Chapter 11: Gnolls

Alistar Migs
Class	Soldier Lv. 20	Con + 2, Str + 1
Sub-Class	Fisher Lv. 28	Con + 1, Per + 1, Will +1
Attributes
Stats	Natural	Augments
Agility	7	Greaves (+1)
Constitution	30 + 24	Armor (+5), Shield (+ 15)
Strength	10 + 1	Shield (+ 5), Spear (+6)
Focus	6
Perception	14 + 1
Willpower	14 + 4
Fortune	☆ + ☆

Soldier Skills
Name	Major	Minor	Passive
Duress – Constitution	☆ Your scales take the hardness of granite	☆ Your Bonus Constitution doubles	Constitution + 3
Brandish Spear – Strength		Double Strength while Piercing
Luck of the draw – Fortune			Fortune + ☆
Fisher Skills
Name	Major	Minor	Passive
Fisher Fortitude – Constitution		☆ Your Bonus Constitution doubles	Constitution + 3
Follow the Flow – Perception		☆ Points out your target if it is moving	It’s easier to identify moving targets
A Waiting business – Willpower	★, ☆ While staying passive, your targets will be drawn to you		Willpower + 3

“Now I understand, those two Minor Perks are going to be really something,” I said Alistar.

He just nodded.

Alistar’s two Constitution doubling Minor Perks did not overlap; however, they took into consideration the points coming from his Class and Sub-Class bonuses. If they would ever overlap. His Constitution would become… frightening to say the least.

We had reached the Monolith and were now checking our Tracing. We needed to know at least that much of each other to know where our weaknesses and Strengths really lay.

“I haven’t been here for three years. Damnation. I haven’t been anywhere in the past three years.”

It must have been the worst. For Abyss’s sake, it probably still was for most of them, villagers.

I did not know their pain directly, only indirectly. So I limited myself not to add anything worthless to the discussion, and simply studied his Tracing.

It was now my turn to place my hand on the device.

Loke Nightfold
Class	Hunter Lv. 25	Agi + 1, Foc + 1, Per + 1
Sub-Class	Tamer Lv. 21	Foc + 1, Will + 2, For + ☆
Attributes
Stats	Natural	Augments
Agility	14 + 4	Boots (+2)
Constitution	8	Leather Clothes (+2)
Strength	14	Clock-arm (+ 3), Bow (+ 10)
Focus	12 + 2	Bow (+ 10)
Perception	16 + 4
Willpower	24 + 2
Fortune	★ ★ ★ + ☆

Hunting Skills
Name	Major	Minor	Passive
Trick Shot – Agility	★ A Shade projectile follows your shot		Agility + 3
Hunting Tactics – Focus		★, ☆ Your target’s weak points are partially exposed
★ Trace II – Perception	★, ☆ Trace the whispers of the Soul	★, ☆ Add a permanent Tracker on your target	Perception + 3
Tamer Skills
Name	Major	Minor	Passive
Return to nature – Focus			★, ☆ Gain minor knowledge about your prey
Animal Instincts – Perception		★, ☆ Partially feel your pet’s emotions	★ Perception + 3 with Shade
Together we are one – Willpower	☆ You can tame weak Flow creatures		Your creatures can understand you

Yes, I had changed into the best pair of leather vest and boots I had. The party required it.

“You reeeally need to put some points into that Constitution, Loke. You reeeally need to.”

“I know… I reeeally need to.”

We laughed, then headed back out. We needed to be by momma Jane’s before night. We would make it. Although I was eager to catch as much experience as I could, I suspected that Tracking and Tracing slave traders would net me a huge amount of those.

***

By the time we reached momma Jane, the blessed hour was upon us. With twilight, every trace of monsters almost disappeared.

Momma Jane was standing on the porch of her treehouse. Her two Eagle-rocks stood at her sides.

The trees around the treehouse were littered with treads, most probably, newly installed traps.

“You are Alistar, are you not?” She asked when we reached the treads. In the meanwhile, one of her eagles flew near me, pointing me to the path to walk, not to trigger any traps.

“You remember?” He asked.

“Of course, I do. You and your father brought me fish every week. The only young Kob of Murkstall. You looked like a good-natured Kobold, and I’m sincerely happy someone else has finally beaten the plague.”

She looked much brighter than when Nova and I left. Hope is a powerful motivator, I thought.

“I’ve finally got company and good company. Despite his looks, Alistar is really smart, though rather weird,” I said with a smirk.

“So says the lone Hunter. It is known that loners are all a little touched in the head; I bet you don’t make an exception to the rule,” he retorted.

“I’m sincerely offended, and it’s been almost one year Nova’s accompanying me; is she invisible?” I said, faking offense.

“I don’t think family counts,” he retorted.

“Ouch,” I said, “you’ve just thrown momma Jane in the loner category too, and the clock-engineer as well.”

Alistar right away realized that his dig came back at him.

But momma Jane took no offense. She sincerely laughed. Damn, it was good to hear her rough laughter. It had been a while since last I did. Even before Roana was abducted, Leafy’s leaving for the war had been the trigger factor in her shutting down.

Nobody knew why Leafy left for the war. But I guessed it might be related to her true parents. After all, almost every soul without parents was such because their parents had either died or were still fighting in the war.

“Come on up, you two; we depart at first lights.”

***

After eating, M.J. cleared the table and placed a rare map of the area on it. It had already marks on it and seemed rather old, but all the important points were there so it could not be that much outdated.

The map displayed the Wastelands’ entire area, which now belonged to Sundoor, and extended over the Freelands and the contended lands.

Sundoor had been raised in the middle of the Wastelands. A hub of abundance and power in the middle of nowhere.

All around the City, displayed as a huge tower in the middle of a round door, extended the Drylands, with the ruins and the Dumps scattered about; yeah, Dumps. Old cities ruin that could be found all around Sundoor.

Nova and I only really visited the southern one, it was the closest one to Murkstall.

Murk mountains were to the south-east of the City, while Little Bush, whose name was just a derogatory term, swept the eastern side of the map given the size of the forest. After the forest, there were plains littered with tickets of forest here and there, and that was and still remained Gnoll territory. That was the direction in which we had to go.

The freelands were on the south-western side of the City, easily reachable from Murkstall, which, of course, was not present on the map.

The Fallen Kingdom was displayed as a harsh blot on the map, it had been inked with dark tones and had been drawn as a shattered tower and a small height on top of a lake, a lake which had long since dried; maybe it would come back to life with the Shade season, but for now, it was as dry as an old Koboldess’ tits.

The huge peaks on the western side of the map, and consequently of Sundoor, were the borders with another region. I had never gone so far; traveling there required a Flow-cart or at least a good setup, and anyway, I could not move for more than a couple of days from the village, or they would start losing their food reserves.

Wide Peaks was the name of the mountain range, and it was said it housed the big Cyclops; some even said it was the territory of Earth-Dragons. But Earth-Dragons traveled through the sands, and we had never ever met one. The Drylands were essentially sands filled lands, and those creatures had never shown their faces, in our portion of the land, not even once; why would there be any by traveling a little way west. Although my master had spoken about them, and villagers claimed they had heard their wails, in the sixteen years of my life, not once had their wails reached Murkstall when I was present.

Finally, the north portion of the map signed the confines with another state and another region; Sundoor’s main trade partner: Featherland.

Featherland where the flying people came from. Their flying engines and clock-tech were unrivaled, or so Logan said. However, they weren’t versed in armor in the same way Sundoor was; their technology revolved around flying contraptions. Flow-vessels.

Nova and I saw them during the Festivals, they rarely passed over the Drylands, but it was a sight to see when they did.

“I spotted them here,” said momma Jane, interrupting my musing.

Her index finger pointed at Gnoll’s territory, on the northeastern part of it and beyond Little Bush.

“Their abode is well hidden into a large burrow, by a small height on the forest’s outskirts,” her eyes switched to those of a bird of prey as she recalled, “they have a line of defense, based on Shade talismans.”

“Shade talismans?” Asked Alistar.

I had heard of them but never saw them with my eyes.

“Shade talismans are surfaces inscribed with the art of Cryomancy. They can be made of paper, hide, wood, rock, metal, whatever can be inscribed. Their defenses are similar to the ones I’ve placed outside my house. The talismans are active only at night, and they become ice solid if a Flow creature, like us, passes near them. When they do, a thread or chain holding them snaps off, alerting their camp.”

“Flow creatures?” I said.

She nodded.

I understood. “I guess that’s why I’m the only man for the job, and you haven’t gone yourself already.”

“Yes. I need you to pass by the talismans and secure the threads so that when we pass through, and they freeze, the camp won’t be alerted,” she explained. “If I could tame a Shade creature, I would have already gone myself, but alas, I cannot.”

Who knows, if I could evolve my Together we are One Skill to tame shade creatures, I thought.

“Alright, that’s one part of it. But those cannot possibly be their only lines of defense, can they?” Asked Alistar.

“Sadly, the only other defenses I could gauge were a few Hounds, courtesy of the Gnolls, I believe. There must be at least something else, but that’s where Loke comes into play. He has to scout for them and lead us around them.”

Jane continued, “I’ve scouted them for days, and for what I could see, there are seventeen of them. Some might still be hiding inside, but not to come out in an entire week? It’s possible, but even then, there shouldn’t be anymore.”

“Damn, they really are seventeen…” Said Alistar.

“If you’re having doubts, you can still go back, Star. If this goes wrong, I don’t want to be the one leading you to your death. At least not now that you’ve finally healed,” I said; I didn’t even let him finish the phrase, showing how on edge I was too.

“I was just hoping seventeen was an overstatement; I understand now that it’s an understatement. But that doesn’t take away that those bastards must disappear from our lands. They do… unspeakable things to Kobolds,” he said.

“There are Kobolds among them too,” said Jane.

At that, Alistar grew silent for a while. “Then it needs an exemplary punishment,” he uttered, serious as he had never been. He looked furious.

He had every right to. We had always heard, and some of us witnessed, Kobolds skinned alive for the sake of enjoyment or to sell their hide to the black market.

Slave traders were the nasties bunch. They needed culling.

We exchanged some more info on our abilities; we would have to make a rather long detour to look at momma Jane’s Tracing; it was not worth the time; explanations of her abilities were enough. Most of them I knew or guessed over time.

There was one with which she could use an ability for each of their pets. She could hold two, and they did not have to be abilities peculiar to her pets.

Other than that, she could turn her skin to stone, and she could hold that for as long as she wished. Hers was an Ultimate Class, after all, and she was a tough woman. Ideal for tanking.

I now had two tanks guarding me, which meant that I had to give it my all to take down as many sons of a bitch as I could; there was no need to worry about getting attacked. They would take my place. Also, since she came from the Fighter root Class and not that of a Soldier, her abilities were heavily tied to Shade, and thus the night.

We would undoubtedly attack at night when they felt the safest. It was also the best time to fight them, given that humans would hardly attack at night, or at least not in a small group. And slave traders in cahoots with Gnolls would never expect an attack from the Sun Guards, the regiment protecting the City. They probably sold their slaves to the undoubtedly wealthy black market of the City. Or at least, those were my master’s ideas and those of the villagers.

We went to sleep soon after that, and by the time the first rays of light and the cries of Flowborns filled the lands, we were up and ready to adventure.

***

“I hope Nova is not exhausting herself too much… I mean, there’s always so many she can heal during the day.” I knew it was a touchy topic, but I couldn’t help myself from saying it.

I had grown too used to always being with her, or at least knowing that she was by Gramps’s side, but now she was alone. Relatively alone. It was still a little bit unsettling for me.

“Nova’s fine. She’s the brightest child in the village,” Alistar said, launching a long look at me and smiling, “she’s learned from the smartest.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere, Star,” I said.

He was at it once again.

“Come on! What’s going to cost you? I only want to shoot one arrow. If it’s suited for me, I won’t ask you ever again.”

Momma Jane chuckled at his tone. He was a big goof looking like that, and the fact that he wore heavy armor if leather reinforced with a metal suit could be considered as heavy, made the scene even sillier.

We were a few hours into our trip. And we already knew it would take us at least a day to reach the place; it meant that we needed to walk for as long as we could in the light hours, then sleep on top of trees by night. Thankfully, momma Jane was an expert at this, which was an occasion for us to learn the Elves’ way.

Yes, she was a murk-blood, but that didn’t take away from the fact that she had parents who taught her the way. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have made it thus far, alive.

Her Eagle-rocks, which were huge birds of prey with the color and the build of boulders, and could plummet on the enemy and shatter their bone with their weight, flew ahead of us, sweeping the forest so that momma Jane could call from incoming danger.

Really there weren’t many monsters coming at us given the fact that it was day and we were a group, but everything was experience for me, right now.

I had constantly been Tracing everything passing through my mind, and although the numbers weren’t big, because I knew most of the monsters, plants, and overall information about Little Bush, the chunk of experience I was gaining was still very important.

I also discovered an important detail about gaining experience in Passive Perks, or at least, in my Passive Perk: mindset.

Passive seemed to grow better when you switched your mindset. If I had gained a few experience points for exertion in the last couple of hours, I had gained much more by focusing on the fact that I could see better if I wanted to; the rewards were massive.

You’ve earned 5 Skill points. Skill points for Trace Passive Perk Promotion: 157/500.

I had no idea how a Promoted Passive worked, but it seemed I could find out by the end of the day if I kept at it. The only slight problem with this was that it did hurt my head in the long run. I had been developing a rather strong migraine, especially around my eyes and ears.

Perception incremented every single one of one’s own senses, but humans were people that mostly used Sight and Hearing to go by their daily lives. I was a Hunter, a prime example of that. My Sight was used for hunting things, and my hearing to protect me from them. Smell did not have to be underestimated. However, it could not be compared to the aforementioned senses, while Touch and Taste could even be entirely ignored.

In my mind, they were practically nonexistent as a product of Perception, or at least that had been until I discovered the trick with raising my Passive. After that, my mindset had shifted to one of research, and I had started wishing to extend all my senses since then. It worked great in boosting my experience gain.

“Patrol at six o’clock.”

Those few words made us go still.

Momma Jane could share her pet’s view, something that was not tied to the Blue Tamer; it had to be an evolved Skill; still, her Eagle-rocks had seen a Gnoll’s patrol, and she had not specified the number, we could not take them on. Not right now.

“How many of them?” Asked Alistar.

“More than six, but it doesn’t matter. We have to hide; their damn sense of smell is too well developed not to spot us if they come upon our scent.”

“Then we should just ambush them and end them, it’s doable,” he retorted, still running with us.

“No,” I said. “If they don’t come back and words spread, the slave traders might buff their defense system.”

“I was not expecting Gnolls patrol so close to Sundoor’ borders of the forest, but it’s been too long since the Sun Guard has swept the zone. The Gnolls are growing braver. Anyway, there are contingencies for them, and we should reach one that I prepared a little time ago.”

“You did?” I asked momma Jane.

“How did you think I survived this long near Gnolls’ territory if not with such contingency measures?” She said, smirking.

“I hope your plan goes smoothly then because I’m starting to feel their horrendous breath even from here.”

All the more proof that my Passive was evolving, and all the more proof that if I could feel them, and they smelled a lot, they were already smelling us.