It’s a Dirty Job

Looking out over an area of cracked grey ground Kyle frowned as he wondered what the purpose of such a hard surface was, before realising that it must have been to prevent carriages and such from becoming bogged down in the wet, these cities must have had convoys of the things to provide for all the people living in the massive place, confident of his deductions he moved on.

Walking a little further down the ancient road he saw a group of large brown lumps in a nearby patch of grass, as he got closer he saw that they were moving and slowed to a halt, jolting Fi, who was just starting to doze off awake.

“That’s a lot bigger than I thought they’d be, they must be the size of one of the carriages that those travelling merchants use!” he said.

“Well, in the villagers’ defence, they aren’t adventurers, so they probably wouldn’t have seen them first hand,” Fi said as she too looked at the large beasts in shock, “but yes, they are somewhat larger than I was expecting as well”.

“Well we should have a look before we decide to go through with this or move on”, Kyle said and Fi identified one of the closer monsters.

Immature Rock-shelled Tortoise

Level 5

HP: ???

This monster swallows rocks on a regular basis, using them both as ammunition for a projectile attack as well as reinforcing the thick shell on it’s back. As with most similar enemies it’s head is its only real weak spot.

“Shit, it has a projectile attack as well”, said Kyle, wondering whether he would be able even injure one in the first place even if he could avoid the attack, which he still didn’t really know anything about.

Just then the head of the tortoise that had been identified swung around and a small rock was spat at an unlucky bird that had taken flight, after the resulting explosion of feathers the beast lumbered over to the corpse and swallowed it whole.

“Yeah, that’s not good”, said Fi who quickly made a mental note not to fly around anywhere near these things, her normally vibrant scales seeming to dull as she did so.

However, Kyle was looking around trying to find something that could help even the odds a little, he had no desire to give up as this was still the best way to ensure that he would be able to hold his own later.

“My weapon won’t be enough to crack the shell on its own and we don’t really have enough money for an upgrade”, he mused and soon spied what may be the solution to his problem; a nearby ruined wall around which some old broken bricks were scattered.

He wandered over picking up a lump of bricks, still stuck together even after the years of disrepair, “Hmm, I can’t rely on it working for long, but at least I’ve got plenty of spares, he said wrapping the links of his chain around it as tightly as he could, nodding as he hefted the crude modification to his weapon.

“Should get some sort of weight added later”, coming up with a few options as he said this.

Placing the still shocked Fi on the ground he picked up a small fragment of brick before picking up a small fragment of brick he turned around to pick his target.

Spotting a slightly smaller tortoise he edged closer intent on causing a distraction that would allow him to fight it one-on-one as he had zero confidence of being able to handle more than that especially considering the higher level the monsters seemed to have.

He cocked his arm back before tossing his projectile, it landed near the smaller tortoise, as far away from the others as he could get it, he winced slightly as it bounced off a rock with a slight clatter, but the luckily the only one that seemed interested in the noise was his target which turned its head towards the noise before slowly plodding towards it.

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Kyle reached down and picked up something else before continuing his gambit. The rock glinted dully as it flew a short distance through the air. A strange expression Kyle could only guess was confusion passed over the tortoise’s face as it looked around, trying to find the one who was disturbing it.

Hiding among the rubble as he did so, Kyle continued to lead the increasingly irritated monster away from its brethren.

Once he had judged them to be a safe distance away he whipped his chain around, causing the beast to spot him, before unleashing a Lash across its face.

 The rubble on the end of his chain smacked into the beast’s beak-like mouth causing it to squawk in surprise. Blinking its suddenly teary eyes it returned fire with a small rock.

The rock hurtled through the air towards Kyle who stepped to the side, unfortunately it clipped the edge of his coat sending him tumbling to the ground. He rolled to his feet as fast as he could as the beast then launched itself at him to follow up.

Its beak clamped down on Kyles left shoulder wrenching a cry of agony from the young man. Fi who had since recovered from her small shock earlier watched in horror as the terrible jaws ripped into her friend’s flesh.

Swear words dripped from Kyle’s lips as he wrapped the links of his chain around his knuckles before sending several blows at the eye that glared down at him.

Shuddering as warm liquid flowed from the now ruptured organ Kyle was relieved as the beast opened its jaws as it roared in pain.

Slightly worried that the other beasts would notice he leapt onto the shell of the tortoise before using his tried and true tactic for dealing with monsters with high defence and groaned with pain as he felt his shoulder tearing more as he choked his enemy to death.

He slowly slipped to the side as his vision darkened, the pain and the blood loss hitting him harder as he calmed down after the fight, Fi attempting to prop him up as he staggered away from the mountainous corpse intent on hiding from any other monsters while he recovered.

Night fell and a still battered Kyle returned to loot what remained and stopped in shock as the shell of the corpse had been cracked open, not seeing any scavengers nearby he crept closer noticing the marks where the flesh had been stripped.

The marks were similar enough to his own injuries that he realised that it had been cannibalised by its own kind while he had been absent!

Retching slightly, he asked Fi to remove the canvas sheet, which had up till now been used as a primitive tent by the two from her inventory, as there was no way the whole thing would fit inside the small space, unlike the pelts from before, picking up a rock he then attempted to crack pieces off the shell for harvesting and marvelled at its toughness as he did so.

“This stuff would make incredible armour,” he remarked, “but I wonder how they fit it? It’s not exactly shaped for that sort of use.”

“You could always ask when we go to sell it tomorrow”.

“Yeah, I need to go to a blacksmith anyway, so I might as well”.

After he had taken as much as he could carry he returned to the ruined building where they had been waiting for hm to heal and then went back to get more.

This done they decided to return to town with some of the loot and return to collect the collect the rest the next day, as they could both use a night in a proper bed and a warm meal, grimacing slightly at the ache in his shoulder Kyle lifted the makeshift bag to a relatively more comfortable position on the opposite one before they set off.

Arriving back in town the two headed to the nearby inn, where they were greeted by the familiar sounds that they had gotten so used to while they lived with Al, as well as the man who had served them at the guild earlier that day.

“Excuse me,” said the man who was accompanied by a dopy looking animal with brown fur, that Kyle assumed was his companion, “I have a little business proposition for you, but first I should introduce myself I am Adrian, and this is Rick, now if you will follow me I shall explain”.

Interest peaked, Kyle followed the man over to the nearby bar where the man proceeded to explain himself.

“It’s about the zone you wrote about in the report earlier,” said the man sending a slightly apologetic glance the boy’s way, “I would like to hire you, on behalf of the guild to aid in the exploration of the area and possibly take part in the eradication of the boss that control it. Do not worry we will be sending an experienced party along with you, but you are currently the person who knows the area best”.

“I thought that you had to be Level 5 before you could take part in guild sanctioned missions?” asked Fi.

“Yes, but usually people don’t just go wandering alone into an unexplored zone at such a low level either”, the man replied dryly, this being one of the details mentioned in the paperwork Kyle had submitted.

“We are willing to pay you 5 gold coins-”

“In advance”, interrupted the man’s companion who shrugged as the others turned to stare at him.

“Very well that’s fair, and at least it lowers the danger for you, which is a worry, yes?”

Kyle nodded, his eyes slightly wide and they eventually worked out the details, he would be accompanied by a team of at least three with a healer, a tank and a damage dealer and the man also through in that nights lodging as a bonus.

This done the two humans shook hands and Kyle said that he would report to the guild the following afternoon as he had a few things to organise first. Agreeing that this was reasonable the man left and Kyle and Fi decided to have an early night after the excitement the day had brought.