Chương 55: Chapter 54

Just as Hurin had predicted, two days later a storm had rolled in. Unlike his prediction, it had been more sleet than snow, but that didn't mean it wasn't freezing. The winds had whipped past the outpost with a howl that sounded like a thousand wolfpacks singing together. I learned later that Etta had undergone her Storm affinity ritual during that storm.

There had been no lightning and I had wanted to ask Magatha if that would have impacted how well the ritual worked, but I wouldn't be seeing the Hedge Witch till after winter ended. Either way, Etta had confided in me that her affinity slot was now filled with Storm, though it was noted to be Weak. It seemed that though the elixir had managed to grant her the affinity George had wanted for her, it hadn't been a particularly strong outcome. Etta had told me her dad was already considering ways to improve it.

Within days of the first storm, the already icy ground was covered in snow which only got deeper with every passing week. Trade caravans had stopped passing through. The Warden assigned to the region apparently still went out to check the area but we had no new adventuring teams visiting for Rifts or anything else to be found in the area. The Horndales this far north were closed for business, with only our small community eking out a living in the cold environment.

With travel not an option, and outside useless for training unless I want to try for a Path of Freezing to Death, the common room was once more converted into an open area for swordplay. The tables and chairs were moved to the edge of the room and turned into a makeshift obstacle course for Etta and I.

I held onto the Path of Brewing for a grand total of three days into the winter, just long enough to reach the Fourth Tier and earn another Mental Attribute, before moving it to my Dormant Paths and picking the Path of Coordination back up. Since I wasn't going to see Magatha for a few months, I didn't think the meagre steps I earned in the Path of Brewing by making tea for Gramps would be worth it. I made him tea anyway though, because I was a good grandson.

My Gifted attribute showed its worth throughout the winter, and it was clear to me that I was progressing faster on all my Paths. Without a new achievement to use to determine the exact amount, I was mostly estimating by comparing what I thought my previous progress was with my new progress. My estimates had me gaining steps at around sixty percent faster, a doubling of the thirty percent the Talented attribute had provided.

I wasn't certain that I was correct, but I figured it was close enough and I would work off that number till proven otherwise. It wasn't like being wrong would stop me working on my Paths after all. The numbers had to go up! The months dragged on and my birthday came and went without fanfare. The same was not true of my Status celebration. Towards the end of winter, we, meaning Gramps and I, decided to announce that I had unlocked my Status.

Etta, her family, along with the Kellins and their one year old son, all came over to the outpost for a celebratory dinner. I earned more steps in my Path of Deception that night than I had in the entire month prior. Finally, the weather started to clear, the snow melting and leaving behind ugly brown slush that stained the ground as far as the eye could see, or at least as far as I could see from the window in my room. Sitting on my wooden chest, I went over the notifications for the past three months.

I'd looked at them before but it was nice to see what my winter focus had bought me. You have advanced the Tier of your Path! Path of Running IX (6072/5000) Reward: +1 Unallocated Stat You have advanced the Tier of your Path! Path of Body Strengthening VIII (4398/2500) Reward: +1 Strength You have advanced the Tier of your Path! Path of Swordplay VIII (2613/2500) Reward: +1 Strength You have advanced the Tier of your Path! Path of Coordination VII (2575/1000) … You have advanced the Tier of your Path!

Path of Coordination VIII (2575/2500) Reward: +2 Coordination You have advanced the Tier of your Path! Path of Deception IX (5111/5000) Reward: +1 Unallocated Stat Both of my Unallocated Stats went into my Gifted attribute. My Muffled Steps and Controlled Grip Skills had both gained progress as well. Not as much as I would have liked, as my aether core still functioned as a huge limitation on how much I could work on my Skills. The biggest surprise had been how much my Path of Deception had progressed.

After a little thought, I suspected it was being driven by my Shadow affinity, as Deception could arguably be related to it. Those thoughts made me realise how hard people must struggle to complete Paths that weren't related to their affinities or their jobs. By the time I finished it, Running alone was going to have taken me almost two years, and that was with my attributes helping speed the process up. For others, it would be even longer. Natural aptitude, affinities, teachers, Path manuals, Dungeons, and Rifts…

they all played a role in how – or I supposed if – people progressed down the Myriad Paths. There were plenty who probably didn't. After all, maybe they didn't care about a few numbers going up, and a couple of extra percentage points in strength or speed. I had no doubt that there were plenty of individuals in this world that progressed at a very sedate pace, happy to do their job and go home to their families. Still, that wasn't for me.

If anything, I was chafing at not being able to make my numbers go up even faster. There was however, no way around it for now, and I was doing all I could. The lure of Dungeons, Rifts, and the Academy still plagued my thoughts, but I was five and unlikely to see any of those things soon. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. As the weather turned, something new happened in our little community – more people began arriving.

Since I had been born, the only new additions had been the Kellins, with their trading post, and the prospectors, who were clearly hiding from being conscripted to defend against the orc raids on the eastern border of Ajinar. I didn't count the swapping of the Wardens as the basic number of 'houses' in our community didn't change. But this year, the moment the snow started melting, four new families appeared, setting up their houses across the road from the outpost.

They were all clearly related to the prospectors, and to my surprise, they ended up paying Griselda to come help them build their houses. It quickly became apparent why, as two buildings went up and the prospectors' house was fixed and expanded. The work took a couple of weeks, but when they were done, what had once been a ramshackle looking home was now a secure storage shed, with a new smithy next door to it surrounded by four homes with a shared garden and some smaller buildings for animals.

It didn't take me long to figure out what was going on, and it was definitely not because I eavesdropped on Frederick Kellin chatting to Gramps. The silver vein the prospectors discovered turned out to be far richer than initially expected, and the mining of the precious metal was turning into an entire operation.

Each of the homes built were for the wives and children of the new miners, while the smithy had been built to facilitate smelting the silver down into bars as there was apparently too much ore for Martin to handle alone. The storage shed that had once been the prospectors' home was now being used to secure a few horses, a wagon, some weapons, and the smelted silver bars. That last piece of information made me realise that these men had something worth protecting, which had me slightly excited.

After all, with four new homes and a new building across the road from me, I might actually be able to take my Path of Infiltration to the next Tier. Would I swipe a silver bar while I was at it? I hadn't ruled it out. There was, I suspected, more than one way to unlock the Path of Thievery. I wandered down stairs that morning with that thought on my mind, only to find Gramps looking constipated at the kitchen table.

Okay, perhaps that was being a bit mean, but he definitely looked deep in thought and not happy about whatever conclusions his mind was reaching.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I started brewing a tea for him.

"Hmm," Gramps said slowly, as though coming out of a deep sleep.

"Oh, just thinking about the silver mine." Me too! I thought. What I said though was, "What about it?" Gramps leaned back in his chair, the wood creaking as he brushed his salt and pepper beard before turning to me with his piercing blue eyes.

"It's going to draw the nobility up here, and we're all likely to end up caught in the middle of it." I frowned and poured the tea, bringing the steaming mug over to Gramps before pulling myself up into my chair.

"How come?" The answer was already coming to me even as I asked the question. Tax collectors. Mum had told me about them. Gramps answered me anyway as it was too late for me to take back my question.

"Wasn't anything up here worth taxing before. Would have cost House Landrin of Meravia or House Firthholm of Ajinar more than they would have gained by trying to claim our little slice of mountain as their own. Now, though? With the silver mine looking to expand considerably? Well, that's more than enough reason for them to make an effort. No doubt about it. We'll see the colours of both Houses before the end of spring. More people as well. More miners means more silver, and more silver means more opportunities.

Before you know it, this place is going to turn into a small village. One of the Houses will want to claim it." I was about to ask how House Landrin would find out, but I answered my own question.

"Traders will tell them about it." Gramps nodded. I thought about it for another few minutes, then promptly put it out of my mind. The claiming of a region and taxing it had nothing to do with a five year old. Besides, Gramps wouldn't let anything happen to us, and I doubted the nobles would intentionally annoy the Adventurer's Society. We would be quiet observers of the change rather than active participants, and as such, I had better things to do. Like making my numbers go up and definitely not planning a heist.

With a gentle prodding involving poking him repeatedly, I coaxed Gramps to his office to begin my daily lesson on aethersensing. I had regularly gotten four steps per day on the Path, so today I was aiming for five!

Kral stomped out of his cave, looking at how the snow had begun to melt. The winter had been boring, made worse by the lack of entertainment. That lack was his only regret for sacrificing Pimf. She had screamed so good right up until the end, and then there had been only silence and the rattle of bones. The power that had flowed into Kral had been intoxicating, the feeling of his aether core expanding for the second time indescribable, but the silence that followed had been boring.

There was nothing and no one left to sacrifice. The tribe was gone and only he and Jik remained.

"What did your bird say again?" Kral demanded. An emaciated Jik joined him at the cave exit.

"The humans are still there. More of them now. Before there were less than ten. Now… almost thirty, if you can count that high." Kral slapped the runt, watching the shrivelled bag of bones fall to the floor. Jik climbed back to his feet unsteadily, clearly enough strength still left in the runt to shoot a glare at Kral. He sneered at the defiance. Thirty humans, thought the goblin necromancer. Thirty was plenty to sacrifice. Not enough to get to the next Tier in his Path of Soul Sacrifice, but it would be close.

And with the new material they would add to his army, Kral was confident he could find others. Tucking his sacrificial dagger into his belt, Kral stepped to the side of his cave and waited. The rattling of bones and scrape of metal against stone echoed out of the cave. At first, the noises were faint, but then the tempo and volume started increasing. Slowly, his army of the dead rose to answer his call.

Skeletal goblins dragging stone blades and carrying wooden shortbows with bone-tipped arrows marched out of the cave in disorderly chaos. Behind them came the clatter of wolf claws on stone, their fur still rotting, revealing the white bones beneath as the pack once more rose to hunt. The final carcass, a hulking bear, trundled out last. Kral had spent the most time on it, grafting sharp metal onto its claws and reinforcing its bones and adding more mass until it was even larger than it had been in life.

Kral walked over, climbing inside the skeleton bear's rib cage as his army inexorably clattered south to find him new sacrifices. Kral laughed as he watched Jik scramble after them, trying to keep up with the army of the dead as they marched on the soon to be sacrificed. If Jik got too tired and fell behind… well, then Kral would make sure he never got tired again.

Hurin witnessed the skeleton army from where he hid among the rocks. The foul stench from the cave had drawn him to it, along with the obvious drag marks of various animal carcasses that led to the entry. The tracks had made little sense till he'd seen the skeletal goblins. Hurin waited just long enough to avoid being detected by whoever was directing the dead, before he began to scramble south. Cornelius and the others needed to be warned about what was coming for them!