Trial 4: Trekking Along

“Just what the hell was that?” Vel’s voice reached Anita’s ears by way of mycelial thread. She hadn’t been trying to spy on anyone, just using her abilities to pick up on what everyone was saying. Outside of the mall trip, this was the most people she’d seen in one place and she wanted to get the most out of the experience.

And since going around to every small grouping to sample every conversation while paying attention to John on the screen was far too much for her, she hid herself at a corner table and spread thin fungal threads out across the hall. Dozens of conversations filled her ears as her threads went out, but she focused on the dwarven leader’s conversation. It seemed important and she so wanted to be helpful to everyone, so gathering information sounded like a good idea.

“I think our suppliers may have interpreted our desire for a tougher challenge a bit more than we intended,” a low female voice answered. Anita believed it was Gin, but she was far less familiar with her voice. “They likely had a good idea of the amount of challenge we wanted for Tok’s solo trial and just tripled it when we told them two more people would be fighting.”

“And the aethersmiths missed it, how?” Vel pressed.

“You did give them a week to re-tool things for three,” Gin pointed out. “With an emphasis on quickly. We should be grateful that things didn’t go full throttle right from the get go. That lizard wasn’t too far above par. And with them taking a moment to rest, we can have the team dial things back as best they can.”

Anita heard Vel sigh. “I’d rather things not be so up in the air.”

Gin let out a low chuckle. “Unexpected things happen when you start gambling. I understand why we needed to get this all sorted quickly, but you know the saying.”

“Quick, cheap and competent, and you can only have two of those when making a deal,” Vel grunted unhappily. “And we didn’t pay enough for ‘cheap’ to not apply.”

“I’m sure accounting would argue with that,” Gin remarked and Anita imagined she was smiling. “But yes, we took a gamble, and despite a small stumble, our horses are still in the race.”

“Please don’t refer to my son as a horse,” Vel grumbled. “And don’t let our guests hear you refer to their champions as that either. I’m sure the Order would have words about it.”

“That they would,” Gin said. “I’m fairly sure the Pruzonians would take it far better.”

“They are less established and more flexible,” Vel agreed.

“In more than one way,” Gin added. “Mr. Newman certainly has a lot of tools in his kit. A regular Swiss Army knife.”

“It’s clear he has some power, even if it's of the more subtle variety,” Vel said. “For the most part. If I had to put money on it, as seems to be today’s metaphor, I’d say his power derives mainly from his equipment. He pulled out that fancy looking sword before Tok and Ms. Donnelly were able to shrug off those tendrils.”

“Indeed he did,” Gin muttered. A chime reached Anita’s ears, followed by Gin letting out a hum. “Goe says the smiths are doing what they can to tweak things back a bit. No promises but they are working on it. Seems there’s been a few smaller issues they’ve been smoothing out.”

“It never rains but pours,” Vel sighed. “Keep me posted. I suppose I should go out and make some appearances. Can’t imagine they’re going to be resting for much longer.”

Anita let any further conversion go unheard as she brought her focus back to the view screen. The dwarf leader was right; it looked like John, Rowan and Tok were getting ready to move. Letting her mycelial strands break into motes of dust, she got up and looked around for Vivian or Aeolia. She felt what she heard was something they had to know.

As Tok neared the end of his recounting the full story of Brave Gef, John took in the clearing in full. He couldn’t help but have his attention drawn to the tree. It stood tall, even with all the twists its trunk had made when it had been alive. He focused on it as Candle had found no sign of a trail for them to follow and their own search of where dead grass met living jungle had met with similar results, leaving the story as their only hope for a lead.

“Spitballing here, guys,” John began, “but what if we’re following Gef’s footsteps. I mean, literally, following after his party.”

“Think we would have seen their footprints,” Tok joked.

“I don’t mean as in following right after them, but in the terms of a narrative, we’re taking the same path as them,” John explained himself. “So, maybe instead of looking for something natural, we should be looking for a man, or dwarf, made sign.”

“You think a sign was left for us to follow?” Rowan asked.

“I think it’s the only option we have besides just picking a direction and marching blind,” John answered. “Which I, even as a former nerd shut.in, know is a really bad idea. No Skyrimming our way to the next town with only some wolves in the way.”

“Ain’t no mountains for us to climb either,” Tok joked. “So, you think they may have left a mark on the tree for us?”

“It’s a sound theory,” John said as he approached the tree. He gingerly reached out and traced the bark of the tree with his fingers, searching for any indication of another’s passing. As he touched the brittle bark, a surge of cold raced up his arm, akin to the cold dark mana felt, but a bit deeper, like dunking his arm in cold water.

When he could see no sign of carvings or other marks, Senka spoke up, ‘Perhaps we’re not looking for a sign visible to the naked eye.’

‘That’s a good idea,’ John thought back and said aloud, “I’m going to see if there’s some magical sign on the tree. We figure that would leave a longer mark than just carving an arrow in the tree.”

“‘We’?” Tok asked, confused before realization dawned on his face. “Ah, right. Your summon. Sounds like it’d be a good way to keep the mark around.”

John nodded and he trained Arcane Sense on the tree, searching for any disruption in the tree’s chilling aura. At a spot about chest height for John but would be around eye level for a dwarf, John found such a thing.

“Found something,” he said, fingers tracing a number of symbols on the bark as best he could. It vaguely read to him like a Japanese kanji. As he continued to trace the symbols, he used the tip of his sword to draw them as best he could in the dirt at the base of the tree. “These look like anything you recognise, Tok? And sorry if it’s a shitty rendition.”

“I’m not sure if anyone could do better with a sword as their brush.” Tok chuckled as he studied the drawing. “I think I can read it. They’re del shi. There’s no real translation for what it is. Think of it like a really detailed sentence, instead of a word or concept.”

“Then I really hope it’s directions and not something like ‘Gef was here,’” Rowan dryly commented, drawing looks from both John and Tok. “What?”

“Just didn’t think you’d make a reference like that is all,” John answered for the both of them, causing Rowan to flush.

“Just translate it,” the young Order knight grumbled, turning her face away from them.

“Right, right,” Tok said, an amused grin on his face. He took a moment more to study the symbol before clearing his throat. “I think it says that we need to travel west for around a mile, until we find a great stone. Then we go south again until we hit a river. Then follow that downstream to the temple.”

“You think that’s what it says?” John asked.

“Your handwriting’s a bit messy,” Tok jibed. “But it’s legible enough.”

“If these are such a detailed roadmap, there’s an implication that someone wrote this on the way back, or otherwise remained here and received the directions via some long range communication,” Rowan said.

“Or it’s just the smiths giving us a puzzle to figure out where to go, instead of us just finding a well trodden path,” Tok countered. “A bit more involved than just using the pathfinding skills we would have had to show to reach this point.”

“I suppose I’m just overthinking things,” Rowan admitted. “Previous barriers may have raised the bar a bit much.”

“I can’t control what mine throws out,” John defended himself.

“I wasn’t complaining about them,” Rowan quickly said, her cheeks reddening again. “Just that I think I prefer a bit more justification for the various set pieces.”

“Sounds like I’ll need to have you make one of these barriers for me to run.” Tok laughed, blissfully unaware of the mood. “Now, are we good to see if those directions are good or do we need to wait a bit longer?”

“I’m good to go,” John said. Tok’s recounting had given him time to recover some of the mana he’d burned in the fight, not to full, but well enough to be able to fight.

“I am as well,” Rowan echoed in an even tone. “We should move carefully though. Getting ambushed is not how I’d like our next fight to start.”

-20 HP

John let out a grunt as a snake tail whipped out from behind a tree, wrapped around his leg and knocked him off his feet.

“Got you!” Tok yelled, bringing his ax down before the unseen serpent could pull John into the jungle. His blade bit into the reptile’s scaly skin, digging deep into its flesh, staining the undergrowth with blood.

A pained hiss rang out as the tail loosened and retracted, the sound of rustling leaves quickly retreating away.

“You okay?” Rowan asked as she helped John to his feet.

“Think I’ve taken more damage to my pride,” he joked as he shook the leg that had been ripped from under him. For a moment he debated using Spring Blessing on himself to patch himself up, as he had the water spirit Overlayed. Rowan’s remark before they set off made him want to prepare in case they did run into trouble trampling through the jungle.

Not for the first time, John was a little harsh on himself for neglecting to raise the water spirit’s rank more. Even with the mana cost scaling with the increased healing, he’d rather be out of mana and whole of body than the inverse. But twenty damage wasn’t all that much in the grand scheme of things and, thankfully, their trek had been uneventful for the most part. At least the snake had more survival instinct than need to eat.

“You think it’ll come back?” Tok asked, bouncing the haft of his ax against his hand.

“Propably not,” John said. “It was an ambush hunter. Snakes aren’t really known for going after prey that fights back, as far as I know.”

“Right,” Tok muttered, an air of gloominess settling over him.

“I’m sure there'll be at least one fight we’ll have to take before we complete this,” Rowan consoled him.

“We just need to reach the temple, maybe start working on whatever puzzle we’ll need to solve,” John said. “You’ll get your chance to show you mettle.”

Tok grinned at them, his melancholy abating. “Then let's get this show back on the road. We’re getting close to that first marker, right?”

“Fairly,” Rowan answered, looking to the sky. “You said about a mile. Keeping track is a bit troublesome, as is keeping a good pace, but I’d say we’re about three-quarters of the way there.”

Their next waymarker being so near spurred them on without more words said between them. Thankfully, the path Rowan had set them on was mostly free of impediments and attackers, though the ground began to pitch upwards and grew more studded with jutting rocks.

‘I’d say that’s a good sign,’ Senka remarked. ‘We’re looking for a rock and rocks appear.’

‘Lets hope the one we’re looking for stands out,’ John said as the jungle began to thin out.

The land before them wasn’t as open as the dead clearing, but the trees and larger brush were few and far between, replaced by boulders and jagged stones. And among them was one that stood out.

Calling it a ‘great stone’ was a bit of an oversimplification. It was a carved pillar, clearly done as a waymarker as it looked like there were direction indicators on it. Tok sped up as they grew closer, his hand reaching up to trace the symbols etched into the rock.

“‘Here records the tales of Gef, warrior of Clan Jor,’” Tok read out, his fingers moving along the markings as he translated. “‘He traveled to the temple of the Karsahcan monks to retrieve the healing plants for the great journey ahead of his clan.’ Huh, it’s pretty much the full story, including the directions to the river we need to follow.”

“Probably a failsafe,” John postulated. “In case we didn’t find the message on the tree.”

“Still would have needed us to find this place,” Rowan pointed out. “We went south to the clearing and west to here. Missing the tree’s directions would leave us with a very small chance to just pick the right direction, if we even reached it.”

“Let’s not look too deeply into all that,” Tok said. “We know where we’re going and how to get there. So let’s reach the river and get to the temple.”

John was inclined to agree. There was a level of gamification here that spoke to him that something would have led them to the right path eventually. He couldn’t see Vel, Gin and the rest of the clan’s leaders wanting them to fumble around the jungle for a few hours before calling the whole thing off. There had to be some level of scale nudging just to be safe and to keep this from being a whole waste of time.

With little fanfare, they made their way south once more, plunging back into the jungle. Whether by set design or barrier tweaking, the path to the river was uneventful and quick. The river itself, however, was far more impressive. At least twenty meters wide, it flowed with great speed over a number of rocky protrusions, creating many churning rapids.

“Glad we don’t need to cross this,” Tok chuckled.

“If you’ve jinxed us and the temple is on the other side once we reach it, I am going to hit you,” Rowan dryly remarked.

“I’ll take my lumps without complaint,” Tok grinned.

“Won’t know either way until we find it,” John said, looking down stream. The banks of the river were mostly bereft of trees, giving them a relatively undisturbed path forward. “We should probably be wary of things near the banks of the river in the more calm parts. Don’t want to go down to a crocodile or anything like it.”