As I secured the last rope around the wagon, tying a barrel of well water to the side, there came a hiss in the distance. I glanced up to see Trig, standing by one of the green torches, a ghastly pallor across his face. He was motioning for me to come over, but to avoid drawing attention. This wasn’t a good sign.
I finished tying the knot on the barrel, then slowly made my way over to him. “What’s the trail looking like?” I asked. While I readied the supplies, he was supposed to scout the trail a bit, to at least see if conditions were good for travel.
“Remember that crab thing we fought?” he whispered, glancing around to make sure no one was nearby.
“Vividly,” I said.
“Well, barely thirty feet away from the village entrance, there’s six of them.”
I frowned. Did he misspeak? “Six? Are you sure?”
“Yes. Right out in the shadows. Waiting for us. And it gets worse. I decided to check the perimeter circling the village and well…there’s a lot of those beasts. Six on the road, but nearly fifteen forming a circle around us. And here’s the odd thing. They didn’t attack me.”
This wasn’t good. “They didn’t?”
“No, they just…looked at me for a second, then returned their gaze forward. To the village. I think they’re waiting to attack or something. Like for a signal.”
The Vessel’s story of boosted intelligence made sense here. If the Shadow Titan had grown smarter as a result of absorbing the memory shard, then maybe it was able to sense the Orphine’s loss of control, as well as the village full of unprotected people. But why wouldn’t it attack Trig? Had it learned we were good at killing its creations?
I sighed deeply, dropping my head down. “Don’t give me this news…”
“Sorry. But I’m pretty sure the moment we take a caravan full of people outside, they’ll strike. We need to figure out some way of killing them as quickly as possible, before they hit. Maybe we can rig some kind of massive explosive trap?” Trig asked, scratching his own head as he puzzled out the idea.
“No…” I said, turning my head upwards, staring into the darkness. “These monsters aren’t here by accident. Something’s directing them. If we want to get these people out safely…we’re going to have to cut straight to the heart of the matter. We’re going to have to kill the Shadow Titan. And quick.”
Chapter 32
The question on just about everyone’s mind was how we could possibly fight a shadow. But I had an ace up my sleeve, so to speak. The Coresight ability from the Giantslayer skill tree would grant me the power to see nearby Titan cores. Combined with my enhanced perception abilities, who knows? Maybe I’d be able to locate the core from here. If not, I’d move out, alone, into the woods until I found the damn core. After all, we didn’t really need to fight the Titan as much as we just needed to destroy its core.
The most recent Orphine kill granted me 6,000 points, bringing me up to a grand total of 15,000 Bloodpoints. Enough to purchase 2 Giantslayer abilities, unlocking the next tier. Good enough for me. My first purchase was Coresight, followed quickly by Unbreakable. Two extremely useful abilities, for the staggering cost of 10,000 points. I just hoped the next tier would have something useful for me.
Rank Up! Appeared in my vision, the golden words sparkling brightly enough to give me a bit of a headache. Rank 3: Titan Hunter. Select Rank Bonus and Hunting Style Bonus.
Choose One Rank Bonus:
- Trophy Hunter: You gain an additional Aspect Point when creating a new charm.
- Essence Harvester: Bloodpoints now rejuvenate health, though they cannot heal critical injuries. 1,000 Bloodpoints equal 10% healing.
- Predator: Gain one permanent enhanced sense: Tracking Scent, Echolocation, Tremorsense, Darkvision.
- Changeling: Extends any transformation effect by 8 hours.
Choose Hunting Style Bonus:
- The Stalker: For each hour you study a monster, you gain 1 free critical strike against it, up to a maximum of your Stealth Skill +2.
- The Huntmaster: Your allies are imbued with your perks and charms affecting your perception. In addition, their perception stat is replaced with yours while within 100 feet of you. This affects a number of allies equal to your Navigation Skill, +1.
- The Planner: Your traps gain an additional use before needing to be reset. All traps now have the piercing quality, as long as you are the one to set them. This affects a number of traps equal to your Trapping skill.
- The Opportunist: Attacking a monster without preparation grants you an automatic insight into one weakness. Attempted ambushes by monsters grant you a speed bonus equal to your Acrobatics skill +1.
My eyes went wide as I studied these new options. I was a bit surprised by the sudden rank up. I had only increased my rank once before, and that felt so long ago that I had kind of forgotten about it. But now, I had two entirely new options to pick, and best of all, they were free!
The first set of options was interesting. Changeling was out, obviously. I wasn’t about to start body transformations any time soon and if I did, I certainly didn’t want them to last for eight extra hours. Predator was interesting but I had charms that could do those jobs for me easily enough. The real toss-up was between Essence Harvester and Trophy Hunter.
Essence Harvester basically gave me the ability to keep going in a nasty fight with multiple creatures. A quick harvest mid-fight would provide a huge boost of health, allowing me to keep going. And it could theoretically help fuel some of my charms that cost health to use, such as my telekinesis charm. On the other hand, harvesting in the middle of a fight was…risky. It could open me up to attack or worse, accusations of me trying to steal when working with other Venators.
Trophy Hunter, on the other hand, gave me a leg up when it came to making new charms. Not only did it grant me a point to use later, but I had actually seen quite a few charms where the ability only cost a single Aspect point. This meant I could theoretically get a permanent ability from a new charm and use another ability, if I wanted to. Or I could cut down the wait for the really good abilities by quite a bit, since I wasn’t really running into the same monsters all the time.
Trophy Hunter it was. Next on the list was the “Hunting Style.” These were interesting enough, but I narrowed down on two almost instantly. Huntmaster or Opportunist. Huntmaster because I was quite literally the Huntmaster of Hunter’s Hope and had plenty of allies hunting with me, and Opportunist because it always seemed like monsters came out of the woodwork with barely a moment’s notice. Especially in a place this dark.
I think, ultimately, Opportunist would match my style the most. My danger senses would prime me well in advance for an ambush attempt, giving the extra speed extreme utility. I could react fast as lightning, move my allies out of the way of danger, or intercept a strike before it landed, all while learning a key weakness of whatever new horror was coming my way. Maybe if I were staying in one place for long, Huntmaster would be more appealing. But once this adventure was over, I’d be heading straight to that new city in the north, to learn about the monster slayers who lived there. No doubt I’d meet a host of new creatures to fight while on the road.
Acting true to the name, I grabbed Opportunist without much forethought. I frankly didn’t have a lot of time to be mulling things over, not when I knew Titan Hunter would unlock a new skill path for me.
What I wasn’t expecting was that Opportunist was a skill path as well! Two brand new branches formed in front of me, both level 1 and both costing 2,000 per rank.
Titan Hunter Tier One:
- Territorial Awareness: You automatically become aware of a Titan’s presence and location when entering its territory.
- Tempting Recipe: Brewing Bloodpoints, Firnin and animal blood creates a Titan Lure. Depending on the amount of Bloodpoints and Firnin spent, this Lure will attract a Titan to the location over a number of days, weeks or months. The Titan will seek the lure and consume it once it
is found.
- Titan Blind: You gain the ability to construct a Titan Blind out of monster bone and foliage. These small buildings render occupants invisible to Titans. Even a Titan actively searching for the occupants is fooled by the Blind and will not engage unless directly attacked from within the building.
Opportunist Tier One:
- Improvised Trapping: You may create any trap you have learned with objects from your surroundings. The quality of this trap will be low and it will break immediately after the use is finished, but the trap will achieve its intended purpose.
- Follow Up: After you deal critical damage to an enemy, you may immediately strike the exact same spot again with a single attack.
- Creative Circumvention: Once per day, you may gain a creative insight into your enemy’s defenses, allowing you to bypass a single immunity of your choice.
These were interesting to say the least. Titan Hunter was more like…for actually hunting Titans, not really for fighting them. Though, I guess that was to be expected since it wasn’t called Titan Killer or Titan Slayer. Still…these were useful in a way. The ability to know where Titans were when I moved into their territory? And the ability to lure them? Stuff I’d pocket for later, for certain, though nothing of immediate value now.
Opportunist on the other hand had two automatic buys. Follow Up and Creative Circumvention were a deadly combo, especially when combined with my True Arrow ability. If the Shadow Titan had no corporeal form, I could use Creative Circumvention to deal regular damage to it and Follow Up to fire another lethal shot. And both for only 4,000 Bloodpoints! What a steal!
I finished up selecting my bonuses and watched as my Hunter’s Profile shifted once more, updating my rank and proudly displaying my brand new skills.
Avery Lorn: Titan Hunter
Health: 90%
Mana: 100
Bloodpoints: 1,000
Stats:
Strength: 4 (2+2)
Dexterity: 4
Intelligence: 4
Perception: 3
Charisma: 4
Stealth: 2
Archery: 10
Tracking: 5
Navigation: 7
Trapping: 3
Acrobatics: 10
Surprise Attack
Clean Retrieval
Search I
Light Step
Snare Trap
Leap
Archer’s Eye
Recognizable Scent
Fast Movement
Spear Trap
Safe Fall (40ft)
Piercing Shot
Tracker’s Instincts
Home Territory
Advanced Bear Trap
Dodge Reflex
Focus Breaker
On the Trail
Expedition Leader
Perfect Balance
Rapid Shot
Danger Sense
Acrobatic Training
Multi-shot
Strider
Acrobat’s Grip
Swift Hands
Group Captain
Air Combat I
Sniper’s Aim
Springheels
Explosive Shot
Homing Shot
First Aid: 5
Alchemy: 7
Magician: 7
Spellbow: 4
Giantslayer: 7
Opportunist: 3
Skilled Extraction
Mystic Recovery
Spell Saver I
Fell The Mighty Oak
Follow Up
Physiological Examination
Mana Boost
Spell Arrow
Obsession
Creative Circumvention
Enhanced Mixtures
Student
True Arrow
Invigorating Roar
Apprentice
Dabbler
Arrowfinder
The Harder They Fall
Nourishing
Journeyman
Hindered Regeneration
Extra Sip
Mystic Vision
Iron Meets Steel
Charm Trick
Coresight
Illusions:
Weapons:
Armor:
Tools:
Bone Charms:
Alchemy:
Dazzle
Bone Bow: Strong Fire Affinity
Swift Medium Scale Leather
Slots: 1
Expanded Bag
Max Level Kinru Charm
Firnin: 0
Phantom Sound
Iron Crossbow x3
Swift Blackoak Greaves
Level 1 Fitzon Charm
Estoan: 0
Enchantments:
100 Tooth Arrows
Blackoak Vambraces
Slots: 1
Level 2 Fylk Charm
Kaos: 0
Return Arrows
Bone Bow: Strong Sonic affinity
Level 1 L’Gara Charm
Potion of Speed: 2
Switching Arrow
Bone Bow: Strong Lightning Affinity
Level 3 Fungara Maestro Charm
Blessings of Swiftness
Level 1 Ligoran Charm
Expand Satchel
Level 1 Great Wyrm Charm
Thunder Arrow
Manipulation:
Level 1 Lurbia Charm
Summon Quiverling
Minor Spellburst
Level 1 Hypnosin Charm
Strong Elemental Affinity
Minor Telekinesis
Level 1 Glurp Charm
Weaponlink
Weigh Down
Level 1 Griffin Charm
Bless Boots
Level 1 Tyndel Charm
Titanic Weapon: Josiah’s Storm
Slayer: 3
Striker: 4
Artillerymaster: 3
Bow-Bond: 2
Munitions Specialist: 2
Damage Rating: 5
Bow Connection
Forceful Hit
Indirect Fire
Gift of Intelligence
Breach Charge Recipe
Weapon Speed: 2
Rage of the Slayer
Unmoving Arrows
Barrage
Partnership
Triggered Charges
Special 1: N/A
Endurance Surge
Agonizing Strike
Range Extension
Special 2: N/A
Snap Shot
I just hoped these would be enough to let us kill that damn Shadow Titan.
Chapter 33
“Well?” Trig asked as he held his slender, violet-skinned wife by his side. She was better fed than most of the survivors, though there was quite a disturbing reason for that.
I continued to scan the area around us, eyes searching the darkness desperately. Behind us, the village was quietly moving, single file, back down into the hut that housed the stairs leading into the underground cavern. Into their old prison cells. Once a place of horror, it was, ironically, their only shelter from the beasts above. One entry point, guarded by green flame and the Vessel, who was slowly beginning to retain its immense power. If the Shadow Titan made a run on the village, they’d have to really work hard to get to the people.
“No good,” I sighed. “I can’t see a core anywhere. No sign of anything like that.”
“Da
mn,” Trig replied, sighing just as heavily as I, dropping his head down. We both knew what this meant. We’d have to split up. I’d have to go out into the darkness and search for the Shadow Titan alone.
“Do not lower your head in these easy times,” his wife scolded. “You must look strong for the children and the feeble-minded.”
Trig lifted his head up at that and nodded. “Yes, yes,” he mumbled. I couldn’t help but chuckle at this new dynamic. 41 certainly had an interesting definition of easy times. But then again, based on previous circumstances, an impending threat was a big upgrade from a perpetual one.
Monster Hunting 401: A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure Page 18