Chapter 954
With their plan of action set, Marcus and Mrazivy waited until it was Miguel turn on watch before approaching him. Marcus remembered what happened when he intruded on his room back when they were staying at the guild hall and did not want to further antagonize Miguel by entering his tent.
"What do you two want? I am busy right now." Miguel said with an abrasive tone.
He never took his eyes off of what was in front of him. Continuing to keep watch and show how little interest he had in making conversation.
"Sorry to bother you, but I would not do so unless it was urgent." Marcus said, his expression grave.
Miguel sensed that Marcus was not just trying to make small talk and turned around with a sharp glint in his eyes. Waiting for an explanation.
"First, I want to ask you if you heard that howl around an hour ago?"
"Yeah, what of it? Some beast let out a cry in the night. I did not feel any sort of threat from it, and whatever it was never approached the camp and is probably long gone by now." Miguel replied with a dismissive wave of his hand.
He was about to turn around and tell Marcus to stop wasting his time, but stopped when he heard what Marcus had to say.
"The monster that made that howl was a wendigo. It may not have felt like it, but that howl was an attack. It managed to afflict Mrazivy with a status condition called Wendigo Psychosis without her even realizing. I would not have even realized it was a threat if I had not checked my status and noticed I resisted the effect. If you want to confirm that what I am telling you is true, you need only check your own log."
His arms crossed and giving Miguel a forceful stare, Marcus waited for Miguel to comply.
Sighing, Miguel did as Marcus said and opened his status to check if the wendigo's attack had really happened.
When he saw the confirmation in his own status, his relatively relaxed demeanor changed in an instant and Miguel was on full guard immediately.
"Calm down. It is not going to try and finish us off right now. That is not its style. What we need to do first is get everyone on the same page and figure out who all was affected by its howl. I can get rid of the status condition with one of my skills, so if you have it, I need you to tell me." Marcus said, remaining serious but not allowing himself to lose composure.
"Yes, you are right. If this thing acts anything like the stories I heard about back on Earth, it won't make its final move until at least some of us are driven mad." Miguel said as he sheathed his sword. "And you need not worry about me. I resisted the howl as well."
Marcus was a bit surprised to hear that Miguel had not been afflicted with Wendigo Psychosis. Since Mrazivy had failed to resist it, he figured that almost everyone else would have failed as well.
Nevertheless, he had no idea about most of Miguel's abilities and figured it was completely possible that he had a unique skill that protected him.
"Before we gather everyone, l want to compare what we know about wendigos. Our knowledge may not be exactly correct, but it is a good place to start."
Nodding his head, Miguel recounted wat he knew about the horrific monster that made an appearance in all manner of folklore and fiction on Earth.
Most of what he knew was the same information Marcus had, though Miguel's knowledge was mostly from games that he had played rather than the stories Marcus had read.
There was one thing that Miguel knew that Marcus did not though. It had not been an ability that every depiction of wendigos had, but in some of the games he played they had the power to give people nightmares that drove them mad quicker.
"I guess we should ask everyone if they had any bad dreams as well." Marcus said with a contemplative look. "Mraz, what about you? Did you experience any nightmares while asleep?"
"Not that I can remember. I slept fairly peacefully until I felt your alarm when you discovered we were under attack." Mrazivy replied.
Marcus looked relieved to hear this, but they would need to question everyone else before they could figure out if this particular wendigo had the ability to enter people's dreams.
"Let us go to Evette next. She is the most likely to listen to what we have to say and has the most authority of anyone in the expedition squad." Marcus said.
He and Mrazivy then left Miguel who continued his watch and waited for everyone to be assembled.
As they approached where Evette's party had set up camp, Adlamin, who was on watch, approached them with a curious but also warry expression on his face.
However, before he could reach them, Evette came out of her tent. She had sensed Marcus' approach and had come out to meet him.
"Adlamin, you can go back to your post. I am not sure what Marcus and Mrazivy want to discuss, but I will deal with it." Evette said, waving off her party member.
Adlamin looked reluctant to leave Evette alone but acquiesced to her decision.
With the wave of her hand, she invited Marcus and Mrazivy into her tent.
"So, what did you want to speak with me about. I can tell from your expressions that you are not just here for pleasantries."
Letting out a sigh, Marcus explained everything that he had figured out about the wendigo that was attacking them.
As she listened, Evette's demeanor that was normally calm and reserved became clearly distressed.
"I have dealt with a great many monsters and beasts, but I have never heard of this one before. I knew this place was going to be dangerous, but never did I imagine that we would encounter something so insidious."
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