Chapter 9: 9 – Eastern Wilderness

Three people sat at the table, one man and two women. They had dark bags under their eyes, dirt and sweat covering their faces. Vaeri had said that two of them had white cores, making them one of the strongest groups she saw. They also did not seem as hostile as the rest.

The three looked up from their food when Ruith and Vaeri approached them.

“We-”

One of the women cut Vaeri off.

“We know, you want to join us. You can come, girl, but the boy…seems a bit weak.”

“He will do fine, trust me.” the girl responded.

“Well, alright. Not our problem if he dies though. You can both come with us tomorrow.”

The woman gestured for them to sit down.

“The name is Lia. The man there is Nalen, and she’s Linne.” Lia gestured to the two while saying their names.

Nalen was a short man with black hair, a scruffy beard, and two daggers in their sheaths at his waist. Linne was a skinny girl with long brown hair, and her weapon of choice was a bow. Lia herself had short blonde hair down to her neck. She wielded a spear.

The three all seemed to be in their mid twenties.

Ruith and Vaeri took a seat, and Nalen spoke to them.

“Alright, since we’ll be together from now on, unless you two die of course, tell us your abilities and names.”

“Vaeri. My ability is Blade Sovereign, I can control the sharpness of any blade I wield. My strength is also increased.”

Ruith noted that Vaeri did not tell them the full extent of her ability.

“Ruith, Nature Manipulation. I basically just control the roots.”

The boy also decided to be a bit vague with his description, but the three seemed satisfied.

“Boy, that’s an interesting ability you have. Can you restrain things with roots? That would be very helpful to us.” Nalen questioned.

“Well I haven’t tried that yet, but it shouldn’t be too hard I guess?” Ruith figured that if he could attack with roots, restraining enemies wouldn’t be that different.

“That’s great then! It’s always so annoying when we come across a Voidborne with good agility…”

Lia spoke once again when Nalen was finished. 

“Alright, we will tell you our abilities now and what our role is. Starting with me, my ability is a simple boost to my strength and body toughness. I use my spear to distract our enemy and keep its attention away from Nalen and Linne.”

The bearded man spoke next.

“My ability is an extreme boost to my speed. While Lia distracts the target, I’ll be running around dealing light wounds to it. I usually coat my daggers in poison for larger enemies.”

Finally, Linne spoke. She had a quiet voice, and Ruith almost had to strain to hear her.

“My ability is called Bow Master. I can infuse my mana into any bow that I wield, increasing its power output. I can also use mana to form arrows out of nothing, as long as I have enough mana.”

The quiet girl's ability was quite interesting, it no doubt was labeled as Unique. 

Lia then spoke again.

“Finally, your roles. Ruith, you will stay near Linne and focus on protecting her and restraining the enemies we fight. She’s our main damage dealer but very weak in close combat. As for you Vaeri, you should stay near me and Nalen. Really just focus on hitting the enemy and not getting killed.”

The two now understood their roles and everyone had gotten a bit familiar with each other, so Ruith and Vaeri exited the building. They were not provided a place to stay, but luckily they were able to purchase two tents and blankets. They also got large backpacks, as Lia had said that they would be gone for multiple days at a time and needed many supplies.

The two walked through the village. The main building was at the center, and built all around were about fifty small houses. Some were made of stone, but most were wooden. Firewood was piled high against them.

As Ruith and Vaeri walked towards the woods, they saw a few small groups of people on the way. One seemed to have just come back. There was a man carrying another on his back, while two others limped alongside. Ruith realized the man being carried was missing a leg, the white bandage turned crimson.

He shivered. What kind of creature could have done this to hunters that were so powerful? Well, he knew of one, but that was on the North side of the Bastion.

The trees of the forest approached, their leaves various shades of red and orange. Ruith and Vaeri had come here, but didn’t have plans of setting up their tents just yet. It was still late morning, and they only had six months to become incredibly more powerful. There was no time to waste.

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‘I need to see if I can use roots to restrain things.’

“Vaeri, attack me for a minute, just use your fists. I must test something.”

She obliged, wondering what he was going to do. 

Ruith sent his mana into a few trees around, taking control of the roots. He chose those that were about two times the size of his pinkie this time. Roots were very strong, but beasts and Voidborne were also extremely strong. Thinner roots would likely just snap.

He moved the roots so that they were just an inch below the ground, waiting for Vaeri to step over them. The girl dashed forwards, and right before she reached where the roots were, he made them move. Her speed was fast, so prediction was necessary.

The dirt burst up, three roots wrapping themselves around Vaeri’s right leg. Her eyebrows raised slightly, but she didn’t slow down, instead moving her leg with as much power as she could muster.

KRR!

One of the roots ripped apart, but two still held, though not for long. It took Vaeri all of two seconds, but she managed to break free. However, Ruith was happy with this result.

‘Two seconds is a lot of time in an actual battle, she would have died right there. And it only took 10% of my mana, if I had used more roots while she was stuck…”

Ruith was pulled out of his thoughts by Vaeri, who had arrived in front of him. She threw a punch which connected with his chest, but she held back so it was not that bad.

‘Might as well try.’

Ruith instantly used all of his remaining mana. The ground around Vaeri burst apart, nearly  thirty roots shooting towards various parts of her body! Some wrapped around her legs, others around her arms and torso.

‘Perfect!’ 

Vaeri couldn’t budge an inch. She used as much power as she could, but there were simply too many roots. Their combined strength was like a grown man holding a small animal as tight as he could.

The girl gave up, and Ruith made the roots retreat back into the ground.

There was a dull and slightly painful throbbing in his head, the side effect of using 100% of his mana. 

‘I’ll call this attack [Constrain]’

Ruith sat down on the ground, focusing on absorbing mana.

‘I probably only needed to use 50% of my mana for the same effect, completely draining myself was overkill. I suppose the only problem with this is that it’s only effective against one or a few enemies at once depending on their strength.’

He recovered his mana, he and Vaeri sparring for the next few hours. They wanted to gain as much strength as possible before the next day.

Ruith could feel his mana core slowly drawing closer to its breakthrough, he doubted it would take longer than a few days. 

After they completed their umpteenth spar, Ruith dropped to the ground.

“Alright, I’m really hungry. Let’s go get something.” 

Vaeri agreed, they had only had water since yesterday. 

They made their way back to the building at the center. It was much emptier than before, though the group of three they would be joining tomorrow was still there. Ruith and Vaeri walked to the counter, paying for two bowls of food. They were filled with meat of unknown origin, and very few vegetables.

“Mostly just meat out here. Traders only come by every few months.” The woman who served them explained.

Ruith and Vaeri sat far away from the others in the building, devouring their food in silence. 

The group of three had looked over several times with the thought of inviting them over, but decided to leave them be.

The two finished their food, heading back to where they were training. There were still many hours before they would sleep, which meant many more hours of grueling training.

***

The next morning, a group of five stood at the edge of the village. They had large backpacks strapped on, heavy and full of supplies they would need for the next few days.

“Alright, let's get going. I’ll explain what we’ll be hunting today while we walk.” 

Lia led the way for the group, heading deeper into the Eastern Wilderness.

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