Frostbound Chapter 84 - Growing Threat

"You have birds that you scout the area with and through them, you saw running toward your camp aggressively?" I asked.

After realizing there was a miscommunication, I tried to figure out why they thought I would attack them. Finding out they had birds watching as I rampaged through the forest was... unexpected.

I hadn't thought anyone would be watching as I ran through the forest and knowing that soone had made a little self-conscious. I hadn't exactly been the epito of grace during my trek.

It also made understand why they thought I was going to attack. I had been a bit... destructive on my way here.

"Yes, which is why we were prepared for a fight," The woman said from the other side of the portal. I realized she hadn't given her na and I kept referring to her as the woman.

"I do not have that intention," currently, "I only seek answers," I said.

Now that I knew a bit more and found out they had birds they could use to scout, things started to fall into place.

If they used that ability to keep track of the goings on, they would know who attacked us. Austin's skill was spot on if that was the case and there would be no need to fight them.

I only needed to get the woman to tell .

I was slightly jealous of their ability to do so. It also made a little sad realizing that it was sothing Kyle would have been able to do if he still lived. He ranted about getting a bird beast companion and seeing what it could do made a tad sad.

That kind of information was extrely useful to have. Both during the waves and to keep what happened from occurring again. It was sothing that we would have to fix.

Getting that skill or class for soone in our camp would be difficult. Everyone had their own paths to tread and having a skill not in line with that could be detrintal. Especially now, when things were about to co to a close.

We didn't have any Beastmasters but we could co up with sothing similar.

The woman seed to be thinking of how to respond and her indecision vexed . The possibility that she knew and wouldn't tell angered .

I tried not to let it show. It wasn't unreasonable to decline to answer, I had said nothing of recompense. Doing anything for free wasn't how the world worked and it certainly wasn't now that it had changed.

Saying nothing of repaynt was on purpose. I wanted to see if they would give the answers I sought without having to give anything up. If I ended up having to pay for them, so be it.

"What is it you want to know?" She seed to co to a decision.

"I want to find out who is responsible for the attack on my camp. A debt is owed and I aim to collect it." I answered gravely.

I wanted no miscommunication on what I would do and I made it clear what I was after. If these people were friends with the people responsible, I would find out now.

After saying my piece I watched her face closely.

There wasn't any shock or surprise on her face signaling this was the answer she had expected and yet no signs were pointing at them being responsible. She also didn't beco defensive or indicate in any way that she was allied with the people responsible.

As I said before, I wasn't the best at reading faces but I should be able to see sothing this big. Making clear my goals of revenge, I aid to catch any hint of deceit or defensiveness if they did turn out to be behind it.

There was too much I didn't know and I couldn't discredit the idea that they might be who I was looking for.

If only Austin's skill could have led directly to who I wanted. I wasn't sure how it worked but it was already frustrating .

If only it could point to who was responsible and make this whole thing easier, but no, it led on a wild goose chase with only a direction to go off of.

Why the skill worked in roundabout ways was vexing. If it intended to send on a wild adventure to seek the answers I sought, it was doing a good job.

She took another mont before answering.

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"I know who did it," For a mont I feared she would ask for sothing in return, "It was soone we call the Mindbreaker."

The na she ntioned ant nothing to but that didn't matter. All I needed to know was where I would find him. If she could point in his direction I would be on my way.

"Do you know where he is?" I asked.

I wasn't going to trust her blindly but this was as good of a lead as any.

"We do not know where he is. The last we saw of him was when he was up north. If you rember, I sent your camp a letter about it." She said smugly.

Now that she said it, I did rember reading a letter about sothing like this. We got letters from a few different factions earlier on in the tutorial but they mostly stopped after a while.

As the tutorial increased in difficulty, factions stopped sending letters. I usually ignored all of the letters as they were all asking for help or asking to rge camps.

There was one I rembered that warned of an impending threat but I had other things to deal with and dismissed it at the ti. It wasn't important when there was a wave to prepare for the next day.

Finding out the threat was real made want to go back and slap past . I wasn't sure if anything would have changed but it would have been good information to have.

No one died and no one received major injuries, so dismissing the letter didn't result in anything too bad, but it could have been a lot worse. It was mostly the surprise of my camp being under attack that scared so much. It was unexpected. A threat aid at my family shouldn't be unexpected.

Since the woman, I really needed to ask her na, didn't know where the person was, I settled for the next best thing.

"Where is his camp?" If I couldn't find the person, I would go to their camp.

"Let's take a step back so I can explain to you the threat we face." She said with a serious tone.

I hadn't missed the fact she used 'we', not the threat I face.

She then went on to describe what the Mindbreaker, a man nad Craig, had been up to. The na sounded familiar but I couldn't place it.

She told tales of taking over pylons before dominating people's minds. She wasn't certain how he did what he did, but she knew a lot.

His class revolved around gaining 'thralls' and most of his skills were related to wearing down ntal defenses before taking over. The other skills he had were related to controlling the thralls he already had.

The fact she knew so much about the man's class and skills was a tad worrying. I hadn't exactly kept what I was able to do secret and there were nurous tis I had fought with birds around.

Were they spying on ? Did they have the sa kind of information on ? Or my family?

The thought was unsettling and not one I particularly liked. I now understood why so many people had [Identify Block]. Being so exposed didn't feel good.

I was used to only being around my family where we already told each other what skills we had so blocking information-gathering skills was useless.

Back to the Mindbreaker though, the information she gave explained why we were attacked by both monsters and man. She ntioned that after gaining levels and experience using his skills, the Mindbreaker expanded out to monsters under his control.

His supply of further human thralls dwindled as more people either died or were already under his control so he expanded to beasts.

I was told he didn't have as much control over the animals since their minds were less developed but he could still give rudintary orders like attack or defend an area.

After she was finished giving all the information she knew, it turned out to be quite a lot.

"So the man has ntal skills, an army of thralls, nine pylons, and has only been growing in power." I sumd up.

To which she responded with a nod.

Hearing that such a threat was growing without my knowledge was jarring. It made more sense now why she had given this information for free.

What she told was a threat against us all, if it was true, and telling helped her in the long run. Knowing that telling was in her best interest made inclined to trust it more.

I still wasn't going to blindly trust it but verifying the truth of what she said shouldn't be hard. All I had to do was search out one of these pylons and see for myself what they held.

I had assud everyone was busy fighting the waves. Not gearing up for world domination. Well, tutorial domination.

The list of things to worry about seed to only grow.

As she relayed information about the man, I thought of what I would do. I couldn't rush off with a half-baked plan like I did before.

So many things could have gone wrong and I was lucky they hadn't. I was confident in fighting an army but I had zero idea how many thralls the man had. Rushing in blind could lead to an early grave.

I could have been led into an ambush, surrounded by beasts, or he could have trapped and tried to work his mind voodoo on . There were so many things I didn't know were possible.

I didn't even have any ntal defense skills, skills which the woman said were available in the store. Her pylon rank was higher than ours and a wider variety of skills were available to purchase which ours didn't have.

The sheer breadth of what I didn't know was astounding and that didn't even include the stuff I didn't know that I didn't know.

I had been so focused on surviving that I hadn't spent any ti, or points, on learning more about the possible things I may face in the future. I hadn't even known ntal domination was possible.

Suffice it to say, I had a lot to think about and I needed to take so ti to co up with a plan of action. There would be no more charging forward blindly.

As our talk ca to an end, it seed the woman was debating asking sothing.

Before she ca to a decision, I asked sothing that was on my mind, "I never caught your na."

She had never given it but phrasing that way was nicer.

"Tracy. Tracy Strong," she answered.

"Well, it was nice to et you Tracy, but I have things I need to do. I wish you good fortune." I concluded.

I needed to get back to camp and discuss what we were going to do.

Just when I was about to turn and leave she said one more thing. It seed her ntal deliberations had co to a conclusion and she had decided to voice her offer.

Hearing it left speechless. I hadn't expected to be offered that and I could only answer non-committedly.

That wasn't sothing I could decide by myself.

My entire run ho I went over the last thing she said. It would work, but I didn't know if I wanted to.