It was not until Gryn and his team finally arrived late in the afternoon to the bridge and the villagers redirected them to my camp at the riverside that my parents allowed me to put down the boulder and relax. From this experience alone my Strength went up one while my Endurance and Willpower both increased by two. Thanks, Mom and Dad,
Gryn and his team all looked tired but healthy for the most part. While I rested I got to hear all about their current endeavors in setting up their camp between two nests that were a mile apart from one another. The nests were already warded and no others had been scouted since those two early on.
Their came was a rope and wood network among some trees from which they could zip-line to areas near the nests for swift response. The camp was warded with three layers of ground and air protection as well as several incense torches burning day and night. However, they met up with multiple small groups of large predators early on only to claim them as trophies.
Those trophies and materials were in the tavern with our parents and the meat was food for the team.
Aside from this, the nests were yet to be settled by the males and thus predators had not considered it safe to encroach yet. Other goats had not even appeared in the area yet.
Their report ended with an inventory list that was as detailed as everything else. First was everything they had used, what was reusable, what was lost, and everything they still had overall. Gryn even has his teammates present different parts of the report to display their abilities.
The others all looked like they were used to the routine and bored with it already. Being accustomed to these situations was good, but bored was not likely to be their moods during future official settings. Gryn would probably need to maintain the face of their group early on because of his leadership position and public relation talents.
The girls in the group were growing up cute, so they would certainly be a memorable group in most Guild circles.
Beyond that, they were all experienced in combat against numbers of beasts and capable warriors overall. The only experience they lacked was bounty work going after outlaws. Even if they avoided bounty missions directly, they would inevitably run into it on escort jobs or jobs like these where they traveled long distances.
A story only we shared was that more than a year ago Gryn once told me about his early Guild training and how to get ahead of everyone. He had already fought a variety of magical and mundane creature before training and was a top pupil so I asked him 'could you kill someone'.
He said maybe.
After two days of research and preparation, I took him alone in his training gear and live weapons with a bag of batteries out of the region. After six hours and dozens of quartz crystals of flying with him on my back, we found a camp of seven highwaymen. They used to be larger but had been reported to lost numbers after attacking a group of traders and their escorts.
These guys had a few luggage cases of loot and bags of gear around two small cooking fires. I dropped Gryn at the edge of their hillside camp where one was taking a leak.
My older brother actually let the man pull his pants up and pick up an ax before attacking him. He killed him after a short exchange of a few crude moves from the outlaw before getting behind the man and stabbing his lungs with his sword and a dagger.
Afterwards I explained to him that I suppressed the sounds and the other outlaws blinded by the firelight uphill still had no idea. Then I asked him why about why he gave the man such a chance to fight back. He said because the first was important and personal.
I told him that the key to taking lives of any kind is to detach yourself from it as much as possible and then cast a telekinetic slash through the camp.
Seeing this upstanding young fellow now, I was sure he understood how to deal with every situation he might come across in the future and lead his team through it. He also kept his friends away from me more than usual and handled taking orders for the group, but now I had a chance to be involved with everyone again. Somewhat.
When Gryn had finished the report for his team and everyone was dismissed by our parents, I signaled for Gryn's attention while shooing his friends behind their back. He then sent them on ahead to see about fresh foods before coming over to see me. I took the most bitter candy in the world and stood up to receive my brother with a hopeful smile and wobbly legs.
"Two nests, imagine if they went after each other?" I ask politely as a joke. "Which side would you choose?"
"I would kick both their asses and keep them secured with their mates," he replied with a small but real smile while I led him up the rocks where Sili and the serpents were sunbathing. "They're not that big, the males only weight about the same as two adult bulls and the females a little more than half of that. For now! What did you need, Chuck?"
Nodding my appreciation for his getting straight to business, I say, "These serpents are breeding stock for Templeton and will more than double in size as adults. Sili is a basilisk I evolved along the way. Down there sunbathing in the wharf on the other side are some giant underground insects. They're what's causing all the fuss you're going to be hearing about and I captured one of their stronger drone types for you and your friends."
At the top of the rocks, Gryn said nothing to my shitty sales pitch and simply looked down at the insects failing to scythe or poison fish through a tall wall of rocks. The two I brought out for my parents to get an impression of would now become the house dogs. Gryn, however, remained silent.
"The little guys have both genders and are potential breeding stock for Templeton while the bigger ones are basically eunuchs," I try to explain casually. "I captured those two for our parents but they can all be used as you please. Individually they are lower B ranked monsters with high quality exoskeletons and as a group they naturally form walls with their bodies to defend. Their stats are high all the way around and they don't have wings so they make great pack mules. In the end, though, I need you guys to help me learn everything we can about them as soon as possible."
"You and the others can even pick your own serpents from these or the altar I erected at the top of the river," I add when he once again remains silent.
"I like the smaller snakes, their colors are good for different settings," Gryn says at last. "I'm sure you can make them grow with a few weeks of dieting and training, we'll turn the bugs into viable mounts and snakes to defend their rears. What else should we know about them?"
"The little ones possess a highly toxic and fast acting venom while your big guys use a slow-acting paralysis acid that could potentially eat basic leather armor," I state calmly. "Your armors are all of a higher grade leather with resistant treatments as well as armor plates of similar natures to their own bodies. While on that subject..." I continue, turning back down the side of the rocks we came from to distract my brother.
"I have recently come across and excess of materials and need a way to market them safely, you guys already planned on using your higher quality gains for upgrading yourselves and I have over two thousand pounds of their B rank quality insect chitin For your group I will make upgraded versions of your current gear with slightly raised enchantments as well as supply you with emergency heavier duty armor likewise enchanted. The previous model will be the one you may offer for sale, the other is solely for your group alone."
Gryn followed along quietly once again and only after reaching the bottom did he laugh shortly and ask, "What do you want, little brother?"
"In exchange for all goods and services rendered I want your help in obstructing an S-plus ranked national-level disaster in the future."
*