Chapter 84

Luke didn’t understand why they needed a silver bowl inscribed with a circle, or an athame of obsidian and blood silver, or anything else that the ritual called for. Zea assured him that most of the expensive objects were tools that they’d only have to buy once, and that if the ritual failed, they would only be out some of the reagents used in it.

Since she was the one with the skill for it, he didn’t question the instructions. The important part to him was that they needed to get to the next city before they could even attempt a bloodline purification on him. They’d been taking their time, going out of their way to hunt monsters, and generally moving at a slower pace to accommodate Zea.

“Should we speed up?” Luke said. “I mean, we’ve got the money now, and we got the XP we needed to get the skill.”

“How much of a hurry are we in?” Zea asked. “I don’t want to encourage you to pile even more XP on, but there’s a rank 2 for this skill that costs 200 AP. I would need another 10 levels and to not spend a single AP before I could pick that up, and I’m not sure I can even manage the rank 1 version of this ritual without some more support skills.”

“If we go deep into the mountains and do nothing but hunt monsters for a month or two, we could probably make that happen,” Luke said. “Maybe it would be better to focus on increasing your survivability. Or, you’ve already got some of the base skills needed to learn spells, right?”

“Yeah.” Zea paused for a second and shrugged. “But there’s a reason it’s so rare. Even with the system helping, spells are hard to do properly. They’re time consuming, expensive, and easy to mess up.”

“They are? Huh. Well, good thing I didn’t try to go that route.”

“Were you considering it?” Zea asked.

Luke shrugged. “Not really. I’m sure most people would think it was really cool in my position, but I just don’t think it’s interesting. I like to move. Stats are amazing for that.”

“I guess that explains why you have so few skills.”

“Well, they’re creepy though, aren’t they? Just that feel of something taking over your body and making you do what it wants. Ugh. What would a spell even do, take over my brain and make me think differently?”

Zea stopped walking and frowned. “I guess I never thought about it like that. That’s just what skills do. Is it really that weird for you?”

“We don’t have stuff like that on my planet,” Luke said. “So yeah, super fucking creepy. I don’t like it at all. But it keeps me alive and I guess it kind of helps teach me how to fight. The more I use the skills, the less it feels like the system’s using me as a finger puppet, but I think that’s only because it’s conditioned me to do what it wants.”

“I suppose the first time the system did something for me, it was kind of a surprise. I mean, I already knew how skills worked and that’s not weird, it’s just the way it is. But if you’ve been doing it for decades on your own, yeah, I can see how that might be upsetting.”

“It is what it is,” Luke said. “Can’t change it, but I don’t have to like it. Anyway, straight to Kazos or take our time?”

“I think we could probably go straight there. Getting your bloodline purified is more important than grinding out more XP. The skills we were able to find out about all sound incredible.”

“And if we do need XP, it’s not like I’ve been to a single place yet that doesn’t have an overabundance of monsters,” Luke said. “Okay, let’s push on. Maybe we’ll use the roads?”

“Probably end up having to detour to deal with more bandits.”

“Okay, so not the roads then.”

* * *

Luke had been expecting something similar to Valtira, but Kazos was entirely different. For one, it had a fifty-foot-high wall circling it, and for another, several miles of farmland had been carved out of the forest around that. It must have taken a small army of farmers to tend that much land with no tractors or other modern farming equipment.

Then again, Earth didn’t have people with the physical qualities of Aros’s population. No doubt the standard farmer could work a field all day, well past when the sun set, and at a greater speed than anyone back home could hope to match. That farmer probably wasn’t even tired at the end of the day. It took a lot less manpower than he had originally thought.

That wall though, that looked like it could be trouble. “If we go in there, we’re trapped. Some church assholes start trying to run me down again, I doubt I’ll get away like I did last time.”

“Could be,” Zea agreed. “But we’re not going to find the tools we need outside of a city. I’m not even confident we’ll find them in the city.”

“Then I guess we should make some plans now.”

“Enter at different times through different gates,” Zea said immediately. “I’m going to be noticeable just because I’m a dwifkin this far north, and we haven’t exactly rushed. If the church has sent news ahead, then whoever’s local will know to look for us.”

“We could skip it,” Luke said. “There must be other places to get the stuff.”

Zea shook her head. “Maybe, but all in one place? If we’re going to keep going north, it would be better to have this done and taken care of now. We might never find all the pieces we need if we just go shopping in every piddly-dink little village general store we come across.”

“I don’t like the idea of splitting up,” Luke said.

“We’ve both got ranks in [Disguise]. And the average level is higher with all the Guardians in the area, so you probably won’t stick out as bad.”

“I could buy [XP Mask] now. I wanted to hold off until after the bloodline purification, but…”

“No, not if you’re going to keep leveling after we leave. You need to know how strong what you’re fighting is so you don’t attack the wrong thing and get yourself killed.”

“Yeah, I know, but wouldn’t it be worse to have church people chasing us again?”

“I could go in alone,” Zea said.

“I just said that I don’t like the idea of splitting up.”

“Me neither, but it’s the smart move.”

“Where do we meet up then?” Luke asked.

“We don’t, not while we’re in the city. I’ll work on getting the supplies for the ritual, and you work on getting the supplies for the road. We’ll meet back here tomorrow morning.” She eyed Luke up and down and added, “Get some spare clothes. Should have taken some from the bandits.”

“I had enough of wearing dead men’s clothes the first time around,” Luke said. “Wasn’t eager to do it again.”

Zea shrugged and nodded. “Okay. The stains are kind of faded now, but you should still get some new clothes. Food too. I wouldn’t say no to a thicker blanket and some cooking supplies.”

“Uh, maybe you should get the cooking supplies.”

“Good idea. Okay, what else do we need?”

“Armor for you. A weapon in your size would be nice too. Something with some range on it.”

There hadn’t been any close calls yet, but it was just a matter of time. Luke was fully planning on putting on another ten levels at minimum before reaching their final destination on the western continent, and he figured Zea was good for another fifteen just to catch up to him. She needed some higher stats and some combat-oriented skills to help her too, at least a few levels worth of AP before she started saving for another rank of [Bloodline Purification Ritual]. That was assuming it became necessary, since it was entirely possible that doing the ritual once would give him everything he needed.

Well, not everything, but no matter how pure his bloodline was, he was going to have to finish his journey to the God Machine. But if System was telling him the truth, it wouldn’t matter what state his bloodline was in once he got there. It probably wouldn’t hurt to keep working on that, just to be safe. He would be incredibly pissed off if he finally got all the way to the God Machine only to find out that he had more hoops to jump through before he could use it.

Still, he needed to prioritize, and making sure Zea was strong enough to survive the trip was at the top of the list. Not coincidentally, he’d be getting stronger right next to her, because he also wanted to survive the trip and he’d run from a few too many monsters that outclassed him already. Maybe when he hit level 50, that would be strong enough, but then again, who knew what was roaming around on a whole new continent?

“Armor might be a non-starter,” Zea said, breaking him out of his train of thought. “I could look at some basic stuff, but anything truly useful would need to be custom-made. It could take weeks to fill that order. I would guess the best I could do on short notice is a chain shirt, and you’ve seen how easy it is to rend basic steel.”

“That armor I took from the templar had adjustable straps,” Luke said. “Maybe you could find something like that.”

“Maybe,” she agreed. “I’ll look, but I’m not going to promise anything, and I’m not going to buy something we have to wait weeks on to be completed. Plus we haven’t even considered the price. We’ve got a lot of money here, but we have big expenses coming up too.”

“Fuck, yeah. We still don’t even know how much that’s going to cost. Even if we save everything we’ve got, it still might not be enough.”

“That’s why I’m thinking we get essential supplies only, plus the tools for the ritual. That’s also a high priority.”

Luke frowned, but didn’t argue the point. “So we go in, one day for supplies, sleep in a warm bed, and meet up back here tomorrow morning?”

“That’s the plan,” Zea said. “Here, take five of the gold and half the silver. That should be more than enough for a few spare sets of clothes, travel rations, and maybe a bribe or two if you absolutely have to. Better to lose a bit of coin than to draw the wrong sort of attention.”

“I’ll circle around through the woods and find a different gate,” Luke said. He studied the roads leading away from the city. “Maybe something on the east side? It looks like there’s plenty of people on that road.”

Zea squinted in that direction and shrugged. “I can’t tell, but sure. I’ll go in through the south gate then. Pay attention to how much the gate guards are charging people so they don’t scam you. Sometimes assholes will overcharge travelers who don’t know any better so they can pocket the difference between what they scam out of you and the actual fee.”

Luke hadn’t expected there to be a fee at all. “They charge people just for going in and out? Even people who don’t have a cart or wagon? It’s not like I’ve got a bunch of shit I’m planning on selling that they can tax.”

“That’s just how it is. It’ll probably only be a few coppers. Maybe a silver if it’s real expensive. Just listen to what they’re charging everybody else and don’t let them hustle you.”

“Got it. Okay, I’m off. See you in the morning.”

Luke leaned down to kiss Zea, then faded back into the woods and started working his way north around the curve of the fields until he came across a road leading towards the walled city. It actually took longer to walk at a slow pace on the roads so that he didn’t draw attention to himself than it did to move through the woods, and he got a few glances from other people when they felt how much XP he had, but it was otherwise a peaceful journey to the gates.