Master Of None

The sudden change to a quiet and unstopped journey made many of the soldiers unhappy. Not that they wanted to fight, but because it felt odd. This wasn’t a normal situation. They had seen so many monsters for the last few hours of travel that the change was too drastic. But that was what they should have all expected as they moved up the mountain and through the area with the fallen and rotting logs.

The steep incline was growing because of the stones and rocks of the mountain becoming more prominent. There was soil washed down in larger mounds here and there. Walker was sure that he would be able to bring some back for Gil’s mother if he really wanted but that would be a whole other task.

’Black mountain soil

The black mountain soil is called black due to the high amount of nutrients that makes it a deep and rich fertilized color. It is considered one of the best soils in all of the Sigil continent. The plants that grow in it regardless of their normal size and growth rate will grow faster and larger. Even delicate plants have a higher chance of surviving when it is used.’

Knowing that Remey would want to excavate the entire mountain because of this, Walker also bit his tongue here. He had to make sure that he was not just here to carry around soil for growing. Yet, when he thought about it again, he stopped and stored a little away. He knew if he slipped and told anyone he would be in a larger world of trouble.

”This is very weird. All of the scouts are saying that the trees are less and less but the monsters are even less. They aren’t even seeing signs of cave crawlers as much any more.” Gil was worried the most now that he was seeing the changes. As a scout he could directly find the monster tracks and evidence that there had been more than just plants here.

”This was what we expected to happen. The trees have a harder time digging in to shallow soil and putting their roots down through stone. So it will change from that to bushes and overgrown grasses for a little while. But the monsters are a problem. It means something is hunting them. Something that eats everything.” Walker knew it was wyverns. That was just the fact of things now. They were here for that reason.

”What kind of plants are up ahead? Why isn’t anyone bringing any possible herbs to me?” Remey was a little annoyed since the low frequency of monsters was an ideal chance to grab the herbs she had never seen. It was more than that though, they could take the time to familiarize themselves with what grew around this area before they worried about baiting wyverns.

”We aren’t just going to go touching herbs here and there. The scouts know that they should wait for all around appraisals. And since the scrolls are limited, they are waiting for Walker.” Gil was sure that this should make a dent in Remey’s attitude. He had underestimated her and felt the punch already hitting his arm.

”We should stop fighting, there are weird plants up ahead. That should make Remey happy, Gil on edge, and Walker can appraise it.” Su seemed to have watched the entire interaction and waited to say this. It was only natural though, she had become like this more and more as they had traveled together. The last line of defense when it came to getting off focus.

”Is it the brown grasses up there?” Walker looked ahead and saw what appeared to be dried brown grass.

”Yes, there are patches of it and in the middle of them are shapes that might be sticks and logs or they might be bones. We can’t see them from here and the scouts don’t want to get closer yet.” Su had spoken with the scouts that went ahead after Gil had become focused elsewhere. Some of the scouts swore that there were bones in the grasses.

’Biting grass

This is a type of monster that splits its body the more food it eats. It is able to use its long thin body to replicate dried grass. When it finds prey that wanders on to it, it will use many tiny mouths to deliver a strong paralyzing poison. It will then slowly eat away at its victim.

It is only able to split its body to move unless someone uproots it or it becomes uprooted accidentally. Natural disasters have been known to bring it to radically different areas. It hates salt water and can not survive near beaches.’

”That is a plant type monster. Not many of us run in to it but they are able to grow enough if there is food. I believe they can even eat the young wyverns which is why there might be some bones mixed in.” Before Walker could explain the all around appraisal, Seran had noticed what the genesis scouts had found. He made his way back to the front to explain it to them. This was the best method of moving forward.

”We have armor and foot protection but that doesn’t mean we can walk right through. It is still safer to avoid the larger patches and cut the smaller to quell the population. It appears they have grown more due to the increase in wyverns and the wyverns chasing monsters from the top of the mountains.” Seran had his points but that didn’t mean that Walker was happy with them. This was the growth of an otherwise weak monster because of the small monsters being forced out of their homes. Now it would also die if left alone. It was a very odd dynamic.

”We can get rid of some of it but is it useful for any materials?” Walker could only hope that the larger portions of biting grass could be used for something other than just as grass. These were technically very small monsters by comparison.

”Not really, they are very small and can not be eaten by anything other than a few insect type monsters. It is best to let them naturally die out over time. Eventually, they will become fertilizer for the mountain. It’s a theory that these are why the mountain is able to stay so good for growing and feeding the forest.” thee small theory was appreciated by everyone who heard it. There was a lot that Genesis soldiers didn’t know about the area, and even this put them more at ease.

”We’ll avoid them as much as possible. Even though it might not look like people are being hurt, they will have damaged armors.” Su made this clear to everyone and then passed it on to the soldiers behind. The dragons and Midnight were more or less ignoring this since they would not be hurt by such small monsters. That didn’t mean that Walker didn’t tell Midnight to avoid them with Onyx.

With the decision made, the marching started again. This time though, it was hard to see over the various bushes. It made everyone instinctively collect together even more. As they had all walked, the groups had become tighter and tighter. This was partially due to the terrain changing but also because of the monster battles.

The genesis soldiers were thinking about the dangers that had been seen so far. Just because the scouts were not able to find anything, did not mean that nothing was around. The wyverns could appear anywhere. Or more cave crawlers. The only benefit was that there were no nighttime monsters out at the moment.

pàпdá-ň?νêι.сóМ ”Stop here. We should rest before we go higher.” Seran made this a hard order. He did not leave anyone to argue it.

”Why would we stop here? We have only climbed for an hour after we got out of the main forest and avoided the biting grass.” Walker felt that it was rude for Seran to just stop everyone.

”Because, from here we will want to send scouts to plan our baiting area. We are entering the mountains. It is not worth pushing in without a plan completely. We won’t even go higher in to the mountains than this normally. It is only to target specific wyverns.” The difference in where the map showed the wyvern territory and where they were was different.

”So the Rize empire has lost a lot of ground here. You keep getting pushed back and aren’t even up to date on this map.” Walker wasn’t antagonizing them. He was stating a fact that he now understood.

”You are correct. Even with our best efforts, we have been failing to hold them wyverns off. If we use the strength of our floating city, then there is the chance we would be invaded by the Fel empire or we would lose the city. Things are not the best when it comes to this.” Seran didn’t hide this. He was more down to earth than the archangels were.

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