Chapter 7

One cycle has passed.

Release of environment started.

He frowned. “Environment’s been released? What are they talking about? The environment’s already released.” He looked at Mel, confused, then glanced at the swarm of birds flocking through a street, getting their daily meal.

A roar was then heard, coming from a few blocks away from where they were sitting atop a random building. Another high-pitched one was heard to his left, and when one was heard in front of them, Shades could finally see what they meant.

“Well… This isn’t what I expected when I woke up today.”

It seemed the monsters could now roam freely, Shades mused, as he watched a hulking brute of an undead ogre stomp out onto the street in front of him, crashing through some large double doors in the process. Two more followed it out and together the three of them lumbered down the street, lazily squashing any nearby zombies with their giant clubs.

They had continued their progress north, not in any particular hurry to get anywhere, simply staying ahead of the days, ensuring they didn’t fall behind the growing strength of the monsters.

Shades couldn’t get any Dayle from monsters below level thirty anymore and was worried at first that he wouldn’t be able to find any of them in his area. Fortunately, the further north they went, the higher in level the monsters became. Except the zombies. They all just stayed level one.

He stepped off the roof. Landing lightly on the ground far below, he casually walked towards the three big brutes, yawning slightly.

He picked up a small pebble, tossing it up and down. He tried to roll it between his fingers like a coin but it dropped after only a few seconds, eliciting a snort beside him.

“You should practise that some more.” She said, grinning.

“You try doing that with a small pebble.” He muttered, glancing at Mel next to him. She was a few inches below his shoulder at this point.

She smirked. Picking up another small pebble, she did the same as him, without dropping it this time. He frowned.

“Yours is flatter, it’s hardly fair.”

“Your fault for not specifying conditions. Don’t be such a baby.” She floated in front of him, patting his face.

Unfortunately she went just out reach before he could grab her, leaving only dissipating darkness between his fingers.

“One of these days…” He mumbled.

A roar interrupted their playful banter. Shades looked up at the undead ogre, grimacing at the smell.

“Hygiene.” He said, waving a hand in front of him. “Is it too much to ask?”

It didn’t pause in bewilderment or surprise at the puny human in front of it showing no fear, no undead did, but Shades imagined it would be funny if it actually did happen one day. He stopped wondering how a decaying body could even roar in the first place a long time ago.

Chuckling at that image, he bent down and picked up another small pebble from the road.

Time slowed to a crawl as he did so, bringing the ogre that was slowly lifting its massive club to an almost standstill.

“He lines up the shot.” He narrated, aiming the small pebble between his fingers at the monster’s still open mouth. “The crowd stills as they wait with baited breath. Will Team Shades finally be able to bring home the gold? That is the question on everyone mind today Bobby.” He glanced at the hungry-looking corpse standing next to him, having wondered closer as he and Mel chatted. Suddenly his finger blurred as he flicked the pebble with blinding speed.

Unfortunately, the small stone bounced off one of the thing’s rotten teeth and blew a hole through its mouldy cheek. He stood there for a few slow-moving seconds, his hand still outstretched.

“Not a word!” He pointed at Mel, who looked as if she was barely keeping from bursting into laughter. Shades knew because her face was suspiciously expressionless with a slight twitch at the corner of her mouth.

She looked affronted for a moment, before floating to the zombie next to them, making as if she was holding a microphone in her hands.

“I agree Bobby.” She looked sad. “Team Shades has once again dropped the ball in the moment of truth. How will they ever regain their top spot in the rankings with this shoddy performance we’ve been seeing?”

“Yeah whatever, it was an unlucky shot.” He waved at her angrily, walking over to the ogre, forming a long claw on one of his fingers.

He jumped onto its shoulders and stabbed his claw into its thick skin at the base of its neck.

His stamina – as he’d come to call it – was only almost three-quarters full now, with the amount of it he burned up to reach the speeds they were moving. These ogres were fairly slow, their level being a high forty-something only because of their incredibly resistant skin and extreme strength. Against someone of Shades’ speed and sharp Etherea claws, however, they were barely a nuisance.

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He could form other Blade Etherea shapes, but he was more used to claws, having used them the longest, and getting up close and personal wasn’t too much of a problem with their speed. He still practised other blade shapes and powers. Couldn’t always rely on just one ability.

Thinking of another ability he needed to practice, he crouched, preparing himself. Suddenly activating his speed, he spun in a circle. Like a cyclone releasing debris, small black objects flew out, slicing into the zombies around him at incredible speeds.

Stopping his spinning, he looked at his handiwork, grimacing. Two zombies were still standing out of the five he’d aimed at. Not bothering to finish off the last two, his sharp eyes found the objects and he went to collect them.

He looked over the five throwing daggers as he palmed them. Satisfied that they were still sharp, he reabsorbed them into his storage space.

A couple weeks ago, they’d explored a weapon shop and, still looking for a way to take out enemies at range just in case he couldn’t get close enough for some reason, he took a few guns here and there and found a few crates full of ammo, throwing stars and daggers, along with various other melee weapons. While thinking of what he needed, that he could fit into his storage space, he found a surprisingly convenient feature of his inventory. While he had been upgrading his physical abilities, his inventory apparently counted alongside it. Instead of physically becoming a bigger hollow storage planet, like he thought would happen if he upgraded his inventory, the objects that he put in there just became smaller. Soon enough his inventory technically became the size of a small room with the amount of stuff he could fit in there, so he took a few guns that he thought would be useful and all the crates of throwing weapons.

Unfortunately, as the level of monsters he fought increased, so did their resistances, so guns didn’t really work on them anymore, the bullets simply not penetrating deep enough to have much of an effect. The sharp throwing weapons still worked well though, the speed he threw them at working wonderfully, turning them into deadly, sharp projectiles. He could also materialise any object in his inventory instantly, saving him from needing to carry around stuff in case he needed them immediately.

He grimaced, looking at the still walking corpses. He needed to work on his aim.

“Come on Mel, let’s keep moving” He called.

He went to the side of a tall building next to him on the street and prepared to jump up to the roof. He lessened his mass when jumping to increase his lift off and raised it dramatically once he left the ground to significantly decrease the effect wind resistance had him. So instead of blowing through the air like a leaf, he shot through it like a cannonball. It took some practice on his timing before he stopped crashing into buildings and streets, without the use of his speed to help him at least, but it was incredibly useful for his mobility.

“Hey, Shades.” Mel stopped him before he left. “Since the monsters are leaving their dens, shouldn’t we move at street level?” She asked. “Then we can take them down for easy Dayle along the way, instead of needing to clear dens.”

“That’s not a bad idea.” He said, after thinking about it for a moment. “Let’s not take our time with them though, we need to stay ahead alright?”

She nodded and they set off down the street at a pace they could keep for the rest of the day, mostly ignoring the zombies around them but taking out any group of normal monsters that was worth it.

“Eleven!” He whooped. “Try and beat that!” He looked to Mel standing next to him. She rolled her eyes, taking another short blade from the small group that was embedded into the ground between them.

The sun was just starting to set and they had just been about to look for a place to hold up for the night, when they found an interesting monster type, one they hadn’t seen before.

Corpse Caller

Lvl 55

It was on its own, but they assumed its den was probably nearby. Normally they encountered groups of different types of monsters. Sometimes they would find a group later on that was the same type as a group previously but just a higher level. The type would be random, only the general theme of everything being undead stayed the same.

This one caught their eye as it was the only one of its type that they could see. It acted like some sort of sentry. When they came near enough to it, it stopped moving, turned to them, kneeled down, and embedded its hands into the ground like roots. A few seconds later a small rumble was felt and tens of skeletons started bursting out of the ground. They ranged between levels twenty and thirty. They also dropped Dayle for some reason. Shades just assumed that because the one who summoned, or ‘called’, them was a high enough level, the things it summoned still dropped Dayle, even if their level wasn’t technically high enough to drop anymore.

Shades and Mel both grew excited at the thought that they could farm this monster and just keep killing its minions for easy Dayle. Unfortunately, the drops started dwindling until nothing happened when the minions were killed anymore.

They then just decided to play a game while waiting for it to get dark and see who could take out the most skeletons with a single throw. There were so many of the things bursting out of the ground, showing why its level was so high even if its minions’ was so low, that the trick was to just aim at the most grouped up lot and let it fly.

That was Shades’ plan anyway. Mel seemed to have a different idea and held the blade at an angle, took aim, and threw it somehow that the blade moved slower but curved, taking out more of them before its momentum left it.

“Hm.” She sniffed, tilting her head up and folding her arms, seemingly satisfied. She looked at him challengingly. “I counted nineteen.” She smiled.

Shades couldn’t help but chuckle and shook his head. Sighing, he took another blade and tried to emulate what Mel had done. His went a little too high and bounced off the sixth skeleton’s skull. Frowning, he tried again, getting roughly the same results. He sighed again, defeated. Taking another blade and handing it to Mel, he lifted his eyebrows questioningly, hopeful. Mel laughed, taking it.

“Fine.” She said to his silent question.

Grinning, she showed him how to do it, giving him pointers on how to hold and aim so it didn’t curve at the wrong angle.

Trying again, he got better results. Still not as good as Mel’s performance, but he was getting there. Laughing happily, he rubbed Mel’s head. She grinned back.

“C’mon, let’s take care of this thing and call it a day.” He said.

Slicing off its two root-like arms made the skeletons fall into piles of bones. After dispatching the Caller, Shades jumped to the roof of a building with Mel floating up after him.

They settled into a comfortable position, Mel on his lap as usual, staring up at his planetary screen as he assigned the day’s Dayle.

Manipulation: 9

Circulation: 9

Restoration: 9

He let out a breath.

“Finally. It took almost a week for them to reach the next level this time.” He said quietly.

“A few more moons than last time as well.”  Mel noted.

He nodded, rubbing her head absently. It had become a habit it seemed, but Mel didn’t appear to mind.

“Just more improvements on previous abilities too.” He frowned. “The last big change was at the fifth level. Maybe the next will be at the tenth?” He wondered.

“Nothing we can do but wait and see.” She said.

Turning around she hugged him, biting softly into his neck, getting her meal for the day. The bigger she got, the longer she could go without blood, but the more she needed when she did drink. They just alleviated her thirst every night anyway. Shades didn’t mind how much she took. His blood regenerated almost as fast as she drank from him.

The soothing effect of her bite soon had him relaxed and, closing his eyes, he sat back and gradually fell asleep, Mel still holding onto him.

Day 30