I was standing on one of the maple's absurdly thick roots facing ten beetles. I felt a small part of me regret my decision, but my resolve hardened. They were cute, but they wouldn’t hesitate to tear me apart given the chance. Jake was standing a few meters back, and I remembered the plan.
“This swarm of root beetles is all tier one, other than the tier two in the back. I want you to go in with your avatar and fight as many as you can. If you get overwhelmed or in danger I’ll get you out, so give it your all.” and so here I was, my shield on my left arm, and my warhammer in my right hand. I reached for my avatar, feeling the wisp of the connection just out of reach. Reaching toward my shield I grabbed nothing and pulled down. The shield of my avatar overlapped my current shield while my greaves appeared, and both my shield and my hammer felt a bit lighter in my grip. It was time to start.
The nearest beetle was two dozen feet away and had just noticed me, beginning to skitted toward me, and I charged to meet it, coming to a stop in front of it and swinging my warhammer into its head full force and killing it with one sickening crunch. It was going to attack you, it’s fine I told myself, and continued to another one that was approaching. My warhammer’s spike punched a hole in its head. Now the beetles were coming faster, and when I looked up from finishing the second off three more were approaching. I attacked the closest without trouble, but the second one attacked before I could swing again, latching onto my armored calf. I finished it off and then turned toward the third one, stumbling back as it jumped mandibles open to take a piece of my thigh. I avoided the attack, but that was little comfort because I tripped over the still dissolving corpse of the second beetle, and my shield crunched through the first one which wasn’t dissolving, partially cushioning my fall and leaving my upper body vulnerable to the beetle. I made out the beetle lunging at my legs and I gave a panicked kick, which caught it under the head and raised its head away from my legs as it snapped. I scrambled to my feet while it recovered, heart racing, and adrenaline roared as I smashed its carapace open.
I wasn’t done yet as another two beetles approached, and the closer one of them was almost half a foot bigger, the tier two. My composure was gone, and I was fully running on instinct as I smashed my warhammer into the head of the tier two beetle. Its shell cracked, but it survived and tried to bite my knee, so I lowered my shield in its way, blocking its bite and giving me time to smash into its head again, missing the first spot and making a new crack. A third strike broke the head open and fourth strike finished the tier two off, and I looked down to see a beetle monching my greave. Yelping I kicked the beetle to dislodge it and backed up to make some space.
The beetle was joined by the last three. I fall into a partial crouch to position my shield between me and them. The beetles spread out, two in front and one on each side. I couldn’t block all of them at once, and an idea came to mind as I remembered my trip. The beetles drew closer and I dashed to the right, my shield between me and the beetle I dived toward, and my full weight knocked the beetle to the ground and made several cracks in its shell. It took me only a few seconds for me to get up while the nearest beetle was stunned and the rest had to reposition, one of the beetles in the middle moving to the left. I finished off the beetle and turned to face the three beetles still facing me. I lunged the right this time, crashing my warhammer into the beetle there and killing it in one blow. Luckily my shield was now between me and the beetles, and they couldn’t just retaliate immediately. I hadn’t thought that far ahead, but I was glad it was the case. I turned to face the middle beetle, and in a lunge and a swing I only had one target left.
Of course it was then that my avatar flickered and vanished, and my warhammer and shield suddenly felt a few pounds heavier. The surprise weight made me lower them slightly, and the final beetle took the chance to jump for my face. I tried to raise my shield, but I didn’t get the chance to see if I had been fast enough as the beetle was caught mid jump by Wiggles, who gave it a few good shakes before biting down on it and dropping it in two pieces that blew away into dust. Now that my life wasn’t at risk I felt the adrenaline leave my veins, and I realized I still had a fair amount of beetle goop, the remains of the beetle’s I had smashed through, and I felt sick. I had been acting in self defense I reassured myself, and with a few breaths I forced the feelings down. Unpack it later, you have more immediate concerns. The most relevant one was the stinky beetle goo splattered all over my clothes. I started trying to brush it off, and then watched in surprise as it turned to dust and blew away. I turned to see Jake holding three shards as the last of the beetle corpses turned to dust.
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“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”
“No problem, just remember not to try to pull anything like this without backup, alright.” and there was a hint of grim Jake in his eyes
“Don’t worry, I know. I promise not to.”
“Alright. Now to review it was a good idea to armor where you got bit last time, but remember that beetles aren’t limited to biting ankles, if that one had a bit longer it would have tried a bit higher up. Avatars can take a few hits, especially once you get a few tiers higher, but if your actual body gets hurt it’s going to heal at its natural rate. If your avatar runs out the best move is to get out of the dungeon as fast as you can.” Jake handed me the three shards which I pocketed.
“Now let's go to the shrine. We're gonna want to get an idea of how much you’ve improved and how long your avatar can be maintained now.” I agreed and we went to the shrine. I didn’t even hesitate to enter, and only slightly flinched as the windows and door broke and Prim reanimated. I waited for them to finish stretching before talking.
“Hey Prim, I was wondering what my sync was at now.”
“Hello friend, your sync is at…”the statue paused to look at me “25%. you have worked fast, though you seem to have paid for it in blood.” 25%! That was over twice what it had been at. The comment about paying in blood was a bit morbid, they would heal in a couple of days… or weeks.
“Great! What does that mean for how long I can use my avatar?”
“You should be able to maintain your avatar for seven and a half minutes.” Wow, that was a massive improvement. Doing some quick mental math I realized that it was one and a half times more than before, the same amount as my sync had increased. If Jake could maintain his for two and a half hours then I was definitely missing some variables, but at least the sync seemed to be consistent. I started to turn to leave, and then paused as I thought of something.
“Hey Prim, do you know my name?” The statue managed to look embarrassed.
“I am afraid not, you never mentioned it.”
“Oh, sorry, my name is Ethan.”
“Ah, thank you Ethan. Is there anything else you would like to talk about or do?” I paused, and something weighing on me came to mind.
“Do you know if monsters are alive?” Prim thought for a moment.
“That depends on your definition of alive and the specific example, but suffice it to say it's complicated. Monsters below the first milestone cannot even act beyond their base impulses and lack actual emotions, but each major milestone brings with it increased individuality.” That was somewhat reassuring, but it raised a new important question.
“What's a milestone?”
“Milestones occur at tier 7, 13, 19, and 25.” so none of the beetles had feelings, that made me feel a bit less bad about killing the beetles. It had been me or them, but that failed to reassure me, I had come to them not the other way around.
“Thanks Prim, that makes me feel a lot better.” Prim seemed a bit confused, but they rolled with it.
“You are welcome?” They paused uncertainly for a moment “I see you have some shards on you, would like me to store them for you?” I hadn’t thought about that, and after a moment I agreed
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
Prim took the three shards and they slotted into a shelf that rose from the ground before seamlessly remerging.
“Is that all?” Prim asked, and I smiled
“Yeah, I think I’m all good.”
“Very well, have a nice day” I waved bye to Prim, and got an enthusiastic wave back. I walked toward the door, and it was restored as Prim returned to sleep. I stepped back into the dungeon.