“Perhaps the greatest fallacy was our belief that we had time. The timescales were so inconceivably large from the perspective of any non-ascended organism, an organism that lives and dies in the blink of an eye.”
It looked like a normal American road. Trees lined both sides, and there were no cars or signs of life as far as they could see. After what seemed to Alex like an eternity of checking for any threats, they stepped out into the open. On the road, the track that Vishal pointed out was much more obvious. It was the faint outline of a black boot print, presumably stained with the ichor of the Hirar. They followed that direction, weaving in and out of the forest. Soon, though, they heard a strange sound, sort of like the caw of a large bird. A flock of 8 or 9 bird-like creatures, with huge beaks and colorful feathers, suddenly appeared above the treetops. It looked like they were headed towards their group. As he focused on one, a tooltip appeared:
Caltosh
Level: 9
Combat Rating: 27.35 (Tier 0-D)
Value: 6.84 Ł
“Assistant, what’s my combat rating now? I just realized I hadn’t checked.”
[Your combat rating is 164.85. Viewing other members of your species allowed me to determine your species power rating, and so now I am certain of your combat rating.]
The details were unnecessary, but they did satisfy a certain curiosity. It seemed that even he would be hard-pressed to deal with this threat, and the others would almost certainly perish. So Alex called out to the group.
“I don’t think we can deal with these! Let’s cross to the other side of the forest and see if we can lose their tail.”
The group didn’t have a leader, and they had no reason to question him, so upon hearing Alex’s confident assertion, they simply followed. After hiding in one of the denser areas of the forest for a bit, they no longer heard the sounds of the caltosh. Apparently, they had either lost interest or were not targeting them in the first place. So they headed back towards the road. Alex was happy to have spotted this creature, though, because it seemed like they would be good fodder for his much larger energy needs — given that they attacked him first and didn’t fly away. They would be a challenge, but each one granted more than ten times as much energy as the kaphdor. He decided that unless something came up, he would head back in this direction after they caught the thief.
The tracks had gotten sparser and sparser even before they reached the road, and now they stopped altogether. But there was pretty much only one direction. So they continued following the road all the way up. After a few miles of walking, a picturesque town came into view. The town near the top of the mountain, and it would take several more miles of walking before they arrived. Smoke was coming up in several areas, but they couldn’t tell the cause. The road turned several more times, putting the town out of sight, but after a while longer, they got a closer look. And what they saw was quite concerning.
The mountain was not very high, perhaps two or three thousand feet at most. Near the top of the mountain were large outcroppings of limestone overlooking a charming town that reminded him of a European mountain village. But many of the quaint, pastel-colored houses that characterized the town were in flames. And as they approached the town, they began to see the cause. The town was embroiled in a vicious battle, and the fighting had even spilled out onto the road.
The battle was between people and… other people? No, those were not humans. They were humanoid creatures, but slightly taller, around 7 to 9 feet in height. They were hunched over at the upper back, so their true height was perhaps more than 10 feet. All of them were covered in the same gray suits and boots that the humans wore. Their faces were shaped oddly, sort of like an acorn and they had large, beady black eyes with orange irises. Not a single one had a trace of hair on their heads. Before Alex could move to intervene, the humanoid creatures killed the three hapless humans, who were vastly outnumbered.
Alex focused in on one of them, and a tooltip appeared in his visual field. A wave of excitement arose in him upon seeing another good training target.
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Ulumou
Level: 4
Combat Rating: 13.26 (Tier 0-D)
Value: 3.31 Ł
The others in his group did not seem to share his enthusiasm. With a start, Vishal tried to turn back around, and the others immediately came to a stop. But suddenly, a prompt appeared in front of Alex’s eyes.
Area-Limited Challenge: The First Hirar Shell (ends in 8h 26m 31s)
Objective 1 (0-D)
Objective: Ensure that a player of your species has the Hirar shell in their Spatial Bracelet at the end of the Challenge.
Reward upon completion: Energy reward equal to 1/4th of maximum energy capacity.
Punishment for failure: 3.1% reduction in effect of all attributes
Objective 2 (0-B)
Objective: Have the Hirar shell in your Spatial Bracelet at the end of the Challenge.
Reward upon completion: 1024 lucens. Expanded Shop options upon establishment of Outpost.
Punishment for failure: None
Effects
Current holder of Hirar shell is Marked.
Leaving the defined Area will result in dropping the Hirar shell and failure of the quest.
“Are you guys seeing this too?” Caitlyn asked.
“Ah, what have you gotten us into?” Deacon said with a sigh.
Gaining over a thousand lucens was non-trivial. Even for Alex, it was a large sum, and for any regular person, it would transform them from a victim of this harsh new world to a leader — at least for now. A head start was incredibly important, since the Game seemed to be about compounding advantages. Even if they couldn’t get the shell, though, it looked like the group was quite reluctant to take a 3.1% malus to their attributes.
Vishal halted in his tracks, and then slowly turned back to the town. Alex knew that his previous plan for disguising his identity would no longer work. He thanked them for leading him here, then dashed into the town. Before he got to the gates, however, he was spotted by a group of six spear-wielding Ulumou. Their levels ranged from 3 to 6, with the one who was level 6 being the clear leader of the group.
“He’s not from here, and I can’t gauge his level,” he heard the leader say.
Alex took a step back. Many signs had pointed to intelligence, but he was hardly expecting the Ulumou to be able to speak. The mouth moved in a very different shape than the words that came out, so it was clearly some sort of System-provided translation feature. If he listened closely, he realized he could hear the underlying sounds of the language. The language had a melodic nature, almost like they were singing, and had many vowels and open sounds. He didn’t have time to ponder that. One of the Ulumou in the back began to call for backup, while the rest charged him.
Weaponless, Alex could only rely on his superhuman Resistance to protect him. The first one lunged at him with the spear, but with double physical speed and reaction speed, he easily dodged and swiped the spear out of his hand. Finally, he possessed a real weapon. He stabbed the attacker through the chest, feeling a pang of guilt for killing a sentient enemy so far below his level. Red blood spurted out, and he had a moment of indecision. He didn’t have time for regrets, though, and he finished the humanoid off with a slash to the head, feeling sweet energy rush into him.
Another Ulumou took advantage of his moment of indecision to get in a slash to his side. This time, Alex retaliated without hesitation, stabbing him in the neck area. He made short work of the rest of the group. By now, though, dozens of Ulumou came pouring out of the gates onto the street. It was concerning that they could muster so much force without opposition. From the looks of it, the humans were losing this battle, or perhaps the Ulumou were just more concentrated at the entrance to the town.
“Initiate a brute-force mental attack on the weakest of them!” He communicated to his Assistant.
[Already on it. Estimated 6 minutes remaining.]
Alex gathered the Spatial Bracelets from the dead Ulumou, feeling them merge with his own when he touched them. They didn’t contain much; a few contained extra weapons, and one had a couple of physical lucens, but most were empty. He took out a heavy sword that probably had belonged to the leader of the small group. It didn’t look like the rest of them were capable of wielding such a heavy implement. He then stood his ground to meet the coming wave.