Chapter 84: V2 Eight

“Make sure you contact Corvus if you run into any issues, and remember, go straight to Airus, no detours.” Markion lectured as we walked over to where my team waited. 

With the fire drake hunt delayed, and the hunting teams moving on to track the whereabouts of the Hydra known to be causing havoc west of Valonia. It had been decided my team would depart for Airus a week earlier than planned. If we traveled any further west, it would mean we’d need to travel back southeast in order to reach the mountain pass that led to Airus. From our current position, so long as my team continued moving east, we would soon leave the desert and arrive at the base of the Almer mountains in just under two days. 

“I’ll be fine, stop worrying so much. You do remember we revive after death, right?” I reminded him, rolling my eyes at the big Minotaur. 

“Yeah, right back here with us, and your team is also still set to the altar in the settlement near Valonia. Best you avoid dying until after you’ve reset your bind point to Airus.” My brother lectured, and I let out a light laugh in response, patting a bag at my waist.

“Don’t worry about that, Darius gave me a going away present.” I informed him cheerily. 

Markion eyed my bag for a moment, before he caught on what I was insinuating, and gave a slight nod. When I’d gone to speak to the guild leader before leaving the camp, he’d given me one of the guilds revival tokens, something which was only given to a gold ranked team. He’d used my personal position in the guild to justify giving me the token, even though my team was still a long way from reaching that rank, as we’d only just managed to gain our silver ranking after hunting down a pod of sand whales. 

It had taken killing the entire pod of five whales to earn the points needed to pull the team’s contribution points out of the negatives and up to the two hundred and fifty points we needed to rank up. 

However, it didn’t help our cause, when Pia got drunk with another hunting team, and proceeded into Sēkrit. Where they painted 'Eternia rulez' on several banners put up by other guilds in a glowing pink adhesive liquid. Luckily, the adhesive was dissolvable with ethanol, so was able to be cleaned off by the perpetrators after they’d sobered up. Unluckily, Pia decided to write her name on several tents, which made identifying her as one of the vandals rather easy. 

The Faun’s involvement lost us another hundred points along with the other team at fifty points per person. The guild leaders' reasoning that our team should be punished as though two members were involved was because the vandals wouldn’t have access to the pink adhesive if I hadn’t supplied it.

 I’d also been forced to sit in on half a dozen meetings with officers of the affected guilds to ‘smooth’ things over, by offering those guilds discounted purchase of various alchemic goods. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought Darius set the entire thing up so he could network with the other guilds. In the end, we came out of those meetings with some very lucrative deals regarding not only the sale of alchemical items, but other crafted goods our guild produced. 

Staring up at my brother, I hesitated before moving closer to him, doing my best to hug the large Minotaur. Stepping back, I gave him a tentative smile which he returned with a beaming one of his own. Physical displays of affection weren’t something I indulged in often, but I knew how much it meant to him. We weren’t as close as other siblings, and for a good part of my younger years, I’d resented him. 

We’d gotten closer after we both turned fifteen, but I’d only begun addressing him as my brother a year ago, despite him always referring to me as his sister. In the months since I’d received my digitalization letter, and been placed inside the long term immersion capsule, my relationship with my brother had only grown stronger. Without Markion, and the guild, I don’t think my transition into a digital life would have been as smooth as it had been. 

“Make sure you bring me back some Kalitherium ore from the Almer mines.” Markion said. 

“But Kip says Kalitherium is one of the hardest metals to mine, and the most expensive to buy.” I whined. 

“I don’t need much, a little goes a long way as I’ll be using it to make Kaleel alloy.” 

“I’ll think about it,” I answered noncommittally, but knew I’d bring my brother back as much damned ore as I could find. 

Turning away from him, I moved to join my team, who’d already hitched our horses to the wagons and were ready to depart. The two bay geldings Kip and Rainy had ridden previously would be staying with the guild, as both belonged to a hunting team who’d remained in Sēkrit. As the horses were only borrowed with the intention of them being used for the duration of the firedrake hunt, it wasn’t possible for our team to continue using them. This left us with only two horses, but I just so happened to have a pair of wagons, which I’d purchased as part of my settlement. 

The first wagon was hitched to Victoria’s gray shire horse, the interior of the wagon was designed with the intention of being a portable home, with a bed at the front and another larger bed in a loft space in the curved roof. A waist-high counter ran along one side of the wagon, with a small round bellied furnace for cooking. Opposite this was a padded bench, which folded out into a third bed the size of a double mattress. The wagon was intended to sleep four, but with Victoria's larger than average size she would be taking up the entire double bed, and neither of the others wanted to share their beds. 

This left Rainy bunking with me in the second wagon, which was decided based on the fact that we were the only two team members who didn’t snore loud enough that we could be mistaken for a steam-powered train. My second wagon was furnished as portable workshop, where the first wagon had beds in the lower level of the wagon, mine had workbenches. There were also several little windows along the sides which could be opened to allow more ventilation, along with cabinets built onto the walls, and beneath the tabletops. The loft bed was only large enough for one person, but there was enough space on the floor to put down a futon. 

I hadn’t managed to explore the wagons much, as Darius hadn’t wanted me bringing out the wagons in camp, and our location wasn’t wagon friendly being that we were camped in the middle of a rocky desert. So we had traveled with my team to the outskirts of a settlement, which was located three hours away from where the guild was camping. Once we were able to see the settlement on the horizon, we’d stopped our trek so I could use the item tokens to withdraw the wagons.

The mountain pass we would be traveling on was often used as a trade route between Airus and Valonia, so the wagons should have little issue. While there was a portal opened every three weeks to allow passage between the two cities, the expense of bringing a wagon, or multiple wagons, as was the case with most traders, was exorbitant according to Kip. With the journey from Valonia to Airus taking a week, or less if not stopping during the night, most traders chose to move their goods via the mountain pass. This could be said for trade between most cities, with the exception of higher value goods that were sent through the portals when one connected to the needed city. If not for the fact that the Valonia to Airus portal would not open for another two weeks, I would have suggested we use it to avoid the week of travel, regardless of the cost. 

After clambering up beside Kip who sat on the padded bench of the wagon Arion was hitched to, I gave a final wave toward my brother, who stood next to his Rhino, Basher, staring at me with big sorrowful green eyes. 

Markion had insisted on traveling with us until I withdrew the wagons, as our horses were already overburdened with having to carry two people each. If not for Markion letting me ride Basher with him, I would have ended up running alongside the horses with Leo as a fox, or worse, being forced to sit on someone's lap. 

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As Kip flicked the reins to signal the horse to move forward, I turned away from my brother, focusing my gaze on the settlement in the distance, not able to stand looking at the slumped shouldered form of the humanoid bull any longer. 

The short trip to the settlement was unpleasant to say the least, even with the wagons being enchanted for durability, and comfort, the rocky terrain was not forgiving. By the time we reached the settlement, my ass had been bounced around so much I was certain it would be bruised. Fortunately,  the settlement was built alongside the trade route, and from there our journey was much smoother as we trundled along a worn trail.

As dawn broke over the horizon the following morning, the Almer mountains presented themselves to our eyes, and I breathed a sigh of relief. The night’s journey had been a tense one, as we’d been stalked throughout the night by raptors, and despite killing dozens of the annoying creatures more continued to appear, drawn by the sound of our wagons moving along the trail. We continued on the trail, heading towards the mountains until late morning, before pulling up to rest until the heat of the day passed. 

After lining the wagons up alongside each other, Kip and Victoria strung a canvas covering between both wagons to create a sheltered area for the horses to rest out of the sun. 

“We’ll need to put sides on as well once we get into the mountains I reckon. That way, it’ll give the horses somewhere protected to shelter when we get higher and into the snow.” Kip suggested as I worked to form a stone trough out of sand, which the dwarf filled with water using a transmutation circle.

“The snow looks lower down then I remember it,” Rainy said, using a hand to shield her eyes as she stared out towards the distant mountains. 

“When last I spoke to her, Taurie told me Caruan is blanketed in about two feet of snow each morning. So it’s not surprising there is more snow on the mountains, it is winter after all.” I told the Dryad. 

“I hate the cold.” The pink-haired woman said with a grimace, turning away from the mountains, and jumping up into our wagon.

“From what I’ve been hearing, it’s not just cold, it’s freezing.” I informed her with a light laugh. 

More than one disciple had prayed to me in the past weeks, asking if there was a potion to ward off the cold. 

While being able to communicate with my direct disciples was one of the more useful abilities I’d gained, at the rate it drained my mana, I could only hold the connection for a maximum of five minutes as per my last test. When I’d used said communication ability to sing the ninety nine bottles song into Corvus’s head when I knew he was in the middle of a training session with the guild archers. 

When I’d become high priestess, Taurie was one of the first to be sent a copy of the prayer to become my disciple. Technically, she was the first person who could claim to be one of my ‘disciples’, though Kip was the first to become an official disciple.

 After gaining the ability to commune with Taurie, I placed her in charge of the lab in Caruan, as I wasn’t sure when I would be returning. When I’d left the guild hall in Caruan over a month ago, I did so expecting to be returning in three weeks, as that was what had been planned for our short trip to the desert. 

Taurie was more than capable of running the lab in Caruan, and was already training two new recruits to assist in that lab. Before being assigned to help in my lab, the dark haired elf had been working in the kitchens under Bron, who was our guild head chef, along with being the commander in charge of supplies and logistics. With Bron’s training, and guidance the Caruan lab was running like a well-oiled machine. 

I decided that only those in our guild who showed potential to grow beyond potioneer would be given the prayer that would put them in the role of being my direct disciple. Those who lacked the skill, or desire to further themselves, would be given the version of the prayer to Trismegistus that had mention of the high priestess removed. 

Annoyingly, even though Trismegistus changed the wording of the flyers I’d gotten the Whispers guild to distribute, as per our agreement, there were still a few who were praying with the original prayer. The last one claimed he’d been told the prayer by another disciple, so it seemed to be getting shared verbally. An issue my so-called patron was turning a deaf ear to when I attempted to complain about the increasing number of direct disciples I was expected to guide. So far, most of my disciples seemed content to not hound me with daily prayers for guidance, and if luck was on my side, it would stay that way. 

Out of all my disciples, Taurie was the one who prayed to me the most since becoming a disciple, so I could fill her in on new recipes and send her some books once I gain the ability to hand out quests from Trismegistus. Taurie was a fast learner, and very skilled, but I wasn’t sure what to classify her as.

 The elf could be deemed both a potioneer, alchemist, and chef in my eyes. Her interests, and current research were aimed at finding ways to blend alchemy with cooking. She’d already managed to make a candied form of the hype juice I’d created, and even created what she called a warming lozenge. 

The warming lozenge was a modification of warming oil, which was made by grinding Solarflower seeds, and extracting the oil. Consuming a tablespoon of oil, would leave a person feeling as though they were sitting right beside a warm fire. Perfect for chilly mornings, and easy to make with the abundance of Solarflowers growing almost everywhere. I’d first improved that recipe, by distilling the Solarflower seed oil to remove impurities, and later further improved it by adding leaves from the fire berry bush into the oil. With the onset of winter, there was a high demand for the warming oil. 

After hearing the endless complaints about the taste of the oil, Taurie set out to incorporate the oil into a hard candy made from sugar. Aside from Taurie, I hadn’t directly informed the disciples who prayed asking for a warming potion how to improve the oil. Instead, I’d hinted that the key to improving the oil could be found in the ‘bush with berries that burned like fire’. I didn’t want to simply hand them the answers, but to encourage them to seek those answers through their own research. I hoped that by doing this one of them might even find a way to improve the oil even further. 

Climbing into my wagon, I peered up into the loft to see Rainy already sleeping, her arms curled around a dozing Leosaur cub. Despite traveling through the night, I wasn’t in the slightest bit tired. 

The sound of snoring from the neighboring wagon let me know at least two of my other teammates were sleeping, and as I began unpacking my lab equipment, I sent a silent prayer to Trismegistus that my next loot box would contain some kind of deafening potion or silencing array. 

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