by Tamryn Tamer
“Looks like they have high hopes for you,” Frost teased while jabbing Shael’s shoulder.
“Don’t get cocky,” Shael shouted as she glanced back at the wagons. “I’ve never fought an ettin before!”
“But we spent two weeks training!” an elf shouted. “We’ve been practicing our formations and timing every day!”
“Is it true that if this goes well we’re really going to be allowed to do it every week?” Sarassalala asked while raising her abnormally long arm. The azure-haired woman was a lamia that’d lived in his village for a few months. She stood on her tail making her look even more snake-like as she gazed at them with her oversized eyes, waiting for a response.
“Let’s see how it goes first!” Shael answered. “Until then, stay focused! Herald Frost said we’ll arrive this afternoon!”
The various drenched demihumans returned to their excited conversations as they continued north toward the mountains where the ettin spawned.
Frost had developed several theories about Nivara since arriving in the strange game-like world but he felt his theory about monster spawning might actually be right.
The theory started to form when some elves discovered a cache of orichalcum that had transformed into magical earth essences. The moment the orichalcum was touched, monsters that were far more powerful than those in the surrounding area appeared and began attacking them.
There were other oddities he’d come across as well such as powerful monsters only appearing after a certain number of weaker monsters were defeated or spawn rates changing depending on the weather.
The experiences started to make him wonder what the mechanisms were behind monsters appearing and he began formulating a theory.
He figured that the planet itself was completely made up of some magic energy, probably not very different from the particles that made up his own world. Depending on where they were located on the planet the magical energy could be dense or sparse which would determine the potential power of monsters in those areas.
He speculated that Pluma Forest’s magical energy was weak and widely dispersed which was why an abundance of weak monsters respawned daily. The field between Pluma and Filan likely released more magical energy in a denser fashion which was why a small number of golems spawned there along with the occasional golem king.
What really solidified his theory was the area in the mountains where the ettin spawned. He was informed of the ettin problem when Sir Wildflower delivered the paperwork and immediately dealt with it himself. There were four ettins when he arrived in their valley and they were feasting on mountain goats. The goats were sparse from what he saw and he figured that if there were even a couple more ettins they would have needed to leave the mountains to find food.
That’s when it hit him. The only time he’d ever dealt with certain monsters in Blackwater were when they were invading from other areas. Giants coming down from the mountains or packs of wyverns flying in from forests or even hordes of poisonous giant salamanders.
Suddenly everything clicked. If monsters were left alone for too long, too many would spawn and they would find themselves needing to leave their spawning grounds in search of food. That was normally when Frost was called in to eliminate them.
After he eliminated the group of ettins in the northern mountains he wanted to test the theory so he had the village report to him when another ettin appeared. That was how he learned that one would spawn every week. Frost then realized that if the ettins were dealt with before their food supplies ran out, he didn’t need to worry about them invading.
An ounce of prevention was worth a pound of cure.
If his theory was correct it meant that he could deal with problems ahead of time simply by noting their respawn rates in his journals. If giants respawned weekly and ran out of food at six giants, their invasions would happen every six weeks. It also made them much more manageable.
The idea that magical energy was constantly flowing from the planet just made sense to him on several levels. If the planet released energy creating monsters, it would make sense that by killing those monsters the people of the world absorbed some of that magical energy as experience. It would also explain why simply attaching pieces of monsters to weapons increased their quality. They were still carrying magic. Then there was how he infused weapons and equipment with his own magic when using them. Everything was constantly absorbing magic.
He realized there were things about the theory that didn’t really make sense like why levels, classes, and abilities even existed or how he was able to scan a person and pull up information on how powerful they were without trying. Then there were ability points and how he could master just about anything in an instant if he had enough of them available.
While he didn’t have all of the answers, his knowledge of how monsters spawned was proving useful and the territory he gained from King Asmund was proving far more valuable than the king likely imagined. After all, monsters meant experience and experience meant power.
“We’ll need to stop here! The ettin spawns in a clearing just through this valley,” Frost said while halting Witch and jumping off her. He patted the small red mare and pulled an apple from his satchel to give to her. He pointed toward a path in the mountains to the northeast as Witch greedily devoured the apple as he presented it to her.
“We’re not taking the wagons?” an elf asked while staring at their destination.
“Don’t complain,” Shael said while hopping off her brown stallion. The crimson haired elf walked toward the wagons to grab a marked sack hanging off the side of it. She opened up the enchanted bag and started pulling out pieces of plate armor. “Get your equipment sorted and prepare to march!”
“Finally!” Renna said excitedly as she leaped off Dancer and rushed toward her sack. “Level thirty-five here I come!”
“I still don’t understand how you managed to out-level me,” Ena growled as she climbed off Hammer, her massive bull-like steed. “It doesn’t make any sense! I go on twice as many hunts as her!”
“It’s because she’s a little cheat,” Fayeth said playfully while sliding off Sneaky, her strange green-and brown zebra-like mount. “She convinced Cassia to take her out hunting. She gets all of that experience as Cassia holds the monsters back. And she’s been doing it since before the northern hunting rotations started!”
“What?” Ena scowled. “But Cassia’s not supposed to leave the village without permission!”
“Territory,” Renna corrected. “She’s not allowed to leave the territory!”
“It’s unfair!” Ena snapped back while dumping her equipment onto the ground. Frost found himself staring at the blonde elf as she removed her tank-top, revealing her massive chest and muscular abdomen. The fact she was still drenched from the recent downpour made her even more appealing than normal.
“You’re just mad that you didn’t think of it!” Renna laughed as she shimmied out of her tight shorts, accidentally taking her panties down with them. She quickly removed her damp top as well, revealing all of her slender athletic body. The petite elf was tan everywhere except for where her shorts and athletic top were, drawing Frost’s lecherous gaze.
“We’ll catch up Ena,” Fayeth said while unbuttoning her emerald blouse. Fayeth’s proportions were simply unfair to all of the other elves. Not only did the blonde elf have an absurdly large chest but her hips and ass were similarly blessed. She winked at Frost as she caught him looking. “Renna’s only interested in reaching level thirty-five because it’s one of the requirements to marry Herald Frost. She’ll stop once she hits that goal and then we’ll have plenty of time to catch up.”
“Don’t know why she’s trying,” Ena said smugly. “She needs the support of two of Herald Frost’s current wives and she only has the support of that traitor.”
“You’ll see, I might not be his next wife but I’ll definitely be the one after that,” Renna said playfully. “I’ll probably have a dozen children before you even get a single w
ife’s approval. Herald Frost doesn’t need a hot-tempered brute for a wife.”
“You little whore,” Ena reached out to grab Renna as the naked thief evaded her attack.
“Ladies!” Shael shouted angrily at the women as she stood in the grass topless. While Shael was muscular for an elf she was still incredibly feminine. He chalked it up to her hefty chest and large toned ass but her face was also unbelievably gorgeous, especially when she was aggravated. “Take this seriously! That goes for the rest of you as well! Get ready to go! Now!”
“Yes ma’am,” several of the demihumans said as they began jumping from the carts and grabbing their bags.
“Who’s going to watch the carts?” a Durra woman asked while removing her drenched robes. Frost watched as the curvaceous dog-eared woman stripped down to her violet underwear. Her ample curves overflowed in all of the right places drawing Frost in as she slid some form fitted shorts over her plump ass.
“You need to get ready too,” Shael said while tossing her soaked shorts at Frost. He smirked as he glanced at Shael standing there in her yellow brassiere and matching thong. The tan elf’s well-defined abdomen glistened as water droplets slowly made their way down. Frost followed the droplets with his eyes as they encroached on the string band of Shael’s underwear. “And here I was worried about everybody else losing focus!”
“Fine,” Frost laughed as he opened his own equipment pouch. While his pouch was a fraction of the size of the ones in the cart it could hold a lot more items. The enchanted pouches that Lishri made for him were simply that much better than those of the apprentice tailors, although all enchanted pouches were expensive since they required high quality materials.
Frost started to undress and as he lifted his shirt above his head, his surroundings went silent. He finished removing his soaked shirt and smirked at the large group of half-naked demihumans leering at him. He couldn’t blame them given the ridiculous proportions of his body. No matter what he ate or drank he seemed to never gain weight.
“Now who’s distracted?” Frost said while tossing his damp shirt at Shael.
“Come on all of you!” Shael said as her face turned red. “It’s nothing you don’t see when he’s leaving the bathhouse!”
“It’s different!” Julia, a violet-haired elf knight shouted while standing in her lacy pink bra and panties. “He’s not in the bathhouse and he’s soaked in rain!”
Several women laughed and shouted in agreement. The elves and beastkin were the most aggressive about pursuing him while the other demihumans were more discreet. Arachne, gorgons, and lamia normally watched him from a distance and became nervous when speaking with him directly. Some demihuman races, like centaurs, were completely disinterested in him. Although he’d caught several of the centaur men staring at Witch in a way he was not exactly okay with. But, if they tried anything with her, the ill-tempered mare would make sure they regretted it.
“Hey!” a large Durra male huffed as he removed his robe, revealing his massive muscular chest. “I’m here too!”
“Don’t even bother Gran,” a small Myrran male sighed as he put on his leather tunic. “You’ll just make yourself depressed.”
“Focus!” Shael shouted while clapping her hands several times. “If you’re not going to focus we’re just going to head home!”
“You were looking too!” an elf shouted.
“Herald Frost, put some clothes on already!” Shael commanded while taking a long look at his abdomen. “You’re distracting the women.”
“Not my fault the women can’t control themselves,” Frost joked. “Ogling me like I’m just a piece of meat. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.”
“Don’t you start,” Shael said stifling a laugh.
The group quickly changed into their hunting gear and sorted themselves into their respective parties. The raid group had a wide variety of classes but the vast majority of them were ranged. Frost preferred it that way given their opponent would deal massive physical damage and its ranged attack was limited to throwing boulders.
Frost smiled as admired them all in their equipment. They were all wearing matching sets that they’d earned by completing job postings in Pluma. The spellcasters wore matching green and white robes while the melee fighters wore the same style of leather and cloth armors. Even the plate wearers were in matching sets.
Shael was acting as the main tank for the group with Ena as the secondary. The large grey Durra male named Gran was the highest-level knight after Ena. Julia followed behind him and she was only level twenty-four. The two rounding out the group were a Durra woman named Penelope and a werewolf male named Smoke.
Their job was primarily to keep the ettin’s attention on themselves. Since it was a massive monster it had enormous physical strength so they would need to rotate to prevent any of them from getting injured. In addition to physical strength it was also capable of covering large distances very quickly. Fortunately, pivoting was difficult and it had a tendency to focus on a single target since it needed to coordinate a single body with two heads.
While the monster was focused on the tanks, the other melee fighters would attack from the monster’s blind spots while the elementalists and hunters attacked at a distance. The fighters were in more danger but since the monster wasn’t exactly graceful Frost didn’t expect any of them to get caught.
The support members of the raid group were broken up into two separate groups.
The first group was made up of healers led by Erissa and were tasked with creating protective barriers around the main tanks as well as casting recovery magic to prevent them from becoming exhausted. The second group was made up of scholars and sages and they were tasked with casting enhancement magic on the large group of damage dealers.
“Ready?” Frost asked while pointing toward the valley.
“You never answered who was watching the wagons,” a lamia hunter shouted.
“Witch is going to watch the wagons,” Frost said while stroking the crimson mare’s neck.
“Your horse?” a confused elf asked.
“That’s right,” Frost said while pulling out another apple for her. The red mare glanced back and snorted at the wagons and all the horses took several steps back. Even Shael’s stallion found itself reflexively moving away from Witch. “See, she’s a good girl that’ll keep them in line. Isn’t that right?”
“She’s a tyrant is what she is,” Shael laughed while calming her nervous stallion. “Ruling the stables with an iron hoof.”
“Somebody has to be in charge,” Frost said while giving her a few approving pats. “So, if everybody is satisfied, it’s time to kill an ettin.”
“That’s right!” Shael shouted while forming a line with the other plate wearers at the front of the raid group. “Let’s march!”
CHAPTER 2
Frost was impressed by the raid group’s speed and coordination as they marched toward the valley. They were going faster than he expected and those in the support role were continually rejuvenating people to ensure they could maintain the pace. It only took a little over thirty minutes before they reached the other side of the valley.
Once they reached the clearing the tanks spread out and small groups began to form behind them. The units each consisted of five to six damage dealers and two supports. The groups arranged themselves so the tanks and melee damage dealers were in the front while the ranged damage dealers positioned themselves as far back as they could go. The supports were located between groups and floated between their own group and the groups nearest to them.
They were all spread out and technically they were in a formation, but anybody seeing the formation for the first time would naturally assume they were just scattered randomly. The formation itself would perform horribly if they were in a battle against an army or a horde of smaller monsters, but against large monsters the formation was highly effective.
“Is th-that the ettin?” a Myrran thief said while pointing to a massive creature in the distanc
e devouring a mountain goat.
“That reminds me,” Frost said, glancing over at Shael who was looking a little bit nervous. “We should also kill the goats once this is over. They break up into a specialty wool and leather which are both valuable to the tailoring guilds. Not to mention the meat is delicious.”
“How are you so calm?” Shael asked, almost in a whisper. “I can’t even see its level…”
“It’s only level forty-five,” Frost said. “The last couple times I’ve ridden up here to check it’s been level forty-six and fourty-three so there’s a range. It’ll also gain a level per week if it’s left to keep eating goats. Then the next one spawns and they both gain and so on.”
“Are you sure this is going to be okay?” Shael shot him a worried glance. “What if we can’t block its strike or…”
“It really is a lot bigger than I thought,” Ena said while staring at the enormous monstrosity as it bit the head off a goat with one hand and shoved the remainder of the goat in the other head’s mouth. “I-I can’t take a hit from something like that.”
“Really rethinking the tank thing,” Gran chuckled nervously while gripping a large hammer.
“It’s fine,” Frost said reassuringly while stepping toward Shael. He ran his fingers through her hair and gave her a peck on the cheek before snagging her helmet and popping it on her head. He gave the helmet a couple light smacks to make sure it was properly positioned and then forcibly turned her toward the enormous two-headed giant. “I’m here to supervise. But you should pretend I’m not here and do everything just like you practiced. Remember, you’re the raid leader. Everybody trusts you. If you’re confident, they’ll be confident.”
“He’s right,” Ena nodded. “We trust you Shael.”
“That’s right,” Fayeth said cheerfully.
“I don’t know what you’re all worried about,” Renna said with an impish grin. “This is what we came here for.”
“L-lady Shael,” Mesime already had an arrow nocked. “We’ll be fine, right?”