บท 5: 24
24
"So, that's a Stone Treant?"
Ruijerd nodded in confirmation. Eris, hands on her hips, huffed. "It looks like a rock to me."
"They are like giant seeds. They take that form to blend in with the environment and attack when prey gets close," Ruijerd explained.
I summed it up. "Ambush predators." Gesturing towards Eris, I grinned. "All yours."
"Really?" she asked, surprised.
"I want to see how you do with it," I explained. "We'll back you up if it looks like you're in trouble."
"I don't like this," Ruijerd grumbled, but I waved him off.
"You've been sparring with her for the past two days. You're telling me you don't think she's capable?"
Ruijerd sighed and shook his head. "Capable, but inexperienced."
I gestured at the camouflaged monster. "And this is how you get experience, isn't it?"
The man looked surly, but said nothing else on the matter. With that decided, I gave Eris the go ahead. "Go collect our firewood."
Eris pouted. "When you put it like that, it just sounds like a chore."
"Sorry," I grinned. "Eris! You have to save us from the vile tree-beast! If you don't, it'll set root in our brains—"
Eris gave a full body shudder before shooting me a dirty look. "Stop that. You know I hate that stuff!"
She launched herself away in an explosion of wind and red dust. A second explosion spread out from around her other foot halfway there, and the 'rock' abruptly sprang to life, taking on a form that looked more like an angry tumbleweed.
"Haa!" came Eris' battle cry as she drew her new sword and swung. The blade, which looked something like a scimitar, cut through the branches of the monster easily. Eris pulled it around for a return swing, this time adding a trailing wind blade as she bounced to the side and up, away from the Treant's retaliatory strike. She continued hacking away like that, dodging at unpredictable angles that the monster shouldn't have been able to counter, but its unique body allowed it to at least make the attempt.
Finally, the thing collapsed to the ground, little more than splinters and chunks of wood. Telekinesis picked up the wood and we walked the short trek back to our camp. A door opened in the wall around the camp and I dropped the wood inside. "Can we go find another?" Eris asked, rocking back and forth on her heels in excitement. "I want to see what Rudeus can do!"
"Sure," I agreed, pulling out my phone and accessing the feed from the drone overhead even as Ruijerd lead us towards another Stone Treant. "So, these things can't be ambushed, can they?"
"They sense through vibrations in the ground. They're blind otherwise, however."
Blinking, I palmed my face. "Tremorsense? Really? Hang on."
A bit of earth manipulation produced an ultra-low frequency vibration that spread through the ground towards my target and, on the drone feed, I watched as it immediately sprang up and started swinging at nothing as it panicked. Ruijerd looked over in interest. "What are you doing?"
"Projecting sound through the ground. If I make enough cover noise, then they're effectively blind," I grinned as we topped a small rise and took in the flailing monster. Gesturing with my staff, I lifted it into the air and pulled it apart with Telekinesis until it stopped moving.
Eris sighed. "That's so… disappointing, Rudeus."
"What? I'm just collecting firewood, not fighting an actual enemy."
The redhead turned a glare on me. "You're sucking all the fun out of it."
I've got something you can suck, alright, dirty old man brain desperately wanted to retort, but I kept it to myself, in consideration of present company. I may bring it up later.
Something she can suck. Bring it up. Hah. Yeah, going to need to keep my mouth shut before I say something I shouldn't. Swear to God, Ruijerd is the biggest unintentional cockblock with that damn sense organ. Going to have to find a way to shield against that thing just to get some privacy.
"Eris, most of the magic I could throw around would either set it on fire, soak it and make more work to strip the water back out, or reduce it to sawdust. Yanking it apart is the most practical way to do it."
"I know," the girl sighed. "But…"
Switching my staff to my left hand, I reached over to pat her head, earning an annoyed look. "It's fine. We're not getting off this continent any time soon, so we'll have plenty of time for that. We've got lots of places to go and people to save, remember?"
"Fine." She was sulky, but acquiesced easily enough.
"Alright. Let's go find some more stuff to practice on. And maybe, just for you Eris, I'll show you something cool."
The girl perked right up at that. Following my drone feed and Ruijerd's sensing organ, we tracked down and ambushed a pack of Pax Coyotes, some Acid Wolves, more Stone Treants, and a Great Tortoise. Ruijerd showed us how to harvest all of them for parts, but it was honestly little different from what I already knew about skinning animals—mostly the differences lie in where to find the monster cores and which parts were most valuable.
We bundled everything up into rolls of hides, teeth, claws, and bones before Sending them to the new storage bunker. Then I cut out chunks from the tortoise for our supper. The shell, I cut a chunk out of for future study to see if I could make anything useful out of it, but the rest of the shell would be staying where we left it because it was simply too big to store.
By the time we were done, Eris was covered in blood and had to give herself a scrub using water and fire magic. We went back to camp and I started a fire, then made a pot to boil a stew for our meal. Ruijerd and Eris went off to practice her swordplay for a bit while I took the time to work on a new spell. As I worked, I thought back to the conversation I'd had with the others the previous night.
It had taken a full day for her to respond, but eventually we got to speak with Sylphie again. Apparently, there was some kerfuffle over the fact that an unknown mage made their way into the palace and one of the princess' guards died, and only Ariel's intervention had allowed Sylphie to stay.
"With that, father agreed to hire Sylphie on as my bodyguard. Don't worry, I'll look after her while you're stuck on the Demon Continent."
"Thanks, Ariel," I nodded. "I appreciate it. I don't doubt her ability to deal with any problem she can handle with magic, but, well…"
"You can't solve most political problems with magic," she nodded.
I grinned. "Well, you can… But people tend to get annoyed about their kingdoms getting washed away under forty days and nights worth of flooding. So thanks."
The princess smiled, reaching out and pulling Sylphie into a hug against her side. "I'll take good care of her. So, about that talk we had the other day!" Ariel grinned. "Have you made me a car yet?"
Sighing, I sent the blonde a flat look. "I'm working on it. Mostly concerned with making more drones and sending those out. A car isn't high on my build order, mostly because it'll take a few days to make and we've already left the Migurd village." Shifting my gaze to meet Sylphie's red eyes, I said, "I promise, as soon as we get to Rikarisu, I'll start work on it so you can go after your mom and sister."
"I know, Rudy. She's safe in a town for now, so you don't have to rush—"
I shook my head. "No. Even if I didn't know and like them, they're important to you, which is good enough reason to make getting you to them a priority. I just… need time to sit down and do it," I sighed.
Sylphie frowned. "You're not overworking yourself again, are you?" She turned a look on Eris beside me. "Is he?"
Eris shrugged. "A little. I'll make him take a break if it gets bad."
When the white haired girl nodded and let it go, I frowned and studied her a bit more closely. "Sylphie, is something bothering you?"
She bit her lip and Ariel nodded slowly. "She's been a bit down since yesterday, but wouldn't say why. I thought it was just the whole… situation."
Taking a deep breath and letting it out in a quiet sigh, Sylphie asked, "Does my hair make me look sickly?"
I blinked. Turning to my side, I sent Eris a questioning look and the redhead shrugged. Likewise, Ariel looked confused. The blonde frowned, turning her attention on Sylphie. "Who told you that? Better yet, when did they do it? I was with you all day yesterday."
"No one told me. Some people were talking about it," she explained, wagging her ears. "They said it made me look sick."
"What? There's nothing wrong with white hair. White hair plus red eyes is one of the best fantasy combos. It looks cool." Gesturing to the blonde, I said, "Ariel, back me up on this."
The princess nodded. "It's true. I mean, yeah it usually evokes a sort of 'broken bird' image and is supposed to endear sympathy—"
"Not. Helping." I cut Ariel off with an annoyed look, earning a wince from the blonde. I caught Sylphie's eyes from where she had sort of huddled into herself a bit.
"Here, see?" Letting out a quiet sigh under my breath, I focused on one of the (very) few bits of modified healing magic that actually worked for me without complications. My scalp and eyebrows tingled a bit, but that was the only outwards change I noticed. I knew from previous experience that not only had I modified the roots to produce differently colored hair, but the rest of it should have changed as well.
"Squee!" Sylphie… squee'd.
Beside me, Eris hummed, frowning as she studied my now white hair. "Not sure I like it."
"I love it!" was Sylphie's response.
Ariel hummed as she assessed the new look. "Give it a few years and it'll be dashing." Her lips twitched into a small smirk. "You're on the Demon Continent. It's pretty sunny there, right?"
"It's about like Colorado. Hot and sunny during the day, cold at night. Lots of red desert and mesas." Having a sneaking suspicion of where she was going, I asked, "Why?"
"You should go shirtless more. Maybe wear shorts. Spend lots of time outdoors. Get a tan…"
I sent her an unamused look. Then, a thought occurred. On the one hand, I could chastise her. On the other hand, we clearly shared some tastes and it wouldn't hurt to remind her of home a little. "I am the bone of my sword."
"Squee!" Ariel… squee'd.
Sylphie and Eris traded a look. "I don't get it," the redhead complained.
Sylphie nodded. "I think it's an Earth thing."
Ariel ignored them. "You'll have to lose the birthmark."
Raising an eyebrow, I pointed out the obvious. "I'm a man. It's a mole. And I was kind of thinking on leaving it. Women like—"
"I'm a woman and I'm telling you I don't care," Ariel countered.
Turning a questioning look on Eris and Sylphie for confirmation, the younger of the pair smiled. "I think it's cute, but you would look fine without it too."
Eris simply shrugged. "Don't care either way."
Rolling my eyes, I asked, "Sprite, can you give me a mirror?"
A new hologram popped up in the display, showing my face. Studying the spot in question, I used a bit more healing magic to remove it entirely, before looking over to the other holograms. "There. Better?"
"Much," Ariel nodded.
"Right. I think that's everything for this morning. We need to get a move on. We should make Rikarisu later today."
"Remember, you have the full authority of the crown in this matter."
Ariel's father hadn't wanted to get involved, but after explaining that Sylphie and I were both King-level mages, he had changed his tune right quick. Apparently my name and reputation as 'Rudeus the Road-Builder' had reached Ars at some point. Made me wonder what else they knew about me.
We said our goodbyes and goodnights, since it was nearly time for everyone on that side of the world to turn in. Putting away my phone, I got to my feet along with Eris and we went to find Ruijerd. Shortly after that, I knocked down the camp and we were on our way. But not before one minor detail was taken care of.
We rolled up to the gates of Rikarisu a few hours later to somewhat envious looks from the guards on duty there. A man with a snake head eyed us and our bikes warily. "Names and purpose for entering?"
"Rudeus Grayrat, Eris Boreas Grayrat, and Ruijerd Superdia."
The guard jerked at the name before casting a look over at Ruijerd. Ruijerd and his blue hair, and a pendant from the local Migurd tribe (it was a fake, just a copy of the one Roxy gave me that I'd made with earth magic. Sorry Ruijerd, no way was I parting with Roxy's gift). His sensory organ was currently covered by a makeshift bandana.
Yeah. I figured if I was going to change my own hair, I might as well do Ruijerd's too, since 'green hair' was pretty much the number one identifier for a Superd. A bit of testing with Eris before we left camp showed that, while she had overcome Ruijerd's 'fear effect' through stubbornness and exposure, she was still affected by it. But the moment I changed his hair blue? The 'fear effect' disappeared entirely. I was marking that down in my book as some sort of curse to look into later, but for the moment this was good enough.
"Uh huh," the guard hissed softly, in that tone of someone seeing bullshit but too polite to call it outright.
"Purpose for entering is reporting a magical disaster to the Adventurers' Guild and registering a new party."
The guard raised an... Eyebrow? Eye ridge? More of a ridge, yeah—since it was scaly. "What sort of disaster?"
"Everyone and everything in the Fittoa region of the Central Continent was caught up in a mass teleportation event. We wound up here, in the wild just outside a little village of Migurd people. Ruijerd here found us and has looked after us since. I figure we weren't the only ones transported, if only because we saw the spell or whatever it was go off, so there may be others like us stranded here and looking to get home."
I wasn't exactly going to just confirm that, because then I'd have to explain how I knew. Which would mean explaining Sprite and giving away my advantage in drones.
"I see," the man murmured. "Very well, then. The guild is down the main street there. Can't miss it."
Taking that as permission to enter, we advanced slowly, giving people time to get out of the way as we rode down the middle of the street like we saw many doing on oversized lizards. I recognized those lizards as similar to the ones we had seen with Hilda, just different in coloration.
As stated, the guild wasn't difficult to find, so we parked outside and I used a little earth magic to lock the wheels in place on the ground with stone just outside the building. Just to discourage anyone from getting cute.
Stepping inside, I ignored the atmosphere as many of the patrons turned to eyeball us when we entered. Eris froze for a moment, but shook it off quickly and joined me as I made my way up to the counter. Ruijerd followed along behind us, looking stern and imposing as he usually did but not putting any real effort into it.
I could tell because no one fled. Even without the fear effect, the man was damned imposing.
Laughter resounded through the guild when I didn't even come up high enough to see over the counter. "Can I help you?" the demon woman on the other side asked, leaning over to see.
I stepped back a bit and created a pillar of ice under my feet to put me on her eye level. The laughter died down a bit, but I was… distracted. Jesus Christ, I always thought the 'three boobs' thing from Total Recall was fucking stupid, but this… Where have you been all my life?! I want to dive in and motorboat those titties. Hell, Eris and I could share! Wonder what it would take to get the hot green-haired totally-not-an-elf in bed.
Wresting my thoughts away from dirty old man brain, I said, "I'd like to put in a request to the guild."
"Certainly, sir. Let me just grab the proper paperwork and we can get started." She shuffled into the back room behind the counter and returned a moment later with a book. After a moment of searching, she took out her drip pen and asked, "Name of requester?"
"Kingdom of Asura."
The woman raised an eyebrow. "And your name is...?"
"Rudeus Grayrat."
"What is the nature of the mission? Is this an elimination mission, delivery, gathering—"
"Search and rescue, followed by escort," I cut her off.
The eyebrow raised again. "Please give a concise summary of the mission details. Its goals, what is required for successful completion."
Nodding, I gave her the short version of the story. "A mass teleportation calamity struck the Fittoa region of the central continent. Everyone within the region was teleported randomly across the world. The mission is to search the Demon Continent for survivors and escort them to Wind Port, where they will be handed off to be taken the rest of the way to Fittoa. Most of those teleported are going to be humans, but there was a small population of other races as well. Successful completion of the mission will be to find the survivors and deliver them safely."
"That makes more sense," the woman murmured. "And I assume the Kingdom of Asura will be footing the bill, given it's one of their territories?"
"By order of the King himself, yes," I answered.
The green-haired demon lady asked, "And how would you know that?"
"I enchant things as a hobby. I've got someone with an instantaneous communication device in the capitol relaying information." Technically true on all counts, save that the king didn't know about the phones. She didn't need to know that though.
The woman nodded before asking, "Who will be responsible for accepting the refugees in Wind Port and escorting them from there?"
"That would be me, miss."
"Erm, not to put too fine a point on it, but... You don't exactly look capable of completing the journey. Are you sure you wouldn't rather have them escorted the entire way?"
I shook my head. "It'll take longer and be more dangerous."
"If you insist..."
"I do. But if it makes you feel better, here," I dug into my vest pockets and found my Guild card, before passing it over. The woman's eyebrows immediately climbed towards her hairline.
"This… what in the world? But we don't make exceptions—"
I grinned. "You do when the person you're dealing with can cover a hundred mile round trip in a few hours. It's just plain easier on everyone involved when you let that party take on multiple jobs at the same time."
"I see. And it says you're King-level?"
"Yup."
Passing my card back, the woman gave a bright smile. "Very well, then. Just let me finish this up."
With that, she filled out the rest of the paperwork and a new mission was officially listed on the board—a B-rank Search/Rescue/Escort quest.
"Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"Yes. I'd like to exchange some money and our friend," I gestured to Ruijerd, "would like to register as an adventurer and join our party."
The woman frowned again. "I'm afraid I can't just—"
"Did you read the second line of the exception?" I asked with a smile, before handing the card back.
"'The bearer of this card is exempt from party rank restrictions.' What? Why?"
I smiled. "If you start him out at E-rank, we're just going to look at the board, note down all the jobs at every level, and do them all for the next week until we grind up Ruijerd's level to the same rank as ours. No one else will get any jobs and you're going to have everyone here complaining about job sniping and double booking until we decide it's good enough. It's what we did in Roa, because we couldn't form a party with Ghislaine, who is an S-ranked adventurer. We grinded our level out to A-rank and pissed off pretty much everyone there. The guild begged us to stop, but since it was not against guild rules and we were bringing in that volume of quest completions per day, they didn't have a leg to stand on. Thus, the exemption. It's to keep us from power-leveling anyone else again just to prove a point."
"I, I see," she murmured. "Alright then. I'll just… register your friend. Would you like to add him to your current party or form a new party?"
I gestured Ruijerd up to the counter while I looked down to consult Eris. "Keep our party as [Morning Star] or form a new party?"
The redhead shrugged. "Did you have a name in mind?"
"[Dead End]."
Eris hummed quietly. "Well, we're not traveling with Sylphie and Ghislaine… and I like the way it sounds. Kinda scary and threatening, you know?"
I nodded. "That was what I was thinking—"
"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that. You said your name was Ruijerd Migu—"
"Superdia."
"That's what I thought you said," the woman sighed quietly, but dutifully put down the name. Many an ear pricked up at the name, but most of them dismissed it as a Migurd with a death wish.
The guild worker caught my attention. "Have you decided on your party?"
I'd like to say that I put a lot of thought into our name. That it was some sort of grand scheme to help our friend.
I'd be lying.
Roxy had called Ruijerd by an epithet when she first laid eyes on him and later, Ruijerd confirmed it's what most of the demon continent knew him as. Me personally? Eris and I saw eye to eye on this—we just thought the name 'Dead End' sounded cool.
Also, I sucked at naming things.
It was a talent I lacked. Like anything musically inclined, or dealing with idiots for prolonged periods of time. It wasn't so much a lack of creativity as it was a complete lack of fucks to give. If I didn't care, I couldn't be bothered to try. And I really didn't care. It was why I had turned over naming our first party to Eris, after all.
Besides, I'd rather steal borrow Ruijerd's name than come up with something that made me sound like an edgy middle schooler. These people had the sort of shit naming sense that made me intentionally try to forget the name of my staff.
"Yeah, disband our current party and form a new party with just the three of us, with me as party leader. New party name is [Dead End]."
Not everyone held the same opinion, apparently. In fact, I'd go so far as to say they hated it.
"Hey kid, you can't just name your party after that monster!"
I gave them all the attention they deserved.
None.
It was probably a minor blessing that Eris couldn't understand the language yet. I was working with her on it though.
With party stuff taken care of, I exchanged a few Asuran gold coins for the appropriate value, minus fees, and we hit the job board. "This would go faster if we split up," I suggested. "Eris and I could take a mission and go one direction and you could do the same and go another way."
Ruijerd shook his head at that. "What if something happens?"
I sent the man an amused look. "Then my count climbs to eight."
The man frowned, before a look of realization crossed his face. "You are blooded?"
Eris supplied the answer. "Rudeus saved us from kidnappers when he was first trying out for the job as my teacher. I was... Stubborn and made things harder on both of us. I got captured again and Rudy killed them for it."
I noticed the faint smile on the girl's lips, but refrained from comment. Never point out when a tsundere flips to dere or she'll flip back to tsun. Even a tamed tsundere like Eris could flip back under anything she perceived as teasing. "Some kidnappers, some thieves, and a group of assassins. The first as Eris said. The second tried to murder me and take my stuff, so I returned the favor. The third was just a probing attack."
Eris frowned. "Wait, was this before or after the thing with you and Sylphie getting ambushed by three separate groups?"
"After," I shrugged. "I didn't feel the need to mention it. Torched the bodies, told Phillip, and let him deal with it."
Eris sighed, sending me an annoyed look. Ruijerd's hand came up and tentatively rested atop my head. Sending him a confused look, I asked, "What's that for?"
"No child should have to bear that burden, especially so young."
I shrugged. "I'm not the best example for what a child should and shouldn't do. But… I appreciate the sentiment. Now, let's see about stacking our jobs. I do love getting paid three times for the same trip."
Turning to face the board, I looked it over before taking out my phone and taking a picture. I would give Sprite instructions later, but for now—
"Hey kid, what was that toy just now?"
A big man had appeared at my side. Ruijerd removed his hand from my head and returned to his normal attentive guard position. Eris looked at the newcomer with suspicion. Can't say I blame her for being suspicious of the guy. Pretty sure I recognized him from that 'your struggle only makes my penis harder' meme, taken from some demon rape hentai.
"Can I help you?" I asked politely.
"Well, I think I can help you, kid. Name's Nokopara—"
"So I shouldn't trust anything you say because it's likely a scam."
The horse headed demon whinnied. "Who told you that?!"
"My former master and future wife. You know her, actually," I gave the man a shit eating grin.
"And who's that, then?" He grumbled, puffing up in a way that said there would be trouble if he didn't like the answer.
"Roxy Migurdia."
The horse demon blinked, a look of disbelief on his face. "Roxy. Really? She teaching brats now?"
"She was. She's heading this way now, by way of Millis," I supplied.
"And I suppose she told you to call on her old buddy Nokopara if you needed help," he surmised, crossing his thick arms over his brawny chest.
I nodded. "Something like that."
"Say I don't believe you?"
Ruijerd looked like someone had just insulted his mother. "Rudeus speaks the truth."
Or at least some version of it, most days, I mentally amended. "I could let you speak with her."
The man looked confused. "Don't see how that helps you now. It'll take her forever to get here."
I grinned and pulled out the phone again. "Sprite, please call Roxy for me."
Sprite chimed her confirmation and the phone rang. A moment later, a hologram popped up in the air above the phone and the guild went silent as everyone shifted around to get a look.
"Rudeus, good evening," Roxy greeted. Her hair was down and she was wearing her white nightgown and sitting in a bed in an inn, lit only by the light from the hologram. Thankfully, Sprite had the sense to frame the shot from her neckline up, so no one here was getting a free show of my waifu.
"Roxy?! Is that you? You haven't aged a day!" Nokopara's eyes went wide. I noticed adventurers had begun to crowd around us.
Roxy reached out and shifted the display on her side. "Nokopara. You look old."
The horse man gave a faux hurt look. "So who's the brat? They came in here and made a party. Call themselves [Dead End], like they've got no sense. The Migurd with 'em claims he's Dead End himself. Pfft."
Roxy sighed. "I am aware of Rudy's sense of humor," she murmured, sending me a bemused, if put-upon look.
"Hey now," I protested half-heartedly. Mostly because it was true.
"Rudeus is my former student and fiance. Please give them whatever aid you can, Nokopara."
The two spent a few minutes catching up before I said my goodbyes to Roxy for the moment and pocketed the phone. Nokopara loosed a quiet whinny, shaking his head. "Where'd you get that magic tool, kid? That something the magic kingdoms are making now?"
"Probably not," I shrugged, seeing we had the attention of pretty much everyone in the guild. "I made them. It's how we confirmed that Fittoa is gone. Now, we're in need of some new clothes and things. You wouldn't happen to know where we could get some and not get ripped off, would you?"
"Sure, yeah. Come on, I'll take you. Do you guys need a hand with missions...?"
Nokopara turned out to be a piece of shit, but not entirely useless. One of those friends in low places. With his help as a local guide to Rikarisu, we had a fairly easy time of things. Once he was sure we were on our feet, and his obligation to Roxy was fulfilled for the time being, he picked up the mission to look for survivors and took off, after speaking with a few other parties who took the same mission—coordinating where they would be searching.
We stayed in town long enough for me to make two trucks (with an enclosed, front and rear bench seat cab and a bed in the rear for cargo) and Send one each to Ariel and Roxy (with me having to give the bluenette driving lessons via hologram), then immediately began working on the SAR mission as soon as I was finished with that, stacked with delivery, elimination, and gather missions.
All the while, in my head, I kept marking off hours and days. How long can they survive, if they're somewhere like this?
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