Chapter 240: Fists and Fortune 2 – The Open Road

“We have made landfall at this location,” Aclysia explained to the present two of her party, tapping on the segment of the northern coast. They were still aboard the ship, having used their quarters onboard for one last rest before they hit the road. “By my estimation, it will take us approximately 15 days to return to the Teacher’s Isle on foot. Alternatively, we could direct ourselves straight south and aim for the coast. We may be able to purchase a passage to the isle from there, or at least ensure we skip half the land route.”

“Doesn’t look like we’d lose that much if we went there anyway,” Reysha chimed in. “Would be wiser to go around those hills than through them, right?”

“Affirmative,” Aclysia nodded, her finger trailing southwards. “Then our first destination shall be this settlement. Distance implies a two-day journey. Maintained roads may cut down on this.”

“Well, no reason to wait, right?” Korith asked.

“Some reason to wait,” Reysha said and pointed towards the open door. It was pouring, steadily and heavily, the thick drops on the planks creating a constant drumbeat. Only reason why the door was even open was to let the daylight in. “Let’s see when the big guy comes back.”

Apexus strutted through the city streets. Neither the rain on his naked chest nor the mud under his feet particularly bothered him. Losing heat to the environment was the only cause for any concern and it was so mild Apexus elected to ignore it. Instead, he kept tranquillity in his core and observed the rain for its interesting qualities.

His raised palm caught the falling drops of water, interrupted them momentarily in their journey to the ground. Eventually, the gathered water overflowed and spilled over the edge of his hand. Apexus followed one of those drops. His senses sharpened from the focus, and he could see the water in the dull light of the overcast sky. It fell like he had fallen in the first moments of his existence.

Unlike him, it became a part of the vast pool of connected water that covered the surface in puddles and continued deep down into the earth. With a splash, it was gone. Its individual existence lost, never to be restored in the same configuration.

Apexus noticed a worm squirming in front of him. He stopped and observed the creature, seeing it wind around in a desperate attempt to escape from the puddle that had formed around it. Without hesitation or consideration, he scooped the worm up and carried it to a nearby patch of plants that had been left to grow at the edge of some property.

He sat it down where the leaves of the plants provided limited dryness. The worm’s instincts made it calm down, now that it was out of danger. Apexus spotted a myriad other interesting factors in the area. The rain changed the priorities for each of these small animals, be it that they got calmer, were in danger, or had their prime opportunities.

‘I could study this for a while,’ Apexus thought, watching an ant scout out the worm he had placed there. Upon the touch of the eusocial insect’s mandibles, the worm went into a renewed panic. The ant retreated, but it would be back as soon as it had laid a pheromone trail.

Apexus remembered when he was threatened by a swarm of ants. Their ferocity and coordination had been the entire reason he had acquired the pheromone ducts as his first permanent Growth. It had never quite seen use for the original purpose, as he had envisioned ants to be the dominating species of the world. Their supremacy over their segment of the environment was clear, yet Apexus had far outstripped the weight class of the ants commonly found around the Omniverse.

Saving the worm would have been as easy as leaving a more interesting pheromone trail for the ants to pursue. Apexus chose to do nothing. Saving the worm from the rain was one thing, to save it from predators another. A drowned worm would do little good. The eaten worm would feed the colony of the ants.

‘Then why is banditry immoral?’ Apexus wondered. He left as the ants descended on the worm.

A little bit further down the road, he came across a man whose cart was stuck in the mud. Most of his features were obscured by the waxed raincoat he was wearing. He repressed a frustrated groan, not to agitate his donkey any further. When he noticed Apexus walking towards him, he was simultaneously relieved and slightly confused by his appearance. “Hey, you look like you can lift. Can you lend me a hand?”

“Yes,” Apexus responded, straightforward and simple. He stopped next to the cart, checked where exactly the problem was. Before the owner could be annoyed with his stillness, the humanoid chimera stepped to the back of the cart and lifted.

The wheels were deep in the mud, but between his lift and the donkey being made to pull again, they came free. There was a squelching sound, as air and water rushed into the vacuum created. The cart found traction and rolled a metre forward. Then the man got his donkey to stop by gently patting its neck.

If a swarm of bandits now descended on the man, saved from the natural causes, would Apexus have helped him? Of course, he would have. But what made that different? “Could I ask you two questions?” the humanoid chimera asked.

“Seems fair. Thanks for the help, by the way,” the man responded.

“Why is banditry wrong?”

That question gave the man pause. He pulled his hood back enough to get a clearer look at Apexus. He was a simple person in his mid-thirties. “You’re one of those philosophizing monkly adventurer types, aren’t you?” he asked.

“I find myself with a lot of questions and insufficient answers.”

“…Never really thought about why banditry is wrong. I don’t like the idea of being robbed… if I had to put a finger on it, there’s just a lot of other stuff they could do instead of hurting their fellow man.”

Apexus nodded, that was an answer that clicked and that satisfied him. The ant had to eat and it did not conceive of different ways to survive than to hunt other insects. Bandits had choices. They were sapient creatures and exploited other sapient creatures. To hunt and be hunted was life. “Where did you buy that coat?” he asked his second question.

The suddenness of that gave the man pause again. This was by far the weirdest interaction he had had in a long time. Even living close to Wise Shire and the various retired adventurers that populated it did not regularly cause contact with people this sudden in their social displays. “There’s a shop by the docks that sells various water-resistant goods. I got it there.”

“Thank you,” Apexus said and turned around. After three steps, he reminded himself about the typical end of conversations. “Have a nice day.”

“You too?” he sounded somewhat confused.

Apexus headed back the way he came. ‘I should have searched the docks more carefully,’ he thought. The entire trip had been about finding something that would let his loves ward off the rain. Their tents were treated, so the nights would not be an issue, provided they found decently dry ground. For clothes, all they had to resist water were the clothes they had bought for their trip into the White Ice Dungeon on Azenia-Ra. They were too thick for the Autumn weather, and Korith did not possess her own clothes for this purpose.

Apexus, as one of two people in the group barely bothered by the rain, had decided that he would be the one to look around for a solution to this problem. Usually, Aclysia took care of their buying and socializing. The shift of priorities was born only from a whim by the slime.

Heading back to the dock area, Apexus looked around and eventually found the shop the man had described. It was marked only with a tiny sign. Nothing indicated there was a tailor there. Word of mouth was the primary advertisement.

Apexus stopped shortly behind the door, staring down at a broad, rough, thick rag that had been left there. He was standing on it. It was perfectly placed so whoever stepped in would inevitably step on it. Looking at the clean stone tiles beyond, the humanoid slime understood and cleaned his bare feet as best as possible, before advancing into the store proper.

The clerks were a couple that was young and happily married. Both had brown hair and were good looking. One was the only heiress of the property; the other had started working there several years ago. It was a story common enough to be typical.

“How can we help you?” the husband asked.

“I need three rain cloaks,” Apexus told them. “For people about this, this, and this size,” he showed on his own body how tall Aclysia, Reysha and Korith stood.

“We can get that done, probably in the next few hours,” he looked to his wife for confirmation.

“Little else to do at the moment, so sure. I’d like more exact measurements though.”

“I can bring them here; they are waiting on the ship.”

“Oh, you’re with Joey,” the wife sounded a bit colder after receiving that information.

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“We were passengers,” Apexus clarified.

“Ah… well, bring them here,” she invited. “I’ll prepare everything.” To her husband she said, “tell me when they’re here.”

“Will do, honey,” he sent her off with a quick peck on the cheek.

Returning to the ship, Apexus found the three of them playing cards. Reysha was topless, but the slime knew better than to ask why the brown-skinned tiger girl was casually nude. Quickly, he informed them about his progress, they went to the shop, paid 50 silver for their troubles, and then said their goodbyes to Joey.

“See you fuckers around,” was all the captain had to say.

“Ya might not,” Reysha told him.

Joey just shrugged. “That’s the life of an old captain. People come through and that’s it. If I don’t, I don’t.”

“Love ya too, ya cynical asshole,” Reysha giggled.

“It was… nice…?...doing business with you,” Korith declared.

“You are a reliable person,” Aclysia added.

“What is this shit? Personal reaffirmation? Get the fuck out of here, we all have better things to do.” The captain made shushing gestures, as if he was trying to tell a whining dog that there were no scraps to be gotten from his plate.

Apexus waved goodbye. “I hope you have success in your endeavours.”

They left the captain and his crew behind on the table they were doing their drinking at. The sailors toasted to the quartet on their way out. The door closed and muffled all sounds. It was them out in the rain, nearly alone on the street, as they set out southwards.

“So… weird question… but do you all ever wonder how people remember us?” Korith asked.

“I don’t think that is a weird question.” Apexus had the same, or similar ones bouncing around in his core at most times.

“Big guy, you’re filled with weird questions, so you’re a terrible judge of this,” Reysha giggled.

“Personally, I find it both a weird question and one I regularly consider. Our reputation is one we should cultivate, since we abandoned secrecy.”

“Wasn’t meant as a reputation question,” Korith clarified and tried to put it into better words. Simultaneously, she was lifted onto Apexus’ shoulders. The mud puddles everywhere made her usual ways of keeping up, jumping and jogging, a messy process. Much better to just sit on the man who could carry her tirelessly. “It’s just a, you know, pondering thing about how they will look back at you like we will look back at those tailors.”

“The guy will remember me every other month and wonder why his wife isn’t as hot,” Reysha purred.

Aclysia sighed, an instinctive response to the redhead’s constant horniness. “I doubt we will be remembered in any capacity. This part of the Leaf must see adventurers, retired or not, frequently. They will experience a plethora of unusual customers.”

“The man with the cart will remember me. Either as an individual instance or as a bit of helpfulness in the world.” Apexus watched another raindrop meld with the puddles. “I am fine with either.”

“That’s a kind of nice thought?” Korith hummed, scratching Apexus’ fox ears while they walked. “We’re just part of a vast, general good being-together of the world.”

“Yeah, ya can put that thought in the trashcan,” Reysha giggled. “I mean, that’s a nice thought and all and it works while we’re still here but we’re adventurers. Either we’re weird customers or we’re what comes along when they’re having serious problems for one reason or another. People will definitely remember us in some fashion.”

“I believe it varies too much to make a definitive call. Although it may violate the spirit of the question, I believe all we can do is build a reputation.”

Korith hummed in thought, “Does that even make sense with how vast the Omniverse is?”

“That depends on our travelling strategy after we have secured our tracks,” Aclysia told them. “Commerce between Leaves leads to exchanges of rumours. Staying within bordering worlds should lead to accruement of some level of fame. There are also the information exchanges available to the Church and the Adventuring Guild, and other smaller organizations. A reputation is not necessarily going to reach whose ears we please, but it will be a useful resource regardless.”

“Apotho’s cruelty was remembered after several hundred years on worlds he never visited,” Apexus added. “A reputation is useful.”

“…Guess I’ll have to put more work into my ‘redeemed’ reputation then.”

“You are still on your best path,” Aclysia stated, encouragingly.

“Oy, bubble butt, that’s where you’re supposed to say something snarky like ‘that would distract you from flaunting how sexy you are all the time’.”

“I do not believe that is becoming of me. I sincerely acknowledge and respect all you have done so far to be a better person. Your libido is a bother of another variety.”

“Psh… sincerity… I sincerely love ya, how about that?”

“I love you too you… highly irritating woman.”

“Your insult game is still weak.”

“I do not care to improve.”

“Do ya really not?” Reysha poked fun at her. “Because ya look kinda irritated.”

Aclysia let out a deep sigh.

And they wandered on like usual.

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