My mind wandered as I stood to one side of the clearing behind the ever taller mountain of corpses. My dagger sliced through them easily and since I was essentially invisible to them there wasn’t any danger. My frustration at myself was growing as the fight dragged on. I’d gotten used to fighting in a group and at some point I’d started putting more points into Aureus’ strength and constitution than I should have.
The whole reason I chose this class was so that I’d have reliable allies and have them do all the work. How had I forgotten that? One of Aureus’ most important strengths was that he would rain down hell without worry since he can fly. Was the fear that he or the others might get hurt clouding my judgment? I had started to put him on the frontline so of course I should add more strength and bolster his health. Stupid.
Ugh. My lip curled as blood from one of the rats I killed splashed up onto my face. Whatever. Let’s focus. I can’t change what’s already happened anyway. I looked over at Aureus, he was standing in a clearing of his own making as he swiped at the rats as they arrived. Blood coated his head, chest and forelegs. I wondered if with enough time he’d end up more dark cherry colored than rose gold.
I glanced up at the flaming hill of dead rats, I was almost out of mana. We’d be able to maintain that for only a few more minutes at best. Should I ask Aureus to come here and help me? I can’t fight this group on my own. Ding. A rush of energy warmed my chest, finally we were level 20. My mind felt so light, I hadn’t realized how drained I was until then. It must have been how low my mana was.
I grinned, finally, I can use Aureus’ skills. I wasn’t sure where to start. Maybe we should go back and check on the camp. We’ve been out here for at least an hour, some of the rats must have arrived by now. And I’ve achieved my goal since I’ve leveled up.
Do you want me to come pick you up Master? I watched as Aureus’ head poked up as he searched the horizon for me.
No, I'll make my way to you. I need to learn how to use your skills. It was big talk from someone who had no clue how to use skills. I hadn’t used a system created skill since I created Aureus weeks ago, and when I did I’d embarrassingly shouted the skill name. It took days for the gods to stop making fun of me for that. Even then they only stopped because they started making fun of me for other things like my fear of slimes. Every so often a new god would pop up in the chat asking if they’d found the mortal enemy of all slimes.
With a deep breath I focused on the idea of creating a fireball. And… nothing. It didn’t appear. I frowned, I was able to use my familiar creation skill immediately so why couldn’t I do it? Is it because it isn’t my innate skill? No, no that doesn’t make sense because I was able to use mana without a skill. I tried a few other things for a couple seconds, I threw my hands out while pretending I was tossing a fireball, I closed my eyes and tried to picture it shooting towards the rats in front of me. Nothing. I even considered briefly shouting the name of the skill, but no way in hell was I doing that, not again.
I glared at the skill’s description, Elemental Attack… as I thought the words I could feel mana gathering in my chest. Ah. That’s dumb. Fireball, I want a fire elemental attack. A gasp escaped as the mana in my chest condensed and started heating up. It didn’t hurt, it felt like I was becoming a furnace. It was cozy, like a cup of hot cocoa. Just as I was getting comfortable it left me, and a small baseball sized orb of flame hovered above my open palm.
I didn’t get long to marvel at what I’d created because as soon as I thought about shooting it towards the rats in front of me it disappeared into the fray. The whole process only took a second or two. Well… that didn’t do much. I thought to myself as I watched the blurry stampede continue uninhibited by my meager fireball. I need to create a line of fire between us, that’s the easiest way to travel in this stampede.
It was easier said than done, it didn’t take me long to create the fireball, but elemental manipulation was on an entire other level. Beads of sweat slid down my face and into my eyes as I focused for what felt like an hour. Erratic hot mana raged under my skin as I tried to tame it. How the hell does he do this so easily?! My hair felt sticky on the back of my neck and the mana under my skin didn’t seem even sort of similar to the cozy feeling I’d had before. It was scorching, I wondered if my body would start to melt if I couldn’t get it under control.
Flames danced inconsistently in the horde of rats in front of me, they flitted into existence above the rats and then disappeared and reappeared within them just to disappear again. My muscles tensed as I willed it to straighten out, to gather together, to just form some semblance of what Aureus had created before. Awkwardly the fire started to get closer to each other, but instead of a line it looked more like I had compressed the fire that had spread across the area into one point. It was blindingly bright.My eyes squeezed shut and I started to feel light headed.
At some point I had started holding my breath. A pulse of heat smacked into me causing me to collapse backwards onto the cold rock. Rough gasps for breath burned my lungs. The air was distorted due to the heat. I had no idea how long I was attempting to use Elemental Manipulation but there wasn’t much point in stubbornly forcing it for the sake of my pride. I can’t do it… Can you come get me?
Yes Master. You did an excellent job especially since you’d never tried it before, of course that was to be expected as you are my master obviously.
I laid back on the uncomfortably uneven stone, I could feel the wind from his flight already. I didn’t want to get up yet. I was tired, the mental fatigue of trying and failing to use that skill wasn’t something I was prepared for. Aureus’ blood coated face appeared above me and he nudged me with his nose. Excitement and expectation spun through his molten silver eyes.
“Ugh gross! You’re getting blood on me!” I whined as I tried to wipe it off.
He responded with a low chortle as his tongue flicked out and another nudge from his now less bloody snout.
“Yeah. Ok. I hear you. I'm getting up. Huuup…” I groaned like a middle aged dad as I forced myself off the rock and onto his back. Panic punched me in the chest as he took off before I was ready. I scrambled to grab ahold of him for balance. “Aureus! Why are you taking off like that?! I nearly fell!”
I could feel his chest rumble with a deep laughter as he spun through the air and brought us higher just to dive towards the ground again. I held his neck like a mad woman as I screamed, “You crazy dragon stop!”
And as if it had never happened we were soaring smoothly again. “What…” I started exasperated.
You’re getting too worried and caught up on stupid things Master. What are you thinking? You have me there’s no way anything bad could happen to us.
With a sigh I felt my muscles relax, I missed my Underhollow. The view, the pink skies, the potatoes, and the rivers. This place was the worst. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m sure you can handle it for me right?”
Yup, I’m insulted that you thought I couldn’t. I’m the great Aureus, the golden master of elements and child of Mia. These inferior beings don’t stand a chance, they don’t even have the presence of mind to fight properly.
Yes, I was wrong, I’m sorry. I chuckled, he hadn’t changed at all. I thought he’d matured a bit, but I guess he was just pouting because he didn’t want to be here. You know Aureus?
What is it?
I was thinking, those rats will just fall to their death on their own if there’s a cliff so what if we made a couple? Do you think you could?
Cliffs? I guess I could make pits, but cliffs would be difficult since I’d have to elevate the land first.
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I wonder why we never thought to make a moat before. Well what if you make a couple deep pits in a circle around the walls and then make a way for us to go down there to collect the bodies so they won’t just pile up completely.
I understand, but I’m not sure how long that would take, but I’m sure those humans can protect themselves for once while we work.
It’s just an idea, I’m not sure how well it’d work. I hope it’ll count as our kills since we made the trap.
A few minutes passed in silence and the camp was finally in view again, thankfully it looked like they were managing well against the rats and I didn’t see any casualties. Rosalynn looked a little tired though, and very glad to see us.
“Mia! You’ve come back, how was it?” She shouted up at us.
“There are too many of them, I don’t understand how they could expect us to fight that many.” I shook my head, “But I have an idea, I don’t know why we didn’t do this before, but let’s create some pits around the edge of the camp. We can alternate which one is open with Aureus and have a path between them for me and maybe someone else to deal with the bodies that are piling up.”
“Hmm… That could work, but you’d both be doing most of the work. Is that alright?”
“Yeah, honestly I feel a bit bad since you’ll need to fight on your own for a while… and I might be taking a good portion of the experience. Also I wanted to talk to you about the red crystals. I assume Jeong mentioned them to you?”
“Oh yes I remember, what about them?”
“I’ll take half we find.” I tried to maintain a straight face and eye contact, but I wasn’t sure if she’d agree, or if I was being too greedy.
“Okay. Take Jeong down to help with disposing of the corpses with you. After the battle we can tally them up and split them according to contribution.”
“Thanks, I’ll go find him. Aureus, can you work on the pits? Do you need any help?”
I’ve got a good idea of what you need Master. I’ll start on it.
I stood for a moment and watched him fly away towards the sparse rats that had already made their way here. “You know, I wonder what we would have done without the two of you. There’s no way we would have been able to manage as well as we have.” Rosalynn said behind me. Disappointment tinged her tone, and she had a distant look in her eyes. It felt… wrong to say anything, we sat in a comfortable silence for a couple seconds, but when I turned around she called out, “Thanks.” We shared a small smile before I took off.
“Noel?” I said after I’d gotten a few paces away from her.
“Yup boss?” He asked as he fell in step with me.
“Take me to Jeong.”
“Aye aye.”
His hand grabbed mine, “Uhh, what-” and my world turned dark for a fleeting second before the surroundings changed into a new section of the battlefield. Jeong stood a few feet away. A vague chill and emptiness washed over me. It felt as if a ghost walked through me. “What in the…? Noel?” I stumbled over my words and I looked around for my now missing assassin assistant.
“Oookay…” I took a couple steps towards Jeong, taking care to step around the roots and stems of the plants that surrounded him. “Hey! I need your help.” As I approached him I had to constantly look up and back down at my feet to assure I wouldn’t trip. I wondered if he was trying to create a wall of plants to protect himself.
“Oh, Mia.” He said casually as he glanced back at me. I waited for a beat, but he didn’t say anything else.
“So, Aureus is going to create a couple pits around the camp here so that we can kill them with gravity pretty easily. Rosalynn told me to come and get your help to deal with the corpses that will inevitably pile up at the bottom.”
“Alright.” He replied as the plants made way for the two of us to walk back the way I’d come. He couldn’t have done that earlier?
“Okay, well he’s over that way so let’s just start walking I guess…” We walked in silence for a while, every so often killing a rat that came our way.
Aureus, have you made any of it yet? How about a way down?
Master, I know I’m amazing, but we got here not long ago. I haven’t finished half of the first one yet.
Is there any way I could help you? I know I’m not great at elemental manipulation, but maybe…
I told you it’s fine. Just rely on me. If you really want to you could try to create a way down like you were talking about. But I’ll probably change it later.
Oh thanks for the vote of confidence.
We arrived next to Aureus soon after and Jeong let out a low whistle. “He’s pretty quick huh?”
“Oh… uh… Yeah he is.” I muttered as I looked at the ten foot wide moat that was tens of yards long already. Well, would it be considered a moat without water? I leaned my head over and realized it wasn’t as deep as I’d expected. “I hope we can keep it cleared of corpses…”
“I was worried about that as well.” Jeong replied.
“God!” I nearly jumped out of my skin, I hadn’t expected a response but more than that he was standing too close. Since he was always so quiet it was weird to hear him as loud and clear as it had been. If he was any closer I would have been able to feel his breath. “Sorry, I guess I’m a little jumpy right now…” Embarrassed, I turned and walked along the edge of the pit in an effort to hide the redness that was blooming on my cheeks.
After a few steps I glanced over at the walls. I was pretty close to being in line with the gate, so I sped up and then stopped and tried to estimate by eye if it would be in line with the gate. With a shrug I decided to put my focus into creating a ladder down to the bottom. I kneeled a couple feet from the edge and placed my palms onto the rock. I called out the skill as I had with the fire before. My mana felt heavy and fought against me as I asked it to carve into the rock beneath me. It moved sluggishly and it took great effort to get it moving at all.
The weight of it made it hard to breathe, but slowly an awkward alcove was created along the side of Aureus’ clean clifface. Rough rungs were created as the rock was carved away, then something I hadn’t considered happened. I couldn’t reach any further with my mana. The ladder was only about a fourth of the way completed. I groaned, “Well shit…” I glanced over at Jeong who was waiting patiently and looking at something in his system. “Uh… I’ve got to head down and do it in portions, I don’t have as much control as Aureus with this…”
He gave me a small nod without looking in my direction and I started my descent into the pit. Why does he make me feel so uncomfortable? Being around him is so difficult, I feel like I am always fumbling like an idiot in front of him. Maybe it’s because he’s so quiet I’m not sure how to act? It’s not like he gives much of an indication of any emotions. Eventually after a grueling session of earth manipulation I’d finally completed a semi passable ladder, and managed to drench myself completely in sweat.
“Hey? It’s done!” I shouted up the ladder, but didn’t wait for him to make his way down. I started walking along the bottom of the pit and stashing the existing corpses away into my inventory as I went. They hadn’t quite piled up yet, but I thought it’d be good to clear some out while I waited. I could hear them fighting in the distance and wondered how this many had made it past the front lines.
“That isn’t a sustainable way of getting rid of the corpses.” Jeong noted quietly behind me.
“I know, but I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to create those carnivorous flowers along the entire path…” I paused as I looked past him to the other part of the path.
“Yeah… probably not. Falling rats aren’t ideal weather conditions for my plants.”
“Then if I create like… a room? Under the wall here how big should it be if we want to just drag the corpses to where you have the flowers?”
“That might work, it’d be best if I stayed with the plants though. Especially if we’re trying to get rid of a large amount of rats, because making a lot of plants will take all my attention.”
“Oh, then maybe I’ll ask for a few more people for transporting corpses and you can be in charge of disposal. We are doing distribution of the crystals after the battle, so it’d be easiest if you just collect all of them as the corpses are eaten.”
“Sounds good, if you want I can let you know when to stop while creating the room you mentioned. If I need more space as they grow, I’ll message you.”
“Oh, okay sure.” I let out a shaky breath as I placed my hands on the smooth cool rock. I tried not to cringe as sweat dripped down the rock. It took me longer to start carving into it than the ladder had, but soon a four foot wide and seven foot tall doorway started receding into the rock. For the next several minutes I created a short hallway into a large round room with Jeong giving me suggestions as I went.
Finally I finished it. Jeong stood at the entrance holding a torch, “Oh… I need something to hold the torches…” I muttered defeatedly. I was exhausted. Controlling earth mana was much easier than fire, but it felt like I was Atlas carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders.
“No, don’t worry about that.” he said calmly as he walked over to the wall and lifted the torch to it.
The torch just… stayed there. “How in the…”
“I just had the branch take root here. It’s a slow burning wood so it’ll last a good while. Plus we’ve all gotten pretty used to a lack of good light.” He gave a shrug and then walked and promptly sat on the floor in the center of the circle. Buds of plants broke their way out of the rough floor I’d created.
“Okay, well I’ll leave you to that and I’m going to grab some others who might be able to help.” I turned to leave.
“Leave the corpses.”
“Oh yeah.” I dumped all the rat corpses I had in my inventory out on the floor where I stood. I hesitated wondering if I should spread them out or move them somewhere more convenient but ultimately decided it was probably fine.
Finally I took off to find more lackeys to collect and dump corpses for Jeong. Once I made it up to the top of the ladder I caught sight of the approaching army of empty headed rats. They were finally arriving in earnest.