Devon took several minutes to take in the sight and engrain it into his brain. When he finally felt ready, he opened up the messaging function.
Message known user Eve.
Waiting… Connection established.
[Devon]
I see now what you meant. Is there no way off the mass of land we're on?
[Eve]
None that I saw. The closest one that I could see looked about a mile or two away.
[Devon]
What's beneath us? I can't see what's below from up here.
[Eve]
Directly beneath us is a stretch of ocean, but there seem to be continents in the distance. I'd wager we're about three miles up in the air.
[Devon]
Shit.
[Eve]
Yep. Like it or not, we're stuck up here, unless there's an island closer on the other side of that mountain.
Devon turned around, surveying the land beyond the mountain for the first time. The sight of the rear of the mountain was extraordinary. Devon guessed that when the planet destroying wave of destruction had hit the city most of the tidal wave of rubble had been consumed by the half of the city facing the desolation, because the other side of the city lay exposed to the world. It was incredible to look one direction and see a mountain, only to look the other way and see an ancient city.
Devon refocused himself and looked out beyond the landmass they stood upon.
[Devon]
Doesn't seem like it. The islands over here are closer, I think, but not close enough that we could make it across. Not in the time we've got, anyway.
[Eve]
Figured as much.
[Devon]
Any progress on finding old man Phil?
[Eve]
Didn't think you cared.
[Devon]
Just because I'm looking at the big picture doesn't mean I don't care.
[Eve]
You're really good at pissing me off, you know that? Anyway, I haven't found any good leads yet. I checked around the camp Trey's got set up and nobody has seen him. I'm heading into the forest next.
[Devon]
All right. I gotta go, getting attacked by a giant bird.
[Eve]
Lol. Good luck.
Connection closed.
Even in this new world it seems earth lingo will survive. I can't tell if I approve.
Devon shoved such idle thoughts from his mind as he stepped to the side to avoid the talons of the tower bird assaulting him. The bird left a powerful gust of wind in its wake from the flyby attack, almost powerful enough to knock Devon off his feet.
[Tower Bird - Level 31]
You seem like a good target to experiment on.
Devon checked the amplification gem to make sure it was ready and smiled when he saw it had a full charge.
The tower bird screeched at him, causing the wind to distort as a gale of blades smacked into Devon, sending thin cuts all across his body. Devon scowled in annoyance. The cuts didn't feel like anything too bad, but the fact that he'd run into a monster that could use magic set a bad precedent.
It was also troublesome how one of the myriad slices that now littered his body was above one of his eyes, causing half of Devon's vision to run red.
Thankfully, the bird didn't attack him repeatedly from a distance. It seemed to think that its magic attack had weakened him enough, and it swooped in to try to eviscerate him with its wicked talons.
Activate Amplification Gem. Activate skill; Bone Breaker.
He leaped toward the bird of prey, aiming to meet it in midair. The bird raised its claws in response, aiming to catch Devon out of the air like some sort of fish.
Range was ultimately what decided the outcome of the midair clash. Devon's weapon was longer, and he brought it down upon the wing of the massive bird before the claws could rip him to shreds.
Devon hadn't wanted to use Bone Breaker against the raptors because of how massive they had been. If he had used the spear against their meaty bodies he might as well have been bashing it against a wall, and he wasn't willing to destroy his spear so readily.
But against the wing of a bird? The story was entirely different.
The light avian bones within the wing instantly broke apart under the force of the amplified Bone Breaker, but the carnage didn't stop at simply breaking the bones. The sheer force of Devon's attack bent the wing at a horrific angle and continued pushing against it until the flesh simply couldn't withstand the abuse.
With a sickening tear the tower bird's mutilated wing was completely ripped off its body, causing it to drop to the roof like a stone. Devon barely managed to avoid the flailing claws as he too fell back down onto the roof.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
He finished the bird off with a quick stab through the torso, as he felt it would be cruel to watch the poor thing flap helplessly about.
Kill - [Tower Bird - Level 31] - 285 Talons
Devon looked over his body, annoyed at what he saw. The bird's wind slicer, while not a real threat to his life, had left him with bleeding cuts all over his body. Now that the adrenaline of combat was wearing off it became annoying even to walk back to the stairwell to begin his descent.
He was reluctant to do it, but he eventually popped a healing pill into his mouth so the wounds wouldn't be a problem anymore. While the cuts themselves were more of an annoyance than anything, he doubted his enhanced vitality actually put more blood into his body, which meant that bleeding out was probably still a very real threat. But if he was honest with himself, even that rationale was something of an excuse to rid himself of the annoying cuts.
He was tempted to stay and maybe lure another one of the birds up to the roof to try and eke out a level from it, but he decided against it. Their wind magic was a serious annoyance and Devon was afraid if one of their bodies fell off the roof they might land in the lord's area, alerting it to Devon's presence.
And if there was one thing Devon absolutely did not want to do, it was be sighted by that thing.
He opened his map as he descended the ruin, looking at the 3D model the system rendered for him. He shifted it to look at how the tunnels that composed the mountain den ran through the mountain itself and was surprised to find that the giant cavity that seemed to form the core of the nest was rather close to the forested plateau of the summit.
This gave him an idea. He definitely didn't want to fully engage the apes within their lair again. He got a flashback to the massive horde that had converged on him before he entered the memory dungeon and shuddered.
No, he needed a way to either draw the monkeys out of their den or he needed to find a better way to deal with them quietly. Unfortunately, he didn't have much faith in the latter option. The dense population of the apes made repeatedly encountering them alone unlikely. One, he could take by surprise. He likely couldn't take out a second or third before it raised the alarm.
He put the map away as he reached the bottom. A plan was coming together in his mind, but he didn't want to get distracted as he snuck away from the lord's sanctum.
He spent the next several hours going from ruin to ruin, scouring them for any sign of… something. He was looking for the resting place of the cursed king, but he had no idea what he was really looking for.
He was operating under the assumption that the king had still been alive when the calamity struck, so it wasn't like he was searching for a tomb or sarcophagus. But none of the ruins looked particularly special either. Some were bigger or smaller, some had domed ceilings or spaces that would once have been interior gardens, but none of them carried the air of majesty he expected from a palace. At most, the fancier places looked like small estates.
As he searched he hunted the various beasts he came across, but he didn't have as much zeal as before. He couldn't help but feel mentally drained after the single encounter he'd had with the lord of the mountain. Who knew if there were other creatures like that scattered around, simply sitting around waiting for some fool explorer to stumble upon them.
When he finally left the forested plateau the suns were going down below the far horizon and he'd gained another level. He'd also raised his spear proficiency, which he felt very happy about.
It was almost unbelievable how much it took to level up now. He was hunting creatures a few levels above his own and yet still he'd only gained 2 levels over the course of the day.
Almost all the creatures at the summit either fought opponents straight out or were like the birds where they engaged in a sort of guerilla warfare. But there were no more creatures that had the advantage of traps or ambushes.
And yet even in the more brash confrontational battles Devon found he wasn't having too much trouble. He occasionally had to use a skill here and there, but even that felt more like a convenience rather than something he needed.
Either I was wrong about the premise of a monster's level being a representation of their total fighting power… or I've become stronger than my level should indicate.
The cause was clear. By simple attribute gain Devon was outpacing Eve and Trey both. Even though Devon had a class that seemed definitively worse than either of theirs by point gain per level he had actually been keeping up with Eve's class after level 21 because of the mysterious points. That plus the extra gains from his various titles put him ahead of the competition.
But even with that advantage it felt like he really couldn't best natural talent. Eve's lead was proof of that. He also couldn't distribute his free points, which still aggravated him. He cursed the system as he once again started running over the myriad possible commands he'd thought of over the course of several days. None of them worked. He supposed it wasn't as bad now as it had been in the beginning before he'd gotten his class and the mysterious gains.
He put those thoughts out of his mind as he returned to his cave and cooked up some raptor meat for dinner. The night passed by uneventfully before he retired.
When dawn broke he was ready to head out. He'd bought another intermediate spear as an extra and refilled his healing supply.
It was taking him less and less time to traverse the mountain, and in what felt like no time at all he was back at the entrance to the mountain den. The apes had a new guard posted, but Devon dispatched it swiftly.
He looked at the dialog the system was showing him.
Plot: [Monkey Business]
Tasks: [Gather Intelligence]
He'd been extremely happy when the system had allowed the plot to go through. The main objective was simply to eradicate the ape leader, as Devon felt somewhat confident he could slowly and methodically deal with the remainder of the nest over the next few days once the leader was dead.
In some ways the leader was similar to the mountain lord, only to a lesser extent. Devon didn't feel confident in clearing out the nest while an existence that could easily smash him existed inside, so he wanted to nip that threat right in the bud. He had ideas of potential tasks to implement, but for now he simply needed information.
He crept through the ruins, keeping his map open at all times. He wasn't going to make the same mistake as last time.
Devon crawled through the dungeon for what felt like hours, carefully taking down any wandering ape that crossed his path. Any time he ran into any more than a single ape he would carefully back away, taking full advantage of Small Presence to remain undetected.
He made his way into the mountain, continually ascending any staircase he could find as he mapped out a path outside the outer perimeter of the den's central cavity. The further in he went the more he noticed that many of the tunnels were a result of the ape's digging. The intelligence of the primates was a little surprising, that they could figure out where to dig through to connect two adjacent ruins via tunnel.
Eventually he managed to fully plot out a route along the outer perimeter of the central den and wound up at a point on the opposite side of it.
He frowned as he ascended a staircase and found his path blocked by a dead end above him. He double checked his map to confirm his deduction before rolling up his sleeves to get to work. He wedged himself as far up on the stairs as he could and pressed his back up against the dead end, getting all the leverage he could manage.
Activate Amplification Gem. Activate magic; Boost.
He'd honestly found Boost to be a bit of a letdown compared to his other skills and abilities. It boosted his stat points across the board, but only by about 5% normally then 10% while under the effect of the gem. So while he didn't view it as being worth the mana in a fight, it did come in handy in situations like these.
Devon pushed up, throwing all the force he could into the stone ceiling above him. His legs felt like they were going to give out from the exertion, but Devon kept pushing.
Finally, the stone above him cracked, and he was able to push the giant rock that had settled on the exit to the ruins away. The stone was too heavy to throw or try to move any further, so Devon simply angled his back and had it roll to the side so it settled beside the exit.
After several hours of slowly digging through ancient ruins he found himself back in the densely forested plateau at the mountain's summit. The exact location was a small canyon he'd discovered with a small stream flowing through it. He didn't know where the water came from, but it added a tranquility to the area that almost rivaled the lord's grove.
He sat down on the massive stone he had lifted off the entrance to the mountain den. The true Achilles' heel part of the magic Boost was that it left the user feeling extremely fatigued after its effect ended. That effect was only exacerbated by using the amplification gem on it.
He looked up at the sky and smiled when he saw that the suns were still in their midday positions. There was still time left in the day to continue his plot.