"Apex predator huh?" Isaac joked while he eyed Walter with mild amusement.

Walter nodded. "Mortals are, even without classes and magic, capable of fighting off almost any non-magical creature in almost any environment even without complex technologies. Hells, I remember hearing about someone killing a grizzly with a run-of-the-mill hunting knife and a kick to the throat. That was before my reincarnation. If a man can do that, then we are at the top of the non-magical food chain even without classes and magic. Someone like me, or your wife, who've been practicing killing for longer than humans can live, we might be at the top of the magical food chain too." Walter rambled on.

"I was just teasing you." Isaac replied. "But what about me?"

"You?" Walter asked. "Your bullshit powers don't count."

Isaac laughed. He never mentioned how bad their soul damage was but he'd seen Walter eye him with slight concern on multiple occasions so their guide definitely had an idea. Even so, it seemed like Walter had a healthy amount of respect for Isaac's 'all or nothing' bargaining strategy with Rei and Zei.

Isaac's mind started wandering as they walked. His mind went to how Walter had said that he had died, their conversation about whether or not the violent splitting of the atom that had caused it was caused by a god from Primatia's interference, and finally back to his own death. He had no way of knowing if he had been alive before or after the event that had killed Walter, which only made things even more confusing. If he had been alive before Walter died, but Walter had been reincarnated before him, then that meant that either time flowed backwards or the timestreams were entirely separate from each other. Even so, he couldn't help but ask: "Do you remember anything about a Wexler family?"

Walter thought for a long moment. After nearly a minute, he shook his head. "No, sorry buddy, I don't think I knew a Wexler family, or heard anything about them. It's not that common of a last name, at least not where I was from." Walter told him with an apologetic look on his face. "I'd've asked you about mine, but you already told me you don't remember anything."

Isaac nodded. "It figures. I knew it was a long shot." He shrugged. "What's the rest of our travel plan look like?" He changed topics to something less depressing.

"Seven more days until we get to a fortress town on the edge of the forest, and then five more until we reach Material de la Celestia." Walter explained. "Once we are there, I'll stick around for a while regardless, but I'd prefer it if you're ready to return within two weeks to a month."

Isaac nodded. "It all depends on the Fatebreaker. We might be ready to go within the first week." He confirmed. "Isn't ten days a bit long for caravans? Especially considering how fast we are moving?"

"For human caravans, sure." Walter replied. "Elvish ones are used to traveling for a month or more to get from one kingdom to another."

"How do they pack for such a long trip?" Isaac wondered.

"Rangers." Walter stated simply. "Nature magic, knowledge, and keen eyesight. They use magic to cause fruit to finish growing and ripen, know what is edible and what isn't, what water is clean and if there isn't any then they use magic to make it so. Every caravan has at least one ranger with them."

"What about teleportation?" Isaac continued questioning.

"All teleportation networks are closed networks. No one trusts another country with such a massive gap in security. Not only that, but both sides are going to want a cut for using the circles and that is way more expensive than a month out of an eight hundred year lifespan." Walter continued easily answering all of Isaac's questions. Many of them were probably questions that Walter himself had asked in the past.

The next two days went by without incident as Walter talked himself nearly hoarse. He answered every single one of Isaac's questions and often explained far more than Isaac was looking for. That was also added on top of whatever other things Walter had brought up to explain or discuss as they traveled and rested. Walter had also finished enchanting the throwing spikes and had returned all of them to Isaac and Lenna for a small fee. Finally, around lunch time, Copper skidded to a halt as Gypsy leapt out of the forest onto the road. She let out a high pitched chirp that was more than loud enough to cause Isaac's ear protection to kick in.

Isaac felt the magic items on his ears start to get warm as they absorbed the excess sound and brought the chirp down to a level where it only almost caused his ears to start ringing. Walter flipped his rifle out of the sheath in his saddle and pulled it up to his shoulder. Gypsy's nose pointed off towards their right and Walter switched from a right handed grip to a left just as a black shadow launched out of the trees directly towards him. Crack! Click. Clunk. Crack! Rang out as Walter fired two rounds into the Silent Stalker before it impacted him and ripped him out of the saddle. Walter and the giant cat weren't even on the ground before another two shots were fired. The flashless gunshots were both higher pitched and extremely muffled as he had used his smaller weapon, which had been hidden inside of his coat. It was muffled because the barrel was planted directly against the chest of the beast.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Isaac wanted to move to help Walter but he didn't want to get shot or accidentally hit him with either his sword or death flames. Instead, he was forced to just ready his sword and wait until they stopped tumbling, because tumble they did.

The cat's jaws had clamped down on Walter's rifle and its claws had hooked into his overcoat, so when they hit the ground, Walter was drug along with the cat. It's face hit the ground at the same time as Walter's back. The cat flipped onto its shoulder, with Walter stuck in its grasp as it clutched him to keep its prey from escaping. It continued its roll onto its opposite hip and then face planted again, this time into a tree. It collapsed on top of Walter and he fired two more shots into its underbelly. The forest had gone deathly quiet after Gypsy's deafening chirp and the two very loud thunderclaps from Walter's rifle.

Isaac, Lenna, and Gypsy all rushed over to the dead cat and the elvish gunslinger trapped under it. "Can't breathe." They barely heard Walter gasp out. Gypsy had come from the opposite side that Isaac and Lenna had but they could see her overtop of the mound of fur and pooling blood. They watched as she opened her maw and clamped down on the shoulder of the stalker. Isaac's stomach turned as he heard the bone and cartilage crush and rend under an absolutely ridiculous amount of bite force. Both he and Lenna planted their shoulders into their side of the beast and pushed as Gypsy yanked again and again. In short order, Walter was no longer being crushed and was gasping for air on the ground, covered in blood and missing his hat.

"You good?" Isaac asked Walter as Lenna knelt down next to him and sent a pulse of healing through his body to get an idea of how hurt he was from the fall.

"I'll live." Walter replied and finally started leveling out his breathing.

"You fractured two ribs and the third was cleanly broken." Lenna began her diagnosis. "One fractured vertebrae. Minor skull fracture. A ton of bruising. A sprained ankle. And finally, a minor concussion."

"I feel a little dizzy, but I've had worse." Walter told her. He reached into his coat and pulled out a healing potion.

"Wait." Lenna told him and he stopped and looked at her. "Let me start your healing."

Walter gave her a thankful smile. "Thanks."

Lenna healed him a bit and then let him drink the potion and some water before she healed him a bit more. By then, his bones, joints, and brain were all back to normal and a bit of the bruising was as well.

"That thing really wanted you dead." Isaac commented. The beast looked half starved but was a bit larger than the last one.

Walter nodded. "They have a habit of attacking as soon as something notices them. Basically everything else that they hunt runs as soon as it realizes it's in their sights, so it normally works. They usually stay away from mortals but, I'd say the lindwyrm pushed it out of its hunting grounds and wherever it ended up ran out of deer." Walter explained. "Out of the three of us, I'm the only one not wrapped in something hard, and eating Copper wouldn't make it any stronger. Someone like us will help it get strong enough until it thinks it can fight the lindwyrm. It probably didn't even know Gypsy was there."

"Copper stopped really early." Lenna commented as she looked over at the horse who had suffered a few long gashes across her shoulders and hips.

Walter forced himself to his feet with some help from Isaac. "She sensed it even before Gypsy warned us." Walter explained. He walked over to his horse, stopping only to scoop his hat up off the ground, and placed a hand on the saddle. "Sorry for getting you caught in my fights." He told the horse and the blanket under the saddle started to give off a faint golden glow.

Isaac and Lenna watched as Copper's wounds healed and Walter pulled a carrot out of his coat and fed it to her. He stroked the side of her face lovingly as she quickly devoured the treat. "Do you have that for yourself?" Isaac wondered. If he did then the potion was probably wasted.

Walter looked over at him like he was crazy. "Are you kidding? I had to have the saddle blanket blessed by a priest, teach the priest how to enchant things, and then have half of a monastery pray over the golden thread while we worked. It ran me four months and a 'charitable donation' of one hundred thousand gold, plus materials. Healing enchantments just aren't worth it." He then looked back at Copper and patted her again. "Unless it's for you, sweetheart."

"I think he loves his horse more than himself." Isaac stage whispered to Lenna.

Lenna nodded. "I think you're right." She agreed.

"Of course I do." Walter defended himself by entirely agreeing with them. "She's saved my life enough times that it's practically hers now."

Isaac shook his head but Lenna just shrugged. It was a sentiment that both of them understood. It was the first time that either of them had seen said sentiment directed towards a pack animal however. "So, what are we going to do with the new Stalker corpse?" Isaac wondered.

"Same as before." Walter told him. "This is how rangers make a living. Some of us are the entire C.A.S.T." He said and chuckled to himself.

Isaac had to rack his brain for a moment to remember that C.A.S.T. stood for Coalition of Adventurers, Scouts, and Trackers. As soon as he realized that, he couldn't help but groan and roll his eyes at the horrible pun. "All the world's-" Isaac clutched his head as the saying sent his thoughts towards a fried or blocked off mental connection.

"A stage." Walter finished for him. "That is actually where the name came from." Walter was apparently completely back, or at least enough to start giving out fun facts again. "The Guild Leader said that he met a man that had come from another world before. That man had said the saying and ol' Gil liked it so much he named the Adventurers' Guild C.A.S.T."

Isaac's eyes widened in surprise. "So there have been others? How many? What time period were they from?" He fired off.

Walter shrugged. "No idea." He replied. "I tried looking into it a little bit, but then I realized that it's a waste of time and dropped it. Can't exactly ask the dead about what time from ***** they came from."

Isaac sighed. Walter really had been around a lot longer than he had and had plenty of time to look into pointless things. If even he said that it was a waste of time, the fun fact fanatic of all people, then it probably actually was a complete waste of time. "Well, that's unfortunate." Isaac grumbled.

"Now," Walter said and started walking back over towards them. "help me skin this cat so we can be on our way."

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