Chương 13: Chapter 12 - Nothing Set In Stone

"Darla is not gonna like this…"

"No one's saying you have to be on the hunting party, Thomas."

"And you think she'll be happy if she has to hear Bernice cryin' that you went and got yourself gored, Garth? Sure, Bram's in love with her, but I doubt she wants to get married again."

"Probably not, though she'll also probably tell anyone who'll listen that she was right that Corbin was gonna screw us eventually." Daniel's crew stood in a circle just inside the treeline. I'd tried to remain outside their discussion, but Thomas reached back, grabbed my wrist, and yanked me into place between himself and Daniel inside what they called the Voting Ring. If this was going to be a regular occurrence, I was going to have to insist on a table and chairs.

It was still early enough that we caught the rest of the crew before they left to continue work on the road. One simple call of "Settlement Vote" from Daniel had been enough to change everyone's plans for the day.

"Look, it's not as dangerous as it sounds if we aren't stupid about this. The hardest part will be tracking it down and that's only if we want to handle it immediately," I explained, drawing everyone's attention back to me.

"You'd rather us leave the beast to rampage?" Garth asked. He was probably one of the older men of the bunch, not the oldest… but both his thick goatee and his hair were more salt than pepper.

"It only looks like a Stoneboar now but it no longer has the same overwhelming territorial instincts now that it's infested by the remains of the Nymph hive. Since I managed to eliminate its queen, there's nothing that'll make them abandon their new host because they're not receiving new orders. Which leaves them to revert to their base instincts. Feeding," I explained.

Technically speaking, this particular hive had possessed something like a queen, though not in the usual sense so I wasn't technically lying to them. From everything I could tell, everyone–Daniel included–just believed that the infestation had actually happened naturally and I wasn't quite sure I should correct them. No one had mentioned the Dryad and while logically I knew I'd just gotten an earful, I didn't see the point of adding to it over something that… well shouldn't matter.

Dryads were solitary creatures, so nothing would be coming to avenge the one I'd killed and the remaining forest really would be just fine. Or… well, most of it would be. The point was, all mentioning the dead-spawn-turned-folktale would do was give me a headache that I didn't need.

"Mana Nymphs never stop eating. They can't be reasoned with or redirected. They only know hunger, and they'll drain every bit of life essence they can reach. The problem for them is that while they can use monster spawns or living creatures as hosts, they're only compatible in the most basic sense. They can't make them grow bigger like they can with plants to extend their reach, so they have to keep moving."

"Is that supposed to make us feel relieved? The monster infected with soul draining bugs can't get bigger?" Willem–one of the quieter men, if I remembered correctly–asked, his bushy brows furrowing.

"A bit? I mean, your tools are going to stop degrading and you won't feel as tired when you get back to work cutting stuff down in here," I said, looking from him over to Daniel.

"This is a contained issue now, it's just a matter of deciding how to manage it."

"Can we just… leave it alone?" Bram asked, his normal eagerness absent.

"If it's a monster, once the ward goes up, it should stay outta Danwood, right?"

"As long as no one goes waving themselves around near the edge of the ward's coverage like they're a tasty treat, then yeah, probably," I explained, getting a hopeful smile from the younger man.

"But to be clear… the ward only stops spawning inside its perimeter. If we leave the Stoneboar alone, it'll tear its way through the forest, draining the life essence of everything it passes until it inevitably leaves the entire forest brittle and worthless. Maybe not immediately… but Mana Nymphs are always hungry and now that the Great Oak network of the forest isn't their host, it's food."

"And I'm sorry. Total loss of the forest isn't an acceptable outcome," Daniel said, having mostly remained silent so far after explaining the situation to the group.

"So… what do we do?" another member of the crew asked, though I didn't catch who.

"Well… there is some good news," I said. When Daniel shot me a look, I quickly continued, "or, less bad news?"

"How 'bout you just tell us and then we'll decide what it is. I think we can all agree your scale is broken," Daniel said.

"Mana Nymphs might be perpetually hungry, but they're opportunistic and take the path of least resistance. They're not gonna suddenly go running off somewhere new if there's food right in front of them, it's a waste of time and energy," I explained. All of their eyes were on me, my explanation obviously prompting more questions.

"They ran the Stoneboar away from me instead of just trying to steal my energy because I'd just eliminated their queen, which made them identify me as dangerous. But by now, they've slowed down to conserve energy, and they've more than likely already started to feed in a relatively straight line."

"Huh, that… actually is good news…" Garth said, drawing the group's attention. He didn't wait to be prompted.

"Depending on where it ran off to, the longer we wait, the easier it'll be to track… Sure, we'd lose some trees, but the things are big as dawn, sacrificing some of the forest now means we don't have to rush blindly in."

"Why— oh! Because it'll leave dead trees behind, won't it?" Daniel said, eyes going wide as he considered it. After a moment, he looked at me again, "which way did you say it went?" I thought about it for a moment, trying to remember as much detail as I could.

"Slightly northeast from the clearing I found the Mana Nymphs in. That'd put them heading toward the Salt Waste Desert on the far side of the forest."

"Hmm," Daniel hummed, rubbing his chin through his growing beard.

"That's a hike… If it kept heading toward the desert, then it's getting farther from us the longer we wait. If it turned back, then we risk stumbling into it head on."

"Which you really don't want to do. I know I just said it really only just looks like a Stoneboar now, but that's a mistake… the host only survives if the hive does," I added, feeling it prudent to correct myself.

"Its instinct will be to run from danger, which is why I said tracking it will be the hardest part. But if we come at it from the front, the host will attack just to protect the hive. And it does still look like a Stoneboar."

"Then we use your last sighting as our control point, Corbin. If we search it in sections from there, we should be able to approach it from behind or at least come across its trail," Garth explained and I gave the older man another look.

"Exactly, and then we just have to put it down and burn the corpse." This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Just put it down… you say that like it would be easy. Those beasts get bounties on them, no offense to the three Activated men here, but you all have Utility classes…" Willem said, his brows pinching.

"Speaking of, you said you killed the hive's queen… how exactly did you do that?"

"And where did the Stoneboar come from?" someone else asked, eliciting a few murmurs from the crew.

"That's… uh…" I said. I'd thought we were here to discuss the plan for how to take care of the problem, but this lot was proving annoyingly insistent about knowing far too many of the details.

"Go on, Corbin," Daniel said, crossing his arms. I didn't need to deal with this. Not really anymore. My spell list had unlocked, and while I was limited to the lower tier of power that my current level could access, it was still power. Most people didn't get the benefit of lifetimes of accumulated power. So while all of my basic spells were still basic, the system quite literally only cared about what tier they were when they unlocked for me, not what level I'd brought them to over countless years of use.

I could snap my fingers and turn everyone here to hares, set the problem part of the forest on fire to burn the beast and parasites to ashes, and be back before the polymorph ever even wore off. I'd probably even be able to lie my way out of it since memories became hazy when you shifted between forms. And all it would cost was a few weeks of work trying to settle in. Somehow that fire would be enough… Someone would see it, or the partial destruction would get reported back through the system.

The how wasn't exactly important. Just that it would inevitably lead the crown right to my doorstep and one way or another, I'd get pushed too far. I sighed, reaching up and pinching the bridge of my nose. At least I did already have a slight cover story prepared thanks to my chat with Willow.

"Not that it really matters, but I have a storage bag. It was a gift I received when I was training. That training, for the record, is how I know how to apply Alchemist skills to situations that would otherwise require a sharp edge. Such as mixing a sleeping draft strong enough to capture a Stoneboar. Or eliminating the central source for a Mana Nymph infestation using the right kind of alchemical poison," I explained, crossing my arms over my chest.

"You all came out here to make your own life, away from the demands of an unfair system… It's the same for me, we just have slightly different backgrounds."

"Wait… so are you some noble?" Bram straightened up, his normally wide eyes actually pinching as he stared at me.

"Far, far from it," I said firmly, meeting his gaze. There was a fire there that could be dangerous, and more and more of the others were sharing similar looks. How much would I have to say to satisfy them? How close to the line could I walk without making things snowball out of control? I felt my head throb. I'd just wanted to start preparing my fields…

"I was supposed to be a Sorcerer… and I was trained for a long time to do it," I explained, opting to go with something that was close to the truth. If I was going to have to reveal some things, then I might as well give them a reason for why an Alchemist had access to powerful magical spells without an expensive tome or artifact.

"I don't personally like discussing my history because it really doesn't matter… I don't want to be a killer, and that's where that training led to. War, battle… death," I muttered, diverting my attention to the ground for just a moment.

"I ran away from it all… but I can't just make the training I received vanish. Nor can I get rid of the Natural Trait I have that lets me cast the spells I was taught in preparation for Activating as a Sorcerer. Those things make me rather distinctive compared to your average Alchemist. And no offense to all of you, but the last thing I needed was for word of me to reach back there."

"War is brutal…" Garth said, his tone turning somber.

"But you raise a question, or… I guess another question. Is someone trying to find you?"

"The truth is that I really don't know… It's not like I'm looking over my shoulder, expecting to be kidnapped in the middle of the night. I know it sounds strange… or suspicious, and my word is all you have… but I just want to be done with all of it. To put that life behind me, grow some stuff, and make some ale," I explained. That was greeted with a variety of looks, ranging from understanding to outright skepticism, but at this point if they weren't trying to run me out of town I'd consider it a win.

Why was quiet so hard to find? There were some murmurs when I stopped talking, probably hoping–or at least expecting–me to give them more even though I had no intention of doing so. Daniel didn't stop them as they whispered to each other and the longer it went on, the more uncomfortable it made me. Not that I was entirely sure why. It probably didn't actually go on that long, but it felt like an eternity had passed before Bram finally decided there was still an important question to ask.

"So… Can you actually kill it? If we are able to track it down, that is…"

"Yes," I said, thankful for a question with a simple, easy answer. This elicited another round of murmurs, but Daniel cleared his throat before it could dissolve back into more attention for me.

"Well there yah have it, boys. We all knew Corbin was keeping stuff from us, but it sounds like this is all we're gonna get for now," he said. I'd heard it enough times now that I was used to the commanding tone he was able to turn on in an instant when he needed to, and the entire crew practically snapped to attention.

"Now as far as I'm concerned, we've got two votes to make." Two? I looked over at him but he didn't look my way. His posture looked uncomfortably rigid, and he seemed to take a moment, setting his jaw before he pushed on.

"Corbin, you don't get to vote on this one," he said, still looking at the rest of his crew.

"There's no denying the good he's done for us already, but given what he's choosing not to say… Well, we didn't have a Stoneboar rampaging in our forest before he got here. We also don't know what, if any, danger his continued presence here will draw."

"Wait, what are you voting on?" I said, getting a word in. This made him finally look back at me, the hardness in his eyes briefly fading when he met mine. When he spoke, though he was staring right at me, it was still to the rest of the crew.

"Majority vote decides. Raise your hand if you think we should ask Corbin to leave… and if he doesn't… if I should use my authority as Steward to do it." My eyes widened just a bit and I snapped my head back to the rest of the crew. A few of them, Garth included, barely shifted. That did little to ease my annoyance when Willem, Hugh, and Vernon immediately raised their hands. The others fidgeted, but no more hands rose following the initial declarations.

Daniel remained silent, allowing everyone time to decide for themselves, though it quickly became obvious that trying to influence the vote while it was happening wasn't off the table.

"Seriously? You guys aren't even considering it?" Willem spoke up after several long, quiet seconds passed with no one else raising their hands.

"People who have to hide their past that much have a reason for it."

"So what, we're just supposed to expect him to tell us about something that clearly haunts him?" Garth snapped at him.

"If it can affect us and our families? Yeah, we should," Hugh said, Willem nodding emphatically.

"We don't know whether his decision regarding the Mana Nymphs will work out for us yet. But beyond that, most everything Corbin has tangibly done for us has been positive. That doesn't absolve him of making a dumb as dusk decision, but it should grant him at least some faith from us," Garth argued back.

"I'm with Garth. If we judge everyone based on their mistakes, Danwood will never thrive. Don't we want to pass on something great to our children?" Thomas said, looking back toward the hamlet.

"And as with everything, nothing is set in stone with a decision like this. If something changes or concerns grow, then a new vote can be called," Daniel added. The three raised hands still didn't lower, but Willem did seem to shrink back just a bit.

"Won't matter if he gets us killed first…" he said, his voice starting to lower. Another few moments passed, but no other hands joined the three, leaving Daniel to decide that had been enough.

"Okay. By majority decision, Corbin won't be asked to leave." The raised hands fell and my shoulders seemed to go with them. That was odd… had I been tense? I suppose it would have been inconvenient to have to deal with an attempted eviction, especially if I didn't want to draw more attention to myself. Daniel seemed to similarly relax and he clapped his hands together with a loud smack.

"Okay, now let's decide how we'll handle the Stoneboar."