Watcher's Question: A LitRPG Saga (Life in Exile Book 2)

by Sean Oswald

  The frayed nerves of the guards were almost done in when they heard Sara start shrieking. Swords and bows were drawn as all eyes turned towards the sound the cry had come from. As vigilant as the guards were though, both Krinnk and Balayria managed to reach her before any of her assigned protectors. There at her feet was the source of her scream. A monstrous humanoid figure lay, scarred and horribly disfigured at her feet.

  “Is it alive?” she asked with a voice that trembled.

  “I don’t know, little one, please come back from it and let these men do what must be done,” Balayria answered.

  “What?” Sara looked up with wide tearful eyes at her half-orc friend. “If it’s hurt we have to help it.”

  “Not it, him.” Krinnk said, “Red horns are dangerous. See he is breathing. Krinnk will finish him.”

  “No!” and while Sara’s screamed command had no magical power upon her first monster friend, it did stay the little green hand from thrusting a dagger down into the slowly rising chest. Krinnk was first and foremost Sara’s friend and he would not lightly go against his friend.

  Then it wasn’t just Sara who was shrieking as the figure sat upright and then stumbled to his feet before bolting towards the south without so much as a word.

  Eisuke was very frustrated. He knew that it was a good idea to stop for the evening but still couldn’t help but feel the weight of responsibility upon him. Why the Lady and her Consort felt it necessary to explore a mine like common prospectors was a mystery to him. Nonetheless, he liked Lady Emiri. She was vibrant and bold, not only her but also her half-blood daughter. He was willing to believe the best about her and accept that she didn’t fully understand the horror of a swarm. She was after all new to her duties as a Lady of the moon elf people. Her obligations to the Throne and circle might not yet be apparent to her.

  It occurred to the Forest Warden that part of the problem was that Lady Emiri likely thought of the single nesting of tree sappers that she had described as a true swarm. The real danger was the nestings that the initial swarm would make. From those seeds would come the true harvest of destruction. That was if they couldn’t stop them in time.

  Eisuke was drawn out of his thoughts by the sound of a ruckus at the southern edge of the camp. He went running and saw in his peripheral vision that Sir Belmore was likewise running towards the disturbance. As he got closer, the situation became clear. One of the mixed squads of elves and humans was engaged with a towering figure. Standing at over eight feet tall, brown fur with red tufts covered rippling muscles. The creature was clearly wounded, but minotaurs were not to be taken lightly. He had never seen one in person, but moon elf history was replete with tales of minotaur mercenaries used by each of the nations in the original settling of Talos.

  The minotaur’s right arm hung limply at its side with a massive battle axe in hand, yet the huge warrior didn’t so much as lift the weapon. Eisuke heard Sir Belmore cry out, “Bring him down alive if you can.” The three humans responded immediately by leaping upon his arm or torso while the elves drew bows and started shouting in the moon elf tongue for the minotaur to drop to his knees. It was almost comical how the bovine arm flung the human clinging to it ten feet through the air. The minotaur showed no signs of surrendering and so one of the elves loosed an arrow into the meaty portion of its right calf.

  Eisuke was finally close enough now to see what was wrong with the minotaur. The entire right side of its body was a bloody mess of burns. No, he thought, not burns at least not from fire, maybe from acid though. Its arm was raw with the bulging bands of its bicep exposed to sight with no skin or fur to cover it. Up and down the right side was much the same. There was even a sucking sound indicating that perhaps a lung had been punctured. Worst of all, the flesh of its face was eaten down to the jaw bone revealing a grim rictus of a smile which could never be turned off.

  The man bull swayed from side to side as if intoxicated. Each fumbling step threatened to take him to the ground. Then with a flip mid-air, a small green body slammed into his shoulder blades from behind, feet first. Krinnk’s body probably only weighed less than a sixth of the minotaur’s weight but the force was enough to topple the already wobbly figure. The body hit the ground with a thud, but fortunately, no one was caught underneath it while the goblin stood upon the back of the fallen beating his chest and howling in victory.

  After finishing the mapping of the tunnel, they all received another notification that they had finished mapping the required portion of the mine. So the only quest requirement preventing them from leaving the mine was finding the mithril ore. Kraden, who was not resting as comfortably as he could, pessimistically pointed out that perhaps the hell slime had consumed all the mithril. Daichi said that in all his years Eloria never worked like that. No quest was ever given that couldn’t be completed, even if it might almost be suicidal.

  This left them with the sober conclusion that they were going to have to get to the bottom of the cavern at the end of the left fork. This of course meant confronting what they had started calling the queen centipede. They were one man down, but didn’t really have any option, so bug hunting it was.

  Rather than wait for a new day and waste time, they decided it needed to be done now. Jaselm and Dave carried the wounded miner to the zone line and left him. He protested that he wanted to come down the stairs with them, but finally nodded his head and acquiesced to his baron when it was pointed out how dangerous that would be not only for him but for all of them. The only hope was that if they all fell to the queen, the quest would be deemed failed, and he would at least be able to leave the zone, but no one really believed that.

  Once, Kraden was placed as safely as they could, everyone else assembled at the top of the circular stairs. The team discussed strategy some but mostly knew what they wanted to do. The main concern was getting rid of all the extras before they engaged the queen. With that in mind, Daichi snuck down the stairs to scout out the situation.

  Twenty minutes later, he returned and said the numbers were dramatically reduced but that from what he could see there were still two of the giant centipedes, a few dozen smaller ones and the queen. After the swarm of smaller ones they killed yesterday, it was much easier to see the mother of them all, and from what Daichi reported, she was a doozy. His best estimate was that she was more than six feet wide and something similar in height although she didn’t move much, so it was hard for him to get an accurate read. The monk could only guess at her length but put it at something like fifty feet, maybe more.

  They decided that the best option was for Daichi to try and pull the remaining giant centipedes up one at a time. As swift as the wind, the monk headed back down. Mere minutes later, he was running up shouting, “Adds.”

  Jaselm braced himself for the initial impact and Dave took a position near him ready to deal with whatever else was coming. The worst part about fighting in the tunnel so far was that he had not been able to rely upon his big gun. Outside of a dungeon, his Minor Enlarge spell turned him into a monster of a warrior, but in the confined space, it wasn’t usable. It had really given him pause about his character choices and made him think about ways to have a backup plan. That would have to wait for another time though as right now they had incoming.

  The giant centipede blasted up behind Daichi, who just barely managed to make it to the top of the stairs ahead of the overgrown insect. He activated his Feign Death skill and fell to the floor while Jaselm activated Stalwart Stance as he absorbed the oncoming rush of the centipede. What was different this time was the three dozen or more of the smaller centipedes, none more than two feet long, which swarmed off of the giant’s back and all continued around Jaselm to cover Daichi.

  Dave ran around behind Jaselm and went to the monk’s aid. He was trapped in an untenable position. If the monk ended his feigned death too soon then he might still have agro from the giant centipede and things could go off the rails very quickly. On the other hand, if he just laid there then he was going to take damage
from dozens of tiny centipedes. Sure enough in the party interface, his health bar was beginning to drop. Out of the corner of his eye, Dave saw Emily moving to heal Daichi. “No, focus on Jaselm, only heal him if he hits 25% health.”

  After issuing that command, Dave began swinging his sword and cutting the larger of the bugs that he was able to hit without too much fear of cutting the man beneath. Even while doing this, Dave couldn’t help but shake his head in awe at how the Daichi was laying there as though dead even while being repeatedly bitten by centipedes sometimes with inch long venomous fangs. It was a little unnerving, and he could only hope that the monk had some sort of immunity to poisons. Such was a common theme in many games he had played on Earth.

  Jaselm yelled out that he had control of the giant centipede and in a leap Daichi was back up on his feet, flicking bugs off of himself as quickly as he could. Mira targeted him with a regeneration spell, and seeming to have things well in hand, Dave turned towards the giant centipede. Jaselm kept its attention while he hacked off legs and was soon joined by Mira and the monk after they finished up with the smaller centipedes. In nothing flat after that the giant centipede was down.

  You have defeated: Giant Centipede lvl 18. XP: 108 x .7 numerical penalty x .7 Tier Penalty x 2 (killing blow) divided by 5 party members =21 + racial bonus 50%= 31 XP

  Interesting, so either Kraden was too far away or too injured to count as a party member, and while they didn’t get any XP from the cluster of smaller centipedes, their involvement did lower the numerical penalty.

  Emily went around healing everyone up, and as soon as everyone was back at full health, they sat down and had a short snack. They discussed whether the final large centipede would come up on its own or if it would stay down and defend the queen. There was also the issue of the dozens of tiny centipedes had remained below. At one point in the conversation, she brought up the fact that she had leveled three times since they had begun this journey and hadn’t spent any of the stat or character points.

  That revelation brought looks of incredulity from Daichi and Jaselm along with a snicker from Mira. Dave however asked, “Have you given any consideration to how you want to spend those points?”

  “Honestly, not really. But … I was thinking that with this fight coming up, it might be stupid to not spend them if they would make a difference. I really am not sure what would be the wisest way to use them though.”

  Both Daichi and Jaselm were of course reluctant to make suggestions to anyone else about how to spend points, but Mira had no end of suggestions, mainly centered around raising her Constitution and Intelligence. So they discussed how if she put all nine points into Intelligence it would increase her mana pool by ninety points which would be the equivalent of three Minor Heals or one and half Lesser Regenerations. As it was her mana regeneration with even a high quality mana regeneration potion was enough to keep her casting her heal spells as fast as they came off of cool-down. The other sobering part was that with only tier one and two healing spells and only one of each kind, it might be necessary for Jaselm to use a potion if the queen hit too hard. No way to tell until it was too late. It wasn’t like there was a wiki to look at.

  So as they discussed that, it became clear the way that Emily could best contribute would be in helping deal with the little centipedes in between casting heals. She shuddered at the thought of it, but Dave said two little words which bolstered her confidence, “Ninja healer.”

  With that in mind, they decided that it would be best to split her points between Agility, Constitution, and Endurance. Three points into Agility increased her stat to thirty-two, Constitution to twelve because of her racial penalty and Endurance to thirteen. The extra speed and damage with her daggers would help and while twenty health wasn’t much compared to some here, every little bit counts. The way Emily shuddered as her body underwent the changes made Dave chuckle, “Hmm extra endurance.”

  Knowing what he was referencing, Emily gave him that look and said, “What are you thirteen years old?”

  Mira just groaned at the playful interaction and said, “Get a room.” While Jaselm looked embarrassed for a chosen to speak like that, and Daichi just smiled sardonically.

  The moment passed all too quickly, and the old monk was running down the stairs to try and pull the last giant centipede. This time they planned to let Mira hit it with Flame Fan before it reached the top of the stairs, but likewise, Dave was planning on binding the front most legs of the giant centipede at the top of the stairs. That way they hoped to kill as many of the lesser pests that came with it.

  The strategy worked like a charm. Mira’s spell destroyed most of the small critters who had hitched a ride up with the giant one and even dealt a healthy amount of damage (142) on a critical hit to the giant centipede. His binding caused its front legs to rip off from its own momentum, and Daichi, free of the need to lose agro, was able to immediately enter the fray. Emily got practice running along to slice and dice at the small creepy crawlies and took a perverse joy in seeing their wiggling bodies part as easily as water before her razor sharp daggers. When all was said and done, they had dropped the giant centipede without it scoring a single point of damage in under a minute, and the only health anyone lost was to a couple of bites from small pests.

  “That was scary but it felt better to be doing something rather than just standing there watching and waiting to heal. I don’t feel quite so useless now,” Emily spoke with a sad note in voice.

  The men all looked at her with varying expressions intending to display support, but it was appropriately Dave who spoke, “The healer is the heart of the team, just like you have always been the heart of our family. No healer, no team. Kraden would have been dead, Mira and Daichi would have had scars from the acid. All because of you. And me, well me, how many times would I have been dead in Eloria but for you. The boar, the tree, the dungeon, each of those times and more you have healed me.”

  Emily stood there shaking, moved by his words, but unable to accept them. The stress of their new life had a way of poking at her heart in the oddest of ways at the most inopportune of times, but Dave wasn’t done speaking.

  “More than that though. More than healing my physical body. You provide me with a clear conscience of the right thing to do and the encouragement to drive me on. It isn’t just me either. The people of Eris’ Rise practically worship the ground you walk on and these two men here with us. The esteemed paladin and the wise monk, neither of these men are here because of me. They are with us now only because of you.”

  Dave took his wife in his arms and held her close, speaking softly into her ear, “So I won’t hear any more of this nonsense about you being useless.” His voice rose in tenor and passion as he added, “No one speaks like that about my wife, not even you.”

  From there things cheered up. They were doing their best to encourage one another and so optimism was high that they would find the mithril down in the queen’s cavern. So it was that they decided to take a short nap. After all, night or day made very little difference inside a mine.

  Four hours later, everyone was once again moving around. They had moved up by Kraden to camp near him, and as he wasn’t tired, he had kept watch and promised to wake them if anything came, but the tunnels had been quiet. It was only when they once again approached the cavern that the clicking sound became loud again. This time though, it wasn’t the chittering of thousands upon thousands of feet. No, now it was the hard pounding of much larger insect feet. Feet which cracked the stone beneath it. A final discussion of strategy was gone over. Emily imparted her Minor Blessing to everyone and then they began their descent.

  The stairs around the cavern clearly had been formed by hand. So at some point in the past, this mine had been worked, but apparently not for a long time as evidenced by the fungus, slime, and arthropod interlopers. Even on these stairs there were tiny bits of the bright colored fungus growing. What the party was really watchful for was any sign of another black slime. The one ques
tion tickling the back of Dave’s mind was that he had not seen any real evidence of a food source for the centipedes.

  Once the group got closer to the ground level, Dave was able to see that the floor still had a number of smaller centipedes moving around. Within less than a minute he counted two dozen and some of them were larger than the small ones that had formed the attacking swarm, but none were more than four feet in length. What really caught his attention was the queen though. She was every bit as massive as Daichi had described, and while she seemed fairly content to lie still, that would likely all change once they entered her territory.

  A closer look revealed that there was a steady stream of the lesser centipedes carrying what looked like bits of slimy meat from a back tunnel to the queen which she voraciously gobbled up in a never ending stream. The only reason that Dave was able to see beyond the range of their torch light was that there was light streaming down from the top of the cavern. He hadn’t noticed it before, but down here in the darker portions and with the light streaming down more directly upon them it was obvious. None of the places above looked like they were large enough for a human to climb out of though, so it wasn’t a way to bypass the dungeon’s requirements.

  They reached the ground floor without so much as a single insect veering over to attack them. It was eerie how focused they were on feeding the queen. Either none of the creatures had detected them yet or they weren’t perceived as a threat. That just didn’t seem possible, so the more that Dave thought about it, the more he guessed that the queen wasn’t worried if some larger pieces of meat wanted to deliver themselves to her mouth. They would just have to show her that these particular meat bags had a bite.