--- Kat ---
The next two days was an exercise in frustration. It turns out ''you''ll know it when you see it'' was a terrible bit of advice. Kat and crew had been up and down a handful of paths, getting attacked every step of the way. Sometimes it was clear the monsters were just defending territory but the group was getting at least a little annoyed. Lily had even taken to attacking properly in theter attacks.
The first turnoff on the first day was really notable. It had a lovely stone pathway lined with blue stones on the edges. It looked to be done in exceptionally high quality and if a stone path, made by an earth wizard and professionally maintained was anything else? The group decided they''d be surprised. Experience more content on m v|l e-NovelBin
Sadly for them, while it likely was professionally maintained by an earth mage, it also wasn''t where they needed to go. It took them around three hours of travel to arrive, but instead of a town they found a mansion set into a cliff. The guard at the door informed them this was the summer home of the king, and was also used to grow some herbs. Which, sure, great. Long Live the King and all that.
Problem was, it really wasn''t where they wanted to be.
So back down the pathway they went and onto the main road once again. Once they took a short break to snack, they were moving again. They kept going until they found a side path that quickly changed into a bridge suspended amongst somerge trees. While the wooden rope bridge didn''t seem likely to be maintained by an earth mage…
The short track of road DID. It was beautifully done with floral designs carved into the stones underneath ayer of something obsidian like that allowed you to see those designs through a sort of blueish lens. It looked wonderful and maybe counted as the road they were looking for? So into the forest they went.
This ended up being a massive slog. You see, it was clear they couldn''t take the horse up on the shaking bridge so they tried to follow along from the ground. Well, the group learnt why there was a bridge at all. Apparently this particr forest was home to every single ambush predator in existence, along with all of their close rtives.
Their first few steps into the woods had a bunch of brownish monsters that looked a bit like a cross between a worm, a leech and a piece of shit. They were disgusting to look at, with mouth full of teeth and just to add to the effect, smelt like rotting leaves. But it was fine, a few waves of fire and it was all dealt with. Nobodymented on Hunter''s use of fire at the time.
They wouldter regret not encouraging her to use more.
A few stepster and from the shadows this monkey fox thing and its friends burst into action. They had fox ears and a bushy tail but they had a goris size and a monkeys build withrge ws ready to tear things to shreds. Lily took great interest in the shadows they''d left while the rest of the group cut them down.
The horse once again proved he was a tough sone of a bitch when hit bit of a hand that got particrly close to attacking him. Kat was certain the horse looked smug after that somehow.
Of course Kat didn''t have time to linger long because there was MORE SHIT ready to attack them. Next up was the spiders but they were sort of boring byparison. They just looked like giant tarants and were easily taken down. There was only three of them after all. The webs might have been a bit more of an issue but fire solved that particrly problem well.
Hunter did have to resist the temptation to burn a bit more than the webs, but she managed to hold it in.
At least until a stepter when the vines started toe alive and reveal they were really snakes the whole time. At this point even Lily was getting sick of it. Her shadow plunged into the darkness of the trees and then exploded from the area all around them. Spikes of shadow impaling two dozen snakes in one with motion even as Lily hissed at the collective.
Kat had to spend a bit of time calming her down. Taking them all out like that had cost Lily most of her mana yet despite that, she was ready to attack whatever else came after them.
"Do you want me to just st my aura into the forest at this point?" asked Kat. "I wasn''t doing it when we travel because I can''t keep it up forever… but if we''re going to be attacked literally every step I can use it to give us at least some breathing room,"
"Yes please. There is no way this is natural. I am unsure what exactly is going on here… but it is far from normal," stated Hunter.
"Um… yeah. If we can avoid the fights without causing you too much trouble I say we go for it," mumbled Kamiko. Lily had no further input because she was still getting scratches and was too far gone for that.
Kat kept her aura running at full power and they made decent time until she needed to rest. As soon as Kat retracted her aura it was a free for all. They were attacked on all sides by monsters old and new. Hunter was getting a little done with it and may have burnt out arge section of the undergrowth. The trees remained standing but only barely.
She was very close to simply informing the others she was going on ahead to check but held back because the one thing the storage rings didn''t seem to have was a good long distancemunication method, perhaps to discourage splitting the group.
In the end, it took them all afternoon to finally get somewhere. That somewhere happened to be a door set into a cave, and when they knocked on it an old woman mmed open the door and red at them. Her scales were covered in scars and her wings were blinking rapidly, as if they could wink out at any time. "What the fuck do you want?" asked the woman.
"Um we''re looking for Forest Vige?" said Kat.
"Well it''s not here, so leave me the fuck alone," grumbled the woman. mming the door in their faces.
Kat growled a bit at the response but didn''t make any further moves. She wanted to throw open the door and beat some manners into the old woman. They''d just spend HOURS fighting through the fucking forest because she has a fancy road leading to her house… and it was the wrong ce.
Sure it wasn''t necessarily this woman''s fault… but where are the signs! Why have such a fancy entrance if you''re just going to tell people to fuck off? Kat didn''t know what to think, but none of them were particrly kind thoughts.
"I suggest we camp here. I suspect the old woman feeds the beasts here and manages them. They likely know better then to bother her home. Once that is over… we will need to make our way back. If you do not mind Kat, perhaps it is worth considering the option of carrying Kamiko and the horse. The branches are mostly high enough for it not to be an issue and we can make better time with your aura up.
"In case you are wondering why I have neglected to use my own but were too polite to ask? Well, my own aura is not so good against ambush hunters, as many simply react on instinct. They attack disturbances without truly understanding why and I cannot use my more advanced tricks on groups.
I am happy to provide some demonstrations on the way back, but if the monsters at least know where we are we can more easily deal with their responses. If they attack blindly it can be harder to judge their attacks," suggested Hunter.
"That''s fine," said Kat tiredly. Abusing her aura so much to ensure they made it through the forest had been exhausting in a way she hadn''t felt in a long time. Kat made a mental note to practice that particr skill in the future.
"Um… should we… maybe not cook tonight?" offered Kamiko hesitantly. "Just… there''s a lot of monsters around and even if they''d normally avoid the area around the door, they might just ignore that threshold if there''s food on offer,"
"You just want an excuse to eat jelly," used Lily.
Kamiko blushed and looked away while Kat chuckled a bit at her friend getting caught. Hunter however, thought it was a good idea. "I am not overly fond of jelly myself but I do believe Kamiko''s suggestion is a good one to bear in mind," With Hunter''s vote, Kat and Lily just shrugged and went along with things. They had enough prepared food for it to be no issue.
And so ended the day of frustration… but only the first one. Tomorrow was something else!