“Jeffrey?” Sam called out.
“Oh no, I know that tone. You need your resident System expert to give you some help, don’t you?” Jeffrey said. In reality he wasn't actually annoyed, he just pretended that he was. Something about preserving his image for the ladies, even there were none anywhere for thousands of miles. The last time that Jeffrey had tried to instruct Sam on the ways of courtship, he had tuned the man out. He still remembered this one bit however, along with a few uncomfortable images. Then again, perhaps everyone eventually became a sex crazed maniac after living for long enough. In a few decades, that might be Sam as well. By then Jeffrey was standing in front of Sam, with his head tilted at a cheeky angle.
“Well? Your servant is here and ready.”
“Are there any limitations on the party link interface?” Sam asked, getting straight to the point.
“Why… Oh, I see what you mean. It won’t work though. If you are planning to connect with some of the people back at the faction headquarters to share some essence, then don’t bother trying. You can only make party bonds with people in sight of you. In addition, there is a set limit to the distance that each member can be apart from each other, which depends on their strength. That is why you were able to stay in contact with me throughout the entire tournament without breaking contact. However, our essence sharing abilities were severely hampered. I doubt that you saw any serious gains from the connection, seeing as how much your level rose.”
“Damn it. Well, it was worth a shot. I guess we’ll just have to waste our essence then,” Sam replied, annoyed at how his brilliant plan was useless.
Jeffrey nodded and walked off towards the remains of one of the monsters that he had killed. Some of these creatures, as they were quite powerful, had the chance to contain useful body parts for use in crafting. Just how Sam’s mace had been crafted out of the remains of the dire bear, a sufficiently skilled smith could make armor and weapons out of monster parts. A cry of delight from Jeffrey told Sam that he had found something. He ran over to see the man clutching a withered organ that looked like a prune. A faint aura of power drifted off it however, belying its appearance.
“It’s a static bladder!” Jeffrey shouted. “It's what those monsters used to create lightning. None of them were able to consciously create the element, but they could control it. Those with a greater level of control form these things. Someone’s going to be getting a powerful weapon or suit of armor when we get back to the city.” Jeffrey pocketed the bladder, and stood up. It had taken the searching of dozens of monsters to find this one organ, so Sam didn’t know what exactly the man was so excited about. It didn’t seem like it was extremely valuable or anything. Then again, Sam didn’t seem like the strongest human alive. Appearances could be deceiving. Nodding, Sam smiled at Jeffrey at his find.
“Good. Let’s keep going though. We’re in the final stretch.”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
As the mountain ranges became smaller, so did the distance between them. It was like a bell curve, with the central mountains having a larger gap between them, and the closest mountains having less. This actually made their job harder however, as there was less room to maneuver with the massive monster that filled this area. Even worse was the threat of the thunderbirds. They had not been able to avoid the birds forever, and their only saving grace was that the birds seemed to be territorial, and they did not attack in flocks, rather hunting on their own.
Half an hour later, they had reached the top of the next range. Because of the multitude of caves, and the angler trolls inside, they had been forced to take this particular ascent more slowly than the ones before. As they did so, they were mobbed by the thunderbirds, forcing them to take cover in the caves, leaving them exposed to the angler trolls. As these ones were even more powerful than before, their aura of compulsion was able to somewhat affect the party members, which meant that Sam was usually left to deal with them. The System had been extremely vindictive in its construction of this area, unless it had formed naturally, in which case something definitely had it out for Sam. Still, they only had to enter five of the caves, and usually the thunderbirds were gone by the time that they exited. The one time that it hadn't, it was on its way off. They had not had to fight one of the birds yet, as there had always been a place to retreat to.
Sam panted slightly as he crested the mountain, and grimaced when he saw yet another in front of them. However, that was the last one. The beam of light was clearly visible behind it, and Sam began to feel a rhythmic pulse in his heart as he beheld the sight. There was a profound aura of majesty pouring off of the light beam in waves, and also a compulsion to follow the light to its source.
Sam tore his gaze away a few moments later as he began to feel it try to compel him to run towards it. It was easily avoidable, but the desire was quite insidious. In any case, Sam was the only one to not be looking at the light beam. Everyone else was staring at it with a slack jawed expression on their face, taken in by its beauty. As soon as they started edging forwards to the side of the mountain, Sam quickly tugged them back. As he moved, most of them snapped out of it, alerted by his footsteps. Rax was still moving however, as the herpetopede lacked the same sort of mental defenses as the others. Sam grabbed Rax, and tugged him backwards. The herpetopede came to in the middle of this, and he started struggling until he realized what was going on.
“Rax, what were you doing?” You can’t even wield a hammer.” Sam said to the herpetopede as he set him down.
“What? I didn't feel anything about a hammer. Only that I should go towards that light at all costs. You were able to snap me out of it though. If you had not, I would have gone over the edge.”
“Well, be careful then. Perhaps you should have put a few points into Wisdom over the course of your levels. Unless monsters don’t level up that way?”
“No, they don’t. I am only able to put energy into each of my body parts, and seeing as I am already sapient, there was no need for me to enhance my mind. Instead, I focused on my body. Should I have branched out a bit?” The hepertopede asked, looking worried.
Sam nodded at him.
“Yes, you should. You can fix that all next rank though. You’ll be getting far more power to play with anyway.” With that matter settled, the worried expression on Rax’s face vanished, and they made their way down the mountain.