Was it curiosity that drove me forward? Or was it something else? My instincts were strong, but they weren't clearly defined. It was like sensing the shape of a possibility. Foresight allowed me to see the shape of the possible futures so it was more clearly defined then instinct, but it wasn't all that great when it came to clear pictures.
The further you looked out the more confusing the future was. How the dragon queen had managed to get such a clear picture of the future was beyond me. Maybe she didn't get a clear look at the future. The infinite possibilities before her were hard to track, and even more difficult to interpret. One wrong impression, and you would read the entire future incorrectly.
Feelings, and impressions were largely up to interpretation. Every single individual would get a different impression from the same information. It was common for two individuals to reach similar conclusions, but no two beings would get the same exact thought about a large amount of information. The more simple the thought the more likely two people were to come to a similar conclusion. If you were faced with a gunman you might assume he was there to shoot someone.
Many of the people around you would reach the same conclusion. Many would choose to run or hide. Others would choose to fight. Then there were the few that would simply freeze. How they reached those conclusions differed individual to individual.
How long it took to reach those conclusions differed as well. I was the type that was quick to reach a conclusion. My first impulse was to attack an enemy. I could probably think about this for hours, and hours. The more information that people were given the more likely their conclusions were to change person to person.
That was why most of the governing bodies chose to hide information instead of telling the whole story. The more they hid the more likely people were to reach the conclusion that they wanted. It was a frustrating way of doing things. It angered me to know that the human government was probably spinning me to be the next planetary threat. They probably played down my intelligence, and upped how violent I was in a fight.
The vast majority of the human race that knew of my existence probably thought I was just as likely to become an enemy as I was to become an ally. They truthfully had no idea how violent I was willing to become if it was required of me. My youth was a negative at the moment. The older I got the more powerful I got. The human race as a whole would already have trouble dealing with me in a fight.
This year on the elven planet had only made me stronger. My willingness to kill the elves was the main reason for my recent XP jump. I needed to kill more of them. I frowned to myself. I hadn't killed very many truthfully powerful elves.
The XP boost I got from the regular ones wasn't all that great. I would probably have a pretty lethal reputation by now. Tomorrow night I was going to work on cementing that reputation. Tonight I planned to send Balock to Ethan which meant he, and I were planning on parting from the road together. Although Balock was bouncing around limply in the saddle, and completely unaware of this plan to part from the road.
Putting the barrier up around Sekka this time instead of Balock. I needed to take some time to recharge it today. I rolled the stone around in my pocket. Recharging the gem as we walked. My mana regeneration was picking up as well.
I hadn't noticed it at first. I didn't know the cause. I suspected it had something to do with my proficiency at filtering the miasma from the mana in the air slowly rising as well as the purification of my core bearing fruit. It meant that I needed to use my mana a little faster to continue to go unnoticed. Once we were discovered I wouldn't need to worry about constantly using mana anymore.
I was quickly rebuilding our stock of mana crystals. I had to. If I wasn't constantly running my core low then my mana would spill over into the world around me. My mana was filled with the impurities of another world. I might as well be stamping my existence onto this world at that point.
Once we were discovered it wouldn't matter anymore, but for now I didn't want anyone to know that I was a foreign origin species. If I wasn't public enemy number one already then I would be. I didn't mind being hated by the elves. I didn't care if they tried to hunt me down. As long as it ended with me getting to do what I wanted then I was willing to do whatever it took to reach that point.
My eyes widened when I realized that there was someone on the road ahead of us. I patted Sekka's leg to alert him to the presence of people headed straight for us. Sekka relaxed into the slave master persona. It took nearly an hour for the people on the road to cross paths with us. It was a large caravan.
It was obvious that they'd come under attack at some point. Several of their members were clearly wounded. They had to have some sort of healer among them or they wouldn't still be standing from the look of it. Some showed signs of having limb nearly severed. Others showed signs of being severely beaten.
"What happened?" Sekka left the question open ended, but his implication was clear.
"We came under attack by a large group of bandits," One of the mercenaries in better shape responded, "You should turn back now. A small group like yours won't survive."
"You'd be surprised at what my slave is capable of," Sekka glanced over to me.