A Vulpine Spanner in the Works
Chapter 36: Hop in, Loser. We're Going Job Hunting
[Ninya]
Day: 31
"Have you noticed how…busy it is at the guild today?" Lukrut asked as we all sat at a table on the second floor of the guild together. The only people currently missing from our group were Peter and mom as they were downstairs collecting a job.
The reason for this was because mom wanted us to take harder jobs so that we could challenge ourselves, but she needed to be there with Peter as he picked before the receptionists would sign off on them. It actually felt nice to be doing a regular job again.
"Yeah. It's very strange." Dyne replied as he looked over the railing near our table at the larger than usual activity of adventurers below. "I reckon it's due to the Magician's Guild giving out free potions, among other things."
"You mean rumors of the Fox Princess?" As I said this, it was hard to not just giggle at the topic of discussion sweeping across the city who was currently in line with Peter as they got a job for us.
"Most likely. That kind of news tends to cause a commotion. I'd guess that a few adventurers came here from outside the city because they believe news of a goddess in the city would also attract people, attracting jobs in turn. Give it a week or two. If the job boom doesn't occur by then, then they'll move off." Dyne answered with a nod.
"Do you think that'll happen, a job boom, I mean?" I wondered. Dyne smirked at that.
"Well, there's been an uptick in requests to be escorted to the Great Lake of Tob. That says something."
I found myself smirking at that, "Wonder how much she enjoys that happening?" I pondered.
"She'd probably find it funny to see a bunch of people running off into the woods." Lukrut threw in, making me giggle. "Though, I bet she'd hate having more busywork to do."
"You're probably right." I shrugged before adding, "On the topic of jobs and requests, what do you think that Peter and Kashia are grabbing for us?"
"Probably something that is different from the normal jobs we usually take. Else, they wouldn't be taking so long to acquire it." Dyne replied with a thoughtful hum. "It could also be that they are having an issue finding a job for us since there are so many adventurers in the guild today."
I hoped that the second thought wasn't the case since that would be a sign of things to come. Namely, a glut of jobs. It was always worse for the copper-plates since if there was a lack of jobs for the ranks higher than them, then said higher ranks would take jobs that were a rank lower. This caused a cascading effect that always left copper-plates with the short-end of the stick since there were only so many jobs that they could get.
Much to my relief, mom announced, "We're finally back with a job for all of you." As she and Peter walked over to us.
"What did you get?" Lukrut asked quickly. Mom gave an amused grin before looking over to Peter. I took the chance to notice how much those golden motes of mana were gathering around mom's tails this morning. More specifically, they seemed to all be concentrating on what seemed to be a phantom tail of gold. I had kept an eye on how those golden motes had been concentrating for multiple days now, and they seemed to constantly keep increasing.
At this point, I didn't know if mom's strange phantom limb was going to explode in a burst of mana or something else. All I did know from my study of magic is that extreme concentrations of mana like that typically meant that a spell of great power was about to be performed or something was on the verge of exploding. Sometimes even both.
"Why don't you go ahead and tell the group?" Mom prompted our leader, pulling me away from my thoughts.
Peter smirked in response before nodding in agreement, "Since all of us have been doing that training to strengthen ourselves, Kashia and I thought that it would be reasonable for us to attempt taking on a job to promote ourselves." As Peter said this, we all found ourselves in various states of surprise since this was unexpected.
"What?" We asked together.
Peter chuckled before answering, "Trust me when I say that I was just as surprised as you guys are when Kashia told me this."
Mom then spoke up, "To loop you all in, I spoke with Pluton before the rest of you came in this morning about the training I've been putting all of you through. I also alluded to him that I felt all of you were at the point where you should be able to take a promotional exam to the gold-plate rank."
"And he agreed, just like that?" Dyne questioned.
"Well, I am an adamantite-plate. I have a slight bit of leeway when it comes to recommending that someone be promoted. And, as it stands, the four of you are definitely beyond the rank of silver-plates at this point." Mom explained with a grin.
While we had always planned to eventually become gold-plates, that had been a distant goal. But considering how much stronger we've gotten since doing all that dungeon delving, it seems that today was the day, "Then, what promotional exam are we taking?" I quickly asked with excitement.
"Just along the road west of E-Rantel, there's been reports of a pack of barghests prowling the area that have been attacking merchants and travelers. Since we can't have that happen, your job will be to eliminate the pack to stop any further attacks." As mom told us this, I considered what I knew of barghests.
They were very similar to wolves; except they have horns and are wrapped in magical chains that they use to attack their prey. In addition to this, they are also said to be intelligent. This made hunting these creatures a dangerous task for weaker adventurers and required any who tried hunting them to be gold-plate or higher.
"Interesting. Any reason as to why the barghests are coming out of the Great Forest of Tob? They typically don't do so." Dyne asked curiously.
"No idea. That would be up to us to figure out." Peter answered.
Lukrut smirked, "Then it seems that we'll be in for a possible surprise." The archer remarked.
"You're in high spirits for what could turn out to be something dangerous." Dyne said with an amused glance.
"We had to handle constant surprises that typically involved pitfalls or poison darts the past couple of days. The fact that we're not likely to suffer either of those two things puts me in a good mood." Lukrut reasoned, which I couldn't find myself arguing with.
"Yeah, I have to agree with Lukrut on this one." I spoke up, "Anything's better than the traps in that dungeon of horrors."
Peter laughed at our musings, "I'll take it that we're all in agreement on taking this mission?" We all gave Peter our agreements, "Good. Then the final important thing to note is that Kashia will not try to help us unless we need it since she'll be acting as an observer for Guildmaster Ainzach."
All of us glanced to mom who looked unbothered, "It's only reasonable that I mostly stay back and observe. If I got involved, then there wouldn't be anything left for the rest of you to fight." Mom explained.
"Fair enough. Can't let you hog all the spotlight." Lukrut teased.
"I won't argue on that front. Now, since you're all up for the challenge, we should get going since those barghests won't just hunt themselves." Mom replied with her hands on her hips.
With that said, Lukrut, Dyne, and I got up from our chairs before our entire group began walking towards the stairs. It was exciting to know that we'd be getting promoted once this job was completed. We were taking another step in advancing our careers.
[Baharuth Empire – Wilderness]
On a horse-drawn cart was a group of four people chatting amongst themselves. "So, Hekkeran, think this job is going to be easy or difficult?" A well-armored man asked. He had short blond hair that was neatly styled along with a trimmed beard.
Among the four people sitting on the cart, he was the most armored, with steel plate covering his body and a long white tabard with red symbols across it covering his armor. Strapped to the right side of a belt wrapped around his waist was a satchel while the left side held a morningstar.
"Considering that we're heading into the Great Forest of Tob, we're likely not going to have an easy time, Roberdyck." Hekkeran answered. The man had blond hair that spiked up at the front, with a tuft of red hair on left side of his head. Compared to his companion, Hekkeran barely looked armored, with only a brown and yellow tunic covering a white and red shirt.
Yet, the faint noise of chainmail could be heard underneath his clothes whenever the cart hit a bump in the road. At both sides of Hekkeran's waist were matching swords.
"At least we aren't the only team going into Tob. We've got four more teams behind us of adventurers and workers that help lessen the danger of entering the forest." A woman with purple hair tied in pigtails remarked while pointing to the four carts behind them.
The woman was thin, without any curve on her form that gave her a slight androgynous appearance. She wore a mixture of light-colored cloth and brown leather as her armor, with most of the leather gathered around her left arm where she held her bow. What was especially unique about her appearance were the pair of long pointed ears, denoting her race as a half-elf.
"You're right, but it doesn't hurt to be wary about a job's difficulty. Especially when it involves some random structure that appeared within the forest near the lake." Hekkeran replied.
The woman gained a glum look at the mention of the lake, "This better not involve swimming because I refuse to do so."
"You need to get over your problem with water sooner or later, Imina." A girl with short blonde hair and the youngest of the group at 16, stated. "It might become detrimental to you in the future."
In comparison to the rest, she was the least armored as she wore a pink tunic with a small leather plate over her chest that also helped to hold her dark cloak up. Leaned against her shoulder was a staff of dark metal.
"You can try everything you want to convince me otherwise, Arche, but I'm still not going to swim. Never again after that job." Imina said with a shiver. Hekkeran put a hand on the half-elf's shoulder in reassurance.
"Cheer up, Imina. Arche is just trying to help you out." As Hekkeran said this, Imina rolled her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest.
"Still not changing my mind, no matter how often the rest of you attempt to do so." Imina resolutely stated.
"Fine, we'll leave it be." Hekkeran conceded before switching subjects, "Hopefully, this place will have a lot of treasure. That would make this payday even better."
"Yeah, that'd make up for the fact that this place is near a lake." Imina agreed.
"I'll send out my prayers to the gods that it's so." Roberdyck said while holding the cross symbol of his necklace. Each of the four points was meant to represent one of the Four Great Gods. The jewel in the center symbolized their unity.
"I'd welcome a windfall of treasure right now. It would get me so much closer to paying off my family's debts." Arche said with a hopeful smile. The rest of the group looked at Arche and gave her a nod of sympathy.
Arche's family were once nobles until Emperor Jircniv's rise to power. After that occurred, they were one of the multiple noble families stripped of their status and properties. Yet, her parents continued to frivolously waste money to maintain the charade of their former riches.
Even destitute, her parents borrowed money that they could never afford to pay back. It was bad enough that Arche had to cancel her studies at the Empire's magic academy to become a worker in order to take care of her family's financial issues. Ordinarily, Arche would've left her parents in the ever-growing hole that they dug themselves into, but that would also mean leaving her younger sisters behind to be dragged down with her parents.
And so, Arche continued trying to pay the debts that they accrued so that she could protect her sisters. The young mage had little doubt that her parents might be willing to sell off her sisters in a marriage if it would get them more money.
"Not to worry, Arche. Even if the treasure turns out to be a bust, there's still the initial reward we're getting for traveling to this structure to investigate. 15 gold for each of us is pretty good." Roberdyck reminded the girl in order to distract her from her worries.
"Yeah, that is helpful." Arche agreed, "But this does make me wonder why our client is paying so much for this job? With all the groups behind us being paid 15 gold per member, that's a lot of coin being thrown around."
Hekkeran shook his head at the question, "The guy who hired us was some middleman to our actual client. At least, that's what I'm inclined to believe. Either this is some powerful noble who doesn't want their name to attract the wrong sort of worker or adventurer, or this is someone who needs to keep their identity hidden. Best not to ask as long as their information is correct and the pay is good."
"It's still quite curious. Makes you wonder what is so special about this structure that the client is willing to spend this much money for it?" Imina questioned.
"Maybe it's magical? That or the gods just dumped a structure out into the woods for no discernible reason?" Hekkeran chuckled as he looked over to Roberdyck, "No offense, Rob."
Roberdyck, a paladin of the Four Great Gods, took the jest in good humor with a chuckle, "None taken, Hekkeran. I'd be amazed if that were the case."
"We've got a few more days to speculate, at least." Imina offered.
"That we do." Hekkeran replied.
[Neia]
Day 32:
I found my consciousness coming back to me as my eyes slowly began to open. Then, I felt pain from my left eye at the attempt and my hand went to feel it, except there was a strange cloth, almost like a feather, tied over my left eye.
"Best to not touch, one-eyed girl. Feather of mine, over poultice found, helps to heal the eye now gone." The voice said with a vibrating hum to its melodic voice. Yet, my remaining eye widened as the events of yesterday came back to me!
The red tree my squad found made of blood-red wood and living bodies. The horrid roots moving like terrible snakes as they ensnared each of my squadmates. The root that took my eye. The fate I almost shared until lightning struck down the attacking roots and a wall of feathers surrounded me.
Quickly, I took note of my surroundings which seemed to be the depths of a cave. There was a fire a few feet near me, lighting up the caving in constantly twisting shadows.
"Wh-Who are you? What happened? There was lightning, a wall of feathers, and then that was it." I questioned while weakly pushing myself into a sitting position.
"One-eyed girl asks a grand many questions, yet injured she be and rest she needs. This Thoughtful One has some answers, but can half-sight fully see them?" The voice replied with a hint of amusement, yet it still maintained that vibrating hum.
"Can you just tell me?" I asked as I felt the urge to scratch at my missing eye, but restrained myself from doing so.
"But this Thoughtful One has told one-eyed girl. Yet, not all are the Mindful One. Forgive; Thoughtful One hasn't spoken with many others in sound of throat and tongue in many growths of the Tree." A quick vibrating hum was followed by a few clicks of what I assumed was the being's tongue. It almost seemed like it was testing out the movement and sound.
"Yes, Thoughtful One understands; shall simplify, make easier. Huginn is the Thought and Thought is the Huginn. Some would say Odinson, but one of eye, thought, and mind is closer than one of loin. Huginn has spoken, what of one-eyed girl? Or is this one nameless, unknown, unthought?" What sounded like the flapping of wings echoed behind me.
Turning around, I couldn't spot whatever it was that made the noise. Additionally, moving that fast made me slightly nauseous and I was forced to stay still for a few moments before the nausea went down.
"Okay, Huginn." I said, getting a vibrating hum of acknowledgement from the being, "My name's Neia Baraja. Uh…thanks for saving me."
"Welcome you are, Neia Baraja, one-eyed girl. One-eyed girl called for help. Father, Creator, Odin heard and Huginn came with lightning and the sky's rage." As Huginn said this, an imitated sound of thunder cracking filled the cave, yet it didn't deafen me. "Huginn spirited you away from the tainted, monstrous, imitation, corpse tree of the World." Huginn said this with multiple angry clicks.
"But I never called out for help. At least, I didn't speak it…" I said as I recalled the events of before.
"Neia Baraja, one-eyed girl, prayed for help. The one-eyed god, Father, Creator, Odin heard your plea." My eye widened and my jaw dropped as Huginn announced that a god was the one to help me. Then, a dark form, larger than I was, grew in my peripheral vision. I looked over and found myself jumping closer to the fire as I saw what looked to be a large raven the size of a man, with dark feathers and a right eye of electric-blue and a pitch-black left eye both looking at me with its head cocked.
I was unable to hide the shout that escaped my lips. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the feathers around the throat of the giant raven began moving before a 'Caw Caw Caw' came from its beak. It did this for a few more moments before I guessed that the giant bird was laughing at me.
"One-eyed girl scared of Huginn? Size perhaps? One-eyed girl should not worry for Father, Creator, Odin wishes you safe, wishes you well. Huginn does the same." It was strange to watch the raven's beak move and human speech to escape.
But this was truly Huginn. He was not a human, not a demi-human, and I doubted that he was truly a raven. Or at least, what a normal raven should be.
"What reason would a god have to save me? I've never even heard of this Odin before today. Why would he want me save compared to a paladin like Francus? I'm just a squire, absolutely nothing unlike him." Saying this, I thought about why someone would save a one-eyed girl like me?
I'm average with a bow, just like I'm average with a blade. Francus, on the other hand, was a devout man who was skilled with his mace. People liked him while I was seen with suspicion and dislike due to my eyes, well, eye now.
"One-eyed girl was the only one to ask for help. Father, Creator, Odin chose the one-eyed girl because she prayed, not to any of the four gods her people do, but to any god. Nothing you may be now, but nothing is not what you must remain. The one-eyed god chose the one-eyed girl. And, perhaps, the one-eyed girl might choose the one-eyed god?" Huginn's feathers ruffled after he said this and a throaty hum filled the cave.
A god chose me? Out of everyone else, a god chose me, the squire with the ugly gaze…
"Who is Odin?" I asked. Huginn made a slight hop over to me before sitting down next to me.
"Father, Creator, Odin is the one-eyed god, leader of the Aesir gods, brother of the trickster god, Loki. Father, Creator, Odin gave up his eye to the World Tree, Yggdrasil, so that he may have knowledge and understanding of the realms. From his eye that he split in twain; the Thoughtful One, Huginn; the Mindful One, Muninn were born. My Other and Huginn both travel the realms so that Father, Creator, Odin can see."
Huginn then leaned in close to me with an electric blue eye that studied me. As it did so, I came to the sudden realization that Huginn wasn't the only one looking at me within those ancient blue depths. The gaze of a god was also fixed upon me. All of that ancient wisdom, all of that power. I could just feel it.
"He is watching me?" I found myself asking.
"Yes. He sees the one-eyed girl that could carry his voice and vision. But what will the one-eyed girl, Neia Baraja, choose?" With Huginn asking this, I thought about it.
An actual god wanted me. Unlike so many other priests, clerics, and paladins who said that the gods spoke to them in mysterious ways, Odin was being direct with his messenger. He wanted me.
"Could you tell me more about him?" I asked hesitantly, earning a set of clicks from Huginn.
"One-eyed girl, Neia Baraja, is inquisitive. Questions, thirst for answers, a mind open to listen. Father, Creator, Odin likes this. So too, does Huginn. So, listen to this Thoughtful One and hear Huginn speak of gods…"
[Lukrut]
We'd traveled for over a day along the road leading from E-Rantel to E-Pespel. The first night, we set up camp and took up shifts to stay awake. There were two reasons for this. The first reason was because Kashia said she'd be giving us very limited help, so any normal protections we'd usually have wouldn't react unless it was life or death.
The second reason is because barghests are smart. They would prowl about and wait for travelers to be at the most vulnerable before striking. And they would always know when the best time to strike would be. It was what made them a terrifying monster to fight.
I remember years ago the times my father would talk about his adventures when he was younger. Yet, one of the most terrifying adventures was the time he had to survive against a pack of barghests. Originally, he was part of a hunting party that was sent to deal with what was thought to be a pack of wolves killing the village sheep. There were 12 of them at the time.
The night after a few more animals had been killed and eaten, dad and the 11 others started tracking the paw prints in the dirt. The paw prints seemed slightly larger than usual, but nothing to be too bothered by. The tracks seemed to lead around a large area until dad and the group tracked the pack into the forest. By that point, dad and the others had spent almost a day hunting these wolves and the sun was beginning to dip.
So, they set up camp for the night in cheerful spirits that they'd find the den of these wolves the next day. They had a fire lit and two of them would stay on watch for a few hours before switching off. For the first two shifts, nothing happened.
On the third, the one my dad was woken up for, the other man on shift quickly screamed before getting dragged off into the woods. In the midst of dad and the other watchman trying to wake up the others, two more were dragged off from within their tents. The barghests went unseen as they hid behind the shadows the tents made before using chains to drag off another prize.
It was after losing five people that dad and the others lit their own tents on fire to fill the entire area with light and create a fiery barrier from the monstrous wolves. They kept their backs to the original fire pit and spent the rest of the night awake, holding off the barghests that prowled around them, just waiting for a moment that they might falter.
Thankfully, that didn't happen and the seven hunters held the barghests off until the sun began to rise. With the cover of night disappearing, the monsters ran off back to the woods, satisfied with their haul.
Dad told me that it was the most terrifying night of his life. I completely believed him as his eyes always held that look of terror whenever he spoke of that night.
With how terrifying dad made the creatures out to be, I did some reading on barghests and their behaviors. This was mostly so that I could know if I was dealing with one and could avoid it. Funny that the knowledge I used to avoid them would now be helpful when trying to hunt a group of them.
Last night, we didn't have any issue with nighttime assaults. So, we had our breakfast, packed up our tents and gear, and headed off down the road once more. It wasn't even the afternoon when we found the first signs of our prey. A toppled wagon with the remains of a horse that had been torn apart by sharp teeth. As for the driver, they had been dragged off into the tall grass of the plains.
"Kashia, got a scent trail on the missing driver?" I asked which she nodded in answer.
"It splits into two directions before converging towards the copse over there." As Kashia said this, she pointed over to the ominous groupings of trees. "That's all I'll give you four right now. The planning and hunting of this barghest pack is up to you."
"Fair enough." Peter agreed. Then, he turned to the rest of us, "How much do we know about barghests beyond just their overall threat and abilities?"
This was something that I could easily answer, "Barghests are nocturnal hunters that utilize their dark coloring to blend in with the night. This results in them being prone to ambush hunting in addition to whatever hunting tactics their packs already use."
Peter looked into the sky after I said this to judge the time before looking back down to us. "We've got a long while before the sun goes down. Right now is the best time to strike."
"The only problem is trying to attack these ambush predators while they are hiding in within the copse." Dyne remarked, "It would be foolish to charge in recklessly."
I couldn't help but smirk, "Well, it would certainly be hard for these barghests to ambush us if they don't have anywhere to hide. We've got a capable mage who knows some fire spells." Saying this, I patted Ninya on the shoulder, causing our mage to blush at the compliment.
"Sounds like the start of a plan…"
After coming up with our plan, I scouted out the size of the copse by walking outside its perimeter to get a good judge of the distance that I would need to shoot my arrows. As it happened, this would be a simple enough shot to make.
Once I finished circling around, I met back up with the others and pulled out a few arrows.
"How's it look for you, Lukrut?" Peter asked. I gave him a confident grin in reply.
"Plan A will work since I can make the shots from here." I answered.
We came up with a few plans before our assault on the barghests. Plan A is to light a few of my arrows with Ninya's fire spells before firing them at different points of the copse so that the spreading fire would drive the barghests to us. But this was only if it was possible for me to land the shots.
Plan B was to have Peter, Ninya, and I light fires at the different points and circle around to meet up with Dyne.
Nocking an arrow onto my bow before drawing the string back, I gave Ninya a nod and she lit the tip of my arrow with that blue flame of [Foxfire]. Then, I let the arrow loose over the copse before nocking another one and repeating the process.
As Ninya and I were working on drawing the monsters out, Dyne went to work growing walls of roots and vines that would funnel the barghests into a killing zone. Peter took point during this with his flaming sword brandished in preparation.
Once Dyne finished his word, the druid joined Peter with his plant-like mace hefted at the ready. A circle of magic grew at the top of Ninya's staff and I grew a root arrow from my hand before nocking it onto my bow.
It took only a few minutes before fire was fully consuming the copse and monstrous howls echoed from within.
"Get ready!" Peter warned as the beasts burst out from the bushes and trees of the copse with looks of anger directed at us.
The barghests looked like large wolves with dark gray fur which was the only similarity in appearance that they shared. Unlike wolves, the barghests had a short set of horns at the top of their heads, just between the ears. Chains of dark metal wrapped around their bodies, moving as if possessed. And then, there were the eyes. Ghostly blue filled with an animalistic intelligence.
Ninya shot a ball of blue flame out at a barghest, fully igniting it in azure flames as it yelped in pain. I followed it up by hitting another barghest with my root arrow, making spiked roots explode out from it before stabbing into two others of the pack and pulling them into the first.
Growing another arrow, I shot another approaching barghest, yet this time I didn't take any others with it as the barghests spread themselves apart from one another, learning from what they saw happen to the three other beasts.
Ninya took out another and I readied another arrow. In moments, another barghest was down, yet four more of the pack were still alive as they charged at Dyne and Peter. Two split off to attack Peter who ducked under a chain being whipped at his head before jerking to the side as another chain tried to wrap around him.
With sudden retaliation, fire burst from Peter's sword as he slashed down on the outstretched chain, cutting it in half. A howl of pain came from the second barghest at its injury as the piece of separated chain flopped a few times on the ground like a fish before becoming still.
The second barghest jumped away from Peter while the first attempted to leap at Peter's throat with its maw wide open. This was the last mistake the beast ever made as Peter, with practiced ease from our training, stabbed his sword forwards and let the beast's momentum allow it to be impaled from its jaws and down into the rest of its body.
As the second barghest was distracted by its packmate's death, Ninya lit it ablaze in more blue flame.
Looking over to Dyne, I saw him smash his mace into a charging barghest while its partner was rooted to the ground by plants and roots conjured by Dyne. With ease Dyne battered the attacking barghest as the other tried biting at the roots holding it in place.
With a smirk, I readied another arrow and let it loose, killing the creature in an instant as Dyne ended the other with a sickening crunch to its skull. It was good to note that none of us seemed winded from this fight. It meant that our training was clearly paying off.
But before we had any time to relax, a singular howl, louder than all the others, came from the woods as what appeared to be another barghest erupted from the burning trees. This one was much different from the other beasts that we fought.
For one; it stood twice as large as any of its packmates, towering over all of us. For another; whereas the other barghests had a singular coil of chain wrapped around their bodies, this creature had multiple that hung around it like snakes preparing to strike. The horns of this creature more so resembled those of a stag's in length compared to the short horns of the others.
And finally; the eyes of this creature glowed a complete blue, yet it was undeniable to see how angry these eyes were. It met the gaze of each of us. Even Kashia wasn't exempt from its hatred.
"This is a greater barghest!" I alerted the others. Of what I can recall about greater barghests, they come about after a normal barghest lives for more than 20 years and acquires the chains of other barghests it defeats.
"Anything we should be aware about it in comparison to the normal lot?" Peter quickly asked as the beast continued to study us, planning its next attack.
"Not much besides the fact that they're stronger and have greater magical control over their chains than normal barghests. Of said abilities, I'm not sure, so we need to be careful." I answered before drawing back another root arrow and firing it at the beast's eye.
Much to my surprise, a chain lashed out and caught the arrow in the air before tossing it aside. A howl came from the greater barghest in challenge to us before it started a charge.
Ninya and I loosed arrow and spell alike to deal some damage, but each arrow was slapped aside while Ninya's bolts of fire were blocked by the chains, turning them molten red. Dyne joined in as he cast a spell, "[Twine Plant]!"
Roots and vines came from the ground to try and entangle the greater barghest, and it was delaying the beast. The only issue is that it wouldn't hold for long because those chains of it were tearing at the ground and plants to free itself.
Peter took this moment to charge the beast while it was held. Yet, as it swung a chain at his head and it was all Peter could do to duck under the chain as it cracked over his head like a whip. I had no doubt that it would've killed Peter if it made contact.
Ninya cast more bolts of [Foxfire] that the beast continued to block. Each time, the chain would become molten red before it used a different section of chain. Yet, my eyes followed those weakened chain links and I smirked as an idea came to mind.
"Dyne, keep holding it down while I drag its focus!" Peter told Dyne as he dodged a second whip of chain and parried a third away with his blade.
"Got it!" Dyne replied as he continually reinforced his first [Twine Plant] with more castings of the spell.
As that happened, I readied a normal arrow and followed the movements of the brightly lit sections of chain. Just as the creature's attention was pulled by Ninya launching another bold of flame, I shot my arrow at a weakened section of chain and smiled as hit the mark and broke through that weakened chain, causing a large length of it to fall to the ground with a few weak movements.
The greater barghest howled in pain as its attention turned to me. "Hope you liked that, you damn mutt!" Upon hearing my taunt, the barghest snarled at me which was all the distraction needed for two things to happen.
Ninya's [Foxfire] directly impacted the greater barghest around the eye, destroying the eye and burning away the fur, flesh, and some of the bone around the area. This earned another cry of pain from the beast before Peter charged in and sliced through its trapped left front leg with his blade.
Not expecting this attack, nor the loss of its limb, the greater barghest lost its balance and toppled over, giving Dyne the chance to swing his mace at the beast, causing a mass of roots to burst from the mace and slam into its face.
Keeping up the tempo, I fired a root arrow at its remaining eye while Ninya launched another bolt of [Foxfire] at its ruined one.
Both our attacks hit at the same time with my root arrow expanding into a mass of sharpened roots that burst from its head in different directions while Ninya's flame lit said roots alight.
The greater barghest didn't even have the chance to whimper before dropping to the ground dead. Before we could celebrate too earlier, we looked back to the burning copse a little longer in case anymore barghests had been hiding inside.
It was only after we confirmed no more of the pack remained that we began celebrating.
"We did it!" Ninya shouted with both her hands raised above her head.
"Hell yeah!" I agreed as I rushed over to the young mage and picked her up before throwing her over my shoulder and spinning us in circles. Ninya wasn't even bothered as she began laughing.
I didn't get long spinning Ninya as Peter and Dyne tackled us into an embrace, "We're gonna be gold-plates!" Peter exclaimed.
"No more terrible jobs!" Dyne joked as we all began laughing in our pile.
We were finally going to be gold-plates! All of the hard work we've been doing has paid off!
In the midst of our celebration, Kashia walked over to with a warm smile on her face before crouching down to meet us, "Congrats on winning this fight without my assistance. You guys have definitely earned that promotion when you get back." My beautiful fox said with a proud tone.
"And what are you doing outside this celebration pile? You're one of the direct reasons that we can celebrate in the first place!" As I said this, I grabbed her by the hand and pulled her to the ground with us, earning a surprised yelp followed by a laugh.
[Kashia]
Following the impromptu celebration, we eventually got off the ground and began to harvest horns from the barghests as proof to the guild of the job's completion. In addition to this, we also took the chains of the beasts with us as well.
From what I was told, due to the inherently magical properties of the chains, blacksmiths paid good money for acquiring them. That was certainly an interesting train of these creatures, especially because I've never seen them in YGGDRASIL. That'd make them a species unique to this world.
Though, I couldn't figure out if the chains surrounding their bodies was something they were born with, something they conjured with magic, or some other process that I just couldn't identify.
Oddly, in the middle of breaking off another set of horns for the team, I faintly heard the noise of many different voices all at once before I felt a sharp itching pain coming from my tail bone. It was enough to make me stop and hiss in pain before I felt good enough to start moving again.
What the hell was that?
Looking around, I saw that no one else had noticed my momentary weakness as they were busy harvesting the corpses. Taking a deep breath, I rubbed the painful area of my tailbone and wondered if this happened because of my constant use of [Kitsune Illusion]? Maybe it did have side-effects of using it for too long?
Then again, if that were the case then I'd probably have experienced them a lot sooner than this.
I'd have to look into this a bit later. Right now, it was a time for the group to celebrate. I'd figure out what the problem was when we got back to the city.
"Everyone finished collecting everything from the barghests?" Peter asked us as he stood up from the beast he'd been working on.
"Yeah. I'm done over here." Dyne responded as he got up shoving the horns into a small bag at his hip.
"Same." Ninya said quickly as put her horns into one of the pouches on her outfit. Lukrut gave a grunt of affirmation as he chopped off the last horn on the barghest he'd been working on.
"Just a moment." I said, taking another breath and standing up, thankful that there wasn't any lingering pain from earlier. Then, I turned to the others and gave them a large grin. "Ready to go!"
Taking a glance at the copse that was now just smoldering wood at this point, I was happy to note that the fire hadn't spread any further. Part of this was due to me drenching the nearby grass in a water spell to prevent any wildfires. The rest is because there wasn't that much tall grass near the copse.
With everything to my satisfaction, I walked over and joined the others before we all began walking back towards the road to E-Rantel.
"So, since we're now barghest slayers. What do you think would be the next tier up from that?" Lukrut joked as we walked.
"Troll slayers? Giant spider slayers? Not sure on that end." Dyne answered back, earning a snort from Peter.
"Giant rats?" Peter added.
"Hold on now," Lukrut said while putting his hands between himself and Peter, "we can't start going crazy now. Giant rats are 'too powerful' for any mere mortal to face." Ninya smirked and nodded at this, playing along.
"Yes, you're right, Lukrut. We obviously need to employ the services of a giant cat to rid the world of such foes." Ninya reasoned, earning laughs from the rest of us. At least, it did for the others.
Mid-laugh, I felt another itching pain at my tailbone followed by some more distant whispering that I still couldn't make out, but was louder than last time. I tried to hide my issue with a grin, but it seemed like my daughter noticed something was off with me.
This resulted in her discreetly moving over to my side before she whispered to me, "Is everything okay, mom? You seem off." Tousling her hair in reassurance, I gave her a nod.
"I'm good, kiddo. Everything's fine." I replied. Yet, Ninya didn't seem fully convinced.
"Okay, mom. I'm just making sure." Ninya said with a soft smile in return.
I gave her a one-armed hug in reply. "Enough about me. How do you feel now that you'll be returning to E-Rantel with a promotion waiting for you?" I asked. That seemed to do it as Ninya lost that concerned looked and her face became filled with excitement.
"I can't wait. We've been working on ranking up in the guild, but we always thought that it would be a few more years before we'd be strong enough to do so." Ninya explained as she looked ahead of us towards the others, "But now that we've made this much progress in such a short amount of time," She looked back up at me with a massive grin, "I think that we'll definitely be able to become platinum-plates within a year!"
"And I'll be there to help you out cheer you on the entire time." I promised.
"I wouldn't want it any other way."
[Neia]
Huginn and I had spent a long time talking with one another. He had spoken so much about the god Odin, and it still felt slightly unreal to me. And yet, the proof of it was sitting right in front of me, staring at me with that ancient gaze that just seemed to blanket me in power.
"You're saying that this world is just another realm of the World Tree, Yggdrasil, but also that it isn't? How does that even work?" I asked as we had moved on from the topic covering Odin specifically, and towards the land that he comes from. From what I understood, Odin and his fellow gods all lived spread out on realms connected to each other by a giant entity called Yggdrasil.
There were nine realms in totals, each one completely unique from one another, yet still connected. And then, Huginn claimed that this world was a tenth realm that wasn't an original realm of Yggdrasil. It confused me and didn't make sense.
"One-eyed girl's question is simple; Answers to it are many. Explaining it converges upon the demigoddess' arrival. Huginn has explored much of this realm; visited by others Yggdrasil-born. Unlike others, demigoddess of the fox acted as a beacon; called to here the divine and ancient. Father, Creator, Odin called here, he be, for demigoddess of the fox carried the staff claimed, wrested, taken from Father, Creator, Odin." As Huginn said this, I felt like he had only opened up more things for me to question.
"A demigoddess of the fox stole a staff from Odin, bringing his attention here? And that was just what brought Odin's attention here?" I asked, piecing together what the giant raven said.
Huginn made a clicking from his beak before nodding, "Indeed, yes, correct, one-eyed girl. Demigoddess of the fox, Kashia Blanc, daughter of fox mother goddess Inari. Called mother fox with her presence, like she called the goddess war mother Freyja; and Father, Creator, Odin's brother, trickster god Loki. Chosen of both, she is; possibility of drawing further gazes of other gods, likely as well." Huginn pecked his beak on the cave's floor, almost like he was trying to prove a point.
"Empty gods given prayer and belief in this world. Much power is left open to claim, much worship; yet only room for finite gods. Demigoddess of the fox and fox mother already claiming, but Father, Creator, Odin desires some as well. Yet, only a small aspect of his interest in this realm that isn't a realm of Yggdrasil."
"And is Odin an enemy to this fox demigoddess? Is that his reason for being interested in this realm aside from worship?" I earned a shake from Huginn's head in answer.
"Annoyed by fox demigoddess for defeating his avatar; Father, Creator, Odin is. But defeated in combat the avatar was. No, Father, Creator, Odin has interest in this realm because the roots of the World Tree, Yggdrasil has sent a branch out to connect it. Yet, with this branch, something else has come, attached, entwined, hidden on the branch and acts the parasite. Seen its effect, one-eyed girl has, through the false tree, the copy, the bastardization of the World Tree, Yggdrasil." The moment Huginn mentioned this, my lone eye widened in shock and horror.
That crimson tree, covered in living bodies, was something that had hitched a ride to this land through the spreading of this World Tree. It was like some sort of infection that was slowly growing. But what would that mean for the Roble Holy Kingdom? The Great Wall was less than 50 miles away from that monstrous tree!
"What is that red tree? Why is it here?" I asked desperately.
Huginn gave a warbling hum before answering, "Unsure. False tree, the copy, the bastardization has never appeared within the nine realms before. Perhaps due to Ratatoskr's influence or due to presence of many gods in the other realms? Can only assume it's ancient, yet need more; too little clues, too many possibilities. All can be done now is delay until Father, Creator, Odin gains enough worship to intervene."
As Huginn said this, he leaned his eye towards me, and I understood what he was implying. "More people need to worship Odin so that he can save us all. So that he can protect my country."
Odin wants my help so that he can protect my home. He is a god that wants to save us all. To protect us from all threats while the rest of the Four Great Gods sleep and do nothing. He saved me from a fate worse than death.
"From the false tree, the copy, the bastardization and more. Would the one-eyed girl choose the one-eyed god like the one-eyed god chose the one-eyed girl?" Huginn asked me this, and I could feel the presence, his presence, watching through Huginn's electric-blue eye. A god waited for my answer.
He saved me, chose me, and wanted to protect my country. Why would anyone decline such altruism from a god? Especially when this god was real, almost tangible with his power. When had the Four ever been like that? They threw scraps to my people in the form of the small miracles that could only delay the ongoing threat my kingdom faced.
I was taught that they were supposed to be the protectors of humanity. If that was the case, then why were we always on the backfoot? Why were we forced to perform immense labor to wall ourselves from danger when the Four should've prevented that from happening in the first place? Why would they allow the monstrous tree to grow from just outside our borders without doing anything to stop it?
Why should we bother to worship the Four when they barely bothered to care about us? Either the Four and their ilk didn't care about us or they were false and we prayed to empty ears, like Huginn was telling me.
If that's the case, then shouldn't we send out our prayer and devotion to a god that was actually listening? Shouldn't we believe in Odin?
I wanted to believe in him. And he was completely willing to believe in me.
"Odin believes in me?" I asked Huginn, almost as if to confirm what I already knew. The large raven gave a nod, while his presence now felt tangible, and I could almost hear a voice in my ear whisper 'yes'. "I want to believe in him."
"If one-eyed girl wishes to become the one-eyed god's voice and vision, then she will need to make a sacrifice as Father, Creator, Odin has." As Huginn said this, he gently brushed his beak against the covered hole of my missing eye. I gazed at the raven with confusion.
"But I don't have that eye anymore. How can I give what isn't there?" I asked.
"You will never have it again, one-eyed girl. No spell, no prayer; neither the divine nor the damned shall ever return what the false tree has grabbed. Will the one-eyed girl forever live as Father, Creator, Odin does?" As Huginn explained, I understood and gave him a nod.
"My eye is already gone. If it can save my country, then I'll gladly live with one eye for the rest of my life." The second the words left my lips, Huginn's electric-blue eye glowed with a bright light as the presence surrounding me finally merged with my form as I closed my lone eye and let myself sink into this feeling of power submerging itself within my flesh.
Hello, Neia Baraja. I am Odin the Allfather. You are the first of this realm to become my follower, offering your permanent sight in your left eye to become my Voice and Vision. As such, you have become more than Neia Baraja, Squire of the Roble Holy Kingdom. You are so much greater.
From this day forth, you are Neia Baraja, Odinspeaker…
As I heard this old and kindly voice speak directly into my mind, I felt tears of what I guessed to be rapturous joy fall from my right eye. When I finally opened my eye, I saw the translucent form of an elderly man with a long white beard, long hair tied back by a leather band, an electric-blue right eye, and a leather eyepatch covering his left. He gave me a kind smile, and I knew that I was looking at Odin.
For a god, he took on modest clothing. A simple blue robe over a gray tunic and trousers. His boots seemed well-worn and traveled. Yet, the oddest part of his outfit was the cutoff noose that hung from his belt. Recalling what Huginn had told me, Odin had hung himself from the World Tree for seven days and seven nights to learn of the realms.
"My Lord, Odin, what do you wish for me to do?" I asked, looking for guidance to my task.
First; Neia Baraja, Odinspeaker, we walk together to your homeland. Then, we speak, both you and I. After that, we continue on. We have time, but it is not limitless. Our enemy, the false tree, will grow and spread as more beings become ensnared in its grasp.
We have much work ahead of us and I have faith that you will be instrumental in its success. But for now, my Voice and Vision, you must rest and recover from the trial of yesterday. Tomorrow, we will begin our journey.
Upon hearing this, Odin knelt next to me and placed a hand on my shoulder in comfort. Even with his ethereal form that wasn't truly there, I could still feel his hand through that presence of his.
In that moment, I felt completely at ease and the troubles of the world seemed to just leave me. Then, he turned his gaze outside the cave towards the east. "Is something the matter, my Lord?" I asked.
He stared for a moment longer before turning back towards me and shaking his head.
Nothing for you to be concerned about, my Voice and Vision. It is but a simple matter that I have seen happen before. It is not something that should impede our work. In fact, it might be a future boon to us.
[Kashia]
We walked for a few more hours until the sun began to lower. After that, we stepped off the road and set up our camp by a small scattering of boulders. Once our spot was picked, the others began pulling their tents out and setting them up. Me? I could just cheat and use [Create Greater Item] to spawn a tent for myself.
Instead of setting up a tent, I busied myself with setting up a firepit and warming up a large pot of stew that I had left in my storage for this trip. It was interesting to note that food stored in my storage space didn't go bad. It gave me the assumption that my storage space froze anything that entered it in some kind of timeless state. If I was ever exceedingly bored and had some time to kill, I might try testing out the limits of my storage space in this New World.
Unfortunately, I was becoming more and more busy with all of the events that I was quickly becoming apart of. There were the remnants of Eight Fingers which I've been sending my kitsune to destroy, besides the operations that Renner and I agreed would be left for her to eliminate. Though, as a precaution in case she wasn't able to, I had a few kitsune on guard at these operations with orders to destroy them if Renner was unable to.
Speaking of the future queen of the Re-Estize Kingdom, Renner seemed like a nice enough girl, just isolated from people. Though, she and her little boyfriend, Climb, were absolutely adorable around each other. I'm a real sucker for romantic stories like theirs. It really made me root for the pair to have a happy ending as a couple with one another. I'll just have to do everything I can to ensure that this is the case.
But aside from Climb, it seemed that Renner didn't have any real friends or people that she could get close to. I am hoping that the kitsune I assigned to protect and serve her might be able to get close enough to Renner to establish a friendship with the girl. Tsunami was quite kind and friendly, so it would help to aid in any friendship the pair might create.
Though, personality aside, one thing that was slightly odd about the pink kitsune was how similar her wardrobe was to my goddess clothing, namely, the stripper dress. Maybe she's just a bit of an exhibitionist?
Anyway, with how smart Renner was, she actually had come up with quite the plan to capitalize on subjugating Eight Fingers which would help to establish her competence in fixing the problems within the kingdom. This could then be leveraged to increase her claim to the throne. Other than that, she said that it was an ongoing plan to attain her queenhood, but she'd alert me if I needed to give her aid that was greater than what Tsunami could give her.
I have no doubt that a smart girl like her would have little issue in attaining the throne. Frankly, the girl is a genius and has more skill in courtly politics and intrigue than I would ever have. I have complete faith that she can do this.
Next on the docket was Zaryusu, and oh boy, I enjoyed teasing the hell out of him! His first time being a diplomat to the other lizardman tribes, and he immediately gives a marriage proposal to the first pretty girl he sees. At least, I guessed she was pretty? I'm not exactly versed in the attractiveness of lizardmen males and females.
I'm extremely interested to see how Zary embarrasses himself in front of Crusch. Though I do hope that my friend is able earn a happy ending with Crusch. I just hope that he doesn't continue acting like a lovestruck idiot around the woman.
After stirring the stew within the pot enough times, as well as getting delicious smelling steam wafting off of it, I spotted that Ninya was the first to have her tent set up and was waiting patiently on a rock for the food to be ready.
"Smells good." She commented.
"You're telling me, kiddo. Just a moment and I'll bring some over for you." I answered with a grin.
Scooping out a bowl of stew for Ninya and myself, I stood up from the pot and was about to walk over to my daughter when a new barrage of voices began shouting in my mind.
Fox Princess, hear my pra/Lady Kashia, thank you fo/Thanks for saving daddy an/she gives gifts to those in/We pray to you-
And on and on it went as a splitting pain went through my tailbone as my mind felt so crowded! It just wouldn't stop and only kept growing worse.
The bowls fell from my hands as I collapsed to my knees. My body felt like it was burning up as sweat poured off me.
"MOM!/KASHIA!" Ninya and Lukrut screamed to me, attracting the attention of the others. It was getting so hard to concentrate on their voices as more kept crowding my mind. It didn't stop and I desperately wanted it to just cease!
But it didn't. It kept going, and with the increased noise, so too, did the pain in my tailbone enter into agonizing levels. I found my illusion failing me, revealing my form, but I couldn't care about it at this point.
I hugged myself and screamed as the pain took on a new crescendo, and I think that I was being held someone at this point, with the others talking (or was it shouting?) to me.
But that was barely a comfort as it felt like something was pushing itself out of my tailbone like a dull knife. My vision went white at this point and I let out one long agonized scream until a notification seemed to just fill my mind.
[Fledgling Goddess (1) Acquired]
"MOM!" I faintly heard Ninya's voice.
"KASHIA! WAKE UP!" I think I heard Lukrut say to me.
Then, the world went dark and I knew no more…