++It is unknown why some mana-infused creatures behave the ways they do. Many, for instance, resume patterns of feeding or nesting that are provably no longer necessary for them, in their enhanced state. This is largely a boon, allowing elf and human both to avoid such dangerous beasts by familiarising themselves with the habits of their smaller, mundane kin. In some cases, however, such behaviour makes the creatures far more dangerous. ++

  Chapter 17

  Reggie didn’t like being around the Witchfinders, for more than one reason. Putting aside that they were uniquely qualified to recognise his vampirism, they also meant it was hard to actually drain anything. He was somewhat relieved to be heading back to town now because it meant that the major inconvenience in his working in the woods was now behind him.

  Apparently, Reggie had impressed enough. The Witchfinders didn’t waste much time in pulling away to discuss matters amongst themselves, then, once they made their way back to him, they broke the news.

  “We think you can be trusted to patrol in the woods yourself, provided there’s no news of a greater-than-normal threat at play.”

  That was precisely what Reggie had been hoping for of course. His big issue had been needing to secure a place in Norvhan that would see him both left alone and with an excuse to walk around the grimwoods draining things, though thinking about it there was another benefit he might wrangle from this…

  “Will I be allowed to turn over proof of kills for money, like you?” That was a very potentially lucrative ability, and the thought of possessing it took Reggie back to feelings he’d harbored when working on his lab and dreaming of sending his discoveries out into the world.

  “Yes,” Vagryn confirmed, “though you won’t be getting anything for investigations, only monster population control.”

  That was fine by Reggie, after Ludvich’s little confession gave him such insight into the way those investigations actually went he’d rather stay a mile away from any of them.

  “Understood,” he nodded.” Then if there’s nothing else I’ll be getting back to work.”

  The Witchfinders seemed confused, but looked amongst themselves rather than shooting him down outright.

  “The Circumscriber probably won’t care to meet him,” Vagryn shrugged, “go on and do whatever you have planned.” Reggie made himself scarce, heading right for the grimwoods.

  He was getting hungry. That was one thing about raising his Tier, apparently he needed to drink more regularly. On the other hand…everything else about it. Reggie cleared the walls by just passing through the gate this time, and had to actually exert himself not to transform until he was well beyond sight of Norvhan.

  When he did, it felt like working a knot out of his muscle. All of his muscle, every bit of it, all across his body, at once. Reggie spent a moment just standing there and shivering, marvelling at the feeling of strength surging through him. He’d felt so naked walking around without it.

  Now clothed in power, he continued through the grimwoods and didn’t bother with keeping himself quiet.

  Except, Reggie now realised he’d be facing a tougher time gorging himself than before.

  “I can only feed on things of the same Tier as me, right? Journeyman now, so Tier 2?”

  That is correct.

  So Reggie had to ignore the ants—except for pure sustenance—and go after bigger prey. Unless he was just looking to increase his Tier again, of course, but…no, the last thing he needed was to eat his way up into exclusively targeting wolf spiders or something. If he gained a Tier now, with no more Attribute points, there were pretty high chances that he wouldn’t even be able to feed on things strong enough to empower him.

  “What sort of things can I gain Attributes from now that I’m at Journeyman Tier?”

  There are several potential sources of prey for you within this forest. You could target woodlice, for instance.

  Ah, Reggie had heard of those. Never seen one though. A combination of staying out of the horrible death-forest for most of his life, alongside their tendency to cram themselves underground and deep within tree roots, meant that he lacked experience with the creatures. That went for most everything in the grimwoods that hadn’t tried to eat him over the past few weeks.

  Still, the best way to learn was through experience.

  As it turned out, finding that experience was hard. But not as hard as it could’ve been, Sycily was somewhat talkative now that they were alone. Reggie actually got the distinct impression she’d missed having someone to speak with, which…well, fair enough. He’d missed it enough himself that he wouldn’t judge her for it.

  You will want to find larger trees than most of this forest’s saplings, ones at least ten stories tall.

  “Wait, saplings?”

  Yes.

  “Most of these trees are saplings?” They looked like completely grown pines and oaks to Reggie, just a bit…evil.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  They are. This grimwood is still in its infancy, as it ages and gathers more mana, it will attract, or possibly spawn, more powerful breeds of monster.

  Well shit. Reggie put that lovely thought to one side and focused on finding the weak breeds he could actually beat up.

  The good thing about looking for hundred-foot trees, though, was that they were…a hundred feet. So they tended to stand out. The mists weren’t quite as thick as usual today, and Reggie’s vampiric vision seemed a mile better at cutting through them than his human sight had been. It took him only twenty minutes to find exactly what Sycily had described to him, then another five minutes to work up the courage for an approach.

  “What kind of resistance should I expect here?” he asked, “power-wise.”

  They are likely to boast physical abilities in the high 20s, perhaps low 30s, but are otherwise not especially potent among Tier 2 monsters. They are not solitary, but do not swarm like ants do when their nests are disturbed.

  That last thing was big news, the ants’ tendency to form hordes when their homes were breached was why Reggie had had to take his time picking them off one by one instead of just kidnapping them from the fringes of some hive.

  Still, one creature with Attributes in the high 20s was still plenty. Reggie felt the reassuring weight of his musket slung over a shoulder and headed right for the tree.

  It didn’t take too much digging to open up an abscess in the earth, and right there within it he saw the wet, snapping mouth of a woodlouse. Its body was almost double Reggie’s height in length, easily five feet wide, its legs thicker, proportionately, than those of a smaller insect and its body covered in thick, chitinous armour.

  Right away it lunged for him, but Reggie was ready for that and leapt right back. The thing was fast, but not quite as quick as him. Heavier though, probably close to the weight of that wolf spider. He kept backing away as it kept lunging.

  If nothing else, the bizarre aggression of creatures in the grimwood was convenient for luring them apart. Reggie covered another twenty paces before he was confident he’d not need to contend with more than one louse at a time, then he struck back.

  His talons were longer now, he realised. Not by much, maybe two inches instead of one, but the extra cutting depth worked well as he scraped their jagged tips across the monster’s armour, snagged flesh, and tore a big rent in its side.

  The louse made a long, high-pitched noise that seemed entirely at odds with its size. Reggie almost laughed, then saw the thing curling up into a ball and starting to roll. He had one moment to stare in bafflement before it closed to almost within striking range, still picking up speed. Reggie yelped and leapt aside, feeling the wind rake him as his enemy missed and smashed into the trunk of a tree instead.

  Alas, that poor, brave tree. May his sacrifice be remembered, and his family live on in pride knowing how he fought against gravity to the bitter end before succumbing. The whole thing collapsed as a chunk near its base was just splintered apart, barely stopping the woodlouse. As the thing started trying to move again, Reggie leapt up onto its back.

  Curled up as it was, he realised the woodlouse’s armour plating was effectively two, even three times as thick where planes of chitin overlapped and bolstered one another. A few ineffectual scratches did nothing to break through, then Reggie was forced off as it started rolling again. He landed, got up with a snarl—a shade more bestial than one he’d have made as a human, he had to admit—and watched it turn around to start cutting right back for him.

  Reggie had moments to think of a plan, and he looked around for some glimpse of anything that might be turned into one. The best he saw was a large rock. Too large for him to use as a weapon, kind of lodged in the ground.

  Say one thing for Reginald Smith, say he could think fast. He turned and started sprinting for it, clearing fifteen feet with every stride and reaching it just a moment before the louse did.

  It had hit the tree, so it was either not good at seeing where it rolled or not good at slowing down. Reggie jumped, vaulting the boulder and making a really big wish that he’d guessed right about the creature’s weakness. He was vindicated by a meaty crunch from behind him.

  Reggie risked a look back and saw the woodlouse uncurled and sort of stumbling, falling onto its back, twitching a bit as blood gushed from a jagged crack at the crown of its head. It looked alive, unfortunately, but definitely hurt. Thing with insects, he was learning, was they didn’t need their brains as much as other creatures did.

  But they still needed them.

  Reggie was on the monster before it could rise and stabbed his claws down into the gash at its head, scraping and tearing, forcing it wider open. When it was gaping enough he bit down into the meat below and started forcing blood into his mouth.

  There was a resistance to his Blood Magic that Reggie wasn’t used to from the ants, like all the fluid was heavier somehow. It still answered him, the magic was strengthened by his being able to see it, and strengthened more by physical contact, but it was slow and sluggish, not much faster than it would’ve flowed from the heartbeat alone.

  Still, Reggie was able to drink fast as the woodlouse writhed around, trying and failing to shake him free. He felt the brine of its veins pulse down into his belly and flood him with strength, felt that same strength leaving the woodlouse as more and more of its vital ichor went away.

  All of it into him. When the creature finally stopped twitching, there wasn’t much blood left in it. Reggie made sure to drag the remaining dregs into his mouth just in case. He swallowed, closed his eyes and felt the strength surging through him. Trembled. God, he really had missed this.

  +1 Charisma.

  “What? Charisma?”

  Yes.

  “That’s bullshit, give me Strength or Toughness or something.”

  Do you think I control what Attributes you empower?

  “Do you not?”

  I do not.

  “Fuck.”

  Reggie had been hoping to up his physicals a bit, instead he’d just…what, become prettier? More charming? That might even give away that he wasn’t human.

  Charisma directly empowers the effects of your Royal Presence.

  Oh shit. Reggie thought about that. “That’s just for social stuff though, right?”

  No. It can affect creatures in any context to a limited degree, being particularly powerful when acting on those of limited intelligence that are motivated more by their instincts.

  Reggie took a moment to gather his breath. “Sycily, from now on, can you just assume that I want to know things like that before asking?”

  But you know so little, it’s hard to tell when you’ll find something relevant.

  “Try.”

  Did you know that light travels at a set speed? 670,000,000 miles per hour to be precise. Well, when moving through the air it’s actually slightly slower, and through water slower still. This is because—

  “Point taken,” Reggie sighed, “just be less discriminating when it comes to my own powers?”

  Sycily paused.

  Okay. Sorry Reggie.

  She sounded genuinely guilty. “It’s fine,” he added, “you’re…trying. I know thinking about things the normal way…I mean the way other people say is normal…I know it can be…hard.”

  His gaze turned back to the larger tree, at that. “Almost as hard as this is gonna be.”