Chapter 161: I Killed an Elite Yesterday and Repaired a Roof Today

They stopped around noon beside a rock formation that offered enough shade for the horses.

The drivers checked the wagon wheels while Roland handed out food. Valeria found a flat stone that she declared acceptable as a seat after wiping it clean with a cloth that probably cost more than the stone itself.

Raven sat near the medicine wagon and opened the rifle case.

Not completely.

Just enough to access the side panel.

Valeria bit into a piece of fruit and watched him.

"I knew you wouldn’t make it through the entire day without opening it."

"I want to check the conduit."

"It worked properly yesterday."

"Twice after the correction."

"And we haven’t fired it today."

"Travel produces vibration."

"It’s a weapon."

"A prototype."

Valeria moved closer.

Raven removed a small plate, exposing part of the treated conductive tissue and the venting system that had redirected mana into his arm during the first live-fire test.

Valeria pointed.

"That’s the one that tried to cook your arm."

Raven didn’t look up.

"The conduit was improperly synchronized."

"That is a very technical way of saying yes."

"The component wasn’t trying to do anything."

"Raven, it fired mana directly into you."

"Because of a pressure differential."

"So still yes."

Raven checked the filament tension.

No deformation.

The insulation remained intact.

He applied a minimal amount of the new lubricant to the metal joint, carefully avoiding the biological tissue.

Valeria continued watching.

"That filament reacts before the other one."

Raven looked up.

She pointed toward the branching section.

"The lighter one. I noticed it during the tests. It contracts first."

Raven examined it.

She was right.

"That’s the primary tension sensor."

Valeria looked pleased with herself.

"I recognize things now."

"That doesn’t mean you can touch them."

"You ruin every moment."

Raven replaced the plate.

"It means you spent too much time in the workshop."

"I could say the same about you."

Roland appeared carrying a strip of dried meat.

"Is it broken?"

"No."

"Then why is it open?"

Valeria answered for him.

"Because Raven is slowly discovering that some people obsessively check things when they’re nervous."

Raven looked at her.

"I’m not nervous."

"Then what are you?"

"I don’t completely trust the weapon yet."

Valeria waited.

"That sounds remarkably similar."

"No. Nervousness is emotional. This is technical evaluation."

Roland sat down beside them.

"When you say things like that, I understand why she enjoys bothering you."

"Thank you."

"That wasn’t a compliment."

Raven closed the case.

Roland watched the rifle disappear inside.

"How many bullets do we have?"

"Projectiles."

"They’re shorter than arrows and they come out of a weapon. I’m calling them bullets."

Raven didn’t have the energy to fight that linguistic war.

"Not many."

"How many?"

Raven gave him the number.

Roland stopped chewing.

"That is very few."

"Hadrik is making more."

"But we’re leaving."

"We’ll collect the first standardized batch when we return, or arrange to have it picked up before we continue farther south."

Valeria looked toward the rifle case.

"And if we find something before then?"

Raven fastened the buckle.

"Then I decide whether it’s worth a bullet."

Roland smiled.

"I like that enemies now have to meet an economic requirement before you shoot them."

"They always had requirements."

"Before, it was mostly ’Can I kill it?’"

"That is still included."

They ate for another half hour before continuing.

South Relay appeared several hours later.

Raven immediately understood why it needed repairs.

The station wasn’t destroyed.

That would have been easier to evaluate.

Instead, it looked half abandoned.

The relay occupied a low rise beside the road and was surrounded by a stone wall that barely reached waist height. Inside stood a two-story main building, a warehouse, two corrals, a covered well, and a long structure used as a stable.

Part of the main building’s roof was missing.

Not burned.

Broken.

Several support beams remained exposed.

One corral had lost its gate.

The other stood empty.

A shattered wagon rested beside the outer wall.

Raven raised one hand.

All three supply wagons stopped.

Roland rode forward.

"I don’t see bodies."

"Neither do I."

Valeria studied the windows.

"There are people inside."

A door opened.

A man with a bow emerged first.

Two others followed.

None of them aimed directly at the convoy.

Good sign.

"Mercenary House!" Raven called.

The first man lowered his bow.

"We thought you were coming tomorrow!"

"The contract said today."

The man looked toward the wagons.

"Then I’ve never been happier that someone reads better than I do."

The door opened fully.

Nine people were staying at the relay.

Five workers.

Two guards.

A woman who introduced herself as a healer.

A supervisor named Taren Mol.

And a merchant whose caravan had been stranded there because he refused to continue south without changing his animals.

Raven checked the perimeter first.

Not because he felt heroic.

Because he wanted to get paid.

He found no signs of recent fighting around the main building.

He did find animal tracks.

Horses.

Mules.

And drag marks.

Raven crouched beside the empty corral.

"Where are they?"

Taren stopped beside him.

"The animals?"

"Yes."

The man pointed toward the western mountains.

"Some ran."

"Some?"

"Three disappeared."

Raven examined the marks.

"Disappeared, or something took them?"

Taren took slightly too long to answer.

"Something took them."

Valeria approached.

"What?"

"We don’t know."

Raven looked up.

"Start from the beginning."

Taren looked tired.

Not injured.

Just tired.

"Four nights ago, we heard the animals making noise. We came outside and one mule was gone. The corral gate was still closed."

Roland frowned.

"So it jumped."

"No."

"How do you know?"

Taren pointed toward the wall.

"Because we found blood along the top."

Raven followed the gesture.

"Something lifted it over."

"That’s what we think."

"Tracks?"

"Nothing useful."

"The second?"

"A horse. The following night."

"Did anyone see what took it?"

"A shadow."

Raven looked toward the sky.

"Wings?"

"Probably."

"That isn’t an answer."

Taren shook his head.

"It was dark. Something came down, we heard the impact, and then the horse screamed. By the time we got outside, whatever it was was already climbing again."

"Size?"

The man pointed toward one of the wagons.

"Wider than that with its wings open. Maybe much wider."

Roland whistled.

Valeria folded her arms.

"And the archers?"

One of the guards answered.

"We fired."

"Did you hit it?"

"I don’t know."

"Then probably not."

The guard didn’t seem to appreciate her conclusion.

Raven continued.

"Did it return last night?"

Taren nodded.

"It didn’t enter the corral. It circled the station once and disappeared."

"Any attacks on people?"

"None."

"Caravans?"

"Two said they saw large shadows. Probably the same reports you heard in Kharad."

Raven nodded.

It still wasn’t his problem.

His contract said three wagons.

Supplies.

Restoration.

Protection.

It did not say hunt unidentified aerial creature.

As long as whatever was flying around the relay didn’t try to carry away one of Raven’s wagons, it was welcome to continue existing.

"We unload first," Raven said.

Taren looked surprised.

"You don’t want to investigate the mountains?"

"No."

"It could come back."

"And if it does, we’ll be here."

Raven pointed toward the damaged roof.

"Meanwhile, you have an open building and supplies that need something between them and the sky."

Taren looked toward Valeria.

She smiled.

"You get used to him."

Raven spent the next two hours repairing a roof.

Not supervising the repair.

Actually repairing it.

It took six people to raise the first new support beam into place.

Raven was one of them.

Valeria stood below watching.

"I never imagined I’d see you repairing a roof."

Raven held one end of the beam while two workers adjusted the ropes.

"I’m protecting my payment."

"Naturally."

"If the supplies get wet, the supervisor could argue that the relay isn’t operational."

"And that is why you’re personally carrying a beam?"

"Yes."

"Not because those people need a roof."

Raven looked down at her.

"Two things can be true at the same time."

Valeria smiled.

"That’s improving too."

Raven decided to focus on the beam.

Stonehide made part of the work easier.

He didn’t fully activate it. There was no reason to cover himself in mineral plating just to lift lumber, but he reinforced his forearms and shoulders when the weight shifted unexpectedly.

One of the workers noticed.

"That would be useful in construction."

Raven pushed the beam into position.

"I’m not changing professions."

"We pay well."

"Not better than killing monsters."

"Depends on the monster."

Raven thought about the cost of the rifle.

"Now it depends on the ammunition."

The man didn’t understand.

Better that way.

While Raven worked on the roof, Roland helped rebuild one of the corrals. He had enough experience with horses to know which sections actually needed reinforcement and which could wait.

Eventually, Valeria joined the work too.

Not on the roof.

She used hardened Blood Threads to hold two pieces in position while the workers secured their supports.

Taren watched her for several seconds.

"Aren’t you a noble?"

Valeria didn’t even look up.

"Apparently."

"I’ve never seen a noble holding a stable together."

"I’m not holding the stable together. I’m preventing that man from dropping a plank on my companion."

Roland, directly beneath the plank, looked upward.

"I appreciate the distinction."

Raven kept working until the first section of roof was covered.

It wasn’t perfect.

It didn’t need to be.

It was enough to protect the storage area.

Afterward he helped unload the medicine, checked every wagon for damage, and confirmed that all three loads had arrived intact.

Taren signed the delivery portion of the contract.

Seventy percent guaranteed.

Raven experienced a strangely satisfying sense of accomplishment.

He hadn’t killed anything.

He hadn’t acquired a Trait.

He hadn’t uncovered a conspiracy.

But he was now seventy percent closer to paying for his first standardized batch of ammunition.

Progress.

By late afternoon, South Relay looked less abandoned.

One corral could close again. The damaged section of roof was covered, the water barrels had been refilled, the medicine was stored, and the remaining beams sat beneath a protective tarp.

A new lamp hung over the main entrance.

It wasn’t a fortress.

But it could function again.

That was enough for a small caravan that had been waiting since morning to decide to remain overnight and continue at dawn.

Raven walked the perimeter one more time.

He found a dark stain along the top of the stone wall.

Old blood.

Probably from the animal that had been taken.

There were no obvious claw marks.

That was strange.

Something large enough to lift a mule should have left signs if it landed.

Unless it never had.

Raven looked up at the empty sky.

"You’re still thinking about the shadow."

Valeria stood behind him.

Raven didn’t turn.

"I’m checking the perimeter."

"While looking upward."

"The sky is part of the perimeter."

She moved beside him.

"Do you want to hunt it?"

"No."

"That was quick."

"We don’t know what it is, where it lives, whether it will come back, or whether finding it would accomplish anything. Nobody is paying us to look for it."

"Your rifle needs work."

"My rifle needs calibration. I don’t need to use an unidentified animal as a target just to get it."

Valeria looked toward the mountains.

"That almost sounds responsible."

"I’m getting tired of everything surprising you."

"Not everything does."

"What doesn’t?"

She looked at him.

"The fact that you ended up carrying a roof beam because you wanted to get paid."

Raven considered that.

"That was completely predictable."

"Exactly."