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Chapter 294 Entrance
🕑 Added 2022-11-19 22:52:50 +0000 UTCAuthor's note:
Edit: I'm back after a long break! Wooo!
Now, a little bit of recap though you guys lucked out. This chapter is the start of volume 10 so there's a small jump and you got time to get back into it.
Recap:
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Fio and Catori learned about the hungry node that's at the centre of the world. They decided to help out and try to find a solution. There are some ideas but they all come with great drawbacks. Thus, they decided to head out into the world and look for two things: silverwood, to make better thaumaturgical devices, and allies to help find a solution. Their first destination is the Deep Green, a nearly endless forest to the southeast of the Human Plains with a ginormous tree looming over it. This volume starts right after their preparations with the beginning of the journey.
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There it is. I hope that helped. Anyway, I'm not gonna keep you any longer. Enjoy!
Old author's note:
Here it is. Late on the late. Sorry about the delay
In other news, Pokemon is fun. I have a few gripes with the game that took from the experience so I'm not playing every waking moment. Still, I'm enjoying myself. (Except for that one time it crashed and I lost 3 hours of progress...)
Anyway, I'll see if I can get a chapter done tomorrow. If not, you know it'll be up on Monday. Announcement will be up tomorrow as well.
For now, enjoy the chapter!
Cheers!
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The Deep Green was a forest. That much was obvious. It was also a better natural border than the mountains to its west. Way back when, the ork progenitor had made their way into the valleys from the human plains. It was easier to climb the treacherous slopes with medieval equipment than survive the forest.
I was watching the treeline from a good distance away. I had been in this same place before, about a week after mother had chased me out of the nest. Back then, an eagle had attacked me. I injured its wing and it dropped into the trees. The reason why I had not gone into the forest and instead explored the mountains happened right then: A huge snake had shot out of the trees and snapped the injured raptor right out of the air.
Now, I was back to this decision. With one major difference. I had a reason to explore the trees. I was also much stronger. And yet, I returned to the true and tested method of survival: observation.
The forest was named after its dense undergrowth just as much as its excessive spread. There was no other word to describe it. I had taken to the air, using my wings of darkness to rise a few kilometres, just as high as when I had first tried my drop attack. And even at that height, I could only see trees in the distance. And above all of them hovered the shadow of the huge tree in the distance.
Huge was an understatement. Even ginormous would be speaking lightly. It had to be hundreds of kilometres away with how little detail I could make out and still, it was clearly larger than the Cathedral’s main building.
Now that I knew a little more about the world, I could also see the remains of Stormbringer’s path. It was very slight but the trees looked younger where he had passed. Their bark was smoother, their branches shorter and less numerous, and there was less undergrowth. That was a plus, at least. I could get a better idea of what was waiting for me inside without getting myself into too much danger.
Sadly, I could not see much from up here. The foliage was simply too thick. There were a few animals rushing through the bushes but I could only locate them with my ears. I still kept my watch up from early afternoon until late into the night. I was going to travel at night, so that was what I needed to learn about the most.
After over twelve hours of scouting, I had not found much to differentiate the Deep Green from a normal forest, other than its size. Maybe the giant snake was a very uncommon predator? Maybe it even was a sapient animal? No matter what, I decided it was time soon after dawn broke.
“I think we’re ready for step one”, I sent to Catori.
“Good. Let’s go.”
I double-checked that I had shifted to my metal and glass form before taking off. [Sneak] was running at full power, silencing even the slightest clink of my thaumium feathers. I slowly glided down the mountainside, keeping eyes and ears peeled.
“There!”, Catori said suddenly.
“I see it.”
I shifted my wings and moments later my body was in free fall. Vis pushed out of my core and [Winged Dream] activated. I used aer and metallum. Moments before impact, I pulled up and shot into the trees. My target was a few dozen metres inside the forest. I swerved around the trunks and turned sideways just before I reached my target. My wing struck and cleanly phased through the monkey’s head. I felt my Skill take hold and pushed [Distant Dreaming] to latch onto the animal.
My vision shifted. In place of clear foliage I now barely saw any details. At least it felt like that for a moment. Then, I rubbed my eyes and my vision cleared up. My stirring had roused another monkey near me. I glanced at it before looking around demonstratively. It eyed me nervously but quickly calmed down once I laid back down. A tiny rustle of leaves in the distance was the only sign of disturbance.
I took a quick trip back to our soulspace and then swapped with Catori to return to my body. The monkey's body was already sleeping again.
“That went as well as it could’ve”, I said.
“Pretty much. I hit a branch and cut right through with my wing. Other than that…”
“Oh. That’s what that noise was.”
Catori chuckled.
“Well, let me [Identify] what body we got for you.”
My other self sent me a feeling of affirmation.
When the status menu popped up, we laughed.
[Identify]
Species: Owl Monkey (mature)
Age: 4
Name: -
Gender: female
Status: healthy
Level: 35
Class: -
“You couldn’t have checked beforehand?”, Catori asked between giggles.
“How am I supposed to know there’s a monkey called ‘owl monkey’?”
“Well, it doesn’t seem too bad. What did the body feel like?”
“Healthy and fit. Not pregnant, luckily, but I didn’t expect otherwise at this time of the year.”
“True. I’ll see tomorrow night, I guess.”
“Let me check the species description.”
Owl Monkey: This nocturnal monkey species lives in small families. It often chooses a partner for life to raise offspring. They build nests from leaves and twigs to hide from predators and use the night to scavenge food from the trees, mostly fruit with an addition of leaves, flowers, insects and nectar.
“Oh…”, Catori made.
“Is this gonna be a repeat of the horse?”, I asked.
“No. And don’t ever bring that up again.”
“Hmm? Why not? It was cute.”
“I… urgh. Just don’t. Please?”
I sent the feeling of a smile her way.
“If you can keep your focus for this one”, I said.
“I will. I just said so.”
We shot a few more words back and forth before I decided to return to the mountainside and get some sleep. As night broke, it was time to move on to step two.
Catori was the one to start things, this time. She took the monkey's body and snuck out of the nest. I could feel a little pang of guilt at abandoning its family but we had killed the mother. Neither of us could replace her. We were just using the body. It was easier than the horse because the little monkey kids were old enough to fend for themselves, especially with the father still there, so I pushed the thought aside.
The important part was that she was small. Catori sadly had no access to any of its Skills and had to rely on instinct and her improvisational abilities to get through the forest. This first night, I was in our soulspace and had the monkey’s point of view on the big screen. I was even using our human shape so I could hold a smartphone in my hand that showed the view from our main body. Just in case we were attacked.
I observed as the greyscale image swerved and bounced through the branches. Catori was going slowly to avoid making too much noise. I could see the tension in her movements, fingers trembling the tiniest bit and the image flicking between shadows that may or may not have moved. I made sure to keep our direct link up and send reassurance through it.
Despite all the tension, it took nearly two hours before something of note happened. A soft rustling came from the speakers, slightly off to the left. Catori stilled and stared into the night. Even with eyes perfectly evolved to see in the dark, it took a moment to find what was happening. A squirrel running along a branch. I almost heard the sigh as she changed her posture. A soft chuckle came through our telepathic link.
“That scared the shit out of me”, she said.
“I saw that. It was stressful on this end, already.”
“So far, we’re fine to go. I think.”
“Yeah, it seems that way. Still, you should remember that you don’t need that body. It might be painful to die but you can just leave it. We specifically took it to have a disposable scout.”
“Ah? So I’m disposable, now?”, she grinned.
The monkey’s hand moved to the nearest branch.
“Then you don’t mind if I make a bit of a ruckus, huh?”
“Not at all”, I said in my best haughty voice, “Some of you may die but that is a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”
Catori giggled.
“Okay, while I appreciate the reference, it feels a bit offensive. I didn’t like being only half-there.”
“Ah. Sorry.”
“No worries, Fio. I…”
She stopped talking as another noise came from the speakers. It was very quiet but definitely there. I turned up the volume as far as I could. It almost sounded like someone was rolling their expensive leather soles on wooden floor.
“Behind you!”, I said.
Catori jumped and not a second too early. The rubbing sound made way for a crack and hiss as a long shape shot past above her.
Hastily, she grabbed for a nearby branch and swung herself forwards. The snake sailed past and impacted the trunk in front of her which placed it right below Catori’s feet. She moved to kick as hard as she could and another crack sounded through the forest. Then, the monkey was off again, swinging and jumping through the woods.
It took a total of seven minutes before Catori had calmed down enough to slow down and find a hiding place.
“That almost killed me”, she said. Heavy breaths still came from the speakers.
“But it didn’t. Did you get a good look?”
Both of us knew the TV showed only the central part while the real body had a lot more peripheral vision.
“Sort of? I don’t think it’s big enough to eat our main body. It’d probably not even try. By the way, how did you know it was behind me?”
“I turned up the TV volume. I heard the location.”
“We don’t have surround.”
“I do, though?”
“Uhm…”
“And don’t tell me that’s not how that works. It’s exactly how that works in here. Things are as you want them to be.”
“Right. Well… Thanks.”
“No problem. It would be annoying to find another nocturnal for scouting.”
“Huh? You wanna fight, bitch?”
I laughed at Catori’s tone which prompted her to join in. Somehow, this scouting thing seemed to work out just fine.
