Chapter 542 - The Northern Continent I (Patreon)

*Author’s Note: This chapter was originally much longer, but a long scene (1500 words) got cut and moved to bloopers. Basically almost half the chapter. Sorry! You'll be able to read the scene I couldn't QUITE nail properly when the bloopers chapter comes out, and maybe understand why I struggled so much.*

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We blazed out of the scorpion’s territory in a freezing gale. Naked + winter + north pole was a terrible mix, and we landed soon. I used one of my built-in runes to create a metal half-dome around us, then promptly teleported into my [Tower] to get another set of warm clothes and food. Upon leaving, we started a fire, and started to relax.

Twenty minutes later we were chatting and eating when Fenrir snapped over to us, a frozen finger of Ice over his mouth in a silent shhhh. I instantly shut up, both Iona and I going on high alert.

Swiftly and silently, Fenrir coated our entire shelter in a thick layer of ice, little snowflakes flurrying around him as the temperature plummeted. I wanted to shiver, but with supreme self-control, I let the cold in, let it flow around me. I think Fenrir was trying to hide us from a heat-sense as well, but I wasn’t sure. I did know there had to be a reason he was deliberately freezing us all.

Iona and the shrunk-down wyvern silently communicated with each other, a bunch of little head tics and subtle movements transmitting information. She then used some hand signals to tell me what was going on.

Wolf. Large. Over 1000.

Fenrir’s Ice and blizzard in a teacup was muffling quite a lot of the information I normally got, but knowing what to look for helped me zero in on it. I strained my senses, interpreting everything, knowing vaguely what I was looking for.

At first, I had some trouble believing it, but the ground tremors, the snapping of high up branches, and the casual pushing over of trees made it clear.

When Fenrir had said large, he meant shoulder as tall as the pines. The lone wolf was massive.

At ‘only’ a little over a thousand, I thought the three of us could take him. It might be a bit of a fight, but between outnumbering the wolf, our intelligence, and our class quality, it should be more than doable. 

But we’d just gotten our asses handed to us by an oversized bug, and Fenrir had made the call. Maybe there was something he saw, or maybe he was simply being protective when I wasn’t in a good frame of mind. Either way, I wasn’t going to argue.

Plus, there was a certain savage beauty in nature, in a ‘simple’ creature that had climbed so high. It would almost be a tragedy to kill it simply out of preemptive concern for our well-being.

The Northern Continent was almost like a nature preserve. A place barely touched by civilization, ruled by greater creatures. It wasn’t like the wolf was a threat to innocent farmers and civilians. He simply was.

Unlike that bug. 

I think I was developing a nasty grudge against that scorpion. I fully intended to live forever, and maybe, in a few centuries and a thousand levels, I could head on back with the full Eventide Eclipse and get some revenge.

It was hard to figure out how much time was passing when we were all trying to be still, on edge as an apex predator was near.

‘Near’ being a very relative term. It was a few miles away, but with vitality enhancing everyone’s senses, the range skills could be thrown at, and distances easily covered, it was near. Iona could probably make a shot that far, and she used a shortbow!

It eventually moved on, padding silently through its territory. I was a little sad I didn’t get to see it.

“Should we camp here for the night?” Iona suggested. “I don’t think we can travel quite as fast as we planned, and getting some rest after everything might be a good idea.”

“I’m all for it.” I agreed. Fenrir nodded, and we got to work.

The cover and disguise Fenrir had made was good - we were just another block of ice in the tundra. A little unusual, but we were hidden from most creatures that simply used their senses, not their brains. No wolf would sniff us out, no xiaotingia zhengi would see us from the sky, no snake would sense our heat. Iona carved out chunks of soil that I teleported into [Tower], bringing out her armor, food, and other comforts.

This was much easier than traveling in a wagon. Endless semi-fresh goods, although most were questionably squished. It was a shame we couldn’t make a fire, although Fenrir did make us a little air hole. I cast a dozen wards to help us stay hidden and linked them to me, fueling them throughout the night.

We spent the night discussing our travel plans, eventually settling on ‘slow and quiet’ over ‘fast and loud’. Flying high exposed us to everything looking up, and with how many territorial high-level creatures were around, we’d end up going even slower, if something didn’t actually manage to kill us.

I didn’t want to think about how close the scorpion fight had been. 

“I’ll take first watch.” I volunteered, then corrected myself a bit. “Actually, I’ll do all the watches. I’ve got a lot of thinking to do.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. You’ve got the best senses of all of us, and we need you awake and aware tomorrow. You’ve got my full permission and expectation to wake me up once you’re done thinking on things.”

Fenrir butted his nose in.

“No. Me.” He growled. 

I soothed the two of them.

“I’ll wake up one of you.” I promised.

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The next ‘morning’ found me much more at peace with myself and life as Fenrir woke us up, the wyvern having ‘won’ the coinflip to be on watch after me. We packed up and headed out.

Iona led the way, her axe slashing through underbrush on occasion to clear a path. Fenrir had bundles of instincts that helped him interpret territorial smells, and his job was to fly around us like an oversized microraptor. I could smell all the same smells as Fenrir, but didn’t have quite the same ability to interpret what might be leaving the marking quite the same way. 

My job was senses and navigation. The far-reaching ones were more obvious, but even the tundra was so filled with life everywhere, it was occasionally overwhelming trying to keep track of it all. More interesting was the ‘short range’ senses from [The World Around Me] letting me know everything going on nearby.

“Badger den under that tree.” I pointed to an old pine. Iona nodded and used a machete to hack down a nearby bush, clearing our path. “Rabbit warren to your right.”

“Lunch?” Fenrir suggested.

On one hand, unleashing a wyvern on a den of sleeping bunnies wasn’t exactly sporting. On the other, this was nature, the wild. I disliked the law of ‘eat or be eaten’ - so much of civilization naturally rebelled against it - buuuut we were deep in nature, and both Fenrir and the bunnies were in the ‘eat or be eaten’ chain.

“Go.” My wife said. In a flash, Fenrir had discovered the entrance, bolted all the bunnies, then dug them out and gulped them down.

At least it was fast.

At a speed so quick I could hardly make it out, Iona stripped a bush of suspiciously out of season, unidentifiable berries.

“Want some?” She asked around a mouthful of purple berries. I eyed them, walking and talking.

“We have no idea what they are.” None of my botany books I’d skimmed had anything like them. “They could be poisonous.”

The blonde shrugged and popped another mouthful in.

“They are.” She confirmed. “I’m getting three skills about it.” She swallowed and whistled. “[Extreme Poison Resistance]. Now there’s a gem.”

I shook my head in despair.

“How are you still alive?”

She grinned roguishly.

“A cute pocket healer, that’s how. I wouldn’t try this without you around… and honestly, wouldn’t be here without you. All balances out, doesn’t it?”

We were all high level Classers. Even our ‘slow and steady’ was quicker than most mortal [Couriers] going at full sprint, and we devoured land at a steady pace. The terrain started to shift, rapidly getting warmer as we headed south.

It was so weird, going south and warming up.

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“Hold up.” I said. “There’s - RUN!”

I took off sprinting, Iona and Fenrir crashing behind me.

“Huge dinosaur just got thrown through my perception.” I quickly explained, omitting how uncertain I was about the details. Something big was either being thrown, or had the worst [Jumping] skill in existence. A moment later, a far-off crash resounded through the forest we were traveling through. A deep bellow roared behind us, the primal cry of a carnivorous dinosaur who’d had enough.

It was deep and loud enough to make my chest vibrate, and Iona staggered as it hit her. Fenrir instinctively roared back.

Trees flashed before us as we parkoured through the deep woods, using tree trunks as springboards. I landed near an annoyed adder that tried to strike at me, but I was already gone before it could land.

A response to the dinosaur’s challenge roared back, the tone constantly changing as if -

We broke out into a small field, and I twisted my neck. Yes, one of the other fighters was a gigantic silverback gorilla, clad in layers of stone ‘armor’ clearly made by a skill. It was beating on his chest, fangs bared at the aucasaurus.

The aucasaurus opened its mouth, a ball of Radiance briefly forming inside before a [Hyper Beam] shot out at the gorilla, who leapt off to the side. The dinosaur swung its head, the beam carving through the forest and setting fires everywhere it went - including in front of us.

“Go! Go! Go!” Iona shouted, her head down as she pounded over the ground. Fenrir liberally blasted Lightning around the two of us, flying back and forth to keep us safe.

We weren’t the only creatures running for their lives. The forest erupted into life around us. Velociraptors ran next to deer, not bothering to try and take a nibble out of their flank. Squirrels hopped onto the backs of beelzebufos, the oversized frogs hopping away at top speed. A small herd of einiosauruses started to stampede, one of them bodying a tree hard enough that it fell over. Even a treant seemed to be speedrunning its curse, slowly uprooting itself to start waddling away. Iona snapped out her bow, and started shooting other animals in non-lethal spots, aiming for legs and knees. At one point a beelzebufo hopped close to her, and she lashed out with a chop, breaking its spine and leaving it helplessly croaking behind us.

People loved to laugh about ‘I don’t need to outrun the monster, I just need to outrun you’, but it was a lot less funny when it was actually happening.

Most of the creatures fell down as the gorilla pounded the earth, sending rippling shockwaves for miles. Iona and I kept our footing, and I bounded over the back of a saurolophus as it was the fastest path.

“Hey Elaine!” Iona looked like she was having the time of her life, an adrenaline junkie getting the best fix possible. “We should have Fenrir scare more animals and travel like this! We’ll be there in no time!”

Oh Goddesses.

She was hopeless.

I loved her so much.