Chapter 16: Chapter 15: the hunt begins

Seeing as Jools returned, we left the dingy inn. Seeing the city in the daylight is different to seeing it at night. For starters there are more people around, and while I did not notice it yesterday, there are other non-humans around, unlike in Ulmsville which were pretty much only humans. There still are a lot of shadows around, since it is still early, but the hustle and bustle is already going strong. Feeling the quest marker, we head towards the northernmost gate. It was not facing directly north, but close enough. Since, the quest marker points directly north of the city, and was pointing almost directly north-east when we were in Ulmsville, the abomination was about the same distance from Draumr as Ulmsville. It has probably gotten close since then, but a stopover here was the correct choice. 

We pass through a market on our way, with people marketing their wares. Unlike similar markets on earth, they only display a sampling of each thing they sell. Probably because they use inventories like us. It is probably fairly common, since the proprietress wasn’t surprised, and I have yet to see any cargo wagons around. As we continue, I spot a fruit seller who displays a variety of fruits, of which pears catch my attention. George always liked pears, and Zena, has yet to taste them. That was not the reason for them catching my attention though, It was the fact that they have mana in them. Notifying my companions, I walk over to the seller and buy a bunch. He can use the inventory better than Jools, though he still spends a little bit of time on each piece of fruit. As he takes them out, I start to eat one of them, since Jo distracted me from breakfast.

There are no further distractions and we get to pass the gate in a timely manner. Once we get to the distance where we would speed up our pace, which is just far enough to not collide with other people, I turn to face Jo and say “Try to keep up”. She looks back at me with determination, as I start to fly backwards thanks to my thruster. I aim a bit more upwards than usual to avoid tripping on something, since I am not looking at where I am going. She immediately tries to do the same, managing to keep pace for the first thrust, but the second one sends her careening into the ground. The basic mana thruster can get you out of harm’s way on short notice, but is useless for travel. I stop and walk back to her, casting a healing spell to heal her scratches.

“I think you should practise traveling at speed if you want to join us.”

She looks a bit dejected at my statement, so I decide to throw her a bone. “We are coming back here after dealing with the abomination. So practice the better thruster I told you about. It’s not that much more difficult, but it’s a lot better for travel.”

With that out of the way, she waves us off with a weak smile as we speed off towards our first battle since the transition. After a couple minutes, Jools finally decide to start a conversation.

“You seem to like her a fair bit.”

“Yeah, she’s a quite good conversationalist, and having someone to talk with about magic is great fun. She seems to have learned a lot of theory from the academy, but it seems that she lacks in practice. I don’t know the theory behind it since I never had an education in magic, but as Zena I have a lot of practical experience. Joining those together is always fun, especially getting to disprove some of the things she was taught, though her theory seems to be mostly solid. I kinda hope she manages to keep up with us next time we meet, though I wouldn’t be entirely opposed to slowing down until she can. Maybe we can push her towards an agility based dps build”

We continue our conversation with idle chatter, and he agrees that she seems nice. After a couple of hours, the road we were following veered off too far east for us to follow, so we go off the road and head directly towards the marker. Another couple of hours of traveling through a mix of copses and wavy plains, and we agree that it’s time to take our lunch. We decide to stop at the top of a nearby hill, doubling it as a scouting break. Jools decide on some meats again, and I eat another two pears. Don’t blame me, they taste pretty damn good. 

After eating , I take out my spyglass to scout ahead. In the game, the spyglass was a good enchanted item, that let the player detach their camera from their character to scout ahead,or to take cool screenshots, though I don’t get an out of body experience from using it now, it’s just a pretty damn good telescope. In the far distance, I see a black spot that gives me the creeps. I can’t see any details, but it FEELS wrong. Like it should not exist. With a shiver going down my spine, I hand the spyglass to Jools and point it the direction of the quest marker. He searches for a bit, but I see him visibly shiver once he spots it.

Since our break is over, we resume our travels a bit more hesitantly. We are not going directly to it, but to a closer hill so that we can get a better look. Neither of us speak until we reach the targeted hill. Just before reaching the top, I cast my buff on him so that he can access his inventory, primarily so that he can take out his own spyglass. He notices and thanks me.

This hill is close enough for us to see its details. It is truly disgusting. It feels like reality is trying to erase its existence, but failing. It’s nothing like in the game. The only thing preventing me from panicking and running away is the fact that Zena has single handedly faced bigger ones than this and emerged victorious. Had I been just George in body and mind, I might have vomited and fainted at the sight. 

It’s a relatively small one, like David said, though small by abomination standard means a three meter diameter body. The major body parts it has are three abomination specific tentacles and a single triple jointed leg with a hoof at the end that slowly drags it towards Draumr. The tentacles are usually associated with magic, with them having a spell each. Though, they can also grapple players that get too close. As usual there is a whole slew of other minor body parts, mostly arms for this one, but also a few heads. It also has another leg, which appears to be a normal human leg, but instead of a foot at the end, it has a human head, which it repeatedly smacks into the ground in an attempt to walk. It would have been funny had it not been so disturbing.

Upon deciding how to approach this seemingly magic focused abomination, we start preparing.

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