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Two weeks could pass in an instant or take forever. In this case, they went quickly. There were no real interruptions and the only thing on the schedule was training- and teaching at the academy as necessary. Most people weren’t going to want to learn resistance skills, even with how useful they could be- and the people who were more likely to want to learn them would find it more difficult. Those with high Toughness planning to accept damage for others weren’t often also those who had good understanding of magic.
I hadn’t been a student of archaeology, but the chance to see a huge magical city uncovered wasn’t something that came around every day. In fact, seeing a regular city unburied would have been rather interesting as well, but I hadn’t really been in a state to go out on digs for months at a time… since I couldn’t have done anything at all let alone anything useful.
Everyone had agreed that the expedition would be worthwhile, and then we’d had some time to make preparations and now we were riding. While we didn’t often use our horses, we did have them. I hadn’t noticed any particularly special traits about my mare, unlike Alhorn’s tough Oak and the strange pony Kasner had that ate arrows. Daisy had more normal tastes… like flowers. I wasn’t sure if that was something that horses were really meant to eat, but Halette hadn’t been concerned. Carlos had come along with us as well, because we could never be sure if we’d need to carry more- and there was no point in leaving him in the city.
At some point, Socks had been too small for Halette to ride. Now she was too big, unless we built an entire structure to put on her back like an elephant… but she still wouldn’t be good for riding with the way she moved. At the current moment Socks was… somewhere. While all of our mounts were quite used to Socks, it turned out that most horses got nervous around giant wolves. If I hadn’t known Socks from the time she was a tiny little wolf not even quite my height, I probably would have felt the same.
There wasn’t much danger on the journey, since we moved with a large group of capable people. Sage Norwood was with us… and while I hadn’t seen him fight he absolutely had to be capable of devastating magic. That wasn’t just a supposition either, because he’d admitted to ability himself. It was hard for most people to avoid some level of fighting expertise in this world, and especially so for those who wanted to improve themselves beyond ‘normal’ limits. Though even residual experience was enough for many people to grow stronger than my base understanding of human limits, given enough time.
“You know,” Halette commented, “We won’t actually be that far from where Khyrmin lives. At least, not on the scale of a whole country. I think I see the start of the great sequoias over there.”
I focused my eyes, but I couldn’t see anything for sure. Trees, certainly, but only in the vague sense that masses of green indicated trees. But if Halette said it was the right place, then it should have been. They didn’t look that big, but that had been the case at the other edge of the forest as well. I hadn’t even seen some of the ones rumored to be in Fepresil, which made the truly gigantic trunks big enough to drive a car through seem small. Not that people knew about cars, but the idea was still there. Big enough around to stick a good sized house in, from what I’d heard. The only reason we couldn’t see them from where we were was likely the curvature of the planet, as some of them were said to be over a thousand feet tall. There had to be magic involved with that somehow, but if I hadn’t seen giant sequoias back on Earth I would have assumed the same of them.
“Khyrmin?” one of the other adventurers hired for the expedition asked from nearby. “The legendary elven duelist?” I wasn’t surprised he knew about her, considering his style of garb. He was a halfling, around three feet tall like most of them. Light but certainly functional armor and a rapier- more or less the same length as one designed for a human. “I had heard she lived near the border… but that she didn’t take kindly to visitors.” The man sighed, “I’d love to see her at some point, but since she wants to be left alone…” he shrugged. “Have any of you ever seen her fight? My teacher did once. He said it inspired him to change his fighting style even though his class at the time wasn’t suited for it.”
“I have, actually,” Alhorn answered, “It was… inspiring.”
The two of them talked for a time. I agreed with most of what they were saying, so I didn’t really have anything to add. She hadn’t inspired me to change my style, but that was because she didn’t necessarily think a specific weapon was better. It was just that she happened to be most comfortable with a rapier. I thought about her training… and wondered how many times I would have died without it.
“I’m Elyver, by the way,” the halfling man introduced himself to us. We introduced ourselves in return. “It was good talking to you, but as it is nearly time for lunch I should wander back to my party. Without me, they’ll probably just eat trail rations when we stop instead of going for proper food.”
—–
While there were regular monster sightings along the way, very few were willing to approach a large group. If they did, they didn’t last long. However, as we approached the theoretical lost site of Namoth, the number of monsters increased. All sorts, but more prominently rock type monsters.
They didn’t have any consistent shape. Some of them were like I expected, vaguely having arms and legs and a head as a sort of humanoid shape. However, there were also just boulders that rolled themselves and shape changing piles of stones.
I was extremely glad to know reinforcement magic, because it allowed me to use any of my weapons to strike stone. Like many such monsters, there weren’t necessarily any critical points… but once enough damage was dealt the creatures died.
When we first encountered them I threw my adamantine dagger from horseback. There was no problem with the weapon itself, as it easily broke into the enemies… but my throwing technique was somewhat lacking from horseback. Daisy wasn’t necessarily meant for warfare, but knowing how to fight while riding her could be useful. However, if there was more than just a single smallish rock monster approaching I would be better off standing on the ground.
When using a melee weapon, I actually had a good reason to really leverage my Strength. Stone was tough, after all, and even though Alhorn could chop into an enemy with his sword or Kasner could break pieces off of one with lightning, I found my extra Strength useful. I could chop deep into one, taking it down in one or two blows instead of beating on an enemy for a longer period of time.
Socks was fairly effective against them as well, but occasionally she chipped a tooth when she tried to crush them with her bite. After all, they were made from various types of stone, and Socks wasn’t able to recognize their individual hardness instantly.
Amusingly enough, occasionally they were made from chalk… which meant they were taken down rather easily. Those were slightly annoying because of the dust they raised up when we broke them into bits, but it wasn’t enough to be dangerous.
The most surprisingly effective person in the party was Kantrilla. She had been working on her mace skills and physical attributes, to be sure, but even so… when she hit them more often than not a crack would appear and a good portion of them would shear off. That was her Luck doing its part… but if she hadn’t had sufficient Strength it still wouldn’t have done anything. Besides, it wasn’t as if it always happened and she was still able to take them down on her own. Sometimes it was just much faster.
Halette was lucky to have learned to make magical arrows, because regular arrows just didn’t have enough mass to break through much rock- even with a lot of power behind them. Fire wasn’t necessarily better, but when she condensed her magic more she could break off serious bits of rock. Her arrows always struck critical points such as shoulders or neck, if they existed. When they didn’t, she could still target something at least vaguely important for the creatures to function. If they’d had eyes, and more than two of them, I would have bet on even more impressively specific and accurate shots.
I had expected Elyver to have more trouble than he did. After all, a weapon like a rapier wasn’t meant for striking rocks… and he was a halfling. While they could be strong like anyone else, his inherent Strength was weaker. However, he made use of his low center of gravity to push his rapier into the enemies. He didn’t have much more than three hundred Strength, but he used it well. As for the rest of his party… there was certainly nothing disappointing about their performances. They had to have been advanced classes as well, but there wasn’t much I could say about a lightning user shooting a bolt of lightning. I noticed his bolts were less natural feeling, not wandering about as electricity was wont to do but instead condensed more into a straight line. I wasn’t sure if that was better than what Kasner did, but it was certainly different. I would have more chances to see how the elven man performed as we continued closer to our destination.