Spiritual Progress and Variants

One of the things that I had kept up on was practicing sensing spiritual ripples. Following Cedric's instructions and using Floriana's herbs I spent at least an hour each night in training. Until half way towards our quest, I hadn't felt anything. Then one night my head began to swim in dizziness as if I stood up too fast, there was a deep bass ringing in my ears, a rotten flowery smell hit me, and a burning sensation erupted across my skin.

Of course I felt like expelling my supper for a while because of this. That bastard never said anything about these feelings and was probably laughing his head off knowing what I was going to experience.

Once my body calmed down I focused again and began to feel the spiritual ripples around me like I did when Floriana healed me, though it wasn't as strong. After only a few seconds of examining the ripples around me I was overcome with exhaustion. I used what energy I had left and crawled into bed.

The next morning was rough and I looked like hell. It took Sundri several minutes to get me to wake up and I was the last one to get my horse saddled and on the road. Thelora and Lariss were giving me concerned looks but still kept up the usual banter.

"If Sundri's snoring is too loud you can always share a room with me." Thelora said.

"Or since the nights have been nice, you could sleep under the stars. I used to do that all the time, maybe I'll join you." Lariss said.

I was so tired that I just gave them a nod. When we stopped for lunch and to spar, I just laid in the grass and closed my eyes. Damn bastard should have warned me. I could have been in a dangerous situation when this happened.

When I opened my eyes Kay was sitting next to me and I could hear the sounds of Lariss and Thelora sparring nearby.

"You know I was young once. I enjoyed the pleasures that life could provide and indulged more than most. Let me tell you from experience, it gets old fast. There's so much more to life than getting drunk. If you need help let me know. I've helped a number of adventurers toss out their poor life choices." Kay seemed to think that I had a drinking problem. From the way he was talking I was wondering if he ran the Union's AA meetings.

"I think it was just something that I ate. I feel a lot better now. Hopefully I didn't hold us up." It was a lame excuse since we all ate the same food and my constitution was higher than a normal human due to my aura stage.

He placed a hand on my shoulder. "Hey, don't worry about it. We'll get to the village when we need to. The important thing is that you know it's not your fault and you can do better."

"Thanks." I replied.

Spirits be, what have I gotten myself into with coming on this quest with him.

We took an easy pace the rest of the day. That night I only spent a few minutes using my spiritual senses just to get used to the sensations. I didn't have as an extreme of a reaction as I did the previous night and woke up the next morning fully rested.

Seeing me feeling better, Kay told me he was proud of me with sincerity. Followed by Lariss and Thelora saying the same but also trying not to laugh.

After that our pace was quickened to make up for the previous day and soon we found ourselves coming into the village of Hightree. It was a decent sized village that primarily relied on farming and lumber. We shortly arrived at the inn, the Spotted Leaf, and asked for the mayor who commissioned the quest.

It didn't take us long to arrange a meeting and it was crucial that I gained some level of authority at this time or we'd be stuck following Kay's lead. I tried to indicate how important this was to the other two, but they just gave me matching smiles.

"I'm so glad you came so quickly. After the last group failed I was worried that no one would want to take this on and things have been getting worse." The mayor said.

"Can you tell us about the recent attacks?" I said before Kay could respond. His mouth had opened to speak but he didn't seem to mind that I beat him to it.

"Mostly it has been on outlying farms. I made sure to send a request as soon as it happened mind you. No one can say I shirk my duties. Then the troll started to get a little more daring. Some of our lumber camps have been attacked and the bakery was smashed about two weeks ago." They said.

"The information said they are harder to track, can you elaborate? Trolls are larger monsters and usually leave a path." I said. This time Kay didn't even open his mouth.

"That's the strange thing. Once they enter the woods, nothing. I saw them myself when they hit the bakery, large behemoths that should leave at least footprints but once they hit the forest, nothing." The mayor said.

"Do you know if they are the same trolls each time? They can wander far from their dens to hunt and don't always return to the same area. While it is unlikely that you have a bunch of different trolls, it's a possibility we have to eliminate." I said.

"The descriptions match up due to one of them having a large scar running from the side of their forehead to their opposite shoulder. And there are always three." They said.

"Hmm, this is all too strange. Do they come from the same direction and leave the same?" I asked.

"No. The last party of adventurers asked the same things. Sometimes they come from the north, or west but never leave the same way." They said.

"That goes against normal troll behavior. They aren't very smart and use the same paths to get back home from a hunt. They could be a variant." Lariss said.

"You don't have any mysterious mages or alchemists in the area?" I asked. While variants could develop naturally, they also came about through illegal experimentation.

"Not that I'm aware of. There are a few hedge mages but they've lived in the area all their lives." The mayor said.

"What about the local nobility? What are they like?" I asked.

"Ha, our Baron is a good for… I'm sorry. It's been stressful and our Baron hasn't been much help. He didn't even care about putting out a quest. You don't think they had anything to do with this do you?" They said.

"If they are ambivalent then probably not. If they had something to hide they wouldn't want adventurers around to disrupt what they were doing. It's just everything about this is so strange. They aren't behaving like normal trolls and even if they were variants, they should still leave tracks to follow." I said.

"Well the sooner you can take care of this the sooner I can sleep again." They said.

This time Kay beat me to the response. "Don't worry, we're all accomplished adventurers. We'll figure out what's going on and take care of your troll problem. Just leave everything to us."

After we left the meeting Kay put his hand on my shoulder. "Good initiative in there Wilmaer. You asked the right questions. Just be careful about throwing suspicion on nobility. We get to leave when this is done but the locals have to live with their animosity and stoking that can make it worse in the long run."

He then continued on in the direction of the bakery as I stood there dumbfounded.

"This is everything I could hope for." Lariss had tears forming in her eyes from trying to hold back her laughter.

"Yes, good job in there Wilmaer. You'll make a fine adventurer one day." Thelora said.

"Don't worry kid. It's actually easier if you just let him take the lead." Sundri said.

I just shook my head and followed after Kay.

Since it was an essential business the bakery had been repaired quickly after the attack. But we were able to get a sense of the damage from the repairs done. I had seen the aftermath of a few troll attacks and something seemed off but without seeing it while still damaged I couldn't say for certain.

We talked to the baker and their spouse to get an idea of what happened that night and what they said was also a little strange. The trolls didn't directly attack anyone even when the situation presented itself. They only defended, when attacked by some of the villagers.

"Hmm." Lariss seemed to be having the same thoughts as me, as she looked everything over.

"Do you have something?" I asked.

"It's just… I think the attack was a little too controlled for trolls. The area near where the bulk of the food is stored was the most damaged as you'd expect but everywhere else the damage is just superficial as if they went out of their way to cause destruction just to cause it." Lariss said.

"Well they are monsters, destruction is what they do." Kay said.

"Trolls are violent, not destructive. If they were trying to kill someone, sure they'd go all out but just causing damage to property just to do it isn't normal for them. It was night when they attacked and only took the food stuff with them. The baker, their spouse, and everyone else that showed up weren't attacked directly as you'd expect. Someone should have been torn limb from limb." Lariss said.

"That can only mean that this is a variant species of troll. We'll need to be prepared for anything." Thelora said.

Variant species could be harder to kill for two main reasons. Firstly, adventurers relied on knowledge of monster habits to form plans of attacks. Since variants didn't follow the same behavioral instincts, they were hard to plan against. The other reason was just how much stronger a variant could be. Trolls were on the lower end of C ranked monsters but a variant could easily become a B ranked monster.

"Agreed. We'll need to be extra cautious going forward. How about we split up and see if any of the locals have any extra information. Since it's most likely a variant, any information that seems out of place could be a clue." Kay said before teaming up with me to head to the local tavern for gossip.

"Just follow my lead and you'll learn a thing or two." He said.

Great, I now have an adventuring mentor.