Rep sighed in disappointment, looking over himself. He was completely cleared of all the cuts and bruises the rocks had just delivered him. He looked the antithesis to Zalan, who was a colorful display of red, pink and purple from face to foot.
“Hey, congrats. You’ve been Level 5 pretty long, right?” Zalan said, trying to make the situation seem better.
“I hope that this will not hinder our ability to gather the flowers from the beasts that lay beyond here,” Rep said.
“Well, only one way to find out, right?” Zalan said, pointing to the way ahead.
“No, we should remain here for a few minutes, ensuring that no creatures that saw the white light of the Level gain were drawn to it,” Rep said.
“Oh. Yeah, I didn’t even think of that.”
Rep turned around and began to sift through the fallen Earthenbeasts, looking for Artifacts. Zalan rubbed at his arms, the stinging sensation of the forming bruises leaving a strong impression on him. He considered asking Rep to use the Homeseeker so he could heal himself and come back in a few hours. He tossed the idea almost as quickly as it came. Artifacts only had limited uses before they would degrade. He didn’t want to waste the finite warps on the Homeseeker if he could help it. Especially when he thought about how he might want to use it on the Island of Remains. He considered there were very few ways he would return from the island, imagining that Morloch wouldn’t leave any incoming ships unscathed.
“That should be long enough,” Rep decided, standing from the last Earthenbeast he searched.
Zalan and Rep hugged the wall of the cliff as they progressed, checking around corners for more Earthenbeasts before continuing the way forward. To Zalan’s surprise, there were bird nests on the cliff. Some even had eggs in them. He always found it odd to see evidence of real animals in this realm. Did they know about their counterparts in his own reality? It was an odd thought, considering he didn’t think that most humans in this realm thought about there being multiple dimensions.
They turned the next corner and shuffled inland, away from perilous steps over the water. It felt more like a tight, rocky corridor with narrow paths in several directions. Like a crack was made at the top of the mountain that they were able to enter. While still dark and shaded, the top was open, but the walls were too sheer to climb.
As they traveled further within, Zalan was surprised to see significantly larger nests. The eggs within were larger than ostrich eggs. They looked the size of yoga balls, with the ridge-like exterior to match. Zalan looked them over in amazement, never having seen anything like it.
“What kind of animal lays something this big?” Zalan asked Rep.
“These are monster eggs. Bloodbeak eggs, to be precise,” Rep told him.
Zalan tilted his head in confusion, pointing at the nearest nest.
“Monsters make these nests? They lay eggs?”
“How else did you think they reproduce?” Rep asked.
“I don’t know, I… I seriously never even thought about it before,” Zalan admitted. “I thought they just spawned out of evil pits or something.”
“Not that I know of. Except perhaps the Mind of Madness. I suspect that one simply came into being on its own from the darkest abyss of the Depths of Despair. Be grateful we have no intention of going that way. The location alone takes a heavy toll on one’s mind,” Rep said.
Zalan nodded, remembering his terrible run-in with the Mind of Madness on one of his first journeys in this realm. One look from the creature was enough to render him useless in unbearable pain. Powerful emotional pain, but enough to leave him feeling like he was dying. Getting his mind off the past, he looked ahead.
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“What is that?” Zalan pointed, immediately panicked.
Rep turned, thinking Zalan was pointing out another large nest. He widened his eyes in surprise. An unarmed Boznok was looking at Rep and Zalan with wide eyes, like it had been spooked. It was carrying a Bloodbeak egg in its arms. It looked down at the egg, like it had been caught doing something it wasn’t supposed to. Rep and Zalan stared, unsure what the creature was going to do.
Then, it waddled off, taking the egg with it.
“Did you see that?” Zalan said, astounded.
“The Boznok was hard to miss, yes,” Rep replied.
“It stole an egg! What do Boznoks do with eggs?”
“I suppose they cook them and eat them. Perhaps share them with their young over a meal,” Rep said.
“I’m being serious,” Zalan said.
“As am I,” Rep assured him.
“But they’re monsters. I thought all monsters were like… I don’t know, not the kind to take care of a family?”
“Perhaps most monsters, but Boznoks seem to have a tribal system they are accustomed to.”
“Do you think there are other monsters like that?”
“Not that I know of, but I would not be surprised to learn of it,” Rep said thoughtfully.
Zalan wasn’t sure why yet, but wanted there to be different types of monsters for him to have to deal with. It made him hopeful that there were ways to deal with these creatures outside of combat. Maybe Morloch would be one of those monsters. Looking at the large eggs with more enthusiasm, he tried to imagine a beast taking care of its young.
He hovered his hands over one of the massive eggs, then shied away from touching it.
“You are not thinking of eating a monster egg yourself, are you?” Rep asked, sounding a little grossed out.
“No, nothing like that.”
“I have heard it done by some adventurers. They claim the taste is delicious, but I do not see myself ever getting past the idea of consuming a monster. The flesh must be rotten within. I can not imagine it being good for you, much less tasting like a good meal. But in dire situations, it is certainly edible,” Rep said. He then shuddered at the thought.
Zalan wondered how many pounds of scrambled eggs he could make with the egg the size of a boulder. He missed the foods he used to eat at home. Not in his apartment where he mostly ate snacks and fast food, but his home with his mother. A sting of homesickness washed over him and he refocused on the task at hand. Everything done in this realm was to reach the end goal of going back home.
“Let’s get back onto climbing the cliff,” Zalan said, finally turning away from the nest.
Rep was staring at the area above them. Zalan looked up and saw a group of Bloodbeaks circling. He counted about ten of them.
“Prepare yourself,” Rep said, drawing his sword.
“Shouldn’t we be getting out of here instead of getting ready to fight?” Zalan asked, pulling out his own blade and looking at Rep in confusion.
“We are in their nest and an egg is missing. We should have fled the moment the Boznok ran off with its food. We are already surrounded,” Rep declared.
Zalan frowned in disbelief, then looked at the path forward. There was a Bloodbeak at the end, taking slow, menacing steps toward them. Zalan turned behind and saw disheveled feathers floating through the opening, indicating more around the corner. Zalan looked above once more and saw the number of Bloodbeaks had doubled. They were beginning to block out the light coming in from the sun. Zalan blinked a few times as the cloud of monsters continued to intensify.
“Should I start firing lightning? Do we want to provoke them when they’re like this?” Zalan asked nervously.
“I would normally say not to make it worse, but I am inclined to believe that this is as bad as the situation can get,” Rep said.
Rep’s casual treatment of the situation filled Zalan with confidence. Usually Rep was much more worried about monster encounters. Maybe it was overconfidence, but Zalan felt like they had nothing to worry about when Rep was ready to take them on.
“Yeah, let’s just get this over with,” Zalan said.
He threw his arm in the air and blasted the sky with jolts of lightning. They ran up and stopped just short of the Bloodbeaks. Zalan’s Wisdom wasn’t high enough to hit them. They immediately organized themselves and began nosediving.
“I suppose it could get worse,” Rep said, bracing himself.
“Sorry.”
“Do not be. I wish to see how much my Strength has increased.”