This one's different

[all_too_familiar]

Blair can't actually track witches with his power, nor does he try to find them with it, but when his scenery abruptly changes from city to the middle of the forest he immediately thinks he accidentally found one and pissed them off, and is alarmed.

And then he is very alarmed because all of his magical signatures of people stop pointing at where the people are. Instead the signatures are confused. They haven't disappeared, so presumably the people that own them are still alive, he just - can't find them.

What kind of crazy meta power is this? He stretches out with his power, looking for the nearest person, looking for something like civilization.

Comments

[exerce_imperia]

There are a lot of weapons. And he knows the proper question format to ask how each of them is made or acquired, and where to get or make the ingredients for the ones that have ingredients, and where to find the monsters from which these ones are gotten...

Lisbet goes off to eat a meal while Blair is quizzing the guide.

[all_too_familiar]

He is glad she's spared from this.

He's systematic and follows up on hunches to make absolutely sure he hasn't missed anything, and he quizzes the guide. In his head he organizes the information into a less - well, terrible format. Monsters/Materials/Weapons/Crafting by type from most powerful to least and by how easy they seem to be to get and on and on and on...

And then he runs out of weapons, and moves on to armor, and then he runs out of armor, and moves on to potions, and then he runs out of potions, and -

He will be here a while.

[exerce_imperia]

She sleeps the night through and gets up and has breakfast and comes back to check how he's doing.

[all_too_familiar]

He is interrogating the guide with terrifying efficiency about all monsters in all biomes! Gosh it's exciting.

Blair has a look on his face that says, "I have so much information for you, you're going to be thrilled."

[exerce_imperia]

Lisbet gets a look on her face that says you are charming and I am charmed.

[all_too_familiar]

Best mate.

He finishes interrogating the guide about what a 'pigron' drops (bacon, apparently) and then says, "I can actually pick up right where I left off if you'd like me for something."

[exerce_imperia]

"Nothing urgent. If you want a break from the unbearable tedium you could come out and kill monsters with me."

[all_too_familiar]

"I'd like a break, and I can tell you what I've learned so far."

[exerce_imperia]

"Excellent."

[all_too_familiar]

"So, first of all, this is not the most dangerous the island gets. Not only does it have super-strong 'boss' monsters that occasionally show up, if we dig deep enough to reach a place called the Underworld, we can activate - something, I didn't manage to get what it was - that makes everything tougher, by dropping a voodoo doll into lava and summoning one of the aforementioned super-strong boss monsters and killing it. Also makes the corruption or the crimson spread faster, and creates a biome called the hallow that apparently is the good twin to its evil twin." Pause. "Except it also has things that are murderous. Not so opposite."

[exerce_imperia]

"Well, that sounds like an outcome best avoided. Although it might be worth experimenting with it on an otherwise uninhabited island."

[all_too_familiar]

"Oh, agreed, and some of the best stuff comes from that. Including, apparently, wings."

[exerce_imperia]

"Wings sound potentially extremely useful."

[all_too_familiar]

"Yep! We can also get rocket boots from someone called the goblin tinkerer without the extra-danger zone, though I don't know how well those work."

[exerce_imperia]

"And where do we get a goblin tinkerer?"

[all_too_familiar]

"Somewhere underground, after something called the goblin army has been defeated. They can apparently be summoned with a 'Goblin Battle Standard,' which can be made from tattered cloth, which can be gathered from goblin scouts. The guide was kind of vague about where we find those, I quote, 'Goblins like to stay away from central hostile locations until they're ready to strike.'"

[exerce_imperia]

"I suppose that implies we need to wait until we're attacked by goblins. How delightful," she says dryly.

[all_too_familiar]

"Yep. The whole logic of this place is very - combat oriented. 'Deal with this dangerous thing and get fabulous prizes.'"

[exerce_imperia]

"Yes. And, on the whole, the prices just aren't sufficiently fabulous. Although I can't consider the whole episode an unrelenting negative, since it did lead to meeting you."

[all_too_familiar]

Blair grins, bowing.

"Happy to be of service! And I happily say the same."

[exerce_imperia]

"I think we will work very well together."

And now: the killing of monsters, in this jungle over here.

[all_too_familiar]

"Wouldn't you know it, but I agree completely. And now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to hold my breath because exploding things with blood in them."

Killing of monsters! Blair is very good at it. Helps that he is a vampire with superpowers. Whee!

[exerce_imperia]

He's so efficient. It's very pleasing.

[all_too_familiar]

And Lisbet is also so efficient! And so great! He has the best mate, he's so happy about her existence.

Even better: they can be efficient together. Because obviously killing things together's the best way for a couple to bond.

[exerce_imperia]

Honestly she doesn't have a whole lot to contribute to the monster-killing enterprise once Blair has the basics down, but she does do things like warn him that those particular bats are monsters rather than harmless critters, and explain about the range limit on the carnivorous plants, and certify that she's never seen a jungle creature set anything on fire.