I caught up with Alix in the couple hours after we woke up. He’s still weak so I ended up doing most of the talking, but it quickly became quite clear that we pretty much grew up together and stayed in contact, even after going to different colleges. His was in Paris, I went to Lyon.

Of course, he didn’t stay in Paris and was quite happy to move away to find a job. After three years in western France, he moved down to Lyon. And judging by our increase in memory holes, that’s about when we really started bonding again.

After the Knowledgeable’s arrival, we had more free time to spend together, and there is again a sharp increase in missing memories there. Preparations to go to somebody’s house with no matching evening of drinks and partying, or to go out in the mountains with someone. He has some memories of skiing, but a lot are missing too, which must mean our families were going out for holidays in the snow together, but his stayed a bit more than mine, or something along those lines.

There are some inconsistencies still, I was never big on pro sport, but I remember preparing to go to some big rugby match ten months ago, that I never watched. Alix cares even less about any kind of pro scene no chance we went together.

Just one example of many.

We’re pretty sure there is at least one other missing.

“I am so mad at them for burning our memories away. How dare they. It’s a part of me damn it!”

He doesn’t really seem to care quite as much, he answers without really looking my way.

“Yeah. Say Marc… There’s another issue. Well, maybe it’s not really an issue, but you know how I got super powers and you don’t? I have that awesome light mastery super power but… I also have another modifier, which is called ‘Hunted’.”

That doesn’t sound good.

“So yeah, monsters kind of appear out of nowhere and try to kill me…. Anyway, my point is, doesn’t it sound like we bargained for something and accepted the price? I can see myself doing that.”

“You would accept to be hunted by deadly and terrifying creatures as long as you have a super power?”

“Hmm, yeah? Sounds like the perfect deal really, super powers and targets to use them on!”

Damn, did this guy miss the “common sense” patch?

“Also, it’s been nasty cause I was alone, I almost died a few times, and the last one… Well it did get me a whole level and a half. But! If I wasn’t expecting to be alone, I could rely on you and the other unknown guy or guys to watch my back, while I defended you by being awesome.”

I groan.

“I hate how familiar you’re sounding, you’ve always been like this haven’t you?”

“Yep!”

Of course he sports the widest shit eating grin ever. Damn it. My best friend is an unreasonable fool.

And you love it.

- - -

It isn’t much longer before Datari walks in, her step as light as ever, her attentive eyes quickly going to Alix.

“Morning Marc. The new stranger seems better.”

“He is. Thank you for healing my friend Datari.”

Alix’s eyes flash in a bright white. Must be the translation skill, he’s level 11 so of course he has it.

“Hello, I’m Alix. You must be the one that saved me, thank you!”

You shouldn’t have described the gilfeith to him, seeing his reaction when a woman with ram horns, sharp claws and skin a deep shade of burgundy walk in would have been priceless.

She answers with some amusement.

“No, that would be Pheyis, she likes picking up lost xuanga in the woods. I merely helped you recover.”

“Oh. Well, that is already very kind of you.”

I cut in the conversation.

“Datari, I’ll go find Guemeros and Zaimeia to discuss what happens next to Alix.”

She raises an eyebrow my way as I make my way out.

“Sure, but I don’t want long negotiations in my house.”

“Right. Later!”

I don’t know if it’s very nice of me to leave Alix to fend for himself with Datari but I’m starving. I’m sure he will be fine.

- - -

Guemeros doesn’t mind Alix staying in Wathamber. Zaimeia will pass by at Datari’s house to tell him the good news and he’ll probably come over to live at my place once he can walk, we'll be able to build a house if needed too.

Honestly, Alix didn't strike me as the type who would want to stay in the village for any duration of time.

One of the reason for this easy welcome is the monster he killed close to the village, monster body parts can be quite valuable, so it's a nice arrival gift.

I wanted to part of the team to go harvest it so here I am, hiking in the woods along Pheyis and a dozen other gilfeiths silently focused on the climb. Even Guervac, usually helplessly chatty, is focused on keeping up with Pheyis' long strides.

And I’m actually keeping up too myself!

For now.

Anyway, we’ve been climbing for one hour and a half in the humid ambient of the mossy forest and I notice the shy bird-calls are getting more and more scarce.

By the time we break out of the tree line, there are no buzzing insects anymore either.

We cross the crest between two mountains, the landscape in front of us brutally transitions away from the softer slopes around Wathamber. This side is a jagged expanse of rocks battered by the wind, higher grounds where very little vegetation holds. Ragged boulders hundreds or thousands of times larger than us are scattered on the slopes of the mountains. Many of those are vertical in many places, high cliffs that defy the sky.

Truly, beautiful and untamed lands.

Pheyis shakes me out of my awed staring as she breaks the silence.

“We are almost there, the remains are behind those two large boulders.” she says all around, pointing down the slope.

How surprising, we’re actually close. The rocks are perhaps a hundred meters away, broken halves of a larger whole, one seems to have fallen down while the other still stands.

As we walk, the signs of what happened yesterday become clear, there are trails and holes in the ground where rocks were disturbed or pushed away by some sort of deflagration.

Lower down the mountain flank, the rare bushes seem to have suffered too.

Clear signs of devastation.

We are really sure the monster is dead right?

I hope so.

And then, we reach the boulders and I stop as it comes into view.

The thing seems to be the unholy child of a whale, a squid, and an hedgehog. A massive neon green and bright purple creature that has no business being up here in the mountains. Or anywhere else in existence really. It clearly has fins, but instead of a normal tail, its back end transitions into very long tentacles covered in spines and suction cups.

Just the main body is over twenty meters long, the mismatched colors on it swirling in patterns that can only be described as an insult to good taste, somehow making the long spines covering it everywhere quite hard to distinguish.

The head is large in proportion to the body, with two huge bulging eyes half hidden behind thick eyelids, and a gaping maw in which I could easily stand, provided that I find some room in between the countless rows of sharp teeth. It is blackened and scorched, in particular around a saucer-sized hole right in between the eyes, oozing a thick and dark liquid.

Okay, so whatever we do, let’s agree to never try and fight Alix.

“As you can see, it’s a big one, we’ll start by trying to cut off some meat and see if it’s elbitsemoc. I want a team working on removing the stned. Hey Guervac, set up a fire.”

Are we… Going to eat it? They are out of their mind. No matter how you look at it this thing is wrong!

I’m going to identify it, see what the system says.

My money is on “nothing useful”, as usual.

Dead ??? : a powerful creature coming straight from the dark depths of another, twisted plane.

Ah! Got it, it is giving some actual useful info to spite me, but I win either way!

So Alix is being chased by otherworldly monsters? Well, he probably would have told us as much if we’d asked.

Bob, please don’t ruin my small victories...

- - -

The meat is surprisingly okay, a bit like a chewy piece of beef. But really dark. Everybody got the all clear to try it about twenty minutes ago, Pheyis tried eating it first and gave the all clear for everybody.

Apparently, eating monsters is recommended because it often comes with positive side effects if it is edible. Usually minor and temporary but it’s always nice. I didn’t really know what to expect, but I did get a system message after eating a share.

Eating the mana infused meat of an otherwordly being has slightly improved the apparition chance and growth speed of related traits for [20] days. (Duration improved by your Adaptable Traits)

If we got that from just a few bites, would eating a lot just let us keep the buff pretty much forever?

Good question. Maybe it could also get stronger? On the other hand we don’t have otherworldly traits though, do we?

Maybe Star-longer?

The one that doesn’t do anything. Yeah, maybe.

As I get near Pheyis who's frowning as she examines her daggers, I share the message I just got to her.

“Excuse me Pheyis, I got this message after eating a piece of meat. What happens if I eat more?”

“Duration refresh and food poisoning usually." she closes her eyes for a second as she accepts the information transfer. "I didn’t get any bonus myself but this is on the useless side, as far as those things go, even with your extended duration.” She smiles in a strange way before softly shaking her head and adding “Damned human sruechirt.”.

"What?"

"You should always be very careful what a message screen shows when you share it."

She leaves me hanging after that, break time is over.

“Back to work everybody! We should strip away enough meat to check if the bones are worth something before heading back.”

- - -

“It was a tiring day of bloody work. In the end we brought back slabs of the better looking meat from the sides of the monster. Everybody was carrying at least twenty kilos of it. Another party is going tomorrow to collect more, and we’ll get the teeth and the bones the day after. At least the carcass isn’t stinking yet.”

Alix is still looking at me in disbelief.

“You actually ate it? What the fuck man.”