By the time they had made their way back to the Hunter’s League and received their reward, it was just afternoon. They also checked the requests that were nearby to see if there were any they could do quickly. There were a few options, but they quickly decided on a subjugation request for a stone rank monster known as a Stonetera. These were large ants, around the size of a small child, that had stone carapaces. They also had massive mandibles, and a few were even able to spit acid.

They were monsters that tended to swarm areas. The request was to defeat the Stonetera in a certain area and report back how many there were. The League would then determine whether they needed to send a scouting party out to find the monster's hive. Stonetera were monsters that didn’t have much impact on their surroundings and were left alone for the most part unless their scouts appeared near a city like the current request. They even had a beneficial impact by causing most monsters to avoid them due to the size of their swarms. Many cities and villages have one of their nests within ten miles of them.

The request detailed that there were only around ten that had been seen nearby. The party quickly started heading towards the area. It took them about two hours to reach the area. It was to the city’s north which consisted of hilly terrain and a few scattered trees. The area they were to search was about two miles in diameter. It had a part of a small forest at its northern most point, a few hills, and a large sinkhole about a hundred feet deep. They checked the forest and found one of the monsters which they swiftly dealt with.

They found another behind one of the hills that Fergus killed with a few well-placed shots and a third just outside the sinkhole that Liv bound while Malachite bit it to death. They looked around everywhere else but couldn’t find any more of the monsters. They decided to check the sinkhole and Gaia heard chittering coming from the bottom. The other two peeked over the edge and barely dodged a blob of acid that one of the monsters had spit towards them.

They counted and found the remaining seven within the large pit. They decided to attack the monsters from the rim of the hole. Fergus fired off arrow after arrow into the pit. Griff shot some spells into the pit. Liv and Malachite fired off their magic shots at the monster as well. Gaia made small balls from her webs and hurled them into the pit hoping to hit some of the monsters and start poisoning them. Around an hour later the monsters had all been killed. The party made their way back to the city as they thought about the next day.

Tomorrow was the day the Mana Torrent was believed to start in full force. Tomorrow everything was going to be hectic. So, they were planning to do some stocking up of their necessities and repair on their equipment when they returned. They walked into the Hunters League which was like a wall of noise it hurt her ears a bit but wasn’t too loud. People were running around everywhere. The party bumped into a few on their way to the receptionist counter. They collected their rewards and started to leave when another announcement stating, tomorrow is the day, appeared in the center of the building.

The party left and quickly went to the craftsmen to get their equipment repaired. They maintained their own but couldn’t repair them themselves. The repairs only took a couple hours, and they were back in the Inn about an hour after dark. They ate and promptly returned to their rooms. This was when Gaia had the screen pop up.

Hatched Familiar: Shadow would like to rank up.

Allow? Yes/No

She chose yes.

Shadow will rank up. Error. Hatched Bond detected. Hatched Bond will Evolve.

Name - Shadow

Race – Shadow Hound Familiar (Stone Fang)

Rank - Stone

Level - 1

Title:

Hatched Bond

Skills:

Bite

Claw

Shape change

Guard – Creature dashes in front of an ally and blocks an attack meant for them by redirecting the attack to the user. All damage taken is significantly reduced.

Abilities:

Incorporeal body

Keen senses

Protector – All damage taken when blocking for an ally increases recovery stat for a short period.

Strength – 71

Resistance – 81 (Radiation)

Recovery – 21

Reflex – 101

Spirit – 50 (Poison)

Tamer Quest: Raise Hatched Familiar Shadow to Stone rank 1/1.

Reward: Bonds have increased potentials.

She had no clue what the reward meant so she glossed over it for now. Instead, she went to pet Shadow and discovered she’d grown. She’d become around the size of a large dog. Her fur was also softer than before but felt like it was stronger at the same time. It also seemed like Shadow had a better grasp on her ability to switch between a corporeal and incorporeal form since Gaia could now fully hug the large wolf. Gaia stood and Shadow hopped up on her hind legs and licked her face. Gaia pet Shadow for a while before going to lay down for the night. Shadow hopped up on the bed and joined the cuddle pile which now had four participants. Malachite was his small form cuddled by her face, Liv was crawling around and stuck by her head, and Shadow was sprawled out by her stomach. Gaia cuddled with her bonds before swiftly falling asleep.

She awoke early the next morning to Shadow and Malachite nuzzling her. She got dressed and went out to the tavern area. She stopped by the guy's room on the way and knocked but didn’t get a reply, so she continued on. When she got to the tavern she heard Griff call to her.

“Gaia. Over here.” He called as Shadow guided her over.

“Is that Shadow?” Fergus asked.

“Yeah. She ranked up last night. She’s gotten bigger!” She replied excitedly.

She heard shadow happily yap a couple times as the guys lavished her with pets while she ordered breakfast for herself. She quickly ate before they started discussing what the plan was.

“I’m thinking of taking some regular requests if we can, but we should be prepared in case they hold off on regular requests.” Griff said.

“I agree. There’s the chance they’ll keep all the stone rankers close to town in case of a stampede.” Fergus added.

“I want to do some requests as well but what’s a stampede? Is it a large group of monsters?” Gaia asked.

“Yeah. It’s a large group of monsters that either spawn together or group up as they move towards a city. They are extremely common during a Mana Torrent. They also come from new portals that spawn randomly. There have even been some that spawn inside cities.” Fergus replied.

“How long do Mana Torrents last and are all the portals permanent?” She asked.

“Mana Torrents can last anywhere from a single day to years long. No one is able to determine the length of one beforehand. They only find out it’s ending by the mana increase subsiding. For portals, not all portals are permanent. There are many that close when someone goes in and defeats the monster that controls it. We call these portals Sub-dimensions. They can be anywhere from a single room to a land that expands hundreds of miles. The lower its rank the smaller it is though.” Griff explained.

“So, during Mana Torrents the League keeps its lower rank hunters close to the city for their protection, since portals can spawn anywhere, and to help defend if a portal spawns inside a city or a stampede starts heading towards it?” She asked.

“Yep. They also keep the highest ranked adventurer team in the city for that reason as well. They only send them out when a strong monster is coming close to the city or when they need to rescue a group of adventurers.” Fergus replied.

“Ok. I think I understand it all now.”

After their discussion they went to the Hunter’s League. When they arrived, it was a flurry of activity. Gaia could hear people yelling orders, questions, and answers around everywhere. With her heightened hearing it started to really hurt her ears. She could hear hundreds of conversations all at once. She covered her ears and turned around trying to exit as the noise increased. She walked straight into the wall before her teammates noticed she’d left. She followed the wall until she left the building and realized she couldn’t actually hear anything.

Gaia sat down a distance from the entrance when Shadow put her head under Gaias hand, and she could feel Shadow was whimpering. She comforted her familiar while Liv just sat on her shoulder and Malachite stood in front of her on guard. Her ears were still ringing from the massive wall of noise that she could still hear, albeit quite a bit quieter. She hadn’t thought about that kind of situation when she obtained her Keen Senses ability. Now she had to worry about loud noises. If there was a sudden loud noise, would she be completely deafened now?

This was the big question that ran through her head. She started worrying that whenever they had to deal with a situation where there was a massive amount of noise or sudden loud noises she’d be more of a liability than normal. She was stewing over those thoughts while she comforted and pet Shadow who had attempted to curl up in her lap but was now big enough that only her head and paws fit. The ringing in her ears had started to die down about a minute later and she could hear Fergus and Griff saying something.

“Are you alright?” They both asked worriedly.

“I-I am now. My new heightened hearing made all the noise hurt and my ears started ringing. I couldn’t hear anything until now. Sorry.” She said apologetically.

“You’re fine. We were just worried when we turned and saw you had disappeared. Then you weren’t saying anything to us when we found you.” Fergus said relieved.

“Yeah, and sorry. I forgot you pretty much just got it. It wasn’t this loud last night so it makes sense it wasn’t as bad.” Griff stated.

“Sorry. I just think it will take a while before I can block stuff out or get used to that much noise. All of it at once was just too much for me. I can still hear half of what their yelling from here.”

“That’s some good hearing then. We’ll go and check the requests that are available and come back out to discuss them. Would that work for you?” Fergus asked.

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“Yeah. I can have Liv go with you. She should be able to listen and relay some of the information to me through our bond.” She told them.

“Isn’t that right Liv” She asked out loud.

“Yep. I can.” Liv replied through their bond

Liv crawled down from Gaia’s shoulder and crawled up Fergus to perch on his head. She liked being high up and seemed to be extremely happy that Fergus was quite tall. She sent happy emotions through her bond and Gaia relayed them to Fergus before he walked into the building. While they went to get the information for the requests Gaia focused on trying to acclimate to her hearing. She would get a bit closer to the entrance and stop a bit before her ears would start hurting. Then stayed there until she got used to the noise and could focus on certain parts. She would focus on trying to hear a certain voice until that’s all she heard or could hear it clearly through the noise then move a bit closer and continued to do this until her party returned.

While she did this, she took breaks whenever Liv would send her the info through their bond. The info was choppy since Liv still couldn’t quite fully communicate. It would come through a few words at a time. As she continued to practice talking through the bond, she was starting to be able to make more than two- or three-word sentences. Malachite was around the same skill with his communication, so they were now about equal in speaking ability. She decided to practice talking with them more every night from that point on.

The available requests were simple. There were two requests available to them for the day. This was to allow each team to be able to have roughly an equal number of requests since all stone ranks needed to stay close to the city. The two requests were for a nest of stone shelled tarantulas that were sighted by the edge of the Shimmering Forest and for a Troll. Trolls were large humanoid creatures that were strong and had a fast regenerative ability. They were slow though so her party should be able to stay away from it and damage it from a distance or dodge it’s attack easily.

Gaia let the guys know, through Liv who made webs and spelled out the words, that she was alright with them both but was a bit hesitant to take the Tarantula one, since it’s the creature that had blinded her. They held off on the one but took the troll request and had the other held for if when they finished the current one. The party regrouped outside and discussed the plan for the hunt.

They had decided to name some of the plans to make it quick for them to switch while in battles. For each formation Liv is counted with Gaia since she controls Gaia’s armor while Shadow hadn’t been added in yet. The first formation was called the Shield. It had Malachite and Gaia up front to block the monster while Griff was a mobile middle guard, and Fergus was the rear guard. This allowed Malachite to dodge and keep the monsters attention while Gaia poisoned it and took attacks if needed. This also made it easy for Fergus to attack with his bow and Griff to do hit and run attacks.

The second formation was called the Sword. This had Griff and Malachite up front with Gaia in the middle guard and Fergus once again in the rearguard. This focused on damage output but used a similar placement. The third was called the Spear and had Malachite with Gaia on his back, Fergus in the middle and Griff in the back. This allowed them to pierce through a horde of monsters while giving Fergus the ability to shoot arrows safer and Griff to defend the back end. The final formation was simply called retreat. It was almost the exact opposite of shield with Gaia and Malachite in the back, Griff in the front and Fergus in the middle. This allowed Gaia and Malachite to defend while they retreated, Fergus could fire on the pursuers, and Griff could attack any monsters they ran into.

For the current hunt they decided on the Shield formation since the monster was slow but strong. They could have Malachite and Gaia dodge or block attacks while the others attacked from a distance or hit and run attacks. They guessed Gaia would be able to dodge it even with her low reflex stat. This was the only unknown aspect for the fight currently. They would scout the monster out to get a grasp of its capabilities first. This was decided since it was the Mana Torrent, and the monster could have ranked up or be a different variant that changed or appeared because of it.

The party made their way to the request's location and when they’d just about arrived, they started to move cautiously. Gaia could hear thumps from somewhere ahead of them and relayed that to the others. She also heard chewing and some sounds that were somewhere between grunts and growls. They slowly continued towards the noise and Griff halted them when the sound was coming from a couple dozen feet in front of them.

Gaia could hear the creature's growls and whenever it took a bite of whatever it was eating, she could hear the cracking and crunching of something hard. It reminded her of the sound of bones breaking and rocks cracking. It sickened her. The others could see a humanoid creature around ten or eleven feet tall. It had dark brown skin that looked like tree bark and leaves growing from its head like hair. It was a mass of muscle and looked like a large hill while it sat eating. There was a large tree stump beside it that came to a small shaft at one end that appeared to be what it used as a weapon. In its hands was a large corpse of some monster. It took them a few minutes to realize it was one of the skull shelled tarantulas they were supposed to hunt. There was only a couple legs and half of the monster's torso left as it raised the corpse to its mouth and chomped on it. There was the sickening crack of magically enhanced bone and a wet chewing noise that escaped. Malachite sent the image to Gaia so she could see the monster.

The party almost lost everything in their stomach at the image. They turned around and moved away to discuss what they’d found. They went a couple hundred feet away before talking. Before leaving Gaia tried to pull up its status.

Name – Forest Troll (Stone Rank)

Level – 45

“What in the world is that?” Asked Fergus.

“I don’t know. It’s a kind of troll from what I can see but I’ve never seen one at stone rank that could kill a skull shelled tarantula. It was eating the thing. That shouldn’t be possible.” Griff replied incredulous.

“I checked its status. It’s a Forest Troll which is Stone rank but level forty-five.” Gaia stated.

“You were able check its status? Good. It’s a much higher level which is bad.” Fergus said.

“Also, it was able to catch and kill one of the tarantulas. Aren’t they fast?” Gaia asked.

The guy's faces paled at that realization. The tarantulas were strong monsters and fast when in a forest. That meant the monster was likely strong and quick enough to kill it. This meant they were dealing with a much stronger monster and their original plan might not work. They were about to discuss whether to head back to the League and report when Gaia heard something start moving in their direction.

“I think it might be coming towards us. So do we leave and report or try and fight it?” She asked quickly.

“Let’s head ba-” Griff started before he was cut off by the sound of something being swung towards them.

The party all dove in different directions, but Gaia was too slow and would have gotten hit had Shadow not used her new Guard skill. Shadow was sent flying a small distance but allowed Gaia to get away from the unexpected attack unharmed. She quickly checked on Shadow and thankfully she was almost unscathed just what seemed to be a small bruise had formed. Malachite quickly started to fire some water shots at the troll while he created his spikes and prepared to ram it. Griff and Fergus were calling Gaia’s name worried if she was hurt but upon seeing she was ok they prepared to fight. Fergus called out his bow that grew from his palm while Griff activated his gauntlets that pushed through his skin.

While this happened, Liv had transformed Gaia’s armor to its bodysuit form and Shadow was running back towards the party. The Troll didn’t wait for the party to regroup, however, and swung its huge club at Griff and Fergus. They quickly dodged but there was a loud swoosh as its club met with nothing. After dodging Griff sprinted in and hit it with his Palm Strike skill hoping to get a strong starting hit in. He landed it but couldn’t charge much as he had to dodge a swing of its club. Malachite used the distraction to run in with a Shell Bash hitting the troll square in the back of its ankle. Fergus was firing arrows using his multi-shot and volley skills together to fire a stream of arrows into its chest.

Liv was firing some poison shots and trapped webs trying to bind it to the spot and trap its arm to its side. Gaia was using her Mana Influence to try and poison the monster while using her webs to stack the poison quicker. She was also using her vines to try and hold its legs in place while bleeding it. Shadow was following Griff’s example and doing hit and run attacks and using her Guard skill to block for her friends when they couldn’t dodge an attack. She wasn’t as strong as everyone else yet and was having to take more breaks to recharge her barrier.

The party was hitting the monster with lots of attacks and barely managing to dodge some of the monster's attacks while Gaia was taking hits. She would be sent flying for a bit before rolling and heading back to the fight. She had her webs out constantly at this point and was slowly causing her poison to stack which constantly dealt more and more damage to the monster.

Fergus and Griff saw that at the beginning of the fight their attacks were hurting it but it was healing quicker than they could deal damage. Now, after about thirty minutes of fighting the troll, they could see that Gaia’s poison and Radiation were offsetting the monster's regeneration. The poison was constantly increasing due to her Mana Influence that stacked it and her webs, which she tried to trip the creature with. Shadow was running around the fight defending attacks and biting or cutting the troll with her teeth and claws. Malachite was hitting the monster with water shots, bites, and bashing it with his spiked shell. Griff was able counter a couple of the monsters strikes and stunned it once. It was dazed and allowed everyone to land a few strong hits before it recovered.

The party was now extremely tired and had been fighting the monster for around an hour. Gaia’s conditions were now dealing more damage than it could heal itself, but the troll just wouldn’t die. Liv’s poison shots were steadily launching towards it. Griff was landing flurries of punches and kicks. Fergus was hitting it with arrow after arrow. Malachite was hitting it constantly with all of his skills. Shadow was running in and out of its reach while still guarding people and biting or scratching it. Gaia was poisoning, bleeding, and irradiating it. The Troll was still swinging its club, albeit much slower than before, but it was still swinging it with a massive amount of force.

The troll was bloody with hundreds of scratches, bites, and punctures on its entire body. It mustered up its strength and swung its gigantic club down towards Gaia. Shadow swiftly intercepted the attack with her Guard as Fergus fired a Gale Arrow that hit the Troll in its eye. The Troll fell with the swing and face planted into the forest floor. The party stayed on alert until they saw the Troll start to dissolve.

The party was bruised and beaten. The Troll was fast and extremely strong. It hit everyone at least once while Shadow had to back out for her barrier to recharge. Gaia felt like she had at least a broken rib from the monster's attacks that had broken through her barrier so she couldn’t imagine how the guys felt.

“Are you guys alright?” She asked everyone.

“Yeah. A bit bruised but I was able to block the attacks that hit by recharging my barrier with mana.” Griff replied.

“Not great, but not bad. I think one of its attacks dislocated my shoulder, but I fixed it earlier. My leg not so much.” Fergus responded.

“I’m good. I’m not hurt much just a few bruises.” Malachite replied through their bond.

“I’m ok. I was under your armor so not hurt.” Liv stated.

“I, ok. Sore side.” Shadow replied through the bond. She sounded like a young girl that was just learning to talk.

She was surprised when she heard Shadow’s voice but was more worried about Fergus. She ran over to him and felt around his legs. His left leg was broken around midway down his calf. There it was sideways. Griff came over and Gaia held Fergus while he set the leg. His scream of pain was heart wrenching for everyone. He passed out as soon as Griff finished. They put him on Shadows back to help carry him back. Then they checked to see if the monster dropped anything.

After finding nothing the group swiftly made their way back to the city while being careful with Fergus. As soon as they arrived, they went to the infirmary in the League and Fergus was healed. After that they all got checked and healed. After being healed they went back to the main room and Gaia realized it was still very busy, but her ears didn’t hurt as much. They still hurt since she wasn’t accustomed to it yet, but she was starting to get used to it.

They relayed what happened to Freya and she quickly checked the requests information. She came running back with a scowl.

“The request didn’t have any information aside from a low-level stone rank troll. It shows as complete, so you killed the right monster but now we have to deal with the scout that checked it.” She stated.

“What do you mean?” Gaia asked.

“Well, we send out a scout whenever we receive a request to ensure the monster is the same as what they claimed. Since it’s the Mana Torrent we send the scouts out early, the morning we receive the request. The scout for this one went out early this morning so it’s unlikely that the monster changed in that time.” She replied.

“Essentially, it’s possible the scout didn’t do his job and could have gotten us or someone else killed.” Griff explained.

“Exactly.” Freya said.

“Also, since the monster was a variant and higher leveled than reported we need to figure out an adequate reward. That might take us an hour or two with everything going on.” Freya stated a bit sheepishly.

“That’s fine. We know how it goes. It’s happened a few times already. Gaia how do you feel about the other request? Do you think you can do it after a couple hours rest?” Fergus asked.

“Probably, I’m still a bit hesitant but I know I’ll have to fight them at some point. Might as well rip the scab off now.” She replied.

“If you ever want us to retreat, tell us and we will.” Griff stated.

“We’ll take the Skull Shelled Tarantula request.” He told Freya.

“Alrighty. I’ll get it now” she replied as she went to grab it.

The party looked over the request and found that it was for around five of the monsters. This was the extent of the newly formed nest. They were worried about the possibility that this request’s scout did the same as the last but were relieved when Freya told them it was someone, she knew herself. They took it and started towards the location. While they went, Gaia explained to them what she knew from her fight with the one that had blinded her.

Most of it was just blurry and her holding the monster in place though. She told them about the poison blobs, webs, bites, venom, and that it could use its legs to stab things. This gave them a bit of pause, since it had so many different ways to attack. They continued onward and arrived in the area soon after. They were extremely cautious as these monsters could move vertically as well as on the ground. They took the Shield formation which made Gaia extremely nervous as it meant she was up front. She had her webs out and was feeling around when she heard something moving around above them.

She was about to tell them when she heard something fall and felt something attack her barrier. Her radiation pulsed and she heard the monster screech as she quickly tried to bind the attacker up when she realized something. Her webs wouldn’t affect the Tarantulas. The monster quickly attacked again biting at her and she felt something try to stick to her. Luckily, Liv had already changed her armor to completely cover her, so the web had no purchase.

While this happened, Malachite hit the monster with a shell bash and knocked it away. Griff had hit it with a Palm Strike which dealt a lot of damage to it and Fergus hit it with a couple arrows. Gaia then unraveled her vines from her arms and bled the monster. It tried to run away but Malachite and Griff blocked its escape path. The party hit the monster with attacks and conditions until it died. Liv tried to hit it with poison, but it seemed immune to the damage. It quickly perished under the party’s onslaught of attacks. They took a few moments to catch their breath when they heard a multitude of screeches and the sound of scurrying legs coming in their direction.