Wandering Warrior: Judge - Chapter 12 (Patreon)

Chapter 12

We didn’t make it much farther after reaching the path.  The sun dropped below the horizon, and the forest came alive with the sounds of predators hunting prey.  In some cases, it might have been predators hunting smaller predators.  Either way, walking strung out on the trail felt like a bad idea.

“I know of a copse of trees nearby that will work as a makeshift campsite.”  Corporal Leedy was in front, with Private Murphy bringing up the rear.  Jess and I were walking on either side of the horse that had Cross on its back.  “It’s better than setting up camp in the middle of the road.”

I nodded in agreement as both of them lit torches.  “Works for me, then.”  The sound of two creatures meeting one another in an unhappy manner came from somewhere close behind us.  And by unhappy manner, I mean screams, roars, tearing flesh, all the fun and exciting things you like to hear in a dark and suddenly scary forest.  All of us looked at one another with wide eyes, and both Jess and I took some torches from the pack on the back of the horse to push the heavy darkness farther away from our little group.  “And you might want to hurry.”

There were more sounds all around us as we continued on, almost as if the sheer number of things hunting us was protection from all of them.  They were so busy figuring out who was the deadliest predator, they didn’t have time to actually attack us.

“Do you think we’ll be okay?”  Jess had to nearly shout to be heard over the background noises.  “I’ve never heard of the trails being this dangerous before.”

“When I was by myself between villages, it wasn’t nearly this bad either.  I think we stumbled on some kind of turf war.”  I looked back to Murphy, who was close enough to the back of the horse that I was mildly concerned he was going to get kicked.  “What about you, Murph?  Is this normal?”

“No.”  Murphy kept turning around to look behind us, making sure nothing was sneaking up to pounce.  “I think you’re right though.  It sounds like a raptor pack ran across a bunch of pumas.”  Jess nodded in silent agreement, tapping her nose to show her sense of smell agreed with his assessment.

“Well, that sounds awful.”  I looked up, making sure a big cat wasn’t ready to drop on my head.  Just because I would most likely win that fight didn’t mean I wanted to get torn up by a giant cat.  Pain still hurt, and I wasn’t a masochist.  Then I had a brain stutter when I realized what he had said.  “When you say ‘raptor,’ what exactly do you mean?”

“You know, giant lizard, big teeth, moves fast – you haven’t seen one before?”  Jess raised an eyebrow, answering before Murphy could.  “Everyone knows what a raptor is.”

“Oh, I know what they are, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy to find out they are here.”  Movies involving resurrected dinosaurs from my home world flashed through my head.  I had seen several large lizard creatures over the years – even lizard people, and a few memorable experiences with dragons – but an outright dinosaur?  This would be a first.  “How hard is it to kill a raptor?”

“Not hard.  They like ambushes, so just stay aware of your surroundings.”  Murphy pointed to his throat and belly.  “The scales on their undersides are weak, so just aim there.”

I shook my head in disbelief.  Definitely worse than world number eleven.  “Thanks for the tip.  I’ll keep it in mind.”

“They’re also pretty rare this far west, and they are pretty easy to knock around.  They aren’t nearly as heavy as they should be, given their size.”  Jess smiled, trying to make me feel better.  “People say it’s because they have hollow bones.”

“Hollow bones, huh?  That certainly makes things easier.”  I shook my head.  I would just deal with them when the time came.  “How much farther, Leedy?”

Leedy looked back at me and shrugged.  “I’m not sure.  There is no moonlight tonight, so I won’t see the turn-off until we get there.”

We continued for a bit longer, a cluster of tiny lights in a forest of shadows.  The sounds around us started to die down, and I passed my torch off to Jess so I could use both hands to fight.  If the victors decided they were still hungry, I would stay and fight them while the others got away.

Somehow, Lady Luck decided to smile on us and we weren’t attacked by pumas or dinosaurs.  Even thinking that gave me a mild headache.  Seriously, this was shaping up to be the worst world I had visited, and there were some doozies in my past.  At least I hadn’t needed to fight off a dragon in world eight until I was there for several months first.  And I had a lot of help.  Finally, Leedy led us off the trail through a gap in the trees.

The trees here were older, and their thick branches had cut off enough sunlight on the forest floor that there was almost no undergrowth.  It was obvious when we came to the place Leedy had mentioned, but not for the reason I had expected.  The moment I stepped into the circle of trees, I felt a rush of power hit me like I had slammed a Red Cow, two lines of coke, and licked a nine-volt battery plugged into a wall socket, all at the same time.

“Wow.”  I stopped in my tracks, trying to deal with the influx of energy that slapped me like I owed it money.  “What just happened?”  Mana was pouring into me, causing my body to shake.  I heard a faint ding, and I pulled up my stat screen to see if there were any changes.  There were two, so I focused on those and my screen updated to show only what was new.

Name: James Holden (Earth v7.1)

Status:

Mind- 51

Mission:

Unique Upgrade Quest: Find five places of power - 1/10

Reading it was hard because my eyeballs were vibrating in my head, but I was absolutely shocked at what I saw.  Flabbergasted.  That’s the word for what I was feeling.

Not only had I gotten a new quest, but I had gained another point in one of my stats.  And apparently, my version had gotten an update.  That shouldn’t have been possible.  At least, I didn’t think it was possible.  My version hadn’t changed since the first screen had popped in my vision, and I had maxed out my levels and stats in world nineteen three months after arriving.  No matter what I had done since, I hadn’t managed to find a single way to increase my numbers.

Nine months of no change.  Nine months of thinking I had hit the ceiling of how strong I could become.  And now, after giving up any hope of further advancement, I gain a point for just walking into a circle of trees?

“James, are you okay?”  Jess had stopped to check on me.  I hadn’t even realized that I was sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree with water leaking out of my eyes.  I was definitely not crying.  Nope.  Not a thing.  “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”  I got to my feet, and almost face-planted from the surge of power increasing as I got closer to the center of the circle.  “I’ll be fine.  Just give me a moment.”  It was clear that I was the only one who noticed anything different about the circle of trees.  My body felt like a cup of water that was overflowing, except there was nowhere for the excess to go.

“Seriously, what’s wrong?”  Jess stood up on her toes to get a better look at me.  “Your eyes are glowing, and you smell like burnt hair.”

“I just got a huge spike of magic the moment I stepped foot in the trees.  I should be able to deal with it, as soon as my body adjusts to the power levels.”  I concentrated, trying to get the stagnant energy to stop filling me, and start flowing through me.  It felt like trying to push a boulder up a hill using only my tongue, but after I managed a slight nudge the mana started moving on its own.

Instead of running up my feet and slamming into the top of my head, the energy began to swirl through my body, running up and down each limb until it settled into my center, behind my belly button.  There, it was like a tiny whirlpool, and it sank into a calm ball that slowly grew until it gradually came to a stop.

The edges of the ball seemed to stretch, and I felt a sharp warning stab of pain.  By instinct, I tried compressing the ball, squeezing it together to avoid it rupturing.  It relieved the pain, but the whirlpool only went faster.  I squeezed harder, hoping it was enough to hold everything together.

After what felt like an hour, but was probably only a few minutes, the flow of mana trickled to a stop.  I opened my eyes to see Leedy and Murphy setting up a pair of tents, while Jess was trying unsuccessfully to build a fire using wet branches from the clearing.  I checked my status again, and I saw a new line, and more changes to my stats.  I looked at the whole sheet this time, to ensure I didn’t miss anything.

Name: James Holden (Earth v7.1)

Title: Chief Justice/Arbiter/Justicar/Executioner/etc…

Level: 100/MAX

Rank: 1/10

Age: 27 (Physical) 47 (Actual)

Class: Warrior/Soldier/Knight/Paladin/Mage (5/5)

Profession: Healer/Alchemist/Blacksmith/Runesmith/Judge (5/5)

Status:

Strength- 55

Flexibility- 55

Vigor- 55

Mind- 55

Mission:

Mythical Quest: Deliver Justice - World Count 20/Unknown

Legendary Quest: Return Home - Requirements not met

Epic Quest: Find out why - Requirements not met

Rare Quest: Track down Silver Star - Ongoing

Unique Upgrade Quest: Find ten places of power - 1/10

Now all of my stats had increased five points, and I was ranked one of ten.  I had no idea what was going on.  First dinosaurs, and now this?  I felt unbalanced, like my life as a Judge was changing into something different.  And I definitely didn’t like it.