Chapter 422: New Hunt

Chapter 422: New Hunt

An initiate, Dallion kept telling himself.

Up till now, he always believed the title to be reserved for the Order of the Seven Moons. The first instance he had heard of it was when the Archdukes envoy had come to Dherma village, gathering volunteers for a hunt. The second was when Euryale had addressed one of the battle clerics they had recently come across. Back then, Dallion thought that the gorgon was being respectful. In reality, she was reminding him that they held the same awakened rank. What really had blown Dallions mind, however, was the revelation that so many of his acquaintances were in fact initiates: all the hunters, all the elites, lieutenants, and captains of the Icepicker guild actually, all the guilds were probably the same. It was little wonder that the cities had impressed Dallions grandfather as well as the former village chiefthey were both magnificent and terrifying places. It was well known that Neorsal had thousands of awakened. However, it also had hundreds of people who had the power to fight monsters of the wilderness, not to mention make their own emblems.

Ill make a model of the place, Gen said from within Dallions realm. You can use it to move stuff around when youre here.

Sure, Dallion replied.

While the new gate allowed Dallion to transform and modify his realm as he saw fit, the same didnt go for his echoes. As Nil shared, now that Dallion was allowed to hear, echoes only retained those skills and abilities of their original that were available at the point of creation. That stood to reason, but it also meant that for the more major things within his realm, Dallion couldnt rely on them.

Just give me a while to get used to the notion. I havent brought the news to Eury yet.

I know what you know, remember? Gen laughed. Dont worry, your realm will be here when youre ready.

The joke wasnt even particularly good, but it made Dallion smile. Going through the gate had not only changed his perspective of the world, it had also made all the fears and concerns evaporate. It was natural to feel powerful after each awakened gate, but this time Dallion felt especially so. From here on, he was strong enough not to rely on the Moons for every little thing. He could also get back to leveling up his skills now that he had a new level cap.

Dallion trembled, with excitement the entire way back to Euryales workshop. Every few steps he felt like jumping on the roof of a building and shouting for all to hear that he had become an initiate. In fact, he had done just that through one of his combat splitting instances. He had no idea what the results werehe didnt have the mental stamina to maintain the length of his combat splitting for that longbut even so, Dallion had enough of self-preservation instincts not to try and find out. At least not yet.

An unusual smell greeted him the moment he approached the workshops door. It wasnt a bad smell, quite on the contrary, based on the nuances in the aroma, Dallion could tell that someone had gone through a lot of trouble to make a particularly appealing feast. The only issue was that the someone in question couldnt be Euryale. The gorgon had many positive qualities, but gourmet cooking wasnt something she enjoyed or bothered doing.

It's about time you got here, the guardian of the building said. Shes been waiting for you.

I know. And Im sure she knows Im here already. Dallion grabbed the handle. Anything you can tell me about whats going on inside?

Cant do that. I promised Id keep it a secret.

Dallion shook his head. He never thought hed see the day when buildings would refuse to tell him what was going on, because they were part of his surprise party.

Hey, Dallion said as he entered.

Initially, he was expecting to see a crowd of peoplepossibly Jiroh among others. Instead, the only person in the room was his girlfriend. He could feel a sense of pride coming emanating from her, along with the usual affections.

Youre not wearing your blocker, he said, somewhat surprised.

Sure, as long as the overseer doesnt see any harm.

Is she the client?

No. Eury said, indicating this wasnt a matter she was willing to discuss.

When do I set off?

Anytime you want, although Id prefer if its tomorrow morning. I want you a bit for myself tonight.

That was an offer Dallion found he couldnt refuse. Besides, it was going to take him at least half a day to prepare for the trip. Eury slipped on her blocking ring, then took some light combat gear and went to deal with the overseers issues.

Alone again, Dallion spent a dozen hours in an item to get some sleep, then left as well to stock up on supplies he would need for the trip. Given the nature of the creature and the vagueness surrounding its whereabouts, he found it was prudent to get enough for a full month in the wilderness. When travelling, water was the greatest issue. Being an awakened, Dallion could easily hunt for food, but water was never a certainty. The villages he was going to visit certainly were going to have enough to share, but he needed something to drink until he got there.

It took Dallion several hours to buy the equipment he thought necessary for his trip. With the rumors of tensions between the empire and a few other kingdoms, most of the gear necessary for outside travel was bought out by merchants or soldiers assigned to the new Nerosal garrisons. What was left was of poor quality, and required a lot of running around to get. Fortunately, Dallion wasnt worried about the quality; all he needed to do was mend and potentially improve an item once or twice to get it in a good enough state for travel.

Another chunk of true time was spent in the ring library, where Dallion went through all available information regarding avian cracklings. Outside of the creatures rare occurrence, there was quite a lot on the creatures habits. Apparently, at some point in the past, a flock of such crackligns had caused ruin, famine, and devastation in an entire province on the empire, to the point that the imperial legions had to get personally involved. The Archduke who had allowed the disaster to occur was quickly deprived of his title, status, and name, not to mention he had been placed in a prison item for twenty years. Given the devastation described, though, Dallion thought that the noble in question had gotten it easy.

The avians were indeed capable of massive destruction, not because they were particularly cunning or vicious, but rather to their nature. As any bird, it was normal for them to perch on anything of interest. Due to the nature of their talons, however, the unfortunate structures they perched upon had the tendency to crack up and crumble soon after, forcing the bird to find a new perch and thus continue the devastation.

I know youve set your mind on it, but I think it would be better not turning one of those into a familiar, Nil said.

Why? Are you afraid itll cause too much havoc in my realm?

Im rather terrified at the notion of a crackling cat constantly chasing after a crackling bird. You were fortunate that Lux was too different for Nox to show any interest. If you bring another of his kind, however things might be less peaceful.

On cue, a meow suggested that was exactly what would happen.

Alright, I get the idea, Dallion chuckled. There wont be another crackling. Happy?

Quite. Id be more pleased if you had turned down the task, however.

Dont you start as well. I can handle this!

Im sure you could handle most things. However, for an avian to have emerged in the open, it must be confident that its capable of handling anything the wilderness throws at it, including awakened soldiers. Theres no doubt it isnt as powerful as the specimens that caused blights throughout entire provinces, but if it were a mere nuisance, the requests for help wouldnt have reached the second capital of the county. Keep that in mind.