Novel Full Chapter 1913 Separate Tasks for the Afternoon
Chapter 1913: Chapter 1913 Separate Tasks for the Afternoon
— Kat —
They were offered space to sleep in the mansion and happily took Grandma up on the offer. Sure she probably wasn’t the one meant to be giving out such permission, but when the old woman mentioned what she’d done to the maids they’d just nodded and shown Hedera and Kat their rooms for the night. Lily considered resting up immediately… but the sun was still out and it wasn’t like the room was hard to find. It was just off to the side after climbing up the central stairs. It also had an open window to fly in if necessary.
With lodging for the night settled, the group was then directed towards where the node was going to be set up. Weaver’s avatar had vanished when Kat picked up the node, but based on the way Grandma kept glancing at it Kat had a feeling that Weaver was still ’present’ regardless of the lack of a face.
Skrool took them off to the side of the manor. It was a bit of a walk down a dirt pathway that seemed to maintain itself entirely through regular foot traffic instead of deliberate effort. It was somewhat overgrown in places but with Skrool leading the way and chopping down any overhanging branches it wasn’t even a small issue.
The spot they stopped at was a small cave that had a large boulder blocking half of the entrance. “So… this is where we were thinking of setting things up. It’s not too fancy right now but that’s something Mol can fix pretty quickly. The boulder was actually considered a bonus because it’s large enough to completely block the tunnel. It will probably make the townspeople feel better that they can block the connection… and I’m sure Weaver will appreciate a door to block off if she gets sick of travellers.”
Grandma snickered at Skrool’s statement but didn’t say anything in response, simply shaking her head when the others glanced at her. Shrugging Kat slipped inside and threw the node towards the back of the small cave. It really wasn’t much. Just a small hemisphere that had a bit of a leftward curve to it. The whole thing wasn’t even fifty metres deep. Even with the current sun’s angle not getting into the cave at all and half of it being blocked off… you could still see the back.
When the node hit the ground at the back of the cave it immediately started to unravel, threads digging into the rock as the webs started to coat every inch of it. Kat took a step back as the silk approached her position. Hedera and Skrool were shivering a bit seeing the place being overtaken by silk, while Grandma just scoffed at the attitude they were displaying. The silk continued to spread out until it had covered the entire cave and then… simply vanished. There was nothing at all to show there was a pathway between here and Weaver’s house. Expected perhaps having used them before but it was still strange to see.
“Alright,” said Grandma with a nod. “Give me thirty minutes and I’ll have your list of jobs. Just meet me back at the front of Pol’s house. If you’re not there in fifteen minutes I’m just going to leave though so don’t keep me waiting,”
“That’s fine,” said Kat. “I’m not really sure what I’ll be doing until you get back, but I won’t be heading too far away…” *Unless I find another mushroom teleporter.*
Grandma huffed at the statement and started to scamper off. “Old legs my ass,” grumbled Skrool as he watched the old lady dash away. Technically she wasn’t sprinting but she was moving quite fast.
“Is she… always like that?” asked Kat once the old woman had vanished.
“Yup,” agreed Skrool. “She’s been like that for as long as I’ve known her. A lot of people wonder how strong she really is. For all that she looks old… she’s looked old for as long as everyone can remember. She gets away with it better than the elves or other powerful people in town because she looks old. Much harder to see her staying the same when she looks like… well your Grandma.”
Kat glanced at Hedera who shrugged. “She doesn’t look that strong to me but I did say that people could manipulate their auras. I’d say the chances that she can is… pretty high. It’s a skill you sometimes pick up accidentally as you age and if she’s really that old… the chances that she’s still so weak? As a human? They’re basically non-existent.”
*Is that a little racist?*
[Is it a little racist to point out facts? Humans don’t live as long as the other races unless they get strong, and they need to be stronger than normal to get the same sort of life extension even a Rank 1 elf gets. I’m not saying Hedera wasn’t a little dismissive but I think you’re being silly.]
*Fair. I was mostly just making a comment because it stuck out to me… but you have a point.*
“Well… what now?” asked Kat while looking at Hedera.
“Um… I guess I’ll hang around until we get that list of jobs?” Hedera glanced around at the sun that was mostly obscured by the nearby mushroom trees. “It’s not dark but it is getting late. I’m also not sure how tired I really am, but I want to get to a more normal sleep schedule.”
“Why?” asked Kat. Hedera gave Kat a deadpan look. Kat just tilted her head to the side and repeated the question. “Seriously, I don’t know why it would matter.”
“Well, not only do the people we can speak with also go to sleep at a normal time, but I just sleep better when I can stick to a normal-ish sleep schedule,” explained Hedera.
Kat shrugged. “If that’s what you want I’m fine with it. Doesn’t change my plans.”
Skrool gave a short snicker. “Well if you’re both all sorted I’m going to take my leave. I’ve got a few things to double check… troublemakers I’ll probably want to watch closely for a bit. Weaver’s been warned of them so I don’t expect them to really get through but if they start digging around and then tell everyone? That could be a pain…”
Kat nodded, “I can understand why that could be an issue,” Skrool just shrugged and turned around, heading off back towards the manor and presumably the town after that. Waving as he disappeared out of sight without turning around.
Kat glanced at Hedera who just sighed. “I guess I’m going to wander around town and see what’s on offer for dinner. Or perhaps check with the maids to see if they’re providing the food for the night. I wouldn’t want to impose but no sense spending orbs that I don’t have to…”
“Fair enough… I guess… I’ll just hang around,” admitted Kat with a shrug. [I think I have some ideas for spells to test out if you want to stick around while I do that.]
*Are they unique spells?*
[No, they’re spells from the books I didn’t properly understand before.]
*Alright then.* “You do that,” said Hedera as she walked away from Kat and back up the path they’d come down. Kat felt like she should say something in response but didn’t know what so she just waved back until the elf disappeared.
“Alright so… what’s the spell?” asked Kat.
Lily hopped out of Kat’s arms and transformed to say, “Shadow nets! I thought they were more shadow orbs actually, and the spell is called ’shadow orb trap’ but that’s an awful way to think of them and it was causing me issues casting the thing.”
Lily summoned the spell, all three levels of it and fired it off. Three balls of shadow shot out of Lily’s and flew out towards the mushroom Lily had been pointing at. Just before they made contact the ball expanded into a net and wrapped around the tree. “See! I thought they were meant to be like… sticky ink traps where they explode on contact into sticky shadows that pull people down. That’s not it at ALL. The diagrams were just shit,”
“And you can just cast it now?” asked Kat.
“Well…” Lily grimaced as she gestured over to the mushroom and… now Kat was checking a second time the bindings had already gone. “It certainly looks nicer and technically works but not properly. I can bind someone… for like a second. They’re easy to tear through and don’t last like they’re meant to. Which is weird, because I’m pretty sure I’m casting the spell correctly,”
Kat nodded along with the explanation. “It’s not just a lack of mana being pumped into the spell?”
“Yup,” said Lily as she cast the spell again, then once more for good measure. They both disappeared one swiftly after the other, but through their connection Kat could tell Lily used close to four times the energy on the second shot… to essentially zero results. It was notable that the orbs were a bit bigger so perhaps the net covered a larger area? Hard to say.
“Hmm… well let’s see if we can figure this out…” mumbled Kat.