Chereads / Plight of the summoned / Chapter 89 - "Seven!"

Chapter 89 - "Seven!"

Two women exited the gate. They were questioned where they were going, their bags were searched, and before they could be harassed further, Evren and his team approached the gate.

"Good morning, sir! I, Chesterfield Cunningham, have decided to begin my hunt early this morning." He put his arm around the man and said, "You wouldn't happen to know where the fiercest monster of the forest dwell, would you?"

The guard said, "Ain't got no monstas 'round 'ere. Guards get 'em once a month."

Undeterred, Evren asked, "That's fine. How about something tasty? The hog I brought in yesterday should feed many mouths. What say you? What tasty meals could I hunt this morning?"

"Well, there's some deers ye could hunt." The guard suggested.

"Venison! Yes, truly a feast, yet not enough of a challenge. Tell me friend, is there anything savage in these parts?" Evren asked.

The guard rubbed his chin as he though of what could be in the area, "Lamia?"

Evren was slightly shocked and said, "Oh? Can you eat those?"

"Gov'na's got a taste fer them ya see. Sends tha guards out once a month fer huntin' them." The guard replied.

"Do you think the governor would buy one if we hunted one?" Evren asked

The guard scratched his neck and looked away, "I'm sure somefin could be arranged."

Evren slapped him on the shoulder a couple of times, "Ha ha ha! Thank you, my good man! We will return after a triumphant hunt." Evren leaned in closer to ask the guard quietly. "Do you like rabbits or pheasants, I think we could catch one or two as a reward for helping me."

The guard's eyes went wide, and he said, "A bit o' rabbit stew this time o' year t'is the best."

Evren smiled and winked at the guard and traveled through the gate, his party already on the other side.

After they had walked off a way, Ellis removed his hood and walked next to Evren, "That was amazing, how did you do that?"

Evren smiled and said, "In the military they made us take a course for used car salesmen to help with our confidential missions. One of the quotes from that school is, 'Confidence and enthusiasm are the greatest sales producers of any kind of economy.'"

Ellis wandered back to the group stunned and thinking about what Evren had said. Meanwhile, Walter strode up next to Evren and asked. "Evren, what's a car?"

Evren looked at Walter and said, "Imagine my wagon if it could move itself without me or a horse."

They caught up with the girls who had already left and continued down the road to near where they spoke with the merchant and headed east into the woods until a clearing where they sat and had a discussion.

Evren started the discussion by explaining his past and the circumstances surrounding the summoning, then the journey across the continent to the dungeon, and then their journey thorough the dungeon leading up to their arrival in St. Brassel. He then went over their plans to head to the Seeclind continent and stop the summonings from happening and freeing the puppets from their suffering. Somewhere in there would probably lead to the taking down of the entirety of the Holy State and then going to the different continents to clean up the towns.

"I've been thinking of this; Wasn't the former country a kingdom? I would have thought their capital would have a castle in it." Harley said.

Ellis nodded and said, "There's a castle about a month north of the capitol. That's where the king ruled from, but the capitol was where most of the business went through." Ellis then shrugged. "Dunno much else, that was before my time."

Karina spoke up, "We want to join you." She then looked to Ellis and said, "Well, I wa… no, we want to join you!"

Ellis looked at Karina with shock then to Evren and shrugged his shoulders. "She's the boss."

Karina slapped Ellis's arm and said, "Don't say that! You have a choice too."

Ellis just replied, "Yes ma'am."

Evren asked the two of them, "Do you know how to fight?"

They looked at each other and shook their heads.

Evren tilted his head, "What can you provide us with then?"

Karina said, "Well, I can read and write."

Evren said, "That's great, so can all of us."

Karina then said, "Um.. you all don't really know much about life up here. We can help out with that."

Evren raised his eyebrows and asked, "Such as?"

"Money." She said, "You need money to survive up here. Things have changed since the war. And if you're going to go to Seeclind, you're going to need a guide."

"We've got money," Evren replied, "And I'm sure if we just follow the southern road, we'll reach the harbor."

Karina paused with a lack of words to say and looked to Ellis.

Ellis sighed and said, "We just want to help. Maybe if you teach us some of the magic you know we can help that way."

Evren looked to the others. Harley was nodding, Walter shrugged his shoulders, Isobel was staring off into the woods and Fletcher gave a nod as well.

Evren grabbed his backpack and took out two books from it. "Since you both can read, read these. When you're done you can switch. When you've read both of them, let me know, and I'll give you two more."

"What are these?" Ellis asked.

"The one you have is an Introduction to magical theories," Evren replied, "And the one Karina has defines the magic processes."

"This'll help us learn magic?" Karina asked.

"It's a start." Harley answered.

"Where'd you get these books from?" Ellis asked.

Evren answered, "I wrote them."

"You did?" Ellis asked in surprise.

"Yep," he replied, "A good lich friend of mine put it together after a few hours of discussion."

"A lich?" Ellis

"Friend?" Karina

The two looked to the others who were nodding. Isobel, who wasn't paying attention, turned to them as they stared at the group and said, "What? Hmm? Lich? Oh, Nhagir. Honestly, he kinda creeps me out."

The two stared at them for a while with their mouths open before Evren said, "Now, get to reading. We'll stay here until noon, then head south." He took out one of the weaker bows and headed off into the woods. I'm going to grab a rabbit to bribe that fat guard with."

Evren ran off into the woods and came back in five minutes with a rabbit.

"That was quick Mr. Evren." Harley said.

Evren nodded, "I noticed it near by or I would have waited a bit longer." He handed it to Fletcher and said, "Takes this back and say something like, 'My lord is on the trail of a lamia and asked me to bring this to you, if the fight should go on late into the night.' That should give us a little bit of time to get some distance south without suspicion."

Fletcher nodded and headed off west through the forest. As he went, Evren pulled out some parchments he had been working on and began writing on them with a piece of charcoal.

"What are you working on, Evren?" Walter asked.

"I'm calculating the efficiency and output of enchanted disks with alternating or consecutive variations of the two spells 'accelerate' and 'push' to find the maximum projectile velocity attainable. Theoretically, if the 'push' spell were to move an object at 10 kph, then subsequent castings would increase the speed in 10 kph increments. However, if 'accelerate' speeds up something at half its current speed, at what point would there be a greater benefit, and use the least amount of glyphed mana stones to achieve 3132 – 3870 kph or, 870 – 1050 m/s." He said without looking up.

Walter stared at Evren with a complete lack of comprehension and said, "What"

Evren thought about it a bit more and said, "I'm trying to see if making a weapon is possible."

Walter nodded, "Ok, I understood that. What kind of weapon?"

Evren shrugged and said, "A coilgun, sort of." Looking at Walter's disappointing look, Evren further clarified, "It's like a bow that shoots a tiny arrow that travels really far, really fast."

Isobel said, "So, kinda like the bow you have now?"

Evren nodded while shrugging. "Yeah, but more accurate and lower profile."

"Evren, sometimes you say the most amazing things, then other times, it's like you're speaking a different language." Walter said with Isobel and Harley nodding.

"This part's easy, the real trick is calculating the mass versus the velocity to determine the optimal distance for the bullet to achieve it's maximum speed to make it the most efficient." Evren added.

"Ahh, I see, yeah that could be a problem." Walter replied with a sarcastic look on his face.

Fletcher came back twenty minutes later and said, "Package delivered!"

Evren said, "Great, any problems?"

Fletcher shook his head, and said, "None, fat guard was happy."

It was about this time that the two had finished reading their book and exchanged it with the other. Harley had gotten a book from Evren and had begun to read as well. Isobel and Fletcher scouting in the forest, and Walter was maintaining his equipment. Evren was mumbling to himself as he worked out calculations on his parchment.

When the two finished the books, they were then handed some other books containing the basic spells. They were given instructions on how to cast the spells and how to prepare the mental image that goes along with the castings. They were taught the basic spells under all the categories and asked them to practice casting them and if they wanted to go with a specific type of category.

When noon came around, Fletcher and Isobel returned with some rabbits and pheasants, which they cooked for lunch before moving on.

They headed south for a few hours while still in the forest, then Evren deviated west towards the road. As they walked, Evren said, "They sent a patrol through here about an hour ago heading south."

Ellis asked, "How can you tell?"

Evren looked back over his shoulder, and said, "I have an ability to feel what's going on around me. It helps me to see things that are far away. It's why I got you out of the mansion as easily as I did."

Karina said, "That reminds me, you used some magic there that I haven't read about yet. You could move things? Is it like that 'push' spell?"

Evren nodded, "It is like that a little, yes. What I can use is not magic, but an ability that came from my original world. I can directly manipulate objects with magic instead of using magic to manipulate object, by bypassing the spell."

Ellis asked, "Can I do that?"

Evren shrugged, and said, "If you can do that, it'd be great, but so far nobody else has shown the ability to do it. I suppose at some point we can sit down and go over all the abilities with everyone."

"Mr. Evren, there are other abilities?" Harley asked.

Evren nodded and said, "Yeah, but I'm not really good at them. I once made a ball of water, and it gave me a headache and made me pass out."

"What other ones are there, Mr. Harley?" she asked.

Evren thought for a while and said, "My son could control fire to an extent. My wife was a precog so she could tell if something was going to happen. It wasn't much, but it kept her out of trouble. There's the ability to send or receive thoughts. Seeing or hearing things from a distance. Looking into the future."

"Wow!" Harley said, "Seeing into the future?"

Evren said, "I'll over them all with all of you. It's much more convenient than using magic and it has a greater flexibility."

"Yay!" Harley cheered.