The Path of Ascension

Chapter 145

Zack watched four different news stations report on the various Pathers in the tournament. While they repeated the same ten or so top moments, giving a dozen talking heads their chance to analyze the competitors fighting styles, he was busy scanning through all the information available on the top competitors.

Not the teams that the news stations claimed were the top competitors though. That was a middling set of predictions, but it was only a starting place. From the points ranking, he had already noticed discrepancies related to some of the top names.

Some groups raked in far more points than their overall ranking would signal. Meanwhile, other teams scored few points, despite topping a few leaderboards.

Those were the anomalies that he was digging into.

With the tournament ongoing and the Royals still hovering around, the best thing he and Allie could do was try to find any information about the Pathers, and then cross-reference it with information in past years. It was their best path forward for finding out the participants' identities.

The work was incredibly boring, even for him. Even Allie had tried to obscure the fact that she was napping in her chair.

If the propped-up book wasn't enough of a clue, rumbles of snoring had started up a few minutes ago.

He let her rest. Despite her lackadaisical attitude towards most things, she would work just as hard as he did when they had something more than general speculation. It was nice to be able to hand her a pile of preliminary dossiers and then, in return, get fully flushed out information packets about whatever she was able to find.

She just abhorred the grunt work. And while he was not thrilled to shoulder all the menial tasks himself, the tradeoff felt fair.

A new report arrived about Queen slicing a Tier 13 dragonfly out of the sky with only a few attacks. The video was taking the stations by storm, but he was more interested in the tenth-ranked mask team, the ones sporting the numbers thirteen, twenty-one, thirty-four, and fifty-five from the golden ratio.

They had managed to enter a Tier 13 rift with a full clear challenge, yet exited in perfect health without earning a single point. From what he knew of them, they more than had the power to dominate the rift, but it was one of the few rifts that didn't allow for recording drones to be sent in with the teams.

Adam, the top-ranked Mask with an illusion Talent, had entered a Tier 12 speedrun rift and exited less than twenty minutes later. But since he had been invisible the entire time, no one was able to discern how he managed the feat through the useless recording.

Pause, the second place Mask, had already entered the endless rift, and was simply managing to outlast all of the monsters. Zack looked to a screen that he had dedicated solely to her feed and confirmed that she was still on the seventy-second wave, where she was fighting a horde of peak Tier 13 monsters.

Based on her current rate of progression, Pause would be there for a while yet.

The Pather had performed remarkably well as a solo delver with a defensive Talent. Adding to her praise in his mind, she had resorted to using only five skills to reach her current spot.

Keeping cards up her sleeve was an intelligent play, even if it frustrated him to no end by making his job harder.

Quill and Torch had surprised him with their performance, both inside and outside of the rift. His newest evaluations placed them as contenders for top ten in the solo and team battles. However, the overall tournament was only in the starting stages, so how they really stacked up would become clearer over the next few months.

Historically, a lot of Pathers experienced growth spikes in their combat prowess from the rewards gained in the first few months. Tur'stal's new points system also promised to shake things up more than usual. Zack strongly suspected that this new format would most egregiously benefit the highly specialized teams that normally struggled to break out of the middle of the pack. Such narrowly-focused teams could now sweep the leaderboards for their preferred challenge types to more than make up for their poorer performance in other areas.

***

As Matt and Liz left their room after a few hours of sleep, they made sure to send Aster a video of how they were doing. Their message would be reviewed before being sent out. Similarly, the return message would be vetted for information that could give them an advantage.

Knowing that, they kept the message light, and only briefly mentioned their delves before asking her what she was up to in their absence. Thankfully, Aster was fine and planning a get together with the other bonds. It sounded like a good place for her to mingle with her peers, so Matt had no worries about her.

With Matts mind at ease, the two of them headed into the Garden and started wandering around the various shops that had been set up throughout the city.

While the layout of the city was completely centered around the various rifts, a few larger buildings were obvious exceptions. The first they encountered was a communal resting area filled with goods and services that were all free to the Tier 10s attending the tournament.

That floor was mostly filled with simple comforts, and seemed to be designed around a casual and relaxed atmosphere, while keeping everyone together.

The two of them didnt fail to notice the fifteen Gardeners assigned to enforce the no fighting rule in the building.

The second levels and above needed points to enter, but neither Matt nor Liz felt the need to spend their points just to walk around, despite the advertisements that proclaimed how wonderful that area would be.

Moving on, the next area to catch their eye were the Pather-run shops. Some were in larger buildings where dozens of shops coexisted, while others had simpler stalls outside, lined along the street.

With some single shop buildings and a few open-air markets mixed in, the area felt far more lively than it otherwise might have.

The once busy streets that had struggled to accommodate the million-plus attendees were now only comfortably crowded, as the teams realized that standing around waiting for a rift was incredibly ineffective, and just reserved a time for the next day before moving on.

One stall caught Matt's eyes by virtue of the person behind the counter having an actual uniform on, but not one of Tur'stal's Gardeners. This woman wore a silver and dark green uniform that had an unknown guild's emblem emblazoned on the chest.

As he looked closer, he found that the stall was selling talismans. Healing talismans.

Walking closer and joining the small crowd, he listened to the spiel the woman was giving.

"These talismans are a wonder of our guild, all based around a new Tier 8 healing spell thats been found in the recent decade. This is a revolutionary new skill in and of itself, but that means the skill is being sold for enormous markups when they hit the open market, if at all. Instead of spending the equivalent of a Tier 26 skill on a Tier 8 one, you can simply buy one of our talismans. At a very low price of fifteen Tier 10 mana stones, you could have professional quality healing whenever you find yourselves in a pinch."

A portion of the crowd audibly grumbled at the price. The talisman was a Tier 8 skill, and while it could be overcharged for a greater effect, which would require a higher Tier parchment, these were obviously Tier 8 talismans.

The guild was unashamedly fleecing anyone and everyone.

As if she knew what the crowd was thinking, the saleswoman just smiled. "If youre injured, these will completely stop any bleeding and prevent the wound from getting worse, while not applying any healing cooldown to the wound. Instead of using your own healing spells that are undirected and incur a large healing cost, you can leave the rift safely without risking your life, and get one of the professional healers to heal you up properly. After all, they can treat you and give a reduced healing cooldown by using their specialized skills."

That brought the crowd's attention back to her, and piqued their interest.

Being wounded was most people's greatest fear during this time. While it was never anyone's intention to get so badly wounded that they couldn't safely receive more healing, anything could happen in a rift.

And for the few people who had healing skills, or the rare healing potion rift reward, they both accrued a larger healing cooldown than what a proper healer would.

The saleswoman wasn't wrong about that, and despite a cost of Tier 10 mana stones for a single talisman, most teams here were able to delve Tier 11 rifts without an issue. After all, at a one hundred to one ratio, they could get six talismans for a single Tier 11 mana stone.

When looked at from that perspective, the price suddenly became a bit more palatable.

Matt immediately checked the stall's information on his AI, and found what he was looking for.

The guild, Burning Hearts, had a patent for their version of the Tier 8 [Bandage] healing skill. If the EmpireNet was to be believed, they were also the only guild, company, or noble house to have successfully simplified the Tier 8 spell to a level that it was enchantable by the average Tier 8.

If anyone else had also done so, they had either hidden it, or the result was too similar to the Burning Hearts guild's version to be issued its own patent.

That didn't mean that others couldn't come up with different ways of simplifying the skill, just that they hadn't yet.

The basic skills like [Fireball] had forty two variations in the public domain that all specialized in different aspects to various degrees. One version of the enchantment might have more explosion damage, or another might have a greater heat in its magical flames. But all in all, the skills were similar enough.

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Even still, guilds were said to have better versions of skills kept under lock and key, not entered into the patent system. They supposedly kept those rare versions to themselves, but that was mostly speculation.

The guilds keeping secret versions of enchantments wasn't a problem most of the time, as the Tier 8 skills had been around forever, and had mostly entered into the public domain. By now, people had created versions and offered them for free, or the patents on most had expired after five hundred years. While that was nice for the Tier 8 skills, it wasn't the case for the higher Tier skills, which had patents that needed to be bought.

In and of itself, that wasn't an issue. Matt had bought hundreds of enchantment licenses from the Empire for cheap. What irritated Matt was the ridiculous cost for getting the guild's schematic.

Even for a personal license that prohibited the enchanter from reselling, it still cost a yearly rate of fifty Tier 13 mana stones. The guild had a monopoly, and was pushing it for all it was worth.

The problem was that a simplified enchantment wasn't the only way to make a talisman. It was just generally the cheapest way for most crafters.

Anyone with the skill in question could cast the skill on the parchment with a few containment runes and have a passable talisman themselves.

In fact, Matt had a few hundred [Bandage] talismans made that way in his spatial bracelet right now. He had intended to use them when they got injured as Quill and Torch, but with the guild here and selling their own version of the talisman, they were all useless.

At least unless he wanted to admit he had the actual [Bandage] skill, or be accused of having stolen their intellectual property. The first option was a problem, as the skill had appeared on the far side of the Empire not that long ago, and was being sold for Tier 26 levels of wealth. If he didn't admit to owning the skill himself, he would come under the scrutiny of the Burning Hearts guild.

Even if he beat the charges without revealing too much information, it would draw far, far too much attention to their masked identities. Not to mention the false identities of Shawn, Jules, and Lassie that existed under the masks.

That left him with the option of not using a potent healing talisman, or paying the ridiculous fees the guild was charging.

Knowing that he was screwed, Matt stewed internally as the woman demonstrated the talisman's effectiveness on her own arm.

He wanted to storm off and curse the guild, but he had far too much training to even let a flicker of emotion show on his face.

Like everyone else, he watched the rest of the presentation. Then, like most other teams, they bought a set of seven talismans for one Tier 11 mana stone. The guild was generous enough to offer the last talisman at a small discount to round off the cost total.

Cursing their extortionist ways, Matt thanked the woman with Liz before stuffing the parchments into their spatial bags, mentally swearing revenge.

Maybe I can pass off as Quill coming up with a distinct version supposedly based on just seeing them in action? I need to think this over and see if my AI can actually simplify the skill structure down to a runic formation. If it can, I might be able to take the guild out at the knees by making the enchantment public.

While he would need to do some research, he expected that the guild selling the talismans had only gotten the patent because they were a low Tier guild that cared about Tier 10 levels of wealth. They had simply lucked out by being close to the world they had made the rift on. If that was the case, he had no issue with undercutting them.

Besides, if they hadnt been so blatantly greedy, he might not have minded their little enterprise. But now that he was irritated, he wanted to do something about it.

Matt was hardly in the mood for more window shopping, but they went through a few stores before they sat down and watched a mana charging station while they snacked on a few bits of street meat.

The mana charging station was actually run by Tur'stal, and was seemingly run at cost, or at least near to it, which was rare to see. The station was a simple rest area that sold mana back to the delvers in either mana stones or raw collected mana. Plenty of tournament participants were willing to pay to avoid waiting the day and a half to refill their mana pools naturally.

They also offered mana stones that could be bought with either items traded from the rifts, or their virtual bank accounts.

Still, the rates were reasonable, unlike some places he had seen in their travels. Matt wondered if Tur'stal might come and ask him for a top off of the planet's mana reserves to help maintain the low prices.

They browsed the mana converting tools selection while they rested. Most of the converters were rated for a range of Tiers of mana stones, which was their major difference, rather than speed or efficiency.

The slow converters were nearly ninety percent efficient in their conversion of unaspected mana to personal mana, but they took time. Hours, usually.

Next were the fast converters, which were about sixty percent effective, but could convert a few hundred mana in five minutes or so. That was the converter most people used, but there was also the instant converter that had an awful twenty percent conversion efficiency, but could convert a few hundred mana in seconds. They were sometimes necessary in the middle of a fight, though never desired, as you were essentially burning money.

Their own converters worked for Tier 10 through Tier 12 mana crystals, but seeing how cheap they were selling the next set, he and Liz bought the Tier 13 through Tier 15 converters.

Even if they doubted that they would need to convert the higher Tier stones, the converters were so cheap, they couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy them. They also took a set of ten rechargeable mana stones with a 200 mana capacity, made for Tier 10 through Tier 12's. They didnt get the bigger ones because even for 100 extra mana the size nearly doubled and they would need to remake their gear unnecessarily.

With their pockets lighter, they stopped by the endless rift, only to find a line fifty people long waiting to sign up for a delve tomorrow. Instead, they decided to come back another day, and watched some of the better performances in the rift while they waited for their meeting time with the other teams.

Finally, they met up at a smaller teahouse to discuss their plans for the Tier 13 group rift.

Matt found Janet sitting at a table with a small cut still scabbing over on her face. It was a small wound, and she seemed otherwise unharmed.

Harvie and Adam, the twins, were pulling over two other tables to extend their area. Kevin, the wind mage who still had bands of air swirling around his arm, carried over tray after tray of drinks.

Seeing that they were the first other team to arrive, Matt pointed to his own face and asked, "What got you?"

Janet groaned loudly as Harvie burst out laughing.

Adam actually answered the question. "We had just killed the Tier 12 boss of the rift, and dumb dumb here went to go try and skin the thing, when its insides ruptured from built-up pressure and nicked her."

Janet hid in her hand and groaned. "It was an embarrassing mistake to make in front of so many people watching. I'm better than that. I just got nervous."

Liz laughed and slid next to the woman and patted her shoulder. "We've all made mistakes like that. You should ask Matt about our time trying to kill a Tier 9 water snake that guarded a bridge. He spent more than one attempt in the water because of a careless moment."

Matt smiled and agreed. "Yup. Fun fact, water monsters are hard to fight in the water."

He didn't mention that they had been Tier 6 at the time, and used the story to help Janet get over her embarrassment.

Harvie dropped off the last of the drinks and nodded at him and Liz. "We saw your guy's rift delve. Good work on that kill with the Lava Whale. Impressive way to kill it."

Matt grinned and winked. "Channel skills are my forte."

Fen, who had just entered the building, laughed, having caught the end of his comment. He explained as he pulled Matt into a hug before hugging Liz.

"Don't let him undersell it. I was in the same vassal war as this guy, and before that, we fought in a much harder war against a rogue ruin that was trying to take over a planet. This guy is a monster if he can use a channel."

Matt ignored Fen's boasting of his accomplishments and leaned over to say hi to Bow and Arrow, who had followed their bond into the teahouse.

He pretended not to know the three new bonds, and was quickly introduced to everyone for a second time.

Harvie smiled at Fen after the introductions and said, "You have the real story. How was meeting Quill and Torch? That video was impressive enough. It must have been crazy being near them as they took out the Tier 14 on their own."

Fen laughed, and Bow joined him while Arrow took Kenny the mouse to the counter to order a more size-appropriate drink. "It was impressive. I was planning to slowly whittle that boss down over a day or two, and they just smacked it around a few times, and killed it."

Janet shook her head. "Nah, don't undersell yourself. You might be one of the strongest people were inviting to the group delve. It's a peak Tier 13 rift, and while the snakes you fought were only bottom Tier 13s, you did super well. Just because you met two of the better contestants, don't think everyone is at that level."

Kevin snorted, "We sure aren't. Killing a Tier 14 in under ten minutes. That's impressive."

While they were making introductions between Fen and his bonds, Matt was sure to tell the others how well they had done in the golem fight and Pather war.

Fen was trying to hide his embarrassment when Felix, the dagger solo delver Matt had met, came in with Melinda's team.

Matt grinned as Tara came over and said, Well done in the boss killing rift. I hear that the actual kills were quicker than most, but that's all been cut from the videos we have access to, so I didnt get to watch it.

Vinnie punched Matt on the shoulder and added, We actually plan to hit that one before the end of the month as well. Should be interesting.

Before they could really get into it, with everyone here, Janet stood slightly and introduced everyone around the table.

"Now that we all know each other, I think we should go over the group rift and our strategy. With the rule change to a person limit instead of a team limit, we now have a full roster. Sadly, we didn't know that we could bring so many people, which means we didn't have the chance to train with Fen and his bonds and Geraden. We can either push our delve back a few days or"

She looked at Matt, and he smiled, knowing what she was asking. The reason they didn't want to push their delve off was because the group rifts were some of the few rifts with nearly no competition. As a peak Tier 13 rift, most teams couldn't handle it alone, and only teams that had practiced together would risk going into a dangerous rift without having worked together with new people. That was asking for trouble.

Training with the others would burn mana that they could be using to delve rifts, and any mana they did spend would have to be bought back.

Janet had done her research and knew his Concept, and had asked him privately if he was willing to use his Concept to fuel their training as a larger group.

Matt was more than happy to, but it spoke to her character that she didn't assume, and was giving him a chance to back out.

Instead, he flared his Concept at a low level, only double what he had been able to do in the vassal war.

He could feel his Concept filling everyone at the table to a minor degree. He assumed they had used small spells at some point during the day, but had mostly regenerated their mana over the evening.

"I'm happy to help us. I'm also willing to use my Concept for everyone here when I'm free. It costs me nothing if I fill us up every night, and saves you all money."

That was met with halfhearted protest by the others who didn't want to take advantage, but Matt insisted.

Before long, they had hashed out everything they could about their general battle plans and moved to a training room. If everything went well, they intended to delve the rift in two days.

Most of them had delves scheduled for tomorrow or this evening, and Matt made it a point to let everyone know that they could find him in a cafe closer to their teleport formation most nights. For a few hours, hed camp out in a corner where he would use his Concept for any of the team members that came to him.

He played it off as good training for his Concept, but from the expressions from everyone but Melinda's team, he could tell that they thought he was just being nice.

In fact, he actually was using it for training purposes. In the last few months of training with Luna, he had finally started to think he had an idea for blacklisting people from his Concept, but he hadn't made any progress. Using his Concept in a public place would give him a good place to practice.

It wasnt like he could do it as Quill, after all.

Their group training extended until the final minutes before Janet's team had a scheduled delve and needed to leave.

Everyone but Melinda's team was discovering how beneficial it was to train their skills without worrying about mana cost, and after they had a good feel for each other's combat styles, they had broken off to do individual training.

Matt was more than happy to fill everyone up at a speed much slower than his maximum.

He was happy to see his mana go towards good work and to such appreciative people.

It felt good. Helping old and new friends alike only increased his feelings of content.

It was small scale, but this was still making a difference.

***

Aster looked around and yowled at the crowd.

All four hundred and some odd beasts turned to look at her where she stood in the air.

Seeing all the beast bonds look to her caused her tail to wag, and she didn't even attempt to stop it! This was just too much fun.

After the initial ceremony, she had been all excited to watch Matt and Liz go and delve, but she had quickly discovered that they couldn't watch them live. She had to wait for her humans to leave the rift to get the recordings from the drones.

Spending time with Liz's siblings had been fun as they watched the first videos, but she had grown bored after Matt and Liz used the giant fireball skill combo.

Seeing that irritated her, but even she could admit that the attack had looked even cooler when used for real than in practice.

She had only been mollified when Matt used her idea of summoning a lot of water, then attracting it to a monster before flash freezing the area.

Normally that was her job, but she was happy to see another element other than fire being used.

But now, she had grown bored, and decided to gather all the other beast bonds who were here with their own humans for some good fun.

None of them had much to do, and Mara, the queen of evolved monsters and beasts, had provided them all with accommodations while their humans participated in the tournament.

She was sad and jealous that Bow and Arrow were actually on the planet and allowed to fight. But she knew that she'd be able to see them in a week, when the first round of visitations started, so she wasn't too bothered.

They would come to the visitor center and say hi then.

That was when she had the idea to get all the beasts together and have some fun. She only had a few days until Aunt Helen arrived, and then, she would be busy enough that she would only be able to play fora little bit. She didn't want to waste the opportunity.

Seeing everyone was there and accounted for, she jumped higher in the air and said, "Okay. Everyone's here. I know I'm super bored without my humans."

A collection of hisses, yips, barks, meows, roars, chuffs, and whinnies met her proclamation, to her immense enjoyment.

"So to that end, I got this room rented out for the next year, so we can hang out in a space for us!"

Mara had actually just called down to the front desk and set that up, but unlike Liz and Matt, she had no problem asking the older beast for help. After all, she owned the entire building. Why wouldn't they take advantage of that?

"But as this is some of our first-time meetings, I suggest we all go out to dinner! That way, we can get to know each other better."

With that decided, they exited the room and proceeded down the street in an uncoordinated gaggle.

A few of the lower Tier bonds had to be redirected back onto the path, as they had the habit of getting distracted, but she made sure that everyone got there safely. It wasn't exactly needed, as all the bonds had minders assigned by the Beast Kingdom, but she was in charge here, and took her responsibility seriously.

Before long, they found a restaurant that most of them agreed smelled the best.

Aster led the procession of beasts inside and jumped into the air to tell the hostess, "We need a table for four hundred!"

She waited as the woman leaned around her to peer at the variety of monsters that were behind Aster and out the door.

"I'm sorry, but we don't have a table that large." The woman sounded apologetic, but Aster wilted.

Maybe she should have planned this out more?

The woman then smiled and said, "But we do have an executive lounge that can hold everyone comfortably."

Aster perked back up and yipped in excitement with all the other beasts who heard the good news.

Screw planning! Things worked out better this way.

"We'll take it!"

Quickly, they were led to a fancy room with a table that had adjustable seats that could be raised or lowered to accommodate all the varied body types of the beasts.

As everyone filtered in, Aster took her position at the head of the table and listened to everyone having a good time, chatting about how nice the room was. A few of the bonds were bragging about their humans, and she filled away the tidbits of information that she overheard to pass on to Matt and Liz. Nothing was vitally important, and she only listened to the beasts who had a modicum of self-awareness, as doing otherwise felt just wrong.

The rest of the beasts were kids, and taking advantage of them wasn't something she, Matt, and Liz were willing to do.

She smiled and watched until the waiter came in and asked what they wanted for dinner.

Having always wanted to do this, she said, "One of everything!" Then, looking at the mass of beasts, she corrected herself. "More than one of everything!"

The waiter opened and closed his mouth for a second before smiling, nodding, and leaving.

In just minutes, a procession of appetizers started to filter in, being placed on the table in front of everyone.

No one held back as they leaned forward and grabbed pieces of the various dishes, making noises of appreciation. After seeing that everyone had at least one bite, Aster leaned in and took the last bite of a clam thing.

It was delicious, and she started to talk to Linguine, the Tier 11 snake that was sitting next to her.

Linguine wasn't his real name, but the nickname had stuck, as he was yellow and noodle-like.

He had taken it with good grace, and returned the favor by calling Aster Ice Cream. What could be a better name than that?

More people should have food-related names, she decided.

They were talking about their favorite type of rabbit to eat when he appeared.

Ember, the fire elemental fox, was the bane of her existence, and despite her best efforts, she always fell to his level instead of rising above it.

The stupid fox smugly sauntered over and said, "I ordered everyone drinks. If only we had a refrigerator to keep everything cool."

Aster felt her hackles rise as she said, "It's okay. If we have leftovers, you can keep them warm for everyone."

Happy with her zinger, she tried to return to the conversation with Linguine, but Ember butted into that as well.

Not willing to allow the stupid fox get the upper hand, she challenged him to a drinking contest when the drinks arrived.

Those near them cheered as they both used their Concepts to tip the drinks back.

Aster laughed when after only the second beer, the stupid firefox had an issue controlling his Concept well enough to tip the drink back.

Their challenge was interrupted by the dinner arriving, and everyone dug into the piles of food that seemed to come in a never-ending wave.

***

Aster was wobbling as she tried to gather herself while Ember, the dumb fox, started to argue that fire was the best element. Eventually she had enough, and argued back with him.

Ice was the best element. Obviously.

They yowled at each other back and forth while trying to stay upright on the table.

It was quite hard, but Aster felt certain that if she was louder than him, she was obviously the most right fox. So she warbled all over the place, trying to drown out the stupid fox's monotone droning about fire.

***

Aster woke up in a tree inside a park she vaguely recognized, surrounded by all of her new friends.

Everyone was unconscious still, but she was the boss, and even through her pounding headache, she did a headcount with her AI.

She scrambled to her feet and jumped from the branches of the tree as she realized that five of them were missing.

In a panic, she started to shake everyone awake.

When they started to piece together the end of the evening's events, they came to the conclusion that their missing friends were beastnapped by spies! One of the snakes had seen two people in masks walking through the group when they woke up to give a hug to one of the coyotes.

How dare they!

These were her people, after all.

No one was allowed to bully them.

Aster yowled to the sky with everyone else in a pledge that they would find and rescue their missing friends.

Except Ember. The spies could keep him.

Aster sighed. She'd even rescue the stupid fox. After she saved him, he would be forced to admit his element was the weaker one.

She didn't end up foxnapped after all.

They would rescue their friends without involving their minders to show they were competent! More importantly, so she did not get lectured by Matt.

Still slightly hungover, the four hundred beasts marched to the restaurant where they could investigate the evening's events, completely missing the five beasts tucked safely behind a small hill, having been moved off the walking path they had passed out on.