The Bees

Even though we had cleared the road ahead the previous night our travel was still fairly slow thanks to the snow that had built back up while we were away. Add to this the fact that we faced three confrontations before reaching the end of the road and it took us until noon before we had to starving paving the way again. Luckily, we were all still here.

All of the confrontations we came across on the road were led by either small or large groups of trolls on foot or mounted on the local wildlife. On the two occasions that we were faced with trolls on foot they were supported by both ice birds and ice rats while they were mounted on either scorpions or large alpha wolves. The final confrontation was led by the latter.

Trolls riding wolves were the worst things we had faced since entering the Winter Wood. There were twelve wolves in all and they were supported by three scorpions apiece which matched the numbers of our own familiars. The wolves were fearlessly fast and the trolls were armed with large bone axes and even a pair of frozen chain swords like the one I had tricked- now, sold to Skooma through the clan store.

In that battle both Stonewall and I at the rear of the caravan were faced with a pair of mounted trolls apiece and their scorpion escorts. I had to dismount from the alpha to take the fight seriously, targeting first the mounts of my designated trolls so that they could not use their speed to bring their weapons against the alpha. Thanks to their spurs, or venom, the alpha could not use its powerful jaws to fight with the trolls or even the scorpions.

All it took was a single poisoned chop or thrust coupled with Geist to dismount the trolls but then it became me fighting two very fast and very heavily armed giants. Even though I was at least twenty percent faster than either troll I had two trolls flailing what looked like skeletal weaponry and spurred fists all around me. Each time I managed to strike one troll the other troll would strike me.

By the time the first troll was finished by a poisoned stab after a heavy electric punch, my health had been whittled down to sixty percent by the other troll that I had only managed to slash across its ribs. However, with the other troll out of the way and its own 'Troll-bone War Ax' in my inventory as loot, the other was much easier to deal with since it was poisoned.

Thanks to his overwhelming defense and shield skills, Stonewall was already making his way down his side of the caravan by the time I finished with my two trolls. The alpha had long since handled the scorpions, though, who were simply unable to cope with its size and Strength that was nearly two hundred before the cordycep infection.

I once again sent the infected alpha ahead down the side of the caravan to deal with the closest enemies and upset the balance of the others' battles.

The confrontation itself ended when the others grouped up together around Lil and Agnes to capture the last two trolls and tame them. Our overall firepower was heavily increased after outfitting them with modified armor and weapons. Now, the mini-tank troll was partnered with Stonewall riding a spare beast while taking the other two in the recon team for trailblazing.

Since Stonewall was left behind to guard the caravan, I was picked to lead the recon team with both Agnes and Lil to work on their commanding of the trolls while Go and I supported the trolls. As usual, the overpowered demigods were left with the caravan for its insurance.

Thanks to Lil and Agnes being able to make temporary contracts with wild creatures combined with our surplus of sufficient creatures, each of them had an escort team of three 'Infected Ice Scorpion' creations I infected after dragging them out of the clan store. Even without any actual taming, infected creatures were subservient to me as a Plaguedman of my status.

With these creatures helping alongside our own scouting mounts, it we were able to breeze through the terrain in most conditions unless we came across immense boulders. Even if we could break this mountainous rubble, it would just create more problems. At least we now had enough mobs of enough strength to move the large frozen fallen trees in our way.

The caravan maintained a slow but steady pace a few hundred yards behind us but for the most part they remained free of confrontations even though they now remained mostly in view of us. However, there came a few points when circling out of the way of rubble piles and unnecessary hills where they were cut off and faced confrontations. Luckily, they had the demigods there.

As for us, we maintained a steady rate of confrontations almost every half hour.

Most of these were basic wildlife that probably represented the mass amount of critters we were pissing off with our work but there were a few trolls every now and then. The first few confrontations were spent using the trolls to maintain aggro in close quarters as a way to prove themselves. Once they proved themselves and the first enemy trolls appeared, Go and I forced the enemy trolls into dueling our trolls after carefully cleaning out all of the other mobs and the extra trolls.

Our trolls equipped with both primitive troll and our own crafted weapons easily doubled the damage output of these primitive wild trolls. As well, on the few fronts where they took damage the damage itself was nearly halved by their captain standards. Luckily, we did not give them poisoned weapons or we would not be able to capture the wild trolls.

Because the process of taking in and releasing actual familiars and their own levels, only Agnes was willing to accept one more familiar to make five out of their current six familiar slots. Lil already owned two trolls and was not willing to take a third. Thus, Go accepted the second of the first pair of captured trolls before the others were listed in the clan store.

By the time we finally reached the plateau of worn down ice and rubbled mountain four captures trolls were just chilling in the clan store while our four escorts became Infected Timber Trolls. These guys lost most of their frozen elemental affinities but made up for it with a return to their roots in nature. They picked up minor healing skills at the loss of a few ice attacking skills.

However, they still maintained an ability to manipulate ice similar to the ice birds armor and feather blades and their roars carried buffing affects.

Once everybody was gathered together at the current end of our road to make camp in the early evening, the party was called together to have a brief meeting. "Ladies and gentleman, we've hit a big-ass roadblock," I informed the party once everybody was done eating the food somebody besides me cooked. "We need to build a ramp and some kind of road going up this plateau, that's gonna take at least a day, and then everything after that will be slow as fuck. We currently have two plans for how to proceed, you guys get to choose what we do. First, do we ditch the wagons and ride the dragons and familiars for speed or do we go the permanent route and make the road?"

Obviously, ditching the wagons was probably what everybody was going to choose but I was hoping a few of them would notice the faults in this. We were on a mission for nobility and laying down roots through the surrounding region for the Delai family as well as our clan. This road will last for weeks after we go back the way we came and could very well become permanent thanks to our connections.

Stopping here would just leave a bunch of unfinished work that somebody would probably have to pay for later. The funding for which would probably require outside involvement and if we tried to settle anywhere on this road the outside involvement would have their fingers in our pie. If we could make the entire road now we could have greater claims in the future products of our work.

Since we were already so deep into this uninhabited forestry we could make a small city right here on this plateau with enough funding and rights. Especially after we literally set the foundation by leveling a massive area of the plateau near our destination.

On the other hand, even though everybody in the party was now hovering below level sixty it would not be a surprise if they chose to take the fast route. This place has been hella harsh and everybody here were consistently pressed and wounded in our confrontations. At their current levels, as well, everybody was lacking in their class abilities.

Despite this lacking, though, all of their current class skills were as high in level as they could be since they were the only class skills they had. Several of them were even maxed out for our mages.

As I expected, the others touched down on all of these points while debating the path we chose on every platform from survivability to profitability. Merch was the first to bring up the long term benefits of our actions on the first trip and thus led the side who wanted to keep the wagons and pave the way. Papi, on the other hand, believed in the power of reality cash to compensate for outside involvement by having them pay us.

Both were extremely good arguments that tested my party. Many of them were blinded by such a large short-term gratification while only a few knew that the long term benefits would truly be greater. Then came the survivability issues that would come from us ditching the wagons and most of the goods they carried.

That alone was worth a large chunk of our short-term profits because the wagons contained so many supplies for gathering and even basic processing of all sorts of materials that our own player inventories were starting to lack room for.

Even if we could stack a hundred empty vials, those vials would be divided into multiple new stacks after being filled with different contents. If we could not properly store or process goods in bulk, we would be missing out on our immediate returns. This was downright eye opening for the people who agreed with Papi.

Finally, my hopes were achieved when everybody finally decided to take the wagons with us and build the road. Papi, Skooma, Agnes, and Oleander were all left in charge of the construction with Merch, Stonewall, Ivana, and Conansson for assistance and even supervision. Lil and Go were with me on an actual scouting mission.

The next day after a brief breakfast before the others came together with Oleander to start mass transmuting the area in shifts, Lil and Go and I made out way off to the side after organizing the all of the current familiars into a security detail surrounding the area. It was then in relative secrecy that Go and I brought out the ice bees from the clan store and let Lil tame one first.

As expected, she received a title for acquiring a mountable flying familiar but despite our expectations she was only the twentieth. The reward for such a title were not glamorous, bestowing only five points to Intelligence and Willpower as well as a skill and mastery. The Skill was Aerial Riding and the mastery was Aerial Combat. As a druid, though, she unlocked a hidden class upgrade that

Go became the next person to own a flying mount and received the same blue rare grade title and rewards. Then I tamed the remaining bee and received my own rewards.

[Acquired Title: 23rd Mounted Flying Player]

[+200XP]

[23rd Mounted Flying Player: Passive. Rare. As one of the early players to own a flying mount, you have been recognized as the 23rd Mounted Flying Player. As a mounted flying player, you now have access to aerial based skills and abilities and have been granted Aerial Riding and Aerial Combat to help pave the way. Permanent +5 Willpower/Intelligence. +20 Imperial Reputation]

[Acquired Unique Title: 7th Classless Mounted Flier]

[+250XP]

[7th Classless Mounted Flier: Rare. Passive. As the 7th classless player to own a flying mount, you have been recognized as the 7th Classless Mounted Flier for making this achievement without the assistance of class skills, teachers, or quests. To celebrate your early achievement, in addition to the base aerial skills you now receive a random mounted skill of any kind. +50 Imperial Reputation]

[Acquired Skill: Mounted Magic]

[+100XP]

[Mounted Magic LV1: Passive increases the strength while reducing the cost and cast of magic by (1)% while mounted. This effect is doubled while riding an appropriate combat capable mount]

Go was unhappy about this but I was actually pretty ecstatic. Even though I had a bunch of unique or hidden perks and abilities, this was the first classless related title that actually gave a reward that was not based on a class. While the other classes could probably grant this skill or a lesser version could be learned and upgraded, I was actually satisfied with such an ability as a reward.

Even though the skill was not exactly a game changer, yet, it could be leveled and upgraded with the all of my other perks and abilities. Regardless of whether it stayed the same or grew, it would buff my magic by at least ten percent while mounted on a combat familiar once maxed out. That was just considering if it only went up to five percent at max level.

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