บท 53: Chapter 52: A Storm is Brewing.
Theodore walked through the forest, it slightly dimmed in his vision as he looked through the illusionary veil that covered and concealed him.
He had been out to replenish his Lord's water stores at his request as well as search for any monster corpses that may contain cores that he possibly could have missed.
It took quite a time to reach the river for Theodore, as physical exertion was not his most apt past time. But he found the river in due time all the same.
"I wish my liege would have just used his magic to create water… This one feels very vulnerable as of late. The run in with Master Bear has left this one lacking in confidence in his espionage skills…" Theodore muttered, pulling a barrel from his inventory and submerging it with the sound of gurgling bubbles into the stream.
Theodore lamented his lack of ability even more after reminiscing on the fight between the two.
The 'spar' as Master Bear called it was anything but. Theodore had seen many fights on his journey to his liege, and a well many more when he began 'following' him. But nothing came close to the display of the fight.
Had he been closer to the fight he would have passed out again from Master Bear's aura. And the amazement and respect he felt towards Lord Drake - Lord Shot he thought, correcting himself - only grew as he witnessed him go from fumbling with his new spells to moving with delightful precision in the heat of the bout.
Just as fascinating was how Master Bear stopped him at every turn with unshakable fortitude. It was a masterful display of ability from the pair and a sight to behold indeed, Theodore thought twirling his mustache absentmindedly.
Theodore gazed across the river, noticing movement in the brushes as he thought. Stirring him to move. He quickly pulled the barrel upright with some slight difficulty but managed to grab hold and pull it enough to slip it back into his inventory. Quickly casting his illusion spell to conceal himself.
"Light and Dark are one, casted behind the veil I move. Concealment." Theodore hummed, quickly shimmering out of sight.
He moved a small distance from his point of cast, just in case the thing on the other side of the river saw him.
Within a few seconds what popped out was a person.
Theodore cringed at the sight of her. The condition of the poor individual wasn't even worthy of being called poor. Her hair was disheveled to the point of being a dirty nest of an animal, her clothes were in such awful condition they could barely be called tattered. And Theodore did not miss the metallic sheen of the clasp around her neck.
A collar? Theodore thought, disgust bubbling up in his stomach as he observed the distressed woman.
He was moments from revealing himself to help the woman but was stopped by the shriek of another, and the sounds of roaring that Theodore knew were Goblins.
Out of the bushes came a small squad of Goblins, the armor and helmet marking the head one was a Squad Commander. The Commander held in one hand not a sword but another young woman by her hair, dragging her along as she futilely struggled against it.
Theodore was quickly overcome with the taste of bile in his mouth as he witnessed the display, helpless to help against the number of goblins as he watched the Commander close in on the poor woman.
The Commander eyed the woman with a sneer, its face showing it reveled in the pleasure of seeing the woman scared, unable to do anything about his treatment of her. Raising a green warty hand in the air the Commander brought it swiftly on the cheek of the woman, dropping her to the ground with a loud crack.
It smiled with a chortle, its posse of followers snickering behind him.
I have to report this back to my liege. I have not the necessary skills to deal with this ordeal. Theodore gripped his hands, turning them to white looking at the treatment of the woman, as she was dragged away in a similar manner as the other in the Goblins grasp.
Theodore tasted the sharp overwhelming flavor of iron fill his mouth, overtaking the bile from before. He had bitten his lip in frustration.
I have to hurry… Theodore thought regretting once again he could not do anything more than tell someone stronger than himself to deal with the situation.
With reluctance, Theodore watched the entire display until the Goblins and their captives disappeared into the woods. Turning away Theodore ran with all haste towards the Outpost.
Please hold out, brave Damsels my lord will surely deliver justice to those vile creatures and liberate you from your plight. Theodore shouted in his head running at a pace faster than his body would allow, but still careened forward against the protests of his legs.
"I-I never knew Drake," Natto said, her head hung slightly lower as she gazed into the now cold stew in her bowl.
"It's nothing special, everyone has a story. I just wanted to tell you. We're in this together, and it really feels like that now. So I want to make sure you know who you're dealing with," Drake said casually.
"You mean besides the adult child that makes too many cartoon references..?" she said, trying to joke and lighten the mood.
"Hey. They are Japanese animations, that's the second time I've had to correct you," Drake grinned his eyes turning to the tub of monster cores, "And yes other than that, I'm not really good with conveying my emotions but I just wanted to make sure you knew I trust you enough to tell you that, and that you are someone I consider family now. Even after all the shit you give me!" he laughed, giving the construct the side-eye.
Natto looked back slightly sheepishly, but returned to her normal attitude, "What about the other road bumps that you mentioned?"
"Let's uh leave that for another time, I'm all out of emotional venting for today. Now it's time for your sharing time," Drake said pointing to the tub, "If you want all of these I'm going to need some advice."
Drake held up the Skill Stone he received from Bear, "Where am I using this?"
Natto pursed her lips, and quickly placed the bowl down to cross her arms in contempt, " Hmph!"
Drake shook his head, "Come on now, we've been over this. Bear was just going along with my selfishness."
"He is his own person is he not!? He can decide for his worthless piss poor self to say no! Certainly he knew he would win being so over leveled, yet he still participated in your egotistical display of testosterone," she yelled.
Drake winced. She was partly on the money. Drake believed in accountability and Bear had decided to give in and go along with Drake's unreasonable request. But Drake insisted purely because he needed to establish just how strong he was in comparison. No one but Drake would be able to protect them and his family once they inevitably left the tutorial. Leaving it to someone else wasn't an option right now when he wasn't sure who he could really trust. And he had no idea how the world would shift when the tutorials ended. His first priority was to get stronger so that he had security. His second to find and locate his family after the tutorial ended. And his third was to find a place where he could keep them safe and protect them.
Drake just gave a pass to Bear this time around, as it was a result of his own selfishness influencing him, as well as some things that could only be said through the exchanging of fists.
"Let's just let this one slide, yeah? This is a rare stone after all, I can't not use it," Drake said, trying to persuade her with an awkward grin.
Natto gritted her teeth as she turned to him, then sighed in defeat, "Uhhh! Fine. But you will give me another feast of tastiness like no other for this! I certainly hope this is not how we will be treating those who try to murder you from now on!" she shouted, "The Confluence Stone can be used mostly for mixing skills or connecting unrelated ones. It is a very relevant Skill Stone to come across for anyone, and I am honestly surprised he did not just use it himself."
Drake raised an eyebrow, "Huh.. Maybe he already has all his slots filled up?" Drake thought, "So I'm assuming it should be the last slot in my Elementalist tree or Shield Miller then?"
"Correct. I would suggest you to use it in your Elementalist Tree, better options for spells than skills. And it will add to your versatility, of that I am certain," she explained.
Drake chewed on the words for a moment, then placed the stone away pulling out his other Rare Stone, eyeing his debuff timers as he did.
Divine Frailty - Debuff [F Rank]
Lasts 13 Hours 21 Minutes 56 Seconds
Weakened - Debuff [F Rank]
Extended Weakness due to massive overuse, Lasts 3 hours 21 Minutes 56 Seconds
Only a few more on Weakened, but still half a day on Divine Frailty, that's really cutting into my time limit on the Goblin quest as well… Ah regrets and the consequences of my own actions how you do haunt me! Drake thought with a mental sigh.
Turning back to reality he looked at Natto again, "So what about the Oppression stone then, I never had a chance to consume it either, and honestly I probably should have, would of been a big help I feel like."
"Certainly. And I believe it would be best used in your Internal Mastery Sub-tree, there are many useful skills that could fill in your gaps that way. More defensive skills, tailored to your already strong regeneration. Or your missing passive aura skill. Tyrant Ant's are known for being, well tyrants as well as robust so any of the skills from that tree will be beneficial," she explained, picking back up the bowl of stew, a look of sadness in her eyes.
"Right, I'll remember that," Drake said, putting the stone away, and snagging the bowl from Natto's hands, walking over to the still warm pot, "I'll finish up cleaning your Monster Cores while you eat, it's about damn time you stop slacking and rank up to F Rank."
"Who is slacking?! How dare you!" she shouted her hands up in a huff, "After everything I've done!" she continued, only to look at Drake when he turned to give her the bowl, a wide grin on his face, "I absolutely despise you!"
Drake laughed, "They say every relationship needs a little teasing in it."
Natto snatched the bowl from his hands and buried her face in it, refusing to answer.
Drake smiled and waddled over to the tub of cores, summoning more warm water with his combination of Fireball and Water Shot. Using the force of the water to stir the tub washing the blood from the cores.
After a few minutes of soaking the stones, dumping the water and filling the tub again to rinse them Drake heard a shout from outside the gate.
"My liege! It is I! Please open the gate as I have urgent news!"
Drake had a bad feeling, "Oh, what is it now… I'm starting to get annoyed with this protage bullshit…" he mumbled under his breath.
"Why are you back here already? I told you to keep an eye on that fucking shitbag Bear!" a voice shouted.
"I know what you told me, asshole. But I found something better!" Kohoo sneered, waving off the man's clear hostility.
"Oh yeah, and what's that?" the man asked, his brow raised in curiosity.
Kohoo gave a toothy grin, playing with a dagger in his hands, "I want lead on this though, Joker," said Kohoo staring up from his dagger.
"Yeah Yeah whatever, just spill it. Stop being so dramatic, save those theatrics for when you're killing people," Joker answered.
Kohoo slid the dagger into a holster at his side, "I found a nice little catch. There's an outpost I followed Bear to and there's only 2 level 10's inside."
Joker spat at Kohoo's feet, "Why didn't you just kill them then? Your level 19 pussy."
"Calm your ass down, one of them somehow fought against Bear, and the other has an invisibility skill. I'm going to need a few more people just to be safe," Kohoo explained.
"Huh? You must be going senile, you're saying a level 10 competed with the strongest man in the tutorial?" Joker grumbled, moving his hands to reveal a bottle of clear amber liquid.
"I'm not saying anything, What I saw was Bear enter the outpost then I felt the fight they had from outside the outpost, then watched Bear walk out. Next day some tweeker in a butler's outfit came out later and went invisible before I left," Kohoo admitted.
"Whatever, seems like you're losing it to me. Just take whoever and bring back some good stuff. And if there are any women inside, you know the drill," Joker replied waving around the bottle.
Kohoo turned from Joker and walked out of the tent, a sinister smile on his face.
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