I’ve rematerialized at the shore of the lake at the place I first touched land. If asked for my motives for picking this place, I’d answer that I cannot risk leading enemies back to our camp. I have no idea whether teleportations can be traced or followed. Deep down I don’t want to return as a failure.
I have failed. Not only have I not gotten even a single potion, but I’ve wasted time. I’ve alerted the local essence users to our presence. And I’ve seen no other member of my race, so if they have a system to distribute reports, I’ll end up on a list of enemies.
Now what? We’ll have to shift camp. And we need an alternate source of potions. And that is the point I need to kick myself. I have not searched the boxes I gathered from the vault I arrived in for potions. I really need a vacation.
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A veritable hoard of awakening stones and essences, but no potions. Who puts identical books into strong boxes with enchantments for preservation? I would have understood standardized sets prepackaged for shipping, but identical books?
[Robotic Servants of War] reacts to these books. They are skill books. The sun is touching the horizon now. A glorious sight. A sight that drives one to contemplation. Do we have evidence that potions exist on this world at all? That is a sobering thought. Could we loot potions on a world that natively lacks them? Does my looting power truly operate at random? What could it depend on? The monsters I loot? The way I’ve killed them? The phase of the moons? OK, let’s stay serious. We need those potions. If I cannot trade for them I will upgrade and experiment. If I am lucky, these will be books on potion brewing.
I conjure myself a roofed cylinder with an internal rim with holes for massive pins holding it to the beach. And ventilation holes. I have no idea what will happen to me if I use a skill book of that size. I am sitting on the ground holding a book in the light of an electrical flashlight. I’ve decided to start with one of the books from a chest, because if I botch this, there will be copies left.
Frankly I am nervous. I hesitate. I should be optimally prepared for this. I will spend a good part of the night here anyway. There is no need to hurry. Meditation brings calm.
Gun: [Tools of the Magister] Special Ability Iron 2 (49%) [Joy of Sustained Fire] Blood Special Attack Iron 2 (4%) [This is my Gun] Myriad Special Attack/Conjuration
Iron 2 (48%)
[Chemical Warfare] Defiance Special Attack/Conjuration
Iron 1 (5%)
[Hyperkinetic Cannon] Gun Special Attack/Conjuration Iron 1 (11%) Vast: [Giant Form of the Ancestors] Special Ability Iron 1 (55%) [Immortality] Tree Special Ability Iron 2 (36%) [Nebelwerfer 42] Focus Special Attack/Conjuration Iron 1 (4%) [Arsenal of the Mad Scientist] Magotech Special Ability Iron 2 (26%) [Eldritch Eyes] Water Special Ability & Attack Iron 1 (9%) Dimension: [Teleport] Special Ability Bronze 0 (0%) [Dance by my Will] Dance Aura Ability Iron 3 (13%) [Eternal Moment] Reach Special Ability Iron 1 (74%) [Path in Time] Hunt Perception Ability Iron 2 (62%) [Wrath of the Magister] Corruption Special Attack/Spell Iron 1 (80%) Battlefield: [Equip the Army] Special Ability Iron 3 (23%) [Robotic Servant of War] Magotech Special Attack/Conjuration
Iron 2 (14%)
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[Pipes of War] Unity Special Ability Iron 1 (35%) [Cornucopia] Feast Special Ability Iron 0 (41%) [Feast of Decontamination] Light Special Ability Iron 0 (77%)
I am drawing this out, because I am afraid to fail again. Screw this. I eat a spirit coin and absorb the book.
I am sitting with my back to the wall. This book needs an exorcist. I wouldn’t need my flashlight. This has no relation to reading under a blanket at night. The book itself is shining and throwing out sparks, which form a cloud. I don’t like this, but I have no idea how a malfunctioning skill book would look like or what I would do against it other than teleporting away. I switch the flashlight off. It has become useless.
A big, but silent ball of glowing shapes has filled up the interior of my shelter and the book tumbled to the ground. What do I do now? It turns out that I need to do nothing. The cloud slams into my head. I moan. My eyes explode into tears. Though I am not needing them right now. Darkness has fallen. I switch the flashlight back on to check that I haven’t gone blind. I haven’t, but the light hurts. This is a hangover on steroids. I remember my college days, well, nights and mornings.
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Skill books are better and faster than alcohol in their aftereffects. It feels rather odd to know something without knowing why I know it. Or, strictly speaking, I know why, but I don’t remember learning it. This skill book tells me what my knowledge is called. I have learned „the Way of the Hunter of the Way of the Reaper“. Cool name. I have to admit it. It has no connection to potions, though. I will have to do an investigation of looting powers.
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I have scratched some signs into the ground at various places in the area. That makes it simple to aim my teleport. You should always have a means of retreat. Escepially when you plan to fight unknown monsters. We are in another universe, after all. I’ve decided to wait for the sun to really rise for better light and that will also allow me to record the timing of dawn, so we can measure the height of the sun at noon and try to compute where we are.
I am hoping that monsters inhabit this lake and that they are less mobile on land. I intend to attract them with monster meat appropriate to their environment. I still have some diced tentacles from -our foray with the EOA in storage. Waiting for dawn I am stringing them onto a conjured string.
To train multitasking I am also making a set of eyes from my venom that I still have in storage.
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These dumb monsters are indeed falling for the dummy I have conjured. They look like a crab and a shark got initimately involved. Four of them have gone for the bait. They are slow on land, as they cannot make big strides without entangling their own legs. Maybe they should walk sideways like some crabs do, but I am not going to complain about an enemy doing something stupid. Still, one them must be fastest, even if you cannot call it fast, and follows the string to its conclusion, opening its maw wide to chomp down on my puppet holding the string. That exposes the interior of its mouth. My venomous eyes go onto a suicide mission. The monster’s mouth closes prematurely and belatedly. There is no need to wait for the effect. I use [Wrath of the Magister] to hit the hindmost monster with frostfire. My new knowledge comes handy. I come out of teleport over a monster, as the spike of a helbard I’ve taken out of my inventory digs into the weak point where its eye stalk emerges out of its dorsal armour. I run down its back towards the one behind it and give it a full salvo of fully automatic gun fire. It drops dead. The one-eyed one starts turning on the spot.
Supernatural aim lets me use one of the functions of a spear that increases its range advantage even more. You can throw it. The one-eyed one becomes the eyeless one. It veers of course. I use my second helbard and smash a joint. The rest degenerates into butchery. But I want to use dfferent weapons on each of them.
The one I poisoned does yield a healing potion. And the butchered one does give meat. You cannot do statistics from a sample size of one, but in theory I could repeat this if we ran out of other options.
We haven’t set a clear time limit, which in hindsight is another serious oversight, but I feel like it is time to return to base. I teleport.