Chapter Forty-Seven: Walk in the Woods

FORTY-SEVEN

It was of course Taoya who was chosen to lead the expeditionary teams to find something in the forest. With his bloodline talent and natural strength, he was the strongest of everyone left in the camp. Roan went with him as his pattern while seven other duos were figured out. Darren broke them off into rough forty-five degree angles and sent the fourteen of them off. It left about ten healthy fighters for the camp, but a duo was safer than single scouts.

Taoya had picked who would go, trying to ensure there was at least one person with a bloodline per group, but they lacked the numbers to truly do it. Darren went as well, leaving his depleted supplies with the wounded and partnering up with someone from a different instance.

Harris was the last bloodline fighter left at camp. Roan didn’t know what it was that his bloodline enabled him for, but Darren had said he was a good defensive specialist. That had been enough to quell any unrest and then they were all moving out. They’d move as close as they could in a straight line, leaving marks every hundred feet of their duo number, until they found something. If they didn’t find anything by the time night set they were to camp and then make their way back in the morning.

With the sun slowly setting Roan thought that this level had longer days than back home. Without a proper tool to measure time he had to rely on guesses and fighting had a way of making time hard to guess. Darren said it had been about three hours, but Roan wasn’t sure.

“Saw that the unique learn skill was gone. That you?” Taoya asked conversationally as they walked. They’d hardly cleared the line of sight for the camp before he started talking.

“Why?” Roan asked.

“Conversation, man. Why you acting like we’re enemies? You fucked off after the clear and then didn’t show up again,” Taoya said. Roan blinked up at the big man and blinked as he realized what was going on.

“You’re actually hurt I didn’t stay with you?” Roan asked.

“Of course. We’re battle brothers now. We’ve fought, bled, and killed side-by-side. And then you just go and disappear? It felt insulting,” Taoya said.

“Met some people who needed my help,” Roan said. They fell into an uncomfortable silence that only became more uncomfortable as time went on.

“Sorry,” Roan finally said.

“Thanks. I don’t trust Darren. I mean I do, but I trust him to be Darren, you know? He has his goals and that’s all he’s focused on. And I get that, I do. It’s an important goal. But sometimes I think he forgets to see the people around him as people and not tools.”

“Holy shit, this is way too deep for me right now.” Roan panicked lifted his canteen and offered it to Taoya who took it with a smile.

“I saw this little beauty on the market place. Was thinking about getting it, but didn’t make the choice in time. Seemed expensive for what it was. I guess I was wrong,” Taoya said. He had the politeness not to continue the awkward speech he’d been going on about.

“What did you get?” Roan asked. Of everyone in their instance it would be Taoya who would be the only one who could match his earnings.

“Mana core. A few manuals, some food. Lots of food. Healing supplies,” Taoya said with a shrug.

“You have a mana core?” Roan said, feeling his heart sink. He already couldn’t get up with the giant, if the man managed to have a mana core he would never catch and surpass him.

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“Inferior-grade. It’s nice to be able to use my bloodline without exhausting my body, but the core is shit. I’ll have to work on upgrading it once I find the proper body tempering manual,” Taoya said, continuing to be an open book.

“You need a proper one because of your bloodline?” Roan guessed. They’d passed the site of three battles and left the dead goblins where they were. Only one climber was there and he’d already been stripped of his gear.