Growth Hero 2

by Brent Tyman

  Since the other end of the blue line only led deeper into the Dungeon, we needed to make sure we could find the passageway again, once we were done. I decided to grab a rock, and etched arrows into the tunnel that pointed back towards the passageway. My marks showed up clearly on the green walls.

  Anny’s skill normally sufficed, to help us find our way back, but this would probably save us some time, later down the road.

  It was only when I grew concerned that we hadn’t come across a single monster at all, that Anny suddenly froze in place.

  “Ahh, I see a single Aura, but it’s different than a Glower Serpent’s,” she said.

  “Different how?” I asked, but she just shook her head, wiggling in place.

  “I’m… I’m not sure how to describe it. I just know it isn’t a… wait, it flickered.”

  We all looked at each other confused as Anny tried to work out what it was she was seeing.

  “Umm… I think there is a Glower Serpent aura, but it keeps flickering in and out… and there is another solid orange aura right next to it,” she said.

  “Hmm, I do not believe I truly understand how this skill of yours works, Anny,” Aurielle said as she ran a gauntleted hand through her crimson hair.

  “Me either,” Juliana admitted, “but it is clear that you see something that could be a monster.”

  “I say we investigate,” Clarissa said, patting Anny on the shoulder. “Maybe Anny’s skill is showing us a Glower Serpent on its last legs… or last scales… or whatever.”

  I shrugged when the women looked at me. “Sure, let’s go check it out. Keep your guard up though,” I said.

  With that decided, Anny directed us toward the strange auras she was seeing, which took quite a bit of walking to reach. The range on her pathfinding skill was simply incredible. She eventually led us to an expansive cavern, where we heard a low rumble in the air.

  We kept extremely quiet and had our weapons at the ready as we entered. Clarissa’s light slowly pierced the darkness before us, finally reaching to the other end of the cavern.

  We all froze at what we saw.

  As Clarissa had said, there was indeed a Glower Serpent here, sprawled out on the ground. The only thing was, it wasn’t alone. What looked to be a giant bird was pecking into the body of the Glower Serpent. Its beak was thin and incredibly long, allowing it to pierce through the serpent’s scales with ease.

  Its size rivaled that of the Glower Serpent itself, and it had both blue and orange feathers that glowed slightly in the dim light. I could see that it had perched one of its claws into the Glower Serpent’s head, keeping it in place as its body continued to thrash about.

  The fact that the Glower Serpent was still alive at this point astounded me. I could instantly tell that this monster was incredibly powerful. It hadn’t reacted to our presence or Clarissa’s light at first, but it wasn’t long before it sensed something was amiss and looked our way.

  Its orange eyes glared down on us and it let out a single scream before we all heard a resounding crunch as it crushed the Glower Serpent’s neck.

  “What the heck is that thing?” I hissed as I raised my sword.

  “A Shock Bird…” Juliana said, although it sounded like she couldn’t believe her own eyes.

  As soon as the Shock bird stepped in our direction, Aurielle didn’t waste any time, casting her Ethereal Spear spell and sending several of them flying at the monster.

  All of us were surprised, though, when the Shock Bird bents its legs and jumped out of the way, smacking its head into the cavern’s ceiling in the process. We heard a rumble as some rocks broke off from the ceiling, crashing down around us. It seemed this cavern was rather fragile; we’d have to be careful.

  Aurielle tsked as the Shock Bird glided rather gracefully back down to the cavern floor, before shrieking its displeasure.

  “Alright, let’s treat this just like we do any other monster,” I ordered.

  The women nodded, and we all jumped into action. Aurielle darted forward, while I casted my Icy Cloud spell and immediately followed up with Blast Currents. Ignoring the drawbacks of my low Magical Capacity, even though I felt a bit dizzy, I followed Aurielle.

  My ice spikes struck the monster’s wings, but didn’t seem to do much damage, if any. Juliana’s fireballs smacked into Shock Bird’s side, and they seemed to be pretty effective against it. It flapped its wings haphazardly as some of its feathers caught on fire.

  Aurielle reached the Shock Bird first and swiped down its leg. The artifact sword cut along the monster’s appendage with ease, leaving a large gash that made the monster stumble backward in surprise.

  I followed up with a strike of my own, hitting the Shock Bird’s other leg. I managed to produce a similar gash, though the monster didn’t react quite as strongly. The Shock Bird cried out, emitting a guttural croak as it hopped on one leg, cradling the wounded leg Aurielle had attacked.

  It glared at Aurielle and struck forward with its beak. She dodged out of the way and the Shock Bird’s beak skidded across the ground.

  I took the opportunity to strike at its wings and managed to cut off several of its feathers. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do much damage, as its plumage covered its body to an unexpected depth.

  The Shock Bird unexpectedly twisted around to smack into me. My high Defense stat mitigated most of the damage, but I did stumble back with a shout. It followed up the strike, swiping along the ground with its taloned foot, which I managed to avoid even as Clarissa’s healing magic coursed through me.

  Juliana’s fireballs smashed into the Shock Bird’s side again and again, distracting it as Aurielle sliced at its legs once more. I soon rejoined the fight and we continued to wear down the monster.

  Aurielle’s eyes told me she was angling for another opportunity to use her Ethereal Spear, likely waiting to make sure the Shock Bird wouldn’t jump into the ceiling again.

  As I struck the Shock Bird’s leg again, this time something strange happened. The air felt heavy, and a low buzzing nagged at my ears. Before I could begin to fathom what was going on, Aurielle immediately dashed forward to grab my arm, jerking me back from the monster.

  “Quickly! Behind the Serpent’s corpse!” she shouted.

  I followed Aurielle and saw that Juliana had already jumped behind the Glower Serpent’s body, while Clarissa was being pulled along behind Anny’s blurring form. By the time we reached the corpse, I could feel the hair on the top of my head standing on end.

  Aurielle again ordered us to duck behind the corpse. Before I lost sight of it, I saw that the Shock Bird had spread its wings wide and vibrated in place, swirls of blue and orange sparks circling its body.

  A massive blast of energy erupted from the monster, lighting bolts zipping past in all directions. I could hear the corpse of the Glower Serpent sizzling from the raw power of this attack, eventually igniting. Thankfully, the walls of the cavern didn’t seem to be affected by this burst of magic, which was a great relief.

  The last thing any of us wanted was a cave in.

  All of us stayed silent, as lightning bolts zipped over our heads. Eventually, they ceased, and we hurried away from the Glower Serpent’s corpse, greasy black smoke filling the cavern as it burned.

  Jeez…

  This was probably why it was called a Shock Bird to begin with.

  When the monster came back into view, it looked to be fatigued. It screeched, ever so softly with each labored breath. Its wing hung limply at its sides and it hunched over as it recovered from its lightning attack.

  “Aurielle, now!” I shouted, and she nodded as she raised her sword, pointing it at the Shock Bird.

  “Ethereal Spear!”

  Several translucent spears manifested before her blade, hovering briefly in the air before launching themselves at the monster. The Shock Bird clearly saw the attack coming and it tried vainly flapping its wings as it prepared to jump. But this time, it was far too slow.

  Every single spear struck
the monster, pushing it across the cavern until it slammed into the wall. The bird hung there limply, pinned in place. The Shock Bird shrilled as it wiggled and thrashed, but that seemed only to hasten its demise.

  Its thrashing eventually slowed to irregular twitches as it succumbed to blood loss, before laying still on the wall.

  “Jeez…” I breathed, as my heartbeat pounded in my chest. “That Ethereal magic of yours is something else, Aurielle.”

  She smiled at that, nodding her head.

  “Is anyone else hurt?” Clarissa asked, as she checked over me and Aurielle. “Hmm, looks like it was just you, handsome.”

  “What was that monster even doing here?” Juliana asked, stroking her chin in thought.

  “Maybe it was the monster that dwelled here before the Glower Serpents showed up?” I suggested.

  She shook her head. “Shock Birds come from a floor even deeper in the Dungeon than Glower Serpents. Neither of them should be here; I cannot fathom a logical reason why they are.”

  “Let’s debate it another time, Juliana,” Clarissa said, waving a hand. “We have both a Shock Bird and a Glower Serpent here. Think of all the gold this will bring in!”

  We all looked at the corpse of the Glower Serpent, that was still very much on fire.

  “Oh no!” Clarissa whined, “Quick handsome! Convert it to loot before the quality drops too much!”

  Before I could even open my mouth to respond, Clarissa darted over to the Glower Serpent’s corpse and touched a part of it that wasn’t on fire. It instantly disappeared, leaving two pieces of charred scales, instead.

  “It appears that the loot is already significantly damaged,” Aurielle remarked as Clarissa stared morosely at the blackened scales.

  “That stupid Bird cost us eighty-four gold coins…” Clarissa growled.

  “It’s still gotta be worth something, right?” I asked and Clarissa shook her head.

  “Maybe we could use them to light a fire someplace, but not much else,” she said.

  Anny came over and poked at the scales, part of it flaking off at her hesitant touch.

  “The pattern is still there,” she said, “But it’s really brittle.”

  “Do we have time to look for another Glower Serpent?” Aurielle asked.

  I shrugged. “Possibly, but we are reaching the point where we might get back late, if we can’t find another one soon.” I frowned.

  “Perhaps the best course of action is to submit the loot of the Shock Bird,” Juliana suggested.

  “How much are they worth?” I asked.

  “I’m afraid they weren’t on the loot lists I procured,” she said.

  “Surely, that must mean it’s worth a lot of gold?” Clarissa asked, her interest piqued.

  “Perhaps. Whether or not it is worth more than a Glower Serpent’s scale is unknown,” Juliana reasoned.

  Clearly, submitting loot for a monster we didn’t know the value of wasn’t a good idea. At least with the Glower Serpent, and other monsters on the list, we had a general indication of what they might be worth to the Guild—in terms of coin, at least.

  But if this Shock Bird came from deeper in the Dungeon than even the Glower Serpent, then I was willing to give it a shot.

  “Right,” I said, “Let’s take the loot from the Shock Bird and head back. Those adventurers probably got pretty deep into the Dungeon, but I doubt they managed to come this far down.”

  “Especially since we used a shortcut,” Clarissa said, her usual smirk on her face.

  “Allow me to retract my spears,” Aurielle said.

  The Shock Bird was still nailed to the wall, but the Ethereal Spears disappeared once Aurielle spun around to face them. The body of the Shock Bird slowly slid down the wall before eventually toppling over.

  Aurielle really was a force to be reckoned with…

  As I headed over to grab the Shock Bird’s loot, I felt pretty good about our chances.

  It wasn’t the monster we had intended to submit, but it had put up one heck of a fight and I could only hope that its loot was worth just as much as the Glower Serpent’s.

  One thing was for sure, though, the strange issue of monsters appearing on floors they shouldn’t be was getting worse.

  And I could only wonder at what it really meant…

  26

  Similar to the Glower Serpent, the Shock Bird dropped two pieces of loot as opposed to the usual one that normal monsters gave. As I’d sort of expected, it dropped two giant feathers that shimmered with streaks of magical energy, almost as if I was seeing tiny lightning bolts coursing through them.

  Unlike the loot from the Titan and the Glower Serpent, there was a slight difference in the feathers—one was blue, while the other was orange. According to the limited amount of information given to me by my interface, that didn’t seem to affect their usefulness in crafting.

  At least, I didn’t think there was much of a difference.

  Since the search for a Glower Serpent had taken us so long, we rushed back to the passageway to follow the blue line back to the surface. Other than enduring the cramped condition of the tunnels and fighting past the regular monsters on the first couple floors, we managed to get back to the Dungeon’s entrance just as the sun was setting.

  There were a lot more people present than there had been before. Fortunately, there were also plenty of Academy guards holding them back from the Dungeon’s entrance.

  Right in front of us was a rather large table where I could see the headmaster and another figure I didn’t recognize. He wore simple leather armor that looked pretty sleek on his large frame and had a rugged edge to his visage.

  Around him were several people I recognized from the Adventurer’s Guild, specifically people I had met when we had sold off the Glower Serpent’s scale.

  “Oh, look,” Clarissa said, pointing to our left. “There’s our competition.”

  I turned my head to see the other two Sovereignty groups waiting together with the same Academy staff members we had spoken too earlier that day. The adventurers’ group seemed just as stoic as ever as they nodded briefly to Juliana. And the Sovereignty students were just as… noisy.

  “My Lady! My Lady! Did I mention my Clan has impeccable relations with some of the southern Tasberg Clans, too?” That same female student shouted at us.

  “Well, it seems that we won’t have to wait for the other parties to return,” Juliana said, shaking her head at the display.

  There didn’t seem to be any other tournament parties here, just our group and the two teams we’d competed against. The headmaster waited patiently as Academy staff approached us, as well as the other two parties.

  Each of us were led to the table, where the headmaster idly chatted with the guildmaster.

  “Ah, yes,” the headmaster said, stroking his chin absently. “Young Juliana’s group of Sovereignty members.”

  “Hmm,” the guildmaster said, his eyes scanning us. “I had heard that the heir of Hoganna was fighting for the Sovereignty, but to see it with my own eyes…”

  “If you have a problem with that, you can take it up with my father,” Clarissa said airily, waving a hand. The guildmaster just blinked at her while the headmaster chuckled.

  “Yes. Clarissa here does not seem to follow the path her father would have her travel, at least not that I have seen,” he admitted.

  It felt a bit strange, having the two of them talk about us as if none of us were present, but we watched as they shared a few more comments with each other before the headmaster cleared his throat.

  “Now, yes,” he said. “Let us start with my students, if you don’t mind Rodnok? Sovereignty Students, please present your submission.”

  “Yes, headmaster!” The Sovereignty student party shouted as one of them reached into a small bag. I was pretty sure that was a Clan storage bag that they pulled an unfamiliar blue pelt from.

  “We fought our way to the eleventh floor and defeated a Blue Jackal,” a male Sovereignty student exp
lained.

  “Oh, I see. Very impressive,” the headmaster nodded.

  The guildmaster took the offered pelt and examined it closely. He seemed pleased with the submission but held it up so that one of the many people next to him, a woman in a brown robe, could raise her hand to cast a spell on it.

  “This submission is valid, guildmaster,” the woman nodded before stepping back. “Its creation is within the guidelines. Estimated value is thirteen coppers.”

  The Sovereignty students cheered at this, which also drew the attention of the surrounding crowd before the headmaster’s steely gaze quieted them.

  “An excellent showing for this group, thus far. Would you not agree, Rodnok?” the headmaster asked.

  “Perhaps,” the guildmaster replied. “But I am much more interested in seeing what my adventurers have accomplished. What do you five have?”

  I half wondered if the adventurers here had intentionally avoided saying anything in an effort to be all mysterious and cool. It seemed even their guildmaster hadn’t been able to get them say anything thus far.

  One of them pulled out their submission from a small pouch.

  I could feel my women shift restlessly when they saw a rather large carapace deposited on the table in front of us.

  “A Soldier Ant’s carapace? You ventured all the way down to the fourteenth floor?” The headmaster queried.

  “Of course,” the guildmaster grinned. “This lot may be Sovereignty born, but the adventurer’s guild has made them capable of daring deeds.”

  The guildmaster didn’t even bother examining the carapace as he motioned the same woman forward to examine it as it lay on the table. It wasn’t long after she’d cast her magic that she nodded her head.

  “This submission is valid, guildmaster,” she said. I figured that was her official way of confirming any loot. “Its creation is within the guidelines. Estimated value is twenty four coppers.”

  Unlike the Sovereignty students’ boisterous celebration, the adventurers simply slapped each other once on the back. I wasn’t able to see much more of their reactions, though, because of their helmets.