Chapter 66: Hunting (1/2)

‘I’m thinking more about his vengeance than mine.’ she thought as she reached the man and knelt down next to him.

“How are you feeling?” she asked him and nodded to the ranger who gracefully excused herself, retaking her vacant spot on the wall.

“As well as you might expect...” the man said, though a little life has returned to his eyes. “George always said he wanted to move...” his head sank again.

“Do you want to see the house?” he nodded and she helped him up.

“We’re going out quickly, you guy mage over there, close up behind us.” Ilea said. The shadow’s hand followed her unexpectedly. The warrior was on his feet again as well and nodded lightly to her.

“Lily we’ll be back shortly! I’ll have a small present for you as well!” Ilea said to the kid with a smile. Upon leaving the room her smile left though and the group walked sullenly towards Roland’s house. The snow crunched below their boots as they walked through the less and less bloody streets.

More monsters had come in the meantime and goblins were fighting over random things they had found. They all steered clear of their group though. Ilea was pretty sure it wasn’t her though.

Reaching the house, they found it had burned down nearly completely in the meantime. Ilea was glad to not find any silhouettes of people left inside, only ash. Roland cried quietly as they all stood there in silence. The ranger stepped forward and unstrapped her bow, before loosing a single arrow into the air. It glowed golden as it expanded into the size of a lance and flew on for hundreds of meters.

Ilea touched Roland’s shoulder and kept her hand there for a while. “I would like to have a moment alone...” he said and the group quietly left. Sulivhaan motioned for them to follow and approached the dead elf they had left behind.

He had to calm down the rogue again who had already unsheathed her daggers and approached the mangled corpse. “What do you plan on doing?” Ilea asked the mage.

“I intend to set...an example. You may wait here while I go...rogue come help me.” the corpse suddenly began to float as his magic took hold and the two walked away, leaving Ilea behind with the two others.

“Thank you for the help. You may call me Rock.” the warrior said and held out his hand.

“Nice to meet you Rock. I’m Ilea.” she shook the man’s hand and had to activate her buffs not to get her hand crushed.

“Ha, you actually didn’t break anything. That very rarely happens. It’s an honor Ilea.” he said.

The conversation died there, none of the three felt the need to talk about anything. Ilea checked her status and put her newly acquired fifty points into strength, quickly going over her gains again. Shroud of ash reaching the 2nd stage was the biggest change and she quickly read it through before checking her status.

Active: Shroud of Ash – 2nd lvl 1

Name: Ilea Spears

Unspent statpoints: 0

Class 1: Azarinth Healer – lvl 197

- Active: Destruction – 2nd lvl 20

Class 2: Ash Wielder – lvl 188

- Active: Shroud of Ash – 2nd lvl 1

General Skills:

- Elos Standard language - lvl 5

Status:

Vitality: 550

Health: 5500/5500

‘Well that’s basically tripling my resistances.’ a couple weeks ago she would’ve likely rejoiced about the outcome but seeing Roland looking at his house left her in quite the opposite mood. The three waited for a while longer until Roland showed up first. He had simply followed the fresh tracks in the snow.

The sun was actually out a little and no fresh snow was falling though it wasn’t warm by any stretch. “Ilea can I ask for something.” the man said and she nodded.

“I’ll go join the others again. We’ll discuss what to do next but it’s too dangerous for any of us up here. With the possibility of more elves….” he trailed off and she just nodded.

“Whatever you want Roland, just tell me.” it turned out he just asked for her to bring the people some food, water and other necessities like blankets and fresh clothes. There was plenty around in the city and it would take the goblins and other vaguely intelligent monsters quite a while to strip it clean.

“I’ll be back here then, will bring him back first.” Ilea said to the others but the warrior stood up and stopped her.

“I’ll bring him, you go look for the things he asked for.” the man said.

“Aren’t we a little too casual, an elf could come at any minute.”

Rock chuckled “Sulivhaan knows. As soon as he says there’s danger, there’s danger.” it seemed like a fact to him and Ilea found no reason to doubt his word.

‘I’d be dead without them already so why the hell not.’ she shrugged and got up.

“Then I’ll see you later.” she said to Roland who nodded to her.

Walking off, Ilea intended to find food and water first. She noticed a couple steps later that the ranger was following her. “You wanna come?” she didn’t receive an answer but shrugged and walked on. Three side streets later the ranger stopped behind her and knocked on one of the buildings.

“What is it? You think there’s food in there.”

“Storage.” came the reply and Ilea followed the ranger. Inside the store was a complete mess, monsters had certainly made this place an early target. Though Ilea saw underground with her sphere and knelt down to the ground.

She grabbed the handle of the cellar door and ripped it away, skidding it across the floor for a couple meters before walking downstairs.

“Teleport?” the ranger asked but Ilea just shook her head.

“You’re with me and you can’t teleport right?” she more stated than asked and walked down into the cellar. The ranger had been right, there was plenty of food down there. The attack had happened less than a week ago so perishables were still mostly fine.