D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

--- Kat ---

Kat was meditating when she felt Hunter approach. Which was the entire point of the exercise. Kat was hoping to get more used to sensing the lamia in case it became necessary when they were fighting the drake. It would be awful if she attacked into an area that seemed empty but actually contained Hunter. Now, if anything Kat did would hurt was another matter, one that she was unsure of.

For example, if Kat threw out a punch, would it hit nothing because Hunter 'wasn't there' according to the world, or would her fist collide with a lamia that was suddenly 'there' instead? What about demonic fire? Would the fact Kat didn't want to hurt Hunter stop it from being an issue, or would she still get hurt? What about breaking the technique that way?

It wouldn't be intentional but Kat could certainly see it happen.

As Hunter stopped moving Kat was tempted to open her eyes and look at Hunter… but once again Kat was unsure what would happen. She knew that her eyes could wreck the technique, but it was quite unclear on how easy or hard that would be. Would the fact Kat knew, for certain, that Hunter was right in front of her break the technique?

In the end it didn't matter because Hunter spoke up first. "I have acquired for us a map. I was not able to find an opening to view it before purchase, but my examinations of it afterwards show that while it will suffice for our purposes, it is about what I expected for the level of technology on display,"

"What do you mean by that?" asked Kat as Hunter pulled out a table and four blocks of wood. Kat was about to ask what the wood was for, in addition to her earlier question, when Hunter expertly laid the map out across the table with the wood pinning down the edges and preventing it from rolling back up.

"I have hunted across a wide range of technology levels and part of my training relies on identifying how advanced variance industries are likely to be at any given time," stated Hunter.

"Huh… does that include Sci-fi stuff?" asked Lily.

Hunter nodded as she spoke, "Indeed it does." Hunter saw Lily's eyes light up. "We can discuss my experience with more technologically advanced civilisations at a later time. Please examine the map. As I said, it is about what I expected and certainly usable, but less then ideal if we were to leave the main road,"

Kat frowned down at the map even as she nodded in agreement. The main road was clearly the most important feature of the map, it was huge compared to the other features on the paper, larger then all of the villages marked nearby and larger then a few cities, at least according to this.

Even just looking at the road the group had travelled down showed a number of missing smaller pathways that fed off the main stone road.

Landmarks, and the curvature of the road itself, also seemed to be more about artistic representation or 'where they would fit' instead of proper usefulness. "How does someone even use a map like this?" asked Kat.

"The merchant was insistent that it had been his trusty companion for most of his career. I suspect he penned the basics himself and had it copied out by an apprentice mapmaker on the cheap. Though, perhaps that is being unfairly critical. It shows most of the important details for that merchant and likely served more as a way to jog his memory then to find his way around these roads.

It really depends how and why he acquired it. Experience tales at m-vl-e-mpyr

"In this case, the way we are using it is because we needed to determine how to get to this forest here," Hunter tapped a section of trees with 'Endless Forest' underneath it. The problem was, this map didn't actually show any roads leading towards it despite the fact there must be some. "We can likely get close, even with the missing details.

If the map was of higher quality we could risk heading over rough terrain and heading right for it.

"As it stands, I believe we have two main choices. We can either head… I am unsure of the technical term on this planet because the sun doesn't seem to remain at a constant line from day to day, so let us simply say that the top of the map is North.

We approached from the West, and we can either continue East, heading around the city and following the road until we find a way Northwards towards the forest…

"Or we could instead head around the city and take the North road out. Following that until we hit the point where we can turn East to get to the forest. Sadly, we didn't stuck around for the additional details that might indicate which part of the forest we need to investigate and this map does not properly detail the scope of the 'Endless Forest'.

At least, I assume so, because if it is in fact a small city sized patch of forest to the North-East I doubt it would be referred to as 'Endless'

"Personally, I recommend heading Northwards and stopping at this city here," Hunter tapped the map where a city was called 'Forestown'. "I find it likely that they will know about the beast, or if not that the city has a large enough domain to warrant a church. I suspect this is not the destination the priests were intending to send us to.

They told us to head to 'Forest Village' which is regrettably not on this map.

"Admittedly, I could be wrong, and it is possible that Forestown was once 'Forest Village' but I find with such similar names they are unlikely to be in close proximity. I say this because the other marked population centres seem to have more creative names for the most part so I doubt the kingdom is simply bad at names,"

Hunter paused for a moment to look over at the others. Lily wasn't paying any attention, and Hunter rightly assumed the girl would simply do whatever Kat wanted. Kamiko looked remarkably lost and was staring at the map as if it was some incomprehensible tablet of ancient knowledge. Kat seemed to be following along at least.

"Our other option," said Hunter as she ran her finger down the East road, "Is to follow this until we reach either Mikyn" Hunter tapped a spot slightly to the West of the Endless Forest but on the wrong 'side of the road' so to speak, "… or keep going until we get to Crescent Lake" Hunter tapped the lake in question, it was a crescent shaped body of water with a few little houses drawn around it.

"Which seems to be upwards of a day past where we might wish to turn off for the endless forest, but my intuition tells me would likely be closer to the forest itself even if the map does not seem to indicate as such. It is also on the 'correct' side of the road though I am unsure how much that matters in truth.

Especially when the city before us seems to be in the way of the road," Hunter stood back after she had finished explaining to allow the others a chance to look over the map more closely.

After a few moments of study Kat said, "Honestly Hunter? You're our tracking expert and I think this falls under that remit. I'm willing to let you take the lead here because while I do know how to read maps, that's only at a basic level. I really couldn't say one way or the other what's better. I mean, do you have any reason NOT go North first?"

"The biggest potential issue I see with that path is that I am unsure of the mountains in the area. The map marks them as being beyond Forestown but I do not know if the map is simply marking 'impassable' mountains that exist beyond the town.

If the terrain around the area is particularly mountainous before that point we may be slowed down significantly with the horse as the pathway winds left and right," stated Hunter.

"Hmm… well if push comes to shove I can carry the horse unless it really hates it… couldn't fly, but I could run. Is it a big concern?" asked Kat.

"I am unsure. The existence of 'Crescent Lake' implies that the area near to it is also mountainous to some degree that isn't marked on this map either. It is entirely possible that both roads lead to the mountains.

The benefit of heading East means that we can stop at Mikyn and head into the forest from there if the mountains look to be a real issue, we don't really have the same possibilities going North.

"The other marked population centres are either too far off to the wrong side or too far away from Forestown. It is possible that a smaller village would be at the base of any mountains but I cannot promise that," explained Hunter.

"Well it's your call," said Kat.