Finn shivered slightly at her words before smoothly wriggling his way out of her hold.
The girl pouted her lips, about to say something, when Althea cut in, "That doesn't matter for now," she curtly said, her attention already on something else as she brought out a map of Aethelos and squatted, placing it in the ground for all to see.
Finn moved closer immediately, thankful that the subject had been shifted from him so quickly. He made his way beside Althea while being aware of the latex girl's position. He could feel her playful gaze still on him, along with the others who had wanted to speak before Althea cut in.
"This is where you're going," Althea pointed to the North-Eastern part of the map. Specifically, a heavily forested area with lots of settlements and small towns along a cross-country travel path.
Finn frowned immediately. From his memory, that was one of the most dangerous travel commutes in the whole of Aethelos. Because of the forest that dominated the area, bandits, rogue Arcanists, and even some Revenants had a field day terrorizing travellers and occasionally even the towns and settlements in the area.
The situation was so bad, that the Aethelos royalty had permanently sent a station of Arcanists to remain in the area and stabilize the livelihood of the locals there. If it wasn't for that, the situation would have continued even till the present day.
Now, the bandits and rogues mainly kept their operations within the confines of the forest. But even that was still very large. The forest spread from the east, all the way towards the north, so it was a very huge playground for delinquents and misfits of the society.
As Finn frowned, he slowly came to realize that the place fit the bill for somewhere lots of chaotic soul mass activity would be rampant.
It had all the necessary ingredients for it — Arcanists in plentiful numbers, leading dangerous lives that could get them killed at any time, unstable revenants who would try to make use of the chaotic soul masses of the dead Arcanists, and lastly, the forest itself. It was sure to house a variety of magical beast species, which lived and died, also to become chaotic soul masses.
The oiled pervert guy whistled again, pumping his fists together. "Looks like we're getting the juiciest part of the pie."
Althea made sure they all saw and burned the location to memory, before she rolled up the map and nodded placidly, "You all are to meet me at the Eastern Woodhaven town within a week from now," she deadpanned, before walking towards the school gates without any further words.
Finn, who was somewhat used to Althea's abruptness, smoothly moved forward without pause, already thinking of the fastest way he could get to the forested area. Right now they were somewhere in the Eastern region. So he knew his journey would take him north from here.
It may have looked direct and straightforward, but Finn knew it wasn't like so. Aethelos was extremely massive. Unlike the other four continents that were split into countries, Aethelos was a single country that encompassed a whole large continent, split only into four main regions — The Northern Fjords, the Western Charter region, the Eastern Haven, and the Southern Fallows.
So, while they were still in the east, the distance between where they currently were and their destination was equivalent to the distance between countries if this were another continent.
As Finn walked forward, the latex girl followed after, still persistent, much to his discomfort.
"Heyy, are you gonna keep ignoring me?" She asked as she fell into stride with him.
"Hello," Finn had no choice but to finally acknowledge her. It wasn't like they had any previous disagreement, so he had no choice but to reply.
She introduced herself to him as 'Sian', while Finn also introduced himself to her. But after that, she was mainly the one talking, as Finn only curtly responded to her questions, hoping she'd get the message he was trying to pass across — He was not looking to have long conversations with her.
But by the time they finally reached the very, very distant school gates, Finn's mind had been changed a little bit. He found that Sian wasn't particularly bad to talk to. Besides her tendency to flirt at the slightest chance, she was easy-going and knew how to guide smooth conversations.
Immediately they stepped out of the gates of the school estate, a large shadow mass suddenly clawed its way out of Althea's shadow where she stood ahead of them. They all paused to watch as the creature manifested out of her shadow.
It was a Great Owl of some sort, very large, but not as large as Micah's massive hawk-like bird. Hers was much smaller, looking like it was built to carry only a single person.
She hopped onto the back without any word, giving the five of them a last look before taking off into the air.
"Well, I don't suppose anyone has a shadow mass that can fly…" the oiled pervert guy asked, but received no reply.
Finn considered summoning his Storm Prowler Wolf, but decided against it for the meantime. Instead, just like the others that started to manifest body enhancers' soul masses, he also did the same.
Before his psyche took on a more confrontational and masculine air, he immediately charged in the direction of the north.
"Wha—?" The group members that had subtly been keeping an eye on Finn as he made his transformation reacted in shock at his insane burst of speed. He charged ahead of them, bounding down the road with Althea in the distance overhead.
His sudden burst only ignited the competitive spirit in them and one by one, they charged forward in haste.
.
.
.
The third day into their journey to the Eastern Woodhaven town…
Finn was alone.
He had left the other members of his group behind for a whole day now.
Perhaps it was because of the difference in their embodiment manifestation, but Finn had been able to keep a high pace for a much longer time than they had, steadily increasing the distance between them each time they stopped to rest and he continued onward.
His Crimson Fist Baboon soul mass proved its superiority for the first time, reassuring Finn of its strength even as it was ranked last out of the twenty one soul masses he had.
Right now, he was so far ahead of the others that he could comfortably stop to relax for a while, sure that even if they gained in on him, they were nowhere close to actually catching up.
And yet, Finn was about to make that lead even greater.
"Come out. Storm Prowler."
Immediately he ordered, his shadow stretched unnaturally, elongating till it blended with the shade of the trees in the woods where he was.
A huge paw nearly the size of Finn's torso clawed out of his shadow, making him narrow his eyes in shock, but that wasn't the end of it.
As the Storm Prowler Wolf came out in its full glory, rising to its full height, Finn sucked in a breath colored with shock and a slight trepidation. He nearly took a step back subconsciously as it towered over him, but he caught himself, standing his ground.
Ever since he'd used the Geri and Freki Aspect of Loyalty and Obedience on The Storm Prowler, he had never once summoned it… until now.
His shock slowly morphed into an unconcealed excitement as a smile spread on his face.
"I think I should give you a name…"