[Chillgrease] = Essence (Frigis, 50-500mL) + Essence (Aqua, 10-100mL) + Blood (Monster, level 16+, 20-200mL) + [Cauldron] (Any, 2L, 300-320°K)
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The monster towered above.
Though it was in the shape of a regular bird, it had to have stood at least twelve feet tall. Spotted feathers ran along its length, orange flecked over royal blue, and a giant patch of white went through the middle. Light danced on its razor-sharp talons as they dug into the felled log it used as a mount, with more at the tip of its beak above. Dark, beating eyes stared forth, seeking out its prey.
The marching kestrel raised its wings with a caw, casting a long shadow across the glen it had made as its home. Swirls of wind formed as it flapped them about in defense.
A [Scattershot Arrow] crashed right into its side. Shrapnel laced with spikes exploded into its vulnerable underside.
Its eyes widened in shock, but no sooner did a second [Scattershot Arrow] hit the other wing, inflicting even more damage than the first.
A specter in the shape of a human rushed out from the shadow of the underbrush where the magic arrows had come. The marching kestrel attempted to flap its wings harder, now that it could see the creature hunting it, but it failed to generate enough speed for the fabled wind attack. The icicles from the magic arrows were coated in some sort of grease that made them spread more!
The marching kestrel shrieked, its fury rising after having been outsmarted. With a flick of its talons, the felled log became a missile, hurling into the tiny creature in front.
But the human did not attempt to duck or dodge. He gripped a dull copper scimitar with dark edges and swung. Like a tear had formed in reality itself, a shadow cleaved right into the flying log before it could land. Broken wood splintered in every direction, a cloud of sawdust suddenly veiling the human’s approach.
Only then did the marching kestrel realize that its time had come. For all the cycles it had traveled through these mountains, it had never faced a creature built of pure darkness like this. One that could not be slowed, much less stopped. It watched onward as a living nightmare approached.
Jay Reis rushed through the cloud of sawdust, ready to finish what he’d started.
* * *
He sliced into the dead bird with a yawn.
This monster had been much easier than he’d expected. Once he’d taken out its wings, it was practically defenseless. Why hadn’t he come for one of these before?
Didn’t matter. Jay had killed it now, and with the other cores he’d gained earlier in the day, this would be the difference-maker to finally bring his Bows up to a respectable level.
A shadow passed overhead.
With a sigh, Jay loaded the rest of the dead kestrel into his cart and started the hike back down the hills. The wheels squeaked against uneven terrain.
Closer and closer, he drew to his destination, adjusting course every so often to better close in on it.
This was a moving target, after all.
He reached a clearing. The leather balloon swayed gently in the sky above, a giant red “V” painted proudly on either side. All that kept it grounded was a single rope, dangling below like an umbilical cord for the ego of the man who created this game.
Misha strolled at its base, a frigid monstrosity plated in metal armor. Even as the mud hardened and cracked wherever his giant paws landed, he merely munched on some grass lazily. Just like any mindless cow, Misha cared little for the humans and their squabbling.
Until he sniffed Jay’s approach. With a growl, Misha turned to attention, ice-crusted muscles bulging as the human drew near.
Jay took the cue and holstered his weapons as he’d been prone to do. The monster bowed and turned to the side, exposing the giant basket filled with frozen fruit and meat, the current day’s haul.
Kilogram by kilogram, Jay loaded the dead kestrel monster into the bear’s inventory, keeping half for himself.
It wouldn’t do for Viktor to know about his new hack.
He checked the tally with a grimace. Days had come and gone since he’d escaped the Nightrealm, and with it, time had mercilessly pressed onward. Even if Amadi’s gang had been taken out of the equation, Viktor was still ruthless in his own thievery, and Jay had encountered his share of other Expats in the jungle these days, desperately trying to keep themselves afloat.
But the violence had slowed down as well. He’d come across Naomi, Hyuk, Trish, Ben. Each had their own stories to tell about what had been happening in their worlds, but they all followed the same theme. No longer was everyone trying to kill each other, but that had only made things worse somehow.
Because they had given up instead.
Everyone but Jay. He was only playing the role. Hand over enough of his kills to make it seem like he’d been broken, while hoarding enough to ensure his enemy didn’t figure out he’d gained his new Cursed item.
It was just as Amadi said for the immediate future. No, Jay couldn’t defeat this tiger at his current power, but he could still outrun everyone else. While Viktor continued his path of destruction, he would become blind to the threat growing beneath him.
Even today’s sortie had been done with purpose. Strategically, Jay had leveled up Bows again the day before, giving him an increase in his projectile speed when firing arrows. With a level 28 monster he’d killed some time before, he’d be able to net another two levels once the kestrel’s core was infused. All it would take was a single level up from there to earn his next weapon art.
Yes, this was the play now. Take things slowly and deliberately. Don’t behave irrationally. Feign a defeat. Viktor could be the one to grow careless for a change.
And, as soon as that happened…
“Didn’t expect to see you here,” hailed from behind, clearly exhausted.
Jay exhaled himself, not in the mood to deal with this shit. “Could say the same for you too, Kevin.”
He turned around. There, the guy who’d once been his friend remained at the base of the hill he’d wandered in from, clad in a full suit of copper platemail again, and a giant spear beside. Both glittered in the sunlight, no doubt from the absurd amount of upscaling he’d been able to afford with his Expat Core.
“How’s the research going?” Jay asked.
Kevin grunted. “Just because you look like a total edge lord right now, doesn’t mean you have to act like that.”
“Like what? I’m just curious if you’ve made use of that ore yet or not.”
“Why you gotta be like this, Jay? Why do you always have to pretend that you’re the one who gets the high ground?”
“I happen to be standing a few feet higher than you,” he pointed out with a smirk.
The color rose to his cheeks. “You know, by all rights, I’m the one who should be pissed at you for how selfish you’ve been.”
“Oh? This should be good. Why’s that?”
Kevin stared deep. “How long did you have that juiced-up pemmican, again? How long were you holding out on the rest of us?”
“That’s different. I earned that for myself.” Hell, he’d thrown away his best item to get it.
“Yeah? Well, the way I figure it, there was plenty of that dead sea monster to go around, but you decided that every scrap of it belonged to you.”
Jay scoffed. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, Kevin. Everyone had the chance to take from that leviathan before it despawned, but I was the only one who made it work so well. It’s not my fault that no one else did the smart thing.”
“For weeks, you and I worked together in that cave, and for weeks, you didn’t say a word about how you managed to keep so strong. Even after Viktor showed up, it never so much as crossed your mind to say you had a secret trump card against him.
“And before you say anything else, this has nothing to do with me. There are plenty of other people on this island, some who have been really good to us. You should have handed over that pemmican while you had the chance to Naomi and her group. That could have been the difference they needed to stop him.”
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“Naomi was the one who stole from me when I first got here,” Jay pointed out. “Who in their right mind would just… Hand over their greatest asset to a stranger like her?”
“See? You’re proving my point. You like to have it both ways. Play the victim when you feel wronged, but casually take for yourself when no one’s looking. People don’t work like that.”
He grit his teeth. “Are you shitting me, Kevin? I’m not about to get lectured by you, of all people. If anyone is the hypocrite, it’s the guy who just stole an entire vein of ore to get ahead.”
Kevin waved his hands in the air, veins bulging. “You know what? You’re right. I am a complete piece of shit as well. I got pissed the fuck off after you pulled more of your selfish bullshit and decided to do the same.
“But you know what else, Jay?” He took a step forth. “I at least feel like a piece of shit for that. I’ve been feeling it every night before I go to sleep, and every day right when I wake up. I think about what I could possibly do to make things up to someone who used to mean so much to me back home. I’m trying to come up with the best way to give back what I took that won’t break these fucking Rules.
“And I don’t just feel that guilt, either. I feel the weight of what we’re doing here. I feel the deaths of these things that I must kill just to fill my stomach. I feel the lives getting lost around us. Human lives. Other people, just like us. I didn’t feel good putting Amadi down, and I still see that look on his face when Viktor finally finished him off. Haven’t been that messed up since juvee.”
Kevin took another step. “But what about you, Jay? Has there been a single moment here where you’ve allowed yourself to feel what’s been happening to us? Have you ever spent a second in soul-searching?”
Jay’s cheeks reddened. “Of course I have. It’s been a rough couple days for me too. But you know what? I don’t wallow in self-pity or start becoming self-destructive to those around me. I moved past it like a grown ass man.”
But Kevin only shook his head. “That’s your problem, Jay… Fuck, that’s always been your problem, for the entire time I’ve known you. Do you remember when I dropped out of school? Do you remember what you said at the time?”
He didn’t. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
Kevin stared deep. “You said ‘Who’s going to replace you on our relay team?’ That was it. We’d been friends for five years… I’d just told you that Cynthia got pregnant, and she wanted us to leave the city to go to her uncle’s farm… And that was all you had to say about it.
“You said before that I was the one to leave, but the truth is that you checked out emotionally the second you heard I was going out the door. For years, I figured that was how you handled change. Play the tough guy, pretend it doesn’t matter. But now I see that this is just who you are. And the worst part? You can’t be bothered to see it for yourself, much less try to improve.”
That stung deep. It was true, to an extent. Jay was never a fan of change, much less when it happened outside his control. He’d always wanted nothing more than to live the life he’d wanted, in a world that constantly pushed him away from it.
So, what was he to do, but to take what he could get? Cut others off, remove the dead weight. People were only added complications, anyway. Just more elements to throw him off of his dream. Coupled with his inability to ever say the right thing at the right time, and Jay had burned no shortage of bridges before ever reaching Annwyn.
And, that sucked. That always sucked. Contrary to what Kevin thought, Jay didn’t like to be this way. No one ever chose to be an outsider, in this world or any other.
And yet…
“Give me a break,” Jay said. “Is that really all you care about right now?”
His friend grit his teeth in silence.
“Kevin, need I remind you of what’s going on? We died, and our souls were transported into another world, one where monsters rise from the ground to kill us, growing stronger every single night without fail. It doesn’t matter what we want, what we think, or what we do. Natura will only ever rise. It does not recede. Only if we manage to neutralize this threat do we get to go home, and by the looks of things, that’ll take years, if not longer. Years spent murdering everything in our path and crafting their corpses into something else, all to give us a fighting chance to slay a fucking god.”
Jay yawned. “You know, I once heard a line in Econ, back before I left college myself. The professor said, ‘Wise men think on the margin.’ It’s supposed to be one of the fundamentals of macroeconomics. You don’t ever concern yourself about what came before. Only what you can do in the moment to help your future.
“That one always stuck with me, but I didn’t really get it until I ended up here. I’d spent my entire life in regret, doing what others told me because I thought that’s what you’re supposed to do. Even when I picked up streaming, that was just another box someone else created that I felt I might fit under. When push comes to shove, all I cared about was playing games, not having people watch me play games.”
“What’s your point?” Kevin asked.
“My point is that this is your problem, Kevin. You get trapped in grievances, you fly off the handle, and you behave irrationally when things don’t go your way. Like a toddler, you’re always fixating on what came before. That was why you got into so many fights back in high school, and why you cannot allow yourself to let some minor sleight go from half a decade ago.
“But the fact is that what came before doesn’t matter anymore. You, me, Cynthia, my parents, our old track team? They’re gone. They’re no longer on the margin, so we gain fuck all by focusing on them. All that matters is the present, and what we can do to get ahead.”
He clenched his fist, feeling his zeal rise. “You’re acting like I’m broken because I keep making the logically correct decisions without considering your hurt feelings or anyone else’s, but that is how this world works. If anything, I fit like a perfect puzzle piece here, in a way I never could before. How dare you try to make me out to be the bad guy just because everything I do works.”
“Is that how you see this, Jay?” Kevin asked. “This is all going according to plan?”
“Nope. I’m only human. I make mistakes just about every day, and have nearly lost this second chance at life more times than I can count. But I also grow. I adapt. I get stronger. I don’t let past grievances dictate future action.
“You, though? You’re the one who doesn’t fit here so long as you cling to your old life. To your concept of morality. That is what holds you back, Kevin. Here, there are no rules, no laws, no reason to allow our emotions to complicate things more than the bare minimum. There is only the margin, and what decision we can make to better our future.
“I don’t care what you or anyone else has to say about it. I’m going to win. Against Viktor, Natura, or anyone else who gets in my way. And I’m going to do it by using what works and discarding what doesn’t.” He furrowed his brow and stared deep, hoping to inject some sense of reason into his old friend. “I suggest you do the same.”
And then Jay turned and walked away, no more words needed.
“You’re wrong, Jay!” Kevin called out. “You can’t expect people to shut off their emotions and still be human. You’ll only ever become something else. Something worse. Like Viktor. Don’t let this asshole get to you!”
But Jay only kept walking.
He’d wasted enough time here today.
Name: Jay Reis (Copper Age)
Vitality – 99/99
Hunger – 51/72
Thirst – 21/24
Fatigue – 43/48
Sanity – 97/100
Main Crafts: Alchemy 2, Armor Crafting 2, Base Building 3, Cooking 2, Jewelry 2, Medicine 2, Tailoring 2, Tool Crafting 3, Vehicles 1, Weapon Crafting 2.
Weapon Crafts: Axes 5, Bows 7, Clubs 5, Daggers 5, Spears 5, Swords 11.
Armor Crafts: Heavy Armor 5, Light Armor 5, Medium Armor 8, Shields 6.
Sub-Crafts: Curved Swords 5.
Character Skills:
[Forbidden Knowledge]
Armor Skills:
Heavy Armor: [Push], [Stampede]
Medium Armor: [Recover], [Leap], [Waterform], [Quickstep]
Light Armor: [Dash], [Feather Fall]
Shield: [Brace], [Track], [Break]
Weapon Skills:
Axes: [Chop], [Whirlwind]
Bows: [Sharpshooter], [Longshot], [Scattershot Arrow]
Clubs: [Bash], [Paralyze]
Daggers: [Slice], [Flourish]
Spears: [Thrust], [Sweep]
Swords: [Power Attack], [Slash], [Rend], [Shirk], [Violent Storm]
Armor:
[Copperplated Hat+3] (Nightmarish+5), (Buttressed+2), (Hardened+2), (Reinforced+1)
[Copperplated Coat+4] (Nightmarish+6), (Buttressed+2), (Hardened+2), (Reinforced+1)
[Copperplated Leggings+3] (Nightmarish+6), (Buttressed+2), (Hardened+2), (Reinforced+1)
[Copperplated Shoes+2] (Nightmarish+3), (Buttressed+2), (Hardened+1), (Reinforced)
[Copperplated Gloves+1] (Nightmarish+2), (Buttressed+2), (Hardened+1), (Reinforced)
[Silver Amulet]: Socketed with [Chipped Tourmaline] (Tempus)
[Silver Ring]: Socketed with [Chipped Beryl] (Frigis)
[Silver Ring]: Socketed with [Chipped Beryl] (Frigis)
Weapons:
[Copper Scimitar+6] (Nightmarish+8), (Sharpened+4), (Hardened+4), (Reinforced+2), (Stable+2)
[Treated Bow+1] (Hardened+1): Socketed with [Chipped Beryl] (Frigis)
[Basic Leather Quiver]: Contains 5 [Silver-tipped Arrows] (Elemental+2), (Stability+3)
Tools:
[Copper Knife+3]
[Copper Axe+3]
[Copper Hammer+3]
[Copper Pickaxe+3]
[Copper Shovel+3]
Boons:
[Minor (Speed)] (x3)