Chapter 128: Next expedition
Chapter 128: Next expedition
It was a great end to a great party. I was absolutely right saying that the more the merrier… And even though not everything went without a hitch or a fumble, when things ever did for the first time? More importantly, everyone was pleased with themselves by the end of it. Even Rosha, who had the most reasons to feel regretful after sleeping off the rest of the alcohol in her bloodstream.
Instead, she just looked hungover and annoyed, probably because of being hungover. “One who lies with the dogs is bound to catch fleas,” she told me with a snort. “The world is a fucked-up place and we are fucked-up people. Might as well enjoy ourselves.”
Yvenna wasn’t even hungover. She was her usual, perpetually angry self. What was unusual was the note she pushed into my hands at the first opportunity. “Don’t show it to anyone!” she warned me, and stomped away with no further explanation.
The note was a long one, and it looked like Yvenna spent a lot of time writing and rewriting it, judging by the amount of fixes and crossed out so much they were impossible to read words.
[Devourer. (an entire paragraph crossed out) It’s easier to write. I want to be free from myself. Thank you for taking me. One day… I have to think about something. I want to be of use to you. Whichever it is. If you won’t take me with you, then return soon.]
I wondered what to make of these words, and if there was a reason to make anything out of it. As it stood, I decided to not to. Instead, I finally introduced Rosha and Risha to Gi, explained them about the rainbow stone, and announced the date of my next expedition.
“I want to rest for another week, read Willorio’s books, and then go back to the mountains. There are still dragons I have yet to hunt!”
“I hope you will bring more interesting things from the mountains this time. But… you won’t be needing any equipment now, right?” Rosha gave me a suspicious look. “You will just lose it again.”
“Yeah. My body is better than most armours anyway, and same with my claws.”
“I will pack you some food with you, Voren, if you want. It would be nice for you to have something tasty in the mountains, right?” Risha asked.
“That’s for sure! The food you gave me on my previous expedition was the best part of it… while it lasted.”
She giggled happily. “Then this time I will make more for you!”
And so it was decided. In a week, I had an enormous bag full of tasty things that could last awhile even in the wild: dried fruits, cookies and crackers, jerky and so on. The bag itself was a simple and cheap thing that I could just drop when I ran out of food.
It wasn’t the easiest thing to haul around. Not that it was too heavy—it was just too bulky. It made flying quite inconvenient. It also attracted small animals from all around whenever I stopped to camp, but that was more of a bonus since all these animals ended in my stomach.
This time, I didn’t go to the cave entrance through which I entered the mountains the last time. Instead, I flew straight to the peaks, intending to seek its roaring beasts and surface dragons.
Just like in the caves, though, I was met with some nuisances on the way. There were plenty of flying monsters around, and I was big and juicy target for them. With my upgraded flight and ranged wind blades attack, though, they ended up being a target for me. Even Birds of Paradise with their steel feathers fell from the sky under my assault.
They needed more than one volley of wind blades, though. Their steel feathers were solid. I didn’t take them, though, since I already had a carapace. I also found out that Birds of Paradise could drop them on the ground like projectiles—heavy and with sharp ends. In the air, though, they were restricted to claws and beaks, which were easy for me to dodge.
The higher in the mountains I went, the colder the air became. It filled me with strength through my ‘Cold Affinity’ ability, a strength that I knew I would need to fight any dragons. Before dragons, though, I met other monsters. Frost Griffins were cute kittens compared with some of them.
Oh, the mountain biome certainly wasn’t brimming with life, but there was enough prey around that I didn’t have to search hard for it. In fact, most of the animals found me first, and didn’t check first if I was something they could chew.
To be fair, many of them appeared to be too hungry to bother with caution. Protruding ribs and sallow eyes were a common trend amongst the animals that attacked me. Mountains didn’t have a lot of food, though now that winter long ago gave way to spring, the state of the mountain creatures didn’t feel right to me.
Really, it felt like on average, monsters on top of the mountain were ten times fiercer even if they didn’t have stat boosts. Where monsters of the caves exercised caution (as much as their insect brains let them), monsters of the mountains were cunning and fierce beasts. It probably came from most of them being mammals, or at least something approaching that. And they became only fiercer and more cunning the higher I went.
They were just as weird as the ones in the caves, though. A lot could fly, even ones that normally shouldn’t. Leather wings and feather wings—usually the latter because of the cold climate, but sometimes I would meet an exception.
One of such I stumbled at when I was looking for a cave to stop for a night. I found a cave, yes, but it was already taken, and the owner looked ready to tear me apart for even coming close to its place.