NOVEL NEXT Chapter 297 - Shelter
They traveled in three single file lines.
The rain had deigned itself to give them a little respite, and people were in high spirits as they headed further into the jungle.
Their gathering and harvesting had thus far been bountiful, and their gains explosive, as promised, and the previous two weeks felt like a tutorial of sorts that had been surpassed. Sure, there were issues and headaches in mixing aethermancers and auramancers together whose scope was still yet to fully reveal itself, but they had managed to pull through thus far, and their expanded numbers had meant a significant increase to their harvest, gathering and even token collecting efforts.
They now stood at a much more respectable 893/52,000, and while it wasn't a lot by any means, especially not with their salivating hopes for rare rewards, in truth they hadn't begun taking on the hardest fights of the Jungle Tops yet, the dens with their large numbers of uncommon lead by a boss, or multiple, that ranked from upper-uncommon to rare. But that was soon to change, as Sej was starting to show signs of cracking before Kur's and Leon's begging…
"I-I think I heard it!" Jul whispered in excitement.
Nar glanced over to the line to his left. Jul, Sej and Medis walked one after the other, and the guide and the leonar were continuing her senses and scouting instruction. Medis had proven herself incredibly adept with her senses, which was ridiculously boosted by several passive skills in her hunter's class, though while Sej's had a heavy emphasis on tracking, Medis' class had much greater emphasis on stealth and stalking prey.
"It's like a dat-dat-dat, pause, daaaat-daaaat-dat," Jul said, pressing her hair down and away from her antennae.
"That's it!" Sej said. "You got it!"
"Good job," Medis said, pride evident in her usual low and husky tone.
"It's still very tiring though," Jul mumbled. "Filtering out all the sounds like this."
"It will get easier with practice and more sense attributes," Sej said, patting her back. "So just keep at it."
"Okay!"
Nar smiled at the determined tone in the quam's voice. Jul had come a long, long way from the shy, closed off non-combat scout he had met at the cubeplant, and the more she progressed, the more his heart swelled with joy and pride for the one who had effectively become his little sister. The fact that she was older than him be damned.
He focused on his [Hearing], following along as Sej instructed Jul on what to sense for next. As Jul had said, it was incredibly hard to filter through all of that jungle noise and life.
The centipede clicking on its way up a giant tree to his left… The blue-beaked threor singing about fifty-feet to his left, and hidden high up the canopy… And a thousand, thousand other creatures all going about their own lives and daily business around him.
He could distinguish individual sounds fairly well enough up to a radius of about 100-feet around him by now, but anything beyond that became increasingly difficult to distinguish from the general rhythm of the jungle.
But the hardest lesson to take in was to learn to listen for what was not there. The discreet silence that followed a predator's stalk through the jungle, or the absence of rain sounds where one lay in wait, or even the whisper of leaves brushing against leaves as a beast crept past…
He shook his head and gave up locating the distant lokara that Jul was being instructed to detected.
What's even a lokara? Was that the monkey that blended in with its surroundings? He wondered idly. The beast was supposedly hair splittingly difficult to locate without the proper senses and, or skills, so he had nothing but an insane amount of respect for Medis and Sej's scouting talents. As well as for Jul and Jaz, who were making admirable progress and, as expected, quickly leaving Nar and Rel behind.
I guess after those cannibals and the Yearning, Rel really left the scouting role behind her, he thought, eyeing the archer who pushed through the vegetation up in front of him. Not that her class leans that way, anyways.
A soft beeping came from further ahead, and he looked forward to find Sarke holding up her weather predicting device. It was something the guide did every couple of hours or so, and unfortunately, ninety-seven percent of the time, the prediction was just of more and more heavy rain.
The beeping grew insistent however, and it drew curious looks from everyone.
"That doesn't sound good," Sej said.
"It's not. We have a storm coming. It'll be here in one hour," Sarke announced, frowning at the display on the device. "And it's a big one too."
"Is it one of those big storms that's described on our prep material?" Row asked.
"Is it?" Jaz asked, stunned. "I don't hear anything?"
"It is," Sarke confirmed. "They form quickly."
"Then we'll need to find shelter," the red-haired party leader said. "Whole trees can topple in those storms."
"Damn. It had to be today too," Tuk said.
"Of course, it had to," Mul muttered.
Right when we're caught in between camping spots, Nar thought, growing upwards at the canopy, though, of course, he couldn't see even a hint of that incoming bad weather. Crystal, how strong is this storm that it can topple these trees?
"Should we find somewhere quickly to set up camp?" Kur asked the guides. "At least the outside tent?"
Sarke glanced at Sej, but the blue skinned guide remained mute, a sly smile dancing on her lips.
Guess we need to figure this one out ourselves, Nar realized.
"Hmm. I might have an idea," Medis purred. "But Jul or Jaz need to find it first."
"What? Are you making us work for it?" Jaz asked, stunned. "There's a deadly storm coming!"
"There's always something deadly coming," Medis said, refusing to budge. "So less whining and more [Hearing]."
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Jaz grumbled under his breath, but he cupped his ears and closed his eyes, with Jul also focusing. Rel glanced back at him, smiling with a challenge, and the two of them also joined in on the efforts while the rest of the domain party went silent.
Nar expanded his consciousness outwards, pulling on his [Hearing] as he closed his eyes. The animals, insects and beasts of the jungle seemed to have detected the encroaching inclement weather, and the jungle was growing quieter around them.
"Look for anything out of place," Medis whispered. "Ignore anything that you know should be there."
That should be there? Nar thought, frowning.
That usually meant leaves swaying, birds singing and insects chittering… That sort of thing. But what wasn't there that should be?
"Oh… I think I got something," Jul said, predictably the first. "It's raindrops… But different. There's an echo?"
"Oh, I hear that too," Jaz said.
"And what could that mean?" Medis asked, beaming at her students.
"A… Cave?" Jaz asked, frowning.
"There shouldn't be any around here, though. Right?" Rel asked, as she brought out her map to consult it.
Nar opened his eyes, giving up and offered Rel a shrug of a surrender, which she mimicked with an easy smile. Whatever Jaz, Jul and Medis were listening to, it was beyond the reach of their [Hearing]. Instead, he listened to the experts discussing their options.
"There are no caves nearby. Not for another three miles," Kur said, rubbing his chin, as he leaned in to check Row's map.
"Then something else…" Jul said. "But whatever it is, it's covered, and big enough for all of us to take shelter under it, so maybe it's worth a shot?"
Medis slapped her back. "Say it with more confidence."
"I-I think it's worth a shot… I mean, I suggest we checked it out! It's only about half an hour away!" Jul said quickly, before Medis could attack her again.
"Agreed?" Kur asked, looking between Row, Leon and Calli. He got nods from the three of them, so he himself nodded at Jul. "Alright. Lead the way."
**********
"It looks clear," Nar said through the party chat.
Almost half an hour later, they had stumbled upon a sudden large clearing in the jungle, made by two giant collapsed trees.
"My Crystal! It's the sky!" Mul had gasped, looking up with reverence and joy in his eyes.
Nar too, had grinned stupidly at the black, heavy clouds gathered in the sky above them, filtering around the enormous glowing mushrooms that gave the Jungle Tops its general greenish look. Storm or not, it was a relief to be even remotely out of that dense jungle, and it was a blessing to inhale that slightly cooler and lighter air, and to feel a gentle breeze brushing his features.
Mach had dropped to his knees, cackling madly, and with his arms stretched wide above him to fully take in the breeze, he had plunged straight into prayer. Or into absorbing air aspected aether… There really wasn't a way to tell, and the DPS seemed pretty much out of it from then onwards.
Examining the clearing revealed that the collapsed tree roots had ruptured from the ground as the trees came down, and in between them, the black, gnarly roots had slammed together to form a makeshift cave. It was from there that the echoing sound of water drops was coming from.
Nar and Eum had then sneaked over to check on the cave, and to their relief, they had found it empty.
"Nice. Everyone, let's go in then," Kur said. "The storm's coming any minute now!"
Nar and Eum stood guard around the cave's entrance while the others rushed in, but the last of them, Mach, dropped to his knees again, this time in the center of the clearing, and raised his hands to the air, intoning some kind of chant about some great, feathered wind serpent, which Nar recognized as the god Xu'Yot.
The Great Winged Serpent, God of air, wind and storm, Nar recalled from Kur's pass down lectures. And Xu'Yotlan is the name of the Great House associated with it as well as one of the months of the year. Actually, that egg he wants to bond with, it's a wind serpent too, isn't it? I wonder how big those things are.
"Leave him be, "Eum told Nar. "He's going to absorb as much aether as he can. Plus, he literally lives for this kind of weather."
"Will he be okay, though?" Nar asked, scanning the jungle around them, and then the rumbling clouds above them. They looked ready to explode at any moment.
Eum chuckled. "Once the storm hits, he's going to be like a focus for storm aether. Anything trying to get him is going to be shredded to smoking bits."
"Right. Well, if you say so…"
"I do, so don't worry," Eum said, patting his shoulder. "Go on in, I'll keep an eye on him from here."
Nar allowed himself to be pushed downwards into the cave, and the air grew quickly cooler, a soft, calming, and floral touch reaching to kiss his nose.
"Oh, wow…" he breathed, and inhaled deeply.
A low ceiling of glowing, soft silver welcomed him into a surprisingly cozy burrow. The raindrops they had heard from afar came from slow trickles of rainwater falling down from the silver plants that covered the ceiling and most of the walls of the cave, and into a pond of placid silver reflecting waters that covered two thirds of the cave.
"Well, isn't this a find," Sej said, looking around with a half-smile of genuine surprise.
"These are jungle's mercy, aren't they?" Row asked, her awed expression glowing silver as she stared upwards.
"They are. And metal aspected too from the looks of it," Sarke said. "Cobalt."
"And there's fish in the water!" Jaz shouted.
Nar unglued his eyes from the silver ceiling and spotted Jaz, Tuk, Mul, Viy and Lim gathered by the water's edge, pointing excitedly as they spotted more and more silver fish glowing within the still waters.
"They'll be cobalt aspected too, then," Sarke said, and a rare full smile touched her lips.
"Well, kids. Looks like this storm has just yielded us a small fortune," Sej said, grinning from ear to ear.
"Did you know about this place?" Row asked the guide.
Sej shook her head.
"Things like these are random and variable. I had a feeling it would be a cave like this, but it could've been smaller, empty, filled with poisonous gas, or beasts, or anything else, really. For this kind of stuff, you never know what you'll find until you actually get there and check it out. But this?" she shook her head. "This is a damned lucky find! We shouldn't leave here until we've harvested every single plant and fish in this cave! Even taking several bottles of that metal aspected water is going to earn us a tidy sum. Ah! Cobalt and jungle's mercy? Helenorea be praised!"
"Jungle's mercy," Era said, staring up at the glowing plants. "Not only it keeps bugs and beasts away, it also cures a lot of poisons too, as well as many other ailments. And it is on your lists. Though maybe you'll get a bonus due to its higher quality?"
"Doubted," Leta said, sighing. "Those people are stingy as fuck."
The jungle's mercy reached down from the cave ceiling in strands of soft, delicate looking and small, round silver leaves. At the end of each strand, two or three brighter white-silver and tiny, but perfectly shaped flowers glowed, almost like tiny pearls.
"This was a very lucky find," Calli said, her mouth slightly ajar as she looked up.
"You can say that again. In these quantities, it should be enough to fill up both our lists and still have some left," Kur said, rubbing his chin. "But for something like this, wouldn't it be a bit of a waste to use for our requirements? Like Leta said, I doubt they would reward us for it, so maybe we should look for the common variety for that."
"I think so too," Row whispered. "No point in wasting something precious like this… All that XP will do us a lot of good!"
"Anyways, let's set up camp first," Kur said, clapping his hands to get everyone's attention away from the wondrous, silver sight. "Since it looks like we'll be staying here for a couple of days while the storm rages, we might as well make ourselves comfortable. And since this is jungle's mercy, I don't think we need to worry too much about bugs or beasts coming in here…"
The last one was voiced somewhat like a question, a request for confirmation, and it was aimed at the two guides. Sarke remained silent, but Sej, after a brief moment of hesitation, caved under their collective stare and yielded an almost imperceptible nod.
Kur smiled at her. "Alright, let's just set the flooring and the tents then. It's nice and cool in here, and it smells very nice too! So, let's just enjoy this opportunity to get out of the heat and take a little break while at the same time we make some easy XP!"
"Whoop-whoop!" Tuk hollered, amidst the general cheering. "Let's get rich!"
"And no bugs!" Jaz shouted. "Thank every fucking god."
"Quiet!" Row hissed at them, to the delighted laughter of everyone.
"Yes," Kur said, eyeing the entrance. "Jungle's mercy doesn't work on strong beasts…"
Nar eyed the entrance with a more alert look, looking outside past Eum's figure, who was still watching over Mach.
I guess this is still the middle of the jungle, he thought, as he headed over to the spot Kur, Row and Calli had picked to set up camp. Hopefully, we'll be able to relax here and gather without any trouble…
He snorted to himself. He could only wish, eh?