Just like that, the hunt of the first day finished.
Caster had 168 fragments at the start of it, now 190. Despite the kill count being over forty, he only got twenty two more fragments. The reason for that was the fact that he needed to restock his book of books, and half of them were going to Effie.
But this was okay.
The next day, they went to hunt again.
Another thirty nine kills.
The next day, another hunt.
Another forty three kills.
And just like that four weeks had passed.
It was the morning of the 67'th day since Caster came to the forgotten shore. The number of people working for him had increased from thirty two to one hundred forty eight. More people joined the hunts. Some started hunting with them too. It increased their hunting speed further.
At this moment, there were forty one porters and thirty seven hunters, apart from Caster and Effie. These two were still at the cusp of the hierarchy.
Only when the creature hoards would be weak enough for the others to take on, would these two hold back. But still, some casualties happened. It was impossible to stop every one of them.
Luckily the number of casualties was still in single digits. And this was much better than before Caster came. Without the food, dozens would die each month due to lack of food or any other reason.
The people who saw them hunt wondered who the actual monsters were, because the nightmare creatures were being slaughtered.
In pure physicality Effie seemed much stronger. But in terms of output, Caster was by far the stronger one.
He seemed to have three lighting spells that devastated everything that got in their way.
Caster called one simply "Lightning strike", it would launch itself from near his hands and travel roughly horizontally to wherever Caster aimed at.
The second one was called "Divine Judgement", it would be a lightning strike from the skies that landed on them. Immensely powerful, and impossible to dodge.
The third one... had a weird name. It was similar to divine judgement, however it would be a simultaneous sequence of multiple weaker lightning strikes from the sky. The lightning from this also seemed to have the ability to chain to other creatures easily.
So this one was really good for hordes of weaker nightmare creatures.
Though, this was something Caster only started using half a week ago.
With this, they all knew, Caster was the strongest on the forgotten shore, maybe even stronger than the lord of the bright castle.
It is most likely true. Caster is stronger than the bright lord. But he didn't have a way to get past his defenses yet.
Another thing they didn't know was that Changing star and Lost from Light are also on this shore.
Yes, they are most likely weaker than him right now, but whose to say it would remain that way?
Three divine aspects are on the forgotten shore. There is literally no better time than this that the people on this shore would be able to escape its grasps.
The reason Caster was so effective was because unlike the sleepers, his attacks were on the awakened level due to the nature of the memory, book of books, and him using awakened shards to fuel it.
The number of kills went from about forty, to nearly eighty per day. The amount of food being raked every single day was way more than enough, so after a point. They stopped bringing the porters and told them to work at the settlements.
Only the hunters hunted.
But there was a problem. The number of beasts they were able to meet everyday kept decreasing. Apart from certain really strong fallen monsters in the forest surrounding the outer settlements, all the beasts were dead, well, most of them at least.
Daily kill count decreased from about eighty to just twenty or maybe ten on some bad days.
All in all, they had killed over 700 abominations in the two weeks, and had gotten tons of memories and shards.
Effie's core was already nearing saturation, with the years of essence buildup she had but after these abominations, she had excess of it left.
Caster had reached a high level as well. Higher than Effie's.
He was now a monster.
Soul Fragments: [233/2000]
Insane speed for Caster.
The changes brought about by it were obvious. His physical strength increased immensely, the aspect efficiency increased, stamina increased and more. But those were the obvious changes. What Caster was excited about were the special changes, like Sunny getting more shadows, or Nephis getting more flames.
And he also got one, however he didn't understand how it was helpful.
His fourth wall apparently got twice as thick. And now, he could… turn that one thick wall into two thick walls by splitting them.
Apart from these two, the other hunters and porters were also gaining essence and memories at a good speed. Of the seven hundred, or more, abominations killed, they got about thirty six memories, half of them were weapons, a third were armors, a sixth were tools or charms.
Though these memories don't count the ones that the hunters got themselves on kills. The actual number was probably closer to fifty.
In the end none of those memories were especially useful for Caster or Effie, so all of them, except a couple, were distributed to the hunters.
The ones that the two kept included a white woolen cloak. Caster kept it because it might help in cold areas. It didn't really have useful enchantments but it was overall a solid piece of clothing.
Another one that Caster kept was something he needed so bad. It was a storage bag like Effie's, except it was seemingly worse, it had less space than Effie's bag, and like hers, it kept the mass the same.
Basically, it was only good for smaller things that he needed to carry all the time.
There were thirty seven hunters, of which 14 were fully armed with awakened armor and swords of tier two or above. Somehow, they had barely gotten tier 1 memories.
Summoning the runes, he looked at his memories.
Memories: [Green Jade Jian], [Hourless Charm], [Book of Books], [Vivienna's Armor], [Spark of Light], [Bundle], [Cloak of night].
'Seven memories is not bad, considering I gave away like fifteen others.'
In these four weeks, Caster and Effie had gotten really close, so he though that it is now time for him to tell her more... and begin his plan.
He called out to Effie, who was a dozen or so meters away, drowning on her meat. She looked at him but looked back down on her food, gobbling it up and ignoring Caster.
Chuckles.
'Glutton.'
Caster walked over to her and sat down next to her.
"I have something important to tell, follow me."
"What? Are you proposing to me already?"
After saying that she dived back into her food.
Caster let out a chuckle and replied back with mock offence and a hint of tease.
"Hah! As if I'd ask you out. I deserve better than you."
"Huh? Are you saying I'm not good enough?"
Literally picks Caster up and begins to stretch him apart from end to end.
"Holy shit! That hurts, stop!"
'What the fuck?'
Effie snorts offensively before breaking out laughing. As usual, she was just joking.
'Nothing can get you serious...'
"Anyways, follow me."
Effie replied, defeatedly.
"Yeah, yeah, let me finish my meat first. I love meat."
'Hold on...'
Anyways, soon Effie finished devouring her food and followed Caster to a secluded space. Just the two of them.
'There's only ten days left. Its time to set things into motion properly now.'
A smirk formed on Caster's face secretly.
'You'll die Gunlaug. And it won't be pleasant.'
Eventually Caster turned around and looked at Effie before stopping and speaking up finally.
"You must be wondering why I'm trying so hard. What exactly my cause is? And maybe even more questions."
With a slight pause he continued:
"I'll tell you something. I know a way to escape the forgotten shore. And my ultimate goal is escaping this hellish shore. And that is exactly what I want to reach."
Silently, he continued to look at Effie. Not continuing his talk for now. Letting her absorb what he just said.
Effie's eyes widened, and for the first time in a while they showed a certain emotion.
Hope.
'Hope is the root cause of all suffering. However, I will make sure it isn't yours, or anyone else's on this forgotten shore.'
Gives her a small, almost unnoticable smile.
'I promise.'
Effie felt like she had been waiting for an opportunity like this for a while. It wasn't like she was very excited to go back to earth, she had a much better life here after all. Yet, years of living in a place like this had gotten to her none-the-less.
And now, through Caster she knew that she hadn't waited in vain. Her ultimate goal of challenging the second nightmare was not too far away.
He saw the uncharacteristically emotional changes in Effie, and it seemed to have stirred something in Caster.
And at that instant, Caster knew, he had finally found his goal, his driving force and his conviction.
He wished to be a miracle.