Once everyone was rested and ready, the group got moving again, slower than Karl would have preferred, but moving steadily northeast out of the attack zone.
Soon, they would be crossing the major road that ran east out of Clifnal, where they were originally intending to sell their goods, but they couldn’t follow that road east just yet, as it ran southeast down into the region that had been influenced by the Cyclops spawn.
Hopefully, there hadn’t been too many merchants going that way in the last few days, but Karl was certain that at least a few unfortunate groups had wandered into danger, unaware that anything had changed since they left the city.
“The road should be a good spot for the night. We can also pretend to be proper merchants again, despite our lack of wagon. Why don’t we stop there for the evening, and then if there is another incident, we might be able to gather more allies for the fight, which we can leave in the morning under the guise of regular business?” Karl suggested.
Prince Corbin considered that for a moment, and then nodded. “That works for me. The less suspicion that our presence draws, the better. Even if we don’t have any wagons, most of the groups that meet us at night won’t know that until dawn, at which point we can make up an excuse.
If there is no incident, we won’t need to say anything, and if there is an incident, they’ll be happy to have us, and unlikely to look too deeply into our motivations.”
They made it to the road an hour before dark, a proper time for a travelling group to start setting up camp.
[Nobody within ten kilometres, and most of them are already set up for the night.] Hawk reported.
[Alright, you can come down and rest. Rae will take over the night watch duties in an hour or two.]
Hawk landed outside the camp, and then smirked at Karl as he took out one of the many transformation tokens that Rae had stolen from the Fortress.
In his natural form, he was a massive flaming bird, blue at the feathers, but when he focused on toning down the fire he turned back to red as the temperature dropped.
But when he activated the transformation spell, he didn’t turn into a human as Karl had expected.
Instead, he appeared to be one of the feathered Demons. His head looked the same, and while he had a mostly humanoid body, and feathered arms, he still had pale blue and red wings on his back.
{Ha, I am people now.} Hawk chirped, then got the most confused look on his face.
{The spell is broken.}
“I think that you need to focus more on looking like a human. You still look like yourself, but you’re shaped a bit like a human.” Karl explained while trying not to laugh.
Hawk transformed back into his natural form, then focused hard on what humans looked like. He hadn’t seen a lot of them without clothes on, but he at least understood the difference in male and female forms.
So, he focused on making himself into a Karl.
He knew that form very well.
“Oh, that version is much better. You’ve still got a lot of feathers, and wings, but you definitely look more human now.” Karl congratulated Hawk as the transformation succeeded.
He had pale blue skin and red feathers for hair and on the large wings on his back, but otherwise, Hawk now looked human.
He smiled, and Karl noted that he didn’t have teeth, but a rim of shiny red beak. That might cause some issues eating, but it was a small thing.
“I am the Karl now!” Hawk agreed.
His voice was deep, but musical, and Corbin couldn’t help but laugh.
“Is that the first time you used that ability? It’s an incredible one.” He congratulated the proud Thunderbird.
“It’s a token, see? I got it from the Emperor Troll’s fancy house.”
“Bethoke Fortress.” Karl explained.
“Oh, those are valuable items. They let you leave with them?” Corbin asked.
Both Hawk and Karl began to laugh, and the Spellblades did their best to hide their amusement as they realized what had happened.
“Oh, you borrowed them without telling anyone. I see how it is. Those spells are normally never allowed to leave the property. We have a few at the Spellblade Sect as well, so that nonhuman visitors can take on forms that can speak a language we understand.”
Karl nodded. “Speaking of which, have you noticed that you can understand Trolls and Orcs much more easily than others? I noticed the other day that the System seemed to be translating Orcish and Troll to common in my mind.
I didn’t notice at first, but when the guards came to investigate, I had to break up a fight because the Demons couldn’t speak Orcish.”
Prince Corbin froze in shock. “You speak Abyssal?”
“Pardon?”
Corbin made a vague gesture, indicating that he was trying to determine how to explain the problem.
“The Demonic Guards of the Newbon Empire speak Abyssal, not Common. The Orcs speak Orcish, the Trolls speak Trollish, and they only switch to common for the benefit of humans, or when they’re speaking to someone who doesn’t speak any of the other languages.
Mostly, everyone speaks their own language, but they learn all the others, so they can understand each other.”
Karl motioned for the others to come over. “Did you have any problems understanding people after we arrived?”
Dana shrugged. “The Demons and Satyrs have a brutal accent that is a pain to understand, but other than that, not really. The others all speak common pretty well, except the Serpents.”
Corbin reached into his pocket and took out a pipe that he lit with a fire spell from his fingertip.
“So, the system doesn’t translate Serpent, but it’s translating the rest for you all? Do the others hear heavy accents or unfamiliar words?” He asked as he smoked.
Ophelia nodded. “Trolls and Orcs are easy to understand, and the Satyrs and Minotaurs as well, but I have a terrible time understanding the Demons’ accent. They use a heavy slang, kind of like the mountain village farmers back home.”
Lotus looked confused. “The demons sound funny? I thought that the Orcs all sounded like they were drunk.”
One of the Commander Rank Spellblades began to laugh.
“To think that I spent an entire year learning new languages, when you five didn’t even realize that you might need to.”
Lotus giggled. “So, you speak Minotaur?”
The man shook his head. “The Minotaurs speak Common. But the Satyrs don’t. They speak a dialect of Abyssal. The fact that you didn’t even notice is just an unfair advantage.”
Tessa was making notes. “So this is the advantage of having more of the system functions unlocked. Personally, I can tell when their words are being translated. It has a distinctive inflection in my mind that’s the same no matter the tone.”
Karl thought about that for a moment. That was not true for him. Everyone had a different way of speaking. It was only when they got mad like the Emperor had that he began to hear their dialect.
Maybe if he focused harder on what they were actually saying, he would get more detail from the translation? You could tell a lot about a human by how they spoke, so logically he should be able to tell more about other species the same way.
