"Right. Huh, what's even going on here? Why would you have a crystal statue of Ken?"
Lila just looked at him like he was stupid in response, until she noted how he wasn't even looking at the super impressive potion, but at the empty corner of the room where they’d occasionally found the odd crystal crumb lying loose in the grass.
"Who the heck is Ken?" She narrowed her eyes at the large human suspiciously.
Damon on the other hand figured she must be messing with him or something. There was simply no way you kept a crystal statue of a 74-year old Japanese guy in your treasury and didn't know about it—then had the audacity to claim you didn't recognise humans, straight into the face of one—only to show him off like this; mere hours later.
Something wasn't adding up.
When he started posing like a looney toons character—pointing to the corner in 20 different ways in quick succession—Lila finally realized he was really seeing someone, so she went in for a closer look.
The goblin lady ran her hands through the grass, picking up a few loose pebbles of crystal to show to Damon. "You mean this?"
And that's when Damon picked up on the fact that she really couldn't see him.
----------------------------------------
Him and Billy spent that night recovering in the goblin village, and just like the previous nights they went through a whole massage routine to get properly relaxed. It wasn't until an hour into it that Damon had the sudden realization of what things might be sounding like to the goblin village outside, who were only catching the occasional throaty moan from Billy.
Yeah, shit. This wasn't a good look. But Damon had too much on his mind at the moment and in the end he decided he just couldn't be bothered to go out there and set the record straight, nor stop the massaging. "Let's let the asses make assumptions out of U and I, aye Billy?"
They woke up that next morning with a lot of questions on one of their minds.
How did Ken end up in this particular spot? Was I really crystallized too before waking up, with nobody able to see me? For how long were we all gone? Why is Ken’s crystal crumbling, and does it mean that his life is in danger, or that he's slowly being released? And where the hell can I find the [Vigor Draughts]?
That last question had come courtesy of the System quest which had been prompted when Damon finally leaned in to touch the crystallized form of Ken.
[Pioneerquest unlocked: Resurgence of the Ancients.]
Resurgence of the Ancients - Details: The eldest people once disappeared, leaving a vacuum which many awakening tribes made brave efforts attempting to fill—whether anybody truly succeeded remains to be seen. Those very same elders are now returning as suddenly as they once disappeared. Now is the time to act, whether for or against them. Task - Earn enough System prestige through exploration and overcoming challenges to be rewarded with a Reward: [Vigor Draught]. Capable of empowering your body cultivation, or the ritual to awaken an elder. Progress: (105/100,000)
The strangest thing was that even when Damon made Lila touch the invisible crystal that was still part of Ken, he could see her hand stopping at and clearly interacting with it—proving the old man was real—but the touch didn't seem to be registering with the goblin. Even while in direct contact she'd swear her hand was touching the grass, and that Damon's hand was on top of hers, down on the ground.
So, in the end Damon just dropped it. I guess some of these Quests are just for us humans.
That seemed like maybe it held all sorts of implications, but it was so hard to tell anything for certain. Could be that the System is expecting to pit us all against each other, eventually?
The magic was strong enough to mess with the mind, that was for sure. A fact that really spooked Damon out.
Of course he knew the System held ultimate power over essentially all life and death, but seeing it contort someone's sense of reality so directly was still deeply disconcerting, making him suddenly want to question everything—so, Damon had made the brave choice and went to bed, successfully avoiding thinking about it.
----------------------------------------
He felt a lot more solid again, when Billy woke him the next morning. If I'm the only one getting the quest, I'll simply have to do my best and save as many as possible on my own.
There was still the mystery of how 105 out of a 100,000 were already awakened, but with himself likely being counted among that number, Damon figured it simply meant a lot of people would be waking sooner than later on their own, even without anybody coming to their rescue. That was certainly good news, since it indicated these 100,000 were simply the ones bound to awaken automatically at some point, meaning others could still remain crystallized afterward. Because otherwise, if there were only that many humans remaining in total, then Damon would have had to come to terms with never getting to see a lot of the people from his old life, ever again. Even now the chances are slim. Can't forget, they've still gotta survive out here, once they reawaken.
To avoid the sinking feeling in his gut, Damon decided he was gonna get a lot done today. The only real question was which on his mounting list of problems was the most urgent.
First he went to the lagoon-like pond to have his first real wash since it stopped raining. There Damon got the brilliant idea of trying to force Billy to get in for a bath as well—to the amusement of the watching goblins—only to end up getting the tables turned on him. Billy performed a perfect hop, skip into a double-kick that no bipedal would ever be able to match, only for Damon to hop up as well, and kick off the strike, gaining enough airtime to perform a picture perfect 10 meter dive. When he came back up, it took him a few seconds before he realized he'd failed to see, feel or in any way tell where the actual bottom of the pond was, despite his tremendous dive. That realization then led to another, that despite the clear waters and small circumference of the pond, it may very well be unfathomably deep.
That was the second time he got spooked.
Okay, alright. This is actually not okay, I'm clearly still shaken from yesterday, despite winning rather easily. It's the mystery that's driving me nuts I think, and that made up Damon's mind for him, on what to do first.
----------------------------------------
Damon knew he needed to face his insecurities. His successes so far had all come from his strong sense of self-belief, and his daring to position himself for future opportunities. To be able to keep that up, among other things, he needed levels.
This strange, new world simply held too many hidden dangers for Damon to ever feel as confident as he'd been able to in the old times, even with the tremendous gains his personal ability had seen so far. He was consistently running into creatures far larger, higher level- or who were more dangerous by sheer virtue of numbers; he was sick of it.
Thankfully there was a straight forward path ahead. So, Damon hopped on top of Billy, asked that the goblins stay behind for now, and came up with a plan to clean the orchard of some pests.
----------------------------------------
By the time the two of them reached the orchard, Damon had considered the hidden pack of spiders like he would have an opponent in the old days. He analyzed in what ways they moved poorly, in what ways they moved well, and which weapons in particular he himself would need to look out for.
Luckily they had a lot of advantages on their side, including weight, speed, some levels and being able to fully dictate the terms of engagement.
[Welcome to Logos' Eye of the World]
It was when the two of them returned to the spot where he first crashed into the spiders that Damon discovered something strange—looking around, no sign of the spider blood or corpses remained, not a single shred of shattered carapace. What the hell is that about? Either their brethren are both cannibalistic and incredibly hungry, or something else is going on.
Damon knew he was in the right spot, since the collateral damage to the surrounding trees remained, but he decided it didn't matter in the end. He’d need to keep an eye out for more signs of strangeness, yet they still needed to do this.
They were now on the border of where the sunlight currently reached, and in a few hours this section would be shaded like yesterday, as the light outside climbed higher and higher until midday.
Billy knew the plan was to get as close as possible once the fighting started, and to then stand hidden behind a good tree, ready to escape with Damon into the sunlight at need. Or, at least he'd been told.
He looked like he got it.
Billy would not be helping at all up to that point, allowing Damon to try and increase the number of spiders he took on once he'd learned their patterns, and hopefully push to his limits relatively safely.
The [Specular Duelist] drew his twin daggers—which he'd embarrassingly forgotten about, in the heat of the moment yesterday—and then started sprinting straight into the shadowed cavern.
It didn't take long before his intrusion was noticed, and he heard hostile hissing in the distance. Then came the skittering, from a pack twice as large as yesterday. Damon refused to shy away, instead increasing his speed to the max, moments before collision.
Instead of running upright and giving the tarantulas free access to spear his legs, by the end he was nearly running on all fours, both blades held out in downward grips—head lowered, like he was wearing a helmet—which he was, inside.
He came in low, angled perfectly. The first ten carapaces that got in the way burst like so much eggshell, and it took another dozen to even start to slow him down. Amidst the carnage, a level up scroll appeared to make a futile request for his attention, but Damon was far too committed to slaughter at that particular moment.
He never slowed for a second, immediately freeing his legs by front flipping when he felt them get stuck, stabbing down with both blades as he came down and securing a fresh kill before leaping onward, refusing to be cornered.
The front of the cluster of spiders kept foiling the strikes of those behind, with the whole pack reacting far too slowly when Damon switched positions and attacked from a new angle, and just generally got in each other's way. But they never reacted in fear.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Damon broke out as soon as he felt himself starting to slow down, making his way over to Billy and leaping on by way of another leafy branch to avoid skin-contact with the oily bark; then they were off.
The furious pack got on their trail to continue the hunt immediately, but the chase was futile when Billy put his best pace on—they were back out in the daylight within minutes, forcing the pursuit to get called off.
As Damon had hoped, rather than wait to see if there were still more goblins firing arrows around, the photophobic critters skittered back into the shadows again, as soon as the two of them had made it back to base.
[Class level collected: +5 Str, +3 Per, +3 Mana - Free Points: +2.]
While they recovered, Damon dismissed the hovering scroll and checked in on his full Chronicles instead:
Chronicles
Explorer ID: Damon Bishop
Explorer Class: Specular Duelist - level 28
Explorer Race: Unique Lifeform
Ratings
Strength: 171
Perception: 55
Mana: 114
Grace: 17
Free Points: 2
Dao Path:
Dogma of the Hero
Sacrifice Strength Mastery
Titles:
Groundbreaker, Primus Explorer, Fruit of the Origin Tree
Quests:
Pioneerquests
Exploring Lost Domains - (4/509,600,000)
Resurgence of the Ancients - Progress - (255/100,000)
Skillquests
Prowess Progression - Progress - (37/10,000)
Unexpected Stab - Progress - (132/250)
Bleeding Edge - Progress - (0/3)
Secure the Fort - Progress - (0/1)
Damon felt a surge of pleasure at the sight of his strength rising. I know I probably got close yesterday, but gaining a level from a single charge—what am I even waiting for?
"Let's get it!"
Damon spent both free points on strength again, then made sure Billy was ready for another go—which he definitely was, considering that was the easiest fight he’d personally ever been a part of—and they prepared to go in for another round.
When they approached the border once again the corpses still remained, but there was no sign of where the rest of the spiders who broke off the chase had gone. So, I guess they’re not dragging them off themselves, hm. Or maybe they do so only at night... Sigh. No matter.
Damon made sure of his body by carefully inspecting his scrapes and bruises before limbering up again. So far he was feeling warmed up more than anything, and determined that he definitely had another few goes in him. Especially since he’d barely started bleeding so far. He'd successfully used the bodies of their own kin to shield against the spiked legs they put up high to try and spear him. To counter he’d dipped low while almost fully maintaining his speed, then he'd come in hard for that devastating first contact. I can really do this, I’m going to push in further, and see if I can’t find where all these unnatural bastards are spawning from.
There was something unsettling about the foe they faced here. The way these spiders acted so fearlessly, and with complete disregard for each other’s pains, even to the point of climbing over each other to get at him sooner, all felt wholly unnatural. If they weren’t used to hunting in packs and cooperating, then why would they stay together like this in the first place? It was a display of mindless aggression. Maybe this is just how animals behave in this world now, the hounds weren’t that different either, were they? I’ll focus on making sure I take advantage for as long as I can. There's bound to be much worse opponents around, at some point. Thinking ones.
Damon worked himself up for another go, told Billy he'd played his role perfectly—"Perfectly!"—then got set, and launched straight into another crazed charge—fully expecting the same wounded pack to come out and face him again. But if they were the same spiders from before, then he could see no sign of it. There was still the same huge amount, and not a single one appeared to be moving slow or in a way that revealed previous damage.
Damon didn’t have time to think it over for long however, his charge was far too aggressive for any reconsiderations.
This time when he hacked his way into the the middle of the pack, rather than keep blocking and dodging, he chose the weaker side and simply pushed through, leaving the spiders with no choice but to chase after and follow behind.
Full speed, or we're dead. Damon's longer stride forced the pack to all either chase him in a line, or get left behind.
Next he tried something new. Each time a lone tarantula got too close, Damon would dart behind another tree and then spun, delivering a devastating wheelkick that left dark blood splattering out of the gaping hole that used to be the overly aggressive beast’s face.
Unexpected Stab - Task - Hit your enemy where it hurts. Progress: (140/250)
Upon updating again, part of the System scroll suddenly hovered into view in the form of a little banner, Holy shit, when did that happen? I can finish it today. Probably.
Damon didn’t stick around to admire the results though, but instead kicked off the nearest tree and started running away again before the rest of the pack could catch up.
As he went in ever deeper, more and more spiders emerged from every direction and soon there were at least half again as many spiders chasing him as there’d been back when he first started out this morning.
Damon didn’t care, he knew he still had the strength to break back out, he just needed to keep going, to find some sign of where this horde of monsters was coming from. There was sure to be a broodmother of some kind, or a giant spawning area filled with eggs at least, if these were really all the adults. Damon just wanted a glimpse. There had to be an end to them, and the danger they posed to anyone who wanted to enjoy this wonderful resource.
He fought for over thirty minutes, running at a sprint all the while, only stopping to punish any overt mistakes his pursuers made. The spider pack had grown further in size, but it was not nearly as much as Damon would have expected if they truly inhabited the whole tunnel. Still no sign of eggs, what the hell?
After another two hours he was slowing down, but also finally sensing a change in the air. With the way the tunnel had been growing darker and darker for quite a while, Damon had begun to lose hope, figuring he was gonna be forced to turn back around with no more answers than he'd started out with. Now, he’d finally reached the other end of the tunnel, or so it seemed from how the light was suddenly increasing.
Finally, I could really use a damn break. If wanted to be an animal exterminator this is not the Class I'd have gone for. Damon was bleeding all over by this point—if only from minor wounds—and he'd been forced to turn less and less aggressive as time wound on, even though he’d gained another two levels and put the free points into Strength. There was just no recovering properly while they were still on his tail.
At least he hadn't been forced to use up his mana, except when he chose to in order to thin their numbers.
But rather than having run deep underground to come up and out into daylight on the other side as he'd expected, it seemed Damon had simply reached the end of the road. There was indeed light, glaring down fiercely from a sun just past noon in the sky, shining through a hole far above, perfectly highlighting on quite a statuesque tree—clearly the largest of the whole bunch by magnitudes—sitting high on top of a cliff, to add on to the impression.
The impressive specimen was clearly the one who must have propagated all these other stubborn trees, who’d somehow made a life out of the most hostile environment Damon had ever seen a fruit tree manage to thrive in.
But something wasn’t right.
When Damon first spotted the giant tree, it was as if it had spotted him as well. The throng of spiders suddenly started speeding up, moving with far greater coordination behind his back and organising into groups—all while Damon was still busy heading deeper into the chambers, and trying to make sense of what he seeing.
That’s when he heard a desperate, bleating cry behind him, one which turned into a ferocious roar—that had zero effect on the spiders, who were all suddenly going ham for Billy in the back. Oh fuck. No, they’ve been ignoring him all this time, what changed?
Damon found himself cut off from his escape, with his friend in trouble and the enemy he believed he'd figured out suddenly displaying a surprising level of new ability.
That’s when Damon thought to direct his [Identify] toward the mighty enemy he felt staring down at him from the shadows of the towering tree on top of that cliff, with a stunning result.
[Shadewood Rootmother - Level ???]
We're dead.