Now, this was a challenge. My heart pounded as the fight raged.
Each time I sliced into the beetle, it didn’t dodge the entire hit. Instead, it only dodged a little and counterattacked while taking the damage.
I rolled back and stabbed with my knife, which suddenly lengthened into a spear. It didn’t even try to dodge the sudden attack, and the blade pierced into its armored side.
Strange darted in and chomped its leg, holding on tight.
It yanked the leg with Strange holding on into the air and flung him about.
I sent a pulse of ice cold down the spear into its side.
It shrieked and tried to free itself from my weapon. The scream drew the attention of the other beetles left in the tunnel as they all turned their mandible heads in my direction.
Instead of backing off, I pressed forward, not letting it go. Another round of cold went into the Life Beetle’s side, and I couldn’t help but grin.
Strange leaped from its leg and then fled into the shadows away from us both.
The tips of its legs slammed into my spear shaft, almost knocking it out of my hands, but I barely managed to hang on.
Three more beetles tried to join my fight, but Dengu tackled one of them. Kabi took another, while more of the silver arrows flew into the third.
Yet, the one with the arrows didn’t die and stabbed at me with its foot.
I lashed out with my left hand as claws burst forth. Four golden lines chopped its legs up and tore off the side of its armor. It crashed to the ground.
The healing beetle used the moment to yank back even farther, almost freeing itself again. I lengthened my spear another two feet, piercing deeper into the creature as heat burned down the blade. First cold, now heat, should equal mush.
Fluids leaked from the beetle as it whimpered before going limp.
Silence reigned in the tunnel for a second before my harsh breathing took over.
That was a good fight. Time for the rewards.
Notifications were stacked up, yet a presence farther down the tunnel paused my motion. One notification broke through my current settings.
[An OFFENDER has been detected in your area with a bounty. You have been given a temporary boost to stats and abilities.]
[Bagloth, The Rack, Level 130, Predator, Unknown, OFFENDER.]
My eyes went wide, and I glanced at the others. I made a silence motion and everyone stared at me in confusion.
I mouthed the word Forger, but the system translation must not have worked since Kabi shook his head. Slowly, I backed up the way we’d come.
The Forger stayed just at the edge of my radar range, not moving closer. Then it must have stepped beyond the reach of my Hunting Skill.
My shoulders relaxed, and I squatted down as my spear shortened automatically. I traced the word into the ground using my blade.
The others silently gathered around and read it before nodding. I added its level.
Kabi gripped his knife tighter while Lenna frowned. Dengu’s head bobbed.
Strange…
Where the heck was Strange?
I reached out to our bond and found him creeping down the tunnel closer to the Forgers' location. A harsh breath escaped my lips and I gritted my teeth before sending him the idea to come back. What I got back was the feeling that he’d watch.
I rubbed the back of my neck before trying to let everything inside me relax.
Lenna tapped the ground next to my foot. She wrote the word rest, then pointed at the Forger.
I nodded.
A very short rest, then we’d need to tackle that issue. Hopefully, it was alone.
I turned on my notifications to see what I’d gotten from the fight.
[You have gained bonus experience from combat for surviving against level 100, Armored Beetle.]
[You have gained experience from combat.]
[You have gained experience from combat.]
[You have gained experience from combat.]
[You have gained bonus experience from combat for surviving against level 100, Capture beetle.]
[You have gained a level.]
[You have gained bonus experience from combat for surviving against level 109, Stalker Beetle.]
[You have gained bonus experience from combat for surviving against level 120, Life Beetle.]
[You have gained a level.]
I crept back to the carcass of the life beetle and readied myself. Using my knife, I cut into it to find its heart. Goop flowed out where I’d liquefied its insides from freezing, then melting it. My idea for mush worked.
After only a few moments, I noped out after finding nothing solid.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Great plan to kill it, not a great plan to try to harvest its heart. Oh well, live and learn was something I had gotten used to.
Instead, I cracked open my stat sheet to use those free stat points. They’d piled up to 40, and I hit the big 100. I allocated the free points mostly across Quickness and Flexibility, with a few here and there to round up my stats. I liked round numbers.
Name: Alex
Level: 100
Race: Human
Traits: Survivability, Adaptation, Hangry
Class: Shadowstalker, level 100
Profession: Crystal Singer, level 67
Stats:
STR: 382(390)
QUICK: 899(970)
FLEX: 888(955)
TOUGH: 420(430)
INT: 856(911)
FORT: 867(923)
WILL: 452(460)
CHA: 270(275)
FREE: 0
Monstrosity: 6%
Titles & Achievements:
Jack-of-all-Trades
Lucky Stars
Giant Slayer
Songweaver
Citizen
Ahead of the Curve
The First
System Enforcer
Rogue Ascendant
Skill: 9/10
Fortified Adaptation - II
Crystal Transcendence
Perceptive Awareness - III
Unwavering Hunter
Shadow Walking
Razer’s Embrace
Venomous Chomp - II
Tensile Claw Strike
Sovereign’s Call - V
Runes:
Truth Sayer
Clarity - Temporary
SOS Rune - Temporary
My top 4 stats were inching toward 1000, and I couldn’t help but wonder what’d happen at that point. Level 100 hadn’t triggered anything too good, but getting to the next rank, as long as I was the first human, let me hope The First title would level up.
Still, a level 130 Forger, and while I fought above my level by optimising for it, the next closest was Kabi at 102. Dengu and Lenna had both made substantial progress at 91 and 90, respectively. Strange lagged behind at 80, but his growth was astronomical.
I brought my collapsed spear to my mouth before I spit on the blade, then took out my knife and did the same.
Lenna scooted closer to me, holding out her quiver.
It took longer than I’d have liked, and my cheeks hurt by the end of it, but I used my poison on each of our weapons. Even Dengu’s claws. All of us wanted any advantage we had for this fight.
Strange finally reached the area of the Forger and inched closer. While he could see fine in the shadows, it made my head feel weird unless I closed my eyes. I needed to figure out a way to balance the split vision better.
The tunnel opened up to another cavern, but this one didn’t have a small camp. Instead, several massive cages filled the area along an offshoot to another cavern with a round table.
The Forger stood next to the table, staring at its surface. The normally orange skin appeared faded and brown. Muscle upon muscle covered his body, and giant hands rested on the table's edge.
Strange kept to the very edges where the various boulders dotting the ground kept him in darkness.
More beetles stuffed the cages, along with one filled with round objects.
The sight of the eggs snapped me back to myself, and I shivered. If they hatched on this world, that’d make it easier for them to level to the age of adulthood here, which was 50. Yet, how were they leveling the beetles the rest of the way?
It didn’t matter. We needed to kill that Forger and clear out that cavern.
I pointed down the tunnel, and we started out, silent but slow.
Strange didn’t stay on the move; he found a dark crevice to hide in and stayed put. He didn’t even keep monitoring the Forger and instead stared at different rocks.
Time ticked by slowly as we made progress down the tunnel. It didn’t take long for the Forger to show up on my radar yet again.
[An OFFENDER has been detected in your area with a bounty. You have been given a temporary boost to stats and abilities.]
[Bagloth, The Rack, Level 130, Predator, Unknown, OFFENDER.]
The increased stats made my heart pound faster and everything feel good. Like I could take on a god, and win. Part of me whispered to be careful, while the other wanted to run ahead and just get this fight going.
Everything in me strained to rush on, but I resisted, digging my nails into my palms.
[You have gained a stat point in Willpower.]
I paused at the notification and glanced at the others.
Kabi’s eyes were closed and sweat dripped down his forehead, while his fists clenched and unclenched.
Dengu’s breath came out a little harsh and loud in the tunnel, and he glared into the distance. He met my eyes, looked at Lenna, then at me again before nodding.
Lenna gritted her teeth, but also nodded at me.
This had to be something from the Forger, and it didn’t affect Dengu or Strange, but Dengu felt it through the bond.
The difficulty level of the fight had increased, and we hadn’t even gotten there yet.
I touched the bond between Kabi and I, like flicking a taunt string.
His eyes shot open and he wobbled, but then steadied himself. It took a few moments before he nodded at me.
We continued on, and it got easier, like we’d crossed some invisible line and fought it off. The urge to rush in faded away the closer to the Forger we moved.
Faded light appeared around a curve in the rough tunnel walls, making me blink a few times. I peeked around the corner to map out our target. Yet, the cavern opened up within several feet.
Crates created a partial wall blocking much of the light and the room beyond.
I switched to Strange, and found him staring at the opposite side of the wall that I was.
There wasn’t much between it and the various cages, which were on either side of the encampment. Beyond that stood another opening into the bigger cavern that the Forger stood in at the massive table.
Grumbling came from that direction, and Strange peeked at the table. The Forger slammed a fist down and moved his arm across the tabletop.
I snapped back to myself and nodded to the others before I continued on. I monitored the path for any traps, or anything out of the ordinary, but nothing appeared.
Then I stood at the wall. Again, I peeked out to confirm Strange’s view.
The Forger wasn’t paying attention at all in this direction. Yet, his massive form took up so much space.
I directed Strange to creep around the rest of the caverns, to make sure we only had the one enemy to contend with.
The others rallied behind me, and I slipped around the wall. Nothing noticed me, as I kept to the shadows cast by the cage filled with eggs.
I’d made it to the wall near the opening of the central cavern when ice trickled down the bond with Strange.
Snarls and growling echoed through the far area, and the Forger jerked in that direction.
Strange sent an image to me of a large wolf-like creature with six legs, multiple eyes, and massive teeth. It stalked Strange, as he tried to slip back in our direction.
“Get back in your cage!” The Forger threw something at the creature, but it ignored it.
I got eyes on it, and it took a deep breath, sniffing.
[Hemt, Tracker, Hunter, Level 100, Prey, Unknown]
Its eyes zeroed in on Strange’s general area, and it leaped, completely ignoring the Forger.
“Hemt, stop chasing shadows, you’ll scare the dumb beetles!” The Forger went to whack the creature on the head, but Hemt snapped at him instead. “Fucking mutt!”
Hemt growled something, but Bagloth shook his head. “Get! Bran can deal with you when he gets back.”
Two immediate problems came to mind. One, the dog-thing, two, whoever that Bran was. We didn’t need any more Forgers in this fight.
Strange darted under the table in the center of the cavern.
Hemt lost it.
