—- Gauntlet of Silora —-
[gained physique : 190]
[gained mana : 190]
[gained defense : 190]
The satchel charge sticks to the tree.
Hikari backs off.
Her sword drawn behind her.
The satchel charge activates.
A torrent of RazenHeir flame bursts out of the casing.
The tree burns.
Its bark does not crackle.
It just simply disintegrates.
Hikari was half expecting an Ent to emerge from the ground.
She encountered three so far.
Nothing.
Just an empty tree.
Its bright glowing fruits disappear along with it.
"Three more."
Hikari feels lighter now.
The satchel charges were each carried by a man when a normal raid party attempts to destroy them.
Carrying several of them does make the long trek tiring even for her.
She checks the area.
More farmland.
Nothing but wandering wraiths of farmers going about their daily routine.
None of them had attacked her yet.
Her gauntlet dispels them as she walks past, making them drop a tiny crystal that was hardly worth her energy to gather.
She approached a building.
It looked like a barracks much like the ones around the RazenHeir estate.
The structure was mostly intact.
Its windows and doors had long been torn down by the looters.
A slight surge in mist energy.
Soldiers appeared.
Wraiths.
Hikari stops, keeping her eyes peeled.
But they ignored her.
Voices.
She could hear them.
The sergeant called his men to attention.
They assembled up in straight rows in the courtyard.
Training fatigues with their dummy swords.
They began their drilling session.
Basic swings and sword thrusts.
Good form.
Hikari could hear their shouts as they swung their dummy swords.
The mist swirls.
One by one, the wraith soldiers disappear.
The remaining ones continued drilling.
The drill sergeant did not bat an eye.
The last soldier vanishes into thin air together with the sergeant.
It was silent.
Hikari kept quiet.
She kept marching.
She could see the next tree.
It was in a town covered in the tree's bramble.
"I might be able to do this one."
Her senses tingled.
She sensed a tiny presence from inside the barracks.
She kneels and looks inside.
Another corpse. A tiny Eon crystals in his hand.
She pulls it to her and absorbs it.
Another message.
The old city hasn't been cleared in decades.
The last raid on record was by the combined force of the RazenHeir, Rotbenmore and Windranger houses.
But it's not like they went about clearing all of the bramble.
They just clear a straight path, blow up some of the trees to prevent the bramble from regrowing for the moment before sneaking into the ghoul hive in the city and blowing that up.
Well, there is no more ghoul hive anymore.
Not that we have the man power or gunpowder to take it down.
We're ordered to clear through the bramble nonetheless.
Luckily our flames are very good against it.
Some of the lads tried to hack it with a pickaxe but it just heals itself.
But if we set it alight with the aether burn, it'll burn its mana.
And when its bark is burnt, it will transfer more mana to heal it which gets burnt.
And so the aether flame keeps spreading.
Pretty neat isn't it.
Once it's mana is gone, the whole thing disintegrates.
Oh, and don't just try to blast it, It'll just burn through the bark too quickly.
Drop a little bit of flames everywhere and the whole thing will disappear like magic.
Even us grunts with a bit of enchanted musket balls from the priests could do it.
Managed to convince them to give us a lot of smaller scrolls.
The rare time where they actually listen to us is if we ask for less.
I hope they find a big crystal somewhere behind the bramble because I'm actually not particularly pleased with getting pricked through my rugged leather armour all the time.
Long live Eon.
"They're looking for something?"
[Blessing of Eon : 104 (+3)]
She feels the sting of the crystal.
It appeared to be from a higher rank cultist.
She turns her attention back to the small town.
"Flame of Eon?"
She holds up her hand and focuses.
The flare of aether fire.
She hurled the ball towards the bramble.
The ball of aether fire drills through the fragile bramble before it runs out of mana.
Around the impact spot, vines disappeared even though they were not in the path of the flames.
"I have to get closer."
That was the smallest amount she could muster for the projectile to carry the distance.
But the method works.
She stands right at the edge of the bramble and holds up her hand.
A dispersed blast of aether flame blanketed the branch.
The thorns in a wide area disperses.
The path to the tree was clear.
"Nice."
It cost her very little mana to cast.
The back burn was acceptable.
She tossed the satchel charge and detonated it.
The tree disintegrates.
The bramble around the town cleared.
She takes a look around.
A small trading town. Less than a dozen buildings.
A treasury whose iron gate has been blown to bits at least twice.
Its coffer deeper underground has most certainly been looted down to the last spider web.
An open space pub.
Its shelves are empty.
The taps on the ale barrels had been removed though the giant barrels themselves were intact.
Not even the cups and pans were spared.
"Looted clean."
She pulses the ground.
She senses something.
She pulses again to make sure.
An object buried below the ground.
She draws her sword and digs it out.
A raider stash.
A sword, musket and cases of its ammo wrapped in a leather cloth.
Well crafted though nothing too fancy that wouldn't be found in the merchant stores on the streets of Moradale or Escher.
It looked like it could fetch a few silvers.
There was a scrap of paper amongst them.
No invisible ink or runic language.
Just coarsely written common tongue.
To the lucky bastard that found my stash, please out of the goodness of your heart return it to my humble apartment in Moradale at address …. I never thought you'd find it but congratulations… you burnt down the entire town worth of bramble just to pinch my humble stash. I hope it was worth it.
"It was."
She slots it into one of her empty dagger slots.
The design looked like they were from several trends ago.
She'll bet a cauldron of stew that the gunpowder no longer works.
But the musket could still sell as a bit of refurbishing by the estate workshop would allow it to be issued to a knight.
She looks around.
Another tingle of mana.
Another corpse with an Eon crystal in his hand.
She absorbs it.
That's the fourth crate now.
The boss says that's the last one.
Spent a whole two days clearing out the bramble so we could set up camp.
For what purpose, they wouldn't tell me.
Hope they send some actual chows or I won't be able to fight a ghoul.
I'll just hide in the cellar then.
The ghouls aren't very bright.
They are even dimmer than me.
Where was I?
Oh the crates.
Heavy as the tentacles of Eon.
Locked tighter than the iron chambers they put me in on my first day.
Oh well, don't need to know anyways.
Probably nothing good.
Hope I get to see the view from the city above up the elevator shaft before I bite the dust.
Hikari looked around.
She notices the empty crates leaning against a building.
Steel crates with rune crafted onto them.
Nothing else stands out about them.
Her stomach grumbles.
She carries on.
"Two more to go."