Secret Agent Chapter 073 - Outside the City Walls (Patreon)

Zack Adder had his back to the city walls as he looked out into the wilderness for the first time since arriving.

The forest was… weird. His first impression was of tree trunks and bushes and branches and leaves, and his first reaction was relief that at least it wasn’t jungle; it shouldn’t have been, given the weather he’d experienced so far and what that said about the climate, but all his training said that if he had to flee into jungle he’d probably just die.

Snowy tundras and scorching deserts? Water and heat management.

Temperate forests and plains? Easy mode.

Hills and mountains? Not that bad.

Jungle? Humidity, insects, low visibility, poisonous plants, venomous animals, and at least on earth, some of the only remaining large populations of animals big enough to prey on humans.

Thank God this was just a temperate forest.

There was a gap of about thirty yards between the city wall and the forest where the only vegetation was a few weeds here and there. Otherwise, bare dirt where no monster could sneak up to the walls, and no vegetation to aid in climbing. The gap continued to the left and right, and already Zack could see dark shapes of thurgenrats wandering, one every couple yards in every direction. Nate, Jerry, and Vera spread out and started eliminating the nearby thurgenrats while, like Zack, Ewan was pausing to take it all in.

Forest! Hunt there! Many many prey!

Sienna turned her head and flicked her tongue, trying to get his ear but Zack was wearing his leather helm. It was open faced, but it would protect against concussions and came down enough to cover his ears and jaw on the sides.

“Hang on, Sienna. Just a minute.”

Her excitement was palpable.

Shp shp shp shp.

Lang finished off a few more thurgenrats nearby and then seemed satisfied. He spared a glance back to confirm Zack and Ewan were still with him.

“Lang, Sienna wants to hunt in the forest.”

Lang scanned the perimeter. There were thurgenrats between them and the forest, but the three more experienced rookie adventurers were holding position, having dealt with the nearby thurgenrats.

“Alright, let her down. We’re going to keep the city wall on our left and head towards the river.”

Zack bent down while Lang was still talking, and Sienna slid down his outstretched arm to the ground. With surprising speed, she zipped along the ground, blending into the dirt, and then she made it into the scrub along the forest floor.

“Good. Before we move though, Ewan, come over here, we’re going to get you your first levels.”

Ewan gripped his spear tighter in his hands and stiffly walked out into the open, where Lang was surrounded by more thurgenrat carcasses, all dead with identical stabs to the spine at the base of the neck.

“Everyone else, stay nearby but feel free to kill any thurgenrats that get close.”

“Yes, [Leader]!” they replied, Zack joining a beat late.

Back by the wall, there wasn’t much for Zack to do. The thurgenrats closest to him were already dead, and despite the noise they were making, the thurgenrats several dozen yards away along the wall were more interested in wandering aimlessly or inspecting the city wall.

Or, trying to.

None could get within the last foot to actually touch the wall itself.

It was interesting, but Zack felt his attention drawn back to the forest.

The dirt of the gap around the walls suddenly turned to vegetation. There was no grass, but leaves and bushes and exposed tree roots covered the ground, making footing treacherous. Bushes ranged from what looked to be knee high to brambles taller than a person, and here and there smaller, more vividly colored plants grew in the shade of their larger cousins. There were several kinds of trees, some with grey, papery bark like birch, some with rough, long ridges like elm trees, and further back, barely visible if Zack pushed on his [Keen Eye] skill, there was a massive stump, easily ten feet across, likely more, with worn red bark like a sequoia.

And the greenery continued vertically, falling off in stages here and there as massive, truly giant redwood trees, with branches spanning dozens of yards from their trunks, loomed over all other plantlife.

And the shadows in the forest were dark.

Piercing the gloom from this distance was nearly futile. The morning sun was bright, and Zack was still too far away.

“I—I got a level!”

Ewan’s hesitant yet jubilant announcement brought Zack back to himself. Lang lifted his foot from where he had been stomping down on a thurgenrat’s head, leaving the carcass pinned to the ground by Ewan’s spear.

“Good,” Lang said, head turning as he continued scanning the environment. “We’ll get you one more, then you should spend the rest of the day getting used to any changes in how your body moves. Stop!”

Lang thrust out a hand, stopping Ewan from bending down to cut the tail from his kill—the proof he would take back to the Guild for pay and contribution points.

“Before you collect a trophy, always make sure it’s safe to do so. Look, there’s another thurgenrat coming. Nobody here’s going to steal your trophy, so take care of business in the proper order: eliminate threats, regroup, confirm safety, then collect your trophy.”

Lang gave Ewan a stern look. “Letting your guard down can get you killed.”

Ewan gulped and nodded. “Y-yes, [Leader].”

Zack shook his head lightly and tapped into Sienna’s energy for a minute.

Hunt! Hunt! Hunt! Bite! Bite! Bite!

She was certainly having a good time in the forest.

And that’s what he needed to do.

So he moved up to the other adventurers, sliding in between Jerry and Vera, and kept his eyes peeled for approaching thurgenrats. Several were approaching.

“I got this one,” Vera said quickly, and she stepped forward neatly pierced the oily-black-furred monster, cutting through vital organs although failing to sever the spine and kill it instantly. On the reverse thrust, she twisted the spear, ensuring the thurgenrat would die soon regardless.

“I got this one,” Nate said, and he stepped forward and did much the same.

A thurgenrat approached slightly closer to Zack than Jerry, between the two of them.

“I got it,” Zack said. “You got it,” Jerry replied, and Zack stepped forward and thrust.

It was a bit awkward. His balance was different now, with Sienna off his shoulders, but he still managed to strike the thurgenrat, just in the hindlimb.

Immediately he pulled back partially and thrust again. And again. It was a messy kill, but sheer aggression carried the day.

The thurgenrat died squealing.

“Bit sloppy of you, Jack,” Vera commented.

“He only just got the [Spearmanship] skill, Vera,” Nate replied in his defense.

“I got this one,” Jerry said, and Zack stepped back. Jerry, like Lang, managed to hit the thurgenrat in the spine and kill it instantly, the thurgenrat barely having a chance to squeal before it collapsed lifelessly to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

“Nice,” Zack said.

“Thanks. Lang was right, that seems to be a weak spot.”

The thurgenrats continued to approach one at a time, with no real sense of coordination between them, only growing aggressive once they wandered into a range of about ten yards from the group of adventurers. Beyond that, they just explored their immediate surroundings almost vacantly.

“Alright, form up everyone,” Lang ordered after about ten minutes, a small pile of thurgenrat carcasses near Ewan. “Vera, Nate, you both handle defense. Jerry, Jack, you two help Ewan collect his trophies, and then we’ll collect the trophies of everything else you all killed. Jack, you’re keeping track of your kills, right?”

“Three so far,” Zack replied. Lang nodded. “Good, get to it.” Lang himself moved to a position between their group and the forest, and left them to their grisly, smelly work.

In the end, Ewan had slain seven thurgenrats with Lang’s assistance, and had reached level three.

“Shouldn’t I feel different?” Ewan asked, glancing at Zack and Jerry as they moved around and collected tails. “From leveling, I mean.”

“Maybe, but it can be subtle,” Jerry said. “Pretty sure I got good Dexterity, myself. And it seems to get better with every level.”

“Everyone’s different,” Zack added. “For thurgenrats, at least, equipment and [Skills] seem to matter more.”

He kept his deeper knowledge about growth rates to himself, for the moment.

“Yes,” Jerry agreed. “Small fry like these, you don’t need to be some kind of [Hero] to take them out. Just keep your wits about you.”

Ewan pouted slightly, but his hands kept moving and soon they had the tails. Jerry and Zack tucked their own trophies into their pockets, and then Vera and Nate took their own.

The remainder were Lang’s. His own kills, of course.

“Alright, regroup,” Lang ordered somewhat needlessly, as they were all already standing mostly together. “Jack, how was it with the spear?”

“It was fine. I’m improving,” he answered.

Lang wordlessly turned to Vera and Jerry, and they both nodded.

“He was alright for having just got the skill,” Vera said.

Zack might have been perturbed by her assessment if his bond with Sienna wasn’t flooded with joy and excitement as she slithered about, dispatching thurgenrats with vengeful glee.

“I’d like to try something,” Zack said. Lang paused just a moment, scanned around one more time, and then turned and looked at Zack directly. “Try something?”

“Yeah, I have a sling I got trained on yesterday, and I want to try that.” He pulled out the sling and straightened the cords so it didn’t look like a tangled mess.

Lang frowned, puzzled. “Can you really use that?”

“I’d like to work on my aim.”

The other rookie adventurers eyed the sling skeptically. Lang worked his jaw for a minute, then eyed the forest.

“Well, fine. You know it’s probably going to be less efficient than just using the spear, right?”

“That’s alright,” Zack said.

“Okay.” Lang gave his orders. “Nate, Vera, Jerry, one of you back up Ewan at all times today. Be ready to finish off a rat if he misses. Jack, you stay with me. Don’t go hurling rocks at the wall, the guards won’t like it.”

And so they set off at a walking pace in two groups. The rookies carefully engaged the thurgenrats one by one, slaying them and covering each other as they collected their prizes.

Lang, meanwhile, gestured to several rats ahead of them. “Alright, let’s see it.”

Zack equipped the sling, sliding the loop around his finger and pinching the tab, and loaded one of his rocks into the pouch. Then, like he had done dozens of times the day before, he hurled the rock overhand.

vvvvBff

He missed. But not by much. The rock whizzed through the air and struck just short of the thurgenrat ten yards away, which startled and then turned and approached them.

Zack hurried to grip his spear. “I got it.”

“You got it,” Lang agreed, and Zack stabbed the thurgenrat to death. The rock he had hurled remained half buried in the dirt where it had struck.

“Well, that was better than I expected,” Lang admitted while Zack collected the tail. “You almost hit it.”

“Yeah…” Zack sighed, and then nearly gagged on the stench. He coughed as he stood up again. “Aiming is tricky.”

“I bet,” Lang said. “Do you have the [Aim] skill?”

“No, but I’m hoping to get it today.”

“And you have a skill for the sling?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, here’s my advice. Put the sling away for now. It’s overkill for thurgenrats. It’d be amazing for dropbears or glimmerhawks, if you hit ‘em, but for thurgenrats, look.” Lang and Zack had by this point advanced to where Zack’s stone lay, and Lang picked it up.

A thurgenrat spotted them and approached, making that irritating squealing sound.

Lang wound up… and threw the stone.

It lacked the precision he had demonstrated before with the spear, but he hit the body roughly in its center of mass. The thurgenrat’s flesh parted, soft like rotten meat, and organs and black bile and blood gushed onto the dirt as it thrashed around, dying.

“You’ll have to put more oomph into it, [Throwing], but see? And it’s easy to aim. I really can’t see how you even do with a sling…”

“Ah…” Zack took a stone in his hand, and stepped forward to bait a nearby thurgenrat into approaching. He lined up his throw…

Squelch.

And like Lang had, he mortally wounded the thurgenrat.

“Oh, there’s another problem with your strategy, Jack.”

“What?” Zack furrowed his brow.

Lang pointed at the stone on the ground, covered in ichor.

It was utterly disgusting, now.

“Did you bring any water to clean your stones after?”

Zack winced. “No.”