The First Thane by Victor Pylaev

Author:Victor Pylaev [Pylaev, Victor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-07-18T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

I pulled my foot out of the squelching swamp muck and moved on. I had to be very careful about where I stepped — one careless movement and I could be left without a boot. I wondered how the System would react to this. Footwear occupied one slot, so I was curious about what would happen if I lost my left boot for example. Would it miraculously come back? Or would the right one disappear, too? Or would the defective pair be moved into the inventory and marked too damaged to wear?

Whatever the case was, I didn’t want to check. The journey to Hilda’s place took much longer than I had planned. This time, I spotted the Circle with True Vision even before I got close to it. However, this didn’t make it any easier to approach it. Rather, it was the opposite — I pushed ahead instead of choosing a drier path. Jötnar take away this realism! At least there were no mosquitoes here. The game devs didn’t seem to be that cruel. Sometimes, I heard the familiar thin buzzing in my ears, followed by a lightning-fast speck flying past my eyes, but nothing tried to bite me. At least when it came to pesky bugs. I wasn’t afraid of larger animals — His regularly reported the situation from a bird’s-eye view. There was no one nearby.

“I heard you coming from a mile away.”

Hilda emerged from behind the young pines on my left. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t notice her — she knew how to walk quietly, and she hid from True Vision no worse than from ordinary detection spells and skills. Another hint that even a huge number of Willpower points meant little without upgraded skills.

“I’m a bad hunter.” I slowed down a little, adjusting to Hilda’s pace. “I hope witchcraft will be easier.”

“It won’t.” The witch grinned and poked me in the side with her staff. “You have a gift, but even I can’t awaken it until you learn to listen.”

“And tread softly, I suppose?” I snapped.

“That’s right.” Hilda ignored my sarcasm. “How can you hear anything when you make more noise than a whole herd of deer?”

“Deer. Delicious.”

His seemed to have grown accustomed to its wolf form. As human meat was off the menu, it didn’t mind having a bite of venison.

“Did you hear that?” Hilda stopped suddenly, as if she had run into a wall. “A vættr is here! But he seems... different.”

“Old woman. Bad.”

“There he is again!” Hilda frowned and grabbed her staff as if she was going to fight. “I didn’t hear him yesterday. Let’s go inside.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I yawned and mentally reached out to His, ordering it to show itself. “This vættr you mention serves me.”

A black wolf parted the branches with his mighty sides and came out to meet us.

“Impossible!” Hilda hissed, thrusting her staff forward. “What kind of trickery is this?”

“Angry. I’ll bite. Can I?”

“You can’t!” I snapped.

His snorted and obediently lowered its furry ass into the moss, as if to demonstrate with its entire appearance that it was here and wanted to be admired.

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