Rise of the Living Forge

Chapter 22: Prey

Arwin nearly choked on his own saliva. “I’m sorry?”

“You don’t just ask people to join your party, Anna,” Rodrick scolded. He adjusted the remains of his greaves, looking down at the shredded remains of his pants and coughing into his fist. “We could use another member, though. No commitments or anything, but I’d really like to get a bit deeper into the forest.”

Arwin nearly refused on the spot, but he hesitated before the words could leave his mouth. In his current form, he really couldn’t fight more than one monster every hour or two before running out of energy.

Having some help from people that knew what they were doing would be pretty useful. Anna and Rodrick seemed fairly genuine as well. Of course, they were still adventurers – but having two extra bodies to stand by him so he could push deeper into the forest was hard to deny.

Reya isn’t going to be ready for anything like this for a bit. She doesn’t know how to fight and doesn’t have a class yet. These two are trained. I think it might actually be beneficial to take them up on their offer.

“Just for today,” Arwin said after a few more seconds of deliberation. “But it isn’t going to be a regular thing, and you’ll have to help me carry some of the loot. You can keep anything we get that isn’t from the monsters, but I want the bodies.”

Anna and Rodrick exchanged a glance, then both nodded.

“That works!” Anna said. “We need around an hour to recover.”

“That should be enough for me as well, and I need to take this thing apart anyway.” Arwin jerked his chin toward the body of the Forest Lizard. If they were going deeper into the forest, he doubted he’d be able to strip every single piece of every single monster he fought, so the claws and teeth would have to be abandoned. The scales were considerably more useful to him at the moment, and they were also much easier to carry.

By the time Arwin finished with his work, his hands were covered with blood and he had a small pile of scales at his feet. He’d discarded all the damaged ones – it wasn’t like they were going to have any shortage of material, so he had no reason to bring along anything that wasn’t high quality.

Arwin wiped his hands off on the grass and rose to his feet. Rodrick and Anna sat a few paces way from him, where they’d been watching him descale the monster. Both had offered to help, but neither had a sword or a dagger small enough to safely remove anything without damaging it – and Arwin wasn’t about to lend his potentially explosive weapon out.

“All finished?” Rodrick asked, mirroring Arwin and standing up. He brushed the dirt off his backside, then helped Anna up. “I’m just about ready to go, so you’ve got some good timing.”

“I just need find a way to carry this,” Arwin said, chewing his lower lip and scratching his back sheepishly. “I didn’t bring a bag.”

“I’ve got you.” Rodrick pulled the bag off his back and unbuckled the belts holding the top down, revealing it to be largely empty aside from a change of clothes and an empty potion vial or two.

He and Arwin scooped the scales into the bag, filling it a good half of the way up. Compared to the number of broken and damaged scales littering the ground, it felt like a rather small amount.

I definitely would have gotten more if the thing wasn’t so beat to hell. But, if I kill a few more of them, it’ll hardly matter. I’m more interested to see what this forest has to offer.

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“Thanks,” Arwin said with a nod as the two of them straightened back up and Rodrick slung the bag back over his shoulder.

“No problem. It’s easy enough, but you might want to get a bag at some point in the future if you’re going adventuring alone.”

“I’ll add it to the list.”

“How deep into the forest are you comfortable going?” Anna asked. “We’re just trying to get some kills to get stronger, but I’ve heard there are some pretty choice monsters deeper in there. There’s also the Unique roaming around somewhere.”

Arwin tilted his head to the side, his interest piqued. “A Unique monster? Do we know anything about it?”

“You don’t?” Anna sent Arwin a shocked look. “Isn’t that the main reason to come here?”

“I just like scales.”

Anna’s eyes flicked down to his exposed scale mail and she covered her mouth, letting out a small laugh. “Okay, fair enough. There’s a Wyrm somewhere in the forest. Nothing too crazy, rumored to be at low Journeyman Tier. But still, it’s a Wyrm. Could you imagine if it had a hoard?”

Could you imagine what I could do with that thing’s body?

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Wait, that sounds off. I didn’t mean–

“No need to be scared,” Rodrick said, completely misreading the expression on Arwin’s face. “Wyrms stick to their dens. They’re related to dragons, but in the same way that a normal lizard is related to the bugger we just killed. It might have a hoard and some interesting shinies, but nothing that it’ll abandon to kill us.”

Unless you’ve got fresh meat of anything they consider prey on you. That’s a great way to lure them out of their nests, though. Wyrms are dangerous because they fight in enclosed spaces. Get them outside and they’re easy pickings.

“Arwin?” Anna asked, a note of concern in her voice. “If you’re not comfortable with the Wyrm, we could always stick to the edges of the forest. There are more than enough monsters to fight in the area.”

“No, no. I just got distracted,” Arwin said with a wave of his hand. Either Rodrick and Anna didn’t know how to fight Wyrms or they just didn’t mention it because they had no plans of fighting the monster. Either way, he wasn’t anywhere near prepared to handle a Journeyman Tier. Not yet, at least.

“I’m good with going deeper, but let’s take things slow,” Arwin suggested. “You said the monsters were being unusually aggressive, right? It’s pretty warm out, so it could be mating season.”

Anna stared at him. “What?”

“What?” Arwin mirrored. “Is something wrong?”

“What does mating season have to do with how the monsters are acting?” Rodrick asked. “And why do you know that?”

“Why wouldn’t you?” Arwin countered. “If you want to master fighting an enemy, you need to understand them. It’s not enough to just know how to swing a stick around. Knowing the circumstances that changes monsters’ actions is just as important as being able to fight individual monsters.”

“You… study that?” Anna asked slowly. “Is that what you are? Some form of monster researcher?”

Oh, shit. Is this really not common knowledge? I thought everyone knew about it, but I did spend years studying monster behavior whilst fighting the Demon Queen. It was hard not to pick up on a few things. I figured the Guild would have taught something as basic as this, though…

“It’s just a hobby,” Arwin said with a dismissive wave. “Either way, if it’s mating season, we just have to avoid the groups of monsters and go after the loners that couldn’t get the interest of another monster. We should be able to avoid getting swarmed that way.”

“That’s… kind of sad,” Rodrick said. A grin spread across his face and he gave Arwin a sharp nod. “But, if it works, that would be huge. I was starting to wonder if we needed to get a bigger party or if the monsters were forming into a horde.”

“Well, we don’t know for sure. I’m just taking a guess at it,” Arwin said with a one-shouldered shrug. “Only way to find out is to head in and see what we find.”

“True enough.” Rodrick hoisted his sword and gestured to the forest. “Shall we?”

Arwin nodded, and the three of them set off into the woods.

Sticks crunched beneath their feet as they walked, Arwin and Rodrick taking up Anna’s sides to make sure the more vulnerable mage couldn’t get ambushed. As they continued, Arwin found that he was spending considerably more attention on his new companions than he was on his surroundings.

This was far from the first forest he’d been in, and it wasn’t anything to write home about. It had trees, dirt, and a general scent of distant rain. He’d probably been in about twenty others just like this one, and the only thing missing from those scenes was the thick stench of blood.

Anna and Rodrick, on the other hand, were new. Arwin had traveled with a lot of adventurers. He’d been pretty confident that he’d met just about every kind of person that entered the trade.

All the men and women that joined to pursue riches, and the ones that just reveled in slaughter. The rare ones that did it to protect others, and the ones that liked being the center of attention.

These two didn’t seem to fall into any of the categories. As they walked, instead of keeping to a tight formation, they spoke in hushed words, tiny smiles and laughs dancing between them.

It was like they were out on a picnic, not in enemy territory. Arwin couldn’t tell if it was driving him up a wall or intriguing him. He’d bantered with his former colleagues, but only before and after the jobs were done, or if they were doing something so easy that it didn’t require any attention.

Rodrick and Anna weren’t nearly that strong. They should have been as careful as possible, checking every shadow to make sure nothing lurked in it. But, instead, they were having fun.

They’re being fairly quiet, so it’s not like they’re stupid. They’re just… carefree. Odd. It’s certainly more relaxed than I’m used to, but it does make me wonder what’ll happen when we get closer to a monster.

He didn’t have to wait long to find out. Rodrick held a hand up and Anna abruptly snapped her mouth shut, freezing in place. Arwin mirrored the motion, having seen similar gestures more times than he could count.

Rodrick nodded into the forest, then leaned in closer to them to whisper.

“I’m picking up some movement in that direction. Sounds like a few different things.” Rodrick tapped the side of his helm and sent a look at Arwin. “I’m a Warrior, by the way. Have a few sense enhancements. I’m a bit new to this whole thing, but I’m getting the hang of it.”

Yeah, the mad sprint out of the forest was definitely the sign of someone who has the hang of things.

“How many of them are there? Are they headed toward us?” Anna asked in a hushed tone.

“Can’t tell. Probably four. And they don’t seem to be heading in any direction in particular. They’re just moving around next to each other.”

“Maybe Arwin was right,” Anna said. “Let’s just avoid them. Can you pick anything else up?”

Rodrick started to shake his head, but he stopped a second into the motion. A small grin passed across his lips and he turned to the side, squinting through the trees. “It’s kind of distant, but there’s something shuffling around over there. Not too big, I don’t think. It’s not cracking a lot of leaves.”

“Sounds like it could be a good target,” Arwin said.

Fast swap from being relaxed to working. They aren’t new to this.

“Lead the way, then,” Anna said.

“With pleasure,” Rodrick said. “Say, how do you think the lizards taste?”

A bit like really dry chicken.

“Probably horrible,” Anna said.

“Probably,” Rodrick agreed. He set off into the forest and the others moved alongside him, their conversation dropping off as they did their best to avoid making any more noise while closing in on their prey.