…Only fifty nine experience? I mean I guess that’s more like almost two hundred if you think about it, which is a lot for a single kill, but for me that’s really just kinda, eh. Er, whatever! Seems like a fair trade for almost getting my face murderized, now… What’s this other notification that I have?
+1 Stalker Essence!
…Alright that’s lovely and all, but the other “essence” I have insofar hasn’t actually been that useful. If anything, it’s kind of been a detriment now that I think about it? I’m pretty sure I only got the option for [Nature’s Boon] on my skill selection because I had that in my inventory? If having an essence lets you get a unique skill related to it, then if I have this… well, hold on, let me look at what it is first at least.
Stalker Essence X1 (Uncommon)
Grants a skill to applicable classes.
…Pardon? It just gives a skill, for free? How is that uncommon, while buffing a piece of equipment is rare? Well, bottoms up I suppose. Shhhhhwwwwwoin-
Incompatible!
…Nevermind, guess I’m not using this. Can I use this on any of my summons, then? Jasper seems like she’d be fairly in line with it, no?
The aforementioned Lynx was still winding down from the fight, her chest rising and falling far faster than it should be for a creature befitting her size. After she landed the killing blow, she stumbled back bit by bit, casting the occasional glance my way, before finally crashing down at the side of one of the many boulders littering the vicinity.
…She’s not all that wounded, is she? I could’ve sworn she didn’t even take a hundred damage!
205/298
Yeah, not even down a third-or maybe she’s down exactly a third, I dunno. Well, either way, it’s probably not pleasant to be sitting there with a gash through her muzzle.
Right, I can actually… see that now. Now that I’ve turned on gore, I guess I can see what the world actually looks like?
“Jasper?”
“M-... mm?”
Now that’s barely repressed nervous energy right there if I’ve ever seen it.
“I’m going to [Recall] you now. I’m letting you know because I get the feeling you’d freak out a little if something unexpected happened right now.”
“M… Mhm.”
With one use of the titular skill, I myself collapse a moment later, taking care to not bash myself into one of the many aforementioned rocks. And then a moment afterwards, I bash into the dirt instead, lying flat on the ground.
“...Ow.”
I dunno if you’d call it adrenaline pumping, given this is literally a game, but good LORD my nerves were on fire right then and there. I don’t think I’d so readily make a call to just die in any other time, place, or game, so if that doesn’t make it evident then I don’t know what does!
I guess that extra added pressure of permanently losing your summons is doing a bit more on me than I thought it would…? Haaaaah…
…Okay.
After a little bit more lying around, I push myself up with a start and hop to my feet, reorienting myself in the process. I am here in this canyon-esque locale. I have just been attacked by a super juiced monster with zero holds barred, where is that super juiced monster with zero holds barred?
Jasper hit it hard, with another of those open paw strikes. Sent it flying real good… Actually, side tangent, is that the method? If she’s just slashing things, then there’s going to be a limit to the actual amount of damage that she can deal based on the logic of physics alone. It’s not like her claws are actual swords with length that can carve somebody in two. They’re sharp, yes, but unless placed at the right locale, they’re not going to deal any semblance of insane damage.
But a blunt force strike? You can slice somebody with a dagger with all the force you want and it might break skin and make them bleed, but it won’t kill them without hitting the throat or a similarly important artery. But if you bash somebody's chest cavity in with a mace with the force of a truck? Well, good game right there! She’s… definitely not going in the wrong direction, I guess. Her combat sense is good at the very least. There’s probably no hard limit to the amount of damage a slash can deal, you know, game logic, but location and force also matters.
Anyways… as I was saying! Where did that thing’s body go…?
Looks like a fairly fresh pile of rocks over there, dust still settling… ah, it hit the wall with enough force to send a few tons down on top of it. Those open paw strikes really are the method I suppose.
Traversing the rocky road, I eventually come to a stop in front of the dead body of the Stalker.
It’s buried, crushed under tons and tons of rubble. Which… simply won’t do at all. Can I manage to push this all out of the way?
“Whatcha doin?” Screech chimed in a moment later. Clearly the time passing in silence was much too quiet for her taste.
“I’ll figure that out in a moment.”
“Are we gonna eat that? We did go hunting FOR something to eat didn’t we?”
Straining with enough force to pull a tractor out of the mud, I begin to push the massive rocks surrounding the body bit by bit, not deigning to respond to Screech quite yet given the physical task at hand.
“Hello? Hello? Uhm the thought actually occurs. What should I even call you?”
“...What?”
I’d tilt my head at Screech, but she’s not exactly corporeal right now. Oh well, more rock pushing!
“I don’t know your name that’s funny! I know Jasper I know Jerry but I don’t know you!”
…Oh, that’s true actually, isn’t it? Does Jasper even know my name…? Uh, maybe? She might’ve picked it up in passing at some point. Well, either way, pretty sure Screech doesn’t so…
“It’s Ethan.”
“Okay! Hello? Hello? Ethan do you hear me?”
“...I clearly hear you!”
“Then why aren’t you answering me? Didn’t we agree to not ignore each other? I even promised I’d be quieter than I was before!”
“I’m just-in the middle-of DOING something-”
I punctuate that with a THUMP as the boulder rolls off the body.
“And will respond accurately in, A MOMENT!”
THUMP.
They’re still covered in dust and debris, but with the two main culprits obscuring the Stalker from sight removed, it’s not hard to get the full picture.
Broken and battered, er, you know, dead, to put it lightly. I’m not actually going to describe the scene before me. The one saving grace is that the dirt isn’t dyed red, only the Stalker itself is. The two places where Jasper had struck it evident now that it was freshly unmoving. They stuck out like sore thumbs against its black fur.
“You asked if we’d be eating them?”
It’s ancient tradition to respect what you kill, right? Use the bodies properly or whatever?
“Mhm!!!”
“Yup, that we are.”
…I’d have named them Blitz.
—
This game’s “inventory” never fails to amuse me. I’ve got a pocket knife ready for on demand butchering, I’ve got a somehow foldable grill-esque surface that I can just yoink out from my pocket, what’s next, I’ll have a whole fishing rod to just pull out of my pocket as I please?
Speaking of that “grill-esque surface”, did you know this game provides you with every necessary tool to be able to do surface level work with cooking apparently? Pulled a spatula out of thin air, tongs, whole buncha stuff! Where did this all come from? Out of my ass maybe? Couldn’t possibly know, but will I question convenience? NO SIR! Thank you for not making me go into a town to get stuff, in which I am very illegal, developers! Very very cool of you.
Now… I just need a fire!
“Hey Screech… quick question about your [Elemental Magic]?”
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“Yeeeeeeeeeeeeees?”
“How exactly does it work?”
“I use MP and turn it into magic!”
“Uh huh. I meant like, the more intricate workings?”
“Oh I see! I thought you wouldn’t want to hear about that because you don’t like when I talk really fast for a long time.”
Off reflex, I almost give her a quip, a “no shit Sherlock” if you will, but you know now that I think about it… I’m not sure if she’s just naive, trying too hard or, whatever… but Screech takes everything VERY literally. If I told her “yeah you don’t say” then she’d clearly fail to recognize the actual issue, so against my initial judgment, I’m going to try my very best to NOT get her lost in the sauce here.
“I don’t like it when you do something like that without any warning before you do it. I appreciate you being conscientious about when and where you decide to go into a spiel, but if I specifically ask you about something that would go into a ‘spiel’... feel free to do that. Just don’t talk too fast.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Well okay then! So right now I’m going to break into a ‘spiel’ and that’s fine?”
“Yes.”
She pauses for a moment longer, and if she were currently summoned, I have no doubt she’d have proceeded to rapidly blink in my direction. For a monster with such a high intelligence stat, you really think she wouldn’t get as bewildered by this stuff as she does.
“...Right! My [Elemental Magic] is a skill that allows me to convert my MP into different forms corresponding to elemental affinities that I have control over. This “conversion” that I just mentioned can be used in various different ways, the skill is extremely pliable and can fit a lot of different circumstances, which is to be expected given it’s a skill innate to my species of monster.”
“A what now?”
“Do you want me to talk about that or [Elemental Magic]?”
With how deadpan her tone is at all times, I have to remind myself that she just asked a legitimate question, and that she isn’t sassing me. Or hell maybe she’s just playing 5D chess and she is in fact sassing me right now? Hell if I know.
“It can wait, continue with what you were explaining please.”
“Alrighty! As I was saying there’s a bunch of different ways that the skill can be used. In comparison to the rest of my skills except for [Grasp Of Morrigala] its application range is incredible! The main downside is that barring a few demonstrations of its might, the overall firepower of the skill as a whole is on the very low side. And as for what damage it can deal, the MP to damage ratio is often skewed out of my favour when compared to other classes and creatures. That’s also not even counting the stamina deficit I run into when casting but I guess that’s also not too much of an issue if I’m with you since you can heal my stamina right? Right? Right R-”
“Yes.”
Am I talking to an NPC or a metamancer right now?
“Right! Admittedly I’m not that old so I haven’t really thought of too many ways to use it outside of what I just mentioned but I know it has a lot of different ways to use it! For example instead of just shooting more fireballs I could split that boulder in half!”
“...Which one?”
There’s like, at least a dozen of them in the vicinity.
“All of them! Well not all of them at once. That wouldn’t be possible I wouldn’t have enough MP for that BUT I could definitely do at least four of them at once!”
“...And what purpose would that serve?”
“A demonstration!”
“...That won’t be necessary.”
“Oh. Okay. Well anyways like I said! [Elemental Magic] has a lot of uses. It conjures and manipulates various different magics based on what I can understand and the strength of that magic is determined by how much MP I use in the creation of the spell. That’s about the short of it!”
“The short of it?”
“Yeah the short of it! Would you like to hear the long of it??? Oh I’d so love to talk about the long of it! Please say that’s a yes please say that’s a yes please say that’s a yes please say that’s a yes please say that’s a yes please say that’s a yes please say that’s a yes-”
“MAYBE! It’s a mmmmmaybe. But before that, you are still hungry, yes?”
“Oh. Yeah I definitely am! What about it?”
“Theoretically, you could use your [Elemental Magic] to just create a single flame, right?”
“Well obviously.”
“...And then maintain that flame, without turning it into a massive explosion?”
“...I haven’t tried that before! That’s a great idea!”
“Well then!”
[Summon].
“Give it a go.”
“Alrigh-”
24!
—
“Plfeh.”
Screech makes a noise adjacent to a wretch, one I can’t quite put to letters… but I’m sure just the description deposits a noise in your mind you’d rather not imagine.
Though, she’s not deterred for a moment either way.
5!
“Bleh.”
That’s… what, the fourteenth ball of flame to have gone kaboom now? Bright side, they’re lasting longer and exploding less spectacularly, so we’ve got a good thing going here, but they’re ashy when they go boom now. Not just hot and fiery, which is, less pleasant.
Screech is coated in a fine layer of the stuff, and I’m not faring much better. And if not for [Fable Bearer] allowing the constant reorientation of health and stamina from Jasper and Jerry to me and Screech, I’d either be dead or down a few potions, and Screech would be having nap time. But fortunately, this is not the reality we live in, and I am merely low on MP!
But before that can become a proper issue, Screech finally… sort of… semi succeeds?
“That was a lot of fun! But I think I got it this time? Instead of trying to cast one spell I’m chain casting multiple different spells consecutively! Instead of channeling a bunch of MP into one spell I’m splitting one MP into at least ten different spells each, which results in the flame having almost no heat, but it’s not blowing up! Anyways why did you ask me to do this?”
Waving a hand over the now floating flame, I nod my head approvingly. Not quite hot enough to cook something, but I’m sure she’ll get it in a moment.
“Well, you need something to cook meat with right? Unless you were just looking to eat it raw?”
“Yeah but what about it?”
“...I’m going to use your skill, to cook the Stalker.”
“Ohhhhhhhhhhhh that makes total sense! So it needs to be a little hotter then right?”
“Just a little, yeah-”
1!
1!
1!
1!
1!
1!
1!
1!
This might take a moment.