TBATE - Havaca Rises

Chapter 7 - Young grasshopper

Time skip – after breakfast

"Hey Tess, I'm going back to where the slave traders were to see if they had anything we can use, so stay here and I'll be back in a few minutes."

"But what about the mana beast?" she asked curling up.

"Don't worry the hut is secured, besides all mana beasts are drawn to the traps anyway. You'll be fine," I said in a gentle voice.

"It won't be gone for more than five minutes," I shouted as I took off. To be honest I don't need anything from those slave traders but something didn't sit quite right with me. Pinky had a dimension ring, in the TBATE verse, these rings are quite expensive. If someone like Pinky could afford a dimension ring why do the dirty work? Surely, if he could afford the ring then he could hire thugs to do his bidding and keep his clean. Also, what worries me more is that he had 13 white gold tablets, which costs a thousand gold coins each. He had 13, 000 gold on his person which he claimed he got from stealing from nobles over the years, which could mean either 1) This bastard was really lucky and was a competent thief or 2) He was a part of a larger organization. I think it's the latter, maybe a family business as he was trusted with so much gold and right now, I'm hoping the books in the carriage or the book Pinky was holding could give some useful insight on the matter.

Jumping down from the branch near Pinky's corpse I found the book lying a few meters away covered in some blood and dirt, quickly flipping through the pages I was quite happy that the contents of the book of still readable. Jumping in the back of the carriage I found 3 books, 1 map, and a simple dagger. Looking around the area to ensure I haven't missed anything of value, I just noticed the forest hounds still tied to the carriage. How the fuck did I not notice them sooner? Well, might as well kill them and take their mana cores for Sylvie. A minute later I had 6 more cores in my collection, looking around I feel aether gathering at the corpses and the carriage and then the extreme heat that Amaterasu produces. All evidence was destroyed in a matter of seconds. Satisfied with my work I rushed over to Tess as I still have to dismantle my beloved campsite.

"I'm back," I said upon entering the hut.

"Art! I was so worried." Squeaked Tess as she engulfed me in a hug.

"It was a simple supply run, Tess, there was nothing to fear," I said, gently patting her head.

"Grandpa always says 'You never know the danger that lurks around each corner and so you must be extra careful.'"

"Your grandfather sounds like a wise man but as much as I like to get to know about your family, we have to get a move on. It should be around 8 am and we will be walking till evening or until we find a suitable place to camp for the night."

To be honest, breaking everything down was so much easier than building it. For the fishing poles I just sucked them into my dimension ring and then using earth magic I let the hut be reabsorbed into the earth, and willed dirt to fill and cover the pitfall trap and smoking station.

"Alright, time to make some armor. Stick out your left arm," question Tess stuck her hand out and began by placing a layer of leather over her hand, using wind magic I cut the leather so that it wrapped around her forearm and had a square-ish piece covering the back of her palm. After I had my rough measurements, I used it as a template to cut five more pieces of leather, layering 3 pieces of leather one on top of the other I used wind magic to make holes in the leather near the edges and weaved some rope through to act as laces. It was done, my first piece of armor was completed, it was beautiful, a bit messy but beautiful nonetheless. After repeating the same process a couple more times, Tess and I both had a pair of vambraces and greaves.

"Here, strap this to wherever you feel most comfortable with," I say handing her the dagger I got from the slave traders.

Time skip 5 pm