by Arthur Stone
The arc of his movement became primarily vertical, but still his encounter with the pipe was higher up than he had thought it would be.
And he crashed into it with such force that he was sure it would topple. The skin tore off his arms, legs, face, and chest as he slid down the bricks. A minor stun effect from slamming his head into the chimney nearly caused him to fall several times.
But he held on. Once the slide stopped, he moved to the edge of the furnace and down to the ground, limping on both legs as fast as he could as the zombies were already breathing down his neck, reaching for him.
The battle wasn’t over yet, but it seemed that Dark, naked and bloodied though he was, had a chance.
Chapter 38
The Only Witness
Total stat levels: 35 +1.
Character level: 5.
Mastery level: 2.
Mana was the slowest stat to regenerate, at least for Dark. A laughable 7 points per second. By contrast, Health regenerated at 21 per second, and Stamina at 19. So he made no plans to stop right now, when his Mana was less than a quarter full.
Still, he had to stop when the huge cat with eyes of fire stepped out of the bushes from the other side of the stream.
“Couldn’t you just ignore me?” Dark screamed in annoyance, turning around and starting his weary sprint back the way he came.
He watched his step, avoiding sharp rocks and thorny branches. After all, on this trip, his legs were his life. He could hear them close behind. How could he not? They stumbled and crashed through the brush and bushes.
Without slowing down, Dark circled around the nimblest zombies. Dodging their withered arms was becoming a habit. Then, he pivoted and rushed straight at the zombies. An instant before he crashed into them, he fell into a roll. The mobs were too slow to grab him, though a few came within inches.
The panther was following him by sight. Able as it was to see him, it would not bother following his hectic, zigzagging trail. In short, it charged straight at Dark. Apparently unperturbed by the crowd of zombies.
The first ghoul crashed to the ground, knocked down by the huge cat. Despite its awkward position and movements, it managed to grab the offensive feline by the tail.
When a zombie grabs you, it’s hard to make it let go.
Slowing down, the panther looked around in confusion as a ring a howling freaks closed in. A bloodcurdling cat scream followed, then several zombies were knocked back, but the others had a hold on their prey now, and their ranks were reinforced with each passing second.
Approaching the mess, Dark began to deal small blows to the zombie and the cat alike with his offensive Light Magic. He was sure that the ghouls would deal with the panther quickly, despite its high level. They were nothing if not persistent. Once something was in their hands, it was done for.
Perhaps Dark would earn points for discovering a new mob once the magical cat perished. After all, with the trap and now his spells, he was contributing to its defeat.
The cat cry soon subsided as the panther died before a minute had passed. Sadly, Dark only received a few progress points. None for discovering a new beast.
He must have needed to deal more damage next time. Or come back and loot the beast’s carcass later; that would count.
As the animal fell, the horde reacquired the target of its former pursuit. That target fled, but not in panic. He was no longer afraid. After all, if he died now, he’d respawn in a clear tower. All of the undead were engaged in his pursuit, so the mine should currently be calm.
The man could attempt to speed up and throw the mobs off his tracks in the waters of the nearby river. Or use some other way to get rid of them.
It was here that Dark had devised a plan, and going on the recent experience of the panther, it was quite a feasible one.
* * *
He saw them from afar: the strange black spots against the grayish green bushes. Earlier he had given them a wide berth, avoiding at all costs the chitin hunters that called them home.
This time, he would still circle around, but closer and faster. After all, he had already led the horde here, over a mile of ground from the panther’s gravesite.
Discarding all concern for his Stamina and his bare feet, he hit maximum speed and pulled a dangerously tight loop around the bald patch. As they pursued him by sight, the zombies would have to choose whether to set foot on the bald patch or not.
The beavers had been smart enough to decline the opportunity. But they were locals who knew the realities of this wasteland. Unlike the zombies.
Dark might get a free demonstration of the hunter’s abilities.
He turned to watch, catching his breath. As he had hoped, they pushed stupidly towards him. On the path he had crafted for them, they would go straight through the center of the clearing. He guessed the most dangerous areas were there.
One of the conic cinder rocks came to life, and two swift, coal-black whips emerged. Writhing like the tentacles of an emaciated octopus, they struck at the horde of zombies, knocking down several with each blow. Sadly, none of those struck died. Physical damage did little to affect the walkers, and they had a lot of hit points, too.
More cones awakened. Several more whips crippled more of the zombies. The horde did not panic at this mysterious threat but began to fight back.
One of the chitin’s whips became caught, and another succumbed, helpless, under an avalanche of foes.
Two of the cones erupted like miniature volcanoes. Nightmarish creatures of the same dark black hue leaped out of the resulting clouds of slag. They were foul scorpions with segmented whips in place of their claws, plus a single, more powerful whip on their tails. The mandibles attached to their mouths looked mighty, as well.
This estimation was proven correct as one of the beasts easily bit a zombie’s head clean off.
Still the dead kept coming, crushing their opponents under their immense mass. Dark had to climb a stunted tree just to see what was going on behind the front row of flesh. Every minute, each “scorpion” managed to destroy at least a dozen zombies. But two or three immediately replaced those that perished. At first it had seemed like the ancient undead had met their end, but after five minutes had passed, there was no doubt the chitin hunters would lose this fight.
Unless they had reinforcements. Several more creatures emerged from the ring of cones that surrounded the largest, central cone. They seemed better armored, and in addition to their tail whips, they had fearsome claws. These began immediately severing heads and limbs from the zombies, in addition to attacking with some area-of-effect magic spell. Opponents hit by the spell became lethargic and sometimes even stopped moving altogether for a few seconds. Some kind of mass effect stun spell.
The ranks of the zombies melted away at phenomenal speed. Now the zombies were entering the ring at less than half the speed with which they were being dispatched. There were far fewer chitin hunters, yes, but they were much more powerful than the ghouls as far as levels were concerned.
Dark decided to watch for a couple minutes more before evacuating the area, lest the hunters’ attention turn to him. But then the tide of battle shifted yet again.
New forces came into play. Or one single new force, rather: a horrific zombie.
A new type that Dark had never seen before rushed in. It was well over six feet tall and wrapped in a tattered dark gray cloak, wielding a huge bone from some unknown creature in its withered hand. The eye sockets in its bare skull blazed with such a violent fire that the panthers would be jealous.
This strange zombie zipped through the air to the edge of the clearing, raised the bone over its head, and screeched with such might that it overpowered the noise of the battle.
A blackness like ink spread through the space, from the bone staff. This blot spread over the flesh of the closest scorpion. Twitching, the mob writhed with its whips and wriggled its limbs in opposite directions, as if trying to break away from its own body. Gaps in between its shell’s segments began op
ening, splitting, with a wretched substance pouring out of them. A few seconds later, its armor was wide open in multiple places, and its entrails were spilling out onto the trampled slag. It fell dead.
Forgetting completely his plans to escape, Dark stared at the rapidly decaying chitin hunter and shook his head.
And I forgot to bring popcorn.
It had all looked so realistic. Captivating, too, if he was honest. Excellent sound effects, and gut-wrenching smells. Better than any movie theater presentation.
He wasn’t sure who to root for at first, but decided on the zombies. It wasn’t a case of Stockholm Syndrome. After all, if the ghouls won, he could lure them away and then return to the scene later to collect the loot.
Mobs which died were not instantly replaced with new ones. Especially powerful mobs like the chitin hunters. Hours or even days would pass before one reappeared, followed by a second, then a third. It would take a long time for the population to recover to its original numbers.
As long as he did not wait for too long, he could recover loot and bonuses from the carcasses. Once he led the zombies away.
Several scorpions assailed the strange ghoul at once. The lesser zombies tried to beat them back, but they were weak, and their attacks were ignored. The scorpions realized what the main threat was.
The magic zombie decomposed two more of the hunters, but he turned out to be terrible at close-range combat. After letting out a few flashes of unknown magic, he was dismembered by massive claws.
But the chitin army was far from victorious. Six undead magicians soon appeared. And behind them a seventh, larger than all the rest. Dark realized how they moved so smoothly and quickly along the ground. They weren’t even touching it. They were hovering.
More decomposition magic flashed, and more scorpions did their drunk tap dance and then became living dissections. Morale seemed to be dropping among the hunters. Perhaps the mystery magic used by the first powerful zombie had shackled the beasts with some kind of debuff.
Now the pitiful remnants of the chitin army were done for. The weak zombies did all they could to gnaw them, to tear off a bite, to nibble a tail, anything. Meanwhile, the undead mages circled around, drowning their enemies in their “ink.”
A minute or two later, the battle was over. But yet another surprise was in store.
The central cone exploded now, unleashing a beast the size of a tractor. It too looked like a mix of the features of the ugliest insects on Earth, plus the obligatory tail whip.
With a single swipe of its huge claws, it finished off a pair of the magic zombies. A stab of its tail took out a third. Its claws returned to work eliminating the horde. Countless severed arms, legs, and heads fell to the ground.
The remaining mages abandoned the smaller scorpions and blasted the main target with ink. But despite the black spots that spread over its body, it continued its murderous ways.
The zombies’ heroes cast more spells and attempted to circle the monster, but to no avail. One by one it destroyed them, and then it turned to the lesser zombies which still survived by some miracle and were tormenting the crippled, smaller bugs.
Then, the entire field was covered in a cloud of impenetrable black. A claw pierced the haze, a large whip followed, and Dark strained his eyes to make sense of it.
Something hissed then. Like a giant anaconda. No—like a giant insect. The black cloud dispersed, and Dark saw the massive chitin monster lying on the ground, making strange sounds as it struggled to rise. One-third of its many limbs were gone, and the rest were in terrible shape. Its left claw was powerless, and it dragged its whip around the ground like a dog’s broken tail.
The other claw still functioned, and the monster attempted to attack the newcomer to the battle. That undead creature looked like a magic zombie stitched together from the bodies of the most well-fed of its kind. It was at least twelve feet tall, its head covered with a rusty helmet, huge burning eyes sparkling through the holes in its visor, and a ridiculously towering crown of bones held together with rusted wire to top the whole assembly off. The staff clenched in its hand looked like the spine of a very tall man, the skull atop it adorned with red hair flowing in the wind. All of the mob’s body was hidden by a jet black cloak. Dark had no desire to see what was underneath it. Everything else he could witness was indescribably nauseating.
Paying no attention to the claw reaching towards it, the massive undead being waved its staff and covered the area with yet another black cloud. A few seconds later, this one also dispersed. The Ethrian Zaccheus watched as the ghoul slowly approached the disintegrating chitin hunter.
Stopping next to its head, the zombie mage touched it with the end of its staff. The former king of the slag field shook profusely and turned into a shower of giblets and chitin shards.
Then, the all-powerful zombie slowly moved away from its vanquished foe. Slowly floated away. Like the smaller mages, this one did not touch the ground with its legs. A good six inches of nothingness cushioned the fringe of its black robe from the dirt.
A massive, levitating zombie?
Time to get out of here. This time there would be no escalation in the field. He had to escape. When elephants clashed, the innocent grass suffered the most. Hanging down from his branch he climbed down silently.
But the giant undead mage turned to gaze over his shoulder, staring at the pitiful little Ethrian with its burning eyes. After several seconds of doing nothing else, it casually waved its staff, and Dark found himself in the blackness of death before even the slightest pain could register.
Elite Ethrian Necromancer Lich deals you 6297 damage.
Nothing else had come close to that. Someday, Dark vowed, he would pay the damage back.
Chapter 39
Artifacts and Achievements
Total stat levels: 35 +1.
Character level: 5.
Mastery level: 2.
By his most conservative estimates, at least twelve hundred zombies of various levels along with four dozen chitin hunters lay dead on the slag. The panther who had arrogantly attacked the ghoul horde was on the way, as well.
Dark needed to manage to collect all of the wealth they offered as quickly as possible, before the mobs began to respawn and before other predators arrived.
As it turned out, the zombies often had metal items on their person. Even the most useless of these could be turned useful at the smithy. All he had to do was disassemble them to recover some raw materials. He could spend several days doing nothing but crafting.
The fallen zombie mages and larger scorpions held more valuable items. Decently-classed weapons and armor, including a necromancer’s staff—the first item Dark had obtained that dealt magic damage. Sadly, most of the items had level requirements that were much too high, preventing Dark from using them to good effect.
The best find was among the mountain of chitin left by the king of the hill, the one defeated by the final lich. Not because chitin was a material that could be crafted into armor and other useful items. Simply because it was a level 46 elite monster. It did not drop many trophies, but they were good ones. Among them he discovered a magic weapon: a level 26 staff. It was a Rare item, which was good, but the best part was the message he received upon finding it.
Note: You have found the special staff Curse of the Forgotten Wasteland. No player in the history of X has ever held this weapon. You have discovered a forgotten weapon of Ancient Ethria. Bonus +1 to any base stat! You also receive 3000 distributable craft skill progress points. Continue rediscovering ancient knowledge for valuable rewards.
It was a smaller reward than he had received for that sword by the city gate. That obviously reflected the fact that it was a lower-level item. But he was not about to complain. His crafting problems with low-level items were history. Soon Dark would be able to make himself some high-quality equipment.
A predictably enjoyable message accompanied his search of the chitin monster.
Note: You have discovered a new
creature: Chitin Slaglord of Ethria. Elite Mob. Level 46. Base XP: 1380. Health: unknown. Mana: unknown. Stamina: unknown. Aggression: high. Magic abilities: unknown. Poison level: unknown. Chance of valuable loot: high. Description: a gigantic creature armored in the strongest chitin nature knows. It spends most of its life in its lair, guarding the wealth of its brood. Avoid this monster’s kin, or you will feel its anger.
No player in the history of X has encountered Chitin Slaglord of Ethria! You receive +1500 Knowledge progress points. Bonus +1 level to any basic skill. You also receive 1000 distributable craft skill progress points. The leaders of the Explorers League may present you with a reward for adding creatures you have discovered from your personal bestiary to the league archives. Congratulations! Keep discovering new things to unlock more generous rewards!
Dark also discovered five new types of zombie, four kinds of chitin creatures, and the panther that had fallen in battle with the mob of mobs pursuing him. These all revealed 14 alchemical ingredients that had never been discovered by players. Not only did these discoveries give him Knowledge points—they also gave him distributable craft skill progress points. The game considered discovered mobs to be useful finds.
So the bonuses he received were bigger than those given him by the boring hesh’ells. All in all, Dark received +6750 Knowledge progress points, 10 distributable base skill levels, and 14 distributable craft skill levels. Plus one new special skill: Naturalist. Discovering new monsters, whether already known to other players or never before seen, improved this new skill. Of course, it was probably true that completely new monsters gave a better boost. Every 10 levels of the Naturalist skill gave +1 Perception and +1 Simplicity.