by R K Billiau
Imperfect Blue Globstone
Consumable, single use
Cast Frost
Imperfect globstones. That made me think of all those ARPGs where you could combine gems to get the higher quality one. Was that in this world? I doubted this stone's usefulness, but it would be novel, at least for people without Magic. Which was well, everyone besides my team as far as I knew. I scavenged the glob and got another imperfect globstone. Then I went over to the poor furry creature.
It looked so sad, all sprawled out and soaking wet with blue goo. Poor little guy. The thing- I had no idea what it was called- was seriously cute. Its corpse looked like something you’d see a toddler carrying around. Its eyes were oversized and lined with black, which made them stand out even more, looking like one of those huge-eyed stuffed animals. But it’s well designed gliders and vicious looking claws made it seem like cute wasn’t it's only skill.
The loot box that popped called it a flunky, and gave me nothing. Scavenging it however gave me a flunky paw- an accessory item that it said may increase my luck but had no stats to back that up. Thankfully, my Lucky Find popped and I came away with a flunky core!
I grinned madly and without missing a beat, activated the core to summon a flunky. I was given a choice of granting my summon an effect of either burning, slowing, or poisoning for a small additional Mana cost. I paid it, selected slow, and watched as energy from the core swirled around pixelating over and over until a very brief moment later, a flunky came into focus on the ground in front of me. He looked up at me with dark, puppy dog eyes, his fur where it should be white, was blue.
Congratulations! You have increased your Core Mastery skill!
“Oh daaamn,” I said, rubbing the core in my hand that had not been destroyed.
My combat ability had just risen dramatically.
“Let’s go find us some stuff to fight!” I shouted and started walking in the direction of the village, my new furry friend walking right beside me.
Chapter 30
We didn’t have to travel very far to find something to fight. The forest was now teeming with life; deer, rabbits, birds, all the regular stuff you would expect to find, and also a host of flunkies up in the branches. We avoided all the basic fauna and they ignored us. We were seeking something more dangerous, which we found in a green glob that was roving through the forest like cold honey pouring out of a jar. Before we engaged it, I held up my hand.
“Hold on, I want to try something,” I said, and picked up my new pet flunky that had been loping along with us. The thing was really soft, its fur lighter and fluffier than it appeared, like a super soft kitten. It was calm in my hands as I looked it over; unless it was a eunuch, it was definitely a girl. This little thing was going to be fun to fight with.
I mentally selected the attack option from the list of actions she could perform, cradled the cute little buggar in my hand, pet her under her chin, then chucked her as hard as I could at the glob.
“REEEEEEE!” she screamed and spread her glider-wing things, sailing right onto the top of the glob, ripping in with teeth and claws. The glob shuddered like a green jello mold that had just been wiggled and I smiled as a blue spark flew from the flunky, and the glob was struck with a Slow debuff. The flunky wasn’t doing a ton of damage, but it was doing some, and when combined with the status effect on the glob now, I was happy with my new tool.
“Did you really just throw a monkey at it?” Madison asked, stifling a laugh. “Weren’t you supposed to put it in a Poke’ Ball first?” She smiled my favorite smile, her eyes sparkling like green diamonds, and before I could spit out a comeback, she popped up a formation and we all charged in.
The glob created a pseudopod and slammed my flunky to the ground, killing it in a tiny explosion of swirling lights.
“Aw, but we were just getting to know each other!” I whined at the glob. I summoned another, this time a red one, and launched it.
With us up close and personal, the glob ignored the flunky, even though it was now inflicted with a Burn debuff, and focused on us. Kai went in dagger first, but Madison and I both unleashed spells. Lightning arced from her hand to the thing, giving it a small black scorch mark on its membrane and causing it to shudder. I attempted my Frost spell and found it had no range; I had to actually be touching the glob. When my hand made contact, I felt ten Mana drain out and my hand turn super-cold for a moment, freezing a portion of the membrane on the glob.
Congratulations! You have increased your Superconscious attribute!
Between the dagger, spells, and my little ninja monkey, we exterminated the thing with extreme prejudice, soaking up the measly 5XP for being higher level. I was curious, so I scrolled through my combat log to see how much damage I had done in that combat.
Your Frost spell inflicts 17 damage!
Blue Glob has become Slowed!
Your pet has inflicted 4 damage!
Your pet has inflicted 3 damage!
Your pet has inflicted 3 damage!
Green Glob has become Burned!
Well, those damage numbers were still small, but it was a huge step in the right direction. I certainly wasn’t complaining. I wanted to learn more about spellcasting; surely there was a way to get my damage up higher. The Adjudicator had been right about this quest, I would have to remember to thank it when I died next. Not that I planned on dying anytime soon.
We set out after that, making our way back through the forest, marveling at how different it was from when we had gone through it the first time. We fought more globs along the way; the woods seemed to be infested with them, but they also seemed like the highest challenge rating in the zone. Based on the experience we gained, or sometimes didn’t because of our levels, we figured they ranged between levels four and six.
This was going to be a great place for people from the village to adventure and level now. It would be perfect for them to level up at least a couple times before they out leveled it. I was excited to bring all this information to the village- they were about to experience some real change soon. I didn’t know what life was like within those walls, but I could imagine this would all be good news and I was eager to get it to them.
Shortly before we left the forest, we ran into a group of globs, a red, a blue and a green, as they surrounded a tree that stood somewhat apart from the others. In the first sign of intelligence I had seen the globs exhibit, they had gotten a small group of flunkies trapped in the tree.
It looked like the globs couldn’t climb, which I was grateful for. Could you imagine one of those things dropping down on you from above? I had watched Carl die slowly inside one, and it’s safe to say it’s an awful way to go. I shuddered at the thought.
The three flunkies were trapped in the tree though, and either didn’t think about climbing higher to glide away or were too scared to do so. They sat on a branch screeching at the globs, who looked like they were content to wait and starve out the flock of flunkies.
“Think it’s called a flock?” I asked.
“Huh?” Madison said.
“You know, a group of them,” I pointed to the trapped flunkies. “What’s a group of flunkies called?”
“Oh, I don’t know! A gaggle? Ooh, maybe a flurry? A flurry of flunkies!”
“Definitely a flurry,” I said. “If it isn’t, it is now.”
“Let us watch for a moment please,” Kai said, and I couldn’t see his face but it sounded like he was rolling his eyes. “Do not attack yet.”
“What do you think is going to happen?” I asked him under my breath.
When he didn’t answer, I watched what the globs were doing. It looked like a whole lot of just sitting there, until the blue glob inched closer to the tree and jostled the red one. The red glob, out of either instinct or annoyance, immediately launched a pseudopod at the blue one, who reacted the same way, the two pseudopods meeting and twisting together. In all their back and forth, the red glob bounced into the green one, who joined in on the hullabaloo, ps
eudopods slapping together like pool noodles on water.
It wasn’t long before all three globes had absorbed into each other to make a huge white glob. Considerably smaller than the boss we fought in the dungeon, but still plenty big.
“That is what I was waiting for,” Kai said. “I did not know if they could merge outside of the dungeon.”
The flurry of flunkies in the tree clearly noticed the change because they began hooting and hollering at the glob, bouncing up and down on their branch. In a panic they launched themselves, shrieking as they dive bombed it, one after another. Two flunkies landed on it and started attacking, their claws and bites doing no damage to the tough, white membrane. A third landed on the ground and ran away towards another tree, two tiny baby flunkies clinging to its back that I hadn’t seen from down below.
“Oh, that was a mama!” Madison yelled and pointed at the fleeing flunky. “That must have been their nest! I bet one of those is the dad, we can’t let them die!” She had spoken too late though, as the glob had already grabbed one flunky with its pseudopod, waving it around like a kid at the fair with a balloon animal, then squeezing the life out of it. In a sickening crunch, the poor little guy was crushed like a soda can, and the glob began to absorb it.
“No!” Madison yelled and ran over to engage the glob that was nearly twice her size. She pointed at the remaining flunky and wiggled her fingers, attempting to Boost it. I had no idea whether that would work, and I doubt she did either, but if it did, it might give the little guy a chance to escape. Then Madison was upon the glob, lighting it up with her Spark spell, giving her just enough time to scoot the maybe-baby-daddy flunky off the glob, and sent it scurrying into the woods after the other.
I had no idea she was such an animal lover, or maybe it was just the fact that the flunkies were ridiculously cute, but her anger was exploding out in a righteous fury. Kai and I waded in to support her, I sent in a blue flunky, hoping that the white would not be immune to the Slow it inflicted. I followed after and started casting spells.
The glob threw down the remains of its funky meal at our feet and formed a second pseudopod, swinging wildly at me at Madison. I was in the middle of a spell and couldn’t react fast enough and took the attack right to the face. Either my luck was terrible, or my resistances were just that weak, but I was at once inflicted with all the status effects, Slow, Burn, and Poison. I backed out of the fight, wanting to give my precious HP bar a chance to recover from being chewed down, and tripped on the corpse of the flunky the glob had killed. Face, meet ground.
In an unexpected move, the glob made a double-pseudopod hammer blow attack on Madison, who got her shield up in time, but was sent reeling from the sheer power of the blow. Kai quickly stepped into her place, drawing its attention and attacking with furious speed, causing large x-shaped bleeding wounds across its membrane.
My health was still being consumed by the debuffs and I knew if I got in there to cast spells again it would leave me open to attacks; all my spells were too close range and required too much time to cast to be effective in a melee like this. I stayed on the ground where I had fallen and growled in frustration, again feeling helpless.
I looked at the poor flunky right by my face that had been killed and cast aside like it was nothing. I was about to feel sorry for it, the matted and mangled little carcass, when an idea crossed my mind. I looted the creature, getting a paw and what I really wanted: another core.
My flunky was still in the fight, holding its own. With a moment of concentration, and the new flunky core pressed between my fingers, I focused and summoned a second flunky. Again, the core remained in my hand. I couldn’t help but smile.
I sent this one, a red one, in to attack with its blue partner. I wondered how many I could summon at once. Maybe I could have a whole army attacking? Visions of flunky dominance faded as Madison stood up, a look of angry determination on her face.
“Try buffing my flunkies!” I shouted to her and she cast a Boost on the red flunky.
I had no idea whether the buff took, I didn’t get any kind of notification or anything about it. My flunkies seemed to do some actual damage to the glob, as opposed to the natural versions that had run off. Minimal damage for sure, but they were at least breaking through the membrane in places.
Madison continued to cast her spells when she could, while Kai stood patiently to the side waiting for an opening. The opening came when the glob flung a pseudopod at Madison, who was able to deflect it with her shield. As it deflected, he made a slice with the dagger, shearing off the tip of the pseudopod and causing it to spray white goo like a garden hose on full blast.
The glob quickly absorbed the pseudopod back into itself, the wound now appearing on its side as a gaping hole, goo pouring out. With only one pseudopod left, I charged back in, confident we could keep it distracted enough to land a few attacks. I ran through my spells, hitting it with Frost, then Fire, and finally the thing exploded, killing my two flunkies and sending the rest of us sprawling in a frozen, burning, poisoned mess.
Congratulations! You have defeated a White Glob!
You have gained 15XP! You have gained a party bonus of 2XP!
Whew. That was quite the fight! Kinda scary to know that if left unattended, these woods could potentially end up very dangerous. It was strong enough that I gained a stat increase to Conscious and Superconscious.
I looted the big white glob, getting an imperfect white globstone and something new.
Brilliant Kufi
Head slot
+20 Mana
+3 SuperConscious
+1 Conscious
+1 SubConscious
Set Item – 1/8
Full Set: Chromatic Clothes
Full set bonus:
+10 SuperConscious
+5 Conscious
+5 SubConscious
+10 All Resistances
Spell: Prism Shield
“Set items!” I shouted. “I hope you had fun fighting that glob, because we are for sure going to be back to farm this set!” I showed the brilliant white brimless cap to Kai before handing it to Madison. “You should wear this, the Mana bonus will be helpful for healing.”
She smiled, took it and looked it over before handing it back to me. “You should keep it, you’re using spells now and unless the other items are amazing, I doubt I’d replace my class gear.” She waved a hand at her Hauberk. I had to admit, I’d be sad if she did.
I smiled and put it on my head, watching as my Mana bar extended and started to slowly fill in. I popped open my character sheet to see what I looked like with it on. I had to admit, it wasn’t the most stylish thing. Not my style anyway. But hey, I would wear a buttered croissant if the stats were good enough.
“All right, no more messing about, let’s get back to the village,” I said.
Chapter 31
We finally made it out of that damned forest just as dusk was setting, which happened to be the same time the wolves came out. So we got to tango with them in the outskirts, right when we thought we were finally in the clear. The poor wolves were no match for us, though. Our new levels and new spells made quick work of every pack that came after us, and they became nothing more than an opportunity for me to refill on cores and level up my Lucky Find a few times.
I used one of the cores I had gotten to summon a wolf, but got an error message instead. I would have to dismiss my current summoned creatures to bring out another. I mentally dismissed my two flunkies in the pet menu and watched as light erupted from beneath where each was fighting, then fell back to the ground like post firework sparks, the flunkies disappearing with the light.
I summoned a red wolf, and the core crumbled to dust. I was disappointed, but not overly so. It was probably just a matter of leveling up my skills to summon something higher level that wouldn’t destroy the core. During our walk back I had gained two levels in Core Manipulation, and a level in Core Mastery, so I’d get there eventually.
We fought our way towar
ds the village and when my wolf was destroyed, I summoned two more flunkies, a red and a blue. They were a lot more entertaining than the wolf, anyway. They came into being and immediately climbed up on me, chattering, one resting on each shoulder as if they remembered who I was. I smiled ruefully at that; it was possible, but who knew?
Finally, we could see the small village ahead of us and we walked towards the back wall. The unending sky stretched huge above us, dark navy and dotted with brilliantly shining stars. The creek beside us trickled by and the night chill wrapped around me. I was excited to get into the village, warm up, hopefully eat, and get some decent sleep.
It was completely dark now, but there were a few scattered torches casting long shadows, and gold light escaping from behind shuttered windows. From what we could see, the small stone wall surrounding the village was shoddily built, and as we approached, a voice called out from the darkness by one of the buildings.
“Intruders!” the voice shouted, alert but tinted with tiredness.
With a surprising lack of hesitation, light came barreling around the corner of one building. Attached to the light was Graham, looking as cantankerous as the day we met him. He vaulted over the wall like it was nothing, landing expertly as if he had practiced it many times before. His spear swirled through the air and came whistling down to point at us again.
“You! I thought I told you not to try to sneak in here.”
I raised my hands while Kai stood his ground and Madison readied her shield. The two flunkies on my shoulders started getting agitated, switching shoulders back and forth.
“Relax man, we aren’t trying to sneak in. We walked straight up here.”
“Fine, you aren’t sneaking, but you are trying to get in. I told you what the rule was for that,” he said, his spear unwavering, his voice tired and annoyed. “Don’t you have a quest to complete?”