Chương 92: Chapter 97: Everything

One thing was clear, moving all together would attract more monsters than moving alone. We theorized it was a hidden mechanic of the tutorial, implemented to keep the challenge high even within large groups, or to punish the strong for cuddling the weak. I was more inclined to believe the latter. I wanted to rush ahead again, but now I couldn't. Leaving the group would activate my curse fast enough to make me want to off myself, and the reason was simple: the Lybi would annihilate them.

While the little beasts were more an annoyance to me, they would be deadly to most—well, not Melissa, or Rhea, or Quinn—but I believed that the others would find dealing with the monsters quite hard. One distraction and you'd find yourself with a giant hole in your body, or lose a limb. I was constantly scanning around while Rhea was excitedly recounting our little adventure with the spiders. Marco had his usual snarky comments, while Alya looked a bit better than yesterday as she intently listened to the story.

"—then the ritual went off and BOOM! All the cavern started shaking, there were rocks falling everywhere but they weren't hitting us thanks to Elias's new skill! I couldn't do anything as he dragged me away like a sack of potatoes, I could just watch all the spiders get crushed by our passage and the rocks… it was terrifying! And I nearly died; apparently, Elias is so rough with women that he nearly killed me." Her smirk at the end was something I wasn't expecting.

I pretended not to notice as the others looked at us with mixed expressions. Instead I sent another dart into the trees, skewering an eldir that was charging at us. Lately they were becoming so easy to deal with; my mastery of the skill was clearly improving despite my level remaining the same. I could mobilize my mana faster, impose my will in a moment, condense the skill or infuse it for extra potency, and aim at a moving target with such speed and precision it was unreal.

Just some days ago, the lower-level eldirs were managing to dodge my darts. Now the higher-level ones couldn't see them coming. It was the stats, and the constant practice, but I wasn't the only one that improved. Marcus's thin spears always found their mark, and he aimed only in two places: heart or head. They didn't shatter anymore, they just pierced their target and waited to be retrieved.

The man now sported more bone knives and some strange tools on his belt, while smashing some of the monsters with his heavy bone club. Alya instead was leaning more toward being speedy despite wearing some pieces of armour, but with the addition of the swords we retrieved from the shrine, she said that as soon as she could invest more into strength she called dibs on the eldir champion's sword. That thing was massive, but if she wanted it I would not complain, we had enough loot already.

Melissa was still untouchable with her barrier, and was experimenting with making them sharp, or using them to crush enemies. Quinn was instead becoming more of the same, faster and stealthier. I was happy to notice that Frederick improved too. While he wasn't at our level, he was learning about his powers and how to best apply them, and while he remained a bit further behind, he was one of the few who dealt with the monsters attacking our middle and rear.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Marco instead was more of the same, just not in a positive way. He was getting more annoying and somehow more entitled than before. I should talk with him and the others about how to go on without harassing anyone; I promised Rhea after all, and that kind of behaviour I always found distasteful, not to mention how it would ruin the group dynamics going forward. The one who worried me the most though was Mary.

The usually calm woman was a bundle of nerves now, jerking every time she heard a sound, muttering under her breath something that despite my increased senses I couldn't seem to catch. Yesterday she was rattled but mostly fine; now there was something wrong. But it would have to wait, we needed to move fast, there was the chance that tomorrow we'd reach the town by going at this pace. The non-combatants looked ready to fight, but much more at ease now that we took control of the situation ourselves.

They chatted and moved with a spring in their steps; the idea of reaching anything remotely civilized made them much more cooperative. This would be a temporary situation though. I would not spend all my travelling time playing babysitter. After we reached that town, they would take turns again. I wanted them to rise in levels and be more active; we'd see how that would go though. My thoughts got derailed by the appearance of some spiders… I noticed more spiders surrounding us, we were approaching the cave then.

Good—more than good—it was fantastic progress for four hours of marching, considering the carts and everything.

"Eli, how much do you think it will take to come close to the Lybi territory by this point?" I turned to look at Rhea, the others looked at us too. The way she talked and joked with me, the nickname… in other circumstances I wouldn't mind, but here it was something I didn't really want to deal with.

"Probably we'll reach it by nightfall, if we continue like this, but it won't be a good idea to face them in the dark and while being tired. We'll have to stop before entering their territory and camp for the night." Before Rhea could answer back Alya interjected, "Where are we going to camp then? The monsters are getting less and less, but at night in the middle of the forest it won't be a pleasant experience."

"I'm sorry to say it, but it is exactly what's going to happen. We are near the spider cave, so there is no way we'll stop now, it's too early. We will have to camp in the forest, before the Lybi territory. Quinn, Marcus, if by dusk you can manage to find some easily defensible place it will be great, otherwise we will just camp in the first clearing we find. I'm sure though that by tomorrow we'll reach the town." I got a nod from Marcus and a thumbs-up from Quinn.

The rest were not looking particularly pleased with the arrangement, but they would survive, I wouldn't delay our journey more than that. In that way we proceeded until nightfall, talking about this and that, killing monsters quite rarely. It appeared that the number I did on the spiders reduced their numbers drastically, the eldir we left behind, finally… I was getting tired of looking at trees. While I enjoyed a stroll in the woods as much as anybody, these days were making me sick of this forest.

And I wasn't the only one; now with the prospect of reaching a town, everyone was getting jittery and wanted to reach it as soon as possible.

"I found something," Marcus said while getting back into view after going to scout ahead. The man was probably the only one enjoying the environment.

"How far?" Tom asked from behind us.

"Approximately twenty minutes at this pace, north-east from here, a clearing in the trees with good cover." Better than nothing, and just on time. It was getting dark, the sun was already hidden by the mountains, the downside of being in a valley.

"Good work, Marcus," I told him.

"Show us the way." I was usually a calm person, but I couldn't help the excitement at the idea of tomorrow. My heart was beating faster, I wanted to run ahead and fly. No, I had to be patient, I repeated to myself, this tutorial was a marathon, not a sprint; I needed to keep my goal in mind and work towards it. Everything else was secondary. Everything.