Duskbound

It was a lot easier to kill a champion with another person helping, even if they were doing it during the day when Velik was at his weakest. So far, they'd managed four and it wasn't even noon yet. They were trading off who got to keep the seed, and a greedy little part of Velik had awoken. Torwin had described some of the more useful tools and gear for a hunter, things that Velik hadn't known existed, but which he now desperately wanted.

"Extradimensional storage is my next big purchase," Torwin told him. "It's ruinously expensive, though, and it's a constant drain on your magic. You can't even power it without a high enough mystic stat. But it's so useful!"

It certainly sounded handy, but at a hundred thousand decarmas just for a space the size of a backpack, it'd be a long, long time before Velik purchased any for himself. There were so many useful things he could pick up for a small fraction of that price, things that would make him stronger and let him hunt more powerful monsters safely.

Torwin stopped abruptly and made a halting motion with his hand. "Trouble back at town," he said. "Jensen spent the decarmas to buy a whispering wind. One moment."

What's a whispering wind?

While he waited, Velik decided to look it up. The store had a search function, and it was easy enough to find exactly what that was. For the price of three thousand decarmas, it was a piece of alchemy comprised of some sort of air spirit trapped in a bottle. The user whispered their message into it, then released the spirit to fly to the addressee. With some limitations, the spirit would seek that person out and deliver the message.

There had to be cheaper methods of long-distance communication, but Velik wasn't paying for it, so he just gave a mental shrug and chalked it up to the wastefulness of the nobility. He'd already known Jensen's family was rich, so it didn't much surprise him that he'd throw away huge sums of money on stuff like this.

Whatever the message was, Torwin's face grew more and more grim. "The towns are under attack," he finally said. "Not by a horde of monsters, but by those seed bearers we found, except they're inside humans. From what they can tell, they've been there for a while, months at least. Deshir was completely taken over and they're struggling to rescue the humans who haven't been turned into monsters yet, and Jensen thinks the other towns are in a similar state."

Chalin, did you do this, too?

"We might need to split up," the old hunter said. "One of us keeps going, the other goes back and rescues the towns."

Part of Velik demanded that he immediately start heading south. He'd been protecting those towns against the encroaching monsters for years, and just when he'd finally thought he was close to finding the source, something like this happened. He'd left their safety in the hands of an apprentice who'd failed to do the job, but to be fair, it wasn't exactly a monster horde sweeping out of the forest. If he was right, the corrupted seed bearers had been building up their numbers long before Velik had left.

The other part wanted to press on, to find answers and his childhood friend. He was so close to finally resolving an issue that had plagued the frontier for a decade, an issue that, despite everything, he felt responsible for. Logically, he knew he'd been a child and that it wasn't his fault, but the fact remained that if he and Chalin hadn't gone into that old, ruined dungeon and found that class orb—or whatever it truly was—then none of this wouldn't have happened. Intentional or not, they'd set off the chain of events that had led to the current problems.

"I could make it back in three days if I pushed and didn't stop for sleep," Velik said. "Maybe less if I don't run into too many monsters."

"Logically, it'd probably be better if you went back and I kept going. I'm a higher level and more experienced with this type of work. However, that's my apprentice calling for help. I have an obligation. Additionally, if this infestation is producing monsters that can infiltrate towns, I'm going to need to start sending warning letters to other communities. No offense, but I don't think you have the knowledge to handle that task."

"I wouldn't even know where to start," Velik admitted.

Torwin nodded unhappily. "If we're lucky, this will be contained to the frontier towns. Best not to rely on luck too much, not if we don't have to. I'll go back, take care of the corrupted seeds, and get the region mobilized. If it's bad enough, I might even have to call the guild for reinforcements."

"And I'll keep following the compass until I reach the source."

Hopefully I don't run into another level 40 champion. I'm sure I'm close to leveling up again, but I don't think 33 is going to be much better than 32. Maybe if I could get a skill merger…

He was no closer to that than when he'd started, unfortunately. [Phalanx] had seemed like a good idea at the time, but what he wanted and what the skill wanted weren't the same thing. Trying to twist it to meet his needs had been a mistake, and he wasn't sure how to find a middle ground that would allow him to incorporate it into his fighting style.

"Good luck," Torwin said softly. "I'd hate to come back out here to find you dead. Be careful, and don't hesitate to run from a fight that's beyond you."

"When am I ever not careful?"

"Didn't you solo a champion elite more than ten levels higher than you yesterday night?"

"Hey, I won, didn't I?"

"You should have run," Torwin said flatly. "These aren't meant to be fought alone. It's frankly insane that you're alive, no matter how strong your class is."

There was some truth to that. Ending up inside that monster's mouth without getting chewed on had been a huge determining factor in his victory. Prior to that, Velik had struggled to even damage such a powerful monster. But that wasn't a strategy he was eager to repeat, so he had to acknowledge some wisdom in Torwin's advice.

Then again, that particular champion's domain seemed to move with it for some reason, so he wasn't entirely sure escape had ever been an option, not that he'd tried all that hard to find out. Maybe I really am an idiot. But no, that thing had my name. It needed to die before Torwin saw it and started asking uncomfortable questions. I had good reasons to take the risks I did.

"I'll keep that in mind. Run fast. Keep everyone safe."

"I will," the old hunter said. "Farewell for now. Find whatever's making these monsters and put an end to it."

On that, they agreed.

* * *

He was pleased with how well his seeds were doing. There'd been some resistance, of course. That was to be expected. Inroads had been made, but there was only so much subterfuge could accomplish before force was required. Perhaps, if he'd had more time… But no, the nodes were being severed. He'd already lost his connection with too many of his creations.

New seeds would have to be made, and not the weak, numerous seeds that grew in clusters like grapes. Powerful seeds, the exemplars to all monsters, took time to craft. Sadly, that was a resource he suddenly found himself in short supply of. His guardian had been defeated, and more nodes were falling with each passing hour.

Loathe as he was to admit it, his strategy wasn't performing as well as expected when he'd begun this project. There'd been too much opposition, too many setbacks. His elites had never quite managed to secure the foothold he desired, and while the monsters he'd unleashed into the savage wild lands were surviving, they weren't truly thriving in the manner he'd envisioned.

For all those other problems, the seeds that had reached the border between man and monster were doing remarkably well. Three of the towns were resisting and would probably reclaim their homes with massive casualties, one had repelled the infestation easily, and the last, the one where he was most deeply entrenched, was likely to secure a total victory.

That wasn't surprising. That town had served as his test site. He'd been sending his seed bearers there for over a year, slowly growing their ranks until they represented over a quarter of the town. He'd wanted to replicate that in the other towns, but the nodes being brought down had forced his hand, and he'd given the command early.

Other than that one level 19 running around, causing problems, he hadn't anticipated much resistance. And in many respects, that had been a correct assumption. He'd merely erred in underestimating how much damage that level 19 could actually do.

In the end, it didn't matter. The seeds were expendable. The nodes were expendable. Even the guardian was expendable. He could replace them, and he would. Even if this attempt failed, he'd just start building resources for another one. He'd already spread far and wide into the wilderness. The kingdoms of man would fall as well.