The South of the Whifur was covered with sea. The North was where I was “spawned”. The East was Mountian of Black Ash. Lastly, West where elves and their Mother Tree lived. One of the first things Aine and Börü told to me was simple: Never go to the West. You can enter the outskirts of the forest but never move further from where you can see the Whifur’s walls.
That was one of the few limitations given to Lily and me. Lily was pretty disappointed that he couldn’t flirt with elves but I was curious.
“I guess elves are not that friendly to humans?”
Börü stroked his beard before answering.
“They are not friendly to any race, really. I am pretty sure you have seen the massive tree reaching to the sky in the middle of the forest when you went up to the walls. That’s their Mother Tree.”
“It had massive elemental energy.”
Lily poked his head into conversation. He seemed interested. Elemental energy? I felt massive vitality coming from the tree but I didn’t feel that kind of thing. Börü nodded.
“The Mother Tree is necessary for elves' survival. Without vitality and elemental energy coming from her, younger elves can’t survive to adulthood. Which is why they are very defensive when it comes to her.”
He leaned back.
“It is important for us too. Even though we are fairly far away from her, we still benefit from her. The bountiful harvests, healthier children, dungeons, and quality wood. All thanks to the Mother Tree.”
My crash into the cavern wall seemed to trigger some memories. They held the reason why I felt disgusted with the creature in front of me. How convenient.
The answer was simple: It lacked the vitality of the Mother Tree. No, no. Not lacking. It was actually filled with Mother Tree’s vitality. The problem was what it did with that energy. It reminded me of a factory. It took in clean and natural things and then turned them into processed, easily sellable products while polluting everything around it.
In the six months I have been here I was so used to Mother Tree’s vitality healing and cleansing things, seeing it being used like this made me feel disgust without realizing it.
As the shards of the ice walls rained upon me because of the queen slayer, I got up. It was a true struggle with the poison coursing through my veins making every movement painful. What kind of poison was it? It hurt like hell.
(Wurmblood Resonance is activated. Your defense increases by 10 for 5 minutes. Your resistance towards any kind of toxin or poison increases by 10 percent for 5 minutes.)
(Nidhogg’s Essence ignores all of your resistances.)
Despite the warmth I felt and the sensation of my body toughing up, the pain didn’t get better. It ignored all resistances? What kind of bullshit is this! Oi, GM fix your game! This is too OP! I know I wanted to be challenged but this is too much!
I moved out of the way as the last wall was broken. The creature slashed where I was standing causing a large gash on the wall. I was able to get a close look at it.
It was a bipedal with two arms and two legs. Its carapace resembled a knight’s armor. It had no eyes in its helmet-like head but it constantly chattered its jagged, dagger-like teeth to each other. Behind its head were small tentacles constantly moving giving the illusion of them being hair.
“It has two ways to detect: That chattering and that feelers.”
Maybe I came to that conclusion fast but I was half sure. More teeth protruded out of its chest and shoulders. Unlike the yellowish teeth at its mouth, they were black. Tiny, four fly wings twitched on its back. I raised my hammer and I was able to block its attack. As it pushed me back with its strength and speed, Gökbörü was able to fend it off with ice spears.
“Huh, it probably never had someone survive from its first attack.”
It held its weapon in its left hand. It was a weird weapon. It looked like a double-bladed sword. It looked unpractical as hell. It reminded me of the Demon Hunter character Lily played. What did he call his weapon? A warglaive? It looked like it was made out of a purple crystal. A mana stone? I could see a fang inside the crystal.
“Nidhogg’s Essence.”
Nidhogg was some kind of dragon. Did the fang inside of it belong to Nidhogg? How did this creature obtain it?
I blocked its attack again. I was lucky that it attacked in a simple way. It relied on pure speed and strength coupled with the sharpness of its weapon. The fact that it flapped its wings before charging made it easy to block. The wings looked too small to help it accelerate. Perhaps they were tools to channel mana? Ama once told me that things like horns, fins, and spikes can allow monsters to store and channel mana. Perhaps that’s it.
(Duration: 3:59)
“You are getting too used to attacking without getting hit.”
The next time it hit me, I let the force of the attack throw me away, putting some distance between us.
(Ferocity of Wolf King is activated. Your speed and reflexes increase by 20 percent for 3 minutes.)
(Armor Collapsing Claw is activated.)
I took a deep breath. Its predatory, two clawed legs pierced the ground and in an instant, it was in front of me. But even before it appeared in front of me I started to swing my hammer. Before its weapon could tear into me I sent it flying into the cavern wall, creating a resounding impact that echoed through the chamber. Shards of ice and debris scattered as the force of the collision sent shockwaves through the air. As I fell down on my knees due to pain, Gökbörü, ever vigilant, conjured ice spears that impaled the creature while it struggled to rise.
A sense of panic rose from inside me as I saw both its caved-in chest and the stab wounds close rapidly. Gökbörü got uncomfortably close to the creature. It pulled the ice spears from its body with its scaled, overgrown right hand.
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“Fuck it.”
(You longer share the skill “Abnormal Status Resistance” with your partner.)
(Currently shared skills: Regeneration, Combat Instinct, Enhanced Senses.)
I could use three of Gökbörü’s skills. If this poison, toxin, or venom ignored all the resistances, Abnormal Status Resistance was just not useful. I had to hope that Regeneration and Rapid Healing were enough to keep me alive until it was out of my system. Now I had to focus on killing this thing.
I sank into the shadows just to appear in front of Gökbörü. I blocked incoming slash as Gökbörü climbed my back. I blocked several more slashes as Gökbörü jumped from my head to the creature’s tentacles, ripping them apart before landing behind it. My theory of it using tentacles must been correct as it was stunned for a tenth of a second. And that tenth of a second was all we needed. Gökbörü’s ice spear tore its wings as I caved its carapace in with my hammer.
Its durability and regeneration were impressive. It could have killed every being on this floor by itself if I let it to its devices. Hell, maybe it could have cleared the dungeon. But it met me. Despite the excruciating pain clawing deep into my insides, I focused on slamming my hammer into the creature’s body.
Even though we managed to open countless wounds on its body that healed, one place was still not injured. Its head. I wasn’t sure if it was instinctual or its intelligence, it protected its head fiercely even giving up its chest and abdomen to protect its temple.
“I have to cave its head in.”
As I launched a series of rapid strikes, not putting all my power into them in an attempt to keep the creature off balance, I noticed a pattern in its movements. The protective stance it adopted for its head left an opening—albeit a brief one—when it initiated certain attacks. It was a risky gamble, but when was not dangerous?
(Monstrous Strength is activated. Strength is increased by 30 for 150 seconds.)
(Ferocity of Wolf King is activated. Your speed and reflexes increase by 20 percent for 3 minutes.)
(Ferocity of Wolf King is activated. Your speed and reflexes increase by 20 percent for 3 minutes.)
(Ferocity of Wolf King is activated. Your speed and reflexes increase by 20 percent for 3 minutes.)
The creature let out a surprised gurgle as it felt my strength increase. It was pushed back and the block of ice under its feet caused it to lose its balance and created an opening. The hammer connected with its armored head, creating a resounding impact. Its fangs flew everywhere as my hammer tore and split its head into two.
While I felt the rush of victory but it was cut off by a stinging pain in my stomach. I looked down and saw the creature’s blade embedded in my stomach. I jumped back and froze the wound using Ice Wolf’s Breath. I could feel the cold numbing the pain and slowing down the bleeding. Gökbörü, who had leaped away to avoid the creature's final strike, barked anxiously, his concern evident.
(You cleared the first floor of Chimera Garden.)
(You collected Soul of Dragonic Mutated Bug Knight.)
The poison still coursed through my veins, but the combined efforts of Regeneration and Rapid Healing gave me a fighting chance. I felt feverish.
“This was way too close.”
The first wound I received and the bruises caused by me hitting the cavern wall were mostly healed. The new wound I received wasn’t that deep and I was sure I could heal completely of it. The problem was the amount of toxin that entered my body. Thanks to freezing the wound I was able to somewhat slow it down but my head spun. For a second I thought of calling help by using the equipment Morrigan gave to me but my pride stopped me.
I sat down, taking slow and controlled breaths. My body burned from the inside, probably trying to kill whatever foreign thing causing my body harm. Using Ice Wolf’s Breath, I created blocks of ice to cool my body down. Sweat dripped down to the ground as the ice’s cold touch made me shiver. Gökbörü nuzzled closer.
“It is fine.”
I lied as if he wouldn’t notice through our bond. He nuzzled closer and a single snowflake fell onto my nose. More and more fell. Each was unique and beautiful in its own right.
“Is this your doing?”
He headbutted my thigh as the answer.
“Pretty.”
I took a deep breath. Cold felt nice.
“I always preferred rain.”
I patted his head.
“Though mostly because if it rained, we wouldn’t go out and work on the fields. We wouldn’t have to wake up before crows ate their shit.”
I pulled a water bottle from my bag of holding and drank it. I was thirsty because of how much water my body lost due to sweating.
“But I must admit, snow is prettier. It is more romantic. It makes me want to go back to high school. Find a girl and walk under the snow while holding hands. Oddly specific, huh?"
Was it the fever talking or just my inner desires surfacing? I couldn't be certain, but in that precarious moment, as the poison ran its course and the snowflakes continued to fall, I found a strange comfort in sharing such thoughts with Gökbörü.
“I always laughed when people told me that I was missing my teenage years by being serious and stuff. Guess they were right.”
I played with Gökbörü’s ears. The fact that they were oversized was never not funny to me. I played with his fur.
“It is not the moment itself. I can still find a girl. I can still hold hands with her as we walk through snowfall. I can still make immature, unfunny jokes and she would laugh. I can even hear the crunching snow makes…”
I lay down. The ground was hard and uncomfortable but I didn’t mind.
“It is me. Even if I lived that moment, I wouldn’t feel that warm, stupid feeling. Do you understand how unbearable that is, my friend?”
I lifted him to my face, sharing the unspoken ache that lingered within.
“The ingredients are the same, the instructions are the same yet I will never get the taste like when my mother cooked it.”
He tilted his head and let out a whimper.
“I don’t want you to understand it. To understand is to live through it. I don’t want you to feel what I feel.”
I lowered him into my chest. My arms felt heavy.
“I think I am going to sleep now.”