The forest provides you with ease.
From berries to wood,
And streams running good,
It offers its gifts as it please!
- Goldie Honorhide.
I experimented with the concepts on and off during the next seven days of running. I tested things gently and close in with my Cosmic Aura. Running might be mindless, but it is exhausting. The mind gets exhausted as well.
I also experimented with my mental attacks when there was an animal close enough. Unfortunately, we were running fast, and I barely got a glimpse of the result. There was a result to glimpse, so that was good.
At the end of the week, Yoboc found a clear mountain lake, and we settled down to rest. We were well out in the wilderness and away from the routes to known towns. It was going to take considerably longer to get to civilisation with this detour, but we should be away from any search routes and hopefully outside the range of any treasure hunter's skills. There was no guarantee of the latter, but Yoboc and Goldie had previously worked with treasure hunters and had some idea of how their skills worked.
We planned to stay here for a couple of days, rest, and repair. The sled was barely hanging together. We were barely hanging together as well. My Endurance Running was now at level 4. The skill was slow to level. My Breath Control and Map skills were now waiting for the bump to get to Journeyman level. I had been mapping everything I could on the route here, but it only went up one level. I have not levelled my classes at all.
I earned an attribute in Physical Agility, and I think Makara got a couple over the last two weeks.
“This place is not safe,” Yoboc said after scouting the area. “However, the dangers are natural. I have seen signs of a large wolf pack that at least one Dire wolf may lead.” Dire wolves are wolves that have evolved into monsters. “There is a sign of us being in a Mountain Lion territory, which may also be a monster. I saw a griffon in the sky to the south.” He looked at Makara. “Is there anything in the lake?”
Makara, who had already been in the lake, said, “There is definitely something I have never smelt before, and I would be careful in there. Assume it is a monster. I need to learn more about freshwater habitats.”
“This is a lot further into the wilds than most would dare to venture,” Yoboc said. “We will stay here for a couple of days. We stay quiet and avoid the dangers.” He looked at Makara and me pointedly. “Goldie will repair the sled.”
“Build a new one more like,” Goldie said.
“We stay close and quiet. I will keep an eye on our back trail and see if anything has picked up our scent. To be quite frank, I am more worried about monsters than treasure hunters. When we move off, we will be slower and more careful. We will start sparring tomorrow as we have been out of practice for two weeks.”
We split off to our tasks. Yoboc sat down and started repairing some arrows. I helped Goldie unload the sled. The safe looked the same—a rectangular box with no entry. Goldie went through the potions I had collected. She had already given each of us a greater health potion for emergencies, but there were several potions she could not identify.
I unwrapped the weapons wrapped in oilskin. There was a sword and dagger combo that was obviously a set. They had the same style handle and were made with the same material. They were lighter than I expected. The dagger had a guard which curved away from the handle.
“That is called a parrying dagger,” Goldie explained. “It is designed to catch an opponent's weapon. That set obviously belonged to a duelist. It is hard to know what it is made from, but that alloy has some lightsteel. It looks like the pair was made in the empire. It is not much use except against other people, and then you need decent training to make the most of it. It will sell well at auctions in cities. It is the kind of thing a noble likes to be seen carrying around, whether they know how to use it or not.”
The next item was a large war dagger made of some sort of black material. It was heavier than it looked. The design was unique.
“That looks interesting,” Goldie said, holding out her hand. I passed it over, and she looked at the dagger closely. “This looks like pure Blacksteel. Nobody would waste so much pure spiritual metal to make a weapon. Mixing it in alloys is better and makes it go further,” she thought for a bit. “Blacksteel is known for being aligned with dark and shadow abilities—the opposite of Lightsteel. This was probably made for somebody in particular.”
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Yoboc looked over. “The Black Butcher of Jern.”
“What?” I asked.
“The Black Butcher of Jern is rumoured to have a pure Blacksteel war knife. She was a crime lord in Jern many years ago. She ran the Shadows crime syndicate and was suspected of having a shadow affinity. The Month of the Black Butcher is still whispered of in fear all around the country.”
“She is not still in Jern, is she?” I asked, as that was where Yoboc said we should head.
“No, lad. But I doubt there are two war knives of pure Blacksteel, so I suspect she is dead. I wouldn’t be flashing that knife around. It will be recognised,” Yoboc said.
“We could melt it down and get something else made from it. Several things, probably,” Goldie said.
“I wouldn’t be so quick to do that,” Yoboc said. “If it is the Black Butcher's knife, it is a historic artefact. The Crown will probably buy it off us as a museum piece. There are rumours of the knife being haunted.” He shrugged, “It is only rumours.”
Goldie returned it to me. “Best put that with the other set; it is useless to us out here.” She looked over at the remaining items. Now those we can use,” she said, pointing to two sharp blades. She picked one up and examined it. The metal had a slight green tinge. “Some sort of Orichalcum alloy. These are excellent spearheads. I will make us some shafts.”
That was all there was in the oilskin wrap. We had lost many of our weapons, so two more spears would be welcome. We only had one spear and one shield. Goldie had her large two-handed axe and several smaller axes. Yoboc had his bow and his one-handed axe. Makara had the spear and her knives, while I had my one-handed axe and knives. The shield had been travelling on the sled.
“I am going to go and find some wood for the spear shafts and sled,” Goldie announced.
“I could do with some arrow shafts as well,” Yoboc said, “and some feathers for fletching if you are thinking of getting something to eat.”
“I have had enough slimy fish,” Goldie agreed. “It's best that someone come and watch my back,” she said, looking at me.
“Sure,” I said. I looked at Felix. He looked comfortable where he was lying. “You stay and relax,” I said to him. His tail wagged a couple of times, and I think he went back to sleep.
I wrapped the sword and two knives back up and levered myself to my feet. My muscles were still a bit sore. Makara looked like she was asleep in the lake. I am sure she was pretending to be asleep; she just didn’t want to do anything, let alone go with Goldie.
I checked my axe and knives. I looked at the shield but decided to leave it. I followed Goldie into the sparse forest. We moved quietly, but not in stealth. Goldie pointed out the different types of trees that were there and what kind of tree we were looking for for spear shafts. What is good for spear shafts is also suitable for the runner on the sled and arrow shafts. We were looking for straight-grained hardwood. We were also looking for younger trees, as we did not need to cart logs around.
There was a lot of snow around, and I watched carefully for tracks. I took a deep breath, drawing in the forest's scents. There were deer signs and smells. They had passed through not long ago. It would be an easy hunt with Yoboc and his bow, but I don’t have a ranged weapon.
There were also faint smells of cat. It is probably the Mountain Lion Yoboc mentioned. Hopefully, it is hunting the deer.
“This one,” Goldie said, pointing to a young straight tree. The ring of her axe striking the tree rang out. It didn’t take her long, and the crash of it coming down was heard. A flock of birds took flight.
I went into stealth and concentrated on my Hearing aid and Olfactory to see if we drew any attention.
Goldie was straight into removing branches. She stacked arrow-sized branches in one pile and cleaned the trunk like an expert, which I suppose she was.
I pushed out my Cosmic aura in one direction and swept it around in a circle with Void Sensing and Spiritual Sensing active to get a better range. I then brought it back into a sphere centred on me.
Nothing seemed to be out there. Most animals would run from the sound of a tree falling, but some monsters wouldn’t.
Goldie was finished far quicker than I thought. “Grab those branches, Ivan. I will carry the trunk.”
I grabbed the armful of branches that were potentially arrow shafts, and Goldie picked up the tree trunk and balanced it on her shoulder so she barely needed to hold it. We headed back to camp on the lake shore.
We got there without incident. I put my armload of branches in front of Yoboc to strip the bark and then shape it into arrow shafts. Yoboc didn’t look like he had shifted, but he was plucking feathers from a duck, and there was a second one waiting for him to get to. He nodded at receipt of the branches.
“Ivan, get over here and trim this section of wood.” Goldie had chopped the top section of the trunk off and was pointing at it. “Strip the bark, and then the narrow end is the right diameter for a spear shaft, so use your Carving to make a smooth pole of the same diameter. Here,” She tossed me one of her small hand axes, “ this will help.”
It did help. It took a bit to get used to, but it was classed as a Small Blade, and that Skill bumped up a level before I had finished. The finish was difficult. Goldie said it would usually be sanded down smooth, but we only had knives, so it was rougher than a standard spear shaft, but Goldie judged it acceptable.
While I did that, Goldie had split the trunk and chopped it into sections. The center of the tree was going to be the second spear shaft, and I could see the sections she had cut for new runners for the sled. They were longer than the previous ones. She started dismantling the old sled to reuse some of the wood.
Goldie then showed me how to fit the spearhead to the shaft. When I did the second one myself, my Weapons Repair skill bumped up to Apprentice level.
Duck was a nice change for dinner.
Patreon is 15 chapters ahead if you want to support the story. You don't need to support the story, as it will be free here.