Remi wasn’t sure why the Minotaurs kept equating the Lizardmen with Naga. They were entirely different species. The lizardmen weren’t even aquatic like the Crocolisk species were. All they had in common was scales.
Karl took note of the old man’s attitude on the other species before asking more questions.
“Have there been any recent troubles with the nomadic Orcs or Demons?”
The farmer shook his head. “The demons all went west, intending to claim a city for themselves. I haven’t seen any sign of them in months. The Orcs passed by here just a week or two ago, but they were in a good mood. We had a short fight, and then they traded us some steel in exchange for food.”
Karl chuckled. “Yeah, that sounds like them. As long as they’re not on a warpath, we should be alright, then.”
Karl saw Lotus sneak the younger Minotaurs inside the house a small bag of rice and beans, along with a bag of seeds that he couldn’t immediately identify. Then she came back out with her typical happy smile.
“We’re all finished with the healing. Did you finish your trades?” She asked.
“Yeah, we’re all done. We can head out as soon as everyone is back in the wagon.”
Lotus held out her arms, and Karl laughed as he grabbed her by the hips to put her back in the wagon.
Ophelia rolled her eyes as she climbed up the ladder into the wagon, but Dana mimicked Lotus, holding out her arms.
Karl grabbed her behind the legs for a one-armed princess carry and hopped up onto his seat.
The farmer laughed at her shocked expression, and Karl waved his free hand as he got Thor moving.
Dana thumped him on the head as she wiggled out of his hold to sit beside him on the bench, cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
There were a few other farms to the East, but Hawk didn’t spot any more trouble. In fact, the rest of the morning was quiet as they travelled.
“Do you think that we reached the edge of the spawn area? When we went on missions, we would have reached a group at least twice an hour at this pace, but there isn’t much of anything here.” Ophelia noted as they travelled across the open grassland.
“That is possible. We have no way to tell what the edge of the spawn was, so it is plausible that it was centred closer to the city, and that would have put us outside the range by now.
We only have Hawk’s reports to go on, and he’s focused on finding us the best route east. But I won’t complain if we have a break between battles.
Dealing with Drakes and a nomadic tribe at the same time would just be confusing, unless it was Orcs.”
The others all stared at Karl, waiting for an explanation of that idea.
“Orcs like a good fight. If we ran into them and a group of Sand Yeti at the same time, we could send a champion out to fight, and they would accept that as a show of pride.”
“What are you, the Orc whisperer?” Tessa laughed.
“Just wait. There are nomadic Orc tribes here, and we will see them eventually. When I was sent back in time by Bishop Misty, I learned a lot about them. They used to be more civilized, but they have easy to follow rules of behaviour that seem to have survived the years.”
Tessa gave him a suspicious look, but Thor was nodding in agreement. Orcs were good people, they liked to smash stuff just as much as he did.
Karl sighed as he realized that everyone trusted Thor’s judgment more than his own.
Hawk’s scouting didn’t turn up much of anything for the rest of the day. They had left the spawn area for the Drakes, and even the farms had mostly ended.
“Hey, do you think that the populations are related? As soon as the farms ended, so did the spawn. There were larger and stronger groups in the morning than at lunch, and now there is nothing.
It feels like the spawn is tied to the local population.” Tessa noted as they prepared to set camp for the evening.
“I’ve never heard of it being like that before, and they usually appear in the more rural areas. Or perhaps those areas are rural now because that’s where the spawns happen. But it does track.
Hawk agrees too. The stronger groups were in the areas where the farm houses were clustered.
If we add that to what you said earlier about them appearing near other anomalies, this might have been the smaller of the spawns as well.
We’re days away from the Dungeon, so if distance has any relation to strength, this should be the weakest that it gets.” Karl offered.
Tessa took out the map and looked at the area in front of them, which was basically one large blank spot on the map.
“Going by this, it’s going to take us a week just to get back on the road, and close to a month to get to the border with the beastkin nation. When we set the schedule, we greatly overestimated how fast you can travel without breaking a wagon.
It’s faster than having us mere mortals on foot, but compared to having us ride Thor and the rest of you jogging, we’re less than a quarter of our daily travel distance, maybe even an eighth.” Tessa sighed.
Ophelia nodded. “That is true. But it is what it is, and we’re not under any sort of set deadline to get back.”
Dana nodded, then smiled as she made a realization. “You know, this is as close as we’ve gotten to a vacation since we started at the Academy. We can just travel at our own pace and there is nobody to tell us otherwise.
We might have to do something that pleases the Red Dragon eventually, but we can find a way, I’m certain.”
Ophelia smiled. “The gods have a way of making sure that we have the opportunity to make the right choices. That’s probably a red flag, but maybe it will be cute orphans again.”
Lotus laughed. “We do have good luck with orphans. It’s like small creatures are attracted to us.”
Tessa smirked at Ophelia, and Lotus stuck her tongue out at them.
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
She could protest all she wanted, but she was one of the small creatures.
“Do we have any major landmarks along the way?” Karl asked, with a gesture at the map in Tessa’s hands.
“Nothing. We’re heading straight east, and not following the river as it bends northeast, but we’re only going to end up a hundred kilometres from where the ones following the road will end up.
But if we go a bit south of true east, we would end up following the road for quite a while. That might be safer if there are more incidents along the way, but according to the Dragon, the road route is the safer route.
It’s after we reach the road again that we will have to decide to follow it southeast or go cross-country for a thousand kilometres to get closer to the Beastkin Nation.”
Karl frowned at the huge gaps on the map with no marked population centres. It didn’t make sense for there to be nobody living there, but if there were no established roads, the Divine Beast Nation might have not bothered to fill it all in.
