Chương 56

Hunter Ellen Ellen kicked the iron frame, then scraped her boots off again. They were getting to be precious commodities, the boots. With the loss of two pairs from the incident in the cave, and the sudden addition of four more Ellens, there weren't enough to go around. Her own hunting shoes—made from skins of small game animals—were excellent for keeping a light step, but when going down to the village like this she needed the more mud-worthy boots. She did not expect what happened upon entering the inn.

SANCTUARY You have entered a designated [SANCTUARY]. Unfriendly or unknown creatures are barred entry. You have gained resistance to fear and panic. Ellen waved away the minor first time bonus for entering a Sanctuary, her surprise calming. It was easy to guess that this was something Village Ellen had done. It matched her Class description, and after the attack she wouldn't blame her other, more timid self for wanting to keep the place secure.

She only saw Pauley, Tobias, and Village Ellen present at the moment, so Ellen tugged the hood of her cloak back and let out a sigh. The inn was warm—warmer than she'd expected, even—and the heat washed over her in a welcoming embrace. She let herself enjoy it for just a moment longer before moving to hang up her cloak.

"Good morning, Hunter," Village Ellen greeted, waving her injured hand.

"You're here early. Good news or bad news?" Ellen shook her head.

"No news, which I guess could be either, depending on the reason." She gave a nod to Tobias as he looked up from tending the fire, then she slid into a chair to join Pauley and Village Ellen. Pauley gathered up the cards he'd been playing with, shuffling them back into the battered deck.

"No luck on our end, either. He just disappeared. We haven't seen any signs of anyone in the forest or mountains, but there's an awful lot of places even our hunters don't go, and we don't have your magic to monitor it."

"I'm not sure how well I can spot people going into our land anyway," Ellen admitted softly.

"I've never tested that. I saw you coming, but you're someone we know, and that might have helped. Even without that trick, I haven't seen any signs of anyone near Onroc either. It's possible they're hiding out around the mountain, but I couldn't see any sign they'd gone to the dungeon or cave either." The large man frowned, but Ellen already knew what he was about to say.

"I know I'm still low level," she countered before he spoke.

"I'm still pretty sure, at least for the areas I checked. I reached Level 12 a little while ago, and I have some spells that can help with this sort of thing. I'm not saying he couldn't have given me the slip, but if he did it's because he's very good at hiding. Maybe using magic himself." Pauley grunted, but that did seem to settle the problem.

"Yeah… problem is, we know he had at least one kind of magic. I worry. He had a subtle mental spell, and then he vanishes into thin air when we try and track him… after running off into the wilderness with no cloak. Not any mage I've ever heard of." Ellen glanced over at Village Ellen, with her eyes flicking to the bandage around her hand, then meeting her other self's blue eyes. She asked a silent question with an upraised eyebrow. The answer came in a way that wasn't encouraging.

"It's healing fine," Village said.

"Better than fine, it's started to heal very fast. I'm keeping it covered just in case. You don't need to worry about me… I'll be fine." In spite of the reassuring words, Village gave an ever so slight nod back to Ellen, one that made her stomach twist in knots. The statement was more than what it seemed on the surface. Ellen understood her other self's coded message in a way no one else could, even with their wide divergence. I am healing unnaturally fast, but I have it under control. I also suspect what you do.

That man was not fully human. There were so many uncertainties. Ellen knew that as adventurers went, she was pretty neophyte… she understood that much after reflecting on all the deaths. Even as a hunter, she was still somewhat amateur, though an accomplished one to be sure. Few with her experience could boast to have slain a boar nearly solo. That she hadn't lived through the act was a testament to how difficult such a feat was for someone of her Level. The only thing she was pretty good at was monster lore.

Ellen had grown up listening to tales from one of the most renowned adventurers in the world, and was the granddaughter of arguably the greatest adventurer who had ever lived. Even people who didn't agree with that assessment would admit that Gabriel Greylan was in the top ranks, and at that point the actual title of "greatest" wasn't important compared to people like her. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

So Ellen—and by extension, all of her other selves—knew plenty of obscure monster tales. Enough to place the behavior of this strange man, paired with the demonstrated powers, firmly in the realm of magical creature rather than a human with powers. Village had just confirmed she had the same thought… and also confirmed her hand was healing unnaturally fast. That narrowed the range of what sort of creature could do that considerably. None of the options were good.

Yet Village Ellen had indicated she had it under control. If Ellen's suspicions were right, and Village agreed with them, that didn't seem possible. While she figured out how to phrase the question to Village, Ellen turned to Pauley.

"It started to snow again on my way in, so soon enough you won't be able to find him unless you stumble onto him anyway. Might be better to just have your hunters go back to hunting. Nobody wants to starve this winter." Pauley nodded back, scratching at his beard.

"You think we might have scared him off? Powers or not, that sort of predator prefers easy prey. If he knows we're on the lookout for him, he may have run off to less prepared hunting grounds. We've kept Camilla indoors for now, or at least not letting her go anywhere without an escort." Ellen frowned, but she didn't disagree with the idea. Clearly, Pauley had also considered the possibility that the man was more than human… and Camilla had almost certainly been his intended prey.

At least, she had been until Village got in the way.

"Did you want me to spend the night for a few nights? Just to keep an eye out? It wouldn't be a bother, Village and I have slept two in a bed before." Ellen nodded to her other self. Surprisingly, it was Village Ellen who answered… in a way that gave Ellen everything she needed, though it left some questions unanswered.

"You don't need to do that," Village murmured, shaking her head.

"I'll be fine. I have Sanctuary now. But I think you might want to do one last evening hunt just to make sure. It would make me feel safer, at least." Ellen stared at her other self for a long moment, then nodded.

"All right." Village had just passed up the chance to speak in private and explain everything… but her request had clearly been a signal to stay close by. To Ellen, that meant Village had a plan, and was pretty sure it wouldn't lead to a duplication, but wanted someone nearby just in case. Unfortunately she'd diverged too much, and Ellen had no idea what that plan could be. It had virtually eliminated most of the guesses she'd had about what had happened, though.

That left Ellen more confused than ever as to what this creature could have been. She'd had an easy guess, but Village had all but killed that idea. Village knew very well that Ellen would kill her if she felt it absolutely necessary. So why have her nearby?

"How are the new girls?" Tobias broke into the conversation. Ellen jerked slightly at the surprise, her thoughts once again having wandered too far.

"The two you met are fine," she reassured.

"They haven't found much to do, but one of them is learning how to fish and sew, which should help us out. The other wants to be a cobbler, but hasn't had a chance to talk to Jenson yet." She tilted her head at Village, who was looking at her with a questioning expression. Go on, then.

"We have two more in there as well, from a recent accident," Ellen continued with a sigh.

"They've teamed up with two of the others and have made a little adventuring party. It may be surprising, but they've swept the first floor of the dungeon already. I think they put a lot of thought into balancing their party, but it's going to be tough to support four adventurers with all the rest of us. They've been helping us with felling trees, but that's about it." Village cleared her throat.

"You know, you should get Cobbler to cook. I assume that's what she's calling herself? She split from me, so she should be a pretty good cook even without the Skill Enhancer for it."

"Yeah," Ellen agreed.

"She and Fisher are taking turns with that, don't worry. We're a little short on food, but if we can catch more fish and maybe game, it should be fine. We had a whole lot of onions and potatoes, and those can be stretched pretty far." She looked at Pauley and Tobias again.

"We're putting together our own icehouse, so that will be nice. Building in winter has been tough, but it's not like we have much of a choice. By mid-spring we should be a lot closer to self-sufficiency… but we really could use some chickens or something. Not now, but hopefully we can get some early after winter."

"Shouldn't be a problem," Tobias agreed.

"But it might be faster to go buy them in Merriweather. Once the dungeon opens up, you'll be making plenty of money." Ellen idly wondered how much the other Ellens got in loot from handling the first floor. Then she frowned at the idea of Merchant stuck with a bunch of chickens in her cart for the days-long trip from Merriweather to Onroc… not to mention hauling them through the trail instead of the still-nonexistent road. She was glad the other Ellens were the ones mostly working on getting the town running.

She could just stay in the forest all day. Life was a lot simpler for her. Aside from handling the pelts.

"Do you think your uncle might be able to help with this stranger?" Pauley asked, bringing Ellen back to the present. His face was frowning, probably because he knew already that Ellen didn't like relying on her family to solve her problems. Even if Merchant had leaned on the family name to get her purchase through, it wasn't something she wanted to get into the habit with.

"He probably won't be back before spring," Ellen answered aloud.

"And he's always busy with handling stuff for the kingdom anyway. I'm sure we can confirm when he gets back, but we really need to solve this stuff for ourselves."

"I'm pretty sure if he doesn't show up again this week, we're safe." Village Ellen smiled when she said that, glancing at Ellen and back to Pauley.

"Just a strong hunch. My Class is pretty strange, and I think I'm figuring out how it works. I just hope we don't have more incidents like this now that the dungeon is around, but don't worry about this one." Ellen gave Village a brief look, wishing again she could tug the girl aside for a private chat without worrying the others. It would simplify so many things. It worried her a little how coy her other self was being. But if she was being this coy, it meant she had a surprise in store.

Ellen just hoped it was a nice one.