It felt good to be rich.
Of course, I didn’t do anything with the gold. It sat, squirreled away in my inventory, safe and ready for when I would need it. Still, my newfound riches changed a few things.
I no longer had to hustle as hard for a few copper coins at a time from selling meat to Bosh. I gained almost nothing anymore from taking out the smaller prey that I had been selling to him; it was a chore I continued to do purely for the sake of earning some spending money. The jumpcrabs, braygulls, polerats, vicaws, and other small animals were finally safe from my endless appetite for minor profits.
Bosh wouldn’t be pleased at the reduced inflow of goods, but I still had meat from rank E beasts which I was hunting with Buda. Once my inventory of banked rank F beast meat was depleted, I would offer him my remaining ramhog meat–which guilt was preventing me from enjoying, thanks to Buda–as well as the ratman meat from the previous winter, before moving on to striking vipis meat. If he asked questions about that, I would have to terminate our working relationship, but I didn’t foresee a problem.
I spent a whole afternoon counting the currency. 1,943 small gold coins of Horuth’s currency. I broke it down into smaller pouches and stored them away in my inventory.
I also had a pretty sizable hunk of melted gold. Unfortunately, in my rush to open the lock, I had poured enough heat into the chest to fuse and ruin quite a number of additional coins. I could only guess, but it was probably at least another 50 or so coins worth of gold. I assumed it was 57 coins worth of melted gold and that the chest had initially contained an even 2000 coins, but there was no reason for that aside from the nice round numbers. In any case, it was an expensive lesson for me to avoid losing control of my emotions. The melted gold was still valuable, it would just be more difficult to use.
Breaking the currency into smaller denominations was a challenge. A not-yet-nine year old couldn’t just stroll up and spend a gold coin in most places. Most places in Mirut rarely even ever saw gold coins. The only place I had consistently seen gold coins used was the Church, which made me wonder where this chest of gold came from, and how it ended up lost at sea.
Even if I could spend a gold coin, I had to be careful about the gossip making its way back to my parents, Horg and Sharma. I had kept everything a secret from them for so long, and wasn’t keen to change that relationship until I was old enough to be recognized as an adult in this world.
In the end, I realized my only option was to head somewhere out of the way, to a vendor who didn’t really know me, and buy something expensive enough to use a gold coin and get some silver coins back as change. That brought me back to Mo’s smithy, where I was looking at his blades.
“May I see your finest short swords, please,” I asked the man.
Mo chuckled and started picking pieces out of the mess that was his workplace, hastily clearing a surface to lay out the blades. I was banking on the idea that he was assuming I was some spoiled rich kid from the wealthy part of town and collecting gear for the fun of it.
I looked at the small collection of beautiful weapons, all polished and gleaming. The hilts were nicely decorated, nothing too gaudy–which I wouldn’t expect from Mirut, anyway–but still gorgeous from a practical perspective.
I lifted up a really handsome xiphos-style sword, and gave it a few swings. I saw Mo raise an eyebrow at that; the average not-yet-nine year old didn’t have the strength or skill to wave a sword around with one hand, even a short sword like this, but I had been training for years. “This is nice,” I commented. I was about to ask how much when something else caught my eye.
It was sitting on top of another cluttered workbench, not one of the pieces Mo had brought out for me. I walked over and lifted it up, feeling the weight in my hand.
It was a simple, sturdy baselard-type sword, but it felt good in my hand. This was the kind of weapon I could rely on in a fight. Something to help me survive against strong beasts.
“Good eye,” Mo said, walking up beside me. “This one is made from high-quality northern steel. Simple, but effective, and should last a lifetime.”
My eyes darted back and forth between the two swords. Each attracted me for different reasons. I probably only needed one, and the baselard was the smarter choice.
I looked back at the first blade, sighed, and turned to Mo. “How much for both?”
* * *
The clink of silver coins in my pouch brought a big smile to my face as I tucked it away into my inventory. I peeled off into a sidestreet after leaving the smithy, and dropped my purchases into my inventory as well. I bought both the gorgeous iron xiphos and the sturdy, steel baselard, as well as some sharpening stones and other upkeep materials. Mo hadn’t blinked at the gold, and now I had enough silver to keep me sorted for a long while.
I probably couldn’t return to Mo again, though. I didn’t want him to get so familiar with me that he could pick me out of a crowd, or identify me in another context, notably if I met him in Horg’s company. Of course, that was what simple illusions were for, if it came to that. I probably should have used an illusory face in the first place with Mo, but hindsight was almost superior to foresight.
Despite availing myself of silver to open the doors for retail therapy, I headed straight for the jungle and reunited with Buda. He was so close to hitting max level, and I wanted to break in my new swords. We headed into the jungle in search of some prey.
I cut down griffators and vipises and Buda ran them into the ground, hammering them with his thick skull and trampling them with heavy hooves. I was only a little over halfway to my next level up, mostly from the battles with the lorsh, but I was gaining some fresh experience for working on my one-armed skill and learning the subtle differences between the two new blades. It came quickly with my advanced skill, but as always, I hit a wall when my functional skill caught up with my metasystem ones and had no SP to grow the skills further.
We stopped when Buda hit the experience max and my metasystem informed me that his growth conditions were not met, and I pulled out a magic crystal, holding it up so he could look at it.
“You ready?” I asked the ramhog.
He squealed an affirmative, happy squeal, and I offered it to him in the palm of my hand. His nose pushed into my wrist as he scooped up the crystal with his tongue. I shook my hand off and wiped it on my pant leg as I watched him go through the evolutionary glow-up.
A ramhog looked like a weird cross between a warthog and a sheep, with a few differences such as the shorter snout and a thick, wiry coat. The dungeon-evolved ramhogs grew to the size of a large ox, its wiry coat growing out to a dark, shaggy one. The main feature of the dungeon-evolved ramhogs was the horns: the dark, spiral ram horns that were so distinct on the hog grew to dangerous, metallic blades which grew long and pointed forward. They were wicked-looking things and incredibly dangerous against those with which it fought.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Buda was clearly evolving into something else, and I released the breath I was holding. He grew larger, yes, but only about twice his original size, mostly growing longer in body and limb, and topped out at somewhere around four feet tall. His horns grew larger and spiraled, but instead of pointing forward and turning metallic, they twisted outwards and faded into a lighter shade of brown. The wiry coat grew out and curled into a surprisingly light wool. The squat hog nose elongated, no longer protected by the tight spiral horns, and grew wider and larger overall.
I appraised him and saw his updated species name was a “wooly ramhog.” He was ready to level up again and grow as a rank D familiar.
The glow faded and Buda let out a happy squeal. I looked him over with a big smile on my face. He was nothing like the dark, corrupted monsters I had fought against in the dungeon. While that raised some questions, I only had one question on my mind at the moment.
“You look great, bud. Now, how about a ride?”
* * *
A full-grown man probably wouldn’t have been able to ride a wooly ramhog, but a not-yet-nine year old boy definitely could. I shouted with glee as we darted through the jungle with surprising grace and speed. My boy Buda was even faster now that he had evolved, and seemed to have more endurance, too.
“Woo!” I shouted, as we headed further east into the depths of the jungle than I ever had before. I had left Treepo and Gregory behind with Vlad for this first excursion, so it was just the two of us barreling through the brush.
I tamped down my excitement and tried to control myself, remembering we were entering new territory. A land mount was a huge upgrade since it would let me reach territories with stronger beasts, but the unknown was also dangerous. I told Buda to slow down a bit so we could watch for ambush predators and new species.
The further we got from the ocean breeze, the more humid the jungle became. We started to encounter increasingly swampy areas that forced us to veer south, and it wasn’t long before we came upon something new.
I stared at the massive, furry frog, confused at what I was even seeing. Frog probably wasn’t the right word for the creature, as it was clearly mammalian, but it had the same posture, same kind of weird fingers and toes, and the same wide mouth and glassy, frog-like eyes. Unlike a frog, it was covered in thick brown fur and had a tail like a muskrat.
“What the hell,” I muttered.
I could see two more swimming by in the water, so I waited for them to pass and then had Buda circle around and charge the beast from behind. I drew my baselard and swished it through the air, and charged the beast.
As I neared, it blasted off the ground with a powerful kick and leapt into the water, swimming away.
“I… guess I should have seen that coming,” I said, as Buda trotted back over to me.
I mounted back up and we followed the edge of the water until I spotted more of the strange creatures, and this time I went with tried and true magic. I cast a slow debuff, and pelted them with stone bullets until they were dead. They were big and weird, but no stronger than rank E. I used water magic to float them closer to shore and reached out to touch them so I could add them to my inventory. They were called furgs, and hopefully they tasted good because I dismantled all three of them and it was a sizable amount of meat.
Just as I was realizing that easy prey like furgs must have a predator, the brackish water exploded and I barely dodged in time before a massive mouth snapped shut where I had just been standing. Large clawed feet stomped as the beast pulled itself from the swamp, its huge maw turning side to side as it scented its new prey: me.
The shockingly white beast fully emerged from the water and Buda and I made room between us, unsure about the best course of action. I took in all the details I could to try to make a plan.
It was, more or less, the largest alligator I had ever seen. A tiny part of my brain wondered how an ambush predator could be so bright white, as it wouldn’t be able to camouflage very well at all. When it moved, I realized my mistake. Whatever this was, it wasn’t just an ambush predator.
The beast stood to a full height and I realized its legs were significantly more developed than I had initially thought because of my Earth animal comparison. It towered over me, probably close to ten feet tall, and easily three times as long. The giant, alligator-like beast was dangerously quick on land, and was thundering towards us.
I again sent Buda away and around, more as a distraction than anything. He was my ride back home, so I commanded him to play it safe and keep some distance. I created an illusion and covered myself with invisibility, but as I moved away I saw its nose track me and knew immediately that it was a scent-based hunter. That was a problem.
I dropped the dismantled meat of one of the furgs at my feet and pivoted into yet another direction, pulling away into the trees. I watched the huge beast snap up the furg meat in one quick motion and swallowed it in the blink of an eye without stopping. It was still coming for me.
The trees would limit its movement, a small amount. I needed to set up an ambush of my own. I started staging the area with stone spikes from my inventory, trying to lead the huge beast around to prepare the area for a showdown.
I moved towards the focal point of my plan and the beast came upon me. I tried to cast calm, but the beast easily shook it off, so it was clearly strong, although I had already guessed it was rank D or stronger. I shot fire into the gaping maw of the hungry predator, which only barely slowed it down. Rolling to the side to avoid the snapping jaws, I pulled all the stone spikes aggressively towards the beast, depleting a large amount of my MP in the process.
Most glanced off the scaly hide of the creature, but a few drew blood. It was nowhere near enough to slow the beast down. Before I could even get back to my feet, I saw the wide maw coming to close down on me again.
I dropped a rocky shieldback shell and shot it into the wide-open mouth, trying to employ the same strategy I used against the dungeon-evolved griffator, but the nightmare of a beast easily chewed up the shell and spit it out. I gaped. Before I could even react, the beast’s hungry mouth was coming toward me again.
Time seemed to slow as I stared at the wide open mouth of the creature that was desperate to eat me. The teeth were impressively sharp and jagged. Those teeth would tear me to pieces. If I were swallowed whole, though…
Just like the lorsh, this beast’s weakest points were likely on the inside.
It was an insane long-shot, a desperate plan, but I wasn’t seeing any other option. I returned my sword to my inventory and dove towards the maw, casting a cylindrical barrier around myself to protect my body from the terrifying teeth, and forced myself into the back of the creature’s throat.
I squirmed and kicked, wiggling deeper into the throat of the creature. If it spat me out, I would be at the mercy of those teeth. Fortunately–or at least I hoped it would turn out to be fortunate–I got deep enough that the beast reflexively swallowed.
I gagged at the smell, which only made things worse as I gagged harder, and found myself stinging all over from the stomach acid of the creature once inside its belly. I started casting low-level heals on myself to stave off the worst of it. I was inside the beast, but alive, and the insides of a beast had little to no protection.
I felt the living horror move as muscles contracted around me, and realized I only had precious little time before Buda was next. I pulled the baselard from my inventory, tried to figure out which way was down and forward, and started cutting.
The stomach lining was tougher than I would have thought, but I pierced through it and hacked it open, pouring myself and the stomach acid into the rest of the beast’s interior. I heard a muffled cry that would have terrified me if I hadn’t already been eaten. I hacked and sliced, cutting blindly through the creature, hoping with everything I had that I could find and destroy the heart. I rammed my sword forward and felt it slide into a tough muscle, and the creature went rigid around me, then started to quiver and scream.
Red-hot liquid poured over me when I ripped my sword out of my target, and I felt the creature stumble and fall. I burned. With another pulse, the liquid poured over me again, and I cast a heal with my remaining MP to desperately cling to survival. With one last spurt, I felt the beast grow still.
It was dead.
Does that mean I can add it to my inventory now?
I tried doing so, and found myself plopping onto the wet jungle floor, the corpse around me now weighing heavy in my inventory. I pulled out an MP potion, drank it, and healed myself so I could crawl back to the swamp to wash the burning blood off.