Draith
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Chapter 49 - Mistvale
🕑 Added 2025-03-20 14:00:10 +0000 UTCIt'd been five days since I deposed Grivis and claimed my domain.
In that time, I'd mostly stuck close to home, helping increase food production so the villagers wouldn't starve. Even with a wyvern delivering itself to our doorstep, it had only delayed the inevitable. We needed more meat.
So Calbern and I were going hunting alongside Tanis.
We'd left Selvi and Tresla behind to handle any weak monsters that might show up. And to signal us for help by firing off the cannon Grivis had attempted to hit us with. We didn't have enough people trained on it to use it as a proper deterrent, but firing it high into the air then having it explode should be enough to get our attention. And Tresla had no problem with the firing part of it.
In all honesty, it almost perturbed me how eagerly she'd taken to the task. A bit like letting a dog into the turkey dinner.
Leaving the village behind, Fang allowed us to move along the backbone of my domain with ease. While most of the terrain was too broken up for it to cross over, the path leading west was open. It was enough to get us within a two hour walk of the vale, after a climb up a two-hundred foot cliff. Part way to the cliff, we saw Inertia herding the drakes into a canyon in the distance.
We slowed to a stop, and I waved. When Inertia waved back then turned back to her pack, screaming at it, we continued on our way. Best not to get between a Forgeborn and their drakes.
Just short of the cliff, we parked Fang, and I pulled out the staff.
It was time for the first test. The runes gave me hints as to what it should do, but I couldn't be certain until I'd used it. Which is why I targeted a boulder half the size of Fang and triggered my spellkey.
Mana flowed into the staff, and new connections formed, linking the tip of the staff to the boulder. When I swung the staff to the side, a thin strip of stone slid free of the boulder with a loud screech before clattering to the ground. Wincing, I continued testing the staff, moving it the other direction, though slower this time. Again, another strip of rock was peeled away, though the screeching wasn't nearly as painful.
There was a faint smell of ash in the air as I continued swiping back and forth across the surface of the boulder, slowly experimenting with depth and speed. Despite the awful noise, moving the staff faster didn't cost much more mana than going slow. In fact, when factoring in the cost of simply keeping the spell running, it was slightly cheaper to make fast changes.
It was also possible to merge stone back together, though it had to be held in place, and then I had to hold the staff to match it for several seconds. The process reminded me of welding, feeding mana through the stone, the same way I used to feed electricity through metal.
“An impressive addition to your arsenal, master Perth,” Calbern noted as I took down notes.
“No kidding, boss. Grivis wasn’t half as good as what you done,” Tanis agreed, stepping forward to run his hand over the grooves I’d left behind. Then his gaze moved toward the cliff we were planning to climb. “You gonna take out the cliff too?”
“Ha, hardly,” I said, shaking my head as I hefted the staff and looked at its length. My experiments were enough to confirm the spell carved into the staff was some variation of Sculpt Stone. I suspected I was only scratching the surface of what the spell could do, and regretted not having the full breakdown I'd have gotten from a proper spellbook. “Still, I might be able to make our path a little less treacherous.”
It proved its worth, allowing me to carve sturdy handholds in the cliff. A vast improvement over the twisted route Tanis had planned to take, one that not only led back and forth, but would’ve required us to climb down nearly as often as up. Their traditional route, since the goats that made the mountains their home had a nasty habit of chewing up any vines or rope left behind.
Unfortunately, those goats weren’t much use other than to give flavor to stew. Too thin and scraggly. The vale held better prey.
After ascending the cliff, the trek to the vale took us along the top of a ridgeline. The ridgeline was flanked by several others leading into each other at all angles, creating a sort of star shaped pattern. It almost felt like a giant had reached down and pinched the land together. At the end of the ridge, and immediately north of the vale was Mount Aeternia, the tallest mountain in the entirety of the Frigid Peaks. Which meant it was also the tallest mountain on the continent. At least outside the Heart. Geography inside the Heart was subject to the whims of its residents, so even if there was a taller mountain there, it hadn't stood as long as Mount Aeternia.
Even the oldest maps of the continent showed the mountain.
On Earth, there'd be some value in the pure historical significance. But on Ro'an, where immortals older than the entirety of humanity's recorded history on Earth ruled kingdoms older than they were, Mount Aeternia, situated in one of the most mana-poor places on the continent, held no more importance than any other mountain in the Frigid Peaks.
At least to most people.
I had ideas for that mountain.
But those were for later. Much later.
For now, our path led us south of the mountain, to the vale that lay below.
“This’d be Mistvale, boss,” Tanis said, kneeling near an outcropping of stone as he gestured ahead.
The mists the vale had been named for were mostly absent, the sun being directly overhead. The light glittered off a small lake that ran a solid third of the vale, sitting between a green forest on the east end and open plains to the west.
"Damn," I said, shaking my head. It looked perfect. Idyllic even. The seventy foot tall carnivore sipping from the lake put the lie to that though. The sole mist I could see clung to it even in the broad daylight. Even with the apparent magic, it reminded me of a t-rex.
That might’ve just been cause I didn’t know many giant lizards though.
"At least we do not have to seek out our prey, master Perth," Calbern said, a wicked gleam in his eye as he flipped the blasting rod in his hand.
"You gonna add another big un to your collection, boss?"
"And how would we get all that back, even if we could kill it?" I asked, causing Tanis to frown. "There's no way we'd be able to get Fang up that cliff. We'd need the whole village to harvest it."
"Indeed. I don't suppose your new storage pendant has the sort of capacity we'd require?"
"Grivis did go on about how big it was, boss. An awful lot, now that I think about it. Must've felt bad his muscles weren't so hefty." As if to demonstrate his point, Tanis flexed his oversized arm.
I hesitated, checking the pendant's storage capacity. While it was generous, three cubic yards was nowhere near enough to carry a beast that size, and I told Calbern as much.
"Alas, it would seem it's not meant to be. Perhaps we can find less prodigious prey in the forest below," Calbern suggested, the blasting rod having already returned to its sheath.
Nodding, we started our way down the steep ridge. If we returned to the valley with any frequency, I intended to install some form of lift. Much as the villagers might enjoy their vertical village, I didn't want to cart goods up and down such a long slope by hand.
The thought made me start contemplating improvements I might make in the village itself, and I remained lost in thought all the way into the treeline. Remaining quiet, Calbern and Tanis through skill, and me through Hush, we descended until we found a pair of large goats. These weren’t anything like the scrawny goats Tanis had described earlier. Either one of them would’ve given the large man a run for his money in pure muscle.
Much like the t-rex, the goat’s both had bits of mist clinging to them. Which, for most of the day would hide them entirely. Not during the midday sun though.
A single shot from Calbern served to take down the ram, the female bouncing away with the sort of sure footing that had me regretting our decision.
"Might want to round some up if we can, bring them back to domesticate," I said as I stepped over to the ram, reassessing its size as I did so.
"Damn, that's a big fluffer, boss."
Big almost felt like an understatement. It had to be eight feet at the shoulder, and it's thick, rugged fur had to weigh a hundred pounds all on its own. Same with its horns, which looked strong enough to slam into rock and come away the victor.
"Indeed. Several hundred pounds of good meat, if I'm not mistaken," Calbern said, kneeling next to the ram and turning its head so he could slice its neck, ensuring its death.
Once he was done, it went straight into the pendant.
"Takes up a lot of room," I said, confirming it'd eaten up nearly two cubic meters worth of space. "Not enough left to take anything else."
"I'd say our hunting obligation for this excursion has been fulfilled, master Perth."
"You know, boss, I could carry one the little ones, if we find one."
"If we can capture it alive," I agreed, stepping to the side as I followed Calbern up one of the nearby mountain trails.
Since we were already here, we continued exploring the area. We spotted several more of the large goats, usually in pairs, but not always. On our part, we avoided them, though we had one ornery ram attempt to run us down.
For all the goat's surefootedness, using Create Ice directly on their hooves left them rather helpless. Even Calbern had to let out a soft chuckle at the sight of a eight-hundred pound ram sliding in place with its legs splayed out.
Taking that as our cue, we decided to head back to Fang. The journey back was slightly faster, mostly due to being able to use a rope to descend the cliff that'd stopped us from bringing Fang all the way in the first place.
We drove over towards Inertia, but wherever she was taking the drakes, it was out of sight of the main road. The plan had been for her to bring them to the village, or at least near it, but it seemed she'd decided to change it up. Or maybe she had a different definition of close.
Either way, we returned to Tetherfall without her or the Inferno drakes.
Letting Tanis organize the villagers who'd be butchering the ram, I removed it from the pendant in one of the lower work areas. Calbern and I were making our way back to the top when I ran across Tetherfall's lucky spirit.
"There you are!" she cried out the second she saw us, leaping over a ten foot gap with nothing more than a quick step. She landed on a railing made of rope, running along it as though it was solid as stone.
Just watching her approach had my heart in my throat. Something that wasn't helped when she simply dropped out of sight with her next step.
A second later, she shot back up with one hand wrapped around a vine.
"Exemplary," Calbern breathed out in a near whisper as the kid landed in front of us.
I'd thought I was getting used to the antics of the locals, but this kid managed to take it to a whole other level. It took me several seconds to realize she was glaring at me.
"Hey kid," I said, giving her a small wave.
"Don't 'hey kid' me. You went on an adventure today," she said, pointing a finger at me.
"Uh…" I said, glancing to Calbern for support, only to find the old man's lip curled up a single degree. Turning back to the kid, I slowly nodded. "Guess we did, yeah."
"Why didn't you bring me?" she asked, crossing her arms and looking to the side.
It honestly didn't cross my mind. Ever since she'd extracted my promise to teach her, I'd barely seen her. I thought she'd changed her mind about our arrangement. I certainly hadn't thought she'd want to come with us.
I doubted she wanted to hear any of that. She certainly wouldn't want to hear some drivel about it not being safe for her either.
"Fang only has three seats, and I needed Calbern and Tanis today," I said, which had the benefit of being mostly true.
The kid squinted at me for several long seconds before letting out a loud 'humph.' "Fine, but next time, you need to tell me before you leave."
"I do, do I?" I asked, unable to keep the smile from creeping onto my face.
"Yes. You can't just leave your apprentice alone," she said.
I was tempted to make a joke, but the slight warble in her voice warned me off of it. Instead, I kneeled down and put a hand on her shoulder. "You know what, I've been a bad teacher. What do you say we start on those lessons I promised you."
Her whole face lit up so much it almost pained me.
"Yes!" She hissed out in a low voice. Then she turned and started running ahead, only to look back and wave at us to follow.
Chuckling softly, I followed her, Calbern right behind.
Guess it was time to teach a little magic.
Comments
ThoMiCroN
I could carry one->on* Something that wasn't->hasn’t* helped when she simply dropped out of sight with her next step.
Jason Hardman
TYFTC! Spotted a couple of minor errors, for awareness: tw0-hundred foot cliff -> two-hundred but had would’ve required us to climb -> but it would've (or 'would have' is probably better)
