The steam from the bronze soulforge sauna clung to Nick's skin as he strode across the bustling courtyard, his muscles still humming with energy from the rigorous training session. He felt pretty happy with the results from the first round of training: seven stat points. He had gotten two strength, one agility, two endurance, one magic, and two charisma in barely eight hours. It was a sign of exactly how strong he’d be able to get if given enough time and something to look forward to as he approached the group gathering for the next patrol rotation.
“Nick, you can't seriously be thinking of going out there,” Kaylee called out as she rushed over to him, clipboard tucked against her and her brow furrowed with concern. “You’re the guild leader. You can’t be constantly putting yourself in danger.”
Nick pulled his spear from his inventory and planted its butt in the snow-covered ground as his eyes scanned the faces of his comrades for the first patrol. “I appreciate the concern, Kaylee, but if I don’t go out with them, I won’t level, and if I don’t level, we’ll fall behind. I need the EXP just as much as they do.”
Rosemary stepped forward, her hands on her hips. “There are other ways to get EXP. As a Gallows you should know that.”
“None of them are as efficient as real combat in this realm,” Nick told her.
“You doing it for the skill steal?” Seo-ah asked. “Have you even used your last one?”
“Yes. Yes, I did,” Nick responded with an ear-to-ear smile as he looked at the skill he’d chosen: Titan’s Fury. It wasn’t the group-oriented skill he usually preferred, but it was the one he thought he’d need if he was going to fight dragons in the future. If Roland had one thing going for him, it was that he was able to switch to a size where he could actually face a larger opponent head on in a much more even format than anyone else.
“But the last time you went on a patrol . . . ” Kaylee protested.
Mr. Walters’ gruff chuckle cut through the tension. “Let the boy go, ladies. A good leader never neglects their training.” He clapped a hand on Nick's shoulder, his electric blue eyes gleaming with approval. “Sets the example, doesn't it?”
Nick nodded, grateful for the support.
“Alright, listen up!” Mr. Walters bellowed, his voice carrying across the courtyard. “I'll be leading the wall defense. I’ll show you how to incorporate training weights and isometric exercises into your watch to keep you alert. By the time I'm done with you, you'll be proper disciples of the God of Steel!”
A ripple of nervous laughter spread through the gathered adventurers, causing Nick to grin. Even though Mr. Walters was usually a chummy, upbeat individual, when it came to talks of training, he was serious. They were laughing now, but Nick knew they wouldn’t be once the drills began.
“Nick,” Spencer called out, approaching with Maria at his side. “We've been assigned to the strike group. A drone spotted some animal monsters gathering a few miles southwest.”
Nick nodded, his mind already shifting into tactical mode. “Who else is with us?”
Maria gestured to five other adventurers nearby, four men carrying longswords and a lone woman carrying a staff, each wearing the guild’s arctic armor that Reggie had made. “There’s the team we’re with today, we’re all ready when you are.”
As Nick prepared to lead his group out, he caught sight of Kaylee and Rosemary watching him with worried expressions behind Seo-ah, who was waving goodbye at him as she left with her own team. He understood their concern, but he couldn't shake the feeling that this was where he needed to be: out in the field, getting the levels and training he needed to face the very real and much greater danger looming in the future.
“Alright, team,” Nick addressed everyone. “Let's move out. Stay alert, stay together, and remember your training. We've got this. We’re going to get the most kills, come home with the essences, and turn those bronze runes silver in the gym. Sound good to you all?”
“Hell yeah!” the woman yelled excitedly, stamping her staff into the ground.
“Then let’s do this!” Nick shouted.
“And if he says to stay in position and don’t go too far forward, do it,” Maria added. “Don’t leave the healer behind. You have to stick with the support.”
“We only have two supports,” one of the men said, looking at Maria a little confusedly.
“Then stick with them like they owe you money,” Maria replied in a commanding tone. “That’s what Nick is going to insist on, and you’re going to get punished if you don’t.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the man quickly replied, nodding pertly.
“I feel special,” the girl with the staff giggled as the group began to head to the base’s exit. Nick couldn’t help but feel a familiar mix of anticipation and anxiety coursing through him as he left the confines of the base. He had wanted to be in Seo-ah’s group, or at least in Adele’s group since she had the best heals, but despite all her protests, Kaylee had broken the teams down quite well. Each group was built of a mixture of veterans, average dungeon divers, and noobs with the intent of making sure that everyone was getting trained properly and that each team could handle its own in combat. There were no weak links in the patrol teams.
———
Nick's boots crunched through the snow. The arctic forest loomed ahead, a maze of stark white and shadowy evergreens. He held up a hand to quietly signal to the people behind him to stop.
“Alright,” Nick whispered, “do you sense anything?”
Spencer closed his eyes, staff hovering inches above the ground. “Yeah, a few magical signatures ahead.”
Maria shifted her shield around to be directly in front of her, instead of at her side like she’d been holding it, as if the fight was about to break out right away. “How far?”
“Quarter mile, maybe less,” Spencer replied.
Nick nodded, turning his head to check on the others for a moment, before deciding on a plan. “Form up. Maria, take point with me. Spencer, center. Rest of you, watch our flanks,” he whispered, keeping his voice as quiet as possible without letting it be too soft that the noise from the wind would cover it up completely.
“Got it,” the group behind replied in near unison.
“And Spencer,” Nick turned to the mage, “if you act before I tell you to act, like you did during the Endless Night, you’re going to be cut from the squads for good. You’re my friend, but I won’t allow you to get others killed.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“I—” Spencer, not expecting the tone or threat from Nick, could only freeze, his words of protest halted by the harsh glare Nick was giving him. Then, after a moment, he nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Good, then let’s go,” Nick said, feeling a little weight off his chest after finally addressing an issue that needed to be handled. As they pressed forward, Nick was painfully aware of how his feet sounded as they compacted the snow under his shoes. He hated how, despite the loud wind, the heavy crunching of their steps in the snow left him without stealth and feeling snared in the middle of the patrol. The wind was heavy enough to silence a little of the noise, but not this much. His heart beat quickly as he worried about what, or who, could be hearing the heavy crunching. But then Nick heard sounds of battle, and as his team crested a small rise, they found a vicious fight in progress. There were thirty massive herbivores—arctic ox, sciuri, horned lepuses, and juvenile achlis—were swarming a pack of dire wolves. The wolves, enormous and snarling, fought desperately, but were clearly outmatched.
“What in the . . .” Maria stammered out, stunned by the scene. “They're . . . capturing them?”
Nick watched a half dozen horned lepuses pin a wolf, two more swiftly muzzling the predator and hobbling it with rope.
Nick saw that there were already three other bound dire wolves that were being led south by more of the horned rabbit monsters.
Spencer tensed up. “Nick, we're outnumbered. Are you sure—”
“Act when I tell you,” Nick cut him off. “We can’t let such a large force roam free near our base. Maria, you and I will flank left. Spencer, cover us. Everyone else, create a diversion on the right.”
Nick equipped and raised the Standard of Greatness, holding his spear with his shield hand for a moment. Then, as he slammed the standard into the ground, he shouted out, “Now!” and took the Weight of Dedication in his main hand again.
Feeling the power from the standard pulsing through him, he charged ahead. An arctic ox turned, eyes widening in surprise. Nick's spear found its mark, sinking deep into the beast's shoulder. It bellowed in pain and rage.
Nick ducked, narrowly avoiding its massive horns. He could smell the creature’s musty fur, hear its labored breathing. Pivoting, he struck again, this time his aura-covered spear finding a weak spot in its neck and ending the creature’s life with a penetrating thrust.
“Nick! Behind you!” Maria’s voice cut through the chaos.
He spun, raising his spear just in time to deflect a sciurus mage’s razor-sharp icicle, launched from a nearby tree. The impact jarred his arms, but Nick held firm. He ducked and rolled, creating space, and then charged the creature, leaping and skewering it on his spear in a single movement.
The battle raged around him. He saw flashes of fire and electricity as Spencer's magic manifested as large lightning bolts that pierced through several enemies, cauterizing their flesh instantly as the lightning ripped through one creature after the other.
Maria stood at Spencer’s back, her large shield raised high as ice needles rained down on them from the tree-dwelling squirrel-like mages. With a swift swing of her sword, Maria created a powerful aura attack that transformed into a violent gust of wind, uprooting the trees the creatures attacked from and sending them crashing to the ground.
A deafening roar echoed across the battlefield and Nick turned to see a massive achlis bearing down on him, its antlers lowered to impale him. Time seemed to slow. Nick planted his feet, angling his spear to impale the creature.
“Come on, you overgrown moose,” he muttered through gritted teeth.
A beam of ice energy shot out from the antlers when the achlis was mere feet away. Nick threw himself to the side and rolled to his feet to see the tree that had been behind him completely covered in thick ice. The achlis hit the tree a moment later, snapping it in half. The trunk fell on the magical elk but the creature tossed its head and threw the trunk away with a casual expression of strength.
Nick wrapped around his spear and charged. The Achlis seemed to welcome the challenge and lowered its antlers ready to meet Nick head on.
Then, just before Nick would have crashed into the massive creature, he thrust his spearhead into the ground and used it to pole-vault over the deadly antlers. Releasing his spear, he flew through the air and landed on the monster’s back.
He summoned his longsword, the Blade of a Thousand Failures, from his inventory, lit it up with holy fire, and thrust the blade down at the beast. The blade cut a burning line through the side of the creature’s thick hide.
The achlis bucked, looking to dislodge Nick, but he held on for dear life with his legs and one hand while he continued to stab the monster with the other. Fur and muscle separated and burnt with each stab until he caught a main artery, loosing a spray of blood that painted the white snow red.
The achlis went wild with the new pain, spinning and twisting its head to try to get at Nick. But its struggles slowed, and it staggered, the massive blood loss finally catching up to it. Nick leapt off its back just as it fell over.
He landed on the snow, sword ready to fight another monster, but saw Spencer fry half a dozen lepuses with a bolt of lighting while Maria stood over the massive body of the last arctic ox, and the other patrol members were finishing the other monsters using holy fire or their own class skills.
Nick wasn’t sure whether their success was due to their diligent training or the effectiveness of their surprise attack, but he was pleased with the results.
As the EXP notifications rolled in, Nick watched the wounded dire wolves vanish into the forest, their massive forms melting into the shadows.
Nick lowered his spear, breathing heavily.
“Why were the herbivores capturing them in the first place?” Nick mused, running a hand through his sweat-damp hair. “It doesn't make sense.”
Around them, the other adventurers were busy collecting essence shards from the fallen monsters. The crystals glinted in the pale arctic light.
“Hey, boss!" called out one of the patrol members, the woman with the staff named Jess. “We've seen this before. Herbivores rounding up carnivores, I mean.”
Nick’s head snapped up. “What do you mean?”
“Isn’t that what they are? Herbivores and carnivores?” Jess asked, as if it was just common knowledge. There were nods from the other adventurer’s like it only made sense. With a shake of his head at some people’s lack of naming imagination he asked, “Where’d you see this happening?”
“Between us and the Black Witch’s castle,“ Jess replied, pocketing another shard. “Always the same: herbivores capturing what’s left of the carnivore forces that attacked there.”
Spencer’s eyes narrowed. “But why? What could they possibly want with them?”
The group fell silent, each contemplating the implications. Nick’s mind raced, trying to piece together this new puzzle.
“Prisoners, maybe?” suggested Maria, cleaning her blade. “Or . . . forced labor?”
“Could be some kind of twisted revenge,” another adventurer chimed in. “Turnabout's fair play and all that.”
Nick shook his head. “Whatever it is, I don't like it. We need to report back and reassess our strategy.”
As they began the trek back to base, Nick couldn't shake the uneasy feeling in his gut that more was going on than he could see. “You okay?” Spencer asked quietly, falling into step beside him.
Nick managed a grim smile. “Just wondering what we’ve stumbled into this time.”
They passed through the massive concrete walls surrounding the base, the familiar sight of their makeshift home doing little to ease Nick’s troubled mind.
“At least we've got more essence crystals for the guild,” one of the younger adventurers, Daniyar, said brightly. “Maybe once we get enough of them, the base might get a big space heater or something so I won’t have to keep my gloves on just to walk to the outhouse.”
“I think I heard that Rosemary girl, the princess-looking one, say to her patrol team that her mom’s construction company is installing toilets soon in the dormitories,” Jess said, offering a tidbit of info Nick wasn’t even aware of.
“I don’t get why we even have to sleep here. The rift is open, we could just walk in and out whenever, like a day job. Why do we even have to sleep here?” Daniyar remarked.
“It’s in case a major attack, not one of the small ones, hits while we’re sleeping. We won’t be able to make it in time if we have to drive all the way to the rift sight,” Spencer explained.
Nick nodded absently, his thoughts still on the dire wolves and the strange behavior of the herbivores as he headed to the infirmary. He didn’t have long to rest up, heal, and then sleep before it would be time to hit the gym again. The relentless routine he had committed to wouldn’t allow a moment of free time.
