“Ho, well if it isn’t the alchemist. Hadn’t seen you in a few hours and me and the boys were worried we’d lost a good chunk of our bonus,” the caravan guard stated as Merrick approached.
“Bonus? And how did you know that I’m the alchemist? My hood was up earlier and I left my cauldron in Jasmine’s carriage.” Merrick asked with a slight head tilt, which Pinesol imitated.
The man exchanged a quick wordless glance with his fellow guards before chuckling and answering Merrick’s questions.
“Your cloak is the same, as well as your chin. As for bonuses, like I told you earlier we got a list of vaguely important people to protect during the journey. I said bonus, but its more like a penalty if we lose people on that list. You know Jasmine well, alchemist?”
“My name is Merrick, sorry if I didn’t say that earlier. I was a bit tired and out of it, even before the portaling. As for the scholar, no, I’d not met her before today. I needed a place to sleep and stow my gear though, so I decided to approach her. Why do you ask?”
“Nice to meet you officially, Merrick. I’m Gerald, head of my own little mercenary band, the Wild Clovers. I also happen to be in charge of, at least temporarily, the overall collection of various mercenaries that were hired for escort duties. Hoping I can leverage that into a nice cushy role in the new settlement’s guard leadership, assuming the place isn’t so run-down that even my rag-tag band of ne’er-do-wells don’t want to stick around for a few seasons.
“As for why I was asking, Jasmine happens to be at the top of our ‘don’t lose this person’ list. Like, leagues above everyone else. Basically, goes Jasmine eight or nine times then the mason, the elite farmer, and then you. The list is still being consolidated between the three different caravans that met up today, but I expect her ranking isn’t going to change much.
”Only makes it that more impressive that you managed to charm your way into her carriage so quickly, though with the hood down I guess I could see how. Watch yourself though, Merrick. I’d rather not have to deal with any drama involving her, considering I’d be contractually obligated to take her side almost every time.
Merrick quickly decided that it was fairly odd to place so much emphasis on a scholar who couldn’t even pick up a proper math skill but decided to keep his mouth shut. Nothing good could come from verbalizing that thought.
“It’s not like that, we just made sleeping arrangements,” Merrick ignored the eye waggle and laughter from Gerald’s co-guards, “I was actually looking for you for a related reason. Are you also in charge of the night-watch bill?”
“Yup, for the time being. We’re actually waiting for the other mercs to finish up eating and what not to have a meeting. Why, what’s up?”
“Well, my arrangement with Jasmine,” Merrick ignored more laughter, “has me sleeping in the carriage during daylight hours and expelled at night while she’s sleeping. As such, I’ll be awake at night so I figured it’d be good if I let the night-guard know. I don’t want to seem suspicious when I walk out of camp at night to explore a bit. Oh, and if there are foraging parties I’d like to join those too.”
“Fair enough, I’ll make a note. If I can ask, I’d appreciate you don’t get yourself eaten by a monster at night. Can’t really assign you a guard, since anyone escorting you would be one less eye watching for trouble and one less sword incase we find it,” Gerald stated.
Merrick got details about the foraging, mostly that he didn’t think anyone would have anything like an official foraging party. Apparently, it was something that scouts would occasionally offer as a services to supplement their own income. Offering to do so officially would only get the guards an additional duty and no additional pay to match. ‘Contract creep’, Gerald had called it.
Merrick didn’t stick around much longer than that as large, grizzled looking men began to head toward Gerald. He hadn’t put much thought into the fact that each one of the strongholds that was dispatching a caravan to join up at the new settlement would have to hire their own support staff and guards, why would he. Watching the disgruntled looks popping up on the faces of the disgruntled men made him want to make himself scarce.
He wasn’t sure who decided that Gerald would be calling the shots between so many independent mercenary parties, nor why Gerald seemed pleased for the job. Merrick was glad he wasn’t tasked with such thankless work.
Merrick made a quick stop at one of the communal cooking pots to collect his bowl of stew, negotiating a few extra chunks of meat for Pinesol in exchange for letting the matronly woman scratch his feline friend behind her ears, before deciding to make himself scarce.
Jasmine was still busy talking to the other scholars when Merrick slipped past the tree-line and into the darker forest.
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At some point during the day while he was sleeping, the tall grasslands had given way to a forest of short gnarled trees. The caravan itself had traveled alongside the forest until getting to the agreed upon entry point, where they planned on camping for a few days while the rest of the stronghold dispatches caught up with them.
Jasmine mentioned that there were at least nine groups of carts and carriages expected to join up with them, though they’d all be starting from different points. Unfortunately, the Nexus Portal System didn’t perform too precisely when there wasn’t an anchoring portal on the opposite end of the teleport. As such, the different strongholds chose areas relatively close to, but not on top of, each other to send their own caravans to.
As such, the procession wouldn’t proceed into the forest itself for at least three days. Merrick observed the trees that made up the forest and thought that they were, perhaps, going to need more time than that.
The trees themselves didn’t stand much taller than the almost seven-foot-tall grasses that made up the area they’d been traveling through, each bent over itself and looping their arms through their neighbors.
He knew instantly that the terrain was going to prove much more difficult to traverse through than the grasses. Even ignoring how close some of the trees were to others, their interlocked canopies filtered out most of the moonlight that would otherwise illuminate his vision. He imagined it’d likely prove the same for the sunlight, and that the brambles that were already attempting to accost his cloak would prove an issue for some of the wagon wheels before journey’s end.
It was Merrick’s understanding that a few crews of professional lumberjacks were already moving ahead of the caravan, using the time that they were resting and recouping to begin clearing a path wide enough for the various carts and caravans.
That was most of the reason they were taking a multi-day long break, really. If they didn’t have to wait for the wilds to get beat back, they could just allow for the trailing caravans to catch up on their own time. It might even be safer that way, really.
As much as the phrase ‘there’s safety in numbers’ was touted around like sage advice, there was something to be said as well about large numbers of humans not behind walls attracting monsters.
Thankfully, the forest sounded quiet in a natural way. Insects and rodents still rustled through the leaves on the ground and Merrick saw an owl glaring out at him from a branch, its eyes reflecting the distant campfires. If a true monster was nearby, the small animal life would have likely fled or fallen silent.
Realistically, he knew that he didn’t have much business being in the trees by himself at night since he couldn’t see much at all. He’d heard that elves had innate night vision, but Merrick was a human through and through.
He also knew, though, that it was possible to train his eyes to better see in the dark and could possibly gain a passive skill from it. Thankfully, he’d already started down the path for attaining it during his exploratory apprenticeship with the help of Rod’s father, Master Ranger Will. It was one of the few skills that he really wanted but was unable to attain before his church sponsored apprenticeship swapped from Ranger to the next occupation.
He needed only to practice his other skills that required ocular input in low-light conditions, something difficult to do with the light pollution of the Steelhearth Stronghold. Even the Mulberry Grove dungeon had far too many glowing mulberries spread throughout its bowels to trigger the level of strain required.
There would likely be no better time to train than during the evening breaks of the caravan and he had a satchel he needed to refill with alchemical ingredients, and [Merge] fodder to rebuild his stores of magical powders. Which, now that he was thinking about it, was sort of repetitive.
Shaking off the thought, Merrick spent the next hour weaving through the trees and doing his best to listen to the whispers his [Plant Lore] skill was whispering to him based off the vague outlines of mosses, mushrooms, and berries he could scarcely see in the scattered moonlight and strings of campfire light that battled their way since he was doing his best not to stray too far from the camp itself.
After developing a mild headache from straining his eyes to see in the dark, he decided to proceed to the next part of his night. Collecting junk to [Merge] together in ways that was sure would fail in order to collect more alchemical dusts and information about his innate skill. He had a long list of mental notes to explore.
Merrick picked up a few branches, preparing to activate his innate skill when he remembered that he’d received several messages in his [Skill Log] about updating during his next ‘long rest’ and had completely forgotten to check it when he woke up.
[Status]
[Name: Merrick
Class: N/A
Path: Hybrid/Crafting
Level: 3
Innate Ability: Systema Coniunctionis Duplicatae Supremum v1.2
Skill Tier/Type: Unique/Growth
- {Conjure Goodberry}
Mutations:
- Veins: Tap Root Pores
Resources:
- Health: 100%
- Magicka: 100%
- Stamina: 100%
Innate Skill(s): Merge, Firewall, Skill Log – BAOD
Skills:
- Development: (U) Basic Plant Lore 2
- Collection: Harvest Plant 6, Harvest Herb 4, Sift 3, Mining 1, Field Dressing 1, Fishing 1
- Combat: Slash 3, Chop 2, Stab 2, Bludgeon 2, Shield Block 3, Dodge 2, (U) True Arrow 1
- Magic: (U) Channel Magicka 3, (U) Meditation 1
- Production: Blacksmithing 3, Sewing 7, Leatherworking 4, Weaving 4, Butchering 2, Woodworking 3, Fletching 2, (R) Potioneering 12
- Utility: Toss 4, Jog 5, Sledding 4, (U) Speed Reading 7, (U) Quick Math 6, (U) Stamina Surge 1, (U) Improved Reflexes 2, (U) Haggling 5, (U) Sleight of Hand 8
Spells: Spark Ember, Condense Water, Lure Fish, Smooth Knot]
Well, there were certainly some changes that needed to be addressed there.
“What the fuck is a mutation…” Merrick whispered to himself in the dark.
“Mew,” Pinesol replied as she finally returned from her own forest frolic, dropping a dead rat almost the size of herself at Merrick’s feet, as if to brag about her superior night vision.
