Chapter 90: Then Took the Road Everyone Avoided

Raven pushed Burst Step farther the second time.

Mana compressed through his legs.

Released.

The world snapped past him.

He stopped cleanly again.

No stumble.

No violent momentum dragging him another few steps.

No need to brace himself against the ground.

Same Skill.

Different body.

Raven checked his mana.

[Current Mana: 25 / 27.]

He stared at the number for a moment.

Twenty-seven.

Yesterday, his maximum had been eighteen.

Awakened had given him fifty percent more mana overnight.

And that was only the most obvious change.

Raven activated Ember Spark.

The flame appeared almost the instant he called for it, without the slight delay he had grown accustomed to.

He picked up a small stone.

Kinetic Acceleration responded just as clearly. He could feel the mana entering the object, the point where the Skill took hold, and the tension building before release.

Not stronger in some vague, abstract way.

Everything responded better.

Predatory Regeneration showed changes of its own.

[Predatory Regeneration]

[Status: SYNCHRONIZED]

[Manual Regulation: AVAILABLE]

[Mana Efficiency: IMPROVED]

[Nutrient Conversion Efficiency: IMPROVED]

[Critical Trauma Response: ENHANCED]

Raven read the nutrient line with particular interest.

Valeria noticed his expression.

"What improved?"

"Regeneration uses mana and nutrients more efficiently."

"So maybe you’ll stop eating enough food for four people."

"I wouldn’t assume that much."

Roland lifted one of the packs.

"I already bought provisions for five."

Raven looked at him.

"Good judgment."

Valeria pressed a hand to her forehead.

"I’m surrounded by enablers."

Raven opened his status.

[Name: Raven Ashford]

[Level: 11]

[Existence Rank: AWAKENED]

[Predation: Level 3]

[Mana: 25 / 27]

He was considerably stronger than he had been the day before.

Not absurdly so.

He hadn’t gone from needing caution against stronger Awakened opponents to being able to kill Champions.

But his foundation had changed.

More mana.

Better circulation.

Greater integration.

Less friction between Skills.

In the long term, that mattered more than any dramatic explosion of statistics.

Levels were growth inside a container.

Existence Rank changed the container itself.

Raven finally understood why the distinction mattered so much.

He also understood why killing above one’s Rank remained possible without making Ranks meaningless.

A better fighter could overcome a moderate gap.

But every Rank raised what the body itself was capable of doing.

Raven closed the interface.

"Good."

Valeria looked at him.

"That is the closest I’ve seen you come to celebrating since I met you."

"I’m satisfied."

"That may actually be historic."

Raven decided not to give her more material.

Garran arrived while they were finishing loading the horses.

The captain looked as though he had slept even less than they had. He carried three rolled maps under one arm and a small wooden box of alchemical supplies.

"I heard Mirevale gained another Awakened overnight."

Raven secured the box.

"Temporarily. We’re leaving today."

"I heard that too."

Garran handed him the first map.

It was considerably better than anything Raven had purchased so far. Rest stops, crossings, toll stations, smaller settlements, monster territories, and caravan routes were all marked clearly.

Dunvar lay to the northeast.

FORGE reacted immediately.

[PROJECT: PROTOTYPE RIFLE]

[Completion: 31.4%]

[Next Unresolved Requirement:]

[Structural Barrel Material]

[Primary Candidate:]

[BLACK MITHRIL]

[Known Production Region:]

[DUNVAR]

[Additional Material Analysis Required.]

The third component.

Garran unfolded another sheet.

"House Helmont controls a large portion of the mining. The Draven Company controls refining and transportation across several areas."

Valeria took the document.

"Helmont has connections to the central nobility."

"Plenty."

"Then buying directly will be unpleasant."

Garran looked at Raven.

"Also expensive."

Raven put the map away.

"I can work with unpleasant."

"And expensive?"

"That depends on how expensive."

Garran laughed.

"If you have to ask, probably too much."

"I’ll solve that part."

Valeria continued reading.

"Draven isn’t noble."

"Not officially. Enough money tends to produce similar effects."

Raven knew that kind of structure.

Titles changed.

Incentives didn’t.

"Which route do you recommend?"

Garran showed him two.

"The main road adds roughly two days, but it has military posts. This secondary route is faster."

Raven noticed a red line crossing the second road.

"Why is it closed?"

Garran’s expression shifted slightly.

"A caravan was found destroyed two days ago."

Valeria looked up from the document.

"Bandits?"

"Doesn’t look like it."

"How many dead?"

"Seventeen confirmed. Possibly more."

Raven studied the route.

"Was the cargo stolen?"

"Some of it was still inside the wagons."

"Then robbery doesn’t fit either."

"Exactly."

Raven pointed at the forest surrounding the blocked section.

"Monsters?"

Garran took a few seconds to answer.

"That’s what we hope."

He hadn’t said that was what they believed.

Raven noticed.

"What did they find?"

"Cuts on some of the bodies. Others had blackened areas across the skin, but no thermal burns. Two animals were dead without visible injuries, and the scouts said the shadows around the wagons behaved strangely."

Valeria stopped reading.

"Strangely how?"

"The description wasn’t particularly useful. They said certain areas stayed dark even when they brought lamps close."

Raven looked at the map again.

Dunvar.

Black Mithril.

The shorter route.

A slaughtered caravan attacked by something that apparently hadn’t wanted to rob or eat anyone.

Naturally.

Garran saw his expression.

"Take the main road."

"The other one is faster."

"It also has seventeen corpses."

"The corpses don’t concern me."

"Whatever made them should."

Raven folded the map.

"That’s why I want to know what it was."

Valeria sighed.

"You became Awakened this morning. Could we preserve the feeling of progress for a few hours before looking for something unknown that massacred a caravan?"

Raven looked at her.

There was humor in her voice.

But concern too.

More visible now.

This time, he didn’t ignore it.

"If I detect something beyond our ability, we retreat."

Valeria raised an eyebrow.

"Is that a promise?"

Raven thought before answering.

"It’s a reasonable tactical decision."

"I’ll take it. With you, that’s probably as close to a promise as I’m going to get."

Raven mounted.

Valeria did the same.

Roland secured the last of the supplies.

Garran remained beside the road as they began to leave.

"Ashford."

Raven turned in the saddle.

"What?"

"If you figure out what did that and survive, send me the information."

Raven waited.

Garran understood.

"Yes. I’ll pay."

"Then you’ll get the report."

Valeria shook her head as they rode on.

"One day, someone is going to ask you for help and you’ll say yes without asking what you get in return."

"That would be a bad habit."

"You could also do something because you care about the person."

Raven looked at her.

She held his gaze.

There were too many possible answers.

He chose the safest one.

"This morning, I waited five minutes because you asked me to."

Valeria went quiet.

Raven kept riding.

Several seconds passed before she caught up beside him.

"That was unfairly effective."

"I have no idea what you mean."

"Yes, you do."

Raven didn’t answer.

He didn’t need to.

They passed through Mirevale’s northern exit shortly afterward. The barricades opened for them, and this time no one tried to stop them from leaving.

Raven left behind the pyres, the infected channels, and the ruins of Deep Mire with two rifle components, Level Eleven, and a body that had finally crossed into Awakened.

He also left behind a room where he had awakened with Valeria asleep against his chest—and the uncomfortable realization that it hadn’t bothered him nearly as much as it should have.

Twenty minutes later, they reached the checkpoint blocking the secondary route.

Two soldiers stood beside a chain stretched across the road.

Beyond it, the road disappeared between the trees.

Raven stopped his horse.

"This is the caravan route?"

One of the soldiers nodded.

"About six miles ahead. Nobody is supposed to pass until the team from Dunvar arrives."

Raven looked down the road.

"Do they know what attacked it?"

The man followed his gaze toward the forest.

"That’s what we’re hoping to find out."

Predator’s Instinct remained quiet.

Predation detected nothing either.

Yet.

Valeria brought her horse alongside Raven’s.

"You’re choosing this road."

"It’s shorter."

"I knew that."

Raven looked at her.

"If something looks too strong, we turn back."

She studied him for several seconds.

Then smiled.

"You really are different after becoming Awakened."

"Don’t exaggerate."

Raven urged his horse toward the chain.

He had spent the entire morning discovering how much stronger he had become.

It seemed appropriate to find out how much that actually meant.

He wouldn’t have to wait long for the answer.