In a dank dark set of woods, only mildly more interesting than others of its kind, an ogre strolled through its domain, the king of a bleak empire. The ogre was a twelve-foot-tall monstrosity of muscle, strength, little to no brain power and surprisingly eloquent foot work. It wore a simple loincloth that barely maintained public decency if the ogre cared for such a thing, this one did but would never share such an intimate secret. It had grey skin that was decorated with tribal markings showing it belonged to the Undertooth clan, which one could also gleam due to its massive underbite. Were someone to stand directly under the ogre in the middle of a storm they would find themselves almost completely dry up until the ogre smashed them to pieces and feasted on the mushy pulp. This particular brute was trapsing through its newly established kingdom following the disbandment of its clan. Disbandment being the generous word for slaughtered at the hands of a terrifyingly efficient elven woman who single handedly killed every last one of its brethren in the span of an afternoon. This ogre avoided an untimely death by virtue of falling asleep next to a river and failing to wake up in time for the unscheduled massacre. Without a clan or any guidance, the ogre became a wanderer moving from place to place until finding a new home. This set of woods would become just such a home, it had a comfortable cave, tough trees from which it could make clubs out of and a steady supply of deer it could bonk into submission.
On this day the ogre was returning home, bloody tree trunk club in one hand and pulverized deer in the other. It was the third successful foraging mission in a week and the ogre had never been so full and didn’t have to rely on scraps. It actually felt quite chuffed with itself, maybe if it found others just like it they could form a new clan with the surviving ogre as chief, that would be swell. Such a shame its dreams would never come to fruition. The ambitious monster was caught up imagining its life as a chief and failed to notice the pile of leaves that hadn’t been there this morning as well as the black chain that suddenly rose up around its ankles. Tripping on the chain, the ogre fell forward as a figure shot out from the pile of leaves, their weapon pointing straight at the ogre’s skull. With a titanic crash the muscle-bound meathead struck the ground and was stabbed just above and between the eyes, the relatively small blade cutting into its brain. The blow was shallow enough it didn’t immediately kill the ogre but left it lobotomized, its last coherent thought being an aptly put ‘oh good heavens’.
Valerie struggled to stand, the weight of the ogre’s head causing her to sink into the loose dirt as her muscles screamed out from the effort. She pushed hard, her blade stuck into the monsters brain as she forced its head up at an angle exposing the neck.
“Anytime now Samantha!”
From her left side, Samantha appeared darting under the monster and nimbly avoiding the drool that escaped its slack jaw. She dragged a dagger across the ogre’s neck leaving an open jar behind to collect the deluge of blood that erupted from the wound. Sweating from the effort Valerie watched the glass container slowly fill with the foul-smelling liquid until it was nearly over-flowing.
“Get it! Get it! Get it!”
She ordered, feeling her strength begin to waver. Dashing back under the monster, Samantha snatched the jar, sealing it and giving her friend a thumbs up as she crossed to the other side of the dead ogre. Job done, Valerie stepped back yanking her knife free and allowing the ogre’s head to slam against the earth, blood and brain matter pouring from the hole in its cranium. The huntress flexed her sore arm trying to eke out the growing fatigue. She was stronger than most people her age and likely those in their prime by a far margin thanks to her training and aspect. Still mystical boosts could only go so far and she needed to keep working on improving her core self as much as possible. When was the last time she practiced her marksmanship or deliberately forced her aspects to stop assisting her? She had all but abandoned her uncles training regimen with the surplus of monsters filling in the gaps. Looking to Samantha, who was in the midst of wiping sticky blood off her clothes, Valerie felt bad that her uncle’s techniques for dampening aspects couldn’t work for the shadow user. If they had, then they might not be in this mess, collecting jars of blood for a rude gnome craftsman.
She shook her head, Samantha’s problems were another issue entirely, it was very possible they’d arrive at this point no matter what. Someone would mentioned a class, or they may have hit a wall in their monster hunting career and sought ways to increase their power. Ultimately, they would have ended up exactly where they stood and it was better they got here sooner rather than later. Wiping off the gore and sheathing her knife, Valerie walked over to Samantha to check out the filled to the brim jar. This would make their ninth filled container since they began collecting monster blood, it should have been the last if Samantha hadn’t fumbled one, dropping it and spilling the contents. Tightly gripping her prize, Valerie and Samantha trudged over to their makeshift camp some distance from the dead and decaying ogre. It wasn’t exactly ritzy, with only a pair of thin bed rolls and a chest to store the jars into but it would make do.
Prior to setting out the pair consulted several veteran adventurers, dungeon delvers, travellers and their favourite beast woman chef on the best location to find a number of varied monsters. While monsters could appear randomly anywhere due to magical distortions, corruption of local fauna and good old fashion curses they did follow an internal logic. A lava golem might appear in the snowy desserts to the north but it was highly unlikely as the magic in the region was not attuned to them. This same logic held true for all of Natar and the rest of the world with each land having a certain flavour of monster. Within the Gentile Kingdom monsters fit into the bestial or reptilian categories to stalk the multitude of forests whether they be interesting or not. Maroch to the south with their sandy dunes, rainforests and ancient ruins tailored their monsters to elemental golems, living vegetation and several avian varieties. The tundra of the Shurle States to the north featured numerous spirits and ethereal beings as well as the blighted region that spewed their most common monster within the last century; the undead. Lastly, Namhar island was overrun with ancient creatures from humongous insects, leviathans surrounding the island and the head honcho’s dragons.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Compared to the surroundings countries, many believed the Gentile Kingdom a walk in the park for up-and-coming monster hunters. People who thought like this would quickly find their overconfidence shattered when encountering a hoard of beasts commanded by an intelligent alpha or ambitious humanoid monster like the currently rotting ogre. All nations that comprised the continent of Natar had their fair share of trouble especially when it came to monsters and no one country could say they were worse off than the others. Except for those currently under or still recovering from a Demonic invasion, as Shurle was. Several centuries back the Gentile Kingdom had been the host to an infernal occupation which resulted in the creation of their own blighted region ironically name Merryland Forest.
This mist covered, grey tree’d and festering mark on the tranquil Gentile kingdom had once been a haven for monsters to appear seemingly randomly in the hundreds before setting forth to attack anything and everything in sight. Requesting the assistance of all their neighbouring countries, the Gentile Kingdom was able to put their entire magic research into breaking the curse that held a choke hold on the region while the largest contingent of adventurers ever assembled held the line and contained the overflow of monsters. In the end the curse was not broken but significantly weakened leaving the woods a barren inhospitable waste to everything but monsters and for some reason aspect users.
No one knew exactly why but possessing an aspect made one inherently resistant to curses, a fact that only further fuelled the idea aspects were divine in nature. A normal warrior could still enter the forest and face the surplus of monsters that formed from nothing, however extended visits would slowly poison the individual’s soul and eventually lead to death or worse. Valerie and Samantha were actually warned away from the forest several times by almost everyone they spoke to including the few other aspects holders they encountered. Everyone except Joanne who encouraged the girls to take on the gauntlet and come out the other side stronger for it. Although they didn’t know it, the beast woman only encouraged the girls to leave so she could try and distance herself from the pair, growing too attached was the last thing she wanted. It backfired however as Joanne had spent night after sleepless night worrying for the pair and cursing her own hang ups. She wondered how they were fairing and hoped they were doing alright.
“This is boring.”
Samantha said hanging cross legged and upside down from a tree branch, a single black chain suspending her off the ground. She and Valerie were resting after completing their fifth duplicate monster hunt, the tenth and final jar empty without a unique creature’s blood to fill it.
“Bollocks to you, we still have time so quit your crying.”
Valerie spat back while lounging against a tree and tossing the last empty jar from hand to hand. She didn’t exactly disagree with the girl, this set of woods was supposed to be the be all and end all of monster killing spots within the region. A place so dangerous it took the lives of rookies and veterans alike every single year, the ultimate challenge in their early adventuring career. They spent five days in the woods, killed two to three monsters everyday and had barely gotten scratched in the process. Perhaps they were just too efficient, the huntress mused. Or more likely Samantha’s uncapped and growing eery aura was simply driving all the real game away. She didn’t mention it, but Valerie got the sense her friends, power was expanding in scope and depth the more she used it. She noticed how the chains which once seemed transparent and like black glass were more opaque as well as steadily growing in strength. Her aura was the clearest example as Valerie had begun to find she was averting her gaze unconsciously despite being the most exposed to Samantha’s power, constantly enveloped by it. She worried for her friend, not because she was getting too strong but because she may find herself all alone, not even Granny able to push through the miasma. It was fine though, they would both get a class and it should fill in the cracks in their powers, at least the huntress hoped so. Right now, however she had to make a dangerous leap and hoped her friend would be okay with it. Rising off the ground, Valerie dusted herself off and awkwardly brought up a subject she hoped to avoid.
“Yeah, so… I’m going to start walking in that direction and get us the last bit of blood we need.”
Dropping from the tree, Samantha sidled up beside the huntress ready to set out.
“Okay, where we going?”
Her bored tone remained despite hurriedly joining her friend. Valerie sucked in a breath through her teeth.
“Yeah, about that… I am going to go it alone and find something to kill. You can stay here.”
She braced for the metaphorical shatter of her friends heart at being left behind. Instead, the shadow user pouted for a second, shrugged and then waved her friend off.
“Alright, have fun.”
Valerie honestly expected more of an argument and felt a little offended she didn’t get one. What, she wasn’t worth trying to convince, bargain, or threaten into allowing a tagalong? Then again, that wasn’t Samantha’s style. She would argue about trying something risky but beneficial or dangerous and underwhelming or over who got the last piece of toast at breakfast. When it came to monster slaying however, she had full confidence in Valerie and trusted her judgement completely only quarrelling when it came to doing something reckless but cool when planning a hunt. If Valerie asked her to stay put then Samantha would follow her orders to the letter, not like a soldier under a commander but one trusted friend to the other. The huntress hoped she was as good a friend to Samantha as the shadow user was to her.
“Thanks, I’ll be back around sunset. If I don’t return… burn this place to the ground.”
Many attempts had been made to completely destroy Merryland Forest with little to no success. Somehow though, Valerie believed that if Samantha put her mind to it she could tear the curse right out of this place and then incinerate the woods anyway.