A travel study with surprises

After noting to himself to get his summons done soon, Jay jumped down the stable as he reached the roofs side.

Though his jumping power indicated it should be possible to jump down the whole building, he was still reluctant to test it out.

Sneaking inside and lightly shaking the sleeping Sybill awake, he told her it was time and she should wake him up in three hours at most.

She looked a bit irritated at first and unbelieving Jay kept his word, but she got up quick and left the building.

The sun was still far from rising, but the clear night and full moon offered at least a bit of vision to her, so Jay could rest without second thought.

It should stay quiet for the rest of the night as well, at least once in a while.

Finding himself a comfy place in the sparse hay that was left, Jay decided to take out the book he bought back in Arathor. Without to much hope he opened the cover of the [Skillbook: Shadow Step] and nearly jumped up in surprise.

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[Skillbook: Shadow Step]

[Shadow Step LVL1] is ready to be leaned.

Do you want to learn the skill or read the book for possible higher level?

[Learn] [Read]

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Not having thought to get anything out of it, Jay now had the chance to learn a new skill...again. But if he understood it correctly, he had the chance to read the book for the chance of gaining a higher level of that skill.

Not thinking about it twice, Jay chose to read it.

The letters and drawings were hard to decipher and read, but he managed quite good. That didn't imply he really understood much of it though.

From the background of shadows and their connection to mana and with that magic, Jay didn't get much of it.

Only from the descriptions of how and where to circulate mana and with what element at best, did he get something.

After a few pages Jay felt his eyes getting heavy and his mind clouding.

He was too drowsy to continue reading and stored the book away before shutting his eyes close.

.

.

.

Like he had asked her to, Sybill woke him up three hours later. Not the friendliest method getting shaken awake, but Jay had anticipated worse from her.

Glad she didn't use a bucket of cold water, he jumped up and together they woke up their clients.

Not even ten minutes later they had pulled the carriage out of the stable and where back on the path to the main road. Their repairs worked just fine and they could speed up again.

With this they would finally arrive at Sentinel at afternoon or early evening at worst.

As the threat of attacks was pretty low, Jay took out his skill book again and continued to read.

It would take them at least twenty minutes to get to the main road where he would have to watch out again. He got not one page further as Sybill inquired about the book.

"Reading instead of watching out?" S.

"At least for the next twenty minutes there's not really a threat. And it's not like I can't pay attention to my surroundings just because I'm reading..." J.

"Yeah... what kind of book is it? ...looks quite old." S.

"Ah, nothing special I guess. I found it in a shady shop in Arathor.

Back then it simply caught my eye exactly because it looked that shabby. Anything else I will know when I read it through..." J.

With this her curiosity was satisfied and Jay could continue to read on.

His progress was way faster than last night though his understanding didn't rise much again. As the book was not that thick to begin with, he was closing in on the last pages pretty quick.

Thinking about if reading the letters got easier or if he simply had been too tired last night, Jay stored the book away as they closed in on the crossroad.

Back on the main road they rose their attention as they feared another attack in the proximity of the saldema's farm grounds. It was not for Sybill's or Jay's own, but their clients safety of course.

Gaining more and more distance to the farm they eased up again when Sybill turned to Jay.

"Why don't we simply free the farm again? With your strength it should be possible and the whole trip would be meaningless..." S.

"Yeah, think again! What if reinforcements really come there later?

They won't simply shoo the owners away again!" J.

"Then we ask for guards to go there and protect the farmers." S.

"And what about their workers? They had all been sent to Sentinel.

That way they can't even bring in their harvest. Not to talk about collateral damage..." J.

"I guess you're right..." S.

"I'd like to get them their farm back as well, but their safety has priority for now, okay?" J.

As she nodded, the discussion had been settled.

Jay himself really wanted to go and eradicate the bandits, but he had taken the escort request and that came first for now.

The awaited attack had never come, so Jay decided to summon his horse and ride a bit. Even though the carriage got repaired better than anticipated, less weight would still bolster up the travel speed.

This way they traveled through the hills until they reached the field Jay had spotted and watched the day before.

It was the one with the Harvesters roaming around. From closer distance, Jay could spot at least six of those monstrosities on that field alone.

Now that he was nearly withing reach, Jay closed in a bit and used [Analyze] on it after jumping off his horse.

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Harvester [lvl. 15]

(Construct)

HP 860/860 Mana 0/0

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Other than its massive health pool for its level, the Construct had no skills.

That seemed quite logical, given it was no living organism. And just like that Jay got the question, if those would even grant him experience points, in his mind.

Deciding to test it out, he shouted over his shoulder that the group should wait a moment.

That shout had been a bit too loud, as the closest Harvester faced Jay's direction and rushed over. With mechanical noises and steam rising from its back, the brown black colossus trotted forward.

A whirring noise alarmed Jay of some kind attack coming in, so he made ready to dodge.

Just as it came within reach, the upper body of the Harvester started to spin and the spread out limbs with their blades attached turned it into some kind of oversized mixer. Ducking down, Jay closed in on the construct and greeted it with a fire magic loaded straight punch to the torso.

He had thought it irrelevant where to strike as the head part was bound to be no more relevant than the rest of this machine.

The magic energy entering the Harvester and stopping its wild attack proved Jay right and gave him another opening for his next attack.

This time he took out his Wingblade with his quick button and slashed at one of the constructs arms. It received quite some damage, but the effect of the hit was nowhere near to the previous punch.

A shallow cut on the surface was all Jay achieved with this.

Directly afterwards he had to dodge the two artificial limbs as the Harvester hammered them down at once. Sidestepping the attack, Jay readied another counter.

This time he infused magic to the attack again, covering the Wingblade in flames.

With one swift slash, the right arm got severed from the monstrosity and fell to the ground with a loud thump.

The shifted weight had the Harvester stagger and Jay could use this chance to stab the creature right in the middle of it's torso.

Jay had hoped for it to have something like a core unit and that it was located in the center of the body.

To his surprise he was right. With mechanical sounds of something blockading and breaking, the construct tried to move a few more times until steam rose from every gap and it ceased all movements.

What surprised Jay even more though, was the notification he read in his log.

Defeating the Harvester had actually earned him experience points. As it was lower level than him, it was only a sparse amount, but the realization that destroying machines or constructs could grant him XP was more than welcome.

"What the hell are those things?" S.

"I was going to ask you the same..." J.

"why would I know? May be our clients can tell something about them?" S.

"You think so? Anyway, help me pull it to the carriage. We'll take it along until someone can tell us more about it." J.

Sybill had arrived at Jay's side moments after the fight had ended and asked him while he was still pondering about the construct himself.

Pulling the Harvester over to the waiting Saldemas, she inquired if they knew those machines, but as Jay had guessed, they didn't.

The reason why he didn't simply put it in his inventory and went to the length of heaving the heavy construct on the carriage was to not reveal his inventory.

Even if he had stored some things with Sybill and his current clients witnessing, that was in the leagues of a normal spatial storage. The female Adventurer owned one of those herself.

With the additional weight of the Harvester on their vehicle, the progress once again slowed down. After riding along the carriage for a while and checking if it had any problems with the additional weight, Jay guessed at least 600 pound, he was pleased their reconstruction for their transport worked out.

They still had to slow down considerably and even had a break after some time, so the bull like monster pulling the cart could regain some of its stamina.

Sally Saldema offered the last bit of bread and vegetables they had with them for a sparse lunch and after a while they had to travel on.

At that time, Jay went back on the carriage and took out his skill book to read again. This time Sybill didn't complain and even offered to notify him if she spotted something out of the ordinary, so he wouldn't have to split his attention.

He gratefully accepted and concentrated on the book. This way he really understood more of the context and even progressed a bit faster.

As he had continued a few pages back, he was once again closing in on the last pages. The moment he reached there and finally read the last word, another notification popped up and was waiting for his reply.

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[Skillbook: Shadow Step]

[Shadow Step LVL2] is ready to be leaned.

Reading the book can no longer increase the level further.

[Learn]

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Reading the prompt twice to not miss anything, Jay thought about closing it and read the book manually again, but feared the option to learn the skill would vanish completely.

This way he accepted and felt his mana drain into the book, just to return with something else.

It was no real knowledge that had flown into him, but felt like something connecting the things he had read in the book.

Without knowing how, he somehow understood most of what was in the book and after concentrating on it further, he knew how to circulate his mana and some energy to connect himself to the shadows.

Without reading the skill description, Jay knew what it would do. He still opened his status and read the description to confirm it:

[Shadow Step LVL 2] -leap into the shadows and proceed towards the next one, up to 10 yards apart.

If your shadow connects to others you can proceed for 2 minutes.

This was one hell of a skill for stealthy operations. If he got the description right, he would be able to travel unseen for two minutes as long as he found connecting shadows.

What was more, his intuition told him this skill was the most efficient at night, when the shadows were all engulfing.

Looking up after closing his status and the skills description he saw Sybill watching him. She wore an inquiring look but kept her mouth shut until Jay spoke first with a joking tone.

"Didn't you say you would keep watching out?" J.

"It's not like we will encounter much problems from now on. It's only two or three hours even at this speed until we arrive at Sentinel." S.

"So nothing out of the ordinary happened?" J.

"Except another burned down Farm we passed some time ago, nothing.

You were quite immersed on that book, huh?" S.

"Guess so. Want to have a look at it?" J.

"No thanks... finally able to tell what it was about?" S.

"Yeah, it's a description how to manipulate mana to use a certain movement technique. Not that I understood it that well, but it uses mana as the base and..." J.

"A skill book? Jeez, you won't ever stop with your surprises, will you?" S.

"Like I said, I found it in Arathor..." J.

"It's still not something to carelessly take out in the open to read... or something to offer for others to read!" S.

"Though I know those items are rare, I doubt it's to such an extent..." J.

"Yeah, well, they still cost a lot and once the lingering mana holding the skill got absorbed after understanding it to some extent, the book becomes worthless..." S.

Putting the used skill book into his inventory, Jay thanked Sybill and promised to try and think more about his actions in the future.

Watching the surrounding landscape, they saw more wide fields and a few hills in the distance.

This continued for the next twenty minutes and thought they still watched out for threats, Jay and Sybill quite enjoyed the sight of this landscape. With the far visibility, the chances of a ambush were close to zero, so their tension eased considerably.

It was just as they took in the calming sight, when suddenly they heard a loud scream.

Not sure if it was a human or some monster, they jumped up and took of for a run towards the direction where the scream came from.