Path to Wheatstone 3

Gerus was baffled by his father's boldness in asking for the help of an unknown priest whose patron deities he had never heard about. He was not angered, as I first imagined, but actually concerned. I guess that the undead are a more terrible thing than I thought.

"Father, I understand your worry. I will follow your decision." The son gave a more formal answer to this parent than I expected given his reactions. I am gradually becoming certain that there is more to this.

"In such a case, Baron Mystral, to whom shall I report to?" I pondered because I didn't know anybody in this new land.

"You should look for my wife, Lady Mystral or my cousin, Tenorio Mystral, both of them are mages and would be able to take action in my absence."

My Authority of Healing resonated with his firm decisiveness, so I have no more doubts about his personality. As this kind of reaction indicates sincerity from the other part, I can't be completely sure about his intentions, though.

"I will look for them. Thank you for your concern, baron."

"I thank you for warning us, despite giving you such embarrassing treatment. I appreciate it if you could hurry and alert them as soon as possible."

The nervousness of the baron triggered some red alerts here. Why was he rushing? Are the undead something so terrible? I think I might be underestimating the situation now.

"Of course, baron. But we are by foot, so it will take some time to reach." I was about to suggest that Gerus bolted towards Wheatstone to reach it, but I assumed that he was asking me to protect his son.

"Yes, I know. I can't risk anybody more than what we are right now." I still think he was overreacting. Jel fought the zombies and skeletons, and if she were unhurt, she would probably have beaten the three undead without damage. Or was Jel more capable than I believed? I lacked the proper common sense, however so far, my readings in Olympus prepared me for some situations, but this abhorrence for the undead I was completely unaware of.

I understand that Asclepius loathes the undead and their creators, but as far as I saw here, he is a forgotten deity. Furthermore, I am going to refrain from asking for clarifications for now, as it could raise unnecessary doubts about the already bizarre troupe of one cleric and two goblins. I will try to get something from Gerus on the way to Wheatstone.

Baron Mystral started to mobilize his guards and went to resume its journey. Before, we exchanged some pleasantries, and Gerus started to travel with us. Jel took the opportunity when we were away from the others and asked me, "What is happening? I felt a lot of anger and now they are worried."

"I have told them about the undead, and because of that, they got anxious."

"Are the undead seldom seen?" Something was not adding up here. I am hoping that my guide, a 4-year-old goblin, will enlighten me.

"Hmm, I have been seeing them for a long time." Fortunately, I was aware of her age before asking; otherwise, I would be tempted to think that this had been happening for at least a decade. But, for now, 4 years is the conclusion that I can draw, probably more as soon as I have additional information.

"Do you know how to speak goblin?" Gerus came close to us and asked me, taken aback by my language skills.

"Yes, I can speak the forest goblin language." I made a pause and pointed to Jel and Matila. "They are Jel and Matila, their tribe had faced a terrible outcome from fighting the undead." I took the opportunity to present Gerus to them as well. "He is Gerus, and will stay with us until Wheatstone."

The girls were tense by the situations, and even more afraid because they were not understanding anything that was being said.

We said our farewells, and the baron's caravan continued to the north, and we resumed our journey toward the village.

---

Since we left the caravan premises, Gerus said nothing—not a single word. He was tense, looking up at the forest, as if he had walked into an ambush or was waiting for one. Thus, I tried to break this tense mood that had already contaminated the girls. I asked him, "Are you a knight, Sir Gerus?"

"Not yet, sir cleric. I am looking to make my vows to a noble house." He replied. While maintaining a sharp look into the forest.

I guess he is not the elder. According to my sparse knowledge about nobiliarchy rules in Midgard, it states that knights must make a servitude vow to a noble house. Usually, the eldest male child of a noble avoids doing this because they also forfeit the inheritance that one would be eligible for. And one cannot make the knight vow to their own family or collateral. There is an enforced system that prevents nepotism in this kingdom, while other places have distinct rules but are somewhat alike. Even outside the Kingdom, nepotism is an awful practice, despised by many even when the law does not rule it out.

"You were surprised when you became aware that I speak goblin. Is it too unusual?"

"Oh. I didn't mean anything bad, Sir Cleric. I was impressed because I heard about non-savage goblins that know how to communicate. But, I always thought that it was a legend."

"A legend? Their tribe was pretty close to Wheatstone, you must have met them before."

"Close?" Gerus seemed genuinely confused. "I only met savage, brown-skinned goblins. It is my first time meeting green ones."

He only met savage goblins. I turned to Jel, "Your brown-skin relatives, have you met them?"

She was walking while looking at the big horse that Gerus was riding. Although she managed to reply. "Since I became an adult, never. Before, my tribe had some skirmishes with them, from time to time."

This situation was growing awkward by the moment, savage goblins attacked everyone, forest goblins and humans alike. None of the skeletons or zombies were small creatures. All of them were regular-sized humanoids. Humans never met a forest goblin, even when their tribe was about seven hours away.

I kept this amount of information with me. I need to increase my awareness about the region if I intend to help it grow.

"Have you a runaway necromancer?" I tried Gerus.

"No, not exactly. My family is the deputy administrator of this region, and we were warned by the Iris dukedom, our lord, that zombies, skeletons, and abominations had been sighted nearby our domains."

Abominations—these I only faced with Hercules overseeing. It is an amalgamation of bodies, monsters, humanoids, and some inanimate materials that give form to the bizarre creature. According to my instructor, they were the necromancer's masterpiece and demanded a lot of mana and skills to be created.

I recalled that Hercules description fell within what one would have heard when hearing for the first time about the Monster of Dr. Frankstein. However, the abomination had a gruesome touch and an evil, indelible mark. These monsters had two goals: the first was to indicate how magnificent that necromancer was, a way to pride themselves among their peers. The second was to be a powerful guardian.

Which led me to my next question, "Abominations, plural?"

"Yes. There is a vanguard force designated to track and eliminate them from the Iris dukedom.

Apparently, the criminals fled to the vassal territories. We heard about them in the meeting held six months ago among the lords and their vassals. But, at that time, the monsters were seen in other territories."

"Lord Gerus, please, be at ease. I can perceive the undead that came close to us."

"Please, I am no lord. But, I can't be ease, these monsters carry diseases that can destroy about anything, fields, animals, humans."

"I understand your worries. Although they are my enemies too, we are not leaving you behind."

The knight-to-be was tense anyway. I think that he does not have much combat experience. Wheatstone is a central province in the middle of the kingdom, afar from border skirmishes while having some undeveloped lands that lacked blatantly useful resources. They are known in the kingdom to make use of river flow to grind wheat, which is the source of its name.

After four hours, we started to see the forest reducing its size to give space to a large river that came from inside the forest; its flow indicated that this river runs toward the north lake. The road became more irregular and had deviations around significant elevations.

And for the first time in a while, my Authority of Healing picked up some undead presence. I called quietly our knight and said, "I am feeling undead presence ahead, I do not know the road, but I think they are on our way." I used my hand to point in the direction where I noticed the monsters.

Jel and Matila were already aware of how to behave, so I explained to them the same thing that I said to Gerus and warned them. We will probably engage in combat soon. Matila got a little away, and Jel was tasked by me to protect the infant goblin.

Gerus dismounted from his horse and said, "This horse never fought a monster before, I was instructed to avoid using him against them." Good point, a scared mount would not only impair his combat capabilities but might hurt him in the process.

My divinity was pinpointing a group of five to eight undead, and none of the presences had that awfully impression of pure evilness, like the imp or the necromancer gave. Thus, based on my short experience in detecting undead, I guess we are going to face skeletons and zombies.

We decided to move towards the opposite side of the road, far from where the river was. This way, we could avoid an accident where one of those monsters fell in the water, tainting it. As we get close, we noticed that the undead were… devouring something; I guess it was some ox-like animal.

They haven't noticed us yet, so I will take this opportunity to fight them without relying on my authorities. Gerus readied his bow, and Jel had a small sword in her hand. For my turn, I chanted a divine spell to bless their weapons against those creatures, as soon as the holy spell finished, the undead faced toward me and began to move in our direction.