by Aleron Kong
The Land: Monsters
By
Dr. Aleron Kong
The Land: Monsters
A work of Tamori Publications
Copyright © 2020 by Aleron Kong
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used factiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
The scanning, uploading and distribution or this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. Thank you for protecting the rights and writing process of the author.
Contents
CHAPTER 1 – Day 150 – Juren 1, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 2 – Day 150 – Juren 1, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 3 – Day 150 – Juren 1, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 4 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 5 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 6 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 7 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 8 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 9 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 10 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 11 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 12 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 13 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 14 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 15 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 16 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 17 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 18 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 19 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 20 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 21 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 22 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 23 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 24 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 25 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 26 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 27 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 28 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 29 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 30 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 31 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 32 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 33 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 34 – Day 152 – Juren 3, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 35 – Day 152 – Juren 3, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 36 – Day 152 – Juren 3, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 37 – Day 152 – Juren 3, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 38 – Day 152 – Juren 3, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 39 – Day 153 – Juren 3, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 40 – Day 154 – Juren 4, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 41 – Day 154 – Juren 4, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 42 – Day 154 – Juren 4, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 43 – Day 154 – Juren 5, 0 AoC
CHAPTER 44 – Day 155 – Juren 5, 0 AoC
Thank You
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my fans.
Creating these worlds has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I’d always wanted to be a writer, to make worlds of wonder. I knew it would feel amazing. What I never expected was that it would connect me with truly wonderful people around the world.
Thank you for walking this path with me. There is so much more to come!
Summaries of Earlier Books
Doing something new this time! I’ve made a summary of the earlier books, short and sweet!
I don’t disrupt the flow for those who don’t need a refresher, though. If you’d like to read the summaries, you can just click this LINK if you want to read them.
Everyone else, I present, The Land: Monsters!
CHAPTER 1 – Day 150 – Juren 1, 0 AoC
Richter cursed. He was in a lair! Not only that, he’d finally found out where the high-level monsters were hiding. The ichorpede skittered toward him faster now, clacking its pincers together in anticipation. It was only fifty yards away. The chaos seed ran to the left and grabbed the only weapon available, a gnawed leg bone. He had no idea what kind of creature had left it behind, but it was as big as a Louisville Slugger. Part of him realized that this bone was only here because the ichorpedes had been able to bring down such a large beast. A bigger part of him told that part to shut the fuck up. It was game time.
As the giant insect closed the distance, Richter began to prepare. Minor Chitin Carapace thickened his skin and increased his natural armor by +4. Weak Haste boosted his speed and Weak Mirror Image made two copies of him. He summoned a saproling and spider, evolving them both with Chaos magic into stronger versions. With the ichorpede only ten yards away, he dismissed his night vision, then cast Grease and Weak Flame in quick succession. The entire circle of brown-gravy sludge lit up, enveloping the giant insect in fire.
It reared back with a hiss of rage, its head towering five feet above him. Richter was raising his makeshift bone club to strike when he heard a voice that made his mouth drop open in shock. Floating out of the darkness came a small winged creature only a single foot in height. His body was ash grey and black bat wings flapped behind him. The expression on his face was both bored and annoyed. When Xuetrix spoke again, his tone was a perfect match.
“I said, stop playing with those bugs, human. You owe me a Favor, and I’m here to collect.”
The moment of distraction cost Richter dearly. The ichorpede, though damaged by the flames, dove through them. It shot toward the chaos seed’s figure, its powerful pincers snapping shut on his unarmored body. To its surprise, the figure it had attacked shattered into countless shards of light a moment before disappearing. It was not Richter, merely one of his mirror images. Wasting no time, the real Richter spun and slammed his bone club down onto the head of the ichorpede with all of his strength.
The hardened bone slammed into its armored shell and forced its head to the ground. For a single instant Richter cheered in his heart, but then he was reminded why powerful weapons were a necessity when fighting high level monsters. Though the force of his strike forced its head down and away, it caused no actual damage. Before he could take a second swing with his impromptu bone club, the monster of the depths struck again, and this time, its aim was true.
Richter was knocked off his feet. He landed heavily, the rough rock digging into his bare back. The force of the massive insect’s charge propelled him along the ground. Skin and blood were left behind in a gooey pink smear. For the second time in as many minutes, Richter was reminded of the horror of battling without armor or arms. The tattered remains of his clothes offered no real protection. This was not a movie where the action star never really got hurt. This was real life, and it was real agony flaring within him as he struggled for just one more minute of breath.
The ichorpede’s serrated mandibles sped toward his face. There was not a doubt in Richter’s mind that it could rip half his face off if they managed to snap shut. As he fell, his hands shot up and just managed to grab the pincers. The sharp spikes on the inside of the mandibles tore into his hands. Red-hot blood flowed in small rivers onto his face and chest. The scent drove the ichorpede wild, and it surged forward with a high-pitched keening noise.
As bad as the tearing pain in his hands was, this was not the worst agony. The monster’s acidic spit flowed faster as it grew lustful and blood-drunk. The scant drops of Richter it had tasted were enough to make its terrible hunger soar. The green-tinted acid from
its mouth immediately started eating into Richter’s hands. A large drop fell from its mouth onto his chest with a sizzle, and he could smell his own flesh cooking. His muscles dissolved, cell by cell, sinew by sinew.
Richter screamed in agony as the skin and muscle of his chest began to melt and run. His Strength attribute was just enough to keep the insect from stealing his life. The lich’s Curse of Eternal Servitude had been weakened when Singh suffered the final death, but it could still damn Richter’s soul if he died within the next seven days. The scream of pain issuing from his mouth began to be mingled with rage. After everything he had gone through, he would not let his story end like this!
The ichorpede kept forcing its way forward, trying to bite Richter’s head free of his body. Each time it pushed, its mandibles would inch closer before the chaos seed was able to force them back. They continued to skid across the rocky ground, leaving more of the young lord’s tissue and blood behind. Richter managed to get his left knee up and brace it against the monster. It kept space between them, but in response, the ichorpede plunged some of its countless legs down into his right side. Five of its spike-like appendages sank into his chest, abdomen and leg.
His health dropped by more than twenty points from its first attack. It dropped by fifteen more as the legs sank in to the first joint of the insect’s dagger-like extremities. If he hadn’t cast Minor Chitin Carapace, increasing the natural armor of his skin from 0 to +3, the damage would have been worse. The high-level monster’s poignard legs were even stronger though.
Richter howled.
If he had been wearing his wood sprite armor, he might have been able to ignore the attack long enough to counterattack. Without it, his body was being savaged, and his spell-thickened skin was scant defense. Less than ten seconds into the battle, and he was already afflicted with a Bleeding debuff. As the sharp ends of the ichorpede’s legs were still in his body, Richter’s debuff had no time limit. The chaos seed’s life literally oozed away as he fought the level thirty-one insect, struggling to just survive another minute. More drops of acidic spit fell onto his chest and neck, inflicting more damage and sapping his will to fight.
Though Richter did not know it, most men and women would have already succumbed. The pain of feeling one’s own flesh liquify, after all, could easily drive one mad. His own Secondary Attribute Resilience was several times higher than most peoples of The Land. Resilience was a person’s ability to withstand the worst of circumstances. The average person had a base value of +1. His own was +3.6, more than three times greater. It was in part due to his various life experiences, but mostly due to the boon he had received for eating the First Fruit of the Quickening. While others would have panicked, Richter’s own mind became oddly still now that his life was balanced on a razor’s edge.
The first thing he thought about was Xuetrix. Casting about, he saw that the imp had faded back into the darkness of the cavern. Richter cursed in his own mind, but was not surprised. How much could you trust a demon? Next, he turned his attention to his two summoned creatures. The spider and saproling had evolved into a mesmer spider and thorn element respectively. Both of these evolutions were magic-based, meaning they couldn’t stand up to too much close combat.
Even if they could, they were on the far side of the fire. That was where they needed to be though. More ichorpedes were spilling into the cavern. Several were coming through a large doorway at the far end of the underground gallery. Others were coming through holes in the stone, crawling on the walls in defiance of gravity. He needed his summoned creatures to delay the others, if even for a few moments.
Those mental calculations took place in an instant. Richter was no stranger to battle at this point. He had lived and died and killed and saved more than he could easily count. He was without any true weapons or armor, but he was not without resources. He had his items: eight rings, a bracelet and his necklace. All of them power talismans. Baring his teeth to keep from screaming, he accessed his Ring of Shadow Shift. Looking up at the monstrous face of the ichorpede, he thought, fuck you!
Your Ring of Shadow Shift cannot transport 2 beings!
“No!” he grunted. “Fuck me!” Richter’s mind raced. Whether it was because the massive insect’s segmented legs were piercing his body, or just because he was in contact with an enemy, his ring wouldn’t work. He strained to keep the ichorpede’s pincers from savaging his face. It grew closer with every surge of its body. Even as he fought a losing battle, its acidic spittle fell onto his torso and face. His health literally dribbled away. As he struggled, he was reminded of his first life-and-death struggle in The Land with a wolf in the Forest of Nadria.
During his first days in The Land, he’d taken a quest from the Hearth Mother to kill diseased wolves. He had been attacked and borne to the ground. Only a bracer against the wolf’s throat had kept it from biting his face off, just like the ichorpede was trying to do now. He’d killed the wolf, but had died minutes later when the other members of the pack tore him apart. It had been one of the more traumatic and horrible experiences of his life. The fear had nearly crippled his soul, broken his mind. He’d only been a level two noob, nearly helpless.
Despite the corollaries between his position now and then, he was not the same person. He had burned settlements, enacted revenge on those who had dared harm him and used the bones of his Mortal Enemy to adorn the central building of his village. He was not weak. He was not prey. He wasn’t even just a predator. He was Richter. He was a monster!
With a strained shout, he pushed against the monstrous centipede’s head and gained a scant inch of relief. At the same time, he shuffled through the notifications he had gained during the destruction of the Mausoleum. Some shocked and amazed him, others confused him, but he still minimized them all to the side to be viewed later. They were not what he needed and could not help him in that instant. That was, until he heard the sweetest sound any man or woman could ever hear. A snarling grin appeared on his face and he let the prompt wash over him.
TRING! TRING! TRING! TRING! TRING!
You have reached level 40, 41, 42, 43, and 44! Through hard work you have moved forward along your path. You are awarded the following points to distribute:
Per Level
Total
Stat Points
As a Chaos Seed, you gain 6 Stat Points to distribute to characteristics instead of the usual 4
30
Talent Points
As a Chaos Seed, you receive 15 Talent Points instead of the usual 10.
You receive an additional 15 Talent Points from your Profession and Specialty for having a 100% affinity in Enchanting
190
Chaos Points
You receive 8 Chaos Points due to your Blessing by the Lords of Chaos
41
Skill % Points
+25% to the skill of your choice
+125%
There was a new line at the bottom of his leveling sheet that he didn’t understand.
Know This! You have reached a Threshold! The points from reaching level 45 will be locked until an Evolution branch is determined.
Further leveling blocked until an Evolution branch is determined.
Richter had no idea what that meant, but that didn’t matter to him in the slightest. He had Character Points to burn. A deep and malignant chuckle rumbled in the depths of his chest while he poured points into Strength.
Six points arrested the forward movement of the ichorpede. Ten let him push it back. Pain flared in his body as his muscles and their attachments to his bones and flesh were enlarged and augmented. Suffering had never been so sweet, and the insanity in his laughter grew stronger. Fifteen let him force its pincers wider and he was able to wrestle himself into a sitting position. Agony cut through his body as it underwent changes to accommodate his increased Attribute.
His musculature bulged and his bones strained. His dark skin stretched and then split. The magic of his augmentation healed his skin to accommodate, but then it
split again, leaving jagged red tears across his body. If his Constitution were not already so high, the changes might have ripped and torn his body into a grotesque parody. A hunchback of the underworld, strong, but imbalanced. Thankfully, he had already invested heavily in Con, allowing his body to handle the changes.
The ichorpede hissed in surprised fury and redoubled its efforts. Richter was slowly pushed back toward the rocky ground as it brought more of its several-ton body to bear. His Strength was now twelve points higher than the thirty-foot long centipede, but it outweighed him by a great amount. Between that and his precarious position on the ground, he was not able to gain the upper hand. As he waged this struggle for life and soul, more insects flooded the cave system. His summoned creatures went to work.
Facing the largest concentration of monstrous centipedes, the mesmer spider released its magic. It stood three feet tall on its sharp, sleek legs. It had only one eye, which crossed its arachnid face like a prismatic band. The bejeweled organ lit with an inner fire, and a conical beam of light shot forth. The five ichorpedes caught in the beam were entranced and froze in place. The spider scuttled forward and tried to bite them with its poison fangs but was unable to penetrate their armor.
The thorn elemental joined the fray as well. Casting Entangle, roots broke up through cracks in the stony ground. Though much less effective than if it were cast in a forest, the evolved creature’s magic was not weak. Inch-wide green vines ensnared the bodies of two ichorpedes that were within the ten-yard AoE. The insects hissed and snapped at the plant tendrils, breaking them with ease. More came, however, and the thorn elemental followed up its first spell with another. Yellow particles filled the air as it cast Sleep Pollen. The spores were inhaled by the ichorpedes, stilling their actions to a certain extent. Unfortunately, the high-level monsters were not easily quelled and only one fell asleep.
Using its last offensive ability, the elemental shot a poison thorn at one of the bound ichorpedes. It struck a lucky shot, threading between armored plates. The poisonous dart sunk into flesh. The giant insect hissed as its HP started to fall, but its health barely diminished. With half its mana gone and all of its skills on cooldown, the thorn elemental moved to engage with another ichorpede rushing toward its master. It would buy Richter all the time it could with its three-foot-tall body.
