Chapter 1895: Chapter 1895 Triple S
— Sen —
Sen glanced around as Stantin let out panting sounds. “What are you panting for? We’re in the winter biome, there is snow everywhere and you’re half buried. I refuse to believe you’re still hot,”
Stantin glanced up at Sen from his snow pile and gave a guiltless smile, as if he’d done absolutely nothing wrong. “That hasn’t worked on me since you were a puppy. I didn’t want to come to the winter area without proper clothes and we had to waste HOURS hunting down a few monsters for their coats. Sure I’m warm enough now, but we could’ve been exploring that autumn area no problem. You’re just lucky we weren’t near the summer wall,”
Stantin let out a happy bark, wagging his tail… and incidentally using it to cover Sen in snow. Sen glared at the wolf. “You’re not a puppy anymore Stantin. Why do you do this?” Sen hated that ’because it’s funny’ was so easily readable on Stantin’s deadpan face. “Look, fine, I get it. You’re lonely without Surge around. Can we just get moving?”
Stantin huffed and leapt from the ice, spraying it everywhere of course. From there, Stantin made it seem like he was ready to run off… only to jump on top of Sen flattening him against the ground. “You’re not that heavy boy. I CAN get up,” insisted Sen.
’And you should still sleep’ was the glare Stantin sent his way.
“Look I can keep going!” insisted Sen. Stantin was not amused. Despite what others in the zone might think, the winter area was not one giant pit, it was actually several giant pits with various other attractions along the way. It was now early in the morning on the second day of the tournament and Sen hadn’t slept at all yet. He’d also been hiking through a cold region and burning up quite a lot of energy to stop himself from freezing. This is all before needing to hunt and kill a few monsters for their fur.
Sen really should be exhausted and Stantin wasn’t taking no for an answer. Or well… he was trying not to anyway. “Look, I’m really not tired,” said Sen slowly. “I don’t know why, but I’m too wired up to sleep and I know you aren’t tired either. I dunno if that weird attack two monsters back is responsible or if it’s just something about the tournament but it’s really not time to rest,”
Stantin sighed and stood back up, allowing for Sen to get out from under him. “Thanks buddy. Now, let’s go find more orbs and maybe a key or two. We’ve already got a chest from that cave filled with traps so being able to open it would be nice…”
After a few steps, Sen added. “You know… I wonder what my sister is up to? Reckon she’s cooling down somewhere?”
— Shoal —
Shoal was sipping on the drink she’d done up while Surge paddled around the oasis. Might not be the most sanitary thing, but her wolf was kept quite clean and besides, she’d noticed the water filtration enchantments etched into the various pillars strewn about in the lake. Some water collecting ones too. Her guess was that it took water from the ocean and then constantly purified it to remove the salt. An interesting technique.
’You should join me!’ barked Surge as she paddled around.
“I’m good thanks,” said Shoal as she continued to sip on the weird… fruit? She’d found. It was full of juice and great at storing the slightly sweet water inside. Made her wonder what the plant got out of it.
Unlike her brother, Shoal was dealing with the heat much better. Not that it was all that hot currently. The sun hadn’t yet risen and it was still nice and cool. Even with that in mind though, the pair had been able to deal with the heat pretty well. Unlike her brother Shoal had gone out of her way to learn how to cast a spell that cooled everyone down in an area. It was technically meant to be an attack but she didn’t have affinity for it. It completely destroyed the combat applications in exchange for keeping the mana cost reasonable for her… and was exactly what she needed.
It meant she’d been able to explore the desert with some leisure. They’d hopped from half buried monument to half buried monument. The desert seemed to be a collection of things that had fallen into the sand over time. Various different styles of ’temple’ a few different houses that had survived over time. There were even some buildings that were completely upside-down for some reason that had managed to survive.
Monsters were also few and far between. That was made up by them being extra deadly ambush predators. Usually waiting just below the surface for something to pass nearby their hiding spots and lash out. For normal people, Shoal could see them being a big deal. In this case though? It was easy for Surge to sniff them out and keep out of range. Perhaps they’d have loot on them sometimes but why get into a fight you don’t need to? Why make more work for yourself.
This was especially true in regards to her bag. Shoal had found an oasis early on the first day and stopped there to weave herself a little basket for carrying orbs she wasn’t claiming right away. It was a bit awkward to carry, but much easier to move around with then trying to shove them into her non-existent pockets.
Shoal wasn’t really feeling the need for sleep. She’d already tried that earlier and it had been more of a nap with Surge than anything else. Still a bit tired, but that was why she was relaxing. Once the sun came back up she’d need to be burning mana again. Perhaps when it did it would be time to investigate the pillars. She’d considered it before… but wolves weren’t meant to climb that sort of thing. So it was still up in the air.
— Strigor —
Strigor grinned as he cleaned off his weapons. He was in the tunnels and surrounding him was an absolute swarm of monsters. He’d noticed the noise and charged into the fray. Hundreds of insectoid monster corpses lay on the ground around him and he was whistling as he continued with his work.
Plenty of people put enchantments on their weapons to do this job for them. Arguably, an enchantment designed to properly clean your weapon and keep it sharp would always be better than doing it yourself. It was nearly impossible to be better at it by hand. Strigor, didn’t really care about any of that.
It was just, satisfying. Once you’d finished a good cull of the monster population that best way to cool that burning blood down was to perform weapon maintenance. Sure he knew that wasn’t the standard. Just about the first thing any adventurer with any real cash stockpile did was get a weapon that kept itself clean. It saved you time and money because that instant care helped weapons last a lot longer than you’d think… but it just wasn’t him.
Strigor gently lowered the sword he was currently working on down onto the cloth he’d set aside for just that purpose. It was a double-sided leather and cotton thing. The leather side was for the ground, while the cloth was to let the weapons rest a bit once they were clean to air out and let the various things he used to clean them drip or waft off them weapon.
Strigor glanced at the Timmy sitting next to him and clicked his tongue. *Didn’t properly take into account what it would mean taking this little guy. Should’ve taken my familiar, at least it can fight, even if not what I’d call properly.* Still, Strigor didn’t say anything about that out loud. Best not to tempt fate. Some might argue that Timmy could clean his weapons in an instant. Strigor would call that blasphemy… even if a small part of him recognise that Thyme could likely do an excellent job of it. Of course, that did mean Thyme would need to be paying a decent deal of attention through the little guys instead of making them semi-autonomous which was a wholly different can of worms.
“Not exactly good for my orb income but it’s been a fun time so far hasn’t it?” said Strigor to the air. He was managing to stay slightly in the positives… but it really was just slightly. Most of his time spent chasing down monsters didn’t exactly net him any extra time. The only instance in which it had certainly been worth it was when he found a giant clam, tentacle beast thing in an underground lake. Killing that had given him a chest, and a bunch of orbs as well as a good fight.
“Might need more practice manoeuvring in the water with those new enchantments…” said Strigor with a nod. “It was probably the best fight I’ve had so far and part of that was just how many options I had. Plus, I wasn’t ready for all those sharp hooks it had hidden in its suckers. Cheeky little shit it was. Might see if I can find more…”
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