The atmosphere was even more awkward with The Wultr after that. I knew they wanted to kill me, but couldn’t because of Sania. She on the other hand had changed. I still couldn’t decipher the mixed feelings through the bond. There was still a lot of anger, but it was mixed with something bordering on respect that hadn’t been their before. It appeared I had made the right decision to stand up to her at least.

After she had spoken to her pack, she turned into a wolf and padded back over near me, then just lay down close to where I would sleep.

Just when I thought my life couldn’t get any more insane.

I looked over to Elsbeth whom hadn’t spoken again after expressing concern about my methods earlier. I was relieved when she smiled.

“I understand, Clive. It was hard to watch, but… for the success of our quest, I think it was necessary.”

“Thank you for still backing me up,” I replied.

“If I can, I will. Now we should all get some rest.”

“I wanna do my points first. They shouldn’t wait another minute. What do you guys think?”

“I don’t know, though I believe in balance,” Elsbeth replied. “I would invest more heavily in Internal Connection for obvious reasons, but it would be dangerous to be physically and mentally weak, at a higher level.”

“I get you. 100 points in Internal Connection isn’t gonna help me fight against a level 23 who put the last 100 points in Strength and Speed. I’d still be fighting at the same level as I am now more or less and I’d get no XP bonus if I won.”

“Yes, that would be my worry.”

“What about you Mal?”

“You know me, mate. It’s all about them increments. I say slap some in I,C, see what difference it makes. See what you can do with the curse then and if it’s worth adding more, add more. Test and splurge. Don’t splurge and test.”

“Weird way to put it, but I don’t disagree,” I replied.

“Yeah, once you’re happy, then use the rest for Physical.” He lay down on his bed, Boris cuddling in once he finished talking. Clearly confident in his advice that no further discussion was necessary.

“Joel. Thoughts?”

“Put yourself ten in Internal Connection and seventy in your physical and mental stats. Keep thirty in reserve.”

I heard Mal gasp. “Saving points! Joel, have you lost your fucking mind?”

Joel ignored Mal, and continued talking to me. “You see Clive, you haven’t got a clue what you’re doing. This guy we’re gonna go see, Natom? Well apparently, he does. Hence why we’re gonna see him. What if he tells you that you could have beat this curse with ten points in Internal Connection, huh?”

“Then you’d have pissed all those points away just so you can be more in touch with the inner you.”

“What if we meet something tomorrow or the next day that’s gonna crush us all, unless Clive suddenly has 30 more speed or strength?

We can change our stats any time now, and you got surplus points for miles. At home if you got a few K in the bank, do you just go spend it on the first thing you see? Or do you wait until you see something you really fucking need?”

“Okay everyone. I am now officially sold on Joel’s plan. He wins.”

“Yup.” Mal said. “This one goes to Joel,” He looked comical with his hood up and the drawstrings pulled tight. It was the best tent he was getting tonight.

“I cannot fault Joel’s Logic, either,” Elsbeth replied. “Letting Natom help with allocating thirty stat points will be a huge boon, and even if you have to use them before that point, they could be the difference between life and death when you need them. Joel wins,” she said echoing my words.

“Thanks for talking it out with me guys. I appreciate the help. Now get your selves to sleep. I’ve no doubt it will be another completely ridiculous day tomorrow.”

I lay down on the layer of soft branches that had been laid out for my own bed. I won’t lie, It was itchy, but infinitely more comfortable than directly on the ground and I appreciated the work done by the triplets.

I stretched my legs out, and just caught myself inches away from kicking the sleeping form of wolf Sania. It was just as well she was in wolf form, because my eyes had already wandered over to the settling form of Elsbeth a couple of times. If Sania was in her humanoid glory, my eyes would be like ping pong balls between them.

Elsbeth was perfect in every way, powerful, kind, caring, and I really wanted to get to know her better. Sania was just a straight up no. Too tall, too muscly, too aggressive, and submissive at the same time. Totally different species and I’d enslaved her and killed her husband and previous alpha before tearing her from her family and humiliating her with compulsion to stop her from goading me. What was I even doing thinking about her. There’d be laws back home against that sort of thing. I tried to push the two women from my mind as I held my fingers and thumbs together to bring up my stats.

Come on, Clive, focus and then you can sleep. You’re getting delirious man! After my stern pep talk with myself, I managed to begin with the allocation.

Everybody liked Joel’s idea, so without further ado, I went and slapped ten points into Internal connection.

With seventy points remaining, I warred with bringing all of my stats up for a balanced character or min maxing. A simple expression came to mind Jack of all trades, master of none. Balance was great but wouldn’t make a difference in most scenarios. Anyone who specialized could focus on the specialization and give me a really bad day.

OP was better. I knew I’d regret this in the morning, but I couldn’t go to sleep in the middle of a strange forest on a strange world surrounded by potential enemies and not invest the points now.

I focused on Strength mainly, with Speed, Stamina and Constitution as secondary. I also made my first investment in Dexterity. It had been one of my stronger attributes on coming here, until I neglected it as unimportant. But I had a feeling it was going to become more and more important, especially if I kept throwing the hammer.

Level 23

Physical statistics:

Strength: 38

The capacity to exert and resist force.

Dexterity: 17

Skill and ease in hand-based activity.

Agility: 10

How effectively the body can move into a range of different positions.

Speed: 26

Rate at which the body can move.

Stamina: 26

Period at which body can effectively sustain prolonged activity.

Constitution: 31

The ability to withstand physical punishment.

Mental Statistics:

Intelligence: 16

Knowledge and its application.

Charisma: 10

Charm, coerce, inspire.

Perception: 5

Awareness of surroundings

Spiritual Statistics:

Ethereal Awareness: 0

Attunement with the Gods and spirits of Gulithea. (Necessary for Ethereally supplied magical ability.)

Internal Connection: 26

Attunement with oneself. (Necessary for cultivation of one’s own inner power)

World sense: 1.1%

Knowledge of Gulithea.

Experience Points to next level 1093/1150

Thoughts of the Fledgling Hammer of the Pitiful Absorption brought Angelica to mind. She’d done right by me with that at least. As her hooded image, teased at what she may have looked like fluttered into my mind, I scolded myself. Keep it together Clive, focus on staying alive not on every pretty face and amazing body you see.

Even after that, I still frustratingly found my mind wandering. Until I remembered something important. A small smile came to my face as I put my left hand to my temple and clenched my right fist.

Good night, Clive.

I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. I did my usual ceremony of meditating and reducing the Neuma flow into the cursed area. It still took me a good while to whittle it back down, even with the extra points in Internal Connection. The reason being, the curse was getting stronger with each level too. At first I wasn’t sure, but with the big jump in points it was obvious, and it had me concerned.

What caused me more alarm that morning was Sania’s voice in my head.

“Is everything okay, Clive?”

“Wha...! Damn, Sania. I got the shock of my life.”

“I apologize for the intrusion.”

“It’s cool. Just a surprise is all. I was focused on the curse is getting stronger as I do and it’s on the move again.”

“We will move quickly today. Do not be distressed.”

“I… er didn’t think I was.” I replied.

She didn’t reply and when I opened my eyes, I saw she was in human form once more. Stretching out. I quickly looked away and rolled over. The sudden glory of the morning not lost on me.

With literally no equipment to pack away, we got moving once everyone was on their feet. I marveled at the Wultr, eating up the distance with their long stride, navigating the valleys of the mountains with practiced ease, but the thing that really impressed me was Boris’s ability to keep up. He’d leveled again when we killed Chusk, putting him at level eleven which was above both Mal and Joel and it seemed like all the points had gone into speed and stamina.

I wished there was a way I could help them level up. If I was either of them, I’d hate my guts right now, with the insane achievements I’d managed to bag through no real effort of my own.

The Wultr stopped around noon to rest. Within minutes they were all asleep on the cold mountain floor. I found I quickly missed the warmth of being on Sania’s back. She again came close to where I sat, and lay down in front of me to sleep. I tried not to think about how uncomfortable that made me. Half of me wanted to snuggle in for warmth, but there were a thousand reasons why that was a bad idea.

For me the cold up in the mountains was uncomfortable but as I looked at Mal and Joel, they were both shivering vigorously, lips turning blue. Their Shinobi Shozoku’s doing little to insulate them. Neither Elsbeth or the triplets seem to mind the cold at all.

“Hey Mal,” I said starting up a conversation to keep their minds from their discomfort. “I can’t believe how well Boris is doing keeping up.”

Mal stroked the now sleeping dog. “He’s gotten crazy fit since being here. Does he seem to have gotten bigger to you two?”

I looked at Boris again. He wasn’t my dog, so it was hard to tell, but he certainly looked well. Healthy, with musculature showing through his black coat of fur.

“Yeah, maybe,” I said without much conviction.

Mal nodded, seeming convinced that Boris had in fact gotten bigger. He turned to Elsbeth and spoke. “So, you said you evolved at level 40. Will Boris evolve then too, and do you know what into?”

“I honestly do not know. Domesticated animals beyond a very few horses and cattle are not common here. There will most likely be others who can answer your questions in Knuntang. However, if it is questions on Devotion, you want answering, then I will be happy to help.”

I saw Mal’s shoulders slump, but he nodded all the same. “I’d love to hear anything you have to say on our goddess.”

I’d heard snippets of their conversation before, and I’d rather get knocked out by Sania again than have to listen to all of that. I saw Joel looking at me knowingly with a teeth chattering smirk.

“Tracy, I think your gonna have to give Joel a hug. It looks like he’s a bout to freeze to death. Joel’s look took on a horrified expression, but it was to no avail as Tracy enthusiastically bounded over to take a seat next to him and wrapped him in a one armed hug, pulling him tight into her armpit.

I did everything I could not to laugh as Joel glared daggers at me, unable to move, and probably not wanting to upset the massive half ogre. In my defense he definitely warmed up after a few minutes.

I talked with him and the triplets until we were distracted by Sania’s head suddenly popping up from where it rested on her paws.

“Demons!” Her voice said in my mind.

The other Wultr were starting to look off intensely in the direction we were heading now as Sania retook her human form.

“Thousands of demons have appeared ahead of us.”

“How far,” I asked looking off in the same direction they all were, expecting to see a horde of angry demons coming at us.

“Around forty miles North. I suspect they are at the border of Knuntang,” Sania said.

“Ah, thank fuck for that.” I said slumping back down to my rock, heaving a sigh of relief. “I thought you meant they were here, now.”

“I wonder what they are up to with such a force here,” Elsbeth said. “Either way, I would assume they will be dealt with by the time we arrive. If they’re on the Knuntang side of the border, both Natom and the armed forces of Knuntang react quickly to such threats. If they are on this side of the border, then I have no doubt Justice will be here soon enough.”

“I hope so,” I muttered. “So are they on the route we’re taking?”

“We need to move closer for a clearer picture,” Sania said.

No one objected to the plan, and we moved off once more toward the borders of Knuntang. About ten minutes of travel, we started heading back down from the mountains it was good to feel the temperature rising and the start of forested areas again. But it did make me wonder why we had stopped to rest in the harsher environment above. I suspected it was intentional on the Wultr’s behalf.

Around half an hour later, the Wultr pulled to a halt again. We all dismounted before they all morphed into their humanoid forms.

“This is close enough, Sania,” Tyl said.

“Agreed,” she replied. Again they were all looking to the north sniffing at the air, small growls escaping from as they studied what lay ahead.

“So what now? Do we just wait?”

“The Demons are on the Knuntang side of the border if my senses are correct. Which they always are,” Sania replied. Which really wasn’t an answer to my question.

I waited for a short while as we seemed to just stand around before looking over to Elsbeth. “So do we wait for Justice or Natom to show and deal with them?” I asked her.

“I’m surprised no one has appeared already to deal with them. I suspect there is more at play than we understand.”

“Well that wouldn’t be too hard,” Joel muttered. He was largely ignored, other than by George and Tracy who both snickered with him like naughty children.

“We could try and go around,” Sania said, “but the demon forces I sense are stretched out along the border. For how far, I can’t tell. If no one comes to deal with the demons, we may have to look for a way around or a weakness that we can punch through.”

“Hopefully Natom will come before we have to do anything so hasty,” Elsbeth replied.

“I hope it is Natom,” I said. Then we won’t have as far to travel to find him. I don’t know the bloke, but he has to be better than the followers of that Justice arsehole, showing up.”

“Hush, Clive.” Elsbeth hissed. “It’s unwise to speak out against the gods. Especially Justice.”

“Why, because he is an extra sensitive asshole. I know the type.”

Elsbeth shook her head. “You’re determined to make this harder than it needs to be.”

“No, It’s just an observation.”

“Stay or continue, we must return,” Tyl told Sania. I felt a surge of anger from her through our bond. She brought herself under control before responding.

“You do. The rest of our people need you, Tyl. Please be fair and kind. Do not become another Chusk. He was not an effective leader.”

“I will try to walk the path of compassion with our people, sister. And you. Do not let this human mistreat you.”

“He will not.” Elsbeth said from my side.

“Hey man, I’m not out to cause your sister harm. She’ll be a well-respected companion until she can leave,” I said defensively.

He nodded in response. “Good luck in your quest, then.” Without another word or display of affection for Sania, he dropped into wolf form and loped off, closely followed by the rest of his pack.