Throughout the rest of their trip to Whiterock, they hunted. Every time Noah landed the flying sword, Lee immediately darted off to find any monsters in the area. While she picked up anything unfortunate enough to get in her path, Noah used the immense and awe-inspiring power of his Master Runes as a cheap fishing lure.

He sent energy worming into the ground and area around them in small sections at a time, calling out any monsters greedy enough to try to challenge them. He took care not to release too much power to avoid calling down something that was too strong for them to handle, and for the most part, it worked.

Several times, Noah caught a glimpse of the red-horned cat through the branches of a tree or hiding behind a rock, but it vanished as soon as he turned his attention toward it. At this point, while he was confident the cat was on their side, he had absolutely no idea what its goals were.

It was clearly more than just a way for the Fragment of Renewal to show him its abilities. That may have been one of its tasks, but the cat was still around after that had been completed. And, more than just around – it was bait that worked far better than any of Noah’s magic.

Every time the cat arrived, it brought with it a monster. Sometimes, it brought multiple. But, whatever its goals were, it was helping.

Either that, or it really enjoys watching us fight and doesn’t want its entertainment to end too quickly. Probably helping, though.

Noah and Moxie had just finished off a fat, red-skinned toad that had sprung out from beneath the earth just moments before. The toad would have been cute – in an ugly way – if it hadn’t been five feet tall and probably somewhere around three hundred pounds of pure muscle. The fact that its tongue melted clean through anything it touched didn’t help either.

The frog was nothing compared to the things that the trio had gone up against in recent times, though. It went down without landing a single blow on any of them, falling to a blade of wind from Natural Disaster.

Bringing his hand through the air, Noah Sundered the Toad’s soul as it started to gather above its body. Six of the runes that flowed forth were unreadable, but the final one was a Melting Poison Rune. Not something that would be immediately useful, but it would still be a waste to leave it behind.

Noah gathered the Rune, forming it in his soul before depositing it onto Dayton’s Catchpaper. The once majestic scroll was starting to get run-down from all the use Noah had put it through, and he suspected that it wasn’t long for this world.

It’ll work until we get that artifact from Karina. We should only be a day or two out by now, so I can transfer all the Runes from this once we can replace it.

“Do you have a name for it?” Lee asked.

Noah glanced away from the scroll, rolling it up. “Name for what?”

“The cat.” Lee nodded to a nearby tree. There wasn’t anything there, but he didn’t doubt for a second that the cat had been sitting around up until he’d looked.

“Oh. Not really. I was just calling it the cat.”

“It’s sticking around, though. It needs a name.”

“Does it? It’s just a cat.”

“I’m with Lee on this one,” Moxie said. “I can’t just keep thinking of it as the cat. What if there’s another cat?”

“This one has horns.”

“Well, I’m not calling it the horny cat.” Moxie scrunched her nose at the smell wafting off the frog – it really was quite rancid – and moved to stand upwind of it. “And we’ve got a plushie of it. It’s part of the team.”

“It may or may not be enjoying watching us fight for our lives,” Noah pointed out, but he knew that he was being nitpicky. Sure, the cat did like getting them into fights, but it had never brought anything that was too strong for them to deal with.

“A possibly murderous part of the team,” Moxie amended.

“That describes all of us,” Lee said. She sniffed at the frog. Moxie gently took her by the back of the shirt and pulled her back before she could take a bite.

“Okay, okay. Fine. I’m not making it an actual member of our group. It can be a mascot. How about that?” Noah asked.

“Mascot?” Moxie’s brow furrowed. “What’s that? I haven’t heard the word.”

Noah blinked, realizing that mascot had actually been English rather than whatever language they spoke in the Arbalest Empire. Evidently, they didn’t have a direct translation for it. “It’s like an animal or something that represents a group, I guess. They’re usually either cute or scary.”Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“Mascot seems like a good name.” Lee nodded. “Let’s use that.”

“Wait, no. It’s a title, not a name. I wasn’t saying–”

“I like Mascot,” Moxie said.

Noah opened his mouth, then shook his head and shrugged. “Fine. Mascot it is. If the horny cat doesn’t like that name, may it speak up now or forever hold its peace.”

The cat didn’t make an appearance – and so, Mascot’s new name was decided on.

With that issue solved, the trio set off to put a little more distance between themselves and the corpse of the frog monster. Lee was eyeing it a little too closely, and Noah didn’t want to set up camp anywhere near the rancid thing.

They found a spot beneath some tall trees with dense, furry leaves and settled in, preparing a campfire and erecting some vine tents. Once they’d finished, Noah pulled out Dayton’s scroll and rolled it out before him, examining the Runes they’d gathered over the last few days.

He’d gathered several Greater Earth Runes and a fair number of True Earth Runes at Rank 2, as well as a fair number of True Wind Runes. He’d also picked up a few Rank 2 True Vibration Runes by sundering apart some fortunate Rank 3 Trembling Cracked Earth Runes. In addition to the useful Runes, he also got a number of others that he wasn’t quite sure what to do with yet.

Bucking Furious Earth – Rank 2

Sharpened Leaf – Rank 2

Dripping Water – Rank 2

Screaming Draft – Rank 2

It wasn’t the most impressive collection, but it certainly wasn’t anything to scoff at either. If they could have sold the Runes, they would have made quite the profit. It was unfortunate that they hadn’t run into anything that was higher than a Rank 2 that Noah was willing to part with, but considering they were traveling through the middle of nowhere, Noah wasn’t too bothered. There would always be strong monsters to fight.

“Nothing that’s immediately useful, huh?” Moxie asked, peering over his shoulder.

“Not for me,” Noah agreed. “If our theory is right – and I think it is – Natural Disaster should probably be left for Rank 4 or higher. That means I need completely new Rank 3 Runes.”

“That or combine seven Natural Disasters and hope that the resultant Rank 4 Natural Disaster ends up more stable.”

“Definitely a possibility,” Noah said with a nod. “But that would delay testing the theory even longer. I think I’m going to try to do the same thing, but for my individual disasters instead of the whole thing. I like wind the most, so I’ll probably start by making a Rank 3 Howling Cyclone Rune. Maybe Earth as well – or something with vibration. I kind of miss that.”

“Seems reasonable to me. Why not use some of these, then? Bucking Furious Earth could fit if you take it apart.”

“No point,” Noah replied. “They’re more for future purposes, in case we didn’t figure things out correctly. I’m just going to split power off Natural Disaster and then carve that apart to form seven sets of its filled Rank 2 components. That way, I can combine them all in one fell swoop.”

“What was the point of getting all these, then?”

“For the future – and in case we need to replace actual Runes rather than just how we’re combining them. Just because we figured out one more aspect of how all this stuff works doesn’t mean we’ve cracked the code.”

“Fair point,” Moxie admitted. “I could probably look to do something like that as soon as I can buy a Mind Meld potion. I lost some power and Runes back in Blancwood, but they were basically full before we left Arbitage. With all the fighting we’ve been doing, I’m not all that far from filling them back up.”

“Same for me,” Lee put in, her words slightly garbled through a mouthful of – something. She’d slipped away at some point during Noah and Moxie’s conversation and was now chewing on a suspiciously shaped green leg. Lee noticed the looks the two professors sent her and shoved the rest of her nighttime snack into her mouth, swallowing without chewing. “My Runes are full. I’m just waiting to combine them. I don’t know if the whole gap between Rank 3 and 4 will matter, and I don’t want to find out.”

Huh. That’s actually a good point. I haven’t sundered a Rank 4 Rune when it was connected to anyone. Is the big disparity in power between Rank 3 and 4 going to be a major problem? It’s definitely worth considering.

“That’s a really good catch, Lee,” Noah said. “I think you should stick to that. When we make it to Whiterock, Karina can show us somewhere we can get Mind Meld potions. You and Moxie are closer, so we can test out some of our theories when we get there. If that doesn’t work – well, we’ve got some Runes to mess with here, and it won’t be all that hard to get more.”

“More hunting. Never going to complain about that.” Lee licked her lips. “Especially when the targets taste good.”

“Everything tastes good to you.” Noah yawned and rolled the scroll back up. He slid it into his pack and he tapped his forearm, bringing his violin shimmering to life.

“What’s that for?” Lee asked, glancing around. “Are we going to get attacked?”

“Nope. Just practice. What better time to work on music and Formations than when we’re out in the wild?” Noah rested the bow against the strings of the violin, adjusting his stance. “As of now, I only have one real Formation, and that’s just to supercharge Sunder. I want to work on making more of them on the fly.”

Lee and Moxie exchanged a glance. Moxie snagged Noah’s bag and Lee picked up his gourd. Then, as one, they both took a few steps back. Noah’s brow furrowed.

“What?”

“You’re going to blow yourself up,” Moxie said.

“What? No. You’ve got no faith. I thought you liked my music!”

“I do. But you’re going to be trying to make Formations on the fly, right? As useful as that sounds, I’m also pretty sure it’s going to inevitably end in something going boom. We’re lucky you got away with it against Evergreen, but counting on that happening again is tempting fate.”

Noah scrunched his nose and lowered the bow slightly. “Bah. I’ll be careful. I’m only going to be putting Natural Disaster into it, so there aren’t too many ways it can go wrong. It would be different if I tried to slot more Runes in.”

“Right,” Moxie said. She and Lee took cover behind the stump of one of the trees near the camp. “We’ll be enjoying the music from here, then. And if you can, please try not to blow yourself up. I don’t like watching you die.”

“Noted.” Noah placed the bow back against the violin and closed his eyes, pulling it across the strings and starting to play.

No promises, though.