The rest of their time in Poltar went by in a flash. Asher spent the majority of the two days they had left hunting for more serpents, but with each one that finally showed up, drawn by the smell of his blood from miles away and the blood of the serpents he’d already taken care of, it seemed to take twice as long for the next one to come attack him. The wait was great for giving him time to replenish his energy and lick his wounds, but not so great for farming shards. His final tally ended up being seven serpents slain deep within the waters under the city, netting him a little over two hundred and ten thousand shards for his troubles.

  And that was just from pure shards. He managed to make two different trips up to the market to sell all the serpent fangs and scales that he’d sliced off and crammed into his Personal Rift. He’d gotten some strange looks, and his inexperience with carving up monsters clearly showed, but he still managed to rake in another thirty-eight thousand shards for his efforts. That number would have been even higher, other than the fact that the merchant he’d sold the scales to agreed to throw in two custom-made outfits for him and Samantha each, crafted from the very serpent skin and scales that he gave him. Finally, Asher had an outfit more durable and even more comfortable than his leather one. And if that wasn’t enough, liquid seemed unable to find a purchase on the sea serpent leather, and it was comparable to moderate armor while still being easy to move around in.

  And that wasn’t the only boon from his two days of deep-sea fishing.

  Spatial Lock (active) - Lvl 22

  Tier 1: Control the space around you. Nothing enters or leaves this space without your permission.

  Tier 2: The area you control can now be moved spatially.

  With how critical a role Spatial Lock played in his sea serpent hunting technique, it wasn’t surprising that the skill had finally hit the level cap. He’d consumed the hundred thousand shards needed to evolve it almost immediately, but the second tier ability for Spatial Lock was the first one he was more than a little confused by. It took him some experimentation, but he was able to figure out what his interface meant quickly enough.

  Mainly, it meant that he could now combine his Spatial Lock with some of his other skills.

  For example, it took far more energy than his skills normally did, but after locking down a portion of space, he was now capable of using Recall on everything held within his Spatial Lock. No longer was he forced to shove things into his Personal Rift in order to take them with him when he teleported. There were a few issues that arose, such as items getting left behind if it meant they would otherwise end up partially erased within a wall or the like, but he was still pleased with the evolution.

  Even weirder was the fact that he could now actually bring other people and objects in his vicinity into the astral realm with him. They couldn't actually go anywhere, as his Spatial Lock was still locked wherever he set it up, but they were capable of looking out into the astral and seeing what he saw.

  The main issue with this was the discovery that the movements of those he brought into the astral realm drained their energy just like his movements did his, which meant unless Samantha was standing perfectly still, he couldn’t keep her within the astral realm for more than a short while without her simply passing out. Curiously, the energy drain both he and those he brought with him experienced within this isolated space was far less than what moving around within the astral normally cost him. He had no idea why that was the case, but his main theory was that dragging a whole chunk of the material realm into the astral with him made it act like some sort of spacesuit, lessening the effects of the astral realm that were normally pressing down all across his body. Whatever the reason, it was somewhat nice being able to walk around within the astral realm more leisurely, even if it was limited to such a small area.

  Other than his latest skill evolution, his deep-sea fishing had resulted in a few other welcome gains as well.

  Distortion - Lvl 29

  Personal Rift - Lvl 25

  Personal Rift - Lvl 26

  Recall - Lvl 15

  Complete Resilience - Lvl 28

  Complete Resilience - Lvl 29

  Sever the Thread - Lvl 12

  Shards: 201,246

  His underwater excursions had ended up being fantastic training. Most noteworthy was his gain of two different levels in Complete Resilience, which was massive for an already evolved skill. He supposed the constant exposure to the high pressure and frigid temperatures found deep within the lake had played a hand in that. It certainly made the uncomfortable experience more worth it, at the very least.

  Before he knew it, it was time to leave Poltar, and they made their way over to Brant and his caravan once more. Despite Samantha and Brian having been transformed by Mags into fairly confident swimmers, none of them were inclined to risk missing the city-fragment’s departure and try their hands at swimming their way back to shore.

  The usually calm and collected Brant looked a tad wary as they and all the other travelers filtered onto the detachable fragment and were directed toward their wagons. It wasn’t until they finally separated from the rest of the city and began making their way to shore that the caravan leader let out a relieved sigh, and Asher finally understood why the caravan leader had looked so strangely nervous.

  Someone other than Mags was leading the team of workers steering the city-fragment this time around.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Rolling his eyes, Asher walked over to the side of the fragment with Samantha and Brian to watch the water rushing by them as the city of Poltar grew smaller and smaller behind them.

  “Alright, we’ve been to three of the kingdom’s eleven cities now… Any favorites?”

  “I was a big fan of the market in Whikoga,” Samantha admitted, smiling softly as her fingers brushed against the silver ring on her finger. Despite informing him she wasn’t a massive fan of jewelry, the hunter hadn’t taken the ring he’d bought her off since the day he gave it to her. “There was just so much to see!”

  “The market was fun,” Brian agreed, no doubt thinking about all the fletching materials he’d picked up. They’d been so busy running around the kingdom that he still hadn’t had the chance to really delve into them. “Though I thought mining was pretty cool in Dormaul!”

  “Brian, we were nearly crushed in a cave in,” Samantha pointed out.

  “Yeah, but it was really cool up until that!” he argued.

  “What about you, Asher?” Samantha asked, shaking her head at Brian’s answer. “How was Poltar?”

  “Relaxing… A nice change of pace,” he decided after a moment as he watched some fish near the surface of the water dart away from them. “Kinda nice living in a city without an Assassin’s Guild. Just makes me want to keep pushing and try to make my eradication of the Guild an actual reality.”

  “Didn’t you spend the last two days fighting sea serpents?” Brian asked, staring pointedly at Asher’s new outfit. “I wouldn’t really call that relaxing.”

  “People relax in different ways,” Samantha said firmly. “For example, I bet Asher would be nothing but frustrated trying to fletch his own arrows, whereas I’ve seen you do that for hours on end without moving.”

  “That’s fair,” Brian nodded. “Think we’ll run into any more bandits on the road again?”

  “I doubt we’ll see any bandits…” Samantha said, shooting Asher a concerned look. The two of them had spent a good chunk of the evening discussing what to do if they were attacked by a mass of demons on the road. At this point, lesser demons weren’t much of a concern for either of them. But if the greater demon managed to find them…

  Suffice to say, the plan didn’t involve much more than run.

  Up until now, first due to the greater demon surprising him with the fact that it could follow him into the astral realm before it ripped off his hand and ate his dagger, and then the High Prince warning him that Samantha would die if he tried fighting it in the forest the other day, Asher had yet to actually land a blow on the greater demon. Despite watching Samantha’s empowered arrow fail to do so much as scratch the demon’s skin, he was fairly confident that his own attacks would be able to harm the monster. He not only had his masterwork mithral dagger, but his demon hunter class as well.

  No, the problem was actually landing an attack on the demon.

  The demon was capable of either short range teleportation, or moving so fast Asher’s eyes couldn’t keep up with it. Either way, unless he came up with a method of grounding it, any fight he started with the demon would be over before it even began.

  He did have one potential idea he’d recently come up with that he could try in the event they encountered it for a third time, but he didn’t want to stake his life on a hail mary.

  It wasn’t long before their city-fragment reached the shore, and they followed the mogrants and wagons back onto dry land. Once everyone was settled and the city fragment retracted their bridge and waved them goodbye, Brant hopped up onto his lead mogrant and beamed at them all.

  “Well then, I don’t know about you folks, but it’s nice to be back on dry land after all this time!” he laughed, clapping his hands and rubbing them together. “Right! As I said earlier, our next stop is the town of Abingdon. I know we may or may not have one or two travelers with us that are intending to try their luck at the royal guard academy’s entrance exam, so let’s all wish them some good luck to help with their nerves for this last portion of their journey!”

  A polite round of applause came from the scattered travelers, and Asher winced at the realization that he’d forgotten to tell Brant they were planning to continue on to the capital with him instead of dropping Brian off at the academy.

  Ah, well… I’ll just pay him the shards we should have for Brian earlier, and then whatever is needed for the additional leg of the journey for the three of us.

  “Now, it’s only two days to Abingdon, and then two more to the capital past that,” Brant reminded them. “Because of the quick stop, we’ll only be resting in Abingdon for the night before heading out that morning, so we’ll be in the capital in four days’ time. As always, if anyone has any questions or concerns, feel free to find me at any point during our journey. Otherwise, let’s get started!”

  Without further ado, Brant turned and instructed his mogrant forward, leading the other five trains as they began their slow but continuous walk on to their next destination. Unless they were attacked again, the mogrants wouldn’t stop moving until they reached Abingdon.

  “Well, I suppose that means we have a few days to kill,” Samantha said, falling into line beside their assigned wagon as they began moving. “Are you sticking with us, or heading off?”

  “You know you guys could come with me if you want,” Asher pointed out. “I can just leave a mark on the wagon and let it do the traveling for us.”

  “Huh,” Samantha blinked, turning to look at their wagon rolling along beside them. “Honestly, the thought hadn’t occurred to me. It’s easy to forget you can just mark whatever you want.”

  “That takes all the fun out of the trip!” Brian complained, clearly not pleased by the idea. “I wanted to finally get some work in on fletching in the wagon while we rode!”

  “I said you could come with me, not that you had to,” Asher laughed, ruffling Brian’s hair. “You’re welcome to stay here.”

  “In that case, I better stay with him,” Samantha said, leaning into him and lowering her voice. “There’s no telling when or where that demon might strike…”

  “Better to give me a warning than let the marks do it when Brian gets hurt, I agree,” he muttered. “I’ll stick around for the most part, but I want to make one more quick stop back in Whikoga to tackle two birds with one stone. My Incorporate has been sitting at level 19 for ages now, and I bet I can find some information in their library on greater demons if I look hard enough.”

  “Good thinking,” Samantha nodded. “After hearing you describe how easily the demon took out a truthseeker, we need every edge we can get.”

  “What are you guys whispering about?” Brian asked, frowning as his eyes bounced between them. “I’m right here!”

  “Stuff you don’t need to worry about,” Samantha teased, giving Asher a quick kiss before shepherding Brian into the wagon. “Come on, let’s get started on your arrows. You can show me how much faster you’ve gotten than you used to be.”

  As the group pack mule, and not wanting anyone to see him vanish into thin air anyway, Asher joined them within the wagon in order to summon the materials Brian needed from his Personal Rift. Once that was done, he gave Samantha one last kiss before checking in on Rosh with his Eternal Mark. The instructor was already hard at work sifting between different papers filled with numbers that didn’t make a lick of sense to Asher, but most importantly, he was alone in his room.

  “Be back in a bit,” Asher said, smiling as he channeled his Recall and was whisked back to Whikoga.

  It was time to figure out how to take down that greater demon once and for all.

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