Chapter 159

After Nick finished rebuilding the bridge, they resumed their trek toward the first temple.He wondered if they should send word of the bandits back to Floria, but there was no way he could do that without leaving. While he had gotten over his battle-induced anger, he didn’t feel comfortable abandoning the girls so soon after their lives had been in danger.

In the end, they had agreed that the complete annihilation of the bandits probably meant the road would be safe, at least for a while.

That was if these mysterious agents were truly why he urged Nick to leave.

“It’s starting to get late. We should probably set up camp before night falls,” Rhea said, distracting Nick from his spiraling thoughts.

He looked up, taking note of the low position of the sun, and hummed. “We could probably get another half hour in before we need to stop, but this is as good a position as any, and I don’t sense any monster waiting to attack us.”

They both looked at Elia. This was her trial, after all. If she wanted to keep going, they would. They could summon plenty of fires and keep walking through the night if necessary, though he didn’t think that was necessary.

Elia looked around, taking in the area. They were near the top of a hill covered in short grass and close to the river, which offered crystalline waters. “If you cannot sense any monster, we should stay here. Today’s already been pretty eventful. We should be able to get most of the way there tomorrow.”

That decided, Nick set down his pack and placed his owl totem beside it.

Rhea noticed immediately, “What is that? I can feel some mana from it, but I can’t tell what it is.”

“It’s a spirit guardian,” Elia replied before Nick could. He raised an eyebrow, impressed.

She smiled embarrassedly but walked closer and peered at the ivory owl. “Looks like a pretty powerful one, too. I’ve been able to sense this kind of thing since getting my second tail, so I noticed immediately, but I didn’t know its purpose. Is it going to watch over us while we sleep?”

Nick nodded, taking out his bedroll and cooking equipment. “Yes, it will notice even things that escape my notice, and it will hold back anything long enough for us to wake up. I’ll still keep my sensory spell going, of course, but this way, we’ll be able to get some sleep.” Then, seeing their curious looks, he shrugged. “I got it from my mom. She had it with her during her adventuring days, and she swears by it.”

That satisfied them, and they looked at the little owl with more respect. Of course, Elena had used it as a good-luck charm and not to house a False Angel. She certainly hadn’t broken the spirit down and used its components to craft a watchful guardian. However, Nick didn’t feel the need to explain further, and fortunately, they didn’t ask.

Dinner that night turned out to be quite tasty, mostly due to Rhea’s efforts to prepare the edible monsters they had encountered. She had left behind the moles, but any bird that tried its luck ended up in their stew, and while the flavors were a bit gamey, she had brought vials of spices that made the dish quite decent.

There had even been a humorous scene in which she looked at their spartan bedrolls with disdain, before unveiling her own, a much more luxurious duck-feather one, which was apparently spelled for comfort and warmth.

Given the looks Elia was giving it, Nick gave it half an hour before Rhea had to scoot over and make some space.

Patting his stomach after eating his fill, he looked up at the starry sky. The sun had finally set, and the sounds of the night filtered through. There still wasn’t anything within his range beyond insects and harmless critters, but that didn’t mean Nick didn’t expect something to come sniffing. The light of the fire alone would attract monsters, if the smell didn’t do it first.

He could have dispersed it, of course, but he didn’t. He wouldn’t mind having a new test subject.

“I almost never saw the stars while in the dungeon,” he said, leaning back. This world had different constellations, and he’d done his best to learn them all. Unfortunately, the temple records only included the most common and useful ones, but at least Nick wouldn’t be lost if he ended up on a ship at sea. “It’s very pretty.”

“It’s hard to see them in a city, but here, you just need to look up to see a different world,” Rhea commented, smiling.

A hazy band of light stretches across the night sky, formed by billions of stars. Unlike the Milky Way, this was more colorful, featuring dense areas of purple, yellow, orange, and even green. Nick had never heard of green stars, so it might just have been a massive nebula. It was either very close or the largest single formation he’d ever heard of.

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“Heaven’s Path. It’s believed that the gods dwell there,” Elia whispered, her wide eyes mirroring the colors of the night.

Nick wanted to scoff and say that wasn’t how stars worked, but he stopped himself. Was it possible that the gods of this universe— who were evidently still very active and alive— had taken residence among the stars? It wasn’t as if distance would be a problem for them.

“Nah, it’s the Great Foundry! It’s where fires hotter than any forge burn and produce matter for the entire universe,” Rhea rejected, shaking her head. “Everyone knows that!”

Blinking, Nick found himself in the middle of an astronomical and theological debate he knew little about. It was interesting to hear how disparate the beliefs were, even just across Berea. And though Rhea wasn’t exactly correct, she had come remarkably close to what he remembered from his past life.

“Well, what do you think?” Rhea demanded, snapping him out of his thoughts.

“Ah, I wasn’t listening,” Nick deadpanned, earning groans from the girls that soon turned to dark chuckles as they rounded on him.

Nick had been sure that sleep wouldn’t come easily after the brutal battle with the bandits, but he drifted off fairly easily. With the owl totem watching over the camp, he felt safe enough to do so; however, even then, he kept his senses alert for anything that might try its luck.

That proved to be the right move, as a lumbering figure entered his range, waking him up. Nick blinked, yawning.

Sharpening his focus, he gathered as much information as possible. The thing that had woken him was evidently a troll, with its massive size and stone club, but contrary to what he had seen of the species so far, this one seemed capable of keeping a low profile.

It made almost no noise as it moved, barely disturbing the grass. Even from half a mile away, its eyes were unerringly focused on the camp, and now that Nick was concentrating, he noticed that its presence was subdued.

He could still find it, as any air displacement immediately became known to him, but if he had to rely on mana alone, he would have been in trouble.

Assessment completed, he silently rolled up. The owl figurine’s eyes glowed softly, indicating that the spirit within had also noticed their would-be hunter and that it was ready to emerge if it got any closer.

For a moment, Nick was tempted to let it handle the matter. He did want to see what the totem could do, and now that he was awake, he could follow the fight and intervene if it seemed like the troll might win.

But looking at the sleeping girls, he decided against it. They had already witnessed a rather brutal fight the previous day, and there was something he wanted to try.

There hadn't been many occasions to use the skill lately. It could have ended the fight against the bandits even faster, but it was quite a gnarly ability, and he had tried to keep his public skills to the magic that a regular, albeit very talented, mage should know.

A whisper of wind was all he needed. Nick flew out of the camp, trusting the owl to protect the girls in case a second attack came, and crossed a hundred feet in the blink of an eye.

His boots barely touched the ground, and he jumped again. So light was his touch that no blade of grass was disturbed, and with a few more bounds, he was able to reach his target unnoticed, mostly thanks to the he had cast around himself to keep any smell from alerting it.

Trolls, it turned out, could smell prey from miles away, even better than hunting dogs. They were truly creatures designed for killing. This particular specimen was much sleeker than its kin, with flinty, intelligent eyes and sharp teeth.

Extending his hand, Nick called upon the gaping chasm he associated with , and it activated without delay.

The troll stumbled, immediately noticing something was wrong. However, unlike the fae Nick had used it against, it didn’t fall right away. Instead, it stopped and looked around with barely a grimace.

Rather than the outpouring of power he’d expected, Nick found himself receiving only a trickle. It was still enough to cause damage, but it was clear the skill wasn’t operating at full strength.

The fact that any beast could possibly resist all mana without active spells was still hard for him to wrap his head around, but he was faced with a reality, and Nick couldn’t do anything but accept it with grace.

It was a fascinating ability, and one day, he would study it. Not now, of course, because setting up a ritual to affect a monster that could resist it was bound to end in failure, at least until he knew more about how its resistance worked.

Fortunately, he had a way of dealing with it that he had been itching to try.

He maintained his skill, but at the same time, Nick drew out his dagger. Enchanted with the remnants of a once-powerful beast, he could sense that significant potential was hidden within it, but he also had no idea what it could do apart from being stronger than regular steel.

A began to form around the dagger as he tried to substitute it with its core to empower its flight, but the spell quickly fell apart. Realizing that such a modification might take him more time than he had and that it was a bit too ambitious to attempt on the fly, Nick resorted to his plan B and lifted the dagger with telekinesis.

He then lined it up with the troll, which was beginning to growl as it had yet to discover who was slowly damaging it, and used it as an anchor for .

Since it was a much simpler spell of the kinetic variety, it adapted easily to the modification, leaving Nick with a vibrating dagger in the air.

With a flick of his fingers, it shot forward, crossing the distance in an instant and burying itself in the troll’s chest, sending it staggering back several steps.

For a typical beast, having its heart pierced would probably be the end of the fight, but since this was a troll, Nick didn’t believe for a moment that it was over.

Indeed, the monster regained its equilibrium and released a roar of anger and pain, just moments after Nick had finished crafting a wide sphere of wind that would soften any sound from their battle.

That done, he redoubled his efforts with and was rewarded when the trickle of power turned into a stream. The troll, on the other hand, grabbed the dagger and attempted to pull it out, but instead of releasing it, a pulse of dark power exploded from it, sending the monster rolling back, howling in pain.

Not having moved an inch from his position, Nick directed the power he was receiving from into another and released it directly where the dagger was sticking out of it.

This time, the spell was enough to send it plunging completely into its chest, with just a third of the hilt still showing.

Nick noted that the power he was receiving didn’t increase again, despite the larger wound. However, it quickly became clear why this was the case, as the troll began howling in pain, desperately trying to pull the dagger out while it kept pulsing with dark power.

Its struggles continued for a while, and Nick had the feeling that if he hadn’t been draining it himself, it might have gathered enough strength to rip the dagger out, but he was, and so it couldn’t.

Eventually, one final pulse escaped the dagger, and the troll fell silent.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have participated in the defeat of

“Participated? Well, this is interesting,” Nick murmured as he stepped closer.