Chương 73: Chapter 72 - The Camp

Aaron spat out a clump of grass, leaving a damp earthy flavour in his mouth. A hand reached under his arm and helped him to his feet. He hissed in pain as the wound stretched with his arm. His vision was foggy, and his head hurt. When he opened his eyes, it was as if the thousands of mirrors were still there, twisting and distorting the landscape. It was impossible to tell where he was. His vision was a swirl of green and brown, with blue when he looked up.

He would have probably fallen over if not for the hand steadying him.

"Just take deep breaths. It'll clear in a few seconds," Paige said. Her voice was loud, yet had a muffled quality to it, like crackling foam.

"What in Ouromor's name was that?" Aaron said.

"A portal. You get used to it after a few times." Aaron's vision began to clear. The swirls settled and melded into an orchard, except the trees still shimmered and swayed as if reflected in a pond. His strength returned to his legs, and he steadied himself, pulling away from Paige's supporting hand.

"Where's Tim and Alex?" Paige gestured behind him.

"They're fine. Well, unharmed by those creatures by the looks of it." There was a heaving sound, followed by the spray of stomach contents on the floor. Giddeon and an armored woman were standing a few steps away from them, but didn't seem keen on helping or comforting them.

"Help them then," Aaron said, outraged. The woman looked chagrined and went to speak, but Giddeon butted in first.

"With what exactly? They're fine."

"We just got out of a fight for starters," Aaron said. Giddeon grumbled in response and screwed up his brow.

"They'll get checked over at the infirmary once the portal sickness has worn off." The woman stood to Giddeon's side with a neutral expression on her face. She had blonde hair scraped away from her face and fastened tightly in a bun behind her head. Not a single stray hair was out of place. She wore chainmail, with a worn plate chestpiece. Similar to her hair, it was untarnished and without a spec of dirt. She had a shortsword holstered in her belt.

"You better have a good explanation for this, Giddeon." Giddeon gave her a threatening scowl, but she didn't falter.

"I don't need to explain anything to you, Breanna."

"It's my job to make sure everyone who enters the camp is accounted for and assess if they are threats. Who are these people?"

"You should show your superiors some respect," Giddeon growled. My staff! Aaron's stomach knotted itself as he remembered. He frantically scanned the ground and found it lying in a patch of long grass. Giddeon and Breanna continued to argue, each with irrelevant points. It was obvious that they were both trying to one-up each other for the sake of their pride. It was the perfect distraction. Aaron grabbed his coin pouch and emptied the remaining bones into his palm.

They were a variety of lengths and shapes, and many showed grey discolouration where they'd been sat in there for weeks.

"I feel sick!" Aaron knelt by the staff and started pretending to wretch and heave. Giddeon and Breanna clearly could not have cared less. He placed the skull-shaped head of the staff onto his hand, on top of the bones, then channeled his Osteokinesis runes in his mind's eye. It was second nature after practising it so many times. The bones crackled and fused together into a spiky clump. Aaron stifled a yelp as his skin pinched between them.

He pushed his mana through his hand and into the bones, replacing the pain in his palm with a soothing icy chill. Next, he started to flatten them. The spiky points retraced into the mass and flattened into an irregular sheet of bone. There were several holes where the shards hadn't joined together properly. Aaron focused on the gaps. He flattened and stretched the mass of bone further and pulled the excess material into the holes, sealing them shut.

He focused his mana on the joins between individual bones, running it over the lips and grooves. The flow of energy was shaky and disjointed at first, but over time smoothed into a consistent movement. The surface of bone smoothed out until it was completely flush and there was no evidence of the original bones left. [Somatomancy talent improved] Bone Mastery: rank 7 He hadn't practised with bones in a while, but it felt satisfying to improve his proficiency.

He remembered Osteokinesis Empowerment —he could grow his proficiency even further with the talent. Given how sharp he could make them, he could make some powerful weapons, which could be an effective way to take down these corrupted creatures. Aaron refocused, knowing he only had a bit of time until Giddeon stopped arguing. He curved the edges of the bone sheet up, folding them over like a wilting flower. Only once the head of the staff was completely encased in bone did he stop.

Following the same technique, he sealed off the gaps and left a perfectly smooth surface. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Where the metallic skull once sat at the head, there was now a white shell. It was smooth and spherical enough to be unrecognisable as bone. Yet it was brittle and thin, like an eggshell. He'd need to be careful not to shatter it. [Skill proficiency increased] Osteokinesis: Level 6 With a sigh of relief, Aaron used his staff to pull himself to his feet.

His legs screamed under his weight, clearly unrecovered from the portal sickness. His shoulder didn't feel much better either. Giddeon and Breanna were still deep in discussion, yet neither of them seemed to have gained any ground. The entire debate was ridiculous and bordering on pathetic. But if the camp was safe and he and Tim could be kept away from Harrold's men, Selezar and the corrupted creatures, then he couldn't care any less about how Giddeon conducted himself.

Besides, he needed a moment to heal his arm without anyone catching a glimpse of the nature of his magic. Aaron's True Sight told him the wound was deep, penetrating into the muscle in his shoulder, but thankfully it hadn't hit any major blood vessels, and the bleeding had already stopped. Although that had done nothing to help the searing pain shooting down his arm every time he moved it. He considered the mana he'd poured into his new Lich's Strength ability.

Would the claw have gone deeper or done more damage if he hadn't toughened his skin? It's too soon to tell. It probably takes a lot of mana and time to make a noticeable difference. After briefly checking he wasn't being watched, he cast Manipulate. Paige, perceptive as ever, realised what was happening and put her hand on his back to steady him, but conveniently blocked him from Breanna's view. His shirt sleeve still covered the wound, but you couldn't be too safe.

Especially when surrounded by people who make a profession out of hunting down Necromancers. A fire-like sensation crackled through his shoulder as the wound sealed up from the inside. The muscle fibres joined up and interweaved, fortified by mana flowing across the join. Aaron focused on Augmentation, infusing mana into the flesh as he healed it. The difference was subtle, and it would have probably been difficult to tell without True Sight, but his shoulder was stronger than before.

His staff felt slightly lighter in his hands. Not to mention the pain was gone, and all he had to worry about was the temporary weakness caused by the portal travel.

"Are you done?" Aaron drawled, looking at Giddeon. He looked back, outraged, but Aaron turned to Breanna and continued.

"We have an urgent matter to discuss with your leaders."

"Not until we've followed due procedure," she replied.

"Fine, what do you need?"

"All of your names, some basic details about you, your reason for being here. You will also need Giddeon to vouch for you." Still frowning, Giddeon grumbled.

"Yes, I vouch for them. Just give them the damn scroll and get it over with. I need a good meal. If you need anything, Paige speaks for me." He stomped off into the treeline without as much as a goodbye. It wasn't unusual for him to be grumpy, but he was in a particularly bad mood that afternoon. Perhaps it's something about this place. Breanna stuttered for a moment, then centred her face back to neutral and professional.

"Fill in these scrolls, please. And place your weapons here." She gestured to a soddy table which looked like it had been left outdoors a year too long. For a moment, Aaron was worried, but he complied. He'd improved on his bone dagger so much that it barely resembled a rat skeleton anymore. The tail wrapped around it, but it looked more like a decorative embellishment. The only concern was that it was dusky white.

"Curious," she said, then she picked up the dagger and inspected it closely, holding it up into the sunlight.

"What is it made of?"

"Gypsum-steel," Tim said, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. He must have gotten over the worst of the portal sickness. Alex was standing close behind him.

"It's an alloy we use in the east. There's plenty of it in the caves, and it strengthens the blade." Aaron bit his lip. The tension was unbearable.

"And the staff?"

"Gypsum-steel headed as well. It's a very under-utilised martial weapon. The extra weight on the head gives it a nasty punch," Aaron said. He could feel sweat dripping under his arms. There was another pause whilst she stared at the staff head. She had an unsettling neutrality in her gaze. It was impossible to tell if she believed him or not.

"Very well, I'm intrigued to see you fight with it. I'll keep an eye out at the pits." Breanna handed the dagger back to Aaron, then scribbled something down on a scroll.

"Take these scrolls and fill in the details, then bring them back to me." Aaron, Alex, and Tim complied. Paige was already known to them, so she must not have needed to do it. After what felt like an age of form filling, Aaron handed it back to Breanna, who then spent another age inspecting every detail in a painful silence. After each of them was done, she asked them to follow and led them down a path through the forest. Clean air filled Aaron's nose. The forest was vibrant, yet quiet.

Bright red apples filled the trees and gave a pleasant colourful backdrop to the blue sky. A dirt path, lined with rocks, guided them for a few minutes until they caught a glimpse of the camp. But it was far more sophisticated than the name made out. The sound of leaves crunching under their feet changed to stomping as the path changed to cobblestones. The camp was a town. Organised rows of buildings lined the streets. They were built of wood and stone, probably because these were both easily accessible materials.

There could have been supply routes nearby, but Aaron suspected not, as the camp was meant to be a secret. A patrol of soldiers marched past them, each wearing matching camouflaged uniforms. The group was a mix of young men and women, led by an older man who looked exactly how you'd expect a sergeant to. They passed others on the busy street. Mostly people transporting supplies such as water and vegetables in carts. Each person wore matching tunics and trousers of different colours.

It must have had something to do with their role in the camp; for example, he suspected the people in white were healers and green were Altheons. Most striking of all, a giant stone tower was centred in the camp. It stood well above the other buildings and was easily as wide as a house. Tiny heads of guards peeked over the top, barely visible from the ground.

"What are they standing watch for up there?" Alex asked.

"Corrupted creatures. We're deep in corrupted lands and get attacks from time to time," Paige replied.

"But I don't see any corrupted land? It looks great here."

"If you don't believe me, go up the tower and look for yourself." Breanna stopped and turned to them.

"Alright, we're here. Well, Aaron is. Go and get your arm seen to in the infirmary. I'll be back for you in a couple of hours."

"Oh, don't worry about it, it's fine. That's old blood," Aaron said.

"My companions should get checked out here as well."

"Doesn't look old to me. It still looks wet. And they will get seen to later." Aaron's heart started to thump faster in his chest. He didn't want other healers seeing his arm so recently healed. A trained spirit healer would be able to see the signs of a recent wound in his spirit, and he didn't want to raise any difficult questions about his power.

"It's not as bad as it looks. I'd rather just get some rest."

"Look. I'm just doing my job. It's standard procedure. Every wound gets seen. You know what happens to wounds from corrupted creatures, right?" Aaron sighed. He couldn't lie out of this one. Alex had already been yapping about their adventures, so he liked to describe them.

"You're right, I should get it seen." Aaron handed his staff to Tim for safekeeping and followed Breanna inside.