Rebirth of the Nephilim

Chapter 50: Victorious Wagonride

The message that appeared in Jadis’ vision as she checked her notifications was vaguely disappointing to Jadis. She had kind of liked calling the stone demon a boulder-dile. It was a good name if she said so herself. She supposed she had to acknowledge grundwyrm as the correct name now, though.

Tsk. The fuck was a grund, anyway?

“What’s wrong?” A pained voice asked from next to Dys.

“Oh, sorry, nothing,” Dys assured Ludwas. “Just thinking about that big stone lizard demon.”

“Hah,” Ludwas exhaled, a bump in the wagon ride briefly interrupting his words. “That’s something you should be smiling about! I know I am. Got a level out of all that. You got a couple as well, too, I heard. Worth a little pain, right?”

“Maybe a little,” Dys smiled down at the prone man.

The two were riding on the back of the wagon, Ludwas laid out on his stomach on a blanket and made as comfortable as he could be. The acid spell attack he’d tanked to protect Aila had done a number on him, the worst damage to his shoulders and back of his neck. He’d been wrapped up in bandages, a healing salve of some kind that smelled like a mix between mint and ginger slathered all over him.

Dys had some of that same salve stuff on her leg, the gash she’d taken from being hit by the grundwyrm not quite as bad as she’d thought, but still painful to walk on. No broken bone at least. She had to admit, the salve was helpful in reducing the pain, and she’d even seen her health pool go up a couple points. She probably could have walked on it, but everyone else had been insistent that Dys rest on the wagon.

The aftermath of the ambush had been brief, with Gerwas and the other mercenaries quick to cut the eyes from the dead demon carcasses, both from the huge stone one as well as the smaller ones that they had called ‘Twisted Wretches’. There was some fear of more potentially being around, though in Jadis’ opinion, if there were more, she would have thought they’d attacked while the big demon was still alive, not after.

Apparently, the wretches were not uncommon in the hills around Far Felsen, but their presence had been largely on the decline since a demon mother responsible for spawning them had been slain some five months prior. The grundwyrm, though, was a type of demon that had heretofore only been sighted in the north-western reaches of Weigrun, up near the mountains. That there was one so far south and near Felsen was a major concern for the mercenaries and they were eager to alert their leader and the local magistrate in charge of Far Felsen that one had been killed. The eyes the mercenaries had cut from the demons were for proof of their story, as there were people who could identify the demons they came from, and because they could be turned in for a bounty.

Jadis had to admit the part that interested her the most about what the mercenaries had told her was the idea of a bounty.

The fight against the demons had absolutely cemented the need for new weapons and armor in Jadis’ mind. Not only had Jay’s maul been broken, but the idea of what could have happened to her when she had hardly a bit of physical protection if she hadn’t been fast enough to dodge was obvious. If she were ever in a situation she was forced to eat an attack the way Ludwas had, she imagined she’d be in a far worse state. New weapons, armor, and maybe shields too, were all going to cost money, though. With three of her, that meant three times the amount, all of which would probably have to be custom made considering her size. The mace Gerwas had lent Syd, one of many extra pieces of equipment the prepared mercenaries kept in the wagon for emergencies, was an object lesson in both the need for good equipment, and the fact that nothing made for regular humans was going to fit her.

Getting equipped wasn’t going to be cheap, not from Jadis’ understanding of prices she’d gotten from Ludwas’ explanations earlier in the day. With the small bag of coins and jewelry she had, she might be able to fully equip one of her with basic gear, but not all three. It was a frustrating thought, being held back by a lack of funds. She’d have to work hard at getting demon bounties to boost her funds as quickly as she could. A task she’d be certain to do without a group of mercenaries around.

One thing that bothered Jadis quite a bit was how much her experience gain had been reduced. Ludwas had gained a level, and so had Volker and Aila. Gerwas and Specht hadn’t, while Jadis had gained two more in her secondary class.

Just two levels. She’d fought and killed a dozen of those wretches and another behemoth, admittedly not a demon matriarch but still a massive demonic monster, and she’d only gotten two levels. Not even a single level in her main class!

The split in experience was even across active participants, with a smaller cut going to less involved but still contributing members like Aila, according to Gerwas. Since there were four mercenaries in the fight, plus the ‘three’ of her, and Aila too, Jadis didn’t get the huge boost in experience she was used to getting from big, life-threatening fights.

The mercenaries hadn’t complained at all, though, not even Gerwas or Specht who hadn’t gained any levels. The amount of experience they had gained was more than they expected against the demons they had killed compared to the size of their group, apparently. Ludwas was also only slightly ahead of Gerwas in levels so he expected to gain his next level quite soon. All of them had quite high spirits, thinking they had gotten more experience because the demons were even higher level than expected, netting them a bigger reward for surviving the ambush.

Jadis was pretty sure the reason they were getting more than expected was due to her in fact only counting as one participant, not three, but she was fine with letting the mercs operate under their false assumption.

 Well, Jadis shouldn’t complain too much. From what she’d learned from Aila, gaining levels with the kind of speed she had been was far outside the norm. That she had gained two levels in just one fight was amazing. Not unheard-of, since her secondary class was much lower than her primary, but still a decidedly fast-paced increase.

With Perverted Ritualist of D reaching level twelve, Jadis immediately put the one free attribute point she received into eldritch. The level eleven skill selection made available required a bit more consideration, however.

The first new skill was straight forward. Similar to the Ritualist’s Resilience skill she’d been offered and not taken previously, the skill provided a flat fifteen-point increase to one of her attributes. That was a more tempting offer than the previous skill, since she knew what fortitude did, namely increase her physical resistance to damage. Fifteen points was no small boost to the useful stat and definitely worth consideration.

The second skill wasn’t as straight forward but was more interesting as a result.

Moving with more grace didn’t sound like a combat skill at first, but upon deeper thought, Jadis realized that it did have utility. If she’d had this ritual in effect on her, would she have been able to avoid falling prone as Dys in front of that attack from the grundwyrm? She might have avoided the damage altogether if she’d been able to roll out of the way more smoothly.

The skill was also interesting because it was the first of her rituals that made it clear that she could cast it on someone other than herself. She could only have one target active at a time, but if she were in a position where she wanted someone else to have greater grace in movement, like say, a party member, the skill would be useful.

Did Jadis want party members? After experiencing how much experience she was losing out on by sharing, she wasn’t as sure anymore. She’d offered to let Aila join her not but a few hours ago and she wouldn’t renege on that offer, but did she truly want something more permanent?

On the one hand, having a party, even just one other person, would mean a drain on the amount of experience she got. On the other hand, it would mean safety in numbers, companionship, and if she could get one or more people who would join her in her Lascivious Empowerment ritual, big boosts to her stats.

Yeah, she wanted party members. There were far more pros than cons. The drain to experience gain could potentially be negated anyway, if the increase in party members meant an increase in the number or difficulty of demons she could slay.

After a little more hemming and hawing, Jadis took the ritual skill, Dance of the D. She wanted the protection Ritualist’s Resistance offered, but Dance of the D had more potential use in a party situation, something she was hoping she could get into soon.

Laughing a bit internally at the sort-of pun she’d made with dancing and parties, Jadis focused on the alien knowledge of how she was to perform her new ritual as it magically generated in her memories. What she learned brought a small frown to her face. Unlike the other rituals, all of which had merely implied the need for multiple partners, this ritual explicitly indicated that she would need another person to join in. The ritual was, otherwise, far less perverse compared to the other spells she’d acquired so far. At least that would make it easier for her to ease someone into participating in one of her rituals, she supposed.

Thank D for small favors.

“Is aught amiss?” Aila interrupted Jadis’ thoughts.

Jay was walking next to the wagon, Syd walking some paces behind keeping an eye out on their rear, while the three mercenaries were scouting ahead and to the sides far more rigorously than they had at the start of the day. With Jay walking abreast of the wagon, Aila had apparently noticed the small frown Jadis had unconsciously shown on all three of her faces, though fortunately she wasn’t in a position to see the same frown appear on all of her selves at once.

Turning her frown into a smile, Jay shrugged and waved Aila’s concern off.

“I was just thinking about a new skill I’ve been offered. I’ll have to discuss it with my sisters, see what they think about taking it. It’s just a little different from normal, is all.”

“I see,” Aila said, nodding and giving Jay a hesitant smile back. “The way you three work together when fighting is amazing. You must have trained to move like that for a long time. I’m guessing you coordinate all your skills, too?”

“Yup!” Jay agreed, skirting past the coordination training to focus on the skills. “So far, we’ve always taken the same skills and will probably do the same here. I know conventionally, most people would say a party should diversify their skills and abilities to better cover a wide range of situations, but for us we all go with the same thing because it gives us intimate knowledge of what our capabilities are. Since I can do it, I know Dys can do it, that sort of thing. Helps us coordinate better.”

Jadis was rather proud of that string of bullshit she’d just weaved. So long as Aila bought it, she’d happily use the explanation in the future again to explain why she and her other selves were all so alike in capabilities.

Aila nodded, her eyes taking on a contemplative look. “That makes a lot of sense. I have to say, though, your talk of ‘party diversity’ is really quite forward thinking of you. That’s the kind of talk I’ve seen mercenaries from the Capital and other major cities discuss. It’s a modern school of thought being pushed by the Scholars of Charos as of late.”

“Oh, really?” Jay responded lightly, hoping to play the point off as something of a coincidence. “Party diversity is something that’s taught by my people as just basics. The only reason my sisters and I aren’t set up like that is because we’re triplets. If we were just regular sisters, I’m sure we would have chosen different classes that complimented each other.”

“Your current plan of being all the same class has worked out well for you, though,” Aila said with a more certain smile. “If any others of your kind have ever given you grief over your choices to mirror each other’s class and skill selections, then I think that fight back there proves them wrong.”

“Thanks for that,” Jay said with a small laugh.

Jadis groaned internally. Maybe she wouldn’t use that explanation again. Her fictitious backstory was already spiraling off in weird directions. No wonder liars were prone to getting caught. She’d have to come clean about her true nature as a Mirror Knight with anyone who formally joined up with her as a party member. There was no way she’d be able to keep things straight if she kept having to expand her fake reasoning for her choices as well as remember details about her non-existent village and culture. Sticking close to the truth would be so much easier...

“No, thank you,” Aila said with some force, once again interrupting Jadis’ thoughts.

“What for?” Jay asked, tilting her head in question.

“For saving us. For saving me. That wasn’t the first encounter with demons I’ve had driving this wagon back and forth from the camp and Far Felsen, but I can assure you, that was the worst, at least in so far as comparing our manpower to the demons. If you and your sisters hadn’t been here today, I’m absolutely certain we wouldn’t have lived through that. So, thank you. Truly. I owe you and your sisters my life.”

 Jadis was taken a little aback by the heartfelt words coming from Aila. Her impression of the girl so far had been a little cold, but the warmth in her voice was honestly a tad embarrassing. Jadis hadn’t thought of the situation as that of her saving others, just a fight that needed to be won, or a task needing doing. She’d just done it, instinctively, same as any other fight.

“Hey, no problem, Blue,” Jay finally said, using the new nickname she’d given Aila to try and deflect some of the embarrassment she was feeling from the genuine words of gratitude the girl was saying. “I think I can speak for my sisters in saying we’d be happy to do it again, any time.”

“No, not any time,” Dys called from the back of the wagon. “Hold off on calling over any more grundwyrm things for us to fight until after Jay gets a new weapon. I’m not giving her mine.”

As Aila chuckled at Dys’ comment, Jadis thanked D that her class let her set up and deliver her own cheesy jokes.

Conversation between Jay, Dys, and Aila became far more easy and pleasant then, mostly kept to light topics concerning Weigrun and the things Aila had seen the mercenaries do since she’d arrived. Ludwas occasionally chimed in, but seemed mostly content to let the three girls speak. Jadis found that Aila was far easier to talk with now that she’d warmed up to her and opened up a little, though she sensed Aila was still a bit prim in her speech and attitude. Jadis figured it was probably just the redhead’s natural demeanor to come across as a tad cold.

Eventually, with the sun starting to set on the western horizon, Gerwas called out from ahead, causing Aila to perk up.

“Ah, I barely noticed. It looks like we’ve just about made it.”

Following Aila’s pointing finger, Jadis looked ahead at the hill the road was curving around, her first sight of true Oros civilization revealing itself.