The RPG Apocalypse 3, page 4
***
The jungle was growing more alive all around me with each step. I couldn't be sure how far in I had walked, but it was definitely several miles.
I suddenly heard voices in the distance, and then the sound of fighting. There was a battle up ahead of me, maybe forty or fifty feet into the underbrush. My distrust of people was high and I struggled to make a decision.
"There's too many!"
"Keep moving back!"
Whoever it was, they were in trouble, and their opponents were not another group of Adventurers. That information provided me with a bit of relief. I snaked forward as carefully as possible to observe the situation.
It was a party of five, three women and two men. They were huddled together and slowly backing away from a group of humanoid creatures. If I had to guess, their enemies looked similar to small, Amazonian warriors. Their bodies were marked in striped paint and different bird feathers adorned their head and ankles.
The Adventurers were greatly outnumbered. The party of five had to contend with 15 or 20 of these indigenous types. It was obvious the small humanoids were smart as well. They didn't rush in blindly but were slowly enclosing the party.
If they turned to run as fast as they could, they would be hacked from behind. If they tried to retreat slowly and carefully they would
soon be surrounded and completely cut off. There was a conflict building inside of me. Am I obligated to help them?
The answer was clearly 'no'. I didn't have to help them, but the thought of leaving them when I could assist left a bad taste in my mouth. That would make me the type of person I hated the most: a Tyrant type.
All the same, even though I did want to help, it wasn't the right time to intervene yet. I didn't know these mobs. Putting myself out there too early could be disastrous. I might end up as the target of the jungle warriors while the Adventurers rushed to safety without a care in the world.
"This isn't good..."
"What do we do? We can't run and we can't fight..." They were starting to panic as a group and the Amazonians noticed. The short warriors started to laugh and make mocking bird and animal hoots that grew louder and louder. Their frenzied behavior was ominous and creepy.
The humanoids suddenly made a mad dash at the Adventurers and, stabbing fast with their short spears. It took everything the party of five could do to hold them off. Despite that, they were doing quite well.
It was clear at a glance the party had some experience. They focused all their attention on the closest and most vulnerable of the humanoids and were dispatching them one at a time. For a moment I thought I could stay out of it: that the party would handle the fight on their own.
Only a moment, though. A spear tip managed to slip past the tank's guard and stab into his gut. He let out a loud growl in pain and almost stumbled backwards. Their formation was crumbling.
The Amazonians recognized the warrior's pain and grew more frenzied. They started to push forward with no regards for their own defense. This was my chance.
I rushed from the trees and directly towards the middle of the pack.
My Mana Scythe was silent as it sliced out. There was absolutely no resistance at all. Blood splattered as an unsuspecting warrior was bisected cleanly in half.
Their power rested in their numbers, not their physical abilities.
They were on the smaller side: merely half my height. I managed to cut down two or three before they even realized a predator had infiltrated their pack.
My appearance gave the party new-found strength. They started to push forward. There was a light at the end of the tunnel for them.
They only needed to grasp it.
Our combined counter-attack sent the Amazonians into disarray and we quickly hacked our way through their numbers. The remaining five or six let out angry shouts and shook their spears as they retreated into the dense jungle.
This was what I was most afraid of: the moment when it was only me and this party of five. My hands grew clammy and sweat crept up my back. There was no lack of shameless people on Earth or Yetera.
Would they blame me for 'stealing' their prey instead of thanking me for helping?
We both stared at each other curiously for a moment before one of the women of the group came forward. "Thank you so much! You really saved us."
I almost wanted to run away, but her tone was so sincere I felt bad not responding, "It was no problem." I awkwardly scratched my head.
"Why are you alone?" One of the men asked. It wasn't normal to run into someone without a party.
"I don't have a party." I confessed. There was no point lying to these people I wouldn't be seeing again.
"I've never seen a necromancer before." One of the other women spoke up. I couldn't help but look down at my caster like attire and the bluish and menacing scythe in my hands. "But where are your summons?"
Their tank said, "Stay away from him. Only bounty hunters and madmen travel alone."
And I couldn't refute his claim. I was definitely a madman.
She seemed displeased at his command but still backed away. I started to affirm in my head once again... That's how it is, no good deed goes unpunished.
The atmosphere was awkward now and I opted to ignore her questioning. "I was just passing through and saw you needed help, that's all." I looked at the humanoid on the ground and realized I had struck jackpot. "Is there somewhere I can hunt these nearby?"
It was an odd question to them, but for me it was a gold mine.
These mobs were incredibly weak in combat. I could cut them down like cutting the jungle underbrush. The EXP wasn't bad either. A single Amazonian was still 750 EXP.
The tank seemed content with sending me on my way as soon as possible, he pointed his finger, "If you head ten minutes that way you'll come upon their camp." He paused. "I'll warn you though, there are too many for you to handle alone. It would be better to call it an entire tribe."
My hands were itching, not to go fight, but because of the five Amazonian corpses in front of me. I had yet to cast Harvest Soul on them, but was too afraid to. Maybe I could pass it off as a necromancer ability?
I decided to not take the chance and started walking away. My feet moved for a minute or two before I stopped and looked back through the underbrush. Their party remained in place for several minutes before they disappeared.
That was my cue to rush back. I stood there and cast Harvest Soul, but nothing happened. An ominous feeling washed over me. Were these humanoids too weak to grant a soul? I refused to believe that to be the case.
I headed in my original direction until noticing signs of the Amazonian tribe. These were set paths carved in the jungle floor: intricate designs made by bending plants and adding leaves and twigs that gave directions.
My mind was so preoccupied with how to leverage Harvest Soul that the moment I saw my first humanoid I rushed it immediately. He was so shocked he barely had time to scream out before I lopped him in two.
I cast Harvest Soul and was pleased to see a small cloud of mist rise from the body and into my hand. Unfortunately, it wasn't 1HP and 1MP. I only gained 0.5HP and 0.5MP for this single Amazonian.
The fact that the spell worked at all taught me that Harvest Soul needed to be used within a certain time frame after a mob's death.
There was also the discrepancy in HP and MP gain. These Amazonians were arguably weaker mobs and that must have affected the reward.
Probably, the stronger a mob was, the more HP and MP it provided, whether that was a static figure or one that changed relative to my own strength, I couldn't be sure yet. Regardless, it was good news.
This was the perfect area for me to grind EXP. I could dispatch an Amazonian in record time. It was definitely easier for me to kill two of these and gain the same effect from Harvest Soul than it was for me to kill a single mob.
Of course, all of this rested on the fact I could fight them in relatively small numbers. Every extra humanoid was more pressure.
They may have been weaker in terms of overall physique and HP, but they could still do considerable damage.
A spear to the gut was still a spear to the gut, regardless of who stabbed you. With that in mind, I began lurking around the outskirts of their encampment. It became clear the man from before was not lying.
Chapter 5: Raiding the Village.
The tank had called it a camp, but a tribe was a more accurate term. There were makeshift huts erected all over this area of the jungle and into the distance. I couldn't even see the other end of their little village. Amazonians were moving about in every direction like ants.
Rushing in among them would be pure suicide, and so my only option was to wait until I could pick off small numbers. There were humanoid guards that constantly moved around the perimeter. Those were my targets.
I found a spot covered by a large bush and crouching down remained completely motionless. Regardless of their experience in tracking and of life in the jungle, they shouldn't be able to find me without some mistake on my part. After I had waited patiently for about fifteen minutes, I could hear a guard approaching slowly.
The forest debris crunched under his feet as he waded through the underbrush in my direction. From his steady pace, it sounded like he hadn't discovered me but was simply patrolling. When he was just on the other side of my bush, I stood up and swung out in a full arc.
That was the beauty of this scythe. I didn't need precision.
Swinging at the mob's midsection was enough to guarantee a connection, and connect I did. The body lopped in half soundlessly and I quickly used Harvest Soul before moving to a new location.
I managed to dispatch six guards just like that before a body was discovered. The entire village went into frenzy as battle was prepared. The number of humanoids looking for me was astounding. I had stirred the ants' nest.
My original plan of picking off individuals and small groups would not work at all now that hundreds of them had assembled, and so I had to move away, and quickly too. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that their tracking ability was impeccable, and almost immediately after I fled, despite frequent changes in direction, I could hear some of them were after me.
I could hear their frenzied charge behind me. Despite their small size they were not slow at all, and were in fact gaining on me. I glanced back to count their numbers. It was a group of five on my tail.
No doubt soon enough there would be even more to back them up, and so I made a decision. I turned around and rushed directly towards them. It was completely against their expectations and while three of them prepared to fight, the other two were rattled by my action and turned to flee.
I shackled the two attempting to flee and then met the remaining three head on. There was a pain in my leg as one stabbed me. In exchange for that wound I cut one of his companions in half.
The humanoid that stabbed me was surprised to see that I didn't baulk at being hit, and in that moment of hesitation my scythe came down on him as well. There was only one free Amazonian remaining, and his decision was clear: to flee.
He started to run like the wind, but I had no intention of letting him escape me. A Glacial Spike jutted from beneath his scurrying feet and dug deep into his body. His legs were mangled into a mess and he bled out in moments.
The two shackled humanoids were staring on in utter horror. They could only watch helplessly as I reaped their lives. Fortunately for me, Harvest Soul was instant cast. Else the other chasing Amazonians I saw in the distance would catch me.
I disappeared into the dense forest and didn't look back. The method was working, and so I adopted a hit and run tactic. Whenever I felt that I was clear, I carefully came back to the tribe and pulled some more, precipitating a chase. I could only fight them if they came to me. The damage I received mounted with each raid, but so did the gains.
I managed to kill around sixty of the humanoids over the course of several hours.
Current EXP: 45500/101000 LEVEL: 31
Soul Harvester Formidable
HP: 1141/1688 MP: 135/624
STR: 27
AGI: 23
DEX: 35 +5
VIT: 30 +5
INT: 55 +24
Available: 0
Harvest Soul: 68 HP: 38 MP: 38
The peculiar feeling from before also grew stronger. It was almost as if I could sense the souls of living creatures around me. They did not appear in an exact location, but a general one. Every soul I harvested made that feeling stronger.
Night was fast approaching and my MP was dangerously low. The Amazonians were the perfect mobs for me to fight. It was easy enough for me to dispatch them in a single attack, which always granted 20 MP from Mana Scythe.
I only found it necessary to cast spells in the situations in which they decided to run, which seemed to happen often. They were intelligent enough to recognize a losing fight. When they decided to run, I opted for Shackle or low-cost damage spells that would ensure their demise.
Despite my new love for melee combat, the caster in me was still there. On my fourth infiltration I considered casting Meteor Storm.
There was no doubt it would kill many of them, but the effect of the spell was bright and would have attracted a lot of attention.
To cast Meteor Storm would require me to remain stationary for five seconds. That was plenty of time for dozens of them to swarm me. I would kill a lot of the humanoids, but it wasn't worth it at the cost of my own life. My first plan -- hit and run -- turned out to be the best one.
My campsite for the night was a groove inside a gigantic tree trunk.
I positioned my sleeping bag in the hollow and crawled in. It felt like the jungle didn't sleep at night, but I didn't have the endurance to respond to every sound. Even though I was alert to possible predators, I fell asleep at some point during the dark night.
I woke the following morning to the sound of shaking underbrush.
Something big was moving through the jungle. The life force it emitted was so strong I could clearly feel it. I could feel exactly where it was.
My heart was in my chest. This was surely a monster in the elite class, maybe even unique. I had no chance of fighting it one on one.
It continued to walk on past without noticing my presence and I managed to sneak a peek at its backside.
It was a towering creature that walked on all fours, whose appearance was remarkably similar to an elephant. The biggest difference was the skin. The skin seemed like an armor covering every part of its body. There were even spikes coming out from the front of its leg joints.
The creature continued on without a care that I was nearby. Either it didn't realize, or just didn't give the slightest about my presence.
Regardless, it was moving towards the Amazonian tribe.
I was going to see a possible show. My hands raced to put away my camping gear and I lurked behind the beast. I followed it from a distance for several minutes before I recognized the markings on nearby trees.
The humanoid tribe was just ahead, and it seemed they were alerted to this monster's arrival. They were formed up in full war mode and their screams and howls echoed through the forest. Now how will you deal with this?
The answer came almost as soon as I had wondered about the impact of this encounter. The elephant-like creature rushed into the Amazonian encampment without fear and started impaling and tossing them like flies. The humanoids stabbed out with their spears but had no way to penetrate its thick armor.
This was a chance for me and I was determined not to miss it. I circled at a distance and started to pick off every Amazonian trying to run away. And there were plenty of them. They were intelligent enough to know a losing battle when they saw one.
I was absolutely blown away at how easy this was for me. The creature in front seemed to focus all of its attention on the
Amazonians. Was this a rare situation where it had a taste or hatred for them specifically?
My fingers were itching to cast Inspect on the armored elephant, but I worried that would provoke its ire. It continuously rampaged through their village and started wrecking their huts. So many Amazonians were fleeing right to my blade.
By the time the beast got bored and had eaten its fill, I had managed to kill around fifty Amazonians, probably more than the monster they were fleeing.
Current EXP: 83000/101000 LEVEL: 31
Soul Harvester Formidable
HP: 1713/1713 MP: 649/649
STR: 27
AGI: 23
DEX: 35 +5
VIT: 30 +5
INT: 55 +24
Available: 0
Harvest Soul: 118 HP: 63 MP: 63
This had been a bountiful breakfast for me. Not only did I get close to my level, I gained 25 HP and MP. Add that to the fact the gains had cost me no resources, I was on cloud nine.
The beast had scared the Amazonians so badly none of them were anywhere in sight. It was just me on the outskirts and the empty camp. I worked up the courage to take a peek at the houses.
This was a rare opportunity that wouldn't come again. There were so many humanoids originally that even a raid of forty people might find themselves overwhelmed before controlling the village.
Every hut and shack was subject to my focused scrutiny. I scavenged through them and picked up everything of value. Mostly, they were filled with random pottery and utensils: tools for killing and surviving.
A few of the huts had statues that seemed to have been hand carved by the Amazonians. I questioned myself as to whether these
would have any value at all and in the end left them. Unfortunately, nothing I'd found seemed worth taking.
It was only when I came upon a particularly large shack that I found anything of note. Its construction was finer than the others, and the inside had colorful fabrics and all sorts of tasteful items. If there was a chief, this would be his home.
I started to flip off lids and open handmade baskets. No matter where I looked I could find nothing of use to me. I was just about to give up when I spotted a box in the corner. Clearly, it wasn't something crafted by the Amazonians.
The box was made of a smoothly polished dark wood and even had a metal lock on the front. It was tucked away in a safe little location behind some screens. I was walking towards it when I heard a commotion. The humanoids were returning.
The jungle was growing more alive all around me with each step. I couldn't be sure how far in I had walked, but it was definitely several miles.
I suddenly heard voices in the distance, and then the sound of fighting. There was a battle up ahead of me, maybe forty or fifty feet into the underbrush. My distrust of people was high and I struggled to make a decision.
"There's too many!"
"Keep moving back!"
Whoever it was, they were in trouble, and their opponents were not another group of Adventurers. That information provided me with a bit of relief. I snaked forward as carefully as possible to observe the situation.
It was a party of five, three women and two men. They were huddled together and slowly backing away from a group of humanoid creatures. If I had to guess, their enemies looked similar to small, Amazonian warriors. Their bodies were marked in striped paint and different bird feathers adorned their head and ankles.
The Adventurers were greatly outnumbered. The party of five had to contend with 15 or 20 of these indigenous types. It was obvious the small humanoids were smart as well. They didn't rush in blindly but were slowly enclosing the party.
If they turned to run as fast as they could, they would be hacked from behind. If they tried to retreat slowly and carefully they would
soon be surrounded and completely cut off. There was a conflict building inside of me. Am I obligated to help them?
The answer was clearly 'no'. I didn't have to help them, but the thought of leaving them when I could assist left a bad taste in my mouth. That would make me the type of person I hated the most: a Tyrant type.
All the same, even though I did want to help, it wasn't the right time to intervene yet. I didn't know these mobs. Putting myself out there too early could be disastrous. I might end up as the target of the jungle warriors while the Adventurers rushed to safety without a care in the world.
"This isn't good..."
"What do we do? We can't run and we can't fight..." They were starting to panic as a group and the Amazonians noticed. The short warriors started to laugh and make mocking bird and animal hoots that grew louder and louder. Their frenzied behavior was ominous and creepy.
The humanoids suddenly made a mad dash at the Adventurers and, stabbing fast with their short spears. It took everything the party of five could do to hold them off. Despite that, they were doing quite well.
It was clear at a glance the party had some experience. They focused all their attention on the closest and most vulnerable of the humanoids and were dispatching them one at a time. For a moment I thought I could stay out of it: that the party would handle the fight on their own.
Only a moment, though. A spear tip managed to slip past the tank's guard and stab into his gut. He let out a loud growl in pain and almost stumbled backwards. Their formation was crumbling.
The Amazonians recognized the warrior's pain and grew more frenzied. They started to push forward with no regards for their own defense. This was my chance.
I rushed from the trees and directly towards the middle of the pack.
My Mana Scythe was silent as it sliced out. There was absolutely no resistance at all. Blood splattered as an unsuspecting warrior was bisected cleanly in half.
Their power rested in their numbers, not their physical abilities.
They were on the smaller side: merely half my height. I managed to cut down two or three before they even realized a predator had infiltrated their pack.
My appearance gave the party new-found strength. They started to push forward. There was a light at the end of the tunnel for them.
They only needed to grasp it.
Our combined counter-attack sent the Amazonians into disarray and we quickly hacked our way through their numbers. The remaining five or six let out angry shouts and shook their spears as they retreated into the dense jungle.
This was what I was most afraid of: the moment when it was only me and this party of five. My hands grew clammy and sweat crept up my back. There was no lack of shameless people on Earth or Yetera.
Would they blame me for 'stealing' their prey instead of thanking me for helping?
We both stared at each other curiously for a moment before one of the women of the group came forward. "Thank you so much! You really saved us."
I almost wanted to run away, but her tone was so sincere I felt bad not responding, "It was no problem." I awkwardly scratched my head.
"Why are you alone?" One of the men asked. It wasn't normal to run into someone without a party.
"I don't have a party." I confessed. There was no point lying to these people I wouldn't be seeing again.
"I've never seen a necromancer before." One of the other women spoke up. I couldn't help but look down at my caster like attire and the bluish and menacing scythe in my hands. "But where are your summons?"
Their tank said, "Stay away from him. Only bounty hunters and madmen travel alone."
And I couldn't refute his claim. I was definitely a madman.
She seemed displeased at his command but still backed away. I started to affirm in my head once again... That's how it is, no good deed goes unpunished.
The atmosphere was awkward now and I opted to ignore her questioning. "I was just passing through and saw you needed help, that's all." I looked at the humanoid on the ground and realized I had struck jackpot. "Is there somewhere I can hunt these nearby?"
It was an odd question to them, but for me it was a gold mine.
These mobs were incredibly weak in combat. I could cut them down like cutting the jungle underbrush. The EXP wasn't bad either. A single Amazonian was still 750 EXP.
The tank seemed content with sending me on my way as soon as possible, he pointed his finger, "If you head ten minutes that way you'll come upon their camp." He paused. "I'll warn you though, there are too many for you to handle alone. It would be better to call it an entire tribe."
My hands were itching, not to go fight, but because of the five Amazonian corpses in front of me. I had yet to cast Harvest Soul on them, but was too afraid to. Maybe I could pass it off as a necromancer ability?
I decided to not take the chance and started walking away. My feet moved for a minute or two before I stopped and looked back through the underbrush. Their party remained in place for several minutes before they disappeared.
That was my cue to rush back. I stood there and cast Harvest Soul, but nothing happened. An ominous feeling washed over me. Were these humanoids too weak to grant a soul? I refused to believe that to be the case.
I headed in my original direction until noticing signs of the Amazonian tribe. These were set paths carved in the jungle floor: intricate designs made by bending plants and adding leaves and twigs that gave directions.
My mind was so preoccupied with how to leverage Harvest Soul that the moment I saw my first humanoid I rushed it immediately. He was so shocked he barely had time to scream out before I lopped him in two.
I cast Harvest Soul and was pleased to see a small cloud of mist rise from the body and into my hand. Unfortunately, it wasn't 1HP and 1MP. I only gained 0.5HP and 0.5MP for this single Amazonian.
The fact that the spell worked at all taught me that Harvest Soul needed to be used within a certain time frame after a mob's death.
There was also the discrepancy in HP and MP gain. These Amazonians were arguably weaker mobs and that must have affected the reward.
Probably, the stronger a mob was, the more HP and MP it provided, whether that was a static figure or one that changed relative to my own strength, I couldn't be sure yet. Regardless, it was good news.
This was the perfect area for me to grind EXP. I could dispatch an Amazonian in record time. It was definitely easier for me to kill two of these and gain the same effect from Harvest Soul than it was for me to kill a single mob.
Of course, all of this rested on the fact I could fight them in relatively small numbers. Every extra humanoid was more pressure.
They may have been weaker in terms of overall physique and HP, but they could still do considerable damage.
A spear to the gut was still a spear to the gut, regardless of who stabbed you. With that in mind, I began lurking around the outskirts of their encampment. It became clear the man from before was not lying.
Chapter 5: Raiding the Village.
The tank had called it a camp, but a tribe was a more accurate term. There were makeshift huts erected all over this area of the jungle and into the distance. I couldn't even see the other end of their little village. Amazonians were moving about in every direction like ants.
Rushing in among them would be pure suicide, and so my only option was to wait until I could pick off small numbers. There were humanoid guards that constantly moved around the perimeter. Those were my targets.
I found a spot covered by a large bush and crouching down remained completely motionless. Regardless of their experience in tracking and of life in the jungle, they shouldn't be able to find me without some mistake on my part. After I had waited patiently for about fifteen minutes, I could hear a guard approaching slowly.
The forest debris crunched under his feet as he waded through the underbrush in my direction. From his steady pace, it sounded like he hadn't discovered me but was simply patrolling. When he was just on the other side of my bush, I stood up and swung out in a full arc.
That was the beauty of this scythe. I didn't need precision.
Swinging at the mob's midsection was enough to guarantee a connection, and connect I did. The body lopped in half soundlessly and I quickly used Harvest Soul before moving to a new location.
I managed to dispatch six guards just like that before a body was discovered. The entire village went into frenzy as battle was prepared. The number of humanoids looking for me was astounding. I had stirred the ants' nest.
My original plan of picking off individuals and small groups would not work at all now that hundreds of them had assembled, and so I had to move away, and quickly too. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that their tracking ability was impeccable, and almost immediately after I fled, despite frequent changes in direction, I could hear some of them were after me.
I could hear their frenzied charge behind me. Despite their small size they were not slow at all, and were in fact gaining on me. I glanced back to count their numbers. It was a group of five on my tail.
No doubt soon enough there would be even more to back them up, and so I made a decision. I turned around and rushed directly towards them. It was completely against their expectations and while three of them prepared to fight, the other two were rattled by my action and turned to flee.
I shackled the two attempting to flee and then met the remaining three head on. There was a pain in my leg as one stabbed me. In exchange for that wound I cut one of his companions in half.
The humanoid that stabbed me was surprised to see that I didn't baulk at being hit, and in that moment of hesitation my scythe came down on him as well. There was only one free Amazonian remaining, and his decision was clear: to flee.
He started to run like the wind, but I had no intention of letting him escape me. A Glacial Spike jutted from beneath his scurrying feet and dug deep into his body. His legs were mangled into a mess and he bled out in moments.
The two shackled humanoids were staring on in utter horror. They could only watch helplessly as I reaped their lives. Fortunately for me, Harvest Soul was instant cast. Else the other chasing Amazonians I saw in the distance would catch me.
I disappeared into the dense forest and didn't look back. The method was working, and so I adopted a hit and run tactic. Whenever I felt that I was clear, I carefully came back to the tribe and pulled some more, precipitating a chase. I could only fight them if they came to me. The damage I received mounted with each raid, but so did the gains.
I managed to kill around sixty of the humanoids over the course of several hours.
Current EXP: 45500/101000 LEVEL: 31
Soul Harvester Formidable
HP: 1141/1688 MP: 135/624
STR: 27
AGI: 23
DEX: 35 +5
VIT: 30 +5
INT: 55 +24
Available: 0
Harvest Soul: 68 HP: 38 MP: 38
The peculiar feeling from before also grew stronger. It was almost as if I could sense the souls of living creatures around me. They did not appear in an exact location, but a general one. Every soul I harvested made that feeling stronger.
Night was fast approaching and my MP was dangerously low. The Amazonians were the perfect mobs for me to fight. It was easy enough for me to dispatch them in a single attack, which always granted 20 MP from Mana Scythe.
I only found it necessary to cast spells in the situations in which they decided to run, which seemed to happen often. They were intelligent enough to recognize a losing fight. When they decided to run, I opted for Shackle or low-cost damage spells that would ensure their demise.
Despite my new love for melee combat, the caster in me was still there. On my fourth infiltration I considered casting Meteor Storm.
There was no doubt it would kill many of them, but the effect of the spell was bright and would have attracted a lot of attention.
To cast Meteor Storm would require me to remain stationary for five seconds. That was plenty of time for dozens of them to swarm me. I would kill a lot of the humanoids, but it wasn't worth it at the cost of my own life. My first plan -- hit and run -- turned out to be the best one.
My campsite for the night was a groove inside a gigantic tree trunk.
I positioned my sleeping bag in the hollow and crawled in. It felt like the jungle didn't sleep at night, but I didn't have the endurance to respond to every sound. Even though I was alert to possible predators, I fell asleep at some point during the dark night.
I woke the following morning to the sound of shaking underbrush.
Something big was moving through the jungle. The life force it emitted was so strong I could clearly feel it. I could feel exactly where it was.
My heart was in my chest. This was surely a monster in the elite class, maybe even unique. I had no chance of fighting it one on one.
It continued to walk on past without noticing my presence and I managed to sneak a peek at its backside.
It was a towering creature that walked on all fours, whose appearance was remarkably similar to an elephant. The biggest difference was the skin. The skin seemed like an armor covering every part of its body. There were even spikes coming out from the front of its leg joints.
The creature continued on without a care that I was nearby. Either it didn't realize, or just didn't give the slightest about my presence.
Regardless, it was moving towards the Amazonian tribe.
I was going to see a possible show. My hands raced to put away my camping gear and I lurked behind the beast. I followed it from a distance for several minutes before I recognized the markings on nearby trees.
The humanoid tribe was just ahead, and it seemed they were alerted to this monster's arrival. They were formed up in full war mode and their screams and howls echoed through the forest. Now how will you deal with this?
The answer came almost as soon as I had wondered about the impact of this encounter. The elephant-like creature rushed into the Amazonian encampment without fear and started impaling and tossing them like flies. The humanoids stabbed out with their spears but had no way to penetrate its thick armor.
This was a chance for me and I was determined not to miss it. I circled at a distance and started to pick off every Amazonian trying to run away. And there were plenty of them. They were intelligent enough to know a losing battle when they saw one.
I was absolutely blown away at how easy this was for me. The creature in front seemed to focus all of its attention on the
Amazonians. Was this a rare situation where it had a taste or hatred for them specifically?
My fingers were itching to cast Inspect on the armored elephant, but I worried that would provoke its ire. It continuously rampaged through their village and started wrecking their huts. So many Amazonians were fleeing right to my blade.
By the time the beast got bored and had eaten its fill, I had managed to kill around fifty Amazonians, probably more than the monster they were fleeing.
Current EXP: 83000/101000 LEVEL: 31
Soul Harvester Formidable
HP: 1713/1713 MP: 649/649
STR: 27
AGI: 23
DEX: 35 +5
VIT: 30 +5
INT: 55 +24
Available: 0
Harvest Soul: 118 HP: 63 MP: 63
This had been a bountiful breakfast for me. Not only did I get close to my level, I gained 25 HP and MP. Add that to the fact the gains had cost me no resources, I was on cloud nine.
The beast had scared the Amazonians so badly none of them were anywhere in sight. It was just me on the outskirts and the empty camp. I worked up the courage to take a peek at the houses.
This was a rare opportunity that wouldn't come again. There were so many humanoids originally that even a raid of forty people might find themselves overwhelmed before controlling the village.
Every hut and shack was subject to my focused scrutiny. I scavenged through them and picked up everything of value. Mostly, they were filled with random pottery and utensils: tools for killing and surviving.
A few of the huts had statues that seemed to have been hand carved by the Amazonians. I questioned myself as to whether these
would have any value at all and in the end left them. Unfortunately, nothing I'd found seemed worth taking.
It was only when I came upon a particularly large shack that I found anything of note. Its construction was finer than the others, and the inside had colorful fabrics and all sorts of tasteful items. If there was a chief, this would be his home.
I started to flip off lids and open handmade baskets. No matter where I looked I could find nothing of use to me. I was just about to give up when I spotted a box in the corner. Clearly, it wasn't something crafted by the Amazonians.
The box was made of a smoothly polished dark wood and even had a metal lock on the front. It was tucked away in a safe little location behind some screens. I was walking towards it when I heard a commotion. The humanoids were returning.
