Tilly awoke to a not-so-gentle kick in the leg.
“Ouch, man!”
“Come on human, dawn is in an hour and we have a long way to hike before getting to work,” Nyuk replied dryly, not looking away at all from Tilly’s glare.
Kuro stood to the side, chuckling as he used his pole to push the raft up on the bank of the river. Tilly took a few quick drinks from the river before splashing some on his face to help wake himself up. By the time he was done, the lapins had already hopped onto shore and were looking back at him, with longsuffering frowns.
Tilly sheepishly wiped his hands on his leather armor and leaped to shore next to them, almost slipping as the soft sand gave way under his feet. Nyuk turned and started moving uphill, while Kuro took the time to slowly shake his head at Tilly before turning and moving uphill as well. They did not set an easy pace…
Something about the obvious teasing set Tilly at ease. He had spent his whole life around salt of the earth, manual labor types. In those kinds of groups, if you weren't being made fun of, you weren't accepted. They might not be an elite team, but Tilly was beginning to think these guys wouldn't be so bad... if they lived through the day.
They forged ahead, not waiting for him as they moved easily through the undergrowth, up the mountain.
“So, that's how it's gonna be, is it?” Tilly growled, ready to show these two the power of his 20 Endurance.
----------------------------------------
Turns out these particular lapins ate 20 Endurance losers like Tilly for breakfast and asked for seconds.
Tilly barely managed to keep up, each time they would pull too far ahead, they would turn and look back at him, faces oozing disappointment. At this point, Tilly couldn't tell if these two were sent to help, or torture him.
Whatever the case, it was clear they spent a lot of time moving through these mountains. They moved with an almost mechanical consistency, seeming to effortlessly avoid obstacles that continued to catch Tilly unaware. Like hidden roots, low-hanging branches, or the occasionally ankle-breaking rock. In exasperation, Tilly realized he had never even checked his log to see what level his merciless companions even were. He spent a few moments trying to jog and scroll through his log before he finally found them.
Level 28 Logger
Level 23 Logger
'I totally forgot to check their actual levels when I met them.' He thought as he continued to huff up the hill.
He had just assumed that they would just be typical lower-level NPC-type characters when they had been assigned to this mission… and here they were making him look like a bumbling idiot.
“System, can you float identifiers over any sentients I meet showing me whatever information Identify can produce?” He whispered between breaths.
As if in response, he saw his notification Icon begin to blink, and opened it curiously.
Congratulations! You have found a new way to utilize your existing skill.
Identify level up!
Identify level 17.
He was so busy fiddling with his screens while trying not to trip that he almost missed it when they arrived at the temporary camp he had made a few days ago. The lapins had found it easily, following a stream up the mountain, just like he had on the way down. He stumbled to a halt next to the pair as they examined the campfire and the skin he had left to dry near the stones.
The Jakalope hide just lay there, splayed out in all of its incriminating glory. He hadn't even thought of the implications of what he had killed in the forest being so anatomically similar to the people he had found in the village.
“This your camp?” Nyuk asked with a blank face.
“Uh… yep.” Tilly gasped out between breaths.
“You do that,” Kuro said, gesturing at the hide with a nod of his head.
“Yeah…” He answered, looking back and forth between their rabbit-like faces. They stared back at him impassivly.
“-It was corrupted... and it attacked me first!” He blurted out, feeling immensely uncomfortable, not for the first time wishing he had some guidebook to this crazy world.
They gave him a flat stare for another few seconds before Kuro busted out laughing. Nyuk allowed his lips to twitch upward.
“It's all good, next time we see a monkey, we will make sure to murder it,” Kuro said in between laughing breaths.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Hope that doesn't bother you too much monkey man.”
“Ha. Ha. Ha…” Tilly scowled back.
“You should consider trying out for an amateur hour at the local comedy club. You guys would kill.” He shot back, giving them a taste of their own sarcastic medicine.
Both of their expressions instantly turned serious.
“What club?”
“Who would we have to kill?”
Tilly choked down his frustration and stomped past them, not quite yelling back,
“Let's keep moving! We have a demon-bear to kill.”
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The desolate clearing surrounding the temple was just as he remembered it. Vein-like roots stretched into the forest in all directions sucking the life out of anything they touched. The sun had fully cleared the tree line and hung high in the air as they emerged into the open. There wasn't a Corrupted creature in sight.
Tilly slowed his breathing and listened, making sure they weren’t missing anything… but absolutely no life could be heard anywhere nearby. Just like last time. Whatever happened here, it seemed to stay pretty dormant during the day. The only sound he could hear was the steady breeze blowing against the side of the mountain. Whoever had built this entrance knew exactly where the prevailing winds were and had planned for them to ventilate the structure. The persistent wind pressed against his back as he looked at the entrance again, reviewing its size and shape.
“Ok, so last time I was here, nothing was guarding this place until the final chamber, which is a straight shot once inside. I'm going to scout and make sure there is nothing active inside the first chamber and then we will start.”
“I still don't understand. How will starting a fire that far away from the bear burn it?” Kuro asked, dropping his pack, and detaching his ax from its cord over his shoulder.
“We are not trying to burn it. We are creating a fire hot enough to consume all of the oxygen in the chambers.” Tilly explained again.
“What is oxygen?”
“Yeah, never mind, just set up the logs to cover the entrance like we talked about. I'll scout and then set up the fire.”
“Yes, Yes. We are clear on our part, get moving before something shows up to kill us.” Nyuk grunted, moving towards the nearest fallen tree.
Tilly hurried towards the entrance and only hesitated at the stone arch for a moment before grimacing and ducking inside. Once again as he moved towards the first chamber, his eyes taking a moment to adjust to the strange light faintly showing between the rocks.
He moved down the hallway with furtive steps, trying to keep his breathing under control. After a minute or two he made it to the first chamber where the floor of roots thinned and fanned out. Nothing was waiting for him there and he eyed the next doorway.
'Here's to hoping you don't have a fire science degree, Mr. Bear'
He waited for one moment more, making sure he couldn't hear any response from deeper in the chamber, before legging it back to the entrance. As he emerged into the bright day, he saw that the lapins had already cut one log into two pieces just higher than the entrance and were hauling it to the door.
They didn't even spare him a glance as he signaled them to continue. All was clear for now. He sighed and moved away from the ancient statues. It wasn't far before he reached the beginning of the deadened clearing and began gathering as many small husk-like bushes as he could carry.
He then crept back to the first room and placed them in the center, before exiting to find slightly larger fuel to surround his first pile. He took these back-and-forth trips for over an hour until he was hauling anything he could find that would burn to the perfectly engineered pile of fuel.
'This thing will make one hell of a bonfire.' He thought to himself as he wiped his hands free of the dust and sweat that covered them. He had left himself a small pathway to the center with the smallest brush lightly packed together into a sort of nest, surrounded by the rest of the dead wood.
The whole time he worked, his nerves had tweaked his senses to the edge of sensitivity. He had found himself frequently stopping at some imagined sound or distant movement. But by the time noon came around, the lapins were done and ready to seal the entrance with a reinforced log barrier, and Tilly was standing at the center of his creation.
He could no longer see the far doorway, but he looked in its direction nonetheless trying not to think about the horrors that lay deeper in the temple. He shook his head once to clear it and pulled out the final item Shuji had secured for him. It was a deep red paper construct with a simple fuse on the end. He gently nestled it at the center of the small dried-out twig nest he had carefully created.
“God, if you are out there, I need this thing to burn hot and fast.” He whispered to himself, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead and he once again looked up in the direction of the doorway.
He then took out his flint and began to strike it with the head of one of his hatchets. The impacts echoed through the room and Tilly winced each time the sharp noise rang out through the structure. His motions became more panicked as he silently willed the emerging sparks to catch.
Finally, a perfect, beautiful spark landed right in the nest under the fuse and began to smoke. Tilly immediately leaned forward and blew on it, giving it the gentle constant stream of oxygen it needed to live and grow.
Then, suddenly, a flame sprang up and soon after the sparkler-like burning of a fuse followed. Tilly didn't need to see anything else, he sprang up from his crouch and ran out of the room not bothering with stealth any longer. He ran down the hallway, passing the neat rows of thick branches, placed against the walls on either side. This place had become a death trap... hopefully.
Just as he cleared the entrance, the blood-curdling sound of a roar emerged from the depths of the temple. Looks like whatever intelligence the Corruption possessed, had finally noted that there was something wrong.
“Close it up?” Nyuk asked, desperation coloring his voice.
“Not yet, We need to see smoke billowing out first, or else the fire won't have grown past its incipient stage.”
“It doesn't sound like we have much time,” Kuro answered tensely, staring at the entryway.
Just then, the high-pitched whine of a firework went off and echoed through to the entrance.
“Look, I told you, there is a time dilation, it will take longer than you think for the bear to emerge from the central room, plus who knows what it will do when it comes to the fire room."
The lapins hunched their shoulders against the noise and waited.
A minute passed, then two, and Tilly was beyond tense, every muscle in his body seemed to be trying to twist him in knots. Finally, what started as a light stream of smoke began to thicken and push out of the entrance faster, matched by the constant stream of air that rushed through the bottom of the entryway, feeding the growing conflagration.
There was another furious roar, this time sounding much closer, followed by sudden silence as something ended the high-pitched squeal of the firework.
“Now!” Tilly yelled.