Even though I’d barely crossed the cave’s threshold, I could already feel the warmth. It was like the cold air outside had been banished, like this region had an invisible barrier separating it from everything else. As I made my way deeper, it seemed to grow warmer with every step and my eyes were inundated by an overflow of bright colors.
‘I’m turning down the sensitivity,’ said Mai as the color brightness was reduced.
“Thanks,” I said as I continued onward.
It might have been pleasantly warm as I entered the cave, but by the time I was 100 meters deep, it wasn’t warm but hot, so hot that I had to carefully avoid touching any of the stalactites and stalagmites lest I burn myself.
After ten minutes of delving, I finally turned the final corner, reaching both the end of the cave and what I had been looking for, though it was far beyond what I expected.
Mai was wrong. I would have joyously pointed that out to her, but I was too preoccupied by what was in front of me. The source of the heat wasn’t geothermal, but instead radiated from the intense body heat of the creature sitting on the ground before me. Its shape in the most general sense was like a man’s. It had two legs, two arms, and a torso that could have been taken as one of a muscular man if not for the complexion of the skin, which was pitch black and possessed a series of deep cracks from which radiated a fiery red glow. Its hands had sharp claws coming out of each of its fingertips and its feet were hooves. The creature’s head looked something akin to a reptilian bull with horns and it had a long serpentine tail that ended with a pair of jagged spikes. Although this particular individual was quite a bit different, the horns, glowing red cracked skin, and the volume of body heat it generated reminded me of the daemon Lilith who’d tried to take me prisoner just before I reached Crystalpeak.
“Is that what I think it is?” I whispered to Mai. At that moment, the creature’s eyes were shut and it drew slow deep breaths as if it were asleep. Unfortunately, my best attempt at a quiet conversation failed in its first utterance.
The creature’s iridescent red eyes snapped open and its breath quickened as it raised an arm to grasp a stalactite and use it to help him to his feet. I made a dash for the exit. The creature was quick on my heels.
‘It’s a daemon,’ Mai confirmed. ‘Only a daemon would generate heat like that. It looks different than Lilith because she was a succubus. This is a different sort of daemon.’
“What kind is it and what’s its weak point?” I asked.
‘Not sure I’ve never come across this sort of daemon before and it’s not in my database,’ said Mai.
“And weak points?” I asked as I dove over a stalagmite seconds before the daemon kicked it over.
‘Not sure,’ Mai said.
“Isn’t that supposed to be your specialty,” I whined.
‘It’s not like you’ve given me much time, or a decent look at that thing,’ said Mai. ‘Normally I’d suggest trying to use the cold against a daemon but you should already know that.’
I wasn’t any good at ice magic so I knew the only way to use the cold was to get outside. I dove to the side just in time to dodge a hand that reached out to grab me. I didn’t see the hand ahead of time, but I knew it was coming because of a surge of heat from behind.
“I at least need to try to slow it down,” I said. The way things were going the daemon would get me long before I exited the cave.
I focused on a lightning bolt sigil and as I rounded the next corner, I turned back and let it loose. Frankly, my magical skills always sucked because I never bothered putting many stat points in it, preferring to rely on artifacts so it wouldn’t be necessary. Still, the bolt worked, it hit its intended target, but that shot alone depleted my limited mana pool by a quarter.
The daemon’s pace slowed for a few seconds, allowing me to put some distance between us, but it was only for a few seconds, so I didn’t gain much. I knew I needed to do something and with all the stalagmites I had to zigzag between, I found all the inspiration I needed.
I tried my best to calm myself. I knew I’d only have one attempt. I focused on the lightning bolt sigil again. Then I waited until I ran under a particularly large stalactite before I turned around and fired.
Again, the daemon slowed as thousands of volts of electricity coursed throughout its body, interrupting its nerves and preventing them from delivering any signals. The daemon continued forward, but only due to its momentum, it couldn’t act.
I quickly shifted focus from the lightning sigil to one for summoning fire. It was my most reliable sigil, one that I could control with the greatest degree of accuracy and power. Now you’re probably thinking, what the hell is he doing. Fire won’t work on a daemon. It’s practically already on fire.
I understood this, which is why I didn’t aim the fireball at the daemon but instead at the base of the stalactite above it. I threw all my remaining mana into the fireball so it took only a second or two to liquefy the stalactite’s base.
The weight of the stalactite took over from there. The base snapped and the rock spike dropped.
At first, the daemon’s face showed nothing but contempt as the fireball formed in the palm of my hand. It only grew as the daemon realized that the fireball’s path wouldn’t even strike him. All this made me feel even better when the daemon’s face filled with panic as he looked up at the giant skewer headed straight for him.
With all the electricity still scrambling his nerves, the daemon could do nothing but watch as the stalactite drove straight down through his open mouth. For a few seconds, the daemon remained standing even with its head replaced by the stalactite base as the tip penetrated down into its torso. Then the daemon fell over, shaking the whole cave on impact.
My heart pounded in my chest so hard my entire body shook with every beat. I had to work hard to keep my balance as I gamboled over to the daemon corpse.
†Augmented Murlimp Corpse†
Durability: 250/250
Weight: 472 kg
Description: Corpse of murlimp that has been significantly altered both surgically and chemically. Consists of 42% Iron, 19% Sulfur, 18% Tungsten, 3% Gold, 3% Uranium, 15% Other.
‘Ahhh, it was an altered murlimp. No wonder I couldn’t identify it,’ said Mai, taking the first opportunity to excuse her uselessness in the previous fight.
“What is a murlimp?” I asked.
‘Murlimps are the lowest class of daemon, they are physically tough but their dim-witted and can’t do magic. They are also usually four feet tall so whatever was done to it was fairly extreme,’ said Mai. The daemon before me stood around 9 feet tall so Mai’s proclamation of extreme seemed rather subdued.
“Do you think I can use it?” I asked going straight to the important point. The daemon may not have been what I was expecting, but I had entered that cave with a purpose in mind.
‘I’m not entirely certain,’ Mai admitted. ‘I have no record of such an attempt ever being made.’ Of course, Mai wasn’t referring to any beastman reports of such a circumstance but the Traveler experiments that first created the beastmen. ‘So, are you going to risk it?’
I only had 6 hours before the Blood Moon’s Blessing ran out. It was too late to try to find something else. I had to go with one of the three options available to me. First, I had the frost wyrm heart I’d stored in my inventory. It was damaged so it was about fifty-fifty if it’d work but if it did, I would be sure to impress a large number of Doragan clansmen, helping Jutmaek secure the final bit of support he needed to launch his expedition to the Permerine Shrine. Second, I had a necropossum heart, not impressive but guaranteed to work. As for the third option, I could dig out this augmented murlimp’s heart and use it. I wasn’t sure how likely it would be to work and it would unquestionably be the talk of Doraga should I return as it.
I decided to go with the daemon heart. Although I wasn’t sure it’d work something in me thought it would. The Blood Moon’s Blessing worked on a wide variety of creatures, everything from mi
nute cockroaches to giant gilaphants, and even creatures like the iciclimanders that seemed more magical than living thing. In my mind, daemons were just another creature, only with a more bizarre physique than most.
The daemon’s corpse was too hot for me to touch so I covered it with snow from my inventory and let it cool off for half an hour before I broke off a stalagmite and used it to extract the daemon’s heart.
†Chilled Murlimp Heart†
Durability: 500/500
Effects: Blood Moon’s Blessing Material (quest)
Description: Normally at over 1000 °F, this heart has been chilled to just over 100 °F. Most murlimps may be poor fighters but this one was an exception. It endured intense pain and suffered great losses at the hands of mad scientists. Many of the others died during the experiments, but this murlimp thrived. He escaped his captors and made his way to better lands until he came across a bloodthirsty human who wanted to eat his heart.
‘Look, even the interface thinks you’re bloodthirsty,’ said Mai. I ignored her. If anything, the message box reassured me that the daemon heart would work.
I bit into the heart. It wasn’t as tough as I expected. I don’t know whether the internal organs were much softer than the daemon’s outer coverings or that whatever sort of cells the daemon’s were made of lost their structural integrity at low temperatures, but the heart seemed to crumble away like it was made of powder.
I felt it the moment I swallowed the first bite, a warm wriggling pain in my gut like what I’d just swallowed was alive. With each bite, the feeling grew more intense and spread out further across my body. I sped up my bites, fearful that if I didn’t hurry the pain would prevent me from finishing it.
Sweat poured down my entire body. It felt like I was burning from the inside. I stared down at my hands. I watched as my skin darkened and my fingers contorted well outside their normal range of motion. A stab of pain surged, overwhelming me. My vision darkened and I passed out.
Ch. 15: Acknowledgement
A bead of sweat rolled down Jutmaek’s brow. It had been half a day since the blessing should have lost its effect. Alarmingly few had returned. In the three days the participants had to acquire their beastforms, they often traveled far and with very little sleep. So, it wasn’t uncommon for it to take a few additional days for everyone to make their way leisurely back.
Still, the numbers were off. Normally participants started trickling in as little as a few hours after they’d set off. A few were bound to get lucky and find a suitable beast close to home and return early. Altogether, most Blood Moons maybe a third of those who set out would return before the three days were up. Another third came in over the following two to three days. As for the final third, they were never seen again. No one was quite sure how many died to the wild beasts or how many simply didn’t come back. They knew they would be shunned as Fallen.
This Blood Moon, the first person to succeed returned after a full day and by the end of the third day, less than two hundred had come back. Given that over two thousand of their young beastmen and beastwomen had gone out, those that returned before time ran out was less than ten percent, a third of normal. The additional two hundred who had returned in the last half day had improved those numbers somewhat but it was still well below normal.
It being set in midwinter and a particularly harsh one at that, everyone expected returns this Blood Moon to be below normal, but this was significantly worse than Jutmaek’s expectations. The Blood Moon always brought commotion. It filled the tribe with new full members with a variety of beastforms that needed to be incorporated into different squads. And, to many it brought a great sense of grief, as dear friends and family members were forever lost. If this Blood Moon’s results remained this poor, things would be truly bad though not just because of the individuals lost.
It also was a bad sign for the future. If so many young people consistently failed the Blood Moon, how could Doraga continue?
‘We have to fix the problem. Even if there is only a one percent chance we must journey north and figure out what’s going on,’ Jutmaek thought.
“Hey look, another one is coming in,” a young boy yelled in his slightly high-pitched voice from his rooftop perch for the whole town to hear. “It’s coming in fast. It looks like a wolf.”
The Blood Moon was important but not so much that the entire clan could put off everything for a week as the results trickled in. Still, many found ways to accomplish work that kept them both outside and in a position to take a break from their tasks as someone returned. Some patched up fraying yurts. Others wove rope or sharpened blades. Regardless, all were done outside despite the cold.
As for Jutmaek himself, he’d moved his desk and chair outside while he reviewed supply chain reports and exchanged correspondence with the other clan chiefs and his own squad leaders stationed on the front. And although he would have situated his desk there just to watch the spectacle with everyone else, Jutmaek had another reason for setting up outside his hut in the center of town.
As the wolf entered Doraga, its pace slowed to a trot. Most people simply set down whatever they worked on and applauded as it passed. But others came out into the streets and couldn’t help but be more boisterous.
“Congratulations.”
“Another powerhouse has been added to the clan.”
“Serve us well.”
Eventually the wolf padded its way to the center of town where it stopped in front of Jutmaek’s desk. Jutmaek set aside what he had been looking at and gazed down at the wolf as it shifted. Digits on the wolf’s paws extended. Fur across the wolf’s body retracted back into its skin and its snout retreated into its skull revealing a young beastman with black hair.
“Reporting in, sir,” the young man said to Jutmaek.
“Good. I see you were successful in acquiring a beastform,” said Jutmaek as he shifted the documents in front of him to a list he kept of all the returnees. “Who were you?”
“I was Wrot son of Doragan clansmen, Wilb Bulltooth and Arisa Sparrowfeather,” said the young man, speaking the words that he had long mentally rehearsed in dreams of this moment.
‘A wolf born of a bull and a sparrow. His parents will be pleased,’ Jutmaek thought to himself.
“And who are you now?” Jutmaek asked.
“I am now Wrot Wolfcoat, clansman of Doraga,” Wrot declared as several nearby clansmen cheered him on. Wrot could see his parents watching from down the street. His father was holding his mother back to keep her from rushing over to embrace him, disrupting this final part of the ceremony.
“Wolfcoat, a fine name and a suitable one. Your wolf form has an exquisite grey coat,” Jutmaek remarked as he continued to note things down. “I hear hunting squad 7 is looking for another tracker, is that something you’d be interested in?”
Wolves have an exceptional sense of smell, so those with wolf forms often worked as a tracking specialist in whatever squad they were assigned to. Jutmaek couldn’t officially give Wrot the spot yet, squad assignments wouldn’t be determined for a few more days, after everyone returned and Jutmaek knew exactly what he was working with, but Jutmaek always liked to query the new members as they reported in so he could take their feelings into consideration.
“I guess that could be okay,” said a nervous Wrot.
“Speak up,” Jutmaek chided. “You’re a proper Doragan clansmen now, there’s no room for meekness.”
“Yes, you’re right,” Wrot straightened his posture. “I’d prefer a position in the south.”
“Very well, I’ll keep that in mind,” Jutmaek smiled to cover up a wince. Another young talented person wanted to focus his abilities on war. Just what Jutmaek was trying to work against. Jutmaek didn’t blame them for their choice, Othan culture reveled in war and battle, frequently ignoring the costs. But Jutmaek couldn’t ignore the costs. It was his duty as clan chief to make sure that the benefits to the clan of any conflict outweighed the costs and in his opinion, this war with Xebrya s
imply didn’t make that bar.
Wrot nodded and left to join his family to celebrate in his accomplishment. As he left, Wrot shifted back into his beastform. Jutmaek couldn’t help but grin at this. Newly initiated could never help but shift every fifteen seconds.
Jutmaek scanned the skies for what was probably the thirtieth time that day, but he still didn’t see anything.
‘I should have heard back by now. Even if he failed I should know of it by now,’ Jutmaek thought. Of course, he was thinking about Isaac. Succeed or fail even if Isaac couldn’t return yet, his monitor should have come back a long time ago. Jutmaek didn’t like it, not one bit.
Congratulations. You have acquired a beastform.
†Blood Moon’s Blessing† has been removed.
You have completed the first part of the quest: †Becoming a Clansman†
You have learned new skill: †Shapeshift†
You have learned new skill: †Murlimp Physique†
†Shapeshift Lvl.1 (0.0%)†
Allows you to shapeshift into a mutated murlimp.
Grows with experiencing shifting between human and murlimp forms.
As †Shapeshift† increases shifting time decreases
As †Shapeshift† increases shifting pain decreases
When †Shapeshift† reaches level 10 learn: †Partial Shifting†
†Murlimp Physique Lvl.1 (0.0%)†
Only applies when in murlimp form.
Grows with experience using murlimp form.
Immune to effects from high temperature
Immune to effects from high pressure
Strength +60 (increases with level)
The Ice Lands Page 19