Xane had a potion and cultivated it to heal up. Most of his wounds weren’t that bad because of the good armor and enchantments he had. It only took 2 more hours for him to feel well enough to move on.
Back on track they believed this to be the ‘lizard’ creature the village was talking about and had a course in mind. They followed some tracks but those tracks mostly just followed the river. Another 30 minutes past as they stayed further from the water till they found something. With a bend of the river it lead to a small pond of water. And there they saw multiple of the croc kind milling about. They looked smaller than the one he had killed. Snapping at each other. And they also saw after another 10 minutes of watching a massive croc pop its head from the water. It was at least 3 times larger than the one they had killed. Xane had inspected both kinds.
Croctor Hatchling:
Level: 14
Stats:
Strength: 42
Constitution: 28
Intelligence: 21
Information: This little croctor went to the pond. This little croctor tried to eat its sister. And this little croctor doesn’t see death looking at it from the forest. Croctors are rare creatures. That's because they are only found recently from the Wantags Sight dungeon. They aren’t supposed to be here. Silly crocs. These things love water and love boiled crabs. And boiled fish. And boiled anything. Boil it and they’ll give it a try. These creatures love taking their prey into the water and heating that water so hot it cooks their meal. They however are top heavy and really aren’t too great on land. They are however quite clever girls…and boys.
Croctor Queen:
Level: 49
Stats:
Strength: 147
Constitution: 98
Intelligence: 98
Information: Similar to the normal Croctor but way more cunning and can lay eggs.
They backed away slowly to discuss what they would do. Right before that Xane noticed egg shells scattered about and more eggs. At least 40 or more were scattered about in batches. They were almost the size of Xane’s head. Xane also noticed a notification and followed the others.
Quest Update:
Monsters from the Tower: Monsters have been sighted attacking neighboring villages. You have been tasked with protecting the villages and killing the monsters. You have found out that what has been attacking the town is Croctors. Their queen is breeding more. End this scourge before it's too late.
Kill the monsters that came from Wantags Sight: Uncompleted
Kill the queen and her offspring: Uncompleted
Rewards:
Experience
2,500 gold
Influence with the city of Zakor.
Xane missed the first few words from Calrin. “-I don’t want to waste it but I think its the most tactical option.”
“Sorry I missed that, what are we using?” Xane whispered back.
Calrin pulled out a large orb similar to the water ones he had but much larger and had different runes on it. Xane didn’t know what they were and Calrin explained. “This is a ball of lightning. Sends out lightning strikes from it constantly for 10 seconds. And then explodes in a large radius of more lightning. Very expensive. Got this thing from a dungeon drop almost a year ago been saving for a special occasion. This will have to do though.” He seemed sad to use it. More like the device was a long time friend than a tool.
“We could try and fight them-” Xane tried. Calrin and Huntress weren’t having that.
Lyenn pipped in too. “Hell nah.”
Xane most definitely agreed with them but at least wanted to put the option out there. They all agreed unspokenly that they weren’t just going to leave. They spoke in hushed voices a bit more on the exact plan. They were going to wait till most of the creatures were in the water since that would cause the most damage. The group mostly worried about the queen but she hadn’t moved from the water. Xane didn't truly know the size of the beast since it stayed in the water with only the head appearing for a few moments.
Xane braced for things going wrong double checking everything. Calrin motioned for everyone to get into position. While Calrin threw the lighting orb both Xane and Huntress would rain projectiles onto the crocs while they were being hit with the lightning to make sure they would die. The orb was special rarity but that didn’t mean it could insta kill the queen.
In place they watched the orb glow and be thrown. It arced and splashed into the water. At first nothing happened. Until a flash of light while streaks of energy coursed through the water. Most were hanging out in the water as the ball hit. Even so all of them just stared at the contraption or even swam for it as if it was food. The queen however wasn’t a dumb creature. Far from it. She might not know exactly what it was but knew danger when she saw it. With a flash of speed she whipped at the orb with her tail to punt it out of the water.
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It would have worked too, saving the crocs from death. That was if this wasn’t taken into consideration by the humans. Bullets and arrows were already flying towards the queen slamming into her as a volley. Most hitting the main body and doing little damage. However the main point wasn’t damage. It was to stagger her. Her tail whiffed the orb by a mere inch only causing the orb to spin as it sank.
Xane could see the terror and fury in the queen's eyes right before the show started. It wasn’t a sporting fight of dodging and attacking. There was no daring heroics. It was brutal and efficient. The rain of projectiles causes resistance to fall short. Huntress had a skill that caused vines to sprout from her arrows slowing the creatures while Xane’s rate of fire managed to deal enough damage to stun them. In the end they all fired and he felt the experience flow through him.
Even though Xane didn’t kill anything himself or even damaged most of them he got hit with a huge wave from all the creatures that were killed at once. As well as something Calrin told him after the bunny fight. “I have a feat I earned called Experienced Leader. It just means that 10% of anyone following me gains 10% experience from anyone in my group. The range is pretty long.” That was why he got more than he should have before even though his contribution wasn’t that high. It wasn’t a rare feat but one of the most sought after for leveling reasons. Apparently some had it to the max of 50% and were paid huge amounts of money for just being the group leader.
Groups weren’t an actual thing. Like Xane had heard from games. Just the act of being ‘in a group’ counted towards feats, skills, and spells. The max was high at 8 people though it lessened efficiency of things like Calrin’s feat.
The Experienced Leader feat started out at 1% so him having it at 10% was impressive to Lyenn who told him the rest of the information. He either had been with this group for a long time or did a lot of group based activities.
With the creatures dead the quest updated again.
Quest Update:
Monsters from the Tower: Monsters have been sighted attacking neighboring villages. You have been tasked with protecting the villages and killing the monsters.
You have found out that what has been attacking the town is Croctors. Their queen is breeding more. End this scourge before it's too late.
You have killed the Croctors and saved the village in return to gain your rewards.
Kill the monsters that came from Wantags Sight: Completed
Kill the queen and her offspring: Completed
Return to gain rewards: Uncompleted.
Rewards:
Experience
2,500 gold
Influence with the city of Zakor.
Xane didn’t know why he thought that money would just fall from the sky landing on his head or something. It made sense though that they would need to get it from the person who gave the quest to them.
Xane and Huntress made sure none got out of the pool and hoped that all were in it when they attacked. Their prayers were answered as the quest stated that it was completed. “No more hunting for us.” Xane exhaled happily; he really didn’t want to go looking for one small thing. He was also happy that stowing a few eggs away in his ring counted as it being completed. He didn’t know if that was because it killed what was inside the egg or if it was dealt with in the eyes of the system. Xane knew he was beginning to become a hoarder but didn’t care when he had near unlimited space. He could never fill this ring up in a lifetime….
With the eggs the bodies went. They would divy up the spoils on that when they got back. His corpse pile was getting large in his ring. Well corpse shelfs.
Before they set off to leave Xane had a weird urge which told him to use his sight to look into the water. Doing so showed a tunnel that led to something. He was told that the luck stated worked similarly sometimes and thanked himself for putting points into it.
“I have an idea. Where was the queen going when she went under water? With her size she could of just been hiding under. What if there is something down there.” Xane lied still having not told them about Lyenn or his gifts. It wasn’t his best excuse but they seemed to either buy it or didn’t care. Xane jumped in and sped down.
Inside was no light so he activated one of his numerous light runes and went on. It took him 4 minutes of swimming to get to an air pocket. It was a large room with a structure inside. Four stone columns seemed to hold up a statue of a worm-like creature in the middle. It was however floating and slowly waving through the air. Xane thought it was alive till his inspect told him nothing.
There was nothing else but a pedestal with a book on it.
Lyenn scared Xane as she spoke in a creepy whisper even though she knew she didn’t have too. “That is Teti Vu, the dead river worm god. She was the river god I think 2 gods ago. River gods change out pretty fast. Ruthless bunch.”
“Wait, gods can be other than humanoid?”
She still kept up with the whispering. “Shhh be respectful.” Xane could feel the mental shake of her head. “And yes it's usually about a 50/50 split. You really just need to get strong enough to rival a god or be chosen as successor. I told all this to you already.” She did but missed the part where gods were also creatures.
This time in his mind but he didn’t whisper because that was dumb. Fine but if we should be respectful then should we just leave?”
“Hell no. Are you mad? You never leave priceless treasure just lying around” She was no longer whispering. In fact she was yelling. Very loudly.
Xane just groaned from pain and annoyance. He walked up to the pedestal making sure there were no traps or anything. He could feel the power resonating from this place. Most particularly the statue itself. “Yeah, statues of gods. Even dead gods are powerful things. If it wasn’t blasphemy I’d say take the statue too.”
Xane looked over the book, getting a prompt as he inspected it.
Book of Worm River Dance(Exotic):
Gives the skill Worm River Dance
Worm River Dance(Exotic): Apprentice rank 1
Perform the Worm River Dance to gain bonuses. Can only be performed once a day and last for one day. All bonuses are doubled when near a river.
You will have the grace and flexibility of the Worm god Teti Vu.
Novice Bonus:
+3% movement per rank
+6% movement in water per rank
+3% to water magic effectiveness per rank
Apprentice Bonus:
+1 Dexterity per rank
+1 Agility per rank
+1% to dodge an attack that would have hit you per rank
“YOU HAVE TO LEARN THAT.” Yelled Lyenn the moment he told her about it and all it did. Xane knew he was going to regret it.