Chương 145: Chapter 144 – Return to Curahee

Cole wasn't sure if it was an artifact of his enhanced Acuity, but the first thing he recognized before even emerging through the portal was the smell of the rotting cedar forest that the musty, ever-damp bog in the valley beyond gave him. His feet hit solid ground, and he immediately moved aside to help clear the area. He was the last of the four proctors, and the portal shrank to a pale, blue mote behind him." Radio check," said Morganstern. Cole called his lima charlie along with Ketchup and Arley.

Morganstern waved them around her, where a push-dolly held a portable generator and a tethered drone. Ketchup took the opposite side of Cole and they heaved the generator out, while Morganstern and Arley unloaded the multirotor and began checking its tether for kinks and tangles. With his enhanced Strength metric, Cole had to be gentle with the generator. What once would have been yanking with all his might would now snap the braided pull-start cord like a wet string.

The generator rumbled to life, sounding completely out of place on the otherwise desolate world. Morganstern connected the drone tether to the generator and pulled a small tablet from a pouch on her chest rig.

"Clear," she called. She tapped the tablet and the eight small motors on the drone spun to life with an angry buzz almost as loud as the generator itself. The small aircraft lifted off and began to climb, coming to a stop about a hundred meters above their heads. Arley shaded his eyes and looked up at it.

"Weird seeing this here," he said.

"I know what you mean," said Morganstern.

"Curahee has always been so analogue. Almost feels wrong bringing future toys. But this thing is our eye in the sky and our line-of-sight radio hub. Get high ground, and you should have comms almost anywhere in the valley."

"What's next?" asked Ketchup. Morganstern glanced out over the ridge.

"Boring stuff first. Arley and I have to get to the top of the mountain, and we'll check in on Last Fall Hold, as well. So we'll head straight out right away. Cole, Ketchup, I want you to check those ropes." She pointed left, then right.

"Four stations over there on the west side, six on the east. Make sure the stakes and ropes are good, then coil 'em and get them ready for the training cohort."

"Fewer stations than recruits? Asked Cole. Morganstern shrugged.

"A few of them will be doubled up on the ropes. No biggie. A few people always hug the cliff face until they find a buddy to stick with anyway." She tossed Cole a quick deuces and then ran toward the cliff face, vaulting over the edge. Arley shook his head and wrapped the rope around his legs and hips to repel. Once he was at the bottom, Cole started pulling his rope back up while Ketchup checked it. Once they got the station squared away, Ketchup turned to Cole.

"Start now?" Cole glanced out west.

"I've got fewer ropes to haul up." Ketchup shrugged.

"I don't mind giving you a handicap," he said with a bit of a shit-eating grin.

"Alright, you're on," said Cole. Before he'd even finished speaking, Cole felt the subtle pop of an ability, and Ketchup blurred, turning to a red streak that shot down the ridge line to the east. Without his enhanced Acuity, Cole didn't think he'd be able to track the Kicker at all, but he could just make out the speedster's movements. Cole took off at a double-time in the opposite direction, starting his breathing rhythm and increasing his pace as he warmed up.

The stations were each placed a kilometer apart, but even in full battle-rattle this was nothing. At least he wasn't wearing a three-day pack, this time. It took him a little less than an hour to get all four of his stations inspected and the ropes drawn up and coiled for the training push. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

When he'd come through Curahee the first time, he'd had one of the eastern-most starting points, so he hadn't come this far west of the river. From the top of the ridge, he could make out several of the landmarks he'd used to navigate the first time, even spotting the long, narrow stretch of the Silk forest through the low layer of mist—finally seeing just how far west it extended. With his final station inspected and prepped, Cole got a running start and burned a charge of his ability.

Launching himself over the edge of the drop-off, Cole shot into the air as though he'd been fired from a cannon. With his personal gravity as low as he could push it, he figured his newly enhanced Meteoric Leap could get almost three or four times the stated height of about seventy meters at this point—and much, much further laterally. The treetops dropped away from him as he easily cleared several hundred meters of forest.

Ketchup may have been able to run fast down a trail, but Cole doubted he could soar over the treetops. As he hit the apex of his arc and started to fall back to Earth, Cole burned a half-charge of his ability and pictured himself kicking off nothing but air. His stomach lurched as he immediately reversed direction, rocketing even higher into the air. Maybe it was a waste of charges with two of his smoldering Meteoric Leap stars now dim at the back of his mind.

But he couldn't help grinning ear to ear at the sheer sense of speed as green and orange forest sped past underneath him. The only comparable experience Earth-side must have been wing-suiting, which was one of the few sports more dangerous than a DOR contract. Still, being able to completely bypass the hundreds of dim red glows marking enemies in the forest below him was nothing to scoff at. He considered burning his armband ability to push his distance to the furthest it would go but decided to resist temptation.

As his arc carried him back down into the treetops, Cole fed his momentum into his rifle, super-charging the bullets within and stopping Cole dead in the air for a moment before he started to fall straight down through the canopy." Cole, was that you I just saw overhead?" Morganstern called over the radio.

"Probably," he replied, still smiling ear to ear. By his estimate, he'd already cleared almost a third of the way to Bessie's stomping grounds. He couldn't imagine Ketchup would be too far ahead of him after that stunt." Goddamn, I should have sent you to the castle. You said double-jump. You didn't tell me you could fly over a fucking mountain, now." His boots touched down on the spongy moss and mycelium mat that made up the ground in Curahee.

Familiar orange fungus clung to the trees, extending blue veins into the wood. The distant red glows of nearby enemies persisted for a few more seconds. Despite his relatively soft landing, three of the locals must have seen him in the air because a trio of vague silhouettes began to head in his direction before the effect wore off. He slipped to the side, putting some trees between him and the nearby enemies. It wasn't long before he heard them shambling through the forest.

A pair of fungal zombies and a wood ogre broke through the underbrush to the north of where he landed, malformed heads testing the air. Cole didn't even pull out his rifle. He extended his spear and sprinted at the monsters. The first fungal zombie didn't even have time to register his presence before Cole took its head off with a flick of the blade. The second one twisted, hissed, and lunged for him. It was… almost comically slow. He stepped out of the way as it pounced.

He put a boot into its side and sent the creature spinning into a tree so hard it left an orange splash before he turned to the wood ogre. The last of the enemies was taller than Cole by at least half a meter, thick and knobby with long arms and a split head full of thorny teeth. It stalked toward him, snarling with hunger. When he'd dropped into Curahee the first time, he'd have stood no chance against this creature. Now, he didn't even register it as a significant threat.

He thrust his spearpoint into the creature's head, then dragged it straight down, splitting the front of the ogre like firewood. The thing staggered forward, falling to hands and knees. Cole cut its arms out from under it and then drove the vorpal spear through its back, finally hitting something vital. Cole pulled the spear out and shrank it back down to the size of a dagger, looking down at his handiwork. All three enemies dispatched in less than fifteen seconds without a single shot fired.

He'd come so far from his first time here. It felt like a completely different experience. No longer one of survival. He was the predator. The dregs of the fungal forest posed him no more threat than did skunks and squirrels. But somewhere north of him, there was still a challenge to be had. A fierce, full-grown version of the drake-dogs that hounded the valley waited somewhere in the woods. It had friends, and it had to go before the training cohort could brave what scraps remained. It was time to go hunting.