The scorpis worker thought it heard something. It hardly had a chance to start swiveling its head before the head in question was sent spiraling into the air and landed against the stony ground. It clacked its mandibles in alarm and began releasing death pheromones to alert the others to its imminent demise, but couldn’t give any information about its attacker. Like with those who had fallen shortly before it, the enemy remained elusive and unseen.
----------------------------------------
“Great shot Silas! I hardly needed to make any adjustments that time. That’s ten down and–” Samantha pulled up her quest progress briefly, “--137 to go.”
Getting them both to Rank 3 of neurotoxin resistance had taken most of the previous day and two additional worker stingers. After that point, they received diminishing returns from the poison. Until they got ahold of the presumably more potent soldier venom to train with, it made more sense to do some extermination in the meantime.
“They’re doing it again! Come see.” Silas urged.
Looking through his eyes–an even odder sensation than usual while in spectral form–she observed the chaos unfolding below Silas’s flight path. The scorpis were whipped up into a frenzy. Rather than their normal patrol patterns, they were trying to break into the nearby buildings with varying degrees of success. Once inside, they tore the place apart.
She cursed. This all but confirmed her suspicions.
“Should I do the same thing as before?”
She sent him a mental affirmation.
Silas deactivated [Translucence] and swooped down, ripping off the head of an unsuspecting scorpis. With their enemy finally revealed, the nearby scorpis poured out of the buildings and towards Silas who was already ascending out of their attack range. At first, multiple stingers launched towards him as he twisted and maneuvered to dodge them, but the farther he flew the less frequent the attacks became. Once he had suitably distanced himself, the crazed spirit beasts calmed and resumed their normal patrols.
Samantha canceled [Spectral Projection] and dug herself out from the shallow layer of sand covering her. Because Silas wasn’t present to guard her body while she was in spectral form, burying herself in the dune was the best defensive measure she could come up with for the short term. It would at least prevent her from being spotted as easily.
As she brushed herself off roughly with her hands, Silas smoothly glided down from above and landed beside her in a small puff of dust.
“Now what?” he asked.
She had been hoping to take advantage of their long-range [Antler Shot] and [Telekinesis] combo attack to kill scorpis from a safe distance away. However, it seemed things wouldn’t be quite so easy. As more and more scorpis were killed without a distinct source, those nearest them would begin to panic. They would start to search everywhere nearby for the enemy–including buildings that they were previously ignoring.
Apart from the fact that the damage they caused during their search conflicted with her optional objective to keep the city as intact as she could, their frenzy radius would keep expanding until some target for their ire was identified and pursued. This behavior had a high chance of putting the remaining survivors at risk, especially if the increasingly desperate scorpis spread in ways she wasn’t anticipating. While Silas could briefly reveal himself and then flee to stop the frenzy, that method was too dangerous for her liking. He’d already had a couple of close calls today while helping her test out the scorpis behavior.
She didn’t have quite enough information to identify a definite pattern, but she had a couple theories. Her first theory was that they were more prone to frenzy the lower their overall numbers were. Her second was that they were more prone to frenzy the more she killed in quick succession. Either way, it meant that she would have to take a different approach. One that was a bit more… direct.
It was frustrating to be presented with such a direct tradeoff between her safety and completing quest objectives, to say the least. She’d already decided that she wouldn’t just try to wade through the mass of enemies--as that’d only be offering herself up to be swarmed and torn to bits–but she couldn’t play it totally safe either.
As she pondered the best approach, the guardsman’s words kept coming back to her: “I possess arts that could be of use for creating distractions… I’m willing to lay down my life if it’s required of me.”
Similar to how she felt when engaging with the young couple, she couldn’t shake the suspicion that this wasn’t purely coincidence. The guard was such an obvious way to solve at least some of her problems, it was hard to believe that he wasn’t purposely placed by the quest. She could use him to draw scorpis away from the mansion and give her time to save the family, though realistically she’d be exchanging his life for theirs. As cold-hearted as the thought was, one way or another, this method would let her close out the survivor-rescuing portion of her quest. She could then evaluate the pros and cons for different strategies dealing with the scorpis much more objectively.
It was definitely an option, but one she didn’t want to resort to if she didn’t have to.
Putting the final decision off for now, she opted to try and make contact with the family. She hadn’t done so yet because they were the best-off of all of the survivors and had plenty of supplies, but it was good to get an idea for how cooperative they were going to be in advance.
Rather than trying to squeeze a message through their defenses, Samantha took the same approach she did with the young couple. Entering the home with spectral form, she found some paper and something to write with and began jotting down a message.
Her pen being obliterated by a thin beam of caster fire ended that attempt quickly.
“Dad! I got it! Did you see?” the teenage boy said excitedly.
The father grabbed the charred, half-finished note and melted pen and tossed them into the lit fireplace while the mother ran over to a smoking burn on the wall with a cup of water.
“Good eye, boy. Those creatures will need to try harder than that to invade our home!”
Samantha hadn’t expected them to be so quick to shoot. The caster was low-powered enough where it didn’t cause much damage to the building this time, but she was afraid a beam in the wrong spot could set the entire house ablaze. Imagining that they’d fire upon most everything else she floated their way as well, she tried something new. She grabbed a small, flat piece of sandstone from the mansion's landscaped yard and floated it back over to her physical body at the sand dune. Using the tip of her dagger, she scratched a short note into its surface and used [Telekinesis] to carry it back to the mansion and down a small chimney port that led into the house. They still fired at the stone as it fell out of the chimney–but this time missed. Upon snuffing out the smoking patches of rug they created and seeing the foreign object was just a rock, they finally read her message.
Using art. Don’t shoot. Need pen and paper.
They passed the rock around between themselves, then fetched something for her to write with. Once they set the items down on the ground she penned a message for the family.
The army has sent me to evacuate you. Prepare yourselves to leave. I will contact you again when I am on my way to fetch you, then I will take you one at a time to safety. If you have any questions, speak aloud and I will hear and respond. I will remain here for a few minutes before making preparations of my own.
The father was the first to object, “Absolutely not! My family has maintained this house for generations, and I will fulfill my obligation to protect our holdings. I know how you army folk work. You’ll take us out of here only to rob us blind in the name of ‘rebuilding the city’. How about you do your job and kill all the spirit beasts instead, hm? We’ll be perfectly fine here while you do.”
“You tell ‘em, dad!” the son encouraged, nodding along with his words.
The mother looked between her husband and her son with obvious worry, but didn’t speak up.
You can’t stay. As I clear out the spirit beasts they become more aggressive and begin destroying nearby structures. Your house will eventually be affected.
“You worry about killing spirit beasts, and I’ll worry about my home! I know my rights. Army code 9 section 4-c dictates you can’t force me to leave if I don’t want to.”
The mother placed a tentative hand on his shoulder, “Honey, maybe we should at least let them take our son out of here?”
The father looked aghast at her suggestion, “We’re perfectly safe as is! Trust me.” Seeing her fears weren’t assuaged by his words, he gave her a kiss to try and reassure her.
Samantha frowned. She had no idea if there really was an army code or not, but she wasn’t about to take this random guy’s word for it when their lives were on the line. She couldn’t exactly use her killing intent to convince them since she was projecting, but she could still use her authority as a cultivator to take a hard stance on the issue.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
I’m a contractor, not an official part of the army. That code doesn’t apply to me. I am Low Bronze, and I will see you all out of this city. I’m not above tying you up and carrying you out, if you force my hand.
The father scoffed, “Contractor or not, if you take the army’s money the code still applies. If you step a single toe on my land, I’ll blast it off of your foot with my caster. Understand? Do. Your. Job. And stay away from my family.” To punctuate his words, he tossed the new note and pen into the fireplace as well.
Communication effectively severed between them, Samantha canceled her projection and rubbed tiredly at her eyes. People couldn’t really be this difficult and stubborn in life or death situations, could they? This seemed unreasonable.
Despite the man’s protests and claims she was going against the army code, she didn’t want to leave the entire family to whatever fate awaited them. Apart from whatever quest rewards she’d be missing out on for saving more survivors, they didn’t seem to be a united front on staying versus escaping. The mother seemed to have at least some reservations, and the son seemed the type to idolize his father without giving much thought to the matter himself. Her threat of tying them up and carrying them off had been more a bluff than anything, but upon further reflection, maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea after all. Forcing her will on the mortal survivors had yielded positive results before. Maybe the quest was trying to get her to do something similar again.
Aside from the quest rewards she stood to gain from saving three more people, there was another important factor to consider: all of the items in the mansion were real. The food, the water, and the items in the hidden armory were all things she could use rather than being quest resources. If she wanted to spend an extended amount of time here training up her attributes, getting access to the mountain of assets in this mansion was a necessity.
She found her thoughts being drawn back to the lone guardsman. Perhaps there was a way she could save them all.
----------------------------------------
Samantha wrote on the paper as Tobias watched.
I’ve changed my mind. I’ll need you to serve as a distraction to save the last three civilians in town. However, I want to equip you to the best of my abilities so you have a greater chance at survival. Are there any supply caches you know of that could help? Anything else that could help you?
He thought for a moment, “I have a set of enchanted heavy armor hidden in my home that’s been passed down through my family. If you can bring it to me, that would help a lot.” He paused and gave a morbid chuckle, “I can’t outrun the scorpis anyway, so I might as well be slow but heavily protected. If possible, I’d also like a weapon with better reach.” He held up his chipped sword, twisting it and looking at it from different angles, “Guard standards require all of us to carry straight swords while on duty, but I’m actually specialized in polearms. Other than that, I’ll happily take any medicinals or alchemical aids you can find.”
Samantha found herself actually wishing Harold was here with her right now. She just knew he’d be able to cook up some sort of antidote or concoction that would help in this situation.
As they continued communicating back and forth about his arts and their effective range to see what the best strategy would be, she saw something on his armored robes that she hadn’t noticed before. Sewn onto the upper left arm of his guardsman uniform was a metal ‘resource’ placard. Curious about what his current armor set was worth in resource points, she fed a bit of qi into it to check.
Town Guard - Peak Copper Cultivator (Resource - Combatant)
Value: 150
Her eyes widened. The plaque wasn’t for Tobias’s armor… it was for him. Tobias was the resource.
This meant that if he perished it wouldn’t affect her progress towards saving survivors, it would just mean she would get less resource points. 150 points was a lot, but given that an enchanted weapon was worth 20, it didn’t seem as serious a loss as if he were categorized as a survivor.
As she was reevaluating the potential risks and losses of this operation, she shook her head in disbelief. Just because the quest had labeled him as a resource, she was actually starting to think of him as an asset to be used and spent. The way this quest was structured was insidious. If she wasn’t careful, it would begin to subtly change her mindset in ways that frightened her. Maybe it already had and she just didn’t know it yet.
----------------------------------------
It took several hours to get Tobias the things he needed due in large part to the cost of moving such weighty objects with [Telekinesis]. In the end she brought him the enchanted glaive from the shop, a full pouch of useful alchemicals, the heavy armor from his home, and a veritable feast of food resources so he could replenish his energy before the battle.
She was unsure about exactly what would happen when he donned the heavy armor or brandished the glaive because both were quest resources and didn’t seem to be suitable for combat, but she needn’t have worried. As soon as he touched them, they transformed into fully functional armaments before her eyes. Of course, they immediately shifted back to their unusual, quest-resource appearance if he let go of them, but she was glad that he, at least, could make proper use of them.
After Tobias fully recovered his strength and she regenerated all of her spent qi, Samantha gave the signal to set their plan into motion.
Silas swooped down and initiated an attack on a scorpis outside of the government building. Rather than go for stealth, he let out a low rumbling growl as he snatched the beast’s chittering head from its shoulders and carried it off. Silas flew low to the ground and made sure to catch the eye of any scorpis soldiers in the immediate area–even going so far as to use [Antler Shot] to grab their attention–and drew the beasts away. Watching the scene unfold from overhead, Samantha flew down and knocked on the window to let Tobias know the street was cleared.
In response to her signal, Tobias stepped out of the doorway and into the open. He was covered head to toe in gleaming metal plate mail and held the deadly looking glaive in his right hand. As they planned, he ran north and began using [Concussive Blast] to create explosive sounds several blocks away from his position. This drew any scorpis not following Silas towards the sound and away from the central mansion. He just started to activate another art, [Taunt], when Samantha canceled her projection and returned to her body.
She had her own role to play and had to move fast. The longer she took to extract the family, the longer Silas and Tobias would have to keep the scorpis’ attention and the more would inevitably gather together.
Emerging from a building near the mansion she had been hiding in, she launched herself down the street and towards her target. She had seen how well it had been barricaded from the inside, but that wouldn’t delay a Low Bronze cultivator like herself for long. Upon reaching the front door, she kicked it inwards with such force that the door frame broke free from the wall. All the furniture that had been piled in front of it was knocked backwards and tumbled to the ground like a toppled tower of children’s blocks.
She heard a shrill scream come from somewhere in the back of the house, but wasn’t concerned about the noise they were making. It was only a fraction of the sound that Tobias was still making with his thunderously loud art. Climbing over the fallen furniture, she caught sight of the father taking aim at her with his caster. As the runes along the metal lit up with a deep crimson, she waited for a split second before jerking her body to the side. Once the beam had harmlessly passed her by, she rushed towards the mortal, grabbed hold of the caster, and pulled it free from his grasp with the ease of tearing a strip of paper. Tossing the weapon aside, she unhooked the loop of rope strapped to the outside of her leather bag and quickly restrained the man’s hands and feet such that he could neither easily escape nor move.
Throughout this short exchange the son had been shakily pointing his caster in her general direction but hadn’t fired. Whether he was afraid to shoot at a human target, or lacked confidence that he could hit her without injuring his father, she would count it as a small victory. By this time, the mother had come into the room from downstairs and stared at the scene in terror.
“I’m taking the boy out first. Hide in the armory until I return for you.” she commanded the woman, exerting a bit of killing intent to emphasize her words, “I’ll put your husband there as well. Lead the way.”
The man tried to object, but she covered his mouth with her hand before he could speak. The woman, catching up with the situation, turned and sprinted in the direction of the armory. Samantha followed while carrying the husband, setting him down inside once the wife opened the armory’s secret door with the removal of a certain tome from a nearby bookshelf.
Samantha held out her hand towards the son and looked him in the eye, “Give me the caster.”
He obeyed her immediately, bowing low at the waist and holding it out towards her with trembling arms. Samantha grabbed the weapon and handed it to the mother.
“Don’t free him.” Samantha warned her, gesturing to her struggling husband, “He’ll only try to fight me when I come back, which is more dangerous for him than me. Now, close yourself in and I’ll be back soon.”
The woman paled but nodded vigorously, and Samantha turned away once the armory door began to shut.
“I’ll be carrying you out. I recommend closing your eyes if the speed makes you feel ill.” she instructed the son, holding out her arms. He met her gaze and looked for a breath as if he was considering objecting, but bowed his head in deference and let himself be scooped up.
It took a couple minutes to make the run all the way back to the rift exit from the center of town, but there was no way for her to shorten the trip. She was already using the main roads and simply blowing past any opposition instead of confronting them. She thought about dropping her passenger off on the other side of the dune and instructing him to make his own way to the rift exit, but didn’t fully trust that he would obey her without her presence intimidating him into compliance. As such, she had to ferry him all the way there, then ensure that he disappeared before returning for the others.
Quest progress updated!
Hostiles Remaining: 130/150
Survivors Rescued (Optional): 6
Activating [Translucence] to make her way back to the mansion as quickly and stealthily as she could, she repeated this process for the mother, then the father. The mother didn’t give her much trouble after explaining that her son needed her, but the father kicked up a fuss the entire way back and almost got them both killed. Keeping hold of the wriggling man while pressing her hand over his mouth for a majority of the run was irritating, but was still preferable to him screaming the entire way and alerting the scorpis to their passage.
“Silas! I’m carrying the last person out now. Pull back with Tobias.”
“I can, but he’ll be trapped! There’s too many.”
Samantha ran the final distance to the rift exit and preemptively held out the struggling man in front of her so the quest would begin updating. He dissolved into motes of light in a fit of very creative insults and what she believed to be slurs, but she hardly registered his words.
“Try your best to make a path for him, but don’t take any extreme risks.” she encouraged Silas, “I’ll be there soon.”
Quest progress updated!
Hostiles Remaining: 123/150
Survivors Rescued (Optional - Completed): 8/9 survivors saved