[SD:FS] Squirrels - Chapter 9

After that fun interaction with the antfolk, Gem continues to wander down the row of carriages. On occasion, stopping to observe whatever ca

After that fun interaction with the antfolk, Gem continues to wander down the row of carriages. On occasion, stopping to observe whatever catches their interest. Though as far as they’re concerned, the caravan is ready much too soon and so they make their way back to Merchant Silverwhiskers’ carriage.

Gem, “I’m back!”

Merchant Silverwhiskers nods, “And just in time to wait another quarter hour or so! Though since we are technically ready, you’ll have to stick around this time.”

Though he wasn’t entirely right. It only took the caravan ten minutes to get moving. And so they’re heading out into the wilderness! Which Gem begins to find quite boring.

Days pass one after another in about the same manner. Even the stops they make at the various towns become quite samey. Which to be fair, is exactly the point of this being a large caravan in the first place. To get from one place to another in a relatively uneventful manner.

Though as Gem sits on top of Silverwhiskers’ wagon, swinging their legs and staring out into another forest. They have a small glimmer of hope that this time, something interesting will happen. Even if this feeling makes Gem a bit guilty.

Besides Se’llium causing trouble and messing with anyone close to them, things had been safe. A few fights, both against animals and bandits, but nothing to bring out the caravans hidden cards.

This, however, was going to be the most dangerous trail of the entire trip and the longest. They were now cutting directly through the forest ahead of them to cut two months off their trip. And, of course, they weren’t lucky to be heading in while the path is rated white. 

Oh no, the guild was not only rating the path green, but it had been green for about a month now. There was something hanging around the trail and not moving on. Chances of coming across a level 30 plus monster were higher than not.

And with that in mind, Merchant Silverwhiskers turns to them, “This is the last chance. Are you sure you want to go through with this trip?”

Emrys is the first to respond, though he just shrugs. Not having a firm opinion one way or another. The death penalty would suck, but this was a good chance to experience things.

Gem and June both nod soon after. They were in it from the start and already understood the dangers. If either had wanted to bail, they wouldn’t have let it get this far.

Last was Samuel. His face was a bit sour, but since the others wanted to go through with it, he agrees. Not like this would be a permanent death if something does happen.

Silverwhiskers sighs, “Well, then I guess everything is ready. Sorry about the noble harassment. You caught a bunch of flack from him simply because we caught his attention first.”

Gem laughs, “As if I care about that!” Their tail flicks back and forth, “If he went too far, well, I’d have fun even if I ended up dead. Maybe if he was the type to push things too far, it would have been different, but he just barks at people.”

Silverwhiskers nods, “That does seem to be true. At least, it is around this area. I wouldn’t test things in his father’s region. The outcome would probably be quite different.”

Samuel shrugs, “Eh, if he tries to cause too much trouble, we can just leave. As new travellers, we aren’t exactly nailed down to one location yet. This being especially true since we decided to go on this caravan in the first place. Most others would decide to stick around where their starter town is.”

And with that, Silverwhiskers and Samuel end up chatting about the habits of other new travellers. And so Gem tunes them out, though doesn’t go right away to observing the countryside. Instead, they think back to what they had been going over last night before bed, their status.

Gem kind of wanted to pull it up right now, but there wasn’t a good way to keep it hidden from the others and so goes off memory and compares it to what it looked like at the start of the trip.

{

Name: Gem Paroxysm

Species: ChaosKin (Chaos)

Level: 4 > 5

Stats

• Body: B- > B

• Mana: S+

• Stamina: C- > C

Resistances

• Air: S

Skills

• Sense Mana lv2 > 4

• Lesser Mana Control lv2 > 3

• Wind Blade lv3 > 4

• Assay lv2

Equipment

• GP: 133 > 241

• Backpack 1D

• Armored jacket 1D

• Armored cargo shorts 1D

• Ring of the Frog [3/3] 1D+

• Scroll of Recall (City of a Thousand Fountains) [30 days] ★S+

• Lazy Turtle Buckler [2/2 a day] 5D+

• Scroll of Rest 5E

}

It was a shame about the scroll, but that was a freeby meant to allow new travellers a one-off get out of jail free card. So since Gem hadn’t ever gotten stuck at the bottom of a pit and didn’t want to go back, anyway? The 30 days ticked down and poof, the scroll vanished.

Besides that, the few fights they had gotten into were enough for a single level, which thankfully upped both Body and Stamina. Almost an inevitability after how much walking they had done. And of course almost all the skills went up, barring assay. There wasn’t really anything that needed it besides a couple bandit fights where they got some of the loot. And Gem had just let June assay it all in those cases.

Then, before Gem realized it, the caravan was in the forest. Oh, how appropriate it felt for the forest to be ranked green. Because it certainly looked it. Not that they were able to calmly observe things. Almost right away, some monsters ambushed the caravan.

A sharp chittering erupts as cat-sized squirrels with the buck-teeth in front, but carnivores teeth everywhere else, jump down from the branches. Gem flings their arm up from their side in a cutting motion, all to release an elongated wind blade.

This blade isn’t able to kill any of the monsters that are pouncing on Silverwhiskers wagon. However, it has enough force to knock them all back on her side.

On the other side of the wagon, Samuel has his hands full. Shield up and ready within moments, but it isn’t big enough to block all the carnivorous squirrels. Those few that make it through are left for June and Emrys to handle.

Emrys throws up a quick illusion. Nothing complicated, just an overlay for the wagon that makes it seem to be made fully out of metal. And that’s really all which is needed to prevent the, very much still animal, squirrels from trying to chew their way in. Though it does mean the monsters are focused on the two now 

Well, some squirrels went for Silverwhiskers, but they’re already taken care of.

Anyway, June doesn’t exactly have a spell to throw around in this situation. Well, Cat’s Claw would be good for Samuel and Gem, but she has more pressing concerns. Though June is capable of thinking on her feet. Which, in this case, means that she kicked one squirrel off the wagon within moments of its landing.

Emrys isn’t so lucky, having been distracted by casting his spell. This leaves him open by just a little bit. But that was enough for one squirrel to take a nip at his leg. Good thing it was a nip, though as even that much has caused a large amount of bleeding.

So June kicks that squirrel as well. They weren’t the strongest of monsters, after all. And June manages to get an assay off on that second one she kicked.

{

Species: Carnivorous Squirrel

Tags: [Vermin]

Level: 3

}

Gem looks over when she hears the assay go off. “Why does that look like the results we got from analyze?”

June kicks another squirrel off the wagon. “What more do you want? I’m just throwing out assay instead of analyze for the skill experience. To get more info you either need a much higher assay skill or a specialized version.”

Samuel on the other side of the wagon yells over, “Why even have analyze? I don’t really get it.”

June sighs, “Analyze doesn’t reveal hidden information. It is literally a feature put in place because people like knowing what to call stuff.”

Gem laughs as they copy June and kick one squirrel back into the trees. “Something learned the hard way in the last game?”

June kicks the final squirrel on the wagon. “That seems to be the case from what I’ve heard. Started out over there that there wasn’t even a skill to ID stuff like that. After all, sci-fi. And boy, did people rebel against it, so now just about any smartphone, watch, or visor can do it. Though since it is tech-based, it pulls from a database and can’t ID the truly unknown.”

From the front of the wagon, Merchant Silverwhiskers comments, “You can get devices that analyze at a distance, though they’re not the most common at the lower levels. More because they don’t do much good. They tend to have a level penalty based on the distance between you and the target.”

Gem laughs, “So it doesn’t show you what you really want to know?”

Silverwhiskers laughs, “Just spend more money! You can buy gear with a bonus to relative level. Analyze can also be weakened so it only shows the color rank. That tends to work well enough. After all, if the target is a few ranks above you, knowing that should be enough to know you’re screwed. Though I’d love to get my hands on the devices, the guild uses for judging trail color.”

June scoffs, “As if those things are real items. It could be a random rock off the side of the road and work. Something that powerful being so ubiquitous? That’s a tool directly from the system.”

Silverwhiskers, “Oh sure, but that doesn’t mean I can’t wish for one of my own!”

Gem, “But what are the flaws? There has to be something, otherwise the system would just report directly to the guild what the road’s rank is.”

Silverwhiskers, “Eh, whatever the weakness must not affect the guild all that much.”

Gem bounces up onto the front seat and smirks at Silverwhiskers, “What if the restriction is you can’t bring anything extra with you? And that you can’t sell the information gained? I’m sure the system isn’t letting such a perfectly abusable tool just hang out at every guild location.”

Silverwhiskers shrugs, “Eh, at the very least there seems to be some sort of restriction on giving out the details of how it works. If anything, just knowing the actual limitations would be more than worth it.”

And the caravan rolls on. Though much more exciting than preferred. It seems they can’t go half a day without something disrupting their trip. Whether it was as simple as monsters attacking or annoying such as when a small gathering of fae decided to set up a fairy ring across the trail.

Three wagons ended up passing through the ring before the caravan could stop. On the bright side, they weren’t strong fae and so only affected objects that actually touched the ground. Still wasn’t pleasant having to deal with wagon wheels of cheese and boots turned every color of the rainbow. All of which was cleared up with some dispels, but that took time. Gem was quite disappointed to have missed it.

Now, Gem is pacing beside the wagon with their hands behind their head, stretching. Yawn, “So what, we’re about two-thirds of the way through? We haven’t even really seen all that many–”

Emrys jumps down for his perch on the wagon, “SHH! Don’t you go and jinx us!”

There is a moment of silence, before Silverwhiskers lets out a boisterous laugh, “You know? After all my years on the trail? I can honestly say that tempting fate like Gem was just about to do doesn’t actually do anything?”

June nods, “If the system reacted to such things in any way, it would be too predictable.”

Silverwhiskers chuckles, “Well, you’re almost right! See, tempting fate, honestly or with intent, doesn’t do a thing.

“However! If someone was about to raise a flag and someone else jumped in to stop it? Especially if it was clear they were honestly doing so? Whether it is the system or one of the Creators I don’t know, but–”

From all around the caravan, maddening, uncanny valley howls begin to echo.

“–there’s definitely someone listening for when that happens.”

The Secret About The Beds - Chapter 8

Green Threat, Yellow Ally - Chapter 10