17. Escape

The mountain that Mark lived on was not a normal mountain. The reason that it always had an abundance of metals just lying around it was because it was actively growing. The entire mountain range was growing and each individual rock formation was pushed up as the peaks grew independently of each other. This resulted in an abundance of metal ores just falling from the sky to the ground regularly and prevented Mark from having to travel far from the village to get ores. 

Unfortunately, this also resulted in very dangerous periods of rockfalls that happened randomly. There was no cycle in the growth of the mountains, they just seemed to grow whenever they felt like it. The growth resulted in the mass evacuation of the beasts on the mountain to safer areas that don't have growing mountain peaks within their immediate area.

Mark had a rough go at getting back to the village once the growth started. The majority of the rocks that litter the areas where Mark went to look for ores were there due to the growth. Mark knew that it was a possibility to get caught in the growth every time he collected items in the rockfall areas but it was important to get the minerals from the rocks and the materials from the beasts. Large amounts of rocks always fell during the growth and it was necessary for villagers to stay in the village.

Apparently, the village had been destroyed several times within the first several hundred years when it was first established in their mountains. The current place had been found through trial and error, and it was a safe place for the growth. They were on a rocky area with lots of bedrock but apparently, it was not part of any of the mountain peaks that were growing. 

Thus the area around the village was a safe haven, but the monsters on the mountains also knew that. They knew that the greater village area was normally not safe for them since hunting parties would regularly come out to kill them. During the growth, the village guards were all active and had to defend the entrances to their last breath and no one was patrolling the greater village area. So the beasts would flood the greater village area during this period but some of the beasts would try their luck with attacking the village.

Mark was not really worried about that as he had larger issues to worry about at the moment. He was fast, but having a bit of extra speed was not that impressive when the rocks falling on his head were larger than the houses in the village.

He had more than one close call and plenty of rock shrapnel stuck in his exposed flesh to show for it. The durable leathers he wore were the only reason he was really still alive while his exposed areas had only taken hits from minor bits of rock.

The only thing he could do was to ignore the pain and continue onward, fueled by the adrenaline pumping hard through his veins and his overwhelming desire to return to the forge.

Along the way, he witnessed several dead mountain beasts. Mostly mundane animals that were no threat like mountain rabbits or mountain wolves. But, occasionally he found a dead or half-dead warg that likely ran out of some cave he missed.

He knew from experience that if he made it out of this rock valley then he would be able to come back later to harvest them.

In the moment, he just ignored them and continued his retreat home.

It only took him a few minutes to make it to the natural bridge but it felt like it took hours.

Once he passed through the archway, he was basically safe. He didn't let his guard down but the greater area around the village was mostly safe from the falling rocks. He could feel a massive amount of tension release from his mind as he could relax a little. He was not fond of near-death experiences.

He still ran as fast as he could to the entrance to the village as now he was worried about the monsters from the rest of the surrounding growth peaks coming to the village.

As he approached the last hill to the village, he took his spear off his back so he was ready to fight anything. He knew there was likely not any Unikuma since he just came from their main area and it would be faster for them to get to a safe place in the opposite direction from where he ran.

There were still many beasts that could take his life and the fastest ones that may have beaten him there were the wargs. They had been increasing in number lately, as he had noticed, and even having to fight one was potentially deadly for Mark.

The village had protocols to deal with such beasts during the growth, though, so he knew they were not completely helpless.

Regardless, he slowed his pace slightly so he could position his body in a better position to throw his spear as he topped the hill to the northern village entrance which he was coming upon as he was back on the main road.

After cresting the hill, he found the barricades in place and the spears that were stuck in the ground around the barricade were devoid of any sort of monster.

The guards were very happy to see Mark though, and some even noticed the sack of meat on his back. That meant that Mark had already tasted blood for the day and they felt that it was a good omen for when the fighting began. 

Mark trotted over to one of the easily defensible spots in the rock that he could climb up and the guards at that spot let him up readily. 

"It looks like there have not been any beasts attacking the main entrance yet, do you guys know about the other gates?"

Mark was not big on socializing with people in the village but he was prone to helping defend the village in times of need. He would regularly get his meat as well as some crafting materials from these periods of the growth.

"No sir, there has been no word of attacks or breaches at any of the gates and the villagers are assumed to be safe in the crevice."

The crevice was a gap in the bedrock at the back of the village that the villagers would hide in during monster waves and during times of the growth. While it seemed like a dumb idea to hide in something that might collapse during earthquakes generated from a growth, the bedrock in this area had proven to be more than capable of withstanding it without shedding even a small rock. 

Mark was used to the respect shown to him by the guards like he was their captain or commander and he understood that he saved the lives of many of these guys before. He especially had the thanks of the guard he was talking to due to an incident that he had walked into in the past. His name was Sid and his mother had made Mark a meat pie a few months ago after Mark had saved his life from a pack of Wargs.

Sid was older than Mark but he was still a young adult who overestimated himself past the greater village area. He was lucky that Mark had been in the area at the time.

"Thanks, Sid, I am going to drop off this stuff. . ." Mark said as he slapped the packs on his back, ". . . and then I am going to check on the situation of the rest of the village before I come back here. I think you guys will be safe for a few minutes since even Wargs have a hard time getting past this setup."

Sid straightened up as he nodded hard at Mark. It was still obvious that Sid was taking everything that Mark said seriously and he went back to guarding the pass that Mark had come through.

Mark quickly went to the forge and dropped off his sacks and made sure everything was secure before he headed off to other parts of the village to check on the security and well-being of the villagers.