The Lone Wanderer

Percy allowed his boosting art to fizzle out, as he placed both palms on his knees, breathing heavily.

While the creation of his clones had grown into quite a routine operation by now – a far cry from the dangerous and laborious venture it was during his early days – the act still left him a little tired afterwards.

It wasn’t until a few minutes later that he found the strength to stand up. He’d have to heal his injuries again at some point, but not right now. Unable to absorb one of the mysterious creatures, and with a clone currently roaming the cosmos, Percy had decided to take the rest of the day off, feeling himself deserving of a break.

The sun was still at its apex, Nesha currently in the middle of a workout just outside the house – they’d made a pact to leave any sweaty business out of the hut.

Walking to a wall, he reached out towards nothing in particular, seemingly grabbing a fistful of empty air. It wasn’t until a second later that a glowing teal scythe manifested in his hand. Naturally, this was his latest Refined spell – the Soul Harvester!

Only, Percy hadn’t created this one today, but nearly a week ago! This was a convenient feature of his twice-fused mana. The cyan crystals were already semi-permanent constructs which could survive for an extended period of time without breaking down. His mixed mana constructs created through Reinforcement inherited some of that durability – though not all of it, due to the presence of regular mana causing them to decay over time. That said, using his teal mana pushed the durability even further, as the substance had always been a little harder to break down.

What all this meant, was that his scythe could survive for several days before its structural integrity was compromised! A very fortunate development indeed, as creating each one was a time-consuming process – especially with all the concealment runes Percy had to embed into each one.

Tracing his finger along the weapon’s length, Percy nodded in satisfaction as he examined the scythe’s condition.

‘Still good.’

The dirt roads of the small town were… not quite busy but, perhaps active was an apt term. A few of the townsfolk walked about, greeting each other with a smile, chatting for a few minutes at a time, or entering a shop. The mood was strangely uplifting, which made Percy crease his brow.

‘I’d have thought these people would be more downtrodden… Given the circumstances.’

The residents of Bogside town had a lot more problems to deal with, even compared to the average commoner on Remior. For one, they lived under the jurisdiction of a particularly ruthless noble House, slaughtering them on a regular basis, treating them as little more than livestock to feed their horrific bloodline.

And that was without even considering the economic difficulties these people had to endure. Most towns across Remior were good at producing at least something of value. They had to, in order to survive. A few of them, like the nearby Greyquarry town, had mines in their vicinity and could export ores and minerals. Others were suitable for growing magical reagents – things that places like the Alchemists’ Guild needed.

Sadly for the people of Bogside town, they’d drawn the short end of the stick in that regard as well. From what Percy understood, there was some fertile land to the northwest of the town, allowing the peasants to supply their cruel overlords with crops and animal products. However, that wasn’t exactly the most profitable business, so they normally had to supplement it by gambling their lives to venture into the nearby swamp, harvesting some additional materials from the magical beasts living there.

‘But that’s no longer an option… all because of us.’

This was something that gnawed at Percy’s conscience lately. An unfortunate side-effect of his actions was that he’d rendered the entire bog off-limits for the residents, inadvertently cutting off part of their lifeblood. He and Nesha could see that these people were struggling more to get by than when they had first arrived in the town.

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That said, they didn’t seem too distraught over it – for some reason.

With the pretence of browsing for some bread from the local bakery, Percy paid attention to a couple of ladies gossiping loudly by the entrance. Ok, eavesdropping was admittedly not his classiest moment, but he was dying to know why these people seemed so chirpy, despite the harsh times they were living in.

“Hey, Margaret! How’s Randal doing today? Is his knee still bothering him?”

“Good morning, Brenda! You know how these things are… The pain is getting worse. Last night, he woke up all sweaty. He couldn’t go back to sleep again.”

“Oh my god! That sounds awful! You really need to take him to a life mage.”

Margaret sighed.

“I know. The problem is, he’s not in any condition to travel. The nearest life mage lives in Greyquarry town. It’ll cost three times as much to get him to come to us… And with Randal unable to work in the fields, our finances are a bit tight too…”

“Do you want us to lend you some money?” Brenda offered. “Waiting is only going to make the situation worse.”

“Oh, no. No!” Margaret hurriedly waved at her friend. “You’re raising two young kids, Brenda. I appreciate your kindness, but we can’t impose on you.”

Brenda insisted some more, though Margaret just shot her down. Still listening in, Percy couldn’t help but feel his chest tighten, as their words only exacerbated his guilt. Though the next thing Margaret said made him furrow his brow.

“Besides… I’d take this situation any day over what we had in the past.” she said, her features easing.

“I know what you mean… Having a little less food on the table is a small price to pay. How long has it been, even? About a year?”

“Almost. Gods, we’d have lost a dozen people by now.” Margaret nodded.

“Probably more. Those bastards used to take a handful each time. I hope House Avalon wipes them all out!”

“Shhh! We aren’t alone.” Margaret whispered, discreetly pointing at Percy who hurriedly looked away, his cheeks heating up.

“Geez, I wouldn’t worry about the new kid ratting us out to those assholes Margaret. Remember what they tried to do to his wife a few months back? Anyway, I hope that monster bird stays in the Grisly Bog forever, money be damned. I’d rather go hungry with my kids and husband than wake up every morning afraid I’ll lose them.”

“Do you think we’ll be safe here though? What if the beast flies over here one day, looking for food?”

“Well, I suppose it’s possible, but I doubt it can take the whole town on. Besides, it hasn’t harmed a hair from any of our heads so far. It’s only ever touched the pompous assholes who went looking for it.”

Margaret remained silent for a few seconds, seemingly pondering something.

“Say… do you think the rumour about it is true?”

Brenda chortled.

“C’mon Margaret! Don’t tell me you believe that crap? That’s the kind of shit Fegan tells the kids!”

“I know, I know… It sounds ridiculous…” Margaret chuckled too. “Still, how else do you explain the strange glow on its body? Beasts can’t use magic like that. Both Reni and Samia saw it. They said it looked almost…” she paused, contemplating her next words carefully. “Sacred. And then it let them go, only attacking those people…”

“No way… It’s got to be some kind of coincidence. Maybe it went after the nobles first because they were stronger, and thus tastier. As for the glow, I think that’s probably an exaggeration. I bet its feathers just reflect the sunlight in a weird way. The girls must’ve mistaken it in their panic.”

“Sounds like a stretch.” Margaret insisted.

“And believing that a guardian spirit descended from the heavens to protect our town doesn’t?” Brenda asked in incredulity.

“Look, I’m not saying that. Just, maybe the bird has some level of intelligence and wanted to help us out. Anyone would, after seeing how those people treat us.”

Brenda shook her head.

“Nah… Margaret, this is a good thing for us, but don’t go ascribing some noble purpose to a wild beast. It’ll only get you killed if you ever come face to face with it. Most likely, it just got hungry, plunging its talons into the first people it saw. And House Tantalus won’t stop poking at it, sending more and more of their men to their doom.”

“What about Lenon then? How do you explain that? Two nights ago, he went into the bog, scavenging for food. A foolish gamble, but he did come back a few hours later, carrying an Orange rat carcass. Not a scratch on him.”

“Huh, I did hear about that, actually! That moron was asking for it.” Brenda huffed.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

“They’re hungry, Brenda… The man was trying to feed his kids.”

“I know that. But who’s going to feed his kids if he gets himself killed? He just got lucky, is all.”

Percy who was still following the conversation subtly exhaled in relief. Hearing about the positive impact he’d had on the town lifted a heavy weight off his chest. That said, listening in to the rest of it caused his jaw to slacken.

“You don’t think the spir– the beast, I mean, spared him?”

“I think it’s much more likely it missed him. Though, I must admit, the next part of his story sounds a little spooky… even for me…”

“I know, right?!” Margaret mused. “He claims he heard an eerie tune emanating from the depths of the Grisly Bog. An otherworldly screech akin to a ghost clawing against the gates of hell, begging to be let out.”

“Yeah. I don’t know if there’s any truth to that, but I sure wouldn’t want to hear something that dreadful…”