Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO STUBBING AUGUST 15)

“We can’t thank you enough,” said Tömörbaatar, passing Elijah a cup.

One whiff was all it took for him to identify the milky, white liquid as something alcoholic, but it was unlike anything Elijah had ever seen before. So, he asked, “What’s this?”

“Airag. Fermented mare’s milk,” the short leader of the hunters said. He’d been one of Eliijah’s first patients, and though he’d received the most healing, he still had a long scar across his face. There was another one that stretched from his right shoulder to his left hip, though that was hidden beneath his rough tunic. Tömörbaatar had been the most injured among the survivors, but three men and one woman had died in the battle.

Six horses – including Tömörbaatar’s own mount – had fallen as well. Not wanting the animals’ sacrifice to go to waste, the remaining hunters had quickly processed the beasts, and Elijah had already eaten some of their flesh. Consuming horsemeat had never been on his bucket list, but he’d expected that if he’d refused, it would have been considered rude.

The meat itself wasn’t terrible. A little like extremely lean beef, though with a bit of a sweet undercurrent. Elijah had expected the Mongolian group to accompany the meal with some sort of ceremony – they practically revered their horses – but nothing of the sort happened. They mourned the loss of their companions – both bestial and human – but they hadn’t attached any extra significance to consuming the meat of their mounts. It was just another meal.

Elijah brought the cup to his lips and took a sip. The first thing he noticed was the texture, which was surprisingly fizzy. And when it hit his tongue, he was immediately reminded of yoghurt, though with a slight sweetness to it. He could also taste the alcohol, though it wasn’t overwhelming. There was a sourness to it as well, but as with the alcohol, it wasn’t enough to overpower the rest of the flavor.

In short, it was unlike anything he’d ever had, and after taking another sip, Elijah decided it would certainly never make it on his list of favorite beverages. It wasn’t bad, but it definitely wasn’t something he intended to seek out in the future.

“Good,” he lied.

Tömörbaatar laughed heartily, then slapped Elijah’s shoulder. The blow was much more solid than the small man should’ve been capable of producing, which told Elijah that the hunter was a little higher level than most. He’d checked, and Tömörbaatar wasn’t on the power rankings, but Elijah expected that he wasn’t far off.

The other hunters gathered around the fire weren’t much lower, either, which meant that the team had been quite a formidable one. And yet, they hadn’t stood a chance against the boar. If Elijah had needed a reminder of just how dangerous the world was, the existence of the boar definitely satisfied that requirement.

“It’s a bit of an acquired taste,” admitted Tömörbaatar, echoing Elijah’s sentiments concerning the beverage.

“It’s not bad. Just…different,” Elijah maintained, forcing himself to take another sip. It was worse than the first, and he nearly choked on the stuff. He gave his new friend a thumbs up. “Tasty. But I don’t want to take it all for myself…”

Tömörbaatar laughed again as Elijah offered to return the cup. Then, the hunter downed the entire thing in one huge gulp. It stained his voluminous mustache white. Elijah chuckled as well, resting his forearms on his knees as he glanced at the fire. The camp wasn’t large, but it was protected by one of Tömörbaatar’s skills. The hunter hadn’t revealed the ability’s name, but he had described its effects, which were similar to the one Lars had used to enchant Elijah’s new tent. The basic idea was that it would discourage the wildlife from coming within range of the camp, much like the array around Ironshore that did the same.

The difference was that Tömörbaatar’s skill was completely mobile. If he could build a fire, then he was mostly protected, at least from anything within a certain attribute range. The array around Ironshore was stronger and less dependent on attributes, but it was also stationary.

Regardless, the Mongolian hunter seemed to take its efficacy for granted, so Elijah chose to follow his lead. It wasn’t as if he had much to fear from the wilderness, anyway. Over the past few years, he’d slept outdoors more often than he’d had a roof over his head, and he’d had few difficulties.

He glanced around at the surviving hunters. Only a couple had been uninjured by the fight, so Elijah had had his work cut out for him when it came to healing. Luckily, Soothe and Healing Rain were both incredibly efficient, and Touch of Nature was good at filling in the gaps. However, he couldn’t help once again notice that his healing spells were far less effective than they’d once been. It took more casts to get the same results he’d once taken for granted.

Hopefully, he would get an upgrade sometime soon.

If he got the chance to enlist the services of a Librarian, he fully intended to get a full spell list for his class. It would be useless after he reached the first threshold, but for now, it would be nice to know what he could expect. Would he get the chance to upgrade his spells like he had with Ancestral Circle? Or would he just keep getting more abilities? He already struggled to use all the spells he had available, so even if he wanted new toys with which to play, he recognized that more wasn’t necessarily better. It would probably be more beneficial to focus on the spells he already had, empowering them so that they were even more useful.

Even if he didn’t receive the opportunity to evolve his spells, Elijah still had another chance to strengthen them. His ongoing Core cultivation had continued to show results, and he suspected that it would only be a couple more months before he reached the point where he would need to make the final push. For that, he had his cultivation cave which, according to his locus, had grown even stronger than before he’d progressed to the Novice tier of Soul cultivation.

Still, even as he sat by that campfire, sharing small talk with Tömörbaatar, Elijah continued to cycle his core, pushing his boundaries with every rotation.

Eventually, though, the others retired for the night. In the morning, they would trek back to Khotont and report their failure. For his part, Elijah couldn’t sleep. He was tired, but with his high attributes – and the addition of one of his berries – he had no trouble staying awake. Instead, as he watched over the camp, he continued to cycle his core. More importantly, he thought about the boar.

It was a guardian.

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He was certain of that much. However, when he asked the hunters about natural treasures, he’d gotten no information. There was a clear link between the power of a guardian and its treasure, and if something strong enough to need the protection of something like the unstoppable boar had been found, then the hunters would have heard about it.

So, there was likely a third party at work, though that information didn’t help Elijah solve the problem. More, it brought to mind his judgement of the hunters who’d killed the bear near Norcastle. At the time, he’d considered it pointlessly cruel to have slaughtered the guardian. However, after seeing what had happened to the boar, he wasn’t so sure. Would the bear have gone mad if he’d awoken to find his treasure gone? Perhaps. And in that case, maybe it was mercy to have killed him.

In a perfect world, both would have been left alone, but Elijah knew that wasn’t realistic. People craved power. In a lot of cases, they needed it to survive. And they would leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of that strength. It was human nature.

Elijah didn’t know the solution. His instincts told him to protect natural treasures and their guardians, but he couldn’t blame people for looking after their own needs. Perhaps the answer was that there was no one-size-fits-all solution and that he’d need to take each situation as it came.

For most of the night, he pondered the questions plaguing him, but by dawn, nothing had changed. So, he boiled some water before making some coffee. Using his newly enchanted French press for the first time yielded significant results: