Chapter 644 - All who hunt (Patreon)

During dinner, Hera and her party weren't able to have a conversation about the curse, so they were just talking about their new jobs. Shane and Mylo joined the guard watching over the walls. Shane was very good at using a few long-range spells to scout the area. Mylo didn't like any of the jobs, and standing around all day in hopes that something would happen seemed like the better alternative. Adriel and Blue joined the crew that would focus on building. They started working on the training grounds, but the job also included fixing the walls and delivering materials for large traps that surrounded the village.

Alex and Helena ended up joining the cleaning crew. The mage was used to that kind of work for the time she worked in the guild. There was a surprising amount of literal housekeeping included in that job. Alex also joined that group but for a different reason. The assassin was getting better at hiding with each day, and since taking care of cleaning would allow her to go inside everyone's houses, she could sneak out and check if there was anything hidden that could be related to the curse.

Bonnie, on the other hand, ended up helping Multrak to track the monsters. It wasn't a surprise to anyone that she was good at reading data, and having someone close to the leader of this village would be extremely beneficial. They all made sure not to mention anyone they found suspicious, but Hera made a point of complaining about Kadhan's voice and the way he moved. That seemed to be something that most of the village agreed with, and it didn't seem to bother the witch doctor. Even if Hera wasn't the kind to say those things, she felt it would bring more attention to herself if she was already ok with him.

Dinner came and went in a flash, and soon Grilat called the group to the training arena, "Come on. I need to explain some things to you," he started speaking as he walked to the newly fixed training grounds.

"Do we have to do this today?" Blue asked. She was a bit tired, but more than that, she wanted to talk with everyone about the curse, not because she had any amazing clues, but because it was just something that sounded fun.

"Yes, we have. This is supposed to be a prison. You don't get a say in this unless you have a good reason why you shouldn't be here," Grilat side-eyed Blue, "Now, for what we are actually here to learn. You all have a job, but you will be doing them only half the time. The other half, you will be out there, in the jungle, hunting some of the creatures that are a potential danger to others."

"Everyone here does that?" Shane asked.

"Yes, and no. They did that when they got here, but when they were done with their sentences, they could stop that part. Unless we don't have enough people to fight, then some people might have to be conscripted, but that never happened."

"That never happened? Really? You guys don't have that many people here. Is that enough to hunt?"

"You guys arrived at an odd time. Since we are preparing for a big hunt, the Night River, all the hunt parties went out to clear up some problem areas or monsters that might cause issues with the plan. We have about 20 people outside in groups of 5. Their leader is Raynara and… Well, she is a character, to say the least," Grilat sighed.

"Is she the one who likes you?" Adriel smirked.

"The one who is trouble?" Alex added.

"Yeah, yeah. One day here, and the newbies are already teasing me about my love life. That's great," Grilat rolled his eyes.

"You can't put that on us. Multrak is the one who brought it up," Blue chuckled.

"It is my love life. I can put it in whoever I want. No, wait. That sounds bad. I didn't mean it like that. It's just my topic. I can… you got it," Grilat waved them off and continued walking.

About 5 minutes later, they were standing in front of the training arena. The place was split into a large sandpit where people would fight, a couple of dummies filled with holes by the archers, and some weights on the side. Those were made out of rock or gathered in bags of sand, not the actual weight-lifting equipment that one would see in a modern gym. It was an interesting surprise that a civilization this old was already thinking about strength training. Then again, they were a society of hunters, so it made sense for them to be trying to keep their bodies in peak condition.

As they looked around the training grounds, Hera noticed Kadhan approaching with a couple of flasks and two heavy bags under his arms.

"Thank you for dropping by. Is this everything?" Grilat asked the witch doctor.

"For today. Yes. For tomorrow. No. For the third day. Need more time. You asked a lot," Kadhan replied.

"Wait. so you can't give it to me on the third day? Is that it?"

Kadhan shook his head in a way that showed he was mildly annoyed, "I don't know. If it can grow, I can give. If it can't grow, there's nothing to offer."

"Oh, okay. And do you need to be here to make this work?"

"Don't need to. But want to. Not often others do something like me," Kadham said with a smile.

Grilat sighed, "Suit yourself, just don't bother anyone, and don't get in the way. It's just like the other ones, right? I don't have to explain anything differently?"

"You have. Old ones making new you. New one makes items too."

"Oh, okay," Grilat turned to the group, "Aside from our classes, I'll be fighting one of you every day, maybe every other day, to see what you can do. we're going to be using this thing," he gestured to the potions and the heavy bags, "This is something special that we use when we need to go scouting in dangerous places. Kadhan, our witch doctor here, has a skill and some spells that let him make a body double of moss. A while back, he managed to create a potion that can replicate the effects even if the copy is much weaker than we are."

"Your moss only has a tenth the strength in you," Kadhan added.

"Yeah. That. So I'm going to drink one of those potions and make one body double. One of you is going to drink the other and make the other double, and we'll fight to the death. I mean, our moss doubles will fight to the death," Grilat explained.

"Isn't that dangerous? I mean, we will feel pain, won't we?" Helena asked.

"Don't worry about it. Our sense of pain is reduced when we are controlling those things. Unlike Kadhan, here, we have to, in essence, sleep to make the moss body. When we take enough damage, it will be as if we woke up from a nightmare. I'm not saying it will be fun, but we don't have to worry about being injured," Grilat explained, but he looked at Kadhan and remembered something, "Oh, and apparently, this time, we can also bring our items along. Using the old version, we couldn't, and if we wanted to, we needed to wear them in the new body, which is a hassle."

"Okay. Seems simple enough. And I know that Kadhan wouldn't give you something that he wasn't sure worked," even if this was the first day that Hera worked with the witch doctor,  she could already tell how much he valued the Integrity of his products. If a potion was a little bit weaker than he was supposed to be, he would consider it a failure and ask her to dispose of the potion instead of giving it to people with a warning that this one was weaker.

"Perfect. And you are the first one I want to test. I saw your fight in the arena, and honestly, I wasn't impressed. Without your legacy, you don't seem to be able to do much," Grilat said.

Hera blinked slowly, "What?"

"Yes, you barely participated in the fight. Most of the kills were done by the flying weapons or those two constructs that you have. The only thing you seem to have done was to make it rain, which honestly was a bad move. It made it harder to move around in the mud, and you didn't have enough mobility to overcome that. The monsters are already used to moving around in such conditions," Grilat continued.

"Hang on. I think you're misunderstanding something. It wasn't just rain, it was…." Blue tried to stand up to her friend, but the Empress made a gesture for her to stop.

"That's fine. I can be the first one," Hera nodded, "Can I use my own weapons?" she gestured to the two daggers on her waist.

"Sure, as long as you don't use the legacy, you can use whatever you want," Grilat nodded and passed one of the potions to her, "Lay down beside one of the bags of moss, drink the potion, swallow, and then spit on the bag. You will feel sleepy, so just sleep, and you will wake up in the moss body."

Hera nodded and removed Scythe and Armory, placing them to the side.

"You can keep the items. They should appear on your moss body, too," Grilat turned to Kadhan, who nodded in response.

"Those two have some skills that protect me from various ailments and some mind effects. I feel like they might get in the way of the potion and the moss," Hera replied. She knew she would have to remember that in the future, but if she didn't use them in the fight, it could be suspicious and she didn't want to teach. This man was telling her that she couldn't do anything without her legacy, and the Empress refused to let such comment go by unanswered.

"Would that be a problem?" Grilat turned to Kadhan.

"Maybe, maybe not. Only one way to find out," the witch doctor replied.

"We can test later. We are testing something else today, aren't we?" Hera asked, her eyes turning cold.

"That's the spirit. Now,  come on. Show me what you got," Grilat walked over to one of the moss bags while Hera did the same. Kadhan walked closer to the Empress and explained to her a few of the details of the process and some of the plants he used. After all, she was his assistant.

Before opening the potion, she just stared at it for a moment as if she was trying to prepare herself, but it was just a way to hide her conversation with her court, 'Everyone, this shouldn't be dangerous, so don't interfere. Even if you think I'm about to get killed, we know that this is not my real body,' she stopped, but then decided to add one thing, 'But do protect my real body. Don't let it be hit or anything.'

After getting a 'Yes, Empress' from her court,  Hera drank the potion and spat on the bag. Apparently, that was how the potion/spell could identify which moss would be used for the effect. Without that, the effect would search for a large clump of moss nearby, which could have unpredictable results, such as waking up buried underground. She quickly felt her eyes becoming heavy, and she fell asleep, only to instantly open her eyes inside a large bag of some sort. Reaching up, she found the opening and removed the bag from around herself. Her body was just to the side, sleeping. Looking at that was an odd feeling, to say the least. She also felt weaker. Much much weaker. But since she was supposed to be only at 1/10 of her strength, it meant that all her attributes should be effectively nine instead of above ninety. Feeling weaker was something to be expected.

"How are you feeling?" Grilat asked. His voice sounded far away, almost as if muffled by something.

"It's weird. I feel weak, and things just don't feel right," she poked her own arm a few times, but it took a lot of pressure for her body to actually register that there was something touching her.

" What about your weapons? How do they feel?"

Hera pulled Fang and Claw from her waist, she slept with them, and she could see the originals in her body. She was half expecting not to be able to hold them with her current strength, but no, they felt just as light as they always were. The moss replica doing wonders to replicate even the feeling that she had while holding them. She tried using a bloody claw as a test, but that didn't work. Turning back to Kadhan, she asked, "Weren't they supposed to be just like the originals? The skills are not working."

"Weapons are tricky. Hard to make skills work. Each item has only one and much weaker. Can't say which. All luck," Kadhan explained.

"It's better for you not to focus on skills right now. I want to know what you can do, not your items," Grilat added.

Hera nodded and started walking to the arena, but first, she clicked her heels and tried activating the boots. If they were still working, even at 10% strength, they should give her 6 minutes of gliding, and one way or another, the fight would be over before the effects. Feeling her feet stop touching the ground, Hera smiled and stepped towards Grilat, getting into a combat position.

"Someone count us down," Grilat asked.

Blue stepped forward, "Ready…. Fight!"