On Hunting", by the Hunter.

- - - - - -

"Well I mean, you know where she is, right?"

"No??"

"Okay, that does make things harder..." Mercury said, shaking his head. "You really have no idea?"

"I suppose I could bring the options down a little..."

"So you do know! Alright, where?" he asked, leaning forward a little.

"Sigh. I do not, Mercury. But there is someone who does, although I believe you may jot enjoy her company," the priestess said, her head held a little low.

"Well, better a slim chance than none at all. Who is it?"

"Her name's Yvette. Yvette Lumineaux."

"WHAT?!"

- - - - - -

Avery was out on a hunt. The assault on Stormbraver was harsh, and maybe even aimed to inflict psychological damage. Rebuilding was taking a long time, and there wasn't much he could help with. It made him feel a deep sting, one that he hadn't felt in a while, one that had dragged him, no, made him drag himself all the way to being a guildmaster.

It wasn't stinging his pride, that would be stupid. Instead, he felt helpless, to a degree. Simply take out of commission before the fight ever really started. Perhaps this was his wake-up call, a reminder that he had become a little too soft over his time in the city.

Maybe becoming a guild master hadn't been enough yet. Some of his seekers had died, while he was taking a peaceful nap.

This wasn't something he could let stand. A guild master had to be reliable, a pillar in a time of need. Simply put, as a guild master of the Godseeker's Guild, he had decided that he would seek. He would seek experience, gear, power, and more.

For now, he had decided to seek out a mar, the horrible site of a full break, where the monsters escaped from a tunnel and spilled over. This was when the openings really began to grow their danger, because while some of them simply root themselves in our world, a break truly causes them to take hold.

Avery knew what it was like. He'd seen one mar before, a single one, and it had been horrible. Scorched earth, and a fully anchored core to boot. The monsters grew sentient, sapient even, yet their loyalty usually remained.

He knew the story of the monster who spoke, and he knew that the orcs he had met were from a tunnel, once upon a time, so it was possible to make peace with the monsters, yet highly unlikely. When a break happened, sometimes a monster or two outgrew the tether, the instinct plunged into its mind, and developed actual ambition. It was rare, but it did happen.

Yet, the orcs that truly settled after the break, those had something even rarer happen. Upon the break, there was an anomaly of some sort, and the core of the tunnel was immediately shattered, before it could plunge its root into Chronagen. With that, the tether was severed, and in the moment of transition, the orcs were free.

Of course, old habits died hard, and they fought a long war with the humans, until the local orcs stepped in. Well, it was difficult to call them orcs by then. The monsters and the locals were so different, ones brutish and bestial, with fangs and tusks much more like boards, their skin oftentimes shaded a deep red. Compared to that, the orcs of Chronagen were tame, still powerful warriors, but more tribal. More compassionate.

The guild master found it easiest to imagine a scenario. Say a child was alone in the streets. The feral orcs from the tunnel wouldn't see it as one of their own, as weak and discarded, and would either abandon the thing or tear it up. Yet, the orcs of Chronagen would see a future warrior, a little beast full of life.

An orc child was the kid of all the village. The elders were educators, the warriors were trainers, and all orcs were caretakers. Their society was rough, but never cruel, and when they brought the concept of tough love to the rift-dwellers, slowly but surely a new kind of orc was born, the blooded.

It is now a gene dormant in many southern tribes, awakening only on evolution or in the middle of brutal combat, appearing in the form of feral marks, able to use the orc's stamina and vitality to greatly heighten their senses and brute strength. terrifying they were, and yet nowadays, their power is used to hunt and till fields.

Avery shook his head a little. He had gone too far off the mark by now, thinking of all that could be, not of what was.

After all, he was headed for a mar, not a civilization. A break-site, where the monsters had spilled out, and the core had anchored, corrupting the mana in the very air. It would invade one's stamina vessel, and infest one's mana, slowly burning through the inside of even the toughest fighters.

Yet, the guild master was headed out on his own. His last expedition had been a while ago, and the mar was far more deadly than any gate, so he certainly wasn't planning on staying there overnight. No, he would slowly beat down the monsters, and break the roots causing the corruption. It would be a test of will and endurance, between him, and a horde of monsters that would come crawling from the core, and multiply regularly as well.

There might even be multiple bosses there, Avery thought with a smile. After all, he had apparently grown soft, and quite frankly, taking a couple heavy hits while the otherworldly gnawed away at his very strength might give him enough of a challenge where he would hope to never have gone there.

It was exactly what he needed, some practice to shake off his rust.

- - - - - -

Mercury had hoped that travelling with Lucia wouldn't be so bad, but by god, it was the most awkward thing he had ever done. They had hired a carriage, not too expensive, but not too cheap either. After all, Lucia certainly wasn't short on money, and Mercury had enough of bumpy rides.

The method of transport itself was quite smooth. The pillows on the seats were soft, and the carriage even had a suspension built in, to make the bumps less jarring. Still, it was a far cry from the modern cars Mercury was used to, and an even further cry from his comfortable bed at home. He did wish for that back sometimes, but his wishes were never granted after all.

As for Lucia, she was simply silent. She stared out of the window for hours without saying a word, and sometimes stared at Mercury for an equally long amount of time. Simply gazing at him, her eyes not particularly focused, nor particularly far away. Occasionally he would see her eyebrows twitch or her lips move, probably when she remembered something funny or irritating.

She was twitchy, yet eerily quiet, and while Mercury couldn't stand it any more he also didn't want to annoy her. So, when things simply got a little too much for him, he laid down on the soft, velvety pillows, and began to meditate. His control over mana and stamina was nowhere near perfect, and he also still had to work on his ihn'ar. Also, the rewards from the tunnel clearing had yet to arrive. He really was curious what took the system too long.

Narrator's notes: I think the author just forgot.

Hm? Did Mercury hear something? Nah, must've been the wind. Hah. What could he do...

Ah, right, he still had <Mana Expansion (guide)>, huh?Time to see what that's all about. <Appraisal>, if you would be so kind?

[<Mana Expansion (guide)>: As a part of the rare suffix Skill type, this menu addon is not the Skill itself (hence the lack of levels). These types of Skills or abilities will usually be handed out as quest rewards to a certain subset of people, who wish to understand everything from the ground up and explore it themselves, instead of being given a silver spoon. For the future, it may be possible for the individual to be given more of these.

As for <Mana Expansion (guide)>, the individual will be able to activate it as one would any other Skill, and upon activation be transferred some amount of knowledge on how to use a Skill. This knowledge will continue to increase as one makes progress with the actual corresponding ability, and upon acquisition, the (guide) type will disappear and simply be transformed into a mastery bonus.]

Suffix type? (Guide) type? So there certainly were more variants of Skills than just active and passive, hm? He even found those two to be a little inaccurate at times.

[Active and Passive Skills: All Skills in the system will be classified to a certain degree. The accuracy of this may vary, as it is based both on the preconceived notion of many individuals, as well as on the level and type of a Skill. In addition, one Skill may not be the same as another, having more passive or more active components, and may be judged based on which of the two takes a higher percentage. Still further than this, the border between Skills and abilities is often quite soft, although their evolution conditions remain distinctly different.]

... Did he leave <Appraisal> on or something?

[Yes]

Hey, hey, hey, you know that's stalking.

[The individual's fear is unjustified. Stalking is repeated and/or unwanted surveillance of one party through another party. This is a singular case. <Appraisal> will now be deactivated.]

..... What the heeeeeellllll was that?

Sigh. Whatever, he had bigger fish to fry. Mmmm, fish. He'd kill a fish for some fish, very literally.

Ah, no! Stupid cat brain, it's magic time, not fucking fishing time!

"You seem uncomfortable in your meditation, beast- apologies, Mercury. Are you alright?" Lucia asked, seeing as her travel companion kept continuously twitching and shuffling around.

"Hm? Yeah, I'm fine. Annoyed with my thoughts is all. You okay as well?"

"I am, although the coming days are not ones I look forward to. Yet I understand that sometimes sacrifices of myself must be made to rescue those who are dear to me," she said, after taking a moment to think.

"That's the spirit," the cat replied with a smile. "Thanks for the honesty. Where I'm from there's a saying, something like "good friends go through thick and thin with each other". Not every moment will be sunshine and roses, but even if it isn't, you'll always know there's someone you can rely on."

"I see," Lucia said with a nod. "I believe in the Church of Order there is something similar. 'Order is not always just, yet justice always is a part of order'. It is to say that eventually, justice will come to you, the good to the good, and the bad to the bad."

"Sounds a lot like karma."

"Karma?!" Lucia seemed to almost spit at the thought. "No such thing! That vile creation of harnessing one's dark desires into strength is one I could never admire!"

"Whoa, I feel like we really talked past each other right there!" Mercury quickly tried to calm down the situation, when his fellow passenger quickly turned and glared daggers at him.

"What is it then, beast," she hissed, "that you mean?"

"Where I, Mercury," he gave a slight emphasis on that, "come from, karma is not something any one person can use or see. It is more a concept, an intangible value that all actions have. Good actions will be eventually returned to you with equal goodness, and vile acts will be justly punished."

"Hm, I see," the priestess said, leaning back into her seat. "Perhaps my judgment was too quick, and too harsh. I apologize Mercury."

The cat gave a small sigh before he replied, saying "I get it, really. Sometimes I can be a pain in the ass to deal with, not to be taken literally. I like to think that I'm decently patient though, so don't worry about the small stuff too much."

"Thank you, Mercury," Lucia answered with a polite nod, before gazing out the window again. "I apologize for interrupting your meditation, I shall leave you to it for now."

"Alright, talk to you later," the cat said with a smirk. "We should have this type of open talk more often."

And with that last bit, he was off, fully sunken into the world of his core. It had changed a little since the last time we had seen it, now the grey stone walls were not grey anymore, instead interlaced and reinforced with thin, silver strands, residual mana. Yet, there was a bit more too it, as anyone practicing both mana and stamina knew.

The two substances were different, yet housed in one body, and there was little way for both of them to never interact. Mercury knew this, he had noticed that his stamina vessel had thin strands of mana woven in, and when his mana coursed through him, he could sometimes see green flickers on the walls, sparks from when the two things clashed.

Yet, there was also a harmony between them, a soft, steady flow in his stamina, and a strong, pulsing heartbeat to his mana. It felt right to him, practicing both, it was am electrifying feeling to get immersed in, making his hair stand on end, as he realized just how far his strength went. With this, he was quite confident that his old self wouldn't win in a fistfight with this body.

Well, then again, that comparison was a little unfair. After all, as a human, he had known nothing of mana or stamina.

Still, sometimes he felt as though there was something lacking. Well, no, of course he was lacking in a lot of ways. He couldn't cast any spells or use any powerful Skills at all, he simply was able to make himself physically stronger, fighting messily and aggressively. His only ranged option was throwing magical rocks, and he STILL couldn't deal with goddamn doorknobs!

But that wasn't the thing he felt was lacking. It was a little too still in his core sometimes, and too noisy again other times. He could hear his mana flow around him, and he could hear the thumping beat of his stamina, he heard crackles and sparks when the two clashed, yet it felt incomplete. He wasn't whole yet, he could feel his mana being too fast or too slow, and he could feel his stamina sometimes being a little unruly and volatile.

It was like he had heard in a couple martial arts movies, almost like he was missing inner peace. Something that was still far away as of now, but maybe one day...

Ah, right, shit, he still had to deal with <Mana Expansion>. For now, maybe he would just turn it on...?

Almost immediately, he felt a slight trickle in the back of his skull and slight pricks all over his body. It was a weird mix of warm and cool rainwater, combined with goosebumps on all his hairs, feeling like his hand had fallen asleep, just all over his body. And also, like he was being poked by tiny needles.

Fucking weird, for sure, but he couldn't quite call it uncomfortable or comfortable. Honestly, he was also too distracted by what this new knowledge told him.

It wasn't like his own memories, where he had very clear experiences to point towards. Mercury knew about what ice cream tasted like, and how a pen felt up against paper, but this was... new. He didn't exactly "know" what would happen what <Mana Expansion> even meant, nor did he exactly even know how he could achieve it, but there was a... feeling?

Just a slightly bite at the back of his head, that if he really focused on it, he could kind of intuitionally feel what to do. Right, to expand his mana he had to...

[Clear Quest: "Jungle of Weyn" completed! Grade: B! Tunnel grade: E!]

[Rewards: 1 free <Skill Evolution> use, 1 free <Telekinesis> affinity pass, 1 level (distributable), increased evolution growth!]

Oh come the fuck on, he was so close!