A New Star Chapter 19

I was still being watched from time to time, but there were long stretches where nobody bothered with me. My maids would prepare me in the morning, then I would be largely left unattended for the entire day. My parents were still searching for a tutor for me, and had interviewed a person, though I had not met them. Apparently, the first candidate had not met their standards, and I had not heard anything else about it in weeks.

This all meant that my maids, funnily enough, would be the greatest obstacle towards any expedition that lasted longer than just one day. They would arrive at my room early in the morning of the second day and find it empty and then there would be a panic. That had me thinking about quite a few things, such as substituting an illusion, or perhaps a homunculus? It would be rather difficult, but I would need to set something up before a longer expedition, at least something that could fool my maids for a few days. I had no doubt that many people, especially my parents, could track me down if I were still within a day or two of the estate, but if I were a week into the Untamed Wilds, that would be a different story.

Hopefully.

When I had been prepared by my maids, in my training clothes, I grabbed the pack I had put together and slipped out of my room. I headed down to the lab, just so anyone who saw me or tried to track me later would think I was in here working, before I dark-stepped out of my lab, walking through the dark to leave the estate entirely. I headed west first, knowing the estate had more defenses to the north than any other direction, not that the other directions were defenseless, but beasts coming out of the Untamed Wilds would hit the north end of the estate first, almost every time.

I moved away from the estate and turned my footsteps northward, heading into the rolling hills at the foot of the mountains. I used dark-stepping to further increase my traveling speed, able to move quite a bit of distance every time I did so, and it was instantaneous. I crossed the foothills in only a couple hours, it still not being quite midmorning, before I hit the genuine foot of the mountains themselves. I had encountered two beasts on my way here that I had to fight, though they were only B-rank and easily killed. I had passed by a couple other beasts that I didn't feel it was necessary to engage with before reaching here, showing that the area was not particularly safe. I knew there were farms near the estate and along a swathe of area south of the estate, which were kept clear of beasts by the family's guard. The country currently had a small standing army, but patrolling the country was the responsibility of the landowners, which meant the nobles that had titled rights over those lands.

My parents did an adequate job, but the Untamed Wilds were just that, untamed, and that meant the number of beasts and foul beings crawling out of them every hour was enormous. Well, I could take care of a bit of that problem every now and then, which would also act as good training. I would have to continue to adapt to my new body as I grew and underwent puberty, and the added benefit was that affinities leveled faster when used in combat. Well, for many people that was true, there were always a few exceptions to the rules, people who meditated in the middle of the sea for a decade and got a water affinity to Z-grade just from thinking about it really hard. I was the former and not the later, perhaps unfortunately, and I would seek out combat and use it as the touchstone to both measure and increase my progress.

I wasn't looking for anything specific today, apart from more herbs for alchemy, but the Untamed Wilds were rich in untapped resources. That was mainly due to the massive amount of mana throughout the area, though there were also several other confounding factors, including dungeons that nobody had touched in far longer than living memory. Even a fraction of what was in the Untamed Wilds would be enough to drown an empire in riches, but where there were rewards, there were also risks. The beasts prowling those lands were without number, many of them with a strength that was shocking, while far more dangerous things lurked betwixt mountain and moor.

Hopefully, I wouldn't encounter any of those things today, or any time soon, as I was nowhere near the strength to deal with such overwhelming threats. In this case, I believe the old saying of 'Discretion is the better part of valor' would apply, as I would not be engaging with just about any beasts I met. It was all well and good running into stragglers that made it through the mountains and past the guards, but tackling unknown enemies while deep in the unknown was a recipe for disaster.

I could have stayed just at the foot of the mountains, but I had time and wanted to explore a little more. I had to say, aside from the greater concentration of beasts, and the larger number of more subtle dangers such as poisonous plants in abundance, the dreaded Untamed Wilds weren't as scary as others made them out to be. I was still in the very outer edges of the place, though, so I couldn't make a judgement too hastily. I would have to spend a few years pushing further into the depths and exploring more thoroughly to begin to draw any firm conclusions.

None of that was for today, however, as I had two simple goals. First was to scout the area, exploring the mountains directly bordering our estate and the center of my parents' territory. The second, obviously, was to gather ingredients to further my alchemy. Alchemy was not at all cheap and making medicinal baths to push my body to its limits and beyond would be enormously expensive. The more I could gather and harvest myself, the less I would have to rely on shaky connections such as Pietr or dodgy merchants to supply my needs.

And, speaking of Pietr, I would need to keep the product flowing. I was making quite a bit of gold from my underground deals with the gangster, and the coin was really starting to pile up. It put me in mind for starting a few larger projects of my own, though it appeared that somebody was putting a huge amount of effort into developing, and guarding, the railways, including faster and safer trains than what I would expect from a still early steam-age era. I still believed there was a good play to be made in communications, but I had to study the various affinities people were using for message delivery and long-distance communiques before investing any money in a business based around early telecommunications.

I spent the rest of the morning moving around, allowing my alchemy senses to guide me more than anything, finding I had a rather good natural talent for seeking and identifying strange and valuable plants. I was just…able to sense plants and similar such things, such as fungi or other useful ingredients, in an area around me. I could stop, close my eyes, breathe in the fresh, rain-scented air of the forest around me, and just know where plants and similar ingredients were. It was an instinct, something that I could just feel; a smell in the air, a shift of scent, a little movement of mana, and I knew.

My backpack, which I had grabbed from Pietr, quite literally, was filling with plants and a few beast cores when I stopped for lunch. A little dried meat, some dried fruit, bread, and quite a bit of water, refilling my canteen with my affinities, constituted lunch, after which I continued over the other side of the mountain I was on, looking out into the Untamed Wilds. Mountains stretched as far as I could see, covered in forests and filled with wonders and dangers. It was a perfect place for me, a place I could thrive, and I began some plans for the next few years of setting up a few strongholds and safehouses. It would be particularly good if I had a series of fallbacks I could use to avoid or wear down much higher ranked opponents that might be on my tail.

I slowly moved around the shoulder of the mountain, grabbing plants as I passed with almost casual ease. Once my pack was full, I slid through the dark, looking for beasts I could harvest, finding a few wolves prowling the area. They were easy prey for my sword, and I dispatched them easily before harvesting the cores and a few other things of value, including the hearts, which I wrapped in some old hide, enough to keep them until I was back in the estate. I moved further back around the mountain and towards the foothills before I sensed a change in the surrounding mana. I fully submerged myself in the dark, sliding forward without a visible trace of my presence in the overworld. I found a lizard, the size of a large truck, noisily tearing into the corpse of a massive stag, not even bothered by the horns.

I was careful, watching, observing as the beast finished its messy meal and decided to move on. I wasn't entirely sure, but I got the sense that it was somewhere around G-rank. Sensing the strength and power of beings above one's own rank was tricky and quite difficult, but I was rather sure of my initial assessment. I stalked the lizard through the forest as it moved at a surprising pace, leaving far less sign than I would have thought for something so big. While it was fast and moved with a grace I did not expect, it was still easy to follow, and I found it moving next to a large pond to drink before sunning itself on a rock.

I carefully positioned myself, waiting for the perfect opportunity, and that chance came when the lizard was distracted by a boar emerging from the underbrush on the other side of the pond. I was able to analyze the new beast much quicker and dismiss it, the creature only being B-rank, but the lizard took longer to perform the same operation. A fatal mistake.

I leapt through the dark, arriving above the lizard's neck, moving back into reality and slashing down with both blades in a powerful falling attack, further amplified by running lightning through both swords. While the lizard's scales were very tough, I had targeted gaps in the neck where there were seams to allow the beast to more easily be able to turn its head. Both my blades plunged to the hilt in an instant, the red and gold beast twitching and spasming under me as tens of thousands of volts shot through its nervous system and directly across its heart and brain. Taking advantage, I coated the blades with a thick layer of ice before heaving them out of the wounds, ripping the beast's neck apart and sending blood and bits of scale and muscle flying everywhere.

That was not enough to kill the persistent bastard, unfortunately, but it did severely weaken it. I leaped as it thrashed, easily able to propel myself high into the air, avoiding its flailing head before falling down with a dropping stab that slammed into its eyes, my right blade skittering off as I had not positioned myself the best, but the angle still let my left sword sink deep. I concentrated and sent a powerful, condensed blast of lightning directly into the beast's brain, causing it to flail wildly for nearly half a minute before it stilled, the mana leaking from its body letting me know it was dead.

Sixth Affinity upgraded.  

Affinity: Greater Lightning  

Grade: C

Compatibility: 150%  

Fifth Affinity upgraded.  

Affinity: Pure Ice  

Grade: D

Compatibility: 150%  

Apparently, my use of ice and lightning in the fight had been enough to warrant an upgrade in both affinities directly. I could feel the greater connection to those elements and the greater power I had at my disposal. Turning, I looked at the boar, which had stayed at the far edge of the pond during the fight. Whatever it had been waiting for, it didn't seem to find, as it turned and quickly bulldozed its way back into the underbrush with a heavy snort. Shrugging, I turned back to my prize for the day, sighing a little as I realized the task before me.

Getting to work, I started stripping the hide, not removing the scales but taking the whole thing off in as close to one piece as I could. I then removed the fangs, talons, several of the bones, and a few of the organs, including a poison sac that I was glad I was just now making the acquaintance of, before scattering the rest of the remains. I washed myself, my gear, and the loot as best I could in small stream that flowed out of the pond, not wanting to poison the pond itself, before wrapping the organs, throwing the teeth, claws, core, and other sundries in my bulging pack, and carefully rolling up the hide. Satisfied with my harvest and progress, I slipped into the dark, finding myself slightly tired, but still with more than enough energy to make it back home walking through the dark paths the whole way.

I returned all the way to my lab, finding nothing disturbed or out of place. Depositing my burdens, I looked around quickly before sticking my head out, finding that the place was no busier or more bustling than any other weekend day. My disappearance, such as it was, had largely gone unnoticed and unremarked upon, something that I was rather happy for. I returned to my lab and frowned at everything, not really knowing how I was going to disguise the remains of the lizard. I figured my best bet would be to sell the teeth, claws, most of the organs, and a few other pieces while keeping the core and breaking down the hide. I could have Pietr take care of most things, and if I was fast, anybody snooping about would only find some scales, hide, a core that might be a little powerful for me to have, and little else. Hopefully, that wouldn’t do any more than raise a couple eyebrows, which I could easily dismiss with a simple explanation.

My trip to town was quick, though Pietr seemed rather fidgety, but I set that aside for now. Whatever the thug had going on, or whatever pressure he was facing, it was little of my business, quite frankly. I returned from Umberton rather quickly, slipping into my lab and looking at the piles of materials I was beginning to amass. I would need to purloin the use of another storage room, one meant for that purpose, as my lab was meant for, well, laboratory work and not housing piles of materials or finished product.

I moved through the basement, remembering the layout and what went where and in what room. I found a room three doors down from my lab that I didn't immediately remember the use of, pushing open the door to see several dusty crates, many covered in tarps, scattered around the room. I frowned, stepping into the storage space before stopping with a gasp. There was something, some kind of enchantment…yes, there, on the door frame. What one felt outside the room was far different than what one felt inside the room, and as I examined the space, my surprise only blossomed.

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