The Third Step: Chapter Seventeen

The bridge was old brick, weathered by years of use and river rising. The once vibrant red color had turned to a soft brown, and ivy clung to the sides of the bridge, emanating a soft glow of lunar magic, a minor source of lunar mana. The river beneath the bridge was a large one, stretching several hundred feet across, and on the other side we could see where houses had been built off the road. Behind the houses were the forms of a thick orchard, laden with the heavy stone fruits that bloomed in the summer, and surrounded by berry bushes, some of which were also in full bloom. 

Where multiple cows, chickens, and sheep would have been scattered around Kene’s village, this one seemed to by and large be focused entirely on the production of fruit, though I could also sense some tuber farms growing along the river with my life senses. 

I half expected to be attacked the instant I crossed over the river, as that was where the kludde liked to live, but we weren’t carrying any shipments of food, at least not that the kludde would be able to smell or sense. 

As we drifted into the town, I hopped down from my cauldron, tail swishing, and tapped it to send it back into Dusk’s realm.

“I don’t recognize you all,” an older, grating voice said, and I turned to see an old man with intense eyes, short cropped gray hair, papery skin sitting in a rocking chair on a front porch of one of the houses. I inclined my head to him as respectfully as I could. 

“My name is Malachi Baker, I’m here to deal with the Kludde problem. It’s been attacking your–” 

“Let me see your ID.” 

I conjured the new card showing my rank in the Naturalists and used Transport Item to teleport it over to him. He took it, harumphing about my impropriety, and I wondered just how much teleportation was frowned on in the Obsidian Forest. But why? It was so useful. He held it out to me and I teleported it back into Dusk’s realm, causing him to harumph again.  

“You’re new here, that much is new. Your accents… You're immigrants from Mossford?” 

“Just here on business,” I said lightly, giving my best smile. “My partner and I were hoping to find a Rebirth Tree.”  

“Ah, they’re an alchemist?” the old man asked, eyeing Kene with significantly more respect than he’d shown to me. 

“I am,” Kene said with a nod. “So is he, though more of a c–”

“Combat alchemist, yes, I figured. Never felt a beast like him, but there’s enough life and death in there, and he’s got stains of ninelight morels in his body.” 

I stiffened, wondering just how he knew that. By the primes, was everyone in this land a thrice-cursed oracle? Did the culture here just make being creepy knowledgeable a point of pride? Or was I just unlucky? 

“Well, what’s your plan to catch the damn beastie? It’s elusive, or else I’d have just had one of the farmers chase it off.” 

“Well, I’ve got two potential plans,” I said. “The first is a direct contest. They hunt and trap using their mana senses–”

“And mud,” the man said, continuing his streak of interrupting everyone. “Their mud magic is shockingly good.” 

“And mud,” I agreed. “Anyways, I figured that if I walked down to the river and blasted my senses over a couple of acres, I’d be able to draw it at–” 

“Don’t be stupid,” the man sneered. “This beastie ain’t a prideful dragon that’s going to come charging out to beat you into the ground for a challenge. It’s just gonna stay hidden till you’re gone.” 

“Alright, well my second plan–” 

“Is hopefully less stupid than your first.” 

I closed my eyes and took a breath.

“Alright, well my second plan is to get some meat and lure it out,” I said. “It’s got to be interested in that, given it’s not been stealing from you all, but has been targeting people moving goods. From what I was able to find, they’re carnivores.” 

“Omnivores that happen to like meat, like bears,” the man said irritably. “But fine, fine, that might work. Just keep it away from the village, I don’t want anyone getting hurt, you hear me?” 

“I understand,” I said, nodding. “I’ll do my best.” 

“You do better than that. Don’t get anyone hurt.” 

Upon saying his piece, he snorted, rolled his eyes, then picked up a paper from the small table beside him and started to read it. Seeing that was about as clear of a dismissal as I could reasonably get, I flicked a hand and opened a portal to the kitchen. 

Assembling the bait for the trap was, relatively speaking, simple. I chopped up a bit of chicken and beef with a handful of aromatics like onions and celery, wrapped it in some cheesecloth, and then doused the entire thing in a rapidly made potion of blueshade plant, amplifying the smell many times over. 

Preparing the trapped area, on the other hand, was a bit harder. I spent a while creating some spatial tripwires and manipulating their threads to align as best with the natural weave of space as it flowed around trees. I’d never seen space as tightly knotted as it was in Obsidian Forest, which made the initial learning curve much higher, but once I got the hang of it, gave me a variety of places where I could nestle the anchors without them drawing too much attention. 

The overwhelming death and life energy in the area served as a massive boon for the second layer of my trap, my blue barrier milkcaps. Unearthing the loamy soil to plant the mycelium in a circle, and then planting it in was fairly simple, but having a peak third gate mycelial network sitting around in a desert would have been a lot more suspicious than in a nation covered in old, dead groves of trees. 

Getting them stable enough that they’d project their force dome, while also not having them projecting at the moment was… difficult. The milkcaps weren’t in my combat repertoire for a reason, even with how useful it would be to conjure domes of force around me in a second.

Even with Kene’s help and Meadow’s guidance, I’d still need at least ten seconds to stabilize the power before the dome would form, but that was a lot better than I’d have been able to manage without their help. 

With the trap and bait set, Kene and I went into the village for a date. It wasn’t a great date, given that it got interrupted halfway through by the kludde. 

The instant my alarms went off, a lot of things happened at once. I slapped some money on the table – Obsidian Forest used oval shaped paper money, which just felt weird – then tapped Kene on the chest and shunted them into Dusk’s realm. With that done, I began to cast one of the newest spells I’d learned from Orykson, Sensory Network, while at the same time casting Hiding Spider and using Mold Aura to help hide my presence. 

I ran some mana through Enhance Forging, then conjured Briarthreads, my Fungal Armor, and cast Ivy Cloak. Threads of briars and a sweeping tangle of ivy fell around me, adorning the flexible plates of turkey tail mushrooms as they formed over my chest, and in thinner layers over my arms and legs. 

I carefully spread my spatial senses out through my spatial anchors, then tried something. I hadn’t gotten a chance to really experiment with the spells yet. I doubted it would be possible to cast most spells through this spatial sense, but it was worth a shot. 

I tried to combine Fungal Entwinement and Enhance Plant Life together, in order to power the blue barrier milkcaps, and… nothing. 

Well, that was fine. I hadn’t expected the spell to be able to be used that way. But now for a more intense test, one that I thought had a much higher chance of actually working. I slowly spread my senses out, away from the direction of the kludde.

It was difficult, with so many trees warping the weave of space in such long, high directions, but the instant I got behind one of the trees, I cast Foxstep. 

I vanished and re-appeared in the area I’d set up, behind one of the trees, and struggled to stop myself from gasping for breath. It had been about a mile and a half jump, and while that was definitely doable, pushing through the Sensory Network spell had felt much harder than it normally would. 

I centered myself, then extended my normal mana senses and cast my spells to send power into the mushrooms, all the while listening to the sound of the cheesecloth being torn to shreds as a large creature snacked noisily on the treat I’d left it. 

I counted down slowly in my head, and then felt a flash of physical and abnegation magic click into place as the milkcaps projected their force dome around the kludde. I flicked open the portal to let Kene out, but didn’t release my spell, even as I stepped out from behind the tree to examine the kludde. 

The creature was large, and covered in thick black fur. It resembed a shaggy dog, but was bigger than a wolf, though still smaller than all but the smallest of black bears. It had horns, sharp and pointed, and oddly smooth, like someone had sanded and polished goat horns. In between the horns was a flickering blue ball of light that resembled flame, though its energy distinctly wasn’t solar. Rather, it was the strong mix of telluric, physical, tempest, death, creation, mental, and lunar mana and energy. It was distinctly both, and felt strangely like a beast core at the same time. That was strange.

Upon seeing us, the kludde turned and tried to bound away, clawing at the dome. When that wasn’t effective, it let out a bark, and the mud around the ground blasted out in all directions, a circular attack that covered the inside of the dome. 

I pushed my mana senses at it, dropping my veiling spells and working to try and both calming the beast and studying it.

The kludde’s own mana senses lashed out, and then weight slammed down on me as its mana senses were transformed into corporeal pressure. I staggered, nearly falling to my knees, then threw my own mana senses back at it, pushing up. 

At the same time, Arthur manifested, and I sent ghostly magic into the dog. I conjured my staff into my hand, and worked to try and infuse resonance into my pushing back, but the kludde’s senses were shockingly strong. It was infusing its resonance into it, a nascent truth that was easy for it to draw on and flow into itself. I edged out in raw power, given that I had so many sensory spells ingrained, but it was far closer of a competition than I was used to, and battering back the kludde’s senses while also being pinned beneath them wasn’t easy. 

Arthur’s dominion flared, and I cast Impel Senses, wrapping myself in a bubble powered through my senes and dominion. I stood more confidently now, and the kludde lashed out a few more times, but was repulsed by our combined power. Each time it brushed up against Arthur’s dominion, however, it relaxed a little more. 

Off to the side, where Dusk, Dawn, Kene, and Siobhan had been watching, Dusk waved her hand and opened a portal, this one leading to one of the rivers that encircled her realm. 

That seemed to be enough for the kludde to finally stop lashing out with its spells, and it paced around the dome, staring at the portal, then at Dusk as she massaged at it with her own senses. 

Slowly, carefully, and ready to teleport in case it tried to run, I drained power from the milkcaps, letting the barrier fall apart. With a single great, mud-enhanced bound, the kludde burst through the portal and into Dusk’s realm.