The Divine Hunter

linking one dot to the other.
Then he pointed at one spot between two dots.
“This is where I destroyed the totem today.”

I see.
Roy said, “You should probably have guessed where the other totems are, then.” Letho kept linking the dots and lines in a pattern, and eventually, Roy noticed the thing that was starting to take shape.
It was an expanding web, and a vague pair of antlers.
A terrifyingly eerie mark.

“The leshen is slowly including the mountain base up to the fortress in its totem.
Is it trying to put the whole area under its control?”

Letho nodded.
“I’ve never seen a more ambitious leshen.
In most cases, the most it can do is take over a village.
That’s the extent of a leshen’s power, no matter how ancient or formidable it is.
This one… This one is trying to control a place that houses thousands of residents.

“Leshens are ancient creatures with great wisdom.
It’s quite baffling that they’d make such a foolish move.
No matter how powerful it is, it is still only one leshen.
Mount Carbon can easily crush it.
Unless…” 

Roy guessed, “Unless its believers and the marked one aren’t the leshen’s only weapon.”

Letho dusted his hand off and made an unsure guess.
“Or maybe the dwarves aren’t as united as they seem.
Maybe there are some other forces aside from the leshen that can cause some trouble for Brovar.
And they could be giving the leshen a hand in its plan.
They’re hiding in Mount Carbon, working with the leshen to carry out the plan, and that’s why they managed to kill so many dwarves without setting off the alarm.”

“Should we tell Brovar about this?”

“This is pure conjecture.
We have no evidence or target.
What can we even tell him?” Letho had vetoed it.
“Just pay attention to your surroundings and see if there’s anyone suspicious.
But remember to find the marked one first, since our primary goal is to take out the leshen here.
Everything else comes next.
And be careful.”

“I understand.”

Letho went back to meditate after telling Roy what he’d needed to know.
The battle earlier had sapped much of his strength, and he needed to rest up as fast as possible.

Roy lay on the bed, sorting out the thoughts that were swirling in his head.
He took the dwarf’s crossbow and his hand crossbow out to maintain them.
And then he remembered that Reagan cared about the crossbow a lot.
Is this crossbow special? He cast Observe on it and actually saw the weapon’s details.

‘Blood Brothers (Reagan Dalba was gifted this crossbow by his brother, Paul Dalba, during Reagan’s coming of age.
This is the last gift Paul gave Reagan before he ventured out to be Yarpen’s follower).

Type: Crossbow.

Materials: Pine wood, steel, tendon, hemp.

Details: Weighs fifteen pounds and measures four feet.
Has a draw weight of fifty pounds and an effective range of two hundred feet.’

***

‘Gabriel

Type: Hand crossbow

Materials: Mulberry wood, tendon, hemp

Details: Weighs five pounds and measures two feet.
Has a draw weight of twenty pounds and an effective range of a hundred feet.’

“So Reagan only cares about this crossbow because of its sentimental value.
It’s not that much better than any Mahakaman crossbow.” Roy started rubbing the grease on every inch of the crossbow, just like how Reagan did it.
Once he was done doing it to both crossbows, he placed Blood Brothers in his inventory and held on to Gabriel as he started meditating.

“Always keep the crossbow by my side huh? It’s dumb, but I hope it works.”