Novels2Search
Second Horizon
Chapter 8: Habits Can't Be Broken

Chapter 8: Habits Can't Be Broken

Hello everybody, I am putting this chapter up today because I am not sure if I will be able to post one tomorrow. Wednesday's are a tough day because its got most of my college classes. Also I am going to try and help the chapters go along with the poll that I placed, so bear with me. That's all, hope you enjoy! :D

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After finishing the last of bargaining between my new noble yet irritable mount about times and dates for fish feeding-yes I’m sorry Lyra-I began to ask him about the situation surrounding the even that brought us here in the first place. To this he said:

“I inherit the last memories of the host right before he/she dies. Even though I say this, in this instance it is not much help to you. Before my host died, he heard the incoming animal before the old man but couldn’t react. The old wizard didn’t even get the chance to see what happened, instant death for both of them. Only a noise similar to wings soaring through the air and a large shadow in the shape of an avian-type creature. However there aren’t any creatures/monsters here of that size, unless it was a dragon. Although dragons haven’t been even when I roamed the lands. Furthermore a dragon wouldn’t waste their time outside of their lair and even attack a wizard. Still, it begs the question of what it could be if not a dragon.”

A dragon could be a serious problem if I stumbled upon it, even though it probably would ignore me if I didn’t wander into its lair and try to steal its massive fortune that would have so many jewels, weapons, gol-no no no I need to stay away. It would be suicidal and we aren’t a high enough level right now.

“How dangerous is a dragon Mr. Relix?”

“Hmmm, according to legends they can topple mountains and kingdoms alike. You would have to have be as stupid as a rock and ignorant as a fish that lived in an aquarium its whole life to challenge those monsters, ah wait, fish? Oh that sounds really goo-“

“Okay thank you for the information, I think we should hurry up and be on our way. After all, we need to gain enough power to be able to sweep through onyx domain as fast as a house servant working for the Devil on his way back from vacation.”

“Master, last time I saw the Devil all of his servants were dead because they left a speck of dirt on the broom after cleaning up all day…you seem really into it huh?”

“Eh? The broom? Isn’t that what’s supposed collect the dirt? Who would care if there’s a speck of dust on the broom?”

“Apparently he has a habit of giving the people even a minuscule reason to feel despair before he tortures them instead of just getting it over with…definitely a sadist…oh wait, of course he’s a sadist.”

Synth speaks. "Well is isn't it great we didn't mess up the magic circle and accidentally summon him instead. Personally I don't want to be slave to his desires."

Everyone shudders then nods -even Relix- in silent agreement.

Until Lyra speaks up. "Yes that would be unfortunate, however I am fine as long as I am a slave to master's desir-"

"Yes yes, I understand Lyra and we'll talk about that later make sure this is solved, in a civilized fashion." 

"Che, it was worth a try." 

After that with no lead whatsoever on the culprit who gave the 'grandpa' wizard his quick end, we make our way further south.

However it is only until later when I get the answers...

Fighting through the dense forest and jumping, slicing, shredding made Lyra and I are now level 20 and synth is probably around 34 even though she still won’t tell me. Am I that hard to trust? Then again, my disposition is a bit ‘dark.’ I probably wouldn’t trust me either.

During our fights Relix just finds a spot near us where the sun shines through the trees and lays there licking his fur. Truly a cat-like habit. He just ignores me ask whether he wants to help or not. Well so far all of the monster’s we have come across have been pretty normal. With the exception of some PK’ers that think we are easy prey.

We didn’t become the prey, they did. In these skirmishes, or more like massacres, Relix would finally get off his sunbathing spot to play around with them. Think of a cat and mouse. Then imagine that cat is bigger than a horse, and the mouse is players who would wet themselves if the VR would let them.

And remember that cat’s don’t like to instantly kill their prey. Even no matter how much the ‘mouse’ squeals. It seems we have another bloodthirsty fiend in our party. Synth is the only one that is looking at it and not showing any reaction. Normally this wouldn’t faze me as much as it does now. But when the cat can talk and is yelling:

“Ho ho ho you puny youngins are too slow! Show me a good time! A barbarian wench with one leg is faster than you! HEY! You over there, why aren’t you running?! You at least have stubs for legs, so waddle away! It’s no fun if you just sit on your ass. Tell ya what, I’ll give you a headstart of 10 seconds! 1…2…3…You idiots did you think I would do that, come on be my dinner mwahahaha.”

Well that was the least profane one out of all of it. Just where did the wise steed Relix go? Was he even there in the first place? This continued for what seemed like forever while I was looking in the in-game help forums for a way to mute summoned animals or pets…

Using Relix as our trusty steed we made record time crossing the rest of the mountain. He is large enough for all three of us to ride. If he was a normal tiger as a mount then no doubt we would have fallen off, however apparently he’s already mastered bareback riding during the days of war with Dark Lord Demius. Every time he jumped he would balance us out-don’t ask me how, but it was impressive-and we would be safe on the landing.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Since the three of us were riding Synth would be in the front and Lyra in the back with me in the middle. There is two reasons for this. One, I don’t trust a bloodsucking Queen of the nightsucker’s to suck my blood from my neck like I’m a mobile blood bag. Did I say suck enough? It feels like I didn’t. Two, who doesn’t want two women sandwiched between you while riding through the forest on top of a tiger? Genghis Khan didn’t even get this kind of feast back in his day.

I will admit it’s kind of creepy and perverted, however who doesn’t want the opposite gender to surround you while riding on the back of a tiger like Tarzan. If Tarzan rode a tiger, I don’t remember.

It took me fantasizing in my mind several scenario’s before I remembered I am riding with a vengeance-seeking-nightwalking-sinister-blood-sucking-vampire and an easy woman from hell that would suck me dry if I wasn’t her master, succubus. On top of that, the mount I have is a schizophrenic feline fish loving old cat that would probably be a serial killer if he didn’t have the cat-like tendencies to attend to.

Maybe I should take a screen shot of what Relix leaves behind after his ‘supper’ and send it to a hospital to submit it as one of those ink blotch pages. “Well now jimmy what do see when you look at this?” “I see a bunch of water left over after the rain, making puddles everywhere.”

Anyways now that we left the mountain and the forest surrounding the base, there are plains all around. Mostly scattered farmland rather than an untouched sea of grass. We make our way on one of the roads-well, paths of dirt-and after about 30 minutes riding with 30 RPM’s (Relix-per-minute) we find a small village in the distance.

Finally! Civilization! I never thought I would utter that in such desperation. The sight of the three of us riding to the village on Relix stirred up some commotion. Then he flashes his teeth and growls to let people know who’s the boss and to leave, unless they have tuna, I should add. It’s the same with almost all feline and canine, if you got the right food they will eat all!

“Grim we should probably sell all of those pelts. They will get us a fair amount of money.” Synth suggested.

“Hopefully, pretty sure the wolves and bears would be an endangered species if this wasn’t a game.”

“I’ll go with master.” That was pretty much going to happen no matter what I say.

“Alright, tomorrow I will be on and meet you two in the inn across the street.” Synth points to an inn that could double as a barn if I didn’t know better.

“Sounds good.”

I look around and Relix is gone. He’s probably gone somewhere to rest in the sun. We have a telepathic link so I’ll know if anything happens, such as a fight. Believe me the reason I would go to him is not to back him up in a fight, it’s to stop him from slaughtering half the place. We don’t need him to stir up trouble.

Before I log off I check my Status Window:

-Grim-Level 20Strength45Health530Agility41Stamina550Intelligence61650650Luck11

Number of servants available: 1

-Skills:

-Vertical Pin- (lvl:5)

                                                             Thrust downwards from overhead, 

                                                     pinning the target to the ground for 2 seconds. 

                                            After two seconds, scythe will automatically remove itself. 

                                                      During the 2 seconds target will bleed for half

                                                       the damage of the attack. Cost: 40 stamina

-Dexterous Hands- (Passive, lvl:5) 

                                                            The more you use your scythe

                                                         the easier it will be to maneuver it

                                                              and hit the intended target.

-Summon Hell Servant- (lvl:3) 

                                        Use your demonic energy to bring forth a being from Hell.

               During your summoning, if the demon dies it will be sent back to the underworld

                                                     where it cannot be called for 4 hours.

                                        At this level you can summon an imp, or a succubus.

                                                     The servant cannot harm the master

                                       and must listen to all commands given. Cost: 120 mana

[Author note: I got rid of the Defense stat since in the near future I’m going to start adding armor for Grim, so IMO it’s not needed]