“How’s Sildra’s new druid circle coming along?” Velik asked that afternoon as they sat down for a break next to a creek. Velik was eating travel food—cheese, apples, and a chunk of bread with a bit of spiced jerky—but Torwin had supplemented his own meal with a cask of something that smelled strong enough to knock the leaves off the trees overhead.

“Surprised you care enough to ask,” Torwin said. “I always got the impression you didn’t much like her.”

“It’s complicated.”

It wasn’t, really. Velik had known Sildra as a child. Then he’d been run out of town. They weren’t friends. She was just a stranger whose name he happened to know. But for some reason, people didn’t want to accept that. He didn’t get it, and he’d given up trying to figure it out.

“If you say so. Guess it means Jensen’s clear to pursue her,” Torwin said.

“Completely,” Velik deadpanned. He wanted nothing to do with anything remotely resembling a romantic relationship. People were confusing enough already.

“Anyway, last I knew, the circle was up to twenty-three new druids. Only a handful are past level 20, including Sildra. None of them have reached 30 yet, but I expect a few are getting close. Killing agents of corruption that are level 40 or 50 has got to be helping speed that along, though I suppose the contribution split from the hunters actually defeating the hosts might counteract that.

“They’re all over the place, now. Every major guild hall has one on staff and they’ve fully purged the corruption, but as far as working through the government… Well, that’s a bit trickier. There were a few highly-placed nobles who ran when it came time to submit themselves for examination. They took a lot of resources and men with them and fled east. We’re looking at something that resembles a civil war in the next year or so, just as soon as all the armies can be raised.”

“Hard to believe nobody noticed the monsters,” Velik said. “Even by accident, one of them should have died at some point. A single notification could have broken the whole thing wide open.”

“That probably did happen, actually. A few killings that the investigators could never figure out motives for are making a lot more sense now. Honestly, as much as it was a personal tragedy for you and your home, the aberrant dungeon making those defective parasites probably saved the whole damn kingdom.”

“You’ll never know how much better that makes me feel,” Velik told him. He stared at the old [Ranger] while taking a bite of meat and slowly chewing. “Really makes the whole thing worth it.”

“Alright, well, I did say it was a personal tragedy for you. Regardless, the point is that the druid circle is growing, monster scanning procedures are becoming standard, and unless they find some new way to hide themselves, it’s unlikely something like this will ever happen to us again. The scarier issue is that we don’t have a clear picture of what, if anything, Slokara is doing in response to this.”

“You mean if they’re also infested?”

“Exactly,” Torwin said as he took a long pull out of his flask, emptying it out. He shook it, and, hearing nothing left, expertly tilted his cask to pour in more black liquid. Not a single drop was wasted. “Left unchecked, they could become an entire country of monsters in men’s bodies. We’re already about to fight a war against some of our own people. The last thing Ghestal needs is to be invaded at the same time.”

There had to be spies braving the mountains to find out what was going on in Slokara. Velik didn’t know much about how nations did things, but he didn’t believe for a second that Ghestal was as oblivious to what was going on beyond their border as Torwin was implying. But if they couldn’t get any of the druids over there to sweep for agents of corruption, it wouldn’t be a complete picture. They could only guess what was going on.

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And Slokara was a military power. They didn’t need monsters taking over their leaders to decide it was in their best interest to attack their closest neighbor. Even if there wasn’t a single agent across the border, which Velik didn’t believe for a second, Slokara might still decide it was worth it to invade Ghestal.

Velik wasn’t honestly sure that he cared. His job had always been to protect humans from monsters, not each other. His only goal was to find the son of a bitch who’d scattered dungeon seeds across what was likely multiple countries and put a spear through his rib cage. After that, Velik didn’t much care what happened. He’d be content to disappear into the deep wood and never be seen again. There were plenty of monsters to kill out there.

“Well, good thing we’re going to find this dungeon seed they think exists and stop it from growing into a full dungeon,” Torwin said. He finished the sandwich he’d constructed and washed it down with another long pull from his flask. “Want some?”

Velik regarded the flask dubiously. “No.”

Shrugging, Torwin said, “Your loss.”

“How much farther to the border?” Velik asked, changing the subject.

“At the rate we’re going? A day. Maybe two. It’ll depend how fast we can get over the mountains. We can’t take any of the established passes, not that there are many of those. Slokara is very aware of where the most powerful hunters are able to cross over. They keep those spots under surveillance, so we’re going to have to do even better. Honestly, I’m not sure it’ll be possible to sneak in without some ability to fly.”

Velik’s cloak had [Air Walk]

, but that was no substitution for actual flying magic. He could cross a hundred feet of open air, maybe a bit more, but that was the limit. The more steps he took consecutively, the faster the magic ran out of energy, too. After that, it would take an hour or more for the cloak to fully recharge. The enchantment might help him with some mountain climbing or save him if he slipped and fell, but it wasn’t going to trivialize a mountain crossing.

That wasn’t even considering the monsters. Hunting them down was one thing. Getting ambushed while he was clinging to a thousand-foot-tall sheer cliff was an entirely different story. They’d have to be careful to fully scout out an area before attempting any hazardous terrain.

“How far once we get into Slokara?”

“Who can even say? We’ll have to keep to the back country the whole time. As long as we’re dressed like locals and we keep our hoods up, no one should recognize us as being Ghestalians, but… better not to risk it. I figure we’ll move at night and hunker down during the day. Shouldn’t take more than a week to get to the Verdant Belt.”

“And then we have to find the seed,” Velik said.

“Exactly. I’m hoping a mana compass can help us narrow that down once we get to the area Aria gave me, but…”

“But seeds aren’t that big and we’re going to have to search without being caught by the locals.”

There was something else, too. Velik had first grown interested in the area when he’d fought a flesh beast in a monster arena and forced the location it had been captured at out of the pit master. That meant it was entirely possible there was already a dungeon there, producing monsters. If that was the case, he also needed to find and destroy it.

Finishing his own meal, Velik stood up and brushed the crumbs off his hands. “Ready to start running again?”

“Ah, give me a minute. Need to go take care of some business.” Torwin’s hand grabbed his belt buckle and gave it a shake.

Poor fish. His piss is going to be so strong they’re going to get drunk just from being in the water with it.

“I’ll meet you back on the road,” Velik said, turning away. He jogged off through the trees and left Torwin behind.

They made it to the mountains that night, probably three hundred miles northeast of the sky bridge Jensen’s crew had raided. These mountains were a lot fiercer looking, miles taller and full of jagged peaks and valleys. Even from twenty miles away, Velik could see the black specks of great birds or other monsters flying through the air, apparently unbothered by the snowy caps they circled around.

Neither of them had a problem seeing in the dark, and after another break for a meal, they started their climb. Being able to crush stone in their bare hands made it a lot easier to find or make handholds as needed, and the ability to jump twenty feet or more cut down the difficulties of crossing dangerous ravines or narrow, winding trails bordered by windswept ledges.

That did not make the climb easy by any means, but Velik believed it was possible to crest the summit and start down the other side. Taking one of the valley passes was out of the question, of course. There was no chance of them coming down a pass without being spotted. Truthfully, Velik wouldn’t be surprised if they were still caught, but he was fully willing to tear through a squad of soldiers to reach his goal if they got in his way.

That was a problem for another day, though. At the moment, all he could do was reach up for the next spur of rock and haul himself another foot closer to the top of the mountain.