Unusual Enemies - A LitRPG Adventure (The Whispering Crystals, #2)

by Mills, H. C.

  Suri’s laugh is clear and high, like the chiming of a bell. [All right, no need to get worked up. I’ll give you a hint: you’ll need to reach 50% Toxic Energy Tolerance first.]

  I blink and sit back down. “Does it have to be Toxic Energy?”

  [No. It just seems like the obvious choice for you, at this stage. I really can’t tell you more than this.]

  Mmm, Suri mentioned there being support type Skills that would come available when I reached 50% Tolerance in an energy type, maybe it’s one of those that she’s talking about.

  I definitely need to get my Toxic Energy Tolerance to 50% sometime soon. In order to do that, though, I’ll need time and resources.

  “Suri, what’s next after this? Is it the next Hub?” I ask hopefully.

  After all, we know now that there’s four Hubs and nine Trials, and if the pattern holds—

  [Next up is Hub Three,] Suri chimes, confirming my suspicion.

  Yes!

  Now I just have one more all-important question.

  “Suri, what was that crab’s name?”

  [Hmm? Oh, it was called Snibby.]

  Of course it was.

  The mood in our living room is festive, to say the least, and my entrance is met with loud cheers.

  Though it can’t have been more than thirty minutes since we’ve last seen one another, I still get hugged like it’s been weeks or months.

  We soon gravitate to the couch and start to share our experiences.

  Dave faced a version of the axolotl-like urudo. Apparently, this one was less transparent than the ones we encountered during the Fifth Trial. Instead, it had turbid white flesh with blue accents. It was also a lot bigger, and its lightning far more potent.

  Luckily, like my own, his battle was on land, which significantly reduced the urudo’s mobility and the accuracy of its lightning strikes. Dave simply kept his distance, started off by hitting it with an Astreum Blast, and then fired Moonshade-dipped arrows at it until it collapsed. He did get zapped a couple of times, which burned a bunch of his Lavi, but all in all, it sounds quite doable, as he tells it.

  Something tells me he may be downplaying the danger he was in a bit.

  Kaitlynn, Alec, and Jacob each faced a larger, crimson-armour-plated version of the krah, which sent out powerful shockwaves of Vibration Energy with its pistol-like claw.

  The armour plating definitely increased the difficulty quite a bit, but again, their battle was on land.

  Alec used his new and improved aim through Aether to zap-and-stab his krah several times with the trident, until it succumbed to its wounds. Jacob impaired his krah by launching his shiny new spear with Increase Momentum and a Toxic payload, and went in to finish the thing in close combat.

  Kaitlynn started the fight by straight-up blasting her krah’s larger claw off its torso with her Mega Astreum Lance. She then started chucking knives at it, but its armour proved too thick, so she opted to swallow her pearl and destroy part of its armour with a second lance. Then she ducked in close and lacerated it.

  All four of them got a Minor Lavi Crystal off their prey. Before I get a chance to tell my own story, an argument erupts about what to do with them.

  Jacob holds up his. “I think the ones who still have their pearl should buy Stardrops and swallow the whole lot down.”

  Alec winces. “Is that really necessary?”

  I hesitate. “Before, I would’ve agreed wholeheartedly with Jacob, but having a Qi Pearl as emergency Qi supply is too powerful a strategy.”

  Jacob frowns. “But eating the Minor Lavi Crystals like this is kind of a waste, isn’t it? Actually, so is using Qi Pearls like that, in the long run.”

  Dave hums. “You both make valid points. Why don’t we keep both the Qi Pearls and the Lavi Crystals as emergency supplies for now? If we need them, we use them, if we don’t, maybe we can buy or find Stardrops in the future.”

  His proposal is met with a lot of relief by Alec, and some grumbling from Jacob, but ultimately he agrees that it seems best. Then it’s time for me to tell my tale, which takes a little longer. When I’m finished, it’s quiet for a moment.

  Kaitlynn scrunches up her nose. “Snibby?”

  “Their naming sense is really off,” Jacob agrees, shaking his head. “Shut up, Pseudo.”

  “Really?” I ask dryly. “This is your main takeaway?”

  They both laugh.

  Dave chuckles. “Well, I for one am just glad you made it through. And that I didn’t have to face that thing, because I don’t see how I might’ve killed it.”

  “Ugh, yeah,” Alec adds, shaking his head. “A giant crab that’s hiding in a thick shell, and is capable of throwing up barriers of solid, frozen Aether? That’s just not fair.”

  “I think it’s amazing, the things you pull off,” Kaitlynn says, smiling at me. “Sometimes, I feel like you could do anything you set your mind to.”

  Heat blossoms in my cheeks as I find myself staring at her for a moment, caught off guard by the sincerity of her words.

  Dave breaks the moment by clearing his throat. “You’re not wrong, Kaitlynn, but I daresay we’ve all done things to be proud of over the last couple of days, and grown because of it. As individuals, and as a team.”

  “Hell yeah!” Alec exclaims. “We make an awesome team. Heck, we should name ourselves something cool!”

  I groan. “Do we have to?”

  Dave shrugs. “A shared sense of identity can be a powerful thing. A little team spirit might go a long way.”

  “How about Voice of the Machine?” Alec says quickly.

  I raise a brow at him. “How does that make any sense?”

  “It’s a reference to—” Alec frowns. “Oh right, it probably sounds like English to you, since I know what it means. It sounds cooler in Latin though... you know what, never mind, it won’t work like this.”

  “Emma already has a title,” Kaitlynn reminds them wholly unnecessarily with a shit-eating grin. “Should we do something with that?”

  “Ehm, if we’re really picking a name, it should be a team name,” I quickly interject. “Not just like, Toxic and the Dragonettes.”

  “I’d listen to that band,” Jacob jokes. “But only ironically, of course.”

  “Of course,” I mock him, to which he glares at me.

  “It should be something that connects us,” Dave says. “And something that sets us apart, ideally.”

  “Well, I think the thing that sets us apart is quite obvious,” Jacob remarks, tapping the admittedly gorgeous cuirass of scaled blue leather he’s still wearing.

  “Ooh, that’s right!” Alec exclaims. “We should call ourselves the Trigots!”

  I scrunch my nose up at Kaitlynn. She clamps a hand over her mouth.

  Even Dave shakes his head. “Kinda lame, dude.”

  Alec crosses his arms over his chest with a huff. “Well, I’m not hearing a lot of suggestions!”

  “Well, I wasn’t done yet,” Jacob says. “I was thinking we could combine that with a bit of Emma’s title,” he suggests with a wink at me, “and call ourselves The Blue Dragons.”

  Kaitlynn perks up. “Ooh, I like that.”

  Dave nods. “Dude, nice.”

  Alec shoots Jacob a thumbs up with a huge grin. “Aw man, you come up with the best names!”

  They turn to me.

  I roll my eyes. “Fine, if we must have a name, I guess The Blue Dragons wouldn’t be the worst.”

  Thankfully, the conversation soon turns to a more productive topic, namely the questions we asked during our five minutes, and particularly, about the next Hub. Problem is, there’s not much to say if you don’t know anything.

  “Even Kai was pretty tight-lipped about it, I’m afraid,” Kaitlynn says helplessly, shooting down our last hope.

  A short silence follows, which is ultimately broken by Dave’s sonorous baritone. “I have a theory. I think the Trials that lead up to a Hub are meant to prepare us for it.”

  “Really?” Alec
asks. “I always felt they were pretty random...”

  “No, he’s got a point,” Jacob says and gets up to pace. “The First Trial was about differentiating different kinds of plants and dealing with Toxic Energy in the Aether, and then we had to get the Stardrop from the centre of the Moonshade Glade. The Second Trial was about the different gravity and prepared us for climbing the trees and overcoming the Yin-Yang Temple!”

  “The Third Trial doesn’t really seem that relevant, though,” I muse. “I guess you could consider it preparation for Qi-based Skills.”

  “That, and dealing with the jungle heat, perhaps,” Dave adds. “If the pattern holds, Hub Three will likely be some kind of Hydrum stage. Maybe there’ll be a big lake in the centre or something...”

  “Or the whole Hub will be under-Hydrum,” I suggest. “Also, there will probably be froggos or some other kind of unfriendlies in or around the Hydrum.”

  “Well, sounds like we’ll have to get our clothes wet a couple more times,” Jacob says with a sigh. “Nothing new, I suppose. Considering we’ve got little miss mermaid here, I think we’ll be fine.”

  He winks at me, and I snort.

  Kaitlynn clears her throat. “Anyway, ehm, those Boreum bubbles sounded pretty dangerous too. Are you thinking of taking Boreum Manipulation to try and replicate those, Emma?”

  I purse my lips. “A new way to attack would be nice but... I kind of want to take Distort Space. Suri said it’d take some time before that Skill would be useful in combat, but I feel like it has a lot of potential, and this seems like the moment to take it.”

  Also, in the short to medium term, it seems like the likeliest Skill to offer a potential escape from this death trap of a ‘survival training camp.’ But I obviously can’t say that out loud.

  Dave blinks. “That’s not what I expected you to say, but at the same time, I’m not surprised. Well, I suppose we can afford to think a little more long term again, now that we’re entering a Hub.”

  “Right?” I say. “Besides, I doubt there’s going to be many teams who performed as well in these Trials as we did.”

  Alec scratches his head. “Since we’re talking Skilldreams... do you guys think I should get Boreum Manipulation, for the sake of diversity?”

  Dave glances at him in bafflement and says what we’re probably all thinking. “What? No dude, you need to get Regeneration!”

  “Exactly,” I drawl. “And actually, if Dave’s theory is right and Hub Three is a Hydrum stage, that would make Boreum Manipulation a lot less useful.”

  Alec shrugs. “It still sounds pretty awesome. More importantly, though, I only have 61 points, and the full Skilldream of Regeneration costs 75. I really doubt half a Skilldream is going to cut it in this case, and we’re about to enter a Hub. It’s going to take ages before we can spend our points again, and if people find out I’m walking around with 61 Trial Points...”

  Kaitlynn’s eyes widen. “You think people would hunt you down for your points?! But, I mean, even if they might—”

  “Some would,” Jacob interjects grimly.

  “—there’s no way for people to know how many points you have, right?” Kaitlynn finishes stubbornly.

  Dave shakes his head. “No, he’s right. First of all, we’d know, and the more people who know a secret, the less secure it is. Second of all, the rules might be different in this Hub. For all we know, the totals will be displayed above our heads or something.”

  Damn. He’s not wrong, but if Alec doesn’t get the Skill soon it’ll take ages before he gets his eye back, and thus his depth perception. If only...

  My eyes widen as a thought hits me. “We can donate points!”

  Jacob glances at me in surprise. “Really? That’s allowed?”

  I nod. “Yeah, though it comes with a fee: an additional 50% of the points you wish to donate. But this seems like a worthwhile occasion. I’ll have 11 points left after I take my Skilldream, so I could spend 9 to donate 6.”

  Alec looks at me—I think—with a surprised and moved expression.

  Dave hums. “That would bring his total to 67. He’d need 8 more points, which would cost 12 to donate. I have 33 Trial Points, and I was thinking of taking the Skilldream for the second level of Amplify, which will cost me 30 Trial Points, so I could only spare 3 points to donate 2.”

  “What does the second level of Amplify do?” I can’t help but ask.

  “The first level allows me to amplify my voice, so it’s not that useful,” Dave explains. “The second level, however, will allow me to amplify vibrations in objects I’m holding. Essentially, I can use it to impart Vibration Energy into a weapon or projectile, like my arrows.”

  Ooh, sounds pretty cool. Would perhaps be more useful in close combat, but still...

  “I’d also very much like to attempt to gain Breath Control,” he adds, glancing at me, “so I plan to hit you up for tips later.”

  I nod. Sounds like a solid plan. Though it’ll never be as fun as helping Kaitlynn was.

  “I’ve got 55 points,” Kaitlynn pipes up. “I actually want to take a page from Emma’s playbook and mainly focus on practising the Skills I have to improve their utility. Therefore, I plan to just take something simple—maybe just a 30 Trial Points Skilldream for the next level of Heat Vision—and buy a new Yang Qi Pearl to replace the one I ate, so I can definitely chip in 9 points to get him the last 6 he needs.”

  “You guys...” Alec starts. His head swivels around in a way that suggests to me that he’s looking at us one at a time. “Thank you.”

  Jacob shuffles awkwardly with his feet, a complicated expression on his face.

  Guilt? Feeling left out? Well, no matter. This is a time for levity, not this mushy crap.

  “It’s all right,” I tell Alec in a saccharine voice. “I consider this an investment in gaining Regeneration in the future, anyway. You can start paying us back right away by teaching us about Meditation level 3, right Dave?”

  Dave nods eagerly. “Yes please!”

  I can’t help but crack up over the face Alec makes in response. That Dave subsequently decides that this tips the score to fifteen to two, is a small price to pay.

  It’s good to be alive.

  CHAPTER 32

  Confessions, Pt. II

  ONCE WE’VE HANDLED the Trial Point donations for Alec’s Regeneration Skilldream, he gracefully agrees to help me and Dave with Meditation level 3, while Jacob and Kaitlynn go off to do their own thing. Neither of them has reached Meditation level 2 yet, after all.

  Dave listens with glistening eyes, while I impatiently sit through Alec’s explanation of some things I’ve already figured out, like the existence of a high-frequency signal over the flow of Lavi which needs to be manipulated in order to dim the various senses.

  “The trickiest part of the Skill,” Alec explains, “is to dim the sense of ‘touch.’ ”

  I sit up straight. Now we’re getting somewhere.

  “The problem is, it’s not really just a sense of ‘touch,’ but more a sense of your whole body,” he continues. “There’s the sensation of your skin touching things, sure, but there’s also pressure deeper in your flesh from where you’re pressed into the ground by gravity, and a sense of the position of your joints, the stretching of your muscles and tendons, temperature, et cetera.”

  I frown. “Hold on, that sounds like they’re all separate. Are we supposed to learn to dim these all individually as well?”

  Alec shakes his head. “Thankfully, all of that information is jumbled together in one big stream, which passes through a large flow of Lavi up your spine, and that’s where you need to focus your attention. Because that’s the thing: our attention is generally focused. Trying to spread that focus to encompass your whole body manually, well, good luck with that. Tapping into that flow is the only easy way to get a good sense of your whole body.”

  Huh. No wonder I wasn’t getting anywhere with touch. Or the sense of my body, I guess.

  I thank Alec for the ex
planation, and quickly go isolate myself in my room.

  Now that I know the path ahead, I quickly begin to progress again.

  An hour or so later, I am able to get a sense of my whole body from the large flow of Lavi through my spine.

  Now, it may sound like a normal thing, to have a sense of your whole body, but it’s not. It is weird.

  In everyday life, what I feel of my body is constantly shifting. I may have a sudden itch somewhere, that seems impossible to ignore, but if I then stub my toe, it will completely drown out that itch. Or I may have a mosquito bite that’s driving me insane, and I can’t stop scratching it, while I actually have four others I don’t even notice.

  When I tap into the sense of my whole body, I feel everything simultaneously. Every itch, every slight cramp, every hair brushing against the inside of my clothing, everything. Basically, all of the signals my brain usually filters out to focus on the important ones.

  I have a sneaking suspicion it’s this sense of the whole body that’s the reason that Meditation level 3 is a prerequisite for Regeneration.

  Anyway, a couple of hours after that, I finally manage to thoroughly dim the sense of my body. I finish off by cycling through my senses and dimming them one by one, to demonstrate the Skill.

  A pop-up appears in front of me.

  Booyah!

  Now that I have the relevant level in the Skill, it instantly becomes a lot easier to dim my senses. Curious, I start to experiment a little, to see how far I can dim a sense, or how many I can dim at once, and end up spending what little time remains before dinnertime playing around with Meditation level 3.

  When Kaitlynn comes to fetch me for dinner, the living room already smells like seafood and meat. Looks like Alec really pulled out all the stops for this meal.

  Once again, there’s a real celebratory, upbeat mood, and I’m quickly swept along in the laughter and conversation around the table.

  Apparently, Alec decided there wasn’t enough time left for him to take a seven-and-a-half-hour Skilldream and attempt to gain a high-grade Skill, so he postponed that to tomorrow and spent his time today fixing up armour and preparing for this awesome feast.