Copper Club] = Copper (Bar, 0.35-0.6m) + 6 Copper (Nail, 0.05-0.1kg) + Wood (Hard+1, 0.2-0.25m) + [Hammer] (Stone+2) + [Workbench] (Any)
----------------------------------------
This was his worst nightmare.
“Perimeter set, hrm?” one of the scouts said from the beach below.
“No, no!” the other snapped. “Still need search caves. No sign of interloper camp.”
Jay peeked out from his hiding spot, scanning by the pair of scouts and into the rocky beach beyond. The entire area overflowed with activity from so many different bodies moving around at once. A giant vessel rose from the water behind, with even more of these bastards buzzing about on top.
This couldn’t be happening.
“Report back to General, yes,” the first one said. “He will want position fully secured.”
This couldn’t be real.
“I will get reinforcements, yes.”
And the worst part yet…
“For the glory of the Empire!”
They were spriggs.
They were all spriggs.
An entire army of them, with their plant-like bodies and obnoxious vocalizations. Right on the beach where they had landed, tents and fortifications had been erected. Why did there have to be so many!?
Trish tapped him on the shoulder. “You see these things before?”
He nodded. “I’ve run into a few.”
“Hostile?”
“They can be if provoked. My interactions ended up fine, though.”
She stroked her chin, considering the information. “We need to let the others know.”
“You still got your radio? Mine’s back home.”
“That would be a bad idea. We don’t know what these guys are capable of, or if they have radios of their own.”
Good point. Jay looked again into this strange sight.
Where once had been an empty, rocky shore, an entire garrison had been established. Tents made out of moss and thatch sat in straight, uniform lines. Embankments lined the perimeter, sharpened spikes jutting out in every direction. Alien flowers the size of trees slowly grew from the sand, with stocks budding red petals.
The soldiers were strange too. Unlike the spriggs he saw before, these ones seemed to wear armor initially, but the closer he looked, the more he realized it was part of their skin. Chestplates, leggings, gauntlets, helmets. The last stuck out most. Grass of different colors flowed like mohawks from otherwise smooth, wooden heads, reminding him of Roman soldiers made of plants.
And a giant oval thing sat in the water behind. At first, Jay thought it was a turtle in its shell with a fortress built on top, but its “shell” was made of bark, and there were more fins than a turtle should have, each larger than a bus in length. Indeed, this creature had no head at all. Only more of its rough texture, perhaps coated with lichen and moss.
Like a seed the size of a battleship, this monstrosity drifted in the water, miles offshore.
He turned to Trish, who stared on, her brow hard as granite. She pulled out a spyglass next and zoomed in.
“What are you thinking?” Jay asked.
“What are the first things you set up before an invasion?” she asked.
“I don’t know… A really big weapon?”
“Logistics and telecommunications,” Trish explained. “The first step is to always ensure you don’t lose contact with the rest of your military. That is the key to a successful campaign.”
Jay paled. “Why do I have a sudden bad feeling this is relevant information here?”
“Because this base isn’t designed for long-term use. The topography puts them at a disadvantage since there are no natural defenses, and they’re limited in what parts of the island they’d have access to without getting bogged down. No, this spot is only useful as a staging ground to ensure continuity between that vessel and anyone on the shore. There’s plenty of space to accommodate transportation back and forth.” She lowered her spyglass and grit her teeth. “This incursion won’t stop here.”
“You got all that by looking at their camp?”
“You might have played video games back home, but this is what I did with my life. Hell, I almost got into the Berets preparing for operations like this. Made it through the Q-course and everything.”
Jay didn’t know what that was, but he’d been around Trish enough to respect her judgment, especially on military matters.
Some answers were better than none right now.
“We should go back,” Jay decided. “Ben will want to hear about this.”
“One second,” she said, drawing her spyglass again. She twisted the lens and scowled. “Shit.”
“What?”
“Center of the camp, two o’clock. They’ve got one of us.”
Jay squinted, narrowing onto that spot as best he could. His heart skipped a beat as he saw a man tied to a post with vines, wearing medium armor, and spriggs inspecting his weapon nearby. A curved blade made from silver. The wind shifted, and he caught the faint scent of human blood, courtesy of his perception-boosting tea.
“Is that…?” he started.
“That’s Hyuk, alright. Looks like they got a hold of him.”
The thought of diplomacy came first to mind. The last time Jay had spoken to a sprigg, it had been on the other island. He’d made a deal with that one named Dyrk, trading essence for cores to help it get back home, but only on the condition that he be spared when it brought reinforcements to kill Viktor. However, that happened ages ago, the old island got swallowed in a Seam, and there was no way to know if Dyrk had even gotten out, let alone been able to follow through with his end of the deal.
No, they couldn’t surrender the element of surprise with so little information.
“What are we going to do?” Jay asked.
“Only two things we can do,” Trish said. “We either find a way to get him out, or we get out ourselves. He knows everything about how many of us there are, what we’re doing, and where we’re located. And now, he’s in the hands of an unknown military force.”
Jay considered that truth. Yes, Hyuk was an F-Rank who had been Expatriated around the same time as him. But he’d spent his early days on the northern end of the island, and only came down after Viktor showed up. The two had started as enemies, pit together in a deathmatch for a chance to escape, but had later worked their way to become friends.
What would he do if their spots were switched?
“We need to go down there,” Jay said.
“You sure that’s a good idea?” Trish asked. “Rule 5, and everything.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, Trish, but your raft is still several days away from completion. Even if we took my skiff and shot straight for the horizon, it’s anchored in that cave close by, and there’d be no way to make it far without the spriggs on that boat spotting us. I don’t know about you, but I suspect they can move quicker than we can.
“With immediate escape nonviable, we have to contend with what comes next. As we’ve established, someone who knows everything about us is in their hands, and he definitely isn’t there by choice. Letting him stay captured shifts this situation out of our control at a time when our nights are too difficult to survive as is. Meanwhile, getting him out before these spriggs have completed this landing will at least buy us more time to figure out what’s going on.” He breathed deep. “Even if we’ll suffer for it later, saving Hyuk now is the logical choice.”
And it was also the right thing to do.
Trish nodded, for once in full agreement.
Jay sighed. “We’ll need to get closer first though. The Guide should have more information on them.”
“Already on it,” she said, twisting her spyglass again. “Hmm, strange. They’re mostly in the thirties for levels. ‘Sprigg Saplings,’ they’re called.”
Jay blinked. “Wait… That spyglass lets you see names and levels too? Where the hell did you get that from?”
“Same place I got my spear,” she said, no more explanation needed.
Jay considered the information. “If they’re so low-level, then this shouldn’t be too bad. Like you said, their defenses are weak and Hyuk is right in the open, at least for the time being. We’d have no better time to strike than now.”
They watched as a pair of spriggs approached Hyuk. There was a pause. He tilted his head up slightly, as if listening to what they had to say.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Then he spit out a mouthful of blood, and the spriggs began to beat him again.
“We’ll need to move quickly,” Trish decided, lowering her spyglass. “It will only get worse from here.”
* * *
Jay had never been in the military. He’d never so much as considered it growing up. Fighting and possibly dying in a war sounded like a bad idea, especially when he never cared much about anyone other than himself.
And yet, as Jay crept into the spriggs’ camp with Trish behind, somehow, he felt ready for this too.
[Slice].
His steel combat knife tore easily through the level 30 sprigg sapling’s neck, severing the body from the head before it could make a single peep. Green-tinted ichor splattered out, but before the dead sprigg could be seen, Trish yanked the body out of view. Jay followed her a second later, right as another guard rounded the corner.
Why did we have to do this in broad daylight? he wondered. Of course, an army of Natura’s spawn would be chasing them at night, destroying any chance for this to go off cleanly. But sneaking around with the sun shining above was an even bigger nightmare.
Thankfully, Trish had timed it perfectly, sizing up their patrols and patterns before identifying the gap between. They’d managed to go all the way down the cliff and into the camp before anyone had the chance to spot them.
Now, they just needed to go another hundred yards.
Jay closed his eyes and perked his ears. Footsteps. Twenty feet, walking this way.
Trish started to lean into the open to check, but he held her back. She scurried to the back of the tent with a nod.
The sprigg soldiers walked by. Though they had a humanoid shape, the similarities ended there. Their skin was made of moss-covered wood, vines and grass fell from their heads, and their jade-colored eyes blinked sideways, like an insect.
Spriggs didn’t even speak either. Not like a person. Their jaw simply fell open, and words came out.
One of the soldiers did that now. “You think many interlopers here, hrm?” his voice resonated from the hole its mouth created.
“Yes, yes,” the other responded. “They open interstice. Must take many for that size, hrm?”
The first shivered. “Need to catch them before they make another.”
“By the Bloom, yes! Too much danger to let roam free.”
The first drew a circle in the air. “I do not trust this place. We are too far from main Flotilla, and this atmosphere contains low Lux. We will not be able to grow for weeks. Now, with unknown interloper force? We should wait for reinforcements.”
“But we have the Great General Gornn!” the other snapped. “He will scour this island to the roots to destroy all threats.”
The first one nodded. “For the glory of the Empire!”
“For the glory of the Empire!” the other agreed.
They sauntered off, rounding the next bend.
And Jay and Trish used the opening to slip through again.
They tip-toed against the stony beach floor, heads on a swivel while the waves crashed nearby.
Where is everyone else? Things had grown quiet around the center of the camp, as if they’d all suddenly left. Even with his boosts active, he couldn’t hear anyone not patrolling beyond the walls.
But Hyuk remained in the center. He’d been tied to a stake with vines, and only his armor remained intact. His weapons had been stripped away, along with his Guide and attached leather strap. Blood trickled down his scalp where he’d been struck, and his cheeks were bloated with bruises. More vines roped around his mouth, gagging him further.
The two looked at one another and nodded. Jay switched his knife for his geargun, and Trish held her copper club tight.
He had a feeling that things were going to get messy on the way out.
They rushed through the open space, still scanning side to side. The camp remained calm, and the patrols seemed to have disappeared.
Gotta move fast. Without saying a word, the pair closed in on Hyuk and unwound the vines tying him in place. He stirred slowly, only one eye able to open. The other had been swelled shut.
Then his pupil narrowed on the two of them, and his eye widened at once. He pushed against the vines with all his might, wheezing in agony.
“Easy, Hyuk,” Jay whispered. “We’ll get you out.”
But he did not stop, groaning painfully as he fought to escape.
“Just give us a minute,” Jay said.
Hyuk chewed against his gag, his cheeks turning red. With one final bite, it snapped free. He vomited it out, spit laced with blood.
He coughed back the pain and muttered.
“Trap…”
It all happened in seconds. A swarm of spriggs raced into the open, forming a ring of spears around the center of the camp. More filed in from behind, pointing staffs like guns from the safety of their flank. Verdant light glowed as they took aim.
Dammit. Jay grit his teeth. They’d walked right into this one, and there was no way out.
“What do we do now?” Jay asked.
“What can we do?” Trish countered with a grunt. “Use that gun of yours to make an opening and get the hell out of dodge. We can’t let them catch us.”
One sprigg marched to the front. Unlike the others, this one stood a full head taller, with limbs that were twice as thick, and a chest carved to perfection. It gripped a tower shield in one hand and a warhammer in the other, its helmet-head laced with thorns, and bright red grass flowing from the middle.
But it was the eyes, more than anything, that made them recoil. Dark, piercing irises tore through them like a predator in the brush, and they could feel its hatred slowly growing. Jay knew at once that this one was the toughest in the group.
The sprigg leader’s mouth dropped. “Surrender weapons,” it ordered, its voice deep and gruff. “Or be destroyed.”
They looked from one to another, then back to the sprigg. Monsters emitted an aura that they could sense. The stronger the feeling of danger, the less likely they’d be able to win in a fight. Jay had escaped certain death no shortage of times by relying on this ability.
So when he and Trish studied this boss and assessed its relative strength, they both sensed the same thing.
This fight was winnable.
Jay raised his geargun and took aim.
Only to be crippled in place.
His jaw dropped, a sudden sense of dread cutting over him. The sprigg commander vanished in that moment, appearing behind before he could blink. Jay tilted his head, staring into this burning inferno. How the hell did he power up like that!?
Trish swung desperately with her club, beads of sweat pouring down her cheeks.
The sprigg countered with a simple smack of his shield, sending her careening through a tent.
Snap.
Snap.
“Foolish,” the sprigg commander spat. “Do you think I would reveal my aura, hrm? That was only fraction of power, yes.”
The geargun shook in Jay’s hands, but he pointed right at this devil. He had to do something!
The sprigg’s jaw tightened, its eyes focusing on him next.
Snap.
Snap.
Jay didn’t even see the attack. He couldn’t tell where it came from. All he knew was that the force of an avalanche had struck his chest, sending him straight into the ground. He coughed for air, and heard only ringing.
And the sprigg commander stood above, completely unharmed.
Then a wall of spears closed in.
Name: Jay Reis (Copper Age)
Vitality – ??/106
Hunger – 68/72
Thirst – 18/24
Fatigue – 31/40 (Poorly Rested)
Sanity – 81/110
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]
Cursed Items:
[Vitaberry Bush]
Armor:
[Copperplated Hat+3] (Nightmarish+4), (Buttressed+3), (Hardened+2), (Reinforced+2)
[Copperplated Leggings+3] (Nightmarish+3), (Buttressed+3), (Hardened+2), (Reinforced+3)
[Copperplated Shoes+2] (Nightmarish+3), (Buttressed+3), (Hardened+1), (Reinforced+2)
[Silver Amulet]: Socketed with [Chipped Tourmaline] (Tempus)
[Silver Ring]: Socketed with [Chipped Beryl] (Frigus)
[Silver Ring]: Socketed with [Chipped Beryl] (Frigus)
Weapons:
[Pig Iron Scimitar+5] (Affinity+8), (Hardened+6), (Reinforced+6), (Stable+2)
[Treated Bow+2] (Hardened+2): Socketed with [Chipped Beryl] (Frigus)
[Basic Leather Quiver]: Contains 17 [Silver-tipped Arrows] (Elemental+3), and 3 [Scattershot Arrows] (Elemental+3)
[Steel Combat Knife] (Sharpened), (Reinforced+4)
[Iron Geargun+4] (Heavy+6), (Quick+2), (Thermal+4), (Expanded+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)]