P-03. Trial By Magic, page 16
part #3 of PrimeVerse Series
We set up a watch rotation, and this time Ryan slept, so we took turns standing alone in the dark since we didn’t dare use light. During my shift, to combat the boredom, I pulled out my infinite notebook to do some archiving. I had ignored this for a while, being so caught up in everything else going on.
I documented as much as I could remember about what I had learned about magic, spells, and the creatures we had recently discovered. I even drew some maps of the areas we had been. I found that I could bring up an illusory map and paste it into my notebook.
When I was done, I opened my notification panel to review what was flashing. I had gained four points in Archive from all that, and even a point in Illugraphy which bumped me up to 30 and granted me a milestone. Nice! I could now add place names on my map that were permanent and would show up with opaque arrows on the NSEW radial dial on my mini-map.
The most exciting part from my archiving, though, was it had granted me an insight bonus, a kind of onetime-use buff that I could apply to a single thing I had archived. Curious, I tapped on the entry for mothsquitos, and the text shifted down as a picture drew itself on the page. As the lines formed together, the picture showed a mothsquito much like the one we had already fought, flying above a hill bear.
The biggest difference from the little guy we had killed, was that this mothsquito was easily ten times larger than the hill bear it dwarfed.
Chapter 21
I snapped my notebook shut and stood up, even more wary of the night sky. This world had its dangers, and it really seemed to enjoy making gross things huge.
I huffed out a breath and pulled a mothsquito larvae core out of my inventory. Looking at it with Mystic Sense, I was able to pick up that the thing was basically defenseless, having only a tough, pliant flesh to stop attacks. It was supposed to live in a host until it pupated. I was so thankful I wasn’t that host. Yet.
I summoned one and watched as it appeared on the ground. It was like a short, fat worm, no face, no limbs. I had no idea what I was going to do with these cores. I suppose I could summon and throw them at an enemy to gross them out. I wouldn’t mind giving Cora a fat worm to the face.
I unsummoned it and sighed. I still had some time left to burn before the sun would rise, so I opened my infinite notebook again and began documenting everything I had learned about cores; what I knew about them, what I’d done with them, and the skills I’d learned that used them.
I needed to archive more often. It helped me get my thoughts in order and only made me feel slightly like a teenage girl. Dear diary...
When I had finished, I saw that I earned another insight. I selected Core Mastery in the notebook and a single word appeared, bolded and forming a new subtitle in my entry.
Combine.
Combine? I furrowed my brow, wondering exactly what it meant. I traced the letters over and over with my finger. Combine. I had the ability to combine a spell effect to a summon, did it mean more than that? Would it tell me something I already knew?
I didn't have a wide variety of cores to experiment with, so I brought out a larva core again. I investigated it with my Mystic Sense again and tried to figure out if there was a way to combine something with it. I was coming up empty, so I pulled out one of the hill bear cores. I held one in each hand and studied them, just to see what would happen. I pressed the two of them together and focused on combining them.
My notification bar lit up and I received a pop-up in my HUD.
You cannot enter the combine menu in the wilderness. You must be somewhere safe.
A combine menu?! Oh man, I was excited to see that. That meant there was more to these cores than simply summoning with them! I needed to get back to the village; I had to see what this was about. But I also needed more cores. Lots more.
I was so giddy I felt like I needed to get out and blast everything we could find. It was miserable waiting for daylight to break so I could wake everyone up and get to hunting.
Eventually daylight broke though, and I could barely keep my excitement contained as I breathlessly told Madison about my discovery. The poor girl was hardly awake and just kept nodding with a small, sweet smile. “I wish I could do something with it now, but since we are on this quest, I just want to get as many cores as I can!” Then I told Ryan and Kai, too.
“Nice, well, should we continue then? Eat on the road?” Ryan asked. I nodded at him and we continued our hunt. We had gone only a short distance when Ryan picked up the trail of a hill bear and my Hunch kicked in when he pointed it out.
“I think we might have another patriarch,” I said. “My Hunch skill just activated. We should probably buff up in case it's the same situation as last time.” We prepared our skills and I summoned a hill bear, giving it the burning buff. We didn’t have long to wait before we ran into our first enemy of the day.
An adolescent hill bear was rolling in the dirt, slamming its paws into itself over and over. We watched as it stood on all fours and rammed its head into the trunk of a tree in one of their patented charges. We heard the loud crack of what I assumed had been the tree, but proved to be the bear’s neck, as it slumped to the ground twitching. It let out a great groan, and its distended stomach exploded out in a bubbling mess, revealing a mass of pulsing, fuzzy wings and sharp, pointy legs.
Before I could even process what was happening, a mothsquito darted out, mostly covered in a hard chrysalis that it was doing its darndest to escape from. The chrysalis was covered in hard spikes and torn, sharp edges, which is probably what had been giving the poor bear such a tummy ache.
The mothsquito writhed around in an attempt to birth itself from its spiked and jagged home, and I couldn’t help but think how maddeningly painful that must have been for the bear. Needless to say, we didn’t waste any time killing the thing before it could even escape fully.
We had killed a handful of infected bears by now and already had the distinct displeasure of watching the larvae wriggle out from within the poor creatures, but had never witnessed the act of a mothsquito birthing itself out of one before.
My mind went back to the insight I had gotten about mothsquitos and I opened my notebook to show everyone. “Guys, I have a feeling we are on a longer questline than just killing 10 infected bears,” I pointed to the giant mothsquito. “I’d bet money we’re going to end up fighting a boss mama.”
They looked at the picture in my book, frowns all around. “How did you come by this?” Kai asked.
I explained to them the insight bonus I had gotten from archiving so much at one time. I also told them about what I had learned of my Core Mastery skill.
A big smile spread across Kai’s face. “This is good, very good, Hudson. It shows you have become more diligent about mastering your abilities.” He placed a hand on my shoulder. “You have grown tremendously, my friend. Perhaps more than any of us. I am proud of you.”
I guess I didn’t know how much I needed to hear something as simple as those words, because they brought a smile to my face. And, well, no one had ever said them to me before. I didn’t get choked up or anything. But it wouldn’t have been lame if I did. “Well, to be fair, I didn't really figure it out on my own or anything.”
Kai shrugged. “You did not spend time using your Archive skill to help you learn about things? Knowledge of self is the most important aspect of growth, just because something is not focused on dealing damage or some other aspect of combat does not mean that it has no value.”
I nodded, almost feeling scolded despite knowing he was complimenting me. “Okay, well, now that we have an idea that we might fight a boss at the end of this quest line, we should probably start figuring out the best way to fight these things.”
“Especially if we have to fight some kind of flyer,” Ryan said. “I have decent ranged attacks, but the rest of you are only good if it gets close.”
“Maybe we need to get more stuff for you to archive so you can get another insight?” Madison asked.
“That's a good idea, and easy enough to do. Plus, we should try out as many attacks that we can to check for weaknesses.”
“That is the other half of the equation,” Kai said. “Know yourself and know your enemy, and you need not fear battle.”
Ryan nodded his approval. “Alright so what, we don't kill them outright, we... study them? Doesn’t that sound macabre?”
“Maybe a little,” Madison said, “though I will say that this world definitely leans more towards the harsh. If there was a nice or kind or gentle way to do things, I’d be all over that. Maybe there will be at some point, but for now, to protect what we are building, we need to be a little more tough.”
I looked at Madison after those words, my wheels turning. She was right, but I just hoped that pragmatism wouldn't blunt the edge of her optimism that I loved so much.
“There are other things we can do besides killing,” I said. “We can study habitat, behavior and all that stuff, too. National Geographic style. Ryan, you can give me every bit of information you gather about these things as you see it and I’ll make sure to archive it. I’m sure you notice a lot more than me considering your skill set. I just have a feeling that if we don't complete this quest, then the boss will become a problem for the village, and we already have a problem of a disgusting creature desperate to infect everything... Cora.”
Ryan chuckled. “Very true. And very gross.” He shuddered, maybe a tad over dramatic. “I get you though. I’ll start calling out everything that I think is related.”
We continued in our search for infected bears, this time a little slower as Ryan led the way, pointing out anything that was out of the ordinary and might be related to the mothsquitos. There wasn’t a lot of solid evidence yet, but I documented every little bit. Then we came across another hill bear with what looked to be another painfully large, distended stomach.
Kai ran in with his Fist of Mana and ended the bear as fast as he could, putting it out of its misery nearly instantly. Then we sat back and observed.
I recorded every bit of information I could as another mothsquito emerged from its incubation spot. I sketched the chrysalis, explained the frantic movements it made trying to dislodge itself. My group looked to me expectantly, as if asking for permission to engage. I finished my observations and gave them the nod.
Madison experimented with all of her spells, Spark, Dispell, Darkness and Confuse. Spark seemed to do normal damage, and Dispell had no effect. We couldn’t really tell what happened when she put an orb of darkness on it, although we suspect it had the same effect as blinding it by how it moved randomly. It looked just like my Light spell, only dark of course, and seemed to have a hard time sticking to living creatures. Her last spell though, Confuse, worked well, causing the thing to act erratically for the whole duration. I noted everything.
Then it was my turn and I cast the basics of every spell I had on it. I tried Frost first, thinking that like the larva it would affect it more, but that idea was quickly shot down. Poison had no effect, or a very limited one, but fire... fire certainly gave us what we were looking for. The thing went up in flames easily, the burn effect killing it quickly, crackling and turning to ashes as if it were a crinkly, dry leaf.
We continued our research all the way to the last bear in the quest line, trying out the various shapes of the Mana Orb in addition to every other thing we could think of. I continued documenting everything, but failed to get another insight bonus. We did get another quest pop-up though.
Quest Complete! Only you can prevent forest infestation - You have found a hill bear impregnated with deadly mothsquito eggs, find ten infected hill bears and put them out of their misery.
Reward: 15 XP
WIlderness Quest! Only you can prevent forest infestation II - You have discovered the infestation of hill bears by mothsquitos, discover where mothsquitos live and destroy 5 adult mothsquitos.
Reward: 20 XP
I jumped as light burst out from Madison and she raised into the air for a moment. “Yes! Level 9! One more until level 10!”
“Nice!” I gave her a hug. “We should all get there soon, I bet 10 is a big deal.”
“Looks like you were right,” Ryan said, “this quest is going to keep getting bigger. Should we get more people?”
“We should attempt to finish it ourselves, rather than spend time going back and forth,” Kai said.
“Yeah, I agree,” I said, “besides, I want to get to level 10 now that we are so close.”
“Well, I’m so close,” Madison winked.
Ryan nodded. “Works for me.”
I was annoyed that I hadn’t gotten another insight bonus for archiving and wondered if I was doing something wrong. I put my book away for the time being and we continued our search.
We had amassed another couple of magic items from our hunting, a vest that offered protection from cold but was ugly and covered in fur, and a divining rod, a strange looking branch with two prongs on one end that could detect water.
We hunted for adult mothsquitos for the rest of the day to no avail and ended up setting up camp again in the woods. This time though, we didn't spend the time needed to create an igloo and camped outside on the ground under the stars. I created a globe of light and hung it high in the air above us, hoping it would work as an attractant to mothsquitos.
My plan worked and soon enough we had two of the things flying around the light, trying to dive into it. Ryan asked me to cancel it, and he activated his stealth to follow them when they flew off. We waited, watching his health bar on the party screen. Thankfully, it never went down, and soon enough he came back to our little camp.
“I think I figured it out,” he said. “They nest-”
“Hang on,” I said, pulling out my notebook. “Okay, go.”
“They nest high in the trees,” Ryan continued, “and when they land, they fold their wings up tightly around themselves, and they blend in really well. Kinda like a praying mantis. Once they were in the trees, even though I watched them land, they were really hard to see. Maybe they have some kind of camouflage ability or bonus too, but now that I know what to look for, I could probably find them.”
“How were you able to tell that? It’s so dark out! I can hardly see you right in front of me,” Madison asked.
“Eh, it's a scout thing. I have a darkvision ability that lets me see like it's light out for as long as my Stamina holds out.”
“So we can hunt them down tomorrow?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” Ryan said.
Chapter 22
It turned out mothsquitos weren’t all that easy to find. Can’t find ‘em when you need ‘em, but they attack your face when you’re not looking. I guess irony isn’t exclusive to Earth. Thankfully, the quest required we find considerably fewer of them than the infected bears. Those were a dime a dozen.
After the initial mothsquito that Ryan had followed during the night, we had a very unsuccessful day and set up camp with only two of the five mothsquitos we needed.
I had catalogued as much as possible, but once again did not get an insight bonus. Maybe you could only get one per subject? I didn’t really know. Either way, we learned a lot more by getting up close and personal and fighting them.
It was hard to tell if the adults were all females or if they were asexual or some strange egg-laying male, but every one we came across had one of the long, pointy injector things that it tried furiously to implant eggs into us with. I mean, damn. They were as bound and determined to plant their eggs in every living thing as a teenage boy.
We confirmed that fire was the best elemental option to defeat them, but found that the piercing attack of Mana Orb was powerful against them as well. We also discovered their ability to fly was somehow connected to their antenna, and grounded mothsquitos were far and away easier to overcome.
We even experimented with their slumberdust attack to see if there was anything we could do to deflect or lessen it. We found that boosting Physique and Self helped to resist the effects.
It was on our last mothsquito of the day that we discovered a clue to make them easier to find. We had been trying to make it use its dust on us for testing purposes, and found that whenever lightning attacks came near, it stretched and fluttered its wings. We used this little tidbit to our advantage during our hunt the following day.
Ryan periodically fired lightning arrows into the boughs of trees we thought might house some mothsquitos to look for fluttering wings. Their camouflage skills were on point, but trees don’t tend to have huge, grey wings that stretch out and shake the branches, making them a dead giveaway. This tactic found us the last three by the end of the morning, and he’d only ignited two trees in the process.
With the third kill the quest was complete, and gave us the XP we needed for Kai, Ryan and myself to level up. We also got what we hoped was the final piece in the quest chain.
Epic WIlderness Quest! Only you can prevent forest infestation III - You have learned how to find mothsquitos, but have only found the female. Use your skills to hunt down the adult male mothsquito!
Reward: 25 XP
Rare item
“Woot!” Ryan shouted, “a rare item!”
“That might be just what we need to finish the enclave!” Madison said.
Kai grunted. “Did you notice that first word in the quest? Epic. That probably means it is much harder. We should focus on that.”
“Okay spoilsport,” I said, “we can acknowledge both things, aren't you excited about seeing what a ‘rare item’ means?”
He nodded, “Yes, although I am concerned about our ability to see it if we are all dead.”
“Oh, come on, it can’t be that hard. And we only have to find one. So far, everything we've fought has been pretty easy for us.” Ryan knocked on a tree trunk next to him. “Sure, if we’re caught off guard we have a problem, but really, we've been more than capable of handling whatever we come across.”
