[Minor Boon (Sanity)] = Boon (Minor, Untuned) + 3 Cores (Monster, level 10-20) + Blood (Monster, level 10-20, 0.2L) + Blood (Nightrealm, level 10-20, 0.2L) + Blood (Expatriate, 0.1L) + Quartz (5kg) + [Tea] (Herbal, 0.5L) + [Hammer] (Stone) + [Bowl] (Any)
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Tonight was the night it ended.
Jay knew that as he flew through the jungle, his momentum gaining speed, even his body convulsed against the growing threat behind. He fired his grapple gun into a nearby canopy again. As the pig iron grapple lodged into the wood, he retracted the wire a beat, enough to slingshot him further through the woods.
Not a moment too soon. As his body redirected, Jay felt the leviathan’s tusks strike the empty space where he’d once been. He flicked his wrist instinctively, dislodging the grapple and pulling it straight into the gun.
Thank goodness crafting this grapple gun made me this skilled. He’d be dead otherwise.
As Jay frantically twisted the crank to get another shot in before he hit the ground, his enemy was hot in pursuit. He glanced over his shoulder as it tore through the jungle.
Matted, furry claws crunched through tall sentinels like machetes through reeds. Giant feet shattered through boulders, grinding them into dust. Moss and vines clung to tusks that curled almost the full length of this monstrosity’s body, their alabaster surface chipped and worn as if pulled from antiquity. A snout fell over its weathered face, but the eyes more than anything caught his attention, right below the arrow that had struck its scalp. They were exhausted, angry, and determined. Its irises were fixed right on him like two polished pearls, a white fury laser-focused into the enemy that had done it harm.
Jay gulped and turned around, finding another launch point before this leviathan could catch him.
Its entry still remained in his mind’s eye.
Yeti King (Level 60) – A F-Rank leviathan found in jungle biomes. This creature is known for its devastating melee attacks and quick speed, despite its large size.
Contains a leviathan core.
Research still available.
He fired his grapple into another spot, just in time as the yeti made another attack, now using its claws with a lunge. But the rope redirected his momentum, firing him faster through the jungle as he descended another plateau.
By all measures, this was not an intelligent engagement. Leviathans acted as the gatekeepers for each Rank, representing the epitome of all monsters at that power level while being slightly higher than everything else. The difference between this creature and any other nearby was night and day, and only by becoming stronger than every single monster on this island could someone hope to have a chance to challenge this one.
That was because unlike regular monsters, they were powered by a leviathan core that could be infused directly into an Expatriate to force their body up a Rank. It acted as a permanent buff, one so powerful that no loss of vitality would ever bring them back to the Rank they were before, even as their own body’s demands skyrocketed. Jay had tasted a fraction of this power when he’d consumed meat from the D-Rank leviathan many weeks back, but even that was not a healthy comparison to the power that a leviathan core level up would bring. There was a reason why Jay couldn’t hold a fight against a single of Naomi’s group, and why they struggled against someone like Viktor. The power of those cores could not be understated.
But as Jay leaped over another ledge and felt the last light of day kiss his cheeks, he didn’t think about what could be gained from this creature, only how it could be used to see this battle through.
Viktor’s camp was so close now…
Shadows crept over the island again, even as the yeti king continued to chase Jay down. Regardless of its strength, he was being careful with the hunt. Always staying just out of reach. Never drifting too far as he bounded from tree to tree. That kept it frustrated enough to keep going, all the way until true night hit.
He knew that moment all too well. A darkness shrouded the jungle that eyes could no longer pierce. Shrill bleating rose. Natura conjured its soldiers for the fight soon to come.
Jay watched the movement of their pale green eyes flicker into existence before falling in chase, keeping a distance from the leviathan lest they get trampled too.
Jay’s fingers quivered and his mind short-circuited as these demons closed in, but he did not relent in his escape. A raid, he realized, slowly grinning. Good. Let them come at full speed.
The more monsters, the better.
Jay didn’t care about what came next, so long as he defeated his enemy, once and for all.
So long as he avenged the death of his only friend, it would all be worth it.
Viktor’s camp rose in prominence, the forest shifting beside. And Jay could see his target too. As the jungle shook and the darkness closed ever tighter, Viktor strolled into the open, armed with nothing more than a knife.
Jay fired another grapple, this one aimed high to give him the widest arc. As gravity tugged against him and his body shot up, he dislodged the grapple one final time, now focused only on his goal. The yeti king barreled behind.
This was it. His moment to win. Keep Viktor distracted with the monsters. Fly in from above. Blow him up to kingdom come. He swapped his grapple gun for the stick grenade, holding it tight like the baton that Kevin used to give him.
But as momentum carried him further and he could see the full nuances of the valley, he realized that he’d overshot his mark.
More than that, he could see familiar Natura monsters marching right for Viktor. Clay hulks… Vined alphas… A stronger variation of the granite bear…
And that was it? His attack was barely bigger than what Jay faced each night!
As Viktor readied for defense, little more than twenty adversaries marched into the open, almost timid in their attempts to bring him down. He cracked his knuckles with a yawn, not the least bit worried.
Jay almost forgot to prepare for his missed landing, curling into a ball as his body collided through the canopy and into the thickets beneath. But even as his skin burned from fresh scrapes and Wounds and his shoulder dislocated hard, his rage flared up ever hotter.
He brushed over the pain and popped his shoulder back into place, fighting against the thorny bushes that bound him.
Behind, Viktor slaughtered his enemies with ease, but was too distracted to see their reinforcements close in. The leviathan entered the camp, its hatred redirected to him. The tusks swung wide. Viktor turned his head a beat too late.
He cursed as the leviathan’s overpowered strike launched him away. His shack exploded as his body crashed inside.
Jay’s Natura squad came in next. Though they’d come to slay him tonight, another Expatriate was still in the way, and the raid quickly surrounded the collapsed house, claws and talons digging through the waste to reach their target.
And Jay ripped himself free, his stick grenade in hand. He could do this. He could end this now. He didn’t need the full weight of everyone else, just this one good hit. The leviathan readied its own stomp attack, right in the crowd of monsters and debris.
But then something unexpected happened.
Night flashed to day as the cabin went ablaze. A sudden fiery beam materialized within, launching straight into the leviathan’s chest above. Thunder roared and heat waves grew as a ball of unstoppable force struck the yeti king right where the heart would be. But it did not stop there, for the weapon that hit him surpassed even its strength, singing through the thick fur with ease, through the hardened hide, whatever reinforced bones were below, and out the other side. The leviathan’s eyes widened from such a devastating hit, and it tumbled backward without another move.
And Jay could do nothing but stare, watching powerlessly as another cheat was used.
A bloody arm wrapped around him a second later, freezing him in place. The smoking 9mm pistol sat in the other end.
“That was very, very stupid, Jay,” Viktor grumbled. “You want taste of war? You’ve got it!”
Snap.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Snap.
The hit was instantaneous, the sky flipping with the ground as Jay’s chest struck the ground. He didn’t even know which piece of gear had broken, only that his body was on fire and his ears heard nothing but ringing. He cried out, but the air was trapped in his throat.
It took a moment to process the rest. Viktor had holstered his pistol and gone back for the steel knife, slicing through the manifestations that still remained. But there was no flare to his movements, no casual saunter to his steps. He was behaving like a soldier. Like a machine.
And then everything was dead, with nobody still standing but that one fucking man.
Jay reached for his grenade but realized it had been knocked aside as well. It was less than ten feet away, but with the pain in his limbs, it might as well have been miles. He rolled onto his side, glaring right into his mortal enemy.
“How!?” he forced out. “How do you have so much going for you?”
Viktor turned, blood trickling down his scalp. “Hm?”
“It doesn’t make sense. You’re too strong for a response so weak. How can you keep operating at your level without being penalized!? Why don’t you have to fight under the same terms we do!?” Jay grit his teeth. “It isn’t fucking fair!”
“You dare speak of what’s fair!?” Viktor scowled, a bitter undertone Jay had never heard before from a man always filled to the brim with nonchalance. “You know nothing of what is fair, in this world or in any other. There is no fairness, only power.”
Jay curled his fists into balls, forcing himself onto his knees. “Is that what you told yourself when you murdered all those people, Viktor? All those innocent men, women, and children in Al Bamman?” He coughed. “Yeah, I heard all about that.”
Viktor strolled closer and kicked the stick grenade aside, another ten feet that Jay would not be able to reach.
He exhaled. “That is no more than further proof. The weak were subjected to the strong, and I merely did my part to see their will exerted. It has always been this way, and no one is free from this truth. Not you. Not me. Neither here, nor there. Why? Because humans are not the civilized creatures we like to believe, but anarchic beasts looking to tear each other down.
“But… What separates here from there is that the strongest force around has a purity that we’ll never possess. The type of elegant authority that has no equal. Unlike the chaotic monsters that sent us here to behave in our worst selves, this world is under the protection of an entity that wants nothing other than a perpetual order.” He grinned. “I am speaking about Natura, of course. The regulatory natural force that keeps the powers of this world in check by inflicting Her divine power. I have chosen Her as my patron, unlike any of those disgusting Wyrms, and She has blessed me for it.”
“Bullshit,” Jay spat. “You’re seriously trying to tell me that you became a bandit and Natura descended from the heavens and said you’re chill?”
“No, Natura does not behave so overtly, but you see the result.” He looked over his shoulder, at the pile of dead manifestations that anyone at Jay’s level could defeat. “Do you believe everything is as those Wyrms have told you?”
Jay coughed again, the blood flowing to his cheeks. But no words came out.
Viktor sighed. “The truth is that the Grand Bargain is no more than an excuse fed to us. A mere pretense so we become those beasts again. With nothing more than some vague goal to become stronger, we kill, we destroy, we reap these bountiful lands until they are reduced to this.” He nudged over his shoulder, into the barren part of the island that had never recovered from the zeppelin attack. “And Natura rises with us at each step, a natural rejection against our corrupted presence.”
Viktor held up the coconut necklace he always wore, filled to the brim with the Rule 4 snippets he cut from the Guides of people he murdered. “That is why I hold onto this truth. Natura can only rise. It does not recede. On Earth, there is a concept of entropy. A state of chaotic decay that defines all else. But here? It is the opposite. Natura is a state of absolute order, always rising in response to anything that upsets its balance. Especially us. I am doing nothing other than my part to see our race stopped before we can cause irreparable damage, just as She does. Thus, I have become blessed by God.”
Could this really be that simple? Jay considered what Viktor had said. Yes, it made sense, to some extent. Natura had always reacted in a way that was as alien as it was natural. A response built against responses, with no interaction of note, other than that it always occurred at night. Only during the night did he see any bit of personality, but even that was incomplete. Why did Natura adapt to each Expatriate individually? Why not send its full power to extinguish every human the moment they appeared? If it really was so all-powerful of a God, why give humans a fighting chance at all?
This explained things. Natura wasn’t conscious in the traditional sense. It only reacted to what Expatriates did to its earth. Just as ice melted when left alone in a hot room and the sun slowly burned out, could the same be happening here? A universe’s natural response to an unnatural incursion?
And yet… “Why do you hate humans so much?” Jay asked. “Why are you so desperate to see us fail?
“You ask why?” Viktor scoffed. “Because we deserve it. Every last one of our ilk.”
He took a few steps away, gazing into the endless night sky.
“You know, someone very important to me once had me almost convinced in the ‘goodness of man’. He believed that if we spread kindness to others, then kindness would be returned to us.”
He shook his head. “I did not grow up that way. My father resolved all problems with his fists, and my mother never so much as looked me in the eye. My siblings were much the same. When I hit adolescence and they discovered the type of man I was inside, they drove me out with no more than the clothes on my back.
“I joined the military soon after. If my family did not love me, then perhaps my nation would, no? And for a time, that was true. I rose from a simple ryadovoy into the Spetsnaz, doing whatever the GRU told me. So, I killed some people, I tortured others, and I did what I could for my country’s interest, even as it blackened my very soul against this evil. It seemed a fair exchange. I better my country, and they shower me in medals and accolades, always dangling the prospect that I would be accepted for who I am.”
He closed his eyes and exhaled. “But it was all a lie. No matter how much I sacrificed for those people, there was only one person in that world who ever loved me for who I am.”
He turned around, the tears in his eyes. “That was my husband, Misha. He believed in the goodness of man, unlike me, all the way until it got him killed.” He bared his teeth, his cheeks darkening further. “You speak of fairness, Jay Reis? Then tell me why I was rewarded for being a hound, while he was killed for being his authentic self?”
Jay said nothing, his thoughts scrambled as he took this all in.
Viktor took a few steps forth. “That is the truth exposed. There is no fairness, no justice, no morality. There is only power. Misha was killed for his activism against the powers that were, and the same happened to me the moment I rose to avenge him.” He grinned. “But at least I was able to kill the mob that brought him down in those final moments. Oh yes, I put down every one of those mongrels before the end, and when I was given the Grand Bargain, I cared for nothing more than the chance to do it all again.”
Jay shook his head. “Just because bad shit happened to you, doesn’t make what you’re doing right. You’re only harming innocent people.”
“Innocent,” Viktor mused. “You truly are a younger, more naive version of him to still believe that, even now. Even after witnessing your ‘friends’ turn on each other so quickly… I suppose I am to blame. I saw the shadow of a man that once meant so much to me and gave you the leeway to behave the way you wanted, all to see that glimpse one last time.” He brushed a tear aside, his brow hardening. “A simple mistake on my part. Misha is dead, and you are not him. Just another pest to be disposed of, like every other of our kind.”
Viktor closed in, twirling his steel knife in hand. Jay tried to wriggle back, but the pain was still holding him back. The stick grenade was so close… If only he could get to that point…
Jay cried out, Viktor kicking him down again. With a tap of his foot, he stared straight up.
It was no use. His plan had failed, and there would be no way to defeat this man. He just wasn’t strong enough.
And then Viktor drove the knife down.
Name: Jay Reis (Copper Age)
Vitality – ??/99
Hunger – 63/72
Thirst – 19/24
Fatigue – 32/48
Sanity – ??/110
Main Crafts: Alchemy 2, Armor Crafting 2, Base Building 3, Cooking 2, Jewelry 2, Medicine 2, Tailoring 2, Tool Crafting 3, Tinkering 1, Vehicles 1, Weapon Crafting 2.
Weapon Crafts: Axes 5, Bows 9, 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 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 Ring]: Socketed with [Chipped Spinel] (Vitus)
[Silver Ring]: Socketed with [Chipped Spinel] (Vitus)
Weapons:
[Copper Scimitar+6] (Nightmarish+8), (Sharpened+4), (Hardened+4), (Reinforced+2), (Stable+2)
[Treated Bow+1] (Hardened+1): Socketed with [Chipped Ruby] (Ignis)
[Basic Leather Quiver]: Contains 17 [Silver-tipped Arrows] (Elemental+2), (Stability+3) and 3 [Scattershot Arrows] (Elemental+2), (Stability+4)
[Stick Grenade]: (Thermal+1)
Tools:
[Copper Knife+3]
[Copper Axe+3]
[Copper Hammer+3]
[Copper Pickaxe+3]
[Copper Shovel+3]
[Basic Grappling Hook]
Boons:
[Minor (Speed)] (x3), [Minor (Sanity)]