Ch 58. A chat in the dark

The idea that we weren't turning around yet had unnerved everyone, including Gawn. I took their warnings in mind, but I needed just a few more monsters for the next level, having no intention in dawdling around waiting for the sun to set. 

Even so the area was just so large, and on the interior of the grove none of the oversized plants seemed to be of the monster variety. There were plenty of valuable herbs here, probably thousands of gold worth, but it was more than I could take in one outing. Making a mental note to myself to come back for these later. No longer looking to harvest herbs for the time being, instead focusing on finding more monsters to hunt.  

Walking along deeper into the grove, we looked for prey but found none. 

"We shouldn't go any further..." Gawn spoke up again, seeming to have the support of the rest of the group, and I had enough common sense to accept he was right, despite our apparently mutual antagonism.

That said, I made sure we wouldn't be taking the same route back. Sensible enough to me, given there wouldn't be monsters if we retraced our steps, and seemingly insane to the men for exactly the same reason.

A decision that led to no shortage of grumbles. To them, this was just another expression of my eccentricities. Usually my 'strange' habits were only amusing, but this was something that directly put their lives at risk. Killing monsters might be a normal part of their job, but to them I was intentionally going out of my way to make their job more dangerous. Not knowing about my incentives, the system, or levels, they wouldn't be capable of understanding. 

I equipped my [pathfinder] class along with [adventurer], seeing as we were forging an uncharted path back. The [navigation] skill allowing me to ensure we were going the right way, feeling a mental pull towards the town of Tromwell, guiding me through the winding forest of trees. Gawn was still in the lead, my previous orders still standing for him to take the vanguard as we cleared through the forest. Using him to set off the traps laid by the waiting treants and engage the pitcher plants while the other men helped him hack apart the plant-type monsters. Saving the monster's last rites for me of course.

It was beginning to grow increasingly hard to see our way in the failing light, even giving Gawn a bit of trouble, who despite his skills and bravado was growing increasingly flustered. Not a superhuman after all, I thought smugly. 

"I don't think we can make it out tonight... we should find a place to camp..." Gawn was losing his nerve now that the light was fading, the hues in the forest beginning to stretch into twilight. He was making more mistakes now as he struggled with the beasts in the dimming light, seeing the vines wrap around his legs occasionally almost causing him an untimely death by falling treant. It would be a rather fitting end for someone who tried to do the same to me, I thought while chuckling to myself. 

Even so, I wasn't stupid enough to make him fight in the dark unassisted. The men would revolt if I gave them suicidal orders like that. 

Not to mention that I had my own way of solving things. It's true we could camp here, but to me that seemed like an even more dangerous proposal than trying to fight in the dark. I've heard enough about the forest at night to know we shouldn't stay here needlessly, some adventurer or subjugation groups could do that, but they usually had a far larger parties than we were fielding currently. Besides, we were almost out of the forest already. With a little calculation, and some help from my [navigation] skill, I could guess we only had thirty or so minutes until we would be out of the forest. 

I pulled out lit torches from my inventory, distributing them out to a few of the troops. I had been experimenting with the properties of [inventory], when I found this particularly useful application. The state of an object like temperature and even combustion were preserved during the storage process, so I could transfer a lit torch to provide fire on demand. Making their lives a little easier for the time being, but meaning they wouldn't be allowed to stop just yet. 

Finally with the fall of another treant came the familiar flash of light and celebratory tone that I had been anticipating. 

"Good to see you again." The System's cheery old voice rang out again in my mind. 

"And you as well." Returning the basic courtesy.

"I noticed you tried to contact me earlier... was everything alright?" Remembering my fainting spell after I had been stupid enough not to heed his warnings, he asked the question that had been on his mind ever since. Given he didn't really have anything else going on, it's understandable that System would still be curious about it. 

"Mm, well. Nothing too serious. A bit of mana depletion was all... I suppose I underestimated how much mana even a simple conversation would require."

Which reminds me what I was trying to ask him in the first place when I tried to contact him last time.

"The second skill for alchemists, [cultivation]. It isn't very intuitive, how do I use it and what does it do?" I decided to use his time for this, clarifying one of the things that still puzzled me. Being the first time I couldn't discern a skill's use on my own, it was something that still caught my interest. I had discovered that the skill reacted to mana cores, but beyond that, the exact mechanism and effect were still just mysteries to me. 

"Ah, yes. Cultivation. An excellent skill, in my opinion. You'll like that one... it allows you to convert mana into experience for the system. Not the most efficient process, but one with a lot of promise."

Mana, as in the crystalized kind as well? Not in a hurry to try powering random skills with my own mana. 

"So I can get experience just from slime cores?"  

"Well, yes. But not as much as if you were killing them."

Watching passively as the men struggled with another treant, hewing its limbs off for my final kill. Walking up and stabbing repeatedly at the defenseless tree shaped monster, now that it had been stripped of limbs and immobilized, it was just fodder to me.

Stopping for a moment to ponder.

"System. Why do I need to be the one to kill a monster? Why do I get the credit when all I've done is sit back for the entire fight? But if I do all the work, and someone takes the kill from me, I get nothing..." It seemed arbitrary to me.

"Have you considered why you need to be killing things in the first place? It'll make sense once you do." The system responded, not giving me a straight answer. 

"I don't like riddles." I responded flatly, not particularly in the mood for games.

"It's their souls."