When it started to get dark, Cain picked out a spot near a cliff face and decided to set up camp. Here, their fire would only be visible from one direction, two if you counted straight up, and they had a solid cliff at their backs, that they wouldn't likely be attacked from.
"Do you guys have any sort of camping gear? Cain asked, and the new Disciples mostly shook their heads. Only Tena had gear, the rest had been left with nothing.
Going through the dead cultivator's gear, Cain didn't find much either, only some blankets, no tents or hammocks.
"What did you do when traveling before? I know he held onto everything you had, but I don't see camping gear among his stuff." Cain explained.
"Blankets on the ground. That's pretty standard for camping when it's not raining. But mostly we meditate instead of sleep, so sitting in a soft spot on the ground is fine." Penny shrugged.
"In that case, here they are. You can keep those in your inventory since I don't see any spare storage rings. Personally, I prefer a hammock to sleep in, if I'm not going for a proper bed. I know, I'm spoiled, but using the system, there is much less meditation required in the daily schedule, since it's no longer the only method of building strength." Cain explained.
In fact, he didn't know if they could still build strength that way at all.
"I will keep it in mind. There should be a large oilcloth tarp in there somewhere as well, it will shelter the fire from being spotted by those flying overhead, so we can string that up before we settle in for the night." Penny added, and Cain dug through the bag again.
The one that they had was pretty trashed, with a lot of holes in it, but Cain had brought a number of tarps of his own, so he pulled one of them out instead along with a length of rope to tie it overhead. He also brought out a hammock for himself and strung it between two trees near the fire, where it was immediately appropriated by Luna.
"I know you're planning to make swords all night long, so you can wake me up to get your spot back when you're done." She insisted, spreading a blanket over herself with a sigh.
"You know, I think I need to get one of those. With the experience rate from the monster kills, we will be able to progress fairly rapidly without spending weeks and months in cloistered cultivation. I think I understand now why you get so energetic about seeing new places, you don't need to spend months alone and focused to reach a new milestone, you can just wander around doing what you please and this experience bar will fill up." Sabbat told Cain as she settled in next to the small fire that was taking the edge off the cool mountain night.
The scent of humans in the mountains, or perhaps their dinner, drew a number of Magical creatures to their camp, despite the light being hidden safely from sight. The sense of power coming from the group dissuaded any of them from approaching during the evening, but Cain noticed that some got close enough that he could get to them in only a few seconds if he wanted to hunt.
That would make their travels much easier. They just needed to do what they were doing and not try to hide, and food would come to them.
The swords were simple to enchant, but Cain found himself short on material since he didn't have a forge to rework the random swords that were in his inventory. What he did have nearby in abundance was trees, so he took one down and used an ax to slice it into planks that he carved into crude swords and spent the evening polishing to respectability.
He didn't have any sort of varnish or paint, but once he engraved the Runes onto them they should be remade into a new design anyhow, so the fact that they were raw wood wouldn't matter, only their design.
Cain went for a blade the width of his foot, and two meters long, with a two-handed hilt. As a sword, it was ridiculously impractical, but as a perch to stand upon while flying, it was much more comfortable than many of the ones he had seen the guards in the city using.
The enchantments were simple, just flying, speed, durability, and finally flaming. Because what is cooler than a flaming flying sword? Getting the four of them to work together just right took a bit of planning, but Cain had all of the swords finished by the time everyone else woke up, looking like translucent red crystals now that he had activated them for the first time.
With four Runic Enchantments working together, they were all Legendary items, and would certainly be conspicuous around other humans, but there wasn't anything that he could do about that for now. One thing that Cain never learned to do before he left was to make lower-level items that he could give to people as gifts or use to hide his capabilities.
He did have a copy of the book for Runic Weapon creation though, so he might still be able to learn the trick when he had some time to kill.
"Are those flying swords? Did you really manage to make so many in one single night?" Jen asked when she woke up, seeing all the new blades stuck tip down in the ground around Cain.
"They are. It would have been faster if I didn't have to carve blades to enchant, but hopefully, these will work for everyone. They are enchanted for flying and speed, so they should be good at it in theory, I just don't know if you will actually be able to make them work, since I've never done them this particular way before." Cain explained.
Jen walked up to admire them, then pulled one from the ground with a much more forceful than necessary tug.
"It's really light for its size. What sort of Crystal is this?" Jen asked. She wasn't a big person, to begin with, and the sword's blade alone was a bit taller than she was, but it hadn't taken much effort at all to lift the blade.
"It's not Crystal. The Runes change the appearance of the material when you activate them for the first time, I carved them from one of those lightweight trees growing to the side of the camp." Cain explained.
They had been almost as light as Balsa wood, so Cain assumed that they were equally fast-growing, and wouldn't be missed even if he had taken a dozen down and not just one.
Jen held the sword out and equipped her shield with a smile. "I don't know about flying, but this thing would terrify anyone in combat."
"Focus on it and add energy. It should have the ability to burst into flames as well as fly." Cain explained.
The paladin giggling and waving around a greatsword one-handed woke up everyone else, who had no idea what had triggered this strange sight.
"Come grab some flying swords. As you can see, they also have the ability to be an actual swords, but I'm more interested in if everyone will be able to fly on them, so we can use them as transport. Since we will all have matched ones, we should be roughly equal in speed. At least that is my hope." Cain explained.
The first to brave the new blades was Luna, grabbing one from the ground, waving the comically large object over her head, and then ordering it to float so she could hop on. The blade seemed to pulse with red light when Luna was giving it verbal orders, making it look like it understood, though the effect was actually caused by inserting mana into the blade to keep it flying.
It took Luna a moment to get the hang of the blade so that she could move around, but the process was intuitive, just add mana and think about where you wanted to go.
"Pack up camp and get some practice in before breakfast. I will go grab us something to eat while you learn to fly." Cain ordered, leaving the group behind to head a few dozen meters into the forest to capture a small Mythic Beast. It was some sort of deer that Cain didn't recognize, but it should do them well enough for breakfast.
The pure glee on their faces when he got back to camp was well worth the effort of carving wooden blades all night. Even the imperfections in his work were positive to the Disciples since the rough edges made it easier to stay on the blades without using energy to link themselves to the blade, a technique that Luna was having trouble mastering, since she was flying on a demonic sword last time, and it did all the work for her.
The commotion hadn't gone unnoticed though, and they had visitors before they were ready to leave camp after cooking the small deer.
"Greetings Fellow Daoist. I see you have brought a fine group of disciples with you on your journey today, perhaps you would like for me to relieve you of the burden of traveling with such a large and underpowered group?" The old man asked, his black robes fluttering in the breeze.
"Are they all like this? I swear, this is the third time in a week that someone has come by looking to take my Disciples away." Cain asked with a sigh, looking to the girls for answers.
"Yeah, pretty much. They don't really get out much, so their social skills can be lacking." Tena agreed.
