222. Hidden Treasure: Tabitha.

We set up a camp for the night nearby. Both Rodion and Tāoke needed to recover. Wiremu started skinning the panther, and Ruku was talking with Kelda, probably an after-fight review or something. I helped Runa get a fire going. Liten started it for us.

I was keeping an eye on Wiremu. I wanted a look at the Monster core. Wiremu finished skinning the beast, letting the dogs and Tāoke have the organs and guts and started butchering some for our dinner. Trassig darted in for a bite. I kept forgetting about the stoat. Then I saw a flash of Wai darting in as well.

I went over when he dug the core out.

Wiremu looked up. “You think this might be compatible with Dusk?”

I nodded, and he tossed it to me. “We will need to test it. Mayakku has the greatest Spiritual sensitivity. How did it escape my spear?”

“I don’t actually know. It seemed to become a shadow briefly. I was hoping it would do it a second time when Tāoke trapped it so I could get a closer look. It is certainly something for me to work on.”

“Any gains from the fight?”

“No, but I didn’t do much. Hang on. Shadow Step went to Apprentice. What about you?”

“My Trapping went to 14, one step below Masters. You know my Sense Treasure is letting me know there is something close.”

“If you finish up, we could go and have a look. I can’t in good conscience leave treasure lying around.” That got a smile out of Wiremu.

We decided to rest the night and go as a group in the morning. Kelda’s Seek Hidden was also indicating something good.

In the morning, Tāoke was almost back to total health, thanks to his Regeneration and Astrid. Rodion would be limping along with us, his new Regeneration levelling fast. Ruku had also been clawed, but he showed no signs of injury.

We walked on alert but were reasonably confident the panther had removed any serious threats from its territory. Close to an hour later, we found Wiremu’s Treasure. It was a tree. Wiremu, Ruku, Astrid and Kelda all ooohed and aahed over it. To me, it looked like a tree.

“It is not just a tree,” I was informed. “This is Ironwood, which is actually harder than steel, but much, much lighter. It will make an ideal shield for Astrid, strong and light.”

Runa’s eyes lit up when she heard the word Ironwood, “And me! I want one, too.” When Wiremu looked at her, she clarified, “An Ironwood shield can carry much stronger enchantments than any ordinary material. I have also been partial to long hardwood since puberty.”

Wiremu rolled his eyes at her innuendo and said, “That means Mayakku will want a lot, too. It is not easy to cut. And we will have to lug it back to the horses.”

“Mayakku will want the leaves and sap as well as they can be ground up into a paste for spiritual enchanting,” said Astrid.

“Some of the thick lower branches will be enough with spare to sell,” Ruku said.

Wiremu made several stone spikes, a hammer, and stone cups. Astrid drove the spikes into the tree and positioned the cups to catch the sap. Wiremu then formed three strong stone axes, and he, Ruku and Modrica started on a branch each. This was going to take several hours.

Kelda, Runa and I were on the lookout and camp duty. Rodion rested. I watched Kelda in my Spatial Awareness as she seemed to be searching for something. She circled the tree, then started another circuit wider out. I nudged Runa, “Let's see what's up with Kelda. Rodion, you and the pack are on watch.”

We went over as Modrica’s branch cracked and fell. The others weren't halfway yet, but she had the strength and Axe Skills. Kelda had stopped.

“What is it?” I asked.

“There is something under here,” she pointed. “Do we have anything to dig with?”

“Hey, Modrica, have you got a moment?” She grunted and came over. “Can you clear some of this away?” and like magic, the earth moved and piled up on the side as she used her Earth Manipulation Skills.

Wiremu came over, “More to the left and deeper.”

“Didn’t you have a branch to chop?” I asked. He just grinned.

As the earth moved, it exposed a tangle of roots. The chopping sound stopped completely as everybody came to see what was happening.

“That’s not a root,” Runa said.

“No, it is a bone,” Astrid said, jumping into the hole. She tugged at the bone and tugged at it, but it refused to break. “It is ancient,” then she looked at it, “and huge. This is a rib, which would make it ten times the size of Težka. At least.” I helped her climb out, “I have no idea what type of animal it would have been.”

Modrica moved more dirt, and the ribcage came into view in more detail. She bent down and examined the soil she was moving. She looked at me and said, “Good spiritual dirt.”

I bent down to appraise the soil, “That will bring in good money with the farmers,” I said. I was the merchant here.

“Looks like we will be here for a few days,” Ruku said. “We had better bring the horses in. Even then, we will be limited in what we can carry.”

“We only need to take what we need and samples of everything else,” I said. “The real money is in selling the location, and Wiremu can draw us a map. I will send it to Tāttā; he might sell it or set up a harvesting camp himself. There is a Monster Core in there, isn’t there.”

“Probably,”

“Yes”

Said Kelda and Wiremu together.

“You two make me sick,” I said. They just grinned.

Ruku and I would return and get Mayakku and make a track for the horses while the others continued the work. We didn’t get back till near dusk. Kelda had found some mushrooms and herbs and had a really tasty meal cooking, along with panther steaks. There are definitely advantages to travelling with a chef. The branches were down, and two were trimmed. They just needed to be chopped into manageable lengths, and the third needed to be trimmed and chopped. The leaves and twigs were stacked on the side. The ribcage of the monster was half exposed, but it was entwined with the roots of the Ironwood tree. The biggest Monster Core I had ever seen was sitting on a log. It was three times the size of anything others, about the size of my head.

When Mayakku saw it, she rushed over and examined it in excitement. Rodion settled his pack all together again, and we had to pull Mayakku away to eat. She wanted to set up testing rituals immediately. Everything could wait until morning. The spiritual bones will be worth a fortune alone. There are many Spiritually enhanced plants growing from the soil in addition to the Ironwood tree. This is the first time I have seen Spiritually enhanced worms. This is better than a gold mine. They have yet to find the head. I stored the core in my Spaitial Pocket for the night as that was the safest place. After dinner, Wiremu got some of the hides from his previous hunts out of the packs and started making bags to carry everything in.

Kelda started drawing a localised map of where the skeleton was in relation to the tree and other features. She also started drawing what she thought the Skeleton would have looked like if it had been upright. She left the head and tail as we had not uncovered those, but she scaled it with a human to the side. We found thick bone plates that stuck up near the backbone. We assume it was a defensive feature, but it seemed strange.

I talked to Mayakku after dinner about the Monster Cores and Cōmpēṟi’s change when he consumed it. He grew and gained Skills from the Core like Tāoke had got the Grow Skill from the core that changed him. The Skills they had in common levelled and new skills came from the core. She would perform the ritual to check the core’s compatibility in the morning, but the core came from a carnivore, and Dusk was a herbivore, and they were very different. More different than a Bone Dog and a Lion, or a Goblin Shaman and a Snake? Affinity covers a lot of other differences.

In the morning, Wiremu started constructing a simple pack frame for the two pack horses to carry the load to the city. Mayakku and I set up the ritual area. She would be doing several rituals to try to narrow down the affinity of the large core as well.

For the Panther core, we used my shadows and some of the local material, a leaf from the Ironwood, some of the dirt and some of Dusk’s saliva. Mayakku performed the ritual, and I watched carefully.

“Shadows, definitely, but it is more than shadows. It was a partial fit, possibly less than Cōmpēṟi’s core, but it is hard to tell. My Analyse Core Skill is picking up the idea of a moving shadow or darkness, but it still has a long way to level.”

“Could the affinity be Dark instead of Shadows?” I asked.

“I have no idea how to test that.”

“Dark might be close to shadows, like Lava and Rock.” I mused.

“Possible,” Mayakku said. “How did you learn Shadows by manipulating existing shadows?”

“Yes, but since then, I have created my own.”

Wiremu came over, “What are you thinking?”

“About Lyla and how it can all go wrong.”

He nodded. The deformed Lionkin had affected us deeply. It was a huge lesson on how wrong a Monster Core could go.

“It is always a risk, and it is up to you, Dusk and Nyx, as this could break or increase all three of you.”

I held the core and let Nyx examine it. The reaction wasn’t positive, but it wasn't negative either. We approached Dusk and let her examine it, “What do you think, girl?” I asked her.

Dusk sniffed at the core and snorted.

I looked at Dusk’s current Skills, Speed Boost, Shadows Embrace, Tough Hide and Shadow Manipulation. I thought about the Panther. High Agility, Master level Camouflage, A Skill that allows it to become shadow-like. It certainly had a Tough Hide type Skill. Ruku is pretty sure it had bite-and-claw skills, but we don’t know what else. The fact my shadows couldn't penetrate it could mean a higher level of Shadow Manipulation than me, but mine was over the Master Level, so it was possibly a shield or something. Maybe it was equivalent to my Shadow’s Embrace, which Dusk also had. I have never sensed that from the outside. At the end of the day, the Panther was a carnivore and ambush predator. Dusk was a herbivore and speedster.

Was it worth the risk?

I am a Shadow Predator. I have the Class. Dusk and Nyx share the class flavour, as Wiremu and Mayakku would say.

What the hell, “If you want it, Dusk, we are all in.”