Chapter 80
Maxwell stopped his horse in the middle of the road early the next morning. I think this is where we turn.
I looked at him in confusion. Theres nothing here.
Maxwell shook his head and waved me over to look at the map hed been comparing to the treasure map. I picked this up in town. Its a much more detailed map than the one thats tracking us.
We dismountedthe horses needed a rest anyways. I looked at the map Maxwell had laid out on a smooth patch of dirt. Along the main road we were traveling, the map showed several trailheads that led off, along with a few other details.
We just passed that bend around that pond. Maxwell pointed at the spot. Thered been a small pond nestled in the forest, fed by a stream that filled a small draw held back by a beaver dam. Once outside Maltis, the plains had vanished, replaced by forest and rough terrain, though not as rough as the mountains. The horses made excellent time down the road. The treasure map has a few notes about what to look for, and Im pretty sure that dead snage is what its talking about.
Maxwell gestured at a twisted, dead tree peeking above the trees on the other side of the road, opposite the pond. Looking closely at the map I saw that there was some kind of abandoned road indicated. When I looked up and down the maintained road we were on, I saw no indication of the side trail. You sure its there?
Before Maxwell could respond, Raven road out of the trees were we were looking at. Are you talking about the path just over there?
How did you know to look for that? I asked.
Max told me to keep an eye out, Raven said. Theres something off about how the trees grew in this spot, so I decided to investigate. They were clearly planted quite a long time ago to block off the old road.
Just how much did you pay for this map? I asked. The fact that it had markings for an old, abandoned road that was so long abandoned that full-size trees had grown up to block it said something about the quality.
You probably dont want to know, Maxwell said sheepishly. Lets just hope theres a lot of money in that treasure, because we need it.
I closed my eyes and tried not to strangle him. We had quite a bit of money, Maxwell. How did you spend it all?
Its not that hard to do, Maxwell assured me. The horses and map were the two most expensive things.
Well, lets go find this treasure then. I took Shadows reigns and led him into the forest.
The others followed, Raven dismounting River to lead her in.
After about twenty yards, we came through on the other side. The old road was just barely visible underneath an overgrowth of plants and fallen leaves. The only indication I truly saw was how there were very few large trees planted in a long straight stretch. Unlike the start of it, the rest of the road had been slowly overtaken by the forest, and not forcibly overgrown by planting trees.
Maxwell kept consulting the treasure map and his expensive map as we traveled up the abandoned road. Like the tracking map, Maxwells expensive one was also magical in nature, allowing him to adjust it to see different parts in more detail. When I glanced over, I noted that there was a dashed line indicating where the road used to be. Now that we were traveling down it, that dashed line was much more prominent.
After about an hour, Maxwell indicated we needed to turn off once again. This time we turned onto a game trail, fortunately it opened up into a small meadow where we left the horses to graze. Maxwell promised me that they wouldnt run off, it was part of their training. You could leave them in places like this and call them back. I didnt begrudge him spending the extra money on good mounts, they were worth every penny.
We followed the game trail for a bit, coming to a small creek bubbling happily along the side of the hill. The creek led into a crevasse, where all of the foliage and dirt along the creek had been scratched up by large claws that left furloughs in the dirt. Whatever lived in there was big. I bent to look closer at the signs. I was no professional tracker, but I recognized the footprints.
Keep your eyes peeled, I murmured. If were lucky, its out, and we wont have to fight it.
And if were not? Maxwell asked.
Then we fight the bear, Raven said matter-of-factly. Its just a bear, we can handle it no problem.
While Ravens confidence was justified, I cant help but feel like she jinxed us as we followed the creek. The crevasse opened up into a small grotto not too far along, with broken sunlight filtering down from above. The trees had formed an almost complete canopy over the grotto.
Im assuming the treasure is in there? I nodded to a cave at the far end.
Its a little obvious, Maxwell chuckled. But where else would you put it?
Raven scouted ahead, followed shortly by a roar. I groaned as a massive bear came barreling out of the cave chasing a fleet-footed Raven back toward us.
I stretched out my hand and activated both of my new spell storage rings. Couldnt pass up an opportunity to test them out. The activation time was short, I wondered if that had to do with my spell, or if they were just of a higher-quality. Two bolts of black lightning hammered across the grotto into the bear. I didnt plan on ever putting anything other than pure attack spells into the ring, the other spells I had for buffing the undead and raising undead were too situational for me to be able to predict what I would need to. Having two or more powerful attack spells already cast and ready to go was far more useful.
The bear staggered and roared. Raven dove to the side and circled around behind it. I rushed forward as Maxwell began his song, and the heavy metal music buffed up my speed. Maxwell had two primary ways of buffing: either a larger area of effect that would increase multiple people, or a targeted one that would only increase a few. The targeted one could be quite powerful.
I kept Mercy in a long slender curved blade, perfect for leaving slashing wounds. This bear stood no chance. Even if it had been higher level than me, it had no armor to stop Mercy. One of the greatest powers of my blade was the ability to leave festering wounds behind, an ability that only seemed to be growing in strength as I grew. Mercy was a scalable weapon that increased in power as I did, the festering wounds didnt work fast unless I enhanced them, but they were very hard to cure.
Unarmored foes like this bear were the perfect enemy for me to fight. I could land scores of shallow cuts that would turn into larger problems as time passed. All while being able to fight more defensively and prevent the bear from landing any strong attacks.
Raven leapt onto its back and drove her daggers into it before releasing them and jumping away, the daggers embedded black magic and also added their own poison effect. When the bear was too weak to stand on its own, I approached, reshaping Mercy into a long, slender needlelike tip and drove it into the bears heart. There was no point in making the creature suffer.
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