Chapter 9: The Arcane Carriage
Before I could even think about what to do next with the unconscious girl, I had to take care of the dead.
I couldn't just leave them out here. Whatever those grey monsters were, they had made a mess of the campsite, and leaving the bodies of the couple and their guard to the elements—or worse, to other scavengers—felt wrong.
"Bee, Fenris. Perimeter check, then back here," I ordered, leaning my newly forged Soul-Steel scythe against the heavy wooden wheel of the wagon.
While Fenris swept the dark tree line, his silver frame a silent blur, I had Bee use his heavy golden hands and innate earth affinity to quickly open a deep trench near the edge of the clearing. It was grim, silent work. We carefully moved the torn remains of the man, the woman, and the armored guard into the earth, and Bee smoothly folded the dirt back over them. I didn't know any prayers for this world, so I just stood there for a quiet minute, hoping they found peace wherever they ended up.
Once it was done, I turned my attention back to the wagon.
I carefully reached into the hidden compartment and lifted the young girl out. She was incredibly light, completely limp in my arms. Her breathing was steady but terrifyingly shallow.
"Fenris, hold the perimeter. Anything moves in those woods, you end it," I commanded. The massive silver wolf gave a low, rumbling growl of acknowledgment and melted into the shadows near the tree line. "Bee, with me."
I carried the girl to the back of the heavy wooden wagon and pushed aside the thick canvas flap, expecting to find a cramped, dusty storage space smelling of hay and old wood.
Instead, my jaw practically unhinged.
I stepped through the flap and onto a polished hardwood floor. The interior of the wagon was physically impossible. From the outside, it was maybe ten feet long. Inside, it was easily the size of a luxury RV. It was lit by soft, floating orbs of warm golden light. There were plush velvet bench seats, a beautiful polished oak table bolted to the floor, intricately carved cabinets, and even a small, separate sleeping alcove partitioned off by thick silk curtains.
"Spatial expansion magic," I whispered, completely awestruck. "Of course. Why pack light when you can just bend the laws of physics?"
Bee clumped up the wooden steps behind me, his heavy KBT-type frame fitting through the magically expanded doorway with ease. Together, we maneuvered the girl over to one of the long, plush velvet seats. I grabbed a thick wool blanket from the sleeping alcove and draped it over her, making sure she was comfortable and secure.
With her settled, the sheer exhaustion of the fight finally caught up to me. I slumped heavily into one of the velvet chairs on the opposite side of the cabin and let out a long, ragged breath.
For the first time since the clearing had erupted into violence, I focused on the persistent, flashing blue icon hovering in the corner of my vision.
"Bee," I sighed, waving a hand toward the door. "Go sweep the clearing. Bring back whatever cores those things dropped."
The golden-yellow golem gave a sharp nod and headed back outside. I leaned my head back against the velvet and mentally opened the system logs. The translucent blue screen snapped into existence, the text scrolling at a dizzying speed as my Gemini Soul processed the data dump.
[Experience Calculated]
[Target Defeated: Night-Ghul (Level 3)]
[Target Defeated: Night-Ghul (Level 4)]
[Multiple Targets Defeated...]
[Target Defeated: Night-Ghul Bruiser (Level 9)]
[Experience Threshold Exceeded]
[Level Up: Level 6 Reached]
[Stat Points Available: 8]
I stared at the readout, my eyes wide. I hadn't just leveled up; I had skyrocketed. I was suddenly sitting at Level 6, with eight unspent stat points burning a hole in my pocket.
The heavy thud of footsteps broke my concentration. Bee walked back into the cabin and approached the polished oak table, dumping the loot he had collected.
Instead of the solid crystals I had pulled from the boar and the bear, the table was covered in what looked like broken glass. There were dozens of small, jagged shards of dark red and muddy grey cores. They pulsed with a sickly light, feeling completely unstable.
"Fragmented cores?" I muttered. "No wonder those things were so feral."
They were useless for high-level golem crafting, but sitting in the center of the pile was the real prize: a solid, heavy core the size of a grapefruit, pulsing with a deep, dark-grey energy. The Level 9 Bruiser's core.
I looked over at the unconscious girl. I needed to be smart about my stats. The scythe fight proved I could output catastrophic damage, but I was still just a regular guy. If I took a direct hit from a bruiser, I'd fold like a lawn chair.
I mentally allocated the points.
[Attributes Updated]
Strength: 10 -> 12
Vitality: 15 -> 17
Agility: 14 -> 18
A rolling wave of heat washed through me. My muscles felt denser; the lingering aches from the battle evaporated. I clenched my fists, feeling a solid grip strength that hadn't been there a minute ago.
I quietly stepped out of the carriage, pulling the canvas flap shut. Outside, the localized fires had burned themselves out. I sat down in the dirt, resting the dark metal shaft of my scythe across my lap, and finally let the exhaustion take me. I dozed off.
"Excuse me...?"
My eyes snapped open. The sun was peeking over the tree line. Standing a few feet away, clutching the wool blanket around her shoulders, was the girl. She looked terrified, her eyes darting between me, Bee, and Fenris.
"Hey," I said softly, standing up slowly. "It's okay. They won't hurt you. They're with me."
"Who are you? What happened?" she asked, her voice trembling.
"My name's Nero. I found the camp... but there were too many monsters. We buried the others over there," I said gently.
She stared at the graves. She didn't scream; a hollow kind of grief washed over her face, and she began to quietly sob. I just stood back, letting her cry. After a few minutes, she wiped her face with surprising resolve.
"They were all I had left," she whispered. "Silas was my head butler. Elara was my head maid. We're refugees. I... I am a noble. From the northern territories. Our city fell to an Outsider attack."
An Outsider attack. Not monsters. That implied an army. I filed that away.
"Everything my family had left is in there," she continued, gesturing toward the wagon. "It's an Arcane Carriage. But we're stranded. The carriage is too heavy for one beast to pull, and ours is dead."
I looked at the massive wooden cart, then at Fenris and Bee. A small smirk tugged at the corner of my mouth.
"Well, it's a good thing I brought some horsepower," I said.