There was a blur of motion as I sat there, my back against the rock, stunned. I was moments away from death when suddenly the beast—no, the cat—appeared out of nowhere and instantly killed a larger bird than the one we had fought before.
But for what? A meal?
No, it couldn’t just be for a meal; it would have no trouble killing whatever it liked for food.
I was broken out of my stupor by Jen rushing up to me.
“Trev, are you okay?” she asked, her hand on my shoulder.
I also saw Hari and Milo come around the bird from the other side, their jaws open as they looked at the decapitated head before rushing over to us.
“Are you guys okay?” Hari asked, his weapon still in hand.
“Uh, yeah, sorry. Yeah, I’m okay, I think,” I muttered.
“We’re fine,” Jen said. “Keep the people inside the tunnel; we don’t need them to see this and freak out.”
As I looked over, I saw a few of the villagers approaching the stone tunnel’s mouth, with Troy close behind them.
“Stay inside—it’s not safe yet!” Hari called out to them before turning back to me. “Trev, I understand you might need a moment to process things, but if you could please try to store that beast before we have to deal with panic over how it died, that would be greatly appreciated,” he said, gesturing to the headless bird.
I nodded and attempted to get to my feet, but fell back to the ground. My legs were so weak.
“I got you,” Jen said, wrapping her arm around my shoulder and helping me to my feet.
She practically carried me over toward the creature, my legs shaking so much I couldn’t put any weight on them. Reaching down, I managed to store the galvonson and its head before Jen carried me to the stone tunnel, where she set me down next to Liane, who by this point was sitting with her back against the stone.
Jen passed her daggers to Liane before heading over to Troy, taking him outside and out of earshot.
“Did we get it?” Liane asked, her voice sluggish as she pushed herself up.
“Yeah, we got both,” I said, my own voice cracking.
“Both?” She looked at me, confused.
“Yeah, we’ll… talk about it later.”
“Is everyone okay?” she asked, putting her daggers away as she looked toward the stone entrance.
“Yeah, everyone is fine, thankfully,” I responded, closing my eyes and leaning against the stone.
Soon I was awoken by Hari shaking my shoulder.
“Come on, Trev, we’re going to head back to the village and rest there. The danger should have passed now, and it’ll be safer than traveling through the night,” he said, pulling me to my feet. Crisplet, at some point, had come out of his orb and was in front of me, shooting sparks at Hari.
“It’s okay, Crisplet,” I said, looking down at the little flame elemental that seemed to be trying to defend me.
I felt absolutely exhausted, like I had run all day.
Hari shoved a small potion into my hand. “Drink this, lad. It’ll help you get back on your feet.”
Following his instruction, I uncorked the small bottle and downed the yellowish-brown liquid. “Yuck,” I cried, nearly spitting out the pond-sludge drink.
Hari chuckled. “Yeah, that one certainly doesn’t taste nice, but it will give you a small burst of energy, along with minor stamina recovery. How’s your hit points? I know you took a heavy blow there,” he said, looking me over as he helped me get to Sable. I reached down, picking up Crisplet, who turned back into its orb.
“My hit points? Er, about half,” I croaked, as Hari effortlessly helped lift me onto Sable’s back.
It was only now I realized the stone wall that Milo had erected over us had been removed, and the wagons were turned around. The villagers huddled together, chatting, but it appeared all their stares were aimed at the adventurer group, not me.
I guess they didn’t see what really happened, much to my relief.
A moment later, it felt like a refreshing wave overcame my body. It was a bizarre sensation, and I really couldn’t explain it, but it felt as if a weight was lifted off me.
“Ah, I see the Marathon Elixir took effect on you,” Jen said with a chuckle.
“Yeah, I feel great!” I replied, far too energetically.
“I’ll warn you, it doesn’t fix the exhaustion, just masks it. So, don’t exert yourself or you’ll be sleeping for days,” she said, still smiling. As she came closer with her own horse, she whispered, “Also, I know it technically wasn’t you, but thanks for saving our lives. If you weren’t there and that cat wasn’t fascinated by your cooking, we likely wouldn’t have made it through that fight.”
I really didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t me after all, and that cat scared the hell out of me.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
After a short amount of time, we let the wagons pass us as we took our usual spot at the rear of the caravan. Deciding I should check and clear away the notifications, I pulled up my status. What I saw nearly had me fall off Sable.
“What the hell happened?” I asked, shocked. Jen and Liane looked up, but I didn’t explain—I couldn’t look away from my notifications.
Notifications:
…
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat.
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat.
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat.
…
You have reached Level 16 in Arcane Chef.
You have +2 unspent stat points.
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat.
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat.
..
You have reached Level 17 in Arcane Chef.
You have +2 unspent stat points.
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat.
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat.
You have earned 100 bonus experience for a buff used in combat.
…
“213 notifications?!” I called out. Even as I cleared those, more were appearing.
“What was that?” Jen asked, pulling her horse closer to me.
“I just went to check my notifications, and I have 213—no, 217 now—notifications for a buff used in combat,” I said, almost in a whisper. Jen’s eyes widened.
By now, Liane had moved over with her own horse too. She looked much better herself. “What’s going on?” she asked, looking at the two of us.
“I’ll fill you in later, when we won’t be overheard, but we had a shadowy visitor, who may have taken a meal from Trev,” Jen said.
“NOT MY SPIDER?!” Liane yelled out, looking absolutely outraged.
“Yeah, sorry ’bout that,” I said, scratching the back of my head. “It… kinda saved our lives. And when Jen said to give it something to eat, that was the first thing I thought of.”
“Don’t you have a cooked boar in there?” Liane said, distraught.
It was only then that I remembered that. “Uh, yeah, I forgot. I’m really sorry…”
Liane took a deep breath. “It’s okay. Milo said you’d both likely be dead if it hadn’t showed up—but we’re detouring to a place to get another one of those spiders after this protection job is done, and you both will be on my side, got it?” she said with a look that brooked no argument.
Jen laughed. “Sure, you have us on your side; you have my word.”
“You know, it’s terrifying to think of that cat with a major stealth increase. It’s already near impossible to detect. I can only imagine how scary it is with the buff,” Liane mused.
Shuddering, Jen said, “It doesn’t need to be scarier; you didn’t see it.”
We rode for a while before Liane seemed to straighten up, looking over at me. “Can we cook the galvonson? That thing would make a heck of a load of fried chicken.”
“How... how would I even do that? You remember the size, right?” I said, flabbergasted. I wouldn’t even know where to begin cooking something so large.
“I don’t mean the whole thing, but, like, maybe a wing?” she said, looking off apparently daydreaming about a giant chicken wing.
“I’ll figure something out. Even that wing is massive, though. It’ll probably need to be after we finish this journey,” I said, trying to think about how it would work. If I could convince Milo to make a large enough stone oven, then maybe I could slowly cook it, maybe even smoke it. But I wasn’t sure.
“I’ll think about how to do it,” I said. That seemed to placate her as we rode on.
Our journey back to the village was much slower, which is saying something because we really hadn’t moved fast when we left. As we pulled into the village, it was already dark. It seemed Londor, true to his word, had not lit a fire. But at the sound of wagons coming into the village, we saw him hesitantly open his door, looking out into the cold night air.
Upon seeing the same group return, he rush out, heading toward Hari.
By the time Liane, Jen, and I made it to the front, we had missed the start of the conversation.
“—the second one died as well. The danger should be over, but if you don’t mind, we would like to rest here tonight. My team and our charges are exhausted from the battle and extra travel,” Hari said to the old man.
“Yes, yes! Of course, we have several houses that are currently unoccupied. Let me show you. We can talk later,” Londor said as he started directing Hari, Troy, and Saddie to some of the more run-down and damaged houses in the town.
“They are not perfect, I apologize, but these are all vacant,” he gestured to three houses—one with its roof practically missing and giant claw marks in the wall. I didn’t want to think about why that particular house was vacant.
“Right, thank you for your hospitality, sir,” Hari said. “We’ll discuss this further after a rest. If there is any trouble, do not hesitate to wake us.”
The old man bowed and then took his leave.
“Troy, Saddie, you two can take the houses with their roofs intact. We’ll fix up and take the third here. I think we all need a rest,” Hari said as Milo got to work fixing the house. A layer of stone covered the wooden walls, and the roof was soon filled in, leaving a dark stone house.
“Sounds good. See you in the morning,” Troy said, heading inside, Saddie following suit into her own house with Jordan behind her. Cee and Stewart, the two drivers, also got to work organizing and tying up the horses.
Crisplet had also burst back into its little elemental form as it explored the house. It quickly found a fireplace, which lit into flames, as cheery as if it had been burning for hours.
“Thanks, Crisplet,” I said, pulling out the boar from storage just so I’d have something to eat. Seems I wasn’t the only one hungry, as one by one, the group came into the hut, helping themselves to the boar before collapsing to the floor.
“Well, that was a fun day,” Milo said. “Safe to assume that cat is following Trev now, right?” he added, as the others just nodded, resigned to the fact that this was no coincidence.
“Do me a favor, Trev. Do not piss off that cat,” he said, letting out a hearty laugh.
Everyone ate their dinner, sitting around the fireplace that Crisplet was playing in.
“So, are we going to address the buvul in the room here?” Jen said. “That cat literally one-shotted the galvonson. How strong do you think it actually is?”
“The real question is what’s going to happen when it shows up in Boltron for another meal from Trev,” Milo added, now with genuine laughter as he must have been picturing the scene.
“Gods, I hope they don’t make it angry. It will probably be able to kill everyone in that city before anyone remotely powerful enough to stop it even gets a message about it in the capital,” Hari said.
I couldn’t help but let out a nervous chuckle at that. I had no way of stopping it from showing up, and certainly couldn’t stop it from lashing out at those around me.
“Well, I can tell you right now, it’s still out killing a lot of stuff at the moment,” I said, looking at my notifications and seeing another 106 sitting there.
“Oh? Did it go hunting after it got a meal?” Milo asked, having not heard about earlier when I checked.
“Uh, well, ‘hunting’ is an understatement. It’s gone on an absolute slaughterfest. I’ve had 323 notifications so far…”
There was silence after that as everyone just kind of stared at me. When it felt a little awkward, I decided to try to break the tension.
“At least I’ve got three levels from it?” I said, and Liane barked a laugh.
We all chatted for a little while after that, watching Crisplet eventually find a comfortable spot and settle down in the flames. Then, one by one, we took out our bedrolls and followed suit.
Today had been a long, long day.
