Book 3: Chapter 19: Toss and Detection
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lone Immortus," the man whose race Lone knew to be Flint Wolfkin replied. "Officially I'm Rodorick Halbundon, the owner of an independent merchant band under the Elgoran Merchant's Union. To a fellow beastkin, however, I'm Esto Silverfang. Now, you said 'negotiations'. Can I go ahead and presume you and your companions exceed the requirements I listed in the quest at The Adventurer's Guild? If not, I will sadly have to turn you away. It won't count as a failed quest but you will need to let the guild know I rejected you."
Lone smiled. He liked this man. Rodorick was professional and succinct, two traits he respected.
Reaching beneath his tunic and pulling out his silver-gold plate, Lone replied, "As you can see, I'm no fresh adventurer. You must not have watched the vision magic projections yesterday, but I injured Prince Keining in a public duel. My lovely girlfriend here is a silver-plated adventurer and her detection and magical protective abilities are second to none."
Soph took off one of her gauntlets to reach at her own neck before showing her silver plate to the merchant.
Lone put his own plate back and gestured to Breena. "This little one is an F-ranker but she's very good at keeping herself unseen even though she has no skills for that yet. We're heading to the Crimson Foxkin Clan either way for her, so let's talk business since Soph and I here can offer you a nigh-guaranteed successful journey."
Rodorick shook his head. "I can't possibly afford to hire a gold-silver plate. The most I can allow for a more skilled group of adventurers than I requested is one and a quarter silver coins a day. Can you accept that price? If so, I'd be more than happy to welcome you, your partner, and the young girl, to our journey."
'That's a lie. Is he trying to test my mathematical abilities? A full group of ten D-rankers would cost him over two gold for three weeks of protection. Us three at 125 coppers a day would only run him just shy of 80 silver for the same time. He has way more wiggle room for us, so he is open for negotiations like the request stated. This'll be fun,' Lone thought.
He smiled and tutted. "Come now, I said we should negotiate. I don't need as much money as one of my skills should demand. If I did, I wouldn't have taken this quest. There were other options, you know? The single silver coin a day for each of us is more than enough to cover our expenses and keep your purse nice and plump. That alone is saving you seven silver a day from what a normal party would have asked. I, do, however, want something else as payment."
The wolfkin smiled like he'd been caught. He shrugged helplessly and replied, "I'd much rather pay in coin, but please, what would you like instead of a normal fee for a gold-silver plate?"
Lone nodded, happy to see the merchant wasn't the 'I'll only pay you in coin' type and was more than happy to at least entertain the idea of something else as Lone's reward than just money.
"I'll be frank. I want you to tell me everything about yourself. Your life, your trade, your goals, your skills, all of that. It's deeply interesting to me. I also want to be made the leader of the guards. I won't take orders from someone else since no one knows my power like I do. I'm skilled at seeing a person's strengths and weaknesses so after a bit of testing, I'll be able to ensure whatever other adventurers you've hired will most definitely be earning their silver from you, not simply taking it," Lone stated.
Rodorick stroked his bearded chin thoughtfully. "A single topic about my life once per day for no more than two hours during transit. I can't make you the captain, Isley of the Downtrodden Dancers has already been given that role."
Lone frowned a little even though he was enjoying himself. "Agree to let me handle taking the position from this Isley person without causing any conflict between our two groups and I'll agree to only sleep the coming sixth sun and once every second following sixth sun until arrival."
"Demonstrate to me that you and your companions are worth me possibly angering a potential long-term guard unit," Rodorick requested.
'The other adventurers have shown interest in joining this merchant company for an extended duration? That seems unlikely. Is he lying to me? It isn't impossible... Would be stupid to try to call him out though since I'm unsure. Enhanced Vision ain't giving me shit,' Lone remarked internally.
He noticed the young wolfkin girl staring at him in wonder from behind her father's legs. She smiled cheekily at being discovered. Lone chuckled and crouched down. "Wanna see something cool? Something that'll impress your Daddy?"
She nodded vigorously. "Mmhmm! Show me!"
Lone's smile widened. He put his hands on his knees and sprung back up, straightening his back. 'When I use Bone Armour on that carriage to our left, put it and its contents in one very tight Barrier Prison for me, please?'
Soph tilted her head in confusion. 'Uh, okay. I can do that. Why though?'
'I gotta put on a show of strength and finesse, don't I?' he replied rhetorically.
Lone approached the aforementioned carriage and gently put a hand on it. "Now, please don't get alarmed by what you're about to see, okay? That applies to both you, you little troublemaker, and to you, Mister Merchant."
"Why would we get alar-"
Rodorick's words got stuck in his throat when he, like everyone else in the vicinity who was either enjoying the trade fair, protecting the carriages and goods, or just watching the interaction between Lone and the merchant leader, felt their eyes opening wide and their jaws loosening.
Lone had invoked his Bone Armour and was utilising one of its master-ranked effects. As mentioned to Soph telepathically, he had used Bone Armour with the intent of protecting the carriage so it had been completely encapsulated by the gloomy and evil-looking black, light blue, and deep purple bone.
Not a moment later, Lone reached down under the carriage and lifted it over his shoulders with one hand as if it weighed only a few kilos, if that.
"Wh-What are you doing?!" Rodorick demanded in a panic.
Lone wore a warm expression on his face as he replied, "Showing you some of my capabilities."
And with that response, he tossed the carriage up, willing his Bone Armour to disconnect from himself. It actually took a great deal of his focus and physical strength to do this since he couldn't apply the Strength stat. Lone felt his muscles and tendons tearing themselves apart as adrenaline began rushing through his veins.
However, just as soon as the carriage started sailing perfectly up into the air, all of the damage Lone had done to himself fixed itself and went unnoticed.
People were moving about frantically, Rodorick included. He was carrying his surprisingly calm and almost excited daughter as he backed up without letting his eyes leave the carriage.
Lone stepped to the right, nodded slowly, then assumed the horse stance and readied his hands to catch the four-wheeling falling mass of potential destruction.
'Felt like it weighed about a ton and a half. Lot of cargo for it to be that heavy. That or the wood it's made of is inherently heavy. I don't know as much about this world's natural resources as I'd lik- ah, here she comes,' Lone thought.
The sound of a fully-loaded merchant carriage falling from dozens of feet in the air was certainly unique. The grunt Lone made when his wrists snapped the second his palms had met the bottom of the bone-covered vehicle and then healed instantly only to snap again was something else.
His skin was strong, as were his bones, but his muscles and ligaments sure weren't. his feet sunk into the earth with the massive weight being forced into such small points of contact.
Lone had wanted to do this with just his strength alone but without damaging the carriage, that seemed impossible. With a red face born of exertion, Lone used some freeform force magic to elevate the carriage just enough to give him some wiggle room to act.
He used Ungrounded to walk up into the air a few feet with the carriage held over his head. Very carefully and with a great deal of effort, he sat the carriage back down where it had been only moments ago.
Only then did he reconnect to and swiftly dismiss the Bone Armour around the carriage. He also stopped focusing on his freeform force magic, letting it disappear. He slapped his hands together a few times to signal a job well done before turning to face Rodorick who was now a decent distance from both Lone and the carriage.
With a proud grin, Lone said, "And not a thing was damaged inside. It should all be just as it was before I launched it."
"I would hope so," Rodorick said as he rushed forward. The fear and horror in his expression had changed to concern and anger. "My wife is in there!"
"Oh. Shit," was Lone's simple response.
He really needed to start using his aura to detect people.
Two days later, Lone heard Rodorick's wife speaking up on his behalf once again.
"Honestly, Roddy, you need to stop giving him a hard time. Of course he's going to be a bit eccentric when he's gone through eight trait growths and three awakenings. I was fine. The barrier of Miss Sofia's was incredible," the elegant Flint Wolfkin stated.
"I don't care if you were okay! I can't believe you hired him on the spot, dear! What if he hadn't caught it? What if it had landed on one of our employees, guards, or, Primal's forbid, myself and little Rinrin?" Rodorick asked.
Lone cringed the moment he saw Mistress Fenlo's eyes narrow and her expression darken. "You don't care, hmm? Well, see if I care when the cook refuses to give you dinner tonight. Sir Lone is incredibly strong, disciplined, and reliable. He's been nothing but helpful to everyone in this convoy ever since we left. This is the final time we will have this conversation, Rodorick."
"Oh, damn, the full name," Lone whispered to himself.
He had been incredibly apologetic to Rodorick and didn't even question not getting granted the captain role - a stipulation Rodorick wouldn't allow the convoy to leave without being put in place.
Rinrin had found the whole carriage-throwing incident hilarious while Mistress Fenlo saw it as what Lone had intended it as - an excellent demonstration of his ability to protect and to use just as much of his strength as he needed to.
The other group of adventurers weren't best pleased by the 'show' and had outright refused all of his incredibly polite requests to spar and train skills. They hadn't even trusted him and Soph with the night watch, instead insisting on setting up their own rotation.
Lone still stayed up as he promised he would but it didn't feel very nice getting dirty glances from the people he had hoped to learn from during this trip.
'Maybe we should just teleport to our destination? Ha-ah, but my perfect quest completion rate... Gotta see this through. At least no one bothers me. Well, except Rinrin and Mistress Fenlo, but I enjoy those encounters,' Lone thought.
'Lone, monsters are approaching from the west. They seem like a stampede and are entirely disorganised,' Sophie relayed telepathically.
'That sounds odd. Is that normal behaviour for this region?' Lone wondered as he replied, 'Numbers. Monster types. Average strength. Is there a leader? Is their goal clearly the convoy or do we just happen to be in the way?'
'312. All beasts, mostly wolf, boar, or rabbit-type monsters but there are some odd ones mixed in like the occasional snake or fox and some we cannot liken to any normal animal. By the volume of mana, the average rank equivalent of the beasts is roughly D but that's only an average. There are some strong ones mixed in. There does not seem to be a clear leader but we are unsure. They are adjusting course to match our convoy, so yes, we believe we are the target,' Sophie answered.
Lone frowned. He raised his voice and yelled loudly enough for the entire convoy to hear him. "My partner has informed me a group of monsters is approaching from the west! They are targeting the convoy for some reason and there are several hundred of them! I don't know if we're their intended next meal or something, but I strongly advise we move ourselves and the carriages into a defensive position as quickly as possible!"
Doubt appeared on the faces of the members of Downtrodden Dancers as well as the regular members of the convoy. That didn't really bother him. If they forced him and Sophie to slaughter this incoming threat on their own, then so be it. It would be an entertaining distraction if nothing else.
Lone's sensitive ears heard little Rinrin whisper some peculiar words into her mother's ear. "He's not lying. He isn't worried either."
'Now how would a seven-year-old like you know that?' Lone thought.
Rodorick emerged from the carriage he had been banished to and looked to his wife who gave him a curt nod. Steeling his expression, the wolfkin raised his voice and ordered, "Everyone, assume defensive formation two! Prepare for a monster siege from the west! Lone, how much time do we have?!"
"They're about 9,000 metres away from us," Lone said, earning him many looks of disbelief.
Little Rinrin whispered to her parents, "He's telling the truth again."
Mistress Fenlo muttered, "What a vast range this detection ability Miss Sofia has..."
With an authoritative voice, Rodorick commanded, "Stop dawdling! To your positions, now!"
'Well, this will be interesting. Is Little Rinrin a seer or a lie detector of some sort? Such unconditional trust from her parents would imply a skill. Racial, world, or something inherent like a Taker? Regardless, what should my group's role be in the siege? The monsters sound weak overall from Soph's assessment...' Lone had a few minutes to think about that.
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