Select Class (5 Bloodpoints)
Hookmaster
Fast and agile, the Hookmaster uses hooks to wrangle small targets and to scale large ones, expertly climbing without losing grip.
Stats: +2 Dexterity, +1 Strength
Trait : Iron Grip: The Hookmaster cannot drop their hook and chain weapon, regardless of the circumstance.
Skill Bonus: Climb, Athletics, Hook Weapons, Grappling, Riding
Scout
Stealthy and cunning, the Scout is the master of overland travel, spotting the hidden and preparing for an ambush.
Stats: +2 Dexterity, +1 Perception
Trait: Clean Retrieval: Arrows can always be retrieved from corpses.
Skill Bonus: Stealth, Tracking, Ranged Weapons, Navigation, Trapping
Bladebearer
Mighty and stalwart, the Bladebearer faces her opponent with sheer force and martial skill.
Stats: +2 Strength, +1 Charisma
Trait: Sharpened Weapon: Weapons stay sharper longer.
Skill Bonus: Melee Weapons, Weaponsmithing, Armorsmithing, Shields
Those three classes would give me quite an edge when it came to scavenging. Scout would be the obvious choice for that, as it would allow me to move secretly and quickly throughout the territory. Gaining ranged weapon skills would also be handy for defending myself in times of trouble. Although, if I played my cards right, I wouldn’t have to worry about being caught again.
I selected the Scout option and watched as my Hunter’s Profile changed quickly, adjusting to the new stats. My own body began to feel…faster, more nimble. I felt more aware than I did before as well, now able to sense the movement of the trees outside, subtly swaying in the breeze. My health adjusted too, rapidly climbing up to 100%.
As the bar filled up, I felt the pain in my body completely subside. I leapt to my feet and stretched out. I felt as if I was a brand new woman, completely invigorated by this change. Ideas and concepts came flooding to my mind, granting me mystical insight into how to sneak, place traps and use a bow.
“This is incredible!” I said, flexing my hands as I stared at the fingertips. Calluses had grown, meant to make gripping a bow easier and painless. I turned to face Rashar and grinned. “What else can I use these points for?”
Chapter 3
The next day was a blur. I had gone from lying in bed, suffering from severe wounds, to a capable, able-bodied Scout in a matter of seconds. Having injured that Kinru, I was now being introduced into a secret world, the world of the Venator. Rashar, who found this entire thing to be a source of mild amusement, was more than willing to teach me how to use the Hunter’s Sight. I wasn’t sure what his motivation was behind helping me, but I suspected that he was quite lonely living in the jungle. He was in no rush to get rid of me and made no attempts to get me to go on my way. Instead, he was content to provide lectures in his garden outside.
“You will find that wounding a monster will provide diminishing results over time,” he explained while I eagerly listened. This whole affair would enable me to become the best possible scavenger for the village. Perhaps if I became skilled enough, I would be able to bring back meat of freshly slain beasts. How healthy would they all become if they had steady access to meat?
“Bloodpoints from a wound are strong enough to empower someone who has never been exposed to such magic before,” Rashar continued. “But once you have tasted the power, you will need to slay the beast in order to gain more of its essence. There can be no other way.”
I frowned at those words. Wounding a monster with arrows would be easy enough, but striking to kill? That would prove very difficult. “How can I kill them?” I asked. “I mean, what’s the best way to kill a monster?”
Rashar grinned at me, finding great amusement in my naive question. “There are many beasts in this land, with many strengths and weaknesses. You will never find a universal way to slay them all.”
In the distance, I could hear the roar of some unimaginable horror out there and I shivered. I had been hoping to gain a great deal of power by hit and run attacks, but now that dream was gone. I’d have to go toe-to-toe with one beast if I were to become stronger. And while I felt confident in my abilities now, I wasn’t sure if it was worth the risk.
“You seem troubled,” Rashar said, leaning over to squint at me. His eyes seemed to pierce my very soul.
“I don’t know if this is something that I want,” I replied. “You’ve been kind in answering my questions and in rescuing me, but…I don’t think I’m going to fight monsters. I’ll use these skills to just scavenge instead.”
Rashar shrugged at that and pointed to the south. “You will find your cave that way. I wish you the best.”
I nodded and bowed to him. “I thank you so deeply for saving me. I owe you much.”
“Oh, you owe me?” Rashar asked. “I did not know that saving a life created a debt.”
“Well, in my culture, we generally try to repay kindness,” I explained.
“The real kindness would have been in letting you die,” Rashar replied, his voice matter-of-fact and quite dry.
I frowned in confusion at that sentiment. “What do you mean?”
“By obtaining this power, you also take on a great responsibility,” the tigerman said, a look of sorrow across his face. His eyes were sunk and I could tell he was conflicted about the decision he had made. “The Venator has the power not simply to slay, but to take on the strength of those who she destroys. This is a tremendous burden to carry.”
“Can…” I started to ask, clearing my throat. “Can a single Venator make a difference in this land?”
Rashar nodded at that, his face still sullen and solemn. “Ask the human villages above ground.”
I tilted my head at this information. He couldn’t be serious, could he? “I didn’t think any of us lived in the sun.”
“There are many human villages in this world,” Rashar grunted. “All living in safe territory, with a Venator to watch over them. They grow food. They raise families. Most importantly, they are able to live in harmony on land that was once so hostile to them.”
I shook my head, laughing. All of the scavengers from my tribe had told stories of many strange and terrible monsters, but never had they spoken about other villages. All of mankind had retreated underground, that had been the legend. To think that my people were all so ignorant of other civilizations out there…it wasn’t possible.
“You must be mistaken, friend,” I said, still shaking my head. “There aren’t any humans left on Xar. They were driven away from the light due to the Arrival.”
“Once, yes,” Rashar said. “All gone, deep beneath the land to avoid the Titans. But Venators rose to power in that struggle. They sharpened their skills against the terrible beasts that arrived with their Titanic kin. They found power in Bloodpoints and grew strong enough to challenge the great and terrible monsters that forced you all to hide. Slowly but surely, they are rebuilding this world to what it once was.”
“Take me there!” I blurted. “To one of the human villages! I must see this with my own eyes!” My heart was racing at this revelation that others were out there. Why scavenge when we could simply immigrate? We could move to one of these villages and live under the protection of their own Venator. Perhaps I could even learn from the Venator and take their place when they were ready to retire. That would certainly be better than learning from my own exploits here.
“No,” Rashar said quietly, frowning at me. “You would not survive the trip.”
“What do you mean?”
Rashar pointed to the north. “The closest village is 85 miles from here. Quite the journey. Impossible when you have Mulrand stomping about.”
A shiver ran down my spine at the name Mulrand. That was one of the whispered names of one of the Titans that had arrived a thousand years ago, tearing down all of what had been built. It was here in the region?
“85 miles is a long way,” I said. “Can we not sneak? I h
ave skills in Stealth now.”
Rashar shook his head. “Two people slipping past a Titan is fairly easy. An entire village? Impossible.”
“How did you know that was my plan?” I asked.
The tigerman snickered at that. “You are walking this dangerous land for one reason: to provide for your people.”
“That’s true,” I said. “Maybe I can trade with the village alone.”
“Or,” Rashar said. “You can clear a path for your people.”
“Kill a Titan?” I asked. “That’s impossible.”
“Today, yes, tomorrow? Maybe not,” Rashar said. “Now, I think I have spoken enough about theoretical hunting. Let us find you a suitable bow and begin practical training.”
All of my second thoughts began to melt away as I realized the necessity of becoming a Venator. I could use these powers to scavenge better, sure, but why should we have scraps when there was so much more to be had in the world above? All it would take was for me to learn how to kill the Titan standing between us.
Chapter 4
My hands knew how to use a bow, I found. Rashar had an old one lying around in his house, as well as a quiver full of arrows. I had given the bow a few test tries in the early morning, hitting all of my targets so easily. The power that came from that injured Kinru had given me a deep insight into the basics of scouting and fighting, but not enough to take down a Titan. No, Rashar had told me that I’d have to work my way up the food chain, so to speak, before being capable of dropping such a colossal foe.
It didn’t take much convincing once I had learned that humanity was still around on Xar. Our village needed more than just food that I could scrounge off a dead corpse here and there. Over the last few months, our scouts had thinned out, more and more, and with the loss of so many able-bodied men and women, we weren’t looking good. Moving wasn’t the only option, but it was the best option for our long-term survival.
Besides, this hunt wouldn’t be too hard as long as I had Rashar with me. We’d face some monster together and, worst case scenario, I’d be able to bring the meat of the slain beast home. I would be safe as long as I had this curious tigerman by my side.
The old Venator was genial and open about sharing any knowledge about hunting with me, but the moment I tried to question his intentions in assisting me, he grew silent. He merely stated that he wanted to help me out since he was bored. But that couldn’t possibly be his sole motive for helping me. The stranger had some kind of agenda. Perhaps he was too afraid to fight the Titan himself? Maybe I was his ticket to the human village as well, for perhaps the people would mistake him for a monster. I wasn’t sure.
But I didn’t suspect that he had any kind of evil designs for me. I had been at his mercy and he had tended to my wounds. He was willing to teach me how to hunt. If he had some self-serving agenda, it was working out fine for me as well.
“The first thing that must be learned in a hunt is the identity of what you seek,” Rashar said after I had completed my testing of the bow. He was wearing old, leather armor that had not been kept up over the years. He was standing behind me, arms crossed. “Knowledge is the most essential component of fighting. Like I said, there are many monsters in Xar, all with their own strengths and weaknesses. If you do not know how to exploit these flaws, you will quickly perish.”
The tigerman turned and pointed to a clearing in the dense jungle. The day was rapidly giving way to dusk. “Find me a footprint,” he said. “Find me something to hunt.”
I nodded and crouched down as I walked into the jungle, examining the earth around me. My attention to detail was far greater than before and I could quickly notice the smallest irregularity in the earth. I knelt down at what looked to be a set of claw marks on the dirt. I touched the dirt and realized that it was fairly fresh.
“Something came this way not too long ago,” I said. “It was alone and sneaking about.”
Rashar walked over to the claw marks in the ground and analyzed the soil. “Tell me more,” he said.
I looked back at the marks and focused more. There was something wrong with the tracks: one claw print was deeper than the other. The creature was putting more weight on one side. A sign of an injury? But there was no blood, so it couldn’t be fresh.
“It’s a wounded beast,” I said.
“More,” Rashar demanded.
I frowned and looked up at the expressionless Sogorn. He was certainly not joking.
“What more can you see here?” I said, looking back at the prints. Nothing else jumped out at me. I felt the dirt with my hands, but that did nothing. I shrugged after a few seconds of staring and stood back up. “I can’t see anything else of interest.”
Rashar chuckled and knelt down, gently touching a clawed finger to the dirt pile. He carefully picked up a sliver of some material. “You missed this,” he said, holding the little sliver in the palm of his hand. He carefully moved his hand to show me.
This sliver was scaly to the touch and, when carefully examined, was the same color as the scaled grey skin of the Kinru that had attacked me earlier.
“A Kinru!” I said. “It was shedding!”
“Claw prints are only the beginning of the search,” Rashar explained. “Many beasts are clawed and bipedal. Shedding, droppings, territorial marks, all of these are ways to identify what you are searching for. An injured Kinru should be easy prey, especially if it is alone.”
“We’re really going to hunt an injured animal?” I said, feeling a pang of guilt well up in me.
Rashar laughed. “These are not animals. They are monsters. Poison to the ecosystem and to all living creatures. Do you notice the silence in this jungle? The absence of even the insects, humming and buzzing? No birds singing? The presence of a monster eats away all natural life, one way or the other. That which does not flee will be consumed.”
“Why do they have this effect on the world?” I asked as I began to walk forward, slowly scanning the ground for more tracks. I had found a trail, with each set of claw prints growing fresher and fresher by the moment.
“We all have our theories,” Rashar said, following patiently behind me, not offering aid nor pointers while I followed the tracks. “I believe that their presence itself is unnatural, giving off an aura that sickens this earth. I have no way to prove this. All I know is that these trees used to bear fruit.”
“What’s a fruit?” I asked, stopping suddenly at the sight of fresh tracks. These were brand new and, in the thickets, I could hear the subtle sound of twigs and branches being snapped by something moving.
“A question to be answered later,” Rashar hissed, crouching down. I crouched down with him, peering out into the jungle. Something was moving in a nearby thicket, but its body was well hidden by the foliage. “We have found the beast.”
“What do we do?” I whispered. My heart was pounding, but despite my fear, I had automatically drawn the bow and nocked an arrow. The response had been just as natural as breathing. Indeed, I knew how to move about, how to strike, and could see places to hide in case things went south. The panic in my stomach quickly dissipated and was replaced with confidence, a confidence in my newfound abilities.
“A good Venator never strikes until they are ready to kill,” Rashar said. “Every fight is life or death. You may have supernatural power, but these beasts are entirely fueled by that same power. You must never go into a fight without knowing these stakes. There will never be an easy fight.”
“Unless I make it an easy one,” I said, watching as the Kinru emerged from the bushes. We were well hidden and it did not see us. It snuffed about, looking for some sign of prey, but wasn’t moving very quickly due to its limp. “I don’t have to fight it now. I can track it to its lair and kill it when it sleeps.”
“A wise decision,” Rashar replied. “But you need to do more.”
“I could trap the exit to its lair? Then strike?” I asked.
“Is that a question or a decision?” he replied.
“A
decision,” I said, nodding eagerly at my own realization. As long as I was able to hide and track the creature, I was in total control. I wouldn’t have to fight it until I was absolutely prepared.
“Your instincts are good,” Rashar said. “I am pleased to know that you are capable of thinking ahead. That Kinru would have torn you to pieces in a matter of seconds if you challenged it here. It knows the land and is intentionally moving slower to draw weak predators out. Look at the way it feigns ignorance, sniffing as if looking for food.”
I stared at the creature and watched as it moved around, head down, inspecting every inch of the area around it. The Kinru’s nose was towards the earth and it was moving slowly, but I realized that its eyes were scanning the area constantly. Its claws were also coiled and tense as if it were preparing to strike. Rashar had been right.
“Would…would you have stopped me?” I whispered as I watched the Kinru continue to lure scavengers out to ‘finish off’ an injured meal.
“At some point,” Rashar said. “But certainly not before you learned a valuable lesson about patience. It is fortunate for the both of us that you had already learned such a lesson before today.”
Chapter 5
I naturally knew how to create one type of trap. With a few sharp rocks, I could whittle down several sticks into pointed spears. These spears, buried into the dirt at the mouth of the wounded Kinru’s cave, would be activated by a trip wire, springing up to give my prey a nasty surprise.
Rashar was of little help during my preparations for the fight with the beast that was now sleeping loudly in its own cave. He would offer me no tips, nor guidance on how to prepare for the surprise attack. I got the feeling that this little hunt was more of a test for me. While he had been happy to share lots of pointers at the beginning, he was now silent, watching me from atop a tree above the cave. I was alone for this portion of the hunt.
But I felt confident in my plan. I had time to create more than a few spear traps, just in case the first set didn’t kill the Kinru. I built a direct line of traps leading from the mouth of the cave to the closest tree I could reach. Kinru could climb trees easily, as I had learned before, but I had placed one more trap at the base of the trunk. As long as I could leap over each trip wire without issue, I’d be able to retreat to the trees to pick away at my target.
Monster Hunting 101: A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure (Titan Termination) Page 2
