Chapter 7 - Through the Darkness
We put some distance between us and the creature guarding the cave entrance, deciding to first take care of lunch or very early dinner before we would be caught below the mountain without any wood and left to try badger sashimi. While Ellaina collects some firewood, a cautious eye following her every movement, 40 points into Mentality not letting me forget my task of protecting the woman, or else! She collects some dry twigs hidden in the canopies, untouched from the snow or ice, and then puts together a small campfire, lighting the timber with my fire-starter kit.
The fire slowly crackles to live, the wet wood popping and small pieces of ember flying everywhere. Luckily, the snow badger is quickly dressed, leaving a messy piece of fur and a carcass looking more like a pincushion than today’s dinner. Nevertheless, the animal’s meat tastes quite nice, and the change of eating some warm food after the days of rations combined with some local herbs sends my mouth drooling. After a quick meal and a just as brief rest we return to the entrance into the mountains, a torch held in my hands, made of the animal’s fat and its fur, Forerunner’s Foreknowledge guiding my hands through all the various survival activities. The skill is a real lifesaver, quite subtle but by far the most useful skill out of them all, guiding all my actions and giving me the knowledge of how to survive this harsh environment.
As we get closer to the entrance I hand the torch over to Ellaina, not wanting the beast to smell the burning fat and the truly horrific stench coming off it. I slowly approach the beast, taking care to stay quiet and carefully choosing my steps, the snow much louder than before, every step breaking through a thin layer of ice. Luckily with my Activity beyond the first threshold and the new Accent empowering the Attribute, I am able to sneak up on the beast.
Taer (Lvl. 3) - Cavern Brute (Lvl. 2) - Lvl. 6
A race of cave-dwelling brutes related to the fabled yeti, their smaller cousins imitating all the abilities of their greater specimens. Much smaller and weaker they still pack a punch, defending their territory fiercely and not accepting any trespassers, even amongst its own kind. With great strength boosting their thick frames they present a formidable opponent that outlasts any predators and simply beats them into the ground with sheer power.
Attribute Focus: Activity - 34
Skill Focus: hit, Hit, HIT - Lvl. 6
The beast seems to have leveled up from last time, gaining some points into Activity and leveling its central skill. Though with two of my own Attributes already approaching the 30 mark and no Race or Class giving me any additional Attributes, the beast doesn’t seem to be as unbalanced as I initially thought. I decide to approach this battle a bit more carefully than originally planned, the creature of a lower level than the Lord of the Mansion, but its build working against my agile glass canon design. No idea where I am pulling these terminologies from, the terms simply jumping into my mind.
Readying my modified plans, I load a frozen leaf into the pouch of my slingshot and send it whipping forth into the small clearing around the cave entrance. Seconds later loud screaming and boastful shouting sounds from the forest as Ellaina tries her best to get the attention of the beast. The Taer’s ears move independently of each other, my mind blessing my decision to be doubly careful during my approach, the creature having acute senses. With a loud roar, the beast quickly enraged by a challenger encroaching on its territory, it thunders towards me and then past me, my body hidden behind the trunk of a large tree, coat blending into the white snow. Just as the beast is rushing past me Ellaina appears from further inside the woods, torch held high and waving it around wildly.
The monster comes to a sudden halt, the fear of fire deeply ingrained into its instincts, the beast flinches back with every wild wave of the torch, its fur looking particularly tasty for the greedy flames. I jump forth from behind the tree, my companion throwing the torch towards the beast, which quickly tries to jump back and evade the fiery stick. Its dodge is suddenly stopped as it slams into a large plane of ice hovering in midair, a hologram of its form appearing on the other side and throwing the beast back in the fire’s direction. With panic in its eyes, the animal tries to flee in another direction, though before it can do so, the torch almost upon it, a dome of ice jumps up around it.
I quickly hop back from the dome, Ellaina copying my move and then fleeing further back, her low Activity and Stability not making her good in a close-up fight. The dome shakes loudly, the leaves of the nearby trees clinking melodically, to the creature trying its best to escape. From outside the dome, I can roughly make out a flaming form repeatedly slamming into the thick walls, a beautiful pattern of cracks and fissures appearing on the icy dome. Then with a resounding crash, a side of the dome breaks out, the burning outline of the Taer appearing from the spray of frost, ice quickly turning into water under the high heat.
Tortured roaring and screaming sends my ears ringing as the beast desperately tries to quench the flames by rolling around in the snow and its attempts quickly come to fruition. Though not before its body starts giving out, its flesh literally melting off its bones, burned muscle turning liquid and sending a sickly sweet and yet delicious scent of cooked meat through the forest. I spit out a globule of drool, filled with a bit of vomit, the combination of tasty and disgusting truly making me sick, only the delighted kill notification ripping me out of my retching. The notification is accompanied by another, a skill-unlocking message rolling down my vision, congratulating me for my merciless tactic.
Congratulations you have unlocked the skill ‘Ice-Cold Tactics’ at Level 1.
Ice-Cold Tactics - lvl. 1
Without a shred of remorse or a single inkling of mercy, you craft effective and goal-oriented plans to snuff out your enemies. No matter the problem you will find a clever solution to it, using the resources around you, be they your own compatriots or simply by disregarding any hints of mercy, you will reach your goal, no matter the sacrifice.
I wince a slight bit as I read through the new skill, the description not sounding all too flowery and brutally listing the ways in which I used tactics to save the day, without a second thought about the effects my strategies would have on foe or friend alike. Well, the results speak for themselves, without them I would most assuredly be dead by now, better living as a villain than dying a hero. Ellaina breaks my line of thought as she returns from the woods, almost entirely expressionless upon seeing the molten carcass of the once formidable beast. With any loot we would have gained completely destroyed in the fire I simply retrieve my buckler, attaching it back onto my arms and remembering the neat trick for later.
The idea came to me during the small rest on the way here, the buckler’s second effect giving the user some control over the timings, allowing for shenanigans like that where the effect activates split seconds later, without anyone equipping it. With the buckler back in place, Ellaina joins me by my side, and we make our way towards the Taer’s campsite, finding the place thoroughly wanting, only two pieces of loot coming from the effort of uprooting its prior home. The first is a bunch of bones, similarly to the hairs of the Snow Wasset, registering as an Ingredient, having no immediate effect, unless they were crafted into an item. The second is much more interesting, the fang of a Fogged Mirror Viper, the poison working both ways, as an attack or to empower an ally.
3x Frost Wolf Bone - Lvl. 2 - Ingredient
Fang of Fog - Lvl. 4 - Relic
The Fang of a Fogged Mirror Viper, carrying a bit of its poison within it and releasing it when pushed into flesh. The Viper’s venom will make the victim’s body insubstantial, their flesh slowly forming to fog the longer the venom is allowed to work its course, reducing incoming damage while also slowly dissolving the victim.
Finished with looting the dead beast’s camp we get closer to the cave entrance, the light from the early afternoon sun not reaching far into the darkness. With one last look back at the bright star burning above us and lighting our path we step into the large cave, making our way into the mountain range. The cave is quite wide at first, providing ample room to move around, no passages splitting off, and even some hardy vegetation calling the place home. Secondly, it quickly gets much colder, a slight breeze blowing through the caverns, providing some air but also creating truly frigid temperatures.
Some ways in, the first signs of life start appearing, the creatures simply using the cave as a nocturnal resting place replaced by those calling the cave their true home. The ceiling quickly drops only to rise again, the passages through the solid rock narrowing at one place before returning to a width three men abreast. Our path was once carved out by an underground river, only the smooth river stone left to hint at the past beauty of this place, some stalactites created by the slowly receding water.
An interesting variant of moss lights up the cavern, the gentle breeze caressing the plant’s soggy surface, every movement lighting the moss a soft green to turquoise. After some time, the cavern ceiling suddenly gets very low, a small crack leaving a little passage into the next part of the cave. Quickly becoming uncomfortable, yet with no other way but forwards I get onto my knees and slowly shimmy through the opening. My eyes strain to catch any movement, the low light making it difficult to know if an enemy is lurking just behind the next bend.
Luckily no beast is waiting for us on the other side, and we make our way further inside the cavern, the passages quickly becoming tighter and tighter, needing us to weave between columns of stone or stalactites hanging from the ceiling. Here and there more interesting plants rear their heads, from small flowers adorning the bioluminescent moss to ivy holding together brittle stone. The size of the cave is impressive, hours of walking giving us only more passage to stride through, more cracks to shimmy our way through, and more obstacles lying in our way. Here and there offshoots lead into different directions, most times dead ends, only rarely the passage becoming so small we can’t go any further, forcing us to choose a different path.
Breaking the eerie silence of the cave is a loud crash coming from before us, a gust of air following the loud sound as something crashes into the stone. I push Ellaina behind me, waiting for a minute or two for something to happen, a monster to jump out of the darkness, a voice to explain itself, anything. Yet nothing like that happens and after some internal warring I continue on, Ellaina following closely behind me, both of us on a hair-thin trigger. We turn around the next corner, the moss on this part of the cave especially active, glowing a much brighter vivid green, mixed in with blots of turquoise and even a dark blue.
Just around the corner a bunch of rocks block the way further into the mountains, an ivy crushed beneath a layer of the stone it was desperately trying to hold together. In the end, though it seems the plant gave out, the brittle rock falling apart and crashing to the ground, the sound luckily not that of a monster but simply an environmental mishap. I move closer to the rubble, searching for the hole where the passage would go on and finding the soft glow of moss further into the caverns. With Ellaina helping me, we start carrying the stone out of our path, slowly revealing the passage further into the mountain and after close to an hour of effort the way is finally clear.
I step through the small opening, much warier of any stones suddenly crashing down next to me, a scary proposition seeing as all of our surroundings are made of that very substance, a simple failure of one of them could end up in us crushed underneath thousands of tons of frozen rock. I swallow heavily and we continue on, the environment overtaking the cave’s residents in our danger ranking, the idea of the cavern crashing down on me sounding much scarier than just a simple cave troll. Lucky for us no more incidents happen until we make camp at a small side chamber of a large cavern, the dead-end providing a narrow passage to defend but also no way to escape if overwhelmed, a two-sided blade.
In the end, only needing to watch a single entrance wins out over the possibility of being trapped and we make camp in the small chamber. Our rations are completely gone by the time we are finished with dinner, the snow badger not giving a lot of meat in the first place, even less of it suitable for travel. The last apple and a small, dried fish make up our dinner and we quickly go to sleep, not wanting to remain in the constricting caverns for all too long, the environment entirely unfit for humans. While Ellaina makes her bed behind me, I lean against the cave wall, looking out into the larger cavern and watching over the woman while she sleeps.
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My eyes shoot open as a wet sensation travels up my leg. It takes me a second to acclimatize to the low light as I seem to have fallen asleep while on watch, a stupid mistake that seems to now bite me in the butt. A jell-like ball sits in front of me, small waves and vibrations going through its body and moving the creature further up my leg. As suddenly as I awoke, so does a burning pain assault my foot, the creature noticing me waking and choosing that moment to attack its prey, me.
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I try to jump away, though my foot is pushed down with surprising strength, the thick jelly being the creature’s body tightly holding onto me and the ground, not allowing me to create any distance between us. I try not to scream as the pain slowly grows, not wanting to inform any other cave-dwellers of our position and calling a literal horde down upon us. Luckily my shuffling and pained grunts are enough to wake Ellaina, the woman at first groggily opening her eyes then suddenly jumping up and away from the fight. She is quick to react and while I try to deal with the creature dissolving my foot, pain spiking through my mind and making it difficult to think, she prepares an attack.
A spike of ice leaves her hands, crashing into the jelly of the creature’s body, a wave flowing through it and giving me a second of time in which the monster isn’t actively trying to eat my foot. I quickly punch into the slime with my second foot, getting my first out of its body, though some of the substance still clinging to it and continuing to dissolve my flesh. A muffled scream leaves my mouth as the pain starts from anew and I quickly limp over to Ellaina, getting some distance between the monster and me. A sudden glow comes from the top of the small cavern and looking up, I spot a second and even a third of the creatures slowly moving towards us, agitating the moss covering the ceiling.
Frost Jello - Lvl. 4
Frost Jello (Lvl. 1) - Lvl. 4
Ice Slime - Crystal Dissolver (Lvl. 2) - Lvl. 5
After sending a quick analyze at the creatures, the one having taken a nibble of my foot the highest level of the bunch, I dig around in my pockets. Quickly fishing out a trio of frozen leaves, the ice staying frozen for a surprisingly long time, even when in my pocket, and load them into my slingshot. I release a barrage of projectiles into the two Frost Jello’s sliding towards us from the top of the cavern, their tactic seeming much scarier, a slime enveloping mine or Ellaina’s head spelling a slow and horrific end. Two of the leaves shoot into the creatures’ bodies but do almost no damage, only the spray of slime from the impact hurting them slightly.
Cursing under my breath and with no way to escape the situation, the Ice Slime blocking our path out of the cavern, I quickly start engaging the new Ice-Cold Tactics Skill. Any of my or Ellaina’s rituals would take too long to get into working order, thus leaving us only with our own strength to solve the problem. Piercing attacks seem to have no effect on the creatures, only separating a part of their body seems to be hurting them, reducing their size. As I take another look at the creatures the Accent of my Mentality attribute spots a sphere-shaped object moving around in the slimes’ bodies, a small solid ball of the same color as the rest of their bodies, a nucleus.
“Hit the core inside them, if you can’t then try to cut them up.”, I quickly convey to Ellaina, the woman simply nods and then forms another icicle in front of her hands. With my projectiles utterly useless I dash forwards, summoning a shield above us to block the slimes from dropping directly down onto our heads, and then engaging the Ice Slime. While the creature is relatively slow moving over long distances, it is able to suddenly throw or contort its body in a direction, giving it a fighting chance, even against my almost 30 points in Activity. With the passage being so narrow it makes it difficult to get in a good hit without damaging the blade itself or allowing the creature to latch onto my body, reducing my chances even further.
Nevertheless, after some failed attempts I get in a good cut, the slime overextending to the left, its body pulled towards my arm. With this I am able to cut down with the blade, severing that part of its body, which quickly sacks to the ground, bubbling loudly. The slime lets out a silent scream, the jelly vibrating violently, ripples repeatedly going through its liquid form. It tries to assault me again, rushing towards me with all its speed, rolling slightly to get some extra momentum, though this just gives me the chance to line up my next strike. Deciding that a little injury wouldn’t kill me I kick into the creature with my already wounded leg, the body contorting around my foot, and then cut down into it, severing a good third of its body.
The two successful cuts give me a much smaller opponent to fight against and a thin enough layer of slime to strike the nucleus directly. Flashing forward with all 28 points of Activity boosting my strength and speed, I pierce through the slime’s membrane, my blade traveling towards its core. Just before I can break the creature’s heart an ice crystal appears inside its body, blocking my blade, the shard breaking instead and giving the nucleus enough time to move out of the way. Already in too deep to pull out my knife I double down on the attack, throwing my body onto the creature, the additional reach allowing me to find its heart once again and finally breaking the crystalline ball.
A kill notification appears in the corner of my vision and the slime’s body loses all semblance of unity, flowing into a puddle of bubbling liquid. Quickly getting my arms underneath me I stop myself from belly-flopping directly into the acid, the liquid only taking to my hands before I can dodge to the side. A second notification appears in my vision as Ellaina is successful in taking down one of her opponents, her projectiles much more effective than my attacks. The last Frost Jello is still in its initial position, the shield making any attack from above ineffective and stopping most of the two creature’s potential damage.
Ellaina quickly switches to the second target, and I give her a hand, a pair of frozen leaves alternating between the large icicles and slowly whittling down the creature. A third and last notification appears in my field of view and Ellaina quickly rushes over to me, holding her hand above the remains of the cold-aligned slimes and feeding me their energy. The red skin and flesh wounds on my legs and hands slowly vanish as the bodies of our enemies are used to heal my injuries. The strong enemies only give me little experience, not awarding me a new level, their strength not increasing their rewards proportionally, the system focusing more on their actual level then their power. Despite all that Ellaina is able to level up, her skills to jumping up, as well as my own, Frostbite Scabbing and Ice-Cold Tactics, increasing by 1.
With all sleepiness forcefully pushed from my system by the sudden attack, we pack up camp, both of us able to get in a short night's rest and ready for another day of traveling. We make our way out into the larger cavern, and I almost immediately jump back though my mentality quickly gets my body back under control. A single Level 3 Slime moves along the center of the cave, trying to move away from us, clearly spooked by us taking care of its three friends. I tap Ellaina, pointing at the monster and she releases a single large icicle, taking some time to charge the attack, the spike smashing into the slime and splattering it against the wall, immediately dead.
We then continue on our way, leaving the large cavern behind and walking further into the mountain. After some time, the passage plateaus, the path before constantly guiding us downwards at a slight angle, but now leveling out, most likely reaching the halfway point through the mountains. We top up our flasks stopping at an active stalactite in a large cavern, the fast trickle not taking all too long to fill the waterskins. As we wait for our water reserves to fill up I take a stroll around the cavern, the chamber the largest yet, almost 20 meters tall and extending into two smaller caverns on each side, creating a bustling underground ecosystem. Yet despite the clear signs of life, we decide not to go hunting, wanting to quickly leave the caves behind and breathe fresh air once again.
Large patches of luminescent moss cover the ceiling, creating ample light to see in the cavern, a welcome change to the endless darkness. Mushrooms and other small plants cover the floor and the huge number of stalactites and stalagmites, create a verdant environment, small animal life flourishing in the abundant flora. The Curious Cat Accent of my Mentality Attribute suddenly pings me and I only just have enough time to jump out of the way of a pale tentacle coming my way, enhanced flexibility contorting my body in unnatural ways. The attack shoots past me, returning to a small pile of snow, snow in the middle of a cave without any clouds creating the white powder. I quickly get some distance between me and my attacker, Ellaina quickly joining me, running over with an icicle already forming between her hands.
White Pudding - Snow Grazer (Lvl. 5) - Lvl. 7
A large blob of icy slime, the perfect camouflage predator in arctic environments, flowing into the snow and becoming a part of it, waiting for prey to literally walk into it. Patiently waiting the puddle feeds on the ground itself, absorbing heaps of snow, cooling down its body until not only does its prey dissolve when walking into it but they also freeze to death. Most known though is the pudding for being impossible to damage with swords alone, slimy flesh cut off its body simply forming a second of its kind.
Attribute Focus: Stability - 30
Skill Focus: Voracious for Ice - Lvl. 7, Split-ling - Lvl. 4
I read through the creature’s description, the monster apparently of the same family as the slimes from the nightly assault, only a seemingly much more powerful variant. Though some of its abilities also speak for us, its ability to freeze its targets to death is mostly ineffective against me and Ellaina, both of us being protected against that. Its relatively low Stability for its level hints at a good balance of Attributes, giving us no weakness to exploit yet also no strength to use against us. Deciding to engage the creature and not flee down the cavern, Ellaina releases her shot, an icicle the size of my arm shooting towards the creature of slime.
The attack impales the creature, its body punctured all the way through, though the attack deals only little damage, a small portion of slimy flesh flying off and bubbling against the stone. The icicle quickly vanishes inside the creature as the White Pudding consumes the attack and then starts moving towards us, much quicker than its lower-level cousins. I move in front of Ellaina, the woman moving back a little and let the creature come towards me, letting Ellaina deal most of the damage for now. A portion of the monster’s body suddenly contorts, a splash of slime flying towards me and intending to smash me into the ground.
I quickly summon a glaring shield before me, attaching it to my buckler to make use of its continuously growing reflection. The creature’s tentacle strikes my shield and slides off the smooth surface, a copy of the attack appearing in thin air and smashing down toward the monster. Once again, the animal’s copied attack is the most successful of any of my own, the creature of course also adapted to fight against its kind, its acid biting into its own body. Much more intelligent than the creatures I had to fight against before, the White Pudding shoots another attack at me, trying to get at me from odd angles, evading my shield.
My Activity and Accent focused into flexibility is enough to evade or block any of its attacks, some of them interrupted by the lances of ice occasionally impaling the creature’s body. Though the support from Ellaina comes less and less frequent as the energy fueling the attacks slowly runs out, only small spikes of ice shooting into the soft flesh after some exhausting minutes. With the distraction of Ellaina’s attacks coming less and less frequent, the creature gets in more strikes at me, forcing me to slowly give ground, pushing us towards the back of the cavern. Not wanting to end up encircled by the creature I equip my knife in my right hand, sliding the blade through an attack, bisecting the tentacle, hoping to whittle it down slowly, creating small enough split-offs for us to deal with.
A small creature flies away from the attack, a Level 2, Puddy, from the white Pudding’s skill, the cut of parts of its body forming into small copies of the large beast.
“Ellaina, take care of the little ones while I occupy the large beast.”, I call back at my companion, the fight audible anyways to anyone in the cavern, small creatures fleeing from us left and right. An icicle impales the Puddy some distance away from me, the small minion immediately exploding in a shower of acidic liquid. Seeing how fast Ellaina is taking care of the White Pudding’s offspring I decide to take more of the attacks with the sharp end of my weapon.
We slowly whittle down the large creature, almost a third of its mass gone by the time the White Pudding starts changing up its approach. Small puddles of acid, also burning the gigantic monster itself, litter the cave floor, forcing me to plan and measure my steps to not end up in one of them myself. The pudding sends a particularly large slash my way and I absentmindedly cut through the tentacle, occupied with trying not to step into one of the puddles of acid. This though quickly comes to bite me in the butt, the tentacle much, much larger then than the previous ones, almost half the creature’s mass behind the blow, condensed down to be unnoticeable. Not only does the force behind the attack smash me to the side, my only saving grace being the mirrored attack almost ending the white pudding itself, giving me enough time to deal with the second opponent appearing from the cut-off.
Pale Puddy - Snow Sweeper (Lvl. 2) - Lvl. 4
Now faced with two opponents, a Pale Puddy at full health and a much weakened but still high-leveled White Pudding, I quickly start moving back. The chaos gives me the chance to turn around, circling the two opponents and giving us some more area to retreat into. The longer time in between attacks gives Ellaina a moment to charge up her own and a lance of ice impales the already weakened White Pudding, the creature needing some time to work through the lance of ice and recover from the attack. In the meantime, I rush forwards, using the shield to ram into the Pale Puddy, the creature not yet knowing of the shield’s effect, decides to smash directly into it with full force.
A quite solid outline of the Pale Puddy appears before it, the shield active so long the mirror image is almost the same strength as the original attack. Sadly, just as the mirrored Pale Puddy smashes back the real one the Shield cracks loudly and falls apart, quickly melting before me, the skill running out. Faced with two weakened opponents yet robbed of my shield, I start slowly moving away, trying to only face one of the slimes at once. Ellaina continues raining her icicles into the higher leveled ooze, steadily damaging the already weakened beast.
As a particularly large lance takes up the creature’s focus, I dash forward, its nucleus close to its membrane, and activate Last Breeze, the skill giving me the needed speed and power to push forth. With the beast slightly distracted, the skill takes hold, pushing my body to its limits and the knife in my hand blurs, slicing deep into the creature, frost immediately forming on the blade. Nevertheless, the sudden attack is successful, and the creature’s core shatters into a thousand pieces, the mass of the beast sacking down and forming a bubbling puddle of acid.
Its friend seems to realize its luck has run out and we quickly annihilate the lower leveled creature, two versus one, finding the monster severely lacking. In the end, it doesn’t fall due to its core cracking but rather due to all of its mass being cut and shot off its body, leaving me with a new item for my collection. Besides the new item, Glaring Shield, Last Breeze, and Ice-Cold Tactics all level up, further empowering my arsenal, together with the steady growth of my companion. While the woman heals the injuries crisscrossing my body, I take a look at the singular item left from our battle, slimes not all too generous loot givers.
Pale Nucleus - Lvl. 6 - Relic
The undamaged Nucleus of a Pale Puddy holding the condensed frost of the environment the monster calls home. If shattered, the ball will release a wave of extreme cold, immediately freezing anyone or anything caught in its area of effect.