Monster Hunting 101: A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure (Titan Termination)
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Material:
- 35 Kinru Bone
- 50 Kinru Hide
-2 Kinru Tooth
-1 Kinru Claw
-50 Fylk Hide
-1 Voice Gland
- ∞ Iron
Weapons :
Iron Hand Crossbow:
Material Cost: 100 Iron
Bonus: +1 Ranged Weapons, Armor Piercing
Infusion Slots: 1
Dual Wield Requirements: 3 Dexterity
Reload Time: 10 seconds
Description: A short, handheld crossbow, fires a single armor piercing bolt. Must be reloaded after each shot.
Iron Short Sword:
Material Cost: 50 Iron
Bonus: +1 Melee Weapons
Infusion Slots: 1
Description: A short sword, lightweight and handy for close quarters combat.
Tooth Arrows:
Material Cost: 10 Bone, 5 Teeth
Bonus: Arrows deal more damage to unarmored targets or weak spots.
Description: Grants 50 Tooth Arrows per order.
Iron Bolts:
Material Cost: 10 Iron
Bonus: Iron bolts are armor piercing. Deals extra damage with the Piercing Shot ability.
Description: Grants 10 bolts per order.
Rope Bolts:
Material Cost: 25 Iron
Bonus: Rope bolts do not deal damage, but instead have a 10 foot rope attached to them.
Description: Grants 5 bolts per order
Armor:
Light Scale Leather Armor:
Material Cost: 25 Kinru Hide
Bonus: Resists light slashing damage, such as grazes, horizontal cuts and tail whips.
Stat Penalty: 0
Infusion Slots: 2
Medium Scale Leather Armor:
Material Cost: 35 Kinru Hide
Bonus: Resists up to medium slashing damage, such as clawing, vertical slashes and talon swipes.
Stat Penalty: -1 Acrobatics, -1 Dexterity
Infusion Slots: 2
Heavy Scale Leather Armor:
Material Cost: 50 Kinru Hide
Bonus: Resists heavy slashing damage, resists light piercing damage such as snapping bites, punctures or weak arrow attacks.
Stat Penalty: -2 Acrobatics, -1 Dexterity, -1 Stealth
Infusion Slots: 2
Blackoak Vambrace:
Material Cost: 25 Fylk Hide
Bonus: Absorbs up to medium piercing attacks.
Stat Penalty: 0
Infusion Slots: 1
Blackoak Greaves:
Material Cost: 25 Fylk Hide
Bonus: Absorbs up to medium piercing attacks
Stat Penalty: -1 Acrobatics
Infusion Slots: 1
Light Iron Armor:
Material Cost: 25 Iron
Bonus: Resists light slashing and piercing attacks
Stat Penalty: -1 Acrobatics, -1 Dexterity
Infusion Slots: 2
Medium Iron Armor:
Material Cost: 50 Iron
Bonus: Resists up to medium piercing and slashing attacks
Stat Penalty: -4 Acrobatics, -2 Dexterity
Infusion Slots: 2
Heavy Iron Armor:
Material Cost: 150 Iron
Bonus: Resists up to heavy piercing and slashing attacks, absorbs light piercing attacks
Stat Penalty: -6 Acrobatics, -4 Dexterity, -1 Perception
Infusion Slots: 3
Tools:
Bone Spear Trap:
Material Cost: 10 Bone
Effect: Bone Spears do more damage than wooden spears and can be reused. Contains everything needed to build 1 spear trap.
Iron Spear Trap:
Material Cost: 50 Iron
Effect: Iron spears do significantly more damage than bone spears. Contains everything needed to build 1 spear trap.
Iron Locktrap:
Material Cost: 25 Iron per size
Sizes: Small, Medium, Large,
Effect: An advanced beartrap, the locktrap seals around the foot of a monster when triggered. The weight of the trap will slow down the beast’s movements and the caltrop in the center ensures they cannot run. Trap deals no damage.
Iron Snaptrap:
Material Cost: 50 Iron
Sizes: Small
Effect: An advanced beartrap, the barbed Snaptrap roots the monster in place and deals significant damage to the injury point. Removing the trap by force will cause a critical injury.
Iron Tracktrap:
Material Cost: 75 Iron
Sizes: Small and Medium
Effect: An advanced beartrap, a tracktrap does no damage, but instead simply snaps around the ankle of a monster. Once triggered, the tracktrap drops a piece of metal every few seconds, creating a trail. A tracktrap contains enough metal to track a monster for 7 days before it runs out.
VoiceBox:
Material Cost: 1 Voice Gland, 5 Fylk Hide, 10 Iron
Effect: The voice gland parasite, when placed in a box lined with Fylk Hide, will resume speaking to lure victims close to it. Iron lining on the outside of the box seals the sound in. Opening the lid will create a lure that will attract nearby monsters. Voicebox is reusable but must be fed meat to sustain parasite within.
By the time I had finished reading through and considering all of my options, the workshop was finished and nary a soul was around. All of the books were in place, the forge’s fires were burning hot and my alchemical laboratory was looking quite nice. Best of all, I didn’t have to sneak around the people of Olmstead. They were aware of the history of Venators and, while Trent was still concerned about the Dread Beast, I had earned enough goodwill for him to keep his mouth shut, for now anyway. His concerns weren’t serious anyway, for in a few days, that fight would be over, one way or another. I just had to have the right gear for the upcoming fight.
My choices weren’t too difficult. The Blackoak Vambraces were a fantastic choice, although they only covered my forearms. But, with my advance reflexes, I could cover myself up quickly, soaking up arrows or other types of ranged attacks without getting injured. I queued that up for the first creation, as well as the Blackoak Greaves. My acrobatics skill was high enough for me to take a little penalty without it devastating my current style. Protecting my legs and arms from piercing damage was more than a good trade-off.
The hand crossbows seemed interesting. My style was built around rapidly shooting with a bow and I wondered if my ranged abilities would apply to crossbows as well. Although Rapid Shot might not help with reload times. Still, having armor piercing bolts that I could use at a moment’s notice was important, so I ordered three hand crossbows. Two to keep in leg holsters, in case I needed them quickly, and a third, containing rope bolts, on my backstrap. A grappling crossbow would be useful to have and I could save time simply by having one weapon dedicated to that ammunition, rather than changing them out on the fly.
The rest of my orders were as many traps as I could possible afford, as well as the voicebox which might come in handy here and there. I wasn’t worried about feeding the creature inside, namely because there was plenty of suspect meat out there that I wouldn’t risk giving to either village. A Fitzon carcass would be a little feast for the voicebox.
Finally, I put in an order for all three metal armors as well. I wasn’t planning on wearing them, as the penalties were simply too steep, but we had both time and material. I might as well build them so I could have different armor types in case of some future pressing need. Who knows, maybe I’d get some infusion recipes that would let me drastically reduce the weight of the heavier armor types?
Chapter 33
I stood at the mouth of Rashar’s old hut, realizing now just how old and decrepit the place seemed. When Rashar’s spirit had been around, the hut was alight with a warm energy, a glow as if the place radiated home and hearth. With his absence, the place was cold and dark, foreboding even.
“Come on,” I groaned, rubbing my wrists. The long, black h
ide of the Fylk had been shaped into vambraces that covered my forearms completely, but the leather straps to fasten them in place were rather tight, cutting off my circulation. Any looser, however and the vambraces would slide around a little. I’d just have to get used to it.
Standing before the hut, I knew that there was no turning back. The Dread Beast lurked beneath the surface, waiting for its next meal to grow strong enough. I was on a razor’s edge, thanks to killing that Ur-beast back underground. Any more Bloodpoints could awaken it and I couldn’t risk going on another hunt, especially when I didn’t know how many Bloodpoints a monster brought. Kinru seemed to be the lowest provider of points, but my Home Territory ability informed me that no more wandered the area. Something, most likely that lake beast, had mopped up the remaining amount.
Preparing for this fight did not take more than a week. Cranston was a skilled smith and had little trouble fashioning any of my items, thanks to a team of well-trained apprentices who could do most of the busywork. My gear was finished in a timely manner and I had set about thoroughly trapping the outside area, laying down snaptraps and locktraps at cluster points, in case I had to retreat to the surface. My hope was to kill the beast while it was rising up from its slumber, but if the creature regained its full power, I’d beeline it for the upstairs, where the environment was in my favor.
“Let’s do this,” I whispered as I took a step forward, entering the musky hut. Following Rashar’s instructions, I searched the expansive hut for a small room with a round rug upon it. Pulling up the rug would reveal a false patch of dirt that was actually a wooden platform. Removing the platform, I could see the deep, deep drop leading into utter darkness. I had no night vision, nor any other potion benefits, for my stores of alchemical ingredients were long gone. I had no more Estoan or Firnin to spend, having used it all on spells and potions to fight the damned Ur-beast.
I had not accounted for the fact that the Ur-beast’s corpse would fade after it died, leaving me high and dry when it came to ingredients. Each time I had invested points in a potion, it was under the assumption that I’d get more alchemical components from the hunt. A single break in the chain had devastated my strategy. I’d have to be more cautious with my brewing in the future, ensuring I wasn’t bankrupting myself of points each hunt.
Taking a deep breath and saying a silent prayer, I dropped a rope down into the darkness and secured it to a metal ring that was affixed to the hut itself. This was more than sturdy enough to support my weight, gear included. Once my entry point was secure, I grabbed hold of the rope and easily climbed down as if it were no challenge. Despite the current penalty, my acrobatics skill was still high enough for me to move on rope with ease.
Beneath the hut was a vast and empty cavern, one so large that it looked as if a Titan had burrowed down here itself. Was this the Dread Beast’s doing or Rashar’s? I sincerely hoped that my mentor had been the one to form this tunnel with magic, for the Dread Beast would have to be at least fifty feet wide to dig like this.
Carefully, I climbed down into the utter darkness. The only source of light I possessed was a few glowing stones I had pulled out of the Olmstead workshop walls. The crew had been unhappy to lose their gentle, glowing white lights, but I needed them more. Portable lights that could be hidden simply by closing my fists were valuable, especially when hunting in the dark.
The flickering pale light from my little stone cast my shadow across the bottom of the burrow and I could see some kind of mass on the ground, pulsing and writhing, as if it were breathing. A shiver ran down my back as I remembered Rashar’s warnings. I had to act quickly once I took the first shot. The Dread Beast would awaken, recharge itself and then attack me. The window of time was incredibly short, but fortunately, I had a bit of an ace in the hole.
Hanging above the pale mass of skin that seemed to shift and change color every few seconds, I dug into my satchel to produce the two long, round red sticks. Before departing for the fight, Higgins had taken me aside and handed these precious parcels to me.
“I’d be chewed out royally if the mining chief found out what I was giving you,” he had whispered. “These are called dynamite sticks. In the old world, they used them for mining. It’s how we were able to carve out most of these tunnels back in the old days. We have a supply for emergencies and expanding our operations.”
These special weapons were explosive, violent and indiscriminate in their damage. I didn’t need to worry about finding a weak spot in the Dread Beast, because these two explosives would do all the finding for me. Would it be enough? My instincts told me no. Or perhaps that was just my recent experiences in learning that there are no easy battles. But this would be enough to soften the creature up. Any serious injuries would slow it down for the real fight.
I took a deep breath and struck a match against the fuses, just as Higgins had shown me. Immediately, the two thin fuses began to spark, brought to light with the fire. I waited a few moments for the fuse to grow shorter and shorter, then dropped the explosives.
The dynamite seemed to tumble down in slow motion as I drew my bow and loaded an arrow to shoot. The light from the fuse vanished for a second as the dynamite landed atop the slumbering mass and then there came the most brilliant of explosions. The flash was searingly bright and I closed my eyes as the loud sound of a detonation washed over me. The heat was immense and, for a moment, I feared that perhaps I had miscalculated the distance, but no pain came to me. I suffered no injury from the blast.
The beast, on the other hand, did not even yelp or scream as the explosion blew it to smithereens. My eyes went wide as the mass simply exploded, scattering body parts and flesh everywhere. There was a horrific squishing sound and I winced at the noise.
“This wasn’t the end,” I muttered, throwing a few gems onto the ground and sliding down the rope a bit more. The gems spread out and cast enough light for me to see that, indeed, just as I had suspected, the remains of the beast were beginning to liquefy and run towards each other, reforming the creature. This monster wasn’t simply a physical being, like the other monsters I had fought. The Dread Beast was made of Bloodpoints. As long as it had power running through its body, the beast simply could not die.
This was the reason why so many hunters were slain so quickly. Venators hunted living, breathing beasts that were fleshy and alive. The Dread Beast was none of those things. It was merely a shadow, a being able to change its form and shape at will. Amorphous and terrifying.
I waited for the creature to return to a new form. My arrows could not affect it while it was shape-changing, but each time it morphed, it burned its own power source. A few more changes and it would be too weak to fight. It’s a shame I didn’t have more dynamite.
The Dread Beast’s transformation finished. It grew into a massive, wicked pale head, shaped like a crescent moon, its giant sharp teeth gnashing against each other. Long thick white tendrils emerged from the side of its head, grabbing for me. I was able to swing out of the way of the tendrils as they whipped and snapped at me, trying desperately to grab a hold of me for a feast.
Dodging the tendrils wasn’t hard; the beast was too lethargic to cause any serious damage. It was still waking up, barely even making any noises. There was a deep moaning sound emanating from the creature, ghastly and haunting, like wind blowing through an empty bottle. I shivered at the noise, scanning the large head, looking for the telltale sign of a weak point.
The journals I had studied before the fight had not taught me much about the Dread Beast, but there was one primer on fighting those who change their shape. Shapeshifters didn’t have traditional weak points, since they could move their organs around at will. They often changed their shape to familiar beasts, but moved around the weak points to different spots on the body.
The shape of the Dread Beast’s current transformation was mostly a head with very standard anatomy, eyes, nose and a mouth, although all grotesque and distorted. Firing at the eyes would be any Venator’s natural ins
tinct, but this was a shape changer. The eyes were as vital as hair.
Swinging between two long tendrils that were lazily slapping at me, I spotted an area below the jaw that glistened with a telltale sign of faint red energy. I snapped off an arrow and watched as it struck into the side of the beast, causing it to let out a hideous shriek. Bursts of red energy erupted in the air and, at once, the tendrils began to thrash left and right.
One tendril, long and wild, struck me in the back, catching me off guard. My grasp on the rope became loose and, at once, I was falling towards the ground. The Dread Beast was still writhing, its body shimmering and rapidly changing as loose Bloodpoints seeped out of the wound I had created.
Fifty feet was a long way to fall and my Safe Fall ability probably wouldn’t help out, but I was prepared. Grabbing the hand crossbow on my back, I aimed it at a dirt wall and pulled the trigger. A bolt with a long rope attached to it fired upwards, digging into the wall, hard. Grabbing the rope with my other hand, I took a deep breath and braced for the stress of holding on after a ten foot fall.
My arms jerked hard as the rope went taut, my grip firm and unrelenting. The bolt had affixed itself to the wall and I was dangling thirty feet above the monster which second transformation was almost complete. It was shrinking in size, becoming what looked to be a paler and fatter Fitzon, nearly 40 feet long.
Still hanging, holding onto the rope with only one hand, I pulled my right boot crossbow loose and aimed it at the Dread Beast. The creature shuffled forward, towards me, still eerily silent. I only had one good shot with this crossbow, after that I’d have to drop down and fight on the floor. The rope was hanging a good 20 feet above the bottom of the hole, meaning once I was on the ground, I was trapped. If I could hit another weak spot of the Fitzon imitation, however, it would buy me enough time to climb higher and find a way to swing back to the escape rope.
The Dread Beast was not charging, rather it was zigzagging, too slow for it to effectively dodge my attacks, but I still hadn’t fired my shot yet. I scanned the area of the beast, knowing that the regular weak points were surely not the right place to hit.