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

by Sean Oswald

  Dave started to whisper instructions and once in range he cast Assess Enemy.

  Queen Centipede: Level 29 Health: 5890

  Interesting. So she was not only larger, but considerably higher level than the giant versions and her health pool was almost six times as large. He hoped this was very comparable to the boss fights from his games where if the tank could manage to occupy the boss it was really just a matter of grinding down her health. Well, no use waiting. He instructed everyone into their locations. Jaselm took point with Daichi and himself flanking the tank and prepared to attack from the sides once there was an opening. Mira stayed the furthest back and was assigned to watch Emily’s health if she needed a heal but otherwise to try to blast the crap out of the queen once agro was secure. Emily would not only be the healer but also the sweeper, running interference for any of the smaller ones unless she got overwhelmed in which case the nearest flanker would help her.

  They got within thirty feet of the queen before the chittering noise stopped. The little ones all froze in response to some command which Dave couldn’t perceive. As for the queen, she started to rise up. The first ten feet or so of her body held upright so she towered over her opponents. The bladed flanges on her front legs were easily a foot long, and if Dave didn’t miss his guess, they had some sort of greenish venom dripping off of them.

  Jaselm charged forward seeking to take the initiative while the two flankers moved up but not as close. Emily only stayed close enough to be able to target the paladin with a healing spell. Unfortunately, the queen’s previously sluggish behavior had given them false expectations. When she struck at what she perceived as the charging prey, it was without hesitation and far faster than Jaselm could react to. His raised shield saved him from being pincered between the bladed legs as they came in from both sides, but his sword was only able to deflect the left leg, and he took a glancing blow to his side which ripped a hole clear into his armor. (38) The deflection, armor, and tank buff combined to minimize the damage but was still scary

  The real damage which the attack caused was the venom now coursing through Jaselm’s veins. He held the shield up to block another blow as he stumbled backwards. The poison caused his muscles to spasm, and he dropped his sword from a hand which now couldn’t grasp it. The fire in his veins caused him to retch.

  Daichi burst forward with his technique Dragon Fist. The monk utilized the Fury and Mana in his body into this unique skill and his body accelerated faster as he closed the twenty feet separating him from the queen. Just as the extended fist impacted the fourth segment at his chest level, a burst of flame erupted forth. The fist shattered the thick armor of that segment sending cracks running all over it even as flame danced up and down the queen’s body. Her armor protected most of her body from the fire, but it was intense enough that it crisped up and burned off a number of legs. The momentum generated by the attack magically increased the monk’s mass upon impact, and so the blow was colossal in its impact flipping the beast upon her back and dealing (2075) damage between the kinetic and elemental aspects.

  Everyone else paused in awe at the old monk. The side effect of his attack having been a loud roar which reverberated throughout the cavern, a sound which had never meant to issue forth from elven lungs. Daichi stood there panting. Whereas a moment before he had been destruction incarnate, now he seemed to be exhausted and his age showed through.

  As the echo of the roar ended a flurry of activity began. Jaselm’s retching form was dragged back by Emily who somehow summoned the strength to pull the heavy man inch by inch until Daichi joined her in dragging the paladin. The plan had obviously fallen apart almost at the moment of contact, so Mira fell back into her old pattern and sprang forward while casting Flame Fan followed by Frost Wave in rapid succession to down the small pests who had begun to swarm at them.

  For his part, Dave felt time slow down. That sense of clarity driven by battle awareness made him act in ways he might not have otherwise thought to do so. He dove forward in a roll and picked up Jaselm’s sword of the ground even as he was casting Minor Enlarge. A pair of notifications popped up, but he pushed them to the side without even looking as his body swelled to its enlarged size.

  He swung both swords in rapid succession aiming for the space between the armored segments. First he landed a blow with his primary sword that triggered his double strike skill, and on top of that due to the queen’s compromised position, the second hit was also a critical.(138, 243) Then more awkwardly he drove Jaselm’s sword into that same soft space as he sought to cut his opponent in half. (118)

  His tactic failed though as the queen’s wiggling caused her body to rock and then roll over knocking him back. Even his increased size was not enough to stop so much weight. Desperation hit him. With Jaselm down, tanking fell to him but he just wasn’t really equipped for it. Maybe Daichi could pull another miracle out of his hat like that last massive blow.

  Then the beast rose up as if to bite down on him, but he lacked the shield that Jaselm had used to protect himself. Strangely though, no attack came and the creature seemed distracted by something over to his right side. He looked and saw Mira casting spells as fast as he had ever seen her. She must be chaining quickened spells together, which was gonna burn through even her considerable amount of mana. Ice daggers (62), magical missiles (43), and a web all flew from her. Each caused damage, but none could pierce the heavy carapace. The queen struck then. Slowed somewhat by the webbing but her massive strength ultimately tearing it to shreds. Dave ran on his enlarged legs, crying out. Yet there was no way that he could reach her in time. It was too much to consider that once again he might have to watch Mira die before him.

  To his shock though, the centipede struck a space ten feet in front of her while she seemed to fade into the background under the effect of a camouflage spell. Closing the gap, he saw what he had missed before. A giant spider the size of a pony right where the centipede was striking. The dim light in the cavern and flicking of the torches had kept him from seeing it before, not because it was really there and he had been blind to it, but because it was the product of Mira’s illusion spell. Almost upon the queen again, he recognized the spell and saw the queen’s frustration. The beast kept attacking the spider which did nothing more than move side to side in an effort to avoid the bladed legs. By using attack spells and casting them from behind the illusion, Mira had convinced the centipede that one of its arch enemies was right before it.

  Dave would have to focus on her brilliance later as he quickly cast Sure Strike and activated Offensive Stance and Flanking before swinging both blades for that space he had been hacking at before. The distraction would only last so long, and he needed to make this count. His blade burst into flame as he activated that magic and brought it down on the creature while whispering a Minor Binding spell to try to keep it in place a second or two longer. The first blade guided by magic hit perfectly for a catastrophic critical on the nearly severed space (1371) while the second clumsier off-hand attack hit the lip of the carapace and slid away with only minimal damage. (48)

  He had nearly cut through, but almost only counts in hand grenades and horseshoes. The price of failure was delivered by a massive strike from the queen’s tail. (532) Thousands of pounds of arthropod slammed into him and sent him bouncing like a child’s ball across the cavern floor before his broken body came to rest not far from where Jaselm lay propped up on one elbow trying to recover from the poison. If it weren’t for the health ring he had borrowed from Mira, Dave’s story in Eloria would have ended there. The massive injuries including broken bones, lacerated organs, and head trauma sent him into shock so that he couldn’t trust his eyes because he almost would have sworn that he saw Emily jumping up onto the queen’s back.

  While Dave was being flung across the cavern, Emily had snuck around the beast and leapt into the air onto its back. She activated her dagger’s daily ability to auto-crit with increased damage and struck for the spot that Dave had been hacking at for
(201) dmg severing the last links of sinew which held the segments together dividing the creature in half. Both halves continued to flop around, its remaining health making it a threat still. Emily immediately activated her Cloak of Fleeting Smoke turning vaporous as she fled.

  When Dave woke up, it was to his wife crouching over him as she channeled as much energy as she could into her healing spell form. She pushed the spell to its limits and beyond, but it was Tier 1 and could only do so much. He was still in excruciating pain with the bones that were slowly bending. She had to manipulate each bone to bring the parts back together as she healed otherwise he would end up crippled. He passed in and out of consciousness throughout the process. Eventually though, he was mended with some help from the rest of the team. Daichi’s knowledge of anatomy was almost as extensive as Emily’s, and both Mira and Jaselm were able to add in some healing power now that the paladin was free of the poison.

  The first words that he managed to creak out were, “Is it dead?” They all took turns filling him in on how the fight had ended and Mira had blasted it to bits from a safe distance after it was halved.

  That made him feel relaxed enough to lay his head back down on the pillow improvised from his backpack. He sighed in exhaustion. Healing might restore his health, and he certainly trusted Emily, but that didn’t mean that pain and injury such as he had just endured wouldn’t take it out of a man. He tried to relax and regain his strength before whatever the next challenge that Eloria would throw at them. He took a moment to sort through the notifications that he had received during the battle and later when unconscious.

  Warning! You are touching a Blessed Blade. If your alignment and faith are not compatible with the blessing Deity then you will suffer the backlash.

  Congratulations! You have passed the minimum threshold. You may use the blade blessed by Shanelle.

  Hmm, interesting but not something to worry about right now so he looked at the second.

  Congratulations! You have achieved the final requirement for the class Sword Binder. You have wielded two swords while utilizing Shaping magic.

  You have now met the requirements to gain the rare class: Sword Binder. Do you wish to accept this class?

  Dave felt a surge of emotion. He initially went to choose yes, but something stayed in his hand. If he chose this, it was forever. This would be his class for the rest of his life. He had come to grips better than the rest of the Nelsons that Eloria was his new home. This path would shape the rest of that life. With that in mind, Dave chose not to make a decision. Nothing could be easy though as that lead to another surprise.

  You have failed to make a choice on your Sword Binder Class Quest. If you do not make a choice within twenty-four hours you will be forever barred from this class.

  The final notification he received was simple enough.

  You have defeated: Queen Centipede lvl 29. XP: 174 x .7 numerical penalty x 1.2 Tier Bonus x 2 (killing blow) divided by 5 party members =58 + racial bonus 50%= 87 XP

  He was still too sore all over to sort through all the ramifications involved, so he decided he would talk to Emily once they made camp to rest. For now, it would be enough if he could stand up. Once he stood up, it was only a quick step over to where Daichi and Jaselm were discussing whether they should start looking for the mithril ore now or head back to the mine entrance where Kraden was. Dave began to say that he was tired and everyone could probably use a break, but as he was speaking he noticed a pile of bones under the area where the queen had been positioned at first. No big deal except …

  “Hey, is that a human skull mixed in with all those bones?” Dave asked

  Both men immediately turned their focus onto the pile of bones before the old monk said in a weary tone, “I doubt that we are the first party to have come into this mine and who knows if the pests have a way of gathering prey outside and dragging it in.”

  “Yes, I know this, Daichi, but aren’t dungeon creatures only supposed to be able to operate within a dungeon? And for that matter, if they can only operate within a dungeon, then what was feeding all of those pests? Where were all those bits of meat that the little ones were feeding to the queen coming from?”

  “Good point,” Jaselm chimed in.

  The more he looked, the more indications that there were human or maybe elven skeletons and that they had armor on them.

  “Well, it might be our lucky day. It’s not like the boss here drops any loot, so maybe we will find something of value in all those bones.”

  “Boss? Drop loot? Are these more terms from your homeland?” Daichi asked.

  “Yeah never mind, I’m sorry, sometimes I just get upset that some of the best parts got left out here.” His answer caused both the men with him to appear even more confused, but he didn’t wait for any more questions, “So do you think it’s safe for us to search through the bones for any items of value?”

  “I haven’t seen any but the tiniest of the pests in the cavern since the battle ended, so either they are hiding on the other side of that little tunnel, or they have all been dispatched,” Daichi answered as he looked around the room.

  That was good enough for Dave, who needed the excitement of searching for loot to take his mind off of the confusion he felt about the class quest. He walked over to the bone pile. Most of them had been crushed. There were however an assortment of animal bones that he could recognize. Whether they were from a bear or deer, they were likely animals which had wandered into the dungeon and become prey for the arthropods. Fortunately, all of the flesh had been stripped from the bones, so there was no gore to deal with. He called for Mira to come over as her innate class ability to sense nearby magic might make it possible for her to determine if they missed any treasures.

  While Mira felt out with her senses, Dave and the other men dragged out four distinct humanoid corpses. Scrambling to remember anything useful from old episodes of that show about the bone doctor lady and the FBI agent, he didn’t know that much about how to identify bodies. The largest of the bodies still had a breastplate and greaves on the skeleton. There were two smaller skeletons, one of which was adorned in now rotting leather armor and the other in a red robe which was torn all over. The final set of remains was smaller, almost child sized but had an odd shaped skeleton. Daichi identified it as belonging to a half-fey, but Dave didn’t take the time to ask about what that meant.

  Mixed in with the bones were small pieces of prismatic shell or very fine pottery. When he asked Mira what she had been able to sense, she didn’t answer and instead seemed to be concentrating very hard.

  “It’s odd, dad. I can sense the presence of magic here, but it's like my senses keep getting bounced back at me.”

  “I don’t know the specifics of your class young one, but has that ever happened to you before?” Daichi asked, taking on his teacher's tone.

  “No, and admittedly, I have only had this class for a few weeks, but its processes are fairly logical. What I am a bit ashamed to admit is that once I started to get these odd resonances, I thought to use my Esoteric Senses skill and scope out further around us. I can’t believe I didn’t think to use that before now.”

  “Well we all live and learn. Did your Esoteric Senses reveal anything to you?”

  “I can assure us that there are no threats in this cavern or back up in the tunnels above for some distance, but what is through that tunnel in the back of the cavern I cannot say. It is as if my sense dies when it goes that way. There is no rebound, no echo. It is as if there were an endless void there which absorbs the mana powering my skills.” Mira was clearly troubled by what she was describing and this prompted Emily to come beside her and put an arm around her. That Mira allowed it was further testament to how disturbed she was.

  “That sounds very ominous,” Dave began, “So I say that we drag these humanoid skeletons and any weapons, armor of pieces of gear we can find in the bone pile back up to where Kraden is and call it a day. We can analyze the items in relative safety up there and tack
le the problem of that tunnel and the mithril ore tomorrow.”

  Everyone nodded and began looking through the bones, anxious to get away from the mysterious back tunnel.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “The sparkle of magic dazzles the eye and sings to the child in each of us.” — Mercer Thalion 1st Archmage of Miromara

  Everyone sat around and munched on their limited rations. While exhausted, spirits were high. There was less than ten percent of the mine unexplored and all that they needed was to find some mithril ore. The discussion seemed to drift past Mira’s unease about that back tunnel. That was fine with Emily. She didn’t like to see Mira scared. Instead, she enjoyed seeing the excitement that both her husband and daughter had when looking at some weapons, armor, a couple slender sticks of wood, and a book.

  One surprising development was that Jaselm announced the medallions worn around the neck of each of the recovered skeletons were the symbols for the Adventurer’s Guild of Theriot. He explained to those who didn’t know what this was that the Adventurer’s Guild was an organization which recruited, trained, and assembled free spirited individuals who wanted to explore the world and gain treasures. He also let them know that the branch in Theriot was the main headquarters for the entire guild all across the continent of Talos. Theriot apparently was also the capital city of Faelora, the human nation which was southwest of Albia.

  Daichi snorted in disdain at the explanation and when asked said that no true elf would ever leave his place in the circle to travel with members of other races. No one felt like pushing him about it though. There had been enough fighting, and they didn’t need to be fighting with one another. Emily though could understand the sentiment. Whether that represented a greater shift in her personality towards being a true elf or if it was her own dislike of the game elements of Eloria would be anyone’s guess.