She looked at the screens dumbfounded. She could see what her title meant now that she had some knowledge on it. It was immediately changed because of how she viewed the Overseers and gods? Did that mean her analysis skill and guide ability weren’t given by the Overseers or gods? If not, who gave it to her?
She just had more questions now and she couldn’t answer any of them. Now she was worried that her title would put those around her in danger. She didn’t want to put these people who had helped her and became her friends in danger because she had decided these beings were objectively bad.
She didn’t know whether to tell them about this new title as it was against the very beings they worshipped. She would think it over that night and decide in the morning. The time went by quickly after that as they started talking about more mundane things. They invited her to stay for the night as it had gotten quite late during their discussion. She agreed and was led to a room where she found a massive bed. She laid down and thought about what to do.
She eventually decided to tell Ferguson as he was planning to be in her party, and she didn’t want to put him in danger because of it. After her decision she soon fell asleep. It was not a peaceful sleep though.
She had a weird dream. She opened her eyes to find herself in a massive black void. She thought there was nothing there but realized she could see multiple lights extremely far off in the distance and realized it was space. She marveled at the sight until a massive eye opened in front of her. It appeared to have an entire galaxy spinning within its pupil. She immediately screamed at the sight. The eye just stared at her and had all the other light perish aside from the galaxy at its center. It felt like it was enjoying what she was doing. It had its entire focus set on her. She felt like she was staring into the creation of everything it was beautiful but terrifying. Then the galaxy vanished.
There was then just the emptiness of the void staring at her. It was cold and merciless. It seemed whatever this thing was it wanted to see how she would react to it. She just closed her eyes and thought about what she’d just learned. She assumed this must be one of the so-called Overseers and it was tormenting her for its entertainment. It wanted to show her how useless any resistance to its will was. She was terrified now that she had seen one of the beings but refused to back down after she had decided to fight against it. She opened her eyes and glared at the eye that was now just a void of nothingness.
It blinked once. Then twice. Then it went wide as it saw something she didn’t, and it disappeared. She turned to look and saw some beings that defied her imagination. They were made from stars. One was a massive being with multiple heads and a shell. The other was a mass that seemed to be made of the cords between everything in existence. There were a few other beings that seemed to be made from the very void of space that she could tell were there but couldn’t see. She blinked as she saw them and woke up.
When she awoke, she remembered having a weird dream but nothing about it. She felt like she hadn’t even slept. Malachite and Liv seemed to be fine when she asked them. She got ready for her day by making her usual dress and went to open the door when there was a loud knock. She jumped slightly not expecting it and heard Fergus say something she couldn’t understand through the door. She opened it and asked. “What did you say?”
“I was asking if you were up and wanted to eat breakfast together. My parents are already up and busy, so it’ll likely just be us. Also, if you want to you can call me Fergus.” Ferguson said.
“Sure. I needed to talk to you anyway Fergus.” She replied as they walked to the dining room.
They quickly ate and talked about their plan for the day. She waited until she didn’t hear anyone else around and finally brought up the topic she needed to.
“S-so, since we’re in a party now I figured you should know this. I got a new title last night that isn’t necessarily good.” She stated hesitantly.
“Ok. You’re making this sound ominous.” He said jokingly.
“It kind of is. Your family said something like a prayer last night to the Overseers, right?” She asked.
“Yes. What about it? My family says it because it’s what our ancestors said. They worshipped the Overseers more than the gods. My family mainly worships the gods now aside from me. There are still some that worship the Overseers, but they’re considered heretics by the churches.” He explained.
“Then this may not be as bad. I gained the Title: Blasphemer since I had a thought about trying to defy the gods and Overseers for tossing me aside for their entertainment.” She stated quickly.
There was a long silence. She was starting to get worried when she felt a few minutes went by and thought he had left her there. He then broke the silence.
“You know how to make everything difficult don’t you.” He said exasperated. “It’s a good thing you told me as that could cause problems later on, but I don’t think it’ll be a problem any time soon as we aren’t strong enough to warrant their attention.”
She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized she wasn’t going to be abandoned by her first friend and partner due to this stupid title. They agreed not to talk about it when people were around as it could lead to problems, with those things out of the way, they started to head for the League to start their usual hunting activities. They arrived to find an odd request.
It was to help either capture or eliminate a new normal rank monster seen in the Shimmering Forest. The weirdest part of the request was that it required the party to go with the requestor. It intrigued them, so they decided to at least talk to the person. They took it to a reception desk, and they contacted the requestor.
About an hour later they heard someone come and ask them. “Were you the group that wanted to discuss the request?” The persons voice sounded like an extremely young boy.
“Yes, we are. Are you the requestor?” Fergus asked.
“Yes. I ‘m Griff. I’m part of the Sorcery Guild. We study sorcery which is what everyone calls magic. Magic is a mundane way to explain what magic does. What people actually do is cast sorcery since they use the mana inside them instead of using the mana in the ai-.” He started before abruptly stopping.
“Ah. Sorry I can talk about this all day but I’m here to talk about the request. I’m trying to study the new monster. There have been more and more reports of new monsters. I’m trying to study it to find out if the ambient mana is rising or if it’s a new monster that has come from the portal.” He explained.
“Will we need to defend you while we search and fight it or will you join us in fighting?” Fergus asked.
“I will assist in the fighting. I’m trying to get it alive but as long as I can analyze it with my skill before it dissolves, I will consider the request complete.” He replied.
“Well, I don’t see anything wrong with that. If you’ll join in if there’s a problem and we won’t need to worry about protecting you.” Fergus said.
“I agree. It sounds like there shouldn’t be an issue” Gaia agreed.
They got ready to head out and they told each other their level and class. They were now level ten after a month of doing multiple normal rank requests a day. Griff was level eleven in stone rank himself and explained his class. He was a Magic Martial Artist. His class and skills caused him to have mana circulating through his body. This caused him to naturally deal magic damage through physical attacks and created a magic barrier around him.
In essence he was a close combat mage. Something her party was naturally missing outside of Malachite. They didn’t know how well he could fight so they would watch him during the request. They made their way out of the city towards the requested location when they heard a loud roar from the direction they needed to go. They quickly put up their guard and Gaia made some webs and sent them out in that direction as they cautiously approached.
They walked cautiously for the next couple hours, but didn’t come across any monsters, so they relaxed their guard until they arrived at the location of the new monster’s sighting. Gaia kept her webs out and searched the area. She found the monster which was described as a small flower-like creature it was in the center of a small clearing. This one was different from the walking gorgers as it couldn’t move. She let the others know and they approached it slowly. They got within fifteen feet of it before anything happened.
Suddenly, massive roots shot out of the ground and tried to pierce through the group. Gaia was safe from her naturally high defense, but Fergus and Griff had to jump away to escape. She quickly got Liv to bind the roots together, but they were able to slip out of the webs. They decided to have Fergus shoot at the flower from a distance, but the arrow was blocked by the roots. Then realized that they needed to distract it so he could pierce it with an arrow.
They got into a formation with Griff on the left, Malachite in the center and Gaia on the right. The three then ran into the range of the roots. A few roots shot out from the ground but couldn’t pierce Gaia’s defensive barrier and instead wrapped around her. The same happened to Malachite but Griff was punching the roots as they shot towards him keeping them at bay. During this time Fergus quickly shot an arrow that pierced through the monster and the roots went limp.
She heard Griff breathe a heavy sigh and walk to where she’d felt the monster. He muttered something and it sounded like he scribbled in a book. He then took a deep breath and said “Good job. I have what I need.”
The party hearing this got ready to leave when they felt the ground rumble slightly. They heard something large bounding towards them when Gaia had a screen appear.
Quest: Survive The Irradiated Snapdragon (Stone) 0/1
Her heart sank upon seeing this. Whatever the massive creature was, it was stone rank. She didn’t know what the irradiated part was about but didn’t want to find out. She was about to tell the others they should run when she felt something start to quickly damage her defensive barrier. She realized that she and Malachite likely were the only ones that could stay with this for a long period.
“Fergus get some distance!” she yelled at him.
She heard some quick shuffling before she felt the damage increase. This thing caused constant damage, and it was getting closer. She finally heard the monster crash through a tree as it entered the clearing they were in. It sounded massive and had a sickeningly sweet smell. Malachite chose this moment to send her an image of it.
The monster looked to be a living amalgamation of roots, stems and flowers in the shape of a four-legged beast. It had two large wings made from vines and leaves. The “head” of the monster was made from snapdragons and had sharp roots acting as teeth in its maw. It looked to be a dragon made from plant materials. It exuded some kind of damage that got stronger the closer they were to the creature.
‘Well, what the hell is this thing?! I’ve never heard of it before.” She heard Griff yell in horror.
That was just wonderful. Not only were they dealing with a stone-ranked monster but also an unknown one. She cursed her luck and prepared to try and fight the monster. She tried to use her webs to poison it and it seemed to truly be poisoned from what her screens showed.
Name - Irradiated Snapdragon
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Rank – Stone
Level – 25
Status – Afflicted with Spiritual Toxin
When she saw the level, she paled as it was more than twice theirs. She quickly relayed the information, and the party got into as good a formation as they could. She activated her armor, and it turned into a full body suit and hardened. The formation had her as a center point with Griff and Malachite in front, and Ferguson in the back. He was farther back than usual to get out of the area of effect of the damage.
The fight started when the monster rushed forward and went to bite Griff. He would have been swallowed whole but managed to nimbly dodge to the left and land a kick to the monster's head. It had much more force than expected and the monsters head was snapped upward at an impossible angle. It swung its tail at Malachite who got hit but managed to hold his ground.
Gaia wasn’t waiting and was using her webs to create small clumps that she flung at the monster. She knew she couldn’t bind the creature as when she got the image from malachite the roots and vines appeared to be constantly moving. She just hoped the webs would continue to stack poison. Fergus was launching arrow after arrow into the beast's wings using some wind magic that made them pierce straight through them.
The monster started to cause roots to launch from the ground and tried to bind the parties' legs, but everyone managed to dodge except Gaia who couldn’t react quickly enough. She was bound to the spot and couldn’t break free, so she continued to create clumps of poisoned webs. The poison was constantly stacking and dealing more damage by the second, but the monster seemed to be unimpeded.
The party was fighting while constantly being damaged by the monster’s odd radiation. Griff was having to run to the back by Fergus to launch magical attacks until his barrier regenerated. Malachite and Gaia were just taking the damage like it was nothing. Malachite seemed to have an easier time of it but they continued to keep the monster's attention on themselves. Malachite was running around the monster and gaining momentum before sprinting straight to the monster and bashing it with his shell bash skill empowered by his Toxic spike armor. Liv was hidden within Gaia’s armor but was launching poison at the monster.
They continued fighting the monster for what felt like hours when she heard Griff call out.
“Be careful Gaia! Your barrier dropped!” He yelled.
They had been continuously stacking her Toxin and dealing damage to it. She’d been completely focused on keeping its attention that she hadn’t noticed her barrier had broken. She’d been directly taking damage for a while now. She felt like her skin was heating up and burning from the inside out. She started to feel nauseous and felt weaker the longer it went on but couldn’t break free from the roots to get away.
She did the only thing she could at this point and started to circulate her mana and cast healing spells on herself. She used one hand to pump healing magic into herself and the other to continuously make poisoned webs. She felt the deterioration of her body slow but not stop. She started to get a splitting headache from using her mana in two different ways at once while trying to keep herself from passing out. The pain continued to increase as the party desperately threw attacks at the monster.
She could hear Griff sprinting in and out of the area landing hits that dealt large amounts of damage from the loud thuds. She could also hear the arrows whizzing past her and piercing the amalgamation of plant parts. Everything was slowly starting to sound more and more distant as she concentrated on keeping her magic flowing.
Malachite was biting and bashing the monster with all his might while watching his master, no she was more like a parent to him. She was there from the second he could see and took care of him. He had only just started to pay her back for these and didn’t want her to be hurt so badly. She’d been hurt many times trying to keep him safe. He wanted to do the same, so he found their bond and started trying to force his mana through it to help her heal quicker. This had a drawback as he became fatigued the more he forced through.
Liv was shooting poison shots at the monster. She was safely within Gaia’s armor and was able to help strengthen it, she was also being healed when Gaia forced her mana out to heal. She was the only reason Gaia’s armor was still holding. She’d taken control of it when Gaia had to stop to focus on healing. She was slowly starting to merge with it as she took more and more control of the armor as the fight continued. As she felt Gaia start to lose consciousness, she forced the armor to move and cut the roots binding them.
As Fergus and Griff were pelting the monster with attacks, they saw Gaia’s form go limp. They worried for her until they saw her armor slice through the bindings around her and she started sprinting in their direction. They wondered what was going on until they saw her armor drop right as she arrived and realized she was unconscious. They both watched as her skin was almost melting and reforming as it flowed with magic. She was somehow still healing herself.
They took that as a win and continued to attack the monster. The fight had been going for around an hour by this point and the monster was starting to unravel and parts of it littered the ground along with the blood from the party. Gaia had been unconscious for around five minutes when Griff cast a Healing Shot spell at her. He’d realized her barrier had reformed and she woke up coughing blood.
Fergus relayed what had happened while she was unconscious, and she got back into the fight. Another ten minutes and the monster had completely unraveled and went limp. They hadn’t received the souls, so Fergus and Gaia hit it with attacks and poison respectively until they felt the souls enter their bodies. They had killed the monster, but it took them a couple hours to kill it. As she thought about that she heard some thuds from where it had died which she’d never heard when a monster had dissolved.
She limped over to the where she’d heard the noise as she hadn’t been fully healed. When she got there, she kicked an object. Crouching down she felt the area around her and found a few different items. They all felt like some kind of seed. One felt soft and malleable, another was a pair that was hard and wooden, and the final was a pair that felt barbed. When she touched them the quest screen appeared.
Quest: Survive the Irradiated Snapdragon 1/1
Hidden Quest: Kill the Irradiated Snapdragon 1/1
Hidden Quest completed.
Rewards generated.
Seed of Range – Seed must be implanted into host's hand. Creates a parasitic bow made from the vines of a plant dragon when stimulated by mana. The bow creates sharpened vine arrows when the string is pulled. Vine arrows have a chance to bind enemies struck in vines. Bonding growth item. Grows with bound entity.
Seeds of Impact – Seeds must be implanted into hosts arms. Creates parasitic spiked wooden gauntlets made from the heart of a snapdragon when stimulated with mana. Allows users punches to penetrate armor. Has small chance to regenerate mana upon hit. Bonding growth item. Grows with bound entity.
Barbed Seeds – Seeds that hold the spirit of a Snapdragon. Bonding growth item. Must be implanted into hosts arms. Creates parasitic spiked vines from implanted area that can be controlled naturally. Considered a separate entity that follows the hosts will. Attacks have a chance to cause the bleeding condition. Grows with bound entity.
Bleed – Condition. Effected target bleeds and is dealt low damage over time. Instances refresh when reapplied. Instances have a cumulative effect. Healing effects end the condition early.
Gaia stared at the information. She had just gotten three items, all of which were growth items. One was obviously for Fergus, and one for Griff. The other seemed odd though. She couldn’t damage anything, but this had to be a weapon. The other items were weapons as well, so it made sense for them all to be some kind of weapon. She just stared at them for a while until Fergus and Griff came over.
“What do you have there?” Griff asked.
“I think my ability gave me a reward, but it seems there’s an item for each of us.” She said a bit dumbfounded.
“What do you mean? I thought you didn’t have a loot ability.” Fergus asked.
“I don’t but I got a quest to survive the monster and apparently, we finished a hidden quest by killing it. Then voila, items. They seem to need to be planted in a person and grow things when using mana. Ones a bow, the others are some gauntlets, and spiked vines.” She said as she put out her hand to each of them with their respective seeds.
She felt them take the seeds. “I wouldn’t suggest implanting here. I’d suggest getting back to the city first where we’ll likely be safer.” She suggested as Malachite walked up and she climbed on.
The group proceeded to head back to the city. They had traveled quite a distance to reach the area and got back to town around sundown. They quickly went to the League and got their reward for finishing the request and told them about the stone rank monster they’d encountered. It was apparently also a new species. They got an extra fifty stone cores for the information and then made their way to the inn they’d been staying at. Griff came with them, and they each got a room.
They all met in Gaia’s room where she proceeded to implant her seeds first. The process wasn’t overly difficult but required her to make a cut which she needed Fergus to make in her forearms and placed the seeds in each. When the seeds entered, she felt some sharp pain from the barbs, but it ended quickly. She then put some of her mana into them and a new pain exploded. She felt like her arms were going to be ripped off from where they entered.
She felt the seeds open, and roots burrowed up and down her arm from where they were. Then the other two gasped. They saw what looked like a large green stake in each arm where the seeds had been placed. From each side spiked vines grew and wrapped around her arms from her wrist to her elbow. The pain ended when the vines finished growing. She could feel the vines like they were a natural part of her body and could control them instinctively. It was an interesting feeling.
The other two were hesitant to use their seeds but did after hers finished growing. Fergus had the easiest as it just gave him a vine like tattoo on his hand and when he put mana into it vines grew to make a bow. Griff’s were harsher as they were put in both wrists and wood grew from under his skin to creat gauntlets that had spikes covering their every inch. When he released the mana from them, they slid back under his skin, and he had a tattoo that went from the tips of his fingers to halfway up his forearms. The tattoos looked extremely intricate, like hundreds of roots woven together to make a gauntlet like shape.
Not long after the seeds finished growing, they went to their rooms to sleep as they were exhausted from the day. The next morning, they went back to their normal routine of taking requests but kept in contact with Griff. He’d become a friend during the request, and they joined up whenever he had a request for the League.
They took requests for about another month but were still taking normal rank requests as they needed to find at least one more person to finish their party but weren’t in a hurry to fill the position. They’d hunted lots of monsters by this point and had some good strategies for how to deal with the different kinds of monsters they came across. They’d even taken a few more requests with Griff during that time. The only monsters they didn’t hunt were the Shadow Trappers as they were now always marked as stone rank so what happened to Gaia didn’t happen again.
They had worked hard but couldn’t increase their arrows until they took stone rank requests. They didn’t mind and were getting enough to live. She ran by Will and Summer’s shop after they finished hunting for the day and found the seat for Malachite was done. She quickly paid them the sixty cores which took quite a bit of what she’d gained. Even with the couple weeks of hunting she only had about twenty cores left.
They’d decided to make a party fund and put fifty percent of the rewards in and split the rest between the two of them. They didn’t get very many for their own use, but it made sure they had funds to repair equipment, or for healing if they needed it. They didn’t need any new equipment as they hadn’t started hunting anything above normal rank but expected they’d need some not long after they did.
She got Wills help setting up the seat as it would poison anyone else that touched it, and he had some equipment to protect himself. It took about ten minutes to set it up. He then explained that it would react to her web manipulation as it was made from her webs. It would also react to Malachite’s mana to allow it to change form to make spikes. He could now deal some more damage with his shell bash skill while also dealing her Spiritual Toxin condition. They also told her they added in the ability for it to change with his size, but would need more webs each time it grows to a new size. She couldn’t believe they did so much for her. They’d even added a feature she hadn’t thought about.
She thanked them and hugged them both before remembering herself and became a bit embarrassed. She told them she’d try it out now and that she’d come back to them for any other projects she wanted or needed.
She tried the manipulation and felt the webs move. They made what seemed to be a large almost throne-like seat and had a cover to block the sun. They even created some small stairs to get up and down easier. When she sat down, she felt like she was in heaven. The entire chair felt like it was made from the softest silk and stayed cool. It felt like she was sitting in the most comfortable seat she’d ever felt. She loved it and almost felt like falling asleep.
She was brought from her daze when Ferguson spoke. “I guess this is what Nia meant when y’all went to have something made.”
“Yeah. Its weird to just sit on Malachite’s shell. It’s made from rock and kind spiky since he ranked up. Ah, also I wouldn’t touch it. It’s made from the Toxic webs I make.” She stated, as Fergus jerked his hand away from the seat.
They made their way to the inn, with her sitting in luxury. She felt a bit bad that he had to walk but didn’t want to hurt him by letting him sit there. At least that’s what she told herself, she just didn’t want to get up from the overly comfortable seat.
They had a quick dinner and went to their rooms for the night. The next morning, they had just gotten to the League when Freya stopped them.
“Hey. You’re still looking for one more person to join your party, right?” She asked.
“Yeah, why?” Gaia questioned.
“Well, we actually had someone come asking to join a party but asked for you by name Gaia.”
“Why me? I haven’t really done anything to be known by anyone.” Gaia asked.
“It’s actually someone who just joined the League officially and you’ve met him multiple times.” She replied.
As she finished talking, they heard someone walk up and a very familiar voice greeted them. “Hey you two. I’ve finally decided to join the League officially. You mind if I join you in your party?” Griff asked.
The two just grinned and laughed. “Of course. We’d love to have you!” They exclaimed together.
They finally had their party. The three of them and Gaia’s bonds. They hoped to get a few more people at some point to round them out but they could now take stone rank requests. They relaxed for the rest of the day and celebrated that night. The next morning, they prepared for their first stone rank request.
When they got to the League, they went to the desk to get their first stone rank request when the entire League had an alarm go off. There was an announcement.
“The ambient mana has been rising and new monsters have been appearing. A mana torrent is believed to begin within a month. All hunters be prepared to assist in the defense.”