Finlay was fascinated by the magical nature of the new world even through his existential dread upon his arrival on the Alien world. No longer are Laws of Physics absolute. Like a great man once said, “The Laws of physics are our understanding of the world, not the actual limits by which it operates.” That statement has never been more true than in this world of Magic with endless possibilities.
But exploding bloody Mosquitoes that are magically corrosive would be where Finlay draws the line. Previously, he had only been considering the good or advantageous side of the “endless possibilities”, Now he truly started to open his eyes to those Endless possibilities of Magic. Not only are there going to be unexpected consequences of nature like the infamous Qi storm he had heard about from Lu Bao, but also the horrors of the mundane world would be amplified magically. If Mosquitoes were this bad, what about Cockroaches? Are there Magically enhanced Bacteria, Virus, Fungi, etc? He would have dreaded the spiders if he were another with the common Arachnophobia. Thankfully, he had been spared in that regard. He would still fear magically enhanced spiders that are potentially gigantic though. Such a sight would wet the pants of any grown man and hopefully he would never have the honour.
Even still, Mother nature took mosquitoes, her retaliation against human greed, a step too far in this world of magic. Mosquitoes that explode in blood weren’t new. He had trouble with the greedy suckers that drank so much, they had trouble flying and got crushed on the bed sheets inadvertently.Though the annoyance of having to clean tiny bloodstains paled in comparison to having your skin and flesh melt in them. As he was staring at the partially melted corpse of the Deer being swarmed by the remaining mosquitoes that consumed the flesh and blood of their recent victim, he had to repeat himself.
“Fu*k this sh*t!”
Before that line turned into a “Oh shit!”, he decided he would run away from the flying blood bombs. He immediately turned and did just that before the deer’s corpse vanished completely, leaving behind nothing but bones and scraps of dried skin and tissue scattered around the area. Finlay didn’t hesitate to run in the opposite direction to try and get away from this new, deeper region, but unfortunately, he spotted more of them in that path. He wasn’t sure if they were always present and he had missed them earlier or if he’d just been lucky to not encounter any this far in.
He would have to find another way back. The original path he took into this region was an area between a chain of mountains and a large lake. After deliberating for a moment, he decided to look in the direction of the mountains, away from the large body of water that is potentially a breeding ground for the deadly mosquitoes.
----------------------------------------
It has already been a day and a half since Finlay encountered the insect suicide bombers. He had to use a generous amount of the bug repellant he purchased whenever he had to rest. Even though he followed the advice of the old blacksmith and bought a decent amount of the substance, he couldn’t afford the most expensive product. It should be good enough in theory as long as he kept his distance, but after witnessing the horrifying death that awaits him in case it didn’t, he didn’t want to rely on it too much. He always kept his distance from them. Any fights with the other creatures that took too long to conclude also attracted the homing balls of death. In those cases, he immediately abandoned the fight. His peak stage body combined with the threat of the mosquitoes meant that most of the creatures also wisely chose to flee.
The strongest of the creatures apart from the mosquitoes were the deer type magical beasts. They were typically Earth attributes and had great physical strength, but occasionally, there were those who were dual attributed with wind. Those had both speed and strength and were the hardest enemies to deal with. He wasn’t too bothered by them though since they also had a chance to hold a wind attribute core, something he had been looking for for a long time. He obtained only 2 so far since most of these creatures got away in the end.
He was taking a small break in the shelter of a small cave in the mountain chain. He spotted a large group of mosquitoes heading towards a ridge when suddenly, fast moving projectiles that looked like long needles flew over in a blur towards them. In an instant, more than half of them exploded in balls of corrosive red.
‘No, not needles. Those were….arrows?’
He soon spotted those responsible. A small team of 4 with 2 archers moved over the ridge and towards the mosquitoes, a few more arrows and the remaining insects were soon wiped out. Finlay kept looking towards where they came from, expecting more to show up but nobody did.
‘That doesn’t seem right. There were clearly a lot of arrows earlier.’
He put aside his doubts for now and slowly approached the distant group who were now scouring over the dead remains of the insects. To his pleasant surprise, the group of 4 were wary of him but not hostile. Apparently, they are a group who always hunted together and are hanging around in the area to practice archery. Another surprising fact he discovered was that all the arrows were shot by the two archers.
“Haha! Judging by your surprise, it seems you haven’t met any competent archers before. Also, there is a stone plaque nearby that teaches about archery. There is sort of an unofficial safe zone there due to the concentration of all the people who are studying the stone plaque. Do you want to come with us there?”
Finlay was disappointed that it was not the Alchemy one he had been looking for but being as lost as he was at the moment, finding anything was great news and a safe zone was exactly what he needed right now. So, he didn’t hesitate in agreeing. The group collected some materials from the mangled bodies of the mosquitoes before moving.
“Brother Ming, it’s lucky that you bought some bug repellant with you. Otherwise, coming here for the first time alone could have been very dangerous. Good thing you found us quickly. If it had been longer than half a day, the bug repellant would have lost its power and you would truly be in danger from those pesky insects.”
Stolen novel; please report.
Finlay didn’t correct their misunderstanding. Lest, he might implicate the old blacksmith for leaking illegal information. He would be sure to thank him once he gets back. After being lost and in such a state of extreme nerves, on a constant look out for the balls of death and the other enemies, Finlay was really reaching his limits mentally. He was very happy to meet some friendly people and have a safe spot to calm his nerves. Even though archery wasn’t his preferred weapon, seeing the effectiveness of the weapon against Mosquitoes was enough incentive for him to study Archery.
Although Finlay wasn’t familiar with the usage of the bow, he still had the relevant knowledge imparted by Ronn, the God of war and one of the Nine. Using said knowledge and the resourcefulness of his Engineering background, he made a crude bow which might be on par with a regular mortal’s in terms of power. The mosquitoes were thankfully low in their physical stats. The crude bow should have just enough power to take them down. With the weapon ready in hand, Finlay began studying the stone plaque and his knowledge on archery over the next few days. He used the small creatures in the surroundings and the occasional lone mosquito or 2 for physical practice.
The combat art on the stone plaque was a pretty straightforward deal. It uses the idea of shooting at different speeds and angles to surprise attack the enemy with multiple projectiles. It was a pretty common concept that was used even in his previous world for warface. The combat art improves this by using Qi to further influence the projectiles and increase the number of projectiles from 2 to 5 or even 10 once one reaches the Qi condensation realm. It requires the crafting of special arrows to be influenced by the energy of those under the Qi condensation realm. Some basic Qi circuit practice is also a requirement to use said arrows.
The crafting doesn’t require any particularly difficult to obtain materials but it does require some basic understanding of etching magical restrictions. The materials gathered by the group he encountered earlier were the very ones one would need to make these special arrows. Finlay didn’t bother with using the special arrows for now since he would need some time to practice the Qi circuits and find some way to craft said arrows or learn to do it himself. For now, he stuck to improving his bow making and archery skills. Like that, he spent the next week in the safe zone, learning bow making and archery, perfecting the techniques on the stone plaque. He also found out that there was a local guy who made the special arrows, but he does so at a heavy price of a late stage beast core for a dozen arrows. Finlay only got 2 dozen arrows. One for practising and another for emergency use.
“Brother Ming, our group of 4 will leave the hunting zone in the morning. We could certainly use someone reliable like you on our way back. Do you mind joining us?”
The leader of the 4 he encountered back then, Brother Bolin was the one to talk. Finlay had gotten a bit more familiar with the 4 but not to the point of being friends. While he trusted them enough to join their group temporarily, he had other plans. Now that he is no longer so defenceless against the flying horrors and is not hopelessly lost anymore, he can set out to find the Alchemy stone plaque that he obtained the location for.
“Thank you for the offer Bother Bolin, but I have other plans and will be going into the deeper regions soon. I hope your journey back goes well.”
“*sigh* I was hoping you’d tag along. Well, we can always meet outside later on. Here is the location of my residence. Don’t be shy and come say hi when you get a chance.”
“That I will definitely do, Brother. Let’s eat for now. The food is getting cold.”
“Yes big brother Bolin, you’re letting the food I prepared with so much effort go cold.”
“Haha! Sister Mei, don’t worry your food always tastes great no matter how cold it gets. Brother Ming, eat some of this soup, Little sister Mei is really good at cooking rabbit.”
Finlay had a relatively normal dinner that night after so long spent grinding and surviving in the hunting zone. He would definitely return the favour when he gets back outside.
The next morning, the group of 4 left and Finlay, having improved as much as he could of his Archery in a short time, he decided to leave that afternoon towards his destination. On his way there, he no longer relied on his limited supply of bug repellant but used a local herb that has a milder effect and kept his distance from them through constant vigilance. If he accidentally has an encounter, he would be able to defend himself using his newly acquired rudimentary archery skills. While his archery may not be able to compete with his normal spear skills, it has improved tremendously over the past week. Not only that, but also the current bow sling over his shoulder is much better than the crude mess he created on the first day. It may not be much stronger in terms of power but it’s a lot more flexible to use, more durable, lighter and easier to carry around.
The safe zone also meant that he had the opportunity to trade pointers with a lot of like minded people who in turn helped him improve his bow making and Archery. For the first time, Finlay saw the people in the Hunting zone having the right mindset of improvement and learning. He could see what the person who came up with the stone plaques had in mind. Putting it in the middle of dangerous locations was supposed to be an incentive for the people to develop a learning mindset and struggling and collaborating together to maintain such a resource. This would also serve to emphasise the fact that only those who take risks and fight for deserve this exclusive knowledge.
Armed with the right weapon and skills, he didn’t shrink back from the fight anymore. Anytime he encountered mosquitoes in a small enough group, he would make sure to wipe them out. The creepy buggers did drop some resources that are useful but he wasn’t exactly prepared with the right tools for the job, considering their bodily fluids are extremely corrosive. Moreover, there is only so much he could carry at a time and he currently had too many other resources, equipment and food that he prepared for a prolonged search. To add insult to injury, all the arrows he had were made completely from wood and materials he could source in the nearby places which are very susceptible to corrosion. The insects also didn’t drop elemental cores that are directly useful to him. Instead, they would occasionally drop what people referred to as false cores or half cores called poison cores.
Poison cores have better value at an equivalent tier but are much harder to find. The Mosquitoes, despite being deadly to late stage practitioners, don’t drop a proper tier 1 core. That is not to say that none of the mosquitoes do. There are those called Generals amongst the Mosquitoes. These are stronger creatures that have an elemental affinity and higher intelligence than the drone type behaviour observed in the typical exploding ones. They are said to be able to control upto 10 of the normal ones. Yes Humanity's worst enemy just got deadlier. They’ve elevated from being solitary creatures and learned to be social from the diligent ants. Finlay could only imagine how horrifying it would be to deal with such an enemy. Luckily, he had been able to avoid meeting such a horror so far, but he knew his luck wouldn’t run forever.
To be continued