Chapter 137: Chapter One Hundred Thirty Eight

To the surprise of literally no one Grimmengap DID want to come with  us on our last raid. It honestly hadn't even been a question. Danger was  a fact of life for cultivators, but this kind of opportunity for self  promotion didn't come along every day. The whole "last two items were on  everyone's list" thing, was less of a surprise in retrospect. I'd been  wondering how they would pick first place, if it would be based on time  or effectiveness or what have you, but having it so only one team could  really finish was certainly a simple way to decide.

Granted  that meant if we got it everyone who was on their last two items would  be done, and everyone else would be finished when they reached that  point. I wondered it the lists would update themselves, or if there  would be an announcement or something. Probably the former. It seemed  more dramatic, which was pretty much their style in a nutshell.  Regardless, these last two items would decide who would get first,  though I wondered what would happen if a different team got each one.  Would they default to time? Would they share first place?

In  any case, once we clarified that they would be coming with us, we let  them know we'd be going the next day and to get some rest and then we  all turned in. We got up the next morning before the others, and Jessie  used four wishes to pump her Vitality by another eight points. We  debated for a while about who would get them, but in the end we decided  pumping up our healer would have the broadest utility. She paid for it  by giving me some of her memories of the first aid skill. Not enough to  get me to Lesser or anything, but enough to grant me the Skill in a  general sense.

Once that was done we ate breakfast  together and then met outside to mount up and talk through our strategy  based on the information Jessie had accrued from her scouting last night  before bed. Seeing everyone riding on giant ass wolves was admittedly  pretty inspiring. Despite the amazing visual effect though Callie  commended everyone's attention as per usual. "Alright people. This is  going to be rough, we're going to try to avoid confronting anyone for as  long as possible. Luckily it seems like most of the teams haven't  gotten to the point where they're looking for the volcanic materials  yet. Agria, what are we dealing with here?"

Jessie was  becoming much more confident with her briefings and didn't even hesitate  before she picked up the thread. "Like Nightstrike said, not many teams  have advanced far enough to look for these specific materials. I'm  guessing the ones who haven't are staying away from the Volcano for  obvious reasons, which is good for us. Bad for us is that the really  scary teams will be on the way. Right now though our biggest problem  isn't a team, it's a person. Fisher is already on site and heading into  the Volcano, and that means we're probably going to have to fight him to  get to the materials, or worse, to get them back if he finds them  first."

That was less than ideal. I remembered Fisher from  Jessie's briefing at the start. The motorcycle rider who could phase  through objects. He was supposed to be one of the ringers in the hunt,  and his decision to go solo only made his absolute confidence more  obvious. Of everyone we could have run into, I honestly wanted to fight  him the absolute least. His ability sounded like a pain in the ass.  Luckily, we weren't entirely helpless in that particular department. We  had a counter to his power, even if it was a small one.

I  set my bag down on the ground and dug out the dagger that could hurt  incorporeal entities, holding it up. "What are the chances this thing  will hurt him? I know it's mainly meant for use on ghosts but he's going  to be incorporeal and that's kind of the whole point of the dagger."  Zeke wouldn't have been nearly as interested if it was just a ghost  stabbing dagger. There were plenty of ways to hurt ghosts. I knew it  wasn't a perfect solution but I figured it would at least give us an  edge, no pun intended.

I tossed it to Callie lightly, and  my girlfriend snatched it out of the air by the hilt. She had dagger  training from her Balam Skill, which was higher than mine, so she was  the optimal person to use the thing. She looked it over, chewing her  lip. "It's better than nothing, but we should try our best to avoid  running into him." She turned to the others. "If we do I want Grimmengap  to run. The wolves are powerful allies and protectors, but their  defense only works if they can actually stop the thing that's trying to  hurt you. A phaser will just ignore them if he wants to, better to take  off and let us deal with it."

Celine didn't look pleased,  but she didn't object. "Very well. We can continue on and try to find  the materials while you hold back the threat if we run across him.  Still, with advanced knowledge of exactly what we're going to be facing  we could easily avoid him. Our best bet is to rely on Agria's map to  help us navigate." She looked to our healer slash recon specialist.  "Exactly how comprehensive can we expect this map to be? Will it be able  to lead us to the actual materials themselves?"

Jessie  looked abashed. "No. Sadly not. Most of the Volcano biome is  underground, there's a sort of magma labyrinth up top that leads into  the depths of the mountain but there are about a dozen entrances at  different points and there's no way at all to know which is the closest  to our target." She looked at me subtly, and I nodded. No way at all  wasn't exactly accurate. We'd saved a wish for an emergency, but more  importantly Seek Hidden could be of help depending on the size of the  objects and how I chose to use it.

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I got her point though.  That was why she had only warned about Fisher. She didnt know who else  was already down there or who could end up down there since there were  so many ways in. The underground portion of the Volcano biome eliminated  her raven as a scouting option, though I supposed going after something  called the "Heart of the Greater Mountain" we were bound to be working  underground at least a little bit. Once that was done though it was time  to go, and we mounted the wolves and headed for our new destination to  try to finish this hunt once and for all.

One  huge upside to the wolves presence, aside from combat capabilities, was  that a long distance trip could be accomplished at G rank speeds even  while our H ranker was were with us. Of course we couldn't go TOO fast,  because if they fell off they might die if we were going top speeds, but  even so we managed closer to my own on foot speed than say, Sarahs.  Which was good because the Volcano was FAR. Jessie had been able to spot  it in the distance because it was a Volcano, but it took her hours as  the crow (or Raven) flies to reach it for recon.

Luckily  with G ranked transport that came out to like, twenty minutes on paw,  which was faster than we ever could have managed with the others  following on foot. Not to mention with the wolves being on four feet  instead of two the ride was pretty smooth. As we drew closer though we  slowed down and dismounted, leading the wolves and the H rankers to the  top of an outcropping that Jessie pointed out to us so we could do our  own scouting. We took position up on the ridge, staring up at the rim of  the Volcano and searching for any incoming threats.

Callie  looked a bit uncomfortable with our possible approach. "Ok guys, not a  fan of this. That Volcano is completely exposed because of the height.  We're going to end up getting spotted if anyone looks up there, and we  can only climb it so fast. Unfortunately we don't have another choice  that I can see. No stealth or lightening skills will extend to all of  us, especially not with the wolves, and we can't leave them behind  because it would leave the H rankers vulnerable in there. That means we  take the slow way up and try to avoid being visible by sticking to the  cracks we can find in the stone."

I  could see her point. The Volcano was a towering spire of black rock cut  off at the top like some immense being had take an axe to a normal  mountain. The gaping opening at the top spewed out black smoke, though  luckily no actual lava, despite the warped and uneven dark stone of the  spire making it clear there had been eruptions here in the past. Anyone  who took even a short glance up at the thing would spot us if we went  straight up, but the same hardened lava rock deposits created small  trails and recesses in the mountain we could use to cover part of our  approach.

She  turned to Jessie. "Agria, can you send the bird out to do a circuit  around the Volcano and try to spot any incoming threats. If we know what  side any nearby enemies will be on we can try to stick to the opposite  slope at least. It might give us a bit of a cushion when we don't have  cover." Jessie had brought her raven with her of course, though once we  got to the peak and started into the maze of lava rock where the  entrances were she was going to send it back. It wouldn't do us much  good underground after all.

Jessie  didn't even ask for details, just lifted her wrist falconer style and  dispatched the bird to do a wide, slow circle around the entirety of the  mountain. As she did, Callie started trying to map a way up the slope  from the side we could see, just in case. I could see her eyes scouring  the uneven surface trying to find place with at least some incline to  make sure the wolves could make the trip too. Luckily the slope wasn't  actually sheer so it shouldn't be too difficult for the canines to find  purchase for their paws. Honestly it might have ended up being easier  for them than it would be for us.

Finally,  after ten minutes or so, the bird came back. Jessie had been watching  the landscape through it's eyes, so its return wasn't really necessary  for a report, she just considered it the end of the scouting mission and  had waited. She took a second to take stock before laying out her  findings. "Ok, I saw four teams coming in. Three of them are on the  other side and one is coming up from behind us, though not directly. We  have a while before they get here in either case. Still I don't  recognize any of them. Once we're out of the way maybe Celine can fill  us in but my suggestion is we move before the team behind sees us.

Callie,  who had finished coming up with a relatively safe path to the top,  nodded. "Agreed. I think I know how we're going to make it, so stick  with me. I'll put up a dome of shadow over us, and given the dark color  of the stone that should give us some extra protection from sight, not  to mention catching someone if they happen to slip." She looked over her  shoulder. "Alright guys lets go, we need to get in there as fast as  possible, but don't move so fast you have an accident. Keep pace with me  and we should get in there safe and sound." With that she climbed to  her feet and set off down the outcropping toward the base of the  Volcano.

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