I certainly can’t say that I'm waking up well rested. Seven hours of watch between two chunks of roughly four hours of sleep unsurprisingly feel much more like two far too shorts nights than like a good one cut in two. Or two long but unsatisfying naps. The theory is that tonight, I’ll get to sleep uninterrupted and Alix will have the shitty very long shift in the middle, but honestly, I think we should swap to just two long shifts.

We broke our fast in silence, Alix already seems tense, he’s nervously pacing around, carefully surveying the land while quickly chewing on some unidentified piece of smoked meat, for a change. I was no vegetarian back home, but I’ve been eating so much more meat than before. For some reason, gilfeiths don’t seem to fish much, and vegetables are more of a delicacy than a basic staple, so my diet has been severely lacking in variety. Our supplies reflect this: we have some nuts, some dried fruits, and a dozen different cuts of meats, including a few strips of the monster whale Alix killed. That beast is really a blessing, since it brought so many resources to the village, nobody had any complaints in paying us back with all the stuff we left with.

They come largely ahead in the trade, even discounting the few gems Guemeros gave me, which are the ‘money’ gilfeiths usually trade with.

Guemeros was only able to give me a handful of rough stones that don’t look like much. He simply did not have more, as the occasional merchants coming as far as Wathamber usually strike deals directly in resources and nobody in Wathamber actually has the skills to use the gems in their craft.

Masters use the gems to enchant items, as they can store mana somewhat like an artificial mana pool. From there, specific methods, such as engraving certain patterns on the item, allow to cast a specific spell with that mana with little input from the user. Effects range from practical use, such as heat producing furniture, all the way to terrifying weaponry embedded with hundreds of gems that deliver death in a single unloading of all the stored power.

As long as the engraving is properly taken care of, of course. It's obvious that you do not want such artifacts backfiring.

My problem right now, is that I don’t know how to actually activate the token Pheyis gave me. No success there yet Bob?

Nope, as far as I can see, mana simply doesn’t care at all about the circuitry on top of it.

I take out the pierced coin medalion from under my shirt, absent-mindedly playing with it. Of course, perhaps the answer is impossible without fitting a gem in the middle of the token.

We’ll figure it out someday.

I start rolling my mat. And call for my companion.

“Hey Alix, let’s pack up and go already.”

I dearly wish I could think of him as my friend, but right now, he’s still very much a stranger in spite of how I sometimes see in him the shadow of a familiar man.

I seethe internaly. Damn the Knowledgeable and their lies, they basically killed my best friend and give me this random guy instead as a consolation prize!

- - -

We walked about eight hours due straight south again. Most of it was on a valley high enough it should really be called a plateau. A dry corridor of rocks and crevices that’s constantly battered by the wind. We are at least lucky enough to have it pushing us forward rather than having to fight against it, yet we’re only about halfway through.

Further south, the mountains are even higher, great giants with low collars of snow filling the horizon. Finding a way through will be a challenge, with the wind and the height, the air feels noticeably colder already. We’ve both had to cover ourselves with our blankets like they are makeshift coats.

Obviously, there’s no trees up here, only far in between hardy shrubs. Certainly not enough to make a real fire with. We both know this will not be a fun night and Alix’s jaw is tenser than ever. There’s two cubes of darkness hovering around him at all times.

There’s been no monster assaulting him for two days. The last time that happened, the following morning, a mutant whale nearly killed him outright just with it’s screams.

And wouldn’t that be unfortunate if it happened again?

“Hey Marc, look over there, to the left.” He sounds relieved.

What I see can only be described as wrong. It’s somewhat similar to the patches of darkness Alix moves around. But instead of neat illusory black holes caused by the absence of any light going through, these are more like tears, wild cracks hanging in the air, opening to what feels like an actual bottomless pit.

“It’s a rather small one, this is good. I’ll deal with these right away and we should be able to rest.”

he drops his bag on the spot and the two holes obediently grow bigger as they move to his hands, a third one blossoming on his back, surrounded by large visual distortions. He’s already running forward to meet the threat, and I glimpse a wild smile on his face before he passes me by.

Well at least, it looks like he’s confident that he has it handled. I briefly consider my own options if something comes my way. Terrible whip handling, or terrible sword handling?

Running and hiding it is I guess.

Yeah, I agree, definitely the sword. I don’t think a whipcrack and some pain would do anything to stop a monster.

What looks like three long worms finally get out of the tear floating in the air, and I barely have the time to blink before it is gone like it never existed.

Uh.

The creatures are actually similar to centipedes, if centipedes were over six meters long and thick enough they could swallow me whole, with pincers larger than my arms and legs as long as mine. They move quickly, and even with the wind pushing most of the sound away, I can hear them hiss a challenge at Alix. Then, a brutal flash illuminates the landscape all the way to the foot of the mountains, and one of the centipedes falls to the ground, smoking just a little.

Then the other two do something completely unexpected, yet rather sensible. They turn tail and run, spewing a thick smokescreen behind them.

The encounter lasted almost a full second, and as nothing else happens while the smoke slowly disperses, I bravely move forward.

I’m soon next to a flabbergasted Alix, and give him a friendly pat on a shoulder as I drop his bag next to him.

“Cool flash dude.”

“They shouldn’t have run away, they never run away. They are supposed to attack me and I kick their ass. Or burn it.” He seems really shocked, like his whole life turned out to be a lie.

I don’t really know what to say as I move forward to cautiously inspect the dead beast, my sword raised.

Now that I’m up close, it really looks like a giant centipede, but with more of a typical crustacean shell, a thick thing with lots of tiny nooks and spines. Why do things keep evolving into giant centipedes?

I plant my sword deep in the softer area between the head and the first segment, it doesn’t react at all, not even some kind of nervous reaction. Seems it got killed really dead. To be fair, a decent chunk of the head is simply gone, along with several legs. so it’s not a surprise. I try not to think too much of how dangerous the two remaining creatures hiding somewhere can be. The shell is thick enough I'm pretty sure my sword would barely scratch it, the pincers and legs are very sharp, and the teeth are finger-sized. This thing would kill me in seconds, and Alix got rid of it effortlessly.

Better not think too much about that.

The flesh inside is an almost transparent shade of pink. It doesn’t smell like much, not enough to overpower the smell of burnt crab remaining from the stuff that burned anyway.

“Hey Alix, think we can cook this stuff? Doesn’t look like meat, I’d give it a chance just for the opportunity to eat something different.”

That seems to finally snap him out of it.

“Ew. I’m not eating giant bug.”

“Sure thing, I’ll let you know if it’s tasty.”

I cut off the other end of the first segment, and I’m left with a keg-sized chunk. The inside is mostly occupied by the soft and oozing flesh, surrounding a digestive track big enough I could fit my head through. That is, if I ever wanted to put my head in an absolutely repulsive and slimy fleshy tube that is probably highly corrosive.

Weird thought there.

Anyway.

“Alix, care to light the bush over there on fire? I’ll just toss this on top of it and hope the thing cooks.”

That’s not how cooking is supposed to work you barbarian.

I’m an expert, trust me.

In barbarian cuisine, perhaps.

I bet it will actually be good. Or it would be with some salt.

Anyway, the other two centipedes really got out of sight impressively quickly for things their size, but perhaps the numerous cracks in the land favors them. Alix still seems unsure of what to do, but I expect he'll soon snap out of it.

I mean, they ran away and I don’t see what we can possibly do about it. I’m vastly outclassed no matter what, just butchering a piece of one took me far longer than I’d care to admit.

“They’ll come back for me, I’m sure of it. Stay sharp.”

“Of course.” I say. “So, about that fire?”.

I'm definitely not focusing on food to avoid thinking about other things. Nope, not my style.