Monster Hunting 401: A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure

by Andrew Karevik

  “Don’t look at the gem,” I said, standing in between the large stone and himself, spreading out my arms to block his view. “I think it’s hypnotizing you.”

  “Is that why my head feels like it’s going to explode?” he groaned. “Or was that just from you trying to kill me?”

  “I’m sorry that hitting you has somehow been one of the most effective strategies for advancing my goals,” I said, throwing him my scarf. “Now cover your eyes. We need to load this thing up into the wagon.”

  Trig complied, wrapping his eyes in my soaking wet scarf, dutifully avoiding asking what exactly the scarf was covered in. With his echolocation, we were able to gather the remains of the Orphine and then carry the gem to the Stabwagon.

  The darkness seemed to recede around the light of the gem. The great oppressive energy that covered our every step, pushing against any source of light as if it were water, trying to break past a dam, had started to give way. Where the light of the gem touched, the darkness avoided for quite some time. For once, we actually saw a trail forged as we carried the large stone to the wagon. The darkness wanted nothing to do with such a power.

  But what was it? I was immune to its effects, thanks to that ring but…what in the hell was this gem? Trig had no memory of the voice he had previously claimed to hear, although he admitted that everything was a little fuzzy after he returned to the Orphine’s lair. In fact, he barely remembered that I had summoned him with my telepathic charm. Everything seemed to be a blur the moment he laid eyes on the gem.

  I wondered if perhaps I had made a mistake in assuming that the Vessel, whatever it was, would be friendly towards us. If it was a thinking creature, just like the rest of the Masara, it might perceive us as enemies and attempt to defend itself. Should I attempt to communicate with this stone via telepathy? Or would that open me up to its influence?

  No, too risky. My leg was busted, Trig’s charm wasn’t strong enough to protect him from full blown mental attacks and we still had the Eldest to deal with. Now was not the time for testing out shaky hypotheses. Once the poor people of the Shadewood village were free and safe in the mountains, then I could afford testing out some theories on this stone. Until then, it was better to focus on the task at hand.

  Eckshaw was waiting for us by the wagon, standing perfectly still. He made no reaction as we returned, carrying the gem in tow.

  “I’ve been trying to fight back,” he said quietly. “I know you two must be planning something. And I keep trying to push it out of my head, so I can help you.”

  I made no response. I shot a look at Trig, glaring at him in the hopes he understood not to talk shop with this man. Those words could be sincere, or they could be attempts from the Eldest to learn of our true intentions. Trig pulled the blindfold off his eyes, took one look at me and then nodded, indicating he understood.

  “You suspect me, I understand,” Eckshaw continued, turning to face me. “And I cannot fault you. But…if you are going to try and kill the Eldest, I would ask that you enlist me. I know its weakness. I’m just not strong enough to fight back. To stop it from getting a hold of me.”

  “I am sorry,” I said. “But we’re just passing through. We need the green fire and that’s it. There’s nothing that can be done.”

  Eckshaw said no more. He merely made a strange, guttural sound from his throat. It was a mix between a groan and a chuckle, reminding me somewhat of the beast we had just slain. Perhaps this was a test from the Eldest after all.

  Chapter 26

  They say a watched pot never boils. And perhaps that was true, because as Trig and I sat across from the alchemy cauldron, waiting for the ingredients to finish, it was as if time itself had simply stopped working. I don’t know how long we waited, but our eyes never left the cauldron, waiting for the timer to go off. Once the timer clicked, four little holes would open up in the bottom of the big black vessel, allowing four separate tubes to connect at once. Then, the Estoan and Firnin would be extracted through a process I wasn’t particularly familiar with. I just knew the Estoan drained to the left and the Firnin drained to the right. They’d pass through the long, curled glass tubes and drip into the filtering vials.

  But I wasn’t too interested in the alchemical ingredients. Rather, I was waiting for the Yield results to pop up. To learn the secret weaknesses of the Orphine species. My first run with the Orphine had been frustrating, for it kept changing up its attack methods. From damage links, to telekinesis, to paralytic juices, the amount of abilities the creature had seemed to be endless and unpredictable. Hopefully the yield would give me a baseline of what to expect.

  Making a charm from the Orphine was an unsavory task. There wasn’t a single piece of the beast that wasn’t slimy, bulbous or unsettlingly squishy. Not a single hard part on the creature meant that I’d either be making the world’s most disgusting bracelet, or I’d have to dry out some of the skin to make leather. The only problem was that without the sun around to dry the damned skin, it would take forever to dry naturally. Gross bracelet it was.

  As I sat across from the cauldron, furiously trying to get the remains of a proboscis into some kind of knot, there came a flash from the cauldron, followed by the clicking sound of the timer finishing.

  “Finally!’ Trig groaned as he hopped up. “That took forever.”

  “Or did it?” I said, standing up as well, eager to see what the yield description would say. “No telling how fast time passes these days. Or nights.”

  Orphine Yield

  Firnin: 750 points

  Estoan: 1,000 points

  Lab Bonus: +100%

  Weaknesses Revealed:

  - Fluid Filled: The Orphine’s body is primarily composed of bodily fluids designed to regulate its temperature, energy level and psionic output. The Orphine’s body composition is 90% fluid and 10% skin mass, allowing them to shift shape, size and in some cases, even their appearance. These fluids are paralytic in nature, sapping energy levels and transferring them to the Orphine.

  - Dehydration Vulnerability: Due to the high presence of fluid in the body, the Orphine must maintain a low body temperature at all times. High levels of heat and humidity can be lethal to an Orphine, as it has no internal cooling mechanism to combat rising temperature levels.

  This wasn’t the information I was looking for, but hot damn was this helpful! Though the weaknesses didn’t reveal its psychic abilities whatsoever, the Orphine was still extremely vulnerable to dehydration due to this fluid dependence. No wonder the Eldest had created green fire in order to give light to itself and the village. The green fire didn’t really radiate heat. In fact, it seemed to make things colder, if anything.

  So…killing the Eldest didn’t really require us to make an all-out attack on it. If we could come up with some way to increase the temperature of its hut, without the beast realizing what we were doing, we could theoretically dehydrate it to death. Like…well, like sprinkling salt on a slug.

  The question was how could we raise the temperature without getting caught? It’d have to be fast, fast enough to kill the damn thing without it having a chance to send the people of the village out to their deaths. That meant we’d need some way to generate a vast amount of heat in a short amount of time. Making a single attack or hostile gesture towards the beast would undoubtedly set it off…hmm…

  My eyes turned towards the cauldron. Trig was hovering over it, carefully trying to pull the lid off. Each time he tried to open it up to look inside, a burst of steam struck him right in the face, forcing him to shove it down. It was hot enough to where I could feel it all the way over here. But the moment the lid was put back on the cauldron, the steam was suppressed. An interesting effect. Heat plus water made for powerful steam. But could it be trapped? Contained for a time and then released again? If only we had taken one of the eggheads with us.

  Maybe we didn’t need to contain the steam itself. Trig had bombs, right? No doubt a fire bomb generated a tremendous amo
unt of temperature, enough to turn water into steam. So really, I didn’t need to transport the steam, just create some kind of rigging that could drop a bomb into water. Only problem was that our current water supply was only for two people, people who were both expected to make it last the entire journey. If this plan were to work, I’d need to secure a large amount of water first.

  I glanced at our guide/spy. Eckshaw was still standing motionless by the cart, his face turned outwards towards the darkness. Perhaps he could lead us to a source before taking us back to the village. Call it a gut feeling, but I just couldn’t help thinking that the next visit to the village would be our last. The Eldest would either attempt to kill us, forcing us to fight, or perhaps use the innocent as hostages for even more favors, forcing our hands anyway. If that were the case, we couldn’t just walk in there unprepared.

  “Water,” I said, looking at Eckshaw. “Our stores are low and that fight caused me a great deal of injuries that must be cleaned. Do you know where a source of running water is?”

  Eckshaw frowned for a moment, his face twitching. I could see him move his head left to right as if he were having an argument. Finally, he spoke. “There is a river here. But it is dangerous to venture towards. We have a well in the village.”

  “I need running water, and a great deal of it,” I said. “Well water has a great deal of bacteria in it, safe to consume, but not safe for cleaning wounds. Water moving through a river, on the other hand, is much more pure.” This was an utter lie, of course, but I said it with enough boldness and surety that Eckshaw couldn’t refute it. And if there really was a conscious mind within the man, trying to fight back, he would certainly confirm my story.

  “Of course. Your wounds must be cleansed,” Eckshaw said after a moment of hesitation. “Illness will make you too unhealthy.” Too unhealthy for what? Consumption? More work? Breeding? I shivered at that last thought. Whatever insane horrors the Eldest had inflicted upon this village had to end—today if possible. I just hoped that we could kill the thing in one fell swoop. Otherwise, there would be hell to pay, not for me and Trig, but for all those poor people in the village. This was a tight rope to walk on, even for an acrobat like myself.

  Chapter 27

  Trig was once again the recipient of the Bloodpoints from the last battle. It was a shame, for I could see how excited he was once he did the harvesting ritual. Undoubtedly a large amount had just transferred to him, leaving me out in the cold. I tried not to be envious here, knowing ultimately that the more power he gained, the more he could aid me in this mission, but he hadn’t been the one completely covered in paralytic monster blood.

  So, I merely grumbled to myself while examining the charm I had recently created. The Orphine bracelet didn’t really dry out, uh, ever. No matter how I tried to heat it, sticking it by my torch or putting it up against the cauldron while it cooked, I couldn’t get the thing to dry. It would remain a slimy testament to the kind of crap I had to deal with on a near daily basis.

  Fortunately, the benefits of the Orphine bracelet actually outweighed the sheer level of disgust I felt when looking at it (though only by a little bit!)

  Aspect of the Orphine:

  Shapechanger (0/3): You may change your shape in size, color and composition for as long as you can focus. However, you cannot change your mass, nor can you change your anatomy.

  Blank Mind (0/1): You are immune to all mind affecting abilities.

  Toxic Blood (0/2): Your blood becomes highly toxic. Contact with your blood causes mild paralysis, hallucinations and nausea. This effect lasts as long as your charm is active.

  These abilities gave me an interesting glance into the abilities of the Orphine. Aside from the Blank Mind, which was undoubtedly stronger than the Fylk charm, there was nothing to suggest the Orphine had psychic abilities by default. Yet, two separate Orphines had displayed the ability to use mental attacks on us. It had to be the crystal within the beast that gave it those abilities.

  I had seen other creatures gain abilities from Masara gems. Ligorans with red Masara gems gained lightning affinities. And that one L’Gara had regeneration due to the gem. In fact, the gem was so powerful it let the thing exist outside of the water. If the Orphine we had killed gained its psychic abilities from that large gem…perhaps the Eldest had the exact same set up.

  By default, Orphines were immune to psychic attacks, perhaps allowing them to climb atop the shiny gem and devour it, gaining power in the process. Or in the case of the Eldest, gaining power and intelligence? This was an interesting theory. And it made sense. The gem seemed to have a hypnotic effect on Trig. Perhaps the Vessel was able to prevent its body from being eaten by warding monsters away with psychic energy. Until the Orphines came along, that is.

  “Finally!” Trig said, pointing to the water, snapping me out of my intense thoughts. I had become so focused on piecing together this puzzle that I hadn’t noticed the cart had stopped moving.

  Before us was a large river, full of beautiful, glistening water that seemed relatively clean-looking. From the state of the forest, I had assumed the water would be as black as coal, but close inspection with a torch revealed that it was so pure you could see the stones at the bottom. In the distance was the gentle roar of the waterfall—the source of this river.

  “Is this sufficient?” Eckshaw said with an irritated little huff.

  “Yes, it is,” I said. “Plenty of pure water to clean my injuries. And to restore our supplies.”

  As I reached down to touch the water, in the hopes of cleaning off my gloves, my danger senses fired off instantly. Something was coming from the darkness! I found myself leaping back just in time to avoid a long, black spear that crashed into the ground where I was standing. A double take revealed it was not a spear, but rather a thick, long leg, with a shell-like quality to it.

  “Ah, damn it, we can’t get peace and quiet for one minute, can we?” Trig grumbled as he leapt away from the water and threw a smooth orb towards the source of the leg. A brilliant burst of white light exploded in midair, creating a huge sphere, like a flare, that illuminated the lake that was connected to the river.

  Standing in front of the great cliffside, where the waterfall ran over into the lake, was a tall, black crab-like monster, with legs as long as trees. It had two huge pincers jutting from its stomach and a pair of yellow eyes that glowed with a cruel intensity. The size of the crab monster’s body was fairly small compared to the four long legs and two pincers, perhaps only fifteen feet wide, forming more of a flat disc than a thick torso.

  The crab monster raised one of its legs again, revealing a wicked point at the bottom of the leg, more of a spear than a foot. With lightning speed, the leg came crashing down on me, but I took a risk and tried to catch it. A beast of that size might seem scary, but it looked tall, not dense.

  “Are you nuts?” Trig cried as I reached out and caught the spear-leg in midair, holding it back. My guess had been right, the beast was tall and intimidating, but its strength compared to mine was quite miniscule, especially considering that beasts this big qualified for my Iron Meets Steel ability.

  The +5 Strength surged through me as I held onto the creature’s leg, pulling as hard as I could. The legs were heavily armored and reinforced, refusing to break off, despite my strength. Still, the beast lost its balance and staggered forward.

  Trig rushed into action. He ran forward, as fast as he could, jumping on the leg that I was pulling down. The leg was at a perfect angle to run up and the young hunter rushed towards the head of the creature, two bombs in hand. The light of the flare continued to illuminate the entire area, preventing any of the darkness from encroaching upon us. This must be one of Trig’s new abilities, courtesy of the Bloodpoints I had given him. I had to admit, the investment was paying off.

  The crab beast tried to swipe its nimble claws at Trig, but right before it could grab him, I yanked on the leg even harder, twisting the entire creature’s body to the right,
throwing its aim off. Trig leapt easily over the claws and sailed in midair, throwing both bombs onto the beast’s face. He didn’t bother to try and recover from his fall, instead opting to just plunge towards the water, cheering as he fell.

  Two explosions rocked the head of the beast, sending chunks of flesh and chitin everywhere. The creature did not make a noise whatsoever, but silently reeled back from the attack, its front leg popping off in my grip. As the limb disconnected, my ability ended and I felt the weight of the beast’s leg overtake me, dropping it to the ground.

  As the smoke faded, a large, fleshy brain came into view, the armor of the crab sufficiently destroyed by Trig’s dual explosive attack. Josiah’s Storm appeared in my hands instantly, ready to shoot and kill the creature with ease. Yet, as I raised the bow, I could see something out the corner of my eye. It was Eckshaw, cowering behind a tree, trying his best to avoid notice from the beast. Trying to survive an encounter with something that would have no trouble killing an ordinary human. Killing a spy for the opposition.

  A plan came to me at once. A horrific, terrible and cruel plan. But a plan, nonetheless. If we tried to knock Eckshaw out, or somehow remove him from the equation, the Eldest would undoubtedly know we were planning on killing it. But…if the man was killed by this beast. Oh…such a horrible thing to think, but…if he died here and now, we’d have time to plan our trap. Time to ready an attack that would save the rest of the village.

  But the price was high, was it not? Eckshaw was still a person, wasn’t he? Somewhere, deep down, he had a mind. A personality. Letting him die here would be murder. But murder for the greater good. Was it justifiable? Would he understand? All these questions seemed to strike me at once, but I realized that I didn’t have much of a choice. An opportunity like this wasn’t going to happen again. I couldn’t pit the needs of the entire village against the survival of one man. I just hoped that he would understand.