“Tinnie, ten steps ahead; dim the light a bit. Fly back the moment you sense danger; no heroism. Fury, stay behind me.”
We zipped past the next few skirmishes.
The damn burrows had practically no straight sections; the halls twisted all the time, spiraled, then crossed, then branched. One had to choose a direction at random, trusting intuition. Some of the particularly thick, luminous veins stretched along the walls surrounded by a smaller grid of roots. I didn’t immediately notice that it was these conductors that connected the Head-Eye nests, which we came across every hundred or so feet; three or four creatures in a pack. The creatures insistently cast Curse of Idleness on me, spat acid at the slightest opportunity and, dying, regularly gave me XP. But in terms of prey, they turned out to be complete dummies. They apparently weren’t independent beings, but rather part of the lair itself. And so, improving Gathering was brought to a halt, which was too bad as I was hoping to raise it in order to increase the chance of looting useful objects... I grunted in surprise. A player is a strange creature, and their thought process was just as odd. My life was in danger, and all I could think about was loot... Well, my survival depended on it after all...
About an hour later, just as I expected, the dungeon difficulty began to increase. The burrows became more spacious — I didn’t have to duck anymore — the roots were thicker, and the nests counted with even more Head-Eyes. The very first pack of six individuals levels 11 and 12 hatched at once, demonstrated the danger of a thoughtless frontal attack. Neither speed dexterity, sword, nor magic helped. As soon as the fight was over, I collapsed onto all fours, barely holding back a scream. My gear was starting to look more and more like a sieve after each skirmish. Neither stabs or slashes caused as much burning pain as this damned acid. I was quietly going crazy from pain for the next ten long minutes. When the pain began to subside, I crawled to a cleaner spot, free of pale green muck, and leaned weakly against the wall.
If it was going to get even more difficult. I won’t be able to cope with it by myself. I had to kill more, and I had to kill quickly, because there were more and more debuffs. It was still too early to use Soulcatcher, since I had no means of replenishing the Crystals. I stared thoughtfully at the pets, waiting to regain strength and HP. The Fairy... Not a drop of acid had fallen on her yet. A drop would’ve been more than enough to kill her. Fury was unharmed as well; not even staining her paws in the acid puddles. Maybe I was being overprotective for no reason?
We dealt with the next Head-Eye following a new scheme.
This time, Tinnie rushed forward. Despite the seven lingering Curses that burned HP like a steam furnace burned coal, I waited patiently for a whole minute while the creatures reacted to her. However, they didn’t find her worthy of even their spit. They were just looking at Tinnie with evil glares. But that changed when Tinnie, following my mental command, swooped down and kicked one of the creatures right in the eye. Yeah, we fought dirty. Aggro followed. The Head-Eyes began unleashing volleys in Tinnie’s direction, almost like the legendary Katyusha, but Tinnie dodged the acid globes with ease, and even with visible pleasure. Drawing attention to herself, Fury rushed forward. She jumped up, ripped the nearest enemy apart with her claws, and immediately darted sideways. The red and black, scaly flank of the creature didn’t suffer as much as a scratch from the claws, but the Head-Eye, stalk-deep in offense, hastily turned toward the Direcat. A spit! Fury dodged like a shadow, jumped up and clawed with her paw again.
Point totally proven I thought, rushing to attack.
Congratulations!
You have reached level 11!
Current XP: 27/46,130
Attention!
The final step of assimilation of avatar stats with the current location is in progress! Find a safe place!
Countdown: 5, 4, 3 ...
The message took me by surprise.
As I stood there, looking blankly at the claimed battlefield, the countdown inevitably ended and shit hit the fan. My body went numb, as if icebound. My muscles burned as if they were on fire, and the pain was increasing with every second. Then began the restructuring of my body and my eyes were clouded by a crimson haze...
I came to, lying on the ground. My face burned, ears rang, and skull felt as if someone was squeezing it in a press. This would be a delightful bouquet of sensations for a seasoned masochist. Fury sat in front of me. In the darkness, her emerald eyes glowed with a disturbing light. Tinnie, sitting on Fury’s neck, was also staring at me, her eyes wet and full of pity and sympathy.
“Don’t even think of it,” I coughed hoarsely. I had bitten my tongue. “The last thing I need right now is a crying Fairy…”
Not believing that the crazy pain was gone, I got to my knees, feeling very strange. My body seemed completely alien, but, at the same time, more powerful. Stronger. Tougher.
The stats page had me puzzled. For five minutes I studied the changes until I figured out what had happened. Firstly, with each new level, the system now automatically gave +2 to all five basic stats and +10 points for free distribution. That in itself was great, but not the important thing. There was a complete recalculation of the previous stats and their adjustment to the current value of HP and energy; wisdom had almost doubled and was now at 44, and endurance was now at 59! Everything else was more or less the same. My HP was at 590, energy at 440, strength at 31, dexterity at 31, and intelligence at 21. Hence, there would no longer be +20 free points to HP and energy like in the sandbox; instead, the amount of stat points itself grew. It was now easier to calculate the values of future levels. Moreover, thanks to the new values, HP and energy regeneration got doubled; I could now endure up to five Curses of Idleness without an issue. Any additional treats? Defense! It inevitably rose to match endurance, compensating for my gear’s drop in durability.
Jumping to my feet, I moved my shoulders, as well as closed and opened my fists. I was still a little dizzy and somewhat nauseous, but it was all quite tolerable. It was a pity that fatigue didn’t disappear completely with the level increase. My stamina remained at 60/100, but my HP was in a much better shape. Were it not for the wild hunger, everything would’ve been great. Oh, also, my save points went up to 1.85. Two more new levels and I would get an additional save. The system didn’t cheat with free skill points too and gave two more, as it was supposed to do every new odd numbered level. Only now it was unclear where to invest those five accumulated points, because the class and skill trees were frozen. Was I to simply save it all until I escape from the Lunar Rainbow? One more thing was bothering me — the dozen of free stat points that I had invested into wisdom and endurance the moment I got into the lair, were now lost. Oh well, had I known, I wouldn’t have come there at all. No point in crying over spilled milk; I got more than I had lost anyway.
Chapter 20
I picked up my sword; it looked brand new. It’s damage increased with the level change and its durability had fully recovered. A voice in my head said “scaling”, but here this type of objects was simply called “unique”. I then swore. My God... If this “assimilation” had caught me during the battle, then Mr. Grim Reaper would have come to greet me, back in black and better than ever. Thinking logically, there should be no more such surprises, as the change was global. But still, I had to be more careful in the future. For example, I should avoid joining raids and try to level-up grinding lone enemies. I will definitely share a couple of affectionate words with Mashta once I get to her curly lordship. She could have warned me, after all. Or did they decide to turn this into a joke again? When I get my hands on you, you little imps...
Well, whatever. Everything ended well.
The battle continued with renewed vigor and I even received a new quest.
Quest available: Population Control: Head-Eyes
Note: This is a one-time territorial quest.
Progress: 1/100
Reward: 5,000 XP; 1 skill point
Accept: yes / no?
Countdown: 30... 29...
28...
That was interesting. Only 30 seconds to react though. Yes, of course! I have to destroy them anyway, might as well get XP for it! Apparently, reaching level 11 changed the game mechanics more than I thought it would, and there were still a lot of bonuses waiting for me, hopefully pleasant ones, like this easy, self-fulfilling quest ...
Through trial and error, we worked out the tactic to perfection on the next couple of nests. As it turned out, the acid hurt the creatures as well. Watching the Fairy’s nude little body dart between the acid volleys, a single one of which could turn her into a piece of dissolved organic matter, was scary. But what the hell could I do?! No risk, no profit, as they say.
It was difficult for Tinnie to distract more than five enemies. However, Fury came to her rescue. When I entered the battle, I inevitably, but not immediately, aggroed everyone. A dozen or two seconds were enough to deal with everyone.
After almost two hours of constant battles, we were still wandering in the dark, seeing no end to our little journey. My eyes had gotten tired of staring at the Head-Eye’s yellow irises, which oozed with fierce rage. Our lungs hurt from the acidic stench, and my jacket hung on my burned and scarred body like a bag full of holes that even a street beggar wouldn’t wear. The damn lair wasn’t on the virtual map, instead, it was just a dark spot. Despair began to creep into my soul and my stamina dropped to 40 out of 100 points. My energy and HP were recovering much slower, and my body demanded a break and at least an hour of proper sleep. And don’t get me started on how hungry I was. I didn’t manage to find anything edible. My stomach was mercilessly swearing me, but I had to save the last piece of meat for Fury.
Tinnie, exhausted as she was, still refused to absorb a new Crystal. I had to take another break and try to, yet again, figure out what her problem was. Having called the little one, I sat down, tired as all hell, and laid out all of the Crystals from my bag.
“Tinnie, behave. Choose any Crystal you like.”
She hovered in front of the Crystals, examined them, sighed sorrowfully, kicked the nearest one and shook her head. She will soon cease shining; her HP and energy bars were almost intact, but her regenerative aura had disappeared, and her hunger was at 30/100.
“When will you learn to speak?” I sighed as well. “Can anyone explain to me why did the Demon’s Crystal suit you, while these, although looted from decent mobs, disgust you? Eh?”
Tinnie squeaked in agreement and brought her fists to her temples, mimicking horns with index fingers. Her cornflower blue eyes looked at me hopefully.
“Do you really need a Crystal looted from a Demon?” I asked in surprise.
She shook her head.
“Is there any connection with the Demon?”
She nodded with such intensity that I feared for her neck.
“Wait a minute... A Demon. A purely physical mob... Is that it? No? Enough nodding, else your head will fall off. What else could it be...? What could be so special about an ordinary level 10 creature?”
Tinnie shrieked happily and froze, never taking her eyes off me.
“Level 10?” It suddenly dawned on me.
Another affirmative squeak followed.
Was it really that simple?! I slapped my knee in annoyance. The solution to the problem was in front of my nose the entire time. What kind of a dumbass was I...? And what kind of idiots were the Lowlings if all five couldn’t figure it out and give me a hint? Both the Fairy and I suffered so much, and for what? There was only one explanation — the Hobbit-wannabes never had to deal with Crystal-fed pets, and they simply didn’t know any better.
Since Tinnie was only level 6, rank 2 escs were too tough for her, and I used the last rank 1 esc that I had, the one extracted from the Sleepy Pork, for the lighter since I considered it the least valuable from the bunch. I didn’t know that the Fairy would need it. Hold on!
Before I could shake the half-used, partially melted and no longer six-sided esc from my lighter, Tinnie pounced at it like a hungry lion at its prey. If there existed lions the size of dragonflies, that is. Tinnie's XP immediately rose, getting closer to the level 7 mark, and the Fairy herself began to shine with the same pure light, content like a cat gorged on sour cream. Well, I at least solved that problem. Temporarily, unfortunately. I still had no extra grade 1 Crystals. Maybe I should search for Demons under level 10? Yeah, sure, there they come, forming a queue, paws stomping anxiously…
All right, let’s solve one more problem for now.
There was no doubt that we were lost. But if we were passing through the same areas, then where did the new creatures come from? Did they respawn?
I got up and carefully examined a section of the wall near one of the destroyed nests. The stumps of their “legs” withered away like dried flowers, and I didn’t notice them regrow. Although the thick veins the size of my wrist still regularly pumped some sort of a caustic liquid, which served as blood for the lair. I moved along the wall, keeping a close eye on it; after about three steps I found a dozen of small nubs that resembled tree buds the size of a walnut near the vein. Peering closely at one of them, I waited for the system to give me more info on it.
Head-Eye Egg
Level 13
Time left before hatching: 55, 54, 53...
Oh fuck.
The veins weren’t so defined at the very beginning, they began to thicken noticeably only in the depths of the lair. No wonder I completely missed them. I had an idea of how to both mark the places we had already been to and stop new eggs from spawning. I simply hacked the vein, prudently leaning away from the splashing acid. Almost immediately I felt a weak, but rapidly growing tremor underneath me. Someone, or something, clearly didn’t like my little experiment — probably the guardian of this area. The next second I heard the familiar stomping and an enemy ran out of the tunnel, charging at me like an express train.
Horned Demon
Level 12
HP: 666
Creature of Chaos
Just like before, the Demon attacked right away, not bothering to ambush us. That is, without evaluating the situation at all. It was just a silly, tremendously huge and terribly strong, horned beast. Moreover, it was no longer “young”, but simply a “demon”, which meant that it was an advanced member of its species. Emerging from the twilight of the burrow, and rapidly closing the five steps of distance between us, it silently soared into the familiar leap, aiming at my throat and opening its maw. I deliberately dodged at the last moment and abruptly struck it with Flame, revealing the creature’s scaly flank with a Searing Flash. The blade cut hard, hitting the ribs with a sound akin to steel hitting steel. The Demon was so fast that it flew forward three more steps. Flamespear’s attack engulfed its nape with flashes of fire and smoke the moment it landed. Ignoring the Direcat which, according to my signal, stung it in the ass with her tail with seemingly no visible effect, the Demon silently turned and attacked me while it was on the ground.
These creatures seemed to simply not know how to growl. I could only hear heavy wheezing. The tanky mob now looked rather clumsy, the place wide enough for maneuvering and I didn’t feel half-dead like I did back then. But still, it caused me some trouble. The sturdiness of its skin was enviable, and it ignored my pets, which attempted to distract it by jumping in front of it. A minute later, staggering and soaking the ground with caustic acid running from its dozen wounds, the Demon was still stubbornly trying to attack, but failed to reach me. It fell on its side and died, jerking its paws a couple of times in agony.
The Horned Demon has been slain!
Received XP: 1,200
Current XP: 19,157/46,130
Man, oh man, I didn’t even notice grinding almost half a level. The Head-Eyes gave only 300 XP each, as they weren’t very strong. But since they always came in packs, there was nothing to complain about.
Quest available: Population Control: Horned Demons
Note: This is a one-time territorial quest.
Progress: 1/100
&nb
sp; Reward: 5,000 XP; 1 skill point
Accept: yes / no?
Countdown: 30... 29... 28...
And how’s the previous PC: Head-Eyes quest going? Wow, I’m already at 59/100?! We sure had fun there. The basic principle of these tasks was clear — though they were one-time only, they were given out for each type of mobs. Well, who would refuse such a thing? Of course I accept!!!
Another joyful event followed our victory — Tinnie finally reached level 7. It was strange though, according to my purely theoretical calculations, she should have reached that level a long time ago. Did her starving had something to do with it? Did she get less XP because of that?
I didn’t have time to congratulate Tinnie because the damn assimilation affected her, too. Folding her wings and rolling her eyes, the little girl lost consciousness and collapsed. I twitched and tried to catch her before she hit the ground. The Direcat turned out to be faster than me; she got on her hind legs, retracted her claws, caught Tinnie with her front paws and gently lowered her onto the ground. The Fairy remained unconscious for five minutes. During that time, I managed to study her stats, which changed following the same pattern as mine; wisdom and endurance were brought up to match HP and energy, which caused organism restructuring. She had also unlocked her fourth ability: Spiritual Link. But nothing changed in the descriptions of her skills for some reason.
Firefly
Rank 3 (11/300)
The natural gift of glowing. Adds 30% to the light’s radius.
Costs: 10% energy
Awareness
Rank 3 (1/300)
Keymaster Page 13