Chapter 269: Excursions

Days passed with the Wanderers doing their best to help out the army they had sided with. With how much food she could easily bring, and having received permission to keep them, Astrid kept her group of soldiers in the Dungeon for two full days after that first shorter day. At least, she kept them at the Dungeon. They all retreated to the surface when it was night, where the soldiers collapsed into tents and beds that had been prepared for them.

During the delve, Astrid had seen very real improvement in every one of the soldiers. A lot of the intrinsic fear they each carried for hurting somebody had been pushed away. In truth, Astrid couldn’t say that she was going to be able to easily get over that same hang-up they carried. 

She’d been responsible for a few people’s deaths, but she had killed a person with her own hands all of one time. Caelum’s Knight, whatever his name had been, had been killed by Astrid’s own hand, while the would-be assassin way back in Kznietch had died when Astrid pulled off her mask. Yes, Astrid was responsible for that, but more than her own actions, what had killed the poor woman was her contract with whatever noble had controlled her.

Regardless, Astrid had killed tens of thousands of monsters, and she wasn’t going to hold herself back now when someone who was truly monstrous was coming against them.

“Who here has gained a level over these past days?” Astrid asked in the morning of the final day, the fourth day since they had arrived.

About half of the soldiers raised their hands, Jan and Rebecca both among them. Astrid nodded appreciatively at the people in front of her at that, offering congratulations before she continued, “I’m proud of you. None of you are delvers, so this is an entirely new situation that I pushed you into. Even so, none of you complained too much, and all of you are learning better how to fight while also getting good experience.”

A couple murmurs spread through the people at that, smiling faces appearing as each person seemed to take some comfort in having been able to make progress. Astrid would let the conversations continue for a second before she raised one hand, making them all go quiet once more.

“You’ve done well. If you have any other questions, as long as I’m around, I’m happy to answer ‘em. For now, though, it’s time to get you all back to your families. With Benedict, we’ll be able to go pretty quick, so make sure you’re keeping up.”

The excited, relaxed looks faded at that, and Astrid didn’t try to hide a laugh as the soldiers prepared for the hard march she would put them through. Honestly, she could have pushed them harder, as the stretch of fifty or so kilometers between the Dungeon branch and their camp was something she could do super easily. In fact, when she realized she hadn’t prepared quite enough food for the stretch of time she was planning for, she’d decided to test just how fast she could make it from one place to the next.

Now that Meteoric Descent didn’t boost her Alacrity at all, she only needed to keep her armor on to double her Alacrity with no other effects she could count on, except for her boots. With the boosts from her equipment, and the Skill, her Alacrity hovered around 1800. Like that, with nobody helping her or boosting her, she made the trip in a good deal less than a quarter of an hour. Blazing through the countryside, Astrid had to provide a steady stream of Acumen-aligned mana to her eyes to make sure she could see things coming in time. More than just her vision, the small expenditure of mana, small enough that her passive recovery more than covered it, let her react quicker to anything that popped up.

In truth, she probably didn’t need to use that mana, as her Acumen was good enough to let her see clearly in the dark, lit by the moon and stars as it was. Even so, after one close call of rolling her ankle over a root she hadn’t seen in time, she figured it was better to preserve all of her charges of Regeneration and just give herself slightly more of a window to react.

Just the process of getting enough supplies to continue to feed everybody took significantly longer than the trip in both directions, and that was with it being expedited by her position as a newly trusted subordinate of the Duchess herself. Rather, she wasn’t really the Duchess’s subordinate, but had been given a position not too far off from what the Golden Fist enjoyed as powerful people who supported the Duchess’s position.

Unlike the last trip, Astrid didn’t push herself to see how fast she could go. Instead, she lightly jogged along, giving encouragement where it was due while also pushing the squad to go significantly faster than they had to get here in the first place. With Benedict here now, they didn’t get exhausted nearly as quickly, and they could move quite a bit faster as well.

So, it was about two hours for the squad to Stahlstadt, and they arrived well before nightfall, even after having delved for a few hours that morning and taking a late lunch afterward.

Back in camp, the soldiers couldn’t seem to decide whether they were supposed to salute, just say goodbye, or what, and Astrid couldn’t say that she was too sure either. She wasn’t really in the army’s hierarchy, in terms of leadership. She didn’t want to be either, as the thought of commanding troops in battle was not an attractive one. That question was resolved by her simply waving goodbye, clapping a couple shoulders, and then wandering off.

Benedict followed after her for a short time, and Astrid turned and asked, “How close are you to that evolution now? Going off of the feeling of your Skills, you aren’t quite there yet.”

“How do you know I wasn’t purposefully holding back to keep you on your toes?”

“Because you would’ve wanted to get back here faster,” Astrid shrugged.

“I’m thinking today’s the day I finish,” Benedict answered, showing that she was right. “With how things were going that first day, I thought I’d be able to get it done on your little training, but people stopped getting hurt and I need to heal a few more people.”

“Do you want me to be your test subject or something?” Astrid ventured. “I don’t wanna get hurt, but if it’s something I can do quickly to help you out, I’m willing.”

“It needs to be in battle,” he shook his head. “I’ve already learned that sparring doesn’t count. So, I’m going to go with Muti on her little excursion today.”

“She’s shadowing a squad of Steel tiers, right? Going to the north, somewhere along the coast?”

“Accompanying isn’t the right word,” Benedict laughed. “They left almost two days ago. They should be just about there by now, and with Muti and I working together, we should get there sometime around midnight.”

“If you’re getting there that late,” Astrid wondered out loud, scratching her chin, “we are looking at what, the very northern coast?”

“Yeah,” Benedict nodded. “Honestly, we’re gambling on being able to get there before everything’s already done anyways. The capital is so much closer than we are that we don’t really have a chance of arriving faster than them, so they had to leave earlier.”

“Which is why you two are going along,” Astrid nodded.

“To make sure that people can extract if they’re too late,” he confirmed.

“Don’t let me hold you back,” Astrid gestured for him to continue on his way.

“Yep. Be safe, keep your head down. You know, as much as you can.”

Astrid made a threatening swatting motion towards Benedict, who giggled and jumped back, playing a little trill on his flute. The sound slammed into Astrid, and she felt her Alacrity plummet under the impact of the offensive aspect of Voice of Liberation. Then, the two split, Astrid looking around and seeing that there was nothing for her to do here as Benedict hustled off towards something that must be the location he had decided on with Muti.

“You can always have dinner with my family,” Jan said, walking up beside her.

“I know Ahna will never tell me no, but I’ll let you enjoy the time with your family,” Astrid waved him off. “You deserve to take a break.”

He nodded, turned on his heel, and walked towards his home. Despite wanting to spend the meal with her friend, Astrid also saw the way that Ana was waddling before they left. In truth, Astrid had tried to keep Jan from coming along, but his determination had won out over her insistence of wanting to make sure he didn’t potentially miss his secondborn’s birth.

For now, she would find something to do. The Duchess had said something about being friends. Maybe she could spend some time with her? She was easy on the eyes, and, more than that, there were so many questions Astrid wanted to ask that she simply had never gotten around to doing.

***

Muti

With music speeding her along, Muti danced through the trees. Now that she’d evolved to Mithril tier, as a Shadow Executioner she could move through shadows nearly as well as she could above ground. Her feet never stumbled, and her ankles never failed her as she drew faint traces of mana from inside herself and the world around her to make her way onward. It was infuriating that Benedict could make her go faster, but she couldn’t actually take advantage of that additional speed. If she did, she’d leave him behind.

As always, it was better to rely on her own strengths.

Making their way forward, the two burst through tree cover and onto a plain. They’d already passed through a valley weaving between mountains, and now that they were reaching towards the coast, the trees gave way to desert scrub. Continuing on their path forward, there was no real cover, and ordinarily, it would only look like a vague, dark expanse.

For Muti, though, it was even easier to see in detail than in the light of day.

The more shadowy her Classes became, the more well suited she was away from the light. It wasn’t uncomfortable to walk under the light of the sun, but with the moon’s illumination, casting enough shadow for it not to be true darkness, let her truly remain in her element.

“It’s almost midnight,” Benedict said, speaking around his flute. “Do you think that the battle will be over by now?”

“Many kilometers separate us,” Muti said. “There is no way to know. However, the trail that separates us is growing fresher. I suspect we are perhaps only ten kilometers away from meeting up with the squad.”

“If that’s the case,” Benedict said, “it’ll probably be better for both of us if you go ahead, make sure that there’s nothing that needs your attention. If I can help somebody, I’ll help them when I get there, but…”

“It is good for me to ensure I arrive in a timely fashion,” she nodded once. “I shall do so. So long as you are comfortable following this trail?”

“Go get them,” he said, continuing to play his flute.

Muti allowed herself to bark out a single laugh before sending a thread of mana into the active aspect of Executioner’s Presence. The shadows around her deepened as her Power and Alacrity tripled, and Muti rushed forward. With her attributes skyrocketing, Muti exploded onward, finally going as fast as she could. The kilometers disappeared behind her in seconds, and she could hear, up ahead, the echoes of a fight, with flashes of mana lighting the night sky. Even before the one minute effect of her Skill was up, she had arrived.

Just as the mission had suggested, the Duchess’s forces were late to arrive. That challenge was exactly why Muti had been so excited to take on the offer. To have additional difficulty brought about by Benedict’s late arrival? Glorious. She would prove to anyone around that she was deadly, competent, and deadly competent.

Fortunately, Felix had been around to bind her braid that morning. In truth, he shouldn’t have, as he was not accompanying her on this fight, but with their closeness, only a formality away from becoming mates, there was no problem with that minor cultural impropriety. After all, she hadn’t walked among her people in so many years, she was allowed to make amendments for a man she loved. And seeing what he was becoming capable of now? Perhaps her position as the ruler of the harem was not so guaranteed as she expected.

For now, that glorious battle didn’t matter. Instead, it was saving the brave fools who had engaged in this fight.

There were plenty of enemies, and, it would appear that this time, the Duchess’s intelligence had been insufficient. Her forces were greatly outnumbered, even as a portion of the enemies held themselves back. They were surrounding prisoners, the people who lived in the nearby settlement until now, and it would appear that the enemy was so powerful as to be unconcerned about committing their entire force to subjugate the Duchess’s.

Muti nearly threw herself straight ahead without a second thought, but then she sensed a noteworthy thread of mana from among the enemy. Then a second, and a third. None of them could, by themselves, compare to herself, but each one was a low-tier Mithril.

Enemies. Enemies that can actually be considered her enemies! Enemies that could pose a threat.

For the first time, Muti could fight a Mithril tier, and she wasn’t going to throw that chance away. With a deep breath, she faded away into the shadows, created by her Skill. With Shadow Soul and Executioner’s Presence working together, she faded from awareness so much so that she knew just about nobody would be able to see her. Even people much higher level than her, but still Mithril tier, would have, at best, a very small chance of noticing her approach.

Not wanting to waste any mana, she continued on her path forward, her body more shadow than physical as she zoomed towards her prey. She quickly took their measure. Though it wasn’t a firm determination, she could smell the mana in each, and none had a purity that could compare to her own. Perhaps they could match Astrid’s mother? So, certainly elite, but not her match.

It was a pity she couldn’t learn what their specialties were, as three people an entire tier higher than those  that they were fighting, combined with superiority in numbers, meant that none of the enemies were forced to display the depths of their strength. Even so, their general abilities were obvious and on display.

One was a Mage, and, as Muti grew closer, she could see was the source of the numerical superiority. A Summoner? Or perhaps something like Michel, a creator of golems. Whatever the case was, the Mage was her first target. Probably.

The second of the three was, more than the others, an enemy. She saw a burst of papers, each of the sheets seeming to impose its will on the soldiers and prisoners. Muti remembered feeling helpless in the face of one like that, and this creature ahead of her was an evolved form of that Anders who she could not confront by her own years ago. To be able to be such a person was not a route one could be forced onto, this was one who was choosing to enslave, and as such, Muti would kill them.

Most interesting, and personally dangerous, of the three was the last. He wielded a massive broadsword, probably nearly two meters long. He swung it around, throwing winds and dust at everybody nearby, and from him exuded an aura that obviously strengthened his subordinates. The way he carried himself was much like the Raider Captains among the Hordes. Initially a fighter, then slowly growing into a more leadership-focused position. Even so, he would be a worthy foe, all alone. To have three total enemies to face as well meant that Muti could truly stretch herself.

All these thoughts crossed her mind in just a few short seconds, and then, she was sliding past the outskirts of the battle. The Duchess’s soldiers remained fighting, none of them having broken. Good. It would be a pity to have her inaugural battle against Mithril tiers sullied by those too weak of heart to fight for their lives.

She rushed towards the Mage, having long since learned that the flexibility their Classes granted, though easily overcome in a face-to-face battle, was much more hazardous with given time. Of course, that was a lesson that her people had tried to teach all of their children. However, the derision they held towards any Mage had, at least for Muti, corrupted her ability to take them seriously. She thought of them as weak and unremarkable, and had quickly learned just how foolish of a thought that was.

Now, though she hated the paper pusher, the only one with whom she refused to show any mercy, she would instead focus on this Mage. Perhaps it would be better to attack and slay one right away, but she would ensure that this Mage couldn’t overwhelm her with numbers first. 

With a fierce smile on her face, Muti lunged out of the shadows, her blades flashing.