Karla slipped past a blood orc’s clawed hand with perfect timing and burst open apart its eye with a punch. As the orc turned a slicing elbow claimed the other. The monster lunged blind, without even a pause to let its eyes heal. Hands pulled its head down to crash a flying knee in its forehead, fracturing bone just slightly. The amazon raised her arm and struck her elbow at the same spot until the orc’s skull broke completely.
Two more lunged before she even returned to the ground. Karla deflected the arm of one through sheer martial technique and blocked the wide mauling claw of the other. She slid across the sandy beach, undamaged bone visible through the nasty gashed on her arm. Golden light enveloped her, weaving flesh together as she sprinted back into the fray.
Donny buckled under the weight of his opponent’s strikes, sly movements and grit the only things keeping him standing. Claws scraped against his angled shield and he sunk his orichalcum axe into the feral beast’s neck, just shy of half way in but the legendary tier weapon’s passive mutilated the flesh around it. He bashed the orc’s face and swung again, beheading it clean this time.
Donny spun just in time to block the next but a third orc leapt from the side. An arrow sunk clean through its eye, and Donny turned his focus back to the second orc. Basem and Dante aimed their projectiles carefully. Without the use of a skill, anything less than nigh perfect would be wasted effort and added danger to the vanguard.
Basem’s eyes darted to the side and nailed another orc as it clawed the sand where Mujin just barely managed to roll to his feet. Without an effective passive like Donny’s axe, Mujin found great difficulty landing a killing blow on the feral regenerating orcs. But still he darted back into the fray without hesitation. Ashley beheaded the next one facing him, clearly using a skill. Mujin clicked his tongue and moved on, knowing full well by now it was pointless to tell her what to do.
Shin blurred through the orcs with the fierce wind of greater swiftness. None but him could afford to use their mana as freely as he did, with his immense twelvefold recovery rate. But as such, the burden of ending this fights quickly laid most heavily with him, a burden Shin didn’t think twice about taking nor did he even truly consider it a burden.
Shin pulled his estoc from his latest slain foe and burst into the forest, the form of a kitsune warrior flashing for a brief instant as he slashed through rider and wolf alike. Without pause he darted back straight for the chief, dodging two wild swings before tapping a surge of Quake to explode out the side of its head. As Shin landed on the sand, so did the rest of the battle come to an end. He hopped around, harvesting the blood orc souls before sprinting off along with the others.
“Everyone should be ready now, right?” Yen asked.
“Yeah~”
“Yes.”
“Good enough.” Donny glanced up at the sun directly overhead, the day already half over. “We should head in soon. Don’t feel too keen fucking around the jungle in the dark.”
“That place is foreboding.” Mujin complained.
“What about you?” Donny looked back at Jean, the only other one with the danger sensing trait Hunch.
“Well… it gives me a bad feeling when I look at it. The ocean too.”
“I bet.” Yen scoffed, though she didn’t elaborate. “This is far enough.”
“Alright, just like we planned.”
Jean headed into the jungle first and the rest followed close behind. Donny up front just behind. Yen, Dante, and Kamala in the middle with Ashley and Mujin at the sides, and Shin and Basem bringing up the rear, watching everyone’s backs. The jungle was truly thick. Plants and trees and grass and vines of all kinds in every direction, just enough space to run through without issue but not enough to fight in unobstructed.
Jean noticed something and threw a common stone, breaking the false covering on the ground to reveal a spiked trap. He ran around it and the party followed. The puppeteer threw another rock causing a flexible spiked branch to pierce into the tree opposite at rapid speed, and then a cheap throwing knife to sever a vine that unleashed a giant log that slammed several trees in half.
Jean jumped over the loosely swing log and again the party followed. Only the path he walked was safe, that was the underlying rule they decided, one that seemed to be working just fine. They moved unceasingly at a decent speed. Primitive as the traps may be, they were still deadly and abundant, but Jean detected and neutralized each and every one without fail.
“You see how much this would suck without a scout?” Yen directed back at Shin.
“Yeah.”
Yen sighed, more annoyed at herself in the face of his genuinity. “See anything that stands out y-” Yen fell limp from the air, purple patches spreading across her skin.
A jolt ran through the faces of the others as they snapped into action, forming a defensive line around the center.
“Poison.” Kamala said with some tension as she cast Detox on the motionless mage.
“Fuck! No one saw anything?” Donny yelled, trying to spot anything of note himself.
“No one.” Shin answered with prismatic eyes.
“Long range? Traps? You two didn’t feel anything?”
“No.”
“Nothing…” Mujin and Jean answered, vigilant in their own way.
“She’s healing.” Kamala reported. “Epic tier poison.”
“What the fuck. Something can get past all of us but only uses purple shit? Don’t make sense.”
Yen stirred awake and slowly sat up, her head still a bit cloudy.
“Oi, Yen, what happened?”
“I don’t know…”
As Shin scanned the jungle intensely switching between spirit and normal eyes, something caught his notice. A small insignificant bug hovering down to his hand, unidentifiable and almost unnoticeable. It landed and his hand started to rot and shrivel. Shin cut off his arm without hesitation, donning the form of Inari. He made an ember of foxfire, burning the insect to nothing and then spread it into a sphere that swept over the group killing all like it without harming anything else, maintaining a dome around them.
“Mosquitoes.” Shin said, as his arm regenerated. “Mine was disease.”
“How…?” Yen stood up, the last of poison melting away under Kamala’s skill but some lingering effects remaining. “I had Armor up.”
“Monster mosquitoes? What tier?” Donny asked.
“Don’t know. Identify didn’t work.”
“...they might be a feature of the island rather than real.” Jean suggested, though with less than absolute certainty. “I didn’t sense any creature or feel anything.”
“Alright…” Donny sorted things out in his head. “Hunch don’t work, detection don’t work, identify don’t work, defenses don’t work. They give epic tier poisons and diseases… What if we keep this sphere up and move like this. Jean can still sense traps and Shin watch out for enemies. How long can you keep this up?”
“About 8 minutes.”
“Just have the fox do it.” Yen said.
Shin paused for a moment. “She said no.”
“Fucking make her!”
Donny stopped to think. That probably wouldn’t be long enough. Rather he felt it definitely wasn’t long enough. Plus their ace having no mana if something kicked off was almost as bad. “We gotta keep moving how we were.”
“Are you crazy?” Yen understandable disapproved most of all.
“Wrap up, see if that helps.” Donny took off his helm and wrapped a cloth around his head, exposing only his eyes before putting it back on. “Keep moving around, swat if you have to. Kamala cures anyone that gets sick.”
“What if our fucking healer gets sick?”
A thin coating of bark spread over Kamala like armor, covering every inch of her as she stored her usual attire. “Use your talismans to set this on fire. This bark will burn for a while. Hopefully that will work.”
Shin remembered something and did as she asked.
“Can you breathe like that?” Yen asked.
“If we move fast enough.”
Donny looked around as the others took their precautions in their own ways. “Alright, no time for a better plan. Let’s go.”
Shin released his invocation and the dome of ghostly fire disappeared. Chariot moved immediately, faster and more alert than before. They pushed through the dense jungle and its traps but not two minutes passed before Mujin stumbled. Kamala tested her skill immediately, finding it to be poison once more, curing as Mujin forced himself to continue.
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Basem was next and then Jean. Donny signalled and Ashley afterwards. Dark mist rose from a pondering Karla and Kamala exorcized the curse. Not only poison and disease, but the jungle mosquitoes cursed as well. Beset by affliction at every turn, the party rushed ahead. Poison took Yen again though Shin caught her midair this time as she healed. Nearly an hour they rushed, nothing but speed and sheer luck seemed effective in avoiding the afflictions, their only saving grace Kamala’s ability to cure it all.
Light appeared up ahead through the gaps between the trees, half the party taking notice at the same time, the rest not needing to be informed. Chariot broke out of the jungle edge onto a hard rocky ground, on the other side a massive cliff hundreds of feet tall, stretching past the length of their vision. The beige and brown of the new terrain contrasting sharply with the green jungle they just left behind. The party headed wordlessly to the middle of the flat land between the cliff and the jungle and waited for sign of any more afflictions.
Long moments passed before Donny broke the silence. “Probably fine now…”
Shin cast a small wall of foxfire around Kamala. Moments later the burning wood armor was cast aside and Shin withdrew the blue fire, Kamala having returned to her main equipment. Yen opened her mouth but decided against comments on aristocratic prissiness given the circumstances.
“Dungeon.” Basem reported.
“Where?” Traces of enthusiasm and urgency rose in Yen’s voice. Basem pointed left and the party darted over immediately, appearing before a portal in the cliffs.
[Lair - Lesser Monarch]
“Lair?” Donny looked over at Yen.
“...if there are different kinds of dungeons, I guess Instances? Lairs are probably below dungeons. Easier and shorter.”
“How do you know that?” Mujin asked, genuinely rather than dismissively despite his expression.
“It’s, like, the standard pattern. Usually how things are.”
Karla walked through without a word and Shin followed behind. Ashley followed him, her amused laugh cut off as she passed through.
“Guess we’ll find out.” Donny led the rest of them through, rushing down the large rocky tunnel they found themselves in quickly catching up with the initial trio and the short trail of blood orc corpses they already created, all of them variants, Blood Orc Barbarians.
The others joined in but they was little to do as the trio didn’t hold back using their skills, slaughtering the lesser monarch creatures with moderate ease, soon reaching the end.
[Blood Orc Lair Chief (epic) - Lesser Monarch]
Larger and even more imposing than the tribe chiefs, The lair chief shot forth with a tremendous roar. It cleaved its huge bloody bone weapon and the empty air passed over Shin as Ashley took its arm. A lunging kick from Karla sent it crashing into the cliff walls and a single Quake ended it for good. The party looked around but nothing appeared and the end of the lair was barren save for a set of plants clustered at the very back bearing small fruits that looked like cherry tomatoes.
[Small Blood Fruit]
‘Upgrade a rare trait to epic tier.’
“Shit, this doesn’t help.”
Dante plucked the three red fruits, pressing two together and then all three. The fruits shone and turned into a larger version.
[Medium Blood Fruit]
‘Upgrade an epic trait to legendary tier.’
Dante spun it on the tip of his finger with a look of smug advice to Yen’s annoyance. Shin hopped around picking the other fruit alongside them. Six in total, he brought back to show the others. A purple, green, and black one each, and three golden ones with a white square, circle, or triangle marking.
[Poison Resistance Fruit]
‘Grants Lesser Poison Resistance.’
[Disease Resistance Fruit]
‘Grants Lesser Disease Resistance.’
[Curse Resistance Fruit]
‘Grants Lesser Curse Resistance.’
[Body Fruit]
‘Grants Strong Body - Increases the durability of the body twofold.’
[Soul Fruit]
‘Grants Strong Soul - Increases the durability of the soul twofold.’
[Mind Fruit]
‘Grants Strong Mind - Increases the durability of the mind twofold.’
“Oh!” Yen had expected something like the blood fruit, but additional traits on top of that was a welcome bonus. “This is perfect. Kamala can get the resistances up to epic tier and that’s our healer sorted. Ah but, Kamala’s Greater Caretaker trait should be the priority before anything else, Jean’s Hunch too. However many it takes to get them up to mythic. Everyone else focus on buffing the strong traits so the blood orc waves won’t be a problem anymore, just get resistances if you have the space.”
“No.” Dante voiced firmly, tossing the blood fruit over to Kamala. “Everyone should get the resistances up to Greater first.”
“What, no, we don’t know how much fruit is out there. Buffing our traits is the priority. Resistances are growth traits, it’s stupid to waste anymore than we need on them. We made it through with nothing, we can rough it out with the base rares.”
Dante gestured poignantly. “Who said this is as bad as it gets?”
Yen wanted to argue back but the words stuck in her throat, the grand prize of the trials within her reach battling her own wariness of the trials.
Donny looked around. “Everyone agree we focus on Kamala and Jean first?” Everyone did, or at least none voiced opposition. “Alright, we do that and everyone makes their own choice about what they get. Lowest vitalities get first pick for the resistances.”
“I want body~” Karla declared, and Shin handed over the square marked fruit.
“Ah, give me mind.” Yen stated next and received her fruit as well.
Ashley took the remaining soul fruit with a smile before anyone else could, while Kamala quietly ate the resistance fruit and individual blood fruit, her silence telling them all it had worked without issue.
The lair began to rumble suddenly, dust and gravel breaking off the walls around them. Chariot rushed out of the crumbling tunnel without a word, the portal behind vanishing the moment the last of them exited.
“First come first serve, let’s go.” The party headed out trailing the cliff side at Yen’s urging, searching for the next lair.
---
The Lair Chief roared and Ashley sliced clean through the top of its head, the blood pouring out on the hard ground marking the twelfth lair they had cleared so far. Kamala floated over calmly to the plants and fused the small blood fruit into a medium. She took out two just like it and fused them all again into a large blood fruit. The breaking light as she ate it signaling the first successful mythic tier upgrade among them.
“What is it now?” Yen inquired.
“Savior.”
“Grand.”
“It improves the efficiency of curing and healing skills more, and allows them to have a slight effect on affliction tiers above the skill used.” Kamala ignored Donny’s comment.
“Oh, look at that.” Yen jabbed at Dante, though the charlatan only responded with a knowing shrug.
The remaining fruit was simply stored, everyone who wanted one either already had the trait now or they lacked enough space for them, though that was a problem mostly unique to the epic tier classholders. Some had all three and most had at least one or two, all upgraded to their epic tier variants. With Kamala’s improved curing abilities, the threat of the plagued jungle had been greatly diminished.
Shin ate the blood fruits he had been saving just in case someone else needed them.
[Lesser Poison Resistance has advanced to epic tier trait Poison Resistance.]
[Lesser Disease Resistance has advanced to epic tier trait Disease Resistance.]
[Lesser Curse Resistance has advanced to epic tier trait Curse Resistance.]
[Strong Mind has advanced to epic tier trait Iron Mind.]
[Human Invoker (legendary) - Greater Lord]
Strength - 200 (260)
Agility - 600 (780)
Constitution - 50 (65)
Vitality - 115 (149)
Dexterity - 33 (43)
Perception - 300 (390)
Force - 24 (31)
Spirit - 700 [1050] (1365)
Control - 150 [225] (292)
Willpower - 100 [150] (195)
Skills:
Heal lvl. 10, Greater Mystic Protection lvl. 10, Summon Sorcerous Kitsune Guardian lvl. 10, Supreme Martial Combat lvl. 5, Greater Rapid lvl. 10, Befriend Spirit lvl. 10, Greater Mana Meditation lvl. 10, Invigoration lvl. 10, Harvest Soul lvl. 7, Greater Invoke lvl. 10, Quake lvl. 10, Channelling lvl. 10, Spirit Gyro lvl. 10, Greater Ward lvl. 10, Soul Fusion lvl. 4, Lambast lvl. 10, Greater See Through Spirits lvl. 10, Invoke Skill lvl. 6, Overshadow lvl. 10, Mana Absorption lvl. 3, Yin lvl. 2, Yang lvl. 2,
Traits:
Body Supremacy, Eyes of the Spirit King, Ethereal Soul, Spiritkeeper, Survival State, Regeneration, Hawkeye, Blindsight, Summoner, Great Control, Great Spirit, Great Willpower, Poison Resistance, Disease Resistance, Curse Resistance, Strong Body, Iron Mind, Strong Soul,
As the one able to tolerate afflictions the longest, he had taken it upon himself to hold his in reserve until the others were set. But still, he upgraded them to take more of the burden off of Kamala’s mana so she could make use of hers more freely. Of the golden fruit, he had chosen Mind. None were of pressing importance but he found that Strong Mind had relieved some of the strain of overusing his skills he was able to power through with the sheer resolve he now knew to be Will. And now with Iron Mind, the dull ache of constant Greater Mana Meditation barely registered at all.
The lair began to crumble, exactly one minute after the death of its boss, same as all the others. As such they were no help in allowing Chariot to rest and recover, which was an issue as the roaming blood orc tribes ventured into this side of the jungle as well, slowing their progress. The party exited the lair quickly to the dim haze of dusk.
“Might as well keep going, right?”
“Yeah.” Donny answered Yen.
If blood orcs attacked no matter which side they were on, then it was best to stick to the side that actually rewarded their efforts. He took a step as the last traces of the sun left the island, and a pale wiry orc burst out of the cliff wall towards him. He shifted around and beheaded it clean on instinct.
[Sickly Blood Orc (epic) - Lesser Monarch]
Strength - 1299
Agility - 1108
Constitution - 943
Vitality - 861
Dexterity - 1152
Perception - 956
Force - 512
Spirit - 675
Control - 711
Willpower - 709
Skills:
Maim, Burst, Superior Unarmed Combat, Swiftness,
Traits:
Cannibal (epic), Feral Mind (epic), Nightvision (epic), Sickly (epic), Sunlight Aversion (epic), Weakness (epic), Curse Resistance (epic),
No one had time before several more pale orcs rushed out of the same hole. Clawed hands and vicious faces burst out all over the cliff face. They dropped and lunged down like a swarm of ants, charging straight towards the nearest prey in the party. Yen charged two firebolts at the same time and fired in both directions, fire and blast killing dozens. But they numbered in the hundreds and the swarm did not slow.
“The jungle.” Jean raised his voice, though his apathetic expression remained.
Chariot burst into the jungle, the endless horde right on their tail. Basem turned around again and again as he ran, sniping the nearest orcs and Dante threw a handful of knives without looking back that curved unnaturally into their targets. With some distance made, Kamala spared a glance back to send the trees into a frenzy. They thrashed and speared but to little avail as the rest of the horde ran around or broke through on the backs on their fallen kin.
“Curse!” Donny yelled as his pace started to slow, and Kamala exorcized it.
“Disease!” The skin on Mujin’s face started to peel away, and Kamala cured and healed him.
Resistance was not immunity and the others were hit with their own but could manage without needing immediate care. Through the afflictions and traps, the party fled but the distance slowly closed. A pale orc raised its hand for a lunge, and fell frothing at the mouth, dead within seconds. One by one the horde behind them collapsed until none were left.
“They live up to their name…” Donny commented, but his vigilance did not wane.
A quiet took the jungle and the party continued on, shifting their focus to the traps and potential enemies lying await ahead. A little less than an hour passed this time before they returned to the beach beneath the stars.
“Repelling tribe attacks at night, lair hopping during the day. Nowhere to rest…” Yen mused at the future that lay ahead of them.
“It’s manageable.”
“For now.” Kamala answered the knight.
“There’s no time to train…” Mujin complained.
“Tribe.” Shin alerted.
“Team 2.” Donny flourished his axe. “Gotta train on the job then.”