A sightseeing trip north

Waking up early as he had went to bed not that late last night, Jay decided it was time for some training again.

Not that it was overly needed from what he had learned the other day, but getting rusty was the least he wanted. And his training might show the few who might think the fight had been a fluke that there really was hard work behind his power.

An hour of running, exercises and a bit of swimming in the lake later, Jay went back to the inn to get some breakfast. The older women he had seen the day before was working as waitress there. When Jay had sat down at the same seat like last evening and she came over, he asked her where Brianna was.

Apparently the Innkeeper had went to bed again as she felt sore. She had stated that she possibly had taken in something bad and had problems staying on her feet.

Jay left it be and simply ordered breakfast. He even paid for the two pieces of bread, some cheese and fruits.

Once done he left the Inn and marched over towards the town hall. The woman standing guard there asked him in a harsh tone what he wanted there, so Jay only showed her his badge and Adventurers ID, silencing her so she stepped aside to let him enter. After passing through a small lobby, Jay went straight into the main hall as the doors were open.

Another guard there asked Jay for what he came there, though in a more friendly tone. After he stated he had a report to give, the man got a bit nervous and finally explained that Jay had to speak with the magistrate himself in this case.

It took some minutes before the Guard came back with an elderly man in tow. Once they arrived he introduced himself as Magistrate Solomon, though Jay already had used (Analyze) and knew it.

The reason for him taking the report instead of a military officer was the same as to why the Guards seemed so nervous.

While the responsible Lieutenant for this town had left to Aldebaran for a while, his taken over command. But just a short while ago this Corporal went missing.

Like this, the military coordination had went to the magistrate, though he openly admitted that he had no experience with it.

Jay soothed Solomon by stating that he would gladly help him if he wanted it, as he had some experience with commanding. Though that was only true for battles, Jay still had the necessary skills and some knowledge from another world.

But the moment he finished his report about the ruins and the possibility of further Gnoll attacks, the Magistrate went pale again. And Jay had even left out the part with the totems and possible consequences.

Instead of Solomon, Jay hinted the guard present to double the patrols in close proximity and though it might lessen the security on the roads, make the further away patrols consist of at least five men.

Going back to the topic of the missing Corporal, Jay learned he and his battalion had left to the north, close to the border towards the Highlands. It had been even before the Lieutenant had left, but they hadn't heard anything from them till then.

Solomon had even sent a help request to the Adventurers Guild and the military, but that was only three days ago so he had gotten no response. Hearing this, Jay directly took the quest and even asked if there were other pending requests.

The Magistrates face brightened up as he heard this and directly started to explain another problem. The Murloc population on the northern bank had started to grow uncontrollably.

After inquiring if the same phenomenon happened with the other Murloc settlements, Solomon admitted that he didn't know. The only reason they even cared about those on the northern bank was that the fishermen had to pass close bye if they wanted to leave the small arm at which Stillwater lay. It had never been a problem but lately the monsters got more aggressive, so only a very few men dared to still sail out into deeper waters.

Thinking that it might be once again the work of a totem, Jay took the Quest as well and promised to look into it in the coming days. His priority lay with the Corporal for now as neither did the Murloc pose a threat to the city nor the food supply.

With a last hint that Corporal Keeshan had last been seen around Althers Mill, a small lumber settlement close by the road, Jay received a notification from his system that the Quest got received, as well as the one for the Murlocs.

Jay said his goodbyes to Solomon and left the town hall, just to meet the guard from inside who reported that the instructions got applied with a salute. After a short nod, Jay summoned his horse and saddled up.

Though he had wished for something else, it seemed to be yet another long day in the saddle. After passing the towns border, he took to the left and rode along the well maintained road uphill leading to the north.

At least the spectacular view over the Everstill Lake compensated Jay for that day's ride.

The higher the road led, the further his view reached from atop the cliff he rode along. Though the eastern end of the lake was still out of view, the shores on both sides could be seen from his position.

In the south he saw a thick forest stretch out between the lake and the mountain range further behind.

To the north, the cliffs looked even higher than at his actual position and below he spotted what was called the northern bank.

It seemingly ran from there to the south and when Jay checked by stepping to the edge of the cliff, he really found the bank below and even spotted some Murlocs. From this he understood why they didn't concern anyone as they had no way to climb up.

Jay's view to the other side though consisted of either trees forming a light forest or rock formations. Only at a few occasions did he get a glimpse on the steep mountain range leading to the north and surrounding the whole region there.

But through this and the cliff he at least understood the name of the Region from the reddish color of the ground and rocks.

On the road there had been only a few peddlers and other travelers, leaving Jay mostly alone for himself.

It wasn't a concern for his safety but boredom. When the view on the lake got more and more blocked off by rock formations first and later a strip of sparse vegetation, Jay concentrated on his System and his gains over the last days.

Ignoring the few skills and Status points that Jay integrated the last night even though he hadn't been aiming for it, he first looked at his new status. Like anticipated, fighting in a new region with stronger monsters had his leveling speed rise once again.

And they hadn't been that much higher in level than himself yet, though the sheer amounts or some being elite monsters, as well as completed quests surely had made up for that.

Status

__________

Jay Yanoz [LvL 23 (11,132/150.670)]

Job: Fighter LVL10

Job 2: Magic Swordsman LVL 26

Job 3: Pyromancer LVL 14

5175/5175 HP 4979/4979 MP

***

Status:

VIT 181+

AGI 183+

STR 217+

INT 183+

WIL 127+

DEX 146+

CHA 108+

LUK 92+

Statuspoints left: 58

***

His strength had gone up again, but mostly his health had gotten even more out of the norm. Hoping to continue like this, Jay closed the screen again and instead concentrated on his log. Even if he was sure there wouldn't be any surprises, he still wanted to check on the skills he had integrated.

To his slight surprise, Brianna has had a skill that was new to him. [Evaluation LVL2] enabled her to guess the general status of a person and with that the strength one possessed. As it was an inspection-like skill, Jay guessed this was the reason his intuition had warned him not to analyze her.

It naturally integrated into [Analyze], though that didn't rise Jay's skill.

[Cooking LVL1] and [Service LVL2] he got from Brianna did also not change his own skills level. But [Haggling LVL3] did and also rose his Arithmetic ability by one Level. Like he had thought before there was not a single combat related skill with her, though gaining skills had never been his premise that time.

Double checking it all, Jay still only managed to waste some few minutes with it and then had to somehow overcome the rest of the trip. Glad it didn't take that long until he came to a crossroad with a sign pointing towards Althers Mill on the right, Jay left he main road and rode along the sandy path.

The settlement Jay arrived at after descending through a small canyon and passing a pine forest was very small. There was nothing more than three houses, five small huts and a relatively big sawmill at the far end. A small river ran along it and then continued down towards the lake.

Jay directly went to the workers there as he hadn't seen anyone else in the settlement. The woodworkers there curtly greeted him but answered his questions friendly after Jay explained the reason for his visit.

Apparently the Unit had camped there for a night and then continued to the canyons in the north-west.

One of the Workers who had listened their talks added that they had wanted to check on reported Orc sightings. Their foreman had also stated that he saw one, but that was quite a long while back.

Either way, the Corporal and his men had traveled northwards along the river and that was all they knew.

Jay thanked the men and saddled up on his horse again. He chose the same route the Corporal had taken as there was a chance the small unit might not have survived an encounter there.

From what Jay had heard, Orcs were very strong, though the only ones he had met to this point hadn't been very intimidating. The situation he had seen them in might be the main reason for that, but Jay really had gotten interested to meet one in the wild.

Orcs counted as one of the races in most of this world regions, though only those who behaved at least partially. But there were said to be countless ones living in the wild, forming small tribes which were constantly fighting each others. Even their civilized brethren didn't see some of them as sane humanoids.

A half hour later Jay still had not seen any though, nor the Corporal or at least something resembling traces of battle or tracks. All together it was only a single giant spider that crossed his path, and that one died to a single arcane missile from horseback.

It took over another fifteen minutes riding through the light forest for Jay to pick up some sounds from the riverbed to his left. He had already gotten close to the mountains in the north where the vegetation got more lush. Thanks to this Jay had no problem sneaking through the shrubs and undergrowth to get a peek on who or what it was at the small river.

As he had gotten pretty close to the sounds, he peeked around a big boulder he was hiding behind, just some yards from the river. It was then Jay saw what he had been so interested in:

Two of the wild creatures from fiction in his old world stood there right before his eyes, not more than twenty yards away. The green skinned humanoids were not really taller than those whom Jay had already met, but a whole lot more intimidating. He only looked at them so his system chose them as target, not daring to analyze them and blow his cover.

The Orcs seemed to be a hunting party of two, though of course Jay didn't understand a single word of their somehow grunting sounding conversation. What he understood though was when one pointed south the other shook his head and pointed towards the east while sounding a bit agitated.

Jay's guess was they didn't plan to cross the river and probably hadn't, so his search was going back north-west.

Leaving the Orcs behind, Jay went back to the small path he had been on and once again summoned his horse. A bit before the foot of the mountains in the north, the path led westwards. Jay followed it for a while and soon got back to the main road he had taken before, so at least his traveling speed and comfort went up a bit again.

After passing the first Mountain in the north Jay had to pass through a small valley. Even the entrance to it was already way higher up than any point he had traveled trough and further up. Soon an easy to spot canyon presented itself to his right. It seemed pretty wide and got even more spread out further back how Jay discerned once he halted and gave it a look.

The while area got surrounded by the same high and steep mountains that marked the border to the highlands and from which Jay just had passed one. Only in the south the rocky mountains were less high, but still looked hard to climb from the canyon.

The slope leading down was quite steep and just as Jay was thinking about checking the border first, he spotted nearly not discernible and old footprints.

Following the traces from there, Jay descended the slope into the canyon that soon opened up into a lush valley. But the vegetation and few trees, a few rocks donned in between the greenery, wasn't all he spotted there.

Not even a hundred yards away from him, Jay made out a pair of Gnolls. He activated (Hide) and carefully closed in on them. The moment he was within reach, Jay analyzed them as Level 25 Hunters.

The hunter part didn't make them any better in perception as Jay had no problem sneaking up on them. A Wingblade through the first ones Windpipe from the back and the Cruel Barb right into the heart of the other from behind ended the patrol in a single attack.

But Jay had already noticed the next Gnoll in his vicinity.

He once again made use of the vegetation and closed in on the monster without getting noticed. Then he struck a vital spot with enough power and accuracy to produce a critical hit to kill his victim on the spot.

Like this he continued for some time, getting his kill count to over thirty until the sun began to sink behind the mountains in the west.

As it gradually got darker, Jay had even less problem sneaking up on his opponents. In between he even had time to look for a spot to hide and camp in, as he doubted he would be able to find the corporal before nightfall.

Suddenly he spotted the lights of a fire a good bit up the steep slope of the mountain on the other side of the valley. Though he had seen some more fires getting lit in the distance and knew Gnolls most certainly did that, they all had been in the valley.

While he couldn't see the one up there directly as it was hidden by a huge rock, Jay had the feeling he might find survivors.

Passing the green valley without any incident, Jay climbed the slope up towards that rock he had seen. Even a bit away from it, Jay could hear the clanking of swords and other sounds of battle, so he sped up as much as he could.

What he found peeking around the rock was a small plateau on which three Gnolls were attacking two men that defended their poor makeshift camp.

Not waiting any longer, Jay rushed up on the Gnolls and took care of the closest one. The next one he intercepted as the monster kept attacking it's already wounded opponent. A small barrage of arcane missiles while defending against the crude axe it attacked with was enough to clean the threat.

Incidentally, the last man of the group there held himself pretty well. He had defeated his opponent the moment Jay had gotten rid of the other two Gnolls.

Storing his weapons away and walking over to him, Jay got surprised the moment his system targeted that man. It really was Corporal Keeshan that he had been searching for, standing in front of him and updating Jay's quest to the next stage.

***

Quest:

'Corporal Keeshan' cleared!

3450XP

***

***

Quest:

Corporal Keeshan (2)

Object:

Escort the Corporal to safety.

***