Chapter 7: *Title In Progress*
Early the next morning, Jace packed up his gear and headed for the cold side doorway energized and ready for action.
Smaug was securely on his perch, wrapped around Jace’s neck with a similar serious game face on.
“Todays the day, Smaug.”
Hiss.
“Today we begin the climb.”
Hiss.
“Today we return the favor.”
Hiss.
“Today we feast on their flesh.”
Hiss.
“Today we crush their ruby eyes into powder.”
Hiss….Smaug narrowed his gaze on Jace in betrayal.
Jace laughed and scratched under his chin. “I’m just kidding bud. We’re just setting the traps; it’s still going to be a good twelve hours till the action starts.”
Over the last few days, Jace’s scouting bore fruit when he discovered the Arctic Squirrels were actually nocturnal. Twice, he heard them wake during the day when something beyond his sight entered the area, but beside then, they were fast asleep during the day. It was as if the entire top part of the mountain near the doorway was declared the squirrels territory, and if that were true, then they were making Jace’s life a hell of a lot easier.
‘Easier to plan and hunt with less variables if I only have to deal with one target.’
Smaug turned his head away in a huff. Not moving away yet not forgiving Jace for the slight to his precious.
Jace shook his head in amusement and kept carting over the trap sets.
His first day in the world was spent bumbling around, affirming reality and his convictions, checking out the world around him and getting a basic understanding of things, getting injured twice, gaining a partner, exploring the cold side, finding food, facing a horde of bloodthirsty rodents, and cooking up a feast.
There was so much happening in a single day that he found it hilarious how much of a crucible he got baptized in.
The second through sixth days were much calmer, full of gathering, crafting, planning, mourning, scouting, and pure energy as he put his all into surviving, thriving, and bonding with his little buddy Smaug.
But on the morning of his seventh day of his new life on Atrox, it was finally time to take action.
Standing before the cold side door, Jace confidently faced ahead. “Smaug, suit me up.”
He kept moving, expecting to feel the sand coil around him, yet right before he went through the doorway he realized he was still naked like a teen entering high school in his pajamas and paused. “Smaug?”
Turning to his buddy, he was met with a pouting reptile. You would think a snake couldn’t pout, but Smaug made it work.
“Excuse me, Atrox to Smaug, it’s cold out there.”
Smaug hissed in displeasure and sent an image of jewels over the bond.
Jace blinked and deadpanned at him. “Are you still upset over that joke?”
Hiss.
Jace rolled his eyes with a sigh. “Is this what parents feel like? Bud, I was just kidding. Can we please go set these traps up so we can kill stuff? You love killing stuff.”
Smaug looked tempted, his head hesitating to look up, but he ultimately kept pouting.
“You know, the more we kill, the more jewels you get to have.” Jace whispered in a conspiratory voice to his buddy, physically seeing the little guardian struggle to keep his stubbornness. “Think of it. You will have a bed of jewels to sleep on.”
The struggle was real for Smaug in that moment. His imagination took him on a rollercoaster of sights, with him as a mighty being sleeping upon a mountain of glittering rubies. But then he recalled the cruel trick his human played on him, almost making him agree to smash the precious items into powder.
Smaug couldn’t take that lying down.
The two went back and forth before finally reaching an ultimatum, and as Jace stepped out into the cold side fully armored, Smaug proudly raised his head, displaying the ruby placed in a small pouch of fur Jace wrapped around his tail.
The morning antics aside, Jace took a deep breath of the crisp chilled icy air and got to work. Moving to and from the doorway and the beginning of the tree line thirty meters away from the doorway to set things up.
The fifty foot platform the doorway stood on was only fifteen meters long, leaving a fifteen meter gap full of snow between the platform and the tree line, giving Jace an open space to keep an eye out.
With no concern for the sleeping rodents, he worked tirelessly through the day, carefully staking and hammering in one trap after another.
The Squirrel Poles were hammered into the trees, secured tightly like ramps. Each one had three snares along its length, creating thirty six total snares for the trap alone.
The Bird Traps were set in the branches, ready to catch anything that tried to take the high ground. A dozen of them were primed and ready.
And the Twitch-Up Snares were set along the ground, hidden and prepped to yank anything that tripped them up into the air with brutal force.
All three types were set up to incapacitate, choke, or snap the neck of his prey, hopefully finishing them off without Jace having to even enter the scene.
He spread them over the tree line, letting them have some space to not immediately raise the alarm among the squirrels.
The cordage was pulled tight on all them, wrapped so thin and secure that it managed to break through his skin, forcing him to use a knife to cut it loose. ‘Trying to explain to Smaug not to kill the cordage wasn’t easy.’ Dozens of small stones had met their end when he bumped into them, getting squeezed to death by Smaug’s mighty protective instincts.
Once Jace finished, he set the normal bait, lining half the traps with raw hickory nuts, and covered the triggers as much as he could with snow to camouflage them. ‘Thankfully, the snares are set to the size of the squirrels heads. If I fell into my own trap by mistake, I wouldn’t even be able to die in peace.’
Setting it all up took hours of work, not because it was incredibly difficult or complicated, but because of how out of practice Jace was. The traps fell apart dozens of times, sometimes a piece was out of alignment, sometimes the placement was uneven, and sometimes the rocks weren’t the right size.
Not to mention having to stop every twenty minutes to go back inside and recover mana so he didn’t freeze to death, or the fact that he had to be quiet, it all ended up taking Jace over half a day to complete a job that should have been only two hours at best. ‘This better be worth the effort or I’m gonna stab an Arctic Squirrel.’ His plan involved stabbing them anyway, but his point was there.
He waited until just before sunset to head back over to the hot side and roast some nuts, making sure the aroma was fresh and strong before bringing them back over and lining the second half of the traps with them.
And for added measure, he made sure to toss a bunch in between the trees, giving off the illusion that it was safe to pick them up.
After it was all set, there was only one thing left for Jace to do.
Wait.
Sitting with his back to the border of the cold side doorway, Jace hummed while idly twirling his Aztec style short sword, with his spears and knives lying beside him. ‘I still need to figure out how EXP works. Why did the level 3 monster give me 19EXP? Why did the level 2 give me 14EXP? How far can I be from the trap to get EXP from a kill? Do I get it because I built the trap? Because of how close I was? Because of the damage I inflicted with the trap? Does Smaug killing something give me EXP because he’s my summon? Is there different EXP ratio’s for all these factors or a standard reward? Or perhaps I’ll get nothing because I didn’t directly kill the creature?’
There were dozens of questions flowing through his head, but only one tangible way to answer them. And that was to kill a bunch of Arctic Squirrels and record the data.
The sun was setting over the horizon, painting the world in its golden hues.
Without the activity of the last few days, with him having had time to process things more, and with no immediate need to act, Jace found himself relaxing in the foreign world, taking in the beauty of the cold arctic mountain forest before him with a sense of awe. His vantage point allowed him to see into the distance, studying the massive force of nature that was a blizzard roll from one side of the mountain to the other and back like a slow moving pendulum.
‘It’s a moment like this that reminds me of all that I gained, rather than what I lost.’ This was living to him. Striving, working, and planning for nothing but his own future with his own bare hands.
The trees blocked the view of what lay directly down the mountain, but what he saw was enough for him at the moment. Occasionally, he caught a glimpse of movement in the distance from something flying through the air, but it was too far to make out, and not nearly as bright as the hot side. ‘Even during the day, the cold side’s sky is cloudy, making the area lit from light reflecting off the snow. Whereas the hot side has ash and dust blocking out the majority of the sun yet has an abundance of light from all the lava, magma, and glowing platforms.
Jace had stepped outside the other day after the sun had gone down, and that was a whole different world. The cold side became truly dark with visibility dropped to mere feet away and snowfall over the platform to the doorway. Meanwhile, the hot side became a world out of layer of hell fantasy, solely lit by glowing magma with red ash clouds obscuring vision in areas while the platforms grew dim with their black stone materials pulsing in the dark like an eldritch heartbeat.
And those were simply the visual changes, as the sounds of creatures unheard during the day came out to announce their presence.
The night was a different world from the day, and Jace decided he would have to learn one world at a time. The day time was the only time he would step out until he grew stronger, and as long as he was near the doorway, he would only come out at night to check the snares within fifty meters.
Soon enough, the sun dipped below the horizon and the darkness rolled on in. It didn’t take long after that for Jace to hear the first signs of chattering just as snow began to fall from the cloudy sky. ‘I guess the roasted nuts did the trick.’
The night made visibility difficult, but even without a light source, the gleam of red jeweled eyes were easily picked up from where he sat.
‘Here we go.’ Jace sat up and focused his senses, ready to dive back inside at a moment’s notice, but otherwise kept to a small frame with the sand armor helping to block his heat signature.
One pair of eyes became two, two became four, four to eight, and soon, a cold sweat traveled down Jace’s spine as dozens then hundreds of gleaming ruby eyes shined in the dark. ‘That’s….a lot more than I was expecting.’
Even Smaug with his new appreciation for shiny things was silent, knowing clear well how fucked they were if they attracted any attention.
Red eyes grew in higher and higher numbers as more squirrels were attracted to the thick scent of sweet roasted nuts hanging in the air.
‘Stepping out there is a death sentence.’
Snow fell harder, obscuring the view even more as the chattering grew in volume, the rodents likely curious but cautious of whatever the sweet smelling object was.
‘Thankfully, I don’t have to.’
All it took was one. Just one curious domino to collapse the calm like a castle of cards. And it came when one squirrel couldn’t resist its curiosity and bit into a roasted nut.
The crunch of the shell was crisp in the night air as hundreds of eyes focused on the squirrel in question. It chewed furiously, cheeks bulging with the weight of the prize within. But after swallowing, what followed went beyond Jace’s wildest imagination.
He had no way of knowing that he just gave a bunch of bloodthirsty berserker rodents with little intelligence the equivalent of a tossing a bag of cocaine laced catnip into a crowd of alley cats.
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The first squirrel screeched to high heavens and charged toward a second nut, sending a wave of excitement through all of them as pandemonium broke out.
Jace couldn’t see it visually, but he definitely heard what sounded like a gladiatorial colosseum match between rodents as they all began screeching war cries. Red eyes blurred in the dark as squirrel after squirrel whipped into a frenzy, attacking anything in sight to get to the next nut.
And through it all, an impression of a bell on a countertop being found by a hyperactive seven-year-old on a sugar rush began pinging through Jace’s brain like a jackrabbit.
‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’
‘Gah! Fucking make it stop!’ Jace gripped the side of his head and fell over with blood leaking from his ears as the sound pounded through his skull.
However, the moment he mentally screamed for silence, it stopped. His grimoire appeared in a flash only he could see as it displayed a volume icon. ‘I can change the volume setting? Say that sooner!’ He yelled mentally while kicking the volume down to the lowest setting and hearing only a faint ding in his ears.
The grimoire bobbed in what Jace could only take as a shrug, but he didn’t bother focusing on it. Smaug was hissing furiously in concern as he half dragged Jace’s prone body back inside. The second he passed through the doorway, the dings cut off and Jace held up a hand. “Stop! Bud, I’m fine, but we’re not getting EXP anymore, we need to go back out.”
Smaug hissed back in obvious concern, pointing his tail toward Jace’s face, or rather the blood trails leaking from his ears.
“I’ll tell you about it later, come on, were missing the action.” He rolled his body back out through doorway, connecting back with a much less frequent sound of dings and let out a small laugh. ‘This is more than I could have imagined.’
He whispered to his partner. “Smaug, keep watch, I’m checking the grimoire.”
Smaug nodded in reply and stood silent like a sentinel as Jace checked the results.
The pages flipped to the backlog and he saw what was happening.
[Backlog:
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 2 killed: 12EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 2 killed: 12EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 2 killed: 12EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 2 killed: 12EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 2 killed: 12EXP Gained]
[Level Up! Please choose a resource to improve.]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 2 killed: 11EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 2 killed: 11EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 3 killed: 2EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 3 killed: 2EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 2 killed: 2EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 3 killed: 2EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 4 killed: 2EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 3 killed: 2EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 3 killed: 2EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel….
….
]
‘What the fuck?’ Jace blinked in confusion as the list went on and on. The dings began to slow down, but the sounds of insanity close by didn’t. The rodents were bloodthirsty and in a haze, squealing and screeching with abandon as they mauled each other.
Jace could only remain huddled up by the door as he tried to make sense of what was happening. His hot breath left his lips in an icy mist as his heart beat in his ears. It was one thing to run away from a horde of angry creatures, it was another to be only thirty meters from an all-out savage brawl to the death between hundreds of enemies.
‘The second shit hit the fan; I immediately got the full EXP amounts.’ There were seven lvl 2 kills giving him full EXP amounts. ‘Although, the total seems to have dipped after leveling. I guess I can improve one my resources, but I can do that later.’
He ignored it and kept reading as right after the seventh kill, it dropped to 2EXP per kill and kept coming. ‘Am I…am I only getting partial credit?’
The dings came to a stop soon and Jace counted forty six notifications, seven of which gave him full EXP amounts. ‘I set up 36 snares, 12 of each kind, but counting the Squirrel Poles with three snares on each, that’s actually 60 possible snares in total. Maybe….did the squirrels get caught, but only the weaker level 2’s died right away, and the stronger ones died in the fighting to the other squirrels? Maybe it was a specific type of trap that did the level 2’s in?’
That train of thought gained traction and presented the most logic Jace could see. ‘So I get EXP because I trapped them, but since I didn’t contribute to its death I only got a fraction of the reward. The first seven kills happened right away and were all to the level 2’s. I guess my traps only worked instantly on the weaker types first, while the level 3’s and up survived the initial damage.’
The sounds of fighting continued, but the lack of EXP notifications told Jace his train of thought was likely correct. The screeches began growing distant as the fighting seemed to be moving to a new location, but Jace couldn’t stick around to find out as his mana was flagging.
Rolling back inside, Smaug let the armor drop to reveal a sweating and brightly smiling Jace. “Holy shit.”
Holy shit was right. The adrenaline rush was a hell of a thing as he stared at the pages of his grimoire. “Smaug, we just caused around half a hundred deaths, if not more. With roasted nuts.”
He paused for emphasis on the last part, getting a thrilled hiss from his partner.
“Talk about going coocoo for coco puffs. Those rodents went apeshit.” Jace laughed openly and scrolled through the list of kills.
None were above level 4, but it didn’t matter as he gathered 39 kills worth 2EXP a pop collecting to 78EXP, plus 7 more kills worth a collective 82EXP, for a total of 160EXP from a single run. ‘And I probably lost a few more when Smaug dragged me inside, but at this point who cares?’
He chuckled like a cartoon villain and focused back on the request to choose a resource.
The pages turned to his status page and he willed it to highlight any changes.
[
Class: Summoner – lvl 0 > 1 {EXP 91/200}
HP: 50/50 (+)
MP: 14/50 (+)
SP: 50/50 (+)
]
‘Which one do I want to increase? Health and Mana are my focus here. Health because I want to live longer, that foot injury on my first day took over half my health. But more Mana means Smaug can keep me outside longer. Safety or Utility….’
Jace hesitated on the option for a minute longer before making up his mind. ‘I only have one life; I need health first. Mana second.’
He mentally willed the change to happen and his status updated.
[
HP: 50/50 > +60 > 110/110
]
The second he made the change, a heat bloomed inside him. Originating from his heart, and quickly spreading through his veins, changing, altering, injecting his blood with pure vitality.
Jace and Smaug as one seized up with a gasp of soulful pleasure as the heat washed through them, changing their hearts ever so slightly and permanently infusing all his cells with more than double the vitality he had before.
And then it vanished like it was never there, leaving a gaping man and snake in place, eyes wide in a silent groan.
The two gaped, looked at each other, froze, and then slowly nodded, both agreeing never to speak of that moment again.
‘That was…something.’ Jace looked down at his palm, flexing it and turning over his hand. ‘Did my skin get smoother?’ It was difficult to tell, as Jace never bothered focusing on his skin quality before, but it seemed to be the case. ‘I feel…the same.’
It was weird to say, but not much really changed. The experience passed, and it felt like he just went through a spa resort weekend package, compressed into a single instant.
It was a good feeling, and Jace craved to feel it again. Wetting his parched lips, Jace turned to his partner. “I don’t know about you bud, but I want to feel that again.”
Smaug hissed in agreement as Jace pulled the summons status.
[Guardian Summon: Smaug
HP: 110/110
MP: -
]
‘So he really does grow with me then.’ Jace mused in interest before shutting the book. “Well, I’m feeling slightly more confident with some more health. What do you say we see if we can’t get a few more kills from the stragglers?”
Smaug nodded excitedly and the two quickly donned the armor and stepped back out into the dark wintry night. The sounds of combat were already far off into the distance, and Jace didn’t see a single gleam of red eyes in the dark.
With careful steps, Jace crouched low and moved forward slowly. Spear in one hand and short sword in the other. Ice crunched beneath his feet regardless of his efforts, but the sand helped smother much of the sound.
Reaching the edge of the platform, Jace froze as he surveyed the land once more, not seeing anything move yet picking up the faint sound of whimpering. The smell of iron was thick in the air like a cloud, blanketing the area through the falling snow with only a faint hint of the sweetness of pecan.
Jace’s eyes turned to his partner in question, silently asking if he could tell where it was coming from. Smaug replied by sticking his head out and tasting the air, picking up on a scent for them to follow before using his tail to direct Jace forward.
His armored sand shoes transitioned to snow shoes without missing a beat, letting him stalk through the snow in silence to approach the tree line.
The darkness was thick like mud, barely letting him see feet ahead through the snow cover. The closer he got, the thicker the tang of iron in the air became until he could practically taste blood in his mouth. ‘Coming out here sounded a lot better in my head.’
He debated heading back, wondering if the risk was worth the reward, until he accidentally stepped on something lumpy and his heart skipped a beat. He froze like a statue, refusing to make a sound, and slowly looked down, to see a massive, bloodstained blotch in the snow surrounding a severed tail. ‘Fuck.’
Removing his foot, he took a knee to examine the limb. ‘This shit was bit clean off. These rodents are insane.’
Smaug hissed near silently in his ears, urging him to move forward to something beyond his sight.
The two proceeded a few more steps, and Jace caught sight of what Smaug wanted him to see. ‘Holy mother of…’
Like an image out of a chop shop at a horror house built by a demented clown, the scene in front of Jace sent a cold chill down his spine.
Fur, blood, bodies, and severed limbs littered the area like trash. The Squirrel Pole had an Arctic Squirrel in each of its three snares, each hanging limply in the air dripping blood like a horror show pinata.
‘I think I’m gonna be sick.’ Jace had carved up numerous animals before. He was no stranger to blood, innards, and the smell of shit before. But one or two animals at a time was different from the dozens of savaged carcasses before him. ‘They got caught in the snares and the others savaged them.’
Stepping closer, he examined the hanging squirrels and noticed blood leaking from the limbs caught in the snare. ‘Their struggle only made the snare tighten further, suffocating them as they fought.’
Jace swallowed a lump as he forced down his nerves. ‘This is fucked up, but this is the world I’m in now. I didn’t expect it to be any different.’ He took a deep breath. ‘There’s no room for a weak stomach in this game.’ His foot stepped on a fallen organ and he winced. ‘Doesn’t mean it’s not fucking gross though.’
Steeling himself, Jace followed Smaug’s directions, coming up on a different trap with a still moving target in it.
A blood covered squirrel struggled weakly against the snare around it’s leg, whimpering as it dangled in the air. A single red eye turned Jace’s way, and if Jace was feeling sorry for it initially, that feeling evaporated as the creature’s features turned savage, snarling with rabid drool leaking from its lips. It’s mouth opened and recognizing the look of something about to scream, Jace acted as his short sword swung, spraying blood through the air as the obsidian edges shredded its target.
‘Ding’
The movement barely took any effort, leaving Jace staring at the results of his first kill without the adrenaline of combat. He didn’t flinch, nor did he look away. He stared into the dying light of his prey and accepted what was. ‘I take no joy in ending your life or prolonging your pain, but I’m gonna thrive, and you’re a stepping stone.’
His will firmed with his action, he was no saint, he was just a hunter, and he would grow from this and spill far more blood before he was done. As edgy as it sounded, it was true, and Jace accepted that.
Smaug felt none of those emotions. To him, no life mattered aside from his partners. But recognizing his human’s emotions, he gave him a moment to stare at the corpse before tugging him on. There was more prey still living, and he wasn’t happy being unable to see danger in the dark.
Jace followed Smaug’s direction, wading through the snow, grabbing any complete corpse in sight and tossing the bodies toward the icy platform behind him.
‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’ ‘Ding’
Six more squirrels were found breathing, four injured, one tangled up in thread unable to do more than squirm, and one surprisingly intact yet stuck choking on a bird trap in the branches. Jace put them all out their misery with a spear head through the throat, even if the last one seemed to be moments away from snapping through its bindings.
‘I think that’s all of them.’ Jace had moved quickly after his first kill, checking the general area of his traps and following Smaug’s senses. Many of the corpses were in too many pieces for him to collect, but he did scoop up any fallen rubies he found sparkling in the snow.
He noticed Smaug perk up with each one found, and his guardians exuberance helped offset the heavy atmosphere hanging around the battlefield.
The initial seven lvl 2 kills were also found, all dead from Bird Trap snares with the weight having snapped their necks.
The sounds of combat in the distance passed with the growing snowfall, and soon Jace was stepping back inside, dragging a thick pile of bleeding corpses with him. “Smaug, do not let this armor fall until I put these things down.”
The little snake bobbed his head without much care, but seeing as he was running out of mana, Jace hurried to drop the bodies off next to the pond of washing water.
They fell in a wet splat on the ground, but Jace honestly couldn’t care as he turned away from the pile of wildly savaged things. ‘I need some booze.’ He just knew the image of all those bodies was going to stick in his brain for a while.
Smaug let the armor drop, quickly scurrying over to the pile and hissing excitedly at the sight of so many gleaming jewels. The sight added a bit of humor to Jace’s mood, letting him give off a low chuckle and pat his partner. “Give me a bit bud. I’m gonna go wash off and then we can deal with these things.”
Smaug titled his head curiously, but ultimately followed behind Jace as he walked off toward the waterfall and the hot spring like water pooled underneath.
Sinking in, he let his mind wander as the steaming water enveloped him. ‘I’m not tired. Nor am I fatigued. But that was just some brutal shit.’ He shook his head. ‘I’ll be fine, let’s focus on the good news.’
Willing his grimoire to open, he checked the backlog.
[Backlog]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 3 killed: 9EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 3 killed: 9EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 3 killed: 9EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 4 killed: 13EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 4 killed: 13EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 3 killed: 18EXP Gained]
[Arctic Squirrel lvl 5 killed: 35EXP Gained]
‘…What is up with these numbers?’ Jace’s face scrunched up. ‘It’s obviously following some kind of mechanic, but what is it? I know I’m losing 50% of the EXP for each kill before the final result, so what else is affecting it?’
He looked over at his EXP gauge thoughtfully.
[
Class: Summoner – lvl 1 {EXP 197/200}
]
Scratching his head, Jace looked over at the numbers again. ‘It’s obvious that the last two I killed were almost entirely intact, yet why the massive difference? If I got 35EXP for that one lvl 5, I could assume it’s the normal amount I’m supposed to get. And using the numbers from earlier when the trap first went off, a level 2 offered me 12EXP before I leveled up, and it dropped to 11EXP after I leveled up. Meaning there is some kind of mechanic behind my own level affecting how much EXP I get based on the enemies level.’
Looking at the rest of the numbers, he winced in realization. ‘All those 2EXP kills were a massive waste now that I think about it. Each of them could have been worth 11EXP at a minimum, but whether it was level 2 or 4, all of them gave me 2EXP. Meaning I was included in the kill but contributed little to ending their life.’ Comparing those to his last few kills, he felt assured in that thought. ‘Maybe 9 and 13 is half of the EXP I would have gotten? They were pretty injured, but I did end their lives plus trap them in the first place. I need more samples to be sure.’
A splash to his side distracted Jace from his internal monologue to witness a happy Smaug doing a snake dance in the water. The reptile was over the moon seeing all the loot and wasn’t the least bothered by what they just saw.
Jace couldn’t help but laugh as he beckoned his friend over. “Bud, I doubt I have to convince you, but we need to change our method going forward. I don’t know what else is living on the mountain outside, so I’d rather not waste so much easy EXP right outside our door. You ok with that?”
Smaug tilted his head adorably and hissed a question that translated over the bond.
A question that made Jace’s lips twitch in wry amusement. “Yes, you can kill them if you want to next time. Thanks for holding back tonight.”
Smaug nodded happily and returned to his excited swimming. He was a kid on a sugar rush, and the messiest blood bath in the world wasn’t going to damper his spirits.
‘As long as it’s not my blood anyway.’ That thought comforted him as he closed his eyes and leaned back to float in the water. No matter what may come, Smaug was there by his side, fearlessly ready to take on the world.
Jace figured he should start emulating that confidence. ‘Besides, now I can finally make myself some goddamn pants.’
There was a pile of fur pelts to skin waiting back for him near the pond, and by Elm’s bald head, Jace was going to use them.
Chapter End.