“It can’t be that easy,” Glade whispered, watching Kedryn’s plan come to fruition. It was brilliant in its simplicity. Throw the grenade, pin still attached, within Chrome Dome’s general vicinity. Then wait for the fireworks.
Wildfire’s voice rose from the recesses of Glade’s mind, calling him a wanker for even considering this half-baked idea. But the result spoke for itself. The massive beetle pounced on the grenade without hesitation.
Glade grabbed the backs of Kedryn’s and Riya’s clothes, pulling them behind a stalagmite for cover. He quickly hunkered down and covered his ears, the others mimicking his example.
An explosion reverberated throughout the cavern, followed by the pings of metal and rock slamming into the surrounding walls.
A prompt formed in Glade’s vision but was just as easily dismissed. He didn’t have the time, nor the inclination, to deal with that particular problem.
Riya increased the output of her light as Glade glanced around the corner to confirm the explosive had done its job. The beetle’s lower jaw had been completely blown apart, leaving a grisly mess. A thin layer of white slime covered the area immediately around the corpse.
“I can’t believe that worked!” Kedryn cried; arms raised in his best Rocky pose.
“Neither can I,” Glade responded, suppressing a gag as the smell of sulfur and what he assumed was burning bug, rolled over him. “And put your arms down. You look ridiculous.”
All in all, the plan had worked. Maybe, just maybe, the Kid was worth keeping around.
“How much XP did you get!?!” Kedryn asked excitedly. “I got enough to finally level! It wasn’t as much as it should have been for something that was level 9, but apparently the system is claiming we cheated. What’s up with that?”
Glade took back his previous assessment. XP? Levels? The stress had to be affecting Kedryn more than he had previously thought. And he was stuck with him.
Not for the first time he wished either Mother or Wildfire were around to help. He’d even take Musketeer as long as he didn’t have to be the one to interact with the Corporal.
Before Glade could ask what was going through Kedryn’s mind, Riya ran toward the dead beetle, speaking rapidly over her shoulder.
“What is she doing? I take that back. I don’t care what she’s doing. Just grab her and let’s go before any more bugs show up,” Glade growled, already scanning the area for potential threats.
Kedryn caught up to Riya. After a brief exchange, the Kid started dancing from foot to foot. Apparently, it was possible for his new charge to get even more excited. Who knew?
“Sir, you’re not going to believe this. Riya says the meat and armor from the beetles is considered rare. There might even be a mana shard or nascent level core! I don’t know what those are, but they sound important. It will take just a few minutes to grab the loot and…”
Glade cut him off, jaw clenched in frustration. “Kid, I don’t care…”
That was as far as he got before Riya pulled out a knife from somewhere within her dress and began dissecting the bug. Knife was a bit of a misnomer. It looked more like a scalpel made of bone.
Whatever it was, Riya knew just how to use it, quickly slicing through the gaps between the carapace.
Kedryn also turned away from him and began peppering the poor girl with questions. It was like he was dealing with a bunch of teenagers!
Seeing as they weren’t in any immediate danger, Glade decided to let it go. Truth be told, he just couldn’t muster up the energy to care. Besides, food was a priority. He wasn’t looking forward to eating a giant insect, but he wasn’t in the position to turn anything down at this point.
Keeping an eye out for danger, Glade moved closer. A glint of metal embedded in the wall caught his attention. As Glade drew near, he could just make out the gentle curve of Chrome Dome’s mandible. It was the same matte black color as the rest of the beetle’s carapace and easily the size of his forearm. The inner edge was covered in small serrations that looked wickedly sharp for something that had come from a bug.
Not being one to pass up a potential weapon, Glade tore a strip of his shirt away and wrapped it around the mandible’s base before prying it from the wall. Surprisingly, the improvised blade held up nicely. Not even a chip.
Another prompt began to form, which he casually willed away.
“Is that one of its mandibles?” Kedryn asked, appearing out of nowhere. Before Glade could answer, Kedryn asked Riya another question, resulting in Kedryn’s excitement going up another notch.
After a couple of minutes of back and forth, Glade’s impatience got the better of him. Snapping his fingers in front of Kedryn’s face, he pulled the Kid’s focus back to him.
“Corporal! Snap out of it and focus on me for a moment. What exactly is going on?”
“Ah, sorry sir. It's just that there is so much going on that I don’t know where to even begin. Let me start with the mandible in your hand. Riya’s Natural Lore skill kicked in. Did you know it comes with an identify ability! I sure didn’t, but apparently the mandible counts as a naturally formed dagger and does between 6-8 damage. It’s made of a hardened star silver alloy and has a durability of over 300. I wonder if that’s good? I don’t have anything to compare it to… Oh. I’ll ask Riya!”
Numbered damage and durability? Star silver? It was like listening to a kindergartner hyped up on sugar. Words came out, but they didn’t make sense.
Glade seriously considered leaving Kedryn alone for a few minutes in the hopes he might calm down enough to start making sense. Deep down, he doubted that would help.
Turning back in the direction the beetles had come, Glade decided to look for the remainder of his vest and body armor. The majority of his ammunition and extra combat knife had been stored on the vest. And, if he were being honest, he’d rather face the killer beetles over Kedryn.
As if on cue, the Corporal called after him.
“Riya says most daggers have a damage output of 3-5 and a durability of less than 70. This is awesome!”
Glade wondered how many more times he was going to hear the word - awesome. Probably a lot.
Oblivious to Glade’s internal musings, Kedryn continued his explanation. “And she has never heard of hardened star silver either. Apparently, star silver is one of the rarer metals, but brittle. Smiths can’t use it for much, making it pretty much worthless. But this find only emphasizes why Magma Beetles are highly sought after. They can ingest just about any metal and make all sorts of stable alloys that can then be studied and replicated. Incredible!”
“At least he didn’t say awesome,” Glade grumbled as he resumed searching for his missing gear.
Moments later Kedryn called out to him, “I just got the Naturist skill! This is so awesome!”
Glade groaned. What had they gotten themselves into? Kedryn might know what was going on, but he sure as hell didn’t.
Ignoring the stream of incoherent updates, Glade turned his attention back to finding his gear.
“Captain Glade? Are you listening?”
“No!” He responded gruffly, trying his best to prepare for the inevitable ambush that was coming. The beetles had proven they were attracted to metal and he still had some on him. Namely, his handgun. Which should have been enough to draw the remaining beetles to him. But the last several minutes had shown the other monsters had taken off. Which meant they had either fled because of the explosion, or they were focused on his lost gear.
“Oh,” Kedryn said in a deflated tone. “I mean… Ok. But aren’t you the least bit curious what we’re finding? There are some incredible things here, and I just gained Riya’s skill in Natural Lore…”
“Look kid, I’m not ignoring you to be a jerk,” Glade responded as he searched the darkness. Which was mostly true. “I’m sure what you found is worth sharing, but I’m a bit busy trying to watch out for more Magma Beetles. You can share with me what you’ve found once we’re safely away from here, ok?”
“Oh. That makes sense,” Kedryn perked up. “While you’re looking though, can you bring us any of the beetles you killed? The ones that haven’t been eaten by others I mean.”
“Sure, kid,” Glade replied with a sigh. “Why not.”
Over the next twenty minutes they worked in relative silence. That is, Glade worked in silence. Kedryn was peppering Riya with questions, which she seemed resigned to answer. Glade was empathetic to her situation, but not enough to deliberately draw the Kid’s attention to himself.
In short order, Riya had removed the armored plates from the giant beetle. She moved with an efficiency and speed that spoke of skill and experience in dealing with all sorts of wildlife.
As soon as she was finished with the carapace, Riya moved onto butchering the carcass. In minutes, large segments of meat were piled high on one of the upturned metal shells.
The meat was another surprise. In his experience, anything with a hardened shell was supposed to be devoid of muscle. Glade added that to the growing list of oddities to try and ignore.
After that, Riya dug into what remained of the head. The bottom had blown off, leaving the top half of the skull intact.
After a few moments of gruesome work, Riya pulled out a softly glowing red gem about the size of his thumb.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Curiosity piqued; Glade placed the last of the dead beetles he had found on the ground next to the gore covered pair.
“Is that the mana whatever it is you were talking about earlier?” Glade asked. No sooner had the words left his mouth than a prompt materialized in front of him before he could push it away.
You have discovered a mixed mana shard of Fire (?%) and Earth (?%). Increase the skill Aura Sight to learn more.
Size: Unknown
Purity: Unknown
Charges: Unknown
Value: Unknown
Glade’s mind froze as he read the prompt, stunned at the information displayed before him.
After a handful of seconds, Kedryn’s voice finally broke through his thoughts.
“It’s called a mana shard. Riya says I need to be at the Trainee level before I can identify its purity and charges. It also says the shard has 80% concentration of fire. Odd, it doesn’t say what the other 20% is. Oh! I just jumped to skill level 2 in Natural Lore! My ability is really paying off…”
Tuning Kedryn out, Glade tried his best to keep himself from freaking out. Except for the notification he had woken up to, he had been able to push these unwanted intrusions aside. Effectively letting him ignore the reality of their situation. The screen in front of him made it so Glade couldn’t ignore it any longer.
For years, he had successfully adapted and overcome countless trials and unique circumstances. Everything after entering the portal was something on a whole new level.
But that didn’t mean he couldn’t try.
Taking a moment to clear his mind, he reread the notification. It clearly identified the glowing gem as a mana shard. But how? Glade didn’t even know what a mana shard was, let alone how fire and earth were involved. What was even more confusing was that Kedryn could only identify the fire aspect and its ratio. But why not the earth component?
“Kedryn,” Glade said, hesitantly interrupting Kedryn’s ongoing monologue. “What else do you or Riya know about the shard? Like its grade, purity, charges and the like?”
“That’s easy. Riya already told me. She couldn’t identify which attunements the shard has, or their ratios. But she said it’s a minor grade shard and slightly flawed. She doesn’t know the charges or value. Apparently, we need to have the enchanter and appraisal skills to determine those. Why do you ask?”
An internal war waged within Glade as he carefully weighed the pros and cons of telling Kedryn of the notification floating before him. Sharing information could mean the difference between life and death. Everyone knew that. It made sense. It was logical. He had trained for years to communicate in every situation.
But this wasn’t normal. Logic dictated that bugs didn’t grow to the size of a horse. Interactive holographic displays simply don’t appear from thin air. Kedryn, which wasn’t even his real name, shouldn’t be a pointy eared freak of nature that could literally shoot fire out of his hand.
At the moment, logic was about as welcome as a big mac at a PETA convention. Without a word, Glade turned and walked away. He wasn’t ready for this conversation.
“Wait, how did you know to ask about the shards grade, purity, and charges? That’s very specific,” Kedryn called after him.
“Lucky guess,” he muttered, increasing his pace.
“Oh. I guess that makes sense,” Kedryn responded with his usual overabundance of excitement. “Must be your chance stat kicking in! By the way, what do your stats look like? We should probably talk about those before you assign your points from leveling. Just to confirm, you did level, right?... Sir? Where are you going?”
Glade kept walking, ignoring Kedryn until he stopped calling after him. He had to get away. Away from the prompts. Away from the alien insects. Away from this nightmare.
He wasn’t trained for this. Firefights? No problem. Dealing with a terrorist determined on blowing up a building? That was a monthly activity for him and his team.
Dealing with magical prompts and all that came with it? Magic glowing rocks pulled from an oversized cockroach covered in magical grown metal from something it had eaten? Nope.
But no matter how hard he focused, Glade couldn’t see beyond the panic induced state of mind he found himself in. There was too much happening in far too short a time. What he needed was time. Time to process what was happening. Time to force the situation into some semblance of logical thought.
Recognizing the spiral of panic he was heading down, Glade did what he always had done in situations where the problems of the world seemed too large to deal with all at once. He stopped walking, closed his eyes, and forced himself to breathe.
Breathe in…. ignore the sharp tang of melted metal burning his sense of smell… breathe out… ignore the cry of excitement coming from Kedryn…
Minutes passed as he forced the convoluted mess of emotions into submission until all that was left was him and the darkness. Centered. Balanced.
He could handle this. It was just a different kind of weird. He had been dealing with weird all his life. All he needed to do was relax and everything would...
Another prompt flared to life before him, even with his eyes closed.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill Meditation (basic). The journey to greatness often begins with a single breath. +.5% to mana regeneration while in a meditative state.
“Gahhh!!” Glade fumed, throwing his arms in the air as his sense of calm evaporated like the mirage it was. Willing the prompt away, Glade looked around for something he could handle. Maybe there was another beetle he could kill.
Riya’s light barely illuminated the area around him, but that played to his favor as he saw the faint glow of red in a small depression not far from him.
Sneaking up on the scene, Glade could just make out a small beetle the size of one of those purse dogs. A wolfish grin spread across his face as he watched the creature pull at something caught in the shadows.
Raising his pistol, Glade fired. The muzzle flashed as the sound roared in his ears.
Riya screamed, raising the intensity of her flickering light. Much to Glades surprise, the bug wasn’t dead. A small indentation could be seen where the bullet struck the smooth, black shell.
An unsettling feeling washed over him as Riya’s light revealed the scorched remains of his body armor strewn over the ground. The armor plating was gone.
Looking closely at the beetle that had shrugged off a close range .45 caliber shot like it was a minor inconvenience, he noticed its shell had the same dull black color of the composite material that made up his body armor.
Apparently, the bugs could eat more than just metal.
Rage took hold of Glade as he realized this thing had eaten his armor! Sure, it could now likely stop the equivalent of a 7.22 sniper round traveling at 3,400 feet per second. Yes, it looked pissed as it charged toward him, the dull red glow of its mandibles leading the way. Yes, his mind screamed at him to run.
But this wasn’t a place for logic. Logic didn’t have bugs eating armor, let alone shrugging off a point-blank shot.
He hoped the insect died from food poisoning.
Without hesitation, Glade stepped forward and punted the charging insect like a football.
The bug let out a screech as it soared through the air, cutting off as it hit the opposite wall of the cavern.
Several more beetles burst from hiding, scattering in every direction. It was obvious by their lumbering gate the insects hadn’t evolved, but the ones darting away with his magazines of ammunition sent him further over the edge of reason.
Screaming incoherently, Glade fired indiscriminately into the hoard of beetles. Two immediately turned into puffs of black rock and white mist.
His clip emptied in seconds, with the bugs having all but vanished.
A scuff of rock on rock caused him to whip his head around in time to see a hand sized bug struggle to remove his remaining combat knife.
Glade lifted his boot and crushed the beetle with a satisfying crunch.
Seconds passed as Glade stared at what was left of his equipment, his pulse pounding in his ears from yet another encounter. He was rational enough to admit that he had lost control. And while his little tirade had felt good, it didn’t change their situation. They weren’t safe. And there was nothing he could do to change that.
For the first time in years, he felt panicked, his mind frantically trying to grab hold of anything familiar.
Glancing down, he looked at the knife he had just recovered.
Unbidden, a prompt appeared in his vision. For once, he didn’t try to automatically will it away.
You have found a Carbon Steel Dagger! While small blades are common within Veil, there is no other known blade made with this smithing technique, making this a truly unique find!
Damage:6-9
Durability: 240/250
Grade: Superb
Rarity: Unique
Value: ?
Glade reread the prompt; his eyes drawn to the section identifying that his blade was unique. The only one of its kind. There was nothing particularly special about his knife. It had been issued to him years ago and had been used countless times as both a tool and a weapon. But this was probably the first time he had ever truly studied it.
Unique. One of a kind. In this world. Not his. But that didn’t change the fact that it was the same knife he had owned for years.
Closing his eyes, Glade forced himself to calm down. Panic wouldn’t help him here. That was how mistakes were made. And he had already made far too many in the last 24 hours. Now, more than ever, he needed to find a way to control the situation.
In the moments between thought and action, Glade acknowledged this entire affair was beyond his ability to handle. Only, he didn’t have the luxury to lose control.
A feeling of resolve came over him as he focused on what he had been trained to do. He may not know what was happening, but it didn’t change his objectives.
Protect those he had with him.
Find the others.
Get them home.
Go around, or through, anything that tried to stop him.
Another prompt appeared. This time, he didn’t will it away.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill Reflection. Masters of this skill transform every experience into genuine learning in both the spirit and body! Others may stumble about the journey of life, barely understanding the meaning of the word Advancement. Not you. Through reflection, you can grasp the hidden meaning of all things. +1 to Wisdom. +2% skill advancement to any skill through the use of reflection.
Looking up, he saw both Kedryn and Riya watching him, concern etched onto their faces. With a sigh, he decided it was time to adapt.
How do you control a uncontrollable situation? You can’t. Not without more information.
“Kedryn,” Glade called out. “I have a few questions for you and Riya.”