Chapter 91
Yetis
The location of the yeti quest was several hundred miles north of their current location, so the journey gave Rel some time to think. It was very much needed. As they soared over the vast fields of ice, the conversation with Zalandar replayed in his mind over and over again.
That Zalandar was the Passenger was certainly a startling revelation, but it also made complete sense. It explained Rel's extraordinary and almost instinctive understanding of the arcane. The damage to Zalandar's consciousness also explained why Rel's knowledge was so… incomplete. Throughout their ‘union’, the Passenger's wisdom had always come through in disjointed fragments rather than as a coherent whole.
Rel wondered whether Zalandar's recovery would lead to an even greater transfer of knowledge. Or would the opposite prove true? Now that Zalandar was becoming more capable of holding his consciousness together, perhaps the knowledge would no longer bleed across at random. If so, then it seemed likely that, after having a little more time to recover, Zalandar would begin taking a more active role in guiding Rel's development...
Rel grinned at the possibility. He truly was going to be an archmagus for the ages, one day even surpassing Zalandar himself.
In the moments after learning that his ‘birth’ had been the result of an arcane mishap, Rel would have been lying if he claimed it hadn't upset him a little. After all, who enjoys discovering that their existence was an accident?
But the feeling had passed quickly.
Regardless of how it had begun, his existence was no less real. All that mattered was that it had happened.
Once Zalandar had fully recovered, he would be able to choose when he returned to his vacant body. Yet even after he did so, Rel would still be Rel. He would simply no longer have someone squatting in a distant corner of his mind.
Yes... the future was looking very bright indeed. But before getting lost in visions of that glorious future, there was still much to be accomplished in the present.
Rel examined his current stat points.
Current strength: 38 (43)
Current durability: 48 (53)
Current agility: 49 (54)
Current intelligence: 62 (73)
Rel fully supported Pete's no-item training idea, but there were limits to how far he was willing to take it. His staff, rings, and amulet were tucked away in his inventory, but he still wore his wizard hat and robes.
Training was, of course, important, but any true archmagus understood the value of looking the part.
He considered his stats. The fact that strength was so much lower than the others was of little concern. He could not ignore it entirely, of course, as it still influenced his movement speed while on the ground, but it was certainly the least important of his stats, especially given the way his flight ability worked. The speed of his flight scaled with intelligence, while its manoeuvrability scaled with agility.
No, he would invest some effort into training strength, but his focus for the next few weeks would be to raise his durability and agility. Even though Rel was fairly confident in his ability to obliterate an opponent before they could harm him, it never hurt to have the ability to dodge their attacks – or withstand them should one somehow manage to land a hit.
He opened his Quest Map to check their progress. They were close now. The flashing dot that marked their current location was only a claw's width from the red circle that indicated their destination.
He closed it again, then glanced at his friend. Pete had been unusually quiet throughout the journey. Rel imagined that it was partly because he’d recognised Rel was deep in thought and did not wish to interrupt.
However, based on the slightly unhinged gleam in Pete's eyes, there was likely another explanation.
Yetis.
It very much reminded Rel of the expression that flashed across Kaelis’s face anytime trolls were mentioned… burning hatred resulting from getting the shit kicked out of you.
Rel chuckled. It would appear that 'Dr Pete' had plenty of unresolved trauma of his own.
There was one small difference, though. When Kaelis had attempted to take out his frustrations on the forest trolls a few weeks earlier, they had beaten the ever-loving hell out of him. If not for Pete and Rel's presence, he would likely have been killed and eaten.
Pete, on the other hand, was more than capable of obtaining closure through extreme violence. In fact, Rel couldn't wait to witness the carnage that would soon ensue.
Speaking of which... the Frostfang Mountain Range appeared in the distance, growing nearer and larger by the second. All of the mountains were huge, but the tallest were absolutely enormous, their peaks lost among the clouds.
As they drew closer, Rel saw numerous towns and villages scattered across the vast frost plains that stretched beneath the mountains. They varied in size, but were all constructed in a similar manner, the buildings and walls themselves built and shaped from great slabs of ice.
Each settlement flew two flags from its walls. One was different from town to town, displaying various colours and designs. The other was the same everywhere.
Rel examined the quest description once more.
Hrundar the Heartless has done what many believed to be impossible: he has united the fractious yeti tribes of the far north and brought them under the rule of a single leader.
The identical flag that flew above every settlement was likely that of Hrundar the Heartless. It was dark blue, bearing the emblem of a large, furry white fist.
Rel turned his attention back to the mountains. One immediately stood out from the rest. It was by far the largest, and it almost looked as though the yetis had carved an entire city into its side. Countless paths wound their way up the mountain, while hundreds of great platforms and recesses housed dozens of buildings.
It seemed the logical destination for their quest objective. If Rel were a yeti king, that was certainly where he would choose to reside.
“Pete,” he began, “Let’s start our search–”
It was too late.
His friend was already diving towards the nearest village. Rel sighed and followed. He could all too easily imagine the thoughts running through Pete's head at that moment.
Stupid furry bastards. Cheap-shotting pussies. Jump me in the middle of a fucking blizzard, will you?
Now, the level of control granted by the flight ability meant it was entirely possible to land softly. Pete apparently had no interest in doing so. He slammed into the ground in the centre of the village, sending up a huge shower of ice. There was so much of it that he vanished from sight for a few moments.
When it cleared, it revealed Pete kneeling on one knee, his head bowed and one fist planted in the ground.
Rel snorted. And people said that he was the dramatic one.
Pete raised his head slowly, the movement conveying an impressive amount of menace. The dozens of dumbstruck yetis who had been standing nearby took several nervous steps back, not taking their eyes off him.
Rel, who was still hovering fifteen or so metres in the air, took in the surroundings. Pete had landed in some sort of market square. Dozens of tables, also carved from ice, were spread throughout the area, selling various goods such as fish, meat, clothing, and general supplies.
Pete rose to his feet and, moving at a speed that Rel could barely follow, blurred across the square and pinned a yeti against the wall of a nearby building. He drew back his other hand, and Rel fully expected the creature's upper torso – and quite possibly the entire building – to cease existing a moment later.
Instead, Pete's shoulders sagged and he untangled his fingers from the yeti's shirt, allowing the creature to slump to the ground.
Ah, of course...
Rel took a closer look at the yetis in the market. They may have been big, furry brutes, but they were also... peasants. Their clothing was simple, homespun stuff, not all that different from Pete's own.
In that moment, a war must have been raging inside his friend's mind. On one side stood what he perceived to be his sacred duty as the supposed 'Avatar of Peasants'. On the other stood his burning desire to punch a yeti.
Pete turned to face Rel, looking a little sheepish, and shrugged.
However, in the moments that followed, it became clear that yeti peasants were every bit as despicable as their warrior counterparts. The moment Pete began walking away, the creature scrambled to its feet, drew the hunting knife from its belt, and leapt through the air. Its lips curled into a savage snarl as it attempted to drive the blade into Pete's back.
*
As I stared up into the eyes of the very large, very terrified yeti I had pinned against the wall, I suddenly felt more than a little guilty.
On the flight over to the quest's location, Rel had been in one of his I'm thinking about important archmagusy things, so leave me the fuck alone moods. That meant I’d been left with only my thoughts to keep me company.
Those thoughts very quickly turned to yetis. More specifically, my experience with the yetis back on Floor Eight of the Tower of Potential.
They had been complete and utter assholes. They'd jumped me in the middle of a blizzard, their first introduction being to smack me across the face and nearly dislocate my jaw. They then proceeded to kick me around like a human football and stomp the shit out of me. They’d only stopped when I’d torn a chunk out of one of their legs and scared them off.
That got me thinking about my buddy Pyroth, and how the Avatar of Frost and her dumbass yeti children had done him dirty.
Basically, I'd had plenty of time to think about how much I wanted to beat the ever-loving shit out of some yetis.
It wasn't until I had the yeti pinned against the wall that I actually stopped to take a proper look at him.
He was a peasant.
Apparently, amidst my irrational desire for revenge, I hadn't considered the possibility that not all yetis were pieces of shit, and that some of them were just normal, everyday people trying to go about their lives.
Also... who knew that yetis wore clothes? For some reason, that discovery alone was enough to take the edge off my fury.
With a guilty sigh, I felt some of the tension leave my shoulders. I released my grip on his shirt, flashed him my best sorry about that, buddy smile, and then turned to face Rel, suddenly feeling rather sheepish.
And then I felt a sudden pressure on my back.
Seriously?
I whipped around on the spot to see the last vestiges of a savage snarl leave the yeti’s face, replaced by an expression that was equal parts confusion and horror as it stared down at the hunting knife in its enormous hand.
“I was right all along!” I yelled with entirely too much satisfaction in my voice, causing several more of the nearby yetis to promptly turn and run. “Yetis are untrustworthy assholes!”
I took a step towards the yeti who’d attempted to shiv me, raised my hand, and drew it back in preparation for one of Peter Brookes’s patented bitch slaps.
And then I sighed again and let my hand drop back to my side.
“Get the fuck out of here,” I said.
The yeti didn't need telling twice. He scrambled away so quickly that his feet sent up little showers of ice behind him.
“That was incredibly merciful of you,” said Rel, drifting down to float beside me. “You must be getting soft in your old age.”
“Old age?” I asked. “I’m thirty-two.”
“Exactly,” replied Rel. “Ancient.”
Wait… Rel was a squirrel. Don’t quote me on it, but I was fairly certain Earth squirrels lived for less than ten years on average. For all I knew, Rel was like two years old.
I grinned.
“That is true, I suppose…” I said. “Back where I’m from, we had a saying that's pretty relevant to this conversation: respect your elders.”
Rel stared at me for a few moments. “Your planet is stupid.”
“I can’t disagree with you there, buddy,” I said, then glanced around at the now-deserted market. “I don’t think I hate yetis quite enough to massacre a bunch of defenceless villagers... even if they are all colossal assholes.”
I turned to study the mountain city in the distance.
“No, if I’m going to vent my frustration on anyone, it will be Hrundar and his soldiers. I’d say it’s about time we introduced ourselves.”