"Different? How?! A variation?! An entirely undiscovered type of locals?!" King Lysander urged the man.
"Long... long arms... dragged behind their... slender bodies... fingernails like daggers..." the man's shaking turned worse, even his voice became affected, "...wooden face mask... I ran... the contestant... dead in a hit..." as those words escaped his lips his body truly gave in, his eyes closed, and he collapsed.
His body wasn't even allowed to hit the ground, still suspended in the air by the tight chains, "He has reached his limits. It will take some time for him to recover to a point where he will once again be responsive to our questions." one of the masked men explained for His Highness and Duke Monotay.
King Lysander sighed, everyone present observed his every move and attempted to interpret the meaning of each minute detail, but the scope this time was just too big.
Was he worried over this new race?
Was he elated over something?
Was he disappointed by the results?
Disappointed by the means and actions?
All of their heads could be rolling through a single of his words, to say they were shaking in their boots was an understatement.
"Very well. This is enough to appease Lord Sparrowbrook. Duke Monotay, send word to expedition leader Kassan, warn him of this new type of resident of the Sunless Mire. Have them approach with caution and uncover as much about them as they can." His Highness turned towards the duke.
"As you will." he bowed in response.
... ...
Marv awoke somewhat refreshed; he got up and stepped out of the tent, then took some minutes to stretch.
The sky was still just as dark as when he had gone to sleep, the feeling this gave him was absolutely weird.
After stretching he headed for Frey's tent, from which came little to no sound, only his quiet, rhythmic breathing could be heard.
Marv scratched the back of his head, even though it made him feel guilty, he decided to wake Frey.
Frey was drooling in his sleep while lying on his back, neither Marv's shaking nor him calling out to Frey managed to do the job.
Marv held his chin for a few seconds, pondering over the easiest way to get this done... he stepped closer to Frey, then reached his hand out to Frey's nose, which he tightly pinched shut.
Moments passed in silence, until Frey's eyes shot open, and he swiftly inhaled through his mouth.
Marv removed his hand from the boy's nose, who then began to cough as he sat up.
His eyes were still half closed, he looked around himself in a daze, "You look like you got no sleep..." Marv commented.
"I also feel like it..." Frey answered while rubbing his eyes.
"Oh damn, do you want to go back to sleep?" Marv asked.
Frey shook his head "No, no, I'll be fine. I don't want to hold you back."
"Managed to think of anything over the 'night'?" Frey continued while using air quotes.
"Well, I got an idea, but we will have to see how useful it actually is."
"Yeah? What is it?"
"Get up so I can show you the way." Marv extended his hand towards Frey, to help him up.
Frey flashed a confused look, "What do you mean?" he reached for Marv's hand and stood up.
Both of them left his tent, and Frey followed Marv like a young duckling would follow their mother.
He noticed that they weren't headed for their observers' tents, and neither towards the edge of the camp, instead they were on the way towards the centre of it, "Now... if only I knew which one is his... perhaps those guys will know." Marv mumbled to himself, he spotted some church members and steered towards them.
"Excuse me, we are looking for Kassan Horun, would it be possible for us to meet him?" he asked politely, the church members' heads spun towards him, "Whether he will meet you is up to him, but the tent of operation where he spends most of his time is over there." one of them pointed their finger at one of the bigger tents.
Marv lightly bowed with his hand on his chest, "Thank you." then he started to walk, Frey tried to keep his eyes open, he reacted a little later, but still bowed and rushed after Marv.
"Kassan Horun? What do you want with him?" Frey paced his speed, so he was walking right next to Marv, to whisper to him.
"You'll see." Marv smiled while looking ahead, another set of guards stopped the two right in front of the mentioned tent, light escaped from the opening in the tent, "We would like to meet with Kassan Horun." he repeated himself.
He was met with doubtful gazes, but not immediately shooed away, "Wait here." one of them answered, then headed inside.
While Frey was attempting to guess what Marv was thinking the same person returned from within, "You can enter, but don't touch anything." he warned.
Marv looked back to smile at Frey for a second, then walked in.
Frey glanced at the guards, then joined him inside.
The tent's curtain gave way to a medium sized, but cozy interior, one large table spanned most of the space, while several chairs were littered around it, in no particular order.
Most of the table's surface was covered by a giant map, sewn together from many smaller ones, letters and other parchments were strewn across the edges.
The map depicted a big clearing at the centre, all around it were trees, blue lines that looked like streams, and a few smaller clearings here and there.
Frey's eyes were immediately glued to it, while Marv looked beyond at the man that stood on the opposite end of the table.
"Thank you for meeting us." Marv bowed once more.
Kassan looked the two boys up and down, "No need for these formalities, I don't mind if you- no, I'd actually prefer it if you spoke to me plainly. What brings you here? I have to admit, I wasn't expecting any of you competitors to even approach me. Shouldn't you be out earning some points right now?" he smiled, his tone revealed his curiosity.
"Sir Horun, what exactly is the purpose of the expedition?" Marv's question was rather simple but held much more meaning when looked at from a different angle.
Kassan's smile grew wider, "And here I thought all you competitors were boring..."
"The expedition's purpose is mainly to explore and document every possible thing about this plane. By the time we are done with that, we will either have a firm grasp on food-sources, types and dangers of locals, and other natural phenomena, to slowly take control of the land, but usually we have already conquered the plane by that point." he explained while gesturing using his hands.
"What is the point of that? Is it just to provide more land for us? More food?" Marv inquired further.
"Precisely so. For us humans to continue our growth we need to continue expanding. More land means more space for humans to cultivate, and more food means those additional civilisations won't go hungry." Kassan nodded.
"...At the cost of whichever civilisation we destroy in the process..." Frey blurted out.
"Indeed. It may sound cruel, but if I had to decide whether I save a human life or any number of a different species, I would choose the human no matter what." Kassan seemed unperturbed.
"Is there no chance of coexistence?" Frey questioned.
"I assume you have seen the Treemen as well as the Flyers... they don't appear intelligent enough to hold peace-talks with us." Kassan shrugged.
"...So, by gathering information about the locals and the plane we can help the expedition, and in turn gain points? How much would you say we get for each?" Marv changed the topic back to the original.
"I can't give you an exact number, as those back in Astafor will decide the actual worth, but I can assure you that the current points your competitors have accrued will look small in comparison. Because information just is that much more important than a few dead Treemen, who are sure to regrow with time." his words made Marv swallow his saliva; here was the miracle they had been hoping for.
"The expedition has been going on for a while, how much have you learned so far?" Marv continued.
"We know most things, at least what we would consider general knowledge, and the behaviour and patterns of the locals, or so we thought..." Kassan spoke while reaching for one of the letters on the edge of the table.
He picked it up and read through it once more; Marv held his breath in anticipation, "Apparently there is an entirely undiscovered type of local we have missed all this while. Long arms, a human like body, and a wooden mask for a face."
Marv's eyes grew wider and wider, even Frey now realised his ally's plan, fortune had truly started to favour them.
"Any kind of intel regarding them would surely prove to be a goldmine in terms of points for you, or your competitors." Kassan smiled; his words caused Marv to sober up by some degree.
"How many people know about this?" Marv pointed at the letter in Kassan's hand, he was unable to continue hiding the greed within him.
"You, me, and a select few men that I trust." Kassan's words kept sounding more enticing, "But I don't intend to mislead you... I was informed that this type of creature made even a rank three mage flee." a bucked of cold water was poured over Frey and Marv, as well as the fire that had started to burn in their eyes.
"...Is this a joke?" Marv asked, still clinging onto what little hope that had yet to be crushed.
"I'm afraid not." but Kassan's words did just that, crush his hopes, stomp on them, burn whatever remained to dust, then bury it deep below the ground.
Marv gazed at the empty air in front of him, while he mourned his freshly deceased emotion, Frey took a step forward to stand right in front of the big map, "Where do we find them?"
Kassan and Marv looked at him with both worry and awe, "Heh. You are determined, I'll give you that. But more times than not has this caused the death of adventurers. You are a very young rank one mage; you still have your entire life ahead of you. Ignore my advice if you wish, but you shouldn't waste your future for this competition, no matter how much your family depends on it." Kassan spoke while getting closer to one edge of the table, he placed his finger on a seemingly random area with nothing other than trees.
"The report describes an area somewhere around here. Supposedly there is a cave, but none of my scouts who had previously passed through here had found anything of the sort." he explained.
"A cave appeared out of thin air?" Marv's brows furrowed.
"Either that, or a powerful illusion prevented my scouts from finding it the first time they passed through. Whichever one it is, we have very likely underestimated the locals so far." Kassan answered Marv, then looked at Frey again, "Boy, are you sure you understand what you are trying to achieve?"
Frey slowly nodded, "More or less. I have no idea how strong rank three mages can be, but the only way for me to repay everything my master has done for me is to help now when he needs it the most."
"You are a good kid… think about my advice a little before heading there. If the competition doesn't work out for you, I'll happily welcome you into the expedition team with open arms." Kassan spoke while Frey immersed himself in the map again, all four sides of the table were labelled with the four cardinal directions, he recognised the clearing they had been to yesterday, and used it to plan the path he would need to take.
"The fog is going to mess with our sense of directions… how did you and your men work around that?" Marv hoped to gleam some more information before leaving, he was still very much against actually attempting this suicide mission, but if this turned out to be the only way they had left to catch up in terms of points, then he would want to at least be somewhat prepared.
Kassan just smirked, "Any more than what I have already told you and I will cause an unfair shift in the competition. Otherwise, His Majesty won't be happy, and him being unhappy isn't good for anyone. You will have to figure it out yourselves."
"Once again thank you for agreeing to meet us, Sir Horun, and thank you for the valuable information you have given us. I shall remember this favour and will be sure to repay it in the future." Marv bowed, and Frey followed suit.
Kassan however waved him off right away, "No need for that, good luck you two. I look forward to your findings."
Frey and Marv backed out of the tent; the guards looked at them strangely as they distanced themselves.
Once they were out of reach Marv turned to Frey, "Well, that went both better and worse than I had expected... you don't actually plan on doing this, right?"
Frey remained silent, "You might not understand since magic is still rather new to you, and rank three is still quite a distance away, but you won't survive an encounter with one. There is no amount of information that is worth dying for." Marv spoke.
Marv huffed, but continued speaking to Frey, who had lowered his head, "With that said... I will accompany and help you if you actually decide to go through with it. I would be lying if I said I wasn't interested in the points we could get from this."
Frey looked back up at him, a small smile on his face, "Thank you." he whispered.
"But how are we going to navigate the swamp? My question for Kassan Horun wasn't unfounded." Marv fell into thought.
"Leave that to me... Your idea worked, now it's my turn!" Frey promised, his voice however was unable to convey the same amount of confidence.
Marv was somewhat sceptical, but they really had no other choice than to trust each other on their hunches.
"Alright, can I help somehow? Do you need something?" Marv offered.
Frey shook his head "Not really. I need time. I am not sure how much... so... you should not wait." he fidgeted around with his hands.
"You mean...? I should go and gather points on my own, while you do whatever you are thinking of?" Marv looked at him intently, "What if your idea ends up getting no results?"
"...It's like you said, this is our only chance of getting to the top of the rankings." Frey flashed a pained smile.
Marv scratched his head, "Fine... I guess. I'll bring back some Delightful Deaths for you to eat whenever I return... Keep me updated." he nodded at him, then the two parted ways.
Frey returned to his tent, the quiet and peaceful surroundings were the best kind of environment to focus on studying.
On the way back he spotted an entire group of competitors leaving for the swamp, each of them had their observer's following them, which caused the batch to appear even bigger.
Among them, Frey spotted a somewhat familiar silhouette, a young woman with long black hair, and nearly right behind her a much more familiar face, Daren.
Frey raised his hand, but stopped midway, he wanted to call out to the man he knew but felt this wasn't the moment for that.
He lowered his head again and continued on to his tent.
Marv walked towards the edge of the camp after parting with Frey, he too encountered the group of competitors, consisting of mostly rank one mages, some among them were rank two.
He rubbed his chin, a thought entered his mind, scouting his competition was also a useful strategy to employ, especially now where his right-hand man was unavailable, cutting down on some of his ability to hunt the locals.
He looked back towards the camp for a moment, bringing his observer along would allow him to gather points, but if he did that, the group would leave without him and disappear.
Marv turned his head back to the group and treaded carefully after them, a big group like this managed to move much faster through the swamp, after all there is strength in numbers, and creatures like the Treemen or Flyers required next to no effort to defeat on their end.
The longer he followed them the clearer the structure of their group became; the observer's had blended into the surroundings since they crossed the natural border, this left only the real competitors behind.
With a total of eight people there was little they could not defeat upon encountering something, be it lone Treemen or entire groups of them, they were decimated without a real chance to fight back.
Five of them were of rank one, they acted as a sort of shield for the remaining three, Marv recognised most of them as the children of several Lord and Ladies, even a lone Baron's child among them.
Next were another two families anyone would recognise... the first young master of the Whitewood family, his hair was a very light shade of grey, almost white, but riddled with spots of black, any more of his features were obstructed through the distance between the group and Marv.
He was currently ranked sixth on the leaderboard, the girl standing next to him was even higher... ranked third, the girl with black hair that had caught Frey's eye... Reyna Ironhoof, the Ironhoof family's contestant.
However, Marv shuddered as his gaze moved on to the final member of the group, seemingly the head, the leader who gave everyone their orders, Plamus Starhelm, the strange but arrogant young man with black hair along with stripes of dark purple, but he was arrogant rightfully so... as he was the only rank three mage among the competitors, which easily placed him at the top of the leaderboard, firmly rooted into the first place.