“Should we call for help?” a raspy voice suggested. The language spoken was foreign. “That short one seems like trouble.”
“No,” another declined. Feminine, this one was. “We’ll take care of them ourselves. We’ll get rewarded if we bring them in alive.”
“Y-You sure? I don’t want Vxich to get angry again. He always takes it out on me, you know?”
Silence.
“…Just shut up and let me do the planning.”
///
Liam stored the bloodhounds in his ring, with Rin grabbing one herself to study, document and presumably forge with.
They continued for a good hour of marching. Nessa picked up a bloody flower or herb from the sides, storing them in vials to study and bring back.
When they climbed over the mountain peak, grave frowns gripped their faces.
…At the foot of the mountain, there was a large human village.
Thick borders were erected around it, but humans freely walked around its streets.
There were even women and children among them.
“W-What… is this?” Nessa stammered, her eyes trembling at the sight.
They walked like they were used to their surroundings and looked… normal? Happy, even.
There were cultivated fields for farms and regular homes for them to live in.
“They don’t look Echorian to me. Maybe they’re from a different country? Why are they here, though?” Nord added. Disturbed, but focused.
Past that, more mountains and hills covered the view ahead. Rivers of blood led further towards those landscapes, but the source wasn’t viewable.
Rin remained silent but shifted uncomfortably.
“I don’t want to be here anymore!” Gerald shouted with fear in his voice. “I’m leaving back to the ship, rewards be damned!”
“Oi, come back retard! You’re gonna get lost and die!” Nord shouted with a frown.
Liam shot Gerald a cold look.
“You already agreed to come,” he remarked with a glare. “But if you want to go back, that’s fine. Give me your ring.”
Liam stretched his hand, but Gerald paused. He went silent after that, but grumbled and swallowed his fear.
‘I wouldn’t have brought this guy if he was this cowardly,’ Liam clicked an inward tongue.
Shifting his attention to the human village, he would definitely explore it, maybe question its inhabitants.
“We’ll make our way in later. But first, the base.”
///
Liam spotted a decent place to camp in after two hours. It was a patch of empty land, right underneath a mountain formation that provided a dome-like roof.
They were attacked by another pack of bloodhounds, but they were swiftly dealt with and stored for later use.
“This should be a good place. Although we’re not too deep in, the mountain provides good cover. We’ll set it up here.”
Gerald walked forward and took out the inscribed box. Casually, he imbued it with ‘Ora’ and threw it a short distance away.
Anticlimactically, the box tumbled on the grass in silence and did nothing.
Just then, the box started to glow and hum. From barely the size of a fist, it spread out in a controlled fashion and rapidly grew, like a fastforwarding construction.
By the end of it, the tiny box had stemmed into a large square base the size of a large home.
It was only one story tall, but the material it was made from was sturdy and durable, even from a glance. In front, a circular door made from solid steel allowed for entry.
Liam promptly entered followed by the others.
The inside provided five different rooms, along with a forging station, alchemy lab, formation test-room and training space.
Looking around, Liam couldn’t help but think how the Royals thought of every little detail. Everything was tailored perfectly to suit everyone’s needs.
“I’ll start studying what we’ve gathered,” Nessa exclaimed with a smile, entering the alchemic labs and starting with the blood cherries. “My skills aren’t the best, but maybe I can find out what causes their mutations.” ．
“We’ll leave after a few hours and enter the village then.”
Liam nodded and made his way into one of the rooms, unloading all his miscellaneous items and fixing himself a spot to practice inscriptions and forging.
He took out a corrupted bloodhound and started to examine it, skinning its parts one by one and organizing them.
He didn’t dare attempt to use the Primordial Forging technique on it. Having his sea of consciousness corrupted was the last thing he wanted.
That said, it didn’t mean he couldn’t make something out of its parts and inscribe on its surface.
For the next three to two hours, that’s what he focused on doing.
The bones of the corrupted bloodhound were dark crimson, and much more difficult to manipulate and shape compared to normal beasts.
By the end of it, he managed to shape the bones to a six inch dagger, jagged but sharp, and the durability was quite good too.
The reason Liam was so fixated on working on daggers, was because from that form, he’d transition to working with wakizashis and katanas.
Forging weapons took time, effort and experience, but easing into his preferred weapon choice would be much better than starting with it straight away.
Liam swung against the bloodhound hide he had skinned earlier, and the jagged dagger sheared through it.
‘It’s better at inflicting grievous wounds, but not good at severing things.’
Then, Liam moved to refining his blood to inscribe the surface of the blade with.
An hour passed.
When his eye grew bloodshot and his head felt like it would explode, he decided to start inscribing.
Liam did the same sharpness enhancement, having re-adjusted the meanings and writings on its surface, it took another hour to finish inscribing everything.
At that point, he’d gotten good enough to make the inscription absorb his mental energy, and the inscriptions worked just fine.
Liam swung at the hide again, and it tore through it like butter… but cracks riddled its surface.
Liam widened his eyes in shock.
Although it wasn’t a complete success, it was still vastly better than his previous attempts.
‘Is it because of the blood?’