Lowlife, Scoundrel, Bandit Queen

Chapter 187 187 - Picking up the pieces

I'm a little stiff the next morning, but my fears about catching a cold or something worse do not come true at least. I'm quite thankful for small mercies like this one. The day could have started with a much worse notification than the customary one I expect and receive.

[*Ding!* You slept. Not bad, but not terribly well either! Health increased by 5! Mana increased by 3!]

To paraphrase the words just whispered into my mind in the voice of Fox, it's not bad but not the best exactly either. My health is still far from completely recovered and my Mana reserves are still mostly empty even though I'm not running on fumes anymore either.

There thankfully have not been any surprise visitors. It's still quiet outside too. Although, no, that's not quite it. Sure, there are no more sounds of fighting or the likes, but it's actually overall not quite as quiet as yesterday. I'm pretty sure there are more animal noises today. Could this be a hint suggesting that the scaled terror is dead or at least gone? That might just be it. The animals around here would certainly react to such a drastic change. Especially as the flying predator essentially blocked most of the local wildlife from visiting one of the best sources of fresh water around here.

I put my sword, still sheathed, back on my belt and make sure all my important gear is where it belongs otherwise as well. Then I stretch and adjust my clothes briefly, before I step outside. I make sure to stay hidden best I can while going around the tower to get a good look at the creek's valley, especially in the upstream direction where the nest of the wyvern is located.

There are no obvious signs of combat to be seen from here, but I can spot a few animals out by the creek. A sounder of boars to be exact. They are still obvious watchful, but they are just as obviously happy to enjoy the chance to make a muddy mess of a stretch of soft ground by the creek, to roll around in said mud like there is nothing better in the world.

I return inside and climb the stairs to the ruined rooftop. I watch the sky at first from the stairwell, but I can't spot anything that would seem to be reason for concern, thus I step outside to get a better look from the slightly elevated vantage point.

What I see from up here isn't all that different. The wild pigs, a group of females with their offspring, as I come to realize now that I watch their antics for a little longer, are still there. A little further upstream, beyond the waterfall I can spot some deer. Still no signs of battle damage, or rather new battle damage, in the fresh green growth that has sprung up after the fires following the grand showdown with the king boletus.

I might just have to venture upstream to find out what happened during the night. I'm not in a hurry though. I don't want to run into any of those sneaky intruders after all, should some still be around for one reason or another, or a royally pissed off wyvern, although I'm starting to suspect the latter is the more unlikely of the possibilities.

At least my [Perception] improves a little before I give up on spotting anything and head back down. It's still far off from the next level up, but that only means that I need to work that skill even harder.

First though I have plans for another skill of mine! I eye the thick hazel branches I gathered and brought the other day. It feels wrong to call them branches, as they are about as thick as my wrist, but it's what they are, hazels growing as bushes and not trees and all that. With a wicked little grin I pull my utility knife. It's time to do some more woodworking!

This might just be one of my larger woodworking projects so far. It's probably not my most detailed one though. I'm not aiming to make a pretty door or anything like that. No, I just want a sturdy grate to block the doorway leading out of the tower here atop the cliff.

First I arrange the thick branches without cutting into them, to figure out how to best use them for vertical and horizontal bars. Once I have that figured out I start to carve tongue and groove connections. Those are the easy part. Drilling matching holes through all the pieces for wooden pins is far more tricky. For the pins I use thinner but still finger thick branches. It's not pretty, but it's all quite sturdy and that is what matters. It's not all that matters though. The notification I earn through this little, or maybe not so little project is important as well!

[*Ding!* Your skill Woodworking has leveled up to level 7!]

There are no indirect benefits to this one sadly enough, but at least it counts as some more progress for my hedge witch class. I'd say that is a pretty good start for the new day.

I place the grate in front of the empty doorway and it fits just right. I still have to provide a way to brace it on the inside though. For that I arrange stacks of stones to either side of the doorway. Those alone won't do though should a determined attacker try to break through. I use the last two thick branches to brace the grate against the floor at an angle. Now that should keep anyone without a battering ram out for a while.

Satisfied I remove those supports again, only to set them against the wall next to the doorway together with the grate. Anyone with half a brain should be able to figure out how to use that assembly. With that out of the way there is very little left to do for me here and I don't mind, I'm actually looking forward to returning to town by now and not just because I'm out of food either.

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I tidy up the campsite a little. Gathering the wood chips from my most recent project in a pile next to the firewood. These make for good kindling after all. Then I grab some of the larger pieces of coal from last night's fire to add some writing to the wall under the late bandit lord's graffiti. It's two simple lines, nothing fancy. The one to let visitors know about the shrine downstairs and then the other mentioning the fresh water at the bottom of the stairs. As an afterthought I add a third line, a request to keep some firewood stocked.

It's nothing special, but it earns me a little progress for my [Slyd] skill. I guess it counts, as I don't get a whole lot of opportunities to do some actual writing. Now I'm really done here though. I make sure my pack is properly packed, then I'm off.

At first I follow the upper edge of the cliff, still at a slight distance and as stealthy as I can possibly move, quiet, slow and with great care. Of course that means that I moving not nearly as fast as I could, but given the circumstances that's alright. At the very least my [Stealth] skill benefits.

When I reach the vantage point where I almost ran into those strangers yesterday I slow down even more. I'm already quite pleased that the slightly lighter mood that seems to have settled over the woods hasn't changed so far. Unlike yesterday my danger sense doesn't get triggered either. I take a moment to take a closer look anyway. In hindsight and with the necessary time to search for the clues it's very obvious that someone set up an observation post here and probably not just for a few hours either. Well, no it's not obvious, the clues are rather subtle and I might have missed them in passing, but when I actually look for them? Not so much. Whoever was here, they must have been gone for a while though. Even the grass is already straightening itself back out. At least my [Perception] earns a little more growth due to the exercise.

I take that as an invitation to move in and lie down there to take a peek at the quarry and the wyvern's nest therein myself.

What I can see from here starts to explain all the racket from last night. The ground all over the valley is overturned in large swathes. Trees that survived the fires after the fight against the king boletus are knocked down. In some places even the flow of the creek seems to have been altered in not subtle at all ways. It's a total mess. Some of it seems caused by the wyvern, but I can't really attribute all of it to the flying terror.

I'm tempted to let out a low whistle at the sheer scope of the destruction, but I manage to refrain. I don't see anyone anywhere, especially no angry wyvern, thus I dare to descend the cliff, my [Climbing] skill improving a little in the process, to take a closer look.

Figuring out what transpired here takes some serious effort, as it turns out, but I manage to puzzle enough clues together to form a serviceable theory. My first clue are the half eaten, half buried cadavers of two rather sizable oxen. One hind leg still shows a length of chain. My impression is that these were used to lure the hungry beast away from its nest at least a short distance. If it were any further, out of sight of the nest especially, it probably wouldn't have worked.

I have another suspicion as well. To confirm it I focus my attention on the bigger remains of on of the cadavers and activate my identification skill. A little of my Mana drains away and I'm immediately rewarded with a short notification.

[*Ding!* Your skill Identify has leveled up to level 9!]

This one counts towards the progress of my eminence in shadows class. Sadly there are no indirect benefits to this one either though. I don't have time to wallow in self pity though, as the result provided by the skill come in right after.

[Poisoned Cadaver (Food, Uncommon) – The cadaver of an oxen. Before it's death the animal has been poisoned with large quantities of a sleeping drug. Not enough to knock it out outright, but anyone eating it might still suffer some effects. Category: Consumable]

Oh yes, that makes sense. It's a pretty simple way to weaken a creature of the size and capability of the scaled terror. If it still managed to turn the valley upside down afterwards, as the damage suggests, it's a step that was absolutely necessary too.

From that spot the tracks seem to lead back in the direction of the nest at first. With the cadavers only half eaten maybe because the wyvern noticed someone messing with the eggs? That sounds plausible too. And it's only afterwards that the so far rather straightforward tracks turn into the messy fight I heard from miles away.

I'm not entirely sure, but my best guess is, that the fight was mostly a delaying action to allow someone carrying several rather big and heavy wyvern eggs to make their getaway. Except, they never even seriously tried to kill the beast. There simply isn't enough wyvern blood. If anything I get the impression that they tried to annoy the beast, much like I did with the lich. Maybe because they needed the mother in addition to the eggs?

And then, after another mile of back and forth, the tracks, or rather the utter devastation ends. And it ends rather suddenly, at a line as sharp as if it had been cut with a knife.

If I hadn't received my first lesson on ritual spellcasting from Rysia very recently I wouldn't be able to make sense of it. As it is though, my gaze is almost immediately drawn to the very sharp lines actually cut into the ground. There is no more magic remaining, but it's pretty obvious, that this was a spell circle, a rather complex one at that. I take a moment to survey it in detail, following its outer lines, which very much are not a simple triangle. Yes, this circle is surrounded by a heptagon. Seven casters? Well, that is something else entirely. The letters of the actual circle are too faded though. Still I have a suspicion. My best guess is, that this was a teleportation trap.

I nod to myself. They poisoned the mother to dull her reflexes, grabbed the eggs, fought a token battle and lured her right into this trap. My [Tactics] skill seems to agree, as it improves a little.

Well, there is nothing I can do about it. That one stranger, the gnome woman, was very much spot on with the comment I overheard. As I turn back to head back downstream and eventually back to town I stop once more though as something catches my eye.

It's a black scale. One of the wyvern's. I pick it up and weigh it, lost in thought. These would be perfect for lightweight armor, if a craftsman could make use of them that is. And this might just be my last chance to get my hand on some more of those. I bite my lips and start to look for them in earnest, my mind made up in the blink of an eye. Unlike last time when I only picked up a few before I hurried to get back under cover I collect the roughly palm sized scales in earnest this time around and by the time I stop, after reaching the actual nest where I find the most, I have around forty of the things in my pack.

Said pack is bulging now. I just hope this works out the way I hope it will. Otherwise the slight advance of my [Foraging] skill will be the only thing I get out of this. Well, I'll find out soon enough. I just hope the craftswoman I have in mind is up to the job.