A handful of monsters still streamed in and out of the Fort. The sounds of fighting inside still echoed across the side of the mountain and out into the air. The guards to the Fort were patiently ignoring the three monsters who were blocking the path back down.
The widest was a strange monster that appeared to be made entirely from leaves. If it wasn’t for the yellow catlike eyes staring out of the darkened leaves, he’d have thought it was just a very wide bush. At its side was what looked ostensibly like a hound dog. However, it had glowing red eyes that matched its spots which appeared to be scales instead of dark fur like the rest of it. The last was simple light green goblin like most of those he saw barring its right arm. It had a right arm that wouldn’t look our of place on an ogre that held a giant bastard sword over twice his size.
Gi took a step to the side, thinking to walk around them, but their eyes followed him, making it clear that they were there for him. One of the guards, another goblin, laughed. “Should have joined up with the Captain.”
In the Playground, Gi would have shot first, punishing these monsters for daring to get in his way, but now? His hands shook with the thought of conflict. A voice dipped into his mind and he could tell it was coming from the Leaf monster.
Come with us and you can live. Force us to chase you and you die.
Gi froze, his heart slamming against his chest. What should he do? His mind swirled trying to consider his options, but the choice was taken from him by another.
“POE FIGHTING!” Poe flew up off his shoulder and shot small webs at each of them. Only one of them hit and when it did, the webs didn’t hinder nearly as well as they had when he was a larger size. It did shake some sense into Gi though. If he didn’t run, he and Poe were going to get killed.
With a growl, the Hound lunged towards him and Gi flexed his mind in a way that he never had before. It wasn’t quite the same as when he’d used his traits. Instead, it felt like he was pulling something from inside him similar to using [Arcane Bolt] before. This wasn’t [Arcane Bolt] though.
A light burst in front of Gi as he used [Bishop] for the first time and an albino Gang Otter who wore robes much the same as his shimmered into existence. The summoned Otter pulled out a rock from his arm pocket and bashed the approaching hound over the head. It whimpered and fell back, but its companions weren’t to be dissuaded. With surprising agility, the leaf monster appeared in front of Gi and a stub of an arm lashed out from within the leaves.
Gi tried to dodge, but it was too fast for him. Leaves cracked against his face and tiny scratches from woody stems spread onto his cheek. He stumbled backwards more from surprise than the strength of the blow. This monster was clearly hard focused on Agility.
“Run, Poe!” Gi yelled. As he did, he fired out a burst of [Divine Bolt]. Where [Arcane Bolt] had large firewood sized attacks, [Divine Bolt] was thinner only about twice as large as a crossbow bolt. What startled Gi though as one of the bolts slammed into the leaf monster, it seared into it and stuck the bolt of light not disappearing immediately. A mental shriek sounded as the leaf monster fell back, swatting at the bolt embedded into its chest.
The goblin had caught up at that point and practically flung its entire body into the air to strike him. The bastard sword fell like an executioner’s axe and Gi attempted to dodge backwards but tripped. The blade crashed into the rocky ground right in front of Gi’s feet, throwing dust up into the air. He could see how they worked together now. The hound and the leaf monster penned someone in and the goblin would take them out. It was a good plan to take down a single monster.
While Gi had been fighting the leaf monster and the goblin, the hound had taken out his Cleric and was currently shredding the albino otter into light. It was definitely time to leave. “Run, run!” Gi shouted again, but Poe had already flown off down the mountain having obeyed him the first time he’d yelled. Gi activated [Celerity].
That internal energy spread out into his limbs and he leapt up to his feet, landing perfectly. The leaf monster came in for another attack, but this time, Gi leaned back and dodged the quick blow. With a hop backward, he got enough distance to turn and run. Monsters cursed either verbally or mentally as he dodged through them. A few even took attacks of their own against him, but he was too fast. However, he wasn’t the only quick monster.
The three attackers were on the chase with the leaf monster just behind. He had to get some distance and then he could [Stealth]. Wait, that trait had been upgraded as well. Wasn’t it basically invisibility? He activated [Concealing Light] and a curtain of light draped across him. From inside, he could just see little shimmers of it especially as he stepped through shadows. Unfortunately, it turned off [Celerity] at the same time.
Glancing behind, the leaf monster stumbled backwards, but it appeared that down among the monsters, there was just enough shadow that his curtain of light could be seen. Well if that’s the issue… Gi leapt up on top of one of the strange round hives that lined the path down which were directly in the sunlight.
The leaf monster slowed down, eyes casting about as it tried to find him. Gi hopped further down the mountain staying on the hives. Once he’d gotten a bit further down, he slowed with a wobble and crouched down to catch his breath. His heart still beat really fast from the unexpected attack, but his body had basically protected him. That finally made him understand what felt off.
His instincts weren’t lacking here. They were completely gone.
Only the memories from his time in the Playground helped him fight now. Why didn’t he have any instincts? As a Gang Otter, they’d never been as strong as when he was a slime, but simply gone? How was a monster supposed to be monstrous without those instincts? His heart continued to beat faster as he suddenly felt more alone than he had since he’d first spawned.
A small pulse of warm light echoed inside him. His breathing immediately calmed and his heart beat slowed down. Confused, he looked inside himself and could tell that warm light had come from the very center of his being - a center where his skill [Danna’s Conduit] dwelled.
That’s right. I’m not alone. I always have Danna with me.
His nerves now steady, he stood up to leave, but his eyes landed on the trio of monsters. The goblin and the leaf monster followed the hound who was walking in front of each of the hives, sniffing upward. Shit. They were tracking him through scent. Clearly, his new skills had some weaknesses as well. Gi was just about to start running when a buzzing sound zipped by his ear, swooped around his head, and landed on his shoulder inside his [Concealing Light].
“Boss! They’re tracking you!,” Poe said, stating the obvious.
“I noticed,” Gi said sarcastically, his heart still calm from Danna’s light. That surreal calmness is probably the only reason that he stayed calm when he started to hear the goblin shout.
“I saw that dragonfly disappear right there!”
That same calmness is probably the only reason he had the courage to do his next plan. “Poe, you still have Strength Boost?”
Poe quirked his head. “I do sorta, but-“
“All right then. No time to waste!” Gi grabbed Poe with one hand, ensuring he didn’t block his wings and then leapt off the side of the hives. Wind whipped past him, almost yanking Poe out of his hand, and the brightly colored tents of the next tier were rushing up at him very closely. Still running [Concealing Light], none of the monsters that roamed about the stalls could see the otter about to crash into their midst. And they weren’t slowing down.
“Lift, Poe! Lift!” Poe’s power must have activated because he could feel the buzzing of his wings as his arm was yanked a little bit, but Poe’s new strength was apparently limited by his size. The ground continued to grow in his vision as his speed kept increasing despite Poe’s attempts. “Lift! Liftlift!” Gi yelled desperately.
Gi’s hand was suddenly wrenched open from Poe and he dropped into a free fall. The next second, Poe’s legs which had turned giant grabbed him by the collar. Giant wings that burst out from his [Concealing Light] thrummed as they gave as much lift as they could. It was just enough to arrest their momentum and turn their fatal crash into a painful one.
Gi and Poe crashed into a goblin that had been crouching between a large stone building and a one of the many colored tents in the area. The goblin immediately started biting and clawing at Gi in confused aggression. The two of them tumbled into a random tent and jerky tumbled off a knocked table and spilled across the ground. Curses rose up into the air, but it was all Gi could do to focus on the monster attacking him.
With only one arm, Gi couldn’t defend himself even against this relatively weak and slow monster. Giving up on beating it with skill, he stabbed his claw into his shoulder and dragged himself up to put his knees on its biceps. Before he managed to pin the goblin down, its claws raked against him, but Gi was able to intuitively lean into the blows and take them on his robe which wouldn’t have been possible without his [Light Armor] skill.
Pulling out his own rock from his pocket, Gi bashed the pinned goblin over the head until it stopped fighting back. Now looking at its caved in head, disgust rose up in him and he dry heaved over towards a pair of approaching Ogres with clubs. They dodged backwards, not wanting to get thrown up on, giving Gi enough space to scramble backwards. His lacking instincts might have saved him as the short fight with the goblin had removed [Concealing Light].
“S-sorry,” Gi muttered towards the Ogres and a strange multi-limbed furred thing who was yelling curses mentally at him. Gi wasn’t going to stick around for the aftermath though. He fought back his nausea and activated [Celerity], sprinting away. There were too many monsters here for him to make his way through unmolested, but Poe followed from above without issue. After only a couple stalls, he darted behind one and switched to [Concealing Light] again, stuffing his rock back in his pocket.
Against his potentially better judgement, he and Poe backtracked to the large building that he’d landed beside. Like the Fort, it seemed to be made of the same stone as the rest of Igna, but this one had also been carved decoratively. Two gryphon statues guarded a short set of stairs that went up to the entrance and an open book was carved above the first true set of doors he’d seen since arriving here.
Maybe it would be a good place to hide? He took a quick glance around, but most of the monsters had gone back to their own business. Clearly, incidents like this were common enough. Hopefully, he’d killed his trail enough to deter the trio of monsters as well. Without any further consideration, he ducked inside.
As the door closed behind him, the sounds of the market outside were muffled in a way that Gi honestly doubted could only be from the thick stone that the building was made of. Light beamed in through a few small windows that lined the ceiling, but mostly this place was lit by small lanterns hung about. Row after row of shelves were stretched out in front of him like a sea of knowledge. His heaving breaths were the only thing that broke the silence of a library until a small hiss whipped his head to the right.
A giant snake was swaying above a counter that he hadn’t seen as he walked in. Its tongue flickered out of its mouth as it stared down at him. Not for the first time that day, Gi flinched backwards out of fear, but the snake didn’t take any action. Instead, it spoke.
“Salutationsssss. Welcome to the Igna Private Library, young one. Are you here to gain knowledge? Or perhapssss some wisdom?”