The Way Ahead

Chapter 37: A Towering Ego

It ended up being pretty easy to trail the fleeing Outlaw- while Edwins tagged Identify boxes faded at some point (Was it distance or time related? Hed need to experiment), the bandit wasnt trying to hide his trail at all, and was instead crashing through the grass, panting loudly enough that it was audible over the quiet-yet-loud nighttime noises as they returned to Edwins awareness in the aftermath of his fight. As an added bonus, the Outlaws single-minded focus on running away back down Edwin had traveled along, presumably fleeing towards his home base, meant that it was trivial for Edwin to follow along unnoticed and even check his notifications at the same time.

You have unlocked the Mana Reinforcement skill!

Accept Skill? Y/N

You have unlocked the Block Strike skill!

Accept Skill? Y/N

You have unlocked the Hearing skill!

Accept Skill? Y/N

Congratulations! For successfully combining several skills in an inventive manner in a high-pressure situation you have unlocked the Skilled Arcanist path!

You have unlocked the Stealth skill!

Accept Skill? Y/N

Level Up!

Seeing Level 2426

Mana Infusion Level 6162

Flexibility Level 1922

Athletics Level 3435

Identify Level 3538

Outsiders Almanac Level 7374

Firestarting Level 3436

Walking Level 3839

Edwin nearly scoffed when he saw he had unlocked the Stealth skill. This counted as stealth? Please. He didnt need a Skill for this! He could do just fine without the Skill, and didnt need to make his Skill list even longer. He was already going to take forever to properly evolve all of his skills- something he did really want, if nothing else to see what sort of awesome skill Almanac or Alchemy would evolve into. They were bound to be good. The battle had even gotten him Skilled Arcanist again! Hed have to incorporate it into his plan, maybe in place of Hm. Maybe Mage? Or Outsider. Probably Outsider, he didnt want to risk his Class dipping back into showing his true origins. If not that, though, then maybe Path Less Traveled, or maybe Titan Slayer. Hed have to mull it over. There werent any obvious candidates to exclude.

The sun was barely peeking over the horizon, bathing the landscape in so much golden light as the rays spilled across the grasslands when the Outlaw finally seemed to get where he was going. Though it took Edwin a bit of time staring at an empty, ivy-covered hill to notice where he had gone, once he succeeded, he couldnt help but double-take in in surprise, which was enough for him to lose track of it again.

Namely, it was a massive, solidly-built stone tower jutting out from the top of a low hill, stretching a good fifty feet into the sky and overgrown with ivy, the top forming into a battlement-like structure around a twenty-foot brass spike that was bound to function as a lightning rod, intentionally or not. The strangest part of the entire thing, though, was how the entire building seemed to vanish if he stopped looking at it. It was still there, he could tell, his brain just sort of edited it out, like it wasnt worth noting. Like that one pickpocket, actually. It was more skill nonsense, clearly. But it was just his luck that his target was inside of what had to have been a wizards tower. This was going to be awesome. Unless he would have to fight a wizard. Hopefully, it wasnt an actual wizard.

Edwin yawned. You know what? He could deal with this after some sleep. Hed been up all night, after all. Now, he just needed to find some secluded place where he could hide during his snooze. Wouldnt want to be found by the bandits during his nap, after all. But this was going to be great.

Hed- yawn-

Hed.

Hed think of a battle plan in the morning. Evening. Whatever. Hm. It looked like there was a clump of bushes large enough to hide in over there. It would do.

Edwin had to work out a bit of a kink in his neck when he next woke up, but he was grateful that he had still managed to sleep undisturbed. He squinted and peered up at the sky, trying to ah, okay. About noon, then. He had gotten enough slumber, he wasnt tired at least, but it wasnt the almost supernaturally good rest he had started becoming accustomed to.

Information was power, and at the moment, he had neither. If he was going to properly have fun storming the castle, hed need to a bit of recon first. Actually, first hed have to find the darn thing again. Its unnoticeability was a bit annoy-Ah, there it was.

There seemed to only be a single entrance at ground level, there were no windows on the ground floor (the first was about twenty feet up), there were at least two balconies at different heights with a second level of anti-notice effects layered on them, and the entire thing was made of well-fit, large and smooth stones. Judging from a few moss-covered stones, some crumbling holes in the otherwise smooth stones which made up its structure, and naturally the all-pervasive ivy, Edwin judged that it was in at least minor disrepair, hopefully indicating whoever lived there now were just squatters. It would make things so much easier if that were the case, but was his luck really that good?

Well, it was so covered in leafy vines of ivy that he could probably climb up the whole structure as easily as on a ladder (assuming it held his weight), so maybe it was?

The only complication in his current luck and general plan of attack was what seemed to be a lone sentry on the lower of the two balconies. It was hard to tell for sure, though, and given how hard it was to see past the attention effect, he was almost surprised he hadnt gotten some kind of Focus or Mental Resistance skill yet. Still, insofar as Edwin could tell, the sentry may well have been asleep. They certainly hadnt moved in the past hour, and were leaning against the wall, so it seemed likely enough. He didnt want to count on it, though, so caution was still needed.

Edwin approached the tower from the opposite side of where he had seen the sentry, clutching his stick tightly. Every step forward was nerve-wracking, though he was able to still keep his footfalls essentially silent as he crept forward, as there wasn't much in the way of twigs to snap beneath the weight of his passage. Yes, it was the middle of the day, and the grasss light green coloration stood in sharp contrast to his own more forest-green cloak, but he was still reasonably optimistic about remaining unseen. Mostly because he didnt want to worry about what would happen if he was spotted. Well, hed just have to fight off whoever was inside again. Probably wouldnt be that hard, and it was what hed come here for anyway. Fortunately, his speculation was rendered mostly moot once he reached the base of the tower, where his cloak easily blended into the ivy around it, and as a result, he was able to breathe slightly easier knowing a single stray eye wouldnt immediately catch him out.

That was step two, done. Now, on to actually getting in the tower. Well, the prep for it, anyway. First, Edwin hid his backpack at the base of the tower, covering it with his cloak and a few loose vines. Unfortunately and fortunately, he wasnt able to pull any vines from the side of the tower, which meant he had to settle for slightly suboptimal coverage of his bags, but also meant that using them to climb should be possible. Second, Edwin made sure to check the towers stones for magic, and while they were indeed magical, it was faint at best. Perhaps whatever sorts of enchantments were on the tower had long since faded. That, or whatever it was was just a minor enhancement, maybe to keep pests away or help keep the stones clean or any number of stereotypical minor spells he could probably think of if he thought it was relevant. Or maybe it was an alarm spell. Hopefully not that last one, he wasnt ready to deal with everyone inside all at once.

Before hed gotten too close to the tower to see, Edwin had managed to get a solid look at his goal, an empty window about halfway up the side of the tower, some twenty-five feet above the ground, that appeared to be large enough for him to easily climb through. Fortunately, with the aid of the vines and a much higher-level Athletics than the last time he had tried climbing up something, namely the waterfall cliff so long ago, climbing was a breeze. He smirked into the foliage at the thought, pulling himself up one armlength and foothold at a time. Hed gotten so much stronger since hed first fought that Stonehide, yet he still had so far to go if he wanted to actually feel strong enough to consider himself safe. This would help, though, he knew it would.

It didnt take too long to reach his destination, and peering through the window revealed a semicircular room on the other side of the wall, filled with slightly dusty crates and filled with piles of sacks. There didnt seem to be anyone inside, so Edwin took a chance and pulled himself through the opening. It was a bit of a tight fit, but he was able to contort himself such that he could squeeze inside without much difficulty. Some sliver of broken glass sitting inside the long-broken window frame did manage to score a long gash along the length of his thumb, which hurt but didnt seem to be bleeding too bad- oh wait, no, it was just a bit delayed. Okay, he knew he had a bit of clean cloth in one of these pouches, where was it Okay, grab that end of the cloth, wrap up the length of the cut, and tie it off. Eh, it wasnt the best, but it stopped the bleeding and still left him with enough mobility in his thumb to retain use of it if needed.

Now that that was taken care of, it was time for Edwin to take proper stock of his situation and the room he found himself in. The space was bigger than it should have been for how wide around the tower was, not that it was too surprising at this point (it had to have been some kind of Skill related to building. Spatial Efficiency, maybe? Or more direct, like Bigger Rooms?). It was primarily a bit musty inside, but there was some sickly-sweet scent permeating from somewhere else, though it was faint. Looking around, there were stacks of wooden crates, some pried open to reveal various dry foodstuffs. None of it was exactly what Edwin was familiar with on Earth, but there were (some open, some closed) sacks filled with wheat-like grains, rice, various beans, and even some containing flour. So far as he could tell, that was also what was in the sacks strewn about that werent in crates as well, but he couldnt test that hypothesis without cutting one open, which he was reluctant to do.

There was also a stunning variety of dried fruits and even berries, way more than he would have expected to find collecting dust in an old wizards tower populated by bandits. Was all of this food really grown locally? That seemed odd, but he also vaguely recalled that because of its proximity to the Verdant and something called the Rhothos- a giant river, he was pretty sure- Vinstead was the primary breadbasket for most of the Empire. Foodstuffs of all sorts were able to be grown thanks to the abundant life magic in the area, and what was there grew quickly and to unusual sizes. There was also a high rate of new varieties being created, which spoke of something screwy happening with genetics, and if he were a botanist, Edwin knew hed be going crazy for the possibility of creating a greenhouse near Vinstead and figuring out what the life mana did on a molecular level.

But! That wasnt what he was doing, and hed need to keep moving regardless to stay ahead of his dwarven pursuers. Though maybe Tara would be able to dissuade them? Eh, no. Probably not. The Enforcer was nice enough, but she was also just doing her job. She didnt really care about him on any sort of personal level, so there was no reason for her to intervene on his behalf, assuming she even found out about them. More likely, his adventurers licensing would just create enough of a paper trail for them to know they were on the right track, and they could just quietly bypass the Silver Blade as they continued after him. And that was before factoring in any supernatural tracking Skills they might have. Ugh, skills made everything so much trouble.

Edwin returned the sack he was holding. No, he wasnt about to stop and settle down, nor was he going to investigate how Mendelian genetics interacted with magic. He was an alchemist, he should stay focused there. Honestly, why would he need anything beyond that? Alchemy was fantastic. Though he did admittedly need to figure out some stuff beyond just pour mana into an object and mix together. What he really could use was encountering some kind of Alchemist in the wild, then he could get a bit of a start on the less chemistry-like bits of Alchemy which his Skill was constantly telling him existed. Stuff like Essential Alchemy, or Potion-Making, or Alchemic Vitae? His Skill knowledge was weird, why couldnt tell him what these things were, not just-

An just who in the hells are you?

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