Taming Destiny - a Tamer Class isekai/portal survival fantasy.

It’s another sunrise. I wake with my head aching and my stomach turning as badly as it did the day I decided to take advantage of Nicholas’ offer. This time it isn't because of alcohol, though. Nor am I restricted only to over-the-counter painkillers.

Instead, I keep my eyes closed as I send magic through my body to push out all of the toxins which are making me feel so bad. It’s a soothing sensation and I sigh with relief once it’s over and I’m feeling back to normal.

With my brain no longer threatening to squeeze out of my ears or my eyes jump from my head the moment I open my eyelids, I tentatively gaze around me. We’re in the middle of the samuran village, all of the lizard-folk curled up together. Interspersed between them are a number of my Bound, both lizard-kin and not. I grin as I spot Honey being cuddled by one of the Unevolved, and Wolverine curled up between Tarra and Joy. I hope that those two wake up feeling better than I did or those around them are going to regret being so close.

Bastet is at my side, as are Catch, River, Fenrir, Lathani, and Sirocco – perched on top of Lathani and sleeping with her head under her wing. The original gang who returned back to the cave together.

Well, apart from Aingeal who, as always, is gently shifting up and down over my shoulder, not seeming to need rest or anything other than a bit of mana every so often. On that note, I send a chunk of fire mana down the link between us and it flares brighter, communicating pleasure to me.

I see Trinity and Spine off to one side, Komodo with them. The rest of my non-samuran Bound are either with them or in other groups around the periphery.

Reassured that everyone is where they should be, I remember back to last night. Iandee wasn’t kidding about the celebrations after a ranking fight being rather wild. I have a feeling that this one was more so than usual because it wasn’t just a normal ranking fight, but the recognition of two more Pathwalkers – and myself as the new leader.

I’d been wondering at odd points where the Unevolved had been all day, and my question was answered soon after River’s and my names were chosen. I’d known that the Unevolved were not allowed to watch the ranking fights; instead, it seemed they’d been turned out of the village and sent to find resources for the celebrations. A couple of Warriors had stood watch to make sure no one sneaked back into the village during the fights, being relieved when it was their turn to fight.

Apparently even the Unevolved samurans connected to me with Tame Bonds had decided to join their brethren, taking several of my otherwise bored Bound with them. As a result, when the Warriors had allowed the rest of the villagers back in after the ranking fights had completed, there had been a steady stream of beings bearing carcasses, leaves, berries, and other assorted materials.

The carcasses and most of the berries had been placed in the centre of the village in several different piles. The central pile was the biggest, though the one not far away from it was almost as big. The other three piles had decreased significantly in size and I was left wondering what the organisation was all about for a while.

The rest of the resources had gone to Sticks and Tarra – the village wood-shaper and herbalist, respectively. Sticks had made a whole load of new containers which also got given to Tarra. I watched her work, fascinated. I would say that it wasn’t all that dissimilar from how I shape bone and I wonder if I might have a chance of learning how to do it myself. But that would take time that I don’t have currently.

Tarra then used a large container to combine a whole load of leaves, berries, mushrooms, and roots, all chopped or crushed in different ways, and mixed them all together with water. After adding each ingredient, she held her hand over the mixture and closed her eyes. Though I couldn’t sense exactly what she was doing, I suspect she was using one of her special abilities.

By the time the sun was going down, she had enough containers in front of her full of unappetising liquid that every samuran in the village had one. Well, every samuran and me, that is.

What ensued was a party by all definitions of the word. The samurans drank the liquid from the bowls little by little, as if it were delicious alcohol that they wanted to savour, ate from the carcasses, played beats on drum-like instruments, and generally made merry.

I was a little taken aback when I found out that the biggest pile was for the smallest group: the Pathwalkers. The second biggest pile was for the Warriors, naturally. The Unevolved had to content themselves with the other piles, with the smallest pile actually being for the biggest number of samurans.

Not liking that at all, I pointedly took several carcasses from the pile set in front of me and handed them out to the Unevolved, staring down anyone who looked like they might challenge me. Windy was the only one who actually tried to say something snide, but I cut her off silently through the Bond and she subsided. After the samurans had started drinking from the herbalist’s bowls, however, they became too distracted to want to pick a fight over a bit of meat when they already had plenty.

As the samurans became more and more relaxed and cheerful, I was convinced to try a taste of the brew. Although very dubious to begin with, an Inspect didn’t reveal anything too nefarious, nor did a small sip followed by a close inspection of my body with magic. It’s taste was an odd mixture of rather pleasant and very unpleasant. But it did offer a lovely floating sensation.

In the end, I did drink a little of it, though not as much as the samurans. I didn’t want to get into the state that some of them entered – drooling as they stared at the moon, their bodies swaying in time to the hypnotic drum beats. Instead, I only drank enough to make me feel relaxed and a bit dreamy. It was still enough to make me feel like death when I woke up, though perhaps that’s because it was designed for samurans rather than humans….

Around me others are now stirring too. That’s good because I’m eager to get going on the quest. Perhaps I should take some time to relax, but with the vine-stranglers, my Energy debt, and the samuran village now ticked off the list – or almost so, anyway – I’d like to make some progress in my other deadline.

While I wait for them to rouse fully, I think through what I have and what I need. Honestly, apart from making sure things are stable in the samuran village and replenishing my stocks of carcasses, there’s probably not a huge amount of other things which I need. I haven’t really used much in the samuran village which can’t be easily replaced, after all, and had prepared to go deal with the quest immediately after sorting out the lizard-folk anyway.

My healing skills are soon needed to help my various companions recover from their own evening of excess. The rest of the samurans around me are left eyeing my Bound in envy as they see how much more energetic and clearer-eyed they are after my treatment.

Since there’s still a good amount of food left over from last night, replenishing my stock of carcasses doesn’t take too long. Still, it’s almost mid-morning by the time we manage to set off into the forest. Not only did I have to heal my Bound and replenish my resources, but I also had to make some arrangements in the village which will have to tide us over until we get back from dealing with the quest. Which, hopefully, won’t take more than four or five days.

Unfortunately, as I discovered when visiting the tunnel at the heart of the vine-stranglers, we won’t be able to go through that entrance which requires us to use our exit tunnel as our entrance. Given what we observed last time, I have to admit that the implications of that make me rather nervous.

Making arrangements with the village was necessary since I’ll be taking four of their Pathwalkers and five of their Warriors with me. With their currently rather diminished numbers, that’s a significant portion of their strength, especially since the group contains three of the top Pathwalkers and their top Warrior.

Fortunately, Grower, now renamed ‘Flower’ when part of my group, edged Windy out for the fourth in line, perhaps because of her victory over Tarra, which means I’m not leaving the village in the hands of one who is still rather hostile to me. And apparently the ranking is actually enforceable in a way that I wasn’t expecting.

The use of the sigils was interesting, actually. I had thought them only a written record of battles won, but they ended up being a little more magical than that.

About halfway through the evening, when most of the samurans were influenced by their brew, but not completely soused, Tarra, the herbalist, had stood up. Together with the other previous Pathwalkers, not including River or me, they had incanted something which Animal Empathy hadn’t been able to translate. Though maybe that was because it wasn’t a proper language since none of my Bound were able to understand it either.

Shortly after the incantation was finished, I felt burning both on the skin of my back and underneath it. It was odd that I felt the burning on my skin at all, since the sigils were painted on my armour, but apparently whatever magic this was, it was able to affect even areas it didn’t touch.

The burning hadn’t lasted long, nor had it been particularly strong, but afterwards I realised that I had a sense of what rank the Evolved Samuran I was looking at held among their group. The sigils disappeared in the process, the liquid perhaps being used up in the magic.

Curious questioning revealed that I’m the only one who can feel the relative ranking of both groups: Pathwalkers can otherwise only feel the relative ranking of other Pathwalkers and the top Warrior who fought some Pathwalkers. Likewise, Warriors can only feel that of other Warriors and the top Pathwalker. Perhaps it was because I had sigils from both groups painted on my skin. Obviously, the final fight between the top Pathwalker and top Warrior wasn’t necessary this time since I’d beaten everyone in both groups.

It seems like a good theory, since those at the bottom of the ranking in both groups had much more difficulty in determining the relative ranks of those above them than the ones at the top of the rankings. I found myself becoming rather fixated on solving the puzzle, perhaps a result of the brew I’d drunk. The effects remain even in the light of day, though, so it obviously wasn’t only because of the mixture.

That only emphasises to all of us how much of the village’s strength I’m taking with us, but I feel that it’s necessary. I really don’t know what we’re heading into, only that it’s significantly more dangerous than what we faced before.

Tarra is coming because she’s good at combat and able to produce any number of different potions. Joy and River are joining because I trust them – River a lot more than Joy, but the older Pathwalker has earned a measure of trust for the way she’s supported River and me – and because they have skills which might be useful. I would have liked to bring Windy for her combat capabilities, but she’s too much of a liability at the moment. And then, of course, I’m going myself, which, to the samurans who have just lost one leader to combat, is probably one of the most concerning aspects.

Of the other samurans, I’ve brought my five Bound Warriors. Quite possibly some of the other Evolved would be useful, but I don’t know them well enough to judge, and I've barely fought with them so can’t really trust them as teammates.

Finally, to round out the expedition, I’ve brought my most combat-capable non-samuran Bound. Bastet’s semi-permanent scouting group, of course. Lathani, Sirocco, and Fenrir also go without saying. Komodo is a recent addition – it would be stupid to leave my Tier two kalestan Bound behind.

Pride, Trinity, Spine, and Shakira are staying behind, and the rest of the Pathwalkers are under explicit orders to make sure that they remain unharmed. Catch is keeping an eye to make sure they do. He might be ‘only’ an Unevolved, but I’ve given him authority over the others regarding the treatment of my other Bound. I trust him a lot more than the three newly-Bonded Pathwalkers.

As for why I’m leaving them behind, they’re just too big for me to be comfortable taking them into the tight spaces I know await us underground. However, the rest are coming along. Hopefully that will mean we have the right combinations to cover any sort of possibility.

With nerves playing through my belly, I face the village, my chosen group standing behind me.

“We go now to face an unknown threat, previously hidden by the Forest of Death.” It’s not a lie – it is an unknown threat, one which quite possibly could have caused issues for the village. “Until we return, look to your leaders and keep yourselves and your kin safe.”

It’s probably not necessary to say, but the samurans seem to take the instruction well enough. Without saying any more – even a fool who holds his silence can be considered wise, after all – I turn and we head out of the village together.

Once out of the gates, we break into a mile-eating lope, heading straight for the ash-field which is all that remains of the once-feared Forest of Death.

Finally, we will find out exactly what awaits us in the Pure Energy tunnels.