Alya P.O.V.
“A hive,” says Elias, well thanks captain obvious, I could get that too, the point is that there are too many of those… things.
Thousands were flying in and out of the holes in the ground, bringing with them other dead monsters in their legs. But compared to them, the monsters looked cute in comparison.
The map drew them like winged scorpions, well, it was not accurate, but it gave an idea. The truth was, these things looked like a nightmare, their body was dark red, totally covered in chitin, with darker accents on the claws and mandibles, and the sting, and the pincers…
They were too fucking big to be moving around with that kind of quickness while carrying prey as big as them, or bigger, and given that they were probably taller than a man, it was telling.
“They’re ugly as fuck, but most of all, what level do you think they are?” I asked him, he was staring at them, a look of greed was plastered on his face, eyes blazing with that grey energy he always had recently, what kind of crazy idea came to his mind now?
“They didn’t pass the third evolution, so level 50 or less, but we can expect that they would have some over that level, probably, while the Baron would be quite high, I would put it just short of level 100.”
“Those are not good prospects… we won’t even be able to reach the head honcho with the thousands of high-level monsters around, we should retu-”
“No, there’s no need, I mean, if you think you can take one of those at level 99, then I’d clear the way for you.”
Could I? I opened my status.
────────────Name: Alya BielRace: HumanClass: Wrathful ReaverLevel: 25Titles: On the Brink, Lifedrinker, Elite Slayer (I,II,III), Paragon of Potential, Bonebreaker, Unyielding, Crimson Vanguard, Paragon of Growth, Touched by FuryStats:Vitality: 151 (203)Constitution: 148 (199)Endurance: 158 (213)Strength: 277 (415)Agility: 181 (235)Dexterity: 153 (168)Perception: 99 (109)Charisma: 106 (116)Wisdom: 104 (114)Intelligence: 105 (115)Willpower: 110 (143)Free Stat Points: 0Traits: Rageful Empowerment, Savage Instincts, Unbroken MomentumSkills: Fighting Instincts Lv49, Bloody Cleave Lv49, Wrathful Infusion Lv44, Uncanny Parry Lv33, Leeching Strike Lv25, Brutal Combo Lv34, Mortal Avoidance Lv30, Feline Grace Lv28, Spatial Awareness Lv13, Aura Slash Lv10Tutorial point: 2407
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I wasn’t sure, the Corpse Collector gave me a great boost, fifty on every stat had been a real rush, but despite that, I was wondering if it would be enough to take down a Baron, one just short of a fourth evolution and that could fly, that was my biggest issue, I had only one skill that allowed me to hit from afar, Aura Slash, and it consumed so much aura it was crazy, without speaking of the mana too.
Normally despite my more aggressive tendencies I wouldn’t be that mad as to charge into that hive and challenge the strongest of these things, but if he said that he could take them, I believed him.
Damn it all, why do I believe him so readily? Why even if I feel like dying inside can’t I bring myself to hate him, to break his nose for all the pain he caused me.
I just wanted to be loved, is it so impossible for me? First my father, that bastard. Then every other man I ever met, now him. Am I really asking too much other than just being treated as a fucking fucktoy? Can’t anybody see me for who I am?
I shook my head to clear these stupid thoughts from my head, not the time, I could mope later, now there was shit to do.
Turning to Elias I was about to reply to him when I saw the look of absolute confidence on his face.
How? How can you make that face while looking at that hive? How strong did he become after killing that serpent he told us about? He was already a monster before… why though, was he pushing so hard, taking on that kind of risk? Rhea knew, but she didn’t tell me, she said that she couldn’t, and even if she could she wouldn’t.
Damn them all, I had secrets too you know? You are not the only ones…
“I can take it on,” I told him, he just nodded at me, as if it was a reply he expected.
He wasn’t getting it, I could see that he didn’t understand, not just that, it wasn’t that he couldn’t understand, it was just that in his mind something like this was normal. Just another Tuesday, as if the stunt we pulled before was somehow comparable to a stroll in the park.
“Let’s go then, if we manage this pretty quickly we can rejoin the others before nightfall, with some luck.”
You bastard, am I another point in your checklist to pen off? At least say a-
“Alya,”
“Yes?”
“Stay close to me and don’t bother killing anything, I’d deal with them, you keep your strength and ready yourself for the Baron, and please… be careful.”
Ok, that was better, I forgive you.
“I’ll enjoy the leisure time then, go on, do your thing, I’m curious to see how you’d manage all of them.”
He smirked at me, always avoiding looking me in the eyes, then started walking forward, preparing some magic I couldn’t really see but could somehow feel. I didn’t have any skill to let me interact directly with mana, or with any other energies, but I could feel my aura, and my trait and my skill honed my instinct to a supernatural degree, so I could feel when something magical was going on around me.
Except for Quinn, the little shit was impossible to spot, and he used that to his great pleasure to spook people or just make them uncomfortable. I think that if it wasn’t for Elias, he would already pressure everyone into doing what he wanted, Melissa was the only one capable of making him do something nice. At least Elias was keeping him on a short leash, otherwise I didn’t know what could happen, he was too dangerous.
We walked side by side, approaching the entrance of one of the holes, I noticed the flying insect/scorpions start to move erratically, buzzing around on their headache-inducing wings, the sound was terrible, and was going to become worse and worse inside, I already could imagine. It took them just a moment to identify the source of the disturbance, whatever he did, and start swarming us.
But before they could get halfway here, they started to drop down, dead. Just like that.
I could feel something in the air, but I couldn’t understand what was happening, though when we came closer to the first of the monsters I recognized the signs: they had been drained.
I had a similar skill, but for me it required wounding an enemy to steal part of their vitality and stamina, but it was useful to recover energy in the middle of a long fight, or to stem the blood from a wound, I couldn’t do something like that at all, but I noticed the desiccation as life was taken from them, despite being insects it was quite recognizable.
From up close they looked even worse, their chitin was ridged with short spikes everywhere, the eyes were big, bigger than mine and totally black, without any kind of compounding I was expecting from these things.
The rest was exactly how I expected it: mandibles, a set of pincers, two more sets with long claws and the long scorpion’s tail.
That one was dripping a kind of venom on the floor, making a little pool of the dark purple liquid. It smelled horrible, I had no intention of getting myself even scratched, too dangerous.
“Mecoptera Diabolis, level 41 through 49 until now. Would you be able to deal with these ones by yourself?” he asked me.
“Of course, alone they are not that much of a problem, the real issue would be their numbers, I have some staying power, but probably I would be too tired to fight the Baron if I had to do all of this by myself, after all I don’t have a thousand in every stat.”
“I should have told you, and everyone else about the cursed fruits that you can buy in the shop, those would have given you a terrifying boost.”
“What fruits? But I’m not going to eat anything cursed, no matter what it does, thank you, I don’t have your resistances. And we saw already what happens to the ones who took those potions.”
“Yea, but I can remove the curses and make the stat fruits perfectly fine for consumption, they cost a tenth of the normal ones, so around three thousand a piece, but they give a lot of stats. With all that happened… well, we’d fix this thing in the next safe zone.”
What the fuck? Was he for real? I spent a ton of points for nothing then? I mean he’s the leader of the group, he should have told us and… oh my god. I wanted to slap him.
“Elias, that was… how can I put it? Dumb as fuck, I think it doesn’t cover it. What if somebody died because they didn’t have enough stats and you could have prevented it?”
He nodded to me. “I know, I should have told everyone, but I would rectify it in the next safe zone, people would have managed to accrue some points too by then,” he said, then he refocused on the hive ahead, as if the matter was handled.
Unbelievable.
We proceeded forward and entered one of the tunnels, I think tunnels here is a viable choice of word as the passage is bigger than a man, so we didn’t have trouble moving in, but it was pitch black after a little while.
“Hold on, I need to get my light.”
I rummaged into one of the pockets I had on my jacket, then took out a golden earring, I put it on my left ear and I could feel it taking some of my mana to activate, but when it did, the dark tunnel looked like it was illuminated with sunlight to my vision.
“How can you see in this darkness?” I asked him as he gestured with his hands more, and more insects came flying or crawling.
“My eyes, with the constant infusion of aura they can see much deeper, but clothes are off limits don’t worry.”
I wouldn’t mind actually if he looked only at me, I had to remember it when he was around, for the future, you never knew.
As we stepped around dead monsters, I noticed that his speed of dealing with them was growing faster instead of slower, he must have had a leeching skill like mine, but much stronger, and with a different requirement than wounding.
After five minutes of constant killing, the numbers didn’t seem to get any lower, at that point he started experimenting using strange projectiles, I didn’t know what he wanted to accomplish but the pressure around those things was incredible. And pretty effective in the long tunnels.
I couldn’t wait for my fight, I was getting worked up by looking at Elias massacre them all on his own, I knew I’d have my chance for fighting soon, but my blood was already starting to boil. I would have to calm down and give my all in this fight, I knew it, but it was so hard… I would have to manage it without entering that state of fury like I did with Master Vix O’Ran, otherwise I would reinforce the Trait and the chance of getting a selection of classes totally inclined towards the berserker path.
I got warned that it would be incredibly difficult if not impossible to go back in that case, so I’d have to fight with a clear mind, even if it meant nerfing myself. Why should I go through all of this bullshit? This guy here was the source of my problems, he should deal with it, fucking hell.
At least he was helping, but the silence between us was starting to grate on me, though, keeping a conversation up while he killed all the monsters wouldn’t exactly be easy… I’d just have to wait.
That Baron couldn’t come too soon.