Runeblade

B2 Chapter 166: Commute pt. 1

The next few days were a flurry of activity. Right after leaving the guild they returned to the Dusty Stables for a quick visit, getting Ianmus set up in a far smaller room on the same floor he was in. Ianmus, the lucky bastard, only had to pay three copper a night for the pleasure, thanks to both the smaller room, and he wasn’t paying to feed the equivalent of four men.

Once Ianmus was settled, they’d returned to the common area down below. Nodding to the few other proprietors of the place, they retreated to a secluded nook tucked into one corner of the room to discuss their plans.

Less direct strategy for how they could manage this job, that would come the next day when they visited the maps that the Guild had to plan their route. Instead, they discussed how they could most effectively support each other in the long run, and how they expected their capabilities to develop as they filled out their class skills.

Ianmus listened with rapt attention as Porkchop shared his own dreams of being a heavily armed bastion, and how he’d developed a defensive battlefield control ability. He got even more enthused when Kaius, in a show of trust, shared more about his glyphs. How he’d gain spells twice per tier for each one, and while he didn’t know how many he would get, he was confident he would receive more as his class developed further.

Then, leaning on a minor work of deception, Kaius explained his second skill. How it had forged a connection with his blade, changing its form with glyphic magic and allowing him to empower its enchantments. Drawing A Father’s Gift just a hair, he showed off its new crystalline fuller and edge, and Ianmus leaned in, his eyes glinting with enraptured fascination.

While there was no way he would be able to hide a growth weapon forever, Kaius hoped that it would be enough to ward off suspicion until he could ram Ianmus face first into a few of his own Honours. When that happened, there would be far less risk—even if it was already meagre with the man's elvish respect for the meles.

Ianmus himself held nothing back, explaining that he had several ‘potent’ metamagic and casting abilities. Neither he nor Porkchop questioned that, even if they both knew what he meant by that little hint.

His class was a useful one, especially in their team composition. Focused primarily on supportive and restorative magics mostly through sorcerous casting, though the man had the manipulation and meta-magic to both raw cast and shape his system granted spells. In all likelihood, he would only receive a handful of directly damaging spells. Fortunately, Ianmus’s free casting capability meant he was more than capable of devastating finishers if given ample time and safety to focus. With the penetrative searing power of solar magic, and the range it provided, it would complement their team nicely. Afterall, he and Porkchop were more than enough for most confrontations, especially if they had a dedicated mage supporting them.

Not only that, according to Ianmus, solar casters had one of the few affinities that was all but guaranteed to develop true regenerative spells that could restore lost flesh. While they might take far longer than a life or nature mage, they also had the benefit that their spells often interfaced incredibly well with regenerative general skills - something that Kaius had shared he would likely develop and Porkchop already had.

Retiring for the night, they’d reconvened in the morning to return to the Guild. There they asked one of the attendants for directions to the maps—this time someone Kaius didn’t recognise, rather than a well timed Ro swooping in to direct them. The woman had an uncanny sense for situations she would actually be useful for, he swore. Perhaps it was a skill?

Entering the map room, only a few doors before the silence room where they had both been interviewed, they nodded to a fellow team of delvers who were planning a mission of their own. It was a wondrous space, geographical data of the entire region plastered on wall sized maps that covered every edge of the room with astounding accuracy and detail. Kaius even spotted a tiny dot nestled near the Sea labeled Three Fields.

Their mission would take them a fair distance to the east and south. It was more grasslands for the most part, though towards their destination it shifted into the Hanset Woods. He’d heard of them, though he’d never visited. Supposedly, they resembled the Sea in the same way a shack resembled a castle.

In either case, the prospect of being amongst the trees once more was pleasing, warming him to his belly. Porkchop also notably perked up when he realised they would be travelling to more familiar environs.

Both he and Ianmus recorded notes and took sketches of their route. Even with a skill with a slight navigational bent, the more information he gave himself to work with, the better he would do at bringing them to their destination. None of them wanted to give their target even a single extra day to grow stronger before they fought, let alone that every hour it lived was another hour an unknowing traveller might end up dead.

After that, they left as a group, before splitting up to gather necessary supplies and their final things before departure early on the morrow. The first place they stopped was Artifice and Arms to pick up Porkchop’s newly inscribed barding. Jin had done a wondrous job, showing off the circular formation he had marked into the underside of the armour, just between Porkchop’s shoulder blades.

The black markings were dense, and had seeped deeply into the very conceptual fabric of the artefact. Even if the working itself was destroyed, the item would still repair itself—and the formation—just fine. Kaius found it fascinating, unable to help but draw parallels between the physical nature of body formations and glyphs, and the permanent infusions of the enchanter's art.

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Thanking the man profusely, Kaius helped Porkchop armour up, before he secured the saddlebag they had loosely slung over his brother’s haunch back where it belonged.

Next was a short trip to the markets, where he collected all manner of preserved and fresh food to shore up their supplies. While they still had plenty left from the Dwarven city, and no doubt fresh meat would be in healthy supply thanks to the flood of aggressive beasts, they were now cooking for three, and he didn’t want them to be on a ration diet.

After all, if you were doing killing work, it was always best to be well fed. As the self-selected cook of their team, that responsibility fell on him.

By the time the sun began to dim, drifting over the horizon, they returned back to the Dusty Stables to share their evening meal with Ianmus, who had done his best to suit himself up with attire more suitable for travelling. In his case, that meant keeping his robe—which was an artefact—but splashing out on a far better pair of boots. After his first experience with overland travel, the half-elf had come to appreciate the subtle luxuries a good boot could provide.

Retiring early, Kaius lay next to Porkchop with his eyes wide open, fizzing with excitement for the coming dawn. Tomorrow they would be off, to chase power, and remove a threat. Good and honest work that brought him closer to his goals, what more could he want?

Eventually sleep claimed him, the slow breaths of his brother lulling him into a dreamless slumber.

….

Leaving the eastern gate, Kaius and his team kept pace with a small merchant’s caravan that was making their way in the same direction. While they weren’t official crew, neither the merchant nor his guards saw any trouble in having two delvers and a warbeast keep abreast with them for the first few days of their journey.

After all, it was simply more manpower to both scare off ornery beasts, and deal with them if they attacked.

It did slow them somewhat, but as they were leaving the hard packed trail that led out of Deadacre in a mere two days time, it would only save them a handful of hours all up.

The merchant himself was a reclusive sort, preferring the security and safety of his reinforced carriage that sat between two more carrying goods. It was impressive, perhaps not opulent, but clearly expensive. Wooden framed, with hard steel plating reinforcing every inch of its surface. Instead of windows, shuttered metal slats that could be locked tight from the inside were set into each side of the wagon, allowing a full range of vision with relative safety. If the ridiculous level of over engineering wasn’t enough, Kaius spied the tell tale sign of inscriptions curling around the edges of many of the plates. Some sort of defensive inscription, no doubt. @@novelbin@@

It must have weighed tons, and only by the might of the lizard-like trained beasts that hauled it was it able to move at all. Though, they weren’t the most spry of things, and inwardly Kaius wondered if the merchant would have been ultimately safer with a mode of transportation that moved faster than a strolling walk.

In contrast to their employer, a few of the guards were very chatty. At least, they were by the second day of their shared journey. At first they’d just eyed them warily, Porkchop most especially.

“Oi, biggun! Up on the beast! Where’re ye headed, eh?” a great lug of a man asked, calling out to Kaius from his position a good ten strides to the left of the front goods wagon.

Kaius gave the man a friendly smile, glad that the stoic silence was fading. Even for him, who liked the peace and quiet, it was simply…odd to travel without at least a chat.

“Hanset Woods, taking a high copper contract on an illusion focused spider that's been ambushing travelers.” he explained, watching the man wince in sympathy.

Clearly, the man had as much distaste for oversized bugs as anyone else. A healthy response, in Kaius’s mind.

“Bloody nasty, illusions are—’specially fer somethin’ like a spider. Ye reckon ye’ll be alright? Names Greth, seein’ as we’re talkin’ now.” the guard responded, meting out introductions and commiserations both.

Ianmus, as starved for conversation as the man had become, jumped in. “We should be fine, a tough fight for sure, but between our affinities and skill sets we have quite the advantage on the beast.”

Looking at his companion with an exaggerated expression of shock, Greth raised his eyebrows so they nearly brushed the top of his forehead. “Well, well! The learn-ed one speaks, does he?”

Kaius clenched his teeth, jaw straining to keep his face straight as Ianmus scowled at the friendly jab. Greth might have been a well travelled for a working man—judging by his odd accent at least—but it seemed he was just as comfortable teasing his ‘betters’ as anyone Kaius had met.

“But seriously, that be good. Whereabouts in those woods, then? We’ll be circlin’ back that way after our circuit. This change be good for levels, but I’ll not pretend we have the experience or steel fer somethin’ like that.” Greth said, a hint of worry spreading across his features, though the grizzled guard hid it well.

Kaius nodded, it was understandable. Even for caravan guards, a profession that required a combat class, they’d never had the strength and power of true delvers. Usually those without the pull of the Song, they’d rarely had the need or desire to constantly seek battle until recently—nor did they often have anything more than a Common class.

Plus, they rarely had many levels. Before the change, it was rare that people on the road would see more than an attack or two per month on a long journey, and they would be weak and desperate things splitting experience between most of the caravan.

“We don’t know exactly, but it's the wooded road between Intshire and Holsborrough.” he answered the man, happy to share what they knew.

“Closer to Intshire then. Aye, that stretch’s only wooded on the last third. Holsborough’s a wee further outside of Hanset Woods. That’s where we’re bound on our way back.” Greth let out a heavy sigh of relief, before catching himself. “Not that I’m doubtin’ ye could handle it, mind.”

Kaius shook his head and chuckled. “No harm, my good man. Only decent sense to be cautious in these days. Say, if you know Holsborough, mind telling me any places that do a good meal and a better drop? It’d be nice to wet my throat after some hard tracks cross country.”

Whatever self consciousness the Greth had felt at his tactless response, it was quickly replaced by a vibrant excitement that straightened his spine and filled him with energy.

“Oh aye! By far the best seen in all me travels. It’s called--” Grenth started, only to be cut off with the sonorously baleful note of a horn.

“Eye’s up lads, we got incoming!” the leader of the guards screamed from the front of the caravan, equal parts invigorated and focused.