A stream of pressure followed the blare of an elephant’s trumpet surging against the mana shield Mara formed in front of the party. Karla burst across it, jumping and twisting over the surge of air as the giant woolly mammoth aimed its trunk at her, landing a crushing blow to the monster’s skull, blood bursting out of its eyes and ears. A second charged from the side with thundering steps and a stream of fire burnt it to char effortlessly.
Yen paid it not a moment’s more thought. Her class upgrade had brought her flames to a whole new level. Cinder was the fundamental skill, a highly volatile and combustible dust that stuck to her target and enhanced any fire that struck it. But she hardly needed to use it due to the trait she chose.
Greater Fire Amplification, recently upgraded to mythic tier Fire Overwhelming, granting a tenfold potency to all fire element abilities. A level of power she wouldn’t have been able to handle with her Control if not for the Loved by Magic trait, upgraded from Magic Affinity she had acquired from the auction.
The two had made her amulet and mantle obsolete, switching them out for an epic tier belt they looted giving her the much needed Hawkeye trait and a bracelet that triple the power of immobilizing skills. She had briefly considered taking Kamala’s head necklace which tripled abjuration skills, as the priestess hadn’t need for it any longer, but the party had an abundant of magical defenses and no crowd control as direct as her’s, so the bracelet she chose.
[Mastodon (epic) - Intermediate Monarch]
Strength - 2279
Agility - 735
Constitution - 1951
Vitality - 1702
Dexterity - 655
Perception - 938
Force - 520
Spirit - 725
Control - 739
Willpower - 816
Skills:
Bash, Stomp, Trumpet, Charge,
Traits:
Greater Poison Resistance (legendary), Greater Disease Resistance (legendary), Greater Curse Resistance (legendary), Cold Resistance (epic), Leather Hide (epic), Nightvision (epic),
Shin harvested the two mastodon souls and the party started to leave, loud noises tending to attract more monsters for them to waste mana on, but a herd of mastodon charged over led by large variant covered in rock like armor.
[Rockhide Mastodon (epic) - Intermediate Monarch]
Suddenly a massive reptile with a huge head and hardened jaw charged through the pack and chomped on its leader. The rockhide mastodon bellowed in pain but dermal armor kept the tyrannosaur’s fangs from sinking further. Enraged, it lifted the mastodon whole and thrashed its head until a massive chunk of the beast’s hard body ripped out and its corpse crashed on the ground. The herd scattered in fear and the towering monster turned its sights on the party.
Yen intensified a bolt of fire in her hand and the the tyrannosaur charged forth with thundering power, its snarling blaring roar sending a chill of fear down her back. Mujin roared back, any traces of fear or hesitation purged from his body and he let loose a wave of lightning, stunning the monster for a brief moment. Yen snapped out of her state and fired. The explosion knocked the monster into thick trees, gravely injured and burned but it rose still.
Ashley slipped between the shadows of the forest slicing through parts of the monster as it chomped back, ripping through an iron barked tree with each bite. Karla ruptured part of its organs at the side but it wasn’t enough. The beast turned and chomped madly at the amazon as she dodged just enough to stay in range, slamming the monster with hard strikes.
The tyrannosaur roared again and charged past. It spun, the swing of its tail shattered a forming ward and slammed into Donny’s shield, the sheer impact of the diminished blow knocking some back. Shin blinked over the monster, pushing a storm of vibration in its skull, ending the giant reptile for good.
[Tyrannosaur (legendary) - Intermediate Monarch]
Strength - 4559
Agility - 2470
Constitution - 2903
Vitality - 2402
Dexterity - 1510
Perception - 2076
Force - 1240
Spirit - 1450
Control - 1478
Willpower - 2232
Skills:
Greater Chomp, Greater Lash, Greater Roar, Greater Charge,
Traits:
Greater Razor Fangs (legendary), Greater Poison Resistance (legendary), Greater Disease Resistance (legendary), Greater Curse Resistance (legendary), Tough Scales (epic), Nightvision (epic),
“Hey, we could have handled that.” Yen lectured. “Strength is a lot easier than speed.”
“Waste too much time.” Shin explained as Dante threw him the fruit they were here for in the first place. It wasn’t the time it would take to defeat the legendary tier creature, but the time they’d need to recover the energy expended. It was by far their biggest limitation.
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[Disease Resistance has become the legendary tier trait Greater Disease Resistance.]
Progress had been slow this last few days. For Shin he still needed to upgrade the remaining two greater resistances to immunities, as well as the durabilities Iron Mind, Strong Body and Strong Soul. A total of 56 small blood fruits required. And he was not the only one. Even Basem with the fewest traits of any of them wasn’t done yet. They had only eight days remaining and at their current rate, they wouldn’t find enough.
Basem noticed first, aiming an arrow at the forest but others detected the same soon after. A few dozen players dressed in identical black garbs of an assassin waiting calmly and purposely among the shadows of the forest, each and every one of them registering as greater lord epic tier Spies. On the ground emerged a man in unassuming gear, short brown hair combed neatly to the side and donning round medieval spectacles.
[Human Spymaster (legendary) - Greater Lord]
A deliberate mind game to all encountered, half of the party realized. It was obvious the brown haired man was altering the status of his subordinates. A simple but effective trick. Along with their identical attire, it was impossible to assess just how strong these ‘spies’ were or even glean a hint of what skills they possessed.
“It’s been a while.” Jinrou greeted Shin, and Shin alone.
“Yeah.”
The man paused briefly and gave a slight smile. “I imagine you aren’t finding enough fruit. It’s difficult for us even with our foraging teams… Deep in the mountain range, past the borders you see is a region more abundant. Go through the mountains, not over, and do not shed your blood on the way. But it is dangerous, the path and the other side.”
“Okay.”
“Well then… Take care.” Jinrou melded back into the forest and his spies with him.
“Who was that?”
“My father.”
The answer took Yen a bit by surprise. “I thought since… Nevermind. Can we trust what he said?”
“Probably.”
“The monsters will get stronger…” Jean spoke, less fact and more pattern observation.
“Yeah, but things are drying up here…” Donny favored the risk this time, looking at the mountains. “Just try not to die.”
---
Chariot stood before a damp tunnel. Tiny streams of blood trickled out endlessly but more concerning was the immovable darkness that filled the path.
“If truesight doesn’t work, it has to be just genuine darkness then…” Yen mused. Neither of the several among them able to see more than a few yards in.
“Don’t work like genuine darkness.”
“Feature of the environment. Just how the stage is.” Yen glanced over the rocky mountain half covered in a mossy green, and up to the sky. “Which one’s the trap?”
“The surface.” Dante answered confidently.
“Any evidence behind that theory?”
“No.” He said, equally confident.
“Cool, thanks for your input, professor.”
Basem skipped at rock through the tunnel, each clack echoing returning increasingly quietly until the sound faded away. Yen turned to him. Ever since the young strider had upgraded Inconspicuous to the same Unnoticeable that monstrous Mylorang possessed it was hard to keep track of him.
It wasn’t stealth or a disguise. Unless he made himself apparent in some form, his ‘presence’, or perhaps more accurately his ‘existence’ was hidden, even within the all encompassing sphere of Third Eye. Even the equally incomprehensible Shin was not immune to the trait. Truly befitting of a hunter.
Before anyone could say anything more, Ashley strolled in without a word, sinking into the darkness. Shrill screeches and the sound of blade cutting through flesh soon followed and then quiet.
“All clear~”
Shin walked in first and the rest followed to various degrees of eagerness. Yen moved slowly, the strange magic at play rendering her unable to see her own hand in front of her face, but she could hear the footsteps of the others around her. A squelching sound of something soft and small beneath her feet sparked a trace of disgust though she put it to the back of her mind as she continued on. Soon a glimmer of light appeared in front and the party exited the tunnel on the other side.
They joined Ashley in gazing out on the landscape ahead. Rather than a mountain range, it seemed more of a basin surrounded by a single massive mountainous ring. Prehistoric creatures roamed the uneven terrain filled with hills, plateaus, lakes and trees, although most of them seemed to be herbivores in nature, displaying little of the unrestrained aggression inherent to the rest of the valley.
“Fruit.” Basem pulled their focus to the goal at hand, two plants side by side just at the base of a rockface in the distance.
Jean led them more cautiously than usually over. They tested and prodded, none of their senses, detections or illusionary feints provoking a reaction of any kind. Finally, Jean set out, sneaking over to the plants. His hand brushed the stem and a club shattered a wooden puppet to splinters.
At the other end, a blood orc painted in simple white markings rose upright. Larger with more grizzled neanderthal like qualities than the normal orcs, it stood composed with a primitive intelligence. And it blurred.
Its club crashed down on the bastion Donny barely managed to cast on his shield, but a second swing of its arm sent him flying away. The orc leaned back as an arrow shot passed its face and blurred again, club raised high behind Ashley. It cratered the ground and its head fell from its body, Ashley twirled her scythe behind.
Mujin jolted first, thrusting his spear to the side, but a second orc slipped through and bashed the spearman’s head, draconic scales the only thing keeping it connected to his neck and barely conscious. Yen bound it in place but a burst of strength shattered the spell in an instant.
Shin blinked at its side in kitsune form and struck with a green tinged fist. The orc howled but swung its arm back just barely missing Shin as he dodged away. Karla lunged from the opposite side in a brutal flurry. But the orc matched the exchange, both her speed and skill. Its fighting style primitive, savage, and efficient.
Basem blinked away from the swing of a third orc and fired, but the orc slipped its head passed and burst next to the hunter again, far too fast. Curving knives forced the blood orc back and something invisible exploded over it. A stream of fire blazed over but the blood orc moved again, vicious club passed through Yen’s fire body.
Kamala shot spears of roots towards it, and the first orc rose to its feet, head fully regenerated. Donny crashed the orc away but it landed feet first on the cliff and burst back, club soaring through the air. Bastion covered his shield again and the club stopped short, its other hand mauling half of Donny’s head off.
The knight faltered, and his axe sunk into the blood orc’s side. Mangle tore into its flesh and blood gushed out, flowing straight into him as his head regenerated. An illusionary axe feinted the orc back and an arrow pierced through the side of its skull. The blood orc slumped down and Donny stood over, hacking its head to mash.
“Step back.”
Donny did as asked and Yen shot a stream of fire over the corpse, just enough to outburn its regeneration. To his side, a second blood orc laid headless and burning as well and the third maimed and broken beyond repair at the hands of Shin and Karla.
[Ancient Blood Orc (legendary) - Greater Monarch]
Strength - 3897
Agility - 2724
Constitution - 3129
Vitality - 4683
Dexterity - 3156
Perception - 2568
Force - 1536
Spirit - 1725
Control - 1533
Willpower - 1827
Skills:
Greater Bash, Supreme Unarmed Combat, Overpower, Burst, Swiftness,
Traits:
Carnivore (mythic), Primitive Mind (legendary), Rapid Regeneration (legendary), Diamond Body (legendary), Diamond Mind (legendary), Diamond Soul (legendary), Greater Poison Resistance (legendary), Greater Disease Resistance (legendary), Greater Curse Resistance (legendary), Nightvision (epic),
“Ridiculous stats…” Yen grumbled.
“Their cooperation is a bigger issue.” Kamala spoke. “If they act in more than small groups…”
“We’d be fucked then.” Donny changed his destroyed helm for another one. “But even the trials wouldn’t throw a tribe of these things at us.”
“The trials will do whatever is most likely to kill us.”
“No risk, no reward.” Dante said, as Jean handed him his share of fruit and then Mujin’s.
Dante ate a medium while Mujin fused his into a large, finally able to upgrade the last of his main traits, an incident requiring him to obtain greater poison resistance delaying that goal.
“It’s Dragon Heart now. Gives all of Vitality to Force.” He promptly reported to Yen.
“Good for you. No… I mean, that's good.” Yen fixed her misdirected annoyance part way.
“Alright, break time’s over. Don’t have much time between crossing over here and getting back before night, let’s not waste any of it.” Donny absorbed all the blood from the sole unburnt blood orc and the party head off once more. The battlefield in their wake, as well as in the distance, a small splash of blood on the grass where Donny had been knocked away to.