The Land: Monsters

by Aleron Kong

  The second lesson was that he needed to pay more attention to his own battle awareness. Stomp was indiscriminate against friend or foe. Richter was caught with the AoE and fell to the ground. His already horrible nausea flared again and he vomited while flat on his back. For the briefest of moments, he looked like the world’s worst fountain, before that stream of yellow sick rained back down onto his face.

  “Gah!” he spat. Blearily, he wiped his face and eyes clean, before staring at the scorpion in pure hatred. One thought went through his mind. Alright! This chick is toast!

  He’d only lost a few points of health in his fall, so his red bar was full. He hadn’t used much stamina either, but his mana was falling fast. Between healing, buffs and debuffs, his MP had fallen by one hundred and five. His Water Mastery ability, Tranquil Soul, helped preserve his mana dramatically, but he wasn’t a combat wizard. He couldn’t sling spells indiscriminately. He had six hundred and seventy-five points left, not including his mana regen. It never crossed his mind to hoard them. Months of battle had taught him that fights to the death did not last long.

  Richter mentally ordered Sloth to start whaling on the scorpion again, and he started his own experiments to see if it had any weaknesses. Weak Magic Missile summoned two balls of white light that flew unerringly toward the scorpion. They impacted with two bright flares against its hide. He might as well have been throwing spitballs. A few points of health were shaved off, but otherwise there was no effect.

  The same was true for Weak Ice Dagger and Weak Life Bolts. Compared to the scorpion’s more than one thousand points of health, it was like chopping down a tree with a pocket knife. He decided to stop playing around and uses his most powerful attack spell, Minor Sunbeam. That finally got him some attention.

  After the four-second cast time, a bar of incandescent white light shot from his hands onto the scorpion’s face. It hissed like a tea kettle too long on the stove and triggered its own special attack in retaliation. Its barbed tailed quivered before shooting out a stream of corrosive black acid. Thankfully, the Blind debuff from Richter’s attack took over. The chaos lord dove to the side, and it couldn’t track his movement. When he landed, his own poisoned debuff made him vomit again, but he looked back up grinning, with yellow coating his teeth.

  The corrosive poison spewed across the cavern in a wild arc as the scorpion scuttled backward to protect itself. Being blinded could cow even this mighty monster.

  But while Richter had avoided the attack, the golem wasn’t so lucky. The corrosive spray landed on its right arm and chest. The Melting status it had acquired before stacked and refreshed.

  Golem is Melting: Losing 9 Health/second for the next 36 seconds

  This was getting serious. The golem had already lost 10% of its health and it was about to lose three hundred more. If he couldn’t heal it, his construct might be useless even if they won the battle. Richter’s own attack had carved away about fifty points of the monster’s health, but it just wasn’t much compared to the total. The sunbeam’s damage would have been even less, but he’d struck it in a sensitive area. The scorpion’s metal skin gave it too great of a defense. The spell had also cost one hundred and twenty-five MPs. Richter realized if things continued this way, he was going to lose the battle.

  His spell had accomplished two things. It had pushed the scorpion off-balance, and it had blinded the monster for a few precious seconds. That let the golem attack with impunity. Richter checked, and then watched with joy as a counter reached zero. While the flowing rock golem closed with the panicked monster, he gave another mental command. Stone Punch!

  Green light highlighted the golem’s arm for a second time. Unlike the first, it was now in perfect pugilist position and the strength of its attack wasn’t hindered by it laying on its back. Its arm flew so fast it left a green afterimage behind it. A stone fist the size of a bowling ball hit the scorpion’s injured mouth. Its face crumpled like a tin can. The metal carapace fractured and the monster’s blood sprayed over the Earth creature. The golem’s special move had nearly quadrupled the golem’s base attack. The insect was sent flying once again. One of its arms had been struck as well. The limb hung limp, pulped and useless.

  Before it even landed, Richter gave another order. This time, he didn’t bother with a mental command, too bound up in bloodlust, “Hurl rock!”

  The golem stopped moving forward and soundlessly raised one hand. The stone of its body rippled and flowed upward, coalescing into a boulder in less than a second. Then it threw the rock at its enemy with crushing force. With a whistling noise, the stone struck the scorpion’s middle leg on the right side. The segmented appendage was crushed in an instant.

  The scorpion made a noise for the first time, squealing in pain. The sound echoed off the walls of the cavern. It had good reason to cry out. The thrown stone hadn’t just bounced off its body. After destroying the leg, the boulder sank into the iron carapace like a bullet. It pulverized whatever soft tissue structures lay beneath. The remaining two legs on that side shook and spasmed arrhythmically, making Richter think that something vital had been damaged.

  He didn’t give it any time to recover. Richter ordered the golem to straddle its fallen foe and start raining blows upon it. The scorpion, still blinded, was struggling to get back up when the Earth creature arrived. With no hesitation, Sloth fell on top of the scorpion and started punching. With its speed magically augmented by Richter’s spell, the hammer blows fell at a fast tempo. It also showed its slime nature. The ends of its arms formed mallets, adding force to each blow. The insect hissed and screamed, but it couldn’t move. One side of its legs was ruined, and the other set just wasn’t built to lift several tons of rock.

  The scorpion’s last good pincer tried to grab Sloth, but the angle made the attack weak. The claw could reach its back, but not with enough force to damage the living boulder sitting on top of it. If it wasn’t for its tail, the fight might have been over, but that bladed appendage was still deadly.

  The monster managed two punishing stabs that would have meant the end of any flesh-and-blood creature. It was even an attack that Sloth was susceptible to, suffering an extra 5% damage. The construct felt no pain, however, and though its health fell with each blow, it had no vital organs. It did, on the other hand, have Richter.

  At its master’s command, the golem’s hands formed fingers and grabbed the tail after the second stab. The scorpion cried out in frustration, but it could not pull itself free. Sloth remained on top of the arachnid. The two of them wound up in a strange stalemate. They were both two high-defense creatures who could no longer harm each other. Looking at it, it was both sad and comical. Kind of like two turtles with their shells glued together. Richter’s mind wandered for a second. That had been a fucked-up night.

  In a one-on-one battle, the scorpion might very well have prevailed, given time. Its corrosive poison had already consumed more than half of the golem’s health. If it managed to get its tail free, it could deliver damage faster than the golem. Too bad for the monster that so far as Richter was concerned, one-on-one was for suckers.

  There was only one truth in battle: sprinkles are for winners.

  CHAPTER 31 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC

  Richter watched the two titans struggle for a few seconds longer while he decided on a strategy. What he landed on was bashing the hell of it. It might not have been nuanced, but it could work. Also, Richter had a bad case of metal poisoning, a bachelor party-sized headache, and, oh yeah, sixty-seven points of friggin’ Strength! His teeth bared in a crazy grin. This was going to be better than therapy.

  Pretty or not, his plan did have merit. When he’d been born into The Land, he’d only had ten points of Strength. That had been nothing to sneeze at. It meant that he had a max carrying capacity of one hundred kilos, two hundred and twenty pounds.

  Every point of Strength he gained added ten kilos to that value. That meant that now he could carry almost fifteen hundred pounds. That was enough powe
r to pick up a fridge and throw it. It was enough for him to crush a human skull in his bare hands. It was enough to go into a biker bar and order a glass of milk! It had to be enough to beat this damn scorpion into submission.

  In an ideal world, he’d have already absorbed the knowledge of his expertise book. There was no time to worry about that now though. Besides, he was strong as hell. Whacking it really, really hard would have to do. Richter approached the scorpion from the side, staying well clear of its claws. With a barbarian’s bellow, he rained down blow after blow on the scorpion’s body, legs and tail. Pent-up frustration and anger over being trapped underground let loose all at once, and the bone club beat a steady tattoo against the arachnid. In that dark, deep place, the fury of a chaos lord was unleashed.

  It accomplished exactly dick. On the plus side, he did vomit on the scorpion twice. So even though he wasn’t really hurting it, he counted that as a moral victory. A bit of spew got on his golem as well but, eggs and omelets.

  After a few minutes of whaling on the scorpion’s body, he realized it had barely lost a few points of health. At this rate, his debuffs just might kill him before he could kill it. As he stood there panting, he realized what the problem was. It was almost like the scorpion was a high-level monster coated in metal, and he was hitting it with a damn leg bone!

  Irritated was a mild description of his mood. That’s okay, he thought, nodding angrily. We’ll do it the other way.

  Richter walked toward the front of the scorpion, keeping at least ten feet between him and it. The monster hissed with renewed anger when it saw him in front of it. Another gout of corrosive venom shot from its tail. Thankfully, the golem still had the stinger pointed in the other direction. The stream of acid splattered harmlessly against the ground. The chaos lord paid it no notice. He was busy casting a spell.

  Black-and-gold light surrounded his arms. There was a time that dual casting Deeper Magic would have taxed his mental capabilities. Even a novice-ranked Spirit spell might have been beyond him. With his boon from Alma, the words fell easily from his lips. The ten-second cast time was nine seconds longer than most of his other spells, but the result was worth it.

  As he harnessed his magic, the scorpion started to struggle like mad. It might have been a dumb beast, but it was high leveled. That meant its senses were developed far beyond that of a common animal. It could feel that it was in danger.

  While Richter cast Weak Aura Lance, ribbons of black power tinged with gold radiated from his body. Two foci of energy grew, one between his hands and the other in his chest. The interaction between these two points of Spirit magic interacted, growing strong as they mixed. A small seed of magical energy appeared, quickly growing larger. The last time he’d cast this spell, the sphere had grown to the size of a kid’s basketball. This time it grew noticeably larger thanks to his Intelligence having nearly doubled.

  The black sphere was darker than night and gold lightning danced across its surface. Words of Power fell from his lips, each growing thicker than the last. With his Exhausted debuff gone though, they were no impediment to his iron will. The last words left his lips and the ball shot toward the iron scorpion. It transitioned from a sphere into a spear the moment before it struck. The power disappeared into the arachnid’s body. Someone watching might have thought the spell had failed. Richter knew better. At such a short distance, there was no possibility of the spell missing.

  The scorpion’s iron skin immediately fractured, web-like cracks covering its entire body. Millimeter-thin pieces peeled away from the scorpion’s body over the next few seconds. They floated up and dissipated like dust in the wind. When the process was done, the creature looked exactly the same as if the spell had had no effect. The prompt in Richter’s vision told another story.

  Richter has struck the Ironspine Scorpion with dual cast Weak Aura Lance. Basic Element spell-type resistances decreased by 13.7%. Any resistance dropping below 0% will cause a resultant susceptibility to that spell type.

  The chaos lord was more than satisfied, but he noticed something for the first time. Looking at the resistance reduction more closely, the prompt showed that the initial 5% reduction had been increased by 156% thanks to his dual casting. His Intelligence had only increased the effect by 11.7% though. With Intelligence at an astounding seventy-eight, the effect should have been greater. Each point of the Attribute usually increased the effect of his spells by 0.5%. This time, it looked like he’d only gotten half that.

  Richter blinked. Now was really not the time to worry about math. Not with Sloth sitting on a truly pissed-off giant scorpion only five yards away. Shaking his head, he realized that back-in-the-day he would never have started considering such things in the middle of a battle; it was insane. Now, it was just another day. A part of him wondered if that meant that he was insane, but meh, why worry about it either way. A few seconds later, he realized that the Attribute Point boost was probably reduced because he was casting a Deeper Magic now instead of a Basic Element spell. Mystery at least partially solved, he cast a Blood spell.

  Dark red light surrounded his hands while he cast Tame. Using Spirit and Blood magic in quick succession was a risk, but his mental defenses kept him safe. He walked around to the back of the scorpion and placed his hand on it. If this worked, he could heal it and he’d have a pretty amazing new pet.

  You have failed to Tame the Ironspine Scorpion!

  That wasn’t a surprise. Its level was far higher than his skill in Beast Bonding. He’d hoped lowering its spell resistances might make a difference, but he wasn’t sure Weak Aura Lance affected Deeper Magics. Either way, there was only one option left now.

  Richter walked back to the front of the scorpion, looking into its last good eye. It squealed at him as if it knew he’d just tried to steal its will. He just stared back impassively before saying, “You’re going to wish that had worked.” Then he started to bring the pain.

  The scorpion had shrugged off his magic before, but no longer. His mana had taken a serious hit from the dual casting, dropping six hundred and twenty-five points. In another setting, he couldn’t have afforded nearly bottoming out his mana. The spell’s duration was a full hour though, and his MP regen rate was respectable. Over the next thirty minutes, Richter started casting attack spells with short pauses in between to regen his mana. People watching him might call him a sadist and a sicko, torturing a helpless creature. He considered it an interesting exercise and therapeutic stress relief. The scorpion considered it hell.

  It might have shrugged off his Weak Flame before, but now, the magical fire burned through the arachnid’s iron carapace, leaving black scorch marks. Weak Lightning Bolt was even more effective. Richter’s aura lance must have lowered its resistance into the weakness range. One crackling bolt stunned it and made it collapse. It only came back to itself about ten seconds later, much longer than the normal Stun effect of the spell.

  Richter kept casting, going through his long list of spells. Few magi could do what he was doing, using magic from all eight Basic Elements. His Limitless ability gave him perfect affinity for all magic skills. That was why the scorpion wasn’t so much an enemy as a whetstone for his skill.

  At first, the monster tried to grab him with its claw. After it found that futile, it just tried to protect its ruined face, using the pincer as a shield. Others might have taken pity, seeing a living creature being slowly burned alive. That was no longer in Richter. Monsters did not have pity. Neither would he.

  He just kept chaining his spells indiscriminately. After twenty minutes, both of its arms were a smoking husk, one laying just as limp as the other. He would have done it faster, but he had to wait for his mana to recharge.

  Whenever Richter’s blue bar started falling too far, he would just wait. Time and again, the scorpion tried to struggle free of the golem’s grip and weight, but it only got weaker as time went on. The chaos lord chuckled a bit, realizing that he was beating a high-level monster using grade-school techniques. It was
basically like sitting on a smaller kid while your friend shot spit wads. Kids were gross.

  After the third round of rest, Richter just decided to sit down. He crossed his legs and closed his eyes, adopting a position he’d seen Yoshi use plenty of times. Seeing its tormentor relaxing while it lay there suffering made the ironspine scorpion hiss like a tea kettle. Its thrashing still accomplished nothing. Without even opening his eyes, Richter flapped his hand at it in the universal asshole sign for, “Just wait a sec. I’ll be back with you soon.”

  This pattern continued. Rest and attack. Rest and attack. While he was recovering, he tried to focus on the current moment and push his concerns aside. Mostly he tried to ignore his horrible thirst and hunger. If anyone were watching, seeing him in this zen pose would really have cemented the whole serial killer vibe.

  Each time he rested, he tried to regulate his breathing and ignore his thirst. He wanted nothing more than to go find food and water, but he had to take care of the scorpion first. Leaving it alive, even heavily injured, would just be foolish. He didn’t believe in hurting something a little bit.

  On the sixth session of being in the lotus position, Richter received a surprise. He’d gained a new skill.

  Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Meditation. By practicing mindfulness in the face of suffering, you have achieved a clarity of thought. This has allowed the mana flow of your body to stabilize. While in a meditative state, your mana regeneration and ability to perform mental tasks will improve. True masters of this skill can walk through hellfire without losing their resolve. +2% Mana Regen rate while meditating. +1% Concentration permanently.