My life as a reborn monster-Chapter 28 - The Warning
I was lost in thought at what master had told us. I kept turning back to the time when I was utterly useless in the fight with the Shadow Eater, granted I was still very weak but the thought that what Dad faced was just a weak one was a very scary concept to me.
"Vex, have you been paying attention we need to leave." Master snaps my mind out of deep thought as he shakes my body. I finally realize while looking around that the others are starting to pack up what we gathered in the last few days being here. fr𝚎e𝙬𝚎𝚋𝚗૦ν𝚎𝒍.c૦m
"Master, what are we doing why are we leaving?"
"If you had paid attention you would know. We are leaving because 1. this place is now pretty much destroyed and a deathtrap for us if someone overpowers me. and 2. We still need to get to the actual training ground." He gets up and walks away to help with the packing, I follow suit and go over to help Stoney hoping to mend the damage I did.
"Hey Stoney do you need help with anything?"
He looks up at me and sighs. "Yea sure if you can just help roll the furs up into a bundle thatd be great, other than that I just need to revert the cave back to its natural look to help cover up that we were here."
I nod and start working on the bundle as he starts turning the house-cave back into the natural cave we stumbled upon. I was really impressed with how hard he worked giving what he had to go through recently. It made me think that if we train hard enough there could be a very good chance of us holding out against this invasion.
After we finished packing the bundles of fur and the rest of the meat that thankfully was dried out to preserve it we all left the cave. We started heading west from there, following the direction that master was taking us. Days passed this way between walking and staying alert for enemies during the day and at night resting in what shelter we could find while trading off on guard duty. 𝙛𝘳𝘦e𝓌e𝗯n𝗼ѵ𝙚l.𝒄𝚘𝑚
By the 10th day we had walked for so long that it was hard to keep going. "Master, can we please take a day to rest our feet for me personally my muscles could use the break." I asked as I stumbled thanks to one of my legs buckling from the extended strain.
He looks back at us and after a few moments he sighs. "Fine we can relax for the day but after this we have to keep going until we are there. No more breaks after this and if need be I will carry you 1 by 1 until we arrive. I understand that I am overworking you guys right now but this is important, we have to get to the training grounds as fast as possible especially now that the other Masters are working with the Shadow Eaters."
A collective shiver races through us as the thought of the pure power that each master is capable of unleashing and now that they are working with the Shadow Eaters its going to be even more terrifying. We all just sit in silence around a small fire that Desmaros made to keep away the annoying insects that surrounded us the past few days. I could see that the others were thinking the same thing as me. 'I have to get stronger' was written clearly across their faces
The day passed by with silence and the night was filled with the sounds of forest life. Bugs buzzing around our heads, wildlife rustling through the underbrush and far off in the distance roars as a predator caught its prey. We just huddled closer to the fire and shortly we all drifted off to sleep except master who kept a vigilant watch over us.
We woke up the next day to a freshly killed Snake monster, master was off to the side wiping blood off a blade that vanished quickly into thin air.
"I decided that instead of forcing us to hurry up and get there, I will be making each day a new lesson for you. Today for example will be the proper way to harvest Crystal hearts from any monster ranked 1 and above." He summoned a small knife that glinted as the sun flashed onto its blade. He then stabbed a hole right into the throat of the snake and after making a small incision he put down the knife and started peeling away the skin. "Snake creatures ranked or otherwise are a good source of food. So cut it like this and peel away until there's nothing left but the flesh but be careful of rupturing the intestines and anything dealing with shit as it can completely ruin the meat." He shows us the right way to harvest the mead and even showed us that by using the snakes skin aslong as it wasn't damaged to badly it could serve as a fluid container.
"AHAH this is what I was looking for." He pulls from the carcass a small heart that upon closer look it had a pale glowing shard imbedded in it. "The tiny shard you see is what is know as a rank 1 crystal heart, this snake appears to have only recently ranked up as you can see by the pale color of the shard. the closer it is to ranking up the brighter the shard is as well as a different color that determines what element the creature can unleash. Fortunate for me that this snake was just now ranking up and had not acquired a element or else it would've been a bit more dangerous."
I looked at this crystal and all I could think about was how hungry I was all of a sudden. The glow of the crystal was like a dinner bell for my stomach. "Master can I eat that?" That question got a serious look from Master and looks of shock from the others. "Vexsus this crystal heart contains the power of a monster its very valuable. I only showed you this because in the future this is how your most likely going to secure funds. This is not food for you to just eat."
I was a bit disappointed by being rejected but I could always just go hunt later on and eat my fill so I let it go. "Master, would it be ok if I go hunting I am starting to feel hungry." I could see flashes of fear from the others. 'looks like they aren't going to get over what happened anytime soon.'
Master looks at me and then towards the jungle and closes his eyes for a few seconds before opening them and looking back at me with a serious tone. "Fine but listen well, There is a powerful signal coming from the west so you are only permitted to hunt in the east. There should only be a few rank ones so I'm sure you can handle yourself." He waves me off and I bolt into the surrounding forest.
I instantly cast my detection skill and feel a large boost in how far I can cast it. I can see the small rank 0 rabbits and boars sleeping in dug out burrows and trees, I can see Owls and other birds of prey flying around and snatching up the small rodents that scurry around. Then after a few minutes my detection catches the signal of a rank 1 Hornet that emerged from a huge hive like cocoon attached to a huge oak. It hovered for a few minutes but then shot towards my direction.
'Looks like this one detected me aswell. Looks like todays the day to try roasted insect. I jump down and rush towards the Insect. I can see it getting closer and buzzing through the trees dodging around the trees with a dancers grace and picking up speed all the while. I quickly duck as a giant stinger flies over my head followed by a brown and green body with what look like 2 giant scythes for arms and 2 smaller arms that have 3 digits at the end. I jump to the side and barely dodge a swipe from one of the scythes.
In return I shoot out a smoke blast to try and disorientate the insect hoping that smoke still affects rank 1 and above insects. It did but not in the way I had hoped, Instead what happened was a gust of wind sliced through the smoke as the insect slashed outward and catching me off guard. The wind slice was able to wound me and even sliced into one of my legs. I yelled out in pain using my buff skill to help me. I had underestimated this creature since I thought it was just a insect, I shoot out another blast and with that giving me cover I dash forward and use shadow strike to hit it from its blind spot. I felt my claws hit something but they didn't dig in but instead bounced off with a metallic ding following.
Jumping back in time to dodge another wind slice I see 4 claw marks on the insects body but it looks only like small scratches. 'Damn is this insects carapace really this tough?' The thought never crossed my mind but now faced with this I slowly widen the distance between us as the Hornet hovers there just staring at me. I take this time to summon up the feeling of using Ice magic from before. But it looks like all that I could produce was a small piece of ice, but using that I just started making as much ice as possible until the hornet rushed at me again. I created a smoke screen using smoke breath and dodged to the side while continuing to make ice. After a few minutes of repeating this I feel my control over ice getting better as slowly the ice gets bigger and bigger.
I can feel the surrounding temperature slowly dropping and I can see the Hornets movements getting slower the closer it gets to the ice. 'Thank god for how vengeful a hornet is.' I thought as I start taking advantage over it and inflict more and more marks using shadow strike. I eventually start to cut through the carapace as a ding goes off telling me that my shadow strike had leveled up. After a few more strikes I finally kill it and start to cut it open right there I find the crystal heart and put it to the side as I use my breath to cook the meat. The feeling of hunger overshadows the reality of me eating a bug, but the satisfaction of eating while being so hungry was amazing. I devoured the corpse relishing the meal, and as expected shortly afterwards the system popped up
[Hornet warrior] consumed auto assimilating. "ERROR" the user has an incorrect body makeup to utilize skills of [Hornet warrior] DNA stored for later use.
Well hell that sucks but it makes sense I just wished that I could use the chimera skill already I would've liked to combine my scales with that metal toughness of the its carapace. But pushing aside the failure I go ahead and hunt some of the rank 0 creatures that were around here and decide to bring them back for the others.
I return only to see the others gathered around a rotting corpse.
"Master isn't this?"
"Yes Lizaria this is an undead, these things shouldn't have been around this area as the pact with the Necromancer is still in effect for atleast another few decades."
I walked up to them and got a good look at the body. It was a humanoid whose flesh was rotting away , its eyes pale and colorless, teeth and hair barely hanging on.
"What the hell is this that is disgusting." I say as I can feel the Hornet meat starting to fight to escape back out. I start to gag as the horrid stench started to get thicker and thicker the closer I got. Before I got to close I feel a hand stop me, and turning around I see Master shaking his head at me.
"Don't get to close we all were surprised by this as it was dropped off by a huge Bone vulture flying by. This is a warning that we are getting to close to the undead territory."
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Detection 45 -> 55%
Smoke blast 6 -> 9
Electric scales of vitality 2 -> 3
Shadow strike 5 -> 3
Shadow strike Lvl 0 -> 1 - Increase in damage.
Smoke Breath 2 - > 5
Ice magic comprehension 10 - 30%
