Four days later, Evren picked up his crystals from the jeweler and was pleased with the results. They were the size he had asked for and were engraved exactly as he had requested. He wouldn't have been able to do better in the same amount of time. He wanted to work on the portion of the weapon that would be made from metal, but he didn't have any place available where he could work on the metal, nor could be worked on by someone else. Without the metal portion being completed, he wouldn't be able to work on any other part of it.
He had tested everyone on the different psychic abilities he was aware of and knew how to test for. Nobody showed any capabilities except for Karina. She had a good sense of premonition, which could be developed into a precognitive ability if trained properly. Evren didn't know how to train it properly though. He suggested she use playing cards and keep guessing what the next card was as she flipped through the deck.
He explained how it felt for him to use his ability, and suggested she find something similar when trying to guess the next card. At first, her guessing ability was only around 20%, but by the time the ship arrived, and they would be departing, it would raise by 2% on average. Bryan and Tim showed no capability to any abilities, nor magic. They were taught exclusively by Evren and Harley for two days on casting a simple light spell, but the spell wouldn't activate for them. They could manipulate the magic, imagine the spell and prepare the symbols in his mind, but all to no avail.
Evren was having Ellis and Karina work on their magic capacity by casting 'levitate' on themselves. Occasionally they would use 'push' or 'pull' on each other and laugh about it. But as long as they were learning, Evren didn't mind. He just didn't want to be around them when they started flirting like that.
Walter, like Evren, was having a difficult time finding something to do. He would occasionally go out on 'patrol' but never did anything if something happened near him. He was like an OCD patient seeing a tile out of place whenever he came across something amiss. Evren tried to get him to stay in the inn, so that this sort of thing didn't happen that often, but Walter insisted he would be fine.
Fletcher and Isobel spent more time outside of town than inside. They would practice hunting in the woods outside of town, stalking down prey and hiding from each other like a form of hide and seek. While they said they were training, Evren felt like it was more like playing, which was fine with him.
Harley spent a lot of time with the lich's spellbook. It contained a lot of different spells in it, to include several from the dark, unholy and illusion categories. She had learned most of the spells, but had difficulty with a few of them, because she couldn't get the image correctly. Evren would help her from time to time, but she mostly wanted to work on it by herself.
Two days later, the ship arrived in port, but it would take two days for the crew to unload and load it for the next trip. When everything was finally ready, everyone was already on the docks waiting. Evren insisted everyone have their own personal bag to reduce suspicion, but a majority of the luggage would still be contained in the backpack.
While at sea, the boredom they felt in Dhalmer was intensified, because of the cramped space and the restrictions they felt coming from the captain of the ship. On the deck or in the cabin, it didn't matter. After a day it felt like the same thing. Evren spent a lot of time and energy on working on his underwater sensory field, of which he made almost no progress.
By the time the three-week trip had ended, Ellis and Karina had increased their magic capacity. Harley had grown to understand more of the spells, and only had difficulties with a few remaining. Fletcher and Isobel had learned new spells they thought might be helpful. Walter had lost a lot of weight, as the sea didn't agree with him at all.
When they arrived in Arcadia, they were met by customs who searched their bags for contraband and questioned everyone. Tim and Bryan were nervous but made it through customs without alerting anyone. It would take four months of travel to reach St. Gloria. There was only one town along the road on the way to St. Gloria, but there were several that branched off roads on the way. There was one dungeon along the way, but because of Holy State Gradia's campaign to weaken everyone, it saw little usage anymore.
There was also one mountain range on the way. Evren was concerned that they wouldn't reach St. Gloria until the winter, and travel would be difficult, lengthening the trip. If they used a wagon, or carriage, they could reduce the time by four and a half weeks, which should put them in St. Gloria before the winter arrives. They considered this option but found there were no wagons or carriages available for purchase, nor were there enough horses for all nine of them to ride on.
The only option they felt was available was to escort a supply convoy, but they were using puppets as guards and needed nobody else to join them. They wouldn't even take money to let them ride along, stating that it was against the law.
Reluctantly they headed out on foot for St. Gloria. The town Apotoyuca was past the mountains before St. Gloria and was only three months away. They may need to stop there and rest for the winter, depending on how bad the weather is. Wanting to waste no more time, they headed out from Arcadia on the road heading east. Their pace was faster than what Bryan and Tim were used to. Evren was in a hurry, so he used 'restore' on them frequently during the day.
To conquer their boredom, occasionally they would occasionally have races. One particular race involved those who wanted to run would start at one point, sprint as hard as they could, and when someone shouted 'GO!', they would dive, and cast 'levitate' on themselves and see who could glide the furthest through the grasses.
A loud explosion occurred in the distance and Evren said, "Looks like we've got incoming." Fletcher and Isobel came running down the road with a bizarre creature flying behind them. It had the body and head of a lion, the head, tail and wings of a dragon, and opposite to the dragon head, a goat head. It seemed to have sustained damage to its left side, behind the goat head. Blood and blackened fur were evidence of the explosion heard earlier.
As they ran, Evren yelled out "Clear out!" Fletcher and Isobel each dove to the opposite side of each other and rolled back to their feet. A fireball from the dragon head hit the ground where they were just at. Behind him, he heard Harley chant, 'salvo' and he stepped to the side quickly. Around Harley appeared a halo of small fireballs, as they rotated around her, when they got to the front, they launched themselves at the monster.
Ball after ball hit the monster and exploded with considerable damage until it finally fell to the ground. Harley dispelled the 'salvo' spell and Ellis stepped forward with his own spell to add. He chanted 'hailstorm' and a ball of ice appeared over his head. It exploded into hundreds of ice spikes, and they launched themselves at the monster, piercing it repeatedly and causing it to suffer in pain. Before the monster could react, Karina chanted 'zephyr' and a tornado surrounded the monster, blades of wind causing cuts to appear all over it.
Evren asked, "Well, should I use an earth spell to round it out?" He thought for a moment about what to cast and finally decided upon 'excavate.' The ground under the monster's front legs disappeared and it fell face first into the ground. The others who cast spells that damaged the monster looked at Evren and he only smiled back at them. He sighed and said, "Fine." And looked back to the monster.
It was just climbing out of the hole it had been in and Evren cast 'ruin' on it. The monster became unsteady on its feet, the goat head hung down feebly, and the dragon head was spitting out bursts of flame from its mouth. Evren nodded at his accomplishment and smiled to the others. They all sighed and shook their heads.
Walter began running forward as Fletcher and Isobel started firing arrows at the monster. As Walter reached the monster, the 'charge' spell that Isobel had attached to an arrow stunned the monster, and the two stopped firing arrows. Walter swung his sword down at the dragon's head, severing it. He followed that swing with an upward one at the goat's head, dropping that to the ground as well. He then took a step forward and to the side, stabbing his sword into the monster's chest, while keeping his sword between himself and the lion's head. He kept stepping forward, twisting the blade and pulling it out then finished his movement once he was behind the monster.
Evren clapped as the monster fell to the ground. "Excellent everyone! Good coverage on the spells. Well timed stun on it. Thank you for stopping the arrows and not hitting Walter. And Walter, that was just pretty."
They walked up to the monster and Harley asked, "What is it Mr. Evren?"
Evren said, "I'm pretty sure that was a chimera. I haven't seen one before, but I've read about them in the adventurer's guild guide book."
Evren looked around, "Why don't we clean it here, and drop the remains into the hole I conveniently dug for us already."
They retrieved the yellow and white core from the chimera, stripped it of its meat and buried it into the hole Evren had made, covering it back up with another 'excavate' spell. Evren stored the meat inside his backpack, and they moved on.
"Evren, you've been in a good mood lately, haven't you?" Isobel asked.
Evren shrugged and said, "Yeah, I guess it's because I feel comfortable around you guys. I don't have to worry nearly as much as I did in the beginning. Aside from the chimera there really hasn't been much to threaten us."
Walter nodded, "It's been nice not to fight anything, but I've been cooped up on that ship forever and it feels good to stretch my muscles."
'Monocle.' Karina said from behind them. "What's a monster with a lion body and a bird head?"
Evren said, "Ah, that'd be a gryphon." As he looked upward into the sky.
Karina continued and said, "Well it seems one is coming our way."
Evren pulled out his adamantium shield and said, "Excellent. Let's let Karina and Ellis kill this one, I'll keep it busy."
"First thing's first, you've got to get it on the ground. If you can disable a wing somehow, that would help." Evren said as he stepped forward with his shield. He beat his shield a few times with his sword to get the gryphon's attention and yelled at it, "Come on!"
Ellis and Karina spoke with each other for a moment as the gryphon swept down at Evren. Karina finally chanted 'vacuum' on the gryphon, and it fell out of the sky.
"Excellent!" Evren said, "You remembered that from the voyage."
Ellis spoke up this time casting 'volley.' Long spears of rock formed a halo around his head, similar to Harley's casting of 'salvo' but the spears that were launched were slower than the fireball. Still, the spears tore into the wings of the gryphon, rendering the left one useless.
Karina cast 'deluge' over the gryphon, soaking it with water, then Ellis cast 'freeze' on top of it. Karina followed Ellis with an 'avalanche' dropping ten rocks on top of gryphon, shattering the wings and causing severe damage to the body of the monster. Karina cast 'levitate' on the gryphon, robbing it of its ability to move and Ellis finished it off with an 'explosion.'
The gryphon collapsed to the ground and the two turned around to face Evren who was smiling. "Excellent." He said, "You didn't get flustered, you kept control of the gryphon, and maintained control throughout the fight. Your spells complimented and reinforced each other."
"Alright, let's clean this up and get going." Evren said.