by Jakob Tanner
Chip swirled around Will. “You’re Master Clay’s older brother? Nice to meetcha. I’m Chip. I’m a ghost spirit. I’m immaterial. I like helping Clay and going on adventures. What do you like to do?”
I turned to Will. “Are you going to make me look like a tool in front of my friends, or are you going to show us what you can do?”
Will cracked his neck. “Alright, here it goes.”
He stretched out his arms and clenched his fists. Bright red orbs formed around his hands. His hair flew upward from the power he was conjuring. His eyes glowed with a bright flaming energy.
“Let me introduce you to,” he screamed, “Warlock blood magic!”
He hurled the orbs, one after the other, right into the worm’s esophagus.
The worm shriveled and shook. It burrowed itself back underground. A mound of dirt appeared as the worm slithered towards us. Serena, Shade, and Jackson all jumped out of the way. It continued passed them towards us spellcasters.
“Damn, he’s coming for us,” I shouted. “Smart worm wants to take out the ranged DPS and healer. Everyone back!”
Kari dashed one way while Will went another. I electric blinked a few meters back. The worm burst forth from the ground again, towering over us.
Serena ran in our direction and shouted “Protect Thy Allies,” drawing the dread worm’s aggro back onto her.
Chip swirled through the air and let out an energy blast right into the worm’s throat and esophagus. The worm squirmed in pain as the magical attack did damage on the worm’s inside.
I followed Chip’s lead and jumped in the air, creating mana puddles at my feet, going higher and higher. I hovered over the worm’s mouth.
“What the hell are you doing bro,” shouted Will.
“Something crazy!”
I fell towards the monster’s throat. I cocked back my arm as it crackled with electricity. I threw my palm forth right as my hand landed at the tip of the worm’s mouth. The worm’s fangs snapped shut, enveloping my whole arm. A sharp rush of pain went into my flesh. The worm’s teeth dug into me. I shut my eyes. The worm vibrated and shook spasmodically, my skull shock attack rippling through its insides. The lightning wreaked havoc on its entrails. My HP fell by 50% as the creature tore my arm apart. Skull shock landed its paralyze debuff. The worm released its grip on me. My arm slid out from its mouth and I collapsed onto the ground.
The worm flailed and then flopped to the dirt, squirming in paralysis. Serena leapt in the air and unleashed crushing blow on the creature with her thick giant blade. Jackson unleashed a rapid attack of punches and kicks. Will threw out more glowing bursts of blood magic. Shade swiped his kunai across the creature’s vulnerable stomach , triggering his assassinate ability.
+295 EXP!
Shade danced over the fallen dread worm. “I got the killing blow,” he sang. “I sealed the deal, without me you’d all be dead!”
“Go Shade,” shouted Chip swirling around him.
I rubbed my head in exhaustion. The battle was too close for comfort and the dread worm was merely a trash mob. They’d be littered all across this environment.
Serena sheathed her blade behind her back and crossed her arms. She stared Will down. “You took an awfully long time to jump into the battle.”
“A lot of warlock spells deal friendly fire damage,” said Will. “It’s what balances out the class’ high magic attack power abilities. I’d never fought with you guys before and I didn’t want to accidentally hurt any of you.”
Serena turned to me with a face which said: can you believe this guy?
I shrugged. “Sounds reasonable to me. Though it brings up a good point—we need to rethink our battle strategy, such as—”
A horrific shriek came from above us. I looked up to the sky and my stomach lurched.
We were in a very dangerous zone.
11
Flying towards us were sickly half-birds, half-female creatures. Harpies. They had bright orange and red feathers on their wings and pale white skin. Their heads were humanoid and looked like women, except for the spiky red hair and sharp eyes and fanged teeth. Their chest and legs were human as well, but then their feet turned into talons with sharp claws. They also had red tails swirling from behind their backs.
“Quick question,” said Will. “Is anyone else thinking—”
“Trust me mate,” said Shade. “Don’t say it out loud.”
“Say what?” said Serena as she rushed the incoming beasts head-on. “That these birds are sexy-as-heck!”
The harpies turned their attention to the blade soldier. The leader of the pack flew straight at Serena with her claws out. Serena lifted up her sword defensively. The other two harpies flew and came at Serena from her rear. Kari threw defensive buff spells at Serena to help mitigate the attack, but the harpies were too fast, dealing their critical hits before the boons arrived. They stabbed their claws into Serena, piercing through her armor and leaving open wounds.
“Argh,” shouted Serena, holding up her sword defending against the leader harpy.
Jackson jumped in the air to deal an attack, but the harpy swerved and dodged the blow. Shade emerged from stealth with a backstab attack on the other and the demonic bird woman dodged his attack as well.
“Their height advantage is making it difficult to land hits on them,” said Jackson.
“Chip go distract them,” I said.
“Aye aye Master Clay,” said Chip, floating up to the harpies and throwing out ghost magic on them. He shot hypnotize on the leader.
“You hate your other harpy friends now and want to see them dead,” declared Chip.
The harpy leader let her claws go of Serena’s blade and turned on its opponents.
The two harpies fought with their leader.
“Master Clay, the hypnotize debuff won’t last forever,” said Chip. “We’ll need another strategy when they realize they don’t actually hate each other and are actually harpy best buds!”
I stretched out my arms in front of me and triggered the summon bound spirit ability. A bright glow of silver light formed in front of me. The orb slowly took the shape of a giant bird. Gryph let out an angry wail upon appearing on the battlefield. The harpies, falling out of their hypnotized daze, turned and looked at the legendary bird with fear. Then their eyebrows slanted and they barred their fangs. They quickly turned their attention back to Serena.
“Clay, distract them!” cried Kari, who was hovering over Serena’s wounded body, healing her.
I conjured fireballs in both hands and whipped them across the battlefield at the swarm of harpies. They turned their heads to me, pissed off for roasting their feathers.
What the gods did you summon me into Clay? Gryph grumbled via psy-link.
I hopped onto the gryphon’s back and pulled his feathers, so he knew to fly upward.
Don’t worry Gryph, I said in our mind link. Let’s take this fight to the skies.
The wind shot into my eyes as we soared up into the clouds, far away from the Dead Plains below us. I held onto Gryph with my left hand while I let my right arm hang at my side. My fingers gripped the air as a handle made of sparkling magical bright blue ice formed in my hand. The grip grew until there was a cross guard and long glowing blade with particles of mana and ice swirling around it.
Alright, we’ve gone high enough. Sweep around and we’ll come at them from either side.
Either side?
You’ll see.
Gryph flipped around in the air. The harpies were soaring straight for us. Gryph flew at them claws first. One second I was riding on his back, sword raised, ready to stab my blade through the guts of these demonic winged beasts, and in another, I was nothing but a burst of electricity overtop Gryph. I reappeared from my electric blink behind the harpies, who were still charging Gryph head on. I power jumped behind them and shoved my ice sword into the back of the leader harpy. Critical hits stacked in my HUD. Gryph slashed through them. We crisscrossed each other in the air. I tw
irled in the clouds. My stomach lurched from the insane aerial acrobatics we were pulling off. I let go of my ice blade. I pushed out my arms and kept my palms wide, fingers stretched. Two orbs of bright light formed in my palms. Solar Blast. A burst of solar energy—bright flaming hot light of the sun—blasted into the trio of harpies. They flailed in the sky. Gryph let loose a twister blast with his feathers, knocking the harpies back to me.
I electric blinked in the middle of the sky and reappeared back on Gryph. We circled the harpies in the air, kiting them as I whipped fireballs, whittling their remaining HP one by one. Their roasted corpses fell back to the Dead Plains below.
+200 EXP!
+200 EXP!
+200 EXP!
Congratulations! Your primary class (Druid) has leveled up (Level 24). You have gained (1) class skill point for your primary class.
Can I go now? grumbled Gryph in the psy-link.
Shh. Let’s fly back down to the ground. Did you wanna taste harpy meat?
Now you’re talking my language.
You mean, thinking your language.
Don’t be a know-it-all, you know what I mean. Let’s go.
Ha, fair enough. There’s also dread worm meat if you fancy that too.
Gryph’s feathers perked with excitement. He dipped in the air and rushed towards the Dead Plains. When we arrived on the plains, the party—all five of them—were standing awkwardly. They’d been hit by the Dead Plain’s wind debuff again.
Don’t land yet, Gryph.
But I’m so curious to taste the harpy and worm meat. Why are you torturing me in this way, Clay?
The wind died down and Gryph landed. I hopped off his back and the bird flew over to the fallen harpies and devoured their dead roasted flesh. I waited for the wind debuffs to time out.
“This wind is driving me crazy,” whined Shade. “How are we going to get across this bloody prairie if we have to stop every few minutes because we’ve been blinded by the bloody wind!”
“There must be a way around it,” said Jackson.
“Maybe there’s special equipment to protect you from it,” said Kari. “Should we go back to Crystal Port. Maybe the crafters and artisans know how to combat this?”
“We don’t have time to go back,” said Will. “We will lose a day doing so.”
“But if we don’t go back we’ll be wasting more time here than we can afford,” said Serena.
“There must be a way to sort this out,” I said, scratching the back of my head.
Gryph had his beak dipped over the carcass of the harpy leader, pulling out entrails and tossing them in the air triumphantly, before swallowing the flesh whole. I’d never seen the bird so gleeful as he was when he was feasting.
The dread worm carcass laid there, waiting for Gryph to devour it. The worm didn’t have eyes, and it travelled underground to avoid the wind. How did the hogs, boars, and harpies deal with these insane area conditions?
I hurried over to the harpy carcass and Gryph barked at me.
Back off, get your own harpy!
Relax. I don’t want to eat your leftovers.
Sure. That’s what every bird looking for scraps says. I know your game, Clay.
I promise I won’t take a bite out of your harpy, I only want to inspect it.
I’ll agree to your terms Clay but if you break your promise, I’ll have to reconsider the terms of our agreement. You don’t own me, Clay—
Yeah, yeah, you remind me of this every time I summon you. Can I please inspect the harpy?
Gryph bowed and backed away from the torn apart harpy carcass. I stood over the corpse and took in the lootable items from the harpy.
New Item Alert!
-Harpy Bones (x10)
-Slab of Harpy Meat (x4)
-Vial of Harpy Blood (x1)
-Harpy Eyeballs (x2)
-Gold Coins (x300)
The “Harpy Eyeballs” item really caught my attention. I selected the item and pulled out my daggers and extracted the eyes from the dead harpy.
What are you doing with those eyeballs? growled Gryph via psy-link.
Seriously? Were you planning on eating them?
No, but you promised to not eat anything.
Ugh, I’m not planning on eating these.
I dematerialized one eye into my inventory while I inspected the other with my HUD. A bestiary screen popped up.
Harpy of the Dead Plains
The Harpy of the Dead Plains is a fierce demonic creature who patrols the skies above the Dead Plains. [Read more?]
I clicked read more but scrolled through the summary, until eventually I came across a full body scan of the creature. The eyeballs were highlighted (I assumed because I now had them in my possession).
Eyeballs of the Harpy of the Dead Plains (Info)
A thick glass surface of 0.5cm pervades the surface of the harpy eyeball as a form of evolutionary protection from the treacherous winds of the Dead Plains. A feature seen on many of the creatures who roam the area.
Aha!
“Jackson,” I said. “Get over here.”
The Rorn joined me over by the mutilated harpy corpse.
Gryph stared at Jackson, then turned to me. He better not feast on the carcass.
“Dude,” I sighed, speaking aloud. “Nobody wants to eat uncooked harpy flesh but you. Chill.”
Jackson smirked as he got closer, then shrugged. “Troubles with your legendary bird.”
“Tell me about it,” I groaned. “Look at this.”
I handed him the eyeball.
Kari or Serena would have freaked out and called me gross, but Jackson merely looked down to the unattached harpy eyeball and then up to me again.
“What am I looking at?”
“There’s half a centimeter of glassy substance on the surface of this eye. It protects the harpies from the wind debuffs,” I explained. “Do you think we can peel the surface and craft something?”
Jackson scratched his long gray Rorn beard with his thick muscular fighting fingers. Beyond being a totally badass pugilist class, Jackson had high levels in his tinkering crafting skill. Tinkering was an innate skill gifted to those who chose the Rorn race at the start of the game.
“I’m wondering,” I said. “If we can extract the surface and I dunno—tie some string and make wind glasses?”
Jackson nodded along. “It’s definitely possible,” said the Rorn brawler. He took the eyeball out of my hand and raised it close to his own to inspect it. “The glass surface covers the entire sphere. I’d say each pair of glasses will require at least two eyeball’s worth of the protective material. So with the current fallen harpies that will net us three glasses. So we’d need two more.”
There were no other harpies in the immediate area. There were two wild boars, minding their own business and chomping on wheat a few paces over.
“According to the wiki,” I said. “Other creatures in the area have it. If we hunt it, can you craft it?”
“Definitely,” grunted Jackson. “Um, leave Kari behind in case the wind picks up and we get in a tricky situation?”
“Sounds good,” I nodded. I turned to the group, “Kari—you’re gonna stay with Jackson while he crafts us sweet wind-protected goggles. Serena, Shade, Will—let’s go boar hunting.”
We spent the next forty minutes, hunting the wild boars of the dead plains. We had enough material for Jackson after two kills, but we decided it would be good to stock up on more in case the goggles broke and we needed to make back-up pairs. Plus we had time to kill while Jackson figured out how to craft the bespoke glasses from the eyeballs of dead mobs and whatever loose string and metals we had lying around in our inventories. It was a good opportunity to practice more of my druid abilities and level up the class. When we were done boar hunting, I’d reached level 25 for druid.
With our boar slaying over and done with, we returned to Jackson, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground amongst the dead harpy carcasses. The dead harpies were mostly bo
ne now from Gryph’s snacking. He rested nearby, having a post-feast nap. I triggered unsummon and sent him far away from the plains.
“Give us some good news, Jackson,” said Shade as we approached the Rorn. “Tell me your innate Rorn tinkering has come to good use.”
Jackson stood up and nodded satisfactorily. “I think I’ve done it. Clay, do you wanna do the honors?”
He handed me a pair and they popped up in my inventory as, “Wind Protective Glasses.” I put them on my face and a new passive buff appeared below my status bars.
Wind Protection (Buff) (Passive): Invulnerable against negative debuffs from heavy winds.
“Heck, yeah,” I said. “You did it, Jackson.”
“I can’t take all the credit,” said the Rorn. “You came up with the idea. You’re an innovator, like—”
He stopped his sentence cold. Everyone but Shade knew what he was going to say. You’re an innovator, like Konrad Takeshimi. The man had once been synonymous with being a genius. An inventor like those my grandparents use to mention: Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. It was a phrase pulled out of another time period, far from our present reality; back when Konrad Takeshimi meant something far different to us than it did now.
Jackson shook his head, then handed out the glasses to the rest of the party.
“Shall we continue with our adventure across the plains then?” said Jackson, as he put on the final pair.
“Let’s do it,” I said. “To think, I’m happy to just be walking along again.”
12
With our newly made goggles, traversing the Dead Plains became significantly less of a pain in the ass. We encountered aggressive dread worms, which we slayed with ease no longer worrying about the debuffs from the wind to handicap us. The boars and hogs kept to themselves and we had no other encounters with harpies. Maybe they spotted us wearing materials stripped from their comrade’s eyeballs and decided we had too much of a psychotic murder hobo vibe to mess with. It was great. The gray skies cleared as the day went on and by the late afternoon, the sky went an orangey-pink as dusk settled on the plains.
