The next day Calrin was still too tired to go out immediately. Huntress had urged him to rest the moment the fight was over but he had insisted on helping with reconstruction efforts. In the morning the villagers had made them a feast for what they could make. It consisted of freshly picked fruits and rabbit stew. Wonder where they got the rabbits from. The stew actually gave them a buff Xane hadn’t expected.
Fire attuned rabbit stew.
+10% fire resistance.
+10% stamina and mana recovery.
+10% to all fire damage.
Time remaining: 6 hours.
Xane didn’t know how eating something would increase his sword's fire damage but Lyenn told him it would. Xane secretly stored 6 bowls full of the stuff since his ring would store it as fresh as if it came out of the pot.
As Calrin rested to get to full strength. Something Xane learned could take days after a fight for higher levels without external aid from healing types. Healers were decently rare though and everyone wanted one on their team. Most were taken to the war though and what was left didn’t want to risk leaving.
Xane decided his time was best cultivating. The mana wasn’t as high as the main city. Something that made him even more mad at himself for not realizing the potential. But it was higher than the turtle island or the island where he found the brain.
As Xane cultivated he felt Garry curl up next to him. Xane’s hairs still went up in close proximity to the snake, some lingering fear that it would just turn on him, not fully gone. But he didn’t tell him to go away though. With a full day's worth of cultivating and needed to move positions a few times to find spots with less drained spots. That annoyed the constrictor. Xane felt he got at least a quarter to level 20. It definitely took more and more to level. He believed back in Zakor he could easily get to level 25 in only a few weeks time. Lyenn told him to hold off doing so much cultivation to gain levels till after getting his class since it might affect his class choices.
Since he didn’t feel like sleeping he started practicing runes again. He was able by the next day to earn another 3 levels in runesmithing. He had crafted more of the fire starters. They had infinite uses though as long as mana was present. So he had no use for them. By talking around he just gave them to the villagers for free. He also made a lot of single use glow things. The runes were really simple. He could churn out 5ish every hour. After doing so he wish he went for that originally instead.
Unlike the first one that needed exact parameters to work this rune could be placed on pretty much anything. The bigger the rune the brighter it was. The only reason it was one use was that he couldn’t figure out how to turn them off. They just could be turned on and then it would stay on. He remembered reading about a deactivation rune but it wasn’t in the book itself. He gave some of these away too. He didn’t see why everyone had runed lights. They were so easy to make. If put on metal they’d last a really long time. He read in the notes that things like paper and wood would last for a shorter time, the magic coursing through them burning them out. Metal though, like the ones he made, could last years.
He needed a better compendium of runes. This was a runesmithing for idiots book that really went into a lot of detail on the history and basics of runesmithing. When he got back he swore he’d get Warren to teach him more. It was a similar story to the enchanting book.
Xane also thought of a way to upgrade or make a new gun with runes as the basis. If he could get the fire rune supercharged or a better version of it he could make bullets again. Xane still believed there were reasons to have some normal bullets even though the magical ones were really good. First Xane knew there were creatures that were highly resistant to magical attacks. Also magical shields that could negate magical attacks that were susceptible to non magical attacks. Also runes and enchantments could change the whole power dynamic of bullets.
He imagined durability enchanted bullets that wouldn’t flatten on hits. Runes that caused fire damage or explosions. Xane was brought out of his revery by a sword scabbard slamming into his head. “Shit what?” Xane cried out looking around. What he saw was Calrin his sword sheathed outstretched towards Xane a shit eating grin on his face.
“One point to me.” Xane readied his weapons.
The training practice was more for Calrin than it was for Xane. Calrin needed the effort to stretch out his freshly healed muscles. “We will follow the river till we find a nest or something. I do hope it doesn’t lead to the lake itself; heaven knows that we won’t be able to do anything there.” What he was referencing was the dangers around storms lake. The waters were infested with high level creatures. Large ones at that. Usually nothing left the moshpit of fighting there. So something wandering all this way from there was unlikely. They would more likely find a nest in the river or near it.
The group started out as the sun was nearing quarter up. They first had more stew all getting the buffs again.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The trek was the same as getting here. Except they left the cart behind. It was already almost full since they didn’t plan on killing so much on this trip. Most of the space being the death rabbits but some things they hunted on their way here. Without needing to wind their way through trees and the like they were going much faster. Besides Xane had finally told them about the ring they had already figured out about. Xane was slightly annoyed they didn’t just tell him so he could have stopped having his weapons on his waist all the time. If they were going to rob him of it they would have done it long ago. “You mean we could have saved a lot of money on that cart. Could have been faster too with taking just horses.” Calrin mock complained, making Xane kinda feel bad.
With that in mind they didn’t care about the cart really and sped through the forest. Huntress was in the lead since she was great at tracking. It took them 2 hours of searching till they found something. Well Huntress did. Xane couldn’t even see what she was pointing about. Hatchet explained. “She got a skill called tracker. She can spot tracks much easier than normal folks. On account that they glow. But they don’t glow as much as I do.” The hatchet beamed.
“I think you are pretty dull to be honest.” Xane quipped instinctively. He had been too nervous to be his true self but was starting to get more comfortable around this group.
“Dull! DULL! I am one of the sharpest axes you’ll ever- Oh I see what you did.”
Calrin piped in seeing an opening,“We can add slow to that too”
“No you listen here I will have you know that I was a great- wait shhhh something’s here.” Hatchet said this but we looked at Huntress as she scanned the area. As they spoke in less than quiet voices they were following Huntress. It was obvious that she had heard something that the rest didn’t while they bantered. But like a well oiled machine everyone fell silent and reflexively activated stealth.
Xane really wanted a perception skill. Even his massive pool of intelligence wasn’t nearly enough. And then it dawned on him. Xane might have amazing memory but that didn't mean he wasn't stupid sometimes. Part of having a god's eye for his own was that he could 'zoom' in his sight. He had only tested it back on the island and didn't really have a reason to use it very often. Also the whole xray thing overshadowed the measely zoom.
As they waited and slowly backed away from the water a massive crocodile like creature burst forth with immense speed. Xane was the one struck by it, his leg being grabbed by the toothy maw. It burned as the teeth seared his flesh. As quickly as it came it yanked Xane into the water. Calrin grabbed for his arm but wasn’t fast enough, his own dodge taking him too far out of range.
Xane struggled underwater, his forethought forcing him to take a deep breath before he went under. It didn’t help though that he was immediately starting to get thrashed around. As well as he could feel the water starting to heat up fast. “This thing is trying to boil me alive.” Both Xane and the recently silent Lyenn said at once. If Xane wasn’t being killed he would have said jinx you owe me a healing potion.
Xane pulled his colt from the ring hoping it would work since it didn’t use normal combustion. Next was the being wildly thrashed about. The boiling alive would be solved by killing it. At least he thought it would. Xane decided to follow the rhythm of the croc. Which wasn’t much to go off of.
Xane didn’t want to shoot his own foot literally and figuratively. However he’d rather live with the consequences. Right before he was about to take a shot there was a splash of movement next to him. Fearing more he tried to look. He could tell it wasn’t another but humanoid. Calrin? He couldn’t yell for help due to drowning and believed that the thrashing was enough of an ‘oh help me please’ situation.
Calrin swam up to and grabbed the croc by the neck and tried to slow its movements while also pushing in a sword into its flank. A tail whipped up smacking Calrin a few bubbles coming out of his mouth but he continued. Another tail whip and he dodge. The tail perfectly hit the sword and like a hammer and nail the beast hurt itself pushing the blade deeper than Calrin could.
Even with that the crocodile still held strong onto Xane. This though gave Xane an opening. Xane pulled the trigger 6 times in rapid fire. The water visibly slowing the bullets they still slammed into the croc taking one eye out and breaking a tooth way too close to Xane's leg. The pain was starting to get to Xane as the enchantment finally shattered and the beast drew blood. He almost screamed but only let a small amount of air leave his mouth.
This was only a few seconds of fighting and another humanoid jumped in. This one was Huntress and she plunged the spear of hers at the croc. This was the home of the creature though. It had the upper hand. With a visible rise in heat it blasted superheated water around it dealing massive damage to all in the water. Luckily they had all drank the stew and it was less effective than what it should have.
This attack must have drained it for it stopped for a few seconds. These seconds weren’t wasted as Calrin tried to pry the mouth open and Huntress burst forward with speed and plunged the spear into the body of the crocodile. Xane had reloaded already and fired again. He now knew how painful his bullets were as the flinch of the spear made Xane miss and the bullet exploded into his leg. The croc fared worst from the exchange.
It let go of its prey and tried to run away with a burst of superheated water propelling it. Clarin was still holding on though and activated one of his skills Xane had never seen before. The blade that was stuck into the creature glowed. The speed of the creature wasn’t fully stopped. More that the blade stopped. The inertia of the creature causing the blade to carve through the side making a large gash. Blood poured forth filling the water. Even so the croc still tried to escape. Xane wasn’t having it and another blast of 6 rounds slammed into the open wound.
This attack was devastating enough to the creature's system that it was knocked unconscious. The rest was easy.
Xane looked over the creature after fishing it out of the water. It wasn’t like a normal crocodile. It was more like a crossbreed of a velociraptor and a crocodile. Body of a raptor and head of a croc. As well as webbed feet. It also was able to heat up water just by being in it. Xane hadn’t had time or the mind to scan the creature. He knew he’d have a chance to later. He stored the body after grabbing its core. Speaking of cores Calrin had taken the giant fire rabbits core for ‘damages’. No one argued.