A Jaded Life

After sharing the information I had gained with the others, we had to consider our next step. Our objective was fairly simple, find out where these people come from, get there and trade some supplies with the locals, hopefully getting enough food to sustain the continuation of our journey. Thanks to the dungeon and our previous explorations, we had quite a few things we could trade, from weapons to enchanted trinkets or even some of the alchemical concoctions made by Alex, all of these things weren’t of much use to us but they could be incredibly valuable to others. Especially the enchanted items, by now, I had almost universally made better versions for us but for somebody like these guys, who didn’t have anything enchanted? It would be a major game-changer.

Unless they had been incredibly fortunate when crossing the first divide, if they had managed that yet, they had gained about twenty free attribute points, so if they had split those to one primary attribute and the rest distributed across secondary attributes, their primary attribute would be around thirty, with the five points from crossing the first divide taken into account. Adding somewhere between five and ten points to that would be massive to them, even if it was fairly minor to me. Thanks to the benefits of the Dragon-Touched trait, showing how massively powerful it was.

“How do you think we should introduce ourselves?” Lia asked, glancing in the direction of the valley the people were sleeping in.

“Not sure,” I admitted, thinking about our options once more, “The biggest problem is that anyone approaching after dark will likely be seen with suspicion. Sure, the days are getting shorter, so our options increase, but even so, the darkness is always suspicious,” I mused, glancing towards Luna and Silva, neither of whom were inconvenienced by the Sun. If only Luna were an adult, she’d be able to approach them and trade for us, but with her having only her short lived experience and the body of a teenager, I wasn’t about to send her in. Sure, Silva would do her best to protect Luna, but that wasn’t too useful for trade and negotiations.

“Even if I could approach during the day by using a parasol or tightly cloaking myself, I would still arouse suspicion, though not as much as we would by appearing in the darkness,” I shrugged, having already discarded the possibility of having these people escort us to their home. They’d want to move during the day and explaining why Lia and Alex don’t travel during the day would raise some problematic questions, to say nothing of the trouble that would erupt if anybody managed to Observe her successfully. Vampires had been part of human myths and folklore for so much time, there’d be somebody jumping to the correct conclusion if they watched her, even if they never noticed her drinking my blood.

“The last few days have been quite overcast,” Luna threw into the conversation, reminding me of another possible way to deal with things.

“You mean that Silva, you and I could go to their settlement on an overcast day and introduce ourselves? Unless the weather suddenly changes, I’d be able to handle that, sure. Maybe Lia and Alex could sneak in during the night or something like that, giving us some backup if things become troublesome,” I nodded, feeling that the idea had some potential. It would keep each of us safe while allowing for the needed trade, though I was still considering how to keep the people of their community from becoming acquisitive. Maybe it would be for the best to leave Luna, and likely Silva, behind, just in case these people had some smart ideas to coerce my cooperation.

“That only leaves that magical amulet you mentioned, the one you described as repulsive. If that guy is the only one of their people worshipping that particular deity, you are good but you said that they didn’t look like spellcasters, meaning it’s likely that he was given the thing from another in their community. And if a simple token is enough to make you feel repulsed, what happens if there’s more than one? Or some sort of congregation?” Lia asked, making me grimace at the implications.

“True, we might need more information. Maybe I should go back, knock the guy out and get a better look. That way, we have an idea of what we are dealing with and can decide on the methods used. Either way, we need to visit their community, or we’ll be eating grass and meat soon, not really the diet of champions,” I grinned, despite knowing just how troublesome the situation was. Without a good idea of the area, we were fairly clueless about where we’d be able to look for some extra food, especially as it looked like the Change had, somehow, demolished the roads here in the mountains. Otherwise, we would have come across one during the last few days but no, the terrain was about as pristine and untouched as it had been on Mundus. Which made no sense but then, a lot of things regarding the Change made no sense, so what was one additional thing?

“You should be careful and make sure you’re not seen,” Luna reminded me, a small grin on her face that turned wider when I only glowered at her, not dignifying the statement with any other response.

Soon after, I ghosted back over the ridge and drifted into the camp once more. Curiously, they were just in the process of switching guards, making me slow down a little and listen, hoping that I might hear something of value.

Sadly, the only thing I was able to learn was that the guy who was woken up didn’t enjoy keeping watch, a sentiment the other guy shared, to nobody’s surprise. Granted, their conversation was mostly composed of a few words, some grunts and the occasional yawn, so it wasn’t as if there was a lot of opportunity to give sensitive information and yet, it was a little disappointing. Why couldn’t they share their evil, secret plants out in the open, just for me to overhear?

Shaking my head, I waited a few extra minutes, making sure that the guy not keeping watch was asleep before I made my move.

Mind Magic was truly a useful tool, especially when used with the requisite subtlety, slowly increasing the drowsiness of the guy keeping watch. It took a lot longer than I was comfortable with, he even stood and walked a few rounds around the camp to stay awake but eventually, just as he rose once more, maybe to take another walk around the camp or rouse his companions because he just couldn’t keep awake any longer, I used one slightly stronger burst of magic and sent him into the realm of dreams.

With the way free, I ghosted over to the sleeping people once more, my mind focused on the guy wearing the pendant and started to tug on his sleeping bag, working slowly to avoid disturbing him. If I did, I would have to blast him, too, leaving more indications of my presence than I was comfortable with, the less I actively did to them, the better.

It took me a little longer than I was comfortable with to uncover the pendant and when I did, I had to keep tight control of my temper, as I immediately recognised the symbol. Just its touch was enough to burn my hand, making me twitch back in disgust. Keeping myself from hissing, I quietly rightened the guy’s clothes and sleeping bag, before quickly moving away while making sure to leave no traces of my presence.

The symbol, and what it implied, made things a lot more difficult and incredibly annoying. It was such a simple pendant, a wooden wheel with red-golden flames surrounding it but given that it symbolised the Goddess Sunna, the one who had cursed my very being and whose curse I had passed on to Lia and, eventually, to Alex, I wasn’t feeling overly charitable in regards to anyone wearing it.

But what to do about them and their people in general? My initial thought was to see if we could smother the faith of Sunna in the womb without killing too many people. Otherwise, we might have to go all genocidal and kill far more people than I was fully comfortable with, especially as it looked like these people were one of the few groups we had come across who were making progress on the path to rebuilding a society.

Sadly, a society that wouldn’t want anything to do with me, or I with them, but a society nonetheless. Now, with the winter soon falling across the land, I wasn’t sure if humanity could take the loss of such a group, as I had a feeling that winter would reap a deadly toll and devastate a lot of the less organised groups out there.

Decisions, decisions, both for me as an individual and for the future of Humanity.