Chapter 83: V2 Seven

Seated in the work area of my tent, I stared down at the four piles of charred plant matter. After hours searching through my books, I’d finally managed to identify the plants as Mint, Halrdan, Quare and Sarasar. 

The remnants of the four plants had been discovered in a bronze bowl inside one of the many caves our guild searched, while looking for signs of the fire drakes we’d come to hunt. Yet, after days of searching, we’d found no signs of the creatures, and even the Scorchers which were said to inhabit the caves were nowhere to be found. 

What we did find, was evidence of a large group having been in the area sometime before our arrival, along with several bronze bowls with the burnt plants. Clearly, we weren’t the only ones with an interest in hunting fire drakes in order to increase our supply of firestones. 

The sound of footsteps, and the low growl of Leo who laid at my feet, let me know Corvus was approaching my tent moments before the lion Bakeneko shoved aside the flap and entered with a scowl. 

“Well?” The commander demanded, ignoring my Leosaur’s futile attempts to roar in disapproval of the lion intruding on what the cub considered his personal territory.

“Hello Kadia, I’ve come to see if you made any progress in identifying the plants that were being burnt in the caves.” I responded sarcastically, crossing my arms over my chest as I glared at the lion whose scowl deepened. 

Corvus stared at me for a long moment, before he turned his attention to the cub who was still yowling at him from under the workbench, and let out a loud roar. Which sent Leo scampering past the canvas wall that split the workspace from the living quarters. 

“If you’re going to act like a petulant child, and not the commander you are, then you can leave.'' I informed him coldly, turning away, and refocusing on the items laid out on my workbench. 

The tent was silent for several long moments, before Corvus let out a loud sigh, and walked over to the chair Kip usually occupied. Sitting with his elbows resting on the bench, and his face buried in his hands, the lion looked utterly defeated. Never before had I seen Corvus in such a position, or looking so completely worn out. 

“We’ve scouted all the surrounding areas, and only found one juvenile fire drake. Over a hundred caves searched, and we only found one! Drakes can take up to three weeks to repopulate, and another several days after that to reach adulthood. There’s no point in hunting the juveniles or freshly hatched drakes. They don't form the fire stones until they mature, it’ll be over a month before we can hunt.” 

“So we wait, there’s no point in getting worked up over someone clearing the area out before us. We were about to do exactly what they’ve just done.” I replied, not understanding why he was so angry. 

While I was disappointed the fire drakes had been wiped out before we arrived, they would respawn so it wasn’t that big of an issue. 

“We found some scraps of burnt cloth that appears to be a cloak, the coloring and what we can see of the crest leads us to believe it belongs to ‘The Primordial Brotherhood’. They left Sēkrit two weeks before us, leaving only a small group at the encampment they stole.” Corvus continued, speaking as though he hadn’t heard me. 

“Is it purely because it’s the brotherhood that were hunting here that you are angry? Or because you suspect they knew we were going to be hunting the fire drakes, and came here to purposely clear the area before we arrived?” I asked, standing from my chair, and moving to a side table where a few cups sat. 

Grabbing two of the clay cups, I set one down in front of Corvus, and poured a generous amount of cat’s tongue infused vodka into it, before pouring some into my own cup. The Commander didn’t respond to my question at first, instead downing the contents of his cup in one smooth motion, before holding it out for me to refill it. 

“It’s obvious they did it to provoke us. Otherwise, why travel to Sēkrit only to leave soon after to hunt the fire drakes? Why not hunt first, then move on to Sēkrit to get a foothold in the newly forming dungeon settlement? We used to be respected, feared even… If it was known our guild was hunting no one would dare intrude on our chosen hunting grounds.” Corvus said, staring down into his cup with a forlorn expression on his face. 

“It will be like that again,” I implored empathetically. “Corvus, look at how much the guild has already achieved in the short nine months since leaving Avalon to start new here. Yes, we lost a lot when the guild moved to Kaledon, but we can, and will rebuild.” 

“I know that, of course I know that, it’s just..” 

“You miss being the big bad lion everyone scampered away from in fear. The great lion of Eternia, whose mighty roar could send an entire battlefield of foes retreating in terror.” I said, biting my lip to hold in a laugh as he nodded his head. 

“I don’t regret leaving. Kaledon is more than Avalon ever could be, but I resent losing what I had.” 

“There’s nothing stopping you from having it all again,” I told him, getting an eye roll in response. 

“Tell that to our illustrious leader who refuses to even consider putting those brotherhood upstarts in their place. He’s so focused on fortifying our position and resources, that he forgets we also need to build our reputation.” Corvus scorned, grabbing the jug of vodka to refill his cup, only to find it empty. 

“He is thinking about the future, to our goals beyond the barrier.” 

“That's all well and good, but the barrier is yet to fall. We need to focus on the here, and now just as much as what is to come. If we keep ignoring the Brotherhood treading on our toes, we’ll be seen as weak.” 

“It’s too bad we can’t just, oh, you know, flood the market with something cheaper, and easier to attain then firestones. Thus, making the cost of firestones plummet, and making the Brotherhood's hunt a waste of time. We could buy all the firestones we needed a lot cheaper then too,” I mused, twirling a strand of hair around a finger with a smirk as the lion narrowed his eyes at me in response to my words. 

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“And what would this cheaper, and easier to attain item be?” Corvus asked. 

“Our dear patron gifted me another loot box recently, as per our agreement that I would be rewarded for every fifty people who take him as patron. In that loot box was a transmutation circle called the undying fire array.” I informed him, pulling out the rolled scroll from my belt pouch. “The circle is carved on a fire wisp core, which acts as the catalyst. The fire will burn for a month before the core deteriorates. Submerging the core in water puts out the flame, but it will relight once it is removed from the water without the need to reactivate the circle. So the cores can be sold, and transported in jars of water. Two cores can produce the same heat as one firestone at full burn.”     

“So why the fuck are we farming fire drakes?” Corvus demanded, looking frustrated. “How long have you had this?” 

“We are hunting fire drakes for the red powder I can make with the firestones, and for the other useful components they have, such as their hide. I seem to recall you wanted new boots.” I reminded him, eyeing the scuffed red scaled boots he wore. “I got the loot box while we were traveling through the tunnels four, no, three days ago. Kip and I tested it on the few fire wisp cores we had collected for crafting transmutation amulets.” 

“Kip…” Corvus muttered, nodding his head. “So this was his idea, that makes more sense. What’s stopping someone from copying the circle and making their own cores?” 

“Nothing, aside from them needing a transmutation amulet to activate it. The circle requires a mixture of fire and air attuned mana. We figure it’ll take a while for people to work out it isn’t an enchantment, as the circle is hard to see when the core is inside the jar of water, and impossible to see while the core is on fire.” I informed him. 

“We’ll need to start collecting more cores.” Corvus said, rolling his cup between his palms.

“As they progress, I will also be granting the circle to the transmuter’s who are my direct disciples. It’s better to have more people making cores if we want to flood the market, with only Roswyn, Kip and yourself working on cores we wouldn’t be able to keep up with demand.” 

“That's true, and I’m not interested in spending my days slaving away making these cores. Noctus will throw a fit over lost profit, but I don’t think trying to hold a monopoly is a good idea. Wisps are easy to farm, but adding the circles is a lot harder.” 

“Eh, it depends if you cheat with drawing the circle or not.” I said offhandedly, digging through my bags to see if I had anymore infused vodka. 

“You said there were no shortcuts when drawing circles.” Corvus accused, and I grinned at him in response. 

“Did you know that you can stamp circles?” 

“What the fuck? I’ve been repeatedly drawing circles for days, why the fuck didn’t you tell me this earlier?” The commander demanded, smacking a hand onto the table with a loud thud.

“I didn’t know until I caught Roswyn stamping away at paper to make her transmutation packets yesterday. Poor Kip almost cried when he saw. Apparently you can also brand them into leather, she’s pretty industrious.” I told him, smiling as I recalled Roswyns excited chatter as she spoke about her discovery. “I’ve assigned her the task of finding a way to easily get the circles onto a core. They need to be carved, but if she can get an outline stamped on correctly, it will be much faster. ” 

“If we have a stamped outline, we can outsource the carving. Maybe you shouldn’t give away the circle.” Corvus said, rubbing his chin with a thoughtful expression. 

“I’ll let the guild decide how to deal with the sale, and manufacturing of the cores. But regardless of that, I will be giving the circle to my disciples. As high priestess, it is my duty to guide, and teach.” I told him with a smile full of false sincerity.

“You’re so full of shit,” Corvus scoffed, setting his cup down on the table as he stood. “We both know you benefit every time one of your disciples progresses.” 

I laughed, nodding in agreement as I walked with him to the tent's exit. He wasn’t wrong, I did gain a little bit of mana each time one of my direct disciples progressed in one of the disciplines. 

It wasn’t much, I could stomp on a rat, and gain about the same amount of mana, but a little mana was better than none. The biggest amount of mana I’d gained was when my disciple Lucas discovered a way to use the spark moss, which was equivalent to killing two rats. I was certain that if my disciples could make bigger advances, then I would gain more mana. 

Though, what I gained was nothing compared to when I personally progressed. What I’d gained when I created the Scorcher antivenom, had been the equivalent of killing the Pharaoh within the desert dungeon, sadly, those gains were only seen during the first creation of an item. Each time I created the scorcher antivenoms, the amount I received grew less and less, until it was to the point of squishing a bug. I’d noticed that only when I created something new, entirely my own did I get large gain. 

With Corvus gone, Leo came bounding out of hiding, and spent a good ten minutes circling the areas the other lion had been in, intent on remarking his territory. 

“If I smell so much as a whiff of pee, you're spending the night outside.” I warned the cub, who was quickly reaching adolescence as I cleared away the cups and empty jug of vodka. 

Returning to my workbench, I let out a laugh as I saw the piles of plants, and realized I’d never told Corvus what I’d discovered. Serves him right for being so bitchy, and not asking me nicely to tell him about my findings.