Chương 32: The Golden Road

Two days after the wrecked wagon, the road widened and turned east. Ivan had expected the inland routes to get worse once they left Aurora's territory. Instead, the stone under his boots improved as they walked, with white markers at each mile and shallow channels carrying rainwater downhill. Somebody had spent a lot of money making this route usable, then kept spending money to maintain it. Ivan passed another ward post and glanced at the small array etched into the stone at its base.

It was simpler than the ones near Greyport, but somebody had maintained it. Mana still flowed cleanly through the lines. Rys noticed him looking.

"Don't look so surprised. It's much less impressive than it looks," she said.

"They only maintain the parts the merchants use."

"Huh, really? What about everybody else?" Rys glanced at the dirt beyond the road.

"They get mud." Now that sounded familiar enough. Ren walked ahead with his bow over one shoulder. Leo's oil had darkened the string, and Ren checked it every morning before they left camp. Ivan had told him that taking care of the bow did not replace learning how to shoot it, but that had not stopped the boy. The oil had come from Leo, so apparently it deserved more attention than Ivan's advice did. Ivan let him keep checking.

The road curved around a low hill, with wind moving through the dry grass and carrying a sound from somewhere ahead. A scream made Ivan stop. Rys had already turned toward it, and Ren's hand went to his bow. Another scream followed, then the sharp crack of a fire spell hitting wood.

"Stay behind us," Ivan told Ren. Ren nodded, but he was already moving toward the rocks on the left side of the road. He had learned enough to look for height when trouble came. Ivan did not like the boy doing it, but the rocks gave him cover and a clear shot. Rys drew both scimitars, and they ran. She still wasn't used to using scimitars, so she ran awkwardly. Smoke rose over the next bend. Ivan reached it first and found three carriages stopped across the road.

The first had a broken harness, and two mana-bred horses kicked against their traces. A spell had torn through the side of the second carriage. One of its guards lay beneath it with blood soaking through his coat. The third carriage had stopped farther back. It was made of black wood, with shuttered windows and iron bands around the wheels. A thin ward shimmered across its doors. Whatever or whoever was inside it seemed important. Five guards were still standing. That was not enough for a caravan this expensive.

Harpies circled above them. Bronze-colored feathers covered their wings, with hooked talons hanging beneath human-like torsos. Their faces looked almost human until they screamed and their mouths stretched too wide. [Bronze-Feathered Harpy – Level 46] A second one banked through the smoke. [Bronze-Feathered Harpy – Level 49] Ivan counted at least seven in the air. A larger harpy perched on a roadside boulder above the caravan. It watched the guards with gold eyes, a crown of feathers rising around its head.

[Bronze-Feathered Harpy Matriarch – Level 64] Five guards could not cover the wounded, the horses, and all three carriages. Whenever one aimed upward, another harpy dropped toward the wounded or the horses. The monsters were not smart in a human way, but they knew how to draw the guards' attention away from their next attack. Their battle instinct was top-notch.

"Rys, that carriage looks expensive, right?" Ivan asked, still staring at the sky and counting as Rys let out a creepy laugh from beside him. She was already looking at the Matriarch.

"I know what you mean… I'll take the big one." Ivan wasn't sure, but he didn't argue.

"Don't bring it down on the carriages." Rys gave him a look.

"I do know how to fight, little boy." Then she vanished into a Phantom Step. Ivan shook his head and pulled mana into his fingers. [Chain Lightning] was the obvious choice here. He had designed it for groups, and the harpies were circling close enough for the spell to jump between them. The spell normally jumped to the nearest mana signature, and there were guards and horses directly beneath the flock. A real Mage could easily control the output, but the scroll version of it wasn't as flexible.

If Ivan released that, one bad turn could send a branch down into the caravan. Thankfully, editing stuff like this was Ivan's favorite job lately. So he kept only three jumps and changed the spell to follow winged mana signatures. Ivan had no time to test whether that condition would hold once the flock scattered, but right now the harpies were the only things in the air. It should keep the lightning away from everyone on the road. A guard shouted as one of the harpies dove at him. Ivan released the spell.

Blue-white lightning struck the diving harpy in the chest, jumped to a second creature banking above it, then caught a third as it tried to pull away. All three fell. One hit the road hard enough to bounce, while another crashed into the dry grass with smoke curling from its feathers as the last of the charge burned through them. The guards stared upward. Ivan did not wait for them to understand. A harpy dropped from the opposite side, talons first.

He quickly traced [Lightning Spear] and sent it through the gap beneath its breastbone. The harpy folded around the spell before slamming into the first carriage. [You have slain Bronze-Feathered Harpy – Level 46] The rest of the flock pulled away from the road. That gave the guards room to move. One of them grabbed the wounded man beneath the second carriage and started dragging him free. That was when a harpy came down behind him, and Ivan saw it too late. Shit.

The guard was on one knee with both hands beneath the injured man's shoulders. He was looking toward the road, not above him. The harpy opened its talons over his back. An arrow snapped through the air. It struck beneath the harpy's jaw and came out through the back of its skull. The creature made a wet choking sound, then crashed beside the guard. Ren stood on the rocks with his bow lowered. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The guard stared at the dead harpy, then looked up at the fox boy, and Ren stared back.

"Haha…" A small System window flashed in front of Ren's eyes. Ivan could not see it, but the boy's ears rose and his face went blank.

"I leveled up!" Ren called. Ivan was honestly shocked, but the situation was too dire.

"Good job. Keep watching the sky!" Ren lifted his bow again. Rys hit the Matriarch as it launched from the boulder, meeting it halfway down the slope and opening a line across its wing. The creature shrieked before swinging a claw at her face. Rys turned with the blow. The claw passed through the afterimage she left behind. She appeared above the harpy's shoulder and drove both blades down. The Matriarch twisted in the air. One blade caught between its feathered armor plates.

The other cut into its neck, but the creature was strong enough to keep flying. For a moment, Ivan had a clear shot. He started tracing [Lightning Spear], then stopped as the Matriarch turned again. Rys was too close. He could widen the spear enough to hit the creature, but then he might hit her too. Rys kicked off the harpy's back and dropped. The Matriarch followed her toward the road, and when Ivan saw the broken harness below them, he finally understood. Rys wanted the creature tangled on the ground.

Rys landed on the road. When the Matriarch came down after her with both claws extended, she stepped aside. The harpy crashed into the broken harness of the first carriage, tangling its talons in leather and enchanted metal. It tore one strap free, but that took too long. Rys cut its throat. There was a moment of silence. Then, with their matriarch dead, the remaining harpies screamed and fled toward the hills. Ivan watched until their signatures disappeared from [Mana Sense], then looked over the road.

Somehow, the whole fight had taken less than a minute. Three dead harpies lay near the carriages. Rys had killed the Matriarch and somehow at least one more somewhere behind the smoke. The guards had brought down another two before Ivan arrived. The wounded guard Ren had saved was sitting up. He held one hand against his side while another guard wrapped a bandage around him. Ren climbed down from the rocks, and Ivan met him beside the road.

"That was a hard shot," Ivan said. Ren looked toward the wounded guard.

"Yeah, a little risky. Sorry..."

"Don't apologize. You did well." Ren kept waiting, so Ivan said the part the boy was waiting to hear.

"You held your elbow better this time." The boy's face brightened.

"But you released a little early." Ren frowned.

"Hey! I still hit it."

"Okay buddy," he ruffled the boy's hair. Rys walked over with blood on one sleeve and the Matriarch's feathered crown tucked beneath her arm. When she also praised his work, Ren stood a little straighter. While the three of them were celebrating the quick victory, a woman approached from beside the second carriage. Ivan looked at her. She was middle-aged, with a round face, broad shoulders, and dark hair tied beneath a plain blue scarf.

Her coat had been expensive once, although road dust covered its sleeves and one cuff had torn open. A short knife hung at her hip, but she kept both hands away from it. She looked toward the hills before facing them.

"Thank you guys for saving our lives… I'm Mirbek. I manage this caravan." Ivan reached out a hand, "Ivan. That's Rys, and this is Ren." Mirbek took the hand, shook it, and looked at Ren.

"Was that your arrow?" Ren nodded once. The wounded guard behind her laughed, then winced and pressed a hand to his side.

"It was," he said.

"The boy saved my life."

"Indeed he did. To be so skilled with the bow at such a young age, he's a prodigy for sure," Mirbek said, smiling at Ren. The boy smiled before clearing his throat, standing straighter and thanking her. That made the woman smile softly, even as she looked so tired that she might fall down. The injured guard walked close to the woman and whispered something. Rys' ears twitched, she could clearly hear what he was saying. Mirbek's lips thinned. She hesitated before she looked back at Ivan.

"Forgive me for intruding but… are you traveling guys to Asterion?" Ivan exchanged glances with Rys. He let her answer, "That's the plan."

"Then I'd like to pay you to travel with us." Ivan looked over the carriages again. The first two had painted panels with gold leaf fading around the edges. The horses wore reinforced harnesses, with small endurance charms fixed to their collars. The third carriage had no decoration, but its black wood looked stronger than the other two put together. Plus, damn those wards were strong. The guards wore road leathers over long embroidered coats. Several had the same dark eyes and high cheekbones as Mirbek.

Now that he looked again, they didn't quite look like locals. Well that wasn't surprising. After the Integrations, many communities left their homeland in search of safer places. These people had central asian features. Ivan could not tell whether they were related or simply came from the same community, but they moved around one another like people who had worked together for years.

"I see that you don't have enough guards," Ivan said.

"... We did five days ago." Mirbek glanced at the patched side of the second carriage.

"It has not been our best week… Initially, we lost six people in another monster attack. Two guards were carried off while the others were hurt badly enough that I had to send them back toward Greyport with a healer. My conscience wouldn't allow me to let them die…"

"Harpies?"

"No. Wolves." Her mouth tightened.

"Incredibly big wolves. They came up behind us and pushed us toward the trees." Rys looked at Ivan. That sounded a bit too organized for wolves.

"We're bringing goods to Asterion," Mirbek continued.

"We also have passengers who paid us to get them there safely. We can't turn back now. It's farther to Greyport, and they can't afford the delay." Her eyes flicked toward the third carriage before returning to Ivan. Nobody else looked at it.

"Well. How much is the pay?" Rys asked. Mirbek named a number that made Ivan pause. It was enough for decent lodging in Asterion, plus food and supplies afterward. Ivan had lived on basement scribe wages for too long to waste time considering it.

"Half now?" he asked. Her face brightened.

"Half tonight. The rest when all three carriages reach Asterion." Rys looked at him and waited. She could have answered for both of them, especially after hearing the price, but she left the decision with him. Ivan thought for a bit. They were already going in the same direction. The caravan had warded carriages, horses, and guards who knew the road. Traveling with them meant more witnesses, which would make Ivan's fake Level cover harder to maintain.

On the other hand, fewer people would question why a foxkin woman and her nephew were traveling with a hooded human if they were all part of a caravan. But someone had hit this caravan twice in one week, and two days ago Ivan's group had found a wrecked wagon on the same road. Walking alone would make them harder to notice, but if something found them, nobody would know where to start looking.

"We'll take it," Ivan said. Mirbek heaved out a relieved sigh.

"That is great to hear. Please eat with us tonight. After the last five days, my people could use another pair of eyes on watch." The guards started getting the caravan ready to move. Two checked the horses while another pair gathered the dead harpies by their wings. Ivan crouched beside the nearest corpse and worked a knife between its ribs until he found the mana core. The core came free warm and slick.

"Lucky day," Ivan muttered to himself. This was one unique thing about Harpies. Unlike other creatures, whose mana core just evaporated after death, some Harpies had condensed mana cores. He hadn't studied the reason behind it. All he cared about was that he could maybe use this to make something. He wiped it on the grass. As he stood, something faint brushed against [Mana Sense] beneath the stronger stink of blood and burned feathers. He frowned and looked ahead. Mana residue clung to the rocks above the road.

Ivan climbed the slope while the caravan prepared to move. He kept [Mana Sense] low and followed the fading traces between the stones. [Architecture of Mana] made their shape clearer. Someone had scattered the magic from the rocks. It spread through the air, and when a beast breathed it in, the spell tugged at its hunger and pulled it toward the source. Ivan had seen that pattern before, back when he poured the same kind of lure over Rys's clothes before the Wyvern hunt. Beast lure.

The harpies had not found this caravan by accident. The wolves from the first attack probably had not either. Someone had marked them. Ivan looked down at the road. Mirbek stood beside the first carriage, wiping sweat from her forehead as she spoke to a guard while Rys helped Ren tighten his bowstring. The third carriage waited behind them with its shutters closed. Its ward shimmered once in the late sunlight. One or more people were inside that and.... They hadn't bothered to come out during the crisis.

And nobody had introduced Ivan's group, the savior of this situation, to those inside. Ivan also hadn't seen a single member of the caravan look toward it while they talked. Now, it could be that they were simply carrying items in that, but Mirbek had slipped earlier. She'd mentioned passengers. For now, Ivan wanted to know who was inside before he told anyone what he had found. He put the harpy core into his Inventory and walked back down the slope without mentioning the lure.