Of course Emerys wanted the full story. Not that there was much to tell. Dad got rich, and everyone wanted in. It was like he had just won the lottery and everyone knew it. Will had been a fairly social person before that, but after his two weeks of fame and everyone clamoring for their share of the pie, he became a social outcast. That was compounded when his dad found out and used his money to get a bit of payback against the other kids' parents. By a bit of payback, Will meant ruining their reputation so they could never work in their industries ever again.
No one could touch dad’s favorite.
Will didn’t even fully understand why he had that dubious honor. Maybe it was the fact that he was the youngest, and the only child still at home when dad had made his millions. Maybe it was that he was the only one who would tinker on motorcycles with him despite his caustic attitude. In either case, Will was made the sole inheritor when his father passed away in a freak car accident. Will suspected that it wasn’t such a freak accident. When you piss off enough people, murder is more likely than an accident.
Emerys and Amalise agreed that this was likely due to his low luck. Low enough luck tends to make good things happen to the people around you. But every time it would be in the way that was most likely to screw you over. When Will pointed out that the money hadn’t actually made his father’s life any better, they just nodded in unison. Apparently the ‘gifts’ handed out by his luck were kind of poisonous, and never turned out well for anyone.
This all culminated with Emerys grabbing him about the shoulders and declaring to the entire forest that they were brothers and that Will could lean on him any time his luck got him down. Will had to explain that he had a poor track record with brothers.
“No!” Emerys exclaimed aghast. “Brothers are supposed to be there for you in times of trouble! What could have possibly caused a rift in such a profound bond!?”
“My Dad.”
Will then had to explain how his father had ostracized both his brother, his sister and her husband. When Corey, the lawyer of the family, had realized he wasn’t going to get any money, he generated lawsuit after lawsuit against their father. They weren’t even lawsuits where he was the plaintiff, instead he dug up every person who ever had a problem with his father and charged them obscene fees to prosecute the case. Then when his father died oh so suddenly, Corey got a judge to freeze the entire estate until the will could be overturned.
Emerys tried to point out that the sins of one brother didn’t mean it applied to all of them. He had another brother, a brother in law. Obviously he was there for Will!
“My brother in law is Nolan. He is the sheriff back where we lived. I asked him to look in on the mansion when the crash happened, and he responded by going and shooting my dog.”
That put a damper on the mood for the next couple of hours that even Emerys couldn’t break. Will was glad when a creature lept out of the foliage at them.
Emerys moved like lightning as he snatched the mace from his belt and clobbered the creature, a moose, causing it to leap back in distress. The moose was huge, and had a giant rack of antlers. All this seemed normal enough except for the fact that the antlers seemed to be covered in glowing runes. Will used inspect, trying to understand what he was seeing as the moose pawed the ground.
Spirit Moose Bull Level 20
That at least told him the level. The giant bear, Madracora, had been level 35 and a hell of a lot bigger. This moose shouldn’t be too much of a problem. He would find out from Amalise what it meant that this was a spirit moose. Will guessed it had something to do with the runed antlers that were now glowing a dangerous shade of red.
A concussive force ripped out of the antlers and hit Emerys in the chest, causing him to flip in midair and land on the ground face down. That caused immediate chaos. Amalise and their followers jumped into action as Emerys levered himself up off the ground. A man in a giant shield got between Emerys and the moose, but not entirely, giving enough space for Emerys to wail on the moose with impunity. Two archers posted up in trees and let fly with impeccably placed shots while several spearmen surrounded the moose on all sides. Amalise rained down tiny darts of white hot flame which scorched the monster’s hide. Will watched all this unfold as if in slow motion and didn’t move until Emerys shouted at him.
“Will!m Get in here! We finally get to have some fun so don’t just sit it out!” This was enough to get Will’s attention and so he pulled his longsword. Will sent power through his limbs forming a general strengthening enchantment he had devised through his whole body. It would enhance his speed, strength, and durability by a marked degree, though he had never tried it in combat as of yet. As Will dashed forward, He quickly realized he was able to move far faster than he could perceive. Even holding back, Will took off the Moose’s head in a single strike, ending up twenty feet away with his sword covered in blood.
Will turned to see everyone staring at him with mouths agape. The moose’s body fell to the ground amidst the people, but apart from stepping aside, no-one paid it any mind. Will pulled a cloth out of his inventory and wiped down his blade self consciously.
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“You really had to go and end the fun early didn’t you.” Emerys said, sounding aggrieved.
“That is what you’re worried about?” Amalise half screamed. She turned to Will. “What spell did you use to do that?” Will shrugged.
“No spell. Just that hedge wizardry you were so happy to tell me not to use.” Amalise sniffed in displeasure.
“I am sure that was just skill on your part. Your hedge wizardry likely had nothing to do with it.” Will just shook his head.
“What's the deal with this thing anyway? It was level 20 and I took it down in one hit. I like the idea of being overpowered, but this seems a bit much.”
“It’s a spirit beast, what did you expect?” Emerys asked, but seeing Will’s confused expression he elaborated further. “Spirit beasts aren’t really anything special. Sure they can use a bit of magic, but other than minor abilities they really aren’t much more than regular creatures. At least most of the time.”
This was disappointing to Will, he had heard of spirit beasts in books he had read and they were always incredibly powerful. This moose didn’t live up to that.
“What do you mean by ‘most of the time’?” Will asked
“Spirit beasts become spirit beasts by gaining a concept. It is rare, and allows the spirit beasts to begin to cultivate. The problem is that few beasts are able to stand up to the kinds of monsters they need to kill to start cultivating. A level 20 beast would have to fight a level one monster to have a chance at winning and gaining the energy they need for cultivation. And so spirit beasts that break that barrier are very rare.”
“Wait,” Will said. “You have mentioned cultivation before, what exactly do you mean by that? I didn’t think we were growing plants.” Emerys gave him a blank look.
“Cultivation is the process of bringing energy into the soul to fortify it and allow your powers to grow.” Emerys said. “Everyone knows that, have you been living under a rock?”
Will waved off the question.
“What about Madracora? It was level 35 and didn’t seem all that strong.”
“Didn’t seem all that strong!” Emerys shouted. “I would be hard pressed to kill Madracora. She has an attack that causes the earth to swallow you up. If I didn’t jump quickly it would be over for me.”
“Earth attacks? I mean the earth certainly moved when she walked, but she had no earth attacks that I saw.”
“When did you… You killed Madracora didn’t you.” Emerys said.
“Yes I did.” Will said with a grin. “Her fire breath was hard to avoid, but once I got underneath her it was a piece of cake.”
“Fire breath? Madracora didn’t have a fire… Ohh.”
“What?” Will asked.
“You got the core from Madracora didn’t you?” Emerys asked.
“I did, what about it?”
“Madracora was a Dire Spirit Beast, not a monster. Therefore, she should not have had a core.” Emerys said.
“Oh let me explain.” Amalise said. “First, understand that while spirit beasts cannot stand up to monsters their level, dire bests can. We believe that Madracora was a dire bear before she gained her earth concept. It gave her a leg up in her cultivation that allowed her to pass the initial bottleneck, just like Koma here. What we think happened is that Madracora fought a monster and consumed its core. That is already odd, because monster cores are not usually physical. They do not become physical until the monster grows quite powerful, until then the monster core is just an extra node on the spirit map. As monsters do not have souls like beasts and people do, the core provides that function.
“We believe Madracora fought a powerful monster and consumed its core. Over time, the core should have connected to her spirit map and destroyed her soul. It seems that the process was incomplete however. If it was she would have become a monster that required a tier two or three god to come and deal with her. However, I believe that while she had some fire abilities, it was nowhere near what she should have had, and she likely had little control over her body either. That makes it perfectly reasonable for you to have killed her with that wild magic of yours.”
“I didn’t use that ‘wild magic’ of mine.” Will said.
“Ok then, that is a bit more impressive.” Amalise said. “Still, that answers a lot of questions. As far as we knew, you were the only other god in the general area, and few mortals could cultivate high enough to take on Madracora.”
“You have talked about cultivation a lot, is that something I need to be worried about?” Will asked as he went over
“No. The leveling system completely automates the entire process. If you need to do anything special, the system will generate a quest.”
“Enough talk!” Emerys yelled. “It will already take far too long to get there but if we keep yammering it will be forever!” And so they headed off, leaving the empty spot of blood behind them. Looking at his notifications Will noticed that he had gotten a single antler as well as a half hide as well as meat and bones. Will suspected that the meat and bones were only half. The other half were probably in Emerys’ inventory. That was confirmed when he pulled out scraps of moose meat to throw to Koma. Koma was happy to jump and snatch them out of the air twenty feet up.
When they finally made camp for the night, Will decided to ask about the job they were going to do.
“We are going to the bramble to kill some shrikes. The bramble is known for its raspberries. The locals harvest them and make them into potions.”
“Potions, out of raspberries? What is the deal with these raspberries?” Will asked.
“Aside from the fact that each berry is three feet across? The entire bramble was affected by the dire curse. Dire is a curse by the way, just a relatively benign one. Usually it doesn’t affect plants or people, but it affected this raspberry plant. Now every berry will bestow the curse onto whatever beast eats it. That is where the shrikes come in. Shrikes have a very unpleasant habit of impaling their prey on thorns. And since they are now all the size of people, they have been snatching people up and impaling them on raspberry thorns.” Emerys shook his head. “It is a gruesome sight.”
“Why don’t we just wipe out the shrikes?”
“Something about them being important for the ecology.” Emerys said.
“You know there are a ton of dire beasts in the bramble.” Amalise said. “The shrikes are one of the few forces that keep them under control. We only have to kill the shrikes when their population gets too big. Besides, killing all the shrikes would be impossible. The bramble is the size of a county and the height of a mountain. Good luck going through and killing enough to make a difference.”
“So what do the potions do?”
“They make you bigger.” Emerys grinned. “In every dimension, OWW!”
Emerys jerked back as Amalise zapped him with a lightning spell.
“The potions add a couple inches of height, as well as making the rest of the body grow in proportion.” Amalise sighed. “Emerys is being gross again, but he isn’t wrong. The potions are very popular, and very expensive.”