Monster Hunting 101: A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure (Titan Termination)

by Freaks, LitRPG

  “These men and women were brave,” Verna said, gently running her hands over the books. “If I can offer any comfort, the material they often brought back was spoken about highly by the first Elders. While the Venators lived here, we lived well. Their sacrifice was immense, but it brought health and food to our people. Just as yours will.”

  I laughed at the phrasing of her comfort. “You speak like I’m already dead.”

  “I’m an optimist during the voting season,” Verna said. “A pessimist for the rest of the year.”

  “There!” Cranston said, taking a step back to admire his handiwork. “This is going to be the armory section. I’ll put slots here to put your bows and I’ll have a barrel for arrows. If you need something fixed, you put it on the bottom rack and I’ll make sure it’s repaired.”

  “Would you be able to craft some things for me?” I asked, looking at a section of books entitled Smithing from Monsters . This was a complete volume of 8 books and they were severely worn, after having been used by so many people.

  “Of course, of course,” Cranston grunted. “There’s barely enough work for me as it is. I wouldn’t mind having the opportunity to walk in the path of my great grandfather. He was a weaponsmith, you know. Fashioned the greatest of weapons. At least, he did his best with the material he had.”

  “I’ll make sure you get the best material I can find,” I remarked, still looking through the piles of books. This was a veritable treasure trove of knowledge. I could perhaps spend weeks upon weeks studying these texts and learning the ways of the Venator. I would be ready for everything outside of this great cavern. At least…I’d be more prepared than I was right now.

  “Alchemy,” I murmured, picking up a large tome called The Transmutation of Organic Matter . This was a thicker tome, by far, old and well preserved. Cracking open the pages, I could see dozens of different ways to create alchemical infusions and potions. These infusions could be applied to weapons and gear, in order to strengthen them or give them temporary power. Potions were able to transfer the abilities and talents of slain monsters to me for a short period of time.

  I couldn’t help but sit down, mesmerized by the practicality of such a book. There were no long, drawn out introductions, nor were there flowery words meant to make me feel a certain way. Rather, it was like reading a cookbook, with instructions on how to prepare the vital organs of slain monsters into chemical solutions and reagents. There were many recipes listed that combined different chemicals to form all manner of potions.

  Some potions were capable of accelerating recovery from injuries, while others gave me the power to see in the dark, to move faster or even to climb walls like a spider. With each turn of the page, the words Recipe Unlocked appeared in my vision. Focusing on those words took me to a menu in the Hunter’s Sight, revealing an entire area dedicated to crafting. In the right-hand corner, I could see the three key crafting ingredients and a tally of how much I had available.

  Firnin: 0

  Estoan: 0

  Kaos: 0

  These three ingredients represented the energies extracted through the ingredient harvesting process. A dead monster’s organs were distilled into one of these three elements. Firnin creatures were strong and big, deadly and ornery. Estoan creatures had the qualities of intelligence and cunning, and Kaos creatures were magical in nature, hard to predict and exceptionally rare. Few recipes called for Kaos, and the ones that did were certainly powerful.

  After reviewing the alchemy book, I snapped it shut and looked up at the bench across the way. It had all of the tools required to harvest the organs of my slain foes. My mind darted back to the wormbeast that was lying out in the sun. That would be the perfect subject for some experimentation. A few potions would certainly prepare me for my next hunt.

  These recipes captured my imagination almost immediately and I decided that it was time to go back to the surface, to retrieve the corpse of that monster – if scavengers hadn’t gotten to it first. If scavengers were present, I’d have to fight them off in order to gain the body. Was I prepared?

  I glanced down at my leg. It was functional and I wasn’t in any great pain. I had gained more abilities from my last fight and, frankly, I felt like I was in my prime. The only thing I had to take care of before going back out was to craft a new charm out of the mandible of the dead wormbeast. I could only use one charm at a time, yes, but the wormbeast might have entirely different abilities or bonuses to choose from. It would be good to have a view of my options before moving out into battle.

  And so I began preparing the charm, following all the steps that Rashar had taught me, carefully working with the old tools of Venators long gone. These tools were well worn, but felt good in my hands. The work was not difficult and, within twenty minutes, I was able to craft a bone charm out of the mandible. I had opted to turn it into a medallion, using a mold that was shaped like a coin. The black chitin glistened against torchlight as I held it up to inspect it. It was time to find out what powers this charm contained.

  Aspect of the Fitzon

  Sickening (0/3): Your skin will taste foul to predators, forcing them to expel you from their mouths

  Immunity (0/5): You cannot become Nauseous or sickened from toxic scents

  Stolid (0/1): +1 Perception.

  Interesting options. There was nothing that immediately demanded my attention as they were highly situational abilities. Still, if I fought another Fitzon, the immunity ability would help immensely. And Sickening would prevent me from worrying about the much larger predators out there. This would certainly be kept in my pocket, just in case I needed to put it on in a pinch. But for now, I would not be using this bone charm until I was finished with the Kinru charm.

  With that task finished, I knew that it was finally time to retrieve the corpse of the Fitzon I had defeated earlier. “Cranston?” I asked, catching the attention of the burly man who had been working on building a few bookshelves to sort this library.

  “Yeah?” he grunted, not turning to face me as he continued to hammer wood into wood. While they called him a blacksmith, the truth was that he was essentially in charge of all manner of crafting and construction.

  “Let’s go for a walk on the surface. There’s something I need you to help me carry.”

  Chapter 12

  “I didn’t think my eyes to be so delicate,” Cranston groaned as we walked through the dense jungle. The sun was high in the sky and the blacksmith was having a hell of a time adjusting to the bright light. “But this is nothing like a torch.”

  “You’ve never been to the surface?” I whispered, keeping my eyes and ears focused on the surroundings. There were no signs of life nearby, no tracks, nor sounds of local beasts, but that didn’t mean we were alone. Some creatures could shape their skin to match the environment, rendering them invisible to their victims. Perhaps this was mere paranoia after reading through some of these books, but I’d rather be paranoid and alive than oblivious and dead.

  “Once, I think,” Cranston said, pulling a bandana out from his side pouch. He took the bright red bandana and covered his left eye, wrapping it around his head, forming a makeshift eye patch. “I’m going to keep my left eye in the dark, in case we need to get back to the cave in a hurry. It’s a trick my grandfather used to tell me about.”

  “I hardly doubt that will be necessary,” I said as we entered the small clearing where I had killed the wormbeast. There was no bloated corpse laying around for me and the big man to haul back into the cavern.

  “Is this the place?” Cranston asked, gagging as the scent of rotting bile reached his nostrils. My eyes were watering at the stench; somehow the smell was even worse than before.

  “This is it, alright,” I said, my eyes scanning the area, searching for some clue as to what happened. Had scavengers already hit the body? No, I didn’t see any signs of the beast being torn apart. Scavengers would have left a mess.

  “I don’t see a damned thing,” Cranston said, unslinging the
large, silver warhammer hanging off of his back. He lifted the mighty weapon up high, as if ready for action. “Do you think it survived somehow?”

  “Put your weapon down,” I hissed. The hammer was so well polished that it easily caught the sunlight, glinting bright enough for a monster in the distance to quickly take notice.

  The burly blacksmith grunted and lowered the hammer, complying with my order. The big man didn’t seem awfully nervous about being on the surface, but I suspected that his brave face would fade quickly in the presence of a monster. It would be my job, of course, to divert the horror’s attention away from my ally so that he could escape back to the cave.

  “What do we do?” Cranston whispered, his voice a little shaky. We had both been expecting to grab the body and drag it back to the cave quickly. He clearly did not like the idea of staying on the surface any longer than we had been planning.

  “You go back to the cave,” I whispered. “I’m going to investigate and find out what happened.”

  “You uh…you sure you don’t need any backup?” Cranston replied, his voice unsure and barely able to keep up the façade of bravery.

  I shook my head and looked at the man’s hardened face. He was stern but I could read the fear in his eyes. The fear of seeing one of these monsters up close and personal was too great, even for a blacksmith with a reputation for being the toughest man in the village.

  “You don’t need to stay out here,” I replied. “If you get injured, I’ll have no one to work on my weapons and the village won’t have anyone to repair their homes. That’s the reason you were never recruited as a scout, remember?”

  My words were received well, for I had given the man an obvious out and he was quick to grab hold of it.

  “Oh, right! I had forgotten,” Cranston said, nervously laughing after he spoke. “I’ll go back. Just uh, stay safe. And when you find the body, come back and get me. I’ll be waiting for you inside the passage.”

  I nodded at that and watched as the big man sheathed his weapon. He turned and retreated back to the cave and I followed him a little, to make sure he reached his destination safely. This was for the better; no doubt there would be a battle coming up. I needed that corpse so I could begin making potions and infusions. Whatever had stolen the body would certainly not be interested in giving it back without a fight.

  Once I could see Cranston vanish into the darkness of the cavern, I drew my bow and began to scout out the area where the Fitzon had been, looking for signs of drag marks, or feathers, in case some winged beast had gotten a hold of the corpse.

  Finding evidence of the Fitzon’s whereabouts wasn’t too difficult once I was close to the area where the body had been. The dirt had been violently disturbed, parting the ground enough to indicate that something had been dragged this way. And the size of the separated dirt was about the size of the Fitzon. Unfortunate for me, the drag marks had covered up the footprints of whatever had been pulling the body along.

  I searched high and low for some sign of what took the beast, but there was nothing to indicate the identity of this creature. I partly hoped that this was a sign of intelligence, that some other humans had found the body and decided to take it to their own village. But that was highly unlikely; there weren’t any other villages nearby and I doubted that another Venator was in the area.

  “Nothing,” I mumbled, squinting at the drag marks, running my finger through the dirt. I could tell, on some level, that the dirt had been moved within the last few hours. I wouldn’t be too late if I started tracking the drag marks now. I took a deep breath and began to follow along the tracks, moving through the warm jungle at a steady pace.

  I walked for maybe half an hour, following the trail while keeping my head up in case there was danger. A Kinru wouldn’t have dragged the body this far; they were far too small compared to the size of the wormbeast. They would have been just happy to sit and eat the body without doing any additional work. No, this was something different from what I had met before. I wished that I had more time to sit back and read the rest of those books, but if I had waited any longer, the trail would have gone cold.

  I reached a small lake with murky, brown water. The drag marks led straight to the water, touching the shore line before vanishing. I squinted, looking around the lake for any signs of a monster’s presence, but could see nothing.

  “Into the water,” I whispered, kneeling down a few feet away from the shoreline. The entire area was enclosed, surrounded by trees. A large cliff loomed above the lake and I wondered if it had been a waterfall at one point. The water was too black for me to see through and, so, I merely stared into the abyss, wondering what to do.

  If this creature was an aquatic beast, it would have a real advantage against me. I could fire arrows at it, but if it dove deep enough, my shots wouldn’t do anything of value. Was this a loss? The thought of retrieving the corpse below was chilling. Diving deep into the murky water, feeling around without sight… I shivered at the idea and shook my head. No way.

  The village had a few pools of water that we swam in as children and I certainly wasn’t afraid of water—at least, I wasn’t afraid of water that I could see through. This, on the other hand, was going to be the death of me. Sighing, I decided to simply call this a loss and started to make my way back home. Perhaps one of those books would provide me with an idea of what was lurking down there.

  As I walked away from the water, there came a skittering sound from one of the trees. It was a low and hushed noise, like the buzzing of many bees combined with the chirping of crickets. My skin began to crawl at the noise and I was quick to move away from the trees.

  Descending from the pine I had been standing next to was a large, beetle-like creature, albeit its body was enormous. It was nearly the size of the Fitzon and had a thick, black carapace. Its top horn was long, with a red bulb on the end of it. The fleshy bulb expanded and contracted, somewhat like a balloon. Smoke was beginning to billow out of the rear of the beetle and, at once, I felt my legs pushing me to leap aside.

  I followed my instincts and jumped out of the way, just in time. A torrent of flames came crashing down, flowing forth from the monster’s open mouth. The heat was searing, but fortunately I was able to scramble away to avoid being injured.

  The beast buzzed at me louder and began to crawl down the tree, readying for another attack. The bulb on its top horn was expanding much larger, growing redder with each passing second. The bulb must have been related to the fire attack, that much I figured. I had to make a decision and it had to be quick. Attack or move to a better position.

  Without thinking, I decided to change my position, moving out of the beetle’s range and heading towards the water, where I could dive in, should I be caught alight. The beetle was large enough to drag the dead Fitzon along. Perhaps it had stopped to wash the corpse in the water before dragging it up into its tree lair. I doubted that there was anything else in the water.

  The beetle let out a louder buzzing sound and skittered across the floor, looking at me hesitantly. I was outside of its range, but it wasn’t out of mine. I aimed my bow at the bulb and let loose, watching as the shot went wide, easily missing the rapidly contracting target. The back of the beast was smoking again, meaning it was ready to release another burst of flames. But instead of rushing at me to unleash the fire, the beetle merely chittered and waited, staring at me.

  This was strange behavior. Was the beetle afraid of the water for some reason? I was standing right by the murky black waters. Getting close to me meant getting close to the water as well. Had I been wrong about there only being the one monster? If the beetle was scared, it meant that something more terrifying than a little human had to be lurking around.

  Gritting my teeth, I slowly inched away from the water, while also nocking another arrow. My accuracy at this distance, hitting such a tiny target, wasn’t great, but if the beetle was too frightened to charge at me, I had the luxury of time. Now a good five feet from the water, I raised t
he bow and fired again.

  This time, the shot struck true and the long arrow buried itself into the red bulb, which had been expanding a little at the time. The beetle let out a hideous clacking sound, fire bursting out of the bulb as if it had sprung a leak. Flames covered the creature’s face and it spun around in a circle, freaking out. I watched as it began to run forward, towards me, blind and in a panic. I don’t even know if it saw me, but it still charged at full speed.

  As I prepared to fire another arrow, a long, blue tentacle the size of a tree trunk crashed out of the water, slamming down atop the beetle. The insectoid monster tried to escape the crushing force, but another tentacle from the depths came out and wrapped around it. I heard a sickening crunching noise as the carapace popped under the force of the thick limbs.

  Food Chain Bonus: 600 Bloodpoints appeared in my view as I rapidly scrambled away from the lake. The corpse of the beast was grabbed by the tentacles and dragged deep beneath the water. I moved behind a tree and closed my eyes, gasping for air. Did it know I was out here? Why hadn’t the thing beneath the water attacked me? I held perfectly still for a few moments, waiting for some sign that the hidden beast had lost interest in what was going on above the water. Time passed slowly, but eventually, I heard the splash of water as the tentacles retreated to their lair.

  Peeking out, I could see that the water was now undisturbed, quietly resting. I had gotten lucky that the monster had decided to eat the larger beetle first, giving me time to get away. Now, as I peered out, I could see that everything had returned to normal. There was no trace of that beetle. All that was left behind were a few scorch marks on the ground, leftover from its fire attack.

  I had gained a hefty amount of Bloodpoints from luring the beetle into another monster’s habitat. Six hundred was not a small amount; I could gain one second Tier ability, or four from the first Tier. This venture, though short, had given me a huge boost. I could walk away now and be happy…if it weren’t for the fact that I still had nothing to craft alchemical supplies with.