1.34 Slow Continuous Progress
After returning to the shelter, Vicktor grabbed his staff and lightly tapped his staff against the side of their bedroll’s feet-shaped lumps was enough to wake them. Both startled a little bit, same as he had when Master Tosk had woken him.
They ate a quick breakfast. Vicktor drank some of his kumis while Master Tosk heated some water for his oats. The other apprentices ate their meals cold. Nora tore in a small pile of jerked meat that Vicktor couldn't quite place the species of origin. Alar was feasting on a large handful of crickets.
"Are those good?" Vicktor pointed at the avian's feathered hand.
"Want one? I have a cloaca remember, I need fiber more than the average bottom. Crickets contain a decent amount of fiber and the seeds help as well."
"Are you planning on having sex while we are out here?" Vicktor asked, then looked around the small circle of people.
Alar shrugged and said, "I wouldn't be opposed to it, but my options are quite limited."
Master Tosk butted in, munching on softboiled eggs. "Keep it in your robes please. We'll be staying in their village and I don't want you to get a knife in the neck because you hooked up with the wrong goblin."
"I'll try a cricket next time, Alar." Vicktor said before draining his cup of kumis and shovelling down his warm oats. He cleaned and packed away the wooden utensils into his bag.
The mood was slightly soured, the others finished and packed up, while Vicktor prepared to collapse the structure. He tried his best to return it to its original shape, but it was very torn up in a way that probably no beast could do, unless they had earth manipulation magics.
There were still lots of patches of disturbed soil, he was about to ask, but Nora asked first after strapping on her pack.
She rubbed at the tips of her ears trying to warm them, "What happened last night? I didn't hear anything and those don't look like the patterns Vicktor makes when working the dirt."
"It's soil, after–" Vicktor added quickly before Master Tosk responded to Nora's question
"I don't actually know for sure, it was mundane though since it didn't trigger anything, probably a bear of some kind given the size of the disturbances. It's getting close to when they hibernate. It probably decided we weren't worth trying to eat, maybe two of them fought?."
"Shouldn't you have something that can detect them?" Alar asked, "I know of a few, so surely you do?"
"I don't want to get woken up every time a squirrel, deer or bear goes for a walk within a few hundred feet of our campsite. Those animals are more curious of us than thinking of us as good. Plus you have protection, speaking of which, give them here."
The three apprentices presented their medallion and Master Tosk spent a few seconds on each one, bring its protective capacity up to full. Vicktor hadn't dared to try and fill it himself, there was no way.
"Let's get moving, we have another twenty-five miles to go today."
As the group hiked through the trees, their immense size slowly losing its impact, Master Tosk began to test them on what they had learned during his unexpected departure.
Nora had been training archery, fletching, and about her own physiology. She had apparently been practicing modifying each of the minor muscle groups, and sinew independently of each other. Most of the mana she consumed came from using her magical muscles as opposed to modifying them, so she was able to practice near constantly.
It made Vicktor surprisingly nauseous to watch her practice, although another part of him was constantly drawn to the naked woman, as she had removed all her clothes in order to better watch herself shift.
Watching each muscle in her hand swell with veiny muscle, flex, then shrink back before the next muscle began the strange fleshy dance.
She was close to getting automatic control of the fibers, tendons, and ligaments. Thankfully, all the changes were blissfully silent, she even had control over her involuntary muscle strength. She was still bitter about losing to Meryl, but apparently the Chosen had "learned how it feels when someone else controls your muscles."
"You should practice the skill on consenting adults or maybe a weaker beast in melee if you feel safe enough. I think it's a worthwhile pursuit."
"Yes Master", the feline mutant responded.
Vicktor listened to their continuing conversation and was very curious about what both alternatives would look like.
Alar and Master Tosk spoke a lot about inscription design and nuanced creation. It wasn't too far above Vicktor's head, he was able to grasp most of what was said and tried to take mental note of the parts he struggled with.
All of Alar's more advanced inscription knowledge seemed more focused on the mechanical aspects of design. Most of the questions about inscription-human interfacing mechanisms were about control or mana transference. It seemed clunky to want to carry around so many machines and gadgets, but Alar didn't seem to mind.
The avian asked dozens of questions about the interactions of speed and acceleration on inscription activation as well as more advanced inscription logic, like what was on Alar's turrets.
Master Tosk knew generally how the device worked, but Vicktor was surprised to learn that the two devices were beyond Master Tosk's ability to recreate without directly copying.
The lizardkin had sighed and wiped a bead of condensation or sweat off his brow, Vicktor wasn't completely sure which. The man sounded older than usual. "I know enough to get me into trouble and I know enough to trust my inscriptions, but the pace of creation has only been increasing with time. I might need to take a refresher course."
"You know far more than me and I think I know far more than most, right?" The owl had puffed out his feathered chest and stuck the tufts of his ears up a little bit higher.
"It's true lad, knowing more than an apprentice or rector isn't hard, but get too further after that and you'll need a stronger mentor. That's always how it is..."
"I'll still have you though." Alar said, not really considering his words.
The green scales man laughed, "Oh, you couldn't get rid of me if you tried! I'll be around teaching you kids till the very end, but don't think it'll be about your specialization."
They stopped a little early for the day, the sky was still bright, illuminating a sea of ominous dark puffy clouds in the distance.
"It's going to rain soon, let's get our shelter built now. Politely, we all need to wash. I know we brought some water, but this rain will help too."
Alar and Nora nodded. Vicktor didn't think he smelled too bad but given everyone else besides him had a better nose, they were probably correct.
Master Tosk pointed to a spot between several large trees. There were no fallen trees here, but the trees were getting monstrous. There were easily twenty-five yards between trunks.
Vicktor used his senses to look for the best place, using his ability to sense the absence of soil or rock to find out where the roots were located.
After choosing a spot a little bit offset from the center of a ring of trees, Vicktor pressed his staff into the soil and began to work. He still needed some guidance in order to finish their shelter. There was a noticeable reserve of mana left in him compared to the day before.
He was unclear if it was because his Ruakh training was increasing its capacity or because he was being more efficient with the mana usage.
'Probably both.'
"Now that's done, can you make three hardened structures for me?" Master Tosk said after they had deposited their bags and spread out their bed rolls.
"Sure, what do you need?"
"Something large enough to wash four robes as well as a tub large enough to fit me and about fifty gallons of water. Finally, try to make something that can hold enough rainwater for about fifty gallons of water."
"Privacy walls?"
"Unless you have a particular interest in seeing my ~Legendary~ twinned scaly-bits."
Vicktor rolled his eyes at his master and quickly made the two requested structures along with a set of interlocking privacy walls. All were hardened and did not cause the water to turn brown.
The bath, as it turned out, was an exceptionally luxury. The hot water soaked their sore legs and wearing freshly washed and magically dried robes was a treat!
His mana had recovered enough and there was no fighting so he was able to record a much longer message to Selia. Telling her about yesterday's encounter as well as how bored he was getting with just walking.
He fell asleep reading one of the books Quinn had given him. It wasn't boring, but after a long day of walking, he was only able to get through a chapter before fully sliding into his bedroll.
The other three were still awake doing their own reading, but Vicktor was positive he had heard half a dozen yawns from each of them.
Sleep came easy, he dreamed of the rain, falling from unknown heights and then soaking into the soil below, slowly flowing into rivers, lakes, and finally into oceans and seas.
When they looked out of the bunker in the morning, they found that the lip of the entrance was dangerously close to being flooded. Half a foot of muddy water pooled.
"Next time we should probably do a whole foot of a lip, that wasn't that big a storm" Master Tosk said.
Vicktor responded, remembering an interesting practical lab in the Academy about soil infiltration rates from a plant mage. The woman had them measure infiltration rates based on a dozen different ratios of materials "The soil here has a lot of silt, clay and organic matter. It doesn't drain well. Plus the bedrock is actually quite closed to the surface. It's only about a yard down from here."
They took another round of hot baths, using the collected rainwater instead of any more of their drinking water. It wasn't quite the relief of the previous night, but it was still appreciated fiercely.
It was shaping up to be a lovely third day of travel when a code-phrase sent a shiver down Vicktor's spine
"We really should have brought horses," Master Tosk said.
Goblins were near...