243: Trees
Having left the village early in the morning, I had attempted to figure out how to return the pots I had borrowed from the inn, but Bardo was insistent that I keep them as a gift.
When I tried to protest, Milo just laughed, saying, “See, people don’t enjoy being in debt.”
I ended up leaving five silver on the kitchen counter as a thank you and so he could buy some new ones. Hopefully, that would be fine.
The morning itself passed with no sight or feeling of someone watching me, and there were no beasts on the road. Within an hour we had already hit the forest that was mentioned to me, and my arcane foraging was highlighting so many possible items.
Nothing worth stopping for, but I was excited to forage again.
The road we were travelling on quickly became nothing more than a dirt track as we hit the forest, and if not for Milo compacting the earth and Crisplet drying it, I had to imagine we’d be knee deep in mud by now and not moving at all.
Hari took this excuse to stop us early, though.
“We’re going to stop in an hour. We need to conserve mana use in case we are attacked,” I heard him call.
Anthony and Paro quickly agreed.
What surprised me about this forest, it wasn’t as dense as the dark forest, but the trees here were true giants. Some of the trunks, I believe, you could put a house inside of, if it wouldn’t kill the tree.
Their canopy towered well overhead, shading the forest floor, where there wasn’t as much growing as you’d expect, but what I could see is there were dozens of different mushrooms, and what looked to be edible moss, and I swear I could spot a truffle not too far away, and I was hoping it wouldn’t be under a giant root or something.
Milo was setting up one of his reinforced houses, with a fully enclosed stable, so there was clearly a threat of attack here, and Crisplet was dashing around striking any and all bugs with such force you could hear a loud crack every time.
While I was brushing down Sable, my mind was racing on what I could do with the stocks. The dragon stock I wanted to keep simple, and before I made it into any dish, Milo would try the stock directly, so that left the voidscale hare and drake stock. Those I would turn into a dish.
For the hare, I felt like creating a pie would be ideal. It would allow me to slow cook the meat so it would fall apart and be incredibly soft, while having a rich gravy made from the stock.
For the drake, however, I didn’t want to be too wasteful with reducing it down into a sauce or a rich gravy, as we’d be wasting most of the stock then, which really just left a soup, since I’d keep most of the volume with a soup and be able to stretch the buffs further.
The dragon stock would be the same. I would need to stretch it as much as possible without losing the buff properties, which might take some trial and error on more basic stocks.
Then I had a new quest: cleanse a new legendary ingredient. I assumed by it specifically mentioning new, I wouldn’t be allowed to cleanse the dragon again.
So that only left one item, some of the Moon Orchid Powder I had. I was tempted to pull it out and cleanse it now. The only thing stopping me was the mention of extracting mana. If I cleanse it all, would I be wasting that?
“Are you ready to do this?” I heard Milo say from behind me.
Turning around, I was surprised to see him wearing a nearly completely different outfit. There were more rings on his fingers, a large gemstone of some kind hanging around his neck, and he had a staff on his back that likewise had a giant orb, or maybe gem, at the top as well.
He looked ready for battle.
“Uh, yeah. Are you expecting a fight?” I laughed. I’d only seen Milo wear this once, and that was when we were going to be fighting the galvonson.
Milo laughed. “No, I certainly hope not. A lot of these artefacts help me smooth out my mana usage. In the event that the dragon stock spikes my mana supply, these gems should buy me enough time to start burning it off, while the staff will allow me to expel mana fast with more potent magic.”
Nodding, I asked, “Inside then? Luis is going to stay out here on watch.”
Milo nodded. “Yeah, for now. I have made two separate rooms again, so that should give us privacy. I’ve also taken some other measures.”
I didn’t bother wasting any time. As soon as we came inside, I pulled out the pot of stock and placed it in the middle of the room. I noticed Jen had several potions laid out in front of her, while Hari sat nearby looking concerned.
The only person who looked like she was having a great time was Liane, who was looking on with interest from the side. I knew if it was deemed safe, she’d be helping herself to some instantly.
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I took a small bowl and added half a ladle of the stock to the bowl. It wouldn’t have been more than a couple of sips worth, but it would hopefully be enough to provide the buff.
There was no hesitation, just a simple look to Hari and Jen before Milo took a sip, placing the bowl immediately down in front of him and starting to look at the status screen.
What would have been seconds felt like an eternity as I waited to see what would happen. Liane clearly grew impatient.
“Well?”
“No surge in mana yet, but I certainly feel strange,” Milo commented.
Hari frowned at that. “Strange how?”
“I’ve gained all the expected buffs, except I have one that is different as well. Essence Integration, with a fourteen-day timer,” Milo explained before he went silent.
Hari looked at me. “You didn’t mention that one?”
“It doesn’t show it when I look up the buffs for the meal. That’s new,” I explained.
Milo spoke up again. “Reading the ability, no further permanent enhancements may be absorbed for fourteen days.”
Liane let out a sigh. “That ruins the strength of it somewhat.”
Milo nodded. “Absolutely, but for all we know it won’t matter if it’s one stat or ten every fourteen days, just that it’s a single meal. So it’s possible still that if done right, Trev could stack this up, and importantly, the dragon meat is safe to eat, at least for me.”
My mind was still latched onto the buff, or I guess debuff, that showed up for Milo, but I couldn’t see myself. If it were just that I couldn’t see debuffs, that could cause problems, so I needed to find out.
I also likely had the second-highest mana in the room right now, so I took a spoonful of stock before Hari could say otherwise and tasted it.
The flavour was intense. There was a tingle on the tongue, then what felt like a rolling breath of cold air running down my throat. Behind that there was a rich earthiness, and sharp spikes of what I wanted to say was salt, but not quite.
It felt like little zaps of lightning were going off on my tongue, but like Milo, there was nothing going on with my mana. My own status sheet looked normal. I had gained the extra endurance, but I noticed I didn’t have the debuff.
Crisplet sent across a questioning feeling, and curiosity. Clearly, he had seen me try it.
I just sent back reassurance and happiness, although I’m sure confusion slipped through.
“Can I try some, right?” Liane asked Hari.
Hari looked unsure, but I spoke up first.
“It’s safe. I just tried some too. There’s no change to mana, but Milo is right. That debuff will stop you from getting another buff for fourteen days. I might have cooked something stronger by then,” I said.
Liane didn’t look entirely convinced and tried it anyway, while Jen and Hari opted to wait and see.
I kept my lack of debuff to myself. I don’t know what it was. I had never felt the need to keep anything from them before, and by now they felt like the closest thing to a family I had ever experienced, but when I thought about telling them, there was a feeling that came over me, a feeling of wrongness, of dread.
I couldn’t describe where it came from or how, but every fibre in my being was telling me, “Do not say anything.”
So I didn’t.
I simply stored the stock away and turned my attention to the ability the buff provided.
“Uh, so what is Tempest Flight anyway?” I asked.
A grin spread across Milo’s face. “No idea, but let’s test it out.”
I was eager to see it in action, so I happily followed Milo as we approached the exit to the building. I was surprised to see that the door didn’t lead straight out. Instead, there was a thin stone wall on the opposite side of the door that quickly dissolved but would have blocked anyone from accidentally entering.
“What if something happened to you?” I asked, looking at the stone.
Milo laughed. “It was paper-thin. Hari could have walked through it. It was purely to hide the door.”
Liane practically had a skip in her step as she followed behind us, while Jen and Hari both looked concerned.
Once we made it outside, Luis looked surprised to see us, but quickly followed to see what was happening.
“Alright, let me go first as we don’t know what this ability does,” Milo said, stepping out into a gap between the trees.
Everything happened in a flash. There was a crackle of lightning at Milo’s feet before he launched into the air and hit hard into a tree limb, causing it to crack before Milo himself fell back down to the ground fast.
I heard Hari let out a curse before activating an ability as the ground beneath his foot cracked slightly. Hari leaped off the spot and caught Milo mid-air, placing him on the ground where I saw there was blood running down his face, already staining the ground.
Rushing over, I pulled out the half of the soup I had set aside that was made for the villagers and placed the pot next to Hari on the ground.
“Here. It has high regeneration,” I said.
Milo looked to be unconscious. Looking behind me, I saw a large branch had fallen to the ground, which Crisplet attacked with fury, setting it on fire.
My attention back on Milo, Hari was spooning the mixture into his mouth. His breathing seemed fine right now, and the soup acted quickly.
Milo soon woke with a groan, reaching up and smearing blood across his forehead.
“Alright, well that’s not a spell to use with something above you.” He croaked out.
Hari gave Liane a look that said, ‘Don’t even try.’
But Milo let out a weak laugh. “Don’t worry. She couldn’t use it even if she wanted to. It took over a thousand mana for that.”
Hari let out a laugh. "Good, because I wouldn’t want two injured idiots in my party."
It was only then that I looked up and saw Lily sitting between the trees, just watching us.
Crisplet only noticed at the same time and stopped punching the tree branch, which was now mostly in charcoal lumps.
A burst of sparks, and he raced towards her.
“Welcome back, Lily. I have food,” I said, just happy to see her again.