Chapter 3 - Verrietta, Demon Worm of the West Swamp

EXP [https://i.ibb.co/2P3jmmz/EXP.jpg]

Dart skewered her third frog for the day. It didn’t bring the satisfaction she expected. These frogs were too dull. They didn’t even register that she was hunting them. But it evidently counted as a kill since they were still green, though they were only worth one experience.

Her eyes wandered to the dark forest to the west. Honestly, she wanted to hunt something more challenging, but she was just too eager to evolve, and she only needed one more kill.

Sadly, it had taken the better part of three days to track down eight bullfrogs.

Dart pulled open her status window just to make sure she had been counting right and was surprised to see two red dots, which meant she had unspent skill points, or perks, or… something.

She absently clicked on one at random before she realized it was just the notification for her racial perk. It was probably time to make a choice. Her plump finger hovered over [Sniper Tongue] for a moment before she made a last second decision and upgraded her hop.

skill-upgrade [https://i.ibb.co/7WM7gwX/skill-upgrade.jpg]

After confirming her choice, two new racial perks immediately appeared, though all the boxes were greyed out.

Untitled-7 [https://i.ibb.co/rbrxYS5/Untitled-7.jpg]

“Cooldown?” She said to herself, and flinched at the sound of her own voice. “Shoot. That’s what I needed.”

When she closed the perk window, a new red dot appeared and she clicked it without a thought.

Untitled-8 [https://i.ibb.co/QryTTdW/Untitled-8.jpg]

“Squire…” Dart stuck out her tongue in disgust. That sounded too close to ‘servant’. Regardless, it was on a path to become a knight and then a paladin, and she knew she was way too squishy to rely on defense. Best to skewer things quick and from a distance.

Dart selected Scout with no regrets, before she even looked over the class abilities. This brought up a prompt to select a set of starting equipment or a number of gold pieces—a concept that she only vaguely understood, seeing as she had never had a need for money.

Dart selected a simple white cloak that came with a leather pouch, a dagger, a buckler, and an iron spear. However, when she tried to equip the spear, a warning window popped up in front of her vision.

3 [https://i.ibb.co/GnjSLkw/3.jpg]

“Bonded?” Dart glanced at her inventory and saw that [Godkiller] was technically equipped, even though it protruded from the corpse of a nearby bullfrog.

“Oh, bonded!” She turned to face the weapon. “Hear that, Goddy? We’re bonded.”

The metal spear was too heavy and didn’t feel right in her grip anyway. She tossed it in the swamp and it sank faster than anything she’d ever witnessed, disappearing beneath a layer of loose silt and waterlogged worms.

“Kzzm...zmmt!” The buzz of insect wings registered in her ear and she licked her lips before her eyes adjusted on the tiny bug.

Tiny… Since when were mosquitos so tiny. It looked almost too small to eat. Almost.

Darts tongue shot out and in a blink she had the startled treat in her mouth. She closed her eyes and swallowed.

Was she getting bigger? She propped her spear straight up and down then measured her height against it. Her eye was still level with the swirled knot in the wood. But when had she first checked that? She certainly wasn’t a mere mouthful for a bullfrog anymore!

“Kzz… kzzmm…” A much louder buzz grabbed her attention, and Dart turned expecting another meal. So she sighed when she saw a huge, spiny thing that would not sit well in her stomach.

OIG1-fotor-2024112813244 [https://i.ibb.co/mCVf321/OIG1-fotor-2024112813244.jpg]

Before she killed Akuja, she never minded the squirming of things in her belly, but now it seemed… beneath her.

This was easily the largest mosquito she’d ever seen, with a spear-like proboscis, and a golden shimmer to its otherwise brown shell. Even more interesting, she could see its health! Dart chalked it up to one of the new class abilities she hadn’t read.

The mosquito registered as blue, which meant it wouldn’t be worth any experience, but that in itself was odd, since no mosquito had ever registered before at all.

The mosquito landed on one of the bullfrog corpses and inserted its snout-like appendage. Though it looked stiff as wood, the proboscis bulged as it sucked up frog guts, the mosquito’s abdomen swelling with each “gulp”.

Dart considered whether a mosquito could do a single point of damage to a bullfrog normally.

She studied her status page as she watched it buzz off toward the west in her periphery.

Status [https://i.ibb.co/kDGNYHp/Status.jpg]

She spent her stat points, allocating 7 to strength and 8 to agility, then confirmed. Level 99. That sounded like the current limit. Oh shoot! That might mean no more stat points for a while. That was okay, right? Her other stats had grown some on their own anyway. She knew, for example, that everything but WIS had been a 1 before she killed Akuja. She didn’t know how to read at the time, but she could remember seeing lines that must have been 1’s.

She only vaguely remembered a squiggly line for WIS, which might have been a 2 or a three, and she was proud of that.

She did consider that if she had put more points in WIS, she might have become wise enough to regret only upgrading STR and AGI, but decided not to let her thoughts wander down that rabbit hole.

Dart rose steadily to her feet and attempted to walk a few steps as she’d seen Akuja do. Wait, no… that wasn’t right. She’d never seen Akuja.

With the improvement in her strength, her muscles didn’t tire from the odd position, but she wobbled off-balance, and ended up hopping the last bit to the brink of the swampwater.

If she wanted to hunt in the west forest, then she would have to swim past some turtles, and maybe even an alligator. Not that she would be worth any experience to an alligator. Or maybe she was now! Hopefully, though, the gators didn’t know that.

Dart put down her hood so it wouldn’t flop over her eyes in the water, and activated her newly improved hop, diving into the murky water. With the upgrade, she likely could have covered four feet, were she not plunging through water. As it was, she earned her name, piercing the still water like a blade, keeping a straight course.

She didn’t look back until she reached the far side. Only then did she see one of the black snapping turtles nestled in the mud only a few feet away. It closed its eyes basking in the sun.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

aaa44576-fa2f-430d-b0a6-0125687caf2b-fotor-2024113033125 [https://i.ibb.co/f8twfDc/aaa44576-fa2f-430d-b0a6-0125687caf2b-fotor-2024113033125.jpg]

After distributing her stat points, the turtle had turned from orange difficulty to yellow, which may have influenced what she did next.

Dart snuck up behind it with her spear at the ready. She looked for a vital area to stab, which is generally a waste of time on a turtle, and opted simply to avoid the shell. She gripped [Godkiller] in both hands and with all 12 points of STR stabbed at the loose skin where the hind leg met the tail.

4 [https://i.ibb.co/2FvCgGQ/4.jpg]

The spear only sank about a centimeter deep into its skin, which might actually have been enough to finish a bullfrog. The snapping turtle, however, only opened one eye and lifted its beak slightly before laying its chin back in the mud.

Dart felt something she had never felt before. It was a type of disappointment. Stronger than the feeling of losing a meal in a log. She felt… insulted, perhaps. And this new feeling began to warm her stomach and consume her.

Anger! It was anger! And she felt like it wouldn’t go away until she acted on it. The cooldown on her hop ability finished while Dart circled her prey. And when she saw the beast’s throat, she crouched, angling her spear, and hopped full force, lunging her weapon nearly two inches deep.

At this, the turtle bothered to open both eyes. It rose, wavering, from the muck.

Dart held onto Goddy, but the turtle shook them free, and she fell onto her back.

It turned to face the tiny assailant. However, much like the bullfrogs, it seemed more confused than anything, reconsidering the threat of what looked like a potential meal.

It hissed—a long slow hiss as it inhaled—then breathed out and she felt the humid air waft over her with a stench of minnows.

Dart scrambled to her feet, keeping the point of her weapon between them, so it would skewer itself if it charged.

The turtle looked about to snap at the twig, and Dart, worried it would crack [Godkiller] in two, stepped forward.

“No!”

The turtle, not expecting a dart frog to speak, instantly withdrew its head into its rolls of fat, the neck forming bulging rings.

She stepped forward again, wanting to press the advantage, and aimed for one of its eyes, but only scratched its beak.

5 [https://i.ibb.co/tHKpVRk/5.jpg]

The turtle, used to easier meals, turned to enter the swampwater.

Dart took two faltering steps after it, but crumpled and resorted to a hop. But with her main ability on cooldown, it was a fairly pathetic display.

Her opponent disappeared beneath the surface, and Dart consoled herself with the thought that a few days ago, her hop only covered eight inches. She could jump that distance now without even activating an ability.

And she did. She hopped over and over again toward the west forest, and when her cooldown finished, she took a four-foot hop.

It was hard to remember what she was so mad about. In fact, now that she thought about it, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

Eventually, she noticed the turtle had resurfaced and followed her lazily, as if it were still baffled.

Her first instinct was to climb a tree, knowing it could outpace her. But the western “forest” was more brambles than trees, and she doubted she could reliably jump the distance between them, even if she waited for her cooldown.

Thick matted webs covered the brambles. Dart imagined furry white spiders running around, and decided to kill one and try to evolve before the turtle caught up to her. She had never seen a furry white spider. But she had also never been to the forest!

Sadly, though, she didn’t see any health bars. If any spiders were still around, they weren’t big enough to award experience. But why wasn’t she seeing any spiders? The webs had to come from somewhere.

She lifted a low hanging vine with the tip of her spear to avoid the thorns, and when the branch bounced, a dozen plump worms dropped from above, dangling frantically from threads.

Silkworms! Which meant… the webs weren’t from spiders at all.

Dart shot her tongue out and ate the fattest worm, and swallowed a couple more randomly before glancing behind to keep an eye on the turtle. Evidently, he had given up some distance back.

Dart practiced walking as she wandered the forest. It grew less awkward with time. She felt that a warrior ought to know how to move in different ways, and she had already mastered jumping.

In a way it seemed more elegant. And as she thought about it, flinging oneself for long distances only to crash down without a plan may have been the way of frogs, but did not constitute a mastery of the art.

Nor was it well suited for battle. What she needed to learn was control—to jump a specific distance, and land on her feet. Not her belly.

Silky cocoons littered the trees and the brambles, and she knew that the inhabitants would soon emerge as moths. She found some raspberries, though most had been eaten by the worms.

She only knew the word, or any word really, since killing Akuja, but she had never tried a raspberry. It had a texture like a larva. Actually, really close to the worm she had just eaten, with little hairs, and pulpy pods filled with liquid. But the berry tasted much worse, and she didn’t finish it.

“Kzzm…”

Dart stepped on a curved bone as she looked up toward the sound, and it snapped beneath her foot.

The sharp edge bruised the soft sole of her foot. Before, it would have torn open the flesh, and could very well have proven to be a fatal wound. A frog that can’t hop dies.

“Kzz.. kzzt… mzzzzzzzzzz—”

Dart looked up again and saw the unusually large mosquito from earlier. Thick cords of silk wrapped around one of his legs, and his attempts to fly only sent him in circles.

Her instinct was to kill the mosquito. But… she didn’t intend to eat it. Which led to the question, why didn’t she intend to eat it? She didn’t want to swallow it whole, but she could still eat parts of it.

It just felt… wrong. He was too big. She thought back to the turtle. It was even bigger, but she had no problem attacking it. Maybe it’s because most mosquitoes didn’t grow this big? This one was special.

That reasoning didn’t make her feel any better about hurting the turtle.

She had forgotten the bone. It was an odd thing. Dart stooped to pick it up. She didn’t know what it belonged to. But more bones lay nearby in a mound. Rat bones, and frog bones, and crow bones, all in various states of decay.

“Kzzzzzzm…” the mosquito doubled his efforts then fell silent.

“Hold on…” Dart readied her spear, but hesitated. She didn’t see any health bars, which meant nothing dangerous was near. Still…

Something stirred beyond the webs of silk. Something heavy dropped to the ground. And before she even saw a health bar, a window popped up blocking her view.

8 [https://i.ibb.co/W2qD6ZM/8.jpg]

Dart tensed, just as a clawed hand reached through the immaterial window. She skipped back, and the claws clenched into a fist right before her nostrils.

After the failed attack, the worm’s health gradually materialized.

Verietta [https://i.ibb.co/wYXVgnM/Verietta.jpg]

Her narrow escape surprised Dart as much as the demon, and thankfully before either could act again the warning window faded.

6 [https://i.ibb.co/wRcLD4r/6.jpg]

To Dart, the worm seemed a hideous monstrosity—nearly six inches long with hair growing from its head, distorted frog-like arms, its abdomen covered in dozens of golden eyes. It’s mouth, too small to swallow her whole, only made it more horrific somehow.

Dart gulped audibly at her opponent’s incredibly high health.

The demon struck again, this time with an ornate bronze staff, and Dart barely had time to position her buckler. Still, the blow knocked her backward, her arm numb and ringing.

7 [https://i.ibb.co/fnPDbct/7.jpg]In the heat of the moment, she made a regular jump to attack from above, instead of activating her ability. Compared to the worm’s quick reflexes, she seemed to hover for an eternity above its head, and the demon recovered, smacking Dart away with a backhand from its staff.

It sent her sprawling through the air, and she landed several yards away among the brambles. Dart rolled and crashed back-first into something hard. [Godkiller] rolled out of her stunned fingers.

She spit dirt and silk from her mouth, wiping the taste from her tongue. The blow was powerful enough that it might have killed her had she been grounded. Being launched through the air dissipated a fair amount of the force.

She stood, trembling, and retrieved her twig. In that moment, it felt like a twig.

She saw an escape route nearby under the brush and through the water.

Dart had never backed down from a challenge before. But that didn’t really matter, did it?

Her eyes stung and the wormwebs danced in her blurry double-vision. As her fat fingers wrapped, shaking, around [Godkiller], Dart resolved to:

Resolve-Test [https://i.ibb.co/6y695C6/Resolve-Test.jpg]