BT - Book 1 - Chapter 69 (Patreon)

Micah frowned at the map stretched out across the table he’d set up in his shack.  Since the battle in Crypt of Rot, Trevor and him had curtailed their movements.  Micah still hunted monsters, preferably the larger and more dangerous creatures that prowled about the deep forests out past Westmarch where he’d hidden another teleportation site.

In between expeditions, he’d had more spare time than expected.  Most of Micah’s effort was spent productively, tracking high level monsters, performing experiments related to new enchantments and setting up hidden supply caches near his hunting grounds.

With his remaining time, Micah kept his ear to the ground regarding rumors from Basil’s Cove and built a two room residence for Trevor and him.  It wasn’t much.  Micah didn’t have any skill levels in architecture or woodworking, and the construction didn’t earn him any.  A sure sign that his efforts were so subpar that even the gods didn’t recognize them as an exercise of skill.

The house kept the rain out, mostly, but Micah thought it was pretty good for something he’d built entirely on his own.  He’d cheated and bought shingles from Basil’s Cove, weakly enchanting them to keep out vermin and the worst of the elements, but the building filled its core functions.

One room held two beds, little more than a pile of furs raised off of the ground to avoid dampness and ground dwelling pests such as snakes.  The other housed an oven and a table where the brothers could eat or plan their activities. Neither had much by the way of amenities, Micah didn’t want to take the constant trips needed to furnish the place and given his lacking abilities, any window would fatally weaken the building’s structure.

Micah tapped his chin with a dark rounded pebble as he pondered the map.  It occupied most of the table, and more than a days travel from Basil’s Cove the position of landmarks was an approximation at best, but over the last couple of months, annotations in the Ageless Folio had increased its accuracy notably.

Every trip into the forested mountainous areas would yield a new modification or note for the map.  Slowly, Micah was becoming a bit more confident in his understanding of the area, but more than anything he’d learned why important expeditions invested so much money on a local guide.  The difference between ‘sort of’ knowing the way between two peaks and actually knowing the right paths to traverse was immense.

At least he’d learned some ranks in cartographer.  Micah was still far from an expert, but his efforts in maintaining and updating the maps he’d bought in Basil’s Cove were enough to raise the skill to level four, and earned him a point of Sun attunement, a sure sign that he was on the right track.

He put the stone down on the map, marking the copse of trees where Ravi had spotted claw marks digging deep into an old growth tree, almost at the height of Micah’s head.  It really was a miracle that the big cat had evolved around the same time that he’d been forced to abandon midnight dungeon raids.

The panther was an expert hunter, capable of spotting details or sniffing out spoor that would have completely eluded Micah.  With Ravi’s help, he’d been able to find a good number of powerful evolved monsters as well as over leveled dungeon escapees.

Neither category of monsters survived that long near Preston’s cities, but the forests and mountains of the frontier had plentiful mana as well as some untended dungeons.  Dangerous monsters, high leveled and wily veterans of hundreds of fights, had a tendency to appear or gravitate to the deep forests.

He wasn’t earning quite as much attunement, rare gear, or experience as he had in his previous life, but with Ravi’s help the numbers weren’t terribly far off.

Micah stepped back from the map, looking at the collection of stones placed on the map in a cluster a day northwest of Westmarch.  One marked the scratches.  Another denoted a massive pile of stool, complete with a human skull and femur.  Yet another signified the molted skin of a great bipedal reptilian beast.

They were hunting a rastgar.  A distant cousin of a hydra and a minotaur, the creatures were the absolute menaces of the Southern Desert.  Rarely seen around the Horn Coast, but that didn’t make the monster any less dangerous.

Roughly two to three times Micah’s height, each rastgar was covered in thick scales, as hard and resilient as steel.  They started with two long snakelike necks and heads, each with a breath weapon of some sort.  After each century of life, in addition to becoming substantially larger, they grew another head, complete with its own elemental breath attack.  In short, they were born a match for a level thirty adventurer and only grew much more dangerous with time.

That said, the pituitary gland in each of their heads was incredibly valuable in enchanting.  There were more pure sources of elemental essence for warding, but rastgars were easily a top ten source.

Unfortunately, Micah hadn’t actually managed to get a glimpse of the thing.  He didn’t know if it had two heads or ten and for Micah knew, the rastgar was over six times his height. So long as he was careful, the Luoca meant that he would win a fight with the monster, but Micah didn’t want to let his confidence be his undoing and get pummeled by an absolutely ancient monster.

That meant stalking the monster, tracking its movements and doing his best to ensure that when he attacked, every possible advantage would be on his side.  Ravi and Micah had mapped its movements for almost a week, and he was pretty sure that he knew where it hunted, slept, and relieved itself.  It was just a matter of setting up the appropriate traps to catch the creature unawares and-

“Micah!” Trevor interrupted his thoughts from outside the shack.

He looked up with a frown, his thoughts disorganized and scattered.  Trevor was supposed to be in town still.  As far as he remembered, Trevor planned on joining him for a pair of dungeon delves later that weekend, events that they’d carefully followed every rule to schedule, but he wasn’t due at the grove for at least another two days.

“I see Telivern lazing about,” Trevor continued, drawing a loud enough snort from the deer that Micah could hear it in the building.  “Are you here Micah?  I have news!”

Sighing, Micah stood up from the table and pushed aside the pelt he’d used to cover the door.  Trevor stood just outside, slightly pale from his recent teleportation, but with a giant grin on his face.

“I’m here Trevor,” Micah blinked against the slightly too bright daylight.  “What brings you out of Basil’s Cove and to the rustic charm of my abode.  I thought you’d be spending all of your spare time sulking over Claire.”

“Claire,” a shadow flashed over Trevor’s face before he laughed.  “You were right about her you know. I tried working things out with her and she kept talking over me and talking about how I’d been disrespectful to her family.  I stood up for myself and I didn’t even get to finish responding before she stormed out.”

“Are you doing all right?” Micah asked, concern on his face.

“Oh don’t worry about me,” Trevor was all smiles and excitement.  “I was pretty much over her by the time we sat down and talked.  I just went to a bar and drank until I couldn’t feel disappointment anymore.  Woke up without my shirt on an abandoned dock.  I had the worst headache of my life, but I was free.  No more worrying what she thought about me.  I could just be ‘Trevor, the spearwielding ladykiller’ to my heart’s content.”

“As long as you’re well,” Micah’s mouth settled into an uncomfortable line.  He was genuinely glad that his brother had moved past Claire, but at the same time he’d rather avoid Trevor going full playboy and rambling about his conquests.  After all, Ravi was quite impressionable and he’d prefer that he not scar her or worse, teach her any questionable new vocabulary.

“That I am,” Trevor slapped Micah on the shoulder playfully.  “But that’s not why I’m here.  One of the people you told me to look out for showed up.  Big guy, looks a little Durgh.  I think he said his name was Drekt.”

“Oh?” Micah cocked an eyebrow as he said the word.  “I’ll need to make contact with him then.  I don’t know when the Redflowers will join the Lancers, but the sooner we incorporate Drekt into our activities, the sooner we’ll be ready for the Great Depths.”

Trevor just stood there with one hand on his hip, a stupid grin on his face.  Micah frowned slightly, waiting for a response.  Finally, barely concealing a sigh he continued.

“I suppose I should infer from your shit eating grin that you’ve done something?”  Micah asked.  “Are you going to tell me what you’ve done or are you going to make me stand here and guessing like an idiot while the animals judge us?”

“I can’t even hear them,” Trevor quipped.  “That sounds like a you problem rather than a me problem.  Plus, I’m pretty sure Telivern is going to judge us no matter what we do.”

The stag chuffed in affirmation from its spot laying in the Sun.

“Did you organize an orgy with every girl that looked like Claire in order to get over her?” Micah asked, delighting in the sudden squirm from Trevor.  “Sorry Trevor, I thought you wanted me to ask questions until I guessed what you’d done.”

“Drekt is going to meet us for lunch,” Trevor interjected, hoping to cut Micah off before he could make another uncomfortable ‘guess.’  “Everyone at the Lancers knows that I have a mysterious master that has helped my leveling.  I told him that I’d introduce him to my master.  He’ll be at the Jolly Porker in about an hour.”

“We should hurry then,” Micah checked the objects in his carrying bag before setting out toward where they’d set up the teleportation circle.  “We’ll need a couple minutes to settle ourselves after we jump back to Basil’s Cove, and the Jolly Porker is almost a half hour away from Mom and Dad’s house.”

“Give me just a second,” Trevor raised a hand apologetically.  “I’m still struggling from using the ritual to teleport out here.  I need ten minutes if you don’t want me to throw up all over you as soon as the ritual is done.”

“Noted, Micah chuckled.  “Any updates while we wait?  Have you heard anything about Baron Hurden’s investigations into his son’s demise?”

“You were right,” Trevor winced.  “Ari was his oldest son and the Baron wasn’t exactly rational about it.  He held off on the announcement for a couple of days, but from everything I’ve heard he spent every minute of that time sending out investigators.”

“They paid the Lancers a visit a day after Ari’s death,” Trevor shook his head uncertainly.  “They tore through our records and asked a bunch of questions of everyone that was outside the walls that night.  Luckily for me, we used the teleportation ritual and I was officially still inside of Basil’s Cove when it happened.”

“They’re still watching everyone like hawks,” Trevor continued.  “We’ll have to be careful if you want to do anything abnormal.  He’s offered ten attunement for any information on Ari’s death and his men watch everyone who passes through the gate.  If we act strange, they are going to ask questions and I would prefer to avoid those questions.”

“Strange?” Micah asked.  He’d spent almost all of his time in the forest, either building, exploring or hunting.

“Strange like an insanely strong fourteen year old giving a combat team of adventurers orders,” Trevor replied, crossing his arms.  “I’m pretty sure I have eyes on me due to my story about having a mysterious master so we’ll have to be extra careful.  I’m pretty sure that if Baron Hurden’s men start asking questions that they aren’t above using pointy things to get answers.”

“Great,” Micah sighed pensively.  “That sounds like it will make our lives significantly easier.  Sometimes you have to wonder about our luck to run into the little shit.”

“How’s Drekt anyway?” Micah continued.  “The way I remember him he was pretty straightforward and trustworthy other than an annoying sense of humor and a tendency to drink a little much.”

“He’s gorgeous,” Trevor gushed, his eyes lighting up at Micah’s question.  “There’s just something about his voice, it’s hypnotic, like bathing in chocolate. Then there are his eyes, he’s seen and done hard things, but there’s a sensitivity to him too.  Plus, it doesn’t hurt that he looks like he could bench press a carriage.  Just talking to him sends a shiver down my spine.”

“I uh,” Micah nervously scratched the back of his neck.  “I meant how was Drekt doing?  But that was an answer too I guess.  You do know that he’s not just interested in women as well, right?”

“Oh,” Trevor blushed.  “I mean.  He’s nice.”