Chapter 5
Sebastian re-examined the person sitting across the campfire. Her name was Miya apparently, which sounded much better than “that girl”. He had already seen most of her features before but now he had time to take a closer look. Miya had large expressive eyes that seemed to always be filled with indifference, well that and red too, they were also red. Sebastian had been wanting to ask her about that but he saved it for later and continued his examination, Miya also had high cheekbones and full lips, and with her other traits like her pale skin and shiny black hair, Miya looked like she belonged on a billboard. Sebastian wondered if being attractive was a classer thing or Miya was just like that. Sebastian filed away even more questions for later, he was making a rather long list by now of things he didn’t know.
Miya seemed unconcerned by Sebastian’s staring though, she was much more interested in finishing off the last of his rationed marshmallows. There were no factories or anything like that in the Shattered Isles according to Miya, so mass-produced foods weren’t available. Sebastian wasn’t feeling too worried about his inevitable lack of candy though, the Shattered Isles made up for it with more unique food. The Isles apparently have master chefs who can make food using ingredients from monsters, which was supposed to be a delicacy like no other.
Sebastian decided he had had enough time to relax and broached the question that had been bugging him this whole time.
“So uhh… why did you want to talk with me again?” He started. Miya swallowed her marshmallow and replied.
“Ohhhh, right. I never told you why I helped you out. So basically, there’s a big monster I’m going to need your help to kill.”
“Why?” Sebastian asked, “You seemed plenty capable of handling that Exiled Stag earlier.”
“Oh but that was different.” She said, “You see, the monster I want to kill is |Level 10|.”
That didn’t explain very much to Sebastian, that was only one levels higher than the stag that they had killed, perhaps this monster was even smarter than that one, or maybe it wasn’t even a stag but rather a monster better suited for fighting Miya. Sebastian relayed his thoughts to her.
“Oh, I guess your pretty new here so you wouldn’t know. Every ten levels, you advance into a different realm so to speak. It becomes much harder for those who aren’t in the same realm as you to injure or sense you, even if you have stats higher than theirs. Which is why I need some help to kill this monster.”
“Okay then, that’s all new information for me, but why me? There’s got to be other people who could help you right?” He asked.
“Nope, everyone else is pretty much dead or way weaker than you.”
“Really?” Sebastian hadn’t thought he was anything special, so why had he gotten so strong he wondered.
“Yup,” Miya replied, “Remember that time when I saved your butt, the same thing that happened to you happened to almost everyone on the first day.”
Sebastian became a little lost in thought after hearing that. He had heard of the death rates and dangers of the Shattered Isles, but never really knew how dangerous it was here. He hadn’t expected anything special from himself, but he had at least hoped that preparation and hard work would keep him alive. But he couldn’t bring himself to hate the Isles, because no matter how hard he tried he thought of his status.
Sebastion looked up towards Miya.
“Okay, let’s do this.”
“Really? I thought you’d need some more persuasion or enticement or something.” she said.
“Nope. It honestly sounds fun. So what’s the monster?” Sebastian asked
Miya began explaining, “Huh. Okay then, well the monster I’m hunting is called an Imperial Stag, it’s the leader of all the stags on the island.”
“Is there a new plan or are we doing what we did last time?
“We’ll need a new plan, the Imperial Stag will likely have abilities for controlling the stags around it. I’ll need you to kill all of the little guys while I hold off the Imperial Stag. But first, let’s try to get you up to |Level 9|.”
———————
It didn’t take nearly as long as Sebastian had thought to get to |Level 9|. Sebastian’s Perception was enough to find plenty of stags on his own, and with Miya also helping out he quickly made it up |Level 9|. Sebastian looked at his status with a sense of pride.
Name: Sebastian Hart
Age: 18
Level: 9
Class: Locked
Experience: 69 / 900
Unused AP: 0
Health
90 / 90
Stamina
90 / 90
Mana
90 / 90
Constitution
9
Vitality
9
Resilience
9
Intellect
9
Endurance
9
Spirit
9
Strength
9
Focus
9
Agility
22
Wit
9
Perception
31
Insight
9
Dexterity
20
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Control
9
Skills
Abilities
Treasures
None
None
None
Class: Locked
Sebastian had decided to put all of his Attribute Points into Agility because by now his Perception and Dexterity were more than enough to make up for his lack of skill with firearms and he would need to be faster to better maneuver himself between all of the Silver Stags he was about to kill.
As he and Miya had hunted stags to help him level up, Sebastian finally had some time to ask questions. Like why he had gained experience when she had saved him? What level was she? How did Skills, Abilities, and Treasures work? Miya didn’t have time to answer his last question but she did get through his first few. Sebastian had gained experience from his near-death experience with his first stag because you could also gain experience from surviving relatively powerful monsters. But what Miya said next got him a little confused.
“I’m |Level 10|.” She said
As curious as Sebastian was about her class and such, he thought back to something she said.
“Wait, you said that when people reach |Level 10| they get harder to hurt or sense unless you’re on the same level or higher than them. If you’re |Level 10|, then why do you need my help?”
“Oh, I guess I didn’t explain that very well, did I? You see, when people reach |Level 10|, they need to do something to achieve their class, and then they reach |Level 11| and properly receive those gifts I talked about. Monsters are different however, they get those powers at |Level 10|.”
“But that doesn’t seem fair, how come monsters don’t follow the same rules?”
“Think about it, if you watched an island, how many of those monsters would continue to grow stronger and travel to other islands. None. Monsters are stagnant and rarely advance beyond their limits. But if you were to look at people instead of monsters, you’d see that a relatively large amount keep traveling further into the Isles. It’s all balanced in the end.”
“Huh.” Sebastian said eloquently.
He hadn’t thought about it much, he knew that the monsters didn’t seem to follow the rules the way they should’ve, like how are there so many and what do they eat? But he had been getting close to |Level 9| and he didn’t have enough time for more questions.
———————
“Something’s wrong.” Miya said, “I don’t sense anything up ahead. But that’s where the stags are supposed to be.”
“Sense?” Sebastian asked. Miya looked away nervously, and then spoke.
“I don’t really feel comfortable talking about what I can do but yes, I should be able to sense the stags and I’m not getting anything.”
They didn’t stop however, Sebastian and Miya were confident they wouldn’t find anything that they couldn’t run away from if they needed to. But as they walked out from the forest and into the base of the mountain, where the stags were supposed to be, they froze. The sight that met them was not what they had expected at all, stags bodies littered the ground with their organs ripped out and frozen blood covering their insides. Further up the mountain was an even more gruesome sight.
Three stags had their heads completely ripped off, but these stags were different from the others, two of the stags had white hair and golden manes like the Exiled Stag Sebastian and Miya had killed not too long ago, but the other body was incredible. It didn’t look too different from the other two stags next to it, with similar white hair, but it was at least twice as big. Sebastian wasn’t even sure such a beast would be able to walk into the forest without knocking branches down and Sebastian didn’t even know how big its antlers were.
“Oh no,” Miya said in a frightened whisper, which made Sebastian feel uneasy.
“It’s a Deviant.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sebastian asked.
“Do you remember how I said monsters are stagnant and never leave their islands? Deviants are the exception, they kill all the monsters on their island and then travel to others, often causing the native monsters to flee their islands and create chaos.”
“What about the recruiter, he’s got to be around here somewhere, right? Maybe he could fight it.” Sebastian suggested.
“Not likely,” Miya said, “Most recruiters are only around |Level 10|. If the one here has any sense they’d have left by now to request for help from their faction.”
“So we just leave?”
“We might stand a chance against a newborn deviant, but forget one that’s likely over |Level 10|.”
But before Sebastian could speak any further on the matter, snow began to fall. At first, Sebastian wasn’t worried, the snow on all of the tress must have come from somewhere, right? But the snow kept coming and the intensity kept increasing. Miya started looking scared.
“Run!” She yelled.
But before they could even make it into the forest, a blast of icy wind blew both him and Miya back towards the mountain slope. The snow continued to increase in intensity and Sebastian was getting a little annoyed at all of the snow getting into the back of his shirt. He had prepared some clothes for the cold but not for a damn snowstorm. His thoughts were interrupted though by a loud howling noise. The noise didn’t sound like any animal Sebastian knew of, the sound was horrible and piercing, causing Sebastian to cover his ears. Sebastian wished he could’ve closed his eyes as well though.
The storm parted towards his left and when Sebastian looked he met the eyes of a terrible beast, its body was vaguely humanoid but thin and emancipated. Its head was that of a stag but it was mostly bone, with only the eyes. The eyes had a black sclera and a putrid yellow colored iris that glowed with an eerie light. Sebastian’s status showed the nightmarish monster to be a |Level 13| Wendigo, and in the Wendigo’s hand was a glistening ruby heart.
Sebastian had been so lost in thought looking at the beautiful heart that he hadn’t noticed when the snow beneath him began to turn the color red, no… the color of blood. Small horns rose from the ground, revealing themselves to actually be antlers attached to three stags. All of them appeared to be in a state of decay but Sebastian still recognized them. The two smaller ones with white hair and golden manes were called Royal Stags, the same as the Exiled Stag. The larger one was the Imperial Stag, they were all |Level 9| and |Level 10| respectively. Sebastian had no clue how Miya had been planning on stopping that huge stag.
“Wait, where is Miya?” Sebastian thought in a panic.
Sebastian looked around but found no one except the Wendigo and its zombified monsters. Sebastian cursed internally, Miya must have run and now he had to run as well. Sebastian moved as fast as his body could take him, but he ran towards the stags instead and fired at the two Royal Stags. Sebastian thanked whatever god was looking after him because the Stags were much slower and much much dumber than the Exiled Stag he had killed before, likely because of their zombified state. Their heads exploded and they fell like limp puppets.
Sebastian grew even happier, well, as happy as he could be in a situation like this. He had been worrying that the Wendigo could still keep the bodies reanimated even with their heads gone.
“Wait a second, where’d the Wendigo go?”
Sebastian looked around but couldn’t find it in the snowstorm. Sebastian’s stomach dropped, where could it have gone? But before he could properly search, the Imperial Stag charged. Sebastian fired at its face and ran away.
“Why me?” Sebastian thought with despair.
———————
Samuel was beginning to get worried. He had wanted to see Sebastian under pressure, but fighting a deviant was a completely different thing. Thankfully he was confident he could stop things from escalating too far. Also, Sebastian was only fighting the Imperial Stag while Miya had managed to get away already. It wasn’t something most Harlows would do, they were known to confront problems head on but it was a smart choice in this situation since Miya didn’t know there actually was someone here capable of handling the problem.
Samuel refocused his attention on the Wendigo, it had run away once it had sensed him, which was surprising. It must have had an ability to feel things within its storm. Then Samuel looked away, he had gotten enough out of this. He wasn’t sure if Sebastian would make for a good candidate as Lady Emelia’s bodyguard, but Samuel was also allowed to pick out people who might have potential for other stations, House Wixx could use a lot of help at the time, and talent was always welcomed everywhere.
Samuel decided to stop things if it got too dangerous, but he would let Sebastian handle the Imperial Stag, it may have been |Level 10| but it was weaker than it should have been since it was reanimated. Samuel relaxed into a more comfortable position, but that didn’t really mean anything when you were frozen in space.
“Maybe I should get a mattress and then freeze that in space instead.” Samuel thought idly.
———————
Sebastian finished off the Imperial Stag far easier than he imagined he would. Being big meant it was slower than the Royal Stags, not to mention it was slowed down even further due to being a zombie or perhaps because it had grown stiff in the snow, Sebastian was sure on the specifics but that didn’t matter. The only problem was that the Imperial Stag was at |Level 10| and even weakened as it was it took a while for Sebastian to blast its head off.
Sebastian’s thoughts went back to the heart the Wendigo had been holding.
“It had been so beautiful, it must have been a Treasure right? I really want one, maybe I can get the heart from the wendigo.” Sebastian thought.
But then he realized that that was a stupid idea. How was he supposed to get the Treasure from that thing? Sure the monsters he had fought weren’t all that strong but the Wendigo itself would be in a different league altogether. Miya had needed help with a monster that was technically at the same level as her but had run away in fear at the sight of a monster only three levels higher, all because it was a deviant. Sebastian saw why though, the Wendigo had killed all of those stags that he and Miya had been preparing to fight on their own not to mention it had magic. Powerful magic Sebastian thought belatedly as he looked around in the snowstorm.
But then the snowstorm stopped. It didn’t fade away or peter out, it just stopped, frozen in place. Sebastian reached for his gun, but his hand grasped only blood red snow and when he looked up, someone was holding his gun. The recruiter of all people.
“Well,” He said, “Let’s get you out of her, huh?”
“What?” Sebastian responded with as much understanding as he could muster, that is to say, none. The recruiter picked him up and threw him over his shoulder.
“Hey!” Sebastian shouted.
“Sorry, not sorry.” Samuel replied with indifference.
And then the world warped and stretched around Sebastian and he passed out.