Galactic Fist of Legend: Volume 2

by Scottie Futch

  "Twelve EXP... That thing was worth four hundred eighty essence..." Scott rubbed his chin.

  After the thoughtful moment passed, he went ahead and tried to upgrade his boots. One EXP was all that it should take. However, no matter how he tried, he could not do it. Something was missing from the equation.

  "Well, it was a good idea. Too bad, I can't do it," said Scott. Perhaps he would discover the method of upgrading items, later? For now, he had to get going.

  With a rattle, and a creak of old bones, beef jerky Scott shuffled toward the tunnel that would lead him back to his corpse. The bony monkeys were back in force now. It was impossible to tell how much time passed after he died, but it was no doubt long enough to repopulate the area entirely.

  His rock throws barely met their targets, but they still worked to a certain degree. The monkeys frequently came close to recovering after their initial fall before Scott could finish them off. It now took well over twenty strikes to defeat a single monkey. Even with increased stamina, Scott still needed to stop and recover between every few strokes.

  How long did it take to make it back to his corpse? A half hour? An hour? It was impossible to say, but he cut his way past far more monkeys than he remembered fighting previously. Was it the result of being near the obelisk? Had he been dead for a long time, and that was the reason? He might never know for certain.

  After his numerous battles, two items dropped. One was a broken sword that held little interest. The other was a small memory crystal.

  Back in the room where he recently died, Scott did not see his corpse. The only thing left behind was a gently pulsing light that floated atop a dried blood stain.

  Scott reached out to the light and regained his lost EXP. There was not a lot of it, obviously, but it was there. Every little bit helped.

  "Where's the damned scarf?" he asked. Scott glanced over to the battered treasure chest then groaned. The lid was down. The little wool blend fucker had gone back into lurker mode.

  He eventually made his way through all of the tunnels he could access in this direction, and cleared out the monkeys in a slow and methodical manner. It took a considerable amount of time, but time was something he had in abundance.

  Slowly, in his jerky shuffle, he made his way back to the obelisk. Throughout his journey, he made certain to keep an eye out for creatures that respawned, but none did.

  Once he made it back to the safety of the obelisk, Scott sat down and sighed. "That took forever, but it was easy enough. He took a drink from his vial to finish restoring his health then refilled it. Scott felt it more cost effective to heal himself with his vial and then refill it than to heal himself and have to refill his vial anyway. He had used it twice during his trip. Sometimes the monkeys recovered faster than he did.

  "So, my haul was six memory crystals, and two broken items," said Scott. He checked the obelisk to see if it would fix the broken gear, but it would not. Apparently, if an item dropped as broken then it could not be repaired.

  His other equipment was badly battered at this point. Thankfully, it did not require a lot to fix any of it. He spent a grand total of twelve EXP to repair his equipment to full capacity, and then took stock of his crystals.

  After absorbing everything, and paying his repair bill, he had exactly one hundred EXP. "What was that, forty monkeys?"

  The smallest crystals granted him two EXP, but the larger ones granted five or seven. When one of them dropped, it was like the little bony monkey chose to pay him twice the experience points.

  "I wonder if I would get EXP here even outside of a mission?" Scott considered that for a moment. If he ever made it out of this place, it should be unlocked for non-mission visitation. That would be interesting. It was supposed to be a premium world, did that change the equation?

  Scott wandered around the room for a while. He did not know how long it would take to make the monkeys start to respawn, though it should not be too long. What he did not want to do, was take a new series of tunnels. At least, not until he healed his desiccation. Grinding twenty-five EXP would be a hell of a lot easier than several hundred, if he died again. Plus, it would make his hair fall out if he had to do a corpse run to retrieve the EXP he just earned.

  "It didn't take as long to go back to grinding last time," said Scott. It was time to get back to work.

  So it went for quite some time. Scott cleaned the monkeys from the tunnels, and gained one or two soul crystals. Instead of immediately absorbing them, he chose instead to let them build up in his inventory. Each time he went back to the obelisk and waited for what he considered to be about half an hour, ten to fifteen monkeys respawned in the area.

  EXP built up over time. After several hours of grinding and resting, he had five crystals in his inventory, fully stocked vials, full health, repaired equipment, and a little over two hundred EXP.

  Scott paid the price for restoration, and then felt warmth surge through his body. His flesh filled out once more. His eyesight cleared up. His senses became sharper, and he felt much lighter. His soul desiccation was healed, at last!

  He danced around a little, and then lifted his sword up and down. It felt light, incredibly light. "Woo! I'm back, baby!"

  Still pale, and cold like someone fresh to the grave, Scott could only rejoice so much. There was work to do. If he wanted to cleanse his curse entirely and be free of this place, he needed to risk further exploration.

  There were three tunnel entrances to take from this point. One led to the left, and back to the monkeys. The other led to the right, and unknown danger. There was also a central tunnel that was similarly unknown in its nature and destination.

  Scott chose to enter the middle tunnel. Cautiously he made his way down the tunnel, shield up. Sword ready.

  Soon, the tunnel developed into an incline plane. Scott walked upward for a short while, nothing accosted him. Once the tunnel leveled out, he saw something interesting. There was a lone figure up ahead.

  Carefully, and as quietly as he could, Scott snuck up on the standing figure. He spied an axe in one of its hands, a big one.

  As Scott got closer he heard something soft, a hiss. It was the sound of hissing laughter, like someone struggling not to give the punchline to a joke. Several thoughts skittered through Scott's meat-breain. Who was it? Was it just another enemy, or was it a traveler? Did he speak to them from afar, or close the gap first?

  Scott got too close while he considered his options. The lone figure slowly began to turn toward him. It was immediately recognized! Scott attacked without hesitation. This was no man to talk to, it was the bastard who killed him the first two times!

  His Broadsword lashed out, but was met with stiff resistance when it slammed against the monster's shoulder. The beast's eye sockets suddenly emitted a bright red light, and it roared a challenge.

  The beast's greataxe swung outward in a fast, brutal, strike, but was deflected by Scott's shield. An opening was presented then, and Scott capitalized on it readily. His sword slashed down with lethal intent. The sound of bones cracking echoed throughout the area.

  The axe swung upward suddenly, slipping past Scott's guard and neatly sliced a deep cut along his torso. Blood spurted outward with great volume, but it was not like the first time. The wound was deep, but not deadly.

  Scott slammed his shield forward and knocked the monster back. Staggered slightly, it was left open for a second, and then a third shield bash. It slipped over the edge of the ramp then fell hard to the ground below. It hit with great force, but was not dead. A wild, stupid, plan formed inside Scott's head.

  He leapt off the top of the ramp, a distance less than the ridge he had hopped down earlier, but still farther than the farthest single drop that he had taken in this place until now. Just as the beast rose halfway to its feet, Scott's sword slammed down atop its skull with incredible ferocity. He hit the ground with great force, and felt every bit of the resulting backlash throughout his body.

  The axe wielding beast gurgled lo
udly then fell to the side, while the light faded from its eyes. "Yeah," said Scott while panting a little to ease the pain. "Yeah, you take a nap fella."

  He drank from his vial after collecting a whopping six EXP. The thing that slew him twice was worth something like two hundred forty essence. It also dropped a small memory crystal, but nothing else. Scott kicked its side with his boot. "Give me your axe or something next time, you hateful bastard."

  Scott made his way back up the ramp and returned to the obelisk. Curious to see what would happen, he waited a few minutes then went back to visit the place where he had fought the axe guy. He was not there, sadly. Either he did not respawn, or he took longer to respawn than the bony monkeys.

  Back at the obelisk, Scott opted to go through and clear out the monkeys once more. It did not take too long, but he did net a few EXP and a rusty meat cleaver that counted as a broken item.

  Repairs were made to his equipment at a low cost, and then he went to check on the axe guy. Sadly, he still had not respawned. Scott grumbled a little, but let it go. He was not that big of an essence boost. Three monkeys were much easier to kill and netted slightly more experience. He mostly just wanted to see if it would drop anything good, like a certain axe.

  Down the unexplored tunnel, he found his way to a room with a table and a few chairs. There were old dusty books scattered here and there. He picked them up, one by one, then carefully searched their pages for guidance. After looking through them Scott nodded sagely. "I have no fucking idea what any of these things say."

  Despite his shameful illiteracy, he did discover that he could absorb them into himself just like any other item. He stored the books in his internal inventory, just in case they proved useful later, and continued on. Not every item glowed, it seemed. Some were already manifest in the world. The key was to be certain that they did not try to eat him before he wore them. The books proved harmless, but he might never wear a scarf again.

  The tunnels gave way to corridors made of brick and stone. Scott soon exited one of the stone corridors and entered a room that held several broken crates and a chest. Much like before, he pummeled the chest with all manner of debris. He then beat the hell out of it with his sword. Nothing happened.

  Inside the chest, he found another book, and a glowing soul light. Briefly he considered the nature of those lights. Were they soul lights, perhaps he should think of them as the lights of memory? Something like that? Either way, the glowing light granted him the Memories of a Dark Scholar. The book, after a moment of poking and prodding at it with his sword, revealed itself to be a diary.

  Scott tried to read it, but only recognized a few letters here and there. He put it into his inventory for later. He would no doubt spend a while at the obelisk, if he died. If he did not, then he could take the time to study it once he finished his current search.

  The next room held danger. An undead soldier charged at him with a spear. Scott did his best to deflect it with his shield, but it was an imperfect deflection that led to a large bloody tear forming in his shoulder. He did not know much about using a sword and shield. He mostly used guns, and ran around shouting a lot.

  Still, a partial deflection was all it took for Scott to counter. He lashed out with his broadsword taking the soldier across the abdomen. The undead beast cried out, and staggered a little at the sudden shocking sensation of its desiccated intestines attempting to spill forth from their ancient carrier. Emboldened, Scott kept the pressure of the battle at a high level. A spear was deadly at range, but less useful in close. Scott was smart enough to stay in close.

  He slammed the top of his shield upward to knock the monster's spear arm away then stabbed it in the chest. Slash, parry, thrust or at least a half-assed parody of each of those things occurred as Scott attempted to tear his foe asunder.

  He deflected an attempt to slam the butt of the spear into the side of his head, and countered with sudden upward strike with his blade. The tip pierced the beast's chin and slid neatly upward to tear through its mouth and break through its weathered skull into the pathetic beef jerky that was once its brain.

  The battle took several minutes, as the soldier was quite healthy for a dead man, but that final blow sealed the monster's fate. Its arms fell to the side and it lost all control of its body, like a marionette whose strings were suddenly cut.

  Scott smiled in satisfaction once it finally fell, as it was worth six EXP. It even dropped loot, a small nameless memory crystal. Scott looked around carefully while he collected it, but thankfully nothing jumped out to try and murder him.

  He left the room after a thorough search, and then entered another corridor. This one provided two paths to take. One led left, another led right. Scott creeped along the left path for a moment and then went back the other direction. Once he had gone to the right for a time, he doubled back to the left once more. As ridiculous as it might seem, he kept doing that. Each time he changed directions, he did so after going just a little further. Soon, he knew where both paths led. They led to the exact same place.

  Scott snorted loudly. "So, a large open room with a single pedestal in the center, and a glowing gemstone on top of said pedestal... That's not ominous, or anything," said Scott.

  "Yeah, I'll be right back," said Scott. He left the area and returned to the obelisk to prepare himself. He went back and forth from obelisk to the room twice before he made it without taking any sort of damage. It was now time to fight the good fight, probably.

  On the far side of the room was a tunnel blocked by a door made of steel bars. He descended the stairs that led into the open room, but kept his back to the wall as he investigated the area. He saw no obvious traps, other than the bait in the center of the room. The steel door was locked, naturally.

  Scott eyed the bright red gemstone that sat patiently waiting for him on the pedestal. "Oh gee, I wonder how I get the key."

  He sighed. Everything about this set up screamed boss fight. What was he to do, though? He had to get out of there, somehow, and to do that he also needed the burning heart thingy.

  Even before he walked over to the pedestal, Scott would have laid even money about what he would find there. He would also have been correct.

  The sibilant whisperer, hissed softly in his ear, "You have discovered the Burning Heart of Saelil Lothuialeth..."

  Scott laid his hand on the brightly shining gemstone then turned quickly when a piercing scream erupted from behind him. A whirling tornado of fire and lightning appeared in the room. It reached from the floor to the ceiling, a height several times that of Scott himself.

  "God dammit," muttered Scott.

  The whirling mass of fire and fury coalesced into a corpse white woman of indeterminate age. She had lengthy ears that jutted out to the side like an anime elf, but blazing red eyes that could only come from the deepest pits of hell. She rounded out her unholy appearance with a staff, and dark red robes the color of old blood.

  "You won't take my heart, mortal!" said the elf emphatically, before she rushed toward him.

  "You're not my type!" quipped Scott as he dodged to the side. Despite the obvious nature of her existence as a boss monster, it was surprisingly easy to avoid her staff strike. He countered by hacking into her shoulder.

  She screeched then flailed at him with her staff once more. Her attack was countered by a sudden movement of his shield. A casual stroke of his sword impacted almost lazily against her abdomen and sent her reeling.

  Scott started to feel a little cocky, but then shut that feeling down immediately. There was no way that it could be this easy to defeat a boss in a world-setting like this one.

  The battle continued to play out in the same pattern for the next few minutes. Scott would dodge, or block, and then counter strike the woman's exposed body. He did not seem to do much damage to the angry undead elf with those strokes, but he struck her as regularly as he could. However, the situation was about to change.

  "You won't make a mockery of me, fool!" she snarled before s
pinning around, soon she became a whirling mass of energy.

  Lightning cracked outward and struck Scott's shield. He cried out in pain as the high voltage attack surged through his body. His muscles immediately felt stiffer, it was harder to move with the agility that he had shown before.

  Scott saw a wave of fire heading in his direction, and instinctively threw himself to the side. The stiffness of his muscles was no different than the jerkiness that came from being desiccated. It was still distracting, but at this point he was well practiced at dealing with that sensation. He barrel rolled to the side, to avoid the wave of flame, and kept rolling to avoid another arc of lightning.

  Blocking the magical attacks was a bad idea. The smart money was on running the ever loving fuck away, but the situation did not allow for a proper retreat. After a series of rapid magical strikes, the whirling winds died down. The angry undead elf returned to normal and descended to the ground. She then bent over and seemed to be weakened briefly.

  Scott tried to get closer to her, but she recovered before he could cover the distance. A wave of flame erupted from her staff, and caught him before he could roll. His shield rose up, and blocked part of the attack, but he could feel his dead flesh begin to cook. He was not a zombie. His nerve endings worked. His undead state was a supernatural one, not a result of disease.

  Forced back by her magical assault, Scott felt himself weaken considerably. He had only a split-second to dodge another wave of flame, but narrowly managed to do so. His vial of spiritus renewed some of his health after drinking a dose, but he was close to the end. His skills, equipment, and health restorative were just not enough to keep up with the damage the hell bitch could put out.

  Scott was forced to dodge a few more times before he could swallow another dose. It would have to do. He could not keep up the dodging act for much longer. Scott was forced to run in a circular manner as the flame trailed after him, but he moved in close enough to strike at her from the rear when the fire was close to dying out.

  His sword lashed toward her, but she spun quickly in place and blocked the strike with her staff. Before Scott could recover, she punched him square in the nose. "Take that fool!"