Riya led the group away from the massive sized beetle and settled in a cavity in the wall a short distance away. The entrance was small enough that Chrome Dome, the nickname Glade decided to give the pony sized beetle, wouldn’t be able to fit and was their best option available to them. Unfortunately, it only had one entrance. But for now, it would do. Especially, since Glade couldn’t walk anymore.
“What the heck is that thing?” Kedryn asked.
“My guess? A bigger, and therefore meaner, Magma Beetle.” Glade responded.
“Well… Yes, I can see that. But we shouldn’t be running into monsters of that level until later. That has to be what passes for a mini-boss in this area, but we shouldn’t be expected to fight something that big until we are at least level 6,” Kedryn said.
If the Corporal’s face hadn’t been so serious Glade might have started laughing. But this seemingly innocuous statement revealed a much bigger problem. Did Kedryn really think he was in a game?
“Kid, you know I don’t like swearing,” Glade growled, failing to keep the frustration from bleeding into his voice. “But I am very close to unleashing the nine hells on you for so many reasons. But let’s address all that after I’m bandaged up and we have a plan to get the hell out of here. I will need your help seeing as my left hand is torn up. Afterwards, I will be more than willing to discuss your reasoning why you believe we shouldn’t be running into Chrome Dome over there.”
Kedryn agreed and helped him to the ground, for which Glade was grateful. The Corporal proceeded to pull out a roll of old-fashioned bandages from the pack on his back. The pack looked brand new in an antique sort of way and was made out of some kind of brownish red leather. The good news was that it was stuffed to the brim with various odds and ends.
Looked like the Adjudicators had given the Kid more than just a fancy robe and walking stick.
As Kedryn went about sorting the bandages, he taking surreptitious looks between Glade’s wounds and Riya. It was obvious he was delaying administering first aid, but Glade couldn’t figure out why.
“Corporal,” he said patiently. Yelling wasn’t going to help in this situation. “I could really use your help right now.”
The girl, Riya, was also staring at his wounds. Glade surmised she was likely assessing if she could make a run for it. Well, if she wanted to go, then he wasn’t going to stop her. There was only so much he could do.
“Sir?” Kedryn asked in that annoying voice that indicated he was about to ask a dumb question. “This may sound odd, but are your HP going up? Or at least remaining stable?”
Glade literally growled, quickly reassessing if yelling might just be his preferred method of communication. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, nor do I care. I need first aid now, Corporal. Not later, not in a few minutes, but now. I can’t believe I have to direct you to administer first aid…”
“Oh! That’s not what I meant!” Kedryn stammered, quickly pulling a bandage from the pile. “I was just curious if we could regenerate our HP, or hit points, after a battle. I guess we can’t. Don’t worry, I’ll get you patched up good as new! By the way, how many HP do you have? And do you have any status debuffs? Like bleeding or a broken bone? That will let me know where I need to administer the bandages first. The burn status on my screen is still there, which is making me believe Veil is more of a hardcore playing style...”
Kedryn kept rambling, washing the wound with a little water from a water skin.
Tentatively, the girl asked a question in that flowing language of hers. Both she and Kedryn began talking rapidly with one another, the bandage in the Corporal’s hand all but forgotten.
Tuning them out, Glade looked past them to see what the monstrous beetle was doing. Riya’s light barely illuminated the area beyond, but revealed just enough so that he could see the monster move on from his last meal and onto the remains of his knife. The beast didn’t even hesitate, scooping the expensive steel knife into its mouth before activating its mandibles.
Before his eyes, the beetle’s bright chrome shell shifted to a darker metal. Shivers went down Glade’s spine. That was not natural.
Turning his attention back to the conversation at hand, he saw Kedryn was still rapidly firing questions at the poor girl, who had adopted a look of resignation.
“Corporal,” Glade interrupted. “I can see you are engrossed in something you believe to be important. But if it doesn’t involve you bandaging me up then I really don’t want to hear it. And if you say HP one more time, I am going to hit you.”
Kedryn jumped, focusing his attention back on Glade.
“Sorry sir, it’s just that.. umm… I mean to say that we…”
“Just spit it out,” Glade said exasperated, reaching for the bandage that was still in Kedryn’s hands. He had waited long enough.
“I think we’ve found a solution to part of our problem. Apparently, Riya was granted a rare attunement.” Kedryn said with barely constrained excitement, his arms flying animatedly as he spoke. Glade groaned as the bandage was moved out of reach. “It’s not even part of the basic spheres of magic! At least, it wasn’t offered to me as part of a boon, and I didn’t come across it during my research. Which means she either had better boons than we did or she already had some talent…”
Glade’s patience had run out. He locked his eyes on Kedryn’s, forcing the Corporal to focus on him and him alone.
Kedryn’s monologue died on his lips as he finally seemed to comprehend that his commanding officer was one step away from inflicting bodily harm.
“Right. You want me to get to the point,” Kedryn said, clearing his throat. “According to Riya, she was granted a celestial attunement. I don’t understand everything that entails,” he hurriedly stated seeing Glade’s eyes harden, “Anyway, her attunement is already at the Sympathetic attunement level and she was granted the spell Celestial Effusion.”
“Uh huh,” Glade replied, his hand just out of reach of the bandages. “And?”
“It’s celestial magic,” Kedryn emphasized. “You know, the ability to heal? She’s never used it before but is willing to try. I mean, all it can do is help, right? Except, Riya won’t cast it unless you agree to let her use it on you.”
Glade couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Kedryn, and quite possibly the young woman with them, were seriously talking about some mystical hocus pocus instead of applying first aid?
Exhaustion hit him like a wave, causing Glade to slump his shoulders in defeat. He simply didn’t have the energy to fight it anymore.
“Sure Kid,” he sighed, glancing up at the flickering light Riya was holding in her hand. It most definitely looked like magic. And if she could do that, what's to say she couldn’t heal his wounds?
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Then again, he had seen Kedryn create fire out of thin air and then promptly burn himself.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
Riya absently moved a strand of hair back while Kedryn was translating, and for the first time, Glade noticed her pointed ears.
He didn’t have the energy to be surprised anymore.
After nodding what Glade assumed to be her consent, Riya gently took his left hand in hers and closed her eyes.
Awkward silence followed as they patiently waited for something to happen. A minute passed, and then two.
After three minutes, Glade opened his mouth to stop this nonsense when a soft golden glow emanated from Riya and infused his throbbing hand with a wave of warmth.
No, not just warmth. Life. Liquid sunshine spread across his hand and into his body, coming and going in waves of life-giving radiance. The pains that had wracked his body evaporated as if it was nothing more than a bad dream.
A prompt began to appear, but he willed it away like he had so many times before.
When it was over, Glade gingerly got to his feet. There was no pain and the wounds were simply… gone. There wasn’t even a scar.
Glade opened and closed his hand in awe.
“That… was… awesome!” Kedryn said, looking between Riya and Glade. “I literally saw your body heal right before my eyes!
The Corporal immediately began whispering excitedly to Riya, waving his burned hand in front of her face. It was obvious to Glade what he was asking.
Riya staggered, leaning heavily on the cave wall with a look of utter exhaustion.
“Corporal,” Glade interrupted quietly. “I don’t think she has it in her to fix your hand. Let her rest.”
Kedryn said something else in that strange language and the girl nodded, visibly relaxing.
“You were right, sir. Riya used most of her mana to heal you. Apparently, she is, or should I say, was, only at skill level 1. But because of using her new spell to heal you, she is now at level 2! It seems that magic falls under the same category as skills when it comes to advancement, with . I wonder…”
“Kid, slow down. I didn’t understand even half of what you’re saying. Before we get into a lecture,” Glade said, looking directly at the girl who had healed him, “Please tell Riya thank you for me. That was simply incredible.”
A moment passed as Kedryn relayed the message, resulting in Riya giving him a small smile. Hard to believe she had kicked him in the face not that long ago.
“Now, let’s focus on the current situation. You mentioned that Riya called these things magma beetles. Does she know anything else about them?”
Kedryn nodded and began talking with Riya in earnest. During their conversation Glade moved to the opening of their little hideaway, stunned that he could even walk at all without pain. His boots would need to be replaced, but overall, he couldn’t complain.
The gargantuan beetle was now a burnished dark chrome instead of a bright silver. He watched in fascination as the larger-than-life insect began melting the last of the dead beetles that had an evolved shell.
Everything about this situation was surreal. First the experience in the clouds, and now they were facing a near impervious metal melting monster that would likely be targeting them for its next meal.
It was painfully obvious the large insects were attracted to metal, which meant they were predictable. But how could he use that to his advantage? His other knife was still attached to his body armor, which was laying out in the dark somewhere. He still had his sidearm with one full magazine, but that wouldn’t do anything against the armored giant. The only other piece of metal he had was the grenade, which was equally useless against a living tank.
“I believe I have the gist of it,” Kedryn said, interrupting his thoughts. “Riya has a skill called ‘Natural Lore,’ or a Naturist if you wanted to give it a title. She is currently at skill level 31, or what is considered the peak of apprentice. She hasn’t been able to progress to 32 because of the lack of…”
“Kid,” Glade interrupted, not taking his eyes off the huge beetle less than 50 meters away. “That’s not what I asked. What does she know about these bugs?”
“I was getting to that,” Kedryn explained. “Apparently, Magma Beetles are extraordinarily rare and all she knows is what she has read in books. That and what her skill revealed to her when she analyzed it.”
Glade turned to Kedryn and gave him the look every officer gives an exuberant know it all.
“Right, just the facts,” the kid replied with a strained voice.
Typical intel analyst. Always trying to share more than what was needed.
“Magma Beetles thrive in underground environments, specifically around areas that have high concentrations of both fire and earth mana. Apparently, the ones we were fighting are barely older than hatchlings. They instinctively seek out sources of metal or other hard materials other than rock and ingest them to evolve, which is beyond cool! The lava rock carapace is what they are born with. Once they ingest metal, or in really rare cases gems, they shed their outer shells and grow harder ones based on the substance they’ve consumed. What makes them so valuable is they naturally combine materials into the best possible alloy, which means they will only go after materials that will evolve and strengthen their current shell. The type and hardness of materials in any area typically determines the type of beetle they can grow into.”
“Interesting, but we already figured most of that out already,” Glade responded, looking back at the large beetle finishing its meal. “Any other information that’s useful?”
“Apparently, they only have two motivations. The first is to ingest various types of material to evolve their shells and themselves. The second is to hunt. As you can tell, they aren’t too picky when it comes to what they eat. While the various materials helps them evolve their carapace and other abilities, they require meat and XP to grow.”
“XP?” Glade asked.
“Experience points,” Kedryn said, his excitement ratcheting up. “That is...”
“We’ll skip that for now,” Glade interjected before Kedryn could go off on a tangent.
“Right. Just the facts. Riya mentioned Magma Beetles usually hunt in packs until they reach adolescence. Most weapons bounce off their rocky hide, making them exceedingly difficult to kill. Older beetles, or ones that have evolved their carapace, are even more dangerous. They are faster, stronger, and are generally impervious to most attacks. Again, depending on what material they ingest. After adolescence, they become solitary hunters and hunt each other as much as anything else.”
“Are they blind? The bugs didn’t seem to react when the room was lit up.” Glade said.
After a moment of discussion with Riya, Kedryn turned back to Jordan. “Riya doesn’t think so but can’t say for certain. All we know is they can sense most metals and other hardened materials in their various forms. I’m still trying to figure out why we’re facing something so strong at our current level. It's level 9 and we’re not even past 1 yet.”
“Why do you say that?” Glade asked, his interest piqued. Maybe the kid knew something that could help them get out of this situation.
“Isn’t it obvious sir? We’re noobs. We should be starting out in an area with low level mobs so we can grind. That’s how every game starts…”
And that was enough of that. Sure, what he had seen thus far went completely outside the realm of reality, but the real world didn’t work that way. And like it or not, this was now their real world.
Forcing himself to speak calmly, Glade interrupted the Corporal.
“Kid, I need you to focus and hear what I am telling you. This is not a game. If what you say is true about its desire to hunt, then we need a plan. I’ve seen this thing move and I don’t think we can outrun it. The only reason Chrome Dome over there hasn’t come after us is because its attention is elsewhere.”
Kedryn looked down, his cheeks brightening in what Glade assumed was embarrassment.
“I know we’re not in a game…”
“Then stop treating this like one!” Glade hissed, forcing Kedryn to look at him. “We are literally in a life and death situation. The world doesn’t work like one of your sega switch playstation thingies. We are really lucky to even be alive! So please, for the love of everything that is holy, start using your brain for once! Life only gives us one shot! One! Because once we die, that's it. We’re gone. End of story. I do not want to be the one to witness the end of your story. Understood!?”
Kedryn stared wide eyed and tried to take a step back. Only he couldn’t, because Glade had a firm grip on the Corporal’s robe. When had he done that?
“Yes sir,” Kedryn whispered.
Glade dropped his hands and turned around in disgust. Not at the kid, but at himself. He had almost lost control.
Over the next several minutes, both men silently watched the monster finish its meal, pondering.
“Why are they called Magma Beetles?” Glade mumbled to himself.
Kedryn cleared his throat, indicating if it was ok to talk. Glade gave him a nod.
“Riya explained they have the ability to melt anything they lock their mandibles onto due to their high attunements in both fire and earth, basically turning anything they want to melt into magma.”
Glade simply grunted a response. The large beetle finally turned away from the group, looking for other prey, or so he assumed. With the creatures back finally turned, Glade turned back to Kedryn.
“I think we need to make a run for it while it’s back is turned. My pistol isn’t powerful enough to pierce its natural armor and all my grenade will do is make it mad. Which leaves running as our only option. Please check on Riya and see if she’s recovered enough to move. You take the front. I’ll be the rear guard. Hopefully, Chrome Dome is too distracted to follow us.”
“Yes sir,” Kedryn replied, turning toward Riya. "Just give me a moment and I’ll… wait. Did you say you have a grenade?”