After leaving the village, Astrid and I didn't talk very much. We were both still frustrated with the entire situation. For one, even after everything we went through just to save that kid, no one thanked us. And as if that wasn't bad enough, they even tried to steal the System just because they thought it would be good for them. Not to mention the mayor was still pissing me off. He said that he didn't like the child-abusing asshole who we got left stuck in prison and yet there he was, following along with whatever that guy was saying. Maybe they had some sort of connection or that guy has some sort of leverage against the village, but still, his reaction really pissed me off.
And Frederick. That little shit.
We saved his life. Yeah, fine, I may have hurt him a bit in the process. But I didn't want to hurt him. I was just scared that the fire was going to engulf him right away, so I was a bit more forceful than I should have been. Still, that entire situation seemed to have left a bad taste in our mouths.
Astrid was also quieter than usual as we continued traveling west. It wasn't awful to travel with someone that didn't want to speak, but there were a few moments when I got worried that she was angry at me and not just at the situation. Even so, for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to ask about that, and we just continued moving for the next couple of days.
We traveled following along the road that was supposed to head west. It was just a shame that we didn't have a map or something to confirm that we were actually going in the right direction. The only thing that could give us some sort of sort of confirmation was the map that it had saved with the System. But I understood that wasn't a perfect solution. The System only knew the things that I did. At least when the topic wasn't itself.
Which meant that if the map that we saw was wrong, the System would believe it was right. It also meant that now that we were using roads that didn't show up on the map, or were more unfamiliar, the System had nothing to help us. Nothing to confirm if we were actually moving in the right direction or not.
I would love to find a proper map any time we passed by a larger city. But everything was in ruins. Few areas were oner or less the same, but some were much worse than anything that we had seen so far. It wasn't just some broken-down walls or old, cracked ceilings. Everything was pretty much rubble. We couldn't absolutely nothing that even began to resemble an actual house or large building in a couple of the cities we passed by. It even looked like there was a massive explosion that just wiped everything out in one of the 'cities'. And I wouldn't put it past the old world for that to really be the case.
As far as I knew, things got really hectic just before we lost the war against the Eaters. People started being even more reckless than they were already being and using weapons that could destroy even more. But then again, if nuclear weapons were used as I suspected, then why were we not being killed by the radiation? I remembered Pops saying that it was possible the Eaters had something to do with that, but could they have eaten the very radiation itself? It seemed to be the only plausible explanation, but that created more questions than answers.
Over the course of the next few days, we continued to travel. We slowly got back to talking more often, with the Frosted Lumberjack even asking a few questions about myself and my old home. I was doing the same, wanting to know more about my companion since we were clearly going to travel together for some time. But she wasn't as used to sharing as she was to questioning. It took almost two days just to learn that she had a pet rabbit when she was little called Snow. And that was the only bit of information I managed to get. Not because she refused to answer, but her replies were too short, forcing me to ask about every little detail if I wanted to hear a full story.
We continued hunting monsters now and then and fighting even a couple of Eater while we traveled. Each on a different occasion of course. Fighting two at once was just stupid. I was able to level up once, but there were no skills that I wanted to take. Everything I had was good enough for now. Astrid also leveled up quite a bit during these three days. So much so that she caught up to me, likely thanks to our SP sharing making so that every time I was to acquire SP, she would get a larger percentage of what should be ours, which was a good thing. She ended up getting a few skills that she found useful, unlike the ones I got.
And once she got to the same level, eleven on this case, she shared her status screen with me.
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Astrid Ek - Level 11 (saturated)
Titles: Frosted Metabolism
Tier: 1 - Frosted Lumberjack
Mind - 6 Body - 20
Memory - 8 Energy - 9 (3 reserved)
Skills 8/8
Passive
Energy Storage - 1 Energy
Memory Bank - 1 Energy
Cold Endurance - 0 Energy
Frozen Resolve - 1 Energy
Active
Permafrost Armor - 1 Energy/1 minute.
Body Regeneration - 1 Energy/10 minutes.
Frost Chop - 1 Energy/5 uses
Shattering Frost - 1 Energy
Mind of Possibility - Unavailable
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She was focusing a lot more on body stats than I was, and I found that was a good thing, too. That way, we could compare what was the best. Since between the two of us, we had someone balancing everything else and someone focusing on one single attribute.
But her skills you were quite a surprise. {Permafrost Armor} was a defensive ability that covered her body in a layer of ice that didn't stop her movements. {Frozen Resolve}, was a weird one. It would only be activated if she was severely injured. But we had no idea what that actually meant. According to what she told me, the skill would increase her physical prowess by a considerable amount and make her sturdier against damage for a few moments. She confirmed that by watching her Proxy show the skill.
Lastly, was {Frost Chop}. And I was honestly a bit upset with that skill. It wasn't something she created on her own. But one that did very much like an evolution from her regular {Chop} skill. The effects were most of the same. Just a single strike, but at the same time, it added a layer of ice to her weapon when she used it. And it also increased the number of uses per Energy. It was an upgrade in all aspects.
On the third day, we spent the night in a broken-down house. We were getting close to an area filled with various large lakes that was close to being a bog, but it wasn't quite there. There were old campfires and small places where hunters might have gathered to spend the night while they were searching for prey. Meaning that we were likely getting closer to a village, and strangely enough, it had been a couple of days since we'd seen any trace of Eaters. For some reason, they seemed to be either avoiding or uninterested in the area.
While that was somewhat a good thing, it also made me worry. The Eaters wouldn't be giving up a place that seemed to be with decent prey for no reason. Maybe there was something the Eaters were afraid of. And if that was the case, we had to be very careful with what we did here.
We arrived at what I was assuming to be a bog, only to realize it wasn't the case. It was just a very large plain with several smaller ponds spread everywhere. I had a feeling this should be called a wetland, but I also wasn't entirely sure about that. And since the System relied on information I had, it couldn't help either. Nonetheless, we had to be careful as we walked since there were ponds everywhere, including in the middle of the road. Areas that had been overgrown by vegetation and now taken over by water. The last thing we needed was to end up falling on one of those small lakes that were much deeper than they seemed at first.
We passed by a couple of ruined villages. Some very old, likely from the old world, but there were a couple of others that seemed more recent. And they were also destroyed by what seemed to be a large creature. There were massive holes on the ground that could have been made by a giant spider leg. Maybe an Eater, but the type of destruction in the area seemed more widespread. If it was one of those creatures, it probably got injured and started lashing out. Or, it wasn't one of the creatures at all, but something else entirely.
Now that we had seen the Rodenti, any time we discovered something new, the number of answers for that increased exponentially.
Following this straight road, we stopped by several areas that were very close to various lakes. Not massive lakes, but they weren't small by any measure. Each of the lakes was a few hundred meters across, and by the looks of it, there were fish and other wildlife living on them.
Eventually, we saw a single large lake much larger than anything that we had ever seen before.
"Ocean?!" I did and turned towards Astrid.
But I shook my head. "No. That one is still too small to be the ocean. Besides, we're still far away from the shore. This should be just one of the lakes in the middle of the continent," I told my companion, who stared at me with a mix of surprise.
"Ocean bigger?" Astrid asked.
"Much, much bigger. From what I know. Once we reach the ocean, we won't be able to see the other side, even if we were to travel for weeks on end. Calling it massive is an understatement. It's bigger than the land."
Astrid paused and just stared at me with wide eyes, trying to comprehend what I had just told her. But after a while, we continued once more.
A little before sundown, we reached another village. This one was before the massive lake. Far enough so that the creature in the water shouldn't be a problem, but close enough that people could just walk there and back every day.
Astrid and I were already expecting trouble. People being rude or straight up angry at our mere presence. But instead, we got a polite greeting.
"Hello," a guard wearing a strange colorful outfit approached. She had a fisher's hat on her head that was surrounded by strings, each one with a small bubble attached at the bottom of it. Her shirt had a floral pattern, likely hand drawn, with each petal in a different color, and bright green pants.
"I see that the two of you are approaching our city. May I ask why?" she asked with a surprisingly calm demeanor.
"Hi. I'm Cassandra, and this is Astrid. We are travelers and we're hoping we could stay the night in your village. Don't worry about supplies. We have our own, but we would appreciate some water," I explained.
The woman looked around. "Are the two of you alone? Or do you have any more companions that I don't see?"
"It's just us. We were trying to get to the ocean to see it for the first time," I said. After the events in the last village, we had talked and decided that it was better to have a proper reason for our journey instead of just say we were traveling. It made us seem less sketchy. Saying that we were hoping to see the ocean seemed like a good excuse, especially since it was true.
"I see, I see," the woman nodded. "That is incredible. You came at a very good time to our small village. We are set to have a great festival in a couple of days, and I will confirm this with the matriarch, but I do believe we have enough supplies for a couple more people, if you are interested."
"Festival? Which festival?" I asked, not remembering any holidays from the old world happening around this time.
"Oh, it's a local festival. I don't think anywhere else would have it. We'll drive a party to thank the spirit of the lake for its protection and for the bounty that it gives us every year."
"Spirit of the lake?" I glanced at Astrid, who squinted ever so slightly, "Is that a real spirit or some sort of creature?" I asked.
The woman chuckled. "No, no. Nothing like that. It's just a more conceptual idea. The lake always provides for us, and we decided to throw parties on its honor, like people used to do in the old, old world, hoping that whatever entities please will continue to supply us with water and the supplies that we occasionally get from it."
Hearing that made me relax quite a lot. They didn't feel like such crazy people praying to a monster. Just a bunch of people trying to find some solace in the existence of a steady supply of various things. But at the same time, I was curious. Could this lake have anything to do with the fact that the Eaters were not around? It was very hard to tell.
"If we're not going to get in the way, I think we could stay for a couple of days. I'm open to even help hunting if you need anything," I said.
"Can you fish?" she asked.
I had to give an awkward shrug. "I've never fished before, so I don't know if I can help."
"What about you, Astrid?" she asked.
Astrid paused, "Ice fishing?"
"No ice fishing. If it was winter, yes, but not right now," the woman replied.
"Then no." Astrid added.
The woman nodded. "That's fine. I'm sure we can find something else for you to do. Because you have to do something. It's not fair for you to just stay and don't help, you know."
I nodded," Of course. We were not expecting to be allowed to stay for free."
The woman gestured for us to follow deeper into the city that wasn't covered by any large walls like the other ones we passed by. All the while she continued to speak, "I'm we can find something for you to do. Maybe you will be lucky and be chosen as one of the people who are going to meet the guardian beast of the lake!"