[NR] Visiting The Town Again - Chapter 563 (Patreon)

After the conversation died down, the day went on and then a couple more passed as well. While they had planned to hit up the nearby settlement, they had noticed the sound of heavy strides in the distance and the presence of horse monsters. So, knowing what they did of the area, they easily guessed that a giant horse monster had likely gone to attack the place.

This meant heading out was not only dangerous, but they didn’t get any time off from protecting their claim as the horses kept attacking. Worse, horses aren’t exactly solitary creatures and so attacked in herds. The only good news is that the giant monster must have been coming from the other side of the lake as none of the horse monsters were too high of a level.

Though overall, Jason found this added ordeal an interesting one. While there were normal horses, it seemed that the theme of this group was air. Which oddly enough didn’t include pegasi? Anyway, there were horses that with a breath could shoot out arrows of pressurized air, others that release fog clouds, a small group that walked a couple inches off the ground, and a ton of horse monsters with an air spell or two. It was honestly quite a wide variety and if Jason had been further along in building up the area, he might have tried to tame a few of the interesting ones.

As it was, he simply didn’t have a place to keep them and so settled for collecting interesting bits and bobs from their bodies. Stuff like the hooves of the hovering horses and the lungs of the ones that could breathe arrows of air without active magic use. Courtney wasn’t sure what use they might actually have, but Jason could feel they should at least be of interest to an alchemist or enchanter for the energies they naturally contained.

So, they stored up the loot and waited. Then finally they got the signal, a loud noise and nasty scent exploded through their clearing, followed by a stampede of maddened horses. Thank goodness the madness was in the form of needing to run away from the source instead of fighting as for at least a few minutes there was an unending stampede.

The entire group ended up retreating to the platform Rosha had used during the waves. Staying at ground level was simply too dangerous, with some horses even running through the walls of the building. Though thankfully those were rare and, while worse for wear, the building stood through it all.

And it was that damage which ended up splitting the party. With Rosha and Courtney making the trip back to town, while Jason stayed behind to repair things and maybe get started on the next building.

As Rosha and Courtney traveled through the forest, they spotted a number of horses that got trapped within the area and died to whatever concoction the town used to drive them off. It would have honestly looked quite sad if they didn’t know these were all monsters that had come here specifically to destroy said town.

To Rosha, they were even worse than the snakes from the last giant beasts. At least, the snakes would have eaten their kills. These horses had simply come to cause senseless death and destruction.

This kept the pair busy, stewing in their disdain until they exited the forest. In front of them was the town wall, a bit banged up, but standing. What was more shocking to them, was the devastation done to the plant life in-between the forest edge and said wall. A wide arch of plants seemed to have all died and withered. Though Courtney couldn’t detect any poisons, so they didn’t bother going even further out of their way to circle to the front of the town.

There, the only entrance was thankfully open. Not that they expected it to be closed after the horses had already been sent packing. It was just that you could never tell with such a volatile situation as this town was in.

Though it seems they might have been able to enter even if the town was closed up. The gate guards recognized the pair and as they approached, informed them that the town official was willing to see them whenever they wanted to report. From the gossip they heard after entering, it seemed a couple small homesteads like their own had failed as of late and the town leadership wanted to know what was happening.

Suffice it to say, if they experienced anything like what the trio had, they probably didn’t even last through the first wave, let alone the first day. And with mind control mixed in? No one would have a chance to escape and report what happened as even those hidden nearby would be sniffed out by a phrenic monster or psionic savage.

Not that they rushed to the office to report. The two needed to buy some supplies and so went about that first. After all, they had managed to reach town in less than half a day, what with all the local monsters lying low and the invaders thrown back. Still, this doesn’t take long and they are soon back in front of the man who they had talked to last time about where to settle.

The man is halfway between happy to see them and afraid. Though once they confirmed that their clearing was fully claimed, the man calmed down. At least, until they told him about their experience with claiming it.

To hear that the Deep Wilds had thrown taboo users at them? Well, it didn’t exactly bring hope for other settlers. Jason alone was practically a cheat when it came to facing those challenges, whereas the locals had little to no experience with matters of mind control and so on.

The only saving grace for the town was that while seemingly random, the Deep Wilds’ challenges tended to come in waves. So, while currently it was throwing some really nasty stuff at them, if they waited another couple giant beast attacks, things would change. It was even possible that with the most recent horse attack, things had changed, not that the man trusted this.