The Land: Monsters

by Aleron Kong

  Richter looked at the demon uneasily as the imp rose back into the air. “The red dot is this city of Omru, I’m guessing?”

  “You guess right,” was the flippant response. From his tone, Xuetrix could care less about the quest or the fact that he’d just tried and failed to steal Richter’s soul.

  Richter’s eyes widened in disbelief. Was this bastard really just about to leave? After all that? He was! He was actually flying away. Lazily flying away!

  “Hey, asshole. You didn’t give me a map. Just this blinking red dot surrounded by nothing. This isn’t Zelda, you know!”

  “I held up my end of the deal. Anything else is on you, human. I have more important things to do and much more important people to see. Much more important… So much more. It’s really unbelievable, how much…”

  “I get it!” Richter snapped. “If you want this wand though, you could at least give me more information. How am I supposed to sneak into an ogre stronghold? I’m human, if you hadn’t noticed.”

  “Let’s not discuss your shortcomings,” Xuetrix suggested, waving one hand. “Good luck, human.”

  “Yeah,” Richter smiled with bared teeth, “You too.”

  Xuetrix’s grin didn’t have a drop less animosity. His fingers wove into a spell form, and a reddish-black portal snapped into existence. A moment before he disappeared, he got in the last word, “Try not to be such a hungry, thirsty bitch, huh?”

  CHAPTER 22 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC

  Xuetrix poofed out of existence, leaving behind two things: the rotten-egg stink of brimstone and that last, relatively weak insult. Why did he call Richter a hungry, thirsty bitch? Hungry bitch wasn’t even a thing. The chaos lord was honestly kind of disappointed in the demon. As last words went, it was pretty sad.

  That was until red warning prompts flashed in his vision.

  You are Dehydrated! Any lost health cannot be restored.

  You are Ravenous! Stamina regeneration decreased by 25%. Emotional control decreased by 25%.

  You are Exhausted! Concentration decreased by 50%.

  Know This! Your evolution has placed a great strain on your body. For the next 28 days, its metabolic needs will be greatly accelerated, requiring several times the normal amount of food and water.

  “I hate him so much,” Richter breathed out. All of a sudden, it felt like he’d just gone through hell week. An almost physical weight settled onto his shoulders. He didn’t think he’d ever been this exhausted before. To cap it off, he was starving! Cotton mouth was also an inadequate description. It was more like… rusty-brillo mouth. It was all he could do to stick out one hand and brace against the side of the tunnel. He blew out several labored breaths just trying to center himself. If an enemy or monster had found him in that moment, it could have delivered the coup de grâce with barely any effort.

  He had no idea how the demon had known these debuffs were coming, but it made him fucking furious that Xuetrix had managed such an appropriate insult! That goddamn flying rat! If he ever got his hands around the demon’s little neck he would… Richter’s mental training asserted itself and overrode his spiraling emotions. He took several deep breaths while he mastered his anger. Not by denying it, that never worked. The way you control your emotions is to accept that they are part of you, bring them close, then decide that they will not define you. It takes a bit more time than mere repression, but it works far better.

  Several minutes later, he got himself under control. He even let out a self-deprecating chuckle, “Decreased emotional control. Right.” Even his Self-Awareness skill was no match for hangry.

  He’d never been the most even-keeled guy even in the best of times. Now that he was hungry, in pain and suffering under the loss of emotional control debuff, he was a powder keg. It wasn’t that he thought there was anything wrong with anger, it just wasn’t helpful right now. Right now, he had to work the problem. Namely, deal with these debuffs, survive the week, and finish this new quest. The debuffs would obviously have to be dealt with first.

  Almost like that thought had summoned the demon, Xuetrix popped back into existence holding a clear glass full of water. The glass was even frosted! The demon raised it to his mouth and Richter couldn’t help but stare. Richter’s mouth opened and closed several times involuntarily, as if he were drinking the water. He stared at the crystal-cold water in desperate need. He was pretty sure his soul cried as he watched the truly demonic creature bring the water ever closer to his grey-black mouth. A faint croon came out of the chaos lord’s mouth.

  Before Xuetrix actually took a drink though, he turned his head toward Richter as if he’d forgotten the human was there, “Oh, did you want some?”

  Richter nodded before he could help himself, his fluid-starved body betraying him. His mind shouted, ‘Don’t do it! It’s a trap!’ Xuetrix had already seen his response, though.

  “Yeah, I thought you would,” the demon spoke with supreme satisfaction, smiling a needle-filled grin. Then he brought the glass up to his lips and drank the precious water, one loud and wet gulp at a time. A cry of rage came from Richter’s parched throat as he lunged at the imp. Xuetrix just lazily flew to the side while he continued to drink, easily evading his attacker’s clumsy attempt at retribution. One small taloned finger was held up, asking the chaos seed for “just a sec” while he kept drinking.

  The demon didn’t actually finish the water. Instead, when it was half empty, he turned the glass upside down. If Richter had any fluid in his body, he would have wept upon seeing the water fall to the ground. The liquid was immediately absorbed by a thin layer of rock dust.

  Xuetrix patted the bottom of the glass while it was still upraised, making sure to clear the last drop. Then he looked at Richter and spoke in a calming tone, “Whoa, whoa buddy. No need to be so angry. I didn’t forget about cha!”

  The chaos lord looked back at the imp with a bit of madness in his eyes. Xuetrix just smiled and flew a bit further away before putting the glass on the ground. Then, lifting his loin cloth, he revealed a surprising large grey dick that, good god, looked like it had thorns sticking out of it. With a sigh of supreme satisfaction, Xuetrix unloaded his bladder into the glass, filling it with orange, glowing, demon piss. That done, he flicked his prick, releasing the last few drops, one of which fell on the stone with an acidic hiss, and said, “All yours… bitch,” and disappeared again.

  What followed next was some truly epic swearing. Energy surged in his limbs as he stomped and swung his arms at thin air like a crazy person. He took a bit of care when he picked up the glass, but then threw it against the wall of the tunnel as hard as he could. It shattered and the hellish urine hissed like a sack full of spastic cats. Richter didn’t calm down for about half an hour. His emotional lability was in full effect.

  Once he gained control again, Richter made himself stand up straight. He needed to find a way to eat, drink and sleep. Weapons and armor, even a pair of shoes, wouldn’t be a bad idea either. The soles of his feet were bloody and raw in places. The Land was a magical place, but in some ways, it was no different from Earth. He couldn’t afford to ignore mundane concerns.

  He needed to deal with his thirst first. He remembered dungeon diving with Sion once. The sprite had been trapped in a dream for days. When he had finally snapped out of it, his friend had been afflicted with not only the Dehydrated debuff, but also Severely Dehydrated. Once it progressed to that point, not only would his health not be able to be replenished, it would begin to drop at a fast rate. Plainly put, if his debuff evolved, his life would be in danger. He needed to find water.

  Richter looked down the tunnel. The only source of light was the glowing ball of his spell. To his left was the drop-off that had claimed the ichorpedes. Too many steps in that direction and he’d suffer the same fate. On his right, the tunnel continued into the darkness. His little island of light seemed just as isolated as the dark walk in Nexus’s realm.

  He might only be a few miles underground, but then again, he
might be several hundred. The Land was a planet the size of Jupiter, tens of thousands of miles thick. That was one hundred trillion square miles. There could be caverns inside The Land that were literally the size of the planet Earth, but would still just look like a bubble in a glass of soda. He needed to get home but had no idea which direction, or even a rough idea of how far away the Mist Village was. All he had was this tunnel and that damn flashing red dot.

  Richter extinguished his Simple Light spell and cast Darkvision. The spell only had a base range of twenty-five yards, but that was greatly extended now. Between his Dark Mastery and high Intelligence, the distance was more than doubled. He could have seen further with Simple Light, but the sphere of light was as good as ringing a monster dinner bell.

  The chaos seed noticed the casting was significantly harder with his decrease in concentration, but the spells were low level. Even at half-mast, he was still up to the challenge. To his happy surprise, he saw that the spell cost less mana than before. When he’d cast Simple Light after the battle of wills, he’d been too distracted to notice. Now he couldn’t help but smile.

  As he walked, he got ready to finally review the rest of his prompts, but his stomach rumbled. It was then that something occurred to him. He had a tool at his disposal that he hadn’t used yet! Thank you, Randy! Richter made a silent promise to sit through one of the man’s lectures. He wouldn’t even sigh heavily or try to leave early. At least, he amended, he’d do his very best. The half-undine Spy deserved it, and a fruit basket! Randolphus had taught Richter exactly the spell that he needed!

  Richter stopped and started to dual cast Weak Find Water. The original spell only detected water within a hundred feet of his location. With skill level fourteen in Dual Casting, the spell was 156% stronger. When you factored in the bonus from his high Intelligence and his Water Mastery, the spell would be able to reach almost one hundred yards. He had to concentrate harder than normal, but his Psi Bond ability also greatly enhanced his mental focus. The spell wasn’t too difficult. As long as he didn’t need to chain cast spells in battle, his debuff shouldn’t be a problem.

  The blue glow from his hands faded a moment later, and an invisible, intangible pulse shot out from his body. It extended like a growing sphere in every direction, looking for water. And... found absolutely nothing. Richter sighed. That would have been too easy. He started walking again. As exhausted as he was, all he wanted to do was pass out, but he couldn’t risk his debuffs getting worse. Currently, they were a potentially dangerous inconvenience. If he waited, they would be deadly.

  While he made his way into the dark, he dealt with the last prompts from his battle at the Mausoleum. The first was a complete surprise, and made him miss his elementum short sword even more.

  Congratulations! You have progressed in a Combat Art! The sprite-based fighting style Sutinn Sumotri, “The Stinging Storm!” This fighting style incorporates 2 skills, Short Blades and Dual Wielding. It is possible to progress the weapon form through either skill, but the only way to truly master this form is to use both skills together.

  The following bonuses are possible for novices of this form:

  DUAL WIELDING NOVICE

  Requirements

  Dual Wielding Skill Level 10

  Agility 15, Dexterity 15

  Bonus

  +5% attack speed when dual wielding

  1 Free Special Move

  SHORT BLADE NOVICE

  Requirements

  Short Blades Skill Level 10

  Agility 15, Dexterity 15

  Bonus

  +5% damage when using small blades

  1 Free Special Move

  TRUE NOVICE

  Requirements

  Dual Wielding Skill Level 10, Short Blades Skill Level 10

  Agility 20, Dexterity 20

  Bonus

  +10% attack speed when dual wielding

  +10% damage when using small blades

  2 Free Special Moves

  Through hard work and honing the techniques of Sutinn Sumotri, you have advanced to the rank of True Novice in this weapon form.

  There are 5 Special Attacks for the Novice rank of this Weapon Form. As a True Novice, you may now choose 2!

  QUICK STAB

  (Short Blade Attack)

  Increase Attack Speed by 50% for one attack.

  +5 Attack

  Cost: 20 Stamina

  Cooldown: 10 seconds

  Expertise: 0/250

  SHARP BLADE

  (Short Blade Attack)

  Ignore 5 points of Defense.

  Cost: 25 Stamina

  Cooldown: 10 seconds

  Expertise: 0/250

  WHIRLWIND

  (Dual Wielding Attack)

  A spinning attack striking enemies in all directions within 1 second. +50% damage.

  Cost: 30 Stamina

  Cooldown: 2 minutes

  Expertise: 0/250

  WEAPON MAZE

  (Dual Wielding Attack)

  Weaving your 2 weapons in an intricate pattern will mesmerize (watching) opponents for up to 5 seconds.

  Cost: 25 Stamina

  Cooldown: 3 minutes

  Expertise: 0/250

  STRIKE WHEEL

  (Dual Wielding Attack)

  Rotate your weapons in concert to perform 4 strikes to the same spot in 1 second. Each strike causes +50% damage.

  Cost: 30 Stamina

  Cooldown: 2 minutes

  Expertise: 0/250

  Richter got more excited the more he read. All that hard work, all the time he’d spent on sword forms, all the damn sticks Yoshi had hit him with… So many sticks! At long last he had something to show for it!

  His Enchanting Profession was powerful. It was one of the main reasons the Mist Village army could punch above its weight. After all, his fighters had almost all been shopkeepers, farmers and handymen only a few months before. Natheless, they’d been able to engage in pitched battle against battle-hardened goblins. The magic weapons and armor he enspelled were a force multiplier.

  There was no denying the power of an Enchanter. As great as it was though, it was still a noncombat Profession. In a head-to-head fight, he’d been beaten on several occasions when he’d gone up against those trained in the combat arts. He’d only come out ahead because of his allies, advanced planning or, in the case of the Assassin Sonirae, because he was insane enough to detonate an acid bomb in his own hands.

  Combat Professions just had too many active and passive bonuses. A Warrior could use Talent Points to purchase powerful attacks. Power Blow, Double Strike, Thrust or Lunge could let a Warrior take away half of an enemy’s health with just one move, assuming the fighter didn’t just one-shot his foe altogether. A Professed Warrior’s Talents could make him an absolute terror on the battlefield.

  Access to these kinds of attacks were one of the reasons that Richter had been so excited to buy a combat expertise book from the Sea of Chaos. He had cursed loud enough to make angels blush when he’d found out he hadn’t met the minimum requirements to use the techniques it held. Now, it seemed that his months of training and, ahem, torture at the hands of Yoshi had paid off!

  The battle of the Mausoleum must have finally advanced his combat style enough for him to qualify as a novice. It might not sound like much, but Yoshi had told him that there were plenty of Professional Warriors who never even reached this rank. Practicing the various sword styles had definitely made him deadlier, novice or not.

  What he hadn’t known was that it would let him get special attack techniques. He now had access to some of the same perks as a Warrior, without even needing a combat Profession! It even looked like they could upgrade the more he used them. There was a lot he didn’t know about Professions, but he’d never heard of a Warrior’s attacks getting stronger. Not for the first time, Richter learned that there was always more than one path to a destination.

  Now which two attack moves should he choose? He liked the idea of the first two. Quick Stab and Sharp Blad
e would make him more deadly with a short sword, but he had to be practical. He needed to make choices that would help him survive down here in the dark. If he died before the curse was lifted, what would be the point of any of this?

  While he’d love either of the first two choices, he didn’t have his blades right now. Sadly, the ichorpede pincer didn’t register as a dagger, so he couldn’t use it to trigger these techniques. Down here in the bowels of The Land, there was no reason to think he’d find one anytime soon.

  The last three, on the other hand, didn’t require a specific weapon, or even a formal weapon at all. They only required that he dual wield. He already had the large bone. He very well might find something else to serve as an impromptu club down here. What mattered was surviving for the next week until the curse wore off. Also, if (when, he corrected himself) he got back to the village, he’d have access to his armory again. He would probably keep dual wielding, but he was increasingly using a normal-sized weapon in his main hand. That made the last three techniques the best options.

  Honestly, Weapon Maze just sounded super cool. An AoE technique that could befuddle multiple enemies? He was definitely getting that one. Like, for real. That meant he just needed to decide between Whirlwind and Strike Wheel. The first was another AoE, letting him attack multiple enemies at once. The second let him attack one enemy multiple times.