"What would a monster do with a core?" I asked, and Casey blinked several times, her eyes flicking between the Kobalt, and my own concerned gaze.
"I- I don't know," she answered, apparently as flabbergasted by the development as I was.
I turned to Gisela.
"Do monsters ever do that?" I asked, and the girl quickly shook her head.
"It is not within my understanding," she replied.
As we spoke, Cameron came over to join us, but as she took one look at the body in front of us, she turned and began to retch, as she spilled the contents of her stomach unceremoniously onto the earth beside her.
I quickly moved to her side, and placed a hand on her back, rubbing gently as she continued to vomit for a bit.
"I'm fine," she quickly said, as she took a labored breath in, and wiped away some tears from her eyes.
Casey shot me a worried look, and I bit my lip nervously, as I led Cameron away from the grisly scene, and toward the sleeping area prepared for us.
I lay her down on the bed of rags, but as I sat down beside her and took her hand, she quickly shot me a disapproving look.
"You don't need to worry about me. Go. You need to handle this," she said, and I sighed.
As I stood up to leave, she kept ahold of my hand for a moment, letting out a sigh, before finally letting me go with a nod.
"Go," she whispered again, and I nodded.
"We should get Nolan to cover her watch," I said, as Casey moved to join me.
"Already done," she answered, and I smiled at her.
"How did I ever survive without you?" I added, and she smiled, blushing a little at the compliment.
We moved to meet up with Gisela, and as I relayed my encounter with the new creature, Gisela furrowed her brow.
"So. The thing exists," she said, biting her lip nervously.
"It's probably not the mythological beast your people believe it to be. For now, we just need to be more cautious about how we move within the camp. If it can attack from above, then we need to make sure that no task is done alone."
Casey nodded in agreement.
"I will make it known," Gisela said. "Forgive my absence; our fallen comrade must be prepared to rest within the earth."
I nodded, as Gisela bowed, before heading away.
"Where are you thinking?" Casey asked.
"Defending against that thing in a forest is a nightmare," I said, and she nodded. "Do you think we could hunt it?"
She shook her head in response.
"If it moved through the trees as high up as you mentioned, and as quickly, then there's no way for us to even engage unless it attacks. Maybe we could set a trap, but I can't say for certain without more info on the creature."
As we spoke, I spotted Myrinne walking towards me.
"Herr Auslander. The God-enemy wishes audience," the girl said, gesturing to Raul, and I shot Casey a dubious look as we thanked Myrinne, then headed in his direction.
When we got there however, I noted that he seemed to be shooting tentative glances at the canopy above.
"You saw it?" I asked, and he nodded.
"I saw it move amongst branches too; it's quick. Quicker than any monsters I've ever seen."
"So, what did you want to talk about?" I asked, and he let out a sigh.
"I want to co-operate," he said. "I have some info that might be useful right now, and some modules that might help us survive this place."
"Why the change of heart?" I asked, and he sighed.
"Two reasons mainly. One; I'm... trying to give your suggestion a chance. I kind of thought that most of the people who came here were like that Emily girl; dangerous, and untrustworthy. But I've been observing what you're building here, and I guess I'm starting to see the value of it."
Casey let out a sigh.
"What's the other reason?" she asked.
"Self-preservation. That thing up there was watching me intently... something in me told me that it marked me, as 'next on the menu'," he explained.
Casey frowned at him, as I began to rub my chin thoughtfully.
It did the same thing to me... didn't it?
"What's the module," Casey asked, and he frowned.
"Basic map module," he replied, and I tilted my head at him.
"I did a thorough search for mapping tools; I never saw a basic map module," I replied, and Casey sighed.
"Legacy item. Either they figured it was too useful for its cost, or not useful at all, so they removed it from the shop."
I frowned.
"What does it do?"
Raul gestured toward his wrist, and I nodded, undoing the ties on Raul's hands, and he tapped the implant on his wrist, and the little holographic image of a grid popped up.
"That looks fairly blank to me," I said, and Casey frowned.
"What does it do, exactly?" she asked.
"I can mark this spot where I'm standing, and I'll be able to find it no matter how far away I go."
"That could be useful... if I wanna chase something."
"Exactly," Raul said, and Casey shrugged.
"Might as well just take it off of him anyway," she said, and Raul frowned.
"Wait, mods can be transferred?" he asked, and she raised an eyebrow at him.
"Uh, yeah," she replied, and I snickered a little at his distress at the realization.
Way to lose your bargaining chip
, I thought.
She showed him how to transfer the module, and as I activated it, I decided to give it a test, marking the current spot on the map.
The map showed literally nothing else, but I had to admit that it was still better than the absolute nothing, save for my compass, that we had when it came to navigation.
"That the only module?" she asked, and as he nodded, she eyed him.
"Nate. Force him to tell you if he has more," she said, and I patted her on the shoulder.
"Easy there. At least he's giving us something. Let's just take it one step at a time for now. You said you had some information?"
Raul shot me a thankful nod, before continuing.
"Yeah. The area we're in right now is an originator's domain. Now I don't know an awful lot about them, and a lot of what I've heard is hearsay from villagers; but there is one thing that I've heard from a very reliable source."
"Which is?" Casey asked, a little impatiently.
"Every domain has at least one guildhall, usually somewhere on the periphery."
I rubbed my chin, as a smile appeared on my lips.
"Hence the map," I offered, and Raul nodded. "This could be a godsend."
Casey quickly clicked her tongue at me in annoyance.
"A word?" Casey asked, and I nodded.
"Excuse us for a moment," I said, tying Raul's hands back together, before walking just out of earshot.
"He could be lying; are we seriously gonna just trust his word?" she asked, and I frowned.
"Apart from trying to make sure we all die in here, why would he?"
"Isn't that possibility enough?" Casey asked, and I sighed.
"On the probability that he isn't; this isn't the kind of chance we can pass up. We need supplies. Some more healing potions; armor. He has thirty-five hundred credits that we can splurge here to make sure we make it to our destination."
"I still don't like it," she replied, and I sighed.
"Think this through, Casey. I can move really fast in this armor, and without having to worry about getting lost, I can really go all out. A quick recon mission, and I'll be back before you know it."
"You can't go alone. You need to take someone else with you at least," she replied, and I frowned.
"To slow me down? The only person that can keep up with me is Francesca, and there's no way I can leave this camp without at least one of us around."
"You're being dumb, Nate. If you get injured, or if something unexpected happens, you'll be out there alone and we'll have no way of getting to you."
"It's a risk; but this is one case where its massively outweighed by the possible reward. What's really going on here? You seem to be banking on some pretty unlikely problems. Are you sure that you're thinking straight?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Maybe your hypnosis is impeding your judgement," I suggested, and she glared at me angrily.
"What? Ugh, fine! Just do whatever the fuck you want then!" she spat, before storming off, and as I stared after her, I gave the issue some thought.
Casey was an invaluable asset.
Her use had far transcended the inside knowledge that she brought to the table, as she had proven to be a highly efficient advisor as well.
But on the other hand, I was fairly certain that her emotions were clouding her judgement.
I mean, finding a guildhall while we were in the middle of nowhere?
This was a best-case scenario since we badly needed to stock up on essentials as we prepared for the long journey ahead.
As I rubbed my chin, trying hard to think of a solution, I noticed that Casey was standing off to herself, so I decided to go to her.
"Hey," I said, and she kept her eyes forward, as she ignored my greeting.
"I really need you to be my advisor right now," I tried again, and she scoffed.
"How am I supposed to believe that when all you do is ignore my advice?"
I sighed, then moved closer, but as she shot me a warning glare over her shoulder, I kept a reasonable distance.
"You haven't really been listening to me either, you know..."
She turned to study me.
"You keep taking risks-"
"I took a risk for you once, didn't I? And now you're basically indispensable to me."
She continued to stare at me.
"Look, just hear me out. That thing that attacked is probably going to come back; but my guess is that we have a brief window right now during which I can do some recon without it interfering; if I find the hall, then we get some invaluable supplies. If I don't? Then I've probably just wasted a few hours."
"What, are you asking my permission? I thought your mind was made up."
"Help me to plan this so that I can reduce the risk as much as possible," I replied, and her eyes teared up a little, as she swallowed uncomfortably.
"Fine," she answered. "If this is only a couple of hours, you're taking Francesca."
I shook my head.
"That creature might not come back for a bit, but another 'geisterung' attack is still probable. I can't leave the camp and take the only people who've fought, much less killed one."
"Then Jordan," she began, and I bit my lip.
"That might be counterproductive; if he slows me down, it might actually increase the risk. The only people here who can keep up with me are Francesca, and Mr. 'Walking Corpse', over there."
