A Warlock's Ascent

The next day, after having a roasted fish again for breakfast, Dave and his party moved on with their journey. The back bridge was not very far away from them, it would take only an half an hour, and they will reach their destination.

Once they would cross it, they could enter Vecrus and carry on with their other plans. Grump had decided to leave him in Vecrus, where he was to stay low, till he returns back after safely escorting Hamel and his grandson to their destination. After that, they would try to sell all the ingredients.

After they got to the back bridge, they faced the big hurdle which got everyone's mood sore…

"Oh fuck!" grump cursed as he gazed at the herd of trolls. These gigantic humanoid monsters were occupying the area on the other side of the bridge, making them stop at their tracks.

They were in a pickle, if they try to cross the bridge, then the trolls would see them and try to attack them. But they didn't want to fight those monsters, so Grump started wrecking his brain from which they could sneak past them, unnoticed.

While Dave couldn't help but look at those trolls with horror, they were these tall 8 feet tall monsters with grey skins, their feet were as large as an elephant's feet, their small red eyes were like a junkie's eyes, their pregnant woman-like stomach jiggled as they move, essentially they looked like antisocial old men that live in the countryside.

He could see that these monsters were very strong, which was evident from their physique, but seeing them lazing around on the grass and their slow movement made him question whether these monsters are dangerous or not.

He remembers seeing this creature from the night of Beast Tide, one such monster pulled out a tree from the ground and threw it at their carriage. That alone was enough to showcase what these monsters could do.

But currently, they look nothing like the energetic big humanoid monsters that chased him that night, currently, they look like lazy fat guys who had nothing better to do in their life than to laze around.

To get more information about them, he went to the only person that was knowledgeable in the context of monsters, Ricardo, to ask about his confusion.

"So these monsters always this lazy?" he asked.

Ricardo nodded his head. "Yeah, most of the time of their life cycles, trolls act like this. But once they smell blood, they suddenly get this energy out of nowhere and become this fiercest beast that is too hard for adventurers to handle alone."

"So they get active with  the smell of blood?"

"Yeah."

"That is interesting… They are like sharks." Ricardo looked at him wondering what he said, after 'that is interesting' he just heard bla-bla, he knew that this meant that Dave had mentioned something about the Earthian's home world, and he couldn't help but wonder whether there is a similar monster like trolls in his original world.

"Do you have any idea, how we could sneak past them?" Dave asked him.

"No. They have a very good sense of smell, they would easily whiff our smell. Although they do have pretty weak eyesight, but that won't help us, there are at least 8-9 of them on the other side. We would not be able to sneak past them, without being spotted." Ricardo said.

"Hey, what about their hearing ability? How is that?"

"It is not bad, but not good as well. Why?" Ricardo said.

"Well, I was thinking that we could use the same strategy, that we used with the herd of Earth Porcupines, back in Ravenshade."

"Oh yeah… that. We could use that… But we could face some problems with this plan…" but Dave didn't listen to what Ricardo was saying and straight away went Grump to talk to him about the plan that he had come up with.

As they discussed the plan, they realized that the first problem, their target was across the river, while they were there. So even if this plan would work, they would need to cross the river to lure them away, otherwise, they had no way to send that Boom Cracker away from that herd of trolls.

Also, according to grump, he may be fast, but he could outrun a troll. Not only they are fast, but also good trackers because of their smelling ability. So if he somehow is able to lure that group away, then they would be able to catch up to them within a few minutes.

The only way to avoid being smelled was to use a special alchemic powder, which they lacked. Ricardo suggested that they could make some with the ingredients that they had, but Grump straight away refused that idea, he didn't want to let his profit margin get anymore lower.

As they bickered among themselves, about what to do and what not to do, Dave noticed something happening across the bridge, something was wrong there, the monsters have suddenly become active and looked around here and there franctically.

***

Being a lover of the City Lord of Vecrus had its own perks, Igor was respected by the masses, everyone treated him like he was royalty, most women tries to coax him into sleeping with them, they would practically throw themselves at him, but alas, he could not do anything to them.

Because he was City Lord's lover, more eyes were on him now; he couldn't even pee without someone watching him. Because of this he had to take every step carefully, all his schemes and ploys needed to be thought about carefully before he could enact them, after all, he could let his dear moneymaker get the gist about what he was up to.

As Sonia had become more powerful and influential, she had become more ruthless as well. When he beat the shit out of Yureka and sent her away to die, Sonia got the news pretty soon about her disappearance and got pissed.

She wanted to know how a crippled woman like her could vanish like that, she herself investigated Yureka's disappearance and beat the shit out of soldiers who were negligent about their duties.

It was a good thing that he covered his tracks well, and no dots connected and pointed towards him and his men, but still, that whole shit storm was a good warning for him, now he had to be very careful with his ploys…

When he woke up that morning, he felt good, the city lord's manor have some special magic circuit engraved on them, because of which these stones could make the air around the cooler, just like an air conditioner.

Waking up every day in a slightly cold envoirment with silks wrapped around his body makes him feel bliss, he feels like royalty. He unwrapped himself and got up, after stretching his body and taking a long bath, he came down to the dining room.

There Sonia was sitting on the table, eating butter and bread, while reading the documents beside her. As she heard him walk up to her, she smiled, he came to her and gave her a kiss on her lips.

"Good Morning." He said as their lips parted way.

A smile appeared on her face. "Someone is in good mood."

"Why wouldn't I be in good mood, I have the most beautiful girl as my lover, I am living in a lavish mansion, and I have a sugar mommy to take care of me."

The smile on her face vanished "Really a sugar mommy." He smiled and came closer to her.

"Why not?" He then grabbed her hand. "You coddle me." He kissed her hand. "You pay for my expenses." He then closer to her face. "And I am the only one that could make you moan so loudly…"

SMACK

A small flick on his balls was enough to make Igor stumble back. He looked like he was in pain, seeing this Sonia started smiling. "Now is not time for your antics Igor, I have some work for you."

While rubbing his balls, he eventually sat down opposite her. As he started making himself breakfast.

He took a bite of buttered bread and then she continued. "There is a herd of trolls at the back bridge, connecting us and Cloudhold. Go and exterminate them. Take your men, not anyone from the garrison."

"Trolls huh?" he then made a disgusted face. "Why me? Did you really get offended by that sugar mommy thing? I was just joking you know."

"I am not angry at you. You are a strong Mage, and with your skills, it will be too easy for you to subdue them. Just go and make this…" she then hesitated, but the said it. "And make this sugar mommy proud."

Her ears became red, he just smiled at her blushing face. "And will I get a reward if I am able to complete the task, without any hitch?"

"Reward huh… I will do anything that you want, in our bedroom."

He stuffed the bread in his mouth hurriedly and ran outside, not wanting to waste any time.