“That was so cool,” Clover said, mimicking Ron’s paper blinding maneuver. “You were like: Bing. Bong!” He threw two punches, punctuating his last two words.
"Thanks," Ron said, still slightly out of breath from the battle. "The giant T-rex skeleton a couple exhibits back gave me the idea."
"How does that even remotely make sense?" Claire said with no real bite in her tone, somewhat used to their particular brand of weirdness as she poked through the remains of the dead squirrels with her sword, searching for loot.
“Well, the statue didn’t have eyes, so it was blind.”
Clover nodded wisely; it sounded like something he'd come up with - the leap in logic made perfect sense to him, but to a more normal outside observer, it probably didn't hold the barest hint of logic.
“How fast do you think they’ll hit Level 20,” Clover said while keeping an eye on the two tunnels on the far side of the cavern.
"Who?" Claire asked. Her hands paused as she found something. From his angle, he couldn't be sure what.
“The monsters. In general, not just the squirrels,” Clover said.
"Yesterday, we encountered two Level 5 Squirrels in the outer area, and around here, they don't even have any way of leveling particularly fast. I think a monster group in a more populated area like the Bone Rats…" He readjusted his collar, damp with sweat. "I wouldn't be surprised if there were some of them around Level 15 by the end of the week."
"Well, we'll just have to be Level 16 then," Claire said as she stood up. She had something tucked away in her hand; Clover didn't say anything about it yet.
"Maybe. The average monster is pretty weak for its Level. A well-prepared Level 10 human with a good Class could probably take down a Level 16 monster. It's only the ones with the dark red name tags that are ahead of the curve," Ron said.
Claire shook her head slightly, her lips twitching upward, then walked over and tossed a necklace Clover's way. What would have been a clumsy catch turned into a clean snag, aided by his Dexterity Stat.
“What is it?” Clover asked. As the words left his mouth, a blue screen appeared.
Congratulations, you have found your first item. Within the boundaries of the Monster Nest, enemies slain will have a small chance to drop Items and Equipment.
The System, like usual, was light on the details, giving him just enough information to know that it was possible to find items and equipment in the Monster Nest now.
Clover used [Appraisal].
Acorn Amulet:
A minorly magical accessory that boosts the user's constitution and slightly reduces their need for food.
The information was limited - if the Skill was a higher Level, he'd bet that it wouldn't be - but still, it was a hell of a lot better than what the System had told him.
Clover relayed the information to Ron. "Do you want it?" he asked as he glanced down at the amulet with desire. Its design was simple: a thread, a thick leather of sorts, skewered the acorn through the center, creating a wide loop. It was simple, but Clover liked to think it looked fashionable.
“I do, but you can have it if you want,” Ron said. “I got a Weight Aspect for killing the big squirrel, so I’m happy with what I got without the Item.”
"Thanks, I need it - I want it." He corrected himself, making the statement less dramatic - less reflective of reality. He put on the nut necklace, feeling a faint shimmer of power run through his muscles. "I thought you'd get a Metal-related Aspect; why did its tail make clanging sounds when you hit it.”
"Maybe it had two Aspects or Affinities - I'm not sure which is the right term when talking about monsters - and he only got one," Claire said.
Clover nodded; it was possible.
A knot of tension eased in his neck. Talking as if nothing had happened - as if they hadn't just taken part in a crazy logic-defying life-and-death battle- had become a routine between them. Pretending that fighting the unknown wasn't scary in some small way actually reduced his fear.
He opened his Status Screen and put his three free Points Into Vitality. He sighed, cracking his back as a warm flow of power ran through his bones.
“Should we keep going?” Ron asked. “I’m a bit banged up, but I can do a bit more before taking a break.”
Clover glanced at his Golems. They, with the exception of his wheelchair, had sustained damage in the fighting. They were still in working condition, but they were inching toward collapse.
He fought the urge to use [Appraisal] on his Golems - he didn't need to; it would be a waste of mana. Just by looking at them, he could vaguely glean their remaining Durability, and if he turned his attention to his soul space for a quick moment, he could vaguely feel that the charge - the energy inside their totems - had decreased.
They still had a couple of fights left in them before they crumbled.
“I’m down to keep going. I still have plenty of mana left,” Clover said.
Claire made an indistinct sound of agreement.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
"What way should we go?" Ron asked, standing before the two diverging tunnels.
"We should go to the right," Clover said, his voice jumping slightly as he bounced around on the rough cave floor. It was mostly flat and even, but his new wheelchair didn't have the same level of comfortability and suspension as his previous one. "It's always the right decision."
So far, he hadn't seen a monster exit from the rightmost tunnel, making it the safer choice. Though, he didn't voice that reason.
"It doesn't make any difference. We'll have to go down both of them eventually," Claire said.
Clover paused in front of the wide tunnel’s entrance. “[Mana Sense],” he whispered. A vast array of energy revealed itself to him, but from what he could sense, he couldn’t tell any difference between the two Paths - his range wasn’t long enough.
Congratulations! Mana Sense has reached Level 4. +1 Skill Point.
The only thing out of the ordinary that colored his perception was Ron’s aura to his left - an indistinct feeling of a book’s pages flipping in the wind - and to his right, the fire-like mana that surrounded Claire.
As Ron stepped into the tunnel, leading the way, Clover kept the Skill up, searching for fluctuations in the ambient mana that might warn him of an impending attack.
Clover and Claire followed close behind, single file. There was enough room to maneuver in the tunnel, but they'd be hard-pressed to fight if they were all standing side by side. They continued deeper down the curving stone path as it sloped gently downward, following the glowing moss-like vines that stuck to the walls in repeating patterns.
After approximately a minute of travel, they reached the tunnel's end. On the other side, there was a cavern. It was spacious, twice as large as the first. Short stalks of green grass unnaturally stuck out of the stone below, and in the center of the cave, surrounded by a shallow rim of water, there was a thick-trunked tree.
From its branches, three fruits of a red circular shape similar to that of an apple with a lotus flower on top hung gently, twitching slightly - almost imperceptibly - as if they were alive. Just by looking at them, he could tell they contained some sort of magic.
He tried to use [Appraisal] on them, but they were too far away.
Of course, they were not alone in the cavern; Two-Tailed Squirrels marred the landscape like a disease - there had to have been over thirty of them. Even though the monsters in the cavern were weak individually - he couldn't spot one that was above Level 3 - they posed a significant threat due to their sheer numbers.
Additionally, the vast majority of the squirrels were identical down to the smallest detail - exact clones of each other.
The strange repeating nature of the Monster Nest was starting to wear on his nerves. It didn't look natural - it didn't look like the type of thing the Emerald of Life would cause.
Claire peaked her head out from around the corner. “What do they even eat?” she whispered.
"Maybe they eat each other when they get hungry," Ron said quietly while crouching behind an outcropping of rock near the tunnel's exit. "We could skip this room; it's a dead-end."
There was an argument to be made for expediency. The longer they delayed, the stronger the monsters in the Nest's core area would become. There was a real chance that clearing this room could take the rest of the day - he didn't believe that would be the case, but it was a possibility.
On the other hand, the red fruits looked too enticing to pass up - they were clear rewards placed there by the System. Plus, clearing out the room would be a relatively easy way to further boost their Levels.
“I say we stay. If we use the same method as last time, it’ll take a while, but I think it’ll be worth it,” Claire said.
Clover froze mid nod. Weak, a blur of energy moved across his senses, slowly shuffling to his left. He focused. The mana felt artificial like it was lacking something vital. More importantly, it was headed right for them.
Congratulations! Mana Sense has reached Level 5. +1 Skill Point.
“Back up,” Clover said. “Something is coming.”
As they retreated further into the tunnel past a bend, a Level 1 Two-tailed Squirrel wandered in. It would have been a disaster if it had discovered them by the entrance, but now that it was away from the others, it was just a matter of time.
The monster walked down the pathway, unaware of what awaited.
The second it passed the bend and entered their range, they struck. With such a low Level, the monster didn’t last long - it was almost unfair how much stronger they were than it.
Congratulations! You have significantly contributed to the defeat of a Two-tailed Squirrel - Lvl 1. +100 Exp.
After hiding the beast's corpse behind an out-of-the-way outcropping of rock, they returned to their positions and rehashed their same old strategy: Ron, while hiding behind a boulder near the tunnel's entrance, would pilot his sheets of paper, harassing whatever monster had the misfortune of coming near. After they'd had been sufficiently angered, he'd lure the monsters back to the tunnel where the group would ambush them, quickly dispatching the weak monster.
Time and time again, they repeated the process, thinning out the number of monsters in the cave. For the most part, they didn't encounter any hiccups in their plan - most of the monsters went down easily. However, there were a few occasions when a Two-tailed Squirrel would wander into the tunnel without their prompting that caught them off guard leaving them scrambling to eliminate it before it could raise enough of a racket to alert the others.
Thankfully, between [Unstable Mana Bolt], and Ron’s speed, they were able to avoid disaster.
Class: [Apprentice Golemancer] has reached Level 8. +4 Magic, +3 Intelligence, +2 Dexterity, +1 Strength, +1 Perception, +1 Vitality, +3 Free Points.
Congratulations! Unstable Mana Bolt has reached Level 29. +1 Skill Point.
As he raised his Level, it became increasingly difficult to raise it further. It had taken 1,500 Exp to reach Level 8, 15 times the amount it had taken to complete Level 0. It’d take 1,750 to reach Level 9.
On their own, the low Level monsters barely contributed anything. Each kill only ticked up his Exp bar by the slightest bit, but he didn't mind. While his growth wasn't explosive, it was consistent and safe - something he could appreciate.
In the underground chill of the tunnel, a pile of bodies grew. There were no clocks to tell how long they had been at it, but after what Clover had felt had been less than thirty minutes, the initial outcropping they had used to hide bodies behind overflowed, forcing them to find a new spot to dump the corpses.
Before long, the well of energy within Mr. Cat had filled to the brim - when he was eventually forced to remake the Golem, [Bones Break So They Can Mend] would provide a boost, possibly evolving the small sculpture to a new level.
Unfortunately, his glow-in-the-dark dinosaur didn’t enjoy a similar benefit - he had positioned the Golem behind them, out of the way of the fighting. For one, it wasn’t very inconspicuous. He wasn’t sure if the squirrels would have been smart enough to notice, but he didn’t feel like risking it, especially when there were so many of them. Secondly, it played a valuable role by defending their rear. Almost at the edge of his range, it’d give them time to react if something attacked them from behind.
Still, from a distance, it absorbed some remnants of energy residually.
Slowly and steadily, they continued to grind, picking off the weak monsters one by one.