Chapter 115

Chapter 115

The rest of the day went on smoothly enough. Steph and Wedrow took turns opening gates for them to go through and each time they had to stop Will took him out to try and get the hammer wielder skill, though without the same luck he seemed to have for knife wielder.

It was by the time the day was done that they made it to their destination, or at least the general vicinity of their destination. They were deep in the untamed lands, a wooded area that had yet to be colonized by the various races of this world, even after all of the time they’d been on it.

There were a few reasons for that. From what he could infer from the information he had, Ben was pretty certain that this world and all others that the various races had fled from were much larger than Earth. He wasn’t sure just how much, but that could be a question for Quilith when he saw him next.

Other than that, the races around were typically more focused on strengthening themselves than expanding, with complex international policies devoted to the topic, as well as the fact that not all races lived on land. Plenty made their homes in the ocean and more than a few made their homes deep within the world itself, meaning that space wasn’t used the same way that it would be on his homeworld.

All of this combined to make a world that could seem oddly empty once one left the more populated regions, which also made it easy for some demons to slip through the cracks, and made it hard for them to be eradicated from the world. As a result, higher-level adventurers would be paid to explore the lands to take care of any potentially dangerous creature that might inhabit it, and many of the world's nations would send their armies off for experience as well.

It was with all of this in mind that Wedrow sat them all down to talk after setting up camp for the day.

“Starting tomorrow we’ll be beginning to search for any of the demons that have been spotted in the vicinity. Our sources think there may be roughly five of them but don’t let your guard down on that account, countless worlds haven’t been lost for them to be taken lightly. Now I wouldn’t expect the otherworlders to know this, but Thera, are you aware of the change that began a few hundred years ago?”

“Are you talking about the sorrow?” She told him, not having expected to be quizzed.L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøv€l--B1n.

“Correct,” He said with a nod of approval. “For the rest of you, we aren’t sure how it happened, but a few hundred years in the past all demons underwent a change, causing some sort of deep mind effect in anyone that attacks them. Put simply, there’s a likely chance that after you kill a demon, you’ll feel terrible for the act, while some might not even be able to attack them at all. Not all people are affected, but it seems the majority of them are, and it’s at that time that any surrounding ones will take advantage of that moment of weakness to strike. If you are the sort to be affected it has been shown you can get through it with practice, but until that point you’re a threat to not only yourself but the people around you, hence why you need experience fighting them.”

“So what’s this one?” Thera asked as she looked at his work. From what she could see it was his biggest sculpture by far, at almost the same height he was sitting down, and appeared to be some sort of bulky animal with its head hanging down.

“Sad panda. It’s an animal from my world.”

“Why would you make it sad,” Steph asked from behind him, apparently up as well. “Pandas are so cute, they should be allowed some joy.”

“It just felt right,'' He said with a shrug. “Anyway, I take it, it's time to switch shifts?”

“Unfortunately,” Steph said, sounding defeated. “There’s never enough time for sleep on these smaller excursions, it’s so much nicer when we’re part of a big enough group that we only need to do this every couple days.”

“Well it’s only a week,” Will told her with cheer. “And now for some well-deserved rest, come on Ben.”

Ben bid the girls a good night, leaving them to awkwardly figure out how to interact for the next five or six hours as he got himself set up in bed. As far as day one went it was peaceful enough. He got one of two skills and was able to spend the time reconnecting with his friends while at least beginning to help smooth things over between them and Thera.

If they could all grow a bit stronger then that was for the best, and if he managed to get the hammer wielder skill fairly quickly as well, he’d have more than enough time to do his own thing and focus on his skills, maybe even collect some uncommon or rare plants for his alchemy.

As he drifted off to sleep he thought to himself, Maybe this won’t be too bad.