Mike wanted to go hunting to test out his new armor. It had been a few weeks since his last truly challenging fight. Sure it might have been a little tough to kill the shark lair boss if he wanted to give it a try, but when he fought it his sole focus was just distracting it. While he was watching Antonio and his party fight through the lair, he was reminded of the constant combat he’d gone through to finish off the tarantula lair.
If he could find a lair similar to the one in the ocean, he could skip past all the small fry and kill the boss right off the bat. He asked around a bit, trying to see if anybody had found a high leveled lair that he could go clear. Sadly, nobody had come across any that held truly strong monsters, and Mike realized he would have to go and find one for himself.
Lucas was the fastest person in the village. After the fight in Gratsden, Lucas had gotten to see first hand how useful a skill burst step was, and he had taken several days to develop it for himself, and had managed to recreate an epic rarity version of the skill. Ever since he had made it, Mike struggled to match the man's speed. He could keep up and even surpass the rogue in speed if he overclocked the skill with tons of mana, but Lucas had put so many points into agility that he could move quickly without massive resource expenditure.
Mike walked up to one of the largest buildings in town, knowing it was where Lucas lived. The man had been developing a spending habit, and it really showed. The entire house had likely been paid for with the large chunk of gold the town council had forked over for him to make the statue of the guardian.
Knocking on the door, Mike waited for Lucas to answer, hoping he was home. Sure enough, the door opened with Mike expecting to see the face of his friend. Instead, his eyes were drawn to the bright gold attire the man wore.
“I see you have graduated from a gold cape to gold everything.” Mike said, finally meeting the eyes of his friend.
“What can I say, I like the look. Come on in.” Lucas waved him in.
Mike followed Lucas in, eyeing the shiny stone floors and the smooth wood walls. “I wanted to ask if I could hire you for something.” He said.
“You want a statue for your workshop finally? Took you long enough.”
“No, not that. I wanted to ask if you could do a bit of scouting for me.”
Lucas’ voice lowered an octave and his face suddenly became conspiratorial. “Who do you need to know about? Also, how did you find out about my little side business?”
“Not what I- wait, what side business?”
“Oh, nothing. Listen, between you and me, I may be doing a little private investigation. You know, stealthiest rogue in the town and all that. Make good money from it too.”
Mike raised an eyebrow at that, looking at the man's clothes. “Stealthiest?”
“You’d be surprised how easily I can get around unnoticed. Anyways if you aren’t here for either of my business’, what are you here for?”
“I was wondering if you could go and find a lair for me to take on. Preferably one that isn't underground, and has some high level monsters that can be a challenge for me.”
“I might be able to do that, how much are you willing to pay?”
“How much will you do it for?” Mike asked.
“Tell you what, we both write a price on a piece of paper, then we say whichever is higher is what I’ll be charging.” Lucas said, pulling out two pieces of paper and two pens.
“Uh, ok I guess. Where did you get the pens?”
“Some of the utility based crafters make them and sell them in the shopping district.”
Mike took the paper in hand. He wanted to set a price that he thought would be fair, but also not one that he wouldn’t be willing to pay if he was the higher one. He was a little worried that Lucas might set a super high price, but he could always just go find a lair by himself if he wasn’t willing to pay. He wrote 10 gold on the paper, waiting for Lucas to finish his own. When they had both written their answers, they flipped their cards to face each other.
A shit eating grin was plastered on Lucas’ face as Mike read his card. On the card was written 3 gold. “Wow, what a generous price you are willing to pay.”
“Shut the hell up.” Mike said, handing over 10 gold. He was a man of his word, even if he didn't like it sometimes. “Alright, see you in a few days. If you can't find me just tell Hobbes or Devin the location of the lair and they can tell me.”
“Oh I won’t make you wait that long for the information.” Lucas said. “I already know where one is.”
“What! Why the hell did you make me pay 10 gold then?”
“I didn't, that was the price you set. I thought 3 gold would be a fair price for the information, but clearly you disagreed.”
“I’m going to find some way to get back at you for that. Remember that well.” Mike said.
“That’s what makes our friendship so fun.” Lucas said. “Anyways, the lair is about 3000 miles west, and is on a mountain.”
“What? How did you find it if it was so far away?”
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“I hired a few people to map out the surrounding couple thousand miles. They started in that direction, so it is the first one they found. Also according to them, the mountain is absolutely massive, and the monsters get to be a higher and higher level as you go further up. They didn't even make it a quarter of the way to the top before the monsters were too powerful for them to handle. Honestly, I don't expect you to even make it to the top.”
“Watch me. By the time you next see me, I will be carrying the corpse of the lair boss.” Mike said.
“Unlikely. See you whenever you get back. Don’t get yourself killed.”
“Alright, goodbye. No promises on not getting killed.” Mike said. On the outside, he was confident and full of bravado. On the inside, he was nervous as hell. Monsters and their lairs got stronger the further you went, and the one he would be going to was at least twice as far as the ocean lair Antonio’s party was currently at. He would be lying if he said he expected to clear the lair on his first go.
At the very least, he could do some preparation for the journey. He had gone all across the shopping district, buying health potions, mana potions, and a few poisons. He even went and talked to the old man whom he had bought the compass from.
“Hello youngster.” The man said. Mike was slightly off put by that. He wasn’t exactly old, but he didn't think being 35 made him a youngster.
“Hi again.” Mike said as he entered the shop. “Last time I was here you mentioned having some interesting things. Do you have anything that might help me on a trip to a mountain?”
“Good question. Give me a moment to look.” The old man stepped into a backroom, coming out with just one item. “I have this. It’s not the best but you might find a use for it up in the cold air.”
Mammoth parka (epic)
A parka made from the wool of a large mammoth. It has been enchanted to warm up when mana is infused into it.
“I don’t think that will be super helpful, but I guess it would be nice to not have to deal with the cold too much. I’ll take it.” Mike paid for the large coat, and soul bound it so he wouldn’t have to carry it around with him. After that he still had two stops to make before he left.
“Of course I have heard of his little side gig. I have hired him more than once actually.” Mateo said. Mike had met the man in the shopping district because he wanted to know just how well known this little PI business Lucas had been running was.
“Does everyone know?” Mike asked, exasperated.
“No, not everyone. He wouldn’t be very good at his job if everyone did. Just the top brass of the village and anybody with enough money knows. I’m shocked it took you this long to find out about it.”
“Wait, wouldn’t that mean people have been hiring him to get info on me?”
“No, that's not the reason. He doesn’t accept any offers that involve giving up information on you.”
Mike was relieved. He at least felt he could make his pay back a little less extreme now. Maybe less explosions than he had been planning. Then his brain finished processing what he had been told. “How do you know that?”
“That’s besides the point. Anyways, I need to go now. Hosting another auction over in the auction hall, so I don’t have much time to stick around. Toodaloo!”
Mike didn't have time to say goodbye as the man jogged off. He then grabbed a hot meal from Otto, knowing it might be his last for a while. Every time he went to the restaurant, he swore the food somehow got better. He almost didn't want to leave, but Otto managed to talk him out the door after the food was paid for.
Now, Mike was gliding through the air on his wings, trying to get some practice flying. He could use his wings to glide and redirect his course quite well, but he wanted to learn to properly fly. If he could manage that, he could save on the mana expenditure of using blast step, which was already quite low anyways.
He started off by building up speed to a ridiculous level, and hoping the large amount of air flowing over his wings would make it at least a little easier to learn. It sadly had the opposite effect as his wings practically ripped themselves from his back thanks to air resistance. Mike grumbled as he picked himself up from the crater he had created in the ground.
“I’m gonna need to deal with that.” He said. He then spent several hours atop a small tree trying to improve the wings themselves. Surely, if he couldn't instantly learn to fly, it must be the fault of past him for making the wings out of measly rare rarity fragments. He felt comfort in this logic as he replaced the fragment feathers with epic rarity feathers. It took a lot of time, and so many fragments that Mike was starting to get a bit uneasy at the expensive upgrade, but he got it done.
He decided to put his newly upgraded wings to the test through the only way he knew how. Trial by fire, with a reckless level of danger. He blasted through the air at what he assumed had to be at least 250 miles an hour. He only guessed this because it was far faster than any car, train, or vehicle other than a plane that he had seen in person.
His wings held firm as he managed to keep the sturdy limbs steady. He tried doing a few experimental flaps to test them out, and still didn’t get the result he wanted. The wings weren’t torn from his back this time, but the air completely arrested his momentum instead of generating the lift he wanted.
Mike spent the entire trip to the mountain practicing flight, with steadily increasing levels of success. By the time he made it to his destination, he could keep himself airborne using nothing but his wings. As he looked at the imposing mountain before him, he could only look further and further up as it pierced the clouds and went ever higher.
He couldn't see the top, but he knew right at that moment that he wanted to. He began flapping his wings and using blast steps to gain altitude, flying higher and higher into the sky. He broke through the solid layer of clouds after a few minutes of ascending, and what he saw startled him. The mountain was much, much taller than he’d thought, even looking at it from the bottom. The top was as far from the clouds as the clouds were from the ground. He flew higher, wanting to get a look at the lair boss that he was sure lied at the peak.
He didn't even make it halfway to the top before he felt a presence wash over him. His skin crawled, not from the effects of the aura itself, but from what it reminded him of. He looked towards the source of the presence, seeing a creature flying towards him. The top half vaguely resembled a woman, except with cracked skin and featureless curves. The bottom half looked like a bird, with long skinny legs that ended with talons. Wings sprouted from her back and propelled her forwards as they flapped.
Harpy (level unknown)
This monster was of the same evolution tier as the serpent under Dune had been, and the sheer presence of authority it gave off as it approached him was eerily similar, though Mike still felt it was far weaker. His suppression resistance skill flared up and nullified all of the effects of the aura, but the reminder of the serpent had still put a bad taste in his mouth.
Either way, there really was nothing he could do against this harpy for now, so he allowed himself to enter a freefall, his heavy hammer allowing him to reach high speeds as he fell. Scarily enough, the harpy could still keep up with him even as he accelerated to far past a humans typical terminal velocity. It was only after he breached the cloud layer again that the harpy left him alone.
Mike pulled the hammer into his soul, using his wings to slow himself and glide towards the mountain. He landed halfway between the ground and clouds, taking a moment to breathe. Nothing good had come from that encounter, or at least most people would think so. Mike had gained something that he saw as far more valuable than the insights into the lair power. He had seen an example of a humanoid flying, and it was time to put that new knowledge to use.