Skill-Eater: Prison World Saga-Chapter 37: Wagon Train

The Ivory Plains were vibrant in the last weeks of summer. Hoots and caws resounded on all sides as the creatures that called Ord home feasted on the biome’s abundance in preparation for the lean days ahead.

Most of the bigger beasts were laying low, waiting for the strange procession to roll past before coming out of hiding. But there were plenty of smaller critters to be found. The air was filled with butterflies and songbirds, complimenting the ceaseless roar of the wind stirring the sea of grass engulfing them on all sides.

A group this size couldn’t move much faster than Edge could walk. With a contingent of scouts in the field to provide an early warning of trouble approaching, he found himself in the rare position of having nothing to do other than enjoy the beauty of his surroundings and the company of his friends.

Trapper and Violet had other matters to attend to and Riller and Sasha were on scouting duty, so Edge and Jumo passed the time chatting and telling stories. When they ran out of tales, they moved on to discussing strategies incorporating their latest skills, reviewing their battle with the scorpions, and debating the merits of their new weapons and armor.

As they walked, Edge practiced flinging his chakram, aiming for random plants growing along the side of the road to improve his accuracy and familiarize himself with the mechanics involved in various throws.

Thanks to his rapidly-rising Control, learning to use the weapon was far easier than he expected, although it was going to take some time reach a level of mastery comparable to what Ander had demonstrated back at the Forge. After getting a feel for the weight of the bladed ring and its aerodynamic properties, he focused on changing its trajectory with the chainmail glove.

When he was done, he added Elemental Blade into the mix, suffusing the weapon with a layer of subzero mana that made whatever it cut billow with frost. He had to be careful how long he held the brass and bone ring with the skill active. Even with Regulate Temperature, if he touched the chakram for too long, he would wind up freezing his fingers solid.

Since time was of the essence, it would take too long to gather as a group when the caravan took a break or camped for the night. Instead, everyone parked the wagons where they were, then found a place near the road to take the weight off their feet. They stopped for lunch a few hours later, giving the beast handlers an opportunity to tend to their charges and everyone a chance to fill their bellies.

Edge had just polished off a sandwich Violet had packed when he heard a woman’s voice. It wasn’t coming from anywhere nearby, but from inside his own head—like the sound of his own thoughts.

“Edge, can you hear me?” He was so surprised that he jumped, barely repressing the urge to scream. Jumo was the only one who saw. The athletic warrior laughed, then resumed practicing with his new spear.

“This is Sakura. I’m looking through your eyes and listening through your ears now. You should feel a tingling at your temples that indicates our link is active.”

Indeed, Edge could feel a faint prickling around his forehead, which he had thought was the wind blowing through his hair. It was strange to know that someone was watching his every move again—something that had been a part of everyday life until the Prison World broadcasts ended with the disaster that had reshaped the surface of Ord. He held his hand in front of his face and flashed a thumbs up.

“Great. I read you loud and clear. My voice is just a modification of the Guide message system by the way. I can’t read your thoughts or anything like that. I will normally be observing your progress via my scrying skill, since it costs a ton of mana to activate the sense link. Hacking the System to send direct messages like this is expensive too, so I’ll save if for major milestones and emergencies.

“I just wanted to let you know that everything is working properly. I’ll do what I can to support you during this mission, although the info I have regarding dungeons and frontier biomes is extremely limited due to the Fog of War. I’ll sign off for now, but everything looks good on my end. Good luck, Edge. We’ll talk more when you get back.”

“Thanks, Sakura,” he whispered as the tingling around his temples faded away.

Riller and Sasha returned later in the afternoon, having encountered nothing more exciting than a few patches of land that had been swapped by the anomaly. If anything dangerous had come along for the ride, it had long since migrated to elsewhere on the plains and wasn’t a threat to the expedition. Trapper and Violet joined them not long after, having completed their work for the day.

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The wagons stopped an hour before sunset, giving the teams time to pitch their tents and tend to their beasts before they started losing the light. Everyone had been assigned a night-watch shift during the journey, and Edge’s was tonight. After the crew ate dinner and everyone slipped into their bedrolls, he walked a few hundred feet out and sat down on top of a large boulder, where he had a good view of anything approaching the caravan.

A small predator might get past him by moving through the tall grass, but there were skill-summoned traps and wards in place to deal with that unlikely occurrence. He cast his senses into the distance, since his ears were his primary tool for detecting threats approaching under the cover of night. The nocturnal denizens of the Ivory Plains soon made their appearance, and growls and howls echoed in the distance.

Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, so he just sat there, staring up at the night sky. Edge ran his gaze across thousands of twinkling lights that were so bright compared to the world he had left behind.

Around midnight, the Red Shield made an appearance—the magical barrier the System had raised to prevent anyone from entering the atmosphere without its permission. The insanely-powerful magitech barrier was always up there. But when certain conditions were met, light refracted off the Red Shield, rendering it visible to the naked eye for a short while.

He took in the shimmering waves of crimson and ginger—awestricken by magic on a scale that simply blew him away. Part of the way through, Jumo walked over and sat down beside him. They enjoyed a companiable silence for another half hour, until the resplendent display faded away. Edge spent the rest of his shift chatting with his friend, then made his way over to his bedroll and closed his eyes.

When he woke up, the scents from a hundred cookfires rode the breeze, filling his nostrils with delicious aromas that set his mouth watering. Violet handed him a steaming bowl filled with nut-and-fruit-infused porridge, which he devoured with gratitude. The sun rose not long after. Once there was enough light for the beasts to see the ground beneath their feet, the caravan resumed its journey, heading south toward the boundary of the biome.

During the second day of the expedition, Edge tried to spend some time with his dungeon team. He wanted to become more familiar with their personalities and capabilities before they entered the deadly trial known as a dungeon.

He would have to say goodbye to Trapper’s crew after the expedition established their base camp, except for Jumo. Riller and Violet weren’t well-suited to fighting monsters in an enclosed area, and Trapper and Sasha’s expertise was best utilized by defending the crews operating outside the Savage Garden.

Melenia was always good company. Although most of Edge’s interactions with the muscular redhead had consisted of getting the ever-living shit beat out him during their kickboxing sessions, they had developed a sense of camaraderie by this point. He enjoyed her blunt outlook on life and her tendency to take the direct approach to whatever problem she was dealing with.

Since she was part of the dungeon team, Mel didn’t have any leadership responsibilities this time around, and Able had been chosen to lead the peacekeepers’ contingent. It meant that she had plenty of time on her hands. They spent long hours sparring while reviewing everything she had taught him, and speculating on what they might find after entering the dungeon.

After being on the receiving end of Mel’s fists on numerous occasions, Edge found the prospect of fighting alongside the veteran guardswoman to be deeply reassuring. Jumo got along with her too, and the three of them walked together until the expedition stopped for lunch.

When he thought to check his menus, he saw that his training had borne fruit.

By conditioning your body, your Control has increased by 1.

After that, Edge went to find Tessa. Since she was the mayor’s personal guard, she didn’t belong to any of the other groups. Instead, Tessa had been travelling with Gram and the other leaders of the expedition. She didn’t mind spending some time with him, but like Riller, she wasn’t much for casual conversation. He learned that she was going to serve as the team’s scout, using her mana-sensitivity to detect trouble coming once they entered the dungeon.

They didn’t exchange many words, but he was able to get a sense of her personality. Tessa was alert, discrete, and conscientious. Edge hadn’t seen her fight, but he had the impression that she had trained long hours with her weapon of choice—a slender silver sword that reminded him of Trapper’s blade. She also carried a round shield strapped to her back, made of a thin sheet of coppery metal.

He couldn’t find Fox or Snake. After asking around, Edge learned that they were scouting as part of the vanguard and wouldn’t be available until the expedition arrived at the dungeon. He was a little disappointed, since he enjoyed Lilly’s company and had been looking forward to spending more time with the cheerful woman. But it would have to wait until they crossed through the borderlands and were ready to enter the Savage Garden.

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While he was hanging out with the deputies, he learned that both Fox and Snake had stellar reputations as monster hunters. No one had much to say about their private lives, since both shadowkillers wore masks while working in the field. Edge already knew that Lilly’s real personality was a polar opposite from the shy handywoman she presented in public, from their interactions in the Mortium exchange beneath Ann’s General Goods.

He wondered if he had already met Snake’s alter ego. Maybe I’ll figure it out once we enter the dungeon. He hoped that the rest of their journey would be as peaceful as its start, but Edge had a feeling that their trip wasn’t fated to end so smoothly.